Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A NONPARTISAN MESSAGE FROM SARAH PALIN & HILLARY CLINTON
Sarah Palin (TIF) & Hillary Clinton (AMP) address campaign sexism
— The debut of former cast member Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impression. And this debut is in what ends up being a very famous and popular sketch.
— Speaking of Tina being a former cast member, I remember how there were news articles earlier the week of this episode stating that SNL was trying to get Tina to play Sarah Palin (given how everybody was talking about how strongly Palin resembles Tina), and that if Tina wasn’t available that weekend, Casey Wilson was SNL’s back-up plan for a Palin impersonator. I remember desperately having my fingers crossed for Casey to get the role, given how underused and underappreciated she was, and how much I liked her and wanted to see her succeed on SNL. And thus, when SNL went on the air that weekend and we immediately saw in the cold opening that Tina was playing Palin, I couldn’t help but initially be kinda disappointed (though that disappointment quickly went away when I saw both how good Tina was in the role and how strong the writing was). It’s interesting, though, to think of an alternate universe in which Casey DID get the Palin role and did successfully with it. You really have to wonder how differently her SNL tenure would’ve turned out had that happened. Casey’s success in the important role of Palin might’ve led to her getting good buzz in the media and online, which in turn might’ve led to her becoming a well-liked cast member, her gradually getting more and more general airtime, and her having a nice, full tenure. I gotta say, though, it’s really difficult for me to picture all the famous Palin sketches from this season being done with Casey in place of Tina.
— Right out of the gate in this cold opening, Tina’s Palin impression is a big hit with the audience.
— A very well-remembered and often-played part with Tina’s Palin saying “And I can see Russia from my house!”, making fun of something the real Palin said, though I think her wording of it was different (I can’t recall now, 12 years later).
— What is “FLIRJ” an acronym for anyway? (Or is it spelled “FLIRGE”? Or “FLURJ”? Or “FLURGE”?) Amy’s Hillary Clinton tells us to stop referring to her as that, after Tina’s Palin asks us to stop referring to her as a MILF, a very famous acronym. I remember people online back at this time in 2008 speculating both how “FLIRJ” is spelled and what it’s an acronym for, but I don’t think I ever saw a definitive answer.
— So many great lines from Amy and Tina here. Practically every single line is killing.
— Another memorable bit with Tina’s Palin, in which she stands in various poses for the camera during Amy-as-Hillary’s angry rant about how hard she worked in her attempt to become president.
— I love Amy-as-Hillary’s passive-aggressiveness throughout this in response to things Tina’s Palin is saying.
— Amy: “I invite the media to grow a pair…and if you can’t, I will lend you mine.”
— Overall, a classic, and an excellent debut of what would go on to be a very memorable, important, and iconic Sarah Palin impression this election season.
STARS: *****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding two seasons. However, some minor changes have been made to it: 1) many of the shots of New York City scenery are now shown in black-and-white, 2) the onscreen text of the SNL logo and cast members’ names are now displayed in a much more compact and smaller size, being shown in the middle of screen instead of being shown in a wide size that covers almost the entire left-to-right end of the screen, and 3) as the gray-colored SNL logo and cast members’ names slide out of the shot after being displayed, they’re now each shown in different colors instead of still being shown in gray.
— Bobby Moynihan has been added to the cast tonight.
MONOLOGUE
William Shatner [real] advises host on endorsements; Debbie Phelps cameo
— Amy as Michael Phelps’ overexcited mom is just generically-written stuff, but Amy is making it work decently enough.
— I like Amy egotistically asking the woman sitting next to her, “Do you have children? How many of them have gold medals?”
— A good laugh from Will wanting Michael to endorse his My First Meth Lab product.
— William Shatner cameo. Surprisingly, I think this is his first SNL appearance since famously hosting way back in season 12.
— Amusingly enough, in several shots, Guy Fieri can be seen sitting in the audience (as seen in the bottom left corner of the fourth, fifth, and sixth above screencaps for this monologue). That unmistakable hair of his alone gives him away.
STARS: ***
QUIZ BOWL
home-schoolers (WLF), (AMP), (host) whiff on science questions
— Funny in hindsight seeing the long-ish curly hair Bobby Moynihan has in his first few months on the show, before he would cut his hair to a much shorter style that people today remember him as having on SNL, as he would keep that hairstyle for the rest of his SNL tenure.
— Decent concept of Will, Amy, and Michael’s characters.
— The camera accidentally cuts to a close-up of Michael when Will says his first answer. I remember an online SNL fan saying back at this time, “Well, at least we know Michael Phelps stays in character when he thinks he’s not on camera.”
— Kristen playing what’s probably generally considered to be a very stereotypically Kristen Wiig character, twitches and all.
