Month: July 2020

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October 6, 2007 – Seth Rogen / Spoon (S33 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM KEVIN FEDERLINE
Kevin Federline (ANS) tells what he knows about being a good parent

— Good to see a non-political cold opening, even if this is still following the format of typical political openings by involving a person sitting behind a desk, talking straight to the camera (one of the laziest formats for a cold opening, even if SNL has certainly had their share of successes with it).
— Lots of pretty funny lines from Andy’s K-Fed.
— Ooh, that ending bit with Andy’s K-Fed proudly pointing out similarities between himself and Bill Cosby hasn’t aged well, for obvious reasons.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— A Cartoon By Robert Smigel is credited, but no such cartoon ends up airing tonight. It would’ve been one of Smigel’s last had it aired.


MONOLOGUE
host reads the SNL monologue he wrote when he was 13 years old

— I like the “Party on, Wayne” reference in the dated monologue that Seth Rogen wrote as a 13-year-old.
— Another fun mention in Rogen’s dated monologue, with his prediction of him going on to be made a member of Wu-Tang Clan when he’s in high school.
— A random inclusion of a Steven Seagal impression, but a decent way to display that fun chemistry between Bill and Rogen that was previously seen in the then-recent hit movie Superbad.
STARS: ***


VERITAS ULTRASOUND HD
Veritas Ultrasound HD displays high-quality fetal video for dads-to-be

— A huge laugh from Jason proudly exclaiming “Now THAT’S a penis!” when seeing the high-definition ultrasound of the fetus in Kristen’s stomach.
— A lot of funny straight lines from a deadpan, mildly-annoyed Kristen in reaction to dumb things Jason says.
STARS: ***½


2007 NATIONAL DOUCHEBAG CHAMPIONSHIPS
finalists (BIH), (host), (WLF) offend

— I’m already very interested in this sketch concept.
— Funny mention of Jared Leto and Entourage in connection with douchebags.
— Will’s physical look as a douchebag is fantastic.
— I love Jason’s subtly disapproving facial reactions to certain things the douchebag contestants say. Funnily enough, Jason’s displaying the same great subtle annoyance that Kristen displayed towards him in the Ultrasound HD commercial that preceded this.
— A good use of Amy’s Sharon Osborne.
— Spot-on casting of Fred as Gene Simmons.
— Andy’s ridiculous, obnoxious character is hilarious.
— Heh, Amy seemed unsure of her delivery of the word “doucherty”, and it seemed like she really wanted to laugh after saying it, but she held on and stayed in character.
— Andy’s ferret being named Ferret Bueller is a joke that was used on SNL a few seasons prior to this, in a scene with Ben Affleck in an Appalachian Emergency Room sketch.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s balding-induced self-consciousness derails rescue plan

— Tonight’s MacGruber shorts end up being the final ones with Maya as one of MacGruber’s assistants, as all of the subsequent SNL episodes that contain MacGruber shorts are after Maya has left the cast. Her character in these shorts would be replaced by a new character played by Kristen.
— A decent short overall, but nothing particularly noteworthy in this.
STARS: ***


BIG KIDS
gawky Jeremy (host) & Stacia (KRW) are cute only to parents (BIH) & (AMP)

— Boy, only 20 seconds after Kristen and Rogen’s entrance, and SNL is ALREADY running that “I said we!” line of Kristen’s into the damn ground. It doesn’t help that she says it in an increasingly exaggerated, obnoxious manner over the course of this sketch.
— There goes the very tired routine that a lot of sketches in this era have, where the camera does a pan shot of straight man characters each having a frozen unpleasant look on their face as they’re witnessing something odd the lead comedic character(s) is doing.
— The part with Kristen and Rogen performing the then-contemporary Amy Winehouse song “Rehab” is at least an interesting 2007 time capsule in hindsight.
— Not caring for this sketch so far. I remember finding it hilarious when it originally aired, but it doesn’t hold up well for me after all these years, possibly because it’s basically one of the earliest precursors to the type of badly-written “Kristen Wiig plays an annoying, quirky, ‘Look at me!’ character” sketches that SNL would later do on a regular basis from 2008-2012. I also wonder if this sketch is the work (or co-work) of a certain new writer this season: Kent Sublette, a writer responsible (or co-responsible) for a lot of those aforementioned badly-written “Kristen Wiig plays an annoying, quirky, ‘Look at me!’ character” sketches from 08-12. Sublette plays a big part in the unfortunate turn that Kristen’s SNL trajectory takes around 2008, where she goes from being mostly known for perfectly, charmingly, and hilariously playing lots of subtle, deadpan, low-key roles to being mostly known for playing lots of loud, wacky, obnoxious roles. IIRC, Kristen would later disclose in an interview that she herself doesn’t like some of those obnoxious characters of hers that she’s been given in 2008-2012, and she even had to tell Sublette at one point to stop writing sketches starring a certain character of hers (I think Trina, the wacky wife who always says “Thomas!”).
— Boy, they are relying WAY too heavily on the aforementioned pan shot of frozen unpleasant facial reactions from the straight man characters.
— I finally got one genuine laugh: Will getting ready to jump out the window during one of Kristen and Rogen’s musical showcases, and then, when told they’re on the 15th floor, casually responding “I’m well aware of that.”
STARS: *½


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s cosmetic work has helped land a young girlfriend (KRW)

— A huge laugh from MacGruber’s bad plastic surgery.
— Funny in hindsight seeing Kristen appearing as a random one-off character in this MacGruber short, given the fact that, as mentioned earlier, Kristen would soon go on to be a permanent part of these MacGruber shorts by replacing Maya’s character.
— Pretty funny how MacGruber is desperately attempting to pass off his two assistants, Maya and Rogen, to his girlfriend as his parents.
— The ending was kinda weak.
STARS: ***½


A MESSAGE FROM FRED THOMPSON
Fred Thompson (DAH) sort of wants to be America’s next president

— I’m not too familiar with Fred Thompson, but I’m liking Darrell’s portrayal of him. This is a more loose, likable performance than we usually see from Darrell in his later seasons.
— Yet another walk-on from Fred’s Sam Waterston impression. They’re spreading the impression kinda thin here. The previous appearances of Fred’s Waterston already got all the laughs out of this impression that SNL is ever going to get.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
mirror reveals extent of MacGruber’s botched overseas plastic surgery

— Strange how SNL is airing all three of tonight’s MacGruber shorts so close together and so early in this episode. Usually, SNL spreads MacGruber shorts much farther throughout an episode.
— I don’t know why, but the “Monastery Control Room” sign shown at the beginning of this made me chuckle, even though I don’t even think it was intended to be funny.
— I like the suspense they’re keeping us in by only showing MacGruber from the back throughout this, not letting us see what his face looks like after his horribly-botched plastic surgery.
— And now we finally see what MacGruber’s post-surgery face looks like. Hmm. To be honest, I was expecting that reveal to be funnier, after such a huge build-up. He didn’t look much worse than he did in the last MacGruber short prior to this. They should’ve went more all out in making Will look EXTREMELY ridiculous.
— Tonight’s overall collection of MacGruber shorts was a little too average for MacGruber standards. The shorts were fine, but do not measure up to the typically strong and memorable MacGruber shorts. Unfortunately, I recall the next set of MacGruber shorts, in the Jonah Hill episode later this season, also being kinda below par for MacGruber standards (so much so, that SNL doesn’t even bother airing all three of the MacGruber shorts in that episode, leaving the third short as a special cut-for-time online exclusive), but we’ll see when we arrive at that episode.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Underdog”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Lou Dobbs (DAH) doesn’t like SNL gigs going to Canadians like host

incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Larry Craig’s indiscretions

Willie Randolph (KET) & Omar Minaya (FRA) can’t explain Mets’ collapse

CHC gives a report on the field of presidential candidates

— Why is Amy’s opening joke of practically every Update always so damn bad? Why would you intentionally open Update with your worst, lamest joke of the night?
— Something about Meyers’ hair looks kinda different tonight.
— A good laugh from Darrell’s Lou Dobbs naming Tom Hanks and, of all people, Jonny Moseley as ideal American hosts that SNL has had in the past.
— Darrell continues the surprisingly solid night he’s been having in this episode, as his Lou Dobbs commentary here is fantastic. He has so many funny disparaging anti-Canadian comments. (Speaking of which, Seth Rogen is one of those celebrities who I always forget is Canadian.) He’s also coming off laid-back, loose, and likable here, much like in his performance as Fred Thompson earlier tonight. Why can’t we see THIS Darrell Hammond much more often in these later seasons of his SNL tenure?
— Amy’s very brief joke about Anita Hill (in which Amy just cornily says “Anita Hill? Anita vacation!”) doesn’t hold up well after all these years, when, like me, you have absolutely no context for what the joke was about. I certainly know about the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings back in 1991, but have no memory of Hill being in the news in 2007.
— “14-year-old Miley Cyrus”. Boy, do those words feel odd to hear nowadays.
— The Larry Craig gay scandal is a good topic for a “Really?!?” segment, and there are some fantastic barbs from Meyers and Amy here. I also like how they’re not taking a homophobic stance here like I was initially worried they would.
— I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2007 pointing out that the casting of Fred as Omar Minaya made them realize that Fred could conceivably play Barack Obama, as this was at a time where every SNL fan was wondering who in the cast would play Obama. (Over the summer prior to this season, Kenan was in talks to lose a lot of weight so he could potentially play Obama, but as we know now, that ended up never happening.)
— The comedic conceit of this Willie Randolph/Omar Minaya commentary, with them just stammering and “ummmm”-ing when trying to make a point, is actually working for me, though I can understand why some people wouldn’t care for this. Fred is usually good at pulling this kind of humor off in these years of his SNL tenure (the years before he goes really downhill). In fact, the humor in this commentary feels a bit like a precursor to Fred’s Nicolas Fehn character, who, coincidentally, debuts in the very next episode.
— Not only do we get a surprise Chevy Chase cameo as Update’s “senior political correspondent”, but they’re even having him deliver his commentary from a replica of his old Update set! Seeing Chevy at this set brings back nice memories of when I reviewed seasons 1 and 2 earlier in this SNL project.
— Wow, I love how they’re even having Chevy start his commentary by doing the raunchy phone conversation gag that he typically opened his Updates with.
— Chevy’s actually coming off fairly likable and professional here, which is surprising, given his age and reputation by this point. His joke delivery isn’t all that great here, and it doesn’t help that some of the writing of these jokes is fairly tepid, but I know not to expect Chevy to have the same solid, reliable, snappy delivery that he had way back in 1975 and 1976. His delivery here is still better and more palatable than his mess of a marble-mouthed delivery in both his season 5 hosting stint and in the Weekend Update he did in his season 6 guest appearance.
— Boy, this may be one of the longest Updates ever. I’m surprised the jokes from Amy and Meyers are still going after that super-long Chevy segment. Kinda feels like that Chevy segment was meant to close this Update.
— I wonder if that “super gay” George Takei joke that Amy closed tonight’s Update with can be considered the type of homophobia that I was glad to see her and Meyers refrain from during their “Really?!?” segment earlier tonight.
STARS: ***


AMERICA’S FIRST COLONISTS
(host)’s settlement revolved around marijuana

— A pot-themed History Channel sketch starring Seth Rogen? Oh, I don’t think I’m going to like where this is going……
— Yep, two minutes later, it turns out I’m not caring for this sketch AT ALL. Just a collection of lazy, low-brow, boring stoner humor, placed in an equally-dull colonial setting.
— I do kinda like the stoner voice Will’s using.
— Kenan provides my only real laugh in this sketch, with his very funny brief walk-on.
STARS: *½


ROWLF & THE SWEDISH CHEF
Rowlf (host) & The Swedish Chef (ANS) sing “Beyond The Sea”

— Ah, a change of pace for this SNL era, and I like the use of the home base stage, giving this an old-school SNL feel.
— Not sure what to say about this sketch so far. It’s cute, but not all that funny. Then again, I don’t think it’s intended to be all that funny. I guess it’s basically just Rogen and the SNL cast’s homage to the Muppets that they grew up watching and loving. I can appreciate the charm behind that idea. SNL would later do an actual comedic and, from what I remember, pretty solid Seth Rogen-involved Muppets sketch, when Rogen hosts the following season.
— A fantastic Animal impression from Bill, and I love his insane drum solo.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”


MAD JOE DIXON
Mad Joe Dixon (host) & Delilah (MAR) reveal personal peccadilloes

— Pretty funny line deliveries from Kristen and Maya during their conversation with each other at the beginning of this sketch.
— Not caring AT ALL for these unfunny, increasingly unsubtle, and poorly-written sexual references and bathroom-humor jokes during Rogen and Maya’s conversation. What the hell IS this?!? Was this sketch submitted by a 13-year-old?
— The reason Rogen’s character gives for why he’s called Mad Joe Dixon was just plain stupid, and not the funny kind of stupid.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average and nothing-special episode. Not too bad, but barely anything stood out in this episode, and the quality took a dive in most of the post-Weekend Update half.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (LeBron James)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Bon Jovi

Posted on

September 29, 2007 – LeBron James / Kanye West (S33 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE ALL-BUT-CERTAIN-TO-BE NEXT PRESIDENT
patronizing presumed president Hillary Clinton’s (AMP) future is perfect

— Darrell makes his only appearance of this entire season premiere in a brief, mostly-silent bit as Bill Clinton at the beginning of this cold opening, proving to me back in 2007 how pointless it was for SNL to keep Darrell in the cast for YET ANOTHER season.
— Some laughs from Amy’s Hillary Clinton treating her chances of becoming the next president as a foregone conclusion.
— Amy’s Hillary wig looks different tonight, and, for some reason, it really emphasizes that dumb and pointless prosthetic nose that she wears as Hillary that I always complain about.
— I’m enjoying Amy-as-Hillary’s personal messages to each of her opponents, especially her biting remark about John Edwards.
— Amy’s Hillary: “In 2016, when I will have completed my second term as president—”. Considering what does end up happening to the real Hillary in regards to the 2016 elections, this feels odd to see in hindsight.
— This is starting to drag a little bit towards the end, and the audience apparently agrees with me.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— This is the second consecutive season premiere with no new cast members. The cast is the exact same as the preceding season.
— Yikes, Don Pardo’s microphone isn’t working during the first 20 seconds or so of this montage, though his voice can start to be heard VERY faintly under the music a short while before his mic volume gets turned way up. Then when his mic volume does get turned way up, the mic is still faulty for a short while, as it makes Don’s voice sound extremely hollow and muffled. Then the voice of who I assume is an SNL technician is heard exclaiming something quickly and then saying what sounds like “This mic is (*unintelligible word*).” Wow, this is an absolute mess.


