Author: Stooge

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December 10, 2011 – Katy Perry / Robyn (S37 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ON THE RECORD W/ GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Donald Trump (DAH) attaches superlatives to his GOP debate

— Another Darrell Hammond cameo as Donald Trump. Meh. Maybe it’s because of more modern times, but for some reason, it’s hard for me to laugh at Darrell’s Trump when looking back at these cameos he makes in this early 2010s era.
— Whaaaaa??? In real life, Trump moderated a GOP debate around this time?!? I can’t even imagine what that must’ve been like. Why the hell don’t I remember that happening?
— They need to stop with the tired gag that Kristen’s Greta Van Susteren always does where she switches from talking out of one corner of her mouth to the other. We don’t need to see that EVERY time Kristen plays Susteren.
— Wow, and this cold opening has ended, without me getting a single laugh during the entire thing. Flat-out bad writing, plain and simple.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
sartorial inspirations for host’s music videos like “I Kissed A Girl”

— Decent but somewhat generic humor here with cast members coming out as characters/outfits from Katy Perry’s music videos. At least Bill’s walk-on as a fireworks-burned man is slightly inspired.
— Hmm, an unexpected turn with the homoerotic tension and singing between Kristen’s character and Katy.
STARS: ***


J-POP AMERICA FUN TIME NOW!
(host) heads Hello Kitty appreciation club

— During the opening “Coming up next on Michigan State Campus TV” bit, I got a cheap laugh from the mention of an acapella group being bluntly named The Dickheads.
— This sketch has officially become recurring. It’s also gone from appearing towards the end of the show in its first appearance to now suddenly appearing in the lead-off spot.
— Taran and Vanessa continue to be solid in these roles, and I find the recurring sketch itself to be okay. Like I said last time, I’m not quite as big on this recurring sketch as a lot of people seem to be.
— As usual for this recurring sketch, my biggest laughs in tonight’s installment are coming from Jason’s straight man character. I especially like him being heard yelling an off-camera “He’s Chinese!” when Taran and Vanessa say Yao Ming is Japanese.
— Another good line from Jason: “If there’s such a thing as a loving version of racism, I think you found it.”
STARS: ***


THE APOCALYPSE
eschatological movie is a star-studded romantic comedy

— Some fairly fun returns of good impressions we’ve seen this cast do before, such as Kristen’s Drew Barrymore and Taran’s Ashton Kutcher.
— Funny sudden turn with this jolly New Years Eve-themed movie trailer being revealed as a celebration of the apocalypse.
— Ugh, Fred in drag for the SECOND consecutive segment tonight, even if his Penny Marshall is usually good for a chuckle.
— I got a good laugh from how, during the listing of additional celebrities who will be appearing in this movie, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges is immediately followed by a mention of Kris “Ludacris” Kristofferson.
— I like how some performers are doing multiple celebrity impressions in this.
— A solid Kim Cattrall impression from Kristen.
— During the ending shot of this movie’s actors all being shown saying the movie’s title in unison, Seth, playing himself in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance, can be seen as one of the actors (seen in the bottom right square in the last above screencap). The reason for his appearance is seemingly because he’s in the actual New Years Eve movie that this commercial is spoofing.
— In the aforementioned ending shot of this movie’s actors, you can also see Paul as Osama Bin Laden (seen in the top right square in the last above screencap), despite him not appearing earlier in this movie trailer during any of the actual scenes shown. (Not to mention the fact that Osama’s been dead for half a year by this point.) I don’t know if perhaps a scene with Paul’s Osama got cut from an earlier portion of this commercial, or if him being shown in one of the squares at the end of this commercial was just thrown in as a random joke. Probably the latter.
STARS: ***


KALLE
Kalle’s (KRW) Finnish talk show features extensive clips of host

— Since Katy’s playing herself in this, why in the world is she wearing a wig of her former hairstyle, back when her hair was longer and darker?
— Funny escalation to the absurdity of the clips that Kristen’s Kalle keeps throwing to, and I like how it renders Katy increasingly unsettled. There’s a particularly funny part where, after Katy just says a taken-aback “I…” when she’s at a loss for words, Kalle throws to a quick clip of an eye (Katy’s eye, I’m assuming).
— I wonder if SNL intended this Kalle sketch to become recurring. Whether they did or not, we end up never seeing it return. Probably a good thing, as it seems best left as a funny one-and-done sketch.
STARS: ***½


BEST FRIENDS
ANS & host & addict (Matt Damon) & lunatic (Val Kilmer) & others sing about being besties

— Matt Damon is great as a mentally-disturbed homeless guy suddenly joining Andy and Katy’s jolly Best Friends song, and adding a dark flavor to it. Damon always does a solid job every time I’ve seen him on SNL. (I’ve yet to see the 2018 episode he hosted, though.)
— Now we get a Val Kilmer cameo.
— The sudden and rapid-fire Russian Roulette bit with Damon’s character instantly killing himself was absolutely hilarious, as was Katy responding to that by immediately saying “Okay, f(*bleep*)k this, I’m outta here” and leaving.
— A very funny crazy escalation to the type of people joining in on the Best Friends song, thanks to Kilmer’s time machine.
STARS: ****


DOGGIE DUTY
star-laden soundtrack sidelines canine courtroom movie

— The final appearance of this series of “famous singers do songs for the soundtrack of a fictional animated animal movie” sketches (Bunny Business, Horse Play, and now this). Also, this is the only installment in that series of sketches to NOT air in the 10-to-1 slot. I kinda prefer these sketches in that 10-to-1 slot.
— Also, do we really need two impression showcases tonight and airing so close to each other, with the Apocalypse commercial and now this?
— Why do these always begin with Fred as Randy Newman singing the first song? By this point, that’s beyond played-out.
— Always nice seeing Kristen do a great impression of different 90s singers in each installment of this recurring sketch, though we’ve already seen her play Gwen Stefani elsewhere on SNL.
— Pretty fun dancing from Jason’s Meat Loaf at the end of his scene.
— Meh at the “Remember Spin Doctors?” ending of Andy’s scene as Chris Barron.
— Ha, Bill’s Clint Eastwood!
— A very strong Florence Welch impression from Katy, and I especially like how we’re seeing it just two episodes after Florence + The Machine were a musical guest on SNL. Too bad the writers seemingly forgot to throw any actual JOKES into the song Katy’s Florence is singing here. And that’s how they chose to end this sketch?!?
— Overall, the weakest installment of this recurring sketch. I’m not sorry to see this recurring sketch be retired.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Call Your Girlfriend”


WEEKEND UPDATE
flirting expert Rebecca Larue (KRW) admits to SEM that she’s just a slut

Alec Baldwin [real] excuses his plane event by posing as a penitent pilot

Stefon offers multiple unsuitable diversions for NYC holiday visitors

— Another new one-off Kristen Wiig Weekend Update character. Sure hope this is better than that god-awful pancake bit Kristen did on Update earlier this season.
— An obvious and simplistic conceit to Kristen’s commentary so far, with her flirting expert character acting very flirtatious towards Seth. However, Kristen’s execution of this is decent enough.
— Kristen’s commentary is getting better as it goes along. The bit she’s doing right now with her legs is particularly funny.
— An Alec Baldwin cameo, spoofing a then-recent incident where he was kicked off a flight for refusing to stop playing Words With Friends on his phone. Ha, something about that incident always tickles me. Something about that incident also seems so on-brand for Alec, given his reputation for having anger issues and an attitude problem. (At least he seems to keep those things in check whenever he’s at SNL.)
— Decent turn with Seth openly calling Alec out on desperately trying to do damage control by posing as the pilot who kicked him off the flight. Alec’s performance is making this pretty fun.
— Stefon continues to grow in popularity, as the cheers his entrance receives from the audience gets wilder with each passing episode he appears in.
— Greatest bits in tonight’s Stefon commentary (and there are even more great bits than usual) are him saying the club password “Diabeetus” in a Wilford Brimley voice, his mention of A Fish Called Kwanzaa, his callback to the club name “SPIIIIICY!” from one of his previous Update commentaries, his mention of Hanukkah cartoon character Menorah the Explorer, and his mention of flaccid outreach group Doctors Without Boners.
— The semi-serious sentimental turn (complete with soft Christmas background music) with Stefon trying to cheer Seth up by promising him a Christmas gift continues the great story arc of the growing dynamic between Seth and Stefon.
STARS: ***


PIPPA VISITS THE QUEEN
Queen Elizabeth (FRA) and Prince Philip (BIH) take liking to similarly-traited Pippa Middleton (host)

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch.
— Fred in drag for the THIRD separate segment tonight?!? Are you fucking kidding me?!? Shit like this just adds further fuel to my “Fred needs to finally get his tired self off of SNL” viewpoint. Also, I wonder if this is a record for most times a performer dressed in drag in separate sketches in a single episode.
— The turn in these Royal Family sketches with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip suddenly speaking brashly and threateningly in crude accents towards their guest has gotten old by this point. However, given the fact that their guest is played by Abby and not SNL’s host (who has yet to appear in this sketch so far), you can tell this sketch must have something new in store for us.
— Bill’s way of saying “Hello, Pip-pa!” in a staccato manner with a high-pitched British accent made me laugh.
— Ugh at Fred hiking up his skirt so high.
— And there’s the new thing this sketch has in store for us, with Katy’s Pippa Middleton actually bonding with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip by speaking in the same brash, threatening manner with a crude accent. An okay turn, and Katy’s pretty fun here in her performance, but I’m still kinda burned out on this recurring sketch in general.
— Like the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight, the characters do a musical performance at the end of this. I liked it last time, but it’s not as fun this time.
STARS: **½


POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) butchers words toward the wrong camera

— Kenan’s Al Sharpton impression has improved from the last time he played him, which was surprisingly way back in season 33.
— The premise of Kenan’s Sharpton misreading names, facing the wrong camera, etc. feels kinda cheap (though, reportedly, the actual Politics Nation show that this sketch is spoofing really was gaffe-filled), but I admit that all of these Sharpton gaffes are making me laugh. Kenan’s executing this decently.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dancing On My Own”


ONE MAGICAL NIGHT
at a piano bar, lonely (host) falls hard after meeting her soulmate (BOM)

— Ah, a display of Jason’s great singing voice. That happens astonishingly little during his SNL tenure.
— I’m absolutely loving the structure of this sketch, between all the bizarre interplay between Katy and Bobby, and the interstitial songs from the Jason/Kenan/Fred band. And the execution of this sketch is great.
— I like how increasingly odd the lyrics that Jason’s singing are subtly becoming over the course of this sketch. The song is also VERY catchy.
— Bobby’s reaction to Katy falling down the elevator shaft is absolutely hilarious.
— Overall, an underrated and forgotten gem. This sketch felt so different from the typical style of sketches in this era. I’d love to know who wrote this. Thanks in advance if anyone answers.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. Not much stood out as great, but most of the show stayed in the passable “just decent” range.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
One Magical Night
Best Friends
Kalle
Weekend Update
The Apocalypse
J-Pop America Fun Time Now!
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Monologue
Pippa Visits The Queen
Doggie Duty
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Buscemi)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Fallon hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 3, 2011 – Steve Buscemi / The Black Keys (S37 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OBAMA IN ONE
Barack Obama (FRA) is number 11 on his list of America’s Most Powerful

— Surprisingly, this is the first time Fred has played Obama all season. Even more surprising, it’s the first of only THREE times this entire season that Fred plays Obama, before the Obama impression gets handed to Jay the following season. I wonder if they were intentionally phasing Fred’s Obama out this season while waiting for Jay to get promoted to repertory player the following season (they presumably didn’t feel comfortable giving the Obama impression to a featured player, especially not one as green a live performer as Jay sometimes tends to be in his early seasons). The lack of appearances from Fred’s Obama this season could also do with the fact that a lot of this season’s cold openings focus on the republican presidential candidates.
— An actual amusing line from Fred’s Obama regarding consumer confidence and people pepper-spraying each other for an Xbox on Black Friday.
— At least we get a bit of a change of pace from the usual boring-as-hell Fredbama-speaks-straight-to-the-camera-from-behind-the-desk cold openings, with Fred’s Obama breaking down an “America’s Most Powerful” list with a Wayne’s World-esque Top 13 board.
— Another surprisingly amusing line from Fred’s Obama, with him sarcastically asking us “How many of you out there have a Fantasy Congress League?” and then proudly saying “Thank you for that joke, Joe Biden!”
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
supporting characters ask host how he made the leap to a leading role

— A laugh from the way Steve Buscemi points out that he tends to get typecast in movies as creepy characters.
— Second consecutive episode with Jay dressing in drag. I remember someone on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board asking, back when this episode originally aired, “Is putting Jay in drag some kind of hazing process?”
— Some fun character work from the cast as cliched supporting character archetypes from movies. My favorites are Kenan as the magical African-American and Bill as the guy in war movies who “you just KNOW is gonna die!” All that being said, it kinda bugs me that they’re wasting Steve Buscemi on a monologue like this. How do you give a man as reliably funny and lovably offbeat as him a monologue where he plays a non-comedic straight man to a whole bunch of comedic characters?
— There’s our obligatory Kristen Wiig hammy camera-hogging moment at the end of this monologue (the last above screencap for this monologue).
STARS: ***½


