Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
BIDEN FIXES HEALTH CARE
Joe Biden (JAS) aims to solve health care reform while Obama is away
— Jason’s always-funny Joe Biden impression is one of the few people who I don’t mind seeing do a straight-to-camera address-to-the-nation cold opening. It’s sure as hell a lot more preferable to seeing one from Fred’s President Obama.
— Pretty funny how the only choices Jason’s Biden has on “easy” things to resolve are Afghanistan, the economy, and healthcare.
— Jason-as-Biden’s harsh “fat girl” analogy was very funny.
— A laugh from the “Stimulus is working” bit.
— A very odd and sloppy delivery of the word “hardliners” from Jason.
— I like Jason’s Biden following his statement, “Some of you out there are asking, ‘Joe, how are you going to pay for a $1.2 trillion plan by cutting taxes?’”, by pausing in a deadpan manner for a while and then moving on to the next topic, not even answering the question he just asked.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Mad Men fans (JAS), (FRA), (BIH), (ABE) sing theme song to host
— Hoo, boy. January Jones’ stumbly delivery right out of the gate is already a worrisome sign of things to come.
— I like the idea of Mad Men fanatics being called Mad Mennies, ala Trekkies. Jason, Bill, and Fred are pretty fun in these roles.
— Fred’s “I like Peggy” line is obviously a wink-wink reference to Fred’s real-life then-relationship with Peggy’s actress, Elisabeth Moss. Unfortunately, this reference hasn’t aged well, given how badly Fred and Moss’ relationship would eventually sour.
— Seeing Abby as Mad Men’s Joan just makes me miss Casey Wilson, who previously played this role to perfection even in just a small appearance. This is one of way-too-many examples of Abby, Nasim, or Jenny taking over a role previously played by the recently-fired Casey Wilson or Michaela Watkins.
STARS: ***
TODAY
Kathie Lee Gifford’s (KRW) singing freaks out musical guest
— Geez, as soon as I complained about Casey and Michaela’s roles being replaced, we already get another example, with Jenny taking over Michaela’s Hoda Kotb impression. IIRC, SNL announced before the start of this season that Nasim would take over the Hoda impression (and she eventually would, but it wouldn’t happen until two seasons later, long after the firing of her castmate Jenny), so I’m not sure what made them change their mind between that announcement and tonight’s episode.
— As expected, Jenny seems kinda out of place in this role, and is lacking the certain understated spark and likable professionalism that Michaela brought to the role.
— Kristen-as-Kathie-Lee-Gifford’s detailing of her lovemaking routine with her husband is fairly funny.
— An often-mentioned bad gaffe as soon as the camera first shows January in this sketch: she, out of character, LITERALLY ASKS “Which camera???” in a whispery voice to someone off-camera in SNL’s studio, then pauses awkwardly when realizing the camera caught her asking that, then proceeds to deliver her scripted dialogue. My god.
— (*sigh*) And even after proceeding to deliver her scripted dialogue after the aforementioned gaffe, January’s delivery seems fairly halting.
— I’m kinda meh on this “Everyone Has A Story” segment.
— (*sigh*) And now January has begun tripping over her lines, much like at the beginning of the monologue.
— The bit with the Black Eyed Peas suddenly beating THE HELL out of Kristen’s Kathie Lee in the middle of her song had me howling with laughter back when this originally aired (probably because I couldn’t stand Kristen’s Kathie Lee impression back then, and thus, was delighted to see her get the beatdown I felt she deserved), but something about this beatdown sequence rubs me the wrong way nowadays. Reportedly, and unsurprisingly, it rubbed the real Kathie Lee the wrong way, too, as I recently learned that she complained about it shortly after the original airing of this episode.
STARS: **
REAR WINDOW
Grace Kelly’s (host) nonstop flatulence disrupts filming of Rear Window
— Pretty funny Alfred Hitchcock impression from Bobby, and I also like Jason’s Jimmy Stewart impression.
— Aaaaaaaand there goes all of my goodwill, as we get the first fart of this sketch. (*sigh*) This is going to be a looooooong sketch.
— Yeah, two-and-a-half-minutes into this, and I fucking hate this. Is SNL kidding me with this? SNL has actually done a few well-executed fart sketches in the past, but this sure as hell ain’t one of them.
