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
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Up until Jeff Bridges a year Later, Weaver had the dubious honor of being the host with the Longest gap of time between hosting gigs (I think???).
Eddie must have the record now, I believe. 1984-2019. 35 years between hosting stints
Mulaney wrote “Riley” I believe. Basing it on how he acted as a kid.
It was a Mulaney-Anderson-Armisen collaboration.
Anderson also wrote Disco Booty Junction with Sublette (and Wiig? Can’t remember). That’s one example of a sketch where the throwaway jokes are better than the main premise.
I wonder how these sketches played at the table read or dress rehearsal.
Strummer and Doc are correct. Also, in Year 36 Leon Russell breaks the record for longest gap by a musical guest (35 seasons).
Yeah, the sketches were nothing special, unless you count Sigourney’s outfit in the “Amber & Cream” sketch. “Laser Cats 5” and Update were the highlights.
Hello Stuart. What About That Dart Board Championships OR Maybe Grady Wilson ? ? Stooge Liked Those Sketches ! !
I have an extremely, extremely guilty pleasure love for Riley based on me assuming it was supposed to be a deliberate parody of idiotic catch-phrase spouting characters. I assume that’s wrong, but who knows? But when that sketch aired, I died laughing. The fact that SNL (tried to) make it recurring suggests my interpretation is very wrong.
I always forget Sigourney is the daughter of Pat Weaver (and the niece of Doodles Weaver). I liked that her monologue had a “real” touch–I enjoy when the host mentions aspects of their lives that are real and not just a joke or clapter.
This is one of my favorite Laser Cats sketches–they nail the general feel of a James Cameron film, including the sort of pun/one-liner strings. “Ripley!” “Believe it or not” is great. I like Laser Cats sketches that could utilize the host in a logical way.
The thing that’s always bugged me about this season is that half the time the host seems more interested in selling the material than your more visible cast members who are on autopilot, this episode, and the next one with Jon Hamm especially.
Sudeikis’s Letterman is a pure joy. A goofy caricature of Dave’s quirks as opposed to Norm or Piscopo or Jeff Richards doing straight impressions.
Count me as one of the “So bad it’s good” fans of Riley, the sketch Mulaney described as “an abortive attempt to come up with a recurring character”
I love Lorne’s reactions when he realizes he’s been tricked into watching another Laser Cats short.
Odd choice in terms of timing for a musical guest. The Ting Tings album We Started Nothing was released a half and a half ago, bolstered by Apple putting Shut Up And Let Me Go in an iPod commercial, and their next album won’t be released for two years.
I remember Sigourney selling the hell out of the Internet sketch. “She should shut her whore mouth!”
I AM Really Shocked That Stooge OR Who Ever Is In Charge OF The Comments Would Accept This Kind OF Language ! I Don’t Think You Needed To Use That Word And You Know What That Word IS ! There Are Other Ways To Tell Sigourney To Keep Her Mouth Shut !
@Jody I Believe That Jakey Was Quoting The Sketch Itself When He Used The Word WHORE In His Comment Above But At Least He Used Punctuation Unlike Some People Anyhow I Wonder If The Word WHORE Offends People Then There Are Other Words Used On SNL That Are More Offensive Than WHORE I Don’t Recall Which Other Non-WHORE Words Were In This Episode Maybe avmon Can Tell Us In A Stroll Down Memory Lane
Teehee
It’s funny you mention people not being able to tell Nasim and Jenny apart, because I initially thought that was Jenny with Bill in the Amber & Cream sketch (they were also the only part of that sketch I got much out of).
The Laser Cats is great (the flushing toilet special effect was especially funny), and a good use of the host’s body of work, but beyond that, did anyone besides whoever wrote those turgid camp pieces (Anderlette, Pell or Spivey, I assume) have any ideas for Sigourney Weaver? Who wrote the Internet comments sketch? Was that Pell or Spivey? What was cut at dress? She’s fine with what she’s given (the Internet comments sketch being the main highlight), but when you have Sigourney Weaver hosting, don’t you want to work a little harder? Just a little? Instead she gets stuck in so many roles that are either camp or just supporting men. Sigourney’s upgraded role in those Grady sketches feels like even someone at SNL realized the lack of proper use. At least in her first hosting stint they let her reprise some of her act with Christopher Durang if they weren’t using her in sketches. As it is here her bumper shots end up being more memorable than most of what goes on.
I guess you may have to be a bigger Fred Armisen fan to get into Riley, I don’t know. I do enjoy so-bad-it’s-good characters, like Carol, but by that point Sanz had begun to take up much less airtime. Fred is already doing his anti-comedy characters all over the show, week after week. This just feels like something Milton Berle would have done if he’d been about 50 years younger. And it feels endless.
