Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
AUTOMAKER BAILOUT HEARINGS
auto execs (WLF), (DAH), (JAS) request billions at Congressional hearing
— Looks like we’re in for another overlong, mostly-full-cast, Jim Downey-written political sketch in this SNL era.
— So far, this has the usual dry Downey humor that used to work so well in his prime, but comes off as a bit of a slog in this era.
— Not only am I liking the voice Bill’s doing as Walter Jones, but I’m hearing a lot of Dan Aykroyd’s Jimmy Carter impression in Bill’s voice here, which makes this yet another Bill Hader/Dan Aykroyd comparison I’ve made in my reviews.
— The “No one watches C-SPAN” bit is pretty funny, especially Jason saying “You could run a snuff film on C-SPAN and no one would notice.”
— Kenan’s upbeat delivery of “I’m a union man!” made me laugh a lot, for some reason.
— Bobby’s already getting a good laugh from the audience just from his mere demeanor and facial expression. Impressive for someone so new on SNL.
— Despite an iffy start, I’ve been finding this cold opening to be decent enough.
— Blah at the “Ford needs to build gayer cars” request from Fred’s Barney Frank. Such a cheap, lazy joke about Barney Frank’s homosexuality.
— Surprisingly, this is Fred’s very first solo LFNY, despite this being his seventh season on the show.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host touts country & hip-hop commonalities, sings “Real Good Man” excerpt
— I like the mileage this monologue is getting out of the incongruous host/musical guest line-up of this episode.
— This monologue has turned into Tim McGraw performing a snippet of one of his songs (“Real Good Man”), though it’s not a full-fledged musical performance in which he goes over to the musical guest stage in SNL’s studio (ala Jon Bon Jovi, Hammer, etc.).
— Yet another season 34 monologue that only features the host. Nice to see this trend still going strong.
STARS: ***
CLEAR RITE
deluded aspiring inventor (KRW) is proud of her Clear Rite dental device
— This seems like the type of bit than Kristen can sell well.
— A laugh from the awkward ending of Fred’s scene.
— This sketch is overdoing the bit with Kristen’s character uncomfortably sucking on her upper teeth.
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember how jarring it felt to see Tim McGraw show up with his real hair, given the fact that he’s usually always seen wearing his trademark cowboy hat.
— This sketch has fizzled out for me after a while, though it’s bounced back a little when Tim came on.
STARS: **½
DATELINE
Keith Morrison (BIH) takes prurient interest in tragedies
— The debut of both Bill’s Keith Morrison impression and the Dateline sketches the impression appears in.
— Bill’s Morrison impression is a RIOT. Everything about his impression and performance is so damn funny, mainly his delighted vocalizations when hearing grisly murder details.
— I absolutely love how the format of this sketch kinda feels like a throwback (whether intentional or not) to the Bob Waltman Special sketches that Kevin Nealon used to do.
— A great laugh from Bill’s Morrison bluntly answering, with a smile, “I do” when Tim asks him “Do you get some sort of strange delight in all this?”
STARS: ****½
TURKEYS
in the woods, (FRA) & other turkeys run from hunters’ gun blasts
— This was originally cut after dress rehearsal from the season 32 episode that Ludacris hosted. Funny coincidence that they brought the sketch back tonight when Ludacris is the musical guest, despite him not being kept in tonight’s version of this sketch. They should’ve kept him in it, just because it’s funny to imagine him doing a sketch like this.
— A fairly fun concept to this.
— Wow, what the heck is going on with the greenscreen in the background? It seems to have malfunctioned halfway through this sketch, and also seems to have screwed up the brightness of the screen (as seen in the last above screencap for this sketch).
— This sketch isn’t living up to its potential, despite the fun vibe. This hasn’t been going anywhere interesting for me.
STARS: **
LIVE ANOTHER DEATH
bumpkin (host) crashes James Bond’s (BIH) Casino Royale poker game
— This sketch has a meh feel so far. The redneck stereotype jokes with Tim’s character feel tired, and the audience seemingly agrees with me, judging from their very tepid laughter.
— This meh sketch has suddenly gotten really funny with Tim’s whole reaction to Pussy Galore’s name. I especially like him pulling out his phone and recording her saying her name.
— Pretty funny bidet comment from Tim right before his exit.
