Author: Stooge

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April 6, 2013 – Melissa McCarthy / Phoenix (S38 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

KIM JONG-UN ADDRESS
Kim Jong-un (BOM) lifts ban on same-sex marriage; Dennis Rodman cameo

— DAMMIT! After I was pleasantly surprised in the preceding episode that what initially seemed to be a translator cold opening ended up going a completely different route, the very next episode does end up having a full-fledged translator cold opening. Just my motherfucking luck.
— What in the world is the audience laughing so much at? Nothing intentionally comedic has even been said yet. Are they laughing at just the fake Korean gibberish that Bobby’s speaking in under the audio of Nasim’s American translation? Geez, is the audience that easily amused?
— Yeah, so far, this is just as awful, droning, and laughless as these crappy Jim Downey-written translator snoozefests typically are. Thankfully, this may be the last time I ever have to review one, given the fact that Downey leaves the writing staff at the end of this season.
— This even has Bobby’s Kim Jong-un asking himself, “Let’s see, what else, what else?” at one point, which was already done in a previous translator cold opening, the one with Fred as Moammar Gadhafi in the season 35 premiere.
— At least we get something kinda interesting with Dennis Rodman making his first SNL appearance since way back in 1996.
— Ha, my only laugh of this entire cold opening ends up being from something that wasn’t even in the script, nor was intended to be comedic: Rodman mush-mouthing his delivery of LFNY, rendering it unintelligible (“LOVE AND NEW YORK, IT’S SOLLDIE NAAAAUUUGHT!”).
STARS: *


OPENING MONTAGE
— After being out for three consecutive episodes due to an injury he suffered at home, resulting in a few people (Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond) filling in for him as SNL’s announcer, Don Pardo has returned.


MONOLOGUE
host’s platform heels leave her unable to walk, much less dance with TAK

— Wow, a huge change of pace for a monologue entrance in this SNL era, with the premise of Melissa McCarthy not being able to walk down the stairs on the home base stage, due to the pair of high heels she’s wearing. I love this. It feels like something from early SNL eras (70s and early-mid 80s), which weren’t afraid to occasionally play around with the formula of stuff like monologue entrances. I also love how Melissa makes the SNL Band play the ending portion of the theme music a second time, which is also something that hadn’t been done in ages.
— Some good physical work here from Melissa in her struggles to get to the front of the home base stage.
— When laying flat on the floor by the SNL Band, I like Melissa saying, “This smells like a lot of musicians.”
STARS: ***½


OUTSIDE THE LINES
coach Sheila Kelly (host) abuses basketball players

— A promising, fun, and topical idea to have Melissa play a female equivalent to infamous college basketball coach Mike Rice. Melissa was born to play this role.
— I’m loving the pre-taped footage of Melissa’s character physically and verbally abusing her basketball players, especially the shot of her using a t-shirt cannon to shoot a t-shirt up at the frightened team, who’s collectively bunched together in a corner at top of the bleachers.
— Now this is getting even funnier with the absolutely insane pre-tape of Melissa violently interrupting her players in their classroom. I especially like her occasionally using a taser on Bobby as the teacher.
— Good shot of Melissa in the window behind Bill, non-verbally threatening Jay during his interview.
— Funny little touch at the very end with Bill’s character giving a little hearty chuckle after announcing the horrifying sports story they’ll be covering next.
STARS: ****


THE VOICE
unlike celebrity coaches, singer (host) knows she lacks talent

— Fairly funny impressions of The Voice judges.
— When Melissa discloses the fact that she lives in a basement with no roof, I like Jason’s Blake Shelton responding “So, you…you’re talkin’ about a hole.”
— Despite some laughs, something about this sketch is leaving a little to be desired for me.
STARS: **½


HONEY BAKED HAM BAKE-OFF
at an annual ham bake-off, perennial also-ran (host) adds choreography

— A fun sudden turn with the ham-themed dance number Melissa, Bobby, and Taran do.
— Oh, I absolutely love when the music in the dance number suddenly turns to Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”. As I said in a previous episode review (when covering one of the Spartan Cheerleaders sketches, I believe), I’m always a sucker for “Push It”.
— This sketch continues to be a lot of fun, and Melissa is great here.
STARS: ****


BATHROOM BUSINESSMAN
the Bathroom Businessman in-stall office setup evokes a plea for decency

— Kenan’s intentionally cheesy delivery  of “I’m flushing my career down the toilet!” cracked me up.
— Blah at that fart gag & sound effect.
— A good comedic conceit with the long, complex set-up of the Bathroom Businessman product while Kenan desperately has to go to the bathroom.
— The sudden “Decency” bit at the end was a pretty solid surprise twist.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Entertainment”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob’s scripted account of Passover includes lighthearted family foibles

the Final Four has contributed to Charles Barkley’s (KET) gambling debt

Drunk Uncle bemoans tax season with his brother-in-law (Peter Dinklage)

— Wow, feels kinda surprising and unexpected in 2020 seeing a 2013 mention on Weekend Update of “California attorney general” Kamala Harris.
— I love Vanessa-as-Jacob’s Jewish-accented pronunciation of “rock music”.
— With this being only Jacob’s second Update commentary, I’m not QUITE as sick of the very thin formula of his Update commentaries as I know I’m eventually going to be. However, I’m already beginning to really hate that repetitive gag with him always going back to reading from his speech whenever Seth asks him a question. They don’t need to repeat that gag 100 freakin’ times in every single Jacob commentary.
— A pretty funny passing mention of Jacob’s cat being named David Ben-Purrion.
— Hmm, I have no memory of this episode having a Kenan-as-Charles-Barkley commentary on Update.
— Kenan-as-Barkley’s line about Michael Jordan being the Michael Jordan of gambling too much was pretty funny.
— I laughed at the long, awkward pause between Kenan and Seth after Kenan’s Barkley mentions one basketball player recently broke his leg simply because “………….he jumped………….”
— Drunk Uncle: “Huey Lewis and the Jeeewwss!”
— Drunk Uncle, after making an offensive comment towards Native Americans: “You’re welcome, Chief Pays-No-Bills!”
— Nice to see a cameo from Peter Dinklage as Drunk Uncle’s brother-in-law Peter Drunklage, as what ends up being the first of several instances of a guest star or host playing a relative or friend of Drunk Uncle’s.
— Peter Dinklage is fantastic here. You’d think he’d been playing this character for a good while like Bobby has.
— I love the “Marco?” “Rubio!” bit between Drunk Uncle and Drunklage.
STARS: ***


MILLION DOLLAR WHEEL
awful fill-in letter turner (host) wrecks game show

— I love Bill’s cheery delivery of “Suzette left because of an alcohol problem – MINE!”
— I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2013 pointing out how Victoria Jackson-esque Melissa’s voice and characterization came off here. Yeah, I can see it.
— An extremely thin sketch so far, like some Melissa-plays-a-wacky-character sketches tend to be.
— Yeah, as this sketch goes on, it’s becoming more and more clear that this ain’t working for me. Melissa’s been given practically NO material here, like that awful Turner Classic Movies sketch from her previous episode where she played an actress who kept falling down the stairs over and over and over and over.
— I did get a laugh just now from how, after Melissa has revealed all of the letters on the puzzle, Fred (in his first appearance all night, by the way, which is yet ANOTHER obvious sign that he’s on his way out this season) says “I’d like to solve the puzzle”, only to foolishly end up getting the answer completely wrong.
STARS: *½


PIZZA BUSINESS
loan officer (JAS) denies funding for (host)’s pizza eating business

— Some of Melissa’s characterizations tend to come off awfully similar to each other. Her character in this sketch, for example, feels like a hybrid of her character from the ham sketch earlier tonight and her character from the (overrated, in my opinion) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing sketch in her preceding episode.
— I like the running gag with Melissa offering Jason a pen when he already clearly has one.
— Despite Melissa giving a very lived-in, established performance as usual in her character pieces (which is something I can often admire about a lot of her characterizations, even when some of them come off too similar to each other and/or don’t make me laugh all that much), and despite me getting a laugh here and there, her constant ramblings in this sketch are becoming white noise to me, which was one of the problems I think I recall having with the aforementioned Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing sketch.
— I actually love the ending, with Melissa returning to the room in slow motion to grab the pizza box after the realization Jason just had. I’ve heard a theory from an SNL fan that Jason truly wasn’t expecting Melissa to do that, because the dress rehearsal version of this sketch reportedly ended differently (with a screen crawl epilogue, I believe), and the shocked & gleeful reaction Jason had to Melissa’s slow motion return in the live version of this sketch looked genuine to that SNL fan.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Trying To Be Cool” & “Drakkar Noir”


THE ART OF THE ENCOUNTER
videos depict strategies for landing Mr. Right

— So far, this is filled with typical James Anderson/Kent Sublette tropes, especially the very questionable gag names all the characters have (ugh).
— Melissa has an ability to get the audience so on her characters’ side that the audience collectively goes “Awww” whenever her characters experience a letdown. This sketch contains the third separate instance of that happening in this episode alone.
— Despite all the Anderson/Sublette-ness of this sketch, the absurdity and comical awkwardness in this sketch is starting to work for me more and more.
— I love the odd way Taran “gets into place” for Melissa to do the splits on his face.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very mixed episode. As you can see from my reviews of the two episodes Melissa McCarthy has hosted by this point, I run extremely hot-and-cold on the sketches that are a big showcase piece for her. That was especially on display in this episode, where I seemed to find tonight’s big Melissa showcase pieces to be either a blast (Outside the Lines, Honey Baked Ham Bake-Off) or a repetitive bore (Million Dollar Wheel, Pizza Business). There was almost no middle ground for me. Her sketch comedy seems to be very polarizing among people in general (which is something she has in common with her friend and Bridesmaids co-star Kristen Wiig). Some of the big Melissa showcase pieces that I liked in these first two episodes she hosted, I’m sure quite a number of people dislike, and I’m sure quite a number of people like some of the big Melissa showcase pieces in these two episodes that *I* disliked. Of all the episodes Melissa has hosted (as of 2020), I personally prefer her final two (2016 and 2017), because, IIRC, SNL moves away a little from focusing so heavily on one-note Melissa-plays-a-wacky-character sketches. My memory of the sketches those two episodes actually contain is admittedly very fuzzy, so I might feel a bit differently about those episodes when I eventually review them. We’ll see.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Outside The Lines
Honey Baked Ham Bake-Off
Monologue
The Art Of The Encounter
Bathroom Businessman
Weekend Update
The Voice
Pizza Business
Million Dollar Wheel
Kim Jong-Un Address


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Justin Timberlake)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Vince Vaughn

Posted on

March 9, 2013 – Justin Timberlake (S38 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MEMORIAL SERVICE
Elton John (host) performs “Candle In The Wind” variant for Hugo Chavez

— OH, GOD. A translator opening. And one starring Fred, no less.
— Okay, thankfully, the translator bit ended up just being a brief set-up to the main focus of this cold opening: Justin Timberlake as Elton John singing a tribute song to the recently-deceased Hugo Chavez.
— A rarity to see Justin starring in the cold opening of an episode he’s hosting.
— I like the disapproving looks Justin’s Elton occasionally gives into the camera after singing certain ridiculous revelations about Hugo Chavez.
— After a promising start, this is trailing off for me. A lot of parts of the song are starting to wash over me.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— The still-injured Don Pardo is out for the third consecutive episode. Like the last episode, former cast member Darrell Hammond fills in by doing a Pardo imitation.


MONOLOGUE
DAA & MAS wait on Five-Timers Club members host, Paul Simon, Steve Martin, CHC, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Candice Bergen [real]

— After Justin mentions this is his fifth time hosting, this monologue turns into a variation/recreation/homage/sequel/whatever-you-want-to-call-it of the legendary Five-Timers Club monologue with Tom Hanks in 1990.
— Interesting decision to have then-writer Mike O’Brien play the doorman role, which Conan O’Brien played in the original Five-Timers Club monologue back when he was a writer. I wonder if SNL came to this casting decision because Mike O’Brien has the same last name as Conan.
— Steve Martin is his usual hilarious self here.
— Good random inclusion of Dan Aykroyd as a bartender, and I like the line about how bartender was the only occupation the club members could find for him because he only hosted once.
— Much like the joke in the original Five-Timers Club monologue where some of the five-timers order drinks that are named after former cast members, Justin orders the “Kristen Wiig”, which is a drink with a little Gilly wig on the top. I wish the drinks-named-after-former-cast-members gag went on longer tonight with more names.
— I like the paintings of some five-timers who I guess couldn’t cameo in person tonight.
— As always, I have VERY mixed feelings towards a Chevy Chase cameo, for obvious reasons.
— Yikes, Chevy’s voice and delivery sound pretty awful and out-of-it here. A harbinger of his infamous and depressing appearance a few years later in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special, where he looked and sounded unhealthy as hell.
— Ha, Martin Short as a waiter. This feels like a callback to his appearance in the Platinum Lounge Club sketch from Alec Baldwin’s 2006 episode, though we don’t get Steve Martin saying (in regards to Martin Short being a waiter) “It’s sad” again.
— It’s particularly nice to see Tom Hanks here, given the fact that he was the inductee in the previous Five-Timers Club monologue. I wish they mentioned that here.
— I like how the Taran/Bobby fighting sequence is an original bit that’s completely unlike anything in the previous Five-Timers Club monologue. It’s also a nice novelty seeing current cast members appearing in a Five-Timers Club monologue, which we didn’t get in the previous one with Hanks.
— A funny delighted delivery of “Thank yooouuu!” from a formerly-crying Bobby after he’s complimented on his Drunk Uncle character.
— When this originally aired, I remember what a big and pleasant surprise it was to see involvement from Candice Bergen, especially because, unlike the other five-timer cameos here, all of whom we’ve previously seen make a number of cameos in regular episodes from the 2000s and/or early 2010s, this is the first time in decades we’ve seen Candice appearing in a regular episode.
— Overall, while this certainly doesn’t compare to the quality of the original Five-Timers Club monologue, this was still solid and very fun in its own right.
STARS: ****


IT’S A DATE
bachelorette (VAB) chooses Dick In A Box guys & Festrunk Brothers

— Bill doing his always-fantastic and hilarious job as a game show host.
— I’m glad SNL’s doing something different with the Dick In A Box characters, especially since the formula of their usual Digital Shorts started showing signs of weariness in their last short (the 3-Way one with Lady Gaga).
— This is a much more fun use of the Festrunk Brothers than their appearance in a Roxbury Guys sketch from 1998.
— Everybody’s doing top-notch work here. Not just the heavy-hitters (Andy/Justin and Dan/Steve), and not just Bill, but also Bobby, who’s a fantastic straight man here, and Vanessa, who’s especially funny in her various unexcited reactions to Bobby.
— As a 90s kid, I love the DuckTales reference.
— A great nod to SNL history, with the Festrunks mentioning they’ve been living in America for 37 years. Though to nitpick, if that line was going by how long it had been since the Festrunks made their debut (which was in September 1977), shouldn’t it be 36 years?
— I got a pretty good laugh from the Festrunks telling the Dick In A Box guys, upon finally seeing them face-to-face, “I can’t believe you guys are not black!”
— Nice seeing Vanessa dancing with both the Festrunks and the Dick In A Box guys.
STARS: ****


VEGANVILLE
singing & dancing mascot counters Sausage Depot rep (BOM) with Veganism

— Bobby’s been having a pretty big night so far.
— Blah, our obligatory appearance of this recurring Dancing Mascot sketch. I was about to say, at least this is the last time I have to review one of these, as this ends up being Justin’s final hosting stint (as of 2020), but then I remembered there’s still one more installment of this sketch, when Justin’s the musical guest in the following season’s Jimmy Fallon-hosted episode.
— Good ol’ Bobby’s usual performance style and reliability is welcome here, and he’s a lot more fun than most of the cast members who previously played off of Justin in these Dancing Mascot sketches.
— Yeah, as usual, Justin’s songs aren’t doing a damn thing for me.
— Yeesh, it feels like Justin’s doing even more songs than usual in tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch. (*groan*) This sketch feels ENDLESS.
— At least the ending with a whole bunch of random people showing up to dance in the street with Justin and Bobby is very different than the usual endings of these Dancing Mascot sketches.
STARS: *½


NUVABLING
NuvaBling allows women to combine contraception with ornamentation

— A big laugh from Vanessa’s uncomfortable facial expression when inserting the NuvaBling into her vagina while the camera is on a close-up of her face.
— This feels like the type of Tina Fey-centric female-oriented commercial that would’ve been performed by the Fey/Dratch/Poehler/Rudolph female group back in the day.
— Some more big laughs throughout this, especially the reveal that you can reuse the NuvaBling as an earring.
— Aidy: “Did you get those earrings from Tiffany’s?” Cecily: “Close. I got them from my vagina.”
— An overall solid commercial, and I think Tina Fey would be proud.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & Jay-Z [real] perform “Suit & Tie”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Stefon’s eccentric springtime fun places have everything you don’t want

 

— Showing how much SNL has cut back on the number of appearances from the hugely-popular Stefon lately, this is only the second appearance he’s made all season. By this same point (early-mid March) of the preceding season, Stefon was already in his fourth appearance of that season.
— Tonight’s Stefon commentary even acknowledges his lack of appearances lately, by having Seth tell him we haven’t seen him in a while, and he explains “This job writing for Smash is killing me.”
— Stefon is funnier than ever tonight. Among my favorite bits from him tonight: 1) “And if you liked Russell Crowe in Les Miserab, you might wanna hear Jasper The Gorilla pass a kidney stone!”, 2) the last words of murdered blues legend Sweet Willie Walker (“My wallet?!? Yeeeeeaaaaaahhhh right!”), 3) Stefon imitating Donald Duck having a Vietnam nightmare (one of my personal favorite Stefon moments of all time), 4) part of another club name being “–based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”, and 5) one of the features of one of the clubs being the outdoor concert from a Zoloft commercial.
— A nice meta bit with Stefon slyly telling Seth, “I’ll let you join MY Five-Timers Club.”
— Solid ending to tonight’s Update with Stefon signing off for Seth by saying, “For Weekend Update, I’m the future Mr. Stefon Meyers.” A nice precursor (whether intentional or not on writer John Mulaney’s part) to a big event that happens in the next appearance Stefon will make.
STARS: ***½ (the ½ is for Stefon)


THE TALES OF SOBER CALIGULA
reformed Caligula (host) makes Rome boring

— Hmm, not too sure about this premise.
— I got a laugh from Justin bluntly disclosing, “Last week, I woke up with my penis in the mouth of a dead lion.”
— An amusing little ad-lib with Taran sensually feeling Justin’s stomach while making his exit, which catches Justin off-guard.
— There are some laughs, but this sketch feels a little on the dead side.
— Boy, the pig bit at the end fell completely flat. Not even Tim’s usual lovable goofiness could save that bit for me.
STARS: **½


MAINE JUSTICE
transplanted Louisiana culture nonplusses defendant (ANS)

— Yeah, I’ll just state the obvious right upfront: bad idea to do a second installment of this absolutely classic sketch from earlier this season, which always should’ve stayed a one-off.
— At least Jason’s usual delivery as this character is still giving me laughs.
— When Andy Samberg’s character mentions he went to LSU, you can hear an SNL audience member actually gasp very loudly in shock, then proudly yell “Go, Tigers!”
— Man, it hurts seeing such an inferior retread of one of my all-time favorite sketches. Jason’s performance is the only thing really holding this retread together for me (and even his performance isn’t quite as funny as his performance in the first installment of this sketch).
— Okay, we at least get something different from the first installment, with the bit involving an alligator creeping up on the judge bench. Though the quality of this bit doesn’t compare to anything from the first installment of this sketch, it’s pretty funny, especially Jason and Justin tenderly feeding the alligator.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
the Three Amigos salute & introduce host

— Fairly charming to see a reprisal of the classic Three Amigos salute. However, showing how old these guys now are, Steve did the cough way too early, and, much like in the monologue earlier tonight, Chevy’s voice still sounds like he’s on his deathbed.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Mirrors”


SHE’S GOT A D!%K
host stars in romantic comedy about a woman with a penis (NAP)

 

— Wait, is SNL freakin’ kidding me with this premise?!?
— I will say that Kenan’s confused reactions are cracking me up, at least.
— The acting in this is a spot-on spoof of the acting in typical rom-coms. That and Kenan’s lines are the only things keeping this from being a COMPLETE dud.
STARS: *½


MOËT & CHANDON
(host) & vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Moët & Chandon champagne

— So now we’re bringing back ANOTHER classic original sketch from this season’s Jamie Foxx episode???
— Cecily: “You’ll think you’ve just graduated Magna cum loudly.”
— Vanessa: “I got cut in half for real at a magic show. Now some of my middle parts are plastic bags, and I can’t wait to fill them with Moët Chammbimm!”
— Cecily: “I got banged into a sink hole. Then a mole person banged me back up. I’ll drink that that!”
— It’s too long for me to directly quote, but Vanessa’s whole jerking-off-a-horse bit is yet another great spiel in this sketch.
— Okay, unlike Maine Justice, it turns out that this is something that actually works as a recurring sketch. Like last time, we’re getting tons of killer lines.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A somewhat mixed episode as a whole, and the post-Weekend Update half was rough until the great final sketch. However, this episode had a pretty good number of strong and memorable moments, such as the fun and special-feeling one-two punch of the monologue and It’s A Date sketch back-to-back. I also like how this episode didn’t have quite as much of a “same-y” feel that a lot of Justin Timberlake-hosted episodes suffer from (the refreshing absence of The Barry Gibb Talk Show tonight probably has something to do with that), but there was still quite a lot of rehashing tonight in general.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Moët & Chandon
Monologue
Nuvabling
It’s A Date
Weekend Update
Maine Justice
The Tales of Sober Caligula
Memorial Service
Veganville
She’s Got A D!%k


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kevin Hart)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Melissa McCarthy

Posted on

March 2, 2013 – Kevin Hart / Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (S38 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Barack Obama (JAP) introduces workers who will be affected by sequester

— Some funny messages from all the different types of workers affected by the budget cuts. I especially like the respective messages from Bill, Jason, and particularly Aidy, the latter of whom has yet another sketch-stealing moment in this underrated first season of hers.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The still-injured Don Pardo is out for the second consecutive episode, this time with former cast member Darrell Hammond filling in by doing the Pardo imitation he used to occasionally do back in the late 90s/early 00s whenever Don was out sick.


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about sandwich theft & recalls his failed SNL audition

— I’ve never been much of a fan of Kevin Hart nor his stand-up comedy, but I’m actually finding his stand-up delivery refreshing and amusing here, maybe because of my fondness towards stand-up monologues on SNL.
— A lot of funny little details in Kevin’s homeless guy/sandwich story.
— Kevin now mentions once having auditioned for SNL, which we would later see a clip of in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special.
— Kevin’s “Trainin’ Day, bitch!” impression of Denzel Washington made me laugh out loud.
STARS: ***½


STEVE HARVEY
(NAP) treats (host)’s equinophobia with stuffed horse

— Meh, I don’t care for the “Dogglegangers” segment with dogs dressed like Steve Harvey, as I always hate that kind of humor.
— I got a cheap laugh from Kenan’s Steve Harvey mispronouncing “phobias” as “fo-bye-uhs”.
— Kenan’s Harvey freaking out over the stuffed horse’s expression supposedly changing is pretty funny.
— Despite some laughs and Kenan’s always-funny Harvey impression, this overall sketch felt too mild in its funniness to be placed in the lead-off spot of this episode. I might’ve been more accepting of this sketch had it aired towards the end of the episode.
STARS: **½


NEXT WEEK PROMO

— Oddly, despite Darrell Hammond filling in for Don Pardo earlier tonight in the opening montage, we hear Don doing this “Next week” promo announcement. They obviously must’ve reused this audio of Don from a previous episode where Justin Timberlake was the next-announced host & musical guest, but I’m not sure why they didn’t just have Darrell do this promo announcement tonight to keep up continuity from the opening montage.


THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
Quvenzhané Wallis (host) is the adorable new Pope

— The name of Cecily’s fictional reporter character is Erin Carbonal, which is interesting, as Carbonal used to be the surname of an obscure fictional reporter character (Diane Carbonal) played by Ana Gasteyer back in the late 90s. I wonder if that’s an intentional throwback by whoever wrote this sketch. Also, I recall hearing that in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, instead of playing a fictional character, Cecily actually played CNN’s Erin Burnett. Why did they randomly decide to change Cecily’s role to a fictional character with a different surname in the live show?
— A somewhat amusing premise of Quvenzhané Wallis being the new Pope.
— Jason’s Wolf Blitzer: “Horsey rides in the Vatican – that’s gotta be a first…but probably isn’t.”
— The sketch is over already? Actually, that’s a good thing, given the thin premise. They kept this the right length, without it getting old.
STARS: ***


VERISMO
Rerun from 1/19/13


BARNES & NOBLE FIRING
Barnes & Noble employees Niff & Dana badmouth their co-workers

— Could’ve done without Bobby doing an inferior variation of his hilarious “We goin’ out on top like Seinfeld!” line from the first installment of this sketch.
— Bobby and Cecily’s insults aren’t quite as funny as they were in the first installment of this.
— Okay, the insults are getting a little funnier and creative, such as the charades and doctor ones.
— “Randrew”? Wasn’t the name of this creepy-smiling character of Taran’s just Andrew in the previous installment of this sketch?
— I love Kate’s delivery of “We share a pancreas.”
— There’s Tim’s always-funny appearance as older employee Carl.
— Ha, even Kevin himself can’t help but laugh his ass off at Tim’s performance. A memorable display of breaking from an SNL host, and our first display of the fun chemistry we’ll be seeing between Kevin and Tim in tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Wanz [real] perform “Thrift Shop”


WEEKEND UPDATE
unlikely best friends Dennis Rodman (JAP) & Kim Jong Un (BOM) pal around

incredulous SEM & host say “Really!?!” to Voting Rights Act jeopardy

— Seth’s voice sounds slightly hoarse tonight.
— I kinda like the meta line about Kim Jong Un having the same haircut as Macklemore.
— Jay reacted a few seconds too early to the Tigger line, which hurt the humor of it.
— Jay’s performance continues to be off. There something about his delivery here that I’m not liking.
— Kevin joins Seth in tonight’s “Really?!?” segment.
— Yikes, tonight’s edition of “Really?!?” is DEAD so far. Not even the audience is laughing at all, and I can’t blame them.
— Further adding to the “off” feel of tonight’s “Really?!?”, Kevin badly botches his first line, then makes a then-taboo “goddammit” ad-lib. (I believe it’s not until Dave Chappelle’s 2016 episode where “goddamn” is allowed to be said on SNL.)
— Okay, the audience is getting a little more into this “Really?!?” segment. I, on the other hand, am still not laughing, other than a line or two from Kevin. Tonight’s “Really?!?” is so lame.
— Okay, Seth’s Lincoln line made me laugh just now during the “Really?!?” segment.
— An overall bad Update. Seth’s been having quite a lot of subpar Updates lately. I’m starting to really look forward to his mid-season departure the following season. I tell you, reviewing what feels like 10 straight, endless seasons of the not-bad-but-very-bland Seth Meyers solo at the Update desk gets tiring as hell.
STARS: **


THE WALKING DEAD
(host) plays the race card to hide his zombification

— Some laughs from Kevin’s attempts to hide his zombie transformation.
— The “diabetes” bit was very funny.
— The timing and pacing of this sketch feels a little off at times.
— A good ending line from Bill’s character when the other characters are casually walking away: “Guys, should we discuss the fact that Maggie just died?”
STARS: ***


SHARK TANK
inventor’s (host) lame product doesn’t impress investors

— Hmm, I have no memory of this sketch from my last viewing of this episode back in 2013. I do, however, remember an awful Shark Tank sketch later on from the season 40 Chris Rock episode.
— Oh, wait, it’s coming back to me. I now recall this sketch, and I recall it being a stinker.
— Hilarious opening bit with Tim wearing the opposite of a vest.
— Did they seriously put Nasim in a wig and fancy dress just for a non-speaking nanosecond walk-on in which she’s only partially on camera while placing a lamp next to Kevin? Why not just get an extra or even one of the female featured players to play that role?
— Yeesh, that “shork box” ending was awful. And, yeah, this overall sketch was pretty much just as tepid and dumb as I had remembered.
STARS: *½


