Month: August 2020

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March 15, 2008 – Jonah Hill / Mariah Carey (S33 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SPITZER & ASSOCIATES
in private practice, Eliot Spitzer (BIH) will handle sex-related cases

— Good to see a change of pace from all the Hillary/Obama cold openings that the show had been doing lately. Also great to see Bill play the lead in a cold opening, which feels very rare in these early seasons of his SNL tenure.
— I like the voice Bill’s doing here. 12 years after this Eliot Spitzer scandal, I now no longer have any recollection of what Spitzer’s voice sounds like, but I recall finding Bill’s vocal impression of him to be spot-on when this originally aired.
— A good laugh from the “1-800-T-A-W-D-R-Y” phone number.
— Without even saying a single word in this entire cold opening, Kristen is still doing such great work conveying the anger of her role as Spitzer’s wife.
— I absolutely HOWLED at Bill-as-Spitzer’s initially-calm-then-suddenly-loudly-angry delivery of “You, by the side of the road, wrapped in PLASTIC!!!!!”
— Lots of pretty funny lines regarding the sex-related cases Spitzer and his law firm will take on.
— Good little touch with how, after Bill-as-Spitzer’s “Live from New York…”, instead of SNL immediately cutting to the opening montage like usual, the camera precedes the opening montage by panning over to a silent Kristen-as-Spitzer’s-wife’s frowny face, keeping up the theme of her having a cold, unhappy demeanor throughout this cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
to combat his crude big-screen image, host sings about how he is fancy

— OH, GOD. A musical monologue for the second consecutive episode? Come on, SNL.
— I do like Jonah’s “fancy dance”, at least.
— A fairly funny cutaway to Amy as Jonah’s Grandma Nancy.
— An unintentional laugh from Jonah’s line flub when he tells us, through song, to “kliss” his classy ass.
STARS: **


MACGRUBER
competency questions bring about a crisis of confidence for MacGruber

— Feels pretty nice to see a MacGruber short right after the monologue for once.
— Due to Maya Rudolph’s then-recent departure from the show, the regular character played by her in these MacGruber shorts has been replaced with a new soon-to-be regular character played by Kristen.
— A pretty good laugh from the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion happening right at the turn where MacGruber suddenly starts to ask, in a worried, sincere voice, “You really think I’m not good at my jo–”.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S YOUR SITUATION?
emcee (host) thinks game show is a singles bar

— Not too sure about this premise.
— I like Casey’s delivery of “Because….I….love my husband….?” when unhappily asked by a sleazy Jonah why she’s married.
— Jonah is at least executing this fairly well, surprisingly.
— I don’t know why, but in a weird way, this sketch feels to me kinda like a poor man’s precursor to the following season’s superior I’m Gonna Have Sex With Your Wife game show sketch with Bradley Cooper, despite that sketch having pretty much a completely different concept than the one this sketch has.
— I spoke a bit too soon in my compliment of Jonah’s performance, as his timing seemed kinda off at the end.
— At least this overall sketch was pretty short, but that may have been part of the problem, as it kinda feels like they didn’t really explore this concept enough. Then again, I’m not sure what else they could’ve done with this concept.
STARS: **


SIX YEAR OLD
precocious 6 year-old Adam (host) treats Benihana like a Borscht Belt gig

— The debut of what would go on to be a staple of most Jonah Hill-hosted episodes (I think his 2016 episode has been the only one without this sketch, as of 2020).
— Solid concept of Jonah playing a very precocious six-year-old who talks like a Borscht Belt comedian.
— Jonah is strong here, and his performance is a lot of fun. I’m also loving his endless amount of wisecracks.
— Overall, a great debut. We’ll see how I’ll feel about the subsequent installments of this sketch. I remember being so increasingly frustrated that those installments take place in the EXACT SAME Benihana location that this first installment took place in. So lazy. There are so many promising locations you can place Jonah’s character in. Why use the Benihana setting EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME?
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s paranoia over backstabbers results in abdication

— A very funny shot at the end of the opening title sequence, with MacGruber walking past the camera while rudely giving everyone the finger.
— This overall short, and the general conceit of tonight’s MacGruber shorts, was better than I had remembered it, but still don’t quite measure up to typical strong MacGruber shorts.
— Strangely, tonight’s SNL episode ends up not showing the third part of tonight’s MacGruber runner. It would be put online shortly after the original airing of this episode. From what my admittedly-fuzzy memory of it recalls, it involved Bill as some kind of therapist/trainer helping a very unconfident, practically-catatonic MacGruber in one of those control rooms that MacGruber and his assistants are always locked in, and the short ended with MacGruber aimlessly and repeatedly banging the leg of a chair onto a table before the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion.
STARS: ***½


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
financial questions receive thrifty responses from Suze Orman (KRW)

— The debut of Kristen’s Suze Orman impression. Wow, I had completely forgotten about this recurring Suze Orman sketch until now.
— Kristen’s portrayal of Orman is very funny, and her delivery of every single line she has is making them fun.
— I like the interplay between Kristen’s Orman and Jonah’s character.
STARS: ***½


ANDY’S DAD
ANS is distressed to learn that his dad (JID) is going out with host

— I remember finding this short to be a laugh riot when it originally aired in 2008, but the crass, cheap homoerotic premise doesn’t seem like the type of thing that will hold up quite as well in today’s age. Then again, Lonely Island has proven that they can make good shorts out of crass, cheap homoerotic premises and have it still hold up well today (e.g. Roy Rules, Iran So Far).
— A very interesting use of Jim Downey.
— Aaaaaand there goes the obligatory cheap, unnecessary, hacky attempt at a laugh with a man-on-man kiss (which I previously praised Lonely Island for refraining from doing in the aforementioned Iran So Far short). However, I do love how the kiss is immediately followed by a cutaway to a close-up of Andy with a VERY stern, frozen expression on his face (the sixth above screencap for this Digital Short).
— A big laugh from how Jonah lowering his head while laughing with Jim Downey turns into Jonah lowering his head further and going down on Jim below the camera view.
— Aside from the aforementioned kiss, I’m actually enjoying this short. Yet another example of Lonely Island executing a potentially-dodgy homoerotic premise well.
— Bill caps this short off well with his hilarious ending line, “We’ve been f(*bleep*)in’!”, followed by the screen doing a freeze-frame on him smiling at the camera while a random “Created by Lorne Michaels” credit is displayed onscreen.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Touch My Body”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Eliot Spitzer’s whoring

TRM’s electoral assessment- “black is the new president, bitch”

— Ha, the photo of Eliot Spitzer making a goofy-looking ashamed, disgraced face (the first above screencap for this Update) was shown a lot in the news and online back at this time, and used to always crack me up back then.
— Good ad-lib from Seth after Amy flubbed her Brita joke.
— Good to see Seth and Amy doing a “Really?!?” on the Spitzer scandal. This should be good.
— An overall pretty solid edition of “Really?!?”, even if it trailed off for me a little towards the end, though not even that was anything bad.
— Ha, not only does Colin Jost make his way into yet another comical Update photo, but we get to see him with what appears to be a natural beard! (the third-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update)
— Tracy Morgan cameo!
— Tracy seems to have facially aged a lot in such a short amount of time since his last cameo prior to this, in the preceding season’s Alec Baldwin episode.
— As usual, Tracy is killing it here. He has an endless number of funny remarks. He’s even getting laughs from some of his non-verbal actions.
— Tracy brings up the “Bitch is the new black” declaration Tina Fey memorably made on Update three episodes prior, and has this epic rebuttal to it: “Bitch may be the new black…..but black is the new president, bitch.” Classic line.
STARS: ***½


TARGET
Target Lady advises daft fellow employee (host) on how to woo co-worker

— (*groan*)
— Well, at least we got a fairly long break from Target Lady, as her last appearance prior to this was in February 2007.
— Not caring for Jonah in this sketch. He’s trying too hard to play “quirky” and “twitchy”, and it’s coming off too forced.
— Seeing all those boxes of Nilla Wafers in Will’s shopping basket makes me hungry as hell. I haven’t had Nilla Wafers in ages.
STARS: **


NBC SPECIAL REPORT
Brian Williams (WLF) presents evidence proving John McCain (DAH) is old

— Hmm, something seems off about Will’s Brian Williams voice tonight. It’s not as spot-on as it was in the previous appearance Will’s Brian Williams impression made. He’s lacking the dry cadence of Williams’ voice that he nailed last time. Tonight, he just sounds like Will Forte talking in a slow voice.
— A pretty funny formal, professional announcement from Will’s Williams that “John McCain is, in fact, old.”
— The debut of Darrell’s John McCain impression.
— Just like I remember finding it to be, Darrell’s McCain impression is fine, but boring. I know that McCain himself is not exactly an exciting man to impersonate, but I’ve seen some actual funny McCain impressions from other comedians. Darrell’s take on McCain is just adequate, but nothing more. The idea of his boring McCain impression being paired with Fred’s awful (not to mention also-boring) Obama impression in the following season’s presidential debate sketches has me worried for how those sketches are going to turn out. Actually, I have only one Obama/McCain debate sketch to review anyway, as two of the three Obama/McCain debate sketches appear in Weekend Update Thursday specials.
— This is the second consecutive episode in which Fred has barely appeared in any sketches. I remember how, back at this time in 2008, I took Fred’s sudden huge drop in airtime as a sign that SNL was very hesitant to use him in sketches after the backlash he and SNL received for his then-new Obama impression. (For anyone wondering how strong that backlash was, well, you’re obviously aware that it wasn’t strong enough to get SNL to yank Fred out of the Obama role back at this time.)
— This sketch is basically just a parade of stereotypical jokes about old people, but it’s working decently enough, especially the bit with Fred and Amy questioning McCain.
STARS: ***


CLANCY T. BACHLERATT AND JACKIE SNAD SING SONGS ABOUT SPACESHIPS, TODDLERS, MODEL T. CARS & JARS OF BEER
Clancy T. Bachleratt (WLF) & Jackie Snad (KRW) do what the title above says

