Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NEWS ANCHORS
Ted Koppel (DAH), Tom Brokaw (CHP), Bernard Shaw (TIM) hate Bush vs. Gore
— A good laugh from Parnell’s Tom Brokaw and Darrell’s Ted Koppel greeting each other with the then-popular phrase “Wazzuuuuuup!”, which is really bringing me back.
— A lot of good lines from the news anchors about how boring and mundane an election between George W. Bush and Al Gore would be. But, boy, how wrong SNL ended up being with that prediction.
— I love Tim playing Bernard Shaw all laid-back and badass.
— Molly Shannon playing herself as Bernard Shaw’s ho? How random.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host assures older generations that the show will be a good one
— Joshua Jackson’s message to little league coaches who send him creepy letters is pretty funny.
— I like the whole part with Joshua listing off hypothetical teen heartthrob host/musical guest lineups for other SNL eras: Jason Priestley/Color Me Badd for the early 90s, Kirk Cameron/Frankie Goes To Hollywood for the mid 80s, and John Travolta/ABBA for the 70s.
— Very funny part with us being shown the opening montage of a (non-existent) 70s SNL episode with Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter as the host and Foghat as the musical guest. Nice seeing the season 4 opening montage again as well (though they’re using the season 19 theme music, for some reason).
— Overall, a solid straightforward monologue that was short and sweet. Joshua handled himself surprisingly well here for what was a solo monologue by a teen heartthrob.
STARS: ***½
HAMBURGER HELPER ANTIBACTERIAL
Rerun from 1/8/00
REGIS AUDITIONS
Regis Philbin (DAH) interviews potential Kathie Lee Gifford replacements
— Darrell’s Regis Philbin, regarding Kathie Lee Gifford’s departure from the show: “Satan is quitting the show!”
— You can already tell this is going to be a fun sketch. The enthusiastic audience is also helping.
— It feels a little odd seeing a Janeane Garofalo impression on SNL, but Rachel is nailing Janeane’s demeanor.
— Joshua’s Donny Osmond is freakin’ UNCANNY. He’s a dead ringer for him here.
— Kattan’s laid-back Gelman is making me laugh. I prefer this to the stereotypical flamboyantly gay Gelman SNL would later have Kattan regularly play.
— A good topical bit with Ana as Darva Conger from FOX’s Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire. However, the topicality of this portion of the sketch most likely hasn’t aged well with a lot of viewers nowadays.
— Speaking of not aging well, holy fucking shit at Jimmy donning dark makeup to play Chris Rock – in a sketch from the year 2000, no less.
— I will say that Jimmy’s imitation of Chris Rock’s voice here keeps coming and going. At some points, he sounds just like Rock, but at other points, all I hear is Jimmy Fallon.
— 11 years later, SNL would do a successor to this sketch, in which Kathie Lee Gifford’s replacement, Kelly Ripa (played by then-cast member Nasim Pedrad), is the one auditioning celebrity co-hosts, in light of Regis Philbin’s departure from the show. I don’t recall that sketch being as memorable as this one, though.
STARS: ****
WEDDING SINGERS
(WIF) & (HOS) ruin wedding reception by playing “Died In Your Arms”
— Will and Horatio are hilarious in their constant, badly-timed singing of just one part of the song “(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight”.
— All of the back-and-forths between Will/Horatio and Joshua are cracking me up, especially when it gets tense and they’re just yelling at each other.
— Funny ending with Will and Horatio revealing they only know that one part of “(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight”, followed by Joshua angrily lunging at them and having to be held back by others.
STARS: ****
ON THE ROAD WITH THE BOYS
7 Degrees Celsius meets the press & unveils opening act (musical guest)
— The third and final installment of this recurring piece.
— Unlike the previous installments of this sketch, we don’t have the host playing a 7 Degrees Celsius member, instead playing an obsessive male fan of the band.
— The look of Horatio’s character in these 7 Degrees Celsius sketches always instantly cracks me up.
— Good to see Will’s band manager character back, after he was absent in the last installment of this sketch.
— A good laugh from the reveal of the band manager being banned from certain states for going “a little crazy online when I got my scanner”.
— Unlike the dead audience from the last time this sketch appeared in the Freddie Prinze Jr. episode, Ana and Cheri’s parts are getting good audience reactions.
— A fitting use of tonight’s musical guest, ‘N Sync. And with this, we get a young Justin Timberlake making his very first SNL sketch appearance. Ha, and look at him trying to appear all gangsta with one of his pantlegs rolled up (as seen on the right end of the screencap below).
— Overall, better than the last installment of this sketch, as they took this one into a lot of different directions from the previous installments.
STARS: ***
LEZ IT UP
to frat boys’ dismay, magic wish yields real-life lesbians (RAD) & (ANG)
— A laugh early in the sketch from Parnell exclaiming “Ellen DeGeneres was radiant!”
— Very funny turn with the magically-appearing lesbians being unattractive, middle-aged, realistic lesbians, instead of the kind the guys were hoping for.
— When expressing disappointment in the lesbians they’re given, I love Tim asking “Where’s the Asian one?!?”
— Lesbian stereotypes galore here, but this sketch is hilarious.
— Another fantastic line from Tim: “This thing is giving me a hard-OFF!”
— I love Horatio coming to the realization of “Dude, you forgot to say ‘hot’!”
— Heh, how many times during this sketch has Tim angrily thrown that same towel onto the floor?
— Funny detail with Parnell being the only one who’s into it throughout this sketch.
— I love Tim’s goofy dancing at the end.
STARS: *****
WEEKEND UPDATE
Kevin Brennan [real] compares elites Al Gore & George W. Bush
— A lot of tepid election-related jokes from Colin to start off this Update, and even tonight’s energetic audience agrees with me.
— Hmm, Colin’s jokes have started getting better all of a sudden, especially the great one about Calista Flockhart in a boat with Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp.
— Well… this is new. SNL writer Kevin Brennan doing a political Update commentary as himself. Is SNL going for an A. Whitney Brown-type of thing here? If so, I like that.
— Kevin Brennan’s overall commentary tonight had quite a lot of funny comments. His delivery and demeanor are quite monotone and lethargic, but strangely, that kinda works in his favor. I’m interested in seeing his second (and final) Update commentary from later this season.
— Wow, an overall short Update tonight. Actually, I feel like I’ve been saying that quite a lot lately. Considering the typical quality of Colin’s Updates, maybe shorter Updates are a good thing. I’m also wondering if it’s a sign that SNL is already planning big changes for Update in the following season and have begun slowly phasing out Colin.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bye Bye Bye”
LET’S TALK BOOKS
experts consider works with naughty title-author combos
— A lot of good immature laughs from the many dirty book title-author combos, such as The Yellow River by I.P. Freely, Through A Brown Darkly by Eileen Dover, and Stain On The Great Wall by Hu Flung Poo. For such a sophomoric concept, it’s being executed very well in a mature package.
— Tim, regarding author duo Harrison Butts and Randall Dixon: “We all love Dixon-Butts.”
— Will, regarding author Henri de Balsac: “I can think of nothing I’d rather do on a cold wintry night than curl up with a leathery, musty old Balsac.”
STARS: ****
PARENTS DAY
Colette Reardon shows up at nephew’s (host) school’s Parents Day
— A good setting for Collette Reardon, who’s making what ends up being her final appearance.
— Hmm, Joey Fatone playing an obviously-gay character. I wonder how the then-closeted Lance Bass felt about that.
— Collette Reardon’s lines to the students are providing good laughs.
— Will, to Collette Reardon: “I will not sit here and listen to your bus driving/medication/pooping tales.”
— Overall, one of the better Collette Reardon appearances.
STARS: ***½
NEIL ARMSTRONG: THE OHIO YEARS
by Adam McKay- Neil Armstrong rests on laurels
— This film is already starting off very weird, right down to the child-sung song about Neil Armstrong.
— I like Armstrong scoffing at Tang drinks he sees at the supermarket.
— Horatio (the first recognizable performer in this whole film) is funny as the store clerk, especially his opening line about a Rocky marathon on TV.
— Armstrong’s various inner thoughts bragging about landing on the moon are very funny.
— Interesting progression to this film.
— An overall well-done film. In addition to being funny and entertaining, I liked the various interesting filming choices used by Adam McKay throughout this, giving this a very different feel for this SNL era.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Thought She Knew”
THREE-WAY
Warren’s attempt to draw lawnboy (host) into a menage-a-trois upsets Fran
— Good to see this slice-of-life sketch from this season’s Heather Graham episode become recurring, though this ends up being the final installment.
— A big laugh from Joshua responding to Parnell’s three-way proposition by initially just staring at him with a frozen deadpan expression (the second above screencap for this sketch), and then bolting out of the house (the third above screencap for this sketch).
— Nice continuity with there being a passing mention of Heather Graham’s character from the previous installment of this sketch.
— Parnell, to Ana on how often they have sex: “Twice a month. Take those away, we’re practically brother and sister.”
— Very funny line from Ana about a fishnet body stocking Parnell gave her as a Mother’s Day gift.
— I love the line from Parnell about how during sex, Ana laughs at him so hard that he slips out of her.
— Overall, another very solid installment of this sketch. A shame that they don’t continue any further with these sketches. These represent a realistic, smarter, more mature direction that this SNL era needed to go further towards.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— One of the best episodes of the season. A very strong effort tonight, with lots of great, standout sketches, and no real flops. Who would’ve guessed back in 2000 that an episode with such a teenybopper-centric host/musical guest line-up would turn out to be so good?
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ben Affleck)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Dwayne Johnson makes his hosting debut, back when he was known as The Rock