Author: Stooge

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April 14, 2007 – Shia LaBeouf / Avril Lavigne (S32 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WINGS OF HOPE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) offer racist rehab for Don Imus

— Darrell makes his first appearance in THREE EPISODES.
— Pretty funny one-liners from Kenan’s Al Sharpton throughout this.
— Aaaaaaand there goes Darrell’s obligatory extended silent mugging & ticcing sequence as Jesse Jackson.
— I’m enjoying the detailing of the racism rehabilitation Don Imus will receive in Jackson and Sharpton’s rehab center.
— I love Darrell-as-Jackson’s mock inspirational speech about blacks and whites coming together.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
backstage, host can’t get cast members to share his SNL excitement

— Funny to think this is apparently at a time before Shia LaBeouf had much name recognition, as he opens this monologue with a self-deprecating “To those of you who know who I am…..hi, mom, hi, dad.”
— Great scene with Kenan panickedly trying to hide his smoking when a gleeful Shia approaches him. I also love Shia pointing out the Disney/Nickelodeon child star similarities between himself and Kenan. I think this is the very first mention an SNL episode has ever made about Kenan’s Nickelodeon past, but I may be forgetting something from prior episodes.
— Interesting use of Darrell.
— Pretty fun backstage interactions between Shia and individual cast and crew members.
— The gag with Lorne not knowing Kristen’s name certainly comes off ironic in retrospect, considering the huge favoritism Lorne would end up showing towards Kristen later in her SNL tenure.
— A very odd camera gaffe happens at the end when Shia is wrapping up the monologue. Someone apparently turned the camera switch off by accident, causing an odd camera jerk motion, followed by a few seconds of a black screen, before the camera switch is turned back on. Yikes! I’m pretty sure this is a first in SNL history of a camera accidentally being turned off mid-sketch.
STARS: ***½


THE HATHAWAY MOUSTACHE RIDE COMPANY
Hathaway Company visionary (Alec Baldwin) institutes free moustache rides

— Random Alec Baldwin cameo!
— The opening setting of this, with the 1880s business meeting, reminds me of the original Grayson Moorehead commercials from season 21. Plus, not only does Darrell play one of the old-timey businessmen at the table in both Grayson Moorehead and this mustache rides commercial, but he even has a very similar look in both (side-by-side comparison).

   

— Funny dignified execution of a raunchy premise, and Alec’s typical dry delivery is perfect for this.
— A non-Weekend Update appearance from Seth!
— Great visual of Will’s vibrating mustache.
STARS: ***½


PRINCE SHOW
Tobey Maguire (host) & Nancy Grace (AMP) drop by

— (*groan*) This tired, formulaic recurring sketch again. This thankfully ends up being the final installment of this.
— Shia’s not attempting much of an imitation of Tobey Maguire’s voice, but his dialogue is pretty amusing.
— This is actually a fun use of Amy’s Nancy Grace impression (also making its final appearance). I love her whole spiel about how much of a Prince fan she and her girlfriends were back in the day.
— Great wild dancing from Amy at the end.
STARS: **


BUYING BEER
underage (host), (ANS), (BIH), (WLF) stage elaborate ruses to buy beer

— Good detail with Andy’s lopsided fake mustache, adding to his and Shia’s character’s unconvincing attempt to come off as adults of legal drinking age.
— I love the increasingly elaborate, convoluted attempts from Andy, Shia, and Bill to buy beer without showing I.D., especially with Will unconvincingly staging a robbery and allegedly stealing Bill’s I.D.
— I enjoyed the surprise reveal at the end.
STARS: ****


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Dakota Fanning’s (AMP) sister Elle (musical guest) is a rival

— Two celebrity-hosted talk show sketches not only in the same episode, but both in the pre-Weekend Update half of the show?
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, we get some fantastic slow burn reactions from Kenan’s Reggie in response to Amy-as-Dakota-Fanning’s backhanded remarks to him.
— A pretty good laugh from Amy’s Dakota asking the Sprouse Twins “Why???” when they tell her they’re playing with toys.
— It wasn’t necessary to repeat the bit from the first installment of this sketch with Kristen’s snack-providing character humbly responding “You can call me mom” when Amy’s Dakota tells her “Thank you , Catherine.” That joke doesn’t work as well when you use it a second time.
— A hilarious part with Kenan muttering a very bitter “Yeah, I’ll put a cap somewhere, all right” after Amy’s Dakota tells him “Reggie, you better put on your thinking cap!”
— Overall, this was good, but not as strong as the first installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


DEAR SISTER
(BIH), (ANS), (host), (KRW) off each other a la The O.C.

— Ah, a legendary Digital Short and one of my all-time favorites.
— When this originally aired, not only was I one of quite a number of SNL fans who wasn’t aware of the fact that it was spoofing a scene from the show The O.C. (though that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of this short AT ALL), but I remember being simultaneously weirded-out and intrigued by the Imogen Heap “Hide And Seek” song played in this short, combined with how that song first played right after the baffling and inexplicable part with Andy shooting Bill out of nowhere while Bill was talking about his sister. I didn’t know during the live airing that “Hide And Seek” was a real, non-SNL song, so I assumed it was another original Lonely Island musical creation, and I wondered if that was someone in the cast singing it.
— The escalation to this is fantastic, and it especially starts getting really fun when Shia is the one to suddenly get shot when entering the room while laughing lightheartedly. After all these years, even though I know this entire short beat-for-beat, line-for-line, I still get no end of enjoyment from watching it. And that “Hide And Seek” song still intrigues me; it’s so oddly catchy and haunting.
— I’m loving how watching this short right now is taking me right back to the late 2000s, reminding me not only of how frequently I watched this short back in those days, but also how frequently I watched amusing YouTube videos where people gave the Dear Sister treatment to TV/movie clips in which someone gets shot or similar.
— A particularly hilarious part with Kristen repeatedly getting shot while the same “Mmm, whatcha saaaaayyyyyyy” part of the “Hide And Seek” song plays over and over. Also a great little touch with how Shia is seen pointing his gun in increasingly intimidating, gun expert-like positions each time the camera cuts to him during that sequence.
— Excellent ending with the two cops shooting each other after reading the letter, while different parts of “Hide And Seek” play simultaneously.
STARS: *****


SOFA KING
Mattress King proprietors say their new enterprise is Sofa King great

— A sketch sorta in the vein of polarizing dirty wordplay sketches from the early 2000s like Colonel Angus and Cork Soakers.
— Funny bit with a graphic of couch photos being displayed over Maya’s face, forcing her to eventually have to awkwardly lean to the side to get her face back onscreen.
— The performers are doing a good job walking the fine line between making their foreign-accented sayings of “Sofa King” make you realize what dirty phrase it sounds like, but not saying it in a way that makes it sound like they’re directly saying the ACTUAL dirty phrase.
— The humor of this wordplay is only mildly funny at best. For me, the performances are making the material better than it is.
— Bill’s quivery mannerisms are very funny. Also, this is yet another Bill Hader performance that reminds me so much of Dan Aykroyd, especially the way Bill is smiling.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Girlfriend”


WEEKEND UPDATE
MAR interviews Anna Nicole Smith paternity loser Howard K. Stern (ANS)

same-sex couple from Connecticut (FRA) & (BIH) is swishy-WASPy

after apologizing, Don Imus (DAH) causes more problems for himself

— An interesting sports-esque set-up to the Howard K. Stern commentary, and I like the dry way the commentary itself is being executed.
— Meh, we didn’t need a variation of the Same-Sex New Jersey Couple, with this now being a Connecticut same-sex couple, played by the same two cast members.
— Bill’s extended cartoonish snooty laughing sequence as his rich snob character has me practically on the floor, even if he’s overdoing it. I feel like a hypocrite for laughing at this and complaining about Darrell’s extended mugging & ticcing sequence as Jesse Jackson earlier in this episode (and especially in the Jackson/Sharpton Update commentary from the then-recent Forest Whitaker episode), but maybe Bill is just better at pulling that kind of thing off than Darrell is. Also, Bill seems to be relying heavily on the cartoonish snooty laughing to make up for the lack of actual funny written material.
— Speaking of Darrell, he’s been getting surprisingly decent airtime in his first episode back after being M.I.A. in the last two episodes prior to this.
— Darrell’s Don Imus voice is making me laugh, but the comedic conceit of his commentary itself is very lame.
STARS: ***


KNIFE SALESMEN
salesman (WLF) cuts off thumb in attempt to sell Mrs. Ginsu (KRW) a knife

— Solid salesman delivery from Will during his sales pitch to Kristen.
— The ridiculous “Am not” “Are too” argument between Will and Kristen is pretty funny.
— A huge laugh from Will nonchalantly cutting through his own finger, much to Kristen and Shia’s horror.
— A projectile bleeding sketch in the tradition of stuff like Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child sketch.
— No idea what to think about that dog attack ending.
— Overall, some good laughs here, but for an oddball Will Forte sketch, this wasn’t one of his best, nor was it one of the more memorable projectile bleeding sketches.
STARS: ***


AN INTIMATE MOMENT WITH JOHN MAYER & JESSICA SIMPSON
for John Mayer (BIH) & Jessica Simpson (KRW), musical spasms are intimacy

— I love the mere look on Kristen’s face as Jessica Simpson.
— Funny imitation from Bill of John Mayer’s trademark guitar-playing faces.
— Kristen’s musical vocalizations as Jessica is priceless.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can Do Better”


SHIA & MAYA
in her dressing room, MAR attempts to seduce host

— A very funny sudden escalation early on, after Maya and Shia’s friendly opening conversation.
— Feels rare at this point of SNL’s run to see a sketch like this with a cast member playing themselves, not counting monologues.
— Maya’s performance is incredibly silly and over-the-top, but it’s definitely working for me here (it’s somehow helped by the fact that she’s playing herself), and the jokes are coming at us a mile a minute.
— I like the turn with Shia’s mock dramatic monologue to Maya.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid episode. Very little to dislike here, and this contained one of my all-time favorite pieces (Dear Sister).


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Peyton Manning)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Scarlett Johansson

Posted on

March 24, 2007 – Peyton Manning / Carrie Underwood (S32 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUSH’S PRESS CONFERENCE
Alberto Gonzalez (FRA) is uneasy despite George W. Bush’s (JAS) support

— Pretty funny background facial expressions from Fred’s Alberto Gonzalez as his mood goes back-and-forth depending on what Bush says regarding the consequences he may or may not suffer.
— The fact that the comedic conceit of this particular President Bush press conference cold opening isn’t focusing solely on the speech Jason’s Bush is giving is making me like this more than the tepidly-written Jason-as-Bush press conference cold openings.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host tells a joke & introduces dad Archie, brother Eli, mom Olivia [real]

— The Tom Brady/circus/three rings joke Peyton relays was very good.
— Funny line about Peyton’s mom being a disappointment to the family because she never made it to the NFL.
— A short and simple but fairly charming monologue.
STARS: ***


UNITED WAY
host is a poor role model for kids during a United Way activity

— A very famous and often-played piece.
— A great way for Peyton to spoof his role model image. Every moment of this commercial is a riot to me. Petyon hitting and knocking over kids with the football when passing to them, him speaking very harshly to them, him teaching them inappropriate things like picking the lock of a car, etc.
— The tattoo part is particularly hilarious.
STARS: *****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
Betty & Jodi are impressed by the size of zookeeper (host)

— Amy and Maya’s flirtatious compliments to Peyton are pretty funny, but feel like an inferior knock-off of their flirtatious compliments to Jake Gyllenhaal in the first installment of this sketch.
— Some laughs from Amy and Maya’s talk about if Peyton’s head size made it difficult for his mother to give birth to him.
— I like Maya calling up her husband to see if he’ll get mad by her flirting with Peyton.
— Overall, the weakest Bronx Beat by default, but still not bad. However, I hope the quality of Bronx Beat isn’t already slowly starting to diminish, after the pretty solid start it had in its first two installments.
STARS: ***


ESPN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL PARTY
lucky (AMP)’s girly rationales produced a perfect NCAA basketball bracket

— The “huge whore” comments from Amy about her college roommate are pretty funny.
— I love the brief cutaway to Peyton’s deadpan confused face during the discussion of one of Amy’s girlish reasons for her picks, even though the whole latter gag with Amy’s girlish picks and her having no knowledge of sports is starting to feel lazily stereotypical.
— Solid turn with Jason and Amy using “Peyton Manning” as an unflattering term for disappointments, offending Peyton’s character.
— Funny line from Amy about how she’s going to donate her prize to a charity for cats who are overfed.
— More laughs from more unflattering things being said about Peyton Manning.
— A pretty good laugh from Jason yelling “Don’t pull a Peyton Manning!” to Peyton’s character after he angrily walks off the show.
STARS: ***½


PARTY POOPER
at a party, Penelope (KRW) compulsively one-ups guests’ small talk

— The debut of this Penelope character.
— Kristen’s delivery and the one-upping habit of this character are already making me laugh.
— So far, a one-note character from Kristen, and a precursor to an unfortunate endless number of one-note “look at me” recurring characters of hers, but this particular character is working pretty well in this inaugural appearance of hers.
— Funny escalation to Penelope’s lies after an unhappy Peyton tries to beat her at her own game.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Maraka” by RBS- multilingual explorer poses myriad questions to viewers

— A spot-on spoof of Dora The Explorer, as well as children’s shows in general that rely on the “The main character asks viewers a question and pauses for a long time while waiting for viewers to answer” trope.
— The increasingly random, unrelated, inappropriate questions Maraka asks viewers are priceless.
— I love Maraka saying to viewers “Don’t question it, just do it!” during the arm-flapping bit.
— A hilarious inclusion of random foreign tongue-clicking sounds from Maraka in the middle of her very long-winded spiel delivered in Spanish.
STARS: *****


LOCKER ROOM MOTIVATION
“Casino Royale Theme” inspires terpsichorean basketball coach (WLF)

