Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
IRAQI STATE TELEVISION
on election day, Iraqi TV covers Saddam Hussein’s overwhelming victory
— Pretty funny concept of showing Iraq’s election, with Saddam Hussein facing off against nobody.
— Solid bit with Maya leading us through the “confusing” ballot.
— Funny picture of a horrified Fred and Seth as two “no-voters”.
— Wait, Horatio is Saddam now? Wasn’t Darrell just given the Saddam role in the preceding episode? Man, things haven’t been going too well for Darrell this season so far, between having his Bush impression (rightfully) yanked away from him before it could even make it on the air in the season premiere, and now him having his Saddam impression yanked away from him after it’s made it on the air.
— Hilarious detail of “We Built This City” being Saddam’s campaign song.
— Horatio’s goofy portrayal of Saddam is fine as a one-time thing here, but I don’t think I’m going to care too much for it as a soon-to-be recurring impression.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Fericito gives host tips on how to improve his comedic delivery
— Early on this monologue, John McCain is immediately displaying a likability and a good sense of humor.
— Fericito already becomes recurring, after debuting only two episodes ago. I wonder if this is a record for the earliest in a featured player’s tenure that a character of theirs has become recurring.
— When Fericito first enters this monologue, a few stray pieces of confetti can be seen falling from above, which is apparently left over from the end of the cold opening when Horatio’s Saddam was giving his victory speech.
— John’s attempt at imitating Fericito’s goofy facial expression is hilarious (the last above screencap for this monologue).
— Good bit with John giving Fericito a serious speech denouncing the stereotyping of Latin-American culture. Also a good sudden turn when he reveals that he was “just keeeediiiiiing!”
— Despite being one-note, Fericito continues to be fun… for now. Unless there’s a nice, long gap between this monologue and Fericito’s next appearance, I’m sure I’ll get tired of this character pretty soon.
— Interesting ending with John wrapping up the monologue while SNL’s costumers are getting him dressed into his costume for the next sketch, while the green screen for that sketch is being set up behind him (screencap below).
I’m always a sucker for rare times when monologues end by showing the host getting into costume for the next sketch (e.g. Bill Hader’s season 43 monologue).
STARS: ***
HARDBALL
John Ashcroft (host) & Harry Belafonte (TRM) say crazy things
— A new opening title sequence for these Hardball sketches.
— John is giving a solid performance as John Ashcroft, and he has plenty of great lines.
— I love Darrell-as-Chris-Matthews’ eagerness to hear his guests spout off crazy statements.
— A huge laugh from Tracy’s Harry Belafonte flat-out stating “Osama Bin Laden is an Uncle Tom!”, as well as Chris Matthews’ response to that: “Good God, I can’t even figure out who that’s offensive to.”
— Ashcroft’s line about Shaquille O’Neal being a terrorist sleeper agent because he once did a “Middle Eastern-flavored” movie titled Kazaam is great.
— So many laughs from Belafonte spitting out batshit insane one-liners on cue, such as “Poodles are the black man of the dog world!” and “Pokemon’s a slave trader, Pikachu’s a slave master!”
— Priceless closing line from Rachel, claiming that blowing up one embassy doesn’t make someone a terrorist, just as baking one cake doesn’t make someone a baker, or painting one painting doesn’t make someone a painter.
— Chris Matthews: “(singing to the tune of “Banana Boat Song”) Crazo, craaaazo, Belafonte is a crazy mofo”
— Overall, this has got to be the crème de la crème of Hardball sketches. As many great Hardball installments as there are over the years, I can’t think of any that equal this outstanding installment.
STARS: *****
TO LOVE, HONOR AND STALK: THE GILLIAN WOODWARD STORY
feminist Lifetime Original Movie demonizes invasion of personal space
real-life personal space invadee (RAD) says it actually was no big deal
— The overly-long opening disclaimer read by Jim Downey is giving me bad flashbacks to that parody that SNL did of The Real World in the Shannen Doherty episode from season 19, though the disclaimer in tonight’s sketch is probably an accurate parody of disclaimers in Lifetime’s movies.
— I like the actor credits displayed on the bottom of the screen during Amy’s opening scene, especially the credits for random actors who are Lifetime movie staples (e.g. Valerie Bertinelli, Nancy McKeon).
