October 25, 2020 – The 'One SNL a Day' Project

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

STRAUSS-KAHN’S CELL
in jail, (KET) & (JAP) mull Euro zone with Dominique Strauss-Kahn (TAK)

— Good to see the season finale’s cold opening be something that’s THIS different.
— It’s also refreshing to see such a different use of Jay, especially with how underutilized and poorly utilized he had been the past few months. He’s doing a good job in this non-impression role here.
— Funny juxtaposition of all the complicated dialogue about the world economy from Jay and Kenan’s prisoner characters.
— Kenan: “Portugal ain’t nothin’ but the dingleberry hangin’ off of Spain’s nutsack.”
— Even in a silent role, Taran is doing a spot-on facial imitation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
— The sudden “We gonna rape you now” twist at the end was crass, but damn funny.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host’s actions don’t match the lyrics of “I’m Not Gonna Sing Tonight”

— I guess it’s fitting that a season extremely oversaturated with musical monologues ends with one. (*groan*) At least it makes sense to do one with Justin Timberlake, though.
— Typical Timberlake humor here, which is very polarizing among online SNL fans. The melody to Justin’s song here is at least very catchy.
— I do really like the in-studio rain effect they’re doing right now.
STARS: **½

LIQUORVILLE
singing & dancing mascot & co-worker (musical guest) battle tea bag (KRW)

— Ugh, I never cared for this staple of Timberlake episodes.
— They seem to be going for something slightly different with the mouth-popping sound effect bit Justin now does at the end of each song. It’s not enough to salvage this tired sketch for me.
— Now we get the addition of Lady Gaga as Justin’s fellow dancing mascot. Again, not enough to salvage this tired sketch for me.
STARS: **

WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
over-the-hill Herb Welch fails to report on junior high gas leak story

— This recurring sketch gives Jason a new co-anchor, with Nasim reprising the news anchor character she previously played in the WXPD News sketch that didn’t have Herb Welch in it (the news sketch from this season’s Emma Stone episode).
— There goes Bill’s obligatory character break that occurs at least once in most Herb Welch sketches. At least Justin is keeping it straight while Bill’s turning away from the camera to hide his giggling.
— I got a good laugh from Herb Welch’s awful misogynistic comment to Nasim’s character.
— Herb Welch telling Jason “Suck an egg, you mannequin!” cracked me up so much.
— A particularly hilarious part where, when Fred’s character says his name is Ken Yi, Herb Welch responds by telling him “Bonzai, huh?!? Hey, remember me?!?”, then proceeding to beat the hell out of him with his microphone.
— Herb Welch, to Jason: “Jack, if Shep Kramer knew about the way you anchor, he’d turn over in his grave.” Jason: “Uh, no he wouldn’t, Herb, because Shep Kramer was cremated.” Herb Welch: “(*in a depressed manner*) They burned my friend.”
— A very funny photo of Herb Welch at the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.
STARS: ****

3-WAY (THE GOLDEN RULE)
(musical guest)’s presence negates Dick In A Box hook-up gayness

— Much like how these Dick In A Box guys’ last short prior to this (Mother Lover) picked up where their short prior to that (the original Dick In A Box) left off, their short tonight starts with them leaving each other’s mother’s house, complete with Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson reprising their roles from Mother Lover.
— Fun start to Andy and Justin’s song so far, as expected.
— Cue the screaming female SNL audience members being heard all throughout this short (though screaming female audience members is a staple of Justin Timberlake episodes in general).
— A pretty good Three’s Company bit.
— The “Helicopter Dick” bit is particularly funny.
— Overall, not bad at all, but pales so much in comparison to Dick In A Box and Mother Lover. This came nowhere close to approaching “classic” status. There’s a reason this short isn’t anywhere near as reminisced about or as referenced as Dick In A Box or Mother Lover.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Edge Of Glory” & “Judas”

WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM says “Really!?!” to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s affair

Nicolas Cage (ANS) eyes Bradley Cooper’s [real] The Hangover Part II role

as SNL’s season draws to a close, SEM & Stefon head for the beach

— This is the second or third time that either Seth or his former co-anchor Amy Poehler did an Update joke where the punchline is someone being chosen for an important position because they were the last person in the room to shout “Not it!”
— A rare solo Seth Meyers “Really?!” segment, for only the second-ever time.
— Seth is doing a solid job in tonight’s “Really?!?”, especially his bit about how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie titles all make perfect newspaper headlines for his baby scandal.
— I got a good laugh from Bradley Cooper telling Andy’s Nicolas Cage, in regards to Cage being in so many movies per year, “You’re like a dangerous Eugene Levy.”
— The usual good “Get In The Cage” segment overall.
— A great way to end this season of Update, with Seth bringing his duffel bag, meeting up with Stefon at the front of the Update desk, and them detailing how their summer vacation together will go while slowly walking off into the proverbial sunset. This also, once again, continues the story arc of the growing dynamic between Seth and Stefon.
— Good to see an actual short Update, which is rare for the solo Seth Meyers era.
STARS: ***½

WHAT’S THAT NAME?: CELEBRITY EDITION
unlike host, musical guest remembers the little people

— This is when you start to notice that every actual sketch that has aired so far tonight (the cold opening doesn’t count) has been recurring.
— Steve Higgins’ opening voice-over sounded strangely kinda muffled.
— I like how tonight’s SNL host and musical guest are the two contestants in this What’s That Name installment.
— A good laugh from Justin’s puzzled facial reaction while Abby, as Justin’s one-night stand from two weeks ago, is going on about their whole encounter.
— Good twist to the usual joke of these sketches, with Lady Gaga instantly remembering the name of an extremely obscure fan she previously encountered only once. That’s also reminiscent of a sketch Paul Simon did in the season 12 Robin Williams episode, but I can forgive the coincidental similarity in this case.
— As usual, Bill’s Vince Blight character has some hilarious lines throughout this sketch.
— The whole part with Justin’s former N’Sync bandmate Chris Kirkpatrick is excellent.
— Overall, this was even better than the very strong first installment of this sketch. I look forward to seeing the third installment that airs years later in a 2019 John Mulaney-hosted episode (I haven’t seen the installment yet, as it aired after I started my still-ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes), as I’ve heard it’s particularly strong.
STARS: *****

MERRYVILLE LOVE TUNNEL
(host) & fellow Merryville animatrons steal (NAP) from boyfriend (JAS)

— The streak of every sketch in this episode being recurring continues.
— They’ll never come remotely close to topping the original installment of this sketch, which should’ve stayed a one-off, but I can’t complain TOO much about this being made recurring, especially knowing in retrospect that this sketch recurs only about two times after the original installment.
— Much like Jim Carrey in the first installment, Justin is really good at doing the accurate-looking robotic movements with Taran and Bill.
— Wow, is this Bobby’s first appearance ALL NIGHT??? And it’s just a small, non-comedic, thankless role.
— I absolutely love Jason’s various reactions to all the craziness going on. He’s a fantastic straight man in this.
— Despite not measuring up to the first installment, this installment is definitely still working for me.
— Jason’s such a fun and likable performer that he even managed to make that homoerotic ending come off less hacky than it would’ve under another performer.
STARS: ***½

SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & magician (host) don’t help contestants

— (*grooooaaaaaaaan*) Secret Word.
— The streak of every sketch in this episode being recurring continues.
— Showing that Bill has become this era’s go-to performer for game show host roles (and rightfully so, given how fantastic he always in that role), he plays his second game show host in just these past 10 minutes.
— I see they’re continuing to use Mindy Grayson’s middle name, Elise, an aspect of this sketch that was pointlessly introduced in the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s.
— (*sigh*) Cue the usual “You just read the secret word” bits.
— Didn’t they already use “grape” as a secret word in the very first installment of this sketch? They probably only brought it back tonight as a cheap excuse for Kristen’s Mindy Grayson (oh, excuse me, Mindy Elise Grayson) to tell a dumb, immature story about how she once farted non-stop during a play after eating a whole bunch of grapes.
— At least Justin is fairly funny as a hack magician.
STARS: *½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Born This Way”

THE BARRY GIBB TALK SHOW
debt discussion leads to a defibrillation of Barry Gibb (JIF)

— The streak of every sketch in this episode being recurring continues. And with this being the final sketch of the night, that officially makes this an episode that consists ENTIRELY of already-existing sketches/characters, only the second episode in SNL history to achieve that feat. (The season 22 Rosie O’Donnell episode being the first. I’m not counting episodes where a recurring sketch made its debut in, which is why I used the term “already-existing sketches/characters”. The season 25 Danny DeVito episode is technically all-recurring in retrospect, but the Sally O’Malley character didn’t exist before that episode.)
— (*sigh*) Just copy and paste what I said earlier about me not caring for the Dancing Mascot bit as a Timberlake episode staple. The difference, though, is that unlike the Dancing Mascot bit, I actually loved the first installment of Barry Gibb Talk Show. It just never should’ve become recurring.
— Second consecutive episode with a Jimmy Fallon cameo.
— I do at least kinda like the change of pace with Justin’s Robin Gibb using two medallions as a defibrillator on the chest of a suddenly-frozen-in-place Jimmy-as-Barry Gibb.
— Hmm, the usual closing theme song of this recurring sketch ends differently, by suddenly and randomly turning into “Rapper’s Delight”.
— An overall poor and disappointing choice for the final sketch of this season.
STARS: **

GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not too bad a season finale, minus the poor way it ended with the final two sketches, but I take a little issue with with how “safe” and overly familiar the whole episode felt. SNL clearly wanted to end this season by going the safe route, by not only doing the usual Justin Timberlake episode staples, but by also doing recurring sketches for the entire rest of the night. Something about that really shines an unfortunate light on how unadventurous this season as a whole (and these 2009-2012 years in general) truly is. Speaking of an aspect I don’t like about this season, we’ve officially gotten through this entire season without a single episode that I would call flat-out strong and standout. That has to be a first in all 36 seasons I’ve covered so far in this SNL project of mine. Even the dreadful season 30 (the season with the lowest rating average in my SNL project so far, and rightfully so) had one or two episodes that I would call legitimately strong. While I would definitely say a majority of this season’s (season 36) episodes were passable, the fact that this season couldn’t produce a single standout strong episode is staggering and is another sign of this season’s bland averageness as a whole.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What’s That Name?: Celebrity Edition
WXPD News New York
Merryville Love Tunnel
Strauss-Kahn’s Cell
Weekend Update
3-Way (The Golden Rule)
Monologue
The Barry Gibb Talk Show
Liquorville
Secret Word

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ed Helms)
a mild step down

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS