Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
to help the economy, George Bush (DAC) suggests items for consumers
— Surprisingly, this is the first time we’ve seen Dana’s Bush impression all season. Odd how they waited this long.
— Some pretty good laughs from Bush going on about how great malls are.
— Good turn with Bush hawking various random products, especially the beaded seat cushion and the voice-activated frog band toy (the latter of which brings back SO MANY childhood memories of often seeing it displayed on a table outside of stores on the street in New York when walking past those stores with my mom or dad).
— Very funny part with the voice-activated frog band dancing around while an unaware Bush is somberly addressing recently-released hostages.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Michael Jackson (CSR) wants to go head-to-head with host
host performs “Too Legit To Quit”
— The beginning of this, with Hammer talking about himself in third-person while bragging about how great his career is going, is pretty much a chore for me to sit through.
— Thank god Rock has shown up as Michael Jackson to save the day.
— When Rock’s Michael Jackson enters, he tells Hammer “I’m ready to accept your challenge”, with absolutely no context given for what he’s referring to. What “challenge”? Does anyone know what this is all about? Did Hammer recently publicly challenge the real Michael Jackson to a dance-off or something?
— Very good MJ voice from Rock, and he’s getting good laughs with his over-eagerness to “throw down”.
— Much like Sting’s monologue from the preceding season, this monologue transitions into a full-fledged musical performance on the musical guest stage.
— Speaking of the musical guest stage, it has noticeably been expanded to a much bigger size than usual tonight, presumably so they can fit in Hammer’s insanely large number of backup dancers.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)
BAD HAIRCUT SUPPORT GROUP
(SIF) moderates meeting of a support group for people with bad haircuts
— Funny gradual reveal of what exactly this is a support group for.
— I like Rob’s stand up comedian character using the group meeting to try out his comedy material.
— Julia’s wig reminds me of the one she wore in the Tough Girls sketch from the recent Linda Hamilton episode, only less curly and without the white streak in the middle (side-by-side comparison below).
— Julia’s uptight rant about how there’s nothing wrong with her hairstyle is providing good laughs, especially her mention that she’s had the same hairstyle since the 60s.
— Great turn with the group calling Hammer out on his own bad haircut, when he’s not even a group member and is only there to support his wife. Hammer’s a good sport to allow these jokes, and he’s getting good laughs with his constant denial that he has a bad haircut.
— An overall strong ensemble piece where everybody was given their individual chance to shine.
STARS: ****
TURRELL DAILY STAR
newspaper editor (KEN) doesn’t think Pearl Harbor is front-page material
— I like that they’re doing a sketch about the Pearl Harbor bombing, since the original airdate of this episode (December 7, 1991) is the 50th anniversary of the incident.
— Some pretty good laughs from Kevin seriously considering mundane local stories as potential front page headline material over the Pearl Harbor bombing.
— I love Phil standing up and declaring “Gentlemen: WE. ARE. AT. WAR!”, and then sheepishly sitting back down when his declaration fails to elicit a reaction from the other guys.
— I’m really enjoying Phil’s increasing antsiness throughout this.
— There goes what’s always been my absolute favorite moment of this sketch: Phil’s priceless delivery of the great line “I’ll tell ya what’s happening in the weather: it’s raining BOMBS in Hawaii!”
— Strong ending with the newspaper story “Local Reporter Shoots Self” accompanied by a picture of Phil, followed by “Asians Attack Base” being a small story buried within pages of the newspaper.
— Overall, one of Phil’s lesser-known great performances.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Wednesday (Christina Ricci) & Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) Addams present host
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Addams Groove”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Queen Shenequa delineates her Kwanzaa prayer agenda
— Queen Shenequa officially becomes recurring. They’ve also changed her outfit into the one that she would go on to regularly wear in all of her subsequent appearances.
— We get the debut of what would go on to be a running gag in Queen Shenequa’s Update commentaries, where Kevin attempts to state something in Swahili to Shenequa.
— Queen Shenequa’s rant about a recently-lost-his-mind Michael Jackson has some funny lines, and a good point about his then-recent song Black Or White: “If it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, then why are you so white?”
— An actual pretty good Queen Shenequa commentary overall tonight. I’m already predicting this will probably end up being her best commentary ever by default.
— According to GettyImages, Chris Rock had an Update commentary as himself that was cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal (pic here). In the pic, he’s noticeably holding a stuffed doll of Babar the Elephant (though it’s a bit obscured by the GettyImages watermark). I’d love to know how in the world a Chris Rock stand-up comedy routine on Weekend Update managed to involve Babar the Elephant.
