Tag: 2007-08

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May 17, 2008 – Steve Carell / Usher (S33 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

POUNDER SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT
at commencement exercises, (host) reads graduates’ naughty-sounding names

— Already an interesting sight right out of the gate in this cold opening, not only with the host being front-and-center, but the entire cast (minus the Update-only Seth) being present as well. The latter feels appropriate and fitting for the season finale cold opening.
— Meh not only at the premise with each student having a dirty-sounding name (the type of gag SNL has done to better effect before), but also at the fact that the dirty-sounding names are just tired, old cliches everyone’s heard before. I guess the fact that these cliched dirty names are given normal, non-dirty middle names here is supposed to make it funnier, but meh. Even more disappointing, this cold opening was surprisingly guest-written by the great Jack Handey. You’d sure never guess so from the content in this, as it’s completely different from and nowhere near as creative as Handey’s trademark humor.
— The subversion with Dick Hertz turning out to be a prank name instead of the name of an actual student is at least kinda funny.
— A long-haired(!) Colin Jost has a very quick non-speaking walk-on as one of the students receiving a diploma (the third-to-last above screencap for this cold opening).
— The whole “Nail ‘er” runner, with the sequence of names actually reading out an entire, dirty conversation, is actually fairly clever.
— Boy, all the tired dirty names in this cold opening being said in such rapid succession is almost starting to give me a headache.
— Nice little touch with how, after the camera zooms in on Steve Carell delivering his LFNY, the camera cuts back to a wide shot so we can see the cast throwing their graduation caps into the air.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music has a bit of a different sound tonight. Speaking of which, tonight’s theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version, which has the traditional sound of this season’s theme music.


MONOLOGUE
after host succumbs to a panic attack, his wife NAW calms him down

— Pretty funny reveal from Steve that he drank six Red Bulls and ate a whole bunch of Sour Patch Kids before the show to keep his energy up.
— The conceit of Steve doing hyper, out-of-it actions are the type of thing he’s always good at executing.
— This is the second monologue in these past three episodes to have a gag in which the host is surprised to find himself locked out of either 1) one of the backstage rooms, or 2) the entire backstage.
— Fun audience interaction bit with Steve sitting in the audience.
— Nancy Walls! Given her short-lived and forgotten-by-many-people SNL tenure, it feels surprising that she’s making a cameo, but also feels refreshing to see her on SNL again after I got used to reviewing her when I covered season 21.
STARS: ***½


THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE
Barack Obama (FRA) & Hillary Clinton (AMP) split parallels NBA playoffs

— Interesting format to this, which I remember finding out was a spoof of a then-current NBA playoffs ad that I’ve never seen to this day, but can still enjoy the format of this spoof.
— Some decently funny lines from Amy’s Hillary Clinton the occasional times she and Fred’s Barack Obama aren’t reciting the same thing in unison.
— Kinda funny how almost-creepy Amy and Fred’s faces (especially the mouths) look when the opposite halves of them are melded together like this.
STARS: ***


DEAL OR NO DEAL
picky dad (WLF) & coy model (KRW) vex contestant (host)

— Good to see Fred’s Howie Mandel impression in another Deal Or No Deal parody, after how much he (and Antonio Banderas) consistently cracked me up in SNL’s previous Deal Or No Deal parody.
— A promising-seeming role for Will, as Steve’s grumpy, ranting father.
— A stand-out and popular lengthy sequence with Kristen fooling around with the suitcase. This is also one of many things that I remember solidified to me back then that Kristen was getting pushed as SNL’s new star. I also remember thinking to myself after this episode originally aired that Kristen had now officially become the lead female of this cast, and that the longest-tenured female of this cast, Amy, was on her way out (so much so, that I remember speculating Amy wouldn’t return the following season, which I ended up being wrong about).
— The ending was a bit flat for me, and I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the whole Fred/Steve/Will portions of this sketch.
STARS: **½


TWO A-HOLES DO KARAOKE
on stage, uncooperative A-holes exasperate karaoke emcee (host)

— I got a good laugh from Kenan dedicating his karaoke singing of “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” to Anna Nicole Smith.
— Wow, we haven’t seen the Two A-holes in what feels like a long time. I think their last appearance was in the Jeremy Piven episode all the way back in January 2007.
— The Two A-holes are killing as usual, even if there are no particular stand-out parts that I feel like pointing out in this review.
— The cutaway to an angry Steve having steam coming out of his ears might have been a bit too much for the tone of these Two A-holes sketches.
STARS: ****


THE JAPANESE OFFICE
Ricky Gervais [real] intros the original, Japanese version of The Office

The Office- even in Japanese, familiar show characteristics are evident

Regis Philbin (DAH) endorses tampons in a Japan-specific commercial

— Nice to see Ricky Gervais on SNL.
— I like Gervais’ snarky comments about the American version of The Office.
— Obviously spot-on casting of Bill as Dwight, given how people used to always point out the resemblance between Bill and Rainn Wilson back in these days (no idea if people still do nowadays). In fact, when this short originally aired, I remember initially thinking for a brief second that that really was Rainn Wilson when the camera first cut to Bill as Dwight.
— Even the Japanese-themed recreation of The Office’s opening credits is spot-on.
— The concept of this Digital Short brings the Rabin To Shuri sketch (the Japanese version of Laverne And Shirley) to mind, though I’ve personally always liked this Digital Short more.
— Great to see the return of Kristen and Jason’s spot-on Pam and Jim impressions from Rainn Wilson’s monologue the preceding season.
— Hilarious random Japanese commercial with Darrell’s Regis Philbin endorsing tampons.
— Good brief cutaway to a silent Kenan as Stanley doing a Sudoku puzzle instead of his usual crossword puzzle (which I remember was pointed out to me by someone in response to my original 2008 review of this episode, after I incorrectly stated Kenan’s Stanley was doing a crossword puzzle in this).
— Ricky Gervais’ ending comment, in regards to this whole short: “(*while laughing*) It’s funny….’cause it’s racist.”
STARS: ****


MCCAIN 2008
John McCain [real] touts his oldness & aversion to pork barrel spending

— Here we have our latest of MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race. At least this particular cameo is from John McCain, who’s always fun and a great sport on SNL.
— Some decent laughs here and there, and McCain is likable as expected, but this sketch feels kinda on the forgettable side.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “This Ain’t Sex”


WEEKEND UPDATE
John McCain [real] encourages Democrats to prolong nomination indecision

Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) warn Barack Obama to be careful

— Seth’s joke about someone being chosen for a position by being the last person in the room to shout “Not it” was a joke already used by either Seth or Amy before, and will continue to be used by them (or just Seth) for years.
— A second appearance tonight from John McCain.
— I love McCain’s sly “That’s right, fight among yourselves” comment when Seth and Amy are disagreeing with each other.
— A good laugh from McCain making a point about how exciting it would be to have the presidential conventions end with us still not knowing who the nominee is.
— The “They take it away” examples from Darrell and Kenan’s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are decent.
— Funny how, in my preceding episode review, I asked, in reaction to a fun interaction piece between Seth and Amy in that episode’s Update, “Why don’t we get these interaction bits between Seth and Amy more often?” Cut to one episode later, and we get TWO interaction bits between Seth and Amy in tonight’s Update. Odd coincidence, but I appreciate it.
— Seems to be a lot more Update jokes than usual tonight, perhaps a conscious decision from SNL due to this being the final Update of the season.
STARS: ***


THE CHARLIE FLITT SHOW
weight losers cut fat & lifesize photos

— Amy’s real-life pregnancy is really starting to show by this point.
— Ohhh, god. All of a sudden, the characters in this sketch take the time to give some praise to Jared Fucking Fogel, even throwing in a flattering comment about how hot he is in person. Boy, has this portion of this sketch aged like milk. In hindsight, this is also unintentionally a warm-up for something very unfortunate that’s in store for me in the very next episode: a cameo appearance from…guess who?
— I laughed at Steve’s passing mention of overcoming an addiction to Google Image Search.
— An okay running gag with Steve jumping through old overweight photos of himself at the oddest times.
— What was with Darrell’s very delayed, awkward delivery of his sole line of this entire sketch?
— I like overweight Bill’s very halfhearted “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know” when he, Amy, and Kristen are all embracing each other.
— Despite some occasional laughs, this sketch as a whole is gradually kinda losing me, especially during Steve’s musical number at the end.
STARS: **


CPR TRAINING
(host) busts through (ANS)’s chest while conducting a CPR training course

— An initial cheap laugh from the blood starting to flow after Andy’s chest has been pushed through. I see we’re in for another traditional blood-spurting sketch.
— After Steve casually says, in regards to Andy’s bleeding, “Not too bad, from where I’m standing”, I love Kenan responding “Man, where are you standing? That is BAD.”
— A pretty good laugh from the visual of Andy’s lung inflating like a balloon when Steve is giving him mouth-to-mouth. I also LOVE Kristen’s shocked facial reaction to that when the camera cuts to her about to say something in response to that (the last above screencap for this sketch).
— Not sure what to think about the turn at the end with Usher giving a brief PSA. Felt kinda like a weak ending.
— An overall okay sketch, but, much like with the rather forgettable Knife Salesmen sketch from the preceding season’s Shia LaBeouf episode, this SNL era continues to struggle in their attempt to create a memorable blood-spurting sketch for the ages. Also, this CPR Training sketch, in hindsight, feels like a precursor to the (much better, IMO) Acupuncture sketch from the episode that Kristen hosts in season 38.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Young Jeezy [real] perform “Love In This Club”


BLESS THIS CHILD
rough-housing parents-to-be (host) & (KRW) serenade a stand-in stunt baby

— At first glance, it almost appears we’re getting a genuinely tender, semi-serious sketch to close out the season, before we see the comedic conceit. Lots of fun and very amusing little random and unsafe things Kristen and Steve are doing with their baby while singing. They’re both pulling this off so well.
— Pretty funny reveal that Kristen and Steve’s baby is just a doll (in the universe of the sketch, not just in real life), and that they’ve decided they’re ready to move on to having a real baby of their own.
— Steve took the potentially-iffy ending involving him spinning a dummy of Kristen around and made it a lot of fun instead of corny.
— Overall, I found this to be a solid and well-performed season-ending sketch.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average and slightly forgettable season finale. Not bad, but not the most exciting way to end this season, especially considering the lengthy solid streak that I feel SNL was on prior to this, from somewhere around the Amy Adams episode to the Shia LaBeouf episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Shia LaBeouf)
a step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2006-07)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 34 begins, with host Michael Phelps, and one new addition to the cast

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May 10, 2008 – Shia LaBeouf / My Morning Jacket (S33 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CLINTON’S QUALITIES
Hillary Clinton (AMP) prizes being an unethical racist-backed sore loser

— Typical Amy-as-Hillary stuff so far, but it’s working here.
— A good laugh from Amy’s Hillary stating point-blank, with a smile, “My supporters are racist”, as one of the listed-off reasons for us to vote for her.
— Decent laughs from Amy’s Hillary about playing the gender and race cards.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Sean Connery (DAH) & other Indiana Jones veterans are jealous of host

— A bit of an odd usage of Jason as an audience member (reminding me of when he frequently played one when he was just a writer), but he’s great here.
— A rare non-Celebrity Jeopardy appearance from Darrell’s Sean Connery. Fun to see him in this.
— Amy continues her trend of playing a lot of male roles this season.
— Great walk-on from Will as the face-melted-off Nazi.
— An interesting new addition to Darrell’s long-established Connery impression, with him punctuating his slams with a yell of “POW!” This would end up being the only appearance where Darrell’s Connery would do that.
STARS: ***½


MACGRUBER
silo crisis reveals son Merrill’s (host) homosexuality

— Something about the copy I’m watching of this episode makes the visual quality of this MacGruber short look blurry and dizzying (as can be seen in some of the above screencaps for this short and some of the screencaps you’ll soon see for the later MacGruber shorts in this episode).
— A big laugh from MacGruber’s puzzled delivery of “Anal lubricant?!?”
— Great bit with Shia LaBeouf answering MacGruber’s “Who’s the lucky girl?” question with a very hesitant “……..Scott……..”, receiving a very funny facial reaction from MacGruber.
STARS: ****


IT’S A MATCH
murder investigation follows 1970s game show format

— Fun portrayals of fictional counterparts to real-life 70s celebrities, even though I do kinda wonder why SNL’s just not having the actual 70s celebrities be portrayed. After all, SNL did so in the Super Buzzers sketch from the season 27 Jonny Mosely episode, and the Charades sketch from the season 31 Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode.
— Shia’s look as the fictional counterpart to Doug Henning is absolutely hilarious, and his performance is great.
— The murder premise is a strong twist to what we were led to initially think was just going to be a straightforward 70s game show parody.
— Bill doing great straight man work as usual. I love his stern, subtle frustration in response to the contestant’s wacky antics.
— Even though I’ve generally gotten so tired of Fred’s gay stereotype shtick by this point of his tenure, it’s working for me in this sketch as the Charles Nelson Reilly fictional counterpart he’s playing.
— Good bit with Shia’s character popping out of the deceased game show host’s bodybag.
— The dress rehearsal version of this sketch would later be used in reruns, and the biggest difference I can remember (and my memory of it may be a bit faulty) is that, in the dress version, Casey’s answer to the first question is a raunchy “I was making mouth whoopee”, whereas her answer in the live version was a tame “I was eating pound cake and crying on my waterbed.”
STARS: ****


SCARED STRAIGHT
inmate Lorenzo McIntosh (KET) can’t scare teens straight with movie plots

— The debut of these Scared Straight sketches with Kenan’s Lorenzo MacIntosh character.
— When this originally aired, I remember feeling this was Kenan’s shameless attempt at creating his own version of Matt Foley. All these years later, I no longer see many Matt Foley similarities in this, but that may because I’ve gotten so used to this MacIntosh character that I now just see him as his own entity.
— One big difference with Lorenzo MacIntosh in this inaugural appearance of his compared to his subsequent appearances is the scar on his face, which eventually gets called out as obviously having been drawn on with a marker.
— I guess I can see why the very crass prison rape jokes in these Lorenzo MacIntosh sketches would bother some people nowadays, but they’re giving me good laughs in tonight’s sketch.
— Good running bit throughout this sketch with MacIntosh describing movie plots as incidents that supposedly happened in his life. Kenan’s delivery is helping to make this running gag work.
— Speaking of Kenan’s delivery, I love his delivery of his threatening parting words, “There ain’t gonna be no grease! THERE AIN’T GONNA BE NO GREASE!”
— Overall, I’m surprised by how big I was on this inaugural Lorenzo MacIntosh sketch. It was stronger than I had remembered. We’ll see how this holds up as a recurring sketch when we get there.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
vibrator proves Merrill hasn’t been cured of his gayness

— Even though it’s just a very small moment, I love Shia bitterly calling MacGruber a “friggin’ dick” under his breath, in response to MacGruber making a passing reference to “undoing” Shia’s homosexuality. That muttered remark of Shia’s was such a believable, realistic moment, and was a remark that MacGruber deserved to have hurled at him for his attempt to “cure” Shia of his homosexuality.
— Hilarious how, when MacGruber is doing his usual bit where he asks his two assistants to hand him a nearby object, his only requests towards Shia are asking him to recite pro-heterosexual things that MacGruber seemingly taught him.
— The bit with the blurred-out vibrator is an absolute RIOT, made even funnier by the facial expression Will looks ahead with right before the obligatory end-of-sketch bomb explosion.
STARS: *****


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
(host) gets economic stimulus check advice from Suze Orman (KRW)

— A big laugh from Kristen-as-Suze-Orman’s “I love the smell of a man” line.
— Funny bit involving Kristen-as-Orman’s snap-on collar.
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, Kristen’s delivery as Orman makes every single one of her lines fun.
— Very funny ending tip from Kristen’s Orman on how to make your own homemade maxi-pad.
— This overall sketch felt unusually short, but still worked.
STARS: ***½


THE BEST LOOK IN THE WORLD
the best look in the world equals dress shirt, black socks, no pants

— Ooh, I recall this short being a HUGE dud for Lonely Island, a rarity for them in these early seasons of theirs. I remember 2008 Me being STUNNED at how unbelievably awful this short was (especially coming just one episode after Lonely Island did an intentionally bad short, with Daiquiri Girl). Let’s see how I’ll feel about it now, 12 years later.
— Wow, it appears that the audience is ALREADY not onboard with this short. The comical reveal of Andy being pants-less early on in this short got almost NO reaction from the audience. That’s usually the type of thing from Andy that KILLS with the audience.
— Much like the Roy Rules short from the preceding season, we have the Lonely Island trying their hand at a different music genre than the ones they usually spoof. That change of pace worked with the 70s/80s heavy metal genre they took on in Roy Rules, but it’s not turning out so well with the honky-tonk (or whatever music genre tonight’s short is spoofing) genre they’re taking on in tonight’s short.
— Oof. Something about this short just reeks of desperation. Oh, and I’m not finding myself laughing.
— I guess the “Cool Down” part is kinda funny, but I’m just desperate for a laugh by this point.
— Not even Andy’s smug “Riiiight on” at the end got a big response from the audience, and, again, that’s usually the type of thing from Andy that SNL audiences eat up.
— Overall, yeah, this Digital Short just didn’t work. Even though I admit it wasn’t as unbelievably awful as I had remembered, I still cannot call this short even remotely good. This already-poor short comes off even more disappointing when you remember the last Digital Short that Shia appeared in prior to this.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Amazed”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Vlad (BIH) & Niko (FRA) dispute the accuracy of Grand Theft Auto IV

Jean K. Jean’s cultural references all come from across the Atlantic

— Ha, I love this idea of Bill and Fred playing Grand Theft Auto characters, complete with spot-on physical movements.
— What the heck was with that abrupt, empty ending to the Grand Theft Auto commentary? This overall commentary in general, while it provided a few laughs from me due to Bill and Fred’s funny performances, felt SEVERELY underwritten. I get the feeling it went through a heavy re-write right before airtime (that would certainly explain the abrupt “ending”).
— I like Seth and Amy’s side bit with Seth spouting off sleazy weather-related sexual harassment pick-up lines. Why don’t we get these interaction bits between Seth and Amy more often?
— Kenan’s Jean K. Jean character has officially become recurring. A pretty big night for Kenan, between the debut of Lorenzo MacIntosh and the return of Jean K. Jean. The original airdate of this episode is Kenan’s birthday, so perhaps that’s the reason for his fairly big night.
— I’m not enjoying tonight’s Jean K. Jean commentary quite as much as I enjoyed his first one, but Kenan is still making this pretty fun.
— Ah, shortly after I mentioned Kenan’s birthday, we actually get a thinly-veiled on-air mention of it, with Amy saying “Happy 30th birthday, Jean K. Jean” during the audience applause at the end of Jean K. Jean’s commentary.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s talk with host goes astray

— I appreciate how the interview begins with Shia immediately letting Bill’s Vinny Vedecci know he doesn’t speak Italian. The gag at the beginning of all the prior installments of this sketch, in which the interviewee has a very blindsided, taken-aback reaction to Vinny Vedecci starting the interview by speaking in Italian was getting old, so I’m glad they changed it up tonight.
— The Transformers mix-up, with Vinny Vedecci thinking “transformers” means transsexuals, probably won’t hold up well with a lot of people nowadays, and probably guarantees this sketch will get removed if NBC ever airs this episode on SNL Vintage.
— Hilarious bit with Vinny and his cigarette-smoking crew (including an epic Lorne cutaway!) reacting in nervous, guilty silence after learning from Shia that cigarette-smoking can be an arrestable offence.
— Even though the running gag in these Vinny Vedecci sketches with a TV/movie clip getting re-dubbed by Vinny is getting predictable, tonight’s re-dubbed Indiana Jones clip still made me laugh.
— An absolutely great bit regarding the delay with falling snake props from above. One of my favorite bits ever in a Vinny Vedecci sketch.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
Merrill would rather kiss Scott (ANS) than Vicky (KRW)

— Particularly funny theme song lyrics in this one.
— A good laugh from Shia unconvincingly mentioning the parts of Kristen’s body he supposedly can’t stop lustfully thinking about (including her womb).
— The ending with the camera abruptly cutting to a bomb explosion as soon as vomit starts to flow from Shia’s mouth during his forced heterosexual kiss with Kristen is not only absolutely hilarious to me (and is pulled off much better than another “gay man vomits when a woman kisses him” gag SNL previously did in a Liberace sketch with Fred), but, during the original airing back in 2008, that gag caught me so off-guard that it gave me one of the hardest laughs I have EVER gotten from SNL in all my now-21 years of being an SNL viewer. In fact, I laughed so hard at it that I literally fell off of my couch and, while laying on the floor, continued to uncontrollably laugh non-stop for almost the ENTIRE commercial break that followed this MacGruber short. That is not an exaggeration, folks. There are very, VERY few sketches in SNL history that I can say got THAT extreme level of a laughing reaction from me (in fact, not just SNL, but any comedy I’ve ever watched in general), and for that, I will always love this particular MacGruber short, and consider it to be one of my personal all-time favorite SNL pieces.
STARS: *****


ADMIRERS
in a restaurant, (KRW) & (AMP) are thrilled by guys’ uncomfortable stares

— I have really nice nostalgic memories of this sketch, though part of that is because of the great mood I was put in after the aforementioned 2-minute-long extreme laughing fit that the ending of the preceding MacGruber short put me in during the original airing.
— A priceless cutaway to Andy’s goofy, unappealing facial expression as the “irresistible” admirer.
— More hilarious goofy, unappealing facial expressions from Shia and other performers playing “irresistible” admirers.
— This already-funny sketch has now been propelled to an even greater and more memorable level with the “doy doy doy” musical number from the admirers via their inner thoughts.
— Solid ending.
— This sketch was apparently so well-liked at the time that I remember even once seeing it play on a little TV monitor in one of the waiting lines of a supermarket I was at sometime that summer (which is also part of what adds to the aforementioned really nice nostalgic memories I have of this sketch).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Evil Urges”


NEW YORK FUNKY
Georgian (AMP) seeks funky New York styles for daughters (KRW) & (host)

— Amy is basically doing her Nancy Grace voice. Her voice and general demeanor in this sketch also eerily remind me of a history teacher I had in high school.
— Blah. A random and unnecessary reliance on the ol’ man-in-drag comedy trope.
— Second consecutive sketch tonight with Casey stuck in a useless small role where she basically only shows up to call other women beautiful. Something about this utilization of Casey seems a tad demeaning to me, but such is the life of a new featured player, I guess. It hurts more in this particular case with Casey, though, because we now know that her SNL trajectory unfortunately ends up not officially going past this stage.
— I kinda like something about the general aura of this sketch, but the sketch itself and Amy’s character’s constant catchphrases (“funky”, “no…YES!”, etc.) are not doing it for me. A blah way to end such a strong episode.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not only was this yet another good episode this season, but I found this episode to be particularly strong. In fact, I’d say it’s one of my all-time favorites from this late 2000s era of SNL. Aside from two big misses with the Digital Short and the New York Funky sketch, every single segment worked for me, and a lot of segments stood out as particularly great and memorable, two of which are absolute favorites of mine (Parts 2 and 3 of the MacGruber runner, Part 3 of which, as detailed earlier, gave me one of the pure hardest and longest laughs I’ve ever gotten from SNL). Another thing I love about this episode is that, for so many years, I’ve felt (and still do, to this day) that it epitomizes a lot of what I like about this late 2000s era of SNL. If I had to pick an episode that best represents the general feel and style of this SNL era (much like what I said at the end of my Steve Martin/Blues Brothers episode review here), tonight’s episode would definitely be at least one of my top picks, if not THE top pick.
— Shia LaBeouf hosting for two consecutive seasons, and both of those episodes being good, fun, and containing at least one really memorable thing, made it seem at the time like he was on his way to becoming a frequent host, but nope, this second hosting stint of his ends up being his last. Perhaps the…rather odd trajectory his career took sometime after 2008 put the kibosh on him becoming a frequent SNL host. Kind of a shame, as I actually enjoyed his presence as a host in both of his hosting stints (especially tonight’s episode), and I felt he worked really well with the male cast in tonight’s episode. It seemed like he was getting better and better as a host with each passing episode. I would’ve liked to have seen if the trend of both him getting better and his episodes containing at least one very memorable piece would’ve continued after this.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 33 comes to an end, with host Steve Carell

Posted on

April 12, 2008 – Ashton Kutcher / Gnarls Barkley (S33 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PETRAEUS REPORT ON IRAQ
presidential candidates ask General Petraeus (WLF) self-serving questions

— Interesting and unusual casting of Andy as Carl Levin.
— Ha, until now, I had forgotten all about Bill’s hilarious Robert Byrd impression, which makes its debut here.
— I see Bill’s taking a page out of Fred’s playbook by doing the “wandering aimlessly in front of the camera and blocking the person who’s speaking” gag.
— Boy, in the tradition of many of this era’s Jim Downey-written C-SPAN cold openings utilizing a lot of cast members, this is going on WAY too long. Unlike some of Downey’s other overlong cold openings from this era, this one actually has a good number of decently funny lines, but there’s still some SERIOUS trimming that needs to be done to this cold opening. The length is very unnecessary, and is somewhat hurting this for me.
— The funny part with Will’s Petraeus calling out Amy’s Hillary Clinton on her lie about being the inspiration for the song “My Sharona” is made even funnier by it being accompanied by a cutaway to the real Hillary Clinton book with Amy superimposed on the cover.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
busybody host demonstrates his producer skills with cast members backstage

— I’m always a sucker for this type of backstage monologue.
— When Ashton Kutcher tells Will “I love that Falcon guy that you play” (a line made even funnier when you remember Ashton actually appeared in one of those Falconer sketches before), I love Will desperately responding “Oh, will you tell Lorne that?!?”
— The whole bit with Andy trying to get some weed from Kenan is not only very funny, but actually appears to be a dig at a real-life incident that had happened with Kenan just a few weeks prior to this episode, where he got pulled over by a cop and was nearly arrested for possession of marijuana in his car, but saved himself with an explanation to the cop (I think Kenan lied about it being his friend’s weed, or something like that). This leads me to ask this rather odd question: has any cast member in SNL history ever gotten arrested during their SNL tenure? I guess the obvious answer is no, because I’d probably know about something big like that if it ever happened. It is kinda funny and bizarre to think that Kenan freakin’ Thompson, of all people, almost became the very first cast member in SNL history to get arrested during their SNL tenure.
STARS: ***½


THE COUGAR DEN
(AMP), (KRW), (CAW), (Cameron Diaz) prefer younger men

— The debut of a recurring sketch that I’ve often forgotten about in recent years.
— Nice opening title graphic.
— A good use of the female cast.
— Kristen’s blowjoy/“Well, it’s certainly not a job” line was hilarious.
— I remember being very surprised by Cameron Diaz’s random cameo when this sketch originally aired.
— Fun performance from Cameron here.
— Another great line from the three main ladies, this time Amy’s line about her telling young men “It’s not gonna be as gross as you think” when she’s about to have sex with them.
— Kenan always kills in roles like this.
— Ashton’s “Their ex-husbands have been pretty cool so far” line was a funny self-reference in regards to how close he famously was with Bruce Willis during his marriage to Demi Moore.
STARS: ***½


WAITING WITH OLIVER
upset by un-diverse That ’70s Show, club doorman (KET) denies host entry

— Fred attempts a new character…….aaaaaand it’s a flop, continuing Fred’s disheartening hit-and-miss season. (I almost want to argue he’s sadly had more misses than hits this season, but I’m not sure how accurate that would be without looking back at all of his performances this season. I think his misses just stand out to me more because, for the longest time, I used to deem this to be a good season for him.)
— I love the ridiculous two-men-in-one-coat bit with Andy.
— This is becoming a fun ensemble piece with almost everybody in the cast each getting a funny walk-on character, one-by-one.
— Of the extras playing the various old guys Jason brings to the club, one of them appears to be the same actor who starred in the “Grandkids In The Movies” Digital Short from this season’s Tina Fey episode.
— I love Amy’s “Eat shoe, bitch!” bit.
— Ha, a brief Lyle Kane walk-on from Will! This ends up being the final appearance of this short-lived but hilarious recurring character.
— Strong ending regarding the non-existent black guy on That 70s Show.
STARS: ****


DAIQUIRI GIRL
absence of musical guest leads to awful “Daiquiri Girl” music video

— The hell? Even for Lonely Island standards, this Digital Short so far is just…WTF?
— Now we’re getting a text crawl from Lonely Island admitting they’re aware this short is not up to par, then explaining that they were supposed to film a Digital Short with tonight’s musical guest, Gnarls Barkley, who ended up standing Lonely Island up at the last minute (is this true?), which resulted in Lonely Island filming this low-budget, half-assed, intentionally bad music video.
— Overall, wow. Not quite sure how to react to this short. I guess, thinking back on it, I got enough chuckles while watching this, between the intentionally bad music video and the self-deprecating disclaimer. Lonely Island’s probably one of the few people who can make something awful like this work…somewhat.
STARS: ***


ACTIVIA COMMERCIAL SHOOT
Jamie Lee Curtis (KRW) overeats Activia yogurt during commercial shoot

— Much like the Surprise Sue sketch in the preceding episode, this is another Kristen Wiig sketch that got a lot of acclaim and online buzz back when this originally aired, while I myself had a very mixed, rather lukewarm reaction to it. Stuff like this and the first Surprise Sue sketch made me feel like I was slowly starting to drift apart from what was considered popular among SNL fans at this time, and made me also feel like I was slowly starting to drift apart from what I liked so much about Kristen as a performer (my drifting-apart from the latter would sadly continue even further the following season, when Kristen’s SNL trajectory starts REALLY going downhill and SNL’s over-utilization of her starts becoming detrimental to her female castmates’ airtime). We’ll see how I’ll feel about this sketch now.
— Funny story from Kristen’s Jamie Lee Curtis regarding taking her top off for a magazine shoot.
— Kristen’s performance is certainly strong here (she’s making me laugh far more here than she did in the preceding episode’s Surprise Sue sketch), but I’m iffy on the main comedic conceit of this sketch.
— Didn’t care for the ending. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, in which the ending was a bit different and came off better.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Run (I’m A Natural Disaster)”


WEEKEND UPDATE
nervous Judy Grimes (KRW) repeatedly negates herself with “just kidding”

Nicholas Fehn’s false starts don’t add up to brilliant insights

— For the second consecutive episode, Kristen debuts one of her most remembered recurring characters, Judy Grimes, a.k.a. the “Just Kidding” lady. And for the THIRD time in these last two episodes alone, we get a Kristen Wiig performance that garnered a lot of internet buzz and acclaim from SNL fans back at this time. We’ve definitely reached the point of Kristen’s SNL tenure where she’s become the media darling of the then-current SNL cast.
— A funny and VERY impressive increasingly rapid-fire, almost-inhuman delivery from Kristen. I remember how much this stunned me back when this episode originally aired.
— I wonder what the cue cards for Kristen’s Judy Grimes commentaries look like. Is her long-winded, fast-paced dialogue squeezed in a very compact manner onto just two or three cue cards, or does SNL use A LOT of cue cards to cover all of Judy Grimes’ dialogue?
— Speaking of cue cards, we get YET ANOTHER Nicholas Fehn appearance, and it’s been said that SNL supposedly never uses cue cards for this character’s commentaries, because his commentaries are supposedly improvised. I have no trouble believing that. Between the Judy Grimes commentary and now this, tonight’s Weekend Update must be an unusual, interesting night for the cue card guy. If he indeed had to display a whole bunch of cue cards for the Judy Grimes commentary, then I’m sure he’s appreciating the breather he gets during the supposedly-cue-card-less Nicholas Fehn commentary.
— Just as I was afraid of, fatigue and diminishing returns are starting to fully set in for me towards Nicholas Fehn in this third appearance of his. While I’m still getting an occasional laugh here, I’m not finding myself laughing anywhere near as much at this same routine that had me practically in stitches in Fehn’s first two appearances.
STARS: ***


