Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
George W. Bush’s (JAS) troop surge will send just about everybody to Iraq
— SNL continues to push their new Bush impersonator hard, with this being the FOURTH cold opening featuring him in just the last FIVE episodes. I just wish they’d give him better material.
— A laugh from how Jason-as-Bush’s listing-off of uniform-wearers and regular gun-carriers who he’s sending off to Iraq includes Civil War re-enactors and Allen Iverson.
— Meh, the constant listing-off from Jason’s Bush is getting old.
— Meh again, a tepid punchline at the end of this.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
in Dreamgirls garb, host sings “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”
— I love the gleeful look on Jason’s face in the audience.
— This ends up being Will’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode. IIRC, this is thankfully the last gasp of his frequently-limited airtime this season resulting from him being busy filming The Brothers Solomon. His airtime returns to normal for the remainder of this season.
— The concept of Jake Gyllenhaal stripping down to a dress reminds me an awful lot of Antonio Banderas’ very random monologue from the preceding season, though Jake goes even further with it by putting on an accompanying female wig and busting out a Dreamgirls musical number.
— I normally wouldn’t like a monologue like this, but, much like the aforementioned Antonio Banderas in his monologue, Jake is putting his ALL into this, is selling the hell out of this, and is winning me over.
— I like the addition of Maya, Amy, and Kristen as backup singers, but that may just be because, as I mentioned in my last episode review, I like this season’s underrated Rudolph/Poehler/Wiig female trio whenever they’re paired together.
STARS: ***
DEEP HOUSE DISH
(host) & (AMP), (KRW), (MAR) perform for charity
— Is it just me, or was the Wiig-voiced MTV4 intro longer than it usually is in these Deep House Dish sketches?
— Jake and Amy’s post-song interview is actually funny, especially them admitting the song they performed is their worst song. I also love the humorous accent Jake’s using.
— (*sigh*) The “Ooh-wee, T’Shane” portions of this sketch continue to be unbearable to watch.
— I like Maya’s smooth ad-lib when her earring accidentally falls off.
— Maya’s interview mostly fell flat for me.
STARS: **
BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
mercurial New Yorkers Betty (AMP) & Jodi (MAR) flatter (host)
— This sketch makes its debut.
— Despite the cookie-cutter concept of Maya and Amy’s characters and the fact that SNL has certainly had various recurring talk show sketches with this type of character before, I’m enjoying Maya and Amy’s characterizations and interplay with each other. While I had never been a fan of Bronx Beat as a recurring sketch back when this SNL era originally aired, I’m going into this first installment with an open mind during my current viewing.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Maya and Amy bombarding Jake with motor-mouthed questions on what nationality he is while complimenting him on his looks.
— I like Maya and Amy randomly deciding to bring Jake back long after his interview has ended, and continue to question and compliment him.
— Overall, judging tonight’s Bronx Beat debut fairly on its own merits without letting my knowledge of this becoming an overused recurring sketch affect my judgment, I cannot deny the fact this was actually a good debut. A charming, likable, funny, well-performed, and enjoyable sketch. It’s a shame if Bronx Beat indeed eventually falls victim to diminishing returns in subsequent installments, like how I remember. (I do recall the Forest Whitaker and Brian Williams ones being charming, though.)
STARS: ***½
TRUMP PRESS CONFERENCE
Donald Trump (DAH) disses Rosie O’Donnell at putative Apprentice presser
— SNL’s doing quite a lot of consecutive segments tonight with no commercial breaks in between. Maya and Amy in particular have A LOT of rapid-fire costume changes to make throughout this episode. Then again, it’s possible that this particular sketch is another instance of a seemingly-live sketch actually being a recording of a sketch that was taped live at dress rehearsal, an odd habit that I mentioned in an earlier review SNL sometimes had in the 2000s.
— This “Trump bashes Rosie O’Donnell at every single turn” premise is blah.
— Yeah, so far, there’s very little to like here.
STARS: *½
COOL FOOD
(host) & (KRW) see anthropomorphic meat at the coolest restaurant in town
— What the hell am I watching? This sure is one corny premise. Feels like something straight out of some kiddie comedy show, which echoes a complaint of mine about another restaurant sketch, Hot Plates, even if this Cool Food sketch is definitely nowhere near as insufferable.
— I can definitely see some people finding this sketch to have a silly charm, and I wish I could feel that way, too, but this just ain’t doing it for me.
— Decent visual effect of a screaming Andy being picked up by a fork.
— An actual pretty funny punchline with Jake’s reveal of him and Kristen having done mushrooms before going to this restaurant.
STARS: **
LASER CATS! 2
feline sci-fi sequel by ANS & BIH further annoys LOM
— Laser Cats has officially become a once-a-year recurring segment.
— Bill, when acting dismissive towards the concept of cats shooting lasers out of their mouth: “That’s kids stuff.” No, Bill, kids stuff would be that Cool Food sketch we saw right before this (minus the drug-related ending).
— Funny little gag with Amy carefully placing her cup down on the table when she’s slowly “fainting”.
— Interesting and fun little detail of a superimposed ping-pong ball during Andy and Bill’s slow-motion ping-pong game.
— I love the cheap use of a copy machine as an identity scanner.