— Right in his very first sketch, Bobby gets a good laugh from the audience, by answering Jason’s rhetorical “What, are you home-schooled, too?” question with a proud “No, public school.”
— The main joke of this sketch with the answers the home-schooled kids give is starting to get kinda old for me. It also doesn’t help that it’s obvious Kristen was given no actual material to work with, and she’s apparently trying to overcompensate by turning the hamminess, mugging, and twitchiness up to 11.
— Jason’s frustration throughout this sketch is good.
— Great ending line from Jason about social services waiting outside for the home-schooled kids.
STARS: **
JAR GLOVE
without a Jar Glove, (KRW) would suffer a calamitous cascade of gerunds
— When Kristen burns her hand with hot water when trying to open the jar, some girls in SNL’s audience can be heard loudly shrieking in gleeful excitement for some inexplicable reason. The hell? Are those girls seeing Michael Phelps take his shirt off in the studio or something?
— A very funny progression to how out-of-hand Kristen’s life gets just from her difficulty in opening a jar, all presented in the cheesy style of black-and-white “There’s gotta be a better way” dramatizations you typically see in this type of commercial.
— A funny simple solution to Kristen’s jar-opening problem, after all the insanity we saw her go through in the alternate scenario.
STARS: ****
SWIM TEAM MOTIVATION
unlike his swim team, terpsichorean coach is moved by “Fancy Pants”
— Oh, no. What are you doing, SNL? You cannot do a second installment of this classic sketch from the season 32 Peyton Manning episode.
— Quite a number of line flubs early on in this.
— Ugh, Michael’s “I thought I fudged my speedo” line was not only cringeworthy, but was just an inferior variation of Peyton Manning’s “A little bit of pee came out” line from the first installment of this sketch.
— The crazy music Will is dancing to is catchy, at least (I’m sure it’ll get stuck in my head again, much like it did back when this episode originally aired 12 years ago), but it doesn’t compare to the Casino Royale music from the first installment of this sketch.
— On a similar note to above, Will’s dancing doesn’t compare to his dancing from the first installment, but it’s still cracking me up, I’m not gonna lie. I also admit to getting laughs when the song he’s dancing to suddenly displays vocals singing what I guess are the words “fancy pants” (though to me, the words they’re singing sound more like “dancing plants”, or “dancing pants” or “flancy plants”, even if the latter doesn’t make any sense). By the way, is this a real song, much like the aforementioned Casino Royale one, or is this a made-up song from SNL?
— On a similar note to how the text in SNL’s opening montage is shown in a more compact manner in the middle of the screen this season (same goes for the text in the going-to-commercial SNL bumpers and the “next week’s host and musical guest” promo), I’ve been noticing that even the placement of various performers onscreen in sketches is more near the middle of the screen instead of all around the screen like usual. This leaves a lot of space on the left and right ends of the screen.
— Will’s scene partners are surprisingly keeping a completely straight face at his dancing this time (even non-actor Phelps), unlike in the first installment of this sketch. I have no idea how they’re not breaking HARD at these absolutely insane, wild dance moves of Will’s. At least Bobby Moynihan has proven right in his first episode that he will be reliable at keeping a straight face in sketches.
— Okay, I’m now noticing Bill occasionally resting his hand over his mouth in a strategic manner to hide his amusement at Will’s dancing, just like in the first installment of this sketch. The rest of the guys, though? STONE-FACED.
— Blah, Michael joining in on Will’s dance isn’t being pulled off anywhere near as hilariously as when Peyton Manning did it.
— The “Let’s get outta here” ending felt so lame, empty, and lazy compared to the original version of that ending in the first installment of this sketch, where the line was “Let’s get the eff outta here”, referencing a running gag early on in the sketch.
STARS: **½
BIG KIDS
awkward quirks of Stacia & cousin Craig (host) creep out dinner guests
— OH FUCKING NO. As if it wasn’t bad enough that tonight’s episode brought back the classic Locker Room Motivation sketch that should’ve remained an epic one-off, now they’re bringing back a sketch that I didn’t even like the first time. Some really lazy writing in tonight’s season premiere so far (which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise, but still…).
— Bobby is already very prominent so far in his first episode.
— Boy, Kristen seems to be mugging even worse than she did in the first installment of this sketch. (That makes this the second time in this season premiere review that I’ve noted Kristen mugging more than usual. A harbinger of what’s to come from her this season, perhaps?)
— Casey seemed to be really late on her cue to say her line just now.
— (*groan*) Cue the camera doing frequent pan shots of the straight man characters each having a frozen unpleasant look on their face as they’re witnessing something odd Kristen and Michael’s characters are doing, a tired trope that his SNL era relies too heavily on. It doesn’t help that the Swim Team Motivation sketch that aired right before this also had that exact same type of pan shot of straight men at one point when Will was listening intensely to the music, which further proves my point about how much this SNL era overuses this trope.