STARS: ***
TALES FROM THE BARBECUE
how shortribs of a flying cow saved Santa (host)
— An unexpected return of this sketch from the season premiere.
— For once, Chris Rock is actually getting pretty good airtime tonight, though it’s obvious why, considering who’s hosting. Just to show you how bad Rock’s airtime had been lately: in the last episode, his only appearance was standing silently in the background with the rest of the cast in the pizza party/Home Alone cold opening. In the episode before that, his only appearance was a silent role in the pre-taped 3 Legged Jeans commercial. And in the episode before that, his only appearance was in the final sketch of the night.
— I like how Tim’s story now has a random addition of a flying cow named Bossy.
— I got a laugh from Tim’s hastily made-up ending of the story, where we’re told that the characters end up eating each other.
— Despite the charm, this overall sketch was a step down from the first Tales From The Barbecue sketch.
STARS: **½
JOHNNY LETTER
Johnny Letter (MIM) uses strong writing skills to exact revenge on others
— Yet another character in this era with his own opening title sequence and theme song. This is one character that never ends up becoming recurring, though.
— Feels weird that this is the first time we’re seeing Farley all night
— I liked Farley’s comically exaggerated delivery of “Par-dez moi!”
— I can kinda see where the comedic potential is in this concept, but it’s not coming off all that well in the execution. Pretty dull.
— Okay, Phil is getting some laughs from me right now, with his listing off of odd names.
STARS: **
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how kids like to be tricked {rerun}
— Our first-ever instance of a repeated Deep Thought. This one (the famous “Oh, no, Disneyland burned down” one) originally aired in an episode from the preceding season.
REMEMBRANCES OF LOVE WITH WILT CHAMBERLAIN
(ELC) & Wilt Chamberlain (host) have a brief fling
— Something about Phil’s soft voice-over reading of the sketch’s title cracks me up, especially his slow delivery of “Wilt Chaaaaaam-ber-lain”.
— A hilarious initial visual of Hammer’s Wilt Chamberlain casually seated with those insanely long legs.
— A good parody of Chamberlain’s then-recent famous claim that he’s slept with over 20,000 women.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Hammer-as-Chamberlain’s line about being on a rebound from a previous relationship with a girl who’s still in the bathroom.
— Very funny visual of Hammer’s comically awkward attempt to drag the long Chamberlain legs with him into bed.
STARS: ***½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on what it takes a big man to do
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “This Is The Way We Roll”
DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
Dick Clark’s receptionist (DAS) won’t let anyone in to see the boss
— David Spade finally gets a lead role! After struggling very badly this season, usually always being stuck in Luke Null-type bit roles, David gets a much-needed big showcase with the debut of what would go on to be a memorable character of his.
— David is great as this character, and is doing a spot-on imitation of this type of snippy receptionist. I’m especially getting laughs from his obliviousness to any kind of pop culture.
— Ellen has been getting TONS of airtime tonight.
— The Spanish conversation between David and Ellen is very funny, especially David saying a Spanish version of his catchphrases.
— Hilarious random turn with Dana as an alien just casually walking into the office. I also like how Ellen can be seen in the background staring at him with a frozen shocked look on her face.
— Classic part with Phil pleading “Please, Hammer, don’t hurt ’em!”
— I like Dana’s alien returning in a very flimsy fast-food worker disguise, referring to himself as “Jeff” from Wiener Hut. Wiener Hut was actually a cut dress rehearsal sketch from the preceding season’s Jeremy Irons episode.
— Reruns of tonight’s episode move this Dick Clark Productions sketch from the 10-to-1 spot to somewhere in the first half of the show (while also moving the Turrell Daily Star sketch from the first half of the show to the 10-to-1 spot), proving how well-received this sketch’s debut was.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, and certainly better than one might expect an M.C. Hammer-hosted episode to be. While there was a slump right after Weekend Update, the show eventually recovered nicely, and the overall episode had some strong sketches, particularly Bad Haircut Support Group, Turrell Daily Star, and Dick Clark Productions. Despite a bad start in the first half of his monologue, Hammer ended up being passable for a non-actor host. None of his performances hurt any of the sketches, he got some laughs, was a good sport, and did a good job leading the Wilt Chamberlain sketch.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Macaulay Culkin)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
After taking a big risk with two unconventional hosts in a row, SNL goes the tried-and-true route by getting SNL hosting legend Steve Martin to host the Christmas episode