MONOLOGUE
watching SNL in Akron, The LeBrons (host) evaluate host’s performance

— Pretty fun dancing entrance from LeBron James.
— Good bit with LeBron lying to those of us not familiar with basketball about how his Cavaliers swept the Spurs in that year’s NBA Finals, then advising those of us who are familiar with basketball to “be cool and shut up”.
— A good use of LeBron’s characters from a series of Nike commercials he did at the time.
— A big laugh from LeBron’s pretty-boy character saying, in regards to SNL, “I thought they canceled it after Eddie Murphy, too.”
— I’m particularly liking LeBron’s performance as the grumpy grandfather character.
— An overall short but sweet monologue.
STARS: ***½


ANGRY DOG
the canine-riling kibble has Michael Vick’s picture on the bag

— A very funny, pretty creative, and timely way to spoof the then-recent Michael Vick dog-fighting controversy.
— I love Will’s aggressive, bleep-filled message.
— I almost thought the old guy sitting by the fireplace with his dog was Fred Willard at first glance.
— Great facial reaction from Kristen to the scary face the dog makes at her.
STARS: ****


CHILDREN’S HOPE AUCTION
Penelope’s self-aggrandizement cramps host’s role as charity auction item

— Feels odd seeing Maya this season, partly because of how the preceding season’s finale made it seem like that was her final episode, and partly because she only appears in the first four episodes of this season before she does officially leave.
— SNL leads off this new season with one of the preceding season’s new, breakout characters.
— Penelope gets some good recognition applause in this third appearance of hers.
— Once again, despite the one-note nature of this character, I’m still enjoying these early sketches of hers.
— Kinda funny in retrospect hearing LeBron talk about growing a big beard, given the trademark (and now-graying) beard he has in more recent years.
STARS: ***


HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: RETURN OF THE SENIORS
host & Zac Efron (ANS) portray rival basketballers

— Andy is pretty funny in his portrayal of Zac Efron’s High School Musical character. This also reminds me that, back when this episode originally aired, in the comments section of a review of this episode on one of those AV Club-type sites, somebody left a comment complaining that Andy didn’t “gay it up” enough as Efron in this sketch.
— Funny look of LeBron.
— Wow, until now, I (and I’m assuming just about everybody else) had completely forgotten about the nude picture controversy that Vanessa Hudgens (or, as she was called back then, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, according to this sketch) was in over the summer. This overly-topical portion of the sketch doesn’t hold up very well after all these years. Then again, I remember not finding it all that funny even when this originally aired.
— Despite some funny performances, there’s not much to this sketch.
STARS: **


IRAN SO FAR
ANS & Adam Levine [real] sing a ballad to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (FRA)

— A great and creative way to spoof Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial Columbia University speech that week.
— Ha, Adam Levine appearing for the second consecutive SNL episode (Maroon 5 was the musical guest in the preceding episode).
— This is incredibly well-shot. Such beautiful cinematography for a Digital Short, especially the occasional shots of Andy playing the piano on a moving platform on a bridge, which is impressive for SNL.
— Hilarious lyrics from Andy, accompanied by some great and funny cutaways of Fred’s Mahmoud.
— I love the very brief, silent, blink-and-miss-it cameo from Jake Gyllenhaal, stroking his beard and flashing a cool pose while staring into the camera with a bug-eyed look.
— I’m glad Lonely Island restrained themselves from throwing in a cheap, hacky man-on-man kiss between Andy and Mahmoud.
STARS: ****


READ TO ACHIEVE
unprofessional basketball-passer Jeff bugs host during PSA taping

— The Jeff/Mike Underballs sketch has officially become recurring. This is probably the most well-known and popular installment of this recurring sketch, perhaps partly due to it being aired in many of SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials.
— And there goes Bill’s angry pronunciation of Jeff that I always love in these sketches: “JYYYYEEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Great delivery from Jason on his rude line to LeBron just now: “You’re 22, right? Go sit at the kids table, have a juice box.”
— I laughed so hard at the book bit just now, with Jason randomly tossing LeBron a book instead of a basketball, which LeBron responds to by asking “What the hell is this?!?”, and Jason answers from off-camera by yelling “THAT’S A BOOK!”
— A particularly biting slam from Jason to LeBron: “We should get Dwyane Wade anyway, at least he’s got a ring.”
— I absolutely love the one-on-one game between LeBron and Jason, and how LeBron effortlessly shows Jason up and eventually gives him a much-deserved nosebleed.
— Fantastic sketch overall, and one of Jason’s all-time best.
STARS: *****


THE LYLE KANE SHOW
fellow dweebs (BIH) & (host) are out-of-place on BET

— The return of Will’s Lyle Kane character, after debuting just one episode ago in the preceding season’s finale. Interesting how not only has SNL made him recurring after only one episode, but he’s gotten spun-off from an ensemble sketch into his own sketch. I wish it wasn’t in the lazy and beyond-overused talk show format, but this Lyle Kane character seems like he can definitely still make the format of this sketch work.
— Already a laugh right at the start, with the theme music being badly played on a flute.
— This show being aired on BET, of all channels, is hilarious.
— I love how Lyle Kane keeps referring to BET as “the Black E.T. channel”.
— I said it before and I’ll say it again: the Forte/Hader duo is an underrated pairing that we should’ve seen much more often during their years in the cast together.
— Funny seeing LeBron talking in this type of voice and imitating Lyle Kane’s “Hi, derrrreee”s. For a non-actor, LeBron’s doing a good job in this goofy role.
— The “B.J.” question that LeBron relays to Lyle Kane is very funny, as is Lyle actually answering the question.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stronger” & “Good Life”


WEEKEND UPDATE
O.J. Simpson (KET) defends the reclamation of one’s sold property

(MAR) translates Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s (FRA) affinity for mannish women

— A very different and much shorter hairstyle from Amy this season. And no, I’m pretty sure it’s not a wig. I remember how, somewhere around this time, her and Tina Fey filmed an interview for an HBO (or one of those channels) special that gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the movie Baby Mama (released the following year in 2008), and during the interview, Amy had the exact same short hairstyle she has in these early season 33 Weekend Updates.
— Ugh, THAT’S the joke they open this season of Update with?
— Maybe it’s just the visual quality of this new season in general, but the Update set and lighting look darker than usual tonight.
— The debut of Kenan’s O.J. Simpson impression.
— A laugh from Kenan-as-O.J.’s lightheartedly exasperated “Grrrrrr!” in reaction to Amy not understanding his point.
— Seth’s smiling delivery of “No” when Amy asks him if he understands O.J.’s logic was very funny.
— Something about the way Seth followed the 9/11 punchline of his Rudy Giuliani joke by silently mouthing the term “9/11” again and staring at the camera with a smarmy smile, all the while the audience was reacting to the punchline, felt VERY David Spade-esque. I can totally picture Spade doing that whole thing in a Hollywood Minute segment.
— Hmm, Fred’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears a second time tonight? They’ll never top his appearance in the Digital Short from earlier tonight.
— Meh, a predictable and not-very-funny comedic conceit of this Mahmoud commentary, with his description of his ideal woman turning out to just be a description of men. Yeah, they should’ve just left the number of Fred’s Mahmoud appearances tonight at 1, with that far-superior Digital Short.
— Some pretty solid jokes throughout this Update, despite some occasional clunkers from Amy.
STARS: ***½


BEST OF SOLID GOLD
DVD highlights Solid Gold Dancers (MAR), (KRW), (AMP), (WLF), (host)

— Kenan playing a very effeminate male character with the gag name C. Micah Kring (See My Cock Ring)? AND introducing a Solid Gold spoof? Yeah, I don’t need to ask which person in SNL’s writing staff penned THIS sketch.
— Very funny inclusion of LeBron, of all people, as a Solid Gold dancer.
— I feel bad for Will having to follow LeBron’s entrance, as he’ll never top that. Poor Will had to resort to lots of mugging into the camera during his entrance in an attempt to get any kind of reaction from the audience after the huge response they had just given LeBron.
— LeBron is killing it in this sketch. His performance, delivery, and facial expressions are providing the only real amusement, as the humor of the rest of this sketch has run out of steam fast.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
“First Served, First Come” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo foils loo trap

— This ends up being the second-to-last TV Funhouse during TV Funhouse’s regular run.
— Holy hell! The return of the Ambiguously Gay Duo after a very long hiatus! This is much-needed at this point, given how much the quality of TV Funhouse has diminished in this late stage of its SNL run (with a few exceptions).
— Hmm, they shortened the usual AGD theme song.
— A timely tie-in to the Larry Craig toe-tapping/bathroom stall scandal going on at this time.
— I’m no prude, but the constant shots of characters groaning and straining on the toilet while having diarrhea feels unnecessary and too desperate for laughs, though I am chuckling at the odd detail of how the police officer inexplicably still has his pants fully on while using the toilet (the last above screencap for this TV Funhouse).
— A nice subversion of the usual “What’s everyone looking at?” “Nothing!” bit in these AGD cartoons.
— For some bizarre reason, Maya’s headshot that was used for a special occasion in the ending credits of the preceding episode’s TV Funhouse (because it was assumed by many at SNL that Maya was leaving) is still left intact in the ending credits of tonight’s TV Funhouse, despite the fact that 1) tonight is obviously NOT Maya’s final episode, and 2) Maya didn’t even do a voice in this cartoon.
STARS: ***½


106 & PARK TOP TEN LIVE
failure to win awards induces tantrums in musical guest

— A very strong and well-remembered sketch, with Kanye West making fun of his own penchant for interrupting people’s acceptance speeches at awards shows. The even funnier thing about that in hindsight is the fact that this sketch is two years before Kanye’s most infamous interruption of an acceptance speech: the Taylor Swift one at the 2009 MTV VMAs, which I guess proves that, while Kanye was certainly a great sport to do this 106 & Park sketch back in 2007, he did not learn his lesson AT ALL. I guess no matter what, Kanye’s gonna Kanye.
— Kanye: “I used to believe the children were our future…but (*bleep*) that!”
— For some reason, Bill’s very dry, droll, deep voice during his speech in the Nobel Peace Prize scene is cracking me the hell up, especially his delivery of the name George F. Smoot. (Then again, George F. Smoot is a funny name in itself.)
— The quiet and dignified Nobel Peace Prize ceremony suddenly getting crashed by Kanye yelling a very loud and jarring “AW, HELL NAH!” had me freakin’ howling.
— The pumpkin scene is particularly funny, especially the champagne in Kanye’s pumpkin.
— Despite the repetitive, one-note nature of this sketch, it’s still working very much for me. It’s all in the execution, and Kanye is perfect here.
— I like the meta turn with Kanye being shown backstage at SNL angrily ranting in his dressing room over the fact that LeBron is hosting instead of him. This is also rather prescient, as Kanye would later infamously end up going through a real-life angry backstage rant at SNL in his 2016 appearance (in an episode hosted by Melissa McCarthy), when finding out SNL’s crew changed the design of the musical guest stage after rehearsals without asking him in advance. (Audio of this rant was leaked online shortly after the episode aired.) This has probably been forgotten by most people in the wake of Kanye’s far-more-infamous onstage post-goodnights political rant at SNL two years later (in a season premiere hosted by Adam Driver).
— Kanye: “Man, give a black man…give a SHORT black man a chance!”
— Maya’s sign-off at the end seemed like it should’ve been funnier, instead of just the line “More screamiiiiiiiin’!” But I guess it doesn’t matter, when the rest of this sketch was as strong as it was.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champion” & “Everything I Am”


GREAT MOMENTS IN GUIDANCE COUNSELING
(JAS) steers host away from college

— Great to see another big Jason Sudeikis showcase tonight, after the fantastic Read To Achieve sketch from earlier tonight.
— Hilarious reveal of Jason sharing an office with a meek Will.
— Wow, SNL’s camerawork is an absolute MESS during this sketch. Not only does the camera constantly keep mistakenly cutting to close-ups of the wrong person when someone else is speaking, but we get one PARTICULARLY bad and jarring gaffe at one point, where the camera accidentally briefly cuts away from this sketch to a darkened part of SNL’s studio (screencap below), completely ruining the gag where Jason takes his diploma off the wall and dismissively throws it onto the floor. WTF?!?

