Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: THE FINAL INTERVIEW
despite Diane Sawyer’s (KRW) prodding, Dick Cheney (DAH) has no regrets
— Hoo, boy. I can already see the one-joke route this is going, with Darrell’s Dick Cheney answering all of Kristen-as-Diane-Sawyer’s questions by saying he has no regrets.
— Not even the turn with Kristen’s Sawyer asking Darrell’s Cheney increasingly off-topic questions is doing anything for me.
— Oof. This awful one-joke interview sketch is starting to bring back unwanted memories of that notoriously bad 20 Questions sketch from season 19, in which Tim Meadows’ Bryant Gumbel interviews Sara Gilbert by just asking her “Why?” over and over. The only difference is the audience of this Cheney/Sawyer cold opening is much kinder than the audience of the Gumbel/Gilbert sketch, who gave that sketch the dead silence it deserved (much to a sweaty Tim Meadows’ chagrin, as he would later disclose in the “Live From New York” book).
— Took them damn long enough, but I finally got a laugh towards the end of this interview, when Darrell’s Cheney immediately blurted out a hurried, unhappy, monotone “I DO NOT!” as soon as Kristen’s Sawyer starts to ask if he regrets shooting his friend in the face.
— Kristen’s Sawyer brings up the fact that Darrell’s Cheney has never been asked to say LFNY on SNL. Pardon my nitpicking, but Darrell’s Cheney said LFNY on multiple occasions in the past.
STARS: *½
MONOLOGUE
host thinks Fericito’s stereotypical Latino jokes are a step backward
— Surprising to see Fred’s breakout character, Fericito, back after a long three-and-a-half year hiatus. This ends up being his final appearance.
— Ugh, that Yale/jail groaner could be seen coming from a mile away.
— I’m very surprised Rosario Dawson didn’t do the obligatory “I’m just keeding!” thing at any point during this overall monologue. I thought her serious speech to Fericito about how far Latinos have come was setting up an “I’m just keeding!” from herself.
— Sorry to say, but absence has not made the heart grow fonder in regards to Fericito. I liked him in his first few appearances, back when Fred was a new cast member, but I think Fericito’s talk show sketches, which I never cared much for, permanently burned me out on the Fericito shtick. I now just roll my eyes whenever we get a zoom-in on Fred making that dumb “Ay dios mio!” face into the camera.
STARS: **
NORTH AMERICAN SAVINGS
conservative lending practices minimize risk at North American Savings
— An interesting different use of Darrell, especially at this late stage of his SNL tenure. And, boy, does it feel odd seeing him and Michaela in the same scene.
— The “REJECTED” montage is pretty funny.
— A noticeable use of a black female extra to play Kenan’s wife during the “REJECTED” montage, when all the other married couples in this montage are played by actual cast members. Yet another unintentional reminder this season of SNL’s lack of a black female cast member.
— A good laugh from the “safe and secure” place in the bank that Darrell places a customer’s money: in between a pile of old mattresses in a rusty storage room.
STARS: ***½
DA LEARNIN’ TRAIN
uneducative kids show appalls Harry Connick, Jr. (JAS)
— No idea what to think of the early portions of this sketch so far, but, knowing in hindsight how the rest of this sketch goes, I guess the early portions are just a long set-up for Jason’s Harry Connick Jr. to react to when he eventually enters.
— Fred’s attempt at an urban voice appears to be him doing a Cypress Hill impression. He also sounded like he was doing a Cypress Hill impression in the rap he did in that New Nightly News Theme Song sketch from the preceding season’s Brian Williams episode.
— Jason’s a very solid straight man as usual, and there are some laughs from him calling out all the wrong things about the show, but I’m still kinda iffy on this sketch as a whole. Not sure why it’s not working much for me.
STARS: **½
GUANTANAMO BAY GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE
torture devices available at Guantanamo Bay’s going-out-of-business sale
— Fun premise with the juxtaposition of Gitmo doing a going-out-of-business ad.
