Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
slave DAV tells LOM to beat host for refusing black stereotype material
— Lorne asking Oprah why she’s not in costume for the Aunt Jemima sketch is funny, though I was recently told that an Aunt Jemima sketch was supposedly an actual idea that Al Franken legitimately pitched to Oprah earlier that week. Good lord.
— Ha, during Oprah’s listing-off of stereotypical characters she refuses to play, I got a good laugh from one of them being Refrigerator Perry.
— A very funny walk-on from Danitra.
— A great laugh from Danitra blunty suggesting “Beat her!”
— Good ending with Oprah exiting the room while holding a beat-up Lorne in a headlock.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
Tommy Flanagan gives host an Oscar that belongs to Walter Brennan
— Funny opening line from Oprah about the Academy Awards.
— Unsurprisingly, she’s coming off comfortable in front of a live audience.
— Here’s our obligatory weekly Tommy Flanagan appearance, which now makes this the FIFTH consecutive episode he’s appeared in. This really shows how desperate this season is for a hit. Again, I like Tommy Flanagan, but will this EVER stop?
— Flanagan’s “How would YOU know?” response to Oprah was clever.
— Oprah’s attempt at a Tommy Flanagan impression was kinda cringeworthy, despite her best efforts.
STARS: **½
JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP’S LOOKIN’ AT AMERICA
Lookin’ At America through John Cougar-Mellencamp’s (RDJ) eyes & hair
— The first-person POV shot with Mellencamp’s bangs obscuring part of his vision didn’t make me laugh all that much.
— Not much of a joke here. This is coming off pretty meh.
STARS: **
THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
host gives some tips on how to run a talk show
— At least they put this frequently-used sketch on a bit of a hiatus after the previous installment.
— The audience is pretty quiet so far. Pat Stevens’ pre-interview segment wasn’t as funny as some of her previous ones have been.
— Overall, the brief hiatus unfortunately didn’t do the Pat Stevens Show sketches any good, as they still continue to suffer diminishing returns. Despite a few good simple-minded statements from Pat as usual, this was an overall dull installment and a few too many parts of the interview portion felt like a genuine interview.
STARS: **
CABRINI GREEN
(host) finds out that daughter Cabrini Green is pregnant
— For some reason, I like hearing Nora doing an “urban” voice. I don’t recall her using that voice ever again for the remainder of her SNL tenure.
— Funny how Cabrini Green uses a knock-knock joke to break the news to her mother that she’s pregnant.
— Oprah as the stern mother has a lot of funny lines in this, especially her remarks about Cabrini’s boyfriend.
— Overall, this had a softer, more slice-of-life approach than the usual Cabrini Green sketches do, and this came off pretty enjoyable, helped by how Danitra and Oprah’s performances gave it a nice sense of realism.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE
RDJ & AMH use fart noises to review William F. Buckley’s book High Jinx
DEM crosses Kaddafi’s line of death on the Weekend Update map
AWB talks about Kaddafi & European responsibility for terrorism
— Dennis starts tonight’s Update by telling us Alfred Hitchcock has a cameo somewhere in tonight’s newscast, so “see if you can pick him up”. No idea if that’s legit or just one of Dennis’ usual random one-liners. The studio audience seemed to take it seriously.
— Oh, no, here comes a notoriously bad Anthony Michael Hall/Robert Downey commentary.
— We’re one minute into Anthony and Robert’s commentary so far, and all I can say is: Are these two freakin’ KIDDING me with this?!? A book review consisting of frequent random fart noises. THAT’S the big joke. How in the world does something like this make it on the air?
— Considering what a surprisingly strong night Robert and Anthony each had in the preceding George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola episode, it’s sad that they had to follow that up with THIS, which is serving as an unfortunate reminder of why I’ve generally been disliking both of them this season.
— I used to compare this Downey/Hall commentary to the typical juvenile antics that Chris Farley and Adam Sandler developed a bad tendency to over-rely on in the infamous season 20 (and even season 19, for that matter), but now, the more I think of it, I think not even Farley and Sandler at their sophomoric worst would do this piece that Downey and Hall are doing.
— For some reason, I did kinda get a kick out of seeing Dennis address Robert and Anthony under the nicknames “Bob” and “Mickey”.
— After Robert and Anthony exit, Dennis makes a great ad-lib to the camera: “Hard to believe, but I think the boys wrote that themselves”.
— Another great ad-lib from Dennis, this time remarking “The Line of Death is right around my neck” when the clip-on mic on his tie unexpectedly pulls him back as he’s walking over to the Weekend Update map to show us where the Line of Death is located on it. Dennis is just so damn good at making clever quick ad-libs for any situation on Update.
— Loved Dennis’ Warren Beatty joke.
— Dennis, regarding the famous Superbowl Shuffle video: “I don’t think I’ve seen choreography that stiff since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer.”
— I believe this is the first time a Dennis Miller Weekend Update has ever had more than one guest commentary.
— I liked A. Whitney summing up the invasion of Grenada, explaining “It didn’t take a whole lot of military strategy to knock over a fruit stand with two aircraft carriers.”
— A. Whitney’s overall commentary tonight was the usual solid Big Picture piece, with a lot of funny comments about the French.
— Yes! We managed to get through this entire Weekend Update without seeing a single trace of the Weekend Update Dancers, for the first in a long time.
— Now that Update’s over, I have to ask: where was the Alfred Hitchcock sighting? I guess it really WAS just a random Dennis one-liner.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Right & Wrong”
THE WART HOG
world’s greatest detective (RAQ) wins Most Grotesque award
— Haha, good make-up job on Randy. Surprisingly, I think this is the first time we’ve seen Randy all night, by the way. I wonder if that’s because it maybe took a long time to apply that warthog makeup on him.
