Tag: Charles Barkley

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January 7, 2012 – Charles Barkley / Kelly Clarkson (S37 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM RICK SANTORUM
Rick Santorum (ANS) vows to bravely campaign in every county in the USA

— I’m currently two-and-a-half minutes into this, and I’m very bored. The dialogue from Andy’s Rick Santorum is a snoozefest. Typical overly-talky, dry-without-actually-being-funny writing from Jim Downey in his later, past-his-prime years. I don’t know why SNL, in this era, constantly thinks it’s a good idea to open the show with a dull cold opening that deals with one politician dryly speaking straight to the camera, with barely any (if any at all) actual amusing dialogue.
— I also don’t like how Andy changed his portrayal of Santorum. Prior to this, he always portrayed Santorum as panicky. That angle was working much better than the straitlaced, non-comedic way he’s portraying Santorum in tonight’s cold opening.
— A cheap attempt at a laugh with Andy-as-Santorum’s line about San Francisco being home to thousands of “angry pillow-biters and donut-bumpers”, though I know that’s just a dig at the real Rick Santorum’s homophobic views.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host is endorsing female-skewing brands like Weight Watchers & Ann Taylor

— Charles Barkley noticeably looking more lean here than he usually is in these years, as this is during his Weight Watchers stint, which he eventually mentions in this monologue.
— The usual laughs from Charles’ inherently-funny monotone, deadpan delivery, even with his constant stumbles over words.
— Funny ending with how Charles’ mention that the audience looks like turkey legs to him in his hungry state carries over into the “(insert musical guest’s name here) is here” tagline that SNL monologues typically end with. The monologue from Charles’ season 35 episode also ended with him changing up the usual monologue tagline.
STARS: ***½


CHANTIX
Chantix side effects make smoker (KRW) think about killing husband (BIH)

— A lot of very funny unsettling disclaimers of dangerous side-effects from the Chantix medication. Also some great worried, shifty-eyed looks from Kristen and Bill in response to those disclaimers.
— Good sequence with Kristen displaying each of the symptoms (e.g. droopy lip, Robert DeNiro face) in rapid succession.
— No idea who the woman is that’s doing the voice-over of this commercial (it doesn’t sound like Paula Pell, who’s done a number of voice-overs during these years), but she’s great, and she’s adding a lot to the humor here.
— A great ending tagline to this commercial: “Chantix: Just keep smoking”.
STARS: ****


INSIDE THE NBA
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (host) goof off

 

— The mere visual of Charles as a thick-bearded, stone-faced, emotionless Shaq is hilarious, made even funnier by his simplistic dialogue.
— An accurate and funny spoof of the fun banter that typically occurs on the real Inside The NBA.
— When Charles as Shaq suddenly starts doing a Nostradamus bit, complete with a wizard hat and crystal ball, I love Bill’s Ernie Johnson asking, in an annoyed manner, “Who’s giving him all these props?!?”
— Charles as Shaq, during his Nostradamus bit: “I will predict…that Charles Barkley gonna be fat again.” As we know now, that actually ended up being an accurate prediction.
— Great comeback from Kenan’s Charles Barkley to Charles as Shaq: “Yeah, well, I’d rather be in Free Willy 2 than Kazaam 1.”
— A good laugh from Bill’s Ernie Johnson happily saying, in regards to him and his co-hosts, “We’re all black friends!” I remember someone on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board had a theory that the other performers in this sketch weren’t expecting that line, because it causes them all (including Bill himself eventually) to break.
STARS: ***½


WHITE PEOPLE PROBLEMS
host shakes his head at complaining Caucasians

— A funny unexpected reveal of the “White People Problems” title of the show, after the serious, straitlaced beginning.
— Something about the approach to this sketch’s humor feels kinda cliched, but it’s coming off passable enough.
— Charles: “To those of you at home, ‘awkward’ is a white people word that can be applied to every situation.”
— Charles has some good lines to the WASP-y couple played by Kristen and Taran.
— I didn’t like the ending.
STARS: ***


ESPN BOWL MADNESS
corporate sponsors present oddball college football bowl games on ESPN

— The escalation to the odd brand/bowl name combos is reminiscent of that great Chicken Of The Sea/DynaCorp sketch from the season 29 Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey episode, only nowhere near as clever. This is still decent enough, thanks to the amusing nature of the increasingly random brand/bowl name combos.
STARS: ***


JOANN’S ANNOUNCEMENT
(host)’s fiance (PAB) & friends find it hard to believe she’s a lesbian

— The fact that it’s the inherently-funny-and-deadpan Charles Barkley in drag makes it more tolerable than the typical hacky “man in drag” trope.
— I like the randomness of Charles telling Kristen they’ve known each other for 200 days.
— Even more funny randomness, with Paul suddenly popping up from behind the couch in a casual manner, which none of the characters treat as odd.
— Great to see Paul in the spotlight here.
— The incongruous pairing of the tiny Paul Brittain and the huge Charles Barkley is very amusing.
— The oddball approach this whole sketch is taking is a little hard to figure, even for my oddball humor-loving self, but it’s still working well for me, especially with how all the silliness is being played so straight.
STARS: ***½


CHARLES BARKLEY POST GAME TRANSLATOR APP
host’s translator app reveals coaches’ & players’ true thoughts

— Tonight’s episode continues to get good mileage out of Charles’s inherently-funny personality, as this commercial is a great concept for him.
— I particularly love Charles’ translation for Dwyane Wade’s talk about Miami Heat’s famous “YES. WE. DID.” celebration: “I should shut my damn mouth. We haven’t actually won ANYTHING yet.”
— Good self-deprecating turn with Charles translating an old post-game clip of himself from the 90s.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stronger”


WEEKEND UPDATE
with her presidential bid ended, Michele Bachmann (KRW) can finally blink

a series of disclaimers precedes Nicholas Fehn’s planned critique of SEM

Drunk Uncle’s chosen New Year’s resolution is to lament cultural change

— Hmm, I strangely have no memory of Kristen ever doing an Update commentary as Michele Bachmann.
— I’m currently about a minute-and-a-half into Kristen’s Bachmann commentary, and yeah, none of this is ringing a bell for me so far. I can see why, though. The material that Kristen’s been given here is a whole lot of nothing. Centering most of an Update commentary on Bachmann being relieved to be able to blink again after her presidential bid is too thin a concept, and Kristen’s execution of it isn’t elevating it for me.
— I did get a laugh just now from Kristen-as-Bachmann’s final line, but otherwise, her overall commentary was pure “Meh”.
— Whoa, Nicholas Fehn making his first appearance in a long time. I forgot all about this character until now. He hasn’t appeared since 2009.
— Blah, even with the long hiatus, it turns out that I’m still burned out on Nicholas Fehn’s same-old same-old shtick, thanks to how quickly SNL previously ran it into the ground with Fehn’s way-too-frequent appearances back in 2008. I’m finding myself not having the ability to even so much as chuckle at Fehn’s typical routine tonight. His typical routine also feels a little out-of-place in a 2012 episode, for some reason.
— Quickly checking SNL Archives right now, I see this ends up being the final Nicholas Fehn appearance. Thank god.
— Drunk Uncle has officially become recurring.
— So far tonight, Drunk Uncle is coming off as hilarious as he did last time.
— Solid little bit regarding Drunk Uncle’s incorrect attempt to light a cigarette.
— I like the little detail of Drunk Uncle calling Seth “Amy” at one point while repeatedly asking him “Pull my finger.”
STARS: ***


LORD WYNDEMERE
Cecil’s girlfriend’s father (JAS) prefers impish frolics to football game

— The second and final appearance of this sketch.
— Paul has gotten TWO big roles tonight, continuing the slow-but-sure progress he’s been showing lately. Unfortunately, that’s very bittersweet in hindsight, given the fact that these end up being Paul’s final two big roles on SNL. He has only one episode remaining (and, IIRC, he has no big roles in it) before he suffers a similar fate to Jeff Richards.
— Good continuity with Jason’s character already being familiar with Lord Wyndemere after having met him in the previous installment of this sketch. Most recurring sketches in this era annoyingly lack this type of continuity, and instead feature stuff like each installment having their straight man characters act like they’ve never been through the oddness they’re experiencing from the lead character, despite the fact that EVERY SINGLE INSTALLMENT of that particular recurring sketch features those exact same straight man characters going through that exact experience (e.g. Andy’s Blizzard Man sketches, Kristen’s Sexy Shana sketches).
— Hilarious visual of Jason playfully chasing Lord Wyndemere around the room in an attempt to pinch his bottom so he’ll tell the riddle he promised.
— A nice change of pace with Charles being just as into Lord Wyndemere’s antics as Jason is, unlike the other straight man characters in this sketch.
— The visual of Charles happily carrying Lord Wyndemere in his arms is both funny and very charming. Tonight’s episode continues to get great mileage out of the huge size difference between Paul and Charles.
— Overall, even better than the first installment of this sketch. This was perfect, and was also a great unintentional swan song for Paul, which leaves us sadly wondering what could’ve been had his SNL tenure continued after the following episode.
STARS: *****


THE 17TH ANNUAL ADULT VIDEO AWARDS
In Memoriam reel at Adult Video Awards honors deceased porn practitioners