— Excellent lead performance from Jason as a typical over-excited going-out-of-business ad pitchman.
— Spot-on and funny graphics throughout this.
STARS: ****
ALADDIN ANNIVERSARY
marital woes mark ten-year anniversary of Aladdin (JAS) & Jasmine (host)
— Jason playing someone going through marital troubles and having thoughts about a possible divorce is interesting when you’re aware that Jason, in real life, had recently gone through a rough divorce around this time, as I mentioned in my review of this season’s Hugh Laurie episode. Is doing this sketch some kind of strange therapy for Jason?
— Another nice display of Jason’s singing voice.
— Jason as Aladdin: “I wish I was DEAD! But guess what? I already used up all my wishes!”
— Jason, continuing the strong night he’s been having so far in this episode, gets yet another good line in this sketch: “(to Jasmine) If you hate Genie so much, how come one of our kids is blue?!?”
STARS: ***½
A COUPLE OF HOMIES
FRA & ANS hangout session gets a soundtrack by WLF
— I love the random Will Forte-sung musical narration every time Fred and Andy do some mundane friendly thing together.
— The particularly random and brief “Backscratch!” song was HILARIOUS.
— The even-more-random D.A.R.E. ending is a very funny twist ending. And, for what it’s worth, we get our first of two season 34 sightings of Will Forte’s bare ass.
STARS: ****
GILLY
unremorseful bad seed Gilly (KRW) brazenly assaults classmates & teachers
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut! You know, I kinda hate that I’ve cornered myself into saying that excited-sounding catchphrase throughout this SNL project of mine, because I feel just plain stupid when I have to say it for the debut of a bad character who I and a number of others hate. And, boy, is Gilly a perfect example of a bad character who I and a number of others absolutely HAAAAATE.
— This is the first of two consecutive episodes that feature the debut of a Kristen Wiig character who I consider to be the absolute bane of Kristen’s repertoire of recurring characters (which is certainly saying something). And if you think I hate Gilly enough, wait’ll you see my reaction to the certain Wiig character who debuts in tomorrow’s episode.
— Will, Bobby, and (especially) Kenan are providing some much-needed mild laughs for me in this otherwise insufferable sketch.
— Even the running bit with Will’s “Gillllyyyyyyyyyy” utterances, which usually amuse me somewhat, is going on too long right now.
— Casey’s “The bum’s ass” bit gave me my biggest laugh of this sketch so far.
— As a whole, this sketch actually featured funny work from most of the supporting performers, but the actual Kristen portions of this sketch were too hard for me to stomach. And I have Lord-knows-how-many-more installments of this sketch to suffer through.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mykonos”
WEEKEND UPDATE
glad-handing Bernie Madoff (FRA) unabashedly plies more pyramid schemes
ever-nervous Judy Grimes loquaciously blurs veracity & mendacity
Larry The Goose (ANS) disputes Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s heroism
— Fred’s Bernie Madoff commentary is absolutely dying a horrible death. And, much like his ad-libbed smiliness/giggliness towards Seth throughout his awful Boy George commentary from a few Weekend Updates ago, Fred’s ad-libbed touchy-feeliness toward Seth throughout this Madoff commentary seems to be Fred’s attempt at masking the lousy writing. Not working, Fred.
— This ends up being the beginning of a two-consecutive-episode run of a terrible showcase for Fred’s Madoff impression. (Interesting how both Kristen AND Fred respectively have a two-consecutive-episode run of something very unfortunate within tonight’s episode and the next one. Have we already reached the point where some people consider Kristen and Fred to be SNL poison?) I recall the Madoff sketch he does in the next episode being particularly awful.
— Another funny run of amusing rapidly-spouted-off silly statements from Judy Grimes. As long as this character’s actual dialogue remains funny, I’ll be able to continue tolerating the repetitiveness of Judy Grimes’ shtick.
— The debut of Andy’s very-occasionally-appearing Larry The Goose.
