Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
60 MINUTES
Barack Obama (JAP) gives examples of the online savvy of ISIS
— Some mild laughs here and there, but this cold opening is mostly dragging. Feels like the typical tepid, dull, overly-talky political humor that Jim Downey used to regularly write in his past-his-prime later years at SNL, even though he officially left the show over a year before this. (He was credited as a guest writer in the preceding episode this season, which had a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Obama cold opening that tonight’s different Obama cold opening has repurposed some lines for, but Downey’s not credited as a guest writer in this episode.)
— Overall, this season so far is 0-for-2 in good cold openings.
STARS: **
OPENING MONTAGE
— The overhead shot of 30 Rockefeller Plaza with the G.E. sign in plain view (first screencap below), which was shown between the musical guest and host portions of this new opening montage in the preceding week’s season premiere, has been replaced tonight with a long shot of New York City (second screencap below). I recall hearing that the reason for this change is because of a G.E./Comcast sign changeover at 30 Rock.
— I forgot to mention this in my review of the preceding episode when bringing up the fact that Darrell Hammond has taken over as SNL’s new announcer, but Darrell’s announcing sounds very low-key in these early episodes compared to how he would sound in later seasons. I remember some online SNL fans back at this time saying Darrell’s announcing is too unexciting. I assume that, at some point, someone at SNL must’ve had a talk with Darrell, telling him he needs to up the energy.
MONOLOGUE
SAS sits on audience member’s lap & takes questions from her younger self
— Some pretty funny jokes from Sarah Silverman in the first few minutes of this monologue, and I loved the cue card bit, but I’m even more excited by the great turn this has now taken with Sarah actually going into the audience and sitting in an audience member’s lap while having a conversation with her. I know that this audience member must be a plant, but this is being executed perfectly, as the back-and-forths between Sarah and her are actually coming off very natural, and Sarah has fantastic remarks to what the audience member says. This is also a fun use of Sarah’s usual laid-back style.
— Ah, there’s Sarah finally mentioning her previous stint as an SNL featured player. Initially, it was kinda disappointing that she didn’t bring it up at the beginning of this monologue, but now we see she was saving it for this portion of the monologue.
— Oh, I absolutely LOVE this sequence with Sarah taking questions from clips of herself as an audience member in season 19’s frequent questions-from-the-audience monologues, made even funnier by how 2014 Sarah is playing it completely straight by giving a serious answer to 1993/94 Sarah’s specific questions that are comically shown out of their original context (e.g. her “Are you going to be doing a solo album now that you’ve left Wilson Phillips?” question originally asked to Rosie O’Donnell, and her “What did you feed the dinosaurs?” question originally asked to Jeff Goldblum). I also find it interesting seeing the 20-year difference in both SNL’s visual quality and Sarah’s looks. I’m amazed at how little Sarah has aged in 20 years.
— Aw, a missed opportunity not to include a clip of Sarah from Charlton Heston’s season 19 questions-from-the-audience monologue, where Sarah is dressed as an ape (screencap a little below) and asks Heston, “Are you some kind of talking mu-tant?” Imagine how truly hilarious it would’ve been to see a clip of that being shown out of context in this 2014 monologue. And I would’ve loved to have seen 2014 Sarah’s serious answer to the “Are you some kind of talking mu-tant?” question.
— Overall, this is one of my personal favorite monologues from recent years.
STARS: *****
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS 2: THE EBOLA IN OUR EVERYTHING
(TAK)’s love for (SAS) is tested by Ebola
— A great reveal that the illness the lead female character in this Fault In Our Stars sequel has is Ebola. Taran’s reaction to that reveal is hilarious.
— Lots of solid scenes between Sarah and Taran after the Ebola reveal.
— Funny Terrance Howard impression from Kenan.
— Given our current times, the then-topical Ebola premise still comes off rather relatable to today.
STARS: ****
HEAVEN
in Heaven, just-arrived Joan Rivers (SAS) roasts other dead celebrities
a photo of Joan Rivers marks her passing
— A promising concept and setting, having the then-recently-deceased Joan Rivers give a comedy roast of other dead celebrities.
— Funny cutaways to Bobby as a hysterically-laughing Ben Franklin.
— Interesting seeing Adam Levine and Kyle sitting next to each other here, as I’ve always noticed somewhat of a facial resemblance between them.
— Yikes, Sarah is stumbling over her punchlines left and right throughout this sketch, which is hurting a lot of the humor, given the fact that she has most of the comedic lines in this sketch.
— I’m not crazy about Kate’s Lucille Ball impression. She seems really miscast in this role.
STARS: **
WHITES
whites will enjoy time remaining until they’re dethroned by demographics
— The recently-demoted-from-the-cast Mike O’Brien casually appearing with the rest of the cast in this. I’m guessing he wrote this commercial himself.
