May 19, 2001 – Christopher Walken / Weezer (S26 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
despite marital woes & a broken penis, Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) is doing OK

— At the beginning of this, why did the audience applaud immediately after Darrell started speaking? Years later, that would become an annoying weekly trend in cold openings that, I believe, still continues to this day in 2020 (I can’t say for sure yet, given that I haven’t watched a new episode since November 2018).
— I like Rachel’s silent, sheepish interjections as Judith Nathan, peering out from a plant that she’s hiding behind.
— A tasteless but hilarious line from Darrell’s Rudy Giulani, where he expresses envy at Robert Blake for having the guts to kill his wife.
— Very funny line from Giuliani about his wife secretly writing the name Combover Jones on the back of his windbreakers.
— Rudy Giuliani: “What can I say? 57 with a combover and a broken penis, and the ladies still fight over me.”
— A somewhat half-assed “Live from New York…” delivery from Darrell. And right after he says it, you can even see him IMMEDIATELY get up from his chair and exit the shot before the opening montage starts, as if he’d rather be ANYWHERE but here. (SNL would later hide that in reruns by cutting to the opening montage a few seconds earlier.) I wonder if Darrell’s getting tired of saying LFNY so often lately. I’m certainly starting to get tired of SEEING him and Will be pretty much the only cast members to say LFNY around this time (and it would soon get even worse the following season, in which Darrell and Will are literally the ONLY people in the cast who get to say LFNY in the entire first half of that season, I kid you not).
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
oblivious to pronunciation, host sings “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”

— A lot of laughs from Christopher not doing the required pronunciation change of “potato” and “tomato” during certain parts of the song “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”.
— I love Christopher greeting Jimmy with “Jimmy, wazzup?”
— Classic turn with Christopher misunderstanding Jimmy’s advice and now ALWAYS pronouncing “potato” and “tomato” as “po-tah-to” and “to-mah-to” during the song.
— Christopher’s “They’re all spelled the same on the cards!” line is a great self-deprecating dig at Christopher’s habit of always staring at the cue cards.
— Jimmy is a giggly mess during his interactions with Christopher, but it’s hard to fault him in this specific case, as how can ANYONE keep a straight face at Christopher Walken, especially with how hilarious he’s naturally being as himself in this monologue?
— Overall, my personal favorite of Christopher’s many musical monologues.
STARS: *****

MANGO
wowed janitor (host) imagines himself & Mango in famous screen roles

— At least we’ve gotten very minimal Mango in this overall season, with this only being the second and, obviously, final Mango sketch of the season, which is refreshingly little compared to the 6,834 Mango sketches from the preceding season.
— What has been happening to Kattan’s portrayal of Mango? There’s too much of a giddy, animated, “wink-wink”, self-aware nature to Mango’s appearance tonight (yes, even moreso than usual), such as him constantly playing DIRECTLY to the cameras, doing random little plugs for products, and other nonsense like that. Not funny in the least. Kattan has gotten way too loose with his portrayal of this character.
— A good laugh from Christopher explaining how fooled he was by Mango’s policeman stripper routine.
— A lot of charm in Christopher’s performance as a love-stricken janitor.
— Now tonight’s already self-aware, meta Mango sketch is getting even more self-aware and meta, with Mango dating “TV’s Jimmy Fallon”.
— A great fantasy sequence with Christopher and Mango while Christopher sings.
— Among the crowd of Mango admirers briefly seen outside of Mango’s dressing room, Will can randomly be seen dressed as his backstage alter ego Ron (who I’ve previously gone into detail about here). I remember when this episode originally aired, online SNL fans, including myself, were unfamiliar with the concept of Will’s Ron, so we didn’t understand why the hell Will was randomly playing a background extra in this sketch while dressed in that silly specific outfit.
— Hilarious visual of Christopher now entering in a wig and sparkly janitor’s uniform.
— What in the world is with the sudden fourth-wall-breaking turn at the end with Mango delivering a straight-to-camera message about wrapping up the final Mango sketch of the season while the supporting characters from the sketch are partying behind him, complete with closing credits being displayed onscreen? Yeah, again, these Mango sketches are getting way too giddy, “wink-wink”, and self-aware.
STARS: ** (I wanted to give this a higher rating for all of the solidness that Walken brought, but Kattan’s overly loose, giddy, self-aware Mango performance dragged it way down for me)

