Tag: Julia Louis-Dreyfus

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April 16, 2016 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Nick Jonas (S41 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Elaine Benes (JLD) questions Bernie Sanders (Larry David) at debate

— Despite still being on the show, Jon has been replaced by Beck in the role of Wolf Blitzer. Yep, it’s official: SNL has undeniably given up on Jon as a cast member by this point of the season. Making that even more official is the fact that Jon’s ONLY appearances in this episode will be two roles buried in the last two segments of the night, and he has little-to-no lines in them.
— Beck (looking almost exactly like Jason Sudeikis did when he used to play Blitzer) is doing a better attempt at a Blitzer impression than Jon did.
— I got a good laugh from Kate’s Hillary Clinton claiming she agreed on a debate date of “Mapril 33rd at bloop blorp o’clock”.
— The usual fun chemistry between Kate and Larry David in these Hillary/Bernie cold openings.
— A funny “cool” entrance from Kenan as “black moderator” (as he’s referred to here) Errol Louis.
— Kate’s delivery of the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme song lyrics that her Hillary breaks out into cracked me up.
— I absolutely love the turn with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes being the next person who asks the candidates questions, and I also love how the conversation between her and Larry’s Bernie Sanders turns into a whole bunch of Seinfeld-isms. Very fun.
— Hmm, having Vanessa’s Rachel Green now ask the candidates a question feels way too needlessly shoehorned in (despite it fitting enough with the “90s sitcom” aspect of this cold opening’s Seinfeld premise), though I can never complain about seeing this spot-on impression of Vanessa’s. It deserves better writing here, though.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Oddly, Darrell Hammond announces Sasheer Zamata as just “Sheer Zamata”. Maybe Darrell’s microphone briefly cut out when he said the “Sa” part of Sasheer’s first name.


MONOLOGUE
JLD recaps her career arc from SNL to present; Tony Hale cameo

— I love Julia’s self-deprecation when mentioning her “memorable” run as an SNL cast member, and showing a clip of her small non-comedic role in an Ed Grimley sketch as an example of one of her “well-known big characters”.
— Hey, a Brad Hall sighting! (the third above screencap for this monologue) Granted, it’s just an old clip from the movie Troll, but still, it’s a shocking novelty to see a close-up shot of a former cast member as forgotten as him in a new SNL episode from 2016. I’d like to think Julia threw that clip in as an excuse to work her husband back into SNL. (Julia and Brad are married, for any readers who didn’t know.)
— Some good talk from Julia throughout this monologue, including what she says about the blackface movie Soul Man.
— A nice Tony Hale cameo.
STARS: ***½


HEROIN AM
inclusion of caffeine & cocaine helps users remain productive

— A very funny concept.
— I like how Julia being among the performers in this timeless-feeling pre-taped commercial makes her blend back into the cast just like the old days.
— Cecily as the voice-over: “Side effects include: it’s heroin….so…all THAT stuff.”
— A good laugh from Julia hallucinating her husband and son as horrifying monsters.
— Hilarious dark reveal of Julia’s heroin-taking character being a school bus driver.
STARS: ****


HUGE JEWELRY
Long Island sisters’ (JLD) & (KAM) kids model their line of Huge Jewelry

— I sometimes find this type of Italian stereotype sketch in recent seasons to be lazy and dull, but Julia and Kate are at least pretty fun here in their characterizations and chemistry. That being said, this is a questionable choice for a post-monologue lead-off sketch. This feels more like a sketch that would be more fitting near the 10-to-1 slot.
— The gag of the increasing size of the jewelry is a bit ehh for me.
— Wasn’t too crazy about the ending with Nick Jonas appearing as a character who just gets fawned over, though he himself performed pretty well here.
STARS: **½


THE POOL BOY
housewife (JLD) is more invested in tryst than is pool boy Chad (PED)

— The debut of Pete’s Chad character.
— I recall getting tired of the Chad shorts when they became recurring back when these episodes originally aired, but judging this debut on its own merits right now, I’m currently finding Chad’s slow-witted, monotone, one-or-two-word sentences to be funny, especially in how they comically contrast against Julia’s very lengthy, dramatic lines.
— Pretty funny running gag with how Chad keeps appearing back to work at the pool every time Julia keeps turning around to him in the middle of her dramatic speech to him.
— Another Nick Jonas sketch appearance where he shows up just to be fawned over by a Julia Louis-Dreyfus character.
— Great delivery from Julia of her ending line: “I’m gonna f(*bleep*)k that kid.”
STARS: ***½


