Tag: Gwen Stefani

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April 2, 2016 – Peter Dinklage / Gwen Stefani (S41 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN & BOLDUAN
Scottie Nell Hughes (CES) defends Donald Trump’s (DAH) misogyny

— The third consecutive CNN cold opening, but at least this isn’t a Jake Tapper one like the last two were.
— I feel dumb for not knowing before this sketch that “Bolduan” is pronounced “Baldwin”. I’ve never seen Kate Bolduan’s show (why isn’t the Berman who’s in the show’s title being portrayed in this sketch, by the way?), but whenever I’ve seen her show’s listing on my cable’s channel guide, I always assumed her surname was pronounced “bowl-dwonn”.
— Kate as Kate Bolduan: “I’ve got the brain for MSNBC, but the hair for Fox News, so here I am at CNN.”
— Cecily is absolutely priceless as the pro-Trump, “full-blown nutjob” (as she’s self-described in this sketch) Scottie Nell Hughes. Probably one of my all-time favorite Cecily Strong performances. I especially laughed out loud at her quoting one portion of the lyrics of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” (including the famous backwards part) in a spoken, very straitlaced manner.
— I had misremembered Beck’s Jeb Bush as the person who was on the receiving end of Darrell-as-Donald-Trump’s repetitive punches to the face in this cold opening. Instead, as I see now in my current viewing, it turns out that the person receiving Darrell-as-Trump’s punches is actually Bobby as a random citizen.
— An interesting and unique touch with Kate and Cecily, while seemingly being in two different parts of SNL’s studio, both turning to face each other in their respective split-screen shot while saying LFNY in unison.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Game of Thrones cosplayers KAM & LEJ are happy that host is on SNL

— Not that I want to immediately call attention to Peter Dinklage’s height, but it’s such an interesting novelty seeing a host of his height standing on that home base stage.
— Right out of the gate, I’m really liking Peter’s delivery here.
— After Kate says she refuses to do topless scenes, we get a very funny brief appearance from Vanessa eagerly beginning to take off her shirt, and then saying, as Kate is dragging her away, “Screentime is screentime!”
— A very odd gaffe with the camera suddenly slumping towards the floor for a few seconds while Bobby’s George R. R. Martin is speaking.
— A funny random cutaway that Bobby’s Martin throws to of Beck singing a cheese-dipping song backstage.
STARS: ***


WINNIE THE POOH
Winnie The Pooh’s (host) cousin Denny The Real (JAP) gives him advice

— I initially wasn’t crazy about the premise of Jay’s intentionally incongruous character in this Winnie The Pooh setting, but it’s actually turning out to be pretty good, and Jay’s executing it well.
STARS: ***½


NAKED AND AFRAID: CELEBRITY EDITION
host & LEJ test survival skills

 

— Hilarious reveal of Leslie, as herself, unashamedly making her entrance out of the car with her clothes ALREADY off. You can already tell this is going to be a great short.
— This is getting good mileage from the huge size difference between Peter and Leslie.
— I love the “Surviving Compton” bit in Leslie’s profile.
— Great scene with Leslie and Peter trying to sleep.
— I think I recall hearing that in the version of this short that was aired at dress rehearsal, they didn’t blur out Leslie or Peter’s “nudity” AT ALL, leaving their flesh-colored underwear fully visible for the entire short. Must’ve been an odd viewing experience for the dress rehearsal audience. I take it that the editing of this short wasn’t finished yet by the time dress rehearsal rolled around. Even in the aired version that I’m currently watching, you can tell that the editing was finished at the last minute, because the blurring on Leslie suddenly gets really shoddy for the final minute-and-a-half of this short (seen in the fourth-to-last above screencap for this short).
STARS: ****


SPACE PANTS
nightclub singer’s (host) space pants defuse mob boss’ (BOM) vengeance

