Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT ELECT
blundering Joe Biden (JAS) promises to be as entertaining as Sarah Palin
— The fact that SNL’s first post-election cold opening is oddly about vice president elect Joe Biden, and not, you know, the ACTUAL president elect himself, Barack Obama, seems to be an admission from SNL that they’re far more confident in Jason’s Biden impression than they are in Fred’s Obama impression. And yet Lorne STILL keeps Fred in the Obama role for four damn years. Unbelievable.
— Jason’s Biden assuring us that he can be as entertaining and wacky as Sarah Palin kinda seems like a thinly-veiled way for SNL themselves to assure us viewers that SNL can continue to be entertaining after all the Palin stuff they got lots of acclaim and media attention from.
— Lots of pretty funny “wild” lines and hot takes from Jason’s Biden throughout this.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Added to the cast tonight are Abby Elliott and Michaela Watkins, the former being the first second-generation cast member in SNL history, as she’s the daughter of season 20 cast member Chris Elliott.
— As yet another sign of how old he’s getting, Don Pardo bizarrely announces Michaela Watkins as “Michaelllliallia Watson”. I kid you not, folks. You gotta feel bad for Michaela. I’ve heard several different SNL cast members (including Casey Wilson) mention what an honor and a very important moment they consider it to hear Don Pardo call out their name during their first episode. So, to picture Michaela backstage eagerly awaiting to hear Don announce her name during this episode, only to hear Don spit out…THAT? Poor girl.
MONOLOGUE
host is disappointed he missed all the election-related excitement at SNL
— I like Paul Rudd saying that appearing on SNL right after their exciting election year has ended is the equivalent to being in Times Square on New Years Day.
— Ha, after I said the cold opening seemed like a thinly-veiled way for SNL themselves to assure us their show will be fine without the Palin stuff, now we get a monologue that features SNL openly assuring us that their show will be fine without the Palin stuff. I guess there really was a concern from SNL that they’d lose the publicity and ratings boost they got from the Palin stuff.
— Funny bit with Kristen’s impression of a mild Janet Napolitano being a very unfitting replacement for Tina Fey’s Palin impression.
STARS: ***½
SPROINGO
audible cue marks activation of Sproingo erectile dysfunction treatment
— I almost want to say Kristen and Jason are playing the same married couple they previously played in the Jar Glove commercial earlier this season, though that would mean this Sproingo commercial takes place before the Jar Glove commercial, since Jason’s character got killed in Jar Glove.
— Meh, not crazy about this commercial.
— Okay, I got a laugh just now from the drooping sound effect when the medication stops working.
STARS: **
AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
Austin Vogelcheck’s (host) over-affectionate family makes (ANS) uneasy
— OH, NO. The debut of a recurring sketch that I’ve always fucking DESPISED.
— When this originally aired, I remember thinking it came off as a very inferior kissing-themed variation of the famous Bird Family sketch from the season 25 Julianna Margulies episode. I don’t see those similarities as much anymore, probably because, due to how often this Affectionate Family sketch ended up recurring over the years, I now see it as its own entity. A very bad entity, but it’s own entity nonetheless.
— (*groan*) A minute-and-a-half into this, and I already can’t wait for this insufferable sketch to end.
— I remember being so disappointed to eventually learn that Bill writes or co-writes these sketches.
— Not a single laugh from me during this sketch.
STARS: *
SCARED STRAIGHT
Lorenzo McIntosh’s scare tactics fail to intimidate delinquent teens
— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Like last time, I’m getting laughs from Kenan-as-Lorenzo-McIntosh’s movie plot references and crude prison rape lines.
— Kenan’s delivery of “You just transformed from a man to a BITCH!” had me howling.
— I love the little detail of McIntosh pronouncing Socrates as “so-crates”.
— Overall, while this was pretty much a carbon copy of the first installment, I still enjoyed this, though not quite as much as last time.
STARS: ***½
EVERYONE’S A CRITIC
host’s nude portrait of ANS horrifies viewers
— A good laugh from the sudden turn with Andy randomly asking Paul, in a dramatic manner, “…………Can I paint you?”
— The “huh huh huh-huh-huh-huh” music playing on the radio is hilarious.
— Lonely Island continues to make homoerotic humor work much better than the rest of SNL tends to.