— Oh, yet another classic tonight. This sketch is also a fantastic one-two punch with the Maraka cartoon that preceded it.
— Peyton: “I just thought about going out there in the second half, and a little bit of pee came out.”
— Another great line from Peyton: his random one about practicing French kissing with his French-kissing puppet.
— Even just the build-up to Will’s famous dance, where he’s initially just intensely listening to the music with a very serious look on his face, is coming off funny, though even moreso when you know what’s coming.
— And there goes the famous dancing. Absolutely priceless and legendary. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it never fails to bowl me over with laughter. Even there mere Casino Royale music itself is hilarious-sounding when combined with Will’s dancing to it.
— I love watching the reaction of the performers in the background during Will’s dancing, and how some of them are attempting to hide their genuine amusement (Bill in particular has his hand strategically placed over his mouth in a resting manner almost the entire time, because he already KNOWS he’s going to break at Will’s dancing) while some of the others are just openly smirking without hiding it. It’s also pretty fun to imagine what Will’s dancing must look like from the perspectives of his giggling scene partners, considering they’re standing/sitting behind Will.
— Great turn with Peyton joining in on Will’s bizarre dancing, complete with him playing Will’s leg like a guitar.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Before He Cheats”


WEEKEND UPDATE
presidential candidate Tim Calhoun lays out his scattershot platform

Zoo News- SEM considers the fate of Knut the polar bear cub

Sanjaya Malakar’s (ANS) version of “You Really Got Me” moves DAA to tears

— Maybe it’s just me, but Seth’s delivery sounds a lot more low-key tonight. Is he under the weather this week?
— Yes! TIM FUCKING CALHOUN! Will Forte keeps the classic performances coming tonight.
— Tim Calhoun’s personal Bay Of Pigs revelation was hilarious.
— I absolutely love Calhoun’s delivery of “I will NOT budge on this” when proposing that the presidential seal be replaced by a real seal.
— A reminder of those “Head-on, apply directly to the forehead” (*repeat several times*) commercials that were rampant in this time period.
— Calhoun’s “anal” answer regarding which side he would pick in the same-sex debate had me laughing so hard.
— An interesting-seeming side segment, with Seth doing a Zoo News segment.
— Seth’s lower-key delivery tonight (yeah, he’s definitely gotta be under the weather this week) is particularly noticeable during his Zoo News segment. I’m not caring much for this segment, aside from the comically harsh comment about putting down Abigail Breslin.
— I think I recall hearing that Seth unknowingly mispronounced the name of the polar bear all throughout the Zoo News segment.
— Second Update in a row with the traditional tree-frog-joke-gets-interrupted gag.
— The random Sanjaya interruption, while a very dated reference when watching this in 2020, still works for me, mostly because Andy’s Sanjaya impression is pretty funny, as are Seth and Amy’s reactions to his singing, all of which makes this hold up better than, say, Fred’s equally-now-dated Judge Larry commentaries in then-recent Updates.
— A random inclusion of Dan Aykroyd as one of the crying audience members during Sanjaya’s singing. And in typical annoying Amy-Poehler-on-Weekend-Update fashion, Amy hurts the gag of Dan’s random cameo by pointing at him afterwards and asking “Why is he here?!?” Ugh, why does Amy always have to call attention to things like this? Dan’s random cameo would’ve been funnier had no acknowledgment been made about it by Seth or Amy.
STARS: ***


300
while filming 300, (host) fails to smash boulder onto fellow actor (FRA)

— Good facial make-up on Peyton, rendering him unrecognizable.
— This premise is just plain dumb, thin, and questionable, and not in the funny way that those kinds of premises can sometimes be. It also doesn’t help that there’s no escalation to the main joke.
— I do like Jason’s performance as the increasingly agitated director, and there are some occasional laughs from Peyton, but otherwise, oof.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wasted”


PORCH TALK
daft & indiscreet (host) & (KRW) sip coffee on a pleasant spring evening

— The second and final edition of the Porch Talk sketch that debuted in this season’s Jaime Pressly episode. I heard they would later do a variation of this sketch in one of the wraparound segments in an updated Best Of Mike Myers special that would air around 2007/2008 (this updated special includes newly-filmed wraparound segments with Mike interacting with individual members of the then-current SNL cast from season 32/33), but I’ve never seen the updated special myself.
— Much like last time, Kristen’s delivery is absolutely perfect here, and Peyton is complementing her performance well with solid delivery of his own.
— Lots of funny odd, disturbing, and very random revelations being delivered by Kristen and Peyton in a calm, affable manner. These sketches are growing on me even more, and I already really liked the first installment. I wouldn’t have minded this sketch appearing at least one more time in a regular episode.
— Like the first installment, this overall sketch was kept at a perfect short and sweet length.
STARS: ****


THE MERCEDES 550
the oven-equipped Mercedes 550 is the car for meatloaf lovers like host

— Pretty funny random concept.
— Great reveal of Peyton not having pants on.
— Hilarious visual of each car seat being a toilet.
STARS: ***½


AIR FORCE ONE
awful basketball players don’t need Nike Air Force One shoes

— Two commercials in a row?
— Cool look of the male cast in those white tracksuits they’re shown walking in unison in.
— A fairly fun use of what appears to be the entire male cast, minus Seth, of course, and Darrell, the latter of whom not only is missing from this commercial, and not only is missing from this ENTIRE episode, but has been missing from these PAST TWO episodes. Does the man need a search party sent out for him or something?
— An overall forgettable commercial.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS
host’s brothers Eli & Cooper [real] give him a birthday cake

— A nice and unique change of pace for SNL’s goodnights, with Peyton being presented with a birthday celebration. I wonder if he was genuinely not expecting this.
— Nice touch with how the birthday cake is a replica of SNL’s home base stage.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and memorable episode. There was an impressive amount of THREE sketches that I rated five stars, and there was barely anything that I didn’t like. Peyton Manning was also one of the better athlete hosts I feel SNL has ever had.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Shia LaBeouf

Posted on

March 17, 2007 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Snow Patrol (S32 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SNL SPECIAL REPORT
CSR likens Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton to black men vs. white women

— Chris Rock! Feels interesting seeing him in this SNL era. Also, him cameoing in a Julia Louis-Dreyfus-hosted episode is strangely fitting, given the fact that, much like Julia, Chris was a cast member for only three seasons, didn’t do much on the show and was overshadowed by certain others in the cast, yet still went on to huge fame afterwards.
— This cold opening was originally a Weekend Update commentary that Chris did in this episode’s dress rehearsal.
— Wow, that comment about Rudy Giuliani’s sanity level was awfully prescient.
— Chris is an absolute riot here, as expected. He’s so damn funny that he’s even getting laughs from potentially touchy comments about the horrible treatment black people used to suffer.
— Hilarious mention of George W. Bush at the end, regarding if America is ready for a black president.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
JLD blames media for clips that put her in a negative light

— Great to see Julia hosting again so soon after her first hosting stint.
— In the real-life clip of Julia winning an Emmy, former SNL cast member (and Julia’s husband) Brad Hall can be seen congratulating her (the second above screencap for this monologue). Feels kinda nice seeing him on SNL again after so many years, even in this capacity. (I think I heard he could be spotted in the audience of the previous JLD-hosted episode I covered in season 31, but I didn’t catch him.) In Julia’s next SNL monologue from season 41, she shows an old clip of herself from an 80s movie that she (and Brad) was in, and the clip features a decent amount of face time for Brad, and I remember it felt so odd but nice seeing such an obscure Ebersol-era cast member like Brad get THAT amount of face time in an SNL episode from 2016, even if it was just in a clip from an old movie.
— The cutaways to Julia in the audience at the Golden Globes are hilarious. Kinda feels like a spiritual successor to the Golden Globes sketch with Megan Mullally in season 29.
— A huge laugh from Julia’s crotch-flashing scene. That excessive amount of pubic hair especially caught me off-guard.
STARS: ****


OPRAH
(JLD) is a disciple of Rhonda Byrne’s (AMP) book The Secret

— Funny look for Amy here.
— Maya’s Oprah portrayal feels a lot more animated than usual here. Not sure I can say that’s a good thing.
— Julia has some funny lines, but her interview scene is kinda dragging for me.
— Kenan’s Darfur refugee character, when asked how he’s doing: “Well, you know….BAD.”
— Kenan’s portion of this sketch is almost singlehandedly saving this otherwise iffy sketch.
STARS: **½


MONEX
gold bug (KRW) uses Monex to amass her favorite precious metal

— Kristen’s character mentions that this Monex program can be bought on a brochure and VHS tape. Stuff was still being sold on VHS in 2007?
— The framed Goldie Hawn photo in the gold-filled room is a funny gag.
— The part with Kristen resorting to drinking orange juice while wishing she could drink gold is kind of a stretch, because wouldn’t she just get, say, champagne or apple juice if she wanted a gold-colored drink?
— Hmm. I can’t say this commercial is working much for me. A lot of this is just washing over me. I want to say Kristen is at least performing this well, but I’m not even sure how to feel about her performance here.
STARS: **


R.P.S.
(JLD)’s husband (JAS) blames Restless Penis Syndrome for his infidelity

— Funny subversion with Jason’s big reveal to Julia turning out to be him having Restless Penis Syndrome when you think he’s going to reveal he’s having an affair.
— I like Kenan randomly appearing in Jason and Julia’s bedroom as Jason’s doctor.
— Pretty funny turn with Bill doing a PSA for Restless Penis Syndrome right in front of the main characters, which a confused Julia then calls attention to.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s argot foils monolingual JLD

— The debut of these La Rivista Della Televisione sketches, starring a character of Bill’s that debuted in an Italian hotel sketch from the preceding season’s Catherine Zeta-Jones episode.
— I probably said this in my review of the aforementioned Italian hotel sketch, but Bill’s fast-paced Italian gibberish is absolutely fantastic and sounds both funny and convincingly real.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as the producer and Will just silently sitting next to him while eating spaghetti and meatballs. I also like the back-and-forth arguing between Fred and Bill.
— Bill is a blast as this Vinny Vedecci character. And it still feels so rare at this point of Bill’s tenure to see him play the sole lead role in a sketch, so this is very refreshing.
— Great to see Bill work in his Kramer impression on SNL again. I also like him following it up with an intentionally-bad Jerry Seinfeld impression.
— The re-dubbed Old Christine clip is very funny.
— A lot of pretty fun nonsense at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’re All I Have”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Seidlin’s (FRA) Justice Department commentary drifts to a zoo story

AMP drunk dials SEM after doing two shots for St. Patrick’s Day

— Oh no. An Update commentary from Fred as Judge Larry for THE SECOND DAMN EPISODE IN A ROW, and for no good reason this time. This was bad enough the first time.
— Ugh, tonight’s Judge Larry commentary is even more difficult to sit through than the first one, which is certainly saying something. The huge amusement the audience is getting from this makes me feel so lost.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Fred-as-Judge-Larry’s mention of the monkeys “with the plastic asses”, but then even THAT got ruined by him proceeding to repeat it several times afterwards.
— Boy, this Judge Larry bit is so bad and endless. This feels kinda like an unfortunate precursor to Fred’s later, past-his-prime seasons, where he’s given so much free rein to waste all the airtime he wants with unfunny, meandering, self-indulgent bits.
— I love Seth’s Anne Frank joke, as well as his great ad-lib afterwards.
— The extended drunk bit with Seth and Amy is a little weird and much longer than the usual Seth/Amy interaction pieces. I’m not even sure if I like it or not.
STARS: ***


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (AMP), (KRW) & (JLD) & (JAS) perform their hits

— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish that has aired up to this point.
— Hmm, I notice the Kenan/Andy interactions in tonight’s Deep House Dish thankfully don’t have Kenan yelling the usual “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”………..so far.
— Oh, I love the voice Julia’s using during her post-song interview. I’ve never heard her use that distinct voice before, nor did I know she was capable of talking like that.
— Hmm, a change of pace with Kenan’s character directing a special concerned message to the troubled Britney Spears (or, as Kenan’s character calls, “Britney Spurrs”).
— Oh, god. There goes the obligatory “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”, after I gave them credit for not using it. At least they waited more than halfway into this sketch to unleash it on us.
— Jason is a blast during his musical performance, especially his dancing. Jason Sudeikis dancing = always fun to watch.
— Overall, slightly better than usual Deep House Dish sketches, even if that’s still faint praise from me.
STARS: **½


CBS CARES
unprofessional boom mic operator Jeff (JAS) bugs JLD during PSA taping

— Another big role tonight for the underused Bill Hader.
— The debut of these sketches with Jason as a douchey crew member and Bill as the director.
— A pretty good cheap laugh from Bill’s name being Mike Underballs.
— I love the negative tension between Jason and Julia. Jason has some great rude, uncalled-for remarks to Julia.
— I love how they keep playing the lighthearted CBS Cares jingle when each take gets ruined, which Bill’s eventually calls his sound crew out on.
— Whenever Bill angrily says the name of Jason’s character, Jeff, I absolutely love how he says it as “JYYYEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Very funny reveal of the below-the-camera part of Julia’s body that Jason is immaturely placing the boom mic over during the final take.
STARS: ****


HOMEBOTS
lottery winners’ (JAS) & (JLD) robots (WLF) & (FRA) have sex & break down

— Yet another big role for Bill tonight. So glad to see SNL finally giving him lots of airtime for once. Jason’s been getting some pretty strong airtime himself tonight.
— Pretty funny chaos from Robot Will’s actions.
— A very funny and out-of-left field turn with the two robots mentioning their robot genitals when contemplating how Robot Will is going to repay Robot Fred.
— Some good laughs from Julia and Jason trying to start a casual, friendly conversation with a disturbed Bill and Kristen during the loud robot sex noises.
— I love the audience’s groaning over the fluid-y pop sound at the end of the robots’ sex before they break down.
— It feels like Julia has been making quite a number of light stumbles over her lines throughout tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Cars”


THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL
mildly talented (KRW), (MAR), (AMP) want to be the next Pussycat Doll

— The timing in this sketch feels off so far.
— I love the shot of Maya just staring at the camera while doing nothing during the “Not write songs” part advertised in this reality show promo.
— Maya, Amy, and Kristen are all getting some laughs here.
— Pretty funny how the claim-to-fame listed under Andy’s character’s name, McKenzie Jazz, just states “Nobody”. However, a technical error occurs where the graphic of Andy’s character’s name and claim-to-fame is accidentally displayed again for Kenan (as you can see in the last two above screencaps for this sketch). I remember this gaffe made me wonder back at this time in 2007 what Kenan’s character’s name was supposed to be, and whether he was playing a woman or an effeminate man. I had to wait until the NBC rerun of this episode God knows how many months later to find out that the “character” Kenan was playing is actually Lil’ Kim, who, as we know, is a real person. (Oh, that reminds me: Kenan In A Dress alert.) So that makes this YET ANOTHER female celebrity who Kenan has done a terrible and unfunny impression of.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode started out strong with the cold opening and monologue, only to end up being an overall average episode. Not bad, and there were a few strong highlights, but the episode as a whole wasn’t all that memorable, and it pales in comparison to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ fantastic season 31 episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rainn Wilson)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Peyton Manning

Posted on

February 24, 2007 – Rainn Wilson / Arcade Fire (S32 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM
Anna Nicole Smith coverage displaces hard news

— Darrell takes over the Wolf Blitzer impression that the no-longer-on-the-show Chris Parnell regularly played the preceding season.
— So many laughs from the Anna Nicole Smith-centric news crawl on the bottom of the screen.
— Ha, after the Situation Room opening title sequence, the size of the news crawl has suddenly gotten HUGE.
— “Darfur bad”. Boy, does that take me back to 2007.
— Very funny how Darrell-as-Blitzer’s head is now being played with onscreen by The Situation Room’s graphics department, angering him.
— Good to see our host Rainn Wilson in the cold opening.
— Rainn is fantastic in his performance as a reporter. The fact that he’s coming off so natural here, combined with the fact that hosts don’t usually appear in cold openings, could easily cause one to mistake him for a cast member in this.
— I like the turn with Rainn taking over the report from a female reporter who Darrell’s Blitzer has thrown to.
— The length of Rainn’s bit could use some trimming.
— I still have no opinion on Fred’s take on Larry King. He’s certainly no Norm Macdonald when it comes to this role, I’ll say that. He’s not even a Kevin Nealon (who’s Larry King I’ve always felt was kinda underappreciated).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
cast members & Karen (Rashida Jones) make backstage SNL like The Office

— A very fun Office-esque backstage atmosphere we’re shown SNL having.
— Kristen and Jason are absolutely PERFECT as Pam and Jim. Not only are they very funny and spot-on in their Pam and Jim impressions, but they are pretty much dead-ringers for them here.
— A blink-and-miss-it cameo from Rashida Jones. Nice to see her, though part of me can’t help but be curious what it would’ve been like to see Maya play her in this monologue. Speaking of missed opportunities, how does this monologue not include a rare non-Weekend Update appearance from Seth as his Office doppleganger Ryan?
— Great seeing Lorne get involved in this, who’s typical deadpan is adding to this perfectly.
— When Lorne shows his “World’s Funniest Boss” coffee mug, you can hear an audience member shout “Yeah, Lorne!”, which is amusing to me.
— Overall, such a strong monologue.
STARS: ****½


SONG MEMORIES
“Danny’s Song” evokes icky reminiscing by (host), (BIH), (WLF), (JAS)

— The debut of these Song Memories sketches. Wow, until just now, I had completely forgotten about these sketches, as well as the fact that they debuted in this episode. I recall this being a pretty solid recurring sketch.
— Yet another episode where the criminally-underused-in-his-early-seasons Bill Hader is stuck making only one live appearance (he does appear in the following pre-taped Digital Short), though he at least gets a comedic role here, unlike his sole appearance in the preceding episode.
— Great format to these Song Memories sketches, with the guys’ disturbing stories being interspersed with the guys engaging in a jovial singalong of the chorus from the song playing on the jukebox.
— I could be wrong, but I think I recall that the “I have a dad with Down’s Syndrome” punchline to Bill’s story ended up causing some controversy back when this originally aired, and would result in SNL bleeping out the words “Down’s Syndrome” in reruns of this sketch. Am I remembering correctly, or am I mistaken?
— Rainn’s “The other guy’s pee came out of my nose” punchline paled in comparison to the punchlines of the other guys’ stories, but Rainn still made it work. I’ve seen some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 have a theory that, instead of pee coming out of his nose, Rainn’s line was probably originally written to have him say a certain male bodily fluid came out of his nose (given the fact that he was…uh, orally servicing a man), but the censors must’ve nixed it and forced SNL to use a tamer version of the line.
— Even the very random Pulp Fiction-esque twist ending is working for me.
STARS: ****


BUSINESS MEETING
(host) asks his motley employees to propose cuts to the corporate budget

— I love the exchange between Rainn and Kenan, when Rainn is asking individual employees for their thoughts: “Water guy?” “I don’t work here.”
— Hilarious fake-out regarding which one of the employees is Chief Big Cloud.
— Gigantic Turkey Sub: “I say we put MUSTARD on it!”
— You can see a young Colin Jost throughout this short as one of the employees (the left side of the seventh-to-last, third-to-last, and second-to-last above screencaps for this Digital Short, though why does his suit jacket keep disappearing and re-appearing between shots?). He looks so baby-faced in this, and it’s funny seeing him without what’s now known as his trademark hairstyle.
— This short is an absolute riot. So many rapid-fire hilarious cutaways, characters, and subversions, so much so, that I’m missing a few of the quick gags due to laughing so hard at some of the other quick gags.
— I love how this is not only using what appears to be the entire SNL cast, but is having some of the cast members play multiple roles.
— Even the random gag of Rainn speaking into his hand as if it’s a cellphone is fitting the tone of this short perfectly.
STARS: *****


ART DEALERS
(host) & (KRW) interview Nuni & Nuni for Architectural Digest profile

— Ugh, this sketch once again. Thankfully, this ends up being the final appearance of these characters.
— (*sigh*) Cue the beyond-tired obligatory portion of these sketches where the Nunis clarify how to differentiate the pronunciation of their names, then proceed to butcher the simple pronunciation of their visitors’ names.
— I do like the toast chair that Rainn is forced to sit on.
— Having Rainn play a dull straight man in a Nuni sketch is such a waste of his comedic talents (why not have him play a comedic role like Will Ferrell got to play in the Nuni sketch he appeared in?), though at least he’s further proving his impressive versatility by playing a convincing straight man character here.
— Another reminder tonight that Chris Parnell is no longer on the show, as his butler character from these Nuni sketches has been replaced by a new character played by Andy.
— I did get a cheap laugh from Andy’s cotton candy pubic hair sticking out from the top of his pants.
STARS: *½


PEEPING JERRY
peeper (host) imposes his voyeuristic mindset upon a police lineup

— Rainn is wearing the same jacket that Will has been seen wearing as two child predator characters (who I personally have a theory are actually the same character), one being a character in the MySpace Seminar sketch from the preceding season’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode, and the other being the future recurring character Jeff Montgomery (a.k.a. the trick-or-treating sex offender character). SNL’s wardrobe department must have that jacket on standby for every time someone plays a creepy sexual deviant in a sketch in this era.
— For some reason, I kinda love the intentionally cheesy part with Maya cornily telling Rainn “The next time you peep at me, THIS is what you’re gonna see!” while angrily waving her fist in front of his face.
— Excellent characterization from Rainn, who is hilarious here.
— I love how Rainn is only able to identify the murderer in the police line-up by having a curtain substitute be displayed in front of him so he can peep from behind it.
— A great escalation to this, by now having Rainn request Jason mimes taking a shower and then sing during it. (Though why did Rainn word his request as “Make him sing again?”, when Jason’s character didn’t sing prior to this portion of the sketch?)
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Intervention”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anna Nicole Smith judge Larry Seidlin (FRA) weepily reads his reviews

Aunt Linda has nothing nice to say about the crop of Oscar nominees

the dangers of deployment to Iraq finally dawn on Prince Harry (ANS)

— Hmm, Fred playing the judge from the Anna Nicole Smith trial. Well, this sure comes off dated today. I remember the fact that this Judge Larry guy was pretty big back at this time, but 13 years later, I now remember little-to-nothing specific about the man. I think he broke down in tears during the Anna Nicole trial while delivering a long spiel, or something like that? Even my memory of seeing viral clips of him doing THAT is very vague and iffy. I worry that my lack of memory about this guy is going to hurt my enjoyment of this spoof of him that Fred’s doing.
— I do like the detail of Fred’s Judge Larry doing his commentary in a judge’s chair instead of the usual Update chair.
— We get an extended hysterical laughter break from the audience in response to Fred’s Judge Larry saying “When I was a kid…I used to go to the circus every day.” Am I missing something? What’s so hilarious about that line?
— Yeah, this Judge Larry commentary isn’t doing it for me. Just as I was afraid of, my lack of memory of the specifics that Fred is spoofing about this judge makes this hard for me to understand and laugh at. Then again, I get the feeling this commentary wasn’t all that funny even when it originally aired. This commentary is just coming off badly drawn-out and sluggish. (And guess what’s even worse? We’ll be seeing Fred do ANOTHER Judge Larry commentary on Update in the very next episode! Geez.)
— (*groan*) Kristen’s Aunt Linda routine continues to suffer diminishing returns, and I’m finding her ratings system increasingly cringeworthy in its corniness. That corniness feels like something straight out of SNL writer James Anderson’s playbook, even though I have no idea if he even writes these Aunt Linda commentaries (I think I remember hearing it’s another writer who’s behind these Aunt Linda commentaries, though I don’t remember who).
— SNL breaks out the ol’ vomit hose for the first time in, I believe, years. While I admit to chuckling at this particular instance of it in this Prince Harry commentary from Andy, it feels like a poor man’s version of Will Ferrell’s Update commentary about Ellen DeGeneres back in season 22 (a commentary that I love, problematic or not). I do love Seth’s deadpan during Andy’s over-the-top vomiting, though.
— Boy, this is one long Update. A huge contrast to how short and compact the last few Updates prior to this were.
STARS: ***


FIRST DAY AT WORK
Neil & Jean orient their new fellow uptight co-worker Oliver (host)

— An interesting change of pace to see this recurring Forte/Wiig/(insert host here) introverted co-workers sketch now taking place at the characters’ workplace instead of at another bar.
— Yet another very fun quirky characterization from Rainn tonight.
— Very funny and charming reveal of Will and Kristen’s extremely tame “hazing” of Rainn.
— As usual, a countless number of very funny little quirks from these characters. Even Will and Kristen’s mere delivery makes even non-comedic lines very humorous.
— The usual twist in these sketches with us suddenly seeing Will detailing the night of raunchy lovemaking he has planned for him and his two co-workers has been changed up tonight, which is another refreshing change of pace.
STARS: ****½


WHITE POSSUM SCREAM
(KET) chains (host) in Black Snake Moan knockoff

— A laugh from how this Blake Snake Moan-based movie is titled White Possum Scream.
— Funny visual of Rainn as a briefs-clad male version of Christina Ricci’s character from Black Snake Moan.
— I like the other Chase Danker-made preview-based films we’re shown movie posters of, especially the dark Dunston Checks Out.
— Even Kenan’s mugging and loud hamminess, which, in these early seasons of his, can be a bit much and too uncontrolled, is kinda working for me here.
— This sketch is showing itself to be thin, but the execution is making it passable enough.
STARS: ***


BAND SHOT

— There appears to be a sketch cut at the last minute at this point of the show, as SNL does the old “come back from a long commercial break only to show the SNL Band playing for a few seconds before going back to another long commercial break” move they occasionally resort to when needing to fill time after a sketch gets scrapped at the last minute for time reasons. However, that usually happens at the very end of episodes. Odd how THIS particular instance is occurring at around 12:45, when we still have a sketch and an Arcade Fire musical performance remaining.


RIVER BLISS
New Age musicians (FRA), (MAR), (host), (KET), (KRW) bicker in the studio

— Kenan’s character being named Nasim certainly brings a future SNL cast member to mind, mostly because she’s the only real-life person I’ve ever heard with that name.
— Fred’s gestures when playing the keyboard are funny, and Rainn does yet another characterization that I like (even his constant hair flips are getting laughs), but the sketch itself is not doing it for me. Also, I’m getting that ol’ pesky feeling again that this is another James Anderson-written sketch. The style of this sketch and the character types sure make me think so, especially Kenan’s character. I’ve noticed that almost ANY sketch that Kenan plays this type of effeminate, sassy male character in is a James Anderson-written sketch.
— Kenan yelling very loudly “I…HATE…YO…FACE!” has kinda stuck with me over the years, even though I could never remember which sketch it came from until now.
— Aaaaaaaand there’s the fart humor to further add to my hunch that this sketch is a James Anderson piece.
— Overall, blah. A poor and aimless sketch to end a great episode on (the following musical performance notwithstanding).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Keep The Car Running”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and definitely one of the best of this season. The first half of this episode in particular was very impressive, with a majority of the segments receiving a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Adding to the strength of this episode is Rainn Wilson, who was an excellent host, came off perfect for SNL, and was utilized very well with the various oddball roles the writers gave him.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Forest Whitaker)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Posted on

February 10, 2007 – Forest Whitaker / Keith Urban (S32 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE CHENEY FAMILY
Dick (DAH) & Lynne (KRW) Cheney read unlovely Valentine’s Day cards

— The Scooter Libby Valentine card is really funny.
— I was expecting the Valentine card from the guy who Dick Cheney shot in the face to have a funnier punchline.
— I love Darrell’s Cheney cutting off his reading of the obscene final verse in the Valentine card from an Iraq soldier.
— This is the first time in quite a while that a political cold opening has really worked for me.
— Why didn’t the camera do the traditional zoom-in on Darrell during his “Live from New York…” at the end?
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & MAR sing “Get Ready”

— I like Maya giving a shoutout to Forest’s early role in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, a movie I often forget he was even in.
— The first of what I recall being several instances of singing from Forest tonight.
— Blah at this turning into a joke-less musical monologue, though at least the number is uptempo.
STARS: **


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
Betty & Jodi think doctors (host) & (KRW) are in love

