Month: August 2020

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October 25, 2008 – Jon Hamm / Coldplay (S34 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BIDEN/MURTHA RALLY
dumb statements of Joe Biden (JAS) & John Murtha (DAH) imperil campaign

— A new impression from Darrell in this late stage of his SNL tenure. I can’t judge the accuracy of his John Murtha impression, as I have no real familiarity with Murtha, but Darrell’s impression is coming off pretty funny.
— Some laughs from Jason’s Joe Biden making a bold, suspiciously specific prediction that Barack Obama will be tested by a huge crisis early in his presidency.
— Some of Darrell-as-Murtha’s ignorant, rude comments are making me laugh.
— Seems pointless to have all those cast members (Kenan, Andy, Bobby, Casey) playing supporters in the background, when they don’t have anything to say or do in this.
— Jason’s Biden: “Gird your loins! By the beard of Jupiter, GIRD! YOUR! LOINS!”
— The fact that, after the Jim Downey-voiced “Next on C-SPAN” bit towards the end, the camera cuts back to Jason and Darrell’s Biden and Murtha just to show Jason setting up and saying a tacked-on-seeming LFNY, makes it obvious that this wasn’t the original choice for the cold opening tonight. Indeed, the cold opening in this episode’s dress rehearsal was the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch we’ll be seeing later in tonight’s episode. In fact, in the syndicated 60-minute version of this episode shown on cable channels, this Biden/Murtha cold opening is replaced with the original dress rehearsal version of the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch, complete with the original LFNY. What’s interesting and odd about that is the NBC rerun of this episode didn’t do that, IIRC. The NBC rerun still left in the live Biden/Murtha cold opening and still kept the live version of the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour as a sketch placed later in the show.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Some pretty funny outlandish lies Jon Hamm is making up about what Mad Men contains, in an attempt to help the show’s ratings. Reminds me a bit of Robert Hays’ monologue from season 6, though I feel this is being executed a lot better.
— I particularly like the mention of John McCain freaking out from supposedly smoking weed on Mad Men.
— Ignoring Oliver Stone’s brief and pointless cameo in Josh Brolin’s monologue in the preceding episode, this is the fourth consecutive episode with a real monologue that only involves the host. I’m really liking this trend.
— Jon is already showing lots of promise as a host. He handled this host-only monologue well for a first-time host.
STARS: ***½


TRICK OR TREAT
trick-or-treater Jeff Montgomery (WLF) may or may not be a sex offender

— Ah, a Will Forte classic.
— This was previously cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s Brian Williams episode.
— I love the very random, playful “You’re the bitch, bitch! WHAAAAAAT?” bit from Will’s Jeff Montgomery character at the beginning.
— An absolutely classic turn right now. Jon: “What exactly IS your Halloween costume?” Jeff Montgomery: “(matter-of-factly) I’m a sex offender.”
— Hilarious part where, as supposedly part of his Halloween costume, Jeff Montgomery both recites a court-ordered “I’m required to inform you that I’m a sex offender and I’m living in…. etc.” statement and tries to get Jon to sign and date a legal form.
— Such a perfect display of the ballsy humor Will is so good at pulling off.
— So many laughs throughout this sketch, especially how Jeff Montgomery keeps trying to downplay the fact that he’s a real sex offender.
— A great absolutely speechless reaction from Jon when Montgomery reveals that the crime he’s guilty of is “only” sexually assaulting five teenagers.
— A very funny terrible segue with Montgomery asking Jon if he’s looking for a babysitter.
— Overall, simply perfect.
STARS: *****


RAS TRENT
dreadlocked collegian poseur (ANS) is a wannabe Jamaican

— A very catchy song. Even Andy’s intentionally-horrible singing is catchy as hell.
— This short is a lot of fun, and we’re getting lots of amusing little visuals and actions from Andy throughout the song.
— A particularly hilarious part with Andy suddenly mumbling his song in a low volume when walking past actual Rastafarians.
STARS: ****


MAD MEN / TWO A-HOLES AT AN AD AGENCY IN THE 1960S
Roger (John Slattery) & Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) vet A-holes pitch

— Funny line from Elisabeth Moss’ Peggy about how she’s not allowed to own a watch because she’s a woman.
— Great bit with Casey as Joan.
— Ha, this turns into a Two A-holes sketch out of nowhere! A fun turn in this Mad Men parody. This ends up being the final appearance of the Two A-holes, despite Jason and Kristen both remaining in the cast for several years.
— I love the little “Yes, I HEARD HER!” bit when Jason keeps telling Jon’s Don Draper what Kristen said in regards to her meal request.
— Great bit with the Two A-holes licking all the sandwiches on the platter and saying “These are ours.”
— Funny bit with the hula-hoop suspenders.
— A very strong mock-dramatic speech from Don Draper about hula-hoops and suspenders, and it’s hilarious how it moves Bobby’s Harry to tears.
STARS: ****


THE BARACK OBAMA VARIETY HALF HOUR
confident Barack Obama (FRA) will do his infomercial as a variety show

— Maya Rudolph makes her first SNL appearance since leaving the cast. SNL having to resort to bringing her in a cameo to play the role of Michelle Obama is yet another painfully obvious sign that SNL’s then-current cast doesn’t have a black woman. Since I couldn’t stand Maya back in these days (I’ve come around on her in more recent years), I remember being worried back at this time in 2008 that SNL would have to bring her back in a cameo every single time they needed to do a sketch involving Michelle Obama (gee, it’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about anything like that on SNL in our current times, RIGHT?!?!?!?!?!? [/end sarcasm]), but it would turn out that the only other time Maya ends up playing Michelle Obama again after tonight’s episode is when Maya hosts years later in season 37.
— Fun concept of Fred’s Barack Obama using his half-hour infomercial time to do an old-timey variety show.
— Apparently, SNL’s crew members forgot to give Fred a hand-held microphone before this sketch, as he’s awkwardly forced to lean into Maya’s microphone when they’re both singing.
— The “Our House” musical number with Kristen’s Nancy Pelosi, Andy’s Rahm Emanuel, and Bobby’s Barney Frank is hilarious.
— A fun and fitting “Don’t You Forget About Me” number with Darrell’s Bill Clinton.
— I love the Obama/JFK/Clinton mini-sketch.
STARS: ****


DON DRAPER’S GUIDE TO PICKING UP WOMEN
Don Draper’s (host) guide to picking up women suggests you act like him

— A good laugh from Kristen saying “Marry me, I wanna have your children!” in reaction to Jon’s Don Draper staying silent whenever she asks him a question.
— Here we have Amy, in pre-taped form, making her only appearance of the night, because she went into labor during afternoon rehearsals the same day of tonight’s episode, and subsequently gave birth at the hospital.
— Great ending to Amy’s scene, with her reacting to Don Draper telling her his name by looking into the camera and sultrily saying “Let’s get me out of this skirt.”
— A very well-executed piece so far.
— Excellent delivery from Jon during his whole fast-paced rundown at the end, regarding what to do to be like Don Draper.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Viva La Vida”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Robo-Call (WLF) is ashamed he’s being used to impugn Obama’s character

Ralph Nader (BIH) wrongly expects to supply unneeded campaign excitement

yet again, Nicholas Fehn doesn’t manage to gain any rhetorical ground

KET & MAR sing “We Love You Amy” in support of absent new mother AMP

— Ah, here we go. Seth’s very first solo Weekend Update, a few months before that would become a regular thing. I remember how eager I was to see tonight’s Update back when it originally aired, as I was very curious to see how Seth would handle anchoring Update alone, and was also very curious to see SNL’s very first solo-anchored Update since all the way back to May 2000.
— Just as I was expecting, it feels odd seeing Seth do Update by himself. Doing these daily reviews of mine has gotten me SO used to seeing Amy as Seth’s co-anchor.
— Will is very funny as Robo-Call.
— I love the detail of Robo-Call drinking from a flask of oil.
— Didn’t care for the corny, predictable joke of Robo-Call’s older brother being RoboCop.
— Robo-Call: “Next week, Robo-Call supposed to tell black people, election canceled.”
— It’s starting to feel kinda lonely and empty seeing Seth as the sole anchorperson, but not lonely and empty in a bad way, if that makes sense. And Seth is doing fine by himself, handling his first solo Update well.
— Bill’s Ralph Nader commentary was previously cut after dress rehearsal from a Weekend Update Thursday special that aired just two days before this.
— Bill’s doing a good vocal impression of Nader, though he’s not even bothering to imitate Nader’s facial mannerisms, mainly the twitchy eye. Jimmy Fallon previously nailed the facial mannerisms when impersonating Nader in a season 26 sketch.
— OH, GOD. Nicholas Fehn ONCE AGAIN. However, I’ve always had a theory that, if it’s indeed true that these Nicholas Fehn commentaries are always improvised, then SNL’s decision to have a Nicholas Fehn commentary in tonight’s Update probably wasn’t made until just hours before the show, when SNL realized that they needed to fill in some extra time left over in this Update due to Amy’s sudden absence. So they asked Fred if he could do a Nicholas Fehn commentary, knowing he can easily make up stuff on the fly as this character. If this theory of mine is correct, I guess I can cut SNL some slack for dragging this character out once again tonight. NEVER AGAIN, though, SNL.
— Just like the last appearance Nicholas Fehn made earlier this season, I’m stone-faced during his shtick tonight. The novelty of this character, and what made him work so well the first two times, are long gone by this point.
— A nice, sweet musical number from Kenan and Maya, honoring Amy.
STARS: ***


VINCENT PRICE’S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
in 1959, Vincent Price’s (BIH) Halloween Special isn’t family-friendly

— Wow, this is the first time this recurring sketch has appeared in THREE SEASONS. I think I recall hearing new writer John Mulaney is the one responsible for bringing this recurring sketch out of the mothballs.
— Funny opening bit with Bill-as-Vincent-Price’s malfunctioning rising chair.
— Kristen’s voice as Gloria Swanson is a riot, as is her whole “I’m a pirate, arrr” spiel.
— I am absolutely loving Jon’s brash one-liners as James Mason, as well as Bill-as-Price’s reactions.
— Here we have the first inclusion of Fred’s Liberace impression in a Vincent Price sketch. This impression of Fred’s would go on to be a staple of this recurring sketch.
— Vincent Price to Liberace: “Save your sassy asides for your windowless bars!” That’s actually a clever, well-written, and interestingly-detailed line. So, naturally, it receives DEAD SILENCE from the audience.
— Jon continues to absolutely kill it in this sketch. His performance here is even more impressive when you’re aware of the backstory. I can’t remember all the exact details of the story, and I may have my facts about it wrong, but, IIRC, the story is that Jon played Dean Martin in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, but he struggled badly through the impression. After talking it over with Lorne and company after dress rehearsal, it was decided that he would play James Mason instead of Dean Martin, and he ended up knocking it out of the park.
— This sketch has gotten me in such an upbeat mood that even the token gay jokes from Fred’s Liberace are making me laugh. We’ll see if my lenience towards the gay Liberace jokes will hold up in subsequent installments of this sketch, because, from what I’ve heard from some other fans fairly recently, the abundance of gay Liberace jokes supposedly really drags down the later installments of this sketch.
— Though it’s just a little thing, I love Bill-as-Price’s pronunciation of “tissue”.
STARS: ****½


JON HAMM’S JOHN HAM
host endorses bathroom-based meat dispensing system

— A questionable concept on paper, but you can already tell from the start that Jon’s performance expertise, natural funniness, and charm is going to sell this in spades.
— Hilarious visual of the toilet paper-esque ham dispenser.
— As expected, Jon’s execution of this is simply fantastic.
— Jon’s ending line, when quoting the slogan of his product: “If it feels like a slice of ham, don’t wipe your ass with it.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lost!”


PAT FINGER
Pat Finger (host) seeks votes to be on city council of Butts, New York

— Wow, two consecutive sketches featuring only Jon Hamm? When this episode was originally airing, I took the fact that the last 25 minutes of this episode oddly consisted only of solo Jon Hamm sketches and Coldplay musical performances as a possible sign that the SNL cast wasn’t even in the building anymore by that point. I wondered if, after the Vincent Price sketch, the cast went to the hospital to visit Amy and her new baby. I even kinda assumed the goodnights were, in a somewhat similar fashion to SNL’s occasional ice-skating goodnights, going to show the cast in the hospital room with Amy and her new baby, with all of them waving to the camera, while Jon and Coldplay wrap up the show in the SNL studio. I’m sure that all sounds silly (and probably corny) to some people. Anyway, those assumptions of mine about the cast turned out to be completely wrong. I guess the fact that the only sketches in the last 25 minutes of the show all featured Jon Hamm by himself is a huge sign of how much trust he quickly earned from SNL as a performer, which is incredible, given the fact that this is his first time hosting, and it wasn’t universally known before this episode how funny this man is capable of being. You can tell he must’ve really impressed Lorne and company over the course of the week.
— Also, the aforementioned fact that the last 25 minutes of this episode consist only of solo Jon Hamm sketches and Coldplay musical performances kinda serves as an interesting glimpse of what an SNL episode would look like without any cast members. Though I guess SNL already sorta did do that with the second-ever episode back in season 1, which consisted almost entirely of musical performances.
— An extremely juvenile sketch, but the amazing Jon Hamm is, once again tonight, selling it, and is making it come off “fun dumb” instead of “bad dumb”.
— I like the little throwaway mention of Jon’s character’s great-grandfather being named E.T. Finger.
— Funny panicked reaction from Jon’s character when realizing how dirty his new last name, Deldeaux, will sound in his campaign slogan, right before the camera cuts away from him.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Yellow”


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest performs “Lovers In Japan”

— A special edition of the goodnights, as Jon throws to ANOTHER Coldplay performance. (I don’t know if this has ever been confirmed, but I’m assuming all of these extra Coldplay performances that we’ve been getting tonight are to fill up the extra time left over from Amy’s sudden absence.) However, as soon as Coldplay begins to play their song for these goodnights (“Lovers In Japan”), the goodnights suddenly get cut off in the original live airing I’m currently watching.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, continuing the solid streak that I feel this season has been on ever since the Anne Hathaway episode. Not only did I enjoy every single segment tonight, but, aside from Weekend Update, every rated segment from Trick-Or-Treat all the way to Jon Hamm’s John Ham received a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Very impressive. And Jon Hamm….wow. From the expert way he handled this hosting stint like a total pro and veteran, you’d never guess this was his first time hosting. One of the most incredible hosting performances I’ve ever seen from a first-time host. In fact, back when this originally aired, I remember noticing lots of similarities between the way Jon handled his first hosting stint and the way Alec Baldwin handled his first hosting stint in 1990. And, even though I don’t feel this first Jon Hamm-hosted episode is quite on the same level as that first Alec Baldwin-hosted episode (one of the absolute best SNL episodes of all time), this Hamm episode is still fantastic, and my review of it has probably one of the highest rating averages in this SNL project of mine. Also, even though, in terms of episode quality, I’d give the edge to Alec’s first hosting stint, in terms of hosting performances, I’d give the edge to Jon’s first hosting stint, because of the way he was able to perfectly carry several solo segments.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Josh Brolin)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ben Affleck

