Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM THE SPEAKER
Dennis Hastert (DAH) tells of Mark Foley’s deep interest in page program
— Not caring all that much for the lines about Mark Foley’s love for teenage male pages. My only chuckles from this are very mild. This tepid material isn’t helped by the way it’s being presented, with this being YET ANOTHER cold opening with Darrell doing a dull, non-comedic impression of some boring politician sitting behind a desk and delivering a straight-to-camera address to the nation. Yawn.
— Overall, very meh.
STARS: **
OPENING MONTAGE
— The new SNL logo introduced in the preceding episode has been altered tonight. Not only are the words “Saturday Night Live” now displayed vertically instead of horizontally, but the look of the logo’s font is slightly modified to look EXACTLY like the 1981-1985 Dick Ebersol-era SNL logo. (comparisons below between the Ebersol-era logo and tonight’s logo)
I remember finding this logo alteration quite jarring when this episode originally aired. Whenever an SNL bumper photo of Jaime Pressly or Corinne Bailey Rae would appear onscreen each time this episode came back from a commercial break, the SNL logo in the bumper made me feel like I was watching an early 80s rerun, making me half-expect to see a young Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo in the about-to-air sketch. (I remember actually kinda liking that, especially since it was somewhat rare back then to see SNL episodes from the early 80s.) This switchover to the Ebersol-era logo would only last for tonight’s episode. In the next episode, the logo goes through a third and final alteration.
— The way the musical guest and host’s photos are displayed in this opening montage has also changed. They’re displayed as a full-screen shot tonight (which would remain a regular thing for the rest of this opening montage’s run), whereas in the season premiere, they were displayed as a smaller shot in front of a live-action NYC backdrop.
MONOLOGUE
host’s song is interrupted by cast members dressed as southern stereotypes
— Kenan, dressed as Uncle Remus, bitterly saying “Zippety-do-dah, my ass!” while making his exit gave me a good laugh.
— A guilty laugh from Fred’s KKK hood bit.
— I love Bill randomly and slowly entering in the background dressed as Colonel Sanders during Jaime Pressly’s singing of “Fever”. Between dressing as Colonel Sanders in both the Unsolved Mysteries sketch from the preceding season’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode and now this monologue, I remember thinking at the time tonight’s episode originally aired that SNL was going to make a long-standing running gag of Bill dressing as Colonel Sanders, but we end up never seeing it again after tonight’s episode.
— Jason’s portrayal of a redneck is very funny.
— I love how this is yet another instance this season of the entire cast being worked into a sketch, once again showing how refreshingly small this cast is compared to the preceding season’s bloated cast.
— An unintentional laugh from the mistiming of Andy’s banjo strumming, which Andy makes a comical facial reaction to.
STARS: ***½
NANCY GRACE
interviewees (ANS), (host), (KET) dodge accusations from Nancy Grace (AMP)
— This is using the same opening theme music that was used as the theme music for the Situation Room cold opening in the preceding season’s Lindsay Lohan episode. I assumed back when I reviewed that Lohan episode that that music was the actual Situation Room theme music, but now I take it that’s just stock music SNL uses for some of their political talking head show sketches? I do love hearing that epic music, though.
— Amy’s portrayal of Nancy Grace is good.
— The occasional unrelated comments from Amy’s Nancy Grace about her chair being moved come off baffling and random at first, though thanks to having already seen this sketch before, I’m now aware of where it’s going.
— Some good laughs from Amy’s Nancy Grace constantly reaching to find seediness about every little thing.
— Great bit with Kenan as a janitor suddenly being mic’ed and sat down for an interview, much to his complete confusion. Kenan can always sell stuff like this well.
STARS: ***½
NEW YORK CITY STORIES
Martin Scorsese (FRA) & Rosie Perez (AMP) on NYC
— Interesting format to this piece.
— A good and amusing Martin Scorsese impression from Fred. And I absolutely LOVE the voice Amy’s using as Rosie Perez. I’m finding her Rosie Perez voice both funny and oddly endearing.
— A very funny brief Do The Right Thing-esque cutaway to Amy’s Rosie Perez dancing in the street.
STARS: ***½
JON BOVI
record exec (host) hears antonym-based lyrics of Jon Bovi (JAS) & (WLF)
— The debut of Jason and Will’s Jon Bovi characters. Unless I’m forgetting something, this ends up being the only non-Weekend Update appearance they would ever make on SNL.
— As I said in a recent review, I’m usually a sucker for whenever Will or Jason individually do comical singing in a sketch, so as you can imagine, this Jon Bovi bit is pretty much comedy gold to me. While the comedy of this is incredibly dumb, Will and Jason make it the absolutely right kind of dumb, and they’re a blast as a duo in this.
— I love the repeated sayings of “Where the eff do we sign?!?” “We brought our own peeeeeeeens!”
— A very fun, silly conceit of Jon Bovi singing opposite lyrics of hit songs.
