Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM THE SPEAKER ELECT
Nancy Pelosi’s (KRW) platform confirms worst fears about Democrat control
— Interesting seeing Kristen at this early stage of her SNL tenure front-and-center in an address-to-the-nation cold opening, for her first time ever.
— Kristen’s Nancy Pelosi: “We Americans have always been a religious people, a member on my staff tells me.”
— So many funny announcements from Kristen’s Nancy Pelosi, even the line about gerbils.
— I love Will’s casual, affable delivery while dressed in a ridiculous S&M outfit.
— A very fun spoof of democrats.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host & 30 Rock co-stars TIF & TRM give their credentials
— As the camera is panning down to the home base stage during Alec Baldwin’s entrance, two people in the floor seats actually give Alec a standing ovation (screencap below).
— I’m getting some laughs from Alec’s smug bragging about how he has no competition in terms of stars on the struggling NBC.
— Tina Fey in her first cameo after leaving the cast.
— Tracy Morgan’s various Star Wars one-liners are funny, especially his very Tracy Morgan-y one-liner “I’m personal friends with Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
— I love Alec imitating Tracy’s voice when saying “And I’m five to infinity!” Alec would later reprise this Tracy Morgan vocal imitation in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special, when him and Tina do a tribute of sorts to the then-ailing Tracy (this was when he was recovering from his tragic car accident).
STARS: ***½
E-ZDATE.COM
online matchmaker e-zdate.com is a thinly-veiled front for prostitution
— Believe it or not, this is the FIRST pre-taped commercial to air all season. I can’t think of any other seasons before or after this where the first-aired pre-taped commercial was THIS far into the season. I think season 42 comes close; IIRC, the first pre-taped commercial of that season to air, “Chonk”, isn’t until the third episode of the season.
— Kenan’s line about “the behind” being the location he chose to spend his date was hilarious.
— Aside from Kenan’s aforementioned line and another laugh, this overall commercial didn’t do much for me.
STARS: **
BRITNEY’S DIVORCE
Britney Spears’ (AMP) grievances justify her divorce from Kevin Federline
— Well, I see an annoying remnant of the Tina Fey era, in which sketches overly obsessed with celebrity gossip and pop culture are placed upfront in episodes, has manifested itself into the early stages of this new post-Fey era. Yeah, not too thrilled about that.
— Amy-as-Britney’s line about getting “panty crickets” after Kevin Federline met Alyssa Milano was hilarious.
— Funny ending reveal from Britney about leaving her babies in the car for an hour.
— Despite some laughs, I was a little lukewarm on this sketch as a whole, and it probably would’ve worked better for me had it been placed later in the episode.
STARS: **½
SADDAM’S DEFENSE TEAM
condemned Saddam Hussein (host) meets with his lawyers (BIH) & (FRA)
— Alec’s Saddam Hussein impression from Alec’s season 31 episode returns for its final appearance.
— Two sketches IN A ROW that center around a famous person meeting with their lawyer(s)? Feels kinda redundant.
— Only 40 seconds into this sketch, and I’m already VERY sick of all the unfunny pop culture/TV show references Alec’s Saddam is constantly making. SNL has such an annoying habit of having foreign dictators do that.
— I do kinda like the touch of Alec’s Saddam sticking his head back into the room at the very end of this sketch (right as the screen is about to fade to black) to loudly join in on Bill and Fred’s nervous laughter, a move on Alec’s part that I’m assuming is an ad-lib.
— Overall, this sketch did almost NOTHING for me. Between the Britney sketch and this (and even the e-zdate.com commercial), this episode has not been starting off well post-monologue.
STARS: *½
VALTREX
(AMP)’s husband’s (host) Valtrex use calls his fidelity into question
— Wow, two pre-taped commercials early in tonight’s episode. Maybe SNL’s making up for lost time.
— Seeing a medication commercial with Alec paired with a female cast member as his wife reminds me of the Tylenol BM commercial Alec did with Rachel Dratch the preceding season.
