November 22, 2014 – Cameron Diaz / Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (S40 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK!
Executive Order (BOM) creates policy, not Bill (KET)

— A refreshing change of pace for the setting of a political cold opening.
— Kenan singing the legendary “I’m just a bill” song from Schoolhouse Rock is giving me a nice blast of childhood nostalgia.
— A good laugh from the Bill getting casually shoved down the stairs by Jay’s President Obama.
— A very funny abrupt, unexciting end to the intro song from the Executive Order, with his “and I pretty much just happen…” lyric.
— I love the little bit with the Executive Order reading himself from the inside after being shocked to hear about the immigration law.
— The constant repetition of the Bill being shoved down the stairs is working for me, mainly due to Kenan’s voice-overs during the falling-down-the-stairs animation. I especially like him saying “So many steps! So! Many! Steps!”
— Everybody’s timing oddly seemed a little off at the end right before they all said LFNY in unison.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
host fields dumb queries from audience members (KYM), (VAB), (LEJ), (BEB)

— Yeesh, even for a questions-from-the-audience monologue, the atmosphere of this feels strangely DEAD. Something about this is way off and flat.
— Aidy gets one of the very few laughs from me, with her “Let’s just say…box checked” comment regarding Tony Danza being her “celebrity sex exception”. However, it’s starting to feel like SNL’s going to the “Aidy Bryant says something sexual-related in a sly, smug manner” well kinda often around this time.
STARS: *½

BACK HOME BALLERS
home for Thanksgiving, women enjoy parents’ largesse

— A direct sequel to the beloved Twin Bed music video from the preceding season.
— I’m a minute-and-a-half into this so far, and, while Lil’ Baby Aidy and the rest of the girls are performing this well, I’m not finding myself laughing much at the actual humor of this.
— I do like the mid-song interlude right now, with the “What’s going on with you?” conversation between Aidy and our old friend Jean.
— Kate’s ridiculously long, complicated WIFI password is pretty funny.
— Leslie steals yet another segment on SNL, as I am loving her rap about bowls, which is easily what I feel is the best part of this somewhat underwhelming short.
— Overall, some highlights, but as a whole, this short was a little meh for me. I’ve always felt this short was overrated, and doesn’t come remotely close to touching the original Twin Bed.
STARS: **½

ANNIE
new orphan Annie (LEJ) is a large 43-year-old black woman

— Vanessa is well-cast as the traditional Annie.
— I’ve never seen anyone do a Jamie Foxx impression outside of this sketch, but Jay is unsurprisingly doing a very solid job at it. However, was it necessary to have him enter this sketch saying “I’m Jamie Foxx…I mean, Daddy Warbucks”? What was the point of that gag?
— A good laugh from the initial visual of Leslie as Black Annie.
— Leslie’s carrying this sketch pretty well, though there’s a bit of a dead feel to certain parts of this sketch, much like the monologue.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ***

NEST-SPRESSO
the Nest-Spresso machine instantly incubates chicks for urban farmers

— A pretty good laugh from the awkward way Taran and Kate have to climb over the fence to get to Vanessa’s house.
— When asked how her Nest-Spresso machine works, I love Vanessa bluntly responding, with a smile, “I don’t know that part.”
— An oddly specific look to Taran and Kate’s otherwise-generic characters. Are they modeled after people from a real commercial that this might be spoofing?
— I do kinda like the dark, disturbing part with the Nest-Spresso machine dispensing bones from a baby chick due to Taran operating the machine incorrectly, though I can definitely understand why that would bother some viewers.
— An overall very odd commercial that almost kinda felt like something was missing from it. I remember a lot of SNL reviewers pretty much hating this commercial and slamming it in their reviews (much like how they also hated another oddball Vanessa-Bayer-showcases-a-new-kitchen-device sketch from this season: the Vitamix sketch from the Sarah Silverman episode). However, the off-kilter approach to this Nest-Spresso ad worked decently enough for me.
STARS: ***

THEATER SHOWCASE
high school’s artsy Student Theater Showcase grates on audience members

— The debut of this recurring sketch.
— A lot of laughs all throughout this sketch, from the lousy “deep” social commentary in the scenes being performed within this play.
— Some solid little details within the bad play scenes.
— Kenan: “So…which one’s your daughter?” Vanessa: “I’d rather not say.”
— Meh, Kenan’s unnecessary over-explaining of the oddities in this sketch is feeling awfully Mikey Day-esque (as in, the “incredulous straight man who states the obvious by pointing out all the comedic oddities in a sketch, as if SNL thinks us viewers are too dumb to notice the oddities ourselves” role that Mikey Day plays an awful lot in more recent seasons). Are Mikey and Streeter Seidell the writers of this recurring sketch?
STARS: ****

IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Mike Nichols marks his passing

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Uptown Funk”

WEEKEND UPDATE
Angela Merkel (KAM) is agitated following stressful G20 summit experience

Charles Manson (TAK) lied about his past to fiancee Star Burton (CES)

— A memorable line from Michael, in regards to all the then-recent sexual assault allegations made against Bill Cosby: “Hey, Bill Cosby – pull YOUR damn pants up!” I also love Michael saying afterwards, in a satisfied voice, “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
— As usual, Kate’s Angela Merkel is likable and pretty fun. Also as usual, I love that her appearances have a running gag about her crush on President Obama.
— The way (especially her gestures) Kate’s Merkel sang a “Baby Got Back” lyric just now reminds of the way Kate previously sang a lyric from a Beyonce song when playing Ann Romney in an important breakout appearance Kate made early in her SNL tenure.
— I like how the “study conducted on…ya momma” punchline has become a running gag for Michael in these early Updates of his.
— Taran looks hilarious as Charles Manson.
— A decent Taran/Cecily commentary, especially the reveal that Charles Manson’s fiancee thinks Manson’s in jail simply for tax evasion.
STARS: ***

