Tag: Coldplay

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May 3, 2014 – Andrew Garfield / Coldplay (S39 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
mistress (SAZ) & Dennis Rodman (JAP) stand up for Donald Sterling (BOM)

— Very funny line from Taran’s Adam Silver gloating that he received more high-fives from black people this week than any other time in his life.
— Interesting voice from Bobby as Donald Sterling, who has some good lines here.
— Jay’s Dennis Rodman impression has improved from the previous time he played him, though I keep hearing a bit of Will Smith in his voice this time.
— All of Kenan’s “Look……….”s and “Come on…….”s during his speech are cracking me up, and is exactly the type of thing Kenan always knows how to make funny. It would’ve been funnier, though, if his scene consisted of him literally only saying “Look……….” and “Come on…….”, and then walking off without having said anything else.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 co-stars Emma Stone [real] & AIB advise host

— I always forget Andrew Garfield is British until I hear him speak in his real voice.
— Another monologue where the premise is the host being upstaged by a cameo. Normally, I’d gripe about this like I did in my review of the preceding episode’s monologue, but at least this particular Emma Stone cameo makes sense in terms of the host, and Emma is always good on SNL, and thus, I can’t really complain about her presence here.
— Good bit regarding Emma assuring Andrew that the SNL Band laughs at anything during monologues, only for them to be stone-faced when Andrew does a bad attempt at a joke.
— A pretty funny clip of Aidy’s blink-and-miss-it appearance in the new Spider-Man movie.
STARS: ***


STANX
odor lock technology of Stanx expandable underwear contains (BEB)’s farts

— Season 39’s penchant for juvenile humor strikes ONCE AGAIN. Since I actually found some of this season’s juvenile humor pieces to be surprisingly not bad (e.g. the Jim Parsons elevator sketch), I’ll remain open-minded towards this commercial.
— A very blah sight gag of Beck’s Stanx wear constantly inflating while he’s farting in a laid-back demeanor. Certainly not a great sight gag to base an entire commercial around.
— Ha, an actual funny conclusion with Beck’s apartment exploding when he removes his Stanx after it contained his farts all day.
— I love both Beck’s intentionally cheesy delivery and (especially) facial expression when saying “Thanks, Stanx!” (the last above screencap for this commercial). He’s one of the only performers who could sell a line like that.
STARS: *½ for the first two-thirds of this commercial, ***½ for the last third, **½ for this commercial altogether


CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD
Justin Timberlake (host) dominates matchup of musicians

— Odd how the first installment of this sketch had Justin Timberlake playing that night’s SNL host, Jimmy Fallon, and now the second installment of this sketch has tonight’s SNL host, Andrew Garfield, playing Justin Timberlake. Does this mean that, in the next installment of this sketch, someone will play Andrew Garfield? (I already know in hindsight that the answer is no.)
— Another display of Nasim’s love for playing short men.
— Kenan’s Steve Harvey, to Noel’s Reba McEntire: “I seen your sitcoms. They are to white people what The Wayans Brothers are to black people – we’ll watch it…but we ain’t gonna TELL nobody about it.”
— A good Drake impression from Jay, and, as I mentioned in a recent review, I always love when a cast member impersonates a then-recent host, as I always like to assume that said cast member developed that impression from having worked with that host for a week.
— Not the most spot-on Timberlake impression in terms of voice or physical mannerisms, but Andrew’s at least doing a spot-on spoof of Timberlake’s penchant for being a screenhog who’s in love with himself.
— As usual, Kenan’s Steve Harvey has tons of hilarious lines throughout this sketch, especially “Show me ‘Fiddlin’ with ya giblets’!”, a line that has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Taran’s singing as Russel Crowe is priceless, as is the fact that it alone receives three Family Feud “X”s.
STARS: ***½


OLIVER TWIST
self-centered woman (CES) horns in on Oliver Twist’s (host) gruel query

— I’m not caring for Cecily’s character, nor do I care for that…that voice she’s doing. I remember, when this sketch originally aired, this was around the time I came to the conclusion that SNL was spreading Cecily too thin this season, pushing her too much, and starring her in lots of lousily-written big character showcase pieces, some of which she herself co-wrote with James Anderson and Kent Sublette. I remember all of those things caused me (and certain other online SNL fans) to kinda turn against Cecily at this time and worry that SNL was making the same mistake with her that they previously made with Kristen Wiig, in terms of overusing her, misusing her talents, and giving her lots of lousily-written big character showcase pieces. Over the following seasons after this one, where SNL stopped pushing her as the new “star” of the cast, Cecily would slowly win me back, to the degree that I now look at her as being a very valuable and underappreciated utility player, one with a timeless quality that feels like she would’ve fit into a lot of SNL eras, such as the prestigious late 80s era. However, even looking back at season 39 nowadays, I still feel this season wasn’t always the best use of Cecily’s talents, especially not with her Weekend Update anchoring gig and how bad some of her big character showcase pieces were, including this sketch.
— I laughed at Kate’s quivery-voiced, British-accented delivery of “I do the whippings!”
— Cecily finally got a laugh from me, when saying, during her claim that she’s not afraid to give people whippings, “And FYI, I whip the face!”
— The bit regarding Cecily eating all of Andrew’s soup fell very flat.
— Welp, folks, this ends up being John Milhiser’s final live role on SNL. And, being completely on-brand with his general airtime this season, his role in this sketch is a very small one with only one line. (*sigh*) Even though there are two episodes remaining this season, John does not make a single live appearance in either of them. He’s completely absent in the penultimate episode, and in the season finale, he (and all of the other featured players who get fired after this season) only appears in a non-speaking bit role in a pre-taped Lonely Island Digital Short that he dies in. Poor, poor John. He has one of the saddest SNL tenures I’ve ever witnessed. So much potential completely wasted by SNL.
STARS: *½


THE BEYGENCY
(host), (Kiefer Sutherland), (Mary Lynn Rajskub) are targeted for dissing diva Beyonce

— A famous Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written pre-tape that went very viral back at this time in 2014 and was considered a season highlight, deservedly so, in my opinion. I recall this short being a masterpiece.
— A very funny exaggerated dark turn after Andrew confesses he’s not crazy about Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love” song.
— Dramatic exchange between Taran and Jay’s agent characters: “It’s time to go to work.” “Work with an ‘e’?” “Of course.”
— After the tense “I like most of her music!” “MOST?!?” exchange between Andrew and Bobby, I love Bobby immediately whipping out a shotgun and aiming it at Andrew.
— Even the cameos in this are fun, with Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub playing their “24” characters. I especially love how, after calling one of Beyonce’s songs “the only good one!”, they’re both immediately shot in the back of the head by two bullets from off-camera. That also results in an absolutely hilarious muted, long, high-pitched scream from Andrew.
— Everything about the movie trailer aesthetic this is going for is absolutely perfect, from the way it’s shot, to the acting, to everything else.
— A particularly classic part with the hilarious visual of Taran and the other manly agents doing the Single Ladies dance in unison.
— A solid comically-unsettling performance from Kate. Even though it’s just a small role, it’s Kate McKinnon performances like this that made me start to realize back at this time in 2014 that she seemed to be on her way to becoming my personal favorite member of the then-current cast. It turns out, she would indeed go on to become my favorite then-current cast member the next few seasons (seasons 40-42), which feature her at her peak.
— The audience applause at the end of this short is so enthusiastic and premature that it drowns out Kate’s ending line, “(singing) Who run the world? (speaking) She does.”
— Overall, this short absolutely still holds up for me.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Magic”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Olya Povlatsky expects Russia-Ukraine tiff will make her life even worse

large-framed LEJ figures she would’ve been in demand during slavery

Jebidiah Atkinson has nothing nice to say about Tony Awards & theatre

— Lots of meh Update jokes so far tonight, from both Cecily AND Colin. (Usually, it’s just Cecily who gets the worst jokes.)
— Kate’s Olya Povlatsky character is always so fun and likable, but I hope they’re not starting to rely a little too frequently on her.
— Even SNL’s overused “foreigner makes dated pop culture-references because their country is decades behind on American pop culture” trope is made funny in this Olya Povlatsky commentary, with the solid Full House bit.
— I like Olya Povlatsky’s facial reaction to Cecily telling her the very tame “problems” that make Americans say “F my life.”
— Cecily’s “George Clooney engaged” joke is one of her stronger Update jokes this season.
— A very noteworthy moment right now, as we get our very first Leslie Jones SNL appearance, back when she was just a writer on the show.
— It feels really significant hearing Leslie Jones’ distinctive voice for the first time in my SNL project. Just one of those special moments that makes me realize I’ve officially reached a certain big SNL period/era. This also occurred when I first heard the comforting voice of Phil Hartman and Bill Hader (and a few other cast members who I can’t remember right now) when I reviewed their respective first episode.
— Ah, there’s our very first “Leslie hits on Colin” moment, which already feels fully-formed even in this first instance of it. I especially love the back-and-forth between Leslie and Colin during the second “Who would you pick…?” question she asks him.
— Leslie is so good here that she’s actually bringing out some personality in Colin, which is rare to see in these early days of Colin’s Update stint.
— A particularly memorable part of Leslie’s commentary, in which she demonstrates how frequently she would’ve had “superbabies” in the slavery days: “Shaq! Kobe! LeBron! Kimbo Slice! Sinbad!”
— Leslie, at the end of her commentary: “Can a bitch get a beef bowl?!? CAN A BITCH GET A BEEF BOWL?!?”
— Leslie absolutely knocked it out of the park in this overall commentary. She definitely made her presence known right out of the gate. One of the most impressive SNL debuts I’ve ever seen a performer make. I recall thinking back at this time that Leslie displayed far more comedic prowess in one appearance than Sasheer did in the entire second half of this season (I find Sasheer more likable in my re-watch of this season, even though I still find there’s too much of a blandness to her as an SNL performer, and I feel that SNL just wasn’t the right venue for her talents), and that a standout performer like Leslie being stuck in the writers’ room while the unmemorable and less-funny (to me back in 2014) Sasheer got to be in the cast was akin to 10 years prior where standout performer J.B. Smoove was stuck in the writers’ room while the unmemorable and less-funny Finesse Mitchell got to be in the cast. Leslie’s onscreen debut in this episode would not only go on to be much talked about (including some controversy caused by the slavery subject matter Leslie focused on), but would lead to her making more uncredited onscreen SNL appearances early the following season, which themselves would be so well-received that SNL would finally add her to the cast four episodes into that season.
— The punchline to Colin’s “Cheerleading has been made an official high school sport” news story being him saying “……Dad” in a defensive manner is something that would go on to be a running punchline he’d use over the years. As I said in a previous review, Seth Meyers was actually the first Update anchor to use that punchline, years prior to this.
— Cecily and Colin’s Update jokes have been improving over the course of tonight’s Update, after a bad start. Even Cecily’s corny “loaded potato” joke was the good kind of corny, and I especially like her jokingly-smug “You’re welcome” ad-lib afterwards.
— Jebidiah Atkinson!
— Jebidiah Atkinson, on the play Of Mice And Men: “The only thing slower than this play was Lennie…and at least someone put him out of his misery!”
— As usual in these Jebidiah Atkinson commentaries, we get a fantastic ad-lib from Taran at one point, this time when correcting himself after his “Tony/Tommy” slip-up.
— Jebidiah Atkinson, on the play Annie: “Sing as loud as you want, honey – your parents ain’t comin’ back!”
— Jebidiah Atkinson, on the play that Abraham Lincoln was attending when he got shot: “It may not have gone over that well in the orchestra…but it KILLED in the balcony!”
— I absolute love how Taran ends tonight’s Jebidiah Atkinson commentary by saying “Can a bitch get a beef bowl?!?”, as a callback to how Leslie Jones’ commentary ended earlier in this Update.
— Tonight’s overall Update was easily the best one of this troubled Update season so far.
STARS: ***½


SPIDER-MAN KISS
host & Emma Stone [real] kiss awkwardly on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 set

— Not one of the funnier premises for the ol’ SNL trope of “someone has a very difficult time doing a very simple thing during the filming of a movie/commercial/etc.”, but Andrew and Emma’s performances are somewhat fun.
— Taran’s a solid straight man here.
— Seeing Andrew, Emma, and Chris Martin onscreen together makes me realize that the last time both Andrew and Emma appeared together on SNL prior to this, when Emma hosted in season 37, Coldplay was the musical guest in that episode, too. Interesting coincidence.
— Aaaaaaand we go the cheap “men kissing each other for an easy, unnecessary laugh” route. As unfunny as that certainly is, I will at least say that Chris Martin is coming off very game and natural here, making me wish SNL gave him better material than this and that damn Garth & Kat commentary from the aforementioned season 37 episode that Emma hosted.
— What’s with Jay’s extremely goofy, muggy facial expression when he briefly re-entered the sketch to hand Chris Martin a blonde wig (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch)? Even the way he handed Chris Martin the wig was done in a very silly, exaggerated manner. Was all of that Jay’s unscripted attempt to make something out of a nothing role? If so, the way he did it feels kinda unprofessional, but I’m probably making too big a deal out of nothing.
— Aaaaaaand to make this sketch even worse after that “men kissing each other for an easy, unnecessary laugh” turn, we close this sketch with an always-lazy “spinning newspaper headline” ending, one that somehow manages to be even weaker than usual. Man, this sketch really went to hell after a tepidly-written-but-affably-performed first two-thirds.
STARS: **


WEDDING
best man (host) expresses love for bride (CES) at her wedding reception

— I laughed out loud at Kenan’s shocked delivery of “Aw, dayum!” when Andrew confesses he’s still in love with his ex, Cecily, who’s the bride at this wedding ceremony.
— I love the very-realistically uncomfortable turn this sketch takes when Cecily breaks Andrew’s heart by disclosing that she doesn’t reciprocate his love and, in fact, barely even knows him. Andrew is great at pulling this uncomfortable turn off while his character tries to remain jovial.
— Oh, an absolutely priceless reveal that Andrew is the best man of this wedding, and now has to give a toast RIGHT AFTER his embarrassing moment where he confessed his love to the bride and then got his heart broken by her.
— Another absolutely priceless reveal, where we find out that the maid of honor, who’s standing next to Andrew right now after all the things he had just said about the love he has for the bride, is actually HIS WIFE. Wow.
— Man, this sketch is keeping the hilarious shocking reveals coming. This is amazing.
— Yet another line delivered excellently by Kenan, this time at the end of this sketch when Andrew tries to go back onstage once again after the announcement of the garter toss: “HEY, HEY, BOY, SIT YO ASS DOWN!”
— Overall, a forgotten and underrated masterpiece. And, would you know it, much like tonight’s other masterpiece, The Beygency, I’m pretty sure this Wedding sketch was written by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (though I’m not sure if that was ever confirmed, so my apologies if I’m incorrect), further proving that those two are by far the MVPs of SNL’s then-current writing staff, and should’ve been promoted to head writers much earlier than they ended up being (which turns out to be in season 42, and ONLY season 42, because they both end up leaving the show after that season, which further proves my point that SNL waited too damn long to make those two head writers).
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Sky Full Of Stars”


THE BIRD BIBLE
Rerun from 3/1/14


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode contained three very noteworthy segments (The Beygency, Wedding, and Leslie Jones’ onscreen debut), all of which are season highlights and bolstered the quality of what was an otherwise average episode. Andrew Garfield was a likable host and did a particularly strong job in the Wedding sketch. He even came off very endearing during his goodnights speech.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Beygency
Wedding
Weekend Update
Celebrity Family Feud
Press Conference
Monologue
Stanx
Spider-Man Kiss
Oliver Twist


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seth Rogen)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Charlize Theron

Posted on

November 12, 2011 – Emma Stone / Coldplay (S37 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
during a GOP debate, fellow candidates pity forgetful Rick Perry (BIH)

— Another funny loopy portrayal of Rick Perry from Bill, and it’s an interesting change of pace having this GOP debate sketch mainly focus on him.
— Some funny unsettled reactions from the other candidates to Bill-as-Rick-Perry’s endless screw-ups and embarrassments.
— Another example of Paul sounding very Will Forte-esque as Ron Paul, this time when exclaiming “All his cards are BLANK!”
— A hilarious visual of Bill’s Perry seen wearing a dickey when he removes his suit jacket.
— As I’ve disclosed before, Of Mice And Men is my favorite book of all time, and I’m always a sucker for parodies of it. Thus, I love the Of Mice And Men turn this cold opening takes towards the end.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
ANS wishes he & not Andrew Garfield [real] were host’s Spider-Man co-star

