Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PETRAEUS REPORT ON IRAQ
presidential candidates ask General Petraeus (WLF) self-serving questions
— Interesting and unusual casting of Andy as Carl Levin.
— Ha, until now, I had forgotten all about Bill’s hilarious Robert Byrd impression, which makes its debut here.
— I see Bill’s taking a page out of Fred’s playbook by doing the “wandering aimlessly in front of the camera and blocking the person who’s speaking” gag.
— Boy, in the tradition of many of this era’s Jim Downey-written C-SPAN cold openings utilizing a lot of cast members, this is going on WAY too long. Unlike some of Downey’s other overlong cold openings from this era, this one actually has a good number of decently funny lines, but there’s still some SERIOUS trimming that needs to be done to this cold opening. The length is very unnecessary, and is somewhat hurting this for me.
— The funny part with Will’s Petraeus calling out Amy’s Hillary Clinton on her lie about being the inspiration for the song “My Sharona” is made even funnier by it being accompanied by a cutaway to the real Hillary Clinton book with Amy superimposed on the cover.
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
busybody host demonstrates his producer skills with cast members backstage
— I’m always a sucker for this type of backstage monologue.
— When Ashton Kutcher tells Will “I love that Falcon guy that you play” (a line made even funnier when you remember Ashton actually appeared in one of those Falconer sketches before), I love Will desperately responding “Oh, will you tell Lorne that?!?”
— The whole bit with Andy trying to get some weed from Kenan is not only very funny, but actually appears to be a dig at a real-life incident that had happened with Kenan just a few weeks prior to this episode, where he got pulled over by a cop and was nearly arrested for possession of marijuana in his car, but saved himself with an explanation to the cop (I think Kenan lied about it being his friend’s weed, or something like that). This leads me to ask this rather odd question: has any cast member in SNL history ever gotten arrested during their SNL tenure? I guess the obvious answer is no, because I’d probably know about something big like that if it ever happened. It is kinda funny and bizarre to think that Kenan freakin’ Thompson, of all people, almost became the very first cast member in SNL history to get arrested during their SNL tenure.
STARS: ***½
THE COUGAR DEN
(AMP), (KRW), (CAW), (Cameron Diaz) prefer younger men
— The debut of a recurring sketch that I’ve often forgotten about in recent years.
— Nice opening title graphic.
— A good use of the female cast.
— Kristen’s blowjoy/“Well, it’s certainly not a job” line was hilarious.
— I remember being very surprised by Cameron Diaz’s random cameo when this sketch originally aired.
— Fun performance from Cameron here.
— Another great line from the three main ladies, this time Amy’s line about her telling young men “It’s not gonna be as gross as you think” when she’s about to have sex with them.
— Kenan always kills in roles like this.
— Ashton’s “Their ex-husbands have been pretty cool so far” line was a funny self-reference in regards to how close he famously was with Bruce Willis during his marriage to Demi Moore.
STARS: ***½
WAITING WITH OLIVER
upset by un-diverse That ’70s Show, club doorman (KET) denies host entry
— Fred attempts a new character…….aaaaaand it’s a flop, continuing Fred’s disheartening hit-and-miss season. (I almost want to argue he’s sadly had more misses than hits this season, but I’m not sure how accurate that would be without looking back at all of his performances this season. I think his misses just stand out to me more because, for the longest time, I used to deem this to be a good season for him.)
— I love the ridiculous two-men-in-one-coat bit with Andy.
— This is becoming a fun ensemble piece with almost everybody in the cast each getting a funny walk-on character, one-by-one.
— Of the extras playing the various old guys Jason brings to the club, one of them appears to be the same actor who starred in the “Grandkids In The Movies” Digital Short from this season’s Tina Fey episode.
— I love Amy’s “Eat shoe, bitch!” bit.
— Ha, a brief Lyle Kane walk-on from Will! This ends up being the final appearance of this short-lived but hilarious recurring character.
— Strong ending regarding the non-existent black guy on That 70s Show.
STARS: ****
DAIQUIRI GIRL
absence of musical guest leads to awful “Daiquiri Girl” music video
— The hell? Even for Lonely Island standards, this Digital Short so far is just…WTF?
