Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE BANK STRESS TEST
Timothy Geithner (WLF) reviews banks’ cavalier answers to stress test
— Another Timothy Geither cold opening somewhat soon after the last one? Well, I did like the last one, so I guess I can’t complain.
— Amusing how Will’s Geithner is so lenient that he decided to stick with a “pass/pass” grading system.
— Some laughs from the incorrect answers given by the various banks, though I’m not enjoying this quite as much as I did the previous Geithner cold opening.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
having done SNL thrice, singing host knows his way around backstage
— Musical monologue, but at least it makes sense to do one with Justin Timberlake.
— A fun “I think I know my way around” conceit to this song, and I’m always a sucker for host-goes-around-the-studio monologues.
— Justin’s navigating this around-the-studio trip well.
— Oh, as an SNL nerd, I absolutely LOVE the turn the song takes towards the end, with Justin musically namechecking all of this season’s hosts, in random order. Very fun. To make one minor nitpick, though, he mentions Tina Fey among the hosts, even though she didn’t host this season (though made lots of cameos).
STARS: ***½
MOM CELEBRITY TRANSLATOR
Mom Celebrity Translator deciphers stars’ names mangled by mothers
— A relatable commercial, and a fitting choice to do this in an episode airing the day before Mother’s Day.
— I particularly like the part with the translator working backwards, un-translating the name Jake Gyllenhaal into Joe Geronimo.
STARS: ***½
TARGET
Target Lady’s accident-prone friend Peg (host) is excited about a date
— Didn’t like the overly-cartoonish gag with wind blowing as Bobby makes a fast exit off-camera.
— The appearance of Justin’s memorable Classic Peg character. So memorable, that, to me, this character feels like she became recurring, even though this is the only time she ever appeared.
— Very good characterization from Justin here. This Peg character of his is much funnier than the completely forgettable character he previously played in a Target Lady sketch when hosting in season 32.
— I don’t know why, but in these past two Target Lady sketches, I’ve been finding the Target Lady character less and less annoying. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d start coming around on Target Lady. Maybe part of the reason I’ve come around on her is because she now comes off mildly tolerable and likable to me compared to the truly unbearable and very one-dimensional characters Kristen’s debuted in the second half of this season. I may have picked too late to start liking this character, though, given the fact that, not counting the appearance Target Lady makes among other recurring characters in Ryan Phillippe’s season 35 monologue, nor the Target Lady sketch that appears when Kristen hosts in season 38, we have only one more Target Lady sketch remaining in Kristen’s tenure as a cast member, and it doesn’t appear until years later in 2012, believe it or not!
STARS: ***
IMMIGRANT TALE
host’s immigrant great-great-grandpa Cornelius (host) proves prescient
— A memorable sketch, whether you’re a fan of it or not.
— A quintessential example of how very self-referential, meta, and wink-wink Justin tends to get on SNL, which, at times, can certainly be a bit much for me (and I’m sure especially for certain SNL fans who can’t stand Justin as a host), but this particular old-timey Ellis Island setting with Justin playing his own ancestor is making it work for me.
— Good bit right now making fun of Justin’s overabundance of cameos on SNL this season.
— I love Andy entering as an ancestor of his own: Moishe Samberg.
— Justin, to Andy: “You know what…Jew?” Andy: “There it is!”
STARS: ****
MOTHER LOVER
(Susan Sarandon) & (Patricia Clarkson) get Dick In A Box
— The follow up to the legendary Dick In A Box. The ending of the Immigrant Tale sketch that preceded this was a very fitting way to lead into this short, even if it wasn’t a direct segue.
— I love how this short opens with a callback to the ending of Dick In A Box (in which Andy and Justin’s characters get arrested), as we see Andy and Justin’s characters exiting a detention complex and discarding their hole-containing boxes from the Dick In A Box short.
— A very surprising and fantastic use of Patricia Clarkson and Susan Sarandon. I remember being shocked back at this time in 2009 that SNL was able to get them to participate in this.
— A hilarious and epic turn the song takes when it suddenly becomes about Andy and Justin “(*bleep*)ing each other’s moms”.
— Plenty of funny gags and visuals in Andy and Justin’s scenes with each other’s mothers.
— I love the key change portion of the song when Andy and Justin are singing right into each other’s faces with their noses pressed against each other (a.k.a. the portion of the song that famously ends with the lyric “I’ll never use a rubber”).
— Great lyric: “This is the second best idea we’ve ever had”.
— Very funny bit regarding the framed photo of Justin when Andy and Patricia Clarkson are about to make love in bed.
