Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
DUH! WINNING! WITH CHARLIE SHEEN
Charlie Sheen (BIH) celebrates fellow deluded trainwrecks
— On one hand, it’s always refreshing to see a cold opening that, while very topical, isn’t political. On the other hand, why does this spoof of the Charlie Sheen scandal have to be in the lazy, overused talk show format? Of all the ways SNL could’ve spoofed the scandal, they chose one of the simplest, dullest routes.
— Good to see the Christina Aguilera impression being given back to Abby, as I like her take on Aguilera much better than Nasim’s. I’m still wondering why the hell the Aguilera impression was temporarily taken away from Abby in the first place and given to Nasim in this season’s Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— A good laugh from the reveal of Gary Busey being the writer of the viewer email praising Charlie’s crazy behavior.
— A rare instance of an SNL host appearing in the cold opening.
— Despite my frustration with SNL choosing the talk show format for this Sheen spoof, the execution of this isn’t too bad. Still nothing special, though.
— I like the defibrillator bit, which came out of nowhere.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
mostly-irreproachable host sings “I’m Sorry That I’m Not Perfect”
— There’s our obligatory instance of Miley Cyrus starting this monologue by dryly quoting the theme song lyrics of SNL’s Miley Cyrus Show sketches: “We’ve got guests and a show, and I’m ready to go, so I guess that’s pretty cool.”
— (*siiiiiiiigh*) Yet another season 36 musical monologue. I’m pretty sure that, up to this point of the season, season 36 has yet to go more than three episodes without a musical monologue. I wonder if that’s some kind of record.
— Overall, well, that was a whole lot of nothing. At least it was pretty short, and Miley came off well.
STARS: *½
BABY SPANX
Rerun from 10/23/10
OUR TIME! WITH TABOO AND APL.DE.AP!
Taboo (ANS) & apl.de.ap (KET) flee Fergie (host) and Will.i.am’s (JAP) shadow
— Blah, ANOTHER celebrity-hosted talk show sketch tonight? And this one isn’t even a particularly promising one. Plus, we already know we’re getting a THIRD celebrity-hosted talk show sketch later tonight with our obligatory Miley Cyrus Show appearance.
— Feels a little interesting seeing Abby’s Khloe Kardashian impression away from Nasim and Vanessa’s Kim and Kourtney Kardashian impressions for once.
— A pretty good laugh from Andy-as-Taboo’s line “And I am from The Matrix!”
— Like a lot of SNL’s celebrity-hosted talk show sketches, this seems like it’s set up to become recurring, with each installment likely having Andy and Kenan’s Taboo and apl.de.ap interviewing an overshadowed member of a famous group. However, this sketch (thankfully) never ends up becoming recurring.
STARS: **
THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE: THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Hispanic stand-up (FRA) was cut from The Sound Of Music
— (*groan*) Much like that awful Wizard Of Oz installment of The Essentials from earlier this season, we get another The Essentials installment starring Fred as a character cut out of a classic movie, this particular character complete with a bevy of awful Hispanic stereotypes. As if we needed ANOTHER sketch this season that proves Fred is the bane of this season.
— I’m three minutes into this sketch so far, and yep, not a single laugh from me yet.
— This sketch even ends the same way the aforementioned Wizard Of Oz sketch ended, with Fred’s character looking into the camera and saying the title of the movie in a mock-significant manner at the end of his final line.
STARS: *
THE DISNEY CHANNEL ACTING SCHOOL
host & Raven-Symone (KET) teach Disney Channel tropes
— Kenan In A Dress alert. Feels like this is the first time I’ve said that in a while. Hopefully, this is a sign that Kenan’s drag roles are being phased out (unintentionally, I assume, given the fact that it wouldn’t be until 2013 where Kenan would publicly take a stand against dressing in drag on SNL).
— A well-done and very spot-on spoof of Disney Channel tropes. Each individual scene here is on point.
