Month: September 2020

Posted on

April 24, 2010 – Gabourey Sidibe / MGMT (S35 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WALL STREET LUNCH
Barack Obama (FRA) failed to secure Wall Street reform at $85,000 lunch

— ANOTHER damn Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening? Just two episodes after we had one?
— At least the Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening from two episodes prior had the various census questions to mask the usual drabness of these Fredbama pieces. No such luck this time, as this focuses entirely on Fred’s Obama speaking directly to the camera.
— (*sigh*) Now he’s droning on about how great the restaurant he ate at during the Wall Street meeting was.
— Not only is this the third damn consecutive episode with Fred saying LFNY, but he’s said it in a majority of this season’s episodes. I’m tired of seeing him say it.
— Overall, not a single laugh from me during this entire cold opening. So many of these Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold openings are PURE DEATH. The combination of Fred’s half-assed, dull-as-hell Obama impression and the snooze-worthiness of Jim Downey’s typical writing of this era’s person-sitting-behind-a-desk-speaks-directly-to-the-camera cold openings is comedy poison.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
to the tune of “The Shoop Shoop Song,” host sets apart herself & Precious

— Oh, god. Yet another song-and-dance monologue. Boy, between a Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening and a song-and-dance monologue, tonight’s episode is starting off with two of my least favorite SNL tropes.
— When Gabourey Sidibe excitedly say “Balloons!” when Bill enters with several balloons, I did love Bill’s delivery of the line “OF EVERY COLOR!” in an old-timey voice.
— Second consecutive monologue to end with confetti being dropped from above.
STARS: **


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
nurse (host) gives health care frugality tips

— This is the first appearance of this sketch since October 2008, which is surprising, given how somewhat frequently this sketch appeared before then.
— Oh, no. Even early on in her appearance here, Gabourey’s delivery is coming off sloppy and stumbly.
— Kristen’s Suze Orman impression is still providing laughs for me, though a lot of her lines aren’t quite as funny this time.
— Okay, Kristen-as-Orman’s “pap smear cruise” story right now is having me laughing out loud.
STARS: **½


WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
Steve Harvey (KET) mispronounces choices

— Kenan’s Steve Harvey impression is making its first appearance since a Prince Show sketch from way back in 2004(!). Unlike that Prince Show appearance, the version of Kenan’s Harvey impression in tonight’s sketch would go on to be the established version that people today are familiar with.
— Is this sketch pre-taped? It has that certain look.
— The premise itself isn’t all that special, but Kenan’s execution of it is making it work.
— Classic part with Kenan making a definitive Kenan Reacts facial expression when seeing the names of Icelandic volcanoes (the last above screencap for this sketch), then struggling to pronounce them. A screencap of that particular Kenan Reacts shot would go on to become an online meme for many years.
STARS: ***½


CRAZY LADY YELLING FROM A WINDOW
on the stoop, (FRA) & (KET) find crazy Mrs. Johnson (host) quite sensible

— Interesting character voice that Kenan’s using here.
— Speaking of Kenan, his weight loss this season is particularly noticeable in this sketch.
— Oh, no. Gabourey is stumbling over her lines in ANOTHER sketch, which causes her to briefly crack up at one point here.
— These wise, long-winded lines of Gabourey’s are humorous in themselves, and I do kinda like the concept of this, but Gabourey is the wrong performer to be saying these lines, due to her stumbly and iffy delivery.
STARS: **


CHERRY BATTLE
ANS & host spit maraschinos into each other’s mouths

— Oh…my…god.
— The concept of this is absolutely insane, and probably one of the most bizarre things that has ever aired on SNL. It’s certainly holding my interest, though. In fact, there’s something almost oddly beautiful about the way this insanity and creativity is being presented.
STARS: ***½


I DID IT IN MY STYLE, THE STORY OF FRANK SINATRA
(FRA) stars in Danish Repertory Theater’s faulty play about Frank Sinatra

— A variation of the International Masterworks sketch from this season’s Ryan Reynolds episode, where Fred and other performers played Norwegian actors badly attempting casual English speaking and American accents.
— This sketch isn’t working anywhere near as well as the aforementioned International Masterworks sketch. The concept of this sketch has gotten old fast.
— At least the critic reviews are making me laugh, especially the third one (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Flash Delirium”


WEEKEND UPDATE
always-nervous Judy Grimes doesn’t cover impact of volcanic ash on travel

Stefon champions outre nightspots in lieu of classic NYC vacation ideas

John Mulaney [real] criticizes limited availability of Girl Scout Cookies

— As usual, I’m getting amusement from the dialogue in Judy Grimes’ very long, continuous “Just kidding” spiel, though I’m not laughing quite as much as usual this time.
— Like the last time Judy Grimes appeared earlier this season, they make an attempt to shake things up by having her do a few different things. Didn’t care much for the water-drinking bit, but the payoff to the volcano bit made me laugh.
— A big deal right now, as we get the very first Weekend Update appearance of Stefon, making his first SNL appearance since his debut in a sketch from a year-and-a-half prior. Given how extremely popular this character would go on to become, it’s surprising in hindsight that there was such a long gap between his first and second SNL appearances.
— So many funny bizarre little club features that Stefon casually mentions here, such as screaming babies in Mozart wigs, throw-up music, an albino that looks like Susan Powter, etc.
— There’s our very first instance of Bill’s soon-to-be trademark giggling in these Stefon pieces, and this time, the giggling doesn’t even seem to have been induced by a John Mulaney re-written line on the cue card. Bill seemed to crack up because he ad-libbed the word Kansas when Seth was talking about people from the Midwest.
— And now Bill (and an off-camera Seth) does crack-up from a John Mulaney re-written line on the cue card, when describing what Human Fire Hydrants are.
— A strong overall Update debut for Stefon, and you can tell by the level of audience applause that he got at the end of this commentary that, even in his Update debut, he was a huge hit with the crowd.
— Speaking of John Mulaney, we get an unexpected instance in this SNL era of a non-cast member in the writing staff, Mulaney in this case, doing an Update commentary as themselves. Another writer this season, Hannibal Burress, has one or two Update commentaries cut after dress rehearsal around this time as well, and John Mulaney does another on-air Update commentary in an early episode from the following season, so it appears as if SNL is attempting to bring back this occasional tradition from some of the earlier eras.
— Solid stand-up delivery from John here, and it’s making some of the intentionally comically mundane observations he’s saying here come off even more amusing.
— John’s overall commentary wasn’t the funniest stand-up material of his, but it still worked for me, and was a decent introduction of him to SNL audiences.
— It’s worth noting that Seth didn’t interject at all during John’s commentary, which is a huge rarity for Update guests in this era. John’s commentary felt like a throwback to older Weekend Update eras where Update guests were allowed to just do their bit for several minutes without any interruptions from the anchorperson.
— Regarding Seth’s joke about the Charmin bears “with toilet paper stuck to their asses continuing their televised reign of terror”, if he only knew back at this time in 2010 that that televised reign of terror would still be going on 10 years later.
STARS: ***


2010 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARDS
lazy civil servants seek honors

— Ooooh, I recall this sketch being absolutely UNBEARABLE. We’ll see how I’ll feel about it now.
— An amusing initial shot of Bobby.
— This spoof of awards shows feels TOO accurate. There’s a difference between humorous dry comedy and boring-as-hell dry comedy. Guess which category this sketch falls under.
— There’s Gabourey’s line-stumbling in yet another sketch tonight. Why do they keep sticking her with such long-winded dialogue in some of tonight’s sketches?
— Man, this sketch feels endless.
— Bobby continues to provide some of my only laughs of this sketch, this time with his silent angry outburst before walking off. And did I see his glasses accidentally fly off during that rage of his, right before the camera cut away? That makes it even funnier.
— Lazily, SNL reuses a gag from the State Of The Union cold opening earlier this season in which various stock footage of an audience randomly includes a famous clip of Brendan Fraser laughing in an odd manner at an awards show.
— Overall, while I didn’t hate this sketch quite as much as I used to, and I got some chuckles this time, this was still a very bad sketch as a whole.
STARS: *½


ALARM CLOCKS AND MORE
Tina Tina Chanuse’s timepieces speak to sleepers

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch of Jenny’s.
— The alarm clock voice-over for men (“Wake up, you got a boner about nothing”) made me laugh, which is more than I can say for most of the other alarm clock voice-overs so far.
— At least they’re changing the routine up slightly with the celebrity alarm clocks that Gabourey showcases.
— The complaint I had about the previous installments of this sketch still applies here: these alarm clock voice-overs would actually make me laugh if I heard them as an isolated, individual gag rather than hearing all of them one after another.
— Yet another blooper from Gabourey tonight, as she reaches over to display one of the alarm clock voice-overs at the wrong time before stopping herself short when realizing it’s not time yet.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Brian Eno”


PRESS CONFERENCE
Hamilton tries to woo host back by claiming he’s changed his racist ways

— Kenan (and his noticeably thinner frame) has been all over tonight’s episode.
— Great to see another Hamilton sketch.
— More iffy delivery from Gabourey tonight, as she’s delivering practically all of her dialogue in this sketch in a somewhat halting manner, as if she’s reading her lines for the first time.
— A good way to explore Hamilton’s known racism from his previous appearances.
— Hamilton to Gabourey: “How I spent long nights tracing passages from Robert Ludlum novels into your back with my penis.”
— Hamilton: “I went to the local Magic Johnson movie theater. I looked for a Larry Bird theater, but it didn’t exist.”
— Immediately after Hamilton’s aforementioned line about a Larry Bird theater, the camera cuts to Gabourey, who’s supposed to say her next line, but she’s apparently missed her cue, because she’s just sitting there blankly, not saying or doing anything, leading to VERY awkward dead air for a few seconds, until Will has to jump ahead of the script to keep the sketch moving. Yikes. Has Gabourey made a flub in literally EVERY SINGLE SKETCH tonight?
— Good ending with Hamilton wooing Gabourey with an altered version of the song “Life Is A Cabaret”, with the word “Cabaret” substituted with the name Gabourey. What was with the audience’s delayed applause as the sketch ended, though?
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A rough episode, and, in my opinion, deserving of its negative reputation. (Even SNL themselves seem to agree this is a poor episode, as NBC waited until the very end of that year’s summer to re-air this episode, and an episode getting a very delayed NBC rerun like that is usually always a sign that SNL isn’t too proud of that episode, such as the wretched John C. Reilly episode from season 32.) Tonight’s episode started off on TWO bad notes with the cold opening and monologue, most of the rest of the night’s sketches didn’t work for me either, and it felt like I got minimal laughs from this episode as a whole. Gabourey Sidibe, while certainly a likable personality, seemed ill-fit for SNL, judging from all the awkward gaffes and iffy delivery from her throughout the show.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Press Conference
Cherry Battle
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Weekend Update
The Suze Orman Show
Crazy Lady Yelling From A Window
Alarm Clocks And More
Monologue
I Did It In My Style, The Story Of Frank Sinatra
2010 Public Employee Of The Year Awards
Wall Street Lunch


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ryan Phillippe)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
A special and important episode, as a famous Facebook campaign leads to an SNL hosting stint from the beloved Betty White. To make this heavily-hyped occasion even more special, SNL brings in several former female cast members from the late 1990s and early 2000s as special guest performers.

Posted on

April 17, 2010 – Ryan Phillippe / Ke$ha (S35 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

LARRY KING LIVE
Bjork (KRW) appraises Eyjafjallajokull’s eruption

— Blah, the typical lame “Larry King is old” and “Larry King is out of touch” jokes.
— Kristen’s Bjork is giving me some laughs here.
— Nothing much to say about the scene with Bill’s Richard Branson, except Bill’s portrayal of him is always pretty fun. The scene itself isn’t up to much, though.
— Meh, I’m not caring for the volcano song Kristen’s Bjork is singing right now.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
in MacGruber’s wake, Deandre Cole (KET) & other SNL characters want films

— Upon hearing Ryan Phillippe’s odd, unnatural-sounding deep voice in this monologue, I’m reminded of something a fellow SNL reviewer (who’s username I believe was “Mike (Male)”) from the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board casually said at the end of his 2010 review of this monologue: “Also, uh, I don’t think that’s his real voice.” Heh, is Ryan using a fake deep voice here, or is that just how he naturally sounds?
— Feels very odd seeing Target Lady appearing in something outside of her sketches.
— As I disclosed in my most recent review of a Target Lady sketch (the one from the season 34 Justin Timberlake episode), I’ve been slowly starting to come around on Target Lady. However, I’m not caring for her in this monologue. She works better in her own sketches.
— An extremely meta monologue for SNL.
— I guess it’s fun that this monologue ends with a What Up With That number, but I dunno, something feels a tad wrong about this monologue as a whole. I want to like it, as the idea of various recurring characters asking questions from the audience seems kinda fun.
STARS: **½


BROADVIEW SECURITY
Rerun from 3/13/10


TODAY SPONGE WOMEN’S WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP 1986
Pete Twinkle & Greg Stink cover 1986 women’s weightlifting championship

— Yep, it’s official: SNL is intentionally breaking out this sketch every few episodes. (In addition to all the appearances this sketch has been making in regular episodes, the Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink characters also appeared in new footage in that year’s SNL Sports Extra special from February.) I always love these sketches, but man, the over-reliance on them in such a small time frame is kinda insane. (The same can be said for What Up With That this season, even if I kinda understand why SNL would want to rely so heavily on such a fun and catchy sketch.) That being said, this does end up being the final installment of this sketch this season, and also the final installment during Will’s tenure as a cast member. The remaining installments of this sketch are in episodes that Will makes a cameo in, and this sketch also gets a brief reprisal in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special.
— Geez, SNL was so desperate to bring this sketch back tonight that they’re resorting to putting the male host in DRAG (since the athlete characters in these sketches are always female)?!?!?
— For the first time in this recurring sketch, Kristen plays a character who’s surname isn’t a city. This time, she has the punny celebrity-based name Sue Ferrigno.
— When talking about his parents’ troubled marriage, I love Will’s line that they’re going to stick together because “the sex is just too good”.
— Jason: “Trying to avoid the stork? Well, use this vagina cork!……..Today Sponge!”
— Jason: “Can’t keep your legs shut? Well, put one of these babies in your front butt!……………………………………Today Sponge!”
STARS: ****


