Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CRONYISM
George W. Bush (WLF) & Supreme Court pick Harriet Miers (RAD) are cronies
— Looking back at this topical cold opening years later, this serves as a time capsule of a period where the related words “Harriet Miers” and “crony” were all over the news at the time. This reminds me that, in terms of Bush-related news, we’re not too far away from the time where the name Scooter Libby was all over the news for a while, which SNL gets some mentions of sometime around this season’s Lance Armstrong episode.
— An amusing way Will’s President Bush greets his crony, Rachel as Harriet Miers, by lifting her in his arms.
— I’m three minutes into this cold opening so far, and there’s not much going on. While I still remember the news story this is spoofing, and while all of the cast members are performing this well, this cold opening is washing over me. Nothing noteworthy is happening here.
— I have absolutely no memory of the news story about Alberto Gonzales that this sketch has suddenly turned into a spoof of, with Horatio showing up as Gonzales and Will’s Bush acting very guilty around him. I did get a laugh from the way Will’s Bush nervously greets him with a fake-friendly “Al-ber-tooooo”.
— The long silent responses from Horatio’s Gonzales throughout his scene feel kinda overdone.
STARS: **
OPENING MONTAGE
— Chris Parnell has been removed from the montage, as he will be absent from these next two episodes while he’s away filming episodes of Thick And Thin, a Paula Pell-involved new NBC sitcom that ends up never airing.
MONOLOGUE
host’s college friend (JAS) appears to have inspired Napoleon Dynamite
— Jason is great as Jon Heder’s old college roommate, Leopold Samsonite, who Napoleon Dynamite is clearly based on, but Jon keeps denying.
— A good laugh from Fred popping in as a knock-off of Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.
— Wow, Will is an absolute dead ringer for Kip Dynamite. Perfect casting here. His mere appearance gets a great response from the audience.
— Another early display of Jason’s knack for fun dancing.
STARS: ***½
TACO TOWN
the Pizza Crepe Taco Pancake Chili Bag is a many-layered treat
— Even when taking this episode off and being removed from the opening montage, Chris Parnell is technically still a part of tonight’s episode, as we hear his unmistakable voice as the announcer throughout this commercial.
— I absolutely love how the only performers appearing in this commercial are this season’s three featured players: Jason, Andy, and Bill. Such a great group of newbies, and it only gets even better when a certain fourth featured player is added to the cast a few episodes from now.
— This commercial comes to a brief halt by a huge technical error: for about four seconds, this commercial, including the audio, abruptly gets interrupted by an accidental cutaway to a silent exterior still shot of a funeral home (the fifth above screencap for this commercial) that’s supposed to be used for a sketch later tonight. You can hear very uncomfortable and confused light chuckles from the SNL audience during the awkward silence in the studio while this funeral home shot is onscreen. Ha, this technical gaffe oddly cracks me up every time I watch this. Back when this episode originally aired, I recall some online SNL fans saying they initially thought the accidental cutaway to a funeral home was an intentional part of this Taco Town commercial, as some kind of twist implying that eating this commercial’s unhealthy-looking taco would send a person straight to the grave.
— I’m loving the insane escalation to this, with the increasingly ridiculous food items being wrapped around the taco.
— Andy: “Pizza?!? Now THAT’S what I call a taco!”
— I absolutely love Jason’s ending maniacal shriek of “TAAAACOOOO TOOOOOWN!!!”
STARS: ****½
4TH GRADE SCIENCE FAIR
at school, Kaitlin & (host) give a science fair presentation on insects
— Only 11 minutes into tonight’s episode, and the somewhat-new Jason Sudeikis has ALREADY been very prominent.
— A good setting for Kaitlin, and it’s interesting to see her in a classroom for once.
— A pretty funny character trait with Jon always prefacing each sentence during his report by declaring what kind of a statement he’s making (e.g. “fact”, “personal anecdote”, etc.).
— Much like the topical Harriet Miers/crony cold opening, we get another time capsule of the year 2005, with the Dance Dance Revolution portion of this Kaitlin sketch, which really takes me back to how big that game seemed to be around this time.