— When Bill and Amy ask their guests if they have any kids, I love Bobby responding “We were seriously considering it, but we probably won’t now.”
— During one of the ENDLESS number of aforementioned pan shots of straight man characters having a frozen unpleasant look on their face, the very stern, bored look on Andy’s face (the last above screencap for this sketch) perfectly mirrors the look on my face while sitting through this insufferable sketch.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mack Maine [real] perform “Got Money”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Sarah Palin supporter Alaska Pete (WLF) admonishes the media elites
once again, Nicholas Fehn fails to communicate anything substantive
dispatcher (SEM) fields a 911 call placed by a cockatoo (AMP)
comic strip staple Cathy (ANS) reprises her usual hair-raising themes
— As yet another example of how things in tonight’s season premiere, such as the text in the opening montage and the going-to-commercial SNL bumpers, and the placement of performers onscreen, all seem to be shown more in the middle of the screen, even something about the Update photo graphics are shown closer to the middle of the screen tonight, with a lot more space on the left or right sides of the screen. I wonder if the reason for all of these changes tonight is because some NBC affiliates were airing SNL in an aspect ratio that cut off the left and right sides of the screen. Indeed, when I watched this episode on NBC’s New York affiliate back when this episode originally aired, the left and right sides of the screen were cut off for the entire episode, which was particularly noticeable in the Quiz Bowl sketch, as it made it look like SNL’s cameras had a hard time following the wandering-around Kristen Wiig. In some shots, only her arm was onscreen while she was speaking, which looked just as bizarre as you might imagine.
— A somewhat interesting-seeming new character for Will, a topical one-off character related to the Sarah Palin media craze.
— So far, a fairly forgettable vibe to Will’s Alaska Pete commentary, but he has enough decent lines here.
— Seth, when introducing tonight’s Nicholas Fehn commentary: “Ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a real treat.” Why does he or Amy continue to say stuff like this every time they introduce Fehn, when they KNOW from his previous appearances that he’s a hack comedian who always fails to make a point?
— (*sigh*) Fred’s Nicholas Fehn routine continues to get more and more tired. This routine has gone from having me practically in stitches in its first two appearances to having me just stare at my screen bored. He just does the same damn thing EVERY TIME.
— Okay, Fred got me just now. I admit to laughing right now during his endless sentence cut-offs and subject-changing during his face-to-face rant to Seth at the end of this commentary (I also like Seth’s leaning forward, hand-under-chin posture during that, as he’s impatiently waiting for Fehn to make a point, as seen in the fourth-to-last above screencap for this Update), even though, again, Fehn does that in EVERY commentary.
— Pretty fun bit with the Seth-and-Amy-voiced cockatoo 911 phone call.
— The debut of Andy’s Cathy impression.
— This Cathy commentary is really dumb on paper, but it’s the exact kind of dumb that Andy typically makes work.
— Not sure this Cathy commentary deserves to eventually be turned into a recurring Update feature, but we’ll see how I’ll now feel about her subsequent appearances.
STARS: ***
THE CHARLES BARKLEY SHOW
Bela Karolyi (DAH) & host panel at casino
— Mixed feelings from me upon the sight of this sketch. I always love Kenan’s Charles Barkley impression, but I am beyond tired of SNL relying on the ol’ lazy talk show format, especially celebrity-hosted talk show sketches.
— Darrell finally makes his first, and only, appearance of this season premiere. This reminds me that this ends up being his final season. Feels like I’ve been reviewing him forever at this point. By far the longest tenure I’ve had to cover of a single cast member so far in this SNL project of mine. (Wait’ll we get to Kenan’s more recent seasons.)
— When Darrell starts speaking, a clipboard is heard LOUDLY falling on the floor off-camera, which distracts Darrell in the middle of his line delivery and causes him to almost crack up. The falling clipboard is from one of the child extras who the camera is soon going to be doing a cutaway to in a funny reveal of Kenan-as-Barkley’s show having a crew consisting entirely of children.
— Kenan-as-Barkley’s Angola story was hilarious.
— The bit with Kenan-as-Barkley’s next guest, Usain Bolt, never showing up onscreen made me laugh.
— Kenan’s Charles Barkley to Michael Phelps: “Just for Twinkies, would you speak in a Jamaican accent and pretend to be Usain Bolt?”
— Overall, not a bad sketch at all. Much better than I was expecting, given my fatigue towards the celebrity-hosted talk show format.
— This ends up being the only installment of this particular celebrity-hosted talk show sketch, despite it seeming like it was on its way to becoming recurring. I think I recall hearing that a later installment of it ended up getting cut after dress rehearsal, but I’m not sure, nor do I remember what episode it was cut from. I kinda wanna say it was cut from the Ben Affleck episode from later this season, but I’m probably wrong.
