Tag: 2001-02

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January 12, 2002 – Josh Hartnett / Pink (S27 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUDDY’S MEMORIAL SERVICE
Bill Clinton (DAH) scores political points at Buddy’s memorial service

— Funny opening C-SPAN mention of the Enron scandal.
— Darrell’s Bill Clinton impression makes its first appearance of the season.
— Amusing cutaways to stock footage of real political figures in the crowd, in reaction to some of the things Darrell’s Clinton is saying. This seems to be in the tradition of SNL’s State of the Union sketches.
— Lots of funny lines from Darrell’s Clinton in regards to Buddy the dog.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Will Ferrell has been temporarily removed from the montage tonight, as this is the first of three episodes that he’ll be missing this season while filming the movie Old School. I remember what a stir his removal in tonight’s opening montage caused among unsuspecting online SNL fans at the time, including myself. There were even some online fans that started to wonder if Will flat-out left SNL without getting a sendoff or us being informed of his departure. While we were given a warning in advance earlier in this week regarding Will’s absence, via either an online rumor or an official announcement from NBC (I can’t remember which), I and others certainly weren’t expecting him to be removed from the opening montage. I don’t know about other SNL fans, but I remember *I* had assumed that this episode would have some kind of pre-taped segment (e.g. a commercial or short film) that Will filmed in advance to make up for his live absence tonight, kinda similar to what SNL had Eddie Murphy do in advance for when he had to miss certain episodes in season 9. It was a big surprise to come to the realization that tonight’s episode wouldn’t feature Will in any capacity, something that was hard to take and resulted in this episode having a weird and empty feeling.
— And here’s the other huge shock of tonight’s opening montage: Amy Poehler has been promoted from featured player to repertory player after only half a season. This was something that, like Will’s absence, was rumored online (and definitely not officially announced by NBC) earlier in the week of this episode, but some people, including myself, didn’t think it was true, and we turned out to be wrong. This mid-season promotion for Amy certainly makes sense, considering how experienced, well-known, and revered a comedian and sketch comedy veteran she already was before joining SNL, not to mention how well she had been doing on SNL so far. She’s, I believe, only the third cast member in SNL history to get the honor of being promoted in the middle of their first season, with the first two cast members being Harry Shearer and Eddie Murphy.


MONOLOGUE
based on personal experience, JIF advises host not to re-create himself

— Lots of screaming from teen girls in the audience towards heartthrob Josh Hartnett all throughout this monologue.
— Geez, even SNL’s own heartthrob, Jimmy Fallon, receives teen girl screams from the audience when he walks onstage in this monologue.
— The bizarre photo of Jimmy is fairly funny, at least, which is more than I can say for anything else in this monologue so far.
— Overall, aside from the aforementioned photo, this was a completely nothing monologue. Lots of poor material and incessant teen girl screams. Worst monologue of the season by far up to this point, and doesn’t exactly give me any confidence in tonight’s host.
STARS: *½


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
guest who hit a growth spurt (host) excites Megan

— Hmm, most of Wake Up Wakefield’s house band, Jazz Times Ten, is missing tonight, due to a… strep throat epidemic. Uh, oof. Needless to say, it certainly feels odd and kinda uncomfortable hearing that in today’s climate, for obvious reasons.
— A pretty good laugh from how one of Sheldon’s New Years resolutions is to translate The Hobbit into Latin.
— Yeah, all of the things the characters in this sketch keep saying about the strep throat epidemic and all the advice that Horatio’s character is giving on how we can stay safe during this epidemic and stop the epidemic’s spread (e.g. wash your hands thoroughly) has an awful lot of parallels to what we’re currently facing.
— A fairly funny squeaky voice from Josh, at least initially. It’ll probably get old after a while.
— (*sigh*) There goes that screaming from teen girls in the audience again, not only when Josh makes his entrance, but also when Maya’s Megan character compliments Josh’s character on his looks.
— A very funny visual of Josh flipping Sheldon onto the ground. I also like how, when Sheldon stands back up with a wet ink stain bleeding through one of his pockets, he panickedly asks Megan in regards to the stain “Is this blood or pen???”
— (*sigh*) And, of course, Jimmy’s walk-on is welcomed by the same teen girl screams from the audience.
— Josh delivered his final line of this sketch too oddly, causing it to receive uncomfortable silence from the audience.
— An overall lesser installment of this recurring sketch, but still had its moments.
STARS: **½


HELLO STEPSON, NOW LET’S GO TO BED: I WENT TO BED WITH MY STEPSON: THE LARA BENGAL COVINGTON STORY
actress (ANG) overemotes in melodramatic Lifetime Original Movie

— A funny long title, spoofing the titles of typical Lifetime movies.
— This looks like this’ll be a solid Ana Gasteyer showcase, which is refreshing, considering 1) how poorly tonight’s episode has been going so far, and 2) how somewhat invisible Ana has been so far this season.
— (*sigh*) Cue the teen girl screaming from the audience when Josh removes his shirt and reveals a wifebeater under it.
— Eh, it turns out I’m not crazy about this sketch so far, despite a solid performance from Ana.
— Okay, I do love the mirror-smashing sequence. Ana is particularly great there.
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo helps find Osama bin Laden

— Feels kinda odd seeing an X-Presidents cartoon in 2002.
— I like how this edition of X-Presidents is addressing the war on terror.
— Ronald Reagan’s bitter one-liners in these X-Presidents cartoons always slay me. In these past few X-Presidents cartoons, he’s become one of the most consistent sources for laughs.
— Great to see the return of recent X-Presidents inductee Bill Clinton and his ridiculous trademark costume.
— Ronald Reagan, to Bill Clinton: “Maybe if Bin Laden were a fat girl, you might’ve tried to find him.”
— Nice inclusion of Bob Dole as the X-Presidents lowly butler.
— Jimmy Carter, to Ronald Reagan, in regards to the Afghanis: “But I have experience negotiating with this culture.” Ronald Reagan: “I know you do. That’s how I got elected.”
— As a huge Three Stooges fanatic (which anybody who’s known me online for a long time would be aware of), I immediately recognized Reagan’s Afghani gibberish (e.g. “B-I bicky bye, B-O bo”) as a reference to the Three Stooges’ classic Swingin’ The Alphabet song.
— Ha, this has suddenly turned into an Ambiguously Gay Duo/X-Presidents crossover! Random but awesome.
— Very funny suggestive visual of Ace and Gary’s penis-shaped car self-lubricating so it can squeeze into a tight cave hole.
STARS: ****


SHOUT OUT!! SHOW
Grandmaster Freddy (TRM) gives props to everything

— Good to see Tracy starring in his own sketch as a character, after being very underused so far this season and playing nothing but himself for the last few episodes.
— Geez, even freakin’ Kattan is receiving screaming cheers from the teen girls in tonight’s audience. Believe it or not, I do recall being told how, in his earlier seasons, Kattan was the cast member who young female viewers swooned over, before Jimmy joined the cast and stole Kattan’s heartthrob thunder.
— A lot of very stereotypical racial humor here so far, and it’s not exactly making me laugh.
— I do kinda like the part with the out-of-place shout-out from a whitebred middle-aged guy.
— Fitting use of Pink.
— After a very weak first half, this sketch has started picking up with Tracy constantly interrupting Josh’s serious pleading to give inappropriate shout-outs to things like starving children, irregular menstrual cycles, and eating garbage.
— I wonder if this was intended to become a recurring sketch. We end up never seeing it return, which is a good thing, as I’m sure subsequent installments of it would’ve just repeated the same basic jokes, which wouldn’t work well with repetition.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get The Party Started”

— Immediately after this performance ends, a “sponsored by Budweiser” ad is played as the camera does a pan shot of the studio (screencap below).

This would go on to be a regular part of the show these next few seasons at the end of each episode’s first musical performance. This kinda gives SNL an “awards show” feel.


WEEKEND UPDATE
verse & sentiment of Maya Angelou’s (TRM) greeting cards don’t match

videophone delay kills timing of comedy routine by (HOS) & (CHK)

— Some pretty tepid audience reactions towards some of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes so far.
— An okay bit with Tina questioning if it’s the 80s again, due to the Middle East currently being a mess and us having a President Bush recently declare “No new taxes”. I also like Jimmy imitating Don Pardo’s voice when announcing the next SNL episode’s (fake) 80s-centric host/musical guest line-up: Molly Ringwald/Simple Minds.
— The juxtaposition between Tracy-as-Maya-Angelou’s deep, wise poems and the greeting cards they’re being used in was funny at first, but it’s a one-joke premise that’s gotten kinda old and one-note after a while.
— Tracy’s getting kinda stumbly with his lines here.
— After a rocky start earlier in this Update, Jimmy and Tina’s jokes are gradually getting better.
— Eh, spoke too soon, as we just now got a very lame joke from Tina about Yves St. Laurent’s glasses and a tepid joke from Jimmy about Argentina pesos.
— Hmm, the name of the fictional comedy team that Horatio and Chris are playing is Henley & Stiles. I remember an online theory at the time that SNL possibly got this comedy team’s name from the names of guests in two back-to-back SNL episodes from the preceding season. You see, that season has two consecutive episodes at one point in which Don Henley is the musical guest in one episode and Julia Stiles is the host in the other episode. There’s a possibility that SNL randomly took the surname of both Don Henley and Julia Stiles to make the fictional comedy team name of Henley & Stiles. If so, that’s a bizarrely interesting move on SNL’s part, but who knows? This whole name connection could just be a coincidence.
— Some laughs from how badly hindered Henley & Stiles’ long-distance comedy routine is due to the long audio delay on Chris’ part.
— Ehh, this Henley & Stiles bit has been going on way too long, even though that’s the point. I’m usually a fan of both slow burn humor and Andy Kaufman-style humor that tests the audience’s patience, but the execution of this Henley & Stiles bit hasn’t been getting many laughs from me.
— There goes that hammy overacting from Horatio again, something that I run hot and cold on (though I run far more cold than hot on it in Horatio’s later seasons). It’s kinda making me laugh here, but I think I’m just desperate for a laugh at this point.
— An overall fairly subpar Fallon/Fey Update.
STARS: **½


HBO FIRST LOOK
George Lucas (DAH) defends Attack Of The Clones casting

— Tracy’s surprisingly been getting lots of airtime tonight. Perhaps this is a byproduct of Will Ferrell’s absence, as well as an early sign of how good Tracy’s airtime is going to be in the upcoming Ferrell-less season 28.
— Seeing Josh and the male cast playing N’Sync reminds me when most of these performers used to play the fictional boy band 7 Degrees Celsius.
— After going two consecutive episodes without having ANY lines, Dean finally speaks again!… only for it to sadly end up being him playing a crude Jar Jar Binks variation who’s only line is “Meesa go pee-pee and poo-poo” while making armpit fart noises. Just embarrassing, unfunny, and juvenile. And, yes, I’m aware that the point was it was intentionally juvenile, but it also wasn’t remotely funny, and I can’t help but find this role demeaning for Dean. Oh, and of course, this ends up being his ONLY appearance of the entire night. My god, his airtime lately has become an absolute joke. Just sad.
— The cutaways to random famous characters and celebrities as the new members of the Jedi Council are kinda funny, but nothing particularly great to me. Odd seeing Rachel as Monica Lewinsky among those random celebrities, but I guess it just feels odd because I’m so used to Molly Shannon being SNL’s resident Lewinsky impersonator.
— I like the understated frustration in Seth’s Ewan McGregor whenever he has to introduce N’Sync.
— Weak way to end this sketch, with the overlong and unfunny N’Sync performance, which just seems to be pandering once again to the screaming teen girls in the audience, who are, of course, eating this portion of the sketch up.
STARS: **


HOLIDAY TRAVEL
flight crew offers lame entertainment to passengers stuck on runway

— As I said earlier, this is Amy’s first episode as a repertory player. So why in the world is she JUST NOW making her first appearance of the night, in one of the last sketches of the episode? Really, SNL? Way to show why you gave her an early promotion. I remember when watching this episode live, how frustrated I got halfway through the episode, wondering where the hell the newly-promoted Amy was.
— Once again, Seth and Amy work perfectly together.
— Tracy’s rare big night continues, as he makes YET ANOTHER noteworthy appearance tonight.
— At least Josh is playing against type here. It doesn’t say much, though, that his best role of the night is playing a character doing corny, bad celebrity impressions.
— Amy and Seth’s cheesy little color commentary throughout Josh’s parade of celebrity impressions is funny.
STARS: ***


MY BEST LIST FOR 2001 BY JACK HANDEY
picks reflect sponsors’ influence

— Ah, a random one-off Jack Handey segment! Hopefully, this is an improvement over his then-current regular My Big Thick Novel segments, which can best be described as “A poor man’s Deep Thoughts, with pretty drawings”.
— I love the vague, narrow categories and the obvious picks for them (e.g. “Best flat Italian pie: pizza pie”).
— Funny turn with how the picks are gradually devolving into nothing but wax-related picks.
— I don’t usually rate random Jack Handey filler segments, but since this particular piece was much longer and more extensive than the usual Handey filler segment…
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Let Me Get Me”


THE PLAYBOY CHANNEL
to promote multicultural awareness, the Playboy Channel screens Arab porn

— Rachel and especially Maya are doing a good mockery of typical Playboy bimbos.
— Funny premise of the Playboy Network trying to tackle the seriousness of the war on terror.
— This sketch was cut from the preceding episode, in which Amy’s role was originally played by host Ellen DeGeneres. As good as Amy’s doing in this role, I think I’d rather have seen the Ellen DeGeneres version, as I’m already laughing just imagining Ellen making the same uncomfortable facial expressions that Amy’s making here.
— Some pretty good laughs from the Arab porn, and this is one of those times where Horatio’s hammy overacting works for me. His over-the-top horny reactions to all the “hot face action” he’s witnessing are cracking me up.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode. The show was dominated by sketches that were pretty tepid and underwhelming, and even the times that this episode wasn’t weak rarely rose above average. Josh Hartnett was a bland host as expected, and there aren’t enough words to express how irksome it was hearing all of the screaming from teen girls in the audience throughout the show anytime Josh or any of the teen-friendly established male cast members made an entrance or did anything that could be considered remotely “dreamy”. Will Ferrell’s absence was also felt tonight, and the poor quality of this episode is a worrisome early sign of how much SNL will be struggling the next few seasons after Will’s official departure. Though regarding all of the latter, the odd thing in retrospect is that the remaining two episodes this season that Will is absent in (Jon Stewart and Ian McKellen) both actually end up being very solid, IIRC.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ellen DeGeneres)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jack Black

Posted on

December 15, 2001 – Ellen DeGeneres / No Doubt (S27 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CBS NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Osama bin Laden (WIF) tape reveals that terrorists were reluctant martyrs

— Some pretty funny dialogue in the translated text on the bottom of the screen.
— Boy, this is dragging on for what feels like forever. I stopped laughing consistently about a minute and a half ago. This material has become very hit-and-miss, with more misses than hits. I can certainly enjoy Jim Downey’s dry humor (assuming it was him who wrote this, considering both the fact that he’s doing the voice of the translator and that the humor of this cold opening fits his trademark style), but this cold opening needed some serious editing before going on the air.
— The fat jokes about Horatio’s character made me laugh at first, but even that aspect of this sketch has eventually gone on too long and is getting run into the ground.
— In retrospect, this cold opening feels like a precursor to two bad things: the Jim Downey-written dull and overly-wordy political cold openings from Downey’s later years on SNL in the late 2000s/early 2010s, and the tedious amount of translator cold openings that would appear in the upcoming season 28.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host admits that her declaration of homosexuality was a publicity stunt

— Already starting off funny with Ellen DeGeneres’ whole “I love New York” bit.
— Very funny reveal from Ellen of how she’s not actually gay; she just made it up to top other celebrities at a party, then decided to run with it to further her career.
— A fantastic line from Ellen about how she decided she might as well stick with the whole gay thing for a while “…as opposed to other people”, a great dig at her ex, Anne Heche.
— Overall, a perfect stand-up monologue. I laughed pretty much non-stop for this entire thing.
STARS: *****


NATIVITY SCENE
Marty & Bobbi perform a medley at a shopping mall Nativity scene

— Funny beginning with Ellen, and she’s getting laughs with her usual solid delivery.
— Great visual of Ellen returning with an elaborate Three Wise Men costume.
— I like the “Jason Crisp” bit when The Culps aren’t allowed to say the name Jesus Christ.
— Kinda surprised to see Ellen joining in on The Culps song medley.
— An overall decent Culps song medley, but not quite as solid as usual. No parts of tonight’s medley stood out to me.
STARS: ***


KITTY SINGLETON
federal agent Kitty Singleton (host) is terrible at hand-to-hand combat

— A huge laugh from how unexpectedly fast Will’s villain character knocks down Ellen during her initial confrontation of him and his henchmen.
— A good angry “Son of a bitch!” delivery from Maya (making her only appearance of the night, in a small walk-on role).
— Ellen: “I think I can take the one-armed fat guy”
— Would it have killed them to give Dean ANY lines? He appeared during this entire sketch, but his only “contribution” besides just silently standing there the entire time was silently handing Horatio a club to beat Ellen with. This is the second episode in a row that Dean has no lines in. After an okay-if-unmemorable first handful of episodes on the show, things have really gone south for him these past few episodes.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Narrator That Ruined Christmas” by RBS- snowman visits Ground Zero

 

— A very out-of-the-ordinary prelude to the usual TV Funhouse opening sequence, with a “Sponsored by” segment promoting “TV Funhouse 100 Proof Tequila” (screencap below).