— More on-point and fun characterizations and interplay between Maya and Amy in these Bronx Beat sketches.
— Amy: “The way things are going these days, the whole world’s gonna blow up.” Feels more fitting hearing that today than in 2007.
— I love Kristen’s tenseness when Maya and Amy point out that Forest is clearly in love with her.
— Some pretty good laughs from Maya and Amy putting pressure on Forest and Kristen to date each other.
— Even the voice Fred is using over the phone as Maya’s son is making me laugh.
— After Forest clarifies to Maya and Amy that “We’re not in love” as he and Kristen are making their exit, I love Kristen’s little “What? We’re not?”
— These Bronx Beat sketches continue to be pretty solid. I’m enjoying these much more than I did when they originally aired.
STARS: ***½


ANDY POPPING INTO FRAME
ANS adds himself to various camera shots

— I love this minimalist short, and how late 2000s it now feels. A quintessential example of the kind of simplistic concept that Andy and Lonely Island in general can make into such a fun and charming blast.
— Some great suspenseful build-ups in the occasional shots that Andy is missing from for the first few seconds.
— A very funny turn with Will getting involved and gradually taking the focus away from Andy, resulting in a now-non-smiling Andy forcing Will away by pointing a gun at his head.
— I love how some portions of this are exploring SNL’s studio.
— This pre-taped short ends up being Andy’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode.
STARS: ****½


ASSAGIO’S
waiter (host) interminably sings “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”

— Speaking of a cast member making only one appearance tonight, tonight is yet another episode where Bill is stuck making his only appearance of the night in a forgettable straight man role. (*sigh*)
— This HAS to be a James Anderson sketch.
— Forest’s performance is pretty fun, but I’m not caring for the premise of this sketch itself. The execution of this isn’t anything great, though at least it isn’t as bad as it could be.
— Fred accidentally gives away the broken glasses gag by switching his glasses when the camera is still on him.
— I do like Bill’s line explaining Forest is now singing in a pitch that only dogs can hear.
STARS: **


URIGRO
Rerun from 1/20/07


MAN VERSUS BEAST TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS: THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
mountain lion advances to final four by mauling (JAS)

— Amy, in a smiley, jovial manner: “I love animals, and I absolutely despise human beings.”
— An interesting and creative premise, and I like Forest’s delivery during the set-up to the match we’re about to see.
— “Aerosmith engineer”? A little odd how Forest misread the term “aerospace engineer” as that.
— A good laugh from the blurring-out of Jason’s brutal mauling by the mountain lion.
— A great bloodied, torn-up look of Jason during his post-match interview. This is pretty much a more extensive version of Jason’s eternally-bleeding chewed-off arm in that Bear Shark Project sketch from earlier this season.
— I love Jason’s long, pensive pause while he’s contemplating an answer to a question of Maya’s while his neck continues to eternally bleed.
— So many great lines from Jason during his interview. I especially like the one about him literally getting his ass handed to him by the mountain lion.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stupid Boy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) rank Barack Obama’s blackness

like all ladies, Lisa Nowak fell for fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein (JAS)

— Jesus Christ, Darrell is going EXTREMELY heavy on the physical tics as Jesse Jackson tonight. He’s trying WAY too hard to milk laughs from the audience, even for his standards. (At one point during this extended mugging and ticcing of Darrell’s, Kenan even ad-libs by looking at his non-existent wristwatch in a comically impatient manner.) I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 saying Darrell seemed like he was on coke during this commentary.
— A pretty solid concept of the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton commentary, with them displaying and explaining a Blackness Scale, and where Barack Obama ranks on it.
— I particularly like the part about Obama being moved way up on the Blackness Scale because he dated white women.
— Seth continues to hone his smarmy Update persona, with his joke tonight about lazy gay people, a joke that his delivery made work.
— This is exactly the type of smug role that Jason can sell in spades.
— I love Jason’s line about “giving intricate high-fives”.
— Meh, I don’t care much for Amy’s cutesy act when being charmed by Jason.
— Jason’s commentary ended on a weak note.
STARS: ***


LOVE WHITNEY: WHITNEY HOUSTON’S VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL
Tommy Brown (host) joins Whitney Houston’s (MAR) Valentine’s Day Special

— Oh, no. Maya’s Whitney Houston Weekend Update commentaries this season were bad enough; now SNL spins her off into her own sketch? I am in for a looooooong sketch, aren’t I?
— Kenan In A Dress alert. Oh, I *am* in for a looooooong sketch. (*sigh*)
— This sketch is basically nothing but an unfunny 4-minute collection of annoying tics that Maya regularly does as Whitney on Weekend Update.
— Forest’s delivery is a bit rough here, and he’s unfortunately not saving this sketch like I desperately want him to.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was fucking awful.
STARS: *


AM I A CRAZY STREET PERSON?
(host) is contestant on & topic of game show

— Fun concept for this game show sketch.
— A solid game show host performance from Jason.
— I love Jason’s little “What the hell…” when Fred randomly walks right past the camera during his exit.
— Forest’s amazement at each guest is very funny and charming. I also love Kristen’s growing cynicism towards each guest.
— Great turn with Kristen recognizing Forest as an escapee from an institution.
— Ha, Kenan’s hair…
— Such a fun performance from Forest.
— Great ending line from Kristen: a deadpan “I’m definitely suing” after being terrified by Forest doing a crazy, wild dance around her.
— A technical glitch occurs at the end, where the screen mistakenly fades to black way too early as soon as the “Am I A Crazy Street Person?” logo starts showing up onscreen while Jason is wrapping up the show.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Once In A Lifetime”


STATEN ISLAND ZOO
high schoolers’ sloths “documentary” fudges zoological accuracy

— A hilarious, very memorable, over-the-top, and extremely catchy Sloths music video. And the intensity of it is a hilarious sudden tone shift after Kristen’s calm, smiley intro.
— A few great vulgar, bleeped-filled lyrics.
— I love the inclusion of the character Sloth from The Goonies performing a guitar solo…in a church, of all places, which is such a funny little random detail.
— Second sketch in a row tonight with a perfect ending line from Kristen, this time her saying a very taken-aback “That…was not…entirely accurate” after the Sloths video has ended. Yet another solid example of how damn good and reliable Kristen always is at playing straight roles and selling a funny low-key-perplexed one-liner.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The streak of pretty solid episodes continues. Other than two flops (Whitney Houston Valentine’s Day Special and Assagio’s, though the latter wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been) and a monologue I didn’t care for, there was a lot to like in tonight’s episode, and a few VERY strong pieces.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Rainn Wilson

Posted on

February 3, 2007 – Drew Barrymore / Lily Allen (S32 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMERICAN IDOL
judges criticize animals for their poor performances

— Wait, what’s this? Seth IN A SKETCH?!? And in a lead role here?!? During his Weekend Update-only years?!?
— A laugh from Maya’s successful audition only being shown for a split second before getting cut off to show bad auditions.
— Mm, not sure I care for this premise of animals auditioning for American Idol.
— Solid Simon Cowell impression from Jason.
— Yeah, these constant reveals of animals being critiqued by the Idol judges aren’t working for me.
— Why do I hear Kenan laughing off-camera during one of the scene transitions (right after the donkey scene)?
— An unintentional chuckle from the two cats both looking alarmed when a sound effect of meowing cats is played.
— I do like the gag with the auditioning dog’s family of dogs waiting for him outside of the audition room.
— Yet another strong and energetic “Live from New York…” delivery from Seth.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host’s backstage encounter with ANS follows romantic comedy boilerplate

— Drew sets up her backstage visit by claiming she’s going to take us to the Five-Timers Club, as this is her fifth time hosting, only for this monologue to blindside us with a cookie-cutter rom-com spoof that has nothing to do with the Five-Timers Club. Really, SNL? I don’t have too much of a problem with SNL doing this kind of monologue spoofing rom-coms, but why lie to us by prefacing it with an exciting-sounding Five-Timers Club visit?
— Hmm, I see SNL still has binders with the old circular SNL logo from 1988-1995 (as seen held by Amy in the third above screencap for this monologue). Ellen Cleghorne was seen with that same green binder in the backstage cold opening from the season 20 finale, back when that was still the current SNL logo. I think there’s a later backstage monologue/sketch sometime after tonight’s Drew Barrymore episode where that same green binder with the 88-95 SNL logo is also seen, but I can’t remember which episode.
— Pretty funny lines from Will, perfectly playing the douche of typical rom-coms.
— I like the slow-motion montage of backstage scenes that had literally just happened.
— Am I crazy, or does the look of Andy’s hair keep changing back-and-forth throughout this monologue? (side-by-side comparison a little below) Are some portions of this monologue pre-taped for whatever reason? I’m currently watching the live version of this episode, so this isn’t a case of a dress rehearsal substitution being made in reruns.

— Wait, what? Now this randomly turns into a questions-from-the-audience monologue? This monologue, while pretty funny, is an unfocused mess.
— Ah, never mind. The questions-from-the-audience bit is just a set-up for Andy to interrupt with a Say Anything spoof. Lots of odd fake-outs throughout this monologue.
— Ugh, I see a Target set in the background during the shot of Andy holding a radio up in the air ala John Cusack, which gives away the fact that there’s going to be a damn Target Lady sketch tonight. Didn’t they just DO one, like, 2 episodes ago?
STARS: ***


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Dakota Fanning (AMP) is mature beyond her years

— Oh, I absolute LOVE how SNL transitions from the monologue to this sketch by having the camera pan over from the home base stage to the set where this sketch is taking place. Reminiscent of what SNL did after the monologue in the season 25 Christina Ricci episode and the season 27 Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— Boy, Amy sure got changed fast from her appearance in the middle of the monologue.
— “The” Family Guy? What’s with Kenan referring to the show Family Guy as that?
— Kenan’s slow burn facial reactions to Amy-as-Dakota-Fanning’s backhanded remarks to him throughout this sketch are freakin’ perfect.
— Why does Bill’s shirt look so insanely wrinkly?
— For obvious reasons, it’s fitting to have Drew Barrymore play a child actress.
— The tenseness from Amy’s Dakota during the Abigail Breslin interview is solid.
— I love the “Thank you, Catherine” “Okay, you can just call me mom” exchange between Amy’s Dakota and Kristen’s snack-providing character.
— A killer way to end this sketch, with Drew-as-Abigail-Breslin’s bragging about her important upcoming movie role being responded to by Amy’s Dakota saying a casual, fake-gleeful “I get raped in my next movie! Anyway…”
STARS: ****


POISON THERAPY
therapist (KRW) counsels (WLF) & the wife (host) who poisons him

— Interesting facial prosthetics on a poisoned Will.
— I absolutely love the oddball, absurdist, creative premise of this sketch, especially for a sketch placed in such an early spot in this episode.
— Very strong understated performances from all involved in this sketch. A perfect mix of a great premise and great execution by the writers and performers.
— Funny reveal of Will being a model.
STARS: ****½


BODY FUZION
’80s exercise tape has low-impact workout & softcore porn

— A change of pace for a Digital Short.
— Funny random detail of two of the girls being named Donna.
— I love Maya’s aggressive brief shout of “WOO!” during one exercise.
— Kristen giving us an early display of her future Triangle Sally dance.
— So many hilarious little gags all throughout this.
— The recreation of the look of a typical video from an old, worn-out 1980s VHS tape is absolutely DEAD ON, right down to the littlest details like the occasional bad tracking.
STARS: ****½


TARGET
Target Lady teaches trainee (host) how to ring up items at the checkout

— (*sigh*) And here’s our Target Lady sketch that was spoiled earlier in this episode.
— I do somewhat like Target Lady’s subtly disappointed/heartbroken reaction when Jason decides to buy something she really wants that is now out of stock, which I kinda appreciate just because it’s a change of pace from the usual tired dreck we see with Target Lady.
— This was mercifully somewhat short for a Target Lady sketch.
STARS: **


JOB INTERVIEW
hyper job applicant (host) digs a deeper hole following botched interview

— This is a sketch that I recall getting a lot of acclaim from online SNL fans back in 2007, but I’ve also seen online SNL fans in recent years have a negative reaction to this sketch and say it comes off like a bad James Anderson-written one-note Kristen Wiig-starring sketch. In my original 2007 review of this episode back when this episode originally aired (seen here), I didn’t care much for this sketch. I’m curious how I’ll react to this sketch during my current viewing, after what I just said about how wildly differing the reaction from fans in 2007 and 2020 are.
— Shaundra Shart? Is this a sister character to future cast member Mikey Day’s character Matt Schatt?
— Never mind, Drew’s character reveals that she messed up her last name, which is actually Sharpe.
— I love Drew calling Kenan “Grown-Up Webster”.
— Drew is selling her character’s tenseness, hyperness, and antsiness really well.
— Did I just hear Amy pronounce the first name of Drew’s character completely differently from how Drew herself pronounced it?
— A fart gag in this sketch? Oof. As this sketch goes along, I’m starting to get more and more of a James Anderson vibe from it.
— Didn’t care for the ending at all.
— I’m torn on this overall sketch. One one hand, I loved Drew’s performance, she did a great job with the material, some of the material itself was really funny, and the structure to this sketch was interesting and unique. On the other hand, some portions of this sketch kinda rubbed me the wrong way and reeked of bad James Anderson trademarks, and I hated the ending.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Smile”


WEEKEND UPDATE
menacing nanny Barbara Birmingham (KET) is against spanking ban

— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— The debut of a very short-lived and forgotten Kenan Thompson recurring Update character.
— At least Kenan’s playing this particular black female role differently from the interchangeable way he portrays most black female roles.
— I love Kenan angrily lunging over the desk at Seth.
— Seth’s mean-spirited joke about his grandmother dying was odd but very solid.
— I like Amy’s hints at her small chest size during the breast-enlarging shampoos/soaps/lotions bit with her and Seth. However, she almost ruined it in typical Amy-Poehler-on-Weekend-Update fashion by making an annoyingly corny, hammy, cutesy ad-lib at the end of the bit.
STARS: ***½


VERSACE SUPER BOWL PARTY
Elton John (HOS) attends Donatella Versace’s (MAR) Super Bowl Party

— Jesus Christ, they’re still trotting out these way-past-their-prime Versace sketches in 2007? By this point, I had forgotten these sketches were even a thing. After all, the last Versace sketch prior to this was two seasons ago when Johnny Knovxille hosted. Tonight’s Versace sketch also (mercifully) ends up being the final one.
— Maya’s Versace explains her long absence by saying she was in rehab for two years. Meh, SNL could’ve come up with a funnier reason for her two-year absence.
— Somewhat interesting to see Fred’s Prince outside of those tired and formulaic Prince Show sketches, but I’m not sure putting him in a Versace sketch is the way to add new life to this impression.
— They’re even repeating the tired “Hey, where did Prince go?” gag from the Prince Show sketches, though I guess that adds up, as James Anderson is, I believe, the writer of both the Prince Show and these Versace sketches.
— The atmosphere of this sketch feels kinda dead so far, which is further proof of how way-past-their-prime these Versace sketches are.
— Wow, TWO big sketch appearances tonight from the Weekend Update-only Seth!
— Seth’s high-pitched British accent as David Beckham reminds me of Dana Carvey, for some reason. Anyway, Seth’s adding some much-needed fun life to this otherwise laughless tripe.
— Was that a “Da Bearrrsssss” self-reference SNL randomly made just now, with Versace telling the Beckhams that they’re so boring, if they were a football team, they’d be called “Da Borrrreeeesssss” (ugh, what an awful, hacky joke).
— As if this sketch weren’t insufferable enough, we now get a random Horatio Sanz cameo? And as Elton John? (*groan*)
— Horatio is noticeably a little thinner here compared to how he looked in his days as a cast member. As we now know, this is only the beginning of a drastic weight loss that would eventually result in a legitimately thin and healthy-looking Horatio. Maybe getting fired from SNL was the best thing to happen to his health.
— Ugh at that joke about Elton John being a “musical fruit”, not to mention the subsequent barrage of hacky gay jokes about Elton John that these Versace sketches always bombard us with.
STARS: *½


JO-JO THE VALET
at a country club, valet (AMP) woos out-of-his-league divorcee (host)

— Amy playing a character that, in hindsight, comes off as a very Kate McKinnon type of character. After having gotten so used to seeing Kate play roles like this in recent years, it feels odd now seeing Amy play it in an old sketch that I hadn’t seen since 2007.
— Amy’s portrayal of this character is solid.
— Amy as Jo-Jo: “I don’t have a fancy house…or a house.”
— Funny snobbish voices from Will and the sadly-very-underused Bill Hader, reminding me of the snobbish voices they used in that great tennis sketch from the preceding season’s Tom Hanks episode.
— A very odd sketch, but Amy’s performance is definitely making it work for me.
— SNL would later attempt to bring this Jo-Jo character back in an episode later this season (I think the Peyton Manning episode, but I’m not sure), in a sketch where Jo-Jo is a waiter at a restaurant, but the sketch would end up getting cut after dress rehearsal. I think I recall hearing that the sketch can be seen in the bonus features of SNL’s “Best Of 2006-2007” DVD.
STARS: ***½


FIRESTARTER BRAND SMOKED SAUSAGES
pyrokinetic Charlie McGee (host) hawks Firestarter-brand smoked sausages

— SNL keeps the unique and oddball sketch concepts going tonight, as we now get this wonderfully-absurd and creative piece.
— Great callback to a childhood movie role of Drew’s.
— I absolutely love Jason’s performance as this bizarre singer character, a very Will Ferrell-esque role.
— This was cut after dress rehearsal from Drew’s season 29 episode. I’m VERY curious as to who played Jason’s role in that version of this sketch, given the fact that Jason was only a writer that season and wasn’t in the cast yet. The only season 29 cast member I can picture playing this role is Will Forte (and I’m sure he would’ve killed it in this role just as much as Jason, if not moreso), but he’s still on the show by this point in 2007, and I doubt SNL would take the role away from him. Then again, maybe Jason himself was the one who wrote this sketch back in season 29, and perhaps that’s the reason for SNL now letting him play this singer role.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “LDN”


FORMOSA CAFE
Peter O’Toole (BIH) & progenal sot host elegize drinking’s glory days

— Ah, Bill Hader front-and-center as the lead in a sketch. Sad how that feels rare at this stage of his SNL tenure.
— Great to see Bill’s Peter O’Toole impression back, after that very solid Weekend Update commentary he did earlier this season.
— I love the style of this sketch, as well as the interplay between Bill and Drew. Bill also has lots of great lines here. I especially love his line about flashing his “O’Toole”.
STARS: ****


NELSON’S BABY TOUPEES
— They’re still re-running this commercial from the preceding season?


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode, despite two typical weak recurring things (Target Lady, Versace), and a tepid American Idol cold opening. A big part of what I admire about this episode is how it tried a lot of different, unconventional sketches (especially in the post-Weekend Update half of the show), all of which worked for me to varying degrees.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeremy Piven)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Forest Whitaker

Posted on

January 20, 2007 – Jeremy Piven / AFI (S32 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Obama-fearing Hillary Clinton (AMP) backtracks on Iraq stance

— This ends up being SNL’s final Hardball sketch.
— The Hardball sketch from earlier this season shook up the usual Hardball format, but tonight’s Hardball sketch PARTICULARLY shakes up the format. It’s 100% different tonight, right down to Darrell playing Chris Matthews in a very non-comedic, straightforward way (which makes his typical Chris Matthews delivery come off out of place).
— That goofy laugh from Amy’s Hillary Clinton is apparently an attempt from Amy to make her Hillary impression her own.
— Some funny lines, but I’m not caring too much for the sluggish pacing of this. This feels like it’s going on FOREVER. I seem to be in the minority in not caring much for this cold opening, as I remember a lot of my fellow reviewers back in 2007 gave this a positive review. I guess I’m just not a fan of SNL starting episodes with dull, slow-paced, long-winded, talky political cold openings (though there are some exceptions, I guess). How is that supposed to get me eager for the episode we’re about to see?
— A pretty good laugh from Amy’s Hillary smugly laughing off a criticism while saying “Heavens to Murgatroyd!”
— An okay sudden turn with Amy-as-Hillary’s angry, bleeped-filled rant, but I dunno, even THAT feels a little too forced and out of place to me.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host uses intimate table for two to connect with a female audience member

— Ooh, I like this out-of-the ordinary monologue premise of “host attempts an intimate connection with a random audience member”. However, I’m not sure Jeremy Piven is the right person to pull this off. Maybe it’s because I’ve always found something about him kinda off-putting, even long before he got Me Too-ed.
— Hmm, turns out Jeremy actually isn’t bad at all in this. He’s handling this expertly, and his offbeat dialogue to the audience member (a plant, I’m sure) is consistently making me laugh. Lots of fun stuff here.
STARS: ****


URIGRO
Urigro ensures that (JAS)’s urination will be forceful & voluminous

— A juvenile premise, but Jason is absolutely perfect for this, and this is being executed really well.
— I love Jason’s ending line, “This one’s a two-flusher.”
STARS: ****


NFL ON CBS
ill boy Danny Hoover’s (ANS) catchphrase irks NFL broadcasters in booth

— An okay execution of a fairly simplistic premise. This is the kind of thing that Andy is typically good at making work.
— Jeremy’s mean-spirited, angry rant complaining about Andy’s “terminal illness” being ADD is pretty funny.
— Good reveal of Andy’s ADD actually standing for Automatic Death Disease.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio And Stuff” by RBS- cartoon chipmunks will rule in 2007

— Hmm, a bit of a change, with “Fun with Real Audio and Stuff”.
— Not too crazy about this chipmunk premise, but there are some laughs from the initial scene of Chipmunk President Bush.
— Okay, the chipmunk version of The Sopranos is actually really funny.
— Meh, not only is the farting underwater bit not working for me, but it’s going on WAAAYYY too long.
— This is the second consecutive episode where SNL has used that same stock footage of a squirrel water-skiing.
STARS: **


THE FIRST PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD TO DANCE
caveman (JAS) discovers dancing

— I remember when this originally aired, some online SNL fans, including myself, had a hard time telling which performer that was playing the dancing caveman in this sketch. I was only able to eventually figure out the performer was Jason because I noticed the performer resembled Dane Cook under those facial caveman prosthetics, and Jason typically already has a somewhat strong facial resemblance to Dane Cook (which some online SNL fans had pointed out when Dane hosted earlier this same season).
— Such a fun, random, and creative concept, and Jason is a blast in his discovery of dancing.
— Great escalation to the gag, with Jason now randomly pulling out glow sticks.
— The fact that there’s no dialogue at all in this sketch (not counting Don Pardo’s voice-over intro and outtro) is adding to its unique feel.
STARS: ****½


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s (WLF) escape plan requires JoJo (host) to handle a dog turd

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Incredible theme song, sung by Will himself.
— Pretty funny line from Maya about how she can’t pick up the dog turd because she’s keeping count of how many seconds they have left before the bomb explodes.
— Amusing in hindsight to see how simple this first MacGruber short comes off compared to the concepts of the later MacGruber shorts. Still a very solid debut in its own right, though.
STARS: ****


TWO A-HOLES AT AN ADOPTION AGENCY
at an adoption agency, (host) deems A-Holes unworthy of becoming parents

— Another solid setting for these solid characters.
— Hilarious bit with the A-Holes bombarding Jeremy with non-stop questions during his phone conversation. I especially love Jason randomly asking “What’s your vertical? Can you get rim?”
— A very good laugh from the reveal that the A-Holes want their baby to look like Baby Gonzo.
— What the holy fuck happened at the end of this sketch? Did something go wrong? Why was there such a long, awkward pause, with none of the characters doing anything while just standing around and looking at each other, before the screen cut to the “Two A-Holes at an Adoption Agency” title screen? Did someone forget a line? Was the ending of this sketch re-written at the last minute, but Jeremy refused to read the cue cards, and thus, wasn’t aware of the last-minute change? Was the sketch scripted to end awkwardly like this? I WANT ANSWERS, DAMMIT! 😉
STARS: **** (despite that baffling ending)


MACGRUBER
JoJo refuses to contribute pubic hair to unlikely escape plan

— Will, after Jeremy refuses to cooperate when asked to find pubic hair: “Look, I would use my own, but I’m a shaver!”
— Somebody getting cut-off mid-sentence by a hard cut to an explosion never fails to crack me up each time it happens in these MacGruber shorts.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Like Winter”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rich Little (DAH) will use impressions to embarrass George W. Bush

incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Michael Vick’s bonehead pot move

— Seth has been doing quite a number of controversial Islamic jokes lately.
— Darrell once again playing his earlier-era counterpart, Rich Little.
— Pretty fun to see Darrell doing vocal impressions of celebrities who we’ve never seen him actually play on SNL before (Ronald Reagan, Pee Wee Herman, etc.), and his topical jokes are amusing me.
— Meh, I could do without the turn in Darrell-as-Rich-Little’s Johnny Carson bit, with Amy poorly doing an Ed McMahon voice and laugh. It also reminds me of Michael McKean, as Robert Shapiro, doing a bad McMahon in that season 20 sketch with Dana Carvey as Johnny Carson cross-examining at the O.J. Simpson trial.
— Seth bitterly exclaiming “MOM!!” at the end of his joke about video games satisfying deep psychological needs and improving the players’ well-being feels like a precursor to a running joke that future Update anchor Colin Jost would occasionally do, only his punchline has him saying “Dad” instead of “Mom”. I prefer Jost’s version. Seth exaggerated his facial expression way too much during his “MOM!!” punchline tonight, making it come off corny and try-too-hard. Jost, on the other hand, always sells his “Dad” punchlines perfectly with a great deadpan, almost-sullen facial expression.
— The debut of Seth and Amy’s “Really” segment.
— Funny how the controversial marijuana-related Michael Vick incident that tonight’s “Really” is focusing on comes off very tame in hindsight compared to the dog-fighting controversy Vick would get into and become forever infamous for just later this same year (2007).
— Seth and Amy are on fire during this “Really” segment, and they’re making plenty of very funny and biting points. IIRC, some of the later editions of “Really” would be pretty tepid, tame, and flavorless, but tonight’s debut is killer.
— Meh, I’m kinda lukewarm on how Seth ended tonight’s otherwise-flawless “Really” edition with a corny “I know you’re a running quarterback, but throw your weed away!” That corny pun itself deserves a “Really?!?” reaction. (I’ve been using the word “corny” to describe Seth an awful lot in this review, which I feel bad about, because I typically like him as an anchorperson in these early years of his Update tenure. Amy is usually the far-worse offender in this Update era when it comes to cringeworthy corniness.)
— Ha, the running gag of SNL writer John Lutz being shown in a comical Update photo continues! (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this Update)
STARS: ***½


BLIZZARD MAN
Common [real] doesn’t want to share a stage with dweeby Blizzard Man

— A huge audio gaffe right out of the gate, as all of the dialogue is almost completely inaudible in the first 15 seconds of this sketch.
— Oh, apparently, Kenan Thompson is a cast member this season. He’s been appearing so little lately that I’ve honestly been starting to forget he’s in the cast. And why does it feel like most of his only appearances lately have been as a DJ?
— No audience reaction to Common? Maybe he wasn’t all that big yet in 2007. I recall an online SNL fan back at this time in ’07 having a theory that the reason for the audience’s non-reaction to Common’s cameo is because he facially resembles the then-recently-fired-from-SNL Finesse Mitchell so much that the audience may have mistakenly though he was Finesse. Meh, I personally think that theory’s a bit of a stretch, even if I can see a facial resemblance between Common and Finesse. Plus, let’s be honest: audiences probably already forgot what Finesse looks like even when he was still on the show.
— I love the extremely early 90s-looking 8-ball jacket Andy’s Blizzard Man enters in.
— I like the change of scenery for this Blizzard Man sketch, taking this character out of the recording studio. Unfortunately, SNL would end up going back to the recording studio setting for all of this character’s subsequent appearances.
— Hmm, even with the change of scenery, this sketch is still basically using the same script from the first installment of this sketch. It’s still funny, but I prefer the first one far more. If you’re going to make this sketch recurring, you need to change the script up more. (Unfortunately, as we now know, SNL would end up NEVER doing that, and they would instead just keep re-writing the same script in every single one of Blizzard Man’s subsequent appearances, right down to lazily having Kenan play the exact same record producer character every single time who gets blindsided by how bad Blizzard Man’s raps are, as if Kenan’s character hadn’t ALREADY been blindsided by how bad Blizzard Man’s raps were in previous installments.)
— There’s Kenan delivering what today is recognized as a Kenan Thompson trademark: him yelling a very stern “NO!” in reaction to something.
— Common’s delivery is coming off slow-paced and stiff in this sketch.
— I love Blizzard Man’s random Humpty Dance reference.
— The ending came off as a knock-off of the weak ending from that season 29 sketch with Colin Firth doing a flamboyant, lispy, gay-sounding accent when trying to sound American in a movie he’s doing.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
forget the escape plan, JoJo won’t touch a bucket of bum sperm

