Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
H&R BLOCK
at H&R Block, Marty & Bobbi entertain last-minute filers with tax medley
— Yet another interesting setting for The Culps. I like the times where they’re placed in settings other than their more conventional settings like a school assembly, etc.
— The usual solid pre-song banter between Marty and Bobbi Mohan-Culp.
— I like Bobbi’s sound effect imitations during The Culps’ cover of Pink Floyd’s “Money”.
— The usual fun Culps song medley, especially their tax-themed variations of Color Me Badd’s “I Wanna Sex You Up” and Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me”.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host recounts her film career by reading entries from her diary
— I got a good laugh from Renee Zellweger’s diary entry about her and Alison Janney in the bathroom at the Golden Globes doing a line of coke.
— Some of the other diary entries are pretty funny.
STARS: ***
SUBSHACK
Rerun from 3/10/01
JERRY MAGUIRE 2
Jonathan Lipnicki’s (HOS) growth spurt complicates Jerry Maguire 2 shoot
— A funny corny “Show Me The Sequel” subtitle to this Jerry Maguire sequel.
— An okay concept of Horatio as a heavier and more grown Jonathan Lipnicki.
— I like the mockery of the corny “deep” dialogue from the first Jerry Maguire movie.
— Jerry Minor makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a very unnoticeable role as a silent stagehand standing in the dark background behind Cameron Crowe’s director chair. I remember when this originally aired, I didn’t even notice him in this sketch until months later when somebody on an SNL board pointed him out. Until then, I had assumed that Jerry was completely absent in this episode. (Unfortunately, Tracy is also completely absent in this episode, which is pretty sad that SNL’s only two black male cast members were basically shut out of this episode.)
— This sketch is already getting kinda old.
— Okay, the erection part is pretty funny.
— I like the passing mention of “L. Ron Hubbard almighty” from Jimmy’s Tom Cruise.
— Meh, Kattan being stuck in one of his stock gay roles, and shortly after Renee made a gay joke about Kattan in the monologue.
— Pretty funny visual of Horatio’s Lipnicki entering in oversized glasses and holding an oversized juice box, in an attempt to make him look smaller.
— Could’ve done without the fart ending with Horatio. Made this ending feel like a precursor to that god-awful Chubb Hotty recurring sketch that Horatio would later do in the troubled season 30 (a recurring sketch with Horatio as a morbidly obese rapper hosting his own talk show).
STARS: **½
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) shamelessly belittles Paul Begala (CHK)
— A funny visual of Parnell’s big-lipped Bob Barr.
— Darrell-as-Chris-Matthews’ various responses to his guests are making me laugh as always.
— The increasingly nonsensical proverbs from Renee’s Molly Ivins are providing some pretty good laughs.
— I like how Parnell seems to always get the funniest lines in these Hardball sketches so far.
STARS: ****
A WEDDING STORY
eager bride-to-be (host) consents to KISS-themed nuptial
— Great look for Will’s character.
— Some good laughs from Rachel as Renee’s crying mother, especially her crying even more when Will shows up in his briefs.
— I love the visual of Parnell as a priest in KISS make-up, speaking in a straitlaced, professional manner.
— Renee’s drunken rant on the bus is going on too long and isn’t doing much for me. A weak way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Survivor hype makes Bryant Gumbel suicidal
— Pretty funny premise with Bryant Gumbel’s various attempts to kill himself during his interview of Survivor contestants.
— This Fun With Real Audio cartoon feels more like the early ones from season 22, Smigel’s first season doing TV Funhouse for SNL.
— According to the ending credits of this cartoon, Louis C.K. had a hand in writing this.
STARS: ***½
WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob Silj thinks TIF is insensitive to the trauma of voice immodulation
JIF makes up review of The Producers by extrapolating stars’ movie roles
— Our final Jacob Silj appearance during Will’s tenure as a cast member.
— I laughed pretty hard at Jacob Silj listing “the guy who played Raj on What’s Happening” as one of the celebrities who suffers from voice immodulation, even though I don’t recall Raj having an overly loud voice.
— Jacob Silj’s “And a little bit softer now… and a little bit softer now… and a little bit softer now…” bit has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Will is stumbling over some of his lines throughout this Silj commentary.
— Tonight’s overall Jacob Silj commentary provided some laughs, but I’m kinda glad this ends up being his final appearance (until Will revives him years later in a 2018 hosting stint), as this just felt like it was mostly treading old territory and it seems that SNL has done everything with this thin concept that they can.