— I like the fake-out with a shirt-wearing Andy initially being shown from the waist up during his portrait posing, making you think he’s fully clothed, only for the camera to cut to a wide shot and reveal that he’s completely bottomless.
— Holy fucking hell at the violent mass death sequence (complete with a “Don’t open your eyes, Marion!” Indiana Jones reference) when everybody at the auction is reacting negatively to the reveal of Paul’s painting. I absolutely LOVE this. This very detailed mass death sequence is so beautifully dark, disturbing, AND funny. Michael O’Donoghue would’ve been proud.
— This mass death sequence is also quite a unique way for Abby Elliott and Michaela Watkins to make their very first SNL appearance. At least that’s better than this being the final appearance of newbies, as would later happen with most of the season 39 newbies (Noel Wells, Mike O’Brien, Brooks Wheelan, John Milhiser), who get the dishonor of making their final SNL appearance in a very similar mass death sequence in another Digital Short, When Will The Bass Drop, leading to online jokes that SNL killed those newbies off.
— Casey makes her ONLY appearance of tonight’s entire episode at the end of this pre-taped short, meaning she makes no live appearances tonight. I hate to say it, but, with two new women being added to the cast tonight, the writing is clearly on the wall for Casey in regards to her SNL future.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****½
SONGWRITER SHOWCASE
open mic song by (host) & (KRW) details minutiae of a package delivery
— Funny story from Will’s character about his wife.
— In a genuine blooper, Will misreads the names of Kristen and Paul’s characters off the cue cards, and then, when correcting himself, ad-libs “I can’t read my own writing.” Does that mean Will wrote this sketch?
— Catchy melody to Kristen and Paul’s song.
— A funny little touch during the song, with Kristen leaning back in an absurdly far manner.
— The lyrics to the song just being a very long and overly detailed description of a package delivery is very funny.
— I like Will’s slow burn each time the camera cuts to his reaction throughout Kristen and Paul’s song.
— Yeah, I’m definitely getting the feeling Will wrote this sketch. Kristen and Paul’s song turning into an endless recitation of the very long tracking number of the package feels kinda like a variation of the long misspelling of the word “business” in Will’s legendary Spelling Bee sketch (though I don’t even know if Will himself wrote that sketch). This Songwriter Showcase sketch is nowhere near as memorable or epic as that Spelling Bee sketch, but I’m still enjoying it a lot.
STARS: ****
SONG MEMORIES
“Garden Party” evokes yucky anecdotes by (host) & other icky reminiscers
— Hopefully, this will be a return to form for this recurring sketch, after the disappointingly subpar installment of this sketch that last appeared when Ashton Kutcher hosted the preceding season.
— I love the big change of scenery for this sketch. Having tonight’s installment take place inside a car during a road trip is fun.
— The twist to Bill’s story, with his girlfriend being Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter, is hilarious, as is his addendum shortly afterwards: “I dumped her on November 5th” (the day after the 2008 presidential election).
— The audience is REALLY into this sketch.
— Great addendum from Will to his story: “Still failed; my friend does coke, too.”
— Funny little random bit with Jason casually offering mushrooms to his friends.
— The whole bit with Paul’s vibrating cellphone is cracking me up.
— Wow, a gory ending all of a sudden, with Bill’s character accidentally getting his brains blown out all over the back window of the car via gunshot, complete with realistic effects. The dark humor fan in me absolutely loves this. In fact, the dark humor fan in me has been getting quite a lot of kicks from this episode in general, between the mass death sequence in the Digital Short and the realistic-looking gunshot to the head Bill takes at the end of this sketch.
— Overall, one of the better installments of this recurring sketch, and definitely a bounce back after the weak Ashton Kutcher installment of this sketch.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If I Were A Boy”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Snagglepuss (BOM) & The Great Gazoo (WLF) lament gay marriage vote result
Justin Timberlake [real] recaps SNL episode he would’ve done next week
— I got an unintended chuckle from some audience members booing Seth’s joke about Laura Bush never taking her hand off of her pocketbook during her meeting with the First Lady elect, Michelle Obama.
