Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
TROOPS Q&A
George W. Bush (WLF) Q&A with Iraq troops has obviously been staged
— Some pretty good laughs from Jason’s character blankly reading EVERYTHING off of the teleprompter/cue cards during his “spontaneous” answer, including directions that he’s supposed to perform and not read off. This then gets made even funnier by Rachel mouthing Jason’s “spontaneous” answer.
— Funny response from Rachel to Will-as-President-Bush’s questions about the Iraqi “electricians”.
— I love the gag with Finesse going off-script and launching into a heated anti-Bush rant, only to get panickedly cut off by a static screen, which is then followed by the screen cutting back to Finesse, who has now been hastily replaced by another black soldier (Kenan) who is so obviously not him, but is pretending to be him and is obediently following orders.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
unafraid of SNL, host dances & sings “They Can’t Take My Oscar Away”
— Funny little gaffe where, when Catherine Zeta-Jones attempts to toss away her breakaway dress after ripping it off her body, it accidentally flies right back into her face due to being stuck on her hand, which she handles really well by making a funny silly face towards the camera while successfully tossing away the dress during her second attempt.
— Not much of a comedic conceit to this song, and I usually dislike song-and-dance monologues, but Catherine is performing this so well that’s it’s actually endearing me to the whole thing. She’s making this entertaining.
STARS: ***
THE BUTT CANCER TREATMENT CENTER
Butt Cancer Treatment Center patient (JAS) uses juvenile ass euphemisms
— I got some laughs early on from Jason and Amy repeatedly saying “butt cancer” in such a serious actors-in-a-medical-commercial manner, but this whole thing is just an excuse to say a whole bunch of butt euphemisms with a professional delivery. Nothing great to me.
STARS: **
NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN
in Afghanistan, CNN reporter’s (host) inability to groom takes its toll
— Darrell’s playing lots of CNN/Fox News anchors tonight, even for his standards.
— The name of Catherine’s fictional reporter character, Suzanne Carbonal, seems to have been inspired by the last name of a fictional reporter character that Ana Gasteyer occasionally played, Diane Carbonal. I think Cecily Strong would also later play a fictional reporter with that last name in a sketch from her first season, though I can’t quite remember the sketch (it might be the pope sketch from season 38’s Kevin Hart episode).
— Some mild laughs from how haggard and hairy Catherine is increasingly getting with each passing time jump.
— Meh, this is starting get kinda old, and they’re not making enough comical exaggerations with Catherine’s increasingly unkempt appearance. They should’ve had more fun and gone REALLY out in the escalation of Catherine’s bad looks, but maybe that type of make-up requirement would’ve been too difficult to pull off in a live sketch.
STARS: **½
DANCER PARTY
(SEM) endures jazzed-up party with (host) & other Bob Fosse-esque dancers
— Looks like this could be a fun sketch.
— Amusing to see Andy with his real hair all done up like that.
— Lots of fun performances from the cast here.
— A funny running bit with Andy’s only line throughout this sketch being a dramatically delivered “jaaaaazzzzzzzzz”.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Do You Want To”
WEEKEND UPDATE
failed high school football coach’s (JAS) optimism is unwarranted
sex expert DOP hits on AMP & makes TIF jealous
blind prop comic Pep Walters (FRA) fumbles through his routine
a photo of CHR at the Weekend Update desk marks his passing
— Tina Fey makes her first appearance of the season, as she has returned from her maternity leave. You already know my feelings on this if you’re familiar with my negative reviews of Tina’s Update performance from the last three seasons before this and have read my positive reviews of Horatio’s Update performance when filling in for Tina the last two episodes.
— Tina wearing her old purple Update suit from previous seasons doesn’t match Amy’s new gray Update suit from this season.
— Wow, they’re going right into the jokes tonight, without even doing a bit welcoming Tina back? I thought I remembered this Update opening with one.
— Oh, now we get the bit with Tina being welcomed back, after Amy’s first joke.
— During the welcoming-back for Tina, Tina mentions that Maya had her baby the previous week, and we’re then shown a comical photo of a future SNL cast that consists almost entirely of babies. They were off in their prediction of Kenan not being in that future cast.
— Maybe it’s because it’s her first episode back from maternity leave, but something about Tina’s delivery sounds slightly different tonight. And, maybe it’s because I’ve had a much-needed break from her the last two episodes before tonight, but I’m surprisingly NOT finding myself having such a negative reaction to Tina’s delivery and jokes tonight, which is surprising given how sick I had gradually become of her the last three seasons before this.