— Alec’s trademark delivery is so perfect for this, and the implications of his character’s infidelity are funny.
— Overall, short and sweet.
STARS: ***½
CARPOOL
unlikely conversational missteps plague carpoolers (host) & (KRW)
— A very well-loved sketch.
— Very funny part with Kristen revealing that the Celine Dion song playing on the car radio is a CD, followed by Kristen disclosing to Alec a hilarious dramatic story about once having been rescued by Celine Dion.
— I’m absolutely loving how Alec and Kristen are each being offended by literally every single thing the other says or does, as it brings back a very touchy memory for them. And the escalation of the absurdity to these offenses is fantastic. There was a sketch with a similar premise in the season 13 Angie Dickinson episode (as I mentioned in this review of that episode), but I doubt many people remember that sketch compared to this one, and that’s understandable, as the Angie Dickinson sketch was, while not bad, completely unmemorable, and pales in comparison to the expert way this Carpool sketch is executing the similar premise.
— The on-point delivery from both Alec and Kristen is complementing this material so perfectly. Kristen is particularly fantastic here. One of her all-time best SNL performances.
— Hilarious reveal of Kristen being metal from the waist down.
— And there’s the moment that solidifies this already-fantastic sketch as a bonafide classic: Alec immediately blurting out “Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother” in response to Kristen attempting to lighten the mood by affably saying “Don’t worry, be happy.” I remember when this sketch originally aired, that Bobby McFerrin one-liner of Alec’s gave me one of the hardest laughs I have EVER gotten from SNL. I’ll never forget that.
— Alec’s priceless Bobby McFerrin line is capped off well by the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” immediately playing on the car radio when Kristen turns it on in an attempt to get Alec’s mind off of what he had just said about Bobby McFerrin. Great way to end this sketch. I heard there’s some versions of this sketch that shorten the ending, fading to black immediately after Alec’s Bobby McFerrin one-liner, presumably because of music licensing issues involving the use of the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen this edited version of the sketch, but the shortened ending sounds like it would still be a perfect way to end this sketch.
— Overall, an absolute masterpiece.
STARS: *****
TV FUNHOUSE
“Kobayashi” [real] by RBS- champion hot dog eater saves the day in anime
— A hilarious and brilliant idea of a Takeru Kobayashi-starring anime superhero series. And as Robert Smigel has proven with the Ah-Lin The Skater Man cartoon from season 23, he’s adept at spoofing the anime genre.
— The cutaway to an anime Refrigerator Perry saying a shocked “Damn!” was hilarious.
— Very strong execution of this TV Funhouse.
— Wow, this is even involving the real Kobayashi in live-action interstitial scenes.
— A big laugh from the brief cutaway to a child puking in the toilet during the upbeat live-action musical scene with Kobayashi and the children.
STARS: ****½
THE PLATINUM LOUNGE
Steve Martin [real] rues host’s 13th SNL gig; MAS & Paul McCartney cameos
— Oh, words cannot express how I love that SNL is doing a variation of the Five-Timers Club concept, by having a Platinum Lounge for people who have hosted over 12 times.
— A big laugh from Alec immediately going from telling Maya he’ll allow her to visit the exclusive Platinum Lounge club to telling her a half-hearted, dismissive “I’m sorry, Maya, I did what I could” when the doorman doesn’t allow her into the club.
— Steve Martin! And it’s wonderful that SNL is continuing the premise of the Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin rivalry that was established in Steve’s episode from the preceding season.
— Ha, Martin Short randomly playing the waiter of the Platinum Lounge! And I love how Steve comments on that by just telling Alec “It’s sad.”
— Very fun bit with Steve’s attempts at poisoning Alec’s drink.
— I love Steve trying to make Alec continue looking out the window while panickedly trying to wipe up Alec’s drink that has overflowed after Steve poisoned it.
— Alec, while violently kicking Steve on the floor: “I…was in…Schwetty….Balls!”