This is presumably a reference to hard liquor TV sponsorships that NBC has recently gotten permission to do, something that SNL themselves would soon take advantage of, with something they’ll begin regularly doing at the end of each musical guest’s first performance starting in the very next episode, as we’ll see when I review it.
— Hilarious turn with the snowman narrator bitterly ranting about how trivial so many things now are compared to the war on terror we’re currently dealing with.
— After the snowman walks off, I love the speechless looks on the faces of the two children watching this on TV.
— My god, the animation is an absolutely fantastic imitation of the classic Rankin/Bass “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” special. As always, Robert Smigel is perfect at recreating the animation styles of certain cartoons that he occasionally spoofs.
— A great dark turn with the snowman taking the kids to Ground Zero.
— This cartoon is providing lots of very funny social commentary on a touchy subject.
— Snowman: “My left nut’s more famous than Jerry Stiller!”
— Santa Claus, to the snowman: “It’s not about YOU, douchebag.”
— Holy hell! We get a Chris Parnell voice cameo, doing the voice of Tom Brokaw! Awesome, and just hearing Parnell’s voice really makes me realize how much I miss seeing him this season so far. Perhaps this is Smigel’s way of showing solidarity with Parnell after his undeserved firing. This also, in retrospect, could possibly be looked at as an early hint of Parnell’s re-hiring later this season.
— I love the silly ending with the snowman angrily smashing a banjo over his head, even if it got no audience reaction.
— Overall, a true classic. I loved every moment of this.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hey Baby”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM suggests creative romantic holiday gifts for your spouse

JIF, TIF, Rudolph Giuliani [real] sing “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”

— Tina, during the anthrax portion of her opening long-winded rant: “Good thing we never had any anthrax in this building… oh, wait, we totally did!”
— An overall good opening long-winded rant from Tina, though not as memorable as her usual rants. This one seemed a little more cartoonish than her more serious comedic rants. However, this was a good way for her to comically vent her frustrations over all the craziness in the news this week.
— Tina, on NBC becoming the first broadcast TV network to accept hard liquor commercials in over 50 years: “Not to be outdone, the FOX network is running ads for crack.”
— Funny bit when Tina’s increasingly erotic description of an airport security pat-down suddenly gets cut off by a very amusing “Please Stand By” graphic (the sixth above screencap for this Weekend Update), which is then followed by a visual of Jimmy and Tina acting like they had just finished having sex. Update seems to have a particularly goofy, silly tone tonight. Adding to that, I think (but I’m not 100% sure about this, so don’t quote me on it) that this is the same episode that cut a somewhat well-known Update bit after dress rehearsal in which Jimmy says goodbye to us as he randomly gets beamed up into an off-camera spaceship to be taken back to his home planet. This bit is shown at the end of Jimmy’s “Best Of” special (with a special voice-over introduction by Jimmy himself explaining the bit was cut after dress), and I’ve seen some SNL fans mistakenly(?) claim it comes from the dress rehearsal of Jimmy’s final episode as a cast member (that sure would’ve been one hell of a unique and creative way for an Update anchor to end their Update stint, I’ll admit).
— Tracy’s lust-filled message to “the chubby redheaded girl that works in the NBC store downstairs” is hilarious.
— Yet another solid Update commentary from Tracy as himself.
— An okay random “Nerd alert!” bit between Jimmy and Tina.
— Another Rudy Giuliani cameo this season. You can even hear people in the audience chanting “Ru-dy!”, showing how hugely beloved he was at this time.
— I like how Jimmy’s idea of imitating Giuliani is to just attach a long sole strand of hair to his head, to imitate Rudy’s combover.
— This musical Giuliani tribute will certainly not sit well with quite a number of people in today’s age, but as I said in my review of the cold opening from the Giuliani-hosted episode from season 23, I have no difficulty in separating the Giuliani of the 90s and early 00s from the Giuliani of today.
— Jimmy and Tina’s overall musical tribute to Rudy was sappy (albeit heartfelt), but I did like Tina’s ending spoken message, thanking Rudy for holding New Yorkers together during 9/11.
STARS: ***½


MANGO
host’s Mango obsession creates backlash among lesbian media heavyweights

— (*groan*) Mango.
— I got an unintentional laugh from how the door that Mango slammed shut during his exit IMMEDIATELY opened all the way back up. That seems to happen a lot on SNL whenever a door is slammed shut. I guess SNL’s prop doors are pretty cheap.
— So we’ve gone back to the original simple Mango formula of hosts falling in love with Mango and finding themselves unable to do daily tasks without a fantasy thought bubble of him popping up? Is this really a plotline we needed the return of?
— Jeff displays yet another solid celebrity impression, this time of Charlie Rose. Too bad it has to wasted in a lame Mango sketch. SNL would later give Jeff his own sketch to display his Charlie Rose impression in (in the following season’s Jeff Gordon episode), but unfortunately, I recall that sketch being pretty much a dud.
— Meh at the breaking-the-fourth-wall ending with Mango and Ellen on SNL’s home base stage wishing us a happy holidays. And maybe it’s just me, but Ellen looked and sounded very unenthusiastic during that portion of this sketch, as if even she realizes she’s wasting her time with this sketch.
— Overall, a particularly terrible Mango sketch, even moreso than usual.
STARS: *½


FAMILY VACATION
panic over forgotten household chores causes family to cut its trip short

— This was cut after dress rehearsal from the Gwyneth Paltrow episode earlier this season.
— I like the cutaway visuals whenever a family member realizes they left something on in the house.
— A hilarious sudden angry look on a previously-smiling Will’s face when he slaps Jimmy’s playful hands away from his face. A very brief but classic little Ferrell moment.
— I love the sudden escalating absurdity of the forgotten tasks (“I left the radio in the bathtub!” “I left two cans of gas in the sun under a magnifying glass!”).
— A funny cheap visual of a model toy house on fire, used to represent the family’s actual house.
— I like the ending with the car driving off a cliff, just because of how Toonces-esque it felt.
STARS: ****


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
“sighing” on Mars in chapter 917


DAD’S NEW GIRLFRIEND
(WIF)’s kids (SEM) & (AMP) don’t meet his new girlfriend (host) halfway

— Interesting how this is the second sketch in a row with Will and Ellen playing a couple. By the way, much like the Drew Barrymore episode earlier this season, this is another episode this season in which Will is even more dominant than usual, appearing in an important lead role in almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH while most of the rest of the cast makes only 1 or 2 measly appearances. While I don’t like how lopsided this airtime among the cast is, we’d better enjoy all this Ferrell that we’re getting, because the very next episode begins his occasional absence in the second half of this season, in which he takes some episodes off to film the movie Old School. And even in most of the episodes that he does appear in during that half of the season, his airtime is fairly limited for his standards. Seeing Will being utilized to his full potential in tonight’s episode is going to make it that much harder to see SNL without him in the very next episode, especially knowing how lacking in utility power the male side of this cast is without Will. (At least we get Parnell back in March, but SNL rarely knows how to utilize him properly, and I don’t recall that changing much even after his re-hiring.)
— Good to see another sketch pairing Seth and Amy together.
— I love Seth and Amy’s immediate over-the-top, irrational reaction to meeting their father’s new girlfriend.
— Funny bit regarding a very extensive photo album that Ellen had painstakingly put together of Seth and Amy.
— Seth’s comically over-the-top acting in this sketch is actually amusing me. I continue to be surprised by how good Seth has been as a sketch performer so far in his SNL tenure.
— Seth and Amy IMMEDIATELY throwing their Christmas gifts from Ellen into the fireplace is hilarious, as is Ellen’s perfectly Ellen-esque reaction to that.
— I love how Will is now suddenly turning against Ellen’s character.
— Good reveal that the only reason Will and his first wife broke up is merely because he once insulted her cooking.
— Very solid sketch overall.
STARS: ****


SNOW GLOBE
Dick Cheney (DAH) imagines happy Christmas ditty by HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF

— Feels kinda odd seeing a political-themed sketch this late in the show.
— A fantastic unexpected turn with this transitioning into another “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” number. The whole Dick Cheney bit at the beginning was a very clever way of setting this up.
— Unlike the last time this “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bit appeared two episodes prior, Jimmy and Tracy both seem to be enjoying themselves a lot more. Tracy even has an actual smile on his face this time, a big change from the comically dead-serious look he traditionally has in these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits.
— During Horatio’s VERY extended instrumental solo, I love how Chris’ rhythmic head-shaking in time to Horatio’s fast strumming causes his hat to accidentally fall off, which Tracy catches and puts on top of his own hat.
— Overall, my favorite of these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits so far.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hella Good”


GOODNIGHTS
Rudolph Giuliani [real] wishes peace from Rockefeller Center skating rink

— Ice skating goodnights!
— I wonder why Ellen stayed in the studio, unlike hosts in other ice skating goodnights. If she was afraid of attempting to skate, she could’ve still gone out there and just stayed safely on the carpet, like Giuliani is doing.
— At one point, we see a wobbly Jeff being held by Will and Ana on the skating rink (the third-to-last above screencap for these goodnights). It feels like such a weird novelty in retrospect to see Jeff interacting with both Will and Ana, since this is the only season that all three of them are castmates with each other.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid Christmas episode, though a lot of the better sketches seemed to be in the post-Weekend Update half, minus a particularly awful Mango sketch. Then again, the first half of this episode was no slouch either, as it contained TWO non-sketches with a five-star rating (monologue and TV Funhouse). Ellen DeGeneres was a solid host as expected.


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Hugh Jackman)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2002, with host Josh Hartnett

Posted on

December 8, 2001 – Hugh Jackman / Mick Jagger (S27 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHITE HOUSE CALL
Al Gore’s (DAH) phone call interrupts George W. Bush’s (WIF) meeting

— Aside from the special 9/11 tribute cold opening from the season premiere, this is the first cold opening all season that doesn’t have a political figure either giving an address to the nation or a press conference. However, this cold opening is still political, still stars several political figures, and still doesn’t stop the ENDLESS streak of Darrell and Will being the ONLY people in the entire cast who get to say “Live from New York…” this season so far. This endless Hammond/Ferrell LFNY cycle is getting ridiculous.
— Ha, Seth Meyers fittingly being cast as General Myers (yes, that’s a real person).
— Good make-up job on Dean as Colin Powell, but geez, they end up not even giving Dean ANY lines whatsoever during this cold opening. He just silently sits there the whole time. And this ends up being his only appearance all night (yeah, I know, no surprise there).
— I like Will-as-President-Bush’s sarcastic, bitter delivery of “Thanks, Dad!” after mentioning that he has to deal with the Saddam Hussein situation that should’ve been resolved 10 years ago.
— So far, we get dual roles from Darrell in this cold opening, playing both Dick Cheney and Al Gore, the latter impression making its first appearance since the 2000 elections.
— Darrell’s Gore droning on and on over the phone to Will’s Bush is okay and is providing consistent chuckles, though isn’t anything hilarious.
— Something about Darrell-as-Cheney’s whispery, angry way of saying “Mr. President, I am BEGGING you – Get. Off. The. Phone!” cracked me up.
— Kinda unusual how serious and bland Will’s Bush is coming off in this cold opening, playing the normal straight man to Darrell’s Gore without any of the usual Bush-isms or anything. Perhaps SNL is still experimenting with appropriate ways to portray Bush in a post-9/11 world.
— Now we get THREE Darrell Hammond roles in this sketch, with him now appearing as Donald Rumsfeld. Wow. At this point, I can’t even tell which Darrell impression is live and which ones are pre-taped. You’d guess that Darrell’s Gore is live, since he does, by far, most of the speaking and also says “Live from New York…” at the end, but I think I recall once hearing from someone who was in the audience for this episode that it was actually Darrell’s Rumsfeld that was live.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— A Cartoon By Robert Smigel is credited, but no cartoon ends up airing tonight, presumably due to the show running long.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

— The “gently hold Rachel Dratch” segment with Rachel tightly hugging Hugh Jackman is actually a reference to an SNL promo that Hugh and Rachel did earlier that week, in which she tightly hugged him the entire time, IIRC (I haven’t seen the promo since 2001, so my details may be a little off).
— Tracy’s walk-on is priceless. I also like the random little pose he holds for the camera right before walking off.
— Hugh is coming off charming, fun, and loose here, even making good ad-libs in reaction to some of the particularly loud audience members.
— A decent Christmas musical number with Hugh and the female cast members (minus Tina). I typically excuse joke-less singing in monologues when it’s a Christmas song like this.
STARS: ***½


LOOSE BEAR
hallucinogenic laxative literally scares the crap out of you

— Good premise with replacing the use of a laxative with a hallucinogen.
— Great visual look to the hallucination sequence with Amy in the woods.
— A pretty good laugh from Amy waking up with her hair standing on end while proudly telling her husband “I just got the crap scared out of me!”
— I like how the professional voice-over at the end says “Get scared sh(*bleep*)less” and “Side effects may include uncontrollable pissing and heart failure.”
STARS: ***½


JARRET’S ROOM
spycamera footage reveals (JER)’s embarrassing behavior

— A fairly funny “2001: A Space Odyssey”-esque entrance from Gobi and his bong. Probably his most memorable gimmicky entrance in these Jarret’s Room sketches.
— Geez, Horatio is particularly over-the-top here (even moreso than usual in these Jarret’s Room sketches), and Jimmy is particularly giggly in response to Horatio’s over-the-top antics. Granted, these antics from Horatio and Jimmy fit their stoner characters in this sketch well, but still…
— This sketch has gotten a lot better once Hugh has entered. He’s very funny in this, and is even making Horatio and Jimmy’s usual unprofessional antics come off tolerable.
— The spy cam footage of Jeff is providing lots of laughs.
— Overall, this recurring sketch, which started out poor in the preceding season, continues to show a lot of signs of improvement this season, but I’m still wary on how long these improvements will last.
STARS: ***½


THE ROBERT GOULET ALL HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Robert Goulet’s (WIF) All-Holiday Special embraces all seasonal aspects

— Goulet!
— This sketch was cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding two episodes.
— I love Will-as-Robert-Goulet’s line “There’ll be some Jewish stuff too”, and him proceeding to demonstrate that with half-assed singing of a small portion of “The Dreidel Song”.
— Okay, I have a lot of confusion in regards to the (hilarious) Sherlock Holmes / “It’s Monica Lewinsky’s underwear” scene. Is this scene live or taped? Is Will and Darrell’s laughing genuine or part of the script? Why is this portion of the sketch shown in the “dress rehearsal outtakes” bonus feature in Will’s first “Best Of” DVD, considering this scene is from the live version, not the dress rehearsal version? Was this scene originally taped at dress rehearsal and then aired during the live show? Even if so, it still doesn’t make sense why they would put this scene in a collection of “dress rehearsal outtakes” on a DVD.
— Considering this sketch got cut from the preceding two episodes, I wonder if the Phantom Of The Opera scene was a new addition this week to utilize Hugh’s singing talent. If this scene was in the version of this sketch that got cut from the last two episodes, I wonder who played Hugh’s role. I don’t know if Billy Bob Thornton can sing or not, but Derek Jeter? Ha! It’s certainly amusing to picture him playing a singing Phantom of the Opera.
— I got a laugh from Goulet telling his old friend, the Big-Horned Sheep, “Oh, boy, this special is doomed.”
STARS: ***½


SEARS PHOTOGRAPHERS
artsy photographers (host) & (SEM) shoot family at Sears portrait studio

— So far, I’m having mixed feelings about these characters of Seth and Hugh’s, though Hugh is fun here (once again tonight).
— Did Chris almost lose his voice just now?
— Funny part with Rachel’s old lady character asking if she should take off her sweater as well, after Ana was told to remove her sweater.
— I like the “Get rid of the ugly one!” line in regards to the twin boys.
— Overall, this was a little better than I expected it to be. Not bad overall. Seth continues to do well as a newbie this season. At what point in his SNL tenure does he start becoming the bland, milquetoast, disappointing sketch performer that I had always remembered him being? Or did I just underrate his sketch-performing skills in the past? I’ve been surprised in this SNL project of mine to see how much I’ve actually been liking his sketch-performing skills so far.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “God Gave Me Everything”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in a terrible re-enactment, Geraldo Rivera (CHK) dodges a bullet

Drunk Girl (JER) undergoes mood swings while talking to JIF

— While I’ve gotten tired of Chris’ Terrible Reenactment routine, I admit to laughing in spite of myself at his goofy, cartoonish, over-the-top delivery of “FEETS, DON’T FAIL ME NOW!”
— We get the debut of Drunk Girl. Good to see the underused-so-far-in-his-tenure Jeff Richards get a big showcase.
— I remember back at this time in 2001, one online SNL fan’s first impression of this then-new Drunk Girl character was that Jeff was just doing a rip-off of Chris Farley’s Gap Girls character. I can see the similarities (especially in the voice), but those similarities are clearly just a coincidence, as Jeff is going more for a caricature of actual drunk girls. And he’s doing an absolutely spot-on and funny imitation.
— Drunk Girl’s overall debut tonight was good. Too bad that, from what I remember when this SNL era originally aired, I eventually ended up getting tired of Drunk Girl pretty fast in her subsequent appearances.
— Short Update overall.
STARS: ***½