Z SHIRTS
(host) maintains alphabetical sequence while identifying (TIR)’s Z Shirt

— The visual quality and camera angles are both hilarious and a spot-on spoof of this type of “x-treme” commercial. What makes the visual quality and camera angles even funnier is Kevin’s insanely over-the-top acting, which actually fits this commercial style perfectly.
— Kevin’s repetitive, stupid “Is it a (insert letter here) Shirt?!?” questions are absolutely hilarious, as are Tim’s reactions. Tim’s slowburn throughout this commercial is simply fantastic, culminating in him delivering his final lines in a seething rage before storming off.
STARS: *****


RECORDING SESSION
(VAB) is better suited for Dove Chocolate voice-over gig than is (host)

— Meh, so far, this feels like a variation of that not-too-great sketch from the season 31 Matt Dillon episode where Dillon was a loud, tough wiseguy character trying to record audio for what was supposed to be a soft-spoken relaxation tape.
— Vanessa’s little “Ehh?”s during her readings are great.
— I’m starting to get more and more into this sketch. Kevin’s delivery is beginning to really work for me.
— (*sigh*) Yet another season 38 Fallon/Sanz-esque instance of Fred and Bill cracking up together, this time seemingly in reaction to Kevin’s delivery of one particular line.
— Our second “goddamn” ad-lib from Kevin tonight (inducing more giggling from Bill). To quote what I said in my original 2013 review of this episode (link here), “Did Norm MacDonald give [Kevin] hosting tips before the show?”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Ray Dalton [real] perform “Can’t Hold Us”


90’S FUNERAL
the Z Shirt duo reunites & finds closure during a funeral service

— Jay almost sounds like he’s doing his Obama voice in this.
— Oh, hell yes! Out of nowhere, this turns into an absolutely brilliant and classic continuation of the Z Shirts commercial! Such a great delayed punchline to that commercial. It’s always such a welcome novelty whenever SNL unexpectedly turns an unassuming sketch into a continuation of a sketch from earlier that same night.
STARS: *****


360 NEWS
anchor’s (host) neck injury thwarts all-angles program concept

— This premise seems like a promising use of Kevin’s comedic style.
— Funny reveal of Kevin in that neckbrace, considering the premise of this 360 News show.
— Kevin’s pained yells each time he has to turn his head to another camera are cracking me up.
— Wow, Tim in yet another sketch tonight. This has definitely got to be the busiest night of his short-lived tenure as a cast member, and he’s been working especially well with Kevin.
— Quite a lot of line flubs and delayed timing in this sketch. It’s not hurting this sketch TOO much for me, though.
— I love Jay’s delivery of “I HATE THIS SHOW!” while hanging from the ceiling.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While not without its faults, and while barely having anything that stood out to me as particularly strong (though what did stand out to me as particularly strong, the Z Shirts two-parter, is a classic and is probably what SNL fans immediately think of when this episode comes to mind), this was a pretty good episode as a whole, and it also had a fun feel. This was much better than I found it in my afore-linked original 2013 review of this episode. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not usually a fan of Kevin Hart’s comedic style, but SNL utilized it well in this episode, and, after that monologue got me on Kevin’s side, I found his presence to be welcome for most of this episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Z Shirts / 90’s Funeral (tie)
Monologue
Press Conference
360 News
Recording Session
The Walking Dead
Barnes & Noble Firing
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Steve Harvey
Weekend Update
Shark Tank


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christoph Waltz)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Justin Timberlake hosts for his fifth and, as of 2020, final time

Posted on

February 16, 2013 – Christoph Waltz / Alabama Shakes (S38 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIP TRIUMPH
Carnival Triumph crew members try to buoy spirits during dire cruise

— Refreshing to see two consecutive episodes with a non-political cold opening.
— Jason and Cecily (interesting pairing, by the way) are great as the overly cheery crew members desperately attempting to lift everybody’s spirits during this troubled cruise.
— Jay’s “There’s dookies on the walls!” outbursts during his mental breakdown is very funny.
— Good bit regarding the unfortunate stories Jason and Cecily read from the newspaper.
— I love Kenan’s off-camera yell of “Turn us all into chickens!”
— Hilarious bit with Bobby’s monkey having gotten eaten, inducing an absolutely priceless emotional outburst from Bobby.
— Even Fred’s over-the-top performance is perfect here, as is the eventual reveal that he’s the ship’s captain.
— Very strong cold opening overall. One of my favorite cold openings of this season.
STARS: ****½


OPENING MONTAGE
— As usual, the cast announcements are done by a pre-recorded Don Pardo (he officially stopped announcing live after season 35). However, by the time we get to the musical guest/host announcements tonight, Don’s voice is suddenly replaced by the voice of Bill Hader imitating him (and not very well) for the remainder of the opening montage. Very sloppy. Did SNL seriously expect us NOT to notice the sudden drastic, jarring change in announcer voices during the last quarter of the opening montage? Why didn’t they just have Bill do the announcements for the entire montage instead of just the musical guest and host portion?
— The reason for Don’s absence tonight is because he injured himself at his home (I think I recall hearing he fell down the stairs). This injury puts him out of work for this and the following two episodes.


MONOLOGUE
host weathers German characters & sings “Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!” variant

— A funny “Who’s on first?” spoof from Kate and Bobby’s German stereotype characters.
— I love Taran’s walk-on as Casual Hitler.
— Christoph Waltz, just now: “Just let me sing a song.” Me: (*groan*) And after a somewhat promising first half of this monologue, too.
— Ironic how the last two episodes prior to this, which were both hosted by singers (Adam Levine, Justin Bieber), didn’t have a musical monologue, but tonight’s actor-hosted episode does have one.
— Ugh, and here comes several cast members playing backup dancers, one of my least favorite tropes of a typical musical monologue, which itself is one of my least favorite tropes.
STARS: **½


WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?
game show contestants win painful self-awareness

— Awkward audio gaffe when the sound of an audience shouting the game show’s title doesn’t play until the “come!” part of “What Have You Become!”
— Good premise for a game show sketch.
— I love Aidy initially going against the premise of this game show by not having the required emotional breakdown when asked “What have you become?”, then suddenly having the emotional breakdown after the happy facade she puts on. You know, until covering this season, I had remembered Aidy having a slightly rough and invisible first season, though with some flashes of promise here and there. The summer after this season ended, there were even some online SNL fans who said they wouldn’t be surprised if Aidy didn’t make it to the next season. (Imagine an alternate universe in which Aidy ended up a one-season wonder and Tim Robinson is currently in his 9th season as a cast member, as of 2020.) But re-watching this season lately, I’ve been discovering that 1) aside from the first few episodes, Aidy hasn’t been struggling for airtime anywhere near as much as I had remembered, and 2) there’s been a lot of really good moments from her where she already feels kinda fully-formed. Maybe part of that is hindsight, knowing the solid cast member she’d go on to be after having her breakout season the following year (which is where I originally started really liking her, particularly after that Cartoon Catchphrase game show sketch from that season’s Kerry Washington episode).
— Solid turn with an elderly relative of each contestant being brought out to question them further.
— There’s that always-funny Cowardly Lion-esque deep-voiced crying from Bill in yet another sketch.
— Yet another great turn in this sketch, with Christoph having a reflection of his own life after Aidy sternly asks him what has he become. I also love Christoph’s imitation of his mother insisting on him becoming a game show host.
STARS: ****


PAPAL SECURITIES
Papal Securities gives Pope Benedict (host) exclusive retirement advice

— Good casting of Christoph here.
— Funny shot of Christoph-as-the-Pope’s groceries falling through the bottom of his grocery bags.
— I love the “No other testimonials available” part while the camera just shows an empty chair.
— Fun montage of Christoph as the Pope happily doing everyday things.
— An overall quiet but solid and well-done little commercial.
STARS: ****


TIPPY
at a party, Tippy (NAP) fails to get in sync with conversational rhythm

— As I mentioned in my review of the season 21 Laura Leighton episode (link here), Nasim would later do a sketch that feels suspiciously similar to the Party sketch that Cheri Oteri starred in (as a now-obscure character named Roberta) in that Leighton episode. Well, we’ve now arrived at the Nasim sketch in question. Also, odd how this is the second consecutive episode in which Nasim reminds me of Cheri, as Nasim gave a rather Oteri-esque performance in the preceding episode’s Principal Frye sketch.
— As I’m watching this sketch now, I’m not finding it to be quite as similar to Cheri’s Party sketch as I used to feel. The structure and format of both sketches are basically the same, but, aside from the social awkwardness, the characterization Nasim’s using for her Tippy character here is different enough from Cheri’s Roberta. In fact, this Tippy character feels far more like an adult version of Nasim’s own Bedelia character.
— Despite how derivative and one-note this character feels, Nasim has some funny lines throughout this sketch, and she’s always really good at playing characters like this.
STARS: ***


DJESUS UNCROSSED
Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie has Biblical revenge

— A classic.
— I love how the cross tied to Djesus’ back actually adds to his badass look and demeanor.
— Such a fantastic and ballsy premise, and excellent execution of it.
— Fred: “(*exclaiming in an aghast manner*) Jesus H. Christ!” Djesus: “The ‘h’ is silent. (*proceeds to immediately split Fred’s head open in half with one clean swipe of his sword*)”
— An absolutely spot-on and well-done parody of violent Quentin Tarantino movies.
— Djesus: “When you get to heaven, say hi to my dad.”
— One of the critic reviews we’re shown: “I never knew how much Jesus used the n-word.”
STARS: *****


NOW IS THE TIME FOR A TICKLE FIGHT, HE HE!
sexy singing sibling trio comprises (KET), (JAP), dorky & adopted (host)

— Christoph is very fun as the out-of-place third JaMarcus brother.
— Some laughs from how the listed-off song titles make it obvious which of the JaMarcus brothers came up with which.
— Throughout this sketch, Kenan is clearly very amused by Christoph’s performance.
— The “He He!” at the end of the CD title that’s revealed towards the end of the sketch made me laugh.
— Solid ending line, with Taran’s slyly-delivered “I couldn’t get a boner right now if I tried.”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hold On”


WEEKEND UPDATE
State Of The Union rebuttal redux finds Marco Rubio (TAK) still thirsty

Olya Povlatsky (KAM) wishes she’d been hit by the Chelyabinsk meteor

Stephen A. Smith (JAP) claims personal insight into the Lakers’ prospects

— The exaggeratedly gaspy, dry voice Taran’s Marco Rubio suddenly speaks in when in need of water is absolutely PRICELESS.
— Taran’s commentary continues to be a very funny spoof of Marco Rubio’s infamous rebuttal speech from that week.
— Taran is so damn good here. As I said about some other Taran-starring things before, I remember it was stuff like this that made me so excited at the time for Taran to be the future of SNL, as I was under the impression back then that he’d go on to eventually carry the show as the Will Ferrell-esque leader of the cast.
— The debut of Kate’s Olya Povlatsky. I’m kinda surprised to see this, as I misremembered this character debuting the following season.
— Kate is solid in her performance as this character, and has some good lines.
— Meh, Kate’s Olya Povlatsky commentary is now devolving into jokes about her country being years behind on American pop culture, a tired, overused, and hacky SNL trope.
— Seth’s interjections during the Povlatsky commentary are quite annoying. At one point, he also noticeably reacted too early to an answer she gave him.
— Blah, another Stephen A. Smith commentary. Didn’t care for this the first time.
— Shortly after reviewing the previous Stephen A. Smith commentary that Jay did earlier this season, I actually checked out a few YouTube clips of the real Stephen A. Smith (I’m more familiar with him as just a frequently-used meme nowadays), and he really does go off on over-the-top screamy rants like this. However, that doesn’t automatically make Jay’s imitation funny. (In fact, I find Smith’s actual rants funnier.) And these commentaries that Jay does as him are way too one-note.
— I did get a chuckle just now from the way Jay said, during an aside to Seth, “–by professional terrorists…or dominatrix, you know, you know.”
— There goes Jay’s penchant for both flubbing his lines AND cracking up at himself.
STARS: ***


LOVING COUPLE
(host)’s friends find his affectionate new girlfriend Regine off-putting

— (*sigh*) All I’ve got to say about initially seeing the return of Fred’s absolutely dreadful Regine character is that there’s thankfully only three more months this season until Fred finally gets the hell off the show.
— This sketch is using the exact same straight men from the previous Regine sketch (Bill, Vanessa, Aidy, and Tim), yet they all act like this is the first time they’re meeting Regine. It’s always a pet peeve of mine when recurring sketches in the late 2000s/early 2010s years do stuff like this, such as how the same straight men characters that appear in every single one of Kristen Wiig’s Sexy Shana sketches always act like they haven’t already been through what they’re experiencing from her.
— Ugh, cue the usual “Watch her face while I (insert sensual action here)” bits, which, as I said in my review of the first installment of this sketch, are just an excuse for Fred to obnoxiously mug in the worst way possible and try to crack up his scene partners, mainly Bill.
— A rare instance of breaking from Vanessa (who notably was the only performer to keep a straight face in the Super Showcase sketch from the preceding season’s Maya Rudolph episode.)
— Ugh, now cue the other trademark of this sketch. with Fred spreading his legs and letting us see up his skirt, which has actually become a trademark for Fred’s drag roles in general lately.
— Aaaaaand now cue our usual season 38 instance of Fallon/Sanz-esque self-indulgent cracking up between Fred and Bill. Yeah, just end this mess of a sketch already before my brain melts completely.
STARS: *


FOX & FRIENDS
Barack Obama is panned while Ted Nugent (BIH) is acclaimed

— Very unusual how this recurring sketch is airing so late in the show. The same thing happened in the preceding episode, where the Miley Cyrus Show sketch was surprisingly buried fairly late in the show. Back at this time in 2013, I took these things as one of many signs that SNL was (refreshingly) trying to downplay recurring sketches this season.
— Bobby’s Brian Kilmeade, on why he didn’t watch the State Of The Union address: “There was a bee in my apartment, and it turned into this whole thing, so…”
— A good laugh from the fake “hidden message” in the backwards-played video clip from Obama’s State Of The Union.
— Pretty funny bit from Bill’s Ted Nugent on how to spot a crazy person. The rest of his interview, however, isn’t standing out much to me.
— Bobby’s Kilmeade: “One time in fifth grade, I ate a seahorse. They still won’t let me back into THAT aquarium.”
— I’m not 100% sure, but I think I recall hearing Fred’s role was played by Christoph in dress rehearsal. With Christoph not being in the live version of this sketch, that makes this a rare post-2010 sketch that doesn’t have the host in it.
— Didn’t they already use “Bruno Mars is from Earth” in a list of fact corrections in a previous Fox & Friends sketch?
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always Alright”