— Oh, I recall this being a fantastic bizarre Forte/Wiig sketch.
— Very funny reveal of the album title, seen above as the title of this sketch in my review. (There’s no way I’m typing all those words a second time.)
— Will and Kristen’s absurd toddler/beer jars/spaceship/Model T-related songs are absolutely PRICELESS.
— Wow, Jonah’s doing a great Horatio Sanz impression! Seriously, what’s going on with him? Why is he laughing his way through this entire sketch, for no apparent reason? (He’d later do the same thing in a J-Pop America Funtime Now sketch in his second hosting stint.) Did he…uh…take a little toke in his dressing room right before this sketch or something?
— The new National Anthem song at the end is particularly hilarious, made even funnier by Will’s insane facial expressions.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & T-Pain [real] perform “Migrate”


FACE TO FACE
upon meeting in real life, (CAW) finds that (host) is an online liar

Sadly, this sketch is strangely missing from the copy I’m currently watching of this episode. Too bad, as it features Casey Wilson in a fairly rare co-starring role. If you’re curious to see my thoughts on this sketch, read it here in the original 2008 review I did back when this episode originally aired (the sketch is titled “Online Dating” in my review). And a screencap can be seen here on SNL Archives’ page for this sketch, if you’re curious what this sketch looks like, given how mysterious and seemingly-forgotten the sketch is, and the fact that I can’t find an online video of it to link to.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Even though only about two or three things stood out to me as strong, most of the sketches were enjoyable, and there wasn’t much that dragged this episode down.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Adams)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christopher Walken returns for his seventh and final (as of 2020) hosting stint

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March 8, 2008 – Amy Adams / Vampire Weekend (S33 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CALL DRAMATIZATION
panicky president Barack Obama (FRA) calls Hillary Clinton (AMP) at 3am

— Interesting format for a cold opening, with most of this being a pre-taped attack ad consisting only of still photos and voice-overs. I like this change of pace for a cold opening.
— Some pretty good laughs from Fred-as-Barack-Obama’s angry, bleep-filled rant.
— I love Fred’s Obama asking “The wwwwwhat treaty?!?” in response to Poehler’s Hillary Clinton mentioning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
— Fred’s Obama voice still isn’t good, but at least it’s better than that ridiculous, Hanna-Barbera cartoon-esque voice he used in the preceding episode.
— The advice Poehler’s Hillary is giving Fred’s Obama on increasingly minor things is pretty funny.
— The live, post-ad message from Poehler’s Hillary feels kinda unnecessary and a little overlong, despite a few laughs.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & KRW sing “What Is This Feeling?” to voice their sisterly loathing

— I see SNL is addressing the Amy Adams/Kristen Wiig facial resemblance that I remember people used to point out in Kristen’s first few seasons on SNL.
— Oh, no. This turns into a musical monologue, just when I was kinda liking where this monologue was going.
— Not caring at all for this musical number.
— At least the slapping/punching bit during the mid-song interlude is pretty funny.
STARS: **


MIRROR IMAGE
identical twin teens’ (host) & (KRW) identity ruse unravels

— Right out of the gate after the monologue, we already get a sketch pairing Adams and Kristen as twins.
— Pretty funny premise of the bad attempt to pass Kristen off as Adams’ twin.
— I’m so tired of the constant winking gag throughout this.
— Something about Kristen’s pratfall through a breakaway table came off hacky here.
— The goofy, juvenile atmosphere of this sketch isn’t quite working for me, and is yet another season 33 sketch that, in hindsight, feels to me like an unfortunate harbinger of the type of bad sketches Kristen would frequently star in in seasons 34-37.
STARS: **


COUPLES THERAPY
(WLF) is blind to contractual nature of citizenship-seeking (AMP)’s love

— The setting of this brings back memories of that Poison Therapy sketch from the preceding season’s Drew Barrymore episode.
— Good character for Poehler, and her performance and delivery are cracking me up throughout this.
— Good reveal of how Poehler’s illegal immigrant character met Will.
STARS: ***½


HERO SONG
Batman-wannabe (ANS) is repeatedly punched by mugger (JAS)

— Even though it’s non-comedic, I absolutely LOVE the song Andy’s singing, and it’s being accompanied by some great nighttime scenery of high-rise buildings.
— A huge laugh from Andy’s song suddenly getting cut off by Jason punching him ENDLESSLY.
— There’s a “Sideshow Bob rake sequence” quality to the endless punching, in that it starts out funny, then stops being funny due to going on so long, then goes BACK to being funny because of how long it’s going on.
— A funny gruesome part with Andy spitting out blood after one of the punches.
— Why did they have a car block the visual of Andy getting a mailbox dumped onto him?
— I like the silent, abrupt ending to this.
STARS: ****


FIERCE: THE HOT MESS MAKE-OVER SHOW
catchphrases rule Bravo reality show

— When this sketch originally aired, it went completely over my head, as I had no familiarity (and still don’t, to this day) with Project Runway, nor the guy from it who Poehler is playing. In fact, I didn’t even know back when this sketch originally aired that Poehler was playing a guy. I assumed Poehler was playing a woman, until I read online discussions of this episode shortly after the episode’s original airing (and according to those discussions, Poehler’s portrayal of this guy was spot-on). Seems kinda odd to have an effeminate man be played by a woman, but I guess it’s no different from any of the times SNL has had a man play a butch woman.
— Even watching this sketch now, it’s doing nothing for me. SNL has quite a number of TV/movie spoofs that work for all viewers, regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the TV show or movie being spoofed. This particular sketch, on the other hand, feels to me like it falls under the “You have to be familiar with the specifics of what’s being parodied in order to ‘get’ it” category.
— I am at least liking Casey’s straight man performance.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A-Punk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
third-party candidate Tim Calhoun makes his case for the presidency

AMP sings theme song of Ghostbusters ripoff Brooklyn Ghost Investigations

European comic Jean K. Jean’s (KET) humor has a continental flavor

— Fuck yeah! Tim Calhoun!
— Tonight’s Tim Calhoun commentary seems to be relying on puns a little more than usual, but everything here is still working for me. My favorite is the bit about a cow college. I also love the running bit with Calhoun’s awkward smile towards the audience.
— What the holy hell was with that “Joke of the week!” confetti thing after Poehler’s smallest gun joke?
— Oh, god. This Ghostbusters theme song bit with Poehler is just plain annoying, and feels like a throwback to the typical bad, annoying, hacky stuff she and Tina Fey would do together during the Fey/Poehler era of Update. Between the aforementioned baffling “Joke of the week!” confetti thing and now this, what’s going on with Poehler in tonight’s Update? She’s relapsing badly in regards to her worst habits as an Update anchor that she had curbed (to an extent) ever since Seth became her Update co-anchor.
— The debut of Kenan’s Jean K. Jean character.
— The comedic conceit of this Jean K. Jean character actually isn’t bad at all, and Kenan’s performance is very fun and likable. He’s executing this really well. I know quite a number of people (even some Kenan Thompson defenders) can’t stand this character, but I gotta say, based on his debut tonight, I don’t get the hate. I’m reacting positively to him in this inaugural appearance of his. However, we’ll see how I’ll feel about him in his subsequent appearances.
STARS: **½


TRAFFIC SCHOOL
at traffic school, Penelope ultimately makes good on her boasts

— I recall it being pointed out by a lot of online SNL fans that there’s a distracting female background extra in this sketch who spends this sketch unprofessionally smiling really big both towards the camera and in reaction to things the main characters are saying. After all these years, I’ve never had a chance to go back and see these background antics for myself….until now.
— Oh, wow. Right out of the gate, I’m noticing the overly-smiley background extra (the second above screencap for this sketch). It was easier to spot her than I thought.
— I continue to be surprised by how tolerant I continue to be towards Kristen’s Penelope routine. Four sketches in, and this character is still getting decent laughs from me.
— After the first minute or so of this sketch, the aforementioned smiley background lady has actually gotten into character, keeping a serious face and making disapproving facial reactions to ridiculous things Kristen’s Penelope is saying. The way people online talked about this lady made it seem like she made distracting smiley faces all throughout this entire sketch, which is not true.
— A particularly hilarious line from Penelope claiming that’s her eye on the pyramid on the dollar bill. That’s probably my favorite one-liner of hers out of all of her sketches.
STARS: ***


DR. UNCLE JIMMY’S SMOKEHOUSE AND OUTPATIENT SURGICAL FACILITY
Dr. Uncle Jimmy (WLF) mixes smokehouse with outpatient surgical facility

— Oh, I recall this being a typical brilliant Will Forte piece, one that I had completely forgotten until now.
— Great character voice from Will.
— A very creative oddball premise of a BBQ restaurant/outpatient surgical facility hybrid.
— A good laugh from how Bill’s endorsement of this business is “Sure, you could find better barbecue or a safer surgical experience………”, and then he just stares at the camera, never completing his sentence with an expected “but…etc.”.
— Amusing how one of the critic “reviews” of this business is a police report stating “They’re performing surgery at a barbeque restaurant”.
— I love the “I hope those aren’t my ribs!” bit with Jason and Andy.
— Funny mix-up between the blood and barbecue IV bags.
STARS: ****


ROGER CLEMENS PRESENTS
Roger Clemens’ (JAS) play depicts the nightmare of steroids-free baseball

— This sketch was cut after the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal. Ellen Page played Amy Adams’ role in that version.
— Hilarious opening visual of Jason with those fake muscles.
— Darrell makes his only appearance of the night in this late-in-the-show sketch, playing a small, non-celebrity-impression role. Feels like a precursor to all the useless small non-celebrity-impression roles he’ll be given in the post-election half of the following season (his final season), after just about all of his celebrity impressions have outlived their usefulness.
— Jason’s rage-filled attitude and outbursts as Roger Clemens are priceless. He’s so perfect for this role.
— Poehler seems to be playing lots of male roles this season.
— Second consecutive sketch tonight containing a scene with Andy in a hospital room, this time with him playing the patient instead of the doctor.
— A great angry rant from Jason’s Clemens at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