— A very memorable sketch.
— Holy crap. A huge error right at the start, as Jon Rudnitsky is freakin’ MISSING from this sketch when he’s supposed to be in it. Jon’s absence renders Bobby’s “You two boys are hard to track down” line completely nonsensical, given the fact that we see him saying it to just Pete. Pete also responds to that line of Bobby’s by saying the scripted line, “We’re going to get you your money”, and you’re naturally left wondering, “Wait, who’s ‘we’?” Also, when the camera is on a close-up of Pete at that moment, the shot also includes Jon’s empty chair that’s next to Pete.
— Now, as the camera is on a close-up of Bobby and Beck while Bobby is delivering an intimidating spiel, the table they’re sitting at is seen suddenly shaking HARD due to Jon finally arriving and taking his place at the currently-off-camera side of the table. Ha, dude must’ve literally come RUSHING in, judging by how violently hard that table shook when he took his seat. Man, what in the world caused Jon to be so late for this sketch anyway??? Emergency bathroom break right before the sketch, perhaps? Whatever the reason, I imagine Lorne was not a happy camper. I’ve rarely seen an SNL rookie do something THIS bad.
— It should also be noted that, when Jon makes his late entrance while Bobby is in the middle of delivering his intimidating spiel, Bobby, while still acting in character, ad-libs an angry “Where were you?!?” at Jon. (Jon, of course, responds by sticking to the script and not answering that ad-libbed question of Bobby’s.)
— You can tell Pete must be thrown off by Jon’s late entrance, judging from the oddly long pause Pete took before delivering one of his responses to Bobby’s lines shortly after Jon arrived.
— Moving on, the absurd Space Pants song that Peter’s performing is absolutely slaying me, helped by his utter commitment to this material.
— A fitting use of Gwen Stefani, and she’s performing well here, though her involvement is slowing down the humor of this song for me. It was much funnier to me when it was just Peter performing it.
— Much like the template of writer Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell’s Kevin Roberts/David S. Pumpkins/Boo-Boo Jeffries/etc. sketches, the template of their Space Pants sketch would later be recycled in other sketches of theirs, though the only example I can remember off the top of my head is that pizza restaurant sketch from the following season’s Aziz Ansari episode.
STARS: ****½


GLORY HOLE
restaurant in former sex parlor serves food via retained glory hole

— A very funny random and casual reveal of a glory hole being on the wall right next to the main characters. I also laughed at the explanation of why it’s there.
— Kyle looks and sounds fairly unrecognizable when we see him speaking behind that glory hole. In fact, I had misremembered then-writer Mikey Day being in his role, and had assumed for years that Mikey being given such a meaty speaking role in this sketch was a sign that Lorne was preparing to add him to the following season’s cast (much like how some SNL writers such as Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Jason Sudeikis were given noteworthy onscreen roles shortly before being added to the cast).
— Cheap but huge laughs from Aidy and Peter happily munching on the various phallic breads that are sticking out of the glory hole.
— Okay, after a few minutes, the sight gag of the various phallic breads through the glory hole is starting to get a little old.
— Beck brings this sketch back around to being funny again with his pants-down bit, which was a good ending.
STARS: ***½


HBO FIRST LOOK
Game of Thrones motion-capture actor (BOM) is a dragon

— A funny visual of Bobby in a very low-budget dragon costume, even if we already had a “low-budget Game of Thrones dragon costume” gag earlier tonight with Leslie’s walk-on at the end of the monologue.
— I love the tone of the acting in this pre-tape.
— Taran’s Iain Glen, during the filming of a scene he’s acting in: “War is not a game!” Bobby: “…of Thrones!” That had me howling. Bobby’s sly, self-satisfied delivery of that line was priceless.
— Funny bit with Bobby’s crotch being blow-dried (due to a bathroom accident) in the background while Kate is in the foreground trying to give a serious interview into the camera.
— Bobby is great throughout this short in general.
— A good laugh from Bobby’s fall at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Make Me Like You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED lists negative repercussions of Hulk Hogan’s $140M sex tape ruling

David Ortiz (KET) details big lunch menu & lists additional endorsements

— The extended opening bit with Colin and Michael taking turns ranting about a Donald Trump news story is a precursor to Updates from the following season.
— Colin and Michael are starting out hot tonight with lots of great jokes (not just the Trump ones).
— Pretty funny subject matter for tonight’s Pete commentary, with him ranting about Hulk Hogan’s porn settlement.
— A good laugh from the bit with Pete asking Michael and Colin for assurance on penis size, including the camera doing a funny awkward impromptu cutaway to Colin (screencap below).

