Tag: Kanye West

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February 13, 2016 – Melissa McCarthy / Kanye West (S41 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT
Hillary Clinton (KAM) sings “I Can’t Make You Love Me” to Bernie Sanders backers

— Pretty funny turn with how the restaurant patrons’ conversation about how they’re no longer voting for Hillary Clinton is followed by Kate’s Hillary slowly being lowered on a seat from above while singing “I Can’t Make You Love Me”.
— The usual funny addition of Darrell Hammond’s Bill Clinton in these Kate-as-Hillary pieces, and I love him saying to the camera, in regards to him playing the piano, “Guess what? I’m not even playin’ this thing.”
— Funny appearance from Beck as a pathetic Jeb Bush, and him getting called out by the restaurant patrons on what he’s doing.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host prematurely celebrates Five-Timer status with “Born To Be Alive” variant

— Interesting conceit of Melissa McCarthy incorrectly claiming this is her fifth time hosting and launching into a celebratory song about now being a Five-Timer.
— Despite my usual fatigue over musical monologues in this era, I’m actually finding this particular song to be pretty fun and catchy. Come to think of it, that’s actually been true for most of this season’s musical monologues.
— There’s Kenan pointing out the inevitable: that this is, in fact, Melissa’s fourth hosting stint, not fifth.
— Pretty funny visual of Melissa’s “4 & One/Sixteenth” glasses after Kenan points out that Melissa’s appearance at SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special doesn’t count as a legitimate full-on hosting stint, but rather just 1/16th of a hosting, if anything.
STARS: ***½


THE DAY BEYONCÉ TURNED BLACK
a post-“Formation” horror film for whites

— A priceless overdramatic reaction white people are shown having to finding out Beyonce is, in fact, black. I particularly love the well-filmed visual of everybody in the streets panicking.
— Love Vanessa’s delivery of “I know he’s black” when Sasheer points out a random black citizen on the street.
— Great exchange between Kate and Kenan.
— Hilarious bit with Cecily nervously rocking back and forth and denying what she hears when it’s revealed on the news that Kerry Washington is also black.
— Great fake-out with a horrified Aidy initially thinking her daughter turned black, only for it to be revealed that that’s Leslie’s daughter. I also love Leslie being offended by Aidy saying a relieved “Thank God!” when seeing that her own daughter hasn’t turned black.
— Strong ending with Kate getting ready to smother her son with a pillow.
— Overall, SNL knocks it out of the park with another brilliant, epic pre-taped Beyonce-themed masterpiece, after their Beygency short from two seasons prior. It’s hard for me to pick which I prefer out of the two shorts, as I love both of them so much, but I think I’d give the edge to this one.
STARS: *****


TEST SCREENING
(host) assaulted fellow audience members in test screening of scary movie

— The pre-taped, night-vision footage is a bit of a refreshing way to change up the overdone “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” trope that this sketch is relying on.
— Pretty funny reaction shots from Melissa in the pre-taped footage, especially her randomly punching Vanessa in the face, and the whole bit she does with Pete.
— Great shot of Leslie laughing and saying, “Man, this bitch is pissing on herself!”
STARS: ***½


MOVIE NIGHT
awkwardness grows as (PED) & parents (BOM) & (host) watch Terminator sex scene

— Much like Pete’s character in this sketch, I surprisingly had absolutely no prior memory of a sex scene in the first Terminator movie when I first saw this sketch during this episode’s original airing.
— A lot of good laughs from Pete’s way of “lightening up” the awkward situation by blurting out all of the absolutely worst things he could possibly say in this situation.
— Good use of pre-taped audio of characters’ inner thoughts.
— After Bobby’s own inappropriate way of “lightening up” the awkward situation, we get a great cutaway to him with a self-satisfied grin while his inner thought says “Heh heh heh heh, nailed it!”
— Great delivery from Pete on his run of embarrassing statements before his abrupt exit.
— An overall refreshingly relatable and solid sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Kelly Price, The-Dream, El DeBarge, Young Thug [real] perform “Highlights”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rachel Green (VAB) is still living in an episode of Friends

Super Bowl MVP Von Miller [real] covers gravitational waves via football

hater of flowers & avocados LEJ lists her perfect man’s characteristics

— For the second consecutive episode, Weekend Update shows clips from a GOP debate that happened just hours prior.
— Good rant from Michael about the “outrage” over Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime performance.
— Wait, that infamous, controversial “BILL COSBY INNOCENT!!!!!!!” tweet of Kanye West’s was made this same week he was on SNL?!? Wow. For some reason, this also reminds me that he had an angry backstage meltdown between this episode’s dress rehearsal and live show, due to SNL changing up the musical guest stage without asking him first. Audio from that angry meltdown of his would be leaked online shortly after this episode’s original airing. (I think Aidy also disclosed in an interview that there was another off-putting incident with Kanye that same night, where, during the goodnights at dress rehearsal, he tried to bring Kim Kardashian up onstage when she clearly didn’t want to do that, or something like that. Of course, that’s small potatoes compared to what Kanye would do during the goodnights of his following SNL appearance.)
— Ah, Vanessa’s Jennifer Aniston/Rachel Green impression makes its first Update appearance, continuing the amazing season Vanessa’s been having.
— Like the last time Vanessa did this impression (in the Jennifer Aniston Lookalike Contest sketch from a few seasons prior), Vanessa is astonishingly spot-on and funny here.
— Hilarious bit with a Friends-esque scene transition happening right in the middle of Vanessa’s commentary.
— I like Colin pointing out how Vanessa’s Aniston/Green always sounds surprised, and that being followed by her immediately proving his point.
— Despite one flubbed line (which is expected for an athlete), Von Miller is coming off likable enough here.
— Surprised by how short the overall Von Miller commentary ended up being, but that’s probably for the best.
— Another Norm Macdonald-esque O.J.-is-a-murderer joke from Michael.
— Feels like Leslie’s on Update every two episodes this season. I can’t remember the last time prior to this that a cast member regularly appeared this frequently as themselves as a guest correspondent on Update. (I guess A. Whitney Brown in the late 80s?) That’s certainly not a complaint, though, as Leslie always kills it on Update.
— The style of tonight’s Leslie commentary is a very interesting change of pace from her usual commentaries, and an interesting change of pace for Update in general.
— I particularly like the part of Leslie’s commentary with her harping on how she equates flowers with dead bodies.
STARS: ****


PICK-UP ARTIST
in a bar, (host) clumsily practices pick-up techniques on target (KYM)

— Meh, seems like I’m in for exactly the type of “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” live sketch that the Test Screening sketch earlier tonight was a refreshing change of pace from.
— This sketch seems like it was partially designed to make Leslie crack up. If that’s the case, it’s succeeding with flying colors. Her constant amusement in this is somehow providing most of my only amusement. While I’m not HATING the main Melissa portions of this sketch, they’re not doing much for me.
— Beck made me laugh out loud appearing at the very end of this sketch in a bizarre brief walk-on role that allowed him to ham it up.
STARS: **


KYLE VS. KANYE
KYM’s delusion of rap greatness withstands verbal rout by musical guest

— At first, I thought that this was going to be the debut of the Kyle/Leslie backstage relationship shorts, until I remembered that those don’t debut until the following season’s Dave Chappelle episode. This short I’m currently reviewing is done in the same style as those Kyle/Leslie shorts, though.
— I’m liking how extensive this short is, even going through the lengths of having Kyle film an interview on Today.
— Love seeing the real-life home movies and photos of Kyle rapping and breakdancing when he was much younger.
— I like how Kyle saying he has no idea what he’s doing out there on SNL is accompanied by a clip of him dressed in a cereal box from a sketch in the season 39 Edward Norton episode.
— The sketch that’s shown being rehearsed at one point, where we see a lot of male cast members dressed for what appears to possibly be a wedding, doesn’t make it to the live show.
— Kanye’s extremely deadpan facial expression while speechlessly staring at Kyle awkwardly rapping insults at him is cracking me up.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****


BUS
on a bus, (host) annoys (LEJ) with attempts to be hip to black experience

— Lots of airtime for Leslie tonight, especially in the second half of this episode starting with Update.
— I’m liking how this quirky character of Melissa’s is a lot more subtle, low-key, and realistic than her usual characters in “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” sketches are.
— Some laughs from Leslie’s desperation to get away from Melissa, even asking the bus driver to just open up the door as the bus is driving on a highway.
— The sudden out-of-left-field turn at the end with this sketch becoming a Speed spoof didn’t do it for me.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Kelly Price, The-Dream, Kirk Franklin, Chance the Rapper [real] perform “Ultralight Beam”


WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & new gal (host) plug Valentine’s Cat Giveaway

— Blah, this again. So tired of this recurring sketch.
— Oh, wow, what a huge surprise: the character played by the female host feels up Kate’s breast while pretending they think they’re petting a cat. We’ve NEVER seen that happen in multiple Whiskers R’ We sketches in the past. [/end sarcasm]
— Quite a lot of O.J.-is-a-murderer jokes throughout tonight’s episode, with this being the third segment tonight to include one.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, and far more consistent than the previous episodes Melissa McCarthy hosted. It also helps that the way she was utilized in this episode felt less redundant than the way she was utilized in her prior episodes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Day Beyoncé Turned Black
Kyle Vs. Kanye
Movie Night
Weekend Update
Test Screening
Hillary for President
Monologue
Bus
Pick-Up Artist
Whiskers R’ We


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Larry David)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jonah Hill. Interestingly, this is his second consecutive hosting stint in which he and Melissa McCarthy host back-to-back episodes.