— Ha, we’re getting the return of a routine from earlier this season in which Seth and/or Amy (just Seth in this particular case) constantly do the same joke multiple times in a row with a different punchline each time. I always love this routine, and I especially love the fake-out tonight in which, after initially doing the same Germany Robbery joke multiple times, Seth turns to the next camera to introduce the next guest commentary, only to suddenly cut himself off and turn back to the first camera to continue doing the same Germany Robbery joke.
— More booing from tonight’s audience, this time when Seth mentions the state of California passing Proposition 8 earlier that week, banning gay marriage. I love Seth’s ad-lib in reaction to that booing.
— Fun Snagglepuss impression from Bobby. I think I recall once hearing Bobby say that he did this Snagglepuss impression in his SNL audition.
— Kind of an odd choice of having Snagglepuss’ lover be The Great Gazoo from another Hanna-Barbera 1960s cartoon, The Flintstones (I personally would’ve chose some other 1960s Hanna-Barbera character), but it’s working enough, I guess.
— A surprise Justin Timberlake appearance, which gets tonight’s already-lively audience even more hyped up.
— Is Justin’s comment about having to cancel a hosting gig he was booked for the following week true? There wasn’t an official announcement in the press of this booking prior to tonight’s episode.
— Oh, I am absolutely LOVING this whole very meta bit with Justin acting out a rundown of how his episode the following week would’ve went. There are so many fun things here, such as Justin doing an imitation of various SNL characters and impressions that he says would’ve appeared that night (e.g. Vincent Price, Nicholas Fehn, Target Lady), him mentioning that night’s Digital Short would’ve been a lazy, Thanksgiving-themed carbon copy of “Dick In A Box” (of which Justin openly and rightfully admits “Bad idea, should NOT have done that”), him mentioning Kenan In A Dress would’ve been one of the Weekend Update commentators, his goodnights speech including him thanking Senator Chris Dodd for appearing (which I take it is a self-deprecating dig at how SNL has had so many cameos from presidential candidates during the 2008 presidential race). I even love the little details, such as Justin actually humming the then-current SNL theme music when imitating Don Pardo’s opening montage announcements, and Justin saying his monologue includes Andy and Bill as backup dancers “because they’re not in anything else”. I know how polarizing Justin is among hardcore online SNL fans, so your mileage definitely may vary on what I’m about to say, but, as an SNL nerd, I’m finding Justin’s whole meta SNL episode rundown to be a fucking BLAST. This is such a spot-on and fun spoof of not only the formula of a typical SNL episode from this era, but also the formula of a typical Justin Timberlake-hosted episode.
STARS: ***½
BEYONCE VIDEO SHOOT
male dancers (BOM), (ANS), (Justin Timberlake) muss musical guest’s video
— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season in which Darrell makes his ONLY appearance of the night in a very brief, awkward, pointless, non-impression role. His whole bit in this sketch bombs HORRIBLY with the audience, by the way. It’s starting to get just plain sad seeing him still on the show this season. SNL has clearly been struggling to find ways to use him in this 14th season of his. No wonder he finally ends up leaving after this season.
— I think I recall hearing Bobby wrote or co-wrote this sketch. By the way, for a newbie, Bobby is impressively holding his own in this sketch among the far-more-popular-at-the-time Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake.
— A very thin and one-note sketch, but it’s pretty fun, mainly due to the performances from Andy, Bobby, and Justin. However, I was never as crazy about this sketch as a lot of people seem to be.
— Paul is making the best of a role that would’ve come off as a meh role under most hosts.
— Something about Beyonce’s acting isn’t working for me here.
— Funny reveal of Andy, Bobby, and Justin being Paul’s stepsons.
— I like Paul’s silly dancing at the end.
STARS: ***½
LEDGE JUMPER
(WLF) & (BIH) try talking suicidal (host) off a ledge by saying “don’t”
— As always, I can’t get enough of the great pairing of Will and Bill.
— The names of Will and Bill’s characters, Louis and Jamie, are based on Louis and Jamie Klein, two long-time SNL viewers who are well-known for attending SNL every single week. This is actually the second Will Forte-starring sketch to use Louis and Jamie Klein’s first names in a sketch; the first was the Pepper Grinder sketch (a personal favorite of mine, even if I’m apparently in the very small minority) in the season 30 episode that Will Ferrell hosted. Forte was very close with the real Louis and Jamie Klein during his SNL tenure, so the fact that their names were used in both the Pepper Grinder sketch and tonight’s Ledge Jumper sketch may mean that Forte himself wrote those sketches.
— I love Will’s line about Paul becoming a Jackson Pollack painting on the pavement if he jumps off the ledge.
— I got a big laugh from Will, after acting like he’s tenderly going to attempt talking Paul off the ledge, asking Paul a very blunt “Sir, what is your freakin’ problem?!?” through a bullhorn.
— So many laughs from Will’s constant “DON’T”s through the bullhorn.
— Paul: “If you say ‘don’t’ one more time, I’m gonna jump off this building!” Will: “DO NOT.”
— Hilarious how Will requests that Paul zip up his sweatshirt and put on his hood to help the cleanup crew with the “splashback” that will inevitably occur when he hits the pavement after jumping off the ledge.
— The ending of this sketch with Paul finally committing suicide, not to mention all the talk earlier in this sketch about the mess Paul’s body will leave on the pavement after jumping to his death, continues the dark, disturbing theme in tonight’s episode.
— The gag with Bill pulling out his car keys and shutting off the car alarm that goes off after Paul jumps to his death off-camera is the return of a gag that SNL seemed to like using in season 21 (it was used in both the Gary Macdonald sketch from that season’s John Goodman episode, and the Roofers sketch from that season’s Steve Forbes episode).
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
PARKING LOT WORKERS
jokey (BIH) & (host) are in denial about their stake in same-sex marriage
— Great to see the usually-underused Bill Hader getting so many big roles tonight. Great voice he’s doing in this sketch, by the way.
— In addition to the dark, disturbing theme in tonight’s episode, we’ve also been getting a big focus on gay/homoerotic humor tonight. The latter theme is supposedly intentional. While I don’t know if this has ever been confirmed, rumor has it that the gay/homoerotic theme tonight was the SNL writing staff’s way of objecting to Proposition 8 being passed.
— The two new girls, Abby Elliott and Michaela Watkins, have only appeared in very tiny bit roles all night, roles that might as well have been given to extras. A disappointing way for them to debut. What’s up with this? Was SNL intentionally trying to break Abby and Michaela in very slowly, for whatever reason? Did Abby and Michaela have more noteworthy roles that were cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal? Were they not hired until AFTER this week’s sketches were already written, and thus, SNL could only squeeze them into very tiny bit roles?
— I’m enjoying the progression to this sketch, and it’s an interesting commentary on homophobia and gay marriage.
STARS: ***½
CLEARING THE AIR
(BIH), (host), (FRA) reiterate relationship tangles
— Hmm, “A Movie By Fred, Bill & Noah”. Noah, by the way, is movie director Noah Baumbach.
— Wow, Bill in yet ANOTHER big role tonight. Hell yeah!
— An interesting and very different-feeling short film for this SNL era. I’m enjoying it, even if it’s not laugh-out-loud funny.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2008 wondered if the waitress in this short (the fourth above screencap for this short) was played by newbie Abby Elliott. That’s clearly not her. It’s just an unknown (to me, at least) extra playing that role, which gives this short film even more of an “outsider” feel, as if it wasn’t originally made for SNL (despite involving two then-current SNL cast members and tonight’s host), but ended up airing on SNL anyway, much like some of the “outsider” short films that aired on SNL in the 70s and 80s.
— Given the aforementioned gay/homoerotic theme in tonight’s episode, I remember how, back when this episode was originally airing, some people in an online live discussion thread for this episode made a prediction that this short was going to end with a twist that the Tracy who Fred, Bill, and Paul are all talking about dating is a man, since Tracy is a unisex name. That prediction would turn out to be wrong, as we end up never getting that twist ending. I haven’t been paying attention to if any gender pronouns were used by Fred, Bill, or Paul when referring to Tracy, though, but I think it’s safe to say we’re meant to assume Tracy is a woman. (If I’m wrong, I apologize.)
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another in a long line of good episodes, though I don’t feel this episode is quite as strong as the last few. Still barely anything to complain about, though, besides a few lowlights right after the monologue. Even the big focus on gay/homoerotic humor was mostly handled a little better than I would’ve expected. I also felt Paul Rudd had a decent presence, and he worked well with the male cast, Bill Hader and Andy Samberg in particular.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ben Affleck)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Tim McGraw