Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
OBAMA IN ONE
Barack Obama (FRA) is number 11 on his list of America’s Most Powerful
— Surprisingly, this is the first time Fred has played Obama all season. Even more surprising, it’s the first of only THREE times this entire season that Fred plays Obama, before the Obama impression gets handed to Jay the following season. I wonder if they were intentionally phasing Fred’s Obama out this season while waiting for Jay to get promoted to repertory player the following season (they presumably didn’t feel comfortable giving the Obama impression to a featured player, especially not one as green a live performer as Jay sometimes tends to be in his early seasons). The lack of appearances from Fred’s Obama this season could also do with the fact that a lot of this season’s cold openings focus on the republican presidential candidates.
— An actual amusing line from Fred’s Obama regarding consumer confidence and people pepper-spraying each other for an Xbox on Black Friday.
— At least we get a bit of a change of pace from the usual boring-as-hell Fredbama-speaks-straight-to-the-camera-from-behind-the-desk cold openings, with Fred’s Obama breaking down an “America’s Most Powerful” list with a Wayne’s World-esque Top 13 board.
— Another surprisingly amusing line from Fred’s Obama, with him sarcastically asking us “How many of you out there have a Fantasy Congress League?” and then proudly saying “Thank you for that joke, Joe Biden!”
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
supporting characters ask host how he made the leap to a leading role
— A laugh from the way Steve Buscemi points out that he tends to get typecast in movies as creepy characters.
— Second consecutive episode with Jay dressing in drag. I remember someone on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board asking, back when this episode originally aired, “Is putting Jay in drag some kind of hazing process?”
— Some fun character work from the cast as cliched supporting character archetypes from movies. My favorites are Kenan as the magical African-American and Bill as the guy in war movies who “you just KNOW is gonna die!” All that being said, it kinda bugs me that they’re wasting Steve Buscemi on a monologue like this. How do you give a man as reliably funny and lovably offbeat as him a monologue where he plays a non-comedic straight man to a whole bunch of comedic characters?
— There’s our obligatory Kristen Wiig hammy camera-hogging moment at the end of this monologue (the last above screencap for this monologue).
STARS: ***½
FROZEN MEXICAN DINNER
Frozen Mexican Dinner instantly cures musician’s (PAB) constipation
— Good to see the underused Paul having the lead role in a commercial.
— A pretty solid reveal that the constipation medication that Fred suggests Paul take is a frozen Mexican dinner. The way such a silly and somewhat juvenile concept is being played so tenderly and dramatically is adding to the humor.
— Very funny shot of Paul shaking maracas in an over-excited manner during band practice after he’s finally cured of his constipation.
STARS: ***½
THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Whitney Houston (MAR) is a cautionary drug tale to Miley Cyrus (VAB)
— The weed-smoking angle is at least adding a bit of a different flavor to the overly-formulaic Miley Cyrus Show sketches.
— Right before the camera cuts away from a laughing Jason-as-Billy-Ray-Cyrus after he tells Vanessa’s Miley “You’re like a funny little Cheech Marin, baby!”, Jason, still seemingly acting in character, suddenly stops laughing and looks forward with an overly serious, almost-mesmerized look on his face, as if he had an epiphany. What was THAT all about? Was that implying Jason’s Billy Ray suddenly started having second thoughts about being okay with his daughter smoking weed?
— Speaking of oddities in Jason’s performance, he’s added a new mannerism to his Billy Ray Cyrus impression tonight, where he takes the time to toss his head and hair back in a mock-poignant manner before delivering certain lines. Not sure why he’s doing that, as it’s not really adding to the comedy of this sketch.
— A funny and pretty fitting character for Steve to play.
— Some pretty good laughs from the trippy music video.
— Out of absolutely nowhere, we suddenly get a Maya Rudolph cameo (which, as I said in a recent episode review, is something modern-day SNL viewers in 2020 are all too familiar with seeing), reprising her Whitney Houston impression.
— In a somewhat similar vein to the infamously unfortunate timing of Abby once doing a Brittany Murphy spoof in what ended up being two weeks before Murphy’s untimely death, Whitney Houston would end up dying just two months after the original airing of this sketch, a sketch that makes fun of Whitney’s drug use. Yikes. IIRC, this episode would end up never getting an NBC rerun, and people have speculated that it’s because of Whitney’s death. However, couldn’t SNL have just replaced this Miley Cyrus Show sketch with something else in reruns, perhaps a sketch cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal?