— I love Kaitlin’s quivery-voiced nervousness when Jon’s character leaves her in front of the classroom by herself, and how Rick sweetly tries to get her out of it.
— Jason is great at the beginning and end of this sketch as the teacher. I especially love his delivery of his ending line “We gotta make this stuff more about science next year, guys”.
STARS: ***½
WEREWOLF
mustache growth is the extent of (host)’s transformation into a werewolf
— Pretty funny reveal of Jon’s alleged werewolf transformation turning out to be him merely growing a mustache.
— There’s Jason once again tonight.
— Yet another nice pairing tonight of the three featured players.
— Not much to say about this overall sketch, but it was decent for me.
STARS: ***
THE MISADVENTURES OF TOM DELAY AND BILL FRIST
Tom DeLay (WLF) & Bill Frist (JAS) drive away from their legal troubles
— Jason’s huge night continues. He’s EVERYWHERE in this episode.
— I love the idea of this sketch.
— I was about to ask why SNL took the Tom DeLay role away from Chris Parnell and gave it to Will, until I remembered that Chris is absent tonight. Amazing that I already forgot that. Chris’ absence also probably explains why Jason has been having such a huge presence tonight.
— I like the running bit throughout this sketch with Will’s DeLay exclaiming “Jackrabbit!” and shooting his gun off-camera.
— Ah, a surprise appearance from Darrell’s Bill Clinton.
— The “S-E-X” line from Darrell’s Clinton was a lame and telegraphed joke that I didn’t laugh at, and neither did most of the audience, the latter of which is surprising, as the audience usually eats up any sexual-related line from Darrell’s Clinton.
— When this sketch originally aired and I wasn’t yet very familiar with Jason, I remember noticing while watching this sketch that he facially looked like a cross between Jeff Richards and Kiefer Sutherland. I now no longer see the Jeff Richards resemblance, but I definitely still see the Sutherland resemblance.
— Overall, I found this sketch okay, but like the Werewolf sketch that preceded it, it didn’t fully live up to its potential and not much stood out.
STARS: ***
¡SHOW BIZ GRANDE EXPLOSION!
Fericito liked Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite
— This sketch makes its final appearance.
— Maybe it’s because of SNL’s new HD format this season, but the set for this sketch looks nicer to me this season.
— A good addition to this sketch with Bill as a new member of Fericito’s house band.
— Bill’s able to get laughs from me even in a silent role, with that eager open-mouthed smile he has on his face the whole time throughout this sketch.
— Overall, some laughs here and there, but overall, I can’t say I’m going to miss this recurring sketch. I never could get into it all that much aside from the one with Snoop Dogg, and that was only because of Snoop’s very fun performance.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Catch Me When I Fall”
WEEKEND UPDATE
self-styled Supreme Court candidate Tim Calhoun lists his qualifications
Everglades python story turns into HOS & AMP performing “Baby Got Back”
LOM sexually harassed AMP by questioning her need to wear a bra
— I got a laugh from Horatio’s sign-on at the beginning, in which he randomly says his first and last name in a very heavy Spanish accent.
— Amy’s “Lost” joke about President Bush was okay on paper, but her delivery of it was SO corny. Ugh.
— Horatio continues to do a surprisingly decent job as an Update anchor. At this point, do we NEED Tina back? You know how I feel about how she’s been at the Update desk the last three seasons before this. She returns in the very next episode, too. Damn. It’s going to be a bummer for me to go from Horatio’s surprisingly refreshing approach as a temporary Update anchor to Tina’s beyond-tired regular antics at the Update desk, which I do not need another season of. I say keep Horatio as an Update anchor for the remainder of this season and keep him out of sketches. That would’ve actually been a graceful way for him to end his 8 years on SNL.
— Hell yeah! Tim Calhoun! We surprisingly haven’t seen him in over a year. He was completely absent in the dire season 30.
— I love Calhoun listing off his various convictions.
— An absolutely priceless turn with Calhoun reading off an index card of his which states “Note from self: don’t mention food court”, then him panickedly whispering to himself when realizing he’s already mentioned a food court earlier in this commentary, then he inexplicably goes on to re-state the exact same food court mention from earlier. All funny stuff.
