Author: Stooge

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September 25, 2010 – Amy Poehler / Katy Perry (S36 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

RNC HEADQUARTERS
additional closet skeletons imperil Christine O’Donnell’s (KRW) candidacy

— New cast member Vanessa Bayer gets the fairly rare honor of not only appearing in the cold opening of her first episode before she’s even been intro’ed in the opening montage, but she delivers the first big line of the beginning of this cold opening.
— As apparently yet another sign of how popular Kristen is, the audience actually applauds her entrance here.
— The explicit masturbation talk is providing some pretty good laughs.
— Good portrayal of Christine O’Donnell by Kristen.
— A funny “3½ minutes later” title screen being shown onscreen while Kristen’s O’Donnell has left the room to masturbate.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— The preceding season montage’s and bumpers’ commemoration of SNL’s 35th anniversary has been removed this season.
— Starting with this episode, and lasting for the remainder of his tenure as SNL’s announcer, Don Pardo no longer does his announcements live, and instead tapes it from his hometown, I believe. Something about his taped voice sounds a little oddly mixed with the theme music in tonight’s opening montage.
— Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan have been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam, and Jay Pharoah have all been added to the cast tonight.

— For some inexplicable reason, during the featured players portion of this montage, Nasim Pedrad is credited before Taran Killam, despite the fact that Nasim’s last name alphabetically comes after Taran’s last name. This would later be corrected in all subsequent episodes this season, and, I believe, in reruns of this episode. I guess you can say this episode is the first time in which a category of cast members weren’t listed alphabetically since all the way back in the very first episode.


MONOLOGUE
Justin Timberlake [real], RAD, JIF, TIF inhabit AMP’s preshow stress dream

— Another SNL monologue with a Betty White mention, as Amy Poehler jokingly says that, much like Betty White, she’s 88½ years old.
— Blah at Amy’s reveal that the beautiful boys she’s “had” are Nick Jonas and Taylor Lautner.
— A nice-albeit-jokingly-brief introduction to tonight’s four new cast members.
— During the Twilight Zone-esque montage at the beginning of the dream sequence, they strangely include a photo of Amy’s character from that largely-forgotten Big Wigs sketch from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode (the third above screencap for this sketch).
— I love the bit with Nasim playing Amy’s Kaitlin’s character.
— Random Justin Timberlake cameo, much to the chagrin of a certain number of SNL fans, I’m sure.
— A great “Poehler Bear/polar bear” bit during Rachel Dratch’s appearance.
— It feels kinda odd seeing all of these appearances from early 2000s female cast members (including tonight’s host, Amy), given the fact that they all had then-recently cameoed in the Betty White episode towards the end of the preceding season.
— A good excuse for Seth to make a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Reportedly, Jimmy Fallon wasn’t in the dress rehearsal version of this monologue. Kinda hard for me to imagine this scene with just Tina Fey bullying Amy, instead of both Tina AND Jimmy bullying Amy.
— Despite this monologue being an absolute cameo-fest, I’m enjoying this, and am finding the whole dream sequence conceit to be fun. Plus, at least all of these cameos are from SNL-related people.
— Hilarious seeing Kenan randomly playing Lorne, a gag that would probably come off less random if it appeared in a more recent episode in the modern-day SNL era.
STARS: ****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
busty teen (musical guest) distracts kids at her library gig

— In addition to all the SNL-related cameos in the monologue, particularly from early 2000s female cast members, we now get another one here, with Maya Rudolph.
— The usual funny comments and gripes from Amy and Maya’s Betty and Jodi characters.
— Katy Perry’s cleavage-revealing Elmo shirt is a good subtle(?) reference to her Sesame Street controversy from earlier that week, and it’s taking this recurring sketch into an interesting new direction.
— A lot of great lines from Amy and Maya in reaction to Katy’s physical appearance.
STARS: ****


BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Bosley Hair Restoration fills scalps with transplanted pubic hair

— A cheap laugh from the visual of a scientist extracting pubic hair from a patient.
— Meh, the visuals of various clients with pubic hair transplants on their heads aren’t doing much for me.
— I did get a chuckle from Kristen’s line about still having plenty pubic hair left down there.
— Funny ending visual of Nasim lovingly burying her face into the pubic hair on top of Fred’s head.
STARS: **


MATERNITY MATTERS
Rodger Brush offers chauvinism to expectant mothers

— Oh, no. Not this again.
— As usual, the routine of Fred’s Rodger Brush repeatedly asking his guests to speak up is absolute MISERY.
— “Terry Facials”?
— I did get a laugh from Rodger Brush advising Amy to just get a flowery dress, put on makeup, and tell her husband “I’m sorry, honey, this is whatcha get.”
— Surprisingly, I got another chuckle from a Rodger Brush line just now, when he responds to Andy’s sex-during-pregnancy question by telling him that’s not the first thing Andy’s going to want his baby to see.
STARS: **


MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO
The Mosque At Ground Zero further affronts with gay weddings & more

— I’m noticing in all her appearances tonight that Vanessa Bayer looks a little different and so young-faced in this debut episode of hers compared to how I remember her looking throughout her SNL tenure.
— I’m iffy about this “gay weddings at the Ground Zero Mosque” premise, as it seems like an excuse for this SNL era to rely on even more lazy gay humor as a crutch, right after a season that already relied a little too heavily on that crutch, but Bill’s performance as the spokesperson is so damn fun that he’s making me enjoy this. Furthering my enjoyment are all the various photos of the cast members.
— An interesting RNC twist ending.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “California Gurls”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy

Will Smith (JAP) exults in the success of his family members

911 call documents (SEM) being attacked by a parrot (AMP)

David Paterson [real] dislikes David Paterson (FRA) goofing on blindness

— Oof, Seth stumbles over his opening joke, causing it to get a tepid audience reaction.
— I see SNL ain’t wasting no time bringing the “Really?!?” segment back, as they break it out only two or three jokes into tonight’s Update. Maybe this is a good thing, given how Seth was kinda struggling with some of his first few jokes.
— Some pretty good comments from Seth and Amy during tonight’s “Really?!?”. I especially like Seth’s comment towards Lady Gaga that “it’s very hard to be the girl in the meat suit on Sunday and the voice of reason on Tuesday.”
— After the “Really?!?” segment ends, Amy casually sticks around by being an unofficial guest co-anchor and doing Update jokes.
— I notice that Seth’s spirits and the quality of tonight’s Update in general both seem to have risen ever since Amy showed up.
— Nice to see Jay Pharoah get a showcase for his celebrity impression skills right in his first episode.
— Even if he’s relying on A LOT of repetitive vocal tics, Jay’s doing the most spot-on Will Smith vocal impression I’ve ever heard. I think I recall Jay later disclosing in an interview that he was told Justin Timberlake, while watching Jay’s Will Smith commentary on a TV monitor in his dressing room, was so impressed by Jay’s Smith impression that he ran out of his dressing room and went around excitedly talking to others backstage about it.
— A pretty fun return of Seth and Amy’s 911 phone call routine from back in the day, where they do the voice of a dispatcher, a caller, and a parrot.
— Fred-as-David-Paterson’s insults are weaker than usual so far tonight.
— Now to hurt my enthusiasm for this Paterson commentary even more, the real David Paterson shows up, turning this into a corny traditional “sneaker-upper” bit, where a celebrity confronts their impersonator.
— The real Paterson gets in a Giuliani-esque lighthearted jab at SNL: “Working in Albany is just like watching Saturday Night Live: there are a lot of characters, it’s funny for 10 minutes, and then you just want it to be over.”
— The real Paterson is at least coming off affable and laid-back here, and seems to be a good sport.
— Much like when she was delivering a sentimental goodbye message to us at the end of the Weekend Update from her final episode as a cast member, Amy’s serious speech about Jeff Zucker stepping down from NBC gets interrupted by both Fred’s Paterson and the real Paterson popping up in front of the camera.
STARS: ***


THE LEAN YEARS
AMP stars as one-legged Amber in a new Showtime program

— Kristen’s bit as Mary-Louise Parker’s Weeds character absolutely BOMBED.
— The return of Amy’s one-legged Amber character.
— I kinda like the format of this sketch, with the typical Amber scenes being interspersed with Showtime interview footage of Amy as herself explaining the Lean Years show that Amy’s Amber character is starring in.
— Meh, the Amber scenes are getting less and less funny as this sketch goes on. The only real comedy seems to be coming from the interview clips of Amy, and even those are only mildly funny.
STARS: **


BOOGERMAN
Boogerman (Peter Sarsgaard) movie song is up for award

— A very interesting and unusual way of presenting this concept.
— Funny visuals of the ridiculous Boogerman musical being performed by Andy and others.
— Pretty fun use of the cast and Amy in individual Boogerman movie clips.
— A very random Peter Sarsgaard cameo as Boogerman in the final movie clip.
— Funny abrupt ending to the awards scene with Bill.
STARS: ***½


LADIES WHO LUNCH
tiny hats allow fashionable Trish (AMP) to one-up jealous Sylvia (KRW)

— I recall there being accusations of plagiarism towards this sketch, but I can’t remember the specifics at all, nor if the accusations turned out to be accurate.
— Even in just a supporting role in her first episode, Vanessa’s already coming off as a total natural and a comforting presence.
— A fairly amusing escalation to the tiny hats gag, with Kristen’s hat now being only visible through a microscope.
— I like the further escalation, with a now microscopic Amy AND Bill appearing on Kristen’s head.
— A laugh from Bill’s “It should’ve been you!” line towards Kristen when he’s mourning Amy’s death.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Teenage Dream”


ACTOR II ACTOR
ANS’s music question upsets Justin Timberlake [real]

— Strangely, that’s Maya Rudolph’s voice as the opening announcer.
— An amusing dead-serious demeanor from Andy and Justin at the beginning of the interview.
— Hilarious twist with a serious Andy suddenly asking Justin in a ditzy voice, “When are you gonna make more music???”, which pisses Justin off and leads to him walking off the show, immediately concluding this sketch. Short and sweet.
STARS: ****


THE UNWATCHABLES
sequels to The Expendables feature actors who are available & unwatchable

— This is the type of impression parade that I find fairly fun and worth a few laughs.
— Two spot-on celebrity impressions from Jay in his debut episode.
— I got a very cheap big laugh from the whole Brigitte Nielsen scene with Andy.
— Very funny ending to Kenan’s Tracy Chapman scene, with his Chapman stopping mid-song to admit “I should not be in this movie.”
— A very minor detail, but I like some of the individual greenscreen backgrounds used for the celebrity scenes, especially the one used for the aforementioned Brigitte Nielsen scene.
— The very topical Steven Slater bit with Taran Killam has probably aged poorly among general audiences, because, other than me, I doubt many people today, 10 years after this episode, have any idea who Steven Slater is. Taran at least gets a very good audience reaction for what’s his first noteworthy comedic role on SNL.
— Speaking of Taran, every single role he’s gotten in tonight’s episode (not counting him appearing as himself with the other newbies in the monologue) has been as a gay guy: 1) a photo of him and Paul Brittain as a gay soldier couple in the Mosque At Ground Zero commercial, 2) a lispy effeminate guy in a blink-and-miss-it appearance in one of the Boogerman movie clips, 3) and now Steven Slater. Wow. Quite an odd feat for a cast member in their first episode. I wonder if this holds the record for most gay roles played by a cast member in a single episode. I’m sure that not even Fred or Chris Kattan have equaled that.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good season premiere, and I liked most of the segments. Amy Poehler blended back into the cast pretty well, which gave some portions of this episode a refreshing host-less feel.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bronx Beat with Betty and Jodi
Actor II Actor
Monologue
Boogerman
RNC Headquarters
The Unwatchables
Mosque At Ground Zero
Weekend Update
Ladies Who Lunch
Bosley Hair Restoration
Maternity Matters
The Lean Years


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bryan Cranston

Posted on

May 15, 2010 – Alec Baldwin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S35 E22)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OIL SPILL PRESS CONFERENCE
Tony Hayward (BIH) lists absurd ideas to stop Deepwater Horizon oil spill

— I love Jason’s little “We’re baaaaaack” early on.
— I’m really enjoying the accent Bill’s using.
— Some decent laughs from the absurd ideas of how to stop the oil spill, such as “Dolphins With Mops”.
— Bill’s delivery of the line “we will get back to do what we do best: robbing you blind at the gas pump” made me laugh, and deserved a better audience reaction.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host shunts Steve Martin-on-tape [real] & gives SNL commencement address

— Our obligatory Betty White mention, with Alec Baldwin mentioning in a jokingly bragging manner that he’s hosted 14 times more than Betty.
— Alec mentions he’s now tied Steve Martin in number of SNL hosting stints, and we get a welcome callback to the famous SNL “rivalry” between Alec and Steve.
— Second monologue in these past five episodes to have a Steve Martin cameo.
— Another Betty White reference, with Steve humorously thanking Facebook Mexico for campaigning for him to appear in this monologue.
— I like Steve re-activating the TV monitor he was on that Alec had just turned off.
— Interesting premise of an “SNL commencement address”, which is very fitting for a season finale.
— Meh, Alec’s commencement speech is kinda losing me.
— Okay, I did like the Charlie Sheen twist just now at the end of the commencement speech.
— When telling us Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are here, Alec doesn’t follow it with the usual “Stick around, we’ll be right back” final words. The monologue instead just ends without him saying it.
STARS: **½


GREAT DAY
coked-up (ANS) blithely wrecks his life; Tom Petty cameo

— Already some big laughs right from the start of the song performed by a coked-up Andy.
— A great “HEY, GET THE (*BLEEP*) OFF ME!!!” outburst from Andy when one of the backup dancers innocently taps him on the shoulder.
— This already-funny song has now gotten even more hilarious when the tempo has gotten much faster in an insane way.
— Good way to include both the host and musical guest.
— A priceless shot of Andy suddenly saying “OR WAS IT?!?” into the camera with a cartoonishly demonic face and voice.
STARS: ****½


ARIZONA EVENINGS
incompetent bucktoothed script supervisor Starfish (KRW) ruins soap opera

