Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
RNC HEADQUARTERS
additional closet skeletons imperil Christine O’Donnell’s (KRW) candidacy
— New cast member Vanessa Bayer gets the fairly rare honor of not only appearing in the cold opening of her first episode before she’s even been intro’ed in the opening montage, but she delivers the first big line of the beginning of this cold opening.
— As apparently yet another sign of how popular Kristen is, the audience actually applauds her entrance here.
— The explicit masturbation talk is providing some pretty good laughs.
— Good portrayal of Christine O’Donnell by Kristen.
— A funny “3½ minutes later” title screen being shown onscreen while Kristen’s O’Donnell has left the room to masturbate.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— The preceding season montage’s and bumpers’ commemoration of SNL’s 35th anniversary has been removed this season.
— Starting with this episode, and lasting for the remainder of his tenure as SNL’s announcer, Don Pardo no longer does his announcements live, and instead tapes it from his hometown, I believe. Something about his taped voice sounds a little oddly mixed with the theme music in tonight’s opening montage.
— Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan have been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam, and Jay Pharoah have all been added to the cast tonight.
— For some inexplicable reason, during the featured players portion of this montage, Nasim Pedrad is credited before Taran Killam, despite the fact that Nasim’s last name alphabetically comes after Taran’s last name. This would later be corrected in all subsequent episodes this season, and, I believe, in reruns of this episode. I guess you can say this episode is the first time in which a category of cast members weren’t listed alphabetically since all the way back in the very first episode.
MONOLOGUE
Justin Timberlake [real], RAD, JIF, TIF inhabit AMP’s preshow stress dream
— Another SNL monologue with a Betty White mention, as Amy Poehler jokingly says that, much like Betty White, she’s 88½ years old.
— Blah at Amy’s reveal that the beautiful boys she’s “had” are Nick Jonas and Taylor Lautner.
— A nice-albeit-jokingly-brief introduction to tonight’s four new cast members.
— During the Twilight Zone-esque montage at the beginning of the dream sequence, they strangely include a photo of Amy’s character from that largely-forgotten Big Wigs sketch from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode (the third above screencap for this sketch).
— I love the bit with Nasim playing Amy’s Kaitlin’s character.
— Random Justin Timberlake cameo, much to the chagrin of a certain number of SNL fans, I’m sure.
— A great “Poehler Bear/polar bear” bit during Rachel Dratch’s appearance.
— It feels kinda odd seeing all of these appearances from early 2000s female cast members (including tonight’s host, Amy), given the fact that they all had then-recently cameoed in the Betty White episode towards the end of the preceding season.
— A good excuse for Seth to make a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Reportedly, Jimmy Fallon wasn’t in the dress rehearsal version of this monologue. Kinda hard for me to imagine this scene with just Tina Fey bullying Amy, instead of both Tina AND Jimmy bullying Amy.
— Despite this monologue being an absolute cameo-fest, I’m enjoying this, and am finding the whole dream sequence conceit to be fun. Plus, at least all of these cameos are from SNL-related people.
— Hilarious seeing Kenan randomly playing Lorne, a gag that would probably come off less random if it appeared in a more recent episode in the modern-day SNL era.
STARS: ****
BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
busty teen (musical guest) distracts kids at her library gig
— In addition to all the SNL-related cameos in the monologue, particularly from early 2000s female cast members, we now get another one here, with Maya Rudolph.
— The usual funny comments and gripes from Amy and Maya’s Betty and Jodi characters.
— Katy Perry’s cleavage-revealing Elmo shirt is a good subtle(?) reference to her Sesame Street controversy from earlier that week, and it’s taking this recurring sketch into an interesting new direction.
— A lot of great lines from Amy and Maya in reaction to Katy’s physical appearance.
STARS: ****
BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Bosley Hair Restoration fills scalps with transplanted pubic hair
— A cheap laugh from the visual of a scientist extracting pubic hair from a patient.
— Meh, the visuals of various clients with pubic hair transplants on their heads aren’t doing much for me.
— I did get a chuckle from Kristen’s line about still having plenty pubic hair left down there.
— Funny ending visual of Nasim lovingly burying her face into the pubic hair on top of Fred’s head.
STARS: **
MATERNITY MATTERS
Rodger Brush offers chauvinism to expectant mothers
— Oh, no. Not this again.
— As usual, the routine of Fred’s Rodger Brush repeatedly asking his guests to speak up is absolute MISERY.
