Tag: John Goodman

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December 14, 2013 – John Goodman / Kings of Leon (S39 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
fake sign-language interpreter (KET) gets on Barack Obama’s (JAP) nerves

— SNL gets in their obligatory spoof of the clueless sign language interpreter at the then-recent Nelson Mandela memorial service.
— Kenan’s doing a decent job, but this feels like an inferior reprisal of the translator bit in the preceding season’s Hurricane Sandy Press Conference cold opening, which worked much better for me. SNL should’ve gone with a more original angle in this spoof of the Mandela translator.
— A good laugh from Kenan’s sign language for the word “thrilled” being him doing the Thriller dance.
— I like how there’s a growing story arc in Kate’s Angela Merkel appearances, with us finding out more and more about her crush on President Obama.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host & KET sing “All I Want For Christmas Is Booty”

— Boy, does it feel nice seeing John Goodman entering the home base stage again for the first time in 13 years. It’s also a novelty seeing him entering this particular home base stage for his first-ever time, which just goes to show you how long it’s been since he last hosted, given how extremely long this particular home base stage had been used by this point (and would continue to be used long afterwards, to this day in 2020). Hell, Goodman’s last hosting stint prior to this was so long ago that not even Kenan was in the cast yet back then.
— Goodman brings up the fact that he hosted SNL every year from 1989 to 2001. To nitpick, he didn’t host in 1991. And, if by “year”, he meant season, he didn’t host in season 26.
— Only two segments into tonight’s episode, and we’re already getting an early sign of how extremely dominant Kenan will be in tonight’s episode.
— Catchy song, but the lyrics themselves aren’t anything special, and this isn’t exactly the type of monologue I want to see Goodman doing for his big return after a long hiatus. This feels like a monologue they could do with almost any host.
STARS: **½


GUY FIERI’S FULL THROTTLE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
bad taste characterizes Guy Fieri’s (BOM) Christmas special

— For some bizarre reason, when the camera is on a close-up of Brooks (who looks unrecognizable in this) as Kid Rock showing us his Bud Lime Gazpacho drink, his line about the drink is completely muted out, even though the background music still plays as normal. What the hell?
— Hilarious occasional animation sequences of Bobby’s Guy Fieri punching various famous Christmas characters in the face.
— I have no familiarity with Big Ang, but Kate is hilarious as her here.
— I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2013 mistakenly thinking that the Duck Dynasty guys were played by four of the five new male featured players, as SNL’s way of doing a meta joke about how supposedly interchangeable the new male featured players are (I don’t agree with that latter part, for the record). Heh, that’s actually Kings of Leon playing the Duck Dynasty guys.
— Pretty funny seeing Bobby as all of the Pawn Stars guys.
— Throughout this commercial, in various groups shots of celebrities, you can see Noel as one of the celebrities, but she never gets a line, a close-up, nor does this commercial even bother to tell us who she’s playing. According to various people who saw the full version of this commercial one way or another, Noel’s playing Reba McEntire, who she would play again later this season in a Celebrity Family Feud sketch. In the shortened on-air version of this commercial that I’m currently reviewing, all of Noel’s main parts are completely cut. (*sigh*) Yet ANOTHER sign of how this season’s new featured players keep getting screwed over.
STARS: ***


DANCE OF THE SNOWFLAKES
snowflake-costumed (host), (VAB), (KET), (AIB) rue holiday pageant dance

— Goodman’s delivery of his first inner thought, “Oh, no. Is this…….DUMB???”, gave me a good laugh.
— I love Kenan’s first inner thought: “Hooollllyyy f(*bleep*)!”
— A nice out-of-the-ordinary structure to this sketch with almost all of the dialogue being pre-taped inner monologues.
— More good lines from Kenan throughout this, especially “My wife’s never gonna wanna see my penis again.”
— An unexpected and interesting happy ending with the characters suddenly convincing themselves to be proud of what they’re doing.
STARS: ***


THREE WISE GUYS
wise guys (host), (Sylvester Stallone), (Robert De Niro) go to see Jesus

— Ohho, no. NO. I recall this sketch being absolutely DREADFUL, and one of the nadirs of this season.
— I wish I could be more excited about a Sylvester Stallone cameo. The DeNiro cameo, on the other hand? Get him off my screen.
— Ugh, so many bad, hacky, and groanworthy wiseguy lines throughout this. Not even that camel toe one-liner of Stallone’s could elicit so much as a smirk from me.
— Making this already-painfully unfunny sketch even worse is the fact that it is SO damn sluggishly paced.
— Aaaaaaand there goes that obligatory halting, delayed delivery from DeNiro that you can always depend on whenever he appears on SNL. At one point here, he even squints hard when struggling to read the word “Frankincense” off the cue card.
— Overall, yep. This lived up (or down?) to my extremely negative memory of it. Pure oof.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Temple”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Santa Claus (KET) makes an appearance to reveal that he is indeed black

Drunk Uncle & his Drunker Uncle (host) take issue with the holiday season

— Some good comments from Kenan all throughout his Santa commentary.
— Seth and Cecily’s jokes tonight are an okay improvement over their very blah jokes in the preceding episode’s Update.
— A big laugh from Drunk Uncle’s opening “I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas” bit.
— Drunk Uncle: “We got Black Friday now???? Barf! Wasn’t February enough?”
— Tonight’s Drunk Uncle commentary feels faster-paced than usual. He’s still a riot as usual.
— Nice inclusion of Goodman as “Drunker Uncle”.
— (*groan*) Freakin’ Seth and that damn habit he often has of loudly laughing off-camera during a guest commentator’s segment. His loud off-camera guffawing made it a little hard to hear the ending of Goodman’s funny opening line: “All I want for Christmas…is my two neighbors not to be Chinese anymore.”
— A sweet ending with even the harsh Drunk Uncle giving Seth a sincere goodbye hug because, as is acknowledged here, this is the final Update that Drunk Uncle and Seth are appearing in together before Seth’s soon-to-come departure. (Between Vanessa’s Jacob commentary in the preceding episode’s Update and now this Drunk Uncle commentary in tonight’s Update, SNL is kinda making Seth’s departure seem like it’s coming sooner than you’d think. We still have four episodes left of him after this.) Speaking of which, seeing Goodman’s Drunker Uncle also hug Seth during this acknowledgment of Seth’s departure makes me realize something: Goodman’s last hosting stint prior to this was all the way back in Seth’s fourth episode as a cast member (and an important night for him, as that was his breakout episode, after he quietly spent his first three episodes not standing out at all and being considered by SNL fans to be interchangeable with one of his fellow newbies, Jeff Richards), and now Goodman’s return as host just so happens to be one of Seth’s last episodes as a cast member, which means Goodman basically bookends Seth’s SNL tenure. Interesting coincidence. This also makes you realize just how extremely long Seth has been a cast member.
STARS: ***


TOO HOT
lawyer (CES) argues that (BEB) fired mannish (host) for being too sexy

— I love how Taran’s opening argument to the “Fired for being too hot” claim made about Goodman’s female character is just Taran saying “I meaaannnn…” while gesturing towards Goodman.
— Mixed feelings towards this concept, given how hacky “men in drag” humor can be in more recent decades, but Goodman seems like he can make this work, especially after we’ve gotten such a long break from seeing him host SNL.
— Goodman’s “Tee hee!”s are cracking me up, and it turns out he’s indeed making this material work. The supporting performers are also helping make this work, especially Taran, who’s a solid straight man here.
— Funny dance moves from Beck (who’s stuck in nothing but two non-speaking roles all night) at the end.
STARS: ***½


FIRE SAFETY
fireman’s (host) holiday safety message is flipped completely by Shallon

— Like last time, Nasim is very funny as this character.
— Yikes, Milhiser clearly missed a line at one point, as the camera cuts to a close shot of him when he’s supposed to say his second line in this sketch, only for him to just sit there blankly, unaware that it’s his turn to deliver the next line, leading to long awkward silence before an off-camera Goodman tries to keep the sketch moving by jumping ahead of the script a little and saying his own next line. Right as Goodman does this, Milhiser FINALLY starts saying his line, only to immediately cut himself off because Goodman is now speaking. I like Milhiser and generally feel really bad for how screwed-over he got in terms of airtime this season, but man, you’d figure he’d cherish the few lines he got in this sketch, given how little he gets to speak or do anything on SNL. I remember how, back at this time in 2013-2014, gaffes like the one Milhiser made here contributed to me feeling that most of this season’s newbies came off awfully green, and made me wonder if THAT was the reason why they barely got any airtime this season. In my re-watch of this season, I’m not finding the newbies to be all that green, minus Mike O’Brien and the gaffe that Milhiser made here.
— So far, this is just a variation of the first installment of this sketch from earlier this season, only with the kids’ van fascination being replaced with a fireplace fascination. This variation, while still providing a few laughs, isn’t working anywhere near as well for me as the first installment did.
— A good laugh from Aidy randomly saying, when the kids are proudly saying which dangerous fireplace-related location they’re going to hide in, “I’m gonna hide in a dry cleaning bag!”
— Goodman is quite stumbly with his lines throughout this sketch. Also, I’m not finding him to be as good a straight man as Edward Norton was in the first installment of this sketch. Goodman’s performance seemed especially off towards the end of the sketch right before Kate came back into the classroom.
STARS: **½


HALLMARK CHANNEL COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
Hallmark Channel is chock-full of tedious holiday movies with minor stars

— A good laugh from the “Phylicia Rashad’s Christmas Nap” movie title.
— An overall quick, simple, and decent-enough piece.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wait For Me”


THE CHRISTMAS WHISTLE
movie’s titular noise drives characters crazy

— Two-and-a-half minutes into this sketch, and the only thing I can think of to say in my review is that the whistle sound is pretty annoying. Yes, that’s the point, but that doesn’t automatically make it funny, which it certainly isn’t. And nothing else funny has been happening in this so far.
— Bobby’s off-camera yell of “What the hell is a Christmas whistle?!?!?” made me laugh, only because of his delivery.
— We at least get a decent bit regarding Kate’s mother, played by Aidy.
— Not even Taran’s walk-on at the end can save this, as much as I like the characterization he’s doing here.
STARS: *½


H&M
(JAP) & Wale [real] rap about H&M’s cheap, colorful, undersized clothes

— What the heck is that (admittedly catchy-sounding) lyric that Jay keeps singing at the beginning of his song? I can’t understand the last few words of it, despite how frequently he keeps singing that same lyric over and over: “You an H&M shoppin’ (something something something)”. Thanks in advance if anyone can answer my question.
— This is another segment tonight that I’m having a very hard time finding anything to say about. Aside from a few amusing cutaways of Kyle and Mike suavely looking into the camera while wearing stylish clothes, and the brief sequence with Goodman straining when putting on skinny jeans, I’m not even sure this music video is supposed to be funny or entertaining as an SNL piece. It’s become white noise to me after a while. For all I know, this could be a legit H&M commercial that just so happens to feature SNL cast members and John Goodman. It might as well be, because it sure ain’t working as a comedy piece.
— Overall, blah. I guess not all of this season’s music videos can be winners.
STARS: *½


LAST CALL
drunk & lonely (host) & Sheila Sovage settle for a sad make-out session

— Kenan’s extremely busy night concludes. He’s been all over this episode, far more than most of his fellow repertory players. I remember this really bothered a number of online SNL fans at the time (including me, though I’ve gained a much bigger appreciation for Kenan in these re-watches of mine), who were not pleased with SNL’s decision to make Kenan the cast’s new utility player this season in general.
— A very funny “66” bit from Kate.
— As usual in this recurring sketch, Kate’s delivery absolutely kills, and also as usual in this recurring sketch, we get some good gross-out humor here. But so far at this point of SNL’s run, there has yet to be a Last Call installment that comes close to measuring up to the great first one. I believe that eventually changes, as I recall some really strong installments with Woody Harrelson, Larry David, and Dave Chappelle, though my memories of what actually occurs in those installments are fuzzy. I’m pretty eager to revisit them.
— Sheila Sovage: “My heart and my genitals say ‘no’. But my hypoglycemia says ‘yes’.”
— Great whipped cream make-out session between Sovage and Goodman, both of whom are going all out.
— An absolutely hilarious and outrageous sequence with Goodman motor-boating Sovage as she makes cat orgasm noises. Tonight’s Last Call installment is getting funnier and funnier as it goes along. While it, for me personally, still doesn’t quite measure up to the first installment, it’s very close.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mediocre episode. A lot of pretty forgettable stuff, some flat-out weak stuff, and one of the worst sketches in recent memory (Three Wise Guys). The only segment all night that I gave an above average rating to happens to be a sketch that didn’t air until the very end of the episode (Last Call). Hell, there was almost nothing in this episode that even got so much as a mere three-and-a-half-star rating from me. An overall letdown for John Goodman’s big hosting return. Not only that, but it doesn’t even lead to Goodman going back to hosting regularly or at least semi-regularly. After his return in this episode, he’s seemingly gone back to no longer hosting the show.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Last Call
Too Hot
Dance of the Snowflakes
Guy Fieri’s Full Throttle Christmas Special
Weekend Update
Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas
Monologue
Fire Safety
Presidential Address
H&M
The Christmas Whistle
Three Wise Guys


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Fallon hosts the Christmas episode

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November 3, 2001 – John Goodman / Ja Rule (S27 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
John Ashcroft (DAH) alarms the press with vague warnings about terrorism

— Interesting seeing newbie Seth Meyers right at top of the show, getting to start off this cold opening as Brian Williams. There’s a fairly funny part with his Brian Williams briefly pausing to mug the camera in a stone-faced smug manner.
— Darrell’s John Ashcroft voice is making me laugh.
— A big laugh from Darrell’s Ashcroft casually saying “Also, in the next three days, there’s probably gonna be a terrorist attack in our nation” before nonchalantly beginning to walk off.
— Always funny to see Ana’s Helen Thomas impression in these press conference sketches.
— Funny recurring bit with Ashcroft always looking down at the sheet of paper in his hand to confirm exactly how soon another terrorist attack will happen after also trying to convince us that he doesn’t know when it’ll happen.
— Good line from Chris’ Anthony Fauci about how the only protection given to post offices will be some baby wipes and a dustbuster.
— Chris’ delivery to Maya of the line “I haven’t been in New York in weeks! You think I’m crazy?!?” is very funny, as is the ensuing mocking faces that he and Darrell make at each other in regards to Maya.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim (CHK) gets host off the hook

— John doesn’t look too well here, and his voice sounds pretty bad. He must be under the weather. I remember this scaring some online SNL fans into worrying for the future state of John’s life, as they were reminded of how Chris Farley notoriously came off in the 1997 episode he hosted two months before his death. I recall feeling that that comparison was a bit much, as John’s not coming off quite THAT scarily unhealthy in this monologue.
— For some reason, John claims that this is his 13th time hosting. It’s actually only his 12th.
— Odd casting of Chris as Byung-Hyun Kim. Chris doesn’t look REMOTELY believable as an Asian man. (Then again, who in this season’s cast would? Horatio, I guess, but he’s not exactly the appropriate weight for this particular role of Byung-Hyun Kim.) At least they didn’t go the Molly-Shannon-as-Soon-Yi-Previn route and give Chris freakish-looking prosthetic eyelids that attempt to make him look Asian but instead make him look like a damn alien.
— Some okay topical lines from Chris’ Byung-Hyun Kim regarding his infamous performance in a recent World Series game.
— Overall, this was a pretty nothing monologue. I know that was the point, but it didn’t work. This monologue was way too half-assed, and way too proud of how half-assed it was.
STARS: **


HERBAL ESSENCES
shampoo spurs distinctively male orgasms

— A good way to spoof the ridiculous orgasmic feminine Herbal Essences ads.
— Will’s hilarious orgasm sounds and faces are really making this commercial. He’s having me practically rolling on the floor.
STARS: ****


HUDSON VALLEY COMMUNITY CIRCUIT
(DAA) interviews unfortunately-named victims of September 11th backlash

— Dan Aykroyd! That hair, tho.
— A solid comedic conceit with all of the guests each having unfortunate names that pertain to our 9/11 enemies.
— As much as it pains me to criticize Dan Aykroyd (my personal favorite of the original Not Ready For Prime Time players), his comically put-off facial reactions to what others are saying throughout this sketch are not working for me. He’s overplaying it, and the drawn-out long pauses he keeps making during those facial reactions aren’t helping.
— I love Dean’s sly delivery of “Afghan hash” when revealing what he and Jimmy deal in.
— Pretty funny bit with Dean and Jimmy’s hash dealers bragging about how their business has actually been doing better than ever after 9/11.
— A rare fun performance from Darrell in a non-impression role.
— Hilarious ending involving Dan innocently opening an anthrax-laced letter from an envelope.
STARS: ***½


LIBERTY MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Liberty Medical spokesman Wilford Brimley (host) neglects his own health

— John’s unhealthy-sounding voice throughout tonight’s episode is actually fitting this sketch well.
— Hilarious line from John’s Wilford Brimley about hiding his food boner in his Bermuda shorts.
— Another very funny line from Brimley, about how he hates oatmeal because “it always seems like somebody ate it first”.
— Excellent ending spiel from Brimley about how he’s going to get off of his horse by “getting onto a smaller horse, then onto a large dog, until I’m near enough to the ground to roll off.”
— Great sketch overall.
STARS: ****½


SHE’S THE GIRL WITH NO GAYDAR!!!
Nicole, The Girl With No Gaydar (RAD) is oblivious to sexual orientation

— Hoo, boy. The debut of THIS sketch. I used to find these sketches hilarious when they originally aired, back in the days when “lol, gay stereotypes = funny” was more accepted and also didn’t become hacky and overused by SNL in my eyes yet (though looking back at this era, there was more hacky gay humor than I had remembered), but I’m guessing this sketch hasn’t aged well at all.
— Rachel’s performance is still holding up as fun, and the theme song kinda is too. But the broad gay stereotypes from the male cast? Not so much.
— I’m guessing this sketch is the handiwork of writer James Anderson, the openly-gay SNL king of broad gay stereotype sketches. I remember someone on an SNL board once calling him a Stepin’ Fetchit for gay people. Ouch!
— Oddly, this ends up being Will’s final appearance of the entire night, and we’re only about 25 minutes into this episode. A shockingly light episode for Will.
STARS: **


E.P.T
college students (SEM) & (AMP) sweat result of pregnancy test

— Great to see a pre-taped ad where the only performers are two newbies.
— Seth: “I think I’m more nervous than Karen.” Amy: “Kelly.” Seth: “Kelly.”
— Funny interruption with Seth taking a phone call regarding his fantasy football draft.
— Our very first display of the fantastic chemistry between Seth and Amy.
— I feel like I say this about a lot of pre-taped ads in this era, but the style, camera angles, and visual details of this commercial are such a spot-on parody of the type of ads this is spoofing.
— Great little part with Amy expecting a kiss when Seth leans in, only for Amy to disappointingly realize that he’s merely reaching for his jacket.
— Amy’s ending line, after finding out she’s not pregnant: “I’m so psyched I’m not gonna get fat.”
STARS: ****½


CBS EVENING ANTHRAX UPDATE
Dan Rather (DAH) projects journalists’ health

— A promising idea for a sketch, given the great Dan Rather election sketch that SNL did the preceding season.
— A particularly funny announcement that Geraldo Rivera “has anthrax…. both kinds.”
— Great line about conservatives being disappointed that Katie Couric DOESN’T have anthrax.
— The hilarious announcements keep coming, with Wolf Blitzer having both anthrax AND rabies, Walter Cronkite having scurvy, and Andy Rooney having cholera from drinking stagnant water from an air conditioner.
— My god, this sketch just keeps getting funnier and funnier, with Rather now announcing that the cast of Friends has head lice.
— Dan Rather, on Jennifer Aniston’s lice-filled hair: “Her hairdo has more unauthorized guests than a Mexican Motel 6.”
— Dan Rather’s preface to one particular big announcement: “Carl, go down to the basement. Mabel, get in here, take your clothes off, and put these shoes on. Also, the hat. Now put one leg up on that chair, arch your back, and listen to this, ’cause it’s a humdinger.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always On Time”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Red Sox fan SEM will root against the Yankees in order to help them win

postal workers Mighty Mack & Elwood Blues sing “The Letter”

— Tina’s whole “Bitch, I can’t be any more alert” rant towards John Ashcroft’s high alert warning is fantastic. One of Tina’s most defining moments on Update, in my eyes.
— Seth in his very first Update commentary. Considering he’s only in his fourth episode, I like that Seth is getting to do an Update commentary as himself, which is especially surprising because, as far as I know, he’s not a stand-up.
— Kinda hard to believe this is the same Seth who would later become an Update anchor. He looks, sounds, and comes off so different and youthful in tonight’s Update commentary compared to how he would generally come off as an Update anchor.
— Seth, on how everyone and everything that Boston roots for loses: “If Boston rooted for gravity, we’d all be floating three inches off the ground.”
— Another great line from Seth, again in regards to Boston always jinxing what they root for: “Right now, Donald Rumsfeld is in West Roxbury, Mass., trying to convince eight guys named Murph to root for the Taliban.”
— This Update commentary of Seth’s is really defining his Red Sox fan persona that will become a recurring aspect of his subsequent Update commentaries as himself.
— Great bit with Seth calling out several individual Yankee players and harshly insulting them in an attempt to reverse-jinx them, because he wants them to win the World Series.
— Overall, Seth knocked it out of the park (no pun intended) with his first Update commentary. I’m not a fan of a lot of stuff he would later go on to do on SNL, but he has shown A LOT of promise in tonight’s Update commentary.
— Tina, regarding Will Smith calling himself human Viagra: “Well, if you mean you’re becoming a huge dick, I think I agree with you.” Two things about this great joke: 1) In dress rehearsal, the joke was actually delivered by Jimmy instead of Tina. 2) This joke would later be removed from NBC’s rerun of this episode (not sure about the syndicated 60-minute reruns on cable). I’m not 100% sure why the joke was removed, unless NBC just had a problem with the use of the term “huge dick”.
— Lots of strong jokes from Jimmy and Tina tonight.
— Interesting to see the Blues Brothers doing an Update commentary. This is, I believe, the only time on SNL where the Blues Brothers have done more than just perform a musical number.
— Boy, John’s hoarse, unhealthy-sounding voice tonight has now gotten even worse. I think I’m now starting to understand why people were making comparisons to a near-death Chris Farley.
— Huge laughs from Elwood Blues’ long, wordy, heated rant ending with “…smooching each other’s ball sacs, getting their compulsory beards all tangled up in each other’s ass hairs!” Fantastic delivery from Dan there, showing that he still has that great ability to impeccably deliver very wordy dialogue.
— Fun how we got to see the Update set being taken apart for the Blues Brothers to perform on the home base stage. However, as I said in my review of the Blues Brothers’ monologues from John Goodman’s seasons 20 and 23 episodes, I’ve never been a fan of the post-John Belushi Blues Brothers, and their performance tonight is doing nothing for me. To say nothing of how terrible John’s hoarse voice sounds during his attempts to sing here.
— I recall once seeing a dress rehearsal photo of tonight’s Blues Brothers musical number, and the photo showed the Blues Brothers being accompanied by Maya, Ana, and Rachel as backup dancers dressed in sexy postal worker uniforms. That appearance from Maya, Ana, and Rachel would be cut from the live version of this musical number. Wonder why.
STARS: ***½


AMERICA UNDERCOVER
trashy white couple (CHK) & (AMP) in domestic dispute

— I remember when this sketch originally aired, the exaggerated, slow-paced, slurred voice that Chris was heard speaking in during the opening 911 phone call honestly made me assume for one moment that Chris was playing… well… a mentally challenged character. This had me thinking (even back in these less-PC days of 2001) “Oh, god, is SNL really gonna go there?” Thankfully, I was wrong, and it turned out Chris was just playing a goofy white trash character.
— Great white trash voice from Amy.
— John, to Amy, after she claims that static electricity isn’t real: “Ma’am, static electricity is real. It’s real as toothpaste. You should learn about ’em both.”
— Another funny line from John to Amy, this time when he rejects her sexual advances: “I got a beautiful wife, and I can’t go home smelling like Jack Daniels and Easy-Off.”
— A noteworthy gaffe where, when Dean holds Chris upside-down, one of the leg holes of Chris’ briefs opens up, almost giving us a clear view of what’s inside the front of Chris’ briefs (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch). Yeesh. This near-wardrobe malfunction humorously results in Chris fearfully placing his hands on his briefs immediately afterwards, all the while the audience laughs hysterically. Dean’s extremely uncomfortable facial expressions during this part (which probably isn’t acting) while having his face awfully close to Chris’ barely-covered crotch is cracking me up.
— Funny bit about how Amy once gave up her big toe so Chris can have something to replace his thumb with after losing it in a firecracker accident.
— Wild sequence with Amy licking/sucking on Chris’ big toe-thumb.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Livin’ It Up”


BAD CONCEPTUAL THEATER
Leonard Pinth-Garnell offers monkey-authored play

— A surprise return of Leonard Pinth-Garnell and the recurring “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketches from the original SNL era! Very welcome to see this sketch appearing in a newer SNL era. Not sure how tonight’s installment will stack up against the originals, but I’m assuming the original writer(s) of these sketches came back to guest write tonight’s installment.
— Some good laughs from the actors’ nonsensical dialogue and ape-like actions when acting out a monkey-written play.
— Good visual of a monkey playwright being brought onstage during the “introducing the cast” segment at the end.
STARS: ***½


LITTLE SLEUTHS
kid detective Bookie Newton (SEM) helps (host) solve a grisly case

 

— Wow, Seth in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight? After doing little-to-nothing that was noteworthy in his prior episodes, he’s been having a great night and has been dominating this episode.
— Now we also get Amy in ANOTHER sketch tonight, who, like Seth, has surprisingly been dominant in tonight’s episode. Considering this is only their fourth episode as mere featured players and it was unsure at the time just how their SNL tenures would turn out, Seth and Amy have been having an amazing night, and have also gotten more airtime tonight than any of their far-more-established castmates. I remember how fun and exciting it was for us SNL fans at the time to witness this breakout night for two newbies, and it gave most of us a lot of hope for Seth and Amy potentially taking over as SNL’s next two biggest leaders in the future, especially with Will and Ana seemingly being on their way out (Ana in particular, who’s airtime has sadly taken a real hit this season so far). In retrospect, though, I cringe over the fact that a lot of us once thought Seth had the potential to fill in Will’s shoes. As the dreadful season 30 would later show us, SNL’s attempt to make Seth the male leader of the cast would be a failure.
— Funny cutaway to Seth and Amy’s speechless kiddie reactions to the gruesome details they’re told of a murder.
— Solid and fun characterizations from both Seth and Amy here, and we’re getting another display tonight of their strong chemistry together.
— (*groan*) There goes Horatio almost breaking once again for no apparent reason, during his angry rant after spitting a chunk of sandwich out of his mouth. He’s almost ruining the goodwill and momentum of this sketch.
— Seth: “I just learned how to masturbate, so I kinda wanna get home.” Also a great bit afterwards with Amy trying to figure out what “masturbate” means, by breaking down the word: “’master’ means to be in control, and ‘bait’ means a small worm.”
— SNL would later attempt MANY TIMES to make this sketch recurring, but it would always end up getting cut after dress rehearsal, until Seth and Amy apparently just gave up. One of the many cut-after-dress installments of this sketch would later be shown as a bonus feature on, I believe, Amy’s “Best Of” DVD.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. There was very little that didn’t work for me, and quite a lot of what did work was exceptionally great. John Goodman, despite health issues he appeared to be dealing with, still tried and he performed well enough, even if, as usual, he was overshadowed for most of the show. He did have one particularly good showcase tonight, though, with that strong Wilford Brimley sketch, one of John’s greatest sketches ever. This ends up being John’s final hosting stint for TWELVE YEARS, shockingly. I know I recently ranted in my review of John’s season 25 episode about how questionable it is that SNL kept bringing him back as a host on such a frequent basis, year after year for eleven consecutive seasons, but damn, that certainly doesn’t mean there needed to be a TWELVE-YEAR gap between two of his hosting stints. (And I recall his long-awaited hosting stint after that twelve-year gap being a big disappointment, with him being saddled with lame material like “The Three Wise Guys”). However, I think I recall him once saying in an interview during that gap that he feels he’s getting too old and out-of-shape to still be hosting SNL regularly. But still, a TWELVE-YEAR absence???


