Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM DONALD TRUMP
Donald Trump (DAH) intends to bring his brand of class to other NBC shows
— Darrell’s Donald Trump impression appears for the first time in years. Coincidentally, the last time it appeared was the last time tonight’s host, Jennifer Aniston, hosted, back in season 25. Not only that, but Darrell’s Trump appearance in the last Aniston episode was also a straight-to-camera address-to-the-nation cold opening like tonight’s is.
— Darrell’s Trump impression has really improved from the version he did prior to this. He’s got a much better grasp on Trump’s voice here.
— Just now, it even sounds like Darrell imitated Trump’s way of saying “yuuuge”, which surprises me, as I thought it wasn’t until more recent years that Trump was known for saying that.
— I’m not finding myself laughing here. A lot of these super sleazy comments from Darrell’s Trump are, in retrospect, now sadly way too realistic to laugh at anymore. These super sleazy lines no longer come off as a comical mockery or exaggeration of the real Trump – they now depressingly come off as verbatim unfunny sleazy Trump quotes.
— Now this cold opening gets crashed by Jimmy’s Jeff Zucker, which is a bit of a relief, even though he’s not adding much funniness here either.
— IIRC, when E! used to air the syndicated 60-minute version of this episode, they bleeped out the last word in Darrell-as-Trump’s line “You ever been kicked in the balls?”, which is just one of many reasons why E! was the absolutely wrong channel to be airing SNL reruns.
STARS: *½
MONOLOGUE
Joey (HOS) gets suicidal when Rachel (host) spurns him in Friends finale
— Much like the last time SNL did a Friends sketch, in Matthew Perry’s season 23 episode, it’s pretty fun seeing the cast’s impressions of Friends characters, but I feel the season 23 cast was more successful in their impressions.
— Ugh, a cheap gimmick having Horatio play Joey, though maybe I’m just biased against this casting because I cannot stand Horatio anymore by this point of his tenure and hate how SNL is encouraging his worst tendencies as a performer.
— Jimmy’s Ross impression is surprisingly terrible and has nothing on Chris Kattan’s eerily spot-on Ross impression from the aforementioned season 23 Friends sketch.
— A huge laugh from the unexpected off-camera self-inflicted gunshot from Joey. Funny and very dark.
— When the camera cuts back to Jennifer Aniston on the home base stage after the Friends “clip” ends, I remember thinking when this originally aired that it was a real gaffe that Jennifer had a worried reaction when realizing she forgot to remove her jacket from the Friends “clip”. However, according to someone who was in the audience at this episode’s dress rehearsal, she did the same “gaffe” there, proving that it was scripted, presumably as SNL’s tongue-in-cheek way of pointing out that the Friends “clip” was performed live and wasn’t pre-taped. Still, something about the jacket-removal bit came off kinda awkwardly executed by Jennifer.
STARS: ***
PAPARAZZI
(host) & fellow red carpet paparazza (AMP) pester celebs for photo poses
— Oh, no. I’ve always hated these recurring Paparazzi sketches that SNL does this season, this being the first of them.
— This at least seems to be a way for Jennifer to comically vent her real-life frustrations with the paparazzi, which may be fun for her to do, but certainly not for me to watch.
— The fact that this is undeservedly placed as the lead-off sketch of the night is more evidence of how way too pop culture-obsessed and celebrity gossip-obsessed this Tina Fey era of SNL is increasingly becoming. This really hits a nadir at one point the following season, where a sketch about freakin’ Star Jones’ honeymoon is the lead-off sketch of an episode.
— Didn’t care for the bit with Kirstie Alley being mistaken for Steven Seagal.
— Meh, a cheap attempt at laughs with Jimmy’s Steven Seagal kicking Amy in the face, which did nothing for me.