HIP HOP KIDS
in a bear cave, Zig-Zag (ANS) is the sole voice of reason

— Continuing the tradition of this season, we get another instance of an old sketch from several years prior randomly being brought back for no good reason (some other examples include Andy’s “That’ll move the chains” sports announcer kid and Besos Y Lagrimas). What in the world inspired them to pull this formerly one-off Hip Hop Kids sketch heavily associated with Justin Timberlake out of the mothballs after FOUR YEARS? Typical season 35 laziness?
— Showing just how long ago the previous installment of this sketch was, the lineup of characters in this sketch is almost completely different, due to some of the cast members from the 2006 installment of this sketch no longer being on SNL. Kenan and Jason are the only ones playing the same character in both the 2006 installment and tonight’s installment. Kristen appears in both installments, but her character in both has a different name, for some inexplicable reason.
— It feels very lazy to me that tonight’s installment of this sketch is reusing the cave setting from the first installment. It makes no sense to me why they’re reusing that, when these characters can be trapped in just about ANY setting.
— Jason’s delivery in these Hip Hop Kids sketches always cracks me up.
— At least Andy’s new voice-of-reason character feels very different from anything we saw in the first installment of this sketch. I’m enjoying his character, and he has the best lines in this sketch so far.
— I know tonight’s Hip Hop Kids installment has its defenders, but to me, most of this sketch feels a little too old hat after the first installment, and this is lacking the infectiously fun performances that people not in tonight’s installment like Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Justin Timberlake (YMMV on that last one, given how polarizing I know Timberlake is among online SNL fans) gave in the first installment.
STARS: **


THE OTHER MAN
Eurodouche (ANS) is shagging everyone in (host)’s life

— An okay concept, though this feels too standard for Lonely Island, who’ve used the “somebody keeps popping up wherever a certain somebody else goes” premise before AND after this, to better effect in some of those cases.
— Uh…WTF at that ending???
— Who is that playing Andy’s overweight “doppleganger” in the ending shot (first screencap below)? He looks like the same guy who appeared in the Law & Order scene from the then-recent Zach Drops By The Set short (second screencap below).

STARS: ***


MORT MORT FEINGOLD: ACCOUNTANT FOR THE STARS
accountant Mort Mort Feingold (ANS) does celebrities’ taxes

— Interesting format to this sketch, and I typically enjoy SNL’s impression parade sketches a little more than some other people seem to.
— Abby as Shaun White? Random casting, but she’s giving me some chuckles in her performance.
— I got a good laugh from Andy’s Mort Mort Feingold yelling “SAVE YOUR MONEY!” to Abby’s Shaun White through a megaphone.
— At least Jason’s attempting more of a Mel Gibson impression than whatever the fuck Ashton Kutcher was doing when playing Gibson earlier this season.
STARS: ***


THE SHAKE WEIGHT COMMERCIAL DVD
DVD of the Shake Weight commercial acknowledges its pornographic utility

— A very memorable spoof of the then-prevalent Shake Weight commercials.
— Hilarious idea of marketing a DVD of the Shake Weight commercial towards horny guys.
— Oh, you know I loved the Three Stooges mention, as one of the fake DVD covers.
— I also love how one of the other fake DVD covers, the Sam Kinison one, is a photo of Kinison from one of his SNL appearances in season 11, as you can tell by the background of the photo (the eighth above screencap for this sketch).
— A very funny observation from Kenan that the girl in the “forward lunge, reach back” position (Jenny Slate) looks like she’s about to run a marathon but first has to “help a guy out”.
— A classic visual of Kristen with her mouth open in a pornographic manner towards the Shake Weights, and how the guys in the testimonial can tell she’s in on it.
— Priceless ending visual of Bill’s muscly right arm, from the “exercise” that he got from watching the Shake Weight Commercial DVD.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “TiK ToK”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) believes the Tea Party deserves to be ridiculed

pedophilic Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster (WLF) is parents’ worst nightmare

Anthony Crispino’s (BOM) poorly-sourced second-hand news items are untrue

— I’m starting to notice that Bill’s laughing mannerism as James Carville is the same as that of his Richard Branson impression, which we saw earlier tonight.
— Very funny self-deprecating comment from Bill’s Carville about him looking like a Cajun Gollum.
— I love Bill’s Carville hissing at the screen to make baby viewers cry.
— Ha, Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster. Such a perfectly Will Forte-esque ballsy Will Forte character.
— The disgusting suggestive hand gesture Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster does after saying “Scouts honor” is particularly funny.
— I love the callback to the preceding episode, with Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster asking “Where’s Justin Bieber?” and Seth responding “He was here LAST week.”
— The debut of the second-hand news guy, Anthony Crispino, the first of several memorable and well-loved original Weekend Update characters played by Bobby.
— Right from this character’s debut, Bobby is a hoot in this role.
— Did Bobby screw up the beginning of the volcano bit? He says “You hear about this? A volcano erupted in Iceland”, then says they’re shutting down the Long Island railroad, and Seth then responds “Not true, it was a volcano in Iceland”, putting emphasis on that last word as if he’s correcting Bobby, even though Bobby SAID “a volcano erupted in Iceland”. WTF? I’m guessing Bobby was supposed to say “A volcano erupted in Long Island.”
— Of all the names of Anthony Crispino’s sources, I particularly like “my cousin, Fat Vanessa”.
STARS: ***


SONG MEMORIES
“Breakfast At Tiffany’s” evokes sins of (host) & other icky reminiscers

— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made in over a year. This also ends up being the final installment with Will. All remaining installments of this sketch have Will being replaced by a different cast member each time.
— What the hell? Didn’t they already use that punchline with Jason’s girlfriend being in a coma? I’m pretty sure it was in the installment of this sketch from the Ashton Kutcher episode in season 33. Very lame of the writers to flat-out reuse the same punchline.
— A very funny topical Tiger Woods punchline to Bill’s story.
— Much like the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s episode, this sketch doesn’t feature any of the guys making a comical addendum to their story after the guys all sing the song’s chorus in unison. Those addendums used to be a tradition of these sketches, and usually provided some of the biggest laughs. I take the absence of that tradition as a sign that the writers are a little burned out on this sketch.
— An okay punchline to Will and Ryan’s respective stories, though something about Ryan’s delivery of his punchline felt a little off.
STARS: **½


TEEN TALK
Rodger Brush turns a deaf ear to adolescents’ embarrassments

— Ugh, this Rodger Brush sketch has officially become recurring.
— Ugh again, there goes that god-awful running joke with Fred’s Rodger Brush repeatedly asking people to speak louder. Fucking insufferable.
— I’m also beyond sick of Rodger Brush’s other catchphrase, “Well, I dunno what to tell ya!”
— Kristen seems a little miscast in this role. This is probably the result of SNL typically trying to find an excuse to throw Kristen into practically every sketch (she appears in a total of NINE sketches in this episode).
— Andy’s dopey deep voice is giving me my first laughs of this whole sketch.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Your Love Is My Drug”


I GOT THIS!
(WLF) & sons (host) & (JAS) grab for checks on game show

— An actual non-recurring sketch in this episode. I almost forgot what that’s like, given the low number of original sketches tonight.
— A great yelling outburst from Jason during the first round. Jason’s always had a great knack for doing aggressive yelling.
— The premise itself is a little on the “meh” side.
— I like Bill’s dismissive remark regarding Ryan saying he wanted to share.
— Hell yes! Now we get a display of Will’s well-documented knack for doing aggressive yelling, easily outdoing Jason’s solid yelling outburst from earlier in this sketch.
— The ending didn’t work for me, though that brief cutaway to a silent Will shifting his eyes back and forth between the bill and the game show host (Hader) in a taken-aback manner gave me a laugh.
— What was with Bill’s smile quickly fading at the end of his sign-off? He looked downright unhappy all of a sudden, and I don’t think that was in character. Maybe I should cut him some slack for that, given how it’s known that he suffered anxiety issues during his SNL tenure.
STARS: **½


UNDERGROUND ROCK MINUTE
DJ Supersoak (JAS) & Lil’ Blaster (NAP) intro Thrilla Killa Klownz video

— For the only time during the run of these Kickspit Underground pieces, it’s done as a live sketch (though with a pre-taped music video as its main feature).
— Why do I think Ryan looks like Jimmy Fallon under that clown makeup and wig?
— Very fun music video, and a lot of impressive visuals. I recall hearing that this was a spot-on spoof of a then-new Insane Clown Posse music video. This spoof still works even without me having seen the source material.
— The stupid questions Bobby and Ryan are asking about life’s “mysteries” are providing pretty good laughs.
— I love how it’s become a running gag in these Kickspit pieces to suddenly reveal that Ass Dan has recently died.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Back in 2010 when I originally reviewed this episode (link here), I gave what must be one of the harshest SNL episode reviews I’ve EVER written. I absolutely HATED this episode back then, and was not afraid to express it in that review of mine. After I posted that review on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board, I ended up taking a lot of shit from several board members there (including a few smug, snarky wiseasses who apparently felt it was their life duty to tell SNL reviewers like me how to do our job, and also call us out on supposedly being “nerds” and “losers who have no life” just for giving a very harsh review…..I’m certainly always open to constructive criticism of my reviews, but 1) don’t be a douchebag about it, and 2) don’t act like you’re my fucking boss), who felt my take on this episode was “way too negative”. (The same thing would later happen in response to my review of the following season’s Bryan Cranston episode, another review in which I was unabashedly VERY harsh). In response, I stood up for myself and, in the process, dismissed those aforementioned board members as being both sensitive crybabies and SNL apologists (the type of SNL apologists who typically respond to negative comments from a diehard SNL fan by asking them the age-old question, “Why do you watch SNL if you hate it?” or “Why do you watch SNL if you’re just going to complain about it all the time?”) who can’t handle it when an SNL fan like me isn’t afraid to call the show out on its crap. Fast-forward to 10 years later, and, while I would never kowtow to sensitive SNL apologists just because they don’t like my harsh opinion, I now feel that perhaps I really was too negative in my original review of this episode, because after my current viewing of this episode, I’m feeling nowhere near as angry or riled-up as I was back when this episode originally aired. Perhaps it all boils down to me recently having come to the realization that this season in general isn’t quite as dreary as I and others felt back when it originally aired, and isn’t fully deserving of the ire I expressed towards it back then. My current viewing of this episode just left me with a pretty ho-hum feel, which is nothing new for this season, sadly. If I still have any huge gripes left towards this episode after 10 years, it’s just that this episode was a little too heavy on recurring sketches, including digging up an old Justin Timberlake sketch for no apparent reason.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Shake Weight Commercial DVD
Today Sponge Women’s Weightlifting Championship 1986
Underground Rock Minute
Weekend Update
Mort Mort Feingold: Accountant For The Stars
The Other Man
Song Memories
I Got This!
Monologue
Hip Hop Kids
Larry King Live
Teen Talk


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gabourey Sidibe

Posted on

April 10, 2010 – Tina Fey / Justin Bieber (S35 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE CENSUS
Barack Obama (FRA) encourages USA to answer invasive census questions

— Some laughs from the inappropriate sexual-related census questions.
— At least all of these census questions are distracting somewhat from the usual drabness of Fred’s Obama and his typically-boring address-to-the-nation cold openings.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
support crew helps TIF juggle it all; Mark Sanchez & Steve Martin cameos

— Already a funny opening line from Tina Fey about how her second time hosting is a record….“a personal record”.
— When disclosing her least favorite questions that people often ask her, I half-expected one of the questions to be “How’d you get that scar?”, but I was incorrect. Maybe the scar thing is too sore a subject for Tina. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her joke about it.
— Meh, a musical monologue, but Tina seems like she’ll make this fun.
— As expected, it turns out there’s some good and fun typical Fey-esque silliness during the song.
— Two hosting stints in, and Tina is 2-for-2 in her monologues having a Steve Martin cameo.
— Our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on.
— Kenan In A Dress alert, for the third damn episode in a row.
STARS: ***


BROWNIE HUSBAND
Duncan Hines Brownie Husband fills women’s need for companionship & fudge

— Decent concept.
— Nice showcase for Tina, and it feels like a very rare novelty to see her starring in a solo, pre-taped commercial.
— I like how Tina’s really going all out in her engorging of her brownie husband towards the end of this commercial.
STARS: ***½


MASTERS
Tiger Woods’ mistress (TIF) provides expert commentary at The Masters

existence of chiding ad voice-over by Tiger Woods’ (KET) dad (BIH) is its basis

— Despite playing a cliched character that feels too been-there-done-that, Tina has some funny lines here, and she’s making the role work decently.
— I like Jason’s delivery of “Oh, god, no!” when Tina whispers the definition of “dog leg” to him.
— The Tiger Woods Nike commercial with Kenan is cracking me up.
— The fact that the aforementioned Tiger Woods Nike commercial is having Bill do a “black” voice as the voice-over of Tiger Woods’ deceased father makes it painfully obvious that Kenan’s the only black member of this season’s cast. At least they didn’t resort to having Fred do the “black” voice-over for Tiger’s father.
STARS: ***


SARAH PALIN NETWORK
line-up of shows reflects Sarah Palin’s (TIF) political views

— Our obligatory Sarah Palin sketch of the night. I like the concept of this particular Palin sketch.
— Tina spoofs the Katie Couric/Sarah Palin CBS interview for the second time, after the famous cold opening from the preceding season’s Anna Faris episode.
— The “Todd!” scene is absolutely great.
— Funny bit with Bobby’s Bob Ross-esque painter character painting a Hitler mustache onto a cloud.
— A laugh from the slam against The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
STARS: ***½


LONELY TEACHER
teacher (TIF) imagines pupil (musical guest) musically requites her crush

— Oh, no. After our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on in the monologue, we now get our obligatory Justin Bieber-starring sketch of the night.
— Another “Oh, no” from me, as Bieber is now breaking out into a fucking song. Oh, and, of course, we also have his cringey try-to-sound-cool-and-“black”-by-saying-stuff-like-“Aight” shtick.
— Multiple Bieber songs in this sketch? (*groan*)
— Seeing Tina have to perform this pandering mess of a sketch is sad. I feel embarrassed for her.
— The bored, miserable look on Bobby’s character’s face in the background (screencap below) perfectly matches my face during this whole sketch.