— This is the type of dumb humor Andy’s good at selling. I particularly like the line comparing the Sullenberger incident to Top Gun because “a plane went down and Goose died”.
STARS: ***
LA POLICIA MEXICANA
cop drama script written by 4th grade Spanish class
— An okay concept of a Spanish-spoken drama written by a 4th grade Spanish class.
— Bill steals this sketch in his brief walk-on as “El Jefe”.
— Overall, not sure at all how to feel about this sketch as a whole, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t care for it.
STARS: **
THE VIEW
Salma Hayek (host) & Ricky Gervais (JAS) weigh in on topics
— Interesting seeing Michaela do a Barbara Walters impression. Out of fairness, I’m not going to compare it to SNL’s two most legendary Barbara Walters impressions (Gilda Radner and Cheri Oteri), but, comparing it to the less-famous one Rachel Dratch previously did and the also-not-very-famous one that future cast member Nasim Pedrad later does, I kinda prefer Rachel and Nasim’s versions. Something in the voice Michaela’s doing isn’t working for me.
— Not caring much for this sketch so far, especially the political rants from Kristen’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck. The fact that this sketch went from appearing right after the monologue in an earlier episode this season to now appearing in the late 12:40 timeslot is proof that even SNL themselves are aware that tonight’s View sketch isn’t up to much.
— Jason’s great night continues, as we now get the debut of his Ricky Gervais impression, and he’s easily the only big entertainment I’m getting from this sketch.
STARS: **
BAND SHOT
— Another instance of SNL returning from a commercial break just to show an all-too-rare shot of the SNL Band immediately playing the show back to another commercial break, which is always a sign that a planned sketch got scrapped at the very last minute.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Blue Ridge Mountains”
GOOD EXCUSE!
(WLF) & (KRW) concoct convoluted, implausible explanations
— A laugh from the horrible, convoluted excuse Will and Kristen give Kenan.
— Pretty funny how the audience of this talk show just consists of a few cats wandering around.
— I like the phone call from Jason (who’s, once again tonight, the best part of a sketch) as a disgruntled past guest, announcing to the hosts that he’s going to come over to the studio and kill them, an announcement that causes guest Rosario to immediately walk off the show.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode, and the first episode all season that I flat-out disliked. There were barely any big highs to be found, and, while the cold opening and Gilly were the only two things I’d call outright terrible (oh, and Fred Armisen’s Bernie Madoff bit, if we’re counting Weekend Update commentaries), there was A LOT of meh stuff in this episode. All of these things add up to a blah episode. The fact that I had so little to say about most of tonight’s sketches in my individual reviews of them is more evidence of what a blah episode this was. IIRC, this episode ends up being the beginning of a mid-season slump that lasts for four consecutive episodes (though thinking back on the Bradley Cooper episode that’s coming up two episodes from now, I actually can recall a lot of good stuff from it, and I’m now wondering if I and others underrated that episode back in the day).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Guantanamo Bay Going Out Of Business Sale
A Couple Of Homies
Aladdin Anniversary
North American Savings
Good Excuse!
Weekend Update
Da Learnin’ Train
La Policia Mexicana
The View
Monologue
Gilly
Vice President Dick Cheney: The Final Interview
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Neil Patrick Harris)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
SNL hosting legend Steve Martin makes his final hosting appearance (as of 2020)
Ugh, we’ve now reached peak levels of Wiig annoyance. Gilly and the “Thomas!” lady are two of the worst characters in history, not just for SNL, but the entire history of television.
Ah, Gilly. I don’t know what to think of these sketches. Wiig’s character is atrocious, but there is something bizarrely hypnotic about them–from the odd touches for all of the side characters (Kenan having the broken arms, Bobby’s hatred of his stepdad) to the constant repetition of “Gilly…” and the teacher interrogating the students one by one. I would never want to watch one of these sketches again, but I can still crack my friends up by going “Gilly…Gilly…Gilly…” twelve times in a row. I’m not sure what that means.
