Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
FRIENDS
George W. Bush (WLF) & Donald Rumsfeld (DAH) reunite a la Friends finale
— A great sudden turn with Maya’s Condoleezza Rice delivering an uncharacteristic Phoebe-from-Friends-esque “My taxi’s outside, I’ll drive you to the airport!”, which is followed by scene transition music from Friends, making you realize that this cold opening is turning into a parody of the big Friends series finale that had aired earlier that week.
— I love Will-as-Bush’s panicked, dramatic yell of “Let ‘im off the plane!” when listening to the answer machine message.
— This cold opening does the near-impossible and manages to make a man-on-man kiss from this SNL era actually come off damn funny. Part of what makes this particular man-on-man kiss work is the fact that it’s a Friends finale spoof, and another part of what makes it work is Will’s extreme commitment during the kiss, to the degree that he causes Darrell to eventually break.
— This is only Will’s third time playing Bush, and he continues to do a good job making the impression his own, and strong sketches like this help solidify to viewers that Will’s not going to be yet another another one-season-and-done Bush impersonator like Chris and Darrell before him.
— Will’s Bush plants another lustful kiss on Darrell-as-Donald-Rumsfeld’s cheek during Rumsfeld’s “Live from New York…”, which must be an ad-lib, as Darrell IMMEDIATELY loses it and breaks, as if he wasn’t expecting it. A great way to cap off this very strong and memorable cold opening.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
host cautions white America to cool it with the “izzle” talk
— Wow. Right out of the gate in this monologue, SNL breaks format by giving Snoop Dogg a very unconventional, outlandish entrance. Right as Don Pardo is about to announce Snoop, the theme music suddenly stops and is replaced with a musical tribal chant of “Snoop Doggy Dogg”, harem girls are seen dancing around the home base stage, child servants assist Snoop onstage after Pardo announces him, and Snoop is then joined by all of the female cast members. Oh, and everybody that I mentioned is all dressed in ancient native outfits. I love this whole monologue entrance gimmick. SNL rarely does anything out of the ordinary with their own format like this by this point of the show’s run.
— Some funny lines from Snoop addressing the annoying trend of white people speaking in “izzle” talk.
— Snoop’s line about how white people used to love pig-latin is very funny.
— An overall short and sweet monologue, and Snoop handled it really well.
STARS: ***½
MOM JEANS
A second rerun this season of a popular Mother’s Day commercial that originally aired the preceding season
¡SHOW BIZ GRANDE EXPLOSION!
Fericito doesn’t understand host’s humor
— Horatio’s character laughing in an insanely wild, hammy manner in response to a joke from Fericito actually cracked me up, even though I usually can’t stand that type of hamminess from Horatio by this point of his SNL tenure.
— (*sigh*) By this point of Fred’s SNL tenure, I’ve seen enough “Ay dios mio!”s from Fericito to last me a lifetime. That catchphrase and accompanying camera zoom-in has gotten to the official point where it’s slowly starting to get on my last nerve.
— A decent pre-taped “Fericito-Walking” segment with Fericito and SNL writer Emily Spivey. I don’t mind Fericito when he actually does something different for a change, such as this.
— Snoop’s “CDeez nuts” was a cheap joke, but his delivery of it had me freakin’ HOWLING.
— I love Horatio’s character’s amusement over Snoop’s crude jokes to Fericito.
— Snoop is a really fun guest in this sketch, and is giving this a boost.
STARS: ***
RAP BATTLE
wheelchair-bound (host) solicits sympathy to win rap-off competition
host performs “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang”
— Always a treat to see a J.B. Smoove sighting during these years, but it feels weird and kind of a waste seeing him play a silent, non-comedic role here, given how damn funny he usually is.
— A laugh from Snoop’s character unexpectedly entering in a wheelchair.
— Oh. My. God. Seth, of all people, entering the sketch as a “cool” rapper?!? Ha, this I gotta see. Why don’t I remember this portion of this sketch from my past viewings of it?
— Is Seth wearing the exact same outfit previously worn by “Ass Face” in the TRL sketch from season 27’s Jon Stewart episode? (side-by-side comparison below)
Seth must really like wearing that costume, as he’s later seen wearing it again during tonight’s goodnights.
— Snoop’s depressing raps about being in a wheelchair are freakin’ hilarious. I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2004 pointing out how this sketch had kind of a Michael O’Donoghue-esque dark feel, which made me love this sketch even more.
— Kenan’s extreme mugging and goofy grinning towards the audience during his appearance in this sketch reminds me of a HUGE gripe some online SNL fans had with Kenan during these early seasons of his. Those SNL fans complained to no end about Kenan’s penchant for hammy mugging and goofy big grins towards the audience in many sketches he appeared in. This is before the days when Kenan learned to tone down those aspects of himself as he grew as a performer.
— A big laugh from the great little part with Maya having to place a deaf Kenan’s hand onto the speaker so he can feel the beat.