STARS: *½
VEGAS WEDDING
Britney Spears (host) & Jason Allen Alexander (JIF) rush into marriage
— (*sigh*) The early placement of this sketch is yet more proof that the Tina Fey era of SNL is getting way too pop culture-obsessed and celebrity gossip-obsessed, though I’m well-aware that a parody of this notorious Britney Spears/Jason Allen Alexander marriage debacle was obligatory. Either way, I’m starting to get the feeling that tonight’s episode just isn’t for me.
— Boy, I am two minutes into this sketch, and I have been freakin’ stone-faced during its entirety so far.
— Okay, I got a laugh from the camera cutting back to the clock as if we were getting yet another of many time-lapsed scene transitions, only for a graphic to show up onscreen saying “One second later”, followed by the camera cutting back to the scene that we were just watching.
— Terrible ending.
STARS: *½
GAYSTROGEN
Rerun from 10/18/03. We’re only halfway through the season, and they’ve already aired this Gaystrogen commercial too many times. In fact, I don’t understand how SNL has already rerun so many of this season’s commercials in general by such an early point in this season.
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
losing Democratic candidates tell voters that Howard Dean is unelectable
— What was with Seth’s long pause after he opened this sketch with “Hello, America. I’m Senator John Kerry”?
— When the camera first shows all of the candidates in one shot, Jimmy’s Wesley Clark is oddly missing from the shot at first, then he can be seen casually walking into the shot and taking his place while still buttoning his suit, showing that Jimmy was genuinely late arriving for this sketch due to having to do a fast costume change after the Britney sketch. Very sloppy moment there.
— Kenan’s Al Sharpton impression makes its debut.
— Amy is funny as Dennis Kucinich. Also, nice touch with the wonky eyes whenever she blinks, which reminds me a little of Chris Kattan’s portrayal of Clay Aiken in an American Idol cold opening from the preceding season.
— And now we see during a close-up of Jimmy that his Wesley Clark wig has been ill-applied during his aforementioned fast costume change, as the left side of his wig isn’t sticking to his head, causing the left side of his real hair to be revealed underneath (the fourth above screencap for this sketch). Again, very sloppy.
— Overall, some laughs, but this sketch was nothing great overall.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Where Is The Love?”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Steve Irwin (JER) may have just accidentally fed his baby to a crocodile
inspired by Pete Rose, O.J. Simpson (FIM) nearly confesses to murder
from Baghdad, one-man mobile uplink unit ALF relays soldiers’ messages
— Okay, Jimmy is certainly known for having a lot of questionable hairstyles during his SNL days. But, Jesus Christ, his new hairstyle in tonight’s episode is PARTICULARLY hideous. Since when was the Dudley Moore hairstyle the “in” look?
— Jeff’s brief Steve Irwin performance was kinda fun, but the commentary itself came off a little pointless, ended dumbly, and got no real laughs from me.
— Finesse as O.J.? Blah. This casting not only feels wrong because of Tim Meadows’ definitive and fun take on O.J. back in the day, but also because Finesse’s castmate Kenan would later do a semi-regular take on O.J. that would eventually grow on me.
— Hmm, turns out Finesse is actually doing a good impression of O.J.’s voice. He actually sounds much more like him than Tim or Kenan ever have, but I still find their impressions funnier.
— The overall O.J./Phil Spector/Robert Blake commentary was only fairly funny, but nothing memorable.
— Tina is way too animated in tonight’s Update. She’s following up an awful lot of jokes of hers tonight with unnecessary ad-libs, mugging, and/or goofy laughter.
— Oh, fuck yeah! The return of Al Franken’s One Man Mobile Uplink Unit routine! Shame on the audience for not applauding after Tina introduced him. Then again, this segment is pre-taped, which may explain why the audience refrained from applauding (or SNL refrained from lighting the “Applause” signs).
— During Al’s commentary, the soldier’s angry reaction to finding out his wife is having a baby that’s not his is funny, though after a while, it makes no sense why he’s continuing to angrily mutter about “that bitch” after it’s revealed that Al got the wrong husband and wife.