STARS: ****
THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Justin Bieber (host) is a male counterpart to Miley Cyrus (VAB)
— In the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s episode, this recurring sketch as a whole had been showing signs of running out of steam. I’m especially tired of the parts with Billy Ray Cyrus, which have gotten old pretty fast. All that being said, hopefully the real Miley being involved in tonight’s installment will shake things up a bit.
— Hmm, a Darrell Hammond shoutout. (Jason’s Billy Ray praises Vanessa-as-Miley’s celebrity impression skills by telling her “You’re like a pretty little Darrell Hammond!”)
— Fitting and amusing casting of Miley as Justin Bieber.
— Very funny cutaway to Taran as Bieber’s swagger coach, and a good example of Taran’s ability to get laughs even without speaking.
— Some decent meta humor during Vanessa-as-Miley’s interview of Miley’s Bieber.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under Cover of Darkness”
WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups entities affected by Charlie Sheen into Winners & Losers
The Devil doesn’t like the Westboro Baptist Church’s anti-gay protests
Anthony Crispino gets facts wrong about the Oscars, Libya, Charlie Sheen
— I like Seth starting tonight’s Update by sternly telling a photo of Charlie Sheen that he’ll have to wait his turn because “other things happened this week!”
— Seth’s Winners/Losers segment on the Charlie Sheen scandal is working much better for me than Seth’s last Winners/Losers segment from a few episodes prior.
— Good to see the return of Jason’s The Devil character.
— I’m getting my usual laughs from The Devil’s dialogue. I especially like him saying about gay people, during his complaints about them being so nice and always cleaning up what he worked hard to make bothersome, “I hate ’em…but I can’t stay mad at ’em!”
— Solid delivery from Seth of his wordy, long-winded, rapidly-spoken Playboy Mansion joke.
— Ah, another Update character tonight who I always enjoy: Anthony Crispino!
— Once again, I’m getting SO many big laughs from Crispino’s various false news scoops. Way too many funny ones here for me to single out. Everything here is slaying me.
— Hmm, there’s a bit with Crispino mangling the story about the Charlie Sheen scandal by saying Charlie Rose’s show is getting canceled due to a scandal. Little did SNL know that actually WOULD end up happening six years later when Charlie Rose would get MeToo-ed.
— Seth continues to have some really solid jokes tonight. This has definitely got to be one of his best Updates in a long time.
STARS: ****
LES JEUNES DE PARIS
jealous (host) & the song “Tekitoi” spur French teen dancing
— This sketch has officially become recurring. A very welcome return.
— Like last time, I absolutely love the visual of the characters suddenly simultaneously breaking out into wild dancing when the French music really kicks in.
— A particularly hilarious part with Taran shoving crepes into mouth in time to the portion of the French music that’s currently playing. Such spot-on timing from Taran.
— Good involvement of Andy as a mime.
— Very solid running gag with Taran getting wine thrown into his face. I especially love the instance of it when a wine glass is revealed behind the Playboy magazine.
— Overall, this recurring sketch continues to be an absolute blast.
STARS: ****½
BEASTLY
plot of movie starring host & Gene Hackman (ANS) involves beauty & the dweeb
— A technical gaffe early on in this pre-tape, where the Les Jeunes de Paris title screen (which failed to show up at the end of the actual Les Jeunes de Paris sketch) accidentally shows up during the opening scene.
— Oh, geez, they’ve made this Andy-as-a-grotesque-character-in-a-movie-trailer thing recurring? It was bad enough the first time. At least we don’t have a shoved-down-our-throats Justin Bieber in this one, though.
— Meh, the reveal of Gene Hackman playing Andy’s character didn’t make me laugh as much as the Sir Ben Kingsley reveal in the first installment of this.
— I did finally get a laugh just now at the end, with Andy’s Rango/Beastly mix-up.
STARS: *½
ROCK-A-BILLY LADY PARTY MOISTURIZING FACIAL CREAM
(KRW) & (host) sell facial cream & rockabilly CD only as a package deal
— A fairly funny random mish-mash concept.