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October 18, 2008 – Josh Brolin / Adele (S34 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PALIN PRESS CONFERENCE
TIF yields press conference bit to Sarah Palin [real]; Alec Baldwin cameo

— Some good lines from Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin here, though, unlike her previous appearances, there aren’t any classic one-liners here.
— Funny bit with Tina’s Palin taking the time to entertain the press with “some fancy pageant walkin’”.
— And here we have the heavily-hyped Sarah Palin cameo, which I remember dreading back when it was originally announced before this episode aired.
— A pretty funny Mark Wahlberg walk-on, looking for Andy Samberg after the famous sketch Andy did about him in the preceding episode.
— The cameos continue, as we now we get a surprise Alec Baldwin cameo (back in the days when you could still say “a surprise Alec Baldwin cameo”).
— Good bit with Alec mistaking the real Sarah Palin for Tina while badmouthing Palin.
— I love Tina’s panicked delivery of “Byeeee!” when hearing the real Palin is there.
— A blink-and-miss-it visual of Tina and Palin both being onscreen together as they pass by each other, which I’m guessing disappointed some viewers who were expecting more interaction between the two. I personally say it’s probably for the best that this is the closest to an onscreen interaction we got between them. Plus, SNL has a very hit-and-miss track record with their “celebrity meets their impersonator” pieces.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host tells how he prepared to portray George W. Bush; Oliver Stone cameo

— Very lame opening joke where the movie about a prominent political figure that Josh Brolin mentions he was recently in turns out to be No Country For Old Men based on John McCain.
— An okay though very basic bit with Josh breaking down how to do a Bush impression.
— A sudden Oliver Stone cameo, which unfortunately prevents this from being the third consecutive episode with a real monologue that only involves the host. The Oliver Stone cameo is brief enough, though, that this can still be mostly considered a host-only monologue.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
unexpected stock portfolio collapse becomes a distraction to MacGruber

— Good to see a MacGruber runner relating to the stock market crash.
— A big laugh from the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion cutting off MacGruber’s “What the f–” reaction to seeing the current state of his stocks.
STARS: ****


SURPRISE
at a restaurant, surprise-loving Sue spoils (host)’s marriage proposal

 

— This character of Kristen’s has officially become recurring.
— If you remember, I didn’t care for the first installment of this sketch when I reviewed it. And if my memory of how the subsequent installments of this sketch goes serves correct, I’m sure I’ll care even less for them.
— Yep. I’m now a few minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t been caring for it AT ALL. Just feels like a pale imitation of the already-overrated-to-me first installment of this sketch.
— (*groan*) Here we have yet another display of Fred’s classic Asian stereotype routine, this time complete with the ol’-fashioned “mispronouncing ‘r’s and ‘l’s” trait.
— The bit with Kristen’s Sue smashing a glass over her head to keep herself quiet, which actually made me laugh a lot in the first installment of this sketch, was pulled off too awkwardly tonight.
— We even get a repeat of the gag from the first installment where Sue jumps through a window multiple times, which, much like the glass-smashing-over-the-head bit, came off even less funnier in this second installment.
STARS: *


MACGRUBER
mugging takes priority over escape from unstable mafia hideout

   

— That theme song lyric about toilet paper being a luxury for the now-broke MacGruber hits a little too close to home during our current times in 2020.
— I love MacGruber smashing a beer bottle in half to threaten his two assistants to finally give him their watches.
STARS: ****


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
destitute (host) receives unhelpful advice from Suze Orman (KRW)

— SNL is gradually turning into The Kristen Wiig Show as we speak.
— Fitting to do this sketch during the financial crisis going on at the time.
— Odd coincidence: all three times a Suze Orman sketch has appeared by this point of SNL’s run, it was in an episode that also had a MacGruber runner (the Jonah Hill and Shia LaBeouf episodes from the preceding season, and now tonight’s episode).
— As usual, Kristen’s portrayal of Suze Orman is very fun, as are all of her line deliveries.
— Funny lines from Josh about how bad his life is now that he’s broke, though these lines feel like a variation of the lines Jason previously said as a barrel-wearing Richard Fuld about how bad his life is now that he’s broke, in an earlier Weekend Update from this season.
— A good laugh from the Master Pussies book that Kristen’s Orman shows.
STARS: ***½


WAHLBERG’S CONFRONTATION
in criticizing ANS’s impression of him, Mark Wahlberg [real] confirms it

— And here we have our obligatory confrontation between Mark Wahlberg and Andy.
— Not only is this the “celebrity meets their impersonator” piece that I basically thanked SNL for refraining from doing with Tina Fey and Sarah Palin earlier tonight, but this is also a “celebrity claims they’re nothing like their impersonator’s impression of them, then goes on to act exactly like their impersonator’s impression of them” piece. Meh.
— Even for a “celebrity claims they’re nothing like their impersonator’s impression of them, then goes on to act exactly like their impersonator’s impression of them” piece, this feels lazily executed.
— I do at least like the touch of how, after telling Josh “Say hi to your mutha for me, alright?”, Wahlberg adds in “…and to your stepmutha”, a reference to the fact that Josh’s stepmother is Barbra Streisand.
STARS: **


I’M NO ANGEL
pregnant barfly (AMP) embodies Gregg Allman’s (WLF) perfume

— Ah, a very memorable Amy Poehler sketch.
— A great way to get mileage out of Amy’s real-life pregnancy.
— I’m always interested in dialogue-less sketches (or mostly dialogue-less, in this case).
— The catchy “I’m No Angel” song playing is adding to the entertainment of all the very funny stuff happening onscreen.
— An odd minor thing I’ve always noticed Casey doing in the background of this sketch: after her jealous waitress character storms off, Casey seems kinda lost on where she’s supposed to go, then she strangely ducks behind the bar counter, where we can no longer see her, and then………she just stays under the bar counter? Why does she do that? And does she seriously stay hidden under that bar counter for the whole remainder of the sketch? I again ask, why?
— I like this exchange between Josh and Amy: “When’s your baby due?” Amy: “Yesterday.” Josh: (*looks into the camera with a sleazy smile*) “PERFECT.”
— I remember, back when this episode originally aired, some people in an online live discussion thread for this episode wondered if Josh’s chair breaking and him falling onto the floor after a pregnant Amy gets off of his lap was a real blooper. It seems obvious to me that that was an intentional part of this sketch. (Plus, why else would the camera hold on Josh just sitting there doing nothing for a few seconds before his chair breaks?)
— Very funny walk-on at the end from Will as Gregg Allman, capping this sketch off really well.
STARS: ****½


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s anal ping-pong ball launch is a desperate money-raising act

— I love the haggard, destitute state MacGruber is now in.
— The whole bit with the ping-pong ball trick MacGruber does is absolutely HILARIOUS. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a MacGruber short, which is saying something.
— Kristen’s disturbed facial expression after MacGruber’s ping-pong ball trick is absolutely perfect (the last above screencap for this short).
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Pavements”


WEEKEND UPDATE
presidential candidate Tim Calhoun extends his harebrained hustings

Jean K. Jean offers his perspective on European issues of the day

after Sarah Palin [real] demurs, AMP performs the prospective veep’s rap

— TIM CALHOUN! Sadly, this ends up being his final appearance, despite Will still remaining on SNL for over a season-and-a-half after this episode.
— Will-as-Calhoun’s delivery of “Boo!” when revealing that’s his middle name had me howling.
— I love Calhoun’s “blind Pole” bit, especially his line about how it helps that she, the “blind Pole”, has no sense of smell.
— Calhoun’s overall commentary killed as always. I’m gonna miss the hell out of this character. For me, he knocked it out of the park in every single appearance. One of the consistently funniest recurring characters in SNL history.
— I continue to find Jean K. Jean’s Update commentaries to be pretty good, and carried by Kenan’s charm. I particularly like his comments about Carla Bruni.
— A second Sarah Palin appearance tonight.
— Yes! Here we have Amy’s legendary Sarah Palin rap, one of my absolute favorite things that both Amy and SNL in general have ever done.
— Not only are we getting fantastic comical rapping and lyrics from Amy, but they’re being accompanied by some awesome visuals, such as Fred and Andy as the Eskimos, Jason as a dancing, snowmachine outfit-wearing Todd Palin, and a “mother-humpin’” moose (that’s Bobby inside that costume, by the way…and if you look closely through the eyes of the costume, you can even see Bobby’s distinctive eyes and eyebrows) getting shot by Amy.
— Overall, an absolutely classic Palin rap from Amy. And the fact that she did all of this while THIS far into her pregnancy (she gives birth the following Saturday), AND in the same episode she did that I’m No Angel sketch, is incredible, and speaks volumes of her commitment as a performer and what a trouper she is.
STARS: ****


FART FACE
businessmen Carl (WLF), Jerry (BIH), Jim (host) fling “fart face” epithet

— Oh, here comes a sketch that was fairly notorious back in these days. This sketch was infamous for both focusing on such a dumb, immature subject matter AND bombing horribly with both the audience and general SNL fans. Bill would appear on a talk show a month or so after this episode’s original airing (I can’t remember which talk show it was, but I want to say Letterman), and he talked about how awkward and self-conscious he felt performing this sketch to a dead audience, especially since he was aware that this episode was being watched by a higher number of people than usual, due to Sarah Palin’s heavily-hyped guest appearance (this was one of the highest-rated SNL episodes ever at the time). All that being said about this sketch, I fully disclose that I’ve always LOVED this sketch, and will defend it to the grave. This sketch has always been one of my biggest SNL guilty pleasures, so much so, that I can recite pretty much the entire sketch by heart.
— As I always say, the rare pairing of Will and Bill is always a treat, and is a pairing SNL should’ve done more often.
— The ridiculousness of Josh’s mature businessman character plugging his ears like a child so he can’t hear Will and Bill’s secret conversation is funny.
— I love the following exchange, regarding Josh’s continued use of the nickname “Fart Face” for Will’s Carl character: Bill: “If you’ve spent any time with Carl, you’d know his face does not smell of farts…but rather a face.” Josh: “Odor-wise, I’d agree, but I’m talking about appearance. See, I believe that if a fart did have a face, it would look EXACTLY like Fart Face.” Will: “How dare you!”
— The way such a ridiculously immature concept is being performed so dead-seriously by Will, Bill, and Josh is making this sketch work so well.
— Yet another great exchange: Josh: “You served me the Kool-Aid, Jerry, I just drank it.” Bill: “Well, spit it out!” Josh: “No way. I don’t wanna stain Fart Face’s rug.” Will: “Jim, you know full well that the Kool-Aid we’re referring to is metaphorical! And spitting it out will not damage anything in this office!”
— Hilarious turn with Will and Bill suddenly pulling a “fart face turnaround” on Josh.
— I am absolutely loving how insanely intense this is now getting, especially Will’s over-the-top screaming during his and Bill’s taunting of Josh. An unleashed Will Forte ranting and raving like a madman NEVER fails.
— Hmm, the audience isn’t quite as dead during this sketch as I had remembered, though their laughter is very tepid, especially compared to how much I’m busting a gut during this sketch.
— Love the ending.
— Overall, this sketch continues to be one of my favorite SNL guilty pleasures. (I feel a little less guilty about it nowadays, after the sketch’s notoriety seems to have gradually been forgotten over the years, but I still feel guilty for the rating I’m about to give this sketch, a rating that I’m sure will raise some eyebrows). I love this sketch SO much.
STARS: *****


NARC SCHOOL
(host), (KRW), (WLF), every other student is actually a cop

— I remember that, back when this originally aired, I felt the melody of this sketch’s theme song sounded awfully similar to the melody of the MacGruber theme songs, but I don’t hear it quite as much now, 12 years later.
— I love Will’s delivery of “Are you guuyys talking druuuuuuuugs?”
— The narcs’ bad attempts to pass themselves off as teen students are pretty funny.
— Darrell (who I’m starting to forget is still on the show this season) makes his ONLY appearance of the night in a very brief, non-impression, almost-pointless role. He’s coming off SO awkward in this role that there’s almost a “So bad, it’s good” quality to his performance.
STARS: ***


READITRADE.COM
ReadiTrade.com is the online financial tool of choice for panic sellers

— Tonight’s episode continues to get TONS of topical mileage out of the financial crisis going on. That makes this episode an interesting time capsule in hindsight.
— When Jason’s spokesman character is listing off things you can sell at ReadiTrade.com, I got a laugh from him saying “sell drugs” in a discreet, whispery voice.
— A funny bit where, when we’re being shown how easy it is to use the ReadiTrade.com website, the ReadiTrade website page on Kenan’s laptop is just a simplistic page that has the word “SELL” written in big letters.
— Even though it wasn’t that funny in itself, something about Fred’s freeze-framed yell of “WHYYYYYYYYY?!?” cracked me up.
— Overall, despite the above highlights, I found this commercial as a whole to be a tad forgettable.
STARS: **½


NEW YORK UNDERGROUND
Trevor Dix (BIH) overhypes a ho-hum musician (FRA)

— Well…THIS is certainly different for this SNL era.
— I absolutely love Bill’s delivery and voice in this.
— Great photos of various fictional bands (the one in the third above screencap for this sketch includes yet another sighting of a bearded then-writer Colin Jost, and I believe our very first onscreen John Mulaney SNL sighting).
— Even though Fred’s portions of this short almost feel like an early preview of the annoying, hard-to-figure, self-indulgent shtick that would dominate the later years of his SNL tenure, it’s working for me in the unique, pre-taped format of this particular short. Also, this short, especially with the involvement of both Bill and Fred, feels kinda like a precursor to “Documentary Now”. Fred would later have an even better “Documentary Now” precursor on SNL, with the Ian Rubbish pre-tape he does in his final season.
— Bill, when making pretentious analogies in regards to how much Fred’s singing moves us: “We’re an obese 15-year-old seeing ourselves naked for the first time.”
— I found this overall piece to be fairly solid, and a fun change of pace for this SNL era. I wonder if they originally intended this to become a recurring segment. We end up never seeing this return.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cold Shoulder”


FALL FOLIAGE
(host) can’t interest former co-workers in a tour of the fall foliage

— Another office sketch tonight. I almost wonder if this is the same set from the Fart Face sketch.
— Speaking of the Fart Face sketch, this Fall Foliage sketch is something else that I remember kinda bombing with the audience (though this never gained the notoriety of Fart Face), at least the first half of the sketch.
— A big night for Will. He’s appeared in almost EVERY SINGLE SEGMENT tonight, even including a photo in the New York Underground piece. This just may be the busiest night he’s ever had during his entire SNL tenure.
— I’m liking the subtly-creepy-but-jovial nature of Josh’s character, and Josh is performing this well.
— Hmm, a fairly interesting recurring bit throughout this sketch, with the employees at the table each answering “No” one by one.
— Good turn after Josh leaves, where it’s revealed that he’s just some random nut who last worked at this company 13 years ago and just shows up every fall. This turn has awoken the dead audience.
— When Bobby asks “And he just comes back every fall?”, I love Will’s delivery of his answer: “Yyyyyyup.” A funny little moment that caps off Will’s strong and very busy night in this episode.
— The whole “He allowed me to be raped” part with a deadpan Kenan probably won’t sit well with some people, especially nowadays, but I admit to getting laughs from it.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode contained an impressive number of pieces that I find fantastic (the MacGruber short with the ping-pong ball trick, I’m No Angel, Tim Calhoun, Amy Poehler’s Sarah Palin rap, Fart Face), though I’d say the episode as a whole was just pretty good, due to the number of average or weak pieces that made up the rest of the episode. Still not much to complain about, though.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anne Hathaway)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Hamm makes his hosting debut