— Very funny sleazy line from Bobby’s Ron Jeremy about measuring “from the nuts”.
— The In Memoriam porn montage is getting increasingly hilarious, with great bits such as a photo of Seth(!) as a glory hole designer, a chronological video montage showing Nasim as a long-time pornstar working in porn from when she was young to when she was very elderly, a photo of a frowning Kenan as a clean-up crew member, and the whole porn scene with Charles in the woods (his facial expressions are priceless).
STARS: ****


CONVOLUTED JERRY
Convoluted Jerry’s (ANS) album contains songs with complicated syntax

— Boy, this short is just plain BAD so far, making this yet another example of how the magic of the Digital Shorts is sadly gone this season (with a few exceptions, of course) with the lack of involvement from Jorma and/or Akiva.
— Not even the Inception part (“It was a dream inside a dream inside a dream!”) could get a laugh out of me.
— Marvin “Gay” Jackson. I hate myself for chuckling at that name, but hey, at least SOMETHING in this short finally got a chuckle out of me.
— Leave it to Charles Barkley to provide what I consider to be the only actual legitimately funny moment of this entire short: him responding to Andy’s ghetto-glorifying song by asking him a taken-aback “Maaan, what the f(*bleep*)k are you talkin’ about?!?”
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mr. Know It All”


THE MAYAN CALENDAR
Mayan chief (host) takes issue with work of calendar makers (FRA) & (BIH)

— I like how the first SNL episode of the year 2012 is doing a historical sketch based on the Mayan calendar, given the well-known ancient Mayan apocalypse prediction.
— The humor here so far is rather mild, but there are some laughs from the low-key comedy. There’s a bit too much of a dead atmosphere to this, though.
— Didn’t care too much for the “talking calendar” ending, but I kinda liked the wiseass voice Paul used as the talking calendar.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

— A very classy, sweet, and amusing way that Charles gives the SNL cast their props for all their hard work.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. The quality ranged from decent to great for almost the entire show, minus the dull-as-hell cold opening and the drop in quality during the last 15 minutes. Charles Barkley continues to be a strangely reliable host, and by this point, the show seems to have fully realized all the right ways to utilize his distinct personality. I like how it seemed to be becoming a tradition around this time for Charles to host the first episode of a calendar year every two years (2010, 2012). Unfortunately, that tradition stops after this episode, and we don’t see Charles host again until years later in a March episode from 2018 (and, for some reason, I’m having a very hard time remembering most of that episode’s content, but that might be because, back at that time in early 2018, I was growing increasingly checked-out during my viewing of new SNL episodes, due to my dissatisfaction with SNL’s then-current quality, which would eventually lead me to flat-out go on a hiatus from watching new episodes starting in December of that year, a hiatus that’s still ongoing.)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lord Wyndemere
Chantix
The 17th Annual Adult Video Awards
Charles Barkley Post Game Translator App
Inside The NBA
Monologue
Joann’s Announcement
ESPN Bowl Madness
White People Problems
Weekend Update
The Mayan Calendar
Convoluted Jerry
A Message From Rick Santorum


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Fallon)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Daniel Radcliffe hosts. It’s also the abrupt end of Paul Brittain’s SNL tenure, after only one-and-a-half seasons as a featured player.

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January 9, 2010 – Charles Barkley / Alicia Keys (S35 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
Yemeni President Saleh (FRA) is an uncertain USA ally

— Not caring for this at all so far. It doesn’t help that Fred’s general foreigner routine is so tired to me by this point.
— I do at least like Bill’s goofiness when he’s joining in on Fred’s mockery of Will.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host sizes up audience members & requests KET do his impression of him

— As expected, Charles Barkley is getting lots of laughs just being his usual deadpan, monotone, blunt self.
— Funny brief involvement of Lorne.
— Very funny comment from Charles, saying the ratio of black people to white people who hosted SNL the preceding season is equal to that who saw the movie It’s Complicated.
— A good laugh from Charles calling one audience member (SNL writer Jessi Klein) “pretty in a kind of Jewish way” and “a freaky white girl”.
— I love how loose the format of this monologue feels. Perfect for Charles Barkley’s style.
— Charles, when wrapping up the monologue: “We got a great show tonight. Some of it is great, some of it we’re gonna do anyway.” Gotta love that trademark Charles Barkley honesty.
STARS: ****


THOMAS PEEPERS INSURANCE
attentive agents will look through your windows

— Very funny part with Bill’s spokesperson character suddenly going from speaking to the camera in a professional manner to suddenly running away and swearing when he hears something nearby.
— Strong conceit to this commercial, and a very solid use of Bill.
— Funny suggestive-looking shot of the reflection of Kristen unclogging a drain in front of Bill looking through the window right in front of her.
STARS: ****


REEL QUOTES
game show contestants (host) & (KRW) bungle movie dialogue

— A laugh from Kristen’s first long-winded wrong answer.
— The “You can’t handle my privates” bit is absolutely hilarious.
— All of Charles’ wrong answers and bizarre reasoning are very funny.
— Ugh, the running gag with Kristen’s long-winded answers has gotten really old. I’d love this sketch much more if it focused on just Bill and Charles’ characters.
— Charles’ explanation of what his Blockbuster job is was stupid enough to work.
— I love the speed round part.
— Bill genuinely fails in his attempt to angrily tear up the index card. I remember how this, along with some other things around this time, made some online SNL fans speculate if something was wrong with Bill’s health.
— I like the awkwardness of Bill and Charles just standing there waiting for the buzzer after Bill’s character has given up on the show.
— Bill, during his sign-off: “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” Charles: “You shouldn’t be lookin’ at kids, Reg.”
— Overall, as bad as the Wiig portions of this sketch were, everything else about it was strong enough for me to give this a high rating.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
black employee Darrell (host) doesn’t appreciate MacGruber’s racist joke

— So many laughs from MacGruber telling Charles “black slang” versions of everything he’s saying to Vicky.
— The horrible racist punchline of MacGruber’s joke, and how the very end of it gets cut off by the obligatory end-of-MacGruber-short explosion, is probably one of the hardest I’ve ever laughed at a MacGruber short, which is certainly saying something.
STARS: *****


SKI RETREAT
at a ski lodge, Shana alternately entices & repulses her male co-workers

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Odd coincidence: the first two Shana sketches have been performed with hosts who are hosting for the first time since way back in season 19 (John Malkovich, Charles Barkley). When I noticed this coincidence back when this episode originally aired, I remember jokingly speculating that the next Shana sketch would be when another hasn’t-hosted-since-season-19 male celebrity hosts, but I couldn’t come up with many haven’t-hosted-since-season-19 male celebrities who were still relevant enough to host in 2010. I think Patrick Stewart was the only one I could come up with. The streak of SNL only doing Shana sketches with season 19 hosts would end up being broken anyway, as the only remaining Shana sketches after tonight’s episode are done with hosts Bryan Cranston and Ben Stiller.
— Jenny has taken over the “ignored girl” role that Casey Wilson played in the first installment of this sketch. Much like both the Hoda Kotb and Janice (from the Muppets) roles, this “ignored girl” role seems to be yet another “cursed” role in this SNL era, as Jenny would end up suffering the same fate Casey suffered, in that she would get fired before the next Shana sketch appears. Abby would eventually break this curse, as she plays the “ignored girl” role in the next two Shana sketches.
— This reprisal isn’t working quite as well for me as the original installment of this sketch did, and this sketch has some really unfortunate habits that are way too prevalent in this SNL era (e.g. showing off Kristen Wiig, the camera doing constant cutaways to weirded-out facial reactions of straight man characters, a lowly female featured player playing a neglected character), but Kristen’s still managing to make this character work for me, and I certainly find this character more tolerable than some of Kristen’s other recurring characters around this time.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
racial sensitivity class hasn’t fixed relations with Darrell

— I think this is the first and only time Vicky has been included in a MacGruber opening title sequence.
— Very strong premise of MacGruber allegedly being reformed after taking racial sensitivity classes.
— Classic part with MacGruber spraying Charles with mace when Charles was simply going to hand MacGruber the pen that MacGruber asked him for.
— Great ending.
STARS: *****


INSIDE THE NBA
Danny Hoover’s incongruous play-by-play perturbs host

— Continuing season 35’s annoying trend of randomly bringing back a one-off sketch from a previous season that had no business becoming recurring, we get the return of this perfectly fine one-off sketch from years earlier in season 32.
— So far, this is following the exact same pattern as the first installment of this sketch, and, as expected, it’s not working quite as well for me this time. I also feel that “Nothing but the bottom of the net” doesn’t have the same memorable ring as “That’ll move the chains”.
— The “Thunder Dan is en fuego!” bit is pretty funny, especially Charles’ reaction.
— Ha, we actually get a direct callback to the aforementioned “That’ll move the chains” catchphrase from the first installment.
— I love Charles angrily calling Andy a “world class baloney head”.
— Meh, even the ending of this sketch is a weak knock-off of the first installment’s ending, only with Automatic Dying Disease (ADD) being replaced with Overwhelming Corpse Disease (OCD). Still the same basic joke.
STARS: **½


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s African pilgrimage failed to curb his racism