FROZEN MEXICAN DINNER
Frozen Mexican Dinner instantly cures musician’s (PAB) constipation

— Good to see the underused Paul having the lead role in a commercial.
— A pretty solid reveal that the constipation medication that Fred suggests Paul take is a frozen Mexican dinner. The way such a silly and somewhat juvenile concept is being played so tenderly and dramatically is adding to the humor.
— Very funny shot of Paul shaking maracas in an over-excited manner during band practice after he’s finally cured of his constipation.
STARS: ***½


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Whitney Houston (MAR) is a cautionary drug tale to Miley Cyrus (VAB)

— The weed-smoking angle is at least adding a bit of a different flavor to the overly-formulaic Miley Cyrus Show sketches.
— Right before the camera cuts away from a laughing Jason-as-Billy-Ray-Cyrus after he tells Vanessa’s Miley “You’re like a funny little Cheech Marin, baby!”, Jason, still seemingly acting in character, suddenly stops laughing and looks forward with an overly serious, almost-mesmerized look on his face, as if he had an epiphany. What was THAT all about? Was that implying Jason’s Billy Ray suddenly started having second thoughts about being okay with his daughter smoking weed?
— Speaking of oddities in Jason’s performance, he’s added a new mannerism to his Billy Ray Cyrus impression tonight, where he takes the time to toss his head and hair back in a mock-poignant manner before delivering certain lines. Not sure why he’s doing that, as it’s not really adding to the comedy of this sketch.
— A funny and pretty fitting character for Steve to play.
— Some pretty good laughs from the trippy music video.
— Out of absolutely nowhere, we suddenly get a Maya Rudolph cameo (which, as I said in a recent episode review, is something modern-day SNL viewers in 2020 are all too familiar with seeing), reprising her Whitney Houston impression.
— In a somewhat similar vein to the infamously unfortunate timing of Abby once doing a Brittany Murphy spoof in what ended up being two weeks before Murphy’s untimely death, Whitney Houston would end up dying just two months after the original airing of this sketch, a sketch that makes fun of Whitney’s drug use. Yikes. IIRC, this episode would end up never getting an NBC rerun, and people have speculated that it’s because of Whitney’s death. However, couldn’t SNL have just replaced this Miley Cyrus Show sketch with something else in reruns, perhaps a sketch cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal?
— Blah, I don’t like how Maya’s one-note, somewhat-played-out Whitney shtick has completely taken over this sketch, nor do I like how it’s completely sidelined Steve Buscemi, who barely got to say anything before Maya’s Whitney suddenly hijacked this sketch. Between the monologue and this sketch, tonight’s episode so far hasn’t exactly been utilizing Steve to his full potential.
— This ends up being the last Miley Cyrus Show sketch we’ll be seeing for quite a long while. The next one, which also ends up being the final one, doesn’t appear until well over a year later, and it spoofs Miley’s then-new, more-adult image and hairstyle.
STARS: **


BATMAN
commissioner’s (host) privacy is sneakily invaded by Batman (ANS)

— Some chuckles, but the “An Andy Samberg character keeps unexpectedly popping up wherever a certain person goes” concept is too “old hat” for Lonely Island, and was done better in some of their previous shorts.
— I did get a pretty good laugh from Andy’s Batman taking a photo of Steve’s prostate exam, complete with Jason as a doctor cheerfully posing for the photo.
— A very meh and half-assed ending.
STARS: **½


DATELINE
Keith Morrison (BIH) gets off on murderer’s (host) deeds

— The final Dateline sketch with Bill’s Keith Morrison.
— As usual, this is using the same basic concept from the previous Dateline/Keith Morrison sketches, but Bill’s Morrison and his delighted, creepy vocalizations never fail to crack me up.
— Funny line from Bill’s Morrison about how they have to stretch out this murder story because Dateline’s an hour-long show, and how they only have one photo of the murderer, which they keep showing repeatedly.
— A memorable visual of Bill’s Morrison snacking on popcorn while eagerly listening to grisly details of a murder. I’ve often seen that visual used as a GIF on Twitter.
— Bill-as-Morrison’s reactions to Kristen’s “I would let him stick his dong right up in my dumphole” confession is hilarious, with him first reacting with a frozen, speechless face, then saying a poignantly-delivered “I must paint you”, then proceeding to create a painting of Kristen. Even funnier about that last part is that, before the camera cuts away from Bill’s Morrison beginning to paint Kristen, we see that he’s just painting a simple circle for the head and a bigger simple circle for the body (the sixth-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Even though the part with Steve joining Bill’s Morrison in his usual delighted, creepy vocalizations is just a copy of what Tracy Morgan did in a previous Dateline sketch, it’s still making me laugh.
— A good offbeat, random ending with Bill’s Morrison imitating a drowning clown in a pool.
STARS: ****


COACH BERT
investigation clears creepy college coach (host) of pedophilia suspicions

— Ah, an all-time classic, and one of the ballsier things SNL has done in this era.
— A lot of priceless taken-aback reactions from Steve’s Coach Bert when Jason says Coach Bert came to mind when wondering if anyone at this college could potentially be a sexual predator.
— I love Jason’s “I know, I’m as surprised as you are!” when reporters are in disbelief upon being told that no evidence of Coach Bert being a pedophile could be found.
— Coach Bert, when wondering why he’s suspected of being a pedophile: “Is it the mustache?!? ‘Cause I can shave the mustache!”
— A great violent outburst from Kenan towards Coach Bert when Kenan expresses disgust over Coach Bert never being seen washing his hands at any point during the investigation of him.
— The escalation to this sketch is fantastic, with us now getting an appearance from Bill as a NAMBLA member, an appearance that’s hilarious right from his opening line about how great it is to be back in a school.
— When the reporters applaud Bill’s NAMBLA character as he leaves, I love an outraged Coach Bert saying “You’re clapping for him?!? Don’t clap for him!”
— Jay, after revealing that the only bad thing Coach Bert did to him during their private meeting was make him listen to a tape of the horrible Bert Man song: “He never molested me…but at times, I would’ve preferred if he had.”
— Excellent ending with the Coach Bert flyer Jason holds up.
— Overall, this sketch was just as incredible as I had remembered.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lonely Boy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
aura of adultery surrounds suspension of Herman Cain’s (KET) campaign

the holidays find Drunk Uncle (BOM) unhappy with the direction of society

— Kenan’s Herman Cain telling Seth, immediately after handing him money, “Now, you know that money ain’t free”, made me laugh just due to Kenan’s delivery.
— A predictable but amusing “Why don’t you bend over for Herman Cain?” motto that Kenan’s Cain leads up to.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Right out of the gate in his debut, Drunk Uncle is coming off very funny in his griping about modern societal and technological norms, and his sloppy use of popular slogans. Bobby already has a solid handle on this character.
— I got a particularly big laugh from Drunk Uncle randomly growling the word “iiiimmigrants!” into his drink.
STARS: ***


SURPRISE
co-worker’s (VAB) pending promotion overstimulates surprise-loving Sue

— (*groan*) The return of Surprise Sue. At least we got a long break from her. Her last appearance prior to tonight was as far back as two seasons ago. I’m not 100% sure, but I think I recall Kristen announcing sometime during that two-year gap that she retired Surprise Sue along with another character or two, because she was sick of playing them. No idea why they un-retired Sue tonight, but this ends up being her final appearance during Kristen’s tenure as a cast member. (Sue gets brought back many years later in a season 42 episode hosted by Kristen.)
— I hate myself for chuckling at the fact that Steve’s character is named Artie Anal, especially since I usually hate when the regular writer(s) of this sketch (either Kent Sublette and/or James Anderson) throws gag names like that into sketches as a random non-sequitur that’s unrelated to the sketch’s premise (a HORRIBLE trademark of many of the sketches that Sublette and/or Anderson are known to have written). I think the only reason this particular Artie Anal name made me laugh was just because of Steve’s affable delivery of it.
— Now Steve has a genuinely funny line, where he says a shocked “God, Sue, you’ve got some knockers!” when seeing Surprise Sue in her bra.
— I saw it coming from a mile away that Sue would eventually end up inside that vending machine in the background.
STARS: **


“SEX” ED VINCENT’S COUPLES WORKSHOP SEX INTENSIVE
erotic chef (host) contributes to Ed Vincent’s tepid Couples Workshop

— Yet another sketch/character tonight that’s making its final appearance, as this is our second and final edition of Paul’s Sex Ed Vincent bit. Good to see this back, and I’m happy that this is the second lead role that the underused Paul has gotten in tonight’s episode alone.
— Like last time, Paul’s giving a strong performance as this character.
— Ha, Steve Buscemi as a character called “The Erotic Chef”. You can already tell this is gonna kill.
— As expected, Steve’s overly-simplistic erotic food routine is great.
— Some very funny sex moves that Paul demonstrates for same-sex couples.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gold on the Ceiling”


ORNAMENTS
(host) unpacks & comments on Christmas ornaments for Sheila (KRW) to hang

— The first of an occasionally-appearing recurring holiday piece. I love all the ones I’ve seen (I’ve yet to watch the cut-after-dress-rehearsal-but-posted-online Kristen Wiig-starring one from the season 42 episode that Kristen hosts), but to me, none of the follow-ups top this original one.
— I love Steve’s affably-delivered “I’m fully kidding” comment after claiming the snowman ornament had just bit him.
— Every single comment from Steve about each ornament is absolutely slaying me.
— Steve, leaning discreetly into the camera after a loopy moment from Kristen’s side character: “This broad is tryin’ to gaslight me!”
— Steve, regarding one particular ornament: “This one’s been up my butt. Not just a little bit…all the way.”
— All the random and offbeat side actions from Kristen’s tree-decorating character are adding to the humor for me, especially when the tree she’s decorating has inexplicably disappeared out of nowhere.
— After Kristen repeats Steve’s “Merry Christmas, Sheila”, we get a great reveal from the ending title screen that Steve’s character is indeed named Sheila.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A bit of an up-and-down episode, but the highs made it worth it. In particular, we got TWO all-time favorites of mine (and certain other SNL fans): Coach Bert and Ornaments. The poor utilization of Steve Buscemi in his first two appearances tonight was worrisome, but his utilization got better as this episode progressed.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Coach Bert
Ornaments
Dateline / “Sex” Ed Vincent’s Couples Workshop Sex Intensive (tie)
Frozen Mexican Dinner
Monologue
Weekend Update
Batman
Obama In One
The Miley Cyrus Show
Surprise


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Segel)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Katy Perry

Posted on

November 19, 2011 – Jason Segel / Florence + The Machine (S37 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MITT ROMNEY RAW & UNLEASHED
even the “raw & unleashed” Mitt Romney (JAS) is stiff & uncontroversial

— Good premise with Sudeikis’ Mitt Romney desperately trying to shed his reputation as someone boring by unsuccessfully coming off “raw & unleashed”.
— During his interaction with Kristen’s character, I like Sudeikis’ Romney saying to the camera in a monotone voice, “I’m a real dog – bark, bark.”
— The head-shaking facial expression that Taran and Jay each make at the camera at the end of their respective scene got a laugh from me.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host tells Muppets that, despite their SNL heritage, this is his solo gig

— Almost right out of the gate, Jason Segel’s already letting us know we’re in for (yet another) musical monologue. At least they’re open about it.
— It goes without saying that it’s very fun seeing the Muppets.
— Funny how clear it’s gradually becoming that the Muppets are under the wrong impression that they’re hosting SNL with Segel.
— A solid turn with the Muppets bitterly acting sarcastic towards Segel after he breaks the news to them that he’s hosting the show alone.
— Funny bit with Kermit’s “impression” of Ray Romano.
— Ooh, I love the fact that they actually mention that the Muppets were part of SNL since 1975, accompanied by a photo of forgotten SNL Muppet Scred, in a bee costume, with Gilda Radner. I love how seeing this photo takes me back to when I was reviewing season 1 all the way back at the beginning of this SNL project of mine.
— And now we have a Statler and Waldorf cameo at the end to put this over the top.
STARS: ****


RED FLAG
Rerun from 9/24/11


KELLY AUDITIONS
Kelly Ripa (NAP) auditions potential replacements for Regis Philbin

— A successor to the Regis Auditions sketch from many years earlier, in a season 25 episode hosted by Joshua Jackson.
— I like how Kenan’s Charles Barkley, when finding out the show starts at 9 a.m., immediately says “Okay, bye” and leaves.
— Garrison Keillor is a nice, out-of-the-ordinary choice for an SNL impression, and Bill is killing it in his impression of him.
— I love Bobby’s jolly Rosie O’Donnell suddenly telling Nasim’s Kelly Ripa a threatening “I will absorb you!”
— The debut of Abby’s Zooey Deschanel impression, which SNL will be getting some mileage out of this season in general.
— Taran’s Ashton Kutcher impression is absolutely hilarious.
— Jay’s mere facial expressions as Denzel Washington are slaying the audience.
— An overall fun impression showcase, much like the original Regis Auditions sketch.
STARS: ****


KEMPER-PEDIC ME TIME MATTRESS
(host)’s Kemper-Pedic mattress is for isolation of masturbation vibration

— A lot of laughs from the various masturbation-like innocent actions that Segel is demonstrating on the mattress being advertised. Segel is executing this really well.
STARS: ****


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
Austin Vogelcheck joins his brother (host) & family for Thanksgiving

— (*groooooooaaaaaaaaaaan*)
— Did SNL forget that Vanessa already played the outsider girlfriend role in the last Vogelchecks sketch prior to this?
— At least we get a little something right now that’s kinda different for this recurring sketch, albeit brief, where Jay comes in as a second homeless guy and, upon realizing he’s at the Vogelchecks’ house, immediately reacts negatively and exits. One of the very few (if not the ONLY) laughs I ever got from a Vogelchecks sketch.
— Boy, do I hate the increasingly exaggerated mock-sentimental way Fred says “I guess we’re just….Vogelcheks” in each passing installment of this sketch.
— Paul Rudd cameo, where he and Segel IMMEDIATELY go all out and suck face with each other in the most exaggerated way possible.
— We end with a family photo of the Vogelchecks, which includes every SNL host who previously played a Vogelcheck son.
— On the bright side, this ends up being the final Vogelchecks sketch, not counting the revival that appears a few years later when Andy hosts the season 39 finale.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Shake It Out”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jon Huntsman [real] butters up voters from New Hampshire, like SEM

incredulous SEM & Kermit say “Really!?!” to school pizza as a vegetable

— Jon Hunstman cameo. And with it, we get an odd technical gaffe during his entrance.
— Huntsman’s commentary is just generic “Politician tries to prove they have a sense of humor” comedy.
— A “Really?!?” segment with Kermit joining Seth.
— Mm, it turns out that the material in tonight’s “Really?!?” is very blah, but Kermit is at least adding fun energy.
STARS: ***


RETIREMENT PARTY
at (FRA)’s retirement party, (host) hints at a big secret to be revealed

— Even in just a silent cutaway, Vanessa’s so good at comically playing a shy character.
— Ugh, Kristen’s various “I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY!” screaming rants are unfunny and annoying as all hell.
— Segel’s been given nothing material in this, but he’s selling it as best as he can.
— I finally got an actual big laugh just now, from the cutaway to a handlebar mustache-having Bobby making a shocked face into the camera.
— What the hell is this sketch going for?!? And what’s with all the bizarre, unfunny, random turns?
— Oh, are you kidding me?!? They end this sketch with YET ANOTHER one of Kristen’s unbearable “I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY!” screaming rants. Get the fuck outta here with that. Even the easy-to-please audience had no idea how to react to it, as there’s a very awkward stretch of silence between the end of Kristen’s rant and the sketch-ending audience applause.
— An overall mostly awful sketch.
STARS: *½


A NEW JACK THANKSGIVING
obscure artists fuse hip-hop with R&B

— A sketch in the vein of the preceding season’s The Worst Of Soul Train sketch.
— Meh, so far, this is nowhere near as funny as the aforementioned Soul Train sketch. Most of the scenes here aren’t doing much for me.
— When this originally aired, some online SNL fans bashed Vanessa for how extremely stiff she came off in her singing and dancing during the TLC-esque scene she’s in with Nasim and Abby. Just one of several examples of how heavily criticized and disliked Vanessa was among some online SNL fans when this season originally aired, which is worth pointing out given how well-liked she’d later go on to become, particularly in her final two seasons.
— Kenan’s song right now is at least one part of this sketch I’m finally liking.
— While I’m not caring much for the lyrics to Florence Welch’s song, she’s singing the hell out of them.
— A chuckle from the photo of the “Toni, Tone, Tony Shaloub” singing group.
— There’s Triangle Sally to give me some much-needed amusement after how much this sketch has been falling a little flat for me.
STARS: **


SEDUCING WOMEN THROUGH CHESS
(Olivia Wilde) & other women prove (ANS) has no game

— Another Digital Short that does a good job making the video look like it genuinely comes from an old, worn-out 1980s VHS tape.
— Very funny how the first scene abruptly ends with the rapid-fire “Checkmate!” “DAMMIT!” exchange between Nasim and Andy.
— I like Kristen’s little “Hey!” and raised-eyebrows facial expression when Andy rudely gives her a light shove.
— An Olivia Wilde cameo out of nowhere. Is this how she and her future hubby Jason Sudeikis met?
— I’m really enjoying the escalation to Andy’s character’s desperation, especially how he’s resorting to simpler and simpler games in his attempts to beat his female opponents. The glass-eating scene is particularly funny.
— Very good ending.
— Overall, a strong short, and a huge turnaround for the Digital Shorts the week after they had their absolute worst Digital Short up to this point (Wish It Would Rain).
STARS: ****


ANDRÉ THE GIANT CHOOSES AN ICE CREAM FLAVOR
in an ice cream parlor, André The Giant (host) does what the title above says

— A sketch in the tradition of “Celebrity performs a very simple task” sketches that these late 2000s/early 2010 seasons like occasionally doing.
— Fantastic André The Giant voice from Segel.
— Wow, and it’s over already. Short and very sweet. Segel did a great job in his execution of this.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “No Light, No Light”


THE BLUE JEAN COMMITTEE
local band charms townsfolk with rendition of “Massachusetts Afternoon”

— I’m usually not a fan of these “Fred as the lead singer of a band” sketches from Fred’s later seasons, but I’m liking this sketch so far. It has an enjoyable, laid-back, charming, feel-good atmosphere, which is a very fitting way to close an episode.
— Did I just see Paul Rudd in the background sneaking into the scene during a close-up of Fred?
— Yep, there’s Rudd now seen sitting at the bar, enjoying the band’s performance.
— Now more and more of SNL’s guests from tonight’s episode are popping up at the bar, jamming out to the band. This is only adding to the fun, entertaining vibe to this sketch. I’m also starting to find the band’s song really damn catchy.
— A great over-the-top excited look on Bill’s face while bopping back and forth behind the Muppets.
— More and more, I am absolutely loving this sketch. I really underrated this in my past viewing of it back when it originally aired.
— Ah, there’s a shot of Taran dancing wildly, a little Taran Killam trademark that’s always a comedy favorite of mine.
— Overall, probably one of the most pure, feel-good things this era has ever done.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A much better episode than I remembered it being. I’m pleasantly surprised by the impressive number of segments I gave a high rating to in this episode. The really bad segments that were hard for me to get through (Affectionate Family and Retirement Party, I’m lookin’ at you) will hurt this great episode’s rating average a little bit, but not too much, given the high number of strong segments.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Blue Jean Committee
Seducing Women Through Chess
André The Giant Chooses An Ice Cream Flavor
Kemper-Pedic Me Time Mattress
Monologue
Kelly Auditions
Mitt Romney Raw & Unleashed
Weekend Update
A New Jack Thanksgiving
Retirement Party
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Emma Stone)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Steve Buscemi

Posted on

November 12, 2011 – Emma Stone / Coldplay (S37 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
during a GOP debate, fellow candidates pity forgetful Rick Perry (BIH)

— Another funny loopy portrayal of Rick Perry from Bill, and it’s an interesting change of pace having this GOP debate sketch mainly focus on him.
— Some funny unsettled reactions from the other candidates to Bill-as-Rick-Perry’s endless screw-ups and embarrassments.
— Another example of Paul sounding very Will Forte-esque as Ron Paul, this time when exclaiming “All his cards are BLANK!”
— A hilarious visual of Bill’s Perry seen wearing a dickey when he removes his suit jacket.
— As I’ve disclosed before, Of Mice And Men is my favorite book of all time, and I’m always a sucker for parodies of it. Thus, I love the Of Mice And Men turn this cold opening takes towards the end.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
ANS wishes he & not Andrew Garfield [real] were host’s Spider-Man co-star

— I see Andy’s apparently doing a variation of the upside-down Spider-Man commentary he did on Weekend Update the preceding season.
— A laugh from Andy’s sloppy attempt at passing off silly string as a web shooter.
— A meta, self-aware part with Emma pointing out that Andy’s just re-doing the same monologue Kirsten Dunst did in 2002.
— Andy, when learning that the surname of Spider-Man’s new actor is Garfield: “How’s he gonna fight crime when he’s busy eating lasagna and tworking Nermal, amirite?!?” Assuming “tworking” means “fucking”, it’s funny how many people, including Andy, are under the incorrect assumption that Nermal is a girl. I used to think so myself when I was a kid.
— I love Andy’s “HE’S BRITISH?!?” line when hearing Andrew Garfield’s accent.
STARS: ***½


SECRET WORD
oblivious Mindy Grayson & Miss America (host) are worthless

— (*groan*) (By the way, I wonder how many recurring sketches in this era always immediately induce a *groan* reaction from me in my reviews. Whatever the number is, it must be close to the double-digits by this point, if not already there, which just goes to show how many bad recurring sketches this era has).
— I guess they’re running out of cast members to play the straight man contestants in this recurring sketch, as this is Paul’s second time getting stuck in this role in a Secret Word sketch.
— Funny bit regarding Emma disclosing the fact that she was disqualified from a pageant because “they could see my puss”.
— Like most SNL hosts in this recurring sketch, Emma continues to be the only real saving grace of this installment (aside from a few funny reliable lines from Bill). The Mindy Elise Grayson (once again, I hate the fact that they randomly and pointlessly added a middle name to this Mindy Grayson character starting last season) portions, on the other hand, are as painful as ever. In fact, I don’t know if it’s just me, but this character seems to be getting more and more annoying with each passing installment of this sketch lately, especially her songs that these sketches seem to be relying on more and more.
STARS: *½


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
journalistic fossil Herb Welch flubs reporting on falling ice story

— Makes sense seeing Emma Stone in a Herb Welch sketch and being the victim of Herb’s typical microphone face-hits, given the fact that, reportedly, Bill inadvertently came up with the Herb Welch character during rehearsals of the news sketch from Emma’s previous episode, where Bill, while playing a normal reporter character, kept ad-libbing by hitting Emma and others in the face with his microphone while interviewing them.
— A good laugh from Herb randomly asking Emma “You think this Belafonte kid oughta…pipe down?”
— A decent twist to the usual microphone face-hitting gag at one point, with Emma using her purse as a shield when Herb’s about to hit her in the face with his microphone once again, causing him to unintentionally hit himself with the microphone.
— Good job from Kristen on perfectly keeping a straight face during Bill’s VERY extended tapping of his microphone onto her crotch, which (unsurprisingly) cracks himself up at one point.
— Maybe I’m slowly starting to get a little tired of the usual formula of this recurring sketch, because, while I still enjoyed tonight’s overall installment, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as previous installments.
STARS: ***½


WISH IT WOULD RAIN
lack of precipitation hampers singer’s (ANS) video

 

— Oh, no. I recall this short being HORRIBLE. When it originally aired, I was absolutely floored by how bad it was. It was the point where I slowly started realizing that the Digital Shorts had officially “lost it” this season.
— The bit with the “rain” turning out to be Jason peeing on Andy got a laugh from me. Otherwise, yeah, this short is dire so far.
— Jesus Christ, the appearance of Emma with an exaggeratedly big butt is SO desperate. Just sad. The fact that they felt the need to randomly throw that gag into this is a huge sign of the general lack of inspiration in this season’s Digital Shorts.
— Yikes, that Andy-getting-struck-by-lightning-and-then-disappearing ending was AWFUL, and, again, reeked of sad desperation and lack of inspiration.
— Overall, oof. Yeah, this mostly lived up to my horrible memory of it, though I did get one actual laugh this time (the aforementioned bit with the rain turning out to be Jason peeing), which was more than I got during my first viewing of this back when it originally aired. Still one of the worst Digital Shorts of all time, though.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Paradise”


WEEKEND UPDATE
the nature of the Penn State scandal is too much for The Devil to take