Posted on

October 4, 2008 – Anne Hathaway / The Killers (S34 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Gwen Ifill (Queen Latifah) & debaters Sarah Palin (TIF) & Joe Biden (JAS)

— Good to see Queen Latifah reprising the role of Gwen Ifill, which she previously played in a Dick Cheney/John Edwards vice presidential debate sketch when she last hosted SNL in 2004, a sketch that, fittingly enough, ended with Latifah’s Ifill saying “I’m going back over to Public Television with Jim Lehrer where you won’t be seeing me for another four years.” Sadly, the only reason Latifah is reprising her Gwen Ifill role four years later is seemingly because of SNL’s lack of a black female cast member this season. (Sure, Maya Rudolph was a cast member when Latifah last played Ifill in 2004, but I assume the reason SNL gave the Ifill role to Latifah instead of Maya that night is not only because they wanted to work the host into the sketch, but because SNL couldn’t pass up the coincidence that a black woman happened to be hosting their show the same week they needed someone to play Ifill. Plus, Latifah has more of a resemblance to Ifill than Maya does.) IIRC, this decision to bring Latifah in a cameo tonight to play Ifill ended up really opening the media’s eyes to SNL’s lack of a black female cast member at the time (these people in the media also seemed to be completely unaware that Latifah had actually played Ifill before), leading to a few (or maybe just one, I can’t remember) articles criticizing SNL for their lack of diversity in the cast. A month later when Michelle Obama becomes First Lady-elect, the number of these articles on SNL’s lack of diversity would increase, as these article authors felt it was important for SNL to have a black female cast member to play Michelle. How does SNL answer these criticisms? By announcing the hiring of two white female cast members a week later (Michaela Watkins and Abby Elliott). Make of that what you will, folks. Nah, I don’t REALLY think SNL’s hirings of Michaela and Abby was an intentional “Fuck you” to the media. (Though if it was, it’s kinda amusing in hindsight what a huge contrast that is to how SNL would take similar media criticisms five years later in 2013, when SNL would cave in and famously hold mid-season auditions for a black female cast member.) Oh, and yes, I’m aware Michaela and Abby’s hirings probably had more to do with Amy’s pending departure. By why hire TWO women to replace Amy when you already had the still-pretty-new Casey Wilson, still struggling for airtime? I’ve always looked at the double-hiring of Michaela and Abby as a sign of Lorne having a huge and unearned lack of confidence in Casey as a performer. Wow, I am getting more and more off-topic in this long-winded tangent of mine.
— Funny bit with an “unbiased” Latifah-as-Ifill plugging her Obama book.
— As usual, Tina’s Sarah Palin is killing here. And, while seemingly not as well-remembered or quoted among viewers as the Palin portions of this sketch, Jason’s Biden is holding his own here and has a good share of strong lines.
— Some really good facial reactions from Latifah’s Ifill after some of Tina-as-Palin’s inane spiels.
— Tina’s Palin: “I believe marriage should be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers…”
— There’s the famous “Oh, are we not doing the talent portion?” part with a flute-holding Tina-as-Palin. This is the moment that, for me, officially propels this already excellent debate sketch to an all-out classic.
— I love the “Joe Biden…is better…than THAT” part of Jason-as-Biden’s closing statements.
— Great ending line from Tina’s Palin: “And for those Joe Six-Packs at home playin’ a drinking game: maverick.”
— Overall, not only yet another SNL Palin cold opening that knocked it out of the park, but this is one of my personal favorite debate sketches SNL has ever done.
STARS: *****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Back when this originally aired, I remember being surprised that Anne Hathaway was willing to make light of the scandal she had recently been in in regards to a boyfriend of hers. In hindsight, her being willing to do that is ALREADY a good sign of what a great sport she’s going to be as an SNL host.
— The Nigerian prince premise isn’t all that great, but Anne’s delivery and execution of the material is making it charming enough.
STARS: ***


THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
Dooneese (KRW) is sisterly quartet’s freak

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Back when this originally aired, I recall not caring for this debut, and dismissing it as another example of how the “wacky Kristen Wiig character” trope was going more and more downhill. I would end up disliking this sketch even more when it would become recurring. I’ll try to keep an open mind in my current viewing of this sketch.
— An impressively pretty fast costume change for Anne, given the fact that this sketch is appearing immediately after the monologue, with no break in between.
— The audience actually applauds when Amy’s non-comedic character introduces herself, which I guess shows how popular of a veteran Amy is by this late stage of her SNL tenure. I feel bad for Casey receiving absolute silence from the audience when she follows Amy’s intro with her own intro.
— A funny reveal of what the last sister, Dooneese, looks like.
— Pretty fun performance from Kristen, and this sketch is being executed pretty well.
— I remember an online SNL fan having a theory that the name of Kristen’s Dooneese character was actually supposed to be a certain other, much more normal-sounding name (I forget the name), but Dooneese ended up becoming her regular name because of a line flub Anne Hathaway made in this sketch when saying Kristen’s character’s name while angrily yelling at her. I don’t agree with this theory, because I haven’t noticed any inconsistency or flubbing of Kristen’s character’s name during my current viewing of this sketch. Kristen introduced herself as Dooneese right from when she was first shown in this sketch, and Anne didn’t seem to mess up on the name of Kristen’s character at all during the aforementioned part with her angrily yelling at Dooneese. (And yes, I’m watching the live version of this episode, not the rerun, though I don’t recall any changes being made to the rerun version of this sketch.)
— Overall, not a bad debut at all. I felt that this flowed much better than some of the other wacky Kristen Wiig sketches that have aired around this time (late season 33, early season 34). I’m glad I was able to come around on this inaugural appearance of Dooneese’s. This definitely now works for me as a one-off sketch. As a recurring character, however? Mm. I’ll still try to keep an open mind like I did in tonight’s installment, but if the subsequent Dooneese appearances are as repetitive and redundant as I remember, don’t expect glowing reviews from me.
STARS: ***½


BAILOUT PRESS CONFERENCE
Nancy Pelosi’s (KRW) financial sympathy cases don’t deserve a bailout

— Jason makes his first George W. Bush appearance in over a year. This also ends up being the final appearance his Bush makes during Bush’s presidency. (He has just one remaining appearance after that, long after Bush’s presidency, in a Weekend Update commentary he does with then-cast member Jay Pharoah as Kanye West.)
— Funny Barney Frank voice from Fred.
— I almost thought Kristen’s Nancy Pelosi introduced Bobby’s character under the name Michael McKean, interestingly enough. Turns out his character is named Michael McCune.
— I’m enjoying the faces Jason’s Bush is seen making in the background during other people’s speeches.
— Much like the New York Times sketch from the James Franco episode earlier this season, this appears to be a rather long, mostly-full-cast (I think Andy is the only non-Seth cast member missing from this), Jim Downey-written political sketch. And much like the New York Times sketch, this is a rare example of me liking that type of rather long, mostly-full-cast, Jim Downey-written political sketch from this era.
— Amy gets another big audience reaction with her mere walk-on, though she did do something funny this time to earn the big reaction.
— Darrell and Casey is SUCH an odd pairing.
— Speaking of Darrell and Casey, their segment in this sketch would end up causing controversy. The couple they’re playing, Herbert and Marion Sandler, is actually a real-life couple, and during this portrayal of them by Darrell and Casey, a graphic of the names Herbert and Marion Sandler is displayed on the bottom of the screen with a subtitle saying “people who should be shot”. The real Herbert and Marion Sandler ended up taking huge offense to the “people who should be shot” bit, and, IIRC, threatened legal action against SNL and/or NBC. SNL was forced to remove Darrell and Casey’s entire segment from all reruns of this sketch, in a VERY glaring edit. This results in Darrell and Casey being seen standing with the other characters in the background throughout this entire sketch, but never getting their own segment to speak in, unlike the other characters they were standing in the background with, rendering Darrell and Casey’s presence in this sketch completely pointless.
— I love Will’s voice as George Soros, and he has some really funny lines here.
STARS: ***½


BOYS NIGHT OUT
music helps (BOM) & (host) make a connection on the dance floor of a club

— I’m liking this dance sequence with Bobby and Anna, even if there are no jokes within it. This dance sequence is also a pretty fun showcase for newbie Bobby.
— Now we get an actual joke, with Bill, Fred, and Kenan’s slow-motion cheering-on of Bobby being walked past by Andy in normal motion, and him briefly looking back at them with a puzzled look. Funny bit.
— Overall, kind of an odd sketch, mainly in how few and far in-between the jokes were, and how, at first glance, this sketch almost comes off a tad pointless, but I enjoyed it. Not sure if this can be considered a slice-of-life sketch, but I liked the realism in certain portions of it, especially Bobby and Anne’s conversation with each other after their dance sequence.
STARS: ***


EXTREME ACTIVITIES COMPETITION
WLF referees Extreme Activities Competition pitting ANS against KRW

— Ooh, you can already tell right from the beginning that this is going to be a lot of fun.
— The format of this feels kinda like it’s intended to be in the tradition of the Andy Popping Into Frame and People Getting Punched Just Before Eating shorts (both of which I love). The only thing missing from tonight’s short is a continuation of the story arc in which there’s some kind of rivalry/friction between Andy and Will, one of the best aspects of the Popping Into Frame and People Getting Punched shorts.
— This is such a blast so far.
— I particularly love the “Become Jane” bit involving Anne, a nod to her role in the movie Becoming Jane.
— I just now realized how rare it feels seeing Kristen star in a Lonely Island Digital Short. And seeing how fun she is here, it makes me wish she did stuff like this with the Lonely Island a lot more often during her SNL tenure.
— Strong ending regarding Will’s referee character.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Human”


WEEKEND UPDATE
WLF intends to document every bailout package yea & nay vote via song

— Seth’s joke about O.J. Simpson being found guilty for “armed robbery, assault, and kidnapping, but really murder” has stuck with me over the years. It’s definitely the type of O.J. joke Norm Macdonald would’ve done back in the day. Even the structuring and wording of the joke feels Norm-esque.
— Will being introduced under the name Orville Willis Forte IV when appearing as himself here seems to confuse some SNL fans, who assume Will was randomly using a fake name here. Orville Willis Forte is actually Will’s real, full name. I’m not sure if the “IV” at the end of the name is also real, or if he just added it for comedic effect in this Update commentary to make his naturally old-timey, fancy-sounding name sound even more old-timey and fancy. Can anyone confirm if his name really does end with an “IV”? Thanks in advance.
— Yes, a traditional Will Forte Update song! I just now realized we didn’t get any at all in season 33.
— A fun and ridiculously-repetitive yea/nay song from Will.
— I love Will’s passive-aggressiveness in regards to Amy interrupting his song.
— A good laugh from Will actually restarting his ridiculously long song from the beginning.
— I think that’s then-writer Colin Jost (sporting long hair AND some stubble) making YET ANOTHER appearance in a comical Update photo, this time in the ostriches photo (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— I love the bit right now with Amy constantly re-telling the “world’s heaviest man gets married” joke, with a different punchline each time. This bit with telling the same joke multiple times with a different punchline would end up being an occasional recurring gag that Amy and Seth, or just Seth alone, would do in some future Updates. I think even Cecily Strong does it at one point when she’s Seth’s co-anchor during Seth’s final season.
— Great fake-out with Seth initially having a disapproving reaction to Amy doing various punchlines to the “world’s heaviest man gets married” joke, only to end up doing one himself.
— Overall, I feel this was Seth and Amy’s strongest Update in a long time.
STARS: ****


SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS
Mary Poppins (host) is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious disease vector

— Fitting casting of Anne in this role, given the connection Anne has to Julie Andrews.
— A solid dark turn with Anne-as-Mary-Poppins’ explanation of what supercalifragilisticexpialidocious means.
— I love Bill innocently saying “Must be your cooking, Mary Poppins” in regards to his stomachache. I also love Anne-as-Poppins’ guilty facial reaction to that line.
— Another great turn, with Will’s Constable Jones also having contracted the disease from Mary Poppins.
— I always find Bobby and Casey to be a fun pair whenever they’re teamed together in a sketch.
STARS: ****


SIOUX CITY NEWS 3
gaffe-prone Sioux City TV news team is number one in YouTube viral videos

— Coincidentally, this sketch about news bloopers opens with a REAL blooper, with the screen accidentally freezing on Jason’s pre-taped intro shot for an absurdly long time while he’s speaking live.
— A fun concept of this sketch, and the execution is good. It’s even more fun to guess which real-life famous news blooper each scene is seemingly spoofing. The one that’s easiest to guess is the one with Bobby panicking and falling on the floor when the lizard (or iguana) jumps onto his suit. The real-life version of that scene is a very famous and frequently-seen YouTube clip.
— Amy’s scene didn’t work for me, but it was brief enough to not negatively affect this otherwise solid sketch.
— I remember someone in an online live discussion thread for this episode back in 2008 speculating that Will vomiting during the group shot at the end may not have been a spoof of a real news blooper, but rather a spoof of a real photo of a children’s hockey team posing together in a group shot. One of the little boys in that photo started vomiting right as the photo was snapped.
STARS: ****


MARK WAHLBERG TALKS TO ANIMALS
Mark Wahlberg (ANS) talks to a dog, a donkey, a chicken, a goat

— Oh, here’s an absolute classic. I had completely forgotten until now that this sketch comes from this episode.
— Such a priceless random concept, made even funnier by Andy executing it with a hilarious performance as Mark Wahlberg.
— Andy’s Wahlberg to a donkey: “You eat apples, right? I produce Entourage.”
— I literally cannot stop laughing during this sketch.
— Andy’s Wahlberg throughout this sketch: “Say hi to your mutha for me, alright?”
— Overall, an absolutely perfect sketch.
— This sketch would famously end up pissing off the real Mark Wahlberg, who would publicly complain about it (and, in the process, say the usual cliched “SNL hasn’t been funny in years” criticisms, and, at one point, even imply the then-current SNL cast is a group of no-names, by saying “I don’t even know who’s on the show anymore”), which somehow leads to SNL bringing him on in a cameo in the next live episode, with him attempting to prove he’s a good sport after all. Some people online back at this time in 2008 speculated that this whole thing with Wahlberg publicly complaining about SNL’s Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals sketch was a publicity stunt devised by SNL themselves, and that Wahlberg’s “complaints” was his and SNL’s stealth way of setting up the cameo spot that SNL had secretly pre-arranged for him to make. Honestly, I don’t have a hard time believing that theory. Walhberg doesn’t seem thin-skinned enough to be offended by such a silly, harmless sketch, but then again, I admittedly don’t know much about Wahlberg’s real-life personality.
STARS: *****


I’M NOT GAY
(JAS) pretended to be gay for five years in order to be (host)’s roommate

