Tag: Christopher Walken

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

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

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

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


MONOLOGUE
host has audience members ask him questions that he wrote

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


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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nine In The Afternoon”


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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


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

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


GOODNIGHTS

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


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ashton Kutcher

Posted on

February 22, 2003 – Christopher Walken / Foo Fighters (S28 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HARDBALL
French foreign minister (host) enjoys nettling USA over Iraq

— Nice to see that the reliability and popularity of these Hardball sketches has gotten to the point where SNL is now using them as a cold opening. This is especially needed at this point, considering how terrible a lot of cold openings have been in the second half of this season so far.
— Good to see Christopher Walken not only appearing right at top of the show, but in a Hardball sketch to boot.
— Darrell’s Chris Matthews almost slipped into Dennis Miller territory with his “I haven’t seen a group of people this crazy for blood since the Cobra Kai chased Daniel-San out of the Halloween dance in Karate Kid.” All he needed was a more obscure reference and either a “Cha-cha” or a “Ha-HAAAA!” at the end.
— Chris Matthews, to the French foreign minister: “That’s big talk from a country who’s only contributions to world culture in the last 50 years are Gerard Depardieu and that horny skunk!”
— Very funny reveal from Christopher’s French foreign minister that France is only being pro-war “just to be, how you say, douchebag.”
— A lot of Parnell’s lines in this have been forgettable (which is unusual, as he used to always get the funniest lines in Hardball sketches, before he got fired in 2001), but I did like his bit right now about attacking countries in alphabetical order.
— Christopher delivers his very first and, I think, only “Live from New York…”, which he, of course, does in his trademark slow and awkward style. We also get this epic creepy Walken stare into the camera immediately afterwards:

SNL would later replace this “Live from New York…” with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. I can’t remember if he does the creepy-looking camera staredown afterwards in that version or not.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Exactly Like You” & brings on some dancing girls

— Well-deserved extended applause for Christopher at the beginning.
— Wow, he dives right into his obligatory song-and-dance number this time, with no set up.
— Funny how he IMMEDIATELY goes into casually speaking to us as soon as his song-and-dance number abruptly stops.
— Just now, Christopher said “crazy mix-em-ups”, a variation of his legendary “crazy make-em-ups” line.
— Christopher’s backup dancers are being played by extras instead of the female cast this time?
— An overall short and intentionally simple monologue with a very careless, “Ehh, let’s get this over with” attitude, which is something that Christopher Walken is one of the few SNL hosts who can get away with making come off acceptable. At the same time, however, I wish this monologue weren’t so half-assed by the writers. Christopher deserved better than this, especially given the epic monologue from his last episode in season 26.
STARS: ***


PRANKSTERS
to (host), murder by tire iron is a hilarious practical joke

— Seth and Kattan are solid at selling the cheesy goofiness of this show.
— Just the mere idea of Christopher being a fan of such a juvenile show like this is hilarious in itself.
— An absolutely priceless turn with Christopher’s “prank” being him violently beating Parnell to death with a tire iron.
— Very funny how the show’s crew is inappropriately continuing to play goofy, cartoonish sound effects when Christopher is proudly bragging about his dark, deathly “prank”.
— I remember a lot of debate on SNL forums back in the day about Seth’s performance in this sketch being overrated. I never got why that was such a hot topic. Seth is fine in this sketch, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t care much for him.
— Christopher, on his hatred of stiffly stifflersons: “I wanna prank them for hours in my basement.”
— Overall, a classic. Remember a few seasons later when SNL inexplicably tries to re-create this classic sketch with fucking Robert DeNiro, of all people? Oh, I’ll definitely have things to say about THAT when we come to it.
STARS: *****


THE CONTINENTAL
The Continental pursues a spokesmodel for his line of beauty products

— This ends up being the final Continental sketch. As of 2020, Christopher has hosted only one additional time after tonight’s episode (which is unfathomable), and that episode breaks tradition by refraining from doing a Continental sketch. Even if Christopher ever makes a hosting comeback anytime in the future, they can probably never do a Continental sketch ever again, as the now-deceased Tom Davis wrote those sketches. (Davis was still alive and well in the final episode that Christopher hosted, which makes me wonder why they refrained from doing a Continental sketch that week.)
— A good laugh from The Continental presenting his female guest with a platter of “fancy” food that includes Ants on a Log and Combos.
— I love Continental calling the female guest his “Arctic hush puppy”.
— Great line with Continental apologizing for letting his “little head think for the big one”.
— Hilarious bit with the floor mirror.
STARS: ****½


RAFT CAPTAIN
after losing his ship, incompetent captain (host) leads liferaft to ruin

— So many laughs from all the things that Christopher is apologizing for. I even love his line about using the lifeboat flares to light his farts.
— Funny how Christopher considers it irrational for Seth to be angry at him for once trying to eat Seth.
— Christopher, during his apology for one wild thing he once did: “I’m out of cocaine now. That stuff’s not gonna happen again.”
— I absolutely love Christopher’s perfectly Walken-esque delivery of “There’s no stopping the BIRD ATTACKS NOW!”
— An awkwardly-written and awkwardly-staged ending that only worked because Christopher is the master at selling awkward.
STARS: ****½


AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARCHIVES
the first African-American to yell at a movie screen (TRM) is honored

— Dean gets a VERY rare lead role, doing a solid Don Cheadle impression. Dean actually previously starred as Cheadle in a fake ad in SNL’s “Weekend Update Halftime Special” from earlier this season (a special that served as NBC’s alternative to ABC’s Super Bowl halftime show while it was airing). In his limited airtime lately, Dean is proving himself to have a Jeff Richards-type knack for doing dead-on impressions of celebrities. I recall Dean having a website at this time that had audio clips of him doing great impressions, even including Homer Simpson.
— A pretty amusing spoof of the old cliche about black people yelling at the movie screen. While I find most comedy material on that subject to be one of the hackiest things ever (including an awful sketch that SNL itself will soon do just a few episodes later when Bernie Mac hosts), it’s working in this sketch because of 1) the incongruously straitlaced, professional way it’s being presented in this format, and 2) Dean’s solid dead-serious delivery when detailing the actions of the first black man to yell at a movie screen.
— Tracy makes his only “appearance” of the entire night here, and I use quotation marks because this technically doesn’t count as an actual appearance, since Tracy’s only shown in still photos. Him basically being absent in tonight’s episode is a bit surprising, given how much SNL has been relying on him this season, but we’re still seeing more of him tonight than we’ll see of Horatio. Not only is Horatio COMPLETELY absent in tonight’s episode, but it’s the second time that’s happened to him in just these past few episodes. Both times Horatio was absent, his lack of presence has barely even been noticeable nor has had any negative effect on the show, which proves how expendable he is.
STARS: ***


COLONEL ANGUS
after the Civil War, arrival of Colonel Angus (host) has oral sex subtext

— One of several dirty wordplay sketches from around these years, and in my opinion, one of the best. I believe this is a bit of a polarizing sketch among SNL fans (or at least it used to be, back in the day), but I’m definitely in the “love it” camp.
— All the innocent-but-suggestive-sounding lines about Colonel Angus are a riot.
— Oh, god, even in a very brief walk-on role, Maya has to do one of her dumb nasal, throaty voices, a standby of hers that’s really starting to annoy me by this point of her SNL tenure. It’s certainly not enough to ruin this sketch for me, especially considering how brief her appearance is and the fact that she only has one line, but that voice is a very unnecessary aspect of this sketch that briefly takes attention away from the dialogue itself, which is a shame, as the dialogue is what’s driving this sketch.
— I love Rachel greeting Colonel Angus by calling him “You old carpet-bagger”.
— A particularly funny line with Colonel Angus requesting to be tapped on the head if he overstays his welcome.
— This sketch is starting to have me in tears.
— Funny how Jeff is the only character in this entire sketch who catches all the dirty innuendo. His “Eww!” when walking off cracked me up.
— Random how this sketch ends with the performers bowing down towards the camera, as if this is a play.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF shows Department Of Homeland Security’s alarming warning signs

Christina Aguilera (MAR) vocalizes her emotions regarding the Grammys

Steve Martin cameo

having quit showbiz, WIF now lives on a farm with Britney Spears [real]