— Michael’s “Surge of Vanilla” joke about Colin is absolutely classic. Also hilarious is how, when the camera is on Colin reacting to that joke by giving a very funny gesture into the camera, an off-camera Michael is heard saying, while laughing hard, “No! No! No-ho-ho!”
— Kenan-as-David-Ortiz’s odd pronunciation of “baseball” is making me laugh so damn much.
— As always, Kenan-as-Ortiz’s various advertisements are absolutely priceless. I honestly cannot stop laughing during this commentary.
STARS: ****½


UNDERSEA HOTEL
dead body (TAK) floats against window of underwater honeymoon suite

— A very funny shocking visual of Taran as a dead body floating in the water outside of Beck and Cecily’s undersea hotel window. Beck’s initial reaction to that also made me laugh a lot.
— Ha, Taran’s body in the water has suddenly disappeared out of nowhere.
— A big laugh from an eager-to-have-sex-with-his-wife Beck asking how long is the dead body removal going to take, because he took a Cialis in the lobby.
— Lots of great sight gags all throughout this sketch.
— Taran deserves a lot of credit for his great physical work in accurately acting like a floating dead body.
STARS: ****½


VACATION NIGHTMARES
(KAM) & (AIB) poorly reenact mugging by Danish men

 

— Solid delivery from Peter in his scenes here, especially when admitting that the two actors playing the muggers claimed they could do a Danish accent and the show didn’t bother checking.
— Kate and Aidy’s silly, ridiculous, Danish-accented performances are cracking me up so damn much, and the decision to have Kate and Aidy play male roles actually works in this sketch, given the silly nature of the “crime reenactment show can’t afford to hire good actors for the main roles” premise. Good thing this sketch appeared in 2016, as the special novelty of Kate and Aidy playing these male roles would’ve been completely gone had this sketch appeared today in 2021.
— Kyle’s intentionally-bad, sing-songy half-Scottish/half-Jamaican accent is hilarious.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Misery”


CORPORATE MAGIC SHOW
humorless (host) dissects logic of magician’s (TAK) stolen underwear gag

— Hmm, another sketch with Taran playing a magician doing a magic act onstage, much like that sketch from the preceding season’s Blake Shelton episode?
— While this premise initially seems questionable and juvenile, it’s made hilarious by just how intensely Peter’s character is deconstructing Taran’s “stinky underwear” gag, leaving Taran in a gradually defeated, helpless state. Peter is selling the living HELL out of this, and is making me laugh so much with how increasingly seriously his character is taking his dissection of Taran’s gag.
— What was with the empty, abrupt ending? I take it the show is running long, and they had to shorten this sketch at the last minute?
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong, flawless episode. Lots of great sketches, and I love how this episode was filled with pretty much nothing but original, fun, silly, solid sketch concepts. The template of this episode is basically what I consider to be an ideal SNL episode. In fact, I found this episode’s template to refreshingly be rather reminiscent to that of the season 15 Robert Wagner episode (one of my all-time favorite episodes), as that Wagner episode was also filled with original, fun, silly, solid sketch concepts. (I recall the season 43 James Franco episode also having that same “nothing but original, fun, silly, solid sketch concepts all night” template, and hopefully, that episode will live up to my recollection when I eventually review it.)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Space Pants
Weekend Update
Undersea Hotel
Naked And Afraid: Celebrity Edition
At This Hour with Berman & Bolduan
Corporate Magic Show
Vacation Nightmares
HBO First Look
Glory Hole
Winnie The Pooh
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ariana Grande)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Russell Crowe

Posted on

December 9, 2006 – Annette Bening / Gwen Stefani, Akon (S32 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUSH’S PLAN FOR IRAQ
George W. Bush (JAS) addresses suggestions of Iraq Study Group & others

— Wow, this is the THIRD consecutive cold opening with Jason’s George W. Bush impression. I guess SNL is trying really hard to establish Jason as their new Bush.
— Pretty funny touch with the sly, smug looks Jason’s Bush gives into the camera after each time he reads “Dear Mr. President” at the beginning of each individual letter.
— A laugh from Jason-as-Bush’s line about how velociraptors have been extinct “for, like, 500 years”.
— Meh, the “Bush gives a smug look into the camera after reading the beginning of each letter” gag is getting old, and the audience agrees. Jason had to really exaggerate his third smug look into the camera to milk so much as a tiny chuckle from the audience.
— Three cold openings in and Jason has been coming into his own in the role of Bush, even if he has yet to be given any noteworthy material.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
real estate agents (KRW), (AMP), (MAR) reproach host; Alec Baldwin cameo

— I’m halfway through this monologue, and I can’t find anything to say so far. The “real estate agents are unhappy with Annette Bening’s portrayal of them” premise has started to get old within this.
— An Alec Baldwin cameo, just a few episodes after he hosted, and years before frequent Alec Baldwin cameos would become an annoyance.
— Alec turned out to be only mildly funny in this overall meh monologue. Not even he can save this.
STARS: **


APOCALYPTO
subtitles in Apocalypto trailer show Mel Gibson’s influence on script

— The Lonely Island try their hand at something new, with an “An SNL movie trailer re-cut” segment. I remember thinking back when this originally aired that it was going to become a regular segment. Instead, we end up seeing only one more edition of this segment, and it’s not until THREE SEASONS LATER.
— A cheap and predictable joke, just using infamous anti-Semitic Mel Gibson quotes as subtitles for the Apocalypto trailer, but it’s coming off funny enough here. However, Lonely Island would later do a much better job in their second re-cut movie trailer: Palin 2012.
— The “I smell bagels” subtitle at the end was the funniest part.
STARS: ***


GOOD MORNING: I HATE THIS TOWN
presenters (JAS) & (host) abhor their city

— Meh, not caring for this premise.
— Yeah, two minutes into this, and this is mostly not working for me. What IS working for me is Jason’s solid and fun performance, which is singlehandedly almost completely saving this sketch’s very iffy concept.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
“Diddy Kiddies” by RBS- young detectives puzzle over what Sean Combs does

— A laugh from the title of this episode being “What Does Diddy Do?, Part 23”.
— A humorous detail with the endless number of singer names credited in two P. Diddy music videos including a few random non-singer celebrities like Dane Cook and Ken Griffey Jr.
— That almost sounds like Lorne doing the voice of the designer.
— Some laughs, but I’m not caring for the pacing of this. Too many dead spots for me, and the premise has gotten boring after a while.
STARS: **


STUDENT-TEACHER ROMANCE
high school teacher’s (host) romantic yen for student (ANS) is unrequited

— Am I watching a prototype of Pete Davidson’s Chad sketches? This sure feels like one. Not only is the premise of this sketch and the dynamic between the two main characters straight out of a Chad sketch, but some of the monotone, brain-dead, one-word sentences that Andy’s teen character responds to Annette’s long-winded dialogue with are “Okay”, which is Chad’s catchphrase. If you told me Andy and Annette have been performing a future Chad script obtained through the magic of time-travel, as crazy as that sounds, I’d probably believe you.
— Annette’s not even trying to make it appear she’s looking anywhere near Andy’s direction as she speaks to him, instead being glued to the cue cards. She’s also a bit stumbly with her lines. If this were pre-taped like the future Chad sketches, Annette would excel in this with her strong acting talent.
— Ugh, now this features Annette pointlessly breaking out into a mock-dramatic musical number. Make it stop!
— Weak ending.
— I’ve never been too big a fan of the Chad sketches (maybe I’ll come around on them when I eventually review them), but they’re so much better than THIS overall sketch. I didn’t find a single redeeming quality in this sketch.
STARS: *


TWO A-HOLES IN A LIVE NATIVITY SCENE
blase A-Holes unconvincingly portray Joseph & Mary in live nativity scene

— I like the reveal of the disjointed one-liners the Two A-Holes are each saying in their respective phone conversation turning out to be delivered to each other, even if I kinda saw it coming after a while.
— Good gag with Annette placing Kristen’s phone into Baby Jesus’ manger so the Two A-Holes will finally look in the correct direction.
— Speaking of people not looking in the correct direction, Annette continues to be glued to the cue cards tonight.
— A very funny line with Kristen telling Annette “You look like Mrs. Brady”. She does have the Carol Brady haircut.
— Solid ending with Jason yelling at the donkey (who he thinks are two little people in a costume) “IT WAS NICE WORKIN’ WITH YOU GUYS! YOU’RE GOOD DUDES!”
— Overall, a nice bounce back for these characters after the slightly-below-par previous installment from the John C. Reilly episode.
STARS: ****