This episode was pretty bad. There were a few sketches that would have been a solid medium in a good episode–I thought the Spanish police drama had an inspired idea, but couldn’t go anywhere once the premise was established. The Aladdin sketch is amusing, but not a top drawer sketch–Jason’s irritated singing is the highlight (“It was the Learning Annex! They say that to everyone!”).
I am probably making things up in my mind, but I tend to associate January episodes of SNL as not very good in recent years, like they come back from a holiday break and turn in junk (although last week’s was fine). At least I didn’t have high expectations for this episode, unlike next week’s, which is a sad way for Steve Martin to go out (for now).
I think you hit upon a good observation in the Madoff sketch. Fred knows his material is weak so he tries doing something goofy to further add laughs, a standby of many a comedian over the years. Arguably Wiig does the same thing by her constant mugging in her bad sketches. There’s a few times where this breaks my resistance (the “Riley” sketch from the Sigourney Weaver episode, for example, which most people hate), but this is definitely very much in the period of when I grew to dislike any Fred or Kristen focused sketch. Which is a shame as they’re funny people and had decent tenures.
The forum I moderated had more derision for Wiig than for Army, though in this particular show both are noticeably annoying. Somehow, I didn’t assume Gilly would be recurring. I didn’t get the Digital Short; it felt like a hodgepodge of random things. Dawson/Foxes was nothing special to me, but I’d argue the Phelps and Laurie shows were worse. I enjoyed Fleet Foxes, though.
Going back to Gilly– didn’t Wiig say in a 2010 interview that the character was meant to be a parody/deconstruction of SNL recurring characters that get run into the ground? In other words, it was *intentionally* bad to prove a point?
I started to have derision for both Army and Wiig. This started the countdown of when I wanted them to leave because I felt they were sucking the life out of SNL.
They seemed to have gotten more airtime and free reign to do whatever, while others struggle for airtime. I also remember Lorne saying that Fred was the show’s glue. I have to disagree and say that Jason and Bill were the real glues.
I thought the s-n-l.com boards hated both Army and Wiig. To me, there was equal hatred for both.
Here’s a video of Jorma dancing to Fleet Foxes during the rehearsals for this episode:
There’s a lot of Jorma dancing shirtless or naked videos from the Lonely Island YouTube. Still, this is weird.
If that’s what they were going for with Gilly, the Hubs Gyros guys already did it better.
I thought 2020 was bad enough… and then Gilly returned. Sweet merciful Jesus.
I like Kristen Wiig’s characters for the most part… but Gilly comes across as more disturbing than funny, to me. I’m still surprised there are so many of those sketches.
I didn’t realize Andy Samberg did the “Larry the Goose” character in other Update appearances. I saw a commentary from a later appearance and that character stuck in my mind for whatever reason.
I love this Digital Short… Will Forte singing is always a win. The random DARE ending cracked me up so bad.
I was going to retract what I said a few episodes ago about how Stefon was (to me, anyway), the Last “Major” character to debut on the show…but then I realized how much I hated Gilly as well, so to me, she doesn’t count (even though it was practically EVERYWHERE the next few seasons).
Who can forget that Gilly Christmas special in ’09 that overexposed the character to no end?
On the Peacock SNL channel they run that stupid Gilly Christmas Special every. Single. Day.
Hey Doc. I would much rather have Stefon than Gilly ! First of all, Bill is Better than Kristen ! Than, Stefon Is Funnier Especially when Bill Talks In That Loud, Low Voice !
Yeah I’ve always heard Paula Pell and Kristen came up with “Gilly” as sort of a goof and then when it became popular they had to start taking it seriously.
I think Henry Connick Jr being incredulous in kids show sketch is reference to a semi-early viral clip of him flipping out on an Australian variety show where a blackface act showed up
Edit—Wait I just googled that and that incident with Harry teaching Australians that blackface was offensive happened in October 2009. So now I have no idea why he was relevant enough to warrant being impersonated on SNL at this point.
