Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ENDORSEMENT
John Kerry (SEM) doesn’t want bad-luck charm Al Gore (DAH) to endorse him
— Seth’s got John Kerry’s smile down pretty well, but does he have to keep briefly flashing it so often throughout this cold opening? He’s pushing that smile WAY too hard in this.
— A laugh from Darrell-as-Al-Gore’s odd delivery of “IIIIIIIII’ve decided to suppoooort yoooouuuu.”
— The “crackle crackle” bit Seth’s Kerry uses as an excuse to end the phone conversation with Gore made me laugh, but it’s a cliched joke.
— Aside from the aforementioned two decent bits (and not even those were particularly hilarious), this overall cold opening did not have many laughs. Typical dull Jim Downey political writing from this period.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
E.T. (WLF) visits, as do ’80s sci-fi characters host didn’t co-star with
— Good makeup on Will as E.T.
— Meh. I’m not caring for the direction this has gone in, with characters from non-Drew Barrymore movies mistakenly thinking Drew was in their movies. Lazy premise that shows the writers didn’t know what else to do for this monologue. This probably would’ve been better off just focusing on Will’s E.T.
— Is that an ad-lib Darrell made after stumbling over the word “sith”? Drew seemed genuinely amused.
STARS: **
A VERY SPECIAL VALENTINE’S VERSACE
Courtney Love (host) lays waste
— Blah. Are they going to trot out this Versace impression for EVERY holiday this season? First it was Halloween, then Christmas, now Valentine’s Day. Is Easter next up on the queue?
— This sketch is really going through the motions. This Versace routine is simply past its prime by this point, as is Horatio’s Elton John shtick (though I’m pretty sure the latter never had a prime to begin with).
— I finally got one laugh just now, from Versace’s slam to Amy’s Madonna about Dennis Rodman “boning you sideways”.
— Feels a little odd seeing somebody other than Molly Shannon play Courtney Love.
— The audience is eating up Drew-as-Courtney-Love’s violent outbursts, but it’s doing absolutely nothing for me.
— Ugh, they are dragging the hell out of the bit with Versace repeatedly asking Courtney Love to not smash Versace’s cherished figurines, which I get is supposed to be funny because of how drawn-out it is, but it’s just annoying me.
— Double ugh, now there goes these Versace sketches’ obligatory endless repetition of the word “bitch”. As I said in my review of the Versace sketch from the preceding season’s Salma Hayek episode, “These Versace sketches need to realize that the word ‘bitch’ stops being funny when it’s thrown around so frequently in such a short time frame.”
STARS: *½
JARRET’S ROOM
Gobi’s hot stoner sister (host) appears in dream sequence
— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made all season. I’m glad they rightfully cut back big-time on the frequency of these sketches, after how heavily overused it was in the preceding season.
— An unintentional laugh from how a whole bunch of teen Jimmy Fallon fangirls in the audience can be heard loudly going “Awwww!” after Jarret says he doesn’t have a valentine this year.
— The “pipe” that Jarret is smoking in the fantasy sequence is fairly funny (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— The fantasy sequence is being awkwardly executed, but it has a bit of a charm.
— Jesus Christ, as if it weren’t obvious enough that Jarret’s Room is such a Wayne’s World knock-off, tonight’s Jarret’s Room installment follows up the fantasy sequence with an “I guess it was all a dream… or was it?!? (*sees something in reality from the dream*)” bit, which was a staple of Wayne’s World sketches that involved fantasy sequences. Way to be original, Jarret’s Room writers.
STARS: **½
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
Charlize Theron (host) gets ugly for acting accolades
— The silly movie clips feel like cheap laughs. Drew is pulling it off okay enough, but I’m still not crazy about the clips.
— Enough with the damn “Pat O’Brien can’t breathe through his nose” jokes. It’s beyond played-out by this point.
STARS: **½
OCTANE
motorcycle movie’s special effects comprise toys & lighter fluid
— Brief J.B. Smoove appearance!
— Kenan’s intense delivery during his brief scene was very funny.
— Not sure what to say about this overall. I got laughs from the fast-paced insanity of this and from the use of cheap model toys for the “action” scenes, but this commercial went by really fast and was kinda hard to follow.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Milkshake”
WEEKEND UPDATE
imprisoned Diana Ross (MAR) contrasts life behind bars with glory days
— Not caring much for this commentary with Diana Ross in prison, and they’re overdoing her “Jail is not like that” statements.
— Holy hell, that’s it?!? Update is over ALREADY?!? Wow, this Update was only about five minutes long. At least Jimmy and Tina’s jokes were mostly decent. Could’ve used a better guest commentary, though.