— As an SNL nerd, and the fact that doing this SNL project has basically and unintentionally made an SNL historian out of me, I love how, when Alec is rapidly running down the dates of all of Steve Martin’s hosting stints, he mumbles the actual dates of Steve’s first few episodes (October 23, 1976, February 26, 1977, September 24, 1977, three times in 1978) before resorting to just mumbling fast-paced gibberish for the rest of the dates.
— Paul McCartney! And judging from Alec’s reaction, Alec was not expecting this. His shocked facial reaction to Paul’s cameo looks 100% genuine. I’m assuming SNL sprung this as a surprise to Alec. I recall hearing that a surprise Paul McCartney cameo being sprung on Alec would later happen again in a live 30 Rock episode. Is that true? I’ve never seen that 30 Rock episode myself.
— The ending between Steve, Paul, and Martin seems ad-libbed, adding further evidence that Paul’s cameo was most likely thrown in at the last minute.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ain’t No Other Man”
WEEKEND UPDATE
process of moving Donald Rumsfeld (DAH) from his office allegorizes Iraq
AMP’s irked Aunt Linda (KRW) gives eye-rolling reviews of new movies
waiter’s (ANS) misplaced decimal point produced Tom Cruise’s $10,000 meal
— Interesting change of pace by having Seth do a live (though we’re told it’s taped) interview of Darrell’s Donald Rumsfeld on a different set.
— I’m not caring for the the bit with Kenan’s mover character during the Rumsfeld interview, and how Kenan’s failure to move the couch is alluding to the Iraq situation.
— The overall Donald Rumsfeld/couch mover segment fell badly flat for me. SNL would later replace this segment with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, in which a lot of the lines are completely different, and the overall segment works MUCH better than the live version of it did. The fact that they re-wrote the piece between dress rehearsal and the live show probably at least partly explains why the live version came off so weak and poorly executed.
— After the Donald Rumfseld interview ends and Amy thanks Seth for his “taped” report, I love Seth then re-entering the Update set, walking up to Amy, and saying, while looking into the camera, “You’re welcome, Amy”, comically breaking the illusion that the Rumsfeld interview Seth had just done was pre-taped.
— Kristen’s big night continues, as she gets her very first Weekend Update showcase (unless I’m forgetting something).
— A decent characterization from Kristen as Aunt Linda, and this commentary isn’t bad. However, this seems like something best left as a one-off. I get the feeling I’m not going to care for this character’s subsequent appearances when I have to review them (and it doesn’t help that she makes A LOT of appearances this season, IIRC).
— Seth has been having some killer jokes tonight. Amy has also had a few.
— I love Andy’s flat “Ohhh, noooo” when realizing he overcharged Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on their meal. This is the type of humor that Andy can make work.
— Overall, Amy and Seth had their best Update up to this point. Too bad the guest commentaries weren’t up to the same level and brought the rating down a little bit, even if I liked two of the three commentaries.
STARS: ***½
THE TONY BENNETT SHOW
tribute act (Tony Bennett) helps Tony Bennett (host) with duet
— Alec’s wig and make-up as Tony Bennett looks a little more spot-on than usual here, but that may be because of a certain special thing in store for us later in this sketch…
— Andy is perfect as a douchey Kevin Federline.
— And there he is: the real Tony Bennett. Tonight’s episode has been having some fantastic cameos.
— I get the feeling Tony stopping Alec mid-sentence to humorously tell him “You got a great nose job” was an ad-lib.
— I love the reveal of Tony’s stage name as a Tony Bennett impersonator: Phony Bennett.
— Out of SNL’s many “impersonator meets the celebrity they’re impersonating” sketches, which can get annoyingly cheesy and cliche at times, this is definitely one of the better and more charming ones.
— The usual funny spiel from Alec’s Bennett whenever he does his mid-sketch promotional ad.
— Nice duet from Alec and Tony at the end.