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May 18, 2013 – Ben Affleck / Kanye West (S38 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) explores the IRS targeting scandal

— The usual decent laughs from Kenan-as-Al-Sharpton’s constant mispronunciations.
— Funny bit with the Senator McConnell/Matthew McConaughey confusion.
— I love Kenan’s delivery of “They ain’t gonna Wesley Snipes me!”
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host rephrases his Oscar acceptance speech nod to Jennifer Garner [real]

— Good bit with Ben Affleck mentioning how excited he is to have become a Five-Timer after seeing the big induction that Justin Timberlake was recently given into the Five-Timers Club, only for Ben’s induction to turn out to be an unceremonious one involving Bobby.
— Bobby doing his usual solid work. I especially like him being forced to make up a Five-Timers Club song after he assumed Ben would say no to his offer to sing one.
— Boy, this comical fake tension between Ben and Jennifer Garner in regards to their marriage has aged poorly, for obvious reasons.
STARS: **½


HBO FIRST LOOK
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (FRA) spites host with anti-Argo film

— A worrying beginning to this sketch, with it being yet ANOTHER translator bit, but thankfully, this sketch goes a completely different route after that beginning.
— An absolutely hilarious title of Fred-as-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad’s Argo retaliation film: “Bengo F#*@ Yourself”.
— Very funny how Fred’s Mahmoud always quietly precedes each of his lines with “Pahk the cah in Havahd Yahd” in order to keep up the Boston accent he’s doing.
— I love the meta reference with one of the lines Fred’s Mahmoud says in a Boston accent being a random “You ah!”, ala SNL’s Boston Teens characters.
— Funny ironic twist with Ben himself playing the sound man in this anti-Argo movie.
— As usual whenever he hosts, Ben has the ability to make his habit of breaking during sketches come off charming instead of annoying.
— Also as usual whenever he hosts, Ben gives us a great display of self-deprecation, this time with his killer line about agreeing to appear in this anti-Argo film because he’s been looking to appear in a movie worse than Gigli.
— Overall, a very solid sketch, and is very welcome and much-needed in this final episode of Fred’s, given how bad he’s generally been these past few seasons. He was great in this sketch.
STARS: ****


XANAX FOR GAY SUMMER WEDDINGS
Xanax combats feelings of inadequacy produced by gay summer weddings

 

— Mixed feelings on this premise, given SNL’s general crutch for relying on gay humor for cheap laughs.
— Some funny lines and visuals during Bill’s testimonial.
— Good bit with Cecily regarding the outlandish, overly generous gifts she once received at a gay wedding.
— Turns out this commercial is actually having a lot of pretty funny moments all throughout. Not bad at all, given my initial worries.
STARS: ***½


DEPRESSION SCENE
during the Great Depression, (BIH) spurns (host)’s offer of honest work

— Our final display during Bill’s cast tenure of his great knack for perfectly playing old-timey roles. And I love how the voice he’s using in this particular sketch is very different from the ones we’ve heard him use in other sketches set around this time period.
— A funny and cute touch with Kate’s character imitating Bill’s gestures during his spiel.
— Good reveal of Kate’s seemingly-child character actually being a 40-year-old hooker with a gravelly voice.
— Very funny bit at the end.
STARS: ****


GAY CAMP
(host)’s summer camp is going to fail to turn gay teens straight

— Another gay-themed segment tonight, just mere minutes after that Xanax commercial???
— At least Ben’s fun as always here as the camp leader.
— I like Vanessa’s smiley-but-uncomfortable delivery of “Um, church. I’m always at church.”
— Funny cutaway to Jay.
— Overall, despite the above-mentioned high points, I didn’t care for this sketch as a whole. Definitely the lesser of the two gay-themed segments that have aired in this episode so far.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Black Skinhead”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to the IRS & groups it scrutinizes

SEM stops Stefon from wedding Anderson Cooper [real] a la The Graduate

recurring Weekend Update guests welcome SEM & Stefon back to the studio

— The final Weekend Update with Seth as a solo anchor.
— A sudden appearance from Amy Poehler, showing up to do another “Really!?!” segment.
— I think this ends up being the final “Really!?!” segment on SNL. I don’t recall Seth doing it the following season (his final season) with his new co-anchor, Cecily.
— Further proving that “Really!?!” is past its expiration date, a lot of Seth and Amy’s quips in tonight’s edition feel tepid, though there are still a few okay lines, and we also get a bit of the usual fun interplay between Seth and Amy.
— Much like the last time Amy cameod on Update (in the preceding season’s Maya Rudolph episode), they follow the “Really!?!” segment by doing a comedic segue with Seth “making” Amy stick around to tell Update jokes with him. It’s very odd how I had absolutely no memory of Amy being in this episode’s Update. I guess I was wrong when I said earlier that this is the final Update with Seth as a solo anchor. I mean, it’s still the final official Update during the solo Seth years, but the preceding episode’s Update is the final one where Seth doesn’t receive any assistance at all in anchoring Update.
— Hmm, Amy’s jokes tonight are pretty bad, even worse than Seth’s usual mild, bland jokes.
— Given the fact that this is Bill’s final episode, we get particularly WILD cheers from the audience while Seth is in the middle of introducing Stefon’s commentary.
— I love Stefon’s jealous reaction when seeing Amy with Seth.
— As always, great lines during Stefon’s usual routine. I especially love the Phil Jackson bit regarding the password of one of the clubs.
— Ooh, a very different turn in this Stefon commentary, with him suddenly telling off Seth and leaving in a huff without even finishing his Update commentary. The heartbroken audience reaction to that is pretty fascinating, and shows you the heights that Stefon’s popularity with viewers has reached over the years.
— Love the bit with Amy telling a distracted-after-Stefon’s-exit Seth a mock-dramatic “Go to him.”
— Oh, hell yes! Now we get an even more exciting turn with a pre-tape when Seth exits 30 Rock in search of Stefon.
— Great reveal that Stefon is getting married to Anderson Cooper.
— Ohho, I absolutely LOVE the detail of all the wedding guests being characters that were mentioned by Stefon in his previous Upate commentaries. Having all of those characters actually appear in this is absolutely excellent commitment.
— Speaking of excellent commitment, we even get a shot of Ben reprising his role as Stefon’s brother, as a great callback to the often-forgotten sketch that Stefon made his debut in.
— So fun how, when a now-married Stefon and Seth return to the SNL studio, various Update characters and impressions from the cast are standing at the Update set, throwing rice towards Stefon and Seth.
— Overall, wow, wow, WOW. That whole Stefon finale was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Just…what else can you say about it? One of the most epic things SNL has ever done, and this offered such perfect closure for Stefon as a character, as well as the story arc between him and Seth.
— The ending of tonight’s Stefon bit, coupled with the fact that Seth’s former co-anchor (Amy) was there tonight, honestly made it feel like this should’ve been Seth’s final Update. I know this was only intended as a send-off to Stefon/Bill, but it also would’ve given perfect closure to the Seth Meyers era of Update. Too bad I still have another half-season of him at the desk.
STARS: **** (Yes, the whole Stefon bit is the only reason this Update as a whole is getting such a high rating, and no, I’m not giving it an even higher rating than that. All of the non-Stefon portions of this Update were WAY too meh for me to fairly give this Update as a whole anything higher than four stars, and even those four stars are generous.)


GREG’S FUNERAL
poorly-disguised (host) attends his own funeral & rebuts anti-eulogies

— Funny conceit with Ben being in disguise at his own funeral, and trying to talk himself up to the funeral attendees.
— Ben’s delivery in that accent is hilarious-sounding, especially whenever he gets angry.
— Taran, regarding his skepticism over his father really being dead: “When I call his cellphone, he picks up and says ‘Oops!’”
— Another funny cutaway to Jay tonight (which happen to be the only things he gets to do in this episode).
STARS: ***½


HERMÈS HANDBAGS
(host) & vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Hermes Handbags

— One of the only (if not THE only) times this recurring sketch has ever aired before the 10-to-1 slot. On a similar note, contrary to popular belief, Kate’s Last Call sketches don’t always air in the 10-to-1 slot either (e.g. the season 42 Dave Chappelle episode).
— Vanessa: “You’ll feel like you’re spinning on a golden wiener.”
— Cecily: “You’ll feel like you’ve discovered a whole new world like Christopher Cumbus.”
— Cecily: “One time, I thought I banged E.T., but it was just an old Chinese man on a bike.”
— Cecily: “One time, I got banged through a glass ceiling. I changed everything for women. Turns out I’m a feminist. Thanks, Hermans!”
— Vanessa: “One of my eyes doesn’t work. It got sucked out by a butt.”
— Ben: “My pants should say Snickers on ’em. ‘Cuz they’re packed full of nuts and they always satisfy.”
— The whole herpes bit from Ben is hilarious.
— Ben: “Give that little girl what she really wants.” Vanessa and Cecily, intending to say the same answer in unison: “Hermans.” “Your whole hand in.”
— Overall, one of the absolute best installments of this reliable recurring sketch. Absolutely every single thing here clicked for me.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New Slaves”


COP FAMILY
at her engagement party, (NAP)’s cop relatives keep emotions in check

— I absolutely love the cop voice Bill’s using.
— Some good laughs from all of the cops’ choked-up actions while having a hard time simultaneously expressing their emotions and maintaining their manliness.
— Taran’s trying-not-to-cry-while-speaking voice is hilarious.
— Good ending with the cops’ tearful, somber group singing of the “Bad Boys” theme song from Cops.
STARS: ***½


IT’S A LOVELY DAY
Ian Rubbish & The Bizzaros perform “It’s A Lovely Day”

Carrie Brownstein, Steve Jones, Kim Gordon, Aimee Mann, J. Mascis, Michael Penn [real] join Ian onstage