STARS: **½
SADDAM & OSAMA
beleaguered Saddam Hussein (HOS) & Osama bin Laden (JIF) chat via phone
— As much as I’ve been complaining about Horatio lately, and as much as I generally consider the Fallon/Sanz comedy duo to be sketch comedy poison, I have no real complaints about seeing a second installment of this Osama/Saddam sketch. The Fallon/Sanz shtick just strangely works in this setting. I don’t fully know why, but it just does.
— Jimmy’s been having a very busy night so far in this episode, appearing in tons of sketches. I wonder if this is SNL’s way of making up for the fact that, in the first half of this season, Jimmy’s airtime was reduced due to him being busy filming the movie Taxi.
— When Horatio’s Saddam prank-called Jimmy’s Osama at the beginning of this sketch, it’s sad that Horatio’s brief George W. Bush vocal impression was actually much better than Darrell’s Bush impression. How the hell does Horatio Fucking Sanz outdo Darrell Hammond at a celebrity impression???
— I got a big laugh from Jimmy-as-Osama’s comment about imaging Horatio’s Saddam looking like Ron Jeremy in an orange suit, which is actually an accurate description of Horatio’s Saddam.
— Feels kinda unnecessary for Jimmy’s Osama to reprise the funny “I will listen, it’s a phone!” line from the first Osama/Saddam sketch, a line that kinda fell flat tonight, though that’s partly due to Horatio mistakenly talking over Jimmy when Jimmy delivered the line.
— Fred’s “A little too much information, Osaaamaaaaaa!” line was a poor variation of his much funnier “Awkwaaaarrrrrrd!” line from the first Osama/Saddam sketch.
— Like in the last Osama/Saddam sketch that Jimmy and Horatio did, they’re making lots of fun and charming ad-libs throughout.
— Overall, while some of the lines fell kinda flat and there were an awful lot of silent pauses between some of the lines (something I’ve become all too accustomed to seeing from Horatio, but it still bugs the shit out of me), I still enjoyed this sketch as a whole. These Osama/Saddam sketches continue to be a rare successful utilization of the Fallon/Sanz duo by this point of both performers’ respective SNL tenure, even if the first Osama/Saddam sketch was a little better, in my opinion.
STARS: ***
COUNTRY ROSES
feuding vocalists (host) & (MAR) featured on album
— Pretty fun how the female cast is each playing multiple country singers in this sketch, with quick costume/wig changes between scenes. Reminds me of that fun NFL Players Intros sketch that SNL would later do in the Chris Pratt-hosted season premiere of season 40, where each male cast member had to play multiple football players stating their crime during their intro shot.
— Amy’s lyrics as the various singers she’s playing are funny.
— Okay, after a while, I’m starting to not care anymore for for where this sketch is going.
— Okay, this sketch is winning me back over with the escalation of how the respective singers’ songs are starting to have a disturbing connection to the other singers’ songs, such as the whole marriage affair detailed in Maya and Jennifer’s respective songs.
— This is over already? Aw, I actually wanted the aforementioned escalation to continue. It was just starting to get interesting and dark.
STARS: ***
COCO & MATSUI SUPER SHOW
host interviews herself in Japan
— (*sigh*) Oh, dear god. Looks like I’m in for Asian stereotypes galore.
— Ugh, the constant crying from Maya and Fred is just plain annoying.
— Okay, we get an actual fairly funny turn with Jennifer desperately resorting to interviewing herself while Maya and Fred look on.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hey Mama”
APPALACHIAN EMERGENCY ROOM
white trash patients present oddball injuries
— This sketch makes its debut.
— The voice Amy’s using is freakin’ hilarious.
— I love the goofy look of Chris’ character.
— Jimmy’s extremely busy night continues. He’s been all over tonight’s episode.
— Not caring for Jimmy’s performance here, and I can’t help but get a bit of a Sandler vibe from his over-the-top outburst at the end of his scene. A season 20 Sandler vibe, to be more specific. If you remind me of season 20 Adam Sandler, that’s almost never a good thing.
— Aside from Jimmy, I’m finding the goofy redneck characterizations throughout this sketch to be fun.
