Tag: 2014-15

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January 24, 2015 – Blake Shelton (S40 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

INSIDE THE NFL
Patriots ballboy (BOM) was responsible for Deflategate

— I remember someone on an SNL message board pointing out that a huge fart sound effect can be heard randomly going off at the beginning of the scene with Beck as Bill Belichick. That “fart sound effect” was actually Beck making a grumbling/growling vocalization in his grumpy portrayal of Belichick.
— Funny performance from Taran as a faux-clueless Tom Brady.
— Bobby immediately coming off goofily lovable.
— Very strong performance from Bobby during his speech, especially when he and Kate get into a heated back-and-forth.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
cast members struggle to get in the spirit of host’s gentle Hee Haw gibes

— Another strong walk-on from Bobby tonight.
— Leslie’s misery during this whole Hee Haw act is a pretty good running gag.
— An overall okay monologue, even if I could barely find anything to say about it.
STARS: ***


FARM HUNK
Hollywood bachelorettes compete for a life in Iowa

— The debut of a sketch theme that would go on to be an annual January tradition for years (not sure if it’s still ongoing today, as I haven’t seen a new episode since 2018). I’ve always personally referred to these as the “Sorry, can I steal him for a sec?” sketches.
— Of all the installments of this annual sketch that I’ve seen, I think this is the only one where the bachelor role is played by that night’s SNL host instead of a cast member.
— Vanessa: “I’m a second grade teacher…in my pornos.”
— I’m enjoying the running theme with each female contestant turning out to have done porn.
— A fun structure this sketch, and each of the ladies has funny lines, particularly an occasionally teary-eyed Aidy.
— The usual scene-stealing appearance from Leslie, and I love the reveal that she’s actually playing herself.
STARS: ****


WISHIN’ BOOT
(KAM), (AIB), (host) sing about magical country shoe

— I remember hating this short when it originally aired, considering it to be lame as hell, and I would subsequently be dumbfounded to see it go on to be well-loved by a lot of SNL fans. Much like some other things that I used to strongly dislike but now want to understand why so many other SNL fans love, I will go into my current viewing of this short with an open mind.
— So far, this is at least a very spot-on and well-detailed spoof of typical country songs and country music videos.
— Still not too crazy about the comedic premise of a wishin’ boot.
— Okay, I do like the scene with Aidy receiving a prison visit from the Wishin Boot’.
— I’m currently near the end of this short, and yeah, I’ve barely been laughing. I’m enjoying it more for its charm than its actual humor.
— Overall, despite my lack of amusement towards this short and the fact that I still can’t understand why a number of SNL fans consider it to be pretty much a classic, I cannot hate this short at all anymore like I used to. It has a charm that I now can’t help but like.
STARS: ***


CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD
stars of The Voice & American Idol vie

— Kinda unexciting to have an SNL host play themselves in an installment of this sketch.
— Meh, I could do without the return of Kate’s Keith Urban impression.
— I’m not as crazy about the collection of impressions in tonight’s Family Feud sketch compared to the previous two installments of this sketch. Kenan’s always-funny Steve Harvey is the only thing really carrying tonight’s installment so far.
— That’s it? This sketch is over? Easily my least favorite installment of this recurring sketch that has aired by this point.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Neon Light”


WEEKEND UPDATE
MIC’s goofy high school friend Riblet (BOM) expertly reads news items

gay porn on PED’s computer represents confirmation of his heterosexuality

Nicole (SAZ) fights with ex-boyfriend MIC while giving financial advice

— The debut of Bobby’s Riblet character.
— Bobby is killing it as this Riblet character, and I love how different this feels for an Update commentary, especially with the various turns where Riblet suddenly tells an Update joke in a very professional, straitlaced manner. I also love how they even go through the lengths of showing an altered version of the Update opening title sequence, with Riblet inserted in Michael’s place.
— After the audience’s very iffy reaction to his joke about King Abdullah getting run over by a terrible woman driver, Michael humorously ad-libs “Riblet, everybody”, reminiscent of his great “Prince, ladies and gentlemen” ad-lib from earlier this season.
— Some decent lines from Pete throughout his gay porn anecdote, especially him telling Colin, “You’re like a straight 8 and a gay 10!”
— Second week in a row where we get the long-standing Weekend Update tradition of how the punchline to a joke about the death of a creator of something noteworthy is done in the style of said creation, a tradition that I always like, as I said in my last episode review. This particular joke, about the death of the creator of the instant replay, is fun and memorable, and I like an amused Michael ad-libbing to Colin, after the slow-mo clip of Colin getting hit in the face with a football, “You look so dumb.”
— Hmm, I have absolutely no prior memory of this commentary with Sasheer as Michael’s ex-girlfriend.
— The timing of some portions of Sasheer’s commentary is off.
— I like Colin nervously and slowly sliding out of the shot when he’s asked to chime in on Michael and Sasheer’s tense argument. What was with the extremely delayed camera cut to him, though? That just further proves my point that the timing in some portions of this Michael/Sasheer commentary feels off.
— I am liking the tense back-and-forths between Michael and Sasheer, and it’s an interesting and strangely refreshing novelty to see Michael convincingly acting in a scene like this.
— Ha, we get a very funny sudden twist at the end of Sasheer’s commentary, with her mysterious new boyfriend turning out to be Riblet. Solid callback, and I never would’ve guessed that’s where Sasheer’s commentary was headed.
STARS: ***


PAROLE BOARD
parole board nixes Texas Man Gobbler’s (KET) bid for a redemption

— Given the fact that The Shawshank Redemption is one of my all-time favorite movies, I’m interested in this spoof of Morgan Freeman’s legendary speech from that movie.
— A very funny sudden tone shift after Kenan’s poignant opening speech, with the parole board bluntly revealing that Kenan straight-up ate a person, and that Kenan’s NEVER going to get out of this prison.
— Kenan, when reflecting in regards to his eating people: “Would I do it again? Point me towards a homeless shelter.”
— The whole “last meal” discussion is cracking me up.
— Even the predictable text crawl ending made me laugh.
STARS: ***½


TOPEKA TODAY
widower (TAK) wrote song of 70-year marriage to awful (KAM)

— When Bobby compliments Taran and Blake on how beautiful their song is so far, I laughed at Blake frankly telling him in an un-amused manner, “There’s more.”
— A good dark turn this “loving” song takes, helped by the incongruity of these unflattering lyrics being sung while we see touching young black-and-white photos of Kate’s character. I feel the dark humor here should be going even further, but it’s fine for what it is.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Boys Round Here”


MAGICIAN
formerly-skeptical audience member (host) asks magician (TAK) for powers

— Boy, Blake sure was late on his cue to utter “Fake!”, leading to almost five solid seconds of complete dead air.
— Some of Blake’s desperate requests to the magician are making me laugh, such as “I wanna be a black guy…just for one day” and “Guns for a head!” Otherwise, I’m pretty meh on this sketch.
— Okay, I did get a cheap big laugh just now from Blake’s “Give me the power…to go down on myself.” I also like the subsequent bit with him trying and failing to go down on himself behind the curtain.
— Blah, that “Magic isn’t real!” “I knew it!” twist didn’t come off anywhere near as clever as the writer of this sketch apparently THOUGHT it was. Maybe it was just Blake’s weak execution of that twist that made it not work very well.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average and forgettable episode, in what’s been a string of episodes lately that have either been kinda meh or forgettably average. While there at least wasn’t anything that flopped too hard in this episode, and the first two post-Weekend Update sketches (Parole Board and Topeka Today) had some good dark humor, the only rated segment that stood out as strong to me all night was the “Sorry, can I steal him for a sec?” sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Farm Hunk
Parole Board
Topeka Today
Weekend Update
Inside The NFL
Wishin’ Boot
Monologue
Magician
Celebrity Family Feud


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
J.K. Simmons

Posted on

January 17, 2015 – Kevin Hart / Sia (S40 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MARTIN LUTHER KING
in 2015, high-schooler (PED) helps Martin Luther King Jr. (KET) gauge social progress

— Interesting seeing Pete starring in a cold opening for his first time.
— A variation of the “MLK visits President Obama” cold opening from two seasons prior.
— Wait, Kenan’s MLK isn’t familiar with Obama in this cold opening??? I know I shouldn’t be looking for continuity in a simple SNL cold opening, but still. Hell, even just within this cold opening, the consistency is incredibly thin. Case in point, when Pete mentioned Wu-Tang Clan, Kenan’s MLK didn’t seem confused or lost at all, yet he has no idea who Obama or Macklemore are? So are we to assume MLK’s post-death knowledge of post-1960s figures doesn’t extend past the 90s for some reason?
— Good bit with Kenan’s MLK optimistically and misguidedly thinking the movie Selma must’ve received lots of Oscar nominations.
— Pete: “I’m a white kid……probably.” I take it that’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to how racially ambiguous Pete generally looks. (I mentioned in a previous episode review that, when I first saw a photo of Pete back in September 2014 when he was announced as SNL’s latest hire, I honestly thought he was half-black.)
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about fearing wild animals in his neighborhood

— The humor of Kevin Hart’s raccoon story is very hit-and-miss.
— This has picked up with the bit about Kevin’s son.
— I can’t help but find Kevin’s “I can’t be with a woman that’s been attacked by a mountain lion” bit to be kinda off-putting, even if that may be part of the point.
STARS: **½


CALVIN KLEIN JEANS
Justin Bieber (KAM) plays drums & tries to act grown up

— Good to see they’re doing something different with Kate’s Justin Bieber this time, as the usual routine with Kate just silently doing Bieber gestures was starting to wear a little thin when this impression last appeared a few episodes prior.
— Lots of pretty funny quick little gags, and this is well-edited.
STARS: ***½


WHY’D YOU POST THAT?
(host) lambastes & punishes Instagram transgressors

— Yikes, we’re already getting a huge and awkward technical gaffe early on, as the screen next to Kevin starts malfunctioning during his intro and then fails to show Vanessa’s Instagram photo at the beginning of her interview, leading to lots of painfully awkward vamping from her and Kevin. Poor Vanessa in particular seems completely lost on how to ad-lib her way out of this technical gaffe.
— Yeesh, another technical gaffe, as the chair that Vanessa’s sitting on gets temporarily gets stuck when she and the chair are getting dragged into some kind of smoky dungeon.
— A very slow start to this sketch, as, even ignoring the aforementioned technical issues, Kevin’s questioning of Vanessa wasn’t all that funny. However, the sketch has improved somewhat with Aidy’s interview. This sketch in general is still no great shakes, though.
STARS: **½


BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN 2015
Bushwick thugs (KET), (host), (JAP) have adapted to gentrification

— A very funny cutaway to the Martha’s Mayonnaise shop in this urban neighborhood.
— Lots of other hilarious cutaway visuals of uncharacteristically whitebred/hipster-esque actions from Kevin, Jay, and Kenan’s characters. This is a very well-done and memorable commentary on the gentrification of urban neighborhoods.
— I’m loving even the non-comedic parts of Kevin, Jay, and Kenan’s conversations, just because it has a great realism to it that really puts you into this scene.
STARS: *****


GET ON UP
during a 1971 performance, James Brown (host) seeks assent from his band

— Beck looks hilarious in the background, stiffly dancing in that afro while having an uncomfortable, wide-eyed look on his face.
— Oops, another technical gaffe tonight, as what appears to be a camera accidentally blocks part of the shot right now for a few seconds.
— I like Sasheer’s delivery of “I’m not bringin’ out no damn capes!”
— I’ve always gotten parts of this sketch mixed up with an absolutely DREADFUL sketch from the following season’s episode hosted by………uh…….oof, well, let’s just say a certain host who will be the ultimate chore for me to review and probably the most difficult episode I’ve EVER had to cover in this entire SNL project of mine (you get who I’m talking about now, don’t’cha?), where said host-who-shall-not-be-named plays the laser harp in a band. However, I’m finding this James Brown sketch to be the better of the two. The humor here is only mildly funny, but I’m enjoying the general style of this sketch, and it’s fitting for Kevin.
STARS: ***


NANCY
(VAB) gets clownish music during soap opera cast reunion

— Ugh at the direction the conceit of this sketch is taking.
— Yeah, it’s now a minute or so later, and I haven’t been caring at all for the repeated gag of the farty music only playing for Vanessa.
— I did at least laugh just now at Vanessa’s affable, smiley delivery when telling Kevin, “Um, that doesn’t make any sense.”
STARS: *½


CALVIN KLEIN JEANS
Justin Bieber (KAM) acts immature around a model (CES)

— Some more laughs, even if I’m not finding this to be quite as strong as the first installment of this ad from earlier tonight.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Elastic Heart”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mrs. Santini (KAM) reads snide notes she wrote to people in her building

— I’m always a sucker for Michael’s rants about a news story, which he does here on the controversy over the lack of Oscar nominations for actors of color.
— The first appearance of Kate’s Mrs. Santini character, an occasionally-appearing recurring character I had completely forgotten about until now.
— A very funny disturbing bit from Kate’s Mrs. Santini about animal skeletons.
— I love the random detail of Mrs. Santini’s notes being written on odd things like a red napkin and a brown paper bag. I also love the increasingly humorous ways she addresses tenants in the salutations of her notes (e.g. “Dear Mario Batali of hot garbage”).
— I always like the long-standing Weekend Update tradition of how the punchline to a joke about the death of a creator of something noteworthy is done in the style of said creation, as we get here with Colin’s joke about the death of Home Shopping Network’s creator. Corny but funny.
— Michael’s addendum to the woman-in-China-cutting-her-husband’s-penis-off-twice story was delivered too awkwardly.
— Wow, an overall fairly short Update. I also think this is the first one-commentary-only Jost/Che-era Update, as well as the first Jost/Che Update to NOT end with a guest commentary.
STARS: ***


THE JOURNEY
everyone in the kingdom but (host) sings about need to flee dragon attack

— Judging from how the first song the characters break out into is immediately followed by Kevin asking them “What the hell was that?!?”, it looks like I’m in for an inferior knock-off of the famous West Side Story/Evita sketches with Norm Macdonald.
— Okay, Kevin’s at least now doing a little more than just emulating what Norm did in the aforementioned West Side Story/Evita sketches, but that’s still not stopping this sketch from being lousy. I’m getting little-to-no enjoyment from this sketch.
— Taran’s extremely low-pitched, stretched-out singing during his solo is funny, at least.
— I was hoping Leslie would save this sketch in her walk-on, but no dice.
STARS: *½


KEVIN’S SON
mannerisms of (LEJ)’s son (JAP) reveal him to have been fathered by host

— I am loving Jay’s impression of Kevin here. Even though he seems to be having trouble keeping the voice at certain points of this sketch, the impression is fun and amusing, especially after this episode had got me so used to hearing and seeing Kevin’s voice and mannerisms.
— A very weak, abrupt, and empty ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chandelier”


LISTENING PARTY
rapper (host) performs song for his crew that reveals their secrets

— Kevin starting his rap with musical yells of “PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW! BOP-BOP-BOP! GUNSHOT SOUNDS! BOP!” is cracking me up, and has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Oh, so THAT’S why Beck’s character had his hand covering his mouth the whole time prior to the lipstick reveal.
— Some funny personal revelations from Kevin about his friends.
— Funny fake-out regarding the song supposedly being over.
— Okay, they don’t have to overdo the “GUNSHOT SOUNDS!” bit all throughout this sketch. It’s not making me laugh as much anymore.
— The second consecutive sketch with a questionable ending, as something about this particular sketch’s ending came off awkwardly executed.
— Did Taran and Cecily seriously go through this entire sketch without uttering a single word, nor having any lyrics about them sung by Kevin? If so, then what was the point of Taran and Cecily even being in this sketch? Were they the victims of last-minute trimming done to this sketch for time reasons?
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An extremely average and forgettable episode, so much so, that I can’t even find anything else to say about it here. I’ll at least add that the Bushwick, Brooklyn 2015 short film is one of my favorite segments of this entire season.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bushwick, Brooklyn 2015
Calvin Klein Jeans (Part 1)
Kevin’s Son
Weekend Update
Martin Luther King
Calvin Klein Jeans (Part 2)
Listening Party
Get On Up
Monologue
Why’d You Post That?
Nancy / The Journey (tie)


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Blake Shelton

Posted on

December 20, 2014 – Amy Adams / One Direction (S40 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A VERY SOMBER CHRISTMAS WITH SAM SMITH / DR. EVIL ADDRESS
Dr. Evil (MIM) thinks North Korea & Sony Pictures should up their game

— At first, I almost thought Beck’s opening voice-over was him attempting to do a Don Pardo vocal imitation.
— Taran’s Sam Smith impression is always funny.
— Was it intentional for Taran to point in the wrong direction when singing the “decorate the tree” lyric? The tree is in the opposite direction he pointed to.
— Wow, Mike Myers as Dr. Evil out of freakin’ nowhere!
— Mike has absolutely still got it as Dr. Evil.
— Ha, when this originally aired, I remember wondering if that Uber mention from Dr. Evil infuriated the SNL fans who complained online about the various Uber mentions that this season’s Chris Rock episode contained.
— Some good lines and slams from Mike’s Dr. Evil here, including the self-deprecating Love Guru slam. However, the humor in this Dr. Evil speech isn’t quite as strong as I want it to be, and a few of his slams feel too tame.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
KRW adds pizzazz to host’s rendition of “We Need A Little Christmas”

— MUSICAL MONOLOGUE WARNING
— Wait, screw what I said above. More like: KRISTEN WIIG CAMEO WARNING
— The audience proceeds to give Kristen’s entrance what practically feels like a 30-second applause break. Oh, so you mean she’s NOT still in the cast? Could’ve fooled me with how often she’s appeared after leaving.
— Amy Adams, to Kristen: “Isn’t this the second time you’ve crashed my monologue?” Hell, Amy, it’s the second time Kristen crashed someone’s monologue THIS SEASON. Also, to nitpick, Kristen technically didn’t crash your previous monologue, Amy. You brought her up onstage yourself to address the facial resemblance that people say you and her have.
— At least Kristen appearing in Bill Hader’s monologue earlier this season made sense, given the Skeleton Twins movie Bill was promoting. But this??? Come the hell on, SNL. Learn to cut the umbilical cord with Kristen already!
— I did at least get a laugh just now from Kristen randomly telling an SNL stagehand, “Thank you, Mariah Carey.” Kristen is admittedly always solid at delivering random one-liners like that in a very straitlaced, deadpan manner.
— Ugh, this Wiig-involved “We Need A Little Christmas” musical number is a chore to sit through. And I hate that I’m being so salty towards such a jolly, fun-loving traditional Christmas song, but a Wiig cameo in an era bombarded with Wiig cameos tends to have that effect on me.
STARS: *½


ASIAN AMERICAN DOLL
to avoid political incorrectness, Asian American Doll is a blank slate

— I love Cecily-as-the-voice-over’s disclosure that the company had to have a lot of sensitivity meetings about their doll.
— Yikes, an odd audio gaffe during a close-up of Vanessa (in the ONLY appearance she’ll be making all night, by the way) speaking, where you can hear audio of an SNL stagehand testing out a microphone live in SNL’s studio, which drowns out the line that Vanessa’s saying at this moment.
— Cecily, in a kind manner, towards the little girl asking a string of questions about the Asian American Doll: “You ask a lot of questions. You should go play outside”, a very funny line that’s accompanied by a great shot of Vanessa guiding that little girl out of the room.
— Hilarious bit with Vanessa getting cut off when struggling badly to come up with a non-offensive phrase that the Asian American Doll can say when you pull her string.
— So many fantastic lines from Cecily, doing terrific work as the commercial’s voice-over.
— An absolutely priceless bit with one of the little girls questioning the puppy and chef hat accessories by wondering if the chef hat is so the doll can eat the puppy because she’s Asian, resulting in Cecily as the voice-over going into a total panic and Vanessa nervously leaving the room in a hurry. To me, that’s the moment that officially propels this already-perfect commercial into a bonafide classic.
— I feel that, in a lot of ways, this commercial is like a companion piece to The Dudleys commercial from earlier this season in the Woody Harrelson episode. (And Chris Kelly & Sarah Schneider wrote both, I believe.) As fantastic and sharp as that Dudleys commercial is, I’ve personally always felt that this Asian American Doll commercial is an even better variation of that concept, which is why I only gave The Dudleys a four-and-a-half-star rating in my review of it. I was saving the five-star rating for this.
STARS: *****


TENDERFIELD CHRISTMAS 2014
family’s video Christmas card documents unhappy events from the past year

— An interesting and unique structure to this sketch.
— I like the way the “…in my Christmas sweatpants!” lyric is being used as a recurring lyric throughout this, especially whenever it’s said after a disturbing revelation.
— I’m enjoying the increasingly unfortunate family stories being told.
— The way this ended felt kinda flat.
STARS: ***


SERIAL
Sarah Koenig’s (CES) podcast has Kris Kringle (KYM) skepticism

— I’m admittedly not familiar at all with Serial, but that’s never stopped me from finding this spoof of it to be absolutely fantastic. Even without having any familiarity with the source material, I have no trouble following the tone and style that this spoof is going for, and this spoof absolutely works for me on its own merits.
— Another outstanding performance from Cecily tonight.
— I absolutely love Kyle as a realistic, dodgy Kris Kringle. In particular, the phone calls messages of him throughout this are excellent.
— Man, the tone of this short, the acting, the humor, the way such a silly concept is being played so straight… everything in this is pure perfection.
— The courtroom sketch drawing of Aidy is hilarious, and is accompanied perfectly by the specific voice she’s using in her voice-over during it.
— Overall, an absolutely brilliant pre-tape, a season highlight, and an SNL highlight in general. I remember there were a lot of SNL reviewers at the time who didn’t like this Serial spoof at all and considered it to be overlong and a complete bore, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some SNL fans who still feel that way about it today, but let’s just say I strongly disagree and can’t understand the negativity.
STARS: *****


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
dance squad members (musical guest) enchant Morgan

— Much like the Ex-Porn Stars recurring sketch, this Girlfriends Talk Show recurring sketch making its first appearance this far into the season is proof that it’s being phased out.
— I love Aidy’s delivery of her character’s awkward attempt at a sassy comeback: “You better take your chewable vitamins…along with your bitch sandwich…and then…go ahead and sit on the sandwich AS WELL!”
— Cue the incessant screams from teen girls in the audience upon One Direction making their obligatory sketch appearance of the night.
— Cecily’s “My boyfriend’s crazy” stories are beyond formulaic and tired by this point.
— Overall, aside from some good lines from Aidy as usual, this recurring sketch continues to be well past its expiration date, and the unnecessary One Direction involvement didn’t exactly help solve my lack of enthusiasm towards this sketch.
STARS: **


OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY
workers go mildly wild in corporate environment

— The first of many Pete Davidson rap videos, though, IIRC, these don’t become a regular thing until years later.
— The song itself isn’t very catchy, unlike a lot of SNL’s songs in this type of music video in this era (e.g. Boy Dance Party), but there are enough amusing things shown happening in this video, such as a drunken, uncontrolled Aidy diving into the Christmas tree. However, I’m not finding this short anywhere near as epic as SNL wants me to.
— Something about Pete’s rapper voice is coming off Samberg-lite at certain points of this short, though I know that’s not intentional.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Night Changes”


WEEKEND UPDATE
sniper attention leads BOM to call off his Kim Jong-un impression

MIC’s hard-luck neighbor Willie (KET) has unwarranted positive attitude

songs from Hanukkah album by Garth & Kat seem rather off-the-cuff

 

— The direct message that Michael delivers towards Kim Jong-un is funny, right from his memorable opening line: “Look, Kimberly….”
— A solid meta turn to Bobby’s Kim Jong-un commentary, reminding me of the Update commentary that Andy Samberg once did as Sarah Palin.
— The sniper laser bit is a very funny ending to Bobby’s commentary, as is him trying to save face by claiming he’s Seth Rogen.
— Ah, our very first of many instances over the years of Michael or Colin doing an Update joke where the punchline is about their co-anchor. In tonight’s case, Michael’s “Now That’s What Jost Calls Music” punchline was hilarious, as was the accompanying photo of that album cover (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Update).
— The debut of Kenan’s Willie character, who I’ve always loved.
— Lots of funny depressing stories from Willie about himself, delivered in a jolly manner. However, with this being his first appearance, the disturbing nature of his stories is fairly tame here compared to later appearances of his, where they up the ante on the disturbing humor.
— I recall hearing that Michael took some heat from some online SNL fans for his mispronunciation of “sedatives”, leading him to go off on one of his infamous back-and-forth arguments with people online. Did such a heated, nasty argument really break out over a mere (and understandable) mispronunciation of a word? Geez, I guess it’s a good thing social media didn’t exist yet when Joe Pesci mispronounced “maniacal” in a Joe Pesci Show sketch he cameoed in.
— The return of Garth & Kat?!?? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDI– (*without even finishing that last sentence, Stooge immediately douses himself with gasoline and sets himself aflame, welcoming the sweet pain that brings, finding it to be far more soothing than sitting through another dreaded Garth & Kat commentary*)
— Once again, I ask, has Kristen Wiig left the cast? Oh, the same goes for Fred Armisen, for that matter.
— Oh, how I look forward to seeing these wretched Garth & Kat characters deservedly bomb HARD with the audience when they appear in SNL’s then-upcoming 40th Anniversary Special that I’ll be reviewing when we come to that point of this season.
STARS: *** (as usual, Garth & Kat’s commentary was bad and overlong enough to bring Weekend Update’s rating down half a star)


A VERY CUBAN CHRISTMAS
lifted embargo inspires a scattershot special

— Because we didn’t already have enough Fred Armisen in our lives, we now hear him doing the voice-over throughout this sketch. Is he further trying to prove my point that it doesn’t feel like he ever left the cast?
— So far, the format of this sketch seems very boring, and seems like the type of “musical TV special” sketch I often dislike in recent SNL seasons like this.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and yep, I’m indeed very bored by this sketch.
— Kate playing her stock “brash hardass” role. As been-there-done-that as it feels here, it’s still working more for me than almost anything else in this sketch.
— Aaaaaaand there goes Fred now appearing in person in this sketch. (*sigh*) I know he’s part Venezuelan, but his appearance in this Cuban sketch still feels completely unnecessary. Lorne’s endless hard-on for nostalgia towards SNL’s then-recent late 00s/early 10s era just makes me shake my head, given how way-too-recent that era is at this point in 2014 for constant nostalgia and mini-reunions.
— Poor Beck has been almost completely non-existent tonight. I could use his and Vanessa’s extreme lack of appearances tonight as another excuse to bitch about how Fred and Kristen are taking away airtime from actual current cast members, but I don’t even have the strength anymore.
— Not even the Obama bit is anything great.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ready to Run”


A MAGICAL CHRISTMAS
in 1947, raccoons (KAM), (host), (CES) get to be human nightclub singers

— I recall absolutely hating this sketch when it originally aired, dismissing it as typical James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written tripe. However, it would later grow on me. I’m not even fully sure why it grew on me, but I think it has to do with the fact that, when re-watching it and knowing in hindsight about the raccoon reveal at the end, it causes Amy, Kate, and Cecily’s questionable actions to make sense and come off funnier to me than it did when I originally watched this sketch live and had no knowledge of the ending twist that was coming.
— I’m still enjoying this sketch in my current viewing, despite some typical annoying Anderson/Sublette tropes in this (e.g. Amy’s character being named Frebecca).
— The comically brief songs from the ladies are amusing me.
— As I somewhat implied above, I strangely like the ending reveal of the ladies actually being raccoons, and I also like the silly visual of puppet raccoons singing one of the (oddly catchy) brief jingles from earlier in this sketch.
STARS: ***


WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & her new girlfriend (host) give away cats

— Are literally half of this episode’s sketches (including the monologue) written by Anderson and/or Sublette?
— I liked this sketch in its first installment, but I can’t say this is working much for me as a recurring sketch. I’m finding most of the humor here only mildly funny at best. And it’s pure laziness to just repeat the same sexually frisky behavior that the character played by the host displays towards Kate’s character. At least give the character played by the host their own individual characteristic in each installment of this sketch.
— I did like Kate’s line just now towards a touchy-feely Amy: “I think you know where the cat ends and my boobs begin.”
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite two outstanding highlights, both of which are all-time favorites of mine (Asian American Doll and Serial), this episode was fairly meh as a whole. There were too many things that I either didn’t care for or felt were forgettably average, there was too much of the tired and completely unnecessary cameos from Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen, and there was a little too much of a “James Anderson/Kent Sublette influence” feel to the night (even if I liked their raccoons sketch).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Asian American Doll
Serial
A Very Somber Christmas with Sam Smith / Dr. Evil Address
A Magical Christmas
Weekend Update
Tenderfield Christmas 2014
Office Christmas Party
Girlfriends Talk Show
Whiskers R’ We
A Very Cuban Christmas
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Freeman)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2015, with host Kevin Hart

Posted on

December 13, 2014 – Martin Freeman / Charli XCX (S40 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHARLIE ROSE
torture consultants (BOM) & (KYM) take pride in evils