— Hmm, a fourth wall break ending, with Snoop suddenly dropping character, getting out of the wheelchair, and breaking into a performance of his hit “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang”. Nice performance from Snoop, but ehh… I was really enjoying the hell out of where this sketch was going before this point, and this sudden turn is taking away from that. Not the way I personally would’ve ended this sketch.
STARS: ****
SCHEINWALD STUDIOS
Abe Scheinwald finds a kindred spirit in Booty Hotel pitcher (host)
— The name of Snoop’s character being MC Night Terrors is pretty funny.
— Rachel’s characterization of Abe Scheinwald is always worth some laughs.
— MC Night Terrors to Abe Scheinwald: “I like you, old dude. You like that old Muppet that be hangin’ up in the balcony criticizin’ folks.”
— During a humorously awkward pause that Rachel makes, Seth seems to try inducing a Debbie Downer-esque character break from Rachel by asking her an ad-libbed “You alright?” Rachel wisely seems to be fully aware of Seth’s attempt to get her to laugh, and she is having NONE of it, as she immediately snaps back to him, in character, “Yeah, I’m fine!”, and then goes on with the sketch. I’m glad Rachel understands how, as much of a blast as it was when she and her fellow performers had such a huge laughing meltdown during the preceding week’s Debbie Downer sketch, that type of huge laughing meltdown absolutely CANNOT become a regular thing on the show. A nice display of professionalism from Rachel here.
— This sketch is pretty much just treading the same territory of the preceding installment of this sketch, but it’s still working decently enough.
STARS: ***
ABC
ABC’s schedule is full of shows related to irresponsible plastic surgery
— Meh, the Angel Surgeons portion of this commercial fell completely flat. Where were the laughs there even supposed to be coming from?
— The Trading Noses portion of this commercial is hilarious.
— Snoop’s very menacing delivery into the camera of the line “I’m gonna cut you up, bitch!” during an extreme close-up of him holding up a knife made me laugh out loud, made even funnier by the fact that he’s dressed as a freakin’ ninja.
— Ha, funny how I mentioned earlier in this review how the clothes worn by “Ass Face” in the Jon Stewart episode was reused tonight by Seth, because in the “I Want A Butt For A Face” portion of this commercial, we get what appears to be a reuse of the Ass Face head prop. (side-by-side comparison below)
— Funny cutaway to a smiling, sleazy-looking Horatio being a fan of face-on-butt sex.
— This was kinda hit-and-miss overall, but there were definitely more hits than misses.
STARS: ***
FRIENDS
party atmosphere can’t overcome host’s despondence about end of Friends
— J.B. Smoove in a SECOND sketch tonight, and again, he’s just playing a silent, non-comedic role. I can’t stress enough what a waste this is of someone as naturally funny as him.
— Funny reveal of Snoop uncharacteristically being depressed over the fact that Friends has gone off the air.
— A very solid mock-dramatic performance from Snoop, and him emotionally going on and on about what a Friends fanatic he is is cracking me up. He is selling the hell out of this.
— When Finesse says his favorite so-called Friends moment was when “the blonde girl” got hit in the nose with a football, I love Snoop angrily responding “You damn fool! That was The Brady Bunch!”
— A hilarious photo of Snoop sporting “The Rachel” hairdo.
— A funny ending pre-taped sequence with Snoop, Kenan, and Finesse recreating the opening credits of Friends by dancing in a water fountain while the Friends theme song plays.
— At the very end of the water fountain scene, I love the ending close-up of Snoop just looking into the camera with a cool, kinda “deep” facial expression. (screencap below)
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Tell Me”
WEEKEND UPDATE
for Iraq prisoner abuse, Lynndie England (RAD) is the Dirtbag Of The Week
Bill Clinton (DAH) expects to be blamed for Iraq prisoner abuse scandal
clips show that JIF has done holiday-related song parodies for decades
— Yikes, Tina’s two opening jokes just made me groan. Lately, she seems to use her worst and most desperate joke(s) to start off each Update, a baffling decision.
— The “Dirtbag Of The Week” segment with Rachel as Lynndie England was kinda meh for me. I only liked it for Rachel’s performance.
— (*groan*) A THIRD Bill Clinton Update commentary in just the past three months of this season? I love Darrell’s Clinton impression, but they are REALLY over-relying on it lately, especially given how long after his presidency this season is.
— Ugh, why do these Clinton Update commentaries always have to begin by wasting so much time with him flirting with Tina and being all buddy-buddy with Jimmy? It’s not working for me anymore.
— Tonight’s overall Clinton commentary had a few mild laughs, but yeah, still not enough to justify bringing him back after such an insanely short amount of time since his last two Update commentaries. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d get burned out on Darrell’s popular Clinton impression, but here we are.
— We’re getting a deviation from Jimmy’s usual Update guitar song medleys.
— Oh, I absolutely LOVE this montage of Jimmy’s Update guitar song medleys from over the years, especially when it gets to the point where, the earlier and earlier they go in SNL’s timeline, the clips clearly start becoming fake. Such a great meta SNL piece. There are so many things about this montage that I love, including the detail of recreating the Update sets of the various Update eras we’re shown “clips” of (even if some of the set recreations aren’t accurate). I remember how Jimmy’s “Thanks, Charles Rocket” line in the 1980 Update “clip” was a big favorite among online SNL nerds like me when tonight’s episode originally aired.
— Speaking of online SNL fans when tonight’s episode originally aired, this montage of Jimmy’s Update guitar song medleys was taken as a big sign among online SNL fans that Jimmy may be leaving in the following week’s season finale. Also, tonight’s Update surprisingly ends up being Jimmy’s ONLY appearance all night, which, in a strange way, kinda feels significant for what ends up being his second-to-last episode. (And we’re going to be seeing A LOT of him in his final episode.) A huge rarity for him to make his only appearance on Update (all the while Tina made three appearances tonight, funnily enough; hell, FOUR, if you count the Mom Jeans rerun), but I guess you can say this extensive montage of his Update guitar song medleys is making up for his lack of airtime elsewhere in tonight’s episode.
— I love Jimmy’s parody of Usher’s “Yeah” performance from the preceding episode, right down to the detail of Jimmy even wearing the same outfit Usher wore during that performance. Some fun dancing from Tina here as well.
STARS: ***½
APPALACHIAN EMERGENCY ROOM
country folk exhibit more weird afflictions
— I continue to feel like I’m in the minority in liking these sketches.
— As always, Amy kills in these sketches.
— Funny visual of Kenan trapped inside that claw machine.
— Blah, they always stick Will with the least funniest parts of these Appalachian Emergency Room sketches.
— Snoop: “I don’t have no pool! Who do you think I am – Donald Trump?!?”
— Snoop ends his scene by telling Seth “By the way, I ain’t peein’ in no cup.” In the rerun version of this episode, Snoop’s scene (if not the entire sketch) would be replaced with the dress rehearsal version, which ends in a completely different manner, with Snoop’s character bringing a very long line of family members to accompany him to his assigned room. (A rerun of tonight’s episode was never aired on NBC, by the way, much like this season’s Colin Firth episode. I believe the reason for the lack of reruns for either episode is because over the summer of 2004, NBC aired quite a lot of new “Best Of” specials for cast members and hosts, which I guess didn’t leave any room for a rerun of tonight’s or the Firth episode. It’s similar to how the barrage of “Best Of”s aired during the summer of 1998 prevented a large number of season 23 episodes from ever getting an NBC rerun.)
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“Pothead Theater” by RBS- stoner-requested cartoons turn tables on humans
— An unusual TV Funhouse, and also a rare case of TV Funhouse heavily featuring live-action scenes.
— Hmm. Not sure this is working for me so far.
— I did get a laugh just now from the animation of ketchup shaking people out of a bottle. However, do we need EVERY animation scene to be followed by a moronic laughing shot of the individual pothead who requested the respective animation scene? Those laughing shots are far more annoying than funny to me.
— Meh, after an upswing with the aforementioned ketchup scene, this TV Funhouse has gone back to not making me laugh.
— Okay, I absolutely loved the bit just now with an animation of a TV watching a person, which ends up looking no different from what an animation of a person watching a TV would look like. I also like the subsequent cutaway to the two potheads who requested that animation just staring into the camera in unamused, stone-faced (no pun intended) manner instead of laughing moronically like the other potheads in this TV Funhouse.
— Overall, this TV Funhouse was mostly a miss for me, but the great ending scene gave this a big boost.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Happy Ending”
DUSTER’S DIGEST
Duster’s Digest magazine has its focus on the lifestyle of PCP users
— Odd how this is the second consecutive comedy segment tonight that’s drug-related, though I guess its fitting, given tonight’s host.
— Very funny entrance from Amy.
— I love Will’s delivery during his testimony. Even just the way he says “Duster’s Digest” is strangely amusing.
— A good laugh from Seth cluelessly making his phone call onto a burning iron pressed against his face, and not even being fazed by it.
STARS: ***
MOTHER’S DAY MESSAGE FROM SNOOP DOGG
in his Mother’s Day Message, host thanks his mom for birthing him
— An interesting little change of pace for this SNL era. Almost has the feel of a typical Steve Martin piece from the late 80s SNL era (e.g. A Holiday Wish and To My Love), right down to the little detail of Snoop holding a rose the entire time.
— An overall simple but pretty good bit, and had some heart.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, with nothing I disliked besides the TV Funhouse (and even THAT at least tried something new, plus it had a strong ending). This didn’t feel like a typical season 29 episode to me. (Then again, with this being the third consecutive good episode, I’m seriously wondering if this disappointing season has been experiencing a turnaround as the end of the season approaches.) Snoop Dogg was the fun, laid-back host you’d expect him to be, right from his unique monologue entrance, and I found that he worked particularly well in the odder bits that deviated from his image, like the wheelchair sketch and the Friends sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lindsay Lohan)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 29 comes to an end, with hosts Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the second about-to-turn-18-years-old hosts in just the last three episodes, and also the very first set of twins to ever co-host SNL. It’s also the farewell of Jimmy Fallon.