Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
104TH CONGRESS
Newt Gingrich (CHF) disregards procedure & passes legislation rapid-fire
— Fun format to this cold opening.
— It’s Mark McKinney! His Barney Frank voice is very funny, albeit brief.
— Great energy and terrific pacing to this cold opening. Even Farley doing his typical season 20 screaming shtick has a lot of goodwill here and is perfect for this.
— A lot of good laughs from the increasingly insane proposals that Gingrich is rapidly passing.
— The Sonny Bono part cracked me up.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Mark McKinney has been added to the cast tonight, joining as a repertory player.
Sadly, his brief debut in the cold opening ends up being his ONLY appearance all night. We’re already getting signs of how unfairly underutilized the poor guy is going to be in his SNL tenure.
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Some laughs from Jeff downplaying how bad it was that he was given poor treatment at Dumb and Dumber compared to co-star Jim Carrey, though this is kinda going on too long.
— Good line from Jeff about his kids calling Jim “dad”.
STARS: ***
ETERNA REST
Rerun from 11/12/94
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
near MLK Day, (TIM) exploits the white guilt of (host), (CSE), (ADS)
— You KNOW I loved Elliott’s line about bringing over some Three Stooges videos.
— I love Adam bluntly and repeatedly asking “You wanna get drunk and go to Atlantic City?”
— Very solid writing and acting in this sketch, and something about it feels kinda atypical of this season.
— The guys’ feigned excitement over the MLK Day gifts they’re receiving is really funny.
— Hilarious how Jeff gives Tim his laptop as a MLK Day gift, and Elliott gives Tim his wallet. Also a funny addition to the wallet bit with Adam telling Tim, regarding the wallet, “I went in on that, so that’s kinda for both of us.”
— Great ending twist with Tim and Ellen after all the white co-workers leave.
STARS: ****½
CHUNG / GINGRICH
Connie Chung (LAK) solicits more soundbites from Kathleen Gingrich (JAG)
— I feel like this is the most in-character we’ve seen Janeane all season. She’s giving a good “old lady” performance.
— Funny visual of a badly hidden camera in Connie Chung’s bag.
— I could do without Farley turning this into yet ANOTHER screaming season 20 performance of his, as if we didn’t already have one earlier tonight.
— Just now, Laura seemed to help Janeane when Janeane was late in delivering a line.
— A lot of laughs from Connie Chung’s deceitfulness throughout this.
— Now Farley’s yelling has gotten to the point where he’s accidentally yelled himself into a minor choking fit. (Perhaps some of the food he spit out moments earlier went down his throat.) His face is turning an uncomfortable-looking shade of red while he’s simultaneously yelling his dialogue and coughing uncontrollably.
— This sketch is going on pretty long and has a repetitive feel, but it’s still working well, and I absolutely LOVE the turn now with an angered Connie Chung busting through the door and holding Mama Gingrich at gunpoint.
— In addition to Janeane surprisingly putting effort into her characterization, Laura’s performance is surprisingly strong; probably her best performance of her entire short-lived SNL tenure.
— Tonight’s episode has been starting off hot with a lot of great sketches. This is season 20 I’m watching?!? I almost feel like I’m watching an episode from a few seasons earlier, from the late 80s/early 90s glory years. This Connie Chung sketch in particular, I can imagine appearing in the late 80s era. Nora Dunn could’ve played Chung and Jan Hooks would’ve been perfect as Mama Gingrich, complete with the wrinkly makeup Jan often wore when playing old ladies.
STARS: ****
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
Ron Wood (MIM) mumbles along with stars of Nell
— Uh-oh, looks like I spoke too soon about how great tonight’s episode has been going. The episode’s quality comes to a screeching halt with this tired Ron Wood routine.
— The opening gag with the Entertainment Tonight hosts announcing obviously false ages of celebrities is funny, but I swear I remember that same gag already appearing in the Entertainment Tonight sketch from another infamous season, 1985-86, when Tom Hanks hosted. Probably not, though; this is most likely just a case of me getting both sketches mixed up with each other.
— This sketch just feels like a continuation of the weak Ron Wood Show sketch from this season’s premiere.
— Feels kinda awkward watching Jeff as Liam Neeson in this, knowing the notorious behind-the-scenes prosthetic nose incident that happened with Jeff earlier that week. (Link here for anyone not familiar with the story)
— This sketch was short enough, at least.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Citysong”
WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS gripes about Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, Green Day concerts he attended
O.J. survivor Marquerite Simpson (ELC) sings variant of “You Gotta Be”
— Haha, holy hell at Norm’s very blunt “bitch” jokes about Hillary Clinton.
— David’s rant about concerts has some funny comments, such as his imitation of Lynyrd Skynyrd fans yelling unintelligibly behind him, and him calling out Green Day on their faux British-isms.
— A particularly great O.J. joke from Norm tonight.
— Ellen’s Marguerite Simpson commentary being done in the form of a black-and-white music video is a very interesting change of pace for Update, and her You Gotta Be parody is pretty fun and catchy.
— Okay, the You Gotta Be parody doesn’t need to last TWO verses. They’re spreading the joke too thin.
— Two very interesting-sounding Update commentaries got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. One in which Jeff Daniels and Mark McKinney do a Point/Counterpoint as a Nazi and a KKK member, and another in which Norm throws to a supposedly old clip of Victoria Jackson performing one of her Weekend Update songs, but during that “clip”, Victoria unintentionally gives away the fact that it’s actually a new, live scene. That’s right, folks. I kid you not, a Victoria Jackson special guest appearance was cut after dress. What the hell, SNL?!? Why would you cut that?!?