SECRET ADMIRER LETTER
(CES) misses obvious signs co-worker (host) is her creepy secret admirer

— Christoph looks so Christopher Walken-esque here (I swear I remember once seeing Walken in that exact same wig/glasses combo during a sketch), and even the voice, foreign accent, and delivery he’s using sounds just like a character voice Walken would use in a sketch.
— A very solid straight man performance from Cecily here.
— Christoph, to Kenan, on one of the creepy things Cecily received: “Ben, I’m looking at you on this one.” Kenan: “And I’m lookin’ right back at you, buddy.”
— I’m really liking this Walken-esque creepy, oddball character for Christoph. I wish he was utilized in that type of role more often tonight, given the potential he had to be a Walken/John Malkovich/Steve Buscemi-type “lovable creep” host in general.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A (mostly) consistent episode, and the first solid episode of the 2013 half of this season. A very welcome sight after this was preceded by two mediocre episodes with less-than-stellar non-actor hosts. Aside from that Regine dreck and the second half of the monologue, every single segment tonight worked for me, and several of them were strong, one being an all-time favorite of mine (Djesus Uncrossed).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Djesus Uncrossed
Carnival Cruise Ship Triumph
Papal Securities
What Have You Become?
Secret Admirer Letter
Fox & Friends
Now Is The Time For A Tickle Fight, He He!
Tippy
Weekend Update
Monologue
Loving Couple


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Justin Bieber)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kevin Hart

Posted on

February 9, 2013 – Justin Bieber (S38 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SUPER BOWL XLVII
Super Bowl power outage leads to dawdling CBS coverage & a low-rent ad

— I love Kenan’s delivery of his question, “No? It’s been less than one minute?!?”
— Some pretty good laughs from the dire attempts at killing time.
— Very funny dark bit with Jay’s Shannon Sharpe hypothesizing that the players are thinking, “Who on the team should we eat first?”
— The extremely random, odd dancing commercial with Bill is hilarious, and steals this cold opening.
— Jay’s confession about Ray Lewis is great.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & Whoopi Goldberg [real] mix Valentine’s Day & Black History Month

— (*sigh*) Welp, here we go.
— I remember an article pointing out that Justin Bieber’s new hairstyle the week of this episode was similar-looking to the hairstyle Vanilla Ice had when he was a musical guest on SNL in the early 90s (side-by-side comparisons below).

       

Yeesh, now I’m imagining what it would’ve been like if Vanilla Ice hosted SNL in the early 90s. Oof. Not sure if that would’ve been better or even worse than Bieber hosting in 2013. Imagining utmost professionals like Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks being forced to do sketches with Vanilla Ice makes me cringe. I know early 90s SNL got a surprisingly decent episode out of an M.C. Hammer hosting stint, but to me, Hammer’s not as much of an embarrassment as Ice is. However, I could at least see a “So bad, it’s good” quality coming from a Vanilla Ice-hosted episode, which is more than I can say for a Bieber-hosted episode.
— Funny brief appearance from then-writer Mike O’Brien.
— The Black History Month/Valentine’s Day premise is admittedly not bad, but I’m not caring for Bieber’s delivery of it. Kenan, in a mere supporting role, is carrying this whole thing on his back. This monologue would be NOTHING without him.
— There’s our obligatory singing from Bieber in this monologue, though it’s thankfully brief instead of the main focus of this monologue.
— I said this in a previous review, but, boy, I never could stand Bieber’s attempts to always talk in a phony “urban” voice (which is another similarity he has to Vanilla Ice). It especially annoys the hell out of me during the portion of this monologue where he says, in regards to Valentine’s Day, “This year, we’re gonna do it right, celebrate it right.”
— Random Whoopi Goldberg.
— Spoke too soon about Bieber’s singing being thankfully brief earlier in this monologue, as he sings again just now, but it turns out to be thankfully brief again.
STARS: **


THE CALIFORNIANS
a runaway (host) & an art exhibit occupy Stuart’s home

— Oh, you’re killin’ me, SNL. As if Bieber hosting this episode wasn’t torture enough, this episode has to break out one of the most wretched recurring sketches in the show’s history? And place it as the lead-off sketch of the night??? Is SNL trying to do everything to drive me away from this episode???
— (*sigh*) Cue all of the usual unbearable beats of this recurring sketch that never fail to leave me stone-faced.
— I kinda chuckled at how the final camera-showing-a-mock-dramatic-close-up-of-each-character sequence ends with the camera showing a whole bunch of mock-dramatic close-ups of Bill from different camera angles (the last few above screencaps for this sketch), though I wanted to find it funnier than I did.
STARS: *½


BIEBER DOUBLES
host’s head of security (JAS) presents a dozen unconvincing body doubles

— Very funny reveal of the entire cast playing Bieber doubles.
— Bieber, regarding his doubles: “Some of them are black, they’re not fooling anybody.” Jason: “Yeah, well, neither are you, homie.”
— Taran’s imitation of Bieber’s singing voice is fun.
— Despite supposedly being a good sport to do this sketch, Bieber’s straight man performance is very off-putting to me. I’m not convinced at all that he’s a good sport. Yeah, sorry, Biebs, but, despite your efforts, you’re still giving off major douchey vibes here.
— I love Taran saying “I guess they dropped” after hearing Bieber’s deeper singing voice.
— Bieber: “Those moves are retar– (*cuts himself off and does a brief facepalm in frustration over his gaffe*)…ugh…those moves are stupid.” Geez, did he really almost say the word that it sounded like he was going to say? In the year 2013???
— Jason’s reaction to finding out Saddam Hussein was killed is priceless.
— Good gag with Kate’s Ellen DeGeneres being mistaken for one of the Bieber doubles. And I have to point out the irony of how Kate’s the only cast member (besides Jason) who doesn’t play a Bieber double in this sketch, given the fact that she would later famously go on to regularly play Bieber on the show.
STARS: ***½


BRAVO
nobodies on the margins of fame populate myriad Real Housewives spinoffs

— “Danessa”???
— There’s our obligatory hacky gay humor in the scene with Bobby.
— This may be an accurate spoof of Bravo reality shows in general, but I’m not finding myself laughing, especially not at the lame Real Houseplants of Beverly Hills bit.
— Yeah, this is getting worse and worse as it goes along. I especially hate the scene with Jason, Bill, and Bieber, and not even because of Bieber himself.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & Dan Kanter [real] perform “As Long As You Love Me”

— Future cast member Kyle Mooney making an early appearance as Bieber’s guitarist??? (screencap above) I’m kidding, but that guitarist sure looks like Kyle at certain angles.


WEEKEND UPDATE
Richard III’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up (FRA) & (VAB) badmouth him via sotto voce

Corey (KET) is the fun, nonthreatening black guy in every commercial

— (*The Two Best Friends From Growing Up appear*) OH, KILL ME. It’s official, tonight’s episode is intentionally bringing out my least favorite recurring pieces of these early 2010s years. In regards to that, I just have to thank God Kristen Wiig is gone by this point.
— Seth, saying the same damn thing he says during every one of these wretched Two Best Friends commentaries: “I can’t hear you guys.” Oh, shut up, Seth.
— A Steven Seagal joke in a Justin Bieber-hosted episode? Ha, a very fitting coincidence, given Seagal and Bieber’s reputation as hosts.
— Kenan is great and very spot-on as the black guy from every Super Bowl commercial. I especially like the reveal that he’ll die if he doesn’t high-five every 12 seconds. Too bad Seth is just as amused by Kenan’s commentary as I am. I never cared for Seth’s habit of laughing openly and loudly during some guest commentaries.
— A lot of Seth’s jokes tonight aren’t doing a whole lot for me, though some of the ones that are working are actually very strong.
STARS: **½


50’S ROMANCE
high schooler (CES) & preteen (host) recount date a la “Summer Nights”

— I like Aidy’s delivery of the “Wow, he doesn’t know how…doors work???” line.
— Tim’s facial expressions throughout this sketch whenever the guys are hamming it up in unison are very funny.
— Some fairly funny reveals from Cecily on what questionable, childish things Bieber did during their date.
— Another well-delivered line from Aidy: “I feel like I have to say something…”, and then opting to restrain herself and instead just say “It’s gonna be what it’s gonna be.”
STARS: ***


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Miley Cyrus’ (VAB) fan club president (host) is fawning

— The first appearance this recurring sketch has made in over a year, and this ends up being its final appearance. It’s also been revamped and updated in tonight’s installment, to match Miley Cyrus’ new, more adult style.
— Odd how this recurring sketch is buried so late in tonight’s episode. All of the previous installments of this sketch aired in the first half of their respective episodes, most of those installments being in the lead-off spot.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Jason-as-Billy-Ray-Cyrus’ facial reaction to Vanessa-as-Miley’s “adult” butthole joke (the fourth above screencap for this sketch).
— Pretty cringeworthy seeing Bieber try to play a dorky character.
— Bieber’s character, when talking about Justin Bieber himself: “He looks like a f– a lesbian!” Okay, much like Bieber’s aforementioned “r” word slip-up in the Bieber Doubles sketch, did he cut himself off from dropping an f-bomb here?
— Cue the lame attempt at meta humor with Bieber doing the obligatory “celebrity humorously defends themselves while playing a character” gag, which this recurring sketch did better when the real Miley Cyrus herself previously appeared in this sketch.
— After Bieber’s character’s meta comment about Justin Bieber himself being sorry for smoking weed, I did get a laugh from Vanessa’s Miley responding to that with a sarcastic-but-cheery “Yeah, right, me too!”
— Taran even has the ability to get a good laugh just from saying “I do” in a dignified British accent.
— Ugh at Bieber’s exaggerated, hammy pointing gestures towards Vanessa’s Miley (the last above screencap for this sketch) while she’s singing the closing theme song. Beyond annoying.
— Overall, despite a few highlights and a fairly interesting updated format, this was far from the best way for this recurring sketch to go out.
STARS: **


PROTECTIVE BROTHER
(host)’s girlfriend’s (NAP) brother Eddie (TAK) mocks his verbal slip-up

— Some decent laughs from Taran’s initial grilling of Bieber over his “glice” slip-up, before the “I’m messing with you!” reveal.
— Ha, are they seriously basing an entire sketch on the stupid “glice” slip-up? I find that fact both kinda amusing and very worrying.
— Taran’s doing his damnedest to make the best out of this thin-as-hell, very questionable material. His attempts are sorta working for me, but my feelings are mixed.
— Great angry outburst from Jason to Taran, and I love his furious delivery of the term “horse’s ass!”, which is quite reminiscent of how Will Ferrell said it at one point of the Sensitive Drill Sergeant sketch from back in the day.
— Ugh at the part with Taran complimenting Bieber’s physical features while forcefully positioning Bieber’s face towards the camera, as these compliments are clearly just designed to pander to screaming Bieber fans in the audience, who have refused to shut up all night, screaming at every little thing Bieber does in every single sketch.
— Speaking of Will Ferrell-esque line deliveries, I like how Taran yelling “I HAVE THE ARMS OF A BAT!” was very Ferrell-esque in both the line itself and Taran’s delivery of it.
STARS: **½


A SEXY VALENTINE’S DAY MESSAGE FROM JUSTIN BIEBER
manchild Taco (BOM) is present during host’s sexy Valentine’s Day message

— Funny reveal of Bobby as a much-needed comic relief character in what was initially a Bieber solo piece (yuck).
— Some okay random, oddball humor here, and it probably helps that this is pre-taped, but I’m still not finding this all that great.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & Dan Kanter [real] perform “Nothing Like Us”


VALENTINE’S DANCE
Principal Frye maintains order during abstinence-themed Valentine’s dance

— Another cringeworthy attempt from Bieber at playing a dork.
— The gag with Jay’s microphone not working when he’s trying to say his usual “Attention, teachers and stuuudents”, then him being handed a new microphone was seemingly a scripted gag, but it came off like a real blooper with the way it was executed.
— It turns out that Bieber actually isn’t all that bad in this sketch. However, I really could’ve done without him ending his first scene in this by doing that intentionally bad rapping.
— A cliched gag with one person in an abstinent couple being very on-edge from their abstinence, which SNL has already done several times prior to this. However, I do like Nasim’s execution of it here. Also, her performance, especially her delivery, is coming off quite Cheri Oteri-esque.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Definitely a rough episode. While certainly not an outright disaster like one would expect a Justin Bieber-hosted episode to be, I gave a majority of this episode’s segments a rating below three stars, and nothing got a rating above three-and-a-half stars. Easily the weakest episode of this season so far, managing to bump the preceding Adam Levine-hosted episode from that spot. And it goes without saying what an unbearable and unfunny host Justin Bieber was. Aside from a few segments towards the end of the show, I couldn’t shake that unlikable vibe that I got from him right from his monologue. He was especially unlikable in what I otherwise found to be the best sketch of the night by default (Bieber Doubles). Knowing the backstage horror stories from the week of this episode that Bill Hader would later share about Bieber made it even more difficult for me to NOT get a douchey vibe from Bieber all night.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bieber Doubles
Super Bowl XLVII
Valentine’s Dance
50’s Romance
Weekend Update
A Sexy Valentine’s Day Message From Justin Bieber
Protective Brother
The Miley Cyrus Show
Monologue
The Californians
Bravo


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Adam Levine)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christoph Waltz

Posted on

January 26, 2013 – Adam Levine / Kendrick Lamar (S38 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

INAUGURATION NIGHT
Martin Luther King Jr. (KET) visits re-inaugurated Barack Obama (JAP) to ask about Beyonce

— An okay concept of Martin Luther King vising President Obama right after his inauguration.
— Kenan’s pulling this off pretty well.
— Kenan-as-MLK’s line about a first black magician gave me a good laugh.
— Nice segue to LFNY.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
ANS, Cameron Diaz, Jerry Seinfeld [real] vie to be host’s comedy coach