— Ugh, I absolutely HATED Amy’s cutesy “business babies” joke, as well as Amy’s VERY extended giggling over the “cute” picture.
— I thought the interplay between Horatio and Amy these past two Updates was an improvement over the interplay we typically get between Tina and Amy, but this “Baby Got Back” bit that Horatio and Amy are now doing seems exactly like the type of awful bit Tina and Amy would do on Update, though this one isn’t annoying me quite as much.
— Not caring for Amy’s performance in tonight’s Update in general, which is a bummer after the improvement she showed as an Update anchor in the preceding episode. Her delivery, timing, AND jokes are off tonight. Horatio’s been having the better delivery and jokes tonight, despite some iffy moments.
— The pre-taped sexual harassment scene, with Lorne coming up to Amy, randomly asking her if she’s wearing a bra, then, after she answers “Yeah”, asking her “What the hell for?”, gave me a huge laugh, just for Lorne’s great delivery and the way he walked off in an amused manner afterwards. Given the Me Too era in more recent years, I wouldn’t be surprised if this scene would bother some people nowadays, but Lorne’s very funny delivery of his one-liner makes it still work for me.
— Speaking of the pre-taped Lorne scene, the very end of it would be replaced with an alternate version in reruns, in which, from what my fuzzy memory of it recalls, after Lorne says his “What the hell for?” one-liner to Amy and then leaves, the scene ends with a big close-up of Amy looking comically distraught, whereas the live airing of the scene just ends with a wide shot of both Amy and Horatio sitting there, with Amy in shock over what Lorne had just said, while Horatio has a blank, un-phased look on his face.
STARS: **½
WILSON BROS. FUNERAL HOME
at a funeral home, friends successively go from mourners to corpses
— Ha, here’s the sketch that the accidental shot of a funeral home in tonight’s earlier Taco Town commercial came from.
— I know this is only his second episode as a featured player, but I feel bad that Bill’s stuck playing this sketch’s first dead body in a coffin, because, unlike the other cast members who we’ll be seeing in a coffin as this sketch progresses, we never got to see Bill’s character alive before he was shown dead in the coffin. They might as well have gotten an extra to play Bill’s role. Heh, Bill got “Gilbert Gottfried-ed” in this sketch, if you understand that reference to a very obscure funeral sketch from season 6.
— Guess what? Jason shows up in yet another prominent role tonight.
— A funny cutaway to a smile on a dead Will’s face after it’s revealed that he died of a stroke during sex.
— I love the way Finesse keeps saying “Don’t mind if I do!” in a very high-pitched, friendly voice whenever he’s offered a snack.
— For some reason, I like how you can hear the VERY loud off-camera sounds of cast members getting in and out of the coffins whenever Fred is shown outside of the funeral room. Also, are we supposed to always see Fred switching the names on the “In Memoriam” board whenever the camera cuts to him?
— A very funny blooper just now: when the camera first cuts to the funeral room during the Finesse/Rachel joint funeral, a supposed-to-be-dead Rachel can accidentally be seen still getting inside her coffin, then she quickly “plays dead” when realizing she’s on camera, but can’t help herself from uncontrollably laughing, so she turns away from the camera to hide her laughter, all of which humorously ruins the illusion that her character is dead. When Amy notices Rachel’s uncontrollable laughing, she starts cracking up as well. Admirably, Jason, who’s delivering a lot of dialogue during this blooper, doesn’t let the blooper phase him at all, showing what a true pro he is.
— A very funny cutaway to a dead Finesse in his coffin with his hands in a strangling position after it’s been revealed that before dying from poisoned food he ate, Finesse strangled Rachel to death for giving him that food in the first place.
— A great deadpan one-liner from Kenan, with him telling Amy “Don’t bring that death box around me” when she tries to hug him.
— I am loving the escalation of this bizarre sketch.
— Throughout this sketch, Jason is great in his explanations of the ways each character died.
— Ha, with the way SNL’s control room has to keep constantly cutting to the exterior shot of the funeral home all throughout this sketch, I think I’m starting to understand why that technical gaffe occurred during the Taco Town commercial earlier tonight.