STARS: ****
MYSTERY DINNER THEATER
mystery dinner theater actor (CHF) milks part by prolonging death scene
— This is a sketch that I’ve always hated and have considered to be a representation of some of this season’s problems. While I’ve found that doing these season 20 reviews has slightly softened my long-standing seething hatred of this season (that’s right, folks; while season 20 is still undeniably bad, I’m pleasantly surprised to now realize that it isn’t quite as horrible as I had always believed), I doubt I’m gonna develop any new goodwill towards THIS particular sketch during this current viewing.
— Mike is once again using his tired old Kenneth Reese Evans (host of Theatre Stories) voice for what’s supposed to be a generic British character.
— THREE screaming Chris Farley roles tonight? It was fine in the cold opening, but come the hell on, SNL.
— Aaaaaand for good measure, in addition to the obligatory Farley screaming, we get an obligatory Farley pratfall through a breakaway table, which feels tacked-on this sketch.
— As I watch this, I admit that this is material that I would’ve found funny had it been in one of Farley’s earlier seasons, before the days where him screaming his way through sketches was all too common. For example, Farley’s “My head just popped like a ripe melon!” line in this sketch would’ve absolutely slayed me if he delivered it in, say, season 17.
— This sketch was originally supposed to air in this season’s premiere, but got cut after dress. I’ve heard that that cut version of this sketch is included as a bonus feature on Steve Martin’s “Best Of” DVD, but I’ve never seen it. There’s a picture of that version of this sketch on GettyImages (see here), and I notice that Adam is in it, playing a character that doesn’t appear in the Jeff Daniels version of this sketch. Is Adam playing his Audience McGee character in that pic? And why does he have blood on his sweater and face?
STARS: *½
FILM BEAT
(CSE) documents host’s career with Dumb & Dumber potty clip
— Oh, here comes a Chris Elliott sketch that I’ve always loved.
— The constant replays of the Dumb and Dumber diarrhea clip are increasingly hilarious. A rare example of a juvenile one-joke sketch being pulled off well.
— I love the way Elliott keeps completely downplaying the use of the same clip after setting it up by claiming it’s from other Jeff Daniels movies. Jeff’s increasing frustration is fantastic.
STARS: ****½
GAY STRIPPER THEATER
queer male exotic dancers add drama to performances
— Oh, god, the title alone has me groaning, especially considering what SNL season this is.
— The name of Jeff’s character, Ryan Shiraki, is the name of an SNL associate producer who appears as an extra in several sketches throughout the 90s (most notably in Jamie Foxx’s season 25 monologue).
— Are they kidding me with this material so far?
— Why do they keep playing the EXACT SAME Snoop Doggy Dogg song for each stripper scene?
— More inside references with character names, as the names of the five strippers also happen to be the names of the five Kids in the Hall members (Mark, Bruce, Dave, Scott, and Kevin). But why tho? Because it’s Mark’s first week at SNL???
— Oh, poor Kevin Nealon, having to be dragged into this. Why, oh, why couldn’t you have left with Phil last season, Kevin?
— Thank god this sketch is finally over. This was dreadful.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Here”
AEROSMITH GREATEST HITS 1990-1994
Steven Tyler (ADS) & Joe Perry (JAM) play Aerosmith’s same-sounding songs
— A weak one-joke bit that, while it may be making a good point about the sameness of Aerosmith’s songs, is just going on and on and on, with no laughs from me.
— Adam has done some really good impressions of rock stars throughout his SNL tenure (e.g. Eddie Vedder, Axl Rose), but his Steven Tyler certainly ain’t one of them. Even looking at his Steven Tyler as just a typical Sandler-esque goofy characterization (like the Tom Jones impression he would do later this season), it’s still not working for me.
— The most interesting thing about this sketch is a backstory told by Jay Mohr in his SNL book, involving him and Adam nearly coming to blows right before this sketch went to air. As the story goes, about a minute or two before this sketch started, Jay kept telling Adam that he should change his sunglasses, as Jay felt that the sunglasses made Adam resemble Elton John more than Steven Tyler, but Adam kept waving it off, basically telling Jay that a change of sunglasses isn’t necessary. Jay’s refusal to stop needling Adam about the sunglasses eventually led to Adam losing his temper and yelling “Why don’t you shut the fuck up?!?” in Jay’s face. As a result, Jay was initially stunned and speechless, then got angry and REALLY wanted to punch Adam, but refrained because they were standing right by the audience members in the floor seats, and Jay knew that if the floor seat members saw some little-known featured player like him getting into a fight with a popular fan-favorite like Adam, some of them would rush to Adam’s defense. So Jay and Adam just went on and performed the Aerosmith sketch, which Jay claims “killed with the audience” (I’d love to know which sketch he was watching, because in the sketch I’m watching, the audience is mostly dead silent), then after the sketch was over, Adam turned to Jay and said “We’re good. Respect”, putting an end to the negative tension between them.
STARS: *
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very mixed episode. There were some REALLY strong sketches, especially in the first 15 minutes, but there was also an equal amount of absolutely terrible sketches, especially in the last 15 minutes. However, the strong sketches are worth bragging about, especially for this season’s standards. Some really great stuff. I just wish they could’ve kept that momentum going for more of the show.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Foreman)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
David Hyde Pierce hosts. We also get the last hurrah of Mike Myers.