Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DEBATE
Hillary Clinton [real] responds to debate skit; Vincent D’Onofrio cameo
— A funny and very spot-on Brian Williams impression from Will, which is especially surprising, as Will’s not often known for doing dead-on celebrity impressions. Soon after this episode, it would be disclosed that he discovered how to do a Brian Williams impression by accident. He was trying out a character voice, and someone pointed out to him how much the voice he was doing sounded like Brian Williams, so he ran with it and turned it into a Brian Williams impression.
— What the hell? Is that eye-liner I’m seeing Darrell wearing as Tim Russert? Why?
— Speaking of Darrell’s Tim Russert, the real Russert would die just a few months after tonight’s episode originally aired. I can’t remember for sure, but I think that prevented this episode from getting a second NBC rerun (the first NBC rerun was sometime between tonight’s original airing and Russert’s death). I remember being a bit bummed back then that we never to got to see a second NBC rerun of this episode, because I missed the first NBC rerun of it, and I heard that SNL made quite a number of noteworthy edits and changes to this episode in the rerun (lots of dress rehearsal substitutions and such).
— I didn’t realize this until now, but starting in the preceding episode, SNL has finally ditched that dumb, unnecessary prosthetic nose they used to always have Amy wear as Hillary Clinton.
— A very funny speech from Amy’s Hillary about why she deserves to be president.
— Wow, Fred’s Obama voice in this sketch is just…wow. What the hell is he DOING?!? His voice is straight-up goofy, dopey, and cartoonish-sounding. I remember online SNL fans back at this time in 2008 saying he sounded Yogi Bear/Barney Rubble/Kermit The Frog-ish. Given the fact that this is only his second appearance as Obama, he’s clearly still experimenting with the voice at this point. I’d be more forgiving of that now if I knew in hindsight that he did eventually nail Obama’s voice, but nope. He never does.
— I love Will’s Brian Williams responding to a question from Amy’s Hillary by sternly telling her “We’ll ask the questions here, sister.”
— A very random but funny turn with Vincent D’Onofrio giving Amy’s Hillary a Law & Order-esque interrogation.
— At first, it seems strange that this cold opening concludes with a “The Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate” title sequence, without anyone saying “Live from New York…” (what is this, the Dick Ebersol era?), but we now see we’re getting an “Editorial Response” from the real Hillary Clinton. An unusual format of this cold opening.
— Hillary Clinton becomes the latest of what will be many presidential candidates to cameo during this 2008 presidential race.
— Hillary’s segment isn’t doing much for me, especially not the corny “celebrity meets their impersonator” meeting between her and Amy. Hillary would later do a better “celebrity meets their impersonator” sketch with Kate McKinnon in 2015.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host eschews Diablo Cody’s (ANS) overly-hip monologue verbiage
— Meh at the initial idea of Andy in drag playing Diablo Cody, but Andy seems like he can make this work.
— Funny bit with Andy’s Diablo Cody compulsively working the word “blog” into a whole bunch of consecutive sentences.
— Overall, Andy indeed made this potentially-iffy idea work.
STARS: ***
THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Miley Cyrus (host) acts her age
— This recurring sketch makes its final appearance.
— Interesting change of pace with the “Kid Speak” segment.
— The “Kid Speak” segment was fun at first, but went on a little too long for something with such an obvious and thin comedic conceit that got its point across in its first 20 seconds.
— Ellen Page making an appearance as Miley Cyrus? Hmm.
— Yeah, Ellen is clearly badly miscast in this role. I don’t know what she’s going for in her Miley impression, but it’s not working AT ALL.
— A good laugh from Kenan muttering a bitter “Yeah, I’ll fiddle with your car breaks” in response to Amy’s Dakota lightheartedly calling him a second fiddle.
— I recently heard something in passing about how tonight’s Dakota Fanning Show installment caused some kind of controversy for Amy, but that’s news to me. I have no idea what it’s about. Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can give details on this.
— Oh, god, they’re now having Ellen sing as Miley Cyrus? Poor girl looks just plain embarrassed to be singing here, as she can be seen giggling nervously while singing half-heartedly, before Amy’s Dakota shows up to thankfully take focus away from her.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“The Obama Files” by RBS- Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton are marginalized
— (*sigh*) The end of an era, folks. This turns out to be the final TV Funhouse cartoon during TV Funhouse’s regular run. A few years later in an Ed Helms-hosted episode, out of nowhere, there would be a one-night-only special return of TV Funhouse, with a half-live-action Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon.
— A cheap laugh from Michelle Obama vomiting on cue to distract the media, even if it feels like Robert Smigel has done vomiting gags to death in his cartoons over the years.
— Feels kinda odd hearing Darrell’s typical Jesse Jackson voice in cartoon form.
— Whoever’s doing the voice for Obama in this cartoon is doing a very good job, which just makes Fred’s already-bad Obama impression look even worse.
— A few minutes into this cartoon, and boy, this is not working for me. I’m glazed over for so much of this.
— I did get a chuckle just now from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton’s podium and lion costumes.
— A somewhat funny ending joke with the Wayans Brothers making a movie about disguising as podiums.
— Overall, a very forgettable and sad way for TV Funhouse to go out.
STARS: **
THE COLLEGE FOR EXCELLENCE
(FRA) will teach you generic business phrases
— This feels like a variation of the Computer School commercial Fred did in the season 30 Paris Hilton episode.
— The bad, stiff acting from the commercial actors is only mildly funny. Nothing too great to me.
— Andy is stealing this whole sketch with his bizarre, awkward little background antics.
— I did not care at all for Fred’s whole ending spiel. Felt unnecessary, and ended this sketch on a flat note.
STARS: **
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRLS
Henry VIII (JAS) juggles Anne (host) & The Other Boleyn Girls in movie
— Jason is a very funny straight man here.
— A somewhat rare (at least it feels somewhat rare) instance of Will dressing in drag.
— Kenan always kills with one-liners like the one he has at the end of this sketch, but I’m not sure how to feel about the whole ending portion of this sketch.
STARS: **½
NIGHTMARE
(host) & undead (ANS) occupy each other’s nested nightmares
— Some laughs from Andy’s goofy-looking “scary” character occasionally popping up in the mirror.
— Good turn with this turning out to be Andy’s nightmare instead of Ellen’s.
— The non-sequitur Dracula scene was pretty funny.
— Not sure I cared for that ending.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hate It Here”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Rudolph Giuliani [real] blames his campaign failure on his SNL appearance
Nicholas Fehn’s sociopolitical commentary comprises sentence fragments
— Our second instance tonight alone of a presidential candidate cameoing during this 2008 presidential race. This is starting to get kinda insane.
— “America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani”. Another now-sad reminder of how lovable Giuliani used to be.
— I kinda like the meta turn in Giuliani’s commentary with him blaming his campaign failure on him dressing in drag in a Rita Delvecchio sketch when he hosted SNL in 1997.
— Much like the famous “Can we be funny?” “Why start now?” exchange between Lorne and Giuliani in the post 9/11 cold opening, Giuliani gets in another good-natured dig at SNL, comparing his campaign to a typical SNL sketch, in that it started strong, but didn’t have an ending.
— I love the German napping bit that Seth and Amy are doing together.
— Nicholas Fehn has officially become recurring.
— Fred’s basically just repeating the exact same stuff from the first Nicholas Fehn commentary, but it’s still getting laughs from me in this second commentary, even if I’m not laughing as hard as last time. I can definitely see fatigue looming ahead towards this character, given how insanely frequently we’ll be seeing him in such a short amount of time within this and the following season, and how his routine never changes, but at this point, Fred’s still making this work and I still have enough goodwill left in this second appearance of this character.
