December 14, 2002 – Al Gore / Phish (S28 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BACKSTAGE
host locks lips with wife Tipper [real] in an extended passionate kiss

— I’m getting some laughs from Al Gore’s panicking over having not seen his wife for over 10 minutes.
— Jimmy and Lorne’s nonchalant reaction to Al and Tipper’s never-ending kiss is pretty funny. This never-ending kiss is also a good spoof of their famous kiss at the 2000 Democratic Convention.
— Feels a little odd to watch this in retrospect, given Al and Tipper’s later divorce.
— Jimmy and Lorne casually mention that Jimmy’s leaving SNL after this season to do a sitcom. This is just a random joke that wasn’t based on any reality (kinda in the vein of a moment in the Cider House Rules cold opening from season 25’s Tobey Maguire episode, when Lorne makes a mention of Jimmy having left SNL to join the cast of Ally McBeal), but I remember this caused some confusion among online SNL fans, who really did wonder if Jimmy’s leaving after this season, and this confusion also led to some interesting online discussion on some of the problems with Jimmy on SNL lately, mainly the fact that he’s inexplicably stopped doing celebrity impressions (he’s gone through the ENTIRE first half of this season without doing a single impression, if you can believe it), which is a shame, as impressions are where his real knack lies.
— Interestingly, Tracy’s walk-on gets some applause from the audience, which shows how far he’s come along on SNL over the course of his tenure, and how much of an asset he’s been to this season.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host selected running mate Joe Lieberman (CHP) a la The Bachelor

— Al gets a good laugh early on from the “patronizing” bit.
— I had completely forgotten that Seth’s John Kerry impression debuted THIS early. I associate that impression far more with the following two seasons.
— Very funny how Al’s selection of his 2000 election running mate is being presented in the style of The Bachelor. This is being executed very solidly.
— A memorable and funny hot tub scene with Parnell’s Lieberman and Al.
STARS: ****

HARDBALL
Trent Lott (host) delineates his thoughts on segregation

— Amusing to see Al playing Trent Lott in the wake of a controversial racial-related comment Lott had recently made.
— A huge laugh from Al-as-Lott’s “apology” being him clarifying that he meant no disrespect to any white people, and then promising to leave no whites behind as long as he’s in office. Darrell’s Chris Matthews also has a fantastic response to that: “Senator, you’re shedding a lot of light on the situation. Unfortunately, the light’s coming from a cross you just set on fire.”
— Just now, Darrell’s Matthews has exclaimed “Wowie wow wow wow”, ala The Continental. I wonder if that’s an intentional reference.
— Another Tracy Morgan entrance tonight that receives audience applause.
— Hilarious how Tracy’s Al Sharpton explains that he’s so mad, he made words up: “Gorglesnorp, zibbety-zabbety, beep, and boop-boop!”
— I love how Darrell-as-Chris-Matthews’ traditional ending line, “coming up on Hardball”, is delivered more and more unintelligibly with each passing Hardball sketch. Tonight, he literally says it as “dabbadda Hahdbah”.
— Overall, while this doesn’t measure up to the outstanding preceding Hardball sketch from the John McCain episode, this was still very strong, and all the portions with Al’s Trent Lott were gold.
STARS: ****½

FIESTA POLITICA
talk show’s format isn’t a good match for host’s style

 

— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— I remember when this originally aired, this was one of the main sketches responsible for causing a backlash against Maya among quite a number of online SNL fans. Those SNL fans got really sick of Maya this season, especially with the large amount of airtime she suddenly received this season (particularly in the second half of the season) and the type of characters and voices she did this season. Looking back at this sketch now, I’m not quite seeing what’s so bad about her performance, or why it earned the ire of the aforementioned online SNL fans. That being said, this sketch is getting one-note, and it feels unnecessary to have brought back for a second installment. The constant cutaways to Horatio are ESPECIALLY getting really old.
— I do at least like the new addition of Fred as “Poco Loco”.
— Okay, yeah, NOW I think I’m starting to see why so many online SNL fans had such a problem with Maya’s performance in this sketch. Her strained laughing-while-speaking voice whenever she says “Oh, Poco Loco, you are so funny!” is quite irritating.
— Funny close-up of an awkward Al Gore and the chihuahua being held next to his face, with Al being forced to say “I love you” to the chihuahua.
STARS: **