Garth & Kat add a backup singer (Chris Martin) for Thanksgiving tunes

— Ah, this Penn State commentary from The Devil is the commentary that I’ve remembered the most out of all of his appearances. This also ends up being his final Update commentary. His only remaining appearance is just a non-speaking background appearance with various other Update characters during the epic “Stefon’s Wedding” bit in Bill’s final episode.
— I absolute love The Devil’s various reactions to certain horrifying details about the Penn State scandal. Given this VERY heavy subject matter, this is a fine line for SNL to tread, but Jason’s execution of it is perfect.
— After The Devil says, in an aghast manner in response to one of the Penn State scandal details about the child sexual abuse, “This is college football, not the catholic church!” and the audience gasps at that, I love The Devil then asking the audience “Are you sorry that it happened or that I reminded you of it?”
— After The Devil learns of one PARTICULARLY horrifying fact about the Penn State scandal, Jason gets such a huge laugh out of me from him getting out of his seat and yelling at the Weekend Update map “ARE YOU HEARING THIS?!? ARE YOU HEARING THIS…MAP?!?” Jason is absolutely slaying me in this whole commentary.
— The Devil ending his commentary by officially retiring from his job is perfect closure for this recurring character.
— Aaaaaaand, after my very positive reception to The Devil commentary, Garth and motherfucking Kat are here to give me one of the biggest mood whiplashes I’ve EVER gotten during SNL.
— Much like Gwyneth Paltrow in the preceding season, her then-hubby Chris Martin plays a third member of Garth & Kat. I’m guessing Chris Martin previously watched Gwyneth doing this and liked it so much that, when he showed up at SNL this week, he asked if he could do a Garth & Kat bit. So I see I have him to thank for having to suffer through these characters once again.
STARS: **½ (as usual, Garth & Kat’s painful and overlong commentary docked half a star from the rating)


LES JEUNES DE PARIS
teens dance & get married to “A Cause Des Garcons”

— This episode is going really heavy on recurring characters, though I’m not complaining about seeing this particular sketch.
— Emma reprises the character she played in the very first installment of this sketch.
— I kinda don’t like how the French songs played in these sketches seem to get less and less bizarre with each passing installment of this sketch, but that’s a minor gripe about this always-very-fun recurring sketch.
— Great bit with a little person appearing from under Emma’s wedding dress.
— Some fun walk-ons and passersby at the end.
— While I didn’t feel this overall installment of this recurring sketch was quite as great as previous installments (which I also said about Herb Welch earlier in this episode review), this was still strong and enjoyable.
STARS: ****


BRIDAL SHOWER GIFTS
(host)’s X-rated gifts are inappropriate for (KRW)’s bridal shower

— An actual original, non-recurring sketch tonight.
— The odd, very deep voice Emma’s using here is immediately cracking me up.
— So far, good job from Emma as this off-beat character, and her inappropriate bridal shower gifts are pretty funny.
— I know it’s cliched for me to say this at this point of Fred’s SNL tenure, but ugh, I hate Fred’s performance in this otherwise good sketch. I find him unlikable when he plays characters like this in his later seasons, and not unlikable in the intentional, comedic way.
— Decent bit with Emma’s reactions to the “cops”.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall”


SAD SONG
depressed (NAP) & co-workers have a good cry to “Someone Like You”

— A laugh from Nasim, after initially hiding her true emotions from her co-workers, immediately following her co-workers’ exit by playing Adele’s “Someone Like You” on her computer and instantly breaking out into tears.
— Very funny visual of Nasim and Emma simultaneously pigging out on ice cream while crying to the song.
— Amusing how Kristen’s reason for wanting to cry to the song is because her parakeets have been fighting all week.
— Hilarious actions and facial expressions from Emma, Nasim, and Kristen right now during their emotional “Someone Like You” crying together.
— Great escalation to this sketch.
— I love the gag with Bill randomly having mascara running from his eyes during his crying.
— An excellent meta turn with us now even seeing Coldplay, as themselves, falling victim to the chain reaction of emotional “Someone Like You” crying while watching this sketch backstage at SNL.
STARS: ****½


WE’RE GOING TO MAKE TECHNOLOGY HUMP
handheld devices perform porno plots

— Well, this is certainly an out-of-left-field premise. I’m onboard, though.
— Jay makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in something that’s 1) pre-taped, and 2) can hardly even be called an “appearance”, as we only hear his voice and see his hand during one of the technology sex scenes.
— Why are Andy and Emma’s portions of this sketch pre-taped? One could say it’s because Andy gets bleeped out at one point when jovially saying “I hear that shit!”, but it’s not like this era hasn’t had bleeped-out scripted swearing in live sketches (e.g. the Paula Deen sketch from the season 36 Scarlett Johansson episode).
— Some good and inspired gags during the technology sex scenes, like the camera’s penis being its extended lens, the iPad turning around to receive anal sex, and the curling iron’s plug being used as a whip.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. The first half was kinda bumpy, but things got better and more consistent in the second half (which was also the case with Emma Stone’s previous episode).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Sad Song
Les Jeunes de Paris
We’re Going To Make Technology Hump
The Republican Presidential Debate
WXPD News New York
Monologue
Bridal Shower Gifts
Weekend Update
Secret Word
Wish It Would Rain


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charlie Day)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jason Segel

Posted on

November 5, 2011 – Charlie Day / Maroon 5 (S37 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE GHOST OF KADDAFI
the ghost of Muammer Kaddafi (FRA) says his final farewells from Hell

— Ugh. Much like the first cold opening SNL did after Osama Bin Laden’s death the preceding season, we open the show with a post-death address to the nation from Fred as a recently-killed Muammer Kaddafi (how many damn spellings of the man’s name are there?). So lazy and uncreative, which is sadly on-brand for a lot of SNL’s writing in 2009-2012. Not to mention SNL’s overuse of Fred’s unfunny Kaddafi impression the preceding season (appearing FOUR EPISODES IN A ROW at one point) made me permanently sick of it. At least the fact that Kaddafi is dead by this point means I don’t have to suffer through this impression anymore, but I’m sure Fred will find another Middle Eastern leader to play ad-nauseam.
— I do at least kinda like the line about how hell looks like Libya.
— Boy, that joke from Fred’s Kaddafi about his face being melty got a very forced, tedious “Ehhh…” laugh from the audience.
— Overall, most of this was just as painful to get through as I was worried.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
relaxed host puts out by playing piano & harmonica; Danny DeVito cameo

— Charlie Day already bringing lots of fun energy right out of the gate in this.
— Danny DeVito! In his first SNL appearance in years!
— So much fun interplay between Charlie and Danny in this.
— Charlie Day is one of the very few hosts who can make me forgive SNL for doing yet another musical monologue in this era.
— Charlie, to Danny: “(*in an aggravated manner*) It’s called a monologue ’cause one person does it!” Ha, tell that to SNL’s writers.
— Great piano/harmonica song from Charlie, especially the lyric about it being “Charlie Day day”.
STARS: ****½


KIM’S FAIRYTALE DIVORCE
Kardashians make a spectacle of Kim’s (NAP) separation

— I remember this being really solid and fun.
— A hilarious facial expression from Taran’s Bruce Jenner.
— I love Charlie as the divorce attorney.
— Andy’s caveman-like portrayal of Kris Humphries is very funny.
— I like the running gag with Kristen’s Kris Jenner desperately trying to pass herself off as a young, fourth Kardashian sister.
— Overall, this lived up to my positive memories. Easily my favorite of SNL’s many Kardashian spoofs in this era. I think the fact that this one was pre-taped played a part in it coming off more fun than SNL’s typical Kardashian parodies in this era.
STARS: ****


THE DR. OZ SHOW
(host)’s dead rectum isn’t treated discreetly by Dr. Oz (BIH)

— A spot-on Dr. Oz impression from Bill.
— I’m currently about two minutes into this sketch, and I’m not too crazy about it so far.
— This sketch is over already??? This was a big ol’ pile of “meh”, despite some chuckles I got towards the end.
STARS: **


GREEK GODS
on Mount Olympus, Greek gods dodge blame for Hellenic economic woes

— I always love these fun ensemble sketches that utilize the entire cast and give each of them their own bit.
— Andy’s disgusting suggestion is very funny, especially with his various “hear me out”s throughout it.
— Jason is excellent as the leader here, and he has so many funny reactions to the other gods.
— A laugh from Adam Levine’s failure in his attempts to brush the long windblown hair out of his face.
— Bobby’s delivery of “Hahahaha SHUT UP” was great.
— Some fun interplay between Charlie and Jason here (a precursor to lots of fun interplay we’ll be seeing between Charlie and Jason in a certain sketch airing later in this episode).
— Meh, a newspaper headline ending, usually a lazy resort.
STARS: ****


IT’S GETTING FREAKY WITH CEE LO GREEN!
Cee Lo Green (KET) helps (ANS) & (ABE) enliven marriage

— Speaking of lazy resorts SNL loves relying on, we get the debut of another celebrity-hosted talk show sketch.
— A good vocal imitation of Cee Lo Green from Kenan.
— For a celebrity-hosted talk show sketch, this actually has a very fun atmosphere and approach. In fact, the fun atmosphere and approach is quite What Up With That-esque, such as the look of the band, and Charlie’s Freakasaurus character. Given the fact, at this time, What Up With That was retired (it would be un-retired later this season), perhaps SNL intended this sketch to become WUWT’s replacement.
— Some funny lines from Kenan’s Cee Lo throughout this, especially “Well, much like my arms and legs, this is a stumper.”
— Now we get another WUWT-esque fun aspect of this sketch, with Bill entering as “Colonel Nasty”, featuring Bill doing his ol’ reliable “70s pimp” voice.
STARS: ***½


THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF CATCHPHRASE COMEDY VOLUME 2
more hack stand-ups are along for the second Kings Of Catchphrase tour

— The second and final installment of this piece, though there’s a third one that gets cut after dress rehearsal from this season’s finale and would be posted online.
— An absolutely spot-on and funny Dane Cook spoof from Charlie.
— Nasim’s “my vagina” routine is a particularly accurate and funny spoof of some female stand-ups.
— I love the randomness of Adam Levine’s whole stand-up gimmick being him suddenly getting attacked by a hawk in the middle of his act.
— Bill’s bit particularly stands out as absolutely priceless.
— Unlike the first installment of this piece, tonight’s installment is using the entire cast, making this the second full-cast segment tonight that gives each cast member their own moment to shine. I absolutely love that, and for me, that puts this one over the top as my favorite of the two Kings Of Catchphrase Comedy pieces.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Moves Like Jagger”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rick Perry (BIH) is as loopy as he seemed during his New Hampshire speech

A Closer Look At Europe- SEM summarizes the continental financial crisis

eternally-nervous Judy Grimes free-associates quickly & peripatetically

— Bill is very fun here as Rick Perry, so much so that even he and Seth are visibly having a lot of unscripted, infectious fun here, particularly with Bill’s hilarious “Hola!” ad-lib during the Hawaiian doll bit.
— Holy hell, Seth is doing a segment called “A Closer Look at Europe”. Can this be considered a direct precursor to his famous “A Closer Look” regular segment from his current Late Night show? I’ve never actually watched his Late Night show, so I don’t know how similar the actual content of this “Closer Look at Europe” segment has to the content of his “Closer Look” segments on Late Night.
— An overall decent “Closer Look at Europe” segment.
— I completely forgot about Kristen’s Judy Grimes character until this point. She hadn’t appeared in quite a long while. I didn’t even realize until now that she completely skipped season 36.
— Checking SNL Archives right now, this actually ends up being Judy Grimes’ final appearance. I keep forgetting this is Kristen’s final season on SNL.
— Wow, tonight’s Judy Grimes commentary contains what has got to be her longest run-on “Just kidding” spiel of all time. That’s not a complaint, though, as I’m still getting my usual laughs from this character. And given the fact that this ends up being her final appearance, it’s very fitting that this contains her longest-ever run-on “Just kidding” spiel, whether that’s intentional on SNL’s part or not. I’m glad that, contrary to my initial worries when I covered Judy Grimes’ debut, I somehow ended up never getting sick of this character, despite her shtick always being the same.
STARS: ***½


BECAUSE OF ONE DOLPHIN
on a movie set, actor (host) has trouble during a scene with a dolphin

— For some reason, it feels a little odd seeing Kristen playing a director in a movie filming sketch. As frequently utilized as she is, I can’t think of any other time she played this specific type of role.
— Some laughs from Taran’s dolphin command sounds and gestures.
— I’m being somewhat amused by Kenan’s stern “I do my job” catchphrase throughout this sketch.
— Pretty funny turn with Kenan immediately ripping off his clothes to reveal he’s wearing the same costume that Charlie’s wearing for the movie, and then proceeding to seamlessly step into Charlie’s movie role.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Travie McCoy [real] perform “Stereo Hearts”


CRIME SCENE
(host) belies ignorance while investigating murder in Seinfeld apartment lookalike

— Ah, an all-time favorite of mine, and I know that a number of other SNL fans love it as well.
— A genuine and relatable big laugh from the simple moment of Jason finally pointing out what we all noticed right from the start of this sketch: this apartment looks like the famous Seinfeld apartment.
— Charlie’s increasingly ridiculous and inexplicable lack of knowledge about certain TV shows and historical events is great.
— Charlie, when Jason brings up the name Adolf Hitler: “What’s he, another one of your Fieldstein characters?”
— Now this is getting even funnier with Charlie’s character unwittingly making references to the exact TV shows and historical events that he claimed to have no knowledge of.
— Jason and Charlie are making an AMAZING comedy team in this. They are an absolute blast together here, and the way they’re selling this sketch is nothing short of phenomenal.
— Even Jason’s mere delivery of “What the hell?!?” when Charlie’s character intentionally makes a CSI reference killed me and has been one of the parts of this sketch that has stuck in my memory over the years.
STARS: *****


LIL POUNDCAKE
Rerun from 10/1/11


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I called the preceding Anna Faris-hosted episode pretty fun, but THIS episode takes the cake. This episode was the textbook definition of fun, with stuff like the monologue, Greek Gods, It’s Getting Freaky, Kings Of Catchphrase Comedy, Bill Hader’s Rick Perry commentary on Weekend Update, and (especially) Crime Scene. Charlie Day’s performances also added a lot to the fun vibe of this episode. There was so much of this episode that I loved. The number of segments that didn’t work for me were thankfully kept to a very small minimum, and are easy to ignore with how strong a lot of this episode was. And even as awful and derivative as the cold opening was, at least Fred Armisen brought a lot of energy in it, which, thinking about it in hindsight, fits the fun, energetic feel of this episode in general.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Crime Scene
The Original Kings Of Catchphrase Comedy Volume 2
Monologue
Greek Gods
Kim’s Fairytale Divorce
It’s Getting Freaky with Cee Lo Green!
Weekend Update
Because Of One Dolphin
The Dr. Oz Show
The Ghost of Kaddafi


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anna Faris)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Emma Stone

Posted on

October 15, 2011 – Anna Faris / Drake (S37 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
one-percenter Michael Bloomberg (FRA) ducks Occupy Wall Street protesters

— I liked the previous Fred-as-Michael-Bloomberg-addressing-the-nation cold opening from the preceding season, but I can’t say I’m crazy about seeing another one. Then again, I’m rarely eager to see ANY cold opening involving a politician sitting behind a desk (or standing behind a podium, in this case) and delivering an address to the nation.
— Funny line regarding New York supposedly being a trendsetter.
— Aside from a few okay lines, this cold opening is droning on and on for me. Fred might as well be playing Obama here, because this cold opening is almost as boring as a typical Obama-addresses-the-nation cold opening.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
in Hanna Garis (ABE), host finds a familiar face in the audience

— An okay-ish conceit with the overly-intelligent, complicated questions audience members ask the ditzy Anna Faris.
— Hmm, playing a Jeff Montgomery-esque character, right down to the clothing choices, are we, Bill? Then again, maybe we can consider this to possibly be the same character Bill previously played in the MySpace Seminar sketch from season 31, just like my personal theory that Will Forte’s character in that MySpace Seminar sketch could possibly be a then-unnamed Jeff Montgomery.
— A fairly fun way to work Abby’s Anna Faris impression into this, and I like how Anna is exaggerating her own voice and mannerisms to match Abby’s over-the-top impression. This is probably more cute than funny, but I’m still enjoying it.
STARS: ***


THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin beats saturate philandering sting operation

— (*groooooaaaaaaaaaaan*)
— What was with that mic’ed gravelly throat-clearing sound I heard from someone at the very beginning of this?
— Is it me, or have they shortened the usual music they always dance to in this recurring sketch? If so, thank god.
— Ha, I actually laughed at the hidden camera scene, even how it ended with this sketch’s usual dance routine.
STARS: **


WHAT’S WRONG WITH TANYA?!
game show tests Lifetime Original Movie moms

— A solid premise for a Lifetime game show sketch.
— There’s Bill’s omnipresent Vince Blight character hosting yet another new game show sketch.
— A funny detail of the first prize being “a Volvo full of groceries!”
— A good running bit with all the contestants talking over each other when initially asking each Tanya what’s wrong.
— I love how the losing contestants have to pretend to rake leaves slowly while the rest of the game goes on.
— A hilarious tense, dramatic “Ow, you’re hurting my arm!” “WHO’S GONNA BELIEVE YOU?!?” exchange between Anna and Bill.
STARS: ****


DRAKE INTERVIEW
ANS gets brief, close, sarcastic, racist, seductive, sweater-matching, horribly dubbed, and dark with musical guest

— Girls in the audience are excitedly screaming at the top of their lungs at 1) the mere appearance of Drake’s name in the opening title of this short, and 2) the initial appearance of Drake himself. Rather reminiscent of how the audience usually is whenever Justin Timberlake is on the show.
— An interesting and out-of-the-ordinary structure to this Digital Short, with it being comprised of various different-themed mini interviews of Drake.
— Drake immediately shutting down the racist-themed interview before Andy actually said anything bad was particularly funny.
— A good silly atmosphere to this whole short.
— Meh, I didn’t care for the extremely random and off-topic “Happy Halloween” ending, which gave off the desperation and fatigue that a lot of Digital Shorts this season in general reek of. Aside from that, though, this was a good short, and was the first Digital Short all season that I actually liked.
STARS: ***½


YET ANOTHER GOP DEBATE
debating GOP presidential hopefuls are realistically cynical about future

— Bill takes over the Rick Perry impression that Alec Baldwin previously did in the season premiere. Hmm, an actual cast member taking over a politician role that was previously played by a non-cast member. Hear that, 2020 SNL?
— I like the very loose, silly, experimental approach to this debate sketch, especially with the increasingly odd location each GOP candidate is placed in. I’m finding this fun. Hmm, an actual fun and loose debate sketch. Again I ask, hear that, 2020 SNL?
— “Jon Huntsman couldn’t be here tonight”? You’d think Taran (who previously played Huntsman earlier this season) was out sick tonight, especially since we’ve yet to see him appear in any sketches so far tonight. However, we’ll finally be seeing him towards the end of this episode.
— Jason-as-Mitt-Romney’s Forrest Gump analogy is pretty funny.
— Love the whole bit with Paul’s Ron Paul being kidnapped in a van, then immediately defending himself from his kidnappers in a badass manner.
— From my past viewing of this sketch when it originally aired, I had remembered Vanessa being really stumbly in her delivery throughout this sketch as the moderator, and I recall that ended up setting off a lot of somewhat harsh criticisms of Vanessa in general from some online SNL fans for the remainder of this season (until she won a lot of those people back over the following season). In my current viewing, however, I’m seeing that she hasn’t flubbed anything in this sketch, aside from her opening line. (And, yes, I’m watching the live version of this episode, not a rerun version that might’ve fixed any flubs.) However, she is coming off rather stiff here, but not to the detriment of the sketch or anything.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Headlines”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anthony Crispino spreads falsehoods about Walgreens, Courteney Cox, more

teens (JAP) & (musical guest) do a rap about jacking kids’ Halloween candy bags

— Bobby’s Anthony Crispino mentions that he got one of his false news scoops from a Nazi friend named Pee-Wee German. That sounds like that could easily be a name of a club owner mentioned by Stefon, given how the club owner names that Stefon usually mentions are malaprops of celebrity names (e.g. Jew Diamond Phillips, Tranny Oakley, Snoozin Lucci).
— Tonight’s Crispino commentary is slaying me as usual, even if there’s nothing specific I can single out in tonight’s commentary.
— Hmm, interesting use of tonight’s musical guest, Drake. Also good to see Jay finally getting his first big live role of this season, after how badly he had been struggling for airtime this season.
— During the pre-song portion of the Jay/Drake commentary, Drake is coming off as a natural in his delivery. An early sign of what a good host he’ll make a few years later.
— Cue the screaming girls in the audience again during certain things Drake does in this commentary, including thrusting his hips in a suggestive manner at one point.
— A decent Halloween song from Jay and Drake, made better by Drake’s fun performance.
STARS: ***


TELL HIM
(VAB)’s friends advocate lying for dating success with “Tell Him” variant

 

— While I’m often not too crazy about musical sketches, I really like how “old school SNL” this particular sketch feels. This sketch would’ve came off right at home in the 70s or the Dick Ebersol era, and it comes off as a very refreshing novelty in this early 2010s era.
— This is also a great ensemble sketch for the female cast, which feels rare in these later years of Kristen’s SNL tenure. The usually-underused Abby even gets a big solo at one point of this song!
— There’s Andy doing his usual funny brief walk-on work.
— A fun and great ending to the song.
STARS: ****


J-POP AMERICA FUN TIME NOW!
Midwestern weeaboos (TAK) & (VAB) love Japan

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— There’s Taran, finally making his first (and only) appearance tonight.
— I like how the two lead characters in this are played by second-season featured players Taran and Vanessa, the future of SNL.
— Jason doing great straight man work as the teacher.
— Why is Vanessa facing the wrong camera right now while intending to speak into the camera?
— Ugh, cue the cutaway to Fred in drag as Taran’s Japanese girlfriend. And even more unfortunate, that ends up becoming a regular part of this soon-to-be-recurring sketch.
— I’m enjoying this sketch, even if I’ve never been quite as crazy about these sketches as some people are. Maybe it’s because I’m not too familiar with Japanese culture tropes and people who are obsessed with them like Taran and Vanessa’s characters.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Nicki Minaj [real] perform “Make Me Proud”


LORD WYNDEMERE
cavalier dandy Cecil (PAB) meets his girlfriend’s (host) family

— After he had been so under the radar in all his prior appearances this season, Paul finally gets an actual showcase!
— Right out of the gate, this character of Paul’s and the comedic dissonance of him in a modern-day setting is fantastic.
— Equally (or maybe even moreso) fantastic is Jason’s performance, between his overjoyed reactions to everything Paul’s character is doing, and his sudden loud, angry outbursts at Andy. Jason’s ability to seamlessly switch from “jolly” mode to “viciously angry” mode at the drop of a hat rivals that of Will Ferrell’s.
— Even Bill in a mostly silent role is adding to the greatness of this sketch with his creepy frozen smile in the brief cutaway to a close-up of him. I’m loving pretty much everything about this sketch.
STARS: ****½


FERRARI CALENDAR
(KRW) & (host) ogle untraditionally-handsome Ferrari calendar models

— A somewhat amusing conceit with Kristen and Anna inexplicably lusting after grotesque Ferrari calendar models, especially Anna with her initial “Ohh!” facial reactions to each model.
— Ehh, the descriptions of each grotesque model are getting less and less funny, even if I’m still liking Kristen and Anna’s delivery.
— What’s with the random running gag with Bill’s character wording some of his sentences awkwardly, then expressing frustration with himself because of that? Speaking of random running gags, I’m also not caring for the one with Kristen and Anna occasionally saying “…or our asses are gonna explode”.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty fun episode. While certainly not without its faults, this overall episode was entertaining due to a few great highlights and the fun atmosphere of many of the segments.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lord Wyndemere
Tell Him
What’s Wrong With Tanya?!
Yet Another GOP Debate
Drake Interview
J-Pop America Fun Time Now!
Weekend Update
Monologue
A Message From The Mayor
The Manuel Ortiz Show
Ferrari Calendar


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ben Stiller)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Charlie Day

Posted on

October 8, 2011 – Ben Stiller / Foster The People (S37 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
GOP fundraisers wish Chris Christie (BOM) would obviate Mitt Romney (JAS)

— Heh, while Paul as a reporter is asking a question, Vanessa as a fellow reporter can be seen with a huge, gleeful, frozen, open-mouthed smile on her face, a definitive Vanessa Bayer facial expression (seen towards the lower left corner of the below screencap).