Ehh, I chalk all the camera gaffes in this sketch up to the fact that this is a season premiere, and SNL’s control room crew understandably must be a little rusty after their summer break. I also assume that’s the reason for Don Pardo’s mic issues during the opening montage earlier tonight.
— I am absolutely loving Jason’s performance here.
— I like Jason’s constant threats to Will every time Will says something.
— Keeping up the bad technical issues in this sketch, this sketch ends in a very awkward manner, as if the people in the control room didn’t know when to fade out of the sketch. There’s actually a reason for this. This sketch was supposed to end with a brief preview of another “Great Moments in Guidance Counseling” scene, where a young Kanye West (complete with nerdy glasses and a high-pitched voice) is given advice by his high school guidance counselor, played by Kenan, but the show ran long and was forced to cut that ending scene at the very last minute. During the goodnights, both Kanye and Kenan can even be seen wearing their outfits for this sketch, which just goes to show you how last-minute the decision to cut their scene was. I’m not 100% sure, but I think in reruns of this episode, SNL would insert the original Kanye/Kenan ending scene from the dress rehearsal version of this sketch. I can’t remember if that rerun replaces this entire sketch in general with the dress version, but I assume it does, given the aforementioned bad camera gaffes that kept happening all throughout the live version of it.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good start to the season, and there was a nice number of strong sketches, including an all-time favorite of mine (Read To Achieve). LeBron James was also pretty good for an athlete host.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2006-07)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Seth Rogen

Posted on

May 19, 2007 – Zach Braff / Maroon 5 (S32 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PUPPET BUSH
George W. Bush (JAS) perversely feels vindicated by Iraq failures

— This ends up being the last time we’ll be seeing Jason’s Bush for over a year (he completely skips season 33). I will not miss seeing these tepidly-written straight-to-camera Bush-addresses-the-nation pieces that Jason often gets stuck with.
— An odd but pretty funny first cutaway to Darrell’s Dick Cheney silently giving Jason’s Bush a thumbs-up.
— The occasional cutaways to Darrell’s Cheney are getting old, but are sadly the funniest thing to me in this cold opening so far.
— I like Darrell’s Cheney missing from the cutaway to him after Jason-as-Bush’s remark about critics being right about the Bush administration conducting the Iraq war incompetently.
— Maya’s Condoleezza Rice randomly being thrown into the end of this and saying “Live from New York…” was taken at the time by online SNL fans (including myself) as one of many signs in tonight’s season finale that this is Maya’s final episode. We would end up being wrong about that, but I do believe that Maya did originally intend this to be her final episode. From what I remember hearing, her coming back the following season was a late-in-the-summer decision she made only as a favor to Lorne, who asked her to come back because he wasn’t satisfied with any of the women he auditioned that summer to fill in Maya’s spot in the cast. The announcement of Maya being in the season 33 cast wasn’t even made until literally just two or three days before that season premiered, which is insane. And, IIRC, when she initially signed a contract for that season, she didn’t sign for a full season, which is why she bails after the writers strike starts a few episodes into that season. (She doesn’t even appear in the special Michael Cera-hosted writers strike SNL episode at the UCB Theater.)
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
proud of his place of birth, host is in a “New Jersey State Of Mind”

— When mentioning the characters he would see on SNL when staying up to watch the show as a kid, I love that Zach Braff mentions Toonces alongside Church Lady.
— I don’t think I’m going to care for this monologue, and not just because it’s another musical one. I’m not caring for the insider New Jersey premise.
— The inclusion of the cast dressed as New Jersey landmarks was somewhat fun, but was too brief to salvage this monologue.
STARS: **


PUPPY LOVE
apartment-seeker (ANS) falls in love with (host)’s talking dog

— Wow, a Digital Short right after the monologue? That’s new.
— Funny voice of the seductive dog. Who IS that doing the voice anyway? It doesn’t sound like a cast member. Is it perhaps Jorma Taccone or Akiva Schaffer?
— I love Andy’s mock-dramatic delivery of “You used me.”
— Blah at the ending with Andy making out with the dog in slow-mo. Could’ve done without that, even if that was the only logical conclusion of this.
STARS: ***


PROM COMMITTEE
popular (MAR) & (AMP) quash prom theme ideas of Lyle Kane (WLF) & others

— Funny bit regarding why Amy and Maya’s characters are each called B.J.
— The debut of Will’s short-lived but very funny Lyle Kane character, who I admit I’ve completely forgotten about until now.
— Ugh, I don’t like the idea of Zach’s tongue-in-cheek, meta Garden State-obsessed character. Between the monologue and this sketch, Zach has been kinda putting me off as a host. Something seems really self-indulgent about him.
— A fun ensemble piece with everyone in the cast each getting their own chance in the spotlight.
— While the celibacy bit with Kristen and a sexually-tense Bill feels kinda derivative for SNL, it’s being executed well, especially Bill’s reaction to Kristen innocently touching his back.
— Random inclusion of Darrell as a Sean Connery lookalike, even if it does tie into the 007 prom theme. Funny line from him, though, about the two B.J.s.
STARS: ****


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (host), (AMP) & (WLF) perform quirky jams

— I admit to laughing at the exaggerated quivery laugh Kenan did in response to a joke from Andy, even though it feels like Kenan’s done stuff like that ad nauseam during his SNL tenure.
— I think there’s been a Dora The Explorer reference in just about EVERY episode in the last quarter of this season, which I guess shows how big that show was at this time. An interesting time capsule in hindsight.
— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish sketch to air up to this point.
— Ha, a Deep House Dish musical performance is actually making me laugh for once: the Brown Eye song with Amy and Will. Catchy beat to it, too.
— The voice Amy’s using during her and Will’s post-song interview is basically a variation of her Rosie Perez voice.
— Something about Will’s accented delivery of “It’s so obvious!” was hilarious.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- on Oprah, presidential candidates air shocking revelations

— Feels a little weird to hear an impression of early-era Barack Obama, before the days when people started noticing his distinct vocal mannerisms. As expected, whoever’s voicing Obama in this cartoon is using a pretty generic voice for him.
— Some pretty funny revelations from the candidates, especially Obama’s real name, and both of Bill Richardson’s halves being Mexican.
— For some reason, Oprah’s facial expressions in this cartoon are making me laugh.
— The violent brief fight between John McCain and Rudy Giuliani feels like a throwback to early TV Funhouses, back when humor like that was much more common in these cartoons of Robert Smigel’s.
— Clearly, Smigel must’ve gotten word that this is potentially Maya’s final episode, as he includes a headshot of her in the ending credits of this TV Funhouse.
— Overall, a rare good cartoon during these waning days of TV Funhouse. It felt good to consistently laugh for most of this, after how weak the last few TV Funhouses prior to this were.
STARS: ***½


SONG MEMORIES
“The Weight” evokes creepy memories in (host) & other icky reminiscers

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Hilarious punchline to Jason’s oral sex story.
— I like how every song in these Song Memories sketches reminds Bill of “muh dad”.
— Another great punchline, this time to Will’s drunk-driving story.
— Blah, what’s with Zach’s story immediately being about him mailing people his own poop? That’s too dumb and blunt even for the silly nature of these Song Memories sketches. Not even the Rachael Ray punchline could save Zach’s story.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Makes Me Wonder”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Aunt Linda isn’t going to enjoy the upcoming summer blockbusters

Sam Waterston (FRA) objects to AMP’s Law & Order joke

Whitney Houston (MAR) celebrates summer with cocaine brownies

— Meh, Aunt Linda once again. Thankfully, this ends up being the last time we’ll be seeing her for a long while, as she’ll be joining Jason’s Bush impression on a year-long hiatus.
— At least Aunt Linda’s commentaries are getting shorter and shorter lately, which almost seems to be the writers admitting the thinness and diminishing returns of these pieces.
— Wow, Amy’s surprisingly been having some strong jokes tonight. Usually, Seth gets the better jokes.
— Fred’s Sam Waterston impression always cracks me up, and I like how they kept this appearance brief and simple.
— Ha, a reminder of ABC’s ill-fated decision to make a TV series out of those Geico caveman ads from this time.
— I think that’s Colin Jost I’m seeing in the punchline photo to Seth’s soccer joke just now (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update). Funny to see him on Update in this capacity years before he would become an Update anchor.
— Another meh, as we get the return of Maya’s Whitney Houston, who’s been pretty insufferable in most of her appearances this season.
— A rare instance of breaking from Maya when she randomly calls Amy what sounded like “Seth Meyers”. Possibly another sign tonight that Maya was potentially on her way out.
— And now we get yet another sign of Maya’s potential departure, as her Whitney randomly returns to the Update set at the very end of this Update after Amy and Seth’s sign-off to be embraced by Amy and Seth with a big hug and what appeared to practically be a dry-hump session on the Update desk right before the camera faded to black.
STARS: ***


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
host & Vinny Vedecci fight language barrier

— Another sketch tonight that has officially become recurring.
— Bill continues to be an absolute riot as this character.
— Great to see Bill work in his funny Peter Falk vocal impression that he last did on Weekend Update in his very first episode.
— A good laugh from the Scrubs clip being re-dubbed into a deep Italian drama.
— Quite a lot of projectile vomiting in the last quarter of this season. I do love the way Vinny Vedecci responds to the vomiting in this sketch by saying “She vomit! In your face!”
STARS: ****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
unpaid production intern (host) fills in for a no-show

— A Bronx Beat sketch airing THIS late in the show, around 12:40? After the previous installments of this sketch all appeared with the first 15 minutes of the show? Wow. I take this as an admission from SNL that tonight’s Bronx Beat is not up to snuff and/or must’ve received a poor audience reaction at dress rehearsal.
— This sketch feels really rushed so far, and a lot of the usual beats from Amy and Maya’s characters feel kinda half-assed tonight.
— I did get a laugh just now from Amy’s “balls of garbage” line during the bit about how restaurants make meatballs.
— A few laughs during Amy and Maya’s interview with Zach, but this still feels below par for a Bronx Beat sketch.
— I cracked up at Maya randomly saying “I’m sicka seein’ Tony Soprano doin’ it” at the end of this sketch.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Won’t Go Home Without You”


MELISSA
homely receptionist Melissa (FRA) displays her infatuation with host

— Ugh, we’re closing the season with a random Fred-in-drag sketch?
— I think I recall hearing this got cut from an earlier season, but I forgot who the host in the sketch was.
— Maya appearing in a prominent role in yet another sketch tonight is yet another sign that this was potentially her final episode.
— Boy, this sketch is awful, and feels like a really unfortunate precursor to the typical annoying work that Fred would often do in his later seasons. A shame, considering I generally still like him by this point of his tenure.
— Aaaaaaaaand as if this sketch wasn’t already bad enough, both it and this season in general closes with one of the cheapest, desperate, hackiest attempts at a laugh ever: a man-on-man kiss. Not to mention it’s the second segment tonight to end with a cheap, unconventional kiss (the Digital Short being the first one).
— Overall, wow, this has got to be one of worst season-ending sketches in SNL history. Can’t think of any time prior to this where I gave the final sketch of a season a measly one-star rating. I guess the Bag Lady short film from the end of the final episode of season 6 comes close (if memory serves correct, I gave it one-and-a-half stars), but that episode wasn’t an official season finale.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty forgettable season finale, and an unexciting way to end this season. There was some good stuff tonight, but barely anything stood out as particularly strong, there was too heavy a reliance on rehashed sketches, and the episode ended with one of the worst season-ending sketches in SNL history.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Molly Shannon)
a big step down


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2005-06)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 33 begins, with host LeBron James

Posted on

May 12, 2007 – Molly Shannon / Linkin Park (S32 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMERICAN IDOL
Mary Katherine Gallagher crashes American Idol & sings “Brass In Pocket”

— For whatever reason, Bill has replaced Seth as SNL’s Ryan Seacrest impersonator, despite the fact that Seth had last played Seacrest just earlier this same season in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Funny constant fake-outs and mind games from Bill’s Seacrest to Maya’s Melinda Doolittle, regarding whether she’s safe or eliminated.
— Feels interesting reviewing a Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch for the first time in many seasons.
— This is a good setting for MKG.
— I love the cutaway shot of Amy’s Paula Abdul after MKG mentions that Paula’s never drunk, just naturally drowsy.
— Molly’s hitting all the familiar MKG beats here, but she’s doing it well, and it’s coming off particularly fun and infectious tonight, possibly because of Molly’s return to the show and the fact that we hadn’t seen MKG in so long.
— Particularly strong delivery from Molly during her Jackson Five movie monologue.
— Kinda odd how all of the pratfalls in this MKG sketch are being done by other performers instead of Molly. I doubt she’s not up to the physical task of doing pratfalls anymore by this point.
— Solid “Live from New York…” delivery from Molly.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo accidentally bills Linkin Park as “special guest” instead of “musical guest”.