— Excellent line about how Amy’s boss fired her because she was taking so many sick days to go to all these funerals lately.
— Funny twist with Fred holding Jason at gunpoint.
— Jon sure screwed up that “Now no one will call me Four-Eyes again” line during the big reveal in the climax of this sketch.
— I’ve been getting a bit of a Jack McBrayer vibe from the way Jon looks during some points of tonight’s episode.
— Overall, I loved this sketch. Even with some sloppiness (most of which actually amused me), this was a fun, very well-written, and elaborately-structured sketch that refreshingly felt out-of-the-ordinary for SNL, especially coming so soon after the creatively bankrupt season 30.
STARS: ****½
HUBBARD SYSTEMS RETREAT
(SEM) admonishes employees for pranks pulled after company retreat party
— Wow, this is Seth’s first (and only) appearance ALL NIGHT. I didn’t even realize until now that he had been missing from this episode. Now that I think of it, I can remember how him making his first and only appearance so late in tonight’s episode was a huge shock to online SNL fans (including me) back when this episode originally aired, especially after his increased airtime in the preceding season 30. Then we remembered that Seth is a writing supervisor this season, so we then figured Seth’s lack of airtime in tonight’s episode must’ve been because he was sacrificing his onscreen presence to work hard behind the scenes as a writing supervisor. (And given the noticeable upswing in the quality of SNL’s writing this season, I have absolutely no complaints about Seth focusing more of his time in the writers room. And Lorne certainly must’ve been impressed by Seth’s behind-the-scenes work as a writing supervisor, because Seth would later be promoted from writing supervisor to co-head writer halfway through this season.) Seth’s limited airtime in sketches goes on to be pretty much a regular thing this season, to the degree that there’s even one episode towards the end of this season (the Tom Hanks episode, I think) where Seth doesn’t appear AT ALL. Also, now that I realize Seth has been absent for most of tonight’s episode, that, along with the aforementioned fact that Chris is absent tonight, is a big explanation for why Jason has been absolutely DOMINATING tonight’s episode in lots of utility male roles.
— Ha, speaking of Jason dominating tonight, there he shows up ONCE AGAIN in another noteworthy role tonight. And by this point of tonight’s episode back when it originally aired in 2005, I remember being officially 100% sold on Jason, after not having any real opinion of him in his previous episodes as a cast member. His strong showing throughout tonight’s episode proved to me back in 2005 that he was absolutely the next “SNL everyman” that the show had desperately needed for several years.
— Jason is hilarious in his anger here.
— After Jason threateningly says “Wipe that grin off your face, Sanji!”, I love the camera cutting to a silent Fred with a grin on his face.
— Rachel’s delivery of her parting line, “I’ll haunt you all from my grave!”, was hilarious.
— I love Seth’s delivery when calling out Amy on the fact that her doing the finger/eye thing towards Jon gives away the fact that she was the one behind the prank done to Jon.
— Solid sketch overall.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Boyfriend”
VOICE RECORDING BLIND DATE
automated phone menu voicer Julie (RAD) goes on a blind date with (host)
— Good to see Rachel getting better roles tonight than she got in the season premiere. The airtime between her and Amy, as the only two working female cast members at this point of the season, feels a little more balanced to me tonight, unlike the preceding week’s season premiere, in which Amy was given a Bill-Murray-in-season-5-esque huge workload in carrying almost EVERY single main female role while the underappreciated Rachel was left with nothing but two forgettable small roles and a Debbie Downer sketch buried at the very end of the show.
— A good and spot-on performance from Rachel as an automated phone voice recording worker, and this is a decent setting for this concept. Rachel’s getting all the details of automated phone voice recordings down perfectly.
— A very solid ending, leaving this to be a short and sweet sketch.
STARS: ***½
1-800-555-PHUNK
The Black Eyed Peas (AMP), (FIM), (KET), (host) are willing to sell out
— I like Bill’s scruffy, casual look as the spokesman.
— Funny spoof of a real Best Buy commercial that The Black Eyed Peas starred in at this time. Something even funnier about that is, back when this episode originally aired, the very first commercial to air after this Black Eyed Peas spoof ended was the real Black Eyed Peas/Best Buy commercial.