STARS: ***
MIKE’S BAR
John Kerry (SEM), George W. Bush (WLF), Bill Clinton (DAH) meet at Yale
— We get the debut of Will’s George W. Bush impression, making this the THIRD time in just these past two seasons that the Bush impression has been given to somebody new. Interesting how Will’s Bush is making its debut in a sketch set several decades prior. Can’t remember any other time in SNL history where an important impression of a current president debuted in such a manner.
— Right out of the gate, Will’s Bush impression is coming off as a huge improvement over both Chris and (especially) Darrell’s Bush impressions. Will sounds enough like Bush here, and most importantly, his impression is very fun, immediately making you get onboard with it.
— A good and creative setting of Bush, John Kerry, and Bill Clinton meeting each other in the 1960s, and this sketch is being executed well.
— A great line from Darrell’s Clinton, asking Seth’s Kerry, in regards to Drew’s Hillary Rodham, “Hey, G.I. Joe, why don’t you do us all a favor and jump on THAT grenade?”
— There’s Seth briefly flashing that Kerry smile once again. It’s as if that smile is the only thing Seth personally feels he’s nailed about John Kerry, so he’s overcompensating by relying very heavily on it.
STARS: ****
LARRY KING LIVE
flighty Anna Nicole Smith (host) has lost weight
— Quite a lot of entertainment show spoofs tonight with Jimmy as the host, between Access Hollywood and now this.
— For various reasons, it feels odd seeing Jimmy playing Larry King. I’m also not caring much for his impression. He’s not sounding believable in the role.
— I remember the trainwreck Anna Nicole Smith interview this sketch is spoofing.
— The “biscuit” bit at the end was funny, but this overall sketch just kinda came and went with mostly only mild-at-best chuckles from me.
STARS: **
SPY GLASS
Ian & Zoe point the lens at their own scandalous behavior
— Like the first time this sketch appeared, we get some pretty fun bad puns from Seth and Amy’s characters.
— Seth’s delivery gets better and better with each passing installment of this sketch, and he had a string of particularly funny puns about Diana Ross just now.
— Geez, we get the unnecessary return of Jimmy’s British Pat O’Brien, as well as the return of more tepid “Pat O’Brien can’t breathe through his nose” jokes. Ugh, ENOUGH with this shit.
STARS: ***
THE WORLD OF SCOTT WAINIO
people talk into a microphone-free hand
— The no-longer-on-the-show Jeff Richards does the voice-over intro at the beginning of this, proving that this is a segment that had been sitting on SNL’s shelf for a while.
— Uh… okay, this is certainly something different. At least we’re getting a change of pace for this SNL era. I like the idea of this era doing a short film starring an unknown SNL writer.
— Just when I thought I’d be onboard for this, I end up being very put off by the result. How is Scott Wainio interviewing people with an invisible microphone supposed to be even remotely funny? This feels like a failed attempt at the type of absurdist, alternative humor that I usually love. And why does Wainio keep suggestively rubbing some of the men he’s interviewing?
— Overall, I’m all for SNL trying offbeat concepts, but yeah, this did NOT work for me.
— “The World of Scott Wainio” seems like it was being set up to eventually become a recurring segment (in fact, when this originally aired, I remember wondering if SNL was attempting a new-age Rocket Report type of segment), but we end up never seeing this return. I wouldn’t have minded seeing this get a second shot, as long as it had an actual funny concept, unlike tonight’s.
STARS: **
THE WHITE STRIPES
ostensible crime fighters Jack (JIF) & Meg (host) White just play music
— Poor Chris has been practically non-existent tonight.
— Jimmy, on the other hand, has been EVERYWHERE tonight.
— Interesting concept of The White Stripes as superheroes.
— Meh. The twist with The White Stripes’ self-played superhero theme song being so long that the criminals get away is a cliched gag that I swear SNL used to better effect another time, though I can’t remember when.
— Very weak ending.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Trick Me”
PRINCE SHOW
Beyonce Knowles (MAR) mediates Pink (host) guest spot
— This sketch makes its debut. Kinda surprising in retrospect to see that this debuted as a 10-to-1 sketch.
— While this is yet another damn celebrity-hosted talk show sketch, an overused concept of which I’ve griped about many times, Fred’s Prince impression and the eccentric setting of this sketch seem like they’ll be fun.
— Drew has done a celebrity impression in almost every single sketch tonight. I’m not caring much for her take on Pink in this particular sketch. Feels like she’s just doing a poor man’s variation of Amy’s Avril Lavigne impression.
— Such a spot-on Prince impression from Fred, which makes sense, given what a devoted Prince fanatic Fred is said to be.
— Kenan’s performance as George Clinton is kinda making me laugh.
— All the oddball little segments Prince does throughout this are amusing and entertaining.
— I believe we’ve gotten our very first “Kenan reacts” moment in SNL history, when the camera does a brief cutaway to Kenan’s George Clinton speechlessly staring in confusion at Prince’s odd mask routine (screencap below).