— Speaking of appearing with the rest of the cast, Sarah is blending in well with the cast here, as if she was back to being a cast member again.
— A hilarious and biting concept.
— During the whites’ expressed desire for “four more white presidents”, Beck gets a great laugh with his lighthearted “Even if they have to be girls.”
— I love the part with the voice-over saying “It’s all yours, Mexicans!” while we see an again-lighthearted Beck acting like he’s going to hand a Mexican man a globe, only to playfully yank it away from, then puts his arm around the Mexican man’s shoulder in a friendly manner.
— Overall, perfect execution of this brilliant premise. If this was indeed a Mike O’Brien-written piece, then he has succeeded once again with yet another fantastic pre-tape.
STARS: *****
FORGOTTEN TV GEMS
backstabbing is absent from Supportive Women soap opera
— A rare non-Cinema Classics appearance from Kenan’s Reese De’What character. Also a rare glasses-less appearance from him.
— The usual funny story from Kenan’s De’What about a rude thing he once told his wife.
— Pretty funny kind-hearted twist that Cecily and Sarah’s initially-tense soap opera scene takes.
— Taran’s basically playing the same type of “straight man character making an uncomfortable face” role he played in the Ebola commercial earlier tonight.
— The second and third scene in this sketch is basically repeating the basic joke of the first scene, but the execution is okay, especially the third scene.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Animals”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Sharpton (KET) has ideas to counteract Secret Service ineptitude
COJ & MIC each identify phrases that are inappropriate for them to use
to feminist musical duo Garage (KAM) & Her (SAS), everything is “a woman”
— Ah, the very first time that a Jost/Che Update features one of the anchors going off on a stand-up-style rant about a news story after delivering a traditional Update joke about said story. That’s one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Jost/Che era of Update, and Michael’s rant here is very good.
— Michael’s delivery of general Update jokes, while still not at the familiar stage it would eventually go on to be, is getting closer and closer to it tonight.
— The usual “Kenan’s Al Sharpton misreads something” gags, but sue me, it always gets a cheap chuckle from me.
— Like Michael, Colin’s Update delivery is also improving and getting closer and closer to the delivery we’re now familiar with.
— Honestly, I was pushing it in my last review prior to this, where I proudly declared that the jokes in the inaugural Jost/Che Update thankfully don’t have that corny, tame Seth Meyers feel from the last few seasons of Update. I think I was just overexcited by the new feel of that inaugural Jost/Che Update in general that it blinded me to any Seth similarities in the jokes. However, even if it is true that some of that Seth Meyers influence has carried over into a lot of the jokes in these early-era Jost/Che Updates (a carry-over that thankfully wouldn’t last forever, as we know now, as Colin and Michael would gradually develop their own style of jokes over time), to me, Colin and Michael’s delivery is selling them so much better than Seth’s delivery ever did.
— Much like his “and all the ass” punchline about Derek Jeter’s MLB career stats in the preceding episode’s Update, Michael’s hilarious punchline about Jimmy Carter snorting peanut dust off a hooker’s ass is an early instance of what would go on to be known as a trademark Che-like joke.
— Ah, our very first interaction piece between Colin and Michael, with Colin asking Michael if it’s okay for him to say words like “bae” and “in da club”. This is a solid segment, especially Michael using “Thank you for your help, officer” as an example of things black people can’t say, and him telling Colin he ruined the term “cray-cray” for everybody.
— Good to see Sarah appearing with a current cast member in an Update commentary, once again making Sarah come off like she’s a cast member once again.
— Meh, Sarah and Kate’s song is falling kinda flat for me.
STARS: ***½
RIVER CRUISE
(CES), (SAZ), (SAS) are stuck doing “Proud Mary” on a Nebraska steamboat
— Oh, here’s a sketch would gain notoriety right after its original airing. There were huge accusations from some Groundlings comedians that SNL stole this sketch from them almost entirely verbatim without permission, and an online video of the original Groundlings version of the sketch was offered as full proof that, yes, this SNL sketch was indeed plagiarized. I believe it would be revealed that the culprits of this plagiarism were James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette (can’t remember if it was just one of them or both), both of whom I believe are Groundlings alums and are also two of my absolute least favorite writers in SNL history (the latter of which I’ve certainly made no secret of in my reviews). IIRC, this Sarah Silverman episode would also never get an NBC re-airing, and there’s been speculation on SNL boards that the reason for that is possibly because of the controversy over the plagiarism of this sketch. (Then again, I think I recall that this episode in general was pretty poorly-received by SNL fans at the time, so that might also have something to do with the lack of an NBC rerun.)
