Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A STATEMENT FROM JUDGE ITO
Judge Ito (MAM) reciprocates Alfonse D’Amato’s racial stereotype
— I’m cracking up at Mark-as-Judge-Ito’s constant “I do naaaat (not)…”s (e.g. “I do naaaat speak in a stereotypical Japanese accent”).
— I loved Ito’s passing comment abut Italians: “I’m a judge and I see A LOT of them coming through my courtroom.”
— A funny gag with Ito doing a stereotypical impression of Alfonse D’Amato’s sister making love to a mule.
— I like Ito’s nasal laughing after his stereotypical impression.
— A simple cold opening that was short and sweet.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Morwenna Banks has been added to the cast tonight, joining as a repertory player.
The way Morwenna’s picture is displayed epitomizes my problem with how the cast’s pictures are projected onto objects in this season’s opening montage. Morwenna’s picture is projected onto a freakin’ TRASH CAN, for crying out loud. A trash can, people!
— There are so many odd things about the hiring of Morwenna, some of which include: 1) the fact that she’s been hired so late into the season. There are only four episodes left this season, and a much-needed overhaul of the cast and writing staff is obviously around the corner. So why waste time hiring somebody new at this point? I’ve heard that Morwenna previously had fame in the U.K. from being on a sketch comedy show, so I wonder if maybe Lorne felt hiring a U.K. sketch comedy veteran was the shot in the arm that this troubled season needed. 2) This season’s female cast is already underused and disrespected enough. How is adding a FOURTH female to the cast going to change that? 3) The mid-season hirings of Mark McKinney and Molly Shannon made sense, as they were each replacing an about-to-depart cast member (Mike Myers and Janeane Garofalo, respectively). Morwenna, on the other hand, isn’t replacing anyone. 4) Morwenna is one of the very rare U.K. accent-having cast members in SNL history. I believe Pamela Stephenson from season 10 is the only other one, unless I’m forgetting someone.
MONOLOGUE
DAW does stand-up about African-Americans’ undesirable job assignments
— Damon’s imitations of a black reporter in the worst situations to report from are funny, especially the tornado bit.
— Some other really funny imitations of black people in bad occupations. I’m getting a lot of laughs here.
STARS: ****
BATHROOM MONKEY
— Rerun from 10/15/94.
— Oh, and by the way… WHY IN THE WORLD ARE THEY RE-AIRING A JANEANE GAROFALO-STARRING COMMERCIAL?!??! Last time I checked, Janeane hasn’t been in the cast since the George Clooney episode. So why re-air a fake ad where the only person featured is a recently-quit cast member who’s not credited in the opening montage anymore? Makes no sense at all. They must REALLY be hurting for fake ads to rerun. There hasn’t been a new pre-taped fake ad since Amazin’ Laser way back in January, nor do we end up getting any new ones for the remainder of the season. Did SNL just give up on these?
CAMP UJAAMA
African-American day campers’ names come from dictionary & supermarket
— The first camper name Ellen calls out is Akeyla, which is her real-life daughter’s name.
— Some good laughs from the names of the black children so far. I especially love the name Spina Bifida.
— Okay, after you’ve gotten the point of this sketch, the same joke just keeps going on and on with no escalation or variation to the humor.
— Okay, I did get a big laugh from Farley’s delivery of the name Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon.
— All-in-all, despite the joke getting one-note after a while, they didn’t keep this sketch going TOO long and the overall sketch was harmless and enjoyable enough.
STARS: ***
MEN ON FILM
Blaine Edwards (DAW), Roger Ebert (CHF), Antoine Merriweather (David Alan Grier)
— Feels odd seeing an In Living Color character being brought to SNL.
— Damon’s character is dressed as an effeminate cop. There’s a theory among some SNL fans that this outfit of Damon’s is intended as a subtle nod to his improvised gay cop routine that got him fired from SNL when he was a cast member in season 11.
— Interesting pairing of Damon’s Blaine Edwards character and Roger Ebert.
— And there’s the famous “Haaated iiiiit!” catchphrase.
— Ha, I like the audience going “Awww” when Farley’s Roger Ebert looks depressed after Blaine calls him out on his weight problem.
— Not sure if the concept of Blaine “turning” Ebert gay has aged well, but judging it by 1995 standards, there’s a fun enough chemistry between Blaine and gay Ebert.
— David Alan Grier cameo!
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Know”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Jeff Foxworthy (DAS) tells you how to know if you’re the Ebola virus
ADS tries to get recently-released Mike Tyson to beat up people for him
— Oh, god, the return of David’s tepid Jeff Foxworthy bit after only TWO EPISODES?!?
— Boy, David has pretty much given up in the middle of this weak commentary, not even finishing some of his punchlines. I don’t even know why I’m surprised; David’s been half-assing performances pretty much all season long.
— There’s Norm’s famous joke about the winner of the category for worst job being “…………crackwhore.”
— We’ve reached the late stage of Adam’s tenure where he starts wearing glasses as himself all the time.
— Adam’s commentary has some good laughs.
— Great ending to Adam’s commentary, with him informing Mike Tyson about the mean jokes that Norm has told about him on Update, only for Norm to panickedly deny being Norm Macdonald and then signing off with “I’m Kevin Nealon, and that’s news to me.”
STARS: ****
STILES MONROE
(KEN) & (MOS) get drenched by excess saliva of jazz trumpeter (DAW)
— As I’ve seen pointed out once, it’s absolutely surreal in retrospect to see Kevin Nealon and Molly Shannon paired together, two cast members who are now heavily associated with two very different eras that are far separated from each other (the late 80s era for Kevin, and the late 90s era for Molly).
— (*groan*) This lousy premise is pure season 20. The type of weak, juvenile, gross-out, fluid-spurting humor this season has a reputation for over-relying on.
— This sketch has been going on and on with little-to-no laughs from me.
STARS: *½
THE SIMPSON TRIAL
homeless Anton Jackson (DAW) testifies at the O.J. Simpson trial
— Our second In Living Color character of the night. It’s particularly fun seeing this character on SNL.
— Ha, they have an extra playing O.J. (since Tim is busy playing a different role in this sketch). I don’t know why I find that hilarious.
— As expected, Damon is getting some big laughs in this.
— Tim’s Johnny Cochran impression is completely different here from the famous one he would later do in the first cold opening of the upcoming season 21.
— I liked Kevin’s ending line about Homey the Clown.
— This ends up being the final of many season 20 O.J. Trial sketches.
STARS: ***½
PERSPECTIVES
the logistics of a black militant’s (DAW) upcoming march
— Glad to see this sketch being done with an actual competent SNL host playing a guest, after Deion Sanders almost completely derailed the last installment of this sketch.
— Good characterization from Damon.
— As always, lots of funny foolish questions and statements from Tim’s Lionel Osborne. I especially love the whole bit regarding the rain date.
STARS: ****
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
Cirque du Soleil performers (MAM), (CSE), (MWB) offer animal-free acts
— Great makeup on Mark.
— Well, I can already tell early on that THIS is certainly going to be an out-of-the-ordinary piece. I’m interested.
— Morwenna Banks is just now making her first SNL appearance (and only appearance of the entire night) pretty late in tonight’s episode. That’s already a sign of how invisible she’ll be in her insanely short-lived SNL tenure.
— A few minutes into this, and Mark has been providing my ONLY laughs of this sketch, with his straight-to-camera interjections. I really WANT to like this sketch, as not only is it Morwenna’s first big showcase, but it features both absurd humor and Chris Elliott, two things that usually mix together beautifully. But almost NOTHING is working for me in this sketch.
— Put this on the list of many season 20 sketches where SNL uses a fancy and impressive-looking setting but forgot to write any actual funny material for it.
— I kinda felt embarrassed for Damon imitating the Cirque du Soleil members at the end.
STARS: *½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN FOR SKITTLES
Christopher Walken (JAM) endorses Skittles
— Here’s a famous sketch from this season.
— Hilarious concept for Jay’s Christopher Walken impression.
— I love how he occasionally keeps saying random Skittles flavors in between his statements.
— Haha, the exaggerated long pauses from Jay’s Walken throughout this are slaying me. I recall Jay saying in his SNL book that when he arrived backstage after this sketch was finished, he was met by Lorne, who, instead of congratulating Jay on the laughs he got in the sketch, complained to him about how overlong he dragged the sketch out with his lengthy pauses. Just one of many stories that fits the “Woe is me” / “I just can’t catch a break at SNL” narrative that Jay was pushing hard in his book.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Blackbird”
TOM JONES BRIEFS
Tony Bennett (JAM) offers Tom Jones’ (ADS) used underwear for sale
— Two lead roles in a row for Jay Mohr, a huge rarity for him.
— Adam doing a typically Adam Sandler-esque “impression” of Tom Jones.
— Speaking of Jay’s Christopher Walken impression a little earlier in this review, the way Jay’s Tony Bennett is getting “angered” over the lack of phone calls reminds me way too much of the running bit in the Celebrity Psychic Friends sketches where his Christopher Walken complains in a deadpan manner over how “upset” he is over the lack of phone calls.
— A tepid sketch, and I’m not getting many laughs so far.
— All of the underwear stains being displayed seems like typical season 20 lowbrow, juvenile humor (and also reminds me a bit of Elliott Gould’s season 6 monologue… which is definitely not a pleasant thing to be compared to, in my opinion).
STARS: *½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode with a pretty good first half, but a very mixed second half where there was an equal amount of really solid things and really lousy things. Damon Wayans was a pretty fun host, and it was nice to see SNL using him more to his full potential after often wasting his talents during his cast member days in season 11.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Courteney Cox, our first female host in what feels like ages