— A very unnecessary, unfunny, and dumb ad-lib Tina made after her opening joke. Immediately after that, the camera cuts to Jimmy staring at the camera with a very deadpan look on his face and he wisely just goes on with the jokes, instead of indulging in Tina’s horrible ad-libbing and giggling. You know, it’s very odd what’s been gradually happening to Tina and Jimmy over the course of this season. It’s like they’ve been switching personalities, with Tina now being the goofball, unprofessional, giggly, weaker anchor who often does the lamer jokes, and Jimmy now being the professional, straitlaced, deadpan, superior anchor who often does the better jokes. What the hell is happening?
— The side segment with Tina showing placards of Homeland Security’s warning signs is a completely laughless waste of time. Tina continues to just get worse and worse as an Update anchor as this season progresses. Considering how strong her first two seasons at the Update desk were, it’s been sad to watch her go downhill.
— A spot-on and pretty funny Christina Aguilera impression from Maya.
— Jimmy translating Maya-as-Aguilera’s wordless musical vocalizations is reminiscent of the famous Bob Dylan bit that Dana Carvey once did on Update.
— Hell yeah! A Steve Martin walk-on out of freakin’ nowhere! I remember how incredible it felt to see this when watching this episode live, mainly because 1) this was Steve’s first SNL appearance in years, and 2) this was the very first time I got to see a Steve Martin appearance while watching an episode live.
— A great Steve Martin bit, with him detailing the step-by-step process of his intentionally simplistic, pointless cameo.
— Jimmy’s been getting some solid mean-spirited deadpan jokes lately, such as his Lara Flynn Boyle joke from a few episodes ago and his Eating Disorder Awareness Week joke tonight.
— The killer cameos in tonight’s Update keep on comin’, as we now get Will Ferrell! Awesome!
— It feels so odd but so nice to see Will appearing in an episode this season, after I’ve gotten so used to SNL without him over the course of this season. His appearance tonight is making me realize just how much I miss him in the cast.
— Yet ANOTHER killer cameo in tonight’s Update, with us now getting Britn– oh. Okay, so, yeah, to an SNL nerd like myself, this Britney Spears cameo is definitely nowhere near the level of a Steve Martin or Will Ferrell cameo. It’s decent enough, though.
— Funny part with Will and Britney admitting they’re horrible farmers and that “all our animals are sick”.
— Tonight’s weekly end-of-Update walk-on from SNL writer Eric Slovin has him dressed in a karate gi and proceeding to karate chop Jimmy’s pencil in half.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All My Life”


CABIN LOVERS
(MAR) wants no part of Dr. Walter’s lusty exploits with Roger & Virginia

— The return of The Luvahs. I’ve developed a better appreciation of these characters when recently reviewing the seasons they regularly appeared in, but of all of the Will Ferrell characters and impressions that SNL could’ve brought back tonight, this isn’t near the top of my list.
— Christopher is reprising the character he played in the Luvahs sketch from the last episode he hosted, though the role of his lover is now played by Maya instead of the no-longer-on-the-show Ana Gasteyer.
— Christopher, on he and his lover’s lovemaking: “She made more expressions than Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura.” That line is even funnier in retrospect, knowing a certain additional and unplanned cameo we’re getting later tonight.
— Hilarious line from Christopher about a “circle yank”. Much like the last time he appeared in a Luvahs sketch, Christopher is getting a lot of the best lines.
— Christopher’s parting words, “I must chase after her… for she is my ride”, was hilarious when he said it the last time he appeared in a Luvahs sketch, but it felt unnecessary to repeat this time.
— Oh, god, speaking of unnecessary, there’s our obligatory and unfunny “Ow my back” ending that these Luvahs sketches always end with.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Times Like These (One-Way Motorway)”; Jim Carrey cameo

— As if we didn’t have enough amazing cameos tonight, we now get JIM FUCKING CARREY making an impromptu walk-on out of nowhere in the middle of Foo Fighters’ performance, playing his leg like a guitar! Absolutely incredible. This cameo, which reportedly was a VERY last-minute decision made on the fly by SNL (IIRC, Jim was in the audience for this episode) and was completely unexpected by Foo Fighters, has definitely got to be one of the most random, exciting, funniest, and best cameos in SNL history, and it’s one of those moments that makes you really appreciate the spontaneity of live TV.
— At the end of the performance, long after Jim Carrey has exited, Dave Grohl acknowledges Jim’s unexpected cameo by saying into the microphone “Thanks, Jim.”


THE RIALTO GRANDE
act of Buddy Mills & fellow lounge comic (host) has an air of pathos

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— A hilarious corny walk-on from Christopher with his pants down.
— That “Haaaaaaaaa!” laugh that Kattan always does as this character never fails to slay me.
— Christopher: “Here’s a little tune I wrote when I heard it on the radio.”
— Even though they used this joke in the first installment of this sketch, I still got a great laugh from Fred’s delayed rimshot happening during a dark, emotional revelation of Christopher’s.
— Christopher: “The only thing Audrey left me with was her hysterectomy bill… and one of my nuts.”
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell, Steve Martin, and Jim Carrey… ALL ON ONE STAGE TOGETHER. A truly incredible sight.
— Ha, now we get the Continental camera man appearing on stage in both a long blonde wig AND a dress. These goodnights are simply amazing.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Another magnificent Christopher Walken episode, and the best episode of this shaky season so far. Not a single bad sketch to be found in this episode, and we got plenty of strong sketches, including two that I consider a classic (Pranksters, Colonel Angus), as well as one classic unplanned moment during Foo Fighters’ second musical performance.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Garner)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Queen Latifah

Posted on

May 19, 2001 – Christopher Walken / Weezer (S26 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
despite marital woes & a broken penis, Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) is doing OK

— At the beginning of this, why did the audience applaud immediately after Darrell started speaking? Years later, that would become an annoying weekly trend in cold openings that, I believe, still continues to this day in 2020 (I can’t say for sure yet, given that I haven’t watched a new episode since November 2018).
— I like Rachel’s silent, sheepish interjections as Judith Nathan, peering out from a plant that she’s hiding behind.
— A tasteless but hilarious line from Darrell’s Rudy Giulani, where he expresses envy at Robert Blake for having the guts to kill his wife.
— Very funny line from Giuliani about his wife secretly writing the name Combover Jones on the back of his windbreakers.
— Rudy Giuliani: “What can I say? 57 with a combover and a broken penis, and the ladies still fight over me.”
— A somewhat half-assed “Live from New York…” delivery from Darrell. And right after he says it, you can even see him IMMEDIATELY get up from his chair and exit the shot before the opening montage starts, as if he’d rather be ANYWHERE but here. (SNL would later hide that in reruns by cutting to the opening montage a few seconds earlier.) I wonder if Darrell’s getting tired of saying LFNY so often lately. I’m certainly starting to get tired of SEEING him and Will be pretty much the only cast members to say LFNY around this time (and it would soon get even worse the following season, in which Darrell and Will are literally the ONLY people in the cast who get to say LFNY in the entire first half of that season, I kid you not).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
oblivious to pronunciation, host sings “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”

— A lot of laughs from Christopher not doing the required pronunciation change of “potato” and “tomato” during certain parts of the song “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”.
— I love Christopher greeting Jimmy with “Jimmy, wazzup?”
— Classic turn with Christopher misunderstanding Jimmy’s advice and now ALWAYS pronouncing “potato” and “tomato” as “po-tah-to” and “to-mah-to” during the song.
— Christopher’s “They’re all spelled the same on the cards!” line is a great self-deprecating dig at Christopher’s habit of always staring at the cue cards.
— Jimmy is a giggly mess during his interactions with Christopher, but it’s hard to fault him in this specific case, as how can ANYONE keep a straight face at Christopher Walken, especially with how hilarious he’s naturally being as himself in this monologue?
— Overall, my personal favorite of Christopher’s many musical monologues.
STARS: *****


MANGO
wowed janitor (host) imagines himself & Mango in famous screen roles

— At least we’ve gotten very minimal Mango in this overall season, with this only being the second and, obviously, final Mango sketch of the season, which is refreshingly little compared to the 6,834 Mango sketches from the preceding season.
— What has been happening to Kattan’s portrayal of Mango? There’s too much of a giddy, animated, “wink-wink”, self-aware nature to Mango’s appearance tonight (yes, even moreso than usual), such as him constantly playing DIRECTLY to the cameras, doing random little plugs for products, and other nonsense like that. Not funny in the least. Kattan has gotten way too loose with his portrayal of this character.
— A good laugh from Christopher explaining how fooled he was by Mango’s policeman stripper routine.
— A lot of charm in Christopher’s performance as a love-stricken janitor.
— Now tonight’s already self-aware, meta Mango sketch is getting even more self-aware and meta, with Mango dating “TV’s Jimmy Fallon”.
— A great fantasy sequence with Christopher and Mango while Christopher sings.
— Among the crowd of Mango admirers briefly seen outside of Mango’s dressing room, Will can randomly be seen dressed as his backstage alter ego Ron (who I’ve previously gone into detail about here). I remember when this episode originally aired, online SNL fans, including myself, were unfamiliar with the concept of Will’s Ron, so we didn’t understand why the hell Will was randomly playing a background extra in this sketch while dressed in that silly specific outfit.
— Hilarious visual of Christopher now entering in a wig and sparkly janitor’s uniform.
— What in the world is with the sudden fourth-wall-breaking turn at the end with Mango delivering a straight-to-camera message about wrapping up the final Mango sketch of the season while the supporting characters from the sketch are partying behind him, complete with closing credits being displayed onscreen? Yeah, again, these Mango sketches are getting way too giddy, “wink-wink”, and self-aware.
STARS: ** (I wanted to give this a higher rating for all of the solidness that Walken brought, but Kattan’s overly loose, giddy, self-aware Mango performance dragged it way down for me)


HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) likes Bob Barr’s (CHP) crazy energy scheme

 

— They’ve been going heavy on these Hardball sketches lately.
— As always in these Hardball sketches, Parnell has tons of funny lines. I love that SNL consistently trusts him to carry the best of the comedic load in these Hardball sketches. I particularly like his cruel lines tonight about things you can burn.
— Pretty funny bit with Ana being fed answers through an earpiece.
— I hate to say it, but the recurring gag with Darrell-as-Chris Matthews’ constant insults to Kattan’s Paul Begala, while still funny to me, isn’t nearly as funny as I had remembered finding it when these sketches originally aired. Maybe I’ve just gotten sick of Kattan doing roles like this where he plays someone who either gets gay-related insults hurled at him or just gets insults hurled at him in general. He seems to be playing roles like that more and more often at this point of his tenure. That being said, I do like the final insult that Darrell’s Matthews yells at Kattan’s Begala in tonight’s sketch: “Go home and tell Santa you wanna be a dentist, you freakin’ elf!”
STARS: ***½


THE CONTINENTAL
a lost brooch provides The Continental with another chance to woo

— Ah, here we go.
— The Continental: “I recall the first time I saw you in my periscope… I mean, my terrace.”
— Ha, and we now see the aforementioned periscope hidden in The Continental’s closet.
— Great story from The Continental about accidentally running over his first love with a van.
— The dazed facial expression Christopher makes after getting punched in the face is hilarious (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— A good laugh from The Continental showing the woman his collection of erotic hummel figures that he got on eBay.
— The chloroform bit is hilarious.
— Great bit with The Continental swallowing the key to prevent the woman from leaving the apartment, only for her to punch Continental in the stomach, forcing him to cough the key out of his mouth.
— Overall, while not as classic as the Continental sketch that Christopher last did the preceding season, this was still great and reliable as always.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
in a terrible re-enactment, Joey Fatone (CHK) injures his foot

KEN does a subliminal editorial to remind viewers he’s no longer on SNL

JIF, TIF, Winona Ryder [real] stage a Weekend Update cliffhanger

— Tonight’s Terrible Re-enactment from Kattan isn’t as funny as usual. The novelty of these has gotten old and tired (just like practically everything else Kattan does at this point of his tenure).
— Jimmy’s random Old-Timey Joke Corner segment is fairly fun. More fun than funny, but I enjoy when Jimmy and Tina have fun with the Update format by doing random, silly segments like this.
— Kevin Nealon! Wonderful to see him making an SNL cameo. I’m so glad that SNL has allowed him to cameo on the show even despite not having much going on at the time in his post-SNL career.
— Kevin’s subliminal commentary about him not being on SNL anymore is a riot. He hasn’t lost his touch at all with this subliminal routine.
— Just now, Jimmy narrowly averted terribly botching YET ANOTHER joke this season.
— The turn with Jimmy suddenly being seen wearing glasses per doctor’s orders seems to be acknowledging his bad habit of flubbing Update jokes.
— Took the audience awhile to recognize Winona Ryder.
— Winona Ryder appearing in tonight’s season finale is interesting in retrospect, considering she would end up hosting the very next season finale.
— Yet another example of a fun, silly Update segment from Jimmy and Tina, with their “Weekend Update Cliffhanger” bit, spoofing the endless barrage of season finale cliffhangers that was particularly rampant on TV around this time.
— An overall pretty strong Update to end Jimmy and Tina’s first season at the Update desk. They’ve really done a turnaround on the format and quality of Update this season. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks, as I recall it eventually getting tired not too long from now (IIRC, the downhill slide of their Updates start in season 28, which coincides with a downhill slide of SNL’s quality in general).
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hash Pipe”


LOVERS
(ANG) learns that Dr. Walter (host) was once a lover of Roger & Virginia

— The Luvahs (Roger and Virginia Klarvin) have officially become recurring.
— I already got a laugh right from Rachel’s opening line: “Would anyone care for some baba ganoush or some hummus before we start our main course?” There’s just something about Rachel and Will’s delivery and wording as these Luvahs characters that now tickles me. As I said in my review of the first Luvahs sketch, teenage me used to HATE these Luvahs sketches with a fiery passion back when they originally aired, but I’ve been gaining an appreciation for them now that I’m older and am going into their sketches with more of an open mind. I do wonder, though, if I’m still going to get tired of these characters after a few installments.
— Christopher’s delivery is perfect for this sketch, and his lovemaking story about him and his wife Ana trying “shinshi-shinshi” (however it’s spelled) in the ear canal is hilarious.
— Good turn with Christopher revealing to Ana that he once had a three-way with the Luvahs.
— Great departing line from Christopher, in regards to his walking-away wife: “I best chase her… for she is my ride.”
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Anatominals Show” by RBS- beasts’ genitals spur LOM Faustian crisis

— A hilarious concept of Yogi Bear-type characters having huge and overly-realistic-looking genitalia.
— A very funny Parnell-read opening disclaimer.
— Some good and hilarious gross humor here. This is the type of gross humor that Smigel is great at selling, as opposed to that “Sex And The Country” abomination of his earlier this season, where he crossed too much of a line and seemed to focus more on the shock value than on the actual humor.
— As we’ve seen before, Smigel does a spot-on imitation of the animation style of Hanna-Barbera’s 1960s cartoons.
— Lorne, while miserably watching the Anatominals cartoon on a monitor backstage: “This is what it’s come to? It’s not fu(*bleep*)ing worth it.”
— Lorne, when calling off his deal with the devil: “You never said it would get this bad. I want out!” Devil: “Come on, you say that after every SNL movie.”
— During the devil scene, the snickering guy in the green shirt behind Lorne appears to be Robert Smigel himself in animation form (screencap below).

— Good turn with the devil transferring Lorne to a peace corp.
STARS: ****


CENTAUR
(host)’s personal questions dominate centaur’s (CHP) job interview

— For some reason, the bizarre opening job interview between Kattan and Christopher kinda reminds me of the fantastic bizarre Job Interview sketch that Kattan previously did with Steve Buscemi in season 23, though in tonight’s sketch, the tables have turned, as Kattan is the one playing the weirdo instead of the straight man.
— Geez, the “See you Monday morning!” “You didn’t get the job!” bit with Kattan and Christopher bombed HARD with the audience. I personally was cracking up, but mainly just because of Christopher’s trademark odd delivery when saying “You didn’t get the job!”
— A great, bizarre casual entrance from Parnell as a centaur.
— I love Parnell’s response about how he’s heard them all when Christopher says he has some questions about Parnell’s centaur life.
— So many hilarious and interesting specific centaur questions from Christopher, as well as hilarious and interesting answers from Parnell. Both performers are absolutely perfectly cast in these roles. I can’t see this sketch working quite as well with different casting for either role.
— Christopher: “(bluntly) The rest of the interview will be centaur questions.”
— Parnell, when being asked by Christopher if he’d have sex with a horse wearing a mask of a woman: “No. I mean, would YOU have sex with a monkey if it had a mask on?” Christopher: “This interview is not about me.”
— Parnell’s understated eventual frustration over the questions Christopher is bombarding him with is fantastic.
— Christopher: “If I were to watch centaur porn, but with the bottom of the screen blocked out with a piece of cardboard, would I find the human halves of the female actresses appealing?” Parnell: “Well… maybe, but you gotta remember that at some point, there’s gonna be a horse penis in there.”
— A classic ending line from Christopher: “We don’t hire dirty centaurs.”
— In retrospect, this excellent sketch can be considered Parnell’s temporary swan song, as this ends up being his final lead role before getting fired over the summer. Words cannot express the shock, disappointment, and frustration that I (and quite a number of other online SNL fans) experienced that summer when hearing the news of Parnell’s undeserved firing. Thankfully, his firing would turn out to be temporary, as he would get re-hired halfway through the following season, after much lobbying from both Will AND Kattan. It’s already well-known that Will fought hard to get Parnell rehired, but it’s lesser known that Kattan also played a big part in that, and he deserves credit.
— As a side note in relation to Parnell’s firing, I’m not sure how reliable the source is, but word has it that when the powers that be were contemplating which cast member to fire that summer (besides Jerry Minor), the other three cast members on the chopping block with Parnell were supposedly Horatio, Rachel, and Maya. Just putting that out there.
STARS: *****