MONOLOGUE
’90s flashback shows MOS’s crush on LOM ending with a broken heart

— Molly’s expressed excitement for getting to host is very endearing.
— Some fun talk from Molly about her days as a cast member.
— I’m loving the pre-taped flashback scene between Molly and Lorne, complete with lots of fun 90s references.
— Great background details in Lorne’s office to make it convincingly look like 90s SNL, such as having individual photos of late 90s cast members on the wall behind Molly, a collage of bumper photos of 90s hosts seen next to Lorne (one minor nitpick though: the Charlie Sheen and Mena Suvari bumpers are from after the 90s), and the index cards on the corkboard of host/musical guest line-ups being episodes from season 24.
— I only wish the overall pre-taped flashback scene worked in a brief appearance from Darrell, since he’s the only 90s cast member who’s still on the show at this point in 2007. Having him in a 90s wig briefly interrupt Lorne and Molly’s conversation to tell Molly they need her for the rehearsal of a sketch would’ve been fun and a nice nod to Darrell’s longevity in the cast.
STARS: ****


URIGRO
Rerun from 1/20/07


TENANT MEETING
Penelope’s competitive behavior alienates her neighbors at tenant meeting

— I’m starting to notice how interesting it feels seeing Molly interacting with cast members she never worked with during her years as a cast member.
— Penelope’s entrance already gets some faint recognition applause, despite this being only her second sketch.
— Good gag with Penelope suddenly appearing opposite of the side of Jason she was standing in a few seconds prior.
— The Penelope routine continues to work for me so far in these early Peneople sketches, despite it’s one-note nature.
— A particularly funny line from Penelope about her recently-deceased cat being her baby who she gave birth to.
— They managed to top the Peyton-Manning-imitates-Penelope’s-habit-to-show-her-how-annoying-she-is bit from the first installment of this sketch by having Molly actually imitating Penelope’s voice and mannerisms while imitating her habit.
— An interesting otherworldly bit at the end with Penelope actually turning invisible like she claimed she could earlier in the sketch. IIRC, SNL would go on to do variations of that at the end of subsequent Penelope sketches.
STARS: ***½


THE FRINGE CANDIDATES DEBATE
Dan Rather (DAH) moderates debate of fringe presidential candidates

— A promising and fun-seeming idea.
— Will perfectly playing yet another creepy, boundaries-pushing child predator character, this time a NAMBLA member. I absolutely love the seedy casual look on his face.
— Yet another sketch featuring hilarious dancing from Jason.
— Poor timing from Andy, accidentally delivering his opening line too early when Darrell’s Dan Rather hadn’t finished introducing him yet, leading to awkward dead air after Darrell does finish introducing him.
— I like Darrell-as-Dan-Rather’s facial reaction to Molly’s Jews line.
— Boy, have I gotten sick of Fred frequently playing stock middle-eastern stereotype roles, which, by this point of his SNL tenure, he can do in his sleep.
— Maya’s loud laugh-speaking right now is really annoying, though it does cause Darrell to break.
— The mechanical devices in Maya’s wig are resulting in occasional distracting whirring noises being heard in the background while some of the other cast members are speaking. It’s particularly noticeable during Bill’s speech as Tony Blair.
STARS: ***½


THE SOPRANOS
Sally O’Malley auditions for dancer job at Bada Bing! Club

— Jason’s mannerisms at the beginning of this sketch are cracking me up.
— Another interesting instance tonight of a Molly Shannon recurring character being placed in a TV show spoof. I’m liking this use of her characters tonight.
— Watching and reviewing this Sally O’Malley sketch makes me feel like it’s 2000 or 2001 again. I love that nostalgic feeling, and it’s making me feel strangely kinda giddy, despite me never having been a fan of this character back when she regularly appeared. It’s funny how nostalgia works sometimes.
— A particularly boundary-pushing visual of Sally O’Malley’s camel toe right now, completely topping the cameo toe visuals from previous Sally O’Malley sketches. A funny moment, and I love the reaction to it from the audience and the Sopranos characters.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What I’ve Done”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Comedy Cul-De-Sac- Jeannie Darcy does stand-up on her relationship woes

disorientation thwarts demonstration by blind barbecue expert Pep Walters

What’s in a Word?- SEM & AMP debate the propriety of “panties” & “nipple”

— Great to see the return of Jeannie Darcy, one of Molly’s best recurring characters, despite her 1) not being as universally well-known as some of her other recurring characters (I’m assuming), and 2) debuting towards the very end of her SNL tenure, which was at a time when she was seemingly past her prime on SNL and giving a lot of weak performances.
— I like Seth’s exaggerated amusement over Jeannie Darcy’s bad, stiff jokes.
— Funny how we’re getting TWO intentionally bad stand-up comics in tonight’s Update, with us now getting Fred’s blind comedian character, Pep Walters.
— A laugh from Pep Walters accidentally flinging his steak off-camera.
— There’s the obligatory instance of the “a blind Fred Armisen blocks the camera after his Update commentary” gag. It’s still working for me by this point of Fred’s SNL tenure.
— Seth never did finish that Iran soccer joke of his that Pep Walters interrupted by blocking the camera. I’m surprised they didn’t just have Seth do the traditional tree frog joke that always gets interrupted.
— An interesting “What’s In A Word” segment, and I like Seth’s lines during it.
STARS: ***½


KAITLIN ENTERTAINS
Kaitlin’s equally-hyper mom (MOS) misses performance at an old-folks home

— Feels a little odd to see the return tonight of a non-Molly Shannon recurring character who’s been on a hiatus.
— It also feels odd seeing a Rick-less Kaitlin sketch; the only one in SNL history, as this ends up being the final Kaitlin sketch. SNL writes Rick out of this sketch by explaining he’s waiting outside in the car.
— I love Kaitlin quickly going through each decade from the 1920s to then-present day during her “This is your life” presentation to the senior citizens.
— I’m a little surprised this sketch is still working for me without the Rick character.
— I had been wondering where Molly was. Interesting use of her as Kaitlin’s similar-traited mother. It’s odd, though, that Molly didn’t appear until the end of this sketch, but at the same time, I kinda like that, as it makes it feel like she’s just a cast member again instead of a host.
— Speaking of it feeling like Molly’s a cast member again, the shirt she’s wearing in this sketch is the same one she once wore over a decade earlier in the Russell & Tate sketch from the season 22 episode hosted by another former cast member, interestingly enough: Dana Carvey (side-by-side comparison below).

   

STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
dirty bomb threat is eclipsed by MacGruber’s urge to make a Bloody Mary

— MacGruber has officially become recurring.
— Feels rare to see a MacGruber sketch with the non-Maya Rudolph/Kristen Wiig assistant role being played by a female host instead of a male one. The only other instance of that I can think of is with Betty White, but maybe I’m forgetting something.
— Funny reveal of MacGruber making a drink right before the explosion happens.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Tales From The Greatest Generation” by RBS- big-boobed Einstein is ogled

— A questionable premise to base a TV Funhouse on.
— The Franklin D. Roosevelt scene is actually very funny.
— Feels a little odd hearing Bill Hader’s voice in a TV Funhouse, I guess because it’s easy to forget that Bill’s SNL tenure overlapped with TV Funhouse’s tenure for a while. Speaking of which, is Bill doing the voice of practically ALL the characters in tonight’s cartoon? Sure sounds like it. What happened? Could Robert Smigel not afford to pay a lot of voice actors for this particular cartoon, so he had to resort to using a single SNL cast member to do almost all of the voices? If so, this is yet ANOTHER sign that TV Funhouse is dying.
— Overall, meh. Some individual laughs from the silliness of this, but as a whole, no. This continues the limping that Smigel has been making towards the finish line of his TV Funhouse tenure. A shame to see this happen to such a formerly-reliable SNL segment.
STARS: **


THE OAK ROOM
Charli Coffee shares the stage with fellow boozehound Toni Carlisle (MOS)

— The very random return of a forgotten one-time sketch Maya did two years prior in the season 30 Tom Brady episode. I hated this sketch the first time, but maybe I’ll be more lenient on it this time, because, unlike the first installment of this sketch, tonight’s installment is thankfully airing outside of a season where Maya did annoying, hammy singing sketches like this on a weekly basis.
— Maya’s delivery during her stories reminds me a lot of Alec Baldwin’s Tony Bennett. I’m kinda liking that.
— Molly’s delivery is fitting for this type of role and sketch, and I like the way she and Maya are playing off of each other.
— Not too many laughs here, but it doesn’t seem to be attempting them, aside from the occasional comedic lines from/about Kenan’s character. I like how this sketch is going for a more low-key, realistic, slice-of-life feel, as opposed to the first installment, which made a lot of bad attempts at wacky humor (especially the running bit with Maya’s pratfalls over tables and pianos). Tonight’s installment is a big improvement.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s drunken guitar playing takes precedence over hydrogen crisis

— I like how tonight’s episode is introducing the concept of each MacGruber short having new theme song lyrics that pertain to the plot of that night’s MacGruber’s shorts, instead of just using the same generic theme song for each short.
— A solid progression to tonight’s MacGruber shorts, with MacGruber’s increasingly drunk state.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bleed It Out”


TRUMP STEAKS
Donald (DAH) & Melania (MOS) Trump pitch co-branded Sharper Image steaks

— Darrell seems much more prominent than usual in tonight’s episode. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that his former cast mate Molly Shannon is hosting.
— A lot of steaks in tonight’s episode, between the Pep Walters bit on Weekend Update and now this.
— A laugh from Darrell-as-Trump’s “black anus beef” malaprop.
— Overall, not bad. Short and harmless enough, especially compared to some other Trump sketches from around this time that haven’t aged well.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s shirtless hamburger-eating stupor mirrors David Hasselhoff

— Particularly hilarious theme song lyrics in this.
— A very funny, spot-on, and timely spoof of the then-new viral video of a drunken David Hasselhoff.
— I strangely love Molly’s off-camera delivery of the line “The bomb you made when you were DRUNK!”
— Very funny how the obligatory explosion of this MacGruber short happens out of nowhere when MacGruber is quietly in the middle of eating his burger.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid and fun episode, with almost nothing I disliked. Molly Shannon played a big part in the fun vibe this episode had, and it was nice to see her back on SNL, doing good work. Despite being surrounded by a mostly-different cast than the one from her SNL tenure, Molly blended back into the show really well tonight. The energy and nostalgia in the air during this episode made some of Molly’s recurring characters come off even better than usual, particularly Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O’Malley.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scarlett Johansson)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 32 comes to an end, with host Zach Braff

Posted on

April 21, 2007 – Scarlett Johansson / Bjork (S32 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHITE HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE
evasive George W. Bush (JAS) lets Chuck Schumer-on-tape [real] start show

— At least this is a President Bush press conference that has him interacting with reporters instead of delivering a barely-funny straight-to-camera speech once again.
— Jason-as-Bush’s random nicknames for the reporters are increasingly funny.
— This cold opening is dying for me during the back-and-forth between Jason’s Bush and Maya, and the audience apparently agrees with me, judging from their silence.
— Meh at the bit with the brainteasers book.
— Even the nicknames bit that I praised earlier in this cold opening has now gotten old.
— Kristen’s list of demands has some funny lines, and is being well-delivered by her.
— Jesus Christ, this cold opening has been going on for eight minutes. EIGHT FUCKING MINUTES, PEOPLE! That is absolutely ridiculous for something that contains material as scant and weak as this. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Jim Downey is given WAY too much free rein during these past-his-prime years of his SNL run. Lorne needs to realize that this is long past the days where Downey’s political writing was always reliable.
— An extremely random pre-taped Chuck Schumer cameo, just there to say “Live from New York…”.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host cheers Sanjaya Malakar (ANS) with “Something To Talk About” duet

— The return of Andy’s topical Sanjaya impression.
— Meh, a musical monologue.
— Some fairly interesting and impressively-fast hair changes from Andy all throughout the song. Not sure how they’re pulling those changes off so quickly. Unfortunately, that’s the only semi-interesting thing going on during this song.
STARS: *½


LIVE WITH REGIS & KELLY
Ivanka Trump (host) plugs away

— Wow, they haven’t done this sketch in years. The last time it appeared was when Donald Trump hosted (*shudder*) back in season 29. This also ends up being the final Regis & Kelly sketch that has Darrell and Amy. There would later be at least one Regis & Kelly installment with different performers playing the roles.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as Howie Mandel on standby in case Regis can’t go on with the show. And at least this means SNL refrained from having Chris Kattan do another cameo as Gelman, or resort to giving the Gelman role to a current cast member (I still can’t believe they stuck Rachel Dratch with that role last time this sketch appeared.)
— Speaking of Donald Trump, it feels kinda odd in retrospect seeing Scarlett debut her Ivanka Trump impression 10 years before it would become a regular role she’d play on SNL.
— Amy’s crying as Kelly Ripa right now actually looks very convincing.
— Okay, the cutaways to Fred’s Mandel are way too frequent. It ain’t funny anymore.
STARS: ***


PROM DRESS SHOPPING
Virginiaca helps stepdaughter (host) shop for hootchie-worthy prom dress

— Ugh, another Virginiaca sketch. And she’s now getting recognition applause from the audience?
— I once again ask: how many white stepdaughters does this character have?
— Once again, I can find nothing to really say during this sketch, except it’s the usual insufferable Virginiaca tripe.
STARS: *


ROY RULES!
ANS has more than a mancrush on his brother-in-law

— Interesting seeing Lonely Island take on 70s/80s heavy metal for once instead of the music genres they typically cover.
— Good use of SNL writer Bryan Tucker.
— The “24/7 69” lyric was very funny.
— I love the random, brief key change in the song, with Andy comically singing in a tender manner while playing piano.
STARS: ***½


MIKE’S MARBLEOPOLIS
Chandelier Galaxy scion Lexi (host) touts classiness of marble columns

— The second installment of this series of sketches, becoming a staple of Scarlett Johansson’s early episodes.
— Fred’s distinct, exaggerated, New York-accented delivery of “Maww-ble cahh-lums” is probably his funniest pronunciation of the product being sold out of all of the installments in this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***½


WIIX NEWS
Michelle Dison’s lesbian leanings resurface during interview with (host)