— Another case of “Early Installment Weirdness” regarding tonight’s inaugural MacGruber shorts: we don’t get new lyrics in the theme song of each MacGruber installment tonight like we do in subsequent SNL episodes that contain a MacGruber runner. Tonight, each MacGruber installment just has an increasingly shortened version of the same initial MacGruber theme song.
— It’s strangely hilarious how each MacGruber short has MacGruber and his friends still alive and completely unaffected by the explosion they endured at the end of their previous appearance, and also has them locked in YET ANOTHER control room that looks the exact same as the last control room they were locked in. I love that.
— Wow, this has got to be the shortest MacGruber short ever. I like how simple this was, though. It’s surprising brevity was part of what made it so funny.
— Surprisingly, these pre-taped MacGruber shorts are Maya’s ONLY appearances all night. She’s nowhere to be seen in any of this episode’s live segments.
STARS: ****


CRYSTAL FALLS TOWN COUNCIL
pixie (AMP) tries to stop shopping mall slated for Unicorn Forest site

— Jesus Christ, Bill is just NOW making his first appearance of the night? And in just a straight man role? (*sigh*) Man, SNL’s poor utilization of Bill in his early seasons hurts to watch. I can’t wait until we reach the point of Bill’s tenure where SNL uses him much more often and embraces him as an essential utility player.
— I love Jason’s character. Even the little character detail of him having a mustache is a solid touch.
— I really like how this oddball sketch feels like a spiritual successor to the delightfully-oddball Magic Fish Town Meeting sketch from the season 18 Luke Perry episode. Tonight’s sketch isn’t quite as good, but it’s still very solid.
— A fun use of most of this cast as an ensemble, with each performer getting their turn in the spotlight, one-by-one.
— I wanted to like that random ending with a Will Forte-voiced talking unicorn more than I did.
STARS: ****


NURSE NANCY
Scott Garbaciak (ANS) plays all roles in fatsuit flick

— A pretty funny and accurate spoof of comedy movies with an actor playing multiple characters, including a fatsuit character.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Miss Murder”

— Apparently, the audio issues from the beginning of the Blizzard Man sketch have returned, as AFI’s lead singer cannot be heard AT ALL at the beginning of this performance.
— Okay, the lead singer’s microphone has now finally gotten turned on.
— I think I spoke too soon, because even after the lead singer’s mic got turned on, the volume of it keeps going up and down all throughout this performance, making at least 50% of his singing barely audible. Yikes.
— I recall an online SNL fan back at this time in 2007, who was clearly not a fan of AFI’s music, saying SNL may have been doing us a favor with these audio gaffes during this musical performance.


LANSFORD BROTHERS & ASSOCIATES: HANGMEN-AT-LAW
hangmen-at-law Lansford Brothers (WLF) & (BIH) won’t botch an execution

— A fairly funny concept, and I absolutely LOVE this Forte/Hader pairing, an SNL duo that we deserved to see paired together much more often than we end up seeing in this SNL era. The only subsequent Forte/Hader pairings after tonight’s episode that I can think of off the top of my head are the “Fartface” sketches (the first of which I recall being a notorious and very poorly-received sketch, but is a huge guilty pleasure of mine, so much so, that I can quote pretty much that entire sketch by heart), and a suicide prevention sketch where Paul Rudd is a man about to jump off the ledge of a building. All sketches feature very fun chemistry between Will and Bill.
— Several funny lines from Bill throughout this.
— Yet another fun and hilarious performance from Jason tonight, this time as “Sammy Han-gar”. Jason has been killing it in tonight’s episode. If I chose an MVP for each episode in my reviews (please don’t ask me to start doing that), Jason would easily get my pick for this episode.
— For a host, Jeremy Piven seems to be absent from an unusual amount of segments tonight, though he was in all three of the MacGruber shorts. It also feels like in all the live sketches he’s appeared in, he’s played nothing but forgettable straight man roles, which is particularly strange to me after he proved his comedy chops in a monologue that a lot of hosts wouldn’t have been able to pull off.
STARS: ***


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of camerman Michael DiBari marks his passing


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. A lot of four-star ratings from me throughout this review, though that’s partly because I rated each of the three MacGruber shorts separately, which is really going to make this review’s rating average make this episode seem better than it is. (I guess we should get used to that for episodes I review that have multiple MacGruber shorts.) Overall, not much to complain about in this episode, and a lot of really good stuff.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jake Gyllenhaal)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Drew Barrymore becomes a five-timer

Posted on

January 13, 2007 – Jake Gyllenhaal / The Shins (S32 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
George W. Bush’s (JAS) troop surge will send just about everybody to Iraq

— SNL continues to push their new Bush impersonator hard, with this being the FOURTH cold opening featuring him in just the last FIVE episodes. I just wish they’d give him better material.
— A laugh from how Jason-as-Bush’s listing-off of uniform-wearers and regular gun-carriers who he’s sending off to Iraq includes Civil War re-enactors and Allen Iverson.
— Meh, the constant listing-off from Jason’s Bush is getting old.
— Meh again, a tepid punchline at the end of this.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
in Dreamgirls garb, host sings “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”

— I love the gleeful look on Jason’s face in the audience.
— This ends up being Will’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode. IIRC, this is thankfully the last gasp of his frequently-limited airtime this season resulting from him being busy filming The Brothers Solomon. His airtime returns to normal for the remainder of this season.
— The concept of Jake Gyllenhaal stripping down to a dress reminds me an awful lot of Antonio Banderas’ very random monologue from the preceding season, though Jake goes even further with it by putting on an accompanying female wig and busting out a Dreamgirls musical number.
— I normally wouldn’t like a monologue like this, but, much like the aforementioned Antonio Banderas in his monologue, Jake is putting his ALL into this, is selling the hell out of this, and is winning me over.
— I like the addition of Maya, Amy, and Kristen as backup singers, but that may just be because, as I mentioned in my last episode review, I like this season’s underrated Rudolph/Poehler/Wiig female trio whenever they’re paired together.
STARS: ***


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(host) & (AMP), (KRW), (MAR) perform for charity

— Is it just me, or was the Wiig-voiced MTV4 intro longer than it usually is in these Deep House Dish sketches?
— Jake and Amy’s post-song interview is actually funny, especially them admitting the song they performed is their worst song. I also love the humorous accent Jake’s using.
— (*sigh*) The “Ooh-wee, T’Shane” portions of this sketch continue to be unbearable to watch.
— I like Maya’s smooth ad-lib when her earring accidentally falls off.
— Maya’s interview mostly fell flat for me.
STARS: **


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
mercurial New Yorkers Betty (AMP) & Jodi (MAR) flatter (host)

— This sketch makes its debut.
— Despite the cookie-cutter concept of Maya and Amy’s characters and the fact that SNL has certainly had various recurring talk show sketches with this type of character before, I’m enjoying Maya and Amy’s characterizations and interplay with each other. While I had never been a fan of Bronx Beat as a recurring sketch back when this SNL era originally aired, I’m going into this first installment with an open mind during my current viewing.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Maya and Amy bombarding Jake with motor-mouthed questions on what nationality he is while complimenting him on his looks.
— I like Maya and Amy randomly deciding to bring Jake back long after his interview has ended, and continue to question and compliment him.
— Overall, judging tonight’s Bronx Beat debut fairly on its own merits without letting my knowledge of this becoming an overused recurring sketch affect my judgment, I cannot deny the fact this was actually a good debut. A charming, likable, funny, well-performed, and enjoyable sketch. It’s a shame if Bronx Beat indeed eventually falls victim to diminishing returns in subsequent installments, like how I remember. (I do recall the Forest Whitaker and Brian Williams ones being charming, though.)
STARS: ***½


TRUMP PRESS CONFERENCE
Donald Trump (DAH) disses Rosie O’Donnell at putative Apprentice presser

— SNL’s doing quite a lot of consecutive segments tonight with no commercial breaks in between. Maya and Amy in particular have A LOT of rapid-fire costume changes to make throughout this episode. Then again, it’s possible that this particular sketch is another instance of a seemingly-live sketch actually being a recording of a sketch that was taped live at dress rehearsal, an odd habit that I mentioned in an earlier review SNL sometimes had in the 2000s.
— This “Trump bashes Rosie O’Donnell at every single turn” premise is blah.
— Yeah, so far, there’s very little to like here.
STARS: *½


COOL FOOD
(host) & (KRW) see anthropomorphic meat at the coolest restaurant in town

— What the hell am I watching? This sure is one corny premise. Feels like something straight out of some kiddie comedy show, which echoes a complaint of mine about another restaurant sketch, Hot Plates, even if this Cool Food sketch is definitely nowhere near as insufferable.
— I can definitely see some people finding this sketch to have a silly charm, and I wish I could feel that way, too, but this just ain’t doing it for me.
— Decent visual effect of a screaming Andy being picked up by a fork.
— An actual pretty funny punchline with Jake’s reveal of him and Kristen having done mushrooms before going to this restaurant.
STARS: **


LASER CATS! 2
feline sci-fi sequel by ANS & BIH further annoys LOM

— Laser Cats has officially become a once-a-year recurring segment.
— Bill, when acting dismissive towards the concept of cats shooting lasers out of their mouth: “That’s kids stuff.” No, Bill, kids stuff would be that Cool Food sketch we saw right before this (minus the drug-related ending).
— Funny little gag with Amy carefully placing her cup down on the table when she’s slowly “fainting”.
— Interesting and fun little detail of a superimposed ping-pong ball during Andy and Bill’s slow-motion ping-pong game.
— I love the cheap use of a copy machine as an identity scanner.
— Great gag with Bill’s Laser Cat reloading by eating cat food from a dish.
— Strong twist ending with how Andy kills the villain.
— A good slight variation of the “Get out” ending with Lorne. I mentioned in my review of the first Laser Cats short that I never liked how they made it a staple of these shorts to ALWAYS end with Lorne telling Andy and Bill to get out, but I’ll try to have more of an open mind towards that in these reviews. The reprisal of the “Get out” gag worked for me tonight, and hopefully it will continue to when I review the subsequent Laser Cats installments.
— Overall, much like the first Laser Cats short, so much silly, dumb fun here (which is pretty much the reaction I wish I could’ve gotten from Cool Food). A blast to watch, and I look forward to seeing our next annual Laser Cats short the following season.
STARS: ****½


STOCK FOOTAGE AWARDS
hackneyed broadcast news b-roll is celebrated

— As usual, I’m wary about SNL doing an award show sketch, given their poor track record with them.
— Kristen’s Jane Pauley: “Good evening, I’m Jane Pauley, and I’m here because Katie Couric didn’t want to be.”
— The premise of this particular award show sketch focusing on the use of b-roll footage in news reports actually seems kinda fun in a strange way. I even like the little detail of the award statuette being a gold-plated VHS tape.
— I like Kristen-as-Pauley and Darrell-as-Dan-Rather’s sour look after fake-laughing at the footage of a squirrel water-skiing.
— I’m kinda surprised this sketch has ended already, but that’s probably a good thing. SNL’s award show sketches tend to go on way too long, and the premise of this particular sketch was kept the correct length, with a decent amount of laughs and without stretching the premise too thin.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Phantom Limb”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Steve Jobs (FRA) touts the iPhone’s myriad unbelievable features

Whitney Houston (MAR) hawks items left over from her storage unit auction

— SNL writer John Lutz makes his way into yet another Weekend Update photo (the second above screencap for this Update). I love how it’s a running gag to use him in humorous Update photos.
— I’m wary of Fred doing another iPod/iPhone commentary, given how weak his last one was the preceding season.
— I like “on/off button” being randomly mentioned among the amazing features of the new iPhone.
— Fred’s overall Steve Jobs commentary tonight was an improvement over his last one.
— A lot of solid jokes between Amy and Seth tonight.
— Uh-oh. Here comes Maya’s Whitney Houston to hurt the momentum of this solid Update. I was not a fan of her last Update commentary at all.
— I did get a laugh from Maya’s Whitney humming the Sanford And Son theme song.
— Maya’s overall Whitney commentary tonight was thankfully not as annoying as her last one, but it still didn’t do much for me.
STARS: ***½


LAW & ORDER MASTER CLASS
(host) learns from acting guru (AMP) who specializes in Law & Order roles

— A pretty funny and promising concept.
— Amy is really solid at imitating how actors playing employees being questioned in a Law & Order scene are always moving around during their dialogue.
— Fun sequence with Jake having to act out various Law & Order scenarios in rapid-fire speed.
— Fred is cracking me up as an out-of-work Sam Waterston impersonator.
— Did I just see someone running through the background during the Sam Waterston impersonator scene? Was that Maya rushing off the set to get ready for the next sketch? (I told you she and Amy have had to do a lot of fast costume changes tonight.)
STARS: ****


WHEELCHAIR DATES
(host) & (MAR) play matchmakers to wheelchair-bound (JAS) & (KRW)

— Funny reveal of the date that the wheelchair-bound Jason has been set up with turning out to be a wheelchair-bound Kristen.
— I like Jake and Maya constantly avoiding trying to point out Jason and Kristen’s wheelchair similarity, and badly trying to act overly oblivious whenever Jason and Kristen call attention to the wheelchairs.
— Lots of funny lines from Jake and Maya. I can see their occasional yelling of their lines coming off annoying to some people, but it’s not bothering me at all.
— I love Maya randomly and uncontrollably blurting out the inappropriate question “HOW DO YOU GO TO THE BATHROOM?!?” towards Jason and Kristen.
— A charming and funny ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New Slang”


KAPLAN, LIEBOWITZ & DOLEMITE
lawyers Kaplan (FRA), Liebowitz (host), Dolemite (KET) will represent you