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) likes Bob Barr’s (CHP) crazy energy scheme

 

— They’ve been going heavy on these Hardball sketches lately.
— As always in these Hardball sketches, Parnell has tons of funny lines. I love that SNL consistently trusts him to carry the best of the comedic load in these Hardball sketches. I particularly like his cruel lines tonight about things you can burn.
— Pretty funny bit with Ana being fed answers through an earpiece.
— I hate to say it, but the recurring gag with Darrell-as-Chris Matthews’ constant insults to Kattan’s Paul Begala, while still funny to me, isn’t nearly as funny as I had remembered finding it when these sketches originally aired. Maybe I’ve just gotten sick of Kattan doing roles like this where he plays someone who either gets gay-related insults hurled at him or just gets insults hurled at him in general. He seems to be playing roles like that more and more often at this point of his tenure. That being said, I do like the final insult that Darrell’s Matthews yells at Kattan’s Begala in tonight’s sketch: “Go home and tell Santa you wanna be a dentist, you freakin’ elf!”
STARS: ***½

THE CONTINENTAL
a lost brooch provides The Continental with another chance to woo

— Ah, here we go.
— The Continental: “I recall the first time I saw you in my periscope… I mean, my terrace.”
— Ha, and we now see the aforementioned periscope hidden in The Continental’s closet.
— Great story from The Continental about accidentally running over his first love with a van.
— The dazed facial expression Christopher makes after getting punched in the face is hilarious (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— A good laugh from The Continental showing the woman his collection of erotic hummel figures that he got on eBay.
— The chloroform bit is hilarious.
— Great bit with The Continental swallowing the key to prevent the woman from leaving the apartment, only for her to punch Continental in the stomach, forcing him to cough the key out of his mouth.
— Overall, while not as classic as the Continental sketch that Christopher last did the preceding season, this was still great and reliable as always.
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE
in a terrible re-enactment, Joey Fatone (CHK) injures his foot

KEN does a subliminal editorial to remind viewers he’s no longer on SNL

JIF, TIF, Winona Ryder [real] stage a Weekend Update cliffhanger

— Tonight’s Terrible Re-enactment from Kattan isn’t as funny as usual. The novelty of these has gotten old and tired (just like practically everything else Kattan does at this point of his tenure).
— Jimmy’s random Old-Timey Joke Corner segment is fairly fun. More fun than funny, but I enjoy when Jimmy and Tina have fun with the Update format by doing random, silly segments like this.
— Kevin Nealon! Wonderful to see him making an SNL cameo. I’m so glad that SNL has allowed him to cameo on the show even despite not having much going on at the time in his post-SNL career.
— Kevin’s subliminal commentary about him not being on SNL anymore is a riot. He hasn’t lost his touch at all with this subliminal routine.
— Just now, Jimmy narrowly averted terribly botching YET ANOTHER joke this season.
— The turn with Jimmy suddenly being seen wearing glasses per doctor’s orders seems to be acknowledging his bad habit of flubbing Update jokes.
— Took the audience awhile to recognize Winona Ryder.
— Winona Ryder appearing in tonight’s season finale is interesting in retrospect, considering she would end up hosting the very next season finale.
— Yet another example of a fun, silly Update segment from Jimmy and Tina, with their “Weekend Update Cliffhanger” bit, spoofing the endless barrage of season finale cliffhangers that was particularly rampant on TV around this time.
— An overall pretty strong Update to end Jimmy and Tina’s first season at the Update desk. They’ve really done a turnaround on the format and quality of Update this season. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks, as I recall it eventually getting tired not too long from now (IIRC, the downhill slide of their Updates start in season 28, which coincides with a downhill slide of SNL’s quality in general).
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hash Pipe”

LOVERS
(ANG) learns that Dr. Walter (host) was once a lover of Roger & Virginia

— The Luvahs (Roger and Virginia Klarvin) have officially become recurring.
— I already got a laugh right from Rachel’s opening line: “Would anyone care for some baba ganoush or some hummus before we start our main course?” There’s just something about Rachel and Will’s delivery and wording as these Luvahs characters that now tickles me. As I said in my review of the first Luvahs sketch, teenage me used to HATE these Luvahs sketches with a fiery passion back when they originally aired, but I’ve been gaining an appreciation for them now that I’m older and am going into their sketches with more of an open mind. I do wonder, though, if I’m still going to get tired of these characters after a few installments.
— Christopher’s delivery is perfect for this sketch, and his lovemaking story about him and his wife Ana trying “shinshi-shinshi” (however it’s spelled) in the ear canal is hilarious.
— Good turn with Christopher revealing to Ana that he once had a three-way with the Luvahs.
— Great departing line from Christopher, in regards to his walking-away wife: “I best chase her… for she is my ride.”
STARS: ***½