— Meh at the reveal of this new wacky Starfish character (who thankfully never goes on to become a recurring character). From the traits we’re seeing of Starfish so far, she seems way too typical of Kristen’s general characters.
— An AWFUL main joke with Starfish repeatedly interrupting the filming by walking into the shot or blocking the camera with various things.
— Was that “ending” even an ending?
— Overall, I found this sketch to be completely laughless. Even typically weak Wacky Wiig Showcase sketches like the Don’t Make Me Sing sketch from earlier this season had some merits, unlike this Starfish sketch.
STARS: *


SWIM TEAM AWARDS
coach (host) disses his swimmers at a high school sports awards banquet

 

— (*sigh*) Will Forte’s final appearance as a cast member. And it’s only a very brief, non-comedic role at the beginning of this sketch, which is also his ONLY appearance all night. Geez. I’m aware that it wasn’t known by SNL at the time that this would end up being Will’s final episode (I believe, a week or so later, Will would say in an interview for the movie MacGruber that he’s planning on returning to SNL for another season), but still, this is an extremely disappointing way for such a strong and reliable 8-year veteran to spend his final episode.
— Some funny insults from Alec towards each swim team member he presents an award to.
— Very typical that Fred would be cast as the character of this sketch who’s accused of being gay.
— I love the little exchange between Alec and Jason.
— Another good exchange, this time between Alec and Kenan.
— A fairly interesting way to get the entire cast to appear in a sketch, one-by-one, even if most of them aren’t being truly utilized here, as most of them are given nothing noteworthy to do. I always like when a season finale has a sketch that uses the entire cast, though I prefer said sketch to air at the end of the show.
STARS: ***


BIRTHDAY COOKOUT
at her 14th birthday party, non-juvenile Bedelia worships her dad (host)

— Good to see the return of this solid slice-of-life character of Nasim’s. Also nice to see this sketch appearing in a much earlier spot than it did in its first installment earlier this season.
— At the beginning of this sketch, Alec accidentally calls Nasim’s Bedelia character “Belinda”.
— Between the first installment of this sketch and tonight’s installment, it’s interesting how Bedelia’s parents are played by the two leads of the show 30 Rock (Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin).
— Bedelia to her father: “Heard mom doesn’t want anymore kids. You gettin’ snipped?”
— A funny inappropriate and unsettling compliment from Bedelia about how her dad’s new fit shape has probably carried over into the bedroom.
— This sketch ends in basically the same way the first installment of this sketch did, with Bedelia meeting her male counterpart, but I like this installment’s ending better, as it doesn’t have Bedelia’s male counterpart being played by Justin Freakin’ Bieber, who’s overexposed presence in that episode soured the ending of that night’s Bedelia sketch for me.
STARS: ****


PRENIVA
Sally Field (ABE) recommends Preniva after fomenting bone loss fears

— A very solid Sally Field impression from Abby, and it’s good to see Abby front-and-center in a rare showcase.
— Abby’s Sally Field, after disclosing some harrowing facts about bone loss: “Are ya bummed yet?”
— I like Abby-as-Field’s ending line, “I’m not f(*bleep*)ing around, you guys”, delivered in a suddenly stern manner.
STARS: ***


GRADY WILSON’S INTIMATE & INTERNATIONAL
Greek (host) & Grady Wilson partner for sex DVD

— I feel like I’m finding Grady Wilson’s sex moves less and less funny with each passing installment of this sketch.
— At least Alec’s humorous Greek accent is providing some chuckles to the otherwise fairly stale feel of these sex move demonstrations. His delivery of “I poke you” during the Facebook scene is especially funny to me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Should Have Known It”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Snooki (BOM) is ready for Jersey Shore’s summer excursion to Miami

Stefon isn’t able to think of mainstream attractions for NYC travelers

unrehearsed Garth & Kat preview their outdoor summer concert series

— Bobby’s always very fun as Snooki, managing to make both the tired man-in-drag trope and some of the hacky orange jokes work.
— I absolutely love Bobby-as-Snooki’s legitimately funny explanation for why her nickname is Prison Jumpsuit: “Because I’m bright orange, and once I’m on you, you really start to question the life decisions that led you to this point.”
— Showing what an instant hit Stefon’s first Update appearance was, SNL already brings him back just two episodes later, and he already gets HUGE cheers from the audience upon his entrance tonight. He’s broken out and has become a beloved character a lot faster than most Update characters.
— One of the bizarre club features Stefon mentions is a cat from a bodega. Knowing that John Mulaney writes these Stefon pieces, that bodega mention reminds me of a Bodega Bathroom sketch that I heard Mulaney would later star in and (I assume) write himself in one of his hosting stints, as part of a series of musical epics that traditionally appear in Mulaney-hosted episodes. (I can only go by what I’ve heard on online SNL boards, because, remember, I’ve been on a still-ongoing hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018, and thus, the only one of those musical epics from Mulaney-hosted episodes that I’ve seen is the first one: Diner Lobster.)
— My favorite bizarre club features mentioned by Stefon in tonight’s commentary are Germfs (German Smurfs) and D.J. Baby Bok Choy.
— Oh, are you kidding me? In an Update with Stefon, SNL instead chooses to have fucking GARTH AND KAT close this season of Update out?!? Get this mess off my screen.
STARS: ***


TIMECROWAVE
meals cooked in the Timecrowave can disrupt the space-time continuum

— After a very-straightforward-though-subtly-funny first minute-and-a-half of this sketch, this has started to get really amusing and fun with all the history-altered differences in Alec and Kristen’s respective physical appearance each time the camera cuts to an individual close-up of them.
— The second consecutive segment tonight with Bobby in drag. Amusingly, his fingers noticeably still have a faint tinge of orange left over from his Snooki makeup on Weekend Update.
— A hilarious background gag with Nazi flags now appearing on the houses seen through the background window.
— Alec has begun accidentally delivering his long spiel right now into the wrong camera.
— I love the creepy ending with the giant cat outside the window, and how the giant cat meows in an unsettling slow, deep voice.
STARS: ****


WHISTLE IF YOU CAN
in a 1952 movie, (host) humanizes a hooker (JES) before re-debasing her

— This ends up being Jenny’s final SNL appearance as a cast member before getting fired that summer, but at least this final appearance of hers is a co-starring role. Rather surprising in hindsight that she, a one-season featured player not known for doing all that much on the show, gets a big showcase in what ends up being her final episode while Will, an established veteran, got nothing but a bit role tonight (even though it wasn’t known at this time that neither Will nor Jenny would return the following season).
— After a season of some iffy performances and occasional gaffes, Jenny’s actually giving a very solid performance here. This fact is bittersweet in hindsight, as it makes you wonder what might’ve been if Jenny had been given a second season to continue the growth she’s showing as a performer in this sketch.
— A big laugh from the twist with Alec’s blunt “Gertrude….give me a handjob” request, after his tender and heartwarming treatment of her.
STARS: ***½


SNIPERS
snipers (JAS) & (KET) don’t know if (host) wants them to take the shot

— Jason playing another character from his real-life hometown of Kansas City, I see.
— Alec’s performance is pretty fun here so far.
— The conceit of this sketch just doesn’t work, especially when you can very easily tell what supposedly-unintelligible thing Alec is yelling (“Taayy the shaaahhh” = “Take the shot”).
— What the hell just happened? Alec seemed to mistakenly jump ahead of the script before realizing his mistake: he got on top of Jason’s body as if he was about to begin to do something, but then he laughed out of character, immediately got off of Jason, and then rolled over to Kenan to do the part of the sketch that he was apparently supposed to do. Jason’s facial reaction to this blooper was kinda funny.
— Alec has now mistakenly started saying his “God, you must be addicted to doing squats” line to Jason too early, before he even got on top of Jason’s body (the latter of which explains why Alec mistakenly got on top of Jason’s body at the wrong time a little earlier in the sketch, as mentioned above). Some of this sloppiness in Alec’s performance isn’t helping the weak script of this sketch.
— All of Alec’s occasional homoerotic lines towards Jason and Kenan are just unnecessary, but that’s season 35 for you.
— A very lame twist with Alec revealing that his yells of “Taayy the shaaahhh” actually meant “Stand by”, because, as he explains, “I’m inconsistent”. Blah.
— This ends up being our final sketch of the season? Disappointing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jefferson Jericho Blues”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better season finale than I remember, which I guess is fitting, given the fact that this season as a whole was not as bad as I and certain others had remembered. (I’m aware that, in my recent review of this season’s Zach Galifianakis episode, I provided a link to an old 2010 review of mine that contained a huge rant about how supposedly “bad” this season was, as I wanted to give you readers an idea of how this season was perceived by me and certain others back when it originally aired, but here’s a different link to another long rant of mine about the “bad” quality of this season, in my end-of-season wrap-up from my original 2010 review of this Baldwin season finale [the rant can be seen in the last large group of paragraphs at the end of the review].) For the most part, Alec Baldwin was good tonight, but this certainly wasn’t one of his more memorable hosting stints, and he also seemed a little sloppier than usual, noticeably making some Gabourey Sidibe-esque flubs throughout the episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Great Day
Birthday Cookout
Timecrowave
Whistle If You Can
Swim Team Awards
Preniva
Oil Spill Press Conference
Weekend Update
Monologue
Grady Wilson’s Intimate & International
Snipers
Arizona Evenings


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Betty White)
a slight step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2008-09)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 36 begins, with host Amy Poehler, and four new additions to the cast

Posted on

May 8, 2010 – Betty White / Jay-Z (S35 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
(host)’s daughter Dooneese frightens (WLF)

— For once, I actually got a chuckle from something Fred’s Lawrence Welk said, when pointing out how odd it is that he can pronounce the “th” in “mother”, but not the “th” in “thank you”.
— Deservedly huge applause for the first appearance of tonight’s special host, Betty White.
— We also get nice applause for the special return of former female cast members Tina Fey, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Ana Gasteyer. Their presence tonight gives a fun novelty to the already-special feel of this Betty White-hosted episode.
— All that being said about Betty and the returning former female cast members, we unfortunately still have to see all of them get stuck playing second fiddle to a one-note Kristen Wiig character.
— Nothing to say about the Dooneese portions of this sketch. Same-old, same-old routine.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host thanks Facebook for the gig but prefers traditional youth activities

— Already such a charm to the opening spiel of an overwhelmed Betty.
— Funny line about how, unlike live TV shows in her day, SNL has no excuse to be live instead of taped.
— A much-deserved thanks Betty gives to Facebook for campaigning for her to host SNL.
— So many laughs from a lot of the things Betty’s saying here.
— I know a lot of SNL fans find Betty’s line about her needing a Ouija board to connect with old friends to be really groan-worthy, but it made me laugh, perhaps just due to my goodwill towards Betty and her comic timing.
— Betty wistfully mentioning the historic things she’s lived through in her long life, then gratefully saying she’s here because we wanted her here is actually making me feel emotional.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber (host) insists on “thank you” & “please” and tells embarrassing stories

— Our final set of MacGruber shorts to ever air on SNL. These can also be considered the real last hurrah of Will Forte, given the fact that he sadly gets no noteworthy roles in his final episode the following week, as you’ll see when I review that episode.
— Good laughs from the embarrassing things about MacGruber’s childhood that his grandma is revealing.
— I love Will’s extremely angry outburst.
— A very standard ending compared to some of the more noteworthy endings of MacGruber shorts, but still a funny one.
STARS: ****


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry celebrate dietary fiber with (host)’s famous muffin

— Wow. Feels very special and refreshing to see this recurring sketch back after so many years.
— So nice to see that Molly and Ana have not lost their touch at all with these great characters.
— Ah, a variation of the legendary Schwetty Balls installment of this recurring sketch, I see.
— While none of the Schwetty Balls sequels or variations will ever measure up to the original, in my opinion, all of the “dusty muffins” puns in this sketch are hilarious and hold their own pretty well.
— Betty: “As I used to say to my loving husband, Irving, of 55 years: What are you waiting for, stupid? Eat it!”
— I love Betty’s very deadpan delivery of “Not a fan” upon hearing that the topic of the next episode will be pork buns.
STARS: ****


THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin vibe permeates a love quadrilateral

— Ugh. This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Maya is at least a natural for this sketch.
— A very funny and memorable visual of Betty sloppily attempting to do the traditional dance of this recurring sketch. Easily the funniest thing to ever happen in any installment of this sketch.
— I like the awkward look on Ana’s face when the music stops very short while she’s doing the traditional dance.
— Will’s parents, upon finding out he’s gay: “That explains why he doesn’t like tacos!” Ugh. Hacky joke alert.
STARS: **


MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber tells more embarrassing stories & plays dead

— Solid bit with playing MacGruber’s grandma playing dead and MacGruber calling her out on it.
STARS: ****


GINGEY
only (host) sees folly of feminizing Antebellum lesbian grandkid (AMP)

— An oddly Chucky-from-Child’s-Play look for Amy’s character.
— Amy’s cheesy old-timey way of playing this character is pretty funny, and is right in her wheelhouse.
— Very one-note lines from Betty, but as usual, her delivery is tickling me.
— I particularly like Betty disclosing the fact that she wouldn’t miss balls if she could go back in time and “lez it up”.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber accepts her grandson’s marriage proposal

— MacGruber’s comedic throwaway line about going through a gay phase in his past felt unnecessary. Between these past few sketches and shorts tonight, tonight’s episode seems to be doubling down a little too much on lolgay jokes.
— An absolutely hilarious turn with MacGruber’s “It’s a shame you can’t marry your own grandma…or can you?” I especially like the cutaway to Kristen’s smile fading during that.
— Very funny ending with MacGruber and his grandma’s romantic kiss getting cut off by what ends up being our final end-of-MacGruber-short explosion. (*sigh*) These MacGruber shorts had such a great run, and I’ll miss them.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of his hits; Bridget Kelly cameo


WEEKEND UPDATE
Whitney Houston (MAR) fails to rebut bad reviews of her comeback tour

Sally O’Malley’s 90 year-old counterpart (host) likes to stand, bend, sit

incredulous SEM, AMP, TIF say “Really!?!” to anti-terror schemes & Greece

— Seth’s Iceland volcano joke suddenly gets interrupted by an appearance from Maya’s Whitney Houston impression. I got sooooo sick of this impression during my coverage of Maya’s later days on SNL, but I’ve at least gotten a long break from it since then.
— There goes Maya’s usual extended dance-mugging as Whitney. That and lots of the other ad-libs Maya’s making here is making this commentary go on awfully long.
— This Whitney commentary is whole bunch of nothingness. Maya’s frequently ad-libbed lines and dancing, which themselves aren’t doing anything for me, are the only thing standing out here, as the written material isn’t up to anything at all.
— Okay, at least the bit with Maya’s Whitney instantly being out-of-breath when trying to sing “How Will I Know” is something different, but it’s still doing nothing for me.
— Ah, a Sally O’Malley appearance. My opinion of her is the inverse of me going from tolerating Maya’s Whitney Houston shtick in its earliest appearances to eventually getting sick of it, in that I couldn’t stand Sally O’Malley when I covered her first few sketches, then I came around on her in both her appearance in Molly’s final episode as a cast member and the episode that Molly hosted in season 32.
— A change of pace with Sally O’Malley getting interrupted by Betty playing a fun 90-year-old counterpart to O’Malley.
— The topics that tonight’s “Really?!?” segment is focusing on aren’t all that great compared to some of the past topics covered in this segment, but Seth and Amy are making a lot of good points here, and their comments are getting funnier as this goes along.
— Ah, now Tina joins in on tonight’s “Really?!?” to add a Greek flavor.
— At the very end of this Update, right before the camera fades to black, we get a very charming ending shot of a smiling Seth lowering his head in an overjoyed manner when Amy and Tina are embracing him (screencap below). You can tell it means a lot to him being surrounded at the Update desk by Amy and Tina.

STARS: ***


SCARED STRAIGHT
disobedient teens turn deaf ears to Lorenzo McIntosh & his grandma (host)

— Very funny visual of Betty in that wig.
— I know I keep pointing out Kenan’s weight loss this season, but it’s particularly noticeable here, compared to how he looked in the installments of this sketch from previous seasons.
— The usual laughs from the movie plot and prison rape references in this recurring sketch.
— There goes Bill’s obligatory character break whenever Kenan and the host gang up on him in these Scared Straight sketches. Jason makes it funnier this time by playfully throwing a shoe (the same one taken off of Bobby earlier in this sketch) at him from off-camera. Humorously, somebody on an SNL board back at this time in 2010 was really put off by that thrown shoe bit, because they mistakenly assumed the shoe was thrown by an unruly audience member. I remember that board member saying something like “This Betty White episode is getting a little too rowdy. Now we’re having audience members throwing shoes at performers during sketches?!?”
— A classic “Wizard of ASS!” line from Betty, especially when she comes back to repeat it in an emphasized manner at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


CSI: SARASOTA
(RAD) & David Caruso’s aunt (host) in geriatric procedural

— Of all the returning female cast members tonight, it feels like Rachel’s been somewhat shafted in this episode. Up until this sketch, she hasn’t felt as visible or prominent as the other returning females tonight. She did have a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Debbie Downer sketch that would be posted online sometime after the show, (along with several other cut-after-dress sketches from this episode).
— Rachel appears to be playing her Abe Scheinwald character from back in the day, but her character is given a different name in this sketch.
— Betty’s David Caruso-esque one-liners into the camera at the end of each scene are pretty fun.
STARS: ***


THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND
cast members’ “Thank You For Being A Friend” precedes host’s metal version

— This tender singing of “Thank You For Being A Friend” by the cast and returning former female cast members is putting such a big smile on my face, and it’s so fun seeing this mixture of then-current and former cast members.
— A priceless turn with a masked Betty performing a wild and violent metal version of the song.
— I love the brief shot of Nasim screaming in absolute horror when she gets splattered by some blood from a hit-in-the-face-with-a-bat biker.
— Great shot of an intrigued Jason starting to film these wild actions on his phone.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mr. Hudson [real] perform “Young Forever”


THE CENSUS
census taker (TIF) records apartment dweller’s (host) crazy responses

— Much like how we got a variation of the classic Schwetty Balls sketch earlier tonight, we’re now getting a variation of the classic Census sketch from Christopher Walken’s season 25 episode.
— It makes sense that Tina’s playing the Tim Meadows role in tonight’s variation of the Walken-starring Census sketch, as Tina wrote that Walken sketch, and I assume she also wrote this one.
— Tina: “How many people live at this residence?” Betty: “Uh, zero.” Tina: “You don’t live here?” Betty: “Oh, including me? Three.”
— Very funny bit about Betty not being able to tell if the cats living in her home are really cats or just homeless guys in fur coats.
— Betty: “Ah, ascertain – that used to be my stripper name.”
— Overall, much like the variation of Schwetty Balls earlier tonight, this doesn’t compare to the original, but was still a strong sketch in its own right.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Such a wonderful way to end tonight’s special episode, with Betty being presented with two bouquets of flowers. The live version I’m watching of this episode cuts these goodnights off VERY early while the camera is on a close-up of an overjoyed Betty holding her two bouquets of flowers (the last above screencap for these goodnights), but that’s a strangely fitting, significant, and heartwarming image to end this episode on.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode deserving of its high acclaim. While not without its issues, this episode as a whole was a lot of fun, had a very special and unique feel, and contained a good number of strong pieces. The return of the former female cast members contributed to the important feel of this episode, and it was an interesting novelty seeing them interacting with then-current cast members throughout the night’s sketches. And the esteemed Betty White lived up to people’s high hopes by doing an excellent hosting job and even managing to appear in every single segment of this episode (not including Jay-Z’s musical performances), all of which is an impressive feat for someone her age.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Thank You For Being A Friend
MacGruber 3
Monologue
The Delicious Dish / The Census (tie)
MacGruber 1-2 (tie)
Scared Straight
CSI: Sarasota
Gingey
Weekend Update
The Manuel Ortiz Show
The Lawrence Welk Show


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gabourey Sidibe)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 35 comes to an end, with host Alec Baldwin. It’s the final episode for veteran Will Forte and newbie Jenny Slate.

Posted on

April 24, 2010 – Gabourey Sidibe / MGMT (S35 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WALL STREET LUNCH
Barack Obama (FRA) failed to secure Wall Street reform at $85,000 lunch

— ANOTHER damn Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening? Just two episodes after we had one?
— At least the Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening from two episodes prior had the various census questions to mask the usual drabness of these Fredbama pieces. No such luck this time, as this focuses entirely on Fred’s Obama speaking directly to the camera.
— (*sigh*) Now he’s droning on about how great the restaurant he ate at during the Wall Street meeting was.
— Not only is this the third damn consecutive episode with Fred saying LFNY, but he’s said it in a majority of this season’s episodes. I’m tired of seeing him say it.
— Overall, not a single laugh from me during this entire cold opening. So many of these Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold openings are PURE DEATH. The combination of Fred’s half-assed, dull-as-hell Obama impression and the snooze-worthiness of Jim Downey’s typical writing of this era’s person-sitting-behind-a-desk-speaks-directly-to-the-camera cold openings is comedy poison.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
to the tune of “The Shoop Shoop Song,” host sets apart herself & Precious

— Oh, god. Yet another song-and-dance monologue. Boy, between a Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening and a song-and-dance monologue, tonight’s episode is starting off with two of my least favorite SNL tropes.
— When Gabourey Sidibe excitedly say “Balloons!” when Bill enters with several balloons, I did love Bill’s delivery of the line “OF EVERY COLOR!” in an old-timey voice.
— Second consecutive monologue to end with confetti being dropped from above.
STARS: **


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
nurse (host) gives health care frugality tips

— This is the first appearance of this sketch since October 2008, which is surprising, given how somewhat frequently this sketch appeared before then.
— Oh, no. Even early on in her appearance here, Gabourey’s delivery is coming off sloppy and stumbly.
— Kristen’s Suze Orman impression is still providing laughs for me, though a lot of her lines aren’t quite as funny this time.
— Okay, Kristen-as-Orman’s “pap smear cruise” story right now is having me laughing out loud.
STARS: **½


WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
Steve Harvey (KET) mispronounces choices

— Kenan’s Steve Harvey impression is making its first appearance since a Prince Show sketch from way back in 2004(!). Unlike that Prince Show appearance, the version of Kenan’s Harvey impression in tonight’s sketch would go on to be the established version that people today are familiar with.
— Is this sketch pre-taped? It has that certain look.
— The premise itself isn’t all that special, but Kenan’s execution of it is making it work.
— Classic part with Kenan making a definitive Kenan Reacts facial expression when seeing the names of Icelandic volcanoes (the last above screencap for this sketch), then struggling to pronounce them. A screencap of that particular Kenan Reacts shot would go on to become an online meme for many years.
STARS: ***½


CRAZY LADY YELLING FROM A WINDOW
on the stoop, (FRA) & (KET) find crazy Mrs. Johnson (host) quite sensible

— Interesting character voice that Kenan’s using here.
— Speaking of Kenan, his weight loss this season is particularly noticeable in this sketch.
— Oh, no. Gabourey is stumbling over her lines in ANOTHER sketch, which causes her to briefly crack up at one point here.
— These wise, long-winded lines of Gabourey’s are humorous in themselves, and I do kinda like the concept of this, but Gabourey is the wrong performer to be saying these lines, due to her stumbly and iffy delivery.
STARS: **


CHERRY BATTLE
ANS & host spit maraschinos into each other’s mouths

— Oh…my…god.
— The concept of this is absolutely insane, and probably one of the most bizarre things that has ever aired on SNL. It’s certainly holding my interest, though. In fact, there’s something almost oddly beautiful about the way this insanity and creativity is being presented.
STARS: ***½


I DID IT IN MY STYLE, THE STORY OF FRANK SINATRA
(FRA) stars in Danish Repertory Theater’s faulty play about Frank Sinatra

— A variation of the International Masterworks sketch from this season’s Ryan Reynolds episode, where Fred and other performers played Norwegian actors badly attempting casual English speaking and American accents.
— This sketch isn’t working anywhere near as well as the aforementioned International Masterworks sketch. The concept of this sketch has gotten old fast.
— At least the critic reviews are making me laugh, especially the third one (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Flash Delirium”


WEEKEND UPDATE
always-nervous Judy Grimes doesn’t cover impact of volcanic ash on travel

Stefon champions outre nightspots in lieu of classic NYC vacation ideas

John Mulaney [real] criticizes limited availability of Girl Scout Cookies

— As usual, I’m getting amusement from the dialogue in Judy Grimes’ very long, continuous “Just kidding” spiel, though I’m not laughing quite as much as usual this time.
— Like the last time Judy Grimes appeared earlier this season, they make an attempt to shake things up by having her do a few different things. Didn’t care much for the water-drinking bit, but the payoff to the volcano bit made me laugh.
— A big deal right now, as we get the very first Weekend Update appearance of Stefon, making his first SNL appearance since his debut in a sketch from a year-and-a-half prior. Given how extremely popular this character would go on to become, it’s surprising in hindsight that there was such a long gap between his first and second SNL appearances.
— So many funny bizarre little club features that Stefon casually mentions here, such as screaming babies in Mozart wigs, throw-up music, an albino that looks like Susan Powter, etc.
— There’s our very first instance of Bill’s soon-to-be trademark giggling in these Stefon pieces, and this time, the giggling doesn’t even seem to have been induced by a John Mulaney re-written line on the cue card. Bill seemed to crack up because he ad-libbed the word Kansas when Seth was talking about people from the Midwest.
— And now Bill (and an off-camera Seth) does crack-up from a John Mulaney re-written line on the cue card, when describing what Human Fire Hydrants are.
— A strong overall Update debut for Stefon, and you can tell by the level of audience applause that he got at the end of this commentary that, even in his Update debut, he was a huge hit with the crowd.
— Speaking of John Mulaney, we get an unexpected instance in this SNL era of a non-cast member in the writing staff, Mulaney in this case, doing an Update commentary as themselves. Another writer this season, Hannibal Burress, has one or two Update commentaries cut after dress rehearsal around this time as well, and John Mulaney does another on-air Update commentary in an early episode from the following season, so it appears as if SNL is attempting to bring back this occasional tradition from some of the earlier eras.
— Solid stand-up delivery from John here, and it’s making some of the intentionally comically mundane observations he’s saying here come off even more amusing.
— John’s overall commentary wasn’t the funniest stand-up material of his, but it still worked for me, and was a decent introduction of him to SNL audiences.
— It’s worth noting that Seth didn’t interject at all during John’s commentary, which is a huge rarity for Update guests in this era. John’s commentary felt like a throwback to older Weekend Update eras where Update guests were allowed to just do their bit for several minutes without any interruptions from the anchorperson.
— Regarding Seth’s joke about the Charmin bears “with toilet paper stuck to their asses continuing their televised reign of terror”, if he only knew back at this time in 2010 that that televised reign of terror would still be going on 10 years later.
STARS: ***


2010 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARDS
lazy civil servants seek honors

— Ooooh, I recall this sketch being absolutely UNBEARABLE. We’ll see how I’ll feel about it now.
— An amusing initial shot of Bobby.
— This spoof of awards shows feels TOO accurate. There’s a difference between humorous dry comedy and boring-as-hell dry comedy. Guess which category this sketch falls under.
— There’s Gabourey’s line-stumbling in yet another sketch tonight. Why do they keep sticking her with such long-winded dialogue in some of tonight’s sketches?
— Man, this sketch feels endless.
— Bobby continues to provide some of my only laughs of this sketch, this time with his silent angry outburst before walking off. And did I see his glasses accidentally fly off during that rage of his, right before the camera cut away? That makes it even funnier.
— Lazily, SNL reuses a gag from the State Of The Union cold opening earlier this season in which various stock footage of an audience randomly includes a famous clip of Brendan Fraser laughing in an odd manner at an awards show.
— Overall, while I didn’t hate this sketch quite as much as I used to, and I got some chuckles this time, this was still a very bad sketch as a whole.
STARS: *½


ALARM CLOCKS AND MORE
Tina Tina Chanuse’s timepieces speak to sleepers

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch of Jenny’s.
— The alarm clock voice-over for men (“Wake up, you got a boner about nothing”) made me laugh, which is more than I can say for most of the other alarm clock voice-overs so far.
— At least they’re changing the routine up slightly with the celebrity alarm clocks that Gabourey showcases.
— The complaint I had about the previous installments of this sketch still applies here: these alarm clock voice-overs would actually make me laugh if I heard them as an isolated, individual gag rather than hearing all of them one after another.
— Yet another blooper from Gabourey tonight, as she reaches over to display one of the alarm clock voice-overs at the wrong time before stopping herself short when realizing it’s not time yet.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Brian Eno”


PRESS CONFERENCE
Hamilton tries to woo host back by claiming he’s changed his racist ways

— Kenan (and his noticeably thinner frame) has been all over tonight’s episode.
— Great to see another Hamilton sketch.
— More iffy delivery from Gabourey tonight, as she’s delivering practically all of her dialogue in this sketch in a somewhat halting manner, as if she’s reading her lines for the first time.
— A good way to explore Hamilton’s known racism from his previous appearances.
— Hamilton to Gabourey: “How I spent long nights tracing passages from Robert Ludlum novels into your back with my penis.”
— Hamilton: “I went to the local Magic Johnson movie theater. I looked for a Larry Bird theater, but it didn’t exist.”
— Immediately after Hamilton’s aforementioned line about a Larry Bird theater, the camera cuts to Gabourey, who’s supposed to say her next line, but she’s apparently missed her cue, because she’s just sitting there blankly, not saying or doing anything, leading to VERY awkward dead air for a few seconds, until Will has to jump ahead of the script to keep the sketch moving. Yikes. Has Gabourey made a flub in literally EVERY SINGLE SKETCH tonight?
— Good ending with Hamilton wooing Gabourey with an altered version of the song “Life Is A Cabaret”, with the word “Cabaret” substituted with the name Gabourey. What was with the audience’s delayed applause as the sketch ended, though?
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A rough episode, and, in my opinion, deserving of its negative reputation. (Even SNL themselves seem to agree this is a poor episode, as NBC waited until the very end of that year’s summer to re-air this episode, and an episode getting a very delayed NBC rerun like that is usually always a sign that SNL isn’t too proud of that episode, such as the wretched John C. Reilly episode from season 32.) Tonight’s episode started off on TWO bad notes with the cold opening and monologue, most of the rest of the night’s sketches didn’t work for me either, and it felt like I got minimal laughs from this episode as a whole. Gabourey Sidibe, while certainly a likable personality, seemed ill-fit for SNL, judging from all the awkward gaffes and iffy delivery from her throughout the show.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Press Conference
Cherry Battle
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Weekend Update
The Suze Orman Show
Crazy Lady Yelling From A Window
Alarm Clocks And More
Monologue
I Did It In My Style, The Story Of Frank Sinatra
2010 Public Employee Of The Year Awards
Wall Street Lunch


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ryan Phillippe)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
A special and important episode, as a famous Facebook campaign leads to an SNL hosting stint from the beloved Betty White. To make this heavily-hyped occasion even more special, SNL brings in several former female cast members from the late 1990s and early 2000s as special guest performers.

Posted on

April 17, 2010 – Ryan Phillippe / Ke$ha (S35 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

LARRY KING LIVE
Bjork (KRW) appraises Eyjafjallajokull’s eruption

— Blah, the typical lame “Larry King is old” and “Larry King is out of touch” jokes.
— Kristen’s Bjork is giving me some laughs here.
— Nothing much to say about the scene with Bill’s Richard Branson, except Bill’s portrayal of him is always pretty fun. The scene itself isn’t up to much, though.
— Meh, I’m not caring for the volcano song Kristen’s Bjork is singing right now.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
in MacGruber’s wake, Deandre Cole (KET) & other SNL characters want films

— Upon hearing Ryan Phillippe’s odd, unnatural-sounding deep voice in this monologue, I’m reminded of something a fellow SNL reviewer (who’s username I believe was “Mike (Male)”) from the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board casually said at the end of his 2010 review of this monologue: “Also, uh, I don’t think that’s his real voice.” Heh, is Ryan using a fake deep voice here, or is that just how he naturally sounds?
— Feels very odd seeing Target Lady appearing in something outside of her sketches.
— As I disclosed in my most recent review of a Target Lady sketch (the one from the season 34 Justin Timberlake episode), I’ve been slowly starting to come around on Target Lady. However, I’m not caring for her in this monologue. She works better in her own sketches.
— An extremely meta monologue for SNL.
— I guess it’s fun that this monologue ends with a What Up With That number, but I dunno, something feels a tad wrong about this monologue as a whole. I want to like it, as the idea of various recurring characters asking questions from the audience seems kinda fun.
STARS: **½


BROADVIEW SECURITY
Rerun from 3/13/10


TODAY SPONGE WOMEN’S WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP 1986
Pete Twinkle & Greg Stink cover 1986 women’s weightlifting championship

— Yep, it’s official: SNL is intentionally breaking out this sketch every few episodes. (In addition to all the appearances this sketch has been making in regular episodes, the Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink characters also appeared in new footage in that year’s SNL Sports Extra special from February.) I always love these sketches, but man, the over-reliance on them in such a small time frame is kinda insane. (The same can be said for What Up With That this season, even if I kinda understand why SNL would want to rely so heavily on such a fun and catchy sketch.) That being said, this does end up being the final installment of this sketch this season, and also the final installment during Will’s tenure as a cast member. The remaining installments of this sketch are in episodes that Will makes a cameo in, and this sketch also gets a brief reprisal in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special.
— Geez, SNL was so desperate to bring this sketch back tonight that they’re resorting to putting the male host in DRAG (since the athlete characters in these sketches are always female)?!?!?
— For the first time in this recurring sketch, Kristen plays a character who’s surname isn’t a city. This time, she has the punny celebrity-based name Sue Ferrigno.
— When talking about his parents’ troubled marriage, I love Will’s line that they’re going to stick together because “the sex is just too good”.
— Jason: “Trying to avoid the stork? Well, use this vagina cork!……..Today Sponge!”
— Jason: “Can’t keep your legs shut? Well, put one of these babies in your front butt!……………………………………Today Sponge!”
STARS: ****


HIP HOP KIDS
in a bear cave, Zig-Zag (ANS) is the sole voice of reason

— Continuing the tradition of this season, we get another instance of an old sketch from several years prior randomly being brought back for no good reason (some other examples include Andy’s “That’ll move the chains” sports announcer kid and Besos Y Lagrimas). What in the world inspired them to pull this formerly one-off Hip Hop Kids sketch heavily associated with Justin Timberlake out of the mothballs after FOUR YEARS? Typical season 35 laziness?
— Showing just how long ago the previous installment of this sketch was, the lineup of characters in this sketch is almost completely different, due to some of the cast members from the 2006 installment of this sketch no longer being on SNL. Kenan and Jason are the only ones playing the same character in both the 2006 installment and tonight’s installment. Kristen appears in both installments, but her character in both has a different name, for some inexplicable reason.
— It feels very lazy to me that tonight’s installment of this sketch is reusing the cave setting from the first installment. It makes no sense to me why they’re reusing that, when these characters can be trapped in just about ANY setting.
— Jason’s delivery in these Hip Hop Kids sketches always cracks me up.
— At least Andy’s new voice-of-reason character feels very different from anything we saw in the first installment of this sketch. I’m enjoying his character, and he has the best lines in this sketch so far.
— I know tonight’s Hip Hop Kids installment has its defenders, but to me, most of this sketch feels a little too old hat after the first installment, and this is lacking the infectiously fun performances that people not in tonight’s installment like Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Justin Timberlake (YMMV on that last one, given how polarizing I know Timberlake is among online SNL fans) gave in the first installment.
STARS: **


THE OTHER MAN
Eurodouche (ANS) is shagging everyone in (host)’s life

— An okay concept, though this feels too standard for Lonely Island, who’ve used the “somebody keeps popping up wherever a certain somebody else goes” premise before AND after this, to better effect in some of those cases.
— Uh…WTF at that ending???
— Who is that playing Andy’s overweight “doppleganger” in the ending shot (first screencap below)? He looks like the same guy who appeared in the Law & Order scene from the then-recent Zach Drops By The Set short (second screencap below).

STARS: ***


MORT MORT FEINGOLD: ACCOUNTANT FOR THE STARS
accountant Mort Mort Feingold (ANS) does celebrities’ taxes

— Interesting format to this sketch, and I typically enjoy SNL’s impression parade sketches a little more than some other people seem to.
— Abby as Shaun White? Random casting, but she’s giving me some chuckles in her performance.
— I got a good laugh from Andy’s Mort Mort Feingold yelling “SAVE YOUR MONEY!” to Abby’s Shaun White through a megaphone.
— At least Jason’s attempting more of a Mel Gibson impression than whatever the fuck Ashton Kutcher was doing when playing Gibson earlier this season.
STARS: ***


THE SHAKE WEIGHT COMMERCIAL DVD
DVD of the Shake Weight commercial acknowledges its pornographic utility

— A very memorable spoof of the then-prevalent Shake Weight commercials.
— Hilarious idea of marketing a DVD of the Shake Weight commercial towards horny guys.
— Oh, you know I loved the Three Stooges mention, as one of the fake DVD covers.
— I also love how one of the other fake DVD covers, the Sam Kinison one, is a photo of Kinison from one of his SNL appearances in season 11, as you can tell by the background of the photo (the eighth above screencap for this sketch).
— A very funny observation from Kenan that the girl in the “forward lunge, reach back” position (Jenny Slate) looks like she’s about to run a marathon but first has to “help a guy out”.
— A classic visual of Kristen with her mouth open in a pornographic manner towards the Shake Weights, and how the guys in the testimonial can tell she’s in on it.
— Priceless ending visual of Bill’s muscly right arm, from the “exercise” that he got from watching the Shake Weight Commercial DVD.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “TiK ToK”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) believes the Tea Party deserves to be ridiculed

pedophilic Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster (WLF) is parents’ worst nightmare

Anthony Crispino’s (BOM) poorly-sourced second-hand news items are untrue

— I’m starting to notice that Bill’s laughing mannerism as James Carville is the same as that of his Richard Branson impression, which we saw earlier tonight.
— Very funny self-deprecating comment from Bill’s Carville about him looking like a Cajun Gollum.
— I love Bill’s Carville hissing at the screen to make baby viewers cry.
— Ha, Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster. Such a perfectly Will Forte-esque ballsy Will Forte character.
— The disgusting suggestive hand gesture Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster does after saying “Scouts honor” is particularly funny.
— I love the callback to the preceding episode, with Father Swimcoach Scoutmaster asking “Where’s Justin Bieber?” and Seth responding “He was here LAST week.”
— The debut of the second-hand news guy, Anthony Crispino, the first of several memorable and well-loved original Weekend Update characters played by Bobby.
— Right from this character’s debut, Bobby is a hoot in this role.
— Did Bobby screw up the beginning of the volcano bit? He says “You hear about this? A volcano erupted in Iceland”, then says they’re shutting down the Long Island railroad, and Seth then responds “Not true, it was a volcano in Iceland”, putting emphasis on that last word as if he’s correcting Bobby, even though Bobby SAID “a volcano erupted in Iceland”. WTF? I’m guessing Bobby was supposed to say “A volcano erupted in Long Island.”
— Of all the names of Anthony Crispino’s sources, I particularly like “my cousin, Fat Vanessa”.
STARS: ***


SONG MEMORIES
“Breakfast At Tiffany’s” evokes sins of (host) & other icky reminiscers

— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made in over a year. This also ends up being the final installment with Will. All remaining installments of this sketch have Will being replaced by a different cast member each time.
— What the hell? Didn’t they already use that punchline with Jason’s girlfriend being in a coma? I’m pretty sure it was in the installment of this sketch from the Ashton Kutcher episode in season 33. Very lame of the writers to flat-out reuse the same punchline.
— A very funny topical Tiger Woods punchline to Bill’s story.
— Much like the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s episode, this sketch doesn’t feature any of the guys making a comical addendum to their story after the guys all sing the song’s chorus in unison. Those addendums used to be a tradition of these sketches, and usually provided some of the biggest laughs. I take the absence of that tradition as a sign that the writers are a little burned out on this sketch.
— An okay punchline to Will and Ryan’s respective stories, though something about Ryan’s delivery of his punchline felt a little off.
STARS: **½


TEEN TALK
Rodger Brush turns a deaf ear to adolescents’ embarrassments

— Ugh, this Rodger Brush sketch has officially become recurring.
— Ugh again, there goes that god-awful running joke with Fred’s Rodger Brush repeatedly asking people to speak louder. Fucking insufferable.
— I’m also beyond sick of Rodger Brush’s other catchphrase, “Well, I dunno what to tell ya!”
— Kristen seems a little miscast in this role. This is probably the result of SNL typically trying to find an excuse to throw Kristen into practically every sketch (she appears in a total of NINE sketches in this episode).
— Andy’s dopey deep voice is giving me my first laughs of this whole sketch.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Your Love Is My Drug”


I GOT THIS!
(WLF) & sons (host) & (JAS) grab for checks on game show

— An actual non-recurring sketch in this episode. I almost forgot what that’s like, given the low number of original sketches tonight.
— A great yelling outburst from Jason during the first round. Jason’s always had a great knack for doing aggressive yelling.
— The premise itself is a little on the “meh” side.
— I like Bill’s dismissive remark regarding Ryan saying he wanted to share.
— Hell yes! Now we get a display of Will’s well-documented knack for doing aggressive yelling, easily outdoing Jason’s solid yelling outburst from earlier in this sketch.
— The ending didn’t work for me, though that brief cutaway to a silent Will shifting his eyes back and forth between the bill and the game show host (Hader) in a taken-aback manner gave me a laugh.
— What was with Bill’s smile quickly fading at the end of his sign-off? He looked downright unhappy all of a sudden, and I don’t think that was in character. Maybe I should cut him some slack for that, given how it’s known that he suffered anxiety issues during his SNL tenure.
STARS: **½


UNDERGROUND ROCK MINUTE
DJ Supersoak (JAS) & Lil’ Blaster (NAP) intro Thrilla Killa Klownz video

— For the only time during the run of these Kickspit Underground pieces, it’s done as a live sketch (though with a pre-taped music video as its main feature).
— Why do I think Ryan looks like Jimmy Fallon under that clown makeup and wig?
— Very fun music video, and a lot of impressive visuals. I recall hearing that this was a spot-on spoof of a then-new Insane Clown Posse music video. This spoof still works even without me having seen the source material.
— The stupid questions Bobby and Ryan are asking about life’s “mysteries” are providing pretty good laughs.
— I love how it’s become a running gag in these Kickspit pieces to suddenly reveal that Ass Dan has recently died.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Back in 2010 when I originally reviewed this episode (link here), I gave what must be one of the harshest SNL episode reviews I’ve EVER written. I absolutely HATED this episode back then, and was not afraid to express it in that review of mine. After I posted that review on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board, I ended up taking a lot of shit from several board members there (including a few smug, snarky wiseasses who apparently felt it was their life duty to tell SNL reviewers like me how to do our job, and also call us out on supposedly being “nerds” and “losers who have no life” just for giving a very harsh review…..I’m certainly always open to constructive criticism of my reviews, but 1) don’t be a douchebag about it, and 2) don’t act like you’re my fucking boss), who felt my take on this episode was “way too negative”. (The same thing would later happen in response to my review of the following season’s Bryan Cranston episode, another review in which I was unabashedly VERY harsh). In response, I stood up for myself and, in the process, dismissed those aforementioned board members as being both sensitive crybabies and SNL apologists (the type of SNL apologists who typically respond to negative comments from a diehard SNL fan by asking them the age-old question, “Why do you watch SNL if you hate it?” or “Why do you watch SNL if you’re just going to complain about it all the time?”) who can’t handle it when an SNL fan like me isn’t afraid to call the show out on its crap. Fast-forward to 10 years later, and, while I would never kowtow to sensitive SNL apologists just because they don’t like my harsh opinion, I now feel that perhaps I really was too negative in my original review of this episode, because after my current viewing of this episode, I’m feeling nowhere near as angry or riled-up as I was back when this episode originally aired. Perhaps it all boils down to me recently having come to the realization that this season in general isn’t quite as dreary as I and others felt back when it originally aired, and isn’t fully deserving of the ire I expressed towards it back then. My current viewing of this episode just left me with a pretty ho-hum feel, which is nothing new for this season, sadly. If I still have any huge gripes left towards this episode after 10 years, it’s just that this episode was a little too heavy on recurring sketches, including digging up an old Justin Timberlake sketch for no apparent reason.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Shake Weight Commercial DVD
Today Sponge Women’s Weightlifting Championship 1986
Underground Rock Minute
Weekend Update
Mort Mort Feingold: Accountant For The Stars
The Other Man
Song Memories
I Got This!
Monologue
Hip Hop Kids
Larry King Live
Teen Talk


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gabourey Sidibe

Posted on

April 10, 2010 – Tina Fey / Justin Bieber (S35 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE CENSUS
Barack Obama (FRA) encourages USA to answer invasive census questions

— Some laughs from the inappropriate sexual-related census questions.
— At least all of these census questions are distracting somewhat from the usual drabness of Fred’s Obama and his typically-boring address-to-the-nation cold openings.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
support crew helps TIF juggle it all; Mark Sanchez & Steve Martin cameos

— Already a funny opening line from Tina Fey about how her second time hosting is a record….“a personal record”.
— When disclosing her least favorite questions that people often ask her, I half-expected one of the questions to be “How’d you get that scar?”, but I was incorrect. Maybe the scar thing is too sore a subject for Tina. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her joke about it.
— Meh, a musical monologue, but Tina seems like she’ll make this fun.
— As expected, it turns out there’s some good and fun typical Fey-esque silliness during the song.
— Two hosting stints in, and Tina is 2-for-2 in her monologues having a Steve Martin cameo.
— Our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on.
— Kenan In A Dress alert, for the third damn episode in a row.
STARS: ***


BROWNIE HUSBAND
Duncan Hines Brownie Husband fills women’s need for companionship & fudge

— Decent concept.
— Nice showcase for Tina, and it feels like a very rare novelty to see her starring in a solo, pre-taped commercial.
— I like how Tina’s really going all out in her engorging of her brownie husband towards the end of this commercial.
STARS: ***½


MASTERS
Tiger Woods’ mistress (TIF) provides expert commentary at The Masters

existence of chiding ad voice-over by Tiger Woods’ (KET) dad (BIH) is its basis

— Despite playing a cliched character that feels too been-there-done-that, Tina has some funny lines here, and she’s making the role work decently.
— I like Jason’s delivery of “Oh, god, no!” when Tina whispers the definition of “dog leg” to him.
— The Tiger Woods Nike commercial with Kenan is cracking me up.
— The fact that the aforementioned Tiger Woods Nike commercial is having Bill do a “black” voice as the voice-over of Tiger Woods’ deceased father makes it painfully obvious that Kenan’s the only black member of this season’s cast. At least they didn’t resort to having Fred do the “black” voice-over for Tiger’s father.
STARS: ***


SARAH PALIN NETWORK
line-up of shows reflects Sarah Palin’s (TIF) political views

— Our obligatory Sarah Palin sketch of the night. I like the concept of this particular Palin sketch.
— Tina spoofs the Katie Couric/Sarah Palin CBS interview for the second time, after the famous cold opening from the preceding season’s Anna Faris episode.
— The “Todd!” scene is absolutely great.
— Funny bit with Bobby’s Bob Ross-esque painter character painting a Hitler mustache onto a cloud.
— A laugh from the slam against The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
STARS: ***½


LONELY TEACHER
teacher (TIF) imagines pupil (musical guest) musically requites her crush

— Oh, no. After our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on in the monologue, we now get our obligatory Justin Bieber-starring sketch of the night.
— Another “Oh, no” from me, as Bieber is now breaking out into a fucking song. Oh, and, of course, we also have his cringey try-to-sound-cool-and-“black”-by-saying-stuff-like-“Aight” shtick.
— Multiple Bieber songs in this sketch? (*groan*)
— Seeing Tina have to perform this pandering mess of a sketch is sad. I feel embarrassed for her.
— The bored, miserable look on Bobby’s character’s face in the background (screencap below) perfectly matches my face during this whole sketch.

— I finally got a mild chuckle in this sketch, from Tina’s “I should NOT have put wine in my cereal this morning” line. Still not enough to make up for the dreadfulness of the rest of this sketch, though.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Baby”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Devil (JAS) takes moral stand against molestation by Catholic priests

Aunt Linda likes The Tooth Fairy much better than 3D movies full of CGI

Women’s News- TIF slags Bombshell McGee & bewails the ubiquity of whores

— The debut of Jason’s The Devil character.
— Jason portraying the devil in a very Jason Sudeikis-y manner is great.
— Pretty sensitive subject matter for this Devil commentary, focusing on the priest child molestation scandal, but Jason is making it work.
— I had completely forgotten about Aunt Linda until now. Her last appearance was quite a long while ago, which itself was her first appearance in quite a long while. These long gaps between these past two commentaries of hers are not long enough for my likes, given how I’m of the opinion that this character only worked in her first appearance. Thankfully, tonight’s appearance ends up being her final one.
— As expected, tonight’s Aunt Linda commentary contains her usual tired shtick, especially her groan-worthy corny-ass ratings system.
— Good to see the return of Tina’s recurring Women’s News segment from her Weekend Update years.
— Bombshell McGee? I have no memory of who that is, but Tina sure is focusing heavily on her here.
— Some of the usual solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News sketch. I especially like how it ends with her meta comment about her having her leg and pubic hair ripped out earlier today so she could wear a hooker costume for a sketch that ended up not even making it to air.
STARS: ***


AL ROKER’S RUFF, RUGGED AND ROKER
Al Roker’s (KET) nightclub party pauses for weather reports

— What we initially see in this sketch is an interesting change of pace for typical Kenan’s Al Roker portrayal.
— Blah. During the occasional weather reports, not only do we suddenly get the return of that Bullwinkle-esque hokey voice Kenan typically portrays Al Roker with (which I never liked), but the turns this sketch keeps taking with Kenan’s Roker alternating between acting hokey and whitebred when he’s on the Today Show camera, and coming off badass and urban when the Today camera turns off, is straight out of that memorable season 21 sketch with another Today Show personality, Bryant Gumbel, played by David Alan Grier. That Gumbel sketch was pulled off much better than this.
STARS: **


SCHOOL DANCE
(TIF) wishes her too-sensible daughter Bedelia (NAP) would act her age

— The debut of Nasim’s Bedelia character.
— A solid character piece for Nasim, and, much like with the Roomies sketch she did earlier this season with Taylor Swift, Nasim continues to prove herself to be adept at slice-of-life material.
— I got a good laugh from Bedelia’s inappropriate “So Grandpa’s startin’ to go, huh?” line to her mother.
— (*groan*) Our THIRD Justin Bieber sketch appearance tonight.
— The ending with Nasim and Bieber had a sweet feel, at least.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “U Smile”


TINY HOOKER
nine-inch-tall hooker (TIF) gives up on a trip to Paris to save orphanage

— Interesting concept, even if it feels a tad like a variation of both Cool Mite (a forgotten Andrew Dice Clay sketch) and Tiny Elvis.
— Yet another solid showcase for Tina tonight, and the writing of this sketch is certainly better than I found the writing in the aforementioned Cool Mite and Tiny Elvis sketches to be.
— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season in which Will feels sadly invisible, and in which the sight of him popping up in a sketch reminds me that, contrary to how it may seem, Will Forte is, in fact, a cast member this season.
— Jason’s delivery of “And don’t you ever COME BAAACK!” was hilarious.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, despite the overuse of Justin Bieber and one or two other misfires. Most of the episode had a good feel, even if there was nothing I found particularly stand-out great until the final sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Tiny Hooker
School Dance
Brownie Husband
Sarah Palin Network
Monologue
Masters
Weekend Update
The Census
Al Roker’s Ruff, Rugged And Roker
Lonely Teacher


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jude Law)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ryan Phillippe

Posted on

March 13, 2010 – Jude Law / Pearl Jam (S35 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MASSA EXIT INTERVIEW
Eric Massa’s (BOM) explanations of his untoward behavior don’t hold water

— A big technical gaffe literally at the very start of this cold opening, as the screen accidentally freezes while it was starting to fade into the opening shot of the U.S. Capitol Building (the first above screencap for this cold opening). Due to this gaffe, we have to stare at a boring, half-faded-in shot of the U.S. Capitol Building for A FULL MINUTE during Bill’s very long opening voice-over, which was supposed to be accompanied by an onscreen text crawl that states what Bill’s voice-over is saying. This gaffe would later be fixed in reruns.
— Something about Bill’s aforementioned opening voice-over is cracking me up, despite (or maybe because of) how long it’s going on.
— Funny snorkeling scene between Bobby and Andy.
— Solid performance from Bobby throughout this, and it feels nice and rare to see him front-and-center in a cold opening, given the fact that he’s a second-season featured player.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host gives an overview of what it was like to perform Hamlet on Broadway

— When talking about Ashlee Simpson infamously being the musical guest of his previous SNL episode, Jude Law blatantly lip-syncs the words “She…was…great!”, a cliched gag that SNL and other shows had been doing to better effect since way back in the Milli Vanilli days.
— Jude has a nice delivery here, but I’m finding this monologue itself to be really boring and a lot of nothingness, other than a few mildly funny asides from Jude.
STARS: *½


FORD
unlike the Toyota Prius, Ford’s hybrids won’t accelerate uncontrollably

— A hilarious turn the pleasant, tender tone of this commercial suddenly takes with the Toyota Prius accelerating at an insanely-fast speed while a panicky Abby and Kenan are inside. Some great reactions from Abby and Kenan here.
— Solid twist at the end with this whole commercial turning out to be Ford’s attempt to persuade us to try their hybrids instead.
— A good ending slow-motion exterior shot of Abby yelling out the car window.
STARS: ****


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & Russian ballet star (host) don’t have a clue

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— (*sigh*) Cue the already-tired running gag in these sketches with Kristen always immediately saying the secret word.
— Another thing I always hate about these Secret Word sketches is how they play to some of Kristen’s worst tendencies as a performer.
— An actual funny anecdote from a very deadpan Kenan about him once getting arrested for walking around a neighborhood where families live.
— After Kristen’s character says the name of a play she was in, I got a second rare laugh in this sketch, from Bill responding, with a friendly smile, “I saw that…and it was awful.”
STARS: *½


BROADVIEW SECURITY
Broadview Security protects against unlikely home invasions by nice guys

— Tonight’s second pre-taped fake ad ALREADY?
— Some funny over-the-top screaming faces from Nasim whenever somebody breaks into her house.
— An overall well-performed commercial, but I found the humor itself to be only decent.
STARS: ***


SPAIN
Spaniard (host) charms tourists (ABE) & (NAP) while vowing to murder them

— Pretty nice to not only see a showcase for featured players Abby and Nasim, but also in a realistic setting like this.
— A laugh from Jude’s random first reveal of “I will kill you” at the end of the romantic plans he discloses to Abby and Nasim.
— So far, while not bad, not much has been jumping out at me as particularly good in this sketch.
— Didn’t care much for the ending.
STARS: **½


BOOMBOX
(ANS) & Julian Casablancas [real] ply Pandora’s ghetto blaster

 

— The usual fun conceit of a Lonely Island music video.
— I love Andy’s overly intense delivery of “WHO’S GOT THE JUICE?!?”
— Pretty funny running gag with the boiled goose, especially the increasingly exaggerated ways Andy says “boiled goose”.
— The visuals of old people getting freaky with each other are almost more disturbing than funny, though I’m still laughing.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just Breathe”


WEEKEND UPDATE
defensive Poise Pads spokeswoman Whoopi Goldberg (KET) is epistemological

incredulous SEM & Jerry Seinfeld [real] say “Really!?!” about Eric Massa

— Kenan In A Dress alert…FOR THE SECOND DAMN WEEKEND UPDATE IN A ROW. Jesus Christ, SNL.
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kenan do his Whoopi Goldberg shtick outside of the View sketches.
— I’m at least finding this commentary to be a little funnier than Kenan’s Mo’Nique commentary in the preceding episode’s Update. Kenan’s Whoopi usually always manages to get some laughs from me.
— For the first time ever, Seth is joined in a “Really?!?” segment by a non-Amy-Poehler special guest, tonight’s guest being a very random Jerry Seinfeld.
— I’m finding this to be easily the funniest edition of “Really?!?” in quite a long while. Lots of hilarious one-liners from Seth and Jerry here about the Eric Massa scandal. Jerry is fitting well into the “Really?!?” format, which kinda makes me wish he did more of these.
STARS: ***½


TWILIGHT ZONE
at 20,000 feet, gremlin (BOM) is more than a nightmare

— I like seeing Bill do a Rod Serling impression, because, as I always say, Bill is such a natural in SNL’s black-and-white period pieces. That being said, I’ve seen better Rod Serling impressions.
— A very funny visual of Bobby as the gremlin from the legendary gremlin-on-the-wing Twilight Zone episode.
— Great detail of the gremlin wearing a “Kiss Me I’m Real” apron while cooking on a grill.
— Lots of funny increasingly-extensive, out-of-place actions that the gremlin is doing on the wing.
— I love that intimidating pose the gremlin strikes at the end of every scene.
— Classic turn with Pearl Jam randomly accompanying the gremlin on the wing and joining in on his aforementioned intimidating pose at the end of the scene.
— Towards the end, when the camera is panning over to Bill’s Rod Serling sitting in a passenger seat in the plane, you can hear the mic’ed off-camera voice of who appears to be Bobby groaning what sounds like “Ohh! What is–”, then it sounds like he cuts himself off when seemingly realizing he’s not supposed to be speaking right now. What was THAT all about???
STARS: ****½


HAMLET AUDITION
Nathan Lane (BOM) & Al Pacino (BIH) join host at audition for Hamlet role

— I always enjoy Bobby’s Nathan Lane impression.
— Ha, then-writers and future cast members Colin Jost and Mike O’Brien are sitting next to each other in the background (as seen in the fourth above screencap for this sketch). I feel like this is the most visible that Colin Jost has been in a live sketch up to this point of SNL’s run, even though he made a few other live sketch appearances prior to this. Or maybe his appearance in this particular sketch just feels jarring to me because he looks like his modern-day self in it, especially since he’s sporting the coiffed hairstyle that would later become his trademark look in his Weekend Update years. (He had very different hairstyles in his live sketch appearances prior to this Jude Law episode, including a long hairstyle at one point.)
— Great to see Bill’s Al Pacino impression back after a very long absence. (I think the last time Bill did this impression prior to this was way back in the premiere of season 32, when Bill was only in his second season on SNL.)
— The usual very fun performance from Bill as Pacino.
— This feels like the first time we’re seeing Jason all night, though he previously appeared in a very small role in the cold opening earlier tonight. Still, a very light night for him.
— Funny Sam Elliott performance from Jason. “The butt abides.”
STARS: ***½


KICKSPIT UNDERGROUND ROCK FESTIVAL
— Rerun from 12/5/09. A rather odd choice to rerun, given the fact that 1) this doesn’t follow the format of a typical SNL commercial, and 2) this is much longer than a typical SNL commercial. Is SNL trying to kill time or something? We’re not even at the end of the episode, though.
— This rerun choice also comes off odd in retrospect because SNL would later do several new Kickspit Underground Rock Festival pre-taped commercials (and even a live sketch at one point, which is coming up in just a few episodes from now).


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Unthought Known”


COURT STENOGRAPHER
Elinda Nade gets jewelry caught in her typewriter & loses her Chapstick

— OHHHH (insert an insanely long string of furious expletives here).
— I pointed out how ridiculously underused Jason has been in tonight’s episode, but geez, that’s NOTHING compared to poor Will Forte. His ONLY appearances in tonight’s episode, including this sketch, have literally been just bit roles. You know, the type of bit roles usually reserved for featured players, not freakin’ EIGHT-YEAR VETERANS like Will. (Hell, the actual featured players in this season’s cast, minus Jenny, have been getting plenty of big roles in this episode.) This is probably the nadir of SNL’s sad under-utilization of Will this season. When this episode originally aired, I remember saying to myself, in a sullen manner, “Yep, it’s official: this is definitely going to be Will’s final season. The writing is clearly on the wall.”
— Not even Will playing a creepy murderer in this awful Stenographer sketch could get a laugh out of me, and Will usually kills (pun not intended) in roles like that.
— I see Fred’s endlessly-delivered “I can’t find my crackers” catchphrase from the first installment of this sketch has been altered tonight into “I can’t find my chapstick.” It makes no damn difference, because it’s equally insufferable and suicide-inducing.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember this sketch was the point where I officially had to come to terms with the fact that Fred had become a bad cast member (as seen here in my original 2010 review of this Stenographer sketch, though you’ll notice that I still criticized Fred with kid gloves in that sketch review, by generously calling his typical season 35 work “insanely hit-or-miss” instead of “terrible” like I truly felt at the time), which was fucking painful for me to admit back then, because I had been a huge fan of Fred in his previous seasons. During those years (seasons 28-34), he was one of my absolute favorite then-current cast members, and he could do almost no wrong in my eyes. I felt he was a consistently funny, creative, and brilliant performer. Souring on him was NOT easy for me back when this season (season 35) originally aired. I hope you readers remember that when you see me shitting all over Fred in my current reviews of this season as well as the next few seasons. I’m not hating his performances just for the sake of hating them, or because he’s been on the show “too long” (the latter of which a Fred Armisen defender/SNL reviewer once wrongfully accused me of disliking Fred for back in 2011), or because hating his performances is the “popular” thing to do among some hardcore online SNL fans. The fact that a former diehard Fred Armisen fan like me can (hesitantly) sour on him so harshly shows you how REALLY fucking bad he’s gotten in these later seasons of his.
STARS: *


TALK SHOW WITH RAVISH
exacting Indian dad (FRA) pushes son Ravish (NAP) into a talk show career

— At the very beginning of this sketch, the wall on the left end of the screen can be seen wobbling VERY unstably. This is because, even after SNL returned from the preceding commercial break, SNL’s stagehands still hadn’t finished assembling the final wall for this sketch, so that wobbling you see the wall doing early in this sketch is the unseen SNL stagehands still trying to get the wall properly in place. About a year later, NBC would air, I believe, an SNL Backstage special (which used previously-unaired interview footage of SNL cast members, writers, etc. originally filmed for the Kenneth Bowser-made SNL documentaries each covering a different decade of the show), and at one point when they focus on how frantic and last-minute some things during live SNL airings are, they use a behind-the-scenes clip of SNL stagehands being late in their efforts to assemble the final wall for this Talk Show With Ravish sketch as an example.
— I believe this is our first of MANY displays of Nasim’s affinity for playing young boys.
— Nasim has been getting lots of airtime tonight for a first-season featured player.
— I like the casting of Jenny as the sole member of Nasim’s house band, as it pairs this season’s two new cast members together.
— Funny “Jay Leno Walking With Ravish” segment title.
— Hmm, Bobby playing a drunken uncle. In retrospect, this could be taken as a bit of a precursor to a certain famous Weekend Update recurring character Bobby would play later in his SNL tenure.
— Despite my well-documented dislike for the lazy and overused talk show format, Nasim is pulling this sketch off decently enough, and I’m finding her likable here. It’s probably for the best, though, that this sketch ends up never becoming recurring.
— I like how Nasim’s Ravish character is making Jude uncomfortable by bringing up unfortunate things from his career.
— Am I crazy, or does that sound like former cast member Maya Rudolph doing the closing voice-over?
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, though blandly so (and blandness is sadly par for the course this season). The first half of the episode was a little shaky, but things got a little more consistent in the second half, minus that unwatchable Court Stenographer sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Twilight Zone
Ford
Boombox
Hamlet Audition
Weekend Update
Massa Exit Interview
Broadview Security
Talk Show with Ravish
Spain
Monologue
Secret Word
Court Stenographer


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Zach Galifianakis)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tina Fey / Justin Bieber

Posted on

March 6, 2010 – Zach Galifianakis / Vampire Weekend (S35 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HEALTH CARE REFORM
Barack Obama (FRA) thinks Harry Reid’s (WLF) Senate seat is in jeopardy

— Out of the following two things, I don’t know what I’m more tired of seeing in a cold opening in this SNL era: a Jim Downey-voiced C-SPAN intro, or a Fredbama address to the nation. Here, we get BOTH.
— Yeesh, Will screwed up one of his ONLY lines in this long, laughless, insufferable cold opening.
— Will-as-Harry-Reid’s little head nod when Fred’s Obama says maybe they could do without him is the closest to a smirk I’ve gotten in this cold opening so far, and that’s still not saying much.
— Overall, what a horrible way to start an episode.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & does stand-up on various topics

— In true Zach Galifianakis fashion, he even manages to make his monologue entrance funny, by patting the SNL Band’s bass player on the butt when passing by him.
— Even Zach’s opening statements are great: yelling an angry “Stop clapping!”, and saying “It’s great to be back hosting Saturday Night Live” before being told by someone off-screen that he’s never hosted before.
— A hilarious “Oh, you’re out of that one?” sequence, with Zach telling us the many looks he asked the SNL stylist to give him for this monologue (e.g. “Oh, just give me the lighthouse attendant”, “Just give me Vice President of Ultimate Frisbee”, “Just give me Wolf Blitzer at Burning Man”).
— Every single line from Zach is absolutely slaying in this.
— Great detail with Zach calling the Canadian version of Miles Davis “Kilometers Davis”.
— Zach: “I like dark comedies. That’s why I like the Wayans Brothers.”
— The piano-playing that Zach’s now doing is a great accompaniment to his jokes.
— The “spouting off random one-liners” format of this monologue is my personal favorite style of stand-up comedy, as I’ve said in some of my earlier episode reviews, such as when I covered Steven Wright’s various stand-up guest spots in the 80s, and when I covered George Carlin’s various stand-up segments in the very first SNL episode.
— Even the “We got a great show for you tonight” sign-off of this monologue is killer, with Zach’s random “Hoobastank is here!” announcement.
STARS: *****


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
at a funeral, the Vogelchecks grieve by kissing family members & mourners

— (*grooooooaaaaaaaannnnnnnn*)
— At least they changed the setting of this recurring sketch, not that that’ll magically make this recurring sketch funny all of a sudden.
— Two-and-a-half minutes into this unbearable sketch, and I’m wondering to myself, where the fuck is Zach Galifianakis? Then again, maybe I should be happy to not see him get mixed up in this unfunny Vogelchecks mess.
— What was with the really awkward stalling and out-of-character mild giggling from Bill and Fred right before Zach appeared? Did somebody forget their line?
— Aaaaaaand there’s Zach, and, of course, he’s unfortunately getting mixed up in in this everybody-kissing-each-other mess. Yeah, I’m starting to think it would’ve been better if Zach sat this sketch out. I do at least kinda like the detail of his character being named Father Yankovich.
— Assuming Will is playing the same Grandpa Vogelcheck he played in the James Franco installment of this sketch earlier this season, where’s Grandma Vogelcheck, played by Nasim in that Franco installment? Wouldn’t she attend her own husband’s funeral? Or are we supposed to assume she died off-camera sometime between the Franco installment and tonight’s installment? Geez, both Grandma AND Grandpa Vogelcheck dying within just three months after the previous installment of this sketch? Must’ve been all that spit-swappin’ with James Franco that killed them.
STARS: * (This may be the first time in my SNL project that a segment I gave a perfect five-star rating to [the monologue] was sandwiched between two segments I gave a lowest-of-low one-star rating to [the cold opening and this sketch].)


BIDET
all of hotel guests’ (host) & (KRW) questions are related to the bidet

— I recall hearing this got cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s Will Ferrell episode.
— A simplistic sketch, but Kristen and Zach’s overly specific questions about the bidet are funny.
— I like Andy’s unfazed reactions to all the odd bidet questions he’s being bombarded with.
— I love Zach’s question of if there would be a gap “bidet-wise” between the hotel and the hospital in the event that either he or Kristen suffer a bidet-related injury.
STARS: ***½


ZACH DROPS BY THE SET
host has been crashing video shoots for years

— Ooh, just from the opening title sequence, you can already tell this is going to be a blast.
— Priceless background sighting of Zach behind Brian Williams in the first scene.
— Such a great use of Zach and his comedic style.
— I love how they’re even doing a 30 Rock scene, which is giving this short even more of a special feel.
— Lots of SNL cameos from Jack McBrayer these past two seasons.
— When this originally aired, my local NBC affiliate in New York accidentally cut to a blank screen for several seconds right when the camera was panning over to Zach at the children’s birthday party. Then when the screen came back on, the sound wasn’t working until the Law & Order scene began. I recall later finding out that the reason for this gaffe was because of some kind of HD switchover by the network at midnight, but I can’t remember the specifics.
— Oh, hell yeah! Now this is getting meta, by cutting to a Robin Williams monologue from a 1984 Dick Ebersol-era SNL episode! As an SNL nerd, words cannot express how much I love this meta-ness, as well as this shoutout to such a neglected SNL era.
— Perfect ending with a bearded kiddie Zach Galifianakis in the 1984 SNL audience.
STARS: ****½


TODAY
wine-addicted Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW) helps host drop by the set

— This would end up being Jenny’s final time playing Hoda Kotb before suffering the same fate of SNL’s previous short-lived Hoda Kotb impersonator, Michaela Watkins, by getting fired after this season, sparking a famous theory among online SNL fans that the Hoda Kotb role on SNL is cursed. Nasim would end up breaking this curse, as she takes over the Hoda role in the next Today sketch, which (surprisingly) isn’t until two seasons later. Then again, that ends up being the final Today sketch, so maybe that’s why Nasim doesn’t suffer “the curse” after playing Hoda in it.
— I’m getting my usual mild laughs from Kristen’s Kathie Lee shtick, ever since I’ve surprisingly developed some goodwill towards it starting with the preceding season’s Zac Efron episode, after absolutely HATING Kristen’s Kathie Lee shtick prior to that. (Maybe the change of heart I’ve had towards Kristen’s Kathie Lee is a case of Stockholm Syndrome.)
— As usual, Jenny’s not doing it for me in this Hoda role compared to how masterfully Michaela Watkins played such a thankless role.
— Ha, we suddenly get a continuation of the Zach Drops By The Set gag, with a creepily-smiling Zach appearing in the background! I absolutely LOVE this rare case of sketches overlapping. And just three episodes after a brilliant case of sketches overlapping (Closet Organizer).
— This sketch, which was only mildly funny and rather forgettable before Zach’s part, has taken such a good turn, and I love Zach being brought into the Today studio after declaring his unsettling love for his “Egyptian goddess” Hoda Kotb. Even Jenny’s Hoda performance is now working for me in this portion of the sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cousins”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mo’Nique (KET) won’t limit her Oscar acceptance speech to 45 seconds