— I love Nicholas Fehn’s random “I saw Dmitri” aside to a confused Amy.
— Amy laughed at Seth’s Doomsday Vault joke harder than the audience did. It always bugged the hell out of me when Tina Fey had a bad habit of doing that towards Jimmy Fallon’s jokes during the later years of the Fallon/Fey era of Update.
— A surprising amount of fairly forgettable jokes from Amy and Seth in tonight’s Update.
STARS: **½
SHOPPING WITH VIRGINIACA
Virginiaca & stepdaughter (host) are stymied by Baby Gap employee (ANS)
— UGH.
— What was the point of giving this particular Virginiaca sketch an opening “Shopping With Virginiaca” title sequence, complete with a Don Pardo voice-over intro, when SNL never did that in previous (nor subsequent) Virginiaca sketches? It isn’t like this sketch itself is any different from other Virginiaca sketches.
— I actually got a laugh just now from a Virginiaca sketch, with a displeased Andy telling Virginiaca “If you need me, I’ll be nowhere.”
— Much like the role of Miley Cyrus earlier tonight, here we have another very questionable choice for a role Ellen has been cast in.
— I once again ask, how in the world does this Virginiaca character have a completely different white stepdaughter in each sketch when we’re told she’s married to the exact same man (the wealthy Mr. Hastings) every time?
— Boy, it’s just plain bizarre seeing and hearing Ellen attempt to act and talk “black”.
— Andy continues to be the only saving grace of this sketch, with his deadpan “Aaaaaaand I quit” line at the end when Virginiaca is trying to seduce him.
STARS: *½
HOOK’S REVENGE
Captain Hook (BIH) can’t get his pirates to shoot Peter Pan (host)
— Geez, why the hell is this Bill’s first and ONLY appearance all night? SNL’s under-utilization of this fantastic performer in his early seasons is so damn frustrating. John Mulaney cannot arrive at the writing staff soon enough at this point.
— This sketch has a bit of the same vibe from the West Side Story and Evita sketches from season 22.
— I love Will’s look in this.
— Yeah, more and more, this sketch appears to be following the same route of the West Side Story/Evita sketches, right down to having Bill in the Norm Macdonald role. While he’s no Norm when it comes to this type of sketch, Bill’s still giving a very solid and funny straight man performance in his own right, and is helping to make this sketch work.
— I don’t care for the audience participation bit, with a dead, stomped-on Tinkerbell being brought back to life by the audience’s applause. Way too corny for my likes. It would’ve been funnier (if darker) to me if they had just left Tinkerbell dead.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walken”
MARTY GOES GAY
(host) is feeling gay following a revelatory Melissa Etheridge concert
— Ah, not only a slice-of-life piece, which is INCREDIBLY rare for this era, but this is a slice-of-life piece with reality subtext in regards to our host, as this sketch obviously must’ve been inspired by the rumors/speculation of Ellen’s sexual orientation (this is several years before she would officially come out of the closet). When this sketch originally aired, I remember wondering if Ellen was using this sketch to tell us something about herself, so much so, that I half-expected her to follow this sketch by coming out of the closet in an official announcement during the goodnights (which, in a way, would’ve been a groundbreaking SNL moment).
— I’m absolutely loving Ellen’s recounting of what she experienced at a Melissa Etheridge concert, and I’m really enjoying the interplay between her and Andy.
— A very funny line from Ellen, asking “Why can’t I just hug a woman with my legs in friendship?”
— A really sweet and touching ending between Ellen and Andy.
— Overall, a very strong sketch. Great writing, great performances, great handling of the lesbian premise, and the aforementioned reality subtext adds a special, meaningful feel. Both Ellen’s performance and this sketch itself was much better than I remember deeming them to be back when this originally aired.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty middling and forgettable episode. Aside from the last sketch, nothing stood out to me as particularly great, and there was quite a number of weak sketches.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Amy Adams