— Nice beer-themed 007 graphic at the end.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “One More Drink”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Bill Clinton (DAH) will enjoy role as Husband Of The Secretary Of State
Arianna Huffington (MIW) analogizes the failures of George W. Bush
Zell Miller (WLF) supports Saxby Chambliss because he has a fancy name
— I guess to assure us Amy is still coming back after her maternity leave (I’ve pretty much completely forgotten she’s still in the cast by this point), Seth says during his sign-on, “Amy Poehler is still on assignment”, which the audience actually laughs at.
— Seems kinda soon to have Darrell’s Bill Clinton do another Update commentary, but I can’t complain much, and I guess SNL has to find ways to keep Darrell relevant this season, given how horribly he had been struggling for airtime lately.
— Standard “Clinton is a horndog” stuff during Darrell’s commentary as him, but I did get a pretty good laugh from his ending line, “The last thing I want to do…is screw Hillary.”
— Great to see Michaela Watkins with her own Update commentary in only her second episode, especially given how practically non-existent she and fellow newbie Abby Elliott (the latter of whom has yet to appear in tonight’s episode, by the way) were in the preceding episode. Also great that this Update commentary is utilizing the Arianna Huffington impression that Michaela already had in her repertoire (there’s a pre-SNL online sketch with Michaela’s Huffington that was circulated back when it was first announced that Michaela and Abby were added to the SNL cast). It does feel a little odd, though, seeing this in hindsight after having gotten used to future cast member Nasim Pedrad’s recurring Arianna Huffington commentaries on Update years later.
— Solid comment from Michaela’s Huffington at the end, making an analogy between the Iraq War and sex.
— Seth’s joke about Angelina Jolie’s breasts feels uncomfortable in hindsight, given what would later happen to Jolie.
— Will reprises his memorable Zell Miller impression for the first time in years! Interesting seeing it appear outside of the Hardball sketches.
— I laughed harder than I probably should’ve at the name Mortimer Fap when Will’s Miller is running down what he considers to be normal names.
— Will’s Miller is unfortunately not getting anywhere near as worked up or purple-faced as he usually gets, which is saying something, given how he’s still delivering his lines loudly and angrily in tonight’s commentary.
— I got a laugh from Will-as-Miller’s unintentionally offensive complaints about America being run by Browns and Blacks.
STARS: ***
BLIZZARD MAN
musical guests collaborate with Blizzard Man at a recording session
— The first Blizzard Man sketch in quite a long time.
— (*groan*) Despite the fact that Kenan is seemingly playing the exact same technician character he played in the first installment of this sketch, he acts like he’s never seen Blizzard Man before and didn’t expect his rapping to be so bad. Lazy writing.
— Speaking of lazy writing, this sketch is using the same basic joke as the previous Blizzard Man sketches, but it always works for me, so I can’t complain much.
— Why does this recording studio room have a doorbell?
— Very funny look of Tim’s character.
— I’m enjoying T-Pain’s straight man performance here.
— Ooh, I like this sudden turn with Blizzard Man imitating T-Pain with a tall hat and autotune.
— Something about the ending (before the newspaper headline) came off kinda awkward.
STARS: ***½
THANKSGIVING DINNER
Jeff Montgomery is an uninvited guest at a family Thanksgiving dinner
— Abby Elliott finally makes her first appearance of the night…and unfortunately, it’s a nothing role. Two episodes into her SNL tenure, and I’ve already been starting to forget she’s joined the cast.
— The Jeff Montgomery character makes his second and final on-air appearance (assuming the similar-looking, similarly-dressed, and similar-acting unnamed character Will previously played in the MySpace Seminar sketch from the season 31 Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode wasn’t the true debut of Jeff Montgomery). He has a Valentine’s Day-themed sketch that gets cut after dress rehearsal later this season, in which he’s teamed up with a similar character played by that night’s special guest, Dan Aykroyd.
— I love seeing this character, but they’ll never top his classic first appearance from earlier this season.
— I like how the family’s trying to figure out how the hell Jeff Montgomery is there at their Thanksgiving dinner when none of them invited him. I also like Montgomery trying to downplay the fact that he snuck into this dinner.
— The running bit in this sketch with each character at the table, one-by-one, in order of appearance, answering Montgomery’s questions with a one-word statement, feels awfully reminiscent of a running bit in that Fall Foliage sketch from the Josh Brolin episode earlier this season. It feels a tad unnecessary in this Jeff Montgomery sketch.