— Blah, I don’t like how Maya’s one-note, somewhat-played-out Whitney shtick has completely taken over this sketch, nor do I like how it’s completely sidelined Steve Buscemi, who barely got to say anything before Maya’s Whitney suddenly hijacked this sketch. Between the monologue and this sketch, tonight’s episode so far hasn’t exactly been utilizing Steve to his full potential.
— This ends up being the last Miley Cyrus Show sketch we’ll be seeing for quite a long while. The next one, which also ends up being the final one, doesn’t appear until well over a year later, and it spoofs Miley’s then-new, more-adult image and hairstyle.
STARS: **
BATMAN
commissioner’s (host) privacy is sneakily invaded by Batman (ANS)
— Some chuckles, but the “An Andy Samberg character keeps unexpectedly popping up wherever a certain person goes” concept is too “old hat” for Lonely Island, and was done better in some of their previous shorts.
— I did get a pretty good laugh from Andy’s Batman taking a photo of Steve’s prostate exam, complete with Jason as a doctor cheerfully posing for the photo.
— A very meh and half-assed ending.
STARS: **½
DATELINE
Keith Morrison (BIH) gets off on murderer’s (host) deeds
— The final Dateline sketch with Bill’s Keith Morrison.
— As usual, this is using the same basic concept from the previous Dateline/Keith Morrison sketches, but Bill’s Morrison and his delighted, creepy vocalizations never fail to crack me up.
— Funny line from Bill’s Morrison about how they have to stretch out this murder story because Dateline’s an hour-long show, and how they only have one photo of the murderer, which they keep showing repeatedly.
— A memorable visual of Bill’s Morrison snacking on popcorn while eagerly listening to grisly details of a murder. I’ve often seen that visual used as a GIF on Twitter.
— Bill-as-Morrison’s reactions to Kristen’s “I would let him stick his dong right up in my dumphole” confession is hilarious, with him first reacting with a frozen, speechless face, then saying a poignantly-delivered “I must paint you”, then proceeding to create a painting of Kristen. Even funnier about that last part is that, before the camera cuts away from Bill’s Morrison beginning to paint Kristen, we see that he’s just painting a simple circle for the head and a bigger simple circle for the body (the sixth-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Even though the part with Steve joining Bill’s Morrison in his usual delighted, creepy vocalizations is just a copy of what Tracy Morgan did in a previous Dateline sketch, it’s still making me laugh.
— A good offbeat, random ending with Bill’s Morrison imitating a drowning clown in a pool.
STARS: ****
COACH BERT
investigation clears creepy college coach (host) of pedophilia suspicions
— Ah, an all-time classic, and one of the ballsier things SNL has done in this era.
— A lot of priceless taken-aback reactions from Steve’s Coach Bert when Jason says Coach Bert came to mind when wondering if anyone at this college could potentially be a sexual predator.
— I love Jason’s “I know, I’m as surprised as you are!” when reporters are in disbelief upon being told that no evidence of Coach Bert being a pedophile could be found.
— Coach Bert, when wondering why he’s suspected of being a pedophile: “Is it the mustache?!? ‘Cause I can shave the mustache!”
— A great violent outburst from Kenan towards Coach Bert when Kenan expresses disgust over Coach Bert never being seen washing his hands at any point during the investigation of him.
— The escalation to this sketch is fantastic, with us now getting an appearance from Bill as a NAMBLA member, an appearance that’s hilarious right from his opening line about how great it is to be back in a school.
— When the reporters applaud Bill’s NAMBLA character as he leaves, I love an outraged Coach Bert saying “You’re clapping for him?!? Don’t clap for him!”
— Jay, after revealing that the only bad thing Coach Bert did to him during their private meeting was make him listen to a tape of the horrible Bert Man song: “He never molested me…but at times, I would’ve preferred if he had.”
— Excellent ending with the Coach Bert flyer Jason holds up.
— Overall, this sketch was just as incredible as I had remembered.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lonely Boy”
WEEKEND UPDATE
aura of adultery surrounds suspension of Herman Cain’s (KET) campaign
the holidays find Drunk Uncle (BOM) unhappy with the direction of society
— Kenan’s Herman Cain telling Seth, immediately after handing him money, “Now, you know that money ain’t free”, made me laugh just due to Kenan’s delivery.