— The real-life TV station name used in the first installment of this sketch earlier this season, WVIR, has been changed to an apparently fictional TV station name in tonight’s installment: WIIX, which is apparently a play on Kristen’s real-life last name. Presumably, the reason for the change in station names is because WVIR is a Virginia station, and the infamous Virginia Tech school shooting had happened just a few days before this episode, and thus, SNL apparently felt it would’ve been in poor taste to use Virginia’s TV station name during this tragic time.
— It’s mentioned that Kristen’s Michelle Dison character is returning from a leave of absence she had taken for about 6 months, which I assume is continuity from the end of the first installment of this sketch, as that installment aired about 6-7 months prior to this.
— Between the Roy Rules short and Kristen’s bi-curious tendencies in this sketch, there seems to be a bit of a theme going on in tonight’s episode.
— I love Scarlett’s taken-aback delivery of “I…I don’t know what’s going on” when bombarded with a whole bunch of friendly-but-way-too-forward offers from an awkwardly flirtatious Michelle Dison.
— The random cat attack ending felt very inferior compared to the bird poop ending from the first installment of this sketch.
— Overall, this was basically just a re-write of the first installment of this sketch. It still worked for me, mostly due to Kristen’s good execution of the material, but this installment paled in comparison to the first installment.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Earth Intruders”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Alberto Gonzales’ amnesia

for Earth Day, WLF sings about the wonderful planet we live on

— Two big changes of pace right out of the gate in this Update: Amy’s hairstyle, and Seth getting to deliver the opening joke for, I believe, the first time ever.
— Boy, Bryan Tucker is getting lots of face time tonight (the third above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— Good to see the “Really?!?” segment from earlier this season return.
— Much like the last “Really?!?” prior to this, we get some more great barbs from Seth and Amy, though these aren’t as memorable as the ones from the Michael Vick-themed “Really?!?” from earlier this season.
— Yes! Another Will Forte Update song!
— Like Will’s last Update song prior to this, he gets assistance from a guitar-playing Fred.
— Very funny lyrics from Will about what bad things he does towards the planet.
— Pretty funny turn in Will’s song with him now singing the praises of the movie Battlefield Earth.
— Pretty nice hearing the audience get involved in clapping the beat of Will’s song.
STARS: ***


KUATOS
male (ANS) & female (host) Kuatos gross out dinner guests (FRA) & (AMP)

— This is now the THIRD recurring sketch tonight that debuted in this season’s Jaime Pressly episode. (The other two being Virginiaca and Michelle Dison.) I remember when tonight’s episode originally aired, I worriedly asked myself during this Kuato sketch, “What next? The return of that godforsaken Big Wigs sketch?”
— Not sure we needed to see a second installment of this Kuato thing. I still don’t know what to make of the first installment of it.
— Scarlett as a female Kuato? Meh.
— So far, I don’t think I’ve laughed a single time during this sketch yet.
— Fred: “I do NOT like where this is going.” That makes two of us, knowing in retrospect what this sketch is leading up to.
— Aaaaand there it goes. Why has this sketch suddenly turned into Rookie Cop 2.0, with the chain reaction of vomiting? The original Rookie Cop sketch is actually a guilty pleasure of mine, as fully disclosed in my review of it, but I certainly didn’t need this Kuato sketch to turn into some kind of pale version of it.
— Ugh, as if the parade of vomiting wasn’t bad enough, now SNL throws another appearance from Darrell’s fucking Ahnuld impression at us to close out this mess.
STARS: *


NEWS MAKERS WITH JANE PAULEY
Jane Pauley (KRW) interviews stars of viral online videos

— Shortly into the small scene with Fred as the dancing little person, I got a laugh from Kristen’s Jane Pauley just saying “Aaaaaand let’s just end the interview there.” Speaking of which, according to Fred in a blog he had on NBC.com’s SNL site back around 2007/2008, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch had MULTIPLE cutaways to him as the dancing little person all throughout the sketch. Fred was bummed to learn after dress rehearsal that SNL was cutting down the number of his scenes in this sketch to just one. I think SNL did us a favor with that decision.
— I love Kristen’s Jane Pauley questioning the bad puns she’s reading off the teleprompter.
— Boy, I haven’t seen that Grape-Stomping Lady video in ages.
— Another blast from the past, with Will’s spoof of the Star Wars Kid video that was popular back in this era.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Torboto” by RBS- at Guantanamo Bay, torturing robot does the dirty work

— Damn, that is a great theme song.
— A spoof of the old Anime series Gigantor, which I’m not all that familiar with, though I’m at least familiar enough with its animation to know that this spoof is doing a spot-on imitation of that animation.
— The Amish part was pretty funny.
— All of the torture the robot is doing to the prisoners feels like a poor man’s version of the Shazzang cartoon from the Will Ferrell-hosted season 30 episode.
— I don’t get the cat/tree/reassignment thing Torboto did at the end of this.
— Overall, I’m pretty meh on this. Aside from the classic Maraka cartoon, Robert Smigel hasn’t had a good track record lately as we head towards the end of his TV Funhouse run on SNL.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wanderlust”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An off episode, and the first episode I disliked in what feels like a long time (which at least shows how well this season had been going). Among the problems of this episode: none of the sketches stood out to me as strong (the highest rating I gave out was just a mere three-and-a-half stars, though I may soon change the Roy Rules rating to four stars, as I’m having a hard time deciding which rating I personally feel it deserves), there was a lot of unnecessary rehashing of about 30% of the sketches from the not-all-that-great Jaime Pressly episode, some of the non-recurring stuff was also weak, and the overall show had a very forgettable feel. Not a particularly awful episode, but mediocre for this season’s standards.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Shia LaBeouf)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Molly Shannon

Posted on

April 14, 2007 – Shia LaBeouf / Avril Lavigne (S32 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WINGS OF HOPE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) offer racist rehab for Don Imus

— Darrell makes his first appearance in THREE EPISODES.
— Pretty funny one-liners from Kenan’s Al Sharpton throughout this.
— Aaaaaaand there goes Darrell’s obligatory extended silent mugging & ticcing sequence as Jesse Jackson.
— I’m enjoying the detailing of the racism rehabilitation Don Imus will receive in Jackson and Sharpton’s rehab center.
— I love Darrell-as-Jackson’s mock inspirational speech about blacks and whites coming together.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
backstage, host can’t get cast members to share his SNL excitement

— Funny to think this is apparently at a time before Shia LaBeouf had much name recognition, as he opens this monologue with a self-deprecating “To those of you who know who I am…..hi, mom, hi, dad.”
— Great scene with Kenan panickedly trying to hide his smoking when a gleeful Shia approaches him. I also love Shia pointing out the Disney/Nickelodeon child star similarities between himself and Kenan. I think this is the very first mention an SNL episode has ever made about Kenan’s Nickelodeon past, but I may be forgetting something from prior episodes.
— Interesting use of Darrell.
— Pretty fun backstage interactions between Shia and individual cast and crew members.
— The gag with Lorne not knowing Kristen’s name certainly comes off ironic in retrospect, considering the huge favoritism Lorne would end up showing towards Kristen later in her SNL tenure.
— A very odd camera gaffe happens at the end when Shia is wrapping up the monologue. Someone apparently turned the camera switch off by accident, causing an odd camera jerk motion, followed by a few seconds of a black screen, before the camera switch is turned back on. Yikes! I’m pretty sure this is a first in SNL history of a camera accidentally being turned off mid-sketch.
STARS: ***½


THE HATHAWAY MOUSTACHE RIDE COMPANY
Hathaway Company visionary (Alec Baldwin) institutes free moustache rides

— Random Alec Baldwin cameo!
— The opening setting of this, with the 1880s business meeting, reminds me of the original Grayson Moorehead commercials from season 21. Plus, not only does Darrell play one of the old-timey businessmen at the table in both Grayson Moorehead and this mustache rides commercial, but he even has a very similar look in both (side-by-side comparison).

   

— Funny dignified execution of a raunchy premise, and Alec’s typical dry delivery is perfect for this.
— A non-Weekend Update appearance from Seth!
— Great visual of Will’s vibrating mustache.
STARS: ***½


PRINCE SHOW
Tobey Maguire (host) & Nancy Grace (AMP) drop by

— (*groan*) This tired, formulaic recurring sketch again. This thankfully ends up being the final installment of this.
— Shia’s not attempting much of an imitation of Tobey Maguire’s voice, but his dialogue is pretty amusing.
— This is actually a fun use of Amy’s Nancy Grace impression (also making its final appearance). I love her whole spiel about how much of a Prince fan she and her girlfriends were back in the day.
— Great wild dancing from Amy at the end.
STARS: **


BUYING BEER
underage (host), (ANS), (BIH), (WLF) stage elaborate ruses to buy beer

— Good detail with Andy’s lopsided fake mustache, adding to his and Shia’s character’s unconvincing attempt to come off as adults of legal drinking age.
— I love the increasingly elaborate, convoluted attempts from Andy, Shia, and Bill to buy beer without showing I.D., especially with Will unconvincingly staging a robbery and allegedly stealing Bill’s I.D.
— I enjoyed the surprise reveal at the end.
STARS: ****


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Dakota Fanning’s (AMP) sister Elle (musical guest) is a rival

— Two celebrity-hosted talk show sketches not only in the same episode, but both in the pre-Weekend Update half of the show?
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, we get some fantastic slow burn reactions from Kenan’s Reggie in response to Amy-as-Dakota-Fanning’s backhanded remarks to him.
— A pretty good laugh from Amy’s Dakota asking the Sprouse Twins “Why???” when they tell her they’re playing with toys.
— It wasn’t necessary to repeat the bit from the first installment of this sketch with Kristen’s snack-providing character humbly responding “You can call me mom” when Amy’s Dakota tells her “Thank you , Catherine.” That joke doesn’t work as well when you use it a second time.
— A hilarious part with Kenan muttering a very bitter “Yeah, I’ll put a cap somewhere, all right” after Amy’s Dakota tells him “Reggie, you better put on your thinking cap!”
— Overall, this was good, but not as strong as the first installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


DEAR SISTER
(BIH), (ANS), (host), (KRW) off each other a la The O.C.

— Ah, a legendary Digital Short and one of my all-time favorites.
— When this originally aired, not only was I one of quite a number of SNL fans who wasn’t aware of the fact that it was spoofing a scene from the show The O.C. (though that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of this short AT ALL), but I remember being simultaneously weirded-out and intrigued by the Imogen Heap “Hide And Seek” song played in this short, combined with how that song first played right after the baffling and inexplicable part with Andy shooting Bill out of nowhere while Bill was talking about his sister. I didn’t know during the live airing that “Hide And Seek” was a real, non-SNL song, so I assumed it was another original Lonely Island musical creation, and I wondered if that was someone in the cast singing it.
— The escalation to this is fantastic, and it especially starts getting really fun when Shia is the one to suddenly get shot when entering the room while laughing lightheartedly. After all these years, even though I know this entire short beat-for-beat, line-for-line, I still get no end of enjoyment from watching it. And that “Hide And Seek” song still intrigues me; it’s so oddly catchy and haunting.
— I’m loving how watching this short right now is taking me right back to the late 2000s, reminding me not only of how frequently I watched this short back in those days, but also how frequently I watched amusing YouTube videos where people gave the Dear Sister treatment to TV/movie clips in which someone gets shot or similar.
— A particularly hilarious part with Kristen repeatedly getting shot while the same “Mmm, whatcha saaaaayyyyyyy” part of the “Hide And Seek” song plays over and over. Also a great little touch with how Shia is seen pointing his gun in increasingly intimidating, gun expert-like positions each time the camera cuts to him during that sequence.
— Excellent ending with the two cops shooting each other after reading the letter, while different parts of “Hide And Seek” play simultaneously.
STARS: *****


SOFA KING
Mattress King proprietors say their new enterprise is Sofa King great

— A sketch sorta in the vein of polarizing dirty wordplay sketches from the early 2000s like Colonel Angus and Cork Soakers.
— Funny bit with a graphic of couch photos being displayed over Maya’s face, forcing her to eventually have to awkwardly lean to the side to get her face back onscreen.
— The performers are doing a good job walking the fine line between making their foreign-accented sayings of “Sofa King” make you realize what dirty phrase it sounds like, but not saying it in a way that makes it sound like they’re directly saying the ACTUAL dirty phrase.
— The humor of this wordplay is only mildly funny at best. For me, the performances are making the material better than it is.
— Bill’s quivery mannerisms are very funny. Also, this is yet another Bill Hader performance that reminds me so much of Dan Aykroyd, especially the way Bill is smiling.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Girlfriend”


WEEKEND UPDATE
MAR interviews Anna Nicole Smith paternity loser Howard K. Stern (ANS)

same-sex couple from Connecticut (FRA) & (BIH) is swishy-WASPy

after apologizing, Don Imus (DAH) causes more problems for himself

— An interesting sports-esque set-up to the Howard K. Stern commentary, and I like the dry way the commentary itself is being executed.
— Meh, we didn’t need a variation of the Same-Sex New Jersey Couple, with this now being a Connecticut same-sex couple, played by the same two cast members.
— Bill’s extended cartoonish snooty laughing sequence as his rich snob character has me practically on the floor, even if he’s overdoing it. I feel like a hypocrite for laughing at this and complaining about Darrell’s extended mugging & ticcing sequence as Jesse Jackson earlier in this episode (and especially in the Jackson/Sharpton Update commentary from the then-recent Forest Whitaker episode), but maybe Bill is just better at pulling that kind of thing off than Darrell is. Also, Bill seems to be relying heavily on the cartoonish snooty laughing to make up for the lack of actual funny written material.
— Speaking of Darrell, he’s been getting surprisingly decent airtime in his first episode back after being M.I.A. in the last two episodes prior to this.
— Darrell’s Don Imus voice is making me laugh, but the comedic conceit of his commentary itself is very lame.
STARS: ***


KNIFE SALESMEN
salesman (WLF) cuts off thumb in attempt to sell Mrs. Ginsu (KRW) a knife

— Solid salesman delivery from Will during his sales pitch to Kristen.
— The ridiculous “Am not” “Are too” argument between Will and Kristen is pretty funny.
— A huge laugh from Will nonchalantly cutting through his own finger, much to Kristen and Shia’s horror.
— A projectile bleeding sketch in the tradition of stuff like Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child sketch.
— No idea what to think about that dog attack ending.
— Overall, some good laughs here, but for an oddball Will Forte sketch, this wasn’t one of his best, nor was it one of the more memorable projectile bleeding sketches.
STARS: ***


AN INTIMATE MOMENT WITH JOHN MAYER & JESSICA SIMPSON
for John Mayer (BIH) & Jessica Simpson (KRW), musical spasms are intimacy

— I love the mere look on Kristen’s face as Jessica Simpson.
— Funny imitation from Bill of John Mayer’s trademark guitar-playing faces.
— Kristen’s musical vocalizations as Jessica is priceless.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can Do Better”


SHIA & MAYA
in her dressing room, MAR attempts to seduce host

— A very funny sudden escalation early on, after Maya and Shia’s friendly opening conversation.
— Feels rare at this point of SNL’s run to see a sketch like this with a cast member playing themselves, not counting monologues.
— Maya’s performance is incredibly silly and over-the-top, but it’s definitely working for me here (it’s somehow helped by the fact that she’s playing herself), and the jokes are coming at us a mile a minute.
— I like the turn with Shia’s mock dramatic monologue to Maya.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid episode. Very little to dislike here, and this contained one of my all-time favorite pieces (Dear Sister).