— Meh at this reveal from Montgomery: “I’m an escapee from a mental institution……f-f-for Thanksgiving!” Why did they change his original identity as a sex offender? Him being a mental institution escapee feels too tame and dull in comparison to that.
— A hilarious disturbing reveal of Montgomery having eaten the family’s dog. I also love how uncomfortably silent everything gets right after that.
STARS: ***½
DALE BRITCHES’ DOWN HOME PHONY PHONE CALLS
Dale Britches’ (host) phony phone calls are ultra-gentle pranks
— I’m not too crazy about this premise, but the performances are making it work decently enough.
— The premise of this sketch, with very tame “pranks” that lead to a friendly conversation between the prankster and prankee, would later be repeated in a Punk’d parody starring Jeff Bridges, when Bridges hosts in season 36.
— I absolutely love Bill’s psychotic “AH’M GONNA KEEEEELL YEEEWWW!” rant over the phone. Something about the goofiness of Bill’s performance also has a bit of an old-school SNL feel that I love. I can easily picture Dana Carvey giving this same goofy performance had this sketch appeared in the late 80s/early 90s. Interesting how Bill’s been reminding me of various earlier SNL eras tonight: his Dan-Aykroyd-as-Jimmy-Carter-esque voice in the cold opening, his Bob Waltman Special-esque Dateline sketch, and now this.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Chopped N Skrewed”
UNO’S
sticky bar surface is the result of Mark Payne’s incompetent mixology
— Much like Jeff Montgomery, the Mark Payne character makes his second and final on-air appearance tonight. He has at least two appearances that get cut after dress rehearsal later this season: one in which host Rosario Dawson plays his girlfriend (which I remember surprising me when I first read the details of this cut sketch, because I assumed before then that Mark Payne was supposed to be openly gay), and another in which host Tracy Morgan plays, I think, Payne’s similar-acting former boss in a flashback (I would imagine Tracy’s performance as a Mark Payne-esque character basically comes off the same as his characterization of Brian Fellow.)
— I forgot to mention this in my review of the heavily-criticized-by-online-SNL-fans-back-in-2008 first installment of this sketch, but, among those many criticisms from online SNL fans towards the first installment, one criticism claimed that Bobby’s Mark Payne seemed like a ripoff of Nick Kroll’s Fabrice Fabrice character.
— Mark Payne’s first few comical lines in tonight’s installment are being met with DEAD SILENCE from the audience. Ouch.
— I like Payne’s line, “It’s newer than a baby’s thoughts!”
— The audience is getting a little more into this sketch as it progresses.
— I see Payne’s odd obsession over the stickiness of the bar surface has replaced his odd obsession with the pepper smell in the first installment of this sketch.
— Funny bit with Payne failing to catch the drinking glass he throws in the air, due to his lack of depth perception.
— Abby stuck in yet another nothing role tonight, not even saying a single word this time.
— Mark Payne somehow seems even more intentionally annoying in this second sketch of his (which is certainly saying something), but, much like his first appearance, I’m still enjoying him, annoyingness and all. Maybe it’s a good thing, though, that this ends up being his final on-air appearance. Bobby has much better stuff than this, though it’s a testament to his strength as a performer that he can make me like such an annoying character as this.
— I’m enjoying the interplay between Mark Payne and Kenan’s character.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average and pretty forgettable episode. Not bad, but it sadly puts an end to the long consecutive streak of solid episodes that preceded this, starting with Anne Hathaway. Still, I can’t complain too much about tonight’s episode.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
I now introduce what will be a regular feature in my post-show wrap-ups:
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dateline
Thanksgiving Dinner
Blizzard Man
Weekend Update
Uno’s
Automaker Bailout Hearings
Dale Britches’ Down Home Phony Phone Calls
Monologue
Live Another Death
Clear Rite
Turkeys
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Rudd)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
John Malkovich
I don’t object to Jeff Montgomery being brought back after the Jon Hamm installment, but they needed to go even darker for it to work. Going from “sex offender” to “mental institution” is a step down on the crazy meter.
No different than going from “Stunt Baby” to “Stunt Puppy”. Or from “Schweddy Balls” to “Schweddy Weiner”.