— While not enough to come remotely close to salvaging this sketch, Jason’s delivery of “That’s because you’re sick, Grace! You’re sick!” amused me. It clearly amused January, too, as it makes her crack up out of character, which makes yet another gaffe from her tonight.
— What an awful, lazy ending.
STARS: *
WIIX NEWS
Michelle Dison clumsily woos Dairy Queen employee (host) during live shot
— Wow, a surprising return of a recurring sketch that hasn’t appeared since way back in season 32. What inspired them to bring this sketch out of the mothballs this week? The fact that they had such a weak host?
— This is going the EXACT SAME route as the previous two installments of this sketch. Even though Kristen is still selling this well and is getting some laughs from me, this sketch feels a little too old hat, even after its three-season absence.
— Very solid straight man performance from Jason in the news studio, and I’m liking the cutaways to his dumbfounded, silent facial reactions. January’s straight man performance, on the other hand, is as bland as bland can be.
— Kristen’s Michelle Dison to January: “You look like a mannequin.” A perfect unintentional description of both January’s performances in tonight’s sketches in general and her demeanor in this particular sketch.
— Pretty funny ending with Michelle Dison accidentally removing her shirt and revealing her bra on live TV in an attempt to get bees away from her.
STARS: **½
A LADY’S GUIDE TO THROWING A PARTY
archaic mores in 1952 how-to
— Clearly, this must be an intentional companion piece to the “Don Draper’s Guide To Picking Up Women” short from the preceding season’s episode hosted by January’s Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm.
— Terrific old-timey visual quality of this short, making this look EXACTLY like an authentic 1950s/1960s instructional film.
— (*groan*) Fred making a walk-on in his typical gay stereotype role, I see.
— I love the part with January telling us “If a black person arrives…just kidding.” For the first (and, IIRC, only) time all night, January is clearly in her element in this pre-taped period piece.
— Good ending regarding what women should do if they have to relieve themselves.
— Very strong piece overall, and the first thing all night that feels like it’s worth really bragging about.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Gotta Feeling”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Lou Dobbs (DAH) is leaving CNN so he can sustain his paranoid xenophobia
NBC series pairing Bernie Madoff & Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is punishment
Kim Kardashian (NAP) loves her butt more than sister Khloe & Reggie Bush
Jon Bovi’s lyrical inversion requires the use of questionable opposites
— Darrell Hammond in yet another season 35 cameo.
— Some good oh-so-wrong laughs from Darrell-as-Lou-Dobbs’ racist, un-PC comments about the Latin takeover of the news.
— Something about Darrell’s delivery of “He’s got that…Latin…tiiiinge” had me laughing out loud.
— An interesting Bernie & The Shiekh opening title sequence with a Kenan-sung theme song. I’m also always a sucker for what I call the “Jeffersons font” (the font used in the opening and closing credits of the sitcom The Jeffersons) that they’re using for the captioned lyrics on the bottom of the screen.
— The aforementioned Kenan-sung Bernie & The Shiekh theme song is surprisingly the closest to an involvement Kenan has in this entire episode. He’s nowhere to be seen ANYWHERE in this episode. Given this episode’s negative reputation, perhaps Kenan should consider himself lucky he was shut out of this episode.
— The debut of Nasim’s Kim Kardashian impression.
— Odd voice Nasim is using for Kim, but it and her portrayal in general are making me laugh.
— Always a treat to see Jon Bovi.
— This sadly feels like the first big role Will has gotten in quite a while, showing how much his airtime has been reduced this season.
— Jon Bovi begin this commentary by singing the exact same “Good Medicine” song they sang in their last appearance prior to this. In my review of that last appearance, I said that “Good Medicine” song has stuck in my memory over the years. After now seeing that they reused the song in tonight’s commentary, I understand why that song stuck in my memory over the years.
— Hilarious comment from Jason saying his mustache isn’t on his face. Speaking of which, has anybody else ever noticed that, in Jon Bovi’s very first appearance (in a sketch from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode), Jason’s character actually had a facial mustache (screencap below), but he doesn’t have it in any of the other Jon Bovi appearances?
— A very funny opposite version of the song “Single Ladies” from Jon Bovi.
— Hmm. Some portions of tonight’s Jon Bovi commentary don’t feel as strong as usual, but I’m still enjoying it. I hope these characters aren’t slowly starting to run out of steam, as much as I love them.