— “Terry Facials”?
— I did get a laugh from Rodger Brush advising Amy to just get a flowery dress, put on makeup, and tell her husband “I’m sorry, honey, this is whatcha get.”
— Surprisingly, I got another chuckle from a Rodger Brush line just now, when he responds to Andy’s sex-during-pregnancy question by telling him that’s not the first thing Andy’s going to want his baby to see.
STARS: **
MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO
The Mosque At Ground Zero further affronts with gay weddings & more
— I’m noticing in all her appearances tonight that Vanessa Bayer looks a little different and so young-faced in this debut episode of hers compared to how I remember her looking throughout her SNL tenure.
— I’m iffy about this “gay weddings at the Ground Zero Mosque” premise, as it seems like an excuse for this SNL era to rely on even more lazy gay humor as a crutch, right after a season that already relied a little too heavily on that crutch, but Bill’s performance as the spokesperson is so damn fun that he’s making me enjoy this. Furthering my enjoyment are all the various photos of the cast members.
— An interesting RNC twist ending.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “California Gurls”
WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
Will Smith (JAP) exults in the success of his family members
911 call documents (SEM) being attacked by a parrot (AMP)
David Paterson [real] dislikes David Paterson (FRA) goofing on blindness
— Oof, Seth stumbles over his opening joke, causing it to get a tepid audience reaction.
— I see SNL ain’t wasting no time bringing the “Really?!?” segment back, as they break it out only two or three jokes into tonight’s Update. Maybe this is a good thing, given how Seth was kinda struggling with some of his first few jokes.
— Some pretty good comments from Seth and Amy during tonight’s “Really?!?”. I especially like Seth’s comment towards Lady Gaga that “it’s very hard to be the girl in the meat suit on Sunday and the voice of reason on Tuesday.”
— After the “Really?!?” segment ends, Amy casually sticks around by being an unofficial guest co-anchor and doing Update jokes.
— I notice that Seth’s spirits and the quality of tonight’s Update in general both seem to have risen ever since Amy showed up.
— Nice to see Jay Pharoah get a showcase for his celebrity impression skills right in his first episode.
— Even if he’s relying on A LOT of repetitive vocal tics, Jay’s doing the most spot-on Will Smith vocal impression I’ve ever heard. I think I recall Jay later disclosing in an interview that he was told Justin Timberlake, while watching Jay’s Will Smith commentary on a TV monitor in his dressing room, was so impressed by Jay’s Smith impression that he ran out of his dressing room and went around excitedly talking to others backstage about it.
— A pretty fun return of Seth and Amy’s 911 phone call routine from back in the day, where they do the voice of a dispatcher, a caller, and a parrot.
— Fred-as-David-Paterson’s insults are weaker than usual so far tonight.
— Now to hurt my enthusiasm for this Paterson commentary even more, the real David Paterson shows up, turning this into a corny traditional “sneaker-upper” bit, where a celebrity confronts their impersonator.
— The real Paterson gets in a Giuliani-esque lighthearted jab at SNL: “Working in Albany is just like watching Saturday Night Live: there are a lot of characters, it’s funny for 10 minutes, and then you just want it to be over.”
— The real Paterson is at least coming off affable and laid-back here, and seems to be a good sport.
— Much like when she was delivering a sentimental goodbye message to us at the end of the Weekend Update from her final episode as a cast member, Amy’s serious speech about Jeff Zucker stepping down from NBC gets interrupted by both Fred’s Paterson and the real Paterson popping up in front of the camera.
STARS: ***
THE LEAN YEARS
AMP stars as one-legged Amber in a new Showtime program
— Kristen’s bit as Mary-Louise Parker’s Weeds character absolutely BOMBED.
— The return of Amy’s one-legged Amber character.
— I kinda like the format of this sketch, with the typical Amber scenes being interspersed with Showtime interview footage of Amy as herself explaining the Lean Years show that Amy’s Amber character is starring in.
— Meh, the Amber scenes are getting less and less funny as this sketch goes on. The only real comedy seems to be coming from the interview clips of Amy, and even those are only mildly funny.
STARS: **
BOOGERMAN
Boogerman (Peter Sarsgaard) movie song is up for award
— A very interesting and unusual way of presenting this concept.
— Funny visuals of the ridiculous Boogerman musical being performed by Andy and others.
— Pretty fun use of the cast and Amy in individual Boogerman movie clips.