STARS: ****½
BRAZILIAN BAR
in a Brazil lounge, gauche roue (host) fails to charm (KRW), (ANS), (AMP)
— A fun one-off character for Alec, one that he seems like he can play to perfection.
— Alec to Amy: “You know what part of a woman I like best? And I’m not kidding about this: the vagina.”
— The occasional musical interstitial bits with Maya and Fred are a funny touch to this sketch.
— What’s the point of Jason even being in this sketch? He’s reduced to the role of a background extra, standing in the back of the set as a barely-noticeable bartender, and has no lines, nothing to do, and the camera doesn’t even show a remotely close shot of him. Odd. This has been a very light night for him in general.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hurt”
A MOMENT WITH THE OUT-OF-BREATH JOGGER FROM 1992
The Out-Of-Breath Jogger’s moment from 1992 yields bits of nostalgia
— Well, this sure was an unlikely sketch to bring back.
— This isn’t working quite as well as the 1982 jogger one from earlier this season, but I’m still laughing. It also helps that I have somewhat of an obsession with early-mid 90s pop culture (probably due to those years being the peak years of my childhood).
— Something interesting I realized about this sketch: the amount of time between 1992, the year this sketch is taking place in, and 2006, the year this episode originally aired in, is only 14 years, the exact same amount of time between 2006 and our current year, 2020. This kinda blows my mind, as 1992 and all of its pop culture felt much older to me in 2006 than 2006 and all of its pop culture feels to me today. Can anyone else relate to this? Then again, I was only a little kid in 1992, which probably explains it. I’m guessing 2006 and its pop culture now feel really old to people who were little kids that year.
— Also, the fact that 1992 and 2006 have the exact same amount of years between them as 2006 and 2020 means that Andy could conceivably now do an “Out-of-Breath Jogger from 2006” sketch, a fact that further blows my mind. I’d actually be very curious to see him do that sketch.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Tony Bennett [real] perform “Steppin’ Out With My Baby”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While a little more flawed than I feel a lot of people remember this episode as being, this episode as a whole definitely had a classic vibe to it. The misfires from early on in the episode bring the overall quality down a bit, but this was still a strong episode. A lot of what worked in this episode was absolutely killer, we got two sketches tonight that received a perfect five-star rating from me (Carpool and The Platinum Lounge), and we got lots of special, fun, and very impressive cameos. The Christina Aguilera/Tony Bennett duet at the end of the show also added to the special, epic feel of this episode. And, of course, it helps that we had a veteran host like Alec Baldwin doing his usual terrific, expert job. An overall great episode, and one of Alec’s best. SNL has been on a real hot streak these past two episodes.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Hugh Laurie)
a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Ludacris
That Kobayashi sketch looks like a lot of fun! Damn NBC for not putting it online!
As with Ernest Borgnine in a later What Up With That sketch, I get a kick out of just watching Tony Bennett enjoying the experience of being on SNL’s stage.
I think there’s reused animation from the “Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Outer Space” segment of “Black History Month”. The small green alien pointing = the mustard-bottle-type-Earthling pointing.
While I’m not a big Dragon Ball fan, I recognize just HOW MUCH TV Funhouse “repurposes” from DBZ – the opening notes of “Cha-La Head-Cha-La”, Funimation scores, character designs (Shen-Kon = Dr. Gero/Android 20 – TV Funhouse doesn’t obscure the Red Ribbon Army logo beyond erasing the R’s, either), especially clips from the show and movies. TV Funhouse also swipes Yu-Gi-Oh!’s card and Téa designs for variety. There’s too much work in the cartoon to write it off as flaunting fair-use laws and “let’s use whatever we scrape off home video and torrents”. Also, I’m a sucker for Smigel’s forced-levity-on-a-green-screen jokes.
Wachtenheim/Marianetti posted a link to Kobayashi on its Facebook in 2017, though the short’s on Kinetiscope’s Vimeo account:
The first SNL I watched in HD!