— Ugh, and now, shortly after Jimmy almost derailed this otherwise enjoyable sketch, it’s Horatio’s turn. Not even the fun atmosphere of this sketch can make me like Horatio’s typical annoying hamminess and cracking-up-at-himself habit. Kinda ironic how I had a rare positive reaction to a Fallon & Sanz team-up sketch earlier tonight (Saddam & Osama), but then Jimmy and Horatio both individually almost derail this Appalachian Emergency Room sketch for me while not even appearing with each other.
— Very funny ending with Chris.
STARS: ***½
RAW TALK
phone sex operator’s (host) G-rated terminology turns off callers
— I love the juxtaposition of Chris’ very professional demeanor and raunchy leather vest & belt.
— Pretty funny characterization from Jennifer, but I’m not finding myself laughing all that much at her comically hokey sex talk.
— This is a sketch where early-era Kenan Thompson’s over-the-top Nickelodeon-esque mugging actually makes me laugh instead of bugs me. That being said, the “wiener man” ending between him and Jennifer was kinda weak.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode. The first half of the show in particular had very little that I liked and a lot that I hated. Even at its best, tonight’s episode had no strong standout highly-rated sketches, which is starting to become an awfully common trait in this season’s episodes. This episode is especially a letdown when compared to Jennifer Aniston’s previous episode, which is one of my personal all-time favorites for reasons explained in my review of it.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elijah Wood)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, making this SNL’s first episode in 10 years to have two hosts. It’s also the final episode before Jeff Richards’ SNL tenure comes to an abrupt end.
Maybe this is hyperbole but there are some season 20 vibes to this season in general
Was it ever revealed why Tina/Lorne took the show in such a celeb obsessed/pop culture/gossip direction these seasons? It’s certainly an outlier in the show’s history and Tina really doesn’t give off that vibe in interviews but she clearly was steering the ship in that direction.
Appalachian sketches were Paula Pell I believe
Paula Pell, eh? That explains why I hate them so much!
Weren’t the SNL reruns exclusive to E! at this point? They must have been catering the live broadcasts for their future home. Much like the reruns that aired on Comedy Central were originally broadcast with comedy in mind.
To me it comes across as desperation for ratings and relevance. I don’t really know what the ratings were at this point, but the show was a national talking point with Ferrell’s W, then nothing after his departure hit in the same way. They had some people who got a positive response, but Jimmy was the closest to a breakout star. That was more him in his own right than anything he added to the show. It wouldn’t be until the Digital Shorts and especially the 2008 election that they found a national embrace again.
Damn can’t believe its been nearly 20 years since Comedy Central lost the rights to SNL. Watching those reruns in the 90s/early 2000s brings back so many great memories
Also with the Halle Berry/Spears deal earlier in the season, Aniston wearing some rather skimpy outfits in this episode and the Lohan episode later on they were clearly trying to amp up the sex appeal this season. Yeah probably out of desperation
Lorne Michaels said that Tina understood that Lindsay, Paris, and the likes “ran Hollywood”. This was the era of Perez Hilton, Gawker/Defamer, trashy celebrity culture at its peak.
But I offer a counterpoint: The biggest news story was the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is depressing and hard to find comedy in (though they try valiantly with the Saddam/Osama sketches). So this goofy celebrity stuff was our distraction from it. I, of course, loved the stuff like Lindsay Lohan’s first monologue with Amy as Avril Lavigne and Rachel as Hilary Duff, but I was also the 17-year-old gay boy that such a thing was likely written to entertain.
Ugh, I hate those Appalachian Emergency Room sketches. I watched a few a while back, and every single one of them was torture. The fact that they made SEVEN of these is baffling.
The paparazzi sketches come off as such a shameless attempt to kiss up to celebrities.
“We hate them too! They’re so mean! Please do our show!”
Here’s an episode that E! reran to death.