Oof – I should have looked to see your post before I sent my own. I didn’t realize this was before that happened. That makes this whole sketch completely incomprehensible to me.
I mainly remember the first “Gilly” sketch which weren’t any different from the subsequent others. I remember them being amusing if not hilarious. I still think the most annoying of Fred and Kristen’s characters were Garth and Kat who weren’t funny even in their first appearance on “Weekend Update”…
A few of us watched the Bradley Cooper episode in a stream last night and it was a pleasant surprise, overall.
Speaking of that, this episode is (last year, in another stream) one of the first of this era that I watched, and at the time I was a bit thrown by how cold the episode felt. I don’t have as harsh an impression on rewatch, because I have seen more of this period and have realized it was not too far off the norm (SNL has basically had this template, sometimes a little better, sometimes a little worse, for the last 10-15 years), but it still feels like an oddly alienating episode considering it has a young, energetic host who is happy to commit to the material. The monologue says it all – rather than either just have her briefly talk about the voting power of Latinos (which would have been fine), or have Fred appear as himself to talk and joke with her (which also would have been fine), we have a hoary one-note character pulled deep out of mothballs, mugging and throwing around old stereotypes. If it was meant to balance Rosario, it didn’t work. If it was meant to be funny, it didn’t work. And as a result, the whole thing just hangs there, and also adds a negative feel to a number of Rosario’s sketches where she is basically playing one stereotype after another…which the monologue was, surely, meant to criticize?
One of the things about this era that bothers me is moving into a cast which feels more and more disconnected. Lots more solo recurring bits where the rest of the cast just has to react, lots more “turn” sketches and impression parades, and no real group feel. A number of people in the late ’80s cast hated each other, yet there were still believable group camaraderie moments, along with a number of sketches which relied on cast members acting together. We get that here in very diminishing returns, which is such a waste when you consider that so many in this cast (Bill, Jason, Andy, Kristen, Fred, Seth, Will) are still good friends to this day. Yet onscreen we get something like the Gilly sketch, a classroom sketch which could have had plenty of mixing and interaction, you have one person waiting for their beat, then the next person, then the next person – the ultimate assembly line of the Meyers assembly line.
The cast seams are also starting to show – while Darrell seeming so out of place can’t be helped, the lack of effort with Michaela, Abby and Casey is baffling to me. Of course I’m writing this 11 years later – I know this is just a few episodes in for two of the ladies, and about a season for the third. Michaela’s experience and strong onscreen presence help to mask the lack of heavier material, but unfortunately there is no real masking for Casey or Abby, who both feel lost. Bobby already feels like a valuable player, in spite of the number of competing with six other men for sketch time – his presence shows just how truly punishing the hyper-focus on Kristen was for the female cast.
(you could argue that Kristen shouldn’t have to give up airtime if male cast members weren’t [and I don’t think Kristen was trying to hog airtime or deprive other women of airtime], but some of these episodes having 3 showcases for her a night is jarring)
The kids’ show doesn’t put me off as much on second viewing but it still has such a lifeless vibe, and relies too much on the early version of Kenan having to punch out that quick laugh catchphrase to prop the sketch up. (my only real laugh – a guilty one – was when, during the dance routine, Kenan blocked poor Abby out entirely). The idea of Harry Connick Jr. being disturbed at their show would make more sense if the show was much more edgy than what it turned out to be (that and the fact that Harry’s newsworthy objections were to blackface feels awkward when you remember what SNL was still doing at this time).
I love the idea of the Spanish-language educational cop show, but I agree something doesn’t entirely click. I end up feeling the same way about the ‘excuses’ talk show, although there are some good touches, like the audience. The Aladdin sketch falls under the same category – it doesn’t help that I kept thinking of the sketch with Adam Driver and Cecily Strong, which wasn’t perfect but had a lot more energy and connection for me.