— Ah, Fred’s special farewell piece.
— You can tell from the abrupt way this sketch began (hell, it’s so abrupt that Taran is completely missing from the his place onstage at the beginning and doesn’t show up until about 10 seconds into this sketch, presumably due to not being able to get into costume fast enough) that SNL’s trying to squeeze this sketch in before the show runs long. I recall hearing that at dress rehearsal, this Ian Rubbish bit was presented as being a performance on Top Of The Pops, with Ben playing the host of that show, but the whole Top Of The Pops framing seemingly had to be cut from the live version of this sketch for time reasons.
— Jason has been added as a member of Ian Rubbish’s band, after not being part of that band in the previous Ian Rubbish piece from earlier this season. I remember a lot of SNL fans at the time, including myself, took Jason’s inclusion in this sketch as a sign that he’s leaving with Fred and Bill (one SNL fan also jokingly[?] asked, “Wait, so Taran’s leaving, too? After only three seasons?”, since Taran’s onstage with Fred, Bill, and Jason as part of the band). Fred and Bill both confirmed their departures a few days before this episode originally aired, but we knew nothing about whether Jason was leaving or not. He would confirm his departure several months later, after constantly telling people “I’m up in the air” in regards to whether he’s coming back to SNL or not. Before the confirmation of his departure, when SNL fans were speculating if he went out the door with Fred and Bill, a lot of fans were upset that he didn’t get an individual send-off piece in this episode like Bill and Fred separately got.
— A written message can be seen on Fred’s guitar strap, which states “TY LM I ❤ U” (seen in the second above screencap for this sketch), a great sign of appreciation from Fred to Lorne.
— During his opening speech, Fred’s Ian Rubbish poignantly mentions it’s his and his band’s last night here, and Bill’s character then mentions in a very somber and sincere manner that they’re still going to play together. Really nice reality subtext there, given Fred and Bill’s departures. You can tell that, even though those lines were delivered in character, the emotion in Fred and Bill’s delivery was 100% natural.
— A great and very special touch with the “friends” who Ian Rubbish brings up onstage to perform with him and his band. Knowing Fred’s real-life music tastes, I’m sure it means a lot to him having cameos from all these rockers in his final episode.
— A very solid, feel-good song for Fred to go out with. And I’m so glad that he’s had the lead role in TWO strong segments tonight (the HBO First Look sketch and this), as well as some good little moments in the Cop Family sketch. Considering all of the annoying recurring stuff of Fred’s that SNL could’ve bombarded us with in this final episode of his, it’s a relief that Fred instead kept away from the established recurring stuff, as well as any other annoying roles. With his strong showing tonight, and some other good things he’s done within the last handful of episodes, it feels nice to be reminded of how solid Fred can actually be, after how badly these later seasons of his SNL tenure soured me on him. Given how much I actually used to love him as a cast member in the first half of his SNL tenure (he and Will Forte were my top two favorite current cast members for most of the 2000s) before things soured, I’m glad he’s actually going out on a high note with this episode.
— I love how, after the performance has ended, the camera pulls back from this sketch’s set and shows a wider shot of the studio, which they rarely, if ever, do anymore at this point of the show’s run.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— At one point in the middle of these goodnights, we get a shot of Fred, Bill, and Jason all hugging each other very tightly while fighting back tears (the last above screencap for these goodnights), which is a very poignant shot in retrospect, given how this ends up being the final episode for those three performers, and, as I mentioned earlier, neither SNL nor Jason himself knew for sure at the time if Jason was leaving or not.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid season finale. A lot of good stuff, some special things, and a phenomenal centerpiece with the Stefon’s Farewell segment. Ben Affleck was as strong as he always is as a host. Keeping in an odd tradition this season in which well-loved multiple-time hosts abruptly stop hosting after this season (e.g. Anne Hathaway, Justin Timberlake, Zach Galifianakis), this sadly ends up being Ben Affleck’s final hosting stint.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
the Stefon’s Farewell portion of Weekend Update
Hermès Handbags
HBO First Look
It’s A Lovely Day
Depression Scene
Greg’s Funeral
Cop Family
Xanax For Gay Summer Weddings
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Monologue
the rest of Weekend Update
Gay Camp


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kristen Wiig)
a big step up


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2011-12)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 39 begins, with host Tina Fey. We start out with a whopping six(!) new cast members, and a new co-anchor joining Seth Meyers on Weekend Update.

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October 2, 2010 – Bryan Cranston / Kanye West (S36 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Rahm Emanuel (ANS) & new chief of staff Pete Rouse (BOM) are antithetical

— I always love Andy’s portrayal of Rahm Emanuel. A bit of a shame this is one of the last times we’re going to see it (he makes one more appearance in the cold opening of this season’s Jeff Bridges episode).
— Good turn with Andy’s Emanuel giving Bobby’s Pete Rouse frightening, overly-intense advice.
— Bobby’s nervousness and whininess as Rouse is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host hopes to up his name recognition with “Charlie Kane” variant

— Funny underwear photos of Bryan Cranston throughout his career.
— Geez, they’re wasting Bryan on a freakin’ song-and-dance monologue? And a very generic one at that? (*sigh*)
— Nothing particularly noteworthy about the song, except a laugh from the big photo of “Bryan Cranston” (really Bill Paxton) that Nasim is briefly seen carrying into the shot.
STARS: **


PEPTO-BISMOL ICE
Pepto-Bismol Ice brings diarrhea relief during a night of clubbing

— A decent and strangely-kinda-cool premise of a version of Pepto-Bismol that’s marketed as a malt liquor for clubbing.
— Pretty funny interaction between Andy and Nasim.
STARS: ***


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Miley Cyrus (VAB) doesn’t let Johnny Depp (PAB) say much

— Wow, it shows a lot of confidence on SNL’s part to place such a big Vanessa Bayer showcase in the lead-off spot of this episode, when Vanessa’s only in her second episode as a featured player.
— Vanessa’s take on Miley Cyrus is very solid. This is an important moment for her, as it ends up being her breakout role.
— Odd to see in retrospect that the first installment of this soon-to-be-recurring-sketch has Bryan playing Billy Ray Cyrus, given the fact that Jason would take over the role in all subsequent installments.
— I love that tonight’s lead-off sketch is now heavily featuring TWO newbies, as Paul (in his first noteworthy SNL role) has now shown up as Vanessa-as-Miley’s interviewee, Johnny Depp.
— Turns out Paul’s performance as Depp is nothing to write home about. He’s doing a pretty generic take on Depp, and it’s not showing off Paul’s comedic skills.
— Given how new Vanessa is, it’s charming seeing her soaking in the extended audience laughter she gets after she says “Yeah, me, too” in response to Paul’s Depp saying he’s taken on darker roles.
STARS: ***½


WHAT UP WITH THAT? BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION
Morgan Freeman & Ernest Borgnine [real] sit & watch

— Vanessa has taken over Jenny Slate’s role as one of the backup singers of this recurring sketch, and Taran has taken over Will Forte’s role as the announcer.
— Great guests in tonight’s What Up With That: Morgan Freeman and Ernest Borgnine!
— I love the anxious, stifled-mouth look on Kenan’s face during Morgan Freeman’s serious spiel about school (the sixth above screencap for this sketch).
— Absolutely hilarious visual of Bryan as a George Clinton-esque singer. Also, the detail of him in briefs is a good callback to the monologue.
— The “back to school” theme of tonight’s What Up With That is adding a nice bit of a change of pace to this recurring sketch’s formula.
— I like the creepy-eyed look on Paul’s face during the Mary Kay Letourneau / Vili Fualaau bit.
— The big open-mouthed smile on Ernest Borgnine’s face throughout this sketch is so fun and charming.
STARS: ****½


BASKETBALL GAME
on a basketball court, Shana simultaneously attracts & repels co-workers

— For the second time tonight, Taran has taken over a recurring Will Forte role.
— On a similar note, Abby has taken over the “ignored girl” role that Casey Wilson and Jenny Slate played in the previous two installments of this recurring sketch. Unlike Casey and Jenny, Abby doesn’t end up suffering the “curse”, in which each cast member who plays the “ignored girl” role in this recurring Shana sketch gets fired before getting to appear in a second Shana sketch.
— Bryan’s disturbing turned-on facial reactions to Shana’s actions are pretty funny. He’s making something out of a fairly nothing role.
— As usual, standard Shana stuff, but it still works for me. What doesn’t work for me in these sketches, however, is the repetitiveness of Andy, Kenan, and Will/Taran’s reactions to Shana.
— Hmm, this installment is going a little too heavy on the burp/fart humor.
— This sketch surprisingly ends up being Kristen’s ONLY appearance all night, believe it or not.
STARS: **½


RESCUE DOGS 911 APP
emergency response promotes movie & thwarts robbery; Helen Mirren cameo

— An extremely random brief cameo from Helen Mirren (who will be hosting later this season) in the Rescue Dogs promo shown on Andy’s phone.
— For the names shown in Andy’s address book, SNL uses the first and/or last names of SNL writers and other staffers from around this time, strangely even including two writers who got fired (or left on their own, I’m not sure) after the preceding season: Hannibal Burress and Jillian Bell.
— A laugh from Kenan’s “Let’s shoot this motherf(*bleep*)” and subsequent gunshot when Bobby has shown up as the pizza delivery guy.
— Good visual of the rescue dog chewing off Fred’s arm.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Power”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anthony Crispino is misinformed about Ground Zero mosque & LeBron James

as her comic strip run comes to an end, Cathy (ANS) plans for retirement

— Bobby’s second-hand news guy, Anthony Crispino, has officially become recurring.
— Like last time, some amusing false into relayed by Bobby’s Crispino, though his false info tonight feels a little less funny than the ones from his first appearance.
— Seth sure loves breaking out that German accent whenever he does an Update joke about Germany. I love his delivery during the World War I Reparations joke tonight.
— This is the first time Andy’s Cathy has appeared in over a year, and, I believe, the last time we’d end up seeing her.
— Hilarious how the sentimental Cathy goodbye montage consists of just two brief clips.
STARS: ***


KID SMARTZ
(KET) is lone contestant to rebuff emcee’s (host) kisses

— Bryan is a natural as a cheesy game show host.
— I see SNL’s doing a spoof of a real-life viral video of an early 1980s children’s game show host creepily taking delight in kissing his prepubescent female contestants on the cheek.
— Aaaaaaaand cue the obligatory “hilarious” man-on-man kissing between Bryan and Andy.
— This sketch now takes another horrible turn, with us not only getting a Kenan In A Dress sighting, but him portraying this particular female character in his tired “sassy black female” manner.
— Somehow, this sketch continues to get even worse as it goes along. What is the point of this mess?
— The Bryan/Andy portions of this sketch are some low-rent Vogelchecks-level shit.
— Overall, wow, that was just awful.
STARS: *


THE BJELLAND BROTHERS
zero-hit wonders (host) & (FRA) perform song about sparkling apple juice

— In both of Jason’s only appearances all night, including this sketch, he’s just playing a background role with no dialogue. Geez. Really, SNL? (Granted, one of those background roles of his was in What Up With That, where his background dancing always steals the show, but still, it’s fucking insane that a veteran as fantastic and reliable as Jason gets stuck in nothing but non-speaking background roles in an episode from his SEVENTH season.) Bill, who’s playing the guitarist in this sketch, has also gotten shockingly very little to do in tonight’s episode. All of this combined with Kristen only appearing in one sketch all night (albeit in a lead role) is quite jarring.
— This sketch is destroying my patience, between the annoyingly repetitive “I’ve sent a bottle of sparkling apple juice…etc.” singing, and the lame lines about how poorly the careers of Fred and Bryan’s characters have gone. Fred used to be so masterful at doing anti-comedy pieces back when he was in his prime earlier in his SNL tenure. This sketch’s seeming attempt at anti-comedy is just sad and frustrating.
— I could do without the audience participation bit.
— Lame ending line from Fred: “This is the only song we’re doing tonight.”
— Overall, the second consecutive sketch tonight that I absolutely hated. What’s happened to this episode all of a sudden?
— This sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. Two big differences I remember in that version: 1) the placement of the cast members playing Fred and Bryan’s band is different, with Jason’s drummer character now being very visible behind Fred and Bryan during the entire sketch, instead of being off to the side where we can only occasionally see him whenever the camera cuts to a wide shot of the stage. 2) Whenever Fred and Bryan ask the audience to sing some of the lyrics of the repetitive chorus, the audience humorously doesn’t respond at all (keeping up this sketch’s illusion that nobody’s in attendance at Fred and Bryan’s concert), unlike the live version, where the audience did respond, which hurt the joke (as bad as the joke was).
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Pusha T [real] perform “Runaway”