SONG MEMORIES
“Amie” evokes odious recollections in (host) & other icky reminiscers

— Meh, I saw the coma patient punchline of Jason’s story coming (though I thought the punchline would be that his girlfriend is dead, not in a coma, but it’s close enough). Jason’s meh punchline was somewhat salvaged by his hilarious addendum during the chorus-singing: “Man, oh, man, I love bein’ a doctor.”
— Hmm, for once, the song playing in one of these Song Memories sketch doesn’t remind Bill’s character of “muh dad”. Instead, his story this time is about Connie Chung.
— Will’s “Pedophile? That’s a pretty big word for a 10-year-old” punchline, while hilarious, is a famous oldie that’s been around LONG before this sketch, and I remember being bugged back at this time in 2008 that so many online SNL fans were giving SNL so much credit and high praise for such a clever punchline that the writer of this sketch seemingly just took from an old Dirty Jokes book.
— Wow, Ashton’s story is just plain weak.
— Even the twist ending that these Song Memories sketches always contain fell flat for me this time.
— Overall, this was sadly and surprisingly subpar for a Song Memories sketch.
STARS: **


DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar (host) knifes a homeless man

— Wow. This overall pre-taped piece was so brief, random, and dark, but I absolutely LOVED it, and the “Death By Chocolate” reveal at the end was perfect. I’m looking forward to the next two parts of this runner.
STARS: ****½


THE MELLOW SHOW
Jack Johnson (ANS), Dave Matthews (BIH), John Mayer (host) keep it mellow

— The return of Andy’s Jack Johnson impression, which was one of the first big roles Andy ever got on SNL when his impression last appeared in that JJ Casuals commercial from season 31. Interesting seeing his impression placed in a new setting this time. Unfortunately, it’s the tired talk show setting.
— Funny and spot-on Dave Matthews impression from Bill.
— I like the walk-on from Kenan as a violin-playing Boyd Tinsley during Bill-as-Dave-Matthews’ short musical number.
— Ashton’s John Mayer is pretty much a non-impression.
— Well, at least Ashton is now imitating John Mayer’s trademark facial expressions while playing the guitar.
— Ha, Andy’s Jack Johnson actually mentions the JJ Casuals commercial as the sponsor of this talk show. I love this continuity nod on SNL’s part.
STARS: ***


DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar offs a doctor (JAS) & his patient

— Wow, you gotta love Ashton’s character’s delightfully sadistic and elaborate actions here: shooting an innocent doctor (excellent reaction from Jason to getting shot, by the way), planting the gun in a comatose hospital patient’s hand, then VIOLENTLY yanking out the patient’s life support tubes and wires.
— I recall hearing these Death By Chocolate shorts were directed by movie director Jason Reitman, which I guess explains why they feel so different and refreshing for SNL.
— Overall, even better than the first one. Absolutely perfect, and caters 100% to my kind of dark humor.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”


THE RUSTY PONY
with (host)’s help, paralyzed stripper Dusty Velvet (CAW) does her act

— Casey Wilson’s biggest and most remembered showcase of her short-lived SNL tenure. This is also a comedy routine she had done prior to SNL. There is (or used to be) an online video of her pre-SNL version of this sketch.
— An un-PC but strong and daring concept for a sketch, and Casey is executing it perfectly.
— My only mild complaint about this great sketch is that it’s relying a little too heavily on the cutaways to the straight man characters having a frozen look of shock on their face in reaction to what they’re witnessing, a habit SNL relies on way too heavily in this era, as I mentioned in some earlier reviews.
— I love Andy’s absolutely horrified reaction when Casey licks his face.
— Solid ending.
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember thinking it was Casey’s official breakout moment that would lead to her getting more airtime and having a successful SNL tenure. Sadly, fate would have a completely different outcome for Casey’s SNL tenure, and this sketch, instead of now being considered a “An SNL star is born” piece, is now wistfully looked back on as an example of what might’ve been.
STARS: ****½


DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
a large candy bar attacks ANS with a chainsaw

— A very short and simple but solid and effective conclusion to the Death By Chocolate runner, even if nothing will ever top the second installment. I also liked how this third installment was SNL-related, with it taking place backstage.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode that contained some VERY high highs, mainly in the post-Weekend Update half. The dark, brilliant Death By Chocolate shorts in particular were a strong highlight, and were easily the best SNL has ever utilized four-timer Ashton Kutcher.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Shia LaBeouf

Posted on

April 5, 2008 – Christopher Walken / Panic At The Disco (S33 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT
media disclosure of their wealth bugs Bill (DAH) & Hillary (AMP) Clinton

— Some pretty funny lines from the Clintons regarding their taxes.
— A very good laugh from Amy’s Hillary Clinton saying, immediately after her announcement that she’s stepping aside for the Obama campaign, “Psych! That’s never gonna happen”, then going on to brag about exactly how long she intends to drag out her campaign.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host has audience members ask him questions that he wrote

— Feels like it’s been too long since I’ve last reviewed a Christopher Walken-hosted episode. Sadly, this ends up being the FINAL Christopher Walken-hosted episode I’ll ever get to review, unless he comes back to host sometime in the current SNL era before I complete this SNL project of mine.
— Already a good Walken-y oddball comment early on from Christopher claiming this is his 100th time hosting, because he counts reruns.
— Interesting how Christopher announces he wants to do something different for his monologue. This is the one and only time out of all of his hosting stints that he refrains from doing a song-and-dance number for his monologue. As much as I always enjoy that type of monologue whenever he does it (which is more than I can say for most of the other hosts who have done it), it’s refreshing to have a change tonight, especially since the two preceding monologues (Amy Adams, Jonah Hill) were both song-and-dance monologues. I wonder if there’s ever been a time in SNL history where they’ve had three or more consecutive episodes with a song-and-dance monologue.
— Such a great Walken-y concept with him having written the questions he takes from the audience. A perfect twist to the usual questions-from-the-audience format.
— It feels pretty funny seeing an onscreen Jim Downey appearance so soon after that somewhat-raunchy Digital Short he co-starred in with Jonah Hill in the preceding episode. I can just picture some of the more casual SNL fans saying “Hey, it’s Andy’s dad!” when they saw Downey in this monologue.
— I love how Christopher is starting to admonish the audience members for their “bad” questions, despite the fact that he’s the one who wrote them.
— A hilarious answer from Christopher on what his favorite color is: burnt umber.
— Christopher claiming how easy it is to read off of cards during his complaints about John Lutz’s perceived difficulty in reading off of his index card is a great subtle self-deprecating dig at Christopher’s own penchant for always staring at the cue cards on SNL.
STARS: ****½


ANNUALE
— Rerun from 2/23/08. A bit odd how they’re repeating this tonight, given the fact that it co-stars the host from the episode it originally aired in – Tina Fey.
— Tonight’s audience is even more lively during this repeated commercial than the audience was during the original airing of this commercial. Even Casey’s intentionally cheesy little “That’s all I have time for” line got a huge laugh from tonight’s audience.


GREASE REHEARSAL
teacher (host) nonsensically bowdlerizes high school production of Grease

— I love Christopher’s reaction to the dirty “chicks will cream” lyric in “Greased Lightning”.
— Very funny how Christopher keeps saying “No, shut up” whenever a student suggests an alternate lyric.
— Christopher’s ways of saying “That’s dirty” are increasingly hilarious.
— I’m noticing Christopher’s timing is very slow and delayed during certain portions of this sketch, even moreso than it usually is. I wonder if it’s because of how much older he is in this episode. However, in true Walken fashion, he still makes his particularly slower, more delayed timing work.
— Funny and memorable how Christopher picks Gene Rayburn as a dirty lyric substitution.
— Charming to see Christopher joining the guys in their song-and-dance at the end of this sketch, especially since we never got to see him do a song-and-dance in tonight’s monologue.
STARS: ****½


ERIC’S GOODBYE
on his last day, (JAS) learns workplace acquaintance (host) is a stalker

— Looks like we’re in for a typical great “Walken plays a creepy lunatic” sketch. Always an absolute treat.
— Such a great Walken-y line, with him lovingly describing Jason as “a moist towelette at the end of a delicious plate of ribs.”
— More and more, I’m seeing that Christopher’s timing is definitely slower tonight. Not a real complaint from me, though.
— I love the loud and infectious laugh (“hahh-HAAAAHH!”) I’m hearing from one guy in the audience all throughout this sketch.
— Christopher is slaying me with his increasingly unsettling devotions to Jason.
— Great ending with Christopher deeply contemplating whether he should let Jason go or chase him into a park, choke him to death, and make love to his corpse for the rest his (Christopher’s) life. This is made even better by the great little touch with soft music playing in the background during this deep contemplation of Christopher’s.
STARS: ****½


LASER CATS! 3D
LOM & Chris Dodd [real] watch feline sci-fi trilogy end

— Ah, our annual Laser Cats short.
— Chris Dodd becomes the latest of MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race.
— I like the absurdity of Andy and Bill whipping out a TV and VCR at a restaurant, of all places.
— Ooh, a “3-D” Laser Cats.
— Great fake-out with this short making us think Andy and Bill are gruesomely going to “off” two very real cats, via a handgun and a hammer, before they suddenly get interrupted.
— Fun scene with Bill almost getting sucked into space through the open hatch.
— Hilarious brief cutaway to a deadpan Lorne and Chris Dodd watching the Laser Cats movie while wearing 3-D glasses.
— Strong twist with Andy using his healed, now-bionic eye to shoot open the lock on the cage that’s holding various Laser Cats.
— Hmm, for once, a Laser Cats Digital Short doesn’t end with Lorne telling Andy and Bill “Get out”. I was mistaken when I said in my previous Laser Cats reviews that that’s how all Laser Cats shorts end.
STARS: ****


SURPRISE
Sue (KRW) can’t contain her excitement over prospect of a surprise party

— This character of Kristen’s makes her debut.
— This inaugural Surprise Sue sketch was a HUGE hit among viewers back when it originally aired. It got a lot of online buzz and so much acclaim from so many SNL fans, who basically considered this sketch an instant, modern-day classic. (I even saw someone at the time compare the instant popularity of this sketch to that of the very first Matt Foley sketch.) I, on the other hand, had a VERY mixed, rather lukewarm reaction to this sketch at the time…and that’s BEFORE I was aware it would become a tiring and unnecessary recurring sketch.
— Christopher’s typical delivery is making some of his subtly-odd lines even funnier and creepier.
— Two minutes into this sketch, and I’m caring even LESS for it than I did when it originally aired.
— Ah, Kristen finally got me. I got a pretty good laugh just now from her Sue character going through the trouble of smashing a bottle over her head just to keep herself from compulsively telling Casey they’re holding a surprise party for her.
— Meh at Sue jumping through the window. Not even her doing it twice could get a laugh from me. There’s too much of an increasing desperation in the writing of Sue’s wild actions that just isn’t doing it for me.
— Overall, yeah, despite one or two parts that I really liked, I’m gonna have to call this sketch severely overrated. I guess I can see why people love it, but it’s not for me.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nine In The Afternoon”


WEEKEND UPDATE
pregnant man Thomas Beatie (ANS) invites SEM & AMP to his baby shower

— Wow, until now, I had completely forgotten about that pregnant guy (Thomas Beatie) who’s Andy’s playing.
— Most of Andy’s commentary is pretty meh. This is usually the type of thing that he’s good at making work, but I’m finding this commentary only mildly funny at best.
— I do like Seth ad-libbing by calling Andy out on how he’s overdoing it by constantly turning back and forth to show off his pregnant belly in a profile angle. These past two seasons, I’ve sometimes been noticing a very friendly little rivalry of sorts going on between Andy and Seth.
— Something even funnier about Amy’s harsh-but-great crack at Madonna is the fact that, when this episode originally aired, this Weekend Update was followed by a commercial break that immediately started with a commercial promoting an album or concert (I forget which) of Madonna’s.
— I like Seth milking his staring-down of the camera after his final joke.
— A surprisingly pretty short Update overall.
STARS: ***


WALKEN FAMILY REUNION
at the Walken family reunion, host greets kin with similar vocal patterns

— The beginning of what would be go on to be an occasional tradition for SNL, doing a family reunion sketch featuring the host’s relatives being either exactly like him or his movie/TV characters.
— Almost right out of the gate, we start this sketch off well with Bill doing a spot-on Walken imitation as the first Walken relative seen in the sketch.
— Amy’s whole Walken-voiced rant about ghosts and “spooky behaviors” is memorable, and steals the whole sketch.
— Fun how we’re gradually seeing pretty much the whole cast do Walken impressions, either one-by-one or in groups.
— Oh, god. Fred as a gay Walken?
— Wow, Fred’s Walken impression is just plain AWFUL. He just sounds like a nasally-congested New Yorker. And the weak just-came-out-of-the-closet gay conceit of his character just makes his Walken impression even worse. Leave it to Fred to be the one sour note of this otherwise enjoyable sketch. I hate to say it, but while doing these episode reviews, I’ve been noticing lately that Fred’s definitely not as strong in these past two seasons (32 and 33) as I used to think. For many years, I used to divide Fred’s long SNL tenure into two separate, simple eras: the mostly strong Fred Armisen years (seasons 28-34) and the mostly bad Fred Armisen years (seasons 35-38). Doing these reviews lately, however, has made me realize that Fred’s tenure can actually be divided into THREE separate, slightly more complicated eras: the mostly strong Fred Armisen years (seasons 28-31), the very hit-and-miss, “Something unfortunate is looming ahead” Fred Armisen years (seasons 32-34), and the unfortunate, mostly bad Fred Armisen years (seasons 35-38).
— Unlike Fred, Kenan’s iffy attempt at a Walken at least has a charming “So bad, it’s good” quality, especially since nobody in their right mind would’ve expected Kenan to nail a Walken impression anyway.
— I see SNL is once again letting Casey Wilson know her status as a newbie, as she’s the ONLY cast member (not including the Update-only Seth, of course) who’s excluded from this sketch. Even Will, despite not appearing as a Walken-sounding family member, at least played the waiter at the very beginning of this, presumably because he doesn’t know how to do a Walken impression, and didn’t feel comfortable attempting one. (Leslie Jones would later have this same role in the Carrey Family Reunion sketch, presumably for the same reason. I have yet to see the Sandler Family Reunion sketch, given the fact that it aired during the period of my still-ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes, and thus, I don’t know who in the cast played the Will Forte/Leslie Jones role as the waiter in that version.)
— Overall, a fun sketch, but not as strong as I had remembered it. I also feel it kinda pales in comparison to the later Carrey Family Reunion sketch. (We’ll see how I’ll feel about the Sandler Family Reunion sketch when we reach it. I’ve heard many positive things about it, though.)
STARS: ***½


INDOOR GARDENING TIPS FROM A MAN WHO’S VERY SCARED OF PLANTS
floraphobic (host) puts himself at ease by adding googly eyes to plants

— An absolutely PERFECT oddball concept for Christopher.
— The aforementioned audience member with the loud and infectious “hahh-HAAAAHH!” laugh from the Eric’s Goodbye sketch earlier tonight has been heard at some other points of tonight’s episode, especially at the beginning of this sketch.
— Christopher’s delivery of “If enough of these ferns lodge themselves down your throat…psssh…you’d CHOKE” had me practically rolling on the floor.
— I absolutely love Christopher’s yell of “OPE!” or “DAAH!” whenever he’s initially startled by a plant he comes across.
— Christopher’s execution of this whole sketch in general so top-notch.
— Christopher’s ending line: “The great Winston Churchill once said the eyes…are the windows…to your FACE.”
STARS: *****


TOP CHEF
(host) can’t cope with time constraints & limited ingredients

— Another spoof of a Bravo reality show I’ve never watched, but this spoof is much easier for me to follow than that Project Runway-related sketch from two episodes prior.
— The increasingly ridiculous ingredients that the contestants are given to make their meal are funny.
— A fairly promising premise with Christopher being a bewildered Top Chef contestant who doesn’t understand the show and questions everything he witnesses.
— Hmm, this sketch isn’t turning out as funny as I expected, despite some occasional laughs from Christopher.
— I couldn’t decipher Christopher’s final line, when he was told to pack up his knives and leave. Did he say “Who knew from knives”? What does that even mean in this context?
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”


LARRY KING LIVE
Jimmy Carter (DAH) admits nobody reads his books

— Meh, Fred’s Larry King…
— Darrell’s Jimmy Carter impression is always pretty funny.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? I kept waiting and waiting for this sketch to start taking off, yet it ended before it ever took off. The laughs were extremely mild at best.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An overall solid episode, though the quality dropped off pretty hard with the last two sketches. The first half of this episode had a lot of strong material, and both halves of this episode gave us some terrific Walken-centric oddball sketches as highly anticipated. Speaking of which, Christopher Walken was his usual hilarious, legendary self, even with his timing being noticeably slower than it was in his prior hosting stints (again, I chalk this up to being an age thing). Also, it’s interesting how this episode ditched the two biggest traditions of prior Christopher Walken episodes: a song-and-dance monologue and a Continental sketch. Regarding the latter, I’ve never heard a reason for why SNL refrained from doing it in this episode. Was Christopher tired of doing them, or was he just eager to try lots of new, different things in this episode? If we were only going to get one solo Christopher Walken sketch tonight, I’d definitely take Indoor Gardening Tips From A Man Who’s etc. over another Continental.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonah Hill)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ashton Kutcher

Posted on

March 15, 2008 – Jonah Hill / Mariah Carey (S33 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SPITZER & ASSOCIATES
in private practice, Eliot Spitzer (BIH) will handle sex-related cases

— Good to see a change of pace from all the Hillary/Obama cold openings that the show had been doing lately. Also great to see Bill play the lead in a cold opening, which feels very rare in these early seasons of his SNL tenure.
— I like the voice Bill’s doing here. 12 years after this Eliot Spitzer scandal, I now no longer have any recollection of what Spitzer’s voice sounds like, but I recall finding Bill’s vocal impression of him to be spot-on when this originally aired.
— A good laugh from the “1-800-T-A-W-D-R-Y” phone number.
— Without even saying a single word in this entire cold opening, Kristen is still doing such great work conveying the anger of her role as Spitzer’s wife.
— I absolutely HOWLED at Bill-as-Spitzer’s initially-calm-then-suddenly-loudly-angry delivery of “You, by the side of the road, wrapped in PLASTIC!!!!!”
— Lots of pretty funny lines regarding the sex-related cases Spitzer and his law firm will take on.
— Good little touch with how, after Bill-as-Spitzer’s “Live from New York…”, instead of SNL immediately cutting to the opening montage like usual, the camera precedes the opening montage by panning over to a silent Kristen-as-Spitzer’s-wife’s frowny face, keeping up the theme of her having a cold, unhappy demeanor throughout this cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
to combat his crude big-screen image, host sings about how he is fancy

— OH, GOD. A musical monologue for the second consecutive episode? Come on, SNL.
— I do like Jonah’s “fancy dance”, at least.
— A fairly funny cutaway to Amy as Jonah’s Grandma Nancy.
— An unintentional laugh from Jonah’s line flub when he tells us, through song, to “kliss” his classy ass.
STARS: **


MACGRUBER
competency questions bring about a crisis of confidence for MacGruber

— Feels pretty nice to see a MacGruber short right after the monologue for once.
— Due to Maya Rudolph’s then-recent departure from the show, the regular character played by her in these MacGruber shorts has been replaced with a new soon-to-be regular character played by Kristen.
— A pretty good laugh from the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion happening right at the turn where MacGruber suddenly starts to ask, in a worried, sincere voice, “You really think I’m not good at my jo–”.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S YOUR SITUATION?
emcee (host) thinks game show is a singles bar

— Not too sure about this premise.
— I like Casey’s delivery of “Because….I….love my husband….?” when unhappily asked by a sleazy Jonah why she’s married.
— Jonah is at least executing this fairly well, surprisingly.
— I don’t know why, but in a weird way, this sketch feels to me kinda like a poor man’s precursor to the following season’s superior I’m Gonna Have Sex With Your Wife game show sketch with Bradley Cooper, despite that sketch having pretty much a completely different concept than the one this sketch has.
— I spoke a bit too soon in my compliment of Jonah’s performance, as his timing seemed kinda off at the end.
— At least this overall sketch was pretty short, but that may have been part of the problem, as it kinda feels like they didn’t really explore this concept enough. Then again, I’m not sure what else they could’ve done with this concept.
STARS: **


SIX YEAR OLD
precocious 6 year-old Adam (host) treats Benihana like a Borscht Belt gig

— The debut of what would go on to be a staple of most Jonah Hill-hosted episodes (I think his 2016 episode has been the only one without this sketch, as of 2020).
— Solid concept of Jonah playing a very precocious six-year-old who talks like a Borscht Belt comedian.
— Jonah is strong here, and his performance is a lot of fun. I’m also loving his endless amount of wisecracks.
— Overall, a great debut. We’ll see how I’ll feel about the subsequent installments of this sketch. I remember being so increasingly frustrated that those installments take place in the EXACT SAME Benihana location that this first installment took place in. So lazy. There are so many promising locations you can place Jonah’s character in. Why use the Benihana setting EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME?
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s paranoia over backstabbers results in abdication

— A very funny shot at the end of the opening title sequence, with MacGruber walking past the camera while rudely giving everyone the finger.
— This overall short, and the general conceit of tonight’s MacGruber shorts, was better than I had remembered it, but still don’t quite measure up to typical strong MacGruber shorts.
— Strangely, tonight’s SNL episode ends up not showing the third part of tonight’s MacGruber runner. It would be put online shortly after the original airing of this episode. From what my admittedly-fuzzy memory of it recalls, it involved Bill as some kind of therapist/trainer helping a very unconfident, practically-catatonic MacGruber in one of those control rooms that MacGruber and his assistants are always locked in, and the short ended with MacGruber aimlessly and repeatedly banging the leg of a chair onto a table before the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion.
STARS: ***½


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
financial questions receive thrifty responses from Suze Orman (KRW)

— The debut of Kristen’s Suze Orman impression. Wow, I had completely forgotten about this recurring Suze Orman sketch until now.
— Kristen’s portrayal of Orman is very funny, and her delivery of every single line she has is making them fun.
— I like the interplay between Kristen’s Orman and Jonah’s character.
STARS: ***½


ANDY’S DAD
ANS is distressed to learn that his dad (JID) is going out with host

— I remember finding this short to be a laugh riot when it originally aired in 2008, but the crass, cheap homoerotic premise doesn’t seem like the type of thing that will hold up quite as well in today’s age. Then again, Lonely Island has proven that they can make good shorts out of crass, cheap homoerotic premises and have it still hold up well today (e.g. Roy Rules, Iran So Far).
— A very interesting use of Jim Downey.
— Aaaaaand there goes the obligatory cheap, unnecessary, hacky attempt at a laugh with a man-on-man kiss (which I previously praised Lonely Island for refraining from doing in the aforementioned Iran So Far short). However, I do love how the kiss is immediately followed by a cutaway to a close-up of Andy with a VERY stern, frozen expression on his face (the sixth above screencap for this Digital Short).
— A big laugh from how Jonah lowering his head while laughing with Jim Downey turns into Jonah lowering his head further and going down on Jim below the camera view.
— Aside from the aforementioned kiss, I’m actually enjoying this short. Yet another example of Lonely Island executing a potentially-dodgy homoerotic premise well.
— Bill caps this short off well with his hilarious ending line, “We’ve been f(*bleep*)in’!”, followed by the screen doing a freeze-frame on him smiling at the camera while a random “Created by Lorne Michaels” credit is displayed onscreen.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Touch My Body”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Eliot Spitzer’s whoring

TRM’s electoral assessment- “black is the new president, bitch”

— Ha, the photo of Eliot Spitzer making a goofy-looking ashamed, disgraced face (the first above screencap for this Update) was shown a lot in the news and online back at this time, and used to always crack me up back then.
— Good ad-lib from Seth after Amy flubbed her Brita joke.
— Good to see Seth and Amy doing a “Really?!?” on the Spitzer scandal. This should be good.
— An overall pretty solid edition of “Really?!?”, even if it trailed off for me a little towards the end, though not even that was anything bad.
— Ha, not only does Colin Jost make his way into yet another comical Update photo, but we get to see him with what appears to be a natural beard! (the third-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update)
— Tracy Morgan cameo!
— Tracy seems to have facially aged a lot in such a short amount of time since his last cameo prior to this, in the preceding season’s Alec Baldwin episode.
— As usual, Tracy is killing it here. He has an endless number of funny remarks. He’s even getting laughs from some of his non-verbal actions.
— Tracy brings up the “Bitch is the new black” declaration Tina Fey memorably made on Update three episodes prior, and has this epic rebuttal to it: “Bitch may be the new black…..but black is the new president, bitch.” Classic line.
STARS: ***½


TARGET
Target Lady advises daft fellow employee (host) on how to woo co-worker

— (*groan*)
— Well, at least we got a fairly long break from Target Lady, as her last appearance prior to this was in February 2007.
— Not caring for Jonah in this sketch. He’s trying too hard to play “quirky” and “twitchy”, and it’s coming off too forced.
— Seeing all those boxes of Nilla Wafers in Will’s shopping basket makes me hungry as hell. I haven’t had Nilla Wafers in ages.
STARS: **


NBC SPECIAL REPORT
Brian Williams (WLF) presents evidence proving John McCain (DAH) is old

— Hmm, something seems off about Will’s Brian Williams voice tonight. It’s not as spot-on as it was in the previous appearance Will’s Brian Williams impression made. He’s lacking the dry cadence of Williams’ voice that he nailed last time. Tonight, he just sounds like Will Forte talking in a slow voice.
— A pretty funny formal, professional announcement from Will’s Williams that “John McCain is, in fact, old.”
— The debut of Darrell’s John McCain impression.
— Just like I remember finding it to be, Darrell’s McCain impression is fine, but boring. I know that McCain himself is not exactly an exciting man to impersonate, but I’ve seen some actual funny McCain impressions from other comedians. Darrell’s take on McCain is just adequate, but nothing more. The idea of his boring McCain impression being paired with Fred’s awful (not to mention also-boring) Obama impression in the following season’s presidential debate sketches has me worried for how those sketches are going to turn out. Actually, I have only one Obama/McCain debate sketch to review anyway, as two of the three Obama/McCain debate sketches appear in Weekend Update Thursday specials.
— This is the second consecutive episode in which Fred has barely appeared in any sketches. I remember how, back at this time in 2008, I took Fred’s sudden huge drop in airtime as a sign that SNL was very hesitant to use him in sketches after the backlash he and SNL received for his then-new Obama impression. (For anyone wondering how strong that backlash was, well, you’re obviously aware that it wasn’t strong enough to get SNL to yank Fred out of the Obama role back at this time.)
— This sketch is basically just a parade of stereotypical jokes about old people, but it’s working decently enough, especially the bit with Fred and Amy questioning McCain.
STARS: ***


CLANCY T. BACHLERATT AND JACKIE SNAD SING SONGS ABOUT SPACESHIPS, TODDLERS, MODEL T. CARS & JARS OF BEER
Clancy T. Bachleratt (WLF) & Jackie Snad (KRW) do what the title above says

— Oh, I recall this being a fantastic bizarre Forte/Wiig sketch.
— Very funny reveal of the album title, seen above as the title of this sketch in my review. (There’s no way I’m typing all those words a second time.)
— Will and Kristen’s absurd toddler/beer jars/spaceship/Model T-related songs are absolutely PRICELESS.
— Wow, Jonah’s doing a great Horatio Sanz impression! Seriously, what’s going on with him? Why is he laughing his way through this entire sketch, for no apparent reason? (He’d later do the same thing in a J-Pop America Funtime Now sketch in his second hosting stint.) Did he…uh…take a little toke in his dressing room right before this sketch or something?
— The new National Anthem song at the end is particularly hilarious, made even funnier by Will’s insane facial expressions.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & T-Pain [real] perform “Migrate”


FACE TO FACE
upon meeting in real life, (CAW) finds that (host) is an online liar

Sadly, this sketch is strangely missing from the copy I’m currently watching of this episode. Too bad, as it features Casey Wilson in a fairly rare co-starring role. If you’re curious to see my thoughts on this sketch, read it here in the original 2008 review I did back when this episode originally aired (the sketch is titled “Online Dating” in my review). And a screencap can be seen here on SNL Archives’ page for this sketch, if you’re curious what this sketch looks like, given how mysterious and seemingly-forgotten the sketch is, and the fact that I can’t find an online video of it to link to.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Even though only about two or three things stood out to me as strong, most of the sketches were enjoyable, and there wasn’t much that dragged this episode down.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Adams)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christopher Walken returns for his seventh and final (as of 2020) hosting stint

Posted on

March 8, 2008 – Amy Adams / Vampire Weekend (S33 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CALL DRAMATIZATION
panicky president Barack Obama (FRA) calls Hillary Clinton (AMP) at 3am

— Interesting format for a cold opening, with most of this being a pre-taped attack ad consisting only of still photos and voice-overs. I like this change of pace for a cold opening.
— Some pretty good laughs from Fred-as-Barack-Obama’s angry, bleep-filled rant.
— I love Fred’s Obama asking “The wwwwwhat treaty?!?” in response to Poehler’s Hillary Clinton mentioning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
— Fred’s Obama voice still isn’t good, but at least it’s better than that ridiculous, Hanna-Barbera cartoon-esque voice he used in the preceding episode.
— The advice Poehler’s Hillary is giving Fred’s Obama on increasingly minor things is pretty funny.
— The live, post-ad message from Poehler’s Hillary feels kinda unnecessary and a little overlong, despite a few laughs.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & KRW sing “What Is This Feeling?” to voice their sisterly loathing

— I see SNL is addressing the Amy Adams/Kristen Wiig facial resemblance that I remember people used to point out in Kristen’s first few seasons on SNL.
— Oh, no. This turns into a musical monologue, just when I was kinda liking where this monologue was going.
— Not caring at all for this musical number.
— At least the slapping/punching bit during the mid-song interlude is pretty funny.
STARS: **


MIRROR IMAGE
identical twin teens’ (host) & (KRW) identity ruse unravels

— Right out of the gate after the monologue, we already get a sketch pairing Adams and Kristen as twins.
— Pretty funny premise of the bad attempt to pass Kristen off as Adams’ twin.
— I’m so tired of the constant winking gag throughout this.
— Something about Kristen’s pratfall through a breakaway table came off hacky here.
— The goofy, juvenile atmosphere of this sketch isn’t quite working for me, and is yet another season 33 sketch that, in hindsight, feels to me like an unfortunate harbinger of the type of bad sketches Kristen would frequently star in in seasons 34-37.
STARS: **


COUPLES THERAPY
(WLF) is blind to contractual nature of citizenship-seeking (AMP)’s love

— The setting of this brings back memories of that Poison Therapy sketch from the preceding season’s Drew Barrymore episode.
— Good character for Poehler, and her performance and delivery are cracking me up throughout this.
— Good reveal of how Poehler’s illegal immigrant character met Will.
STARS: ***½


HERO SONG
Batman-wannabe (ANS) is repeatedly punched by mugger (JAS)

— Even though it’s non-comedic, I absolutely LOVE the song Andy’s singing, and it’s being accompanied by some great nighttime scenery of high-rise buildings.
— A huge laugh from Andy’s song suddenly getting cut off by Jason punching him ENDLESSLY.
— There’s a “Sideshow Bob rake sequence” quality to the endless punching, in that it starts out funny, then stops being funny due to going on so long, then goes BACK to being funny because of how long it’s going on.
— A funny gruesome part with Andy spitting out blood after one of the punches.
— Why did they have a car block the visual of Andy getting a mailbox dumped onto him?
— I like the silent, abrupt ending to this.
STARS: ****


FIERCE: THE HOT MESS MAKE-OVER SHOW
catchphrases rule Bravo reality show

— When this sketch originally aired, it went completely over my head, as I had no familiarity (and still don’t, to this day) with Project Runway, nor the guy from it who Poehler is playing. In fact, I didn’t even know back when this sketch originally aired that Poehler was playing a guy. I assumed Poehler was playing a woman, until I read online discussions of this episode shortly after the episode’s original airing (and according to those discussions, Poehler’s portrayal of this guy was spot-on). Seems kinda odd to have an effeminate man be played by a woman, but I guess it’s no different from any of the times SNL has had a man play a butch woman.
— Even watching this sketch now, it’s doing nothing for me. SNL has quite a number of TV/movie spoofs that work for all viewers, regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the TV show or movie being spoofed. This particular sketch, on the other hand, feels to me like it falls under the “You have to be familiar with the specifics of what’s being parodied in order to ‘get’ it” category.
— I am at least liking Casey’s straight man performance.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A-Punk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
third-party candidate Tim Calhoun makes his case for the presidency

AMP sings theme song of Ghostbusters ripoff Brooklyn Ghost Investigations

European comic Jean K. Jean’s (KET) humor has a continental flavor

— Fuck yeah! Tim Calhoun!
— Tonight’s Tim Calhoun commentary seems to be relying on puns a little more than usual, but everything here is still working for me. My favorite is the bit about a cow college. I also love the running bit with Calhoun’s awkward smile towards the audience.
— What the holy hell was with that “Joke of the week!” confetti thing after Poehler’s smallest gun joke?
— Oh, god. This Ghostbusters theme song bit with Poehler is just plain annoying, and feels like a throwback to the typical bad, annoying, hacky stuff she and Tina Fey would do together during the Fey/Poehler era of Update. Between the aforementioned baffling “Joke of the week!” confetti thing and now this, what’s going on with Poehler in tonight’s Update? She’s relapsing badly in regards to her worst habits as an Update anchor that she had curbed (to an extent) ever since Seth became her Update co-anchor.
— The debut of Kenan’s Jean K. Jean character.
— The comedic conceit of this Jean K. Jean character actually isn’t bad at all, and Kenan’s performance is very fun and likable. He’s executing this really well. I know quite a number of people (even some Kenan Thompson defenders) can’t stand this character, but I gotta say, based on his debut tonight, I don’t get the hate. I’m reacting positively to him in this inaugural appearance of his. However, we’ll see how I’ll feel about him in his subsequent appearances.
STARS: **½


TRAFFIC SCHOOL
at traffic school, Penelope ultimately makes good on her boasts

— I recall it being pointed out by a lot of online SNL fans that there’s a distracting female background extra in this sketch who spends this sketch unprofessionally smiling really big both towards the camera and in reaction to things the main characters are saying. After all these years, I’ve never had a chance to go back and see these background antics for myself….until now.
— Oh, wow. Right out of the gate, I’m noticing the overly-smiley background extra (the second above screencap for this sketch). It was easier to spot her than I thought.
— I continue to be surprised by how tolerant I continue to be towards Kristen’s Penelope routine. Four sketches in, and this character is still getting decent laughs from me.
— After the first minute or so of this sketch, the aforementioned smiley background lady has actually gotten into character, keeping a serious face and making disapproving facial reactions to ridiculous things Kristen’s Penelope is saying. The way people online talked about this lady made it seem like she made distracting smiley faces all throughout this entire sketch, which is not true.
— A particularly hilarious line from Penelope claiming that’s her eye on the pyramid on the dollar bill. That’s probably my favorite one-liner of hers out of all of her sketches.
STARS: ***


DR. UNCLE JIMMY’S SMOKEHOUSE AND OUTPATIENT SURGICAL FACILITY
Dr. Uncle Jimmy (WLF) mixes smokehouse with outpatient surgical facility

— Oh, I recall this being a typical brilliant Will Forte piece, one that I had completely forgotten until now.
— Great character voice from Will.
— A very creative oddball premise of a BBQ restaurant/outpatient surgical facility hybrid.
— A good laugh from how Bill’s endorsement of this business is “Sure, you could find better barbecue or a safer surgical experience………”, and then he just stares at the camera, never completing his sentence with an expected “but…etc.”.
— Amusing how one of the critic “reviews” of this business is a police report stating “They’re performing surgery at a barbeque restaurant”.
— I love the “I hope those aren’t my ribs!” bit with Jason and Andy.
— Funny mix-up between the blood and barbecue IV bags.
STARS: ****


ROGER CLEMENS PRESENTS
Roger Clemens’ (JAS) play depicts the nightmare of steroids-free baseball

— This sketch was cut after the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal. Ellen Page played Amy Adams’ role in that version.
— Hilarious opening visual of Jason with those fake muscles.
— Darrell makes his only appearance of the night in this late-in-the-show sketch, playing a small, non-celebrity-impression role. Feels like a precursor to all the useless small non-celebrity-impression roles he’ll be given in the post-election half of the following season (his final season), after just about all of his celebrity impressions have outlived their usefulness.
— Jason’s rage-filled attitude and outbursts as Roger Clemens are priceless. He’s so perfect for this role.
— Poehler seems to be playing lots of male roles this season.
— Second consecutive sketch tonight containing a scene with Andy in a hospital room, this time with him playing the patient instead of the doctor.
— A great angry rant from Jason’s Clemens at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


THE TOOKIE STYLES SHOW
25 years after its cable access run, Tookie Styles’ (KET) show is on DVD

— Holy hell. Talk about a sketch I had completely forgotten about until now. I fucking HATED this sketch back when this episode originally aired. Pretty much felt it was one of the worst sketches I had ever seen SNL air. Let’s see if it’s as bad as I remember it to be.
— I did at least get a laugh just now from the first instance of a Tookie Styles interview/dance sequence getting cut off by gunfire and the interviewee being rushed out of the scene.
— Bill’s character’s amused demeanor is charming.
— Aaaaaaaand there goes the endless repetition of the gunfire joke.
— We at least get a fake-out with Amy Adams’ character, with how the gunfire doesn’t happen during her initial appearance, but instead happens when she comes back to get her purse.
— Something about Kenan’s delivery of his discreet “Things have not been going so well for me lately” aside to the camera at the end of this sketch made that line much funnier than it had any right to be.
— Overall, still not a good sketch, but certainly not as horrible as I originally deemed it to be back in 2008. There was a weird goofy charm that made the poor script a little more tolerable.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “M79”


CELEBRATIONS
(AMP), (host), (CAW), (KRW) repurpose their old dance routine in a bar

— Casey gets her first real lead role.
— Bill has been all over tonight’s episode, as opposed to the measly one late-in-the-show appearance he made in the preceding episode.
— Very funny first dance from the ladies.
— Even more laughs from the ladies doing a very fast-paced version of the same dance to the fast-tempo second song that’s playing.
— Even though it’s predictable, it’s still funny seeing the ladies now doing a slow-paced version of the same dance to the slow-tempo third song that’s playing.
— I like the ladies unsuccessfully attempting to do their dance to Jason’s cellphone ringtone.
— Funny bit at the end with Bill already having the ladies’ purses ready for them.
— Great sketch overall, and a strong first big showcase for Casey.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, despite some flops. The second half of the episode was definitely stronger than the first half.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ellen Page)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
For the first time since all the way back in season 1, SNL dares to attempt a fourth consecutive live episode without having taken any weeks off in between. Future five-timer Jonah Hill makes his hosting debut.

Posted on

March 1, 2008 – Ellen Page / Wilco (S33 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DEBATE
Hillary Clinton [real] responds to debate skit; Vincent D’Onofrio cameo

— A funny and very spot-on Brian Williams impression from Will, which is especially surprising, as Will’s not often known for doing dead-on celebrity impressions. Soon after this episode, it would be disclosed that he discovered how to do a Brian Williams impression by accident. He was trying out a character voice, and someone pointed out to him how much the voice he was doing sounded like Brian Williams, so he ran with it and turned it into a Brian Williams impression.
— What the hell? Is that eye-liner I’m seeing Darrell wearing as Tim Russert? Why?
— Speaking of Darrell’s Tim Russert, the real Russert would die just a few months after tonight’s episode originally aired. I can’t remember for sure, but I think that prevented this episode from getting a second NBC rerun (the first NBC rerun was sometime between tonight’s original airing and Russert’s death). I remember being a bit bummed back then that we never to got to see a second NBC rerun of this episode, because I missed the first NBC rerun of it, and I heard that SNL made quite a number of noteworthy edits and changes to this episode in the rerun (lots of dress rehearsal substitutions and such).
— I didn’t realize this until now, but starting in the preceding episode, SNL has finally ditched that dumb, unnecessary prosthetic nose they used to always have Amy wear as Hillary Clinton.
— A very funny speech from Amy’s Hillary about why she deserves to be president.
— Wow, Fred’s Obama voice in this sketch is just…wow. What the hell is he DOING?!? His voice is straight-up goofy, dopey, and cartoonish-sounding. I remember online SNL fans back at this time in 2008 saying he sounded Yogi Bear/Barney Rubble/Kermit The Frog-ish. Given the fact that this is only his second appearance as Obama, he’s clearly still experimenting with the voice at this point. I’d be more forgiving of that now if I knew in hindsight that he did eventually nail Obama’s voice, but nope. He never does.
— I love Will’s Brian Williams responding to a question from Amy’s Hillary by sternly telling her “We’ll ask the questions here, sister.”
— A very random but funny turn with Vincent D’Onofrio giving Amy’s Hillary a Law & Order-esque interrogation.
— At first, it seems strange that this cold opening concludes with a “The Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate” title sequence, without anyone saying “Live from New York…” (what is this, the Dick Ebersol era?), but we now see we’re getting an “Editorial Response” from the real Hillary Clinton. An unusual format of this cold opening.
— Hillary Clinton becomes the latest of what will be many presidential candidates to cameo during this 2008 presidential race.
— Hillary’s segment isn’t doing much for me, especially not the corny “celebrity meets their impersonator” meeting between her and Amy. Hillary would later do a better “celebrity meets their impersonator” sketch with Kate McKinnon in 2015.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host eschews Diablo Cody’s (ANS) overly-hip monologue verbiage

— Meh at the initial idea of Andy in drag playing Diablo Cody, but Andy seems like he can make this work.
— Funny bit with Andy’s Diablo Cody compulsively working the word “blog” into a whole bunch of consecutive sentences.
— Overall, Andy indeed made this potentially-iffy idea work.
STARS: ***


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Miley Cyrus (host) acts her age

— This recurring sketch makes its final appearance.
— Interesting change of pace with the “Kid Speak” segment.
— The “Kid Speak” segment was fun at first, but went on a little too long for something with such an obvious and thin comedic conceit that got its point across in its first 20 seconds.
— Ellen Page making an appearance as Miley Cyrus? Hmm.
— Yeah, Ellen is clearly badly miscast in this role. I don’t know what she’s going for in her Miley impression, but it’s not working AT ALL.
— A good laugh from Kenan muttering a bitter “Yeah, I’ll fiddle with your car breaks” in response to Amy’s Dakota lightheartedly calling him a second fiddle.
— I recently heard something in passing about how tonight’s Dakota Fanning Show installment caused some kind of controversy for Amy, but that’s news to me. I have no idea what it’s about. Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can give details on this.
— Oh, god, they’re now having Ellen sing as Miley Cyrus? Poor girl looks just plain embarrassed to be singing here, as she can be seen giggling nervously while singing half-heartedly, before Amy’s Dakota shows up to thankfully take focus away from her.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Obama Files” by RBS- Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton are marginalized

— (*sigh*) The end of an era, folks. This turns out to be the final TV Funhouse cartoon during TV Funhouse’s regular run. A few years later in an Ed Helms-hosted episode, out of nowhere, there would be a one-night-only special return of TV Funhouse, with a half-live-action Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon.
— A cheap laugh from Michelle Obama vomiting on cue to distract the media, even if it feels like Robert Smigel has done vomiting gags to death in his cartoons over the years.
— Feels kinda odd hearing Darrell’s typical Jesse Jackson voice in cartoon form.
— Whoever’s doing the voice for Obama in this cartoon is doing a very good job, which just makes Fred’s already-bad Obama impression look even worse.
— A few minutes into this cartoon, and boy, this is not working for me. I’m glazed over for so much of this.
— I did get a chuckle just now from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton’s podium and lion costumes.
— A somewhat funny ending joke with the Wayans Brothers making a movie about disguising as podiums.
— Overall, a very forgettable and sad way for TV Funhouse to go out.
STARS: **


THE COLLEGE FOR EXCELLENCE
(FRA) will teach you generic business phrases

— This feels like a variation of the Computer School commercial Fred did in the season 30 Paris Hilton episode.
— The bad, stiff acting from the commercial actors is only mildly funny. Nothing too great to me.
— Andy is stealing this whole sketch with his bizarre, awkward little background antics.
— I did not care at all for Fred’s whole ending spiel. Felt unnecessary, and ended this sketch on a flat note.
STARS: **


THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRLS
Henry VIII (JAS) juggles Anne (host) & The Other Boleyn Girls in movie

— Jason is a very funny straight man here.
— A somewhat rare (at least it feels somewhat rare) instance of Will dressing in drag.
— Kenan always kills with one-liners like the one he has at the end of this sketch, but I’m not sure how to feel about the whole ending portion of this sketch.
STARS: **½


NIGHTMARE
(host) & undead (ANS) occupy each other’s nested nightmares

— Some laughs from Andy’s goofy-looking “scary” character occasionally popping up in the mirror.
— Good turn with this turning out to be Andy’s nightmare instead of Ellen’s.
— The non-sequitur Dracula scene was pretty funny.
— Not sure I cared for that ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hate It Here”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rudolph Giuliani [real] blames his campaign failure on his SNL appearance

Nicholas Fehn’s sociopolitical commentary comprises sentence fragments

— Our second instance tonight alone of a presidential candidate cameoing during this 2008 presidential race. This is starting to get kinda insane.
— “America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani”. Another now-sad reminder of how lovable Giuliani used to be.
— I kinda like the meta turn in Giuliani’s commentary with him blaming his campaign failure on him dressing in drag in a Rita Delvecchio sketch when he hosted SNL in 1997.
— Much like the famous “Can we be funny?” “Why start now?” exchange between Lorne and Giuliani in the post 9/11 cold opening, Giuliani gets in another good-natured dig at SNL, comparing his campaign to a typical SNL sketch, in that it started strong, but didn’t have an ending.
— I love the German napping bit that Seth and Amy are doing together.
— Nicholas Fehn has officially become recurring.
— Fred’s basically just repeating the exact same stuff from the first Nicholas Fehn commentary, but it’s still getting laughs from me in this second commentary, even if I’m not laughing as hard as last time. I can definitely see fatigue looming ahead towards this character, given how insanely frequently we’ll be seeing him in such a short amount of time within this and the following season, and how his routine never changes, but at this point, Fred’s still making this work and I still have enough goodwill left in this second appearance of this character.
— I love Nicholas Fehn’s random “I saw Dmitri” aside to a confused Amy.
— Amy laughed at Seth’s Doomsday Vault joke harder than the audience did. It always bugged the hell out of me when Tina Fey had a bad habit of doing that towards Jimmy Fallon’s jokes during the later years of the Fallon/Fey era of Update.
— A surprising amount of fairly forgettable jokes from Amy and Seth in tonight’s Update.
STARS: **½


SHOPPING WITH VIRGINIACA
Virginiaca & stepdaughter (host) are stymied by Baby Gap employee (ANS)

— UGH.
— What was the point of giving this particular Virginiaca sketch an opening “Shopping With Virginiaca” title sequence, complete with a Don Pardo voice-over intro, when SNL never did that in previous (nor subsequent) Virginiaca sketches? It isn’t like this sketch itself is any different from other Virginiaca sketches.
— I actually got a laugh just now from a Virginiaca sketch, with a displeased Andy telling Virginiaca “If you need me, I’ll be nowhere.”
— Much like the role of Miley Cyrus earlier tonight, here we have another very questionable choice for a role Ellen has been cast in.
— I once again ask, how in the world does this Virginiaca character have a completely different white stepdaughter in each sketch when we’re told she’s married to the exact same man (the wealthy Mr. Hastings) every time?
— Boy, it’s just plain bizarre seeing and hearing Ellen attempt to act and talk “black”.
— Andy continues to be the only saving grace of this sketch, with his deadpan “Aaaaaaand I quit” line at the end when Virginiaca is trying to seduce him.
STARS: *½


