Author: Stooge

Posted on

January 8, 2011 – Jim Carrey / The Black Keys (S36 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
Michael Bloomberg (FRA) details lazy NYC workers’ inept blizzard response

— A decent Michael Bloomberg impression from Fred.
— A pretty good spoof of 1) the overreaction from New Yorkers to the big blizzard that had recently hit the city, and 2) the slow response NYC workers had to said blizzard. As a New Yorker myself, this is bringing back a lot of memories of this time.
— Funny reveal from Fred’s Bloomberg that the reason for a certain New York area being cleared of snow was just because of a gas explosion.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
unworried by the looming apocalypse, host wants to wed an audience member

— Jim Carrey jokingly calls the then-recently-ended year 2010 a nightmare and says we wouldn’t want to go through it again. Uh, Jim, I know you’re just kidding, but I got bad news for you regarding what’s in store for us 10 years after 2010.
— This “doomed year” stuff is a bit of an odd and unexciting topic for a Jim Carrey monologue, but he’s making it work, in his usual way.
— Some laughs from the examples Jim gives for how he always makes the best out of dire situations.
— A pretty fun interaction between Jim and a female audience member.
— A nice deviation from the usual “Stick around, we’ll be right back” monologue tagline.
STARS: ***½


BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Rerun from 9/25/10


BLACK SWAN
Nina’s (NAP) mannish rival Lily (host) is more adept at Black Swan role

— Despite the tired man-in-drag trope, Jim seems like he can definitely make this role fun, and I like how it, in some ways, feels like a slight throwback to his Vera De Milo character from In Living Color.
— I like a lightly-dancing Taran feeding Jim bread crumbs.
— A big laugh from Jim’s fist-in-mouth bit.
— I bet it took Bill everything in him not to crack up when Jim screamed in his face twice while “flashing” him.
— Good pre-taped ending shot of Jim.
STARS: ***½


FINDING YOUR POWER
hidden-camera footage belies self-assertion claims

— The name of Jason’s character, Zach Twinefeld, made me chuckle more than it probably should’ve.
— Pretty funny turns with hidden camera footage revealing how each guest didn’t exactly stand up for themselves like they claimed to.
— I can’t help but hear Vanessa’s Miley Cyrus in Vanessa’s crying rant.
— Hilarious turn with the quick “Well, we put a camera in your wife’s mouth. Roll it!” “What?!?” exchange between Jason and Jim, followed by a P.O.V. camera angle from inside Jim’s wife’s mouth while Jim’s tearfully pleading to her. You also have to imagine how silly the wife must’ve looked standing there with her mouth wide open like that the whole time while secretly filming Jim.
STARS: ***½


GRADY WILSON’S TANTRIC ‘N TASTY
guru (host) adds Eastern skill to Grady Wilson’s Tantric ‘n Tasty sex DVD

— The final Grady Wilson sketch. For some reason, unlike the previous installments of this sketch, this entire installment is pre-taped. I have no idea why.
— As I said in my review of the last installment of this sketch prior to this one, this recurring sketch has been getting less and less funny with each passing installment.
— At least we now have Jim to hopefully milk some laughs from this tired format.
— Meh, it turns out that not even Jim can help this tired format all that much. Good riddance to this recurring sketch. It started out strong and fun in its very first installment, but probably never should’ve become recurring.
STARS: **


THE WORST OF SOUL TRAIN
the ’70s & ’80s were full of awful musical acts

— Already a laugh just from the initial sight of Bobby, as well as him introducing himself as Smokey Robinson’s white half-brother, Coughy Robinson.
— A fairly fun and promising sketch concept of a collection of horrible Soul Train performances.
— I love Bobby’s explanation that Triangle Sally died halfway through her performance, “and we did NOT edit it out!”
— A funny comically brief song from Taran and Paul’s bizarre robotic singing duo.
— After a somewhat slow first two minutes, this sketch has gotten increasingly funnier starting with the Triangle Sally scene. I particularly love the scene happening right now with Jason’s Billy Ocean-esque “Get out of my car, get into my trunk” song.
— Jim’s “one titty” song is absolutely priceless, and a strong way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Howlin’ For You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ousted Nancy Pelosi (KRW) easily triggers John Boehner (BIH) crying jags

Anthony Crispino’s supposed scoops are based on things that were misheard

Arkansan red-winged blackbird (ANS) & fish (TAK) ponder animal die-offs

— Bill’s deep-voiced, cartoonish, Cowardly Lion-esque crying as John Boehner is making me laugh out loud.
— This has to be the funniest Anthony Crispino commentary by this point of his run. A lot of his false info here is giving me big laughs.
— A variation of Andy’s Larry The Goose. As an odd coincidence, the only times Andy has played Larry The Goose and tonight’s similar character have all been in January episodes.
— Fairly fun to see Taran get involved in Andy’s commentary.
— Given the fact that SNL doesn’t have a black woman in the cast this season, I wonder who that was doing the Oprah voice-over during the “Oprah-calypse” bit in Andy and Taran’s commentary.
— A pretty fun dumb, silly conceit to Andy and Taran’s commentary.
STARS: ***


MERRYVILLE TROLLEY RIDE
sinister Merryville animatrons (host), (TAK), (BIH) unsettle (KET)

— Ah, here comes an absolute favorite of mine, and an important moment for Taran as a cast member.
— Taran and Jim’s robotic movements as the animatrons are absolutely SPOT-ON (almost eerily so) and hilarious. Very impressive, especially from Taran. Who knew before this sketch aired that he was capable of something like this? I remember being so wowed by him when this sketch originally aired.
— Bill’s animatron character occasionally popping up just to ding the triangle (there seems to be a triangle-dinging theme in this episode, between Triangle Sally and this) while having a creepy smile is a great example of Bill’s ability to get laughs out of the smallest things.
— I love the animatrons’ increasingly creepy and sinister actions towards Kenan.
— Hilarious when Bill’s animatron character pops up with his head missing and wires poking out of his neck.
— Great ending visual of a Kenan mannequin.
— Overall, a classic in my eyes, and a huge turning point in Taran’s SNL tenure. Back when this episode originally aired, this sketch was what led to me and many others to start becoming a big fan of Taran’s work on the show, and he would go on to build on the great progress he showed in this sketch.
STARS: *****


PSYCHIC MEDIUM
psychic (host) channels his previous career as a celebrity impressionist

— A very fun excuse to have Jim showcase his underrated knack for doing great celebrity impressions.
— I like the running gag with Vanessa calling out Jim’s lack of hygiene from his bathroom break.
— I particularly love Jim’s Alan Thicke impression, as well as Jason having an over-excited foot-stomping reaction to that and then yelling “No one does a Thicke!”
— Great ending with Jim doing a Sammy Davis Jr. impression while using the crystal ball as a glass eye.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tighten Up”


A TASTE OF NEW YORK
grubby trio (host), (FRA), (KRW) sings to tourists about NYC’s underbelly

— Geez, Abby is making her first and ONLY appearance all night in the final sketch of the episode, playing a very small straight role where she only has one or two lines. I feel for her.
— A very blah reveal of the comedic conceit of the song that Fred, Jim, and Kristen’s homeless group sings.
— Not a single laugh from me so far. Not even Jim can save this.
— Overall, an awful sketch, and such a poor note to end this episode on, especially after the extremely fun two sketches that preceded this. I guess we can consider this YET ANOTHER of many wretched Fred Armisen-starring sketches this season. The man continues to be the bane of this season.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While this comes absolutely nowhere close to measuring up to the beloved first Jim Carrey-hosted episode (continuing this season’s frustrating failure to produce a standout strong episode), this was an overall pretty good episode, and hit a big peak with the first two post-Weekend Update sketches. Jim Carrey was his reliably hilarious self as expected.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Merryville Trolley Ride
Psychic Medium
Black Swan
Finding Your Power
Monologue
The Worst Of Soul Train
A Message From The Mayor
Weekend Update
Grady Wilson’s Tantric ‘N Tasty
A Taste Of New York


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Bridges)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on

December 18, 2010 – Jeff Bridges / Eminem and Lil Wayne (S36 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHRISTMAS EVE IN WASHINGTON D.C.
on Christmas Eve, Democrats dream of better headlines in the year to come

— An interesting and refreshingly out-of-the-ordinary concept to this political cold opening.
— A definitive Vanessa Bayer face, with the funny gleeful, open-mouthed, glass-fogging smile her Hillary Clinton makes in reaction to the pantsuits headline she imagines.
— A really bad technical gaffe happens at the very beginning of the Joe Biden scene, where the camera accidentally cuts to a black screen with a graphic of Biden’s name displayed on the bottom of it.
— The look on Jason-as-Joe-Biden’s face is freakin’ PRICELESS, as are the insane headlines he imagines.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & Cookie Monster (David Rudman) sing “Silver Bells”

— Jeff Bridges brings up that his last hosting stint was all the way back in 1983, then does the cliched and tired “I guess I did a pretty good job, considering how fast they had me back” joke.
— I absolutely could’ve sworn I remembered this monologue showing a photo of Jeff and his brother Beau from the episode they co-hosted in 1983. I was looking forward to seeing that photo in my current viewing of this monologue, but it’s nowhere to be seen. Odd. Why’d my memory play tricks on me?
— A Cookie Monster appearance, referencing his then-well-publicized bid to host SNL.
— Jeff and Cookie Monster’s “Silver Bells” duet is certainly charming, but there’s absolutely nothing else to say about this, and, at the risk of coming off heartless, I’m kinda bored watching this. Maybe I’d like this duet more if this season wasn’t oversaturated with musical monologues.
STARS: **½


A MESSAGE FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG / A MESSAGE FROM JULIAN ASSANGE
Julian Assange (BIH) compares WikiLeaks to Mark Zuckerberg’s (ANS) site

— Ha, for the third and final consecutive week, a sketch gets interrupted by a message from Bill’s Julian Assange. Like I mentioned in my last episode review, it’s a huge rarity in recent decades for SNL to have a running gag that stretches over several consecutive episodes.
— It definitely bears mentioning that Bill actually has an on-air panic attack while performing this sketch. He talks about it in this interview (the link takes you directly to the portion of the interview where he talks about the panic attack). I’ll have to pay attention to if there are any visible signs of his panic attack in this sketch.
— Okay, I think I can see where Bill’s panic attack starts, as I’ve noticed that he’s suddenly coming off a little more…I dunno, self-conscious in the middle of his speech right now. It’s hard to describe, but something about his tone and demeanor has slightly changed in the middle of his speech. However, this panic attack is certainly not as noticeable as Bill was probably worried it came off to us viewers. I do notice that he seems to be really overdoing the laugh-evilly-while-sipping-his-wine move all throughout this sketch, which could possibly be a sign of him trying to hide his panic attack. After all, he does say in the afore-linked interview that he held a wine glass in front of his mouth for most of the sketch to hide his panic attack, though that’s not quite accurate to what I’m watching in the sketch.
— Overall, kinda meh for a Julian Assange interruption piece. While not too bad, this didn’t work nearly as well as the last two Assange interruption pieces from the preceding two episodes. Maybe me scrutinizing Bill’s performance so intensely to find signs of his panic attack took me out of the comedy of the sketch, but I think it’s more that SNL has milked these Assange interruption pieces for all they’re worth these past three episodes, to the degree that there wasn’t much left for them to say in this final one.
STARS: **½


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Nick Nolte’s (host) media scandal was meatier than Miley Cyrus’ (VAB)

— Hate to say it, but the lines given to Billy Ray Cyrus in these sketches are getting old, despite Jason’s always-fun portrayal of him.
— They’re completely wasting Jeff in this sketch.
— Overall, as you can see, there wasn’t much at all to say about this installment. Much like the preceding Julian Assange sketch, this was a little on the meh side, in that it wasn’t bad, but felt too by-the-numbers for a Miley Cyrus Show sketch.
STARS: ***


I JUST HAD SEX
ANS, Jorma Taccone & Akon [real] revel in coitus

— Good to see an epic music video Digital Short in the Christmas episode, especially since it used to be a (short-lived) tradition in the Lonely Island’s earlier SNL seasons to do an epic music video Digital Short in every Christmas episode (Lazy Sunday and Dick In A Box).
— As usual for these epic Lonely Island music videos, the concept of this is very funny.
— Great visual quality of some of the scenery, especially the parts with Andy, Jorma Taccone, and Akon on the roof of a building.
— A pretty funny random John MacEnroe cameo.
— A particularly funny part with Jorma’s “I think she might’ve been a racist” lyric as we’re shown him staring at a KKK hood in his girl’s bedroom.
— A strong ending visual of Andy, Jorma, and Akon’s crotch fireworks.
STARS: ****


LARRY KING LIVE
Jermaine Jackson (KET) & other D-listers on the show’s finale

— With the mention of the final episode of Larry King Live, that thankfully means this is the final installment of this sketch I have to suffer through, as I never cared for the Larry King sketches that star Fred.
— A laugh from the mere look of Kenan’s Jermaine Jackson. His voice is amusing me as well.
— Another laugh from Fred’s Larry King describing Jeff-as-Dog-The-Bounty-Hunter’s crying as being “like a Sasquatch who found a dead bird and just doesn’t understand”.
— Not much exciting discussions going on in this sketch.
— Ugh at that lame, unnecessary farting line.
— Such a poor ending.
— This overall sketch had a few mild laughs early on, but slowly died a really bad death as it went along.
STARS: *½


CRUNKMAS KARNIVAL!
Under-Underground Crunkmas Karnival features music, risks, nigh-unknowns