THE TOOKIE STYLES SHOW
25 years after its cable access run, Tookie Styles’ (KET) show is on DVD

— Holy hell. Talk about a sketch I had completely forgotten about until now. I fucking HATED this sketch back when this episode originally aired. Pretty much felt it was one of the worst sketches I had ever seen SNL air. Let’s see if it’s as bad as I remember it to be.
— I did at least get a laugh just now from the first instance of a Tookie Styles interview/dance sequence getting cut off by gunfire and the interviewee being rushed out of the scene.
— Bill’s character’s amused demeanor is charming.
— Aaaaaaaand there goes the endless repetition of the gunfire joke.
— We at least get a fake-out with Amy Adams’ character, with how the gunfire doesn’t happen during her initial appearance, but instead happens when she comes back to get her purse.
— Something about Kenan’s delivery of his discreet “Things have not been going so well for me lately” aside to the camera at the end of this sketch made that line much funnier than it had any right to be.
— Overall, still not a good sketch, but certainly not as horrible as I originally deemed it to be back in 2008. There was a weird goofy charm that made the poor script a little more tolerable.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “M79”


CELEBRATIONS
(AMP), (host), (CAW), (KRW) repurpose their old dance routine in a bar

— Casey gets her first real lead role.
— Bill has been all over tonight’s episode, as opposed to the measly one late-in-the-show appearance he made in the preceding episode.
— Very funny first dance from the ladies.
— Even more laughs from the ladies doing a very fast-paced version of the same dance to the fast-tempo second song that’s playing.
— Even though it’s predictable, it’s still funny seeing the ladies now doing a slow-paced version of the same dance to the slow-tempo third song that’s playing.
— I like the ladies unsuccessfully attempting to do their dance to Jason’s cellphone ringtone.
— Funny bit at the end with Bill already having the ladies’ purses ready for them.
— Great sketch overall, and a strong first big showcase for Casey.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, despite some flops. The second half of the episode was definitely stronger than the first half.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ellen Page)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
For the first time since all the way back in season 1, SNL dares to attempt a fourth consecutive live episode without having taken any weeks off in between. Future five-timer Jonah Hill makes his hosting debut.

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March 1, 2008 – Ellen Page / Wilco (S33 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DEBATE
Hillary Clinton [real] responds to debate skit; Vincent D’Onofrio cameo

— A funny and very spot-on Brian Williams impression from Will, which is especially surprising, as Will’s not often known for doing dead-on celebrity impressions. Soon after this episode, it would be disclosed that he discovered how to do a Brian Williams impression by accident. He was trying out a character voice, and someone pointed out to him how much the voice he was doing sounded like Brian Williams, so he ran with it and turned it into a Brian Williams impression.
— What the hell? Is that eye-liner I’m seeing Darrell wearing as Tim Russert? Why?
— Speaking of Darrell’s Tim Russert, the real Russert would die just a few months after tonight’s episode originally aired. I can’t remember for sure, but I think that prevented this episode from getting a second NBC rerun (the first NBC rerun was sometime between tonight’s original airing and Russert’s death). I remember being a bit bummed back then that we never to got to see a second NBC rerun of this episode, because I missed the first NBC rerun of it, and I heard that SNL made quite a number of noteworthy edits and changes to this episode in the rerun (lots of dress rehearsal substitutions and such).
— I didn’t realize this until now, but starting in the preceding episode, SNL has finally ditched that dumb, unnecessary prosthetic nose they used to always have Amy wear as Hillary Clinton.
— A very funny speech from Amy’s Hillary about why she deserves to be president.
— Wow, Fred’s Obama voice in this sketch is just…wow. What the hell is he DOING?!? His voice is straight-up goofy, dopey, and cartoonish-sounding. I remember online SNL fans back at this time in 2008 saying he sounded Yogi Bear/Barney Rubble/Kermit The Frog-ish. Given the fact that this is only his second appearance as Obama, he’s clearly still experimenting with the voice at this point. I’d be more forgiving of that now if I knew in hindsight that he did eventually nail Obama’s voice, but nope. He never does.
— I love Will’s Brian Williams responding to a question from Amy’s Hillary by sternly telling her “We’ll ask the questions here, sister.”
— A very random but funny turn with Vincent D’Onofrio giving Amy’s Hillary a Law & Order-esque interrogation.
— At first, it seems strange that this cold opening concludes with a “The Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate” title sequence, without anyone saying “Live from New York…” (what is this, the Dick Ebersol era?), but we now see we’re getting an “Editorial Response” from the real Hillary Clinton. An unusual format of this cold opening.
— Hillary Clinton becomes the latest of what will be many presidential candidates to cameo during this 2008 presidential race.
— Hillary’s segment isn’t doing much for me, especially not the corny “celebrity meets their impersonator” meeting between her and Amy. Hillary would later do a better “celebrity meets their impersonator” sketch with Kate McKinnon in 2015.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host eschews Diablo Cody’s (ANS) overly-hip monologue verbiage

— Meh at the initial idea of Andy in drag playing Diablo Cody, but Andy seems like he can make this work.
— Funny bit with Andy’s Diablo Cody compulsively working the word “blog” into a whole bunch of consecutive sentences.
— Overall, Andy indeed made this potentially-iffy idea work.
STARS: ***


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Miley Cyrus (host) acts her age

— This recurring sketch makes its final appearance.
— Interesting change of pace with the “Kid Speak” segment.
— The “Kid Speak” segment was fun at first, but went on a little too long for something with such an obvious and thin comedic conceit that got its point across in its first 20 seconds.
— Ellen Page making an appearance as Miley Cyrus? Hmm.
— Yeah, Ellen is clearly badly miscast in this role. I don’t know what she’s going for in her Miley impression, but it’s not working AT ALL.
— A good laugh from Kenan muttering a bitter “Yeah, I’ll fiddle with your car breaks” in response to Amy’s Dakota lightheartedly calling him a second fiddle.
— I recently heard something in passing about how tonight’s Dakota Fanning Show installment caused some kind of controversy for Amy, but that’s news to me. I have no idea what it’s about. Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can give details on this.
— Oh, god, they’re now having Ellen sing as Miley Cyrus? Poor girl looks just plain embarrassed to be singing here, as she can be seen giggling nervously while singing half-heartedly, before Amy’s Dakota shows up to thankfully take focus away from her.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Obama Files” by RBS- Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton are marginalized

— (*sigh*) The end of an era, folks. This turns out to be the final TV Funhouse cartoon during TV Funhouse’s regular run. A few years later in an Ed Helms-hosted episode, out of nowhere, there would be a one-night-only special return of TV Funhouse, with a half-live-action Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon.
— A cheap laugh from Michelle Obama vomiting on cue to distract the media, even if it feels like Robert Smigel has done vomiting gags to death in his cartoons over the years.
— Feels kinda odd hearing Darrell’s typical Jesse Jackson voice in cartoon form.
— Whoever’s doing the voice for Obama in this cartoon is doing a very good job, which just makes Fred’s already-bad Obama impression look even worse.
— A few minutes into this cartoon, and boy, this is not working for me. I’m glazed over for so much of this.
— I did get a chuckle just now from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton’s podium and lion costumes.
— A somewhat funny ending joke with the Wayans Brothers making a movie about disguising as podiums.
— Overall, a very forgettable and sad way for TV Funhouse to go out.
STARS: **


THE COLLEGE FOR EXCELLENCE
(FRA) will teach you generic business phrases

— This feels like a variation of the Computer School commercial Fred did in the season 30 Paris Hilton episode.
— The bad, stiff acting from the commercial actors is only mildly funny. Nothing too great to me.
— Andy is stealing this whole sketch with his bizarre, awkward little background antics.
— I did not care at all for Fred’s whole ending spiel. Felt unnecessary, and ended this sketch on a flat note.
STARS: **


THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRLS
Henry VIII (JAS) juggles Anne (host) & The Other Boleyn Girls in movie

— Jason is a very funny straight man here.
— A somewhat rare (at least it feels somewhat rare) instance of Will dressing in drag.
— Kenan always kills with one-liners like the one he has at the end of this sketch, but I’m not sure how to feel about the whole ending portion of this sketch.
STARS: **½


NIGHTMARE
(host) & undead (ANS) occupy each other’s nested nightmares

— Some laughs from Andy’s goofy-looking “scary” character occasionally popping up in the mirror.
— Good turn with this turning out to be Andy’s nightmare instead of Ellen’s.
— The non-sequitur Dracula scene was pretty funny.
— Not sure I cared for that ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hate It Here”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rudolph Giuliani [real] blames his campaign failure on his SNL appearance

Nicholas Fehn’s sociopolitical commentary comprises sentence fragments

— Our second instance tonight alone of a presidential candidate cameoing during this 2008 presidential race. This is starting to get kinda insane.
— “America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani”. Another now-sad reminder of how lovable Giuliani used to be.
— I kinda like the meta turn in Giuliani’s commentary with him blaming his campaign failure on him dressing in drag in a Rita Delvecchio sketch when he hosted SNL in 1997.
— Much like the famous “Can we be funny?” “Why start now?” exchange between Lorne and Giuliani in the post 9/11 cold opening, Giuliani gets in another good-natured dig at SNL, comparing his campaign to a typical SNL sketch, in that it started strong, but didn’t have an ending.
— I love the German napping bit that Seth and Amy are doing together.
— Nicholas Fehn has officially become recurring.
— Fred’s basically just repeating the exact same stuff from the first Nicholas Fehn commentary, but it’s still getting laughs from me in this second commentary, even if I’m not laughing as hard as last time. I can definitely see fatigue looming ahead towards this character, given how insanely frequently we’ll be seeing him in such a short amount of time within this and the following season, and how his routine never changes, but at this point, Fred’s still making this work and I still have enough goodwill left in this second appearance of this character.
— I love Nicholas Fehn’s random “I saw Dmitri” aside to a confused Amy.
— Amy laughed at Seth’s Doomsday Vault joke harder than the audience did. It always bugged the hell out of me when Tina Fey had a bad habit of doing that towards Jimmy Fallon’s jokes during the later years of the Fallon/Fey era of Update.
— A surprising amount of fairly forgettable jokes from Amy and Seth in tonight’s Update.
STARS: **½