— Interesting reveal that Anne’s gay roommate of several years was actually just pretending to be gay.
— Anne, on how convinced she was that Jason was gay: “But you cut my hair!” Jason: “Yeeaaahhh, I got REALLY lucky with that one!”
— Hilarious bit about Jason having made up a fake Wikipedia page about the non-existent disorder “boner-plasia”, in an attempt to fool Anne in regards to why he would always get erections whenever he and Anne would dance together.
— When Anne tells Jason she previously walked in on him having sex with men multiple times, I love Jason bluntly responding “Yeah, you gotta sell it! You gotta sell it!”
— After also being “outed” as straight, a depressed Bill gets a great laugh from the audience (and me) with his slow heterosexual strut as he’s making his exit.
— We get a display of Jason’s natural singing talent. He has a fantastic singing voice, a fact that I often forget.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Spaceman”


THE LESS PROVOCATIVE SONGS OF KATY PERRY
Katy Perry’s (CAW) less provocative songs lack girl-kissing scandal

— A rare solo lead role for Casey. This sketch was actually cut after dress rehearsal from almost EVERY prior episode this season, IIRC. Reminds me of the story of how Jay Mohr had to endure his Rock & Roll Real Estate Agent sketch getting cut from multiple consecutive episodes before finally making it on the air. I wonder if, much like Jay when that sketch finally aired, Casey is just plain tired and frustrated by this point from performing this Katy Perry sketch so many consecutive weeks.
— In hindsight, this sketch serves as an interesting snapshot of a time where Katy Perry was known only for the song “I Kissed A Girl”, and how a lot of people back then (including myself, I admit) incorrectly assumed she had “one-hit wonder” written all over her.
— I like Casey’s Katy Perry just helplessly shrugging at the camera after her very brief “I Saw A Boat” song.
— I love the review from Rolling Stone that simply states “No.”
— An overall decent sketch, but not the standout great sketch that Casey desperately needs by this point. (I still don’t understand how that fantastic paraplegic stripper sketch from near the end of the preceding season didn’t end up leading to a big break for Casey.)
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first strong episode of this season. (By the way, given this season’s reputation among many SNL fans for being very solid, I’ve been surprised to see what a slow start it’s had before tonight’s episode.) Not only did every single segment tonight work for me, but I found a lot of them to be particularly strong, especially the impressive streak of sketches rated 4-5 stars in the post-Weekend Update half. Even Update itself got a 4-star rating, too. In fact, every rated segment from the Digital Short to the I’m Not Gay sketch received a 4-5-star rating. That’s GOTTA be one of the longest uninterrupted streaks of segments receiving a 4-5-star rating in a review of mine.
— Anne Hathaway was a great first-time host, being funny, likable, charming, and fitting into the show really well. Even during her goodnights speech, her expressed genuine appreciation and joy for the experience SNL gave her was heartwarming. I look forward to her subsequent hosting stints.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anna Faris)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Josh Brolin

Posted on

September 27, 2008 – Anna Faris / Duffy (S34 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC
Sarah Palin’s (TIF) answers don’t satisfy interviewer Katie Couric (AMP)

— The then-widely-anticipated return of Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impression after the highly-acclaimed debut it made two episodes prior.
— I remember how the fact that SNL’s first two Tina-as-Palin sketches had Tina being paired with Amy made some online SNL fans back at this time wonder if SNL was intentionally going out of their way to have every Palin sketch star the familiar and popular Fey/Poehler duo, and one of those online fans said, paraphrased, “If this keeps up, then SNL’s spoof of the Palin/Biden vice presidential debate next week is going to have Amy dressing in drag to play Joe Biden.” As we know now, that (thankfully) doesn’t happen.
— What’s with the off-center camera angle on Tina at first, before the camera corrects itself very slowly?
— I’m getting consistent laughs from Amy-as-Katie-Couric’s rapidly-blinking non-verbal facial reactions to inane stuff said by Tina’s Palin.
— Hilarious comment from Tina’s Palin about how she and John McCain will make sure to get U.N. jobs back into American hands.
— A particularly well-remembered part with Tina-as-Palin’s long-winded, nonsensical, incomplete sentences-laden, constant topic-changing opinion on the bailout (that description of mine also kinda sounds like a description of Nicholas Fehn), which is actually almost a verbatim quote from Palin in the real Couric/Palin interview that this is spoofing.
— Yet another memorable part: Tina’s Palin, when not knowing how to answer one of Amy-as-Couric’s questions, saying “Katie, I’d like to use one of my lifelines.”
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
asides to camera reveal extent of dumb-blonde host’s sad mental handicap

— I like the concept of this with Anna Faris disclosing mock-serious things about her dumb blonde persona into a side camera (complete with a music sting at the beginning of each disclosure). However, the actual disclosures themselves aren’t all that funny to me.
— Overall, a bit of a meh monologue for me, despite a fine performance from Anna.
STARS: **½


MAKING NEW FRIENDS
after a double date, faux pas-prone (JAS) & (host) beg their own pardon

— Interesting how this sketch appears immediately after the monologue, with no break in between, meaning Anna had to quickly go from the home base stage to the car set for this sketch, putting on a purple sweater in the process. To give Anna a little extra time, this sketch opens with a lengthy close-up of Jason driving the car while in the middle of a conversation with his passengers, one of whom is supposed to be Anna. Anna accidentally gives away the fact that she arrives on the set in the middle of that lengthy opening close-up of Jason, as you can hear an off-camera sound of her closing one of the car doors.
— When Jason and Anna are going on about how Casey and Bobby must hate them, I love Jason saying “A disgust usually reserved for that of pedophiles.”
— Some good lines from Jason and Anna recounting and questioning the morality of the ridiculous, inappropriate things they did during their dinner with Bobby and Casey earlier in the evening.
— I like the VERY oddball and random twist to the already-random “car driving off a cliff” ending (which initially brings the Toonces sketches to mind, though it’s not the same “car driving off a cliff” stock footage), with the car actually bouncing off the bottom of the cliff, then going back up the cliff and exploding when it lands back onto the road. A great bit of absurdity there.
STARS: ***½


FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Jim Lehrer (CHP) moderates Barack Obama (FRA) & John McCain (DAH) debate

— Chris Parnell! Nice to see him in his first cameo since being fired (for his second time) after season 31. He ends up playing the moderator of ALL three Obama/McCain presidential debate sketches this election season (though the only one of those Obama/McCain debate sketches I’ll be reviewing is tonight’s, as the other two appear in Weekend Update Thursday specials). In the two remaining Obama/McCain debate sketches after tonight’s, the moderators who Chris plays are Tom Brokaw and Bob Schieffer.
— Given how horrible the last set of presidential debate sketches were back in season 30, not to mention the fact that 1) Fred and Darrell’s Obama and McCain impressions are so dull, and 2) I have almost NO memory of tonight’s debate sketch (besides one bit regarding Scarlett Johansson), I’m very wary to approach this debate sketch.
— Ugh, Fred’s Obama impression hasn’t improved much, if at all, since its last appearance in the preceding season. How could SNL not see how much this man is not working out in this role? How could Lorne just sit there and let such an important political impression be performed so poorly? FOR FOUR DAMN YEARS, I might add.
— Meh, the conceit of Darrell’s McCain proposing increasingly outlandish debate scenarios throughout this sketch is doing nothing for me, and just feels desperate on the writer’s part.
— Pretty funny bit with Darrell’s McCain claiming that, ever since way back in 1985, he was arguing for the surge in regards to the Iraq War.
— There’s the aforementioned sole part I remembered about this sketch: Fred-as-Obama’s offer of a dinner with Scarlett Johansson. Only mildly funny.
— I like Darrell’s McCain giving up and nonchalantly declaring, “At this point, I don’t really care anymore.”
— I guess the closing gag with Amy’s Hillary Clinton being shown on the side as backup in case McCain didn’t show up was fairly funny.
— At least this overall sketch was somewhat short compared to the overlong presidential debate sketches from season 30.
— Overall, pretty meh. While certainly not as insufferable as the season 30 presidential debate sketches, and while this sketch contained a few laughs, this sketch as a whole sadly was forgettable for SNL presidential debate standards. Of the two remaining Obama/McCain debate sketches, one being a town hall debate, and the other being a sit-down debate, I recall the town hall one actually being strong (and it includes a great tongue-in-cheek Bill Murray cameo as “William Murray”, a hapless, broken Chicago Cubs fan). I have no memory of the sit-down one.
STARS: **


BOAT RIDE
oblivious (host) doesn’t realize she’s not on a date with hit man (KET)

— Oh, no, Anna’s breaking out into song.
— A funny turn with the disturbing lyrics and details in Kenan’s own song, and it’s a good and much-needed contrast to Anna’s song.
— Kenan’s shifty, uneasy behavior and obvious lies throughout this sketch are all making me laugh.
— I like Anna now starting to get suspicious of Kenan through song.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mercy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Bill Clinton (DAH) fails to give unambiguous endorsement of Barack Obama

still-nervous Judy Grimes unwinds a string of verbal false starts

— First time in quite a while that Darrell’s Bill Clinton has appeared on Update.
— A memorable part at the beginning of this Clinton commentary, in which, when giving his thanks, Darrell’s Clinton finishes it with “And most especially…..thank you, Duffy.” I remember how, when this Update commentary was shown a little over a month later in SNL’s Presidential Bash special, they actually left in the “And most especially…..thank you, Duffy” line, despite the fact that it obviously makes no sense being aired out of the context of tonight’s episode. I can only imagine how much that line being left intact in the Presidential Bash special must’ve confused the hell out of viewers who didn’t see this Anna Faris/Duffy episode.
— A very Clinton-y line from Darrell’s Clinton right now: “Look – sometimes, women will be uncomfortable doing something at first…..”, which gets a huge and VERY extended audience reaction.
— I didn’t understand Seth’s punchline to the Ben & Jerry’s/breast milk joke (either that, or it was just a lousy joke), but his staring-down of the camera afterwards almost saved it for me.
— Surprisingly, this is Kristen’s first appearance all night.
— Judy Grimes has officially become a recurring character.
— Much like Nicholas Fehn (though not to the same extent), there’s an “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” air to Judy Grimes’ commentaries. And I know some of you readers have a very low tolerance for this character (I certainly did myself, back when this SNL era originally aired). However, the inane dialogue she’s spouting off in between her “just kidding”s in tonight’s commentary is increasingly amusing to me, and is making the general conceit of this character still work in this second appearance of hers. Hopefully, that’ll continue to hold true in her subsequent appearances, but we’ll see when we get there.
STARS: ***


SCORES
stripper (host) proposes a champagne room bailout for investment bankers

— When the girls are reacting to the bad news Bill delivers at the beginning, I got a laugh from Casey saying a high-pitched, exaggerated, almost-whispery “What? No. That can’t be.”
— I like Kristen’s heavy Russian(?) accent as one of the strippers, though I’m getting a bit of a Maya Rudolph vibe from this characterization of Kristen’s.
— A well-delivered mock-dramatic eloquent speech from Anna’s stripper character, and she has some funny lines within it.
STARS: ***


DEEP HOUSE DISH
overseas acts (KRW), (BOM) & (FRA) & (WLF), (host) sing

— Wow, this sketch hasn’t appeared in quite a long while. It completely skipped season 33. I certainly can’t say I missed seeing this sketch, though.
— I like Kenan’s non-sequitur statement into the camera, “It’s a political year……”, before immediately and nonchalantly changing the subject.
— (*groan*) Cue all the “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”s from Kenan.
— Seems to be an unusual number of cast members who are barely appearing in any sketches tonight. Both Andy and Will are surprisingly making their FIRST appearance all night in this late-in-the-show sketch (and for Andy, this ends up being his ONLY appearance all night).
— I kinda like how the Bear Force singing group feels a lot different from the usual singers seen in these Deep House Dish sketches.
— When Andy apologizes to Bear Force for insulting them in their presence, something about the fact that Bear Force deliver their “Weeee forgiiiiive yoooouuuu” response not only in unison, but in a depressed, monotone, stretched-out manner, and also while not even being on camera (is that a technical gaffe?), is all amusing to me.
— Is it just me, or was Anna’s singing very out-of-sync with the beat during the first half of her song?
— Strangely, Anna’s delivery during her post-song interview is ANOTHER example tonight of a performer doing a foreign accent that reminds me of a typical Maya Rudolph characterization. Anna’s low-pitched heavy foreign accent here sounds downright Maya-as-Versace at times.
STARS: **


GOOGIE RENE’S SLIGHTLY STAINED WEDDING DRESS BASEMENT
Googie Rene’s (KET) store has bad gowns

— The debut of an occasionally-appearing character of Kenan’s.
— Speaking of Kenan, he’s been getting lots of airtime tonight.
— I like Kenan’s frantic, panicky delivery of “HEY, HOW YOU DOIN’?!?” into the camera at the beginning of this sketch.
— An okay recovery from Kenan when he has trouble delivering one of his lines.
— Funny example of how you can use a section of a PVC pipe to cover a stain on your wedding dress.
— I like this little throwaway exchange between Kenan and Anna: “Hey, what’s a macaw?!?” “It’s like a parrot.” “Oh, a smart bird.”
— No idea what to think of that VERY Kenan Thompson-y moment with Kenan pointlessly mugging all cross-eyed into the camera at the end when the camera zooms in on him saying his ending line.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stepping Stone”


EX-BOYFRIEND
while on a date, everything reminds (host) of her sex-god ex-boyfriend

— Casey feels more prominent than usual tonight.
— Funny visual of Will in that lederhosen.
— I’m not all that crazy about this premise so far, but there are some chuckles throughout this, especially from some of Jason and Casey’s reactions.
— Predictable ending, but it was actually executed pretty well.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

— Amy is noticeably wearing a shirt that has a photo of Will as Clay Aiken. I was about to ask “What the hell???”, until I remembered that this shirt is from a sketch that didn’t make it on the air tonight. I barely remember the description I read years ago of this cut sketch, but I think it involved Will as Clay Aiken meeting with fans of his. IIRC, this is right after the real Clay Aiken officially came out of the closet, so I’m guessing that played into the sketch.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not too bad, but a forgettable episode. Not much memorable here at all, besides the Palin cold opening, but I at least liked a good number of the sketches.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (James Franco)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anne Hathaway makes her hosting debut

Posted on

September 20, 2008 – James Franco / Kings of Leon (S34 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MCCAIN RECORDING SESSION
in a recording studio, John McCain (DAH) approves misleading attack ads

— Meh, some fairly hacky jokes early on regarding Darrell’s John McCain being out of touch with modern technology.
— Great use of Bill as a sarcastic announcer of attack ads.
— The ridiculous attack ads against Barack Obama are funny, especially the one comparing him to Charles Barkley.
— Some good bits with Kristen here, such as her explanation of the “tax benefits for pedophiles” claim that one attack ad made, and her knowingly responding “He won that election, right?” when Darrell’s McCain is about to negatively compare one of the anti-Obama attack ads to a ridiculous attack George W. Bush made on McCain during the 2000 presidential race.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Showing that he’s not yet used to saying newbie Bobby Moynihan’s name, Don Pardo mispronounces Bobby’s last name as “Monahan” tonight.
— Casey Wilson’s opening montage shot from all of the preceding live episodes she appeared in (first screencap below) has been replaced with a new shot tonight (second screencap below), which I believe remains her opening montage shot for the rest of her SNL tenure.

