Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
VMAS BACKSTAGE
backstage at the 2013 VMAs, host’s new image has former self (VAB) leery
— I don’t like how the typical pointless, unnecessary audience applause that always follows the first line delivered at the beginning of a cold opening (which has become a regular thing for SNL since sometime around the mid-2000s) forced Kenan to awkwardly repeat his “raccoon meat” line to Noel.
— Our obligatory spoof of Miley Cyrus’ VMAs incident. At least this means we’re not getting a political cold opening in this episode.
— Not a bad premise, and at least it’s a way to use Vanessa’s Miley impression without doing another Miley Cyrus Show sketch.
— A decent and well-timed part with both Mileys reciting the exact same speech in unison, which also reminds me of when Calista Flockhart and Rachel Dratch’s Ally McBeal did that in Flockhart’s season 26 monologue.
— Taran’s Robin Thicke, to Miley: “You ready to start grabbin’ at my junk while I half-sing?”
— Comically emotional outbursts from a teary-eyed Bobby never fail to kill.
— Good lines from Jay’s Will Smith.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
for her SNL gig, host nixes Hannah Montana, twerking, BOM’s wrecking ball
— Pretty much immediately in this monologue, Miley promises no twerking tonight. Hmm, we’ll see.
— Uh…okay at Miley’s point-blank reveal that Hannah Montana was murdered.
— Hilarious cutaway to a shot of Bobby ready to do a Wrecking Ball spoof, only to be told there won’t be one.
— Wow, this monologue is over already? This was seriously only about a minute-and-a-half long. Easily one of the shortest monologues in recent years.
STARS: **½
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY AUDITIONS
screen tests for Fifty Shades Of Grey movie feature unkinky celebrities
— I love Noel’s Emma Stone impression.
— Taran’s Christoph Waltz impression is priceless, made even funnier by the fact that Taran presumably developed this impression from having worked with Waltz for a week earlier this same calendar year (2013) when Waltz hosted SNL. I always like when someone on SNL does an impression of a then-recent host or musical guest.
— Feels odd seeing Beck do a Philip Seymour Hoffman impression, because 1) that was one of the signature impressions of the recently-departed-from-SNL Jason Sudeikis, and 2) Hoffman would sadly end up passing away just a few months after this episode.
— Very strange how Aidy’s Rebel Wilson “impression” features her doing and saying nothing, aside from occasionally muttering half-audible “Yeah…”s. The Kristen Stewart impression that Noel did earlier in this pre-tape also featured her doing and saying nothing, but that was clearly the point of that impression. Aidy’s Rebel Wilson doing and saying nothing just shows that both Aidy and SNL were presumably aware that Aidy must not have been able to do a good Rebel Wilson impression and was seemingly only cast in the role because of her size.
— As usual for SNL’s screen test pre-tapes, this is lots of fun, even if nothing will ever match the Star Wars screen test pre-tapes from 1997.
STARS: ****
GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
hip-hop wannabe (host) draws Kyra’s attention
— I’m not caring at all for Miley’s performance here.
— Geez, only one sketch into tonight’s episode, and Miley ALREADY breaks her promise of “no twerking tonight”.
— As usual, Aidy has the funniest moments here, especially her comments about consoling a divorcee, and the part with her making up a song.
— Another funny “My boyfriend’s crazy” story from Cecily.
STARS: ***
WE DID STOP
John Boehner (TAK) & Michele Bachmann (host) in “We Did Stop” music video
— The first of many music videos in this SNL season.
— Very fun idea to do a topical government shutdown-related spoof of Miley’s “We Can’t Stop”. I’ve never seen the music video for that song of Miley’s, but that’s not hurting my enjoyment of this spoof at all.
— Taran is a riot in his John Boehner performance here. He has an endless amount of funny moments all throughout this music video, and is displaying lots of Will Ferrell-esque fearlessness.
— Lots of fun visuals throughout this.
— Great shot of Jay’s President Obama peeking through the window with a worried look on his face.
STARS: ****
PIERS MORGAN LIVE
many Hillary Clinton biopics are in development
— Taran’s Piers Morgan: “Good evening, I’m Piers Morgan, and if I were in a cartoon, I would be the voice of a fancy hedgehog.”
— Feels odd seeing Nasim’s Arianna Huffington appearing outside of Weekend Update for once. By the way, it’s good to see Nasim getting some noteworthy roles tonight after being almost non-existent in the preceding week’s season premiere.
— Holy hell! I (and I’m sure just about everybody else) completely forgot until now that Beck played Bill Clinton once, early in his SNL tenure. Wow. It feels utterly bizarre seeing a post-1995 episode have anyone other than Darrell Hammond play Bill Clinton. This reminds me of that forgotten-among-SNL-fans one time in 2005 when George Bush Sr. was played by Fred Armisen (doing an actual accurate impression) instead of Dana Carvey.
— Beck’s not doing the best Bill Clinton I’ve ever seen, but man, it’s such an interesting novelty seeing him do this impression.
— An even more noteworthy moment right now, as we get the debut of Kate’s Hillary Clinton impression, though the only reason she’s playing her in this specific sketch is because this sketch has several different women portraying Hillary in separate biopic spoofs. Vanessa is technically still SNL’s regular Hillary impersonator at this point, and would remain so until the following season, where Kate officially takes over the impression.
— I could do without Nasim’s Huffington constantly calling Taran’s Morgan flirty pet names, as it’s just a rehash of when she does that towards Seth in her Weekend Update appearances.
— The concept of having various women portray Hillary Clinton in individually-themed biopic spoofs is pretty fun, and reminds me of how the season 18 Danny DeVito episode had a very fun running theme where, throughout the episode, each female cast member played Amy Fisher in individually-themed TV movie spoofs. I kinda wish these Hillary spoofs were done in the same manner as those Amy Fisher spoofs, with each spoof airing as its own individual sketch in separate parts of the show.
— Good bit at the end regarding Taran-as-Morgan’s accent being fake.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Wrecking Ball”
WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM & CES group government shutdown constituencies into Winners & Losers
Connecticut mom Pat Lynhart (KAM) loves being wild in Grand Theft Auto V
lip-smacking Shannon Sharpe (JAP) gets hyperbolic about NFL happenings
Jacob won’t deviate from script presenting Shabbat origin & light comedy
— Aww, they’re back to using a burgundy color motif for this season’s Update graphics. I preferred the new blue color motif they used in the preceding week’s season premiere. Why’d they change it back to burgundy after only one episode?
— Much like in the preceding episode, I’m still very iffy on Cecily’s general delivery of Update jokes. However, I absolutely loved her sly delivery of “That’s good weed” at the end of her weed-on-the-bus joke.
— Hmm, Cecily getting involved in a Winners/Losers segment, a segment that Seth usually does by himself.
— An overall good Winners/Losers segment tonight, and Cecily surprisingly fit well into it. I wonder why her delivery worked well there, but not so much when telling regular Update jokes.
— Kate is fantastic in this Grand Theft Auto commentary. When this originally aired, I was so wowed by her performance in this. Unfortunately, it would later become rather cliche to see Kate play this type of hardass, which kinda takes away the novelty of this Grand Theft Auto commentary of hers. It’s definitely still working for me, though.
— The goofy voice, constant lip-licking, and general gestures that Jay’s doing as Shannon Sharpe are cracking me up (and, yes, the real Shannon Sharpe’s voice truly does sound like that), and he has some funny lines here.
— I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s a certain something Cecily keeps doing at the end of a lot of her jokes that I dislike.
— Blah, the same-old same-old Jacob routine that, while it worked in his first Update commentary, never changes in his subsequent Update commentaries and gets increasingly old with each passing appearance. And, as I said in my review of the last Jacob commentary prior to tonight’s, I’m starting to really hate the constant (and I mean CONSTANT) gag within every one of his commentaries in which he never responds to Seth’s questions and instead just goes back to reading from his speech.
— Oh, we actually get something different for once in a Jacob commentary, with his endearingly nervous, unsure reaction when meeting Seth’s new co-anchor, Cecily. Although this moment is only brief, it’s a nice change of routine for this Jacob character.
STARS: **½
CHEER SQUAD
during practice, (host) sees fellow cheerleaders abducted by alien (KET)
— A laugh from the “I like to cheer – deal with it, dad!” lyric at the end of Taran’s cheer.
— Aww, the copy I’m currently watching of this episode must be the West Coast airing, as it’s missing a really bad technical error that happened during the live East Coast airing. (My memory of the technical error is fuzzy, but from what I recall, at one certain point of this sketch when the camera was on a close-up of Miley, the camera started glitching, making the screen flicker a green color, which forced SNL’s control room operators to hastily cut to a different camera, which then accidentally revealed an SNL stagehand on the set applying Nasim and Noel’s wires that will be lifting them in the air later in the sketch.) Call me crazy, but I was kinda looking forward to seeing that gaffe again. From what I recall of this sketch, the technical error was the only interesting thing in what was a painfully unfunny sketch.
— So far, I’m not caring at all for where this sketch in general is going, though, contrary to my negative memory of it, this sketch actually has a few amusing lines, mostly from Taran. Not enough to save this sketch, though.
— Now we get an alien appearance? Yeah, this sketch is NOT working for me.
— The whole bit with Kenan’s alien character announcing his demands in the style of a cheerleader-esque cheer is awful.
— A blah ending.
STARS: *½
MORNIN’ MIAMI
anchors (host), (BOM), (KAM) parcel jollity for Mornin’ Miami promo shoot
— A good laugh from the first instance of Miley, Bobby, and Kate following the director saying “Cut” by immediately slamming their coffee mugs down onto the table, dropping their cheery facades, and angrily sitting in miserable silence.
— The promos are increasingly hilarious and random, particularly the ones that Kate’s doing, as her delivery of them is great.
— Despite the constant repetition of the aforementioned gag with Miley, Bobby, and Kate sitting in miserable silence in between promos, it works as an amusing contrast to their cheery attitudes during their bizarre promos.
— During one of the “sitting in miserable silence” sequences, I love Bobby immediately cutting off Kate’s singing of “I’ll Stand By You” by telling her “Oh, shut it!”
— A particular funny promo from Kate about a racist foley artist
— Hilarious ending reveal of Bobby’s character’s “B.F.” nickname standing for Bitch Fantastic.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “We Can’t Stop”
POETRY CLASS
Miss Meadows (VAB) tries fueling high schoolers’ interest in poetry
— Good delivery from Mike on his “I have a job interview, thank Christ” line.
— Funny little mumbling Vanessa’s lightly doing at the end of her sentences. Not sure what to make of that loud, sharp sound she occasionally makes, though.
— Okay, I’m starting to find Vanessa’s odd characterization in general here to be cute and likable, even the aforementioned loud, sharp sound she occasionally makes.
— Some laughs from Kenan’s “Where my weed at?” poem.
STARS: ***
MILEY SEX TAPE
KYM’s unfounded hesitancy costs him perfect girlfriend host
— Ah, our very first Beck/Kyle short!
— I wonder if it’s intentional to have Bobby basically be a Nick Rutherford (the Good Neighbor member who SNL initially didn’t hire with his partners Beck and Kyle) surrogate here, given the fact that, at this early stage of their SNL tenures, Beck and Kyle were probably still so used to having Rutherford teamed up with them. I also wonder if they put Bobby in this role because they figured having a recognizable cast member like Bobby in a co-starring would help this inaugural SNL short of theirs make it on the air.
— This inaugural Beck/Kyle SNL short is displaying the usual quirky and fun brand of Good Neighbor-style humor, and I really like the fast-pacing of the gags in this. A pretty solid way to introduce Beck and Kyle’s humor to general SNL audiences.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Although not as strong as the season premiere, this was a pretty good episode, and had a few great highs. I wasn’t too thrilled with Miley Cyrus’ performance as a host in this episode. There was too much of a same-iness to some of the obnoxious roles she played, and I felt she both came off more likable and blended in with the show better in her previous hosting stint.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
We Did Stop
Mornin’ Miami
Fifty Shades Of Grey Auditions
Miley Sex Tape
Piers Morgan Live
VMAs Backstage
Girlfriends Talk Show
Poetry Class
Weekend Update
Monologue
Cheer Squad
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Former one-time host Bruce Willis makes his return 24 years after his previous hosting stint