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Peyton Manning)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Scarlett Johansson

Posted on

March 24, 2007 – Peyton Manning / Carrie Underwood (S32 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUSH’S PRESS CONFERENCE
Alberto Gonzalez (FRA) is uneasy despite George W. Bush’s (JAS) support

— Pretty funny background facial expressions from Fred’s Alberto Gonzalez as his mood goes back-and-forth depending on what Bush says regarding the consequences he may or may not suffer.
— The fact that the comedic conceit of this particular President Bush press conference cold opening isn’t focusing solely on the speech Jason’s Bush is giving is making me like this more than the tepidly-written Jason-as-Bush press conference cold openings.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host tells a joke & introduces dad Archie, brother Eli, mom Olivia [real]

— The Tom Brady/circus/three rings joke Peyton relays was very good.
— Funny line about Peyton’s mom being a disappointment to the family because she never made it to the NFL.
— A short and simple but fairly charming monologue.
STARS: ***


UNITED WAY
host is a poor role model for kids during a United Way activity

— A very famous and often-played piece.
— A great way for Peyton to spoof his role model image. Every moment of this commercial is a riot to me. Petyon hitting and knocking over kids with the football when passing to them, him speaking very harshly to them, him teaching them inappropriate things like picking the lock of a car, etc.
— The tattoo part is particularly hilarious.
STARS: *****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
Betty & Jodi are impressed by the size of zookeeper (host)

— Amy and Maya’s flirtatious compliments to Peyton are pretty funny, but feel like an inferior knock-off of their flirtatious compliments to Jake Gyllenhaal in the first installment of this sketch.
— Some laughs from Amy and Maya’s talk about if Peyton’s head size made it difficult for his mother to give birth to him.
— I like Maya calling up her husband to see if he’ll get mad by her flirting with Peyton.
— Overall, the weakest Bronx Beat by default, but still not bad. However, I hope the quality of Bronx Beat isn’t already slowly starting to diminish, after the pretty solid start it had in its first two installments.
STARS: ***


ESPN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL PARTY
lucky (AMP)’s girly rationales produced a perfect NCAA basketball bracket

— The “huge whore” comments from Amy about her college roommate are pretty funny.
— I love the brief cutaway to Peyton’s deadpan confused face during the discussion of one of Amy’s girlish reasons for her picks, even though the whole latter gag with Amy’s girlish picks and her having no knowledge of sports is starting to feel lazily stereotypical.
— Solid turn with Jason and Amy using “Peyton Manning” as an unflattering term for disappointments, offending Peyton’s character.
— Funny line from Amy about how she’s going to donate her prize to a charity for cats who are overfed.
— More laughs from more unflattering things being said about Peyton Manning.
— A pretty good laugh from Jason yelling “Don’t pull a Peyton Manning!” to Peyton’s character after he angrily walks off the show.
STARS: ***½


PARTY POOPER
at a party, Penelope (KRW) compulsively one-ups guests’ small talk

— The debut of this Penelope character.
— Kristen’s delivery and the one-upping habit of this character are already making me laugh.
— So far, a one-note character from Kristen, and a precursor to an unfortunate endless number of one-note “look at me” recurring characters of hers, but this particular character is working pretty well in this inaugural appearance of hers.
— Funny escalation to Penelope’s lies after an unhappy Peyton tries to beat her at her own game.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Maraka” by RBS- multilingual explorer poses myriad questions to viewers

— A spot-on spoof of Dora The Explorer, as well as children’s shows in general that rely on the “The main character asks viewers a question and pauses for a long time while waiting for viewers to answer” trope.
— The increasingly random, unrelated, inappropriate questions Maraka asks viewers are priceless.
— I love Maraka saying to viewers “Don’t question it, just do it!” during the arm-flapping bit.
— A hilarious inclusion of random foreign tongue-clicking sounds from Maraka in the middle of her very long-winded spiel delivered in Spanish.
STARS: *****


LOCKER ROOM MOTIVATION
“Casino Royale Theme” inspires terpsichorean basketball coach (WLF)

— Oh, yet another classic tonight. This sketch is also a fantastic one-two punch with the Maraka cartoon that preceded it.
— Peyton: “I just thought about going out there in the second half, and a little bit of pee came out.”
— Another great line from Peyton: his random one about practicing French kissing with his French-kissing puppet.
— Even just the build-up to Will’s famous dance, where he’s initially just intensely listening to the music with a very serious look on his face, is coming off funny, though even moreso when you know what’s coming.
— And there goes the famous dancing. Absolutely priceless and legendary. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it never fails to bowl me over with laughter. Even there mere Casino Royale music itself is hilarious-sounding when combined with Will’s dancing to it.
— I love watching the reaction of the performers in the background during Will’s dancing, and how some of them are attempting to hide their genuine amusement (Bill in particular has his hand strategically placed over his mouth in a resting manner almost the entire time, because he already KNOWS he’s going to break at Will’s dancing) while some of the others are just openly smirking without hiding it. It’s also pretty fun to imagine what Will’s dancing must look like from the perspectives of his giggling scene partners, considering they’re standing/sitting behind Will.
— Great turn with Peyton joining in on Will’s bizarre dancing, complete with him playing Will’s leg like a guitar.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Before He Cheats”


WEEKEND UPDATE
presidential candidate Tim Calhoun lays out his scattershot platform

Zoo News- SEM considers the fate of Knut the polar bear cub

Sanjaya Malakar’s (ANS) version of “You Really Got Me” moves DAA to tears

— Maybe it’s just me, but Seth’s delivery sounds a lot more low-key tonight. Is he under the weather this week?
— Yes! TIM FUCKING CALHOUN! Will Forte keeps the classic performances coming tonight.
— Tim Calhoun’s personal Bay Of Pigs revelation was hilarious.
— I absolutely love Calhoun’s delivery of “I will NOT budge on this” when proposing that the presidential seal be replaced by a real seal.
— A reminder of those “Head-on, apply directly to the forehead” (*repeat several times*) commercials that were rampant in this time period.
— Calhoun’s “anal” answer regarding which side he would pick in the same-sex debate had me laughing so hard.
— An interesting-seeming side segment, with Seth doing a Zoo News segment.
— Seth’s lower-key delivery tonight (yeah, he’s definitely gotta be under the weather this week) is particularly noticeable during his Zoo News segment. I’m not caring much for this segment, aside from the comically harsh comment about putting down Abigail Breslin.
— I think I recall hearing that Seth unknowingly mispronounced the name of the polar bear all throughout the Zoo News segment.
— Second Update in a row with the traditional tree-frog-joke-gets-interrupted gag.
— The random Sanjaya interruption, while a very dated reference when watching this in 2020, still works for me, mostly because Andy’s Sanjaya impression is pretty funny, as are Seth and Amy’s reactions to his singing, all of which makes this hold up better than, say, Fred’s equally-now-dated Judge Larry commentaries in then-recent Updates.
— A random inclusion of Dan Aykroyd as one of the crying audience members during Sanjaya’s singing. And in typical annoying Amy-Poehler-on-Weekend-Update fashion, Amy hurts the gag of Dan’s random cameo by pointing at him afterwards and asking “Why is he here?!?” Ugh, why does Amy always have to call attention to things like this? Dan’s random cameo would’ve been funnier had no acknowledgment been made about it by Seth or Amy.
STARS: ***


300
while filming 300, (host) fails to smash boulder onto fellow actor (FRA)

— Good facial make-up on Peyton, rendering him unrecognizable.
— This premise is just plain dumb, thin, and questionable, and not in the funny way that those kinds of premises can sometimes be. It also doesn’t help that there’s no escalation to the main joke.
— I do like Jason’s performance as the increasingly agitated director, and there are some occasional laughs from Peyton, but otherwise, oof.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wasted”


PORCH TALK
daft & indiscreet (host) & (KRW) sip coffee on a pleasant spring evening

— The second and final edition of the Porch Talk sketch that debuted in this season’s Jaime Pressly episode. I heard they would later do a variation of this sketch in one of the wraparound segments in an updated Best Of Mike Myers special that would air around 2007/2008 (this updated special includes newly-filmed wraparound segments with Mike interacting with individual members of the then-current SNL cast from season 32/33), but I’ve never seen the updated special myself.
— Much like last time, Kristen’s delivery is absolutely perfect here, and Peyton is complementing her performance well with solid delivery of his own.
— Lots of funny odd, disturbing, and very random revelations being delivered by Kristen and Peyton in a calm, affable manner. These sketches are growing on me even more, and I already really liked the first installment. I wouldn’t have minded this sketch appearing at least one more time in a regular episode.
— Like the first installment, this overall sketch was kept at a perfect short and sweet length.
STARS: ****


THE MERCEDES 550
the oven-equipped Mercedes 550 is the car for meatloaf lovers like host

— Pretty funny random concept.
— Great reveal of Peyton not having pants on.
— Hilarious visual of each car seat being a toilet.
STARS: ***½


AIR FORCE ONE
awful basketball players don’t need Nike Air Force One shoes

— Two commercials in a row?
— Cool look of the male cast in those white tracksuits they’re shown walking in unison in.
— A fairly fun use of what appears to be the entire male cast, minus Seth, of course, and Darrell, the latter of whom not only is missing from this commercial, and not only is missing from this ENTIRE episode, but has been missing from these PAST TWO episodes. Does the man need a search party sent out for him or something?
— An overall forgettable commercial.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS
host’s brothers Eli & Cooper [real] give him a birthday cake

— A nice and unique change of pace for SNL’s goodnights, with Peyton being presented with a birthday celebration. I wonder if he was genuinely not expecting this.
— Nice touch with how the birthday cake is a replica of SNL’s home base stage.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and memorable episode. There was an impressive amount of THREE sketches that I rated five stars, and there was barely anything that I didn’t like. Peyton Manning was also one of the better athlete hosts I feel SNL has ever had.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Shia LaBeouf

Posted on

March 17, 2007 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Snow Patrol (S32 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SNL SPECIAL REPORT
CSR likens Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton to black men vs. white women

— Chris Rock! Feels interesting seeing him in this SNL era. Also, him cameoing in a Julia Louis-Dreyfus-hosted episode is strangely fitting, given the fact that, much like Julia, Chris was a cast member for only three seasons, didn’t do much on the show and was overshadowed by certain others in the cast, yet still went on to huge fame afterwards.
— This cold opening was originally a Weekend Update commentary that Chris did in this episode’s dress rehearsal.
— Wow, that comment about Rudy Giuliani’s sanity level was awfully prescient.
— Chris is an absolute riot here, as expected. He’s so damn funny that he’s even getting laughs from potentially touchy comments about the horrible treatment black people used to suffer.
— Hilarious mention of George W. Bush at the end, regarding if America is ready for a black president.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
JLD blames media for clips that put her in a negative light

— Great to see Julia hosting again so soon after her first hosting stint.
— In the real-life clip of Julia winning an Emmy, former SNL cast member (and Julia’s husband) Brad Hall can be seen congratulating her (the second above screencap for this monologue). Feels kinda nice seeing him on SNL again after so many years, even in this capacity. (I think I heard he could be spotted in the audience of the previous JLD-hosted episode I covered in season 31, but I didn’t catch him.) In Julia’s next SNL monologue from season 41, she shows an old clip of herself from an 80s movie that she (and Brad) was in, and the clip features a decent amount of face time for Brad, and I remember it felt so odd but nice seeing such an obscure Ebersol-era cast member like Brad get THAT amount of face time in an SNL episode from 2016, even if it was just in a clip from an old movie.
— The cutaways to Julia in the audience at the Golden Globes are hilarious. Kinda feels like a spiritual successor to the Golden Globes sketch with Megan Mullally in season 29.
— A huge laugh from Julia’s crotch-flashing scene. That excessive amount of pubic hair especially caught me off-guard.
STARS: ****