— Some funny opening lines from Taran, who’s doing a decent Charlie Rose impression.
— Great bit from Bobby and Kyle’s torture consultants about them being Time Warner Cable’s customer service.
— Very solid performances from Bobby and Kyle throughout this.
— We get a lot of other hilarious reveals of famous annoyances that Bobby and Kyle’s torture consultants are the ones behind.
— I love Bobby’s “It sure ducking was” comment about him and Kyle being the creators of autocorrect.
— For what initially seemed like an unexciting setting for a cold opening, this has turned out to not only be very funny, but have a great flow and a fun spirit.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
fellow British celebs Maggie Smith (KAM) & Alan Rickman (TAK) know host

— Right out the gate in this monologue, Martin Freeman’s delivery and comedic style has that refreshing, fast-paced, and charming English wit, which is encouraging.
— Good laughs from Taran’s Alan Rickman voice.
— A short and sweet monologue.
STARS: ***½


SUMP’N CLAUS
Sump’n Claus (KET) has cash for those on Santa’s (BOM) naughty list

— A very fun concept for a music video, and a perfect use of Kenan, who’s selling this material to absolute perfection.
— Good bit with Martin losing his temper in his office.
— I love the increasingly drawn-out pauses right before each time Kenan’s Sump’n Claus sings “Everybody gettin’ sump’n!”
— Throughout this short, Martin’s looking quite like another famous Martin: Martin Short.
STARS: ****½


WEDDING OBJECTIONS
everyone at the wedding of odd couple (host) & (LEJ) raises objections

— A good use of the extreme size difference between Martin and Leslie, having them play a loving couple being wed. I’m also loving the extreme differences between their personalities and backgrounds.
— Great reveal of Vanessa being Martin’s wife.
— Kenan’s “He just adopted the Wu-Tang Clan!” line was very funny.
— Solid line from Taran comparing the fragility of Martin’s reconstructed penis to a late-stage Jenga tower.
— Kate is killing it in this sketch, especially her disclosing that she has no idea who the bride or groom are – she just happened to be walking by this church, caught a brief glimpse of the couple getting married, and something told her “GET IN THERE AND SHUT! IT! DOWN!”
STARS: ****


THE OFFICE: MIDDLE EARTH
Bilbo (host) & Gollum (TAK) are paper salesmen

— A very promising concept, doing a hybrid of the two things Martin’s most famous for.
— I am loving Bobby’s performance as a Gandalf/Ricky Gervais hybrid. He’s hilarious here. Even the little detail of that beard stroke he did in one of his confessional shots had me in stitches.
— Yet another very funny vocal impression from Taran, this time of Gollum. His voice is absolutely slaying me.
— Such a spot-on and fantastic spoof of the The Office’s style.
— The little pratfall that Bobby (playing dual roles here) does at the end cracked me up.
— Overall, simply perfect.
STARS: *****


RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED WITH GRACELYNN AND CORY
(host) endures endless morning show segment teases

— Ohho, no. I completely forgot that this episode featured the debut of this, a recurring sketch that I’ve never liked. (*sigh*) For the second time this season, leave it to writers James Anderson & Kent Sublette to ruin an episode’s perfect streak of segments ranging pretty solid to excellent.
— An early display of SNL’s habit of randomly casting Kate as male celebrities/politicians for no apparent reason. (Her two drag roles in the preceding week’s James Franco episode, Justin Bieber and Kevin McAllister, at least made sense, as she was playing a short young adult and a prepubescent boy, respectively).
— Closest to a laugh I’ve gotten from this entire thing was from Martin awkwardly being made to dance next to Aidy, who has just disclosed very sad personal news about herself.
STARS: *½


ST. JOSEPH’S CHRISTMAS MASS SPECTACULAR
Christmas mass spectacular features liturgical tropes

— I think this counts as the first of a few of these occasionally-appearing pre-tapes presenting tropes from a boring traditional event in a specific upbeat style.
— This spoof is not only very true to life and relatable, but it’s hilarious, and every performer is nailing their respective roles.
— Nice to see tonight’s strong-so-far episode rebound very well after a slight setback with the Right Side of the Bed sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Boom Clap”


WEEKEND UPDATE
lacking African-American emojis, SAZ creatively employs other symbols

A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy (CES) follows comedy arc

Jacob talks about Hanukkah & thanks Derek Jeter for his service

— Some very strong jokes from Michael early on in tonight’s Update.
— Wow. Sasheer with her own Update commentary? As HERSELF??? Well, this is new. And it’s certainly nice to see her getting a big showcase as herself, given how very underused she is.
— Oh, now I remember this emoji commentary of Sasheer’s. I used to mis-remember this as happening later in Sasheer’s SNL tenure.
— Sasheer’s overall commentary was very good, had some solid racial commentary, and refreshingly felt very different for an Update commentary.
— Michael’s ballsy “foot race” joke about FDR had me howling.
— The first appearance of Cecily’s A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy, making this the second long-named character Cecily has played on Update.
— A spot-on characterization from Cecily here, being an accurate and funny spoof of this archetype. Her interaction with a confused Colin, however, reminds me a little too much of Vanessa’s interaction with a confused Michael in Vanessa’s romantic comedy commentary from earlier this season.
— Our first of, I think, multiple instances of Colin mining laughs out of his own childhood photo. I also love Michael’s very loud off-camera laugh while that photo is shown.
— Blah, another Jacob commentary. However, at least 1) Jacob’s last commentary prior to this shook a few things up, and 2) this is his first appearance in this new Update era.
— Unfortunately, it turns out that tonight’s Jacob commentary is going in the same-old same-old direction these Jacob commentaries always go, with no shake-ups this time. I also feel that, despite his efforts, Michael is too bland a straight man to Jacob, and isn’t bringing the fun and endearing chemistry that Cecily previously had with Jacob in his last commentary prior to this episode (probably the ONLY time you’ll hear me say Cecily was better at something as an Update anchor than Michael is).
STARS: ***½


ASSEMBLY LINE
Gordon (TAK) is slow to grasp simple duties of a ketchup assembly line

— Interesting characterization from Taran.
— An oddly charming gaffe when Martin initially uses the British pronunciation of “lever”, before correcting himself by re-stating the word in the American accent he’s supposed to be speaking in.
— A simple premise, but simple in a refreshing way, as it’s giving this sketch an old-school feel.
— A silly but decent ending.
STARS: ***½


HOLIDAY GIG
sax player’s (host) conflict with (TAK) leaks into Treece Henderson’s (KET) gig

— The first installment of these occasionally-appearing Treece Henderson sketches (so occasional, that the second installment isn’t until THREE YEARS after this).
— Kenan’s increasingly over-the-top, crazed “Tweedle-do-twee! Tweedle-do-twow!” singing (the most identifiable aspect of this soon-to-be recurring Treece Henderson character) is cracking me up.
— Where the heck is this sketch going? This has that bad, questionable, hard-to-figure feel that a lot of James Anderson/Kent Sublette sketches suffer from. Leave it to TWO Anderson/Sublette sketches to ruin the otherwise perfect flow of an episode.
— There’s Kenan killing it with another funny delivery in this sketch, with the way he pronounces “Red boooootssss”
— A very amusing scene-stealing appearance from Taran, and I like his silly dancing at the end.
— An overall baffling sketch, but with a decent amount of redeeming factors that almost made this sketch passable.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Break the Rules”


WATERBED WAREHOUSE
Waterbed Warehouse owner’s (host) wife (AIB) embraces company mascot role

— I remember an online SNL fan pointing out that Martin looked and acted very Buck Henry-esque in this sketch. I definitely see it, and I love that, given what an excellent host Buck always was, and how much I miss getting to review his hosting stints.
— I absolutely love Aidy’s occasional singing of the lyric “Our waterbeds are the beeeeeeeeest!”, which has stuck in my memory over the years.
— This is the type of questionable sketch concept that Aidy is probably one of the very few people who can sell. I try to imagine Kristen Wiig doing this same sketch in her later seasons, and I groan, as it would’ve come off way too typical of the annoying, hammy, badly-written, “Look at me!”-type of sketches the writers stuck Kristen with way too often. But when this sketch is given to a certain performer like Aidy who we’re not overly used to seeing do this type of material, it absolutely works and comes off very fun and charming.
— Speaking of imagining other cast members playing Aidy’s role in this sketch, the Martin Freeman/Buck Henry comparison mentioned earlier makes me imagine that, if this sketch were done in SNL’s original era and Buck had appeared in Martin’s role, I can easily picture Gilda Radner in Aidy’s role.
— Taran has had an EXTREMELY busy night, appearing in practically every single sketch, rather reminiscent of Will Ferrell at his most dominant. Jay, on the other hand, makes his ONLY live appearance of the entire night here, in a brief, shirtless walk-on in which he has no lines. I remember thinking, when this originally aired, that he looked visibly upset in this sketch over the fact that this was the only live role he got all night, but I’m not getting an upset vibe from him in my current viewing.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, almost rivaling the incredible Woody Harrelson episode from earlier this season. SNL was firing on pretty much all cylinders in tonight’s episode, minus two James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written missteps (one of which still had its moments).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Office: Middle Earth
St. Joseph’s Christmas Mass Spectacular
Sump’n Claus
Wedding Objections
Charlie Rose
Waterbed Warehouse
Assembly Line
Monologue
Weekend Update
Holiday Gig
Right Side of the Bed with Gracelynn and Cory


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (James Franco)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Amy Adams hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 6, 2014 – James Franco / Nicki Minaj (S40 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) addresses police shootings controversy

— There’s our obligatory joke about Al Sharpton gaining weight, as SNL’s attempt to explain why Kenan is still playing Sharpton after Sharpton’s real-life weight loss.
— A laugh from Jay constantly getting cut off during his interview.
— Of the typical fairly amusing misreadings from Kenan’s Sharpton, I particularly laughed at the “twattered” one.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Sony Pictures hack released private photos of host & Seth Rogen [real]

 

— Another cameo-based monologue. I guess this particular one is at least fitting, since James Franco previously cameoed in Seth Rogen’s monologue the preceding season.
— Blah at all the juvenile photos of James and Seth. Boring and unfunny. It also reminds me of Luke Wilson’s also-boring-and-unfunny monologue from season 30, where he and Horatio Sanz were the ones showing juvenile drunk photos of themselves.
— That’s the whole monologue? Boof.
STARS: *½


PETER PAN LIVE!
Tonkerbell contends with Captain Hook (host)

— “Peter Pan Live starring Allison Williams and Christopher Walken”? I wonder who’s going to play Walken in this.
— Oh, not this Tonkerbell thing again. I disliked this character enough the first time.
— I did laugh just now at Tonkerbell’s description of her job as a reverse tooth fairy (where she takes a dollar from a child’s bedroom and leaves one off her own teeth).
— They’re giving JAMES FRANCO the Walken impression?!? How do I not remember this from my previous viewing of this episode back when it originally aired?
— Oof, not the best Walken impression I’ve ever seen, and that’s being as kind as I can be. Actually, there’s almost a “So bad, it’s good” quality to his Walken impression, but not quite.
— A very awkward premature cutaway to Tonkbell during Peter Pan and Captain Hook’s stiff swordfight.
— Why is it always Bobby who walks on at the end of these sketches as Tonkerbell’s boyfriend from a cartoon movie?
STARS: *½


STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Han Solo (TAK), Princess Leia (BOM), Luke Skywalker (host), Lando Calrissian (KET) are old

— Good to see the return of Taran’s very funny Harrison Ford impression.
— Meh, the opening scene in this pre-tape didn’t turn out to be the best use of Taran’s Ford impression.
— Having a man (Bobby) play an elderly Princess Leia? Why??? This particular sketch doesn’t even seem to warrant a man playing this role. Besides, this season already had a cheap “Princess Leia played by a man in drag” gag with Chris Pratt in the season premiere.
— So far, this is just a lame, half-assed parade of “old people” stereotypes, only presented with flashy Star Wars special effects, as if that automatically makes this tepid humor “better”.
— Overall, I barely cracked a smile at anything in this. Man, between the monologue, the Tonkerbell sketch, and now this, tonight’s episode is ROUGH so far. Certainly moreso than I had remembered.
STARS: *½


JINGLE BALLERZ
Hip Hop Nativity features Kanye West (JAP) as Jesus

— A blooper when James is making his entrance: he accidentally trips over his own cape and almost falls down in a goofy manner that I couldn’t help but laugh at, in spite of myself.
— Kate’s Justin Bieber impression is still pretty funny, though the novelty is clearly wearing off by this point.
— The audience is going NUTS for each time Nicki Minaj (in her first of what will be several sketch appearances tonight) sings a brief musical note as Beyonce.
— Another segment tonight wasting a celebrity impression of Taran’s that’s usually very funny; this time, it’s his Eminem impression.
— Good to see Jay’s Kanye impression going back to being used outside of that Waking Up With Kimye recurring sketch, which quickly got tired.
— Overall, some laughs, but this was extremely forgettable and pretty boring. (*sigh*) Tonight’s episode continues to not do it for me.
STARS: **


GROW-A-GUY
friendless (MOB) germinates a companion (host)

— For the first time, a short film of Mike O’Brien’s opens with a title screen stating “A Mike O’Brien Picture”. Well-deserved, as his SNL shorts prior to this one were all fantastic, and viewers deserve to know the identity of the genius behind those films. It’s also great that SNL is letting him continue doing and starring in these films despite no longer being in the cast by this point.
— A very good offbeat concept of a “Grow-A-Guy”.
— Beck is playing this “low-key douchey friend” role to absolute perfection.
— As usual for Mike’s short films, this is an excellent mix of funny, odd, creative, interesting, and melancholy.
— Solid sequence with each character self-destructing after revealing they’re a Grow-A-Guy.
— Great choice to have a “#growaguy” chyron be displayed onscreen at the end, as a callback to the hashtag discussion earlier in this film.
STARS: *****


MAGIC BRIDGE
bridge troll (host) gets a kiss from (KYM) instead of a riddle solution

— The debut of Cecily’s Cathy Anne character, who would later become one of those recurring Weekend Update characters who some people probably forget actually started out in a sketch or two (some other examples of which include Roseanne Rosannadanna, Stefon, and Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy).
— I’m a few minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t gotten a single laugh. The closest to a laugh I got was from Kyle’s delivery of his line, “You’re not kissing her. She’s my fiancee!” Something about his delivery of that line and the way he put emphasis on the word “fiancee” came off Bruce Chandling-esque.
— When this sketch originally aired, I absolutely HATED Cecily’s characterization of Cathy Anne, and dismissed it as yet another bad “Cecily does a ‘funny’ voice” sketch, like that Oliver Twist sketch from the preceding season’s Andrew Garfield episode. I also hated the second sketch appearance that Cathy Anne would later make (in a Cinderella sketch, I think, with Dakota Johnson). I would later go on to like Cathy Anne much better as a Weekend Update correspondent. With that knowledge, re-watching her in this Magic Bridge sketch in hindsight right now is quite bizarre. She’s coming off very out-of-place in this, and it’s wasting her comedic potential.
— (*groan*) Aaaaaaand there goes the ol’ “two men kissing each other for a very cheap, unnecessary laugh” trope. We’re still doing this in 2014, SNL???
— We actually get TWO separate man-on-man-kissing sequences in this sketch. Because, as we all know, men kissing men obviously only gets FUNNIER AND FUNNIER with repetition……..
— Overall, a fucking wretched sketch. And, aside from that fantastic Grow-A-Guy short, tonight’s episode continues to be dire.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Skylar Grey [real] perform “Bed Of Lies”