— A pre-taped sequel to the first pre-taped Under-Underground commercial.
— The usual hilarious Ass Dan “In Memoriam” bit.
— What the hell is with that annoying and unfunny high-pitched sound Jay keeps making between each sentence of his? Reminds me of him making that annoying and unfunny sharp inhale sound between each of his sentences in the preceding episode’s Principal Frye sketch. I like Jay, but lately, he’s been displaying some bad tendencies he has as a performer.
— Like last time, there’s so many laughs from all the mentions of random, insane festival events and band names. I particularly like the part about the Growing Pains cast “reunion” with just the mom.
— Very funny ending with the mention of this festival taking place at the Metrodome, as tonight’s episode is airing several days after the infamous Metrodome roof collapse incident.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “No Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Michael Steele’s (KET) bid for RNC reelection shows he can’t take a hint

weatherman Brad Pitt (TAK) punctuates his forecast with phonemes

Stefon, Snooki (BOM), David Paterson (FRA) sing “O Christmas Tree”

— From my past viewings, I have absolutely no memory of this Michael Steele commentary of Kenan’s.
— Okay, after watching this Steele commentary again just now, I can see why I don’t remember it. It was completely forgettable, despite a pretty funny performance from Kenan.
— The debut of Taran’s Brad Pitt impression.
— I have no idea what to make of those “Bdaaaah!” exclamations Taran’s Pitt keeps making, nor do I know what it’s supposed to be a dig at, as Pitt isn’t known for saying that (is he?). I remember one person on an SNL message board asking at this time, “Is he supposed to be saying ‘bad’???” Also, I can’t help but notice how Tony Danza-esque Taran’s “Bdaaaah!”s sound (not that Danza’s known for saying that either).
— As this Brad Pitt commentary goes on, despite my continued bafflement over the “Bdaaaah!” exclamations, there is something about Taran’s general portrayal of Pitt that I find pretty fun.
— The Harvard bit is another instance of Seth taking delight in doing a character voice during an Update joke, feeling like a nice throwback to the days when he regularly appeared in sketches.
— Seth calls Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds’ separation unfortunate “since they’re probably the only ones who had a chance with either of them.” Ohhhho, the irony on SNL’s part. Little did SNL know which of their own writers at the time would later get married to Scarlett. The fact that this joke of Seth’s came IMMEDIATELY after the aforementioned Harvard bit is even more of an odd and funny coincidence, given the fact that Scarlett’s future husband in question, Colin Jost, graduated from Harvard, and I’d like to think he’s the one who wrote Seth’s Harvard bit.
— Ah, a change of pace for Update, with us getting a Christmas song from Weekend Update favorites Snooki, Stefon, and Gov. David Paterson. I always like when SNL does something that groups together Weekend Update “all-stars”, such as in the Neil Diamond musical number that Will Ferrell and the real Neil Diamond did with then-Update staples Gay Hitler, Drunk Girl, and Geraldo Rivera at the end of the Weekend Update from Will’s final episode as a cast member.
STARS: ***


THIS YOU CALL A WONDERFUL LIFE?!
Jewish version of It’s A Wonderful Life was full of arguing & complaining

— Pretty funny premise of a Jewish version of It’s A Wonderful Life.
— Good to see Jason’s Jimmy Stewart impression appearing in something more promising than that notorious Rear Window sketch with January Jones.
— Much like in the cold opening earlier in this episode, we get another bad technical gaffe: when the guests are showing that they’ve brought food, the camera cuts to a close-up of THE FREAKIN’ FLOOR by mistake (screencap below). Ha, how in the world did that happen?

— Fourth episode in a row with then-writer Mike O’Brien making an onscreen appearance. I remember thinking at the time that they must’ve been grooming him to become a featured player soon. He would end up not becoming a featured player until three years later.
— Geez, until he showed up just now, I forgot Jeff Bridges was even tonight’s host. He’s appeared so little tonight, including in this sketch, with him being relegated to only making an appearance at the end of this.
— Ha, during the “Cast of Characters” shown in the ending credits, “Moishe Samberg” is credited as playing himself. That’s a callback to the memorable (and polarizing, like pretty much everything involving Justin Timberlake on SNL) Immigrant Tale sketch from Justin Timberlake’s season 34 episode, where Justin played his own ancestor at Ellis Island and Andy made an appearance at the end as an ancestor of his own named Moishe Samberg.
STARS: ***


JEFF’D
host nips his good-natured pranks on fellow actors in the bud

— Finally, a sketch with Jeff Bridges front-and-center as the star.
— Blah, the premise of a prankster pulling very tame pranks and then having a friendly conversation with the prank victim is way too derivative of a radio show sketch SNL did two seasons prior with Tim McGraw.
— At least Andy’s Billy Bob Thornton impression always amuses me.
— I kinda like the turn with Andy’s BBT pulling a gun on Jeff when finding out he’s been pranked. But, damn, the audience is dead during this scene. In fact, they’ve been pretty quiet during this sketch in general. Can’t blame them there, though, as I haven’t been enjoying the non-BBT portions of this sketch myself.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Eminem performs “Won’t Back Down”
Lil Wayne performs “6’7”


GENERAL STORE
in the Old West, gift-wrapping pioneers (host) & (KRW) faze shopgoers

— I know it’s not right to judge a non-recurring sketch just from its first 30 seconds, but damn, it’s very clear from the introduction of Kristen and Jeff’s characters that I’m in for a bad campy sketch.
— While it’s kind of a novelty seeing Jeff Bridges play a silly effeminate character, that doesn’t automatically make this sketch good, especially not in an era like this that relies too heavily on campy gay stereotypes as a comedic crutch.
— Ugh, I hate the “Just make your face like this” routine that Kristen and Jeff keep doing. A typical badly-written and unfunny Wiig mugfest.
— At least we get a fun performance from Jason as an Old West bandit.
STARS: *½


A HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM THE KARDASHIANS
Kim (NAP), Kourtney (VAB), Khloe (ABE) Kardashian deliver holiday message

— It feels like Abby’s been getting more airtime than usual tonight.
— I like how this is taking place on SNL’s home base stage, as it makes this feel like the type of miscellaneous piece that would usually take place on the home base stage in the 70s and 80s.
— Nasim-as-Kim-Kardashian’s “I got a Roleeeeeex” line has been the only real laugh I got out of this so far.
— Overall, nothing special at all, despite my appreciation for the setting.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A blah Christmas episode. The post-Weekend Update half of this episode was especially weak, with the only good piece in that half (This You Call A Wonderful Life) being completely average and unmemorable. I also wasn’t crazy about how they underused Jeff Bridges in this episode, and didn’t exactly give him the best material in the stuff he was in.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Crunkmas Karnival!
I Just Had Sex
Christmas Eve In Washington D.C.
The Miley Cyrus Show
This You Call A Wonderful Life?!
Weekend Update
A Message From Mark Zuckerberg / A Message From Julian Assange
Monologue
A Holiday Message From The Kardashians
Larry King Live
Jeff’d
General Store


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Rudd)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2011, with host Jim Carrey

Posted on

December 11, 2010 – Paul Rudd / Paul McCartney (S36 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TAX PACKAGE
Stockholm Syndrome has left Barack Obama (FRA) voicing GOP talking points

— OH, FUCK. After the preceding episode’s Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening thankfully turned out to be a fake-out, with it quickly getting interrupted by a far-more-welcome WikiLeaks TMZ piece, we end up getting a full-on, uninterrupted Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening in tonight’s episode. Is SNL trolling me?
— An actual fairly funny premise with Fred’s Obama agreeing with the GOP due to Stockholm Syndrome, as he explains.
— Blah, a very lame turn with Fred’s Obama complaining about Bristol Palin getting eliminated from Dancing With The Stars.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host belatedly realizes musical guest is the show’s most popular Paul

— Though the bit with Paul Rudd assuming that the people lined up outside 30 Rock chanting “Paul!” are fans of his is cliched and has been done on SNL before (Harvey Keitel’s season 18 monologue, for example), it’s coming off decent enough here, and Rudd has some funny lines.
— Our obligatory meeting of the Pauls.
— Great little bit with the new and underused Paul Brittain joining in on the meeting of the Pauls, only to sulk away when realizing which Paul the Paul fans outside 30 Rock are really fans of.
STARS: ***


FELINE CULINARY CREATIONS
gloppy presentation overshadows gourmet ingredients

— Some laughs from the fancy atmosphere and visuals of this cat food commercial being interspersed with incongruous shots of nasty-looking cat food being carelessly plopped onto plates.
— Great brief shot of Brittain doing a chef’s kiss gesture during his cooking of the fancy cat food.
— Another great brief shot, this time of Nasim as a chef tasting a bit of the cat food herself.
— Funny ending shot of the cat’s paw clinking wine glasses with Abby.
STARS: ****


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
Austin Vogelcheck’s girlfriend (VAB) is wary of his clan’s yule canoodles

— (*groooooaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn*)
— So far, the only thing I can find to say about tonight’s installment of this typically horrible sketch is that Brittain’s getting quite a bit of airtime so far tonight.
STARS: *


WHAT’S THAT NAME?
contestants (host) & (VAB) fail to identify vassals

— This soon-to-be-very-occasionally-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— After a simple beginning with the contestants easily guessing celebrity names, we get a very funny turn with Kenan entering as Rudd’s doorman.
— Such a great and realistic concept to this sketch.
— I love Kristen’s bitter, foreign-accented delivery of “But Steve Zahn you know.”
— Bill doing his usual excellent job as a game show host. His incredulous delivery of “Those people???” was particularly great.
— Solid escalation to the type of guests who show up.
STARS: ****½


STUMBLIN’
(ANS) & (host) trip to “9 to 5” theme; Mario Batali cameo

— Such a fun concept and very catchy music.
— Funny random inclusion of Paul McCartney, especially the “Tiny Harmonica Solo” part.
— Wait, has that been Kristen singing the “Stumblin’” song the whole time? If so, it’s odd how I didn’t even notice until the final verse of the song, where I heard a distinct Wiig-ism in the singer’s vocal inflection.
STARS: ****


A MESSAGE FROM MASTERCARD / A MESSAGE FROM JULIAN ASSANGE
jailed Julian Assange (BIH) threatens online attacks if he’s not released

— It’s great how it’s become a weekly running gag for a sketch to suddenly get interrupted by a message from Bill’s Julian Assange. How often in recent SNL decades like this do you get a running gag that lasts for a string of consecutive episodes?
— That joke from Bill’s Assange about America still not having caught Osama Bin Laden would no longer be relevant just a few months later.
— I love how Bill now portrays Assange like a diabolical villain, complete with him smugly taking a sip of tea each time he laughs evilly.
— A funny list of cruel website attacks Bill’s Assange threatens to make, especially the Netflix/Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper threat.
STARS: ***½


SEXUALLY SPEAKING
Rodger Brush’s facile sexist coital advice doesn’t help

— I was about to groan at the appearance of this bad recurring sketch, but the preceding installment of it from this season’s premiere was slightly better than usual, as Fred’s Rodger Brush actually had a few funny lines. Then again, that sketch as a whole still sucked.
— I will groan at the obligatory and insufferable portions of this recurring sketch where Rodger Brush repeatedly asks the guests to speak louder.
— Funny cutaway to an ashamed, head-shaking Bobby.
— We get at least one funny Rodger Brush line in this installment, with him asking “You want Dr. Linda up here peein’ out of her ass?”
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jet”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM & musical guest create an audio caption for a British royal photo

all of Stefon’s club ideas for NYC holiday visitors are non-traditional

— The Weekend Update Audio Caption segment with Seth and Paul McCartney doing the voices of Prince Charles and Camilla is silly fun. Seth also seems to be having fun reprising the stuffy high-pitched British voice he used to regularly do in sketches earlier in his SNL tenure, when playing Prince Charles and other Brits.
— Stefon’s explanation of what a Human Parking Cone is receives what may be one of Bill’s biggest and more memorable breaks in these Stefon pieces.
— Funniest parts of tonight’s Stefon commentary are his Miss Piggy vocal imitation and his twisted version of the Twelve Days Of Christmas song.
STARS: ***½


HOLIDAY JAM
Principal Frye (JAP) gives crisis updates during high school assembly

— The debut of Jay’s Principal Frye character, who’s reportedly based on Jay’s real-life high school principal.
— Jay’s Principal Frye voice is fairly amusing, as are his various reports, but I hate that sharp inhale sound he keeps making between sentences. I believe Jay would thankfully drop that aspect of this character in subsequent installments of this sketch.
— Kenan’s angry speech gets my biggest laughs of this sketch so far.
STARS: ***


MERYL STREEP ON ICE
audiences love Meryl Streep’s (ABE) effortless rink artistry

— An okay-seeming concept for a showcase of the Meryl Streep impression that Abby previously did in a Weekend Update commentary.
— This is Jason’s first appearance ALL NIGHT. And it’s not even a live appearance! Wow. I know his airtime has been diminished in a number of episodes this season in general (I’m still wondering if he was possibly filming Horrible Bosses at this time. Does anyone know?), but THIS is insane. At least he’s his usual likable and charming self in this commercial, though.
— Taran’s testimonial gets my only big laugh of this rather forgettable commercial. Despite him playing a gay stereotype, his testimonial simply being him saying a sassy “Um…the bitch can skate” certainly made me laugh.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Band on the Run”


BROADWAY CARES
unprofessional spotlight technician Jeff foils host’s Cabaret performance

— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in years, surprisingly. This also ends up being its final appearance, though there’s a variation of it in the season 38 Jeremy Renner episode, where the name of Bill’s Mike Underballs character is changed to Wes Underballs for some inexplicable reason, and instead of playing a douchey crew member named Jeff who ruins every take being filmed, Jason plays an idiot movie star named Dick Fuel who ruins every take.
— Very odd how Jason is making his first and ONLY live appearance of the night in 1) the final sketch of the night, and 2) with his scenes taking place in the rafters in SNL’s studio. (How often has a live sketch involved a performer in SNL’s rafters? Hell, is this the ONLY time in SNL history? Jerry Seinfeld had a scene in the rafters in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ season 31 monologue, but his appearance was pre-taped.) When this originally aired, I remember almost wondering if the fact that Jason’s only live sketch appearance in this episode had him appearing in a separate part of the studio from the rest of his scene partners meant his appearance was filmed at a different time or in a different studio or something. This, and his diminished airtime in general this season, also almost made it feel to me back then like he was only a “part-time cast member” this season, much like how Eddie Murphy was, in some ways, only a “part-time cast member” in his final season, and Dana Carvey kinda was, too, in his final half-season. I hear that several of the veterans in SNL’s present-day season 46 cast will also only be “part-time cast members” this current season. (If you didn’t know, I’ve been on hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018, and thus, I can only go by what I’ve read about the current season.)
— I got a good laugh from Jason explaining that his mind is so distracted because “I saw Tangled again this week”.
— There’s Bill-as-Mike-Underballs’ angry pronunciation of “Jeff” that I always love: “JYYEEEEEEFF!”
— Jason’s getting the usual big laughs he always gets as this Jeff character, even if this installment isn’t quite as memorable as either of the previous two installments of this sketch.
— Unlike Rudd’s preceding episode from season 34, in which he got a number of fun things to do, especially with cast members like Bill and Andy, Rudd has been utilized poorly tonight. It feels like he’s been given nothing but forgettable straight roles practically all night.
— Very funny ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Day in the Life” & “Give Peace a Chance”


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest performs “Get Back”

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Not great, but pretty good. (“Pretty good” sadly seems to be the best this season can achieve, it feels like so far. There has yet to be a standout strong season 36 episode by this point.) Also, even though I don’t usually factor musical performances into the quality of episodes, it goes without saying that the many musical performances from the legendary Paul McCartney added a nice vibe to tonight’s episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What’s That Name?
Stumblin’
Feline Culinary Creations
Broadway Cares
A Message From MasterCard / A Message From Julian Assange
Weekend Update
Monologue
Holiday Jam
Meryl Streep On Ice
Tax Package
Sexually Speaking
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert DeNiro)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jeff Bridges, after previously hosting the show a whopping 27 years prior, hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 4, 2010 – Robert DeNiro / Diddy-Dirty Money (S36 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS / WIKILEAKS: TMZ
Julian Assange’s (BIH) latest undiplomatic WikiLeaks are TMZ-style videos

— Ha! A Fredbama presidential address got cut off out of nowhere! The gods have answered my prayers.
— Good fake-out with this Obama cold opening suddenly turning out to be Julian Assange introducing his TMZ-style show. Clever concept, and this also ends up being the first of a very rare three-consecutive-episode running gag in which a sketch gets interrupted by Bill’s Julian Assange.
— A spot-on TMZ parody.
— Vanessa has become SNL’s latest Hillary Clinton impersonator.
— Hilarious how the Hillary Clinton crotch shot video turns out to be filmed by Jason’s Joe Biden.
— An overall pretty fun cold opening, and felt refreshingly different for a cold opening in this era.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host’s henchmen bully audience members who point out his NYC inaccuracies

— A blah premise with Robert DeNiro comically listing off a whole bunch of inaccurate New York City facts. Maybe it would be funny if it wasn’t for DeNiro’s typical dull, halting, comedy-killing delivery. Doesn’t SNL later do a monologue with a very similar premise with Eli Manning the following season, or am I remembering wrong?
— Good to see SNL going back to using writers as fake audience members. That still doesn’t change the fact that this season is relying a little too heavily on audience interaction monologues.
— Yeah, this is becoming more and more of a chore to watch. DeNiro’s delivery is such DEATH.
— At least we get a funny gag with DeNiro’s henchmen handing an audience member a severed horse head.
STARS: **


THE ABACUS CONUNDRUM
Dan Brown-like author (host) hawks his latest book

 

— Some laughs from the ridiculous book titles.
— Nothing to say about the DeNiro portions of this commercial, though this is probably one of SNL’s better uses of him by default.
STARS: ***


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Hollywood tribute has host & Robin Williams [real]

— DeNiro playing himself as a What Up With That guest?!? Did a special guest for this sketch back out at the last minute?
— Ah, at least Robin Williams is an exciting choice for a guest.
— Geez, DeNiro can’t even say “Hello, Deandre” on cue, without preceding it with an awkward long pause. He even butchered the pronunciation of Deandre. Keep bein’ on-brand, Robert.
— I do like the change of pace during the usual part where the drum beat is heard starting back up while the guest in the first seat is speaking seriously about something, with DeNiro actually calling that out, leading to tenseness between him and Kenan’s Deandre Cole.
— I have no memory of this Wiig/Brittain musical number.
— I don’t remember this part with Andy as Mothra either. I guess this is one of the less memorable installments of this recurring sketch.
— The escalation to the “Lindsey Buckingham reacts to getting bumped once again” running gag in these sketches continues to be solid. I especially like how this one ends with Kenan’s Deandre asking Bill’s Buckingham “You want some cake?”, and then when Buckingham excitedly nods his head, Deandre says “Well, I guess we shoulda got some.”
STARS: ***½


FROM THE GARDEN WITH MR. PRODUCE
Mr. Produce’s (host) insolent son (ANS) wants attention

— Oh, god. A sketch starting with DeNiro front-and-center, onstage by himself? This spells doom.
— Ugh, and as expected, DeNiro is butchering his lines, blatantly looking for his cues on the cue cards before doing certain actions, and generally killing any comedic potential of this sketch.
— At least we have occasional Andy Samberg walk-ons to save this.
— Did…did I seriously just hear DeNiro call Andy by his real name just now, instead of by his character’s name?!?
— Jesus Christ, even for DeNiro standards, he mangled the living hell out of that “You might be racking your brains out…” line. If it wasn’t for Andy’s occasional walk-ons, this sketch would be a fucking DISASTER.
— I do admit that the part right now with DeNiro furiously throwing fruit very stiffly at an off-camera Andy while speaking in a staccato manner in time to each throw has a “So bad, it’s good” quality.
— Funny line from an emotional Andy, during the mock-sentimental turn: “Maybe you should ask yourself…have you watered your son lately?”
— What a stupid ending. Made no sense and wasn’t funny.
STARS: *½


PARTY AT MR. BERNARD’S
movie plot echoes Weekend At Bernie’s

— A random but interesting Weekend At Bernie’s take-off. Spot-on casting of Bill in the Jonathan Silverman role, by the way.
— A good deconstruction of Weekend At Bernie’s’ plot, with a more realistic and dark turn this spoof takes when the party guests see the dead body.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Coming Home”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Kim (NAP), Khloe (ABE), Kourtney (VAB) Kardashian rescind endorsements

upside-down understudy (ANS) from Spider-Man musical can’t right himself

1980s aerobics instructor (KRW) aims to fight childhood obesity epidemic

— This is the first instance of Nasim, Abby, and Vanessa all appearing together as the Kardashians. Nasim’s Kim Kardashian impression made solo appearances the preceding season.
— I find it a little odd how Vanessa isn’t doing the nasal, goofy voice that Abby and Nasim are doing.
— I laughed at the low-pitched, very quiet “Booooooo” from an audience member in response to Seth’s Polish joke.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember I spent Andy’s entire commentary mistaking him for Taran. It wasn’t until I rewatched this episode the following day that I realized it was Andy. I guess the cause of that confusion was a combination of Andy being upside-down the entire time (which I guess made it a little hard to make out his face) and me not being too familiar with then-newbie Taran’s face yet.
— I like the return of Seth’s occasional routine of doing one joke several times in a row with a different punchline each time, this time on the topic of a man marrying his dog.
— “Janet Judytran”?
— Kristen doin’ those future Triangle Sally hip moves, I see.
— What the heck is the point of this Wiig commentary? It’s going absolutely nowhere.
— SNL sure loves doing that gag where a performer uses a fake leg prop when stretching their leg upwards. Didn’t care for it in this particular instance.
STARS: ***


LITTLE FOCKERS
on the set of Little Fockers, everything but host wows Keith; BES cameo

— A random return of Bobby’s “It’s okaaaaayyyyyy?” little boy character, Keith, from a one-off sketch two seasons prior.
— Nasim takes over the role of Keith’s mother that Michaela Watkins played last time. It’s one thing to recast a departed cast member’s unspecific role like Will Forte’s announcer character from What Up With That, but I find it a bit much that they would recast the specific role of the Keith character’s mother, even though the character had only appeared once prior to this. Couldn’t SNL have just had Keith with his father in tonight’s sketch instead of recasting the role of his mother? [ADDENDUM: Scratch all of that. According to commenter Michael Cheyne in the comments section of this review, I didn’t catch a line early on in this sketch where Nasim’s character referred to Keith as her nephew. I went back to the sketch to check, and Michael Cheyne is correct. My apologies.]
— Meh, this sketch is using the exact same main joke from the first installment of this sketch.
— Okay, this installment has now actually taken a different and solid turn, with Keith’s biting comments towards DeNiro.
— Ben Stiller cameo. So I take it this is sometime after he and Lorne finally made up after the nasty drama with Ben dropping out from hosting SNL due to 9/11.
STARS: ***½


BLIZZARD MAN
Blizzard Man & his mother (host) join Sean Combs [real] in the studio

— I completely forgot about this recurring sketch by this point, given how long it had been since this sketch’s last appearance prior to this. This also ends up being the final appearance this sketch makes during Andy’s tenure as a cast member.
— There goes Kenan’s technician character once again acting like he’s never met Blizzard Man and doesn’t know he’s a shitty rapper, despite having gone through this in every single previous installment of this sketch.
— Was it necessary to repeat the bit from a previous installment of this sketch where Jason’s agent character says “Now you’re speakin’ my language!” in a corny upbeat manner?
— Even with the two-year hiatus this sketch had taken prior to tonight’s episode, this installment still has kind of a tired, tepid, been-there-done-that feel.
— Blizzard Man’s bad raps are at least still providing some chuckles, and continue to be strangely catchy.
— OH NO. DeNiro entering in fucking drag??? This sketch has gone from tepid to worse.
— Ugh, now we have to hear a whole bunch of sexual implications between Diddy and DeNiro’s drag character, and see DeNiro grinding his ass on Diddy’s crotch? Christ.
STARS: **


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci revisits host’s famous roles

— Not only is this the third consecutive recurring sketch tonight, but it’s the third consecutive one that’s making its final appearance (not counting the Blizzard Man sketch that appears when Andy hosts in season 39). Tonight’s episode seems to be where recurring sketches go to die.
— (*sigh*) Cue the beyond-tired “interviewee says they don’t speak Italian, leading to an argument between Vinny Vedecci and Fred’s character” routine that this sketch always begins with. That’s one part of this otherwise fun recurring sketch that I will not miss.
— Hoo, boy. I mildly griped earlier about Nasim replacing Michaela Watkins as Bobby’s mom in the Keith sketch, but having Paul Brittain replace Will Forte’s silent spaghetti-eating producer character in these Vinny Vedecci sketches is far more irksome to me.
— Very funny announcement from Vinny Vedecci that “the deer from Deer Hunter is here!”
— I love DeNiro throwing a pencil into the neck of the guy in the deer costume.
— Good part with a “Technicale Difficulto!” screen showing up when they’re checking up on the stabbed guy in the deer costume.
— Great trick Vinny Vedecci does to make DeNiro say his famous “You talkin’ to me?” Taxi Driver line, after he flat-out refused to say it when Vedecci requested it.
STARS: ****


BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Rerun from 9/25/10


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Swizz Beatz [real] perform “Ass on the Floor”


IT’S A LIVING
in a bar, (host) is the guy (ANS) & (JAS) have to screw to get a drink

— I like the “Aww, man, this is gonna suck!” line from Andy, after thinking it over upon finding out he has to screw DeNiro’s character to get a drink. Jason’s reaction to that line of Andy’s is also funny.
— A good laugh from Andy’s positive “He kinda looks like Gandalf!” line when defending his choice to screw DeNiro’s character.
— Great delivery of “Dammit. DAMMIT!” from Jason when realizing he, like Andy, is going to give in to the option of screwing DeNiro’s character.
— Andy and Jason’s performances and aforementioned funny lines are all making this cheap homoerotic premise come off better than it normally would.
— I’m iffy on that ending with Ben Stiller.
STARS: ***


AMERICAN AMERICA PRESENTS: I, HIPPIE WITH DANA CARVEY
by FRW- child of the ’60s (DAC) now works the counter at Burger King

— The second and final aired cartoon of this short-lived Fred Wolf-made American America series. I had mis-remembered this one airing in the second half of this season.
— Feels so welcome hearing Dana Carvey’s voice on SNL again.
— Wow, that twist ending with the Carvey-voiced hippie turning out to be a fast-food cashier was lame and hacky as FUCK. That punchline was absolutely not worth that lead-up, and was such a waste of Dana.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— By default, the best of the three Robert DeNiro-hosted episodes. (Faint praise, I know.) Even though I had a number of issues with this episode (most of those issues unsurprisingly being related to DeNiro’s typically horrible hosting job), and only one sketch stood out to me as particularly strong, this episode had a higher number of good sketches than either of DeNiro’s preceding two SNL episodes had, and the general feel of this episode seemed smoother than his other two episodes. Thank God this ends up being his final hosting stint (as of 2020), though.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci
What Up With That?
Presidential Address / Wikileaks: TMZ
Party At Mr. Bernard’s
Little Fockers
The Abacus Conundrum
It’s A Living
Weekend Update
Blizzard Man
Monologue
From The Garden with Mr. Produce
American America Presents: I, Hippie with Dana Carvey