— The casting of Amy as Fergie is surprisingly the first time all night that I’ve noticed Maya’s been absent from this episode (it didn’t even cross my mind when I subconsciously mentioned earlier in this review that Amy and Rachel are the only two working female cast members at this point of the season), as Maya has begun her maternity leave this week, and if she had been available and wasn’t pregnant, she WITHOUT A DOUBT would’ve played Fergie in this commercial. So weird to think that there are THREE cast members missing from the show this week (Maya, Tina, and Chris). Also so weird to think this episode has literally only two women performing in sketches (Amy and Rachel). The very large size of this season’s cast makes it easy to not notice the absence of so many cast members, as well as the onscreen near-absence of Seth. In a much smaller cast, just imagine how empty the cast would feel if three (three-and-a-half if you count Seth’s near absence) cast members were simultaneously absent in a single episode.
— The Bar Mitzvah scene is hilarious.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode. The post-Weekend Update half was particularly strong and absolutely flawless, in my eyes. So far, I am absolutely loving the feel of this new season. It cannot be said enough how much this season has done a much-needed turnaround from the terrible season that preceded it. In fact, after having to cover THREE consecutive weak seasons (seasons 28-30), it feels so refreshing to be positive about SNL in my reviews again.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Carell)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Yikes – we lose Charles Rocket by the next show.
Damn, Jon Heder. There’s a name I haven’t heard or thought about in a good ten years.
Other than Taco Town, Amy and Horatio’s second and last “Weekend Update” performance, and Ashlee Simpson’s opening remarks before her first performance, I really don’t remember this ep much…
The wool sweater sketch also gets cut from this episode, I’m sure Steve Carell and Jon Heder did a good job at it but I don’t think either would’ve provided the great live tv moment that Dane Cook did.
Taco Town was also cut from last week’s season premiere, Bill and Andy have both talked about it being the first thing they got to do as castmembers.
Show promo’s –
Thursday promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5HZjHWEZOo
Dress rehearsal promo
Just reading this recap, it’s amazing how much better the energy and the talent involved is in this show, as compared to last season. It’s like night and day.
Taco Town reminds me of an Almost Live! sketch from 1996, but there’s enough of a difference (not to mention the relative obscurity of the original sketch) to make it more a case of parallel thinking than plagiarism: https://youtu.be/ZnFHjyq2cvY
I remember this show really seemed refreshing, thanks to the new performers and the show making do without three performers. I particularly liked Horatio’s “laughter is the best medicine, unless you have cancer” joke.
Ashlee Simpson’s first song sounded like a “Who Will Save Your Soul” knockoff, and the riff in second one sounded like someone misremembering the riff from Beck’s “E-Pro”
Incidentally, Bill Maher’s “Real Time” (back when it had opening sketches…and was kinda funny) did a similar sketch about a year before this aired…
Strange how that early Bill Maher piece and that Almost Live sketch have such similar low quality production values that they look like they were both done for the same show at the same time. It’s truly hard for me to believe those were filmed ~15-17 years apart from each other.
Anyway, back to this episode IIRC one of the most recent times Amy was on Seth’s show (hell, it can’t have been that recent now that I remember it took place in his actual studio rather than from home/remote) they talked about the Black Eyed Peas sketch and how everyone was hungover filming it and Kenan had to get through it by talking to himself in third person as “drunk Kenan” from the night before.
Well, I managed to find that interview just now and she talks about this at 4:12 here.
https://youtu.be/GJXiy5Hztcw
Nothing screams “2005” like Jon Heder, Harriet Miers, Dance Dance Revolution and Ashlee Simpson.
Didn’t comment on this yesterday because I generally just lurk around here, but I’m so happy that we’ve finally gotten to Season 31, the dawn of the modern era of the show in my eyes. Indeed, that’s where I started my watchthrough of the show, so I have a special fondness for this season (and the next) despite watching them long after they aired.