SHOPPING WITH VIRGINIACA
Virginiaca & stepdaughter (host) are stymied by Baby Gap employee (ANS)

— UGH.
— What was the point of giving this particular Virginiaca sketch an opening “Shopping With Virginiaca” title sequence, complete with a Don Pardo voice-over intro, when SNL never did that in previous (nor subsequent) Virginiaca sketches? It isn’t like this sketch itself is any different from other Virginiaca sketches.
— I actually got a laugh just now from a Virginiaca sketch, with a displeased Andy telling Virginiaca “If you need me, I’ll be nowhere.”
— Much like the role of Miley Cyrus earlier tonight, here we have another very questionable choice for a role Ellen has been cast in.
— I once again ask, how in the world does this Virginiaca character have a completely different white stepdaughter in each sketch when we’re told she’s married to the exact same man (the wealthy Mr. Hastings) every time?
— Boy, it’s just plain bizarre seeing and hearing Ellen attempt to act and talk “black”.
— Andy continues to be the only saving grace of this sketch, with his deadpan “Aaaaaaand I quit” line at the end when Virginiaca is trying to seduce him.
STARS: *½


HOOK’S REVENGE
Captain Hook (BIH) can’t get his pirates to shoot Peter Pan (host)

— Geez, why the hell is this Bill’s first and ONLY appearance all night? SNL’s under-utilization of this fantastic performer in his early seasons is so damn frustrating. John Mulaney cannot arrive at the writing staff soon enough at this point.
— This sketch has a bit of the same vibe from the West Side Story and Evita sketches from season 22.
— I love Will’s look in this.
— Yeah, more and more, this sketch appears to be following the same route of the West Side Story/Evita sketches, right down to having Bill in the Norm Macdonald role. While he’s no Norm when it comes to this type of sketch, Bill’s still giving a very solid and funny straight man performance in his own right, and is helping to make this sketch work.
— I don’t care for the audience participation bit, with a dead, stomped-on Tinkerbell being brought back to life by the audience’s applause. Way too corny for my likes. It would’ve been funnier (if darker) to me if they had just left Tinkerbell dead.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walken”


MARTY GOES GAY
(host) is feeling gay following a revelatory Melissa Etheridge concert

— Ah, not only a slice-of-life piece, which is INCREDIBLY rare for this era, but this is a slice-of-life piece with reality subtext in regards to our host, as this sketch obviously must’ve been inspired by the rumors/speculation of Ellen’s sexual orientation (this is several years before she would officially come out of the closet). When this sketch originally aired, I remember wondering if Ellen was using this sketch to tell us something about herself, so much so, that I half-expected her to follow this sketch by coming out of the closet in an official announcement during the goodnights (which, in a way, would’ve been a groundbreaking SNL moment).
— I’m absolutely loving Ellen’s recounting of what she experienced at a Melissa Etheridge concert, and I’m really enjoying the interplay between her and Andy.
— A very funny line from Ellen, asking “Why can’t I just hug a woman with my legs in friendship?”
— A really sweet and touching ending between Ellen and Andy.
— Overall, a very strong sketch. Great writing, great performances, great handling of the lesbian premise, and the aforementioned reality subtext adds a special, meaningful feel. Both Ellen’s performance and this sketch itself was much better than I remember deeming them to be back when this originally aired.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty middling and forgettable episode. Aside from the last sketch, nothing stood out to me as particularly great, and there was quite a number of weak sketches.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Amy Adams

Posted on

February 23, 2008 – Tina Fey / Carrie Underwood (S33 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CNN UNIVISION DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
media favorite Barack Obama (FRA) cruises during debate; Obama Girl cameo

— (*sigh*) Hoooooooo, boy. The debut of Fred’s Barack Obama impression, a.k.a. Fredbama. This is gonna be a long four-and-a-half years.
— I will say that I remember being very impressed by the makeup job on Fred’s Obama back when this episode originally aired.
— Kristen’s Campbell Brown: “Like nearly everyone in the media, the three of us are totally in the tank for Senator Obama.” Funny how much things had changed since SNL’s last episode before the writers’ strike, given the fact that, as pointed out in my last episode review, that episode contained a sketch dealing with Hillary Clinton being the media favorite to become the Democratic nominee, much to the other Democratic candidates’ chagrin.
— Kristen’s whole opening spiel about her and her colleagues suffering from Obama-related ailments is very funny.
— This cold opening is doing a solid spoof of the media’s fawning over Obama at this time.
— Very funny line from Amy’s Hillary bragging that her only supporters are white women over 80.
— Ha, Obama Girl (a.k.a. Amber Lee Ettinger). Anyone remember her today, 12 years later? Even back at this time in 2008, there were some online SNL fans who had no idea who she was, and some of those fans mistakenly assumed she was the new female cast member SNL had just hired (who’s name I’ll soon mention, after my review of this cold opening). In a live discussion thread for this episode on an SNL message board, one of the aforementioned people who mistook Obama Girl for the new female cast member made a post saying “Is that the new cast member? Wow, she’s HOT!”
— I absolutely love Kristen’s deadpan, stern “If you ever interrupt Obama Girl again—” threat to Amy’s Hillary.
— For being such a heavy focal point of this cold opening, Fred’s Obama is largely silent for most of this. (Probably a good thing, in hindsight.) Is that SNL’s way of hiding the fact that Fred hasn’t mastered his Obama voice by this point? (Ha, as if he ever would master it.) I recall it being obvious that his Obama voice was still a work in progress in these early Obama sketches of his, because, IIRC, he uses an utterly BIZARRE, cartoonish-sounding voice as Obama in the cold opening of the very next episode. I can’t wait to see if his voice in that cold opening is as bad as I remember.
— Hmm, I spoke a bit too soon about Fred’s Obama being largely silent in tonight’s cold opening, as we now get a long speech from him.
— Kristen’s orgasmic reaction to the big, noble speech Fred’s Obama just made was hilarious.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Casey Wilson has been added to the cast tonight.


MONOLOGUE
Steve Martin [real] gets unsure performer TIF to say “I can do it!”

— A lot of very good, perfectly Tina Fey-esque lines from Tina early on in this monologue in regards to the writers’ strike she participated in.
— Nice to see a Steve Martin appearance here, and his interplay with Tina is very fun.
— Much like Tina’s perfectly Tina Fey-esque lines here, Steve has so many perfectly Steve Martin-esque lines, especially in regards to the differences between a writer and a star.
— I love the bit with Steve having Tina say “I can do it!” in different specific voices (e.g. as an old-fashioned movie character, as a cartoon mouse, as a cartoon mouse in Spanish).
STARS: ****


ANNUALE
pill concentrates menstruation into a once-per-year paroxysm

— A female-oriented commercial that feels like it’s in the tradition of famous Tina Fey-era female-oriented Fey/Poehler/Dratch/Rudolph-starring commercials like Mom Jeans and Kotex Classic.
— An absolutely hilarious and epic turn with us being shown a montage of the insane actions of the women when they get their annual period. I especially love Tina’s character scaring her co-workers away by running around the office while swinging an axe like a madman.
— Great little detail throughout this commercial with how one object in each scene is pink while the rest of the objects are either a drab color or are shown through a black-and-white screen filter.
— A hilarious ending screen crawl disclaimer regarding the “Do not take if…”s of the medication.
— The ending voice-over from Amy was kinda pushing it and wasn’t necessary, but didn’t hurt this fantastic ad.
STARS: *****


ROCK OF LOVE 2
Bret Michaels (JAS) doesn’t choose one-legged Amber

— In hindsight, this sketch now serves as a time capsule of these “……Of Love” reality shows that dominated VH1 in the late 2000s.
— Tina is very funny here.
— I see SNL’s already letting Casey Wilson know her status as a newbie (which, as we now know, SNL would sadly NEVER stop doing for the remainder of Casey’s short-lived run as a cast member), as she’s the only contestant in this sketch who doesn’t get her own pre-taped confessional sequence like the other contestants are.
— After almost two minutes of being a straightforward (but funny) Rock Of Love parody, this turns into an Amber sketch OUT OF NOWHERE. This ends up being the final Amber sketch while Amy’s still in the cast.
— Ha, at least Casey gets a sloppy tongue-kissing make-out session with Jason, which is certainly……….something. I remember Casey talking about that in an interview she did on a podcast just a few months after tonight’s episode originally aired.
— I’m glad this sketch isn’t focusing as heavily on Amber as her previous sketches did, as the humor involving her character can tend to get a little tedious at times. Plus, in her limited airtime in this sketch, she’s actually working well.
STARS: ***½


GRANDKIDS IN THE MOVIES
edited-in grandsons (BIH) & (ANS) quell anxiety in DVDs for old people

— “The following is a message for old people.” That opening disclaimer made me laugh harder than it probably should’ve.
— A decent premise, even if it seems a little unexciting for a Digital Short in SNL’s first episode back after a long hiatus.
— The part with Bill and Andy telling the grandfather, in regards to the ringing phone in the Michael Clayton movie clip, “That phone’s in the movie, grandpa. That’s not your phone”, is particularly funny to me, because when I watched this Digital Short back when this episode originally aired, I mistakenly thought that was my phone ringing, too, and I’m not even remotely elderly (I was 23 when this originally aired).
— I love the bit with Andy struggling to translate Rainn Wilson’s ridiculous slang in the Juno clip.
— In hindsight, this short is unintentionally a good time capsule of big Oscar-nominated movies from around this time (No Country For Old Men, Juno, There Will Be Blood, etc.).
— Pretty odd how this Digital Short’s lead role of the grandfather is being played by a completely unknown actor. However, I’m enjoying his performance here, and he’s charming and likable.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S THAT BITCH TALKING ABOUT?
(TIF) intuits females on game show

— Already a cheap laugh from the title right at the beginning of this sketch.
— This is the very first of what would be many instances of Kenan playing a game show host, though his second instance wouldn’t be until as much as five years later (in the “New Cast Member Or Arcade Fire” sketch, which, coincidentally, happens to be in another Tina Fey-hosted episode). After that, he’d go on to play game show hosts pretty often.
— A pretty good laugh from how the game show prize is an old canary-yellow 1992 Mazda Protege.
— I love Casey’s angry rant during her small appearance, especially her exaggerated southern-accented pronunciation of the word “ass”.
— A likable game show host performance from Kenan.
— Another sketch tonight that Tina is fun in, especially her extremely detailed, long-winded answer to the third question, involving a character played by Kristen.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All-American Girl”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in politics & SNL, Mike Huckabee [real] misses his cue to exit the stage

TIF thinks the value of Hillary Clinton’s bitchiness is underappreciated

— I forgot to point out in the preceding episode that Barack Obama’s cameo is just the beginning of what will be MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race. Tonight’s Mike Huckabee cameo continues that.
— For a non-actor, Mike Huckabee is actually performing well here, not being stiff at all like some politicians tend to come off on SNL. He’s coming off likable and laid-back here.
— Having Tina bring back her recurring “Women’s News” segment from her Weekend Update tenure is a good way to work the obligatory commentary from her into tonight’s Update.
— A lot of solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News segment. And the turn at the end with her bragging about the perks of being a bitch is memorable, especially her “Bitch is the new black” declaration (which would soon be one-upped by Tracy Morgan in a cameo appearance three episodes later). Even the interaction between Tina and Amy here, which seems to be attempting somewhat of a throwback to the Fey/Poehler era of Update (and you KNOW how I felt about that Update era), is coming off better than I typically found their interactions during their era of Update together.
STARS: ***½


THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
Donald Trump’s (DAH) axe swings for minor stars

— Great to see the return of Kenan’s Charles Barkley after how much he killed it in the Iconoclasts sketch earlier this season.
— I love Kenan’s Barkley firing himself for his poor idea, and walking out of the scene.
— Another return of a fun impression from a cast member: Bill’s John Mark Karr.
— A big blast from the past now to see impressions of Matthew Lesko (the Question Mark Suit Guy from those commercials in the 90s) and Mr. Six (the dancing old guy from the Six Flags commercials in the 2000s).
— Between playing Dennis Kucinich then-recently and now playing Mr. Six in this sketch, I’m getting a big Kate McKinnon vibe from Amy lately.
— I love Will-as-Judge-Ito’s sing-songy delivery of “I brought my own gaveeeeeellllll!”
STARS: ***


WEDDING TOAST
Ed Mahoney’s careless loquacity upsets newlyweds’ (WLF) & (TIF) reception

— Yes! The return of Jason’s Ed Mahoney character, a forgotten-by-most-people favorite of mine from a sketch in season 31. I remember hearing SNL attempted at least once to make him recurring back in season 31, but the sketch didn’t make it past dress rehearsal. The description of that cut Ed Mahoney sketch made it sound like a blatant carbon-copy of the first Ed Mahoney sketch, right down to ending the exact same way with him attempting to run out of a store with a stolen object and then getting brought down by a guard with a taser, so maybe it’s a good thing that sketch got cut. Tonight’s Ed Mahoney sketch is thankfully doing new, fresh things with the character instead of being a lazy carbon-copy of his first sketch.
— So many funny inappropriate lines from Ed Mahoney, and, as always, I absolutely love that trademark laugh of his.
— A very funny blunt, rude “I hope you two die!” parting message from Mahoney to the newlyweds.
STARS: ****


VIRGANIA HORSEN’S HOT AIR BALLOON RIDES
Virgania Horsen (KRW) wants you to take a ride in her hot air balloon

— So much bizarre, low-budget randomness here, but I am loving it, and it’s being executed so well. This definitely feels like the type of thing that would’ve aired at the time on Tim & Eric.
— Kristen is absolutely perfect here.
STARS: ****


I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE
Daniel Plainview (BIH) intensifies egg creams

— I absolutely love this unusual, creative way of spoofing the famous “I drink your milkshake” scene from There Will Be Blood.
— Amy plays her second male role in tonight’s episode alone.
— A great opening title sequence and Will Forte-sung theme song. (Side note: between the MacGruber sketches and now this, I’m starting to think every sketch that contained a theme song in this era should’ve been sung by Will Forte.) One minor little question about the title sequence, though: why does Amy’s character have light blonde hair in it, while having dark brown hair in the live portions of this sketch?
— Bill is absolutely brilliant in his performance as Daniel Day Lewis’ There Will Be Blood character. At this time back in 2008, it still felt somewhat rare to see Bill in a lead role in a sketch, which made this sketch come off particularly refreshing.
— Fred is a dead-ringer for Anton Chigurh. I can’t say for sure if he’s nailing the voice, though.
— Much like the Digital Short earlier tonight, this sketch, in hindsight, is a good time capsule of the big Oscar-nominated movies from around this time.
— Bill-as-Daniel-Plainview’s “I’VE ABANDONED MY CHIIIIIIILD! I’VE ABANDONED MY BOOOOYYYYY!” panicked outburst is not only hilarious, but has stuck in my memory over the years. It’s hard to forget that specific shouting from Bill.
— Second episode in a row where Fred makes his exit in a sketch by slowly walking past the camera in an obnoxious, hammy, screen-hogging manner. Ugh, I hope that’s not becoming a habit of his, even if I did kinda chuckle at it in this context of him doing it as Anton Chigurh (it would’ve been funnier had he not already done it in the preceding episode).
— Interesting having this week’s SNL host play a character (Juno) that the following week’s SNL host played in a movie.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Flat On The Floor”


LADY BUSINESS
yet another TV show features determined career women

— The semi-theme tonight of female-oriented sketches/commercials pairing Tina and the entire female cast together continues.
— Very funny little moment from Kristen with her clarifying to Andy that her last name, St. George, is pronounced “stuh-gorg”.
— Poor Casey, being one of the four female leads in this sketch, but getting no lines, nor her own scene like the other three female leads are getting. I’ll give SNL the benefit of the doubt and assume it was planned for her to have her own scene in this sketch, but portions of this sketch had to go through some hasty, last-minute trimming due to the show running a little long. I can’t remember if I’ve seen it confirmed that Casey did indeed get her own scene in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS
90 year-old DOP blows out the candles on his birthday cake

— A special occasion during these goodnights, as SNL holds a wonderful little celebration for Don Pardo’s 90th (!!!) birthday.
— An interesting coincidence how both times Carrie Underwood was a musical guest on SNL (the preceding season’s Peyton Manning episode being the first time), a big birthday celebration was held during the goodnights.
— A memorable visual of Don blowing out the 90 candles on his birthday cake. Too bad the goodnights get cut off before he finishes.
— I believe this ends up being Don’s final onscreen SNL appearance, despite remaining SNL’s announcer for the next 6 years. It’s significant that this birthday celebration is what ends up being his final appearance.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, and a great return for SNL after the writers’ strike. Every single segment in this episode worked for me, and there was a high number of segments that received a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Much like Molly Shannon in her hosting stint the preceding season, Tina Fey being given a lot of the same type of non-Weekend Update roles she typically played during her cast member years, including some very minor roles, made this episode refreshingly feel almost like there was no host, and that Tina was just a cast member again.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Brian Williams)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ellen Page

Posted on

November 3, 2007 – Brian Williams / Feist (S33 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HALLOWEEN PARTY
Barack Obama [real] at Bill (DAH) & Hillary (AMP) Clinton Halloween party

— An often-played cold opening in many SNL Halloween compilation specials.
— I love the Halloween costume that Darrell’s Bill Clinton is wearing, even if I’ve never had any familiarity with The Pickup Artist, nor the person from it who Darrell’s Clinton is dressed as.
— A Horatio Sanz cameo out of nowhere. At least this is more welcome than his season 32 cameo as Elton John in a tired Versace sketch, given the fact that having him appear here as Bill Richardson at least kinda makes sense. And, wow, he’s lost a lot of weight since his last cameo, where he had already started losing a little weight. He’s still not quite as thin as he would eventually get, but he’s still looking much healthier in tonight’s episode than he ever looked during his SNL tenure.
— The debut of Jason’s Joe Biden impression.
— The running gag with people mistaking Amy-as-Hillary-Clinton’s bride costume for a witch costume is funny, but don’t witches always wear black, not white?
— Fred as a straitjacketed Mike Gravel made me laugh at first, though he REALLY milked his exit in this sketch by slowly walking past the camera in a hammy fashion (something that sadly feels kinda like a precursor to how annoying and obnoxious Fred would go on to often come off in his later seasons).
— Meh, a predictable joke with what the loose Milk Duds in Fred-as-Gravel’s plastic bag turns out to REALLY be.
— A very well-known cameo from the real Barack Obama, a cameo that, of course, would later be looked back on as an even bigger and more significant deal after he would become president.
— I remember once seeing a publicity photo of the dress rehearsal version of this cold opening, where, instead of the real Obama being there, he was actually played by Maya in drag. (Perhaps the photo can be found on GettyImages; I don’t have time to check.) I’m guessing the real Obama wasn’t able to make it to dress rehearsal, so SNL used Maya as backup to fill in his role. I remember how, back in these days when online SNL fans were speculating who on SNL would regularly play Obama, several fans suggested that SNL have Maya dress in drag to regularly play him, given the fact that both Maya and Obama are half-black half-white. SNL probably knew not to make Maya their regular Obama impersonator, considering she already had one foot out the door by this point of her SNL tenure.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— A pretty good laugh from Brian Williams mentioning how everyone, including himself, is currently thinking the same thing regarding him hosting SNL: “Now is this really a good idea?”
— Brian mentions in passing that he moderated the Democratic debate earlier this week. That’s actually impressive and surprising that he was able to do that the same week he hosted SNL.
— While the turn with Brian treating this monologue like he’s delivering a news story (complete with news graphics being displayed next to him) is quite predictable and maybe a little corny, Brian is executing it well and is making it charming. He’s already showing good promise as a host.
STARS: ***½