ANGER PROBLEM
fast food manager (FRA) warns (Matthew Fox) & other employees

— This was cut after the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal, which explains why the hell Matthew Fox is randomly in this. I can’t help but imagine what the reaction would be from someone watching this who’s not aware that the preceding episode was hosted by Matthew Fox. I can just picture them wondering to themselves in confusion “Is that the dude from Lost standing in the background? Why in the world did SNL get him to randomly cameo in a small background role as one of the employees in this?” It’s like how I’ve always wondered if viewers who’ve watched Adam Sandler’s second and/or third Denise Show sketches without having seen the first one (where Shannen Doherty, who was hosting SNL that night, played the role of Denise) wondered to themselves why the hell SNL is randomly using a photo of the chick from 90210 for the otherwise-unseen title role of Denise.
— I’m loving Fred’s increasingly funny threats of “(insert number here) seconds, I’m (insert violent action here).” I particularly howled at him telling Amy “20 seconds, my ass…is in your mouth.”
— WTF? The Lost-esque head-explosion/mannequin ending completely…lost me (no lame pun intended), and ended this on a weak note.
— There surprisingly has yet to be a really strong Digital Short up to this point of the season that has knocked it out of the park. There’s also been a strange shortage of Digital Shorts this season so far, with this being only the third one.
STARS: ***½


BUYER BEWARE
paranoid consumer advocates (KET) & (MAR) see scams afoot

— Hmm, the voice Kenan’s using seems like it’ll get grating hearing it from a lead character in a sketch.
— Two mentions in separate sketches tonight of someone waiting in line for a Nintendo Wii.
— Maya’s character is making me laugh.
— Kenan, during a mailbag segment: “I have a letter here from myself……”
— Overall, not bad, despite the dull premise. Kenan’s character voice wasn’t as grating as I was worried it would eventually get, and he had some funny moments. Maya’s performance and one-liners also kept me amused.
— I remember when this originally aired and I didn’t like this sketch (I had an aversion to just about everything starring Kenan around this time, as I was of the opinion back then that he was the weak link of this cast), I was worried this was eventually going to become a recurring sketch, but we end up never seeing it return.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Gwen Stefani performs “Wind It Up”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Gore (DAH) tells about his confusing conversation with Lindsay Lohan

flatulent (KRW) apologizes for stinking up an airplane & Weekend Update

photos of failed hetero unions don’t support WLF’s anti-gay marriage song

— Blah, where is this bit with Darrell-as-Al-Gore’s recounting of his conversation with Lindsay Lohan going?
— Overall, yeah, no real point to that Gore commentary.
— This seems like the type of subtle, awkward character Kristen can sell in spades, despite the dodgy fart-related premise.
— At least SNL refrained from using a fart sound effect when Kristen broke wind.
— The payoff of Kristen’s commentary didn’t work for me.
— Geez, Amy has some real groaners among her Update jokes tonight, even for her standards. Once again, I argue that little-to-nothing has changed with her on Update from the dreadful Fey/Poehler era. I’m still waiting for her to get decent as an anchorperson, and at this point, I’m sadly starting to think it’s never going to happen. I liked her as an anchorperson more when these Poehler/Meyers-era Updates originally aired than I do during my re-watches in this SNL project.
— Hell yeah, another Will Forte Update song!
— Some laughs from Will’s dumb anti-gay marriage preamble to his song.
— I absolutely love the melody of Will’s “Silly Silly Gays” song. Nice touch having Will’s song be assisted by a guitar-playing Fred (making his ONLY live appearance of the night, by the way, and he doesn’t even have any dialogue in it).
— Hilarious turn in Will’s commentary, with him unintentionally displaying photos of failed heterosexual celebrity marriages when trying to support his anti-gay marriage argument. I also love how his panicked reactions to those photos are still being sung in melody to his song.
— There seems to be a theme with lighters throughout tonight’s Update, as Kristen’s character lit a match to try to hide the scent of her fart, Amy used a lighter to light the cellphone she “smoked”, and now Seth is celebrating Will’s song by waving a lit lighter in the air ala a concertgoer.
STARS: **½


MONSTER UNDER THE BED
girl’s (AMP) monster-under-bed claim panics her parents (WLF) & (host)

