March 14, 2009 – Tracy Morgan / Kelly Clarkson (S34 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRACY RETURNS
TRM punches his way through Rockefeller Center; John Cena & TIF cameos

— Ooh, I love this huge change of pace for a cold opening in this era, and this is a great way to open a Tracy Morgan-hosted episode.
— Tracy’s serious opening speech about the excitement of Rockefeller Center is amusing in the way that only Tracy could make it.
— Funny interaction between Tracy and the security guard played by writer Emily Spivey.
— All of the punches delivered by Tracy are cracking me up, made funnier by the way this is filmed, with all the extreme close-ups, fast cuts, and slow-motion shots.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
TRM sees media bias in coverage of fishtank fire at his residence

— I remember how exciting it felt in 2009 seeing Tracy host. If you told me 10 years prior to that, during the peak of SNL’s under-utilization of Tracy as a cast member, that Tracy would ever be hosting SNL, I’d NEVER have believed you. He’s come a long way since those days.
— Already a good laugh from Tracy’s opening line: “Thank you, white people!”
— Good line from Tracy about how, tonight, he’s in more sketches than he ever was during his years as a cast member.
— A lot of the usual funny Tracy Morgan-ish oddball lines.
— Hilarious fake-out with the “Lorne Michaels” who Tracy brings up onstage turning out to be some stage manager. Speaking of the stage manager (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this monologue), I think he’s played by the same actor who played Angel on The Rockford Files. If so, that is VERY random casting on SNL’s part.
— Speaking of random, we get a random Seth Meyers sighting next to the real Lorne. This is the second consecutive episode in which Seth makes a rare non-Weekend Update appearance (or voice-over, in the preceding episode’s case).
— There’s our obligatory “Bring me a soda, BITCH!” during Tracy’s interaction with Lorne.
STARS: ****

CHEWABLE PAMPERS
— Another rerun of this commercial, from 1/31/09. Boy, am I sick of seeing this commercial being aired so frequently in such a short time span.

BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
a baby cow is perceived to be arrogant

— Our obligatory appearance of one of Tracy’s two biggest recurring characters.
— An interesting novelty seeing then-current cast members appearing in an old recurring sketch like this, which is always one of the fun things when a former cast member’s recurring sketches are brought back when said former cast member hosts (such as seeing current cast members appear in Church Chat sketches whenever Dana Carvey hosts or, in some cases, cameos).
— Brian Fellow is getting the usual good laughs hitting his usual beats.
STARS: ***½

THE VIEW
scatterbrained Sherri Shepherd (TRM) is uniformly uninformed

— Given the fact that Tracy had a regular role (Star Jones) in the original (and far superior) run of The View parodies back in the late 90s, it feels kinda odd seeing him in tonight’s View sketch playing a different role. That just makes tonight’s View sketch pale even more in comparison to the View sketches from the late 90s.
— Not caring all that much for the running gag with Tracy’s Sherri Shephard not knowing what anything is.
— Why no guest in tonight’s View sketch?
— Overall, this era’s View sketches continue to underwhelm me.
STARS: **

SCARED STRAIGHT
beer-drinking teens aren’t scared by Lorenzo McIntosh & fellow con (TRM)

— This is the first Scared Straight sketch with Kenan’s Lorenzo McIntosh character being joined by a partner. This would set the template for subsequent installments of this sketch, all(?) of which have that night’s SNL host playing a partner of McIntosh’s.
— Pretty fun pairing of Kenan and Tracy.
— McIntosh’s “Penis Noir” line was hilarious.
— Bill uncontrollably cracks up when Kenan and Tracy ad-lib by touching his face while threateningly ganging up on him. This was a big deal at the time, as it was such a fun rarity to see the then-very professional Bill Hader break. At the time, it was considered comparable to seeing the also-very-professional Phil Hartman famously break in that talk show sketch (Succinctly Speaking) in which he was interviewed as Frankenstein. Little did anyone know back then that this would end up starting a habit of Bill cracking up quite frequently and easily in sketches (including subsequent Scared Straight installments), a habit that would last for the remainder of his SNL tenure.
— Speaking of breaking and things becoming a tradition, we get our first instance of Lorenzo McIntosh’s exit being followed by Jason hopping onto the desk in a sitting position, causing Andy, Bobby, and (again) Bill to crack up.
STARS: ***½