HELLO DOLLY
doll designer (host) thinks he should be getting more action

— This recurring sketch makes its final appearance.
— I like the spelling of “Bwowin’ Bubboos”.
— Interesting revelation about Ana’s character when she and Hugh mention how they believe that dolls shouldn’t be played with by children.
— A hilarious Jist Discoverin’ doll (which, until recently, I had always misremembered as being in the Sean Hayes installment of this sketch). While the broadness of the humor of this particular doll feels a little out of place for this usually subtle, low-key sketch, it’s making me laugh a lot. Also, something about this bit feels appropriate for the final doll to ever be displayed in this series of Hello Dolly sketches, even if it may not have been intended at the time for this to be the final installment of this sketch.
— Overall, although I had slowly been getting tired of this recurring sketch during the last few preceding installments, tonight’s wasn’t bad overall.
STARS: ***


DRESSING ROOM
musical guest mulls onstage moves while talking to self (JIF) in mirror

— Mick Jagger’s opening line about how he’s made an appearance on SNL in every decade up to that point makes me realize that that tradition would continue in the following decade, as he hosts in 2012. I wonder how many other people can say they’ve appeared on SNL in each decade (not counting the 2020s yet, obviously), either as a host, musical guest, or cameo. Paul Simon and Steve Martin are the only other ones who come to mind at this point. Are there any others?
— Fun premise, and the whole mirror thing is a good setting for Jimmy to do a Mick Jagger impression alongside the real thing.
–I love the whole “Pointin’ at you” bit.
— Jimmy and Mick are playing off of each other very well here, and I’m liking all the wordplay between them.
STARS: ****


FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
from his Fortress of Solitude, Superman (host) phones home to Krypton

— Funny awkward turn during Superman and Jor-El’s conversation, with them running out of things to say, accurately emulating a realistic conversation between a father and son. Will is particularly funny at pulling this off, and I especially like the part where he asks “You need any money?”
— A good laugh from the visual of Jor-El and his wife angrily whispering to each other when she forces him to talk to Superman again.
— Odd how this is the second sketch tonight with Rachel playing a grandmother.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Visions Of Paradise”


VERSACE
male model (host) pays a visit to Donatella Versace’s (MAR) bathroom

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Donatella Versace: “I do my show from the bathroom because I need to be near the toilet.”
— The return of Mr. Pantyhose Leg, Versace’s hand puppet.
— Maya’s characterization of Versace is a little funnier tonight than it was in it’s debut (I especially like the new addition of her occasionally crossing her eyes at random times), and she has some good lines throughout this sketch.
— Good to see Mick Jagger in another sketch tonight.
— Decent bit with Versace getting electrocuted in the bathtub.
STARS: ***


CHRISTMAS KANGAROO
host remembers his father’s (WIF) traditional Christmas kangaroo fights

— (*sigh*) Well… THIS sketch is going to be difficult to approach. On one hand, I’ve absolutely loved this sketch in the past and basically considered it to be a Will Ferrell classic. On the other hand, while reviewing this era during this project of mine, I’ve been disheartened to discover how heavy this era is on hacky “lol gay stereotypes = funny” humor that does not hold up (especially after SNL themselves would permanently burn me out on that type of humor during the original run of season 30, a season that is particularly rife with terrible gay stereotype sketches; the same goes for seasons 35 and 36, though to a lesser extent), which worries me that this sketch will now come off to me as yet another example of hacky “lol gay stereotypes = funny” humor. Plus, I’ve recently seen some online comments making a point about how bad and offensive this sketch is in that it presents the conceit of “rape turning a man into a lisping, flamboyant gay stereotype = funny”. I’ve been so unsure and torn in how I should approach this sketch for my review, but ultimately, I’ve decided to just go into the sketch with a blank slate, and, well, I’ll react how I’ll react.
— I love the scene with Will violently fighting the Christmas Kangaroo.
— Funny detail with a six-pack of beer being among the presents that Will is seen pulling out of the Christmas Kangaroo’s bag of gifts.
— The visual of Will being… er, sodomized by someone in a cheap kangaroo costume makes me laugh out loud in spite of myself, I’m not gonna lie.
— Ehhh, there goes the turn with Will having turned into a gay stereotype who welcomes being raped by the kangaroo.
— Hugh is great as the narrator.
— I do find it amusing how Will named the kangaroo Freckles.
— Hugh’s line about “a giant marsupial taking their old man to Browntown” still slays me, I gotta admit. Not only a killer line, but great delivery from Hugh on it too.
— Overall, yes, I can see why some people have a big problem with this sketch, but, despite certain aspects that indeed don’t hold up, I was able to get a lot of enjoyment from other aspects of this sketch for its fun silliness and for what Hugh brought to this.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Although not quite as strong as I had remembered it to be, this was a consistently good episode that was entertaining. While there was barely anything that stood out as particularly great to me, there weren’t any sketches I disliked either. Even recurring sketches that I’m usually iffy on or I had been getting tired of had good installments tonight (Jarret’s Room, Hello Dolly, Versace). Hugh Jackman was a great host and added a lot to every role he played.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Derek Jeter)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ellen DeGeneres hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 1, 2001 – Derek Jeter / Bubba Sparxxx, Shakira (S27 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

YOU MIGHT BE A TERRORIST
John Ashcroft (DAH) & George W. Bush (WIF) do You Might Be A Terrorist If

— I’m always a sucker for that voice that Darrell uses as John Ashcroft.
— A particularly funny example from Darrell’s Ashcroft on being a terrorist: “If the return address on your mail reads ‘A cave’, then you just might be a terrorist.”
— Very funny part with Will’s President Bush interrupting Ashcroft to tell him he’s starting to sound like Jeff Foxworthy, then saying that’s a good thing because he loves Jeff Foxworthy and wants to join in.
— Bush: “If you have a really long beard, and you hang out in the desert, and you are not in ZZ Top… you just might be a terrorist.”
— Fun cold opening so far, and the very responsive, enthusiastic audience is helping the vibe.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host causes injuries & mayhem by hitting baseballs into the audience

— This would go on to be an often-played monologue in SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials.
— A good laugh from the things the audience is heard yelling out after Derek Jeter asks “What’s the one thing a baseball fan wants more than anything?”
— A very simplistic premise to this monologue, but it’s coming off pretty fun in the execution.
— There goes the use of an SNL trademark, the ol’ vomit hose, after one audience member (SNL writer Matt Piedmont, I believe) gets hit multiple times by baseballs.
STARS: ***½


PREPARATION H
Rerun from 9/29/01


MUCHAS IGLESIAS
(host) & brothers Enrique (JIF) & Julio, Jr. (CHK) sing

— Funny Enrique Iglesias impression from Jimmy. Believe it or not, this is the first celebrity impression he’s done all season. Very odd, considering how much more common his impressions were in his first three seasons. In fact, his non-Update airtime seems to have been reduced this season in general.
— Chris’ performance as Julio Iglesias Jr. is okay (I can’t judge the accuracy of the impression), but it feels like he’s played tons of roles in this same voice and demeanor before.
— Derek is funny as a less-appealing third Iglesias Brother. Also a good detail with the oversized, disgusting-looking mole on his face. I also like Rachel’s unexcited reactions to his bizarre attempt at swooning her.
STARS: ***½


YANKEE WIVES
(host) & other Yankee wives hate sluts (David Wells) & (David Cone)

— Derek actually looks pretty convincing in drag… at least facially. Those massive arms of his kinda ruin the illusion.
— I’m getting a lot of good laughs from Amy-as-Chuck-Knoblauch’s-wife’s various jealous lines regarding her husband potentially being with other women.
— Derek’s character: “Jeter does not do it for me. He looks like if The Rock had sex with a Muppet.”
— Funny walk-on from a drag-wearing David Cone and David Wells (the latter still having his facial hair). Huge audience reactions throughout this portion of this sketch.
— A strong and memorable sketch overall.
STARS: ****


PROMO

— When announcing next week’s guests, Don Pardo bizarrely announces Hugh Jackman as “Ralph Jackman”. I know Don is an old, old man by this point, but I have no clue how in the world “Hugh” could ever be misread as “Ralph”. Because they both end with an “h”???


MASSEUSE
music spellbinds inept romantic in daydream about giving host a massage

— After Derek shows reluctance to remove his robe, I got a laugh from Chris saying “One of us is gonna get naked in a few minutes, so it better be you.”
— The audience is loving Chris’ mesmerized, dramatic reactions during the various tender songs he’s playing, but I can’t really say I’m laughing.
— Seeing Chris with his legs wrapped around Derek like that reminds me of his Mr. Peepers character.
— The twist ending was kinda clever, I guess, but what was with the audience breaking out into sketch-ending applause well before the ending scene concluded? Did SNL mistakenly cue the “Applause” lights too early?
STARS: **


DISSING YOUR DOG
(WIF)’s tape shows how to train canines via mockery

 

— I love Will’s calmly-delivered line about how his previous dog-training methods involved starving dogs, locking them in a closet for days, or just beating them mercilessly, which led to three arrests and court-ordered anger management counseling.
— Throughout his SNL tenure, Will seems to have a specialty of doing hilarious dog commercials with a dark theme (e.g. Petchow Rat Poison, Wade Blasingame), and this is his greatest one yet, in my eyes.
— Great concept of Will delivering sarcastic barbs to dogs in order to properly train them. Will is absolutely fantastic here.
— A particularly funny sarcastic run-on barb from Will that ends with “but keep in mind you’re a fu(*bleep*)ing dog.”
STARS: *****


DEREK JETER’S TACO HOLE
host promotes his Mexican restaurant

— The first of a series of “non-actor SNL host does a musical commercial promoting a restaurant they own” sketches, a tradition that I would go on to HATE during their original airing. I’ll try to go into these with a more open mind in this SNL project of mine.
— I remember when this sketch originally aired, it felt to me like an inferior variation of the fantastic Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup sketch.
— I’m not laughing much so far, but this sketch has a pretty fun, infectious charm to it, and Derek is working well here.
— Overall, not bad.
STARS: ***


DEALING WITH MOM AND DAD
host helps youngster (CHK) with his bat technique

— Good opening parody of cheesy sitcom opening credits.
— Lots of airtime for Chris tonight.
— Amy is funny as Chris’ bratty sister.
— Amy, upon seeing Derek Jeter: “Oh my god, if I was 15, I would so have sex with you!”
— A good laugh from how, after Derek takes Chris outside to train him, they return almost IMMEDIATELY in a defeated manner, with Derek telling the parents “Hey, man, your kid sucks.”
— Funny turn with how the “secret technique” that Derek taught Chris turns out to involve him beating his bullies to a pulp with a baseball bat.
— When the cops are heard approaching during the bully-beating scene, I love Derek’s line “I’ll just get Steinbrenner to pay them off again.” I recall some SNL reviewers back at this time asking why a lot of people in the audience booed that line, but I didn’t hear any booing AT ALL when this originally aired, nor do I hear any booing right now as I’m re-watching this. So what were those reviewers talking about?
— A good ending “Next time on Dealing With Mom And Dad” preview scene, regarding a gasoline can and a breakup that Chris’s character is going through.
— I recall once reading somewhere that SNL later attempted to do a second installment of this sketch in the following season’s John McCain episode, which is AFTER Will and Ana both departed from SNL, but the sketch got cut after dress. I can’t quite remember which cast members I read took over Will and Ana’s dad and mom roles in that version the sketch. Possibly Chris Parnell (this was well after he was re-hired) and Maya.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Shakira performs “Whenever, Wherever”


WEEKEND UPDATE
host & SEM do a Point-Counterpoint about whether Derek Jeter sucks

clips of George Harrison’s SNL appearance mark his passing

— Boy, that opening Miss Afghanistan joke from Tina was AWFUL.
— Tina makes up for her opening dud joke with both her solid Britney Spears joke and her very mean-spirited Charlotte Church joke (and unlike the last time Tina told a Norm Macdonald-esque mean-spirited joke about someone, we thankfully don’t have Tina apologizing for the joke immediately afterwards this time).
— Tina continues to be on fire tonight, with the hilarious “Where would America be comfortable with Pee Wee Herman masturbating?” rant she’s now doing, which is one of her more memorable moments of her entire Update stint, in my eyes.
— At the end of Tina’s aforementioned Paul Rubens masturbation rant, when she says “Men masturbate all the time”, I love how Jimmy followed it up with an awkward “Rarely, if ever.”
— Ha, now I actually heard booing from tonight’s audience (unlike after the Steinbrenner line in the Dealing With Mom And Dad sketch), in response to Tina’s offensive-but-funny China/moon joke.
— Ah, the return of Point/Counterpoint!
— Already a laugh right from the established topic of Seth and Derek’s Point/Counterpoint: “Derek Jeter Sucks / No I Don’t”.
— Tonight’s Point/Counterpoint commentary further establishes Seth’s Red Sox fan persona in his Update commentaries.
— Seth’s getting a lot of good laughs throughout his and Derek’s Point/Counterpoint. I especially like him confessing that he once vowed that if he ever got within 6 feet of a real Yankee, he’d kick his ass, “… but then I saw you.”
— A classy way to end tonight’s Update, with SNL paying tribute to the recently-deceased George Harrison by showing various clips of him from the season 2 Paul Simon-hosted episode that he was a musical guest in. Nice to see all of this footage again, and it also takes me back to when I reviewed that episode early in this SNL project of mine.
STARS: ****


PEP TALK
in a cave hideout, Osama bin Laden (WIF) tries to boost morale of his men

— SNL finally debuts an Osama Bin Laden impression. Casting Will in this role makes sense, as he previously played Saddam Hussein.
— I like the little detail from Will of him imitating the limp way Osama always holds microphones.
— A funny meta bit with Will’s Osama saying “We got a real hot mic here”, referencing a trademark of the Culps sketches.
— Will’s Osama impression isn’t really turning out to be anything special. I would’ve preferred Will to continue his tradition of portraying famous psychotic men in a humorously very friendly, smiley, jovial manner (e.g. Saddam, Ted Kaczynski, Marshall Applewhite). Well, actually… now that I think about it, no. Portraying Osama as a jovial, likable person probably wouldn’t have exactly gone over well with America so soon after 9/11.
— Osama: “It’s cool to live in a cave; Batman lived in a cave!”
— This sketch hasn’t been doing much for me, though the performances are pretty fun.
— Funny bit regarding a bootleg copy of Harry Potter that Osama has.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


MAN PERM
(host)’s friends are concerned that he’s so happy with his home perm

— A good initial laugh from Derek entering in that wig.
— Derek’s pride in his ridiculous perm is very amusing.
— Funny sequence with a big-smiling Derek admiring and touching up his perm into a mirror, especially when he pulls out an afro pick at one point.
— Maya, regarding Derek’s perm: “It’s porno hair!”
— The comments from the group of Derek’s friends about his perm are getting kinda old and feel kinda unnecessary after a while. I understand you need a straight man for a sketch like this, but something about the execution of the straight man portions of this sketch feel kinda off.
— Funny ending with the various magazines/newspaper headlines regarding whether perms are in or not.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Bubba Sparxxx performs “Ugly” & “Lovely”


A HOLIDAY TREAT FOR ALL
as a holiday treat, HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty

— Great fake-out at the beginning with the legitimate professional string quartet, before revealing what it’s REALLY a front for. You guys know how much I love these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits.
— Tracy makes his ONLY appearance of the night. (I feel like I say that every time they do these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits.) For possibly that reason, he looks kinda pissed during this sketch, but it’s probably just me, as he ALWAYS has a dead-serious look on his face during these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits (which is part of what makes them work). However, his dancing-in-place looks more half-hearted than usual tonight.
— On a similar note to Tracy’s half-hearted dancing, Jimmy doesn’t seem as fun-loving and smiley as he usually is during these bits. He’s been surprisingly serious-looking throughout this.
— I love the VERY extended guitar (or whatever instrument that is that Horatio plays in these) solo from Horatio. It’s funny to see Chris trying to keep up with Horatio’s long solo by doing his rhythmic head-shaking in time to Horatio’s frantic guitar-strumming.
STARS: ****


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
specially-bred children in chapter 772


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and fun episode, though the quality dipped a bit with the first few post-Weekend Update sketches. Overall, though, this probably stands out as one of the better and more memorable athlete-hosted episodes in SNL history. The particularly responsive, enthusiastic studio audience also helped the fun vibe of this episode. Considering his limitations as a non-actor, Derek Jeter did well as a host and had some solid moments.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Billy Bob Thornton)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
“Ralph” Jackman

Posted on

November 17, 2001 – Billy Bob Thornton / Creed (S27 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS BRIEFING
professorial Donald Rumsfeld (DAH) cows reporters during a press briefing

— The return of Darrell’s Donald Rumsfeld impression that debuted at the end of the preceding episode (in the Fiesta Politica sketch). I like how he’s really exaggerating the Rumsfeld eye-squinting tonight.
— Heh, even in just a normal straight small role here in which he doesn’t have any comedic lines, the audience STILL reacts well to Will’s appearance.
— Kinda of an oddly-paced cold opening, but I’m liking Darrell-as-Rumsfeld’s snippy, grumpy responses to the reporters’ questions.
— Some good laughs from the recurring bit with all of Rachel’s questions sounding awfully similar.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
castmembers’ Sling Blade impressions irk host; Ashton Kutcher cameo

— Good to see the return of Darrell’s Sling Blade impression from the Mike Myers episode from way back in season 22.
— A good laugh from Billy Bob Thornton mistaking Dean for Tracy. It’s also nice to see Dean getting to introduce himself by name immediately afterwards and say that he’s a new cast member, which actually receives a good amount of hearty applause from the audience. Too bad this bit doesn’t help him in the long run, though. In fact, starting in the very next episode, his airtime (which actually hadn’t been too bad up until this point, compared to what’s to come) takes a turn for the worse and NEVER recovers, despite how he ends up being on the show for TWO. ENTIRE. SEASONS.
— Billy Bob to Dean: “Just so you know, there are no black hillbillies.”
— I love the angry reveal from Steve Higgins that his daughter’s (Amy) Sling Blade “impression” is actually her real voice.
— Very random Ashton Kutcher cameo. I do love Billy Bob’s put-off facial reaction to him and then telling him “You’re not even a cast member.”
— After saying “We got a great show for you tonight; Creed is here”, I like Billy Bob adding in “…and evidently, french fried taters are here.”
STARS: ***½


FESTIVE THANKSGIVING
at the first Thanksgiving, gay (host)’s flamboyance embarrasses Pilgrims

— Meh, yet another “lol gay stereotypes = funny” sketch from this era. Lots of lazy, cliched humor in this particular sketch so far, despite good commitment from Billy Bob.
— I did get a laugh from Billy Bob rudely referring to an old lady pilgrim as “Goody One-Foot-In-The-Grave”.
STARS: **


E.P.T
Rerun from 11/3/01


NICK BURNS, YOUR COMPANY’S COMPUTER GUY
Nick Burns & his dad (host) humiliate users while fixing computers

— This is Nick Burns’ first appearance in a year, and his final appearance ever.
— I wonder why Jeff is replacing the role that Horatio usually plays in these Nick Burns sketches.
— Something about the pairing of Jimmy and Billy Bob as father and son seems very fitting.
— Hilarious line about Jeff refusing to open his email because he thought he’d get anthrax.
STARS: ***


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
a goat & a miniature horse cause confusion

— Despite this sketch debuting way back in season 24, this is only the third installment of this sketch, as these have been appearing VERY sporadically so far. Tonight is actually the beginning of this sketch starting to appear on a regular basis.
— After Tracy has played nothing but effeminate roles in the preceding two episodes, that streak has continued tonight with this Brian Fellow sketch. Very odd.
— For the first time in this recurring sketch, Tracy has begun mistakenly saying his own character’s last name as “Fellows” instead of “Fellow”.
— I love the look of Rachel’s character, which is a very accurate imitation of the look of quite a number of animal experts.
— So many laughs from Brian Fellow going on about the weirdness of Rachel’s goat.
— I howled at Brian Fellow saying “That’s the biggest dog I’ve EVER seen!” in regards to the miniature horse that Chris brings out.
— A very memorable Brian Fellow line about how “that goat had devil eyes!”
— Tracy’s one-liners as Brian Fellow are funnier than ever tonight, making this one of the better installments of this sketch.
STARS: ****


INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
host is motivated to hunt James Lipton (WIF)

— Good reaction from the audience at the beginning of this. You can tell they’re excited to see this sketch appear again.
— This is the second recurring sketch tonight that’s making its final appearance ever. This is also the third consecutive recurring sketch to appear tonight.
— James Lipton: “If I had a choice between interviewing my next guest or getting in my homemade time machine, going back in time, and interviewing William Shakespeare, I would tell The Bard of Avon to go screw himself.”
— Unusual for an SNL host to play themselves in an Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch, but it makes sense in retrospect when you’re aware where they’re going with this.
— I love Will’s James Lipton referring to Billy Bob as William Robert Thornton.
— A good laugh from Lipton saying in amazement, when listing off “significant” things that Billy Bob did growing up, “When you were eleven, YOU BOUGHT A HAT.”
— I’m enjoying Billy Bob’s puzzled, frustrated reactions to Lipton’s bizarreness.
— A very interesting out-of-the-ordinary turn with the sudden cut to Will’s Lipton watching his Billy Bob Thornton interview in the editing room.
— For some reason, when Lipton’s Billy Bob interview is shown on the monitor in the editing room, Billy Bob’s cap appears to be on backwards, even though it was on forwards during the actual interview we had just seen in real-time.
— I love the further out-of-the-ordinary turn in this sketch, with Will’s Lipton now being shown roaming the streets while Billy Bob plans his violent revenge on Lipton. They are truly going outside the box in tonight’s Inside The Actor’s Studio installment, and I absolutely LOVE it. Ah, if only SNL’s recurring sketches could go outside the box like this more often.
— Funny visual of Will’s Lipton chomping on every food item in sight even while he’s running for his life as Billy Bob is hunting him down.
— Billy Bob starts cracking up when Will’s Lipton is struggling in his injured state to reach an index card. There’s something strangely charming about seeing someone like Billy Bob Thornton losing it and cracking up out of character.
STARS: ****½


MARTHA STEWART LIVING
tips to put a patriotic spin on Thanksgiving

 

— Wow, the THIRD consecutive full-length live sketch to be performed back-to-back with no commercial break in between. This is also the FOURTH consecutive recurring sketch tonight.
— Very funny line from Ana’s Martha Stewart about her having a giant Martha boner.
— A good laugh from the plate of yams made to look like Dick Cheney’s face.
— Hilarious bit from Martha about serving a juicy 50-pound bald eagle for Thanksgiving, instead of a turkey.
— Watching this sketch in retrospect, all of the patriotism and anti-Afghanistan sentiment presents an interesting time capsule of the war in terror and the general post-9/11 patriotic climate in America at the time. I recall hearing that SNL re-aired this sketch in their most recent Thanksgiving compilation special in 2019 (I didn’t see it myself), and people on an SNL board made the observation that the post-9/11 patriotic and anti-Afghanistan sentiment of the sketch felt terrifying and weird to see nowadays.
— A priceless ending with Martha ripping open her shirt, revealing a bikini top, and eating a sandwich while dancing to Britney Spears.
STARS: ****


WAR PARTY
at a party, the fall of Kandahar inspires an impromptu jazzy dance number

— SNL would later show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns. In it, when Seth and Horatio make their entrance to deliver huge news, Horatio IMMEDIATELY cracks up for no apparent reason, leading to Jimmy also cracking up. My god. Jimmy also cracks up later in the dress version of this sketch, right after Tracy’s dramatic monologue. During that laughing of Jimmy’s, Will actually shoots Jimmy a very stern look (in jest, I assume), leading to Jimmy saying “Sorry” while putting on a straight face.
— I like the 1960s sound to the musical number that the partygoers suddenly break out into.
— Fantastic singing from Ana. Sure, we’ve long known that she’s a great singer, as her singing voice has been displayed in many prior sketches during her SNL tenure, but her voice comes off particularly strong in this sketch after hearing a few other cast members sing prior to her.
— This ridiculously extensive musical number (even featuring Maya doing a flip at point) is both very amusing and very fun. Sketches like this aren’t usually always my cup of tea, but it’s just working perfectly in this particular case.
— This sketch is another interesting time capsule of the post-9/11 patriotic and anti-Afghanistan sentiment of America at the time.
— Tracy’s streak of only playing effeminate roles has finally come to an end.
— The dress rehearsal version of this sketch shown in reruns humorously has Tracy’s noble character incongruously wearing a wild pimp outfit instead of the more logical dignified suit he wears in the live version.
— A hilarious and fantastic turn in this sketch with Tracy’s deep, dramatic monologue, complete with a spotlight, camera zoom-ins, and poignant camera angles.
— Will, regarding Tracy’s monologue: “Even though a lot of the words this wise man used are not real, he’s right.”
— The ending visual of Tracy’s cheesy whitebred dancing with the partygoers is cracking me up.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
exhausting press junket has left Harry Potter (RAD) unable to do magic

— An unusually late spot in the show for Update. When I watched the original airing of this episode back in 2001, I remember it was somewhere around 12:30 when this Update started. That’s almost Ebersol era-levels of a ridiculously late spot for SNL’s news segment.
— Pretty big night for Rachel, who has refreshingly been more prominent than she usually is.
— Perfect casting of Rachel as Harry Potter. In that wig and glasses, she’s a dead-ringer for a then-very-young Daniel Radcliffe.
— Not much to say about the overall Harry Potter commentary itself. It was kinda on the forgettable side.
— Quite a lot of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes tonight are weaker than usual.
— Tina, in an actual strong joke, regarding a Victoria’s Secret brand of diamond-encrusted thong panties worth $750,000: “Thanks, Victoria’s Secret, but the only way I’m putting $750,000 worth of diamonds in my ass is if the Nazis are coming.”
— An overall short Update tonight, but I guess it had to be short in order for them to fit it into such a late spot in the show.
— At the end of this Update, the way they faded to commercial really early before the camera even did its usual zoom-out on the Update set makes me think that the show is running long, forcing SNL to speed through the rest of the show.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Sacrifice”


FENCED-IN AREA
redneck (host) mulls the fate of the fenced-in area located in his yard

— Billy Bob has been fairly underused for a host tonight. He’s strangely been missing from half the sketches. At least this particular sketch is something that he was born to do.
— I’m really liking the vibe of this sketch, as well as how it’s being well-executed by all performers involved. The silly-but-dead-serious treatment of Billy Bob’s ridiculous fenced-in area obsession is hilarious.
— Overall, such a great and well-done sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bullets”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
tired of the Flannigans in chapter 702


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A largely solid episode, much better than I had remembered it being. Ignoring Weekend Update and the first musical performance, there was a long uninterrupted string of great sketches, from Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet to Fenced-In Area. The stuff outside of it, though, ranged from just average to weak, including a less-than-stellar edition of Weekend Update. The structure of this episode was very unusual, with us getting three full-length live sketches back-to-back with no commercial break in between (Brian Fellow, Inside The Actor’s Studio, and Martha Stewart Living), Weekend Update airing much later than usual, only ONE SKETCH airing after Update, and that one sketch being the ONLY thing to air in between Creed’s two musical performances. The latter three things I just mentioned may be explained by the show possibly running longer than planned and probably having to cut a scheduled sketch towards the end of the show.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gwyneth Paltrow)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Derek Jeter and, for the first time in what seems like ages, TWO separate musical guests (Bubba Sparxxx and Shakira)

Posted on

November 10, 2001 – Gwyneth Paltrow / Ryan Adams (S27 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) quells Muslims’ misgivings by dispelling some myths

— Good touch with the Arabic subtitles. This reminds me of an address-the-nation cold opening that Dana Carvey once did as Bush Sr. that also used Arabic subtitles, directed to the Iraqis.
— A pretty funny line with Bush mentioning “former Minnesota Vikings receiver Ahmad Rashad” as an example of how many prominent Americans are Muslim.
— Some good laughs from Bush’s debunking of various myths, particularly the whole bit about dying if you burp, fart, and sneeze at the same time.
— A nice alteration of the “Live from New York…” sign-on, with Will’s Bush delivering it in Arabic. Speaking of which, this entire cold opening would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, and it has Will’s Bush saying “Live from New York…” in plain old English instead of Arabic. Some SNL episode guides incorrectly claim that reruns show the live version of this episode’s cold opening, but just re-dub Will’s Arabic LFNY with an English one.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— In addition to the cold opening, the theme music would also be replaced with the dress version in reruns. I’m not sure, but I think the following monologue would be too (if not, then I’m probably thinking of the Boston Teens sketch that follows the monologue).


MONOLOGUE
host & overshadowed childhood friend MAR sing “Flashdance”

— Nice how Gwyneth Paltrow is bringing out her best friend since childhood who also happens to also be a member of the then-current SNL cast.
— Fun to see childhood pictures of Maya and Gwyneth together.
— Some amusing awkwardness between Maya and Gwyneth after Maya excitedly says “It’s almost like I’m hosting with you!”
— Funny running gag with Maya turning out to have always played a maid.
— I remember how rare it felt at the time to see Maya get such a big showcase as herself, since she had rarely played any roles on SNL that were remotely like herself up to that point, and I had yet to see her interviewed on talk shows.
— Quite a lot of genuine charm in this monologue, even though this isn’t consistently laugh out loud funny.
STARS: ***


FORMAL
at the fall formal, Sully scoffs at Denise’s friend’s (host) troubles

— After the preceding monologue ended, we got a cool transition to this sketch by the camera panning from the monologue to the set for this sketch. Reminiscent of what SNL did after the monologue in season 25’s Christina Ricci episode.
— An interesting setting for the Boston Teens, and a rare occurrence of us not seeing them in their usual outfits.
— Funny bit about vodka-soaked hot dog buns.
— Something about Gwyneth’s performance seems kinda off.
— I remember Tina’s appearance in this came as a big surprise to a lot of us viewers back then, as it was still very rare at the time for Tina to make a non-Update appearance in which she plays a character. It’s also interesting seeing her appear in this sketch knowing that she co-writes these sketches with Rachel and originally performed the Boston Teens with Rachel back in their pre-SNL improv days.
STARS: ***


GEMINI’S TWIN WEEKEND
Gemini’s Twin & newest member (host) ride the wave of USA patriotism

— Pretty funny CD cover for Gemini’s Twin’s “America The Bootyful”.
— In these last two installments, I’ve gotten pretty tired of this sketch.
— I will say that Ana’s voice and delivery as this character always makes me laugh.
— Gwyneth is at least fitting in much better with Maya and Ana than Jennifer Lopez did in the last Gemini’s Twin sketch to have a host play a third member of the group.
STARS: **½


BIRTHDAY PARTY
Mrs. Attebury is insensitive toward man of Middle Eastern heritage (CHK)

— This on-again off-again recurring sketch makes its final appearance. Interesting how this sketch has only been performed 4 times, yet still managed to span over Ana’s entire SNL tenure, appearing from her first season to her last.
— In passing, Gwyneth’s character mentions someone named Charlie McKittrick and his wife. This is actually an inside self-reference on Ana’s part (assuming she wrote this sketch herself), as Charlie McKittrick is the name of her real-life husband. Ana also namedropped him in a Culps sketch from two seasons prior.
— Will’s deadpan performances as this character, while okay, continue to not work for me nearly as well as Mark McKinney’s original performances as this character did.
— A good laugh from Ana and Gwyneth telling Chris’ character that, as a Persian-American, he must not know who to root for in this war on terror.
— Lots of other funny inappropriate, insensitive questions and statements that Chris’ character is bombarded with by Ana and Gwyneth’s characters.
— Over the course of me reviewing this late 90s/early 00s era, these Attebury’s sketches have really grown on me gradually. I remember kinda slamming the first installment of this sketch, only for me to end up gaining more and more of an appreciation for both Ana’s characterization and what these sketches bring with each passing installment.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- Michael Jackson’s entourage tries to curb his pedophilic habits

— Speaking of an on-again off-again recurring piece that first appeared in Ana’s first season (season 22) and spans over many seasons…
— A hilarious bizarre group of friends that MJ is casually shown with. I especially like a bloated, mumbling, overeating Marlon Brando, a gray-bearded Webster, and Liz Taylor’s arm.
— I always love the tastelessness of these Michael Jackson cartoons, as well as the spoof of classic Hanna-Barbera animation that these contain. I am feeling, though, that tonight’s cartoon, while still solid, isn’t quite as strong as the last Michael Jackson cartoon that Robert Smigel did years prior.
— Uh, wow. Quite an ending to this, with MJ landing butt-first on a flagpole, and it curing him of his pedophilic tendencies.
— This cartoon would later be removed from the NBC reruns of this episode and be replaced with a previously-unaired unrelated TV Funhouse cartoon that I assume was cut after another episode’s dress rehearsal.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New York, New York”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF offers a pizza party to the first airport guard to catch a terrorist

defiant Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) declares himself NYC mayor-for-life

Jasper Hahn completes drawings related to the war against terrorism

— A solid and fun Jimmy/Tina side segment with their Pizza Party Against Terrorism announcement.
— I always crack up whenever Darrell’s Rudy Giuliani says “Go Yankeeeees!” in a dopey deep voice.
— Kinda interesting in retrospect seeing Michael Bloomberg being referenced and impersonated back when he wasn’t very well-known yet.
— A nice callback to the “Neuharth Awards” bit that Jimmy and Tina originally did in an episode a year prior. They seem to be trying to make this an annual routine whenever the Neuharth Awards occur, but I believe this ends up being the last time this routine appears on the show.
— Our first time seeing Jasper Hahn since the Colin Quinn era of Update.
— Jimmy’s not believable at all as an uptight straight man to Jasper Hahn, because you just KNOW this is going to soon devolve into the usual Fallon/Sanz gigglefest.
— Dammit, the poor visual quality of the old VHS rip I’m reviewing of this episode makes it very hard to see Jasper Hahn’s obscene drawings (as evidenced in the above screencaps).
— Yep, and there’s goes the obligatory Fallon/Sanz giggling and hammy overacting.
STARS: ***½


DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY DINNER
at dinnertime, gangsta-wannabe daughter (AMP) vexes irritable patriarch

— The first installment of this sketch with Sarah Michelle Gellar is fantastic and an all-time favorite of mine, but did they really need to bring it back? And FOUR SEASONS LATER at that??? Speaking of which, it’s odd how tonight’s episode is bringing back so many sketches that either appear very infrequently and/or last appeared years prior (The Attebury’s, Michael Jackson cartoon, Jasper Hahn, and now this).
— Yeah, so far, this sketch is paling horribly in comparison to the original installment. They’re even having Will yell inferior variations of his classic “I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!” line from the first installment.
— Just now, when Gwyneth said “Shut up, biotch”, she actually sang the word “biotch”. Very random, but absolutely priceless. Unfortunately, the version of this sketch that a lot of people nowadays are probably familiar with seeing (especially in SNL’s Thanksgiving compilation specials) is actually the dress rehearsal version, in which Gwyneth doesn’t sing the word “biotch”, but instead just says it normally, which is nowhere near as funny. Also, this makes me wonder if her singing “biotch” in the live version was an ad-lib. None of the other performers are seen smirking in response or anything, but then again, Will and Ana are usually always total pros.
— By the way, as you can tell by how many alterations I’ve pointed out this episode having in reruns, this is quite a heavily-altered episode in reruns. There are more dress rehearsal substitutions than usual, and there’s the whole thing with the Michael Jackson TV Funhouse cartoon being replaced with a completely different cartoon.
— Another difference between the live and dress rehearsal version of this Dysfunctional Family Dinner sketch is that, in the dress version, whenever the family argues over each other, Gwyneth oddly does her yelling DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA, in an apparent attempt to be funny.
— Overall, yeah, SNL should’ve just left the original Sarah Michelle Gellar-starring Dysfunctional Family Dinner sketch alone. This attempt at a sequel was just sad, in my eyes.
STARS: **


MANGO
Mango & high school sweetie host recall “Summer Nights”; Matt Damon cameo

— Right out of the gate in this sketch, we get an absolutely SPOT-ON and very funny Hugh Grant impression from Seth. He even looks just like him here. Between his heavy dominance and strong performances in the preceding episode and now his Hugh Grant impression tonight, Seth has been showing A LOT of promise lately. I remember having so much hope for him at the time. This makes me sad in retrospect, knowing what his SNL tenure would actually go on to be like (hint: I am not too big a fan of a lot of stuff he would go on to do on the show).
— (*groan*) And here comes Mango.
— During Gwyneth’s 80s high school flashback, I wonder if Maya is supposed to be playing herself as Gwyneth’s friend, given that we know Maya and Gwyneth were real-life childhood friends.
— During the many 80s pop culture references in Gwyneth and Maya’s conversation in the aforementioned 80s high school flashback, what was with the Crystal Pepsi mention? Wasn’t Crystal Pepsi not around until the early 90s?
— Jeff makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a pre-taped scene, and all he did was briefly walk on with some other guys and then IMMEDIATELY walk off, not having any dialogue at all. This is the second episode in a row in which he had no lines.
— Speaking of cast members who have been invisible these last two episodes, Tracy Morgan. Also, he’s been stuck in nothing but effeminate roles these last two episodes, oddly enough.
— Yikes, Gwyneth completely missed her cue to sing her first verse during her duet with Mango, a gaffe that’s sadly far more interesting and funny to me than most of this sketch.
— Ana has been getting good airtime tonight, which is very refreshing, considering the big decrease in airtime she had been experiencing this season.
— Ana: “Let’s go, Lavert.” “Will: “Okay, Gwyneth’s agent.”
— Matt Damon cameo.
— Matt Damon’s getting some chuckles out of me here. You can already see some of the solid potential that he would later show when hosting in season 28. (I don’t know how he did in his season 44 episode, as I have yet to see it, but I’m assuming he did another good hosting job there.)
— Funny bit with Matt and Gwyneth acknowledging that this is the first time they’ve seen each other since they broke up, before Gwyneth goes “Wait a minute, you’re not the one I went out with!” Great way to end this sketch. Odd how this Mango sketch had such a strong beginning (with Seth’s Hugh Grant impression) and ending, but everything in between was the usual weak Mango dreck.
STARS: **


FIESTA POLITICA
Donald Rumsfeld (DAH) is out of place at Telemundo show

— Believe it or not, this is the FIRST and ONLY non-recurring sketch to appear all night… at least at the time this episode originally aired. This sketch would later become recurring, which means that, when looking back at this episode in retrospect, this episode is comprised ENTIRELY of recurring sketches. The Rosie O’Donnell episode from season 22 is, I believe, the only episode in SNL history to be comprised entirely of sketches that were already recurring at the time.
— Maya has been a little more dominant than usual in tonight’s episode, for obvious reasons.
— A spot-on and and amusing parody of wacky Telemundo variety shows, and Maya is leading this sketch well.
— I like the out-of-place inclusion of Darrell’s Donald Rumsfeld, who has no idea what the hell he’s doing here.
— Tracy’s streak of playing nothing but effeminate roles these last two episodes continues. What’s going on?
— Despite being an excuse for mugging, the occasional cutaways to an extreme close-up of Horatio’s face saying a one-liner are making me laugh in this particular context, as it fits the sketch well.
STARS: ***


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
mauled by a lion in chapter 507


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, but not particularly great. The quality took a hit with the first few post-Weekend Update sketches (Dysfunctional Family Dinner and Mango), but other than that, the quality was just decent for most of the night. It rarely rose above that, though. Aside from TV Funhouse, there weren’t any segments at all that I gave a rating over three-and-a-half stars to.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Billy Bob Thornton

Posted on

November 3, 2001 – John Goodman / Ja Rule (S27 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
John Ashcroft (DAH) alarms the press with vague warnings about terrorism

— Interesting seeing newbie Seth Meyers right at top of the show, getting to start off this cold opening as Brian Williams. There’s a fairly funny part with his Brian Williams briefly pausing to mug the camera in a stone-faced smug manner.
— Darrell’s John Ashcroft voice is making me laugh.
— A big laugh from Darrell’s Ashcroft casually saying “Also, in the next three days, there’s probably gonna be a terrorist attack in our nation” before nonchalantly beginning to walk off.
— Always funny to see Ana’s Helen Thomas impression in these press conference sketches.
— Funny recurring bit with Ashcroft always looking down at the sheet of paper in his hand to confirm exactly how soon another terrorist attack will happen after also trying to convince us that he doesn’t know when it’ll happen.
— Good line from Chris’ Anthony Fauci about how the only protection given to post offices will be some baby wipes and a dustbuster.
— Chris’ delivery to Maya of the line “I haven’t been in New York in weeks! You think I’m crazy?!?” is very funny, as is the ensuing mocking faces that he and Darrell make at each other in regards to Maya.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim (CHK) gets host off the hook

— John doesn’t look too well here, and his voice sounds pretty bad. He must be under the weather. I remember this scaring some online SNL fans into worrying for the future state of John’s life, as they were reminded of how Chris Farley notoriously came off in the 1997 episode he hosted two months before his death. I recall feeling that that comparison was a bit much, as John’s not coming off quite THAT scarily unhealthy in this monologue.
— For some reason, John claims that this is his 13th time hosting. It’s actually only his 12th.
— Odd casting of Chris as Byung-Hyun Kim. Chris doesn’t look REMOTELY believable as an Asian man. (Then again, who in this season’s cast would? Horatio, I guess, but he’s not exactly the appropriate weight for this particular role of Byung-Hyun Kim.) At least they didn’t go the Molly-Shannon-as-Soon-Yi-Previn route and give Chris freakish-looking prosthetic eyelids that attempt to make him look Asian but instead make him look like a damn alien.
— Some okay topical lines from Chris’ Byung-Hyun Kim regarding his infamous performance in a recent World Series game.
— Overall, this was a pretty nothing monologue. I know that was the point, but it didn’t work. This monologue was way too half-assed, and way too proud of how half-assed it was.
STARS: **


HERBAL ESSENCES
shampoo spurs distinctively male orgasms

— A good way to spoof the ridiculous orgasmic feminine Herbal Essences ads.
— Will’s hilarious orgasm sounds and faces are really making this commercial. He’s having me practically rolling on the floor.
STARS: ****


HUDSON VALLEY COMMUNITY CIRCUIT
(DAA) interviews unfortunately-named victims of September 11th backlash

— Dan Aykroyd! That hair, tho.
— A solid comedic conceit with all of the guests each having unfortunate names that pertain to our 9/11 enemies.
— As much as it pains me to criticize Dan Aykroyd (my personal favorite of the original Not Ready For Prime Time players), his comically put-off facial reactions to what others are saying throughout this sketch are not working for me. He’s overplaying it, and the drawn-out long pauses he keeps making during those facial reactions aren’t helping.
— I love Dean’s sly delivery of “Afghan hash” when revealing what he and Jimmy deal in.
— Pretty funny bit with Dean and Jimmy’s hash dealers bragging about how their business has actually been doing better than ever after 9/11.
— A rare fun performance from Darrell in a non-impression role.
— Hilarious ending involving Dan innocently opening an anthrax-laced letter from an envelope.
STARS: ***½


LIBERTY MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Liberty Medical spokesman Wilford Brimley (host) neglects his own health

— John’s unhealthy-sounding voice throughout tonight’s episode is actually fitting this sketch well.
— Hilarious line from John’s Wilford Brimley about hiding his food boner in his Bermuda shorts.
— Another very funny line from Brimley, about how he hates oatmeal because “it always seems like somebody ate it first”.
— Excellent ending spiel from Brimley about how he’s going to get off of his horse by “getting onto a smaller horse, then onto a large dog, until I’m near enough to the ground to roll off.”
— Great sketch overall.
STARS: ****½


SHE’S THE GIRL WITH NO GAYDAR!!!
Nicole, The Girl With No Gaydar (RAD) is oblivious to sexual orientation

— Hoo, boy. The debut of THIS sketch. I used to find these sketches hilarious when they originally aired, back in the days when “lol, gay stereotypes = funny” was more accepted and also didn’t become hacky and overused by SNL in my eyes yet (though looking back at this era, there was more hacky gay humor than I had remembered), but I’m guessing this sketch hasn’t aged well at all.
— Rachel’s performance is still holding up as fun, and the theme song kinda is too. But the broad gay stereotypes from the male cast? Not so much.
— I’m guessing this sketch is the handiwork of writer James Anderson, the openly-gay SNL king of broad gay stereotype sketches. I remember someone on an SNL board once calling him a Stepin’ Fetchit for gay people. Ouch!
— Oddly, this ends up being Will’s final appearance of the entire night, and we’re only about 25 minutes into this episode. A shockingly light episode for Will.
STARS: **


E.P.T
college students (SEM) & (AMP) sweat result of pregnancy test

— Great to see a pre-taped ad where the only performers are two newbies.
— Seth: “I think I’m more nervous than Karen.” Amy: “Kelly.” Seth: “Kelly.”
— Funny interruption with Seth taking a phone call regarding his fantasy football draft.
— Our very first display of the fantastic chemistry between Seth and Amy.
— I feel like I say this about a lot of pre-taped ads in this era, but the style, camera angles, and visual details of this commercial are such a spot-on parody of the type of ads this is spoofing.
— Great little part with Amy expecting a kiss when Seth leans in, only for Amy to disappointingly realize that he’s merely reaching for his jacket.
— Amy’s ending line, after finding out she’s not pregnant: “I’m so psyched I’m not gonna get fat.”
STARS: ****½


CBS EVENING ANTHRAX UPDATE
Dan Rather (DAH) projects journalists’ health

— A promising idea for a sketch, given the great Dan Rather election sketch that SNL did the preceding season.
— A particularly funny announcement that Geraldo Rivera “has anthrax…. both kinds.”
— Great line about conservatives being disappointed that Katie Couric DOESN’T have anthrax.
— The hilarious announcements keep coming, with Wolf Blitzer having both anthrax AND rabies, Walter Cronkite having scurvy, and Andy Rooney having cholera from drinking stagnant water from an air conditioner.
— My god, this sketch just keeps getting funnier and funnier, with Rather now announcing that the cast of Friends has head lice.
— Dan Rather, on Jennifer Aniston’s lice-filled hair: “Her hairdo has more unauthorized guests than a Mexican Motel 6.”
— Dan Rather’s preface to one particular big announcement: “Carl, go down to the basement. Mabel, get in here, take your clothes off, and put these shoes on. Also, the hat. Now put one leg up on that chair, arch your back, and listen to this, ’cause it’s a humdinger.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always On Time”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Red Sox fan SEM will root against the Yankees in order to help them win

postal workers Mighty Mack & Elwood Blues sing “The Letter”

— Tina’s whole “Bitch, I can’t be any more alert” rant towards John Ashcroft’s high alert warning is fantastic. One of Tina’s most defining moments on Update, in my eyes.
— Seth in his very first Update commentary. Considering he’s only in his fourth episode, I like that Seth is getting to do an Update commentary as himself, which is especially surprising because, as far as I know, he’s not a stand-up.
— Kinda hard to believe this is the same Seth who would later become an Update anchor. He looks, sounds, and comes off so different and youthful in tonight’s Update commentary compared to how he would generally come off as an Update anchor.
— Seth, on how everyone and everything that Boston roots for loses: “If Boston rooted for gravity, we’d all be floating three inches off the ground.”
— Another great line from Seth, again in regards to Boston always jinxing what they root for: “Right now, Donald Rumsfeld is in West Roxbury, Mass., trying to convince eight guys named Murph to root for the Taliban.”
— This Update commentary of Seth’s is really defining his Red Sox fan persona that will become a recurring aspect of his subsequent Update commentaries as himself.
— Great bit with Seth calling out several individual Yankee players and harshly insulting them in an attempt to reverse-jinx them, because he wants them to win the World Series.
— Overall, Seth knocked it out of the park (no pun intended) with his first Update commentary. I’m not a fan of a lot of stuff he would later go on to do on SNL, but he has shown A LOT of promise in tonight’s Update commentary.
— Tina, regarding Will Smith calling himself human Viagra: “Well, if you mean you’re becoming a huge dick, I think I agree with you.” Two things about this great joke: 1) In dress rehearsal, the joke was actually delivered by Jimmy instead of Tina. 2) This joke would later be removed from NBC’s rerun of this episode (not sure about the syndicated 60-minute reruns on cable). I’m not 100% sure why the joke was removed, unless NBC just had a problem with the use of the term “huge dick”.
— Lots of strong jokes from Jimmy and Tina tonight.
— Interesting to see the Blues Brothers doing an Update commentary. This is, I believe, the only time on SNL where the Blues Brothers have done more than just perform a musical number.
— Boy, John’s hoarse, unhealthy-sounding voice tonight has now gotten even worse. I think I’m now starting to understand why people were making comparisons to a near-death Chris Farley.
— Huge laughs from Elwood Blues’ long, wordy, heated rant ending with “…smooching each other’s ball sacs, getting their compulsory beards all tangled up in each other’s ass hairs!” Fantastic delivery from Dan there, showing that he still has that great ability to impeccably deliver very wordy dialogue.
— Fun how we got to see the Update set being taken apart for the Blues Brothers to perform on the home base stage. However, as I said in my review of the Blues Brothers’ monologues from John Goodman’s seasons 20 and 23 episodes, I’ve never been a fan of the post-John Belushi Blues Brothers, and their performance tonight is doing nothing for me. To say nothing of how terrible John’s hoarse voice sounds during his attempts to sing here.
— I recall once seeing a dress rehearsal photo of tonight’s Blues Brothers musical number, and the photo showed the Blues Brothers being accompanied by Maya, Ana, and Rachel as backup dancers dressed in sexy postal worker uniforms. That appearance from Maya, Ana, and Rachel would be cut from the live version of this musical number. Wonder why.
STARS: ***½


AMERICA UNDERCOVER
trashy white couple (CHK) & (AMP) in domestic dispute

— I remember when this sketch originally aired, the exaggerated, slow-paced, slurred voice that Chris was heard speaking in during the opening 911 phone call honestly made me assume for one moment that Chris was playing… well… a mentally challenged character. This had me thinking (even back in these less-PC days of 2001) “Oh, god, is SNL really gonna go there?” Thankfully, I was wrong, and it turned out Chris was just playing a goofy white trash character.
— Great white trash voice from Amy.
— John, to Amy, after she claims that static electricity isn’t real: “Ma’am, static electricity is real. It’s real as toothpaste. You should learn about ’em both.”
— Another funny line from John to Amy, this time when he rejects her sexual advances: “I got a beautiful wife, and I can’t go home smelling like Jack Daniels and Easy-Off.”
— A noteworthy gaffe where, when Dean holds Chris upside-down, one of the leg holes of Chris’ briefs opens up, almost giving us a clear view of what’s inside the front of Chris’ briefs (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch). Yeesh. This near-wardrobe malfunction humorously results in Chris fearfully placing his hands on his briefs immediately afterwards, all the while the audience laughs hysterically. Dean’s extremely uncomfortable facial expressions during this part (which probably isn’t acting) while having his face awfully close to Chris’ barely-covered crotch is cracking me up.
— Funny bit about how Amy once gave up her big toe so Chris can have something to replace his thumb with after losing it in a firecracker accident.
— Wild sequence with Amy licking/sucking on Chris’ big toe-thumb.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Livin’ It Up”


BAD CONCEPTUAL THEATER
Leonard Pinth-Garnell offers monkey-authored play

— A surprise return of Leonard Pinth-Garnell and the recurring “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketches from the original SNL era! Very welcome to see this sketch appearing in a newer SNL era. Not sure how tonight’s installment will stack up against the originals, but I’m assuming the original writer(s) of these sketches came back to guest write tonight’s installment.
— Some good laughs from the actors’ nonsensical dialogue and ape-like actions when acting out a monkey-written play.
— Good visual of a monkey playwright being brought onstage during the “introducing the cast” segment at the end.
STARS: ***½


LITTLE SLEUTHS
kid detective Bookie Newton (SEM) helps (host) solve a grisly case

 

— Wow, Seth in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight? After doing little-to-nothing that was noteworthy in his prior episodes, he’s been having a great night and has been dominating this episode.
— Now we also get Amy in ANOTHER sketch tonight, who, like Seth, has surprisingly been dominant in tonight’s episode. Considering this is only their fourth episode as mere featured players and it was unsure at the time just how their SNL tenures would turn out, Seth and Amy have been having an amazing night, and have also gotten more airtime tonight than any of their far-more-established castmates. I remember how fun and exciting it was for us SNL fans at the time to witness this breakout night for two newbies, and it gave most of us a lot of hope for Seth and Amy potentially taking over as SNL’s next two biggest leaders in the future, especially with Will and Ana seemingly being on their way out (Ana in particular, who’s airtime has sadly taken a real hit this season so far). In retrospect, though, I cringe over the fact that a lot of us once thought Seth had the potential to fill in Will’s shoes. As the dreadful season 30 would later show us, SNL’s attempt to make Seth the male leader of the cast would be a failure.
— Funny cutaway to Seth and Amy’s speechless kiddie reactions to the gruesome details they’re told of a murder.
— Solid and fun characterizations from both Seth and Amy here, and we’re getting another display tonight of their strong chemistry together.
— (*groan*) There goes Horatio almost breaking once again for no apparent reason, during his angry rant after spitting a chunk of sandwich out of his mouth. He’s almost ruining the goodwill and momentum of this sketch.
— Seth: “I just learned how to masturbate, so I kinda wanna get home.” Also a great bit afterwards with Amy trying to figure out what “masturbate” means, by breaking down the word: “’master’ means to be in control, and ‘bait’ means a small worm.”
— SNL would later attempt MANY TIMES to make this sketch recurring, but it would always end up getting cut after dress rehearsal, until Seth and Amy apparently just gave up. One of the many cut-after-dress installments of this sketch would later be shown as a bonus feature on, I believe, Amy’s “Best Of” DVD.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. There was very little that didn’t work for me, and quite a lot of what did work was exceptionally great. John Goodman, despite health issues he appeared to be dealing with, still tried and he performed well enough, even if, as usual, he was overshadowed for most of the show. He did have one particularly good showcase tonight, though, with that strong Wilford Brimley sketch, one of John’s greatest sketches ever. This ends up being John’s final hosting stint for TWELVE YEARS, shockingly. I know I recently ranted in my review of John’s season 25 episode about how questionable it is that SNL kept bringing him back as a host on such a frequent basis, year after year for eleven consecutive seasons, but damn, that certainly doesn’t mean there needed to be a TWELVE-YEAR gap between two of his hosting stints. (And I recall his long-awaited hosting stint after that twelve-year gap being a big disappointment, with him being saddled with lame material like “The Three Wise Guys”). However, I think I recall him once saying in an interview during that gap that he feels he’s getting too old and out-of-shape to still be hosting SNL regularly. But still, a TWELVE-YEAR absence???


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on

October 13, 2001 – Drew Barrymore / Macy Gray (S27 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SECRET LOCATION
from Afghanistan, army-of-one Dick Cheney (DAH) tells how he’ll win war

— A good way for SNL to address Dick Cheney’s mysterious disappearance from the public during the 9/11 craziness going on at the time.
— Great reveal from Darrell’s Cheney of him being a one-man Northern Alliance.
— Another good reveal, this time of Cheney having a bionic ticker for his heart.
— I love the maniacal laughing face that Darrell keeps doing as Cheney throughout this.
— A very funny “The beard’s goin’!” message from Cheney to Osama Bin Laden.
— Overall, much like the Bush cold opening in the last episode, this was a solid balance of both comedy and patriotism that the nation needed.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host overcame her fears of terrorism to do SNL; Tom Green cameo

— An interesting anecdote from Drew detailing the timeline of her constantly changing mood towards hosting SNL so soon after 9/11, especially when she talks about the panic that had happened at the show earlier this week with anthrax being discovered in 30 Rock, which led to Drew initially walking out on the show and contemplating dropping out as this week’s host. Man, I remember what a crazy week that was for SNL. There were so many articles and discussions online about what the hell is going to happen to that weekend’s SNL episode. Nobody knew what desperate measures SNL might have to take under both the anthrax situation and the Drew-walking-out-on-the-show situation. At one point, there were sources that said SNL may have to resort to doing that weekend’s episode without a studio audience… and I’ll be honest, I remember part of me actually got kinda eager and excited when hearing that, as it made me very curious to witness what a live SNL episode would be like with no studio audience. (Actually, that just might end up happening soon in SNL’s current season, considering a certain pandemic we’re now dealing with.)
— Very nice how Drew is commending the bravery of both herself and the studio audience for being here tonight.
— All I’ll say about Tom Green’s cameo is that, if SNL had to put him in tonight’s episode, then giving him a brief, wordless appearance in a harmless cutaway to the audience was the right way to go.
— An overall simple and (mostly) non-comedic monologue, but one that was also heartfelt, endearing, and actually kinda important, given the circumstances. This also kinda felt like a monologue that I can see appearing in SNL’s early eras (the 70s and early-to-mid 80s), back in the days before it was a requirement for monologues to have a big comedic conceit.
— Not sure if this is true, but I recall once hearing that the dress rehearsal version of this monologue was completely different and did have a comedic conceit, with Will appearing as a bizarre white-haired character.
STARS: ***½


CROSSING OVER WITH JOHN EDWARD
John Edward’s (WIF) cold readings have low success rate

— I remember how excited I was at the time for SNL to finally spoof this John Edward show, as I used to occasionally watch his show at the time for some unintentional laughs and found the show ripe for parody.
— Between her opening montage photos, the monologue, and now this sketch (plus some of the SNL bumper photos of her we’ll be seeing later tonight), Drew’s been going for quite an androgynous look tonight.
— Will-as-John-Edward’s constant terrible psychic guesses are providing some good laughs.
— I like Edward now starting to get hostile when he thinks Maya and Drew are starting to doubt him.
— John Edward, when realizing that a psychic guess he has just made is way off: “No, no, no, I take it back. That was dumb.”
— I love the way Maya delivered the line “This is incredible” with very understated excitement.
STARS: ***½


LOVERS
in hotel hot tub, Roger & Virginia entice Dave (JIF) to be (host)’s lover

— I love Will-as-Roger’s way of pronouncing “hot tub” as “hah-TAHB”, which would go on to be a memorable trademark of The Luvahs.
— What’s with the bubbling under the water just now, shortly after Drew entered the “hah-TAHB”? Did Drew or one of the other performers… uh, break wind underwater? Jimmy and Drew’s sudden smirking right now would have you think so.
— This sketch has slowly been devolving into a gigglefit from EVERYONE, and not just the perpetually-giggly Jimmy. It also seems that Will is now trying to instigate further giggling from his scene partners by repeatedly going “Uhhh…” in a lost way while Rachel is speaking.
— As much as the performers are breaking throughout this sketch, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch that’s shown in reruns actually features EVEN HARDER breaking, to the degree that the performers have a seriously hard time continuing on with the sketch. On a similar note, Will’s famous cut-after-dress-rehearsal Old Prospector sketch comes from this episode’s dress rehearsal, and that sketch also features a VERY heavy amount of breaking from everyone. I chalk up all these instances of performers breaking particularly hard during this episode’s dress rehearsal and live show to the fact that SNL lost a day of rehearsals due to the anthrax mess.
— Will-as-Roger’s line “Below the surface, there is a frenzy of activity” was very funny.
— As Jimmy is making his exit from the “hah-TAHB”, Will jokingly places his hand on Jimmy’s butt.
— (*groan*) Why do these Luvahs sketches always have to end with Roger complaining to Virginia about his back when they’re starting to make love?
STARS: ***


WILLY WONKA COLLECTOR’S EDITION
DVD of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory has outtakes & cast commentary

— Another early display of a fantastic celebrity impression from Jeff, this time nailing Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka.
— The EXTREMELY brief clip of Horatio and Drew ends up being Horatio’s ONLY appearance all night, and it was just a pre-taped clip, plus Horatio didn’t even speak or do anything in the clip but just stand there. He ends up being far from the only cast member who gets shafted tonight, as we’ll see as this episode progresses.
— Hilarious scene with Maya as Nelly Furtado performing an Oompah Loompah song.
— Pretty fun small portion of this sketch showing some never-before-seen Willy Wonka celebrity screen tests (an idea that almost sounds like it could be a full sketch in itself, in the same vein of screen test sketches that SNL has done for classic movies like Star Wars, Back To The Future, etc.). Dean’s Sidney Poitier impression especially has me laughing out loud. This is the first time we’ve seen Dean in a while, by the way, making his first appearance since his first episode.
— Tracy’s ONLY role in tonight’s entire episode isn’t even a physical appearance; it’s just a voice-over heard at the end of this commercial, in which he says, in an amused, jovial manner, “Ha ha ha! Order the Willy Wonka Collector’s Edition today!” I admit that voice-over made me laugh for some reason (Tracy is just so damn naturally funny, even in voice-over form), but considering the fact that Will did the voice-over for most of this sketch, it makes no sense why Tracy was suddenly thrown in as the closing voice-over. Did SNL throw him into this sketch at the last minute during the live show because they felt bad that all of his appearances got cut after dress rehearsal?
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“NBC Fall Retooling Preview” by RBS- instant ratings guide Emeril genres

— Our first TV Funhouse to air in this season, three episodes in.
— Some laughs from the NBC execs’ constant desperate retooling of Emeril Lagasse’s troubled sitcom.
— Hmm, all of a sudden, this has started devolving into a string of cheap homoerotic gags, a lazy resort.
— Ha, Gary Condit. I forgot about that scandal until now. That Gary Condit scandal was inescapable on the news until 9/11 came along.
— While I’ve been enjoying this cartoon, it’s going on rather long and some parts are kinda dragging for me.
— I love one of the NBC exec’s monotone cheer of “Woo.” at the end when seeing how Emeril’s ratings have finally achieved success.
STARS: ***


FIRST LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK LIQUIDATION SALE
(WIF) announces currency liquidation sale

— Will’s performance is okay, but the material here isn’t exactly the greatest, and not even Will can enhance it much with his usual sketch-saving abilities.
— More lazy gay-related humor tonight, with Will’s ending line “Oh, and I’m gay. (sarcastically) SORRY, DAD!” I admit that I do kinda like Will’s delivery of that line, though.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sexual Revolution”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Gay Hitler (CHK) makes a brief flamboyant appearance

COQ gives his thoughts on the war against terrorism

Gay Hitler returns as Neil Diamond (WIF) performs “Heartlight”

 

— After leaving the recently-fired Chris Parnell’s old Weekend Update voice-over intro intact in the first two episodes of this season, SNL has now replaced it with a new voice-over from Amy.
— The debut of Gay Hitler. Blah. I just see this as yet another typical, lazy Chris Kattan gay role, not to mention even more cheap gay-related humor tonight.
— A Colin Quinn cameo! I also love how Tina introduces him as “the New York-iest New Yorker I know”.
— I may have had quite a lot of issues with Colin when I covered his stint as an Update anchor, but Update guest commentaries like this where he’s allowed to just rant about a particular story in the news in his usual stand-up style are where he’s really in his element. I love him in this venue.
— A particularly funny line from Colin when talking about the announcement of a Dr. Dre music video attacking Osama Bin Laden: “What are the odds that video rhymes ‘Osama’ and ‘yo mama’ at one point?”
— The return of Will’s Neil Diamond impression! Believe it or not, this is the first time we’re seeing this epic impression of Will’s since the classic Storytellers sketch this impression made its debut in four seasons prior.
— Fun ending to this Neil Diamond commentary, with the song he performs. Even Gay Hitler eventually joining Diamond has a lot of goodwill from me. At one point, Will hilariously ad-libs “Don’t do it, Gay Hitler!”, which sends Jimmy and Tina into hysterics in the background.
STARS: ***½


ACTION TALK SHOW WITH KLAUS VONBRAUNMAN
Klaus VonBraunMan (CHK) welcomes action actress (host)

— Geez, I can tell even from the opening title sequence that this new Chris Kattan sketch is going to be AWFUL.
— The voice Chris is using sounds like a variation of his Jean-Claude Van Damme voice from Jackie Chan’s season 25 monologue.
— The cutaways to a deadpan Dean Edwards doing a lethargic German accent are making me laugh.
— As I expected, this sketch is just plain bad so far. Even Dean’s deadpan occasional interjections have stopped being funny after a while.
— A ho-hum use of Seth Meyers right now, making his only appearance of the night.
— We finally get a genuine funny part of this sketch, with Drew’s character mentioning how challenging it was for her to learn an Australian accent for her movie, after we had just seen a clip from the movie, in which Drew didn’t use an Australian accent at all.
— Overall, all I have to say is, THANK GOD this awful talk show sketch never became recurring, even though I’m sure SNL originally intended for it to.
— I cannot stress enough this season how beyond his expiration date Chris clearly is by this point of his SNL tenure. It’s getting sad to watch him this season.
STARS: *½


WUUB PRIME TIME THEATER
while airing King Kong, TV station replaces World Trade Center finale

— During the opening King Kong movie clip, I got a big laugh from Jeff Bridges’ utterance of “World Trade Center” being very sloppily re-dubbed to “Chrysler Building” by another man’s monotone voice.
— Unconventional use of Darrell in this role. This role kinda feels to me like something that the recently-fired Chris Parnell would play had he still been in the cast at this point.
— Not quite sure what this sketch is going for so far. Well, I guess I kinda “get” what it’s going for, but it’s not doing anything for me.
— The reveal of Darrell and Drew’s “actor” characters actually being the network’s news anchors didn’t really work for me.
— Okay, I got a decent laugh just now from Cheers and Superman stock footage being randomly inserted into the re-done King Kong ending.
— Something about Darrell’s intentionally cheesy, stilted delivery throughout this sketch is starting to work for me.
— Will’s over-exaggerated “heart attack” is pretty funny.
— Drew’s exaggerated, stilted, stretched-out scream of “Kong” results in Darrell busting out laughing, which in turn leads to Drew herself busting out laughing, to the degree that both of them end up basically giving up on the sketch, forcing the ending credits to be abruptly cued up. Given the fact that bad, sloppy, low-budget acting was an intentional theme of this sketch, but also given the fact that there’s been a lot of GENUINE sloppy breaking among the performers in some of tonight’s sketches, it’s hard to tell if Darrell and Drew’s laughing breakdown at the end of this sketch was part of the script or not. I’m leaning towards the former, but Darrell and Drew did make it look awfully real. At least if Chris Parnell had indeed played Darrell’s role like I mentioned earlier, then we’d KNOW that his and Drew’s laughing in this sketch was scripted, because Parnell ain’t one to break so easily.
— Overall, this sketch started picking up near the end (sometime after the fake commercial break in the sketch), but this sketch as a whole is still hard for me to figure, and had a flat feel (even if that was the intention) that bored me.
STARS: **½


WHOLE LATTE LOVE
(WIF) heckles ex-girlfriend (host) & her new lover (MAR) at coffeehouse

— Something very odd regarding Drew’s wig and clothes in this sketch: when SNL aired a Halloween compilation special a few weeks after the original airing of tonight’s episode, one of the sketches shown was a cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketch from tonight’s Barrymore episode, titled “The Morning After The Night Of The Living Dead”, which was a Night Of The Living Dead spoof with zombies having drunken-type hangovers the morning after a night of eating human’s brains. In that sketch, there’s a short scene with Drew playing Will’s wife/girlfriend/whatever (I can’t remember what). Drew’s wig and clothes in that scene are THE EXACT SAME wig and clothes that she wears in the live version of the Whole Latte Love sketch that I’m currently reviewing. As if that’s not odd enough, during NBC’s later re-airing of tonight’s Drew Barrymore episode, the dress rehearsal version of this Whole Latte Love sketch was shown, in which Drew is dressed completely differently, having a more “butch” look that stereotypically fits her character rather than the traditionally feminine wig and clothes she wears in both the live version of this sketch and in the cut-after-dress “The Morning After The Night Of The Living Dead” sketch. So what the hell happened during the live version of this Whole Latte Love sketch? Was SNL originally all set to do the Living Dead sketch on the air and even got Drew into costume for it, but then decided at LITERALLY the last minute to cut the sketch and instead do the Whole Latte Love sketch, but Drew didn’t have enough time to change out of her Living Dead costume before the show came back from commercial break? That’s the only theory I can come up with that makes any kind of sense.
— My god, this is Ana’s FIRST and ONLY appearance all night, and it’s just a somewhat minor role. Are you kidding me, SNL? Come to think of it, Ana’s airtime has been severely reduced in general this season so far, which, as I said in the last review, is a sign that she’s on her way out. Also, between Horatio and Tracy both being pretty much absent tonight, Ana making her only appearance of the night in a somewhat minor role in the final sketch, and a lot of the remaining cast members appearing in no more than one or two sketches, what has happened to the cast tonight? Very lopsided airtime among them, with Will starring or co-starring in almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH while almost all of his castmates are left with little to nothing. It’s giving the show kind of a weird empty feeling.
— Will’s role in this sketch is really weak, and a complete waste of his talents. His usual ability to save iffy sketches is NOT on display here, which is the second sketch tonight I’ve noted that in.
— Maya’s doing a good job keeping a perfectly straight face while getting paper thrown at her by Will.
— Maya and Drew are getting some laughs from me with their dialogue. However, the Will Ferrell portions of this sketch are hurting this… which, by the way, is a sentence I never thought I’d say in my life. As I said in a review from earlier this season, it takes truly bad writing to make Will Ferrell look unfunny.
— Rachel and Ana’s characters kinda feel like a feminist-themed hybrid of Cinder Calhoun and the Bloater Brothers. There’s some laughs from their portions of this sketch, but I just hate the fact that this is the ONLY thing that such a valuable veteran of Ana’s caliber has been relegated to doing tonight.
— I didn’t care for the ending with Drew getting back together with Will.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Baby”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
world-ruling dinosaurs in chapter 315


