Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
Michael Bloomberg (FRA) details lazy NYC workers’ inept blizzard response
— A decent Michael Bloomberg impression from Fred.
— A pretty good spoof of 1) the overreaction from New Yorkers to the big blizzard that had recently hit the city, and 2) the slow response NYC workers had to said blizzard. As a New Yorker myself, this is bringing back a lot of memories of this time.
— Funny reveal from Fred’s Bloomberg that the reason for a certain New York area being cleared of snow was just because of a gas explosion.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
unworried by the looming apocalypse, host wants to wed an audience member
— Jim Carrey jokingly calls the then-recently-ended year 2010 a nightmare and says we wouldn’t want to go through it again. Uh, Jim, I know you’re just kidding, but I got bad news for you regarding what’s in store for us 10 years after 2010.
— This “doomed year” stuff is a bit of an odd and unexciting topic for a Jim Carrey monologue, but he’s making it work, in his usual way.
— Some laughs from the examples Jim gives for how he always makes the best out of dire situations.
— A pretty fun interaction between Jim and a female audience member.
— A nice deviation from the usual “Stick around, we’ll be right back” monologue tagline.
STARS: ***½
BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Rerun from 9/25/10
BLACK SWAN
Nina’s (NAP) mannish rival Lily (host) is more adept at Black Swan role
— Despite the tired man-in-drag trope, Jim seems like he can definitely make this role fun, and I like how it, in some ways, feels like a slight throwback to his Vera De Milo character from In Living Color.
— I like a lightly-dancing Taran feeding Jim bread crumbs.
— A big laugh from Jim’s fist-in-mouth bit.
— I bet it took Bill everything in him not to crack up when Jim screamed in his face twice while “flashing” him.
— Good pre-taped ending shot of Jim.
STARS: ***½
FINDING YOUR POWER
hidden-camera footage belies self-assertion claims
— The name of Jason’s character, Zach Twinefeld, made me chuckle more than it probably should’ve.
— Pretty funny turns with hidden camera footage revealing how each guest didn’t exactly stand up for themselves like they claimed to.
— I can’t help but hear Vanessa’s Miley Cyrus in Vanessa’s crying rant.
— Hilarious turn with the quick “Well, we put a camera in your wife’s mouth. Roll it!” “What?!?” exchange between Jason and Jim, followed by a P.O.V. camera angle from inside Jim’s wife’s mouth while Jim’s tearfully pleading to her. You also have to imagine how silly the wife must’ve looked standing there with her mouth wide open like that the whole time while secretly filming Jim.
STARS: ***½
GRADY WILSON’S TANTRIC ‘N TASTY
guru (host) adds Eastern skill to Grady Wilson’s Tantric ‘n Tasty sex DVD
— The final Grady Wilson sketch. For some reason, unlike the previous installments of this sketch, this entire installment is pre-taped. I have no idea why.
— As I said in my review of the last installment of this sketch prior to this one, this recurring sketch has been getting less and less funny with each passing installment.
— At least we now have Jim to hopefully milk some laughs from this tired format.
— Meh, it turns out that not even Jim can help this tired format all that much. Good riddance to this recurring sketch. It started out strong and fun in its very first installment, but probably never should’ve become recurring.
STARS: **
THE WORST OF SOUL TRAIN
the ’70s & ’80s were full of awful musical acts
— Already a laugh just from the initial sight of Bobby, as well as him introducing himself as Smokey Robinson’s white half-brother, Coughy Robinson.
— A fairly fun and promising sketch concept of a collection of horrible Soul Train performances.
— I love Bobby’s explanation that Triangle Sally died halfway through her performance, “and we did NOT edit it out!”
— A funny comically brief song from Taran and Paul’s bizarre robotic singing duo.
— After a somewhat slow first two minutes, this sketch has gotten increasingly funnier starting with the Triangle Sally scene. I particularly love the scene happening right now with Jason’s Billy Ocean-esque “Get out of my car, get into my trunk” song.
— Jim’s “one titty” song is absolutely priceless, and a strong way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Howlin’ For You”
WEEKEND UPDATE
ousted Nancy Pelosi (KRW) easily triggers John Boehner (BIH) crying jags
Anthony Crispino’s supposed scoops are based on things that were misheard
Arkansan red-winged blackbird (ANS) & fish (TAK) ponder animal die-offs
— Bill’s deep-voiced, cartoonish, Cowardly Lion-esque crying as John Boehner is making me laugh out loud.
— This has to be the funniest Anthony Crispino commentary by this point of his run. A lot of his false info here is giving me big laughs.
— A variation of Andy’s Larry The Goose. As an odd coincidence, the only times Andy has played Larry The Goose and tonight’s similar character have all been in January episodes.
— Fairly fun to see Taran get involved in Andy’s commentary.
— Given the fact that SNL doesn’t have a black woman in the cast this season, I wonder who that was doing the Oprah voice-over during the “Oprah-calypse” bit in Andy and Taran’s commentary.
— A pretty fun dumb, silly conceit to Andy and Taran’s commentary.
STARS: ***
MERRYVILLE TROLLEY RIDE
sinister Merryville animatrons (host), (TAK), (BIH) unsettle (KET)
— Ah, here comes an absolute favorite of mine, and an important moment for Taran as a cast member.
— Taran and Jim’s robotic movements as the animatrons are absolutely SPOT-ON (almost eerily so) and hilarious. Very impressive, especially from Taran. Who knew before this sketch aired that he was capable of something like this? I remember being so wowed by him when this sketch originally aired.
— Bill’s animatron character occasionally popping up just to ding the triangle (there seems to be a triangle-dinging theme in this episode, between Triangle Sally and this) while having a creepy smile is a great example of Bill’s ability to get laughs out of the smallest things.
— I love the animatrons’ increasingly creepy and sinister actions towards Kenan.
— Hilarious when Bill’s animatron character pops up with his head missing and wires poking out of his neck.
— Great ending visual of a Kenan mannequin.
— Overall, a classic in my eyes, and a huge turning point in Taran’s SNL tenure. Back when this episode originally aired, this sketch was what led to me and many others to start becoming a big fan of Taran’s work on the show, and he would go on to build on the great progress he showed in this sketch.
STARS: *****
PSYCHIC MEDIUM
psychic (host) channels his previous career as a celebrity impressionist
— A very fun excuse to have Jim showcase his underrated knack for doing great celebrity impressions.
— I like the running gag with Vanessa calling out Jim’s lack of hygiene from his bathroom break.
— I particularly love Jim’s Alan Thicke impression, as well as Jason having an over-excited foot-stomping reaction to that and then yelling “No one does a Thicke!”
— Great ending with Jim doing a Sammy Davis Jr. impression while using the crystal ball as a glass eye.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tighten Up”
A TASTE OF NEW YORK
grubby trio (host), (FRA), (KRW) sings to tourists about NYC’s underbelly
— Geez, Abby is making her first and ONLY appearance all night in the final sketch of the episode, playing a very small straight role where she only has one or two lines. I feel for her.
— A very blah reveal of the comedic conceit of the song that Fred, Jim, and Kristen’s homeless group sings.
— Not a single laugh from me so far. Not even Jim can save this.
— Overall, an awful sketch, and such a poor note to end this episode on, especially after the extremely fun two sketches that preceded this. I guess we can consider this YET ANOTHER of many wretched Fred Armisen-starring sketches this season. The man continues to be the bane of this season.
STARS: *
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While this comes absolutely nowhere close to measuring up to the beloved first Jim Carrey-hosted episode (continuing this season’s frustrating failure to produce a standout strong episode), this was an overall pretty good episode, and hit a big peak with the first two post-Weekend Update sketches. Jim Carrey was his reliably hilarious self as expected.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Merryville Trolley Ride
Psychic Medium
Black Swan
Finding Your Power
Monologue
The Worst Of Soul Train
A Message From The Mayor
Weekend Update
Grady Wilson’s Tantric ‘N Tasty
A Taste Of New York
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Bridges)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow
Jason’s reactions in the psychic sketch we’re the biggest laughs of the night in my eyes. He always had a gift for taking the smallest role in a sketch and making a scene stealer. He does a similar thing in the Lord Windermere sketches. It also helps that my last name is Thicke, so when he yells “No one does a Thicke” it’s double funny.