— Good to see Andy Samberg in his first cameo after leaving SNL.
— Andy is as funny as ever here, especially his self-deprecating line, “I was in over 100 Digital Shorts as well as 3 live sketches.”
— Adam Levine, to Cameron Diaz, after she suggests he take his shirt off: “When you hosted, did you take your shirt off?” Cameron doesn’t answer that, but she actually did take her shirt off in at least one hosting stint, in the Woo The Musical sketch from her season 30 episode.
— Andy’s even managing to make some of the cheap homoerotic humor that he’s been given here come off funny.
— Jerry Seinfeld is fine here, even if this isn’t quite the way I’d prefer him to be utilized in a cameo.
— Blah at the non-comedic ending with Adam disrobing, not to mention how shamelessly unnecessary and pandering it came off.
STARS: ***


ROSETTA STONE
creeps (BIH), (BOM), (TAK) use Rosetta Stone to prepare for Thailand trip

— Is Bill intentionally doing a thinly-veiled variation of his John Mark Karr impression? He’s using the same voice and is even wearing what appears to be the same outfit.
— Pretty funny conceit with pervs wanting to use Rosetta Stone for their visit to Thailand.
STARS: ***


CIRCLE WORK WITH TRACY ALLSTAR & TODD ANTHONY
advice of (KET) & (host) comes from a homosexual perspective

— Boy, these James Anderson-written gay-centric sketches are so damn tired and cliched by this point of his tenure as a writer. Not that I’m sure there was ever a stretch of time where his gay-centric sketches were consistently good. He’s probably had a few isolated instances of writing actual good gay-centric stuff, but this sketch sure as hell ain’t one of them.
— Ugh at the part with Kenan slowly spelling out the whole “gay goose parade” statement.
— Very cute performance from Vanessa, who’s the only bright spot I’m finding in this mess.
STARS: *½


THE SOPRANOS DIARIES
The Sopranos Diaries reboots the mob drama in a 1980s high school setting

— Funny concept for a The Carrie Diaries spoof.
— I love Tim’s goofy, easy-going facial expressions as the principal.
— A laugh from one of the magazine reviews pointing out how implausible it is for these Sopranos characters to have been in high school in the 80s.
— From what little we can see of the sweater that Fred’s wearing under his blazer, it looks like the same sweater that was previously worn by both Chris Farley in the How Much Ya Bench sketch from season 19 and Bill in the Good Morning Meth sketch from season 31 (comparisons below).

   

— Funny reveal of a pole dancer having been on Tony Soprano and his friends’ cafeteria lunch table all this time.
— Showing how diminished Fred’s airtime has been this season in general, this pre-tape ends up being his only appearance all night. Certainly no complaints from me.
STARS: ***½


FIREHOUSE INCIDENT
drama queen’s (BIH) ex (NAP) leads him to shriek at his fellow firemen

— Hmm, between that Circle Work sketch and now Bill’s super effeminate character here, I’m sensing a theme in tonight’s episode.
— An extremely over-the-top performance from Bill to end all extremely over-the-top performances. But, dammit, he’s making me laugh my ass off. It helps that we pretty much never see Bill go THIS over-the-top, thus making it a novelty. It also helps if you imagine that this over-the-top performance is Bill basically channeling his inner Jim Carrey, and not channeling his inner Kristen Wiig (the latter of which I recall some online SNL fans implying back at this time in 2013, saying this felt too much like a typical annoying, over-the-top Wiig performance). Yet another thing helping this sketch is the fact that it thankfully never becomes recurring, because as much as I’m enjoying this as a one-time sketch, there is NO FUCKING WAY I would ever want this to become a recurring sketch.
— Ha, even the extremely-deep-voiced “Release the beating” (or whatever that voice said) at the beginning of the song that Bill dances to is cracking me up.
— The part with the dog attack is absolutely killing me. Man, this sketch is freakin’ INSANE.
— I love Bill’s way of saying the name “Rula” throughout this sketch.
— An actual punchline at the end. Not sure if it worked for me or not, though.
STARS: ****


YOLO
ANS, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone [real], host & musical guest promote extreme caution; Danny McBride cameo

— The first Lonely Island Digital Short after its retirement with Lazy Sunday 2 in Andy’s final episode as a cast member.
— Ha, random Danny McBride sighting, snorting coke in a club.
— The usual fun and catchy Lonely Island song, funny visual accompaniment, and excellent production values, even if 1) this particular one is far from a classic, and 2) the presence of Lonely Island Digital Shorts wasn’t exactly missed this season, with all the strong short films SNL’s been doing without them.
— “There’s no such thing as too much Purell”? Boy, that lyric hits differently in 2020 than it did when I originally watched this in 2013.
— The visual of Andy randomly getting choked by a flying blanket gave me an especially good laugh.
— Nice interlude from Kendrick Lamar, and I especially like the brief cutaway to him dressed as a middle-aged financial advisor.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swimming Pools”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Arianna Huffington (NAP) supports Hillary Clinton & women in combat

before the Super Bowl, emotional Ray Lewis (KET) sees divine influence

— Despite some funny lines, tonight’s overall Arianna Huffington commentary unfortunately wasn’t anywhere near as strong as usual. I did like the Wives With Knives bit towards the end, though.
— Meh, not much funny material in Kenan’s Ray Lewis commentary, despite a good performance from him.
— Hmm, interesting touch at the end after Seth’s sign-off, where Kenan returns to continue doing the Ray Lewis dance in front of the Update desk.
— The guest portion of tonight’s overall Update was pretty disappointing, and a few of Seth’s jokes didn’t do much for me either.
STARS: **½


RUMBLE
in a bar, host rumbles musically with Pat Monahan (TAK) & other crooners

— At the beginning of this sketch, did I just hear an off-camera voice cue an extra to leave by whispering “Go”?
— Pretty funny premise of a bar fight between Maroon 5 and Train.
— Good bit with the old guy who Taran’s Pat Monahan is trying to make look like him.
— I think I remember someone once saying that Aidy’s brief appearance being used as a human shield in this sketch was rather demeaning and was a sign that she wasn’t “making it” as a cast member.
— Jason’s entrance as Jason Mraz is hilarious.
— Adam’s timing is off during a lot of portions of this sketch, with quite a number of long delays before he speaks.
— Not sure how I feel about Vanessa’s intentional overacting throughout this sketch.
— Meh, I’m starting to get tired of all the entrances from various similar singers. This sketch in general is beginning to somewhat fizzle out for me, after having a promising start.
— Okay, Kenan is pretty funny right now as Darius Rucker, at least.
STARS: **½


CATFISH: THE TV SHOW
Nev Schulman (host) proves that (AIB) was duped by (JAP) online

— A laugh from the photo of Brian Williams’ head photoshopped onto a buff, shirtless body.
— Blah, I’m already sick of the smug demeanor that Adam’s using as the Catfish host, regardless of if it’s an accurate portrayal of the Catfish host or not (I’ve never seen Catfish, the movie nor the TV show). Those long pauses and self-amused laughing he keeps intentionally doing in character are just plain unfunny.
— During the “Coming up next” preview, I got a big laugh from Aidy’s whole “Is this reaction positive or negative? You can’t tell!” bit. While, as I said earlier, I’ve never seen Catfish, I’ve seen enough of certain other reality shows to know that Aidy’s “Is this reaction positive or negative?” bit is a spot-on spoof of “Coming up next” previews on reality shows in general.
— Another solid Aidy moment, as I absolutely love her exaggerated delivery of “Aw, dang! What the heck?!? I got Catfished!”
— There’s something about the pacing or atmosphere of this sketch that I’m not digging all that much.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Poetic Justice”


ADAM AND JANET
after a concert, host is the latest unlikely conquest for stocky Janet

— The second and final on-air appearance of Bobby’s Janet Peckinpaugh character. There would later be a cut-after-dress-rehearsal installment from the following season’s Andrew Garfield episode that would be posted online.
— I like the extremely random Law & Order bit at the beginning of the apartment scene.
— Nice continuity with Bobby’s Janet mentioning having a previous encounter with Tom Brady, which is referring to her sketch from the preceding season.
— Like last time, Bobby’s managing to make this potentially-hacky-and-annoying drag role actually work for me. To me, this character is kinda like an actual funny version of Horatio Sanz’s Carol character. What’s NOT working for me is Adam’s performance, as well as his constant little ad-libs. Have I made it obvious enough by this point of my review how much I haven’t been caring for Adam as a host?
STARS: ***


BIDEN BASH
Joe Biden (JAS) is having an unextravagant inauguration bash in Delaware

— A fun-seeming showcase for Jason’s always-fun Joe Biden.
— Great bit with Jason’s Biden imitating Macho Man Randy Savage. Other than that, I haven’t been laughing quite as much at this commercial as I expected to. Jason’s trying his best with somewhat throwaway material that he’s been given.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty blah-feeling episode as a whole, and easily my least favorite episode of this season so far. The fact that the only sketch that received an above-average rating from me was a very polarizing sketch centered entirely around an intentionally annoying, over-the-top performance (Firehouse Incident) kinda speaks volumes of this episode. Thinking back on it, however, I actually liked most of the stuff in the first half of this episode, aside from that Circle Work dreck. But once Weekend Update began, the show started to have an “off” feel that it sadly never really recovered from. Aside from the Janet Peckinpaugh sketch (and even that had its issues), I didn’t care too much for any of the segments in the second half of this episode, starting with Update. It also didn’t help that that was the half of the show where Adam Levine’s performances started kinda bugging me. I take it he’s better in small doses, as I usually find him decent in the brief sketch appearance or two he typically makes whenever Maroon 5 is the musical guest. Him as a full-on host of an episode, on the other hand? NO. Hell, even something about how his goodnights speech was oddly brief, overly generic, and didn’t thank the cast seemed a little off-putting, but I’m probably looking too much into that.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Firehouse Incident
YOLO
The Sopranos Diaries
Inauguration Night
Rosetta Stone
Monologue
Adam and Janet
Biden Bash
Rumble
Weekend Update
Catfish: The TV Show
Circle Work with Tracy Allstar & Todd Anthony


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Lawrence)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Justin Bieber hosts in an apparent attempt to give this Adam Levine episode a run for its money in the “My least favorite episode of this season” department

Posted on

January 19, 2013 – Jennifer Lawrence / The Lumineers (S38 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT
Lance Armstrong (JAS) doesn’t quite apologize

— Jason is very funny as an unlikable, douchey Lance Armstrong who’s showing no real remorse for his bad actions.
— Bobby is hilarious in his imitation of Manti Te’o’s frequently-seen stunned facial expression while his scandal was going on at this time.
— Kate-as-Jodie-Foster’s opening statement: “I can stretch and kick and stretch and I’m 50!” Uh, okay. Extremely random meta Sally O’Malley reference.
— As usual, Kate’s Jodie Foster is funny, as is her constant coming-out-of-the-closet fake-outs.
— I’m glad Taran has toned down the stammering as Piers Morgan, as he was a little too reliant on that in previous Piers Morgan sketches.
— This overall cold opening felt refreshingly somewhat short, though looking at the length of it right now, it was actually almost 6 minutes long. I wonder why it felt much shorter than that to me.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Interestingly, the audience’s applause is mixed in louder during tonight’s opening montage than it usually is in episodes from season 12 and beyond. You can hear a varying round of applause for each cast member and guest announced tonight, which was something I always liked about SNL before season 12, as it gave you an idea of which members of the cast were most popular with the general audience (Eddie Murphy being the most standout example, as the audience would always absolutely ROAR with loud cheers whenever his photo would come up in the opening montage during the 1982-1984 years). The cast members who receive the most applause in tonight’s opening montage are Bill Hader, Taran Killam, Seth Meyers, and Jason Sudeikis, the latter two especially. I’m honestly surprised about Taran, as he’s only in his third season at this time, his first season as a repertory player, and he’s the only one of those four cast members who’s not a veteran.


MONOLOGUE
in advance of the Oscars, host trash-talks fellow Best Actress nominees

— Funny cutaways to Bill as a humorless, stone-faced Tommy Lee Jones, spoofing the reaction that the real Tommy Lee Jones was shown having to a bit that SNL’s own Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig did together at the then-recent Golden Globes.
— A pretty fun conceit with Jennifer Lawrence trash-talking her fellow Oscar nominees. The actual slams that Jennifer’s delivering towards the nominees aren’t all that funny in themselves, but she’s selling them with her delivery and general demeanor.
— It’s refreshing to finally see a non-musical monologue, after having four straight episodes of them.
STARS: ***


VERISMO
Starbucks’ robobarista Verismo brings coffee & bad customer service home

— Vanessa’s always good at playing characters who smile awkwardly-but-kindly through their uncomfortableness.
— A fairly funny concept, and an accurate spoof of bad customer service at Starbucks.
— I’m not sure how I feel about Cecily doing the voice of what seems to be a stereotypical black character (Verquonica), which I highly doubt she’d do today in 2020.
STARS: ***


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
new-in-school punk rocker (host) drives a wedge

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Jennifer’s good as this typical “edgy”, too-cool-for-the-room teenage girl.
— Ha, I was wondering why Aidy’s wearing that thick motherly-looking coat, which looks odd on what’s supposed to be a teenage character, and now they addressed it.
— I love Aidy’s intentionally-awkward delivery of “Okay, so I do…so…cool it.”
— Another well-delivered Aidy line, with her bitterly telling Jennifer, “You WISH you pooped little pellets!”
— Yet another hilariously-delivered line from Aidy, this time her responding to Jennifer asking her if she’s a cougar by sardonically saying, “Uh, no, I’m not a cougar! Do these human fingers look like paws?!?”
— Overall, this recurring sketch continues to do well, and tonight’s installment thankfully wasn’t much of a carbon copy of the first one. Hopefully, this freshness can continue in subsequent installments.
STARS: ***½


POST HUNGER GAMES NEWS CONFERENCE
Katniss (host) & Peeta (TAK) field questions at postgame press conference