CINEMA CLASSICS
actress (JLD) relied on line cues written on props

— A very strong use of Julia’s comedic skills. This sketch has the feel of the type of legendary material that you would’ve seen being given to highly-esteemed classic female comedians in the past, such as Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball, and it feels great that Julia has gotten to the point of her acclaimed career where she’s considered to be worthy of performing a big Burnett/Ball-esque piece. And Julia’s proving with her performance in this sketch that she’s fully deserving of that honor.
— Pretty funny bit with Kenan’s Reese De’What realizing he’s alone in the studio.
— Love the bit with Julia reading “Made In China” off a prop as if it was one of her lines.
— A very funny visual of a wordy line of Julia’s being written on Taran’s bare chest.
— Is Kate doing the same voice and accent she did as Ingrid Bergman in the Casablanca spoof (which also happened to be a Cinema Classics sketch, like this one) from the preceding season?
— A particularly fantastic bit with Julia struggling for a long time through the fruit bowl to find one particular line. And her eventual delivery of said line, “I’ve been shoootttt!”, absolutely slayed me.
STARS: *****


MERCEDES AA CLASS
JLD endorses the car powered by 9,648 batteries

— Great to see so many pre-tapes tonight featuring Julia front-and-center. And she’s absolutely perfect in her performance here as the spokesperson.
— Another timeless-feeling commercial tonight.
— A priceless visual of all those batteries set in place under the car hood.
— The Battery Status report is hilarious.
— Another priceless visual, this time of the “Auto-Dump Feature” with two small hatches on opposite sides of the car dispensing ALL of the batteries for a very lengthy amount of time.
— Julia’s slyly-delivered “Batteries not included” line at the end was utter perfection, and was the best way to close this commercial.
— Overall, a forgotten (by me, at least) gem.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Tove Lo [real] perform “Close”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) mull retirement from NBA

Animal Annie (AIB) has problems with humans, including herself

A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy details her degrading comedic role

— Our final Barkley/Shaq duo commentary, given the fact that this ends up being one of Jay’s final episodes before getting fired that summer. Speaking of which, I just now realized that Jay wasn’t in the preceding episode (Russell Crowe) AT ALL. No wonder he looked so miserable during that episode’s goodnights.
— A very funny line from Kenan’s Barkley regarding him betting on number “twive”.
— The formula of these Barkley/Shaq Update commentaries is feeling very standard in tonight’s commentary, but it’s still working for me.
— An interesting smiling-on-the-outside-crying-on-the-inside tone to Aidy’s commentary.
— A huge laugh from a puzzled Michael questioning why Aidy said he’d love the iguanas-having-two-penises factoid she told.
— I like Michael’s acknowledgment of how lazy and predictable Colin’s Wiz Khalifa joke was.
— The final appearance of Cecily’s One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy.
— As usual in these One Dimensional Female commentaries, very solid delivery from Cecily, and spot-on satire of this character archetype in movies. In fact, the satire is coming off particularly biting tonight.
STARS: ***½


WHO WORKS HERE?
game show contestants try to identify CVS employees

— Decent concept for a game show sketch.
— A killer appearance from Bobby, who steals this entire sketch, and has one of the funniest moments of this entire episode.
— The “lighting” round is fun.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champagne Problems”


MEET N’ MATCH
in a bar, aliens (JLD) & (KAM) are desperate to mate with human males

— A very promising oddball concept, and Kate and Julia (making another fun pairing tonight) are well-cast in these roles.
— I love the deep vocal modifier being used on Kate and Julia, which, along with the creepy contacts they’re wearing in their eyes, is adding perfectly to their odd, unsettling alien characters.
— Some minor glitches with Kate and Julia’s vocal modifier here and there, which is actually kinda adding a bit of a strange charm to this sketch.
— A funny casual visual of Kyle and Taran’s skeletons being left in the restroom.
STARS: ****