— And in case there was any doubt that this is indeed a James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette sketch, the writing style of Kenan’s opening speech is FILLED with known Anderson-isms, especially Kenan happily exclaiming “Yerm!” instead of “Yum!” Silly word substitutions in the style of “yerm” or “cornel of kern” (the latter being from a season 44 Steve Carell sketch that infamously went horribly awry) have been a staple of James Anderson-written sketches for years.
— Good to see Sasheer finally getting a lead role after being horribly underused in the season premiere and being overshadowed by the not-yet-a-cast-member Leslie Jones, but damn, why does it have to be in this, of all sketches?
— Blah, the mid-song stories from each of the ladies are all falling flat with me so far.
— I do kinda like Sarah’s “90 months” bit just now, but it’s not enough to get a laugh from me, and the rest of her story is falling just as flat with me as the other ladies’ stories are.
— Oof, the audience is absolutely DEAD during practically this whole sketch, and I don’t blame them one bit.
— There’s Kenan doing his Deandre Cole entrance dance from the What Up With That sketches.
— Overall, this was AWFUL. Anderson and/or Sublette really had to resort to stealing this weak material?!? That’s fucking sad, and just furthers the ire I’ve always had towards those two as writers. And history has shown that those two are perfectly capable of writing horrible sketches on their own without resorting to plagiarism.
STARS: *
HOME FROM VACATION
in a car, (BOM)’s surprise proposal to (SAS) goes awry; Adam Levine cameo
— Hilarious reveal of a shocked Bobby slowly rising from behind the backseat of the car immediately after overhearing Sarah’s confession to Taran that she cheated on Bobby, then we get another hilarious reveal right afterwards that Bobby happens to have an open engagement ring box in his hand, as he was planning on springing a surprise proposal on Sarah.
— I love Bobby’s angry delivery of “Gross! You grew?!? Shut your mouth!”
— All the surprise twists, as well as the way some portions of this sketch are intentionally being played in an uncomfortable manner, are reminiscent of that excellent and underrated Wedding sketch from the preceding season’s Andrew Garfield episode. Much like that Wedding sketch, this appears to be a Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written piece. I notice that a number of Kelly/Schneider sketches around this time are great at having lots of surprise twists, such as their fantastic Cartoon Catchphrase sketch from the preceding season’s Kerry Washington episode.
— Pretty funny sequence with how all the radio stations that Taran turns to are playing songs about cheating in a relationship, even if that gag feels a little cliched.
— Hmm, Adam Levine’s entrance, which was supposed to a funny appearing-out-of-nowhere gag, came off awkwardly-executed.
— More great angry line deliveries from Bobby.
— Ugh, in addition to how awkward his entrance came off, Adam Levine’s delivery of some of his lines is weak, reminding me of what a bad and unlikable host I found him to be back in season 38.
— Pretty funny gag with Levine getting hit by a truck off-camera and then flying over the hood of the car. The little “Whoooa!” heard from him as a dummy of his body is thrown over the car hood somehow added to the humor.
— Something about the whole “Let’s all go to Pizza Hut!” conversation the characters have at the conclusion of this sketch really rubbed me the wrong way. Feels like SNL was going out of their way to shill for Pizza Hut. Maybe I’m looking too much into that, but either way, it was a bad and out-of-place way to end a sketch like this.
— Overall, a great first half, but this sketch somewhat fell apart in the second half, despite still having some merits. This sketch as a whole, while not bad, doesn’t hold a candle to the aforementioned Wedding sketch with Andrew Garfield.
STARS: ***
POEM
love-hate triangle (SAS), (KYM), (BEB) duos finish each other’s sentences
— Very funny turn with how the “two people finish each other’s sentences while realizing they’re soulmates” romcom trope that was initially shown happening between Sarah and Kyle now happens between Kyle and a bully, played by Beck. The specific, immature threats that Kyle and Beck are romantically saying in unison are also hilarious.
— Funny montage of Beck’s bully character doing horrible, violent things to Kyle, made even funnier by the uncharacteristically tender music & filming effect used for that montage.
— I love the little detail of Kyle making a quick, disgusted, subtle “Urgh!” vocalization after revealing he was forced by Beck to eat “stinky stew supreme”.
— Satisfying turn at the end with Beck’s bully character getting his comeuppance.
— I recall hearing that Nick Rutherford (the member of Beck and Kyle’s original Good Neighbor group who SNL initially passed on when hiring the rest of Good Neighbor, then got hired this season as a writer) is the person driving a car both times a character in this short gets run over by a car while stuffed in a garbage can. You can see a brief glimpse of Nick in the driver’s seat (screencap below).
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Maps”
VITAMIX
(VAB)’s pricey Vitamix blender puts her friend (SAS) on the defensive
— Even though it wasn’t even intended to be comedic (I assume), I laughed at Vanessa’s smiley delivery of “Well…it’s up there” when asked how much the Vitamix blender costs. She has a way of selling little lines like that so well.