— Overall, another classic Digital Short starring these two characters. I’m glad Lonely Island was able to do a Dick In The Box follow-up that was still fantastic and holds its own, instead of being a lazy carbon copy of Dick In A Box.
STARS: *****
SURGERY CENTER
singing & dancing mascot supplants the promoter of a health club (WLF)
— Meh. This again.
— Justin’s song parodies here somehow feel even less exciting to me than the ones from previous installments of this sketch. Usually, despite my dislike of these sketches, Justin’s energy is at least admirable, but it’s doing NOTHING for me in tonight’s installment.
— Okay, I do like Justin’s “Poker Face” spoof just now. This also, in hindsight, serves as an interesting time capsule of this period where I only just started to become aware of Lady Gaga, as that “Poker Face” song was inescapable at the time.
— After the aforementioned upswing in this sketch, my enthusiasm has unfortunately died back down.
STARS: **
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Jessica Biel [real] introduces musical guest & host
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & host perform “Love Sex Magic”
WEEKEND UPDATE
David Paterson (FRA) & Eliot Spitzer (BIH) consider their prospects
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy [real] defend the new Star Trek
— Another instance of an occasional routine I love, in which Seth re-tells the same joke (the Sargaard & Gyllenhaal Married joke, in tonight’s case) several times in a row, with a different punchline each time. I also love his “Oh, there’s more” ad-lib after the audience’s tepid reaction to one of those jokes.
— I find it fun to see Bill and Fred’s Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson impression paired together. I remember this commentary of theirs being fun.
— I love Bill’s goofy deep-voiced laugh as Spitzer throughout this commentary.
— It amuses me how Fred’s Paterson has now gotten to the point where he looks into the camera with both eyes open each time he slams New Jersey.
— As I remembered, fun performances from both Bill and Fred here, and I’m getting good laughs from some of their lines.
— Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Seth’s Bird Smuggler Arrested joke is SNL’s very first mention of Twitter. Just to show you how (relatively) long ago this was, Seth’s Twitter reference here mentions accessing Twitter on a Blackberry.
— Funny reaction shots of Kenan and Bobby as upset Star Trek nerds in the audience during Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto’s defense of the new Star Trek movie.
— Good to see a Leonard Nimoy cameo on SNL.
— Very funny “dickheads” line from Nimoy.
— For once, we got a solo Seth Meyers-anchored Weekend Update that only contains two guest commentaries instead of three or four. Still a long-feeling Update, though. I guess I should just accept that as the norm now.
STARS: ***½
THE BARRY GIBB TALK SHOW
Nancy Pelosi (KRW) and others discuss the economy
— (*sigh*) Much like the Dancing Mascot sketches, here we have another tired staple of Timberlake episodes. While, unlike the Dancing Mascot sketches, I actually loved Barry Gibb Talk Show in its debut, I’ve never cared for it as a recurring sketch and I feel it should’ve stayed a great one-off.
— As I always say, though, Jimmy Fallon puts his fucking ALL into these Barry Gibb sketches.
— There goes Justin’s obligatory character break that occurs in seemingly every Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch.
STARS: **
PIRATES
shipping mixup arms Disney actors for a Pirates Of The Caribbean show
— Only our second and final original, non-recurring sketch all night.
— Funny reveal of the Disney actors having the Somali pirates’ shipment of real weapons.
— This sadly feels like Jason’s first appearance all night, until I remembered he was in some stuff much earlier in the episode.
— Not only am I really enjoying this sketch, but I absolutely LOVE the structure of it, with all the various sets, locations, and scene changes. This has the feel of the type of long, epic, movie-like sketches that were far more common in the 70s and early 80s. It’s too bad SNL doesn’t do sketches like this more often in more recent decades like this.
— Great sarcasm from Jason’s boss character.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Never Ever”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Other than a few tired and unnecessary Timberlake episode staples (Dancing Mascot, Barry Gibb Talk Show), I enjoyed this episode, and there were a few strong pieces. Strangely, the overall amount of segments this episode contained felt a little smaller than usual. Apparently, there was a sketch planned to air between Ciara’s second musical performance and the goodnights, but the show seemingly ran long and had to cut the scheduled sketch at the last minute, judging by how they did the “come back from a commercial break only to show the SNL Band play the show back to ANOTHER commercial break” move they usually do whenever a scheduled sketch gets scrapped at the last minute.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Mother Lover
Pirates
Immigrant Tale
Mom Celebrity Translator
Monologue
Weekend Update
Target
The Bank Stress Test
Surgery Center
The Barry Gibb Talk Show
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Zac Efron)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 34 comes to an end, with host Will Ferrell. It’s the final episode for 14-year SNL veteran Darrell Hammond, as well as featured players Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins.