Tag: Beck

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March 1, 2014 – Jim Parsons / Beck (S39 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ELLEN
Barkhad Abdi (JAP) is pranked & Johnny Weir (host) is dapper

— I like Kate’s Ellen confessing that, in regards to always forcing herself to dance for the audience’s entertainment, “Wish I hadn’t danced in my first episode. Wish I just sat the heck down and had a smoothie.”
— Nasim in her ONLY appearance all night, and it’s not even a role with any lines (even if her silence in this sketch is part of the joke in her and Vanessa’s appearance). As I said in my last episode review, Nasim was busy around this time filming the pilot of John Mulaney’s then-upcoming sitcom, so that may account for her being almost completely non-existent in this episode.
— A very funny creepy turn towards the end of Jay’s scene as Barkhad Abdi.
— Interestingly, this is the fourth cold opening of these past five episodes in which the host actually appears.
— I remember that, when this originally aired, Jim Parsons playing a flamboyant gay role here made me worried that SNL was going to typecast him in that type of role all night, due to Jim’s real-life sexual orientation. Thankfully, my worries turned out to be wrong.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Colin Jost has been added to the cast tonight.

By this point of the season, there are now almost as many featured players as there are repertory players. It feels like the featured player portion of tonight’s opening montage goes on forever.


MONOLOGUE
host & other actors with signature roles sing “I’m Not That Guy”

— Oof, Jim botched that “rebroadcast 18 times a week” joke early on in this monologue, causing it to die with the audience.
— (*groan*) A musical monologue, and not even an interesting premise for one this time. This premise is lame.
— I assume this ends up being the last time Bill Cosby is portrayed in an innocent, lighthearted way on SNL, given what comes out about him later this same calendar year…
— None of the TV character walk-ons are particularly funny.
STARS: *½


PETER PAN
Tinkerbell’s brassy half-sister Tonkerbell (AIB) joins Peter Pan (host)

— Aidy’s performance is good, but I’m not caring AT ALL for this actual character she’s playing, and the writing for her is bad.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½


THE BIRD BIBLE
parents (MOB) & (KAM) endorse avian spin on Christianity

— I love the one son just bluntly saying to his family, “This sucks”, and immediately walking off.
— Great delivery from Mike of the line, “What’s the matter, kiddo? Lose another friend?”
— The idea of this feels rather derivative of the Myowling Bible commercial from season 12 (a commercial for a version of the bible that has photos of cats as biblical characters), but I’m actually finding this Bird Bible commercial to be far superior. The execution of it is solid, there are a lot of funny visuals, and I love the low-key execution of all the absurdity.
— A very funny cold look Mike briefly shoots towards his son after calmly telling him, “Let’s just enjoy it for what it is”, after the son suggests the Three Wise Men should’ve been owls.
STARS: ****


THE KILLER FILES
conspicuous serial killer (host) stalked TV dance shows

— Jim is perfectly cast as a killer, given his naturally creepy look.
— Good detail of Jim’s killer character having three names (Marc Allen Henry), like a lot of famous serial killers.
— A big laugh from Jim’s unsettling description of himself during his intro on Soul Train.
— The phone call transcription part is great.
— Hilarious part with Jim looking straight into the camera, flat-out saying “I’m the Dance Floor Killer!”, then giving a creepy smile.
STARS: ****


OSCAR PROFILES: 12 YEARS A SLAVE
reading for racist roles made 12 Years A Slave auditioners uncomfortable

— I like Brooks’ gravelly-delivered “Nooooo…” when initially giving the script a look-over and seeing all of the horribly racist lines he’s required to deliver.
— Another great line from Brooks: “You guys have any north parts?”
— Hilarious how Vanessa and Cecily are asking Jim to read a racist statement directly into the camera operated by a VERY stern-looking black man.
— The mere look of Bobby’s character is hilarious, especially those sideburns.
— After Bobby’s character’s very convincing racist tirade into the camera that’s operated by the aforementioned stern-looking black man, we get an absolutely priceless reveal that Bobby’s just a janitor and wasn’t even aware they’re filming auditions.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Blue Moon”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) discuss NBA current events

Jebidiah Atkinson pans Best Picture nominees & winners from years past

— Colin Jost has become Cecily’s new Update co-anchor.
— A slightly-revamped version of the Update opening title sequence from earlier this season.
— When Cecily welcomes Colin to Update at the beginning of this, Colin takes the time to sincerely tell us he’s so grateful to be here, and that this is a dream come true for him. I remember the decision to have Colin disclose those things really bugged some online SNL fans at the time, including myself, as we felt it was Colin basically begging us to like him and not dare criticize him. I’m a little less salty towards it now (maybe because I’m aware in hindsight that I would eventually go on to like Colin a lot as an Update anchor starting at some point in the following season), but there’s still something about the “It’s a dream come true for me” disclosure that feels very unnecessary to me.
— Feels odd seeing Cecily tell the first Update joke for once, after she previously was always the second anchorperson to deliver jokes in each of this season’s Updates, presumably due to Seth Meyers’ seniority.
— As expected, it also feels so odd no longer seeing Seth delivering Update jokes, after having gotten so used to him doing that in every single Update for these past eight seasons I’ve covered.
— I don’t like how some of the jokes Cecily and Colin are doing tonight feel like ones Seth would’ve done (e.g. the comical Boston accent Colin used when saying Derek Jeter’s last name during the “First openly gay athlete” joke, and Cecily’s “Yakety Sax chase music” joke, the latter of which Seth actually did do at least twice in the past). A huge sign that Colin’s new presence at the Update desk still isn’t changing the undeniable fact that the style of Update itself is in dire need of a complete overhaul (which we would thankfully get the following season).
— When Kenan and Jay’s Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal make their entrance, the camera accidentally cuts to an odd-looking brief close-up of Cecily shaking her head while looking at Kenan and Jay in amazement with an open-mouthed smile on her face (screencap below).

After this camera gaffe, Kenan seems to be aware something went wrong, as he ad-libs an amused “What just happened???”, and a now-off-camera Cecily is then heard ad-libbing “I was enjoying you!”
— This Barkley/Shaq commentary is so fun that even Jay’s accidental delay in his delivery of a punchline at one point comes off affable and funny instead of hampering the joke.
— Jay’s Shaq childishly imitating Kenan-as-Barkley’s hand movements when Kenan’s Barkley is speaking to Colin reminds me of Alex Moffat’s Eric Trump regularly doing that in the later Update commentaries that he and Mikey Day’s Donald Trump Jr. would do together.
— So far in this first Update of his, Colin is indeed coming off stiff, bland, and Seth Meyers-lite (the latter of which is the last thing Update needs after so many damn endless years of affable blandness from Seth himself), just like all the critics said about him back at this time, but I’m not finding all of these things about Colin to be quite as bad in hindsight (again, probably because I’m now aware of how much I would later like him on Update the following seasons). However, he’s still coming off as a pale shadow of his future, more-developed Update self.
— Jebidiah Atkinson! This character always kills.
— (*groan*) Did Cecily inherit Seth’s annoying habit of loudly laughing off-camera when a guest is doing their commentary?
— A fantastic unscripted bit right now during the Jebidiah Atkinson commentary, in which an index card that Taran throws in the air ends up unexpectedly landing neatly on top of the cards in Taran’s hand (seen in the last in the above group of screencaps for this Update), leading Taran to ad-lib a great “Couldn’t do it again if I tried.”
— Jebidiah Atkinson: “I’d rather let Woody Allen watch my kids than watch this again! (*audience reacts in offended amusement*) So let me get this straight – you all trust him?!?”
— At the end of this inaugural Update they have together, Colin and Cecily do their own version of the traditional Seth/Cecily “fist bump” move by doing a “finger bump”.
STARS: **½


MURDER MYSTERY
murder mystery participant (host) is unhappy with his assigned character

— Funny blooper with Taran’s “Dinner will be sherved…” line flub, resulting in a taken-aback smirk from him as he tries his best to stifle his laughter. The fact that Taran doesn’t usually break often makes his flub here come off likable, as does something about the fact that he just played the ad-lib-heavy Jebidiah Atkinson right before this sketch.
— A pretty funny “harmless, oversexed nutball” description of the Simply Dudley character that Jim’s assigned.
— I like Jim’s delivery of “Now what the HELL does that mean?!?” when reading the direction, “Simply Dudley goes to town.”
— A laugh from the “fabulous fanny tickler” glove Jim is given for his Simply Dudley character, as well as the very negative reaction that both Kate and Taran have when Jim uses the glove on a playing-dead Kate.
— After a very frustrated Jim asks “Well, what do you guys want me to do?!?”, I love Cecily aghast delivery of “Not tickle a dead woman’s ass!”
STARS: ***


SPOTLIGHTZ!
Laura Parsons & Spotlightz! peers act in Best Picture nominee adaptations

— I wonder if SNL got the idea to bring this sketch back tonight because Jim shares the same last name as Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character.
— Having the movies the child actors perform be this years Oscar-nominated films is a good way to change this up a bit from the previous installment of this sketch.
— Good performance from Noel, but I didn’t care much for her scene with Jim.
— I like Jim’s character mouthing Laura Parsons’ lines and subtly imitating her gestures.
— This overall sketch wasn’t quite as good as the previous installment of this from earlier this season, but was still decent.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wave”


ELEVATOR
boss who crapped his pants (host) shares elevator ride with his employees

— Given what an awkward live performer he usually tends to be, Mike is surprisingly not bad in his live appearance here.
— I like the realization us viewers gradually come to that the mentioned loud boom from a nearby construction site was the cause of Jim’s “dirty undergarment”.
— While this is a juvenile concept, and poopy humor is worryingly starting to feel like it’s becoming a regular thing in the second half of this season between that game show sketch with Jonah Hill and this, this particular Elevator sketch is actually being executed well, surprisingly.
— Though I hate admitting to laughing at it, I love the jarring contrast that Kenan’s loudly-delivered “Aw, dayum! Smell like dookie in here!” has to the quieter tone this sketch had prior to his appearance. That tone shift was pulled off well.
— Good ending reveal of this taking place in a very tall building, though it doesn’t make sense why Jim is heard exclaiming “Oh, no!” during that exterior shot of the tall building, as if he’s finding out the same time we are of how tall this building is, despite the fact that he’s, you know, A BOSS WHO WORKS IN THAT BUILDING, and thus, should’ve already been well-familiar with how lengthy that building is. A minor nitpick, though.
STARS: ***½