TV FUNHOUSE
“The Anatominals Show” by RBS- beasts’ genitals spur LOM Faustian crisis

— A hilarious concept of Yogi Bear-type characters having huge and overly-realistic-looking genitalia.
— A very funny Parnell-read opening disclaimer.
— Some good and hilarious gross humor here. This is the type of gross humor that Smigel is great at selling, as opposed to that “Sex And The Country” abomination of his earlier this season, where he crossed too much of a line and seemed to focus more on the shock value than on the actual humor.
— As we’ve seen before, Smigel does a spot-on imitation of the animation style of Hanna-Barbera’s 1960s cartoons.
— Lorne, while miserably watching the Anatominals cartoon on a monitor backstage: “This is what it’s come to? It’s not fu(*bleep*)ing worth it.”
— Lorne, when calling off his deal with the devil: “You never said it would get this bad. I want out!” Devil: “Come on, you say that after every SNL movie.”
— During the devil scene, the snickering guy in the green shirt behind Lorne appears to be Robert Smigel himself in animation form (screencap below).

— Good turn with the devil transferring Lorne to a peace corp.
STARS: ****

CENTAUR
(host)’s personal questions dominate centaur’s (CHP) job interview

— For some reason, the bizarre opening job interview between Kattan and Christopher kinda reminds me of the fantastic bizarre Job Interview sketch that Kattan previously did with Steve Buscemi in season 23, though in tonight’s sketch, the tables have turned, as Kattan is the one playing the weirdo instead of the straight man.
— Geez, the “See you Monday morning!” “You didn’t get the job!” bit with Kattan and Christopher bombed HARD with the audience. I personally was cracking up, but mainly just because of Christopher’s trademark odd delivery when saying “You didn’t get the job!”
— A great, bizarre casual entrance from Parnell as a centaur.
— I love Parnell’s response about how he’s heard them all when Christopher says he has some questions about Parnell’s centaur life.
— So many hilarious and interesting specific centaur questions from Christopher, as well as hilarious and interesting answers from Parnell. Both performers are absolutely perfectly cast in these roles. I can’t see this sketch working quite as well with different casting for either role.
— Christopher: “(bluntly) The rest of the interview will be centaur questions.”
— Parnell, when being asked by Christopher if he’d have sex with a horse wearing a mask of a woman: “No. I mean, would YOU have sex with a monkey if it had a mask on?” Christopher: “This interview is not about me.”
— Parnell’s understated eventual frustration over the questions Christopher is bombarding him with is fantastic.
— Christopher: “If I were to watch centaur porn, but with the bottom of the screen blocked out with a piece of cardboard, would I find the human halves of the female actresses appealing?” Parnell: “Well… maybe, but you gotta remember that at some point, there’s gonna be a horse penis in there.”
— A classic ending line from Christopher: “We don’t hire dirty centaurs.”
— In retrospect, this excellent sketch can be considered Parnell’s temporary swan song, as this ends up being his final lead role before getting fired over the summer. Words cannot express the shock, disappointment, and frustration that I (and quite a number of other online SNL fans) experienced that summer when hearing the news of Parnell’s undeserved firing. Thankfully, his firing would turn out to be temporary, as he would get re-hired halfway through the following season, after much lobbying from both Will AND Kattan. It’s already well-known that Will fought hard to get Parnell rehired, but it’s lesser known that Kattan also played a big part in that, and he deserves credit.
— As a side note in relation to Parnell’s firing, I’m not sure how reliable the source is, but word has it that when the powers that be were contemplating which cast member to fire that summer (besides Jerry Minor), the other three cast members on the chopping block with Parnell were supposedly Horatio, Rachel, and Maya. Just putting that out there.
STARS: *****

BADGER UP THE BUTT
(WIF)’s irritability stems from the badger that crawled up his butt