Your spiel about the out of breath jogger made me feel SUPER nostalgic for 2006 . I can picture Andy randomly shouting “iPod Shuffle!” in an Out of Breath Jogger from 2006 sketch…
You’re right about McCartney being on 30 Rock (one of their Live episodes–s6ep19). Unfortunately, that clip seems to have been swept away by the Youtube bots. There’s also a chance you may NEVER see that episode again due to the fact that that it Also has Jon Hamm in Blackface.
Also, based on Paul’s body language, I recall a lot of rumors that he may have been drunk when he appears in Platinum Lounge.
A few pieces on the TV Funhouse, including a short blog from Kobayashi.
https://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10056
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.takeru-kobayashi.com%2Fblog%2F2006%2F11%2Fpost_31.html&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
Christina Aguilera’s last appearance on SNL, I believe. I’m surprised she didn’t cameo in a sketch (everyone else did), unless I missed her, or that she didn’t cameo during that period when The Voice judges were all over the show (then again I’m not sure how she got on with the other people at The Voice).
This isn’t the debut of Pelosi, but it’s the first major appearance. The show never has had a good handle on her (although they aren’t alone there – I tried one episode of Tracey Ullman’s short-lived spoof on American politics and the material amounted to little more than lazy Botox jokes), but, even if it’s overlong, this was much better than most later attempts. Kristen’s control and timing is perfect here, as it also is in the car sketch with Alec. Sad that Aunt Linda, which is just the Target Lady voice with a church brunch pants suit and a different wig, is the real future for Kristen – many, many Wiig mugfests to come on Update (at least one of which – something about a woman on a plane – kills the entire Update dead).
This is a decent enough episode, overall, but the use of Baldwin elevates him very on high, he repeatedly only appears with cameos and two full sketches (Saddam and the dining room) are just the cast reacting to him rather than having comedy bits of their own. I guess he was being spotlighted due to the early success of 30 Rock. Baldwin gets this type of outsized treatment at times now (like that strange S42 sketch where he plays O’Reilly interviewing his Trump) but his one hosted episode of recent years was much more cast-oriented, somehow. As this episode went along I actually forgot various people were in the cast – I was surprised to see Bill in the goodnights, as the thankless lawyer role he had early on had left my mind. I didn’t realize they were having such cameo-dominated episodes all the way back at this time…while they manage the cameos better than the 10-car pile up of the last few years, it still left me feeling a bit deflated, somehow, to see such a sterling cast barely existing.
Once Alec gets his amusing NBC digs in (it also amused me that by this point they weren’t even pretending The Apprentice was a success), the monologue is surprisingly sweet (something I didn’t think I’d say with Tina [which isn’t a knock against her]). You can really see a bond with Tina, Alec and Tracy which helps overcome the early awkwardness when they have to throw their dialogue around.
That furniture-moving piece on Update dying so hard with the audience made me wince a bit. As you said in your last review, Kenan feels so out of place here. When I go back to comments from 2010-ish reviews, they are so often very harsh about Kenan. I can’t imagine what they had to say around this point.
I actually preferred this jogger piece to the first, as it felt less like it was rewritten from the audition, but both are fine. (not bad as eye candy either) Andy mostly seems to have moved on from SNL, but I would love to see him reprise this in the new season (if there ever is one).
I agree with you about 2006 not seeming as far away today as 1992 did in 2006. For me the last 15-20 years have often felt like a blur in societal terms – so much of the same conflicts, and pop culture not having the distinctive changes or styles of past years. With that said, the past year, and the buildup of the few years leading to this point, have certainly felt like a jarring shift – as Willy Wonka said, there’s no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going…other than having 50 celeb cameos along the way.
I remember reading a third Out of Breath jogger was cut after dress later in the season. I think he was spouting pop culture in 1933 that time.
I think it’s a Fred Armisen-type situation with Baldwin, given that 30 Rock shot in the NYC area. He’s pressed into monologue service for Annette Bening a month later, then moustache ride duty on Shia LaBeouf’s episode four months after that. He’s still not at Trump levels of overexposure.