BADGER UP THE BUTT
(WIF)’s irritability stems from the badger that crawled up his butt

— Jerry makes his only appearance of the night, his first appearance in two episodes, and the FINAL appearance of his short-lived SNL tenure playing a dull, forgettable, supporting straight role, which sadly sums up how poorly utilized he’s been in the last quarter of this season. Unlike Parnell, Jerry’s eventual firing over the summer wasn’t a shock at all, but it’s still a shame, given how funny and talented he is, and the huge potential he showed during the times SNL would give him a chance to shine. He could’ve went on to be a really solid cast member if SNL held on to him longer and gave him more chances.
— I remember when this sketch originally aired, I mistakenly almost thought that the initial shot of Will slowly and sarcastically applauding Ana’s opening presentation was intended as some kind of take-off/follow-up/rip-off of the famous Sarcastic Clapping Family Of Southhampton sketch.
— A funny bizarre premise, for the second consecutive sketch tonight. Good to see all of these oddball, absurdist sketch premises in tonight’s season finale.
— A great pre-taped black-and-white sequence showing how a badger got stuck up Will’s butt.
— Christopher is perfect in the doctor role of this oddball sketch.
— The ending seemed abrupt and empty, but I’m not sure where else they could’ve taken this. The potroast dinner scenario that Christopher came up with as a plan to release the badger from Will’s butt was funny when being described, but most likely wouldn’t have been anywhere near as funny if we had actually seen it play out. Still, something felt missing at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & WIF perform “Island In The Sun”

— The bizarre sighting of Will’s Ron alter ego as a random background extra in the Mango sketch earlier tonight has come full-circle, as we now have Ron randomly playing the maracas during this Weezer performance, also making this a rare occurrence of a cast member getting to participate in a musical guest’s performance.
— Will’s Ron is surprisingly fitting this musical performance really well.
— I’d love to know how this whole idea came about. Did Will as Ron interrupt Weezer’s rehearsal earlier in the week, much like he famously did a few years prior during Puff Daddy’s rehearsal for the season 23 finale, and Weezer was such good sports about it that they ended up letting Ron perform with them for the live show? That’s my theory.


MEMORIAL DAY GREETINGS
for Memorial Day, HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty

— Funny set-up, with Horatio faking us out into believing he’s about to launch into a Memorial Day song, only to hit us with the traditional “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song once again.
— Jimmy has literally played himself in every single segment he’s appeared in tonight: monologue, Mango, Weekend Update, and now this. I wonder if that’s a record for a cast member in a single episode. Probably not.
— Tracy makes his only appearance of the night.
— Adding to the fun-loving nature of this song is the new addition of Kattan occasionally slowly peering his smiling face into the close-ups of Horatio and Jimmy (the third above screencap for this sketch). This reminds me that when this season finale originally aired, I was convinced that this was most likely Kattan’s final episode, partly due to his heavier-than-usual airtime in this episode, partly due to his particularly giddy and animated performances in both this sketch and tonight’s earlier Mango sketch, and partly due to the very random fourth-wall-breaking ending of the Mango sketch. I turned out to be wrong, but I would later go on to feel that this SHOULD’VE been his final episode, because until recently, I had always been of the opinion that he ended up suddenly going BADLY downhill in the following two remaining seasons of his SNL tenure, truly overstaying his welcome. However, after having now just reviewed his first six seasons in chronological order, I now see that his downhill slide started earlier than the following season 27, though I can’t pinpoint when exactly it started. Your mileage may vary on that, especially since I’m aware there’s probably quite a number of you readers who already disliked Kattan pretty early on in his tenure.
— Overall, as I always say, I’m a sucker for this “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song, and this was a fun way to end the season.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— After the preceding season’s Christopher Walken episode had some great P.O.V. shots of the Continental cameraman joining the cast and guests onstage at the goodnights and offering some of them a drink, SNL ups the ante by now having the Continental cameraman actually show his face while donning a feminine blonde wig when joining the cast and guests onstage at the goodnights. In the goodnights of Christopher’s next hosting stint, the ante will be upped even more, as we’ll see when I review that episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid season finale, even if it doesn’t measure up to the legendary episode that Christopher Walken last hosted in the preceding season. It’s certainly a huge step up from the last season finale with Jackie Chan, though. Christopher Walken was utilized perfectly tonight as always, especially with the weirder sketches they gave him in the post-Weekend Update half, and he had what I feel is his all-time best monologue.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lara Flynn Boyle)
a step up


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1999-00)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 27 begins under challenging circumstances, as it’s just a few weeks after 9/11. Reese Witherspoon hosts this important episode, and we get four new cast members.

Posted on

April 8, 2000 – Christopher Walken / Christina Aguilera (S25 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CAPITOL BUILDING
George (DAC) coaches son George W. (WIF) Bush on how to be evasive

— Dana Carvey!
— I love Will’s Bush repeatedly chanting “I’m a uniter, not a divider”, and Dana’s Bush snapping him out of it my slapping him back and forth.
— I see Dana’s still got it as Bush Sr.
— Bush Sr.’s various tips to Bush Jr. are very funny, and there’s some charming chemistry between Dana and Will.
— Bush Sr.: “Should we send the Gonzalez boy back to Cuba?” Bush Jr.: “I don’t give a rat’s ass.”
— The visual of Bush Jr. sitting on Bush Sr.’s lap kinda reminds me of SNL’s running gag of Dan Quayle doing the same to Bush Sr. back in the early 90s.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week” & dances

— I like Christopher’s “I miss this place” line, whether it was intended to get laughs or not.
— Christopher reprises his “crazy make-em-ups” line from the questions-from-the-audience segment in SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special (which he was absolutely hilarious in).
— Here’s our obligatory Walken monologue song-and-dance.
— An overall charming and pretty fun Walken monologue song-and-dance as always, though this one didn’t have anything noteworthy, unlike his last two monologues, one in which he sang lots of fun winter-related songs, and one in which he danced with each female cast member one-by-one and then danced his way to SNL’s backstage area.
STARS: ***½


BEHIND THE MUSIC
cowbell dominates Blue Oyster Cult recording session

 

— Here’s an absolutely legendary and iconic SNL sketch.
— Christopher is playing a perfectly Christopher Walken-esque Bruce Dickinson.
— Bruce Dickinson: “I put my pants on just like the rest of you, one leg at a time. Except, once I put my pants on, I make gold records.”
— And there’s the first instance of Will’s cowbell banging. Even in the straightforward, low-key manner he’s doing it this first time, it’s amazing how Will is still able to make it hilarious.
— Bruce Dickinson, in regards to the first track: “I coulda used a little more cowbell.”
— And now we get the absolutely classic turn in the second track, with Will exploring the studio place by going wild while banging the cowbell all over the place, complete with his belly flopping out of his tiny shirt. An extremely memorable visual.
— I love an unhappy Will deliberately slowly playing the cowbell right next to Parnell’s face.
— When trying to deliver the simple line “Quit being so selfish, Gene!”, Jimmy busts out laughing, which leads to Will himself cracking up a bit. After this happens, it’s quite funny watching Jimmy in the background trying his damnedest to get himself back into a straight face during Will’s poignant speech about how important it is for him to play the hell out of the cowbell. When Jimmy finally does regain his composure, he IMMEDIATELY loses it again and ducks his head in laughter when Will’s voice unexpectedly cracks in a funny way while saying “I’d be doing myself a disservice– etc.” (you can hear Horatio bust out laughing off-camera during that part too). One of the very few times you’ll hear me say that a Jimmy Fallon character break actually added to my enjoyment of a sketch.
— Bruce Dickinson: “Guess what?!? I got a fever… and the only prescription… is more cowbell!”
— I love Horatio’s spaced-out look shortly before saying “He speaks for all of us.”
— Bruce Dickinson: “Babies, before we’re done here, ya’ll be wearin’ gold-plated diapers.”
— A great “in memoriam” freeze-frame of Will’s Gene Frenkle at the end, made even better by the fact that he’s not even a real person.
— Overall, such a perfect sketch, in every single way.
STARS: *****