— I finally got a mild chuckle in this sketch, from Tina’s “I should NOT have put wine in my cereal this morning” line. Still not enough to make up for the dreadfulness of the rest of this sketch, though.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Baby”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Devil (JAS) takes moral stand against molestation by Catholic priests

Aunt Linda likes The Tooth Fairy much better than 3D movies full of CGI

Women’s News- TIF slags Bombshell McGee & bewails the ubiquity of whores

— The debut of Jason’s The Devil character.
— Jason portraying the devil in a very Jason Sudeikis-y manner is great.
— Pretty sensitive subject matter for this Devil commentary, focusing on the priest child molestation scandal, but Jason is making it work.
— I had completely forgotten about Aunt Linda until now. Her last appearance was quite a long while ago, which itself was her first appearance in quite a long while. These long gaps between these past two commentaries of hers are not long enough for my likes, given how I’m of the opinion that this character only worked in her first appearance. Thankfully, tonight’s appearance ends up being her final one.
— As expected, tonight’s Aunt Linda commentary contains her usual tired shtick, especially her groan-worthy corny-ass ratings system.
— Good to see the return of Tina’s recurring Women’s News segment from her Weekend Update years.
— Bombshell McGee? I have no memory of who that is, but Tina sure is focusing heavily on her here.
— Some of the usual solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News sketch. I especially like how it ends with her meta comment about her having her leg and pubic hair ripped out earlier today so she could wear a hooker costume for a sketch that ended up not even making it to air.
STARS: ***


AL ROKER’S RUFF, RUGGED AND ROKER
Al Roker’s (KET) nightclub party pauses for weather reports

— What we initially see in this sketch is an interesting change of pace for typical Kenan’s Al Roker portrayal.
— Blah. During the occasional weather reports, not only do we suddenly get the return of that Bullwinkle-esque hokey voice Kenan typically portrays Al Roker with (which I never liked), but the turns this sketch keeps taking with Kenan’s Roker alternating between acting hokey and whitebred when he’s on the Today Show camera, and coming off badass and urban when the Today camera turns off, is straight out of that memorable season 21 sketch with another Today Show personality, Bryant Gumbel, played by David Alan Grier. That Gumbel sketch was pulled off much better than this.
STARS: **


SCHOOL DANCE
(TIF) wishes her too-sensible daughter Bedelia (NAP) would act her age

— The debut of Nasim’s Bedelia character.
— A solid character piece for Nasim, and, much like with the Roomies sketch she did earlier this season with Taylor Swift, Nasim continues to prove herself to be adept at slice-of-life material.
— I got a good laugh from Bedelia’s inappropriate “So Grandpa’s startin’ to go, huh?” line to her mother.
— (*groan*) Our THIRD Justin Bieber sketch appearance tonight.
— The ending with Nasim and Bieber had a sweet feel, at least.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “U Smile”


TINY HOOKER
nine-inch-tall hooker (TIF) gives up on a trip to Paris to save orphanage

— Interesting concept, even if it feels a tad like a variation of both Cool Mite (a forgotten Andrew Dice Clay sketch) and Tiny Elvis.
— Yet another solid showcase for Tina tonight, and the writing of this sketch is certainly better than I found the writing in the aforementioned Cool Mite and Tiny Elvis sketches to be.
— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season in which Will feels sadly invisible, and in which the sight of him popping up in a sketch reminds me that, contrary to how it may seem, Will Forte is, in fact, a cast member this season.
— Jason’s delivery of “And don’t you ever COME BAAACK!” was hilarious.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, despite the overuse of Justin Bieber and one or two other misfires. Most of the episode had a good feel, even if there was nothing I found particularly stand-out great until the final sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Tiny Hooker
School Dance
Brownie Husband
Sarah Palin Network
Monologue
Masters
Weekend Update
The Census
Al Roker’s Ruff, Rugged And Roker
Lonely Teacher


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jude Law)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ryan Phillippe

Posted on

March 13, 2010 – Jude Law / Pearl Jam (S35 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MASSA EXIT INTERVIEW
Eric Massa’s (BOM) explanations of his untoward behavior don’t hold water

— A big technical gaffe literally at the very start of this cold opening, as the screen accidentally freezes while it was starting to fade into the opening shot of the U.S. Capitol Building (the first above screencap for this cold opening). Due to this gaffe, we have to stare at a boring, half-faded-in shot of the U.S. Capitol Building for A FULL MINUTE during Bill’s very long opening voice-over, which was supposed to be accompanied by an onscreen text crawl that states what Bill’s voice-over is saying. This gaffe would later be fixed in reruns.
— Something about Bill’s aforementioned opening voice-over is cracking me up, despite (or maybe because of) how long it’s going on.
— Funny snorkeling scene between Bobby and Andy.
— Solid performance from Bobby throughout this, and it feels nice and rare to see him front-and-center in a cold opening, given the fact that he’s a second-season featured player.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host gives an overview of what it was like to perform Hamlet on Broadway

— When talking about Ashlee Simpson infamously being the musical guest of his previous SNL episode, Jude Law blatantly lip-syncs the words “She…was…great!”, a cliched gag that SNL and other shows had been doing to better effect since way back in the Milli Vanilli days.
— Jude has a nice delivery here, but I’m finding this monologue itself to be really boring and a lot of nothingness, other than a few mildly funny asides from Jude.
STARS: *½


FORD
unlike the Toyota Prius, Ford’s hybrids won’t accelerate uncontrollably

— A hilarious turn the pleasant, tender tone of this commercial suddenly takes with the Toyota Prius accelerating at an insanely-fast speed while a panicky Abby and Kenan are inside. Some great reactions from Abby and Kenan here.
— Solid twist at the end with this whole commercial turning out to be Ford’s attempt to persuade us to try their hybrids instead.
— A good ending slow-motion exterior shot of Abby yelling out the car window.
STARS: ****


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & Russian ballet star (host) don’t have a clue

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— (*sigh*) Cue the already-tired running gag in these sketches with Kristen always immediately saying the secret word.
— Another thing I always hate about these Secret Word sketches is how they play to some of Kristen’s worst tendencies as a performer.
— An actual funny anecdote from a very deadpan Kenan about him once getting arrested for walking around a neighborhood where families live.
— After Kristen’s character says the name of a play she was in, I got a second rare laugh in this sketch, from Bill responding, with a friendly smile, “I saw that…and it was awful.”
STARS: *½


BROADVIEW SECURITY
Broadview Security protects against unlikely home invasions by nice guys

— Tonight’s second pre-taped fake ad ALREADY?
— Some funny over-the-top screaming faces from Nasim whenever somebody breaks into her house.
— An overall well-performed commercial, but I found the humor itself to be only decent.
STARS: ***


SPAIN
Spaniard (host) charms tourists (ABE) & (NAP) while vowing to murder them

— Pretty nice to not only see a showcase for featured players Abby and Nasim, but also in a realistic setting like this.
— A laugh from Jude’s random first reveal of “I will kill you” at the end of the romantic plans he discloses to Abby and Nasim.
— So far, while not bad, not much has been jumping out at me as particularly good in this sketch.
— Didn’t care much for the ending.
STARS: **½


BOOMBOX
(ANS) & Julian Casablancas [real] ply Pandora’s ghetto blaster

 

— The usual fun conceit of a Lonely Island music video.
— I love Andy’s overly intense delivery of “WHO’S GOT THE JUICE?!?”
— Pretty funny running gag with the boiled goose, especially the increasingly exaggerated ways Andy says “boiled goose”.
— The visuals of old people getting freaky with each other are almost more disturbing than funny, though I’m still laughing.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just Breathe”


WEEKEND UPDATE
defensive Poise Pads spokeswoman Whoopi Goldberg (KET) is epistemological

incredulous SEM & Jerry Seinfeld [real] say “Really!?!” about Eric Massa

— Kenan In A Dress alert…FOR THE SECOND DAMN WEEKEND UPDATE IN A ROW. Jesus Christ, SNL.
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kenan do his Whoopi Goldberg shtick outside of the View sketches.
— I’m at least finding this commentary to be a little funnier than Kenan’s Mo’Nique commentary in the preceding episode’s Update. Kenan’s Whoopi usually always manages to get some laughs from me.
— For the first time ever, Seth is joined in a “Really?!?” segment by a non-Amy-Poehler special guest, tonight’s guest being a very random Jerry Seinfeld.
— I’m finding this to be easily the funniest edition of “Really?!?” in quite a long while. Lots of hilarious one-liners from Seth and Jerry here about the Eric Massa scandal. Jerry is fitting well into the “Really?!?” format, which kinda makes me wish he did more of these.
STARS: ***½


TWILIGHT ZONE
at 20,000 feet, gremlin (BOM) is more than a nightmare

— I like seeing Bill do a Rod Serling impression, because, as I always say, Bill is such a natural in SNL’s black-and-white period pieces. That being said, I’ve seen better Rod Serling impressions.
— A very funny visual of Bobby as the gremlin from the legendary gremlin-on-the-wing Twilight Zone episode.
— Great detail of the gremlin wearing a “Kiss Me I’m Real” apron while cooking on a grill.
— Lots of funny increasingly-extensive, out-of-place actions that the gremlin is doing on the wing.
— I love that intimidating pose the gremlin strikes at the end of every scene.
— Classic turn with Pearl Jam randomly accompanying the gremlin on the wing and joining in on his aforementioned intimidating pose at the end of the scene.
— Towards the end, when the camera is panning over to Bill’s Rod Serling sitting in a passenger seat in the plane, you can hear the mic’ed off-camera voice of who appears to be Bobby groaning what sounds like “Ohh! What is–”, then it sounds like he cuts himself off when seemingly realizing he’s not supposed to be speaking right now. What was THAT all about???
STARS: ****½


HAMLET AUDITION
Nathan Lane (BOM) & Al Pacino (BIH) join host at audition for Hamlet role

— I always enjoy Bobby’s Nathan Lane impression.
— Ha, then-writers and future cast members Colin Jost and Mike O’Brien are sitting next to each other in the background (as seen in the fourth above screencap for this sketch). I feel like this is the most visible that Colin Jost has been in a live sketch up to this point of SNL’s run, even though he made a few other live sketch appearances prior to this. Or maybe his appearance in this particular sketch just feels jarring to me because he looks like his modern-day self in it, especially since he’s sporting the coiffed hairstyle that would later become his trademark look in his Weekend Update years. (He had very different hairstyles in his live sketch appearances prior to this Jude Law episode, including a long hairstyle at one point.)
— Great to see Bill’s Al Pacino impression back after a very long absence. (I think the last time Bill did this impression prior to this was way back in the premiere of season 32, when Bill was only in his second season on SNL.)
— The usual very fun performance from Bill as Pacino.
— This feels like the first time we’re seeing Jason all night, though he previously appeared in a very small role in the cold opening earlier tonight. Still, a very light night for him.
— Funny Sam Elliott performance from Jason. “The butt abides.”
STARS: ***½


KICKSPIT UNDERGROUND ROCK FESTIVAL
— Rerun from 12/5/09. A rather odd choice to rerun, given the fact that 1) this doesn’t follow the format of a typical SNL commercial, and 2) this is much longer than a typical SNL commercial. Is SNL trying to kill time or something? We’re not even at the end of the episode, though.
— This rerun choice also comes off odd in retrospect because SNL would later do several new Kickspit Underground Rock Festival pre-taped commercials (and even a live sketch at one point, which is coming up in just a few episodes from now).