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on

May 6, 2000 – John Goodman / Neil Young (S25 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
Time Warner interrupts celebrity contest

— Darrell’s Regis Philbin introducing Lance Bass as being from “Flash In The Pan, Florida” gave me a good laugh.
— Kattan’s David Duchovny impression is cracking me up with his facial expression alone.
— The constant “Disney has taken ABC away from you” disclaimer interruptions, parodying an actual ABC interruption that had recently happened, are making me laugh, even if they’ve gotten a bit tedious after a while.
— I love Darrell’s Regis introducing Cheri’s Kathie Lee Gifford by saying “The next voice you hear will be that of SATAN!!!”
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Maya Rudolph has been added to the cast tonight.

I wonder what the reason is for adding her so late in the season. Perhaps Lorne was worried that he might lose both Cheri Oteri AND Molly Shannon over the then-upcoming summer?


MONOLOGUE
plastered host mistakenly thinks he acted in the Flintstones prequel

— In the cutaway to a confused Tim and Will during John’s goofy Flintstones dancing, I love Tim saying “He’s not in the Flintstones movie” and Will saying “He is plastered.”
— Funny turn with Jimmy, Horatio, and Neil Young being the only ones who are into John’s Flintstones dancing, and agreeing with each other that “he’s kickin’ ass!”
— Not too sure this “John’s an alcoholic and needs an intervention” premise is working.
— Overall, ehh, a fairly tepid monologue, but with a few highlights.
STARS: **½


PLATINUM MACH 14
Gillette’s Platinum Mach 14 razor is more advanced than the Triple-Trac

— I’m reminded of SNL’s Triple-Trac commercial from the very first episode, which treated the now-marketable idea of three-bladed razors as silly.
— After about a minute-and-a-half into this commercial, I finally got my first laugh, from the bit about a phantom blade that’s only there to provide stabilization.
— The ending shot of Will with his face all cut up is kinda funny, but overall, I wasn’t crazy about this commercial as a whole.
STARS: **


WANNA BE A VJ 3
Raymond (CHK) & Shannon (ANG) compete for a job at MTV

— The debut of Jimmy’s Carson Daly impression and his accompanying catchphrase, “I’m Carson Daly, and I’m a massive tool.”
— John Goodman playing MTV’s Dave Holmes? Oooookay, bizarre casting there. Is this just an excuse to work John into this sketch?
— I got a laugh from “Play some damn videos” getting the most votes on the MTV poll.
— The video package of Kattan’s character is pure “WTF?”, but I laughed out loud at the very random shot of him holding his crotch in pain while yelling “Ohh, you got me in the—”.
— It feels so odd seeing Maya Rudolph at this point of my SNL project. This is making me realize that I’m slowly beginning to get closer and closer to SNL’s modern era. When I eventually reach the respective debuts of cast members like Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, and Bill Hader, I’m sure it’ll also feel very odd. To say nothing of what it’ll feel like when I reach Kenan Thompson’s debut just a few seasons from now.
— Ana’s video package is funny.
— I love Ana trying to hide the fact that she obviously doesn’t know who Method Man is. I especially like her delivery of the line “I love the Wuuuuuuu!” when claiming she’s familiar with the Wu Tang Clan.
— Overall, this sketch picked up in the second half when it focused on Ana, but too much of this sketch felt less like an MTV parody and more like the exact type of stuff that you’d see on MTV in this era.
STARS: **½


OFFICE FLIRT
co-workers endure office vamp Adele’s (CHO) unsubtle sexual innuendo

— Nice to see Cheri attempting a new character, especially considering that this late stage of season 25 we’re in ends up being the homestretch of Cheri’s SNL tenure.
— Cheri-as-Adele’s over-explaining of her sexual innuendos is really funny.
— Good bit with Adele using an unwilling Rachel to demonstrate how she can “go both ways”, leading poor Rachel to explain “I’m just a temp!”
— Very funny ending line from Adele about her office having a waterbed and KY.
— Overall, a great sketch, and ends up being probably Cheri’s final great original SNL moment (not counting any recurring sketches). I’m glad that Cheri’s upcoming departure prevented SNL from eventually turning this into an unnecessary recurring sketch.
STARS: ****


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Life of a Catchphrase” by RBS- “Yeah, That’s The Ticket” is tracked

 

— It’s obvious that a lot of the animation in the opening Lorne segment is reused from the TV Funhouse cartoon that aired in SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special. You can even see a Dennis Miller doll next to Lorne at one point, which the 25th Anniversary cartoon did a bit with, by having the talking doll spout off an angry Dennis Miller rant when you pull its string.
— I love Lorne reading off a profanity-filled fan letter complaning about SNL’s habit of running things into the ground.
— Great part with Lorne using certain cast members to demonstrate catchphrases that work and don’t work, such as Rob Schneider receiving audience cheers from saying “Makin’ copiiieeees!” but getting his head torn off by the audience when saying “You like-a da juice?”
— SNL gets in YET ANOTHER dig about Joe Piscopo being a has-been, for the second consecutive episode.
— I’d like to think that the part with Molly Shannon is Robert Smigel’s way of acknowledging how badly downhill Molly’s been going lately.
— I’m absolutely loving the meta-ness of this whole cartoon.
— Great turn with Jon Lovitz’s popularity from the phrase “Yeah, that’s the ticket” coming to a halt as soon as Lorne brings in newbie Dana Carvey and his catchphrase “Well, isn’t that special?”
— Why in the world is Jenny Jones animated as a black woman?!? (the woman on the right in the third-to-last above screencap for this TV Funhouse, if that’s indeed supposed to be Jenny Jones. It may just be a Jenny Jones guest, though. If so, disregard what I said.)
— A very good sequence showing Jon’s “Yeah, that’s the ticket” popularity gradually diminish, eventually leading to an older Jon watching himself saying that catchphrase on a Comedy Central rerun (complete with the now-old-school Comedy Central station bug on the bottom corner of the TV screen). Interestingly, this cartoon is predicting that SNL reruns would still be seen on Comedy Central in the year 2019, which sadly didn’t turn out to be true.
— During the scene with aliens worshiping Jon after witnessing him in a Comedy Central SNL rerun, I love Jon quickly destroying the aliens’ TV screen as soon as a Church Lady sketch pops up on it.
— An overall brilliant cartoon.
STARS: ****½


THE CHRISTOPHER LOWELL SHOW
fey panelists laud decorating ideas

— A typical Chris Kattan role, but I’d be lying if I said he didn’t make me laugh early on in this sketch, before I realized the one-note route this sketch was going to take.
— Oddly, John in that Christopher Lowell-esque get-up makes him look like Dom DeLuise.
— John’s various “MMM-mmm!”s and “AHH-ahh”s are making me laugh. Not sure why his “MMM-mmm!”s and “AHH-ahh”s are making me laugh more than Kattan and Jimmy’s, but they are.
— Overall, I got some laughs from the silliness here, but as a whole: ehhh.
— SNL would later replace this sketch in reruns with the dress rehearsal version, which contains a blooper at one point in which Kattan’s fake beard peels off a bit, resulting in a funny ad-lib from Kattan (something like “I haven’t shaved all week, so…”, I can’t remember the exact line).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Razor Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Kevin Brennan [real] downplays the value of familial relations
lame duck Bill Clinton (DAH) tells Cuban-Americans to shut up

— After a joke just now, I love how Colin ad-libbed “MMM-mmm!”, as a callback to the Christopher Lowell Show sketch from earlier tonight.
— Good to see SNL writer Kevin Brennan in his second (and final) Update commentary. His previous commentary gave me an A. Whitney Brown vibe that I liked.
— Brennan’s overall commentary was decent, though nothing memorable. However, if SNL was prepping this guy to potentially take over Colin’s anchorperson spot the following season, NO. In my opinion, Kevin Brennan as an anchorperson would NOT have worked. His delivery is too monotone and lethargic to anchor Update. Audiences would probably have gotten bored of him fast, and I doubt he would’ve been the upswing that Update needed after the Colin Quinn era. Brennan is more suited to A. Whitney Brown-type guest political commentaries. We end up not getting him in any capacity the following season, as he doesn’t return to SNL that season.
— For the second episode in a row, Colin himself does a Weekend Update Editorial, this time an amusingly brief, wordless one where he bitterly tears up a paper regarding a Kentucky Derby horse race that he lost a bet on.
— Is Colin EVER capable of making an ad-libbed statement towards the audience without trailing off towards the end of his sentences? I can rarely fully decipher his muttered ad-libbed statements.
— Great to see Darrell’s President Clinton back at the Update desk.
— I love Darrell’s Clinton saying “Shut the eff up” towards the upset Cuban community in regards to the Elian Gonzalez saga, then smugly informing us that he can speak freely at this point because “What are ya gonna do, impeach me again?”
— What the hell? A brief snippet of the Weekend Update theme music has LOUDLY played right in the middle of Darrell’s commentary just now. I’m surprised that very noticeable technical gaffe didn’t throw Darrell off.
— Darrell’s overall Clinton commentary was awesome as usual and killed with both me and the audience.
STARS: **½


ROCK & ROLL RESTAURANT
Jim Morrison impersonator (HOS) waits on diners at rock & roll restaurant

— I love Tracy’s impression of the lead singer from Cameo.
— When Jimmy asks if they can get another waiter because they don’t remember the lead singer from Cameo, I got a good laugh from Tracy bitterly responding “Yeah, and I guess my kids can eat dirt!” and then pushing Jimmy’s head when making his exit.
— I’m liking Horatio’s as a latter-years Jim Morrison.
— The rock-and-roll-themed menu items that the customers are reading off are pretty funny.
— You can tell that this sketch is fairly early in Horatio and Jimmy’s SNL tenures, as Horatio is going fully over-the-top right next to Jimmy, yet Jimmy is staying perfectly in character, not cracking a smile. If this sketch were from 2002-2004, you know that both Jimmy and Horatio would be absolutely losing their shit at Horatio’s own antics.
— Okay, the whole Jim Morrison bit is getting old, though Horatio is giving it his all. This sketch feels kinda like a poor man’s version of Horatio’s Just Enjoy The Ozzy And Keep Your Mouth Shut sketch from the preceding season.
— I did get a laugh from Horatio suddenly grabbing at the customers’ inappropriate areas.
— I liked John’s line to the customers about how they need to accept the fact that when you see the latter-years Jim Morrison, he’s gonna show you his wiener.
— Hmm, after I’ve pointed out how perfectly in character Jimmy is staying while watching Horatio’s antics, Jimmy now looks like he’s trying to hide his laughter after Horatio began exaggeratedly singing into Jimmy’s face.
— Horatio smashing a bottle on Jimmy’s head before diving onto the table was pretty funny.
— After the table of customers leave in an upset manner, I love Horatio yelling towards them “Buncha JACKHOLES!”
STARS: **½


TRAFFIC STOP
troopers (host) & (TIM) administer sobriety test to the Bloater brothers

— The Bloater Brothers officially become recurring characters. As I explained in my review of their first appearance, these characters are big guilty pleasures of mine, and I’m well-aware that I’m in the minority.
— The Bloater Brothers’ singing of their refrigerator commercial jingle is amusing me.
— Tim gets a great laugh from his blunt delivery of “I’m gonna take this nightstick and hit ya in the head.” That’s the type of line that only Tim Meadows could get such a big laugh out of with his delivery.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Silver & Gold”


TEK-CO
Tek-co Mechanical Currency Masticator automates coin valuation via biting

— Will has surprisingly been having a very light night. This is his first appearance since all the way back in the Platinum Mach 14 commercial right after the monologue.
— I love Will revealing his missing teeth when saying he bit the coins in the last treasure chest.
— A very random premise for a Chris Parnell pitchman ad, but I’m liking this randomness.
— Parnell surprisingly flubbed a word just now (reminds me of how surprised I would always be when seeing the rare times that Phil Hartman messed up), but he immediately recovered well.
— I like the part with Parnell listing off various ridiculous terms for coins.
— A funny visual of John with his finger coyly in his mouth when Parnell catches him trying to pass off a fake coin as a real one.
— Hmm, all of this lengthy, complicated, speedy dialogue may be a bit too much for Parnell, as even a consummate pro like him seems to be having a little trouble getting through some of these lines.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not quite as terrible as I had remembered it, but it was still a subpar episode and had a forgettable feel. John Goodman also gave YET ANOTHER forgettable hosting performance in which he disappeared into the background, aside from some laughs here and there. You know, I really hate to say what I’m about to say about John Goodman, and this may result in me getting stones thrown at me, but after reviewing 11 straight seasons in which John Goodman hosted, I’m honestly starting to wonder why he was such a frequent host who was brought back season after season. I love John Goodman as much as the next guy, but he rarely, if ever, stands out as a host, and he just plays forgettable, thankless roles most of the time. He doesn’t have that Buck Henry quality, either, that would justify frequently bringing back such a host that rarely stands out in sketches. I’d understand John hosting every few seasons or so, but on an annual basis??? It’s probably a good thing that he ends up taking a one-year break from hosting SNL the following season.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tobey Maguire)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Britney Spears