DATELINE
Keith Morrison (BIH) & murderer (TRM) share sociopathy

— Bill’s Keith Morrison impression is always a blast.
— A big laugh from Bill’s Morrison saying, in his slow, trademark voice, “You liked it, so you put a ring on it.”
— This sketch is basically just repeating the same beats from the first installment of this sketch earlier this season, but it’s still working, and, hey, it’s not like the Bob Waltman Special sketches from the late 80s (which these Dateline sketches feel like they’re in the tradition of) didn’t repeat their own same beats as well, though those sketches seemed a little less one-note than these Dateline sketches.
— I like Bill-as-Morrison’s disappointed “Ohhhh” when hearing nobody got killed from the roof-caving-in accident.
— Great bit with Tracy joining Bill’s Morrison in his delighted, creepy vocalizations. SNL would later repeat this gag with Steve Buscemi in the Dateline sketch from Buscemi’s season 37 episode.
STARS: ****

ASTRONAUT JONES
space female’s (ANS) hermaphroditism isn’t a deterrent

— And here’s our obligatory appearance of the second of Tracy’s two biggest recurring characters.
— Every post-monologue sketch in the pre-Weekend Update half of this episode has been a recurring sketch.
— Interesting to see the old, epic Astronaut Jones opening title sequence being shown in a 2009 HD episode. For that reason, the visual quality of this title sequence looks kinda weird here. Also, you can really see from this title sequence how much Tracy’s looks have drastically changed since 2002 when this title sequence was originally filmed. Hell, you’d think it was filmed twenty years prior, judging from how much younger and thinner Tracy looks in it compared to how he looks in 2009.
— I notice they’re using the original Astronaut Jones theme song from season 27, and not the one from season 28 in which SNL (pointlessly) added female backup vocals to the theme song.
— A twist on one of the usual Astronaut Jones tropes, with the female alien he encounters turning out to apparently be transgender this time. Meh. I found that funny back in 2009, but it doesn’t quite work for me in 2020.
— The ending one-liner Astronaut Jones follows the alien’s long speech with didn’t hit quite as hard as his usual ending one-liners in these sketches, but I still laughed. The nature of these Astronaut Jones sketches, and Tracy’s killer delivery, always make the ending one-liner of these sketches work.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Life Would Suck Without You”

WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM baits Bernie Madoff victim John Malkovich (BIH) into a screaming fit

worried TRM says “Really!?!” to the prospect of a strip club tax

50 year-old Barbie (KRW) looks great but is limited by her plastic form

— Hell, yeah! The return of Bill’s spot-on John Malkovich impression, after we got a vocal sample of it in the Vinny Vedecci sketch from the episode Malkovich himself hosted earlier this season. Given that Malkovich is one of my favorite actors, and the fact that he has such a distinct, unique voice, I’m always a sucker for seeing impressions of him, though I’ve barely seen any, actually. The only other one besides Bill’s that I can remember seeing is from Martin Short in, I think, a Jiminy Glick episode.
— Great angry outburst from Bill’s Malkovich after such a long build-up to it.
— I must be watching the West Coast version of this episode (come to think of it, the SNL opening montage earlier in this episode did have that “Recorded from an earlier live broadcast” disclaimer), because the version I’m watching doesn’t have a technical gaffe from the live East Coast airing in which the camera accidentally cuts to a wide shot of Seth and an empty seat next to him (reserved for Tracy) when Seth begins his strip club joke that “unintentionally” sets up Tracy’s sudden appearance.
— Tracy’s overly simplistic and brief version of “Really?!?” was hilarious.
— From my previous viewings of this episode, I have almost no memory of this Barbie bit of Kristen’s.
— Kristen’s getting some laughs from the extended bit with her having trouble opening the whiskey bottle with her stiff doll hands.
STARS: ***

BIG LOVE
bigamist Bill’s (JAS) fourth wife (TRM) is not a woman

— Casey casually asking “Hey, guys, who’s baby is this?”, regarding the baby she’s been holding, made me laugh. Boy, speaking of Casey, lately, she’s really been fading away by this point of her SNL tenure. Feels like this sketch is the first semi-noteworthy thing she’s done in a while (and that’s sadly still not saying much).
— I like Jason’s imitation of Bill Paxton’s voice.
— Tracy in drag again tonight. Come to think of it, there’s an awful lot of men-in-drag humor in general tonight, between Tracy, Kenan, and Fred in the View sketch, Andy in the Astronaut Jones sketch, and now Tracy in this sketch.
— Blah at the main comedic conceit of this sketch so far. Even for a Tracy-in-drag piece, this feels like a throwaway sketch.
— I love Jason’s goofy exclamation of “DUH-OH!” when he can’t come up with a good explanation for why Tracy’s “female” character is shaving.
— (*groan*) Again, with this apparently being the West Coast version I’m currently reviewing, a huge technical gaffe at the end of this sketch is unfortunately removed. In the original East Coast airing, after Jason’s aforementioned “DUH-OH!” line, SNL’s control room operators were VERY late on their cue to roll the Big Love closing title sequence, resulting in long, painfully awkward dead air as the screen stays on Jason and the female cast members just standing there not knowing what to do. Eventually, in an attempt to break this painfully awkward silence, Jason, in character, ad-libs a mock-nervous “Eeeee!” sound while pretending to bite his nails (it’s been years since I’ve last seen this, so my recollection may be a little faulty), right before the closing title sequence FINALLY plays (and even then, it’s accidentally initially stuck on a freeze-frame shot). Call me weird, but I was really looking forward to seeing this huge gaffe again, because I remember it being uncomfortably funny, probably funnier than the intended main comedy of this weak, seemingly half-written sketch.
STARS: *½

PARTY GUYS
(BIH) & (ANS) literally identify fellow party attendees

— Fantastic escalation to this, with the cutaways to each increasingly oddball character matching the insulting name that Bill and Andy refer to them by. I also love how each cutaway is being done in an increasingly faster, briefer pace.
— Will steals this short with the cutaway to him as a “cereal rapist”, furiously fucking a box of cereal in the bathroom before shutting the door (while still mid-fuck) when realizing he can be seen. Yet another example of how Will Forte is one of SNL’s all-time most fearless cast members at pulling off daring, ballsy humor.
— Love the ending with Bill and Andy’s reflection, especially Bill depressingly responding “(*long, deep sigh*)……..That’s us.”
STARS: ****½

SUPPRESSEX
Suppressex enforces social norms by damping unwanted public erections

— After his innocent interaction with his cheerleader daughter and her fellow cheerleaders, I love Will looking into camera and delivering a stern “This is NO time for an erection!”
— Tracy is a very funny spokesman for such a product as this.
— Great testimonial from Bill as a department store Santa.
STARS: ***½

HIGH IQ
goofy distracters thwart brainy contestants on game show set

— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season that makes me say “Oh, that’s right. Darrell Hammond is still in the cast”, as he’s sadly relegated to making his ONLY appearance of the night in a late-in-the-show sketch that has him in a non-impression role that he comes off awkward in.
— Funny to see Tracy playing a game show host. I’m enjoying him in this role.
— Something about this sketch, perhaps the wacky character walk-ons all throughout, feels like a bit of an embryonic version of the famous What Up With That sketches (which will debut later this calendar year – 2009), though tonight’s sketch has an awful lot of “Why is this weird thing happening right now???”-type responses from the game show contestants (the type of role that some SNL fans complain that current cast member Mikey Day plays too often in current-era sketches that over-explain the weirdness of their premise instead of letting it speak for itself).
— Despite this paling in comparison to the future What Up With That, this sketch is still fairly fun.
— I like the ending credits randomly starting to scroll when the game hasn’t even been completed yet.
— Pretty funny how Jason can occasionally be heard saying a very un-amused, stern “Get away from me” in the background towards one of the oddball characters (we can’t see which oddball character he’s speaking to, given how crowded the screen has become with oddball characters in general).
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Do Not Hook Up”

ROCKET DOG
many human & canine actors died when (TRM) made Rocket Dog

— A very well-loved sketch among a number of SNL fans, including myself.
— I love Tracy’s over-exaggerated laughing reaction to Kristen’s very corny opening joke.
— Hilarious how the first movie clip Tracy shows strangely gives away the ending of the movie.
— Tracy throughout this sketch: “Houston, we have a dog!”
— Tracy is so perfect for this material. He was born to do this sketch.
— Tracy, on why he filmed his Rocket Dog movie in Thailand: “I wanted a place that was heavy on dogs and light on laws.”
— So many laughs from the increasingly random and bizarre In Memoriam montages for seemingly every dog and human in the movie, eventually even Tracy himself. What makes those In Memoriam montages even funnier is the fact that they’re all accompanied by the “Life Is A Highway “song.
— Kristen’s straight man performance is perfect. Another example of how great she is at pulling off deadpan, a talent that’s sadly underutilized by SNL in the second half of Kristen’s SNL tenure.
STARS: *****

GAS RIGHT
ANOTHER rerun of a low-brow commercial tonight, this time from 12/6/08

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fun episode, as expected for a Tracy Morgan-hosted episode. While this was far from perfect (Tracy’s later episode from season 41 is stronger, IIRC), there was some stuff I really liked, and I enjoyed the general feel of the episode, no doubt due to Tracy giving it the perfectly Tracy Morgan-esque feel it should’ve had. It was a blast seeing him host.

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

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Rocket Dog
Party Guys
Tracy Returns
Monologue
Dateline
Suppressex
Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet
Scared Straight
High IQ
Astronaut Jones
Weekend Update
The View
Big Love

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dwayne Johnson)
a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Seth Rogen