ELIAN, THE CUBAN BOY!
stage adaptation of international custody battle

— A very funny idea of making a stage musical out of the Elian Gonzalez saga.
— Darrell makes his ONLY appearance of these last two episodes as a barely-visible guy in the back of a boat of singing immigrants (you can see him behind Molly in the first above screencap for this sketch). He looks as if he was possibly thrown into this sketch at the last minute, especially given how he’s off on his cue to raise his fist in the air in unison with his scene partners. I didn’t realize until now that he wasn’t in any sketches in the preceding episode, hosted by The Rock.
— Christopher’s Fidel Castro is hilarious, as is the song he’s singing. I remember an old SNL review from this time in 2000 saying Christopher managed to look even creepier than the real Fidel Castro.
— I love Rachel’s cheesy, theatrical portrayal of Elian Gonzalez.
— This is Will’s first time playing Janet Reno in quite a long time. Great to see this back.
— As much as it pains me to say anything negative about this great sketch, we unfortunately get our second of three moments from seasons 25 and 26 in which Will and Kattan kiss each other on the lips for an unnecessary cheap laugh.
— As a whole, a very well-done sketch.
STARS: ****½


THE CONTINENTAL
The Continental gets amorous when a lady arrives to retrieve her mail

— Always glad to see our obligatory Continental sketch.
— Must be some audio problems, as we’re not hearing the usual piano music during the obligatory opening Phil Hartman voice-over.
— Ah, now the piano music has started playing, at the very end of Phil’s voice-over. Not sure if this delay in the piano music would later be fixed in reruns or not.
— Funny mention from The Continental of having a tattoo of two dogs “doing it”.
— The Continental: “You are skittish… like Siberian palomino.”
— We now get The Continental’s very first utterance of “Wowie wow wow wow!”, which would go on to be a well-liked catchphrase of his.
— A very funny part with The Continental being caught slipping a mickey into the woman’s drink.
— The Continental: “Did you see my painting? I got it from Target.”
— A hilarious and memorable part with The Continental being seen staring into the bathroom through the other side of the bathroom mirror while he’s lighting a cigarette.
— I love the part with The Continental getting sprayed by mace, made even funnier by him screaming “WAAAAUUUGGHH!” in response. Freakin’ priceless.
— Ha, the aforementioned mace part has now gotten even funnier with the woman flat-out punching The Continental in the face to get him out of the way of the door.
STARS: *****


VIAGRA
wives sarcastically thank Viagra for restoring husbands’ intumescence

— Very amusing to hear Christopher talk about Viagra in his usual dry manner.
— Tina Fey makes an appearance as the only person I recognize out of all of the non-Walken/Gasteyer couples in this commercial. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe this ends up being her last onscreen SNL appearance before being added to the cast in the following season.
— Good ending visual of Ana flushing Christopher’s Viagra pills down the toilet.
STARS: ***½


JENNY JONES
audience member (host) imparts wisdom to panelists

— Rachel is pretty spot-on in her portrayal of Jenny Jones.
— Jimmy’s performance as a wannabe-black character is hilarious.
— Jimmy, to Molly: “You look like you sewed someone’s ass to your chest!”
— As with the Sally Jessy Raphael parody earlier this season in the Christina Ricci episode, this sketch is a spot-on parody of Jenny Jones’ show.
— Christopher’s various one-liners to the guests, such as “Checkity-check yourself before you wreck yourself” and “Let your freak flag fly”, are coming off priceless being delivered in Christopher’s usual manner.
— Parnell, on how he lost weight: “For a year, I ate only candy necklaces and Pedialyte.”
— Tracy makes his obligatory sole appearance of the whole night. This is getting ridiculous. I cannot remember the last time he appeared in more than one sketch in an episode.
— It’s a very small detail in the sketch, but I’m cracking up at Christopher’s frozen, speechless, somewhat-taken-aback facial expression in the background when Kattan enters as a woman.
— Rachel-as-Jenny-Jones’ ending line about having a crappy local band play the show to commercial is such a dead-on detail in regards to the real Jenny Jones show.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob Silj bemoans being afflicted with voice immodulation

— Colin: “As members of the media, we’re required to say the word ‘Elian Gonzalez’ every 10 minutes.”
— I like the News From The Future segment about a 21-year-old Elian Gonzalez in the year 2015.
— I’m getting a kick out of the audience’s somewhat uproarious reaction to a punchline of Colin’s, in which he quotes an infamous bigoted John Rocker rant about “having to take the 7 Train sitting next to some queer with AIDS, some kid with purple hair, a 20-year-old mom with 4 kids, etc.” Since John Rocker’s name wasn’t directly mentioned anywhere in the joke, I’m sure the joke would go over a lot of viewers heads in more recent years, which might make it look like Colin was just randomly saying those bigoted things about passengers of the 7 Train for the hell of it.
— The return of Will’s Jacob Silj character. This seems like kind of a thin character to make recurring, but I know Will is going to manage to always make this character work.
— I like Jacob Silj explaining that some people get voice immodulation disorder from being born two months late and having been exposed to gold dust.
— At the end of this Update, Colin randomly saying “Elian Gonzalez” after his usual sign-off tagline was a nice callback to an earlier bit from the beginning of this Update.
— Overall, better than Colin’s usual Updates, keeping up the great atmosphere of tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Turn To You”


THE CENSUS
census taker (TIM) records apartment dweller’s (host) crazy responses

— An all-time favorite of mine.
— Oddly, this is Tim’s first (and ONLY) appearance all night.
— A perfectly Christopher Walken-esque oddball role for Christopher.
— Just some of my many favorite Christopher Walken lines in this endlessly funny sketch are him counting plants and candy bars as people who live with him, his reveal of his wife being a bobcat, and him saying he has dual citizenship with the United States and Florida.
— Tim is a fantastic straight man here.
— Tim: “Let’s just proceed as if this is going really well.”
— I love the ending with Christopher saying to his off-camera bobcat wife “Again? We just did it!”
STARS: *****


BEAUTY PAGEANT
Sally O’Malley crashes the Miss Greenwood Hills Beauty Pageant

— I like the odd name of Christopher’s character, Brett Lighthorse.
— Cheri, regarding the burn unit of a children’s hospital: “I would just love to see their little red faces light up when they see me!”
— A pretty good laugh from Ana’s passing mention of wanting her baby back from “that miserable drummer”.
— The great atmosphere of tonight’s episode comes to a screeching halt with the appearance of Sally O’Malley. I’ve said enough in earlier reviews about my dislike of this character.
— One thing I’ll say I consistently like about these Sally O’Malley sketches are the hosts, as Danny DeVito, Ben Affleck, and now Christopher Walken have provided enjoyment for me in the Sally O’Malley sketches I’ve covered so far.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “At Last” & “What A Girl Wants”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An absolutely fantastic episode. An impressive number of highly-rated sketches, two true classics (Behind The Music, The Census), one of my all-time favorite Continental installments, and Christopher Walken being his usual self. So many things to love here.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (The Rock)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tobey Maguire

Posted on

January 13, 1996 – Christopher Walken / Joan Osborne (S21 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE BLIZZARD OF ’96
Rudolph Giuliani & George Pataki [real] make apologies for tonight’s SNL

— For some reason, I like how they’re making such a big deal of that week’s huge blizzard.
— Some pretty good laughs from Giuliani and Pataki blaming the cast’s hard work in clearing the snow on why tonight’s show might be lackluster.
— Right from this very first SNL appearance of his, Giuliani is coming off as a total natural; a good sign of things to come for his future SNL appearances. But, boy, Pataki, on the other hand, has awkward and stilted delivery here. He and Giuliani have fun chemistry, though.
— I like the New York City/State debate between Giuliani and Pataki.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
snowdiggers NAW, MOS, CHO join host as he dances & sings about snow

— Is Christopher’s hair redder than usual?
— I love Christopher mentioning his family complaining about the gruesome things he does as a movie villain.
— Christopher’s musical monologues are always very entertaining, and this Christmas medley is particularly fun, charming, and infectious.
— Cheri is coming off particularly adorable during her brief appearances throughout this.
STARS: ****


FRONT PORCH
Rita Delvecchio tries to get neighbor (host) to clear her walk

— Rita Delvecchio officially becomes a recurring character.
— At the very beginning of this sketch, are we supposed to see Christopher just stiffly standing awkwardly next to Rita Delvecchio’s house as the camera slowly zooms in on Rita?
— I always love Rita’s conversations with her off-camera friends.
— Christopher’s Italian wiseguy voice is freakin’ hilarious.
— I love Christopher’s odd threats to the snowball-throwing kids, especially “See how funny it is… when I bury your FACE… in the yellow SNOW.”
STARS: ***


THE CONTINENTAL
The Continental once again tries to charm a female visitor

— Of all the Continental sketches I haven’t reviewed yet, this is the only one I’m not all that familiar with, so I’m really looking forward to this one.
— A bit of a sad realization that this is the last time the trademark Continental stock voice-over intro from Phil Hartman will be used during Phil’s lifetime. All of the subsequent Continental sketches that use Phil’s voice-over are after his death.
— As always, it’s a riot whenever The Continental frantically jumps in front of the door when the woman tries to make a mad dash out of the apartment.
— Christopher’s “mmm mmm” sounds when enjoying the taste of caviar is a hilarious little Walken-esque touch.
— I love that The Continental is continuing to eat caviar while a piece of caviar is smooshed to his forehead.
— A huge laugh from The Continental saying “I have fallen for you and I can’t get up!” in a high-pitched voice when expressing how his heart feels.
— Hilarious reveal of The Continental having his head under the woman’s dress when we were led to believe he was tending to the fireplace.
— The visual of an unkempt-haired Christopher Walken with his head thrown back as the woman grabs him by the throat is the one part of this sketch that I’ve always remembered from past viewings. It’s a priceless visual (the last above screencap for this sketch).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One Of Us”


WEEKEND UPDATE
JMB personifies relationship between the stomach & alcoholic beverages
Jesse Jackson (DAH) explains relationship between civil rights & laughter

— Yeesh, what happened to Norm’s voice? He sounds hoarse as hell. Flu from that week’s blizzard, I take it?
— Feels like the first big thing we’ve seen Jim Breuer do in quite a while. I thought the debut of the Joe Pesci Show sketch a few episodes ago would turn things around for him, but he’s STILL been struggling badly for airtime since then.
— Pretty fun bit with Jim doing various voices for the alcohol having a party in your stomach. I especially like the Scottish and Mexican voices Jim’s doing.
— Haha, some of Norm’s jokes are getting the audience really riled up.
— The debut of Darrell’s Jesse Jackson impression.
— So… yeah… blackface. But I can ignore that aspect of Darrell’s Jesse Jackson impression, as his impression is fantastic and he is killing with both me and the audience, especially when his speech randomly turns into a powerful sermon about The Flintstones.
— Between his Weekend Update commentaries as Phil Donahue, Bill Clinton, and Jesse Jackson, Darrell has been Update gold so far this season.
STARS: ****


CONNIE STINSON TALKS
Connie Stinson (host) puts words in guests’ mouths to provoke

— Christopher expressing his guests’ thoughts is hilarious. I also like the guests’ puzzled reactions to that.
— I love Christopher’s various statements using the insult “fat hog” towards the fat female guests.
— This is such a perfect sketch for Christopher. I can’t picture anybody else selling this material.
— This is such a dead-on parody of this type of trashy daytime talk show from this era.
— The cue cards make an accidental cameo in the background just now (screencap below).

— The “sit on my face” bit is hilarious.
STARS: ****


GUIDANCE COUNSELOR
Mary Katherine Gallagher dreams of dancing with guidance counselor (host)

— Was Christopher late arriving for this sketch? Not only does this sketch open with an abnormally long exterior shot of a school, but then when the camera does finally cut to Christopher, it looks like he’s still finishing putting on his outfit and is trying to get into character. It’s a pretty funny sight.
— A big unintentional laugh from Christopher opening the folder in his hand to make it look like he’s going through it, only to quickly put the folder aside when realizing there’s nothing in it. Haha, you can tell that wasn’t intentional. I guess this sketch was so ill-prepared, the prop people forgot to put paper in the folder.
— Very interesting turn with a black-and-white musical fantasy involving Mary Katherine Gallagher and Christopher dancing around the SNL studio. This is fun, and I especially love when they go to SNL’s home base stage.
— It feels weird hearing the audience still have a fairly muted reaction towards Mary Katherine Gallagher. This is her third appearance, yet the audience STILL doesn’t seem to be 100% on her side yet. By contrast, The Cheerleaders have only appeared twice by this point, and the audience already seems to absolutely love them. I wonder which installment it is where Mary Katherine Gallagher starts becoming a popular crowd-pleaser.
STARS: ***½


SPADE IN AMERICA
without realizing he’s on-air, DAS reports from outside

— A big change of pace, with Christopher sitting in for Spade while Spade does a live remote from outside.
— I like how when the camera first cuts to Spade, he’s quietly singing the same One Of Us song that we just heard being performed earlier tonight by Joan Osborne.
— Spade, regarding having to stand out there in the cold: “Can’t one of the new guys do this? Get that guy that does the cheerleader.”
— I like Spade telling a passerby that Christopher Walken is even weirder in real life than he is in movies.
— Now Spade is quietly singing another popular song from this time period: Big Poppa. It’s particularly funny hearing him sing this.
— Spade: “Are they still on Update? Good god, it’s 12:40! How many anal rape jokes can Norm do this week?”
— Yet another funny line from Spade, where he says Christopher is probably in his dressing room “going over his lines” (*mimes drinking*).
STARS: ****


EXECUTION
executioner Gerald Tibbins (DAK) jokes around with condemned man (host)

— Yes! We get the debut of Koechner’s T-Bones character, which has always been one of my (many) favorite things Koechner did on SNL during his short-lived tenure.
— I’m glad to see that Koechner is just as hilarious as this character as I remembered. So many funny goofy bits from T-Bones throughout this sketch.
— I like Christopher’s “Could… could you not speak to me?” response to T-Bones.
— Very funny prank with T-Bones faking a call as a governor giving Christopher a reprieve.
STARS: ****½


BAND SHOT

— We return from commercial just to get a shot of the SNL Band immediately playing the show back to commercial. Whenever that happens at the end of an SNL episode, it’s obvious that the show has run long and had to cut some scheduled segments at the last minute. One of the scheduled segments cut at the last minute tonight was Joan Osborne’s second musical performance (of which the dress rehearsal version would be aired a few weeks later in a “Best of the New Season” compilation special). I also wonder if tonight’s show running long and having to cut some scheduled segments accounts for why we don’t see Mark McKinney AT ALL tonight.


GOODNIGHTS
(Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of the live broadcast of this episode. My copy just abruptly ends with an abnormally long shot of a Christopher Walken SNL bumper picture that followed the preceding SNL Band shot. I guess tonight’s episode ran so long that some NBC affiliates didn’t have time to air the goodnights.)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode, as Christopher Walken-hosted episodes usually are, even if this one isn’t among my favorites that he’s hosted. However, something strangely felt a little empty about this episode, maybe due to both the lack of goodnights in my copy and the scarce number of appearances from most of the cast throughout the show (even the usually-prolific Will Ferrell only made one appearance, and as mentioned earlier, Mark McKinney was completely absent). The scarce number of cast appearances is presumably due to the fact that 1) some of the sketches were very long, especially The Continental (as always) and Connie Stinson Talks, and 2) most sketches involved little-to-no cast members. In fact, believe it or not, Connie Stinson Talks was the ONLY sketch all night that involved more than two cast members (not counting the monologue or Weekend Update, as they’re technically not sketches). This is all a minor quibble, though, because I still enjoyed the entire show. Every single segment worked for me, a few of which were particularly strong.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Madeline Kahn)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin

Posted on

October 24, 1992 – Christopher Walken / Arrested Development (S18 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Ross Perot (DAC) ditches Admiral Stockdale (PHH) on the side of the road

— A very topical cold opening that still holds up, despite the Admiral Stockdale incident that this is based on (from the then-recent vice presidential debate) being obscure to later audiences. What helps this topical cold opening still remain very funny to later audiences who have no knowledge of Stockdale is Phil’s absolutely priceless performance and the fact that Dana’s Perot gives a nice rundown of all the bizarre things Stockdale did at that VP debate, the latter of which in retrospect provides good context to later viewers.
— It wasn’t until years after I first saw this cold opening that I was finally exposed to clips of the real Stockdale at the VP debate. “Oh. My. God.” is basically all I can say in response to his behavior there. Hell, at one point in that debate, Stockdale really did say “Who am I? Why am I here?”, which Phil’s Stockdale also famously says here (which is why the audience applauds when he says it).
— Huge laughs from Dana’s Perot going on and on about how all of the questionable things Stockdale did at the debate were pure brilliancy.
— Phil is absolutely killing me in this. Every single thing he’s doing and saying here is an absolute riot. I especially loved the random exclamation of “I’m outta ammo!” Definitely one of Phil’s funniest performances of all time.
— Classic turn with Perot suddenly zooming off in the car when Stockdale has stepped outside.
— Hilarious sudden reveal of Stockdale running after the car.
— Overall, this is hands-down one of my absolute favorite cold openings of all time.
— This ends up being Dana’s only appearance all night. After appearing in a normal amount of sketches in the first three episodes of the season, tonight’s episode begins the phasing-out of Dana, as we’re not too far away from his mid-season departure. In most of the remaining episodes of his SNL tenure, we’ll be seeing him in a significantly reduced role, and there will even be some episodes in that stretch that don’t feature him AT ALL.
STARS: *****


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Let’s Face The Music” & dances with castmembers & others