THE WEST WING SET
host makes himself at home on Oval Office set of The West Wing

— I like how Al introduces this from the set of the Fiesta Politica sketch, immediately after that sketch has ended. Kinda gives this intro the feel of something from SNL’s early days.
— This short film is a nice out-of-the-ordinary segment for this era of SNL, and it’s cool how this is involving the actual West Wing cast.
— Great laughs from Al milking his stay in the West Wing’s oval office set for as long as he possibly can while pretending he’s president.
— Al’s odd requests to the West Wing actors are very funny, as are the West Wing actors’ reactions.
— I love the ending with the lights on the set turning off as Al remains happily sitting back in the Oval Office desk chair.
STARS: ****½

JARRET’S ROOM
professor (host) thinks musical guest sets a bad example

— The preceding West Wing short film has put the audience in such a good mood that their applause from the end of that film transitions into wild, infectious cheers when this Jarret’s Room sketch shows up immediately afterwards.
— Didn’t SNL just do a Jarret’s Room sketch TWO EPISODES AGO? That being said, it’s understandable why this sketch is appearing tonight, considering how established it is that Jarret and Gobi are big fans of Phish, who happen to be tonight’s musical guest. Still, I remember it was known at the time of the preceding installment of this sketch that Phish was going to be the musical guest for the Christmas episode, so SNL should’ve just waited until tonight’s episode to do this sketch.
— Here’s our obligatory Phish walk-on.
— This is having a very “Wayne’s World Meets Aerosmith” vibe to it, even if this is obviously nowhere near as classic as THAT.
— A good laugh from Gobi mistaking Trey Anastasio for Chuck Norris when recalling Anastasio running him over with a van.
— Horatio’s usual Gobi characterization and giggliness seems more toned down tonight, which is a relief.
— Al telling Phish “Get a job, you damn, dirty hippies!” is pretty funny, as is him warning us that Phish is what you turn into when you slack off in college.
— And now we get Phish and Gobi performing a musical number together. Yep, SNL is definitely going for another “Wayne’s World Meets Aerosmith” with this sketch. While this, again, is nowhere near as classic, I certainly won’t deny that this is fun, and is helping make this one of the better Jarret’s Room installments.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “46 Days”

WEEKEND UPDATE
Moonlight Bunny Ranch brothel workers (RAD) & (AMP) talk about their job

— Boy, I can’t tell if Tina’s Trent Lott-related “Santa holding a black baby” joke was awful, or if it was just Tina’s delivery of it that was awful. Either way, it’s a prime example of how downhill Tina has been going as an anchorperson this season.
— The overall Amy/Rachel commentary didn’t do much for me as a whole, though the virgin stuff they directed at Jimmy was okay.
— Tina somewhat redeems herself from her aforementioned awful Santa/black baby joke with her very funny Rosie O’Donnell joke.
— Interesting in retrospect hearing a mention of then-17 year old high school basketball player LeBron James and how he may be the first pick in the following year’s NBA draft.
— Short Update tonight. This is also the FIFTH consecutive Update in which I didn’t like the guest commentaries. Man, what is HAPPENING to Update this season?
— I mentioned in the preceding episode’s Update that Jimmy refrained from doing his usual pencil-throw-towards-the-camera routine after signing off at the end, instead just placing his pencil down on the desk. Well, at the end of tonight’s Update, not only does he just place his pencil down on the desk again, but he does it very blatantly this time, as if he’s making some kind of point by doing so. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes that seemingly “suspended” Jimmy from throwing the pencil like he usually does, but this ends up leading into a fun running gag in the entire second half of this season, starting in the very next episode, in which every Update ends with SNL writer Eric Slovin randomly walking on as a different character each time and helping Jimmy dispose of his pencil in a way that pertains to the character Slovin is dressed as.
STARS: **½

DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart helps host overcome pain of election result