BASEMENT KARATE
fifth-grader Henry (NAP) suffers his dad’s (host) self-defense lessons

— A laugh from Bryan bluntly punching Nasim’s young boy character in the face when making him simulate an attack.
— Yet another solid characterization from Nasim as a child character. This character’s manner of describing the flaws in his own fighting performances throughout this sketch is amusing me.
STARS: ***½


i-SLEEP PRO
black noise generator allows (KET) to slumber peacefully

— A fairly cheap and stereotypical premise, but at the same time, it’s a pretty fun and unique way to utilize newbie Jay Pharoah’s talent for doing many voices, as he’s providing all of the various recorded “black noise” voices heard from the i-Sleep device.
— I particularly like the Friday bit, with Jay doing the voices of both Ice Cube and Chris Tucker’s characters from Friday. Odd, though, how Jay has done a Chris Tucker impression in the 10-to-1 segment in both of his first two episodes. This kinda reminds me of when Rachel Dratch, back when she was a new featured player, played Calista Flockhart/Ally McBeal in both of her first two episodes.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, and, like a lot of other episodes from around this time, was not as bad as I had remembered. (As I mentioned in a recent review, I tore this episode apart in my original 2010 review of this episode, and, much like my original 2010 review of the Ryan Phillippe episode, it ended up receiving a lot of backlash from members of the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board, who felt I was being way too negative and “nerdy”.) That being said, that horrific one-two punch of Kid Smartz and The Bjelland Brothers airing back-to-back damn near destroyed me. Bryan Cranston sadly wasn’t used to his full potential in this episode, and was given a few too many poor roles, but he still managed to make the most of it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What Up With That? Back To School Edition
The Miley Cyrus Show
Basement Karate
Press Conference
Rescue Dogs 911 App
Weekend Update
Pepto-Bismol Ice
I-Sleep Pro
Basketball Game
Monologue
The Bjelland Brothers
Kid Smartz


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Poehler)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jane Lynch

Posted on

December 13, 2008 – Hugh Laurie / Kanye West (S34 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BLAGOJEVICH HEARING
profane Rod Blagojevich (JAS) asks U.S. Senate for a personal bailout

— (*groan*) Boy, am I getting tired of the overuse of the C-SPAN framing device for this season’s cold openings and sketches. It smacks of laziness to me on Jim Downey’s part.
— Funny initial visual of Jason in that Rod Blagojevich wig, and I got a laugh from his bleeped-out intro statement.
— Funny line from Casey’s Elizabeth Dole about Blagojevich being a disgrace to any other state besides Illinois.
— Great to see Bill’s hilarious Robert Byrd impression back. By the way, this sadly ends up being Bill’s ONLY appearance all night.
— Some of the bleeps of Jason-as-Blagojevich’s expletives are timed a little awkwardly (and at one point, accidentally gives away the fact that Jason says “frick” in place of the actual f-word), which is guess is to be expected for a live sketch. Probably the reason why a bleep-filled Rahm Emanuel sketch that Andy does the following season is pre-taped in advance.
— I love Will’s incredulous delivery of “You want the…government to pay you extortion money……..in return for not burning down the U.S. Capitol Building????”
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host avoids music royalties with a medley of Christmas song snippets

— Among his many thanks at the beginning of this, Hugh Laurie thanks “Sweetcheeks”, as a nice little callback to his previous SNL monologue, in which he named the collective audience Sweetcheeks while lovingly addressing them. I wonder how many audience members in tonight’s episode got the reference.
— After how fantastic Hugh’s previous monologue was, I’m looking forward to this.
— Hugh calling 2008 a bad year and saying it had so many downers seems kinda trivial in hindsight, in comparison to our current year (2020, for anyone reading this in the future). Also, I was about to ask, what downers in 2008 are Hugh referring to, because I don’t recall ’08 being known as a bad year, until I just now remembered the financial crisis, which was huge. Are there any other big downers in 2008 Hugh was referring to?
— Very funny bit with Hugh giving a tiny chapstick to an audience member as a Christmas gift.
— An okay bit with Hugh singing a medley of Christmas classics that consists only of three-second snippets of each song, so SNL won’t have to pay royalties. Something seems kinda cliched about that gag, but Hugh’s making it work.
STARS: ****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
British butcher’s (host) accent makes Betty & Jodi flirty

— Another Maya Rudolph cameo this season. A planned Bronx Beat sketch actually got scrapped from the last episode Maya cameoed in earlier this season, the Jon Hamm episode, due to a then-pregnant Amy going into labor and giving birth hours before the live show.
— This is the final Bronx Beat installment with either Amy or Maya still in the SNL cast, as tonight is Amy’s final episode as a cast member, which is presumably the reason SNL brought this sketch back tonight. (This sketch would continue to make occasional appearances after this, when either Amy or Maya are hosting SNL.) Speaking of which, this sketch also has the distinction of appearing in Maya and Amy’s respective final episode as a cast member.
— Good part with Amy and Maya eagerly making Hugh say British versions of American words.
— Amy’s character, in regards to her and Maya’s character: “I wish we had accents.”
— A particularly great and raunchy part with Amy and Maya asking Hugh what his favorite meat body part is. Amy and Maya’s characters seem even hornier than usual tonight, which is certainly saying something.
STARS: ****


DYSFUNCTIONAL CHRISTMAS DINNER
(JAS), (host), (CAW), (WLF), (KRW) are on hair triggers at holiday dinner

— Here’s a sketch I’ve always had very fond memories of, and has (rightfully) been played in many SNL Christmas compilation specials.
— The performers are doing such a great job conveying the tenseness of this dinner.
— The “Anyone need more wine?” “YES!” bit is very funny.
— I’m enjoying the running gag throughout this sketch with everybody yelling “Sit down, Judith!” whenever Kristen angrily gets up to leave. During one of those “Sit down, Judith!” sequences, I particularly love how Jason yells “CHAIR, BUTT, NOW!”
— Hugh’s sudden “DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!” outburst absolutely SLAYS me every time I watch this sketch.
— Funny sudden turn with Hugh’s random, tender singing of “Silent Night”, and how he’s eventually joined in by everyone else.
STARS: ****½


WEDDING TOAST
wedding reception emcee (JAS) can’t stem the flow of unwanted toasters

— This is the first edition of this series of wedding/funeral speech sketches, featuring the same cast of oddball characters.
— Great to see Jason so prominent in tonight’s episode so far, especially given how little he had been appearing the last few episodes prior to this. In fact, he didn’t appear in the preceding week’s John Malkovich-hosted episode AT ALL. Speaking of which, I remember it was pointed out by some online SNL fans back at this time in 2008 that Jason looks really sullen during the goodnights of the episode I’m currently reviewing. It would be revealed not too long after this episode’s original airing that Jason was going through a rough divorce at this time, which perhaps explains his unhappy demeanor in this episode’s goodnights. I also used to think it explained his aforementioned absence in the Malkovich episode, as I assumed maybe Jason asked Lorne for a week off so he can deal with the personal hardships he was going through in regards to his divorce, but when watching and reviewing that Malkovich episode yesterday, I was surprised to notice that not only could Jason be seen during that episode’s goodnights despite his mysterious absence from the show itself, he was also all smiles in those goodnights, looking like he was in an upbeat mood. For anyone who’s seen the James Franco-made behind-the-scenes documentary on that Malkovich episode, was Jason shown in it? Was he in any of the sketches that got cut from the live show? Thanks in advance.
— I love Hugh’s very dry voice in this sketch.
— I see that both Fred and Kristen are, separately, playing characters that have a look that’s very quintessential of typical Armisen and Wiig characters. That’s not a bad thing to me in this particular sketch’s case, as I’m enjoying Fred and Kristen’s characters here.
— Bobby steals this sketch with his very random “(*grabs mic*) WHAAAAAAAT?!? (*drops mic in a badass manner*)” bit.
— Jason’s a great frustrated straight man.
— Oh, we now get the debut of Will’s racist, anti-Obama character, Hamilton, probably my favorite aspect of this series of wedding/funeral speech sketches. He even eventually gets spun off into his own sketches in season 35.
— Once again, Will is excellent at pulling off ballsy, touchy humor.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Lockdown”


WEEKEND UPDATE
David Paterson (FRA) gives criteria for senator replacement candidates

incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Rod Blagojevich’s obstinance

wandering David Paterson (FRA) interrupts AMP’s emotional valedictory

— The final Weekend Update of the Amy Poehler era.
— The debut of Fred’s David Paterson impression. Judging from things I’ve read in the comments section of some of my recent reviews, I take it these David Paterson commentaries are not looked back on fondly by most SNL fans nowadays. I personally recall really liking the first few Paterson commentaries (before they got run into the ground, in typical Fred Armisen fashion) back when they originally aired, so we’ll see how these Paterson commentaries hold up for me after all these years.
— Lots of cheap blind jokes so far in tonight’s Paterson commentary, though I’m enjoying Fred’s performance.
— Seth, to Fred’s David Paterson: “Governor, what do you have against New Jersey?” Paterson: “Unfortunately, a southern border.” I feel like I should be ashamed for laughing so much at that.
— Fred’s Paterson got yet another laugh from me just now, by saying his crazy life is the plot of a Richard Pryor movie.
— There goes our obligatory instance of a blind Fred Armisen wandering around lost in front of the camera, blocking the person speaking to the camera. That routine is still making me chuckle, but I found it funnier when Fred previously did it as his blind stand-up comedian character, Pep Walters.
— Great to see a “Really?!?” segment in Amy’s final Update.
— Some strong lines from Amy in tonight’s “Really?!?”, especially the bit about how she uses circus tickets as a codename for weed when ordering it over the phone. I also like her delivery of “The first time I saw you, I thought you were walking away”, regarding Rod Blagojevich and his odd hair.
— Ah, now we get a special, tender goodbye message from Amy, acknowledging that this is her final episode. This is actually making my eyes start to tear up a bit, to be honest. The nature of this SNL project of mine, with me doing daily reviews in chronological order, gets me so attached to certain SNL cast members, much moreso than I had ever been before. I also feel like it was just yesterday when I reviewed Amy’s very first episode (Reese Witherspoon/Alicia Keys from season 27), which is part of why it now feels very emotional for me to see Amy’s goodbye message. Doing this SNL project is such an interesting ride for me.
— Right in the middle of Amy’s tender goodbye message, we get ANOTHER sudden interruption from Fred’s wandering Paterson again blocking the camera. I admit, that bit is actually working more for me here than it did earlier in this Update. I especially like how, while blocking the camera, Fred’s Paterson orders $50 worth of “circus tickets” over the phone, as a callback to something Amy said during the “Really?!?” segment in tonight’s Update.
— It’s interesting how, in each of the two episodes Amy appeared in after her maternity leave (the preceding week’s John Malkovich episode and tonight’s episode), she only appeared in one sketch and Weekend Update. You’d figure SNL would instead be utilizing Amy more than ever in her final two episodes as a cast member, as SNL often tends to do for veteran cast members when they’re about to leave. I feel like Amy’s small amount of appearances in her final two episodes was a conscious decision on her part, as this was probably her way of willingly phasing herself out of the show, and she also probably didn’t want to step on the toes of the two women who were added to the cast during her maternity leave (Abby and Michaela). If that’s true, then I appreciate that classy move of Amy’s. It could’ve been interesting, though, seeing her interact with the new girls in a sketch. I can’t imagine how surreal it would’ve felt seeing Amy and Michaela side-by-side in a sketch.
STARS: ***½


LAMPS
musical features luminaires that sing, dance, take hostages

— Hmm, not too sure about this premise.
— I like Andy’s exaggerated delivery of “THIS IS WHAT’S…HAPPENING…SHARON!” What was with the odd long pause afterwards, though, before the camera cut to an exterior shot of the store?
— After a scene transition, the camera accidentally catches Michaela tying a gag over her own mouth, when we’re supposed to believe the lamps were the ones who tied the gag over Michaela’s mouth.
— Meh, I’m not caring for this sketch. Not even the part with Will’s grandfather clock character suddenly getting shot did anything for me.
— Very lame twist ending, with this turning out to be a preview for a Broadway play.
STARS: *½


THE CAT’S CHRISTMAS LETTER
(KRW) dictates a holiday letter in the voice of the dead family cat

— Pretty funny when Kristen clarifies to Hugh that the pun word “purrrrrrr-sonal” has to be typed with seven ‘r’s.
— I like Hugh questioning why Kristen is writing a Christmas letter from a dead cat. I also like Kristen responding to Hugh’s unhappiness over that by telling him a stern, deadpan “Tough tacos.”
— Some good tension between Kristen and an uncooperative Hugh throughout this sketch.
— Blah, I didn’t like that corny “I’ll make wuv to you” ending. Second consecutive sketch tonight with a lousy ending.
STARS: ***


COOKIES
at a somber company meeting, (FRA) can’t stop snacking

— In each of the last two Christmas episodes prior to this, we got an absolutely epic, legendary, and viral music video Digital Short: Lazy Sunday in season 31’s Christmas episode, and Dick In A Box in season 32’s Christmas episode. (Season 33 didn’t have a Christmas episode, due to the writers’ strike.) So how does Lonely Island continue that tradition in tonight’s Christmas episode? By having the Digital Short be a very unassuming, forgettable, no-reason-to-be-pre-taped, throwaway, non-music video short starring Fred playing a mincing gay man, a tired archetype that Fred’s already played to death prior to this. Really, Lonely Island? Perhaps they should’ve saved their fantastic Jizz In My Pants short from the preceding episode for tonight’s episode instead. Jizz In My Pants would’ve continued the “every Christmas episode has an epic music video Digital Short” tradition nicely.
— I’m now two minutes into this short, and, man, I’m finding this insufferable. (*sigh*) You know, I gotta say, stuff like this short and that awful Boy George commentary Fred did on Weekend Update in the preceding episode make me kinda understand why some people feel THIS season is when Fred’s infamous decline started, a viewpoint I had always disagreed with in the past. (Now that I think about how the remainder of this season goes, Fred does have some more awful stuff coming up later this season, including some painfully unfunny Bernie Madoff pieces.) However, I personally still say his decline doesn’t hit FULL SWING until season 35 (one of several things I’m kinda dreading about that season as we get closer and closer to it in this SNL project of mine). As I said in a somewhat recent episode review, I now consider seasons 32-34 to be Fred’s very hit-and-miss “Something unfortunate is looming ahead” years. His decline as a cast member is so gradual that it’s kinda hard for me to pinpoint when exactly it started, but, yeah, I still feel by this point in season 34 that he still has enough good stuff that somewhat balances out his bad stuff. And, again, it’s not until season 35 when I feel that the really bad, annoying, anger-inducing stuff becomes Fred’s almost-entire output. So, in other words, if you already haven’t been liking Fred by this point in season 34, things sadly get EVEN WORSE in his subsequent seasons.
— Kenan makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a small walk-on at the end of this 10-to-1 pre-taped Digital Short, meaning he makes no live appearances tonight.
— I admit to getting a cheap laugh from the reveal that the cookies Fred has been stuffing into his mouth all throughout this short are actually laxatives.
— Funny bit at the very end where, right before the screen cuts to black, Jason, after giving it some thought, reaches for a cookie, despite having just learned that those cookies are laxatives.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heartless”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode with a good first half, but a very forgettable second half. Overall, not one of SNL’s more memorable Christmas episodes, nor one of their more memorable season 34 episodes, but still not too bad an episode as a whole. This sure pales in comparison to Hugh Laurie’s first episode, though. I also wasn’t too crazy about some of the roles SNL utilized Hugh in tonight.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dysfunctional Christmas Dinner
Monologue
Bronx Beat with Betty & Jodi
Wedding Toast
Weekend Update
The Cat’s Christmas Letter
Blagojevich Hearing
Cookies
Lamps


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Malkovich)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2009, with host Neil Patrick Harris

Posted on

September 29, 2007 – LeBron James / Kanye West (S33 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE ALL-BUT-CERTAIN-TO-BE NEXT PRESIDENT
patronizing presumed president Hillary Clinton’s (AMP) future is perfect

— Darrell makes his only appearance of this entire season premiere in a brief, mostly-silent bit as Bill Clinton at the beginning of this cold opening, proving to me back in 2007 how pointless it was for SNL to keep Darrell in the cast for YET ANOTHER season.
— Some laughs from Amy’s Hillary Clinton treating her chances of becoming the next president as a foregone conclusion.
— Amy’s Hillary wig looks different tonight, and, for some reason, it really emphasizes that dumb and pointless prosthetic nose that she wears as Hillary that I always complain about.
— I’m enjoying Amy-as-Hillary’s personal messages to each of her opponents, especially her biting remark about John Edwards.
— Amy’s Hillary: “In 2016, when I will have completed my second term as president—”. Considering what does end up happening to the real Hillary in regards to the 2016 elections, this feels odd to see in hindsight.
— This is starting to drag a little bit towards the end, and the audience apparently agrees with me.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— This is the second consecutive season premiere with no new cast members. The cast is the exact same as the preceding season.
— Yikes, Don Pardo’s microphone isn’t working during the first 20 seconds or so of this montage, though his voice can start to be heard VERY faintly under the music a short while before his mic volume gets turned way up. Then when his mic volume does get turned way up, the mic is still faulty for a short while, as it makes Don’s voice sound extremely hollow and muffled. Then the voice of who I assume is an SNL technician is heard exclaiming something quickly and then saying what sounds like “This mic is (*unintelligible word*).” Wow, this is an absolute mess.


MONOLOGUE
watching SNL in Akron, The LeBrons (host) evaluate host’s performance

— Pretty fun dancing entrance from LeBron James.
— Good bit with LeBron lying to those of us not familiar with basketball about how his Cavaliers swept the Spurs in that year’s NBA Finals, then advising those of us who are familiar with basketball to “be cool and shut up”.
— A good use of LeBron’s characters from a series of Nike commercials he did at the time.
— A big laugh from LeBron’s pretty-boy character saying, in regards to SNL, “I thought they canceled it after Eddie Murphy, too.”
— I’m particularly liking LeBron’s performance as the grumpy grandfather character.
— An overall short but sweet monologue.
STARS: ***½


ANGRY DOG
the canine-riling kibble has Michael Vick’s picture on the bag

— A very funny, pretty creative, and timely way to spoof the then-recent Michael Vick dog-fighting controversy.
— I love Will’s aggressive, bleep-filled message.
— I almost thought the old guy sitting by the fireplace with his dog was Fred Willard at first glance.
— Great facial reaction from Kristen to the scary face the dog makes at her.
STARS: ****


CHILDREN’S HOPE AUCTION
Penelope’s self-aggrandizement cramps host’s role as charity auction item

— Feels odd seeing Maya this season, partly because of how the preceding season’s finale made it seem like that was her final episode, and partly because she only appears in the first four episodes of this season before she does officially leave.
— SNL leads off this new season with one of the preceding season’s new, breakout characters.
— Penelope gets some good recognition applause in this third appearance of hers.
— Once again, despite the one-note nature of this character, I’m still enjoying these early sketches of hers.
— Kinda funny in retrospect hearing LeBron talk about growing a big beard, given the trademark (and now-graying) beard he has in more recent years.
STARS: ***


HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: RETURN OF THE SENIORS
host & Zac Efron (ANS) portray rival basketballers

— Andy is pretty funny in his portrayal of Zac Efron’s High School Musical character. This also reminds me that, back when this episode originally aired, in the comments section of a review of this episode on one of those AV Club-type sites, somebody left a comment complaining that Andy didn’t “gay it up” enough as Efron in this sketch.
— Funny look of LeBron.
— Wow, until now, I (and I’m assuming just about everybody else) had completely forgotten about the nude picture controversy that Vanessa Hudgens (or, as she was called back then, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, according to this sketch) was in over the summer. This overly-topical portion of the sketch doesn’t hold up very well after all these years. Then again, I remember not finding it all that funny even when this originally aired.
— Despite some funny performances, there’s not much to this sketch.
STARS: **


IRAN SO FAR
ANS & Adam Levine [real] sing a ballad to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (FRA)

— A great and creative way to spoof Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial Columbia University speech that week.
— Ha, Adam Levine appearing for the second consecutive SNL episode (Maroon 5 was the musical guest in the preceding episode).
— This is incredibly well-shot. Such beautiful cinematography for a Digital Short, especially the occasional shots of Andy playing the piano on a moving platform on a bridge, which is impressive for SNL.
— Hilarious lyrics from Andy, accompanied by some great and funny cutaways of Fred’s Mahmoud.
— I love the very brief, silent, blink-and-miss-it cameo from Jake Gyllenhaal, stroking his beard and flashing a cool pose while staring into the camera with a bug-eyed look.
— I’m glad Lonely Island restrained themselves from throwing in a cheap, hacky man-on-man kiss between Andy and Mahmoud.
STARS: ****


READ TO ACHIEVE
unprofessional basketball-passer Jeff bugs host during PSA taping

— The Jeff/Mike Underballs sketch has officially become recurring. This is probably the most well-known and popular installment of this recurring sketch, perhaps partly due to it being aired in many of SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials.
— And there goes Bill’s angry pronunciation of Jeff that I always love in these sketches: “JYYYYEEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Great delivery from Jason on his rude line to LeBron just now: “You’re 22, right? Go sit at the kids table, have a juice box.”
— I laughed so hard at the book bit just now, with Jason randomly tossing LeBron a book instead of a basketball, which LeBron responds to by asking “What the hell is this?!?”, and Jason answers from off-camera by yelling “THAT’S A BOOK!”
— A particularly biting slam from Jason to LeBron: “We should get Dwyane Wade anyway, at least he’s got a ring.”
— I absolutely love the one-on-one game between LeBron and Jason, and how LeBron effortlessly shows Jason up and eventually gives him a much-deserved nosebleed.
— Fantastic sketch overall, and one of Jason’s all-time best.
STARS: *****


THE LYLE KANE SHOW
fellow dweebs (BIH) & (host) are out-of-place on BET

— The return of Will’s Lyle Kane character, after debuting just one episode ago in the preceding season’s finale. Interesting how not only has SNL made him recurring after only one episode, but he’s gotten spun-off from an ensemble sketch into his own sketch. I wish it wasn’t in the lazy and beyond-overused talk show format, but this Lyle Kane character seems like he can definitely still make the format of this sketch work.
— Already a laugh right at the start, with the theme music being badly played on a flute.
— This show being aired on BET, of all channels, is hilarious.
— I love how Lyle Kane keeps referring to BET as “the Black E.T. channel”.
— I said it before and I’ll say it again: the Forte/Hader duo is an underrated pairing that we should’ve seen much more often during their years in the cast together.
— Funny seeing LeBron talking in this type of voice and imitating Lyle Kane’s “Hi, derrrreee”s. For a non-actor, LeBron’s doing a good job in this goofy role.
— The “B.J.” question that LeBron relays to Lyle Kane is very funny, as is Lyle actually answering the question.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stronger” & “Good Life”


WEEKEND UPDATE
O.J. Simpson (KET) defends the reclamation of one’s sold property

(MAR) translates Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s (FRA) affinity for mannish women

— A very different and much shorter hairstyle from Amy this season. And no, I’m pretty sure it’s not a wig. I remember how, somewhere around this time, her and Tina Fey filmed an interview for an HBO (or one of those channels) special that gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the movie Baby Mama (released the following year in 2008), and during the interview, Amy had the exact same short hairstyle she has in these early season 33 Weekend Updates.
— Ugh, THAT’S the joke they open this season of Update with?
— Maybe it’s just the visual quality of this new season in general, but the Update set and lighting look darker than usual tonight.
— The debut of Kenan’s O.J. Simpson impression.
— A laugh from Kenan-as-O.J.’s lightheartedly exasperated “Grrrrrr!” in reaction to Amy not understanding his point.
— Seth’s smiling delivery of “No” when Amy asks him if he understands O.J.’s logic was very funny.
— Something about the way Seth followed the 9/11 punchline of his Rudy Giuliani joke by silently mouthing the term “9/11” again and staring at the camera with a smarmy smile, all the while the audience was reacting to the punchline, felt VERY David Spade-esque. I can totally picture Spade doing that whole thing in a Hollywood Minute segment.
— Hmm, Fred’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears a second time tonight? They’ll never top his appearance in the Digital Short from earlier tonight.
— Meh, a predictable and not-very-funny comedic conceit of this Mahmoud commentary, with his description of his ideal woman turning out to just be a description of men. Yeah, they should’ve just left the number of Fred’s Mahmoud appearances tonight at 1, with that far-superior Digital Short.
— Some pretty solid jokes throughout this Update, despite some occasional clunkers from Amy.
STARS: ***½


BEST OF SOLID GOLD
DVD highlights Solid Gold Dancers (MAR), (KRW), (AMP), (WLF), (host)

— Kenan playing a very effeminate male character with the gag name C. Micah Kring (See My Cock Ring)? AND introducing a Solid Gold spoof? Yeah, I don’t need to ask which person in SNL’s writing staff penned THIS sketch.
— Very funny inclusion of LeBron, of all people, as a Solid Gold dancer.
— I feel bad for Will having to follow LeBron’s entrance, as he’ll never top that. Poor Will had to resort to lots of mugging into the camera during his entrance in an attempt to get any kind of reaction from the audience after the huge response they had just given LeBron.
— LeBron is killing it in this sketch. His performance, delivery, and facial expressions are providing the only real amusement, as the humor of the rest of this sketch has run out of steam fast.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
“First Served, First Come” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo foils loo trap

— This ends up being the second-to-last TV Funhouse during TV Funhouse’s regular run.
— Holy hell! The return of the Ambiguously Gay Duo after a very long hiatus! This is much-needed at this point, given how much the quality of TV Funhouse has diminished in this late stage of its SNL run (with a few exceptions).
— Hmm, they shortened the usual AGD theme song.
— A timely tie-in to the Larry Craig toe-tapping/bathroom stall scandal going on at this time.
— I’m no prude, but the constant shots of characters groaning and straining on the toilet while having diarrhea feels unnecessary and too desperate for laughs, though I am chuckling at the odd detail of how the police officer inexplicably still has his pants fully on while using the toilet (the last above screencap for this TV Funhouse).
— A nice subversion of the usual “What’s everyone looking at?” “Nothing!” bit in these AGD cartoons.
— For some bizarre reason, Maya’s headshot that was used for a special occasion in the ending credits of the preceding episode’s TV Funhouse (because it was assumed by many at SNL that Maya was leaving) is still left intact in the ending credits of tonight’s TV Funhouse, despite the fact that 1) tonight is obviously NOT Maya’s final episode, and 2) Maya didn’t even do a voice in this cartoon.
STARS: ***½


106 & PARK TOP TEN LIVE
failure to win awards induces tantrums in musical guest

— A very strong and well-remembered sketch, with Kanye West making fun of his own penchant for interrupting people’s acceptance speeches at awards shows. The even funnier thing about that in hindsight is the fact that this sketch is two years before Kanye’s most infamous interruption of an acceptance speech: the Taylor Swift one at the 2009 MTV VMAs, which I guess proves that, while Kanye was certainly a great sport to do this 106 & Park sketch back in 2007, he did not learn his lesson AT ALL. I guess no matter what, Kanye’s gonna Kanye.
— Kanye: “I used to believe the children were our future…but (*bleep*) that!”
— For some reason, Bill’s very dry, droll, deep voice during his speech in the Nobel Peace Prize scene is cracking me the hell up, especially his delivery of the name George F. Smoot. (Then again, George F. Smoot is a funny name in itself.)
— The quiet and dignified Nobel Peace Prize ceremony suddenly getting crashed by Kanye yelling a very loud and jarring “AW, HELL NAH!” had me freakin’ howling.
— The pumpkin scene is particularly funny, especially the champagne in Kanye’s pumpkin.
— Despite the repetitive, one-note nature of this sketch, it’s still working very much for me. It’s all in the execution, and Kanye is perfect here.
— I like the meta turn with Kanye being shown backstage at SNL angrily ranting in his dressing room over the fact that LeBron is hosting instead of him. This is also rather prescient, as Kanye would later infamously end up going through a real-life angry backstage rant at SNL in his 2016 appearance (in an episode hosted by Melissa McCarthy), when finding out SNL’s crew changed the design of the musical guest stage after rehearsals without asking him in advance. (Audio of this rant was leaked online shortly after the episode aired.) This has probably been forgotten by most people in the wake of Kanye’s far-more-infamous onstage post-goodnights political rant at SNL two years later (in a season premiere hosted by Adam Driver).
— Kanye: “Man, give a black man…give a SHORT black man a chance!”
— Maya’s sign-off at the end seemed like it should’ve been funnier, instead of just the line “More screamiiiiiiiin’!” But I guess it doesn’t matter, when the rest of this sketch was as strong as it was.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champion” & “Everything I Am”


GREAT MOMENTS IN GUIDANCE COUNSELING
(JAS) steers host away from college

— Great to see another big Jason Sudeikis showcase tonight, after the fantastic Read To Achieve sketch from earlier tonight.
— Hilarious reveal of Jason sharing an office with a meek Will.
— Wow, SNL’s camerawork is an absolute MESS during this sketch. Not only does the camera constantly keep mistakenly cutting to close-ups of the wrong person when someone else is speaking, but we get one PARTICULARLY bad and jarring gaffe at one point, where the camera accidentally briefly cuts away from this sketch to a darkened part of SNL’s studio (screencap below), completely ruining the gag where Jason takes his diploma off the wall and dismissively throws it onto the floor. WTF?!?

Ehh, I chalk all the camera gaffes in this sketch up to the fact that this is a season premiere, and SNL’s control room crew understandably must be a little rusty after their summer break. I also assume that’s the reason for Don Pardo’s mic issues during the opening montage earlier tonight.
— I am absolutely loving Jason’s performance here.
— I like Jason’s constant threats to Will every time Will says something.
— Keeping up the bad technical issues in this sketch, this sketch ends in a very awkward manner, as if the people in the control room didn’t know when to fade out of the sketch. There’s actually a reason for this. This sketch was supposed to end with a brief preview of another “Great Moments in Guidance Counseling” scene, where a young Kanye West (complete with nerdy glasses and a high-pitched voice) is given advice by his high school guidance counselor, played by Kenan, but the show ran long and was forced to cut that ending scene at the very last minute. During the goodnights, both Kanye and Kenan can even be seen wearing their outfits for this sketch, which just goes to show you how last-minute the decision to cut their scene was. I’m not 100% sure, but I think in reruns of this episode, SNL would insert the original Kanye/Kenan ending scene from the dress rehearsal version of this sketch. I can’t remember if that rerun replaces this entire sketch in general with the dress version, but I assume it does, given the aforementioned bad camera gaffes that kept happening all throughout the live version of it.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good start to the season, and there was a nice number of strong sketches, including an all-time favorite of mine (Read To Achieve). LeBron James was also pretty good for an athlete host.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2006-07)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Seth Rogen

Posted on

October 1, 2005 – Steve Carell / Kanye West (S31 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING
George W. Bush (WLF) addresses executive branch woes at press conference

— Right out of the gate, it’s very noticeable how drastically different SNL’s visual quality is this season, as this is the first episode in HD and widescreen.
— Hmm. Not sure a President Bush press conference cold opening is the most exciting way to start a new season. Then again, a fucking 13-minute-long presidential debate spoof with extremely poor writing is also not an exciting way to start a new season, as the preceding season 30 has shown, so maybe I should count my blessings and appreciate how season 31 is starting off with a simple 5-minute long press conference cold opening with decent writing.
— Will-as-Bush’s bragging about going to the Gulf is worth some pretty good laughs.
— Will’s usual whininess and overly-defensiveness as Bush is coming off particularly funny in this cold opening.
— A very solid part with Will’s Bush saying “I’m beginning to wonder…who’s in charge of this situation?” in regards to how he’s been waiting and waiting for someone to take action on handling the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson have been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Bill Hader and Andy Samberg have been added to the cast tonight.

— Bill’s shot doesn’t match the other cast members’ shots in this montage, as his shot follows the old tradition of many previous opening montages, in which cast members are seen casually doing something before looking into the camera and smiling, whereas all the other cast members’ shots in this particular montage (including Bill’s fellow newbie, Andy) never feature them looking into the camera.


MONOLOGUE
flush with box office success, host sings about joining the comedy A-list

— Funny bit with Steve Carell mentioning he auditioned to be in the SNL cast 10 years ago, but lost to a certain other guy, who we are then shown a humorous photo of (the second above screencap for this monologue).
— Steve noticeably follows up saying he’s on “the hit series The Office” by comically correcting himself with “critically-acclaimed series The Office”, implying The Office isn’t actually a hit (the show was still somewhat new by this point). It certainly feels odd in retrospect to see this implication of The Office not being a hit, given the path we know the series’ popularity would eventually take.
— Meh, not excited about the idea of a season premiere’s monologue being a song-and-dance number.
— Ugh at the song lyric calling Owen Wilson gay.
— Funny part with Steve demonstrating that money falls from his ass.
— Overall, not too crazy about this monologue as a whole, but Steve made the best of it, and there were a few laughs.
STARS: **½


MORGAN STANLEY
Morgan Stanley advisor (WLF) is client’s (FRA) surrogate disciplinarian

— Angry Will Forte is always comedy gold.
— Andy Samberg’s very first line on SNL: an uncensored “Your dad’s kind of a dick.” There’s something strangely significant about that being Andy’s very first line.
— Very funny reveal that Will is, in fact, NOT Amy’s dad; he’s just her family’s Morgan Stanley financial adviser, then we see that Amy’s actual dad is some wimpy pushover of a father.
— Unfortunately, SNL would eventually go on to re-air the living shit out of this solid commercial over the course of the first half of this season. (Hell, at one point, it’s re-aired in two consecutive episodes!)
STARS: ****


JET BLUE FLIGHT 292
onboard TV occupies (host) & alarms (AMP) on troubled Jet Blue flight

— I think I recall hearing this is the very first sketch written by Colin Jost, who is making his debut in tonight’s episode as an SNL writer.
— Funny bit involving Terra Blue potato chips.
— A really good laugh from Seth’s character showing a CGI simulation of the plane, firetruck, and survivors all going up in flames.
— Is that Darrell who’s voice I’m hearing repeatedly coughing very loudly during the aforementioned CGI simulation video?
— I love Chris-as-the-pilot’s very un-phased, casually-delivered announcements about the plane’s dire troubles throughout this sketch.
— Hearing Bill Hader’s voice for the very first time in this SNL project of mine is strangely comforting. I think I had a similar feel when I reviewed Phil Hartman’s very first episode as a cast member earlier in this SNL project.
— Right in his very first sketch, Bill gets a good laugh with his “Oh, you don’t wanna know. Knowing makes it, like, 10 times worse” line, followed by him making a brief silly facial expression in a laid-back, carefree manner (the last above screencap for this sketch).
— An overall solid lead-off sketch for a season premiere, and if this was indeed the very first Colin Jost-written SNL sketch, then this was a very impressive and promising start for the very young new writer (I think I recall hearing he was only about 22 years old at this time).
STARS: ****


ANDERSON COOPER 360
celebrities help with Katrina reconstruction

— Right out of the gate, after the “Anderson Cooper 360” opening title sequence, Seth seems stumbly and is throwing in lots of “uh”s, but I recall a poster on an SNL message board saying this is just part of Seth’s impression, as the real Anderson Cooper was known to talk like that back then. I wasn’t very familiar with how Anderson Cooper was back then, so I can’t confirm if this is indeed correct.
— I like the cutaway to an unhappy, deadpan Kenan in a Spongebob Squarepants costume, asking “Why I gotta be Spongebob?”
— Right in his very first episode, Bill Hader gets his breakout SNL moment. Even in just a small scene here, his hilarious and dead-on Al Pacino impression steals the ENTIRE sketch. I particularly love his epic line before exiting: “There’s a Shih Tzu stuck in a Spanish oak tree. I go…to save…that dog.” I remember when this sketch originally aired, my first thought when the camera first showed Bill as Pacino was a very negative “What?!? This new guy looks NOTHING like Al Pacino! He’s not convincing in this role at all!” Then he spoke in that Pacino voice and I immediately shut the hell up with my criticisms and stared at the screen in both amazement and amusement over the greatness I was witnessing from this newbie.
— Bill’s appearance in this sketch ended up getting SO much buzz, and it (with perhaps a little help from a Weekend Update commentary Bill and fellow newbie Andy Samberg do together as themselves later tonight) made Bill the talk of the town on SNL message boards for a solid week after tonight’s episode originally aired. Everybody was SO excited for this new guy. (I even remember how, when Bill was first interviewed on Late Night With Conan O’Brien a few months after tonight’s SNL episode originally aired, Conan mentioned how Bill’s Pacino debut was the big topic of discussion among Conan and his staffers the Monday after tonight’s SNL episode originally aired, as they were all very impressed by his Pacino.) This is easily one of the most, if not THE most, exciting debuts of a new SNL cast member I can proudly say I saw live as it originally aired. It’s always a thrilling feel to see an unknown new cast member kill like this out of nowhere in their very first episode.
— Steve’s Ray Romano is pretty funny, even if he doesn’t sound THAT much like him. (I recall impressionist Frank Caliendo doing a more spot-on imitation of Romano’s voice, on MADtv sometime around these years).
— Horatio’s Aaron Neville works better for me as a small part of a sketch like this, rather than starring in his own sketch like he did in that City Court sketch the preceding season.
— I’ve mentioned multiple times how I’m never excited about Darrell’s appearances as Geraldo Rivera, but him suddenly crashing Anderson Cooper’s Hurricane Katrina coverage is funny.
STARS: ***½


THE NEEDLERS
at a restaurant, unhappily married Sally & Dan cut each other down

— After debuting with the last name Harrison in a sketch from the preceding season, the now-recurring Couple That Should Be Divorced characters have a new last name: Needler.
— The title sequence for these characters has been altered a bit, and their theme song is COMPLETELY different from their last one.
— I love Seth requesting “a splash of water and, like, 60 sleeping pills” with his drink.
— Good passive-aggressive line from Amy about how Seth’s way of proposing to her was getting down on one knee in an Applebees parking lot and saying “We might as well do this.”
— They repeat the turn from the first installment of this sketch, with an off-camera Seth and Amy having sex in the kitchen, which feels unnecessary, but Jason has a very funny line here when telling Steve and Rachel about the Needlers’ sex in the kitchen: “The busboys are totally into it, but it’s, like, a huuuuge health code violation.”
STARS: ***


GIRLS GONE WILD KATRINA
hurricane victims flash for bottled water on Girls Gone Wild Katrina tape

— I recall this being a controversial piece among some SNL viewers back then, who felt this was in very poor taste.
— This is at least a spot-on spoof of how exploitative those sleazy Girls Gone Wild commercials that were rampant on late night TV back in these days were (at one point, this spoof even uses the same “Show me where babies feed!” line from the real GGW commercials).
— Halfway through this, the comedic conceit is already starting to get pretty old for me, as it’s basically just repeating the same joke over and over.
STARS: **


BACKSTAGE
LOM & shell shocked MIM fear what might come out of musical guest’s mouth

— A decent way to address Maya’s pregnancy.
— A little part that got no audience reaction, but I absolutely loved: upon seeing Finesse show up, Maya points to him while asking Lorne “He still works here???” This mirrors how lots of SNL fans back then, including myself, felt at the time, as we were very surprised Finesse made it onto a third season.
— I’m starting to get kinda tired of the running gag in SNL’s backstage sketches where people get Kenan and Finesse’s names mixed up.
— Funnily enough, Lorne pulls the same “Hey, look over there!” move on Kanye West that Will Ferrell pulled on Lorne himself when Ferrell hosted in the preceding season. Lorne and Kanye are even in the exact same hallway where Lorne and Ferrell were when Ferrell pulled that move.
— Ha, holy hell! Mike Myers and Kanye reunited after their infamous encounter in the Hurricane Katrina telethon that summer. I remember how surprising and exciting it was to see this reunion on SNL back when this originally aired, and how good it was to see Mike getting some humor out of that uncomfortable telethon situation.
— An overall very fun backstage piece, and a nice and out-of-the-ordinary way to set up Kanye’s ensuing musical performance. I always appreciate when SNL breaks format like this.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gold Digger” & “Touch The Sky”


WEEKEND UPDATE
to HOS, George W. Bush’s disaster supersession strategy merits emulation

FIM tells how to determine gender of nightclub pick-up on car ride home

in impression-off contest, ANS counters BIH’s mimicry with “Whassup?!”