— Funny random concept of Dolemite being in a law firm trio.
— Amusing little detail with Jake’s lazy eye.
— Wait, this sketch is concluding ALREADY?!? After only about 40 seconds?!? There’s NO WAY it was originally planned to be this brief and pointless. There were barely any jokes even delivered here before the sketch abruptly wrapped up. The show must’ve run long and the writer of this sketch was probably forced to do some last-minute trimming to the script before the sketch went on air (much like what happened with the Wine Tasters sketch from the end of the preceding season’s Antonio Banderas episode, though at least THAT sketch still remained funny even in its trimmed form, which is more than I can say for this Dolemite sketch).
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. Not much stood out as particularly great and there were some weak spots, but the show did have a good flow and a nice vibe running through the night, which made even some of the weaker sketches have a better atmosphere. Jake Gyllenhaal was a likable and somewhat fun host, and partly attributed to the nice vibe this episode had.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jeremy Piven

Posted on

December 16, 2006 – Justin Timberlake (S32 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SANTA’S MY BOYFRIEND
St. Nicholas-smitten AMP, KRW, MAR sing “Santa’s My Boyfriend”

— A nice change of pace for a cold opening.
— A funny and charming reveal that the new boyfriend the ladies are singing about is Santa.
— Fun chemistry between Maya, Amy, and Kristen. Whenever I think of SNL’s short-lived Rudolph/Poehler/Wiig trio of female cast members, this cold opening is always the first thing to pop in my mind. They may not be as acclaimed a female group as the Fey/Dratch/Rudolph/Poehler group, but I like this group, and they would end up being the last female cast for years (at least until Kristen leaves the show) that has any kind of cohesion.
— Very solid song from the ladies, and this is something I can kinda picture appearing in a very early SNL era, such as with Gilda, Jane, and Laraine.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host, Alvin (BIH), Simon (FRA), Theodore (ANS) sing “The Chipmunk Song”

— Being so used to Justin Timberlake’s hosting stints, it’s hard to believe this is only his second time hosting. He’s already coming off as a comfortable veteran host here.
— A fun and silly concept of Justin singing with Alvin and The Chipmunks, played by the cast.
— Bill constantly alternating between portraying Alvin in a bro-ish way and a conventional way is solid.
— I love Justin’s occasional Dave-esque angry yells of “AAALLLVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!”
STARS: ****


COMPETING CHARITIES
singing & dancing mascot & Salvation Army Santa (WLF) compete for change

— Like the first time Justin played this character the last time he hosted, I admire Justin’s fun energy, but I don’t care for the sketch itself. I had remembered tonight’s installment being the best installment of this sketch, but it’s not holding up well for me in my current viewing so far.
— I admit, I am finding Justin’s soup-themed take on Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop” catchy.
— Pretty funny line from Justin about how Christmas isn’t about kicking a cup of soup in the “croutons”, after Will has kneed him in the groin.
— I remember a fellow SNL reviewer from back at this time in 2006 (who’s username was “Mike (male)”, I believe) pointing out that Justin was so damn good in this sketch that he was even able to withstand ALL of the props accidentally falling down in the background during his and Will’s duet at the end.
— What was with the awkward look on Justin’s face at the end after he and Will say in unison “Bring it on in to Salvation Army/Homelessville!” He looked like something genuinely might’ve been bothering him, but maybe I’m looking too much into it (as I often tend to do).
— Overall, slightly better than these Dancing Mascot sketches usually are, but that’s still faint praise from me.
STARS: **½


TARGET
Target Lady & stock boy (host) exasperate holiday shoppers (MAR) & (WLF)

— You’d be forgiven for mistakenly thinking as soon as this sketch shows up that this is the Target Lady sketch where Justin plays his memorable “Classic Peg” character, but this is actually a different Target Lady sketch, in which Justin plays a completely different and far-less-remembered character. Justin plays Peg in his next hosting stint in season 34.
— SNL couldn’t even be bothered to put fake blood on Justin’s lip? It seemed silly when the camera cut to a close-up of him with a non-bloody lip after Maya pointed out that his lip is bleeding.
— Not sure how to feel about Justin’s character in this sketch so far. It certainly doesn’t hold a candle to “Classic Peg”, that’s for sure.
— I like Justin’s knowing, foreshadowing delivery of “I hope a third thing doesn’t happen to theeeeeeemmmm” regarding the frequent misfortunes happening to his chapped lips. Otherwise, I’m not caring for the comedic conceit of his character.
— The Target Lady material is getting the usual blah reactions from me. At least we got a long break from this character after her last appearance prior to this (almost an exact year earlier, in the preceding season’s Peter Sarsgaard episode), a long break that I remember lulled me into a false sense of security back at this time, with me assuming SNL had given up on doing these sketches.
STARS: **


DICK IN A BOX
(host) & (ANS) sing about giving a phallic present

— Here comes another all-time very famous and legendary Lonely Island Digital Short.
— Great early 90s R&B look to Andy and Justin’s characters.
— Kristen doing absolutely solid work as usual, even in her silent, simple role of a sensual, sultry girlfriend.
— Hilarious reveal of what’s in the box that Justin gives to Kristen.
— An extremely catchy song. I particularly love the melody of the “See, I’m wiiiise enough to knoooow…” part, which I think is actually a sample from a real song from the early 90s (not sure which song, though).
— Maya’s emotional, heartfelt reaction to her dick-in-a-box gift is very funny.
— Even the little part where a shot of Andy sliding down a banister is played back-and-forth in forwards and reverse is so perfect.
— A particularly hilarious, stand-out part with the steps on how to make a dick in a box (“1: cut a hole in the box… etc.”).
— Another perfect little touch is the false ending, where Andy and Justin are shown on a stage singing the lyric “It’s my (*bleep*) in a box!” in unison, and then they stand in a frozen pose with their arms cheesily up in the air while the music stops, making you assume that’s the end of the short (I know *I* thought so when this short originally aired), only for the music, singing, and dancing to suddenly continue out of nowhere. I love that fake-out.
— Excellent ending with Andy and Justin getting arrested.
— Overall, absolutely perfect and epic, and by far breaks the slump of good-but-not-great Digital Shorts that this season has had. I remember how it was especially exciting to witness this short as it aired live and ALREADY have that feeling that you’re watching something truly special, something that you can tell will be the talk of the town online for the next week or so, especially after having seen how Lazy Sunday got that treatment an exact year prior.
— Until now, I had recently been of the (possibly unpopular) opinion that, as great as this short is, its later sequel, Mother Lovers, is actually superior to it. I’m now re-thinking that opinion, as I ended up enjoying Dick In A Box during this current re-watch more than I expected to. We’ll see how I feel about how the great Mother Lovers stacks up against this when we reach that episode.
STARS: *****


THE BARRY GIBB TALK SHOW
Jimmy Carter (DAH) & others discuss Iraq

— I’m sure to a good number of people, Dick In A Box immediately being followed by Barry Gibb Talk Show is a tremendous one-two punch (hell, just listen to the audience: their exuberant applause as the screen fades to black at the end of Dick In A Box turns into absolutely WILD screaming when the screen then fades in to this Barry Gibb sketch), but for me, the return of Barry Gibb Talk Show hurts the momentum that the show gained with Dick In A Box, as I never cared for Barry Gibb Talk Show as a recurring sketch. I’ve always felt it should’ve just stayed a one-off, as the sketch only worked for me in its debut. However, at least this sketch will keep up the huge energy that’s been in the air tonight.
— Here we have Jimmy Fallon during the odd, awkward, dark stage of his post-SNL career, after his failed attempt to become a movie star, but before his successful attempt to become a late night talk show host.
— I will say that I always love that Barry Gibb Talk Show theme song, at least.
— I got a chuckle from Justin’s Robin Gibb unhappily doing a facepalm in reaction to Kristen-as-Sandra-Day-O’Connor’s corny “Stayin’ Alive” pun.
— There goes Justin’s obligatory character break that happens once in every installment of this sketch, though this particular break was just a very mild and quick smirk.
— Speaking of breaking, I once again give credit to Jimmy for getting so into character as Barry Gibb that he refrains from his usual habit of breaking easily.
— Darrell’s Jimmy Carter routine feels kinda out of place in this sketch.
STARS: **


DRY EYES
game show contestants (host) & (FRA) try to keep from crying

— Unless I’m forgetting something, this is the very first game show host Bill has ever played. As we know now, he would go on to be one of SNL’s best-ever at regularly playing game show hosts.
— I love Bill’s reaction to Fred losing the first round by instantly crying.
— Very funny little part with Justin jovially laughing off Bill disclosing the sad fact that Justin’s father left him at a young age.
— Whenever Justin is fighting to keep from crying, I love the intense, wide-eyed look he stares into the camera with while turning his head slightly to the side (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Fred is so good at making comical crying faces.
— What was the point of casting Kristen in the EXTREMELY brief, silent walk-on role as a game show model who walks Fred off of the show? SNL might as well have gotten an extra to play that role.
— The Sad Songs round Justin performs in is pretty solid.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “My Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Lou Dobbs (DAH) wants two walls & a trap door built along Mexican border

New Jerseyite same-sex couple’s Christmas wishes have been fulfilled

— Darrell-as-Lou-Dobbs’ line about eating a taco was pretty funny.
— A laugh from Darrell-as-Dobbs’ unconventional concepts regarding a Mexican border wall.
— Darrell’s overall Lou Dobbs commentary was short and sweet.
— Some really solid Update jokes tonight.
— Blah, the return of the Same-Sex New Jersey Couple. Sure, these characters are progressive compared to SNL’s demeaning portrayal of gays prior to this season, but these characters do nothing for me otherwise.
— I remember an SNL reviewer from back at this time in 2006 (I think the same reviewer I mentioned earlier: “Mike (male)”) made a good point when complaining that the fact that the second question Seth asks the Same-Sex New Jersey Couple in their so-called “topical” commentary tonight is a completely off-topic “What are you guys gonna get each other for Christmas?” is proof that SNL was really pushing it bringing these characters back tonight when the writers clearly didn’t have much of a way to tie them to current events this week. Did SNL just desperately want to use that groan-worthy mistletoe gag?
— What was with both Seth and Amy waving goodbye to us in unison in a cheesy, exaggerated manner during their sign-off? Inside joke, I take it?
STARS: ***½


HIP HOP KIDS
beats & dance moves harm chances of escape from mineshaft

— I recall disliking this sketch in my original 2006 review of this episode (link here), to the degree that, on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board where I originally posted that review, a board member who usually really liked my reviews actually called me out on being “way off” on my negative opinion of this Hip Hop Kids sketch (gee, thanks for telling me that MY OPINION is wrong). In fact, I’ve noticed over the years that a lot of people seem to have a high regard for this sketch. I’ll go through this sketch with an open mind this time, in an attempt to see what all the hoopla is about.
— Surprisingly, this is Jason and Kenan’s respective first appearance of the night, and for Jason, it ends up being his ONLY appearance of the night.
— There goes Maya doing that slowly-lean-back-in-a-staccato-manner dance move in yet another sketch.
— Amy: “That’s a stalactite, Jo-Jessica! You gotta recognize your sedimentary rock formations!”
— Oh, I love the voice Jason’s using.
— Jason’s using some of the same dance moves he would later famously use on a regular basis in the future What Up With That sketches.
— I’m already starting to come around on this sketch. I’m finding it fun and amusing, even if I still wouldn’t call it particularly great.
— Second episode in a row with Bill being unrecognizable under make-up he wears as a monster, this time with him being accompanied by an also-unrecognizable Will as a fellow monster.
— What the heck is Amy cracking up at?
— Funny reveal of Amy and Justin having eaten some of their friends.
— Now it’s Justin’s turn to crack up again.
— SNL would strangely and randomly bring this sketch back THREE-AND-A-HALF YEARS LATER, with a completely different and less-fun host (Ryan Phillippe) and with almost all of the characters being replaced with new ones (even Kristen oddly plays a different-named character than the one she plays in the first installment of the sketch). I doubt many people remember that second installment as well as this Timberlake one. The only things I remember about the second installment are Andy playing a voice-of-reason character among the hip hop kids, and then-cast-member Abby Elliott doing a really bad and unconvincing attempt at speaking in an urban voice.
STARS: ***½


ELF AUDITION
(host)’s stepmom Virginiaca tries helping her audition to be a Macy’s elf

— I remember someone (possibly SNL Archives, back when that site used to include tidbit notes for some sketches) pointing out the misspelling of the word “freight” in the sign in the background of this sketch that states “frieght elevator” (the second and third above screencaps for this sketch).
— Speaking of the background, Kenan can unintentionally be seen standing outside of the door entrance, waiting for his cue to enter (the second above screencap for this sketch).
— UGH, the obligatory return of the painfully-unfunny and hacky Starkish– uh, I mean Virginiaca. Ha, that gaffe of me nearly referring to Virginiaca as Starkisha was actually genuine, which just goes to show you how similar those two characters are.
— So I guess we’re supposed to ignore the fact that Virginiaca had a completely different white stepdaughter in the previous installment of this sketch?
— Speaking of Starkisha, the gag with Virginiaca pointlessly using her cellphone to call up the person standing right next to her was actually used before in a Starkisha sketch (the one from the season 30 Paris Hilton episode), further proving my point that there are almost no differences between the Starkisha and Virginiaca sketches, except the fact that the Virginiaca sketches are even worse.
STARS: *


A HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM NANCY GRACE
Nancy Grace (AMP) is sympathetic to those making false rape accusations

— At least we get a change of pace for Amy’s Nancy Grace, with her being taken out of her TV show.
— Sounds kinda odd hearing the audience very lightly giggling throughout Amy’s serious, non-comedic intro speech about sexual assault. I’m assuming the audience (who has been very energetic tonight in general) is eagerly awaiting the comedic conceit of this sketch.
— Some chuckle-worthy lines from Amy, but something is a little off-putting about this sketch to me. The dour, slow pacing of it, along with the dark (and not the good kind of dark humor that I love) rape-themed subject matter, all feel very odd and out of place in this high-energy, fun-loving Christmas episode.
— I got a laugh from Amy’s threat to pull out the Duke boys’ hearts and eat it.
— Overall, not awful, but I probably would’ve appreciated this sketch more elsewhere. It just felt too wrong, jarring, and momentum-killing for the tone of this episode, especially as the final sketch of the night. How do you close a fun-loving Christmas episode with THIS (the following Timberlake musical performance notwithstanding)?
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “What Goes Around”