COWBOYS
on the range, (host) pushes for birthday surprise for fellow cowboy (BEB)

— I’m loving Jim’s character’s commitment to his increasingly harebrained popping-out-of-the-ground birthday surprise idea. I especially laughed at the odd detail that he’ll paint his body brown to match the dirt.
— Brooks is doing a really good job blending in with the rest of the cast in this sketch. He doesn’t feel like an underused rookie at all here, and is instead coming off like a comfortable, familiar veteran.
— Even the out-of-place jolly contemporary music played during the “The next day” scene transition is adding to the fun silly nature of this sketch.
— Very funny ending.
— An overall underrated sketch. I not only liked it a lot as a silly little 10-to-1 piece, but I also love how this felt like something I can picture airing in SNL’s late 80s era. More specifically, it had the feel of a typical silly, oddball idea that writers Jack Handey or Conan O’Brien would’ve come up with in that era, and Handey and Conan are two of my personal favorite SNL writers of all time. I can even picture specific late 80s cast members playing the roles in this sketch, such as Phil Hartman in Beck’s role, Dana Carvey in Kyle’s role, Jon Lovitz in Kenan’s role, and Kevin Nealon in Brooks’ role.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I take it this is a notorious episode that’s considered by a number of people to be pretty much a disaster, judging from 1) recent things I’ve heard about this episode, and 2) an online article published shortly after this episode’s original airing that was titled something like “SNL Has Their Worst Episode Ever”. Frankly, I don’t get the hate AT ALL. While this episode did have a real rough and worrisome beginning with that monologue and Tonkerbell sketch, things improved greatly afterwards, with the post-Tonkerbell segments in the first half of the show all being strong, most of the sketches in the second half of the show being decent, and the final sketch of the night (Cowboys) being good-ol’ Jack Handey/Conan O’Brien-esque silliness. I assume that that poopy-pants elevator sketch is just one of the reasons for the ire that a number of people have towards this episode, but come on – I usually hate that type of humor, too, and even *I* can admit that SNL executed it well in this particular sketch. All-in-all, I’m taking the apparently unpopular route and saying this episode was fine, minus a worrisome start and a mediocre Weekend Update debut for Colin Jost.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Oscar Profiles: 12 Years A Slave
The Bird Bible
The Killer Files / Cowboys (tie)
Elevator
Murder Mystery
Ellen
Spotlightz!
Weekend Update
Peter Pan
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Lena Dunham

Posted on

October 28, 2006 – Hugh Laurie / Beck (S32 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

KAZAKHSTAN MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) promotes Kazakhstan during paid announcement

— A message from Lorne? I see we’re already starting off with something different.
— A laugh from Lorne taking the time to pour himself a drink while telling us about the drastic budget cuts NBC has had to make lately.
— Right before Lorne is handed his sandwich by someone, the audience suddenly breaks out into WILD applause out of nowhere. This is presumably because off-camera, a certain special guest who we’re about to see onscreen was spotted by the audience (the set he’s standing at was probably lit up at this point), but I remember a lot of online SNL fans back at this time in 2006 speculating if the applause was for the person who handed Lorne his sandwich, a person who is mostly off-camera, except for their hand holding the plate with the sandwich. Some of those SNL fans not only wondered if that person handing Lorne the sandwich was a famous person, but they even assumed it might’ve been the recently-departed-from-the-show Tina Fey, because, upon being given his sandwich, Lorne says what sounds like “Thank you, Tina!” (it’s hard to tell what name Lorne is saying under all the wild applause from the audience). Pretty silly to think Tina Fey would make such a brief, off-camera “cameo” in which the only thing we can see of her onscreen is her hand. That would be probably the oddest form of a cameo in SNL history, though you have to admit, it IS amusing to imagine Tina Fey making a hand cameo. Coincidentally, we actually do end up getting a Tina Fey cameo (and a certain other SNL alum/30 Rock cast member) in the monologue of the very next episode.
— An unintentional laugh from Lorne’s genuine difficulty in pronouncing “Kazakhstan”. Charming to see Lorne make a gaffe like that.
— And now we see who the audience was wildly applauding for earlier: Borat!
— The “human pubis” that Borat displays is hilarious, as is him saying “This bale took over three women to make.”
— I’m getting so much of the usual “oh, so wrong” laughs at Borat’s juvenile-and-offensive-but-funny comedy.
— I like the Wayne’s World reference with Borat occasionally saying “Shwing?”
— Borat even manages to make his “Live from New York…” funny, by throwing in “home of the Jew”.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host tells how he’s unlike House & says what to expect from an Englishman

— A big gaffe right at the beginning, in which SNL’s fake applause track accidentally continues to play long after the real audience has stopped applauding and long after Hugh Laurie has begun speaking. I really don’t understand SNL’s need to use a fake applause track during the opening montage, and this gaffe tonight should’ve led to SNL finally stopping their usage of it, but nope. They continue to use it to this day, I believe.
— I love Hugh naming the audience collectively “Sweetcheeks”.
— Hugh, in one of the many things he says he is: “I’m the yelp of a puppy freed from the microwave.”
— I am absolutely LOVING this monologue. Not only are there lots of funny lines, but Hugh is handling this so damn well, with tons of charm, expertise, and genuine funniness.
— Great ad-lib from Hugh after his Shakespeare joke doesn’t go over well with the audience.
STARS: ****½


MOST HAUNTED
(host)’s flatus is mistaken for sign of paranormal activity

— The use of infrared night-vision is interesting and unique for a live SNL sketch.
— A fart sketch? And as the lead-off sketch of the night?!? I do recall this actually being surprisingly not bad for a fart sketch, though.
— So far, while this is not quite as good as I had remembered, it’s still working decently for something with such a sophomoric premise. What makes this sketch work is how overly seriously Fred, Amy, and Bill are taking the “mysterious sound”, how ridiculously heavily they’re analyzing it, and how embarrassed Hugh is over all of this.
— The ending with a ghost’s voice actually saying “Juliaaaan” (as a callback to Fred, Amy, and Bill mistaking the sound of Hugh’s fart for a voice saying a stretched-out “Julian”) didn’t work for me.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- George W. Bush downplays scare tactics of GOP’s negative TV spots

— Our first TV Funhouse of the season.
— Blah, the Bush intro at the beginning appears to be using the same odd animation style that was used in the TV Funhouse from the season 30 Luke Wilson episode, an animation style that I hated (and it didn’t help matters any that that particular TV Funhouse itself was a dud).
— Luckily, most of this cartoon isn’t focusing on the badly-animated Bush scenes.
— Good political satire in the gay marriage/“Count Obama” ad.
— The Hillary Clinton ad made me laugh out loud. The ridiculous voice used for her made it even funnier.
— This cartoon is over already? This felt unusually short, and it seemed like we were meant to see a third political attack ad instead of just two.
STARS: ***½


NATIONAL ANTHEM
at the World Series, (MAR) renders National Anthem nearly unrecognizable

— A very well-known Maya Rudolph sketch.
— I used to pretty much HATE this sketch and find it insanely overrated, but that was also back in the days when I had a seething dislike for Maya Rudolph in general, and thus, I just dismissed this sketch as both “Another bad Maya Rudolph singing sketch” and “Another bad Maya-Rudolph-does-a-goofy-voice sketch”. Now that I’m older, more mature, and try to be more critically fair in my assessments of SNL than I was in my original days as an SNL reviewer back in the 2000s and early 2010s, I’ve become more appreciative of Maya’s comedic talents, and thus, I can recognize this sketch’s value. While I’m still certainly not finding it to be a classic like a lot of people seemingly do, I’m enjoying this sketch a lot, and I’m finding Maya’s many different bad singing styles for each individual verse of the National Anthem not only amusing and fun, but actually impressive, and a good spoof of the overwrought way certain singers butcher the National Anthem when trying to show off their vocal range.
STARS: ****


PROMO

— Bizarrely and inexplicably, Don Pardo announces that the next live episode is airing “on MONDAY, November 11”, despite that date being, of course, a Saturday. All I have to say is, boy, is Don getting old.


ADVANCE MAN
equerry (host) requisitions oddities for Queen Elizabeth’s hotel stay

— When failing in his attempt to apply his glasses onto his face with one hand, Hugh ad-libs a witty “Fortunately, these are just an affectation”, and does away with the glasses. And showing what a true pro she is, Kristen perfectly keeps a straight face during this funny ad-lib.
— I am absolutely LOVING the absurd British, Monty Python-ish comedy style of this sketch, which Hugh Laurie is obviously a natural for. His delivery of these lines about Queen Elizabeth’s very eccentric requests is a riot.
— I love Hugh responding to Kristen’s “Will you be here when she (the Queen) arrives?” question with an “Absolutely not” before making his exit.
STARS: ****½


HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Ken Mehlman (ANS) & Howard Dean (JAS) forsee GOP midterm defeat

— Our first Hardball sketch in almost an entire year.
— Darrell’s Chris Matthews impression seems a little more toned down and serious tonight.
— I think that’s SNL producer Ken Aymong as Glenn Beasley in the various photos.
— So far, this feels very different from typical Hardball sketches. They’ve shaken up the format, which is much needed, after how stale the last few Hardball sketches before this were.
— Darrell is a stumbly mess throughout this sketch. He can barely get a line out without flubbing it.
— Jason’s Howard Dean challenging Andy’s Ken Mehlman to a fistfight is making me laugh.
— While I’m enjoying the dialogue and humor here, the pacing and energy of this whole sketch feels off, which is hurting this.
STARS: **½


PROTEST SONG
host performs a protest song that mumbles answers to the world’s problems

— Ooh, I like the setting of this. Feels like a throwback to earlier SNL seasons, where a performer doing a comedy bit on SNL’s home base stage was much more common, outside of monologues.
— I recall finding out this is an old bit that Hugh brought to SNL from his comedy act. It’s coming off solid here, and a very nice change of pace for an SNL piece in this era.
— Some nice camera angles throughout this that show both Hugh and the audience.
— I particularly love the part with Hugh desperately resorting to a harmonica solo during one of his many avoidances of saying what the answer is.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nausea”


WEEKEND UPDATE
senatorial candidate Tim Calhoun offers qualifications & proposals

New Jerseyite same-sex couple (FRA) & (BIH) endorses gay marriage ruling

— I’m starting to question just how much Amy has “improved” as an Update anchor so far in this Poehler/Meyers era, because I’ve been noticing that she’s still using the same annoyingly cutesy, cheesy delivery she used during the Fey/Poehler era, and her jokes are just as cringey as they were back then. Seth, on the other hand, has been absolutely solid and sharp as an anchor so far, and he has by far the better jokes of the two anchors. Despite their always-great chemistry when interacting with each other, Seth and Amy’s individual Update delivery styles are kind of an odd mish-mash with each other so far. Maybe Amy eventually gets better, because I recall feeling she was decent when the Poehler/Meyers era of Update originally aired.
— Tim Calhoun!
— I love the similarities Tim Calhoun says he has to America: he’s heavily in debt, he’s 10% gay, and he has a really bad gas problem.
— A particularly hilarious Tim Calhoun confession right now (and remember that this is when the Mark Foley/teenage pages scandal was going on): “I have touched many pages in my life……..because I am a voracious reader……..of child pornography……..studies……..illustrated studies.”
— My god, Calhoun is even funnier than ever tonight, which I didn’t think was possible. I am being DESTROYED with laughter here.
— I’ll give Amy credit for her good delivery of the Panama Canal Widening joke. Despite my criticism of how the quality of her delivery and jokes has mostly been unchanged from the Fey/Poehler era, Amy has some occasional winners.
— The debut of Bill and Fred’s Same-Sex New Jersey Couple. (*groan*) How do you follow up a killer Tim Calhoun commentary with THIS?
— So far in tonight’s Same-Sex New Jersey Couple commentary, I am liking Bill’s delivery (and he’s always great at delivering wiseguy-esque “Ohhhhh!”s), but otherwise, this is just as weak as I had remembered these characters being back when this SNL era originally aired.
— Ha, I love Seth ad-libbing a callback to the Same-Sex New Jersey Couple commentary from earlier in this Update, by improvising a quiet “Ohhhh!” after the punchline of his gay marriage/St. Louis Cardinals joke.
STARS: ***


TRUST YOUR PHYSICIAN
broken leg sufferer’s (KET) distrust of doctor (WLF) impedes treatment

— Kenan makes his first and ONLY appearance of the night here. So far this season, I feel like he’s been kinda struggling to fit into this season’s shortened cast, especially now that he’s the only black male cast member left.
— That fucking horrible sketch with John C. Reilly in drag in the preceding episode makes me initially worried seeing Hugh Laurie in drag here.
— Interesting role for Kenan, which feels out of the ordinary from the way he’s typically used in these earlier seasons of his SNL tenure.
— Hugh is actually really funny in this drag role, further proving how great of a performer he is.
— While I’m getting some laughs and am enjoying all of the interplay between Kenan and Hugh, this sketch is kinda hard for me to figure.
— There’s been quite a number of sketches this season so far that have ended with a character breaking the fourth wall and delivering a message to the camera.
STARS: **½


THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN
snide Frankenstein (BIH) hides his identity from confused villagers

— A very solid role for Bill, and SNL allowing him to deservedly carry a sketch in the lead role feels somewhat rare at this point of his SNL tenure.
— I love both Bill and Jason playing relatable, realistic personifications of Frankenstein and Dracula, respectively, with Bill’s characterization being snarky and Jason’s characterization being laid-back and smug (nice detail with the latter nonchalantly filing his nails while the angry mob is questioning him).
— I like the way Bill’s Frankenstein keeps sternly telling one of the people in the angry mob to get that fiery torch away from him.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Clap Hands”


JOB INTERVIEW
(host) & (FRA) squeal “Ooh!” while interviewing (AMP) for a law firm job

— The slow build-up to Hugh and Fred’s first “ooooOOOOOoooooh!” is good.
— I really like how this silly “ooooOOOOOoooooh!” routine feels like something Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz would’ve done together in the late 80s SNL era. In fact, this sketch feels like a spiritual successor to a sketch that Dana and Jon did do together once: a fun, silly sketch from the season 15 Robert Wagner episode (an episode filled with fun, silly sketches that are really strong) where Dana, Jon, and Robert Wagner were professionals on a political roundtable show, and Dana and Jon each kept making high-pitched, childlike bragging noises whenever one would one-up the other during their debate.
— I like Hugh and Fred quietly starting an “oooooo–” and holding it for a long time while anxiously waiting for Amy to deliver one particular answer.
— Decent turn with Hugh and Fred having a displeased reaction to Amy doing the “ooooOOOOOoooooh!” thing herself, leading to her not getting the job after all.
— The show is seemingly starting to run a little long, as this sketch suddenly fades to an SNL bumper photo of Hugh a tad early while Hugh and Fred are still delivering the final exchange of the sketch.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode, and a complete turnaround from that wretched preceding episode with John C. Reilly. I liked almost every single sketch tonight, and even the few I didn’t care for were nothing terrible. Tonight had a lot of strong highlights, and the show as a whole had a fun vibe. Hugh Laurie was also a fantastic host, no doubt due to all of his comedy experience in his career, and he added to the aforementioned fun vibe of this episode. Another big positive in this episode was SNL favorite Beck, who’s musical performances tonight (particularly the second one) were outstanding.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John C. Reilly)
a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Well, as I already gave away earlier in this review…

Posted on

April 16, 2005 – Tom Brady / Beck (S30 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM TOM DELAY
Tom DeLay (CHP) says his vote-securing methods have made him a target

— A laugh from the first stock footage cutaway, representing congressman Bob McKibben being blown up in his car.
— Blah, now this is just repeating the exact same joke over and over, with Tom DeLay’s threatened opponents being represented by stock footage of explosions, cars falling off cliffs, people crashing through windows, etc. A lazy and one-note comedic hook for this cold opening.
— I’m probably looking too much into it, but something about the way Chris delivered “Live from New York…” suggested to me that even HE was fully aware that he was in a crappy cold opening.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host shows his well-roundedness by demonstrating his non-football talents

— Ugh. A song-and-dance monologue, and with freakin’ Tom Brady of all people?
— The cast comin’ out in cheesy bright-colored shirts like they’re characters straight out of the legendary first Debbie Downer sketch.
— If I can find ANYTHING positive to say about this dull monologue, I guess it’s that Tom is at least performing this affably, and seems like he’ll be okay for an athlete host.
STARS: *½


DR. PORKENHEIMER’S BONER JUICE
— Rerun from 10/2/04. However, something VERY odd in this rerun: this commercial has been almost ENTIRELY re-shot, with Amy even wearing completely different clothes, even though all of her dialogue is the exact same! (below are side-by-side comparisons between shots from this commercial’s original airing and tonight’s repeated airing)

Why in the world did they go through all this trouble of re-shooting most of this commercial, even though no changes were made to what actually happens in the scenes, nor to Amy’s actual dialogue?!? What was the point? And I previously thought it was bizarre how, the last time this commercial was re-aired earlier this season, they re-shot a small portion of the end to replace the original shot of Rob “pitching a tent” under the bedsheets. But that’s nothing compared to THIS. And the sad thing is, none of these frequent modifications SNL inexplicably keeps making to reruns of this weak Boner Juice commercial are making it ANY funnier.


CARNIVAL
at a carnival, only (host) fails to win at a football toss target game

— This seems to be a well-liked, popular sketch, and it’s been shown in many of SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials. However, I’ve always found this sketch overrated.
— Part of why I find this sketch overrated is the premise comes off weak, corny, and thin to me. “Ha, look at the real-life professional football player playing a character who can’t throw a football into a simple target, while physically-weaker characters can!” I usually actually enjoy when hosts, especially non-actor hosts, spoof their image by playing a character who’s the exact opposite of themselves, but something about the idea behind this particular Tom Brady football toss sketch just comes off corny and too simplistic for me, and the execution isn’t any great shakes.
— OH, NO. And there goes yet another display of season 30’s hyperfocus on hacky gay humor for cheap laughs, with Seth and Fred entering as a gay couple.
— Now we get Amy playing to the cameras in the hammiest manner possible. I’m sure quite a lot of people find that funny in this sketch, but in a season where Amy’s been driving me nuts with her audience-pandering, UCB-abandoning overt cutesiness, I have very mixed feelings on her performance in this particular sketch.
— I will say that there’s some good interplay between Tom and Will right now, such as Tom, after getting fed up with Will always saying “Not a touchdown”, telling Will “Stop saying that”, which Will responds to with a deadpan “Stop missing.” I also like how, when Tom implies that the next football he’s going to throw will be at Will’s head, Will carelessly replies with an also-deadpan “I could not be less worried.”
STARS: **


DR. PHIL
insensitive husband (host) lacks emotional intelligence

— Solid Dr. Phil impression from Darrell. Better than the one last done by Jeff Richards, as much as I generally loved Jeff as a celebrity impressionist (the problem with his Dr. Phil impression was that the voice was too high-pitched). However, I remember someone on an SNL message board making a good point back at this time in 2005 about how frustrating it is that SNL gave this Dr. Phil role to a been-on-the-show-forever-and-needs-to-finally-be-on-his-way-out veteran like Darrell instead of the very-underused-but-promising newbie Rob Riggle, who seems like he would be very fitting in the Dr. Phil role and DESPERATELY needs this airtime, as his chances of being brought back the following season weren’t looking too good by this point.
— I can’t find much to say about this sketch so far.
— What was with the brief ending with Amy, Seth, and their son? Seemed like a waste of casting for something that contained no actual joke and only showed Amy, Seth, and the son onscreen for two measly seconds with no dialogue.
— Overall, nothing too special as a whole, despite a strong performance from Darrell as Dr. Phil, and a competent performance by Tom as Rachel’s dumb, inconsiderate husband. I might’ve enjoyed this sketch more had it aired much later in the episode. It felt a little out of place to me in such an early spot in the show.
STARS: **½