— So far, this is a spot-on and fun parody of Lifetime movies, especially Maya’s cliched dialogue as the best friend of the main character.
— John is priceless in this creepy stalker role, perfectly playing the type of character you’d never expect to see him play.
— At the beginning of the shower scene, a technical gaffe occurs in which there’s an accidental cutaway to a shot of a police station (which is supposed to be shown later in the sketch). This is the second consecutive episode with a gaffe of that nature, after one of the Corona commercials in the preceding episode was interrupted by an accidental cutaway to a plain black screen with the words “Corona #2”.
— John’s line “Shall I loofah your back?” is hilarious, and has always been my favorite part of this sketch.
— Some good laughs from the very questionable examples Amy lists off of how her husband “stalks” her.
— Funny visual of John sitting obnoxiously close to Amy in the courtroom’s witness box, with his face pressed up against hers.
— A decent post-movie scene with Rachel as the real Gillian Woodward.
STARS: ****
WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
visual arts teacher (host) is a former hippie
— Rachel’s been getting good airtime tonight, which is refreshing after how underused she was in the first two episodes of this season.
— The Halloween costumes are adding a bit of a nice change to this sketch.
— John continues to be a very fun host tonight, this time perfectly playing a hippie burnout teacher.
— Rachel’s Sheldon has a lot of funny lines throughout tonight’s installment, especially the one about accidentally getting paint on the front seat of his mom’s new Volvo.
— A good laugh from John bringing out jack-o-lanterns made to resemble the original Steely Dan lineup, which prompts yet another funny line from Sheldon: “That’s a dead-on Donald Fagen.”
— Hmm, Horatio is playing his recurring teacher character in a much lower-key manner than usual tonight.
— Jimmy’s Randy Goldman character makes a passing mention of a classmate named Gerard Bradford, which is an inside reference, as Gerard Bradford is one of Jimmy’s real-life best friends since his school days, IIRC.
STARS: ***½
TV FUNHOUSE
“The Third Leg Of Justice” by RBS- trap set for The Ambiguously Gay Duo
— Our first full-fledged Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon in three seasons (not counting Ace and Gary’s cameo in an X-Presidents cartoon in season 27), and our last Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon until years later in season 33’s LeBron James episode, not counting the Best Of TV Funhouse special that would air in 2006.
— I like how Big Head’s unending obsession with Ace and Gary’s alleged gayness always gets questioned by his fellow villains.
— Ace and Gary’s interpretive dancing to the Five For Fighting song “Superman” is hilarious.
— A funny random bit with a disclaimer explaining why the hell former G.E. chairman Jack Welch has suddenly shown up in this.
— During the ending credits of this TV Funhouse, former SNL writer Adam McKay is credited with writing an additional joke.
STARS: ***½
MEET THE PRESS
host repeatedly denies that he’s running for president
— Darrell-as-Tim-Russert’s endless attempts to get John to say he wants to run for president in 2004 are very funny.
— I love how the ridiculousness has now gotten to the point where Russert asks John if he’s willing to run for president of Iraq.
— Tim Russert, to John, regarding President Bush in the 2004 elections: “What if he forgets to run?”
— John’s response to Russert’s above-quoted line about Bush: “I would call the president and remind him to run.”
— A very funny crazy hypothetical scenario from Russert, regarding if John would be willing to run against a re-animated Jimmy Carter zombie in 2028 if genetic engineering could extend the human lifespan. (I’ll just ignore the fact that John ended up not coming close to experiencing the year 2028.)
— Such a strong sketch overall. And between Hardball and this, Darrell’s been having his best night since the Calista Flockhart episode from season 26.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground”
WEEKEND UPDATE
soft-spoken candidate Tim Calhoun (WLF) proffers oddball initiatives
— While Tina’s long opening rant was a step up from her god-awful Seattle rant from the preceding episode, it was still meh. Tina has really not been herself this season so far.
— Who is that doing the off-camera voice of a singing Saddam Hussein during Jimmy’s Saddam/American Idol joke? It sounds like a woman. Is that Tina herself doing the voice while off-camera?