— Funny line from Jason’s Mitt Romney about how his voice sounds like a black comedian doing a white guy voice.
— When Bobby’s Chris Christie is listing off the reasons why he can never be president, I got a particularly big laugh from him pointing to his body and saying “This…this can’t go national.”
— The dynamic between Bobby’s Christie and the crowd of reporters who love him is decently funny.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
BES visits Jewish Willy Wonka’s (ANS) kosher wonderland during Yom Kippur

— Andy: “I’m Jewish Willy Wonka!” Ben Stiller: “So you’re Gene Wilder?” Andy: “Yeah, basically.”
— A nice-looking Jewish food-filled wonderland set.
— The Jewish stereotypes humor is coming off decent here.
STARS: ***


LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
(JAS) will have sex with his future self (JAS)

— I like the unsettling reveal of Jason’s future self wanting to have sex with his present-day self. The calm, smug smile on Future Jason’s face during all of this is adding to the humor for me.
— An overall fairly dumb ad, but one that worked for me.
STARS: ***½


FOX & FRIENDS
Hank Williams Jr. (JAS) won’t apologize for Obama remarks

— Good to see this solid sketch become recurring.
— Hmm, I didn’t recall from my previous viewings of this era that Fred’s doddering old fact-checker character from the first installment of this sketch got brought back. He eventually gets dropped from these sketches, but I’m not sure when.
— Vanessa: “[Hank Williams Jr.] compared President Obama to Hitler, and we just don’t say that on this show.” Bobby: “We imply it.”
— I love Jason’s mere look as Hank Williams Jr., as well as his portrayal of him.
— Funny bit with Jason’s HWJ going off-book during his apology song, and launching into another “Obama is Hitler” rant.
STARS: ****


LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
(BIH) meets his fat & suicidal future self (BIH)

— This seems like an odd choice for a runner to me.
— The deep “fat guy” voice Bill’s using is absolutely fantastic.
— I love the dark bit with Future Bill jovially implying that he’s flying to Hawaii just so he can commit suicide.
STARS: ***½


THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS WITH HUGH JACKMAN
manly Daniel Radcliffe (Hugh Jackman) is musical

— The second and final appearance of this sketch. This is also the second consecutive live sketch tonight that’s being brought back from the preceding season’s Helen Mirren episode.
— Hmm, much like how I didn’t recall Fred’s fact-checker character from the first Fox & Friends installment being brought back in tonight’s Fox & Friends installment, I completely forgot that SNL made Abby’s Nancy Grace impression recurring. I had always remembered it only appearing in that So You Think You Can Dance parody from the season 35 Ryan Reynolds episode.
— The musical knife fight between Andy’s Hugh Jackman and Ben’s Mandy Patinkin is very funny.
— The debut of Bill’s memorable and very funny Clint Eastwood impression.
— They’re speeding through all the guests in this installment, it seems. The first installment of this sketch took its time with each guest.
— A cameo from Hugh Jackman himself, playing Daniel Radcliffe. The audience seems to take a while to recognize it’s Jackman under that get-up.
— A decent meta turn with Jackman, in character as Radcliffe, desperately refuting all the ridiculous claims that Andy’s Jackman makes about himself.
— Though I feel very wrong for this, I laughed at Andy’s Jackman saying, during his claim that he was born a girl, “The doctor turned me kangaroo pouch into a didgeridoo!”
— Why is it always Bobby who’s cast as the stage manager who gets gruesomely killed by the guests in these sketches?
STARS: ***


V-NECKS
(ANS) & (BES) show their chests in a clothing store showdown

— I wonder if Ben appreciates starring in a Digital Short, given the fact that, back when he was a short-lived cast member in season 14, SNL’s refusal to let him do short films that season was reportedly the reason for his very early exit.
— A laugh from the second V-Neck shirt Andy walks out in, where the “V” goes all the way down to his belly button.
— The escalation to the V-Necks is a little meh for me, despite some chuckles I’m occasionally getting.
— Not sure what the point is of Ben suddenly speaking in a goofy high-pitched voice when he’s being arrested by the cops.
— The diminished quality of this season’s Digital Shorts continues, though I found this overall V-Necks short a little better than the Stomp short from the preceding episode.
STARS: **½


BAND SHOT
going to commercial, Hank Williams Jr. (JAS) asks “Are you ready?” through song

— Oh, hell yeah! This is a great change of pace for this era, letting a cast member do a brief going-to-commercial musical number with the SNL Band, and it’s also a great way for Jason to reprise his Hank Williams Jr. impression from earlier tonight. This whole thing feels like a throwback to earlier SNL eras, which weren’t afraid to try different things like this.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pumped Up Kicks”


WEEKEND UPDATE
event planner Nan Washingtom’s (KRW) lone party theme idea is “pancakes”

look no further than the party held by Derek Zoolander (BES) & Stefon

— Odd how Seth starts his intro of the first guest commentary in tonight’s Update by saying “My first guest is a– etc.”, which is something Seth’s never done before in his Update guest intros. (Neither has any other Update anchorperson, as far as I know.)
— Another quirky one-off Wiig Update character. Ever since somewhere around March of the preceding season, it feels like Update is the only place Kristen does new characters anymore.
— This so-called new character of Kristen’s feels too much like an amalgamation of various quirky characters Kristen previously played, right down to the detail of her holding the microphone too close to her mouth the whole time.
— I’m not caring at all for where Kristen’s pancakes commentary has been going, nor do I like how EXTREMELY slow and drawn-out it is. This feels like a lame, failed attempt at both absurdist humor and patience-testing humor, mixed with tired “Wacky Wiig” character tropes. I remember how, when this originally aired, some online SNL fans defended this commentary of Kristen’s from people like me who bashed it, but yeah, 9 years later, I’m still not seeing the appeal of Kristen’s commentary at all.
— I love the audience reaction to Seth’s first Pet Costumes joke.
— I like how Stefon’s commentary begins with a callback to the summer vacation we previously saw him and Seth heading on their way to in the preceding season’s finale.
— A particularly memorable and hilarious Stefon moment right now, with his description of what a Human Fire Extinguisher is.
— An interesting change of pace in this Stefon commentary, with his new friend showing up, who turns out to be Ben’s Zoolander character. Good to see this, and seeing Stefon and Zoolander teamed up is a pretty fun pairing.
— I got a big laugh from Zoolander’s explanation of what the complicated SoWoHoNoBoHeWo abbreviation stands for.
STARS: ***


HALLOWEEN PARTY
at a Halloween party, sexy & foul Shana mixes her co-workers’ emotions

— This ends up being the final Shana sketch.
— How is Shana always “the new girl” in every single one of her sketches, when her co-workers are always the same people (aside from the character played by the host)?
— Yeesh, that “man from the 90s”/“Oh, I’m not wearing a costume” gag between Abby and Ben fell horribly flat.
— Speaking of Abby, she has officially broken the curse of cast members getting fired after playing the “ignored girl” role in just one Shana sketch.
— For most of this Shana character’s run, I’ve been a lot more tolerant of her sketches than some SNL fans appear to be, but I seemed to finally get tired of her sketches halfway through the last one prior to this (the basketball court one with Bryan Cranston). My newfound tiredness towards these sketches has been continuing in tonight’s installment, as I’m not all that entertained by what I’m currently watching.
— Ugh. Aaaaaaaaaaaand there goes the unnecessary, loud, long fart sound effect, something that this sketch had thankfully refrained from using in previous installments. The fact that this occurs at the climax of this sketch is sadly a fitting final nail in the coffin for this past-its-prime recurring sketch. Good riddance.
STARS: *½


LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
(BES) is drawn to his female future self (BES)

— Short but not sweet. Just a cheap man-in-drag punchline, even with the initial fake-out involving Abby being mistaken for Ben’s future self.
— Oh, and this makes another sex change joke tonight.
STARS: *½


COLUMBUS DAY ASSBLAST
Under-Underground Columbus Day festival features Eckhart Tolle (BES)

— This is the third recurring piece tonight that last appeared in the preceding season’s Helen Mirren episode.
— Love the fake band name Crucifying Kudrow.
— I didn’t even realize that Jay hadn’t appeared in tonight’s episode until this point. And, of course, keeping in the theme of Jay having a rough go this season, not only is his first appearance of tonight’s episode so late in the show, but it’s a pre-taped appearance.
— Speaking of Jay, I fucking hate that high-pitched sound his character in these Under-Underground pieces always makes.
— A particularly funny event, with a party featuring the cast of the 90s show Dinosaurs, without their costumes.
— A funny change of the usual tone to these Under-Underground pieces, with Ben’s tender, soft-spoken speech as a spiritual advisor.
STARS: ****


BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: JUST THE STORIES
DVDs have Bruce Springsteen’s (BES) between-song tales

— Pretty funny premise, and a decent execution of it.
— I like the unintelligible “Hunh hunh hainh hunh!” countdowns Ben’s Bruce Springsteen keeps doing before each song, and how each DVD clip abruptly ends with him about to start the song.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Kenny G [real] perform “Houdini”

— Ha, Kenny Motherfuckin’ G out of nowhere!


TINYBALLS
Moneyball follow-up dramatizes role of steroids in baseball

— Seems to be a lot of pre-taped segments in the post-Weekend Update half of this episode.
— Hmm, we’re seeing a different version of Taran’s Brad Pitt impression, with no yells of “Bdaaaah!” this time.
— Jay continues to make his only appearances tonight in pre-taped form, making this the second of the three episodes that have aired so far this season that Jay hasn’t made any live appearances in.
— Funny moment with Taran’s character’s daughter proudly smiling at him when he tells her, in a poignant manner, “We’re cheating, honey.”
— The steroid-fueled wild, insane celebration in the locker room is hilarious.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. A tad unmemorable as a whole (at least to me), but still decent. So much so, that there’s nothing else I can find to say about it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Columbus Day Assblast
Fox & Friends
Tinyballs
Lincoln Financial Group (Part 2)
Lincoln Financial Group (Part 1)
The Best Of Both Worlds with Hugh Jackman
Press Conference / Monologue (tie)
Bruce Springsteen: Just The Stories
Weekend Update
V-Necks
Lincoln Financial Group (Part 3)
Halloween Party


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anna Faris

Posted on

October 1, 2011 – Melissa McCarthy / Lady Antebellum (S37 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
Dooneese has a muscle-bound sister (host)

— (*groan*)
— A funny and solid cheesy performance from Taran, at least.
— We get the addition of Melissa McCarthy as a Dooneese-like fifth sister to the group. Meh. However, I do kinda like the detail of Melissa having huge He-Man doll arms as a contrast to Dooneese’s tiny baby doll hands.
— Taran’s solid straight man performance is now starting to come off quite Will Ferrell-esque, definitely a good thing.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
supposed dance experts host & KRW never actually show off their steps

— Maybe it’s because it’s been a while since I’ve last seen Melissa McCarthy, but her voice sounds different here than how I recall it sounding in her later SNL appearances.
— (*groan*) Our first musical monologue of the season. My typical aversion to musical monologues has recently become heightened due to how extremely oversaturated the preceding season was with them. (Literally 40% of that season’s monologues were musical, and that’s not an exaggeration.)
— Two segments into tonight’s episode, and we’re already getting lots of pairings of Melissa and her close friend and then-recent Bridesmaids costar Kristen. Feels a little odd in retrospect seeing Melissa so closely connected with Kristen in this episode, given how we would get so used to seeing Melissa without Kristen in Melissa’s subsequent hosting stints. Also, I remember how, when this episode originally aired, the cold opening and monologue made me worried that practically every sketch was going to have Kristen and Melissa paired together as annoying characters. Instead, as it turns out, Kristen surprisingly ends up being almost completely non-existent for the remainder of the episode.
— The running joke of Melissa acting like she and Kristen are about to start dancing, only for Melissa to immediately refrain because “Haw haw, she’s overweight!” is getting old quickly.
— The silhouette dancing gag is kinda amusing, at least.
STARS: **


LIL POUNDCAKE
doll injects girls with human papilloma virus vaccine

— The disturbing HPV twist is a very funny contrast to the upbeat aesthetic of this spot-on spoof of little girls’ dolls commercials.
— A good unsettled facial reaction from Kristen when she sees a doll in the biohazard trash bin creepily turning its head toward her.
STARS: ****


OFFICE FLIRT
(host) generates no sparks during sexual harassment of co-worker (JAS)

   

— Now that Melissa’s not joined at the hip with Kristen for once tonight, it’ll be interesting to see a display of Melissa’s character work.
— After sadly being shut out of the preceding week’s season premiere, Jay finally makes his first appearance of the season…aaaaaaand it’s a quick non-comedic walk-on where he only has one or two lines, and this ends up being his only live appearance all night.
— A simple and thin sketch, but a strong lead performance from Melissa, who’s going all out here, and is cracking me up. Jason is also a decent straight man to her.
— When Melissa pops the balloons stuffed under her sweater, I love Jason worriedly saying “I hope that was a balloon.”
— This is a very minor thing for me to gripe about, but Jay couldn’t even be bothered to keep up the character voice he was doing, as he went from speaking in an affected nerdy, whitebred voice in his first brief walk-on to speaking in his real-life laid-back, urban voice in his second brief walk-on.
— A pretty good twist at the end with Bill.
STARS: ***½


STOMP
percussive police station guns down Blue Man Group (FRA) & (PAB)

— I like the jolly look on Jason’s face as a handcuffed criminal who’s gleefully dancing to the rhythmic office sounds at the police station.
— An initial laugh from the beginning of the sudden turn with this becoming an extensive Stomp musical.
— Wait, what? Why are we now spending so much time on the VERY extended and unfunny gunning-down of Blue Man Group? What is the the point of this?
— I did at least like Bill and Andy’s quick exchange at the end, after a long pause while they’re staring at the bodies of the two Blue Man Group members they had just killed: “Was that Blue Man Group?” “Yep.” “Sh(*bleep*)t.”
— Overall, after an okay-ish start, this Digital Short really lost its way. It tried too hard to do way too much, and resulted in this being an overall mediocre short. This is our first sign of how troubled the general quality of this season’s Digital Shorts will be without Jorma or Akiva around anymore. I recall some Digital Shorts this season being downright unwatchable, which was practically unheard of prior to this season.
STARS: **