— Horatio fills in for an absent Tina Fey, who we’re told is “out on assignment” and that she and her husband Jeff had a baby girl. Unless I’m forgetting something, I think this and early season 2 are the ONLY times in SNL history where somebody needed to temporarily fill in for a regular Update anchor while they were unable to appear on the show.
— Amy has a new Update suit this season. I remember in my original review for this episode that I wrote back in 2005 when this episode originally aired, I expressed huge frustration over having to sit through a second season of Amy at the Update desk, and wrote “Well, at least Amy has a new Update suit she can be unfunny in this season” (I’m only going by my memory of what I said there, given the fact that my original review of this episode isn’t available at the website in which I archived my old 2000-2014 reviews, as I lost all of my reviews from the first half of this season).
— I’m glad Amy’s opening Hurricane Katrina joke didn’t result in clapter from the audience, given the fact that it seemed kinda designed to.
— Boy, does it feel odd seeing Horatio deliver Update jokes.
— Interesting seeing Horatio now doing an editorial.
— Finesse has surprisingly been getting some good airtime as himself throughout tonight’s episode. I remember how, shortly before this season started, there was an article in which Finesse was interviewed, and he had SO much confidence about his then-upcoming third season on SNL. In the article, he addressed his struggles from his first two seasons, and confidently said that, now that he’s been promoted to a repertory player, he’s going to go into this new season MUCH harder and MUCH more determined than ever, and even had several sketch ideas already laid out that summer, one of which involved him playing a black version of Spongebob Squarepants (which I recall some online SNL fans, after reading this article, cynically pointing out sounded like a rip-off of Eddie Murphy’s Gumby, never mind the fact that Eddie’s Gumby ISN’T EVEN BLACK). In retrospect, it’s so sad to think back on that article and that VERY confident and determined attitude Finesse went into this season with (an attitude that’s definitely been on display in his appearances throughout tonight’s season premiere) when you’re aware of how this season would turn out for him. He would end up being more underused than EVER this season (which is certainly saying something, given the fact that he didn’t get much airtime his first two seasons either), would struggle to get ANY of his material on the air (including the aforementioned Black Spongebob, which never sees the light of day, though oddly enough, Kenan was dressed in a Spongebob costume earlier in this episode I’m currently reviewing), and would end up getting fired after this non-productive season of his. His frustration over his extreme under-utilization this season ends up getting to the degree where it manifests itself on the air at one point: in the very first Two A-Holes sketch later this season in the Jack Black-hosted Christmas episode, Finesse gives a very awkward and halting performance in which you can tell the poor guy was genuinely very upset and possibly even demeaned over the fact that his ONLY appearance in that entire episode, an episode that included some epic, show-stopping, legendary pieces, was at the very end of the final sketch of the night in a very small straight role in which he, as a fucking hot dog vendor, feeds set-up lines to the Two A-Holes. Ouch.
— Really good energy from Finesse during his commentary here, but I wonder if this whole comedy routine about him trying to find out if his date is a cross-dresser won’t go over well with a lot of people in today’s age.
— Horatio’s surprisingly not bad as an Update anchor so far tonight. And given how extremely sick I’ve gotten of Tina at the Update desk the last three seasons, Horatio’s presence is actually kind of a breath of fresh air (which is something I never thought I’d say about Horatio at this point of his SNL tenure). Even Amy’s coming off a little less annoying and a little less cutesy as an anchorperson when she’s paired with Horatio instead of Tina. (We’re seeing an early glimpse of how decent and tolerable Amy would regularly be as an anchor in the post-Tina Fey era of Update, where Amy’s co-anchor is Seth.) Even the writing of the Update jokes seems a little better tonight.
— Great how tonight’s two newbies are getting their own Update feature to introduce themselves to the audience.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember how Amy mentioning in passing here that Bill Hader’s an impressionist sparked some discussion among me and others on SNL message boards about how Bill being an impressionist may possibly be a sign that he was hired to take over the still-on-the-show Darrell Hammond’s spot as SNL’s resident impressionist, and we speculated that this season may end up being Darrell’s last. Funny to think back on that, because, as we know now, 1) Bill would turn out to be SO much more on SNL than a mere impressionist, and 2) Darrell would end up not leaving until FOUR YEARS LATER.
— A very fun idea of an Impression-Off between the two new guys.
— A great way for both Bill to show off his impression skills and Andy to show off the silly goofiness that would soon become his trademark. Despite a fun debut here, Andy actually would go on to have a rough first few months on SNL, to the degree that a lot of online SNL fans back then not only didn’t like him (words like “amateur” and “too green” were often thrown around when they were discussing him), but they were already predicting he would get “Rob Riggled” by ending up a one-season wonder. As we know now, a certain pre-taped short in the aforementioned Jack Black episode from later this season would turn EVERYTHING around for Andy.
— I love how, while the audience is applauding at the end of Bill and Andy’s commentary, Andy cheers “New guuuuyyyyys!”
— Some decent interplay between Horatio and Amy throughout this Update. Much better than the typical interplay between Tina and Amy on Update.
STARS: *** (this is the first Update I’ve given a passing rating to since the days when Jimmy Fallon was still an Update anchor)


THE LUNDFORD TWINS FEEL GOOD VARIETY HOUR
a second Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour emerges from the vault

— I liked the first installment of this sketch from the preceding season, but yeah, I didn’t need a second installment of this. Such an odd choice for a sketch to make recurring.
— Maya’s song is nowhere near as funny as the one she performed in the first installment of this sketch.
— I like Steve’s stiff, ventriloquist dummy-esque mouth movement when laughing at something Maya’s character said.
— Regarding the 1920s musical scene, a lot of online SNL fans back at this time in 2005 mistakenly assumed that the non-cast member performing with Rachel, Chris, and Will (the fifth and sixth above screencaps for this sketch) was SNL writer Liz Cackowski, who online SNL fans had speculated over the summer would be added to the season 31 cast, due to SNL needing more women in the cast with Tina AND Maya’s maternity leaves (Maya’s maternity leave begins in the very next episode, and we won’t be seeing her return to the show for MONTHS). The woman in this sketch isn’t Cackowski; she’s actually SNL’s choreographer Danielle Flora, who’s made a lot of onscreen appearances over the years in many sketches involving dancing (her most prominent and noteworthy appearance is probably in the Ladies Man Christmas musical piece from season 25’s Danny DeVito episode).
— Kenan’s cracking me up during his musical performance.
— Overall, some highlights, but this sketch didn’t work as well for me a second time.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- John Roberts never stops being circumspect

— Some laughs from the increasingly humorous situations and locations in which Supreme Court Justice John Roberts talks in circles with very indecisive answers, such as at a fast-food drive-thru, and in response to Mick Jagger asking the crowd “Are you ready to rock?” during a Rolling Stones concert.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Adam Levine [real] perform “Heard ‘Em Say”


DEBBIE DOWNER
Debbie Downer finds company in the misery of soulmate Bob Bummer (host)

— At the beginning of this sketch, Kenan as a wedding DJ tells everyone to “put your hands together for Mr. and Mrs. Paul Anderson”, regarding the couple getting married at this wedding. This appears to be an inside reference to Maya and her real-life husband, well-known director Paul Thomas Anderson.
— OH, GOD. There comes Debbie Freakin’ Downer.
— Amy has been in literally EVERY SINGLE LIVE SKETCH tonight, excluding the backstage Kanye piece, if that even counts as a sketch. Add in the pre-taped Morgan Stanley commercial, Weekend Update, and even a voice in the TV Funhouse, and wow, Amy has had possibly the busiest night a cast member has EVER had in SNL history, aside from Will Ferrell in his final episode as a cast member. This heavy utilization of Amy tonight is presumably a byproduct of both Tina’s absence and Maya’s limited airtime with how far along in her pregnancy she is. However, isn’t Rachel RIGHT THERE? Why not throw more roles her way, instead of expecting Amy to tirelessly carry almost every female role on her back? Now Amy knows how Bill Murray felt having to carry the load of the lead male roles in season 5. Rachel’s only appeared in about three measly sketches tonight, so I don’t understand why she couldn’t have gotten more of the female roles. Further proof of how underappreciated Rachel is. Anyway, in addition to how Amy having to carry the load on the female side of the cast reminds me of Bill Murray in season 5, this whole situation with Amy and Rachel being the only fully-available female cast members at this early stage of this season is rather reminiscent of how the first few episodes of season 16 had to manage with only two female cast members (Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson), because the show strangely neglected to replace the departed Nora Dunn in time for the start of the season, before eventually bringing in a new female cast member (Julia Sweeney) in the first November episode of that season to take the load off of Jan and Victoria’s shoulders (and interestingly enough, the first November episode happens to also be the exact same point of season 31 where SNL finally brings in a new female cast member to take the load off Amy and Rachel’s shoulders).
— Ha, I love the low-pitched “boing” sound effect that plays when Steve’s character looks into the zooming-in camera after his first depressing one-liner. Funny facial expression from Steve as well.
— Steve’s character, Bob Bummer, gets his own Debbie Downer-esque title sequence and theme song. As I mentioned in a recent review, there’s been a lot of instances around this time where a character with his or her own theme song and title sequence meets a new character who has a similar theme song and title sequence of their own (e.g. the Merv The Perv sketch with Johnny Knoxville as Merv’s brother, the Coolest Teacher At Benton Township High School sketch).
— I actually like Bob Bummer’s theme music (sung by Kenan) much better than Debbie Downer’s theme music.
— Not a bad change of pace for a Debbie Downer sketch, and it thankfully prevents this from going down the same unbearably unfunny path most Debbie Downer sketches go.
— Wow, the timing of the “wah-wahhhhh” zoom-ins are REALLY off during the early portion of Debbie Downer and Bob Bummer’s interaction with each other.
— The closing title sequence with Debbie and Bob is very glitchy, almost ruining the comedic one-liner they say in unison. This glitchiness has actually been happening throughout tonight’s episode in general, mainly during the going-to-commercial SNL bumpers. The glitchiness isn’t a local NBC affiliate issue; the problem is coming from SNL’s end. I chalk it up to this being their first episode in HD, and them not having all the HD kinks worked out yet.
— Overall, not bad for a Debbie Downer sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This season is already showing nice signs of improvement from the dire preceding season and the last three weak seasons in general (seasons 28-30). This season premiere was not only good and not only better than at least 60% of the episodes from season 30, but had a much fresher feel and look (the latter is obviously because of the new HD format). Even Weekend Update was decent for the first time in over a year, which I chalk up to Tina Fey’s absence. Not even the slightly heavy reliance on recurring sketches hurt this episode, as most of the recurring sketches had decent outings tonight, even Debbie Downer! Also throw in an out-of-the-ordinary, refreshing, fun, and format-breaking backstage sketch right before Kanye West’s first musical performance, and things are looking promising for SNL’s future. From my memory of how this season plays out, things only get even better as this season progresses. Steve Carell seemed a little underutilized as a host tonight, which is a damn shame given his comedic skills and improv experience, but he was fine whenever the show allowed him to be funny.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2004-05)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Heder