MAYBELLINE FOR MEN
packaging is only differentiating feature of Maybelline makeup for men

— Meh at this premise. And it’s no surprise Fred plays the first guy seen wearing makeup in this, given how often we see him in drag during these years of his SNL tenure. So tired.
— Wow, that’s it? That’s the whole commercial? This was lame as hell. While the concept of advertised men’s makeup being the exact same as women’s makeup, minus the labeling on the package, had maybe a little promise, the execution of it did nothing for me.
STARS: *


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
fireman (host) gives home safety preparedness suggestions

— This is the final installment of this sketch when both Maya and Amy are still in the SNL cast, as tonight ends up being Maya’s final SNL episode. This sketch would still go on to continue appearing several more times, either when Maya makes a cameo while Amy’s still in the cast, or when either Maya or Amy are making a cameo in an episode that the other is hosting.
— I love Brian’s New Yorker voice as this fireman character. He’s surprisingly very convincing in this role.
— A big laugh from Amy’s “It’s gonna be hard to keep her off the pole” comment regarding the future state of Maya’s young daughter who’s shown a way-too-early interest in dressing sluttily.
— Another very funny line from Amy, this time regarding her husband being an expert at “grabbing himself”.
— Maya has a bad habit of sometimes speaking a little too fast and unintelligibly in these Bronx Beat sketches. I could barely understand a single word from her during her bit right now about her husband watching ESPN, and I think the audience feels the same way as me, as they aren’t laughing at that bit. Maya delivered that line SO unintelligibly that she made one part of it sound dirty (“My husband’s [*word I can’t decipher*] off to ESPN every night.”), even though I doubt that’s how it was actually worded.
— I really like the short, vague bit with Amy whispering advice to Maya to get “one of those things” to spice up her love life. A very realistic and authentic little moment.
— A change of pace with this sketch concluding with Amy and Maya’s characters walking off of the show mid-progress, leaving their guest sitting there by himself.
— A huge laugh from Brian’s brief Borat-esque delivery of “MY WIIIIFE!” during his whole spiel at the end.
STARS: ***½


RILEY’S WAY
TV actor (host) reacts poorly to the news he won’t be in spin-off series

— Brian’s desperation to continue hanging out with his younger co-stars is pretty funny.
— Very funny how Brian’s attitude during the scene being filmed turns very bitter and unprofessional after he finds out he’s not going to be in the Riley’s Way spin-off.
— We now get a funny visual of Brian poorly trying to come off cool and young during the filming, complete with a sideways cap.
— I really like the twist ending with Bill’s clapboard-holder character being written into the Riley’s Way finale as a guy who killed Brian’s character.
STARS: ****


PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE GIVEAWAY
sweepstakes winner’s (host) subdued reaction baffles cheery Cheryl (KRW)

— Oh, wow, I had completely forgotten about this very-occasionally-used recurring sketch until now. (It’s so very occasionally used that the second installment of it doesn’t appear until THREE SEASONS LATER).
— I remember finding Kristen’s performance to be a laugh riot when this sketch originally aired, but I’m wondering how I’ll feel about it now in retrospect, due to 1) the fact that this would eventually become a very unnecessary recurring sketch, suffering diminishing returns, and 2) the fact that this sketch happens to be debuting around the same point of Kristen’s SNL tenure where I’m now noticing we’ve been getting an awful lot of worrisome harbingers of the badly-written, unfunny, annoying Wiig-starring sketches that would regularly appear in seasons 34-37.
— I’m getting pretty good laughs so far from Kristen’s failed attempts to get Brian hyped up.
— Not only is it inherently funny seeing Brian Williams play a role like this, but he’s perfectly selling his character’s indifference towards his prize.
— I love Kristen’s suddenly deep, gaspy voice when she starts running out of breath due to her excitement.
— Even though it’s probably not a great punchline and is somewhat predictable, I’m loving Brian’s execution of the bit where he finally shows excitement……..over receiving free cheesy bread, of all things.
— Overall, I’m glad that, contrary to my worries, I was able to still enjoy both Kristen’s performance and this sketch in general, and not find it to be an unfunny, badly-written harbinger of annoying 2008-2012 Kristen Wiig showcases. However, this will NOT hold up as a recurring sketch, especially since, IIRC, the subsequent installments of this sketch change NOTHING up; they’re basically just a lazy re-write of the first installment. Not to mention the fact that the hosts who appear in those installments (Emma Stone, Russell Brand, can’t remember if there’s anyone else) aren’t as fun to see play an indifferent role like Brian Williams was.
STARS: ***½


BRIAN DIARIES
narcissistic host documents his day; Matt Lauer, Al Roker, Bono cameos

— Kind of a different-feeling Lonely Island Digital Short, not only because of the very mature vibe, but also because it features no SNL performers. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other Lonely Island Digital Shorts that feature neither Andy nor any other SNL performers. Before anyone points out the Peyton Manning United Way ad (and even there, one could argue that an SNL performer is featured, as Bill does the voice-over in it), I’m just counting things that were officially billed on the air as Digital Shorts, by opening with the famous “An SNL Digital Short” black title screen.
— Hilarious scene involving Brian throwing pennies from his office window onto Al Roker and Matt Lauer below while they’re doing a Today Show report.
— Wow, a VERY random but funny cameo from Bono. Despite U2 being somewhat a Friend Of The Show to SNL, I’m still surprised SNL got Bono to do such a brief, random scene like this.
— Keeping up the trend in tonight’s episode of predictable gags being executed surprisingly well, the ending reveal of the sweet, heartfelt voicemail message Brian was shown leaving earlier turning out to be towards himself could be seen coming from a mile away, but somehow ended up still working and making me laugh.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “1234”


WEEKEND UPDATE
innumerate studio head (FRA) gives producers’ side of writer strike

Barbara Birmingham rails against kids’ sexy Halloween costumes

— The darkened Update set this season is looking PARTICULARLY dark tonight.
— Roger A. Trivanti? That name of Fred’s character reminds me of a certain Dick Ebersol-era one-time SNL host: Daniel J. Travanti.
— Fred has done a commentary in every single Update so far this season, as a different person each time. Keeping up the Ebersol-era theme in my review of this Weekend Update, is Fred attempting to become the new Tim Kazurinsky when it comes to frequently appearing as guest commentators on Update/Saturday Night News? I can actually picture Tim playing this smug, slimy Roger A. Trivanti character of Fred’s. This makes me try to picture Fred and Tim playing each other’s Update characters in general. Since Fred seems to love doing bits that mess with the audience’s heads and tests their patience, I can kinda picture him playing Dr. Jack Badofsky, though I can’t see him doing it quite as well as Tim did it.
— I’m really enjoying Fred’s Roger A. Trivanti commentary, and he has some very funny brash lines.
— While Roger A. Trivanti would never become a recurring character on SNL (something I wish I could say about the Nicolas Fehn character that Fred debuted in the preceding episode’s Update), Fred would reprise him about a week later in a writers’ strike-related comedy video he would post online, where he, as Trivanti, approaches striking writers on the picket line and basically trolls them. It’s in the tradition of the man-on-the-street videos Fred used to do on HBO in his early, pre-SNL comedy days.
— The second and final appearance from Kenan’s now-forgotten “Update Nanny” character, Barbara Birmingham.
— The beginning of tonight’s Barbara Birmingham commentary, with her giving Amy a normal greeting, then randomly giving Seth a very dismissive, unfriendly greeting, which offends Seth, reminds me too much of the way the Aunt Linda commentaries from Kristen always begin.
— Some occasional brief instances of self-amused breaking from Kenan. Is he being haunted by Horatio Sanz’s essence due to Horatio being in the building tonight?
— I’m not caring much for tonight’s Barbara Birmingham commentary. Her previous commentary was better.
— After the Barbara Birmingham commentary has ended, I absolutely love Seth’s ad-libs about how Barbara messed up his tie when she angrily swiped her hand towards him a little earlier.
STARS: ***½


LARRY KING LIVE
Harry Potter outtakes depict gay Dumbledore (BIH)

— Meh, I’m never crazy about seeing Fred’s Larry King impression.
— Oh, I remember this sketch being filled with lots of groan-worthy gay jokes. I can only imagine how even more groan-worthy these gay jokes will now come off by today’s standards.
— Ugh at that joke about a gay club being named “Man Hole”.
— Dumbledore: “Ohh, Minerva. If only you had a penis and balls.” I remember that line actually having me laughing out loud back in 2007. I have no reaction to it today.
— I got a laugh from Kristen’s intentionally stiff delivery of the line “Oh, no you di-iiiiin’t!”
— Overall, it turns out most of the gay jokes weren’t as cringey as I was expecting, but I still got almost no entertainment from this sketch.
STARS: *½


iPHONE
(FRA)’s testimonial explains how the iPhone helps him cheat on his wife

— I like Fred’s delivery of the line “God, I wish my wife wasn’t pregnaaaant”, after having revealed to us so many sleazy things regarding the affair he’s having with another woman.
— Pretty funny reveal at the end.
— There’s a second installment of this commercial that got cut after dress rehearsal, but would be put online as a special cut-for-time online exclusive shortly after this episode originally aired. This installment starred Jason, and he, while praising the features of the new iPhone, bragged about his penchant for randomly punching cops in the face (or something like that; my memory of it is fuzzy). I remember this commercial being hilarious, especially the ending of it, though I can’t even remember what exactly happened at the end.
STARS: ***


BEFORE THE DEBATE
Bill Richardson (HOS) & other Democrats conspire to stop Hillary Clinton