OPRAH
(JLD) is a disciple of Rhonda Byrne’s (AMP) book The Secret

— Funny look for Amy here.
— Maya’s Oprah portrayal feels a lot more animated than usual here. Not sure I can say that’s a good thing.
— Julia has some funny lines, but her interview scene is kinda dragging for me.
— Kenan’s Darfur refugee character, when asked how he’s doing: “Well, you know….BAD.”
— Kenan’s portion of this sketch is almost singlehandedly saving this otherwise iffy sketch.
STARS: **½


MONEX
gold bug (KRW) uses Monex to amass her favorite precious metal

— Kristen’s character mentions that this Monex program can be bought on a brochure and VHS tape. Stuff was still being sold on VHS in 2007?
— The framed Goldie Hawn photo in the gold-filled room is a funny gag.
— The part with Kristen resorting to drinking orange juice while wishing she could drink gold is kind of a stretch, because wouldn’t she just get, say, champagne or apple juice if she wanted a gold-colored drink?
— Hmm. I can’t say this commercial is working much for me. A lot of this is just washing over me. I want to say Kristen is at least performing this well, but I’m not even sure how to feel about her performance here.
STARS: **


R.P.S.
(JLD)’s husband (JAS) blames Restless Penis Syndrome for his infidelity

— Funny subversion with Jason’s big reveal to Julia turning out to be him having Restless Penis Syndrome when you think he’s going to reveal he’s having an affair.
— I like Kenan randomly appearing in Jason and Julia’s bedroom as Jason’s doctor.
— Pretty funny turn with Bill doing a PSA for Restless Penis Syndrome right in front of the main characters, which a confused Julia then calls attention to.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s argot foils monolingual JLD

— The debut of these La Rivista Della Televisione sketches, starring a character of Bill’s that debuted in an Italian hotel sketch from the preceding season’s Catherine Zeta-Jones episode.
— I probably said this in my review of the aforementioned Italian hotel sketch, but Bill’s fast-paced Italian gibberish is absolutely fantastic and sounds both funny and convincingly real.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as the producer and Will just silently sitting next to him while eating spaghetti and meatballs. I also like the back-and-forth arguing between Fred and Bill.
— Bill is a blast as this Vinny Vedecci character. And it still feels so rare at this point of Bill’s tenure to see him play the sole lead role in a sketch, so this is very refreshing.
— Great to see Bill work in his Kramer impression on SNL again. I also like him following it up with an intentionally-bad Jerry Seinfeld impression.
— The re-dubbed Old Christine clip is very funny.
— A lot of pretty fun nonsense at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’re All I Have”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Seidlin’s (FRA) Justice Department commentary drifts to a zoo story

AMP drunk dials SEM after doing two shots for St. Patrick’s Day

— Oh no. An Update commentary from Fred as Judge Larry for THE SECOND DAMN EPISODE IN A ROW, and for no good reason this time. This was bad enough the first time.
— Ugh, tonight’s Judge Larry commentary is even more difficult to sit through than the first one, which is certainly saying something. The huge amusement the audience is getting from this makes me feel so lost.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Fred-as-Judge-Larry’s mention of the monkeys “with the plastic asses”, but then even THAT got ruined by him proceeding to repeat it several times afterwards.
— Boy, this Judge Larry bit is so bad and endless. This feels kinda like an unfortunate precursor to Fred’s later, past-his-prime seasons, where he’s given so much free rein to waste all the airtime he wants with unfunny, meandering, self-indulgent bits.
— I love Seth’s Anne Frank joke, as well as his great ad-lib afterwards.
— The extended drunk bit with Seth and Amy is a little weird and much longer than the usual Seth/Amy interaction pieces. I’m not even sure if I like it or not.
STARS: ***


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (AMP), (KRW) & (JLD) & (JAS) perform their hits

— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish that has aired up to this point.
— Hmm, I notice the Kenan/Andy interactions in tonight’s Deep House Dish thankfully don’t have Kenan yelling the usual “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”………..so far.
— Oh, I love the voice Julia’s using during her post-song interview. I’ve never heard her use that distinct voice before, nor did I know she was capable of talking like that.
— Hmm, a change of pace with Kenan’s character directing a special concerned message to the troubled Britney Spears (or, as Kenan’s character calls, “Britney Spurrs”).
— Oh, god. There goes the obligatory “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”, after I gave them credit for not using it. At least they waited more than halfway into this sketch to unleash it on us.
— Jason is a blast during his musical performance, especially his dancing. Jason Sudeikis dancing = always fun to watch.
— Overall, slightly better than usual Deep House Dish sketches, even if that’s still faint praise from me.
STARS: **½


CBS CARES
unprofessional boom mic operator Jeff (JAS) bugs JLD during PSA taping

— Another big role tonight for the underused Bill Hader.
— The debut of these sketches with Jason as a douchey crew member and Bill as the director.
— A pretty good cheap laugh from Bill’s name being Mike Underballs.
— I love the negative tension between Jason and Julia. Jason has some great rude, uncalled-for remarks to Julia.
— I love how they keep playing the lighthearted CBS Cares jingle when each take gets ruined, which Bill’s eventually calls his sound crew out on.
— Whenever Bill angrily says the name of Jason’s character, Jeff, I absolutely love how he says it as “JYYYEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Very funny reveal of the below-the-camera part of Julia’s body that Jason is immaturely placing the boom mic over during the final take.
STARS: ****


HOMEBOTS
lottery winners’ (JAS) & (JLD) robots (WLF) & (FRA) have sex & break down

— Yet another big role for Bill tonight. So glad to see SNL finally giving him lots of airtime for once. Jason’s been getting some pretty strong airtime himself tonight.
— Pretty funny chaos from Robot Will’s actions.
— A very funny and out-of-left field turn with the two robots mentioning their robot genitals when contemplating how Robot Will is going to repay Robot Fred.
— Some good laughs from Julia and Jason trying to start a casual, friendly conversation with a disturbed Bill and Kristen during the loud robot sex noises.
— I love the audience’s groaning over the fluid-y pop sound at the end of the robots’ sex before they break down.
— It feels like Julia has been making quite a number of light stumbles over her lines throughout tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Cars”


THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL
mildly talented (KRW), (MAR), (AMP) want to be the next Pussycat Doll

— The timing in this sketch feels off so far.
— I love the shot of Maya just staring at the camera while doing nothing during the “Not write songs” part advertised in this reality show promo.
— Maya, Amy, and Kristen are all getting some laughs here.
— Pretty funny how the claim-to-fame listed under Andy’s character’s name, McKenzie Jazz, just states “Nobody”. However, a technical error occurs where the graphic of Andy’s character’s name and claim-to-fame is accidentally displayed again for Kenan (as you can see in the last two above screencaps for this sketch). I remember this gaffe made me wonder back at this time in 2007 what Kenan’s character’s name was supposed to be, and whether he was playing a woman or an effeminate man. I had to wait until the NBC rerun of this episode God knows how many months later to find out that the “character” Kenan was playing is actually Lil’ Kim, who, as we know, is a real person. (Oh, that reminds me: Kenan In A Dress alert.) So that makes this YET ANOTHER female celebrity who Kenan has done a terrible and unfunny impression of.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode started out strong with the cold opening and monologue, only to end up being an overall average episode. Not bad, and there were a few strong highlights, but the episode as a whole wasn’t all that memorable, and it pales in comparison to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ fantastic season 31 episode.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rainn Wilson)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Peyton Manning

Posted on

February 24, 2007 – Rainn Wilson / Arcade Fire (S32 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM
Anna Nicole Smith coverage displaces hard news

— Darrell takes over the Wolf Blitzer impression that the no-longer-on-the-show Chris Parnell regularly played the preceding season.
— So many laughs from the Anna Nicole Smith-centric news crawl on the bottom of the screen.
— Ha, after the Situation Room opening title sequence, the size of the news crawl has suddenly gotten HUGE.
— “Darfur bad”. Boy, does that take me back to 2007.
— Very funny how Darrell-as-Blitzer’s head is now being played with onscreen by The Situation Room’s graphics department, angering him.
— Good to see our host Rainn Wilson in the cold opening.
— Rainn is fantastic in his performance as a reporter. The fact that he’s coming off so natural here, combined with the fact that hosts don’t usually appear in cold openings, could easily cause one to mistake him for a cast member in this.
— I like the turn with Rainn taking over the report from a female reporter who Darrell’s Blitzer has thrown to.
— The length of Rainn’s bit could use some trimming.
— I still have no opinion on Fred’s take on Larry King. He’s certainly no Norm Macdonald when it comes to this role, I’ll say that. He’s not even a Kevin Nealon (who’s Larry King I’ve always felt was kinda underappreciated).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
cast members & Karen (Rashida Jones) make backstage SNL like The Office

— A very fun Office-esque backstage atmosphere we’re shown SNL having.
— Kristen and Jason are absolutely PERFECT as Pam and Jim. Not only are they very funny and spot-on in their Pam and Jim impressions, but they are pretty much dead-ringers for them here.
— A blink-and-miss-it cameo from Rashida Jones. Nice to see her, though part of me can’t help but be curious what it would’ve been like to see Maya play her in this monologue. Speaking of missed opportunities, how does this monologue not include a rare non-Weekend Update appearance from Seth as his Office doppleganger Ryan?
— Great seeing Lorne get involved in this, who’s typical deadpan is adding to this perfectly.
— When Lorne shows his “World’s Funniest Boss” coffee mug, you can hear an audience member shout “Yeah, Lorne!”, which is amusing to me.
— Overall, such a strong monologue.
STARS: ****½


SONG MEMORIES
“Danny’s Song” evokes icky reminiscing by (host), (BIH), (WLF), (JAS)

— The debut of these Song Memories sketches. Wow, until just now, I had completely forgotten about these sketches, as well as the fact that they debuted in this episode. I recall this being a pretty solid recurring sketch.
— Yet another episode where the criminally-underused-in-his-early-seasons Bill Hader is stuck making only one live appearance (he does appear in the following pre-taped Digital Short), though he at least gets a comedic role here, unlike his sole appearance in the preceding episode.
— Great format to these Song Memories sketches, with the guys’ disturbing stories being interspersed with the guys engaging in a jovial singalong of the chorus from the song playing on the jukebox.
— I could be wrong, but I think I recall that the “I have a dad with Down’s Syndrome” punchline to Bill’s story ended up causing some controversy back when this originally aired, and would result in SNL bleeping out the words “Down’s Syndrome” in reruns of this sketch. Am I remembering correctly, or am I mistaken?
— Rainn’s “The other guy’s pee came out of my nose” punchline paled in comparison to the punchlines of the other guys’ stories, but Rainn still made it work. I’ve seen some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 have a theory that, instead of pee coming out of his nose, Rainn’s line was probably originally written to have him say a certain male bodily fluid came out of his nose (given the fact that he was…uh, orally servicing a man), but the censors must’ve nixed it and forced SNL to use a tamer version of the line.
— Even the very random Pulp Fiction-esque twist ending is working for me.
STARS: ****


BUSINESS MEETING
(host) asks his motley employees to propose cuts to the corporate budget

— I love the exchange between Rainn and Kenan, when Rainn is asking individual employees for their thoughts: “Water guy?” “I don’t work here.”
— Hilarious fake-out regarding which one of the employees is Chief Big Cloud.
— Gigantic Turkey Sub: “I say we put MUSTARD on it!”
— You can see a young Colin Jost throughout this short as one of the employees (the left side of the seventh-to-last, third-to-last, and second-to-last above screencaps for this Digital Short, though why does his suit jacket keep disappearing and re-appearing between shots?). He looks so baby-faced in this, and it’s funny seeing him without what’s now known as his trademark hairstyle.
— This short is an absolute riot. So many rapid-fire hilarious cutaways, characters, and subversions, so much so, that I’m missing a few of the quick gags due to laughing so hard at some of the other quick gags.
— I love how this is not only using what appears to be the entire SNL cast, but is having some of the cast members play multiple roles.
— Even the random gag of Rainn speaking into his hand as if it’s a cellphone is fitting the tone of this short perfectly.
STARS: *****


ART DEALERS
(host) & (KRW) interview Nuni & Nuni for Architectural Digest profile

— Ugh, this sketch once again. Thankfully, this ends up being the final appearance of these characters.
— (*sigh*) Cue the beyond-tired obligatory portion of these sketches where the Nunis clarify how to differentiate the pronunciation of their names, then proceed to butcher the simple pronunciation of their visitors’ names.
— I do like the toast chair that Rainn is forced to sit on.
— Having Rainn play a dull straight man in a Nuni sketch is such a waste of his comedic talents (why not have him play a comedic role like Will Ferrell got to play in the Nuni sketch he appeared in?), though at least he’s further proving his impressive versatility by playing a convincing straight man character here.
— Another reminder tonight that Chris Parnell is no longer on the show, as his butler character from these Nuni sketches has been replaced by a new character played by Andy.
— I did get a cheap laugh from Andy’s cotton candy pubic hair sticking out from the top of his pants.
STARS: *½