This new shot of Casey was actually previously used in a few NBC reruns of season 33 episodes (I was told that one of them was the reportedly heavily-edited rerun of the Ellen Page episode, a rerun of which I never saw myself), but tonight’s episode is the first time that shot has been used in a live episode.


MONOLOGUE
host has displaced Columbia University resident assistant (JAS) as BMOC

— Pretty fun use of Jason as a typical fratboy, and he fits this role well.
— Not much else to say about this monologue at all. Just average.
STARS: ***


THE COUGAR DEN
young musician (host) has a predilection for older women

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Wow, the audience’s laughter is VERY tepid early on in this sketch. They don’t seem like they’re into this at all.
— Special guest Cameron Diaz has officially become a staple of this recurring sketch.
— The aforementioned surprisingly quiet audience has started getting into this sketch after a while.
— Kenan gets another killer one-liner in this recurring sketch, with his “sexual peak/beauty trench” slam at Amy, Kristen, and Casey’s characters.
— Overall, I found this sketch okay, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first installment. To be honest, I’m not sorry that we’re only going to be seeing one more appearance of this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***


AGENT 420
stoned spy Agent 420 (host) bungles mission to investigate a laser

— Funny fake-out with 007 apparently being summoned.
— James Franco playing a variation of his character in the then-recent movie Pineapple Express, right down to wearing a similar wig and headband.
— A solid James Bond-esque theme song performed by Kristen.
— Blah, a few minutes into this sketch, and it’s been doing almost nothing for me so far. Just a whole bunch of lazy, lame stoner humor. Too bad, as the initial set-up to this actually seemed promising. This SNL era seems to be very poor at pulling off stoner humor, between the preceding season’s America’s First Colonists sketch (starring James’ Pineapple Express co-star Seth Rogen) and this Agent 420 sketch.
— (*groan*) Here we have yet another display of Fred’s classic Asian stereotype routine.
— Very weak ending. SNL themselves seem to agree, as they would alter the ending in reruns, by having the laser explosion be shown BEFORE Kristen performs the ending theme song (not that that made it any funnier).
STARS: *½


SIMPSON JURY SELECTION
unbiased jurors are hard to find for O.J. Simpson (KET) robbery trial

— I love Fred’s delivery of “Yeah, but he’s O.J.!” when it’s pointed out that he should’ve had no knowledge of the O.J. Simpson murders, given the fact that he had been locked in a bomb shelter since 1968.
— Good premise, and I’m loving how the potential jurors who shouldn’t have any knowledge of O.J. Simpson for one reason or another end up revealing they do, in fact, know about O.J. and the murders. A fun progression to that conceit.
STARS: ****


HEY! (MURRAY HILL)
both (host) & (Blake Lively) have little ding-dongs

— A very lame comedic conceit with James constantly mentioning his “tiny ding-dong” among his general angsty whining.
— My only laugh in this short so far came from Kristen’s deadpan annoyed facial reaction (the fourth above screencap for this Digital Short) to one of the many times James randomly mentions his “tiny ding-dong”.
— A random Blake Lively cameo (who we’ll be seeing hosting SNL the following season) in a bad ending gag involving her speaking in a comically-deep man’s voice.
— Overall, a big ol’ flop. Easily one of my least favorite Lonely Island-made Digital Shorts to air up to this point.
STARS: *½


THE LOOKER
TV show stars Penny Marshall (FRA) as interrogation expert The Looker

— While I’m beyond sick of Fred dressing in drag by this point of his SNL tenure, his non-verbal Penny Marshall impression is spot-on and is amusing me.
— A technical gaffe at the end of James’ scene, causing his final line to accidentally get drowned out by the next line from the pre-taped announcer.
— I like the short scene with Jason easily giving in and confessing simply due to The Looker putting on even smaller glasses.
— Andy is actually pretty spot-on here in his facial resemblance to Juliette Lewis.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sex On Fire”


WEEKEND UPDATE
destitute Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld (JAS) missed out on bailout

creepy American Apparel CEO Dov Charney (FRA) sexually harasses SEM & AMP

— A bad return of Update’s former habit of having Amy open every Update with one of her lamest, most tepid jokes of the night, a habit that Update had thankfully been moving away from for a while.
— A good premise for this Jason Sudeikis commentary, related to the notorious 2008 financial crisis.
— Jason is great here, as he typically is whenever he does an Update commentary.
— Funny bit with a clip of Dora The Explorer being voiced by Amy as Rosie Perez, an impression of Amy’s that I always love. This is also the second consecutive episode where Weekend Update had a bit in which Seth and/or Amy do an off-camera voice of someone during a brief segment.
— A very Will Ferrell-esque role for Fred.
— I can definitely see people being annoyed and bothered by Fred’s sleazy sexual harassment commentary, especially in today’s Me Too age, but his performance is cracking me up in spite of myself. While Fred’s no Ferrell when it comes to playing this type of role and making it still come off harmless enough in today’s age, he’s still making it work for me.
— Okay, Fred’s commentary has lost me towards the end. I especially didn’t care for the boob-grab bit he did with Amy. Also, not that I want to bring this up, but I can’t help but now notice the unfortunate coincidence of this sexual harassment commentary appearing in an episode hosted by James Franco. (Then again, doesn’t Franco’s season 43 episode have an actual Me Too-based office sketch, not too long before he would get Me Too-ed in real life?)
— Amy milking the dog-themed Law & Order “bomp-bomp” sound effect is both amusing me and annoying me at the same time.
— Ugh, Amy’s iffy night continues, as she now resorts to the hacky habit of explaining the punchline of one’s own joke, always a comedy sin.
STARS: **½


THE NEW YORK TIMES
city slicker New York Times reporters are ill-suited for Alaska datelines

— Kristen’s first line was funny.
— This is actually a good use of Darrell’s typically low-energy performance style.
— Though it’s a very little thing, I love Jason’s cocky smiling and tie-straightening in the background when James is introducing him. Jason has the ability to make even something as little as THAT come off amusing.
— A noteworthy appearance from Kumail Nanjiani as an extra with a few lines (the sixth above screencap for this sketch). This is years before he became well-known. I can’t remember the reason for him appearing in this sketch. I know he guest-writes for SNL at some point towards the end of season 37, but I’m not sure if he guest-wrote for this episode.
— Very funny running bit regarding Will’s paranoia of getting attacked by a polar bear.
— I love Bill’s overconfidence in his incorrect answers.
— This rather long, full-cast sketch (I think the only non-Seth cast member missing from this is Amy, who’s barely appeared in anything tonight in general, presumably because of her pregnancy) has Jim Downey’s fingerprints all over it, but I’m enjoying this more than Downey’s typical long-winded, full-cast political cold openings. It also helps that we’re getting a lot of interesting different characterizations from each cast member in this.
— Hooooo, boy. If Fred’s sexual harassment commentary in this episode’s Weekend Update has aged poorly, then that goes double for Bobby’s comedic bit here about being in the middle of a sex change transition. This SNL era in general REALLY seems to be doubling down on transphobic humor ever since the last quarter of the preceding season.
— A good laugh from how, after learning there will be no Thai food, Andy and Kenan react by looking at each other and then storming off in unison.
— During the epilogue at the end, I love the part about what happened to Will’s character.
STARS: ***


OF MICE AND MEN
in lost Of Mice And Men ending, Lennie (BOM) wishes he had been leveled with

— As I explained in my review of the Of Mice And Men parody in the season 19 John Malkovich episode, Of Mice And Men is my personal favorite book of all time, and I’m always a sucker for SNL’s spoofs of it. The fact that this particular spoof is written by then-new SNL writer John Mulaney is the icing on the cake.
— I love the turn with Bobby’s Lennie realizing he was lied to by James’ George, and slowly becoming wise to lots of things.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time complaining about how blatantly Bobby was staring at the cue cards all throughout this sketch (those complaints probably came from some of the many people who unfairly wrote Bobby off as a dud after the poorly-received Mark Payne sketch he starred in in his very first episode), but he deserves some slack cut for that, as he’s only in his second episode, and understandably has yet to master how to read off of cue cards without making it blatant. As we know now, Bobby wouldn’t become a notorious cue card-starer during his SNL tenure.
— An overall very funny and clever sketch. Only two episodes in, and Mulaney hits a SECOND home run. Bobby also continues to show a lot of promise in his second episode as well, and this sketch is closer than the preceding episode’s Mark Payne sketch was to representing the type of work Bobby will typically do on SNL.
STARS: ****


YANKEE STADIUM STORIES
Martin Scorsese (FRA) & Rosie Perez (AMP) say bye

— A variation of the New York City Stories three-part runner from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode, in which Fred and Amy played a different pair of celebrities in each part. One of the celebrity pairs they played in that runner was Martin Scorsese and Rosie Perez, who they’re also portraying in tonight’s Yankee Stadium Stories piece.
— This was actually cut from the preceding season’s finale. (You can tell even by just watching this that it must’ve been filmed at a much earlier time, given the fact that Amy’s belly is much less pregnant-looking.) Kinda odd, though, how SNL is airing this in the same episode in which Amy already does her Rosie Perez impression, in the Dora The Explorer bit on Weekend Update.
— A good laugh from the little scene with Fred and Amy’s Scorsese and Perez playing a game of baseball using a loaf of bread and a meatball.
— Fred’s Scorsese impression is coming off even funnier here than it did in the aforementioned New York City Stories piece.
— Overall, short and sweet.
— Much like the New York City Stories pieces, this Yankee Stadium Stories piece was originally supposed to be a three-part runner with Fred and Amy playing a different pair of celebrities in each part, but the other two parts don’t air. I think I recall one of them had Fred playing Gene Simmons, but that’s all I can remember from the details I read of it years ago.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Use Somebody”


DAFOE’S REVENGE
in host’s dressing room, Willem Dafoe (BIH) wants him to kill ANS

— Nice to see the underused Casey Wilson getting to do a scene as herself at the beginning of this, even if it’s just a small bit.
— I absolutely LOVE this concept, and it’s a very fun and creative use of a Willem Dafoe impression from Bill. Bill has been having a very strong night, by the way, which is so refreshing to see after how invisible he was in the preceding week’s season premiere, not to mention how constantly underused he was in his prior seasons.
— A very funny reason for Bill’s Dafoe wanting Andy Samberg dead.
— I love Bill’s delivery of “James, I played your father in a movie. YOU. OWE. ME.”
— Andy’s ridiculous Willem Dafoe “impression” feels like a nice throwback to/variation of the ridiculous celebrity “impressions” he did in his and Bill’s Impression-Off segment on Weekend Update from their very first episode.
— Funny bit with James incorrectly assuming a mirror is between him and Bill’s Dafoe when he throws a coffee mug towards Bill’s Dafoe.
— Great ending.
— Overall, an underrated Bill Hader sketch. This is one of my personal favorite things he’s ever done on SNL.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode. A few duds in the first half of the show, but the solid run of segments in the last 20 minutes of the show balanced it out.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Phelps)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anna Faris

Posted on

September 13, 2008 – Michael Phelps / Lil Wayne (S34 E1)

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

Posted on

May 17, 2008 – Steve Carell / Usher (S33 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

POUNDER SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT
at commencement exercises, (host) reads graduates’ naughty-sounding names

— Already an interesting sight right out of the gate in this cold opening, not only with the host being front-and-center, but the entire cast (minus the Update-only Seth) being present as well. The latter feels appropriate and fitting for the season finale cold opening.
— Meh not only at the premise with each student having a dirty-sounding name (the type of gag SNL has done to better effect before), but also at the fact that the dirty-sounding names are just tired, old cliches everyone’s heard before. I guess the fact that these cliched dirty names are given normal, non-dirty middle names here is supposed to make it funnier, but meh. Even more disappointing, this cold opening was surprisingly guest-written by the great Jack Handey. You’d sure never guess so from the content in this, as it’s completely different from and nowhere near as creative as Handey’s trademark humor.
— The subversion with Dick Hertz turning out to be a prank name instead of the name of an actual student is at least kinda funny.
— A long-haired(!) Colin Jost has a very quick non-speaking walk-on as one of the students receiving a diploma (the third-to-last above screencap for this cold opening).
— The whole “Nail ‘er” runner, with the sequence of names actually reading out an entire, dirty conversation, is actually fairly clever.
— Boy, all the tired dirty names in this cold opening being said in such rapid succession is almost starting to give me a headache.
— Nice little touch with how, after the camera zooms in on Steve Carell delivering his LFNY, the camera cuts back to a wide shot so we can see the cast throwing their graduation caps into the air.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music has a bit of a different sound tonight. Speaking of which, tonight’s theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version, which has the traditional sound of this season’s theme music.


MONOLOGUE
after host succumbs to a panic attack, his wife NAW calms him down

— Pretty funny reveal from Steve that he drank six Red Bulls and ate a whole bunch of Sour Patch Kids before the show to keep his energy up.
— The conceit of Steve doing hyper, out-of-it actions are the type of thing he’s always good at executing.
— This is the second monologue in these past three episodes to have a gag in which the host is surprised to find himself locked out of either 1) one of the backstage rooms, or 2) the entire backstage.
— Fun audience interaction bit with Steve sitting in the audience.
— Nancy Walls! Given her short-lived and forgotten-by-many-people SNL tenure, it feels surprising that she’s making a cameo, but also feels refreshing to see her on SNL again after I got used to reviewing her when I covered season 21.
STARS: ***½


THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE
Barack Obama (FRA) & Hillary Clinton (AMP) split parallels NBA playoffs

— Interesting format to this, which I remember finding out was a spoof of a then-current NBA playoffs ad that I’ve never seen to this day, but can still enjoy the format of this spoof.
— Some decently funny lines from Amy’s Hillary Clinton the occasional times she and Fred’s Barack Obama aren’t reciting the same thing in unison.
— Kinda funny how almost-creepy Amy and Fred’s faces (especially the mouths) look when the opposite halves of them are melded together like this.
STARS: ***


DEAL OR NO DEAL
picky dad (WLF) & coy model (KRW) vex contestant (host)

— Good to see Fred’s Howie Mandel impression in another Deal Or No Deal parody, after how much he (and Antonio Banderas) consistently cracked me up in SNL’s previous Deal Or No Deal parody.
— A promising-seeming role for Will, as Steve’s grumpy, ranting father.
— A stand-out and popular lengthy sequence with Kristen fooling around with the suitcase. This is also one of many things that I remember solidified to me back then that Kristen was getting pushed as SNL’s new star. I also remember thinking to myself after this episode originally aired that Kristen had now officially become the lead female of this cast, and that the longest-tenured female of this cast, Amy, was on her way out (so much so, that I remember speculating Amy wouldn’t return the following season, which I ended up being wrong about).
— The ending was a bit flat for me, and I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the whole Fred/Steve/Will portions of this sketch.
STARS: **½


TWO A-HOLES DO KARAOKE
on stage, uncooperative A-holes exasperate karaoke emcee (host)