— Holy hell, the return of Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley! Very random, but great to see this back, and it’s quite a novelty seeing it appear in a completely different SNL era. It feels good to review a Stuart Smalley sketch again for the first time since I covered season 20.
— Quite a lot of mentions tonight of recurring characters having been run over by a vehicle, between Gobi in the Jarret’s Room sketch and now Stuart Smalley in this sketch.
— After all these years, Al Franken’s still got it when it comes to how well he plays Stuart Smalley.
— A huge laugh from the fake photo of a fat, bearded, pizza-eating Al Gore three months after the election.
— I love Gore’s annoyed delivery of “What?!?” when Stuart calls his name.
— Pretty funny sequence with the affirmation that Stuart makes Gore do into the mirror.
STARS: ****

WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Willy Wonka’s (JER) accountant brother (host) explains fiscal realities

— Good to see Jeff’s solid Willy Wonka impression back.
— Al looks hilarious in that costume.
— Funny line from Al about giving Oompah Loompahs green cards.
— Al’s a lot of fun in this.
— Another funny line from Al, this time about a fat kid drowning in Willy Wonka’s chocolate river.
— A big laugh from Kattan as an Oompah Loompah dryly reading from his report, “Uh… we’re Oompah Loompah Doompity screwed.”
STARS: ***½

TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- Peanuts Gang transforms the spirit of A Charlie Brown Christmas

 

— You can already tell this is going to be great, as Robert Smigel’s Peanuts homages are always fantastic.
— Funny updated versions of the things the Peanuts gang magically transform into something better, such as a street hooker being turned into Dirrty-era Christina Aguilera, Ben Affleck being given bigger hands while feeling up Jennifer Lopez’s big butt, and Blanket Jackson being enlarged so he can get revenge on his daddy.
— A funny sorrowful delivery of “Goodbye, lesbians” from Charlie when the gang has to turn the attractive grownup lesbians back into Marcie and Peppermint Patty.
— A sweet ending that’s actually making me feel really emotional right now, to be honest.
— An overall wonderful Christmas-related Peanuts spoof as expected, though not quite enough to be a five-star classic, in my opinion.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chalk Dust Torture”

CHRISTMAS EVE DRINKS
on Christmas Eve, sozzled (TRM) & (MAR) musically consider drink options

— Our fourth and final of the series of Tracy/Maya semi-dramatic slice-of-life sketches.
— There’s Maya doing that nasal, throaty “old black lady voice”, which she’ll go back to in quite a number of sketches over the years, one of the things that turned a number of online SNL fans against Maya this season.
— A fairly fun vibe to the drinking song that Tracy and Maya are singing.
— I remember a fellow SNL reviewer back in 2002 pointing out that not only does this sketch have a similar vibe to the Pudge & Solomon sketches that Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo used to do together, but that Tracy’s character even looks like Joe’s Pudge character from those sketches.
— I’m loving Tracy’s acting in this.
— Nice ending.
STARS: ***½

SEASON’S GREETINGS
toys HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty

— I always find it such a treat to see these bits, and I love the way they set this particular one up, showing a wrapped gift box under a tree, and transitioning it to a shot of a giant wrapped gift box prop that Horatio and the gang bust through.
— Fun toy costumes that the guys are wearing.
— Portions of this song seem like they had some last-minute shortening. I’m guessing the show was starting to run long and Horatio was told right before this sketch went on air that he has to cut out some of the lyrics.
— This would end up being the last occurrence of these I Wish It Was Christmas Today numbers while all four of the performers are still in the cast. There was originally going to be one that gets performed at the end of this season in the season finale, which is Tracy and Kattan’s final episode, but reportedly, Horatio and Jimmy threw off the song so much in dress rehearsal by laughing so hard that it led to the piece getting cut from the live show.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode and, in addition to having lots of great sketches, had a feel-good vibe to it, which I something I love about a lot of SNL’s Christmas episodes. Al Gore, even with his stiffness and lack of acting experience, was a solid host and, much like John McCain earlier this season, proved to be a great sport. Back in December 2002, I never would’ve guessed that out of Robert DeNiro (the preceding host) and Al Gore, Gore would be the one who would turn out to be the far better host and would have the far more memorable episode.

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

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert DeNiro)
a big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
We enter the year 2003, with host Jeff Gordon