— Hmm, a second sketch tonight with the Democratic candidates. At least, much like the cold opening earlier tonight, SNL isn’t going the predictable route by having the candidates appear in a typical Democratic debate sketch.
— What the hell? Now Darrell is playing Chris Dodd? After Bill played him in the cold opening earlier tonight??? I guess Darrell wanted to play him to begin with, but couldn’t do it in the cold opening because he was playing Bill Clinton. Still weird and confusing to have two different cast members play the same politician in two different sketches in the same episode, especially when that politician is a presidential candidate. Even odder is the fact that Bill and Darrell’s impressions of Dodd are completely different from each other. Bill seemed to be going for a more generic impression, barely even changing his voice (which is unusual, since Bill is generally a great impressionist), while Darrell appears to be going for a much more accurate, distinct voice. (I don’t have much familiarity with what the real Chris Dodd sounds like, so I have no idea if Darrell’s nailing the voice.)
— SNL never fails to get a cheap laugh from me whenever a sketch does an initial cutaway to Amy as Dennis Kucinich.
— Speaking of Amy’s Kucinich, that’s another role that’s been played by two different performers tonight, but, much like Darrell, Amy couldn’t play Kucinich in the cold opening because she was playing Hillary Clinton.
— Brian Williams bluntly telling the Democratic candidates that he and everybody else in the media are pulling for Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee is interesting in hindsight, because, when SNL returns from writers’ strike a few months later, they do a whole bunch of cold openings about how miffed Hillary is that Obama is the media darling who everyone is pulling for to be the Democratic nominee.
— The fact that nobody’s playing Obama in this sketch, because he, as Will’s John Edwards explains, is on his way, makes it painfully obvious that SNL still doesn’t have a plan at this point on who in the cast will play Obama. Given the fact that The Rock was scheduled to host the following week’s episode, before the writers’ strike ended up putting the kibosh on that, I remember making a prediction back at this time that The Rock would play Obama in a sketch in that episode, given how so many people back then pointed out the strong similarities between The Rock and Obama’s voices. (As we know now, despite the writers’ strike canceling The Rock’s scheduled hosting stint this season, he would later play a form of Obama very sporadically on SNL, in those “The Rock Obama” sketches.) Also, sometime during the writers’ strike after tonight’s episode, SNL would hold auditions to hire an Obama impersonator. (The auditioners include several well-known or soon-to-be-well-known names, such as Donald Glover, Wyatt Cenac, and Jordan Peele. Of those auditioners, I remember having my fingers crossed for Peele to get hired, as I would’ve LOVED seeing him as an SNL cast member after having been a fan of his work on MADtv at the time.) SNL would end up passing on ALL of those auditioners, and would questionably end up choosing……a certain someone within their then-current cast to play Obama (as we’ll see in the very next episode).
— Horatio Sanz is surprisingly pretty solid and understated in his performance here.
— Despite some funny lines, this sketch isn’t working much for me. It’s coming off as another one of this era’s sluggish, tepid, overlong, Jim Downey-written political pieces that are a slog to get through.
— I do kinda like the reveal that Fred’s Mike Gravel isn’t even in the debate, but nobody has the heart to tell him.
— The bit with Jason-as-Biden’s “Where’s the beef?” suggestion is INCREDIBLY unfunny on paper, but Jason’s solid delivery of it is actually making me laugh.
— Now the candidates are talking about kidnapping Hillary and tying her up with a rope? Ugh, this sketch is getting increasingly lame in its failed attempts to escalate the humor.
— Hmm. An out-of-nowhere turn with Fred-as-Gravel’s violent off-camera outburst. That’s still not funny enough to save this sketch, unfortunately.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Feel It All”


THE NEW OPEN
host rejects new news theme ideas in favor of his own 007-style concept

— I think Amy has appeared in practically EVERY SINGLE SKETCH tonight. Feels like a throwback to how frequently she was utilized in seasons 30 and 31.
— And now here’s Fred, who’s also had an incredibly busy night, appearing in a majority of the sketches.
— Feels kinda bittersweet seeing Maya in what ends up being her final sketch as a cast member, which wasn’t known at the time (though she may have suspected it, given the fact that it was known how strong the possibility was of the writers’ strike occurring the following week). At least she’s ending her SNL tenure doing one of her all-time favorite things: singing in an exaggerated, hammy voice.
— Kinda fun seeing the vastly different singing style of each individual member of this band.
— An absolutely fantastic 007-esque NBC Nightly News intro sequence with Brian, made even more epic by it being immediately followed by him behind the Nightly News desk, signing on by saying, in his professional trademark delivery, a badass “Good evening, I’m Brian Williams, and…that’s…how…I…roll.” Not only a perfect way to end this sketch, but a perfect way to end this episode.
STARS: **** (the rest of this sketch would’ve only gotten three or three-and-a-half stars from me, but the whole ending portion bumped the overall rating up to four stars)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. Brian Williams was also a surprisingly strong host, doing a solid job in every sketch, being fun, coming off likable, and getting laughs. It did feel, though, like he disappeared for a large portion of the post-Weekend Update half of the episode, but then again, since he had to moderate the Democratic debate earlier this week, maybe that cost him a day of rehearsals at SNL, and thus, they had to write some sketches that didn’t utilize him much or at all.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Bon Jovi)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Instead of us getting the following scheduled episode…

…the writers’ strike puts SNL on a lengthy hiatus. They eventually return in February with host Tina Fey, and a new female addition to the cast.

Posted on

October 13, 2007 – Jon Bon Jovi / Foo Fighters (S33 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMY POEHLER’S HOUSE
21 years ago in teenage AMP’s bedroom, host counsels her about the future

— Hmm, “Amy Poehler’s House, 1986”? Well, THIS is certainly going to be a different and interesting cold opening. I absolutely LOVE this huge change of pace.
— Great touch with Teenage Amy Poehler speaking in a Boston accent.
— Charming interplay between Amy and Jon Bon Jovi.
— When being told she’ll be an SNL cast member 20 years from now, Teenage Amy should’ve been more surprised to hear that SNL would even still be on the air 20 years later, especially since 1) SNL had only been on the air for 11 calendar years by this point in 1986, and I’m not sure if many people in ’86 could’ve predicted the show would go on to reach 31 years on the air (let alone 45 years), and 2) the date that this sketch is set in (October 13, 1986) is just two days after season 12 of SNL premiered (I’d love to think Teenage Amy Poehler watched it that night), and it wasn’t known at the time yet if the then-revamped SNL was going to save the show from cancellation after the troubled season 11.
— Amy’s confusion over why Jon Bon Jovi would ever host SNL is really funny.
— Another SNL piece where Amy gets in a self-deprecating dig at her own small chest size, this time by asking Jon Bon Jovi “Will I ever get boobs?”
— Good set-up to the rest of this episode, with Jon telling Amy the next time she’ll see him will be on October 13, 2007 (the airdate of this episode).
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Richie Sambora [real] & other audience members want host to sing

Bon Jovi [real] performs “Lost Highway”

— Liz Cackowski makes her way into yet another questions-from-the-audience monologue, despite not even being an SNL writer anymore by this point. She left the writing staff two seasons prior. So what in the world is she doing here? Was she just hanging around backstage this week with Akiva Schaffer, her future husband (or were they already married by this point?)?
— Another dig tonight at how odd it is that Jon Bon Jovi is hosting.
— Steve Higgins gets in his usual laughs that he always gets in these questions-from-the-audience monologues.
— Wow, what the fuck happened just now? Why did Richie Sambora completely and awkwardly blank on one of his lines with that big ol’ goofy smile on his face, forcing Jon to eventually feed him his line?
— This monologue transitions to the host walking over to the musical guest stage and doing a full-fledged musical performance, much like a few other monologues from double-duty hosts (e.g. M.C. Hammer, Sting in his first hosting stint).
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


OHHHHH!
game show elicits New Jerseyites’ (FRA), (host), (DAH) outbursts

— A fairly okay way to utilize this particular SNL cast’s penchant for saying “Ohhh!” when playing wiseguy New Jerseyites, even if this is far from a memorable game show sketch. I’ll still take this over another Same-Sex Couple From New Jersey appearance on Weekend Update.
— Fred’s delivery of his first answer was hilarious.
— Darrell manages to work his Tony Soprano impression into another sketch.
— Jon’s timing seems kinda off during his spiel just now.
— A pretty good laugh from the contestants not seeing what the problem is with being serviced by a hooker on their wife’s birthday.
— Interesting use of Kristen.
STARS: ***


A VISIT WITH FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE
Nobel recipient Al Gore (DAH) shows off the contents of his trophy room

— Darrell’s microphone isn’t turned on when he starts speaking at the beginning of this, rendering his first line inaudible. Am I watching a repeat of the Jeremy Piven episode?
— What was with the awkwardness of how Darrell put away the Nobel Peace Prize?
— Ugh, I hate the running gag in this sketch, with Darrell’s Al Gore constantly namedropping (or titledropping) An Inconvenient Truth. This is pure COMEDY DEATH. Even the audience has stopped laughing at it by this point, halfway through the sketch. It’s just plain uncomfortable hearing their laughter towards the repetitive An Inconvenient Truth gag gradually die off to the point where you can hear a pin drop in the studio.
— An actual laugh from the Tony award that Darrell’s Gore displays turning out to be his wife Tipper’s Tony award for the Vagina Monologues.
— There’s some scattered funny parts here and there, but, man, so many parts of this sketch are dragging HORRIBLY. It’s too bad, because I’m liking Darrell’s loose, laid-back demeanor here. Between his likable performances as Fred Thompson and Lou Dobbs in the preceding episode, and his fun performance tonight as Al Gore, Darrell seems to have had some new life injected into him lately. Too bad I know it doesn’t last, and he eventually goes back to being his usual sluggish-performing, aloof, unhappy-looking, out-of-place, barely-appearing, “Why is he still on the show after so many years?” self that he is in these later seasons of his SNL tenure.
STARS: *½