— A good increasing negative tension between Vanessa and Sarah’s characters, even if I’m a little confused about where this sketch is trying to go.
— Yeah, more and more, I’m having very mixed feelings towards this sketch. I now “get” the tone this sketch is going for, but something about the execution feels a little ehh, which is a shame, because I am liking aspects of Vanessa and Sarah’s performances.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as weak as I had remembered, but this episode as a whole was still nothing to write home about. Despite a few strong highlights (two of which received a perfect five-star rating from me), 1) this episode felt like it never fully took off, 2) almost half of the segments were forgettable, and, 3) even though this episode was an improvement over the season premiere, something about this season is still kinda giving off that fairly rough vibe that it had in the premiere. To say nothing of that terrible River Cruise sketch, which is bad enough on its own even without having any knowledge of the plagiarism controversy.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Whites
Monologue
Poem
The Fault In Our Stars 2: The Ebola In Our Everything
Weekend Update
Home From Vacation
Forgotten TV Gems
Vitamix
Heaven
60 Minutes
River Cruise
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Pratt)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Bill Hader
Forgettable episode. I don’t remember anything about it.
I usually don’t disagree with you on much, but I thought Vitamix was great. To me that’s the standout from this episode, other than “Whites” of course.
Now I’m gonna go camp and hike.
For what it’s worth, the woman who was looped into Sarah’s monologue ended up doing an AMA after the fact where she clarified that it wasn’t staged at all. According to her, she won tickets to the show, was chosen to be ushered to the front row, and was tossed questions during Michael Che’s warm-up to gauge how comfortable she might be on-camera. You could be cynical and say that she was still a plant, but I wanna believe, and the fact that she’s still active on the Reddit account gives things more credence: https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/2id3sz/hi_rlivefromnewyork_i_went_to_the_104_show_and/
Outside of that tidbit, someone posted about the cut sketches from the episode. Curiously, one of the cut pretapes would end up making it back into the show… three and a half seasons later, in the Sam Rockwell S43 episode (the Chantix 10-to-1). I wonder if that’s the longest a pretape has been in the pipeline before finally making it to air: https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/2ihjzw/differences_i_noticed_between_dress_rehearsal_and/
I think I recall reading that Cornel of Kern was someone other than Anderson/Sublette, but River Sisters definitely feels like one of theirs just because “yerm” fits in with Anderson’s whole “er” sound thing. And this year has some of their worst stuff…
The early shows of season 40 are pretty rocky, even more so than season 39; there’s just this general “off” feeling to them. I think Weekend Update really starts to turn a corner when Dennis McNicholas returns to SNL to produce it in November, but March is when Jost really loosens up.
You gotta hand it to Anderlette, their Cecily sketches suck in a completely different way from how their Kristen sketches sucked, and even pretty different from how their Maya sketches sucked.
I don’t think Sublette was on the writing staff when Maya was a cast member, but then I am never sure how many of Maya’s pieces were by Anderson, aside from stuff like Gays in Space. If I remember correctly, some of the Maya stuff that stunk the most, like that lounge character of hers, was by Pell or Spivey.
Anderson wrote quite a few things with Maya. They wrote Gemini’s Twin with Ana, and wrote Versace with Spivey. Charli Coffee was another Anderson/Maya/Spivey collaboration.
We also get the beginning of their “song that nobody else knows until they suddenly do” trope this year.
@Jesse, thanks. So much of that period is a blur for me I don’t really know who wrote what in those forced camp pieces Maya was often doing in her run.
I’ve said this before, but generally I find Cecily or Kenan pieces with Anderson/Anderlette more tolerable than their work with others. I will even go as far as saying that I don’t really think they are one of the worst areas of the show in the modern era – for instance, the RuPaul episode has yet another self-indulgent Aidy/Kate showcase that was apparently written by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider that I found much more irritating than the self-indulgent Designing Women homage Anderson did with Cecily the same night.
With that out of the way, the Proud Mary sketch is extremely clunky, and a lot of the dialogue Cecily in particular has in this one makes me cringe (especially the part about her “using the f-word – the gay one” after quitting her job) for pure tryhard mode. It’s Sarah who does the best with what she’s given, but that doesn’t stop this from having the same “dead” feeling that too many modern SNL pieces tend to have.
Agree with Stooge this episode is better than its reputation, but still nothing special. The monologue and Whites are close to perfect, and I’m more fond of Vitamix and the proposal sketch than Stooge. I’m sure this episode was very validating for Sarah, since she had the unfortunate honor of being in the cast in the “No Girls Allowed” era.
Good point about Jost and Che selling some questionable material. I said yesterday Che’s “Iowa, I’m black” joke reminded me of a corny Amy Update joke, but he delivered it FAR less cutesy than she would have.
