Tag: Eminem

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November 2, 2013 – Kerry Washington / Eminem (S39 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OVAL OFFICE
SNL’s lack of black female cast members makes host busy; Al Sharpton cameo

— Oh, I absolutely LOVE the meta turn with Kerry Washington unhappily getting the hint that she’s going to have to change from Michelle Obama to Oprah because the show doesn’t have a black female cast member. I also love Kerry asking “And Kenan won’t….?”
— It’s funny hearing how long it takes the audience to realize just what exactly the meta turn in this cold opening is digging at.
— A very funny disclaimer lampshading what’s going on, and also acknowledging the backlash SNL was facing this season from not hiring a black female cast member while hiring five white male cast members. It’s nice that SNL can address this while being self-deprecating and NOT being passive-aggressive towards the critics (which is more than I can say for some of the other criticisms SNL has addressed in recent years, such as when Tina Fey’s 2018 monologue addressed complaints at the time about excessive cameos taking airtime away from the cast).
— Kerry re-entering the sketch in a different role after an extremely hasty quick change reminds me of the gag of Jan Hooks having to do the same thing in the famous Twin Peaks sketch from the season 16 Kyle MacLachlan episode, because, as mentioned in that sketch, SNL only had two female cast members at the time.
— I got a big laugh from Kerry knowingly asking Jay’s President Obama, in regards to the announcement that Beyonce is here, “Is Jay-Z with her?”, suggesting Jay himself would have to do a quick change to play that role, only for Jay’s Obama to proudly answer “Nope!”
— Great gag with six different Matthew McConaugheys played by the new male featured players…and Bobby, for some reason.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
BOM, VAB, KET ask host to fix indiscretions a la her Scandal character

— A predictable direction this monologue goes in, but it’s being executed well.
— A laugh from Vanessa’s straightforward way of stiffly saying “da club” in the middle of her sentence.
— Vanessa, after Kerry advises her to leave town immediately: “But…who will play Miley???” Kerry, in a comically sincere manner: “Haven’t you played Miley enough lately?”
— Great casual delivery from Kenan of the line “Oh my god, I’m covered in blood.”
STARS: ***½


CAREER WEEK
self-styled success Heshy (NAP) uses sound effects in motivational speech

— Second consecutive week in which the usually-underused Nasim gets to star in the lead-off sketch of the night, showing that things are getting better for her this season in terms of airtime.
— I think I recall hearing this is one of the very first sketches that Mikey Day penned as an SNL writer. Yeah, I can sense his familiar fingerprints on this sketch’s style.
— Hilarious performance from Kerry.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time tried to use this sketch as an example of how terrible, stiff, and uncharismatic Mike O’Brien is as a live performer. Not that I disagree about him, but this sketch isn’t a good example to use, as his character in this is supposed to be stiff and uncharismatic.
— The usual good character work from Nasim, and she’s both funny and well-timed in her constant thrusting to the various sound effects throughout this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MY GIRL
two sides of relationship in “The Fox” variant

— This truly takes me back to when that “what does the fox say” song was everywhere.
— I am loving this “The Fox” take-off. Really good work here, and another fun performance from Kerry.
— Solid turn halfway through the song, with it now being told from Kerry’s side of the relationship.
STARS: ****


HOW’S HE DOING?
Obama’s policy blunders don’t weaken his black support

— The return of a sketch from the season 37 Maya Rudolph episode.
— Even though they did this gag in this sketch’s previous appearance, I laughed at the part where Kenan, Jay, and Kerry’s character all break out in simultaneous hearty laughter after a pause when asked by Kenan if there was ever a time in this rough month President Obama’s been having that they ever thought they wish they voted for Mitt Romney.
— Jay has so many great lines here so far.
— Like last time, I’m finding this to be a fun black-centric sketch that feels very refreshing and much-needed for SNL. Unlike the last time this sketch appeared in season 37, we’re now in the Michael Che era of SNL’s writing, where we’ll thankfully be seeing well-done black-centric pieces appear more and more.
STARS: ****


MISS UNIVERSE MOSCOW 2013
contestants from undeveloped countries disrupt Miss Universe Pageant

— Decent premise of a Miss Universe pageant adding new contestants from less-developed countries.
— Yet another hilarious performance from Kerry, who has been killing it in tonight’s episode so far.
— Well, that girl-on-girl kiss between Kate and Nasim sure came out of nowhere.
— Poor Noel, relegated to having her only appearance of this entire episode be a forgettable throwaway bit in this sketch where she quickly ends up getting karate-chopped out of the scene by Aidy.
— Aidy’s attempt at a Greenland accent is a classic case of “So bad, it’s good”. Hell, her Greenland accent somehow turns into a full-on hillbilly accent towards the end of her spiel.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Rick Rubin [real] perform “Berzerk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
cellphone tapping revelations embarrass lonely Angela Merkel (KAM)

Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) give their NBA thoughts

— The debut of Kate’s Angela Merkel impression.
— A solid performance from Kate, as usual whenever she appears on Update in these early years of her SNL tenure. Her Angela Merkel has some good lines during the part about internet search history.
— Cecily’s Kanye West joke was easily one of her better jokes this season, though the rest of her Update jokes tonight (or at least her delivery of them) so far are the usual “meh” they’ve been this season.
— The first of a few Update appearances that Kenan and Jay’s Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal make together.
— Jay’s Shaq impression is hilarious.
— Some fun ad-libs between Kenan, Jay, and Seth during this Barkley/Shaq commentary.
— Funny Toni Braxton story from Kenan’s Barkley.
STARS: **½


IN MEMORIAM
a clip of Lou Reed on SNL marks his passing


CARTOON CATCHPHRASE
contestant’s (AIB) husband (TAK) is very unfaithful

— I recall absolutely loving this sketch when it originally aired, and deeming it to be one of the best sketches of this season. It’s also a turning point in Aidy’s SNL tenure, as I remember this sketch made me (and I’m sure certain others) fully realize how strong she is as a cast member (the preceding week’s Edward Norton-hosted episode put her on my radar a bit), and this sketch basically jumpstarted what ended up being her breakout season.
— Mike: “I’m a waiter at a steak restaurant.” Oh, is he playing the same character he played in the Ruth’s Chris sketch in the preceding episode?
— I love Aidy’s low-key delivery of “Oh, Duane. No, Duane” when initially realizing he’s having an affair.
— When an emotional Aidy mentions the lie her husband Duane told her about going to see the new Hobbit movie, I got a big laugh from Kerry responding to that by jovially saying, “That’s not out yet! 10 seconds on the clock, Diane!”
— Aidy: “Diamond, ya damn hussy. I hate that I need you, but I do.”
— Hilarious reveal of Duane also sleeping with Vanessa’s friend.
— Aidy: “Duane, what is this day of yours?!? Are you just goin’ door-to-door and ass-to-ass?!?”
— Good subversion in the third phone call, with Duane being at the pharmacy that Mike phones, buying tiny condoms.
— Aidy, angrily, when she’s asked to answer one of the game show questions: “Can you give me one second??? I’m havin’ a raw-ass time with my husband!”
— Even Aidy’s ending “Why did you marry me yesterday?!?” reveal is great.
— Overall, just as fantastic as I had remembered, and Aidy indeed gave a killer performance.
STARS: *****


FALL CARNIVAL
Principal Frye dresses down delinquents during high school carnival

— A decent change of scenery for this recurring sketch.
— Solid New York accent from Kerry here.
— Maybe it’s because I’m currently in the right mood, but Jay’s lines as Principal Frye are making me laugh more than usual.
— Kerry: “One of youse even turned on a hose…ON A BLACK LADY! Know your history! You little ass-baskets!”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Skylar Grey [real] perform “Survival”


DATE OR DISS
trio of freaky MTV-chosen bachelorettes creeps out (TAK)

— Good lines from Aidy when introducing herself to Taran.
— Cecily: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, I’m num-num hungry for this guy’s balls.”
— While a fairly one-note sketch, and I remember some online SNL fans saying this fictional MTV show felt too dated for 2013, the disturbing nature of the girls’ one-liners is decent, and just about all of Kerry’s revelations are making me laugh.
STARS: ***


ICE CREAM
joke about ambulance response to sugar overdose doesn’t land

— I really don’t like how rare it’s become to see this season’s new cast members get a lead role. With so many new cast members and with the huge deal SNL made about them in the season premiere, it shouldn’t be so scarce to see ANY of them get noteworthy roles in an episode.
— Kyle’s offbeat, unsure initial facial reaction to Beck’s ambulance joke is very funny.
— I’m enjoying the increasingly convoluted introspection sequences that Kyle and Taran are having over the simple ambulance joke.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Aside from the seemingly-perpetually-mediocre-this-season Weekend Update, this was an all-around good episode, with a season highlight (Cartoon Catchphrase) to boot. This is also the second consecutive episode with a host who really wowed me. Kerry Washington was absolutely great. (Didn’t I later find out she had sketch comedy experience back in high school or something?)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Cartoon Catchphrase
Oval Office
How’s He Doing?
My Girl
Ice Cream
Career Week
Fall Carnival
Monologue
Miss Universe Moscow 2013
Date Or Diss
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Edward Norton)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Lady Gaga

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December 18, 2010 – Jeff Bridges / Eminem and Lil Wayne (S36 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHRISTMAS EVE IN WASHINGTON D.C.
on Christmas Eve, Democrats dream of better headlines in the year to come

— An interesting and refreshingly out-of-the-ordinary concept to this political cold opening.
— A definitive Vanessa Bayer face, with the funny gleeful, open-mouthed, glass-fogging smile her Hillary Clinton makes in reaction to the pantsuits headline she imagines.
— A really bad technical gaffe happens at the very beginning of the Joe Biden scene, where the camera accidentally cuts to a black screen with a graphic of Biden’s name displayed on the bottom of it.
— The look on Jason-as-Joe-Biden’s face is freakin’ PRICELESS, as are the insane headlines he imagines.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & Cookie Monster (David Rudman) sing “Silver Bells”