— Good to see Jason doing an Update commentary for his very first time.
— Meh, despite some mild laughs and a solid performance from Jason, his commentary itself didn’t turn out all that funny.
— Tina and Amy’s Sports Minute For Ladies bit was…well, to-the-point, at least.
— I’m surprisingly not finding myself hating Tina and Amy’s jokes tonight. I’m not exactly bowled over with hysterical laughter either, but not hating their jokes is still progress. Baby steps, folks.
— Always fun to hear Don Pardo’s voice-over have a big involvement in the comedy of a piece.
— Blah, Tina’s “jazzorcism” joke was the first Update joke tonight I hated, and reminded me of the typical crap seen in a Fey/Poehler Update from the preceding season.
— Fred debuts his latest of many stand-up comedian Update characters, this one having a different sensory impairment from his deaf comedian character, by being a blind comic.
— An overall pretty good bit from Fred, especially his defeated reaction when realizing his joke bombed after the extremely delayed timing of him receiving the correct prop. Not my personal favorite of Fred’s Update stand-up characters, though.
— Ha, I spoke a bit too soon, as Fred kills with a very funny post-commenary bit where, right in the middle of an Update joke from Amy, Fred’s character suddenly shows up in front of the camera, wandering around lost and having to be told the correct direction to walk in. This would later become a running gag with Fred’s impression of blind New York governor David Paterson.
— Unfortunately, the copy of this episode that I’m reviewing is missing an “In Memoriam” graphic for the then-recently-deceased Charles Rocket that’s shown after this Update fades to black. Too bad, because I had kinda been looking forward to seeing it again (as grim as that may sound to say), especially now that, due to this SNL project of mine, I’m FAR more familiar with Charles’ SNL tenure than I was back in 2005 when I last saw this “In Memoriam” graphic.
— Overall, while still not particularly good, tonight’s Fey/Poehler Update was surprisingly more tolerable than usual. It’ll be interesting to see if this is only because I’ve been temporarily put in a better mood toward Fey/Poehler Updates after getting a much-needed break from Tina the last two episodes before this, or if the Fey/Poehler Updates have perhaps genuinely gotten better this season. From what I remember of how the rest of this season plays out, it’s definitely the former and not the latter, and if so, that means my trademark saltiness towards Fey/Poehler Updates will soon be returning in full-swing, sad to say.
STARS: **½
ITALIAN HOTEL
in Italy, Vinny Vedecci (BIH) & other locals mock & court USA tourists
— Ah, the debut of Bill’s Vinny Vedecci! Very interesting in retrospect to see his first appearance being in a sketch that’s NOT his talk show sketch that he would later regularly appear in.
— Bill’s performance is fucking fantastic in this. His voice, his delivery, his facial expressions, his mannerisms, his convincing-sounding fake Italian, just…EVERYTHING about him in this sketch is so damn good.
— Ugh, here comes freakin’ Horatio to ruin the momentum of this sketch with his typical self-indulgent hamminess. He seems so out of place in this sketch, especially when acting alongside Bill’s expert performance. Make what you will of the fact that a new featured player in only his third episode is far outdoing an 8-year-veteran.
— I love Fred’s mocking imitations of the tourists’ American accents.
STARS: ***
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
celebs perform Sharon Stone’s (AMP) storm relief song
— Catherine as Joss Stone is good casting, as I can see a facial resemblance in this sketch.
— Kenan In A Dress alert. And in typical Kenan fashion, he plays Aretha Franklin the EXACT FUCKING SAME he plays Star Jones, Wanda Sykes, and almost any other black female he’s played up to this point of his SNL tenure. Ugh, stuff like this really makes you appreciate how Kenan is in more recent years, where he’s a more mature, dependable performer, and has long ditched the dressing-in-drag routine.
— I don’t know why, but if they hadn’t put a graphic on the bottom of the screen stating Horatio’s playing Michael McDonald, I’d have assumed he was playing Kenny Rogers.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? This felt pointless and didn’t get a single laugh from me. A big ol’ flop.
STARS: *
CREIGHTON BOYS SCHOOL
fellow teachers resent gorgeous new high school French instructor (host)
— I got a big laugh from when Kenan, after being asked by Amy to say his greeting to her in Spanish, says a very hesitant, puzzled, and half-hearted “Olo?”
— Funny interplay between Seth and Amy here.
— Yet another hammy walk-on from Horatio.