— Wait, I just now checked SNL Archives, and this actually ends up being Jon Bovi’s final SNL appearance! Wow. (Then again, I forgot this is Will’s final season.) At least they got out at the right time, before they got too stale.
— I like how Seth, when signing off after Jon Bovi’s commentary, copies Jon Bovi’s “opposite” routine by ending his sign-off with “Good morning!” instead of “Good night!”
STARS: ***
SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM
Dr. Jekyll (BIH) claims Mr. Hyde is to blame for his homosexual episodes
— Bill is always perfect in these old-timey black-and-white sketches.
— (*groan*) OH FUCKING NO. The big reveal of this sketch’s conceit is that…it’s a gay-themed Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde take-off, with Jekyll claiming his Mr. Hyde personality is who he does “gay stuff” as??? Are you fucking kiddi–….. (*sigh*) Between the fart-filled Rear Window sketch and now this, I swear tonight’s episode must be relying on old, unused scripts from the dreary season 30. These Rear Window and Jekyll/Hyde sketches have the exact same sophomoric hyperfocus on horribly-written hacky bathroom and gay-stereotype humor that dominated season 30. This Jekyll/Hyde sketch in particular, had it aired in season 30, would’ve been considered a companion piece to that dreadful Mrs. Dr. Frankenstein sketch from that season’s Kate Winslet episode.
— Aaaaaaaand this sketch somehow gets fucking WORSE, as we now have Fred making his second typical gay stereotype walk-on in tonight’s episode ALONE. I…I have no words.
— Now Bill’s Jekyll is going on and on about the homoerotic-sounding “Fire Island” that he frequents. Ohhh, the end of this hacky-ass sketch cannot come soon enough. This is AWFUL.
STARS: *
GET OUT
(FRA) can’t avoid encountering (ANS) sitting on the toilet
— After getting two season 30-esque juvenile sketches tonight, now we get a toilet short…
— Fred walking in on a toilet-sitting Andy in increasingly out-of-place locations is making me laugh. However, something feels kinda throwaway about this Digital Short compared to most of Lonely Island’s SNL output. This is still certainly better than some of the utter trash that has aired in tonight’s episode, though.
— A very dumb ending, but I chuckled. However, I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2009 pointing out that a bottomless Fred sitting on Andy’s naked lap furthers the juvenile, cheap homoerotic vibe of tonight’s episode. Good point.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Meet Me Halfway”
CLOUD GAZING
(host)’s lack of imagination hampers cloud-watching date with (JAS)
— Hmm, interesting setting of this, and the overhead camera angle used for this entire sketch feels very unique for SNL.
— Very big night for Jason, appearing in a majority of the sketches and doing a lot of the heavy lifting in them.
— What’s that off-camera mumbling I’m hearing early on in this sketch? Are those SNL stagehands speaking in the studio? Do they not realize we can hear them?
— Yikes, January’s half-inaudible delivery of her intentionally-corny “Wiz” joke was TERRIBLE, and caused it to bomb with the audience.
— Meh, a lazy premise (in an episode filled with lazy premises) of January playing a dumb bimbo.
— Jason is giving yet another great straight man performance, and is really helping this sketch’s quality. I especially like how, after one dumb statement of January’s, Jason looks around and asks “Am I on Punk’d or something?”
— January actually has some decently funny lines, but her delivery, in terms of quality, keeps coming and going all throughout, and never reaching the solidness it needs to put this sketch over.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
musical guest performs “Boom Boom Pow”
— So are we just handing out special goodnights musical performances to EVERY musical guest by this point? It doesn’t feel right to me that the Black Eyed Peas get this honor. Perhaps this is a sign of how poorly written and underwritten tonight’s episode is, that SNL possibly had to rely on the Black Eyed Peas to fill up time at the end of the show.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode that, while not quite as horrible as its reputation, still sucked. (Also known as “The Nancy Kerrigan Episode Syndrome”.) A lot of this episode had an off feel, furthered by January Jones giving such a lousy and sloppy hosting performance. There was also a lazy feel to a lot of this episode, especially with 1) the unnecessary random rehashing of the Michelle Dison sketches from three seasons prior, and 2) the regression with SNL relying on season 30-esque bathroom/gay-stereotype humor. Only one segment in this entire episode stood out as strong (A Lady’s Guide To Throwing A Party). The fact that NBC would end up never rerunning this episode shows that even SNL themselves are of the common opinion that this episode is a flop.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
A Lady’s Guide To Throwing A Party
Biden Fixes Health Care
Weekend Update
Get Out
Monologue
Cloud Gazing
WIIX News
Today
Rear Window
Scientific Symposium
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Taylor Swift)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Everyone involved is also aware that this was a bad episode. I think Seth mentioned in an interview once that dress rehearsal was also a trainwreck or something. This show is another reminder as to how important Jason was to this era. He carries the entire episode on his back.