Gap Of Return:
– Bill Murray – 9 months 14 days
– Kristen Wiig – 11 months 23 days
– Chevy Chase – 1 year 3 months 19 days
– Norm Macdonald – 1 year 7 months 9 days
– Martin Short – 1 year 7 months 23 days
– Dana Carvey – 1 year 8 months 16 days
– Tina Fey – 1 year 9 months 3 days
– Amy Poehler – 1 year 9 months 12 days
– Phil Hartman – 1 year 10 months 9 days
– Andy Samberg – 1 years 11 months 29 days
– Mike Myers – 2 years 2 months 1 day
– Chris Farley – 2 years 5 months 12 days
– David Spade – 2 years 5 months 20 days
– Will Ferrell – 2 years 11 months 27 days
– Chris Rock – 3 years 5 months 18 days
– Maya Rudolph – 4 years 3 months 15 days
– Tracy Morgan – 5 years 9 months 28 days
– Molly Shannon – 6 years 2 months 25 days
– Paul Shaffer – 6 years 8 months 7 days
– Jon Lovitz – 7 years 5 months 20 days
– Jimmy Fallon – 7 years 7 months 2 days
– Damon Wayans – 9 years 24 days
– Ben Stiller – 9 years 5 months 4 days
– Robert Downey Jr – 10 years 5 months 23 days
– Sarah Silverman – 20 years 4 months 21 days
– Julia Louis-Dreyfus – 20 years 11 months
– Dan Aykroyd – 23 years 11 months 22 days
Excluded:
– Billy Crystal
– Michael McKean
– Eddie Murphy
Eddie hosted in Dec. 1984 and Dec. 2019.
Good point @Kelly… but I think this list is only based on the time between a castmember leaving and then returning to host for the first time. So it excludes Eddie, Michael McKean, and Billy Crystal because they actually hosted before they left the show: Eddie hosted while a cast member, Billy hosted twice in the season before he joined, and McKean hosted about 10 years before joining.
So technically, Eddie’s “return” was about -15 months. Then his first hosting after leaving was about 7-9 months (depending on whether you go by his live departure or his on-tape departure). The gaps between later hosting appearances can indeed be very long (like the 35 years you pointed out between Eddie’s second and third stints). In that case, right now there’s several people who could break that record if they host again by the end of this season… there’s many, but a few that come to mind are Oprah, Madonna, Ringo, and even celebrities with more than one name such as Stevie Wonder and Jamie Lee Curtis.
What the heck, I have some time to kill:
Living people as of 1/8/21 with more than a 35-year gap since the last time they hosted SNL!
(going backwards)
Teri Garr
Pee Wee Herman
Madonna
Mr. T and Hulk Hogan
Pamela Sue Martin
Ringo Starr
Ed Begley, Jr.
Ed Asner
Jesse Jackson
Bob Uecker
Betty Thomas
Father Guido Sarducci
Barry Bostwick
Michael Douglas
Jamie Lee Curtis
Michael Palin
Tom & Dick Smothers
Rhea Perlman
Stevie Wonder
Susan Saint James
Bruce Dern
Beau Bridges
Howard Hesseman
Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas
Lily Tomlin
Robert Blake
Ron Howard
Louis Gossett Jr.
Olivia Newton-John
Daniel J. Travanti
Elizabeth Ashley
John Madden
Tim Curry
Bernadette Peters
Lauren Hutton
Charlene Tilton
Debbie Harry
Sally Kellerman
Robert Hays
Ellen Burstyn
Malcolm McDowell
Elliott Gould
Richard Benjamin & Paula Prentiss
Martin Sheen
Eric Idle
Gary Busey
Kate Jackson
Cicely Tyson
The Rolling Stones (Mick, Keith, Charlie, Ron, Bill)
Richard Dreyfuss
Art Garfunkel
O.J. Simpson
Robert Klein
Mary Kay Place
Charles Grodin
Shelley Duvall
Sissy Spacek
(Henry Winkler and Cindy Williams, if we count Mardi Gras)
Fran Tarkenton
Ralph Nader
Jodie Foster
Norman Lear
Kris Kristofferson
Louise Lasser
Dyan Cannon
Raquel Welch
Ron Nessen
Rob Reiner
Dick Cavett
@Kubelsky that’s correct: the “list is only based on the time between a castmember leaving and then returning to host for the first time.”
I started note taking this trivia following the S38 Kristen Wiig show. Forever the lover of statistics and trivia; I post this list after a cast members hosts for the first time. If anyone has suggestions for tweaking any of the lists I post here feel free to drop them in the comments.