— Jeff Bridges brings up that his last hosting stint was all the way back in 1983, then does the cliched and tired “I guess I did a pretty good job, considering how fast they had me back” joke.
— I absolutely could’ve sworn I remembered this monologue showing a photo of Jeff and his brother Beau from the episode they co-hosted in 1983. I was looking forward to seeing that photo in my current viewing of this monologue, but it’s nowhere to be seen. Odd. Why’d my memory play tricks on me?
— A Cookie Monster appearance, referencing his then-well-publicized bid to host SNL.
— Jeff and Cookie Monster’s “Silver Bells” duet is certainly charming, but there’s absolutely nothing else to say about this, and, at the risk of coming off heartless, I’m kinda bored watching this. Maybe I’d like this duet more if this season wasn’t oversaturated with musical monologues.
STARS: **½


A MESSAGE FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG / A MESSAGE FROM JULIAN ASSANGE
Julian Assange (BIH) compares WikiLeaks to Mark Zuckerberg’s (ANS) site

— Ha, for the third and final consecutive week, a sketch gets interrupted by a message from Bill’s Julian Assange. Like I mentioned in my last episode review, it’s a huge rarity in recent decades for SNL to have a running gag that stretches over several consecutive episodes.
— It definitely bears mentioning that Bill actually has an on-air panic attack while performing this sketch. He talks about it in this interview (the link takes you directly to the portion of the interview where he talks about the panic attack). I’ll have to pay attention to if there are any visible signs of his panic attack in this sketch.
— Okay, I think I can see where Bill’s panic attack starts, as I’ve noticed that he’s suddenly coming off a little more…I dunno, self-conscious in the middle of his speech right now. It’s hard to describe, but something about his tone and demeanor has slightly changed in the middle of his speech. However, this panic attack is certainly not as noticeable as Bill was probably worried it came off to us viewers. I do notice that he seems to be really overdoing the laugh-evilly-while-sipping-his-wine move all throughout this sketch, which could possibly be a sign of him trying to hide his panic attack. After all, he does say in the afore-linked interview that he held a wine glass in front of his mouth for most of the sketch to hide his panic attack, though that’s not quite accurate to what I’m watching in the sketch.
— Overall, kinda meh for a Julian Assange interruption piece. While not too bad, this didn’t work nearly as well as the last two Assange interruption pieces from the preceding two episodes. Maybe me scrutinizing Bill’s performance so intensely to find signs of his panic attack took me out of the comedy of the sketch, but I think it’s more that SNL has milked these Assange interruption pieces for all they’re worth these past three episodes, to the degree that there wasn’t much left for them to say in this final one.
STARS: **½


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Nick Nolte’s (host) media scandal was meatier than Miley Cyrus’ (VAB)

— Hate to say it, but the lines given to Billy Ray Cyrus in these sketches are getting old, despite Jason’s always-fun portrayal of him.
— They’re completely wasting Jeff in this sketch.
— Overall, as you can see, there wasn’t much at all to say about this installment. Much like the preceding Julian Assange sketch, this was a little on the meh side, in that it wasn’t bad, but felt too by-the-numbers for a Miley Cyrus Show sketch.
STARS: ***


I JUST HAD SEX
ANS, Jorma Taccone & Akon [real] revel in coitus

— Good to see an epic music video Digital Short in the Christmas episode, especially since it used to be a (short-lived) tradition in the Lonely Island’s earlier SNL seasons to do an epic music video Digital Short in every Christmas episode (Lazy Sunday and Dick In A Box).
— As usual for these epic Lonely Island music videos, the concept of this is very funny.
— Great visual quality of some of the scenery, especially the parts with Andy, Jorma Taccone, and Akon on the roof of a building.
— A pretty funny random John MacEnroe cameo.
— A particularly funny part with Jorma’s “I think she might’ve been a racist” lyric as we’re shown him staring at a KKK hood in his girl’s bedroom.
— A strong ending visual of Andy, Jorma, and Akon’s crotch fireworks.
STARS: ****


LARRY KING LIVE
Jermaine Jackson (KET) & other D-listers on the show’s finale

— With the mention of the final episode of Larry King Live, that thankfully means this is the final installment of this sketch I have to suffer through, as I never cared for the Larry King sketches that star Fred.
— A laugh from the mere look of Kenan’s Jermaine Jackson. His voice is amusing me as well.
— Another laugh from Fred’s Larry King describing Jeff-as-Dog-The-Bounty-Hunter’s crying as being “like a Sasquatch who found a dead bird and just doesn’t understand”.
— Not much exciting discussions going on in this sketch.
— Ugh at that lame, unnecessary farting line.
— Such a poor ending.
— This overall sketch had a few mild laughs early on, but slowly died a really bad death as it went along.
STARS: *½


CRUNKMAS KARNIVAL!
Under-Underground Crunkmas Karnival features music, risks, nigh-unknowns

— A pre-taped sequel to the first pre-taped Under-Underground commercial.
— The usual hilarious Ass Dan “In Memoriam” bit.
— What the hell is with that annoying and unfunny high-pitched sound Jay keeps making between each sentence of his? Reminds me of him making that annoying and unfunny sharp inhale sound between each of his sentences in the preceding episode’s Principal Frye sketch. I like Jay, but lately, he’s been displaying some bad tendencies he has as a performer.
— Like last time, there’s so many laughs from all the mentions of random, insane festival events and band names. I particularly like the part about the Growing Pains cast “reunion” with just the mom.
— Very funny ending with the mention of this festival taking place at the Metrodome, as tonight’s episode is airing several days after the infamous Metrodome roof collapse incident.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “No Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Michael Steele’s (KET) bid for RNC reelection shows he can’t take a hint

weatherman Brad Pitt (TAK) punctuates his forecast with phonemes

Stefon, Snooki (BOM), David Paterson (FRA) sing “O Christmas Tree”

— From my past viewings, I have absolutely no memory of this Michael Steele commentary of Kenan’s.
— Okay, after watching this Steele commentary again just now, I can see why I don’t remember it. It was completely forgettable, despite a pretty funny performance from Kenan.
— The debut of Taran’s Brad Pitt impression.
— I have no idea what to make of those “Bdaaaah!” exclamations Taran’s Pitt keeps making, nor do I know what it’s supposed to be a dig at, as Pitt isn’t known for saying that (is he?). I remember one person on an SNL message board asking at this time, “Is he supposed to be saying ‘bad’???” Also, I can’t help but notice how Tony Danza-esque Taran’s “Bdaaaah!”s sound (not that Danza’s known for saying that either).
— As this Brad Pitt commentary goes on, despite my continued bafflement over the “Bdaaaah!” exclamations, there is something about Taran’s general portrayal of Pitt that I find pretty fun.
— The Harvard bit is another instance of Seth taking delight in doing a character voice during an Update joke, feeling like a nice throwback to the days when he regularly appeared in sketches.
— Seth calls Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds’ separation unfortunate “since they’re probably the only ones who had a chance with either of them.” Ohhhho, the irony on SNL’s part. Little did SNL know which of their own writers at the time would later get married to Scarlett. The fact that this joke of Seth’s came IMMEDIATELY after the aforementioned Harvard bit is even more of an odd and funny coincidence, given the fact that Scarlett’s future husband in question, Colin Jost, graduated from Harvard, and I’d like to think he’s the one who wrote Seth’s Harvard bit.
— Ah, a change of pace for Update, with us getting a Christmas song from Weekend Update favorites Snooki, Stefon, and Gov. David Paterson. I always like when SNL does something that groups together Weekend Update “all-stars”, such as in the Neil Diamond musical number that Will Ferrell and the real Neil Diamond did with then-Update staples Gay Hitler, Drunk Girl, and Geraldo Rivera at the end of the Weekend Update from Will’s final episode as a cast member.
STARS: ***


THIS YOU CALL A WONDERFUL LIFE?!
Jewish version of It’s A Wonderful Life was full of arguing & complaining

— Pretty funny premise of a Jewish version of It’s A Wonderful Life.
— Good to see Jason’s Jimmy Stewart impression appearing in something more promising than that notorious Rear Window sketch with January Jones.
— Much like in the cold opening earlier in this episode, we get another bad technical gaffe: when the guests are showing that they’ve brought food, the camera cuts to a close-up of THE FREAKIN’ FLOOR by mistake (screencap below). Ha, how in the world did that happen?

— Fourth episode in a row with then-writer Mike O’Brien making an onscreen appearance. I remember thinking at the time that they must’ve been grooming him to become a featured player soon. He would end up not becoming a featured player until three years later.
— Geez, until he showed up just now, I forgot Jeff Bridges was even tonight’s host. He’s appeared so little tonight, including in this sketch, with him being relegated to only making an appearance at the end of this.
— Ha, during the “Cast of Characters” shown in the ending credits, “Moishe Samberg” is credited as playing himself. That’s a callback to the memorable (and polarizing, like pretty much everything involving Justin Timberlake on SNL) Immigrant Tale sketch from Justin Timberlake’s season 34 episode, where Justin played his own ancestor at Ellis Island and Andy made an appearance at the end as an ancestor of his own named Moishe Samberg.
STARS: ***


JEFF’D
host nips his good-natured pranks on fellow actors in the bud

— Finally, a sketch with Jeff Bridges front-and-center as the star.
— Blah, the premise of a prankster pulling very tame pranks and then having a friendly conversation with the prank victim is way too derivative of a radio show sketch SNL did two seasons prior with Tim McGraw.
— At least Andy’s Billy Bob Thornton impression always amuses me.
— I kinda like the turn with Andy’s BBT pulling a gun on Jeff when finding out he’s been pranked. But, damn, the audience is dead during this scene. In fact, they’ve been pretty quiet during this sketch in general. Can’t blame them there, though, as I haven’t been enjoying the non-BBT portions of this sketch myself.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Eminem performs “Won’t Back Down”
Lil Wayne performs “6’7”


GENERAL STORE
in the Old West, gift-wrapping pioneers (host) & (KRW) faze shopgoers

— I know it’s not right to judge a non-recurring sketch just from its first 30 seconds, but damn, it’s very clear from the introduction of Kristen and Jeff’s characters that I’m in for a bad campy sketch.
— While it’s kind of a novelty seeing Jeff Bridges play a silly effeminate character, that doesn’t automatically make this sketch good, especially not in an era like this that relies too heavily on campy gay stereotypes as a comedic crutch.
— Ugh, I hate the “Just make your face like this” routine that Kristen and Jeff keep doing. A typical badly-written and unfunny Wiig mugfest.
— At least we get a fun performance from Jason as an Old West bandit.
STARS: *½


A HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM THE KARDASHIANS
Kim (NAP), Kourtney (VAB), Khloe (ABE) Kardashian deliver holiday message

— It feels like Abby’s been getting more airtime than usual tonight.
— I like how this is taking place on SNL’s home base stage, as it makes this feel like the type of miscellaneous piece that would usually take place on the home base stage in the 70s and 80s.
— Nasim-as-Kim-Kardashian’s “I got a Roleeeeeex” line has been the only real laugh I got out of this so far.
— Overall, nothing special at all, despite my appreciation for the setting.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A blah Christmas episode. The post-Weekend Update half of this episode was especially weak, with the only good piece in that half (This You Call A Wonderful Life) being completely average and unmemorable. I also wasn’t crazy about how they underused Jeff Bridges in this episode, and didn’t exactly give him the best material in the stuff he was in.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Crunkmas Karnival!
I Just Had Sex
Christmas Eve In Washington D.C.
The Miley Cyrus Show
This You Call A Wonderful Life?!
Weekend Update
A Message From Mark Zuckerberg / A Message From Julian Assange
Monologue
A Holiday Message From The Kardashians
Larry King Live
Jeff’d
General Store


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Rudd)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2011, with host Jim Carrey

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October 30, 2004 – Kate Winslet / Eminem (S30 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OSAMA’S ADDRESS
undecided voter Osama bin Laden (SEM) considers USA presidential election

— OH, GOD. Not another damn translator cold opening. Is it season 28 again?
— Pretty funny disclosure from Seth’s Osama Bin Laden about him being hunted down by the John Kerry campaign to register as an American voter.
— Good line about Michael Moore.
— A few dead spots for me here.
— Not sure how to react to the bit with Seth’s Osama admitting he would physically beat the hell out of Teresa Heinz-Kerry if she were his wife, which the audience actually applauds.
— SNL makes their obligatory meta reference to the preceding episode’s infamous Ashlee Simpson incident, with Seth’s Osama ranting to America about “your lip-synching pop stars.”
— Overall, surprisingly not bad for a translator cold opening.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Pick Yourself Up” & tap dances to prove she’s no lip-syncer

— Our second meta reference to the Ashlee Simpson incident.
— OH, GOD. Two episodes in a row with a song-and-dance monologue?!?
— At least there’s no typical use of SNL cast members as backup dancers, like we usually get in song-and-dance monologues.
— What a complete bore this monologue is. While I want to find a charm to this monologue, it’s not working for me AT ALL. Maybe it would work if this hadn’t come one episode after we just GOT a damn song-and-dance monologue (and frankly, the last one was a little better).
— I recall hearing that Kate would later disclose in an interview that she hated doing this monologue, which, if true, makes me like this monologue even less (if that’s possible).
STARS: *


RAP NIGHT WITH CHUBB HOTTY
obese rapper Chubb Hotty (HOS) in duet with Norah Jones (host)

— OH, GOD. The debut of a horrible short-lived Horatio Sanz recurring sketch. IIRC, this recurring sketch is going to be pure torture, and a quintessential display of season 30’s shittiness. Oh, and let me just ask: Really, SNL? You’re placing THIS as the lead-off sketch of the night? Ooh, this is gonna be a LOOOONNNNG episode, isn’t it?
— Believe it or not, this is actually a character that Horatio tried to get on the air many years earlier. Chubb Hotty was originally supposed to debut in the John Goodman episode from way back in season 24, which was Horatio’s first season. The Chubb Hotty sketch written for that episode was going to be some kind of MTV “behind the music”-type special on Chubb, but the sketch ended up not making it to the live show.
— Kinda funny to hear the VERY mixed reaction SNL’s studio audience has to Chubb Hotty’s line about the Red Sox winning the World Series. Sadly, that’s most likely going to be the most interesting part of this entire sketch.
— Awful character from Horatio, and this sketch is filled with lots of very hacky fat jokes. This is insufferable. Feels like an even worse variation of that fat acting coach sketch that Horatio did in the preceding season’s Kelly Ripa episode.
— There goes Horatio pulling a Chris Farley once again by doing a pratfall through a breakaway prop. This particular pratfall came off so desperate.
— Kenan’s a great straight man here, and has been the ONLY thing coming close to holding this terrible sketch together.
— As if this sketch hasn’t already been unwatchably hacky enough, now we get a gigantic fart from Horatio’s character. It’s official: I am in hell.
— Aaaaaand there goes Horatio’s obligatory breaking, where he cracks up at himself for no reason. You know what, SNL, just end this fucking sketch already before it finally makes me crumble to pieces.
STARS: *


MRS. DR. FRANKENSTEIN
creation (FRA) of husband-seeking Mrs. Dr. Frankenstein (host) is gay

— OH, GOD. (Has literally every single sketch tonight so far made me start off by saying “OH, GOD”?) Not only is this one of a COUNTLESS number of bad homoerotic sketches this season, but it’s our very first of an also-countless number of a specific type of homoerotic sketch this season where the entire premise is just “What would it be like if (insert whoever here, like Frankenstein, Jeff Foxworthy, a spaceship crew, etc.) acted like a gay stereotype?” This stuff on SNL was considered very hacky even back at this time in 2004/2005, but it comes off particularly groanworthy in our current age of LGBT acceptance.
— Oh, no. And now here comes a fucking musical number from Fred’s Gay Frankenstein.
— Ugh at Kate’s “I made a homo” line.
— Even the audience has stopped laughing by this point of the sketch.
— Overall, not a single laugh from me at any point during this sketch, making this the third consecutive horrible segment in tonight’s episode. We’re only 20 minutes into this episode, and it’s ALREADY destroying me.
STARS: *


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- John McCain labors to laud George W. Bush

— Please save me from the hell that is this episode, Smigel.
— Some laughs from John McCain’s secret frustration over having to laud President Bush at a rally.
— Good little bit with McCain’s dog being so disgusted by him that he spits on him.
— A hilarious Apocalypse Now-esque turn right now.
— What was with that lame-ass hokey ending, with McCain just saying “This is tougher than I thought.” THAT was the best ending Smigel could up with?
STARS: ***


CAMPAIGN STOP
at a campaign rally, Bill Clinton (DAH) overshadows John Kerry (SEM)

— There’s almost a “So bad, it’s good” quality to Will’s attempt at a Bruce Springsteen impression.
— I love the bit with Darrell’s Bill Clinton borrowing Clarence Clemons’ sax to impress the crowd at the John Kerry rally.
— Decent part with Darrell’s Clinton repeatedly putting his trademark thumbs-up in and out of the door to demonstrate to Seth’s John Kerry how much the crowd outside the door loves him.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mosh”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AMP gives her takes on singers’ reactions to Ashlee Simpson’s lip-syncing

SEM is thrilled that the Red Sox won the World Series; Johnny Damon cameo

WLF belts out a song about strange Halloween memories from his youth

newly-naturalized citizen Diego (FRA) explores Democracy Plaza

Elton John (HOS) slams Ashlee Simpson with “Tiny Dancer” variant

— Our THIRD meta reference to the Ashlee Simpson incident.
— Even though I rarely like it whenever Amy does a “bit” during the Fey/Poehler era of Update, I’m actually kinda impressed by her rapid-fire string of comical impressions of various singers during her “famous singers react to the Ashlee Simpson SNL incident” joke, including some singers who Amy has played on SNL before (Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears). That’s a bit I can picture Jimmy Fallon doing back when he was on the show, given his knack for impressions of celebrities (particularly singers).
— Pretty good Update segment with Seth, keeping up the tradition of his Red Sox fan Update bits.
— I love Tina introducing Will as “resident sex symbol Will Forte”.
— Yes! We get the debut of Will doing an Update song as himself, which would go on to be a recurring thing throughout his SNL tenure, and has always been among my many favorite things Will has done on SNL.
— Will’s bizarre, hard-to-follow Halloween song is absolutely HILARIOUS. I am loving this.
— Hmm, according to a news story from Tina, Halloween masks have predicted the outcome of the last six presidential elections (as of 2004), then Tina says that this year, Bush masks have been the winner. That ended up being another accurate prediction of who would win that year’s election. Makes me wonder if Halloween masks also correctly predicted the outcome of the later 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections.
— Fred debuts a new Update character that ends up never becoming recurring, even though he kinda seemed set up to become recurring.
— Even though, on the surface, this kinda feels like a standard Hispanic Fred Armisen role, I’m really enjoying this character. Like I say about some of the stuff Fred has done in these early seasons of his, this character has a good Andy Kaufman vibe (e.g. Foreign Man), and this pre-taped format with him at Democracy Plaza is a fun use of him. This pre-tape also feels like a throwback to man-on-the-street comedy bits Fred was known for doing as various characters before he joined SNL.
— Amy’s Daylight Savings Time joke was particularly weak, even for her standards.
— WTF? Horatio’s goddamn Elton John impression in ANOTHER Update commentary, just a few episodes after he already did an Update commentary? What did I do to deserve this punishment?
— Ugh at the obligatory lame gay sex joke early on in this Elton John commentary. Yeah, we get it. Elton John is openly gay.
— Our FOURTH meta reference to the Ashlee Simpson incident.
— I remember how this Horatio-as-Elton-John “Ashlee Simpson, you’re a phony” song bothered some people at the time, who felt SNL was pushing it and going a little too far in their Ashlee-bashing tonight.
— At least Horatio’s Elton John song tonight ended up being pretty short.
— Overall, was this a season 30 Weekend Update I watched, or was it a season 7 SNL Newsbreak? This Update was JAM-PACKED and felt never-ending. Too bad the Fey/Poehler portions are still mostly tepid to me (which is yet another similarity tonight’s Update has to season 7’s SNL Newsbreaks, even if I don’t find Fey/Poehler quite as dire as the crap that Brian Doyle-Murray et al. regularly churned out at the news desk in season 7). They continue to not work for me as an Update duo.
STARS: **½


MALL
at the mall, Kaitlin has second thoughts about getting her ears pierced

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— As I said in my review of the first installment of this sketch, I have a much bigger appreciation for these Kaitlin sketches nowadays, after utterly despising these sketches when they originally aired. Back when they originally aired, I (and I’m sure some others) couldn’t look past the annoying, shrieky, and rambly nature of Amy’s Kaitlin character. I can now enjoy these sketches for the realism, slice-of-life, and heart that both Amy’s characterization and these sketches themselves are going for.
— Kate Winslet is very believable in this type of role that I wouldn’t have been able to picture her pulling off before seeing this sketch. By the way, I’m pretty sure this is the first thing I’ve had to say about Kate in any of tonight’s sketches. And believe it or not, this ends up being her LAST sketch appearance all night. She’s not in ANY of the remaining sketches. Geez, she’s gotta be one of the most invisible hosts in then-recent memory. Word has it that she was very nervous about doing the show, which is why SNL used her so little.
— Another nice touch of amusing realism to this sketch is Maya and Rachel as jogging middle-aged women in the background all throughout this sketch.
— The interplay between Kaitlin and Rick in these sketches is always enjoyable, especially whenever she secretly discloses to him that she wants to get out of a situation she’s gotten herself into with someone else, and he tries to get her out of it. There’s something both funny and really sweet about that.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Proof [real] perform “Just Lose It”


GOODWIN WIG & TOY
Halloween-averse Glenda Goodwin has non-scary costumes

— OH, GOD. (Sorry, I just wanted to say that one more time tonight.) Those awful “Second Time Around” sketches from season 28 really soured me on this Glenda Goodwin character. At least they took her out of the “Second Time Around” setting tonight, though.
— This sketch is in a similar vein to the Attorney-At-Law sketch that the Glenda Goodwin character made her debut in, only this one has her advertising a Halloween costume shop.
— Overall, meh. This forgettable sketch just came and went with only a few mild laughs from me. Nothing noteworthy at all in this sketch. The format of this sketch worked better in the aforementioned Attorney-At-Law sketch that Goodwin debuted in.
STARS: **


ELECTORAL MAP
Tim Russert (DAH) & Tom Brokaw (CHP) consider colors for electoral map

— I liked Chris-as-Tom-Brokaw’s line when seeing the flesh tone color used for some of the states: “Now Florida looks like a semi-erect phallus.”
— This sketch is extremely boring. Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert just discussing an electoral map’s colors? How is this supposed to be enjoyable? How did a sketch with this premise even make it on the air? Kinda like the monologue earlier tonight, I want to find a charm to this premise, but nope. Not working for me in the slightest. Maybe in a much better episode, I’d appreciate this sketch’s simplistic, realistic, and dry premise more, whereas in an episode like tonight’s, this sketch is just adding to the episode’s dead feeling.
— Not sure how to feel about that non-ending.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

— At the very beginning of these goodnights, the camera catches the very end of an odd exchange Kate and Eminem have, where she’s seen asking him an offended-sounding “What?!?” before realizing she’s on the air and then begins her goodnights speech. She had a sly smirk on her face immediately after her offended-sounding “What?!?”, which makes me wonder if her seemingly offended response to whatever Eminem said to her was just playful joking around.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not a good episode at all. Despite a few things I liked, this episode featured WAY too many flops, some of which are definitely among the worst sketches of this entire season (and considering the poor quality of this season as a whole, that’s saying something). The bad one-two punch of Chubb Hotty and Gay Frankenstein early in this episode was particularly brutal. I remember when this episode originally aired, this was the official point where I started realizing that something was going horribly wrong with this new season. Oh, and for anyone keeping count in my reviews, we’re 0-for-4 in good episodes this season so far, in my opinion. I’m pretty sure this is the first season I’ve reviewed where I went THIS far into it without liking a single episode. (The closest I can think of to this happening before is in season 22, which, while an overall good season, had a pretty rough start with its first three episodes.)


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jude Law)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Liam Neeson

Posted on

May 11, 2002 – Kirsten Dunst / Eminem (S27 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BRIEFING
George W. Bush (WIF) misidentifies Middle East leaders’ names in briefing

— This ends up being the final appearance of Will’s George W. Bush during Will’s tenure as a cast member (obviously not counting the times Will would later play Bush when hosting or cameoing). Due to that, it’s bittersweet watching this particular cold opening in retrospect, especially when being aware of the huge struggle that SNL’s going to have in regards to getting a new Bush impersonator.
— A big laugh from Will’s Bush calling Hussein Of Jordan’s wife Queen Amidala.
— Bush, after being surprised to hear there’s two Abdullahs: “Is this some kind of a test?” Dick Cheney: “I ask myself that every day.”
— Pretty simple “Bush is dumb” premise, but it’s being executed well. Again, knowing that this is Will’s final Bush appearance during his SNL tenure, the simplicity and straightforwardness of this cold opening is strangely kinda charming in a way, though at the same time, it would’ve been nice if SNL ended Will’s run as Bush by going all out on an epic, special cold opening and saved it for Will’s final episode the following week.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host shows clip of earlier SNL appearance; HOS pretends to be Spider-Man

— A nice part with Kirsten Dunst pointing out that she once appeared on SNL as a child extra in a Dana-Carvey-as-Bush-Sr. cold opening from 1988, which we’re then shown a clip of. Feels like it was just yesterday when I reviewed that cold opening.
— Pretty funny use of the old Spider-Man theme song when an upside-down Horatio in a Spider-Man costume makes his entrance.
— A laugh from Horatio’s Spider-Man explaining his weight gain by claiming he was stung by 1,000 bees.
— Yikes, when Kirsten is supposed to pull down only the mouth part of Horatio’s Spider-Man mask, she accidentally pulls off the ENTIRE mask, which kinda blows the bit, as Kirsten’s not supposed to realize it’s Horatio under that mask until much later in the monologue. After accidentally removing Horatio’s entire mask, Kirsten awkwardly attempts to put the mask back on him, to no avail.
— Double-yikes, now this monologue has gone even further off the rails. When Horatio asks for a bucket to vomit in, a crew member is supposed to hand him one, which Horatio was then supposed to put his head inside while vomiting sound effects are played. However, for some inexplicable reason, no bucket is handed to Horatio, forcing him to hesitantly skip the vomiting part, and he and Kirsten just awkwardly go on with the monologue. Geez, what the hell is going ON???
— When Horatio attempts to kiss Kirsten, she responds “You just puked, I’m not gonna kiss you!”, a line that makes absolutely NO sense, given that Horatio never got to do the vomiting bit. This line of Kirsten’s receives uncomfortable silence from the studio audience, who were probably just as confused over that line as I remember being when watching this episode live.
— Now Horatio reveals to Kirsten, “It’s me, Horatio”, as if he had just taken off his mask to reveal his identity, which, again, makes NO sense to SNL’s studio audience and home viewers, considering Horatio’s mask had ALREADY been long removed by accident. Jesus Christ, this monologue is a mess.
— SNL would later replace this monologue with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, for obvious reasons.
STARS: *½


CLEAR RESULTS
(ANG) gets reassurance in third trimester

— A lot of laughs from Ana’s voice-over constantly questioning if she’s pregnant of not, when we can see that she clearly is very pregnant.
— A good reveal that this is a pregnancy test commercial.
— An overall solid way for SNL to get mileage out of Ana’s real-life pregnancy, and ends up being one of her last great SNL moments.
STARS: ****


LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY
derivative (host) sings & plays piano

— Kirsten’s playing a solid combo of Alicia Keys and some other young female singers from this time period.
— Funny part with Kirsten’s character explaining she used to go out with Bob Saget, spoofing Alanis Morissette’s relationship with Dave Coulier.
— I love Jimmy-as-Carson-Daly’s line about having a side job mixing paint at Home Depot.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Bambi 2002” by RBS- unfocused Disney sequel sullies memory of original

— A huge laugh from one of the announced Disney movies being a porno titled “Pokahotass”.
— A lot of very funny and inappropriate out-of-place situations for Bambi to be placed in.
— David Spade voice cameo!
— And… OH, NO. A fucking Jared Fogel voice cameo?!?!? Goddammit, I thought the only Jared Fogel SNL cameo I ever had to worry about covering is in the Michael Phelps episode from much later in this decade. I had completely forgotten about his animated appearance and voice cameo in this cartoon.
— Solid TV Funhouse as a whole.
STARS: ****


DEMILON
Demilon keeps senior citizens controllable by counteracting memory drugs

— Kind of a touchy subject, trying to get laughs out of Alzheimer’s.
— I did get a laugh from Rachel’s old lady character happily saying “I’m having lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt… and Yogi Bear!”
— An overall surprisingly short sketch, and, other than one laugh, was nothing special at all.
STARS: **


BACKGROUND ACTORS
extras’ (WIF), (AMP), (host) antics steal attention from serious scene

— Will and Amy’s extremely exaggerated, unnatural background acting is providing good laughs.
— Kirsten eventually getting into the act is pretty funny as well.
— Good understated frustration from Maya and Kattan’s actor characters, who are trying to keep the scene going despite the background antics.
— There’s one brief point where Maya looked like she was about to come very close to helplessly busting out laughing in reaction to the faces that Will, Amy, and Kirsten are making right next to her, but she’s doing a good job of pulling through and keeping a straight face.
— Great anger from Parnell towards the terrible background actors.
STARS: ***½


JARRET’S ROOM
(host) & (AMP) are the stars of a copycat webcam show

— Somewhat interesting with us being shown Kirsten and Amy starring in a rip-off version of Jarret’s Room.
— I like the mirror bit that Gobi’s doing with Amy as his female counterpart.
— An overall somewhat fun Jarret’s Room installment, and a step up from the disappointing last installment with Britney Spears.
— Where was Jeff as his usual Jarret’s Room character? In fact, Jeff ends up not appearing in ANY sketches tonight (same goes for Tracy, by the way), though he’s certainly there in the SNL studio, as he can be seen in this episode’s later goodnights.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Without Me”


WEEKEND UPDATE
socialites Nicky (host) & Paris (MAR) Hilton visit Weekend Update

in a terrible re-enactment, Queen Elizabeth (CHK) sees a streaker (CHK)

CHP performs a rap about his gangsta life & relationship with host

 

— I see that, after experimenting with many different hairstyles this season, Jimmy has returned to the trademark hairstyle he had in his first three seasons.
— (*groan*) We get our very first display of SNL’s inexplicable fascination with the Hilton Sisters, long before the sisters even became universally known to most people. Back in these days, I used to blame Tina for this annoying obsession of SNL’s (especially around seasons 29 and 30, where I had A LOT of issues with Tina), as she seemed to have a fascination for Paris Hilton and trash like Paris who were around in this era.
— And the Hilton Sisters segment is now already over, with no semblance of a premise to be found anywhere. What exactly was the point of that short segment?
— Oh, no. Another freakin’ Terrible Reenactment from Kattan. Man, between the Hilton Sisters bit and now this, the guests in tonight’s Update are starting to destroy me.
— Ah, here comes Parnell to give the guest side of tonight’s Update some much-needed stability.
— Even though Parnell suddenly breaking out into another Update rap no longer has that great element of surprise that his first Update rap did, his rap tonight is still a pure blast to watch. Plus, there’s something funny about knowing that Eminem is in the building during tonight’s Parnell rap.
— An overall absolutely fantastic rap from Parnell once again.
— A second appearance from Kirsten in tonight’s Update, this time as herself? At least her refuting all of the things Parnell rapped about her is taking this into a different direction from Parnell’s original Update rap.
STARS: ***


KOURNIKOVA VS. PENTHOUSE
trial of Anna Kournikova (host) vs. Penthouse takes on a Laugh-In flavor

— Kirsten’s accent and broken English as Anna Kournikova are both funny, especially her mentions of her “boobings tips”.
— A fun random turn with a sudden Laugh-In dance sequence, complete with go-go music, party lighting, and camera zoom-ins-and-outs.
— A hilarious portion of the sketch with Seth as an average joe testifying how violated he was by finding out that pictures he masturbated to were NOT of Anna Kournikova. This is made even funnier by Ana’s professional voice-over detailing this ridiculous testimony.
— A great laugh from Parnell’s failed attempt to trigger yet another Laugh-In sequence.
— Will is completely stealing this sketch, doing a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque take on Bob Guccione. Again, there’s a bittersweet feel, when you realize this is going to be one of our very last opportunities to ever see Will steal a sketch during his tenure as a cast member.
— Darrell’s awkward dancing at the end is cracking me up.
— Very fun sketch overall.
STARS: ****


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
Megan & Sheldon at (host)’s slumber party

— A very nice change of pace, having tonight’s Wake Up Wakefield be set at a slumber party. Seeing talk shows and the like changing things up by taking place inside somebody’s house is something that’s become quite common to see today, considering the current situation going on in the world.
— I like the comically unsettling line about Sheldon’s parents needing to “work stuff out” at home.
— The addition of Tina, Amy, Kirsten, and Ana’s characters is really adding to the adolescent atmosphere that these Wake Up Wakefield sketches always go for. Kirsten is particularly funny here as her adolescent character.
— A very funny line with Amy’s rumor about how Kirsten once “put a frozen hot dog in her nooners”.
— This is the SECOND sketch tonight in which Jimmy and Kirsten make out with each other.
— Cute ending with the girls ganging up on Sheldon to tickle him.
STARS: ***½


AUDITION
Kyle & Sean DeMarco & cousin (host) audition to tour with musical guest

— Dean is making the most of his obligatory sole appearance of the night.
— Boy, Eminem’s delivery here is terrible. He takes practically half a minute just to deliver single lines. What’s with all the damn pausing from him?
— Ugh, our inevitable post-Parnell’s-rehiring return of these insufferable DeMarco Brothers. Thankfully, however, this ends up being their final on-air appearance. SNL was going to do a DeMarco Brothers sketch the following season with musical guest Avril Lavigne (in the Jeff Gordon episode), and the sketch even survived dress rehearsal cuts and was going to go on the air somewhere around the 10-to-1 slot, but it ended up getting cut at the last minute because Lavigne reportedly claimed to be having throat problems after her second musical performance (I remember some online SNL fans at the time had a theory that Lavigne faked her alleged throat problems as an excuse to get out of a lame sketch).
— I love Parnell warning Kattan, in regards to Eminem, “He is fixing to pop a cap in our fannies.”
— Another surprisingly funny line, with Kattan responding to Eminem’s homophobic insult to the DeMarco Brothers by telling him “Eminem, quite frankly, I don’t care where you melt.”
— Yet ANOTHER surprisingly funny line, with Parnell warning Kattan, again in regards to Eminem, “He is a gangbanger! He will gangbang us!” You know, it’s too bad the dance portions of this sketch are so painfully unfunny and unwatchable, and Eminem’s delivery is so terrible and sluggish, because there is some good dialogue among the DeMarcos here.
— An awful and drawn-out ending.
STARS: **


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
shooting horses in chapter 852


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode. Despite a couple of misfires (including a pretty disastrous monologue), the overall show had a lot of enjoyable sketches and a fun vibe for most of the night. Speaking of fun, Kirsten Dunst impressed me with how fun she was as a host. I wouldn’t have minded if she had hosted a second time in this era.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 27 comes to an end, with host Winona Ryder. It’s also the last show for Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer.

Posted on

October 7, 2000 – Rob Lowe / Eminem (S26 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Jim Lehrer (CHP) moderates Al Gore (DAH) vs. George W. Bush (WIF) debate

— I remember when this first aired, there was a lot of confusion on online SNL forums over who was playing Jim Lehrer, as the heavy prosthetic makeup made Parnell hard to recognize. Some people back then, including myself, wondered if it was host Rob Lowe playing Lehrer.
— Will and Darrell’s Bush and Gore impressions have really improved over the summer. Hell, Will and Darrell now even look pretty uncanny as the two candidates.
— Funny split-screen shot of Darrell’s Gore making an impatient face while Parnell’s Lehrer is listing off programs currently airing on Pay-Per-View.
— Bush: “Don’t mess with Texas.”
— Very memorable part with Gore going on and on about his “lockbox” plan.
— I absolutely love Bush answering one question with “Pass”.
— Hilarious part regarding Bush’s famous nonsensical quote about sex and violence in movies.
— Bush’s puzzled, intense facial expression during one very complicated question that Lehrer asks him is great.
— Gore, after Lehrer asks Bush a question: “Jim, I’d like to interrupt here and answer that question as if it were my turn to speak.”
— Yet another great highlight, with Gore’s story about an old lady with a variety of ailments.
— Bush, on a statement that Gore just made: “I believe that some of his figures may be in-ac-ur-it.”
— A very long debate cold opening, but it’s definitely worth it. When this originally aired, however, I remember 16-year-old me impatiently waiting and waiting for them to finally say “Live from New York…”, but that was only because I was eager to see if this season premiere was going to have a new opening montage.
— And there’s the iconic moment of this already-fantastic debate sketch: Bush saying “Strategery” as his final word.
— Overall, such a well-written and expertly performed debate sketch.
— A very strong way to kick off a season. This may be the first time in my SNL project that I’m giving a five-star rating to the first cold opening of a season. No other instances come to mind, but maybe I’m forgetting something.
STARS: *****


OPENING MONTAGE
— New montage.

— For the first time since all the way back in season 19, the opening montage has moving shots of the cast, instead of still photos.
— The new cast members joining tonight are Tina Fey and Jerry Minor, the former having already been an SNL writer and occasional onscreen extra the past few seasons.
— Rachel Dratch is still a featured player, which I remember surprised a lot of online SNL fans back at this time, including myself, considering the fact that it was felt at the time that Rachel had a strong first season, plus the fact that we weren’t yet aware of the then-new “two seasons as a featured player” addition to SNL players’ contracts. Speaking of Rachel not getting promoted to repertory player, she ends up not even appearing in any sketches tonight, which makes this the SECOND consecutive episode that she’s absent in, as she was also M.I.A. in the preceding season’s finale. Geez, poor Rachel. I remember some online SNL fans having a theory that Rachel refused to show up for this season premiere because she was perhaps upset over not being promoted. A pretty silly theory, honestly.
— A Cartoon By Robert Smigel is credited in tonight’s montage, but no cartoon ends up airing tonight. The cartoon was going to be the “Sex and the Country” cartoon that ends up airing later this season and would cause controversy.
— SNL Band saxophonist Lenny Pickett is now credited in the opening montage as the leader of the SNL Band, feeling like a nice throwback to the days when G.E. Smith got that honor.


MONOLOGUE
audience members ask West Wing star host some presidential questions

— The dumb questions the audience is asking Rob Lowe are fairly funny so far, but ehhh, nothing great.
— The Emmy bit between Rob and Paula Pell is really funny.
— A big laugh from Jim Downey’s question about “the room where they blow the president”.
— Rob ends this monologue by saying “Eminem is here, so wake up the kids!”, an interesting variation of the usual “stick around, we’ll be right back” tagline.
STARS: ***


CORN CHIP NAIL TIPS
Corn Chip Nail Tips are both fashion accessories & tasty snack treats

— An okay concept. More cute and flashy than funny, but I’m enjoying this enough. I remember finding this commercial dumb back when it originally aired, but I can appreciate it more now.
— I believe this is the very first thing that SNL writer James Anderson got on the air. This is his first episode as a writer, and he’s still writing for the show to this day, 20 years later.
— Some funny one-liners from Horatio’s hobo character, especially his excited “…and beef!” when the flavors are listed off.
STARS: ***


MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Dennis Miller (JIF) gets arcane during pregame

— Darrell’s Al Michaels voice just sounds like a variation of his Frank Gifford voice. I’m not too familiar with either Michaels’ or Gifford’s voice, though.
— Will’s mere look as Dan Fouts is making me laugh.
— I remember an SNL podcast pointing out that Maya strangely looks about 14 years old in this sketch. I can see that.
— Speaking of Maya, when this sketch originally aired, I mistook Maya for Tina Fey. At the time, I wasn’t familiar with either Maya or Tina (I hadn’t yet seen the very few appearances that Maya made at the tail end of the preceding season, and I had no memory of the onscreen appearances that Tina previously made as a writer), and I assumed that Maya would only be cast in black roles on SNL, which is why I assumed that the white-looking woman playing the role of a white sideline reporter in this sketch must’ve been Tina Fey.
— There’s Jimmy’s Dennis Miller impression, which I remember had some hype online beforehand.
— Jimmy’s Dennis Miller is kinda making me laugh and he’s got Dennis’ essence down, but the voice? Ehhhh.
— I like the look on Will’s Dan Fouts whenever he laughs at Dennis Miller’s jokes.
— Funny in retrospect how all of the then-new ABC shows that Darrell’s Al Michaels keeps shoehorning plugs for are shows that would soon end up being canceled pretty fast, though I’m not 100% sure.
— Tracy’s incoherent, rambly report as Eric Dickerson is hilarious.
— Some good laughs from Dan Fouts always stating the obvious in his reports.
STARS: ***


BACKSTAGE
backstage, host & Ralph Nader [real] talk past one another

— Pretty nice to see a Ralph Nader cameo, as he has some good history with SNL.
— Rob’s inner thoughts about not knowing who Nader is are providing some pretty good laughs.
— Nader’s inner thoughts right now are even funnier.
STARS: ***½


PROS & CONS
vigilante snoops Scooby & Shaggy (host) defend their methods

— Odd in retrospect seeing such a low-key, serious Nancy Grace impression, but I guess this was long before Nancy Grace became easy to make fun of.
— I like the camera slowly zooming in on the sinister face of the criminal next to Parnell’s character.
— I’m loving the Scooby Doo concept of this sketch, and Rob is doing an absolutely spot-on and funny Shaggy imitation.
— I think I once read somewhere that Scooby was also voiced by Rob in this sketch, in pre-taped voice-over form. If so, that’s another spot-on impression from Rob.
— For some reason, this sketch claims that Shaggy’s full real name is Warren Shagowski. I thought it was somewhat well-known that in the actual Scooby Doo cartoons, Shaggy’s full real name was Norville Rogers.
— A good laugh from the bit with Parnell’s character misreading “meddling” as “sodomy”.
— Shaggy: “(angrily) Zoinks you in the ass!”
— I love all the little mentions of familiar cliches from Scooby Doo episodes.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Dido [real] perform “Stan”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Leon Phelps discusses sex in Hollywood cinema & promotes his movie
TIF’s advice to Britney Spears- “enjoy your ass while it lasts”
Grand Master Rap (JEM), Kid Shazaam (HOS), musical guest rap old school

— We officially enter a brand new era of Weekend Update.
— SNL returns to the dual anchor format for the first time since way back in the early 80s.
— This may be the very last time in my SNL project that I get to cover a new Update era that has no holdover anchorpersons from the preceding Update era. To this day in 2020, every era of Update after the Fallon/Fey era has had one anchorperson from the preceding era stay on. So, unless current anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che both step down from Update together before I finish my SNL project, this is the very last time I’ll get to experience the excitement of covering an ENTIRELY new Update era.
— After saying their names, Tina and Jimmy start this Update by saying in unison, “And when we get together, it’s news.” Uh… all I have to say about that is I can DEFINITELY see why that didn’t go on to be a regular thing for Fallon/Fey Updates.
— Another aspect of tonight’s inaugural Fallon/Fey Update that would soon get dropped is Tina and Jimmy each throwing to the other anchorperson after a joke, by asking their name, like real news co-anchors do.
— As a new Update anchorperson, Tina is immediately coming off very comfortable, poised, and confident, as if this was something she was born ready to do.
— Jimmy doesn’t have an anchorman-type look or demeanor at all, but he’s strangely working well enough and has a likability to his approach, though he’d gradually get even better as the next few seasons progress.
— Now we get Jimmy and Tina’s very first interaction piece with each other, with Tina grilling Jimmy about whether or not he watched the presidential debate earlier this week. This piece establishes Jimmy and Tina’s Update personas, with Tina as the mature, stern anchor who takes her job seriously, and Jimmy as the young, slacker goofball.
— Ha, in just his first episode after leaving the show, Tim Meadows ALREADY makes a cameo, to plug the upcoming release of the SNL movie The Ladies’ Man. Considering how long Tim was in the cast, it strangely kinda makes sense in a way for him to make a cameo in the first episode after he left.
— Speaking of Tim’s longevity in the cast, I didn’t realize until now how odd it’s going to initially be for me to have to get used to no longer reviewing Tim, after I’ve reviewed NINE-AND-A-HALF straight seasons of him.
— I love Leon Phelps beginning his commentary by telling Tina “Thank you Colin… ooh, it’s a lady!”
— Leon Phelps: “One man’s porno is another man’s Sleepless In Seattle.”
— Interesting turn in the Leon Phelps commentary, with Tim dropping character and admitting that the only reason he came back to the show tonight, other than to plug the Ladies’ Man movie, is because he already misses being on the show, before segueing into a comically shameless plug for the (doomed) Michael Richards Show that he’s in.
— Tina now gets her own side segment, titled “Women’s News”. I’m enjoying all the new, different things SNL is doing with Weekend Update, now that we have two anchorpersons.
— I love how Tina starts off her “Women’s News” segment by saying “As a mother of two, which I am not…” I guess she can’t say that line anymore nowadays, though.
— Tina’s rant about Britney Spears is classic, and is a great early display of Tina’s typical sense of humor.
— Jerry Minor gets his first big showcase.
— I like the detail of how Horatio and Jerry’s old-school rappers pluralize random words in their sentences.
— The rap from Horatio and Jerry’s characters is a spot-on parody of early-era rap.
— An okay inclusion of Eminem in the Horatio/Jerry commentary.
— At the end of this Update, Tina signs off with “Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow”, a callback to the original SNL era. I remember in an interview that Jimmy and Tina did not too long after this episode, either Jimmy or Tina claimed that they’re only using “Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow” as a temporary placeholder while they try to come up with their own original sign-off. They would end up NEVER coming up with one. “Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow” would end up being used for the entire Tina Fey era of Update.
— At the very end of this Update, right before the screen fades to black, Tina apparently incorrectly thinks her microphone has been turned off and she can be heard excitedly exclaiming to Jimmy, “We’re set, baby!” A charming little moment that shows how excited Tina was to have successfully gone through her first Update, but SNL would later remove that statement of Tina’s from reruns by fading to black right before Tina says it.
— Overall, a good and promising start to the new Update era. Jimmy and especially Tina did well and there was a fun atmosphere that I found was missing from the Colin Quinn era of Update. I’m not always a fan of the dual anchor format, but it works here and I can see why it was considered a necessity after the Colin Quinn era.
STARS: ***½


BLIND DATE
(WIF) & (MOS) endure an awkward blind date at an airport bar

— Feels kinda odd how this is Molly’s first (and I think ONLY) appearance all night.
— Such a strange atmosphere to this sketch, but I’m enjoying it. There’s a humorously realistic, slice-of-life feel to this sketch that feels rare for this era. I recall there being a theory on online SNL forums that the cue cards got lost for this sketch during the live show, forcing Will and Molly to improvise. While I’m 100% certain that’s not the case, this sketch does kinda have an improvised feel.
— I like the bit with Will quoting Molly’s constant “I’d really rather not talk about it right now” response before revealing he was just kidding, only for Molly to be offended.
— Chris Kattan (who I believe is also making his first appearance of the night) has the ability to get laughs from the audience even with just subtle, low-key things he’s doing, like the way he softly taps the table each time before he leaves.
— When Molly’s about to exit, I’m laughing at her always answering “Yeah, no” whenever Will asks her something.
STARS: ***½


DATELINE PRE-TAPES
perfectionist Stone Phillips (host) records intros for Dateline NBC

— Wow, where has Rob Lowe been? For a host, he’s been absent from a surprising amount of sketches tonight.
— Rob delivers another spot-on and hilarious impression tonight. He is knocking it out of the park tonight with these impressions.
— Rob has the great ability to always get laughs from his constant repetition of a simple line in that impeccable Stone Phillips voice.
— Will always immediately agreeing with everything Stone Phillips suggests is funny.
— I love the part with Stone Phillips doing three takes in a row in rapid-fire speed, even if Rob got a little mixed up with some of the words there.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Real Slim Shady”


PERSONAL PROFILE
NBC gets Up Close & Personal with CHK before a skit; Brendan Fraser cameo

— I love the idea of this, doing an Olympic-type profile on Kattan getting ready for a sketch.
— Brendan Fraser makes a random silent cameo as Kattan’s agent. This was actually a last-minute addition to this sketch. Fraser was originally going to appear tonight in a noteworthy role in a Mango sketch (the premise of the sketch had Mango being tricked into doing a porno, from what I remember of the description I read of it back at this time in 2000), but the sketch got cut after dress rehearsal, so SNL threw Fraser into a walk-on role in this Personal Profile sketch during the live show, as a way of keeping him in tonight’s episode.
— Commentator, on Kattan: “This is not his best event. He’s better with gay characters. He’s not good with words.”
— In the video package shown of Kattan, we see a clip from an unaired Weekend Update commentary that Kattan did at dress rehearsal at some point in the second half of season 23, judging from the Update set seen in the clip (the second above screencap for this sketch). From what I remember finding out online, this unaired Update commentary had Kattan playing a character named Zip Zing, a take-off on Kattan’s real-life father, actor Kip King. I’m not 100% sure, but I think the season 23 episode that this unaired Update commentary comes from is the Julianne Moore episode.
— The shot of Kattan emotionally staring at the camera during his flood story is hilarious.
— A priceless bit about Tracy not being able to perform in tonight’s show because traces of banned substances were found in his urine.
— I love how Kattan’s parents are fittingly portrayed as a monkey and a drag queen. Am I crazy for thinking that the guy playing the drag queen kinda resembles former cast member Mark McKinney? (the last above screencap for this sketch)
— This sketch is such a spot-on and funny parody of typical Olympic athlete profiles.
— The whole premise of this piece is to show Kattan getting ready for a Looks At Books sketch that he’s about to do, and this piece even ends with him entering the Looks At Books set and sitting in his seat for it. However, we end up never seeing the Looks At Books sketch itself. It was originally supposed to follow this Personal Profile sketch, but the show ran long and the sketch had to get cut, kinda rendering this Personal Profile sketch a bit pointless, though still very strong.
STARS: ****½


DREAM TEAM 2000
Dream Team 2000 video documents arrogance of USA Olympians in Sydney

— A great parody of American athletes’ classless, unsportsmanlike actions at the then-recent 2000 Olympics.
— This commercial is making yet another very funny use of Parnell’s always-fantastic voice-over work.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid season premiere. I liked every single segment, and several stood out as very strong, including a classic cold opening, a very fun Scooby Doo take-off, and two inspired Olympic-themed pieces towards the end of the show. Rob Lowe strangely didn’t appear much for a host, but he made great use of his limited airtime, especially with how he displayed some spot-on and very funny impressions (Shaggy, Stone Phillips, and possibly Scooby Doo).


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kate Hudson

Posted on

October 23, 1999 – Norm Macdonald / Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg and Eminem (S25 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WORLD SERIES BET
Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) wanted higher stakes for mayoral World Series bet

— Tim’s brief appearance in the opening portion of this sketch isn’t seen in reruns, as reruns replace this cold opening with the dress rehearsal version. With Tim’s appearance here missing in reruns, the rerun version of tonight’s episode has Tim making his ONLY appearance of the night in a Michael Jackson sketch that doesn’t air until towards the end of the show.
— Darrell’s Rudy Giuliani impression makes its debut.
— As no surprise, Darrell’s Giuliani impression is solid.
— Ha, after Darrell’s Giuliani praises the Mets, you can hear a sole “Boo!” from one person in SNL’s audience.
— Darrell has carried over the “laugh, then suddenly put on a straight face” mannerism from his Bill Clinton impression.
— A lot of funny lines from Darrell’s Giuliani as he’s going on about what he and the mayor of Atlanta have agreed to give each other if the Yankees or Braves win that year’s World Series. I especially love the one about New York getting the severed head of John Rocker on a stick. For anyone who remembers the colossal bigoted douchebag that was John Rocker (Will Ferrell does a great Weekend Update commentary as him later this season), you hopefully appreciate that joke.
— Another great line, this time with Giuliani’s bet about how if the Braves win, he’ll dress up as Scarlett O’Hara and the mayor of Atlanta can romance him with a plunger.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Rachel Dratch has been added to the cast tonight as a featured player.


MONOLOGUE
NOM deduces that SNL has gotten much worse in the time since he was fired

— Ah, it feels so great to see Norm making his entrance on SNL’s home base stage as the host.
— When a few people in the audience yell out “NORM!”, Norm asks “What was that?” and they repeat it, then Norm responds “Well, you’re absolutely right, that is my name.”
— Awesome how Norm is openly addressing his controversial firing from SNL, in the way that only he can.
— Norm’s great description of the disagreement he had with the management: “I wanted to keep my job, right? And THEY felt the EXACT OPPOSITE.”
— I love Norm pointing out how asinine it is that in just a year and a half, he’s gone from being considered not funny enough to even be allowed in the building to now hosting the show.
— Just now, Norm has gone “Heeeeeeeeeeeeey!” in the same way he hilariously did in the Sarcasm 101 sketch from season 23’s Matthew Perry episode.
— Norm: “How did I suddenly get so GODDAMN funny???”
— An absolutely priceless realization from Norm that he hasn’t gotten any funnier; the show has gotten really bad.
— Norm: “So, yeah, I’m funny compared to… well, you’ll see later.”
— Even the trademark sign-off line that every monologue ends with has a funny variation tonight, with Norm saying “We got a bad show for you tonight.”
— Overall, an absolutely epic monologue to end all monologues. One of the all-time best in SNL history.
STARS: *****


MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA
in the wake of her successful IPO, Martha Stewart (ANG) enjoys being rich

— A change of pace for a Martha Stewart sketch.
— Lots of great lines from Ana’s Martha bragging about her IPO.
— Martha Stewart: “The real Martha Stewart is a frigid 58-year-old divorcee with a filthy mouth and a mean streak.”
STARS: ****


GREAT MOMENTS IN YANKEE HISTORY
Lou Gehrig (NOM) was being sarcastic

— A hilarious and very Norm-esque twist on the famous Lou Gehrig speech, revealing that he was being sarcastic and starts going on about how horribly unlucky he is.
— Strangely, no audience applause can be heard at the end of this sketch in the live version.
— Overall, very short but sweet, and a quintessential Norm Macdonald sketch.
STARS: *****


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
French Stewart (JIF), Burt Reynolds (NOM), Sean Connery (DAH)

— Sean Connery, after the contestants are warned by Alex Trebek to refrain from using ethnic slurs: “Ya think you’re pretty smart, don’t ya, Trebek? What with your dago mustache and your greasy hair!” Alex Trebek: “Look, what did I just say about ethnic slurs?!?”
— Nice to see the return of Jimmy’s eerily-spot-on French Stewart impression. In the first cutaway to him here, you can hear an audience member say “Oh my god” in surprise.
— Wonderful to see Norm’s Burt Reynolds make his triumphant Celebrity Jeopardy return.
— Absolutely classic how Norm’s Reynolds is requesting to be addressed as Turd Ferguson.
— We get TWO category mix-ups tonight. One being Burt Reynolds referring to the “condiments” category as “the condom thing”, and the other being Reynolds’ far-more-classic “Ape Tit” misreading.
— Alex Trebek: “This is the sound a doggy makes.” Sean Connery: “Moo.” Alex Trebek: “No.” Sean Connery: “Well, that’s the sound your mother made last night.” This is the very first “your mother” slam that Connery would make towards Trebek in a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. Surprised it took this long.
— We now already get a second “your mother” slam from Connery in tonight’s sketch. (Alex Trebek: “We would’ve accepted ‘bow wow’ or ‘ruff’.” Sean Connery: “Ah, ‘ruff’ – just the way your mother likes it, Trebek.”)
— Yet another classic moment, with Norm’s Burt Reynolds/Turd Ferguson now walking up to Trebek with an oversized foam cowboy hat.
— After Reynolds walks away from Trebek after the aforementioned cowboy hat bit, I got a huge laugh the minor bit with Trebek incredulously saying to himself “What’s going ON?!?” I love that the show has gotten so ridiculous that Trebek has to briefly stop just to question the insanity that he’s been witnessing, by saying to himself “What’s going ON?!?”
— At the end of this sketch, I believe it’s an ad-lib when Norm places his foam cowboy hat on Will’s Trebek during the sign-off, which Will goes along with perfectly by growling in character “Would you get that off me?!?” while angrily yanking the hat off of his head.
— Overall, this has always been what I feel is the best and most quintessential Celebrity Jeopardy installment, which is really saying something, considering how strong these sketches always are.
STARS: *****


CROSSTALK
the sexiness of unhealthily-thin women is championed

— Some good laughs from Parnell’s rude comments about Cheri’s plus size.
— A great trick Ana is doing to make herself look freakishly skinny.
— Parnell’s skeevy lusting after extremely skinny women is very funny.
— Hilarious bit with footage of the rail-thin Lara Flynn Boyle being represented by a dancing skeleton from a black-and-white cartoon from what appears to be the 1930s.
— Rachel Dratch makes her debut doing a very funny Calista Flockhart impression, complete with a puppet body. Rachel’s making a great first impression here.
— When asked what her secret is to staying thin, I love Ana’s Helen Gurley Brown responding “Actually, I died six months ago.”
— Funny visual of Rachel’s Flockhart spitting out some vomit before answering a question.
STARS: ****


LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) relates yet more News & Views

— Great to see this back. I’m always a sucker for these.
— Interesting how this edition of News & Views is being performed live, considering the previous ones were pre-taped.
— Larry King: “Of all the figures of the 20th century, one of the greatest has to be Robert Urich.”
— A typical classic Norm moment right now with him staring down the camera for a VERY long time after saying “Does anyone remember baseball cards?” (the last above screencap for this sketch)
— Larry King: “Margarine has its place, but nothing beats the real deal………………………………..(freakishly long pause)………………………………..BUTTER!”
STARS: ****


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Charlton Heston rails against gun control

 

— Kinda surprising that the first TV Funhouse of the season isn’t airing until now, though there was an epic one at SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special right before this season began.
— The audience is dead during this so far.
— Funny visual of Heston’s gun acting like a pet and eating bullets as if they’re pet food.
— Tom Selleck’s constant stammering and unfinished sentences are strange, but are cracking me up.
— Overall, despite some laughs, I dunno, something about this cartoon as a whole did not work for me, especially when it got towards the end. I wanna give Smigel the benefit of the doubt and assume this cartoon was just too “smart” for me, but I’ve seen some other reviewers express disappointment towards this cartoon too.
STARS: **


LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) delineates additional News & Views

— Good to see a second one of these.
— We get another long camera staredown from Norm, this time complete with him briefly taking a sip from his coffee mug in the middle of the staredown (the second, third, and fourth above screencaps for this sketch).
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Millennium- moments from the past 1000 years that never occurred
gold digger Marla Maples (CHO) tries to assail Donald Trump’s character

— Well… this Update feels a little awkward to watch, knowing who’s in the building tonight.
— Tonight’s “The Millennium” segment has a priceless succession of random events that never occurred, such as Lucille Ball being executed by Capt. Crunch.
— I love Colin’s joke about how TV networks will soon stop indicating whether an episode is a rerun or not, resulting in Colin asking us to watch next week’s “live” SNL episode: Fran Tarkenton/Leon Redbone.
— Pretty funny unscripted moment with Colin stopping mid-joke to humorously say “God bless you” to an off-camera audience member who sneezed.
— The only real laugh I’ve gotten from Cheri’s Marla Maples commentary so far was her remark about her “Park Avenue cooch”.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg perform “Still D.R.E.”


MCMULLINS HOUSE
between visits from trick-or-treaters, dentist (NOM) & wife (CHO) fight

— I like Cheri’s dancing to the Ghostbusters theme music.
— Cheri greets one trick-or-treating child by saying “Is that little Lori Nasso?”, an inside reference to an SNL writer with that name.
— Cheri to Norm: “I rue the day I ever uncrossed my legs for you.”
— Norm has some great barbs during his and Cheri’s various tense arguments.
— I like how one of the trick-or-treating kids is dressed like Austin Powers. Some of the other trick-or-treating costumes seen throughout this sketch provide a nice time capsule for 1999, especially the Pikachu and Jar Jar Binks costumes.
— Tracy makes his only appearance of the night being stuck in his usual useless bit role where he only gets one measly line. We’re THREE episodes into season 25, and Tracy has made only two appearances all season so far, and only one of those appearances was a noteworthy role where he got more than one line. Man, thank god this season’s Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines episode is coming up very soon, because Tracy desperately needs it at this point. (You’ll know why I’m saying that if you remember a certain famous and important piece Tracy does in that episode.)
STARS: ***


BAR
newly-single Michael Jackson (TIM) & Howard Stern (JIF) commiserate

— Given his many ruthless-but-hilarious homosexual pedophile jokes about Michael Jackson on Weekend Update back in the day, I love the idea of Norm playing a bartender having a chat with a depressed, recently-divorced Michael Jackson.
— Hmm, turns out Norm’s just playing a generic friendly bartender. This sketch would be FAR better if it had Norm just going full-on Norm, by riffing hard on Tim’s MJ all throughout the sketch.
— Very funny gag with MJ unintentionally showing Norm his “Macaulay” tattoo when attempting to show him a tattoo of his ex-wife’s name.
— For some odd reason, right in the middle of his story, Tim’s MJ randomly goes “So I says to the nurse, I says, I says…”, which appears to be an ad-libbed reference to a semi-famous Chris Farley bit. Norm cracks up uncontrollably after this apparent ad-lib of Tim’s.
— An interesting tidbit about the appearance from Jimmy as an about-to-be-divorced Howard Stern is that it was a last-minute addition to this sketch. News of Howard Stern’s divorce came out earlier the same day of tonight’s episode, and thus, SNL must’ve figured it would be fitting to throw in Jimmy’s Stern at the end of a sketch that’s already about a celebrity divorce. In fact, some SNL reviewers back at this time in 1999 have said that they didn’t even know about Stern’s divorce until watching this sketch. Some people, to this day, have a hard time telling who Jimmy is even supposed to be playing here, especially since his Stern is never mentioned by name within this sketch. It doesn’t help that Jimmy sounds like he’s inexplicably using a hint of an English accent for his Stern. I’m hearing some of Jimmy’s John Lennon in there. Sorry, Jimmy, but Michael McKean still remains the unquestioned SNL master of the Howard Stern impression.
— It looks like Tim made another ad-lib right now in an attempt to get Jimmy to crack up the same way he made Norm crack up earlier in this sketch, but Jimmy surprisingly keeps a completely straight face and stays in character. It’s not very often you’ll be hearing me say that about Jimmy as his SNL tenure progresses.
— The ending felt weak.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Dr. Dre & Eminem perform “Forgot About Dre”


INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
James Lipton (WIF) rankles Clint Eastwood (NOM)

— The debut of the Inside the Actor’s Studio sketches.
— A hilarious blank open-mouthed look on Will-as-James-Lipton’s face when this sketch begins (the first above screencap for this sketch).
— Nice detail of a huge stack of index cards that Lipton is using for this interview.
— I’m liking Norm’s Clint Eastwood impression, which we previously heard a brief voice-only sample of in the great In The Line Of Fire sketch from John Malkovich’s season 19 episode.
— Will’s absurd characterization of his James Lipton impression is freakin’ priceless.
— A very funny dark story from Eastwood about Lipton having his teeth kicked in while sleeping.
— Clint Eastwood, after being asked what he would like God to say to him: “James Lipton is in hell right now being raped by the devil.”
— Ha, just now, Norm has dropped three more unscripted “goddamn”s, after he did so once earlier tonight in the monologue. Unsurprisingly, all of his “goddamn”s in tonight’s episode would later be muted out in reruns.
— Overall, a fantastic debut for the Inside the Actor’s Studio sketches, though in my opinion, there are even more memorable installments of this sketch to  come.
STARS: ****½


CHESS FOR GIRLS

— A rerun… from TWO SEASONS AGO.
— Due to taking time off from SNL this week to film the live-action Grinch movie, Molly has not been seen at all in tonight’s episode (I believe that’s part of the reason Rachel Dratch made her on-air debut tonight), until this re-aired old commercial. I guess SNL’s re-airing this just to say Molly was in SOMETHING tonight, even though her appearance in this commercial is just a VERY brief walk-on. Odd how SNL had to go all the way back to season 23 just to find a pre-taped commercial that Molly appeared in. Was she seriously not in ANY pre-taped season 24 commercials? The only one that comes to mind right now is that Teeny Weenies commercial, but I think it was based on a then-current news story, and thus, was too topical to be re-aired in a season 25 episode. If they HAD to re-air a season 23 commercial that Molly was in, why not one that she appeared in for more than two measly seconds? Lemon Glow? The “I’m #1” hat commercial?


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As expected for a Norm Macdonald episode, this was very solid as a whole, mainly because of the first 1/3rd of the show, which was INCREDIBLE in my eyes. That portion of the show consisted of a very long string of sketches that I gave a high four-or-five-star rating to. After that, the quality cooled down for the remainder of the show, until we got a very strong Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch towards the end of the night. Norm Macdonald did not disappoint as a host, and it was wonderful to see him getting his chance in the host spotlight tonight.
— Felt like we barely saw most of the cast members tonight. Even the usually-dominant Will Ferrell was only in 3 sketches. Chris Kattan, Horatio Sanz, AND, as mentioned earlier, Molly Shannon were all absent tonight. Very rare to have an episode where THREE cast members aren’t in any sketches. There’s a common misconception that the reason for Kattan’s absence in this episode is that he refused to even show up this week due to the well-documented animosity between him and Norm. That’s incorrect, as according to an online dress rehearsal report I remember reading years ago from an SNL fan who was in the audience at this episode’s dress rehearsal, Kattan was in at least one dress rehearsal sketch that got cut from the live show, though I can’t remember any details given about the sketch. (I do remember the details given about another cut sketch from this episode, in which Norm reprised his Bob Dole impression, portraying him this time as hopped up on Viagra and eagerly awaiting sex with his wife Elizabeth, played by Ana Gasteyer. At one point in the sketch, Norm reportedly ad-libbed towards Ana’s Elizabeth, “Hurry up! Bob Dole’s about to fuck the couch!”)


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Heather Graham)
a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Dylan McDermott