— Now we’re getting a text crawl from Lonely Island admitting they’re aware this short is not up to par, then explaining that they were supposed to film a Digital Short with tonight’s musical guest, Gnarls Barkley, who ended up standing Lonely Island up at the last minute (is this true?), which resulted in Lonely Island filming this low-budget, half-assed, intentionally bad music video.
— Overall, wow. Not quite sure how to react to this short. I guess, thinking back on it, I got enough chuckles while watching this, between the intentionally bad music video and the self-deprecating disclaimer. Lonely Island’s probably one of the few people who can make something awful like this work…somewhat.
STARS: ***
ACTIVIA COMMERCIAL SHOOT
Jamie Lee Curtis (KRW) overeats Activia yogurt during commercial shoot
— Much like the Surprise Sue sketch in the preceding episode, this is another Kristen Wiig sketch that got a lot of acclaim and online buzz back when this originally aired, while I myself had a very mixed, rather lukewarm reaction to it. Stuff like this and the first Surprise Sue sketch made me feel like I was slowly starting to drift apart from what was considered popular among SNL fans at this time, and made me also feel like I was slowly starting to drift apart from what I liked so much about Kristen as a performer (my drifting-apart from the latter would sadly continue even further the following season, when Kristen’s SNL trajectory starts REALLY going downhill and SNL’s over-utilization of her starts becoming detrimental to her female castmates’ airtime). We’ll see how I’ll feel about this sketch now.
— Funny story from Kristen’s Jamie Lee Curtis regarding taking her top off for a magazine shoot.
— Kristen’s performance is certainly strong here (she’s making me laugh far more here than she did in the preceding episode’s Surprise Sue sketch), but I’m iffy on the main comedic conceit of this sketch.
— Didn’t care for the ending. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, in which the ending was a bit different and came off better.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Run (I’m A Natural Disaster)”
WEEKEND UPDATE
nervous Judy Grimes (KRW) repeatedly negates herself with “just kidding”
Nicholas Fehn’s false starts don’t add up to brilliant insights
— For the second consecutive episode, Kristen debuts one of her most remembered recurring characters, Judy Grimes, a.k.a. the “Just Kidding” lady. And for the THIRD time in these last two episodes alone, we get a Kristen Wiig performance that garnered a lot of internet buzz and acclaim from SNL fans back at this time. We’ve definitely reached the point of Kristen’s SNL tenure where she’s become the media darling of the then-current SNL cast.
— A funny and VERY impressive increasingly rapid-fire, almost-inhuman delivery from Kristen. I remember how much this stunned me back when this episode originally aired.
— I wonder what the cue cards for Kristen’s Judy Grimes commentaries look like. Is her long-winded, fast-paced dialogue squeezed in a very compact manner onto just two or three cue cards, or does SNL use A LOT of cue cards to cover all of Judy Grimes’ dialogue?
— Speaking of cue cards, we get YET ANOTHER Nicholas Fehn appearance, and it’s been said that SNL supposedly never uses cue cards for this character’s commentaries, because his commentaries are supposedly improvised. I have no trouble believing that. Between the Judy Grimes commentary and now this, tonight’s Weekend Update must be an unusual, interesting night for the cue card guy. If he indeed had to display a whole bunch of cue cards for the Judy Grimes commentary, then I’m sure he’s appreciating the breather he gets during the supposedly-cue-card-less Nicholas Fehn commentary.
— Just as I was afraid of, fatigue and diminishing returns are starting to fully set in for me towards Nicholas Fehn in this third appearance of his. While I’m still getting an occasional laugh here, I’m not finding myself laughing anywhere near as much at this same routine that had me practically in stitches in Fehn’s first two appearances.
STARS: ***
SONG MEMORIES
“Amie” evokes odious recollections in (host) & other icky reminiscers
— Meh, I saw the coma patient punchline of Jason’s story coming (though I thought the punchline would be that his girlfriend is dead, not in a coma, but it’s close enough). Jason’s meh punchline was somewhat salvaged by his hilarious addendum during the chorus-singing: “Man, oh, man, I love bein’ a doctor.”
— Hmm, for once, the song playing in one of these Song Memories sketch doesn’t remind Bill’s character of “muh dad”. Instead, his story this time is about Connie Chung.
— Will’s “Pedophile? That’s a pretty big word for a 10-year-old” punchline, while hilarious, is a famous oldie that’s been around LONG before this sketch, and I remember being bugged back at this time in 2008 that so many online SNL fans were giving SNL so much credit and high praise for such a clever punchline that the writer of this sketch seemingly just took from an old Dirty Jokes book.
— Wow, Ashton’s story is just plain weak.
— Even the twist ending that these Song Memories sketches always contain fell flat for me this time.
— Overall, this was sadly and surprisingly subpar for a Song Memories sketch.
STARS: **
DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar (host) knifes a homeless man
— Wow. This overall pre-taped piece was so brief, random, and dark, but I absolutely LOVED it, and the “Death By Chocolate” reveal at the end was perfect. I’m looking forward to the next two parts of this runner.
STARS: ****½
THE MELLOW SHOW
Jack Johnson (ANS), Dave Matthews (BIH), John Mayer (host) keep it mellow
— The return of Andy’s Jack Johnson impression, which was one of the first big roles Andy ever got on SNL when his impression last appeared in that JJ Casuals commercial from season 31. Interesting seeing his impression placed in a new setting this time. Unfortunately, it’s the tired talk show setting.
— Funny and spot-on Dave Matthews impression from Bill.
— I like the walk-on from Kenan as a violin-playing Boyd Tinsley during Bill-as-Dave-Matthews’ short musical number.
— Ashton’s John Mayer is pretty much a non-impression.
— Well, at least Ashton is now imitating John Mayer’s trademark facial expressions while playing the guitar.
— Ha, Andy’s Jack Johnson actually mentions the JJ Casuals commercial as the sponsor of this talk show. I love this continuity nod on SNL’s part.
STARS: ***
DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar offs a doctor (JAS) & his patient
— Wow, you gotta love Ashton’s character’s delightfully sadistic and elaborate actions here: shooting an innocent doctor (excellent reaction from Jason to getting shot, by the way), planting the gun in a comatose hospital patient’s hand, then VIOLENTLY yanking out the patient’s life support tubes and wires.
— I recall hearing these Death By Chocolate shorts were directed by movie director Jason Reitman, which I guess explains why they feel so different and refreshing for SNL.
— Overall, even better than the first one. Absolutely perfect, and caters 100% to my kind of dark humor.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”
THE RUSTY PONY
with (host)’s help, paralyzed stripper Dusty Velvet (CAW) does her act
— Casey Wilson’s biggest and most remembered showcase of her short-lived SNL tenure. This is also a comedy routine she had done prior to SNL. There is (or used to be) an online video of her pre-SNL version of this sketch.
— An un-PC but strong and daring concept for a sketch, and Casey is executing it perfectly.
— My only mild complaint about this great sketch is that it’s relying a little too heavily on the cutaways to the straight man characters having a frozen look of shock on their face in reaction to what they’re witnessing, a habit SNL relies on way too heavily in this era, as I mentioned in some earlier reviews.
— I love Andy’s absolutely horrified reaction when Casey licks his face.
— Solid ending.
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember thinking it was Casey’s official breakout moment that would lead to her getting more airtime and having a successful SNL tenure. Sadly, fate would have a completely different outcome for Casey’s SNL tenure, and this sketch, instead of now being considered a “An SNL star is born” piece, is now wistfully looked back on as an example of what might’ve been.
STARS: ****½
DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar attacks ANS with a chainsaw
— A very short and simple but solid and effective conclusion to the Death By Chocolate runner, even if nothing will ever top the second installment. I also liked how this third installment was SNL-related, with it taking place backstage.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode that contained some VERY high highs, mainly in the post-Weekend Update half. The dark, brilliant Death By Chocolate shorts in particular were a strong highlight, and were easily the best SNL has ever utilized four-timer Ashton Kutcher.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christopher Walken)
a very slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Shia LaBeouf