— I love the turn with Amy’s character’s parents having an extremely paranoid reaction when Amy tells them she thinks a monster is under her bed. Will is particularly fantastic in his insane paranoia here.
— Will’s “friendly shark” analogy was hilarious.
— I love Annette shrieking “YOU IDIOT!” while strangling Amy after Amy reveals she brought chocolate into her room.
— The escalation to this sketch is great.
— Fun appearance from Bill as a jolly, singing monster. Bill is physically unrecognizable under that make-up (the exact same make-up that I believe has been used in various sketches in the past, including one with Will Ferrell as the devil trying to come up with love songs that Garth Brooks can use). You can only tell it’s Bill under that make-up by the voice.
STARS: ****½


VALTREX
Rerun from 11/11/06


AFTER WORK SNACK
Neil, Jean, fellow uptight co-worker Meryl (host) inch toward threesome

— Wow, the second half of this episode starting with Weekend Update has been huge for Will. Very welcome, given how limited his airtime had been lately due to him being busy filming the movie The Brothers Solomon.
— Good to see the return of this very solid, forgotten sketch from the preceding season’s Lindsay Lohan episode.
— Yet another sketch tonight where Annette is blatantly glued to the cue cards. Geez, it’s coming off particularly odd here, even if she is supposed to be playing a socially-awkward character.
— I love the little bit with Kristen taking her time pulling out a plastic bag of tipping change to give a tip to the waiter.
— Another great little Kristen moment, with her very funny line about once doing salsa dancing when under the influence of a very strong ringworm ointment.
— Annette isn’t blending in too well with Will and Kristen’s characterizations here, even if it’s the point that Annette’s character is more self-conscious than Will and Kristen’s characters. Lindsay Lohan did a much better job in her characterization in the first installment of this sketch. Who the hell could’ve ever guessed that a 19-year-old Lindsay Freakin’ Lohan would outdo Annette Bening in her portrayal of a subtle, quirky middle-aged character?
— So many funny little quirks from Will, Kristen, and Annette’s characters here. Too many for me to point out.
— This is using the same surprise twist from the first installment of this sketch, where we suddenly see Will’s character detailing the raunchy night of lovemaking he and his two co-workers have planned with each other, which isn’t a surprise anymore, but is still working for me, especially with the new aspect of constantly using the word “mess” in place of the f-word when talking about sex.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Akon performs “I Wanna Love You”


STANFIELD & PARTLOW
lawyers (host) & (BIH) specialize in dowager-to-cat inheritance cases

— Annette botches a line right out of the gate in this.
— Bill’s first brief walk-on was very funny.
— The gag with the customer testimonial just being old black-and-white wacky stock footage of a cat playing ping-pong with a human seemed like it should’ve gotten a bigger laugh than it did.
— All of a sudden, this sketch awkwardly gets cut off mid-progress due to the show running long.
— Overall, not sure how to feel about this sketch as a whole, not just because we DIDN’T get to see the whole sketch, but because, while I liked some moments, some other moments kinda fell flat.
STARS: **½, I guess


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A middling episode. The strong Will Forte-dominated portion bolstered this episode’s quality, but the first half of this episode was, aside from the Two A-Holes sketch, completely unmemorable and contained some really mediocre pieces, and the episode ended on kind of a poor note with the aborted final sketch that wasn’t all that great to begin with. Another reason for me being left with an iffy feeling towards this episode was Annette Bening, who, despite some okay moments, was a much more mediocre host than I ever would’ve expected.
— Am I correct in remembering that this episode never got an NBC rerun? If I am, then I take it as a sign that the people at SNL weren’t too crazy about this episode either.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Matthew Fox)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Justin Timberlake hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

March 19, 2005 – Ashton Kutcher / Gwen Stefani (S30 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Jose Canseco (HOS) & Mark McGwire (ROR) on steroids in baseball

— Funny look on Rob as Mark McGwire.
— Some good laughs from Rob’s McGwire trying to work around answering Darrell-as-Chris-Matthews’ steroid questions by always claiming Matthews asked his questions in the past, and thus, he doesn’t have to answer it.
— I like Kenan’s Sammy Sosa suddenly dropping his fake accent when he thinks he’s off-camera.
— The bits with Horatio’s Jose Canseco are falling incresingly flat.
— Will’s Zell Miller!
— As always, reliably priceless insane shouting from Will’s Miller here, though his dialogue kinda fizzled out towards the end, and he didn’t seem to get anywhere near as purple-faced during his yelling this time (the last above screencap for this cold opening).
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host & old-woman girlfriend Demi Moore [real] pooh-pooh age differential