PEEPING JERRY
peeper (host) imposes his voyeuristic mindset upon a police lineup

— Rainn is wearing the same jacket that Will has been seen wearing as two child predator characters (who I personally have a theory are actually the same character), one being a character in the MySpace Seminar sketch from the preceding season’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode, and the other being the future recurring character Jeff Montgomery (a.k.a. the trick-or-treating sex offender character). SNL’s wardrobe department must have that jacket on standby for every time someone plays a creepy sexual deviant in a sketch in this era.
— For some reason, I kinda love the intentionally cheesy part with Maya cornily telling Rainn “The next time you peep at me, THIS is what you’re gonna see!” while angrily waving her fist in front of his face.
— Excellent characterization from Rainn, who is hilarious here.
— I love how Rainn is only able to identify the murderer in the police line-up by having a curtain substitute be displayed in front of him so he can peep from behind it.
— A great escalation to this, by now having Rainn request Jason mimes taking a shower and then sing during it. (Though why did Rainn word his request as “Make him sing again?”, when Jason’s character didn’t sing prior to this portion of the sketch?)
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Intervention”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anna Nicole Smith judge Larry Seidlin (FRA) weepily reads his reviews

Aunt Linda has nothing nice to say about the crop of Oscar nominees

the dangers of deployment to Iraq finally dawn on Prince Harry (ANS)

— Hmm, Fred playing the judge from the Anna Nicole Smith trial. Well, this sure comes off dated today. I remember the fact that this Judge Larry guy was pretty big back at this time, but 13 years later, I now remember little-to-nothing specific about the man. I think he broke down in tears during the Anna Nicole trial while delivering a long spiel, or something like that? Even my memory of seeing viral clips of him doing THAT is very vague and iffy. I worry that my lack of memory about this guy is going to hurt my enjoyment of this spoof of him that Fred’s doing.
— I do like the detail of Fred’s Judge Larry doing his commentary in a judge’s chair instead of the usual Update chair.
— We get an extended hysterical laughter break from the audience in response to Fred’s Judge Larry saying “When I was a kid…I used to go to the circus every day.” Am I missing something? What’s so hilarious about that line?
— Yeah, this Judge Larry commentary isn’t doing it for me. Just as I was afraid of, my lack of memory of the specifics that Fred is spoofing about this judge makes this hard for me to understand and laugh at. Then again, I get the feeling this commentary wasn’t all that funny even when it originally aired. This commentary is just coming off badly drawn-out and sluggish. (And guess what’s even worse? We’ll be seeing Fred do ANOTHER Judge Larry commentary on Update in the very next episode! Geez.)
— (*groan*) Kristen’s Aunt Linda routine continues to suffer diminishing returns, and I’m finding her ratings system increasingly cringeworthy in its corniness. That corniness feels like something straight out of SNL writer James Anderson’s playbook, even though I have no idea if he even writes these Aunt Linda commentaries (I think I remember hearing it’s another writer who’s behind these Aunt Linda commentaries, though I don’t remember who).
— SNL breaks out the ol’ vomit hose for the first time in, I believe, years. While I admit to chuckling at this particular instance of it in this Prince Harry commentary from Andy, it feels like a poor man’s version of Will Ferrell’s Update commentary about Ellen DeGeneres back in season 22 (a commentary that I love, problematic or not). I do love Seth’s deadpan during Andy’s over-the-top vomiting, though.
— Boy, this is one long Update. A huge contrast to how short and compact the last few Updates prior to this were.
STARS: ***


FIRST DAY AT WORK
Neil & Jean orient their new fellow uptight co-worker Oliver (host)

— An interesting change of pace to see this recurring Forte/Wiig/(insert host here) introverted co-workers sketch now taking place at the characters’ workplace instead of at another bar.
— Yet another very fun quirky characterization from Rainn tonight.
— Very funny and charming reveal of Will and Kristen’s extremely tame “hazing” of Rainn.
— As usual, a countless number of very funny little quirks from these characters. Even Will and Kristen’s mere delivery makes even non-comedic lines very humorous.
— The usual twist in these sketches with us suddenly seeing Will detailing the night of raunchy lovemaking he has planned for him and his two co-workers has been changed up tonight, which is another refreshing change of pace.
STARS: ****½


WHITE POSSUM SCREAM
(KET) chains (host) in Black Snake Moan knockoff

— A laugh from how this Blake Snake Moan-based movie is titled White Possum Scream.
— Funny visual of Rainn as a briefs-clad male version of Christina Ricci’s character from Black Snake Moan.
— I like the other Chase Danker-made preview-based films we’re shown movie posters of, especially the dark Dunston Checks Out.
— Even Kenan’s mugging and loud hamminess, which, in these early seasons of his, can be a bit much and too uncontrolled, is kinda working for me here.
— This sketch is showing itself to be thin, but the execution is making it passable enough.
STARS: ***


BAND SHOT

— There appears to be a sketch cut at the last minute at this point of the show, as SNL does the old “come back from a long commercial break only to show the SNL Band playing for a few seconds before going back to another long commercial break” move they occasionally resort to when needing to fill time after a sketch gets scrapped at the last minute for time reasons. However, that usually happens at the very end of episodes. Odd how THIS particular instance is occurring at around 12:45, when we still have a sketch and an Arcade Fire musical performance remaining.


RIVER BLISS
New Age musicians (FRA), (MAR), (host), (KET), (KRW) bicker in the studio

— Kenan’s character being named Nasim certainly brings a future SNL cast member to mind, mostly because she’s the only real-life person I’ve ever heard with that name.
— Fred’s gestures when playing the keyboard are funny, and Rainn does yet another characterization that I like (even his constant hair flips are getting laughs), but the sketch itself is not doing it for me. Also, I’m getting that ol’ pesky feeling again that this is another James Anderson-written sketch. The style of this sketch and the character types sure make me think so, especially Kenan’s character. I’ve noticed that almost ANY sketch that Kenan plays this type of effeminate, sassy male character in is a James Anderson-written sketch.
— Kenan yelling very loudly “I…HATE…YO…FACE!” has kinda stuck with me over the years, even though I could never remember which sketch it came from until now.
— Aaaaaaaand there’s the fart humor to further add to my hunch that this sketch is a James Anderson piece.
— Overall, blah. A poor and aimless sketch to end a great episode on (the following musical performance notwithstanding).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Keep The Car Running”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and definitely one of the best of this season. The first half of this episode in particular was very impressive, with a majority of the segments receiving a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Adding to the strength of this episode is Rainn Wilson, who was an excellent host, came off perfect for SNL, and was utilized very well with the various oddball roles the writers gave him.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Forest Whitaker)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Posted on

February 10, 2007 – Forest Whitaker / Keith Urban (S32 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE CHENEY FAMILY
Dick (DAH) & Lynne (KRW) Cheney read unlovely Valentine’s Day cards

— The Scooter Libby Valentine card is really funny.
— I was expecting the Valentine card from the guy who Dick Cheney shot in the face to have a funnier punchline.
— I love Darrell’s Cheney cutting off his reading of the obscene final verse in the Valentine card from an Iraq soldier.
— This is the first time in quite a while that a political cold opening has really worked for me.
— Why didn’t the camera do the traditional zoom-in on Darrell during his “Live from New York…” at the end?
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & MAR sing “Get Ready”

— I like Maya giving a shoutout to Forest’s early role in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, a movie I often forget he was even in.
— The first of what I recall being several instances of singing from Forest tonight.
— Blah at this turning into a joke-less musical monologue, though at least the number is uptempo.
STARS: **


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
Betty & Jodi think doctors (host) & (KRW) are in love

— More on-point and fun characterizations and interplay between Maya and Amy in these Bronx Beat sketches.
— Amy: “The way things are going these days, the whole world’s gonna blow up.” Feels more fitting hearing that today than in 2007.
— I love Kristen’s tenseness when Maya and Amy point out that Forest is clearly in love with her.
— Some pretty good laughs from Maya and Amy putting pressure on Forest and Kristen to date each other.
— Even the voice Fred is using over the phone as Maya’s son is making me laugh.
— After Forest clarifies to Maya and Amy that “We’re not in love” as he and Kristen are making their exit, I love Kristen’s little “What? We’re not?”
— These Bronx Beat sketches continue to be pretty solid. I’m enjoying these much more than I did when they originally aired.
STARS: ***½


ANDY POPPING INTO FRAME
ANS adds himself to various camera shots

— I love this minimalist short, and how late 2000s it now feels. A quintessential example of the kind of simplistic concept that Andy and Lonely Island in general can make into such a fun and charming blast.
— Some great suspenseful build-ups in the occasional shots that Andy is missing from for the first few seconds.
— A very funny turn with Will getting involved and gradually taking the focus away from Andy, resulting in a now-non-smiling Andy forcing Will away by pointing a gun at his head.
— I love how some portions of this are exploring SNL’s studio.
— This pre-taped short ends up being Andy’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode.
STARS: ****½


ASSAGIO’S
waiter (host) interminably sings “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”

— Speaking of a cast member making only one appearance tonight, tonight is yet another episode where Bill is stuck making his only appearance of the night in a forgettable straight man role. (*sigh*)
— This HAS to be a James Anderson sketch.
— Forest’s performance is pretty fun, but I’m not caring for the premise of this sketch itself. The execution of this isn’t anything great, though at least it isn’t as bad as it could be.
— Fred accidentally gives away the broken glasses gag by switching his glasses when the camera is still on him.
— I do like Bill’s line explaining Forest is now singing in a pitch that only dogs can hear.
STARS: **


URIGRO
Rerun from 1/20/07


MAN VERSUS BEAST TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS: THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
mountain lion advances to final four by mauling (JAS)

— Amy, in a smiley, jovial manner: “I love animals, and I absolutely despise human beings.”
— An interesting and creative premise, and I like Forest’s delivery during the set-up to the match we’re about to see.
— “Aerosmith engineer”? A little odd how Forest misread the term “aerospace engineer” as that.
— A good laugh from the blurring-out of Jason’s brutal mauling by the mountain lion.
— A great bloodied, torn-up look of Jason during his post-match interview. This is pretty much a more extensive version of Jason’s eternally-bleeding chewed-off arm in that Bear Shark Project sketch from earlier this season.
— I love Jason’s long, pensive pause while he’s contemplating an answer to a question of Maya’s while his neck continues to eternally bleed.
— So many great lines from Jason during his interview. I especially like the one about him literally getting his ass handed to him by the mountain lion.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stupid Boy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) rank Barack Obama’s blackness

like all ladies, Lisa Nowak fell for fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein (JAS)

— Jesus Christ, Darrell is going EXTREMELY heavy on the physical tics as Jesse Jackson tonight. He’s trying WAY too hard to milk laughs from the audience, even for his standards. (At one point during this extended mugging and ticcing of Darrell’s, Kenan even ad-libs by looking at his non-existent wristwatch in a comically impatient manner.) I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 saying Darrell seemed like he was on coke during this commentary.
— A pretty solid concept of the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton commentary, with them displaying and explaining a Blackness Scale, and where Barack Obama ranks on it.
— I particularly like the part about Obama being moved way up on the Blackness Scale because he dated white women.
— Seth continues to hone his smarmy Update persona, with his joke tonight about lazy gay people, a joke that his delivery made work.
— This is exactly the type of smug role that Jason can sell in spades.
— I love Jason’s line about “giving intricate high-fives”.
— Meh, I don’t care much for Amy’s cutesy act when being charmed by Jason.
— Jason’s commentary ended on a weak note.
STARS: ***


LOVE WHITNEY: WHITNEY HOUSTON’S VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL
Tommy Brown (host) joins Whitney Houston’s (MAR) Valentine’s Day Special

— Oh, no. Maya’s Whitney Houston Weekend Update commentaries this season were bad enough; now SNL spins her off into her own sketch? I am in for a looooooong sketch, aren’t I?
— Kenan In A Dress alert. Oh, I *am* in for a looooooong sketch. (*sigh*)
— This sketch is basically nothing but an unfunny 4-minute collection of annoying tics that Maya regularly does as Whitney on Weekend Update.
— Forest’s delivery is a bit rough here, and he’s unfortunately not saving this sketch like I desperately want him to.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was fucking awful.
STARS: *


AM I A CRAZY STREET PERSON?
(host) is contestant on & topic of game show

— Fun concept for this game show sketch.
— A solid game show host performance from Jason.
— I love Jason’s little “What the hell…” when Fred randomly walks right past the camera during his exit.
— Forest’s amazement at each guest is very funny and charming. I also love Kristen’s growing cynicism towards each guest.
— Great turn with Kristen recognizing Forest as an escapee from an institution.
— Ha, Kenan’s hair…
— Such a fun performance from Forest.
— Great ending line from Kristen: a deadpan “I’m definitely suing” after being terrified by Forest doing a crazy, wild dance around her.
— A technical glitch occurs at the end, where the screen mistakenly fades to black way too early as soon as the “Am I A Crazy Street Person?” logo starts showing up onscreen while Jason is wrapping up the show.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Once In A Lifetime”


STATEN ISLAND ZOO
high schoolers’ sloths “documentary” fudges zoological accuracy

— A hilarious, very memorable, over-the-top, and extremely catchy Sloths music video. And the intensity of it is a hilarious sudden tone shift after Kristen’s calm, smiley intro.
— A few great vulgar, bleeped-filled lyrics.
— I love the inclusion of the character Sloth from The Goonies performing a guitar solo…in a church, of all places, which is such a funny little random detail.
— Second sketch in a row tonight with a perfect ending line from Kristen, this time her saying a very taken-aback “That…was not…entirely accurate” after the Sloths video has ended. Yet another solid example of how damn good and reliable Kristen always is at playing straight roles and selling a funny low-key-perplexed one-liner.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The streak of pretty solid episodes continues. Other than two flops (Whitney Houston Valentine’s Day Special and Assagio’s, though the latter wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been) and a monologue I didn’t care for, there was a lot to like in tonight’s episode, and a few VERY strong pieces.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Rainn Wilson