Tag: Maroon 5

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October 4, 2014 – Sarah Silverman / Maroon 5 (S40 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

60 MINUTES
Barack Obama (JAP) gives examples of the online savvy of ISIS

— Some mild laughs here and there, but this cold opening is mostly dragging. Feels like the typical tepid, dull, overly-talky political humor that Jim Downey used to regularly write in his past-his-prime later years at SNL, even though he officially left the show over a year before this. (He was credited as a guest writer in the preceding episode this season, which had a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Obama cold opening that tonight’s different Obama cold opening has repurposed some lines for, but Downey’s not credited as a guest writer in this episode.)
— Overall, this season so far is 0-for-2 in good cold openings.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— The overhead shot of 30 Rockefeller Plaza with the G.E. sign in plain view (first screencap below), which was shown between the musical guest and host portions of this new opening montage in the preceding week’s season premiere, has been replaced tonight with a long shot of New York City (second screencap below). I recall hearing that the reason for this change is because of a G.E./Comcast sign changeover at 30 Rock.

— I forgot to mention this in my review of the preceding episode when bringing up the fact that Darrell Hammond has taken over as SNL’s new announcer, but Darrell’s announcing sounds very low-key in these early episodes compared to how he would sound in later seasons. I remember some online SNL fans back at this time saying Darrell’s announcing is too unexciting. I assume that, at some point, someone at SNL must’ve had a talk with Darrell, telling him he needs to up the energy.


MONOLOGUE
SAS sits on audience member’s lap & takes questions from her younger self

— Some pretty funny jokes from Sarah Silverman in the first few minutes of this monologue, and I loved the cue card bit, but I’m even more excited by the great turn this has now taken with Sarah actually going into the audience and sitting in an audience member’s lap while having a conversation with her. I know that this audience member must be a plant, but this is being executed perfectly, as the back-and-forths between Sarah and her are actually coming off very natural, and Sarah has fantastic remarks to what the audience member says. This is also a fun use of Sarah’s usual laid-back style.
— Ah, there’s Sarah finally mentioning her previous stint as an SNL featured player. Initially, it was kinda disappointing that she didn’t bring it up at the beginning of this monologue, but now we see she was saving it for this portion of the monologue.
— Oh, I absolutely LOVE this sequence with Sarah taking questions from clips of herself as an audience member in season 19’s frequent questions-from-the-audience monologues, made even funnier by how 2014 Sarah is playing it completely straight by giving a serious answer to 1993/94 Sarah’s specific questions that are comically shown out of their original context (e.g. her “Are you going to be doing a solo album now that you’ve left Wilson Phillips?” question originally asked to Rosie O’Donnell, and her “What did you feed the dinosaurs?” question originally asked to Jeff Goldblum). I also find it interesting seeing the 20-year difference in both SNL’s visual quality and Sarah’s looks. I’m amazed at how little Sarah has aged in 20 years.
— Aw, a missed opportunity not to include a clip of Sarah from Charlton Heston’s season 19 questions-from-the-audience monologue, where Sarah is dressed as an ape (screencap a little below) and asks Heston, “Are you some kind of talking mu-tant?” Imagine how truly hilarious it would’ve been to see a clip of that being shown out of context in this 2014 monologue. And I would’ve loved to have seen 2014 Sarah’s serious answer to the “Are you some kind of talking mu-tant?” question.

— Overall, this is one of my personal favorite monologues from recent years.
STARS: *****


THE FAULT IN OUR STARS 2: THE EBOLA IN OUR EVERYTHING
(TAK)’s love for (SAS) is tested by Ebola

— A great reveal that the illness the lead female character in this Fault In Our Stars sequel has is Ebola. Taran’s reaction to that reveal is hilarious.
— Lots of solid scenes between Sarah and Taran after the Ebola reveal.
— Funny Terrance Howard impression from Kenan.
— Given our current times, the then-topical Ebola premise still comes off rather relatable to today.
STARS: ****


HEAVEN
in Heaven, just-arrived Joan Rivers (SAS) roasts other dead celebrities

a photo of Joan Rivers marks her passing

— A promising concept and setting, having the then-recently-deceased Joan Rivers give a comedy roast of other dead celebrities.
— Funny cutaways to Bobby as a hysterically-laughing Ben Franklin.
— Interesting seeing Adam Levine and Kyle sitting next to each other here, as I’ve always noticed somewhat of a facial resemblance between them.
— Yikes, Sarah is stumbling over her punchlines left and right throughout this sketch, which is hurting a lot of the humor, given the fact that she has most of the comedic lines in this sketch.
— I’m not crazy about Kate’s Lucille Ball impression. She seems really miscast in this role.
STARS: **