— Speaking of Randy’s warthog makeup, I once read an online post years ago from someone who recalled watching this episode when it originally aired, and that person claimed that Randy inexplicably didn’t wear the warthog makeup in the original airing of this sketch, rendering the premise of the sketch completely pointless and nonsensical, and resulted in a confused and silent studio audience. Supposedly, the version of the sketch seen in reruns (which I’m reviewing) is from dress rehearsal. All of those claims should probably be taken with a grain of salt, however. Unfortunately, it’s hard to confirm whether that person’s recollection is correct or not, as a copy of the live broadcast of this episode has been difficult for SNL collectors to obtain.
— Pretty funny and interesting turn with Randy being taken off the set to another set in the studio where there’s a World’s Most Handsome Man Contest randomly taking place, which he’s entered in to prove his non-grotesqueness.
— I cracked up at Randy’s bizarre, exaggerated angry gesturing and vocalizations towards Robert and Don Novello just now.
— Geez, that ending freeze-frame close-up of Randy looked kinda nightmare-inducing. (screencap below)
— The closing “Wart Hog” theme song (which almost sounds like it’s being sung by Oprah, though I don’t think that’s her) that’s being played during the scrolling ending credits kinda reminds me of the various closing theme songs that Bill Murray would sing for various Franken and Davis-written sketches back in the original era (e.g. Mercy Killers, The Micro-Dentists, First He Cries, etc.) I wonder if that means this Wart Hog sketch is also a Franken and Davis-written piece.
— Overall, this wasn’t quite as funny as I had remembered it being. While I still appreciate the creativity and absurdity of its premise, as well as the random World’s Most Handsome Man Contest turn, something about this sketch came up a little short for me, though I’m not sure what exactly.
STARS: **½
I PLAY THE MAIDS
DAV sings “I Play The Maids” to document lack of good black actress roles
— Here’s one of Danitra’s more well-remembered pieces of the season.
— Great visuals of famous maid roles played by black actresses over the years.
— Overall, a very well-written and well-performed song, making a good point about the typecasting that black actresses face. I also liked the sentimental feel of this piece.
STARS: ****
ACTORS ON FILM
The Color Purple awed Jimmy Chance & Ashley Ashley
— The return of Nora and Robert’s actor/critic characters from the last episode. While I actually liked their previous appearance, we definitely didn’t need this back so soon.
— I laughed at Robert’s line just now, regarding The Color Purple: “I saw it, it changed my life, I saw it again, it changed it back.”
— Some funny lines during the whole “smoking is acting” part.
— Overall, I liked some of the lines, and Robert’s delivery as this character always makes me laugh, but this sketch was a step down from these characters’ last appearance and SNL probably would’ve been better off just keeping these characters a random one-time thing in the Wendt/Coppola episode.
STARS: **½
CRAIG SUNDBERG, IDIOT SAVANT
Craig Sundberg, Idiot Savant helps create a high-strength alloy
— OH, NO. Why are we seeing THIS awful character again?
— Boy, tonight’s installment of this sketch is dead so far. The studio audience is (understandably) very silent.
— For the second episode in a row, we get an Akira Yoshimura sighting, and he even has a good amount of dialogue this time.
— This has to be the most un-Terry Sweeney-esque performance I’ve ever seen Terry Sweeney give.
— In my review of the first installment of this sketch, I likened this Craig Sundberg character to the type of character Pete Davidson typically plays nowadays. I now think it’s Pete’s Chad character who I was specifically thinking of when making that comparison. The way Craig Sundberg often responds with a slow-witted “Right… sorry” reminds me so much of Chad’s slow-witted “Okay” catchphrase.
— Man, this sketch is going on pretty long. At least the first Craig Sundberg sketch was mercifully short.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was TERRIBLE. Even worse than its first installment. I couldn’t find a single redeeming factor in this overlong piece.
STARS: *
THE CUTE SHOP
The Cute Shop is filled with stuffed animals, but it’s actually a trap
— Okay, I wasn’t sure about this sketch at first, but this is suddenly taking an interesting turn with Joan secretly bringing out two soldiers.
— Heh, now this sketch takes yet another interesting turn with Oprah turning out to be an undercover cop and proceeding to free hostages who were being held captive in the back room.
— Overall, it was fun to watch this progress, with all the unexpected dark twists they kept throwing at us.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Soul Kiss”
ONE SHOE EMMA
prince (DEM) brings waitress One-Shoe Emma (DAV) what she’s been missing
— Nice to see Danitra getting so many showcases in tonight’s episode. This has to be by far the most airtime she’s ever gotten in a single episode. Kinda sad that all it took for that to finally happen was SNL getting a black female host, which means Danitra will probably go right back to being underused as usual in the remaining episodes this season.
— Pretty strange premise so far.
— LOL at Dennis entering the scene randomly dressed as a prince, and playing him in a very casual Dennis Miller-esque way.
— Randy’s dimwitted character is getting some good laughs from me.
— Overall, I’m not entirely sure what to make of this sketch as a whole. It did have a charm to it that I kinda liked, but for an absurd-premised piece, I wanted this to go in an even weirder direction than the one it ended up taking.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After the amazing experimental Wendt/Coppola episode, we’re unfortunately back to the usual season 11 mediocrity. There were some highlights, but a lot of the show was pretty underwhelming. I do commend the fact that tonight’s episode had several creative, oddball sketch premises, but most of them didn’t fully live up to their potential.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola):
— a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Tony Danza