— Hilarious visual of MacGruber wearing African clothing.
— Very funny ending with MacGruber spraying Charles with mace AGAIN during the sentimental sequence with Charles going in for a handshake.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) downplays terrorism threat posed by Underwear Bomber

new United Nations ambassador Nicolas Cage (ANS) thinks he’s in a movie

David Paterson (FRA) sustains critical tone of State Of The State Address

— Good to see the return of Bill’s James Carville impression.
— Hilarious fat lady/grasping-for-straws analogy Bill’s Carville makes.
— Blah, this Nicolas Cage commentary isn’t working for me. The whole conceit with him repeatedly acting like he’s in an action/thriller scene in a movie is too repetitive and corny for my likes.
— Love the comical Update photo of new Harlem Globetrotters, as the photo is a who’s who of then-current SNL writers (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— We haven’t seen Fred’s David Paterson all season until now. Unlike some people, I actually liked his previous Paterson commentaries from the preceding season, but, knowing how badly Fred has been doing this season, I’m iffy on how tonight’s Paterson commentary will turn out.
— I like Fred-as-Paterson’s line about how Jersey Shore is New Jersey’s equivalent to The McLaughlin Group.
— Not a bad overall commentary from Fred’s Paterson.
STARS: ***


THE HANEY PROJECT
host’s awful mechanics extend beyond golf swing

— I believe it’s been said that this is the only sketch that Hannibal Burress got on the air during his sole season as a writer.
— The real-life clips of Charles’ awful golf-swinging technique are good for a laugh. I also like Jason describing that technique as it being like Charles had a heart attack mid-swing but miraculously recovered.
— Though an obvious joke, the clips of Charles doing everyday routines in the same awkwardly-stopping-short-then-continuing manner as his golf-swing technique are providing pretty good amusement.
— The wedding cake clip is particularly funny.
STARS: ***½


BOOTY CALL
musical guest inexplicably wants to bed nerdy Lionel (ANS)

— A typical goofy Andy Samberg character, but it’s certainly cracking me up. Even just the mere look of his character is keeping me amused.
— I laughed out loud at Andy’s “Oh, you mean over the diaper?” line when Alicia Keys asks him what he’s wearing.
— Hilarious reveal of Andy being at an intervention that’s held for Bobby. I also love the pissed-off, haggard look on a silent Bobby’s face. Even the little detail of Abby looking at Bobby in an emotional, teary manner (the last above screencap for this short) is somehow adding to my amusement.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Empire State Of Mind (Part II) Broken Down”


SCARED STRAIGHT
tales of Lorenzo McIntosh & dad (host) don’t frighten trespassing teens

— When Lorenzo McIntosh guesses the juvenile delinquents have gotten busted for cannibalism and Charles tells him “That’s a good guess”, I love Jason responding “What, are you kidding? That’s a horrible guess.”
— Ha, I have no idea why Charles has suddenly started laughing out of character while speaking right now (the first above screencap for this sketch), but it’s making me laugh, too. There’s something strangely infectious about his breaking.
— As always, it’s fun to guess which movie Lorenzo McIntosh is referencing.
— Also as always, I’m getting lots of guilty laughs from all of the crude prison rape jokes.
— The “Body fluids!” bit during the Matrix gag made me laugh out loud.
— I like Kenan, in his latest attempt to get the obligatory laugh out of Bill during Kenan and the host’s ganging up on him, giving Bill a Wet Willy, made even funnier by Jason eagerly saying an off-camera “Do it!”
— The prison rape jokes during the Jerry Maguire bit are particularly hilarious. This sketch in general has got to be one of the funnier Scared Straight installments.
— For once, they didn’t do usual ending where, after Lorenzo McIntosh and his partner leave, one of the juvenile delinquents points out the window and asks “Hey, are they (insert bad thing here)?” and Jason looks out the window and then happily responds “Nah, they’re just (insert even worse thing here).”
— An odd theme I’ve noticed in the post-Weekend Update half of this episode: this is the third consecutive comedy segment to end with someone saying an angry “Dammit!” or “Damn!” Charles said it at the end of the Haney Project sketch when he couldn’t get the door open, Alicia Keys said it at the end of the Digital Short when Andy canceled their booty call, and Jason said it at the end of this sketch when the delinquents admitted they didn’t learn their lesson.
STARS: ****