HOOK’S REVENGE
Captain Hook (BIH) can’t get his pirates to shoot Peter Pan (host)

— Geez, why the hell is this Bill’s first and ONLY appearance all night? SNL’s under-utilization of this fantastic performer in his early seasons is so damn frustrating. John Mulaney cannot arrive at the writing staff soon enough at this point.
— This sketch has a bit of the same vibe from the West Side Story and Evita sketches from season 22.
— I love Will’s look in this.
— Yeah, more and more, this sketch appears to be following the same route of the West Side Story/Evita sketches, right down to having Bill in the Norm Macdonald role. While he’s no Norm when it comes to this type of sketch, Bill’s still giving a very solid and funny straight man performance in his own right, and is helping to make this sketch work.
— I don’t care for the audience participation bit, with a dead, stomped-on Tinkerbell being brought back to life by the audience’s applause. Way too corny for my likes. It would’ve been funnier (if darker) to me if they had just left Tinkerbell dead.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walken”


MARTY GOES GAY
(host) is feeling gay following a revelatory Melissa Etheridge concert

— Ah, not only a slice-of-life piece, which is INCREDIBLY rare for this era, but this is a slice-of-life piece with reality subtext in regards to our host, as this sketch obviously must’ve been inspired by the rumors/speculation of Ellen’s sexual orientation (this is several years before she would officially come out of the closet). When this sketch originally aired, I remember wondering if Ellen was using this sketch to tell us something about herself, so much so, that I half-expected her to follow this sketch by coming out of the closet in an official announcement during the goodnights (which, in a way, would’ve been a groundbreaking SNL moment).
— I’m absolutely loving Ellen’s recounting of what she experienced at a Melissa Etheridge concert, and I’m really enjoying the interplay between her and Andy.
— A very funny line from Ellen, asking “Why can’t I just hug a woman with my legs in friendship?”
— A really sweet and touching ending between Ellen and Andy.
— Overall, a very strong sketch. Great writing, great performances, great handling of the lesbian premise, and the aforementioned reality subtext adds a special, meaningful feel. Both Ellen’s performance and this sketch itself was much better than I remember deeming them to be back when this originally aired.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty middling and forgettable episode. Aside from the last sketch, nothing stood out to me as particularly great, and there was quite a number of weak sketches.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Amy Adams

Posted on

February 23, 2008 – Tina Fey / Carrie Underwood (S33 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CNN UNIVISION DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
media favorite Barack Obama (FRA) cruises during debate; Obama Girl cameo

— (*sigh*) Hoooooooo, boy. The debut of Fred’s Barack Obama impression, a.k.a. Fredbama. This is gonna be a long four-and-a-half years.
— I will say that I remember being very impressed by the makeup job on Fred’s Obama back when this episode originally aired.
— Kristen’s Campbell Brown: “Like nearly everyone in the media, the three of us are totally in the tank for Senator Obama.” Funny how much things had changed since SNL’s last episode before the writers’ strike, given the fact that, as pointed out in my last episode review, that episode contained a sketch dealing with Hillary Clinton being the media favorite to become the Democratic nominee, much to the other Democratic candidates’ chagrin.
— Kristen’s whole opening spiel about her and her colleagues suffering from Obama-related ailments is very funny.
— This cold opening is doing a solid spoof of the media’s fawning over Obama at this time.
— Very funny line from Amy’s Hillary bragging that her only supporters are white women over 80.
— Ha, Obama Girl (a.k.a. Amber Lee Ettinger). Anyone remember her today, 12 years later? Even back at this time in 2008, there were some online SNL fans who had no idea who she was, and some of those fans mistakenly assumed she was the new female cast member SNL had just hired (who’s name I’ll soon mention, after my review of this cold opening). In a live discussion thread for this episode on an SNL message board, one of the aforementioned people who mistook Obama Girl for the new female cast member made a post saying “Is that the new cast member? Wow, she’s HOT!”
— I absolutely love Kristen’s deadpan, stern “If you ever interrupt Obama Girl again—” threat to Amy’s Hillary.
— For being such a heavy focal point of this cold opening, Fred’s Obama is largely silent for most of this. (Probably a good thing, in hindsight.) Is that SNL’s way of hiding the fact that Fred hasn’t mastered his Obama voice by this point? (Ha, as if he ever would master it.) I recall it being obvious that his Obama voice was still a work in progress in these early Obama sketches of his, because, IIRC, he uses an utterly BIZARRE, cartoonish-sounding voice as Obama in the cold opening of the very next episode. I can’t wait to see if his voice in that cold opening is as bad as I remember.
— Hmm, I spoke a bit too soon about Fred’s Obama being largely silent in tonight’s cold opening, as we now get a long speech from him.
— Kristen’s orgasmic reaction to the big, noble speech Fred’s Obama just made was hilarious.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Casey Wilson has been added to the cast tonight.


MONOLOGUE
Steve Martin [real] gets unsure performer TIF to say “I can do it!”

— A lot of very good, perfectly Tina Fey-esque lines from Tina early on in this monologue in regards to the writers’ strike she participated in.
— Nice to see a Steve Martin appearance here, and his interplay with Tina is very fun.
— Much like Tina’s perfectly Tina Fey-esque lines here, Steve has so many perfectly Steve Martin-esque lines, especially in regards to the differences between a writer and a star.
— I love the bit with Steve having Tina say “I can do it!” in different specific voices (e.g. as an old-fashioned movie character, as a cartoon mouse, as a cartoon mouse in Spanish).
STARS: ****


ANNUALE
pill concentrates menstruation into a once-per-year paroxysm

— A female-oriented commercial that feels like it’s in the tradition of famous Tina Fey-era female-oriented Fey/Poehler/Dratch/Rudolph-starring commercials like Mom Jeans and Kotex Classic.
— An absolutely hilarious and epic turn with us being shown a montage of the insane actions of the women when they get their annual period. I especially love Tina’s character scaring her co-workers away by running around the office while swinging an axe like a madman.
— Great little detail throughout this commercial with how one object in each scene is pink while the rest of the objects are either a drab color or are shown through a black-and-white screen filter.
— A hilarious ending screen crawl disclaimer regarding the “Do not take if…”s of the medication.
— The ending voice-over from Amy was kinda pushing it and wasn’t necessary, but didn’t hurt this fantastic ad.
STARS: *****


ROCK OF LOVE 2
Bret Michaels (JAS) doesn’t choose one-legged Amber

— In hindsight, this sketch now serves as a time capsule of these “……Of Love” reality shows that dominated VH1 in the late 2000s.
— Tina is very funny here.
— I see SNL’s already letting Casey Wilson know her status as a newbie (which, as we now know, SNL would sadly NEVER stop doing for the remainder of Casey’s short-lived run as a cast member), as she’s the only contestant in this sketch who doesn’t get her own pre-taped confessional sequence like the other contestants are.
— After almost two minutes of being a straightforward (but funny) Rock Of Love parody, this turns into an Amber sketch OUT OF NOWHERE. This ends up being the final Amber sketch while Amy’s still in the cast.
— Ha, at least Casey gets a sloppy tongue-kissing make-out session with Jason, which is certainly……….something. I remember Casey talking about that in an interview she did on a podcast just a few months after tonight’s episode originally aired.
— I’m glad this sketch isn’t focusing as heavily on Amber as her previous sketches did, as the humor involving her character can tend to get a little tedious at times. Plus, in her limited airtime in this sketch, she’s actually working well.
STARS: ***½


GRANDKIDS IN THE MOVIES
edited-in grandsons (BIH) & (ANS) quell anxiety in DVDs for old people

— “The following is a message for old people.” That opening disclaimer made me laugh harder than it probably should’ve.
— A decent premise, even if it seems a little unexciting for a Digital Short in SNL’s first episode back after a long hiatus.
— The part with Bill and Andy telling the grandfather, in regards to the ringing phone in the Michael Clayton movie clip, “That phone’s in the movie, grandpa. That’s not your phone”, is particularly funny to me, because when I watched this Digital Short back when this episode originally aired, I mistakenly thought that was my phone ringing, too, and I’m not even remotely elderly (I was 23 when this originally aired).
— I love the bit with Andy struggling to translate Rainn Wilson’s ridiculous slang in the Juno clip.
— In hindsight, this short is unintentionally a good time capsule of big Oscar-nominated movies from around this time (No Country For Old Men, Juno, There Will Be Blood, etc.).
— Pretty odd how this Digital Short’s lead role of the grandfather is being played by a completely unknown actor. However, I’m enjoying his performance here, and he’s charming and likable.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S THAT BITCH TALKING ABOUT?
(TIF) intuits females on game show

— Already a cheap laugh from the title right at the beginning of this sketch.
— This is the very first of what would be many instances of Kenan playing a game show host, though his second instance wouldn’t be until as much as five years later (in the “New Cast Member Or Arcade Fire” sketch, which, coincidentally, happens to be in another Tina Fey-hosted episode). After that, he’d go on to play game show hosts pretty often.
— A pretty good laugh from how the game show prize is an old canary-yellow 1992 Mazda Protege.
— I love Casey’s angry rant during her small appearance, especially her exaggerated southern-accented pronunciation of the word “ass”.
— A likable game show host performance from Kenan.
— Another sketch tonight that Tina is fun in, especially her extremely detailed, long-winded answer to the third question, involving a character played by Kristen.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All-American Girl”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in politics & SNL, Mike Huckabee [real] misses his cue to exit the stage

TIF thinks the value of Hillary Clinton’s bitchiness is underappreciated

— I forgot to point out in the preceding episode that Barack Obama’s cameo is just the beginning of what will be MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race. Tonight’s Mike Huckabee cameo continues that.
— For a non-actor, Mike Huckabee is actually performing well here, not being stiff at all like some politicians tend to come off on SNL. He’s coming off likable and laid-back here.
— Having Tina bring back her recurring “Women’s News” segment from her Weekend Update tenure is a good way to work the obligatory commentary from her into tonight’s Update.
— A lot of solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News segment. And the turn at the end with her bragging about the perks of being a bitch is memorable, especially her “Bitch is the new black” declaration (which would soon be one-upped by Tracy Morgan in a cameo appearance three episodes later). Even the interaction between Tina and Amy here, which seems to be attempting somewhat of a throwback to the Fey/Poehler era of Update (and you KNOW how I felt about that Update era), is coming off better than I typically found their interactions during their era of Update together.
STARS: ***½


THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
Donald Trump’s (DAH) axe swings for minor stars

— Great to see the return of Kenan’s Charles Barkley after how much he killed it in the Iconoclasts sketch earlier this season.
— I love Kenan’s Barkley firing himself for his poor idea, and walking out of the scene.
— Another return of a fun impression from a cast member: Bill’s John Mark Karr.
— A big blast from the past now to see impressions of Matthew Lesko (the Question Mark Suit Guy from those commercials in the 90s) and Mr. Six (the dancing old guy from the Six Flags commercials in the 2000s).
— Between playing Dennis Kucinich then-recently and now playing Mr. Six in this sketch, I’m getting a big Kate McKinnon vibe from Amy lately.
— I love Will-as-Judge-Ito’s sing-songy delivery of “I brought my own gaveeeeeellllll!”
STARS: ***


WEDDING TOAST
Ed Mahoney’s careless loquacity upsets newlyweds’ (WLF) & (TIF) reception

— Yes! The return of Jason’s Ed Mahoney character, a forgotten-by-most-people favorite of mine from a sketch in season 31. I remember hearing SNL attempted at least once to make him recurring back in season 31, but the sketch didn’t make it past dress rehearsal. The description of that cut Ed Mahoney sketch made it sound like a blatant carbon-copy of the first Ed Mahoney sketch, right down to ending the exact same way with him attempting to run out of a store with a stolen object and then getting brought down by a guard with a taser, so maybe it’s a good thing that sketch got cut. Tonight’s Ed Mahoney sketch is thankfully doing new, fresh things with the character instead of being a lazy carbon-copy of his first sketch.
— So many funny inappropriate lines from Ed Mahoney, and, as always, I absolutely love that trademark laugh of his.
— A very funny blunt, rude “I hope you two die!” parting message from Mahoney to the newlyweds.
STARS: ****


VIRGANIA HORSEN’S HOT AIR BALLOON RIDES
Virgania Horsen (KRW) wants you to take a ride in her hot air balloon

— So much bizarre, low-budget randomness here, but I am loving it, and it’s being executed so well. This definitely feels like the type of thing that would’ve aired at the time on Tim & Eric.
— Kristen is absolutely perfect here.
STARS: ****


I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE
Daniel Plainview (BIH) intensifies egg creams

— I absolutely love this unusual, creative way of spoofing the famous “I drink your milkshake” scene from There Will Be Blood.
— Amy plays her second male role in tonight’s episode alone.
— A great opening title sequence and Will Forte-sung theme song. (Side note: between the MacGruber sketches and now this, I’m starting to think every sketch that contained a theme song in this era should’ve been sung by Will Forte.) One minor little question about the title sequence, though: why does Amy’s character have light blonde hair in it, while having dark brown hair in the live portions of this sketch?
— Bill is absolutely brilliant in his performance as Daniel Day Lewis’ There Will Be Blood character. At this time back in 2008, it still felt somewhat rare to see Bill in a lead role in a sketch, which made this sketch come off particularly refreshing.
— Fred is a dead-ringer for Anton Chigurh. I can’t say for sure if he’s nailing the voice, though.
— Much like the Digital Short earlier tonight, this sketch, in hindsight, is a good time capsule of the big Oscar-nominated movies from around this time.
— Bill-as-Daniel-Plainview’s “I’VE ABANDONED MY CHIIIIIIILD! I’VE ABANDONED MY BOOOOYYYYY!” panicked outburst is not only hilarious, but has stuck in my memory over the years. It’s hard to forget that specific shouting from Bill.
— Second episode in a row where Fred makes his exit in a sketch by slowly walking past the camera in an obnoxious, hammy, screen-hogging manner. Ugh, I hope that’s not becoming a habit of his, even if I did kinda chuckle at it in this context of him doing it as Anton Chigurh (it would’ve been funnier had he not already done it in the preceding episode).
— Interesting having this week’s SNL host play a character (Juno) that the following week’s SNL host played in a movie.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Flat On The Floor”


LADY BUSINESS
yet another TV show features determined career women

— The semi-theme tonight of female-oriented sketches/commercials pairing Tina and the entire female cast together continues.
— Very funny little moment from Kristen with her clarifying to Andy that her last name, St. George, is pronounced “stuh-gorg”.
— Poor Casey, being one of the four female leads in this sketch, but getting no lines, nor her own scene like the other three female leads are getting. I’ll give SNL the benefit of the doubt and assume it was planned for her to have her own scene in this sketch, but portions of this sketch had to go through some hasty, last-minute trimming due to the show running a little long. I can’t remember if I’ve seen it confirmed that Casey did indeed get her own scene in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS
90 year-old DOP blows out the candles on his birthday cake

— A special occasion during these goodnights, as SNL holds a wonderful little celebration for Don Pardo’s 90th (!!!) birthday.
— An interesting coincidence how both times Carrie Underwood was a musical guest on SNL (the preceding season’s Peyton Manning episode being the first time), a big birthday celebration was held during the goodnights.
— A memorable visual of Don blowing out the 90 candles on his birthday cake. Too bad the goodnights get cut off before he finishes.
— I believe this ends up being Don’s final onscreen SNL appearance, despite remaining SNL’s announcer for the next 6 years. It’s significant that this birthday celebration is what ends up being his final appearance.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, and a great return for SNL after the writers’ strike. Every single segment in this episode worked for me, and there was a high number of segments that received a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Much like Molly Shannon in her hosting stint the preceding season, Tina Fey being given a lot of the same type of non-Weekend Update roles she typically played during her cast member years, including some very minor roles, made this episode refreshingly feel almost like there was no host, and that Tina was just a cast member again.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Brian Williams)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ellen Page

