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
This is probably my favorite Ashton Kutcher episode–I think his style of humor clicked well with this era’s cast. Even the stuff that doesn’t work for me has enough energy to somewhat work.
I liked Kristen’s stuff in this episode…like always, they didn’t need to be recurring. The Jamie Lee Curtis sketch is so amusingly silly and is a good impression. Judy Grimes is very impressive. But both Fred and Kristen didn’t know how to not run Update commentators into the ground, culminating in the played out Garth and Kat stuff they did together.
On the one hand, Casey got a raw deal and sketches like this show off her potential. However, I do think Happy Endings was the better gig for her and was a better career move than like lasting 4-5 seasons in increasingly dismal parts on SNL (like Nasim Pedrad or Abby Elliott).
I forgot The Cougar Den sketch–one of the few sketches of this era to really use the trio of female cast members effectively. Kenan’s producer dude is just a super stock part though.
I think it’s a great point that we might be remembering a lot of Wiig material more fondly if she didn’t rehash her bits so much. I think things like Surprise Sue, the “Don’t Make Me Sing” lady, Doonice, the gross hot girl and these Jamie Lee Curtis pieces would have all sat with me a lot better if they were just one (or two) and done.
Case in point, Wiig does a piece in the, I think, 2010-11 Jon Hamm episode that I absolutely love and she never did it again, which means I just get to continue loving it. Whereas Secret Word…ugh.
Interestingly Casey more recently has a loose connection to the modern day SNL cast, she eventually married the creator of Happy Endings, who was just recently announced as the guy in charge of running the soon to (finally) go into production Lorne produced Kenan Thompson sitcom which also co-stars (also announced just recently) Chris Redd as Kenan’s brother.
Speaking of, how is that gonna work, with Kenan and Redd both doing that while still doing SNL? I guess with SNL possibly not being full-time this season might make it easier for the current cast to do more outside audience-less projects. I know Aidy is also still doing her Hulu show, and now Michael Che is apparently doing a sketch show for HBO Max while still staying at SNL.
Would actually say Casey had a pretty decent first season considering how shortened s33 was, I think when she really got buried was when they added more women next season, because then you had 3 new women struggling for parts with Kristen still getting a majority of the bigger roles.
The next one is the first one I remember watching live, so it means a lot to me. Interested in seeing how it holds up for people who aren’t me.
Iirc the Activia sketch got some mainstream attention as well.
Yeah this is unquestionably when .Kristen becomes the focus of the show. And other than the election stuff coming up would remain so for the next four years
This is probably the earlier version of the Dusty Velvet sketch (dated 2006) you’re referring to thats been out there for years, with Comedy Bang Bang regular Seth Morris in Ashton’s part, a bit different than the SNL version. I think that was the sketch Casey said seemed to win over Lorne and company during her SNL audition. Definitely a good use of her knack for physical comedy, which SNL didn’t take enough advantage of when she was on the show.
Also forgot to mention in reruns (the short lived times VH1 and Comedy Central were showing reruns of this era again a few weeks ago) they show a different version of the sketch thats much sloppier than the live one. Caseys definitely putting way more effort into the performances in the live one than the dress rerun version and Jason can be seen cracking up a lot in the dress one during the shots of the guys.
Almost would’ve been an even bigger night for Casey Wilson, she had another starring role cut after dress rehearsal in a sketch where Ashton breaks up with her but then can’t get her to leave his apartment. Theres an old version of it out there from Scott Aukerman’s failed sketch tv pilot he did the summer before this SNL season premiered, if it had been picked up it was being eyed as a possible new rival to SNL since MAD Tv was on its way out by that point. I believe Casey being one of the stand-outs in the pilot was how she first ended up on SNL/Lorne’s radar that summer when he was preparing for Maya possibly leaving.
https://tinyurl.com/yxthnrrl
(FunnyOrDie’s old content isnt available through google as easily now so was a bit hard to find this without going to the Wayback Machine.)
Ashton obviously played the other role played here. Probably could’ve got this one on another week if she didn’t already have the stripper sketch, no way Lorne was gonna give 3 leads for the newbie in one night. Could’ve probably worked with Shia the next week.
There are a few notable dress rehearsal cuts from this episode. Firstly, Ledge Jumper which airs next season in Paul Rudd / Beyonce was cut and has Ashton in the Paul Rudd role. Lastly, an Introverts sketch where Neil & Jean end up bottomless on a cruise with a co-worker played by Ashton.
Out of the 30 episodes that she was a cast member, this is up there as one of Casey’s best. You could also make a case for the James Franco or Anne Hathaway episodes next season as well but this one is definitely top 3.
The thing about Casey is that almost from the outset she was labeled as a Kristen Wiig knockoff. I remember one blogger after disliking the Dusty Velvet sketch questioned if it was too late to get back Maya Rudolph back on the show.
Casey went on to do some good stuff on Funny or Die including a video where she reads over journal entries she made while on SNL, a video parodying Nancy Meyers movies that Meyers forced Funny or Die to take down and this one where she reads comments from her IMDb page.
That’s the wrong video, this is the right one.
Oh wow, I forgot all about that video. Did she make that while she was still on SNL or was that right around the time she was fired? Almost feel like if she did something like that on SNL as a digital short it could’ve saved her, could’ve been like Bill Murray’s “the ne guys not working out” sketch he did when he was still seen as the new guy who replaced Chevy.
RR, this was late 2009 so about 6 months after she was not asked back for season 35.
What was the story with those Death By Chocolate bits? Did Reitman ever talk about how he got involved with SNL for one week to do those? Would be curious how those came about, just seems so random, especially for this era.
I don’t know all the specifics but I know that Reitman met and befriended Simon Rich so that was probably his in at SNL. Also, Noah Baumbach did a short film called Clearing The Air which airs in Paul Rudd / Beyonce next season.
Uggghhh, I hate the “Just kidding” lady! I hate her even more than Gilly, and that’s saying something.
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/how-stuff-works/movie-crush/e/55826451
Found it a bit interesting to hear Casey on Movie Crush a while back kinda disown that sketch a bit when it gets brought up (29 minute mark on link) especially recognizing it wouldn’t go over so well in todays more sensitive climate especially. I think thats another interesting thing about looking back at all these old eras, how much stuff that they would do without any of the backlash it would get today, I guess we’re now in the last couple years before twitter and other forms of social media became more prominent.
This is my favorite Ashton episode. Lots of fun stuff and the Death By Chocolate runner feels out of step with SNL, but in a good way. It reminds me of something that would be on The State. I even enjoy Daiquiri Girl and Judy Grimes.
This is also, for me at least, the official starting point of the “Wacky Wiig” era. We’ve got Target Lady, her Jamie Lee, Surprise Sue, Penelope, Aunt Linda, and Judy Grimes all established now.
In the club sketch, is Andy reprising his underage drinking character from Shia’s first episode?
I can see why Casey would not do the Dusty Velvet sketch now, but her performance is absolutely great and it’s a fearless showcase, especially for someone who had only joined a few months earlier. Watching some of her Funny or Die content (especially the one of her reading hate comments) makes me feel she would have been a better fit for SNL about 5 years later than when she joined. Still, you can’t pick and choose things like that, so I will just enjoy what we got.
I love the Chocolate or Die runner – it’s rare that SNL can surprise you so completely with such a crazy concept and pitch-perfect execution.
This feels like a crossroads episode for the show, in choosing between risk-taking (by SNL standards) types of material like the Dusty Velvet sketch and the Death by Chocolate runner, and comfort material, like Kristen’s characters, slumbering talk show sketches, and of course, Fred being Fred. They could have tried to thread the needle between “offbeat” or “experimental” and mainstream, which I think SNL has tried (to mixed results) in the last decade, but I can see why they took the more conventional route. That’s not a bad thing – the late ’80s could be seen as conventional but they also have many patches of brilliance and incredible consistency. Unfortunately, there are already a few glimpses here of the poor execution that will hobble this approach – namely, the cougar talk show (a warmed-over idea that mostly shows up a lack of chemistry between the female cast members and is promptly stolen by Cameron Diaz anyway) and the bar memories sketch (very badly written, disappointing, a huge waste of a premise that should be so much better than what was on display here). Even the club sketch I enjoyed more for scattered performances than for the sketch itself, which just hangs there, limply.
I agree with those who think the Jamie Lee Curtis sketch is alright the first time and didn’t need a repeat, but something about Judy Grimes irritates me even on first viewing. For me it’s like watching someone taking a victory lap – it’s not really about the viewer at all. I don’t feel involved. Kristen is not as heavy on these alienating characters as Fred is, but this one just tires me out.
At least the cold open is better than one might expect, partially thanks to turning the central role over to Will and letting his very clear voice through instead of him having to play a caricature. He drives the sketch and as a result the (admittedly overextended) material with Hillary, Obama, McCain, etc. doesn’t feel as incoherent as these pieces often do.
I do enjoy backstage monologues, this one enhanced by using different angles for the usual locations, but Ashton’s demeanor has the same “d-bag who assumes we’re fine with them being a d-bag because they joke about it” vibe as the Timberlake episodes. It’s annoying to watch him here, even though I generally don’t mind him that much on SNL.
I kind of admire that Lonely Island just said “fuck it” (and this was real, apparently – http://exclaim.ca/music/article/lonely_island ) but I would have enjoyed seeing one of the cut sketches (like the one with Casey as the girlfriend who won’t leave) more.
The mellow talk show sketch works as a palate cleanser, although it’s mostly fun for me because of Dave Matthews’ involvement. He comments on this sketch (crowd scream sounds, just to warn):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xldYhOM5W2I
The dress promo for this episode is mostly what we see in the live show, but has Kenan as Charles Barkley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFiVqMU1QwM
Promos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAXaFoXRI0E
I’m with Soaps & Sci-Fi on Twitter: Dusty Velvet and the “Death by Chocolate” runner are the clear highlights, with the first “Cougar Show” a distant third. This is a really solid episode, Kutcher’s best as a host, undercut in hindsight by the debut of several overused Wiigy characters. Gnarls Barkley was another great musical guest.
I gave this episode a 6.0 (out of 10) on TV.com, but 12 years on I’m retaining that grade for completely different reasons.
“The Rusty Pony” sketch struck out to me more than most of what I remember from this ep, probably because it seemed more awkward than funny. So this was the first time Kristen did her incoherently Judy Grimes character? It can be funny but also frustratingly, well, you know…
“lack of agreement between subject and predicate…” is the highlight for me.
Stooge, I will NEVER understand your venom for Garth and Kat while simultaneously considering Judy Grimes “interesting.” She and the Cali’s are the only characters that send me to the remote.