— I see Andy’s apparently doing a variation of the upside-down Spider-Man commentary he did on Weekend Update the preceding season.
— A laugh from Andy’s sloppy attempt at passing off silly string as a web shooter.
— A meta, self-aware part with Emma pointing out that Andy’s just re-doing the same monologue Kirsten Dunst did in 2002.
— Andy, when learning that the surname of Spider-Man’s new actor is Garfield: “How’s he gonna fight crime when he’s busy eating lasagna and tworking Nermal, amirite?!?” Assuming “tworking” means “fucking”, it’s funny how many people, including Andy, are under the incorrect assumption that Nermal is a girl. I used to think so myself when I was a kid.
— I love Andy’s “HE’S BRITISH?!?” line when hearing Andrew Garfield’s accent.
STARS: ***½


SECRET WORD
oblivious Mindy Grayson & Miss America (host) are worthless

— (*groan*) (By the way, I wonder how many recurring sketches in this era always immediately induce a *groan* reaction from me in my reviews. Whatever the number is, it must be close to the double-digits by this point, if not already there, which just goes to show how many bad recurring sketches this era has).
— I guess they’re running out of cast members to play the straight man contestants in this recurring sketch, as this is Paul’s second time getting stuck in this role in a Secret Word sketch.
— Funny bit regarding Emma disclosing the fact that she was disqualified from a pageant because “they could see my puss”.
— Like most SNL hosts in this recurring sketch, Emma continues to be the only real saving grace of this installment (aside from a few funny reliable lines from Bill). The Mindy Elise Grayson (once again, I hate the fact that they randomly and pointlessly added a middle name to this Mindy Grayson character starting last season) portions, on the other hand, are as painful as ever. In fact, I don’t know if it’s just me, but this character seems to be getting more and more annoying with each passing installment of this sketch lately, especially her songs that these sketches seem to be relying on more and more.
STARS: *½


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
journalistic fossil Herb Welch flubs reporting on falling ice story

— Makes sense seeing Emma Stone in a Herb Welch sketch and being the victim of Herb’s typical microphone face-hits, given the fact that, reportedly, Bill inadvertently came up with the Herb Welch character during rehearsals of the news sketch from Emma’s previous episode, where Bill, while playing a normal reporter character, kept ad-libbing by hitting Emma and others in the face with his microphone while interviewing them.
— A good laugh from Herb randomly asking Emma “You think this Belafonte kid oughta…pipe down?”
— A decent twist to the usual microphone face-hitting gag at one point, with Emma using her purse as a shield when Herb’s about to hit her in the face with his microphone once again, causing him to unintentionally hit himself with the microphone.
— Good job from Kristen on perfectly keeping a straight face during Bill’s VERY extended tapping of his microphone onto her crotch, which (unsurprisingly) cracks himself up at one point.
— Maybe I’m slowly starting to get a little tired of the usual formula of this recurring sketch, because, while I still enjoyed tonight’s overall installment, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as previous installments.
STARS: ***½


WISH IT WOULD RAIN
lack of precipitation hampers singer’s (ANS) video

 

— Oh, no. I recall this short being HORRIBLE. When it originally aired, I was absolutely floored by how bad it was. It was the point where I slowly started realizing that the Digital Shorts had officially “lost it” this season.
— The bit with the “rain” turning out to be Jason peeing on Andy got a laugh from me. Otherwise, yeah, this short is dire so far.
— Jesus Christ, the appearance of Emma with an exaggeratedly big butt is SO desperate. Just sad. The fact that they felt the need to randomly throw that gag into this is a huge sign of the general lack of inspiration in this season’s Digital Shorts.
— Yikes, that Andy-getting-struck-by-lightning-and-then-disappearing ending was AWFUL, and, again, reeked of sad desperation and lack of inspiration.
— Overall, oof. Yeah, this mostly lived up to my horrible memory of it, though I did get one actual laugh this time (the aforementioned bit with the rain turning out to be Jason peeing), which was more than I got during my first viewing of this back when it originally aired. Still one of the worst Digital Shorts of all time, though.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Paradise”


WEEKEND UPDATE
the nature of the Penn State scandal is too much for The Devil to take

Garth & Kat add a backup singer (Chris Martin) for Thanksgiving tunes

— Ah, this Penn State commentary from The Devil is the commentary that I’ve remembered the most out of all of his appearances. This also ends up being his final Update commentary. His only remaining appearance is just a non-speaking background appearance with various other Update characters during the epic “Stefon’s Wedding” bit in Bill’s final episode.
— I absolute love The Devil’s various reactions to certain horrifying details about the Penn State scandal. Given this VERY heavy subject matter, this is a fine line for SNL to tread, but Jason’s execution of it is perfect.
— After The Devil says, in an aghast manner in response to one of the Penn State scandal details about the child sexual abuse, “This is college football, not the catholic church!” and the audience gasps at that, I love The Devil then asking the audience “Are you sorry that it happened or that I reminded you of it?”
— After The Devil learns of one PARTICULARLY horrifying fact about the Penn State scandal, Jason gets such a huge laugh out of me from him getting out of his seat and yelling at the Weekend Update map “ARE YOU HEARING THIS?!? ARE YOU HEARING THIS…MAP?!?” Jason is absolutely slaying me in this whole commentary.
— The Devil ending his commentary by officially retiring from his job is perfect closure for this recurring character.
— Aaaaaaand, after my very positive reception to The Devil commentary, Garth and motherfucking Kat are here to give me one of the biggest mood whiplashes I’ve EVER gotten during SNL.
— Much like Gwyneth Paltrow in the preceding season, her then-hubby Chris Martin plays a third member of Garth & Kat. I’m guessing Chris Martin previously watched Gwyneth doing this and liked it so much that, when he showed up at SNL this week, he asked if he could do a Garth & Kat bit. So I see I have him to thank for having to suffer through these characters once again.
STARS: **½ (as usual, Garth & Kat’s painful and overlong commentary docked half a star from the rating)


LES JEUNES DE PARIS
teens dance & get married to “A Cause Des Garcons”

— This episode is going really heavy on recurring characters, though I’m not complaining about seeing this particular sketch.
— Emma reprises the character she played in the very first installment of this sketch.
— I kinda don’t like how the French songs played in these sketches seem to get less and less bizarre with each passing installment of this sketch, but that’s a minor gripe about this always-very-fun recurring sketch.
— Great bit with a little person appearing from under Emma’s wedding dress.
— Some fun walk-ons and passersby at the end.
— While I didn’t feel this overall installment of this recurring sketch was quite as great as previous installments (which I also said about Herb Welch earlier in this episode review), this was still strong and enjoyable.
STARS: ****


BRIDAL SHOWER GIFTS
(host)’s X-rated gifts are inappropriate for (KRW)’s bridal shower

— An actual original, non-recurring sketch tonight.
— The odd, very deep voice Emma’s using here is immediately cracking me up.
— So far, good job from Emma as this off-beat character, and her inappropriate bridal shower gifts are pretty funny.
— I know it’s cliched for me to say this at this point of Fred’s SNL tenure, but ugh, I hate Fred’s performance in this otherwise good sketch. I find him unlikable when he plays characters like this in his later seasons, and not unlikable in the intentional, comedic way.
— Decent bit with Emma’s reactions to the “cops”.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall”


SAD SONG
depressed (NAP) & co-workers have a good cry to “Someone Like You”

— A laugh from Nasim, after initially hiding her true emotions from her co-workers, immediately following her co-workers’ exit by playing Adele’s “Someone Like You” on her computer and instantly breaking out into tears.
— Very funny visual of Nasim and Emma simultaneously pigging out on ice cream while crying to the song.
— Amusing how Kristen’s reason for wanting to cry to the song is because her parakeets have been fighting all week.
— Hilarious actions and facial expressions from Emma, Nasim, and Kristen right now during their emotional “Someone Like You” crying together.
— Great escalation to this sketch.
— I love the gag with Bill randomly having mascara running from his eyes during his crying.
— An excellent meta turn with us now even seeing Coldplay, as themselves, falling victim to the chain reaction of emotional “Someone Like You” crying while watching this sketch backstage at SNL.
STARS: ****½


WE’RE GOING TO MAKE TECHNOLOGY HUMP
handheld devices perform porno plots

— Well, this is certainly an out-of-left-field premise. I’m onboard, though.
— Jay makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in something that’s 1) pre-taped, and 2) can hardly even be called an “appearance”, as we only hear his voice and see his hand during one of the technology sex scenes.
— Why are Andy and Emma’s portions of this sketch pre-taped? One could say it’s because Andy gets bleeped out at one point when jovially saying “I hear that shit!”, but it’s not like this era hasn’t had bleeped-out scripted swearing in live sketches (e.g. the Paula Deen sketch from the season 36 Scarlett Johansson episode).
— Some good and inspired gags during the technology sex scenes, like the camera’s penis being its extended lens, the iPad turning around to receive anal sex, and the curling iron’s plug being used as a whip.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. The first half was kinda bumpy, but things got better and more consistent in the second half (which was also the case with Emma Stone’s previous episode).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Sad Song
Les Jeunes de Paris
We’re Going To Make Technology Hump
The Republican Presidential Debate
WXPD News New York
Monologue
Bridal Shower Gifts
Weekend Update
Secret Word
Wish It Would Rain


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charlie Day)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jason Segel

Posted on

October 25, 2008 – Jon Hamm / Coldplay (S34 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BIDEN/MURTHA RALLY
dumb statements of Joe Biden (JAS) & John Murtha (DAH) imperil campaign

— A new impression from Darrell in this late stage of his SNL tenure. I can’t judge the accuracy of his John Murtha impression, as I have no real familiarity with Murtha, but Darrell’s impression is coming off pretty funny.
— Some laughs from Jason’s Joe Biden making a bold, suspiciously specific prediction that Barack Obama will be tested by a huge crisis early in his presidency.
— Some of Darrell-as-Murtha’s ignorant, rude comments are making me laugh.
— Seems pointless to have all those cast members (Kenan, Andy, Bobby, Casey) playing supporters in the background, when they don’t have anything to say or do in this.
— Jason’s Biden: “Gird your loins! By the beard of Jupiter, GIRD! YOUR! LOINS!”
— The fact that, after the Jim Downey-voiced “Next on C-SPAN” bit towards the end, the camera cuts back to Jason and Darrell’s Biden and Murtha just to show Jason setting up and saying a tacked-on-seeming LFNY, makes it obvious that this wasn’t the original choice for the cold opening tonight. Indeed, the cold opening in this episode’s dress rehearsal was the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch we’ll be seeing later in tonight’s episode. In fact, in the syndicated 60-minute version of this episode shown on cable channels, this Biden/Murtha cold opening is replaced with the original dress rehearsal version of the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch, complete with the original LFNY. What’s interesting and odd about that is the NBC rerun of this episode didn’t do that, IIRC. The NBC rerun still left in the live Biden/Murtha cold opening and still kept the live version of the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour as a sketch placed later in the show.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Some pretty funny outlandish lies Jon Hamm is making up about what Mad Men contains, in an attempt to help the show’s ratings. Reminds me a bit of Robert Hays’ monologue from season 6, though I feel this is being executed a lot better.
— I particularly like the mention of John McCain freaking out from supposedly smoking weed on Mad Men.
— Ignoring Oliver Stone’s brief and pointless cameo in Josh Brolin’s monologue in the preceding episode, this is the fourth consecutive episode with a real monologue that only involves the host. I’m really liking this trend.
— Jon is already showing lots of promise as a host. He handled this host-only monologue well for a first-time host.
STARS: ***½


TRICK OR TREAT
trick-or-treater Jeff Montgomery (WLF) may or may not be a sex offender

— Ah, a Will Forte classic.
— This was previously cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s Brian Williams episode.
— I love the very random, playful “You’re the bitch, bitch! WHAAAAAAT?” bit from Will’s Jeff Montgomery character at the beginning.
— An absolutely classic turn right now. Jon: “What exactly IS your Halloween costume?” Jeff Montgomery: “(matter-of-factly) I’m a sex offender.”
— Hilarious part where, as supposedly part of his Halloween costume, Jeff Montgomery both recites a court-ordered “I’m required to inform you that I’m a sex offender and I’m living in…. etc.” statement and tries to get Jon to sign and date a legal form.
— Such a perfect display of the ballsy humor Will is so good at pulling off.
— So many laughs throughout this sketch, especially how Jeff Montgomery keeps trying to downplay the fact that he’s a real sex offender.
— A great absolutely speechless reaction from Jon when Montgomery reveals that the crime he’s guilty of is “only” sexually assaulting five teenagers.
— A very funny terrible segue with Montgomery asking Jon if he’s looking for a babysitter.
— Overall, simply perfect.
STARS: *****


RAS TRENT
dreadlocked collegian poseur (ANS) is a wannabe Jamaican

— A very catchy song. Even Andy’s intentionally-horrible singing is catchy as hell.
— This short is a lot of fun, and we’re getting lots of amusing little visuals and actions from Andy throughout the song.
— A particularly hilarious part with Andy suddenly mumbling his song in a low volume when walking past actual Rastafarians.
STARS: ****


MAD MEN / TWO A-HOLES AT AN AD AGENCY IN THE 1960S
Roger (John Slattery) & Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) vet A-holes pitch

— Funny line from Elisabeth Moss’ Peggy about how she’s not allowed to own a watch because she’s a woman.
— Great bit with Casey as Joan.
— Ha, this turns into a Two A-holes sketch out of nowhere! A fun turn in this Mad Men parody. This ends up being the final appearance of the Two A-holes, despite Jason and Kristen both remaining in the cast for several years.
— I love the little “Yes, I HEARD HER!” bit when Jason keeps telling Jon’s Don Draper what Kristen said in regards to her meal request.
— Great bit with the Two A-holes licking all the sandwiches on the platter and saying “These are ours.”
— Funny bit with the hula-hoop suspenders.
— A very strong mock-dramatic speech from Don Draper about hula-hoops and suspenders, and it’s hilarious how it moves Bobby’s Harry to tears.
STARS: ****


THE BARACK OBAMA VARIETY HALF HOUR
confident Barack Obama (FRA) will do his infomercial as a variety show

— Maya Rudolph makes her first SNL appearance since leaving the cast. SNL having to resort to bringing her in a cameo to play the role of Michelle Obama is yet another painfully obvious sign that SNL’s then-current cast doesn’t have a black woman. Since I couldn’t stand Maya back in these days (I’ve come around on her in more recent years), I remember being worried back at this time in 2008 that SNL would have to bring her back in a cameo every single time they needed to do a sketch involving Michelle Obama (gee, it’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about anything like that on SNL in our current times, RIGHT?!?!?!?!?!? [/end sarcasm]), but it would turn out that the only other time Maya ends up playing Michelle Obama again after tonight’s episode is when Maya hosts years later in season 37.
— Fun concept of Fred’s Barack Obama using his half-hour infomercial time to do an old-timey variety show.
— Apparently, SNL’s crew members forgot to give Fred a hand-held microphone before this sketch, as he’s awkwardly forced to lean into Maya’s microphone when they’re both singing.
— The “Our House” musical number with Kristen’s Nancy Pelosi, Andy’s Rahm Emanuel, and Bobby’s Barney Frank is hilarious.
— A fun and fitting “Don’t You Forget About Me” number with Darrell’s Bill Clinton.
— I love the Obama/JFK/Clinton mini-sketch.
STARS: ****


DON DRAPER’S GUIDE TO PICKING UP WOMEN
Don Draper’s (host) guide to picking up women suggests you act like him

— A good laugh from Kristen saying “Marry me, I wanna have your children!” in reaction to Jon’s Don Draper staying silent whenever she asks him a question.
— Here we have Amy, in pre-taped form, making her only appearance of the night, because she went into labor during afternoon rehearsals the same day of tonight’s episode, and subsequently gave birth at the hospital.
— Great ending to Amy’s scene, with her reacting to Don Draper telling her his name by looking into the camera and sultrily saying “Let’s get me out of this skirt.”
— A very well-executed piece so far.
— Excellent delivery from Jon during his whole fast-paced rundown at the end, regarding what to do to be like Don Draper.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Viva La Vida”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Robo-Call (WLF) is ashamed he’s being used to impugn Obama’s character

Ralph Nader (BIH) wrongly expects to supply unneeded campaign excitement

yet again, Nicholas Fehn doesn’t manage to gain any rhetorical ground

KET & MAR sing “We Love You Amy” in support of absent new mother AMP

— Ah, here we go. Seth’s very first solo Weekend Update, a few months before that would become a regular thing. I remember how eager I was to see tonight’s Update back when it originally aired, as I was very curious to see how Seth would handle anchoring Update alone, and was also very curious to see SNL’s very first solo-anchored Update since all the way back to May 2000.
— Just as I was expecting, it feels odd seeing Seth do Update by himself. Doing these daily reviews of mine has gotten me SO used to seeing Amy as Seth’s co-anchor.
— Will is very funny as Robo-Call.
— I love the detail of Robo-Call drinking from a flask of oil.
— Didn’t care for the corny, predictable joke of Robo-Call’s older brother being RoboCop.
— Robo-Call: “Next week, Robo-Call supposed to tell black people, election canceled.”
— It’s starting to feel kinda lonely and empty seeing Seth as the sole anchorperson, but not lonely and empty in a bad way, if that makes sense. And Seth is doing fine by himself, handling his first solo Update well.
— Bill’s Ralph Nader commentary was previously cut after dress rehearsal from a Weekend Update Thursday special that aired just two days before this.
— Bill’s doing a good vocal impression of Nader, though he’s not even bothering to imitate Nader’s facial mannerisms, mainly the twitchy eye. Jimmy Fallon previously nailed the facial mannerisms when impersonating Nader in a season 26 sketch.
— OH, GOD. Nicholas Fehn ONCE AGAIN. However, I’ve always had a theory that, if it’s indeed true that these Nicholas Fehn commentaries are always improvised, then SNL’s decision to have a Nicholas Fehn commentary in tonight’s Update probably wasn’t made until just hours before the show, when SNL realized that they needed to fill in some extra time left over in this Update due to Amy’s sudden absence. So they asked Fred if he could do a Nicholas Fehn commentary, knowing he can easily make up stuff on the fly as this character. If this theory of mine is correct, I guess I can cut SNL some slack for dragging this character out once again tonight. NEVER AGAIN, though, SNL.
— Just like the last appearance Nicholas Fehn made earlier this season, I’m stone-faced during his shtick tonight. The novelty of this character, and what made him work so well the first two times, are long gone by this point.
— A nice, sweet musical number from Kenan and Maya, honoring Amy.
STARS: ***


VINCENT PRICE’S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
in 1959, Vincent Price’s (BIH) Halloween Special isn’t family-friendly

— Wow, this is the first time this recurring sketch has appeared in THREE SEASONS. I think I recall hearing new writer John Mulaney is the one responsible for bringing this recurring sketch out of the mothballs.
— Funny opening bit with Bill-as-Vincent-Price’s malfunctioning rising chair.
— Kristen’s voice as Gloria Swanson is a riot, as is her whole “I’m a pirate, arrr” spiel.
— I am absolutely loving Jon’s brash one-liners as James Mason, as well as Bill-as-Price’s reactions.
— Here we have the first inclusion of Fred’s Liberace impression in a Vincent Price sketch. This impression of Fred’s would go on to be a staple of this recurring sketch.
— Vincent Price to Liberace: “Save your sassy asides for your windowless bars!” That’s actually a clever, well-written, and interestingly-detailed line. So, naturally, it receives DEAD SILENCE from the audience.
— Jon continues to absolutely kill it in this sketch. His performance here is even more impressive when you’re aware of the backstory. I can’t remember all the exact details of the story, and I may have my facts about it wrong, but, IIRC, the story is that Jon played Dean Martin in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, but he struggled badly through the impression. After talking it over with Lorne and company after dress rehearsal, it was decided that he would play James Mason instead of Dean Martin, and he ended up knocking it out of the park.
— This sketch has gotten me in such an upbeat mood that even the token gay jokes from Fred’s Liberace are making me laugh. We’ll see if my lenience towards the gay Liberace jokes will hold up in subsequent installments of this sketch, because, from what I’ve heard from some other fans fairly recently, the abundance of gay Liberace jokes supposedly really drags down the later installments of this sketch.
— Though it’s just a little thing, I love Bill-as-Price’s pronunciation of “tissue”.
STARS: ****½


JON HAMM’S JOHN HAM
host endorses bathroom-based meat dispensing system

— A questionable concept on paper, but you can already tell from the start that Jon’s performance expertise, natural funniness, and charm is going to sell this in spades.
— Hilarious visual of the toilet paper-esque ham dispenser.
— As expected, Jon’s execution of this is simply fantastic.
— Jon’s ending line, when quoting the slogan of his product: “If it feels like a slice of ham, don’t wipe your ass with it.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lost!”


PAT FINGER
Pat Finger (host) seeks votes to be on city council of Butts, New York

— Wow, two consecutive sketches featuring only Jon Hamm? When this episode was originally airing, I took the fact that the last 25 minutes of this episode oddly consisted only of solo Jon Hamm sketches and Coldplay musical performances as a possible sign that the SNL cast wasn’t even in the building anymore by that point. I wondered if, after the Vincent Price sketch, the cast went to the hospital to visit Amy and her new baby. I even kinda assumed the goodnights were, in a somewhat similar fashion to SNL’s occasional ice-skating goodnights, going to show the cast in the hospital room with Amy and her new baby, with all of them waving to the camera, while Jon and Coldplay wrap up the show in the SNL studio. I’m sure that all sounds silly (and probably corny) to some people. Anyway, those assumptions of mine about the cast turned out to be completely wrong. I guess the fact that the only sketches in the last 25 minutes of the show all featured Jon Hamm by himself is a huge sign of how much trust he quickly earned from SNL as a performer, which is incredible, given the fact that this is his first time hosting, and it wasn’t universally known before this episode how funny this man is capable of being. You can tell he must’ve really impressed Lorne and company over the course of the week.
— Also, the aforementioned fact that the last 25 minutes of this episode consist only of solo Jon Hamm sketches and Coldplay musical performances kinda serves as an interesting glimpse of what an SNL episode would look like without any cast members. Though I guess SNL already sorta did do that with the second-ever episode back in season 1, which consisted almost entirely of musical performances.
— An extremely juvenile sketch, but the amazing Jon Hamm is, once again tonight, selling it, and is making it come off “fun dumb” instead of “bad dumb”.
— I like the little throwaway mention of Jon’s character’s great-grandfather being named E.T. Finger.
— Funny panicked reaction from Jon’s character when realizing how dirty his new last name, Deldeaux, will sound in his campaign slogan, right before the camera cuts away from him.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Yellow”


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest performs “Lovers In Japan”

— A special edition of the goodnights, as Jon throws to ANOTHER Coldplay performance. (I don’t know if this has ever been confirmed, but I’m assuming all of these extra Coldplay performances that we’ve been getting tonight are to fill up the extra time left over from Amy’s sudden absence.) However, as soon as Coldplay begins to play their song for these goodnights (“Lovers In Japan”), the goodnights suddenly get cut off in the original live airing I’m currently watching.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, continuing the solid streak that I feel this season has been on ever since the Anne Hathaway episode. Not only did I enjoy every single segment tonight, but, aside from Weekend Update, every rated segment from Trick-Or-Treat all the way to Jon Hamm’s John Ham received a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Very impressive. And Jon Hamm….wow. From the expert way he handled this hosting stint like a total pro and veteran, you’d never guess this was his first time hosting. One of the most incredible hosting performances I’ve ever seen from a first-time host. In fact, back when this originally aired, I remember noticing lots of similarities between the way Jon handled his first hosting stint and the way Alec Baldwin handled his first hosting stint in 1990. And, even though I don’t feel this first Jon Hamm-hosted episode is quite on the same level as that first Alec Baldwin-hosted episode (one of the absolute best SNL episodes of all time), this Hamm episode is still fantastic, and my review of it has probably one of the highest rating averages in this SNL project of mine. Also, even though, in terms of episode quality, I’d give the edge to Alec’s first hosting stint, in terms of hosting performances, I’d give the edge to Jon’s first hosting stint, because of the way he was able to perfectly carry several solo segments.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Josh Brolin)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ben Affleck

Posted on

May 21, 2005 – Lindsay Lohan / Coldplay (S30 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Michael Isikoff (CHP) & Condoleezza Rice (MAR) on media ethics

— It appears to be a tradition in this era for the seasons finale’s cold opening to be a Hardball sketch, as this is the third consecutive season finale in which that’s happened.
— I’m tired of Darrell’s Chris Matthews always making analogies to some celebrity.
— A cheap laugh from the “Lard Ball” newspaper photo.
— There’s our obligatory reliable appearance from Will’s Zell Miller. And unlike the last time he appeared, we get Will’s actually turning red-faced during his yelling this time. However, I feel like the writing of his dialogue in these Hardball sketches have been getting weaker and weaker lately. It feels like these last two or three Zell Miller appearances have just been relying on the strength of Will’s great yelling, without giving him any actual good dialogue.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host’s future self (AMP) advises her to slow down & lay off the partying

— Was that awkward opening joke from Lindsay Lohan about hosting SNL as a blonde even supposed to be a joke?
— Not a bad premise of Lindsay being visited by her future self. However, I recall never liking this monologue much.
— When Lindsay incredulously asks “Are we doing porn?!?” after Future Lindsay tells her she’ll be hosting a Cinemax show, I got a laugh from Future Lindsay saying “No, we’re introducing porn! It’s totally different!”
— I’m not getting many laughs here, and this feels kinda uncomfortable to watch in retrospect, knowing how on-point this monologue was in predicting a very trashy and troubled future for Lindsay, which is something I can’t even laugh at anymore. Making this monologue even sadder in retrospect is the fact that, immediately after tonight’s episode ended, Tina and the rest of the cast reportedly staged an intervention for Lindsay backstage, due to so many issues Lindsay was going through (Lindsay would later publicly admit she had a drug and bulimia problem during this period). My details of that intervention and when exactly it occurred may be a little off, as I’m going by my memory of what I once heard years ago, but if I’m correct that the intervention indeed took place right after tonight’s season finale ended, then the fact that, instead of the cast ending a season in a very celebratory manner backstage, the cast ends THIS particular season holding a very somber intervention for a host, is YET ANOTHER sign of what a crappy, troubled season this has been for SNL.
— I got a chuckle from Future Lindsay revealing at the end that she’s only from the year 2007.
STARS: **


WOOMBA
Rerun from 12/18/04


AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
one-legged Amber loses to insecure (host)

Britney And Kevin: Chaotic- Britney Spears (RAD) & Kevin Federline (SEM) mug & make out

— Much like Hardball, Amy’s one-legged Amber character appearing in the season finale seems to have become a season finale tradition around this time, as this is the second consecutive season finale to have one.
— I never realized until now how impressive it is that Amy can stand on just one leg for such a long time in these Amber sketches without needing to lean on something.
— I got a laugh from Amber confidently telling her opponents “Take a walk, bitches!……cuz I can’t.”
— Boy, is Lindsay looking unhealthily skinny here.
— Both the camerawork and the performers’ timing feel a little off throughout this sketch.
— Rachel as Britney Spears in the pre-taped “Britney and Kevin: Chaotic” promo? Doesn’t Amy usually play Britney? Even though the Chaotic scene is pre-taped, maybe SNL didn’t want Amy having two lead roles in the same sketch.
— They are overdoing the hell out of the “Amber falls over after dancing” gag.
— Ugh, there goes the obligatory farting from Amber. And, man, they’re going really heavy on it here.
— Overall, some laughs, but nothing great as a whole. These Amber sketches have seen better days.
STARS: **


MOVIE THEATRE
costumed Star Wars fans deal with failure to get into Revenge Of The Sith

— Lindsay’s timing during her opening long-winded angry spiel seems off.
— I like the bit with Rob revealing that his excessive back hair is all him and not part of his Chewbacca costume, and then saying “Why do you think I identify with the Wookie as a race?”
— Some funny lines throughout this sketch.
— The “Take it easy, Lando” “How’d he know your name was Lando?” exchange between Seth’s character and the black guys behind him was possibly a hacky joke, but it made me laugh.
— Odd use of Darrell here.
— Not sure how to react to the racial gag with Kenan and Finesse at the end of this.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Divertor” by RBS- superhero distracts media to nullify political flak

— The voice for Jay Leno is hilarious.
— Ha, the voice for Sinbad is so bad, it’s funny.
— Isn’t Charles Rangel black? Why is he animated as white in this? He’s also given an odd white voice here, though I’m not too familiar with the real Charles Rangel’s voice.
— I’m enjoying the satire in this cartoon, and the celebrity scandals that are created in an attempt to take attention away from national crises.
— Now Bob Dole is the next celebrity in this cartoon to be given a very odd voice. Must be a theme throughout this cartoon.
— The Jenna Elfman scene is a good and much-needed dig at SNL’s corny and sometimes-annoying “sneaker-uppers” (where a cast member impersonating a celebrity suddenly gets confronted by the real celebrity they’re playing). This also may possibly be specifically spoofing the unfunny Paula Abdul/Amy Poehler mess of a cold opening from two episodes prior.
— The ending line about Mike Tyson was very funny.
— The closing credits of this TV Funhouse misspell Kenan’s first name as “Keenan”.
STARS: ****


APPALACHIAN EMERGENCY ROOM
hayseeds seek treatment for strange maladies

— Lindsay is wearing the same cheerleader outfit that Paris Hilton wore in a Merv The Perv sketch earlier this season (side-by-side comparison below).

I get the feeling there’s yet another sketch I’ve seen that same cheerleader outfit in too.
— For the second time tonight, Lindsay has a hard time delivering a very long-winded spiel. Her flubbing her long spiel in this particular sketch causes it to fall badly flat.
— Lindsay did get a laugh from me just now with her anguished line “I think I popped my cooter bone out!” after her character’s failed attempt to display some cheerleader moves.
— Ugh, not only did the “drawing with a sharpie pen stuck in his butt” gag with Chris’ character not work for me, but did they have to throw in an unnecessary fart sound effect during it, especially given the fact that we just had an excessive fart gag in that Amber sketch earlier tonight?
— Overall, with this being the second consecutive Appalachian Emergency Room sketch that I wasn’t too impressed with, I think it’s safe to say I’ve finally officially gotten tired of this recurring sketch after liking its first few installments. Luckily, there’s only two installments of this sketch remaining, and IIRC, the next one in the following season’s Jack Black episode is actually pretty solid.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Speed Of Sound”


WEEKEND UPDATE
lesbian partners (RAD) & (MAR) exhibit typical marriage-induced foibles

Vicente Fox’s (FRA) apology to Al Sharpton (KET) leads to racial jokes

— Jesus Christ, Tina’s execution of that opening Saddam Hussein headline photo bit was TERRIBLE. The camerawork was also very awkward during that part too (which is my second time tonight pointing out the camerawork being off during something in this episode).
— I’m pretty sure Rachel’s wearing the same wig she wore in the famous Key Party sketch earlier this season (side-by-side comparison below).

— Ugh at the joke of Tina mistaking Maya and Rachel’s lesbian couple for men, a joke that not only hasn’t aged well at all, but was cringey and hacky even back in 2005.
— Ugh again, I can see this Maya/Rachel commentary is going to be a parade of bad lesbian stereotypes. Then again, what else do you expect from season 30, a season hyperfocused on hacky gay stereotype humor?
— Overall, not a single laugh from me during the Maya/Rachel lesbian couple commentary.
— Ugh yet again, this time at Tina and Amy’s clapter-inducing anti-War In Iraq jokes throughout this Update.
— At separate points in tonight’s Update, both Tina AND Amy have flubbed their delivery of a joke. For Amy, it unfortunately happens during what was her final joke of this season, which she comically lampshades in fake frustration during an ad-lib. Her screwing up her last joke of the season is an unintentionally perfect way to sum up just how horrible of a season she’s had during her first year as an Update anchorperson.
— Fred’s Vicente Fox telling Kenan’s Al Sharpton an offensive pizza-related joke about black people gave me a good laugh, and strangely feels like a joke that would’ve fit perfectly in an Update commentary from Ritchie B & Marcus (Fred’s deaf comedian character and his interpreter, played by Kenan), which is funny, because, like this Vicente Fox/Al Sharpton commentary, the Ritchie B and Marcus commentaries pair Fred and Kenan together.
— I’m actually really liking the touchy racial jokes from Fred’s Fox and Kenan’s Sharpton about each other’s culture. Racial humor like that can be hard for SNL to pull off without crossing a line, but I feel this is finding the right balance.
STARS: **


PRINCE SHOW
Nick Lachey (WLF) & Jessica Simpson (host) pop in

— Ugh. I am so tired of these overly formulaic Prince Show sketches.
— Aaaaaand there goes season 30’s obligatory weekly instance of Maya singing.
— Yet another sketch tonight where Lindsay’s unhealthy-looking skinniness is bothering and distracting me.
— Lindsay and Will are coming off so ill-fitting in the role of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. Will in particular. I couldn’t in a million years buy him as Nick Lachey.
— Ugh, why does Kenan play almost EVERY single black female role exactly the same? The real Wanda Sykes has a very distinctive voice, but of course, Kenan’s just playing her the same way he plays Star Jones and almost every other black female celebrity he’s impersonated up to this point in his SNL tenure.
— They are overdoing the fucking HELL out of the cutaways to Prince’s “laughing” at Wanda Sykes’ jokes.
STARS: *½


ITALIAN FAMILY
(HOS)’s enraged moll (host) destroys furnishings of his gangster hangout

— Oh, no. This feels like an indirect sequel/variation of that awful sketch from this season’s Robert DeNiro episode where Horatio was a cop going undercover in the mafia.
— Aaaaaand there goes Horatio’s awful habit of awkwardly pausing for a long time before delivering a line.
— Speaking of awful Horatio Sanz habits, he’s, of course, smirking his way though this entire sketch when his character is supposed to be upset. (*sigh*) Only one season left to put up with Horatio’s typical bullshit on SNL.
— A very weak and one-note premise with Lindsay breaking every object in the room.
— I got a cheap laugh from Rachel’s VERY broad Italian stereotype performance, even though her and Darrell’s scene came off pointless and awkwardly staged.
— SNL’s really wasting Jason in this sketch, his only appearance of the entire night.
— All of the gangsters pulling a gun on Lindsay when she’s about to break a photo of Frank Sinatra was the first genuinely funny gag in this otherwise bad sketch.
— Oof, that “They’re gettin’ along a lot better these days” punchline was AWFUL.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fix You”


RIDE HOME
tipsy lech (CHP) fails to arouse interest of teenage babysitter (host)

— Aaaaaaand the final live sketch of the troubled season 30 just so happens to be a sketch that is eerily similar to a VERY notorious, off-putting, and punchline-less sketch from the also-troubled season 20, in which Chris Elliott as a sleazy husband drives his family’s underage babysitter (played by Mark McKinney in drag) home, and, during the car ride, gets her drunk and eventually has his way with her.
— Yeah, so far, this sketch is giving me WAAAAYYYY too many reminders of that horrible Elliott/McKinney sketch, and the similarities are very unsettling to me. How the holy fuck do you end a season like this, SNL?!?
— I do kinda like Chris’ singing of Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.
— This sketch at least ends on a twist that DOESN’T involve Chris getting Lindsay’s underage character drunk and having sex with her, as Maya suddenly pops up from under the backseat as Chris’ wife. Aside from the dirty deed this thankfully prevented Chris from doing with Lindsay, that twist did nothing for me.
STARS: *


BEAR CITY
by T. Sean Shannon- an anthropomorphic ursine watches porn

— This ends up being the final appearance of Bear City.
— A hilarious extensive, lengthy gag with a teenage bear’s mother walking in on him…uh…enjoying himself while watching a bear porno.
— An overall great way for the Bear City shorts to go out. I’m glad that I’ve come around on these shorts, given my very low opinion of them back when they originally aired.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Horatio can be seen holding up a sign that states “Good luck P P”, referring to SNL writer Paula Pell, who we then get a special close-up of onstage. She’s departing from the show to work on a then-upcoming new NBC sitcom called, I think, Thick And Thin. However, the sitcom (who’s cast was to include SNL’s own Chris Parnell, who actually misses a few early SNL episodes in the following season to film some Thick And Thin episodes) would end up never making it to air.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fitting way to end a lousy season, as this was a lousy finale. The post-Weekend Update half of this episode was particularly terrible, aside from the fun final Bear City short. Add in some off performances from a troubled and unhealthy Lindsay Lohan, and you have a very rough season finale.
— Good freakin’ riddance to this wretched season. It was hell for me to review, and I reviewed seasons 6, 11, and 20, all very infamous as the three “disaster seasons” of SNL, yet none of which made me as miserable to review as THIS season did. I absolutely believe this season NEEDS to be universally recognized by people as being right down there with seasons 6, 11, and 20 as one of the worst seasons of the show, even though the media, SNL books, etc. never acknowledge it as such, thus letting this season undeservedly go scot-free in terms of its reputation. Before covering this season in this SNL project of mine, I personally have always strongly disliked season 30, but definitely didn’t feel it was comparable to seasons 6, 11, and 20. After doing these episode reviews, however, I was surprised to discover that this season was even worse than I had ever remembered. Just…“oof” is all I can say after reviewing this season. Though I don’t know if I would say this THE worst season ever, I wouldn’t be surprised if my total rating average for this season as a whole ends up being the lowest ever.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Will Ferrell)
a big step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2003-04)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 31 begins, with Steve Carell as a host, two new cast members, and the debut of SNL airing in High Definition and widescreen

Posted on

April 7, 2001 – Alec Baldwin / Coldplay (S26 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush’s (WIF) solo negotiation effort produced bad Chinese deal

— SNL’s been going awfully heavy on Bush-addresses-the-nation cold openings lately.
— Of the bold decisions that Will’s President Bush says he made regarding his meeting with the Chinese president, I love one of the bold decisions being “No translators”.
— A lot of things that Bush is listing off in the agreement points he made with China are giving me some really good laughs. The humor in this cold opening has been a step above the last two Bush-addresses-the-nation cold openings.
— A particularly funny bit about an Ed “Too Tall” Jones Appreciation Week.
— An unintentional laugh from Will struggling badly through the line about Darryl Strawberry voluntarily entering a drug treatment “procility”. Considering Will is playing Bush here, it’s hard to tell just what parts of the line Will genuinely screwed up, but “procility” might not have been one of them, as it was probably just supposed to be a typical Bush-ism.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Bill Clinton (DAH) mentors recently-divorced host to pursue females

— Feels like there’s been quite a longer-than-usual gap since the last time I covered an Alec Baldwin-hosted episode, compared to the frequency of his previous hosting stints, making me realize that this is the very first time that Alec has skipped more than one calendar year between hosting stints.
— Pretty funny ambiguous mention from Alec of the divorce he had recently gone through at the time with Kim Basinger.
— An interesting out-of-the-ordinary use of Darrell’s Bill Clinton in this monologue.
— Bill Clinton, when pointing out to Alec the opportunities he has with ladies now that he’s single: “You’ve got it made in the shade with pink lemonade… and I do mean pink.”
— I love how Clinton just busts out laughing when being asked “But aren’t you still married?”
— So many funny lines from Clinton in this.
STARS: ****


RELIABLE INVESTMENTS
Reliable Investments broker (host) talks up market while he plummets

 

— The camera angles and visual style of this commercial are an accurate spoof of commercials in this vein.
— Hilarious turn with Alec casually and happily continuing the phone conversation with Ana as he jumps out of his office window to his death. Alec is selling this very well with his performance.
STARS: ****


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Lynn (RAD) & Margaret Jo are in awe of Pete Schwetty’s wiener

— Well, looks like SNL has dared to do a Delicious Dish sketch in which they replace the Terri Rialto character played by the recently-departed Molly Shannon with a new character, played by Rachel. Can’t say this is a decision I agree with at all. Should’ve let this recurring sketch end gracefully with Molly’s departure.
— And now we see why SNL has revived this sketch, as Alec returns as the memorable Pete Schwetty. Yeah, I definitely don’t agree with this decision. Having Alec do a direct Schwetty Balls sequel that just lazily repeats the same gag, only replacing balls with wiener, is a D.O.A. choice, in my eyes.
— Yeah, so far, this sketch is paling badly in comparison to the original Schwetty Balls classic.
— I kinda like the audience’s groaning laughter during the turn in the Schwetty Wieners conversation where Alec’s character begins to bring up kids.
— Okay, I got a good laugh from the “Maybe we can cut it in half” “I’d rather you didn’t” exchange between Margaret Jo and Pete Schwetty, regarding the wiener.
— A memorable and very funny blooper with Ana mistakenly saying “wiener” as “piener”, resulting in both her and Rachel busting out laughing. Very rare to see Ana break this badly. Also, even as Ana and Rachel are losing it right next to him, Alec stays completely in character and keeps an absolutely perfect stone-faced expression. He does it in a way that almost makes it seem like he’s annoyed by Ana and Rachel’s breaking, but I’m not Alec, so I can’t say for sure.
— Nice ad-lib from Ana after she regains her composure from her breaking: “A little verbal diarrhea there.”
— Ah, as I wondered in my review of the original Schwetty Balls sketch, this Schwetty Wieners sketch contains a “Wow, the phones are really going crazy” acknowledgment that I had incorrectly remembered being in the original Schwetty Balls sketch.
— I do like the new direction this sketch has taken, with Parnell as a caller who’s obviously doing a certain something to himself while breathlessly asking Pete Schwetty to “tell me about your wiener”. (By the way, Parnell’s character should talk to Jonah “Ask me about my wiener!” Hill. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
— Overall, yep, a sequel that I found unnecessary and couldn’t come close to living up to the original, but this still had its share of highlights.
STARS: **½


TOUGH GUY
lone Marine (host) tries to rally spyplane crew to attack China

— Great turn with a war cliche character played by Alec suddenly stepping up. I love some of the soldiers’ reaction to his “… or we could take ’em!” suggestion early on.
— Just now, a cue card accidentally blocks the camera during a close-up of Rachel and Will (screencap below).

SNL would later replace this brief portion of the sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. If you watch the rerun version of this sketch, you can tell when the brief dress rehearsal portion comes in, because Will has his real hair in it, whereas he wears a wig in all of the other portions of the sketch (side-by-side comparison below).

— Alec’s various insane suggestions are providing tons of laughs.
— A priceless line from from Alec about China’s womenfolk having sideways vaginas. I also love the intense closed-eyes facial expression he has afterwards during the lengthy audience laughter from that line (screencap below).

— Tracy steals the sketch with his one and only line of the whole thing. This has been quite a good season in general for Tracy lately. He’s definitely gotten to the official point where his onscreen persona is so defined, so comfortable, and such a sure-fire laugh-getter that SNL knows they can throw him into ANYTHING just being his normal self and he’ll kill it.
— The text crawl ending didn’t work for me (though we get a great freeze-frame shot on Alec panickedly lunging at the camera), which is my only complaint about this otherwise strong sketch.
STARS: ****½


INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
Charles Nelson Reilly (host) is feted

— Will-as-James-Lipton’s traditional opening blank stare towards the audience isn’t quite as funny as usual (the first above screencap for this sketch).
— Great reveal of Charles Nelson Reilly being the guest who James Lipton is speaking so glowingly about at the beginning of this sketch.
— Alec’s impression of Charles Nelson Reilly is absolutely hilarious.
— James Lipton’s made-up word to describe Match Game’s perfection: “Scrumtrulescent”. To me personally, that made-up word is on the same level as another made-up word delivered by Will this same season: “Strategery”, even if “Scrumtrulescent” doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as famous to the general public as “Strategery”.
— James Lipton to Charles Nelson Reilly: “I am not alone in thinking that your brilliance is so pure that you make Gandhi look like a child pornographer.”
— I recall hearing that Alec’s next hosting stint the following season was going to have a follow-up to this Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch, with Alec reprising his Charles Nelson Reilly impression in the same setting, but the sketch ended up getting cut after dress rehearsal. Not sure what they could’ve done in a follow-up to the original Reilly Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch, but if it was just a lazy carbon-copy of the original sketch, then it’s for the best that it got cut, if the Schwetty Wieners sketch taught me anything. Then again, there’s a good chance that the cut Reilly Inside The Actor’s Studio sequel went in a new and different direction. After all, that same season (season 27) has an Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch with Billy Bob Thornton that ends up taking a VERY different and unique route than these Actor’s Studio sketches usually take.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM explains the circumstances behind Darryl Strawberry’s non-kidnapping

I Have An Opinion- JIF tries to analogize the China-spyplane situation

TIF deconstructs & evaluates Hugh Hefner’s young, blonde harem

DAS & Kid Rock [real] trade respective Hollywood Minute & music roles

— Jimmy’s crack punchline about Darryl Strawberry felt very Norm Macdonald-esque.
— Great to see Tracy in his own Update commentary. This feels like the first in quite a long time that he’s done an Update commentary as himself.
— Tracy acting out a hypothetical conversation between Darryl Strawberry and his wife has some laughs, but this segment is mostly falling pretty flat, surprisingly. Not one of Tracy’s better moments.
— Jimmy’s recurring “I Have An Opinion” side segment continues to not do much for me.
— Tina, on one of Hugh Hefner’s seven girlfriends being named Tina: “Wherever two or more whores are gathered, there’s always a Tina. Thanks, mom.”
— I absolutely LOVE this whole side segment with Tina doing a deconstruction of Hugh Hefner’s seven girlfriends. This segment is pure, classic Tina Fey.
— SNL gets in their very first reference to the hot new show at the time, The Weakest Link, which really takes me back to how huge that show was in pop culture for a while (and, boy, did that show’s popularity seem to come and go at the blink of an eye, IIRC).
— Oh, wow. We’re getting the return of David Spade and the Hollywood Minute?
— Oh, it’s just David’s Joe Dirt co-star Kid Rock, filling in for David.
— When Kid Rock hesitates to finish his dirty line about David Spade being “eight inches off my, uh…”, I love Jimmy’s ad-lib where he finishes Kid Rock’s sentence with “….piener?”, cleverly referencing Ana’s memorable gaffe from tonight’s earlier Delicious Dish sketch.
— Boy, Kid Rock’s Hollywood Minute jokes are just plain stupid (though I admit the Britney Spears/Hamburglar one kinda made me laugh in spite of myself). They feel like stuff written by a 10-year-old kid who thinks they’re funnier than they are.
— Ah, THERE’S our David Spade! Don’t understand why he couldn’t have just done a Hollywood Minute himself.
— A fairly fun and energetic ending to tonight’s Update with David and Kid Rock’s little number, even if I’m far from a fan of Kid Rock’s music.
— This was the first long Update in quite some time, compared to the very short Updates from the past few months.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Yellow”


RED SHIPS OF SPAIN
Robert Goulet (WIF) & relatives (CHP), (host), (ANG) create bad theater

— An interesting new setting for Will’s always-funny Robert Goulet impression.
— Announcer: “Robert Goulet: the man Time Magazine… once mentioned.”
— Nice inclusion of Parnell and Alec as two Goulet brothers.
— The negative newspaper reviews of the play are providing good laughs.
— The name Diane Carbonal is used for one of the newspaper critics, which is also the name of an Ana Gasteyer recurring character. I remember pointing out in an older review that the name Diane (or Diana) Carbonal was also used in a sketch that pre-dated Ana’s recurring character, but I can’t remember what sketch it was.
— The disturbing nature of Robert Goulet doing a romantic scene with his own daughter is very funny. And we get some great awkward facial reactions from Ana as the daughter when Robert Goulet tries to pull her closer and kiss her.
— Now the name Tony Dungy is used for one of the critics, which I believe is also the real-life name of an NFL coach.
STARS: ***½


THE BUSH TAX CUT
Tom Daschle (CHK) & Dick Gephardt (DAH) press conference tries too hard

— A good and funny Dick Gephardt voice from Darrell.
— Very funny turn with the reveal that middle-class families will get a dead squirrel for dinner under the Bush tax plan.
— I’m enjoying the answers given to the press regarding the dead squirrel.
— Some laughs from Darrell and Kattan’s teeth-gritted angry voices when “secretly” arguing with each other while having their backs turned to the camera.
— A pretty slow-paced sketch, but it might just feel that way because of the slow way Darrell’s speaking as Gephart.
STARS: ***


LASTING IMPRESSIONS
make your photo classy by electronically placing it into a brandy snifter

— Horatio is JUST NOW making his first appearance of the whole night, in the final sketch of the show. That’s still more than what Maya gets, though, who’s completely absent tonight. Quite a contrast from the preceding episode, in which Maya pretty much dominated.
— Horatio at least makes the most of his one and ONLY line of the whole night: “(delivered in an exaggerated Italian wiseguy manner) What frigging jackass took this picture anyways?!?”
— Fitting character for Alec, who can do roles like this in his sleep at this point.
— The prom picture of Will and Ana (screencap below) is the same one that was used in the I Took A Gay Guy To Prom pre-taped piece from season 23’s Steve Buscemi episode.

— Some pretty good laughs from the examples of things you can put a picture of inside a brandy snifter to make it look classier.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Panic”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not a particularly memorable Alec Baldwin episode, but certainly not bad. One of the more average Baldwin episodes, but there were still some strong pieces in the first half of this episode. Alec did his usual reliable job as a host.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Julia Stiles)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Renee Zellweger