— Great gag with Bill’s Laser Cat reloading by eating cat food from a dish.
— Strong twist ending with how Andy kills the villain.
— A good slight variation of the “Get out” ending with Lorne. I mentioned in my review of the first Laser Cats short that I never liked how they made it a staple of these shorts to ALWAYS end with Lorne telling Andy and Bill to get out, but I’ll try to have more of an open mind towards that in these reviews. The reprisal of the “Get out” gag worked for me tonight, and hopefully it will continue to when I review the subsequent Laser Cats installments.
— Overall, much like the first Laser Cats short, so much silly, dumb fun here (which is pretty much the reaction I wish I could’ve gotten from Cool Food). A blast to watch, and I look forward to seeing our next annual Laser Cats short the following season.
STARS: ****½
STOCK FOOTAGE AWARDS
hackneyed broadcast news b-roll is celebrated
— As usual, I’m wary about SNL doing an award show sketch, given their poor track record with them.
— Kristen’s Jane Pauley: “Good evening, I’m Jane Pauley, and I’m here because Katie Couric didn’t want to be.”
— The premise of this particular award show sketch focusing on the use of b-roll footage in news reports actually seems kinda fun in a strange way. I even like the little detail of the award statuette being a gold-plated VHS tape.
— I like Kristen-as-Pauley and Darrell-as-Dan-Rather’s sour look after fake-laughing at the footage of a squirrel water-skiing.
— I’m kinda surprised this sketch has ended already, but that’s probably a good thing. SNL’s award show sketches tend to go on way too long, and the premise of this particular sketch was kept the correct length, with a decent amount of laughs and without stretching the premise too thin.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Phantom Limb”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Steve Jobs (FRA) touts the iPhone’s myriad unbelievable features
Whitney Houston (MAR) hawks items left over from her storage unit auction
— SNL writer John Lutz makes his way into yet another Weekend Update photo (the second above screencap for this Update). I love how it’s a running gag to use him in humorous Update photos.
— I’m wary of Fred doing another iPod/iPhone commentary, given how weak his last one was the preceding season.
— I like “on/off button” being randomly mentioned among the amazing features of the new iPhone.
— Fred’s overall Steve Jobs commentary tonight was an improvement over his last one.
— A lot of solid jokes between Amy and Seth tonight.
— Uh-oh. Here comes Maya’s Whitney Houston to hurt the momentum of this solid Update. I was not a fan of her last Update commentary at all.
— I did get a laugh from Maya’s Whitney humming the Sanford And Son theme song.
— Maya’s overall Whitney commentary tonight was thankfully not as annoying as her last one, but it still didn’t do much for me.
STARS: ***½
LAW & ORDER MASTER CLASS
(host) learns from acting guru (AMP) who specializes in Law & Order roles
— A pretty funny and promising concept.
— Amy is really solid at imitating how actors playing employees being questioned in a Law & Order scene are always moving around during their dialogue.
— Fun sequence with Jake having to act out various Law & Order scenarios in rapid-fire speed.
— Fred is cracking me up as an out-of-work Sam Waterston impersonator.
— Did I just see someone running through the background during the Sam Waterston impersonator scene? Was that Maya rushing off the set to get ready for the next sketch? (I told you she and Amy have had to do a lot of fast costume changes tonight.)
STARS: ****
WHEELCHAIR DATES
(host) & (MAR) play matchmakers to wheelchair-bound (JAS) & (KRW)
— Funny reveal of the date that the wheelchair-bound Jason has been set up with turning out to be a wheelchair-bound Kristen.
— I like Jake and Maya constantly avoiding trying to point out Jason and Kristen’s wheelchair similarity, and badly trying to act overly oblivious whenever Jason and Kristen call attention to the wheelchairs.
— Lots of funny lines from Jake and Maya. I can see their occasional yelling of their lines coming off annoying to some people, but it’s not bothering me at all.
— I love Maya randomly and uncontrollably blurting out the inappropriate question “HOW DO YOU GO TO THE BATHROOM?!?” towards Jason and Kristen.
— A charming and funny ending.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New Slang”
KAPLAN, LIEBOWITZ & DOLEMITE
lawyers Kaplan (FRA), Liebowitz (host), Dolemite (KET) will represent you
— Funny random concept of Dolemite being in a law firm trio.
— Amusing little detail with Jake’s lazy eye.
— Wait, this sketch is concluding ALREADY?!? After only about 40 seconds?!? There’s NO WAY it was originally planned to be this brief and pointless. There were barely any jokes even delivered here before the sketch abruptly wrapped up. The show must’ve run long and the writer of this sketch was probably forced to do some last-minute trimming to the script before the sketch went on air (much like what happened with the Wine Tasters sketch from the end of the preceding season’s Antonio Banderas episode, though at least THAT sketch still remained funny even in its trimmed form, which is more than I can say for this Dolemite sketch).
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. Not much stood out as particularly great and there were some weak spots, but the show did have a good flow and a nice vibe running through the night, which made even some of the weaker sketches have a better atmosphere. Jake Gyllenhaal was a likable and somewhat fun host, and partly attributed to the nice vibe this episode had.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Justin Timberlake)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jeremy Piven