STARS: ***½
T-MOBILE
dad’s (JAS) interest in teenaged T-Mobile Fave 5 creates marital discord
— The very first aired sketch to be written by newly-hired SNL writer John Mulaney.
— A great deconstruction of a real T-Mobile ad from a year or two prior to this (which makes me wonder if this sketch is material Mulaney wrote long before getting hired as an SNL writer).
— A big laugh from Jason angrily telling his wife Kristen, “What would YOU know about sexy?!?”
— I love the structure of this sketch, with the constant cutaways to light-hearted T-Mobile interstitial shots in between each short scene with Jason and Kristen’s domestic quarrel.
— Great stern delivery from Kristen when she asks Jason, “Michael…who is in your 5?”
— For the first time all night, Michael Phelps is actually funny in a sketch.
— Overall, not only a very funny sketch, but a very strong and promising writing debut for Mulaney. In hindsight, a great sign of things to come for him during his SNL writing tenure.
STARS: ****
SPACE OLYMPICS
administrative failures wreck an off-world extravaganza
— Pretty fun concept and visuals right out of the gate in this short.
— Solid melody to this song.
— A rather random shoutout to SNL favorite (and polarizing among online SNL fans) Justin Timberlake, with Andy’s final lyric in this short being taken from the Timberlake song “My Love”.
— An overall fun and amusing adventure.
STARS: ***½
UNO’S
the smell of pepper distracts unhelpful pizzeria waiter Mark Payne (BOM)
— After being prominent in supporting roles in the first half of this first episode of his, Bobby Moynihan impressively now gets his own lead role in a sketch. This ends up being a sketch that would NOT go over well with a lot of online SNL fans back at this time in 2008. This sketch was so poorly-received among a large number of online SNL fans that it made them immediately and unfairly write the newly-hired Bobby off as a dud. (He would thankfully win most of those SNL fans over with a solid John Mulaney-written Of Mice And Men sketch he stars in in the very next episode.)
— Bobby’s Mark Payne, in a proud announcement to the customers: “We got over four different flavors of soda!”
— I can definitely see why people back in 2008 (and perhaps even people today) were annoyed by this sketch when it originally aired, especially with the obnoxious and seemingly pointless running bit involving Bobby’s Mark Payne mentioning the smell of pepper, but personally, I’m finding Bobby’s characterization strangely fun. Even the dumb pepper running gag is working for me, due to the odd and detailed analogies Mark Payne keeps making to the pepper. While this sketch isn’t an accurate representation of the type of work and characterizations Bobby will be bringing to SNL during his 9-year tenure, I still cannot hate this sketch at all. It’s consistently making me laugh.
— A hilarious sudden realization from Mark Payne: “Oh, snap! Yo, I left my kid on the bus!”
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lollipop”
THE MICHAEL PHELPS DIET
the calorie-laden Michael Phelps Diet suits host only; Jared Fogel cameo
— As soon as the camera first cuts to Michael, he immediately turns his head to the side and gives an unscripted hard cough (or sneeze) into his arm (the first above screencap for this sketch) before starting to speak into the camera. You can tell by the embarrassed and amused face he makes shortly after starting to speak (the second above screencap for this sketch) that he’s aware his coughing (or sneezing) gaffe was caught on camera.
— Good concept to this sketch.
— A laugh from an actual pig in a blanket being one of the meals in the Michael Phelps Diet.
— Some of the before/after photos are hilarious.
— A decent way to get mileage out of Amy’s real-life pregnant belly.
— OH MOTHERFUCKING NO. A cameo from the one and only Jared Fucking Fogel. Ugggghhhhh. And as if that alone didn’t age this sketch horribly, we also get Jared making an oral sex reference with his line about how “this diet sucks a footlong”, a line that I remember had me laughing out loud in 2008, but I can’t look at the same in more recent years. Also, in my original 2008 review of this episode back when this episode originally aired (and I already didn’t like Jared back in those days, though obviously for different reasons from why I don’t like him today), I made this now-cringeworthy statement when praising Jared for what I deemed to be a surprisingly-funny performance: “I usually can’t stand this guy, but now he earned a little bit of respect from me.” Well, so much for that respect he earned from me……
— Yeesh, even for athlete host standards, Michael is flubbing his lines left and right in this sketch.
— Overall, not a bad sketch, though it’s strong potential was marred a little by some sloppiness, not to mention JARED FUCKING FOGEL.
STARS: ***
IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Bernie Brillstein marks his passing
Not included in my copy of this episode
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly mixed episode, with the pretty weak first half and the good second half. Not a remarkable start to the new season, but this overall episode had enough good stuff. Michael Phelps was a blah and forgettable athlete host. He displayed no charisma, and came off completely bland and stiff, and not the fun kind of stiff that some athlete hosts are (e.g. Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2007-08)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
James Franco makes his hosting debut