I enjoyed ‘Get Out’ because it has that lo-fi feel of the early digital shorts, and Michelle Dison is always a fun character. But I can’t wait for when SNL finally abandons all the hacky gay stereotype humor (which probably isn’t until like, 2014 or so.) I’m honestly surprised we didn’t get a Vogelchecks in this episode. SNL still hasn’t abandoned fart humor though, unfortunately.
At this point, a Michelle Dison sketch was like a red flag that the writers didn’t know how to write a sketch for the female host, in my opinion. I guess I can’t blame them for this episode.
January Jones…just did not work as a host. SNL hosting isn’t for everyone, and it didn’t work out. I agree her delivery was weak all night. It starts badly with a particularly weak reading of the line “the hilarious Betty Draper…” I don’t know much of it was her being nervous live–her best performance by far is in the pretaped segment, but it also seemed to more easily match a character she had played before.
The final sketch is pretty funny, at least I think so–in a better episode, it would be a fine, understated, silly sketch to close out the night. It’s seriously hampered by January’s nervousness and poor delivery–I think it makes the premise less enjoyable, and the sketch needed someone better at playing comedic parts to get the quasi-surrealistic premise over.
I remember at the old s-n-l.com forums a bunch of posters thought the show was making fun of Jones in the Cloud Watchers sketch
Oh. My. Good. God.
Where to begin on this episode?! First off, if you want to see the beginning of January Jones’ horrific acting…look no further than Love Actually. It’s diabolically cringeworthy. She’s flutters her eyes so much it’s sickening!
Now onto this stinker of an episode. Ruby, you hit the nail on the head with the whole Sudeiks saving the day. He really helped out here, with the Jimmy Stewart impression to the Jon Bovi segment.
Jones is so stoic in her “acting ability”. It’s so tough to watch. I remember back when this first aired, I suffered through it only because I didn’t have anything else really to watch and I was burning it to my SNL DVD collection. I don’t think there as ANY sketch I enjoyed with her in it.
The Black Eyed Peas get a THIRD PERFORMANCE?! You’re no Bono there Fergie!!! Not even deserved at all. Lazy on SNL‘a part. Could’ve easily threw in a commercial parody from another episode than this dreck.
Sad episode.
Didn’t see it mentioned in the review, but (IIRC) Sudeikis & Jones were dating at the time, which explains why he’s in 80% of the episode.
I believe January and Jason didn’t become involved until they met at SNL.
This was the start of Jason’s love life getting far more press focus than he likely ever imagined when he signed up for SNL.
Does Jason Sudeikis count as continuing this season’s “Host’s boyfriend\girlfriend” trend?
I might be wrong, but there was an Episode that Jason did not appear in and some body said Jason was going through A Divorce ! I don’t think Jason could get A Divorce That Quickly and Then Just Start Dating Some One That Quickly ! OF Course, I Wasn’t There So I Really don’t Know ! I thought They Knew This would be Terrible So They Thought Maybe Jason Could Make The Episode Be A Little Better ! I Think That Is why Jason was in So m,any Sketches !
January and Jason started dating shortly after season 35 was over but broke up in early 2011 because of long-distance with Mad Men shooting season 4 in LA for months at a time.
There’s a clip from a press junket for the Last Man on Earth season 2 I believe where a reporter asks how they met and January says they met when she hosted SNL and everyone was really nice but she just wasn’t a good host and she didn’t realize how hard it was. The future co-stars only briefly interact in the Lady’s Guide To Throwing A Party pretape.
Seth has talked about this being one of his favorite disaster episodes to look back on because they tried so much stuff and January never got over her nerves and it just killed the whole show. He talks about them trying a sketch about a festival that is so underground no one can find it and it died horribly at dress. It gets reworked into the first Underground Rock Festival sketch with Nasim in the sidekick role for the Blake Lively episode.
