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