Abby’s Meryl Streep impression was dragged down somewhat by her being too young to fit into the part, but also it didn’t remind me that much of Streep. It was sort of like impersonating Paris Hilton impersonating Meryl Streep. I did enjoy Andy’s commentary – I actually liked it more than the first version, especially his anger over Seth’s Mother Goose glibness.
The audience didn’t seem to be as interested in the Tonight Show controversy as the writers were. Sigourney’s references to it (the best use of the whole thing for me) barely got a reaction, and Seth’s piece on Update also got a somewhat muted reaction (it didn’t help that it felt strained and overlong). The most interesting part of that for me was Seth – not for the first or last time – trying to retcon his pre-Update years as some kind of wasteland, even though if there were periods he was barely used for 3 weeks, they were a small minority of his 4 seasons of frequent appearances and starring roles until he chose to take a backseat.
The cold open, outside of Jason’s Letterman (which was an absolute blast, even if Norm is still my #1), wasn’t anything special, but kudos to Bill for not going for a flashy impression and instead playing the material in a quieter way that made more sense and let others shine.
They’ve really been going to town with the ESPN sketch (I know there’s another coming up in a few episodes). I am not complaining, as I find these entertaining and also our last chance at seeing the chemistry between Jason and Will, but their overuse suggests how bankrupt the writers room felt creatively, in spite of a very rich lineup of talent.
I meant I thought it was Nasim, not Jenny, in the Amber & Cream sketch. So much for proofreading…
Is Fred’s stuff even anti-comedy by this point?
I wonder why he kept going back to the gay stereotype well so often (aside from James Anderson collaborating with him).
It can be easy to write off bad stuff as anti-comedy, so you do have a point. I tend to see Fred bits like Billy Smith in that vein, but I’m not sure how much else is. I have wondered at times if his need to play so many races, make fun of the blind and deaf, and do the gay caricatures was intended as some sort of statement against “PC” or what have you, or if he was just so beloved behind the scenes and so confident in his comic vision that he just felt anything was fine.
Hey John. I Thought That Fred Played Different Races Because Fred Is Part Asian And Part Venezuelan So They Did Not Have Any Body Else To Play These Different Races ! OF Course, Being Gay Doesn’t Have To Do With Being Another Race ! White People Can Be Gay !
You missed the part in the cold open where Will appeared briefly as Carson Daly at the very end, though with no lines. That was a reflection on how Daly’s late night talk show was doing ratings-wise and with buzz.
I guess you can say this show was almost a 180 from Sigourney’s 1986 episode, when can never be topped given it was a brand new cast that saved the show from cancellation, and had a better group of performers than the ones from the previous season.
The Carson Daly no-liner was also a painful indication of underusing Will all season…
What About The Potato Chip Thief ? What About McGruber ? What About Being Greg Where He Is Reporting Sports ? What About Singing On Week End Update As Jon Bovi OR Other Times OR Tim Calhoun ? I Don’t Know For Sure IF Tim Calhoun Was In Season 35 ! Will Was Even Hoarse During The Potato Chip Thief !
In an interview with Larry King, John Mulaney said that Riley was probably the character he created that he related to the most. I personally couldn’t stand that sketch. There was nothing funny about it, just obnoxious.
This is one of my favorite Laser Cats, they just get better and better! I think the one from the next season is my favorite overall.
I thought this was a good Weekend Update overall, especially Seth’s breakdown of the Tonight Show situation at the top. Loved the way that ended.
Seeing that the Ting Tings were the musical guest led me to go, wow, the Ting Tings, I hardly remember when they were a thing… thing. Talk about a one hit wonder- and yet I could probably sing along to every word of that one hit.
I love Sigourney Weaver but I don’t think she stood out very much in this episode, sadly.
Ah, the Tonight Show fiasco. What a simpler time.
I mainly remember all the Leno/Conan Tonight Show references especially Seth’s comments on them… I think I also liked Twinkle and Stink and James Cameron/Laser Cats short film…
“I cannot go back to being in a sketch once every three weeks.” Hmm, season 30 seems to disagree with that.
Seth can’t go back to being in one sketch every 3 episodes? You’d think he would’ve written more for Abby Elliott, Jenny Slate, Nasim Pedrad, Casey Wilson, and Michaela Watkins if he felt like that.
Bobby Moynihan said on Seth tonight that Fire and Rice was a fake pitch since he had nothing that week and Sigourney Weaver loved it.
This will be the Vintage episode on Saturday, most likely because of the Avatar sequel doing gang-busters at the box office.
This aired on my 22nd birthday