— Such a funny little detail with the random countdown numbers Will and Jason keep doing before each song.
— The completely nonsensical bit about Will having lost his pens in his butt is hilarious.
STARS: ****
WVIR NEWS
TV reporter Michelle Dison (KRW) awkwardly hits on interviewee (host)
— Early on in this, Kristen manages to get a good laugh just from the simple bit with her looking Jaime up and down, before we realize the comedic conceit of this sketch.
— A good laugh from Kristen’s out-of-nowhere comment about how Jaime must look coming fresh out of the shower.
— Some more good amusement from Kristen’s increasingly lustful-but-nervous compliments about Jaime’s looks.
— Decent ending with how Kristen’s embarrassment from the Jaime situation increases when bird poop from above randomly drops onto Kristen’s shoulder while she’s still on camera. Her drawn-out, mostly-silent awkward reaction to that is the type of thing Kristen is always so good at getting laughs out of.
STARS: ***½
NEW YORK CITY STORIES
Lou Reed (FRA) & Patti Smith (AMP) on CBGB
— I like how not only is this a runner, but each segment features Fred and Amy playing a different pair of celebrities.
— I’m really enjoying the format of these New York City Stories pieces, and I love the way this particular one is shot, including the black-and-white screen filter.
— Overall, my favorite of these New York City Stories pieces so far.
STARS: ****
ST. AMBROSE SCHOOL
principal (BIH) meets with unruly (host)’s stepmom Virginiaca (KET)
— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— Ugh, the debut of Kenan’s Virginiaca character, the nadir of Kenan’s annoying and constant drag in these earlier seasons of his SNL tenure. I think I’ve said this before, but old stuff like this sketch makes you really appreciate how much more mature Kenan is as a performer nowadays.
— I can’t find anything else to say about this sketch while I’m suffering through it.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Put Your Records On”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Peter O’Toole (BIH) thinks Mark Foley is unworthy of the term “alcoholic”
Fugly Betsy (FRA) stars in Ugly Betty knock-off produced by Charo (MAR)
— I love the idea of Bill doing a commentary as a drunk Peter O’Toole.
— Bill is killing it here, and I feel this is one of the best things he’s done by this point of his SNL tenure. At the time this originally aired, I remember considering this to be the type of brilliant, mature comedy that I knew Bill was capable of, and that I wanted SNL to let Bill display much more often.
— Even the post-commentary bit with Bill’s O’Toole is funny, with him having to be told which direction to exit in.
— Seth’s joke about how Bill Frist “is the guy who thought we could still fix Terri Schiavo” got a VERY interesting and initially-hesitant audience reaction. I also remember it getting LOTS of praise on some of the SNL message boards at the time, for how edgy and daring the joke was perceived to be, and it was because of this that a lot of people on those message boards started coming around on Seth as an Update anchor. I admit to following the hype back then, regarding the love for Seth’s Terri Schiavo joke. Nowadays, I have absolutely no idea how to react to that joke, and I’m someone who can enjoy a good edgy, tasteless Update joke (after all, Norm Macdonald is one of my all-time favorite Update anchors).
— I love Seth’s Iran/masturbation joke.
— Meh, this commentary with Fred as an Ugly Betty knock-off doesn’t seem like it’ll be something I’ll like. If anything, at least this, in retrospect, serves as a time capsule of when Ugly Betty was the big new hit show.
— I did get a laugh from Fred-as-Fugly-Betsy’s “Aaaaaaaaaand…” when trying to think of another thing she did in her acting career besides play a bludgeoning victim once. Otherwise, yeah, just as I predicted, I’m not caring for this Update commentary.
— The return of Maya’s Charo impression. I still can’t understand a word she’s saying, much like in the Charades sketch from the preceding season’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode.
— Another winner from Seth tonight: his delivery of the eye laser surgery joke.
STARS: ***
THE NASCARETTES
Nascarettes (host), (FRA), (KRW), (AMP), (MAR) dance on the racetrack
— A laugh from Amy’s line about being the girl who held the cards between rounds at cockfights.
— I love the brief cutaway to Kristen helplessly still doing her dance move while panickedly looking for her lost earring on the track.
— Okay, I am not enjoying where this sketch is going.
— Ugh. Yeah, this is an unfunny endless repetition of a joke that didn’t work all that well to begin with.
— Very weak ending.
STARS: *½
NEW YORK CITY STORIES
Fran Lebowitz (FRA) & Yoko Ono (AMP) opine
— Not quite as funny as the last two editions of this, but Fred’s delivery and performance are keeping this amusing for me. He’s so good at making fun of pretentious people like this.
STARS: ***
BIG WIGS
ceiling fan cuts down corporate consulting of Big Wigs (host) & (AMP)
— What the heck is this? So-called “big wigs” literally having big wigs? Are they kidding me with this grade-school-level comedy?