— Tim is very funny during his little part (his first live speaking role in three episodes, by the way).
— Funny bit from Jay.
— Bill’s mere facial expression in that odd-looking beard is cracking me up.
— Ehhh, the joke of a short guy revealing he’s been standing all this time was already used earlier this season in the Katt Williams commentary that Jay did on Weekend Update.
— I love Bobby’s delivery of “When you shave, can I eat your beard?!?”
STARS: ***


MORE HOBBIT
The Hobbit’s tale will be stretched thin during 18 additional movies

— When introducing a clip from the “The elf queen tries to pick an outfit” Hobbit movie, the voice-over announces the title of it as “Hobbit 8”, but the actual title that’s displayed onscreen for that clip says “Hobbit 10”. Very odd.
— Some of the comically-generic, relatable scenarios being used for these Hobbit movies are decent, but some are kinda meh and “whatever”, especially that “For The Longest Time” gag, which is such a cliched gag that I’ve already seen other shows previously do (I think Family Guy was one of them).
— A big laugh from the “S#!t Vision” bit.
— Yikes, a big technical gaffe during the Ikea Dresser scene, where the screen keeps accidentally freezing repeatedly when the punchline of the scene is being delivered, causing the scene to die a sad death by the time the freezing finally stops. It’s simultaneously uncomfortable and humorous hearing the audience’s awkward reactions during this whole technical gaffe. At one point, it sounds like you can even hear an audience member go “Awww” in a deflated manner in reaction to the screen freezing mid-punchline. Also, this whole technical gaffe is kinda reminiscent of the technical gaffe that happened during the Taco Town commercial from the season 31 Jon Heder episode, in which the commercial accidentally got interrupted at one point by a very random exterior shot of a funeral home for a few seconds (which was intended for a sketch airing much later that night).
STARS: **½


JOHNNY TWO TONES
menacing waitress (host) goes beyond charmingly-mean vibe of theme diner

— A laugh from how the required insult that Jennifer’s supposed-to-be charmingly-snarky 1950s waitress says is just a blunt, unenergetic, and uncreative “You’re stupid” and “And I hate you”, and then she just walks away.
— Bobby’s reaction to being told that the water he’s drinking was taken from the toilet is hilarious.
— Some more decently amusing blunt insults from Jennifer’s character.
— Didn’t care much for the “Okay, these are not mashed potatoes” part.
— I love Bill’s upbeat 50s voice.
— This overall sketch felt kinda like it was missing a certain something, but what we got was okay enough.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ho Hey”


WEEKEND UPDATE
all of Anthony Crispino’s showbiz gossip items are in need of correction

— Seth’s punchline about how Mississippi’s stage legislature consists only of “30 hissing possums in a barn” is one of the biggest laughs I’ve gotten from a Seth Meyers Update joke in quite a while.
— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance that Bobby’s reliable Anthony Crispino character has made in what feels like a long while. Maybe it’s a good thing they’re not running this character into the ground and are keeping him fresh.
— Humorously, Anthony Crispino’s “raise the Depp ceiling” punchline receives a genuine “Oof!” from Seth, leading Bobby to admit in character, among some ad-libs he and Seth are making, “That one’s pretty dumb!” So fun seeing him and Seth freely make fun of the quality (or lack thereof) of that “Depp ceiling” joke.
— Crispino’s bit about Lance Armstrong admitting he’s Dopey from Snow White is absolutely hilarious.
— More loose, ad-libby fun during the Crispino commentary, with Bobby and Seth both riffing and imitating each other on how high Bobby’s voice goes when saying “I’m pretty sure.”
— I’m absolutely howling at Crispino imitating Lance Armstrong singing opera while admitting his drug use. Man, tonight’s Crispino commentary is even more of a blast than most of his commentaries usually are, which is saying something.
— There’s that German accent from Seth during an Update joke once again.
STARS: ***½


TOP DOG CHEF
canine cooks create meals from garbage bag ingredients

— Hmm, not too sure about this premise.
— Good part with Jason falling for the doorbell sound that he himself set up, then expressing shame at himself.
— Very funny delivery from Bill of the line “I thought, why not add a little muuuud? Mmmm!”
— I’m very mixed on how I feel about this sketch. I’m still not crazy about it, but I admit the execution is a little better than I expected, at least.
— Bobby’s getting good laughs from his solid delivery of his lines.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


B108 FM
intern (host) joins forlorn yet fervid Richard & Buffalo at radio gig

— The second and final appearance of this sketch.
— Bobby has been ALL OVER tonight’s episode. This has got to be one of the busiest nights of his entire SNL tenure.
— Jennifer is certainly a lot more fun here than Lindsay Lohan was in the previous installment of this sketch, and I like the running gag with how badly Jennifer’s promising freestyles always trail off at the end.
— Even though Bobby already said the “Yo, I’m gon’ kill myself!” line in the previous installment of this sketch, it was funnier tonight because of how he said it right before passing out on the floor.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stubborn Love”


DANIELLE
sex pervades flimsy plot of European movie from 1975

— I remember hearing that this is a spoof of a supposedly well-known European(?) porno from the 70s (I think the title is something like “Emmanuelle”), which I’ve never seen. Despite my lack of familiarity with the source material, I’ve always been really fond of this spoof, as it’s very funny on its own.
— Something about Fred’s delivery of “Damn peasant children!” cracked me up.
— The awkwardly-dubbed-in dialogue is cracking me up, especially Jennifer’s odd, wordy lines.
— I love the occasional musical interludes with the “Danielle” theme.
— I got such a big laugh from the random, brief close-up of Bill turning to the camera and simply stating “Danielle” in a deep, poignant, dramatic voice.
— A very funny comically-abrupt ending.
STARS: ****


LOVE LETTERS
soldier’s (TIR) Civil War letters to (host) request she send a tit pic

— This is the first lead role Tim has gotten in months.
— Tim’s character here has a VERY Andy Samberg feel, especially Tim’s gesture and facial expression in the group photo of him having his balls out. I can easily picture Andy doing this sketch if he were still on the show.
— As far as Tim Robinson-starring material goes, I prefer most of the other stuff he has a lead role in this season, especially the more absurdist, oddball, and creative stuff, which is in his wheelhouse, but this sketch is okay, and Tim’s execution of it is fine.
— The Andy Samberg similarities continue, as Tim’s delivery of “Um…are you breaking up with me???” sounded SO Samberg-esque, right down to the raised inflection Tim used when saying the “up with me” portion of that line.
— I love Tim’s sudden “Welp, this is my last breath!”, which he follows by hilariously making a frozen, open-mouthed goofy facial expression as he immediately dies (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Great walk-on at the end from Bill as Abraham Lincoln, giving that nice absurdist, oddball, creative feel that I kinda wanted this whole sketch to have.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, with a forgettable feel and barely anything standing out as particularly strong. At the same time, however, there was barely anything I didn’t like, so it’s hard to complain about this one. At least this keeps up this season’s positive trend of mostly consisting of episodes that range from average to excellent and contain little-to-no segments that I give a rating under three stars to. (That being said, I unfortunately recall the next two episodes being pretty rough. We’ll see if I’ll feel any better about them now.)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Danielle
Piers Morgan Tonight
Girlfriends Talk Show
Weekend Update
Love Letters
B108 FM
Monologue
Post Hunger Games News Conference
Johnny Two Tones
Verismo
More Hobbit
Top Dog Chef


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Short)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Adam Levine

Posted on

December 15, 2012 – Martin Short / Paul McCartney (S38 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SILENT NIGHT
The New York City Children’s Chorus [real] performs “Silent Night”

 

— A classy and touching way to address the previous day’s Sandy Hook school shooting tragedy, without being direct about it. Even now, when I’m 8 years removed from the tragedy, this cold opening is putting a lump in my throat.
— This would end up being this decade’s first of several somber cold openings that occur shortly after a tragic event has happened, usually tragic events involving mass casualties. Unlike this Silent Night cold opening, most of this decade’s other somber cold openings are direct in openly addressing the tragedy that had happened.
— When this cold opening originally aired, I remember that the moment where the camera fades to black after the Silent Night song concludes made me initially think that SNL was going to immediately go from that fade-to-black to the opening montage, without anyone saying “Live from New York…”, which shocked me, as it would’ve been the first time in, I believe, decades that a cold opening didn’t contain a “Live from New York…” or any kind of variation. However, when the fade-to-black in this particular cold opening was then followed by the camera fading back into the children to show them delivering an upbeat “Live from New York…”, I realized that SNL added the fade-to-black for a poignant, respectful touch.
STARS: N/A (not a ratable segment)


MONOLOGUE
MAS sings about holiday lustfulness; PAS, KRW, JIF, TIF, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson cameos

— Martin Short’s usual energy and comedic style is exactly what SNL and its viewers needed to lift up the show’s spirits during these times.
— Paul Shaffer!
— A huge laugh from the sudden part with Martin stepping right on Paul Shaffer’s hands when walking to the top of the piano, resulting in a great “OW!” from Paul.
— Martin’s whole “How does a man sit at the piano, I wonder” bit is great.
— This is now the FOURTH consecutive musical monologue, but for various reasons, I can’t complain about tonight’s particular instance of a musical monologue.
— Very nice to see that Cecily, Aidy, and Kate, “the new girls” as Martin calls them collectively, get their special little moment with Martin.
— And, of course, immediately after the special moment the new girls get, we get a Kristen Wiig cameo. Something about that succession seems strangely on-brand for SNL.
— Not sure, but I think Kristen rubbing Martin’s body with her “Dooneese” hand was an ad-lib, judging by Martin’s amusing reaction to that.
— Wow! Jimmy Fallon? Tom Hanks? Samuel L. Jackson? All randomly appearing in rapid succession backstage? Very fun.
— Funny unscripted bit with the llama.
— Such an enjoyable song from Martin, and as I often mention, I’m a sucker for former cast members doing monologues where they go all around the studio & backstage while singing.
— Now we get Tina Fey randomly seen standing next to Lorne. Yep, SNL’s definitely breaking out all the cameos in tonight’s Christmas episode.
— Martin even has the ability to make a cheap man-on-man kiss funny, as seen during his moment with Lorne.
— Interestingly, there’s no “Stick around, we’ll be right back” or anything else after Martin says “Paul McCartney is here!” at the end of this.
STARS: ****


A TONY BENNETT CHRISTMAS
Tony Bennett (Alec Baldwin) & brother Jerry (MAS) meet Kanye West (JAP)

— Tonight’s plethora of cameos from (mostly) SNL-related people continues, as we randomly get Alec Baldwin showing up and reprising The Tony Bennett Show sketches. With this being years before episodes containing a plethora of cameos would become a frequent habit and would be an annoyance to certain SNL fans (including myself), I can certainly enjoy it in this episode. In fact, the cameos are adding to the feel-good, Christmas-y spirit of this episode.
— This ends up being the final installment of the Tony Bennett Show sketches.
— Alec’s Tony Bennett is as funny as always, and Martin is solid as his similarly-traited brother.
— The story from the Bennett brothers about a girl with hemorrhoids is priceless, as is Jay-as-Kanye-West’s reaction.
— Fun and charming chemistry between Alec and Martin during the closing song.
— I like Martin unusual way of hugging the lower half of Alec’s body throughout this sketch.
— I’m surprised by how fairly short this overall sketch was, but no complaints from me.
STARS: ***½


ROYAL FAMILY DOCTOR
equerry (MAS) briefs Kate Middleton’s ob-gyn (BIH) on vagina protocol

— Hilarious characterization from Martin.
— The various vocalizations and phrases Martin uses in regards to how to refer to “the royal “*ahem*” are such a perfect use of Martin’s comedic style.
— I’ve always had a theory that John Mulaney possibly wrote this sketch and, between dress rehearsal and the live show, changed the scripted vocalizations and phrases that Martin was to use for “the royal “*ahem*”, in an attempt to catch Bill off-guard during the live show, ala the Stefon commentaries on Weekend Update. What makes me think that is the fact that Bill seems GENUINELY taken aback and amused by Martin’s various vocalizations and phrases for “the royal “*ahem*”, as if he wasn’t expecting them. Then again, Bill is easily breakable at this stage of his SNL tenure, so those vocalizations and phrases from Martin could possibly be stuff Bill was already familiar with, plus I can’t blame anyone for having a hard time keeping a straight face at Martin Short.
— Ha, Bobby could unintentionally be seen sneaking into the scene before he “magically popped up” to Bill’s side.
— Martin continues to be comedy gold in his delivery and performance here.
— Fred’s mere entrance gets a huge applause from the audience.
— Could’ve done without the ending gag involving Fred’s Queen Elizabeth hiking up her skirt and spreading her legs, as if we haven’t already seen Fred do that enough times in these later years of his SNL tenure. However, I did get a laugh from how him hiking up his skirt resulted in long, uncomfortable, awkward silence between Bill and Martin.
STARS: ****


YOU’RE A RAT BASTARD, CHARLIE BROWN
Al Pacino (BIH) heads all-star cast

— A very memorable and well-liked piece among SNL fans.
— Hilarious choices of out-of-place celebrities to play Peanuts characters.
— Martin is particularly spot-on as Larry David, both physically and verbally.
— Much like Martin as Larry David, Taran truly does have a strong facial resemblance to Michael Keaton here.
— The bleep-filled football scene between Bill’s Al Pacino and Kate’s Edie Falco is particularly funny.
— During the ending split-screen shot of the various actors playing Peanuts characters, Bobby can be seen among them (the last above screencap for this commercial), despite the fact that he wasn’t shown at any point earlier in this commercial. He’s playing Joe Pesci as the Peanuts character Woodstock, IIRC, but his main portions were cut from this commercial after dress rehearsal. Same goes for Fred, who could be seen very briefly in a Snoopy costume at one point in the middle of this commercial (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this commercial). I can’t remember which celebrity I heard he played in this.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Joe Walsh [real] perform “My Valentine”