More specific to the Jon Heder episode, though, there’s that little moment at the beginning of Taco Town where the guys mime milking a cow’s udder for pretty much no discernable reason, and while I missed it on my early watchthroughs, that little detail stands out to me in retrospect. It’s so esoteric, and different, and exciting; it’s pure Andy dumbness with Bill and Jason thrown in there for good measure. More than anything else, to me, that’s a watershed moment for this particular cast, who’d proceed to take over the show by next season and shape it profoundly over the next several years, for good and sometimes for bad (well… Kristen at least).
Outside of the times where they had to replace almost the whole cast (S12, S21, S7) I think Jason/Bill/Kristen/Andy is the best batch of hires the show has done. I love that this season focuses so much on them; it’s a huge factor in why S31 is a big turnaround from S30.
Turning the keys over to the new hires is what I WISH modern day SNL would do, but they’re insistent on keeping their old cast members for some reason.
Plus, the bloated size from season to season right now doesn’t help. I think part of it is those old cast members not wanting to move on, or being encouraged to move on. Plus, it seems that when a certain cast member leaves, he or she does not get replaced by someone solid.
“Turning the keys over to the new hires is what I WISH modern day SNL would do, but they’re insistent on keeping their old cast members for some reason.”
I feel like rather than being different to today, this period is a runup for what we now see. I think outside circumstances make this era seem more willing to let go of the cast than it would have been otherwise. Horatio, Finesse and Parnell were fired because NBC insisted on budget cuts, while Darrell was still hanging on, even though he no longer had any value to the show. Meanwhile, Maya would go on to have the same up in the air status that Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant now have, as she was reported to not be coming back for S33 then reappeared anyway until the strike. And the previous few seasons had struggled with new cast members being properly transitioned into the ensemble, with Finesse and Rob Riggle both suffering the consequences, while Kenan was probably lucky to hold on.
It’s something that I do wonder about when I watch these episodes – were Kristen, Bill, Andy and Jason so good that they would have broken through no matter what, or was it so much else happening around the same time (Tina and Maya maternity leaves, Tina leaving for 30 Rock, Parnell missing episodes, Seth phasing himself out of sketches) along with the general poor shape of the male cast and the big hole left open just waiting for something like the Digital Shorts? In this episode alone, Parnell being absent leaves a huge opportunity for Jason, and, sad to say, he ends up pretty much putting Parnell (who is one of my favorites but so was badly squandered in his second stint it’s almost pitiful at times) out to pasture without breaking a sweat.
Most of those opportunities and twists of fate haven’t been there as much in recent seasons – most of the people who stay in the cast year after year still feature pretty heavily instead of having one foot out the door, and the male and female sides of the cast, while not in the best shape (especially the male side), aren’t in dire enough straits to do a big shakeup. Unlike some of the longest-serving people in this cast, the current cast has people who are still seen as important by a lot of viewers (even though some of us would rather they go), instead of being seen as past their prime. And the pre-tapes have now become a well-honed machine, leaving no real opportunity for another Andy Samberg and Lonely Island to revolutionize the product.
The whole thing has become set in its ways enough that a pandemic and possibly budget cuts caused by a pandemic are what it’s taken to get more of an experimental and ensemble feel (with the “at home” episodes) and a potential changing of the guard. Never a way anyone would have wanted, but I guess at least the door is open now…
Yes, thank you Ruby. That is a HUGE problem with modern-era SNL. They are so incredibly reluctant to showcase new cast members and hand over the reigns. New cast members seemingly have to toil in obscurity for years before they take center stage. There are so many veterans on modern show (Kate, Aidy, Cecily, Kenan) that are past freshness date and simply need to move on…probably time for Beck, Kyle, and Pete to move on as well.
Is it safe to say that Good Neighbor never got to be the next Lonely Island? I got a lot of their material the same way I got ones from LI.
Beck and Kyle are usually pretty good, but Pete should have been fired 5 years ago.
I think it’s a mix of the Pandemic screwing everything up, NBC and LM not wanting to lose YouTube views, and just waiting for that 50th season, which seems to be heading in the direction of 20 & 30 in my opinion.
This is a solid episode. It’s not my favorite, but it has a lot of interesting sketch premises and Heder is a good go with the flow host. I agree with you that Horatio should’ve been the Update anchor for the rest of the season.
This is the last time we’ll be seeing Fericito until the Rosario Dawson episode in Season 34. Boy, am I NOT looking forward to that episode, because of a certain Kristen Wiig character who makes their debut in it.
The Rosario episode was horrible. The only good thing from that show was the musical guest (Fleet Foxes).
Taco Town is a classic! Bill, Andy, and Jason sold that commercial. I don’t think anyone else would have pulled it off.
The sad part about Ashlee is that her second album, and the two singles she performed in this episode, have been more forgettable, even though they were hits. More people remember, and want to talk about, her incident from S30.
By the way, that second album, even though it topped the charts, didn’t sell as much as her first album. Her third album ended up doing worse, with its first single not making a blimp on the radar. I wonder how her music could have turned out had it not been for last season?
(By the way, how is it that Ashlee got to come back for a second time, but not the Scissor Sisters?)
It made sense for the show to have Ashlee back in that they knew some might tune in to see if she’d mess up again, and if not, it was a more positive end to how the story originally played out (her becoming a national joke and the show gleefully partaking in the kicking).
All these years later, I still remember that Taco Town blooper. I thought the blooper at the time was spoiling the ending of the commercial (i.e., revealing that, as you said, all of the guys would die from eating such unhealthy food).
I remember not being enthused about this episode, but a lot of the sketches are fun, conceptual things and even the recurring sketches aren’t super annoying. It’s not a blow-you-away episode, but after last season, having a solidly decent episode is extremely refreshing.
Should Seth get more credit for SNL’s turnaround from 30 to 31? I know you’ve mentioned how you and presumably others regarded Seth’s failed MVP push in S30 soured you on him, but as you watched S30 again, he was actually pretty solid and hardly the main problem of the season. I just don’t hear a lot of chatter about how his focus on writing helped propel the show up from the depths of S30 (then again, a lot of people don’t think of S30 as that horrible).
The trio of Jason, Bill, and Andy (and Kristen later this year) is one of the most impressive groups of new people the show has ever had. With the slight exception of Andy, all of them really hit the ground running too (I’m trying to think in recent years who else has done this–McKinnon…Strong…Day).
I definitely think Seth Meyers deserves more credit as a writer. Even though he later allowed copy paste recurring sketches and Fred and Kristen to become unbearable at times, he really steered the ship around and made sure the show never reached Season 30 level ever again. Of course having one of the best ensembles in the shows history and the emergence of the Digital Shorts certainly helps. Seth has also written some of my favourite sketches of the past 15 years. Lincoln, Darrell’s House and the Sarah Palin sketches are classics!
Seth deserves credit but as you mentioned the unbearable nature of the Fred and Kristen pieces about 4/5 years into his tenure as head writer can’t be ignored. It really hurt the show imo
Especially around 09/10
Seth seems to be the most beloved headwriter SNL has ever had. He seemed to try to find material for everyone and get along with everyone and keep a steady ship. It makes for a serviceable show, but also a show that wastes one of the best casts they’ve ever had, and relies too much on the same limited set pieces. I wish we could see what the Seth Meyers of 2020 might do if he were headwriter.
I remember people complaining on the old Saturday-Night-Live forum on how Seth was as head writer and solo Update anchor from S34 until when he left. There were those who couldn’t stand him, and it seemed like they wanted him (and others, especially Fred) gone from the show. What didn’t help quell their feelings and thoughts were a lot of the sketches centered on Fred and/or Kristen, the botched handling of some of the cast departures, weaker replacements, the screaming audience members, recycled jokes, and the writing. I still remember the constant “this is going to be like Season 20” predictions and those “Anderlette” references. (Yes, they even wanted them gone too)
More so than Carell/Yeezy, this is the show that really allows SNL to distance itself (though not completely) from Year 30. I disagree only with how the “Wilson Brothers Funeral Home” ended; that to me was three-quarters of a great sketch. Suds was all over this show, and he’s going to keep blossoming as the season goes on. Horatio was subdued, for once!
Ahh this is the show with the cancer joke that I still quote to this day.
Somebody posted on the old board that in dress the songs were in reverse order.