Posted on

April 10, 1999 – John Goodman / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S24 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BACK TO LYING
ruefully-truthful Bill Clinton (DAH) tries reverse psychology on Kosovo

— Very funny concept of how Clinton has learned from his actions about the current war in Kosovo that he should never tell the truth and should always lie.
— Darrell is really milking the audience reactions to his Clinton thumbs-up and lip-biting moves, even moreso than usual.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host can’t convince audience members that the show isn’t a rerun

— Great turn with Paula Pell as an audience member interrupting the monologue to ask John “Is this a rerun?”
— I can see how they came up with the idea for this monologue, because not only has John hosted many times, but Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have also musical guested many times, often in episodes hosted by a Goodman-esque frequent host (Buck Henry, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, and later on, Alec Baldwin). Thus, John Goodman/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers definitely would’ve sounded to people in 1999 like a host/musical guest lineup that already occurred.
— I love how they’re going even further with this, by now having Paula hold up a fake newspaper that states this episode is a rerun from 1991.
— For the record, 1991 is the ONLY calendar year in the 90s that John hasn’t hosted in.
— Another Jimmy Fallon monologue walk-on that receives a good audience reaction, again showing how quickly popular he’s become in just his first season as a featured player. This ends up being Jimmy’s only appearance of the entire night, by the way. He had a Weekend Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he and Tom Petty perform a guitar song together.
— I love how Jimmy further confirms this episode is a rerun from 1991 by saying “I was in 8th grade when it first ran.” A funny exaggeration of Jimmy’s youthfulness as a cast member. (In real life, Jimmy was actually 17 in 1991.)
— Another dress rehearsal tidbit: Lorne’s walk-on in this monologue originally had him in a brown wig and t-shirt, to make it appear even more as if this episode is from 1991 (even though Lorne hasn’t had brown hair nor wore t-shirts onscreen since the 70s), but in the live show, he instead enters this monologue in his usual suit and gray hair.
— One oversight in this overall great monologue: how do they not involve Tim Meadows in any way? After all, he’s the only person in this then-current 1999 cast who was also in the 1991 cast. They definitely should’ve done something with that in this monologue. He could’ve walked on and casually asked John “Hey, ready to do the next sketch?”, and Paula Pell or Tina Fey could’ve blurted out “See, there’s Tim Meadows! That proves this is a rerun from 1991!”, and John could’ve responded “But Tim’s still in the cast now!”, which Paula or Tina could’ve responded to with a deadpan “Really?” as yet another SNL joke about how surprisingly long Tim has been on the show.
STARS: ****½


ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM
(host) brings high school antics to adult literacy class led by (TIM)

— John: “Do we have to know this for the test?” Tim: “(in a blunt, deadpan manner) Uh, no. You have to know this to know how to read.”
— Not a particularly hilarious character that John is playing, but his performance is making this work. Tim is also a great straight man to him.
— Boy, SNL sure loves doing sketches this season that end with a text crawl. I lost count of how many sketches in this season have ended with one.
STARS: ***


SHAUN MONDAVI VINEYARDS
self-styled wine heir’s (WIF) vile liquid further ires stepfather (host)

— A solid concept that Will is selling well.
— Will’s grimacing and groaning whenever he takes a sip of the wine are slaying me, especially when he starts really going all out on it.
— A very funny reveal of the wine coming in a Mountain Dew soda bottle with a shoddily-made wine label taped onto it.
— Great turn with Will’s angry stepfather crashing the commercial and giving Will a mean-spirited reality check.
— John: “This isn’t wine! It’s tequila, Five Alive, and those little marshmallows you put in cocoa.”
— Heh, does John’s character realize that calling Will’s character a son of a bitch in front of someone who’s both Will’s mother and John’s wife is technically calling his own wife a bitch?
STARS: ****½


CNN
lightweight magazines provide basis for serious reportage

— Pretty funny turn with this ad going from legitimate examples of hard-hitting news coverage to coverage from very light magazines like Cat Fancy and Highlights.
— Funny cutaway to John as a “bear”.
STARS: ***½


WRAP IT UP
(host) strongarms complaints about his incompetent gift wrapper son (CHK)

— Kattan’s horrible wrapping of Tim’s gift is pretty funny, especially when he tries to make the wrapped gift look like a swan.
— Bizarre sketch so far.
— Odd how this is the second consecutive live sketch with John playing a violent father.
— Funny little touch with Kattan randomly snipping off a small part of the flowers with a pair of scissors after destroying the flowers during his bad attempt to wrap a ribbon around them.
— Now this already-bizarre sketch is getting even more bizarre with Kattan’s thought bubble of a popsicle.
— John’s beatdown of every customer that has an unsatisfactory reaction towards Kattan’s gift-wrapping has some shades of that sketch from the season 20 finale where Chris Elliott, Morwenna Banks, and Chris Farley fatally beat up any customer that showed any kind of disrespect towards their folksy ways.
— I like how Kattan’s thought bubble about kitty cats is just another popsicle, this time with a cat’s tail.
— Overall, boy, was this one weird sketch, but it made me laugh enough.
STARS: ***


HELLO DOLLY
hucksters prefer collectibles to real-life youngsters

— John’s forehead is looking sweaty in this sketch.
— The Poopsie Daisy doll is funny, especially the gourmet jelly beans in the back of the doll’s soiled diaper, which John and Ana gleefully eat.
— I love the African-American “Dignity” doll.
— Like the last time they did this sketch, we’re getting some funny disturbing details about John and Ana’s troubled personal lives throughout the sketch. I especially like Ana’s casually-delivered line about how when she was pregnant with her second child, there was a good chance it was going to come out looking like the African-American “Dignity” doll.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM explains the meaning of acronyms appearing on current fashions
Colette Reardon surveys prescription drugs available to treat allergies

— Ah, a good old-fashioned “Dan Quayle is dumb” joke, feeling like a nice throwback to the Dennis Miller era of Weekend Update, back when Quayle’s dumbness was a frequent target.
— Tracy Morgan makes his obligatory one appearance of the night. Would it kill SNL to use this man in more than one sketch in an episode?
— Tracy’s FUBU-esque acroynms for various things are all funny, especially the one for Timberland boots (the sixth above screencap for this Update). However, Tracy’s delivery is kinda stumbly throughout this commentary.
— Man, Colin looks so stifled in these last few Updates, now that he’s been (presumably) forced by NBC to refrain from muttering ad-libbed remarks towards the audience after his news jokes. In these last few Updates, you can tell when he wants to make an ad-lib after certain jokes but restrains himself.
— In these last few Collette Reardon appearances, I’ve pretty much run out of things to say about her, but she continues to amuse me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swingin'”


SPRINGTIME SANTA
a boozy & unpleasant Santa (host) unwinds at home during the offseason

— A North Pole/Santa Claus sketch in April? How random.
— John is solid as a belligerent, obnoxious Santa involved in a domestic argument with Mrs. Claus.
— A lot of funny tension in his sketch caused by Santa’s attitude.
— When Parnell and Cheri make their exit as the elf couple after spending their entire appearance standing on their knees to give off the illusion that they’re tiny elves, you can see both of them beginning to stand up on their legs before getting off-camera.
— Funny ending, re-dubbing footage of the original “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” stop-motion movie.
STARS: ***½


HAPPY SMILE PATROL
kid show stars’ ugly fate told by news bulletins aired during the program

— Here comes a favorite of mine.
— I love the news anchor’s (Parnell) disturbing details on the death of Kattan’s character.
— More and more laughs from the increasingly unsettling details of law troubles the Happy Smile Patrol actors have gotten in. I especially love the dark detail of Cheri’s character using a razor blade to cut a male victim’s throat to the spine (yeesh!) while he was climaxing during oral sex that she was giving him. Holy hell.
— Parnell is, of course, perfect in his role as the anchor breaking all of these special reports. The disturbing details he’s reading off are made that much funnier by his straitlaced delivery.
— Overall, a masterpiece.
STARS: *****


VH1
Behind The Music- bowling alley attendant Bun E. Carlos (HOS) thinks back

— Pretty funny reveal of Horatio’s Bun E. Carlos now being an attendant at a bowling alley.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Room At The Top”


CATHOUSE COMPUTER SYSTEM
embarrassed john (host) endures bordello computer system learning curve

— Good premise with the incongruity between the prostitutes and their savvy computer knowledge.
— I got a laugh from the little part with Cheri telling Horatio “You go upstairs and heat up the wax.”
— Funny southern accent from Cheri. It reminds me a bit of her future “Simma dah nah!” character Nadeen, who debuts the following season.
— And now, Cheri’s character has flat-out said “Now everybody SIMMA DAH NAH!” Yep, Cheri is definitely playing a prototype of her Nadeen character.
— Hilarious casual walk-on from Will in S&M gear, and the uncharacteristically friendly voice he’s using when helping the ladies with their computer trouble.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A much better episode than I recall it being. Until now, I had always deemed this episode to be the first of a two-year slump that John Goodman’s SNL episodes were in. However, I’ve come away from tonight’s viewing feeling it was actually a pretty good episode. (Goodman’s next episode from season 25, on the other hand? Oof. We’ll see if that one is the dud I remember it being.) This continues this season’s perfect streak of not having any episodes that I find outright bad. There were a few really strong pieces tonight, including one absolute masterpiece (Happy Smile Patrol), and no sketches that flopped for me.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Posted on

February 7, 1998 – John Goodman / Paula Cole (S23 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MONICA MEETS LINDA
Linda Tripp (host) wears a wire during meeting with Monica Lewinsky (MOS)

— This cold opening oddly begins with the audience already applauding for some reason.
— We have officially entered the Lewinsky scandal era, which SNL will be getting a lot of memorable mileage out of these next two seasons.
— Something odd I’ve always found about Molly’s Monica Lewinsky impression is that SNL never put any padding on her, which made it kinda hard to buy her as overweight.
— What luck for SNL that John Goodman happens to be hosting the week they needed to debut a Linda Tripp impression. This, of course, would lead to John having to cameo in the future every time SNL wants to do a Linda Tripp sketch, which feels like a precursor to SNL’s stunt casting in political sketches nowadays.
— Some good laughs from John’s Tripp trying to get Molly’s Lewinsky to repeat her confession into a hidden wire.
— A funny sudden appearance from Tim as Vernon Jordan from under the restaurant table. I also like him muttering to Molly’s Monica “Ix-nay on the ellatio-fay.”
— A great line with Monica’s “I love BJs” when receiving her Bartles & Jaymes drink.
— Feels kinda odd seeing (tonight’s special guest) Dan Aykroyd reprising his Bob Dole impression, considering Norm is still in the cast, though we won’t be seeing him tonight (more on that in a moment).
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Norm Macdonald has been removed from the opening montage. He will not be making any appearances in tonight’s episode, nor will he be making any appearances in the following episode (minus a random brief walk-on in the latter episode’s goodnights; more on that when I review that episode). I wonder if this made SNL fans at the time incorrectly assume that Norm was officially no longer in the cast.


MONOLOGUE
Mighty Mack & Elwood Blues perform “Lookin’ For A Fox”

— An interesting and fun change of pace for hosts’ typical monologue entrance, with the SNL theme music abruptly stopping and Don Pardo announcing the Blues Brothers and the original Blues Brothers band, which is then followed by blues music playing as John and Dan enter as the Blues Brothers.
— I’m no fan of the post-John Belushi Blues Brothers, but this performance is fun, and I like how SNL is going all out on this compared to the last Blues Brothers monologue from Goodman’s season 20 episode, by having this song being performed on the musical guest stage, having a full blues band, and having the female cast members as sunglasses-wearing backup singers.
STARS: N/A (I don’t usually rate segments like this)


MORNING LATTE
chatter of Tom & Cass eventually causes (host) to snap

— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Like the first time they did this sketch, there’s a lot of enjoyment from Will and Cheri’s spoof of typical morning show banter, and from the denseness of Cheri’s character.
— Some good milking of the fact that Cheri’s character can’t have children.
— A lot of hilarious harsh, cruel comments Will and Cheri are making about Monica Lewinsky’s weight.
— Was it really necessary to repeat the gag from the first installment of this sketch, with the stage manger yelling “YOU STUPID BITCH!” at Cheri? Besides, you’re never going to top Chris Farley’s delivery of that line. Unfortunately, they would make the “YOU STUPID BITCH!” outburst towards Cheri a regular part of this recurring sketch for a while, though in the one with Alec Baldwin in the upcoming season 24, I think Alec’s outburst has him yelling another obscenity to Cheri besides “stupid bitch” (something that ends with him saying “ass”, I believe, though I can’t remember the whole outburst).
STARS: ****


THE 7TH COMMANDMENT
at Mount Sinai, Bill Clinton (DAH) seeks adultery admonition loophole

— A brilliant and very memorable concept of Darrell’s Bill Clinton being at Moses’ reading-off of the ten commandments. This has always been one of my favorite sketches that Darrell has ever done as Clinton.
— So many priceless lines and questioning from Darrell’s Clinton towards John’s Moses on what defines adultery.
— A particularly funny bit with the “neighbor’s ass” part of the commandments.
STARS: *****


EYE ON THE OLYMPICS
Brian Boitano (WIF) & Rudy Galindo (CHK) camp it up at Nagano Olympics

— Not much to this besides lots of gay stereotype jokes, but I am enjoying the fun chemistry between Will and Chris.
— The wrong assumptions that Will and Chris keep making about the nationality of Molly’s Michelle Kwan is getting some laughs from me.
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- X-First Ladies help defeat communist aliens

 

— A hilarious brief cutaway to George and Barbara Bush having sex, which would go on to become a running gag in these X-President cartoons.
— George Bush, to a villain: “Welcome to Operation Desert Whoop-Ass.”
— An interesting unexpected turn with The X-First Ladies, which is providing a nice change.
STARS: ***½


EMERIL LIVE
Monica Lewinsky’s lawyer William Ginsburg (host) begs

— Jim’s Emeril Lagasse impression is way off. Sounds nothing like him. In Jim’s defense, though, maybe people weren’t too familiar with Emeril yet in 1998. Jim isn’t even throwing in any “BAM!”s, which would later go on to be a required part of an Emeril impression.
— A pretty funny out-of-place setting for John’s William Ginsburg to seriously address the Lewinsky scandal.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ explains why he’s not happy about Matt Damon’s success
frat guy Randy Graves (WIF) sides with Bill Clinton & blames women

— Colin’s Weekend Update theme music is really growing on me. It’s damn good. Too bad they change it in, I believe, the upcoming season 24.
— For the first time since taking over as new Update anchorperson, Colin wears a traditional suit-and-tie attire.
— An interesting change of pace with tonight’s Update not beginning with the typical news jokes, instead beginning with Colin doing a straight-to-camera breakdown of the Lewinsky scandal.
— In between the few traditional news jokes, we get Colin doing a lot more straight-to-camera breakdowns on various topics, using his natural stand-up delivery. Colin is really finding his niche with these bits. You can tell he’s much more comfortable in these bits than he is when delivering traditional Update news jokes in a straitlaced delivery. Man, can’t he officially do away with the traditional news jokes and just do these stand-up-style breakdowns? I think he would’ve gone on to be more accepted as an Update anchorperson if he went this route. Sure, it may seem out-of-place and nontraditional for an anchorperson to do Update in this style, but when you think about it, SNL previously took a chance on Dennis Miller, who never attempted to sound like a straitlaced news anchor, instead choosing to do Update in his natural, hip, laid-back stand-up style, which ended up going over very well and people would go on to credit Dennis for re-inventing Update. Even though the style that I’m saying Colin should regularly do Update in would be a more drastic format change for Update than what Dennis did, I think Colin could make it work.
— Wow, Colin continues to be really on in tonight’s Update. He’s having a surprisingly strong night. Hell, even his delivery of the traditional Update news jokes is on-point. If I wasn’t aware of how the remainder of his Update tenure ends up going, tonight’s Update would have me fooled into thinking that he would go on to be a very solid anchorperson.
— The good vibes of tonight’s Update continue, as Will is freakin’ priceless in his commentary as a typical obnoxious fratboy.
— I love Will’s various ridiculous nicknames for Colin.
— So many funny lines from Will during his commentary about the Lewinsky scandal, culminating in him singing “In Your Eyes” for his buddy.
— Will occasionally asking the audience to give Colin a hand seems like a desperate way for SNL to get the audience on Colin’s side. Any other week, I’d understand the need for this, but Colin has been having such a good showing in tonight’s Update that Will practically forcing the audience to give Colin an ovation feels kinda unnecessary.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Don’t Want To Wait”


JUDGE JUDY
(ANG) claims that Irwin Mainway’s toys are dangerous

— Irwin Mainway! I love the idea of Dan playing him in a Judge Judy setting.
— Judge Judy: “Don’t give me rabbit poop and tell me that it’s chocolate.”
— A particularly great dangerous Mainway toy, with Irwin trying to pass off an old refrigerator as a time machine and a “problem solver”.
— Like last time, we get some great banter between Cheri’s Judge Judy and Tracy’s bailiff.
— Judge Judy’s “Johnny Nutcracker” bit is really funny.
— Judge Judy, to Ana: “Put the hanger away, Mommie Dearest!”
STARS: ****


MARTHA STEWART LIVING
items to aid exodus from Cuba are presented

— Great concept with Ana’s Martha Stewart giving classy tips on how to escape from Cuba.
— I especially love the tip about filling a latex glove with jewelry, money, or food, and hiding it in your “nether quarters”, which Martha then tells us “I got my lunch hidden in there right now.”
STARS: ****


SABADO CHISTOSO
William Ginsburg (WIF) makes his plea on a Hispanic show

— Nice to see Dan in yet another sketch tonight.
— Much like the La Politica Non Correcto sketch from the preceding season, this sketch is perfectly capturing the essence of typical shows on Spanish networks.
— Dan’s seamless transition from speaking in convincing Spanish to speaking in a normal American accent reminds me of how impressed I always was by his impeccable delivery when I reviewed seasons 1-4.
— I like how it’s become a running gag throughout tonight’s episode with John’s William Ginsburg appearing in random shows to plead towards Kenneth Starr. Rare for an SNL episode after the mid-80s to do this type of running gag throughout the sketches. We soon get another running gag a little later this season in the Julianne Moore episode.
STARS: ***


COBRAS
a cobra terrorizes airline passengers (host), (ANG), (TIM)

— I love Will-as-the-pilot’s very casual and calm announcement of a live cobra being loose on the plane.
— Tim’s over-the-top sweaty trembling when trying to stay still next to the cobra is great.
— A lot more very funny overly calm announcements from Will as the pilot, especially when detailing the horrible effects the cobra bite is having on his mind.
— Very random ending with a talking cobra (voiced by Cheri) delivering a message to us. I want to like this portion of the sketch, but it’s going on WAY too long and feels unnecessary.
STARS: ****


STORYTELLERS
Neil Diamond (WIF) performs songs & reveals his sicko muses

— Oh, this is a legendary Will Ferrell sketch.
— We get the debut of Will’s Neil Diamond impression. And, man, what a sketch for it to debut in.
— Very funny turn with Neil Diamond’s random disclosure of his love for hardcore, barely legal pornography.
— A lot of huge laughs from Diamond’s disturbing backstories to his hit songs, such as how he came up with “Sweet Caroline” after driving drunk and running over a kid.
— John: “Leave me out of this, man.” Neil Diamond: “(angrily) No, I will leave you IN!” That particular line has stuck with me for so many years.
— Neil Diamond: “I’ll smack you in the mouth, I’m Neil Diamond!” Such a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque line.
— Will-as-Neil-Diamond’s singing is providing good amusement.
— Neil Diamond: “This one, I wrote after I killed a drifter to get an erection.”
— Man, this sketch is practically an endless string of amazing one-liners.
— Overall, not only a classic sketch in general, but also one of the best 10-to-1 sketches in SNL history.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, and one of my favorites of this season. There was a good number of very solid sketches tonight, including two all-time favorites of mine (The 7th Commandment and Storytellers). Even Colin Quinn’s Weekend Update was surprisingly great. I also liked the heavy focus on the Lewinsky scandal, showing what a huge story it was when it first broke out around this time, though I can understand why the heavy focus on that might bother some viewers.
— John Goodman was his usual dependable self, and Dan Aykroyd, while not dominating as much as he did when guesting in John’s season 20 episode, was a welcome and adept presence as always.


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Roma Downey

Posted on

May 10, 1997 – John Goodman / Jewel (S22 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OPRAH
Anne Heche (CHK) loves attention, not Ellen DeGeneres (MAM)

— Again, Tim’s inaccurate Oprah impression makes me laugh, and I like his variations of “Go, girl” throughout this sketch.
— I like Mark’s take on Ellen DeGeneres, especially when telling stand-up-type jokes.
— Having two famous lesbians being played by male cast members probably couldn’t be done nowadays, but I feel that Mark and Chris are doing fine in these roles.
— I believe this is Chris’ first time ever saying “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
rapid weight loss program has SNL veteran host confused about show format

— Wow, John lost a ton of weight. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t end up lasting too long, as he’s back to his usual large self in the next episode he hosts a year later.) This is also the shortest I’ve seen his hair on SNL.
— And now he openly acknowledges his weight loss.
— I like the alleged past SNL cast members John lists off, such as Alan Alda, Phylicia Rashad, and the “Where’s the Beef?” lady.
— More funny out-of-it statements from John.
— I love the visual of Tim entering the scene while still in his Oprah costume, sans the wig.
— Another instance of this season’s running gag of Tim giving Lorne a hug. I especially like Tim doing that after telling Lorne “You saved the show again!”
STARS: ***½


CARIBBEAN ESSENCE BATH OIL
Rerun from 10/5/96


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Marlon Brando (host), Phil Donahue (DAH), Burt Reynolds (NOM)

 

— This officially becomes a recurring sketch.
— Feels odd in retrospect to see Darrell playing anyone other than Sean Connery in a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. It wouldn’t become a regular thing for him to play Connery in these sketches until after Norm leaves the cast.
— John’s Marlon Brando is absolutely hilarious.
— Like last time, a lot of very funny idiotic answers from the contestants, and funny straight man reactions from Will’s Alex Trebek.
— I love how Trebek’s frustration gets to the point where he gives the contestants an overly simplistic “Name this color” question, which the contestants, of course, still manage to get wrong.
— Brando randomly removing his pants and underwear while giving his answer is a riot.
— Yet another funny action from Brando, with him playing with a puppet while his Final Jeopardy answer is read by Trebek.
STARS: ****½


TALKIN’ WITH SUEL
Ron Wood (MIM) & Bjork (MOS) babble about drugs, maybe

— Then-recent host Mike Myers appears as a special guest tonight, and was even credited as such earlier tonight in the opening montage. Is he appearing tonight because Austin Powers opened around this time?
— I usually always enjoy Suel Forrester sketches, but I’m not sure how I’ll feel about this one. The last time SNL did a talk show sketch with an unintelligible person interviewing other unintelligible people, Mike’s own Ron Wood played the host and the sketch was simply not funny. Besides, I think Suel Forrester works better when he plays off of normal people, not people who are just as unintelligible as him.
— Yeah, this sketch isn’t working too much for me. I am liking Molly’s Bjork impression, though.
— I like the gibberish phone number displayed on the bottom of the screen (the fourth above screencap for this sketch).
STARS: **


EDDIE MURPHY, GOOD SAMARITAN
Good Samaritan Eddie Murphy (TIM) selflessly helps transvestites

— Wow, a mean-spirited jab at a legendary SNL alum, referencing a controversy he was recently in the news for. I’d be lying, though, if I said I’m not cracking up at this sketch. I see SNL’s not letting Eddie’s very negative reaction to a joke David Spade told about him the preceding season stop them from taking another harsh shot at him.
— Tim’s imitation of Eddie’s trademark laugh is odd, but makes me laugh.
— I never thought I’d see Colin Quinn in drag (the second-to-last screencap above).
STARS: ***½


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry discuss summer cookouts with chili expert (host)

— As always, Ana and Molly are able to get solid laughs out of their comically mundane discussions, especially the discussion about ice.
— I love John very slowly repeating the barbecue ingredients he listed off.
— Heh, just now, you can hear an SNL audience member sneeze while he was in the middle of laughing. Maybe the quiet, soft-spoken nature of this sketch made the audience member’s sneeze more audible to us home viewers.
— John is really good as a guest; probably my favorite performance that a host has given in the Delicious Dish sketches that have aired up to this point.
— Mark continues his streak of always playing a caller in Delicious Dish sketches (and I just realized that this is the very last time we’ll ever be hearing him in this recurring sketch, considering his SNL tenure is about to end). There has yet to be a Delicious Dish sketch where the callers weren’t played by Mark and/or Cheri, further proving my theory that in the universe of Delicious Dish, the show has almost no listeners.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Dominican Lou hopes to enlist Deep Blue against his dominoes rival Felix
learning that Ellen DeGeneres is actually gay causes WIF to vomit

— Did I just hear some audience members cheering “Looooouuuu!” when Dominican Lou’s commentary gets introduced? Why? Dominican Lou wasn’t an established character yet. I guess this just shows how lively tonight’s studio audience is, who I’ve been noticing are more responsive than usual tonight.
— Tonight’s overall Dominican Lou commentary was solid, and improvement over the fairly forgettable first commentary he did earlier this season.
— I like how one of Norm’s “Note to self”s tonight (which have become a weekly thing lately) makes a mention of “Timmy Meadows”. Right after Norm says that, you can hear an audience member repeat the name “Timmy Meadows” to himself in amusement.
— Ah, here comes a Will Ferrell commentary that I’ve always loved, but will most likely not sit well with a lot of people nowadays.
— As always whenever I watch this, I am howling at Will’s slowburn and vomiting when finding out Ellen DeGeneres isn’t just pretending to be a lesbian.
— This is one of the times SNL has managed to get the vomiting gag done well. And the fake vomit used tonight looks even more disgusting than usual.
— Ha, and now, after Will’s commentary has ended, Norm has to continue doing Update jokes while fake vomit is laid out all over the desk in front of him.
— A legendary unscripted Norm Macdonald moment right now: After the first Update joke that Norm does after Will leaves gets a tepid audience reaction, Norm ad-libs a “Note to self”: “Never ever follow a vomit-spewing guy with a joke”, then looks down at the fake vomit in front of him, grabs some of it, and freakin’ EATS IT. The audience goes crazy. Norm tops this off by saying, among the uproarious audience reaction, “Normally I don’t like Will Ferrell vomit, but this is quite good.” Absolutely classic.
— After the aforementioned vomit-eating bit, a picture for the next Update joke shows up on the news screen, but Norm says “Let’s just end it” to someone off-camera, and then signs off while the audience is still howling over the vomit-eating bit. Interesting how Norm prematurely ended tonight’s Update when realizing that it’s peaked. The Update joke that Norm refrained from doing had something to do with a lobster, judging from the picture that was on the news screen.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who Will Save Your Soul”


PROM MEDLEY
last-minute replacements Marty & Bobbi do a medley at a high school prom

— Odd how this starts with the Culps already onstage and beginning their usual spiel towards their audience. Their sketches usually begin with somebody introducing them before they come out onstage.
— Ha, I absolutely love the Culps’ operatic-sounding version of Chaka Khan’s “I Feel for You”.
— While in the middle of singing, I love Will saying “Okay, somebody in the back just gave me the finger.”
STARS: ***½


PHARMACY
druggist (host) fills overmedicated Colette Reardon’s (CHO) prescription

— The debut of Cheri’s Colette Reardon character.
— Something I’ve always wondered about this character: what is that flesh-colored thing that’s always taped to the left side of her neck (screencap below)?