— I got a good laugh from Kenan dedicating his karaoke singing of “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” to Anna Nicole Smith.
— Wow, we haven’t seen the Two A-holes in what feels like a long time. I think their last appearance was in the Jeremy Piven episode all the way back in January 2007.
— The Two A-holes are killing as usual, even if there are no particular stand-out parts that I feel like pointing out in this review.
— The cutaway to an angry Steve having steam coming out of his ears might have been a bit too much for the tone of these Two A-holes sketches.
STARS: ****


THE JAPANESE OFFICE
Ricky Gervais [real] intros the original, Japanese version of The Office

The Office- even in Japanese, familiar show characteristics are evident

Regis Philbin (DAH) endorses tampons in a Japan-specific commercial

— Nice to see Ricky Gervais on SNL.
— I like Gervais’ snarky comments about the American version of The Office.
— Obviously spot-on casting of Bill as Dwight, given how people used to always point out the resemblance between Bill and Rainn Wilson back in these days (no idea if people still do nowadays). In fact, when this short originally aired, I remember initially thinking for a brief second that that really was Rainn Wilson when the camera first cut to Bill as Dwight.
— Even the Japanese-themed recreation of The Office’s opening credits is spot-on.
— The concept of this Digital Short brings the Rabin To Shuri sketch (the Japanese version of Laverne And Shirley) to mind, though I’ve personally always liked this Digital Short more.
— Great to see the return of Kristen and Jason’s spot-on Pam and Jim impressions from Rainn Wilson’s monologue the preceding season.
— Hilarious random Japanese commercial with Darrell’s Regis Philbin endorsing tampons.
— Good brief cutaway to a silent Kenan as Stanley doing a Sudoku puzzle instead of his usual crossword puzzle (which I remember was pointed out to me by someone in response to my original 2008 review of this episode, after I incorrectly stated Kenan’s Stanley was doing a crossword puzzle in this).
— Ricky Gervais’ ending comment, in regards to this whole short: “(*while laughing*) It’s funny….’cause it’s racist.”
STARS: ****


MCCAIN 2008
John McCain [real] touts his oldness & aversion to pork barrel spending

— Here we have our latest of MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race. At least this particular cameo is from John McCain, who’s always fun and a great sport on SNL.
— Some decent laughs here and there, and McCain is likable as expected, but this sketch feels kinda on the forgettable side.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “This Ain’t Sex”


WEEKEND UPDATE
John McCain [real] encourages Democrats to prolong nomination indecision

Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) warn Barack Obama to be careful

— Seth’s joke about someone being chosen for a position by being the last person in the room to shout “Not it” was a joke already used by either Seth or Amy before, and will continue to be used by them (or just Seth) for years.
— A second appearance tonight from John McCain.
— I love McCain’s sly “That’s right, fight among yourselves” comment when Seth and Amy are disagreeing with each other.
— A good laugh from McCain making a point about how exciting it would be to have the presidential conventions end with us still not knowing who the nominee is.
— The “They take it away” examples from Darrell and Kenan’s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are decent.
— Funny how, in my preceding episode review, I asked, in reaction to a fun interaction piece between Seth and Amy in that episode’s Update, “Why don’t we get these interaction bits between Seth and Amy more often?” Cut to one episode later, and we get TWO interaction bits between Seth and Amy in tonight’s Update. Odd coincidence, but I appreciate it.
— Seems to be a lot more Update jokes than usual tonight, perhaps a conscious decision from SNL due to this being the final Update of the season.
STARS: ***


THE CHARLIE FLITT SHOW
weight losers cut fat & lifesize photos

— Amy’s real-life pregnancy is really starting to show by this point.
— Ohhh, god. All of a sudden, the characters in this sketch take the time to give some praise to Jared Fucking Fogel, even throwing in a flattering comment about how hot he is in person. Boy, has this portion of this sketch aged like milk. In hindsight, this is also unintentionally a warm-up for something very unfortunate that’s in store for me in the very next episode: a cameo appearance from…guess who?
— I laughed at Steve’s passing mention of overcoming an addiction to Google Image Search.
— An okay running gag with Steve jumping through old overweight photos of himself at the oddest times.
— What was with Darrell’s very delayed, awkward delivery of his sole line of this entire sketch?
— I like overweight Bill’s very halfhearted “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know” when he, Amy, and Kristen are all embracing each other.
— Despite some occasional laughs, this sketch as a whole is gradually kinda losing me, especially during Steve’s musical number at the end.
STARS: **


CPR TRAINING
(host) busts through (ANS)’s chest while conducting a CPR training course

— An initial cheap laugh from the blood starting to flow after Andy’s chest has been pushed through. I see we’re in for another traditional blood-spurting sketch.
— After Steve casually says, in regards to Andy’s bleeding, “Not too bad, from where I’m standing”, I love Kenan responding “Man, where are you standing? That is BAD.”
— A pretty good laugh from the visual of Andy’s lung inflating like a balloon when Steve is giving him mouth-to-mouth. I also LOVE Kristen’s shocked facial reaction to that when the camera cuts to her about to say something in response to that (the last above screencap for this sketch).
— Not sure what to think about the turn at the end with Usher giving a brief PSA. Felt kinda like a weak ending.
— An overall okay sketch, but, much like with the rather forgettable Knife Salesmen sketch from the preceding season’s Shia LaBeouf episode, this SNL era continues to struggle in their attempt to create a memorable blood-spurting sketch for the ages. Also, this CPR Training sketch, in hindsight, feels like a precursor to the (much better, IMO) Acupuncture sketch from the episode that Kristen hosts in season 38.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Young Jeezy [real] perform “Love In This Club”


BLESS THIS CHILD
rough-housing parents-to-be (host) & (KRW) serenade a stand-in stunt baby

— At first glance, it almost appears we’re getting a genuinely tender, semi-serious sketch to close out the season, before we see the comedic conceit. Lots of fun and very amusing little random and unsafe things Kristen and Steve are doing with their baby while singing. They’re both pulling this off so well.
— Pretty funny reveal that Kristen and Steve’s baby is just a doll (in the universe of the sketch, not just in real life), and that they’ve decided they’re ready to move on to having a real baby of their own.
— Steve took the potentially-iffy ending involving him spinning a dummy of Kristen around and made it a lot of fun instead of corny.
— Overall, I found this to be a solid and well-performed season-ending sketch.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average and slightly forgettable season finale. Not bad, but not the most exciting way to end this season, especially considering the lengthy solid streak that I feel SNL was on prior to this, from somewhere around the Amy Adams episode to the Shia LaBeouf episode.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Shia LaBeouf)
a step down


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2006-07)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 34 begins, with host Michael Phelps, and one new addition to the cast

Posted on

May 10, 2008 – Shia LaBeouf / My Morning Jacket (S33 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CLINTON’S QUALITIES
Hillary Clinton (AMP) prizes being an unethical racist-backed sore loser

— Typical Amy-as-Hillary stuff so far, but it’s working here.
— A good laugh from Amy’s Hillary stating point-blank, with a smile, “My supporters are racist”, as one of the listed-off reasons for us to vote for her.
— Decent laughs from Amy’s Hillary about playing the gender and race cards.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Sean Connery (DAH) & other Indiana Jones veterans are jealous of host

— A bit of an odd usage of Jason as an audience member (reminding me of when he frequently played one when he was just a writer), but he’s great here.
— A rare non-Celebrity Jeopardy appearance from Darrell’s Sean Connery. Fun to see him in this.
— Amy continues her trend of playing a lot of male roles this season.
— Great walk-on from Will as the face-melted-off Nazi.
— An interesting new addition to Darrell’s long-established Connery impression, with him punctuating his slams with a yell of “POW!” This would end up being the only appearance where Darrell’s Connery would do that.
STARS: ***½


MACGRUBER
silo crisis reveals son Merrill’s (host) homosexuality

— Something about the copy I’m watching of this episode makes the visual quality of this MacGruber short look blurry and dizzying (as can be seen in some of the above screencaps for this short and some of the screencaps you’ll soon see for the later MacGruber shorts in this episode).
— A big laugh from MacGruber’s puzzled delivery of “Anal lubricant?!?”
— Great bit with Shia LaBeouf answering MacGruber’s “Who’s the lucky girl?” question with a very hesitant “……..Scott……..”, receiving a very funny facial reaction from MacGruber.
STARS: ****


IT’S A MATCH
murder investigation follows 1970s game show format

— Fun portrayals of fictional counterparts to real-life 70s celebrities, even though I do kinda wonder why SNL’s just not having the actual 70s celebrities be portrayed. After all, SNL did so in the Super Buzzers sketch from the season 27 Jonny Mosely episode, and the Charades sketch from the season 31 Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode.
— Shia’s look as the fictional counterpart to Doug Henning is absolutely hilarious, and his performance is great.
— The murder premise is a strong twist to what we were led to initially think was just going to be a straightforward 70s game show parody.
— Bill doing great straight man work as usual. I love his stern, subtle frustration in response to the contestant’s wacky antics.
— Even though I’ve generally gotten so tired of Fred’s gay stereotype shtick by this point of his tenure, it’s working for me in this sketch as the Charles Nelson Reilly fictional counterpart he’s playing.
— Good bit with Shia’s character popping out of the deceased game show host’s bodybag.
— The dress rehearsal version of this sketch would later be used in reruns, and the biggest difference I can remember (and my memory of it may be a bit faulty) is that, in the dress version, Casey’s answer to the first question is a raunchy “I was making mouth whoopee”, whereas her answer in the live version was a tame “I was eating pound cake and crying on my waterbed.”
STARS: ****


SCARED STRAIGHT
inmate Lorenzo McIntosh (KET) can’t scare teens straight with movie plots

— The debut of these Scared Straight sketches with Kenan’s Lorenzo MacIntosh character.
— When this originally aired, I remember feeling this was Kenan’s shameless attempt at creating his own version of Matt Foley. All these years later, I no longer see many Matt Foley similarities in this, but that may because I’ve gotten so used to this MacIntosh character that I now just see him as his own entity.
— One big difference with Lorenzo MacIntosh in this inaugural appearance of his compared to his subsequent appearances is the scar on his face, which eventually gets called out as obviously having been drawn on with a marker.
— I guess I can see why the very crass prison rape jokes in these Lorenzo MacIntosh sketches would bother some people nowadays, but they’re giving me good laughs in tonight’s sketch.
— Good running bit throughout this sketch with MacIntosh describing movie plots as incidents that supposedly happened in his life. Kenan’s delivery is helping to make this running gag work.
— Speaking of Kenan’s delivery, I love his delivery of his threatening parting words, “There ain’t gonna be no grease! THERE AIN’T GONNA BE NO GREASE!”
— Overall, I’m surprised by how big I was on this inaugural Lorenzo MacIntosh sketch. It was stronger than I had remembered. We’ll see how this holds up as a recurring sketch when we get there.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
vibrator proves Merrill hasn’t been cured of his gayness

— Even though it’s just a very small moment, I love Shia bitterly calling MacGruber a “friggin’ dick” under his breath, in response to MacGruber making a passing reference to “undoing” Shia’s homosexuality. That muttered remark of Shia’s was such a believable, realistic moment, and was a remark that MacGruber deserved to have hurled at him for his attempt to “cure” Shia of his homosexuality.
— Hilarious how, when MacGruber is doing his usual bit where he asks his two assistants to hand him a nearby object, his only requests towards Shia are asking him to recite pro-heterosexual things that MacGruber seemingly taught him.
— The bit with the blurred-out vibrator is an absolute RIOT, made even funnier by the facial expression Will looks ahead with right before the obligatory end-of-sketch bomb explosion.
STARS: *****


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
(host) gets economic stimulus check advice from Suze Orman (KRW)

— A big laugh from Kristen-as-Suze-Orman’s “I love the smell of a man” line.
— Funny bit involving Kristen-as-Orman’s snap-on collar.
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, Kristen’s delivery as Orman makes every single one of her lines fun.
— Very funny ending tip from Kristen’s Orman on how to make your own homemade maxi-pad.
— This overall sketch felt unusually short, but still worked.
STARS: ***½


THE BEST LOOK IN THE WORLD
the best look in the world equals dress shirt, black socks, no pants

— Ooh, I recall this short being a HUGE dud for Lonely Island, a rarity for them in these early seasons of theirs. I remember 2008 Me being STUNNED at how unbelievably awful this short was (especially coming just one episode after Lonely Island did an intentionally bad short, with Daiquiri Girl). Let’s see how I’ll feel about it now, 12 years later.
— Wow, it appears that the audience is ALREADY not onboard with this short. The comical reveal of Andy being pants-less early on in this short got almost NO reaction from the audience. That’s usually the type of thing from Andy that KILLS with the audience.
— Much like the Roy Rules short from the preceding season, we have the Lonely Island trying their hand at a different music genre than the ones they usually spoof. That change of pace worked with the 70s/80s heavy metal genre they took on in Roy Rules, but it’s not turning out so well with the honky-tonk (or whatever music genre tonight’s short is spoofing) genre they’re taking on in tonight’s short.
— Oof. Something about this short just reeks of desperation. Oh, and I’m not finding myself laughing.
— I guess the “Cool Down” part is kinda funny, but I’m just desperate for a laugh by this point.
— Not even Andy’s smug “Riiiight on” at the end got a big response from the audience, and, again, that’s usually the type of thing from Andy that SNL audiences eat up.
— Overall, yeah, this Digital Short just didn’t work. Even though I admit it wasn’t as unbelievably awful as I had remembered, I still cannot call this short even remotely good. This already-poor short comes off even more disappointing when you remember the last Digital Short that Shia appeared in prior to this.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Amazed”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Vlad (BIH) & Niko (FRA) dispute the accuracy of Grand Theft Auto IV

Jean K. Jean’s cultural references all come from across the Atlantic

— Ha, I love this idea of Bill and Fred playing Grand Theft Auto characters, complete with spot-on physical movements.
— What the heck was with that abrupt, empty ending to the Grand Theft Auto commentary? This overall commentary in general, while it provided a few laughs from me due to Bill and Fred’s funny performances, felt SEVERELY underwritten. I get the feeling it went through a heavy re-write right before airtime (that would certainly explain the abrupt “ending”).
— I like Seth and Amy’s side bit with Seth spouting off sleazy weather-related sexual harassment pick-up lines. Why don’t we get these interaction bits between Seth and Amy more often?
— Kenan’s Jean K. Jean character has officially become recurring. A pretty big night for Kenan, between the debut of Lorenzo MacIntosh and the return of Jean K. Jean. The original airdate of this episode is Kenan’s birthday, so perhaps that’s the reason for his fairly big night.
— I’m not enjoying tonight’s Jean K. Jean commentary quite as much as I enjoyed his first one, but Kenan is still making this pretty fun.
— Ah, shortly after I mentioned Kenan’s birthday, we actually get a thinly-veiled on-air mention of it, with Amy saying “Happy 30th birthday, Jean K. Jean” during the audience applause at the end of Jean K. Jean’s commentary.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s talk with host goes astray

