December 7, 2013 – Paul Rudd / One Direction (S39 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SOUND OF MUSIC: LIVE & CONDENSED
The Sound Of Music featuring Dooneese and Lawrence Welk (FRA)

— Former cast member Kristen Wiig out of freakin’ nowhere. And why tonight, of all nights? After all, there was a big announcement earlier in the week of this episode that we’d be getting cameos from Paul Rudd’s fellow “news team” members of the then-released Anchorman 2: Will Ferrell, David Koechner, and Steve Carell (and with that, the big announcement also revealed that Anchorman 2 director Adam McKay was returning behind-the-scenes at SNL to write a new installment of a certain late 90s recurring sketch we’ll be seeing at the end of this episode). That announcement was certainly exciting, but how am I supposed to also get excited about this episode throwing in an additional cameo from a former cast member who 1) comes from a much more recent era than Ferrell and Koechner, 2) appears on the show too often after she left just a mere year-and-a-half prior to this, and 3) is reprising an overdone character that only worked for me the first time?
— Oh, wow, folks. There goes Dooneese fondling somebody’s nipples with her baby hands. Something we’ve totally NEVER seen her do a million times before. [/end sarcasm]
— I can’t even enjoy this change in setting for Dooneese. She’s just doing the same old crap she always does.
— I did get a laugh just now from Taran’s Captain Von Trapp angrily ordering the kids to “march outside and stare at the sun!”
— Showing how Kristen’s recurring characters tend to blend together, wasn’t that butt-whistle gag that Dooneese did just now already previously done in one of Kristen’s Sexy Shana sketches?
— Aside from a few chuckles from some of the non-Dooneese parts of this Sound Of Music spoof, I’m miserable while watching this.
— (*groan*) Aaaaaaand now we get a Fred Armisen cameo (his first of way too many this season), as this Sound Of Music sketch concludes by randomly turning into yet another Lawrence Welk Show sketch, making this Dooneese appearance fully complete. Ugh. Very unnecessary.
STARS: *½

MONOLOGUE
host, musical guest, WIF, DAK, Steve Carell [real] do “Afternoon Delight”

— Paul Rudd mentions being overshadowed by a musical guest in his prior two hosting stints. To nitpick, it wasn’t just musical guest Beyonce who overshadowed Paul in his first episode. Remember, Justin Timberlake also made a few random cameos that night, and you know a Timberlake cameo is automatically going to take away the spotlight from someone.
— A very welcome sight of Paul’s “man band”: his Anchorman co-stars. And, man, it feels so great seeing David Koechner on the SNL stage again for the first time since he was unfairly fired after only one season as a cast member two decades prior. And seeing him and Will Ferrell onscreen together in an SNL segment makes me nostalgic for season 21.
— Steve Carell, to One Direction: “Why don’t you kids sit on Santa’s lap and ask for a pair of balls?”
— Not much to laugh at in the musical number, but it’s likable enough. However, I’m still not sure why they chose this as the monologue for the “Best Of This Season” special that aired in the middle of this season. (Is that the last time to this day that a season had a “Best Of” special?)
— Will Ferrell is so front-and-center for most of this monologue that, every time I watch this, I keep expecting him to be the one to say the usual monologue tagline (“We’ve got a great show for you tonight, etc.”), as this monologue tends to make one eventually forget that Paul is the host, not Will.
STARS: ***

POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Huffington Post contributor (host) discusses Obamacare

— Kenan’s Al Sharpton yelling “It’s fixed-ded!” reminds me of Kenan’s “FIX IT!” character from season 34.
— So far, the same-old same-old routine, but this recurring sketch somehow manages to always work decently for me.
— I got a good laugh from the ending with Kenan-as-Sharpton’s “Coming up next” announcement being him unknowingly reading off of the label on the side of one of the TV cameras.
STARS: ***

ONE DIRECTION’S #1 FAN
grown man Dan Charles (host) considers himself musical guest’s #1 fan

— A promising concept for a pre-taped Paul Rudd showcase.
— Paul is great in his execution of this, and it’s refreshing that they’re not taking this the predictable and overdone route of having Paul’s character act like a sexual predator towards the young girls.
— A big laugh from Paul’s excited initial reaction to One Direction making their entrance, made funnier by a spitwad being seen flying from Paul’s mouth when excitedly saying “It’s them!”
— Speaking of One Direction’s entrance, why are Jay and Brooks standing in the background as bodyguards? They have absolutely nothing to do or say in these roles, nor does the camera even focus on them at any point. They’re just silently standing in the background. What, SNL couldn’t be bothered to put two extras or writers in those roles?
STARS: ****

DIVORCE
divorcing (host) & (VAB) can’t resist grooving to “I Don’t Want To Know”

— Pretty funny bizarre bit about Paul’s new girlfriend being Wiccan.
— Another funny bizarre bit, this time regarding the pronunciation of the name of Vanessa’s new boyfriend, Dunkin Danish.
— A repetitive conceit with Paul and Vanessa always breaking out into jolly dancing whenever “I Don’t Want To Know” suddenly plays, but Paul and Vanessa are making this a lot of fun. I especially love Paul’s very energetic, spastic dance moves.
— Lots of funny oddball clarifications from Paul and Vanessa about their new lovers.
— Good reveal of “I Don’t Want To Know” turning out to be playing from Kenan’s phone, as it’s his ringtone.
— I like Paul knocking his chair backwards when getting up to energetically dance once again at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Story Of My Life”

WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob outlines Hanukkah & gets emotional over SEM’s pending departure

Jebidiah Atkinson lays waste to beloved Christmas TV specials & movies

— (*groan*) Yet another Jacob commentary, continuing to beat that same one note into the ground.
— The only positive thing I can say about this Jacob commentary is that it at least ends on a different note, with him getting emotional over Seth’s soon-to-come departure from SNL.
— Oof, most of tonight’s Update jokes are awful so far, even for Seth and Cecily’s standards.
— We get a rare instance of interaction between Seth and Cecily, in a brief ad-lib they make towards each other after one of Cecily’s jokes. I’m probably forgetting something, but I think this is the first time we’ve Seth and Cecily interact with each other since their very first Update together. Sad how the only interaction between them since then was just a brief ad-lib. SNL’s not even trying to develop a chemistry between these two anchors, but then again, I guess SNL figured “Why even bother?”, considering Seth is outta here in February. But even when his mid-season replacement, Colin Jost, comes in, it’s not like SNL ends up trying to establish much chemistry between him and Cecily either.
— The great Jebidiah Atkinson has officially become recurring, only TWO EPISODES after his debut, which I guess shows how very well-received his first commentary was.
— Ha, SNL even openly acknowledges Jebidiah’s extremely-soon return, in the following exchange between Seth and him: “In case anyone forgot, the last time you were here, you shared your negative review of the Gettysburg Address.” “How could they forget it, Seth? It was only three weeks ago. Run things into the ground much?” That nice meta, self-deprecating bit sadly receives practically NO reaction from the audience.
— Man, the audience is kinda lousy during this Update in general. Some of Jebidiah’s great slams aren’t getting the big reactions they deserve. I blame Seth and Cecily’s lame-ass Update jokes for probably being what killed the audience’s mood.
— I love Jebidiah explaining “Time is not linear for me!” when Seth questions the credibility of Jebidiah’s statement about National Lampoon’s Vacation preceding Jesus’ birth.
— I admit tonight’s Jebidiah commentary is not as strong as his previous appearance, but he still has a lot of good lines here, and he’s certainly far preferable to anything else that this blah Update threw at us.
STARS: **½

MICHELANGELO’S DAVID
Michaelangelo (TAK) based David sculpture on (host), small penis & all

— Cecily’s delivery of “Oh, my god” when initially seeing the small penis on the David sculpture kinda made me laugh.
— Paul, when pointing out the size of the sculpture’s hands: “You know what they say about a man and his hands.” Cecily, pointing to the penis on the statue: “N-no. I can see it.” Jay, popping up out of nowhere: “Really? *I* can’t!”
— Another funny one-liner from Jay: “Man, kill yo’self!”
— Taran’s performance is kinda sloppy in this sketch, to the degree that he even flat out forgets at one point that it’s time for him to deliver a line, causing an awkward stretch of long silence.
— Other than the aforementioned lines, this sketch is nothing but a juvenile “small penis” joke, and not even a particularly good one.
STARS: **

WHITE CHRISTMAS
host stars in White Christmas, the black holiday movie for white people