With all due respect, do you have to constantly objectify the male cast? If a male commenter consistently leered at the female cast members and made continual remarks about their physical appearance, I don’t think it would go over so well.
Fair enough. My apologies.
Ah, I don’t mind John’s leering. It helps me know which SNL dudes are considered hot. That’s vital info.
Cosigned. It’s also not as if John’s posts are all about the leering.
You’re obviously free to say what you want, and I didn’t mean my comment to come across harshly. And I generally enjoy reading what you post. I just don’t think that there’s much difference when the objects of such comments about physical appearance are males as opposed to females. But maybe I’m wrong about that.
There are little hints throughout the episode that it’s been heavily changed from dress rehearsal to accommodate adding Steppin’ Out With My Baby and the Paul McCartney cameo. Amy being glued to the cue cards in Britney’s Divorce, impressively she doesn’t flub any of the lines. As Stooge pointed out the Rumsfeld commentary was rewritten for the live show. In the live version of Brazilian Bar right after Baldwin introduces himself to Andy and his date saying “Rick Corman, Rio via Des Moines, I.A.” there’s a whistle sound effect heard that Maya and Fred can be seen laughing at which suggests another change happened, it’s available on NBC.com as Bossa Nova but the sound effect has been mixed out. Lastly, The Out-Of-Breath Jogger appears because it’s less than a minute in length and only requires a green screen setup. A sketch featuring Will Forte’s Speed Reader character from Halle Berry/Britney Spears was cut for time because it’s over four minutes in length.
In the Dane Cook review, Stooge mentions how weird it is to not have a commercial parody after the monologue. E-Z Date got cut from that episode as well as John C. Reilly & Hugh Laurie before airing here.
Don Roy King gets nominated for his first of thirteen Emmy’s for this episode. King loses to Rob Marshall who directed the tv special Tony Bennett: An American Classic, a promo for the special aired during this live episode.
Amy managing to change and fill in from so early on (like the Olympics sketch Britney wouldn’t do) is impressive. It’s ironic that when she had to do a quick adaptation again it was playing Britney. I did not like the Britney sketch in this episode much at all – what they cut per your description sounds much more worthwhile.
Jim Cashman, best known as Jaime from the Progressive Insurance commercials and Kristen Wiig’s writing partner in The Groundlings receives an Additional Sketch By credit for Car Pool.
Wiig or McKinnon, both of whom are the two cast members I remember as Pelosi, both seem to struggle at actually impersonating her voice and mannerisms, although they both offer humorous takes.
This is a pretty cameo-driven episode, especially by this era’s standards. I do not mind having one or two episodes a year being cameo laden, especially if it’s a holiday or season finale type thing. There’s something to be said for a fun, surprise appearance-packed episode. In recent years, of course, this has been taken to ludicrous extremes, where every cold opening has to have like four cameos doing bad impressions.
Overall, this is a weird episode. What is good is very good and what is bad is not good at all. The carpool sketch is definitely a SNL all-timer, perfectly played by Wiig (as others have pointed out, her template as slow-burn straight woman or quietly insane person should have been what she did throughout the show, not her one-tic overt lunatic catalog). The Platinum Lounge sketch is good fun, especially for SNL buffs, but is just kind of rambling.
I used “Phony Bennett” as my insulting nickname for UVA’s basketball coach for a while. Great sketch and Tony Bennett is a welcome presence on the show.
I bet Dana Carvey could do a good Pelosi — just sayin’.
Keith Richards does a spot-on Pelosi.
Dana as Pelosi would be awesome!
You’re right, there are two weaker and samey sketches after the monologue, but otherwise this is another Year 32 high point. This was a “cameo orgy” show that was fun, before the powers that be decided to do it almost every week. The “Britney Divorce” sketch is an indicator that the show’s mid-2000s fixation on the tabloids wasn’t strictly a Tina Fey thing.
Semi-related to this, but Baldwin holds the hosting record (17) *and* the all-time cameo record (51). He’s technically been in more live SNLs than most of the Ebersol/Doumanian cast.
Like “Vincent Price’s Memorial Day Special” from Year 31, I’d like to see “A Moment with the Out-of-Breath Jogger from 1933.” Andy with unusual facial hair never fails to get a laugh from me.
Paul Simon!
I think I remember Aunt Linda’s first appearance and maybe those Paul McCartney/Steve Martin/Tony Bennett cameos, not to mention Bennett’s duet with Christina Aguilera. I don’t know, maybe I watched this just once and just have a blurred memory about the whole thing…
My favorite episode of the season and probably my third favorite Baldwin episode. Sure, it’s a big cameo orgy, but when done sparingly, it can be quite fun. The Fey and Morgan bit doesn’t intrude with the flow of the show, the Martin thing is an organic continuation of a running gag and the Bennett piece was always inevitable. I think it helps that the weaker material doesn’t really bother me. I still mostly dig Baldwin’s Saddam and the Britney piece is, eh – weird that they would lead off with it, but it’s just sort of there.
What works though, is fabulous. I’d start with the Pelosi CO, which is my favorite of the season (no offense to Borat, but, eh, 2006 was a loooooong time ago. I don’t clamor for Cohen’s comedy like I used to). I’m not sure if Wiig is accurately playing Pelosi, but the added ticks are certainly a nice touch. It’s just a really top-notch parody of not only Democrats, but the perception of Democrats.
Obviously Wiig hits her all-time grand slam with Carpool, which is a welcome reminder that, in spite of the hype of the Digital Shorts, SNL could still do classic sketch comedy. Wiig would rarely have writing this strong, but when it was up to snuff, she absolutely delivered. Baldwin’s the same, when the writing’s good, he will crush it.
Platinum Lounge is a beautiful, silly mess of a sketch. I’m an absolute sucker for meta-SNL and this is about as good as the show got in a post-Tonight Song era. I know that cameos can be insufferable, but when used sparingly (as they are up until…next season’s back half), they can be a lot of fun.
The rest is simply solid stuff, particularly a very charming sneaker-upper type piece with Tony Bennett (not so much a “sneaker-upper” but some variation of). That and a stronger than usual TV Funhouse make this episode an all-timer, even if the likes of Forte and Hader are sort of left in the cold (Forte’s great in the CO though).
Five-Timers Individual Rankings:
8.8 – Alec Baldwin/The B-52’s (15.18)
7.8 – Alec Baldwin/Luciano Pavarotti (24.09)
7.7 – Alec Baldwin/Paul McCartney (18.13)
7.1 – Alec Baldwin/Beastie Boys (20.08)
7.1 – Alec Baldwin/Coldplay (26.16)
7.1 – Alec Baldwin / Christina Aguilera (32.05)
7.0 – Alec Baldwin/Tori Amos (21.11)
6.9 – Alec Baldwin/Tina Turner (22.14)
6.8 – Alec Baldwin/Whitney Houston (16.14)
6.7 – Alec Baldwin/P.O.D. (27.18)
5.9 – Alec Baldwin/Shakira (31.08)
5.5 – Alec Baldwin/Missy Elliott (29.06)
5.3 – AB & KB/UB40 (19.13)
This episode marks the beginning of Tina’s ongoing streak of cameoing at least once per season after departing the cast.
That Kobayashi parody is spot-on! Not only does it use actual footage from Dragon Ball Z (mostly from the first 15 episodes or so, but I also see some clips from Movies 11 and 12), but it uses actual music and sound effects from the show.
The Pelosi opening and Awkward Carpool are my two favorite sketches Kristen ever did.
RIP Tony Bennett!! His duet with Christina Aguilera was the second thing I thought of, besides his duets with Lady Gaga. Alec Baldwin does a great impression as well!!