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Paul Rudd / Paul McCartney

Posted on

November 20, 2010 – Anne Hathaway / Florence + The Machine (S36 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW
Charlie Rangel (KET) steals the spotlight

— Rather surprisingly, this is the first time they’ve done this Abby Elliott-starring Rachel Maddow Show sketch since Abby’s fifth episode on SNL, back when that sketch was Abby’s very first big role. It’s sad that, in the almost two years that passed between then and tonight’s episode, Abby’s general airtime on SNL hasn’t progressed much, if at all.
— Abby seems to be trying harder in her Maddow impression tonight than she did in the last Rachel Maddow Show cold opening, but the voice she’s using is STILL too high-pitched to match Maddow’s voice.
— Bill sounded VERY Dan Aykroyd-esque in his-as-John-Boehner’s pronunciation of “barber”.
— Funny line about how Nancy Pelosi always looks like she’s staring at someone not using a coaster.
— (*groan*) Enough with all the cheap “Rachel Maddow looks like a man” jokes.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host lets ANS, BOM, KET think she’s going to do nude scenes on the show

— I love the genuinely very emotional, overjoyed look on Anne Hathaway’s face after she has entered the stage. You can tell how much hosting SNL means to her.
— Nice to see the underused and still-somewhat-new Bobby get some applause from the audience when he enters as himself in this.
— The premise of this monologue is a little cliched and tired (feels almost like a throwback to those “the male cast takes turns trying to hit on the female host” monologues from the late 90s, with hosts like Heather Graham and Sarah Michelle Gellar), but it’s being executed decently enough.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Kristen saying a sudden wholesome “And that’s what Thanksgiving is all about” right after all the sexual-related stuff in this monologue. Too bad she almost had to ruin it immediately afterwards by hammily staring down the camera during her exit for NO GOOD REASON. It made sense when Andy did that earlier in this monologue, but there was no logical reason for Kristen to do that at all.
STARS: ***


TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
TSA agents echo phone sex operators

— This TSA ad being presented in the style of a typical phone sex ad is a clever and very funny way to spoof the TSA pat-down controversy from this time.
— Solid delivery from Kenan of the line “But it’s proooobably gonna be us.”
STARS: ****


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Katie Holmes (host) is peppered with queries by Miley Cyrus (VAB)

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Jason takes over the Billy Ray Cyrus role that was played by Bryan Cranston in the previous installment of this sketch.
— Turns out Jason is a lot of fun in this role, moreso than Cranston was.
— Vanessa’s Miley, as a segue: “So, as you probably heard, I’m sexy now!”
— The “sexy” photos of Vanessa’s Miley are all funny.
— Anne’s Katie Holmes impression is killer, especially the long, awkward pauses, which remind me of just how awkward the real Katie Holmes came off in her season 26 SNL hosting stint that I covered.
STARS: ***½


FREE THANKSGIVING DINNER
on Thanksgiving, volunteer Penelope harvests attention at a soup kitchen

— The first Penelope sketch to appear in a little over a year, and this also ends up being the final one.
— The audience’s laughter at some of Penelope’s lines tonight seems a bit mild and tepid. I’m enjoying this sketch a little more than they are, but I can understand the audience’s (or anyone else’s) lack of excitement towards this sketch.
— I like Penelope’s inappropriate comment about how it’s easy for homeless people to see fireworks on the Fourth of July because they live outside.
— An amusing cutaway to Penelope’s similarly-traited family members.
— While this Penelope installment is a slight improvement over the below-par last one that appeared prior to this, tonight’s installment still feels too average for Penelope standards. It’s a good thing this ends up being her final appearance, as this character has lost her novelty and seems to be running out of steam.
— I like how, at the very end of this sketch, after we see Penelope in her “celery boat”, the camera pulls back and reveals Kristen is lying on a greenscreen floor on SNL’s home base stage. In hindsight, there’s something strangely fitting about how that visual ends up being the last thing we ever see of Penelope.
STARS: ***


ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
secret chavs Queen Elizabeth (FRA) & Prince Philip (BIH) intimidate Kate Middleton (host)

— Good unexpected turn with Fred and Bill’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip suddenly dropping their dignified accents and demeanor, and suddenly talking brashly and threateningly in crude accents towards Anne’s Kate Middleton.
— Fred’s even managing to make this drag role not come off as groan-worthy as some of his other drag roles from around this time. I also like the almost-Mick Jagger-esque voice he’s using here.
— A funny “In the bedroom…THINK FERGIE” line from Bill’s Philip.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dog Days Are Over”


WEEKEND UPDATE
alcohol & raisins pervade Guy Fieri’s (BOM) extreme Thanksgiving menu

SEM says “Come On, Dictionary” to inclusion of Sarah Palin’s “refudiate”

Four Loko creator Chris Hunter (JAS) defends besieged upper-downer drink

JAP performs hip-hop Thanksgiving songs a la Jay-Z, Drake, Biggie Smalls

— Bobby’s always fun in the Guy Fieri role, and is making this otherwise nothing-special commentary work decently for me.
— Hmm, a variation of the recurring “Really?!?” segment, with Seth doing a new “Come On, Dictionary” segment.
— The overall “Come On, Dictionary” segment ended up being okay. My biggest laugh came from Seth’s “rafing” comment at the end.
— I always love seeing Jason play boorish fratboys like this.
— A funny passing mention from Jason’s character about his coke dealer getting busted.
— Wow, Jay appearing as himself here. A rarity in this SNL era to see a cast member do an Update commentary as themselves.
— Yeesh, Jay’s brief bit about how “Thank You For Being A Friend” should be a Thanksgiving song for white people was a lame and hacky joke.
— A fairly fun excuse to have Jay do a parade of various rapper impressions from his repertoire. The concept of this commentary of his kinda feels like a throwback to Jimmy Fallon’s routine of holiday song medleys, where he does impressions of various singers’ voices.
— Jay’s Drake impression here sounds a lot different from the version he would do in his later seasons, probably because this is before Drake really blew up in popularity.
STARS: ***


THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE
whiny Weather Vane (FRA) was cut from The Wizard Of Oz

— The debut of Jason’s Robert Osborne impression.
— Blah, I already don’t like that nasal, dopey voice Fred’s using, which is worrisome given the fact that his character is the main comedic focus of this sketch.
— Great Cowardly Lion/Bert Lahr impression from Bill.
— Yeah, I’m currently a few minutes into this sketch, and the general routine of Fred’s character is doing nothing for me.
— The ending with Fred looking into the camera and saying “da Wizard of Oz!” in that nasal, dopey voice was just plain dumb.
STARS: *½


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
elderly TV reporter Herb Welch (BIH) hits his mic but misses the story

— The debut of Bill’s memorable Herb Welch character.
— Reportedly, this Herb Welch character and his hitting-people-in-the-face-with-his-microphone habit was based on ad-libs Bill made during rehearsals of the news sketch from the Emma Stone episode earlier this season, in which Bill played a normal reporter character. I guess that explains why tonight’s sketch is using the same WXPD news station name that was used in the Emma Stone news sketch.
— Bill is just as great as this character as I had remembered.
— Geez, I keep forgetting Paul Brittain is even in the cast. I know he’s still very new at this point, but compared to his fellow three newbies, the poor guy has gotten practically NOTHING to do these past three episodes.
— I love Bill’s Welch responding to a correction from Jason by angrily saying “You son of a bitch!” while lunging at the camera and repeatedly hitting it with his microphone.
— Funny ending with a dead Herb Welch suddenly coming back to life just to continue repeatedly hitting the camera with the microphone because he’s angry at Jason.
STARS: ****


MEGA-MART
Mega-Mart’s 12-minute Black Friday sale is irresponsibly hazardous

— Bobby: “That’s right, Coked-Up Rooster!”
— Strong performance from Bobby in a spokesperson role that I feel like we don’t usually see him in.
— I love the extremely fast-paced and frantic pacing of this. That, combined with the increasingly insane features of this Black Friday sale, is VERY much in the vein of the Kickspit Underground Rock Festival commercials. I wonder if this Black Friday commercial has the same writer(s) as those Kickspit commercials.
— Very fun testimonial from Anne as a hyper, rapidly-speaking customer waiting in line.
STARS: ****½


CAMEL TAME
Camel Tame overcompensates while camouflaging female genital definition

— Amusing snarky comment from Bill about Kristen’s camel toe during her office presentation.
— Some decent cheap laughs from the various visuals of proud women’s bulky Camel Tame bulge, and how it’s treated as totally normal by bystanders.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’ve Got The Love”


HORSE PLAY
star-laden soundtrack upstages animated equine baseball movie

— A variation of the Bunny Business sketch from the preceding season’s Taylor Swift episode.
— This even starts the exact same as the Bunny Business sketch, with Fred’s Randy Newman as the first singer.
— Kristen does another solid impression of a 90s singer, this time Dolores O’Riordan.
— Yet another fun performance from Anne tonight, even if I’ve seen better Alanis Morissette impressions elsewhere.
— Very funny take on Robert Smith from Andy.
— The “Buck You” song from Kenan’s Cee Lo Green has kinda stuck in my memory over the years.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, and a nice rebound after the rough episode that preceded this. A few segments tonight stood out as strong, and there were no segments I disliked, aside from a bad Fred Armisen showcase (The Essentials with Robert Osborne). For the second time, Anne Hathaway was a great and likable host, not just with her sketch performances, but even the littlest things, from her aforementioned emotional, overjoyed demeanor after she made her entrance in the monologue to her endearing “Let’s do it all over again!” declaration during the goodnights.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Mega-Mart
Transportation Security Administration
WXPD News New York
The Miley Cyrus Show
Royal Engagement
Horse Play
The Rachel Maddow Show
Weekend Update
Camel Tame
Monologue
Free Thanksgiving Dinner
The Essentials with Robert Osborne


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scarlett Johansson)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Robert DeNiro

Posted on

November 13, 2010 – Scarlett Johansson / Arcade Fire (S36 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHINA PRESS CONFERENCE
creditor Hu Jintao (BIH) preps to be shafted by USA & Barack Obama (FRA)

— OH NO. Why are they doing a reprise of this fairly unbearable cold opening from the preceding season’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt episode?
— Bill takes over the Hu Jintao role that Will Forte played in the aforementioned previous installment of this cold opening.
— I see Bill’s ability to make his fake Italian gibberish in those Vinny Vedecci sketches sound real has not carried over into his fake Chinese gibberish in this cold opening. His idea of sounding like he’s speaking in Chinese is to LITERALLY just say “kaow kaow kaow kaow” the entire time. Ridiculous. I rarely, if ever, criticize Bill Hader, but oof, this is definitely not one of his shining moments.
— Wait, are you fucking kidding me?!? They’re LITERALLY doing all of the exact same unfunny things from the previous installment of this cold opening, right down to Nasim’s “WHEN SOMEONE IS DOING SEX TO ME!!!” yells right before Bill suggestively bends over towards Fred’s Obama. How the hell do you make that into a recurring sketch? Such laziness. Even calling this cold opening a cheap rewrite would be too generous, because if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear this cold opening is LITERALLY (sorry for overusing that word in this review) using the exact same script from the previous installment of this, with absolutely no changes. Sure feels like it.
— (*sigh*) It feels like I’ve been watching this cold opening for 10 fucking minutes! This is endless and INSUFFERABLE.
— Oh, come the fuck on. Now Bill’s going one step further than Will Forte did in the previous installment of this, by pulling his pants down when bending over during one of the way-too-many “WHEN SOMEONE IS DOING SEX TO ME!!!” parts. This sketch’s desperation to get laughs is so pathetic.
— Overall, my god, did I hate this. One of the worst cold openings I have ever reviewed in this project of mine.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
host & tabloidites Dina Lohan (KRW) & Ke$ha (ABE) sing variant of “Class”

— Is it just me, or is Scarlett Johansson’s voice higher-pitched and smoother here than usual? Or maybe I’m just used to her deeper, huskier voice from more recent years. Are cigarettes to blame for her voice getting deeper and huskier over the course of just a few years?
— I like the fake-out with Scarlett saying “The movie Due Date opened last week”, which receives the usual audience applause whenever a host namedrops a movie or TV show of theirs, only for Scarlett to then say “I’m not in it, but I’m excited about it.” They’ve done a similar joke with some other hosts in their monologues, but it always gets me, and Scarlett’s delivery of the joke was good.
— (*sigh*) Another musical monologue this season? We’re only six episodes into this season, and this is already the THIRD musical monologue. After how extremely salty this episode’s cold opening made me, this isn’t the type of monologue I need to lighten my mood.
— Come to think of it, all three of Scarlett’s monologues up to this point of SNL’s run have been musical, and I believe her next monologue after this (from her 2015 hosting stint) is yet another musical one.
— Abby’s Ke$ha impression isn’t working for me at all. Doesn’t sound anything like Ke$ha. Surprising, given what a good impressionist Abby usually is.
— Overall, a typical meh musical monologue.
STARS: **


MTV: MATERNITY TELEVISION
slate of natal programs indicates MTV now stands for maternity television

— An okay concept with a preview of pregnancy-related MTV shows.
— Kinda interesting seeing Scarlett in the My Super Sweet 16 scene, given the fact that she previously starred in a spoof of that show in her season 31 episode.
— Jay’s Nick Cannon impression is funny.
— The comically brief and simplistic Cribs scene with Vanessa was hilarious.
— The usual fun appearance from Bobby’s Snooki.
STARS: ***


THE MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER
Patti Stanger (host) pairs a mousy nerd (VAB)

— I don’t think I’ve ever heard Vanessa use that high-pitched froggy voice in any other sketch during her entire 7-year SNL tenure. She almost sounds like a Kristen Wiig character here.
— Solid performance from Scarlett, even if she can do this kind of brash New Yorker role in her sleep (she seems to play a brash New Yorker at least once in EVERY hosting stint of hers, though I’ve yet to see her most recent hosting stint from season 45, and thus, I don’t know if she does any brash New Yorker roles in that one).
— Nothing else to say about this overall sketch, but it was okay.
STARS: ***


THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin flair punctuates a paternity controversy

— Ohhhhh, god.
— I’m currently almost two minutes into this, and as you can imagine, I am completely stone-faced.
— Bill finally gave me my first laugh of this sketch, with his delivery of “So this is whyyyyyyyy!”, along with his frozen open-mouthed facial expression right after that line.
— Ooh, I like Nasim’s delivery here. Her energetic, fiery delivery feels almost out of place in this tepid, by-the-numbers sketch.
STARS: *½


UNSTOPPABLE
Denzel Washington (JAP) & Chris Pine (TAK) have training day

— Great to see another showcase for Jay’s spot-on and fun Denzel Washington impression. I also love this pairing of him and fellow newbie Taran.
— A great smug smirk on Taran-as-Chris-Pine’s face after his put-down to Jay’s Denzel just now: “Where’d you learn trains, old man – from inventing them???”
— The “BOOM!” that Jay’s Denzel suddenly yells right before the train crash was hilarious.
— Not sure the ending with the train crashing into the Chrysler Building worked for me, but it didn’t taint the quality of this short for me.
STARS: ****


HOLLYWOOD DISH
host’s answers are manipulated during her interview with Hollywood Dish

— Another recurring sketch tonight that I never cared for. These Hollywood Dish sketches are just an annoying Wiig/Hader mugfest. (Yeesh, that’s two times in this episode review that I’ve had something negative to say about Bill Hader, one of my absolute favorite cast members of all time.) Thankfully, this ends up being the final installment of this sketch.
— As usual in this recurring sketch, the only laugh I’ve gotten in tonight’s installment so far is from when Kristen and Bill make their interviewee say or do something intense and exaggerated that makes them look insane.
— In this installment, during the usual part of these sketches where Bill spits/throws food all over Kristen during one of his shocked reaction shots, both Kristen and (especially) Bill break. Bill usually always breaks during that part in the dress rehearsal version of these sketches, some of which SNL has replaced the live version of with in reruns.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We Used To Wait”


WEEKEND UPDATE
reconciled George W. Bush (JAS) & Kanye West (JAP) now like hanging out

even before the fire, Carnival Cruise passenger (VAB) was very aggrieved

— Jason’s George W. Bush impression makes its first appearance in over two years, and this ends up being its final appearance. Feels odd seeing him on Weekend Update for a change.
— A pretty funny and solid Kanye West impression from Jay (though I kinda prefer current cast member Chris Redd’s Kanye impression). Jay’s been having a good night, with quite a lot of his impressions being showcased.
— The basic concept of Vanessa and Fred’s commentary as well as their characters is strangely reminiscent of a (very forgettable) Update commentary that Rachel Dratch and Chris Kattan did together in the season 28 Robert DeNiro episode, though I guess there’s enough differences between both versions.
— Vanessa is very good here as a ranting old Jewish(?) lady.
— One BIG difference between the aforementioned Dratch/Kattan commentary and this Bayer/Armisen commentary is that this has a much better punchline, with Fred responding to Seth’s “You let her [Vanessa] sleep for three days?” question by saying a deadpan “Wouldn’t you?” The punchline of the Dratch/Kattan commentary, on the other hand, was a lame, lazy, and cheap vomiting gag.
STARS: ***


ST. KAT’S MIDDLE
(KET)’s broken knee outmatches fellow teens’ positive vibes

— UH-OH. Here’s a very notorious sketch that this episode is probably most remembered for, and is a sketch that I and certain other people have always absolutely despised.
— Holy hell. Yep, it turns out this sketch is just as unbelievably horrible and one-joke as I had remembered, and is bringing out Kenan’s worst Nickelodeon-level hammy tendencies, this time complete with EXTREME FACIAL CLOSE-UPS.
— Thanks to how germophobic our current COVID pandemic has made me, I now can’t help but kinda wince seeing Kenan constantly pressing his face (including the side of his mouth) against that dirty-ass floor throughout this sketch.
— When party music was supposed to play when Taran turned on the radio one of the times Kenan’s character was being forced out of his wheelchair, they accidentally played the doom-and-gloom dramatic music that’s supposed to play during Kenan’s various face-on-the-floor rants, before quickly switching it to the party music. That audio gaffe is sadly more amusing to me than the intended comedy of this sketch.
— This…this…just…how does a sketch like this make it on the air?!? Was the writer(s) of this sketch just dicking around and intentionally wrote a bad piece, just as a goof to see if it would somehow make it past dress rehearsal? That’s the only explanation I can think of for how this sketch came to be. I’d sure hate to think the writer(s) penned this thinking it was legitimately good.
— I can actually understand why some people would find an enjoyable, guilty pleasure, “So bad, it’s good” quality to this sketch. If you’re one of those people, more power to you. I wish I could have the same “So bad, it’s good” viewpoint, but nope. No dice. This sketch just ain’t for me AT ALL.
— When this originally aired, I remember thinking it felt very much like a typical disastrous sketch from season 20, and I pictured Chris Farley in Kenan’s role, and imagined that the extreme close-ups of Farley with his face pressed against the floor would’ve had him doing his badly-overused-in-season-20 screaming shtick, with him yelling his season 20 catchphrases like “SON OF A BITCH!”, “SHUT YER PIEHOLE!”, and calling an unhappy-looking Janeane Garofalo-played character a stupid whore (the latter complete with misguided wild laughter and applause from the audience), instead of the dialogue that Kenan’s yelling here (“GO AWAY!”, “LEAVE ME BE!”, “YOU DON’T LISTEN!”, etc.). As strange as what I’m about to say may sound, I find it more fun to imagine this sketch as a horrible season 20 sketch than I find it to watch the actual season 36 version of the sketch. Very reminiscent of how, when I reviewed the awful Big Wigs sketch from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode, I had far more fun imagining it as a bad season 6 sketch and theorizing which season 6 cast member would’ve played which role.
— Even the minor fact that, when the audience starts applauding as the sketch ends, Kenan can be seen IMMEDIATELY dropping character, getting up from the floor, and walking off the set (while having a look on his face that almost suggests he’s thinking “Well…THAT happened”), instead of waiting for the camera to fade to black, just adds to the “disastrous sketch” atmosphere of this, as well as the unprofessional “season 20” vibe. Kinda reminds me of how Kenan would later react at the very end of another sketch that I’ve seen some people consider disastrous: a sketch from the season 40 Dakota Johnson episode in which Kenan plays a surgeon dressed as Worf from Star Trek. (I personally don’t have any real opinion of that sketch, mostly because I remember very little of it, but we’ll see how I’ll react to it when I eventually review it.) When that sketch fades to black at the end as the audience is applauding, Kenan, apparently thinking his mic was turned off, can be heard dropping character and saying “Cue that applause” in a relieved, jokingly-kinda-bossy manner, as if he was not happy with the sketch he had just performed.
— Overall, this sketch was just as fucking horrible as I deemed it to be back when it originally aired.
STARS: *


WHAT WAS THAT?
student (ANS) & musical guest excoriate United Nations

— Something about the way Andy’s voice cracked when he whine-yelled “The Khmer Rooouuuuge?!?” made me laugh out loud.
— So far, I don’t know why this short is supposed to be funny, but Andy’s musical whining is strangely amusing me.
— Not sure what the point is of Arcade Fire taking over this short. Their appearance in this is doing nothing for me, even if it has a fun atmosphere.
— I love how one word in Arcade Fire’s song got bleeped out when I can barely even understand a word they’re singing in this short anyway. They could’ve left that bleeped-out expletive uncensored and I wouldn’t have even caught it.
— That’s it??? The whole Arcade Fire bit is the end of this short??? Another Digital Short this season that ended on a poor note, much like the I Broke My Arm short. At least everything else in that I Broke My Arm short was pretty solid. The pre-ending portions of this What Was That short, on the other hand, were just odd, despite how much Andy’s whiny delivery consistently tickled me.
STARS: **½


A TREAT FROM PAULA DEEN’S KITCHEN
Paula Deen’s (KRW) Big Ol’ Soakems sop oil from her butter-heavy recipes

— An okay portrayal of Paula Deen from Kristen.
— That sudden bleeped-out expletive from Kristen’s Deen came out of nowhere.
— This overall sketch kinda just came and went, but was okay enough, I guess. There wasn’t anything I found particularly bad about it.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”


STARS OF TOMORROW
peppy tweens (host) & Laura Parsons (VAB) declaw drama

— Great to see newbie Vanessa has been getting so many big roles in this episode. This is also the debut of her soon-to-be-recurring child actress character, Laura Parsons.
— Funny scenes with Vanessa and Scarlett’s characters each acting out heavy, dramatic iconic movie scenes in that cheesy child star delivery of theirs, though Vanessa is by far outshining Scarlett in that department. I’m sure this is a character Vanessa had been doing before SNL, judging from how polished and established Vanessa is instantly coming off in this role.
— A particularly funny scene with Vanessa and Scarlett both acting out the famous “I wish I knew how to quit you” scene from Brokeback Mountain together.
STARS: ****


MIKE’S BUSTERIA
Mike & daughter Lexi ballyhoo ceramic busts’ inherent class

— The fourth and final installment of this recurring sketch. Very odd how this installment is buried all the way at the end of the show, given how much earlier in the show the previous installments aired in their respective episodes.
— Meh, “ceramic busts” doesn’t sound anywhere near as funny in exaggerated New York accents as previously-advertised products in this recurring sketch like “maww-ble cahhh-lumns” or “pawww-celain fountains” did.
— Wow, the audience is DEAD during this sketch. Can’t say I blame them, though, as the usual routines in this recurring sketch have a tired feel tonight. Not even Scarlett’s usual “Look at this one, or that one” routine is getting much of a reaction from the audience, and they usually react BIG to that in these sketches.
— Overall, nope. This sketch did NOT work. A sad, hollow end to an otherwise fairly fun and harmless recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite two solid pieces and some average things, I find this to be a weak episode as a whole. There were a few too many annoying recurring sketches and some exceptionally bad pieces, mainly that fucking wretched cold opening and the notorious St. Kat’s Middle, two of the most anger-inducing things I’ve reviewed in a long time.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Stars Of Tomorrow
Unstoppable
The Millionaire Matchmaker
Weekend Update
MTV: Maternity Television
A Treat From Paula Deen’s Kitchen
What Was That?
Monologue
Hollywood Dish
The Manuel Ortiz Show
Mike’s Busteria
St. Kat’s Middle
China Press Conference


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Hamm)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anne Hathaway

Posted on

October 30, 2010 – Jon Hamm / Rihanna (S36 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT
Joe Biden (JAS) thinks we should emulate Chilean miners’ good attitudes

— A coincidence I’ve noticed: every single episode hosted by one of the main stars of Mad Men (Jon Hamm in each of his three hosting stints, and January Jones in her one hosting stint) has had Jason’s Joe Biden appear in the cold opening.
— A big laugh from the “Are you above ground?” question in the Joe Biden Checklist, and how that’s the ONLY question.
— Jason’s Biden is getting his usual laughs here.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host improvises ad slogans for products suggested by audience members

— Two consecutive monologues that rely on audience interaction? Are we in the 1993-94 season again?
— Why’d SNL officially stop using their writers as fake audience members ever since the late 2000s? It used to always be pretty fun seeing writers in these audience monologues.
— Jon Hamm is fantastic in his “on-the-spot” ad slogans that he comes up with after each audience suggestion.
— Andy’s always funny as this type of smarmy, smug character.
— Great sly delivery from Bill of the line “I mean, hey…it’s Jon Hamm.”
STARS: ****


RONNIE AND CLYDE
Shy Ronnie & musical guest are 1930s bank robbers

— This Bonnie & Clyde setting is an interesting and creative concept for a Shy Ronnie sequel.
— The usual laughs from Andy’s Shy Ronnie routine, and his “Ha-HAAAAA!”s in particular always slay me.
— Funny bit with Rihanna briefly returning to the bank just to bring a random Jon Hamm with her to have sex.
STARS: ****


VINCENT PRICE’S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
in 1960, Liberace (FRA) taints Vincent Price’s (BIH) Halloween special

— This ends up being the final Vincent Price Special sketch. I recall this installment being VERY disappointing. We’ll see how I’ll feel about it now.
— This must be by far the earliest spot a Vincent Price Special sketch has ever aired in an episode. These usually air much later in an episode.
— As an unintentional full-circle aspect of these Vincent Price Special sketches, Kristen plays the same celebrity in tonight’s installment that she played in the very first installment: Judy Garland.
— Jon reprises the John F. Kennedy impression he did in the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch from Jon’s first hosting stint.
— This sketch is going particularly heavy on the sexual innuendos, more than previous installments of this sketch did.
— Even for this sketch’s standards, the running gag with Kristen’s Garland popping pills seems too touchy. It’s rubbing me the wrong way.
— I did get a cheap laugh from the “sausage” gag at the end.
— Overall, meh. My recollection of this installment being disappointing was sadly right, though I don’t dislike it quite as much as I did when it originally aired. But between the still-good-but-not-as-strong-as-usual penultimate installment of this sketch from the preceding season’s James Franco episode and now tonight’s fairly mediocre installment, it’s probably for the best that they stopped doing this sketch after tonight’s episode.
STARS: **½


BACK TO THE FUTURE 25TH ANNIVERSARY DVD
unsuccessful screen tests on Back To The Future anniversary DVD

— Ah, a piece in the tradition of SNL’s legendary Star Wars Screen Tests from the season 22 Kevin Spacey episode.
— A nice way to work Jay’s great Eddie Murphy impression into the show.
— Lots of Colin Jost sightings all throughout this, as he plays the marker (as seen in the third above screencap for this segment).
— I’m surprised at how strong Jon’s Robin Williams impression is, even though Robin Williams impressions are probably very common.
— As expected, a fun piece, even if it doesn’t measure up to the quality of the aforementioned Star Wars Screen Tests.
STARS: ****


AUDITION
at an audition, (KRW) specifies what she is willing to do for a part

— A lot of laughs from the absurd things a deadpan Kristen lists off that she is and isn’t comfortable doing in the role she’s auditioning for.
— Ooh, even though it’s just a very small and minor part of an otherwise solid sketch, I did NOT like Kristen’s sudden loud, angry, over-the-top “NOOOOOOOO!!! GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEEEE!!!” outburst when she’s told she didn’t get the part. Her delivery of that outburst felt strangely forced and too out-of-place for the tone of this sketch. This is the second consecutive episode that I noted Kristen coming off too forced in her execution of an over-the-top bit. I wonder if this is a sign that she’s become very tired of the loud, over-the-top things the writers keep having her do in sketches, when, as most of this sketch is proving, she’s far better at lower-key, deadpan stuff.
— Jon’s absurd rant is very funny.
— Love the whole ending gag with Jason jumping out the window, revealing they’re on the first floor as he lands safely on his feet right outside the window, dusts himself off, then nonchalantly walks away.
STARS: ****


BACK TO THE FUTURE 25TH ANNIVERSARY DVD
more Back To The Future screen tests have actors not chosen for the film

— The debut of Bill’s freakin’ SPOT-ON Alan Alda impression. That voice is so damn impressive, almost eerily so. The voice also makes his already-humorous dialogue even funnier.
— The vibe of this second Back To The Future screen test piece feels even more fun than the first one. I also love how many SNL cast members from the 80s are being impersonated in these two BTTF pieces: Eddie Murphy, Gilbert Gottfried, and Joan Cusack.
— A decent Gottfried impression from Taran (Jimmy Fallon did a better one on SNL in the past, though), but it’s his Pee-Wee Herman at the end of this piece that’s far more dead-on and impressive.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What’s My Name?”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) assesses Tea Party’s impact on midterm elections

SEM groans as Garth & Kat think up & perform disjointed Halloween songs

— The usual laughs from Bill’s James Carville.
— (*sigh*) Get this Garth & Kat mess the fuck off my screen.
— I probably said this before, but I cannot believe the freedom Fred and Kristen are given to waste airtime doing this lousy and self-indulgent improv bit on live TV. And not just mere airtime, but LOTS OF airtime. Tonight’s Garth & Kat commentary feels like it’s going on forever.
— While I’m still ranting about this Garth & Kat trash, let me just disclose the pure, genuine joy it brought me to see these two characters absolutely BOMB with the audience when they would later perform in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special. Unlike SNL’s usual easy-to-please studio audiences filled with regular people, SNL’s celebrity-and-alum-filled studio audience in that 40th Anniversary Special was NOT having this Garth & Kat shit, and their un-amusement towards it brought such a perverse smile to my face. I had the same delighted reaction when that Californians recurring sketch also bombed (to a lesser extent) with the audience in that same anniversary special. So happy to see that it’s not just internet nerds like me who can’t stand such frustrating, self-pleasing Fred Armisen/James Anderson-written nonsense like Garth & Kat and The Californians, as I was always baffled by their popularity.
STARS: **½ (that overlong and unbearable Garth & Kat segment alone made me dock half a star from this otherwise-extremely-average Update)


I DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS
viral video victims don’t like being laughed at

— For someone who got promoted to a repertory player at the beginning of this season, it feels like we haven’t been seeing much of Bobby this season. Because of this, it’s refreshing seeing him star in this sketch.
— Bobby’s reaction to the screamer video is freakin’ priceless.
— So many laughs from Jon’s ridiculous stretched-out cry, spoofing a real-life viral video from the reality show Intervention.
— The clip of Jon crying has gotten even funnier when an autotuned version of it is playing on the screen behind him while he’s sincerely pouring his heart out in a message he’s delivering into the “Serious Cam”.
— All of the other characters trying to stifle their amusement after the autotuned clip of Jon was shown is very funny.
STARS: ****


HIGHWAY COPS
motorcycle-sharing (JAS) & (host) prefer gayety to policing

— Where is this sketch GOING?!? I’m currently over two minutes into this sketch, and the closest to a “comedic” conceit I can find is homoerotic implications with Jason and Jon’s friendship, and lots of hamminess from Kenan. (*groan*) I admit, though, that some of Kenan’s lines regarding his dead wife are making me chuckle.
— Why does it sound like Jon and Jason are cracking up off-camera during the close-up of Kenan in one of his many phone conversations right now?
— What’s with the use of Nasim in every photo of Kenan’s various love interests? Is it because Nasim’s the only non-white female cast member this season?
— Aaaaaaaaaaand now we have a “hilarious” man-on-man kiss between Jason and Jon, as a cheap attempt at a “funny” punchline. THAT’S what all of this was leading up to? Fucking oof.
STARS: *½


DARLIQUE & BARNEY
the lounge act of Darlique (KRW) & Barney (host) comprises fake arguments

— I don’t like how this sketch is immediately reminding me of the bad lounge singer sketches that Maya Rudolph often starred in back in season 30, but I’ll try to keep an open mind.
— Jon’s performance is at least fun, as is the interplay between him and Kristen.
— Overall, a little meh, but I didn’t hate the overall sketch as much as I was worried I would.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Only Girl (In The World)”


AMERICAN AMERICA PRESENTS: DOG IN PURSE WITH DAVID SPADE
by FRW- in a club, an irked chihuahua (DAS) dishes on celebrities

— Wow, I had forgotten all about this until now. SNL starts what ends up being a short-lived attempt at a new run of cartoons, American America Presents, years after Robert Smigel’s long and successful run of TV Funhouse cartoons on SNL. These American America cartoons are made by former SNL writer (and short-lived featured player) Fred Wolf (listed as “FRW” in the above synopsis for this cartoon). Only two of these American America cartoons end up making it on the air; there are others that would never make it past dress rehearsal.
— The American America cartoons also usually feature the voice of a former SNL cast member as the main character. In tonight’s case, it’s David Spade.
— Some funny snarky and sleazy comments from the Spade-voiced dog, and it’s certainly nice hearing David’s voice on SNL again.
— Overall, not a bad debut for this American America series.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode as a whole, though as a Jon Hamm episode, this did not live up to the phenomenal quality of Jon’s previous two episodes. He was still a great host tonight as usual, however. A damn shame this ends up being his final hosting stint, as of 2020. It makes no sense why he suddenly stopped hosting, especially after his first three hosting stints were all in back-to-back seasons. He seemed to be quickly on the way to becoming a five-timer.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Back To The Future 25th Anniversary DVD (Part 2)
Monologue
Ronnie And Clyde
I Didn’t Ask For This
Back To The Future 25th Anniversary DVD (Part 1)
Audition
A Message From The Vice President
American America Presents: Dog In Purse with David Spade
Weekend Update
Vincent Price’s Halloween Special
Darlique & Barney
Highway Cops


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
Scarlett Johansson

Posted on

October 23, 2010 – Emma Stone / Kings of Leon (S36 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

REID RALLY
at a rally, Harry Reid (PAB) distances himself from Barack Obama (FRA)

— Feels a little odd seeing Jay standing in the background right behind Fred’s President Obama, knowing the far-better Obama impression Jay had in his back pocket at the time and would later regularly do on the show starting in his third season.
— The timing during Fred and Paul’s discreet conversation with each other seems off, with too many long pauses between lines. Not sure if that’s Paul’s fault or not. He is noticeably staring at the cue cards during this portion of the sketch. Speaking of which, Paul’s cue card-staring habit in tonight’s episode in general was something that some online SNL fans unfairly tore Paul apart for at the time. I guess those fans didn’t consider the fact that it takes some new cast members a little while to get the hang of how to read off cue cards without making it look too noticeable. Bobby’s a perfect example, as he blatantly stared at the cue cards all throughout the Of Mice And Men sketch from his second episode (and, yes, some online SNL fans tore him apart for that), but it’s not like that went on to become a habit of his.
— Speaking of Paul, it’s surprising to see a new featured player like him co-starring in a cold opening, especially given how underused he was prior to this and hadn’t been given any lead roles until this point.
— The brief interjections that Fred’s Obama keeps making throughout Paul-as-Harry-Reid’s speech are doing very little for me. Unfortunately, that’s the only comedic conceit of most of this cold opening. Typical snooze-worthy political writing from Jim Downey’s later years.
— Wow, Paul even gets to say LFNY! In only his fourth episode as a featured player! I wonder if this is a record for the fastest that a featured player has ever said LFNY in SNL history. Abby comes close, as she said LFNY in her fifth episode as a featured player. [ADDENDUM: I just remembered that Eddie Murphy said LFNY in only his third episode as a credited featured player, so I guess he holds the record.]
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
audience nerds (KET), (BIH), (ANS) ask host if she’ll make out with them

— This monologue ALREADY seems to be going the same route as Natalie Portman’s season 31 monologue, with the female host taking questions from male nerds in the audience.
— Taran’s Michael Cera impression is very funny, and is almost singlehandedly saving this monologue for me. On the other hand, I don’t know what Bobby’s going for in his Jonah Hill impression, but it’s harmless enough.
— I’m tired of all the “I thank you for your time” lines from the audience nerds.
STARS: **


BABY SPANX
foundation garment hides chubby infants’ embarrassing fat

— Very funny delivery from spokesperson Jason of his first line to us upon his entrance: “Do you have a fat baby?”
— Blah, a commercial in the tradition of bland “babies wearing adult things” SNL commercials like Huggies Thong and Baby Toupees. A tired SNL trope.
— Overall, Jason’s great delivery was the only big thing this otherwise-bland commercial had going for it.
STARS: **


DREAM HOME EXTREME
contest winner’s (host) phlegmatism stymies Cheryl

— A very random and unnecessary reprisal of a one-off sketch from a Brian Williams-hosted episode THREE YEARS PRIOR. Why make this sketch recurring after such a long time?
— Kristen’s excited vocalizations and gestures amused me enough in the first installment of this sketch, but in tonight’s installment, they’re just plain ANNOYING to me. Absolutely grating.
— This sketch is following the exact same pattern as the first installment, and it worked far better with Brian Williams in the “unexcited winner” role.
— I’ve finally gotten a laugh, from Bill, Nasim, and Jay’s over-excited reactions in clips of past winners.
— Speaking of Bill, Nasim, and Jay’s parts, do you know what their character names are? Rudy Plank, Laverne Terms, and Syd Awnit. Yeesh, I see I don’t have to ask which writer penned this sketch.
— Even the ending is the same as the first installment, with the unexcited winner finally having an excited reaction when receiving an unrelated mundane gift from someone. Again, it was much funnier seeing Brian Williams do that.
— We’re four segments into tonight’s episode, and I haven’t cared for ANY of them so far.
STARS: *½


WXPD CHANNEL 9 NEWS
local news reporter’s (BIH) made-up stories scare teen’s (host) mom (KRW)

— When talking about the bad “Souping” trend, I love Bill’s line “Mmm-mmm dead”, spoofing the Campbell Soup slogan “Mmm-mmm good”.
— Oddly, Kristen’s acting seems forced in this sketch, and I could do without her over-the-top reactions, especially coming RIGHT AFTER a sketch where she just played an over-the-top character.
— A very funny escalation to all of the ridiculous teen fads covered in this sketch, especially the “Trampolining” fad.
— Very amusing delivery from Bill’s reporter character throughout this.
— Overall, finally, this episode had something I enjoyed.
STARS: ****


I BROKE MY ARM
(host)’s injuries move her classmates from envy to pity

— A good use of Emma, and she’s pulling off her character’s sudden slips on the floor humorously.
— Hilarious escalation to the gag, with Emma now entering in a wheelchair and a Stephen Hawking-esque computerized device she has to speak though.
— WTF at Andy taking over the short as a rapping jelly stain?!? Even for Lonely Island Digital Short standards, I’m finding this very questionable.
— And that rapping jelly stain bit is how this short ends??? Yeah, this ending did not work for me. Too bad, given how enjoyable this short was before then.
STARS: ***½


THE VIEW
panel considers bullies, Halloween, Lindsay Lohan (host)

— The final View sketch of this era. I will not miss these sketches’ presence. They got nothing on the original View sketches from the late 90s era. I have yet to see the newer View sketches from SNL’s present-day era, but I hope they’re better than these 2008-2010 View sketches.
— Kristen-as-Elisabeth-Hasselbeck’s dialogue is even more one-note than it usually is in these sketches.
— Fitting casting of Emma as Lindsay Lohan.
— Meh, as it turns out, they ended up not doing much with Emma’s Lohan in this overall sketch.
STARS: **


WRANGLER OPEN FLY JEANS
Wrangler Open Fly Jeans abet exhibitionists like Brett Favre (JAS)

— A pretty funny concept for a spoof of the Brett Favre sexting scandal.
— Great sleazy performance from Jason as Favre.
— Jason’s Brett Favre: “Look, I put my pants on just like anyone else: one leg at a time. Then…I pull muh penis out.”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Radioactive”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM comments on Virginia Thomas’ exhumation of the Anita Hill controversy

New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan (KET) evinces innumeracy

John Mulaney [real] does stand-up with the theme of “I Love It”

Stefon’s nightclub suggestions for NYC tourists are not family-friendly

— Oof. The audience’s laughter during Seth’s Virginia Thomas/Anita Hill rant is VERY tepid. They are not into this.
— Wow, I had forgotten all about that “The Rent Is Too Damn High” guy. Kenan’s impression of him is good.
— Kenan’s lines and delivery are cracking me up, even though he’s just saying variations of what the real “The Rent Is Too Damn High” guy famously said in the viral video of him, and it’s hard to do a spoof of something that’s already comical enough on its own.
— I swear Seth (or maybe his former co-anchor Amy Poehler) already used that “fried chicken as bread” joke in a previous Update, but I can’t say for sure.
— John Mulaney in his second and final Update commentary during his tenure as an SNL writer.
— The “I Love It” motif to tonight’s Mulaney commentary is a good way to connect his various thoughts into one theme, and is very fitting for his distinct stand-up delivery.
— I love John’s comments about animals not knowing when they’re in a movie.
— Good ending to tonight’s Mulaney commentary, with him riffing on the style of Mad Men’s next-episode previews.
— Much like John’s previous Update commentary, he went through tonight’s commentary without Seth making any of the usual interjections he typically makes during guest commentaries on Update. I wish this was far more common. I don’t know when nor why it became a regular thing for Update anchors to always play a big part in a guest’s commentary, but it definitely started sometime in the 2000s.
— When this SNL era originally aired, I remember how I and several other online SNL fans took John Mulaney’s Update commentaries as a hopeful sign that this was SNL’s way of trying John out as a potential replacement for Seth as Update anchor. I and those aforementioned online fans were absolutely sick of Seth as Update anchor at that point (I’m finding him a lot more tolerable on re-watch, even if he’s still nothing particularly special), and we felt that John as an Update anchor would’ve been a refreshing and much-needed change from Seth. Fast-forward to today, 10 years later, when I’ve become more familiar with John and his comedic style, and it’s a little hard for me to imagine him as an Update anchor, and I’m now kinda thinking he might not have been as great in that role as we thought back in 2010.
— Our first Stefon appearance of the season. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only two Updates he’s appeared in by this point also happen to be Updates that Stefon writer John Mulaney did a commentary of his own in.
— Funniest bits in tonight’s Stefon commentary are the Cosby Face bit, a fat kid on a slip-and-slide being confused for Mick Jagger, and Furkels (a.k.a. Fat Urkels).
STARS: **½


LES JEUNES DE PARIS
in a bistro, “Ta Douleur” inspires youth dance-off

 

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— After Paul has finally gotten his first SNL lead role earlier tonight, now it’s Taran’s turn. Taran’s been having a good night, between his Michael Cera impression and this.
— I absolutely LOVE the part where all the characters suddenly start dancing in unison to the bizarre portion of the French song that’s playing.
— Great gag with Taran imitating Emma’s bra removal by removing his own bra, which we then find out belongs to Abby.
— I love that the only cast members in this sketch’s main roles are newer players (Taran, Nasim, Abby, Paul, and Bobby, plus Vanessa in a brief walk-on).
— The combo of the odd French music being played and all the very funny actions happening during it is giving this sketch an epic, fun feel.
— Was that Jason as the older gentleman passing by with a cane who the main characters briefly stop dancing for? SNL Archives claims it is (link here), but I’m skeptical. It’s hard for me to tell if that’s really Jason, as we can only see his face from the side as he’s walking past the camera (screencap below).

If that is Jason, it’s very odd they would give a seven-season SNL veteran like him such a tiny, non-speaking role like that (though it did happen to him then-recently in the Bryan Cranston episode), especially in a sketch where the main roles are all played by new or new-ish cast members. Also, if that is Jason in this sketch, then it’s his ONLY live appearance all night. Aside from the Jane Lynch episode, Jason’s strangely been getting very little airtime this season, and it continues for quite a lot of the remainder of this season, IIRC. What’s the reason for this? Is he busy filming a movie this season? Horrible Bosses, perhaps?
— Such a strong and fun sketch overall.
STARS: ****½


MY BROTHER KNOWS EVERYTHING
annoyed (ANS) is little sister’s (NAP) hero

— Nice to see two consecutive sketches tonight starring a featured player(s).
— Nasim playing yet another child character, I see.
— In response to Emma saying Nasim’s brother is a hunk, Nasim says a well-delivered “Eww! Gross!….but yeah.”
— Emma’s comments about each of the “hot” posters from Andy’s room are pretty funny.
— Some decent in-show segments that Nasim and Emma’s characters do throughout this.
STARS: ***


“SEX” ED VINCENT’S SEX SYMPOSIUM
Ed Vincent’s (PAB) amateur lecture seminar opens minds

— Wow, the THIRD consecutive segment tonight starring a featured player. And it’s Paul’s SECOND lead role tonight.
— Right out of the gate, this already seems like a very promising character from Paul, and I love the format of this piece.
— Excellent performance and characterization from Paul. You can tell this is a character he had been doing before SNL.
— The “side of the penis/top of the penis” bit is particularly funny.
— I’m enjoying the “Tim & Eric”-esque vibe of this short.
— Great piece overall.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pyro”


GOOGIE RENE’S PARTIALLY DAMAGED HALLOWEEN COSTUME DISCOUNT BASEMENT
Googie Rene’s Halloween costumes are cheap but marred

— Another instance tonight of SNL randomly bringing back a one-off sketch from two or more years prior.
— Paul continues to get lots of airtime tonight.
— A cheap laugh from the “Stank Basket” that’s displayed.
— Kenan’s offbeat portrayal of this Googie Rene character continues to amuse me, but I can definitely see why it would annoy some people.
— Good portion of this sketch with the examples of things you can hide the stain on your costume with.
— Abby’s extremely brief, non-speaking walk-on might as well have been played by an extra.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A rough and worrisome start with the first four segments of this episode, but things got better as the show went along, especially when they started letting the featured players take over the show in the first few post-Weekend Update segments, which backs up my viewpoint that this season’s four new hires are breathing some much-needed new life into the show.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Les Jeunes De Paris
“Sex” Ed Vincent’s Sex Symposium
WXPD Channel 9 News
Wrangler Open Fly Jeans
I Broke My Arm
My Brother Knows Everything
Weekend Update
Monologue
Baby Spanx
The View
Dream Home Extreme
Reid Rally


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jane Lynch)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Hamm hosts for his third and, as of 2020, final time

Posted on

October 9, 2010 – Jane Lynch / Bruno Mars (S36 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ASK GLORIA ALLRED
attention-hungry Gloria Allred (NAP) addresses own awfulness

— Interesting and very rare to see Nasim starring in a solo person-delivering-a-straight-to-camera-message cold opening. Also refreshing and surprising that SNL didn’t give this Gloria Allred lead role to Kristen by default, and instead gave it to a less-popular featured player.
— There’s something quite Cheri Oteri-esque in Nasim’s portrayal of Gloria Allred, especially that cheesy big smile she keeps quickly flashing at the camera after each of her answers.
— The premise of Nasim’s Allred kindly answering rude rhetorical questions asked to her is VERY reminiscent of that great The Referee Pitman Show sketch with John Goodman in season 15.
— Nasim’s solid execution of this material is helping me somewhat look past the aforementioned similarities to the far-superior Referee Pitman sketch.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
the theme song host wrote for Glee puts the focus on Sue Sylvester

— Right out of the gate, Jane Lynch is (unsurprisingly) coming off as such a natural in this monologue.
— (*sigh*) TWO song-and-dance monologues in a row?!? However, at least it makes sense to do one with Jane Lynch. Not that that automatically makes this monologue okay to me, though.
— Other than some funny occasional asides from Jane, I’m not finding myself laughing here. However, Jane’s enthusiasm, energy, and performance style is making this song a little more tolerable to me than other song-and-dance monologues from around this time.
STARS: **½


DAMN IT, MY MOM IS ON FACEBOOK FILTER
filter sanitizes perilous status updates

— A fairly solid and relatable premise.
— Bill’s spokesperson role in this commercial alone is bigger than ANY of the roles he got in the entirety of the preceding episode. (I still can’t believe how extremely underused he and Jason were in that episode, with them both almost being treated as glorified extras.)
— Some good laughs from all the innocent things the Facebook filter changes Andy’s crude photos and writing into.
STARS: ***½


GLEE / GILLY
Sue Sylvester (host) enjoys havoc Gilly wreaks on singing students

— Not sure how I’ll react to this Glee parody, given the fact that I’ve never watched that show. Then again, my lack of familiarity with High School Musical and Twilight didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the fun spoofs SNL did of them in the preceding two seasons’ Zac Efron and Taylor Swift episodes, respectively.
— Much like Bill in the preceding Facebook commercial, Jason’s role in this sketch alone is far bigger than anything he got to do in the preceding episode.
— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— Vanessa’s delivery of “You guys know I had a baby, right?” made me laugh.
— Out of nowhere, this turns into a Gilly sketch. The audience can actually be heard gasping in shock when Gilly shows up here.
— As I said in my review of the last Gilly sketch prior to this, in the preceding season’s Drew Barrymore episode, I’ve surprisingly started to somewhat come around on the dreaded Gilly. That’s been happening to me with a few Kristen Wiig characters and impressions in general that I used to pretty much hate (e.g. Kathie Lee Gifford, Target Lady). Like I joked at one point recently, I almost wonder if this is some form of Stockholm Syndrome.
— It doesn’t feel right seeing Jason doing Will Forte’s “Gillyyyyyyyy” shtick.
— Yeah, just as I was afraid of, a lot of this sketch’s spoofs of specific Glee things aren’t working for me. And sadly, my newfound mild tolerance of Gilly isn’t working for this sketch, either.
— This ends up being the last sketch we see Gilly in until a year-and-a-half later, near the homestretch of Kristen’s SNL tenure, when the character is brought out of her hiatus to get a proper (albeit unofficial) farewell sketch in a Sofia Vergara-hosted episode.
STARS: *½


THE NEW BOYFRIEND TALK SHOW
(ANS) interviews mom’s (host) conquest (JAS)

— A funny entrance from a just-got-out-of-bed Jason as both Jane’s new boyfriend and Andy’s interviewee.
— A good laugh from the unexpected “Are you my new daddy?” question Andy asks Jason, which gets a great understated taken-aback reaction from Jason.
— Fantastic reveal that this is the 100th episode of this New Boyfriend talk show, which gets another great taken-aback reaction from Jason.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier with all the priceless shocking reveals that are happening in succession throughout this sketch.
— Jason’s horrified reaction to finding out Jane once had sex with Magic Johnson is hilarious.
— Excellent sketch overall. A forgotten (with me, at least) gem.
STARS: *****


THE COVEN TO ELECT CHRISTINE O’DONNELL
Christine O’Donnell (KRW) unconvincingly insists “I am not a witch”

— An okay conceit, helped by Kristen’s solid delivery during her-as-Christine-O’Donnell’s calm-but-suspicious denials of being a witch.
STARS: ***


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & comedienne (host) flout game show’s rules

— (*groan*)
— At least Jane’s a lot of fun as the Phyllis Diller-esque comedian character she’s playing.
— Good frustrated delivery from Bill of the line “And I am not full of bananas.”
STARS: **


RELAXATION THERAPY
(ANS)’s therapist (host) alternately calms & upsets

— Some increasingly funny odd non-sequitur visuals in the fantasy that Jane makes Andy visualize.
— I like the annoyed look on Andy’s face when he realizes Jane’s ordering lunch in the middle of this therapy session.
— A pretty good laugh from the very out-of-nowhere ending shot of a nude Jane lying next to Andy on the couch.
STARS: ***½


RETURNS & EXCHANGES
researching a role, Denzel Washington (JAP) mans the Macy’s returns desk

— A freakin’ fantastic Denzel Washington impression from Jay, in one of Jay’s earliest celebrity impression showcases on SNL.
— Jay-as-Denzel’s very tense interrogation of Jane over a simple bag return is a lot of fun.
— The ending to this otherwise-solid sketch came off VERY awkwardly executed.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just The Way You Are”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mark Zuckerberg (ANS) assesses the accuracy of The Social Network

Mexico tourism rep (FRA) doesn’t comprehend questions about drug cartels

— Hoooooo, boy. Seth’s joke about President Obama’s presidential seal accidentally falling off of his podium “two years early” is IMMEDIATELY followed by an innocent joke about rumors of Donald Trump considering running for president in the future.
— Andy’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg is okay, but I prefer the Mark Zuckerberg portrayal that current cast member Alex Moffat would later do.
— Kelly “Ripka”? No wonder Seth’s Kelly Ripa punchline bombed with the audience, after that slip of the tongue from him.
— Meh at this Fred commentary. It’s doing nothing for me.
STARS: ***