— A predictable but amusing “Why don’t you bend over for Herman Cain?” motto that Kenan’s Cain leads up to.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Right out of the gate in his debut, Drunk Uncle is coming off very funny in his griping about modern societal and technological norms, and his sloppy use of popular slogans. Bobby already has a solid handle on this character.
— I got a particularly big laugh from Drunk Uncle randomly growling the word “iiiimmigrants!” into his drink.
STARS: ***
SURPRISE
co-worker’s (VAB) pending promotion overstimulates surprise-loving Sue
— (*groan*) The return of Surprise Sue. At least we got a long break from her. Her last appearance prior to tonight was as far back as two seasons ago. I’m not 100% sure, but I think I recall Kristen announcing sometime during that two-year gap that she retired Surprise Sue along with another character or two, because she was sick of playing them. No idea why they un-retired Sue tonight, but this ends up being her final appearance during Kristen’s tenure as a cast member. (Sue gets brought back many years later in a season 42 episode hosted by Kristen.)
— I hate myself for chuckling at the fact that Steve’s character is named Artie Anal, especially since I usually hate when the regular writer(s) of this sketch (either Kent Sublette and/or James Anderson) throws gag names like that into sketches as a random non-sequitur that’s unrelated to the sketch’s premise (a HORRIBLE trademark of many of the sketches that Sublette and/or Anderson are known to have written). I think the only reason this particular Artie Anal name made me laugh was just because of Steve’s affable delivery of it.
— Now Steve has a genuinely funny line, where he says a shocked “God, Sue, you’ve got some knockers!” when seeing Surprise Sue in her bra.
— I saw it coming from a mile away that Sue would eventually end up inside that vending machine in the background.
STARS: **
“SEX” ED VINCENT’S COUPLES WORKSHOP SEX INTENSIVE
erotic chef (host) contributes to Ed Vincent’s tepid Couples Workshop
— Yet another sketch/character tonight that’s making its final appearance, as this is our second and final edition of Paul’s Sex Ed Vincent bit. Good to see this back, and I’m happy that this is the second lead role that the underused Paul has gotten in tonight’s episode alone.
— Like last time, Paul’s giving a strong performance as this character.
— Ha, Steve Buscemi as a character called “The Erotic Chef”. You can already tell this is gonna kill.
— As expected, Steve’s overly-simplistic erotic food routine is great.
— Some very funny sex moves that Paul demonstrates for same-sex couples.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gold on the Ceiling”
ORNAMENTS
(host) unpacks & comments on Christmas ornaments for Sheila (KRW) to hang
— The first of an occasionally-appearing recurring holiday piece. I love all the ones I’ve seen (I’ve yet to watch the cut-after-dress-rehearsal-but-posted-online Kristen Wiig-starring one from the season 42 episode that Kristen hosts), but to me, none of the follow-ups top this original one.
— I love Steve’s affably-delivered “I’m fully kidding” comment after claiming the snowman ornament had just bit him.
— Every single comment from Steve about each ornament is absolutely slaying me.
— Steve, leaning discreetly into the camera after a loopy moment from Kristen’s side character: “This broad is tryin’ to gaslight me!”
— Steve, regarding one particular ornament: “This one’s been up my butt. Not just a little bit…all the way.”
— All the random and offbeat side actions from Kristen’s tree-decorating character are adding to the humor for me, especially when the tree she’s decorating has inexplicably disappeared out of nowhere.
— After Kristen repeats Steve’s “Merry Christmas, Sheila”, we get a great reveal from the ending title screen that Steve’s character is indeed named Sheila.
STARS: *****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A bit of an up-and-down episode, but the highs made it worth it. In particular, we got TWO all-time favorites of mine (and certain other SNL fans): Coach Bert and Ornaments. The poor utilization of Steve Buscemi in his first two appearances tonight was worrisome, but his utilization got better as this episode progressed.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Coach Bert
Ornaments
Dateline / “Sex” Ed Vincent’s Couples Workshop Sex Intensive (tie)
Frozen Mexican Dinner
Monologue
Weekend Update
Batman
Obama In One
The Miley Cyrus Show
Surprise
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Segel)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Katy Perry