— Ha, a very funny reveal that Horatio’s wife is Rachel, who had been silently sitting there THE WHOLE TIME while he was flirting with Catherine.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Take Me Out”
SINGING VOWS
spanking fetishists (WLF) & (host) sing naughty vows at wedding ceremony
— Much like in the preceding episode, for a new featured player, Jason has had a surprisingly big presence throughout tonight’s episode and has been playing quite a number of utility roles, most likely due to Chris Parnell’s absence tonight once again.
— For some reason, Tina’s facial expressions here are reminding me so much of Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
— Will Forte singing is almost always comedy gold.
— A hilarious turn in the song after such a serious and long set up. Another great display of oddball Will Forte humor.
— A particularly hilarious lyric from Will about how “I fed my palms a meal of womanly butt-steak, and downed half a bottle of Quaaludes”.
— Another particularly great lyric from Will, this time about how the sexual spanking he received from Catherine made him think of his mother, a lyric he then follows up by lovingly saying “I love you, mom!”
— Jason’s extended speechless reaction after the song has finished is priceless.
— Clever ending with Will’s “kiss” to the bride being him kissing his hand, then using that same hand to repeatedly spank her.
STARS: ****½
MORGAN STANLEY
Rerun from 10/1/05
SCHATZKI’S DELI
Abe Scheinwald wants Mexican bombshell (host) for Emily Dickinson role
— A laugh from Seth rushing Amy the hell out of there when Rachel’s sleazy Abe Scheinwald suddenly shows up.
— I’ve gotten tired of this Scheinwald routine during the last appearance it made before tonight, so I’m not all that eager to see this.
— Wow. Very odd and random casting of Darrell, of all people, in the bit role of a non-speaking waiter. What, was Andy too busy or something?
— Funny how Rachel’s two biggest roles of the night (in the Creighton Boys School sketch and this) both have her chowing down on food the entire time. I remember someone on an SNL message board posting during the Live Discussion thread for this episode back when it originally aired, “Do you think Rachel didn’t even bother eating dinner before the show, knowing her only two big roles of the night were going to involve her eating?”
— Didn’t care for the ending.
— Overall, some laughs here and there, but this sketch as a whole was pretty tepid. I’m glad this ends up being the final appearance of the Scheinwalds.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. Not much to say about it overall. It was certainly less impressive than the first two episodes of this season, but not bad.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Heder)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Lance Armstrong
The debut of my favorite Bill Hader recurring character, and a solid lock in my top 10-15 favorite recurrers of all time, Vinnie Vedecci. It’s weird seeing him without the talk show (and the audience also doesn’t seem thrilled), but the pieces are all still there, probably due to Bill auditioning with this character. A few years back Bill said he got inspiration for the voice from when he was in line to see AI and heard someone talking. He tells more of the story here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdNTNt3tT_U
The Fosse sketch is another of my favorite Bill pieces. It’s such a fun concept, camp that is thankfully not run way off the tracks the way it so often has been on SNL in the last few decades, but Bill and Fred are the two in the cast who manage to give a glimpse of that Fosse attitude and make it seem like more than just guys making limp wrist gestures and silly faces. I kind of wish we’d gotten to see Seth doing some of the Fosse as well…he’s already transitioning so much to the boring straight man role as he wraps up his last season as a sketch performer.
I love the wedding vows sketch – Will Forte at his best (I say that a lot…), with CZJ as a good partner. Tina’s sliding faint also cracks me up.
The school sketch is a good slice-of-life bit, well-performed by everyone. This episode has quite a few moments that show what Amy brought when she was on her game.
(more of this, and less of her showing a picture of a man pissing himself and immediately explaining to us that he is pissing himself, please)
This episode shows how far the show had come in the last season, or last few seasons, as in those seasons there was a good chance this one could have been a car crash, full of bad gay humor and awful vamping. We got more of a balance instead, and even though there are duds (Abe Scheinwald being one more in the “Rachel Dratch is so talented and yet can’t find a good recurring character” file [although at least Seth looked good…] and the charity song mostly reminding me why I dislike 90% of SNL’s charity song sketches), the night as a whole is watchable.
CZJ was also a solid host, adding charm and star quality and helping to make that monologue a real lift to start the night off (and I’m so glad she used real dancers instead of the guys in the cast having to do pratfalls).
Does anyone know who wrote the news sketch? It reminded me a little of the conference meeting sketch in Heder’s episode, so I wondered if they were by the same people. I feel like this sketch in particular is a forerunner to the type that Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell love to write. Catherine also reminds me a lot of Tracey Ullman in this.
The Fred Update bit is alright, but bringing up David Paterson made me shudder…
A few years ago, Hader was hosting a night of road-themed movies on TCM and, on his enthusiasm, I started watching this amusing 60’s Italian film called Il Sorpasso. As soon as the lead actor, Vittorio Gassman, came onscreen, I thought for sure Hader must have based Vinny Vedecci on that actor and role. But I’ve seen the same clip you posted, and he mentions nothing about Gassman. Kind of floors me that the character is just based off of some stranger standing in a line.
dude, tina’s suit on this episode was black, and her update suit is normally blue, not purple. and i honestly don’t know why you don’t like her. there is nothing wrong with her update jokes man or woman.
Hello from 2024, where I’m currently rewatching these years as part of a LONG term rewatch of season 1 to date. I LOVE Stooge’s reviews and the conversations in the comments on this website.
But like “unknown user” I don’t get the hate for Tina here. For all the short term damage she supposedly did with her pop culture references and her 6-out-of-10 jokes, she did huge things for representation of women on the show. She’s one of the more important figures in SNL history.
Here, here!
Agreed, this was just so-so. No sketches I hated, though, it’s mostly “blah” from beginning to end. I forgot about this Vinny Vedecci sketch, though I remember that Tina is in a higher than average number of sketches throughout the season. If memory serves me right, “Creighton Boys School” is based on Seth Meyers’ mother.
I forgot to say that the “butt cancer” pre-tape (which I agree with your comments on) reminds me of when, about a year after this, Farrah Fawcett told people about her anal cancer and there was a lot of talk about how people are ashamed to reveal their diagnosis because of public humiliation. I doubt this pre-tape had much impact one way or the other, it’s mostly just a dumb bit, but the timing hangs over the piece for me.
James Anderson wrote the monologue.
That’s Finesse in the Update baby graphic.
Sorry, I misread your Kenan comment on that. My bad…
Yeah, the CNN sketch here does seem like one of those Mikey Day sketches nowadays in which one reporter is unwittingly looking ridiculous or saying something stupid, while another one looks on in shock (I am usually a sucker for these sketches). This is too one-note for my tastes and might have worked better as a joke in a more complex sketch.
I enjoyed the French teacher sketch. Seth’s performance here is always what I’d wish he’d lean into more–the intentionally smug jackass (“BOO-YAH!”).
I don’t know if Seth as head writer intentionally de-emphasized the pop culture du jour for sketches, but it does feel like we’re getting more “silly conceptual” stuff and “political sketch but the joke isn’t just a one-note recreation of a political event” material.
I like Vinny Vedecci, but I confess I always laugh the most seeing ALF in his TV show opening than anything in the actual sketches.
That Alf bit is cute. Bill must be a fan as Alf also has a memorable cameo in Stefon’s farewell.
Oh no, Carol’s back in the next episode. But my biggest concern is how we’re going to deal with the fact that the host is, ahem, now disgraced.
Don’t forget the musical guest on the next show!!!
Pashwan Standoff doesn’t work for me because CZJ doesn’t look gross *enough* to pull it off. Like you said, it would’ve been hard to do live if they were gonna go farther with it.
This was the first S31 show I ever saw, and I liked how different the tone was from the preceding season. For some reason it’s especially noticeable in this episode how much better the sketch concepts are compared to S29/S30, even if it’s not the funniest show of the year.
Seeing the Vinny character in his infancy is pretty fascinating too. It’s always weird to me how audiences are reluctant to laugh at people they don’t recognize, because this deserved a lot more love than it got.
I’m ashamed to admit the only thing I really remember from this ep was the Charles Rocket In Memoriam card (it was a nice surprise “SNL” even acknowledged his passing considering he was a Jean Doumanian pick and basically shortened that season and his participation during it because of something he said…). Though the last sketch taking place at a wedding rang something of a bell…
Always loved that jazz dancer sketch. One of my favorites of the season and an interesting “ships passing in the night” type sketch, with Samberg and Hader being given sizable roles alongside Sanz, Meyers and Mitchell. This one always stood out as probably the season’s best example of the crossroads the show was at in 05. By 06 the Digital Shorts hit and the show seems to be temporarily run off the rails by them (the Steve Martin is wall to wall Digital Shorts that would be better live sketches).
Some of the comments are right that the Newsnight sketch kind of predicts future Mikey Day pieces – solid enough comedic turn, predictably rendered, reliably performed, low stakes, worthy of somewhere between 2 and 3.5 stars (with the war letters sketches being a notable exception). The architecture is solid and the craftsmanship is good, but it’s all in the service of some 1995-ass suburban home. Does the metaphor make any sense?
Yes. I do enjoy most of Mikey’s sketches and I think he and Streeter are good at busting out a solid, reliable sketch (with some good pre-tapes as a bonus), but I see what you mean.
I also agree the jazz sketch.
For some reason this season is especially cut down on Peacock. This particular episode comes in at 9 fucking minutes. Wow.
Unlike the last performances I reviewed here, I don’t have a specific reason for reviewing these ones other than I was skimming reviews and saw that Franz Ferdinand had been on the show, which led to me checking them out. So.
Musical Performance #1: “Do You Want To”
-The song opens with a rhythmic intro that’s not present on the album version. The first five guitar strums are the same as the two bars that precede the song’s outro (“lucky lucky, you’re so lucky”). Call that foreshadowing, or a spoiler alert…
-Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy’s guitar parts sound great doubled.
-Alex skips the first two words of the phrase “[I’m gonna] make somebody love me.” The “ahhh” also sounded hesitant.
-There’s a keyboard player that I don’t recognize onstage. I know Franz Ferdinand sometimes have keyboard parts in their songs, but I assumed Nick always played those parts. Interestingly enough, I never even realized this song HAD a keyboard part (and my ears are not telling me anything otherwise when it comes to this performance. Turn it up, sound engineer!).
-Speaking of not recognizing band members… pretty much everyone in Franz Ferdinand has different hairstyles now, and since I only found out what they look like relatively recently (even though I’ve been a casual fan for nearly ten years), this is a little weird for me to see.
-Also, speaking of things the sound engineer should turn up… Nick’s mic! His backing vocals add a subtle but necessary touch to Franz Ferdinand’s sound, and I can hardly hear him singing here. That being said, his guitar sounds excellent, at least.
-“Your famous friend, well I… him before you, oh yeah.” Ha, I was wondering if they were going to censor that line or not. (The missing word is “blew” for anyone wondering.)
-Alex seems to be oversinging. He’s pushing it a bit too hard.
-It would have been nice if Alex had said “SNL party/NBC party/NYC party” or something like that instead of “Transmission party,” as I’ve seen him sometimes use that line to reference where the band is playing in other live performances.
-The “doo doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo” part is super catchy.
-Love how the guitars sound together on the repetition of the intro melody.
-Perfectly-timed wink from Alex on the closeup.
-Now Paul Thomson, the drummer, is providing some backing vocals, and his mic is turned up more than Nick’s, although still not as loud as I’d prefer.
-I like hearing this song in a live context better than on the album- there’s something kind of loose and messy about the album version that leans closer to “unprofessional” than “punk and IDGAF.” It’s also not a super substantial composition and seems like it was only written for audiences to jump up and down to in a live setting. But, hey! It’s catchy and I like it.
Stars: ***1/2
Musical Performance #2: “Take Me Out”
-If Franz Ferdinand were going to play a song from their previous album (their self-titled release from 2004; this appearance (and the single “Do You Want To”) is promoting their sophomore album You Could Have It So Much Better), I would have preferred it to be “The Dark of the Matinee,” which actually has a keyboard part so they could have invited their keyboardist back! But I understand that “Take Me Out” was their big hit at the time, although it’s never been one of my personal favorites (and I think it’s too similar to “Do You Want To” to be performed in close succession).
-Strong vocal performance from Alex to open the song.
-Feels weird not hearing him hit some of the higher notes from the recorded version of the intro, but I’m definitely not complaining about hearing him reach into his baritone range…
-Once again, the two guitars are complementing each other well.
-Nick seemed to make a small mistake on the iconic riff, which amuses me.
-Glad Nick’s vocals are a bit more audible now.
-Weird approach from Alex on the “I know I won’t be leaving here” part, where he’s coming in behind the beat each time. I wonder if he was having any trouble with his voice for this appearance, or if he was just trying something new.
-…on second thought, is it Nick playing the main riff, or is it Alex? At first I thought it was Nick, but now it looks like they’ve traded off.
-Franz Ferdinand have good energy, but there was still nothing special enough about that performance for me to give it a full four stars.
Stars: ***1/2 (the 1/2 for both performances is my bias for being a fan of the band)
Didn’t have time to watch all the funny parts, but I did let the episode keep playing after the second performance and all I can say about the following sketch is that god, I really love Will Forte…