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I understand that this was another difficult week for SNL, with all of the anthrax mess that happened, but, meh, I was not crazy about this episode as a whole. The first 1/3 of the episode started off pretty well, but the show lost quite a lot of steam afterwards and never fully recovered. Aside from a fun Weekend Update, I didn’t get much enjoyment from ANYTHING that aired after the TV Funhouse cartoon ended, and the show especially hit almost rock bottom with that awful Action Talk Show sketch. Also, as I said earlier in the review, the odd lack of airtime for most of the cast kinda gave this show a weirdly empty feel.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seann William Scott)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman

Posted on

October 6, 2001 – Seann William Scott / Sum41 (S27 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) warns Osama bin Laden of reprisals to come

— Will-as-President-Bush’s opening line to Osama Bin Laden: “Buddy, you screwed up big-time.” A perfect way for this cold opening to immediately start.
— So many funny lines from Will’s Bush here, making his first appearance on SNL since 9/11. When this season began, there was a lot of concern over how SNL would handle their portrayal of Bush in a post-9/11 world. I remember when Will was interviewed on one of those Extra/Access Hollywood/Entertainment Tonight shows about a week before this season began (he was promoting Zoolander for this interview), he was asked about what approach SNL is going to take with Bush now, and Will shamefully admitted that he and SNL have no idea what they’re going to do with their Bush portrayal yet. Well, it would turn out that, in tonight’s cold opening, SNL has ended up taking the absolute right approach, finding the perfect balance between their famous old portrayal of “idiot Bush” and their updated portrayal of “patriotic leader Bush”, and this has been putting the studio audience in a very energetic and patriotic mood. This is truly a morale boost that the nation needed at this time.
STARS: ****½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The updated shot of Ana Gasteyer that was introduced in the preceding episode’s opening montage, in which she smiles really big into the camera (the first below screencap), has ALREADY been replaced by ANOTHER new shot, this time not featuring her smiling at all or even looking into the camera for most of the shot (the second below screencap).


MONOLOGUE
host’s ancestors also starred in movies featuring semen-tainted beer

— A unique entrance from Seann William Scott, in which, upon walking to the front of the stage, he immediately kneels down and kisses the floor (the first above screencap for this monologue), showing how honored he is to stand on the SNL stage.
— A lot of energy from Seann so far.
— During the silent movie clip, I like Seann beginning to clearly mouth an angry “Mother fu–”, only for an innocent “Darn you!” to show up on the subtitles.
— The various clips of Seann’s ancestors performing Stifler-like jizz-drinking actions are providing laughs, despite being a one-joke premise.
STARS: ***


LAW & ORDER: PARKING VIOLATIONS UNIT
spin-off puts focus on meter maids

— A “Parking Violations Unit” theme is a funny idea for a spoof of the many Law & Order spin-offs at the time.
— Some really good laughs from all of the overdramatic treatment of parking violations.
— Tracy steals this commercial at the end, with his way of justifying parking in a handicapped spot.
STARS: ****


JEFFREY’S
at Jeffrey’s, more customers insulted by more-stylish-than-thou attitude

— Jimmy has disparagingly addressed Kattan as “Corky” just now, referencing the then-new movie Corky Romano, Kattan’s attempt at a career as a movie star. The movie would bomb so badly that it would scare Kattan into staying on SNL (he originally claimed to be on his way out when this season began, eyeing a mid-season departure), leading to me having to suffer TWO MORE YEARS of him on SNL.
— What was with Maya’s cartoonishly exaggerated, teeth-gritted, straight-to-camera delivery of “Ooh, I hate this store!”? That didn’t work for me (nor the studio audience) at all, and felt out of place.
— Oh, god, here comes the usual Horatio Sanz walk-on in these Jeffrey’s sketches, a walk-on that’s always just an excuse for tons of hamminess, overacting, self-indulgence, and breaking between him and Jimmy.
— Not even Will has the ability to save this recurring sketch anymore, as his walk-on isn’t anywhere near as funny as usual in tonight’s installment.
— Overall, oof. These Jeffrey’s sketches, which originally started out funny in its debut, have been getting worse and worse with each passing installment. There was almost NOTHING that was redeemable in tonight’s installment. Thankfully, this ends up being the final appearance of this sketch.
STARS: *½


EMMY AWARDS PRE-SHOW
Joan Rivers (ANG) hijacks Emmy Awards Pre-Show to vex dressed-down celebs

— Something about Will’s way of saying “I’m Steve Kmetko” provided a good laugh.
— Hilarious how Ana’s Joan Rivers does away with Will’s Steve Kmetko by shooting a dart into his neck.
— Maya is a dead-ringer for Lisa Kudrow in her impression of her. She’s also doing a spot-on imitation of Kudrow’s facial mannerisms.
— Very funny line from Joan Rivers about Calista Flockhart looking like a broomstick with nipples.
— We get our very first display of newbie Jeff Richards’ great knack for celebrity impressions, doing a dead-on and funny Garry Shandling here. We’re going to be seeing a lot of strong impressions from Jeff throughout his somewhat-short SNL tenure.
— Great visual of Tracy’s Della Reese wearing a Hefty bag.
— A lot of fun celebrity impressions throughout this sketch.
— Kattan as Kid Rock is somewhat fitting casting.
— I love the “Is your forehead crying?” “No, that’s where my tear ducts are now” bit between Horatio’s Camryn Manheim and Ana’s Rivers.
STARS: ****


JARRET’S ROOM
winners of Freshman Facebook Awards announced

— Right out of the gate, Jimmy’s Jarret mentions that there’s been some big changes made to the show, which gives me some hope, as this recurring sketch has been very unimpressive in its previous installments.
— Good addition of Seth Meyers as the show’s new house D.J. I remember when this episode originally aired, I was so unfamiliar with the then-newbie Seth that I initially couldn’t tell if it was him or Kattan playing the D.J. in this sketch, as strange as that mix-up now sounds.
— Horatio’s Gobi makes his entrance tonight singing Afroman’s “Because I Got High”. Ha, remember that song? This really takes me back to how big and controversial that song was around this time.
— Horatio’s usual goatee as Gobi looks like it was mistakenly put on a little crooked tonight, which is probably a result of Horatio not having much time to get his costume changed in between the Emmy Awards sketch and this. This has been a rare busy night for Horatio, who’s been appearing in every single sketch so far.
— Seann’s performance in this is reminding me so much of one of my closest high school friends that I had around this time. Also, whenever Seann yells something into the camera throughout this sketch, his voice strangely sounds very Chris Farley-esque.
— A good immature laugh from the Jill Butt bit.
— What’s with so many sketches lately showing photos of Kattan as nerdy characters with braces? We get such a photo in this sketch, and we also got such a photo in that sketch from the homestretch of the preceding season in which Kattan played a teen obsessed with imitating the Golden Girls.
— A funny segment making fun of school yearbook pictures.
— Tonight’s Jarret’s Room installment has been surprisingly fun so far. Even Horatio’s typically over-the-top Gobi performance is coming off tolerable to me tonight.
— Another nice new addition to this sketch with Jeff Richards playing Jarret’s new next door neighbor, appropriately named… Jeff.
— An overall surprisingly good installment of this sketch. All of the much-needed tweaks made to the Jarret’s Room format definitely worked for the better. It remains to be seen, though, if these positive changes will work out in the long run for this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fat Lip”


WEEKEND UPDATE
threat of terrorism has convinced TRM of the wisdom of racial profiling

Weekend Update Joke Off- JIF & TIF riff on penis found in fruit juice

in midst of shark attack epidemic, TIF falls victim to Land Shark

— Jimmy’s hairstyle at least looks a little better than how horrible it looked in the last episode, but that’s still not saying much.
— Tina’s Visceral Editorial didn’t really work for me, but it was brief enough.
— A pretty solid commentary from Tracy regarding racial profiling in the wake of 9/11, made funny in the way that only Tracy Morgan could make it. I like his various “Shake ’em down!” examples.
— A fun “Weekend Update Joke Off” segment between Jimmy and Tina, regarding a news story about a severed penis being found in a bottle of fruit juice.
— We get the debut of the Weekend Update Door, which would go on to be a recurring bit in this era of Update whenever a guest shows up “unexpectedly”.
— It’s the return of the Land Shark routine! A random but very welcome return of a classic recurring bit from the original SNL era. Tina’s even doing a spot-on imitation of the typical demeanor that Laraine Newman et. al. had during the original Land Shark sketches.
— Land Shark: “Candygram.” Tina: “They don’t even have those anymore!”
— The unpleasant, unlikable vibe that Chevy Chase’s cameos typically bring is thankfully non-existent in his onscreen appearance at the end of tonight’s Land Shark bit.
STARS: ***½


SHOW YOUR PATRIOTISM
(WIF) disrupts meeting by showing patriotism via flag-themed short shorts

— Holy hell. An absolutely priceless entrance from Will wearing… THAT.
— I’ve always had a theory that Will wearing a full-out thong was GENUINELY not expected by Will’s scene partners. You see, shortly before the original airing of this episode, NBC advertised this episode with a quickly-made promo comprised of clips from that night’s dress rehearsal, which had just finished taping. (SNL dress rehearsal promos like that were a regular practice on NBC back in these days. When did they stop doing that?  Or do they still do it, and I just wasn’t aware?) One of those dress rehearsal clips showed Will from the back in this Show Your Patriotism sketch, but he wasn’t wearing a thong like he wears in the live version; he was just wearing short shorts that didn’t reveal much of his butt. It must’ve been a last-minute decision to change Will’s attire from short shorts to a full-out ass-revealing thong for the live version, as an attempt to make the sketch funnier and to also surprise Will’s scene partners on the air (the latter of which would explain why his scene partners have so much difficulty in keeping a straight face throughout this, particularly Rachel when she first gets a sight of Will’s buttcheeks). I’d love to get full confirmation on this. If my theory is correct, then this proves even further what a ballsy legend Will is.
— Something else that supports my above theory that Will’s thong wasn’t planned is that, as he’s casually speaking right after he makes his entrance, he suddenly starts smiling uncontrollably mid-line and has to hide it by turning his head away from the camera and putting his hand over his mouth (screencap below).

That uncontrollable smile of Will’s seems like he’s thinking two things: 1) “My scene partners aren’t going to believe what I’m springing on them as a surprise”, and 2) “I cannot believe I’m getting away with this on live TV.”
— We get the debut of Vazquez Gomez-Vazquez, an obscure and bizarre recurring character of Horatio’s. In retrospect, he’s coming off quite out of place as a supporting character in this particular sketch.
— This is a perfectly Will Ferrell-y sketch that was tailor-made for Will. I admit that the concept and writing itself is actually pretty thin, but who else but Will Ferrell could make a classic out of this? I can already picture some people making a case that I’m overrating this thin sketch, but I will defend this sketch to the grave.
— A noteworthy thing about the greatness of this 9/11-related sketch is that it was another one of those crucial post-9/11 moments that showed the nation “We can now laugh again.”
— Right now, all of Will’s scene partners are uncontrollably breaking in unison, except for Seann and Amy. Amy’s ability to keep a straight face here is admirable, considering how new she is at SNL.
— Will, during his “inspirational” speech, complete with background music: “The angle of my dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of my meat.”
— The part with Will’s thong loudly ripping just as he was about to make his triumphant exit has me HOWLING.
— Amy continues to show what a stone-faced pro she is, perfectly keeping a straight face while Will tries his damnedest to make her crack up by patting her on the shoulders while comically resting his thonged crotch against the back of her head.
STARS: *****


THE HOW DO YOU SAY? AH YES, SHOW
Paula Zahn (AMP) encounters sexiness

— Oh, god. Why are we getting the unnecessary return of this recurring sketch after THREE SEASONS? I see Kattan is once again showing that he’s overstayed his welcome as a cast member. There’s no real reason for him to still be on SNL this season, especially if he’s going to be dragging tired, old, seemingly-retired recurring sketches like this out of the mothballs.
— Tonight’s “How Do You Say? Ah Yes, Show” installment somberly opening without any theme music is at least an accurate spoof of how a lot of talk shows at the time made their post-9/11 return by starting their show in an uncharacteristically somber manner.
— When Kattan’s Antonio Banderas is addressing the 9/11 craziness currently going on, I did get a genuine laugh from his misguided mention of America trying to catch “the evil, evil Dalai Lama”.
— For a new featured player in only her second episode, Amy has refreshingly been getting tons of airtime tonight, which certainly makes up for her almost non-existent airtime in her first episode.
— This sketch was originally cut after the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal, in which the Paula Zahn role was played by that night’s host, Reese Witherspoon, instead of Amy.
— Banderas suggestively refers to what’s under Amy-as-Paula-Zahn’s skirt as her “Wolf Blitzers”. If he’s using Blitzer’s name as a euphemism for Zahn’s vagina, why did he pluralize it?
— Amy as Paula Zahn: “If I wanted to be treated like a blonde piece of meat, then I would’ve stayed at Fox News!”
STARS: **


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
tabulating blow darts in chapter 119

— Ah, we get the introduction of a new Jack Handey segment! It’s welcome to see a new recurring segment from him in the vein of Deep Thoughts and Fuzzy Memories.
— Very nice illustrations.
— Ehhh, can’t say I’m too crazy about that punchline. Hope this isn’t already a sign of how inferior this recurring My Big Thick Novel segment may regularly come off compared to Deep Thoughts or Fuzzy Memories.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Too Deep”


THE APPROVAL CENTER
losers testify to the nebulous joy of being approved

— Horatio’s rare busy night continues. This is probably the most appearances he’s ever made in a single episode up to this point of his SNL tenure.
— On an opposite note, it feels like Ana is appearing a lot less than usual this season so far. In retrospect, this seems to be an early sign that she’s on her way out. Also, it may just be me, but she feels a little out of place in this sketch.
— A great redneck look for Seann, and he’s getting really good laughs from his fast-paced quoting of a simplistic back-and-forth phone conversation he had with the Approval Center.
— Tracy once again kills it by just kicking back and being his natural self. I also love the detail of how he’s casually chomping on a slice of pizza throughout his entire testimonial.
STARS: ***½


PORN STAR
on a dinner date, (AMP) reveals her porn actress career to (host)

— Wow, Amy in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight. And she gets the comedic lead role in this one too. Great to see things going well for her so early in her tenure.
— Amy’s porn star reveal is a great turn in the sketch.
— Very funny bit with Seth as a waiter recognizing Amy from her porn movies.
— Amy: “I am not a porn star!… (*crosses fingers while gritting her teeth and shifting her eyes upwards*) yet!”
— Amy’s performance is strong in this, and you can see the huge potential that she has as a new cast member.
— Tracy in yet another great walk-on role. Much like Amy, it’s nice to see Tracy getting so much airtime tonight after having next-to-nothing to do in the preceding week’s season premiere.
— A very funny ending photo of Amy and Tracy.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Much like in the Lara Flynn Boyle episode from the homestretch of the preceding season, tonight’s goodnights get cut off VERY fast before Seann has even finished his goodnights speech.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid and refreshing episode. After the first post-9/11 episode the preceding week consisted of SNL walking on eggshells and trying to find their way back, SNL seems to be back in full force this week. It may be a little too soon to say that, though, considering a certain other unforeseen 9/11-related hardship the show will face the very next week, which will be mentioned in a little more detail at the very end of this review.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Reese Witherspoon)
N/A, because, as I said in the last review, it’s hard to judge the Witherspoon episode on the same level of a normal episode


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Drew Barrymore hosts during a week that an anthrax attack happens to occur at 30 Rock, an incident that leads to a huge panic for SNL

Posted on

September 29, 2001 – Reese Witherspoon / Alicia Keys (S27 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

9/11 TRIBUTE
in the wake of terrorism, Rudolph Giuliani [real] encourages perseverance

Paul Simon [real] performs “The Boxer” amidst NYC police & firemen

— Well, here we go, folks. A very important piece of SNL history.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember it felt very odd and jarring to see an SNL season begin in such a serious, dour manner, but I fully understood how necessary and crucial it was for SNL to immediately address the then-recent 9/11 in such a manner.
— Very inspiring words from Rudy Giuliani here.
— A great choice to have an unannounced Paul Simon performance during this cold opening. I recall there being confusion among online SNL fans at the time over what Paul’s song “The Boxer” has to do with 9/11, but I can see the connection, and this performance is beautiful, made even moreso by the occasional pan shots of the NYC firemen and police.
— Lorne: “Can we be funny?” Rudy: “Why start now?” That legendary exchange was not only the ice-breaking laugh that SNL needed during these trying times, but it was the ice-breaking laugh that New York and the nation as a whole needed, and let people know that things are going to be okay.
— Probably the most meaningful delivery of “Live from New York…” in SNL history. Great enthusiasm from both Rudy and the audience during it. Speaking of which, reruns of this cold opening oddly re-dub the “it’s Saturday Night” portion of Rudy’s LFNY with a more monotone-sounding utterance from him. I cannot for the life of me figure out why SNL would do that.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— A shot from the preceding season’s montage of the New York City skyline with the World Trade Center visible (the first screencap below) has been digitally altered to remove the two towers (the second screencap below).