— Tonight, it officially becomes a tradition for Christopher to break out into a fun song-and-dance for his monologues.
— Very charming seeing Christopher taking turns dancing with each individual female cast member.
— Now this is getting even more fun with Christopher going off-stage, running into a robed Jan Hooks backstage, and then her joining him in a dance.
— I love Lorne sternly putting a stop to Christopher and Jan’s dancing, then refusing Christopher’s offer to join him in a dance, then suddenly giving in. I also love the use of a starry spotlight during the Christopher/Lorne dance.
— Fantastic monologue overall.
STARS: ****½


JIFFY EXPRESS
Jiffy Express will take the blame for packages you send late

— Great concept for a fake ad, and feels like a companion piece to the Einstein Express fake ad from the late 80s.
— Very solid spokesperson performance from Rob, continuing the strong season he’s been having so far.
— I love the footage showing the company’s process of making your package look beat up.
— Kevin’s irate delivery of “You guys are pathetic! People get fired over this kind of thing!” always cracks me up whenever I see this commercial.
STARS: ****½


THE CONTINENTAL
The Continental flirts when a woman comes to reclaim her glove

— Here comes another thing that officially becomes a Christopher Walken SNL staple tonight.
— This has always been my favorite installment of this great recurring sketch, though I might be biased since it’s the installment I’ve seen the most. (It’s also the installment that’s rightfully included in Christopher’s “Best Of” special)
— Julia’s brief appearance, fleeing from The Continental’s apartment in a panic, is the only time a performer other than Christopher Walken has ever appeared in a Continental sketch.
— I love the little part with The Continental playfully wrestling the coat away from the woman who we’re seeing the perspective of.
— As usual, big laughs from the woman bolting towards the door after The Continental says something particularly rude, only to have The Continental hurriedly jump in front of the door to block it. That never fails to be funny in these sketches.
— I got a big laugh from the woman suddenly throwing her drink into The Continental’s face after he compliments her “decolletage”.
— A pretty memorable blooper right now, where after the second time the woman throws her drink into The Continental’s face, Christopher’s fake mustache starts peeling off (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch), which gets a huge reaction from the audience. His deadpan facial reaction during all of this is great.
STARS: *****


ED GLOSSER, TRIVIAL PSYCHIC
Ed Glosser, Trivial Psychic (host) annoys co-workers with ho-hum visions

— Fantastic concept of Christopher having the unimpressive ability to see insignificant things in people’s future.
— Some really great creepy close-ups of Christopher’s face throughout this, especially during his scene with Rob and Phil.
— I loved Christopher’s passioned “You don’t get it, do you? You’re wasting coffee!” to Rob.
— Christopher’s trivial visions are all hilarious.
— Solid ending to what is absolutely one of Christopher Walken’s all-time best sketches.
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the status of pudding-traversing ants
— This is missing from my copy of this episode.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tennessee”


WEEKEND UPDATE
undecided voter Jan Brady (MEH) likens candidates to her family members
Hollywood Minute- DAS defines terms for public figures on the decline

— Melanie’s Jan Brady is funny as usual, this time talking about the presidential election. Like with her last Update commentary, it’s fun seeing Melanie’s Jan relate things to famous scenes from random Brady Bunch episodes.
— David’s breakout Update segment, Hollywood Minute, officially becomes recurring tonight.
— Like in his inaugural Hollywood Minute from earlier this season, we’re getting a nice fast-paced, energetic, snappy delivery from David, which is quite different from his more deadpan, lower-energy delivery that would soon become his trademark a little further into his SNL tenure.
— Some of my favorite slams in David’s overall commentary tonight were about Vanilla Ice, Madonna’s “Sex” book, Kriss Kross, and the Encyclopedia Britannica guy.
— Fairly solid night for Kevin, with a lot of funny jokes and very minimal line flubs.
STARS: ***½


STALK TALK
guests discuss the nature of their obsessive trailing

 

— A huge laugh from Christopher claiming his girlfriend’s name is Bitch.
— Christopher is perfect as this creepy character.
— Jan is a riot as an obsessed David Hasselhoff fan. I even liked the little bit with her staring down Rob after Rob says he also likes Hasselhoff “……a lot”.
— Christopher’s story about hiding in the bushes and making bird noises to distract his girlfriend is priceless. I also like how when saying he got arrested for that incident, he mentions he was also naked during it and that “there were a variety of charges” made against him.
— Great ending with Christopher very randomly telling Julia “I think about you when I masturbate. I bet that… that disgusts you , doesn’t it?”
— A very strong sketch with solid ensemble work from everyone, though Christopher and Jan definitely ran away with this.
STARS: ****½


IT’S PAT
androgynous Pat’s new boss (host) is discombobulated by gender dysphoria

— Another Pat sketch already, after we just got one in the last episode? I’m not complaining, though.
— When Julia makes her entrance as Pat, part of a female stagehand can accidentally be seen behind Julia for a good while (the first above screencap for this sketch) before moving out of the shot. This shot would be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version.
— Christopher’s prolonged dramatic asides to Phil about how troubled he is by Pat’s androgyny are freakin’ hilarious, especially Christopher’s mention of how he’s “in a tizzy” and how Pat’s behavior is “not at all the norm”.
— This is such an unconventional Pat sketch, but I am absolutely loving it. The lack of focus on Pat and the redirected focus on Christopher’s perplexed reactions to Pat is very interesting, and Christopher is making this priceless in his typical Walken-esque way.
— I love how when Christopher “jumps” out of the window, he casually just walks out of the scene through the window and doesn’t even attempt to make it look like he jumped. That’s the type of “not giving a damn” acting that Christopher (and Norm Macdonald) can make funny.
STARS: ****½


SINEAD O’CONNOR GOODTIME HAPPY JAMBOREE
Sinead O’Connor (JAH) is booed off-stage during a Goodtime Happy Jamboree

— Another great use of Jan tonight.
— I know SNL making fun of the Sinead incident in this manner probably doesn’t sit well with a number of people, considering Sinead wasn’t exactly wrong in her point about the Catholic church (and that’s all I’m going to say about it; I really prefer not to use my SNL reviews to go into this type of serious issue), but personally, this spoof doesn’t bother me at all.
— Good walk-on from Phil as Kris Kristofferson silently consoling Jan’s Sinead, parodying what happened while Sinead was booed at a then-recent concert.
— An overall short but inspired, very funny, and memorable piece.
STARS: ****


PROFESSOR C AND THE SUPER SLEUTHS
sleuths watch their mentor (host) undergo embarrassing medical procedures

 

— Funny little part with the comically fake sound effect of the dog in Kevin’s arms barking.
— Pretty funny with the sleuths’ awkwardness when having to stay in the room while Christopher’s using a bedpan.
— Another laugh now from Phil detailing how he’s about to catheterize Christopher’s penis.
— Good ending with Christopher happily taking a newspaper photo while Ellen gives him an enema.
STARS: ***½


PLEA
Audience McGee (ADS) to Sinead O’Connor (JAH)- “love, don’t hate”

— More good comedy mined from the Sinead incident.
— Very funny with the various notorious figures who’s picture Jan’s Sinead keeps claiming she REALLY meant to tear, only to panickedly try to come up with another notorious figure when the audience disapproves. I’m getting big laughs from how Jan keeps quickly transitioning from a fiery, angry voice to a suddenly sheepish demeanor whenever she gets booed.
— We get the debut of Adam’s very funny Audience McGee character. He’s particularly hilarious in this sketch.
— Fun ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “People Everyday”
— This is missing from my copy of this episode.


THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN BALLS
(host) sings about catching crabs on “The Boulevard Of Broken Balls”

— This memorable musical piece ends up being the final sketch submitted by former SNL writer Michael O’Donoghue.
— An overall excellent musical number with priceless and well-written lyrics. I can definitely picture this O’Donoghue-penned piece appearing in the original era.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

— Christopher congratulates Toronto on having just won that night’s World Series against the Atlanta Braves.  During the ensuing cheering in the studio, canuck Phil Hartman can be seen letting out particularly loud and energetic cheers, while Georgia-born Jan Hooks comically pouts and boos (the first above screencap for these goodnights). Phil’s Canadian pride over Toronto winning the World Series would later be turned into a musical sketch the following week, where Phil is accompanied by a certain female canuck who happens to be hosting that night.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— And so ends what I’ve always considered to be probably my favorite SNL episode of all time. After watching this episode just now, my opinion has not changed at all. This was such a phenomenal episode, and I had an absolute blast from beginning to end. And not only was there nothing that I disliked, but almost every single segment received an impressive four or five-star rating. Add in Christopher Walken doing his second fantastic job as a host and solidifying himself as a sure-fire thing for SNL, and you have an episode that’s a force to be reckoned with. Just a perfect, perfect episode in my eyes, and holds a very special place in my heart.
— No Chris Farley in tonight’s episode. He’s going through a rehab stint at this time (his first of two this season alone), which will cause him to also miss the following week’s episode. Interesting how we have both his and Mike Myers’ temporary absence overlapping with each other, plus there’s also Dana’s diminishing presence. I guess this is one of the positive things about having such a large cast this season, because in a much smaller cast, the simultaneous lack of appearances from three standout audience favorites would impact the show HUGELY.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Joe Pesci)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Catherine O’Hara hosts SNL’s third and (as of 2019) final live episode to air on Halloween