I notice that with Seth’s Update they are starting more of the “why are you saying/doing this?” pushback from him (they’d done this a bit with Amy near the end). The problem with this approach (not new to SNL, of course – they also did this endlessly in the Curtin era) is it just underlines that we are getting the same material over and over. I think it takes Stefon for them to finally just start writing Seth as saying OK it’s fine, come back, I’m enjoying your terribleness.
Beyond Andy’s very entertaining commentary, my favorite part of this was probably Seth shouting “4 more days!” It’s cheap claptor, but the delivery is what I enjoy – goofy, loud Seth is the best Seth.
Michaela’s Baba Wawa doesn’t really work for me either – the voice just doesn’t match, it feels too much like an imitation of an imitation. To be honest nothing in this one worked for me. But I am not the target audience – an Entertainment Weekly review of this episode listed this sketch as a highlight…
The Digital Short is great, I just love how they drive the joke into the ground then essentially troll us afterward by revealing that the whole thing was a nutso fever dream. Perfect use of Will Forte. That and the Gimto piece (Jason was perfect, the writing was sharp – I would have cut out Rosario’s part though) are the best for me.
I think everyone has said anything I could say about Gilly – these relentlessly repetitive recurring sketches where if even one beat is not regurgitated every time, something terrible would happen, do little for me. I do love Will’s “Gilly…Gilly….” and could listen to it a million times. The perfect Gale Gordon homage.
Finally, I just wanted to give a bit of praise to the cold open. You’re right about the weird choice to ignore that Darrell had said LFNY as Cheney a number of times, and they could have trimmed a bit, but Kristen’s delivery is just absolutely perfect and I enjoy the many ridiculous questions she asks a perfectly deadpan Cheney. A good way for this character/impression to go out.
I did not watch this show back then, except for a few episodes. I was happy to see the SNL Band get some much deserved air time.
This episode was awful. The cold open, monologue, Learnin’ Train, Spanish cop drama, and especially the one-note Gilly were some of the worst I have ever seen.
The only really good thing of this show was the musical guest. After seeing them perform “Mykonos,” I had to add that to my iTunes and listen to repeatedly. It was because of SNL, I got into the Fleet Foxes.
Other than that, nothing else I liked took place. Rosario deserved better.
Speaking of Gilly, I wouldn’t have a higher dislike of character until the Zac Efron episode. That seemed like it was more for kids than adults. Plus, the whole “Gilly!…What?…Gilly!…Sorry!” was repetitive in all the sketches they did with the character. A problem that happened with a lot of characters during this era.
I do wonder if Michaela was dumped to avoid stepping on Kristen’s toes.
I thought this was a good one until I re-watched it. I have to admit, I loved Gilly the first time and that is all I remembered from this episode. Gilly doesn’t work for me at all anymore but at the time I saw her similar to how I see Horatio’s Carol, it’s a sketch that shouldn’t exist but it can also only exist on SNL. Another sketch show doing something like this would look lame, but SNL can get away with calling it a deconstruction. I remember telling my friends at work about Gilly, but mostly the Will, Bobby, Kenan, Casey stuff, the stuff surrounding Gilly is the true star of the sketch. Having said all that, I hate Gilly now, I hate this sketch now, I started hated Gilly from the second she popped up in a second sketch. But I still remember being up late on a Saturday in 2009 (probably in just the right mindset to enjoy something like Gilly) and laughing my ass off at how purposely stupid it is.
@Georgie is spot on; I feel the same way. I’ll go a step further, though, and say I really dislike the attempt at clever writing where everything the teacher says is written in a super florid style filled with puns, wordplay, and far too many words plucked from a thesaurus. As @snllover said, it’s like something written for kids… and in the case of the teacher dialogue, it’s like it’s written BY kids —overly confident high school kids, actually.
That photo for the WU obesity joke gives me Pat vibes😂😂
I enjoyed this first Gilly sketch and its silly, absurdist humor – although maybe it’s because I think Will’s character is actually the odd character in the sketch and not Gilly. But then again, I also greatly enjoy Garth & Kat, which people on here also seem to not like. Oh well, diff’rent strokes, as they say.