— A very random Peter Sarsgaard cameo as Boogerman in the final movie clip.
— Funny abrupt ending to the awards scene with Bill.
STARS: ***½
LADIES WHO LUNCH
tiny hats allow fashionable Trish (AMP) to one-up jealous Sylvia (KRW)
— I recall there being accusations of plagiarism towards this sketch, but I can’t remember the specifics at all, nor if the accusations turned out to be accurate.
— Even in just a supporting role in her first episode, Vanessa’s already coming off as a total natural and a comforting presence.
— A fairly amusing escalation to the tiny hats gag, with Kristen’s hat now being only visible through a microscope.
— I like the further escalation, with a now microscopic Amy AND Bill appearing on Kristen’s head.
— A laugh from Bill’s “It should’ve been you!” line towards Kristen when he’s mourning Amy’s death.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Teenage Dream”
ACTOR II ACTOR
ANS’s music question upsets Justin Timberlake [real]
— Strangely, that’s Maya Rudolph’s voice as the opening announcer.
— An amusing dead-serious demeanor from Andy and Justin at the beginning of the interview.
— Hilarious twist with a serious Andy suddenly asking Justin in a ditzy voice, “When are you gonna make more music???”, which pisses Justin off and leads to him walking off the show, immediately concluding this sketch. Short and sweet.
STARS: ****
THE UNWATCHABLES
sequels to The Expendables feature actors who are available & unwatchable
— This is the type of impression parade that I find fairly fun and worth a few laughs.
— Two spot-on celebrity impressions from Jay in his debut episode.
— I got a very cheap big laugh from the whole Brigitte Nielsen scene with Andy.
— Very funny ending to Kenan’s Tracy Chapman scene, with his Chapman stopping mid-song to admit “I should not be in this movie.”
— A very minor detail, but I like some of the individual greenscreen backgrounds used for the celebrity scenes, especially the one used for the aforementioned Brigitte Nielsen scene.
— The very topical Steven Slater bit with Taran Killam has probably aged poorly among general audiences, because, other than me, I doubt many people today, 10 years after this episode, have any idea who Steven Slater is. Taran at least gets a very good audience reaction for what’s his first noteworthy comedic role on SNL.
— Speaking of Taran, every single role he’s gotten in tonight’s episode (not counting him appearing as himself with the other newbies in the monologue) has been as a gay guy: 1) a photo of him and Paul Brittain as a gay soldier couple in the Mosque At Ground Zero commercial, 2) a lispy effeminate guy in a blink-and-miss-it appearance in one of the Boogerman movie clips, 3) and now Steven Slater. Wow. Quite an odd feat for a cast member in their first episode. I wonder if this holds the record for most gay roles played by a cast member in a single episode. I’m sure that not even Fred or Chris Kattan have equaled that.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good season premiere, and I liked most of the segments. Amy Poehler blended back into the cast pretty well, which gave some portions of this episode a refreshing host-less feel.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bronx Beat with Betty and Jodi
Actor II Actor
Monologue
Boogerman
RNC Headquarters
The Unwatchables
Mosque At Ground Zero
Weekend Update
Ladies Who Lunch
Bosley Hair Restoration
Maternity Matters
The Lean Years
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2009-10)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Bryan Cranston
I remember you basically hating this episode when it first aired and being kinda taken aback. I see you have softened considerably.
This episode was actually, chronologically, the earliest episode I first saw of the show (the first altogether was a rerun of this season’s Jeff Bridges episode, the first NEW one being this season’s Ed Helms episode.
I will admit, because I was becoming a new fan, I will always have an affinity towards the next 2 seasons, and it will be quite interesting to see how well they’ve aged.
A solid way to start Year 36. The Ground Zero mosque was blown out of proportion by Fox News Channel et al. in an attempt to rankle social conservatives, so the ad parody nailed the dog whistles on the head. (By the way, the mosque is still there.)
With the exception of my fellow west Chicago suburbs native Pauly B, all the new featured players had a moment in the limelight. Alongside Kenan and Bobby, Taran and vBay would become two of the most pivotal cast members of the 2010s. Jay had his impressions, but in six seasons did very little of substance beyond that. That Leslie Jones profile in The New Yorker five years ago kind of painted Jay as lazy and immature behind the scenes.
Jay Did Black Jeopardy And Jay WAS Obama And Jay WAS A Better Obama Than Fred Even IF Jay Had NOT Been Black ! Jay Looked More Like Obama In The Face And Jay Sounded More Like Obama Than Fred Looked OR Sounded ! !
Wow, Paul Brittain, theres a cast member I somehow had forgotten all about. Anytime a big group of newbies comes in at once, seems like there’s always the one who doesn’t make it. Similarly when Heidi Gardner, Chris Redd and Luke Null all joined at the same time. With Luke it kinda seemed obvious right away with Heidi and Chris hitting it off on the show right away.
IIRC, the “Tiny Hats” sketch got the ire of Tim (Heidecker) & Eric (Wareheim), claiming they stole the following sketch…
“They” being SNL, obviously.
I remember people were being rough on Paul in this episode. They felt he was glued to the cue cards too much. Instantly, fans on the message boards pegged him as the one who would not last long on the show. Wasn’t he supposed to be the new Forte when he joined the show? If so, that never panned out.
As for this episode, I wasn’t crazy about Tiny Hats, Boogerman, Bronx Beat and hair transplant ad. This show had a “meh” feeling. Boogerman had a beginning joke that was cut involving Randy Newman, whose name was left intact at the end.
I Did Not Like Tiny Hats Either ! They Did All Those Things With Their Eyes And Men Usually Don’t Have Dolls ! I Did Not Understand What Was So Great About Tiny Hats ! Were The Tiny Hats Hiding Some Thing ? I Did Not Care For Boogerman Either !
Not to go too off topic, but it looks like the credits for tonight’s premiere did not have James Anderson. If he has left and isn’t just on a break or just happened to miss this one episode for personal reasons, then it means I can analyze his sketches in your last decade of reviews differently and not have to focus as much on how he might do them in present day. So that will be interesting.
According to Vulture, here is what sources on the show say about Mr. Anderson:
Longtime SNL writer James Anderson, who has been at the show since 2000, was not listed in the credits for the premiere, but according to sources, he has not left the show permanently and will serve as a writer for season 46.
Thanks, Joseph. So just a break then…not too big a surprise, I guess. Hopefully all is well with him personally.
I mainly remember Bronx Beat (with Katy’s Elmo-cleavage-shirt) and Ms. Perry’s musical sets though as usual with SNL alumni-hosted eps, I think I really enjoyed this one…Oh, and I think I liked Vanessa the most of of the newbies during this period…
I remember someone wore that Elmo shirt at the Greenwich Village Halloween parade this year. Amy and Maya were spot on about how puritanical the US is, caring more about cleavage than violence and junk food ads.
I found David Paterson’s Albany joke really funny, but maybe that’s just because I live in the Albany area and think it’s a dead on description.
Hello Stooge. They DID Have I Think Maybe Tina In Season 35 Had Fred Being Gay FIVE Times In ONE Episode ! One OF The FIVE Times Was Fred Being Liberace On A Vincent Price Special ! One OF The Times Fred Was Gay Was When He Was Riley ! The One Time Fred Was Gay That I Did NOT Understand Was There Was A Party, But Fred Was Gay ! Fred Should Have Been A Single Male In That Sketch ! I Can Not Remember The Other TWO Times Fred Was Gay, But He Was Gay On That Episode ! Both You AND Me Thought That Was A Little Extreme For Fred To Be Gay FIVE Times In ONE Show !
I finally watched this one all the way through yesterday; I’d taken a break from going through them all while the new season was starting as I figured it would just sour me both on these episodes and the current episodes.
I don’t agree with some of the contemporary reviews (AV Club gave this a D!) but it’s not my type of episode…although that may be down to the usual SNL premiere blues. It also doesn’t feel like much of a homecoming for Amy Poehler. That sort of makes sense, considering she had only been out of the cast for a year and a half and had made a number of cameos; still, there isn’t a great deal of excitement here.
The monologue is OK, the cameos are fun (if clunkily executed), but they don’t really give much of an idea of what Amy herself brought to the show – nor does Nasim popping up briefly as Kaitlin. And that’s most of what we end up getting for the rest of the night – a perfectly adequate but not very memorable Bronx Beat, and the return of Amber in a setting so thin I assume even Poehler knew the character didn’t have anything left to give (I did like the part where she was coming up with names for the show – that and Kristen as Mary Louise Parker [the only worthwhile Kristen material in this episode for me]). Even in that padded Expendables parody, Amy just appears as a reminder of some of the unfortunate yellowface material which is entering its last years of relevance.