— Further proof that we’re in the early stages of Tina’s decline as an anchorperson: her preachy, clapter-inducing AIDS joke was cringeworthy.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut! Wow, it’s seriously been a long time since I last used that line. I think the last time was way back in season 25. In retrospect, I probably should’ve used it when covering Fericito’s debut a few episodes ago, but it had been so long since I last used the line that I completely forgot about it until now.
— So great to see Will Forte not only finally getting his very first big role, but having his very first big role be Tim Calhoun, one of my all-time favorite SNL characters.
— Will’s voice, delivery, and panicked facial expression as this character are absolutely PRICELESS. Hell, even the detail of his hand mannerisms while speaking is great.
— Tim Calhoun is having so many hilarious random one-liners and revelations about himself. I especially like the mention of him having a “China baby”.
— Tim Calhoun: “America needs another big lake.”
— Overall, Will knocked it completely out of the park in his first big showcase, and he killed with the audience. A very promising sign of the greatness Will is going to be unleashing on us throughout his SNL tenure. I remember when tonight’s episode originally aired, this Tim Calhoun debut alone immediately made me a Forte fan, which I have yet to stop being to this day, 18 years later.
— Pretty funny ending joke from Tina, regarding a news story about a man having sex with a pumpkin.
STARS: ***
MCCAIN SINGS STREISAND
host turns the tables by mangling Barbra Streisand’s standards
— John once again showing what a great sport he is.
— A lot of laughs from John’s monotone, off-key, tone-deaf singing of Barbra Streisand songs.
— An excellent reveal of why John’s doing this: “I’ve been in politics for over 20 years, and for over 20 years, I’ve had Barbra Streisand try her hand at my job. So I’ve decided to try her job.”
— I love John’s vibrating moves while singing “Papa Can Your Hear Me”, and then following it up with a perfect aside to the camera: “Pretty annoying, huh? Now you know how *I* feel.”
STARS: ****½
MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
a cannibalism dilemma in chapter 619
TOP O’ THE MORNING
moody Patrick (JIF) & William (SEM) on Irish TV
— This sketch makes its debut.
— IIRC, this ends up being the only installment of this sketch where Seth wears a leather jacket over the sweater that he would always wear in these sketches.
— Right out the gate, this sketch feels like something straight out of Mike Myers’ playbook. I can totally picture Mike starring in this sketch (kinda like what I once said about Jimmy’s Nick Burns character). In fact, Mike actually did star in a recurring sketch similar to this. Scottish Soccer Hooligans Weekly, anyone?
— Jeff unfortunately makes his only appearance of the entire night in a very small role that fell pretty flat.
— This sketch is even featuring mechanical, by-the-numbers catchphrases, a staple of many a Mike Myers recurring sketch.
— The aping of Mike Myers (whether intended or unintended) continues even further, as Jimmy and Seth are now doing a “Not here, not now” routine when they try to fight back a crying outburst, which is awfully reminiscent of Mike’s “I’m feelin’ a little verklempt” routine whenever his Linda Richman character would get teary-eyed.
— Very funny goofy Irish accent from John. He’s adding a much-needed fun vibe to this otherwise extremely derivative sketch.
— A good laugh from the disturbing passage John reads about eating an eye.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We’re Going To Be Friends”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Pretty much a perfect episode. Okay, the Top O’ The Morning sketch was fairly weak and derivative, but John McCain made it fun enough. Other than that, this episode was not only filled with wall-to-wall solid sketches, but some of them were particularly strong standouts that’ll definitely be going into my end-of-season “Best Of” picks. And John McCain was truly a phenomenal host, especially considering his lack of acting experience. He was wonderful in every single sketch he appeared in. Overall, this episode was such a great turnaround from the worrisome preceding Sarah Michelle Gellar episode. I recall it being said that Lorne was so displeased with the Gellar episode (and I think the preceding Matt Damon episode as well) that, sometime after the Gellar episode aired, Lorne held a tense meeting in which he chewed out the SNL cast and writing staff, and ordered them to get their act together. That stern chewing-out must’ve been what helped lead to such a strong show this week. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. While this season thankfully doesn’t turn out to be the season 20-like disaster year that the Gellar episode had a lot of us SNL fans at the time worried it would, the assuring solidness of tonight’s McCain episode also doesn’t lead to a stable season like it had a lot of us at the time hoping it would. This would go on to be a shaky season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Eric McCormack