Stooge mentioned it in a previous review but I’ll reiterate that this is the episode they tried to bring back The Cougar Den to no avail.
The Jekyll & Hyde sketch reminds of the Ethel’s Diner sketch with Mary Gross where they slowly build to the “business sure is picking up” line that falls flat. This seems like they built the whole sketch around Fred’s “trust me when he’s Mr. Hyde, he only lasts about five minutes” line.
I agree with Michael that if Cloud Gazing was in a better episode it would be looked at as a fun capper to an evening instead of something that’s been forgotten.
Hey Jack. That Is A VERY Confusing Post ! I don’t think Jason and January are Co Hosts in That Last Man On Earth because She went to LA and They were Apart so I don’t Think This Is True ! I Don’t Think You should Mix in Several Things on Other Shows ! The Main Thing Is That Jason and January Were In Several Sketches With The Cloud Gazing And Rear View Window And The Monologue ! I Will Accept The Dairy Queen Sketch Because IF She was Just with Kristen, Maybe she Didn’t Do Any Thing With Jason Since He was The Announcer On The News !
Oh yeah, there’s a Year 30 vibe here, but Jones makes Paris Hilton look like a relatively competent host in comparison. The cold open was the only good live sketch; the filmed pieces were the high points here. You’re right, Suds was in beast mode tonight.
I certainly don’t remember this episode being as bad as its reputation (and I guess this review supports that), but the Rear Window sketch was definitely the first one I remember absolutely hating.
This is a pretty weak episode, but while watching I came away feeling it is not quite as BAD as I would have expected upon reading about it over the years – the closest we get to that feeling is that godawful Dr. Jekyll sketch and the Rear Window sketch. It’s certainly not a good episode though, and I can see why January was so singled out for her performance. But I think her struggles also shine a light on, as someone else mentioned a few days ago, how much some hosts had been propping up weak writing for a while now.
I’m going to have to agree with @Michael Cheyne about the clouds sketch – I actually like it quite a bit. It’s a decent slice-of-life moment which doesn’t oversell its premise, allows the audience to sit back and relax instead of trying to constantly talk down to us, and features an absolutely wonderful performance by Jason. January’s first bad fumble aside, she doesn’t do anything to hurt this sketch for me. I prefer this type of piece, which tries something different and overall succeeds, to a piece like the ’50s film, mostly because that idea has been done many times (although this is a decent, if slightly wan, attempt).
I feel like some of the scorn heaped on January is due to the timing (this season had already garnered a great deal of criticism, from the reviews I’ve read of that period), but, even if I prefer a more muted bad host to a bad host who tries too hard (like Sarah Jessica Parker), her flubs and stumbling are undeniably hard to watch. The most painful may be in the Dr. Jekyll sketch, but at least that sketch was absolute dogshit anyway.
That sketch doesn’t remind me as much of season 30 as it does others because the killer aspect (Fred’s lousy gay mugging) is, unfortunately, very current for this era – it’s right out of those Liberace sketches. He even does that yuk-yukking right after his tired gay punchlines I hate so much, that is there to let us know how FUNNEE he is.
This sketch also reminds me of how, even though they are and were close friends, I just don’t see any strong connection between Bill and Fred in their SNL interaction. Something just doesn’t click. I wonder how much of this is down to Fred, as he has a similar problem when we get to Garth and Kat.
The vitality between Jason and Will in those Jon Bovi appearances (especially this last one – they are so joyous they bring the audience into rapture) shows up just how disconnected most of this cast was starting to become, and how much some were suffering from poor use. It’s especially tough for Abby and Jenny in this episode – Abby is extremely miscast as Joan and looks like she is playing dress-up, and Jenny looks incredibly over her head as Hoda, clearly someone older than her and beyond her range as a performer at this time. It shows the lack of care in these hires, wanting a more youthful voice but not making much effort to properly showcase that voice, the way they did with Andy in his first few seasons. It would be like if they had hired Andy and started having him play Dick Cheney.
Speaking of Andy, this digital short is OK, but, while I do appreciate the scaled back aspects, it is one of the few from Lonely Island where the escalation and ending feel too contrived.