THE FALCONER
The Falconer still gets the worst of it after swapping places with Donald

— Hell yeah, The Falconer! Strangely, I have no memory of this particular installment of this recurring sketch.
— A very interesting premise, with The Falconer and Donald switching bodies. Nice change of pace.
— Ah, it’s all coming back to me now. That “body switching” special effect sequence brought back my memories of having watched this sketch before.
— I love The Falconer, in Donald’s body, being forced to participate in a cockfight.
— Great brief inclusion of Kenan as Don King.
STARS: ****½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Sexual Harassment & You” by RBS- being attractive keeps lawsuits away

— A very rare instance of a TV Funhouse being entirely live-action.
— This sexual harassment premise feels even more timely nowadays than it did in 2005.
— I love how Fred very timidly saying an innocent “Hi” to Tina from afar inexplicably results in her calling security and having him taken out of the office.
— Hilarious visual of Tom casually walking up to Tina in his briefs (complete with an obviously fake bulge).
— The style of this film is a very spot-on parody of 1950s educational films.
— Very funny how, as this film progresses, it’s obvious that the film’s only “tip” to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits is to be handsome.
— Overall, a very solid and memorable TV Funhouse.
STARS: ****½


TOM BRADY’S FALAFEL CITY
host’s restaurant offers Middle Eastern cuisine

— Our fourth and final edition of the “non-actor host advertises their own restaurant” series of sketches. SNL was actually going to do one earlier this season with Paris Hilton advertising a fictional “House Of Crabs” restaurant of hers (the sketch reportedly was going to open with Paris delivering the one-liner “Hi, I’m Paris Hilton, and I have crabs”), but the sketch got nixed during the week.
— And there goes season 30’s obligatory weekly instance of Maya singing.
— Fairly catchy jingle based on the Beach Boys song “Barbara Ann”, but not my favorite of the jingles in these “non-actor host advertises their own restaurant” sketches (that honor goes to the jingle used for Reverend Al Sharpton’s Casa De Sushi).
— Here comes Horatio’s traditional walk-on as a random famous singer in these non-actor restaurant ad sketches.
— OH, DO NOT GET ME STARTED. Just now, Horatio has botched the living shit out of his scene and derailed this sketch, in true Horatio Sanz fashion. Fucking ugh. Halfway though his scene in this sketch, after performing competently, Horatio suddenly came off completely lost, paused for a long time, and started laughing at himself while making very awkward, painfully unfunny, and bizarre ad-libs in a failed effort to save himself. Jesus Christ. Even Tom Brady, a football player with zero acting or comedy experience, is handling himself well and is coming off as a compete pro in this scene compared to Horatio, who, last time I checked, is a PAID SKETCH COMEDY PROFESSIONAL. Fuck outta here with that shit.
— Much like in the last edition of these non-actor restaurant ad sketches, it’s fairly cute how this sketch ends in a meta manner by showing a map of the locations of all the previous restaurants from this series of sketches.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “E-Pro”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF & AMP enact a possible forthcoming silicone breast implant commercial

celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick (MAS) plugs his DVD & upcoming movie

in 1975, boring interviewee Lorne Michaels (WLF) exasperates Jiminy Glick

— (*sigh*) In typical Fey/Poehler Update fashion, we open tonight’s Update with a string of groanworthy lame jokes.
— Meh, didn’t care for Tina and Amy’s silicone commercial (complete with a soft-focus screen filter).
— Oh, fuck yeah! A Martin Short cameo as Jiminy Glick!
— As expected, Jiminy Glick is very enjoyable here, and is adding much-needed life to this Update.
— Funny to hear Jiminy Glick call out former Update anchor Jimmy Fallon for his habit of stopping mid-joke to fix his messy hair (which is something he infamously did in the Update from the Reese Witherspoon episode in season 27; can’t remember if there were any other Updates he did that in).
— Oh, I absolutely love this turn during the Jiminy Glick commentary, with us seeing a 1975 interview between Jiminy Glick and a young Lorne Michaels, the latter amusingly and fittingly played by Will, who I remember people often pointing out during his first few seasons resembles 1970s-era Lorne.
— Sad that this is the second episode in a row where the only way SNL was able to make a Fey/Poehler Update semi-tolerable was by bringing in a very special and fun cameo from a former cast member.
STARS: **½


KAITLIN’S UNCLE
Uncle Scott’s (host) cold feet threaten Kaitlin’s upcoming bridesmaid gig

— At least Horatio gets a chance to redeem himself from his embarrassing trainwreck moment in tonight’s earlier Falafel City sketch, by doing his usual solid work in these Kaitlin sketches.
— Hmm. Not that I want to weigh down my review of a Kaitlin sketch by nitpicking yet another thing about Horatio, but it turns out this sketch actually has a few instances of breaking from Horatio in response to Amy’s typical antics as Kaitlin. It doesn’t derail this sketch or anything, but I point it out only because people claim Horatio’s always able to keep it together in these Kaitlin sketches. We can’t even depend on him for THAT in tonight’s installment.
— Overall, while this was still tolerable and brought the usual slice-of-life charm, this Kaitlin installment was a little below par in comparison to previous installments of this recurring sketch. There were no particular strong moments that stood out to me at all here.
STARS: ***


BEHIND THE MUSIC – THE SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE
Chicago Bears recall “The Super Bowl Shuffle” phenomena

— Ha, I’m always down for a Superbowl Shuffle spoof, and it’s a funny premise to do a Behind The Music special on this. This could be a fun sketch.
— A little detail I found funny: when we’re shown how low “The Stay In School Shuffle” ranked on the Billboard chart, it’s ranked right above “Party All The Time” from SNL’s own Eddie Murphy (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Jason Sudeikis, still just an SNL writer at this point and not yet a cast member, makes a noteworthy appearance here in a cowboy hat and sunglasses, playing the cowbell while dancing around Tom’s Jim McMahon, during McMahon’s solo song (the last two above screencaps for this sketch). Jason gets to do some really fun dancing here, giving us an early glimpse of the entertaining dance skills that he would later display in various sketches (most famously What Up With That).
— Overall, much like the preceding Kaitlin sketch, this was an okay but ultimately pretty forgettable sketch. I was expecting better for a Behind The Music spoof of Superbowl Shuffle.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Girl”


THE OAK ROOM
boozy lounge singer Charli Coffee (MAR) falls down while performing

— (*groan*) And there goes season 30’s obligatory weekly instance of Maya singing, for the SECOND time tonight. This is also the typical washed-up lounge singer-type sketch that I recently mentioned Maya would do too much around this point of the season. I would say tonight’s particular Maya-plays-a washed-up lounge singer-type sketch is a James Anderson-written piece, but, as I said in a recent review, I almost always end up being proven wrong when I assume a sketch has been written by James Anderson. (I still don’t understand how he didn’t write that Jingle Singers sketch from this season’s David Spade episode. That sketch had so many of Anderson’s trademarks. It scares me to think there are OTHER writers this season who are using hacky trademarks typically found in musical James Anderson sketches.)
— A cheap laugh from seeing Tom freakin’ Brady in a Kenny G.-esque wig. It may be a cheap laugh, but at least it’s a laugh, which is certainly more than I can say for anything else in this terrible sketch so far.
— Lots of very lame and unfunny pratfalls through breakaway props from Maya all throughout this sketch. Feels like I’m watching a poor man’s Matt Foley or Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch, and quite frankly, Chris Farley and Molly Shannon were much better at doing pratfalls than Maya is in this sketch. I also kinda feel like I’m watching a damn Chubb Hotty sketch (which is NOT a sketch you ever want to remind me of), especially when Maya did a pratfall through a breakaway piano just now, which is the same thing Chubb Hotty did in a sketch earlier this season.
— Ugh, Maya sure loves singing in a grating nasal voice in various sketches. Too bad I don’t love hearing it.
STARS: *½


BACKSTAGE
slighted Peyton Manning (SEM) & Donovan McNabb (FIM) meet host backstage

— As I implied in my review of Hilary Swank’s monologue, it feels rare to see a backstage sketch this season.
— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— For some reason, Tom precedes his exit in this sketch by telling the others “I gotta get ready for the next sketch”, even though this is the final piece of the night.
— Right before he leaves, Tom gives Seth’s Peyton Manning a word of advice, which I couldn’t fully decipher, but it seems as if it was supposed to be a comedic line: “Don’t wear that jersey on (word I can’t understand), man. Oof.” What was the word I couldn’t understand in that line? Thanks in advance if anyone can answer.
— Overall, a few chuckles, but not much going on here. Pure end-of-the-show filler.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— (*sigh*) YET ANOTHER weak season 30 episode, though this felt a little better than the drab two episodes that preceded this. A few strong and noteworthy highlights tonight, but ultimately, there were still many weak things bogging this episode way down, and we got a consistently forgettable post-Weekend Update half of the show, in which not even the usually-reliable Kaitlin sketch could knock it out of the park for once. (*sighs again*) I’m telling you guys, season 31 cannot come soon enough for me. Mercifully, we’ve only got three episodes left until then.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Johnny Knoxville. We also get a late-in-the-season new addition to the cast. (Hint: the new cast addition just so happens to be somebody I mentioned earlier in this review.)

Posted on

February 15, 2003 – Jennifer Garner / Beck (S28 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (CHP) doesn’t care if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction

— What the hell was with the random, delayed, very muted brief audience applause that started shortly after Parnell’s President Bush started his speech?
— A few mildly funny lines, but otherwise, this cold opening is a complete snoozefest. As a variation of something I said in an earlier review, it’s one thing to use understated, low-key humor, but it’s another thing to use humor so subtle and straight that you can’t find the joke. This cold opening is another early preview of how soft, meandering, and weak Jim Downey-written political cold openings will often be during Downey’s later years as an SNL writer.
— Parnell’s Bush impression has now reached the point where it’s become just a very bland, straightforward imitation, with Parnell not throwing in any comical quirks or anything to make the impression funny in itself (which it sure could’ve used in this particular cold opening, because lord knows the material itself ain’t funny).
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host sings “My Funny Valentine” to the male castmembers wooing her

 

— I like how the entire male cast is appearing in this.
— Darrell as himself is coming off so awkward in this. By the way, this ends up being his ONLY appearance all night. The fact that, not only is this the second consecutive episode in which Darrell does practically nothing (his awful Colin Powell impression in the preceding episode was the only thing he did that night, and even there, he only had one line), but also that SNL couldn’t find ANY impressions or noteworthy roles for him tonight just shows how much his relevancy on SNL is slowly beginning to wane.
— Tracy in that cupid outfit is a hilarious visual.
— Some okay insults from Jennifer Garner to individual male cast members during her singing of “My Funny Valentine”.
— Tracy to Jennifer: “You make me feel like the Lion King!”
— Darrell looks kinda miserable while standing in the background of this monologue. That’s another sad thing about him that slowly starts around this time: a very dour undertone to a lot of his performances, and him rarely looking like he’s enjoying himself anymore.
STARS: ***


CLAPPIN’!
musical generates applause via nonstop on-stage hand slapping

— Another piece tonight that’s utilizing most of the cast.
— Hilarious premise for a Stomp parody, and this is being executed so well.
— Some very funny close-ups of some of the individual cast members, such as the one of Will clapping with a very intense look on his face, and the one of Fred’s dumb smile while demonstrating the clapping style of Japan.
— Horatio is hilarious during his testimonial.
— Odd how this ended with the studio audience not “clappin’” (pardon the lame pun). This commercial went into the next sketch with no audience applause at all. I wonder why that’s occasionally been happening this season (especially in the Sarah Michelle Gellar episode, an episode notorious for a brutally unresponsive audience). Is the audience choosing not to applaud during these instances, or is SNL just doing some kind of occasional experiment this season by choosing to not light the applause sign after certain sketches/commercials?
STARS: ****


LIGHTS OUT
(JIF)’s bar pick-up (host) morphs into homely (FRA) when the lights go up

— Very funny turn with Jimmy’s good-looking date turning very unattractive when the lights turn on. I love Jimmy’s yell of “GAH!” when seeing his now-unattractive date.
— The back-and-forth switching between Jennifer and Fred is being executed well.
— Just now, when expressing shock at seeing his date turn ugly again, Jimmy exclaims “God!” and “Damn!”, one after another, then kinda looks off-camera with what appears to be a genuinely awkward, worried look on his face, presumably because he knows saying “goddamn” on non-cable TV was taboo back in these days.
— Jimmy’s various attempts to get his date to look pretty again are all very funny, especially him taking a swig from a whole bunch of different drinks in rapid succession.
STARS: ****


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
at Valentine’s Day dance, (host) has crush on Sheldon

— Much like the installment of this sketch that took place at a slumber party, it’s nice to see Wake Up Wakefield using another new setting.
— We get the beginning of Maya’s Megan re-directing her usual love for Randy Goldman towards male celebrities, which goes on to be a regular part of these sketches from now on. Good to see they’re attempting some kind of development with the Megan character.
— Horatio’s teacher character imitating the backwards-speaking part of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” is quite funny.
— A pretty amusing and sweet turn with Jennifer’s character revealing her crush on Rachel’s Sheldon.
— Great part with Sheldon making an uncharacteristic bold move by kissing Jennifer’s character on the lips before exiting the dance.
STARS: ***½


SADDAM & OSAMA
Saddam Hussein (HOS) phones Osama bin Laden (JIF) to ask for some slack

— Jimmy as Osama Bin Laden seems like questionable casting at first, but I’m aware of where they’re going with this casting.
— I love Fred’s delivery of “Awkwaaaaarrrrrrrd!” and how it’s comically incongruous with the role he’s playing here.
— This sketch is much better than I had remembered. In past viewings, I, like probably like a lot of people, dismissed this as typical unfunny Fallon/Sanz self-indulgent jackassery, but right now, as I’m currently watching this sketch with much more of an open mind, I’m actually enjoying this and I find it has a goofy charm and amusing dialogue, and it’s made even funnier by the fact that these are evil dictators that Jimmy and Horatio are portraying in this silly way together. This sketch is a rare example of SNL actually utilizing the self-indulgent jackassery of the Fallon/Sanz duo the RIGHT way.
— I love Osama always following up Saddam’s remark of “Listen” with “I will listen, it’s a phone!”
— Even the occasional parts of this sketch where Jimmy and Horatio accidentally talk over each other has that aforementioned goofy charm that I like.
STARS: ***½


INVITATION TO LOVE
soap opera actress (host) attempts passionate scene with effeminate (CHK)

— Oh, god. Kattan playing his bazillionth tired, over-the-top gay stereotype role. Kattan has been slowly making some much-needed improvements in the second half of this season, but he’s relapsing BIG TIME in this sketch.
— Ugh, just as I feared early on, this sketch has been turning out to be nothing but a parade of bad, predictable, and hacky gay stereotype tropes.
— Horrible ending with Kattan’s voice being comically re-dubbed with a deep voice, reminiscent of that awful ending from the otherwise-great Fun Friend Club sketch from earlier this season.
STARS: *


TWINS
(CHK) is disappointed to be paired with (host)’s ugly Siamese twin (RAD)

— A funny variation of Rachel’s deformed baby character, who has become a reliable running gag on SNL.
— A huge laugh from Kattan’s unsuccessful attempt at trying to sit on the end of the couch that’s farthest away from the ugly Siamese twin.
— Great line from Kattan regarding the Siamese twins: “It looks like one of them had more time to cook than the other.”
— After relapsing badly in the preceding sketch, Kattan IMMEDIATELY redeems himself with this sketch. He’s giving a very solid performance here.
— A killer ending line from Rachel, directed to Jimmy while he’s making out with Jennifer’s character: “You can make out with her six ways till Sunday, but I’m the one with the vagina.”
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
rhyming Burt Bacharach (JER) doesn’t back an attack on Iraq

TRM’s advocacy of an all-out race war is preempted by NBC

CHP performs a rap about how he & host couple up for espionage & sex

— Jimmy’s opening joke kinda bombed.
— Ugh, more hacky gay humor tonight, with Tina’s horrible France/Germany joke.
— Boy, a lot of jokes in tonight’s Update are falling fairly flat with the audience (and me).
— When this episode originally aired, I remember an online SNL fan pointing out how Bush-like Jeff looked as Burt Bacharach, with the gray hair and squinty eyes, and that SNL fan speculated what it would be like if Jeff replaced Parnell as SNL’s Bush impersonator (which goes to show you that a lot of SNL fans at the time were NOT happy with Parnell’s impression and wanted a re-casting of that role), especially since it’s known what a strong impressionist Jeff is. It would soon be learned that Jeff really did have a Bush impression in his back pocket during these years, which he was seen doing in his stand-up gigs at comedy clubs, but unfortunately, SNL would never use that Bush impression of his. Who knows? If SNL had him instead of Darrell replace Parnell’s Bush the following season, Jeff perhaps wouldn’t have disappeared mysteriously at the midpoint of that season, whether he left or got fired. (I don’t think we’ll ever find out the TRUE circumstances behind Jeff’s odd mid-season disappearance.) Not to mention we would’ve been spared of suffering through Darrell’s embarrassing attempt at a Bush impression.
— The rhyming commentary from Jeff’s Burt Bacharach was… okay, I guess. I dunno, I’m left feeling that the commentary seemed a little pointless. It didn’t do all that much for me.
— The Burt Bacharach commentary would later be removed from NBC’s rerun of this episode, presumably because this episode reran shortly after the war in Iraq officially began, and SNL possibly felt it would be in poor taste to re-air this lighthearted Bacharach commentary with him protesting an American attack on Iraq. I believe this commentary would later be left intact in the syndicated 60-minute version of this episode shown on cable.
— Jimmy and Tina’s jokes have been getting a little better, after such a horrible start.
— A pretty good laugh from Tracy’s proposal of an all-out race war suddenly getting cut off by a “Please stand by” graphic.
— When the aforementioned “Please stand by” graphic ends, Tracy is shown yelling the end of a sentence: “–white people’s heads on spikes!” I recall SNL later using the dress rehearsal version of Tracy’s commentary in reruns, in which he says a different angry line after the “Please stand by” graphic ends, though I can’t remember what the different line is.
— Much like the last Update commentary that Tracy did as himself two episodes prior, tonight’s Tracy commentary kinda felt below par for his standards. I want Tracy to go back to doing his usual stand-up-type Update commentaries that have substance, instead of the more half-assed commentaries that he’s done these past two times.
— Tina’s raunchy “The chicken came first” punchline about a chicken/rooster honeymoon is one of her all-time best jokes.
— Ah, our third Parnell Update rap!
— Hmm, tonight’s Parnell rap is different, with him doing a slower, more R&B style. An interesting change of pace, but I definitely prefer his harder, faster raps from prior. Also, the lyrics of tonight’s Parnell rap are failing to provide any laughs.
— Tonight’s weekly end-of-Update walk-on from SNL writer Eric Slovin has him walking by the Update desk as a blind man holding out a cup, and Jimmy placing his own pencil into Slovin’s cup.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lost Cause”


MICHAEL JACKSON IN A TREE
Elizabeth Taylor (RAD) gives counsel to Michael Jackson (AMP)

— Uh, wow. Quite a random setting and sketch.
— Even more random is the fact that Michael Jackson is being played by Amy, of all people. I remember some online SNL fans at the time, including myself, felt that this casting was a slap in the face to Dean, who was known to have an accurate Michael Jackson impression that he had been trying over and over to get on the air, but it would always end up getting cut after dress rehearsal. That being said, I now kinda understand the casting of Amy in this sketch, as her goofier, more childlike portrayal of Michael Jackson fits the tone of this silly, absurd piece more than Dean’s more realistic impression probably would’ve. But that ALSO being said, I’m not caring for Amy’s goofy MJ portrayal here. It’s not doing anything for me, and neither is this sketch itself. I’m not finding this sketch bad enough to call horrible or give a one-star rating to, as I kinda appreciate the insane, oddball nature that SNL’s going for in this, but the sketch has been just coming off very “whatever” to me.
— I will say that I am enjoying Rachel’s loopy portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor.
— I kinda like the detail of Jennifer using an Elvis voice and lip-twitch for her portrayal of Lisa Marie Presley.
— The audience is pretty dead throughout this sketch, as am I.
— Ah, we get to see Dean’s MJ impression after all, though he’s just playing one of three MJ alien clones. He at least gets a meaty amount of dialogue during his appearance here, though. Also, he looks absolutely unrecognizable under that makeup.
— Funny line about Elizabeth Taylor having a planet of her own.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Guess I’m Doin’ Fine”


WAL-MART SUPERCENTER
greeters (AMP) & (host) marvel at the vast geography of their Wal-Mart

— Some pretty good laughs from this sketch’s increasingly exaggerated treatment of the huge size of this Wal-Mart store. I especially like the bit about Wal-Mart having its own languages.
— I’m starting to get almost a Bill Brasky vibe from the oddball factoids that Jennifer and Amy are taking turns telling each other about this Wal-Mart.
— Interesting character voice from Fred in a very small role.
STARS: ***½


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
deadly germs are dead in chapter 490

— I believe this ends up being the final My Big Thick Novel to ever air on SNL.


GOODNIGHTS

— I like the Clappin’ callback that Beck and his band are doing with each other and with some of the cast members.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode. Not much to complain about, and the first half of this episode had a few standout strong segments. Lately, the quality of this season’s episodes seems to be following a good-bad-good-bad pattern. DeNiro: bad, Gore: great, Gordon: bad, Liotta: solid, McConaughey: horrible, Garner: good.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Matthew McConaughey)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christopher Walken. I guess that aforementioned good-bad-good-bad pattern that this season’s episodes have been following lately finally gets broken.

Posted on

December 4, 1999 – Christina Ricci / Beck (S25 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES
Bill Clinton (DAH) points out GOP presidential hopefuls’ weaknesses

 

— Very early in this cold opening, when Darrell’s President Clinton begins to talk about the bad week the Clinton presidency suffered, a loud crash is heard from off-camera somewhere in SNL’s studio. Darrell briefly shifts his eyes in the direction of the crash in a humorous way while continuing to say his scripted dialogue. The sound of the loud crash would later be muted out in reruns, though you can still see Darrell shifting his eyes in the direction of the crash.
— I love this premise of Darrell’s Clinton doing a breakdown of each republican presidential hopeful.
— Bill Clinton, on Al Gore: “He’s as dull as sober missionary sex with someone you know.”
— I like Clinton’s comment about how Steve Forbes looks like someone at a 7-11 after a midnight showing of Fritz The Cat.
— Good bit with Clinton realizing his own similarities to George W. Bush.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, they’ve temporarily done away with the 25th anniversary SNL logo in the opening montage, and are back to using the regular SNL logo from season 24’s opening montage.

As if that wasn’t weird enough, the respective photo of Jimmy Fallon and Chris Kattan have also reverted back to the old respective photo of them from season 24’s montage.

What’s the reason for these changes in tonight’s montage? IIRC, these changes only last for tonight’s episode.


MONOLOGUE
host’s twin sister Bettina (RAD) wishes they were still an acting team

— I love Christina Ricci’s line about how she’s watched the “original” SNL cast, with David Spade, Adam Sandler, and Tim Meadows. SNL would go on to occasionally use a similar joke in monologues from other young hosts in their late teens/early 20s, like Justin Timberlake (in his first hosting stint) and Taylor Swift, the latter going even further with the joke by having all of the “old” cast members that Swift mentions be people who were actually still in the cast at the time (Bill Hader and Andy Samberg).
— Just now, Christina has said that she’s never worked on live TV before. Uh, what about the two live SNL cameos she made in the early 90s as a child actress to promote the two Addams Family movies she was in?

— I can see how they came up with the idea of Rachel playing Christina’s twin, as there’s some similarities between their eyes.
— Funny part with Rachel and Christina communicating to each other in their secret twin language.
STARS: ***½


HOLIDAY PARADE
at holiday parade, (host) disses Craig & steals Arianna’s boyfriend (JIF)

— Very cool how the preceding monologue transitioned into this Cheerleaders sketch, by having the camera pan from the home base stage where the monologue was taking place to the set where the Cheerleaders sketch is taking place. I can think of only two later episodes where SNL would do this same transition from a monologue to the first sketch: Gwyneth Paltrow’s episode from season 27 and Drew Barrymore’s episode from season 32.
— Believe it or not, this is the first Cheerleaders sketch in over a year. This also ends up being the final Cheerleaders sketch.
— It looks a little weird seeing 1999 Will Ferrell still doing a Cheerleaders sketch. He looks a bit different and is noticeably a little doughier at this point than he was around 1995-1997 when Cheerleaders sketches were very common.
— Craig yelling “SCREEEEEECH!!!” in a loud, high-pitched voice is cracking me up.
— I like the little part with Arianna briefly stopping in the middle of her wild make-out session with Jimmy’s character to have water squirted into her mouth by Craig.
— Arianna, upon hearing that her boyfriend isn’t wearing any underwear: “Oh my god, Craig, my boyfriend is freeballing!”
— Overall, not bad for what ends up being the Cheerleaders’ final sketch. Much like what I said about Mary Katherine Gallagher in my review of her final sketch, I’m pleasantly surprised by how tolerant I’ve been of the Cheerleaders in my reviews. Before I reached this SNL era in my project, I was absolutely dreading having to eventually cover all of the Cheerleaders sketches, but I ended up finding them to not be too bad, for the most part, and I’ve found that the characters of Craig and Arianna have a charm to them.
STARS: ***


AND SO THIS IS CHANUKAH
star-packed special is vaguely Judaism-related

— A very funny Tori Amos impression from Molly, especially when she gets overly sensual and starts basically giving fellatio to the microphone in front of her before the camera quickly cuts away.
— I like Tim’s D’Angelo scene with him singing about wanting his girl’s “Chanukah bush”.
— Christina-as-Britney-Spears’ line about “forgiving our Jewish friends for killing our lord” would end up causing some controversy in real life, though apparently not enough to remove that line from reruns, as I remember it was still left intact in NBC’s summer 2000 rerun of this episode, which was my very first viewing of it.
— Terrence Trent D’Arby was still relevant in 1999? This sketch named him among the rapid-fire listing-off of then-popular singers who will be performing in this Chanukah special.
— Why is Kattan lipsyncing to someone else’s voice during his Ricky Martin bit? Regardless, he’s doing a pretty fun parody of “Livin’ La Vida Loca”.
STARS: ***½


WHO WANTS TO EAT
Bosnian refugee (host) seeks sustenance on game show

— A very funny and clever concept for a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire parody. However, I recall an SNL reviewer from 1999 claiming that SNL stole this premise from The Onion. No idea if that’s true or not.
— I love how Darrell’s Regis Philbin in this sketch is named Rajneesh Philbin and has a more ethnic look while still speaking in his regular voice.
— Funny bit with Christina instantly guessing Sally Struthers as the answer to the question before Rajneesh Philbin can even list off the options. Took me a few seconds to get why Christina’s character would be so familiar with Sally Struthers.
— Christina: “Can’t I have the rice?” Rajneesh Philbin: “No, I’m sorry, we’re feeding it to the goat.”
STARS: ****


TAXICAB CONFESSIONS
stripper (host) distracts cabbie (TIM) with sex talk

— Kinda funny how this is Tim’s second time playing a taxi driver in a Taxicab Confessions parody, after season 20’s George Clooney episode.
— I like the various lighting effects SNL is using to make it look like the taxi is driving in a street. Other times, SNL would’ve simply used a greenscreen background.
— Some good laughs from Tim suddenly making sharp turns with the cab after each time he’s gotten distracted by Christina.
— Tim, to Christina: “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you having sex.”
— Hilarious part with a body crashing into the windshield of the taxi while Tim has his head turned towards Christina.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Millennium Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- the Friends are oblivious to the apocalypse

— Kinda interesting seeing a Friends parody on SNL just one episode after Jennifer Aniston hosted.
— The Y2K-fueled apocalyptic chaos in the background is pretty funny, as is how the Friends characters are completely unaware of it.
— Funny visual of the Antichrist first being represented by a giant superimposed Adolf Hitler head and then transforming into a giant superimposed head of certain other famous people one-by-one: Sally Jessy Raphael, Donald Trump (a transformation even more relevant today than it was when this originally aired in 1999), and… some other people I don’t recognize. Anyone know who they are? (screencaps below)

STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
WTO spokesman Jacob Silj (WIF) can’t modulate the volume of his voice

— Colin: “The delay of the WTO conference until yesterday was seen as nothing short of evidence that America is gripped by madness and anarchy. Now what would ever give people that idea?” (a picture of a “Trump for President” poster shows up on the Weekend Update news screen)
— Man, Colin’s Hillary Clinton joke bombed HARD.
— Some pretty cringey and lame jokes from Colin so far tonight.
— Colin finally had a joke that I liked, but then he ruined it by actually explaining the punchline afterwards. Jesus Christ, Colin, give the audience credit – we GOT the joke on our own.
— It’s become a running joke lately for an Update punchline to be a Chris Gaines photo placed onto something unrelated to him.
— The debut of Will’s voice immodulation character, Jacob Silj.
— Will is hilarious as this character, especially his offended loud remarks to Colin, and his failed attempt to make a quiet aside to himself.
— Nice touch at the end of this Update with Jacob Silj following Colin’s usual “that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it” sign-off by saying “That’s a stupid tagline, if you ask me.”
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mixed Bizness”


GOTH TALK
Circe, Baron Nocturna, (host) conduct Azrael’s funeral

— Much like the Cheerleaders, Goth Talk makes its first appearance in over a year. I recall hearing that the reason for the long absence of Goth Talk sketches is because of the notorious Columbine school shooting from April of this year (1999). In the wake of that tragedy, SNL reportedly didn’t feel comfortable continuing to do a recurring sketch making fun of goth teens, due to misconceptions about the two Columbine shooters being goths.
— Also like the Cheerleaders, this ends up being the final Goth Talk sketch. However, Molly and Kattan’s characters from this recurring sketch do appear in one more sketch: a Blair Witch parody in the following season’s Charlize Theron episode.
— Some laughs from Azrael Abyss’ horrifying 9th grade yearbook picture.
— Pretty funny visual of Will showing up in both his goth makeup and his job uniform.
— Like I said in my review of the preceding Goth Talk installment, this sketch is missing something without Jim Breuer’s character.
— I love how the “spooky” clip of Azrael turns out to be an embarrassing childish Christmas video of him from just a few years ago when he still would’ve been in his teens. Kattan is so convincingly childlike in his actions and delivery in this clip.
STARS: ***


SALLY
Sally Jessy Raphael (ANG) unsuccessfully tries to tame wild teen (host)

— Funny seeing a Sally Jessy Raphael sketch after she was one of the celebrities portrayed as the Antichrist in the TV Funhouse from earlier tonight.
— Christina’s character is such a spot-on parody of wild teens on trashy daytime talk shows from this era.
— Christina: “Sally, you know you want me!” Sally Jessy Raphael: “That is a whole other show.”
— In what’s supposed to be a fake punch to Ana’s nose, Christina actually connects the punch by accident (the third above screencap for this sketch). Christina then immediately drops character, says “Oh!”, and has a look of genuine concern on her face while covering her mouth in shock (the fourth above screencap for this sketch), before getting back into character.
— A very funny part about guests of the show staying in Lorimer Dog Cages.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Christina being replaced as Molly’s daughter by an unknown Asian girl.
— The chaotic ending scene is a bit much for me, though I am laughing at a now-blind Tracy beating on the Asian girl with a bat.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sexx Laws”


IN MEMORIAM
clip of Madeline Kahn’s “I Feel Pretty” SNL performance marks her passing

— A brief clip is shown of a fantastic season 1 sketch with Madeline Kahn, who passed away just a day before tonight’s episode. A very sad loss.
— An eerie SNL-related thing I recall seeing someone once point out about Madeline Kahn’s death: the musical guest of her last SNL episode, Bush, was also the musical guest of the last Phil Hartman-hosted episode. Both Madeline and Phil would meet an untimely death just a few years after their aforementioned last SNL episode. Yikes, let’s just be grateful that Bush never appeared as a musical guest a third time.
— I wish this tribute clip to Madeline was longer (my review of this is much longer than the clip itself was), but even this brief clip is more than what SNL sometimes does in more recent years when a former host passes away, where SNL just shows a bumper picture of said host from an episode they hosted.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently decent episode. While there weren’t many things that stood out as great to me, the show flowed fairly well and had no sketches that I disliked.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Aniston)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The 1990s come to an end, as does the 20th century (I won’t say millennium, because I know some people will nitpick that this particular millennium technically didn’t end until December 31, 2000). Danny DeVito hosts the final episode of both the decade and century.

Posted on

January 9, 1999 – Bill Paxton / Beck (S24 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MAC’S BAR
Newt Gingrich (CHP) & Bob Livingston (WIF) ask “What the hell happened?”

— I love Will-as-Bob-Livingston’s sudden delivery of “What the HELL happened?!?”
— The occasional repetition of “What the HELL happened?!?” continues to be funny.
— I like Tracy’s bartender character telling Livingston “You this close from gettin’ cut off, bro” when Livingston directs one of his many “What the HELL happened?!?”s towards him.
— Great part with Gingrich telling Livingston that the Macarena, Yahoo Serious, and The Magic Johnson Show all lasted longer than him.
— A hilarious sudden turn with Darrell’s President Clinton exiting from the bar’s backroom with a black woman.
— I love the very energetic “Live from New York…” delivery from Parnell, getting his first-ever solo LFNY (he previously said it in unison with Darrell in an earlier cold opening this season). The fact that he’s only been a featured player for half a season so far and is ALREADY delivering his second LFNY just shows how quickly he’s fit into the show.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo noticeably sounds sick tonight. SNL would later fix this in reruns by replacing Pardo’s announcements with ones where he sounds like his normal self (though I recall Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of this episode using the live version with Sick Pardo intact).


MONOLOGUE
castmembers douse host Carrie-style after he drops Sissy Spacek’s name

— I like the randomness of Darrell doing Will’s hair in the makeup room.
— Some laughs from the cast backstage making fun of Bill while he’s doing his monologue.
— I like the Bill Paxton/Bill Pullman mix-up.
— A good Carrie-esque turn with pigs’ blood being spilled on Bill.
— When we’re seeing various people’s reactions to the pigs’ blood prank, I love the shot of a shocked Lorne whipping off his headphones and mouthing “What the…?” in horror.
— Funny detail with a clip of Sissy Spacek and Bill Pullman from their respective SNL monologues being played in small circular images around a blood-covered Bill.
— During this Carrie parody, I absolutely love the lights in the studio going red and Bill using telekinesis to get revenge on everybody laughing at him. Pretty ambitious visuals for a simple SNL monologue.
STARS: ****


THE VIEW
fired Debbie Matenopoulos [real] makes an eloquent exit

— This ends up being the final View sketch in this era.
— Ah, I see this is after Debbie Matenopoulos got fired from the View in real life.
— Cheri’s Barbara Walters: “I haven’t felt this girlishly giddy since I was 70!”
— Now the real Debbie Matenopoulos appears.
— Tracy’s Star Jones, to Debbie Matenopoulos: “Girl, if brains were a crime, you’d never do time!”
— When the View ladies’ talking over each other at Matenopoulos starts dying down, I love Tracy’s Star Jones being heard saying “–drag your little Greek ass back to MTV.”
— A pretty funny uncharacteristically-poignant exit speech Matenopoulos gives when telling off the View ladies, before doing a pratfall when exiting the scene.
— Overall, not quite as strong as these View sketches usually are, but this was still good, and the Matenopoulos cameo gave this series of sketches a good feeling of closure.
— Odd how tonight’s host was nowhere to be seen in this first post-monologue sketch, but maybe he needed time to get the fake blood washed off of him after the monologue.
STARS: ***½


THE CULPS AT O’HARE
in an airport terminal, Marty & Bobbi serenade fellow stranded travelers

— I like how we’ve been seeing the Culps being placed in out-of-the-ordinary settings lately (Yankees game, airport).
— For once, a Culps sketch actually involves various cast members besides Will and Ana, though it’s only at the beginning of this sketch.
— Some good laughs from Marty Culp’s line about somebody filling his shoes with “dangerously hot” nacho cheese.
— During the song medley, I absolutely love the Culps’ take on “In the Air Tonight”, but I may be biased, as I’m always a sucker for that song.
— An overall good song medley from the Culps as usual.
STARS: ***½


TITANIC
Titanic director’s cut has shake down of Rose (CHO); James Cameron cameo

— I love Horatio as the fat bearded guy from Titanic.
— Bill’s performance in this is great.
— Funny turn with everyone violently turning on Cheri’s Rose, to get her to confess the location of the necklace.
— Why exactly is Darrell playing himself in this particular sketch? Horatio even flat-out referred to him as Darrell at one point.
— Funny pre-taped ending with James Cameron. He had several funny lines here, and I liked the visual of him casually using money to light his cigar.
STARS: ****


BEHIND THE MUSIC: FAT ALBERT
fall of Fat Albert (TRM) & The Junkyard Gang chronicled

— An absolutely hilarious premise of doing a VH1 Behind The Music parody of Fat Albert.
— Tracy’s Fat Albert voice is priceless.
— Tim’s interview as Mush Mouth is great.
— Very funny scene with Dumb Donald having a drug-induced mental breakdown.
— I like Beck’s interview about being inspired by Fat Albert’s music, made even funnier by how straight he’s playing this.
— An overall perfect sketch.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ comments on the degeneration of discourse in the Clinton scandal
Elizabeth Dole (ANG) resigned so she & Bob can party like it’s 1999

— Some laughs from the way Ana’s Elizabeth Dole is reading off lyrics from the song “Party Like It’s 1999” by, who she calls, “the group Prince”.
— The pictures that Elizabeth Dole is showing of herself are pretty funny.
— Man, Colin makes such a bad straight man to guest commentators on Update. That’s especially on display in tonight’s Elizabeth Dole commentary.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”


NEWSFORCE
MSNBC program is cluttered by on-screen information overload

— I like how out-of-hand the onscreen graphics are gradually getting, as it’s now starting to block the people onscreen. A good parody of the large number of onscreen graphics in typical real-life MSNBC shows like this.
— I especially like Will and Cheri being forced to duck their heads to get their faces seen onscreen underneath all of the graphics.
— Good bit with Tim randomly placing a big picture of the Terminator robot onto the graphics-crowded screen and just responding “That’s cool.”
STARS: ***½


KCF SHREDDERS
Rerun from 10/3/98


WHICH OVERNIGHT DELIVERY SERVICE?
overnight-delivery couriers vie for (ANG)’s business via sexy dance moves

— A funny sudden reveal of the random concept of this sketch.
— I love the look of Will’s host character.
— Always nice when Parnell gets to show off his array of funny dance moves.
STARS: ***


FANTASTIC VOYAGE
tiny scientists like hanging out in president’s penis

— I like the various creative penis euphemisms, especially “rumple foreskin”.
— Okay, they’re starting to get out of hand with the euphemisms, though that is the point.
— Funny bit with the guys holding still in the middle of their high-five, only for Ana to inform them “You guys, it’s not a freeze-frame” (though that joke would later be used in an even better way at the end of a news team sketch from the following season’s Garth Brooks episode).
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tropicalia”


EXTREME HUNTING WITH TED NUGENT
Ted Nugent (host) welcomes Prince (CHK), shoots him

— Great casting of Bill as Ted Nugent.
— The debut of Skeeter, who would go on to be an obscure recurring character of Darrell’s that would pop up in random sketches.
— Surprisingly, this 10-to-1 sketch is Kattan’s first and ONLY appearance all night.
— The casting of Kattan as Prince, which initially seems pretty random, actually kinda makes sense, as I can see some facial similarities between Prince and Kattan.
— Kattan’s singing as Prince is cracking me up.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode. The show flowed very nicely with an endless string of good sketches all night, especially some of the standout strong sketches in the first half of the show. I also enjoyed Bill Paxton as a host and found him to be pretty fun.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
James Van Der Beek

Posted on

January 11, 1997 – Kevin Spacey / Beck (S22 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

NEW RATING SYSTEM
John Cleese & Michael Palin [real] explain SNL’s sketch ratings system

— Palin and Cleese!
— Already starting off funny with the applause bit.
— Ah, that’s right, this was back when the TV ratings system was a new thing.
— I love Lorne saying about SNL, in regards to his children, “I don’t want them watching this crap.”
— I love this concept, and there’s a lot of laughs from the content rating for sketches, complete with a clip demonstrating each type of sketch.
— Considering how quickly tired I’ve gotten of Goat Boy’s one-note childish shtick while doing these reviews, I particularly enjoyed the dig about Goat Boy not being suitable for anyone over the age of 14.
— Another particularly good laugh, with the “gratuitous, unnecessary, mild vomiting” bit.
— I love the rating for if Chris Farley ever returns to host: “May contain portions of fat man’s ass”, demonstrated with a clip of Farley’s infamous accidental mooning from a notorious UFO sketch.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
while host sings, on-screen text says that he really is a psycho

— Ah, they’re doing the old “Buck Henry onscreen text monologue” gimmick. I always find this type of monologue to be a fun throwback.
— The onscreen text in tonight’s monologue is like a more violent, psychotic version of the monologue they did when Bill Murray hosted in season 18.
— Some particularly funny lines from the onscreen text so far, especially the mention of Kevin’s demand for a separate dressing room for his split personality “The Bad Kevin”, and the mention of an incident in which Kevin stuck a gun in Norm’s mouth.
— Needless to say, Kevin’s real-life ruined reputation in more modern days puts this monologue into a bit of a different light in retrospect, but I’m still enjoying it.
STARS: ***½


THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
repetition dominates the program

 

— Hell yeah! The debut of Norm’s David Letterman impression!
— “Uh… y-ya got any gum???”
— Such a hilarious Letterman impression from Norm.
— I love the spoof of the typical banter Letterman always has with Paul Shaffer, the latter being played perfectly by Mark.
— The violent coughing fit that Norm’s Letterman has laughed himself into is absolutely slaying me.
— The first of MANY funny and spot-on celebrity impressions from Kevin Spacey tonight.
— A pricelessly random and pointless “Can You Sell Me a Hot Dog” segment.
— Every single thing about this overall sketch was absolutely perfect to me. A goofy little masterpiece.
STARS: *****


MARIJUANA DOCTOR
easy-to-get prescriptions show potential danger of medical marijuana laws

— Hilarious turn with Kevin casually prescribing Will “two huge bags of weed”. I also love Will’s confused reaction to that.
— Another great line, with Kevin recommending Darrell take “two huge bong hits”, a line made even funnier by Kevin’s fantastic delivery.
— I absolutely love Tracy’s performance as Kevin’s shady weed guy, a precursor to a running joke in Tracy’s later seasons about Tracy loving weed.
— Kevin is so perfect for this sketch. I love his execution of this material.
— Very funny walk-on from Michael Palin.
— During the direct-to-camera PSA turn at the end, I got a big laugh from Palin introducing himself as “Home Improvement star Tim Allen”.
— Funny PSA at the end about keeping pot on the streets “where it belongs”.
STARS: ****


STAR WARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY HOME VIDEO
Star Wars 20th anniversary re-release contains unsuccessful screen tests

— Yes! Here comes a now-legendary SNL piece.
— The first of many pre-taped movie screen test sketches that SNL has done over the years, and to this day, the best one. No matter how many of these screen tests pieces SNL will continue to do, they’ll probably never top these Star Wars ones.
— Darrell never fails to crack me up as an angrily-ranting Richard Dreyfuss.
— I love that they’re letting Kevin do various impressions in this. He is simply incredible here with this great Christopher Walken and Walter Matthau.
— Looking forward to seeing Part 2 of this later in tonight’s episode.
STARS: *****


JANET RENO’S DANCE PARTY
Janet Reno (WIF) insists on hoofing to “My Sharona”

— Tonight’s episode is on a freakin’ roll.
— I absolutely love the very random concept of this sketch. This sketch is killer right from the opening visual of Will’s Janet Reno dancing wildly to “My Sharona” among a huge group of teens in a basement.
— I’m always down for an appearance from SNL writer Frank Sebastiano (the second above screencap for this sketch). Dude looks hilarious.
— I love Kevin as Donna Shalala.
— A great running bit with Will’s Reno refusing to dance to any song that’s not “My Sharona”.
STARS: *****


STAR WARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY HOME VIDEO
more Star Wars screen tests by celebrities who didn’t appear in the film

— Norm’s Burt Reynolds is always a riot.
— Kevin is absolutely priceless as a foul-mouthed, uncooperative Jack Lemmon.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM asks Courtney Love (MOS) about her role in The People vs. Larry Flynt

— Did Norm blow his voice out during the Letterman sketch earlier tonight? He sounds hoarse during this Update.
— I definitely like Molly’s Courtney Love impression better as an Update correspondent than as the host of her own talk show. She’s really cracking me up here.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Where It’s At”


MONKEY LAB
Mr. Peepers refuses to behave for laboratory assistant (WIF)

— The streak of greatness tonight comes to a bit of a halt, as we get the return of a one-time funny Chris Kattan bit that won’t work as a recurring sketch.
— I will say that Kevin is a fantastic straight man to Mr. Peepers; better than Tom Hanks was in the first installment of this sketch. Kevin is making this installment fun.
— An amusing and disgusting visual of Mr. Peepers sucking on Will’s face.
— Wow, the sketch is already over. They were wise to keep this sketch short, and this ended up being better than I thought it would be.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- superheroes Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush foil a plot

— The debut of The X-Presidents.
— I love each president’s one-liner before hitting a villain, especially Jimmy Carter saying “I have lusted in my heart… to kick your ass.”
— Between the Ambiguously Gay Duo and now this, Robert Smigel has a knack for making entertaining parodies of animated superhero cartoons.
— I love the jolly 1970s-esque musical at the end.
STARS: ***½


THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Al Pacino (host) & Rodney Dangerfield (DAH)

— Another very funny impression from Kevin, as his Al Pacino is cracking me up and he’s giving a strong performance.
— Very funny delivery from Kevin of the line “What am I, cock-a-roach?”
— I absolutely love Darrell’s Rodney Dangerfield impression. It’s especially funny seeing it a few episodes after the real Rodney appeared on SNL.
STARS: ***½


DEAD PARROT
Mr. Praline (John Cleese) returns dead parrot to (Michael Palin)’s shop

— A re-enactment of a legendary Monty Python sketch. This re-enactment is notorious for inexplicably receiving complete silence from the audience, from what I’ve been told.
— Well, we at least get recognition applause early on when the audience realizes what sketch they’re in for.
— Hmm, am I watching a different show than the one that people claimed the audience was dead in? The audience has been laughing just fine during this sketch so far. Not quite as hard as they should be laughing, but they’re not dead at all.
— Okay, I’m noticing that the audience’s laughter is getting more and more mild as the sketch goes on. Still not quite as bad as I had heard their reaction to this sketch was.
— I do have to wonder, why are Palin and Cleese re-enacting this Dead Parrot script anyway? This re-enactment is kinda fun, but also feels kinda unnecessary. I’d rather have seen Palin and Cleese perform a new Python-esque piece.
STARS: Not quite sure what to give this. The original Monty Python version would get an undisputed *****, and while I enjoyed this re-enactment, it didn’t come remotely close to measuring up to the original, so I’m afraid I’ll have to give it ***.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Devil’s Haircut”


HOME SECURITY
home security technician (host) tires of Mrs. Attebury’s (ANG) stories

— The debut of what would go on to be a now-obscure Ana Gasteyer recurring sketch that I had completely forgotten about until now. Thinking back on it, I remember never caring much for this character of Ana’s. We’ll see how I react to her now.
— I’m now a minute-and-a-half into this sketch, and yeah, this is as weak as I had remembered. Ana’s character is doing nothing for me. Mark’s deadpan interjections as her disinterested husband are providing some amusement, though.
— My slowburn towards this sketch is starting to mirror Kevin’s impatient facial expressions in this.
— Wow, a sudden turn with Kevin going on an insane violent rant.
— I love Kevin’s angry threat to “shoot crystal meth into my thigh and go caveman on you! (*thrusts hips*)”, only to playfully reveal he was only kidding around just to get a word in edgewise.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This is a highly-regarded episode among SNL fans, and it’s easy to see why. This was a very strong episode, mainly the first half, which was PHENOMENAL. One classic segment after another, pretty much. Things slowed down in the second half, but it was still good, and the overall show is a keeper. Kevin Spacey was an outstanding host, working well in every single sketch, having great comic timing, and displaying a countless number of hilarious celebrity impressions. He even managed to make an unnecessary sequel to Mr. Peepers work, and managed to almost singlehandedly save the Home Security sketch.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rosie O’Donnell)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
David Alan Grier