GOD IS A BOOB MAN
Christian (VAB) resists cultural rise of homosexuality

— I’ve never seen the type of religious movies that this pre-tape is spoofing, but I’m still enjoying this a lot and finding it to be very well-done.
— Yet another strong Vanessa Bayer performance in a season filled with standout Vanessa Bayer performances. (Seriously, you could almost make a full-length “Best Of” for her just out of this season alone, though she, of course, has great stuff from other seasons, too.)
— I love the detail of Kyle’s Jewish lawyer being named Schmool (not sure of the spelling).
— A lot of funny little parts all throughout this, such as Sasheer’s “Maaayybee” response to Vanessa’s statement about Christians being the most oppressed people in the world.
— A very funny reveal of the ridiculous movie title at the end.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. And SNL finally got it right in regards to how to perfectly play to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ comedic strengths, unlike in her previous two hosting stints (where, while she had funny moments, I recall her being used in a lot of generic straight man roles) and her tenure as a cast member (where she was notoriously underutilized and overshadowed).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Cinema Classics
Mercedes AA Class
Democratic Presidential Debate
God Is A Boob Man
Heroin AM
Meet N’ Match
Weekend Update
Who Works Here?
Monologue
The Pool Boy
Huge Jewelry


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Russell Crowe)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Brie Larson

Posted on

March 17, 2007 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Snow Patrol (S32 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SNL SPECIAL REPORT
CSR likens Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton to black men vs. white women

— Chris Rock! Feels interesting seeing him in this SNL era. Also, him cameoing in a Julia Louis-Dreyfus-hosted episode is strangely fitting, given the fact that, much like Julia, Chris was a cast member for only three seasons, didn’t do much on the show and was overshadowed by certain others in the cast, yet still went on to huge fame afterwards.
— This cold opening was originally a Weekend Update commentary that Chris did in this episode’s dress rehearsal.
— Wow, that comment about Rudy Giuliani’s sanity level was awfully prescient.
— Chris is an absolute riot here, as expected. He’s so damn funny that he’s even getting laughs from potentially touchy comments about the horrible treatment black people used to suffer.
— Hilarious mention of George W. Bush at the end, regarding if America is ready for a black president.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
JLD blames media for clips that put her in a negative light

— Great to see Julia hosting again so soon after her first hosting stint.
— In the real-life clip of Julia winning an Emmy, former SNL cast member (and Julia’s husband) Brad Hall can be seen congratulating her (the second above screencap for this monologue). Feels kinda nice seeing him on SNL again after so many years, even in this capacity. (I think I heard he could be spotted in the audience of the previous JLD-hosted episode I covered in season 31, but I didn’t catch him.) In Julia’s next SNL monologue from season 41, she shows an old clip of herself from an 80s movie that she (and Brad) was in, and the clip features a decent amount of face time for Brad, and I remember it felt so odd but nice seeing such an obscure Ebersol-era cast member like Brad get THAT amount of face time in an SNL episode from 2016, even if it was just in a clip from an old movie.
— The cutaways to Julia in the audience at the Golden Globes are hilarious. Kinda feels like a spiritual successor to the Golden Globes sketch with Megan Mullally in season 29.
— A huge laugh from Julia’s crotch-flashing scene. That excessive amount of pubic hair especially caught me off-guard.
STARS: ****


OPRAH
(JLD) is a disciple of Rhonda Byrne’s (AMP) book The Secret

— Funny look for Amy here.
— Maya’s Oprah portrayal feels a lot more animated than usual here. Not sure I can say that’s a good thing.
— Julia has some funny lines, but her interview scene is kinda dragging for me.
— Kenan’s Darfur refugee character, when asked how he’s doing: “Well, you know….BAD.”
— Kenan’s portion of this sketch is almost singlehandedly saving this otherwise iffy sketch.
STARS: **½


MONEX
gold bug (KRW) uses Monex to amass her favorite precious metal

— Kristen’s character mentions that this Monex program can be bought on a brochure and VHS tape. Stuff was still being sold on VHS in 2007?
— The framed Goldie Hawn photo in the gold-filled room is a funny gag.
— The part with Kristen resorting to drinking orange juice while wishing she could drink gold is kind of a stretch, because wouldn’t she just get, say, champagne or apple juice if she wanted a gold-colored drink?
— Hmm. I can’t say this commercial is working much for me. A lot of this is just washing over me. I want to say Kristen is at least performing this well, but I’m not even sure how to feel about her performance here.
STARS: **


R.P.S.
(JLD)’s husband (JAS) blames Restless Penis Syndrome for his infidelity

— Funny subversion with Jason’s big reveal to Julia turning out to be him having Restless Penis Syndrome when you think he’s going to reveal he’s having an affair.
— I like Kenan randomly appearing in Jason and Julia’s bedroom as Jason’s doctor.
— Pretty funny turn with Bill doing a PSA for Restless Penis Syndrome right in front of the main characters, which a confused Julia then calls attention to.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s argot foils monolingual JLD

— The debut of these La Rivista Della Televisione sketches, starring a character of Bill’s that debuted in an Italian hotel sketch from the preceding season’s Catherine Zeta-Jones episode.
— I probably said this in my review of the aforementioned Italian hotel sketch, but Bill’s fast-paced Italian gibberish is absolutely fantastic and sounds both funny and convincingly real.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as the producer and Will just silently sitting next to him while eating spaghetti and meatballs. I also like the back-and-forth arguing between Fred and Bill.
— Bill is a blast as this Vinny Vedecci character. And it still feels so rare at this point of Bill’s tenure to see him play the sole lead role in a sketch, so this is very refreshing.
— Great to see Bill work in his Kramer impression on SNL again. I also like him following it up with an intentionally-bad Jerry Seinfeld impression.
— The re-dubbed Old Christine clip is very funny.
— A lot of pretty fun nonsense at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’re All I Have”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Seidlin’s (FRA) Justice Department commentary drifts to a zoo story

AMP drunk dials SEM after doing two shots for St. Patrick’s Day

— Oh no. An Update commentary from Fred as Judge Larry for THE SECOND DAMN EPISODE IN A ROW, and for no good reason this time. This was bad enough the first time.
— Ugh, tonight’s Judge Larry commentary is even more difficult to sit through than the first one, which is certainly saying something. The huge amusement the audience is getting from this makes me feel so lost.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Fred-as-Judge-Larry’s mention of the monkeys “with the plastic asses”, but then even THAT got ruined by him proceeding to repeat it several times afterwards.
— Boy, this Judge Larry bit is so bad and endless. This feels kinda like an unfortunate precursor to Fred’s later, past-his-prime seasons, where he’s given so much free rein to waste all the airtime he wants with unfunny, meandering, self-indulgent bits.
— I love Seth’s Anne Frank joke, as well as his great ad-lib afterwards.
— The extended drunk bit with Seth and Amy is a little weird and much longer than the usual Seth/Amy interaction pieces. I’m not even sure if I like it or not.
STARS: ***


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (AMP), (KRW) & (JLD) & (JAS) perform their hits

— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish that has aired up to this point.
— Hmm, I notice the Kenan/Andy interactions in tonight’s Deep House Dish thankfully don’t have Kenan yelling the usual “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”………..so far.
— Oh, I love the voice Julia’s using during her post-song interview. I’ve never heard her use that distinct voice before, nor did I know she was capable of talking like that.
— Hmm, a change of pace with Kenan’s character directing a special concerned message to the troubled Britney Spears (or, as Kenan’s character calls, “Britney Spurrs”).
— Oh, god. There goes the obligatory “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”, after I gave them credit for not using it. At least they waited more than halfway into this sketch to unleash it on us.
— Jason is a blast during his musical performance, especially his dancing. Jason Sudeikis dancing = always fun to watch.
— Overall, slightly better than usual Deep House Dish sketches, even if that’s still faint praise from me.
STARS: **½


CBS CARES
unprofessional boom mic operator Jeff (JAS) bugs JLD during PSA taping

— Another big role tonight for the underused Bill Hader.
— The debut of these sketches with Jason as a douchey crew member and Bill as the director.
— A pretty good cheap laugh from Bill’s name being Mike Underballs.
— I love the negative tension between Jason and Julia. Jason has some great rude, uncalled-for remarks to Julia.
— I love how they keep playing the lighthearted CBS Cares jingle when each take gets ruined, which Bill’s eventually calls his sound crew out on.
— Whenever Bill angrily says the name of Jason’s character, Jeff, I absolutely love how he says it as “JYYYEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Very funny reveal of the below-the-camera part of Julia’s body that Jason is immaturely placing the boom mic over during the final take.
STARS: ****


HOMEBOTS
lottery winners’ (JAS) & (JLD) robots (WLF) & (FRA) have sex & break down