Seems like S29/S30 tried to have this take of covering all the trashy early 2000s culture to be like “look how dumb this all is!” But as commenters here have said, it just feels desperate. It’s less SNL mocking and satirizing the culture and more them openly partaking in it. Just looking at the roster of who hosts this season tells you all you need to know.
SNL is better when they create a zeitgeist rather than try to chase it for relevancy. It’s why the era of the Lonely Island shorts is for the most part better than this ‘03-‘05 period.
Also, Jimmy’s goober hairstyle in Update is funny enough in itself. Looks like he tried to cut it himself.
In hindsight, I’m starting to see why Jeff Richards was fired after the next show. His impressions were fine, but he ran his one okay character (Drunk Girl) into the ground, and he pretty much tanked his other showcases. Rest assured, you’re going to see the straw that broke the camel’s back in next week’s cold open.
As for the show itself– I gave this one 2 out of 5 on the “Stu-dometer” (I’m not proud of that weird wordplay). Almost everything up to Weekend Update was a slog, and most of the back end was nothing special, but this was the show where Kenan Thompson first really stood out to me. I was too harsh on “Appalachian Emergency Room”; that was a recurring sketch that grew on me, I spite of the hayseed caricatures.
Amy is the only part of Appalachian Emergency Room that’s funny to me. It’s a special kind of goofy.
They should’ve brought that back when Seth hosted, though. It’d make use of the unnecessarily big cast they have now, and most of that episode was just Seth sitting and reacting to things anyways.
In the SNL in the 2000’s special, Lorne says that Tina understood that Paris, Lindsay, and Britney ran Hollywood. I was in high school at this time and fully agreed. I don’t mind all the pop culture stuff because I was probably as obsessed with it as Tina was.
Moving on, I have to talk about Country Roses!!!! There is a gay bar in my city that does Showtune Sundays (before lockdowns, anyway). They mainly show Broadway performances or Disney songs but they ALWAYS show Country Roses, ripped from an E! rerun, and it often gets the biggest reaction of the afternoon! Imagine a room of men at a beer bust yelling in unison, IF I TOLD YOU ONCE, I TOLD YOU 25 TIMES, GET YOUR HAND OFF MY HUSBAND’S PENIS!!!!!
I missed the Jennifer Garner episode the first time it ran, so this episode was my first exposure to those Osama/Hussein bits Jimmy and Horatio did. Despite the duo’s indulgences in this era, I was really tickled by the piece. At this point, I can’t really see one being better than the other, but it could be like discovering those Mrs. Rafferty sketches after the initial one – writingwise, it’s no worse than the first, but you only get the element of surprise once. I think this Osama/Hussein bit is great, no worse than the first but obviously less of a surprise for most.
Was it cold in the studio for Jennifer?
This will be the vintage rerun this Saturday.
This is another of those rotten episodes from a rotten era that seems like a grueling test for today’s team to have to paste into a watchable slot.
Country Roses is a classic to me. The first three songs/performers are actually imitations of the actual singers doing an actual hit of theirs. And I wonder if they had to cut it short for time? It does end somewhat quickly. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t let Aniston say “penis” on-mic; it’s not a slang term. Were the censors really that afraid of corrupting America?
The ending joke about minors/miners is so hacky on its own but for some reason doesn’t bother me in this context; didn’t make me laugh either, though.
Vintage contents:
Cold open
Monologue
Paparazzi
Vegas Wedding
Weekend Update (FULL Update, which Vintage repeats rarely do for this era in particular – shows you just how much racist and heavily political junk they had to avoid elsewhere)
BEP
Appalachian Emergency Room
Country Roses
Even in the cleaner episode this is the type of episode which reminded me why I stopped watching. One of the worst episodes ever, and a poor, cut off host performance (fitting of this era I suppose) from Aniston after her good first showing. The pap sketch is hollow starfucking and the Britney sketch is atrocious on every level and breathtakingly cynical and callous – one of the worst sketches I’ve ever seen on the show.
The best thing in this was Country Roses, although I was distracted by them just slapping a different title and lyrics onto Fist City.