This episode started about twenty minutes late due to a NFL playoff game on NBC running over.
A practice that No longer exists thanks to NBC’s various cable properties–a game/event goes on too long, you switch the channel to NBCsn or CNBC
Prior to this past weekend’s episode with Bill Burr, the Notre Dame-Florida St game ran a couple of minutes past 11:00 et and NBC took the like three minutes out of the local news so the SNL could start on time.
That’s only for NHL games or some other low rated sporting event.
NFL playoff games aren’t getting bumped to NBCSN if a game runs over.
An SNL ep will be delayed again next season and in 2016.
Hey Doc. I Don’t Remember What They Did In 2011, But, They STILL Run Over In Alabama Whether IT Is Hockey OR Car Racing OR Even Foot Ball ! They Used To Have Foot Ball Run Over On Sunday Nights On CBS And My Brother’s Wife Complained Because She Wanted To Watch Sixty Minutes ! I Remember One Time When Dan Rather Complained That The CBS News Started Late Because OF Tennis !
I believe there’s been at LEAST a rumour that the Merryville Brothers sketch had to be rewritten because the original version actually SHOWED Bill’s character’s head being decapitated, but they realized it might catch FCC flack.
Hello Floreda. What ? IT Is All Right To Have Kenan’s Head Be Decapitated, But, IT Is NOT All Right To Have Bill’s Head Be Decapitated ?
Kristen’s performance seemed kinda odd and awkward in the Merryville sketch. I never knew what to make of it.
I will say that Jason was the real glue of the show back then. Yet, the show positioned Fred in the role.
Jason has to be the king of the “overreaction to something not particularly exciting but still weird” trope–as people have noted, he does that to perfection here in the psychic sketch and in Lord Windermere, but also in some lesser known sketches like the (beloved by me anyway) sirens sketch with Christina Applegate.
I mentioned last episode in comments that the writers seemed to be really confused with how to use the hosts this season. At least they didn’t punt the gimme of all gimmes, Jim Carrey–there’s a few sketches here that I could really only envision Jim playing well (Black Swan, Psychic, Merryville Brothers–although subsequent hosts were pretty solid).
What I think was very helpful for Taran in breaking out was that his breakout sketches seemed to be as part of an ensemble and not even necessarily “the” lead role–he’s fantastic in the Merryville sketch in a prominent yet silent and supporting role. I don’t know if this actually means anything, but at least to me a viewer, I accepted Taran as part of the ensemble cast quicker than Paul Brittain, whom I found funny when he got leads but seemed to be pegged more as a niche performer.
Is this the worst of Fred’s final seasons? I can’t remember what the next seasons bring, but I seem to recall finding him more tolerable in his actual last season.
Hey Michael. I Thought The King OF Reactions Was Kenan ! I Don’t Remember, But Fred Would Always Come Over In Drag And I Think He OR She Would Smoke And Maybe Be Carried Out, But He Was Extremely Obnoxious ! Another Thing Was Where Fred Was A Door Man And ALL He Did Was To Laugh The Entire Time ! Some Body Else Was Also A Door Man So Maybe That Was Bill ! He Also Would Just Laugh The Entire Time During That Sketch !
“I got bad news for you regarding what’s in store for us 10 years after 2010.”
Jim Carrey gets inextricably entwined in the Sonic the Hedgehog mythos, then gets entwined in SNL’s “special guest plays key political figure” must-call list? I guess he DOES make the best of bad situations.
Big show for Jason and Taran. Merryville Brothers is a great sketch. Jason’s “No one does a Thicke!” in Fortune Teller and Ocean Billy’s “I said get in the trunk!” in The Worst of Soul Train are two of my favorite SNL deep cut quotables. Jim is used very well as a host, which is more than I can say so far for 2020 Jim Carrey on SNL.
Bill wrote a Game Time w/Randy & Greg sketch where Jim plays Greg’s similarly traited doppelganger. Sounds like a rehash of the one they did with Jon Hamm a year prior and yet probably still funnier than Taste Of New York.
I recall seeing on Twitter that Abby’s big sketch was her playing opposite Jim Carrey’s Hugh Hefner as Hef’s then-girlfriend Crystal Harris. Hefner had officially divorced his second wife and the thought of a marriage proposal causes Crystal to break into Wall of Sound-Esque musical numbers.
Before I watched this episode I thought to myself that it would have to be a big improvement on the incoherent and halting material he has had as Biden, but that wasn’t quite the case.
Well, it sort of was – Jim has a terrific solo showcase in this episode, with his one-man impression parade (if you are going to have one then this is probably the best way to go) – and again when he gets his “turn” in the Soul Train sketch. Unfortunately he doesn’t get a whole lot of worth when he has to really interact with the cast. He doesn’t seem to click with the cast at all, nowhere near the level he did in 1996, where he worked very well with Mark McKinney, Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, etc. That doesn’t mean the sketches are all bad in of themselves, but his role in, say, the Merryville sketch is one that didn’t stay in my mind (I guess that is why the most known of these seems to be the one with Timberlake). As @Michael Cheyne has said, they don’t really know what to do with hosts at this point. Even the Black Swan sketch, while, again, not bad, feels very much like a rewritten ILC script, rather than something that gave him a good chance.
I think the oddest writing choice of the episode for me is the talk show sketch, where we see Jim and two cast members having to basically play the same scene, over and over, with no real thought given to diminishing returns. Andy is pretty funny (Andy always knows how to mine the laughs out of daddy issues), and then we have Vanessa stuck doing the same…and then when we got to Jim, I expected a twist, like the footage revealing he had killed his wife. Nope. Same scene. I couldn’t really react by that point. The best part of this was Jason, in a perfectly modulated performance as the sadistic host. Too bad he and Vince Blight never met up.
The Boehner and Pelosi Update appearance is too long and they put way too much makeup and prosthetics on Bill, but Bill’s impression is a lot of fun and Kristen gets some good lines (and until they mar it by going back for a second round, I enjoyed her speech about what does and doesn’t make Boehner cry). I don’t know how many appearances she has left as Pelosi, but after the writing for her went all over the road , I’m glad they seemed to get the characterization back on track (ironically the last time Kate McKinnon played Pelosi was also one of the first times they seemed to “get” the writing for her in the role). The Andy and Taran commentary sort of makes me zone out once it goes on too long and the gay jokes start. Bobby is great and ends up giving me some of the biggest laughs I’ve had for this era of the show. His delivery is absolutely masterful, and gets funnier and funnier all the way through this – I laughed way more than I should have at the Brett Favre portions. That’s Bobby’s gift, in a way, similar to Gilda in how she was able to make some corny ideas seem wide-eyed yet a bit crude at the same time.
The Soul Train sketch is one I watch a fair amount to have fun – there are so many parts to enjoy. Kristen, Jim, Jason, Andy’s “Let Her In” homage…but I think my favorite part is the glimpse of Taran and Paul doing their quasi-Devo bit. The way Paul says “yes a robot…drinks champagne” alone makes me laugh.
Speaking of Taran, the Merryville sketch is another clever and creative idea for him, and he gives a great performance. I wish this had been a pre-tape, if possible, as I think that would have really nailed more of the technical aspects with Kenan being replicated and their grabbing him; I know not everything needs to be a pre-tape, and they were still more frequently just used for ads or Lonely Island in this period, but I think the clunky live execution hurts the end of this one and keeps it from being a little better than it could have been.
I’m trying to remember if Fred’s Bloomberg changes over the years or if just the makeup does. This was another of Jim Downey’s (I assume) rants about public sector unions, but it’s somewhat sharper than the norm, and not too long.
@Jack, thank you for the cut sketches. Can’t say I missed seeing those, but I’m sorry they cut an Abby showcase. That could have been interesting. And probably somewhat difficult to mount – I wish there was a dress upload somewhere.
I think I mainly remember The Worst of Soul Train and Merryville Trolley Ride. I also think I remember laughing quite a bit at Jim Carrey’s antics…
Why did Jim Carrey host this episode? And is he promoting something?
I think for a lesser known Movie called “I Love You Phillip Morris” Which also Stared Ewan McGregor