PEOPLE GETTING PUNCHED JUST BEFORE EATING
ANS slugs hungry folks

— Already a hilarious and fun concept. This kind of dumb random humor is right up my alley, and very few are better than Lonely Island at executing this type of humor. Feels like a more elaborate variation of the “Andy Popping Into Frame” Digital Short that Lonely Island did the preceding season.
— Very catchy simplistic background music.
— A particularly funny “Double Punched!” bit with Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl. And it’s always nice to see Grohl get involved in a comedy bit on SNL.
— Jon Bon Jovi getting a “Jovi Punch!” was funny, but I don’t like how he made a “Full Recovery!” afterwards. I get the really bad feeling Jon himself demanded that “Full Recovery!” part be put in, because, with his huge ego, he probably refused to do a scene where he gets punched out WITHOUT him coming out on top in the end. Ugh.
— An absolutely hilarious fake-out with an about-to-eat Jason suddenly pulling out a cellphone right when he was about to get punched by Andy, causing Andy to halt mid-punch, then panickedly do a 180 and run back out of the scene.
— I love the running bit with Will throughout this, especially how it ends with the dark “Murder!” bit.
— Hmm, a very random (even for this already-random short’s standards) but interesting turn with the zombie chase sequence. Only the Lonely Island could make me like a turn that questionable.
STARS: ****½


POSTSEASON 07
for some reason, Dane Cook (JAS) promotes American League pennant series

— An absolutely perfect Dane Cook impression from Jason. Freakin’ spot-on. It helps that Jason already has a natural facial resemblance to Cook, but he’s nailing all of Cook’s mannerisms, delivery, and comedic style here, and is accurately parodying so many of the things I find so annoying about Cook.
— An overall very brief sketch, but I know in hindsight we’ll be getting a continuation of it later tonight.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
cultural misunderstandings baffle host

— Not a very entertaining reaction from Jon Bon Jovi when finding out Bill’s Vinny Vedecci is going to interview him in Italian dialect, compared to the on-point reactions that Julia Louis-Dreyfus and even the overly-hammy Zach Braff had to that in previous installments of this sketch.
— Another instance of Vinny Vedecci doing a fun, out-of-character celebrity impression, this time doing Steven Van Zandt. We also get the addition of Fred’s producer character doing an out-of-character Paulie Walnuts impression that we saw Fred do before in a Sopranos sketch. Quite a number of Sopranos references in tonight’s episode, by the way, between the “Ohhhhh!” sketch and this.
— A hilarious part with the cigarettes-for-kids commercial, complete with the Bon Jovi song “Blaze Of Glory” being played over it.
— I like the bit with the steel horse.
— I’m not caring for Jon’s straight man performance AT ALL here. Something is off-putting to me about his performance in this sketch. I wonder if part of it is that arrogance and ego of his that I complained about earlier. (Can you tell I haven’t been liking him as a host tonight?)
— Good turn at the end with Jon calling Vinny out on his fake Italian, resulting in a very “Uh-oh”-type silent pause from Vinny, Fred’s producer character, and even Will’s non-speaking spaghetti-eating character. I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 took that as a sign that this was going to be the final Vinny Vedecci sketch, given the fact that Jon calling Vinny and the others out on their fake Italian would’ve been a fitting way to conclude this series of sketches. As we know now, this ended up being FAR from the last installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
ahead of the writers’ strike, scab-to-be Rosa Santiago (MAR) tells jokes

naked guy using a cellphone (ANS) walks onto the Weekend Update set

political comedian Nicholas Fehn (FRA) can’t formulate a thought

— Wow, I cannot remember the last time prior to this where Weekend Update aired BEFORE the musical guest’s first performance. It may have been way back in season 28. I think tonight’s episode also may be the last time this has happened to this day in 2020, but then again, I can’t say for sure, as I have yet to see any episodes from December 2018-May 2020.
— Another so-called “funny”-voiced foreign-accented Maya Rudolph character.
— Maya’s Spanish janitor character here feels like a variation of someone Maya once played in an Update commentary very early in her SNL tenure: a Spanish maid of Linda Chavez’s. The fact that that was early in Maya’s SNL tenure, and her similar character in tonight’s Update is in her second-to-last episode, gives her SNL tenure a bit of a full-circle feel.
— Good ad-lib from Maya in reaction to the loose desktop her hands are resting on.
— Maya’s foreign-accented delivery is actually so goofy and over-the-top that it’s gone from kinda annoying me to actually making me laugh in spite of myself. I’m actually starting to enjoy this commentary of Maya’s, and find her character kinda charming.
— An okay brief bit with Andy as the naked guy who made headlines that week for walking nude into a Tad’s Steaks.
— The audience’s reactions to a lot of Amy’s jokes tonight are noticeably fairly mild.
— The debut of Fred’s Nicolas Fehn character.
— This inaugural Nicolas Fehn commentary has me laughing so much, and Fred is doing such a great skewering of “deep” political humorists. Unfortunately, SNL would later go on to run this character INTO THE FUCKING GROUND. He appears, like, 10 times within this and the following season. This probably would’ve been much better off being left as a one-and-done character. His subsequent appearances after tonight’s episode would have him just repeat the exact same bit every single time, which doesn’t work anywhere near as well on repetition.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Pretender”


WHERE’S MY PURSE?
during an alien attack, lost purse preoccupies spaceship captain (KRW)

— A dumb, questionable premise for a sketch.
— I’m about halfway through this sketch, and I have yet to get a single laugh.
— Another sketch this season that feels like an early precursor to badly-written Kristen Wiig-starring sketches that we’ll be seeing on a regular basis from seasons 34-37, even if Kristen’s character in this particular sketch is nowhere near as annoying, muggy, or twitchy as a lot of her badly-written characters from seasons 34-37 would be. Speaking of which, something about Kristen’s characterization in this sketch strangely feels kinda Carol Burnett-esque to me.
— Why in the world did some audience members randomly applaud when Bill, in a bit role, got shot by one of the aliens?
— Kenan makes his first appearance all night in a bit role where he gives a loud, kinda annoying, very hammy performance that feels too out of place in this lethargic, lifeless, dreary sketch, almost as if he’s intentionally overacting due to being upset over his lack of airtime tonight. (I doubt that’s the case, though. I only said it because the thought of it amuses me.)
— (*sigh*) Absolutely NOTHING about this sketch is working for me. Even something about the general aura of it feels “off” (like I said earlier, it feels dreary and lifeless, aside from Kenan’s out-of-place hammy, broad performance). Please end this sketch already, SNL.
STARS: *


POSTSEASON 07
Dane Cook (JAS) puts his stamp on National League pennant series promo

— Jason’s Dane Cook impression continues to crack me up.
— Some more funny lines from Jason’s Cook in this continuation of the first Postseason piece from earlier tonight. I especially like his self-aware “Spider-Man reference” remark.
STARS: ***½


NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL ON NBC
NBC is the proud home for broadcasts of Notre Dame’s awful football team

This fake ad is missing from the copy I’m reviewing of this episode. I think the reason is because this fake ad was aired in the middle of a VERY LONG commercial break, and, because of how short this fake ad was and how the only visuals in it was stock footage of college football games, whoever recorded the copy I’m reviewing of this episode must’ve mistaken this fake ad for a real one. If you’re curious to see my thoughts on this fake ad, read it here in my original 2007 review that I wrote way back when this episode originally aired.


WHAT TO CALL THE BAND
in 1984, host’s new band is skeptical of his eponymous naming idea

— A fairly likable, realistic premise.
— I’m enjoying Jason’s frustrated straight man performance.
— Meh, this sketch is now getting a little too repetitive and thin for my likes.
— A laugh from Jon not even knowing the name of his two bandmates played by Andy and Will.
STARS: **


ICONOCLASTS
Bjork (KRW) & Charles Barkley (KET) visit Cheesecake Factory

— The debut of Kenan’s Charles Barkley impression.
— A rare instance in Kenan’s early seasons of him actually putting effort into sounding like a celebrity he’s playing.
— Hilarious idea of Bjork and Charles Barkley being paired together in an Iconoclasts episode.
— Kristen’s Bjork impression is consistently cracking me up here, but what’s REALLY making this sketch for me is Kenan’s priceless Barkley. Every single thing coming out of his mouth is a riot, especially him telling Bjork “Damn, you are like Dennis Rodman if he was a tiny white lady” and him constantly calling Bjork “Bork”.
— Very strong sketch overall. I remember back when this episode originally aired, I assumed Iconoclasts was going to become a recurring sketch, with a different pair of quirky, mismatched celebrities in each installment, but we end up never seeing this sketch return.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS
Jack Nicholson [real] introduces Bon Jovi [real]

Bon Jovi [real] performs “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”

— Holy hell, Jack Motherfucking Nicholson??? Randomly appearing at the goodnights??? Introducing a Bon Jovi musical performance??? Uh, wow. Oh, and how the hell is this only Jack’s second and final appearance in a regular SNL episode (the 40th Anniversary Special doesn’t count), neither of which were hosting stints?
— An uncommon instance of the goodnights being a musical performance. Because, apparently, SNL needs to stroke Jon Bon Jovi’s ego EVER FURTHER tonight by giving him and his band a second musical performance. Meanwhile, tonight’s ACTUAL CREDITED MUSICAL GUEST and SNL favorites, Foo Fighters, only got one measly performance in this entire episode. I remember how much this pissed off a number of online SNL fans back in 2007.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Even though it feels like I gave out a decent number of good ratings in this review, I don’t feel too crazy about the episode as a whole. Maybe because what was bad in this episode was REEEAAALLLLY bad, like most of that Al Gore piece and all of that wretched Where’s My Purse dreck. Another big problem I have with this episode is Jon Bon Jovi himself. Aside from the cold opening, I got an unlikable, arrogant, egotistical vibe from him all night, and he was about as “funny” a sketch performer as one would expect him to be.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seth Rogen)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The final episode before a writers’ strike puts SNL on a four-month hiatus. Brian Williams hosts, and Maya Rudolph gets her last hurrah before officially leaving the show prior to SNL’s return from the writers’ strike.