WLF is mad high schools won’t buy his sketchy song about women’s history

— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— Ugh, in true Kenan In A Dress fashion, he’s not even attempting to imitate Mo’Nique’s distinct voice, instead just doing a generic “confident black woman” voice that sounds nothing like Mo’Nique’s voice. He also, at one point, for whatever reason, slipped into his Googie Rene character by throwing in a “Sheeyeah!” utterance.
— A traditional Will Forte Update song! And, sadly, it’s the last one we’ll ever see during Will’s tenure as a cast member.
— As expected, Will’s fast-paced Herstory song is fantastic. I especially got a big laugh from the lyric “Helen Keller said ‘Waaauuugh’”.
— Seth has some really solid jokes tonight.
— The “(insert crazy action here) is the (insert state here) state flag” punchline has become a recurring joke these past two Updates.
— I recall hearing that a David Paterson commentary got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. If that’s true, THANK GOD. I like Fred’s Paterson more than most people seem to, but Jesus Christ, why the fuck is SNL going so heavy on it in the second half of this season? Hell, Fred’s Paterson just did an Update commentary in the preceding episode. Were they seriously going to have a Paterson commentary on Update TWO WEEKS IN A ROW?!? That’s insane. To those of you who don’t like Fred’s Paterson, you dodged a bullet with tonight’s Paterson commentary getting cut.
STARS: ***½


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Paul Rudd & Frank Rich [real] don’t get to say much

— This would end up being Will’s final time playing the announcer of these sketches, which serves as another reminder in this review that the end of Will’s SNL tenure is near.
— As usual, this sketch is very formulaic but a blast.
— A freakin’ hilarious walk-on from Zach as a flute player.
— I’m enjoying the escalation each passing What Up With That sketch is making to the running gag with Kenan trying to get a smile out of Bill’s Lindsey Buckingham, who’s unhappy due to getting bumped once again.
STARS: ****


THE SITUATION ROOM
unvetted viewer-submitted content is unjournalistic

— Feels odd seeing a Situation Room sketch appearing so late in an episode.
— A very funny obscene photo of then-writer Mike O’Brien (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— Geez, another sketch tonight in which Zach has yet to be seen when we’re halfway through the sketch.
— Some decent laughs from the juvenile messages submitted to the show.
— Finally, there’s Zach. His appearance is funny, of course, but I’m starting to be bothered by how it seems like, after the Bidet sketch ended, SNL has only been using Zach in non-speaking walk-on roles.
— Pretty funny voice from Nasim as Christiane Amanpour.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Giving Up The Gun”


PAGEANT TALK
contestant (JES) has been coached by her queer dad (host)

— Ha, we suddenly get a beardless Zach! He shaved off his beard after introducing the Vampire Weekend musical performance that preceded this sketch. After this episode’s original airing, NBC.com (I think) would put up a backstage video of Zach shaving his beard behind the scenes during Vampire Weekend’s performance.
— After my complaint about Zach being relegated to nothing but silent walk-on roles in a long string of segments that preceded this, it feels good to see Zach not only in an actual speaking role, but actually front-and-center as the lead in this sketch.
— I got a laugh from the random detail of Kristen having a baggie of Cheetos in her hand during her entrance.
— The lispy gay stereotypes here feel way too typical of this SNL era (I don’t need to ask which writer penned this sketch), but the performances are at least fun (including one of Jenny’s better performances in her short-lived SNL tenure) and are elevating the material.
— I see Kristen’s apparently playing a variation of her cigarette-smoking, ashtray-throwing character from the notorious Biker Chick Chat sketch from this season’s premiere.
— Zach’s over-the-top delivery of “If I see one more updo pouf, I’m gonna have to jack myself down in a hot shower!” was hilarious.
— A rare-feeling instance of Zach breaking, as he helplessly cracks up after one of (several) line flubs he makes in this sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— Amusingly, Zach’s clearly wearing a fake beard for these goodnights.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Certainly better than I had remembered it (I feel like I’m saying that quite a lot this season). When this episode originally aired, the “poor” quality of most of the material and the aforementioned fact that Zach Galifianakis was relegated to too many non-speaking walk-on roles made many online SNL fans (including myself) consider this episode to be a HUGE letdown for a Zach Galifianakis episode, after how highly we were anticipating his hosting stint. The perceived disappointment of this episode even led to some of the staunchest season 35 defenders having an epiphany and realizing “All of the complainers are right: this season does suck.” I’ve recently come to realize in my coverage of this season in my SNL project that this season isn’t quite as bad as I and others made it out to be back when it originally aired. It’s more bland than outright bad. Aside from January Jones and Taylor Lautner, there haven’t been any episodes that I felt were awful (and even the January Jones episode was a little less dreadful than I had remembered). “Mediocre” or “Meh” is how I would describe the other episodes I didn’t like from this season so far. (Then again, we haven’t gotten to the Gabourey Sidibe episode yet, which I remember being very poorly received among SNL fans back in 2010.) Speaking of which, in my original 2010 review of this Zach Galifianakis episode, I was so disappointed in the outcome of this episode that I went into a HUGE rant about the poor quality of this season (seen here, in the “Final Thoughts” portion towards the end of the review). Looking back on that rant, some of what I said about this season doesn’t hold up well, now that I find this season more bland than outright bad. The blandness of this season, while certainly still a problem, doesn’t warrant such an angry, long rant like the one I gave in the link above. I was also dead wrong in my prediction in that rant that the following season (season 36) would be the next 1994-95 in terms of being a disastrous, notorious season.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Zach Drops By The Set
What Up With That?
Bidet
Today
Weekend Update
The Situation Room
Pageant Talk
Health Care Reform
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Lopez)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jude Law

Posted on

February 27, 2010 – Jennifer Lopez (S35 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WE ARE THE WORLD 3
“We Are The World 3” is sung to atone for disastrous “We Are The World 2”

— A laugh from Kenan’s Quincy Jones calling the then-recent We Are The World 2 a disaster that included “half-famous randos”.
— I like how this feels like a then-modern version of SNL’s famous We Are The World-esque sketches from the early 90s.
— Much like a gripe I had with the We Are The World-esque Set Our Nanny Free sketch SNL did in a Jon Lovitz-hosted episode from the late 90s, I’m not too crazy about how they’re displaying each singer’s name onscreen in this sketch. It was more fun when you had to guess which singer each cast member was playing in the We Are The World-esque sketches from the early 90s.
— Very energetic performance from Abby as Melissa Etheridge.
— Funny insane facial expressions from Bobby’s David Crosby.
— Interesting seeing the host getting involved in one of these.
— The audience seems pretty dead during this, especially compared to past We Are The World-esque sketches. And also unlike past We Are The World-esque sketches, this sketch isn’t memorable at all, despite a few fun impressions and a few amusing lyrics about the questionable aspects of We Are The World 2.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host’s entourage & fans wish she hadn’t changed over the past decade

— Jennifer Lopez seemed to expect that “Now I’m married…” line of hers to get applause, which it initially didn’t until after a few seconds where the audience hesitantly applauded. I recall seeing comments about her also having an awkward moment like this in her most recent monologue from season 45, in which she said something about being blessed, and the audience gave very hesitant applause after initial silence. I haven’t seen that for myself yet, because, as I’ve said in some previous reviews, I’ve been on a still-ongoing hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018.
— Good delivery from a bitter Kenan.
— Feels very rare to see Bill and (especially) Jason in drag. I want to say this is the only time Jason ever dressed in drag on SNL, but I get the nagging feeling it’s not and I’m probably just forgetting something.
— Jason’s delivery of “And I’m J.Blo” cracked me up.
STARS: **½


GYNE-LOTRIMIN LADIES WORLD CUP OF CURLING 1987
Pete Twinkle & Greg Stink cover 1987 ladies’ curling competition

— Wow, is SNL just throwing this sketch on every two episodes at this point? It sure feels like it. Luckily, I’ve been loving all of the installments of this sketch that have aired up to this point, but I can’t help but take this, as well as certain other recurring sketches this season, as a sign of how desperate this season’s writing has become in terms of creativity.
— Feels odd seeing Jason playing this ESPN Classic character of his with eyeliner this time, but he obviously only has that eyeliner on because he used it when playing Adam Lambert in the cold opening and a drag queen in the monologue, and didn’t have enough time to remove it for this sketch.
— You can tell Jason is genuinely unsure of how to pronounce “vaginal”, which he then makes a great ad-lib about.
— The Jason/Will portions of this sketch never fail to slay me.
— Jason: “From Bo Derek to Susan Lucci, it’s the brand the stars use to clean their coochie……..Gyne-Lotrimin Vaginal Cream!”
— Jason: “When ya hop up from the futon, and all you’re left is a wet crouton………………….Gyne-Lotrimin Vaginal Cream!”
STARS: ****


FLAGS OF THE WORLD
emblematic cloths range from legitimate to punny

— Oddly, a subtitle stating “I like to hit people with my car!”, reserved for the live sketch that follows this, is accidentally displayed at the beginning of this Digital Short (as seen in the first above screencap for this short).
— Tons of gags are being thrown at us per minute in this short. I love it.
— In addition to the very fun and gag-filled fast pacing of this, the music is very catchy.
— Hard to pick out my favorite flag gags, due to how frequent and fast-paced the gags are.
STARS: ****


HOLLYWOOD DISH
misleading editing further twists host’s Hollywood Dish interview fakery

— Meh, like the first installment of this sketch from earlier this season, I don’t care for how this sketch seems to just be an excuse to do constant cutaways to Kristen and Bill making various goofy facial expressions. It feels like this SNL era relies too heavily on that type of humor in general.
— Jennifer’s insanely-delivered Spanish spiel that Bill and Kristen forced her to do cracked me up.
STARS: **


VANCOUVER 2010
Telemundo anchors (FRA) & (host) find the Winter Olympics cold & awful

— I like Fred and Jennifer questioning the usefulness of Winter Olympics.
— Boy, that is an awful Hispanic accent Jenny is attempting.
— Good part with Fred and Jennifer freaking out over the “unfinished” ramp in the ski-jumping clip.
— Solid performance from Bill, depressed over the “shuffleboard” floor being frozen with ice.
— There’s Bobby in his usual funny walk-on.
— Despite all of the aforementioned high points, I’m slightly meh on this sketch as a whole. Not even sure why.
STARS: **½


UNDERCOVER CELEBRITY BOSS
executives’ fame undermines concept of series

— This started out well with the Steve Jobs scene, but the subsequent scenes aren’t quite as strong for me, despite Bill’s fun impression of Richard Branson.
— Kristen playing Martha Stewart??? Whaaaaaaa??? Why didn’t I remember this until now? I thought I had remembered ALL of SNL’s many Martha Stewart impersonators from over the years.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Until It Beats No More”


WEEKEND UPDATE
YouTube video pushed by new media correspondent BOM won’t stop buffering

besieged lame duck David Paterson (FRA) doesn’t attenuate his invective

— It feels very interesting and rare at this point of SNL’s run to see a cast member do an Update commentary as themselves.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2010 complaining that the “buffering” gag throughout Bobby’s commentary seemed very outdated by this point and felt more like something that would’ve been timely 10 years earlier. I can see their point, but Bobby’s at least coming off as his usual likable and fun self here.
— Ha, I love the callback/payoff to Bobby’s commentary, a minute after it ended, with him suddenly interrupting a joke of Seth’s to show him the video, only for it to IMMEDIATELY buffer on him once again.
— Even though I’m seemingly in the minority in actually liking Fred’s David Paterson, even *I* have to take issue with him appearing tonight, because, come on, they just did a David Paterson Update commentary a few episodes ago. It’s way too soon to do another one.
— I do at least like how they’re shaking things up with Fred-as-Paterson’s entrance, with him now doing a failed surprise attack on Seth.
— I actually got a big laugh from Fred-as-Paterson’s “…or whatever abandoned shoneys they huddle in” remark.
— Boy, Seth is audibly laughing up a storm off-camera throughout the Paterson commentary. He’s developed a really bad habit of doing that lately whenever an Update guest is giving a commentary.
STARS: ***


BESOS Y LAGRIMAS
Carlos’ (FRA) emotions run hot for nun Josephina (host)

— The hell? They’re digging this sketch back up after a FOUR-YEAR ABSENCE??? Not to mention how even the last time this sketch appeared prior to tonight (when Antonio Banderas hosted) was its first appearance since its debut two seasons prior. So lazy of SNL to pull this sketch out of the mothballs just because we have a Hispanic host. Probably yet another sign of how dry on creativity this season’s writing has become.
— Another excuse for a Kristen Wiig mugfest tonight, I see. Wasn’t that Hollywood Dish sketch enough? Kristen is noticeably mugging even hammier than the other performers in this sketch, and, of course, the audience is eating her mugging all up.
— Boy, even with the long absence of this sketch, I’ve gotten sick of its format. I’m also seeing more and more of a precursor to The Californians in this sketch’s format, which I definitely don’t consider to be a positive thing, as The Californians is pure comedy cancer to me, and completes the trifecta of what are probably my top three most hated recurring pieces from this SNL era: The Vogelchecks, Garth & Kat, and The Californians….and it’s no surprise that all three of those recurring pieces co-star Fred and Kristen.
STARS: *½


ETERNAL SPARK OF LOVE
office romance involving puppeteer (host) resists soulful commentary

— The second and final appearance of this sketch. Not sure this will work in a second installment.
— Like last time, Kenan is killing in this.
— I love Kenan being wheeled out of the scene when he’s still in the middle of rambling about the oddness of Jennifer having a house filled with 50 ventriloquist puppets.
— I like a speechless, puzzled Kenan being wheeled right through the shot after Jennifer’s display of ventriloquism, only to say “Wait, wait, wait, I got something”, then, when wheeled back into the shot, says “Nah, I got nothin’.”
— Wasn’t necessary to repeat the gag from the first installment where Kenan falls off the moving platform, then angrily calls out “Jimmy”, the crew member responsible.
— Hmm, an unexpected ending with a horny Kenan implying there’s a romantic same-sex spark between Jennifer and Nasim.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Starting Over”


SMASH MOUTH
girl (NAP) fears bedroom closet monster Smash Mouth (BOM), (BIH), (FRA)

— A brilliant premise.
— Great line from Nasim about how she doesn’t want to sing a sample of Smash Mouth’s song because it’ll get stuck in Jennifer’s head.
— Nasim: “Mom, they’re right there! I can see their soul patches!”
— When Nasim starts singing the famous “someBODY once told…” lyric to Jason, who thinks he’s not familiar with Smash Mouth’s music, I love Jason IMMEDIATELY putting a stop to that by saying “Okay, okay, I got it.”
— Excellent gag with Smash Mouth crashing through the wall behind Nasim.
— A very solid big speech Jennifer gives to Nasim towards the end about why she shouldn’t be scared of Smash Mouth.
— When this originally aired, I think I was of the opinion that this otherwise-great sketch ended on a weak and corny note with all the characters singing Smash Mouth’s “All Star” together, but I’m more onboard with that ending nowadays.
STARS: *****


CAR HORNS AND MORE
Tina Tina Chanuse’s Car Horns & More has custom verbal vehicle warnings

— I could do without the return of this character of Jenny’s, given how I wasn’t crazy about it the first time.
— Much like in the first installment of this sketch, Bobby’s sarcastic delivery of “PFFFFT! Nice car horn!” is somehow the funniest part of the entire sketch to me.
— Part of the reason these sketches don’t work for me is because it gets tiring hearing all of those comedic doorbell/car horn voice-overs back to back, and I’d find them funnier as an isolated, individual gag rather than hearing all of them one after another. That being said, I’m not finding the car horn voice-overs in tonight’s installment quite as tiring as the doorbell ones from the first installment.
— Jenny and Jennifer make a decent duo here. I recall hearing Jennifer would later do a sketch kinda like this with current cast member Melissa Villasenor in the aforementioned season 45 J.Lo-hosted episode that I haven’t seen yet.
STARS: **½


CLOSET ORGANIZER
— Rerun from 1/30/10.
— Aww, Jon Hamm’s testimonial, one of the absolute funniest parts of this already-fantastic commercial, has been removed in this rerun. I can see why, given the fact that Jon Hamm isn’t hosting tonight’s episode, but they should’ve left his testimonial in anyway. After all, the season 33 Christopher Walken episode re-aired that Tina Fey-co-starring Annuale ad in full, from the episode Tina hosted earlier that season.


GOODNIGHTS

— At one point early in her goodnights speech, Jennifer thanks Darrell Hammond. Uh, did I blink and miss another season 35 Darrell Hammond cameo earlier tonight, or is my memory just bad? I don’t recall seeing Darrell AT ALL in this episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly meh episode as a whole, despite a few strong highlights. It’s hard for me to get excited about Jennifer Lopez-hosted episodes, and the forgettable quality of both her season 26 episode and this season 35 episode of hers backs up that lack of excitement from me. It remains to be seen how I’ll react to her aforementioned season 45 episode, though I think I recall hearing not-so-great things about it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Smash Mouth
Flags Of The World
Gyne-Lotrimin Ladies World Cup Of Curling 1987
Eternal Spark of Love
Weekend Update
Vancouver 2010
Car Horns And More
We Are The World 3
Monologue
Undercover Celebrity Boss
Hollywood Dish
Besos Y Lagrimas


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ashton Kutcher)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Zach Galifianakis makes his hosting debut

Posted on

February 6, 2010 – Ashton Kutcher / Them Crooked Vultures (S35 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ON THE RECORD W/ GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Fox News pundits don’t want Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to end

— I see they’re repeating the EXACT SAME joke from the first installment of this sketch where Fred played a panelist who kept getting ignored and cut off, only Bill is now the one playing the constantly-ignored-and-cut-off panelist. A very lazy choice to repeat that in tonight’s installment.
— Abby’s Attractive Blonde Lady character and her irrelevant points are a good spoof of Fox News’ reputation for hiring certain blonde women as on-air personalities just for eye candy.
— Like last time, I’m enjoying Jason’s Glenn Beck segment, even if I felt this one ended too abruptly.
— They even repeat the joke with Kristen’s Greta Van Susteren switching from talking out of one corner mouth to the other.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host struggles to remain mature upon seeing a bunch of awesome things

— I like how we’re shown a clip of Ashton Kutcher’s unique monologue entrance from his season 28 hosting stint.
— A decent conceit with Ashton forcing himself to refrain from having an excited reaction when seeing fun, crazy things happening in the studio.
— The whole Stormtrooper/Superman/Mark Twain bit towards the end is solid.
STARS: ***½


GERTRUDE’S WILL
gold-digging pool boy (host) got only venereal disease from an old lady

— The visual of Bobby in that wig and glasses in the initial cutaway to him is making me laugh.
— I got a cheap laugh from Bill’s line about the old lady “dying doing what she loved best: receiving oral sex from you.”
— Funny reveal to Ashton that the old lady had chlamydia.
— I got a big laugh from Ashton explaining he didn’t use protection when having sex with the old lady because “she was 110! What was she gonna do, give birth to a ghost?!?”
— Another funny line from Bill, about how the old lady gave Ashton STDs so old, they have racist names.
STARS: ***½


THE VIEW
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Oscars, Mel Gibson (host) are mooted

— There goes those trademark unfunny formulaic rants from Kristen’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
— I liked Kenan-as-Whoopi’s line, regarding Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: “Personally, I don’t have to ask or tell. I just know.”
— Okay, I did get a laugh from Kristen-as-Hasselback’s random “If we don’t get an education…the Chinese win” line.
— Fairly funny story from Nasim’s Barbara Walters about seeing the movie Precious and mistaking it for Avatar.
— What…the…HOLY…FUCK is Ashton going for in his Mel Gibson impression?!? What’s with the gravelly, cracking voice? What is he doing?!?
STARS: **½


CIALIS FOR THREEWAYS
Cialis For Threeways sees to functional & emotional menage a trois needs

— An okay premise.
— Some good lines from the announcer during the various scenes we’re shown.
STARS: ***


SLAVE BOY
in ancient Rome, grape-feeding slave boy (host) preoccupies emperor (WLF)

— Will’s characterization and voice is hilarious.
— A few minutes into this, and Will’s aforementioned characterization and voice are the ONLY things this sketch has going for it. The material itself is doing absolutely nothing for me.
— Ashton’s “grape attack” was kinda funny.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mind Eraser, No Chaser”


WEEKEND UPDATE
just-awakened teen Liam (ANS) talks about dream instead of federal budget

Eliot Spitzer (BIH) presents greeting cards aimed at troubled marriages

Europe’s financial crisis fuels Jean K. Jean’s stand-up comedy material

Garth & Kat clumsily improvise tracks from their Valentine’s Day album

— The comically brief remembrance of the Democratic supermajority’s accomplishments seems like a precursor to a recurring gag from the modern-day Colin Jost/Michael Che era of Update.
— Whether intentional or not (probably not), Andy’s Liam The Teenager Who Just Woke Up character is a little reminiscent of an obscure one-off Update character Adam Sandler once played called Sleepyhead.
— Andy’s commentary is over already? Boy, that commentary sure was dumb, and not the kind of dumb that Andy is usually good at pulling off. (Then again, I didn’t care for Adam Sandler’s aforementioned Sleepyhead bit either, and, much like Andy, Adam was usually good at pulling off dumb humor.)
— Bill’s Eliot Spitzer impression always cracks me up.
— Speaking of cracking up, halfway through this Spitzer commentary, both Bill and Seth have begun giggling their way through it, continuing Bill’s transition from a Hartman/Aykroyd-level stone-faced performer in his earlier seasons to an almost Fallon/Sanz-level easily-breakable performer in his later seasons.
— The “Swallowzer” card Bill’s Spitzer shows at the end of his commentary made me laugh.
— Very funny line from Kenan’s Jean K. Jean about being so poor that, in place of a bidet, he has to use a squirt gun full of Avian.
— Kenan’s delivery in tonight’s Jean K. Jean commentary seems even more fun than usual.
— I love how Seth segues from an edgy sex offender/child molestation joke to saying a lighthearted “Valentine’s Day is approaching, so…” when turning to the other camera to introduce the next guest commentary.
— FOUR guest commentaries tonight?
— Fuuuuuuuuuuck. It’s Garth and Kat.
— I have nothing new to say about the insufferable, endless, self-indulgent comedy poison that tonight’s Garth and Kat commentary is foisting upon us.
STARS: ***


WHAT IS BURN NOTICE?
game show contestants puzzle over USA Network show

— A fairly interesting idea for a game show sketch.
— Jason is perfect here, especially his shrugging-type gestures and facial expressions when revealing something about the popularity of Burn Notice.
— Something about Kristen’s answers remind me of her answers in a then-recent game show sketch, Reel Quotes from this season’s Charles Barkley episode, though her answers in this one thankfully aren’t as annoying or long-winded.
— Some of the guesses about what Burn Notice is are pretty funny, especially Will’s.
— I like Jason’s unsure reaction when a contestant actually gets a correct answer for once.
— What was with the two different, overlapping “What…is…Burn…Notice!” group title readings at the end?
STARS: ***


ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
not all Best Picture nominees are “best” or “pictures”

— Ashton’s Billy Bush, during his sign-on: “I’m Billy Bush, and I will NOT apologize for that!” Little did SNL know at this time in 2010 that there later would be a valid reason to apologize for being Billy Bush.
— With her Anne Hathaway impression here and her Anna Faris impression earlier this season, Abby has now played two of the three female hosts of the entire season that preceded this. (Yes, that’s right, only THREE women hosted in a 22-episode season. Go figure.) I remember kinda wishing back at this time in 2010 that Abby would eventually complete the trifecta by playing the remaining season 34 female host she hadn’t played yet (Rosario Dawson), so Abby could have bragging rights that she’s the ONLY cast member in SNL history to do an on-air impression of every host of one or both genders from a single season. She would end up never playing Rosario Dawson anytime on SNL, though there was an opportunity in the following season’s Scarlett Johansson episode, in which SNL spoofed the movie Unstoppable. Rosario Dawson’s character in that movie was played by Scarlett in the SNL spoof, and I remember thinking “Aww, man, if Abby played that role, she would’ve completed the trifecta!”
— Meh at the joke with more and more movies being added to the listing-off of Best Picture nominees, and how the movies are getting increasingly off-topic.
— I do love the random mention of Bebe’s Kids, of all things, as one of the Best Picture nominees just now.
— I kinda like the ending gag where the listing-off of Best Picture nominees gets to the bizarre point where it’s now started to list off the same (real-life) nominees that it first listed off at the beginning of this sketch.
— No idea what to think about that intentionally annoying, screechy laugh that Nasim keeps doing. Something about it reminds me a little too much of her Kim Kardashian voice.
STARS: **½


AN EVEN-TEMPERED APOLOGY
Rahm Emanuel’s (ANS) ostensibly even-tempered apology is anything but

— A variation of a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Rahm Emanuel sketch from the preceding season’s Tim McGraw episode. That cut sketch was released by NBC online as an “Online Exclusive” shortly after the McGraw episode’s original airing. It follows the exact same format of tonight’s version of the sketch, only the lines themselves are different, as is the real-life controversial statement Andy’s Rahm Emanuel is apologizing for.
— This sketch is pre-taped, and you can tell by the visual look of the sketch, as well as the fact that Andy doesn’t pause for audience laughter at any point. I’m assuming the reason for this sketch being pre-taped is to avoid any mistimings of the bleeping of Andy-as-Emanuel’s frequent expletives.
— Andy-as-Emanuel’s aforementioned bleep-filled tirades are hilarious, well-written, and absolutely perfectly delivered.
— I absolutely love Andy-as-Emanuel’s threat to Sarah Palin that he will write shit on her Facebook wall so obscene, it’ll make her computer cry.
— Andy’s Rahm Emanuel, in a very deadpan, emotionless manner: “In conclusion: boo f(*bleep*)ing hoo. Get over it.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New Fang”


CRISIS OF CONFORMITY
at a wedding reception, former punk band (Dave Grohl), (host) & bride’s father (FRA) play hardcore

— Fun use of Dave Grohl.
— A sketch playing perfectly to Fred’s love of and experience with punk rock. Given how horribly, and I mean HORRIBLY, Fred had been doing on SNL lately, it’s such a breath of fresh air to see him doing something that’s actually funny, entertaining, and plays to his strengths.
— I love Kenan’s non-verbal reaction to getting wine glasses kicked out of the tray he’s holding. Bobby also has a funny non-verbal reaction when the same thing happens to him shortly afterwards.
— Nice save from Ashton when Dave Grohl’s microphone isn’t working.
— Tons of great, wild, violent energy all throughout the punk rock performance, especially from Fred. I cannot say enough good things about him in this sketch.
— I love Jason’s excited delivery of “Yeah, you are! Hell yeah!”
— The ending of this sketch kinda seemed like it got cut off, but I can’t tell. It may have been intentional to end like that.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— As soon as the screen crossfades from the Ashton Kutcher SNL bumper to the goodnights, a laughing Jason Sudeikis audibly says “So fuckin’ funny!” to someone, then, when realizing he was on the air when he said that, he can be seen putting his hand over his mouth in shock with an embarrassed smile (the first above screencap for these goodnights – Jason’s the one in the blue hoodie right behind Ashton), then he immediately walks out of the shot (somewhat).

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better episode than I had remembered, though still nothing special as a whole. Extremely average and pretty forgettable, but it did end on a strong note with the final two sketches.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
An Even-Tempered Apology
Crisis Of Conformity
Gertrude’s Will
Monologue
What Is Burn Notice?
Weekend Update
Cialis For Threeways
Access Hollywood
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren
The View
Slave Boy


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
Jennifer Lopez