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Unthought Known”


COURT STENOGRAPHER
Elinda Nade gets jewelry caught in her typewriter & loses her Chapstick

— OHHHH (insert an insanely long string of furious expletives here).
— I pointed out how ridiculously underused Jason has been in tonight’s episode, but geez, that’s NOTHING compared to poor Will Forte. His ONLY appearances in tonight’s episode, including this sketch, have literally been just bit roles. You know, the type of bit roles usually reserved for featured players, not freakin’ EIGHT-YEAR VETERANS like Will. (Hell, the actual featured players in this season’s cast, minus Jenny, have been getting plenty of big roles in this episode.) This is probably the nadir of SNL’s sad under-utilization of Will this season. When this episode originally aired, I remember saying to myself, in a sullen manner, “Yep, it’s official: this is definitely going to be Will’s final season. The writing is clearly on the wall.”
— Not even Will playing a creepy murderer in this awful Stenographer sketch could get a laugh out of me, and Will usually kills (pun not intended) in roles like that.
— I see Fred’s endlessly-delivered “I can’t find my crackers” catchphrase from the first installment of this sketch has been altered tonight into “I can’t find my chapstick.” It makes no damn difference, because it’s equally insufferable and suicide-inducing.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember this sketch was the point where I officially had to come to terms with the fact that Fred had become a bad cast member (as seen here in my original 2010 review of this Stenographer sketch, though you’ll notice that I still criticized Fred with kid gloves in that sketch review, by generously calling his typical season 35 work “insanely hit-or-miss” instead of “terrible” like I truly felt at the time), which was fucking painful for me to admit back then, because I had been a huge fan of Fred in his previous seasons. During those years (seasons 28-34), he was one of my absolute favorite then-current cast members, and he could do almost no wrong in my eyes. I felt he was a consistently funny, creative, and brilliant performer. Souring on him was NOT easy for me back when this season (season 35) originally aired. I hope you readers remember that when you see me shitting all over Fred in my current reviews of this season as well as the next few seasons. I’m not hating his performances just for the sake of hating them, or because he’s been on the show “too long” (the latter of which a Fred Armisen defender/SNL reviewer once wrongfully accused me of disliking Fred for back in 2011), or because hating his performances is the “popular” thing to do among some hardcore online SNL fans. The fact that a former diehard Fred Armisen fan like me can (hesitantly) sour on him so harshly shows you how REALLY fucking bad he’s gotten in these later seasons of his.
STARS: *


TALK SHOW WITH RAVISH
exacting Indian dad (FRA) pushes son Ravish (NAP) into a talk show career

— At the very beginning of this sketch, the wall on the left end of the screen can be seen wobbling VERY unstably. This is because, even after SNL returned from the preceding commercial break, SNL’s stagehands still hadn’t finished assembling the final wall for this sketch, so that wobbling you see the wall doing early in this sketch is the unseen SNL stagehands still trying to get the wall properly in place. About a year later, NBC would air, I believe, an SNL Backstage special (which used previously-unaired interview footage of SNL cast members, writers, etc. originally filmed for the Kenneth Bowser-made SNL documentaries each covering a different decade of the show), and at one point when they focus on how frantic and last-minute some things during live SNL airings are, they use a behind-the-scenes clip of SNL stagehands being late in their efforts to assemble the final wall for this Talk Show With Ravish sketch as an example.
— I believe this is our first of MANY displays of Nasim’s affinity for playing young boys.
— Nasim has been getting lots of airtime tonight for a first-season featured player.
— I like the casting of Jenny as the sole member of Nasim’s house band, as it pairs this season’s two new cast members together.
— Funny “Jay Leno Walking With Ravish” segment title.
— Hmm, Bobby playing a drunken uncle. In retrospect, this could be taken as a bit of a precursor to a certain famous Weekend Update recurring character Bobby would play later in his SNL tenure.
— Despite my well-documented dislike for the lazy and overused talk show format, Nasim is pulling this sketch off decently enough, and I’m finding her likable here. It’s probably for the best, though, that this sketch ends up never becoming recurring.
— I like how Nasim’s Ravish character is making Jude uncomfortable by bringing up unfortunate things from his career.
— Am I crazy, or does that sound like former cast member Maya Rudolph doing the closing voice-over?
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, though blandly so (and blandness is sadly par for the course this season). The first half of the episode was a little shaky, but things got a little more consistent in the second half, minus that unwatchable Court Stenographer sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Twilight Zone
Ford
Boombox
Hamlet Audition
Weekend Update
Massa Exit Interview
Broadview Security
Talk Show with Ravish
Spain
Monologue
Secret Word
Court Stenographer


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Zach Galifianakis)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tina Fey / Justin Bieber

Posted on

March 6, 2010 – Zach Galifianakis / Vampire Weekend (S35 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HEALTH CARE REFORM
Barack Obama (FRA) thinks Harry Reid’s (WLF) Senate seat is in jeopardy

— Out of the following two things, I don’t know what I’m more tired of seeing in a cold opening in this SNL era: a Jim Downey-voiced C-SPAN intro, or a Fredbama address to the nation. Here, we get BOTH.
— Yeesh, Will screwed up one of his ONLY lines in this long, laughless, insufferable cold opening.
— Will-as-Harry-Reid’s little head nod when Fred’s Obama says maybe they could do without him is the closest to a smirk I’ve gotten in this cold opening so far, and that’s still not saying much.
— Overall, what a horrible way to start an episode.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & does stand-up on various topics

— In true Zach Galifianakis fashion, he even manages to make his monologue entrance funny, by patting the SNL Band’s bass player on the butt when passing by him.
— Even Zach’s opening statements are great: yelling an angry “Stop clapping!”, and saying “It’s great to be back hosting Saturday Night Live” before being told by someone off-screen that he’s never hosted before.
— A hilarious “Oh, you’re out of that one?” sequence, with Zach telling us the many looks he asked the SNL stylist to give him for this monologue (e.g. “Oh, just give me the lighthouse attendant”, “Just give me Vice President of Ultimate Frisbee”, “Just give me Wolf Blitzer at Burning Man”).
— Every single line from Zach is absolutely slaying in this.
— Great detail with Zach calling the Canadian version of Miles Davis “Kilometers Davis”.
— Zach: “I like dark comedies. That’s why I like the Wayans Brothers.”
— The piano-playing that Zach’s now doing is a great accompaniment to his jokes.
— The “spouting off random one-liners” format of this monologue is my personal favorite style of stand-up comedy, as I’ve said in some of my earlier episode reviews, such as when I covered Steven Wright’s various stand-up guest spots in the 80s, and when I covered George Carlin’s various stand-up segments in the very first SNL episode.
— Even the “We got a great show for you tonight” sign-off of this monologue is killer, with Zach’s random “Hoobastank is here!” announcement.
STARS: *****


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
at a funeral, the Vogelchecks grieve by kissing family members & mourners

— (*grooooooaaaaaaaannnnnnnn*)
— At least they changed the setting of this recurring sketch, not that that’ll magically make this recurring sketch funny all of a sudden.
— Two-and-a-half minutes into this unbearable sketch, and I’m wondering to myself, where the fuck is Zach Galifianakis? Then again, maybe I should be happy to not see him get mixed up in this unfunny Vogelchecks mess.
— What was with the really awkward stalling and out-of-character mild giggling from Bill and Fred right before Zach appeared? Did somebody forget their line?
— Aaaaaaand there’s Zach, and, of course, he’s unfortunately getting mixed up in in this everybody-kissing-each-other mess. Yeah, I’m starting to think it would’ve been better if Zach sat this sketch out. I do at least kinda like the detail of his character being named Father Yankovich.
— Assuming Will is playing the same Grandpa Vogelcheck he played in the James Franco installment of this sketch earlier this season, where’s Grandma Vogelcheck, played by Nasim in that Franco installment? Wouldn’t she attend her own husband’s funeral? Or are we supposed to assume she died off-camera sometime between the Franco installment and tonight’s installment? Geez, both Grandma AND Grandpa Vogelcheck dying within just three months after the previous installment of this sketch? Must’ve been all that spit-swappin’ with James Franco that killed them.
STARS: * (This may be the first time in my SNL project that a segment I gave a perfect five-star rating to [the monologue] was sandwiched between two segments I gave a lowest-of-low one-star rating to [the cold opening and this sketch].)


BIDET
all of hotel guests’ (host) & (KRW) questions are related to the bidet

— I recall hearing this got cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s Will Ferrell episode.
— A simplistic sketch, but Kristen and Zach’s overly specific questions about the bidet are funny.
— I like Andy’s unfazed reactions to all the odd bidet questions he’s being bombarded with.
— I love Zach’s question of if there would be a gap “bidet-wise” between the hotel and the hospital in the event that either he or Kristen suffer a bidet-related injury.
STARS: ***½


ZACH DROPS BY THE SET
host has been crashing video shoots for years

— Ooh, just from the opening title sequence, you can already tell this is going to be a blast.
— Priceless background sighting of Zach behind Brian Williams in the first scene.
— Such a great use of Zach and his comedic style.
— I love how they’re even doing a 30 Rock scene, which is giving this short even more of a special feel.
— Lots of SNL cameos from Jack McBrayer these past two seasons.
— When this originally aired, my local NBC affiliate in New York accidentally cut to a blank screen for several seconds right when the camera was panning over to Zach at the children’s birthday party. Then when the screen came back on, the sound wasn’t working until the Law & Order scene began. I recall later finding out that the reason for this gaffe was because of some kind of HD switchover by the network at midnight, but I can’t remember the specifics.
— Oh, hell yeah! Now this is getting meta, by cutting to a Robin Williams monologue from a 1984 Dick Ebersol-era SNL episode! As an SNL nerd, words cannot express how much I love this meta-ness, as well as this shoutout to such a neglected SNL era.
— Perfect ending with a bearded kiddie Zach Galifianakis in the 1984 SNL audience.
STARS: ****½


TODAY
wine-addicted Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW) helps host drop by the set

— This would end up being Jenny’s final time playing Hoda Kotb before suffering the same fate of SNL’s previous short-lived Hoda Kotb impersonator, Michaela Watkins, by getting fired after this season, sparking a famous theory among online SNL fans that the Hoda Kotb role on SNL is cursed. Nasim would end up breaking this curse, as she takes over the Hoda role in the next Today sketch, which (surprisingly) isn’t until two seasons later. Then again, that ends up being the final Today sketch, so maybe that’s why Nasim doesn’t suffer “the curse” after playing Hoda in it.
— I’m getting my usual mild laughs from Kristen’s Kathie Lee shtick, ever since I’ve surprisingly developed some goodwill towards it starting with the preceding season’s Zac Efron episode, after absolutely HATING Kristen’s Kathie Lee shtick prior to that. (Maybe the change of heart I’ve had towards Kristen’s Kathie Lee is a case of Stockholm Syndrome.)
— As usual, Jenny’s not doing it for me in this Hoda role compared to how masterfully Michaela Watkins played such a thankless role.
— Ha, we suddenly get a continuation of the Zach Drops By The Set gag, with a creepily-smiling Zach appearing in the background! I absolutely LOVE this rare case of sketches overlapping. And just three episodes after a brilliant case of sketches overlapping (Closet Organizer).
— This sketch, which was only mildly funny and rather forgettable before Zach’s part, has taken such a good turn, and I love Zach being brought into the Today studio after declaring his unsettling love for his “Egyptian goddess” Hoda Kotb. Even Jenny’s Hoda performance is now working for me in this portion of the sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cousins”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mo’Nique (KET) won’t limit her Oscar acceptance speech to 45 seconds

WLF is mad high schools won’t buy his sketchy song about women’s history

— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— Ugh, in true Kenan In A Dress fashion, he’s not even attempting to imitate Mo’Nique’s distinct voice, instead just doing a generic “confident black woman” voice that sounds nothing like Mo’Nique’s voice. He also, at one point, for whatever reason, slipped into his Googie Rene character by throwing in a “Sheeyeah!” utterance.
— A traditional Will Forte Update song! And, sadly, it’s the last one we’ll ever see during Will’s tenure as a cast member.
— As expected, Will’s fast-paced Herstory song is fantastic. I especially got a big laugh from the lyric “Helen Keller said ‘Waaauuugh’”.
— Seth has some really solid jokes tonight.
— The “(insert crazy action here) is the (insert state here) state flag” punchline has become a recurring joke these past two Updates.
— I recall hearing that a David Paterson commentary got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. If that’s true, THANK GOD. I like Fred’s Paterson more than most people seem to, but Jesus Christ, why the fuck is SNL going so heavy on it in the second half of this season? Hell, Fred’s Paterson just did an Update commentary in the preceding episode. Were they seriously going to have a Paterson commentary on Update TWO WEEKS IN A ROW?!? That’s insane. To those of you who don’t like Fred’s Paterson, you dodged a bullet with tonight’s Paterson commentary getting cut.
STARS: ***½


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Paul Rudd & Frank Rich [real] don’t get to say much

— This would end up being Will’s final time playing the announcer of these sketches, which serves as another reminder in this review that the end of Will’s SNL tenure is near.
— As usual, this sketch is very formulaic but a blast.
— A freakin’ hilarious walk-on from Zach as a flute player.
— I’m enjoying the escalation each passing What Up With That sketch is making to the running gag with Kenan trying to get a smile out of Bill’s Lindsey Buckingham, who’s unhappy due to getting bumped once again.
STARS: ****


THE SITUATION ROOM
unvetted viewer-submitted content is unjournalistic

— Feels odd seeing a Situation Room sketch appearing so late in an episode.
— A very funny obscene photo of then-writer Mike O’Brien (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— Geez, another sketch tonight in which Zach has yet to be seen when we’re halfway through the sketch.
— Some decent laughs from the juvenile messages submitted to the show.
— Finally, there’s Zach. His appearance is funny, of course, but I’m starting to be bothered by how it seems like, after the Bidet sketch ended, SNL has only been using Zach in non-speaking walk-on roles.
— Pretty funny voice from Nasim as Christiane Amanpour.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Giving Up The Gun”


PAGEANT TALK
contestant (JES) has been coached by her queer dad (host)

— Ha, we suddenly get a beardless Zach! He shaved off his beard after introducing the Vampire Weekend musical performance that preceded this sketch. After this episode’s original airing, NBC.com (I think) would put up a backstage video of Zach shaving his beard behind the scenes during Vampire Weekend’s performance.
— After my complaint about Zach being relegated to nothing but silent walk-on roles in a long string of segments that preceded this, it feels good to see Zach not only in an actual speaking role, but actually front-and-center as the lead in this sketch.
— I got a laugh from the random detail of Kristen having a baggie of Cheetos in her hand during her entrance.
— The lispy gay stereotypes here feel way too typical of this SNL era (I don’t need to ask which writer penned this sketch), but the performances are at least fun (including one of Jenny’s better performances in her short-lived SNL tenure) and are elevating the material.
— I see Kristen’s apparently playing a variation of her cigarette-smoking, ashtray-throwing character from the notorious Biker Chick Chat sketch from this season’s premiere.
— Zach’s over-the-top delivery of “If I see one more updo pouf, I’m gonna have to jack myself down in a hot shower!” was hilarious.
— A rare-feeling instance of Zach breaking, as he helplessly cracks up after one of (several) line flubs he makes in this sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— Amusingly, Zach’s clearly wearing a fake beard for these goodnights.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Certainly better than I had remembered it (I feel like I’m saying that quite a lot this season). When this episode originally aired, the “poor” quality of most of the material and the aforementioned fact that Zach Galifianakis was relegated to too many non-speaking walk-on roles made many online SNL fans (including myself) consider this episode to be a HUGE letdown for a Zach Galifianakis episode, after how highly we were anticipating his hosting stint. The perceived disappointment of this episode even led to some of the staunchest season 35 defenders having an epiphany and realizing “All of the complainers are right: this season does suck.” I’ve recently come to realize in my coverage of this season in my SNL project that this season isn’t quite as bad as I and others made it out to be back when it originally aired. It’s more bland than outright bad. Aside from January Jones and Taylor Lautner, there haven’t been any episodes that I felt were awful (and even the January Jones episode was a little less dreadful than I had remembered). “Mediocre” or “Meh” is how I would describe the other episodes I didn’t like from this season so far. (Then again, we haven’t gotten to the Gabourey Sidibe episode yet, which I remember being very poorly received among SNL fans back in 2010.) Speaking of which, in my original 2010 review of this Zach Galifianakis episode, I was so disappointed in the outcome of this episode that I went into a HUGE rant about the poor quality of this season (seen here, in the “Final Thoughts” portion towards the end of the review). Looking back on that rant, some of what I said about this season doesn’t hold up well, now that I find this season more bland than outright bad. The blandness of this season, while certainly still a problem, doesn’t warrant such an angry, long rant like the one I gave in the link above. I was also dead wrong in my prediction in that rant that the following season (season 36) would be the next 1994-95 in terms of being a disastrous, notorious season.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Zach Drops By The Set
What Up With That?
Bidet
Today
Weekend Update
The Situation Room
Pageant Talk
Health Care Reform
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Lopez)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jude Law

Posted on

February 27, 2010 – Jennifer Lopez (S35 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WE ARE THE WORLD 3
“We Are The World 3” is sung to atone for disastrous “We Are The World 2”

— A laugh from Kenan’s Quincy Jones calling the then-recent We Are The World 2 a disaster that included “half-famous randos”.
— I like how this feels like a then-modern version of SNL’s famous We Are The World-esque sketches from the early 90s.
— Much like a gripe I had with the We Are The World-esque Set Our Nanny Free sketch SNL did in a Jon Lovitz-hosted episode from the late 90s, I’m not too crazy about how they’re displaying each singer’s name onscreen in this sketch. It was more fun when you had to guess which singer each cast member was playing in the We Are The World-esque sketches from the early 90s.
— Very energetic performance from Abby as Melissa Etheridge.
— Funny insane facial expressions from Bobby’s David Crosby.
— Interesting seeing the host getting involved in one of these.
— The audience seems pretty dead during this, especially compared to past We Are The World-esque sketches. And also unlike past We Are The World-esque sketches, this sketch isn’t memorable at all, despite a few fun impressions and a few amusing lyrics about the questionable aspects of We Are The World 2.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host’s entourage & fans wish she hadn’t changed over the past decade

— Jennifer Lopez seemed to expect that “Now I’m married…” line of hers to get applause, which it initially didn’t until after a few seconds where the audience hesitantly applauded. I recall seeing comments about her also having an awkward moment like this in her most recent monologue from season 45, in which she said something about being blessed, and the audience gave very hesitant applause after initial silence. I haven’t seen that for myself yet, because, as I’ve said in some previous reviews, I’ve been on a still-ongoing hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018.
— Good delivery from a bitter Kenan.
— Feels very rare to see Bill and (especially) Jason in drag. I want to say this is the only time Jason ever dressed in drag on SNL, but I get the nagging feeling it’s not and I’m probably just forgetting something.
— Jason’s delivery of “And I’m J.Blo” cracked me up.
STARS: **½


GYNE-LOTRIMIN LADIES WORLD CUP OF CURLING 1987
Pete Twinkle & Greg Stink cover 1987 ladies’ curling competition

— Wow, is SNL just throwing this sketch on every two episodes at this point? It sure feels like it. Luckily, I’ve been loving all of the installments of this sketch that have aired up to this point, but I can’t help but take this, as well as certain other recurring sketches this season, as a sign of how desperate this season’s writing has become in terms of creativity.
— Feels odd seeing Jason playing this ESPN Classic character of his with eyeliner this time, but he obviously only has that eyeliner on because he used it when playing Adam Lambert in the cold opening and a drag queen in the monologue, and didn’t have enough time to remove it for this sketch.
— You can tell Jason is genuinely unsure of how to pronounce “vaginal”, which he then makes a great ad-lib about.
— The Jason/Will portions of this sketch never fail to slay me.
— Jason: “From Bo Derek to Susan Lucci, it’s the brand the stars use to clean their coochie……..Gyne-Lotrimin Vaginal Cream!”
— Jason: “When ya hop up from the futon, and all you’re left is a wet crouton………………….Gyne-Lotrimin Vaginal Cream!”
STARS: ****


FLAGS OF THE WORLD
emblematic cloths range from legitimate to punny

— Oddly, a subtitle stating “I like to hit people with my car!”, reserved for the live sketch that follows this, is accidentally displayed at the beginning of this Digital Short (as seen in the first above screencap for this short).
— Tons of gags are being thrown at us per minute in this short. I love it.
— In addition to the very fun and gag-filled fast pacing of this, the music is very catchy.
— Hard to pick out my favorite flag gags, due to how frequent and fast-paced the gags are.
STARS: ****


HOLLYWOOD DISH
misleading editing further twists host’s Hollywood Dish interview fakery

— Meh, like the first installment of this sketch from earlier this season, I don’t care for how this sketch seems to just be an excuse to do constant cutaways to Kristen and Bill making various goofy facial expressions. It feels like this SNL era relies too heavily on that type of humor in general.
— Jennifer’s insanely-delivered Spanish spiel that Bill and Kristen forced her to do cracked me up.
STARS: **


VANCOUVER 2010
Telemundo anchors (FRA) & (host) find the Winter Olympics cold & awful

— I like Fred and Jennifer questioning the usefulness of Winter Olympics.
— Boy, that is an awful Hispanic accent Jenny is attempting.
— Good part with Fred and Jennifer freaking out over the “unfinished” ramp in the ski-jumping clip.
— Solid performance from Bill, depressed over the “shuffleboard” floor being frozen with ice.
— There’s Bobby in his usual funny walk-on.
— Despite all of the aforementioned high points, I’m slightly meh on this sketch as a whole. Not even sure why.
STARS: **½


UNDERCOVER CELEBRITY BOSS
executives’ fame undermines concept of series

— This started out well with the Steve Jobs scene, but the subsequent scenes aren’t quite as strong for me, despite Bill’s fun impression of Richard Branson.
— Kristen playing Martha Stewart??? Whaaaaaaa??? Why didn’t I remember this until now? I thought I had remembered ALL of SNL’s many Martha Stewart impersonators from over the years.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Until It Beats No More”


WEEKEND UPDATE
YouTube video pushed by new media correspondent BOM won’t stop buffering

besieged lame duck David Paterson (FRA) doesn’t attenuate his invective

— It feels very interesting and rare at this point of SNL’s run to see a cast member do an Update commentary as themselves.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2010 complaining that the “buffering” gag throughout Bobby’s commentary seemed very outdated by this point and felt more like something that would’ve been timely 10 years earlier. I can see their point, but Bobby’s at least coming off as his usual likable and fun self here.
— Ha, I love the callback/payoff to Bobby’s commentary, a minute after it ended, with him suddenly interrupting a joke of Seth’s to show him the video, only for it to IMMEDIATELY buffer on him once again.
— Even though I’m seemingly in the minority in actually liking Fred’s David Paterson, even *I* have to take issue with him appearing tonight, because, come on, they just did a David Paterson Update commentary a few episodes ago. It’s way too soon to do another one.
— I do at least like how they’re shaking things up with Fred-as-Paterson’s entrance, with him now doing a failed surprise attack on Seth.
— I actually got a big laugh from Fred-as-Paterson’s “…or whatever abandoned shoneys they huddle in” remark.
— Boy, Seth is audibly laughing up a storm off-camera throughout the Paterson commentary. He’s developed a really bad habit of doing that lately whenever an Update guest is giving a commentary.
STARS: ***


BESOS Y LAGRIMAS
Carlos’ (FRA) emotions run hot for nun Josephina (host)

— The hell? They’re digging this sketch back up after a FOUR-YEAR ABSENCE??? Not to mention how even the last time this sketch appeared prior to tonight (when Antonio Banderas hosted) was its first appearance since its debut two seasons prior. So lazy of SNL to pull this sketch out of the mothballs just because we have a Hispanic host. Probably yet another sign of how dry on creativity this season’s writing has become.
— Another excuse for a Kristen Wiig mugfest tonight, I see. Wasn’t that Hollywood Dish sketch enough? Kristen is noticeably mugging even hammier than the other performers in this sketch, and, of course, the audience is eating her mugging all up.
— Boy, even with the long absence of this sketch, I’ve gotten sick of its format. I’m also seeing more and more of a precursor to The Californians in this sketch’s format, which I definitely don’t consider to be a positive thing, as The Californians is pure comedy cancer to me, and completes the trifecta of what are probably my top three most hated recurring pieces from this SNL era: The Vogelchecks, Garth & Kat, and The Californians….and it’s no surprise that all three of those recurring pieces co-star Fred and Kristen.
STARS: *½


ETERNAL SPARK OF LOVE
office romance involving puppeteer (host) resists soulful commentary

— The second and final appearance of this sketch. Not sure this will work in a second installment.
— Like last time, Kenan is killing in this.
— I love Kenan being wheeled out of the scene when he’s still in the middle of rambling about the oddness of Jennifer having a house filled with 50 ventriloquist puppets.
— I like a speechless, puzzled Kenan being wheeled right through the shot after Jennifer’s display of ventriloquism, only to say “Wait, wait, wait, I got something”, then, when wheeled back into the shot, says “Nah, I got nothin’.”
— Wasn’t necessary to repeat the gag from the first installment where Kenan falls off the moving platform, then angrily calls out “Jimmy”, the crew member responsible.
— Hmm, an unexpected ending with a horny Kenan implying there’s a romantic same-sex spark between Jennifer and Nasim.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Starting Over”


SMASH MOUTH
girl (NAP) fears bedroom closet monster Smash Mouth (BOM), (BIH), (FRA)

— A brilliant premise.
— Great line from Nasim about how she doesn’t want to sing a sample of Smash Mouth’s song because it’ll get stuck in Jennifer’s head.
— Nasim: “Mom, they’re right there! I can see their soul patches!”
— When Nasim starts singing the famous “someBODY once told…” lyric to Jason, who thinks he’s not familiar with Smash Mouth’s music, I love Jason IMMEDIATELY putting a stop to that by saying “Okay, okay, I got it.”
— Excellent gag with Smash Mouth crashing through the wall behind Nasim.
— A very solid big speech Jennifer gives to Nasim towards the end about why she shouldn’t be scared of Smash Mouth.
— When this originally aired, I think I was of the opinion that this otherwise-great sketch ended on a weak and corny note with all the characters singing Smash Mouth’s “All Star” together, but I’m more onboard with that ending nowadays.
STARS: *****


CAR HORNS AND MORE
Tina Tina Chanuse’s Car Horns & More has custom verbal vehicle warnings

— I could do without the return of this character of Jenny’s, given how I wasn’t crazy about it the first time.
— Much like in the first installment of this sketch, Bobby’s sarcastic delivery of “PFFFFT! Nice car horn!” is somehow the funniest part of the entire sketch to me.
— Part of the reason these sketches don’t work for me is because it gets tiring hearing all of those comedic doorbell/car horn voice-overs back to back, and I’d find them funnier as an isolated, individual gag rather than hearing all of them one after another. That being said, I’m not finding the car horn voice-overs in tonight’s installment quite as tiring as the doorbell ones from the first installment.
— Jenny and Jennifer make a decent duo here. I recall hearing Jennifer would later do a sketch kinda like this with current cast member Melissa Villasenor in the aforementioned season 45 J.Lo-hosted episode that I haven’t seen yet.
STARS: **½


CLOSET ORGANIZER
— Rerun from 1/30/10.
— Aww, Jon Hamm’s testimonial, one of the absolute funniest parts of this already-fantastic commercial, has been removed in this rerun. I can see why, given the fact that Jon Hamm isn’t hosting tonight’s episode, but they should’ve left his testimonial in anyway. After all, the season 33 Christopher Walken episode re-aired that Tina Fey-co-starring Annuale ad in full, from the episode Tina hosted earlier that season.