BABY BOSS
angling for a promotion, (KET) has dinner at Mr. Patterson’s house

— I was going to say this is the third and final installment of this recurring sketch, but checking this page on SNL Archives right now, I see that this sketch actually has one more installment remaining after this, in the following season’s Drake episode. Wow, I have absolutely no memory of Baby Boss appearing in that Drake episode. Then again, I remember almost NOTHING from that episode.
— Glad to see them finally change settings for this character. Judging from the screencap in the afore-linked SNL Archives page, the following season’s Drake episode puts Baby Boss back in his old office setting. Can’t say I’m crazy about that decision.
— As usual, Beck’s baby-mannerism routine is reliable for laughs, and he’s always so damn likable as this character, though the novelty of this routine is really wearing off by this point.
STARS: ***

DR. DAVE AND BUGGLES’ ANIMAL HOUR
Dr. Dave (KET)’s animal show had genital trauma inflicted by Buggles

— The opening title sequence and general animal show concept kinda brings the Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch to mind, though the actual main conceit of this particular sketch goes in a completely different direction from the Brian Fellow sketches.
— Mixed feelings on this sketch so far. The conceit of this sketch is awfully juvenile and one-note, but Kenan’s making it work somewhat.
— Very noisy off-camera sounds by the monkey when an SNL stagehand is discreetly removing the monkey from his cage while the camera is on a close-up of Cameron.
STARS: **½

I’M GOING TO FIGHT ANDY RYDELL
tough-talking Chris Fitzpatrick picks a fight with Andy Rydell (BEB)

— Much like the Baby Boss sketch earlier tonight, it’s good to see tonight’s Chris Fitzpatrick short being taken in a completely different direction from the previous short he appeared in on SNL.
— I love the random detail of Kyle’s Fitzpatrick, while speaking into the camera, picking up a traffic cone at one point and acting like it’s a microphone.
— Beck looking very young and much thinner than usual in that photo shown of him here (the fourth and fifth above screencaps for this short).
— I’m enjoying the awkward hallway fight between Kyle and Beck.
— As usual, some pretty good laughs from the random cutaways to stock footage of car crashes and such. I also like how the Beck/Kyle hallway fight scene keeps getting abruptly cut off by extremely random, unrelated slideshows of facts that Kyle’s Fitzpatrick shares about himself.
STARS: ***½

POETRY CLASS
Miss Meadows’ friend (host) recites a sultry poem about the UPS Man

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch (feels like I’m saying that quite a bit in this episode review).
— For obvious reasons, we don’t get the usual opening to this recurring sketch this time, where the teacher character played by Mike O’Brien introduces Vanessa’s Miss Meadows.
— So far, tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch is going in the exact same ol’ direction as the previous two installments of this sketch, a direction that only worked for me in the first installment.
— (*groan*) And why is it always Aidy and Kenan who play the first two students who read a poem in front of the class in EVERY SINGLE INSTALLMENT of this recurring sketch? A prime example of how lazy and formulaic a lot of SNL’s recurring sketches in recent eras tend to be.
— I did at least like the part of Aidy’s poem where she proudly says, in regards to her stepfather’s habit of wearing a shirt that looks like a tuxedo, “Uh-oh! He fancy!”
— Okay, at least they’re finally doing something different with the formula, as Cameron’s character is taking this recurring sketch into a new direction.
— A funny racy UPS Man poem from Cameron, and I like the cutaway to Pete’s dainty, delighted reaction to it.
— Another laugh from Pete, with him saying, “No, no, this is awesome. Do one about the FedEx guy!”
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mystikal [real] perform “Feel Right”

NIGHT MURMURS
Night Murmurs phone chatters (CES), (host), (KAM) have some favors to ask

— A sloppy, baffling moment early on where, while Cameron is still speaking into the camera in her first scene, the screen crossfades to Kate, who then begins speaking into the camera while a now-off-camera Cameron is heard still speaking before abruptly cutting herself off when realizing Kate’s now speaking. What the heck happened there?
— This sketch feels like a failed attempt at random, oddball humor. Aside from one or two chuckles I’ve gotten, the absurd details the ladies are disclosing about a mysterious package are NOT working.
— This sketch is so “off” and sloppy that even a pro like Kate flubbed a laugh line just now, which feels rare for her at this point of her tenure.
STARS: *½

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A forgettable episode, with a bit of an “off” feel in a few segments (especially that extremely flat monologue). There was a decent amount of okay segments, but the problem is the episode rarely rose above that level, resulting in an unexciting, unmemorable episode that was just…there. A letdown after the incredible Woody Harrelson episode that preceded this. While SNL’s quality has pretty much always been up and down, something about the slightly “off” feel of tonight’s episode has always made me disagree with some people’s claim that the Harrelson episode is the turning point of this season after a bumpy start. To me, this Cameron Diaz episode showed that the slight shakiness in this first quarter of this season hasn’t exactly left the building quite yet.

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

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Schoolhouse Rock!
Theater Showcase
I’m Going To Fight Andy Rydell
Annie
Weekend Update
Nest-Spresso
Baby Boss
Back Home Ballers
Poetry Class
Dr. Dave and Buggles’ Animal Hour
Night Murmurs
Monologue

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Woody Harrelson)
a big step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
James Franco