I feel like this is the season where Anderlette material starts to stick out like a sore thumb even more than usual. I agree with @Anthony Peter Coleman that the Cecily sketches they wrote were bad in a different way than their Wiig sketches were.
IIRC there are multiple episodes from now all the way to 2020 (when Anderson departs from the show) where the Anderlette sketch is the sole stinker of the entire rundown, and it’s more noticeable than it was in the Wiig era. Off the top of my head, the Tom Hanks 2016 episode is the most egregious example.
Unfortunately I’ve heard Anderson’s only temporarily out like Aidy, but I could be wrong.
Agreed that there are episodes coming up where they have the only true dud (hell, even in this episode River Cruise is the only thing I really hated). I don’t remember the Hanks one though, lol I must have wiped it from my memory so I could preserve my opinion of that ep as a modern classic.
@Anthony Peter Coleman I think Anderson confirmed via Instagram that he’s not a staff writer anymore. His return in the Wiig hosted episode was just as a guest writer.
Taran and Mikey wrote the car sketch. Agreed that it started off strong then fell apart in the second half.
Mike and Tim wrote the Whites commercial.
I can add to the dress report. Always love hearing anyone’s experience with the cut stuff. I did correct some details such as the rundown order
DRESS CUTS
Professor Hammond’s Masterpiece
~ AMC movie: Professor Atticus Hammond (Kenan) lies on his sickbed in the ol’ study room, surrounded by colleagues (Vanessa, Beck) & former students (Pete, Sarah). Vanessa laments his pending passing. Beck says he’ll miss the debates. Pete quips “Before you entered my life, I was living with my mom and smoking dope; but knowing you has been truly dope.” Sarah owes her career as a U.S. Congresswoman to the Professor. Prof’s daughter Sasheer cries with him as he succumbs. One beat after “dying”, Prof screams back to life, hollering “OUCH! OWIEE OWIEE OOWWWIIEW!” in a manic out-of-bed fashion. Beck advises him to “touch the light”. “No way, dude!” retorts the apparently-born-anew-and-radical Prof. Prof grabs Pete: “Take him! He’s dumb!! I’m smart!” Nurse Cecily forgot to give him morphine. Prof grabs Sasheer and tries to “suck the life” from her whilst handling her cheeks. “I got a little!”, Prof rejoices as Sasheer pushes him away. Prof leaves the room for a quick costume change, then re-enters à la “Risky Business undie scene”, complete with licensed music. He jumps out the window. Sarah looks out and comments on the probably-this-time-deceased. NOPE! Kenan appears behind her only to say “LATA BITCHEZ!” as he rolls out
Backstage Mirror
~ Sarah, bathrobed & towel-haired, walks around backstage. She catches her reflection in a hallway mirror. The only light illuminates Sarah as she stares, feeding herself compliments: amazing, beautiful, perfect eyebrows, should have her own Neutrogena campaign (blames anti-semitism). “You’ve come a long way since being a cast member.” Lorne quickly walks by: “Featured player.” Sarah’s mother always told her to keep her head down because when her nostrils flare, her nose looks like a 2-car garage. “If you ask for a woman who never made a mistake, I’ll show you Diane Sawyer. She’s perfect.” She walks off to get ready for the Supportive Women sketch
Chantix ((Cecily aspiring actress))
~ airs 3 seasons later in January 2018 when the show runs short
Update – Pete Davidson, hip hop fan
~ airs next week
Baby Boss At Home
~ airs November 22; Diaz replaces Silverman, guests become Kenan & Sasheer as a couple instead of Kenan/ Cecily/ Taran as employees (no Bobby)
Whiskers R’ We
~ reworked version airs December 20 with Amy Adams replacing Sarah in a similar character; a couple of lines from this are in that version, but most are different
TID & BITS
60 Min: Beck running from green screen (to right of floor seats) to home base (interview scene) took a little longer. Light chuckles as the crowd waited in anticipation of Beck making his seat in time ** a couple of Obama’s lines were leftover from last week’s cut Presidential Address cold open, though Downey isn’t credited ** at the end, Obama asks Steve Kroft to switch: “I do interview, you do President”
monologue: like on air, Sarah mentioned that some jokes were censored at dress rehearsal. Some confused audience members murmured carelessly, not fully understanding the concept of a dress rehearsal ** audience girl different: Kate, 21 years old. She was even more soft-spoken than the girl on air. Sarah’s lines were basically the same, but the whole monologue was a bit longer. Sarah talks about shelter dogs, and human puppies in shelters (who knows but it was amusing). The last thing Sarah said to Kate was “Are you inside me right now? That’s not okay for air” before going back to the stage ** Sarah mentioned that no sketches she wrote in the ‘90s ever made it to air, “and not in a cool Larry David kind of way because they were ahead of their time, but because they were truly awful” ** Sarah calls on one more audience member at the end: “I see this… gentleman has a question.” Cut to a pre-tape (in the show’s current HD look) of a moustached Sarah in the audience saying something like “I think you’re great” before leaving. Would’ve been a perfect spot to put Sarah as an ape from Heston monologue
Heaven: Sasheer wore a white suit and didn’t play anyone famous ** Cecily was Elizabeth Taylor, not Ava Gardner. Her costume and Joan’s jokes about her were the same
Update: before reading the statistics, Sharpton pulled out his red reading glasses. A beat. “I got these from Chico’s.” A beat. “Sorry, I skipped your set-up for that.” Studio erupts ** Che’s Jimmy Carter birthday joke (“peanut dust off a hooker’s ass”) is the longest I’ve ever heard the audience laugh at a Weekend Update joke, dress or air ** Garage And Her were Jost’s guests: Sarah on our right, Kate on left ** Jost’s joke about a tightrope walker in Chicago ended with a punchline about street cleaners that the audience moaned about. He insisted “It’s practical!” and chastised them for not liking that joke or the earlier Jeopardy! wisecrack (punchline: “$2000 Category: Moustache Rides”) “I fought for that joke!” Che: “Let’s keep it.”