An Even Tempered Apology By White House Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel is cut after dress rehearsal. This sketch is about a then recent apology by Emanuel to Mary Rose Oakar, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for anti-Arab comments his father made a week and a half prior to this episode airing.
https://www.cleveland.com/openers/2008/11/obamas_top_aide_apologies_to_o.html
An updated version of the sketch airs next season in Ashton Kutcher / Them Crooked Vultures. The updated version centers around Emanuel’s apology to Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver for using the word “retarded” to describe progressive democrats in a meeting and Sarah Palin calling for Emanuel’s resignation in a post on Facebook.
Wow, Bill’s airtime has suddenly increased over the last two episodes! I, for one, could not be any happier about that.
The Keith Morrison impression is freaking spot-on. Of course, this would later be cheapened by bringing it back two more times for no reason, but, I digress. As an amusing side note, Bill finally got to meet the real Keith Morrison last year.
This is unfortunately the last time we see Will as Zell Miller. I would say that the real Miller’s death a few years later would put a stop to any future appearances, but then I remembered that they kept doing those awful “Gaddafi’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up” bits after Gaddafi’s death, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Tomorrow, we get my favorite Digital Short ever!
I do really enjoy the Morrison sketch with Steve Buscemi – I think they manage to make the whole thing seem fresh (especially the photo jokes, the “ooh ooh ra ra” and “baby sad” stuff, and when Bill and Steve start making the noises at each other)
Here is the video with Bill and Keith. Bill is truly starstruck. My favorite part is when Keith jokingly tells him how much he extended his career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIjjyXSo5ao
(I was watching a news bulletin he did from 1989 and he sounds so different – looked about the same though)
For an episode hosted by a non-actor who didn’t have a reputation for being funny, this was fairly entertaining. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but it wasn’t the ego-stroke fest that the Jon Bon Jovi episode was. Tim seemed pretty easy-going and funny.
This is my favorite Blizzard Man sketch. Tim’s character amuses me, and there’s something about how T-Pain is getting savaged and getting pissed that amuses me. I also enjoy the dialogue that goes: “My man is laying it down for the streets!” “What streets?” “Cul-de-sacs, mostly.” I agree the ending is rushed–I don’t know if T-Pain kind of botches the dialogue about why he suddenly wants to hire Blizzard Man.
I don’t remember the turkey sketch very well–the premise seems kind of offbeat for SNL (more along the lines of something you’d see in either a kids comedy show or a variety show). It isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either.
I wondered as a quasi-holiday episode and with a host who might be attracting some atypical SNL viewers, the show opted to do fairly “gentle” humor. There’s some dark humor obviously in the episode (Dateline, Jeff Montgomery), but also a good deal of fairly broad or more quietly whimsical humor. I don’t actually mind this kind of episode as a palate cleanser, especially after the violent/sex themed Paul Rudd episode.
Tim McGraw is a pleasant, harmless host, and this is a harmless enough episode (he also makes a lot of sense as a “unity” type of host post-election), but he may have been better off with more pre-tapes, similar to the Wishin’ Boot piece Blake Shelton got when he hosted. They also may have been better off trying to throw Tim, Ludarcis and T-Pain together for some kind of number, if they were willing, to further the country-and-hip-hop theme they use in the monologue then drop.
Tim’s manager said around the time of the announcement that he (the manager) had called SNL each week for 5 years asking if Tim could host. I guess it paid off.
https://theboot.com/tim-mcgraw-to-host-saturday-night-live/
After several years of Bill scrounging around, it’s fascinating seeing him suddenly take on a larger role somewhat out of nowhere – I wonder how viewers at the time felt, as they wouldn’t have known about Mulaney. I do wish it didn’t feel like it is slightly at Jason’s expense, as Jason still gave me my best laughs in this episode (his golly gee response to the gas prices being higher earlier in the year), and his role in the promo is funnier than much of the episode as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLbqJcHZ7A
Honestly, I was very disappointed by the Jeff Montgomery sketch. Beyond questioning whether the character needed to be reprised, the structure is just OFF, with the weird, flow-ruining sections with the guests, and overdoing the “WHAAAT???” catchphrase. On top of that, Will is unusually, noticeably stumbly. If I was surprised to learn Colin Jost helped write the first sketch, I would not be surprised if he was involved in writing this one, as it reminds me too much of the flaws in modern SNL. I’m not sure if Tim didn’t want to do it if they kept the original subject matter, and if this led to a scramble – if so, then I’d say just put another sketch on instead. Beyond the sketch not being anything special (although the dog part is well-delivered), it also hurts the last two sketches of the night, which barely get an audience reaction. I would have put this at the end, if it had to air…the prank calls sketch in particular should have aired in the first half. Weird choices.
I was reading an old Jezebel article which claimed the Blizzard sketch was the best part of the episode – the article and comments were the usual (SNL isn’t funny anymore, SNL is nothing without Tina and Amy, more Kristen, etc.), but the main thing I remember is the article saying Jeff was the worst character created by SNL in a long time. I don’t think that’s true, but if someone just saw this episode, I can see why they felt that way.
Loath as I am to be critical of Will, one of my favorite cast members, but between this and the decent but mostly been-there-done-that Zell Mill revival, this wasn’t one of his best nights.
The Gawker writer who discussed Michaela’s audition impression of Arianna felt it was better than the Update version. I’d have to agree, but mostly just because the Update version focuses too much on wordplay, whereas the audition has wordplay but added an absurd sexual element which made her feel less like a quipbot. Still, the Update piece is alright, and this was a very solid debut for Michaela. Here is the audition (the language is NOT safe for work, just to warn)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-xKETBhm5s&t=6s
I still don’t care much for the Blizzard sketches, but this is the best since the first thanks to a few new elements (like his taking on T-Pain to “prove” himself), and some funnier lyrics.
This episode sort of misuses the “Kenan reacts” mode – he just goes 0 to 60 too fast in the above sketch and the Mark Payne sketch, and it feels forced.
The Bond sketch feels too cynical (of course Tim McGraw will play a redneck stereotype, hee hee haw haw) to get much out of. The pranks sketch seemed to be more suited to his style, even if most of it would be done better a few years later with the Maya Angelou Pranks pre-tape. The end where Tim casually reveals that the last man tried to kill him then went home and killed his wife was a great twist, unfortunately buried by the lackluster audience reaction and the earlier parts of the sketch feeling too padded.
I liked the Mark Payne return more than I thought I would – the trope (sassy recurring character vs inert customers) is overcome by some very well-written quips and also by Bobby having a good connection with Tim. The running gag of him repeatedly smashing all the bottles and not knowing or caring (“why is the floor full of broken glass??”) also amuses me. This is probably a good place to leave the character, although I will say the Rosario Dawson sketch sounds better than a number of pieces which aired in her episode…
Darrell doesn’t get enough credit for his southerner and redneck characters over the years. After impressions, that was probably the thing he was best at. Always liked the random appearances from his Skeeter character over the years.
Weirdly, I kept thinking McGraw looked like Larry the Cable Guy in a lot of sketches, the bond one especially.
Its doubly baffling in hindsight that Abby was retained for three more seasons and Mike Watkins wasn’t, considering Mike made an impact a lot sooner than Abby did and was in more sketches during her 15 episode stint.
I didn’t hate this episode, though I overrated it (6/10, I think) in my TV.com review. McGraw was harmless in the same way Blake Shelton was seven years later, a good sport but never quite getting out of his safe zone. This is an example of why I think Stoogie is possibly wearing rose-colored glasses on the non-election part of Year 34.
I thought you loved this season.
I never understood Abby staying in the cast over Watkins either. She never impressed me.
This is another ep that I either didn’t watch or forgot as soon as it was over…
Just to connect this episode to one of the greatest SNLs ever… Keith Morrison was a local anchor in 1992 when he cameod on the Seinfeld “smog strangler” episode (providing updates within the show). So the man clearly has a good sense of humor.
I’m seeing a lot of Casey Wilson so far this season. Why is everybody saying she wasn’t given a decent chance?
Sir, I know Riblet. And you, Jeff Payne, are no Riblet.
I just saw a clip from Jim Downey’s appearance on Conan’s podcast where Jim talks about hearing John Mulaney’s writing for the first time in what sounds like the Dale Britches sketch from this episode (which I guess also confirms who wrote it). Here’s the vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlJShZczjXI
FYI Jim says it was Mulaney’s second episode but he names Tim McGraw as the host, which narrows it down (the second episode part’s easier to get wrong)