— Funny concept.
— This is nailing a lot of tropes of black holiday movies, even if this isn’t turning out quite as strong as I feel it has the potential to be.
— Feels like Aidy has been almost non-existent in this episode. Geez, is this pre-taped short her first appearance all night???
— The black magazine review of this movie just stating “Can’t we have anything?” was funny.
— I got a huge laugh from another black magazine review, calling this “The Macklemore of movies”.
STARS: ***

SANTA’S WORKSHOP
elves don’t like skinny & health-conscious Santa’s (host) new attitude

— I feel like that opening exterior shot of “Santa’s Workshop” (screencap a little below in this review) is recycled from a previous sketch from years prior. It looks strangely very familiar. It was possibly used in the famous Glengarry Glen Elves sketch with Alec Baldwin in 2005, but I don’t have enough time to check right now.

— (*sigh*) Yet another sad reminder of how invisible SNL keeps making a lot of this season’s new featured players, as this sketch feels like the first time we’re seeing a lot of them tonight.
— Shortly after the reveal of Paul as a newly-thin Santa, something about this sketch is already giving off weak vibes.
— Yeah, it’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and I haven’t been caring for this sketch AT ALL.
— Not even Kate can steal this sketch in her walk-on.
— Okay, I do love Aidy’s (who’s finally making a live appearance in this episode, by the way) innocent delivery of “I don’t wanna hear Santa say…..’my junk’.”
— Overall, a real bummer. Aside from Aidy’s aforementioned line delivery, I got absolutely NOTHING from this sketch.
STARS: *½

PAST LOVERS
embarrassingly, (CES)’s memories of lost loves include pizza guy (host)

— I’m liking the structure to this sketch.
— Very solid acting from Cecily throughout this.
— A pretty good goofy characterization from Paul.
— Interesting turn with one of Cecily’s past lovers being a woman.
— I like the hint at the very end that Paul’s character isn’t an imagined spirit after all, but is unsettlingly actually there in person at Cecily’s apartment.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Through the Dark”

BILL BRASKY
(host) & fellow drunk businessmen laud Bill Brasky at Chuck E. Cheese’s

— YEEEESSSSS!!! The special return of Bill Brasky, one of my personal favorite recurring sketches of all time.
— David Koechner: “Brasky’s testicles have an I.Q. of 91!”
— Taran: “Brasky’s ejaculate can cure leprosy!” David: “I wish I had leprosy!”
— Man, Taran is coming off as an absolute NATURAL as one of the Brasky guys. He is nailing the usual characterization of these guys. He either must’ve been a big fan of this recurring sketch back in the day, or he binge-watched all of the Brasky sketches after being cast as one of the Brasky guys in this week’s reprisal of this recurring sketch. I’m guessing it’s the former and not the latter.
— Paul is also fitting in well as one of the Brasky guys.
— It would’ve been great if Steve Carell was also one of the Brasky guys here, not only so all of the Anchorman 2 stars who appeared earlier in tonight’s monologue could play Brasky guys here, but also because Carell seems like he’d fit in well doing a “Brasky guy” characterization.
— Cecily appearing in Ana Gasteyer’s usual “Would you men please quiet down?” role from previous installments of this sketch.
— Now Kenan appears in Tim Meadows’ usual “Hey, you guys talkin’ about Bill Brasky?” role. I recall hearing that Tim later disclosed he was bothered by the fact that SNL didn’t call him up to reprise this role.
— Overall, an absolute treat, as anticipated. This did not let me down.
STARS: ****½

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, but nothing special as a whole. A little better than I had remembered, but there were still a few real bummers in here (the Dooneese cold opening, some of the non-Jebidiah Atkinson portions of Weekend Update, the Santa’s Workshop sketch). Despite being “overshadowed” by One Direction and the various special guests of the night, Paul Rudd still held his own tonight and had some shining moments, moreso than he had in either of his prior two hosting stints.

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

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bill Brasky
One Direction’s #1 Fan
Divorce
Past Lovers
White Christmas
Monologue
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Weekend Update
Michelangelo’s David
The Sound Of Music: Live & Condensed
Santa’s Workshop

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Josh Hutcherson)
a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
John Goodman makes his hosting return after a long 13-year hiatus