car proposal: Taco Bell conversation instead of Pizza Hut
Maroon 5 song order switched for live show
goodnights: Sarah thanked “Uncle Lorne Michaels” & “My friend Eric! There, in the audience!” before quickly saying “Goodnight!”
DRESS RUNDOWN
60 Minutes
monologue
EBOLA IN OUR EVERYTHING
Professor Hammond’s Masterpiece (CUT)
bb boss (CUT)
River Sisters
POEM
Vitamix
Maroon 5 #1 (Maps)
Update
Al Sharpton
what words can I say
Garage And Her
Pete Davidson (CUT)
Heaven roast
car proposal
mirror (CUT)
Supportive Women
CHANTIX (CUT)
Maroon 5 #2 (Animals)
Whiskers R’ We (CUT)
WHITES
goodnights
Jost is still absolutely atrocious on Update at this point, like absolute bottom-tier. I’m surprised you’re being so generous to him.
I will admit, it was Jost in the earlier years of Update and the continued presence of Anderlette that was what got me to stop watching SNL on a regular basis. Those and the cameos. It happened after S42.
I know it wasn’t the show it was compared to S25, when I started watching regularly. Back then, it was a joy. Then gradually, it became a chore to expect something good during those 90 minutes.
Sad to say I don’t miss watching the newer SNL. I did watch Eddie’s return last season and the new Chappelle.
@SNLLover, I know what you mean – it took a long time for me to realize the show was never again going to be what I loved in the late ’80s/early ’90s.
If you ever want any recommendations on more modern episodes that had some vibes of the past days, I’d say Mulaney’s first two episodes, Liev Schrieber and Matt Damon in season 44, and Adam Driver and David Harbour in season 45, and Timothee Chalamet and Issa Rae of this season. And the ‘at home’ episodes.
Thanks for the tips @John!
Here’s the original Groundlings sketch:
What the heck, I have some time to kill:
Living people as of 1/8/21 with more than a 35-year gap since the last time they hosted SNL!
(going backwards)
Teri Garr
Pee Wee Herman
Madonna
Mr. T and Hulk Hogan
Pamela Sue Martin
Ringo Starr
Ed Begley, Jr.
Ed Asner
Jesse Jackson
Bob Uecker
Betty Thomas
Father Guido Sarducci
Barry Bostwick
Michael Douglas
Jamie Lee Curtis
Michael Palin
Tom & Dick Smothers
Rhea Perlman
Stevie Wonder
Susan Saint James
Bruce Dern
Beau Bridges
Howard Hesseman
Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas
Lily Tomlin
Robert Blake
Ron Howard
Louis Gossett Jr.
Olivia Newton-John
Daniel J. Travanti
Elizabeth Ashley
John Madden
Tim Curry
Bernadette Peters
Lauren Hutton
Charlene Tilton
Debbie Harry
Sally Kellerman
Robert Hays
Ellen Burstyn
Malcolm McDowell
Elliott Gould
Richard Benjamin & Paula Prentiss
Martin Sheen
Eric Idle
Gary Busey
Kate Jackson
Cicely Tyson
The Rolling Stones (Mick, Keith, Charlie, Ron, Bill)
Richard Dreyfuss
Art Garfunkel
O.J. Simpson
Robert Klein
Mary Kay Place
Charles Grodin
Shelley Duvall
Sissy Spacek
(Henry Winkler and Cindy Williams, if we count Mardi Gras)
Fran Tarkenton
Ralph Nader
Jodie Foster
Norman Lear
Kris Kristofferson
Louise Lasser
Dyan Cannon
Raquel Welch
Ron Nessen
Rob Reiner
Dick Cavett
Oh, I’m sorry. I accidentally ended up with a double post.
A double post is fine since it’s doubly impressive you did this so fast! The ones I think we might possibly have a chance to see, who are in good enough health to host, AND who still have a modicum of “buzz,” are:
Pee Wee Herman
Madonna
Ringo Starr
Michael Douglas
Jamie Lee Curtis
Michael Palin
Stevie Wonder
Olivia Newton-John
John Madden
Tim Curry
Eric Idle
Jodie Foster
Rob Reiner
(Rick Moranis is actually top of my list, but his solo host show was a little less than 35).
Also, if we’re talking castmembers hosting for the first time, I’d use the same criteria to pick Gilbert Gottfried, Al Franken, or maybe Laurie Metcalf, Jane Curtin, or Jim Belushi. I was actually surprised they didn’t bring Franken on even for a cameo after he resigned from the Senate. Same with Pee-Wee when the new movie came out
Ah, good catch! I was so proud for not tripping re: Danny & Rhea’s show that I forgot about Rick Moranis solo hosting in ’89.
And, whoops, I also forgot about Mick Jagger’s solo show. Either way, though, it’s worth noting that Keith Richards has made it to 2021.
Madonna is the only person on that list I could ever see hosting again if they were asked or wanted to host.
Maybe Jamie Lee Curtis. That’s it.
Outside of the monologue, which is funny, well-paced, and surprisingly touching, my main takeaway from Sarah in this episode is they didn’t really know what to do with her. I guess it didn’t help that both she and SNL were moving away from the “fuck PC” type attitudes that had defined them in past years, so without that, she was sort of thrown around from here to there. I’m sorry the backstage piece @FeaturingEmilyPrager mentioned was cut. I did not realize the show was still even trying backstage pieces of that type (or Samberg’s) by this point.
The best chance was the Joan Rivers roast, which had the potential to be a lovely tribute to Joan (who didn’t have the best final years, but was a groundbreaking comedian and also a great SNL host back in the day). The flubbed lines really derail this one, but the weak impressions aren’t far behind. I never understand why if you have various people who can’t do impressions (or, in Jay’s case, as shown not once but twice in this episode, does them in a very empty way [I would say technically accurate but that Richard Pryor left me baffled]), you give them a showcase to do unfunny impressions. I was most peeved because of throwing Adam Levine in as Freddie Mercury. Levine is so devoid of the life and sense of passion and wit that made Mercury iconic – they just stuck comedy teeth in his mouth and had him do a bad British accent. What was meant as a tribute to one legend became a putdown of another. They should have just had Sarah talking to an angel, like they did with the Rodney Dangerfield tribute.
The car sketch should have been much better than it was. I would love to blame Levine (again), but honestly it falls flat before he appears. The main problem is we get to the punchline almost immediately, and then we’re left with a lot of stalling until we get to a nonexistent ending. There are too many characters who serve no purpose, like the parents. Taran also seems checked out. The main part I enjoyed was the song on the radio which matched the cheating exactly.
Speaking of Taran, this episode is a pretty big harbinger for his fate on the show – he just doesn’t quite fit in, and even a role he normally would have made much more sense for in the Whites pre-tape (Vanessa’s husband, given their natural chemistry) was given to Beck, who essentially replaces him as a cast member.
I can see your criticisms of Vitamix, as it does feel clunky (and was another sketch Sarah didn’t seem entirely right for), but it reminded me of something from the first few seasons of the show. The slow burn from Vanessa was something Jane Curtin would have also excelled at. It’s a strong performance from Vanessa which shows how she could handle challenging material when given the chance.
I don’t care for most of the Al Sharpton sketches, but he’s a lot more fun on Update. Stuff like “Ms. NBC” gave me a laugh. The Sarah and Kate piece felt like a knockoff of Cinder Calhoun written 3 minutes before air.
This is an episode where I cannot say the pre-tapes are better than the sketches, with the exception of Whites, which is very strong (and a fascinating mix of being prescient about today and also very dated [with the Hillary allusion in Beck saying they’d even take a girl President if she’s white]). The Fault in Our Stars, like a lot of SNL material, just beats one idea into the ground for at least a minute too long. The Good Neighbor pre-tape is fine, but nothing that stands out…and it has huge “oh crap we need to include the host!” vibes. The best part of it is you can really see the chemistry between Beck and Kyle here – I miss that in recent seasons, where they have often gone their separate ways.
I like the supportive women sketch – it’s a different type of idea, decently executed. I also like that we got photos from real soaps on the background television sets. And Reese has some hilarious lines this time around. My only complaint is those needless, irritating mugfests into the camera that Don Roy King relies on for easy chuckles.
Promo: