Author: Stooge

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April 14, 2001 – Renee Zellweger / Eve (S26 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

H&R BLOCK
at H&R Block, Marty & Bobbi entertain last-minute filers with tax medley

— Yet another interesting setting for The Culps. I like the times where they’re placed in settings other than their more conventional settings like a school assembly, etc.
— The usual solid pre-song banter between Marty and Bobbi Mohan-Culp.
— I like Bobbi’s sound effect imitations during The Culps’ cover of Pink Floyd’s “Money”.
— The usual fun Culps song medley, especially their tax-themed variations of Color Me Badd’s “I Wanna Sex You Up” and Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me”.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host recounts her film career by reading entries from her diary

— I got a good laugh from Renee Zellweger’s diary entry about her and Alison Janney in the bathroom at the Golden Globes doing a line of coke.
— Some of the other diary entries are pretty funny.
STARS: ***


SUBSHACK
Rerun from 3/10/01


JERRY MAGUIRE 2
Jonathan Lipnicki’s (HOS) growth spurt complicates Jerry Maguire 2 shoot

— A funny corny “Show Me The Sequel” subtitle to this Jerry Maguire sequel.
— An okay concept of Horatio as a heavier and more grown Jonathan Lipnicki.
— I like the mockery of the corny “deep” dialogue from the first Jerry Maguire movie.
— Jerry Minor makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a very unnoticeable role as a silent stagehand standing in the dark background behind Cameron Crowe’s director chair. I remember when this originally aired, I didn’t even notice him in this sketch until months later when somebody on an SNL board pointed him out. Until then, I had assumed that Jerry was completely absent in this episode. (Unfortunately, Tracy is also completely absent in this episode, which is pretty sad that SNL’s only two black male cast members were basically shut out of this episode.)
— This sketch is already getting kinda old.
— Okay, the erection part is pretty funny.
— I like the passing mention of “L. Ron Hubbard almighty” from Jimmy’s Tom Cruise.
— Meh, Kattan being stuck in one of his stock gay roles, and shortly after Renee made a gay joke about Kattan in the monologue.
— Pretty funny visual of Horatio’s Lipnicki entering in oversized glasses and holding an oversized juice box, in an attempt to make him look smaller.
— Could’ve done without the fart ending with Horatio. Made this ending feel like a precursor to that god-awful Chubb Hotty recurring sketch that Horatio would later do in the troubled season 30 (a recurring sketch with Horatio as a morbidly obese rapper hosting his own talk show).
STARS: **½


HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) shamelessly belittles Paul Begala (CHK)

— A funny visual of Parnell’s big-lipped Bob Barr.
— Darrell-as-Chris-Matthews’ various responses to his guests are making me laugh as always.
— The increasingly nonsensical proverbs from Renee’s Molly Ivins are providing some pretty good laughs.
— I like how Parnell seems to always get the funniest lines in these Hardball sketches so far.
STARS: ****


A WEDDING STORY
eager bride-to-be (host) consents to KISS-themed nuptial

— Great look for Will’s character.
— Some good laughs from Rachel as Renee’s crying mother, especially her crying even more when Will shows up in his briefs.
— I love the visual of Parnell as a priest in KISS make-up, speaking in a straitlaced, professional manner.
— Renee’s drunken rant on the bus is going on too long and isn’t doing much for me. A weak way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Survivor hype makes Bryant Gumbel suicidal

— Pretty funny premise with Bryant Gumbel’s various attempts to kill himself during his interview of Survivor contestants.
— This Fun With Real Audio cartoon feels more like the early ones from season 22, Smigel’s first season doing TV Funhouse for SNL.
— According to the ending credits of this cartoon, Louis C.K. had a hand in writing this.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob Silj thinks TIF is insensitive to the trauma of voice immodulation

JIF makes up review of The Producers by extrapolating stars’ movie roles

— Our final Jacob Silj appearance during Will’s tenure as a cast member.
— I laughed pretty hard at Jacob Silj listing “the guy who played Raj on What’s Happening” as one of the celebrities who suffers from voice immodulation, even though I don’t recall Raj having an overly loud voice.
— Jacob Silj’s “And a little bit softer now… and a little bit softer now… and a little bit softer now…” bit has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Will is stumbling over some of his lines throughout this Silj commentary.
— Tonight’s overall Jacob Silj commentary provided some laughs, but I’m kinda glad this ends up being his final appearance (until Will revives him years later in a 2018 hosting stint), as this just felt like it was mostly treading old territory and it seems that SNL has done everything with this thin concept that they can.
— Jimmy’s side segment on what he thinks the movie The Producers is about is in the same vein of his Meet The Parents review earlier this season, but I’m enjoying this, especially his Matthew Broderick impression (complete with Jimmy doing the *chicka chicka OH YEAH* sound from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).
— During Jimmy’s Mike Myers joke, I like him doing an impression of Mike, right down to doing the Wayne Campbell mannerism of pushing his hair back behind his ear while bobbing his head forward, a nice little touch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Gwen Stefani [real] perform “Let Me Blow Ya Mind”


AWESOME DATE TIME
inept romantic’s TV theme song CDs don’t get his date (host) in the mood

— The set-up of this kinda reminds me of another Kattan-bringing-home-his-date-after-a-night-out sketch: the seductive dancing one with Teri Hatcher, which was one of Kattan’s very first big sketches when he was a new featured player. Even the living room set of both the Hatcher sketch and tonight’s sketch look similar. I wonder if it’s intended for Kattan to be playing the same character in both sketches. If so, this may hold the record for longest gap between a recurring character’s first and second appearance (not counting characters who didn’t become recurring until the cast member who plays them came back to host SNL after leaving the show).
— The various “sexy” music that Kattan plays turning out to be cheesy TV show theme songs is fairly funny.
— I like Kattan explaining his mistake of having a TV show theme song CDs in his stereo as “I forgot. I bought those with my money and I put those in there.”
— I’m laughing at this sketch more than I feel like I should.
— Kattan accidentally tripped and almost fell when walking over to Renee just now.
— It’s been quite a long time since SNL last used the ol’ fake vomit gag. I’m getting a good laugh from Kattan suddenly vomiting on Renee, just because of how out-of-nowhere it came, and for Renee’s facial reaction. I now wonder if the hidden vomit hose in Kattan’s pant leg is what caused the earlier blooper where he tripped.
— Renee: “(in a taken-aback manner) You just puked… penguin… all over me.”
STARS: ***


DOCTOR’S OFFICE
irresponsible Dr. Beaman scares two pairs of expectant parents; MOS cameo

— The return of Will’s crazy doctor sketch. I kinda have mixed feelings about them doing a sequel to this classic sketch from the preceding season, especially after how let down I was by the Schwetty Balls sequel in the preceding episode, but I’m sure this one will still be good.
— Random Molly Shannon cameo, for the first time since leaving the cast only two months prior. The REAL reason she’s at SNL this week is for a Mother’s Day special that SNL is taping immediately after this episode ends, and would air a month later on Mother’s Day. Molly has been brought back to join the rest of the cast in the special, despite the fact that she was no longer a member of the cast by this point.
— Ha, we now see that Molly is randomly playing herself as a nurse in this sketch, being addressed as “Molly Shannon”. I guess this is SNL’s way of trying to top how the nurse in the first installment of this sketch was Rachel as an ugly model character that she had played in an earlier sketch that night. This doesn’t quite top that gag, in my opinion.
— The various vagina euphemisms (e.g. “Choo-choo”, “The love llama”) that Will’s Dr. Beaman is telling Darrell and Maya are funny.
— I like the callback to the first installment of this sketch, with Dr. Beaman having another phone conversation with his old friend Beverly.
— Hilarious how Dr. Beaman explains that the heartbeat Renee heard from the baby she’s pregnant with was actually from the bass drum from the Toto cover band that lives next door.
— Aaaaaand there’s Jimmy’s obligatory character break, in response to Will yelling an apparently ad-libbed angry treat at him. This breaking is nowhere near as funny as the epic breaking from Will and Molly in the first installment of this sketch when Tim Meadows did The Robot.
— Will’s panicked, high-pitched screaming when Renee goes into labor is slaying me.
— Overall, this paled in comparison to the first installment, but I still liked it quite a lot. On it’s own, it’s a solid wacky Will Ferrell sketch, if not particularly memorable.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who’s That Girl?”


CLASSICAL MUSIC CLASSICS
Classical Music Classics have been “improved” via addition of lyrics

— Funny concept of an album altering classical instrumental songs by giving them “awesome”, sophomoric lyrics, made even funnier by how those lyrics are sung in such a straight manner by the Will/Ana/Horatio/Maya choir.
— I love Parnell’s mention of the young man who came up with these new lyrics having a hole in his face from huffing paint thinner.
— A lot of funny lines from Parnell in general, who’s perfectly cast in this role.
— I like the passing mention of the song “Ave Maria” being altered into “The Lorena Bobbit Rap”.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode, but enjoyable and had its highlights, even the fairly-inferior sequel to the Doctor’s Office sketch.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Pierce Brosnan

Posted on

April 7, 2001 – Alec Baldwin / Coldplay (S26 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush’s (WIF) solo negotiation effort produced bad Chinese deal

— SNL’s been going awfully heavy on Bush-addresses-the-nation cold openings lately.
— Of the bold decisions that Will’s President Bush says he made regarding his meeting with the Chinese president, I love one of the bold decisions being “No translators”.
— A lot of things that Bush is listing off in the agreement points he made with China are giving me some really good laughs. The humor in this cold opening has been a step above the last two Bush-addresses-the-nation cold openings.
— A particularly funny bit about an Ed “Too Tall” Jones Appreciation Week.
— An unintentional laugh from Will struggling badly through the line about Darryl Strawberry voluntarily entering a drug treatment “procility”. Considering Will is playing Bush here, it’s hard to tell just what parts of the line Will genuinely screwed up, but “procility” might not have been one of them, as it was probably just supposed to be a typical Bush-ism.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Bill Clinton (DAH) mentors recently-divorced host to pursue females

— Feels like there’s been quite a longer-than-usual gap since the last time I covered an Alec Baldwin-hosted episode, compared to the frequency of his previous hosting stints, making me realize that this is the very first time that Alec has skipped more than one calendar year between hosting stints.
— Pretty funny ambiguous mention from Alec of the divorce he had recently gone through at the time with Kim Basinger.
— An interesting out-of-the-ordinary use of Darrell’s Bill Clinton in this monologue.
— Bill Clinton, when pointing out to Alec the opportunities he has with ladies now that he’s single: “You’ve got it made in the shade with pink lemonade… and I do mean pink.”
— I love how Clinton just busts out laughing when being asked “But aren’t you still married?”
— So many funny lines from Clinton in this.
STARS: ****


RELIABLE INVESTMENTS
Reliable Investments broker (host) talks up market while he plummets

 

— The camera angles and visual style of this commercial are an accurate spoof of commercials in this vein.
— Hilarious turn with Alec casually and happily continuing the phone conversation with Ana as he jumps out of his office window to his death. Alec is selling this very well with his performance.
STARS: ****


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Lynn (RAD) & Margaret Jo are in awe of Pete Schwetty’s wiener

— Well, looks like SNL has dared to do a Delicious Dish sketch in which they replace the Terri Rialto character played by the recently-departed Molly Shannon with a new character, played by Rachel. Can’t say this is a decision I agree with at all. Should’ve let this recurring sketch end gracefully with Molly’s departure.
— And now we see why SNL has revived this sketch, as Alec returns as the memorable Pete Schwetty. Yeah, I definitely don’t agree with this decision. Having Alec do a direct Schwetty Balls sequel that just lazily repeats the same gag, only replacing balls with wiener, is a D.O.A. choice, in my eyes.
— Yeah, so far, this sketch is paling badly in comparison to the original Schwetty Balls classic.
— I kinda like the audience’s groaning laughter during the turn in the Schwetty Wieners conversation where Alec’s character begins to bring up kids.
— Okay, I got a good laugh from the “Maybe we can cut it in half” “I’d rather you didn’t” exchange between Margaret Jo and Pete Schwetty, regarding the wiener.
— A memorable and very funny blooper with Ana mistakenly saying “wiener” as “piener”, resulting in both her and Rachel busting out laughing. Very rare to see Ana break this badly. Also, even as Ana and Rachel are losing it right next to him, Alec stays completely in character and keeps an absolutely perfect stone-faced expression. He does it in a way that almost makes it seem like he’s annoyed by Ana and Rachel’s breaking, but I’m not Alec, so I can’t say for sure.
— Nice ad-lib from Ana after she regains her composure from her breaking: “A little verbal diarrhea there.”
— Ah, as I wondered in my review of the original Schwetty Balls sketch, this Schwetty Wieners sketch contains a “Wow, the phones are really going crazy” acknowledgment that I had incorrectly remembered being in the original Schwetty Balls sketch.
— I do like the new direction this sketch has taken, with Parnell as a caller who’s obviously doing a certain something to himself while breathlessly asking Pete Schwetty to “tell me about your wiener”. (By the way, Parnell’s character should talk to Jonah “Ask me about my wiener!” Hill. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
— Overall, yep, a sequel that I found unnecessary and couldn’t come close to living up to the original, but this still had its share of highlights.
STARS: **½


TOUGH GUY
lone Marine (host) tries to rally spyplane crew to attack China

— Great turn with a war cliche character played by Alec suddenly stepping up. I love some of the soldiers’ reaction to his “… or we could take ’em!” suggestion early on.
— Just now, a cue card accidentally blocks the camera during a close-up of Rachel and Will (screencap below).

SNL would later replace this brief portion of the sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. If you watch the rerun version of this sketch, you can tell when the brief dress rehearsal portion comes in, because Will has his real hair in it, whereas he wears a wig in all of the other portions of the sketch (side-by-side comparison below).

— Alec’s various insane suggestions are providing tons of laughs.
— A priceless line from from Alec about China’s womenfolk having sideways vaginas. I also love the intense closed-eyes facial expression he has afterwards during the lengthy audience laughter from that line (screencap below).

— Tracy steals the sketch with his one and only line of the whole thing. This has been quite a good season in general for Tracy lately. He’s definitely gotten to the official point where his onscreen persona is so defined, so comfortable, and such a sure-fire laugh-getter that SNL knows they can throw him into ANYTHING just being his normal self and he’ll kill it.
— The text crawl ending didn’t work for me (though we get a great freeze-frame shot on Alec panickedly lunging at the camera), which is my only complaint about this otherwise strong sketch.
STARS: ****½


INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
Charles Nelson Reilly (host) is feted

— Will-as-James-Lipton’s traditional opening blank stare towards the audience isn’t quite as funny as usual (the first above screencap for this sketch).
— Great reveal of Charles Nelson Reilly being the guest who James Lipton is speaking so glowingly about at the beginning of this sketch.
— Alec’s impression of Charles Nelson Reilly is absolutely hilarious.
— James Lipton’s made-up word to describe Match Game’s perfection: “Scrumtrulescent”. To me personally, that made-up word is on the same level as another made-up word delivered by Will this same season: “Strategery”, even if “Scrumtrulescent” doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as famous to the general public as “Strategery”.
— James Lipton to Charles Nelson Reilly: “I am not alone in thinking that your brilliance is so pure that you make Gandhi look like a child pornographer.”
— I recall hearing that Alec’s next hosting stint the following season was going to have a follow-up to this Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch, with Alec reprising his Charles Nelson Reilly impression in the same setting, but the sketch ended up getting cut after dress rehearsal. Not sure what they could’ve done in a follow-up to the original Reilly Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch, but if it was just a lazy carbon-copy of the original sketch, then it’s for the best that it got cut, if the Schwetty Wieners sketch taught me anything. Then again, there’s a good chance that the cut Reilly Inside The Actor’s Studio sequel went in a new and different direction. After all, that same season (season 27) has an Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch with Billy Bob Thornton that ends up taking a VERY different and unique route than these Actor’s Studio sketches usually take.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM explains the circumstances behind Darryl Strawberry’s non-kidnapping

I Have An Opinion- JIF tries to analogize the China-spyplane situation

TIF deconstructs & evaluates Hugh Hefner’s young, blonde harem

DAS & Kid Rock [real] trade respective Hollywood Minute & music roles

— Jimmy’s crack punchline about Darryl Strawberry felt very Norm Macdonald-esque.
— Great to see Tracy in his own Update commentary. This feels like the first in quite a long time that he’s done an Update commentary as himself.
— Tracy acting out a hypothetical conversation between Darryl Strawberry and his wife has some laughs, but this segment is mostly falling pretty flat, surprisingly. Not one of Tracy’s better moments.
— Jimmy’s recurring “I Have An Opinion” side segment continues to not do much for me.
— Tina, on one of Hugh Hefner’s seven girlfriends being named Tina: “Wherever two or more whores are gathered, there’s always a Tina. Thanks, mom.”
— I absolutely LOVE this whole side segment with Tina doing a deconstruction of Hugh Hefner’s seven girlfriends. This segment is pure, classic Tina Fey.
— SNL gets in their very first reference to the hot new show at the time, The Weakest Link, which really takes me back to how huge that show was in pop culture for a while (and, boy, did that show’s popularity seem to come and go at the blink of an eye, IIRC).
— Oh, wow. We’re getting the return of David Spade and the Hollywood Minute?
— Oh, it’s just David’s Joe Dirt co-star Kid Rock, filling in for David.
— When Kid Rock hesitates to finish his dirty line about David Spade being “eight inches off my, uh…”, I love Jimmy’s ad-lib where he finishes Kid Rock’s sentence with “….piener?”, cleverly referencing Ana’s memorable gaffe from tonight’s earlier Delicious Dish sketch.
— Boy, Kid Rock’s Hollywood Minute jokes are just plain stupid (though I admit the Britney Spears/Hamburglar one kinda made me laugh in spite of myself). They feel like stuff written by a 10-year-old kid who thinks they’re funnier than they are.
— Ah, THERE’S our David Spade! Don’t understand why he couldn’t have just done a Hollywood Minute himself.
— A fairly fun and energetic ending to tonight’s Update with David and Kid Rock’s little number, even if I’m far from a fan of Kid Rock’s music.
— This was the first long Update in quite some time, compared to the very short Updates from the past few months.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Yellow”


RED SHIPS OF SPAIN
Robert Goulet (WIF) & relatives (CHP), (host), (ANG) create bad theater

— An interesting new setting for Will’s always-funny Robert Goulet impression.
— Announcer: “Robert Goulet: the man Time Magazine… once mentioned.”
— Nice inclusion of Parnell and Alec as two Goulet brothers.
— The negative newspaper reviews of the play are providing good laughs.
— The name Diane Carbonal is used for one of the newspaper critics, which is also the name of an Ana Gasteyer recurring character. I remember pointing out in an older review that the name Diane (or Diana) Carbonal was also used in a sketch that pre-dated Ana’s recurring character, but I can’t remember what sketch it was.
— The disturbing nature of Robert Goulet doing a romantic scene with his own daughter is very funny. And we get some great awkward facial reactions from Ana as the daughter when Robert Goulet tries to pull her closer and kiss her.
— Now the name Tony Dungy is used for one of the critics, which I believe is also the real-life name of an NFL coach.
STARS: ***½


THE BUSH TAX CUT
Tom Daschle (CHK) & Dick Gephardt (DAH) press conference tries too hard

— A good and funny Dick Gephardt voice from Darrell.
— Very funny turn with the reveal that middle-class families will get a dead squirrel for dinner under the Bush tax plan.
— I’m enjoying the answers given to the press regarding the dead squirrel.
— Some laughs from Darrell and Kattan’s teeth-gritted angry voices when “secretly” arguing with each other while having their backs turned to the camera.
— A pretty slow-paced sketch, but it might just feel that way because of the slow way Darrell’s speaking as Gephart.
STARS: ***


LASTING IMPRESSIONS
make your photo classy by electronically placing it into a brandy snifter

— Horatio is JUST NOW making his first appearance of the whole night, in the final sketch of the show. That’s still more than what Maya gets, though, who’s completely absent tonight. Quite a contrast from the preceding episode, in which Maya pretty much dominated.
— Horatio at least makes the most of his one and ONLY line of the whole night: “(delivered in an exaggerated Italian wiseguy manner) What frigging jackass took this picture anyways?!?”
— Fitting character for Alec, who can do roles like this in his sleep at this point.
— The prom picture of Will and Ana (screencap below) is the same one that was used in the I Took A Gay Guy To Prom pre-taped piece from season 23’s Steve Buscemi episode.

— Some pretty good laughs from the examples of things you can put a picture of inside a brandy snifter to make it look classier.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Panic”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not a particularly memorable Alec Baldwin episode, but certainly not bad. One of the more average Baldwin episodes, but there were still some strong pieces in the first half of this episode. Alec did his usual reliable job as a host.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Julia Stiles)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Renee Zellweger

Posted on

March 17, 2001 – Julia Stiles / Aerosmith (S26 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MARTHA STEWART LIVING
homey tips class up St. Patrick’s Day

— A refreshing choice for a cold opening, and a rare non-political cold opening for this season.
— This feels like the first Martha Stewart Living sketch in quite a long time.
— A big laugh from Ana’s Martha Stewart translating an Irish message as “You must be Irish, ’cause my penis is Dublin.”
— As usual, lots of funny lines from Ana’s Martha all throughout this, even if there’s a bit of a one-note feel to all of the drinking-related stuff after a while.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
TRM hopes he & host can reprise interracial kiss from Save The Last Dance

— Julia Stiles quickly mentions in passing that this is SNL’s 500th episode, before immediately getting interrupted by Tracy. I remember being bothered at the time that SNL didn’t make a much bigger deal about this being their milestone 500th episode, and also didn’t get a more SNL-related host for it.
— A Tracy Morgan-centric monologue in the tradition of Charlize Theron’s monologue and the backstage sketches that Tracy did with Garth Brooks and Jamie Foxx. And just like in those, Tracy is a riot just being his natural self. He’s effortlessly funny in stuff like this.
STARS: ***½


HOMOCIL
Rerun from 2/17/01


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
Megan (MAR) & Sheldon (RAD) emcee middle school show

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Already some pretty good laughs right out of the gate from the shy awkwardness of Rachel’s Sheldon character.
— This sketch and the performances in it are accurate at portraying a typical awkward middle school atmosphere. There’s a charm to this.
— I like Sheldon’s line “Things are weird at home.”
— I remember when this episode originally aired, Horatio’s teacher character reminded me so much of the Driver’s Ed teacher that I currently had at the time. Horatio’s character reminded me of him not just in personality, but even in looks. Watching Horatio’s character now, all these years later, takes me back to those high school days of mine.
— The second segment in a row tonight with someone hyperventilating into a brown paper bag at one point, with the first instance being the rerun of the Homocil commercial.
— I like Sheldon’s little hand salute when signing off at the end.
STARS: ***


POST OFFICE
(host) gives attitudinal postal worker Jackie a taste of her own medicine

— Oh, no. Not the return of these tepid characters from the airport sketch in the Mena Suvari episode. Thankfully, though, this ends up being their final on-air appearance. There was another sketch of theirs planned for the following season’s Derek Jeter episode, in which Maya’s character, Jackie, works at the ticket booth at Yankee Stadium (Jerry’s character wasn’t in the sketch, obviously, as he was no longer in the cast that season), but the sketch got cut after dress rehearsal.
— Odd how the first two lead-off sketches tonight, Wake Up Wakefield and this, both star featured player Maya and a fellow featured player (Rachel in Wake Up Wakefield, Jerry in this). It’s not very common for an episode to lead off with so many featured player-starring sketches.
— I see Maya’s Jackie character has replaced her groan-worthy sassy line from her first sketch, “If ya put up a fight, ya ain’t gettin’ on the flight”, with another equally groan-worthy sassy line: “If you wanna whine, you’re goin’ in the back of the line.”
— What’s with the Jungle Fever theme tonight? In the monologue, Tracy referenced Jungle Fever and sang the theme song from it, and now Maya’s Jackie character in this sketch hums the Jungle Fever theme song while filing her nails.
— This sketch is so dull that Kattan’s line flub “It’s not a letter… it’s not a package, it’s a letter” has made me chuckle more than a lot of the actual scripted material in the sketch.
— Now Parnell gets an unintentional chuckle from me with a line flub of his own: “This has got to the most…… LEAST organized government-run office in the city!”
— Julia is at least doing a good job with her sudden use of Ebonics when telling Jackie off.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jaded”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Arnold Schwarzenegger (DAH) tells why he should be California’s governor

David Copperfield [real] magically makes words appear on cue cards

 

— Uh-oh. Right out of the gate, we get technical snafus, as the news picture graphic doesn’t show up next to Jimmy (the first above screencap for this Update).
— And now, the graphics are screwing up throughout this Update in general. Quite distracting. Are the people in the control room doing a little St. Patrick’s Day celebration on the job, if you catch my drift?
— Jimmy now actually stops mid-joke and acknowledges how out-of-hand the graphics screw-ups are getting (the fourth above screencap for this Update).
— Darrell’s Arnold Schwarzenegger commentary is pretty funny, especially his whole bit about how, to make himself a natural born American, he would go inside a fat woman’s womb and come out head-first waving an American flag.
— Tina, after detailing the convoluted changes that different armies are each making to their berets: “In a related story, these guys need a war!” Be careful what you wish for, Tina, considering what ends up happening soon enough…
— Quite a lot of fun jokes from Jimmy and Tina tonight.
— A random David Copperfield cameo as SNL’s cue card guy.
— What exactly was the point of Copperfield’s whole bit?
— Tonight’s overall Update was the first somewhat normal-length Update in quite some time, though it still felt a little on the short side.
STARS: ***½


OLD HOLLYWOOD
in the 1920s, movie director Suel Forrester bewilders his cast & crew

— Wow, is this Will’s first appearance all night (not counting the rerun of the pre-taped Homocil commercial)? Very odd for him, but I guess that’s a by-product of tonight’s episode focusing heavily on the featured players.
— Surprisingly, this is the first Suel Forrester sketch in two seasons. This also ends up being the final Suel Forrester sketch.
— This sketch features the usual laughs that ensues from Suel’s unintelligible utterances and everyone’s confusion over them. I especially like the “Lick a turkey leg” bit.
— Parnell, when thinking Suel Forrester has called him a Jew: “Sir, I am not a Jew!…. anymore.”
— This Suel Forrester installment feels like it’s going on a little longer than it needs to.
STARS: ***


BEPPI & BUSHKA
immigrant janitor Beppi (RAD) trumps woes of office workers (ANG) & (MAR)

— Yet another featured player-dominated sketch tonight.
— Julia and Rachel’s immigrant characters relating Maya and Ana’s problems with their own far-worse problems that they experienced in their home country is providing some good laughs. Rachel is particularly funny in her performance and delivery here.
— Rachel’s whole rant about a particular horrible thing that once happened to her is very good, as is her eventually revealing that she stole it from a Lifetime movie.
STARS: ***½


THE DOBERMAN!
by Adam McKay- (WIF) receives house call from vicious dog

— Ha, I like the little detail of Saved By The Bell being heard playing from Will’s TV at the beginning of this.
— Hilarious randomness of some German nihilist-looking guy showing up at Will’s door and siccing a dog on Will.
— Will’s high-pitched screaming during one portion of the dog attack is absolutely slaying me.
— Great bit with Will forcing himself to jump off his balcony to escape the dog, only for the dog to actually jump off the balcony onto Will.
— The intentionally low-budget look to occasional portions of this film is adding to the humor.
— Very good reveal at the end that Will actually ordered a door-to-door doberman attack.
STARS: ****


APOLLO AMATEUR NIGHT
whitebread (host) plies cheerleader moves at Apollo Theater amateur night

— Maya continues to be very dominant in tonight’s episode.
— Maya’s mockery of the singing style of soulful female singers kinda feels like a precursor to her famous National Anthem sketch from later in her tenure.
— Ana and Parnell’s corny Wisconsin accents are fairly amusing.
— Tracy has a lot of funny little one-liners throughout this sketch.
— Not caring at all for where this sketch has been going once Julia’s character has taken the Apollo stage.
— Yeah, this sketch has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Not even Jerry in a somewhat-rare noteworthy comedic role is doing anything to save this sketch.
— And the sketch is now over. What was even the point behind this?
STARS: *½


WILLY SLUGGS’ EYE POPPERS
Willy Sluggs (JEM) pushes magic tricks in lame self-produced infomercial

— Wow, yet ANOTHER sketch tonight starring a featured player.
— Julia: “You may recognize me from earlier in this commercial.”
— Will managed to get a good laugh from his delivery of “Thank you for the cognac and grapefruit juice.”
— Unlike the preceding Apollo sketch, Jerry is really in his element in this sketch. I’m really enjoying his performance, his intentionally-stilted infomercial acting, and his character’s quirks, more than the audience seems to.
— The bad testimonials are pretty funny.
— During the occasional shots of the “Willy Sluggs’ Eye Poppers” title graphic, I love the voice-over saying “Eye Poppers! Haw, haw, hawww!”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Big Ten Inch Record”


DER LACHELN BEHERRSCHT
German “smile masters” populate scary kids show

 

— Ooh, right out of the gate, we see that this is going to be a VERY bizarre and dark sketch. I’m already on board.
— I love the insane opening credits sequence, with the spooky-sounding German singing and the odd random photos thrown in.
— The German-accented skeleton singing an “I’m inside every one of you!” song to the frightened kids is hilarious, especially when you’re aware that that’s Tina Fey’s voice.
— Overall, I absolutely LOVE this sketch. One of the most hilariously fucked-up things that SNL has ever aired. I love that this sketch was basically just an excuse to throw in every bizarre, dark, and scary thing that the writers could come up with.
STARS: *****


HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY
for St. Patrick’s Day, Van Morrison (JIF) sings & overimbibes Guinness

— Hmm, a change of pace with this unusual segment on SNL’s home base stage.
— I’m not the right one to judge the accuracy of Jimmy’s Van Morrison impression, but considering celebrity impressions are one of Jimmy’s specialties, I’m assuming his Van Morrison impression is good.
— Ehh, a minute later, I’m not caring much for this sketch.
— Overall, no idea what to say, except that I didn’t laugh, though I kinda appreciate how Jimmy put his all into how wild he went at the end of this.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An up-and-down episode. There was a little more good than bad, but this episode as a whole isn’t particularly noteworthy or memorable. It was interesting and pretty refreshing, though, how much SNL let the featured players (Rachel Dratch, Jerry Minor, Maya Rudolph) dominate this episode, something that I wish SNL wouldn’t be hesitant to try more often.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Conan O’Brien)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin

Posted on

March 10, 2001 – Conan O’Brien / Don Henley (S26 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
unlike ailing workaholic Dick Cheney, George W. Bush (WIF) has no worries

— I like the twist on the usual Don Pardo-read “Saturday Night Live, normally seen at this time, will be delayed– etc.” announcements that these presidential address-to-the-nation cold openings usually begin with, by having Pardo now say “Saturday Night Live, normally delayed at this time, will be delayed again so we can give you this following– etc.”
— Will-as-Bush’s health comparisons between himself and vice president Dick Cheney have some laughs.
— A classic Will-as-Bush moment right now, with his definition of 24/7: “That’s 24 hours a week… 7 months a year.”
— These Bush-addresses-the-nation cold openings lately have been pretty average. These don’t seem to work as well as sketches where Will’s Bush plays off of other people. Also, I don’t think these latest Bush sketches have been written by Jim Downey, who wrote the acclaimed Bush sketches during the election in the first half of the season, so that may explain the drop in quality.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
TRM & Japanese tourists accompany host to his studio; Max Weinberg cameo

— Nice touch with Conan doing the same physical moves after his entrance that he regularly did around this time after making his entrance on his Late Night show on NBC.
— I like how he’s openly acknowledging that he started out as a writer on SNL.
— A very fun montage of Conan’s onscreen bit roles in sketches from his SNL writer days, complete with a fake clip of two people in a horse costume at the end.
— I love how Conan’s taking us on a trip to his Late Night studio, right here on live TV. Very unique for SNL. In my review of Buck Henry’s May 1976 monologue, I compared that to this Conan monologue, and pointed out how extremely rare and ambitious it is for SNL to do something this extensive on live TV.
— Tracy: “I’ve never seen a television studio before!”
— Tracy’s very Tracy Morgan-esque reaction to realizing he’s on TV is great.
— Very funny little touches with Conan running into random people like Japanese tourists and “live-saving paramedics”, and inviting them to join him on his journey to his Late Night studio.
— Hilarious turn with Conan finally entering his studio and finding Max Weinberg having sex on Conan’s desk.
— Watching this monologue nowadays, it’s a very nice and bittersweet blast of nostalgia to see Conan’s Late Night studio from this era.
— I love the unconventional way this monologue ends.
— Overall, this entire monologue is a personal favorite of mine.
STARS: *****


SUBSHACK
overstuffed Subshack sandwiches fatten up Jared Fogel (JIF) & friends

— (*tries hard to ignore the awkwardness of looking back at an old Jared Fogel portrayal in today’s age*)
— (*groans when just now remembering that I have an actual Jared Fogel cameo to eventually cover in the Michael Phelps episode from season 34*)
— Seeing Tracy in that fat suit reminds me of how much heavier he used to be during his first season on SNL, though he was certainly nowhere near as heavy as he is in the fat suit he’s wearing in this commercial.
— Overall, this commercial was funny enough, even if this isn’t quite as funny or as noteworthy as I had remembered it (and, no, it’s not the whole Jared thing that makes this less funny to me nowadays).
STARS: ***


CUMBERLAND FARMS
underage Sully manages to buy booze for Denise, (host), Donny Bartolotti

— In an interview that Rachel had then-recently done on Conan’s Late Night show, she and Conan mentioned Conan’s then-upcoming SNL hosting stint and they both gave a hint that Conan’s going to appear in a Boston Teens sketch in his SNL episode, given the fact that Conan is a natural-born Bostonian himself.
— Conan’s opening line: “You’re undah arrest for public display of a bonah!”
— As no surprise, Conan is fitting in this perfectly, and he’s adding a very fun vibe to this sketch.
— I like the whole conversation that Rachel’s Denise and Conan have about a past relationship they had together.
— Ben Affleck cameo! Nice to see him reprising his solid Donnie Bartolotti role from the Boston Teens sketch that he appeared in the preceding season. That sketch was, in my eyes, one of the best Boston Teens installments, and I feel that tonight’s installment is also one of the best ones.
— A rare Boston Teens sketch that doesn’t contain the traditional sexual innuendo/“Tommy, please tell me you got on tape!” moment.
STARS: ****


MOLECULO
catchphrase betrays secret identity of Moleculo, The Molecular Man (host)

— A very fun character for Conan, and yet another role tonight that fits him perfectly.
— I love the recurring gag of Conan’s character always following someone saying his name, Moleculo, with exclaiming “The Molecular Man!” as the camera zooms in on him.
— Great turn with the “The Molecular Man!” exclamations and camera zoom-ins happening helplessly to a disguised Conan when his alter-ego’s co-workers keeps saying “Moleculo” around him. I especially like him doing it after he crashes through the wall.
— The whole Mexico scene is a perfect ending to this.
STARS: *****


NAPSTER TESTIMONY
Right Said Fred (host) & other one-hit wonders give Napster testimony

— The return of Kattan’s David Lee Roth impression, last done in a “Hey, Remember the 80s?” sketch in season 22.
— Conan is hilarious as Right Said Fred.
— Fun concept of this sketch, with performers coming on one-by-one giving testimonials as washed-up singers from the 80s and 90s.
— We get the return of another impression that a cast member once did in the past, this time Tracy as the guy from Cameo.
— Even though you know what the statement is going to be, I love the drawn-out set-up to the guy from Cameo’s statement, with him putting on glasses, drinking from a glass of water, and pulling out a sheet of paper with the statement.
— Rachel has refreshingly been getting a lot more airtime tonight than she usually gets this season.
— Geez, Jimmy screwed up the name of the celebrity he was playing, accidentally introducing himself as “Nigel Tennant” before correcting himself and saying “Neil Tennant”. We also get a tepid joke afterwards about Jimmy’s Neil Tennant working at an actual pet shop nowadays. They used a similar joke about another celebrity to better effect in a then-recent sketch, but I can’t remember what sketch I’m thinking of.
— Okay, I do give Jimmy credit for doing a spot-on imitation of Neil Tennant’s singing voice when just now singing a small sample of “West End Girls”.
— Horatio is priceless as a now-fat Rico Suave. I especially like his “Chocolate…. dooonuuuts!” line explaining what happened to his body.
— A funny bit about Will’s Corey Hart driving with sunglasses at night.
— A lot of laughs from Conan’s Right Said Fred disguising himself as the beekeeper from the Village People, before being called out on the fact that there was no beekeeper in the Village People.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Everything Is Different Now”


WEEKEND UPDATE

— During Tina’s Rudy Giuliani joke, I love the meta punchline about SNL’s own Tracy Morgan, showing once again how defined Tracy’s onscreen persona has become.
— I remember an SNL reviewer from back at this time in 2001 pointing out that Jimmy’s Chocolat joke (“The movie Chocolat was so choco-long and choco-boring that I wanted my choco-money back”) felt like something that Mike Myers would’ve said as Wayne Campbell in a Wayne’s World sketch. I can definitely see it, especially with the way Jimmy delivered that joke.
— Wow, that’s it? That’s the entire Update? The then-recent trend of Update getting shorter and shorter by the week continues, as tonight’s has got to be one of the shortest Updates of all time, or at least of the three most recent decades today. There also were no guest commentaries.
STARS: ***½


NO TAINT
(HOS) is distressed to learn that he lost his taint in a car accident

— There’s Rachel once again tonight.
— I’m loving all of the random absurdist humor that this sketch is filled with right out of the gate, such as Horatio preferring to travel all the way to another city just to get to the “good” McDonalds, Bruce Jenner being on Inside The Actor’s Studio, and Horatio foolishly thinking that if he drives 130 miles an hour, it’s possible for him to make it to another city and back home in just 10 minutes.
— Ana’s hillbilly prank on Horatio is very funny.
— Hilarious turn with Conan as a doctor revealing to Horatio that they were forced to remove his taint, resulting in a confused reaction from Horatio over what the hell a taint is. I also love Conan’s description of just what exactly a taint is.
— I got a big laugh from Horatio describing a taint as a “fleshy fun bridge”.
— Horatio: “Where’d you get your medical degree? In a box of Hill Street Blues cereal?”
— Funny running gag of Conan’s difficulty in pronouncing the simple name Brown.
— The random absurdist humor of this sketch beautifully continues, with Will (playing a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque sleazy character) entering wearing a blazer with no shirt underneath.
— The things being said in the text crawl make me think that this sketch was written by whoever (possibly Adam McKay) wrote a certain other great sketch, Buckwell’s Follies, from season 21’s Alec Baldwin episode, as that had a similar message in its text crawl ending.
— A hilarious listing-off of taint-less celebrities. I especially love the little bit with the announcer, Parnell, accidentally misreading the name of basketball player Pervis Ellison for the name of another basketball player, Purvis Short.
— When Parnell as the announcer tells us that we probably had no idea that he has no taint, I love the distinct voice of Tracy responding “Nah, we knew! We knew!”
— Overall, my god, what a bizarre masterpiece. One of my absolute favorite oddball sketches from this entire era.
— SNL would later replace this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. It’s been ages since I’ve seen the rerun version of this sketch, but off the top of my head, the only big difference I remember is that Conan wears a wig in the dress rehearsal version, whereas he has his real hair in the live version.
STARS: *****


TV FUNHOUSE
“Find The Black People At The Knick Game” by RBS- off-the-court, not many

 

— Wow, what a very random concept (quite a lot of random humor in tonight’s episode in general, which is right up my alley). But I love it.
— A rare instance of a non-animated TV Funhouse.
— I love the how, after running out of black people in the stands, this has now desperately resorted to finding black people among the players on the court, where the circles go off like mad.
— An odd but strangely good ending with Horatio and Tracy as themselves randomly being in the stands.
STARS: ****


VH1 DIVA-THON
during a concert, Deandra Wells barely avoids a mutiny by her band

— The second and final appearance of Ana’s Deandra Wells character.
— Ana’s doing another solid job as this character, but so far, this sketch is following the exact same formula and pattern as the first installment.
— We at least get an inclusion of Conan as an additional band member, Deandra Wells’ son.
— Deandra’s comments about her son are really funny.
— Like last time, we get another angry outburst from the band towards Deandra. This sketch in general is a little too derivative of the first installment for my likes.
— I like Conan complaining to Deandra about her decision to have Anthony Michael Hall play him in a “movie of the week” about his life story.
— Ana’s initial reaction when Will actually strikes her during an angry confrontation made me laugh.
STARS: ***


DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
Marc Rich (CHK) can afford to be against a tax cut because he doesn’t pay

— At the beginning, I like the audience’s groaning when it’s revealed that Kattan’s playing Marc Rich.
— Quite an oversized-looking suit on Kattan. Is that intentional?
— Overall, blah. A few light laughs, but this was mostly dull and forgettable.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Heart Of The Matter”

— This musical performance would later be removed in NBC reruns and be replaced with a cut-after-dress-rehearsal DeMarco Brothers sketch involving Don Henley. Odd decision to replace a Henley musical performance with a sketch that Henley co-stars in, but from what I remember, this DeMarco Brothers sketch was actually a rare funny one, as Conan played a third DeMarco Brother, and hilarity ensued as his character awkwardly tried to fit in with the other two DeMarco Brothers.


SPORTS CENTURY
black opponents end career of boxing pioneer (host)

— A good laugh from Conan’s old-timey boxer character having a handlebar mustache in his baby picture.
— Yet another role tonight that Conan is perfectly cast in.
— The Conan/Kattan fight with both of them just waving their fists for a countless number of rounds is cracking me up, even if the gag is being stretched a little longer than it should.
— Hilarious turn with Conan’s character immediately getting endlessly punched in his first match against a black boxer.
— A great image of Conan’s head immediately bleeding at the beginning of a match before any punches were even thrown. I also love his line to his opponent during that bleeding: “I’ll baste your turkey!”
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fantastic episode. Not only is this one of my favorite episodes of both this season and this entire era, but it’s one of my favorite episodes of all time. This episode was filled with the type of Conan-inspired fun, creative, oddball silliness that epitomizes my comedic tastes. Conan O’Brien was a truly remarkable host as expected, and I love how the roles he was given fit him to a T and played to his strengths. A lot of the sketches he was in were the type of comedy bits that I can picture appearing in this same era of his Late Night show (one of the writers and frequent onscreen performers of Conan’s Late Night show, Jon Glaser, was credited as an additional sketch writer in tonight’s episode, so I’m sure that at least partially explains why).


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Katie Holmes)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Julia Stiles hosts SNL’s 500th episode

Posted on

February 24, 2001 – Katie Holmes / Dave Matthews Band (S26 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE CLINTON GANG
Bill Clinton (DAH) & relatives are a giddy & unrepentant gang of outlaws

— I like Darrell’s Bill Clinton explaining “I do what I likes, and I likes what I do.”
— A funny sudden laughing outburst from Ana’s Hillary Clinton after saying something stern and uptight to Bill.
— A great “The Clinton Gang” turn, as well as Bill proudly going on about how redneck-y his family is.
— Feels a little weird seeing Ana portraying Hillary as so laid-back and jokey for once, but it’s refreshing.
— I love Parnell-as-Roger-Clinton’s line “Hell, I already been on Cops!”
— Speaking of Parnell, I remember an SNL reviewer from back at this time in 2001 (Mark Polishuk, I believe) saying Parnell’s portrayal of Roger Clinton strangely came off George W. Bush-esque and that “maybe Will Ferrell might not need to be around for all four years after all”. Quite prescient of that reviewer.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
WIF tries to match host’s tap-dancing with a series of goofy steps

— Right out of the gate at the beginning of this monologue, when the camera is showing a shot of both Katie Holmes and the applauding audience, Katie’s dress strap accidentally breaks due to her putting her hands on her hips, and she quickly catches the falling strap and is forced to awkwardly hold it up onto her shoulder for the next few minutes (as seen in the first above screencap for this monologue). Whoops! The reason her dress strap broke so easily is because she’s wearing a breakaway dress that she’ll soon be removing during a sultry dance number of hers towards the end of this monologue.
— Yikes, Katie’s comedic “Dawson’s Creek has been crazy this week!” bit bombed HARD. Katie acknowledges that by sorta-comically shifting her eyes to the side in an awkward manner. Between the breaking dress strap and now this, Katie’s monologue has been kinda clumsy so far.
— Thank god Will has shown up to help this monologue.
— Will, regarding his dancing shoes: “Check out these Brogans!” I know Brogan is a type of shoe, but with Will delivering that line, I can’t help but be reminded of the Ted Brogan 37-year-old baby sketch that Will had recently done at the time.
— When a stagehand gives Katie her tapdancing shoes, that stagehand also pins Katie’s broken dress strap back together. A nice last-minute emergency save on SNL’s part.
— A good laugh from Will’s line about Savion Glover being his stepson.
— Will is very funny throughout this monologue, though this monologue itself is coming off fairly redundant after a while. It also doesn’t feel right how Katie herself is almost a complete non-factor in this monologue so far. She’s also coming off very bland during her interactions with Will.
— At the very end of this monologue, Katie seemed lost, as she was about to walk offstage a little too early before the camera faded to black, then she paused awkwardly after seemingly receiving a signal from an off-camera stagehand that it’s not time to exit the stage yet, then Katie looked around helplessly and confusedly, then did a sultry little dance as the camera faded to black. I gotta say, all of Katie’s awkwardness throughout this monologue is not giving me much confidence in her hosting skills.
STARS: *** (mostly due to Will’s performance)


DAWSON’S CREEK
Joey (host) & exchange student Mr. Peepers have sex

 

— Blah, Mr. Peepers. Hell, not even the audience applauds the reveal of him in this sketch.
— I’m now a minute later into this sketch, and to my complete surprise, I’m actually kinda liking Mr. Peepers in this Dawson’s Creek setting. Given my usual dislike of Mr. Peepers and my unfamiliarity with Dawson’s Creek, I don’t know why this sketch is working for me, but it is.
— I’m liking Jimmy’s James Van Der Beek impression.
— Ha, during the scene with Katie’s character having a heart-to-heart talk with Dawson, you can still see apple bits on Katie’s face from an earlier scene that took place on what we’re supposed to believe was a different day. This results in a funny ad-lib from Jimmy where he casually swipes off some of the apple bits on Katie’s face while delivering a line.
— Credit goes to Katie for keeping a straight face while acting unconscious as Kattan-as-Mr.-Peepers is doing a whole bunch of ridiculous things to her face in an attempt to revive her.
— When Mr. Peepers jumps off of a clothing chest that he was standing on, the chest unintentionally tips over and falls on Katie’s hand, which results in the audience actually gasping in shock. Katie doesn’t even seem hurt by the chest falling on her hand (the chest was probably light), but Kattan, out of genuine concern while still perfectly staying in character, lifts the chest off of Katie’s hand before continuing on with his scripted Mr. Peepers antics.
— Overall, for a Mr. Peepers sketch, this surprisingly wasn’t bad in my eyes. Easily one of his better sketches.
STARS: ***


KXLA SPECIAL REPORT
(MAR) reports as house of Drew Barrymore (host) & Tom Green (JIF) burns

— Some laughs from Maya’s cheesy fire puns in her news report.
— Jimmy is slaying me with his absolutely spot-on take on Tom Green. After I recently suffered through reviewing the Tom Green-hosted episode from earlier this season (one of the most frustrating reviews I’ve EVER had to do), Jimmy’s dead-on skewering of Green is what I needed. He is humorously nailing all of the things that I couldn’t stand about Green when reviewing his SNL episode.
— Katie’s Drew Barrymore impression, on the other hand? Ehhh. I can kinda see what she’s going for, but let’s just say she ain’t no Kate Hudson. She also keeps making some awkward pauses before delivering some of her lines. (Boy, I’ve been using the word “awkward” quite a lot to describe Katie’s performances in tonight’s episode.)
— Tracy’s fireman character, when asked if he can save Tom and Drew’s burning house: “(casually) Hell nah! That’s gonna burn down to the ground!”
— Tracy’s reactions to having his face licked by Jimmy’s Tom Green are very funny, especially him telling Jimmy’s Green “I sure wanna get high wit’choo!”
— An inner thought from the dog, in regards to Tom Green: “He makes David Arquette look like a genius!”
STARS: ****


TV FUNHOUSE
“Backstreet Boys” by RBS- sucking is salient feature of boy band

 

— Hilarious opening theme song.
— A great concept of Backstreet Boys being superheroes who use their suckiness to defeat villains.
— The choreographed bit that the Backstreet Boys are doing with folding chairs during their number reminds me of the LAUGHABLY lame bit that the real Backstreet Boys did with folding chairs in their musical performance on SNL in season 23’s Julianne Moore episode.
— The random involvement of John Tesh is great. I especially love the “You guys rock!” “Thanks, Mr. Tesh!” exchange as soon as he enters.
STARS: ****


LOVERS
professor Roger (WIF) & his lover Virginia (RAD) creep out (JIF) & (host)

— The Luvahs characters, Roger and Virginia Klarvin, make their debut.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Roger saying “fill our bellies with ham” at one point when he and Virginia are detailing their lovemaking routine.
— I used to HATE these sketches back when they originally aired, but during this current viewing, I’ve been getting some amusement from Will and Rachel’s characterizations and the way their characters word some of their sentences. And I admire how really into it Will and Rachel are in their performances.
— Jimmy and Katie’s uncomfortable reactions to the Luvahs are pretty funny.
— I love Jimmy nervously gulping down a drink in a quick manner during Katie’s Luvah-esque detailing of the lovemaking she’d like her and Jimmy to do.
— The “My back” ending between Roger and Virginia was pretty funny. Too bad SNL will go on to run that into the damn ground in the subsequent Luvahs installments.
— Overall, not a bad debut for The Luvahs, especially considering how strongly I used to dislike these sketches in the past. I have no idea how I’m going to react when covering the subsequent Luvahs installments, though.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Did It”


WEEKEND UPDATE
despite reservations, TIF is sticking with her shady male gynecologist

Elton John (HOS) & Eminem (CHP) make out after Grammys “Stan” performance

— What the hell?!? During Jimmy and Tina’s sign-on at the beginning of this Update, a drop-down screen starts lowering behind them into the shot (the first above screencap for this Update), only to IMMEDIATELY be raised back up out of the shot, without having been used or acknowledged. WTF??? I guess a segment utilizing the drop-down screen was cut at the last minute, and the crew member operating the screen didn’t get the memo.
— Tina’s Women’s News segment about gynecologists was surprisingly nothing memorable. I was expecting better. Also, I could’ve done without Tina re-doing the “As a (insert something here), which I am not…” line, which was much funnier the first time she did it in the Women’s News segment from her very first Update.
— I love Horatio and Parnell’s recreation of the “Stan” musical performance that Elton John and Eminem had recently done at the Grammys, even though there aren’t any jokes in this recreation.
— The big twist after the Elton John/Eminem performance, with them wildly making out with each other is yet another example of this type of homoerotic humor that I used to find hilarious at the time during this late 90s/early 00s SNL era, but now find that it doesn’t hold up well and just comes off as a cheap, lazy, unnecessary, and overused resort for laughs. Parnell and Horatio sure as hell are putting their all into this wild make-out session, though. I’ll give them that.
— For, I believe, the first time ever, Jimmy throws a pen towards the camera after signing off at the end of Update, which would go on to be an on-again/off again tradition of his on Update.
— Very short Update overall, for the second episode in a row.
STARS: ***


JARRET’S ROOM
Billy Joel lyrics help Daniel (CHP) woo coed (host)

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— After making little-to-no appearances outside of Weekend Update the last few episodes, Jimmy is absolutely DOMINATING tonight’s episode. So far, he’s appeared in every single post-monologue live sketch in either a starring role or very large supporting role.
— Like in the first installment of this sketch from earlier this season, Horatio’s Gobi character is providing some laughs, but he sure is a one-note character.
— This sketch has died after Katie’s entrance. Nothing interesting is happening, plus Katie is adding nothing to this sketch and seems out of place. Compare her character and performance here to the character that Lucy Liu played in the first installment, who actually fit the sketch well.
— Parnell has breathed some much-needed life into this sketch as a roommate wearing a mesh tanktop and quoting Billy Joel songs to impress Katie.
— An overall blah Jarret’s Room installment, even worse than the first installment, in my opinion. This recurring sketch has not been showing much promise so far. One of my problems is that the main character, Jarret, isn’t remotely interesting. There’s no personality there. Nothing distinct about the character. He’s basically just Jimmy Fallon playing himself with a wig. And if Horatio’s Gobi character is supposed to be the personality of these sketches, then that’s another faulty decision, as Gobi is too one-note, like I said earlier, and he can only be funny in small doses.
STARS: **


TOUGH AS NAILS
(CHP) directs actress (host) to grab actor’s (WIF) crotch vigorously

— A great Will Ferrell performance that I had completely forgotten about until now. I’m glad to be reminded of this.
— Will’s increasingly pained reactions to having his testicles painfully grabbed during filming are giving me lots of laughs.
— I love Tracy’s character’s ad-libbed response to Katie’s overly-rough testicle-grabbing of Will during the filming: “Let go, man! That ain’t cool!”, then after the filming for that scene has stopped, Tracy gets another great line: “That was hurtin’ ME!”
— I like Parnell’s director character sadistically advising Katie to go at Will even harder, after kindly assuring Will that he no longer has to worry about doing any more painful testicle-grabbing takes.
— Very funny exclamation of “Cheese and biscuits!” from Will after getting kicked in the crotch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Space Between”


PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PAM
Passive-Aggressive Pam’s (ANG) backhanded compliments sting co-workers

— Did Katie forget a line before Ana made her entrance? Right before Ana came in and started speaking, we got a long close-up of Katie awkwardly not saying anything (there’s that use of the word “awkward” once again to describe a Katie Holmes performance) and looking off-camera.
— An interesting character for Ana, and also an interesting live theme song for this character.
— I love the bizarre musical interludes throughout this sketch, with a barbershop quartet summing up the concept of Ana’s character. Will is particularly hamming it up like crazy as one of the quartet members, and I cannot stop cracking up at him. The combo of his extremely hammy performance, his barbershop quartet costume, and his handlebar mustache make it seem like he’s reprising his hilarious role as Thaddeus Garfield Ignatius Friday from the T.G.I. Friday’s sketch in the Charlie Sheen episode earlier this season.
— Ana’s various backhanded comments are making me laugh, and Ana is perfect for this role. I’m enjoying this sketch more than the audience seems to be.
— This overall sketch kinda feels like it was set up to eventually become recurring, but we end up never seeing it again.
STARS: ***½


SINGLES CRUISE
at the end of their singles’ cruise, (CHP) & Leilani Burke (MAR) settle

— Much like Jimmy, Parnell has been prominent throughout tonight’s episode, which is very refreshing in Parnell’s case. He rarely seems to get the airtime he deserves.
— It took Katie all night, but she’s finally doing a very solid characterization in a role that she’s losing herself in.
— I like the big awkward smile that Maya’s character occasionally does in reaction to certain things that Parnell’s character says to her.
— So far, this sketch is refreshingly slower, quieter, and more subtle than most sketches from this era. This sketch seems to be going for a bit of a slice-of-life feel that was far more common in early SNL eras.
— I love the reveal that Maya’s character works in an animal rescue crew and Parnell’s character is a furrier.
— Speaking of Maya’s character saying she works in an animal rescue crew, we’ll later be seeing this character of Maya’s (who’s name is Leilani) return THREE SEASONS LATER, in a one-off sketch in which she’s a pet psychic who hosts her own show.
— Overall, I liked this interesting piece, and the characterizations from Parnell and Maya were solid, as was Katie’s in a supporting role.
— After this sketch ends, I like how surprisingly quickly we see the crew disassemble the set, revealing the SNL Band (with special guest Junior Brown sitting in with them) onstage behind the set, playing the show to commercial.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Man, Katie’s even coming off awkward (there’s that word once again tonight) during her goodnights speech, with odd pauses and her strangely continuing her speech long after the applause and music has begun drowning her out. Her awkwardness here reminds me of the funny impression that Anne Hathaway would later do of her during some of Hathaway’s hosting stints.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode that had a mostly consistent quality to it. Jarret’s Room was the only sketch that I disliked. As for Katie Holmes, I did not enjoy her very much as the host. I’ll admit that she did have her occasional moments, particularly in the final sketch, in which she played her role very well and disappeared into character, but, as I said probably way too many times throughout the review, she had quite a lot of awkward moments during the show, even including the goodnights. I don’t know if she’s naturally this awkward (as I implied earlier in this review, this awkwardness does seem to be what Anne Hathaway is going for when she does an impression of Katie), or if it was just live TV jitters.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sean Hayes)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Conan O’Brien

Posted on

February 17, 2001 – Sean Hayes / Shaggy (S26 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) says Iraq strike was meant to help Bill Clinton

— Funny reveal from Will’s Bush that he ordered a surprise military strike against Iraq just as an attempt to move former president Bill Clinton’s latest scandals off the front pages.
— Great “Live From New York…” fake-out with Bush setting it up by saying “I have just one more thing to say”, then starting to say “Live fr–” as the camera zooms in on him, only for him to cut himself off with “no, wait, two more things to say”, which results in the zoomed-in camera immediately zooming back out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen SNL play with a LFNY camera zoom-in like that in any prior cold openings.
— Overall, a pretty funny but average Bush cold opening.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host plays “A Fifth Of Beethoven” on piano & multitasks on-stage

— A very fun energetic and bouncy entrance from Sean Hayes.
— A lot of laughs and entertainment from all of the little things Sean’s doing during the funky portions of the “A Fifth Of Beethoven” song he’s playing. He is going ALL OUT on this, and I love it.
— Very strong monologue overall.
STARS: ****½


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry trip out after eating portabello mushrooms

— This strong recurring sketch makes its final appearance of Molly’s tenure as a cast member, as tonight is Molly’s last episode.
— During the mid-commercial shot of this sketch being set up on the SNL stage during the preceding commercial break, we see that tonight’s Delicious Dish installment oddly takes place in front of a greenscreen instead of the usual radio studio set, which should tell you that something unusual is going to happen in this installment.
— Great look for Sean’s character.
— I like Molly’s stern delivery of “Okay, that’s enough” after Sean says one too many corny mushroom puns.
— Very funny turn with Margaret Jo and Terry having bizarre psychedelic, trippy hallucinations after eating toxic mushrooms. Now we see why this sketch had to resort to a greenscreen background.
— Odd use of Will, briefly playing a weird man with a phone for a head, and yet, it’s strangely a very fitting role for him. The only reason I even know it’s Will in that costume is because during the aforementioned mid-commercial shot of this sketch being set up on the SNL stage, the stage manager can be heard on the P.A. calling Will’s name among the performers who are called for this sketch.
— While this is VERY different for a Delicious Dish, I’m loving this.
— I really like the outer space sequence with Margaret Jo and Terry’s floating heads taking turns saying random foods.
— The reveal that the mushrooms that Margaret Jo and Terry were supposedly tripping off from were actually just portabello mushrooms was pretty funny, but too reminiscent of a previous Delicious Dish sketch where Margaret Jo and Terry got drunk off of eggnog, only to eventually find out that it was non-alcoholic eggnog.
— Overall, a very fun and unique way for this fantastic recurring sketch to go out… during Molly’s tenure, that is. SNL would unwisely go on to keep this recurring sketch going for the remainder of Ana’s tenure, with a certain cast member replacing Molly’s role.
STARS: ****


HOMOCIL
Homocil helps anxious parents of homosexual children deal with gayness

— I’ve always absolutely loved this commercial. I’m not sure how well this commercial holds up with most people in today’s more PC, gay-friendly age, but I’ll try not to let that affect my enjoyment during this current viewing.
— The style of this commercial is a spot-on parody of a real commercial that aired at this time for medication for Social Anxiety Disorder. I forget what medicine company that was for.
— The whole “Who wants crème brule?” scene with Tracy’s character and his son is particularly hilarious.
— A memorable and funny image of Will’s frozen fake big smile and thumbs-up.
— The announcer’s ending line, delivered towards parents of gay children: “Because it’s your problem… not theirs.”
STARS: ****½


HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) piles on in wake of Clinton pardon scandal

— The Hardball parodies have officially become recurring.
— The debut of Kattan’s Paul Begala impression, which will go on to become a recurring punching bag in these sketches.
— Chris Matthews, to Paul Begala: “You’re boring… and you look like a fetus!”
— Darrell looks like he’s breaking after the hands-tied-behind-his-back scenario that Parnell’s Arlen Specter suggests for Bill Clinton.
— The whole back-and-forth between Chris Matthews and Paul Begala is great.
— Parnell is on fire in this sketch, as his Arlen Specter is having lots of priceless lines in regards to various insane scenarios he has for Clinton.
STARS: ****


JEFFREY’S
fashion-hip clerks (JIF) & (host) belittle customers’ style

 

— This is the first actual live sketch that Jimmy has appeared in since all the way back in the Charlie Sheen episode from a month prior. This also ends up being his ONLY non-Weekend-Update appearance tonight, making this the third consecutive episode in which he does little-to-nothing outside of Update. I wonder what’s going on with his airtime lately. It’s like SNL is experimenting with having Jimmy only concentrate on Update for a few episodes.
— Stock gay stereotype characters here (which, let’s face it, you knew SNL was gonna give Sean Hayes at least once tonight), but I admit, I’m actually really liking Jimmy and Sean’s snarky insults towards customers.
— I remember some SNL fans back at this time saying these Jeffrey’s characters are basically a gay male version of the Gap Girls. I can kinda see that, though the Gap Girls sketches had more storylines and character development than these Jeffrey’s sketches, which are literally just Jimmy and the hosts’ characters endlessly insulting customers, and then interacting with Will’s character at the end of the sketch.
— I love Horatio’s line “For your informacione, guy, I have a half-eaten taco in my Terce-e-e-e-el!”
— Sean is stumbling over some of his lines throughout this sketch whenever he and Jimmy say something to each other in between dealing with customers.
— Will’s walk-on immediately results in smirking from Sean and Jimmy. Otherwise, Sean and Jimmy are doing relatively okay in keeping a straight face throughout Will’s scene. The version of this sketch that everybody’s probably familiar with, in which Sean and Jimmy break HARD during Will’s entire scene, is actually the dress rehearsal version. I’m currently reviewing the live version, in which Sean and Jimmy keep their composure for most of Will’s scene, aside from some occasional smirks.
— The aforementioned dress rehearsal version of this sketch shown in reruns also has quite a lot of breaking from Jimmy during Horatio’s scene, as well as a more loose performance from Horatio.
— Will is absolutely hilarious in his appearance in this sketch, especially the business with his tiny phone.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “It Wasn’t Me”


WEEKEND UPDATE
snubbed & angry Jamie Bell (host), aka the kid from Billy Elliot, dances

— During Jimmy’s “Weekend Update Inside Joke” segment, he namedrops insider names like Phil Hymes and Wally, who are actual crew members of SNL (Wally being Wally Feresten, the cue card guy).
— A rare instance of a host getting their own Update commentary.
— Sean is great as The Kid From Billy Elliot, and I love all of his angry one-liners.
— Fun turn with Sean dancing in front of the Update desk and then going into the studio audience.
— After Sean’s commentary has seemingly ended, we get a fantastic continuation, with Jimmy and Tina being informed via a breaking note that “The Kid From Billy Elliot is still mad”, followed by a cutaway to him at SNL’s backstage area dancing around the hallway and punching Kattan and Maya.
— An overall pretty short Update, but a strong one.
STARS: ****


HELLO DOLLY
on Valentine’s Day, (host) boosts merits of replica children

— I was about to say that this is the final edition of Hello Dolly, but I just now remembered that the following season’s Hugh Jackman episode has the final Hello Dolly.
— Not caring too much for tonight’s installment so far, though there are a few funny lines. I recall liking this recurring sketch when it started out, but I’ve gotten gradually tired of it after a while.
— Okay, the “Oopz” doll in a full-body cast is making me laugh.
STARS: **½


BAND SHOT
going to commercial, G.E. Smith & T-Bone Wolk [real] play guitar & bass


FASHION WEEK
at fashion show, Sally O’Malley encourages age pride & displays camel-toe

— I like Sean making his entrance on a scooter.
— Yet another fun characterization from Sean tonight. He has been an amazing host so far tonight.
— Uh-oh, a Sally O’Malley appearance. If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you most likely know how I feel about these Sally O’Malley sketches. However, I’ll tone down the saltiness and go a little easy on this one tonight, because I don’t want to taint my review of Molly’s final episode by bitching and moaning too much about a sketch of hers. Despite my many complaints about Molly in these later seasons of hers where she’s gone downhill, I still like Molly as a performer in general and feel that her SNL tenure as a whole holds up.
— Just now, it looked like the camera tried to hide Molly’s obligatory breaking by immediately cutting to a close-up of Sean saying and doing nothing. Good work, SNL director. If only they did this during the countless other times that Molly broke during these last two seasons.
— Aaaaaaand there’s the famous “camel toe” sequence in tonight’s Sally O’Malley sketch. Molly’s having fun going all out here.
— I like Sean’s Sally O’Malley-esque phrase “I like to scratch, belch, and scratch! I’m 60!”
— Overall, surprisingly not insufferable at all. I think the atmosphere of this being Molly’s last show made this Sally O’Malley installment come off more tolerable and fun than usual.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Angel”


ACTION NEWS 4 MORNING REPORT
reporter (host) covers events precipitated by crash involving a clown car

— I like the odd news stories that Ana and Kattan casually mention briefly at the beginning.
— Hilarious premise of the news covering a clown car accident. Will and the other performers are slaying me in their performances as the injured clowns.
— After being very prominent in the last two episodes and getting lots of comedic roles in them, things have unfortunately gone back to usual for Jerry Minor, as he makes his only appearance of the night in a late-in-the-show sketch in which he plays his usual bit role that doesn’t really give him anything funny to do. For what I remember of the remainder of this season, it’s going to be quite a while until SNL gives Jerry his next comedic role.
— I love how they’re upping the ante of this sketch’s bizarre nature, by adding crazy assorted things to the already-crazy coverage of the clown car accident, such as Big Mouth Billy Basses and a busload of horny prison inmates.
— Great ending shot of Horatio in clown makeup popping up in front of the camera and laughing maniacally (screencap below).

I recall some SNL fans back at this time saying Horatio was a little too scary-looking in that portion of this sketch.
STARS: ****


LAST SHOW
Mary Katherine Gallagher sings “School’s Out”

— A fantastic brief musical number, letting the departing Molly Shannon bring back her retired breakout character, Mary Katherine Gallagher, to perform the song “School’s Out” with the SNL Band on the home base stage.
— I love the ending with MKG doing the “superstar” pose while exclaiming “Last show!” A great little sendoff for Molly.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
animals-that-people-make-clothes-out-of

— This sketch has officially become recurring… after TWO YEARS. When tonight’s episode originally aired, I remember being surprised that they were bringing back this forgotten two-year-old sketch from the season 24 finale. Obviously, SNL had no idea at the time how well-liked these Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketches would eventually become.
— During the usual Brian Fellow opening title sequence, tonight’s installment actually displays text of the usual voice-over intro about Brian Fellow not being an accredited zoologist. This, I believe, this ends up being the ONLY Brian Fellow installment to have that text be displayed.
— I think this is also the only time that Tracy ever wears a wig in a Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch. It looks like it might be the same wig that Tracy wore the very first time he played Brian Fellow, in which Fellow was a Weekend Update sports correspondent instead of a host of his own animal show.
— A good laugh from Brian Fellow’s thought bubble of a rabbit taking a test.
— Just now, the rabbit in the thought bubble referred to Brian Fellow as “Brian Fellows”, something that would eventually go on to be a common mistake that Tracy himself would make in these sketches, leading to the common misconception among SNL fans that this character’s last name is Fellows instead of Fellow.
— Overall, a good installment of this sketch. Tracy’s characterization of Brian Fellow felt more developed here, and, unlike the first installment, this installment felt more like the Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet that people today remember.
STARS: ***½


CORN CHIP NAIL TIPS
Rerun from 10/7/00


TALKIN’ ‘BOUT ‘GINAS
female celebs speak frankly about their genitals

— A hilarious title for a Vagina Monologues knock-off. I’m guessing this has GOT to be a Tina Fey-written sketch.
— I love the format of this sketch, showing little snippets of female celebrities, one-by-one, talking about their vaginas.
— Nice how Molly’s been getting a lot more airtime than usual for her last episode.
— Will absolutely steals the sketch with his portion of the sketch, playing Chyna.
— Kinda chilling in retrospect how many of the celebrities portrayed in this sketch are now dead only 19 years later (Farrah Fawcett, Joan Rivers, Anna Nicole Smith, Chyna), most of them untimely deaths. I think Gayle King is the ONLY celebrity portrayed in this sketch who’s still alive today. I would ask if the woman who Rachel played is still alive today, but according to SNL Archives, she’s not even a real person. If that’s true, I find it odd that SNL made up a celebrity for Rachel to play in this sketch.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode that has broken the rut that SNL had been in lately of episodes ranging from average to weak. This was the first strong episode since Val Kilmer/U2 from all the way back in early December. Sean Hayes was absolutely fantastic as a host tonight, and came off as someone who was born to do SNL. He was exactly the host that SNL needed after Jennifer Lopez’s blah outing as a host the preceding week. The difference between J.Lo and Sean’s hosting performances is like night and day.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Katie Holmes

Posted on

February 10, 2001 – Jennifer Lopez (S26 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BACKSTAGE
while TRM fills in as George W. Bush, WIF can’t get over host’s booty

 

— For the first time all season, we get a non-political cold opening… well, sort of. You’ll see what I mean a little later in this opening (if you can’t already tell from the above screencaps).
— Will apologizing to Jennifer Lopez for wanting to get his hands on her “juicy” behind is referencing a sketch that Will and Jennifer did at the end of an SNL Primetime Extra special from earlier that week. Primetime Extra was a two-week experiment in early February 2001, in which NBC aired a 20-minute live SNL episode on Thursday nights after a “Supersized” 40-minute episode of Friends, in an attempt to compete against CBS’s monster hit Survivor. Primetime Extra was basically the precursor to the “Weekend Update Thursday” specials that SNL has been doing on occasional years since 2008, only the Primetime Extra specials were less focused on Weekend Update and featured various sketches, including a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch at one point that I believe has become rather obscure compared to the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches that aired in regular SNL episodes.
— Tracy filling in for Will as Bush is hilarious, and I like how Tracy’s attempting an actual Bush impression.
— Some good laughs from Will waxing poetic about Jennifer’s behind.
— Jennifer is pretty bland as the straight man here.
— I love Tracy-as-Bush’s “How’s that for a tax plan?” bit.
— Lorne has just now made a passing mention of the XFL, which is interesting, as an XFL game infamously delayed this episode 45 minutes(!), which, IIRC, forced SNL to go ahead and start doing the episode anyway while the XFL game was still on, and then broadcasting the episode on a tape delay, without Jennifer or any of the cast knowing. This whole incident would end up causing a rift between Lorne and Vince McMahon. On the night of the original airing of this episode, I remember 16-year-old me sitting by my TV waiting and waiting very impatiently for the XFL game to end (though I was a little antsy that night to begin with, as my mother was at the hospital giving birth to my sister that same night). This episode was delayed so long that I remember being worried we would get another Rosanna Arquette situation (for those who don’t get what I mean by that, read my review of the Disclaimer sketch from the beginning of this episode).
— Another parallel this episode has to the Rosanna Arquette episode: the cold opening of both episodes involve 1) a cast member or recurring character hitting on the female host in her dressing room, 2) the female host wearing a robe, and 3) Lorne stepping in, initially putting an end to the cast member/recurring character’s hitting on the host, before changing his mind and having his own kinda sleazy turn towards the host.
— Not only do we get a rare Tracy Morgan “Live From New York”, but it’s an altered LFNY, with Tracy delivering it as “Live from New York, it’s Jennifer Lopez’s booty!” I’m always a sucker for the times that SNL alters their LFNYs.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
puzzled by diva reputation, host reveals Versace dress worn at Grammys

— (*OVER-ANALYZATION ALERT*) This is something I’ve always noticed about this monologue ever since it originally aired, and I wanted to get it off of my chest: something odd seemed to happen at the very beginning when Jennifer made her entrance. Immediately after opening the entrance door, Jennifer frantically turned her head back into the room she was in and appeared to say something unhappily to someone in there (the stage manager), then she has an uneasy, half-hearted smile on her face as she walks her way to the front of the stage. After the theme music and audience applause die down, a now-genuinely-smiling Jennifer shakes her head with her hand on her forehead in a stressed-out manner, and begins her monologue by saying “It’s too much, I wasn’t ready”, apparently referring to what went wrong right before she made her entrance. I’m guessing what happened was Jennifer was forced by the stage manager behind the stage entrance door to go out onstage when she didn’t feel quite ready yet, and then got upset by that. Wow. Looks like a certain someone doesn’t get the concept of a live TV show.
— A predictable and lazy premise of Jennifer immediately contradicting her “I’m not a diva” claims by doing diva-like actions. It’s not coming off too funny here.
— Aaaaaand there’s the iconic green Grammy’s dress. It was at least well-hidden under that robe before the big reveal.
— Overall, blah.
STARS: **


CRACKLIN’ OAT FLAKES
Rerun from 11/11/00


MANGO
Mango & host develop a rivalry after he becomes a recording star

— Parnell is hilarious in his small role at the beginning.
— After getting multiple sketches cut earlier this season, Mango makes his first on-air appearance of the entire season. The long break we got from Mango was nice while it lasted.
— I’m not sure, but I think this is the first time a Mango sketch was done in an episode with a female host.
— Darrell looks kinda out of place and awkward in the small non-impression role he’s playing here.
— Horatio makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a very small, 15-second appearance as one of Mango’s backup singers. The way he seems to DELIBERATELY exit this scene as slow as humanly possible is probably his way of milking what he knows is his only appearance of the night. I find that slow exit of his both kinda funny and kinda obnoxious and unprofessional.
— I got a laugh from Mango telling Jennifer “Bring it on, J.Ho!”
— Not sure we need such a lengthy parody of Madonna’s “Music” music video.
— Jennifer’s Mango-esque “Can you…” spiritual questions are making me chuckle.
— Wow, a pretty wild fight between Mango and Jennifer.
— Pretty funny random cutaway to real stock footage of Lorne in the Divas Live audience. It’s hard for me to imagine Lorne attending something like Divas Live, so I’m guessing that stock footage of him is from some other award show.
— Overall, while I still wasn’t too crazy about this, I found it a little more enjoyable than some Mango sketches. Maybe the long on-air hiatus did Mango some good.
STARS: **½


MTV CRIBS
Gemini’s Twin & new member (host) present their low-rent apartment

— A nice change of pace for Gemini’s Twin.
— Jennifer’s character being named Lady Speedstick is pretty funny.
— At the beginning of Gemini’s Twin’s apartment tour, I like the reveal that this small-looking room we’re seeing is their ENTIRE apartment.
— Jennifer doesn’t have anywhere near as good a chemistry with Maya and Ana as Charlize Theron and Lucy Liu had in previous Gemini’s Twin sketches. Jennifer seems out of place paired with Maya and Ana here, like she’s performing in a vacuum.
— Overall, once again, I just know I’m soon gonna get bored of these Gemini’s Twin sketches, but it hasn’t happened yet, especially since the Cribs setting in tonight’s installment provided some pretty good comedic potential.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Ray Of Light” by RBS- Ray Lewis witnesses famous Disney cartoon murders

— A huge laugh from the “Trent Dilfer sucks” message in the opening text crawl.
— A hilarious way to spoof the Ray Lewis controversy, by superimposing him into classic Disney movies.
— After witnessing Bambi’s mother getting shot, I love Ray Lewis saying “Oh, snap! I didn’t see nothin’!”, and then immediately hopping into a limo and speeding off.
— A very funny ending shot of Lewis singing “I didn’t kill no mother(*bleep*)in’ liiiooooon” while standing on top of a cliff.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Play”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF gabs with Cast Away star Wilson The Volleyball (WIF); Tom Hanks cameo

nervous 4th grader Rasheed Jenkins (JEM) gives Black History Month speech

— I thought it was unusual that Update was one of only two Jimmy Fallon appearances in the last episode, but that’s nothing compared to tonight, in which Update is Jimmy’s ONLY appearance. This kinda feels like a glimpse into an alternate universe in which Jimmy is one of those Update anchors who only does Update and seldom appears in sketches.
— Funny idea to have a commentary from Wilson The Volleyball from Cast Away being sleazily voiced by Will.
— A big laugh from Wilson The Volleyball’s blunt “Hanks is a dick.”
— Wilson bragging about his nub is pretty funny.
— Hi, Mustached Tom Hanks!
— Bye, Mustached Tom Hanks! Really, SNL? You brought Tom Freakin’ Hanks on for two seconds to do NOTHING, except take Wilson The Volleyball away? A waste of a Tom Hanks cameo, especially since this is his first SNL appearance in what, at the time, felt like a long time, and also ends up being his last SNL appearance for a long time.
— In his next joke after the Hanks cameo, I like Jimmy stopping mid-joke to ad-lib “I’m really gonna follow this”, referring to what a tough act it is to follow a Tom Hanks cameo.
— Tina’s long-winded joke, in which she does a fast-paced rundown of non-Baywatch shows that contain big fake boobs, is fantastic. One of Tina’s all-time best Update jokes. Also, seeing some of those shows being mentioned really takes me back.
— Tina is on fire with a lot of her jokes tonight. Jimmy, on the other hand, is quite a step behind her.
— Great to see Jerry with his own solo Update commentary.
— Jerry is doing such a spot-on imitation of a child. So many funny little things he’s doing throughout this commentary, and his freaking out when crying is hilarious. This is reminiscent of a great Will Ferrell sketch that I covered in season 24, in which Will played a businessman devolving into childlike crying and temper tantrums while giving an office presentation.
— Jerry’s commentary would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. One of the noticeable differences is that when Tracy tells Jimmy, in regards to the mother of Jerry’s character, “She’s in my dressin’ room, Jim!”, the audience responds well, whereas in the live version, that line strangely receives almost NO laughs.
— Speaking of Jerry’s commentary being replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, Jimmy and Tina’s subsequent sign-off is also replaced with the dress version, in which Jimmy and Tina comedically sign off as “Jim” Fallon and “Tin” Fey, presumably referencing Tracy calling Jimmy “Jim” a few moments prior. The live version of this Update, on the other hand, has Jimmy and Tina signing off with their normal names.
STARS: ***½


FLY GIRLS
Fly Girls (JEM), (TRM), (RAD) want to work with host again

— I like how this sketch is a callback to Jennifer’s early career as an In Living Color Fly Girl, which is something that I always forget.
— Where the heck is Maya in this sketch? Do we really need both Tracy AND Jerry in drag, when SNL actually has a black female cast member?
— Tracy’s character, when asked which one of the Wayans Brothers has fathered one of her children: “All I know is, it’s not Marlon.”
— When the characters are reading from a movie script, I love Tracy’s staccato, urban-sounding delivery of “Where he been hi-din’ it at?”
— Much like the cold opening, Jennifer is a bland straight man here. And why has she been playing herself in so many sketches tonight so far? Last time I checked, she DOES have an acting career in addition to a singing career.
— An okay Fly Girls dance number at the end. At least you can tell Jennifer is having a lot of fun during it.
STARS: **½


MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE VALENTINE
the Valentine soundtrack contains many songs by bands with oddball names

— Meh, I’m not getting any laughs from this ENDLESS listing off of “comedic” and “far-fetched” fake band names. These odd and ironic fake band names seem too realistic to be taken as a spoof, though that may be the point, since there are some real names (e.g. Fiona Apple, Marilyn Manson) mixed in among the fake ones. Either way, I’m not laughing.
— The way this commercial keeps faking us out by following a long listing-off of names with “and many more…”, only for them to actually list off each of the “and many more” names, is starting to feel awfully reminiscent of a sketch that SNL already did before. Maybe I’m thinking of that terrible Super Sports Tour sketch from the season 20 premiere (a sketch which just consists of a “comically” long listing-off of the names of baseball players who will be appearing on a sports cruise), as well as the fairly funny “Reunion of Later Hosts” sketch from season 23’s Greg Kinnear episode.
— Okay, I finally got a laugh, from one of the fake band names being the lengthy address “5445 North Park Drive Community Vigilence & Restoration Committee”.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Love Don’t Cost A Thing”


GOOD MORNING BRONX
borough residents broadcast the local news

— Geez, and I thought the last sketch was too reminiscent of a season 20 sketch. Now we get “Good Morning Bronx”. Really, SNL? So now we’re doing knock-offs of lame recurring season 20 sketches? Good Morning Brooklyn, anyone?
— Ehh, I’m being harsh with my above statement. Despite the similar titles, this sketch so far seems to be different enough from Good Morning Brooklyn.
— These last two episodes, the usually-underused Jerry Minor has suddenly been receiving a huge upswing in airtime. He’s been particularly prominent throughout tonight’s episode, and I am so happy for him. Sad that this boost in airtime doesn’t end up lasting for him, though.
— Rachel is very funny in her segment.
— Dominican Lou! This is surprisingly the first time in YEARS that Tracy has played him, and also ends up being the last. Very funny to see him suddenly appearing in this sketch.
— Jennifer: “You are not gonna mess up my chances of being the Puerto Rican Connie Chung!”
— Overall, this sketch was basically to urban stereotypes what season 20’s Good Morning Brooklyn was to white New York stereotypes, but I found this sketch more entertaining, especially when Dominican Lou showed up.
STARS: ***


THE BABY AND THE GERMAN INTELLECTUAL
by Adam McKay- innocence vexes

— Will’s mad German character ranting to the baby chewing on a potato chip bag is giving me lots of laughs. Will is absolutely perfect for this role.
— I love the “On the count of three, you will grow up!” bit.
— I see during the ending credits that the baby was played by Lily Rose McKay, who I assume is a daughter of Adam McKay’s. Obviously not the same McKay daughter that would later star with Will in the famous 2007 online short film, The Landlord, as the daughter in that film is much too young to have even been born yet in 2001.
STARS: ****


NURSING HOME
oblivious Jeannie Darcy does inappropriate material at a nursing home gig

— I’ve been starting to forget during these last few episodes that Molly is even still in the cast. She’s been appearing less and less as we get closer and closer to her mid-season departure.
— Jeannie Darcy, easily the most solid new Molly Shannon character in a long time, officially becomes recurring.
— I like the detail of Jeannie Darcy having two assistants carry in a fake brick wall background to set up behind her, to give off the illusion that she’s onstage at a comedy club.
— Some good laughs from all of the cutaways to the nursing home patients during Darcy’s jokes, especially the cutaway to someone’s IV bag bubbling.
— Wow, there’s Jerry in yet ANOTHER appearance tonight, though this is the type of silent, non-comedic bit role that he usually gets stuck with.
— Great part with one nursing home patient dying and being carried out of the room as Darcy obliviously continues on with her stand-up material.
— I love the cutaway to a crying Ana during Darcy’s comedy material on vibrators.
— Oh, god, there’s Molly’s obligatory character break. Dammit, Molly, I was really enjoying this sketch. Why do you have to break in practically every damn sketch towards the end of your SNL tenure?
— Molly at least recovers well from her breaking in this sketch, and goes back to doing a solid job as this character.
STARS: ****


WADE BLASINGAME
Another rerun tonight, this time from 12/09/00


NEWS FROM THE FRONT
at a WWII USO show, (host) damages morale by singing pro-German songs

 

— I like Steve Higgins’ old-timey newsreel voice-over in the opening portion of this sketch.
— Interesting how this is the second sketch tonight teaming up Jennifer, Maya, and Ana as a singing trio, with both sketches set in a completely different time period from each other. Makes sense, though, considering the singing abilities of all three ladies.
— Parnell got a good laugh out of me with his delivery of “Get a load of those gams!”
— Some pretty good laughs from the singers’ cheerful songs being pro-German and detailing the fate that awaits the soldiers, much to the gradual unhappiness and anger of the soldiers.
— Boy, the extra sitting to Kattan’s right (seen in the lower left corner of the second, fourth, and sixth above screencaps for this sketch) is making INSANELY over-the-top facial expressions all throughout this sketch. Haha, what a ham.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, maybe even slightly below average. There were a few strong segments, but most of the show had an unmemorable feel, even some of the decent sketches. Jennifer Lopez was a pretty weak host. While I got a few laughs from her, she was mostly forgettable as a host, and I couldn’t help but notice some off-putting moments from her, such as her aforementioned reaction when seemingly forced onstage at the beginning of her monologue, her lack of any chemistry with her scene partners in the Gemini’s Twin sketch, and her lack of any interactions with the cast during the goodnights (at least in the half of the goodnights that I saw before they got cut off).


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Sean Hayes hosts. It’s also the last show for Molly Shannon.

Posted on

January 20, 2001 – Mena Suvari / Lenny Kravitz (S26 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
self-satisfied Bill Clinton (DAH) says “suck on it” on inauguration night

— We have officially arrived at a new presidency during SNL’s timeline. That’s become a tradition for me to say in my reviews whenever I cover the first presidential cold opening of a president’s first term, as seen with the preceding two presidencies here and here.
— I like Darrell’s Clinton going on about how he’s going to enjoy being a citizen now that his presidency is over.
— Some good laughs from Clinton’s don’t-give-a-fuck “Suck on it” message.
— For the second week in a row, Will’s Bush impression steals a cold opening with a walk-on.
— Funny bit with Bush showing off his Billy Big Mouth Talking Bass, and mentioning that somebody sold it to him for a thousand dollars.
— For some reason, the camera shakes right before Darrell-as-Clinton says “Live from New York…”.
— Speaking of the “Live from New York…”, Darrell’s Clinton sets it up by claiming he’ll be saying it for the last time. That would end up being far from true, as after tonight’s episode, SNL would go on to do quite a number of Clinton cold openings that have Darrell saying LFNY as him, including a cold opening a mere month from now.
— Overall, ehhh. For what was a farewell to the Clinton presidency, a presidency that SNL has gotten a lot of comedy gold out of, this cold opening was kind of a letdown. It wasn’t weak, just unmemorable. How do you NOT end Darrell’s hugely popular run as President Clinton with an epic cold opening?
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo accidentally announces Jerry Minor as “Jimmy Minor”. This would later be fixed in reruns.


MONOLOGUE
host has American Beauty-style rose petal fantasies about castmembers

— Feels like been a while since we’ve had this type of backstage monologue.
— Odd how Will is randomly wearing his Spartan Cheerleaders costume at THIS point of his SNL tenure.
— Speaking of retired recurring characters, we now see Molly in her Mary Katherine Gallagher costume during one of the American Beauty-esque fantasy sequences.
— A one-note monologue, though I’m getting a laugh from Lorne’s American Beauty-esque fantasy sequence about Tracy.
STARS: **½


GATORADE LOVE BUCKET
douse celebrants with the Gatorade Love Bucket during off-field events

— A fairly funny premise.
— The scene with Jimmy and Horatio dousing Gatorate all over an old lady and her birthday cake gave me a good laugh.
— Speaking of Jimmy, here’s a screencap of a funny, kinda-freakish-looking closeup of him in this commercial:

— Overall, this commercial was fine, but nothing memorable.
STARS: ***


AIRPORT SECURITY
attitudinal airport security guard Jackie (MAR) heeds bum metal detector

— Maya: “(in a sassy manner) If ya put up a fight, ya ain’t gettin’ on the flight.” That line just made me groan.
— I loved Parnell’s sudden outburst of “DAMMIT!” when the metal detector goes off as he walks through it.
— Oh, god, and now Maya keeps repeating the aforementioned groan-worthy “If ya put up a fight, ya ain’t gettin’ on the flight” line from earlier.
— A hilarious bit with Tracy responding to Parnell’s “I’m not gonna be searched by this man” line with “That’s right, you gonna be searched by THIS man!” as a big intimidating security guard grabs Parnell. Tracy refers to the big guard as Dante, which is interesting, as the guard is played by the same extra who played a character also named Dante in those sketches from the preceding season in which Tracy played a criminal’s mother trying to prove her son’s innocence in court.
— I remember when this sketch originally aired, it was the first time that Jerry Minor had ever made me laugh, as I stated in my original review of this episode back in 2001. I would later go on to gain a much bigger appreciation for Jerry after becoming familiar with his non-SNL work, and I now am able to recognize that he actually did some funny things on SNL prior to this sketch. Not only that, but I don’t even find his character in this sketch all that funny anymore. His character just seems like a lazy gay stereotype.
— Overall, a few laughs, but this was mostly a pretty weak sketch. Before this point, I’ve been enjoying just about all of Maya’s performances so far in this SNL project of mine, but this was the first sketch of hers that left me a little cold.
— This sketch had no business being placed as the lead-off sketch of the night. SNL themselves would apparently agree later on, as the NBC rerun of this episode would move this sketch to a MUCH later spot, somewhere near the end of the episode, IIRC. That NBC rerun also shows the dress rehearsal version of this sketch.
STARS: **


JANET RENO’S DANCE PARTY
Janet Reno [real] crashes final episode

— This sketch makes its return after a long three-and-a-half-year hiatus for one final edition, to mark Janet Reno leaving office with the rest of the Clinton administration.
— Will-as-Janet-Reno’s dancing seems less frantic than usual, and thus, less funny than usual.
— Uh, why is Will’s Reno dancing to songs that are NOT “My Sharona” throughout this sketch? I thought it was established in previous installments that she refuses to dance to any other song besides “My Sharona”.
— Just like old times, we get a walk-on from Darrell’s Clinton, continuing the story arc of Reno’s crush on Clinton.
— I like the slow-motion montage of clips from previous Janet Reno’s Dance Party sketches, though it’s also sadly emphasizing how much tonight’s installment isn’t measuring up to previous installments.
— A pretty good laugh from Will-as-Reno’s onion reveal after she’s initially seen crying after the aforementioned clip show montage.
— Now the real Janet Reno appears, humorously crashing through a wall just like Will’s impression of her.
— Overall, the fun cameo from the real Reno gave this sketch a bit of a boost, but prior to that, this sketch felt kinda off. It didn’t have the same spark that the previous Janet Reno’s Dance Party sketches had. An underwhelming way for this recurring sketch to go out.
STARS: ***


RAP STREET
Aaron Carter (host) is commended for his G-rated rhymes

 

— This sketch becomes recurring, though this already ends up being the final installment.
— One of the sponsors mentioned at the beginning is “Flaco and Teddy’s Quality Breakdancing Mats”. This seems to be a callback to a sketch from the preceding season’s Freddie Prinze Jr. episode, where two characters named Flacko and Teddy did an ad selling Martin Luther King Day Trees.
— I like how there’s a bit of a change-up to the song that Horatio and Jerry’s characters usually sing.
— Horatio’s fake mustache is noticeably starting to peel off.
— Ha, and Horatio has now begun struggling to keep a straight face after noticing his peeling-off mustache. This is early enough in Horatio’s SNL tenure that I’m not annoyed by his character breaks in this sketch, as it hasn’t become a frequent thing in his performances yet, plus there’s thankfully no Jimmy Fallon in this sketch.
— Very funny ad-libs and gestures from Horatio as he tries to both fix his mustache and deliver his lines while looking casual.
— Ha, quite a sight of Mena as Aaron Carter. Perfect casting there.
— Another funny ad-libbed moment, this time from Horatio and Jerry after Jerry refers to a CD as a “CBD”. A lot of fun ad-libs throughout this sketch.
— Overall, a pretty big improvement over the first installment of this sketch. The lack of Tom Green will do that, but there were some genuinely good moments here, mostly from the unscripted stuff.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- wannabe member Bill Clinton saves the inauguration

— Our first TV Funhouse in quite a while. The last one was that… (*shudder*) Sex And The Country debacle from the Tom Green episode. After a cartoon like THAT, Smigel has nowhere else to go but up.
— A very funny nonsensical opening speech from President Bush, just being a word salad of famous terms from real Bush speeches (e.g. “compassionate”, “not a divider”, “fuzzy math”).
— Seeing a Janet Reno’s Dance Party sketch and an X-Presidents cartoon in the same episode kinda makes me feel like I’m reviewing season 22 again.
— Reagan’s various bitter, foul-mouthed comments early on in this cartoon are cracking me up.
— I love how the no-longer-president Bill Clinton is joining the X-Presidents. His costume is priceless.
— I like how the villain is a monster made out of uncounted votes from the then-recent 2000 election.
— Funny gag with Katherine Harris being revealed to have been Tom Delay in disguise all along.
— Clinton, when approaching the villain: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, but I will (*bleep*) you up.”
— A nice change-up to the usual 1970s-esque band numbers at the end of these X-Presidents cartoons, with tonight’s band number being a Boyz II Men takeoff led by Clinton.
STARS: ****


WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE
movie features (TRM)’s love for comatose (host)

— A funny and pretty solid premise for Tracy.
— Feels a little odd seeing Will’s normal real hair throughout tonight’s sketches, for the first in a long time (though he can be seen with his normal real hair in the goodnights of the last episode). He spent the first half of this season hiding his real hair by wearing wigs in sketches all the time because he was filming the movie Zoolander, which required him to grow his real hair out and dye it an odd light blond color.
— Pretty funny reveal of Mena being in a coma after it’s established that Tracy is supposedly in a relationship with her.
— Good part with Tracy telling a comatose Mena that if she loves him, let her hand fall when he lets go of it, which is made even funnier by a mock-dramatic close-up of Will intensely awaiting the result of this.
— When Mena asks for Edgar after waking up from her coma, I love Tracy responding “Whoa whoa whoa! Who’s Edgar, bitch?!?”
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF delivers subversive Spanish message to rich Republicans’ housekeepers

JIF & TIF engage in boy-band gossip about the 7 Texas prison escapees

federal appointee Jacob Silj is sensitive to being discriminated against

Al Sharpton (JEM) & Jesse Jackson (DAH) croon about latter’s love child

— I’m not sure, but this might be the first Update where Jimmy got to deliver the first joke.
— Speaking of Jimmy, this is surprisingly his only live appearance all night.
— A lot of laughs from Tina’s Spanish message to all of the republicans’ housekeepers who were left at home during Bush’s various inaugural balls this week.
— The punchline of Jimmy’s Jesse Jackson joke being Jackson not being able to think of a word that rhymes with “broken condom” sounds awfully familiar. Was there an Update from an earlier era that used a very similar punchline to a Jesse Jackson joke? Perhaps a Norm Macdonald Update?
— Another use of a drop-down screen behind Jimmy and Tina. Them treating a group of Texas prison escapees like a boy band is cute, but not all that funny to me.
— The side segment with Jimmy imitating President Bush’s bad imitation of Ricky Martin’s dancing at Bush’s inauguration seems kinda pointless.
— Feels a little odd seeing Jacob Silj appearing in a non-Colin Quinn Weekend Update.
— Jacob Silj, in regards to him and other voice immodulation sufferers: “We’re loud, we’re proud, get used to it!”
— The portion of the Silj commentary with us hearing his inner thoughts is kinda funny. At least it’s taking this Jacob Silj commentary into new territory that wasn’t already covered in previous Jacob Silj appearances.
— Tina: “On a humorous note, in front of 5,000 witnesses this week, a circus performer who was trying to shoot an apple off of his wife’s head with a crossbow hit her under the eye and pierced her skull. (*laughs heartily*) Jimmy?”
— Wow, a lot of jokes tonight are getting a fairly tepid audience reaction.
— Darrell and Jerry’s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton impressions have returned after only a few episodes, with the big news earlier this week of Jackson fathering a lovechild.
— A pretty big night for Jerry Minor, who’s been getting far more airtime and far more comedic roles in tonight’s episode than he usually gets. It’s about time.
— Speaking of Jerry’s boost in airtime tonight, I like how his Sharpton is heavily dominating tonight’s Jackson/Sharpton Update commentary, unlike the last one, where Jerry’s Sharpton was more just a supporting role while Darrell’s Jackson was doing most of the talking.
— Okay, this Jackson/Sharpton commentary is going on a little too long for my likes, but I am enjoying Sharpton’s singing of Outkast’s “Sorry Ms. Jackson” and Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie” during Jackson’s apology message.
— An awkward but unintentionally funny ending of tonight’s Update, with Tina first missing her cue to sign off (or maybe she was expecting Jimmy to sign off first), then proceeding to screw up her sign-off by mistakenly saying “I’m Jimmy Fal–” before correcting herself.
— Overall, some good highlights, but tonight’s Update as a whole felt a little off. The first below average Update of the Fallon/Fey era. Man, what’s going on with tonight’s episode in general?
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Again”


VERONICA & CO.
panelists include boyfriend (WIF) & young model (host)

— Oh, god. I definitely didn’t need to see this sketch become recurring. Mercifully, this ends up being the final installment.
— Hmm, I see they added a new opening credits sequence for this sketch.
— I love the look of Ana’s character in this.
— At least we get the return of Parnell as the Times Square Robot guy, who provided most of my only laughs in the first installment of this sketch.
— I like Ana’s seedy line about how Mena’s foreign child model character is a natural, as she’s “already starving”.
— Surprisingly, not even Will is managing to save this sketch much for me.
— Okay, Will finally got a laugh from me, when he inappropriately asked Mena’s child model character “So if you’re 12 in Serbia, how old does that make you here?”
STARS: **


AUDITION
Kyle & Sean DeMarco win over musical guest with their take on his songs

— Oh, god, the second recurring sketch in a row tonight that I strongly dislike. Tonight’s already-meh episode has REALLY fallen off of a cliff in the post-Update half.
— Man, Kattan is so annoying as this character, especially whenever he gets angry at the musical guests and their assistant.
— Jesus Christ at the DeMarco Brothers’ raunchy “American Woman” interpretation. I actually remember finding that portion of this sketch hilarious when this originally aired, but watching it two decades later, it just comes off desperate to me, and suffers from the “let’s make something homoerotic for a cheap laugh” crutch that this SNL era is way too guilty of relying on (though wait until we get to the 2003-2005 years if you wanna see SNL go REALLY overboard with the “let’s make something homoerotic or flat-out gay for a cheap laugh” crutch).
— I do kinda like the ending with Lenny Kravitz dumping Mena’s character, but maybe I’m just desperate to find SOMETHING to like in this sketch.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mr. Cab Driver”

— The show has apparently run long, as after only two minutes of this musical performance, SNL abruptly cuts to a Mena Suvari bumper photo and then a commercial break, before Kravitz has even finished performing.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A subpar episode. A lot of the show had a forgettable feel, and even usually-reliable things like an early-era Fallon/Fey Update, a Bill Clinton cold opening, and a Janet Reno’s Dance Party sketch weren’t quite up to snuff tonight. The post-Update half of the show was particularly weak, with no redeeming sketches to be found.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jennifer Lopez

Posted on

January 13, 2001 – Charlie Sheen / Nelly Furtado (S26 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

VICE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
de facto president Dick Cheney (DAH) checks his pulse & talks to the rich

— The first appearance of Darrell’s Dick Cheney impression in a regular SNL episode. His impression actually debuted in an SNL “Presidential Bash 2000” special from earlier this season.
— Darrell sure seems to like using a “laugh for a few seconds, then suddenly put on a serious face” mannerism in his impressions. It’s a famous part of his Bill Clinton impression, but he’s also done it several times as Al Gore and he’s done it just now as Cheney.
— Will is stealing the sketch in his walk-on as Bush.
— This early portrayal of Cheney from Darrell seems more animated than the Cheney portrayal that we would later become familiar with seeing Darrell do.
— When this cold opening originally aired, I remember being confused over who Parnell was supposed to be playing, as I wasn’t familiar with Karl Rove at the time.
— After Cheney’s heart monitor begins flatlining, I got some laughs from Parnell’s Karl Rove casually informing Cheney that he has died, then nonchalantly injecting Cheney with something to bring him back to life, even singing to himself while doing it.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
audience members question host about his not-so-proud past

 

— As always in these questions-from-the-audience monologues, Paula Pell gets some really good laughs.
— Tracy’s walk-on is hilarious. I’d like to think this is intended as a continuation of a joke established in Val Kilmer’s monologue earlier this season, where it was said that Tracy usually sells weed to the audience during the show.
— The Men At Work bit with Charlie Sheen refunding Steve Higgins’ money is great.
— The ending bit with Charlie unintentionally pointing out similarities that he has to George W. Bush when detailing why he could never be president is decent, if a little predictable and corny.
STARS: ***½


FOX
Herpes Island, Temptation Trailer, The Cannibal are new FOX reality shows

— Hilarious twist in the island reality show trailer, with one of the 10 women having a venereal disease, and the male contestants being eager to be the first one to catch it.
— The incestuous Temptation Trailer ad is very funny. Is Darrell playing his obscure Skeeter character in that? He’s wearing the same wig and is doing a redneck voice.
— I love the tilted zoom-in that the camera does on Parnell’s seedy facial expression in the Cannibal trailer (screencap below).

— Priceless ending to the Cannibal trailer.
— An overall very funny parody of FOX reality shows from this time.
STARS: ****


IRON CHEF
American bachelor (host) & Morimoto (HOS) cook shark heads

in breast cancer PSA, Emeril Lagasse (CHP) says “check for lumps; bam!”

— The bad American dubbing of the Japanese people is pretty funny.
— I like Darrell’s performance as the “famous murderer”.
— I’m pretty sure I made this same observation about Jimmy in one or two earlier reviews, but his facial expressions in this sketch are reminding me so much of Mike Myers, for some reason (and no, not because Jimmy’s playing an Asian stereotype, as Mike played his endless myriad of Asian stereotype roles in a different way from Jimmy).
— A hilarious mid-sketch “Food Networks Cares” breast cancer PSA, with Parnell (playing dual roles in this sketch) as Emeril Lagasse saying “Ladies, kick it up a notch, check for lumps, BAM!”
— Parnell’s Japanese character: “It made me feel American, like I was a man with blue eyes kissing a girl with a big ass.”
STARS: ***½


ERIC DICKERSON’S NFL PRE GAME SPECIAL
Dennis Miller (JIF) orates

— Tracy’s incoherent, rambly Eric Dickerson impression was hilarious as a small supporting role in the Monday Night Football sketch from this season’s premiere, but was it really a good idea to spin him off into a lead role in his own sketch? This seems like a pretty thin celebrity impression to center an entire sketch around.
— Like last time in the Monday Night Football sketch, I’m getting laughs from the running gag with Will’s Dan Fouts always stating the obvious in his football reports. Is/was the real Dan Fouts really like that?
— Nice seeing Charlie reprise his Major League character.
— Tracy’s singing and dancing of the song “Wild Thing” is pretty funny.
— Charlie, to Eric Dickerson, after witnessing his oddness: “Eric, you wore a helmet when you played, didn’t you?”
— Jimmy’s Dennis Miller impression has improved a bit from the Monday Night Football sketch in the season premiere, but that’s still not saying much. He still has a problem where his Dennis Miller voice keeps trailing off towards the end of his zingers. I do, however, feel that the makeup people have improved in making Jimmy look more like Dennis. His wig here is much better than the one he wore last time.
— Overall, a little better than I was expecting, but I still prefer Tracy’s Eric Dickerson impression in a small supporting role than in a lead role.
STARS: ***


DR. KING ASSEMBLY
at an MLK Day assembly, Marty & Bobbi perform a civil rights medley

 

— Jerry seems like he’s just playing a weak knock-off of Tim Meadows’ teacher character from some earlier Culps sketches. SNL continues to waste Jerry Minor’s talents in poor roles.
— I love Marty Culp’s line about once calling his wife “Cottage Cheese Ass” as an insult.
— A pretty good Martin Luther King-themed song medley from the Culps, though this isn’t one of my favorite Culps song medleys. I do love their take on DMX’s “Party Up” (the “Ya’ll gon’ make me lose my mind” song).
— Overall, while this was still good, it felt a little forgettable for Culps standards.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
Katherine Harris (ANG) responds to critics with in-kind appearance jabs

JIF reviews concert atmosphere surrounding Bill Clinton’s farewell tour

in a terrible re-enactment, Prince Charles (CHK) falls from his horse

Marta Mercado (MAR) was more maid than houseguest to Linda Chavez

— Yikes, a lighthearted joke about “suspected terrorist” Osama Bin Laden, where the punchline is him blowing something up as a gift. This is only half a year before… well, you know.
— It feels a little rare to see Ana doing an Update commentary at this point of her tenure.
— Ana’s Katherine Harris impression isn’t as comically exaggerated as it used to be, and I’m not finding it quite as funny here.
— Jimmy’s music concert-esque review of Bill Clinton’s farewell tour is pretty funny, especially the part about how everybody at the concert was doing the bent penis wave.
— Kattan’s “Terrible Re-enactment” feature officially becomes recurring. I found this one particularly funny in how gleefully stupid it was, complete with a stick horse toy.
— Maya’s overall commentary was okay, if a little unnoteworthy.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Like A Bird”


SOAP OPERA SHOOT
on the set of The Young & The Restless, Patsy Marsh (MOS) overacts

— Oh, god. Almost IMMEDIATELY in this sketch, we get Molly busting into the scene as a “new” hammy, obnoxious character that I can already tell will just be a tired variation of other hammy, obnoxious characters that Molly has already played. I am in for a LONG sketch.
— What kind of accent is Molly even going for here? It keeps coming and going all throughout the sketch. (*sigh*) I swear, SNL is just giving Molly free rein to do whatever she wants to do on the air at this late stage of her SNL tenure.
— Thank god Molly leaving SNL a few episodes from now prevents this character from eventually becoming recurring.
— I am getting laughs from Parnell’s dry, dramatic delivery of the line “I’ve heard enough” whenever they’re filming the scene.
— Another laugh from Parnell, with him disclosing the fact that he was banned from wearing his signature beret, as Charlie is complaining about the hat that Molly’s character is wearing during filming.
— Hmm, a twist with Charlie suddenly liking a take that Molly’s character has ruined, just because she flashed her bra. So I take it that Charlie’s been playing himself in this sketch all along?
— Funny ending with Will.
STARS: **


BIG BABY
(RAD) is surprised to give birth to 37 year-old Ted Brogan (WIF)

— Hilarious concept of Rachel somehow giving birth to a full-grown man.
— We find out that the name of Will’s character is Ted Brogan, which is the same name of the minor league character that Will played in the Baseball Dreams sketch from season 23’s Helen Hunt episode. They seem to be two completely different characters, though.
— The audience actually groans when Charlie cuts off the fake umbilical cord attached to Will. When the camera shows Rachel and Kattan immediately after that, Rachel has her hand over her mouth in shocked disgust, which seems genuine.
— Very funny how established we find out Ted Brogan’s life already is, when he just came out of the womb.
— Odd blooper towards the end, with Will mistakenly beginning to exit the sketch a little too early, before realizing it’s not time yet.
— I like the goofy quizzical look on Rachel’s face when shrugging her shoulders at the very end of this sketch (screencap below).