— Jerry makes his only appearance of the night, his first appearance in two episodes, and the FINAL appearance of his short-lived SNL tenure playing a dull, forgettable, supporting straight role, which sadly sums up how poorly utilized he’s been in the last quarter of this season. Unlike Parnell, Jerry’s eventual firing over the summer wasn’t a shock at all, but it’s still a shame, given how funny and talented he is, and the huge potential he showed during the times SNL would give him a chance to shine. He could’ve went on to be a really solid cast member if SNL held on to him longer and gave him more chances.
— I remember when this sketch originally aired, I mistakenly almost thought that the initial shot of Will slowly and sarcastically applauding Ana’s opening presentation was intended as some kind of take-off/follow-up/rip-off of the famous Sarcastic Clapping Family Of Southhampton sketch.
— A funny bizarre premise, for the second consecutive sketch tonight. Good to see all of these oddball, absurdist sketch premises in tonight’s season finale.
— A great pre-taped black-and-white sequence showing how a badger got stuck up Will’s butt.
— Christopher is perfect in the doctor role of this oddball sketch.
— The ending seemed abrupt and empty, but I’m not sure where else they could’ve taken this. The potroast dinner scenario that Christopher came up with as a plan to release the badger from Will’s butt was funny when being described, but most likely wouldn’t have been anywhere near as funny if we had actually seen it play out. Still, something felt missing at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & WIF perform “Island In The Sun”

— The bizarre sighting of Will’s Ron alter ego as a random background extra in the Mango sketch earlier tonight has come full-circle, as we now have Ron randomly playing the maracas during this Weezer performance, also making this a rare occurrence of a cast member getting to participate in a musical guest’s performance.
— Will’s Ron is surprisingly fitting this musical performance really well.
— I’d love to know how this whole idea came about. Did Will as Ron interrupt Weezer’s rehearsal earlier in the week, much like he famously did a few years prior during Puff Daddy’s rehearsal for the season 23 finale, and Weezer was such good sports about it that they ended up letting Ron perform with them for the live show? That’s my theory.

MEMORIAL DAY GREETINGS
for Memorial Day, HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty

— Funny set-up, with Horatio faking us out into believing he’s about to launch into a Memorial Day song, only to hit us with the traditional “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song once again.
— Jimmy has literally played himself in every single segment he’s appeared in tonight: monologue, Mango, Weekend Update, and now this. I wonder if that’s a record for a cast member in a single episode. Probably not.
— Tracy makes his only appearance of the night.
— Adding to the fun-loving nature of this song is the new addition of Kattan occasionally slowly peering his smiling face into the close-ups of Horatio and Jimmy (the third above screencap for this sketch). This reminds me that when this season finale originally aired, I was convinced that this was most likely Kattan’s final episode, partly due to his heavier-than-usual airtime in this episode, partly due to his particularly giddy and animated performances in both this sketch and tonight’s earlier Mango sketch, and partly due to the very random fourth-wall-breaking ending of the Mango sketch. I turned out to be wrong, but I would later go on to feel that this SHOULD’VE been his final episode, because until recently, I had always been of the opinion that he ended up suddenly going BADLY downhill in the following two remaining seasons of his SNL tenure, truly overstaying his welcome. However, after having now just reviewed his first six seasons in chronological order, I now see that his downhill slide started earlier than the following season 27, though I can’t pinpoint when exactly it started. Your mileage may vary on that, especially since I’m aware there’s probably quite a number of you readers who already disliked Kattan pretty early on in his tenure.
— Overall, as I always say, I’m a sucker for this “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song, and this was a fun way to end the season.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

— After the preceding season’s Christopher Walken episode had some great P.O.V. shots of the Continental cameraman joining the cast and guests onstage at the goodnights and offering some of them a drink, SNL ups the ante by now having the Continental cameraman actually show his face while donning a feminine blonde wig when joining the cast and guests onstage at the goodnights. In the goodnights of Christopher’s next hosting stint, the ante will be upped even more, as we’ll see when I review that episode.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid season finale, even if it doesn’t measure up to the legendary episode that Christopher Walken last hosted in the preceding season. It’s certainly a huge step up from the last season finale with Jackie Chan, though. Christopher Walken was utilized perfectly tonight as always, especially with the weirder sketches they gave him in the post-Weekend Update half, and he had what I feel is his all-time best monologue.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lara Flynn Boyle)
a step up

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1999-00)
a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Season 27 begins under challenging circumstances, as it’s just a few weeks after 9/11. Reese Witherspoon hosts this important episode, and we get four new cast members.