— A monologue that I recall being memorable and very popular back when this originally aired.
— The huge exaggeration of the age difference between Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore is a premise that I like, and it’s being executed well. I particularly like the way Demi is playing this.
STARS: ***½


ME-HARMONY.COM
Rerun from 2/12/05


OPRAH
John Travolta (DAH) & Julia Roberts (host) bump victim (RAD)

— Amy’s dramatics from the audience are pretty funny so far.
— This appears to be using the same premise as that awful Wake Up San Diego sketch from earlier this season, in which the guest of a talk show is someone who’s house recently burned down (Kenan) and they’re about to be given a gift from the show’s host, which the guest expects to be a new house, only for it to end up being some superficial gift that the guest is disappointed by.
— OH, NO. Not the return of Darrell’s terrible and baffling John Travolta impression.
— Ashton in drag as Julia Roberts? Blah. I do remember someone back at this time in 2005 pointing out how when Ashton entered this sketch as Julia Roberts, he looked eerily like then-recent SNL host Hilary Swank. I can see that.
— Boy, am I not caring for this sketch AT ALL. Not even the reliable Rachel Dratch can save this.
— The over-the-top reactions from Amy in the audience are now starting to come off as a very inferior version of the famous Oprah’s Favorite Things sketch from the preceding season’s Megan Mullally episode.
STARS: *


PUSH-UP CONTEST
(host)’s scheme to instigate an office push-up contest backfires on him

— Hoo, boy. I recall this being a sketch that I hated back when it originally aired, but quite a number of other online SNL fans seemed to really like this sketch. Let’s see how I feel about it now, 15 years later.
— Ugh, I’m already starting to see one of the reasons why I hated this sketch back when it originally aired: Ashton’s delivery throughout this sketch is FUCKING ANNOYING.
— Did they screw up the timing of the clock cutaway when Rachel was about to start her push-ups? They seemed to cut to the clock too early, then briefly cut back to Rachel, who actually hadn’t yet started her push-ups, only to then cut back to the same shot of the clock.
— Yeah, I’m not caring for the structure of this sketch at all, nor the execution of it. This feels boringly repetitive to me, and you get the point of it early on.
— Okay, I did get a laugh from how Ashton’s desperate claim about how they need to get back to work is immediately followed by Chris saying “Don’t worry about it. I’m your supervisor, we’ve got time.”
— The paddleball ending fell flat.
— Overall, it turns out my opinion of this sketch hasn’t changed at all, and I continue to be baffled over why this sketch was so well-liked by SNL fans back in the day (is it still well-liked today?).
STARS: *½


FEDERLINE
Kevin Federline (host) models his line of underwear in bed

— A pretty funny portrayal of that tool Kevin Federline.
— Well-shot commercial.
STARS: ***½


GAYS IN SPACE
crashed ship leads to encounter with studly (SEM) & (ROR)

— OHHH, GOD.
— (*groan*) And there goes season 30’s obligatory weekly instance of Maya singing.
— Overall, nothing to really say about what I just watched. Same deal as the previous time this sketch appeared, where I didn’t get so much as a mere chuckle at this marathon of unfunny gay stereotypes.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Eve [real] perform “Rich Girl”


WEEKEND UPDATE
consumer advocate Henry Payne (KET) settles a complaint with violence

CHP’s ostensible Demi Moore rap veers into his attraction to host

— Ugh, after thankfully moving away from their newfound Daily Show-esque habit of replying to a news clip, the Fey/Poehler era of Update unfortunately reprises it tonight, with an unfunny bit involving Tina and Amy responding to various clips of Robert Blake’s post-acquittal speech. Hell, the actual Robert Blake clips are funnier than any of Tina or Amy’s lame responses to them.
— Hmm, Kenan’s commentary seems like it will be an interesting change of pace for Update, as it had an out-of-the-ordinary set-up.
— Interesting use of Ashton here.
— Meh, Kenan’s segment ended up being nothing great. This seemed like it was going to be much better.
— Yeesh, a lot of particularly weak jokes from Tina and Amy tonight, even weaker than usual. Even the audience’s reactions to some of these jokes are tepid.
— Looks like we’re in for another Chris Parnell Update rap. Not sure whether to look forward to this, after how underwhelming Chris’ last Update rap was, from the Jennifer Garner episode in season 28.
— Very mixed feelings on this rap that Chris is doing right now. Part of me appreciates the change of pace with Chris actually rapping about a man this time, and how over the top he’s going with it in his lyrics, but another part of me just finds this to be YET ANOTHER example of season 30 focusing way too heavily on hacky gay/homoerotic humor for cheap laughs. And do we need A BAZILLION reminders throughout this song that Chris is a heterosexual man (though I know that’s the point)? Oh, and I still say Chris’ best raps are his faster-tempo, more hardcore ones, rather than the slower-tempo, more R&B ones like tonight’s and the Jennifer Garner one.
— Yeah, the more and more Chris’ Ashton Kutcher rap goes on, the more and more I feel this is DEFINITELY not working for me.
— And to make me dislike Chris’ rap even more, we now get the added “humor” of Tina and Amy acting as backup singers/dancers during Chris’ rap.
STARS: *½


CHURCH
at a black church, staid white guest preacher (host) gets into the spirit

— Ugh. There goes Maya using that always-annoying “phlegmy-throated old black lady” voice. I’m telling you guys, Maya has been increasingly getting on my nerves these past few episodes.
— I really like Finesse’s performance here.
— A good use of Ashton’s typical energy, which is coming off enjoyable and welcome in this particular sketch.
— The gag with Ashton jumping out the window was ruined by a technical gaffe in which the camera stayed on the wrong shot by accident.
— After a good first half, this overall sketch started fizzling out a little towards the end, and something about the sketch left me feeling a little wanting.
STARS: **½


ACTION 13 NEWS
fight between anchor (host) & weatherman (SEM) derails local newscast

— I remember someone on an SNL message board back at this time in 2005 complaining that Ashton’s voice in this sketch was so obviously an imitation of Will Ferrell’s voice from the movie Anchorman, which came out the year prior. I kinda see some vocal similarities, but I’m not gonna say anything further.
— Oh, I like this premise with Seth as a bitter, unprofessional weatherman giving zero fucks and just saying whatever the hell he wants.
— Funny cutaway to a speechless Horatio with a sour facial expression immediately after a comment from Amy complaining to Seth about his unromantic choice in the past to take her on a date to Applebees.
— A great frightened little yelp from Seth when Ashton starts to come running for him.
— The portion of this sketch with Ashton chasing Seth around the studio during a newscast is a riot.
— A great sudden tackle of Seth from Ashton diving into the shot out of nowhere.
— An overall fun and solid sketch that’s probably forgotten by most SNL fans nowadays.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hollaback Girl”


NEBULZITOL
(AMP) uses Nebulzitol to cure her husband (WLF) of March Madness

— As I mentioned in my review of the Delta Burke episode from season 16, the Balz-Off commercial from that episode would later be ripped-off in the Ashton Kutcher episode I’m currently reviewing. This Nebulzitol sketch is the rip-off in question. As I also implied in my afore-linked review of the Balz-Off commercial, there’s a certain writer who I have a feeling is the culprit of this possible plagiarism, given what I mentioned about there being multiple instances of this certain writer getting publicly accused of plagiarism for some other sketches he wrote. As you may have already guessed after my review of the Self-Involved Guy sketch from the Adrien Brody episode, the writer in question is James Anderson. However, given how I almost always seem to get proven wrong in the comments section whenever I assume James Anderson wrote a sketch, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m wrong once again here.
— Yeah, the structure of this sketch is way too similar to Balz-Off to NOT be a direct rip-off. And some aspects of this sketch do have a rather James Anderson vibe to it (particularly the bit about The View).
— Overall, even if this sketch wasn’t a direct rip-off (but I still say it is), this sketch felt VERY inferior to the original Balz-Off. I wonder how I’d feel about this sketch if I had no knowledge of Balz-Off and assumed this was an original idea.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A typical bad season 30 episode. Aside from a few things (only one of which stands out as particularly great to me: the Action 13 News sketch), this overall episode had a very forgettable feel. And there were quite a number of things that I strongly disliked.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (David Spade)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cameron Diaz