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
Suze Orman’s (KRW) ex-roommate (host) is in denial about her lesbianism

— Lots of Kristen Wiig showcases tonight, or maybe it just feels like a lot compared to how Kristen surprisingly appeared in only one sketch in the preceding episode.
— This ends up being the final Suze Orman Show sketch. I feel like they’re only doing this sketch tonight because of Jane’s real-life sexual orientation.
— Funny Halloween advice from Kristen’s Orman early in the sketch.
— Hmm, a different conceit to this Suze Orman Show installment, with this focusing far more on the repressed lesbianism of Jane’s character rather than the financial advice that Kristen’s Orman usually gives her guests.
— I’m (pleasantly) surprised Fred wasn’t the one who got cast in the walk-on role of Jane’s obviously-gay flamboyant husband.
STARS: **½


SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Faith Hill’s (host) Sunday Night Football theme extends past the kickoff

— I don’t know what Bill’s going for in his Cris Collinsworth impression, as the real Collinsworth doesn’t sound a thing like that. That being said, the dopey voice Bill’s using is amusing me.
— A fairly cliched SNL premise of a theme song going on forever, done to better effect in some other sketches (mainly Will Forte’s legendary Duluth Live sketch).
— I find it hard to buy Jane as Faith Hill, but this is another pretty fun performance from her tonight.
— I got a laugh from Bill’s Collinsworth saying, point-blank, “That was a nacho recipe”, in reaction to a verse from Jane-as-Hill’s theme song.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Grenade”


TAX MASTERS
Patrick Cox (JAS) & vestigial conjoined twin (FRA) shoot Tax Masters spot

— Nice to see Jason being given so many big roles tonight, after the aforementioned extreme under-utilization of him in the preceding episode.
— Very funny reveal of the hidden-from-the-camera side of Jason’s face having a half-formed twin brother. I can see how the writers came up with this idea, given the fact that the real-life guy who Jason’s playing here does stand in an odd profile that suspiciously hides the left side of his face in the real Tax Masters ads this sketch is spoofing.
— You can tell the show is running long, because Jason now seems to be absolutely rushing through his lines.
— The ending with a close-up of Fred delivering a message to us as Jason’s half-formed twin brother didn’t work, mostly because it came off sloppy and kinda botched, presumably due to how rushed this sketch was. Reruns of this episode use the dress rehearsal version of this sketch’s ending, which is performed a lot more smoothly.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— I like how Jason, still in costume from the preceding sketch, is standing with his twin-on-the-side-of-his-face prosthetic facing the camera (as seen to Jane’s left in the above screencaps for these goodnights).

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly mixed episode, though there was a little more good than bad, and even most of the bad stuff had some merits. As expected, Jane Lynch was a pretty solid host, and was utilized pretty well. In fact, it sure felt like the writers played more to her comedic strengths than they did to Bryan Cranston in the preceding episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The New Boyfriend Talk Show
Returns & Exchanges
Tax Masters
Damn It, My Mom Is On Facebook Filter
Relaxation Therapy
Ask Gloria Allred
The Coven To Elect Christine O’Donnell
Weekend Update
Sunday Night Football
Monologue
The Suze Orman Show
Secret Word
Glee / Gilly


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bryan Cranston)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Emma Stone makes her hosting debut

Posted on

October 2, 2010 – Bryan Cranston / Kanye West (S36 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Rahm Emanuel (ANS) & new chief of staff Pete Rouse (BOM) are antithetical

— I always love Andy’s portrayal of Rahm Emanuel. A bit of a shame this is one of the last times we’re going to see it (he makes one more appearance in the cold opening of this season’s Jeff Bridges episode).
— Good turn with Andy’s Emanuel giving Bobby’s Pete Rouse frightening, overly-intense advice.
— Bobby’s nervousness and whininess as Rouse is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host hopes to up his name recognition with “Charlie Kane” variant

— Funny underwear photos of Bryan Cranston throughout his career.
— Geez, they’re wasting Bryan on a freakin’ song-and-dance monologue? And a very generic one at that? (*sigh*)
— Nothing particularly noteworthy about the song, except a laugh from the big photo of “Bryan Cranston” (really Bill Paxton) that Nasim is briefly seen carrying into the shot.
STARS: **


PEPTO-BISMOL ICE
Pepto-Bismol Ice brings diarrhea relief during a night of clubbing

— A decent and strangely-kinda-cool premise of a version of Pepto-Bismol that’s marketed as a malt liquor for clubbing.
— Pretty funny interaction between Andy and Nasim.
STARS: ***


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Miley Cyrus (VAB) doesn’t let Johnny Depp (PAB) say much

— Wow, it shows a lot of confidence on SNL’s part to place such a big Vanessa Bayer showcase in the lead-off spot of this episode, when Vanessa’s only in her second episode as a featured player.
— Vanessa’s take on Miley Cyrus is very solid. This is an important moment for her, as it ends up being her breakout role.
— Odd to see in retrospect that the first installment of this soon-to-be-recurring-sketch has Bryan playing Billy Ray Cyrus, given the fact that Jason would take over the role in all subsequent installments.
— I love that tonight’s lead-off sketch is now heavily featuring TWO newbies, as Paul (in his first noteworthy SNL role) has now shown up as Vanessa-as-Miley’s interviewee, Johnny Depp.
— Turns out Paul’s performance as Depp is nothing to write home about. He’s doing a pretty generic take on Depp, and it’s not showing off Paul’s comedic skills.
— Given how new Vanessa is, it’s charming seeing her soaking in the extended audience laughter she gets after she says “Yeah, me, too” in response to Paul’s Depp saying he’s taken on darker roles.
STARS: ***½


WHAT UP WITH THAT? BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION
Morgan Freeman & Ernest Borgnine [real] sit & watch

— Vanessa has taken over Jenny Slate’s role as one of the backup singers of this recurring sketch, and Taran has taken over Will Forte’s role as the announcer.
— Great guests in tonight’s What Up With That: Morgan Freeman and Ernest Borgnine!
— I love the anxious, stifled-mouth look on Kenan’s face during Morgan Freeman’s serious spiel about school (the sixth above screencap for this sketch).
— Absolutely hilarious visual of Bryan as a George Clinton-esque singer. Also, the detail of him in briefs is a good callback to the monologue.
— The “back to school” theme of tonight’s What Up With That is adding a nice bit of a change of pace to this recurring sketch’s formula.
— I like the creepy-eyed look on Paul’s face during the Mary Kay Letourneau / Vili Fualaau bit.
— The big open-mouthed smile on Ernest Borgnine’s face throughout this sketch is so fun and charming.
STARS: ****½


BASKETBALL GAME
on a basketball court, Shana simultaneously attracts & repels co-workers

— For the second time tonight, Taran has taken over a recurring Will Forte role.
— On a similar note, Abby has taken over the “ignored girl” role that Casey Wilson and Jenny Slate played in the previous two installments of this recurring sketch. Unlike Casey and Jenny, Abby doesn’t end up suffering the “curse”, in which each cast member who plays the “ignored girl” role in this recurring Shana sketch gets fired before getting to appear in a second Shana sketch.
— Bryan’s disturbing turned-on facial reactions to Shana’s actions are pretty funny. He’s making something out of a fairly nothing role.
— As usual, standard Shana stuff, but it still works for me. What doesn’t work for me in these sketches, however, is the repetitiveness of Andy, Kenan, and Will/Taran’s reactions to Shana.
— Hmm, this installment is going a little too heavy on the burp/fart humor.
— This sketch surprisingly ends up being Kristen’s ONLY appearance all night, believe it or not.
STARS: **½


RESCUE DOGS 911 APP
emergency response promotes movie & thwarts robbery; Helen Mirren cameo

— An extremely random brief cameo from Helen Mirren (who will be hosting later this season) in the Rescue Dogs promo shown on Andy’s phone.
— For the names shown in Andy’s address book, SNL uses the first and/or last names of SNL writers and other staffers from around this time, strangely even including two writers who got fired (or left on their own, I’m not sure) after the preceding season: Hannibal Burress and Jillian Bell.
— A laugh from Kenan’s “Let’s shoot this motherf(*bleep*)” and subsequent gunshot when Bobby has shown up as the pizza delivery guy.
— Good visual of the rescue dog chewing off Fred’s arm.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Power”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anthony Crispino is misinformed about Ground Zero mosque & LeBron James

as her comic strip run comes to an end, Cathy (ANS) plans for retirement

— Bobby’s second-hand news guy, Anthony Crispino, has officially become recurring.
— Like last time, some amusing false into relayed by Bobby’s Crispino, though his false info tonight feels a little less funny than the ones from his first appearance.
— Seth sure loves breaking out that German accent whenever he does an Update joke about Germany. I love his delivery during the World War I Reparations joke tonight.
— This is the first time Andy’s Cathy has appeared in over a year, and, I believe, the last time we’d end up seeing her.
— Hilarious how the sentimental Cathy goodbye montage consists of just two brief clips.
STARS: ***


KID SMARTZ
(KET) is lone contestant to rebuff emcee’s (host) kisses

— Bryan is a natural as a cheesy game show host.
— I see SNL’s doing a spoof of a real-life viral video of an early 1980s children’s game show host creepily taking delight in kissing his prepubescent female contestants on the cheek.
— Aaaaaaaand cue the obligatory “hilarious” man-on-man kissing between Bryan and Andy.
— This sketch now takes another horrible turn, with us not only getting a Kenan In A Dress sighting, but him portraying this particular female character in his tired “sassy black female” manner.
— Somehow, this sketch continues to get even worse as it goes along. What is the point of this mess?
— The Bryan/Andy portions of this sketch are some low-rent Vogelchecks-level shit.
— Overall, wow, that was just awful.
STARS: *


THE BJELLAND BROTHERS
zero-hit wonders (host) & (FRA) perform song about sparkling apple juice

— In both of Jason’s only appearances all night, including this sketch, he’s just playing a background role with no dialogue. Geez. Really, SNL? (Granted, one of those background roles of his was in What Up With That, where his background dancing always steals the show, but still, it’s fucking insane that a veteran as fantastic and reliable as Jason gets stuck in nothing but non-speaking background roles in an episode from his SEVENTH season.) Bill, who’s playing the guitarist in this sketch, has also gotten shockingly very little to do in tonight’s episode. All of this combined with Kristen only appearing in one sketch all night (albeit in a lead role) is quite jarring.
— This sketch is destroying my patience, between the annoyingly repetitive “I’ve sent a bottle of sparkling apple juice…etc.” singing, and the lame lines about how poorly the careers of Fred and Bryan’s characters have gone. Fred used to be so masterful at doing anti-comedy pieces back when he was in his prime earlier in his SNL tenure. This sketch’s seeming attempt at anti-comedy is just sad and frustrating.
— I could do without the audience participation bit.
— Lame ending line from Fred: “This is the only song we’re doing tonight.”
— Overall, the second consecutive sketch tonight that I absolutely hated. What’s happened to this episode all of a sudden?
— This sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. Two big differences I remember in that version: 1) the placement of the cast members playing Fred and Bryan’s band is different, with Jason’s drummer character now being very visible behind Fred and Bryan during the entire sketch, instead of being off to the side where we can only occasionally see him whenever the camera cuts to a wide shot of the stage. 2) Whenever Fred and Bryan ask the audience to sing some of the lyrics of the repetitive chorus, the audience humorously doesn’t respond at all (keeping up this sketch’s illusion that nobody’s in attendance at Fred and Bryan’s concert), unlike the live version, where the audience did respond, which hurt the joke (as bad as the joke was).
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Pusha T [real] perform “Runaway”


BASEMENT KARATE
fifth-grader Henry (NAP) suffers his dad’s (host) self-defense lessons

— A laugh from Bryan bluntly punching Nasim’s young boy character in the face when making him simulate an attack.
— Yet another solid characterization from Nasim as a child character. This character’s manner of describing the flaws in his own fighting performances throughout this sketch is amusing me.
STARS: ***½


i-SLEEP PRO
black noise generator allows (KET) to slumber peacefully

— A fairly cheap and stereotypical premise, but at the same time, it’s a pretty fun and unique way to utilize newbie Jay Pharoah’s talent for doing many voices, as he’s providing all of the various recorded “black noise” voices heard from the i-Sleep device.
— I particularly like the Friday bit, with Jay doing the voices of both Ice Cube and Chris Tucker’s characters from Friday. Odd, though, how Jay has done a Chris Tucker impression in the 10-to-1 segment in both of his first two episodes. This kinda reminds me of when Rachel Dratch, back when she was a new featured player, played Calista Flockhart/Ally McBeal in both of her first two episodes.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, and, like a lot of other episodes from around this time, was not as bad as I had remembered. (As I mentioned in a recent review, I tore this episode apart in my original 2010 review of this episode, and, much like my original 2010 review of the Ryan Phillippe episode, it ended up receiving a lot of backlash from members of the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board, who felt I was being way too negative and “nerdy”.) That being said, that horrific one-two punch of Kid Smartz and The Bjelland Brothers airing back-to-back damn near destroyed me. Bryan Cranston sadly wasn’t used to his full potential in this episode, and was given a few too many poor roles, but he still managed to make the most of it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What Up With That? Back To School Edition
The Miley Cyrus Show
Basement Karate
Press Conference
Rescue Dogs 911 App
Weekend Update
Pepto-Bismol Ice
I-Sleep Pro
Basketball Game
Monologue
The Bjelland Brothers
Kid Smartz


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Poehler)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jane Lynch