For the most part, Darrell’s Lou Dobbs reprisal is still in good form, but his impression isn’t as strong as previous appearances. The most interesting part for me was the (unintended, presumably) passing of the torch going from him to Nasim, just starting in the cast as he is wrapping up his run. To be honest I never find the Kardashian sketches all that enjoyable (other than some random moments, and the Kardashian Divorce Special in Charlie Day’s episode), but it was certainly a defining role for Nasim and probably helped her get through to another season.
Nothing against Bobby, who is OK, but I’m not sure I’ve EVER seen any one cast member try to salvage an unsalvageable sketch as much as Jason does in that Rear Window mess.
In our Kristenpaloozas of the week, I was pleasantly surprised by the Michelle Dison reprisal – January is blah, but the rest works better than either previous version – the weirdness of Michelle’s behavior finally clicks both with Kristen’s performance and Jason’s disbelief. I can’t say I enjoyed the Kathie Lee reprisal, especially without Michaela, but the more helpless, fragile nature of Jenny’s performance means they finally cut down some on Kathie Lee browbeating Hoda/mugging at the desk with Hoda and instead branched her out (with the couple, the singing, etc.). Kristen is much better in this vein, not as boxed in.
And yes, Kathie Lee was not happy about this sketch (she even took some shots at Kristen’s singing):
The Jeffersons font is (I think; I’m no graphic designer) a variant of Blippo/Bauhaus. Open a word document, choose Bauhaus 93 as the typeface and you, too, can (almost) get that Jeffersons style.
Replying to myself because I forgot to mention that Bauhaus is definitely the font used for Bernie and the Sheik.
Thanks.
The only other cast member I can remember them blatantly replacing all their roles after they left was Mark McKinney, with most of his recurring characters and impressions being replaced by Kattan and Ferrell.
This was a fun train wreck to watch live. If you’re lucky you get to catch one a decade.
I think Ashton Kutcher was dating January when she first came to Hollywood and told her “I don’t think you’re going to make it.”
Questionable actress (her later work on The Last Man on Earth nearly made it unwatchable) and a terrible musical guest = terrible but fun to watch show.
Speaking of the BEP, why couldn’t we have had an extended SNL Band shot to fill the time instead of a third performance?
Yeah, this episode was an abomination. Having January was another example of SNL having a huge obsession with Mad Men. I was so annoyed with that. Most of America was NOT watching that crap.
She was a horrible host. Why couldn’t Lorne get a backup to replace her? Or even just have an all-cast show?
The monologue was crap, the Today Show and Rear Window sketches were nothing home to write about, and didn’t care for the musical guest.
What I remember most about this episode is Jason valiantly trying to save it. The rear window sketch is one of the worst I have ever seen! How Jason commited to that knowing full well it was a steaming pile of crap is beyond me. Great actor.
Mad Men was a huge critical darling and pop culture favorite at the time (I have to admit I also did not watch), and Jon Hamm ended up being a great host, so I guess I can see why they tried again. After this they seemed to stop (aside from Hamm), which may have been for the best, although I do wonder how John Slattery might have been.
Hey SNL Lover. One Time, They Had An Ordinary Woman Named Mrs. Miller To Host ! I May be wrong, But I Think one Time, They Did NOT EVEN Have A Host !
After reading your review I spent some time trying to find evidence of cast members talking about this episode, and Seth sort of recently admitted the worst sketch he ever wrote was the ‘Rear Window’ sketch in this episode. He also mentions that he has never admitted to being the one who wrote it because he knows how bad it is. I’ll link the video, but the jist is that he wanted to write something to do with Grace Kelly (because Grace and January look alike) and he ended up with this, but assumed it would go away after dress rehearsal. However, it played near the end of a pretty awful dress rehearsal, and got an okay response, which resulted it being picked for the show, and massively moved up.
He talks about it in this interview.
https://youtu.be/iUtmOVEjoS0
I think I remember the Rear Window sketch and Fred’s “I like Peggy” line in the monologue. I hardly remember anything else from this ep and maybe that’s for the best…
Nasim’s Kim voice seems incredibly inaccurate, but I think Nasim just has a very hard time changing her natural voice (she does a good job at getting vocal mannerisms, just not the voice). Like I never followed Kim around this time, but when she hosted this year, her voice had none of the nasal, screechy style that Nasim’s impression had.
Regarding the monologue – I don’t believe Abby is supposed to be playing Joan. Rather, she is playing a “Mad Menny” cosplaying as Joan. At least that was my interpretation, so I don’t believe they were going for an actual imitation.