— A new shot has been added early in the montage showing an American flag (screencap below).

— Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph have all been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— When the shot of the newly-promoted Tina Fey comes up after Will Ferrell’s shot, Don Pardo accidentally announces Tina as “Ana Gasteyer”, apparently being so accustomed to always announcing Ana’s name immediately after Will’s for the last 5 years. When the shot of Tina is then followed by Ana’s shot, Don attempts to cover for his flub by announcing Ana as “Ana Gasteyer with Tina Fey”.
— Speaking of Ana Gasteyer, the shot of her from the preceding season’s opening montage (the first screencap below) has now been changed to a new shot (the second screencap below).

— Boy, it feels sad seeing Chris Parnell removed from the opening montage.
— Dean Edwards, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, and Jeff Richards have all been added to the cast tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host tells a joke about a polar bear cub’s identity crisis

 

— I remember an SNL reviewer back at this time saying Reese Witherspoon had such an “I have to follow THAT?!?” look on her face early on in this monologue. Yeah, I can see that on her face. I feel for her.
— A good opening message from Reese about how they’ll (her and SNL) be giving it their all tonight, despite the circumstances.
— Hoo, boy. That “because I’m freezing my balls off” punchline was… well, not worth such a long, long set-up. Even Reese herself seems to agree, judging from her facial expressions afterwards. Reportedly, the punchline to Reese’s joke was originally going to be an uncensored “because I’m fucking freezing”, as SNL’s brave attempt to show that New York is back up and running. Lorne had planned in advance to pay the FCC fines and everything, but Reese put the kibosh on the whole idea, because she didn’t feel comfortable with saying the f-word on live TV, knowing how many young fans she had. I’m not 100% sure if any of that story is true, but if it is, that would explain the lame “because I’m freezing my balls off” punchline we were left with.
STARS: **½ (I’m being somewhat kind)


PREPARATION H
skateboarders sell hemorrhoid relief to youth culture

— Much like I said about Maya’s debut when I reviewed her very first episode, it feels so odd seeing Seth Meyers at this point of my SNL project, and lets me know that I’m slowly getting closer and closer to SNL’s modern-day era. And, man, Seth looks so young here.
— A good way to get all of the new male featured players in this youth-oriented commercial spoof.
— A fairly good comically out-of-place product to aim at early 2000s youth culture, and the visual style of this is a spot-on spoof of “x-treme” youth-oriented ads from this era, also reminding me of the visual style of another SNL spoof of “x-treme” youth-oriented ads: season 24’s KCF Shredders, which also heavily showcased THAT season’s new featured players: Jimmy, Horatio, and… (*sniffle*) Chris Parnell.
— Jesus Christ, did we need to see Kattan’s bare butt? Sure it was blurred out, but even through the blurring, we could still see WAY more of Kattan’s asscrack than I ever needed to see.
STARS: ***


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
Randy Goldman’s (JIF) girlfriend (host) is a guest

— Hmm, interesting how the lead-off sketch of the season stars two newly-promoted former featured players, showing how much confidence SNL has in Maya and Rachel.
— Amy Poehler makes her very first SNL appearance in a silent, almost indistinguishable role as one of several students making goofy faces in the viewer window (she’s the one sticking out her tongue in the fourth above screencap for this sketch), which ends up being Amy’s ONLY appearance all night. Yeesh. After so much online hype behind Amy’s hiring that summer, I recall this poor usage of her in tonight’s season premiere causing concern among some online SNL fans, worried that this was a sign that Amy’s SNL tenure would turn out to be comparable to that of Mark McKinney, who, like Amy, joined SNL as an already-established and revered sketch comedy veteran, and would sadly end up having his talent largely underused and squandered by SNL. Funny to think back in retrospect on this concern from SNL fans, considering the direction we now know that Amy’s SNL tenure would end up going.
— Geez, for the second segment in a row tonight, we get a guy showing part of his bare buttcrack to the camera, only this time, it’s NOT blurred out. Are all of these buttcrack flashes tonight another attempt from SNL to show that New York is back up and running? What’s more, I believe that’s newbie Jeff Richards who’s uncensored buttcrack we’re seeing in this sketch. If that’s indeed him, this has got to be one of the more… uh, unique ways for a cast member to make their live debut on SNL.
— As usual, I’m getting a kick out of Horatio’s teacher character, especially his corny delivery of “Don’t be a playa-hata. Be an inter-mural sports participata!”
— A funny and memorable part with Maya’s Megan passionately breaking out into a portion of the song “Truly Madly Deeply” in front of the viewer window that Jimmy’s Randy Goldman and Reese’s character are making out on the other side of.
STARS: ***½


THE LITTLE MERMAID
(WIF) is put off by Ariel’s (host) fish genitalia

— Seeing Will at the beginning of this sketch just gave me a sad reminder that this is his final season, which is even sadder when you’re aware in retrospect how much SNL ends up struggling without him the first few seasons after his departure.
— For some reason, I kinda like hearing the awkward light audience laughter during the some portions of Reese and Will’s non-comedic singing early on.
— Pretty funny turn with Reese’s Little Mermaid singing about the “increased flow of mucous in my fish genitalia”, throwing Will for a loop.
— When talking about how her legs turn human once she’s on land, I got a good laugh from Reese’s “But believe you me, the hoo-hah is all mackerel!” Something about that line sounds very Tina Fey-esque to me, which makes me wonder if she wrote this sketch, though I think I automatically assume that ALL vagina jokes from this SNL era are from Tina, knowing her comedic style and her various vagina euphemisms used throughout her Weekend Update tenure.
— Another instance tonight of all the new male featured players being paired together, this time as yellow-faced singing fish superimposed onto the screen. Stuff like this made it kinda hard for me (and many other online SNL fans at the time) to tell the difference between Seth Meyers and Jeff Richards back when this episode originally aired.
— A pretty funny and endearing visual of Rachel happily dancing around in a silly crab costume.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fallin'”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) explains circumstances of proposed Taliban meeting

TIF & JIF lend drama to Maine’s decision to extend moose-hunting season

TIF encourages viewers to call 877-870-4278 & donate to Twin Towers Fund

— Surprisingly, they’re still using Chris Parnell’s old voice-over intro for Weekend Update. That wouldn’t last too long this season, though.
— A new brief shot of Tina wearing glasses has been inserted into the Update title sequence (screencap below), which doesn’t fit the rest of the Update title sequence, as plenty of shots of Tina sans glasses still remain.

— After donning the same hairstyle for his first three seasons, we now have Jimmy’s first of what will be MANY questionable hairstyles for the remainder of his SNL tenure. His hairstyle tonight is particularly tragic.
— Feels kinda sad seeing Darrell’s Jesse Jackson impression without Jerry Minor’s Al Sharpton by his side anymore, even though I’m certainly aware that Darrell previously did plenty of solo Jesse Jackson commentaries on Update years before Jerry even joined the cast. Jerry’s Sharpton added a fun change of pace to these, though.
— A lot of laughs from Darrell-as-Jackson’s detailing of the Taliban contacting him by phone.
— Darrell-as-Jackson’s “Come, Mr. Taliban, tally me banana” bit is hilarious.
— Tina’s IMMEDIATELY apologetic reaction after doing a mean-spirited joke about Janet Reno shows a huge difference between her and Norm Macdonald’s Update approach, as Norm did this same type of mean-spirited joke about Janet Reno on a regular basis during his Update days, and he never so much as batted an eye afterwards.
— Right when he’s supposed to do the next joke, Jimmy actually STOPS Update to a halt just to make several ad-libs about how terrible his hair looks as he glances at himself in the monitor and plays with his hair. I wonder if it’s moments like this that people who can’t stand Jimmy Fallon point to as an example of why he supposedly was a lousy cast member. (I’m not saying I agree, though I certainly have my own gripes with some of Jimmy’s habits on SNL.)
— The random moose-hunting conversation between Jimmy and Tina is a good, fun bit, like Jimmy and Tina’s side segments usually are. I also like how they end this one by saying “Aaaaaaaand scene” in unison.
— Jimmy and Tina end tonight’s Update on a classy note by letting us know how to reach the Twin Towers Fund if we’d like to help in the New York relief effort.
— Overall, considering the always-topical Weekend Update must’ve been one of the most difficult portions of the show for SNL to handle in this first post-9/11 episode, they handled it well and did a fine job.
STARS: ***½


COMMITMENT MEDLEY
Marty & Bobbi perform a medley at a lesbian commitment ceremony

— Feels pretty nice to see the always-reliable Culps during trying times like this.
— I’m getting some laughs from Marty and Bobbi Mohan-Culps’ details of their own bi-curious experiences from the past.
— As usual, a fun song medley from the Culps tonight. I particularly like their lesbian-related variation of “Mr. Roboto”.
STARS: ***½


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Chris Tucker (DEE), Anne Heche (host), Sean Connery (DAH)

— What’s going on tonight? The fairly-new and not-yet-established recurring sketch Wake Up Wakefield gets to lead off tonight’s season premiere, but actual established and long-time popular recurring sketches like The Culps and Celebrity Jeopardy get buried after Update??? Perhaps this is an early sign of a changing of the guard at SNL this season. After all, this DOES end up being Will and Ana’s final season.
— Dean Edwards gets his very first big role. It shows quite a lot of confidence on SNL’s part to let a newbie on his first night play a contestant in the prestigious Celebrity Jeopardy recurring sketch.
— A pretty good laugh from Reese’s Anne Heche delivering her intro statement in made-up space language.
— A decent Chris Tucker impression from Dean, though the material he’s been given in this sketch is pretty one-note and nothing special. By the way, word has it that Jerry Minor, the cast member who’s spot Dean has been hired to basically fill in, also had a Chris Tucker impression in his back pocket, but I’ve never seen it (and he certainly never did it on SNL).
— And there’s our obligatory classic category mix-up of tonight’s Celebrity Jeopardy sketch, with Darrell’s Connery misreading “horsemen” as “whore semen”. It’s quite a stretch for me to refer that particular mix-up as “classic”, though. I recall some online SNL fans at the time saying it was kinda sad and desperate on SNL’s part that Darrell’s Connery actually had to resort to WALKING UP TO THE BOARD and POINTING OUT where he saw “hor” and “semen” in the word “horsemen”. Unfortunately, I have to agree about how sad and desperate that came off, even if I still got some chuckles from it.
— A funny list shown of people that Anne Heche has slept with (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this sketch, though the visual quality makes it hard to read). It’s noteworthy that Chris Kattan is one of the people on that list. An also somewhat noteworthy entry on that list is “The Cream Of Wheat Guy”, which brings to mind that Pervert short film that the recently-departed Adam McKay did the preceding season. I’d like to think that SNL is subtly referencing that here, but that might be a stretch. It’s probably just inherently comedic to reference “The Cream Of Wheat Guy” in certain contexts, especially sexual ones.
— The surprising display of camaraderie between Trebek and Connery right now is an interesting change, even when you KNOW that Connery is just setting Trebek up.
— Overall… (*sigh*) I hate to say it, but it’s finally happened, folks: an average Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. This installment, while still funny, paled BADLY in comparison to the preceding Celebrity Jeopardy sketches. This installment felt lacking in parts, kinda empty, and was overall unmemorable. It’s understandable, given the difficulties the writers faced this week, but I wish they waited until a better week a little later into this season to do a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Woman’s Worth”


GASSY BABY
newborn baby’s nonstop farts & burps distress parents (WIF) & (host)

— Oh, no. I recall this being a fairly notorious sketch from this season.
— Yep, and there it goes: the endless farting from the baby has officially begun. (*sigh*)
— It’s a bad sign when the audience has ALREADY stopped laughing at the non-stop farts only 30 seconds into the sketch. And this sketch is supposed to go on for God knows how many more minutes.
— And now we get the addition of endless burping to accompany the baby’s endless farting, as if that’s going to make this any funnier. (*sighs deeper*)
— Kattan’s appearance as the doctor is the first sketch tonight that I’ve noticed the lack of Chris Parnell (not counting the opening montage). This seems like the exact type of role Parnell would’ve been cast in had he still been on the show.
— And now the baby’s endless farting and burping is accompanied by endless projectile peeing. (*sighs even deeper*) Look, I’ve been cutting the writers some much-needed slack throughout this episode review, understanding what a difficult time they must’ve had this week, but geez, they’re putting something like THIS on the air? Really? I recall lots of SNL reviewers at the time saying this sketch was akin to a typical bad, juvenile sketch from season 20, though I’d like to think that even season 20 would scoff at this sketch, though that may be giving that season too much credit. Hell, if that season did this sketch, they’d probably have the baby projectile vomiting instead of farting, burping, or projectile peeing.
— It hurts seeing a reliable sketch-saving pro like Will failing to save this D.O.A. sketch. Only a truly bad sketch like this could make Will Ferrell look unfunny. I should probably be glad that Chris Parnell isn’t around to also get his talents wasted in this embarrassing sketch.
— Hmm, a very strange but somewhat interesting mid-sketch interlude with the coffee discussion between Will and Kattan, complete with wholesome background music being played. While this portion of the sketch is hard to figure and isn’t exactly making me laugh, I kinda appreciate what it’s going for, mostly just for giving us a (temporary) break from the unfunny juvenile humor of this sketch. I remember when this sketch originally aired, I felt that the dialogue in Will and Kattan’s coffee discussion seemed improvised, a hunch that would later be heightened when NBC would air the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns, which contains different dialogue during Will and Kattan’s coffee discussion, IIRC (I haven’t seen the rerun version of this sketch in ages, so my recollection may be faulty).
— Tracy makes his first and only appearance of the night, and immediately provides my ONLY laughs of this entire sketch with his perfectly Tracy Morgan-esque reaction to the farting/burping/peeing baby.
STARS: *½


DONATELLA VERSACE FOR THE CHILDREN
Donatella Versace (MAR) & fashionistas sing kids songs

 

— The debut of Maya’s Donatella Versace impression, which would go on to be one of Maya’s signature roles on SNL.
— Maya continues to have the impressive ability to convincingly look like any given ethnicity she plays (Italian this time) via the simple use of a wig.
— Maya’s Versace voice sounds kinda different in this debut than how it would go on to regularly sound, but it could just be that it’s been a LONG time since I’ve last watched any of her Versace sketches.
— For a newbie in his first episode, Dean Edwards has actually been getting quite a lot of airtime tonight, which is particularly surprising in retrospect, knowing how EXTREMELY underused he would infamously go on to regularly be throughout his short-lived SNL tenure. (In fact, in the very next episode, he doesn’t make ANY appearances, which already lets us know what to expect from his SNL tenure.) It’s funny how tonight’s episode makes it seem like, out of the four newbies, Dean is going to be the most prominent face while Amy’s going to be extremely under-utilized and treated like a glorified extra, only for things to turn out THE EXACT OPPOSITE between Dean and Amy.
— There goes the first yell of “GET OOOOUUUUTT!”, which would go on to the signature catchphrase of Maya’s Versace impression.
— Boy, this one guy in the audience has a very loud, noticeable cackling laugh (“Hhhhhhhaaa ha ha ha!”) being heard all throughout this sketch. His voice stands out over the rest of the audience so much that it sounds like he’s mic’ed.
— A fairly fun format to this sketch, but I dunno, I’m not finding myself laughing all that much, though Maya is performing well.
— Okay, I am getting some amusement out of the randomness of Versace’s conversation with “Mr. Pantyhose Leg”, a pantyhose sock puppet.
STARS: **½


SIDE NOTE: I like the unique touch of how the final bumper photo of Reese has a signed message written by her (screencap below), which would go on to become a tradition for the final bumper photo shown of hosts in this season’s episodes (with the Kirsten Dunst episode being the only exception, I believe).


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Hard to judge this episode on the same level of a normal episode, knowing the unprecedented circumstances and difficulties SNL was dealing with. I commend SNL for going out there and trying, and I’m satisfied with what we ended up with as a whole. It was far from a strong episode, in my opinion; in fact, there wasn’t a single segment I gave a rating over three-and-a-half stars to (though if I rated individual Weekend Update commentaries, Darrell Hammond’s Jesse Jackson commentary would get four stars), and the post-Weekend Update half was largely underwhelming. But again, under the difficult circumstances, SNL still tried, they still provided laughs, they provided an important cold opening for the ages, and overall, the finished product of their efforts was palatable. For all of these reasons, I’ll forgive even the biggest missteps of the night (*coughGassyBabycough*).


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2000-01)
N/A, because, again, it’s hard to judge this episode on the same level of a normal episode


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Seann William Scott