— Yet another big role for Bill tonight. So glad to see SNL finally giving him lots of airtime for once. Jason’s been getting some pretty strong airtime himself tonight.
— Pretty funny chaos from Robot Will’s actions.
— A very funny and out-of-left field turn with the two robots mentioning their robot genitals when contemplating how Robot Will is going to repay Robot Fred.
— Some good laughs from Julia and Jason trying to start a casual, friendly conversation with a disturbed Bill and Kristen during the loud robot sex noises.
— I love the audience’s groaning over the fluid-y pop sound at the end of the robots’ sex before they break down.
— It feels like Julia has been making quite a number of light stumbles over her lines throughout tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Cars”


THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL
mildly talented (KRW), (MAR), (AMP) want to be the next Pussycat Doll

— The timing in this sketch feels off so far.
— I love the shot of Maya just staring at the camera while doing nothing during the “Not write songs” part advertised in this reality show promo.
— Maya, Amy, and Kristen are all getting some laughs here.
— Pretty funny how the claim-to-fame listed under Andy’s character’s name, McKenzie Jazz, just states “Nobody”. However, a technical error occurs where the graphic of Andy’s character’s name and claim-to-fame is accidentally displayed again for Kenan (as you can see in the last two above screencaps for this sketch). I remember this gaffe made me wonder back at this time in 2007 what Kenan’s character’s name was supposed to be, and whether he was playing a woman or an effeminate man. I had to wait until the NBC rerun of this episode God knows how many months later to find out that the “character” Kenan was playing is actually Lil’ Kim, who, as we know, is a real person. (Oh, that reminds me: Kenan In A Dress alert.) So that makes this YET ANOTHER female celebrity who Kenan has done a terrible and unfunny impression of.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode started out strong with the cold opening and monologue, only to end up being an overall average episode. Not bad, and there were a few strong highlights, but the episode as a whole wasn’t all that memorable, and it pales in comparison to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ fantastic season 31 episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rainn Wilson)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Peyton Manning

Posted on

May 13, 2006 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Paul Simon (S31 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PARALLEL EARTH
on a parallel Earth, everything is great under president Al Gore [real]

— Right from the opening intro sequence of this, it looks like we’re in for an out-of-the-ordinary cold opening.
— Very fun concept of the real Al Gore being president in a parallel universe, and Gore has proven himself in the past to be a good presence on SNL.
— So much great and inspired ironic humor here, and this is both very well-written and well-performed.
— Ha, there goes a lockbox mention.
— A particularly funny line about California no longer existing, and having been replaced by Mexifornia.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
Jason Alexander [real] thinks JLD has broken the Seinfeld [real] curse

— It feels very nice to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus back on SNL for the first time since her departure from the cast in 1985.
— I like that Julia starts this monologue by bringing up the little-known-among-more-casual-viewers fact that she was once an SNL cast member. I wish she talked a little more about that here, but she would later do that in her season 41 monologue.
— We also get a mention that Julia has the honor of being the first female cast member to host. I remember how, before this, a lot of online SNL fans were surprised that in SNL’s then-31 years on the air, there had yet to be a female cast member who has come back to host. Thankfully, after Julia’s hosting stint in tonight’s episode, there have been much more female cast members who have hosted.
— Very funny mockery of men’s maturity levels with the various working titles Julia says that her show The New Adventures Of Old Christine originally had.
— I absolutely LOVE how we’re getting a Seinfeld-esque pre-taped outdoors scene with Julia and Jason Alexander.
— Great scene with Julia and Jason, especially the sudden car collision ending.
— Now we get a Jerry Seinfeld cameo! Even the odd raspiness in his voice here is making me laugh a lot.
— A noticeable absence of a Michael Richards cameo. Either he wasn’t available, or SNL somehow looked into the future and saw that he was soon going to gain extreme notoriety with his infamous Laugh Factory incident later in this same year.
STARS: ****½


TECH PACK
wired vest organizes electronic devices but looks terroristic

— I recall this getting cut from many dress rehearsals this season before finally making it on the air in tonight’s episode.
— I like how the only performers in this are two of the newbies.
— Amusing how the Tech Pack that Jason is demonstrating to Kristen looks unintentionally like a terrorist’s bomb strap, complete with a detonator.
— Very funny ending with Jason running through the airport with his bomb strap-looking device, scaring the hell out of the other people at the airport.
— Overall, short and sweet.
STARS: ***½


BUM ATTENTION
insecure (JLD) is upset she isn’t being harassed by a lewd bum (BIH)

— Feels interesting seeing Julia paired with this female cast after having gotten so used to seeing Julia’s female cast mates being Mary Gross, Robin Duke, etc. when I reviewed her SNL era earlier in this project of mine.
— Julia’s disappointment at not getting sleazily hit on by Bill’s disgusting hobo character like her friends did is very funny.
— A great crass performance from Bill.
— I love the long, suspenseful buildup to the comment Bill is going to make to Julia.
— A hilarious dirty line that Bill eventually says to Julia, much to her poorly-disguised pleasure.
STARS: ****


THE MORNING SHOW
everything goes wrong during live television broadcast

— It certainly feels odd but interesting seeing this pairing of Kristen and Horatio front and center in this sketch. Watching back this season in retrospect years after it originally aired, it kinda blows my mind now that Kristen and Horatio’s SNL tenures overlapped for a season, as that’s easy to forget when watching this season, partly due to them rarely interacting with each other onscreen, partly due to the very different SNL eras they represent respectively, and partly due to how Horatio’s presence has gradually diminished this season while Kristen’s presence gradually increased.
— I absolutely love how literally EVERY SINGLE THING is going wrong in this morning show. SNL has done this premise with some other news or morning show sketches (e.g. a sketch from Britney Spears’ season 27 episode, and one from Andy Roddick’s season 29 episode), but it’s being particularly executed well here.
— Two hilarious running gags throughout this sketch, one with a deceased staff member and another with the show’s theme song randomly playing at the wrong times.
— A rare solid performance from Horatio at this late stage of his SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


MYSPACE SEMINAR
students in (ANS)’s Intro To MySpace class are mostly sexual predators

— In retrospect, an interesting time capsule of the MySpace craze still going strong at this time.
— Great reveal of the class being mostly full of sexual predators in their 40s.
— Is Will playing an early version of Jeff Montgomery, his later and well-remembered sex offender character from season 34 (most famously in a sketch with Jon Hamm where Montgomery is a trick-or-treater)? Will’s even wearing the exact same jacket in this MySpace sketch that he would later wear in the Jeff Montgomery sketches.
— Oh, that’s right, Seth Meyers is still a cast member. Lately, he’s been joining Maya and Horatio in the “They’ve been appearing on the show so little lately that it feels like they’ve already left the cast” department.
— I love Seth’s line about using 1991 in his username because 1,991 is supposedly his favorite number.
— Hilarious bit with Will pretending to type on this laptop when he says he’ll change his “NaughtyGirlHotStuff” username after being told that username will attract a lot of teenage boys.
— Seth’s Dateline question is fantastic.
— Ha, something about Chris’ mere delivery and facial expression during his bit about having his face altered is cracking me up.
— I love all the guys immediately clearing out of the room in a panic when a cop shows up.
— After the cop leaves, we get an absolutely priceless reveal of Horatio hiding very poorly behind a small potted plant. Speaking of Horatio, wow, between the Morning Show sketch and now this, he’s having by far the best night he’s had in a LOOOOOOONG time.
— Overall, such a perfect sketch.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “How Can You Live In The Northeast?”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AMP & Al Gore [real] do a Point-Counterpoint about global warming

TIF’s grandfather (FRA) tries to sign up for Medicare benefits via phone

FIM gives fashion tips to young men regarding appropriate prom attire

David Blaine (ANS) fails in his attempt to hold his breath for 9 minutes

— A big laugh from the mostly-blacked-out global warming report that Al Gore displays.
— Ugh, words cannot express how much I absolutely HATED Amy “flipping” the “You ignorant slut” routine when Gore was about to say it during his and Amy’s Point-Counterpoint. Amy’s corny, cutesy delivery of “You ignorant slut” didn’t help. Way to piss all over a great, long-standing SNL tradition, Amy.
— A somewhat interesting change of pace for Update with the segment involving Fred as Tina’s grandfather, Wolfgang.
— I admit to getting a cheap laugh from Fred’s Wolfgang muttering “I got the damn cleaning lady” when the phone operator speaks in Spanish.
— Finesse appears in his final Update commentary.
— I loved Finesse’s “You are a magician” bit, as did the audience. The rest of this commentary, on the other hand? Meh. At least it’s not as painfully unfunny as Finesse’s last Update commentary before this about angry black women.
— I like Rachel’s lines as the phone operator in the second segment with Fred’s Wolfgang.
— This Update feels like it’s going on FOREVER.
— The whiny, gaspy voice Andy is using after he as David Blaine failed to complete his magic trick sounds very Adam Sandler-esque.
— Andy’s David Blaine commentary is pretty dumb on paper, but it’s the kind of dumb that Andy can execute well (which is another similarity Andy has to Adam Sandler), which he is doing here.
— Tired, past-their-prime, and about-to-leave SNL veterans having a better night than usual seems to be a theme tonight, because not only has Horatio been having a surprisingly strong episode, but Tina has had what is probably her best night in a while in tonight’s overall Update, though it’s still a far cry from her glory days on Update back in 2000-2002. Amy, on the other hand, was as horrible tonight as she usually is in the Fey/Poehler era of Update, maybe even moreso, especially that absolutely god-awful dolphin joke of hers tonight.
STARS: **½