— I appreciate how the interview begins with Shia immediately letting Bill’s Vinny Vedecci know he doesn’t speak Italian. The gag at the beginning of all the prior installments of this sketch, in which the interviewee has a very blindsided, taken-aback reaction to Vinny Vedecci starting the interview by speaking in Italian was getting old, so I’m glad they changed it up tonight.
— The Transformers mix-up, with Vinny Vedecci thinking “transformers” means transsexuals, probably won’t hold up well with a lot of people nowadays, and probably guarantees this sketch will get removed if NBC ever airs this episode on SNL Vintage.
— Hilarious bit with Vinny and his cigarette-smoking crew (including an epic Lorne cutaway!) reacting in nervous, guilty silence after learning from Shia that cigarette-smoking can be an arrestable offence.
— Even though the running gag in these Vinny Vedecci sketches with a TV/movie clip getting re-dubbed by Vinny is getting predictable, tonight’s re-dubbed Indiana Jones clip still made me laugh.
— An absolutely great bit regarding the delay with falling snake props from above. One of my favorite bits ever in a Vinny Vedecci sketch.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
Merrill would rather kiss Scott (ANS) than Vicky (KRW)

— Particularly funny theme song lyrics in this one.
— A good laugh from Shia unconvincingly mentioning the parts of Kristen’s body he supposedly can’t stop lustfully thinking about (including her womb).
— The ending with the camera abruptly cutting to a bomb explosion as soon as vomit starts to flow from Shia’s mouth during his forced heterosexual kiss with Kristen is not only absolutely hilarious to me (and is pulled off much better than another “gay man vomits when a woman kisses him” gag SNL previously did in a Liberace sketch with Fred), but, during the original airing back in 2008, that gag caught me so off-guard that it gave me one of the hardest laughs I have EVER gotten from SNL in all my now-21 years of being an SNL viewer. In fact, I laughed so hard at it that I literally fell off of my couch and, while laying on the floor, continued to uncontrollably laugh non-stop for almost the ENTIRE commercial break that followed this MacGruber short. That is not an exaggeration, folks. There are very, VERY few sketches in SNL history that I can say got THAT extreme level of a laughing reaction from me (in fact, not just SNL, but any comedy I’ve ever watched in general), and for that, I will always love this particular MacGruber short, and consider it to be one of my personal all-time favorite SNL pieces.
STARS: *****


ADMIRERS
in a restaurant, (KRW) & (AMP) are thrilled by guys’ uncomfortable stares

— I have really nice nostalgic memories of this sketch, though part of that is because of the great mood I was put in after the aforementioned 2-minute-long extreme laughing fit that the ending of the preceding MacGruber short put me in during the original airing.
— A priceless cutaway to Andy’s goofy, unappealing facial expression as the “irresistible” admirer.
— More hilarious goofy, unappealing facial expressions from Shia and other performers playing “irresistible” admirers.
— This already-funny sketch has now been propelled to an even greater and more memorable level with the “doy doy doy” musical number from the admirers via their inner thoughts.
— Solid ending.
— This sketch was apparently so well-liked at the time that I remember even once seeing it play on a little TV monitor in one of the waiting lines of a supermarket I was at sometime that summer (which is also part of what adds to the aforementioned really nice nostalgic memories I have of this sketch).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Evil Urges”


NEW YORK FUNKY
Georgian (AMP) seeks funky New York styles for daughters (KRW) & (host)

— Amy is basically doing her Nancy Grace voice. Her voice and general demeanor in this sketch also eerily remind me of a history teacher I had in high school.
— Blah. A random and unnecessary reliance on the ol’ man-in-drag comedy trope.
— Second consecutive sketch tonight with Casey stuck in a useless small role where she basically only shows up to call other women beautiful. Something about this utilization of Casey seems a tad demeaning to me, but such is the life of a new featured player, I guess. It hurts more in this particular case with Casey, though, because we now know that her SNL trajectory unfortunately ends up not officially going past this stage.
— I kinda like something about the general aura of this sketch, but the sketch itself and Amy’s character’s constant catchphrases (“funky”, “no…YES!”, etc.) are not doing it for me. A blah way to end such a strong episode.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not only was this yet another good episode this season, but I found this episode to be particularly strong. In fact, I’d say it’s one of my all-time favorites from this late 2000s era of SNL. Aside from two big misses with the Digital Short and the New York Funky sketch, every single segment worked for me, and a lot of segments stood out as particularly great and memorable, two of which are absolute favorites of mine (Parts 2 and 3 of the MacGruber runner, Part 3 of which, as detailed earlier, gave me one of the pure hardest and longest laughs I’ve ever gotten from SNL). Another thing I love about this episode is that, for so many years, I’ve felt (and still do, to this day) that it epitomizes a lot of what I like about this late 2000s era of SNL. If I had to pick an episode that best represents the general feel and style of this SNL era (much like what I said at the end of my Steve Martin/Blues Brothers episode review here), tonight’s episode would definitely be at least one of my top picks, if not THE top pick.
— Shia LaBeouf hosting for two consecutive seasons, and both of those episodes being good, fun, and containing at least one really memorable thing, made it seem at the time like he was on his way to becoming a frequent host, but nope, this second hosting stint of his ends up being his last. Perhaps the…rather odd trajectory his career took sometime after 2008 put the kibosh on him becoming a frequent SNL host. Kind of a shame, as I actually enjoyed his presence as a host in both of his hosting stints (especially tonight’s episode), and I felt he worked really well with the male cast in tonight’s episode. It seemed like he was getting better and better as a host with each passing episode. I would’ve liked to have seen if the trend of both him getting better and his episodes containing at least one very memorable piece would’ve continued after this.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ashton Kutcher)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 33 comes to an end, with host Steve Carell

Posted on

April 12, 2008 – Ashton Kutcher / Gnarls Barkley (S33 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PETRAEUS REPORT ON IRAQ
presidential candidates ask General Petraeus (WLF) self-serving questions

— Interesting and unusual casting of Andy as Carl Levin.
— Ha, until now, I had forgotten all about Bill’s hilarious Robert Byrd impression, which makes its debut here.
— I see Bill’s taking a page out of Fred’s playbook by doing the “wandering aimlessly in front of the camera and blocking the person who’s speaking” gag.
— Boy, in the tradition of many of this era’s Jim Downey-written C-SPAN cold openings utilizing a lot of cast members, this is going on WAY too long. Unlike some of Downey’s other overlong cold openings from this era, this one actually has a good number of decently funny lines, but there’s still some SERIOUS trimming that needs to be done to this cold opening. The length is very unnecessary, and is somewhat hurting this for me.
— The funny part with Will’s Petraeus calling out Amy’s Hillary Clinton on her lie about being the inspiration for the song “My Sharona” is made even funnier by it being accompanied by a cutaway to the real Hillary Clinton book with Amy superimposed on the cover.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
busybody host demonstrates his producer skills with cast members backstage

— I’m always a sucker for this type of backstage monologue.
— When Ashton Kutcher tells Will “I love that Falcon guy that you play” (a line made even funnier when you remember Ashton actually appeared in one of those Falconer sketches before), I love Will desperately responding “Oh, will you tell Lorne that?!?”
— The whole bit with Andy trying to get some weed from Kenan is not only very funny, but actually appears to be a dig at a real-life incident that had happened with Kenan just a few weeks prior to this episode, where he got pulled over by a cop and was nearly arrested for possession of marijuana in his car, but saved himself with an explanation to the cop (I think Kenan lied about it being his friend’s weed, or something like that). This leads me to ask this rather odd question: has any cast member in SNL history ever gotten arrested during their SNL tenure? I guess the obvious answer is no, because I’d probably know about something big like that if it ever happened. It is kinda funny and bizarre to think that Kenan freakin’ Thompson, of all people, almost became the very first cast member in SNL history to get arrested during their SNL tenure.
STARS: ***½


THE COUGAR DEN
(AMP), (KRW), (CAW), (Cameron Diaz) prefer younger men

— The debut of a recurring sketch that I’ve often forgotten about in recent years.
— Nice opening title graphic.
— A good use of the female cast.
— Kristen’s blowjoy/“Well, it’s certainly not a job” line was hilarious.
— I remember being very surprised by Cameron Diaz’s random cameo when this sketch originally aired.
— Fun performance from Cameron here.
— Another great line from the three main ladies, this time Amy’s line about her telling young men “It’s not gonna be as gross as you think” when she’s about to have sex with them.
— Kenan always kills in roles like this.
— Ashton’s “Their ex-husbands have been pretty cool so far” line was a funny self-reference in regards to how close he famously was with Bruce Willis during his marriage to Demi Moore.
STARS: ***½


WAITING WITH OLIVER
upset by un-diverse That ’70s Show, club doorman (KET) denies host entry

— Fred attempts a new character…….aaaaaand it’s a flop, continuing Fred’s disheartening hit-and-miss season. (I almost want to argue he’s sadly had more misses than hits this season, but I’m not sure how accurate that would be without looking back at all of his performances this season. I think his misses just stand out to me more because, for the longest time, I used to deem this to be a good season for him.)
— I love the ridiculous two-men-in-one-coat bit with Andy.
— This is becoming a fun ensemble piece with almost everybody in the cast each getting a funny walk-on character, one-by-one.
— Of the extras playing the various old guys Jason brings to the club, one of them appears to be the same actor who starred in the “Grandkids In The Movies” Digital Short from this season’s Tina Fey episode.
— I love Amy’s “Eat shoe, bitch!” bit.
— Ha, a brief Lyle Kane walk-on from Will! This ends up being the final appearance of this short-lived but hilarious recurring character.
— Strong ending regarding the non-existent black guy on That 70s Show.
STARS: ****


DAIQUIRI GIRL
absence of musical guest leads to awful “Daiquiri Girl” music video

— The hell? Even for Lonely Island standards, this Digital Short so far is just…WTF?
— Now we’re getting a text crawl from Lonely Island admitting they’re aware this short is not up to par, then explaining that they were supposed to film a Digital Short with tonight’s musical guest, Gnarls Barkley, who ended up standing Lonely Island up at the last minute (is this true?), which resulted in Lonely Island filming this low-budget, half-assed, intentionally bad music video.
— Overall, wow. Not quite sure how to react to this short. I guess, thinking back on it, I got enough chuckles while watching this, between the intentionally bad music video and the self-deprecating disclaimer. Lonely Island’s probably one of the few people who can make something awful like this work…somewhat.
STARS: ***


ACTIVIA COMMERCIAL SHOOT
Jamie Lee Curtis (KRW) overeats Activia yogurt during commercial shoot

— Much like the Surprise Sue sketch in the preceding episode, this is another Kristen Wiig sketch that got a lot of acclaim and online buzz back when this originally aired, while I myself had a very mixed, rather lukewarm reaction to it. Stuff like this and the first Surprise Sue sketch made me feel like I was slowly starting to drift apart from what was considered popular among SNL fans at this time, and made me also feel like I was slowly starting to drift apart from what I liked so much about Kristen as a performer (my drifting-apart from the latter would sadly continue even further the following season, when Kristen’s SNL trajectory starts REALLY going downhill and SNL’s over-utilization of her starts becoming detrimental to her female castmates’ airtime). We’ll see how I’ll feel about this sketch now.
— Funny story from Kristen’s Jamie Lee Curtis regarding taking her top off for a magazine shoot.
— Kristen’s performance is certainly strong here (she’s making me laugh far more here than she did in the preceding episode’s Surprise Sue sketch), but I’m iffy on the main comedic conceit of this sketch.
— Didn’t care for the ending. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, in which the ending was a bit different and came off better.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Run (I’m A Natural Disaster)”


WEEKEND UPDATE
nervous Judy Grimes (KRW) repeatedly negates herself with “just kidding”

Nicholas Fehn’s false starts don’t add up to brilliant insights

— For the second consecutive episode, Kristen debuts one of her most remembered recurring characters, Judy Grimes, a.k.a. the “Just Kidding” lady. And for the THIRD time in these last two episodes alone, we get a Kristen Wiig performance that garnered a lot of internet buzz and acclaim from SNL fans back at this time. We’ve definitely reached the point of Kristen’s SNL tenure where she’s become the media darling of the then-current SNL cast.
— A funny and VERY impressive increasingly rapid-fire, almost-inhuman delivery from Kristen. I remember how much this stunned me back when this episode originally aired.
— I wonder what the cue cards for Kristen’s Judy Grimes commentaries look like. Is her long-winded, fast-paced dialogue squeezed in a very compact manner onto just two or three cue cards, or does SNL use A LOT of cue cards to cover all of Judy Grimes’ dialogue?
— Speaking of cue cards, we get YET ANOTHER Nicholas Fehn appearance, and it’s been said that SNL supposedly never uses cue cards for this character’s commentaries, because his commentaries are supposedly improvised. I have no trouble believing that. Between the Judy Grimes commentary and now this, tonight’s Weekend Update must be an unusual, interesting night for the cue card guy. If he indeed had to display a whole bunch of cue cards for the Judy Grimes commentary, then I’m sure he’s appreciating the breather he gets during the supposedly-cue-card-less Nicholas Fehn commentary.
— Just as I was afraid of, fatigue and diminishing returns are starting to fully set in for me towards Nicholas Fehn in this third appearance of his. While I’m still getting an occasional laugh here, I’m not finding myself laughing anywhere near as much at this same routine that had me practically in stitches in Fehn’s first two appearances.
STARS: ***


SONG MEMORIES
“Amie” evokes odious recollections in (host) & other icky reminiscers

— Meh, I saw the coma patient punchline of Jason’s story coming (though I thought the punchline would be that his girlfriend is dead, not in a coma, but it’s close enough). Jason’s meh punchline was somewhat salvaged by his hilarious addendum during the chorus-singing: “Man, oh, man, I love bein’ a doctor.”
— Hmm, for once, the song playing in one of these Song Memories sketch doesn’t remind Bill’s character of “muh dad”. Instead, his story this time is about Connie Chung.
— Will’s “Pedophile? That’s a pretty big word for a 10-year-old” punchline, while hilarious, is a famous oldie that’s been around LONG before this sketch, and I remember being bugged back at this time in 2008 that so many online SNL fans were giving SNL so much credit and high praise for such a clever punchline that the writer of this sketch seemingly just took from an old Dirty Jokes book.
— Wow, Ashton’s story is just plain weak.
— Even the twist ending that these Song Memories sketches always contain fell flat for me this time.
— Overall, this was sadly and surprisingly subpar for a Song Memories sketch.
STARS: **


DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar (host) knifes a homeless man

— Wow. This overall pre-taped piece was so brief, random, and dark, but I absolutely LOVED it, and the “Death By Chocolate” reveal at the end was perfect. I’m looking forward to the next two parts of this runner.
STARS: ****½


THE MELLOW SHOW
Jack Johnson (ANS), Dave Matthews (BIH), John Mayer (host) keep it mellow

— The return of Andy’s Jack Johnson impression, which was one of the first big roles Andy ever got on SNL when his impression last appeared in that JJ Casuals commercial from season 31. Interesting seeing his impression placed in a new setting this time. Unfortunately, it’s the tired talk show setting.
— Funny and spot-on Dave Matthews impression from Bill.
— I like the walk-on from Kenan as a violin-playing Boyd Tinsley during Bill-as-Dave-Matthews’ short musical number.
— Ashton’s John Mayer is pretty much a non-impression.
— Well, at least Ashton is now imitating John Mayer’s trademark facial expressions while playing the guitar.
— Ha, Andy’s Jack Johnson actually mentions the JJ Casuals commercial as the sponsor of this talk show. I love this continuity nod on SNL’s part.
STARS: ***


DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar offs a doctor (JAS) & his patient

— Wow, you gotta love Ashton’s character’s delightfully sadistic and elaborate actions here: shooting an innocent doctor (excellent reaction from Jason to getting shot, by the way), planting the gun in a comatose hospital patient’s hand, then VIOLENTLY yanking out the patient’s life support tubes and wires.
— I recall hearing these Death By Chocolate shorts were directed by movie director Jason Reitman, which I guess explains why they feel so different and refreshing for SNL.
— Overall, even better than the first one. Absolutely perfect, and caters 100% to my kind of dark humor.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”


THE RUSTY PONY
with (host)’s help, paralyzed stripper Dusty Velvet (CAW) does her act

— Casey Wilson’s biggest and most remembered showcase of her short-lived SNL tenure. This is also a comedy routine she had done prior to SNL. There is (or used to be) an online video of her pre-SNL version of this sketch.
— An un-PC but strong and daring concept for a sketch, and Casey is executing it perfectly.
— My only mild complaint about this great sketch is that it’s relying a little too heavily on the cutaways to the straight man characters having a frozen look of shock on their face in reaction to what they’re witnessing, a habit SNL relies on way too heavily in this era, as I mentioned in some earlier reviews.
— I love Andy’s absolutely horrified reaction when Casey licks his face.
— Solid ending.
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember thinking it was Casey’s official breakout moment that would lead to her getting more airtime and having a successful SNL tenure. Sadly, fate would have a completely different outcome for Casey’s SNL tenure, and this sketch, instead of now being considered a “An SNL star is born” piece, is now wistfully looked back on as an example of what might’ve been.
STARS: ****½


DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar attacks ANS with a chainsaw

— A very short and simple but solid and effective conclusion to the Death By Chocolate runner, even if nothing will ever top the second installment. I also liked how this third installment was SNL-related, with it taking place backstage.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode that contained some VERY high highs, mainly in the post-Weekend Update half. The dark, brilliant Death By Chocolate shorts in particular were a strong highlight, and were easily the best SNL has ever utilized four-timer Ashton Kutcher.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christopher Walken)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Shia LaBeouf

Posted on

April 5, 2008 – Christopher Walken / Panic At The Disco (S33 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT
media disclosure of their wealth bugs Bill (DAH) & Hillary (AMP) Clinton

— Some pretty funny lines from the Clintons regarding their taxes.
— A very good laugh from Amy’s Hillary Clinton saying, immediately after her announcement that she’s stepping aside for the Obama campaign, “Psych! That’s never gonna happen”, then going on to brag about exactly how long she intends to drag out her campaign.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host has audience members ask him questions that he wrote

— Feels like it’s been too long since I’ve last reviewed a Christopher Walken-hosted episode. Sadly, this ends up being the FINAL Christopher Walken-hosted episode I’ll ever get to review, unless he comes back to host sometime in the current SNL era before I complete this SNL project of mine.
— Already a good Walken-y oddball comment early on from Christopher claiming this is his 100th time hosting, because he counts reruns.
— Interesting how Christopher announces he wants to do something different for his monologue. This is the one and only time out of all of his hosting stints that he refrains from doing a song-and-dance number for his monologue. As much as I always enjoy that type of monologue whenever he does it (which is more than I can say for most of the other hosts who have done it), it’s refreshing to have a change tonight, especially since the two preceding monologues (Amy Adams, Jonah Hill) were both song-and-dance monologues. I wonder if there’s ever been a time in SNL history where they’ve had three or more consecutive episodes with a song-and-dance monologue.
— Such a great Walken-y concept with him having written the questions he takes from the audience. A perfect twist to the usual questions-from-the-audience format.
— It feels pretty funny seeing an onscreen Jim Downey appearance so soon after that somewhat-raunchy Digital Short he co-starred in with Jonah Hill in the preceding episode. I can just picture some of the more casual SNL fans saying “Hey, it’s Andy’s dad!” when they saw Downey in this monologue.
— I love how Christopher is starting to admonish the audience members for their “bad” questions, despite the fact that he’s the one who wrote them.
— A hilarious answer from Christopher on what his favorite color is: burnt umber.
— Christopher claiming how easy it is to read off of cards during his complaints about John Lutz’s perceived difficulty in reading off of his index card is a great subtle self-deprecating dig at Christopher’s own penchant for always staring at the cue cards on SNL.
STARS: ****½


ANNUALE
— Rerun from 2/23/08. A bit odd how they’re repeating this tonight, given the fact that it co-stars the host from the episode it originally aired in – Tina Fey.
— Tonight’s audience is even more lively during this repeated commercial than the audience was during the original airing of this commercial. Even Casey’s intentionally cheesy little “That’s all I have time for” line got a huge laugh from tonight’s audience.


GREASE REHEARSAL
teacher (host) nonsensically bowdlerizes high school production of Grease

— I love Christopher’s reaction to the dirty “chicks will cream” lyric in “Greased Lightning”.
— Very funny how Christopher keeps saying “No, shut up” whenever a student suggests an alternate lyric.
— Christopher’s ways of saying “That’s dirty” are increasingly hilarious.
— I’m noticing Christopher’s timing is very slow and delayed during certain portions of this sketch, even moreso than it usually is. I wonder if it’s because of how much older he is in this episode. However, in true Walken fashion, he still makes his particularly slower, more delayed timing work.
— Funny and memorable how Christopher picks Gene Rayburn as a dirty lyric substitution.
— Charming to see Christopher joining the guys in their song-and-dance at the end of this sketch, especially since we never got to see him do a song-and-dance in tonight’s monologue.
STARS: ****½


ERIC’S GOODBYE
on his last day, (JAS) learns workplace acquaintance (host) is a stalker

— Looks like we’re in for a typical great “Walken plays a creepy lunatic” sketch. Always an absolute treat.
— Such a great Walken-y line, with him lovingly describing Jason as “a moist towelette at the end of a delicious plate of ribs.”
— More and more, I’m seeing that Christopher’s timing is definitely slower tonight. Not a real complaint from me, though.
— I love the loud and infectious laugh (“hahh-HAAAAHH!”) I’m hearing from one guy in the audience all throughout this sketch.
— Christopher is slaying me with his increasingly unsettling devotions to Jason.
— Great ending with Christopher deeply contemplating whether he should let Jason go or chase him into a park, choke him to death, and make love to his corpse for the rest his (Christopher’s) life. This is made even better by the great little touch with soft music playing in the background during this deep contemplation of Christopher’s.
STARS: ****½


LASER CATS! 3D
LOM & Chris Dodd [real] watch feline sci-fi trilogy end

— Ah, our annual Laser Cats short.
— Chris Dodd becomes the latest of MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race.
— I like the absurdity of Andy and Bill whipping out a TV and VCR at a restaurant, of all places.
— Ooh, a “3-D” Laser Cats.
— Great fake-out with this short making us think Andy and Bill are gruesomely going to “off” two very real cats, via a handgun and a hammer, before they suddenly get interrupted.
— Fun scene with Bill almost getting sucked into space through the open hatch.
— Hilarious brief cutaway to a deadpan Lorne and Chris Dodd watching the Laser Cats movie while wearing 3-D glasses.
— Strong twist with Andy using his healed, now-bionic eye to shoot open the lock on the cage that’s holding various Laser Cats.
— Hmm, for once, a Laser Cats Digital Short doesn’t end with Lorne telling Andy and Bill “Get out”. I was mistaken when I said in my previous Laser Cats reviews that that’s how all Laser Cats shorts end.
STARS: ****


SURPRISE
Sue (KRW) can’t contain her excitement over prospect of a surprise party

— This character of Kristen’s makes her debut.
— This inaugural Surprise Sue sketch was a HUGE hit among viewers back when it originally aired. It got a lot of online buzz and so much acclaim from so many SNL fans, who basically considered this sketch an instant, modern-day classic. (I even saw someone at the time compare the instant popularity of this sketch to that of the very first Matt Foley sketch.) I, on the other hand, had a VERY mixed, rather lukewarm reaction to this sketch at the time…and that’s BEFORE I was aware it would become a tiring and unnecessary recurring sketch.
— Christopher’s typical delivery is making some of his subtly-odd lines even funnier and creepier.
— Two minutes into this sketch, and I’m caring even LESS for it than I did when it originally aired.
— Ah, Kristen finally got me. I got a pretty good laugh just now from her Sue character going through the trouble of smashing a bottle over her head just to keep herself from compulsively telling Casey they’re holding a surprise party for her.
— Meh at Sue jumping through the window. Not even her doing it twice could get a laugh from me. There’s too much of an increasing desperation in the writing of Sue’s wild actions that just isn’t doing it for me.
— Overall, yeah, despite one or two parts that I really liked, I’m gonna have to call this sketch severely overrated. I guess I can see why people love it, but it’s not for me.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nine In The Afternoon”


WEEKEND UPDATE
pregnant man Thomas Beatie (ANS) invites SEM & AMP to his baby shower

— Wow, until now, I had completely forgotten about that pregnant guy (Thomas Beatie) who’s Andy’s playing.
— Most of Andy’s commentary is pretty meh. This is usually the type of thing that he’s good at making work, but I’m finding this commentary only mildly funny at best.
— I do like Seth ad-libbing by calling Andy out on how he’s overdoing it by constantly turning back and forth to show off his pregnant belly in a profile angle. These past two seasons, I’ve sometimes been noticing a very friendly little rivalry of sorts going on between Andy and Seth.
— Something even funnier about Amy’s harsh-but-great crack at Madonna is the fact that, when this episode originally aired, this Weekend Update was followed by a commercial break that immediately started with a commercial promoting an album or concert (I forget which) of Madonna’s.
— I like Seth milking his staring-down of the camera after his final joke.
— A surprisingly pretty short Update overall.
STARS: ***


WALKEN FAMILY REUNION
at the Walken family reunion, host greets kin with similar vocal patterns

— The beginning of what would be go on to be an occasional tradition for SNL, doing a family reunion sketch featuring the host’s relatives being either exactly like him or his movie/TV characters.
— Almost right out of the gate, we start this sketch off well with Bill doing a spot-on Walken imitation as the first Walken relative seen in the sketch.
— Amy’s whole Walken-voiced rant about ghosts and “spooky behaviors” is memorable, and steals the whole sketch.
— Fun how we’re gradually seeing pretty much the whole cast do Walken impressions, either one-by-one or in groups.
— Oh, god. Fred as a gay Walken?
— Wow, Fred’s Walken impression is just plain AWFUL. He just sounds like a nasally-congested New Yorker. And the weak just-came-out-of-the-closet gay conceit of his character just makes his Walken impression even worse. Leave it to Fred to be the one sour note of this otherwise enjoyable sketch. I hate to say it, but while doing these episode reviews, I’ve been noticing lately that Fred’s definitely not as strong in these past two seasons (32 and 33) as I used to think. For many years, I used to divide Fred’s long SNL tenure into two separate, simple eras: the mostly strong Fred Armisen years (seasons 28-34) and the mostly bad Fred Armisen years (seasons 35-38). Doing these reviews lately, however, has made me realize that Fred’s tenure can actually be divided into THREE separate, slightly more complicated eras: the mostly strong Fred Armisen years (seasons 28-31), the very hit-and-miss, “Something unfortunate is looming ahead” Fred Armisen years (seasons 32-34), and the unfortunate, mostly bad Fred Armisen years (seasons 35-38).
— Unlike Fred, Kenan’s iffy attempt at a Walken at least has a charming “So bad, it’s good” quality, especially since nobody in their right mind would’ve expected Kenan to nail a Walken impression anyway.
— I see SNL is once again letting Casey Wilson know her status as a newbie, as she’s the ONLY cast member (not including the Update-only Seth, of course) who’s excluded from this sketch. Even Will, despite not appearing as a Walken-sounding family member, at least played the waiter at the very beginning of this, presumably because he doesn’t know how to do a Walken impression, and didn’t feel comfortable attempting one. (Leslie Jones would later have this same role in the Carrey Family Reunion sketch, presumably for the same reason. I have yet to see the Sandler Family Reunion sketch, given the fact that it aired during the period of my still-ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes, and thus, I don’t know who in the cast played the Will Forte/Leslie Jones role as the waiter in that version.)
— Overall, a fun sketch, but not as strong as I had remembered it. I also feel it kinda pales in comparison to the later Carrey Family Reunion sketch. (We’ll see how I’ll feel about the Sandler Family Reunion sketch when we reach it. I’ve heard many positive things about it, though.)
STARS: ***½


INDOOR GARDENING TIPS FROM A MAN WHO’S VERY SCARED OF PLANTS
floraphobic (host) puts himself at ease by adding googly eyes to plants

— An absolutely PERFECT oddball concept for Christopher.
— The aforementioned audience member with the loud and infectious “hahh-HAAAAHH!” laugh from the Eric’s Goodbye sketch earlier tonight has been heard at some other points of tonight’s episode, especially at the beginning of this sketch.
— Christopher’s delivery of “If enough of these ferns lodge themselves down your throat…psssh…you’d CHOKE” had me practically rolling on the floor.
— I absolutely love Christopher’s yell of “OPE!” or “DAAH!” whenever he’s initially startled by a plant he comes across.
— Christopher’s execution of this whole sketch in general so top-notch.
— Christopher’s ending line: “The great Winston Churchill once said the eyes…are the windows…to your FACE.”
STARS: *****


TOP CHEF
(host) can’t cope with time constraints & limited ingredients

— Another spoof of a Bravo reality show I’ve never watched, but this spoof is much easier for me to follow than that Project Runway-related sketch from two episodes prior.
— The increasingly ridiculous ingredients that the contestants are given to make their meal are funny.
— A fairly promising premise with Christopher being a bewildered Top Chef contestant who doesn’t understand the show and questions everything he witnesses.
— Hmm, this sketch isn’t turning out as funny as I expected, despite some occasional laughs from Christopher.
— I couldn’t decipher Christopher’s final line, when he was told to pack up his knives and leave. Did he say “Who knew from knives”? What does that even mean in this context?
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”


LARRY KING LIVE
Jimmy Carter (DAH) admits nobody reads his books

— Meh, Fred’s Larry King…
— Darrell’s Jimmy Carter impression is always pretty funny.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? I kept waiting and waiting for this sketch to start taking off, yet it ended before it ever took off. The laughs were extremely mild at best.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An overall solid episode, though the quality dropped off pretty hard with the last two sketches. The first half of this episode had a lot of strong material, and both halves of this episode gave us some terrific Walken-centric oddball sketches as highly anticipated. Speaking of which, Christopher Walken was his usual hilarious, legendary self, even with his timing being noticeably slower than it was in his prior hosting stints (again, I chalk this up to being an age thing). Also, it’s interesting how this episode ditched the two biggest traditions of prior Christopher Walken episodes: a song-and-dance monologue and a Continental sketch. Regarding the latter, I’ve never heard a reason for why SNL refrained from doing it in this episode. Was Christopher tired of doing them, or was he just eager to try lots of new, different things in this episode? If we were only going to get one solo Christopher Walken sketch tonight, I’d definitely take Indoor Gardening Tips From A Man Who’s etc. over another Continental.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonah Hill)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ashton Kutcher