WEEKEND UPDATE
MIC & COJ give their thoughts on non-indictment in Eric Garner death

Anthony Crispino is unduly confident in the quality of his news nuggets

LEJ advises potential dates to bring her marijuana instead of mushrooms

missing backgrounds reframe Kim Kardashian’s (musical guest) nude photos

— Ooh, an early-era interaction piece between Colin and Michael, which is surprisingly somewhat rare in their early Updates.
— Wow, this opening Eric Garner/grand jury conversation between Colin and Michael… It doesn’t even seem to be INTENDED to be funny, and is going more for a “social commentary” tone. There are damn good points being made by Michael about the ridiculousness of the non-indictment in the Eric Garner case, but, man, between the touchiness of that subject, the lack of intended big jokes being made here, and the audience’s tense silence, there’s a haunting feel to this. Perhaps that’s what SNL’s going for.
— Okay, even though Colin and Michael are continuing on their focus of the Eric Garner/grand jury matter, it’s now growing on me, as Colin and Michael are now going more for actual jokes here, and they’re handling the touchiness of this subject decently. I also like how this is breaking up the usual format that Update typically had in the past.
— Feels a little odd seeing Anthony Crispino appearing in this new Update era, in this new Update set, and interacting with Michael instead of Seth Meyers.
— Crispino’s Mariah/Drew Carey bit was very funny.
— An absolutely hilarious bit from Crispino on the big news about “Bing Crosby” being a “rappist”. I also love this exchange between Michael and Crispino during that bit: “I’m not even gonna TOUCH that one.” “Hey, Bing Crosby would, so…”
— When Colin was setting up the next guest commentary by bringing up things like marijuana and 420, I honestly thought he was setting up a Pete Davidson commentary (for obvious reasons). Instead, we get a commentary from the other member of this cast who frequently does Update commentaries as themselves: Leslie Jones. Either way, I’m looking forward to this.
— Leslie: “Man, when I took mushrooms, I talked to Harriet Tubman for two hours.”
— I love Leslie’s humbled delivery of “Have you ever been called a bitch…..by Harriet Tubman???”
— Tonight’s overall Leslie commentary wasn’t quite as hilarious as her previous commentaries, but it still worked.
— Feels weird seeing someone other than Nasim Pedrad play Kim Kardashian . Speaking of Nasim, I feel bad for saying this because I generally like her, but I surprisingly haven’t noticed her absence this season AT ALL until this episode.
— The reveals of the real backgrounds of the racy Kim Kardashian Paper Magazine photos are mildly funny.
STARS: ***


BRAIN SPACE
(PED) can’t remember new password because his brain is full of ephemera

— A fun concept.
— Taran is very funny as the Savage Garden guy.
— Nicki Minaj continues to be prolific in this episode, like she’s an honorary co-host.
— There’s something strangely fitting about the fact that Kate played both Justin Bieber and the Kevin McAllister character from Home Alone in the same episode.
— Wow, fast costume change for Taran, playing two different roles in this live sketch.
— I love James incredulously asking, “Who remembers a Billy Zane line from Titanic?!?”
STARS: ***½


TAD RANKIN
(host) immaturely trashes the 4-year-old to whom he lost mayoral election

— Extremely juvenile writing here, but James’ increasingly frustrated, immature delivery is somehow making it work well. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m cracking up at this sophomoric material.
— Even James starting to break after the “throwing my crapped pants into the woods” bit is funny. It also helps that he gets back into character pretty soon after that breaking of his, instead of letting his breaking take over the remainder of the sketch.
— Blah, the loud cheers from girls in SNL’s audience kinda hurt the gag of James showing off his “cute” facial expression, given the fact that the joke of him doing a “cute” facial expression was that it was a forced, silly, unflattering facial expression.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Only” & “All Things Go”


SUNSEEKER YACHTS
(host), (Seth Rogen), vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Sunseeker Yachts

— First time we’ve seen the Ex-Porn Stars all season, which is a sign that they’re apparently being phased out.
— Vanessa: “I’m Brookie.” Cecily: “No, that’s your name.”
— Cecily: “One time, I thought I got banged into a different dimension, like Intersmellar, but I was just stuck in a pull-out couch. I was like, what does ‘pull-out’ mean?”
— This sketch feels rushed. We’re already at the part where the character played by the SNL host (along with Seth Rogen, in tonight’s case) stays in the scene and takes over the commercial? That usually happens much later in each installment of this recurring sketch.
— The whole Franco/Rogen section of this sketch is doing NOTHING for me.
— I didn’t understand what Cecily said during the usual part in this recurring sketch where she and Vanessa’s characters both try to say the same innocent word in unison, only for Cecily’s character’s word to be something dirty and porn-related.
— Overall, a slight improvement over the extremely disappointing and frustrating Andy Samberg/Kristen Wiig installment of this sketch, but that’s still not saying much, as this was still a pale shadow of how strong this recurring sketch usually is. It’s become painfully and sadly obvious that the magic of this once-fantastic recurring sketch is officially gone by this point.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mediocre episode as a whole. The first half was DIRE and disheartening, aside from the Mike O’Brien film and a mildly-funny cold opening. There was an improvement in the second half of this episode, but that half still wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to save this episode as a whole from earning a thumbs-down.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Grow-A-Guy
Brain Space
Tad Rankin
Weekend Update
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Sunseeker Yachts
Jingle Ballerz
Peter Pan Live!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Monologue
Magic Bridge


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Cameron Diaz)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Martin Freeman

Posted on

November 22, 2014 – Cameron Diaz / Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (S40 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK!
Executive Order (BOM) creates policy, not Bill (KET)

— A refreshing change of pace for the setting of a political cold opening.
— Kenan singing the legendary “I’m just a bill” song from Schoolhouse Rock is giving me a nice blast of childhood nostalgia.
— A good laugh from the Bill getting casually shoved down the stairs by Jay’s President Obama.
— A very funny abrupt, unexciting end to the intro song from the Executive Order, with his “and I pretty much just happen…” lyric.
— I love the little bit with the Executive Order reading himself from the inside after being shocked to hear about the immigration law.
— The constant repetition of the Bill being shoved down the stairs is working for me, mainly due to Kenan’s voice-overs during the falling-down-the-stairs animation. I especially like him saying “So many steps! So! Many! Steps!”
— Everybody’s timing oddly seemed a little off at the end right before they all said LFNY in unison.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host fields dumb queries from audience members (KYM), (VAB), (LEJ), (BEB)

— Yeesh, even for a questions-from-the-audience monologue, the atmosphere of this feels strangely DEAD. Something about this is way off and flat.
— Aidy gets one of the very few laughs from me, with her “Let’s just say…box checked” comment regarding Tony Danza being her “celebrity sex exception”. However, it’s starting to feel like SNL’s going to the “Aidy Bryant says something sexual-related in a sly, smug manner” well kinda often around this time.
STARS: *½


BACK HOME BALLERS
home for Thanksgiving, women enjoy parents’ largesse

— A direct sequel to the beloved Twin Bed music video from the preceding season.
— I’m a minute-and-a-half into this so far, and, while Lil’ Baby Aidy and the rest of the girls are performing this well, I’m not finding myself laughing much at the actual humor of this.
— I do like the mid-song interlude right now, with the “What’s going on with you?” conversation between Aidy and our old friend Jean.
— Kate’s ridiculously long, complicated WIFI password is pretty funny.
— Leslie steals yet another segment on SNL, as I am loving her rap about bowls, which is easily what I feel is the best part of this somewhat underwhelming short.
— Overall, some highlights, but as a whole, this short was a little meh for me. I’ve always felt this short was overrated, and doesn’t come remotely close to touching the original Twin Bed.
STARS: **½


ANNIE
new orphan Annie (LEJ) is a large 43-year-old black woman

— Vanessa is well-cast as the traditional Annie.
— I’ve never seen anyone do a Jamie Foxx impression outside of this sketch, but Jay is unsurprisingly doing a very solid job at it. However, was it necessary to have him enter this sketch saying “I’m Jamie Foxx…I mean, Daddy Warbucks”? What was the point of that gag?
— A good laugh from the initial visual of Leslie as Black Annie.
— Leslie’s carrying this sketch pretty well, though there’s a bit of a dead feel to certain parts of this sketch, much like the monologue.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ***


NEST-SPRESSO
the Nest-Spresso machine instantly incubates chicks for urban farmers

— A pretty good laugh from the awkward way Taran and Kate have to climb over the fence to get to Vanessa’s house.
— When asked how her Nest-Spresso machine works, I love Vanessa bluntly responding, with a smile, “I don’t know that part.”
— An oddly specific look to Taran and Kate’s otherwise-generic characters. Are they modeled after people from a real commercial that this might be spoofing?
— I do kinda like the dark, disturbing part with the Nest-Spresso machine dispensing bones from a baby chick due to Taran operating the machine incorrectly, though I can definitely understand why that would bother some viewers.
— An overall very odd commercial that almost kinda felt like something was missing from it. I remember a lot of SNL reviewers pretty much hating this commercial and slamming it in their reviews (much like how they also hated another oddball Vanessa-Bayer-showcases-a-new-kitchen-device sketch from this season: the Vitamix sketch from the Sarah Silverman episode). However, the off-kilter approach to this Nest-Spresso ad worked decently enough for me.
STARS: ***


THEATER SHOWCASE
high school’s artsy Student Theater Showcase grates on audience members

— The debut of this recurring sketch.
— A lot of laughs all throughout this sketch, from the lousy “deep” social commentary in the scenes being performed within this play.
— Some solid little details within the bad play scenes.
— Kenan: “So…which one’s your daughter?” Vanessa: “I’d rather not say.”
— Meh, Kenan’s unnecessary over-explaining of the oddities in this sketch is feeling awfully Mikey Day-esque (as in, the “incredulous straight man who states the obvious by pointing out all the comedic oddities in a sketch, as if SNL thinks us viewers are too dumb to notice the oddities ourselves” role that Mikey Day plays an awful lot in more recent seasons). Are Mikey and Streeter Seidell the writers of this recurring sketch?
STARS: ****


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Mike Nichols marks his passing


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Uptown Funk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Angela Merkel (KAM) is agitated following stressful G20 summit experience

Charles Manson (TAK) lied about his past to fiancee Star Burton (CES)

— A memorable line from Michael, in regards to all the then-recent sexual assault allegations made against Bill Cosby: “Hey, Bill Cosby – pull YOUR damn pants up!” I also love Michael saying afterwards, in a satisfied voice, “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
— As usual, Kate’s Angela Merkel is likable and pretty fun. Also as usual, I love that her appearances have a running gag about her crush on President Obama.
— The way (especially her gestures) Kate’s Merkel sang a “Baby Got Back” lyric just now reminds of the way Kate previously sang a lyric from a Beyonce song when playing Ann Romney in an important breakout appearance Kate made early in her SNL tenure.
— I like how the “study conducted on…ya momma” punchline has become a running gag for Michael in these early Updates of his.
— Taran looks hilarious as Charles Manson.
— A decent Taran/Cecily commentary, especially the reveal that Charles Manson’s fiancee thinks Manson’s in jail simply for tax evasion.
STARS: ***


BABY BOSS
angling for a promotion, (KET) has dinner at Mr. Patterson’s house

— I was going to say this is the third and final installment of this recurring sketch, but checking this page on SNL Archives right now, I see that this sketch actually has one more installment remaining after this, in the following season’s Drake episode. Wow, I have absolutely no memory of Baby Boss appearing in that Drake episode. Then again, I remember almost NOTHING from that episode.
— Glad to see them finally change settings for this character. Judging from the screencap in the afore-linked SNL Archives page, the following season’s Drake episode puts Baby Boss back in his old office setting. Can’t say I’m crazy about that decision.
— As usual, Beck’s baby-mannerism routine is reliable for laughs, and he’s always so damn likable as this character, though the novelty of this routine is really wearing off by this point.
STARS: ***


DR. DAVE AND BUGGLES’ ANIMAL HOUR
Dr. Dave (KET)’s animal show had genital trauma inflicted by Buggles

— The opening title sequence and general animal show concept kinda brings the Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch to mind, though the actual main conceit of this particular sketch goes in a completely different direction from the Brian Fellow sketches.
— Mixed feelings on this sketch so far. The conceit of this sketch is awfully juvenile and one-note, but Kenan’s making it work somewhat.
— Very noisy off-camera sounds by the monkey when an SNL stagehand is discreetly removing the monkey from his cage while the camera is on a close-up of Cameron.
STARS: **½


I’M GOING TO FIGHT ANDY RYDELL
tough-talking Chris Fitzpatrick picks a fight with Andy Rydell (BEB)

— Much like the Baby Boss sketch earlier tonight, it’s good to see tonight’s Chris Fitzpatrick short being taken in a completely different direction from the previous short he appeared in on SNL.
— I love the random detail of Kyle’s Fitzpatrick, while speaking into the camera, picking up a traffic cone at one point and acting like it’s a microphone.
— Beck looking very young and much thinner than usual in that photo shown of him here (the fourth and fifth above screencaps for this short).
— I’m enjoying the awkward hallway fight between Kyle and Beck.
— As usual, some pretty good laughs from the random cutaways to stock footage of car crashes and such. I also like how the Beck/Kyle hallway fight scene keeps getting abruptly cut off by extremely random, unrelated slideshows of facts that Kyle’s Fitzpatrick shares about himself.
STARS: ***½


POETRY CLASS
Miss Meadows’ friend (host) recites a sultry poem about the UPS Man

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch (feels like I’m saying that quite a bit in this episode review).
— For obvious reasons, we don’t get the usual opening to this recurring sketch this time, where the teacher character played by Mike O’Brien introduces Vanessa’s Miss Meadows.
— So far, tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch is going in the exact same ol’ direction as the previous two installments of this sketch, a direction that only worked for me in the first installment.
— (*groan*) And why is it always Aidy and Kenan who play the first two students who read a poem in front of the class in EVERY SINGLE INSTALLMENT of this recurring sketch? A prime example of how lazy and formulaic a lot of SNL’s recurring sketches in recent eras tend to be.
— I did at least like the part of Aidy’s poem where she proudly says, in regards to her stepfather’s habit of wearing a shirt that looks like a tuxedo, “Uh-oh! He fancy!”
— Okay, at least they’re finally doing something different with the formula, as Cameron’s character is taking this recurring sketch into a new direction.
— A funny racy UPS Man poem from Cameron, and I like the cutaway to Pete’s dainty, delighted reaction to it.
— Another laugh from Pete, with him saying, “No, no, this is awesome. Do one about the FedEx guy!”
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mystikal [real] perform “Feel Right”