CHARADES
contestants’ (AMP) & (JLD) pantomime is sexually suggestive

— Fitting casting of Darrell as impressionist Rich Little.
— I like Chris always responding to Darrell-as-Rich-Little’s hacky and shoehorned celebrity impressions by immediately shutting him down or just quickly moving on in a clearly-unamused manner.
— Some good laughs from the increasingly suggestive-looking charade gestures Amy and Julia have to do, and how the celebrity contestants can easily guess Amy’s gestures, but constantly mistake Julia’s gestures for sex acts.
— Maya’s Charo is getting increasingly unintelligible as this sketch goes on.
— I love the look Kenan’s Nipsey Russell gives Maya’s Charo after she says “You are me – Charo!” (which makes at least one line of hers that I could decipher) in response to one PARTICULARLY dirty-looking charade gesture of Julia’s.
STARS: ***½


UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
Unsolved Mysteries re-enactor (JLD) doesn’t believe (KRW)’s alien story

— I remember the absolutely befuddled reaction among online SNL fans back at this time in regards to SNL’s decision to do an Unsolved Mysteries sketch in 2006, years after Unsolved Mysteries had stopped being relevant.
— I also recall how I and other online SNL fans back at this time got a VERY Mo Collins (from MADtv) vibe from Kristen’s twitchy, psychotic character in this sketch, back in the days before us SNL fans got very accustomed to seeing Kristen play twitchy, psychotic characters.
— It’s cracking me up how, among the cartoonish ghoulish off-camera voices, one of the voices is literally just saying “Ghoooosts” in a quivery, spooky voice.
— The increasingly bizarre movie characters showing up during the scene being filmed are pretty funny.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Outrageous”


PEYOTE
peyote leads to street-level suicide jump threat drama with (ANS) & (WLF)

— This is the ONLY time I can remember that a Lonely Island-made Digital Short, billed on the air as such with the “An SNL Digital Short” title screen, has ever aired as the last segment of an episode, but I can’t say for sure.
— A hilarious ending reveal of Andy not standing on the high ledge of a building like we were led to believe, but rather standing on a sidewalk against a building, and Will being crouched down right in front of him.
— Much like at the end of the Lettuce Digital Short from earlier this season, we get a very brief Jorma Taccone appearance as a passerby.
— Speaking of Lettuce, tonight’s short has a similar twist ending, with peyote being the subject matter instead of lettuce, which is very funny after the aforementioned reveal of Andy and Will both bizarrely being on ground level.
— This may be the shortest Lonely Island Digital Short of all time.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
(Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode. For anyone keeping count, this is only the third time in my SNL project that the copy of an episode I reviewed cut off abruptly before its existing goodnights were shown. The previous two episodes were Christopher Walken’s season 21 episode and The Rock’s season 27 episode. Unlike those two, tonight’s episode isn’t followed by an Alec Baldwin-hosted episode, so at least I know there’s not some kind of curse going on.)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and one of the absolute best of this season. This episode was almost completely flawless, minus Weekend Update, though even THAT was a little better than it’s usually been in the Fey/Poehler era. The first half of this episode was especially phenomenal, with almost EVERY SINGLE SEGMENT receiving a rating ranging from 4-5 stars. Very impressive. Almost everything in the first half of this episode seemed so “on”, especially the inspired writing. And as I mentioned earlier, even some tired veterans in the cast had their best night in a while in this episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 31 comes to an end, with host Kevin Spacey. It’s also the final episode for Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Finesse Mitchell, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, as well as the final episode of Seth Meyers’ tenure as a regular sketch performer.