Posted on

November 3, 2007 – Brian Williams / Feist (S33 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HALLOWEEN PARTY
Barack Obama [real] at Bill (DAH) & Hillary (AMP) Clinton Halloween party

— An often-played cold opening in many SNL Halloween compilation specials.
— I love the Halloween costume that Darrell’s Bill Clinton is wearing, even if I’ve never had any familiarity with The Pickup Artist, nor the person from it who Darrell’s Clinton is dressed as.
— A Horatio Sanz cameo out of nowhere. At least this is more welcome than his season 32 cameo as Elton John in a tired Versace sketch, given the fact that having him appear here as Bill Richardson at least kinda makes sense. And, wow, he’s lost a lot of weight since his last cameo, where he had already started losing a little weight. He’s still not quite as thin as he would eventually get, but he’s still looking much healthier in tonight’s episode than he ever looked during his SNL tenure.
— The debut of Jason’s Joe Biden impression.
— The running gag with people mistaking Amy-as-Hillary-Clinton’s bride costume for a witch costume is funny, but don’t witches always wear black, not white?
— Fred as a straitjacketed Mike Gravel made me laugh at first, though he REALLY milked his exit in this sketch by slowly walking past the camera in a hammy fashion (something that sadly feels kinda like a precursor to how annoying and obnoxious Fred would go on to often come off in his later seasons).
— Meh, a predictable joke with what the loose Milk Duds in Fred-as-Gravel’s plastic bag turns out to REALLY be.
— A very well-known cameo from the real Barack Obama, a cameo that, of course, would later be looked back on as an even bigger and more significant deal after he would become president.
— I remember once seeing a publicity photo of the dress rehearsal version of this cold opening, where, instead of the real Obama being there, he was actually played by Maya in drag. (Perhaps the photo can be found on GettyImages; I don’t have time to check.) I’m guessing the real Obama wasn’t able to make it to dress rehearsal, so SNL used Maya as backup to fill in his role. I remember how, back in these days when online SNL fans were speculating who on SNL would regularly play Obama, several fans suggested that SNL have Maya dress in drag to regularly play him, given the fact that both Maya and Obama are half-black half-white. SNL probably knew not to make Maya their regular Obama impersonator, considering she already had one foot out the door by this point of her SNL tenure.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— A pretty good laugh from Brian Williams mentioning how everyone, including himself, is currently thinking the same thing regarding him hosting SNL: “Now is this really a good idea?”
— Brian mentions in passing that he moderated the Democratic debate earlier this week. That’s actually impressive and surprising that he was able to do that the same week he hosted SNL.
— While the turn with Brian treating this monologue like he’s delivering a news story (complete with news graphics being displayed next to him) is quite predictable and maybe a little corny, Brian is executing it well and is making it charming. He’s already showing good promise as a host.
STARS: ***½


MAYBELLINE FOR MEN
packaging is only differentiating feature of Maybelline makeup for men

— Meh at this premise. And it’s no surprise Fred plays the first guy seen wearing makeup in this, given how often we see him in drag during these years of his SNL tenure. So tired.
— Wow, that’s it? That’s the whole commercial? This was lame as hell. While the concept of advertised men’s makeup being the exact same as women’s makeup, minus the labeling on the package, had maybe a little promise, the execution of it did nothing for me.
STARS: *


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
fireman (host) gives home safety preparedness suggestions

— This is the final installment of this sketch when both Maya and Amy are still in the SNL cast, as tonight ends up being Maya’s final SNL episode. This sketch would still go on to continue appearing several more times, either when Maya makes a cameo while Amy’s still in the cast, or when either Maya or Amy are making a cameo in an episode that the other is hosting.
— I love Brian’s New Yorker voice as this fireman character. He’s surprisingly very convincing in this role.
— A big laugh from Amy’s “It’s gonna be hard to keep her off the pole” comment regarding the future state of Maya’s young daughter who’s shown a way-too-early interest in dressing sluttily.
— Another very funny line from Amy, this time regarding her husband being an expert at “grabbing himself”.
— Maya has a bad habit of sometimes speaking a little too fast and unintelligibly in these Bronx Beat sketches. I could barely understand a single word from her during her bit right now about her husband watching ESPN, and I think the audience feels the same way as me, as they aren’t laughing at that bit. Maya delivered that line SO unintelligibly that she made one part of it sound dirty (“My husband’s [*word I can’t decipher*] off to ESPN every night.”), even though I doubt that’s how it was actually worded.
— I really like the short, vague bit with Amy whispering advice to Maya to get “one of those things” to spice up her love life. A very realistic and authentic little moment.
— A change of pace with this sketch concluding with Amy and Maya’s characters walking off of the show mid-progress, leaving their guest sitting there by himself.
— A huge laugh from Brian’s brief Borat-esque delivery of “MY WIIIIFE!” during his whole spiel at the end.
STARS: ***½


RILEY’S WAY
TV actor (host) reacts poorly to the news he won’t be in spin-off series

— Brian’s desperation to continue hanging out with his younger co-stars is pretty funny.
— Very funny how Brian’s attitude during the scene being filmed turns very bitter and unprofessional after he finds out he’s not going to be in the Riley’s Way spin-off.
— We now get a funny visual of Brian poorly trying to come off cool and young during the filming, complete with a sideways cap.
— I really like the twist ending with Bill’s clapboard-holder character being written into the Riley’s Way finale as a guy who killed Brian’s character.
STARS: ****


PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE GIVEAWAY
sweepstakes winner’s (host) subdued reaction baffles cheery Cheryl (KRW)

— Oh, wow, I had completely forgotten about this very-occasionally-used recurring sketch until now. (It’s so very occasionally used that the second installment of it doesn’t appear until THREE SEASONS LATER).
— I remember finding Kristen’s performance to be a laugh riot when this sketch originally aired, but I’m wondering how I’ll feel about it now in retrospect, due to 1) the fact that this would eventually become a very unnecessary recurring sketch, suffering diminishing returns, and 2) the fact that this sketch happens to be debuting around the same point of Kristen’s SNL tenure where I’m now noticing we’ve been getting an awful lot of worrisome harbingers of the badly-written, unfunny, annoying Wiig-starring sketches that would regularly appear in seasons 34-37.
— I’m getting pretty good laughs so far from Kristen’s failed attempts to get Brian hyped up.
— Not only is it inherently funny seeing Brian Williams play a role like this, but he’s perfectly selling his character’s indifference towards his prize.
— I love Kristen’s suddenly deep, gaspy voice when she starts running out of breath due to her excitement.
— Even though it’s probably not a great punchline and is somewhat predictable, I’m loving Brian’s execution of the bit where he finally shows excitement……..over receiving free cheesy bread, of all things.
— Overall, I’m glad that, contrary to my worries, I was able to still enjoy both Kristen’s performance and this sketch in general, and not find it to be an unfunny, badly-written harbinger of annoying 2008-2012 Kristen Wiig showcases. However, this will NOT hold up as a recurring sketch, especially since, IIRC, the subsequent installments of this sketch change NOTHING up; they’re basically just a lazy re-write of the first installment. Not to mention the fact that the hosts who appear in those installments (Emma Stone, Russell Brand, can’t remember if there’s anyone else) aren’t as fun to see play an indifferent role like Brian Williams was.
STARS: ***½


BRIAN DIARIES
narcissistic host documents his day; Matt Lauer, Al Roker, Bono cameos

— Kind of a different-feeling Lonely Island Digital Short, not only because of the very mature vibe, but also because it features no SNL performers. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other Lonely Island Digital Shorts that feature neither Andy nor any other SNL performers. Before anyone points out the Peyton Manning United Way ad (and even there, one could argue that an SNL performer is featured, as Bill does the voice-over in it), I’m just counting things that were officially billed on the air as Digital Shorts, by opening with the famous “An SNL Digital Short” black title screen.
— Hilarious scene involving Brian throwing pennies from his office window onto Al Roker and Matt Lauer below while they’re doing a Today Show report.
— Wow, a VERY random but funny cameo from Bono. Despite U2 being somewhat a Friend Of The Show to SNL, I’m still surprised SNL got Bono to do such a brief, random scene like this.
— Keeping up the trend in tonight’s episode of predictable gags being executed surprisingly well, the ending reveal of the sweet, heartfelt voicemail message Brian was shown leaving earlier turning out to be towards himself could be seen coming from a mile away, but somehow ended up still working and making me laugh.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “1234”


WEEKEND UPDATE
innumerate studio head (FRA) gives producers’ side of writer strike

Barbara Birmingham rails against kids’ sexy Halloween costumes

— The darkened Update set this season is looking PARTICULARLY dark tonight.
— Roger A. Trivanti? That name of Fred’s character reminds me of a certain Dick Ebersol-era one-time SNL host: Daniel J. Travanti.
— Fred has done a commentary in every single Update so far this season, as a different person each time. Keeping up the Ebersol-era theme in my review of this Weekend Update, is Fred attempting to become the new Tim Kazurinsky when it comes to frequently appearing as guest commentators on Update/Saturday Night News? I can actually picture Tim playing this smug, slimy Roger A. Trivanti character of Fred’s. This makes me try to picture Fred and Tim playing each other’s Update characters in general. Since Fred seems to love doing bits that mess with the audience’s heads and tests their patience, I can kinda picture him playing Dr. Jack Badofsky, though I can’t see him doing it quite as well as Tim did it.
— I’m really enjoying Fred’s Roger A. Trivanti commentary, and he has some very funny brash lines.
— While Roger A. Trivanti would never become a recurring character on SNL (something I wish I could say about the Nicolas Fehn character that Fred debuted in the preceding episode’s Update), Fred would reprise him about a week later in a writers’ strike-related comedy video he would post online, where he, as Trivanti, approaches striking writers on the picket line and basically trolls them. It’s in the tradition of the man-on-the-street videos Fred used to do on HBO in his early, pre-SNL comedy days.
— The second and final appearance from Kenan’s now-forgotten “Update Nanny” character, Barbara Birmingham.
— The beginning of tonight’s Barbara Birmingham commentary, with her giving Amy a normal greeting, then randomly giving Seth a very dismissive, unfriendly greeting, which offends Seth, reminds me too much of the way the Aunt Linda commentaries from Kristen always begin.
— Some occasional brief instances of self-amused breaking from Kenan. Is he being haunted by Horatio Sanz’s essence due to Horatio being in the building tonight?
— I’m not caring much for tonight’s Barbara Birmingham commentary. Her previous commentary was better.
— After the Barbara Birmingham commentary has ended, I absolutely love Seth’s ad-libs about how Barbara messed up his tie when she angrily swiped her hand towards him a little earlier.
STARS: ***½


LARRY KING LIVE
Harry Potter outtakes depict gay Dumbledore (BIH)

— Meh, I’m never crazy about seeing Fred’s Larry King impression.
— Oh, I remember this sketch being filled with lots of groan-worthy gay jokes. I can only imagine how even more groan-worthy these gay jokes will now come off by today’s standards.
— Ugh at that joke about a gay club being named “Man Hole”.
— Dumbledore: “Ohh, Minerva. If only you had a penis and balls.” I remember that line actually having me laughing out loud back in 2007. I have no reaction to it today.
— I got a laugh from Kristen’s intentionally stiff delivery of the line “Oh, no you di-iiiiin’t!”
— Overall, it turns out most of the gay jokes weren’t as cringey as I was expecting, but I still got almost no entertainment from this sketch.
STARS: *½


iPHONE
(FRA)’s testimonial explains how the iPhone helps him cheat on his wife

— I like Fred’s delivery of the line “God, I wish my wife wasn’t pregnaaaant”, after having revealed to us so many sleazy things regarding the affair he’s having with another woman.
— Pretty funny reveal at the end.
— There’s a second installment of this commercial that got cut after dress rehearsal, but would be put online as a special cut-for-time online exclusive shortly after this episode originally aired. This installment starred Jason, and he, while praising the features of the new iPhone, bragged about his penchant for randomly punching cops in the face (or something like that; my memory of it is fuzzy). I remember this commercial being hilarious, especially the ending of it, though I can’t even remember what exactly happened at the end.
STARS: ***


BEFORE THE DEBATE
Bill Richardson (HOS) & other Democrats conspire to stop Hillary Clinton

— Hmm, a second sketch tonight with the Democratic candidates. At least, much like the cold opening earlier tonight, SNL isn’t going the predictable route by having the candidates appear in a typical Democratic debate sketch.
— What the hell? Now Darrell is playing Chris Dodd? After Bill played him in the cold opening earlier tonight??? I guess Darrell wanted to play him to begin with, but couldn’t do it in the cold opening because he was playing Bill Clinton. Still weird and confusing to have two different cast members play the same politician in two different sketches in the same episode, especially when that politician is a presidential candidate. Even odder is the fact that Bill and Darrell’s impressions of Dodd are completely different from each other. Bill seemed to be going for a more generic impression, barely even changing his voice (which is unusual, since Bill is generally a great impressionist), while Darrell appears to be going for a much more accurate, distinct voice. (I don’t have much familiarity with what the real Chris Dodd sounds like, so I have no idea if Darrell’s nailing the voice.)
— SNL never fails to get a cheap laugh from me whenever a sketch does an initial cutaway to Amy as Dennis Kucinich.
— Speaking of Amy’s Kucinich, that’s another role that’s been played by two different performers tonight, but, much like Darrell, Amy couldn’t play Kucinich in the cold opening because she was playing Hillary Clinton.
— Brian Williams bluntly telling the Democratic candidates that he and everybody else in the media are pulling for Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee is interesting in hindsight, because, when SNL returns from writers’ strike a few months later, they do a whole bunch of cold openings about how miffed Hillary is that Obama is the media darling who everyone is pulling for to be the Democratic nominee.
— The fact that nobody’s playing Obama in this sketch, because he, as Will’s John Edwards explains, is on his way, makes it painfully obvious that SNL still doesn’t have a plan at this point on who in the cast will play Obama. Given the fact that The Rock was scheduled to host the following week’s episode, before the writers’ strike ended up putting the kibosh on that, I remember making a prediction back at this time that The Rock would play Obama in a sketch in that episode, given how so many people back then pointed out the strong similarities between The Rock and Obama’s voices. (As we know now, despite the writers’ strike canceling The Rock’s scheduled hosting stint this season, he would later play a form of Obama very sporadically on SNL, in those “The Rock Obama” sketches.) Also, sometime during the writers’ strike after tonight’s episode, SNL would hold auditions to hire an Obama impersonator. (The auditioners include several well-known or soon-to-be-well-known names, such as Donald Glover, Wyatt Cenac, and Jordan Peele. Of those auditioners, I remember having my fingers crossed for Peele to get hired, as I would’ve LOVED seeing him as an SNL cast member after having been a fan of his work on MADtv at the time.) SNL would end up passing on ALL of those auditioners, and would questionably end up choosing……a certain someone within their then-current cast to play Obama (as we’ll see in the very next episode).
— Horatio Sanz is surprisingly pretty solid and understated in his performance here.
— Despite some funny lines, this sketch isn’t working much for me. It’s coming off as another one of this era’s sluggish, tepid, overlong, Jim Downey-written political pieces that are a slog to get through.
— I do kinda like the reveal that Fred’s Mike Gravel isn’t even in the debate, but nobody has the heart to tell him.
— The bit with Jason-as-Biden’s “Where’s the beef?” suggestion is INCREDIBLY unfunny on paper, but Jason’s solid delivery of it is actually making me laugh.
— Now the candidates are talking about kidnapping Hillary and tying her up with a rope? Ugh, this sketch is getting increasingly lame in its failed attempts to escalate the humor.
— Hmm. An out-of-nowhere turn with Fred-as-Gravel’s violent off-camera outburst. That’s still not funny enough to save this sketch, unfortunately.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Feel It All”


THE NEW OPEN
host rejects new news theme ideas in favor of his own 007-style concept

— I think Amy has appeared in practically EVERY SINGLE SKETCH tonight. Feels like a throwback to how frequently she was utilized in seasons 30 and 31.
— And now here’s Fred, who’s also had an incredibly busy night, appearing in a majority of the sketches.
— Feels kinda bittersweet seeing Maya in what ends up being her final sketch as a cast member, which wasn’t known at the time (though she may have suspected it, given the fact that it was known how strong the possibility was of the writers’ strike occurring the following week). At least she’s ending her SNL tenure doing one of her all-time favorite things: singing in an exaggerated, hammy voice.
— Kinda fun seeing the vastly different singing style of each individual member of this band.
— An absolutely fantastic 007-esque NBC Nightly News intro sequence with Brian, made even more epic by it being immediately followed by him behind the Nightly News desk, signing on by saying, in his professional trademark delivery, a badass “Good evening, I’m Brian Williams, and…that’s…how…I…roll.” Not only a perfect way to end this sketch, but a perfect way to end this episode.
STARS: **** (the rest of this sketch would’ve only gotten three or three-and-a-half stars from me, but the whole ending portion bumped the overall rating up to four stars)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. Brian Williams was also a surprisingly strong host, doing a solid job in every sketch, being fun, coming off likable, and getting laughs. It did feel, though, like he disappeared for a large portion of the post-Weekend Update half of the episode, but then again, since he had to moderate the Democratic debate earlier this week, maybe that cost him a day of rehearsals at SNL, and thus, they had to write some sketches that didn’t utilize him much or at all.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Bon Jovi)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Instead of us getting the following scheduled episode…

…the writers’ strike puts SNL on a lengthy hiatus. They eventually return in February with host Tina Fey, and a new female addition to the cast.

Posted on

October 13, 2007 – Jon Bon Jovi / Foo Fighters (S33 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMY POEHLER’S HOUSE
21 years ago in teenage AMP’s bedroom, host counsels her about the future

— Hmm, “Amy Poehler’s House, 1986”? Well, THIS is certainly going to be a different and interesting cold opening. I absolutely LOVE this huge change of pace.
— Great touch with Teenage Amy Poehler speaking in a Boston accent.
— Charming interplay between Amy and Jon Bon Jovi.
— When being told she’ll be an SNL cast member 20 years from now, Teenage Amy should’ve been more surprised to hear that SNL would even still be on the air 20 years later, especially since 1) SNL had only been on the air for 11 calendar years by this point in 1986, and I’m not sure if many people in ’86 could’ve predicted the show would go on to reach 31 years on the air (let alone 45 years), and 2) the date that this sketch is set in (October 13, 1986) is just two days after season 12 of SNL premiered (I’d love to think Teenage Amy Poehler watched it that night), and it wasn’t known at the time yet if the then-revamped SNL was going to save the show from cancellation after the troubled season 11.
— Amy’s confusion over why Jon Bon Jovi would ever host SNL is really funny.
— Another SNL piece where Amy gets in a self-deprecating dig at her own small chest size, this time by asking Jon Bon Jovi “Will I ever get boobs?”
— Good set-up to the rest of this episode, with Jon telling Amy the next time she’ll see him will be on October 13, 2007 (the airdate of this episode).
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Richie Sambora [real] & other audience members want host to sing

Bon Jovi [real] performs “Lost Highway”

— Liz Cackowski makes her way into yet another questions-from-the-audience monologue, despite not even being an SNL writer anymore by this point. She left the writing staff two seasons prior. So what in the world is she doing here? Was she just hanging around backstage this week with Akiva Schaffer, her future husband (or were they already married by this point?)?
— Another dig tonight at how odd it is that Jon Bon Jovi is hosting.
— Steve Higgins gets in his usual laughs that he always gets in these questions-from-the-audience monologues.
— Wow, what the fuck happened just now? Why did Richie Sambora completely and awkwardly blank on one of his lines with that big ol’ goofy smile on his face, forcing Jon to eventually feed him his line?
— This monologue transitions to the host walking over to the musical guest stage and doing a full-fledged musical performance, much like a few other monologues from double-duty hosts (e.g. M.C. Hammer, Sting in his first hosting stint).
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


OHHHHH!
game show elicits New Jerseyites’ (FRA), (host), (DAH) outbursts

— A fairly okay way to utilize this particular SNL cast’s penchant for saying “Ohhh!” when playing wiseguy New Jerseyites, even if this is far from a memorable game show sketch. I’ll still take this over another Same-Sex Couple From New Jersey appearance on Weekend Update.
— Fred’s delivery of his first answer was hilarious.
— Darrell manages to work his Tony Soprano impression into another sketch.
— Jon’s timing seems kinda off during his spiel just now.
— A pretty good laugh from the contestants not seeing what the problem is with being serviced by a hooker on their wife’s birthday.
— Interesting use of Kristen.
STARS: ***


A VISIT WITH FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE
Nobel recipient Al Gore (DAH) shows off the contents of his trophy room

— Darrell’s microphone isn’t turned on when he starts speaking at the beginning of this, rendering his first line inaudible. Am I watching a repeat of the Jeremy Piven episode?
— What was with the awkwardness of how Darrell put away the Nobel Peace Prize?
— Ugh, I hate the running gag in this sketch, with Darrell’s Al Gore constantly namedropping (or titledropping) An Inconvenient Truth. This is pure COMEDY DEATH. Even the audience has stopped laughing at it by this point, halfway through the sketch. It’s just plain uncomfortable hearing their laughter towards the repetitive An Inconvenient Truth gag gradually die off to the point where you can hear a pin drop in the studio.
— An actual laugh from the Tony award that Darrell’s Gore displays turning out to be his wife Tipper’s Tony award for the Vagina Monologues.
— There’s some scattered funny parts here and there, but, man, so many parts of this sketch are dragging HORRIBLY. It’s too bad, because I’m liking Darrell’s loose, laid-back demeanor here. Between his likable performances as Fred Thompson and Lou Dobbs in the preceding episode, and his fun performance tonight as Al Gore, Darrell seems to have had some new life injected into him lately. Too bad I know it doesn’t last, and he eventually goes back to being his usual sluggish-performing, aloof, unhappy-looking, out-of-place, barely-appearing, “Why is he still on the show after so many years?” self that he is in these later seasons of his SNL tenure.
STARS: *½


PEOPLE GETTING PUNCHED JUST BEFORE EATING
ANS slugs hungry folks

— Already a hilarious and fun concept. This kind of dumb random humor is right up my alley, and very few are better than Lonely Island at executing this type of humor. Feels like a more elaborate variation of the “Andy Popping Into Frame” Digital Short that Lonely Island did the preceding season.
— Very catchy simplistic background music.
— A particularly funny “Double Punched!” bit with Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl. And it’s always nice to see Grohl get involved in a comedy bit on SNL.
— Jon Bon Jovi getting a “Jovi Punch!” was funny, but I don’t like how he made a “Full Recovery!” afterwards. I get the really bad feeling Jon himself demanded that “Full Recovery!” part be put in, because, with his huge ego, he probably refused to do a scene where he gets punched out WITHOUT him coming out on top in the end. Ugh.
— An absolutely hilarious fake-out with an about-to-eat Jason suddenly pulling out a cellphone right when he was about to get punched by Andy, causing Andy to halt mid-punch, then panickedly do a 180 and run back out of the scene.
— I love the running bit with Will throughout this, especially how it ends with the dark “Murder!” bit.
— Hmm, a very random (even for this already-random short’s standards) but interesting turn with the zombie chase sequence. Only the Lonely Island could make me like a turn that questionable.
STARS: ****½


POSTSEASON 07
for some reason, Dane Cook (JAS) promotes American League pennant series

— An absolutely perfect Dane Cook impression from Jason. Freakin’ spot-on. It helps that Jason already has a natural facial resemblance to Cook, but he’s nailing all of Cook’s mannerisms, delivery, and comedic style here, and is accurately parodying so many of the things I find so annoying about Cook.
— An overall very brief sketch, but I know in hindsight we’ll be getting a continuation of it later tonight.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
cultural misunderstandings baffle host

— Not a very entertaining reaction from Jon Bon Jovi when finding out Bill’s Vinny Vedecci is going to interview him in Italian dialect, compared to the on-point reactions that Julia Louis-Dreyfus and even the overly-hammy Zach Braff had to that in previous installments of this sketch.
— Another instance of Vinny Vedecci doing a fun, out-of-character celebrity impression, this time doing Steven Van Zandt. We also get the addition of Fred’s producer character doing an out-of-character Paulie Walnuts impression that we saw Fred do before in a Sopranos sketch. Quite a number of Sopranos references in tonight’s episode, by the way, between the “Ohhhhh!” sketch and this.
— A hilarious part with the cigarettes-for-kids commercial, complete with the Bon Jovi song “Blaze Of Glory” being played over it.
— I like the bit with the steel horse.
— I’m not caring for Jon’s straight man performance AT ALL here. Something is off-putting to me about his performance in this sketch. I wonder if part of it is that arrogance and ego of his that I complained about earlier. (Can you tell I haven’t been liking him as a host tonight?)
— Good turn at the end with Jon calling Vinny out on his fake Italian, resulting in a very “Uh-oh”-type silent pause from Vinny, Fred’s producer character, and even Will’s non-speaking spaghetti-eating character. I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 took that as a sign that this was going to be the final Vinny Vedecci sketch, given the fact that Jon calling Vinny and the others out on their fake Italian would’ve been a fitting way to conclude this series of sketches. As we know now, this ended up being FAR from the last installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
ahead of the writers’ strike, scab-to-be Rosa Santiago (MAR) tells jokes

naked guy using a cellphone (ANS) walks onto the Weekend Update set

political comedian Nicholas Fehn (FRA) can’t formulate a thought

— Wow, I cannot remember the last time prior to this where Weekend Update aired BEFORE the musical guest’s first performance. It may have been way back in season 28. I think tonight’s episode also may be the last time this has happened to this day in 2020, but then again, I can’t say for sure, as I have yet to see any episodes from December 2018-May 2020.
— Another so-called “funny”-voiced foreign-accented Maya Rudolph character.
— Maya’s Spanish janitor character here feels like a variation of someone Maya once played in an Update commentary very early in her SNL tenure: a Spanish maid of Linda Chavez’s. The fact that that was early in Maya’s SNL tenure, and her similar character in tonight’s Update is in her second-to-last episode, gives her SNL tenure a bit of a full-circle feel.
— Good ad-lib from Maya in reaction to the loose desktop her hands are resting on.
— Maya’s foreign-accented delivery is actually so goofy and over-the-top that it’s gone from kinda annoying me to actually making me laugh in spite of myself. I’m actually starting to enjoy this commentary of Maya’s, and find her character kinda charming.
— An okay brief bit with Andy as the naked guy who made headlines that week for walking nude into a Tad’s Steaks.
— The audience’s reactions to a lot of Amy’s jokes tonight are noticeably fairly mild.
— The debut of Fred’s Nicolas Fehn character.
— This inaugural Nicolas Fehn commentary has me laughing so much, and Fred is doing such a great skewering of “deep” political humorists. Unfortunately, SNL would later go on to run this character INTO THE FUCKING GROUND. He appears, like, 10 times within this and the following season. This probably would’ve been much better off being left as a one-and-done character. His subsequent appearances after tonight’s episode would have him just repeat the exact same bit every single time, which doesn’t work anywhere near as well on repetition.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Pretender”


WHERE’S MY PURSE?
during an alien attack, lost purse preoccupies spaceship captain (KRW)

— A dumb, questionable premise for a sketch.
— I’m about halfway through this sketch, and I have yet to get a single laugh.
— Another sketch this season that feels like an early precursor to badly-written Kristen Wiig-starring sketches that we’ll be seeing on a regular basis from seasons 34-37, even if Kristen’s character in this particular sketch is nowhere near as annoying, muggy, or twitchy as a lot of her badly-written characters from seasons 34-37 would be. Speaking of which, something about Kristen’s characterization in this sketch strangely feels kinda Carol Burnett-esque to me.
— Why in the world did some audience members randomly applaud when Bill, in a bit role, got shot by one of the aliens?
— Kenan makes his first appearance all night in a bit role where he gives a loud, kinda annoying, very hammy performance that feels too out of place in this lethargic, lifeless, dreary sketch, almost as if he’s intentionally overacting due to being upset over his lack of airtime tonight. (I doubt that’s the case, though. I only said it because the thought of it amuses me.)
— (*sigh*) Absolutely NOTHING about this sketch is working for me. Even something about the general aura of it feels “off” (like I said earlier, it feels dreary and lifeless, aside from Kenan’s out-of-place hammy, broad performance). Please end this sketch already, SNL.
STARS: *


POSTSEASON 07
Dane Cook (JAS) puts his stamp on National League pennant series promo

— Jason’s Dane Cook impression continues to crack me up.
— Some more funny lines from Jason’s Cook in this continuation of the first Postseason piece from earlier tonight. I especially like his self-aware “Spider-Man reference” remark.
STARS: ***½


NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL ON NBC
NBC is the proud home for broadcasts of Notre Dame’s awful football team

This fake ad is missing from the copy I’m reviewing of this episode. I think the reason is because this fake ad was aired in the middle of a VERY LONG commercial break, and, because of how short this fake ad was and how the only visuals in it was stock footage of college football games, whoever recorded the copy I’m reviewing of this episode must’ve mistaken this fake ad for a real one. If you’re curious to see my thoughts on this fake ad, read it here in my original 2007 review that I wrote way back when this episode originally aired.


WHAT TO CALL THE BAND
in 1984, host’s new band is skeptical of his eponymous naming idea

— A fairly likable, realistic premise.
— I’m enjoying Jason’s frustrated straight man performance.
— Meh, this sketch is now getting a little too repetitive and thin for my likes.
— A laugh from Jon not even knowing the name of his two bandmates played by Andy and Will.
STARS: **


ICONOCLASTS
Bjork (KRW) & Charles Barkley (KET) visit Cheesecake Factory

— The debut of Kenan’s Charles Barkley impression.
— A rare instance in Kenan’s early seasons of him actually putting effort into sounding like a celebrity he’s playing.
— Hilarious idea of Bjork and Charles Barkley being paired together in an Iconoclasts episode.
— Kristen’s Bjork impression is consistently cracking me up here, but what’s REALLY making this sketch for me is Kenan’s priceless Barkley. Every single thing coming out of his mouth is a riot, especially him telling Bjork “Damn, you are like Dennis Rodman if he was a tiny white lady” and him constantly calling Bjork “Bork”.
— Very strong sketch overall. I remember back when this episode originally aired, I assumed Iconoclasts was going to become a recurring sketch, with a different pair of quirky, mismatched celebrities in each installment, but we end up never seeing this sketch return.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS
Jack Nicholson [real] introduces Bon Jovi [real]

Bon Jovi [real] performs “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”

— Holy hell, Jack Motherfucking Nicholson??? Randomly appearing at the goodnights??? Introducing a Bon Jovi musical performance??? Uh, wow. Oh, and how the hell is this only Jack’s second and final appearance in a regular SNL episode (the 40th Anniversary Special doesn’t count), neither of which were hosting stints?
— An uncommon instance of the goodnights being a musical performance. Because, apparently, SNL needs to stroke Jon Bon Jovi’s ego EVER FURTHER tonight by giving him and his band a second musical performance. Meanwhile, tonight’s ACTUAL CREDITED MUSICAL GUEST and SNL favorites, Foo Fighters, only got one measly performance in this entire episode. I remember how much this pissed off a number of online SNL fans back in 2007.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Even though it feels like I gave out a decent number of good ratings in this review, I don’t feel too crazy about the episode as a whole. Maybe because what was bad in this episode was REEEAAALLLLY bad, like most of that Al Gore piece and all of that wretched Where’s My Purse dreck. Another big problem I have with this episode is Jon Bon Jovi himself. Aside from the cold opening, I got an unlikable, arrogant, egotistical vibe from him all night, and he was about as “funny” a sketch performer as one would expect him to be.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seth Rogen)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The final episode before a writers’ strike puts SNL on a four-month hiatus. Brian Williams hosts, and Maya Rudolph gets her last hurrah before officially leaving the show prior to SNL’s return from the writers’ strike.