BAND SHOT

— The show has apparently had to cut a scheduled sketch at the last minute, as the show comes back from a commercial break just to show the SNL Band playing for a few seconds before the show immediately goes back to another commercial break. At least the rarely-shown-by-this-point SNL Band gets some much-needed airtime, and at least I now know SNL didn’t originally plan on that dour, out-of-place Nancy Grace piece being the final sketch of this otherwise-upbeat Christmas episode. I wonder what cut-at-the-last-minute sketch was scheduled for this spot.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not too bad. I don’t find this episode to be anywhere NEAR the classic that a lot of people seem to, but there were a few strong things in the first half of the show (particularly the centerpiece of the show: the priceless and legendary Dick In A Box), and, as I mentioned earlier, almost all of this episode had a fun-loving, upbeat energy (partly helped by Justin Timberlake’s presence), which is nice to see in a Christmas episode, and somewhat helped my mood towards this episode. However, this episode was bogged down by how weak a lot of the recurring stuff was, as well as the odd note the Nancy Grace sketch ended the show on.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Annette Bening)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2007, with host Jake Gyllenhaal

Posted on

December 9, 2006 – Annette Bening / Gwen Stefani, Akon (S32 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUSH’S PLAN FOR IRAQ
George W. Bush (JAS) addresses suggestions of Iraq Study Group & others

— Wow, this is the THIRD consecutive cold opening with Jason’s George W. Bush impression. I guess SNL is trying really hard to establish Jason as their new Bush.
— Pretty funny touch with the sly, smug looks Jason’s Bush gives into the camera after each time he reads “Dear Mr. President” at the beginning of each individual letter.
— A laugh from Jason-as-Bush’s line about how velociraptors have been extinct “for, like, 500 years”.
— Meh, the “Bush gives a smug look into the camera after reading the beginning of each letter” gag is getting old, and the audience agrees. Jason had to really exaggerate his third smug look into the camera to milk so much as a tiny chuckle from the audience.
— Three cold openings in and Jason has been coming into his own in the role of Bush, even if he has yet to be given any noteworthy material.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
real estate agents (KRW), (AMP), (MAR) reproach host; Alec Baldwin cameo

— I’m halfway through this monologue, and I can’t find anything to say so far. The “real estate agents are unhappy with Annette Bening’s portrayal of them” premise has started to get old within this.
— An Alec Baldwin cameo, just a few episodes after he hosted, and years before frequent Alec Baldwin cameos would become an annoyance.
— Alec turned out to be only mildly funny in this overall meh monologue. Not even he can save this.
STARS: **


APOCALYPTO
subtitles in Apocalypto trailer show Mel Gibson’s influence on script

— The Lonely Island try their hand at something new, with an “An SNL movie trailer re-cut” segment. I remember thinking back when this originally aired that it was going to become a regular segment. Instead, we end up seeing only one more edition of this segment, and it’s not until THREE SEASONS LATER.
— A cheap and predictable joke, just using infamous anti-Semitic Mel Gibson quotes as subtitles for the Apocalypto trailer, but it’s coming off funny enough here. However, Lonely Island would later do a much better job in their second re-cut movie trailer: Palin 2012.
— The “I smell bagels” subtitle at the end was the funniest part.
STARS: ***


GOOD MORNING: I HATE THIS TOWN
presenters (JAS) & (host) abhor their city

— Meh, not caring for this premise.
— Yeah, two minutes into this, and this is mostly not working for me. What IS working for me is Jason’s solid and fun performance, which is singlehandedly almost completely saving this sketch’s very iffy concept.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
“Diddy Kiddies” by RBS- young detectives puzzle over what Sean Combs does

— A laugh from the title of this episode being “What Does Diddy Do?, Part 23”.
— A humorous detail with the endless number of singer names credited in two P. Diddy music videos including a few random non-singer celebrities like Dane Cook and Ken Griffey Jr.
— That almost sounds like Lorne doing the voice of the designer.
— Some laughs, but I’m not caring for the pacing of this. Too many dead spots for me, and the premise has gotten boring after a while.
STARS: **


STUDENT-TEACHER ROMANCE
high school teacher’s (host) romantic yen for student (ANS) is unrequited

— Am I watching a prototype of Pete Davidson’s Chad sketches? This sure feels like one. Not only is the premise of this sketch and the dynamic between the two main characters straight out of a Chad sketch, but some of the monotone, brain-dead, one-word sentences that Andy’s teen character responds to Annette’s long-winded dialogue with are “Okay”, which is Chad’s catchphrase. If you told me Andy and Annette have been performing a future Chad script obtained through the magic of time-travel, as crazy as that sounds, I’d probably believe you.
— Annette’s not even trying to make it appear she’s looking anywhere near Andy’s direction as she speaks to him, instead being glued to the cue cards. She’s also a bit stumbly with her lines. If this were pre-taped like the future Chad sketches, Annette would excel in this with her strong acting talent.
— Ugh, now this features Annette pointlessly breaking out into a mock-dramatic musical number. Make it stop!
— Weak ending.
— I’ve never been too big a fan of the Chad sketches (maybe I’ll come around on them when I eventually review them), but they’re so much better than THIS overall sketch. I didn’t find a single redeeming quality in this sketch.
STARS: *


TWO A-HOLES IN A LIVE NATIVITY SCENE
blase A-Holes unconvincingly portray Joseph & Mary in live nativity scene

— I like the reveal of the disjointed one-liners the Two A-Holes are each saying in their respective phone conversation turning out to be delivered to each other, even if I kinda saw it coming after a while.
— Good gag with Annette placing Kristen’s phone into Baby Jesus’ manger so the Two A-Holes will finally look in the correct direction.
— Speaking of people not looking in the correct direction, Annette continues to be glued to the cue cards tonight.
— A very funny line with Kristen telling Annette “You look like Mrs. Brady”. She does have the Carol Brady haircut.
— Solid ending with Jason yelling at the donkey (who he thinks are two little people in a costume) “IT WAS NICE WORKIN’ WITH YOU GUYS! YOU’RE GOOD DUDES!”
— Overall, a nice bounce back for these characters after the slightly-below-par previous installment from the John C. Reilly episode.
STARS: ****


ANGER PROBLEM
fast food manager (FRA) warns (Matthew Fox) & other employees

— This was cut after the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal, which explains why the hell Matthew Fox is randomly in this. I can’t help but imagine what the reaction would be from someone watching this who’s not aware that the preceding episode was hosted by Matthew Fox. I can just picture them wondering to themselves in confusion “Is that the dude from Lost standing in the background? Why in the world did SNL get him to randomly cameo in a small background role as one of the employees in this?” It’s like how I’ve always wondered if viewers who’ve watched Adam Sandler’s second and/or third Denise Show sketches without having seen the first one (where Shannen Doherty, who was hosting SNL that night, played the role of Denise) wondered to themselves why the hell SNL is randomly using a photo of the chick from 90210 for the otherwise-unseen title role of Denise.
— I’m loving Fred’s increasingly funny threats of “(insert number here) seconds, I’m (insert violent action here).” I particularly howled at him telling Amy “20 seconds, my ass…is in your mouth.”
— WTF? The Lost-esque head-explosion/mannequin ending completely…lost me (no lame pun intended), and ended this on a weak note.
— There surprisingly has yet to be a really strong Digital Short up to this point of the season that has knocked it out of the park. There’s also been a strange shortage of Digital Shorts this season so far, with this being only the third one.
STARS: ***½


BUYER BEWARE
paranoid consumer advocates (KET) & (MAR) see scams afoot

— Hmm, the voice Kenan’s using seems like it’ll get grating hearing it from a lead character in a sketch.
— Two mentions in separate sketches tonight of someone waiting in line for a Nintendo Wii.
— Maya’s character is making me laugh.
— Kenan, during a mailbag segment: “I have a letter here from myself……”
— Overall, not bad, despite the dull premise. Kenan’s character voice wasn’t as grating as I was worried it would eventually get, and he had some funny moments. Maya’s performance and one-liners also kept me amused.
— I remember when this originally aired and I didn’t like this sketch (I had an aversion to just about everything starring Kenan around this time, as I was of the opinion back then that he was the weak link of this cast), I was worried this was eventually going to become a recurring sketch, but we end up never seeing it return.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Gwen Stefani performs “Wind It Up”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Gore (DAH) tells about his confusing conversation with Lindsay Lohan

flatulent (KRW) apologizes for stinking up an airplane & Weekend Update

photos of failed hetero unions don’t support WLF’s anti-gay marriage song

— Blah, where is this bit with Darrell-as-Al-Gore’s recounting of his conversation with Lindsay Lohan going?
— Overall, yeah, no real point to that Gore commentary.
— This seems like the type of subtle, awkward character Kristen can sell in spades, despite the dodgy fart-related premise.
— At least SNL refrained from using a fart sound effect when Kristen broke wind.
— The payoff of Kristen’s commentary didn’t work for me.
— Geez, Amy has some real groaners among her Update jokes tonight, even for her standards. Once again, I argue that little-to-nothing has changed with her on Update from the dreadful Fey/Poehler era. I’m still waiting for her to get decent as an anchorperson, and at this point, I’m sadly starting to think it’s never going to happen. I liked her as an anchorperson more when these Poehler/Meyers-era Updates originally aired than I do during my re-watches in this SNL project.
— Hell yeah, another Will Forte Update song!
— Some laughs from Will’s dumb anti-gay marriage preamble to his song.
— I absolutely love the melody of Will’s “Silly Silly Gays” song. Nice touch having Will’s song be assisted by a guitar-playing Fred (making his ONLY live appearance of the night, by the way, and he doesn’t even have any dialogue in it).
— Hilarious turn in Will’s commentary, with him unintentionally displaying photos of failed heterosexual celebrity marriages when trying to support his anti-gay marriage argument. I also love how his panicked reactions to those photos are still being sung in melody to his song.
— There seems to be a theme with lighters throughout tonight’s Update, as Kristen’s character lit a match to try to hide the scent of her fart, Amy used a lighter to light the cellphone she “smoked”, and now Seth is celebrating Will’s song by waving a lit lighter in the air ala a concertgoer.
STARS: **½


MONSTER UNDER THE BED
girl’s (AMP) monster-under-bed claim panics her parents (WLF) & (host)

— I love the turn with Amy’s character’s parents having an extremely paranoid reaction when Amy tells them she thinks a monster is under her bed. Will is particularly fantastic in his insane paranoia here.
— Will’s “friendly shark” analogy was hilarious.
— I love Annette shrieking “YOU IDIOT!” while strangling Amy after Amy reveals she brought chocolate into her room.
— The escalation to this sketch is great.
— Fun appearance from Bill as a jolly, singing monster. Bill is physically unrecognizable under that make-up (the exact same make-up that I believe has been used in various sketches in the past, including one with Will Ferrell as the devil trying to come up with love songs that Garth Brooks can use). You can only tell it’s Bill under that make-up by the voice.
STARS: ****½


VALTREX
Rerun from 11/11/06


AFTER WORK SNACK
Neil, Jean, fellow uptight co-worker Meryl (host) inch toward threesome

— Wow, the second half of this episode starting with Weekend Update has been huge for Will. Very welcome, given how limited his airtime had been lately due to him being busy filming the movie The Brothers Solomon.
— Good to see the return of this very solid, forgotten sketch from the preceding season’s Lindsay Lohan episode.
— Yet another sketch tonight where Annette is blatantly glued to the cue cards. Geez, it’s coming off particularly odd here, even if she is supposed to be playing a socially-awkward character.
— I love the little bit with Kristen taking her time pulling out a plastic bag of tipping change to give a tip to the waiter.
— Another great little Kristen moment, with her very funny line about once doing salsa dancing when under the influence of a very strong ringworm ointment.
— Annette isn’t blending in too well with Will and Kristen’s characterizations here, even if it’s the point that Annette’s character is more self-conscious than Will and Kristen’s characters. Lindsay Lohan did a much better job in her characterization in the first installment of this sketch. Who the hell could’ve ever guessed that a 19-year-old Lindsay Freakin’ Lohan would outdo Annette Bening in her portrayal of a subtle, quirky middle-aged character?
— So many funny little quirks from Will, Kristen, and Annette’s characters here. Too many for me to point out.
— This is using the same surprise twist from the first installment of this sketch, where we suddenly see Will’s character detailing the raunchy night of lovemaking he and his two co-workers have planned with each other, which isn’t a surprise anymore, but is still working for me, especially with the new aspect of constantly using the word “mess” in place of the f-word when talking about sex.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Akon performs “I Wanna Love You”


STANFIELD & PARTLOW
lawyers (host) & (BIH) specialize in dowager-to-cat inheritance cases

— Annette botches a line right out of the gate in this.
— Bill’s first brief walk-on was very funny.
— The gag with the customer testimonial just being old black-and-white wacky stock footage of a cat playing ping-pong with a human seemed like it should’ve gotten a bigger laugh than it did.
— All of a sudden, this sketch awkwardly gets cut off mid-progress due to the show running long.
— Overall, not sure how to feel about this sketch as a whole, not just because we DIDN’T get to see the whole sketch, but because, while I liked some moments, some other moments kinda fell flat.
STARS: **½, I guess


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A middling episode. The strong Will Forte-dominated portion bolstered this episode’s quality, but the first half of this episode was, aside from the Two A-Holes sketch, completely unmemorable and contained some really mediocre pieces, and the episode ended on kind of a poor note with the aborted final sketch that wasn’t all that great to begin with. Another reason for me being left with an iffy feeling towards this episode was Annette Bening, who, despite some okay moments, was a much more mediocre host than I ever would’ve expected.
— Am I correct in remembering that this episode never got an NBC rerun? If I am, then I take it as a sign that the people at SNL weren’t too crazy about this episode either.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Matthew Fox)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Justin Timberlake hosts the Christmas episode