WEEKEND UPDATE
newly bar mitzvahed Jacob tells story of Hanukkah & roasts family

The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is supercilious sot

— Vanessa’s Jacob character makes his first SNL appearance since his debut two seasons prior. That debut from two seasons prior was in a sketch, but all of his subsequent appearances are on Weekend Update.
— Vanessa’s doing a spot-on, enjoyable, and endearing spoof of typical bar mitzvah speeches, even down to the little detail of her Jacob character moving his finger along the words he’s reading from his speech.
— Some laughs from how Jacob never answers Seth’s questions, and instead just goes back to reading from his speech.
— This Jacob commentary is starting to get really repetitive (even if that’s the point), but the endearing quality that Vanessa’s bringing to this is maintaining my goodwill. I get the feeling I’m not going to be so lenient in this character’s subsequent Update commentaries, given how almost all of them are basically the EXACT SAME THING. We’ll see, though.
— Ha, even Seth has a hard time saying The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party’s name.
— Girl You Wish etc.: “You need to grow up, Seth. ‘Cause there are some people in Africa right now where it’s like, nooo.”
— Girl You Wish etc.: “I’m sorry…why can’t Secret Santa just be openly gay?!?”
— Girl You Wish etc.: “It’s origami. That’s Spanish for ‘goose’.”
STARS: ***


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Samuel L. Jackson & Carrie Brownstein [real] observe

— This ends up being the final installment of this recurring sketch, until it gets a surprise revival during an “SNL At Home” episode 8 years later.
— Curiously, Cecily has replaced Nasim in Nasim’s regular role as one of the two backup singers, despite Nasim still being in SNL’s cast, which must mean they have something different planned for her in tonight’s installment.
— Another rare instance of Jason’s red tracksuit dancing character (Vance) actually speaking.
— I love Samuel L. Jackson’s angry warning to Kenan’s Deondre Cole to not cut him off.
— Jackie Rogers Jr.!!!! Not only is it a blast to see Martin bring him back, but he’s actually very fitting in a What Up With That sketch.
— Tim’s dancing past the screen as a casually-dressed Santa is hilarious.
— Ah, there’s Nasim. Fun appearance from her as “Grinchina”. I wonder if the reason for her playing a different role than usual in tonight’s What Up With That installment is because she possibly spoke up to the writers or Lorne, telling them she was tired of being stuck playing one of the backup singers in this recurring sketch and wanted to finally get a comedic showcase in it.
— Other than the Jackie Rogers Jr. appearance, here comes the most noteworthy moment of tonight’s What Up With That installment: Samuel L. Jackson exclaiming in frustration an unscripted “Man, fu–”, cutting himself off before saying the full F-bomb. Then, while Kenan is responding to that by ad-libbing “Hey!” and “Come on, Sam!”, an off-camera Samuel adds in, “This some bullshit!” This results in an absolutely classic ad-lib from Kenan: “Come on, now! That costs money!”
— I love how, while Kenan is thanking her for being on the show, Carrie Brownstein does a mouth-zipping motion, referring to Samuel’s half-F-bomb and full-S-bomb. I also love the meta-ness of Kenan calling Brownstein “the funny one in Portlandia”.
— Overall, the Jackie Rogers Jr. appearance and the ad-libs between Samuel L. Jackson & Kenan make this one of the more standout installments of What Up With That. Not a bad way at all for this recurring sketch to go out (until 2020).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic & Pat Smear [real] perform “Cut Me Some Slack”


OLD FRIENDS
old friends (FRA) & (MAS) meet while shopping & catch up on inadequacies

 

— Hmm, interesting and unusual how this sketch has an intro from Kenan, standing in front of the sketch’s set.
— Funny mention of Fred being a professional James Cameron impersonator at parties.
— We get a lot more hilarious bizarre reveals that Fred and Martin are casually making about themselves. I am loving the absurd humor in this, as well as the smooth way it’s flowing and the way it’s being played completely straight, all of which makes this sketch feel like a typical sketch from British sketch comedy shows. A very underrated little sketch, and this is easily one of the better things Fred has done in these past-his-prime later years of his SNL tenure.
STARS: ****


PAGEANT AUDITION
(MAS) won’t let his musical partner (musical guest) sing during Christmas pageant audition

— Amusing opening bit with Kenan.
— Very fun pairing of tonight’s host and musical guest.
— Although the “ironic” concept of Paul playing the member of a musical duo who can’t sing has potential to be too corny, there’s more than enough goodwill and charm from this sketch to prevent that corniness.
— Martin’s sudden angry “THAT’S YOUR CUE, MONTY!!!” outburst has me laughing out loud.
— Very funny bit with Paul now dinging his triangle too early, inducing another hilarious angry outburst from Martin.
— Wow, an awesome and clever way to segue from this sketch to Paul’s next musical performance. Love it.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & The New York City Children’s Chorus [real] perform “Wonderful Christmas Time”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Wow. This was an even better episode than I had remembered, which is certainly saying something, as I had always been very fond of this episode. I’m pleasantly surprised to see how even MORE fond of this episode I was during my viewing just now. I mean, man, look at all of those high ratings I gave out throughout the review. In fact, the only two things all night that got a rating below four stars was A Tony Bennett Christmas and Weekend Update, and those were still good. This episode probably has one of the highest rating averages out of this entire SNL project. And in addition to how consistently strong this episode was, it had such a feel-good, Christmas-y energy, helped by Martin Short’s always-fun presence. That combo of strong sketches and a feel-good, Christmas-y energy is how I like my Christmas episodes of SNL to be.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
You’re A Rat Bastard, Charlie Brown
What Up With That?
Monologue
Royal Family Doctor
Old Friends
Pageant Audition
A Tony Bennett Christmas
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jamie Foxx)
a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2013, with host Jennifer Lawrence

Posted on

December 8, 2012 – Jamie Foxx / Ne-Yo (S38 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Barack Obama (JAP) takes pity on GOP ostracism target John Boehner (BIH)

— Pretty good laughs from Bill-as-John-Boehner’s disclosure of all the schoolkid-esque bullying that he suffered from his fellow republicans. Adding to the humor is Jay’s President Obama repeating some of those disclosures in his typically poignant voice.
— I love Bill-as-Boehner’s Cowardly Lion-esque crying after whimpering out an exclamation of “Rotten eggs!”, in response to Jay’s Obama asking him what kind of eggs was he pelted with.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
current events lead host to ask “How black is that?”; 2 Chainz cameo

— As usual, Jamie Foxx is absolutely great at getting the audience hyped up, as well as bringing a more urban audience to the show.
— Also as usual, Jamie’s energy is so fun here.
— The “How black is that?” running theme in this is pretty funny.
— I think I recall there being an online article shortly after this episode, pointing out how “wrong” it was that Jamie said, at one point of this monologue, “I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?!?”
— A good laugh from Jamie making fun of Obama’s dancing in his appearance on Ellen.
— Second consecutive monologue involving the host playing the piano and singing, and the THIRD consecutive episode with a musical monologue in general. Looks like this season is headed in a season 36-like direction in regards to an overabundance of musical monologues.
— The 2 Chainz cameo, while kinda pointless, at least adds to the fun and very energetic vibe of this monologue.
STARS: ***½


BITCH, WHAT’S THE ANSWER? WITH MOOKIE MEEKS
(host) verbally abuses game show contestants

— I like the name Mookie Meeks for Jamie’s character.
— Much like the prison sketch from the previous episode Jamie hosted (the sketch where Will Ferrell tenderly asks one of his cellmates, played by Jamie, “Am I still your bitch?”), it looks like this sketch is just a cheap excuse for Jamie to say “bitch” over and over for four minutes. I really didn’t care for that prison sketch, but at least the format of this particular game show sketch seems like it could make the redundant “bitch” theme work.
— Bobby’s real hair seems more grown-out than it usually is. It almost looks like he’s in the early stages of returning to his long hairstyle from his first few months as a cast member. IIRC, though, he cuts it short again after this episode.
— Very funny part with Bobby making Jamie mad by lightheartedly telling him “Bring it on, beeeyitch!”
— Looks like Jamie messed up the “Where Jupiter?” question by unintentionally using proper grammar when asking that question (“Where’s Jupiter?”), while the chyron on the bottom of the screen states “Where Jupiter?”, as does Bobby when he incredulously repeats Jamie’s question.
— I love the goofy photo of Tim in the screenshot of the home version of this game.
— Overall, this was better than the prison sketch from Jamie’s previous episode, Jamie was pretty fun here despite some stumbles, and Bobby was a great straight man, but this sketch was still nothing particularly great.
STARS: ***


J-POP AMERICA FUN TIME NOW!
sensei (host) is a fellow Japanophile

— This ends up being the final aired installment of this sketch. A later installment of it apparently got cut after dress rehearsal in the following season’s Josh Hutcherson episode. Given the fact that that installment would’ve been after Jason’s departure from SNL, I wonder how it dealt without Jason’s character. Did they get someone else in the cast to play a new teacher/other kind of straight man, or did they just do the sketch without a teacher/other kind of straight man (which doesn’t seem like it would work)?
— A laugh from Taran and Vanessa’s “Japwanzaa” tree.
— Very funny look of Jamie’s character. I’d almost swear he’s wearing the same wig that Tracy Morgan once wore when playing Busta Rhymes in a sketch from the Heather Graham episode, which, coincidentally, was from the same season that Jamie last hosted in prior to tonight’s episode (season 25).
— Ugh, one aspect of this recurring sketch I will certainly not miss ever seeing again after tonight’s final installment is Fred as Taran’s Japanese girlfriend.
— Wait, they’re actually letting Fred’s character speak this time, for once? Not necessary.
— I like Jason’s reaction to Jamie getting tense at him.
— The fact that the last thing Jason’s character does in tonight’s J-Pop installment is involuntarily add a “da-du” at the end of his sentence, then express fear that Taran and Vanessa have now got him doing that, is very fitting for what ends up being his final appearance in this recurring sketch, whether that was intentional or not.
STARS: ***


ALEX CROSS 2: MADEA: SPECIAL OPS
Tyler Perry’s (host) fusion of Alex Cross & Madea makes a mixed-up movie

— A great initial visual of Jamie in that half-Alex Cross half-Madea costume.
— Good Madea impression from Jamie.
— Jamie’s conflicting actions between each half of his body is good for some laughs.
— When each half of Jamie’s body is talking to each other, I love the cross-eyed face he makes, especially since it’s reminiscent of his Wanda character from In Living Color.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Let Me Love You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
sick of unromantic Santa, Mrs. Claus (AIB) is ready for some alone time

Ding Dong (host) complains of unequal treatment relative to Twinkies

— Aidy is very funny and likable as Mrs. Claus, and has so many good lines all throughout her commentary. I particularly like her message towards 2 Chainz: “I’ve got an ass that shakes like a bowl of jelly.”
— “New phone, who is this”??? Uh, Seth, shouldn’t that be “New phone, who dis?” I think I recall a previous Update in these early 2010s years where Seth, or maybe a guest correspondent, similarly inexplicably used proper grammar when making a “New phone, who dis?” reference.
— Ha, somebody in the audience boos Seth’s ballsy Jerry Sandusky joke, and then right after that booing, you can hear another audience member say “Oh, snap!” Much like I noted throughout my review of the previous episode Jamie hosted (review seen here), tonight’s episode has a much more responsive, lively, and urban audience than SNL episodes usually have.
— Also much like the previous episode Jamie hosted, he does an Update commentary, which is pretty rare for hosts.
— Jamie’s delivery of this Ding Dong material is solid, he’s (once again tonight) fantastic at getting the audience hyped up, and he’s managing to make some of the potentially-corny Hostess snack jokes come off funny (e.g. him saying “That’s my snack brother from another batter”). Even his occasional breaking is pretty fun and likable.
STARS: ***½


DYLAN MCDERMOTT OR DERMOT MULRONEY?
game show contestants confuse Dermot Mulroney [real] with Dylan McDermott

— A rare case of an episode containing TWO separate game show sketches.
— Fantastic premise for a game show sketch.
— Keeping up the weird connections that this episode keeps having to season 25, that season just so happens to be the season Dylan McDermott hosted in, funnily enough.
— An absolutely hilarious reveal of this game show’s contestants all being black men.
— Kenan, in regards to Bill saying the title of the game show show once again: “Can you put a bigger space between the names…s-s-so we know when the first name ends and the second name begins?”
— When listing off Dermot Mulroney’s filmography and occasionally getting it mixed up with that of Dylan McDermott’s, I love Bill’s constant “What’s that?”s before correcting himself. Excellent rapid-fire delivery from Bill during this portion.
— Speaking of excellent delivery from Bill, I also love his delivery of “Round three: hey………who’s this guy” as a new photo is displayed next to him.
— Yet another fantastic Bill Hader moment: his twisted laugh after being told by Kenan, “You’re a sick man!”
— An absolutely classic and standout part with Jamie’s written-down answer: Derbel McDillet.
— Hilarious how Kenan’s Rupert Everett answer somehow ends up being correct.
— A Dermot Mulroney cameo.
— I like how even Mulroney himself can’t tell himself and Dylan McDermott apart, and reveals he’s unwittingly been sleeping with McDermott’s wife all these years.
— Great bit regarding the mention of three teenage girls from Alaska being contestants on the game show that’s coming on next: Djimon Honsou Or Chiwetel Ejiofor, much to Jay, Jamie, and Kenan’s chagrin.
— Excellent sketch overall.
STARS: *****


MARCUS BANKS: TREE PIMP
pimp Marcus Banks (KET) treats Christmas trees as if they were his hos

— Immediately, I’m loving the tone of this film, and Kenan is fantastic here.
— Kenan’s pimp-like treatment of his Christmas trees is hilarious.
— I love the cutaway to Kenan telling the family decorating their tree in their living room, “Ya’ll got 20 minutes now.”
— Something about Kenan’s delivery of the word “photo-pimp-esis” made me laugh harder than it probably should’ve.
— Good bit with Fred having the tree he brought go down on him in his car.
— Nice way to involve Jamie.
— Hmm, Matt Lauer (or, as Jamie’s character humorously pronounces, “Matt Lerr-er”) is one of the other tree pimp’s A-list clients? Ha, figures. SNL sure likes implying in these early 2010s years that Matt Lauer is addicted to hookers and strippers. I’d almost think SNL knew about his sexual deviancy long before the public found out…
STARS: ****½


MAINE JUSTICE
(Charlie Day) testifies in wacky Acadia-Acadiana courtroom

 

— Ohho, here we go! One of my favorite sketches of ALL TIME, and a well-loved sketch among SNL fans in general.
— Right from his entrance, Jason is already slaying me. His delivery, his heavy Cajun accent, and his mouth-wiping with his hanky are all freakin’ HILARIOUS.
— I love Bobby saying a very casually-delivered “Also, what the hell is going on here?” at the end of his opening statement.
— Jason: “Ya’ll shut youah buuuutts!”
— All of the inexplicable southern-themed things about this alleged Maine-based courtroom show are so funny.
— Jamie’s occasional hand-clapping when miming an alligator chomp is adding well to the humor of Jason’s occasional alligator threats.
— Ha, the witness who gets called up is played by Charlie Day! One of my favorite one-time hosts. Also great to see a Horrible Bosses reunion between him, Jason, and Jamie.
— Charlie’s insane, unintelligible southern accent has me practically on the floor. The even funnier thing about that and his general hillbilly look is the fact that he’s supposed to be a congressman.
— Jason’s delivery continues to absolutely slay me, especially his delivery of “I don’t know if you forgit where you eeeyiiiis, but you in Maine now, boy!”
— Excellent reveal of the various possible reasons for this “Maine”-based show having so many southern-themed things, including the people in the courtroom being New Orleans citizens who were relocated after Hurricane Katrina and refused to change their ways.
— Oh, here’s what I consider to be the crème de la crème of this already-excellent sketch: Jason delivering the final ruling and doing so many hilarious physical and verbal things during it, and ending it by mentioning taking Bobby and “dragging his bare lily-white butt ‘cross the swamp to put out that ass fire!” This just may Jason’s greatest single moment of his entire SNL tenure.
— Even Jay’s (who has a walk-on as a parade dancer) goofy mugging toward Bobby during the ending New Orleans parade celebration in the courtroom has me laughing out loud.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “She Is”


SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS
vacuous ex-porn stars (VAB), (CES), (host) endorse Swarovski Crystals

— The debut of a well-liked recurring sketch.
— Vanessa and Cecily’s brain-dead portrayal of these ex-porn stars is excellent. And it needs to be pointed out what a very impressive first half-season Cecily’s been having so far. You can hardly tell from how fully-formed she comes off and how many big roles she’s gotten that she’s a new featured player.
— Cecily: “One time, I got banged to death for five minutes. Then I got banged back to life. Thanks, Crystals!”
— Vanessa: “I lost part of my foot. It broke off in a butt.”
— Man, there is an endless number of priceless lines from Vanessa and Cecily.
— Jamie has great lines himself right now.
— Good reveal that the ex-porn stars are planning on sending this tape to Swarovski Crystals in an attempt to get free crystals.
— Jamie: “Because there’s never one thing never goes out of style…” Vanessa and Cecily, trying to say the same thing in unison: “Crystals!” “Anal!”
— Love the ending bit regarding the meaning of the “Ewww” the ex-porn stars stated in reaction to hypothetically being covered in crystals.
— An overall classic debut of this recurring sketch.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first half of this episode was energetic, but average. But this episode was absolutely made by the strength of the post-Weekend Update half. I mean, can we TALK about that half of the show, people?!? It was on FIRE. That’s definitely one of the strongest post-Update halves I’ve ever reviewed in all 38 seasons I’ve covered so far, rivaling the post-Update half of the season 19 Heather Locklear episode (review seen here). I feel like there was another review of mine sometime between that Locklear episode and this Jamie Foxx episode that similarly had an average first half and an extremely strong second half filled with lots of five and four-and-a-half-star ratings, but I can’t remember which episode it is. (Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can figure out which one it is.) On another note, this is another episode this season that, much like the then-recent Anne Hathaway episode, impressively didn’t contain any segments I disliked.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Maine Justice
Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?
Swarovski Crystals
Marcus Banks: Tree Pimp
Monologue
Press Conference
Alex Cross 2: Madea: Special Ops
Weekend Update
J-Pop America Fun Time Now!
Bitch, What’s The Answer? with Mookie Meeks


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeremy Renner)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Martin Short hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

November 17, 2012 – Jeremy Renner / Maroon 5 (S38 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BOOKNOTES
Paula Broadwell (CES) reads from her salacious David Petraeus biography

— Some laughs from the very raunchy, glorified erotica that Cecily’s Paula Broadwell is reading from the All In book, made funnier by the very professional, straitlaced manner she’s reading it in.
— The audience members eventually walking out in droves is pretty funny.
— A huge rarity in SNL’s recent years like this one to have “Live from New York…” be delivered by an off-camera voice-over (Jim Downey, in this case).
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & sings songs he wrote for action movies he starred in

— Hmm, not too sure about Jeremy Renner’s delivery so far.
— When going to the piano, Jeremy says “Once again…I cannot believe I agreed to do this”, then proceeds to chuckle nervously for an extended amount of time. I’m finding that to be half-charming and half-worrying.
— A big gaffe, as there’s no sound coming from the piano when Jeremy starts playing, leading him to make awkward ad-libs towards the audience. Then he humorously says a cheerful “Oh, thank you!” to seemingly an off-camera stagehand who has fixed the problem.
— Jeremy now chuckles nervously for an extended amount of time again, then makes a nice ad-lib by saying, in regards to the piano blooper, “Good way to start the show, right?”
— Didn’t care for the first song, but the “Captain Amer” bit in the second song is pretty funny.
— An okay laugh from the third song just being a blatant “Use Somebody” knock-off.
— The brief Mission Impossible song was pretty funny.
— Overall, despite the piano blooper and Jeremy’s worrying nervousness in certain parts, this monologue was decent enough and had a bit of a charm to it, even the aforementioned blooper and nervousness.
STARS: ***


YOUR HOMETOWN
staying with your parents during a trip home makes for an unfun vacation

 

— A very relatable premise.
— A good laugh from the visual of Bill in those high-waisted briefs.
— I absolutely love the way that the mundane aspects of coming home for the holidays is comically being presented in the style of upbeat tourism ads. The execution of this is great.
— There’s that lovable Tim Robinson goofiness that I always enjoy, even when he plays a non-speaking role like this one.
STARS: ****½


THE CALIFORNIANS
Stuart mulls Southland geography & learns he has a son

— (*groooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaan*) Plus, didn’t they just do this sketch a few episodes prior?
— At least they’re doing something different with Vanessa’s maid character, who usually just announces when a guest has arrived.
— Much like the first installment of this sketch, Fred is very giggly in this installment so far. Unlike the first installment, none of the other performers are joining Fred in his laughing, not even the easy-to-break Bill.
— After the first scene, Fred seems to have gotten his act together in terms of his giggliness.
— Whoops, spoke too soon, as Fred has suddenly started giggling again for no apparent reason during the reveal of the baby photo. I think Fred’s giggling at his own delivery in general (especially that “seating arrangement” line that he delivered in a particularly exaggerated, awkward-sounding Californian accent, even for this sketch’s standards), further proving how annoyingly self-indulgent this recurring sketch (and so many other Fred Armisen-starring things from Fred’s later seasons) is.
— I did kinda chuckle at how one of the typical sequences of the camera showing mock-dramatic close-ups of each character during a shocking reveal includes a mock-dramatic close-up of the smiling baby photo.
— Fred has now started giggling even more in the scene currently taking place, and again, for no apparent reason, and with none of the other performers joining in on it.
— Feels odd seeing Taran play a different character than the effeminate character he usually plays in this recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
Tampa inquiry fails to shed light on Petraeus scandal

— Cecily playing both Paula Broadwell AND Jill Kelley in the same night?
— Funny bits involving The Situation Room only being able to show the one clip of Cecily’s Jill Kelley that’s available. It especially gets funny when they start playing with the footage, such as showing it in reverse.
— A huge laugh from Tim in drag now doing a dramatization of the one Jill Kelley walking-down-the-stairs clip that was shown repeatedly.
— Jeremy’s getting some chuckles from me.
STARS: ***½


THE STAND OFF
(TAK), (BOM), (host) keep guns aimed; Adam Levine cameo

— At least this is something that Jeremy is certainly in his element in, unlike some of the other stuff he’s appeared in in this episode.
— Very funny visual of Jeremy, Taran, and Bobby keeping their guns aimed at each other in that stand-off posture while cramped in the back of a taxi.
— More hilarious situations that Jeremy, Taran, and Bobby continue to hold their stand-off posture towards each other in, such as when Jeremy’s reading his daughter a bedtime story, when grace is being said at a Thanksgiving dinner, when they’re relieving themselves at urinals, and when they’re joyfully ice skating with each other.
— A good laugh from Bobby suddenly getting coldly gunned down by Jeremy and Taran while in the middle of a touching speech about how meaningful his time with Jeremy and Taran has been the past few days.
— Overall, this season continues its huge winning streak with their post-Lonely Island short films.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One More Night”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups stakeholders in Petraeus scandal into Winners & Losers

self-described pimp Katt Williams (JAP) explains his erratic behavior

bossy but grateful Chris Christie [real] addresses Hurricane Sandy clean-up efforts

— Another Winners/Losers segment, fairly soon after the last one. I guess I can’t complain, given how strong I found the last one.
— Tonight’s overall Winners/Losers segment was decent, if nothing special or particularly noteworthy.
— The debut of Jay’s spot-on Katt Williams impression.
— Though it’s just a little thing, I love Jay’s delivery of the “This right here…this right here…this right here” bit.
— Some other laughs from Jay’s Williams commentary.
— A cameo from the real Chris Christie.
— Christie is actually coming off really natural and loose in his delivery, not being stiff at all like some non-actors tend to be in SNL cameos.
STARS: ***


THE AVENGERS
Hawkeye (host) is the least-useful Avenger when he runs out of arrows

— A few laughs here and there so far, but this sketch is both slow-paced and awkwardly paced. Maybe that’s to be expected for an action-heavy sketch like this that’s being performed live. Perhaps this would’ve benefited from being pre-taped instead.
— What was with Taran openly breaking when Jeremy popped back into the scene after being used as a weapon by Hulk? Jeremy also botched his line right afterwards.
— That’s…that’s it??? That’s the whole sketch? That was a little bit of laughs and a WHOLE LOT of nothing.
STARS: *½


MOVIE SET
actor (JAS) bungles a scene in which he’s supposed to be slapped by host

— “Wes Underballs”? Is this character of Bill’s supposed to be related to Bill’s Mike Underballs character?
— The reveal of Jason’s Dick Fuel character’s real name being Dick Juice is so juvenile and stupid, but I strangely kinda chuckled anyway.
— So far, the writing of this is questionable and quite dumb. In fact, it feels like the type of horrible “an actor keeps ruining the filming of one scene” sketch that Horatio Sanz would’ve done in his later seasons, where his shtick was beyond tired (e.g. that awful Zorro sketch from the season 31 Antonio Banderas episode). However, Jason is doing far more for this material than Horatio ever would have.
— Yet another dumb and juvenile part of this sketch, with Jason’s Dick Fuel randomly asking the others about the Kim Kardashian sex tape and complimenting Ray J on the size of his “piece”, but Bill actually made me laugh a lot when agreeing with Dick Fuel on Ray J’s “piece”, by saying an amused “It’s all true, it’s quite something.”
— Just now, Jason genuinely messed up by accidentally calling Jeremy by his real first name during the movie scene being filmed, before correcting himself in a somewhat amusing manner.
— Now Jeremy’s the one who genuinely messes up, by referring to Bill’s character’s surname as “Wonderballs” instead of “Underballs”.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Daylight”


MIDNIGHT SNACK – COOL DRONES
by Zach Kanin & Rob Klein- deadly pilotless flying weapons also constitute a boy band

— Oh, I completely forgot about this until now, much like the Fred Wolf-made American America cartoons from season 36. SNL attempts a new brand of cartoons, Midnight Snack, made by SNL writers Zach Kanin and Rob Klein. And much like the aforementioned American America cartoons, this attempt ends up being short-lived, even moreso, with only one Midnight Snack cartoon making it to air.
— I love the opening Midnight Snack title sequence, with a creature being shown eating a snack while watching TV.
— Feels kinda fun hearing the current cast’s voices as various characters in this cartoon.
— Not too crazy about the 90s-style boy band concept.
— I’m liking the animation here, though part of the reason for that could be because it’s such a rarity to see animation in this SNL era.
— Other than that one drone’s constant lines about booties, I’m not getting much laughs from this cartoon so far.
— The extended gun-firing sequence is fairly funny, especially the part with the goat.
— That’s the whole cartoon? Hate to say it, but this was really meh and forgettable. As much as I’d have loved to see SNL’s Midnight Snack segment take off and become SNL’s new TV Funhouse, it’s probably a good thing that never happened if all the Midnight Snack cartoons were going to be as mediocre as this.
STARS: **


CORONER
in the morgue, (host) can’t grasp the concept of body identification

— I laughed a lot at Jeremy matter-of-factly saying, when identifying the dead body, “It’s Steven Tyler.” The audience reaction to that is SO dead that you can clearly hear a giggling woman in the otherwise-silent audience repeat the “It’s Steven Tyler” line to herself in amusement.
— Okay, the audience is getting more into this now.
— Kinda like the Movie Set sketch from earlier in this episode, this premise is dumb, but the execution is making it work.
— Very funny ad-lib with Bill musically patting his hands on the body of Taran, who’s playing a dead person. If Bill’s attempting to get Taran to break, it doesn’t work.
— Bill’s “I kinda wanna see what he’s gonna say” line made me laugh, even if it felt like a variation of something he said in the courtroom sketch from the preceding season’s Eli Manning episode.
— I love the rapid succession of guesses Jeremy is now making on the dead body’s identity, as if it’s the speed round of a game show.
— Jason is a fantastic straight man.
— When Jeremy says, regarding the dead body, “It’s his (Bill’s) brother”, I love Bill foolishly responding “Dennis?!?” while looking at the body in a shocked manner.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier. I’m loving this.
— Even the detail of the voice Taran’s using is great.
— When the “dead” body comes back to life and Jason gives Bill a puzzled look, I got a huge laugh from Bill innocently saying “He said he was dead!”
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better episode than I had remembered. However, for this season’s standards, this was a very unremarkable episode, though with a few really strong highlights. Kind of a messy-feeling episode, too, with all the gaffes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Your Hometown
Coroner
The Stand Off
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Booknotes
Weekend Update
Movie Set
Monologue
Midnight Snack – Cool Drones
The Avengers
The Californians


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anne Hathaway)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jamie Foxx