GOODNIGHTS

— At one point early in her goodnights speech, Jennifer thanks Darrell Hammond. Uh, did I blink and miss another season 35 Darrell Hammond cameo earlier tonight, or is my memory just bad? I don’t recall seeing Darrell AT ALL in this episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly meh episode as a whole, despite a few strong highlights. It’s hard for me to get excited about Jennifer Lopez-hosted episodes, and the forgettable quality of both her season 26 episode and this season 35 episode of hers backs up that lack of excitement from me. It remains to be seen how I’ll react to her aforementioned season 45 episode, though I think I recall hearing not-so-great things about it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Smash Mouth
Flags Of The World
Gyne-Lotrimin Ladies World Cup Of Curling 1987
Eternal Spark of Love
Weekend Update
Vancouver 2010
Car Horns And More
We Are The World 3
Monologue
Undercover Celebrity Boss
Hollywood Dish
Besos Y Lagrimas


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Zach Galifianakis makes his hosting debut

Posted on

February 6, 2010 – Ashton Kutcher / Them Crooked Vultures (S35 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ON THE RECORD W/ GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Fox News pundits don’t want Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to end

— I see they’re repeating the EXACT SAME joke from the first installment of this sketch where Fred played a panelist who kept getting ignored and cut off, only Bill is now the one playing the constantly-ignored-and-cut-off panelist. A very lazy choice to repeat that in tonight’s installment.
— Abby’s Attractive Blonde Lady character and her irrelevant points are a good spoof of Fox News’ reputation for hiring certain blonde women as on-air personalities just for eye candy.
— Like last time, I’m enjoying Jason’s Glenn Beck segment, even if I felt this one ended too abruptly.
— They even repeat the joke with Kristen’s Greta Van Susteren switching from talking out of one corner mouth to the other.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host struggles to remain mature upon seeing a bunch of awesome things

— I like how we’re shown a clip of Ashton Kutcher’s unique monologue entrance from his season 28 hosting stint.
— A decent conceit with Ashton forcing himself to refrain from having an excited reaction when seeing fun, crazy things happening in the studio.
— The whole Stormtrooper/Superman/Mark Twain bit towards the end is solid.
STARS: ***½


GERTRUDE’S WILL
gold-digging pool boy (host) got only venereal disease from an old lady

— The visual of Bobby in that wig and glasses in the initial cutaway to him is making me laugh.
— I got a cheap laugh from Bill’s line about the old lady “dying doing what she loved best: receiving oral sex from you.”
— Funny reveal to Ashton that the old lady had chlamydia.
— I got a big laugh from Ashton explaining he didn’t use protection when having sex with the old lady because “she was 110! What was she gonna do, give birth to a ghost?!?”
— Another funny line from Bill, about how the old lady gave Ashton STDs so old, they have racist names.
STARS: ***½


THE VIEW
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Oscars, Mel Gibson (host) are mooted

— There goes those trademark unfunny formulaic rants from Kristen’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
— I liked Kenan-as-Whoopi’s line, regarding Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: “Personally, I don’t have to ask or tell. I just know.”
— Okay, I did get a laugh from Kristen-as-Hasselback’s random “If we don’t get an education…the Chinese win” line.
— Fairly funny story from Nasim’s Barbara Walters about seeing the movie Precious and mistaking it for Avatar.
— What…the…HOLY…FUCK is Ashton going for in his Mel Gibson impression?!? What’s with the gravelly, cracking voice? What is he doing?!?
STARS: **½


CIALIS FOR THREEWAYS
Cialis For Threeways sees to functional & emotional menage a trois needs

— An okay premise.
— Some good lines from the announcer during the various scenes we’re shown.
STARS: ***


SLAVE BOY
in ancient Rome, grape-feeding slave boy (host) preoccupies emperor (WLF)

— Will’s characterization and voice is hilarious.
— A few minutes into this, and Will’s aforementioned characterization and voice are the ONLY things this sketch has going for it. The material itself is doing absolutely nothing for me.
— Ashton’s “grape attack” was kinda funny.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mind Eraser, No Chaser”


WEEKEND UPDATE
just-awakened teen Liam (ANS) talks about dream instead of federal budget

Eliot Spitzer (BIH) presents greeting cards aimed at troubled marriages

Europe’s financial crisis fuels Jean K. Jean’s stand-up comedy material

Garth & Kat clumsily improvise tracks from their Valentine’s Day album

— The comically brief remembrance of the Democratic supermajority’s accomplishments seems like a precursor to a recurring gag from the modern-day Colin Jost/Michael Che era of Update.
— Whether intentional or not (probably not), Andy’s Liam The Teenager Who Just Woke Up character is a little reminiscent of an obscure one-off Update character Adam Sandler once played called Sleepyhead.
— Andy’s commentary is over already? Boy, that commentary sure was dumb, and not the kind of dumb that Andy is usually good at pulling off. (Then again, I didn’t care for Adam Sandler’s aforementioned Sleepyhead bit either, and, much like Andy, Adam was usually good at pulling off dumb humor.)
— Bill’s Eliot Spitzer impression always cracks me up.
— Speaking of cracking up, halfway through this Spitzer commentary, both Bill and Seth have begun giggling their way through it, continuing Bill’s transition from a Hartman/Aykroyd-level stone-faced performer in his earlier seasons to an almost Fallon/Sanz-level easily-breakable performer in his later seasons.
— The “Swallowzer” card Bill’s Spitzer shows at the end of his commentary made me laugh.
— Very funny line from Kenan’s Jean K. Jean about being so poor that, in place of a bidet, he has to use a squirt gun full of Avian.
— Kenan’s delivery in tonight’s Jean K. Jean commentary seems even more fun than usual.
— I love how Seth segues from an edgy sex offender/child molestation joke to saying a lighthearted “Valentine’s Day is approaching, so…” when turning to the other camera to introduce the next guest commentary.
— FOUR guest commentaries tonight?
— Fuuuuuuuuuuck. It’s Garth and Kat.
— I have nothing new to say about the insufferable, endless, self-indulgent comedy poison that tonight’s Garth and Kat commentary is foisting upon us.
STARS: ***


WHAT IS BURN NOTICE?
game show contestants puzzle over USA Network show

— A fairly interesting idea for a game show sketch.
— Jason is perfect here, especially his shrugging-type gestures and facial expressions when revealing something about the popularity of Burn Notice.
— Something about Kristen’s answers remind me of her answers in a then-recent game show sketch, Reel Quotes from this season’s Charles Barkley episode, though her answers in this one thankfully aren’t as annoying or long-winded.
— Some of the guesses about what Burn Notice is are pretty funny, especially Will’s.
— I like Jason’s unsure reaction when a contestant actually gets a correct answer for once.
— What was with the two different, overlapping “What…is…Burn…Notice!” group title readings at the end?
STARS: ***


ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
not all Best Picture nominees are “best” or “pictures”

— Ashton’s Billy Bush, during his sign-on: “I’m Billy Bush, and I will NOT apologize for that!” Little did SNL know at this time in 2010 that there later would be a valid reason to apologize for being Billy Bush.
— With her Anne Hathaway impression here and her Anna Faris impression earlier this season, Abby has now played two of the three female hosts of the entire season that preceded this. (Yes, that’s right, only THREE women hosted in a 22-episode season. Go figure.) I remember kinda wishing back at this time in 2010 that Abby would eventually complete the trifecta by playing the remaining season 34 female host she hadn’t played yet (Rosario Dawson), so Abby could have bragging rights that she’s the ONLY cast member in SNL history to do an on-air impression of every host of one or both genders from a single season. She would end up never playing Rosario Dawson anytime on SNL, though there was an opportunity in the following season’s Scarlett Johansson episode, in which SNL spoofed the movie Unstoppable. Rosario Dawson’s character in that movie was played by Scarlett in the SNL spoof, and I remember thinking “Aww, man, if Abby played that role, she would’ve completed the trifecta!”
— Meh at the joke with more and more movies being added to the listing-off of Best Picture nominees, and how the movies are getting increasingly off-topic.
— I do love the random mention of Bebe’s Kids, of all things, as one of the Best Picture nominees just now.
— I kinda like the ending gag where the listing-off of Best Picture nominees gets to the bizarre point where it’s now started to list off the same (real-life) nominees that it first listed off at the beginning of this sketch.
— No idea what to think about that intentionally annoying, screechy laugh that Nasim keeps doing. Something about it reminds me a little too much of her Kim Kardashian voice.
STARS: **½


AN EVEN-TEMPERED APOLOGY
Rahm Emanuel’s (ANS) ostensibly even-tempered apology is anything but

— A variation of a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Rahm Emanuel sketch from the preceding season’s Tim McGraw episode. That cut sketch was released by NBC online as an “Online Exclusive” shortly after the McGraw episode’s original airing. It follows the exact same format of tonight’s version of the sketch, only the lines themselves are different, as is the real-life controversial statement Andy’s Rahm Emanuel is apologizing for.
— This sketch is pre-taped, and you can tell by the visual look of the sketch, as well as the fact that Andy doesn’t pause for audience laughter at any point. I’m assuming the reason for this sketch being pre-taped is to avoid any mistimings of the bleeping of Andy-as-Emanuel’s frequent expletives.
— Andy-as-Emanuel’s aforementioned bleep-filled tirades are hilarious, well-written, and absolutely perfectly delivered.
— I absolutely love Andy-as-Emanuel’s threat to Sarah Palin that he will write shit on her Facebook wall so obscene, it’ll make her computer cry.
— Andy’s Rahm Emanuel, in a very deadpan, emotionless manner: “In conclusion: boo f(*bleep*)ing hoo. Get over it.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New Fang”


CRISIS OF CONFORMITY
at a wedding reception, former punk band (Dave Grohl), (host) & bride’s father (FRA) play hardcore

— Fun use of Dave Grohl.
— A sketch playing perfectly to Fred’s love of and experience with punk rock. Given how horribly, and I mean HORRIBLY, Fred had been doing on SNL lately, it’s such a breath of fresh air to see him doing something that’s actually funny, entertaining, and plays to his strengths.
— I love Kenan’s non-verbal reaction to getting wine glasses kicked out of the tray he’s holding. Bobby also has a funny non-verbal reaction when the same thing happens to him shortly afterwards.
— Nice save from Ashton when Dave Grohl’s microphone isn’t working.
— Tons of great, wild, violent energy all throughout the punk rock performance, especially from Fred. I cannot say enough good things about him in this sketch.
— I love Jason’s excited delivery of “Yeah, you are! Hell yeah!”
— The ending of this sketch kinda seemed like it got cut off, but I can’t tell. It may have been intentional to end like that.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— As soon as the screen crossfades from the Ashton Kutcher SNL bumper to the goodnights, a laughing Jason Sudeikis audibly says “So fuckin’ funny!” to someone, then, when realizing he was on the air when he said that, he can be seen putting his hand over his mouth in shock with an embarrassed smile (the first above screencap for these goodnights – Jason’s the one in the blue hoodie right behind Ashton), then he immediately walks out of the shot (somewhat).

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better episode than I had remembered, though still nothing special as a whole. Extremely average and pretty forgettable, but it did end on a strong note with the final two sketches.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
An Even-Tempered Apology
Crisis Of Conformity
Gertrude’s Will
Monologue
What Is Burn Notice?
Weekend Update
Cialis For Threeways
Access Hollywood
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren
The View
Slave Boy


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Hamm)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jennifer Lopez

Posted on

January 30, 2010 – Jon Hamm / Michael Bublé (S35 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

STATE OF THE UNION 2010
Barack Obama (FRA) scapegoats Martha Coakley & lays out his policy agenda

— SNL’s State Of The Union cold openings have a reputation for being very long, which makes me very nervous about this particular one, given how bad “Fredbama gives a speech or an address” cold openings typically are.
— There’s the SNL State Of The Union tradition of constantly doing cutaways to real footage of certain politicians in the crowd.
— Some really tepid humor here, such as Fred’s Obama complaining about the horrible condition the Bush family left the White House in when the Obamas took over.
— I got a pretty good laugh from the cutaway to a famous clip of Brendan Fraser laughing in an odd, seemingly-drunken manner at an awards show.
— An actual strong gag, with the cutaway to footage of stone-faced military generals being the only ones in the crowd who aren’t standing up and applauding when Fred’s Obama announces he will end the ban on gays in the military.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host channeled Don Draper in his TV appearances predating Mad Men

— Pretty much right out of the gate here, Jon Hamm is coming off as his usual charming and funny self.
— I love the clip of Jon as a Don Draper-esque new “kid” in a Saved By The Bell-esque 90s teen sitcom.
— The other clips of Jon doing his Don Draper shtick in out-of-place settings are also very funny, especially the Def Jam scene with Jon apparently channeling Martin Lawrence’s infamous feminine hygiene SNL monologue.
— I like how obvious it is that Jon is performing the various “taped” clips live, as he can be seen straightening his suit and/or walking back onstage whenever the camera cuts back to him on the home base stage after the respective clips have ended.
STARS: ****


1920’S PARTY
at a 1928 party, Lilia (KRW) contrives to sing but then fails to do so

— Yet another display of Fred’s gay stereotype routine.
— I never cared AT ALL for these Don’t Make Me Sing sketches (as little as they appeared) back when they originally aired, and I recall dismissing them as typical annoying, one-note Kristen Wiig sketches that were dominating the show at the time. With this being the debut installment, I’ll try to go into my current viewing with an open mind.
— The countdown bit Kristen does during the Bill Bailey song made me laugh.
— I love Jon’s delivery of “That was it, you missed it.”
— Despite the aforementioned highlights, I’m not caring for the actual main conceit of this sketch.
— Overall, meh. Still not a big fan of these sketches, though I found a few more merits than I did in previous viewings.
STARS: **


SERGIO
sexy shirtless saxman Sergio (host) haunts hexed (ANS)

— Hilarious sudden initial appearance of Jon as Sergio (who’s apparently based on a character from the movie The Lost Boys) during Andy’s business presentation.
— I love the “Sergio” title screen showing up at the end of Sergio’s first appearance, and how the camera quickly cuts away from that title screen right after it first shows up. I also love the audience reaction to that.
— Funny wild dancing from Jenny during Sergio’s second appearance.
— Great fake-out with the wind that starts blowing during the therapy session turning out to just be from an open window instead of another Sergio appearance, and then Jason, after closing the window, suddenly explodes (literally) and turns into Sergio.
— Even though the ending gag with the “baby” who Kristen births turning out to be Sergio was rather predictable, it was made absolutely hilarious by the excellent detail of Sergio being covered in…uh…birth goo (whatever the technical name for that is).
STARS: *****


NEW SENATOR
visions of alluring Scott Brown (host) scotch Democrats’ strategy session

— Oh, gee, what a surprise – Fred not only playing yet another gay role, but his second gay role in tonight’s episode alone.
— Some good laughs from almost all of the thought bubble fantasy sequences each democrat is shown having of Jon’s charismatic Scott Brown. Bill’s Robert Byrd having a fantasy of Jon’s Scott Brown as a black-and-white 1920s flapper girl is particularly funny, as is the look on Bill’s face during that (the last above screencap for this sketch).
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Haven’t Met You Yet”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Sonia Sotomayor (NAP) laments the Supreme Court’s lack of diversity

Snooki (BOM) has leveraged Jersey Shore’s popularity into a new contract

— I’m enjoying Nasim’s laid-back, streetwise portrayal of Sonia Sotomayor.
— The return of Bobby’s Snooki. Very big and energetic applause from the audience upon Bobby-as-Snooki’s entrance tonight.
— As usual, Bobby’s fun performance as Snooki is better than the actual written material he’s given.
— Jenny makes what I believe is her only Weekend Update appearance during her entire short-lived SNL tenure, still beating out one of her predecessors, Casey Wilson, who sadly got zero Update appearances during her year-and-a-half on the show.
— I admit to getting a cheap laugh from Bobby’s Snooki explaining why her nickname is Spalding (“Because I’m orange, leathery, and I get passed around by sweaty dudes!”).
STARS: ***


GAME TIME WITH RANDY AND GREG
alien Greg assimilates Frank Reich (host) & starts multiplying

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch.
— That voice Bill uses as Greg never fails to amaze and amuse me.
— Hilarious abrupt ending of Greg’s interview of Jon’s Frank Reich, with Greg suddenly attacking him.
— Excellent turn with Jon’s Reich now having become a Greg-like alien.
— The usually-Weekend-Update-only Seth Meyers continues his tradition of playing the voice of a caller in every single installment of this recurring sketch.
— Funny bit with the two Gregs muttering to each other while analyzing a globe.
— Oh, hell yes! Now Greg is multiplying more and more over the course of the sketch, with the multiple Gregs played by various SNL cast members and writers. Classic.
STARS: *****


HAMM & BUBLÉ
musical guest is host’s unwilling partner in Hamm & Bublé eatery venture

— A brilliant way to do a sequel to/variation of the Jon Hamm’s John Ham sketch from Jon’s first episode.
— I love Jon sternly explaining to Michael Bublé that, for the sake of this restaurant, Bublé’s last name is now pronounced “bubbly” because the true pronunciation of Bublé doesn’t work in this context.
— The menu items are hilarious, especially the drink with chunks of ham in it.
— Fantastic turn with Bublé musically disclosing to us viewers the dark backstory of how this restaurant came to be, whenever Jon steps away.
— Jon’s sternness towards Bublé continues to be great, especially him telling Bublé, “You are on the thinnest of ice.”
— Jon to us viewers: “If you can find a better place for pork and champagne…..keep it to yourself.”
STARS: *****


CLOSET ORGANIZER
Closet Organizer (WLF) doesn’t really handle everything thrown at him

— A very well-loved piece among SNL fans.
— Priceless concept to this commercial.
— Such a fantastic sequence with one crazy thing after another being thrown at Will as the Closet Organizer, in rapid succession.
— Very funny little gag thrown in with the Closet Organizer secretly stuffing the pair of panties into his pocket.
— Jon’s testimonial is absolutely HILARIOUS, especially how it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this commercial. Hell, even just Jon’s mere look in that wig and goatee is hilarious in itself.
— An overall absolutely perfect commercial.
STARS: *****


COURT STENOGRAPHER
incompetent court stenographer Elinda Nade (FRA) interrupts proceedings

— OHHHHHH GOD. Leave it to motherfucking Fred Armisen to ruin the streak of perfect segments tonight’s episode had going with the three segments that preceded this sketch.
— With the debut of this horrible, annoying-as-hell character, Fred lately seems to be getting to the point of his infamous “bad years” (2009-2013) where he’s literally getting worse and worse with each passing episode. How much further can this man sink on a week-to-week basis?
— Fred: “I can’t find my crackers”, repeated 100 painfully unfunny times. Fucking kill me.
— Kenan’s spiel about people not being good at their jobs provided my first (and what will probably remain my ONLY) chuckle of this entire sketch.
— (*deep sigh*) Now we get a callback to the earlier aforementioned irritating “I can’t find my crackers” catchphrase, with Fred now repeating it even more times. This is…just…(*sigh*) I no longer have any words for the awfulness of this sketch.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Sharon Jones [real] perform “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)”


BAR
in a bar, Closet Organizer bristles when patron (host) pigeonholes him

— So many hilarious non-sequiturs and bizarre one-liners in Will and Jon’s conversation so far.
— Ha, an excellent sudden callback to an earlier piece in this episode, with Jon recognizing Will as “the freakin’ Closet Organizer guy”! Fantastic. It’s a rarity to see SNL segments overlap like this, especially in more recent decades.
— Even the names of Will and Jon’s characters are hilariously bizarre (Tarkey Fensington, Resden Bonure).
— I love Will lightheartedly re-enacting the Closet Organizer commercial to Jon’s amusement.
— A solid angry rant from Will when he gets fed up after Jon hesitantly requests Will organize his closet.
STARS: *****


AMERICAN ENTERPRISE
Barnes & Noble started with just homeless bathrooms

— A funny dignified conversation about bathrooms for homeless people, made even funnier by Bill and Jon’s solid professional delivery.
— Hilarious reveal that Barnes & Noble’s decision to fill their store with books was a complete afterthought after accomplishing their goal of building a store for homeless people to go to the bathroom.
— Even the random ending reveal of the female voice-over of this whole sketch (Kristen) turning out to have been Madonna the whole time is funny.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— SNL knocks it out of the park with another VERY strong Jon Hamm episode. Ignoring a few things I didn’t care for, particularly an absolutely dreadful Fred Armisen showcase, this episode has plenty to love, including a few universally-praised classics. The post-Weekend Update half of the show was ESPECIALLY fantastic, with so many segments receiving a perfect 5-star rating from me, including three consecutive segments at one point (Game Time With Randy And Greg, Hamm & Bublé, and Closet Organizer), which must be a rarity in this SNL project of mine, as I can’t remember many other reviews in which I gave a 5-star rating to three or more consecutive segments (the only thing that immediately comes to mind is my review of the Candice Bergen episode from season 2). By this point, two hosting stints in, Jon Hamm has cemented himself as one of the most reliable recurring hosts in SNL history.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Closet Organizer / Bar
Hamm & Bublé
Sergio
Game Time With Randy And Greg
Monologue
American Enterprise
New Senator
Weekend Update
1920’s Party
State Of The Union 2010
Court Stenographer


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sigourney Weaver)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ashton Kutcher

Posted on

January 16, 2010 – Sigourney Weaver / The Ting Tings (S35 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

LARRY KING LIVE
Jay Leno (DAH) & Conan O’Brien (BIH) state cases

— SNL tackles the notorious 2010 Leno/Conan Tonight Show saga.
— Another Darrell Hammond season 35 cameo.
— Feels rare to see someone do a Conan O’Brien impression. Some online SNL fans back at this time in 2010 called Bill’s Conan impression really poor, but I strongly disagree. Bill’s doing a spot-on impression of Conan’s more serious, low-key voice, and it’s an interesting choice on Bill’s part, as I feel most comedians would’ve gone for a more obvious impression of Conan’s more goofy, over-the-top mannerisms.
— I’m groaning at all the tired, cliched “Larry King is an old man” and “Larry King is out of touch” jokes.
— Jason’s impression of David Letterman is absolutely slaying me, just being a collection of trademark Letterman vocal tics and camera mugging, not even saying any actual dialogue.
— I like the line from Fred’s Larry King comparing leaving NBC to being rescued from the Titanic. That is such a spot-on statement, given NBC’s horrible state in 2010. Too bad SNL had to hurt that funny line by immediately following it with another lame “Larry King is an old man” joke with Fred’s Larry saying he was on the Titanic.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host reveals her fears & reads her father’s prescient Tonight Show memo

— I love that we’re shown a photo of Sigourney Weaver from her season 12 SNL monologue (the second above screencap for this monologue).
— Some mildly funny talk from Sigourney about her fear of certain movie genres.
— Interesting to see a photo of Sigourney as a little girl with her parents.
— Another reference to the Leno/Conan saga, with the Tonight Show memo Sigourney reads from her father.
STARS: ***


GRADY WILSON’S FIFTY AND FREAKY
(host) contributes Dutch sex moves to Grady Wilson’s DVD

— Feels a little odd to see this recurring sketch appearing right after the monologue.
— As usual, some pretty funny sex moves demonstrated by Kenan’s Grady Wilson.
— I like Grady Wilson calmly taking a sip from a can of beer in the middle of his wild demonstration of “The Exorcist” sex move.
— Interesting seeing a character played by an SNL host demonstrating sex moves of their own in these Grady Wilson sketches.
— “The Brandy Snifter” move that Sigourney demonstrates is particularly funny.
STARS: ***½


SUMMER’S EVE LADY STARS OF DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP 1988
Pete Twinkle & Greg Stink cover 1988 ladies’ darts championship

— I just now noticed that the surname of Kristen’s various characters in all three ESPN Classic sketches that have aired up to this point are always cities (Milwaukee, Saint Louis, and now Vancouver).
— Jason: “When something’s going wrong, and it’s the smell of your thong – Summer’s Eve……….douche!”
— Will’s “Well, I wouldn’t put darts anywhere near a vagina” line was priceless.
— Jason: “When your man’s in a coma from your panty aroma – Summer’s Eve……….douche!”
— This overall sketch felt shorter than usual, or maybe I was just surprised by how soon it ended.
STARS: ****


JAMES CAMERON’S LASER CATS 5
oeuvre mashup meets feline sci-fi

— Our annual Laser Cats short of the season.
— I love how Bill and Andy are “drinking” from drinks displayed on their phones.
— Great sudden turn with the Aliens homage. Great way to involve Sigourney as well.
— Very fun how this short has now become a general James Cameron/Sigourney Weaver homage, with the Avatar spoof and even a brief Titanic reference.
— Love the ending to the Laser Cats film that’s shown to Lorne.
STARS: ****½


DISCO BOOTY JUNCTION
duo (host) & (KRW) clouds who’s Amber & who’s Cream

— The opening conversation Kenan has with an off-camera crew member about a mouse in his dressing room is making me laugh.
— I’m not caring at all for the main conceit of this sketch with Sigourney and Kristen being mysterious about which one of them is named Amber and which one is Cream.
— Kenan’s ending conversation with the aforementioned off-camera crew member about the show being canceled provided my first laugh since all the way back at the beginning of this sketch.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “That’s Not My Name”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM analogizes late-night war to bigamy & lays out its other implications

Larry The Goose provides avian view of Miracle On The Hudson anniversary

hummus on Weekend Update nets self-effacing Meryl Streep (ABE) two Oscars

SEM tells viewers how they can contribute to the Haiti relief effort

— I’m enjoying Seth’s whole analysis of/rant about the Leno/Conan saga (our THIRD reference tonight, which shows you what a big deal it was at this time).
— Holy hell, I completely forgot about that Chuck show on NBC.
— I absolutely love the meta way Seth’s Leno/Conan rant ends, with him lamenting that if Conan loses the Tonight Show, Conan could potentially return to Late Night, which means Jimmy Fallon (then-host of Late Night) could potentially return to SNL, which would be bad news for Seth, because, as he says, “I cannot go back to being in a sketch once every three weeks.”
— The celebrity-related goose names that Andy’s Larry The Goose character lists off are corny, but Andy’s making it work decently. There’s a fairly fun Tim Kazurinsky/Dr. Jack Badofsky vibe to these corny celebrity goose names.
— Nice to see another Weekend Update showcase of Abby’s knack for celebrity impressions, and I’m enjoying the Meryl Streep impression she’s doing here.
— Seth has some really fun jokes tonight.
— Tonight’s Update ends on a serious note, with Seth giving out the Red Cross phone number and website for Haiti relief efforts.
STARS: ***½


AVATAR
Jake Sully (BIH) flexes while his avatar (ANS) has sex with Neytiri (NAP)

— I like Jason’s performance, even though I have no familiarity with the Avatar character he’s doing a specific impression of, as I’ve never seen Avatar.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2010 mistook Nasim in this sketch for Jenny, due to the heavy makeup and prosthetics Nasim was wearing and the fact that some people went through this entire season not being able to tell Nasim and Jenny apart in general (which I never understood, as I see no resemblance between them at all). If you go back and watch this sketch nowadays, after having gotten used to five seasons of Nasim on SNL, it’s obvious by the voice that it’s her in this sketch, not Jenny.
— Very funny visual of Bill’s very skinny legs wildly thrusting up and down during the lovemaking simulation.
— The sketch is over already? Wasn’t too crazy about the big gag at the end.
STARS: **½


RILEY
at dinner, gravel-voiced boy Riley (FRA) behaves like a gay insult comic

— Ohhhhhhh, god. Just from the reveal of Fred’s character, with his stereotypically-effeminate, gravelly-voiced “You bitch!”, and his ensuing theme song after the reveal of him, this sketch looks fucking INSUFFERABLE.
— Ugh. Yeah, I’m now a few minutes into this sketch, and it is absolutely unwatchable. This highlights so many of Fred’s bad traits as a performer that have become so heavily prevalent this season. I want to find a “So bad, it’s good” quality to this sketch, as I can see some people finding that, but nope. Not me. Maybe I’d go easier on this sketch if it appeared in a better season and didn’t star a performer known for often playing annoying, stereotypical gay roles like this.
— Overall, not a single laugh from me during this tripe.
— SNL would later attempt to make this sketch recurring, but thankfully, none of the subsequent installments would ever make it past dress rehearsal.
STARS: *


INTERNET BUZZ
excitable host skips Golden Globes to read online comments about herself

— Second consecutive sketch with Sigourney and Jason playing a married couple.
— A laugh from the “Dances With Smurfs” criticism about Avatar that Sigourney tearfully reads aloud from an IMDB message board.
— I love Jason’s comment about how he secretly turned the house’s power off and is just waiting for the battery in Sigourney’s laptop to die.
— The audience is kinda dead during this. I’m enjoying this more than they are. (Conversely, they enjoyed the preceding Riley sketch far more than I did.)
— Sigourney’s performance throughout this sketch is pretty fun, and I like Jason’s emotional breakdown towards the end.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Shut Up And Let Me Go”


FIRE & RICE
height of husband’s (BOM) piano unnerves acrophobic lounge singer (host)

— Not much of a premise, despite Sigourney’s commitment to the material.
— Did we really need a second joke in tonight’s entire episode in which Sigourney says she peed herself? (The first was in the monologue.)
— Overall, meh. Fun supporting performance from Bobby, though, who even did his best to sell the blah ending.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly forgettable episode. Not terrible, but nothing special as a whole (despite a few highlights), and most of the post-Weekend Update half didn’t work much for me.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
James Cameron’s Laser Cats 5
Summer’s Eve Lady Stars Of Darts Championship 1988
Weekend Update
Grady Wilson’s Fifty And Freaky
Internet Buzz
Monologue
Avatar
Larry King Live
Fire & Rice
Disco Booty Junction
Riley


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charles Barkley)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Hamm

Posted on

January 9, 2010 – Charles Barkley / Alicia Keys (S35 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
Yemeni President Saleh (FRA) is an uncertain USA ally

— Not caring for this at all so far. It doesn’t help that Fred’s general foreigner routine is so tired to me by this point.
— I do at least like Bill’s goofiness when he’s joining in on Fred’s mockery of Will.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host sizes up audience members & requests KET do his impression of him

— As expected, Charles Barkley is getting lots of laughs just being his usual deadpan, monotone, blunt self.
— Funny brief involvement of Lorne.
— Very funny comment from Charles, saying the ratio of black people to white people who hosted SNL the preceding season is equal to that who saw the movie It’s Complicated.
— A good laugh from Charles calling one audience member (SNL writer Jessi Klein) “pretty in a kind of Jewish way” and “a freaky white girl”.
— I love how loose the format of this monologue feels. Perfect for Charles Barkley’s style.
— Charles, when wrapping up the monologue: “We got a great show tonight. Some of it is great, some of it we’re gonna do anyway.” Gotta love that trademark Charles Barkley honesty.
STARS: ****


THOMAS PEEPERS INSURANCE
attentive agents will look through your windows

— Very funny part with Bill’s spokesperson character suddenly going from speaking to the camera in a professional manner to suddenly running away and swearing when he hears something nearby.
— Strong conceit to this commercial, and a very solid use of Bill.
— Funny suggestive-looking shot of the reflection of Kristen unclogging a drain in front of Bill looking through the window right in front of her.
STARS: ****


REEL QUOTES
game show contestants (host) & (KRW) bungle movie dialogue

— A laugh from Kristen’s first long-winded wrong answer.
— The “You can’t handle my privates” bit is absolutely hilarious.
— All of Charles’ wrong answers and bizarre reasoning are very funny.
— Ugh, the running gag with Kristen’s long-winded answers has gotten really old. I’d love this sketch much more if it focused on just Bill and Charles’ characters.
— Charles’ explanation of what his Blockbuster job is was stupid enough to work.
— I love the speed round part.
— Bill genuinely fails in his attempt to angrily tear up the index card. I remember how this, along with some other things around this time, made some online SNL fans speculate if something was wrong with Bill’s health.
— I like the awkwardness of Bill and Charles just standing there waiting for the buzzer after Bill’s character has given up on the show.
— Bill, during his sign-off: “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” Charles: “You shouldn’t be lookin’ at kids, Reg.”
— Overall, as bad as the Wiig portions of this sketch were, everything else about it was strong enough for me to give this a high rating.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
black employee Darrell (host) doesn’t appreciate MacGruber’s racist joke

— So many laughs from MacGruber telling Charles “black slang” versions of everything he’s saying to Vicky.
— The horrible racist punchline of MacGruber’s joke, and how the very end of it gets cut off by the obligatory end-of-MacGruber-short explosion, is probably one of the hardest I’ve ever laughed at a MacGruber short, which is certainly saying something.
STARS: *****


SKI RETREAT
at a ski lodge, Shana alternately entices & repulses her male co-workers

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Odd coincidence: the first two Shana sketches have been performed with hosts who are hosting for the first time since way back in season 19 (John Malkovich, Charles Barkley). When I noticed this coincidence back when this episode originally aired, I remember jokingly speculating that the next Shana sketch would be when another hasn’t-hosted-since-season-19 male celebrity hosts, but I couldn’t come up with many haven’t-hosted-since-season-19 male celebrities who were still relevant enough to host in 2010. I think Patrick Stewart was the only one I could come up with. The streak of SNL only doing Shana sketches with season 19 hosts would end up being broken anyway, as the only remaining Shana sketches after tonight’s episode are done with hosts Bryan Cranston and Ben Stiller.
— Jenny has taken over the “ignored girl” role that Casey Wilson played in the first installment of this sketch. Much like both the Hoda Kotb and Janice (from the Muppets) roles, this “ignored girl” role seems to be yet another “cursed” role in this SNL era, as Jenny would end up suffering the same fate Casey suffered, in that she would get fired before the next Shana sketch appears. Abby would eventually break this curse, as she plays the “ignored girl” role in the next two Shana sketches.
— This reprisal isn’t working quite as well for me as the original installment of this sketch did, and this sketch has some really unfortunate habits that are way too prevalent in this SNL era (e.g. showing off Kristen Wiig, the camera doing constant cutaways to weirded-out facial reactions of straight man characters, a lowly female featured player playing a neglected character), but Kristen’s still managing to make this character work for me, and I certainly find this character more tolerable than some of Kristen’s other recurring characters around this time.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
racial sensitivity class hasn’t fixed relations with Darrell

— I think this is the first and only time Vicky has been included in a MacGruber opening title sequence.
— Very strong premise of MacGruber allegedly being reformed after taking racial sensitivity classes.
— Classic part with MacGruber spraying Charles with mace when Charles was simply going to hand MacGruber the pen that MacGruber asked him for.
— Great ending.
STARS: *****


INSIDE THE NBA
Danny Hoover’s incongruous play-by-play perturbs host

— Continuing season 35’s annoying trend of randomly bringing back a one-off sketch from a previous season that had no business becoming recurring, we get the return of this perfectly fine one-off sketch from years earlier in season 32.
— So far, this is following the exact same pattern as the first installment of this sketch, and, as expected, it’s not working quite as well for me this time. I also feel that “Nothing but the bottom of the net” doesn’t have the same memorable ring as “That’ll move the chains”.
— The “Thunder Dan is en fuego!” bit is pretty funny, especially Charles’ reaction.
— Ha, we actually get a direct callback to the aforementioned “That’ll move the chains” catchphrase from the first installment.
— I love Charles angrily calling Andy a “world class baloney head”.
— Meh, even the ending of this sketch is a weak knock-off of the first installment’s ending, only with Automatic Dying Disease (ADD) being replaced with Overwhelming Corpse Disease (OCD). Still the same basic joke.
STARS: **½


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s African pilgrimage failed to curb his racism

— Hilarious visual of MacGruber wearing African clothing.
— Very funny ending with MacGruber spraying Charles with mace AGAIN during the sentimental sequence with Charles going in for a handshake.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) downplays terrorism threat posed by Underwear Bomber

new United Nations ambassador Nicolas Cage (ANS) thinks he’s in a movie

David Paterson (FRA) sustains critical tone of State Of The State Address

— Good to see the return of Bill’s James Carville impression.
— Hilarious fat lady/grasping-for-straws analogy Bill’s Carville makes.
— Blah, this Nicolas Cage commentary isn’t working for me. The whole conceit with him repeatedly acting like he’s in an action/thriller scene in a movie is too repetitive and corny for my likes.
— Love the comical Update photo of new Harlem Globetrotters, as the photo is a who’s who of then-current SNL writers (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— We haven’t seen Fred’s David Paterson all season until now. Unlike some people, I actually liked his previous Paterson commentaries from the preceding season, but, knowing how badly Fred has been doing this season, I’m iffy on how tonight’s Paterson commentary will turn out.
— I like Fred-as-Paterson’s line about how Jersey Shore is New Jersey’s equivalent to The McLaughlin Group.
— Not a bad overall commentary from Fred’s Paterson.
STARS: ***


THE HANEY PROJECT
host’s awful mechanics extend beyond golf swing

— I believe it’s been said that this is the only sketch that Hannibal Burress got on the air during his sole season as a writer.
— The real-life clips of Charles’ awful golf-swinging technique are good for a laugh. I also like Jason describing that technique as it being like Charles had a heart attack mid-swing but miraculously recovered.
— Though an obvious joke, the clips of Charles doing everyday routines in the same awkwardly-stopping-short-then-continuing manner as his golf-swing technique are providing pretty good amusement.
— The wedding cake clip is particularly funny.
STARS: ***½


BOOTY CALL
musical guest inexplicably wants to bed nerdy Lionel (ANS)

— A typical goofy Andy Samberg character, but it’s certainly cracking me up. Even just the mere look of his character is keeping me amused.
— I laughed out loud at Andy’s “Oh, you mean over the diaper?” line when Alicia Keys asks him what he’s wearing.
— Hilarious reveal of Andy being at an intervention that’s held for Bobby. I also love the pissed-off, haggard look on a silent Bobby’s face. Even the little detail of Abby looking at Bobby in an emotional, teary manner (the last above screencap for this short) is somehow adding to my amusement.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Empire State Of Mind (Part II) Broken Down”


SCARED STRAIGHT
tales of Lorenzo McIntosh & dad (host) don’t frighten trespassing teens

— When Lorenzo McIntosh guesses the juvenile delinquents have gotten busted for cannibalism and Charles tells him “That’s a good guess”, I love Jason responding “What, are you kidding? That’s a horrible guess.”
— Ha, I have no idea why Charles has suddenly started laughing out of character while speaking right now (the first above screencap for this sketch), but it’s making me laugh, too. There’s something strangely infectious about his breaking.
— As always, it’s fun to guess which movie Lorenzo McIntosh is referencing.
— Also as always, I’m getting lots of guilty laughs from all of the crude prison rape jokes.
— The “Body fluids!” bit during the Matrix gag made me laugh out loud.
— I like Kenan, in his latest attempt to get the obligatory laugh out of Bill during Kenan and the host’s ganging up on him, giving Bill a Wet Willy, made even funnier by Jason eagerly saying an off-camera “Do it!”
— The prison rape jokes during the Jerry Maguire bit are particularly hilarious. This sketch in general has got to be one of the funnier Scared Straight installments.
— For once, they didn’t do usual ending where, after Lorenzo McIntosh and his partner leave, one of the juvenile delinquents points out the window and asks “Hey, are they (insert bad thing here)?” and Jason looks out the window and then happily responds “Nah, they’re just (insert even worse thing here).”
— An odd theme I’ve noticed in the post-Weekend Update half of this episode: this is the third consecutive comedy segment to end with someone saying an angry “Dammit!” or “Damn!” Charles said it at the end of the Haney Project sketch when he couldn’t get the door open, Alicia Keys said it at the end of the Digital Short when Andy canceled their booty call, and Jason said it at the end of this sketch when the delinquents admitted they didn’t learn their lesson.
STARS: ****


BARKLEY’S BANK
host’s financial plan for your money is double or nothing

— Funny premise of Charles owning a bank and admitting he will either double your money or lose it all.
— I got such a big laugh from such a little Christopher Walken-esque detail of Charles delivering the word “motto” in an odd manner, stiffly pronouncing it as two separate words in an emphasized manner with a very hard “t”.
— After Charles shows the “You win some, you lose some” motto on the wall, SNL suddenly cuts to an SNL bumper photo of Charles (the even odder thing about that is that the cutaway to the bumper is done as a hard cut instead of the usual crossfade) while a now-un-mic’ed Charles can faintly be heard still speaking, then SNL suddenly goes to a commercial break. The show has obviously run long and they had to cut this sketch off halfway through. The full dress rehearsal version of this sketch would be shown in reruns (I can’t remember what, if anything, was removed in that rerun version to allow the full version of this Barkley’s Bank sketch to fit into the show, but I would guess it was the Thomas Peepers Insurance commercial), and it features a second testimonial from another married couple, played by Andy and Abby. If this portion of the sketch hadn’t got cut from the live show at the last minute, it would’ve been Abby’s ONLY live appearance of the night. Just her luck that her ONE scheduled live appearance of the episode, buried all the way at the end of the show, ended up getting cut at the last minute due to the show running long.
STARS: N/A (too much of the sketch got cut off for me to rate fairly)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode, and deserves its reputation as one of the better episodes of this not-very-well-liked season. Most of the episode had a consistently good quality, and there were a few standout memorable pieces (the MacGruber shorts and the Barkley portions of the Reel Quotes sketch). Charles Barkley was a fun host in a strange way. To make another Christopher Walken comparison, Charles has a bit of a Walken-like quality as a host, in that something about his natural oddness and stiff, monotone manner inherently makes the material he’s performing funnier.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
MacGruber 1-2 (tie)
MacGruber 3
Monologue
Reel Quotes
Thomas Peepers Insurance
Scared Straight
Booty Call
The Haney Project
Weekend Update
Ski Retreat
Inside The NBA
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (James Franco)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Former one-time host Sigourney Weaver makes her return 24 years(!) after hosting the inaugural episode of the Phil Hartman/Dana Carvey/Jan Hooks era