THE COMMENTS SECTION
pathetic online loudmouths lose their anonymity

— A spot-on spoof of the toxic comments section of certain sites, such as YouTube.
— Good turn with Bobby being shocked to find out that the old lady who’s video he left a juvenile, mean-spirited comment on is being brought out to confront him.
— Uh, what??? Was Nasim’s confrontation of Bobby ending with her telling him “I think you’re rotten!” supposed to be lame and THAT was the joke, or was that a genuine cop-out from the writers? Either way, it fell flat for me.
— I like Taran’s uncomfortable reaction when it’s his turn to be profiled, after what had just happened to Bobby.
— Melissa’s toxic online commenter character being named “DaTruf” is a particularly accurate detail of this sketch.
— Jason’s such a likable host of this sketch.
— Good ending with Bill being brought out as some random guy just here to give each guest a much-deserved punch in the gut. IIRC, SNL later does a complete rehash of this gag in another internet-related panel talk show sketch from the season 40 Dakota Johnson episode, only instead of Bill (who was long gone from SNL by that point) punching each guest, it was Taran being brought out to slap each guest in the face.
STARS: ***½


ROCK’S WAY
Chris Rock (JAP) inserts his commentary into Broadway shows

— Jay finally gets his first showcase this season, but of course, it’s just pre-taped. Maybe that’s for the best, though, given how green and stumbly he sometimes tends to be as a live performer in these early seasons of his SNL tenure.
— A fun Chris Rock impression from Jay, right down to the little detail of Jay imitating that thing Rock does with his fingers while speaking.
— Taran’s sassy testimonial-giver character from the preceding season’s Meryl Streep On Ice commercial (in which Taran’s testimonial memorably consisted of him just saying “Um, the bitch can skate!”) returns, this time saying another funny one-liner in his testimonial: “It was…black-tacular!” For some reason, SNL Archives doesn’t count him as a recurring character (and I doubt it’s because he’s nameless, because that site counts certain other nameless characters as recurring).
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We Owned The Night”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Moammar Gaddafi’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up reveal his character flaws via sotto voce

Tyler Perry (KET) relishes being the highest-paid man in entertainment

— OH NO. The return of motherfucking Gaddafi’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up.
— As much as I despise Garth & Kat (another wretched Fred Armisen-costarring recurring Update duo) with the fire of a thousand suns, at least they, I dunno, sing different songs each time. With the Two Best Friends From Growing Up commentaries, it’s literally the EXACT same damn thing every time, and it wasn’t even funny the first time.
— Not sure we needed Kenan’s Tyler Perry doing his second Update commentary, even though I liked his first one.
— Kenan-as-Tyler-Perry’s “…or you may be white” bit at the end of his opening statement was funny.
— Despite my initial reservations, this second Tyler Perry commentary is actually turning out to be decent.
STARS: ***


TASTE TEST
overeager (host) disrupts Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing focus group

— Probably the most remembered sketch from this episode among SNL fans.
— I recently found out this is a piece that Melissa brought with her from her days at the Groundlings. I even saw a publicity photo of the Groundlings version of this sketch (I can’t look for the photo at the moment, but thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section of this review can find it), and one of Melissa’s scene partners in that photo is none other than future SNL writer & cast member Mikey Day.
— I like Melissa’s vague occasional comments about how the prize money “could really get me out of a couple of jams”.
— Another good performance from Melissa tonight, but the material of this particular sketch is getting too repetitive for my likes, and I’m gradually losing interest.
— An unforgettable visual of Melissa splattering a whole bunch of ranch dressing onto her face from the bottle, which, for me, bumps the sketch’s rating up half a star.
STARS: **½


THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE
stairs-related injuries crippled Mae West knockoff (host)

— Taran’s been getting a lot of airtime tonight for a second-season featured player.
— Boy, I complained that the preceding Taste Test sketch was too repetitive, but THIS sketch takes the cake. And the main joke that this sketch keeps repeating isn’t even all that funny to begin with.
— Yeah, more and more, Melissa’s constant stair pratfalls aren’t doing it for me. Some of Jason’s lines during his occasional scenes as Robert Osborne are providing my only amusement in this sketch.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just A Kiss”


COMPLAINTS
ex-lovers belie pickup artist’s (ANS) claim of complaint-free intercourse

— After two repetitive sketches in a row starring Melissa as a one-note wacky character, it feels nice to get a change of pace here.
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kristen again, and in a small straight role, after she was absent for so much of this episode after being so dominant in the first 10 minutes.
— I like the structure to this, as well as Andy’s various affable reactions to the complaints of his various ex-lovers, especially him responding to Kristen’s complaint by telling her “Deb, ya get me!”
— Ha, that taser bit came out of NOWHERE. Good way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly mixed episode. Melissa McCarthy made a strong first impression in her hosting debut, being a funny, fearless, balls-to-the-wall performer, and coming off like someone who would’ve been a complete natural as a cast member. However, my problem is that the writing of most of her big showcase pieces tonight left me cold, especially as the episode progressed and there started to be more and more of a one-note feel to her big showcase pieces. In regards to that, I’m not sure I can put all of the blame on the SNL writers (even though they’re certainly guilty of often giving a very talented female comedian bad, one-note writing, as seen with Kristen Wiig in these later years of her SNL tenure), because, as mentioned earlier, one of Melissa’s big showcase pieces that I wasn’t crazy about (Taste Test) was actually something that Melissa brought with her from the Groundlings (though perhaps SNL’s writers helped carve it out into a scripted sketch this week), and I don’t know how many other Melissa McCarthy character pieces in this or her other hosting stints also happen to be Groundlings pieces she brought to the show.


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

plus this visual:


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lil Poundcake
Office Flirt
The Comments Section
Complaints
Rock’s Way
Weekend Update
Taste Test
Stomp
Monologue
The Lawrence Welk Show
The Essentials with Robert Osborne


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ben Stiller

Posted on

September 24, 2011 – Alec Baldwin / Radiohead (S37 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

EITHER THE 7TH OR 8TH GOP DEBATE
Mitt Romney (JAS) & Rick Perry (host) get top billing at GOP debate

— Bill, in that always-funny Shepard Smith voice: “Good evening, I’m Shepard Smith, and I come from a town full of secrets.”
— For tonight’s episode only, Rick Perry is played by tonight’s SNL host, Alec Baldwin. In the subsequent episodes this season that the Rick Perry impression appears in, Bill plays the role, preventing this from becoming a case of “non-cast member has to cameo every time a certain politician they once played is being spoofed”, a case that modern-day SNL viewers in 2020 are all too familiar with seeing, especially with Alec.
— A particularly hilarious part with Jason’s Mitt Romney saying, when comparing himself to each of his fellow candidates, “Next to Herman Cain–” and then silently mouthing “I’m white.”
— They repeat the exact same joke from one part of the GOP Undeclared Candidates Debate sketch from the preceding season, where Bobby’s Newt Gingrich leaves the debate early and, on his way out, high-fives the candidate played by Kenan.
— Good lines from Kristen’s Michele Bachmann.
— A laugh from Kenan-as-Herman-Cain’s ridiculous “Pizza will be there” speech.
— Paul’s voice as Ron Paul sounds VERY Will Forte-esque.
— I’m enjoying the doddering manner that Paul’s portraying Ron Paul.
— The silly atmosphere and approach of this debate sketch is enjoyable, and I’m finding it to be a fairly fun way to open the season. Fun and silly enough that the long length of it (a whopping 11 minutes, I believe) doesn’t bother me. However, the long length may hit a little too close to home for viewers of modern-day SNL episodes, from all the worrisome things I’ve heard about the stunt cameo-filled debate sketches from seasons 45 and 46. (Boy, does that make me proud to be on hiatus from watching new episodes, even if I’m going to eventually have to review those episodes when I reach that part of SNL’s timeline.)
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding two seasons.
— Nasim Pedrad has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
— No new cast members…at least for now. Towards the end of this season, we will get an addition of a certain still-currently-on-the-show-in-2020 female cast member.


MONOLOGUE
drug test certifies host’s 16th SNL gig; Steve Martin & Seth Rogen cameos

— Alec has noticeably lost weight. As we know now, though, it doesn’t last.
— Alec mentions that he’s now broken Steve Martin’s record for most times hosting SNL.
— Ha, I forgot until now that Schwetty Balls became a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor around this time.
— Our obligatory Steve Martin cameo after the mention of him earlier.
— Funny premise with Steve making Alec take a drug test to prove he’s not taking steroids for tonight’s hosting gig.
— Now we get a rather unexpected Seth Rogen cameo.
— Steve is his usual funny self here.
— Apparently, the writers couldn’t be bothered to give Seth Rogen any funny or interesting lines, almost rendering his presence pointless.
STARS: ***½


RED FLAG
a whiff of warning pervades (KRW)’s perfume & background

— An actual solid, unique, and effective use of the ol’ overused “Wacky Wiig Showcase” trope.
— Very funny visual of Jason spitting his drink back into his cup upon learning that Kristen lived in Vegas for 11 years.
— I recall once finding out that the announcer of this commercial (who has many great lines) is Jon Hamm, surprisingly.
— Love the bit with Kristen gagging Taran’s throat with her finger while playfully touching his face.
— A very strong ad overall, and among Kristen’s best showcases in her SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


“ALL MY CHILDREN” WRAP PARTY
melodramatic crew members reveal secrets at All My Children wrap party

— Vanessa’s coming off pretty funny as Susan Lucci.
— Alec almost looks like he’s wearing his old Greenhilly outfit, complete with a tennis racket in his hand (side-by-side comparison below).

   

— Nasim playing a character named Michelle Von Trachtenberg??? Did a 90s kid write this sketch?
— Boy, I bet the VERY odd name of Paul’s character is impossible to spell.
— I like Paul’s mock-dramatic delivery of “…or was I pushed?!?”
— Very funny bit with Andy’s character having entered the wrong room.
— A fun feel to this sketch.
— I think we’re officially at the point where the long-past-his-prime Fred starts to feel out of place on SNL, as seeing him among the cast in this ensemble sketch feels odd to me, as if I actually forgot he’s still in the cast by this point. IIRC, he comes off even MORE out-of-place the following season (which is his final season, thankfully).
— Jason is particularly hilarious in his brief appearance, including his offbeat delivery of “I operate the fans! Or was I pushed?!?”
STARS: ***½


WDHX CHANNEL 19
satellite delay impedes warning TV reporter (KRW) of rain forest animals

— A laugh from the initial satellite delay in Kristen hearing what Alec and Abby are asking her from the studio, even if this is far from an original premise.
— Meh, this is getting old fairly fast, and feels too much like the type of tired, badly-written “Wacky Wiig Showcase” that Kristen’s Red Flag commercial earlier tonight was a refreshing improvement over.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lotus Flower”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Tony Bennett’s (host) cinema commentary drifts to long-ago stars & movies

 

— Nice to see SNL trying something different by placing Alec’s Tony Bennett on Update instead of his own talk show sketches.
— Alec-as-Bennett’s “Heb-bro” line about John Garfield was hilarious.
— Even in this new setting, Alec’s Bennett is just as funny as ever, especially his Poise Pads promo.
— The second consecutive episode with a short Update, which is rare and refreshing for the solo Seth Meyers era. Tonight’s Update was particularly short.
STARS: ***½


WHO’S ON TOP?
game show contestants mull hypothetical gay male couplings

— Ah, a favorite one-off sketch of mine.
— The second consecutive episode with Bill’s Vince Blight character, mostly known as the game show host of the What’s That Name sketches.
— An absolutely hilarious blunt reveal of the concept of this game show. Also hilarious is Jason’s reaction to that blunt reveal, with him saying “No, no thank you, I’m not playin’ this”, and then immediately walking off the show.
— The hypothetical celebrity couplings are increasingly hilarious with each passing question.
— I love Alec’s “I was just thinking about this…” when he’s given the “who’s on top?” choice between Timon and Pumbaa.
— Even the little throwaway gags are great, such as Bill tensely warning Alec that he only has 10 more minutes to answer the first question, and the “Still no sponsors?” bit.
— A particularly hilarious part of the speed round, where, as soon as Paul Giamatti is mentioned as the first of two celebrities hypothetically coupled together, Alec IMMEDIATELY answers “The other guy!” without even hearing who the other guy is.
— Even the ending is priceless, with Alec responding to the choice of “You can walk away now, or lose it all” by carelessly saying “I wanna lose it all!”, which results in him, of course, losing all his money, which he apparently didn’t expect to actually happen, as it leaves him absolutely SPEECHLESS.
STARS: *****


TOP GUN 25TH ANNIVERSARY DVD
Top Gun DVD extras include unsuccessful screen tests

— These screen tests pieces are usually always really fun, even if they’ll never measure up to the original Star Wars ones from season 22.
— Hmm, Alec playing Al Pacino, even though that’s usually Bill’s impression?
— Much like in the Back To The Future screen test pieces from the preceding season, then-writer Colin Jost can be seen a few times throughout this as the marker (seen in the fourth above screencap for this piece).
— As expected, I’m having a blast and am laughing so much throughout this entire thing.
— Taran is strangely making Tom Hanks sound like a campy 1960s gay guy. I’ve seen Taran do a better Tom Hanks impression in a clip from the show Scrubs.
— I absolutely love how all of the audition scenes with Bill’s Harvey Fierstein are just him questioning all the homoerotic lines in the Top Gun script.
— This was cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s finale, but some of the celebrity impressions that were reported to have appeared in that version aren’t seen in tonight’s aired version. One of the cut celebrity impressions is Dennis Miller, played by Seth in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance. I’m very curious to see what Seth’s Dennis Miller impression was like.
STARS: ****½


CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST
child psychologist’s (host) daughter (NAP) tests theories & (VAB)’s will

— Nice to see Vanessa getting quite a lot of airtime tonight for a second-season featured player, especially given the fact that she was, sadly, given no airtime AT ALL in the preceding episode, the season 36 finale. Unfortunately, though, tonight seems to be Jay Pharoah’s turn to get the shaft, as he’s the one who gets no airtime in tonight’s season premiere (and, IIRC, he can be seen looking a tad sullen during the goodnights).
— A laugh from Nasim’s entrance, just making whining noises while slowly passing through the background without actually saying anything.
— Lots of funny increasingly troublesome actions from Nasim, who’s doing yet another good job playing a child.
— I have no idea how Nasim’s keeping herself in the air without falling down while her character is leaning on top of the dish cabinet in a hazardous manner (the seventh and eighth above screencaps for this sketch). Are there wires secretly holding her up or something?
— Hmm, interesting twist at the end.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Staircase”


ANGELS IN THE TRENCHES
(TAK) fields mortally-wounded soldiers’ final message delivery requests

— Some laughs from the increasingly awful things Alec makes Taran promise to tell Alec’s family, as his dying wish.
— Very funny how the various dying soldiers’ increasingly outlandish requests have now turned into a whole bunch of immature “Your mother’s so fat” jokes.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and fun season premiere, and felt better than ANY of the episodes from the blandly-average preceding season. Aside from the WDHX Channel 19 sketch, I enjoyed every single segment tonight, and there were a few great standout segments. Another refreshing thing about this season premiere is that there were no recurring sketches at all, surprisingly, which is especially welcome after how the preceding season’s finale was comprised entirely of recurring sketches.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Who’s On Top?
Red Flag
Top Gun 25th Anniversary DVD
“All My Children” Wrap Party
Child Psychologist
Angels In The Trenches
Either The 7th Or 8th GOP Debate
Monologue
Weekend Update
WDHX Channel 19


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2010-11)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Melissa McCarthy makes her hosting debut

Posted on

May 21, 2011 – Justin Timberlake / Lady Gaga (S36 E22)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

STRAUSS-KAHN’S CELL
in jail, (KET) & (JAP) mull Euro zone with Dominique Strauss-Kahn (TAK)

— Good to see the season finale’s cold opening be something that’s THIS different.
— It’s also refreshing to see such a different use of Jay, especially with how underutilized and poorly utilized he had been the past few months. He’s doing a good job in this non-impression role here.
— Funny juxtaposition of all the complicated dialogue about the world economy from Jay and Kenan’s prisoner characters.
— Kenan: “Portugal ain’t nothin’ but the dingleberry hangin’ off of Spain’s nutsack.”
— Even in a silent role, Taran is doing a spot-on facial imitation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
— The sudden “We gonna rape you now” twist at the end was crass, but damn funny.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host’s actions don’t match the lyrics of “I’m Not Gonna Sing Tonight”

— I guess it’s fitting that a season extremely oversaturated with musical monologues ends with one. (*groan*) At least it makes sense to do one with Justin Timberlake, though.
— Typical Timberlake humor here, which is very polarizing among online SNL fans. The melody to Justin’s song here is at least very catchy.
— I do really like the in-studio rain effect they’re doing right now.
STARS: **½


LIQUORVILLE
singing & dancing mascot & co-worker (musical guest) battle tea bag (KRW)

— Ugh, I never cared for this staple of Timberlake episodes.
— They seem to be going for something slightly different with the mouth-popping sound effect bit Justin now does at the end of each song. It’s not enough to salvage this tired sketch for me.
— Now we get the addition of Lady Gaga as Justin’s fellow dancing mascot. Again, not enough to salvage this tired sketch for me.
STARS: **


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
over-the-hill Herb Welch fails to report on junior high gas leak story

— This recurring sketch gives Jason a new co-anchor, with Nasim reprising the news anchor character she previously played in the WXPD News sketch that didn’t have Herb Welch in it (the news sketch from this season’s Emma Stone episode).
— There goes Bill’s obligatory character break that occurs at least once in most Herb Welch sketches. At least Justin is keeping it straight while Bill’s turning away from the camera to hide his giggling.
— I got a good laugh from Herb Welch’s awful misogynistic comment to Nasim’s character.
— Herb Welch telling Jason “Suck an egg, you mannequin!” cracked me up so much.
— A particularly hilarious part where, when Fred’s character says his name is Ken Yi, Herb Welch responds by telling him “Bonzai, huh?!? Hey, remember me?!?”, then proceeding to beat the hell out of him with his microphone.
— Herb Welch, to Jason: “Jack, if Shep Kramer knew about the way you anchor, he’d turn over in his grave.” Jason: “Uh, no he wouldn’t, Herb, because Shep Kramer was cremated.” Herb Welch: “(*in a depressed manner*) They burned my friend.”
— A very funny photo of Herb Welch at the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.
STARS: ****


3-WAY (THE GOLDEN RULE)
(musical guest)’s presence negates Dick In A Box hook-up gayness

— Much like how these Dick In A Box guys’ last short prior to this (Mother Lover) picked up where their short prior to that (the original Dick In A Box) left off, their short tonight starts with them leaving each other’s mother’s house, complete with Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson reprising their roles from Mother Lover.
— Fun start to Andy and Justin’s song so far, as expected.
— Cue the screaming female SNL audience members being heard all throughout this short (though screaming female audience members is a staple of Justin Timberlake episodes in general).
— A pretty good Three’s Company bit.
— The “Helicopter Dick” bit is particularly funny.
— Overall, not bad at all, but pales so much in comparison to Dick In A Box and Mother Lover. This came nowhere close to approaching “classic” status. There’s a reason this short isn’t anywhere near as reminisced about or as referenced as Dick In A Box or Mother Lover.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Edge Of Glory” & “Judas”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM says “Really!?!” to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s affair

Nicolas Cage (ANS) eyes Bradley Cooper’s [real] The Hangover Part II role

as SNL’s season draws to a close, SEM & Stefon head for the beach

— This is the second or third time that either Seth or his former co-anchor Amy Poehler did an Update joke where the punchline is someone being chosen for an important position because they were the last person in the room to shout “Not it!”
— A rare solo Seth Meyers “Really?!” segment, for only the second-ever time.
— Seth is doing a solid job in tonight’s “Really?!?”, especially his bit about how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie titles all make perfect newspaper headlines for his baby scandal.
— I got a good laugh from Bradley Cooper telling Andy’s Nicolas Cage, in regards to Cage being in so many movies per year, “You’re like a dangerous Eugene Levy.”
— The usual good “Get In The Cage” segment overall.
— A great way to end this season of Update, with Seth bringing his duffel bag, meeting up with Stefon at the front of the Update desk, and them detailing how their summer vacation together will go while slowly walking off into the proverbial sunset. This also, once again, continues the story arc of the growing dynamic between Seth and Stefon.
— Good to see an actual short Update, which is rare for the solo Seth Meyers era.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S THAT NAME?: CELEBRITY EDITION
unlike host, musical guest remembers the little people

— This is when you start to notice that every actual sketch that has aired so far tonight (the cold opening doesn’t count) has been recurring.
— Steve Higgins’ opening voice-over sounded strangely kinda muffled.
— I like how tonight’s SNL host and musical guest are the two contestants in this What’s That Name installment.
— A good laugh from Justin’s puzzled facial reaction while Abby, as Justin’s one-night stand from two weeks ago, is going on about their whole encounter.
— Good twist to the usual joke of these sketches, with Lady Gaga instantly remembering the name of an extremely obscure fan she previously encountered only once. That’s also reminiscent of a sketch Paul Simon did in the season 12 Robin Williams episode, but I can forgive the coincidental similarity in this case.
— As usual, Bill’s Vince Blight character has some hilarious lines throughout this sketch.
— The whole part with Justin’s former N’Sync bandmate Chris Kirkpatrick is excellent.
— Overall, this was even better than the very strong first installment of this sketch. I look forward to seeing the third installment that airs years later in a 2019 John Mulaney-hosted episode (I haven’t seen the installment yet, as it aired after I started my still-ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes), as I’ve heard it’s particularly strong.
STARS: *****


MERRYVILLE LOVE TUNNEL
(host) & fellow Merryville animatrons steal (NAP) from boyfriend (JAS)

— The streak of every sketch in this episode being recurring continues.
— They’ll never come remotely close to topping the original installment of this sketch, which should’ve stayed a one-off, but I can’t complain TOO much about this being made recurring, especially knowing in retrospect that this sketch recurs only about two times after the original installment.
— Much like Jim Carrey in the first installment, Justin is really good at doing the accurate-looking robotic movements with Taran and Bill.
— Wow, is this Bobby’s first appearance ALL NIGHT??? And it’s just a small, non-comedic, thankless role.
— I absolutely love Jason’s various reactions to all the craziness going on. He’s a fantastic straight man in this.
— Despite not measuring up to the first installment, this installment is definitely still working for me.
— Jason’s such a fun and likable performer that he even managed to make that homoerotic ending come off less hacky than it would’ve under another performer.
STARS: ***½


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & magician (host) don’t help contestants

— (*grooooaaaaaaaan*) Secret Word.
— The streak of every sketch in this episode being recurring continues.
— Showing that Bill has become this era’s go-to performer for game show host roles (and rightfully so, given how fantastic he always in that role), he plays his second game show host in just these past 10 minutes.
— I see they’re continuing to use Mindy Grayson’s middle name, Elise, an aspect of this sketch that was pointlessly introduced in the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s.
— (*sigh*) Cue the usual “You just read the secret word” bits.
— Didn’t they already use “grape” as a secret word in the very first installment of this sketch? They probably only brought it back tonight as a cheap excuse for Kristen’s Mindy Grayson (oh, excuse me, Mindy Elise Grayson) to tell a dumb, immature story about how she once farted non-stop during a play after eating a whole bunch of grapes.
— At least Justin is fairly funny as a hack magician.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Born This Way”


THE BARRY GIBB TALK SHOW
debt discussion leads to a defibrillation of Barry Gibb (JIF)

— The streak of every sketch in this episode being recurring continues. And with this being the final sketch of the night, that officially makes this an episode that consists ENTIRELY of already-existing sketches/characters, only the second episode in SNL history to achieve that feat. (The season 22 Rosie O’Donnell episode being the first. I’m not counting episodes where a recurring sketch made its debut in, which is why I used the term “already-existing sketches/characters”. The season 25 Danny DeVito episode is technically all-recurring in retrospect, but the Sally O’Malley character didn’t exist before that episode.)
— (*sigh*) Just copy and paste what I said earlier about me not caring for the Dancing Mascot bit as a Timberlake episode staple. The difference, though, is that unlike the Dancing Mascot bit, I actually loved the first installment of Barry Gibb Talk Show. It just never should’ve become recurring.
— Second consecutive episode with a Jimmy Fallon cameo.
— I do at least kinda like the change of pace with Justin’s Robin Gibb using two medallions as a defibrillator on the chest of a suddenly-frozen-in-place Jimmy-as-Barry Gibb.
— Hmm, the usual closing theme song of this recurring sketch ends differently, by suddenly and randomly turning into “Rapper’s Delight”.
— An overall poor and disappointing choice for the final sketch of this season.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not too bad a season finale, minus the poor way it ended with the final two sketches, but I take a little issue with with how “safe” and overly familiar the whole episode felt. SNL clearly wanted to end this season by going the safe route, by not only doing the usual Justin Timberlake episode staples, but by also doing recurring sketches for the entire rest of the night. Something about that really shines an unfortunate light on how unadventurous this season as a whole (and these 2009-2012 years in general) truly is. Speaking of an aspect I don’t like about this season, we’ve officially gotten through this entire season without a single episode that I would call flat-out strong and standout. That has to be a first in all 36 seasons I’ve covered so far in this SNL project of mine. Even the dreadful season 30 (the season with the lowest rating average in my SNL project so far, and rightfully so) had one or two episodes that I would call legitimately strong. While I would definitely say a majority of this season’s (season 36) episodes were passable, the fact that this season couldn’t produce a single standout strong episode is staggering and is another sign of this season’s bland averageness as a whole.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What’s That Name?: Celebrity Edition
WXPD News New York
Merryville Love Tunnel
Strauss-Kahn’s Cell
Weekend Update
3-Way (The Golden Rule)
Monologue
The Barry Gibb Talk Show
Liquorville
Secret Word


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ed Helms)
a mild step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2009-10)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 37 begins, with host Alec Baldwin