— Cheri is doing a pretty solid job as this character.
— At least Cheri’s long-standing habit of staring directly at the studio audience while delivering punchlines fits with the loopy, out-of-it nature of this particular character.
— I love the reveal of Colette Reardon’s occupation being schoolbus driver.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Were Meant For Me”


LITTLE LEAGUE
at a little league game, the drunk businessmen honor Bill Brasky

— The glorious tradition of doing a Bill Brasky sketch in this era’s Alec Baldwin and John Goodman-hosted episodes continues.
— The final appearance of Mark in a Bill Brasky sketch. Between David Koechner and Mark, it’s sad to see the original line-up of Brasky buddies gradually die off like this.
— Man, they are absolutely speeding through tonight’s Brasky sketch. It feels like I’m playing this sketch in 1.2x speed in a video player. The reason behind the speedy performances is because the show is running late and doesn’t have enough time to perform the full version of this Brasky sketch, so the performers were told to rush through a hastily-shortened version of the sketch. It was probably the ending of Weekend Update that threw off this episode’s timing, between Norm’s many ad-libs with the fake vomit, the audience’s extended uproarious laughter at said ad-libs, and Norm cutting Update short before he even got to tell the mysterious lobster joke. (I wonder if this is also the reason why the Culps sketch abruptly began with the Culps already onstage instead of being introduced by someone.) This Brasky sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Will’s “I don’t have a penis!” outburst was hilarious.
— A particularly great line about Bill Brasky: “He date-raped David Bowie!”
— Some awkward ad-libbed vamping from Will, John, and Mark while waiting for the camera to finally cut to Bill Brasky standing by the bleachers.
— Overall, this was still very funny, but the speedy performances and timing issues prevented this from measuring up to the usual classic Bill Brasky installments. They also cut one of my favorite parts that’s seen in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns, where John somberly says “Yesterday… I tried to kill myself again”, which is followed by awkward silence between the Brasky buddies before Will says “Anyway…” and continues with the Brasky stories.
STARS: **** for the live version, ***** for the dress rehearsal version shown in reruns


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another solid John Goodman episode. Not much to say other than I felt the whole show was consistently enjoyable, minus Talkin’ With Suel, and we got two of my absolute favorite recurring sketches from this era: Celebrity Jeopardy and Bill Brasky.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 22 comes to an end, as does Mark McKinney’s SNL tenure. Jeff Goldblum hosts.

Posted on

March 16, 1996 – John Goodman / Everclear (S21 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

20/20
Christopher Darden (TIM) tells of affair with Marcia Clark (NAW)

 

— Feels weird seeing somebody other than Laura Kightlinger playing Marcia Clark. It even looks like Nancy is wearing the same dress Laura always wore in that role.
— A good little laugh from Mark Fuhrman’s “Heil Hitler” over the phone.
— Interesting lisp on Tim.
— Good sexual innuendo with Nancy-as-Marcia-Clark’s horny line to Tim’s Christopher Darden: “It’s time to take the black Bronco down the 405.”
— A very funny raunchy ending with Darrell’s Hugh Downs and Cheri’s Barbara Walters going at it under the desk.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Newly-hired Chris Kattan has been added to the cast as a featured player.

— SNL writer and frequent onscreen performer Colin Quinn has also been added to the cast as a featured player tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host uses powers granted for 7th SNL appearance; Elle MacPherson cameo

— Some pretty good laughs from John detailing the perks of your 5th, 6th, and 7th hosting stints.
— We get a random cameo from Elle MacPherson, presenting John with his crown (which immediately falls off by accident after she places it on John’s head) and scepter. I guess this makes sense, since Elle was the host of the last episode. This reminds me of earlier this season when Mariel Hemingway had a random walk-on as Lorne’s secretary in a backstage sketch the week after she hosted.
— This is John’s second monologue where he gets in a self-deprecating dig at how much his movie King Ralph bombed.
— I love how we’re getting to see backstage security cameras of various cast members.
— A very funny visual of Norm in his dressing room gambling on cockfights.
— An amusing brief shot of Lorne just nodding when John asks him if he’s allowed to force Jim to do his Alanis Morissette routine.
— A good quick gag with Jim silently mouthing “Aw, fuck, man!”
— I’ve seen a lot of criticisms of Jim’s Alanis Morissette parody in this monologue, and I gotta say, I don’t understand the criticisms at all. I’ve always found Jim’s bit in this monologue to be fun silliness.
STARS: ****


GRAYSON MOORHEAD SECURITIES
Rerun from 10/21/95


MTV NEWS
Kurt Loder [real] relays some bogus items from the music scene

— This is basically just a set-up for what’s to follow, but I like how they’re doing this to give an authentic MTV feel to the following piece.
— The fake news stories here aren’t particularly great, but I strangely like Kurt Loder’s delivery of them.
— Nice how the ending of this segued into the following piece.
STARS: ***


THE REAL WORLD
Bob Dole (NOM) doesn’t get along with young housemates

— An absolutely priceless random inclusion of Norm’s Bob Dole as one of the Real World housemates. The initial reveal of him during the opening intro shot of each housemate is great.
— Dole’s peanut butter rant is legendary.
— The fight over “Bob Dole’s chair” is hilarious.
— This is a MUCH better Real World parody than the live one they did in the Shannen Doherty episode from season 19. Not only is tonight’s Real World parody very funny and well-written, there are also so many spot-on and accurate details in the way this is shot and edited. Everything about this piece is perfect to me.
STARS: *****


THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Marisa Tomei (CHO) & Richard Dreyfuss (DAH)

— I love Jim-as-Joe-Pesci’s line about John’s Robert DeNiro gaining back all of his weight from Raging Bull.
— The camerawork is a mess during the back-and-forth exchanges between Jim’s Pesci and Cheri’s Marisa Tomei, constantly cutting to a close-up of the wrong person while the other person is speaking.
— Funny line with Pesci asking Tomei, regarding the Oscar she won, “Who’s Joe did you DiMaggio to win that thing?”
— Haha, John’s attempt at a DeNiro impression has kind of a “so bad, it’s good” quality.
— I love Pesci and DeNiro’s re-enactment of a Raging Bull scene, using the word “shampoo” in place of a certain obscenity.
— A fantastic and very funny Richard Dreyfuss impression from Darrell.
— I know I’m eventually going to get tired of the repetitive formula of these Joe Pesci Show sketches, but for now, I’m still enjoying it.
STARS: ***½


THE REAL WORLD
tensions rise between Bob Dole (NOM) & housemates

— Great that this is a runner throughout tonight’s episode.
— A huge laugh from Dole just walking up to a ranting Jim and kicking the back of his legs out of nowhere, knocking him to the floor.
— I love the camera slowly zooming into Dole in bed with a look of horror on his face as he listens to Mark and Tim’s detailed discussion of a gay threesome Mark had.
STARS: *****


SUBSTITUTE TEACHER
substitute teacher Suel Forrester’s (CHK) poor enunciation stumps class

— Right out of the gate in Chris Kattan’s very first appearance, we get what would go on to be one of his signature characters.
— Not only does the classroom set look the same as the one used in various early 90s-era classroom sketches, including the famous History Class sketch with Jerry Seinfeld, but the chalkboard in tonight’s sketch appears to be the same one from the Seinfeld sketch, with the goofy face chalk drawing from the Seinfeld sketch being half-heartedly erased this time (side-by-side comparison below).

— Suel Forrester’s gibberish is priceless, and Chris is executing this so well. I also like how he keeps randomly throwing in a coherent sentence every now and then.
— (When the students receive the grade they got on their test) Nancy: “I got an A!” Will: “I got an L?!?”
— Overall, a strong and promising debut for Chris.
STARS: ****


THE REAL WORLD
housemates decide to kick Bob Dole (NOM) out

— A very funny shot of Dole peeking in at his roommates’ conversation about kicking him out, with a tear rolling down his face.
— Great ending shot of Dole dragging his furniture down the street.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ wishes people would celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with more dignity

— In these last two Updates, the studio audience ain’t havin’ any more of Norm’s traditional O.J. jokes. Those jokes used to always get huge pops from the audience, but they’ve gotten a very tepid audience reaction these last two Updates. I’m still on Norm’s side.
— After playing various characters on Update so far in his SNL tenure, it’s great to see Colin getting to do his first Update commentary as himself.
— Sadly, Colin’s overall commentary ended up being a bit of a letdown. There were a few funny lines, but a lot of this dragged and the humor felt kinda tepid. Not his best stand-up material. I’m also seeing early unfortunate signs of Colin’s bad line-flubbing tendencies that we’ll later be seeing during his Update anchor stint.
— Norm does two “Or so the Germans would have us believe” jokes tonight, the second one being a variation that uses the words “German shepherds” instead of “Germans”. When doing the trademark camera staredown during the German shepherds one, Norm humorously continues doing it even when they cut to another camera (screencaps below). I love that.

STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Santa Monica”


FECAL MATTERS
John Fecal (MAM) is obsessed with avoiding anal waste
unseen contaminants are visible to the wearers of Fecal-Vision glasses

— Oh, that’s right, John Goodman is tonight’s host. I actually almost started forgetting, considering he’s felt really invisible in this episode.
— I like the various close-ups of Mark grimacing into the camera whenever John brings up something that disgusts him.
— Funny exchange with John telling Mark that he thought the show was called Fecal Matter because Mark’s last name is Fecal, and Mark explaining “That’s just a happy coincidence.”
— Colin’s very brief walk-on cracked me up.
— Looks like Will was late on his cue at the beginning of the Fecalvision commercial.
— I like the Fecalvision commercial showing fecal stains all over a diner.
— Funny delivery from Tim with his “Thanks, Fecalvision!” thumbs-up into the camera.
STARS: ***½


GRAYSON MOORHEAD SECURITIES
Another rerun from 10/21/95


MEETING
Gary MacDonald does free association humor as co-workers are laid off

— Yes! Regular Update character Gary Macdonald gets spun-off into his own sketch!
— We get a new addition to Gary’s mannerisms, with him now constantly doing a raspy-voiced “Hehh hehh hehh!” laugh.
— Gary’s endless free association habit is freakin’ priceless as always.
— Great gag with John revealing that the car alarm that’s heard going off after Gary jumps out of the window is coming from his own car, as he takes out his car keys and stops the car alarm.
— I didn’t even realize Darrell was one of the people at the table until the very end of the sketch when the camera was slowly zooming out. They didn’t even give Darrell anything to say or do in this sketch. What was the point of even having him there?
STARS: ****


FORBES-AMERICA
Steve Forbes (MAM) announces that he’s creator & president of new America

— Mark is going really heavy on the goofy laugh aspect of his Forbes impression.
— The audience is really dead during this sketch, even during some funny lines from Mark’s Forbes.
— I liked Nancy’s panicked “Save us!” when we first see her, Tim, and the others.
— I got a chuckle from Tim’s “We’ll eat the ponies!” when he and Nancy point out how hungry they are, but I think I’m just desperate for a laugh at this point of the sketch.
— Overall, a few okay lines early on, but a mostly disappointing sketch, and the audience’s complete silence gave this a weird feel.
STARS: **


HOLIDAY INN
the drunk businessmen tell more tales of abusive-but-swell Bill Brasky

— Hell yeah! This officially becomes a recurring sketch.
— This feels like the only comedic role we’ve seen John get all night. [ADDENDUM: He had one earlier as Robert DeNiro in the Joe Pesci Show sketch, but that was so early in this episode that I had forgotten it by this point.]
— John is fitting just as well into the role of drunk Brasky businessman as Alec Baldwin did, which would go on to solidify John and Alec as the only two hosts SNL would traditionally do these Brasky sketches with these next few seasons, though SNL would attempt to get a non-Goodman/Baldwin-involved Brasky sketch on the air in the Chris Farley-hosted episode from season 23, with the drunk Brasky businessmen being played by Will, Norm(!!), and Farley. However, that sketch ended up getting cut after dress rehearsal that night (it was once available online at the now-defunct Yahoo Screen site, and a blooper from the sketch is included in the “outtakes” feature in Chris Farley’s “Best Of” DVD).
— A sad realization that will be the final Bill Brasky sketch to feature Koechner, until decades later when they would bring the sketch back as a special occasion in a Paul Rudd-hosted episode from season 39. Koechner is so perfect for these Brasky sketches.
— A particularly funny one-liner about Brasky: “He’ll eat a homeless person if you dare him!”
— Another stand-out one-liner about Brasky, this one having always been one of my favorites: “I once saw him scissor-kick Angela Lansbury!”
— I nearly busted a gut from John interrupting Koechner’s story to scream a completely unintelligible statement in an anguished, crying manner.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and the best one in a good while. Aside from the Steve Forbes sketch and perhaps Colin Quinn’s Weekend Update commentary, I enjoyed everything tonight, and found a lot of the sketches to be particularly great, with the Real World runner and the Bill Brasky sketch standing out as some of my absolute favorites of the entire season. John Goodman seemed strangely neglected as the host, and most of the times they did use him tonight, he was just playing a forgettable small straight man role. This is probably tied with his preceding hosting stint from season 20 as the episode he hosted that utilized him the least.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elle MacPherson)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Phil Hartman

Posted on

March 25, 1995 – John Goodman / The Tragically Hip (S20 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY
Bob Dole (DAA) loses his temper

— Dan Aykroyd makes his first of many special guest appearances throughout tonight’s episode. Good to see his Bob Dole impression back.
— Seeing Mark and Michael as David Brinkley and George F. Will, respectively, makes me kinda miss Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey’s impressions of them.
— A lot of funny lines from Dan’s Dole.
— I like the turn with Dole’s angel and devil giving him advice.
— When Dole and his angel & devil are all supposed to say “Live from New York…” in unison, the pre-taped angel and devil Doles are accidentally played a few seconds ahead of live Dole. This would later be fixed in reruns.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Mighty Mack (host) & Elwood Blues perform “Flip, Flop, & Fly”

— When bragging about the benefits of being a five-timer, John says “You don’t even have to show up until Saturday.” I wonder if that’s an inside joke, considering John truly didn’t show up to SNL until late in this week, due to a scheduling conflict with the show Roseanne. That’s the reason we’ll be seeing so many Dan Aykroyd appearances tonight. That’s also the reason why all the SNL bumper pictures of John tonight are reused from John’s season 19 episode, reformatted to fit the style of this season’s bumper pictures (side-by-side comparison below).

— Interesting transition into a Blues Brothers number.
— Not sure what to say about this Blues Brothers number. The performance is kinda fun, but I’ve never cared for the revival of the Blues Brothers after John Belushi’s death, and needless to say, Goodman is no Belushi when it comes to these two characters.
STARS: N/A (I don’t usually rate segments like this)


BOB SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Irwin Mainway & Super Fans on Michael Jordan return; Brian Dennehy cameo

— The return of the Super Fans! I didn’t realize how much I missed this recurring sketch until its return tonight. And they have a great excuse to bring this sketch back with the then-recent announcement of Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA.
— I like the Pork Soda sponsor shown at the beginning.
— John takes over Mike Myers’ Pat Arnold character, who we’re told gained a lot of weight due to binge eating during Michael Jordan’s retirement.
— A significant meta moment with Farley, in character, ranting about how bad SNL has gotten lately, a moment made even more poignant by the slow zoom-in the camera does towards Farley during it. Some great self-aware lines during this rant, such as “They got that fat guy screamin’ all the time” (so very, VERY true) and “Pull the plug on that freakin’ thing.” I wonder if this whole meta bit was fueled by the fact that the infamous scathing New York Magazine article about the troubles of this season had come out the preceding week.
— Wow, now we get the return of Dan’s Irwin Mainway character. I love this hybrid of the Super Fans and Irwin Mainway. It fits perfectly, since Mainway always did have a Chicago-type accent.
— As usual, very funny dangerous toys displayed by Mainway. I especially like the Jordan Head toy’s warning label: “You be careful with that”.
— Now we get a Brian Dennehy cameo.
— An absolutely fantastic ending with Dennehy revealing he’s here to help set the record for most fat guys in a single sketch, a reveal that’s followed by a group photo being snapped of said fat guys.
STARS: ****½


THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER
calls & Tom Snyder’s (DAA) rambling marginalize host

— Wow, they’re bringing back all the classics tonight. A real treat and very fun. Such a turnaround from the dour Paul Reiser episode the preceding week.
— When it comes to impersonating Tom Snyder, Dan hasn’t lost it at all.
— I liked Snyder’s “We’re gonna get a lot of letters on that one” line after mocking the names of Chinese food.
— A lot of laughs during the John Goodman “interview”.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Grace, Too”

— The novelty of this choice of musical guest adds to the fun and special feel of tonight’s episode.


WEEKEND UPDATE
nervous Kato Kaelin (DAS) shows skills while testifying at the O.J. trial

— Interesting how they’re doing something a little different with David’s Kato Kaelin impression.
— Another instance of Laura giving an off-camera performance as Marcia Clark.
— Uh, yeah, no idea what to say about this Kato Kaelin segment so far, except that it feels more like a separate sketch than a Weekend Update commentary.
— A surprisingly fairly short Update.
STARS: ***½


DOG RUN
(host) talks with (LAK) while his “dog” (ADS) mingles with canines

— I think the dog costume Adam is wearing is the same one that would later be worn by Will Ferrell in another John Goodman sketch, Happy Smile Patrol, from season 24. I’ll do a side-by-side screencap comparison between Adam and Will’s costumes when I eventually review that season 24 Goodman episode.
— A hilarious unscripted part with a dog almost attacking Adam for trying to hump it. Adam’s reaction is priceless.
— Not too sure about the premise itself, but it’s coming off pretty fun in the execution.
— Weak ending.
STARS: ***


RUSH AND HOWARD
Rush Limbaugh (DAA) manages to steal Howard Stern’s (MMK) act & entourage

— Nice to see Dan introducing a new impression, after bringing back so many of his old characters and impressions earlier tonight.
— A welcome return of Michael’s Howard Stern impression.
— I love Ellen’s impression of Robin Quivers’ hysterical laugh. Ellen’s better at imitating it here than she did in the previous McKean-as-Stern sketch from the preceding season.
STARS: ***


LOSERS
self-deluded losers (CSE), (DAS), (MOS), (host) can’t identify rejection

— Is this Elliott’s first appearance of the whole night?
— A rare occurrence of David actually showing effort in a performance this season. Why can’t his season 20 performances be like this more often?
— A solid premise that’s being executed well by the writing and by all the performances.
— Weird how this is the second sketch tonight to end with a group of people at a restaurant table having their photo taken.
STARS: ****


UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
trail of evidence fails to lead to origin of universe

— An interesting choice to bring back Dan’s Robert Stack impression, one of his more forgotten and underrated impressions from back in the day. I like how he’s now updated his Stack impression from the Untouchables-era one he used to do.
— Uh, I’m not really getting what the comedic through line here is supposed to be.
— That’s the whole sketch? I wanted this to be so much better than it was, especially since it included a rare occurrence this era of pre-taped outdoors footage.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nautical Disaster”


COAL MINERS
coal miners (KEN), (host), (DAA), (MAM) tell anecdotes about cave-ins

— The sudden dark ending to Dan’s first story, with someone dying in a cave-in, is pretty funny.
— Ehh, now they’re just repeating the cave-in story endings over and over again. I guess this wouldn’t be a season 20 episode without at least ONE one-joke sketch.
— Very interesting seeing so many great performers paired together in one sketch, but damn, couldn’t they have been given some actual funny material here?
— Oh, no, now the laziness of this sketch has gotten to the point where we get a text crawl ending, a sketch-ending crutch that SNL occasionally relies on.
STARS: *½


DENVER AIRPORT
in new Denver Airport, (CSE) surveys interest in penis-measurement device
CSE says he’s leaving SNL to make penis-measurer, is shot Oswald-style

— After a nice long string of episodes earlier this season where we got a delightfully oddball Chris Elliott piece on a weekly basis, there’s sadly been a complete absence of them in the last few episodes. Glad to see it make a return tonight.
— I love John’s facial reaction to being asked about a hypothetical penis-measuring device.
— Kevin also has some great responses to the penis-measuring device hypothetical, such as “I would have to know more” and “Would the device itself be heated?”
— Very interesting turn with Elliott breaking the fourth wall to make a big announcement to us.
— I love Elliott revealing he’s leaving SNL after “10 glorious years as a cast member” (a nice extreme exaggeration of his tenure on the show) to invent a penis-measuring machine.
— I like hearing the audience’s gradual realization that the black-and-white backstage scene of Elliott walking away with Lorne and a man in a cowboy hat is a Lee Harvey Oswald parody.
— Excellent gunshot ending, and I absolutely LOVE the comically pained look on Elliott’s face during the freeze-frame.
— Overall, one of my absolute favorite sketches of this entire season, and is probably Chris Elliott’s greatest SNL moment.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— One of the more popular episodes of this troubled season, and rightfully so. This was a great and very fun episode, and had a VERY atypical feel for this season. Of course, a big part of that atypical feel is due to the return of beloved things from the past, most of those things being from special guest Dan Aykroyd, who added much-needed life to the proceedings tonight (and might as well have been billed as tonight’s co-host if they were going to use him THIS heavily). I used to consider it a sad sign that they had to resort to bringing back old things from better days in order to have a truly strong episode this season (a move that, again, may have been fueled by the then-recent scathing New York Magazine article about the show), but that sadness has somewhat diminished for me now that my long-standing hatred of this season has recently softened to a degree while doing these reviews.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Reiser)
a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 11 rebel Damon Wayans hosts. We also get yet another new addition to this season’s cast.

Posted on

May 7, 1994 – John Goodman / The Pretenders (S19 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE 1994 NEW YORK GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE
New York governor hopefuls Mario Cuomo (PHH) & Howard Stern (MMK) debate

— Hmm, interesting casting of Melanie. This seems like the type of role that Julia would normally play.
— Fantastic Howard Stern impression from Michael. Easily the best thing he’s done during his SNL tenure so far.
— I always love Phil’s Mario Cuomo impression, but he’s just being used in a boring straight role here. I guess it wouldn’t be a season 19 episode without Phil Hartman being poorly utilized. Considering he’s playing the foil for Michael McKean in this cold opening, maybe this is intended to be a passing of the torch between the two of them.
— A pretty funny and accurate spoof of Stern’s behavior.
— An overall good sketch, but not quite as strong as I had remembered.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music sounds quite different. The SNL Band would also use this different sound for the theme music in the following week’s season finale. Is this a sign of the SNL Band getting prepared for new SNL theme music next season?


MONOLOGUE
host comes clean to his mother about things he did as a kid

— John is sporting his dark Fred Flintstone-type hairstyle during tonight’s hosting gig, as he’s promoting the live-action Flintstones movie.
— He mentions in passing that this is his fifth time hosting. A shame they aren’t making a bigger deal of that.
— His confessions to his mother are not particularly funny so far.
— Okay, I finally got a laugh from a confession of his, with the one about grandma being kept locked in the basement.
— After a slow start, this monologue has been getting funnier. I like the bit regarding John’s mom once leaving him on the side of the highway when he was a kid.
STARS: ***


MAJESTIC CARIBBEAN CRUISE LINE
Rerun from 4/9/94


DOUBLE DATE
Captain Jim & Pedro go on a date with (host)’s daughters (MEH) & (SAS)
PHH asks for pledges to support Captain Jim & Pedro programming

— Did we need these characters returning after only TWO episodes? Also, why in the world is this the lead-off sketch of the night this time, especially when their previous appearance was in a more fitting spot late in the show?
— Much like these characters’ previous appearance, I’m not caring much for tonight’s installment so far. These sketches have the type of goofy charm that I usually get a kick out of, but like I said in my review of the first installment of this sketch, Adam’s silly-humored, goofy-voiced shtick has officially reached the point in his SNL tenure where it’s run out of steam for me.
— Nice continuity with Captain Jim mentioning recently getting hired at Foot Locker, which is a reference to the previous sketch these characters appeared in.
— I hate to ever criticize John Goodman, but he’s kinda bland as the straight man here. Kelsey Grammer made a much better straight man in the first installment of this sketch.
— I admit to smiling at Pedro’s ending line “A monkey will eat dirt… if you make him!” Don’t know why; it just made me smile. I guess as tired as I feel Adam’s goofy shtick has been starting to get at this late stage of his SNL tenure, there’s still an innocent charm left in it at times.
— The post-sketch bit with Phil doing a PBS-esque pledge drive is actually an improvement over the post-sketch bit they did with Michael McKean in the first Captain Jim & Pedro sketch. There’s some good humor in the fact that they’re holding such a big pledge drive for something as silly and mindless as a Captain Jim & Pedro piece.
— I love the visual of Phil wearing a goofy lobster hat while having that trademark straitlaced Phil Hartman smile (last screencap above).
STARS: **½


AMERICAN SPORTSMAN TODAY
Rush Limbaugh (CHF) & Ron Wood (MIM) hunt

— Mike’s unintelligible Ron Wood impression is cracking me up in this sketch. His impression works much better in a supporting role like this than in those terrible sketches they would later give him a starring role in the following season, where he interviews equally-unintelligible celebrities.
— Farley’s certainly no impressionist, but I kinda like his Rush Limbaugh.
— I got a good laugh from the visual of a cow blowing up.
— I love Phil-as-Charlton-Heston’s delivery of the line “Let’s clean it up and put it on the grill.”
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Night In My Veins”


WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS dislikes bands that have the balls not to play their hits at concerts

 

— Wow, this Update oddly starts with no audience applause AT ALL. Absolute dead silence in the studio.
— David, who’s apparently gotten tired of doing Hollywood Minute, debuts a new recurring Update segment in which he gripes about concerts he’s recently been to.
— I’m conflicted on David’s commentary. He has a lot of funny lines here, but I’m put off by his particularly lazy and half-assed delivery here, which is serving as an unwanted reminder of the bad, mailed-in performances he would often give in the upcoming season 20. I’m also finding his frequent “pure balls” comments in tonight’s commentary to be complete overkill. Still, he’s been making a lot of funny observations here.
— Kevin’s joke about Arsenio Hall retiring from his talk show to get some “stanky on his hangdown” has always been one of my personal favorite Kevin Nealon Weekend Update jokes of all time. Kevin has certainly had some struggles as an Update anchor over the years (especially this season), but that particular joke is a perfect use of his straitlaced, deadpan delivery. Not bad for what ends up being Kevin’s penultimate Weekend Update.
STARS: ***


REAL STORIES OF THE ARKANSAS HIGHWAY PATROL / COPS
Real Stories Of The Arkansas Highway Patrol- Bill Clinton (PHH) womanizes
Cops- Bill (PHH) & Hillary (JAH) Clinton are mum after a domestic dispute

 

— Interesting sketch, and I find the format fun. And as I mentioned in a recent review, it feels like a rarity in this era to see pre-taped outdoors footage (not counting fake ads).
— I love the camera zooming into Phil’s Bill Clinton gleefully giving the “okay” sign when Michael makes a woman he’s questioning bend over.
— A good laugh from Bill being heard sleazily saying his famous “I feel your pain” phrase while having sex with a woman in the back of a police car. Speaking of which, this entire scene (which involves Chris as a cop guarding a police car while Clinton and a woman are inside of it having sex) would later be removed from Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of tonight’s episode. My guess for the reason behind that removal is time reasons, because the sketch as a whole is quite long and Comedy Central probably needed a shorter version.
— Funny silent nervous facial expressions from Phil’s Bill throughout the phone call Rob takes from Hillary Clinton.
— And now we get a sudden turn with this segueing into a Cops parody. I’m enjoying how we’re getting two sketches in one, which feels like another rarity for SNL.
— I love the tense atmosphere in the domestic dispute scene with Bill and Hillary.
— Sadly, this would end up being the last of Jan Hooks’ frequent special guest appearances from seasons 18 and 19. Another sad last: this is the final appearance of Phil’s Bill Clinton impression, as tonight is Phil’s penultimate episode as a cast member. (*sigh*) What makes all of this hurt even more is knowing in retrospect what a HUGE misfire SNL’s attempt to replace the Bill and Hillary Clinton impressions the following season turns out.
STARS: ****


THEATRE STORIES
Christopher Walken (JAM) & Michael Caine (PHH) on panel

— Feels kinda late in the night for this recurring sketch to be appearing.
— This ends up being the final installment of this sketch, even though, unlike Phil, Mike isn’t leaving next week (though he certainly should be).
— Julia’s Dame Sarah Kensington character looks different than usual. Also, this is Julia’s first appearance of the whole night, pretty late in the show. Sadly, that’s common for her lately, though at least she’s actually playing a comedic role this time and isn’t just being wasted in yet another dull straight man role.
— Great to see Jay’s Christopher Walken impression finally become recurring.
— I loved the random “A man who needs no introduction” bit as the camera just shows John as an unknown character silently looking at the camera with his tongue goofily sticking out between his lips.
— Speaking of John, he actually appeared in a previous Theatre Stories sketch, but the character he played in that one is apparently different from the one he’s playing tonight, as both characters have a different name.
— This is the first time Phil’s funny Michael Caine impression has been seen in years. I think the Mary Tyler Moore episode from way back in season 14 was the last time it appeared.
— What was the point of Phil’s Michael Caine randomly sneezing in the middle of his story?
— Never mind; I see now that the point of Caine’s random sneeze was apparently so Mike’s character would imitate it when repeating the entire story that Caine had just told.
— I liked Jay’s Walken saying “That reminds me of a very funny story…..”, then just staying completely silent.
— This installment of Theater Stories has been featuring funny randomness as usual for these sketches, but there’s kind of a “been there, done that” atmosphere to this installment. Probably a good thing this ends up being the final installment.
STARS: ***


PLUCKY NINJAS
beaten, incompetent ninjas regroup & plan their next encounter

— I love the format of this. A good and fun ensemble piece. I’ve always felt this is an underrated sketch.
— A lot of funny lines in the guys’ suggestions.
— Hilarious reveal of Adam having a ninja star stuck in his forehead. I also like the facial reactions from Rob and Mike.
— I know some people are bothered by the extended use of movie stock footage at the end, in which a guy kicks the asses of an entire army of ninjas one-by-one, as some people feel that’s extreme laziness on SNL’s part (especially since the sketch also opened with different stock footage of a group of ninjas getting their asses kicked), but I personally have no complaints. At least this stock footage is entertaining, in a “cheesy 80s/90s ninja movie” way, and I feel it matches up with the live portion of the sketch humorously.
STARS: ****


PHILADELPHIA ACTION FIGURES
Another rerun tonight, this time from 2/5/94


IN HIS OWN WORDS
Michael Bolton (KEN) album contains non-original songs

— I always like Kevin’s Michael Bolton impression.
— Some good laughs from Bolton’s “original” songs just being another artist’s famous song with only one word changed.
— Pretty funny duet between Bolton and his “father” Nat King Cole.
— Good ending with Bolton “creating” the Happy Birthday melody by pressing random keys on a piano.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’ll Stand By You”


FLINTSTONES NAMES
host explains how to convert regular names into Flintstones names

— The format of this, mainly the use of placards, reminds me a little of Tim Kazurinsky’s Dr. Jack Badofsky commentaries from the Dick Ebersol era.
— A few funny bits early on, like Sharon Stone’s Flintstones name being Sharon Miller, and the meta bit with Chris Farley’s Flintstones name being Chris Rock.
— After the two aforementioned funny bits, this sketch has lost steam FAST.
— John’s trying, but I can tell he knows this material is bad. This sketch is dying.
STARS: *½


TAXI TRIVIA
while (host) & (JUS) are in his cab, (ROS) talks of killer taxi drivers

— I love the disturbing premise, and I like the idea of Rob being cast as an unsettling-but-friendly character, but I’m being disappointed by the execution so far, which feels kinda flat and one-note.
— The sketch at least ended on a good note, as I absolutely loved the ending with the creepy close-up of Michael turning to the camera with a sinister smile. Michael’s had a strong night tonight in general.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, especially compared to most episodes in the back half of this season. Not an outstanding episode, but I felt a lot of the sketches tonight ranged from okay to pretty good, and there were two sketches I felt strongly about (Plucky Ninjas and Real Stories of the Arkansas Highway Patrol / Cops). Even the Captain Jim & Pedro sketch, while still nowhere near great to me, was a little better than usual. The show ended on a disappointing note with two sketches that fell flat, but aside from that, the overall episode wasn’t weighed down too much by the usual season 20 warning signs that have been dragging down a lot of the latter season 19 episodes. John Goodman added his usual solid, likable vibe to the show.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Emilio Estevez)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 19 comes to an end, with host Heather Locklear. It’s also the end of the road for several cast members, including the amazing Phil Hartman.

Posted on

March 13, 1993 – John Goodman / Mary J. Blige (S18 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Richard Laymer chats with David Koresh (MIM) in the Waco compound

— I like that SNL’s doing a parody of the infamous David Koresh/Waco incident going on at this time.
— Ha, Richmeister makes yet another sudden appearance in a completely unrelated sketch. I always appreciate how they occasionally put him in different situations like this.
— Some good cracks from Richmeister about Koresh’s multiple wives.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & The Bravados [real] sing “So In Love”

— I like John proudly proclaiming he’s hosting during the Storm of the Century. There is something strangely kinda exciting about a live SNL episode airing during one of New York’s worst storms in history.
— When John says he wanted his fourth monologue to be special, you can hear a woman in the audience saying “You ARE special”, which John reacts to by looking towards the audience with a funny, sly smile.
— Funny line from John about a fellow passenger on the train volunteering to help kill SNL’s writers.
— The overall acapella song with The Bravados was fairly charming, though this isn’t one of John’s better monologues.
STARS: **½


WILSON COUNTERSINK FLANGES
for those with requisite technical knowledge

— I’m getting laughs from the increasingly fake-sounding, incomprehensible technical jargon, especially when it comes from Phil’s professional delivery.
— Good ending tagline about “lost prantkens”.
STARS: ***½


BIG BUDDIES
Bear (host) finds that Ox (CHF) has taken over as brain’s (ROS) protector

— Pretty funny turn with John’s burly jock finding out Rob’s nerd has made a new burly jock friend.
— The awkwardness of the forced banter between Farley and John is cracking me up.
— I like John repeatedly banging his head against the wall while saying “stupid” over and over for an absurdly long time, even if I’m not sure it was intended to be funny.
— I love the ending photo montage of John with his new nerdy friend, and then us seeing both of them happily pictured with the Farley/Rob duo.
— An overall solid, cute, and charming sketch, though something so quiet and not intended to be laugh-out-loud hilarious feels kinda odd as the lead-off sketch of an episode.
STARS: ***½


LET’S TALK AND TALK AND TALK AND TALK AND TALK ABOUT MOVIES
Soylent Green director (host) talks about his less successful sequels

— Some pretty funny random humor right out the gate with the show’s absurdly long title and Julia’s name being Mabel Blaster.
— Even before we’ve gotten to the real comedic meat with the Soylent Green sequels, the initial straightforward clip of Phil’s Charlton Heston in the original Soylent Green cracked me the hell up.
— The look on Kevin’s face while screaming at the end of the Soylent White clip is very funny.
— I’m loving the increasingly ridiculous sequels, made funnier by Phil’s memorable over-the-top utterances of “Soylent (insert thing here) is made out of people! It’s peeeoooopppplllleeee!!!” Contrary to some criticisms I’ve heard about this sketch, I feel the repetitive nature actually works well in this context.
— If you know me, you’ll know I loved the Soylent Stooges line.
— Looks like a clip titled Soylent Beef Kabobs was cut after dress rehearsal. During the Soylent Green II clip towards the end of this sketch, there’s a technical gaffe where a graphic on the bottom of the screen states the title “Soylent Beef Kabobs” (screencap below), before quickly disappearing and being replaced with the correct “Soylent Green II” title graphic.

STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Reminisce”


WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN interviews newly-crowned Storm Of The Century (CHF)
old codger Buster Jenkins (CSR) blames spaceships for the huge deficit
Sleepyhead (ADS) eventually gives editorial on Yeltsin’s near-impeachment

— Farley’s Storm Of The Century character mentioning El Nino among several storms reminds me of the famous El Nino/Weather Channel sketch Farley would later do in his 1997 hosting stint. This Storm Of The Century commentary actually kinda feels like a precursor to that El Nino sketch, as both involve Farley playing a personification of a storm.
— Farley’s overall commentary was surprisingly really forgettable and just came and went.
— I’m getting good laughs from Rock’s old man character ranting about “them damn spaceships”. He’s also making some other funny absurd comments throughout this, especially him asking where are women going to pee in space, and him saying that a space helmet costs “A lot… and 18 cents”.
— Adam, who has recently become sure-fire Weekend Update gold, tries a new Update character: Sleepyhead.
— Ehh, the overall Sleepyhead commentary ended up not working. Adam’s usually good at pulling off this kind of goofy concept, but this was a swing-and-a-miss and was probably funnier in theory than in practice. I can definitely see why Sleepyhead never ends up becoming a recurring character.
STARS: ***


HOW’D YOU DO THAT?
guests tell origins of accidental disfigurements

— Funny visual of John entering the scene with long flat fingers and a towel hook stuck in his chin.
— I’m enjoying this sketch, but something about it feels oddly quiet. Maybe because each guest is entering with no entrance music or audience applause, for some reason.
— I love Rob as a plastic surgeon detailing how he can fix the guests’ disfigurements. When he’s giving Phil details, I like the goofy smile on Phil’s face.
— A particularly priceless entrance from Farley. Great makeup job on him.
— When being asked if there’s anything he can do to help Farley, I love the cutaway to Rob just grinning and smugly saying “No!”
STARS: ***½


CRUISE
while on a cruise, Linda Richman & (host) talk about all the great food

— (*groan*) Really, SNL? Two consecutive episodes with Linda Richman? However, at least we’re seeing her outside of the Coffee Talk setting this time. It’s usually nice when we get rare instances of recurring characters being taken out of their normal setting.
— While I appreciate the more slice-of-life aspect they’re going for here, the conversations between Linda Richman and John’s character are not interesting me and are making this sketch feel long. I’d probably be more into this if I actually liked the Linda Richman character.
— Okay, I finally did get one chuckle, from Linda Richman’s startled reaction to John’s Roman Catholic/Jewish fake-out bit.
STARS: **


BLOCK PARTY
partygoers pretend to believe eccentric loser Canteen Boy’s (ADS) stories

— Adam tries out yet another new character tonight, though this is one that actually ends up becoming recurring.
— This particular Canteen Boy sketch was actually originally going to be performed earlier this season in the Danny DeVito episode, but got cut after dress rehearsal.
— Canteen Boy constantly using Canada in his obvious false stories feels like a callback to the High School Liars Club sketch from earlier this season, where Adam played a character who also kept using Canada in his lies.
— I got a laugh from Canteen Boy’s speechless, subtly panicked reaction to being asked if he’s worried someone will switch the water in his canteen when he’s sleeping.
— I like John’s obnoxious ways of messing with Canteen Boy’s head. I can picture Danny DeVito pulling off this obnoxious role well too, in the unaired original version.
— Despite some laughs, I wasn’t all that crazy about this sketch as a whole. I’m of the opinion that the Canteen Boy character is only remembered by SNL fans today because of the famous scoutmaster sketch with Alec Baldwin. The other sketches Canteen Boy starred in were never anything special, in my opinion.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Thing”


TURKISH STOREKEEPER
once again, Turkish (ROS) is the target of (host)’s anti-Arab sentiments

— I’m liking the escalation of this sketch in the constant flashbacks. Like the Let’s Talk(x5) About Movies sketch from earlier tonight, this is another sketch where the repetitive nature actually works. And there’s something that tickles me about the fact that SNL’s stagehands have to constantly change the broken window, the “I’m not from Iraq/Libya/Iran” signs, and Rob’s facial hair all throughout this sketch. Aside from one instance early on in this sketch where there’s an accidental glimpse of the window being replaced behind John, the stagehands are doing a seamless job with all these quick changes.
— Good ending with John’s character, who has just made good with Rob’s Turkish character, being oblivious to the “U.S. Plane in Turkey Skyjack” headline on the opposite side of the newspaper he’s reading, and Rob trying to keep him from seeing it.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


TO BE SURE, IT’S TIME TO ROCK!
traditional Irish singers try rock classics & rap on new albums

— An enjoyable and solid concept, with the incongruity between the singers’ old-timey Irish singing style and the popular rock songs they’re performing.
— Nice little touch with the Irish version of Born To Be Wild spelling “born” as “bourne”.
— The Irish versions of I Can’t Get No Satisfaction and Should I Stay Or Should I Go are particularly funny.
STARS: ****


THE MAN WITHOUT A SHOUT
tragedy spurs (host) never to raise his voice

— There’s a gaffe early on where it takes a stagehand two tries to break the window with a ball, then he visibly walks right past the camera. Or was that intentional?
— Not too bad of a concept of us seeing how John’s refusal to ever raise his voice negatively affects his life.
— The resulting sketch as a whole didn’t do much for me. I did like John and Julia’s acting in this, but the execution came off fairly meh and forgettable.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest’s mother [real] joins her on-stage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— There were some fairly solid things throughout the night, and two things that I felt highly about (Let’s Talk(x5) About Movies and To Be Sure, It’s Time to Rock), but I dunno, this episode as a whole had a strangely quiet, kinda forgettable feel. Even some of the good sketches had an oddly quiet vibe. Not bad an episode overall, but not one of season 18 nor John Goodman’s more memorable episodes.


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Murray)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Miranda Richardson