Amy does come alive on Update, and you can also tell how delighted Seth is to have her there. Jay’s Will Smith impression is the type which might have wowed me at the time, but it’s hard to have much of a reaction now. The Paterson twofer is about as funny as these usually are for me (not very) but is compelling in pushing the limits of joviality of these “tap tap” pieces – you can see just how pissed off Paterson was, and no amount of pre-written jokes could make that less heavy in the air.
It was nice to not have another Fredbama cold open, but Kristen has reached the point in her tenure (similar to Kate McKinnon now) where she is so prominent, all her tics and quirks are dominant enough to where it’s very difficult for her to play a character or do an impression. So you aren’t seeing a joke about Christine O’Donnell (which you could have with, say, Abby in the role), Until we get to the stupid bit with the witch costume, this is a passable cold open, but Kristen weighs it down.
Tiny Hats does bear a little too close a resemblance to Tim & Eric considering the latter aired only a few months earlier, but that’s not exactly a big shock for SNL (or sketch comedy in general). So I will just focus more on the quality of the sketch itself. The whole thing is very Anderlette, in that it’s both under and overwritten and is extremely clunky – Bill’s gay stereotype stands out as a particular sore thumb (or jutting pinkie in this case, I guess). Kristen’s mugging just reinforces for me that she is not a great fit for most James Anderson material, and I wonder what someone like Cecily Strong would have done with the part, weak as it is. The “twist” of Amy faking her own death to continue to be on trend is kind of clever, but there’s no real momentum through this so it just lands with a thud.
It’s interesting to note Taran playing gay roles in all his appearances here – the heavy gay material would get him some criticism a few years later.
Speaking of the newbies, I do like that, aside from poor Paul, they all got a chance, and I like that their intro in the monologue is slightly cutting, but nowhere near as humiliating as the 2013 newbie monologue that I still think helped doom most of them.
The awards show digital short is very ambitious – doesn’t entirely come off (I would have trimmed some of the audience and Katy Perry and shown more of the film), but at least it tried.
My strongest memory of that Expendables impression parade, beyond Amy’s yellowface, is Fred’s bad Eugene Levy impression. If you’re going to try for a legend, you should try a little harder than that…
I’m not sure why they decided to bring back Roger Busch for a premiere, of all things. Seeing Amy get such a generic role is even odder – why not have her as the host who comes in and kicks him out for ruining her show, or something?
Timberlake using SNL to answer criticisms about his moving into acting was clever…it’s unfortunate that his overacting in all his appearances here shows just why he did not stay with a thespian career. If nothing else it’s a reminder of Timberlake’s main strength on his many SNL appearances being his rapport with Andy Samberg – the goodnights conclusion where he picks Andy up and puts him over his shoulder is one of the highlights of the night (and is better than several of his hosting stints).
The other highlight would be the 9/11 Mosque Pre-Tape. Bill Hader selling a dem-dese-dose fever dream courtesy of the RNC is a clever idea, entertaining and well-executed, and closer to reality than a lot of political stuff on SNL by this point.
Promo:
John, A.V. Club reviews of SNL were always weird. The new guy especially. He has a format I really like actually, but is just wayyyyyy too preachy. I officially gave up on his reviews when he called a segment Ego did on Update racist, when A: it was very tame humor that barely had anything to do with race & B: the cast members friggin write their own Update features!
Oh yeah, I think there was also a moment where Beck and Kyle presented black history month for SNL in a very out of touch white liberal manner that he complained about in a similar vein, even though I have a feeling that was written by one of the black writers. I think sometimes people don’t actually know that SNL no longer has a writing staff made up entirely of white men and one or two white women.
Their SNL reviews are a fascinating time capsule, but they were really bringing the hammer down at some points in S35 and S36. It’s a good reminder that what many now call the good old days are rarely seen that way at the time of their original airing.
Dennis Perkins, man. Even when I come to the same conclusion, I just HATE his reviews. He gobbles up all the YAS KWEEN material but cannot seem to grasp that SNL does not work as a voice of “the resistance.” He’s insufferable.
The Rodger Brush character was the instance where Fred lost me as a fan. Brush was just insufferable.
What’s your own Fred moment?
Fred lost me in the Zac Efron episode during S34 when he was in drag in the pizza rolls filming commercial. I thought he was dreadful and that he over did the material a lot. I haven’t liked him since. He was on thin ice when he started doing Obama and the Kissing Family sketches, but this took the cake.