NIGHT MURMURS
Night Murmurs phone chatters (CES), (host), (KAM) have some favors to ask

— A sloppy, baffling moment early on where, while Cameron is still speaking into the camera in her first scene, the screen crossfades to Kate, who then begins speaking into the camera while a now-off-camera Cameron is heard still speaking before abruptly cutting herself off when realizing Kate’s now speaking. What the heck happened there?
— This sketch feels like a failed attempt at random, oddball humor. Aside from one or two chuckles I’ve gotten, the absurd details the ladies are disclosing about a mysterious package are NOT working.
— This sketch is so “off” and sloppy that even a pro like Kate flubbed a laugh line just now, which feels rare for her at this point of her tenure.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A forgettable episode, with a bit of an “off” feel in a few segments (especially that extremely flat monologue). There was a decent amount of okay segments, but the problem is the episode rarely rose above that level, resulting in an unexciting, unmemorable episode that was just…there. A letdown after the incredible Woody Harrelson episode that preceded this. While SNL’s quality has pretty much always been up and down, something about the slightly “off” feel of tonight’s episode has always made me disagree with some people’s claim that the Harrelson episode is the turning point of this season after a bumpy start. To me, this Cameron Diaz episode showed that the slight shakiness in this first quarter of this season hasn’t exactly left the building quite yet.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Schoolhouse Rock!
Theater Showcase
I’m Going To Fight Andy Rydell
Annie
Weekend Update
Nest-Spresso
Baby Boss
Back Home Ballers
Poetry Class
Dr. Dave and Buggles’ Animal Hour
Night Murmurs
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Woody Harrelson)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
James Franco

Posted on

November 15, 2014 – Woody Harrelson / Kendrick Lamar (S40 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DRINKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Barack Obama (JAP) & Mitch McConnell (TAK) get drunk after election day

— I’m enjoying the structure to this, with all the time jumps.
— This is getting more and more fun the increasingly drunk and loose Jay and Taran’s President Obama and Mitch McConnell are getting.
— A very funny high-pitch shriek from Taran when the phone rings after his crank call.
— Love Taran’s delivery of “Oooooh, you’re in trouble!” after the tense exchange Obama has with his wife.
— This overall cold opening was not only strong, but it alone had a better energy and flow than almost anything in the preceding episode (Chris Rock).
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence [real] visit host

— Yet another musical monologue, but this one is more forgivable, given the fact that Woody Harrelson’s previous two monologues, both of which were good, were guitar songs like this one is. It also helps that I really like the conceit of his guitar song tonight, reminiscing about 1989, the year he first hosted SNL.
— One of Woody’s lyrics about 1989: “I think I had a mullet.” Indeed he did (screencap of him from his 1989 hosting stint below).

— This suddenly turns into another one of those cameofest monologues, which I’m rarely crazy about when it occurs in recent seasons like this. I at least don’t mind seeing Josh Hutcherson on SNL again, as I found him to be a likable host the preceding season.
— A good laugh from Woody initially thinking Jennifer Lawrence is Taylor Swift.
— Great ad-lib (“You’re always so stoned!”) from Jennifer Lawrence when she has a hard time getting a line out while quoting Woody. This ad-lib sets off an infectious and endearing stretch of giggling from all four of the performers that almost sounds like they really are stoned.
— Overall, for both a musical monologue AND cameofest monologue, two of my least favorite monologue tropes, this was surprisingly not bad at all, was actually pretty fun, and had a nice charm.
STARS: ***½


THE DUDLEYS
viewer feedback prompts changes to sitcom; Uzo Aduba cameo

— Very strong and clever satire here, with all the frequent and increasingly desperate PC changes this sitcom makes as their answer to the various social media complaints they’ve received.
— Another surprisingly fun cameo tonight, as the appearance of “Crazy Eyes” from Orange Is The New Black is adding well to this.
STARS: ****½


MATCH’D
horny contestants contend with bachelorette’s (CES) dad (host)

— When the guys are each giving their response to Cecily’s first question, I love Beck’s affable delivery of his very sleazy line, “I would take you back to my house and show you my special ingredient: my penis.”
— Absolutely priceless twist of Cecily being Woody’s daughter, after all of the raunchy, horny things the guys had just said to her in front of him. Love how the guys all suddenly change their tune immediately after this twist, by awkwardly forcing themselves to give Cecily’s questions very proper, gentlemanly answers in order to not upset Woody.
— An absolutely killer and classic moment, with Cecily’s “Can’t shake hands with a ghost!” line about her mother.
— Another excellent twist, with the casual reveal that Woody is an ex-marine. This must be a Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written sketch, because, as I said in some previous episode reviews, those two writers seem to have a knack for throwing great shocking twists into their sketches.
— Very funny bit from Kyle about “Veteruss Day, the day we celebrate our veteruss”, delivered perfectly in that trademark oddball Kyle Mooney delivery.
— Hilarious crotchless panties bit with Taran.
— Great ending with Woody revealing he’s about to watch footage of the moment he had just given the guys and Cecily alone together, where the guys crassly let Cecily know how extremely horny they are right now.
STARS: *****


NEW MARIJUANA POLICY
end of pot possession arrests sends NYC stoners out-of-doors

— I am loving the wordless, excellently-shot sequence with Pete and his stoner neighbors all simultaneously exiting their houses with bags of weed.
— Another scene-stealing appearance from Leslie, as her mere facial expression as she exits her pot smoke-filled car in slow motion is hilarious.
— Perfect appearance from Woody, who’s obviously a natural for this short film’s subject matter.
— Another great little Leslie moment, with her proudly yelling “DEBLASIO, BABY!!!”
— A very fun, memorable, and oddly beautiful sequence of the whole town happily marching in the streets in pot-related unity.
— Lots of funny little details throughout this short.
— Excellent twist with it turning out that, while the new policy allows people to openly possess marijuana in public, they can’t actually smoke it in public.
STARS: *****


FOOTBALL HALFTIME SPEECH
football coach (host) relays overcautious safety measures to players

— A lot of good laughs from the sequence with Woody using Jay to demonstrate the extremely gentle new tackling technique. I especially love the phrase, “Back of the head…” “PUT YOUR PRINCESS TO BED!!!”
— Kenan’s brain-damaged, nonsensical rambling is classic and steals the entire sketch. Among some great lines from him are “Who said sumpin’ about some rings?!?” and “This one’s for ALL the Marlboros!”
STARS: ****


YOUNG TARTS & OLD FARTS
duets album pairs established & rising musicians

— A cheap laugh from the title of this album.
— I had mis-remembered this as being a Christmas-themed album that aired in one of the December episodes of this season. I was probably confusing this with one of the Christmas duets album ads from the previous two Jimmy Fallon-hosted episodes. Minus the Christmas theme, those ads have a very similar style to this Young Tarts & Old Farts ad.
— Oh, there’s that awful Macklemore impression from Kyle that I mentioned in a previous episode review. Actually, watching it again right now, Kyle’s impression isn’t as bad as I had remembered.
— I like Sasheer’s Diana Ross saying, in regards to Kyle-as-Macklemore’s lyric about homophobia in hip-hop, “I don’t need him educate me about gay people. I invented gay people!”
— Love the James Taylor/Sam Smith duet, especially Woody’s Taylor telling Taran’s Smith, “Lighten up, dude” and “It’s a happy song!” Also, the decision to cast Woody as James Taylor feels very fitting.
— Oh, I did NOT need the return of Kate’s terrible and baffling Lorde “impression” from the preceding season.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “i”


WEEKEND UPDATE
LEJ argues that it’s appropriate for women in relationships to be crazy

host’s True Detective co-star Matthew McConaughey (TAK) is a little loopy

 

— A classic opening to this Update, with the running “But dat ass, doe” gag in regards to Kim Kardashian’s famous Paper Magazine cover photo.
— Leslie in her first Update commentary as a cast member.
— A memorable moment, with Leslie repeatedly yelling at Colin, “LOOK AT MY BREAST!”
— Good ad-lib from Leslie after both she and the audience simultaneously giggle in response to a funny line of hers.
— As usual in her Update commentaries, Leslie is absolutely KILLING it tonight.
— Love the Lorne joke from Michael, despite his clumsy delivery of the set-up.
— Colin’s theme park/pedophiles joke is another early display of the great ballsy jokes he would often do on Update years later.
— Great to see Taran’s Matthew McConaughey impression back after that very funny commentary he did the preceding season. Also nice to see him paired up with McConaughey’s True Detective co-star Woody this time.
— Like last time, some very funny “deep” ramblings from Taran’s McConaughey, and I particularly love the Super Mario Bros. bit, especially the line, “Hop on a turtle’s back, send him into the abyss.”
— Overall, the first really strong Update of the Jost/Che era.
STARS: ****


OLD NEW YORK
at a bar, only (host) is wistful about the good old days of NYC crack

— Hilarious turn with how, after the other guys reminisce about normal, wholesome city things that are no longer around, Woody’s only contribution to the conversation is “Remember the crack?”
— A one-note premise, but it’s a damn funny one-note premise, and Woody is executing it very well.
— Kenan randomly deciding to use a loud and exaggerated voice when blurting out the line “I MISS THE RESPECT!!!” was very amusing, and clearly wasn’t in the script, given the fact that, when the camera cuts to a shot of Taran and Bobby immediately after that line, Taran’s smirking and Bobby’s stifling his laughter HARD.
— Priceless reveal of Woody’s “police badge” actually being a “Vote For Nader” button.
STARS: ****


CAMPFIRE SONG
(host) can’t get friends to help with apple song at a campfire singalong

— This feels like the most in character we’ve seen Woody all night, as he’s speaking in a different voice than his own.
— Oh, no. Our very first of way-too-damn-many James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written sketches with the premise of “A character sings a non-existent song that they expect their friends to join in and sing along as if it’s a famous song, but they’re not familiar with it”. Ugh, I’ve always strongly disliked this recurring concept, and never understood Anderson & Sublette’s fascination with it.
— As unfunny as Woody’s “Apples” song is, I do at least find it to have a catchy sound, I admit.
— I did get a laugh just now from the incongruously large amount of water splashing just from Woody throwing his guitar pick in the lake.
— Ugh, there’s that corny twist where “Hey, the main character’s friends actually DO know the song after all, and happily join in on the singalong!”, which would also become a staple of some (if not all) of the subsequent Anderson/Sublette sketches with this premise.
— Overall, leave it to Anderson & Sublette to ruin this episode’s perfect streak of segments ranging from pretty solid to excellent. That being said, as much as I didn’t like this sketch, I don’t find it to be as awful as some of the subsequent sketches with this same premise.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Chantal Kreviazuk & Jay Rock [real] perform “Pay For It”


LAST CALL
sex-starved (host) & Sheila Sovage necessarily lower their standards

— A little odd how this is the second post-Update sketch tonight that takes place in a bar.
— I always love that “Ha-HAAAAAA!” laugh that Kate’s Sheila Sovage does in an early moment of each installment of this recurring sketch.
— Woody’s “Eyebrows, eyebrows, eyebrows” line was very funny.
— A huge laugh from Sheila Sovage revealing her occupation: “I re-plaster unpopular glory holes!”
— Woody has even better chemistry with Kate here than previous hosts had with her in prior installments of this sketch.
— I love Woody’s “STDetroit” line.
— Another great Woody line, with him assuming CDC stands for “Center For Doin’ It Correctly”.
— Kenan’s way of saying “That’s for my fruit!” absolutely SLAYED me. (He’s been killing it with his line deliveries tonight in general.) He pronounced “fruit” in such an odd, comical manner with such a goofy voice that it caught me off-guard and has me in absolute stitches. I honestly cannot stop laughing at it right now. His pronunciation of “fruit” is hard to spell out phonetically, but here’s my best attempt at the spelling: “fruuuT” with a very hard ‘t’.
— Excellent ending with how, while Woody and Sheila Sovage are nastily making out with each other through plastic wrapping in front of their faces, Kenan begins dousing the whole bar with gasoline and says, “Well, I gotta kill us ALL, I guess.”
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fantastic episode. Not only is it easily my favorite episode of this season so far, but it honestly may even be one of the best episodes I’ve ever reviewed. (Can’t wait to see the rating average my review of this episode has when commenter Vax Novier tallies up the averages of each of my season 40 reviews.) Not only did this episode impressively go by with almost no bad segments at all, but almost every single one of this episode’s segments was great, receiving a rating in the 4-5-star range. And some of those great segments were particularly memorable or had at least one very memorable moment, and a few of tonight’s great segments are even classics. There was also an infectious energy in the air all throughout the episode, partly due to Woody Harrelson’s always-likable presence. Overall, a terrific episode, and, man, what an amazing turnaround from the troubled (though not as bad as its reputation) episode that preceded this.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Match’d
New Marijuana Policy
The Dudleys
Last Call
Weekend Update
Drinks at the White House
Old New York
Football Halftime Speech
Young Tarts & Old Farts
Monologue
Campfire Song


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Rock)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cameron Diaz

Posted on

November 1, 2014 – Chris Rock / Prince (S40 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE KELLY FILE
Chris Christie (BOM) quarantines Ebola nurse (KAM)

— Cecily-as-Megyn-Kelly’s opening line about Blacula being, in fact, white landed with a thud, bombing hard with the audience. I wonder if that already sets the tone for this infamous episode.
— Already a fun energy from Bobby as a brash Chris Christie, right from the start of his interview.
— Speaking of a fun, brash energy early in someone’s appearance, Kate is coming in super hot in this sketch, stealing it with a very funny performance.
— Hilarious exchange between Kate’s Kaci Hickox and Bobby’s Chris Christie when he confronts her by showing up out of absolutely nowhere in her house. Hickox: “What the hell are you doin’ here?!?” Christie: “I’m Chris Christie – I’m everywhere!”
— When Kate’s Hickox tells Bobby’s Christie that she cannot wait to sue him, I absolutely love him responding, “Oh, yeah? Well, get in line! It starts all the way back at the G.W. Bridge, and traffic is VERY slow!”
— The ending felt rather abrupt.
— An overall funny and mostly well-paced cold opening, thus making it this season’s first actual GOOD cold opening. Can’t believe it took this season five long episodes to achieve a good cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
CSR does stand-up about terrorism, Jesus & Christmas materialism, guns

— You gotta admire Chris Rock’s extremely ballsy choice to open his stand-up monologue with material on the Boston marathon bombing. Tonight’s already-subdued audience was clearly too nervous to laugh at this touchy material when it began, but they’ve gotten more and more into once they realized it’s okay to laugh.
— Uber mention #1 tonight.
— Chris: “People joggin’ for 26 miles! Their knees are hurtin’! Their feet are killin’ em! If you’re a woman, there’s blood comin’ out’cha titties!”
— Chris’ hot streak continues, as he gets more great material out of another ballsy, touchy subject matter, with him questioning the decision to build the Freedom Tower and why anyone would want to go inside of it.
— Chris, on how he’s never going in the Freedom Tower: “I don’t care if Scarlett Johansson is butt-naked on the 89th floor in a plate of ribs – I’m not goin’ in there!”
— Chris’ scenario about a hypothetical commercial cashing in on Martin Luther King Day by saying “These Toyotas are practically free at last! Free at last!” reminds me of a sketch SNL actually did on that topic of the commercialization of MLK Day (and I think even had Jon Lovitz saying the “practically free at last!” line) way back in season 11’s Harry Dean Stanton episode.
— Chris is doing an outstanding job in this monologue, much like his previous monologue from his season 22 hosting stint. (I’ve heard some not-so-great things about his season 46 monologue, which I’ve yet to see for myself, but we’ll see how I’ll react to it when I review that episode.)
— Some great punchlines to yet ANOTHER very ballsy, touchy topic Chris is covering: gun control.
STARS: ****½


HOW 2 DANCE WITH JANELLE
teen vlogger Janelle (SAZ) is oblivious to her sexiness

— Refreshing to see the very-underused Sasheer front-and-center in a rare lead role, and in a sketch with a very “current” style.
— A good awkward supporting character from Kyle.
— Yikes, HORRIBLE positioning of the performers in Jay’s first brief appearance in this sketch, as Chris is completely standing in front of him the entire time, which makes it mostly impossible to see him while he’s speaking (he’s behind Chris in the fourth above screencap for this sketch). Clearly, this was not planned. Is director Don Roy King to blame, or was either Chris or Jay standing in the wrong spot? Either way, it rendered Jay’s scene awkward as hell.
— Chris’ timing is very off at some points during this sketch, but he’s still getting some laughs from me in his performance.
— Nice bit with Chris and Sasheer dancing in unison.
— Wow, this sketch died a sad death in its final 35 seconds or so. In particular, the ending with the computer screen filter was AWFUL and came off very badly-executed, almost as if Chris was vamping very poorly.
— An overall decent sketch, but with a few really bad missteps, as mentioned.
STARS: ***


GOPROBE
GoProbe is colonoscopy camera of choice for middle-aged extreme sportsmen

— In a way, this can kinda be considered a companion piece to the Preparation H commercial from the season 27 premiere (where “x-treme” teen skateboarders were touting the great effects of Preparation H). Kinda funny to imagine that the middle-aged “x-treme” characters in this GoProbe commercial are actually aged versions of the same characters from the Preparation H commercial.
— The “Your Grandpa’s Colonoscopy” scene is hilarious.
— A good laugh from how, when shown the polyps in his colon, Beck responds “Sick!” in an upbeat, cool manner, and then Kenan as the doctor responds to that with a very matter-of-factly “Yes.”
— Overall, an improvement over the aforementioned Preparation H commercial (which itself wasn’t bad, but was nothing special).
STARS: ***½


HOW’S HE DOING?
black analysts cut Obama an infinite amount of slack

— The third and final installment of this sketch.
— I don’t recall previous installments of this sketch opening with the PBS station I.D. that tonight’s installment opened with, but maybe they did and I just forgot.
— Hmm, the second installment of this sketch already used tonight’s joke about President Obama’s approval rating among black voters dropping down to the “extremely” low percentage of 90-something.
— I love that we have much more guests than usual in tonight’s How’s He Doing installment, showing how much SNL’s black cast has grown after the first two installments of this sketch. It’s also nice to see Sasheer in her second big role for the second consecutive sketch tonight.
— I like how the wig Chris is wearing appears to an intentional replica of his hairstyle from his years as an SNL cast member (side-by-side comparison below).

   

— I already said this in one or two previous episode reviews this season, but it bears repeating that all of the Ebola talk in these early season 40 episodes is eerily very applicable to our current COVID times.
— Tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch has been decent so far, but doesn’t feel as strong as usual. There’s not much standing out here.
— Okay, I do like the part regarding a scenario of Obama having a lenient reaction to his daughters acting very rude towards him.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & 3RDEYEGIRL [real] perform “Clouds”, “Marz” & “Another Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ignorance of latex condom allergy led to PED sexting his mom

Katt Williams (JAP) & Suge Knight (KET) respond to camera theft charges

— Lame opening joke from Colin.
— Wow, I had forgotten how extremely frequently Pete did Update commentaries in his first few episodes, which is understandable, given how strong and very well-received his first one was. Hopefully, tonight’s commentary goes better than his underwhelming and unconfident-feeling second one.
— Another early SNL mention of Pete’s mom. Some very funny lines about her from Pete tonight, particularly one, in regards to how she’s seen plenty of penises because she’s a nurse: “My penis should be the most important to her in every way except one.” (My quoting of that line doesn’t do it justice. It’s Pete’s great delivery of that line that absolutely sold it.)
— Pete, upon receiving great news from a doctor that he no longer has to wear condoms: “What else? Is my dad comin’ back?!?”
— An overall pretty solid commentary from Pete, and an improvement over his second commentary.
— Yikes, Michel flubs his Tim Cook joke VERY badly. However, he saves himself with an absolutely fantastic ad-lib: “Prince, ladies and gentlemen!” Speaking of Michael and flubs, he surprisingly hasn’t been flubbing jokes anywhere near as often in these early Updates of his as I had remembered.
— Uber mention #2 tonight.
— Some amusing lines from Jay and Kenan’s Katt Williams and Suge Knight, but I can’t find anything specific to say about their commentary.
STARS: ***


SHARK TANK
moguls consider an investment pitch from members of ISIS

— I kinda liked Aidy’s mock-dramatic delivery of “I am RUINED!”, but something about it seemed off, possibly because she was thrown off by flubbing her line prior to that. (Why are so many performers flubby tonight anyway?)
— Hooooooooooooo, boy. This ISIS premise……. Look, I love me some ballsy humor, as my review of tonight’s monologue showed, but this? Wow, SNL.
— I remember some online SNL fans comparing the bad taste of this sketch to infamous bad-taste season 20 sketches (because this season apparently ALWAYS had to be compared to season 20 by some folks) like America’s Funniest Hate Videos (a sketch I actually like, as dumb and questionable as it is).
— I am currently two minutes into this ISIS thing, and I have yet to get a single laugh from it.
— Three minutes and counting, and still not so much as a mere smirk from me. Plenty of sighing and uncomfortable feelings from me, though.
— Was that ending even supposed to be comedic? The hell was that? Sure, it’s satisfying that the ISIS members deservedly got tricked into being arrested by the FBI, thanks to Kenan’s Daymond John, but that doesn’t automatically make it a well-written or well-executed conclusion. (Let’s remember that the aforementioned widely-disliked America’s Funniest Hate Videos sketch also ended with the skinhead characters being tricked into getting arrested, and that still doesn’t stop people from deeming that sketch to be horrible.) Something about it felt like an off way to end an already-very-off sketch.
— Overall, in a word: oof.
STARS: *


SWIFTAMINE
Swiftamine fights vertigo caused by Taylor Swift fan cognitive dissonance

   

— Lots of big laughs from the overdramatic vertigo symptoms various people display when finding out Taylor Swift is the singer of the catchy new song they love.
— Great performance from Beck as the spokesperson, and I love the silly little detail of him being named Dr. David Doctor.
— Funny reveal of the Swiftamine medication name, and the execution of this whole idea is very strong.
— Love Leslie’s wig, which is a funny little detail of her character.
— A hilarious slow motion shot of Aidy saying “Taylor Swift!”
— Absolutely priceless ending with Leslie in the ballerina costume.
STARS: ****½


THE COUPLE
an old couple (CSR) & (LEJ) argues while preparing for anniversary outing

— Ohhhh, here’s a very infamous sketch.
— Uber mention #3 tonight. Yeah, I’m starting to see what people mean when they complain about the excessive Uber mentions that this episode contains. However, the Uber mentions aren’t quite as frequent as those complaints had me expecting. (Also, I recall the following season’s Elizabeth Banks episode also having multiple Uber mentions, yet nobody seemed to complain about that.)
— Both Chris and Leslie’s delivery is already coming off pretty clunky early on in this sketch.
— I’m almost starting to think I should start an “Ebola mention” count, like the “Uber mention” count I’ve been doing.
— Chris: “When the government shuts down the cloud….I’ma have Luther!”
— OH. NO. And theeeeerrrre’s the most notorious moment of this sketch and one of the most notorious moments of this entire episode, where Leslie accidentally exits the scene WAY earlier than she was supposed to, realizes her gaffe, comes back into the scene, stands back in the proper spot where she had been standing, looks around completely lost, stares off-camera at a specific person (Lorne?) for a few seconds while having her shoulders shrugged and a very confused “What am I supposed to do?!?” look on her face, then pauses for ANOTHER two seconds, then finally continues with the script, only to immediately flub yet another line. All of what I described, by the way, happening to uncomfortable and PAINFUL dead silence from the audience. Ohho, man. That entire moment I just described has to be, hands down, one of the most cringeworthy moments in SNL history. I mean, WHAT…THE…HELL was that all about?!? Love ya, Leslie, but what HAPPENED?!? That’s also our very first of what would be a number of displays over the years of Leslie’s greenness as a live TV performer.
— Aw, dammit. Leslie even managed to flub her potentially-great “I will Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes this bitch to the GROUND!!!” line. Granted, the line itself was funny enough that it still got a decent laugh from both me and the audience, but still……
— I’m now a little further into this sketch, and Leslie and Chris’ delivery continues to come off clunky and flubby.
— I actually really appreciate the slice-of-life feel this sketch is going for, but man, it’s being completely undermined by how HORRIBLY rehearsed this sketch seemingly is. I mean, yeesh! This is a mess. Feels like I’m watching amateur hour.
— An angry Sasheer pops in out of absolutely nowhere.
— An actual funny ending reveal of this being Chris and Leslie’s anniversary.
STARS: *½


ROBBERS
bank robbers (BEB), (BOM), (KYM) prove to be unironically accommodating

— Much like the Miley Sex Tape short, this Good Neighbor short (this is a Good Neighbor short, right???) has Bobby basically being a Nick Rutherford stand-in.
— Great delivery from Bobby of his simultaneously concerned and intimidating “He said sparkling…(*cocks his rifle*)…or still!” line when Kyle is offering Sasheer some water.
— I love all the subversions with how the buildups to something tense the robbers are seemingly about to do to a customer turns out to be something very kind and caring. I especially like the random Civil War lesson that Kyle and Bobby give to Taran’s character’s son.
— A very funny little “Look I got the money!” jolly musical number the robbers end their robbery with. The gleeful look on Beck’s face during that number is particularly good.
STARS: ****


WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
1990s training video has curious diversity advice

— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— Yet another wig on Chris tonight that seems to be a replica of his early 90s SNL hair.
— Vanessa’s bad attempt at a “black handshake” is hilarious.
— An apparent genuine gaffe, in which Vanessa accidentally talks over Chris at one point before cutting herself off. That’s yet ANOTHER example of how flubby the performers are throughout tonight’s episode, but that particular flub of Vanessa’s actually fits really well in this sketch, given the intentional bad, stiff acting it features.
— Like the previous installment of this sketch, we get some good humor from all of the absurdity and comical awkwardness in the training video scenes, and it’s a rare example of very random James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written humor coming off well (if they indeed are the ones who write these sketches).
— Interesting continuity with having Taran show up as the same character he played in the first installment of this sketch, complete with the same wig and cheesy sweater.
— Speaking of Taran, I like the way he randomly and slowly lowers to the ground in a stiff manner at the end of his scene.
— A funny biracial couple/“And I don’t do that” ending.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as bad an episode as its very negative reputation. That being said, what was bad in this episode was PAINFUL: that Shark Tank/ISIS mess, the promising-but-gaffe-filled-and-seemingly-under-rehearsed The Couple sketch, even a few moments of the otherwise-decent How 2 Dance With Janelle sketch, and a general sloppy feel to the night (especially with all the line-flubbing). However, if you ignore those things, you actually have a decent episode, a few very strong highlights, and an absolutely epic musical performance from Prince. Still, the mild shakiness of this first quarter of season 40 is undeniably still being felt.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Swiftamine
Robbers
The Kelly File
GoProbe
Women In The Workplace
How’s He Doing?
Weekend Update
How 2 Dance with Janelle
The Couple
Shark Tank


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jim Carrey)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Woody Harrelson

Posted on

October 25, 2014 – Jim Carrey / Iggy Azalea (S40 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

EBOLA PRESS CONFERENCE
Ebola czar Ron Klain (TAK) & Al Sharpton (KET) address public health

— As I said in a recent review, the constant then-topical Ebola virus mentions in these early season 40 episodes are relatable to our current COVID era.
— A few mild laughs from Taran’s Q&A session, but nothing special.
— The usual somewhat amusing comments from Kenan’s Al Sharpton.
— What was the point of having Beck as one of the reporters, when he has absolutely nothing to do or say at any point of this cold opening?
— Overall, while this cold opening wasn’t terrible, it was very forgettable, thus making this season now 0-for-4 in good cold openings. My goodness. I cannot remember the last season that started out with such a long consecutive losing streak with cold openings. Even the dreadful season 30 had at least one good cold opening by this point of that season.
STARS: **½


OPENING MONTAGE
— SNL writer Leslie Jones has been added to the cast, due to popular demand after making some very noteworthy, scene-stealing sketch appearances and Weekend Update commentaries.


MONOLOGUE
underworld rock & roll king Helvis (host) sings of his love for pecan pie

— Great costume from Jim Carrey upon his entrance.
— What was with the unseen voices of two(?) real audience members loudly howling “AWOOOOO!” in unison after Jim says Elvis Presley liked to raise a little hell? Or was that sound of men howling  “AWOOOOO!” just a planned sound effect played by SNL?
— Solid Elvis voice from Jim.
— (*sigh*) Yet another musical monologue. At least this has a fairly fun and out-of-the-ordinary concept for one, though.
— Meh, there’s SNL’s usual unnecessary habit of having a few cast members play cheesy backup dancers during a host’s musical monologue.
— Hmm, hate to say it, but nothing particularly funny at all is happening during the song, and I’m kinda starting to lose interest. Jim’s charm and fun energy is the only thing really carrying the song.
— Good ol’ Bobby shows up to add a little comedy. Love the way he pops into frame from under the camera as soon as his character is called.
— A nice wide shot of the studio during the camera pan-out at the end.
STARS: **½


LINCOLN
Matthew McConaughey (host) rolls a booger while driving his Lincoln

— A hilarious and spot-on spoof of Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln ads, and this spoof is also serving as a reminder of what a good impressionist Jim can be at times.
— I think this is SNL’s very first mention of Uber, which I’m pointing out because of the excessive number of Uber mentions that the (infamous) following Chris Rock-hosted episode is said by SNL fans to contain. (I personally only remember one Uber mention in that entire episode, but we’ll see how many there are.)
— Very funny comment from Jim’s McConaughey about his agent telling him it would’ve made sense to do these Lincoln commercials after doing the movie The Lincoln Lawyer.
STARS: ****


CARREY FAMILY REUNION
(Jeff Daniels) & other kin are like host’s characters at family reunion

— A variation of the Walken Family Reunion sketch from Christopher Walken’s season 33 hosting stint.
— Leslie’s first sketch appearance as a cast member, and she already has a great little moment with her over-the-top laughing response to a mild joke of Jim’s, followed by her saying a well-delivered “You are so crazy, Jim Carrey!”
— I like seeing Jim and Taran play off of each other here, reminding me of their fun chemistry at some parts of Jim’s previous season 36 hosting stint.
— The set-up to the Cable Guy bit is (intentionally) predictable in a very fun way.
— A very solid Fire Marshal Bill from Cecily.
— I really like how, as a contrast to the Walken Family Reunion sketch, this sketch is featuring the cast imitating the host’s movie characters instead of imitating the host himself. (I’ve heard that the later Sandler Family Reunion sketch, which I’ve yet to see, takes that same route.) It makes the sketch feel less redundant in that way, and I’d say this cast is more successful at these Carrey movie character impressions than most of the season 33 cast was at their Walken impressions.
— A nice cameo from Jeff Daniels, complete with him fittingly dressed as Jim’s Dumb & Dumber character.
— I remember that, when I watched this episode during its original airing, I assumed the guy in the Riddler costume at the end of this was just an uncredited extra, until a backstage photo of Pete in the Riddler costume surfaced online shortly after the show. Watching this sketch now with that knowledge, it’s strangely kinda endearing to see Pete imitating Carrey’s trademark mannerisms, as it feels so different from the type of acting Pete usually does on the show.
STARS: ****


LINCOLN
with kids in his Lincoln, Matthew McConaughey (host) channels Rust Cohle

— Funny reveal of two kids unexpectedly being in the backseat of the car during all of this rambling of Jim’s McConaughey, then we get an even funnier reveal that he has no idea who’s kids those are.
STARS: ****


GRAVEYARD SONG
unscary dead guys Paul (TAK) & Phil (host) haunt a graveyard on Halloween

— Odd how this is the second consecutive live sketch with Bobby’s entire face painted a color. Did they just quickly slap all of this gray face paint over his green face paint from the previous sketch? It’s just amusing to me to imagine that, under all that gray he’s wearing on his skin in this sketch, his skin is entirely green.
— Another fun pairing of Jim and Taran.
— This clearly must be an early Mikey Day/Streeter Seidell writing collaboration, as this sketch’s concept not only has Day & Seidell’s familiar fingerprints all over it, but the specific “non-scary, musical, meme-ish, catchphrase-driven characters among a group of legitimately scary horror characters” theme is very reminiscent of Day & Seidell’s iconic David S. Pumpkins sketch from a few seasons later. This Paul & Phil sketch is basically the lesser-remembered precursor to David S. Pumpkins.
— Great “SHUT UPPPP!” outbursts from Bobby right now.
— I can’t find much else to say about the sketch itself. I’m enjoying it, and Jim and Taran are certainly fun, but I don’t find this sketch to be nearly as outstanding or as noteworthy as some of Day & Seidell’s later sketches with a similar theme (not just David S. Pumpkins, but, say, the Kevin Roberts sketch with Larry David, which is my personal favorite version of all these sketches).
STARS: ***½


ALLSTATE / LINCOLN
Matthew McConaughey (host) runs over Allstate spokesman Dennis Haysbert (KET) in his Lincoln

— An absolutely classic turn with Kenan’s Dennis Haysbert ironically getting run over by a car out of absolutely nowhere while in the middle of doing an Allstate commercial, followed by another absolutely priceless reveal of a meditating Jim-as-Matthew-McConaughey behind the wheel of the car, continuing the Lincoln runner of tonight. A simply perfect conclusion to this runner.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fancy”

musical guest & Rita Ora [real] perform “Black Widow”


WEEKEND UPDATE
romantic comedy expert Daisy Rose (VAB) forces meet-cute script on MIC

Drunk Uncle complains about feeling tricked & mistreated by Halloween

— Meh, didn’t the cold opening earlier tonight already make that Ebola joke about New York City now officially having every disease?
— Yeesh, Colin’s delivery of his opening run of Ebola jokes was pretty bad, which shows that, as much as I’ve been liking him on Update this season, he still certainly has some growing to do until he reaches the stage where he’s officially become a reliable co-anchor.
— Love the bit with Michael comparing Ebola to black people.
— A one-off(?) Update character for Vanessa, which I have absolutely no memory of. This could be interesting.
— Already, early in this commentary, Vanessa’s doing an absolutely spot-on and very funny spoof of typical “meet cute” tropes from romcoms.
— Michael is playing off of Vanessa perfectly, as he has some hilarious reactions and one-liners towards her.
— An overall very strong Vanessa commentary. I’m surprised by how much I had forgotten about this little gem from her until now.
— After a bumpy start at the beginning of tonight’s Update, Colin has gotten better, especially his “I thought ‘convicted sex offender’ was Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’s key demographic” punchline, which feels like the type of ballsy joke he’d do in more recent seasons. And Michael’s been having a few strong jokes tonight, too, especially his “sex study being perfected last night by…ya momma” punchline.
— Maybe I spoke a little too soon about Michael, as that brass knuckle/meth pipe joke of his was lame as HELL. However, something about his kiddie delivery of that joke’s punchline tickled me. It felt so odd hearing him talk in that kiddie voice.
— An absolutely PRICELESS beginning to Drunk Uncle’s commentary, where he, upon reacting very negatively to seeing Michael (for obvious reasons), actually scoots his own chair aaaallll the way over to the opposite side of the Update desk (I love how Michael can be heard incredulously asking “Are you seri–?” at one point during that) so he’s now sitting next to Colin for the remainder of this commentary. Not only was that an absolute riot, but that move of Drunk Uncle’s certainly has to be a first in Weekend Update history.
— (*sigh*) SNL, please STOP with that beyond-tired “That’s not me” “That’s not anyone” exchange in EVERY DAMN ONE one of these otherwise solid Drunk Uncle commentaries. Not even the audience laughed at that exchange tonight.
— Tonight’s Drunk Uncle commentary as a whole, while funny, was a little too average for his standards, and not one of his more standout commentaries. However, that fantastic “Drunk Uncle scoots his chair all the way from Michael’s side of the Update desk to Colin’s side” opening gag alone is one of the highlights of this entire episode.
STARS: ***


SECRET BILLIONAIRE
eccentric & elderly (host) seeks to pair with (CES)

 

— Jim accidentally enters the shot briefly while trying to discreetly take his seat as the camera is on Taran and Cecily.
— Something about this sketch is already giving off a bit of a dire, worrisome vibe, but I’ll try to remain open-minded towards this sketch.
— It’s now a minute later, and that dire/worrisome feel is sadly continuing. Maybe it’s something about Jim’s EXTREMELY slow-paced delivery as this character that’s hurting my enjoyment.
— Okay, that whole very-detailed story from Jim’s character regarding pleasuring himself in a hot air balloon and falling 3,000 feet was actually very funny.
— An even funnier detailed story from Jim right now, about an airplane hangar filled with 250 men named Dennis and one named Brian, and Jim theorizing how’d they all react.
— Cecily has some funny little straitlaced responses, especially her responding to one of Jim’s disturbing stories by innocently saying “Aww, I love seafood!”
— Overall, I have very mixed feelings on this sketch. It had such a bad and worrisome first two minutes, then suddenly became much funnier with some of Jim’s disturbing stories, but even with that upswing, the sketch still had a bit of an “off” feel to it, and I still can’t help but feel that Jim’s extremely slow-paced delivery hurt some of the humor of this sketch for me.
STARS: I’m still torn, but I’ll give it *** as a whole, just on the strength of that brilliant “Dennis/Brian” story


GHOSTS: FACT OR FICTION?
(LEJ) gets spooked during paranormal search

— A good first major showcase for Leslie as a cast member.
— A simple premise and simple writing, but Leslie is selling it very well with her character’s skepticism and various frightened reactions.
STARS: ****


HIGH SCHOOL
amid zombie attacks, (host) maintains his undead son (PED) isn’t infected

— A much funnier character voice from Jim here than in the Secret Millionaire sketch.
— The timing seems really off at certain points of this sketch. Odd long pauses and such, particularly when Jim is clearly very late on his cue when he’s supposed to feed Pete pieces of brains from his pockets.
— Funny interaction between Pete and Jay.
— Good zombie growls from Pete throughout this.
— Overall, despite a few laughs, this, much like the Secret Millionaire sketch, suffered from having too much of an “off” and dragging feeling, except, unlike the Secret Millionaire sketch, this one didn’t have enough merits to earn it a decent rating.
STARS: **


OFFICE COSTUME CONTEST
for office costume contest, (host) & (KAM) dance a la “Chandelier” video

— I love the controlled frustration in Sasheer’s delivery when correcting Vanessa by saying “……I’m Vanna White.”
— The whole sequence at the beginning of this sketch with Vanessa’s really bad guesses on what each co-worker’s Halloween costume is is fantastic, so much so, that I could watch an entire five-minute sketch with just Vanessa doing that. I especially love her confusing poor Aidy’s non-costume red dress as her being dressed as a meatball, which gets great reactions from Aidy.
— Fun concept of a Chandelier-themed Carrey/McKinnon dance-off in the office.
— Oh, hell yeah. I love the fourth wall-break turn with the Carrey/McKinnon dance-off going from the sketch’s set to all throughout SNL’s studio. It feels like you rarely, if ever, see a recent SNL season like this have a fourth wall-break that goes this extensive.
— So many fun antics from Jim and Kate in their around-the-studio dance-off, with them even now going through some of the sets from tonight’s earlier sketches. All of this is fantastic.
— I will say the Lorne bit was meh and kinda unnecessary, but it was brief enough not to particularly hurt the great vibe this sketch has going.
— More and more as Jim and Kate’s around-the-studio dance-off continues, this sketch is having a truly epic feel, the type of epic feel that kinda gives me goosebumps and makes me feel like I’m witnessing something truly special. In fact, when this originally aired, I remember this was among the number of Kate McKinnon moments from 2014-2017 that made me feel like I was watching a legend in the making.
— Excellent random ending with Aidy unexpectedly winning the office costume contest, which gets a perfect exaggerated puzzled reaction from her.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & MØ [real] perform “Beg For It”


GEOFF’S HALLOWEEN EMPORIUM
Geoff’s (host) Halloween Emporium proprietor is possessed by a demon

— Interesting pairing of Vanessa and Cecily in this speaking-straight-to-the-camera ad, making this kinda feel like a bizarro universe version of the ex-porn stars sketches.
— Great vocal modifier on Jim.
— Jim’s vocalizations and mugging are priceless. You can tell that, at one point, Jim is attempting to crack Vanessa and Cecily up, but those two are such pros that they don’t bat an eye.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, it had been a long time since SNL last broke out the ol’ vomit tubes prior to this sketch. A nice disgusting touch with the vomit in this particular sketch being black/dark brown, which perfectly fits Jim’s demon character.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While definitely not having the overall classic feel that a Jim Carrey-hosted episode should have (and did have, in Jim’s beloved first hosting stint), this was still certainly a good episode, and received a nice amount of sketch ratings in the high 4-5-star range from me (granted, three of those were the Lincoln three-part runner).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Office Costume Contest
Allstate / Lincoln (Part 3)
Lincoln (Part 1)
Carrey Family Reunion
Lincoln (Part 2)
Ghosts: Fact Or Fiction?
Geoff’s Halloween Emporium
Graveyard Song
Weekend Update
Secret Billionaire
Ebola Press Conference
Monologue
High School


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Hader)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Chris Rock / Prince

Posted on

October 11, 2014 – Bill Hader / Hozier (S40 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

KIM JONG-UN
sore-footed Kim Jong-un (BOM) can’t convince his army that he’s healthy

— Mikey Day! I’m surprised to see him appearing so early in my SNL project (seen behind Taran and Beck in the second above screencap for this cold opening), as this is two seasons before he would get promoted from a writer to a cast member. I didn’t know he made onscreen appearances as an extra this early into his tenure as an SNL writer. I’m aware he has some noteworthy actual speaking bit roles towards the end of the following season, which was probably Lorne testing the waters with Mikey as a possible future featured player.
— It also feels kinda odd to see Mikey and Taran standing right next to each other here, knowing in hindsight that Mikey would basically replace Taran’s spot in the cast when he’s added to the season 42 cast right after Taran’s firing.
— Good performance from Bobby as usual, but so far, the material itself is bad.
— It’s now a minute later, and yeah, it’s definitely safe to say the writing of this is pretty awful. It’s sad that the most interesting thing about this entire cold opening is the sighting of a pre-cast member Mikey Day as a silent background extra.
— This season so far is now 0-for-3 in good cold openings, with tonight’s cold opening being the worst of the three.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
KRW & Harvey Fierstein [real] draw forth BIH’s deep singing voice

— Lots of fun energy from Bill Hader at the very beginning of this, getting the crowd hyped up.
— A comforting demeanor from Bill here, and I particularly like him sharing the true story of how Megan Mullally discovered him and suggested him to Lorne.
— (*sigh*) It’s way too soon for yet another Kristen Wiig appearance, after the Cameo Torturefest that was the season 39 finale. I know Kristen is the co-star of the Skeleton Twins movie that Bill is promoting in this hosting stint, but still, come on, SNL.
— Blah, I could’ve done without Bill making a “Don’t make me sing” reference.
— Kristen at least does have a few mildly amusing Wiig-esque deadpan random lines.
— (*groan*) Cue the musical monologue. Between that and a Wiig cameo, there’s a lot for me not to like in this monologue. Bill deserves so much better than this.
— Not even the gag with Bill’s comically-deep singing voice is doing much for me.
— Harvey Fierstein cameo. At least he’s always a pretty fun presence.
STARS: **


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
crotchety Herb Welch whiffs on high school abstinence pledge story

— Good to see Herb Welch back, even if these sketches got repetitive towards the end of their original run.
— Taran’s anchorman character opens this sketch by saying he’s filling in for Jack Burns. If that was supposed to be a mention of the name of Jason Sudeikis’ character from previous installments of this sketch, they got his name wrong. It’s Jack Rizzoli, I believe.
— I got a good laugh from Herb Welch rudely telling Taran, “I know you’re smooth down there!”
— Another good angry remark from Herb Welch to Taran: “Stick a Zagnut in it, sideburns!” I don’t know if John Mulaney writes these Herb Welch sketches or not, but that Zagnut line had a very specific Mulaney feel to me.
— Yet another good line from Herb Welch to Taran, with Herb responding to a “Why didn’t you…” question of Taran’s by rudely asking him, “Why didn’t your wife take your last name?”
— It feels a little odd not seeing Jason in the anchorman role. Taran is fine here, but I’m not finding him to be quite as strong as Jason was in this role. Jason had a better and funnier chemistry with Bill in this sketch’s previous installments.
— Surprised by how short this overall sketch was. What we got was certainly fine, but was too much of a straight rehash of previous installments. They didn’t try doing ANYTHING new with the formula this time.
STARS: ***½


THE GROUP HOPPER
movie comprises young-adult fiction cliches

— Some funny lines from the movie trailer voice-over throughout this.
— Beyond commercials/trailers I vaguely recall seeing back at this time in 2014, I have no real familiarity with the Maze Runner movie that I think this pre-tape is spoofing. However, that’s still enough for me to “get” and enjoy this spoof.
— Hilarious look and voice from Bill.
— Pete’s doing a solid job in this out-of-his-element role.
— When Sasheer reveals that she’s a virgin pregnant with Pete’s baby, I absolutely love Pete’s delivery of “Well, that sucks!” into the camera.
STARS: ***½


HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT
Al Pacino (BIH), Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW) & other celebrities are unhelpful

— Very fun performance from Kate as Jane Lynch.
— Lots of other amusing impressions from the cast.
— (*groan*) Oh, come on, SNL! Kristen Wiig in a second appearance tonight?
— Am I crazy, or does it kinda sound like SNL’s using a phony laugh track at the beginning of Kristen’s appearance as Kathie Lee Gifford, particularly when she mimes drinking from her wine glass? I’m not trying to be mean or anti-Wiig with that observation, as I can understand the audience’s amusement towards Kristen’s Kathie Lee shtick, even if I myself am not laughing at it in this sketch (I did like it in the later Today sketches from Kristen’s tenure as a cast member, but that was in the past, and I sure as hell wasn’t clamoring for the random return of her Kathie Lee shtick in this Bill Hader-hosted episode), but the audience laughter at her antics at the beginning of her appearance here just sounds strangely kinda canned to me.
— I love Kate-as-Lynch’s frustration over the dumb answers the celebrity contestants give. I’m also getting almost a Will-Ferrell-as-Alex-Trebek vibe from said frustration of Kate’s Lynch, even though this sketch obviously doesn’t come remotely close to approaching the quality of a typical Celebrity Jeopardy sketch.
— (*groans again*) Not only is Kristen needlessly appearing in this sketch like I pointed out earlier, but she is ALL OVER it, getting a large majority of the comedic lines with her old Kathie Lee shtick. Oh, I’m starting to get those very unfortunate “season 39 finale” vibes agaaaaaiiin….
STARS: **


HELPFUND
poor HelpFund beneficiaries wish (BIH) would ask for more than 39 cents

— Great turn with Jay, while tending to his labors, discreetly whispering to Bill, “Ask for more!” and “Ask for more money!”, while Bill is speaking into the camera about 39-cent donations.
— I love how a now-frustrated Bill, still speaking into the camera, keeps trying to drown out the conversation the citizens are having in the background about the measly 39-cent donation amount Bill keeps asking us for.
— Yes! Then-writer Leslie Jones in another onscreen appearance! She’s gotten so noteworthy in her occasional onscreen appearances by this point of her tenure as a writer that you can actually hear a woman in SNL’s audience cheer “Woo-hoo!” when Leslie enters this commercial.
— The questions that Bill is now being bombarded with by the four citizens as they crowd around him are excellent.
— I howled at the four citizens all throwing their hands up and exclaiming “Awwwwww!” in an aggravated manner when Bill takes a wild guess and says that the country he’s in is Africa.
— An excellent ending line from scene-stealer Leslie Jones, delivered into the camera, as Bill is being taken away against his will: “If you wanna see this cheap-ass white man again, you better send us $200 cash, right now! Don’t hesitate!”
— An overall perfect, spot-on, and brilliant takedown of these ads.
STARS: *****


JAN HOOKS TRIBUTE
BIH & KRW mark JAH’s passing

“Love Is A Dream” {rerun}

— Hoo, boy. This is going to be really emotional for me to get through.
— Man, do I vividly remember how extremely heartbreaking it was when the sad news broke about Jan Hooks’ death earlier that week.
— I’m very appreciative that SNL has taken the time out of a new episode to give Jan a much-deserved full-fledged tribute. Given the fact that, after she left SNL, she never achieved the post-SNL fame she deserved, nor did her amazing SNL tenure go on to be anywhere near as known among people as it should be (I’m still fuming at all of the rude “Uh, Jan who???” comments I remember reading shortly after her death, on social media and in the comments section of news articles announcing her death), I recall being kinda doubtful during this week in 2014 if SNL’s then-upcoming Bill Hader episode would do a full-fledged tribute segment to Jan, complete with an intro featuring somebody eulogizing Jan, or if SNL would go the usual route of just throwing a brief little In Memoriam photo or clip of Jan after Weekend Update or before the goodnights. I was very glad to see they ended up going the full-fledged tribute segment route.
— Speaking of a tribute to Jan, the episode that aired on SNL Vintage (which was only in its second-ever month on the air at this time) earlier the same night of this Hader episode was also a wonderful way to pay tribute to Jan, as it was the Alec Baldwin episode from season 15, which is undeniably Jan’s absolute best episode as a cast member. (The Tom Hanks/Aerosmith episode, also from season 15, was originally scheduled for that weekend’s SNL Vintage slot, but after Jan’s death, they made a last-minute change to air the Baldwin episode as a way to honor Jan.) For some great praise I gave to Jan in that Baldwin episode, and a story I shared about how my very first viewing of that episode back in a Comedy Central rerun in 2000 instantly made me a huge Jan Hooks fan, here’s my review of it.
— A nice simple, short, and heartfelt message here from Bill and Kristen about Jan. Given the fact that I’m sure both Bill and Kristen were big fans of the late 80s era of SNL and probably grew up idolizing that cast, I wonder if they persuaded Lorne to put on a full-fledged tribute for Jan, instead of a measly still photo or brief clip. Maybe I need to give Lorne more credit, though, and assume that a full-fledged tribute for Jan was his own choice.
— For my full thoughts on the Love Is A Dream short film that’s receiving an encore presentation, read it here in my review of the episode it originally aired in.
— Even though Love Is A Dream was previously already shown as a tribute to the deceased Phil Hartman during SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special (and would spark some unfortunate, “What?!? That short didn’t have any laughs! Why didn’t SNL honor Phil with one of his actual FUNNY sketches?!?” comments from some online SNL fans back at that time in 1999), it’s still a perfect choice for a tribute to Jan. Such a beautiful, wonderful short, and given the strong connection that Phil and Jan always had both as cast members and as people, it’s very fitting and poignant that the same short film would be aired as a tribute for both of them at separate times.
— Speaking of Phil’s death, I’ll quote something I wrote in my afore-linked original review of this short, as it bears repeating in this Bill Hader episode review, since the Hader episode is mentioned in the quote: “The part right now with Phil’s character first showing up reminds me that when this film aired as a tribute to Jan in the aforementioned Hader episode, it wasn’t until Phil’s entrance that it fully hit me that both cast members in this film are now gone. And then my heart sank.” As an addendum to that quote, just let me add right now that, as long as I live, I will never forget that eerie, vivid heart-sinking feeling that I mentioned in the quote.
— Given the context of why this short is being re-aired in tonight’s episode, the ending of this short has honestly reduced me to a crying, blubbering mess right now (even moreso than it did when I previously reviewed this short in the afore-linked review), so much so, that I actually have to pause the video I’m watching of this episode so I can have a moment. That has rarely, if ever, happened to me during this SNL project of mine.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Take Me to Church”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED mostly regrets his decision to buy a gold chain to get hip-hop cred

all of Stefon’s autumn entertainment recommendations feature Dan Cortese

— Michael, in another early instance of him or Colin going off on a stand-up-style rant about a news story, makes a particularly funny hypothetical quote at one point of his gay marriage talk, about how there are some people in gay couples who REALLY don’t want to get married: “You know, I wanna marry you! But society, man…….”
— Great to see Pete in his second Update commentary, just two episodes after he knocked it out of the park with his first.
— Some good comments from Pete here, and, like his first Update commentary, he’s coming off likable and relatable. However, his commentary tonight is nowhere near as strong as his first one. Some of the material in this one feels kinda ho-hum.
— Only three Updates into this new Jost/Che era, and Colin and Michael’s delivery already kinda feels to me like it’s practically reached the stage that’s now considered to be their trademark delivery. (Maybe it only feels that way to me because it’s been a long time since I’ve last seen a present-day Jost/Che Update.) However, they’re still doing a lot of Seth Meyers-esque jokes in these early Updates of theirs. But, as I said in my last episode review prior to this one, their delivery makes those jokes work far better for me than Seth’s delivery ever did.
— Reminiscent of Stefon’s last few appearances during Bill’s tenure as a cast member, the audience is already cheering WILDLY while Michael is only in the middle of setting up Stefon’s commentary.
— I love how tonight’s Stefon commentary begins with him looking around at the new Update anchors and new Update set in a puzzled manner, then asking “How long have I been on anesthesia???”
— Very funny how Stefon responds to seeing the multiracial pairing of Michael and Colin by lustfully saying, “Mmm, one of each!”
— Yet another very funny remark Stefon makes about Michael and Colin, referring to them as “Barack and Mitt”.
— A few slow portions early in tonight’s Stefon commentary, but it’s getting better and better as it goes along.
— Bill is noticeably stumbly with some of his lines in tonight’s Stefon appearance, but it’s forgivable when you’re aware that a lot of Stefon’s lines are traditionally re-written at the last minute by John Mulaney to surprise Bill on the air.
— Some of my favorite moments of tonight’s Stefon commentary: him imitating the Spanish TV voice-over of Seinfeld ads, him saying one club is located “where Donald Trump Jr.’s chin should’ve been”, him saying one club opened in the two hours between when Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died, and, of course, that very memorable running gag tonight with how each different club Stefon describes has a mention of Dan Cortese, the latter gag of which is reducing Bill to absolute tears.
STARS: ***½


PUPPETRY CLASS
Anthony Peter Coleman brings traumatic Grenada tales to puppetry class

— Oh, what are you doing, SNL? While the original installment of this sketch is an all-time favorite of mine and many other SNL fans, a follow-up to it was never needed and will obviously never come close to measuring up to the original installment, which should’ve been left as a classic one-off. In fact, I remember Bill even doing an interview shortly after leaving the SNL cast, where, when talking at one point about the first Puppetry Class sketch, he mentions that when the idea came up at SNL to possibly do a Puppetry Class follow-up at one point of Bill’s final season as a cast member, Bill and the writer(s) of the sketch decided against the idea, because they knew there was no way to top the first installment and that it shouldn’t be touched. So what happened this week? Why’d they change their minds?
— Kinda interesting how both of tonight’s sketches that are brought back from Bill’s tenure (Herb Welch and this) have Taran replacing the performer who played the main straight man role in the previous installment(s).
— I like the “Mosquito…mosquito…mosquito” bit from Bill’s Anthony Peter Coleman.
— Coleman, when told to lighten the mood of his puppet because they’re telling jokes now: “Here’s a joke: GOD!”
— Wasn’t necessary to do a variation of the gag from the first installment where the puppet blows real smoke out of its mouth.
— It’s good to see Bill is still killing it in his portrayal of this character, even if this sketch itself pales in comparison to the first installment and is trying too hard to recreate it.
— Oh, I’m liking this flashback war sequence right now. A nice change of direction from anything that happened in the the first installment of this sketch.
— In the flashback war sequence, I love Bill’s delivery of “It’s not ya damn stuffing!”
— An empty ending to this sketch.
STARS: ***


INSIDE SOCAL
(PED) & (BIH) contribute reports from a teen perspective

— Nice to see this for a second time, as this works as a recurring piece.
— A funny tiff between Kate and Taran.
— Like the previous Inside SoCal installment, some of the little details and things add to the humor.
— Pretty fun addition of Bill as a reporter, and the unsure direction that his report goes in is providing some laughs.
— I love the heated fight that Beck and Kyle get into with Bobby at the end.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— Showing how rather dominant she was back in the first half of this episode, Kristen Wiig shows up to flat-out do this musical guest intro by herself, as if she has gradually become this episode’s official host or co-host over the course of the night. Before you ask “What the hell?!?”, there’s a reason Bill isn’t doing this intro, as we’ll understand when we see him appear in the sketch after the following musical performance.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene”


CAT
The Cat In The Hat’s (BIH) old flame (CES) derails kids’ rainy-day fun

— Pete has been all over this episode. That’s nice to see, after he was completely shut out of the preceding episode (which was shocking, given how highly-acclaimed his debut in the season premiere was). And given the fact that Bill was the one who originally discovered Pete and suggested him to Lorne (much like Megan Mullally did with Bill himself), it makes sense that Pete would be heavily utilized in this particular episode.
— Now we see why Bill couldn’t introduce Hozier’s second musical performance, as it seemingly took a long time to apply those Cat In The Hat prosthetics onto him.
— Very funny turn with Bill’s Cat In The Hat suddenly going from his typical goofy, jolly voice to a subdued, straitlaced voice when recognizing Cecily as an old flame of his.
— Bill’s doing a solid job in his back-and-forth shifts from “jolly mode” to “serious mode”.
— Absolutely perfect casting of Taran as Thing 2.
— Cat In The Hat: “Hey, Thing 2.” Thing 2: “(sternly) Actually, I go by Jonathing now.”
— A killer departing line from Bill’s Cat In The Hat: “Oh, the places she let me go…”
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, but definitely not as strong as I would’ve expected a Bill Hader-hosted episode to be, which is further proof of how shaky the first quarter of this season has been. This episode was still easily the best of the three episodes this season so far, though. And Bill Hader was his usual excellent, reliable self. I’m also relieved that, aside from some Kristen Wiig appearances I griped about, SNL didn’t go the full route they went in the last hosting stint from a late 00s/early 10s-era cast member (Andy Samberg) by bombarding the whole episode with a “reunion” of the late 00s/early 10s cast.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
HelpFund
Cat
(tie) The Group Hopper / Inside SoCal
WXPD News New York
Weekend Update
Puppetry Class
Hollywood Game Night
Monologue
Kim Jong-un


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Silverman)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jim Carrey hosts, and a certain scene-stealing female writer is added to the cast