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