SNLLover is correct, nobody remembers the songs she performed in this show. I forget about them until they play on some 2000s pop radio station.
Thanks for the shout-out CR86!
Liz Cackowski wrote 1-800-555-PHUNK.
The funeral home sketch’s general absurdity and use of bears for humor (albeit only in dialogue in this case) makes me wonder if it was a T. Sean Shannon piece.
At first I thought Rachel cracked up because of Heder’s bad flub (he says “Paul poor” instead of “Poor Paul”). Flubs and Heder’s shakiness aside, I do enjoy the funeral home sketch – it feels like something SNL would have done in the late ’80s.
Between the overlong Kaitlin reprisal and Update, we got a heavy helping of the ain’t-I-cute show starring Amy Poehler. I think I realized one of the reasons I don’t care for the Kaitlin sketches (even though they have their charms) – they just have a certain air of “This is going to be a classic!” built into them, similar to what put me off about many of Fallon’s recurring characters. I prefer recurring pieces that feel more organic, if that is possible…something like Nick the Lounge Singer still feels rough every time.
Horatio’s second and last Update was better than I’d remembered from my first watch – the jokes are so bad but he makes them work. And he’s a good contrast to Amy.
So great to see Tim Calhoun again. One of his best appearances.
Rachel’s performance in that operator date sketch is one of her most underrated. It also feels like a precursor to something Vanessa Bayer would have excelled in.
The Black Eyed Peas pre-tape is lots of fun, but stands out most because it’s such a different use for Bill than most of what we’d be getting. (and Bill looks hot as hell in it…). Taco Town is SO MUCH FUN – I could watch it over and over, especially Jason’s keening at the end. And one of the last reminders of Parnell being the best voiceover guy the show has ever had. I like that they paired the three new guys several times in this episode, and it seemed natural, unlike some of the cringeworthy attempts earlier in the decade like the commercial where Seth and Jeff Richards shove their asses into the camera.
Other than Fred’s usual smugging as Fericito (soon to be replaced by the far superior Vinnie Vedecci…), the political material is the only real slog in the episode. At least they had a cast at this point who could carry it off, but we are getting, especially in that aimless DeLay and Frist sketch, a glimpse at the assembly line writing that would mostly waste the great cast of the late ’00s (and the tacked-on Hammond Clinton is sad, although at least they didn’t have that damn thumbs up).
Heder looks a lot like Alex Moffat in the werewolf sketch. (a fun idea I wish they’d had a better plan for)
(speaking of Heder, how funny is it that they had a host named Heder AND a cast member named Hader at the exact same time…how could they not do a gag on that???)
Like the premiere, I wasn’t able to catch the show live. I loved Taco Town, call me crazy, was YouTube around in 2005? I seem to recall watching Taco Town for the first time on YouTube…maybe it was just on NBC website.
Anyway, yes, this takes me back to the time Jon Heder and Napoleon Dynamite was all the rage…?
Youtube really kicked off around the time of Lazy Sunday, so Taco Town could have been put up by someone around that point.
YouTube launched April 23, 2005, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw
PLEASE HELP.
I have search all i could. HOW AM I ABLE TO SEE THIS FULL SEASON. Due to licensing issues, i cant find all of these sketches. I thought Peacock would show more Hulu did, but nope.
If I buy the DVD can i get full though???? Is there a Dvd that exists? Is there a link on a black site that will give multiple viruses? As long as I’m able to see ALL these sketches, take my credit card number. STOOGE HELP
Some people use this site, but I think they’re pulled from Comedy Central reruns, so they still might not have everything. Much more than Peacock and Hulu though; I still can’t figure out how they determine which sketches to cut, most of it has to do with music rights, but not always. https://archive.org/details/saturdaynightlive
Seems like Stooge has video recordings of original airings.
Here’s a link that can help you find the full, uncut episodes:
https://archive.org/details/@snlfan?&sort=titleSorter&page=7
This season, SNL aired its spiritual successor to Taco Town in the form of the utterly insane Wing Pit.
I remember the promos for the episode featuring Heder asking Simpson “You’ve been on this show before, what was that like?” and her looking uncomfortable.
Got to address that elephant in the room, I guess.