BARKLEY’S BANK
host’s financial plan for your money is double or nothing

— Funny premise of Charles owning a bank and admitting he will either double your money or lose it all.
— I got such a big laugh from such a little Christopher Walken-esque detail of Charles delivering the word “motto” in an odd manner, stiffly pronouncing it as two separate words in an emphasized manner with a very hard “t”.
— After Charles shows the “You win some, you lose some” motto on the wall, SNL suddenly cuts to an SNL bumper photo of Charles (the even odder thing about that is that the cutaway to the bumper is done as a hard cut instead of the usual crossfade) while a now-un-mic’ed Charles can faintly be heard still speaking, then SNL suddenly goes to a commercial break. The show has obviously run long and they had to cut this sketch off halfway through. The full dress rehearsal version of this sketch would be shown in reruns (I can’t remember what, if anything, was removed in that rerun version to allow the full version of this Barkley’s Bank sketch to fit into the show, but I would guess it was the Thomas Peepers Insurance commercial), and it features a second testimonial from another married couple, played by Andy and Abby. If this portion of the sketch hadn’t got cut from the live show at the last minute, it would’ve been Abby’s ONLY live appearance of the night. Just her luck that her ONE scheduled live appearance of the episode, buried all the way at the end of the show, ended up getting cut at the last minute due to the show running long.
STARS: N/A (too much of the sketch got cut off for me to rate fairly)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode, and deserves its reputation as one of the better episodes of this not-very-well-liked season. Most of the episode had a consistently good quality, and there were a few standout memorable pieces (the MacGruber shorts and the Barkley portions of the Reel Quotes sketch). Charles Barkley was a fun host in a strange way. To make another Christopher Walken comparison, Charles has a bit of a Walken-like quality as a host, in that something about his natural oddness and stiff, monotone manner inherently makes the material he’s performing funnier.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
MacGruber 1-2 (tie)
MacGruber 3
Monologue
Reel Quotes
Thomas Peepers Insurance
Scared Straight
Booty Call
The Haney Project
Weekend Update
Ski Retreat
Inside The NBA
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Former one-time host Sigourney Weaver makes her return 24 years(!) after hosting the inaugural episode of the Phil Hartman/Dana Carvey/Jan Hooks era

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September 25, 1993 – Charles Barkley / Nirvana (S19 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bill Clinton (PHH) tells what the health care plan will & won’t cover

— Funny reference to the infamous then-recent Lorena Bobbitt incident (the first of many references this season).
— Some really good laughs from Phil’s Clinton delivering such a serious rundown of which circus sideshow freaks are covered by his health care plan. (“Japu, the Indian rubber man, you are covered. Lobster Boy, I feel your pain!”)
— Funny part with Clinton’s sly smile before saying breast augmentation is covered by his health care plan.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the last three seasons, making this the first time in SNL history where an opening montage was used for more than three seasons. I wonder if SNL fans at the time were disappointed to have to see this montage being used for YET ANOTHER season. I find it funny that right before tonight’s montage was cued up, Phil Hartman’s Clinton set up his “Live from New York…” by saying there are certain things they’re too afraid to change. That exact same statement could be made about this opening montage.
— Ellen Cleghorne, Melanie Hutsell, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, and David Spade have all been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
— After the 1990-1993 experiment of having two separate categories of featured players, we now go back to the traditional format of only one category of featured players.
— The shot of Julia Sweeney from the last three seasons (first screencap below) has been updated to a new shot (second screencap below).

— There are no new cast members yet. We will eventually get three of them added within the following two months.


MONOLOGUE
host goes one-on-one with Godzilla stand-in Barney

— Considering Charles Barkley’s evident greenness here, it’s probably a good thing he threw to a pre-taped video fairly early.
— Hilarious idea of Charles going one-on-one with Barney the Dinosaur. New writer (and soon-to-be new cast member) Jay Mohr came up with the idea of this monologue.
— This film is priceless, especially when it gets to the point where Barney has an eye hanging loose and stuffing popping out of his head.
— Too bad 9-year-old me at this time in 1993 hadn’t discovered SNL yet, because I would’ve gotten a huge kick out of seeing Barney getting pummeled, considering my seething hatred for him at the time (which was probably typical for boys around my age during Barney’s overexposure in the early 90s).
STARS: ****½


NCI
NCI Long Distance Company will do whatever you want to get your business

— The visual style of this commercial is a dead-on recreation of these types of phone commercials from this era.
— The customers’ increasingly bizarre requests are funny, as are the key words being flashed onscreen in response to every request being accepted (e.g. “Pretty girls”, “Extra long phone numbers”, “Ponies”).
— David’s doing a solid job in this spokesperson role, though the fact that he’s being cast in this role while Phil has a small supporting role as a customer is our very first sign that this season is a changing of the guard, with the new guard (Spade, Farley, Sandler) receiving more and more focus while the old guard (Hartman, Nealon) gets phased out. If this commercial had aired even as then-recently as the preceding season 18, I bet David and Phil would’ve been cast in each other’s roles.
— Speaking of Phil, I’ve always noticed that something about his face looks a lot different in this final season of his. Maybe it’s just sudden aging. His hair looks different this season too.
STARS: ***½


LARRY KING LIVE
divorcee Burt Reynolds (PHH) takes truth serum

— Kevin’s Larry King impression always makes me laugh, as does Phil’s Burt Reynolds.
— I liked Phil-as-Burt-Reynolds line, “She’ll be back; she’s like the clap.”
— Feels odd unexpectedly hearing Sarah Silverman’s now-instantly-recognizable voice as one of the callers. Sarah is one of the new writers this season and, like Jay Mohr, will soon be added to this season’s cast.
— I love King and Reynolds’ simultaneous goofy laughter, which seems to be inspired by the then-newly-popular Beavis and Butthead.
— Some of the truths King blurts out after drinking truth serum are pretty funny.
— Overall, the sketch was fine, but feels unfitting and kinda odd as the lead-off sketch of a season premiere (which is also a gripe I had with the preceding season premiere’s lead-off sketch: Tiny Elvis).
STARS: ***


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Muggsy Bogues [real] lends support to host

— Unless I’m forgetting something, this is the first time a Daily Affirmation sketch has ever appeared in the pre-Weekend Update half of an episode.
— The idea of tonight’s Daily Affirmation sketch was obviously inspired by the success of the one with Michael Jordan from two seasons earlier.
— Charles already has some funny lines early on in this interview.
— Great part where, after Charles brags about being the best basketball player, Stuart innocently says “If you’re the best basketball player in the world, I guess you’ve won a lot of championships”, which Charles then embarrassedly admits he hasn’t.
— A Muggsy Bogues cameo!
— When Charles is supposed to start getting choked up, you can tell he’s stifling his laughter, which comes off looking hilarious.
— Muggsy’s heartfelt “I love you” to Charles is very funny.
— I love Stuart eagerly getting up to hug Muggsy because he finds him adorable.
— Overall, though I feel this doesn’t hold a candle to the Michael Jordan one, this was a strong Daily Affirmation sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heart-Shaped Box”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Hollywood Minute- DAS gives his thoughts on summer showbiz happenings

— We’re seeing the wrong camera angle during Kevin’s joke about the Olympics. Either that, or Kevin’s just delivering the joke into the wrong camera.
— Oof, some of Kevin’s jokes are getting a really tepid audience reaction. This is setting the tone for what a rough season this is going to be for Kevin’s Updates.
— Though he stumbled through the set-up (as usual), Kevin finally had a great joke that got a big reaction tonight, with his joke about how Michael Jackson celebrated his 35th birthday with “a 13 year old…………….bottle of champagne.”
— During David’s Hollywood Minute, I loved his “It gets worse” aside to the audience when some of them are going “Ohhhh” after the Andrew McCarthy slam.
— The usual solid stuff from David’s overall Hollywood Minute tonight, with my favorite parts being his Homer Simpson/Skipper “d’oh/dip” back-and-forths, him riffing on Chevy Chase’s disastrous new talk show, and his comments about Billy Idol.
— Another wrong camera angle during one of Kevin’s Update jokes.
— Two Update commentaries were cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal: one in which Ellen’s Queen Shenequa character talks about taxes and President Clinton (pic here), and one in which Adam as Eddie Vedder (an impression that will make its on-air debut a few episodes later) sings about world events to the melody of the Pearl Jam song “Evenflow” (pic here). The latter sounds like a variation of Adam’s Operaman commentaries.
STARS: **½


THE GAP
Gap girls Kristy & Lucy recall unpleasant experience with Skid Row [real]

— Interesting how they completely changed David’s character’s hairstyle, which has been acknowledged within the sketch.
— The Heidi Fleiss scandal must’ve recently broken out, as we’re getting a lot of mentions of her in tonight’s season premiere.
— And now, much like David’s character, Farley’s character’s hair also looks different from the preceding installments of this sketch.
— Farley’s whispery “You two are terrible!” cracked me up.
— Random pre-taped Skid Row cameo out of nowhere.
— Oh my god at the sight of Charles Barkley dressed like… that.
— Charles is wearing flesh-colored makeup over his mustache to hide it. Also, he keeps holding his head down in this weird way. Is he doing that to make the flesh-colored makeup less noticeable onscreen?
— That’s the end of the sketch? Why was Charles’ appearance so brief? Seemed like a waste of our host.
— Not the best Gap Girls sketch overall. I didn’t care for the Skid Row scene and the sketch as a whole felt too disjointed, like I was watching three Gap Girls sketches in one.
STARS: **½


COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Linda takes some calls on Yom Kippur

— The first of what will unfortunately (for me) be an EXCESSIVE amount of Coffee Talk sketches this season.
— As usual, the material is boring me and I’m getting pretty much no laughs, but I did like Linda Richman’s long run of Yiddish during a rant just now, which was impressively delivered.
— Boy, while watching these early 90s episodes during this SNL project, I’ve gotten VERY sick of hearing that “I’m feeling verklempt… tawk amongst yuhselves” catchphrase. It never makes me laugh, and what makes it worse is that it’s always delivered two or three times in each Coffee Talk sketch.
— I’m starting to notice that my absolute least favorite Coffee Talk sketches (which is certainly saying something) are the ones with no guests, like tonight’s installment.
STARS: *½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


CHARLES BARKLEY’S BIG, TALL & BLACK MEN’S STORES
host’s store offers clothes for big tall black males; Muggsy Bogues cameo

— HUGE technical issues as this sketch starts. The soft background music for this sketch instantly cues up, but the screen just stays black for a VERY long time. Then, while the sketch’s background music is still heard playing, an SNL bumper photo of Barkley is shown onscreen for a while, as if this is SNL’s way of telling us “Technical difficulties; please stand by”. Then the sketch FINALLY starts. Wow, what the hell was going on?
— Decent concept for this sketch.
— A few minutes into this, and I haven’t been finding this hilarious, but there IS a charm to it.
— Funny visual of Muggsy Bogues entering in oversized clothes.
STARS: **½


OUT OF AFRICA
tribal art dealer (ROS) touts the weed-holding abilities of artifacts

— OH, NO. Here’s the debut of a soon-to-be recurring sketch that I’ve always despised.
— Only 40 seconds into this sketch, and “You put your weed in there!” has already been said about three times and is clearly going to be the only joke of this whole sketch.
— It’s now a few minutes later, and yep, nothing has changed. “You put your weed in there!” remains the ONLY joke.
— Okay, one part of the scene right now with Barkley’s cop questioning Rob gave me a “so stupid, it’s funny” chuckle.
— Overall, a rare miss at the time for the usually-solid Rob Schneider. Unfortunately, this season ends up having a number of Rob Schneider sketches that don’t land with me. This is only the beginning.
STARS: *½


WHAT’S THAT?
contestants guess the sex of crossdressed men; RuPaul cameo

— What’s with the crossdressing theme in tonight’s episode, between the Gap Girls sketch, Coffee Talk, and now this?
— This is the first time in tonight’s episode where I’ve noticed Chris Rock’s departure. Adam being cast as one of the contestants in this urban gameshow makes it obvious that SNL now only has two black cast members. Adam is cracking me up in this role, though.
— What the…? Charles’ voice has suddenly become very hoarse mid-sketch, making it very hard for him to get through the line he’s currently trying to deliver.
— Not the funniest concept to this sketch, but it has a very goofy, silly atmosphere that’s working for me.
— Bea Arthur being shown as one of the “man or woman?” clips gave me a laugh.
— Another technical error tonight, this time with the opening “It’s time for What’s That” announcement accidentally being played during the ending when they were supposed to play the What’s That ending theme music.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rape Me”


DONKEY BASKETBALL CAMP
host stresses importance of human-ass cooperation in donkey basketball

— Uh… what a concept.
— Big night for David Spade, who’s been very prominent in this episode. Probably the most airtime he’s gotten in a single episode thus far.
— Ha, this sketch has started going off the rails, first with Charles’ donkey starting to move around when it’s not supposed to, and then one of the other guys’ donkey just walking right off the set.
— The “Slipping on donkey urine” bit gave me a good laugh.
— Ha, now Farley’s basketball bouncing has scared the rest of the donkeys, causing them to leave the set with the guys still on top of them.
— Farley looked like he had no idea when to exit the scene. Maybe Charles was supposed to tell him to go, but forgot.
— Overall, there was a weird kind of fun charm to this random sketch, though it pales in comparison to a far-superior and more memorable later sketch that also involves people sitting on donkeys in an unlikely situation: the Ridin’ My Donkey Political Talk Show sketch from the Will Ferrell era.
STARS: ***


OFFICE SPACE
by Mike Judge- disgruntled worker Milton stews

— A lot of Beavis and Butthead connections tonight.  First, the SNL Band played the Beavis and Butthead theme music during one of the band shots earlier tonight (and IIRC, they do that again right after this Office Space cartoon), then the Larry King Live sketch had Kevin and Phil’s Larry King and Burt Reynolds constantly laughing simultaneously in a goofy manner, then David did a Beavis and Butthead imitation at one point during Hollywood Minute, and now we get this Mike Judge cartoon. This really takes me back to how Beavis and Butthead took pop culture by storm around this time. I remember my mom didn’t allow me to watch Beavis and Butthead’s show back then because she felt I was too young for it (I was 9 years old, as mentioned earlier in this review), but I would still sneak in viewings of it when she wasn’t around, and I eventually got in a bit of trouble when she caught me watching it.
— Needless to say, this Office Space cartoon is an interesting change of pace for SNL.
— This is already cracking me up early on. This Milton character is hilarious.
— For some reason, it feels weird hearing audience laughter during an indie-type cartoon like this.
— I love the part with Milton’s boss.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While not a terrible season premiere, this season’s drop in quality from season 18 is already evident. The first half of the episode was fine, but the second half was pretty rough, though there was a bit of an upswing towards the very end. As for Charles Barkley, while I feel his comedic sensibilities are better in more modern times where there’s more of a self-aware quality to his humorous personality, he had his moments tonight and wasn’t too bad for an athlete host.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1992-93)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Shannen Doherty