— Is half of this episode being written by James Anderson, because I’ve been getting an awfully big James Anderson vibe from the Virginiaca, Nascarettes, and Big Wigs sketches. (I think I heard he indeed wrote Nascarettes, but I’m not sure about the other two. He would also later write a few sketches that are in a very similar vein to Nascarettes, including a really wretched sketch from Lindsay Lohan’s season 37 episode.) And all three of these sketches represent so many things I despise about Anderson as a writer.
— Man, what the hell am I watching? This sketch is awful.
— Not even the Ball Busters ending with Maya and Kristen could save this for me. At least this sketch was short, though.
— When this episode originally aired, an online SNL fan said this sketch had a HUGE season 6 vibe (and he or she certainly didn’t mean that as a compliment). Back in 2006, I wasn’t able to accurately agree or disagree with that SNL fan’s comment, because at the time, I had barely seen anything from season 6, though from all the things I had heard about that season back then, I could see that SNL fan’s point about Big Wigs. Now that I’m very familiar with season 6 after having reviewed the entire season earlier in my SNL project, I can definitely agree with that comment about Big Wigs feeling like a season 6 sketch. It especially would’ve fit right at home in that season’s bad-pun-filled Malcolm McDowell episode (Serf City, Jack the Stripper, etc.). Regardless of which season 6 episode this sketch would’ve appeared in, I can easily picture Jason, Andy, and Bill’s roles as the businessmen being played by Charles Rocket, Gilbert Gottfried, and Joe Piscopo, Jaime and Amy’s roles as the Big Wigs being played by a female host and Gail Matthius (the latter doing her Roweena’s Cut ‘n’ Curl/Bobby’s World “Don’cha know” voice), and Maya and Kristen’s roles as the Ball Busters being played by Ann Risley and Denny Dillon. Alternately, you can switch Gail and Denny in each other’s roles, as I can also easily picture Denny as one of the Big Wigs, and I can kinda see Gail as one of the Ball Busters. Or, if this sketch appeared in a season 6 episode without a female host, then both Gail AND Denny could’ve played the Big Wigs, and Ann and Yvonne Hudson could’ve played the Ball Busters. Okay, I am thinking WAY too hard about this, but hey, I’m far more entertained by imagining Big Wigs as a bad season 6 sketch than I am by watching the ACTUAL bad season 32 version of the sketch.
STARS: *
KUATO
vile Kuato (ANS) in (BIH)’s abdomen creeps out fellow partygoers
— Uh…okay. Certainly an out-of-the-ordinary Total Recall-inspired premise. This does seem like something Andy can make work, though.
— I’m now halfway through this sketch, and I’m not sure how to feel about it so far. I’ve been liking some of Andy’s lines, and the off-beat concept is growing on me, but at the same time, I’m not laughing at this sketch as much as I feel like I should.
— I love Bill’s exaggerated delivery of “DAMN YOU, KUATO WHO LIVES IN MY STOMACH!”
— No. NO! Not the return of Darrell’s awful Ahnuld impression. Ugh.
— A terrible ending that felt unnecessary.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Like A Star”
PORCH TALK
daft & indiscreet (host) & (KRW) sip hot cider on a pleasant fall evening
— Another example tonight of the type of role that Kristen is always great at selling perfectly. She has been really solid, reliable, and fun in these early seasons of her SNL tenure so far.
— I’m enjoying the bizarre and disturbing facts about themselves that Kristen and Jaime are very calmly and affably sharing with each other in between their sips of cider.
— A very funny random and casual ending reveal from Jaime of “I peed in the cider.”
— Overall, short and sweet.
STARS: ***½
A MOMENT WITH THE OUT-OF-BREATH JOGGER FROM 1982
The Out-Of-Breath Jogger’s (ANS) moment from 1982 is a time capsule
— A very Andy Samberg-y premise (one that he auditioned for SNL with), and the type of stupidity and inanity that only he can sell.
— I particularly love the little part with Andy just randomly yelling out “Pet rock!” as a non-sequitur sentence.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A bit of a hard show to figure. The show both started and closed with a string of good pieces (minus the weak cold opening), but there was a string of truly AWFUL things in the middle of the show (not counting Weekend Update): Virginiaca, Nascarettes, and Big Wigs. Even the Kuato sketch, which I didn’t exactly hate, left me a little cold, despite some aspects of it that I liked. The good does outnumber the bad in this overall episode, but boy, was that middle BRUTAL. And even with the highlights this episode had, this episode didn’t have many strong pieces that I found to be worthy of a 4 or 5-star rating, unlike the preceding episode. I do like how this season is continuing to have a new, experimental feel, including a continued refrain from relying on any recurring characters (which I forgot to point out in my review of the preceding episode, which I’m surprised at, given how I remember heaping praise for it in the review I wrote back in 2006 when that episode originally aired, a review that’s sadly not available anymore).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dane Cook)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
John C. Reilly