— I was a little wary of this sketch at first, worried it would turn out to be a typical annoying, badly-written Kristen Wiig-starring sketch that we’ve been getting at least once on a weekly basis these past few episodes. (Speaking of which, it feels like SNL has refreshingly started scaling back the usually-dominant Kristen’s airtime these past few episodes. IIRC, that continues for most of the remainder of this season.) However, I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself liking this sketch more and more as it progresses. The absurd humor regarding the rockabilly CD/facial cream mish-mash is being executed pretty well.
— A funny passive-aggressive line about the company accidentally mixing up which name goes to which product.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Life Is Simple In The Moonlight”
CRUISE
unhappy cruise ship performer (host) sings “You People Are Gross To Me”
— A bit of a meh conceit with Miley singing about old people being gross.
— Vanessa gets a good laugh with her old lady character cluelessly asking Miley “Can you sing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Titanic?”
— Yet another sketch that Taran is one of my favorite parts of. Between his impressive big night in the preceding episode and now this episode, he’s continuing to really come into his own lately after having his breakout night in the Jim Carrey episode a few months prior. Also, when this episode originally aired, I remember this sketch being one of several things that made me wonder if Taran was hired to be Jason’s eventual replacement (especially with Jason’s diminished airtime this season, which made me incorrectly assume he was on his way out), given the fact that Taran’s grouchy old man character in this sketch felt to me like a role Jason would’ve normally been given.
— The ending almost seemed like it got cut off.
STARS: **½
CBS
in March, expect to see even more dead bodies on CBS during Gurney Month
— This was previously cut after dress rehearsal from, I believe, the preceding episode. The topical brief mention of Two And A Half Men in this commercial is obviously a new addition, since the Charlie Sheen/Two And A Half Men controversy hadn’t happened yet when the preceding episode aired.
— A pretty funny cheesy presentation of such a dark concept.
— Overall, short and simple.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Kind of an up-and-down episode, but there were a few more good pieces than bad. Given how some online SNL fans back at this time in 2011 (including myself) weren’t thrilled with the initial announcement of Miley Cyrus hosting, she ended up doing just fine. She played her parts well, and I had no problems with any of her performances.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Les Jeunes de Paris
Weekend Update
The Disney Channel Acting School
Rock-A-Billy Lady Party Moisturizing Facial Cream
Duh! Winning! with Charlie Sheen
The Miley Cyrus Show
CBS
Cruise
Our Time! with Taboo and apl.de.ap!
Beastly
Monologue
The Essentials with Robert Osborne: The Sound Of Music
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Russell Brand)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Zach Galifianakis
Almost ironic they focused on the Charlie Sheen debacle in this episode, considering she’d later have a role on Two and A Half Men.
I wonder if Kristen’s slightly reduced screen time for the rest of the season was because of the Bridesmaids press tour.
Yea, hated both installments of that Digital Short (can’t remember if it makes another appearance.) There are a few great ones coming (Jack Sparrow, 100th Digital Short) but I remember in Andy’s last 2 seasons (his final season especially) them starting to feel perfunctory than anything else.
No Akiva or Jorma in Year 37. (Well, most of the season, anyway.) The Digital Shorts were written by committee that season, and it shows. The one with the dancing in the police station was an indicator that something was off, or perhaps the shorts had run their course.
This episode got off to a slow start, but was enjoyable otherwise. The “streak” continues.
The Strokes had Colin Jost on their podcast this summer (not sure if it is around now) and they mentioned being booked for this past April. I wonder if they may return this season, especially if Colin does leave.
I think a few people in the Youtube comments for the Disney pre-tape said some of the extras were Disney actors, but I have no idea if that’s true or not.
I was just reading a review of this episode, from when it aired, and it was one more reminder of how disparate views of SNL can be – they listed the Black Eyed Peas talk show and the Sound of Music sketch as two of the episodes hits, went on about how wonderful Fred is in these pieces, how wonderful Kristen is with Fred, and listed Miley as a host so bad that she makes her material unfunny – directly comparing her to Michael Phelps.
I can’t say I agree with any of that, but above all else I’d disagree about how bad she was – she’s certainly not the best host ever, but she’s very professional and when she gets the chances at humor, she mostly finds them. She powers right through that unpleasant cruise ship sketch which should have been left in dress (I guess, like the two other worst sketches of the night [see above], it was put in because she could mostly sing through – the performances were good, at least, and Kristen may have been peak Mo Collins here).
The most interesting sketch of the night for me is the one with Kristen and Miley, as, with a few changes, it reminds me a lot of the material that Anderlette (if they wrote this) would later give to Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong in some of their rare teamups. It’s also a reminder of what might have been with Kristen…
It’s kind of fun seeing Miley do a Bieber impression, one that has some real digs without being too mean-spirited. Easily the highlight of the sketch, as even Vanessa and Jason’s usual strong performances can’t hide that there is nothing left to say. The real person appearing in the sketch should always be the end, unless you have something fantastic planned. Instead, we have the unfortunate and ghoulish Maya-as-Whitney appearance to come…
The Disney pre-tape is a hoot to watch – easily the best of Kenan’s drag moments, and the combined history of three different Disney/Nick performers appearing adds a certain weight to the material.
Someone mentioned that this Les Jeunes de Paris was an improvement over the first, and I’d have to agree with them. I love the expanded use of the cast (especially Nasim as she hasn’t had that great a season), and the sheer ingenuity and energy on display from Taran along with everyone else. Lots of little bits you can easily forget unless you rewatch.
Expanding Abby’s Khloe impression feels like a somewhat sad attempt at giving her something to do. She doesn’t look or sound ANYTHING like Khloe, and she doesn’t act like her either. Her talents would have been put to better use elsewhere. Other than the wedding special in Charlie Day’s episode, most of the attempts to expand the Kardashians beyond a few appearances from Nasim don’t really work for me.
Bill’s impression is fine, but the Charlie Sheen overload was so exhausting at the time that even 9 years later I can’t bring myself to laugh (it doesn’t help that Fred’s awful Gaddafi wankfest is shohorned in yet again). Seth needing to talk at length about how overexposed the coverage was, even as it takes such heavy focus on the show that is talking about it being overexposed, is an example of the trap that SNL repeatedly falls into regarding pop culture in modern years. At least it was a non-political cold open, so that’s something.
Great commentaries from Jason and Bobby – the more I see of The Devil the more I know that no one else could have woven those character threads together the way he did. Bobby also manages to make such a potentially hoary idea funny with each appearance – just a delight.
Promos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmGzfNIqvqc
I checked the SNL Archives, and Fred does his godawful Gaddafi impression in the next three consecutive episodes as well.
SNL seems to do a lot of Wizard of Oz and Sound of Music spoofs. Maybe this season’s “Fred plays an awful character cut from the film” sketches soured me on the later ones.
I think “Cruise” is Anderlette, and it kind of illustrates the problem I have with their writing: is Miley supposed to be the protagonist, or is the point of the sketch about how awful a person this singer is?
I love the Rockabilly sketch! It’s spot-on in parodying infomercials of the ‘90s, and I’m a sucker for sketches that just get weirder and weirder.
“Maybe there was a mistake at the printer.”
“Maybe someone shouldn’t have used that printer like I said.”
“Maybe someone was too busy watching their friend’s two-year-old.”
“You love Beth!”
“I do … but she’s a lot.”
CBS promo originally appeared at dress in the Jon Hamm / Rihanna episode.
“THE FUNERAL’S MONDAY!!!!”
(**sorry, had to release it from my head after reading your review…)
I remember my dad and I howling when that happened.
I’m guessing all I really remember from this ep is the return of Les Jeunes de Paris…
This is the Vintage show tomorrow night, presumably because it’s the 10th anniversary of this episode.
They cut:
Disney Channel Acting School
Anthony Crispino
2nd Strokes song
CBS
Cruise
Rock-a-Billy
Beastly
Les Jeunes
So pretty much all the stuff worth watching from this one? Reminds me why I usually skip those reruns.