— Overall, a good debut for this sketch. I personally feel this should’ve stayed a one-off. IIRC, the subsequent installments of this sketch don’t offer anything particularly new or exciting, and the concept gradually wears thin.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A blah episode. There were way too many things that I didn’t care for in this episode, particularly in the first half of the show, in which I didn’t give ANYTHING a passing rating. Overall, I’m sure I’ll go on to remember absolutely nothing about this episode, aside from the Mike’s Bar sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Megan Mullally)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Christina Aguilera
One of my favorite “Fun With Real Audio” bits is in the next episode.
“What was Britney thinking?”
I’m a sucker for the Prince Show–the interview portions are almost always not funny though–I almost think the sketches would be better if they had a long build-up and theme song and then abrupt ending (which is kind of a cliche too).
I think your reviews these last two seasons have been even more frustrated and annoyed in tone than in ANY of SNL’s more famously bad seasons!
Lately I’m remembering why I disliked a lot of the Tina Fey helmed seasons. The pop culture and reality show parody stuff was getting out of control right around this point.
If nothing else, The Prince Show comes in handy for when SNL cobbles together an hour-long special two days after Prince’s death in 2016. No offense to those who like the special, but I still fail to see how three TPS sketches wadded onto whatever musical performances of his SNL lays claim to (one of which is after-party footage) makes for a respectful “tribute”.
The Prince special was good in theory but not in execution. Tom Petty should’ve been considered for a tribute special. Is there any musical guests who has enough spots on the show to warrant a full length 90 minute tribute?
Off the top of my head you got Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Kayne, and maybe Dave Grohl.
I enjoyed the Prince special, but it was undeniably padded. A Tom Petty special would have been doable since the show managed to catch him in every facet of his career. With Prince, SNL fluked out by catching him super early and then didn’t get him again until after his peak (sorry “Batdance” fans).
SNL caught Prince in the Batdance period…as a musical guest for the fifteenth-anniversary special.
Yes, I was just saying that as much as some people might like “Batdance” (hello Scott Aukerman), it’s post-peak Prince – at least creatively.
Fair enough re: peak Prince. Granted, when one books a musical guest three times in a quarter-century-and-change span, there aren’t a lot of musicians who DON’T go off-peak.
Totally 110% agree. The Prince Show sketches were unnecessary to say the least. Poor form SNL.
My favorite part of the Prince Show sketches was always Maya’s singing as Beyoncé.
Having all the Prince shows run back-to-back in the special really highlighted how rote and mechanical James Anderson is when he repeats his sketches.
Cameron A. and Ben — totally agree. I remember when they announced it, I was excited to finally see “Party Up” in decent quality. I assumed they would show just one TPS… when they got to the second , I started to worry that someone didn’t understand what a tribute is. And I half expected them to bring out “I Am Also the World” from season 10, with Billy Crystal. A decent sketch, but not exactly one that’s a tribute
I love Forte’s GWB. He gets very whiny, but that’s like 80% of what makes it so good.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that Seth’s John Kerry sucks, but idk, I think it’s a pretty accurate and funny impression.
It’s a credit to Forte that he manages to make W so unlikeable, as he is inherently a likeable performer. It’s also a contrast to Ferrell, whose W was likeable even if I’m not sure he was intended to be. I suppose his dislike of having to do the impression (enough that he still talks about this 16 years later) bleeds into the performance. They had to focus on him, as it was a Presidential election year, but generally there wasn’t anything left to say, certainly not in a comedic manner. This has pretty much been the problem with every President from this point on.
I don’t have any real problem with Seth’s Kerry impression either, even if he isn’t much of an impressionist. The main problem in comic terms is how boring Kerry was.
Robert Smigel did a hilarious oblivious-wealthy-guy impression of Kerry on Conan’s late night show.
Oh man, I miss Smigel’s clutch cargos. Often times his current event impressions and material were 100 times funnier than the ones SNL was doing at the time.
For some reason the Scott Wainio bit has stuck in my mind. It was just a weird out of place thing that I wasn’t used to seeing on the show and seems more suited for a prime time variety show or old Leno bit. I recall on the old board somebody mentioning there were more of these that were cut at dress. I don’t think anything was cut at dress more than the “Lobster Hands” digital short in season 31…which I don’t believe has ever been seen.
What was Lobster Hands? Was it by Lonely Island (although if it was you’d think they would have released it somewhere)?
I agree about how out of place this Wainio piece is. Beyond Leno, it reminds me of the smarmy pieces Kimmel does with making people on the street look as dumb as possible, although at least Wainio showed us the moments where they realized what was going on. What makes the whole thing bizarre to me is there is this expectation in the presentation that we should know who he is and be fascinated. Right from the Mango-esque (how appropriate) poses in the titles. That makes the whole thing being a one-off even more amusing.