— Jimmy’s side segment on what he thinks the movie The Producers is about is in the same vein of his Meet The Parents review earlier this season, but I’m enjoying this, especially his Matthew Broderick impression (complete with Jimmy doing the *chicka chicka OH YEAH* sound from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).
— During Jimmy’s Mike Myers joke, I like him doing an impression of Mike, right down to doing the Wayne Campbell mannerism of pushing his hair back behind his ear while bobbing his head forward, a nice little touch.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Gwen Stefani [real] perform “Let Me Blow Ya Mind”
AWESOME DATE TIME
inept romantic’s TV theme song CDs don’t get his date (host) in the mood
— The set-up of this kinda reminds me of another Kattan-bringing-home-his-date-after-a-night-out sketch: the seductive dancing one with Teri Hatcher, which was one of Kattan’s very first big sketches when he was a new featured player. Even the living room set of both the Hatcher sketch and tonight’s sketch look similar. I wonder if it’s intended for Kattan to be playing the same character in both sketches. If so, this may hold the record for longest gap between a recurring character’s first and second appearance (not counting characters who didn’t become recurring until the cast member who plays them came back to host SNL after leaving the show).
— The various “sexy” music that Kattan plays turning out to be cheesy TV show theme songs is fairly funny.
— I like Kattan explaining his mistake of having a TV show theme song CDs in his stereo as “I forgot. I bought those with my money and I put those in there.”
— I’m laughing at this sketch more than I feel like I should.
— Kattan accidentally tripped and almost fell when walking over to Renee just now.
— It’s been quite a long time since SNL last used the ol’ fake vomit gag. I’m getting a good laugh from Kattan suddenly vomiting on Renee, just because of how out-of-nowhere it came, and for Renee’s facial reaction. I now wonder if the hidden vomit hose in Kattan’s pant leg is what caused the earlier blooper where he tripped.
— Renee: “(in a taken-aback manner) You just puked… penguin… all over me.”
STARS: ***
DOCTOR’S OFFICE
irresponsible Dr. Beaman scares two pairs of expectant parents; MOS cameo
— The return of Will’s crazy doctor sketch. I kinda have mixed feelings about them doing a sequel to this classic sketch from the preceding season, especially after how let down I was by the Schwetty Balls sequel in the preceding episode, but I’m sure this one will still be good.
— Random Molly Shannon cameo, for the first time since leaving the cast only two months prior. The REAL reason she’s at SNL this week is for a Mother’s Day special that SNL is taping immediately after this episode ends, and would air a month later on Mother’s Day. Molly has been brought back to join the rest of the cast in the special, despite the fact that she was no longer a member of the cast by this point.
— Ha, we now see that Molly is randomly playing herself as a nurse in this sketch, being addressed as “Molly Shannon”. I guess this is SNL’s way of trying to top how the nurse in the first installment of this sketch was Rachel as an ugly model character that she had played in an earlier sketch that night. This doesn’t quite top that gag, in my opinion.
— The various vagina euphemisms (e.g. “Choo-choo”, “The love llama”) that Will’s Dr. Beaman is telling Darrell and Maya are funny.
— I like the callback to the first installment of this sketch, with Dr. Beaman having another phone conversation with his old friend Beverly.
— Hilarious how Dr. Beaman explains that the heartbeat Renee heard from the baby she’s pregnant with was actually from the bass drum from the Toto cover band that lives next door.
— Aaaaaand there’s Jimmy’s obligatory character break, in response to Will yelling an apparently ad-libbed angry treat at him. This breaking is nowhere near as funny as the epic breaking from Will and Molly in the first installment of this sketch when Tim Meadows did The Robot.
— Will’s panicked, high-pitched screaming when Renee goes into labor is slaying me.
— Overall, this paled in comparison to the first installment, but I still liked it quite a lot. On it’s own, it’s a solid wacky Will Ferrell sketch, if not particularly memorable.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who’s That Girl?”
CLASSICAL MUSIC CLASSICS
Classical Music Classics have been “improved” via addition of lyrics
— Funny concept of an album altering classical instrumental songs by giving them “awesome”, sophomoric lyrics, made even funnier by how those lyrics are sung in such a straight manner by the Will/Ana/Horatio/Maya choir.
— I love Parnell’s mention of the young man who came up with these new lyrics having a hole in his face from huffing paint thinner.
— A lot of funny lines from Parnell in general, who’s perfectly cast in this role.
— I like the passing mention of the song “Ave Maria” being altered into “The Lorena Bobbit Rap”.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode, but enjoyable and had its highlights, even the fairly-inferior sequel to the Doctor’s Office sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Pierce Brosnan