STARS: ****


T.G.I. FRIDAY’S
T.G.I. Friday’s (WIF) obnoxious waiter son (CHK) has job security

— Oh, god. Much like with Molly in the Soap Opera Shoot sketch a little earlier, this sketch almost IMMEDIATELY has Kattan busting into the scene as a very hammy, obnoxious, loud, annoying character that lets me know that I’m in for a LONG sketch.
— Good lord, this sketch is rough so far. I don’t usually hate Kattan at this point of his tenure as much as some people do (it’s not until seasons 27 and 28 where I officially entered “I cannot STAND Chris Kattan” territory, at least back when those seasons originally aired, and that was mainly because I felt he overstayed his welcome on the show, much like Molly in seasons 25 and 26), but my god, he seems like he’s playing a bad caricature of himself in this sketch. His performance is exaggerated to the tenth power, in all the worst ways. I remember when this episode originally aired, I actually found that Kattan’s performance in this sketch had a “So bad, it’s good”-type of quality. During this current viewing, however, I’m just finding his performance “So bad”.
— Some laughs from the running gag with the odd food combos in T.G.I.Friday’s menu items. There was a similar running gag in the previous T.G.I.Friday’s sketch that SNL did a few season earlier, where Mary Katherine Gallagher was a waiter at the restaurant. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a T.G.I.Friday’s myself, but I take it from these two sketches that the restaurant is known for serving odd food combos.
— A good bizarre turn with it being revealed that T.G.I.Friday is actually a real person, who’s full name is Thaddeus Garfield Ignatius Friday. And who better to play a bizarre character with a name like that than Will Ferrell?
— Will is absolutely saving this sketch with his INSANELY exaggerated, drawn-out, over-the-top performance. Unlike Kattan (or Molly, for that matter), Will turning his hamminess up to a full eleven during a sketch never fails to crack me up. Not sure why Will doing that works for me while Kattan and Molly don’t, but it just does.
— I remember this being pointed out by someone on an SNL board shortly after this episode originally aired, but this sketch contains what may be the closest that Parnell would ever come to breaking character in his entire SNL tenure. At one point in this sketch when Will is in the middle of doing his hammy performance, the camera cuts to Parnell and Charlie watching Will, and Parnell briefly has a slight smile on his face that doesn’t seem to be in character (screencap below), and then the smile soon fades, possibly because he realizes he’s onscreen.

Hard to tell if that slight smile was Parnell breaking character or not. If it was, then it makes sense that it was caused by Will Ferrell. I’m telling you, Will could make ANY performer break character. He’s even made consummate professional Ana Gasteyer crack up in a Terrence Maddox sketch once.
STARS: **


THE PERVERT
by Adam McKay- fellow creeps shun (Patrick McCartney)

— Adam McKay’s first SNL short film in half a year. These films also have a new name this season: “An SNL Digital Short by Adam McKay”. I bet there’s a misconception among quite a number of SNL fans that it wasn’t until The Lonely Island’s SNL shorts later this decade that SNL started using the name “Digital Shorts”.
— As always, Horatio is really in his element in these Adam McKay films.
— A very funny premise of the main pervert (played by UCB performer Patrick McCartney) getting off on the Cream Of Wheat chef (or “Cream Of Wheet” as it’s spelled here, presumably for legal reasons).
— The fantasy sequence with Jerry as the Cream of Wheat chef is slaying me.
— This film is hilariously fucked-up so far. I’ve been laughing almost non-stop throughout this.
— I love even the visual quality of this film.
— Horatio’s story about a pervert from 1983 getting caught shoving Skeletors up his “friggin’ A” is a riot.
— I got a big laugh from Adam McKay’s exaggerated delivery of the line “Get outta here, ya… PERVERT!!!”
— During the ending credits, why is Jerry’s last name misspelled “Meiner” (screencap below)? Is that an intentional inside joke?

STARS: ****½


CLASSIC VAUDEVILLE
host & Heidi Fleiss (RAD) do a prostitution-themed Who’s On First variant

— A very funny and dirty “Who’s on first?” parody, spoofing Charlie’s past with hookers, which once again shows tonight what a great sport Charlie is.
— I remember when I first reviewed this episode back when it originally aired in 2001 (the review is unfortunately not available anymore, as I lost it), I was a total prude and absolutely trashed the hell out of this sketch, because, as someone who has always (to this day in 2020) been a huge fan of classic comedy teams from the 1930s/40s/50s like Abbott & Costello, The Marx Brothers, and, of course, The Three Stooges, I was very offended by the fact that SNL was altering a legendary and, in my eyes at the time, sacred Abbott & Costello routine to make crude sex jokes. Luckily, I’ve lightened the hell up since those days, and can now sit back and laugh my ass off at this sketch.
— Spot-on Vaudeville-esque delivery from Charlie and Rachel, and they’re perfectly executing this very funny material. And I can’t help but find Rachel adorable in this sketch.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, but, aside from the FOX reality shows commercial, the only strong stuff was in the post-Update half. However, that post-Update half also had some awful hammy Shannon/Kattan showcases. Charlie Sheen was a pretty fun host, especially in how he got a lot of mileage out of poking fun at his image and his past.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lucy Liu)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Mena Suvari

Posted on

December 16, 2000 – Lucy Liu / Jay-Z (S26 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHI-CHI’S
at Chi-Chi’s, George W. Bush (WIF) & Al Gore (DAH) attempt reconciliation

— This is SNL’s first Bush/Gore sketch after a winner of this insane, drawn-out election was finally announced earlier that week: Bush.
— I like how this Bush/Gore sketch is set in a Chi-Chi’s, of all places. This shows how fun and loose SNL’s Bush/Gore sketches this election season have become. I remember saying in my old review that I originally did of this episode back in 2000, “Next thing you’ll know, they’ll put these two at Chuck E. Cheese’s.” Even all these years later, I can still picture a sketch like that.
— Bush: “Hey, maybe I’ll start a war. Wars are like executions, supersized!” Uh, hoo, boy.
— A lot of laughs during Bush and Gore’s entire conversation.
— Bush’s hot peppers prank on Gore is very funny.
— Funny ending with Bush faking Gore out after agreeing to say “Live from New York…” in unison with him.
— Overall, a solid end to the Bush/Gore sketches of this election season.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host embraced female Asian stereotypes during her week at SNL

— Lucy Liu is coming off likable early on in this monologue.
— Tracy’s getting some good laughs from the bit with Lucy giving him a back massage.
— They’re going through just about every Asian stereotype imaginable, but this seems to be all in good fun, and I’m finding that this monologue is coming off funny enough in its execution, even if it’s something that might be considered problematic by today’s standards.
— A particularly funny bit with Lucy presenting a cooked cocker spaniel. I especially like Horatio’s “Mmm! That’s good dog!” line.
STARS: ***


PRICELINE.COM
the tech stock plunge hurt priceline.com spokesman William Shatner (DAH)

— Oh, no. Did we need the return of this mediocre bit from the preceding season’s Julianna Margulies episode?
— Same problems as last time. Darrell’s William Shatner impression is surprisingly weak, and the idea of spoofing Shatner’s Priceline ads is flawed, as those Priceline ads themselves are tongue-in-cheek.
— Tonight’s Priceline sketch is even worse than the last one. I’m not even sure where the laughs in this one are supposed to be coming from. I’d argue that the real Priceline commercials are actually funnier than this so-called spoof.
STARS: *


TRL
Gemini’s Twin added (host) because she has a minivan

— Gemini’s Twin officially become recurring.
— Like last time, I’m getting some good laughs from the music video shown tonight.
— Lucy is very funny in this sketch, even more so than Charlize Theron was in the first installment of this sketch.
— Overall, not bad, but I can tell I’m gonna eventually get tired of these Gemini’s Twin sketches, especially since they seem to be following the same formula.
STARS: ***


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Robin Williams (JIF) & Catherine Zeta-Jones (host) fail

— I love Will-as-Alex-Trebek’s failed attempt to speed past his intro of Darrell’s Sean Connery so he can quickly move on to the reading of the categories without Connery getting in his usual wisecracks at him.
— Jimmy displays another spot-on and hilarious impression in a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch, this time doing Robin Williams. He’s slaying me throughout this sketch, and so is Will-as-Trebek’s reactions to him.
— There’s our obligatory classic category mix-up of tonight’s Celebrity Jeopardy edition, this time with Connery reading “An album cover” as “Anal bum cover”.
— Very funny how for Final Jeopardy, Trebek tells the contestants to each ask their own question and then answer it. SNL keeps topping themselves with the ridiculous lengths they’ll have Will’s Trebek go to give the contestants an easy-to-answer Final Jeopardy question.
— We can see an unintentional glimpse of Jimmy’s real hand hidden in his sleeve when he’s holding a fake hand that has a pen sticking through it.
— Priceless Final Jeopardy answer from Connery, with us seeing half of a drawing of Trebek and a horse having sex with each other.
— Interestingly, this is the second sketch tonight to end with Darrell playfully slapping the side of Will’s head. The cold opening was the first sketch that happened in, when Will was saying “Live From New York…”.
STARS: *****


PRETTY LIVING
joyologist Helen’s new fling is a female lumberjack (host)

— WHY, GOD, WHY?!? And this is the second damn time that SNL has immediately followed my absolute favorite recurring sketch of this era, Celebrity Jeopardy, with my absolute least favorite recurring sketch of this era, Pretty Living. Season 24’s Ben Stiller episode is the first time this happened.
— On an up note, this mercifully ends up being the final Pretty Living sketch. Hallelujah!
— A change of pace with Helen Madden’s love interest being a female this time, but that’s still not making this sketch any more interesting.
— Helen Madden’s self-love mistletoe is kinda funny, I admit.
— Overall, good fucking riddance to this unbearable recurring sketch. It was rough reviewing these when covering these last few seasons, but, like a trouper, I made it through.
STARS: *½


JARRET’S ROOM
dorm-based webcast is a window into youth culture

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Horatio’s stoner character, Gobi, is pretty funny so far. Time will tell if I’ll eventually get tired of this character when reviewing this series of Jarret’s Room sketches.
— When Lucy points out that Jarret’s Room’s only fan is in Iceland, I got a good laugh from Jarret saying “Aw, yeah! Shoutout to Yaorg!”
— Pretty funny walk-on from Parnell.
— This sketch has taken kind of a dull turn in the second half.
— Overall, a fairly meh debut for this sketch. While there was kind of a charm to this sketch’s accurate portrayal of late 90s/early 2000s youth culture (and as a teen of that era myself, this sketch kinda brought me back), nothing was too noteworthy in this, and as I said earlier, portions of this came off kinda dull. IIRC, there would be some fun installments of this sketch to later come in the following season when they do some much-needed tweaking to the sketch and also add in new characters played by some of that season’s new featured players (Seth Meyers, Jeff Richards).
STARS: **½


WEEKEND UPDATE
modern trappings sidetrack James Madison’s (RAD) electoral college spiel
JIF & TIF change Baby New Year’s (CHK) diaper
JIF plays guitar & sings pop-inspired songs about Christmas presents

— A very Jimmy Fallon-dominated episode so far tonight. He’s been all over this show.
— Odd casting of Rachel as James Madison, but it’s working in the silly nature of this general commentary.
— I love the goofy mesmerized facial expression that Rachel’s James Madison makes when repeatedly clicking a pen in fascination (the fifth above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— Some of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes are receiving a somewhat tepid audience reaction tonight.
— Another silly and odd bit in tonight’s Update, with Kattan as Baby New Year. A fairly fun and goofy segment. Lots of silliness in tonight’s Update in general, once again showing how much things have changed in this new Update era compared to the stiffness and straightforwardness of the Colin Quinn era of Update.
— A piece of confetti from the Baby New Year segment has gotten stuck in Jimmy’s hair, and humorously remains there for the remainder of this Update, unbeknownst to him.
— Hmm, Jimmy has found a way to continue doing his traditional Update guitar songs even after becoming an Update anchor.
— Didn’t care for first few songs in Jimmy’s song medley tonight, but I like him now doing a parody of U2’s performances from the last episode, right down to running around the audience and repeatedly shoving his open mouth at the camera, ala Bono.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)”


TRIMMING THE TREE
angel (MOS) & other Christmas ornaments worry about making it to the tree

— A cutesy sketch that feels a little unusual for SNL, but I’m kinda enjoying this.
— Sad that this is the only big thing Parnell is getting to do in this entire episode, and it’s just a boring dad role where he doesn’t get anything comedic to do or say. After Parnell dominated the last episode with probably the most airtime of his entire SNL tenure, I see SNL has gone back to their usual habit of underusing Parnell and typecasting him in thankless small-ish roles.
— I love Horatio as the California Raisin.
— Funny bit with Maya as a space heater instruction manual.
— Some awkward timing issues throughout this sketch from the use of two child actors and a dog, but it’s forgivable.
— Overall, a pretty charming sketch.
STARS: ***


MURDER IN THE MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM
more rap from Robert Goulet (WIF)

— Nice to see Will’s Robert Goulet impression become recurring, though as far as sketches with him advertising a rap album of his while sitting in a convertible out in the woods go, they’ll never top the first installment.
— Goulet’s rapport with Jay-Z and the other rappers is pretty funny.
— Are Jay-Z and the other rappers genuinely stoned out of their minds during this sketch? They are so out of it during this sketch, and I’m fairly sure that’s not acting.
— I remember when this originally aired, I was very thrown off by Will’s singing of the lyric “Who the fluck want one, babyyyyyy”, as I seriously wondered if he used the actual f-word or just “fluck”. I couldn’t tell. I would soon find out that it was “fluck”, but even listening to it now, 20 years later, I still think it sounds VERY close to the f-word.
— Speaking of expletives not allowed on SNL, Jay-Z actually does utter one shortly after Will’s f-bomb fake-out. Jay-Z pretends(?) to accidentally spill some ashes from his joint onto himself, and then deliberately(?) mutters an audible “shit” in response. I didn’t even catch that when this episode originally aired (I was probably too busy STILL asking myself in shock “Did Will just say the f-word on live TV?!?!?!”), but Will certainly caught it, as he briefly turns his head towards Jay-Z and laughs out of character while delivering the next line. I’m currently watching the rerun version of this episode, however, which mutes out Jay-Z’s s-bomb.
— Ha, the big-horned sheep returns!
— I love Goulet saying “Hey, fellas, you curled his horns” when the one of the rappers lets the big-horned sheep have a toke from a joint.
— Overall, this was funny, but doesn’t come close to holding a candle to the classic first Goulet sketch.
STARS: ***½


SEASON’S GREETINGS
interloper interrupts message of season’s greetings by JIF & TIF

— Uh, okay. A very brief segment overall, but I got a pretty good laugh from the random guy joining in on Jimmy and Tina’s holiday message, only for Jimmy to respond “Who the (bleep) are you?!?”
STARS: not even sure if this very brief segment warrants a rating, but if it does, I’ll give it ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Is That Your Chick”


SEASON’S GREETINGS (not to be confused with the earlier sketch tonight of the exact same title)
HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF once again perform a happy Christmas ditty

— Jimmy continues to absolutely dominate tonight’s episode. You’d think he was tonight’s host instead of Lucy Liu, especially since Lucy has strangely been M.I.A. since the Trimming The Tree sketch from almost 20 minutes ago (not counting her intro to Jay-Z’s second musical performance).
— The Sanz/Fallon/Kattan/Morgan Christmas song routine officially becomes recurring after debuting only ONE EPISODE AGO. It’s a good thing I love these songs, and thus, I can’t complain nowadays about seeing this back so insanely soon. I certainly do remember complaining about the very early return of this sketch in my original 2000 review of this episode, though, and I said stuff like “SNL is running out of ideas”.
— Nothing else to say here, but overall, this was fun as always. I’ll always be a sucker for these sketches, even if I prefer some of the later versions where there are interesting set-ups to the song or there are variations of the holiday theme.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. There were enough highlights to make this a passable episode, but this is the most forgettable episode of the season so far. There was also an awful lot of reliance on recurring sketches. I think Jarret’s Room (not yet recurring at this point) and Trimming The Tree were the ONLY original sketches all night.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Val Kilmer)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2001, with host Charlie Sheen