Posted on

January 20, 1990 – Christopher Walken / Bonnie Raitt (S15 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Tonight Show- guests are Andrew Dice Clay (JOL) & Mikhail Gorbachev (PHH)

— Funny gag of an absent Ed McMahon being filled-in by a machine recording of his voice, only saying his catchphrases.
— Jon’s Andrew Dice Clay impression is solid, and there IS a pretty strong facial resemblance.
— Hmm, Phil has shown up as Mikhail Gorbachev. I wonder if that’s why they had to resort to replacing McMahon with a machine.
— Dana-as-Carson’s Azerbaijan bit was really funny.
— Immediately after Phil says “Live From New York…”, there’s suddenly a mysterious loud, high-pitched whirring sound that overlaps with the beginning of the theme music. I have no idea what that whirring sound was, but it would later be muted out in reruns.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host shows excitement by singing “Throwin’ A Ball Tonight” & tap-dancing

— When mentioning how audiences say he comes off cold and sinister in movies, Christopher says he always hears a criticism that he often sounds like he’s reading his lines off cue cards. That’s even funnier in hindsight, considering the cue card-staring penchant his SNL appearances would go on to become famous for.
— He launches into a song early on in this monologue, which would go on to be a tradition in his subsequent SNL monologues.
— Very upbeat number.
— Great tapdance break in the middle of the song.
— Excellent touch with the two fancy sets of stairs that the cast members enter from.
— An unintentional laugh from Christopher’s hat almost falling off backwards during a close-up of him at the end of the number, resulting in him making an alarmed “OH!” face as he quickly catches the hat.
STARS: ****½


COLON BLOW
— Rerun


ETERNITY
mysterious drama permeates perfume-inspired game show

 

— Very funny premise of a Calvin Klein commercial-esque gameshow. I know this sketch is based on one specific Klein commercial, which I (and I’m sure a lot of viewers today) have no memory of, but as long as you’re familiar with what Calvin Klein ads from this era were typically like, you still get exactly what this sketch is going for.
— Love the sky background behind the contestants as they’re saying their dramatic lines.
— This sketch is perfect for Christopher Walken’s style.  His dramatic reading of his “deep” answers is hilarious.
— Christopher’s “Liar!” outburst to Kevin cracked me up.
— Funny touch with Jan’s frantic hand movements when she and Christopher were shown writing their Final Eternity answer.
— Priceless reveal of Christopher’s written answer being a drawing of the famous painting “The Scream” (last screencap above).
— Even without saying a word, Jan is very good in this.
STARS: ****½


THE DUMPER
surrogate dumper (host) employed by (VIJ)’s boyfriend ends relationship

— The idea of someone sending a delivery man to tell his girlfriend he’s dumping her is really funny.
— A good laugh from Christopher responding to Victoria’s crying with an insincere, monotone “There, there” and pat on the back.
— Funny aspect of Christopher even having Victoria sign various pages of a document “to show that you’ve been dumped”.
— Great ending reveal that there’s another woman in the same building who the boyfriend sent Christopher to deliver break-up news to.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Have a Heart”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Annoying Man (JOL) expresses his love for DEM in strange ways

— Lots of great jokes so far about Marion Barry’s infamous then-recent crack bust.
— Dennis’ reactions to Annoying Man always make me laugh.
— Great turn with Annoying Man’s deep-voiced sudden “I love you” reveal to Dennis.
— Some great bits of business right after the Annoying Man commentary ends. First, Dennis tells us that Jon Lovitz has to get a lot less annoying than usual to get into that character. Jon as Annoying Man then rushes back to the Update set and gives Dennis’ cheek an unscripted lick with the tongue before immediately leaving again. Dennis then hilariously says to the camera “Licked by Lovitz. What concentric circle of hell is THAT?”
— Pretty funny how Dennis’ joke poking fun at the recent death of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh received some hisses from the audience, which Dennis of course played off of with some great ad-libs.
STARS: ***½


THE CONTINENTAL
viewers experience what it’s like to be charmed by The Continental (host)

— The debut of a Walken SNL staple. Feels a little odd in hindsight seeing this buried in the second half of the show, as I believe all the subsequent installments of this sketch would be recognized as an important part of the night and be placed in the first half of the show.
— It’s quite something in hindsight hearing Phil Hartman’s Continental voice-over intro being used for the first time, knowing that voice-over would famously go on to be used in all subsequent Continental installments, not only even after Phil’s SNL departure, but even after his passing.
— Love this format of a first-person camera perspective.
— Some odd little bloopers so far. Firstly, after the female guest (the cameraman) rings the doorbell, a strange, loud “FWOOMP” sound is suddenly heard. It sounded like it possibly came from the clip-on mic of an off-camera Christopher Walken. Secondly, when Christopher puts the keys down on the table after letting his female guest in his apartment, the keys IMMEDIATELY fall off the table by accident and make a loud crash sound, which Christopher tries to save with a brief ad-libbed statement: “Broken glass.”
— There’s the very first utterance of the Continental’s immortal pronunciation of champagne: “cham-PAN-yuh”.
— Great part with Continental lighting both cigarettes in his mouth simultaneously.
— Nice effect of the camera (the female guest) smoking a cigarette.
— Needless to say, Christopher is absolutely perfect in this.
— The female guest’s constant racing for the front door after an offensive statement by Continental is always funny, especially when she does it immediately after Continental asks her “Would you like to see… the bedroom?”
— Absolutely hilarious part with Continental showing his masseuse diploma from the University of Beijing.
— Interesting camera angle while the female guest is getting massaged.
STARS: *****


ATTITUDES
a talk with sports event proselytizer Rainbow Head (host)

— Surprisingly, this is the first (and probably only) time we’re seeing Nora all night.
— Absolutely LOVE the idea of Christopher being cast as the famous Rainbow Head guy from sports games.
— Christopher’s usual deadpan, oddball delivery is coming off PARTICULARLY priceless in this role.
— A big laugh from Christopher’s Rainbow Head calling the San Diego Chicken a whore.
— Very funny bit where after Rainbow Head describes his wig as an afro, Jan and Nora clarify to viewers in a sincere voice “Afro-Americans.”
— Another great aside from Jan and Nora, this time regarding the bible being the “best-selling book ever”.
— Nora: “Is there a pot of gold at the end of Rainbow Head’s rainbow?” That already-hilarious line was topped even further by Christopher’s silent, stone-faced reaction, which got a great response from the audience (and resulted in Christopher smirking).
STARS: *****


LEASE WITH AN OPTION TO KILL
Max Zorin’s (host) headquarters isn’t ready

 

— When being told by his henchman that they’ve captured James Bond, I loved Christopher-as-Max-Zorin’s panicked reaction: “No, you idiot! I’m not ready; LOOK at this place.”
— Every time I’ve seen this sketch over the years, I always crack up to no end at Zorin’s bizarre threat to Bond that he’s going to use a laser to “cut your ass in half”. It’s not just the line itself; it’s Walken’s delivery of it that kills me.
— Loved the “Here’s the shark excreting you” drawing that Zorin shows Bond.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Thing Called Love”


HARDBOUND
interviewer (KEN) is eager to learn more about writer (host)

— Here comes a sketch that would later be removed from reruns and be replaced with a Schiller’s Reel.
— Funny how Kevin constantly keeps making little statements of admiration while his favorite author (Christopher) is speaking. This is such a Kevin Nealon-feeling premise that I can tell he mostly likely wrote this sketch himself (which I know is something I’ve said a lot about Kevin throughout this SNL era, but he does have a very distinctive writing style and humor).
— Kevin’s increasing anger whenever Christopher mentions anyone other than himself is giving me some good laughs.
— Christopher’s exaggerated tongue-sticking-out face when forced to talk only about himself is priceless (last screencap above).
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Christopher Walken’s only words during his goodnights speech: “Thank you for coming and I….. thank you for coming.”

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An exceptionally strong episode where the show was firing on all cylinders, made even more significant with this being Christopher Walken’s SNL debut . As a performer, Christopher immediately displayed all the odd soon-to-be trademarks that would make all of his SNL hosting appearances so great and lovable. The show also used him well tonight, playing to his strengths by casting him in roles that perfectly utilized his unique personality and dry delivery (particularly the Eternity, Dumper, and Attitudes sketches).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ed O’Neill)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Quincy Jones and a ton of musical guests