Lobster Hands was a Lonely Island piece. IIRC Andy plays a guy with Lobster Hands and is having difficulty eating at a restaurant and doing other things because of his hands. It may have had a dramatic undertone like the “Lettuce” film. Alec Baldwin is involved somehow so it was filmed around his Season 31 show. I think it was shown at nearly every dress rehearsal up until the Kevin Spacey finale. it might have been shown at some Season 32s as well. I’m going off of 10+ memories of the message board posts so I may be slightly off on some aspects.
I don’t understand why the bar sketch wasn’t used as the cold open. Did they decide to go for something more topical? I doubt viewers would have cared about old Al Gore jokes. I laughed at his attempt at an angry delivery, but the rest…no.
It’s interesting they had Drew, not Amy, playing Hillary. That feels strange.
What is it with Drew Barrymore episodes? She always tries her best, but something goes wrong every time. I’d still put this above her ’82 (she was too young to host), ’99 (that has at least two sketches I absolutely hate), ’01 (just a strange episode, not helped by the anthrax scare), and about on par with the ’07; that one starts well and then falls apart, while this one is bumpier throughout. Drew is better when allowed to play larger roles instead of kooky support. She’s a lot of fun in the Charlize Theron piece.
The monologue starts off cute, but needing to include the girl who played in Poltergeist left a bad taste in my mouth.
Donatella and Jarrett’s Room remain unwatchable for me. The Diana Ross segment is mostly another reminder of how Maya struggled with impressions in these years.
I never would have thought, when Jimmy’s Update tenure started, that he would feel at home in that format but feel so obtrusive and tiresome in most of the actual sketches. He’s a real drag on the night – that last White Stripes sketch is so self-indulgent.
I’m surprised Kelis wasn’t in that cheap little Fast & the Furious parody.
The first I saw of Spyglass was one of the later installments, which kind of sucked. This one was funny all the way through, from Amy’s embarrassing stories about her night with two men who pretend to be Hobbits, to Seth’s good one-liners. I love the part where he ad-libs a reaction to the audience not really caring about his Lando joke. This is the Seth I wish he could have brought to Update. Loose, dorky, fun.
We are well into the era of SNL where consensus is hard to come by. Stooge has raved about sketches that my mind had completely glossed over, while gently poo-pooing sketches that I felt represented the best of the era. I think this will really come into play next season where some of my favorite pieces will be generally considered 04-05’s nadir. I think John highlighted one where I feel like I’ll champion more than others. Barrymore’s 07 episode is one of the era’s best imo and certainly her only episode (01 possibly excepted) of any significant value. I can’t remember it all and I know no SNL entirely connects, but that one features a very strong Digital Short, the Dakota Fanning Show (a celebrity talk show that actually works for me), an amazing host performance sketch (the job interview) and another wild card that has always stuck in my brain (Jojo). It has also happens to be at a period where the show’s momentum was extremely high, so there were less wasted episodes (unlike this season).
Anyway, can hardly remember anything about this episode, but the Xtina episode is shockingly solid.
A lot of the Drew episodes have the feeling of “someone needed to make another decision about what sketches should be in the episode”–they generally have the vibe of lack of discipline in many cases, which can lead to funny moments but also kind of annoying or erratic moments. This can’t be entirely or even majorly Drew’s fault, though.
Hoo boy, was this a stinker. The pace is so slow in this one. You could drive a truck between the spaces between the lines in the Versace sketch. Way too much Jimmy too and his Pat O’Brien impression.
*NOW* I disagree with you! I thought Barrymore/Kelis was only a small step backward. There were mediocre sketches here and there, but nothing I outright hated. Forte’s Dubya is probably my second-favorite imitation of #43, but a distant second behind Ferrell’s. I didn’t hate the Wainio bit back then, but upon second glance it felt like “Street Smarts” without the game show aspect.
Ben is right; the Prince Show sketches have a paint-by-numbers quality that doesn’t hold up in repeat viewings. The thrown-together Prince tribute four years ago proved that. Did people forget that sketch was supposed to spoof his duet with Beyonce at the Grammys six days earlier?
With that said, I’m feeling uneasy about your next review. I remember hating Xtina/Maroon 5 when it first aired, but my opinion has only slightly softened up with time. I said it before, I’ll say it again: Year 29 peaked early.
I find the White Stripes sketch to be very amusing. This was the first time I had ever seen a Jack White impression, and Jimmy nailed it. Drew as Meg is funny too (although I would have liked Meg to whisper-talk a little bit more). And I like that this was essentially an extended blackout, so it didn’t wear out its welcome. The actually premise didn’t matter much to me – any random premise as an excuse for the impressions could have worked, but the detective angle was pretty fun.