WHITES
whites will enjoy time remaining until they’re dethroned by demographics

— The recently-demoted-from-the-cast Mike O’Brien casually appearing with the rest of the cast in this. I’m guessing he wrote this commercial himself.
— Speaking of appearing with the rest of the cast, Sarah is blending in well with the cast here, as if she was back to being a cast member again.
— A hilarious and biting concept.
— During the whites’ expressed desire for “four more white presidents”, Beck gets a great laugh with his lighthearted “Even if they have to be girls.”
— I love the part with the voice-over saying “It’s all yours, Mexicans!” while we see an again-lighthearted Beck acting like he’s going to hand a Mexican man a globe, only to playfully yank it away from, then puts his arm around the Mexican man’s shoulder in a friendly manner.
— Overall, perfect execution of this brilliant premise. If this was indeed a Mike O’Brien-written piece, then he has succeeded once again with yet another fantastic pre-tape.
STARS: *****


FORGOTTEN TV GEMS
backstabbing is absent from Supportive Women soap opera

— A rare non-Cinema Classics appearance from Kenan’s Reese De’What character. Also a rare glasses-less appearance from him.
— The usual funny story from Kenan’s De’What about a rude thing he once told his wife.
— Pretty funny kind-hearted twist that Cecily and Sarah’s initially-tense soap opera scene takes.
— Taran’s basically playing the same type of “straight man character making an uncomfortable face” role he played in the Ebola commercial earlier tonight.
— The second and third scene in this sketch is basically repeating the basic joke of the first scene, but the execution is okay, especially the third scene.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Animals”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Sharpton (KET) has ideas to counteract Secret Service ineptitude

COJ & MIC each identify phrases that are inappropriate for them to use

to feminist musical duo Garage (KAM) & Her (SAS), everything is “a woman”

— Ah, the very first time that a Jost/Che Update features one of the anchors going off on a stand-up-style rant about a news story after delivering a traditional Update joke about said story. That’s one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Jost/Che era of Update, and Michael’s rant here is very good.
— Michael’s delivery of general Update jokes, while still not at the familiar stage it would eventually go on to be, is getting closer and closer to it tonight.
— The usual “Kenan’s Al Sharpton misreads something” gags, but sue me, it always gets a cheap chuckle from me.
— Like Michael, Colin’s Update delivery is also improving and getting closer and closer to the delivery we’re now familiar with.
— Honestly, I was pushing it in my last review prior to this, where I proudly declared that the jokes in the inaugural Jost/Che Update thankfully don’t have that corny, tame Seth Meyers feel from the last few seasons of Update. I think I was just overexcited by the new feel of that inaugural Jost/Che Update in general that it blinded me to any Seth similarities in the jokes. However, even if it is true that some of that Seth Meyers influence has carried over into a lot of the jokes in these early-era Jost/Che Updates (a carry-over that thankfully wouldn’t last forever, as we know now, as Colin and Michael would gradually develop their own style of jokes over time), to me, Colin and Michael’s delivery is selling them so much better than Seth’s delivery ever did.
— Much like his “and all the ass” punchline about Derek Jeter’s MLB career stats in the preceding episode’s Update, Michael’s hilarious punchline about Jimmy Carter snorting peanut dust off a hooker’s ass is an early instance of what would go on to be known as a trademark Che-like joke.
— Ah, our very first interaction piece between Colin and Michael, with Colin asking Michael if it’s okay for him to say words like “bae” and “in da club”. This is a solid segment, especially Michael using “Thank you for your help, officer” as an example of things black people can’t say, and him telling Colin he ruined the term “cray-cray” for everybody.
— Good to see Sarah appearing with a current cast member in an Update commentary, once again making Sarah come off like she’s a cast member once again.
— Meh, Sarah and Kate’s song is falling kinda flat for me.
STARS: ***½


RIVER CRUISE
(CES), (SAZ), (SAS) are stuck doing “Proud Mary” on a Nebraska steamboat

— Oh, here’s a sketch would gain notoriety right after its original airing. There were huge accusations from some Groundlings comedians that SNL stole this sketch from them almost entirely verbatim without permission, and an online video of the original Groundlings version of the sketch was offered as full proof that, yes, this SNL sketch was indeed plagiarized. I believe it would be revealed that the culprits of this plagiarism were James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette (can’t remember if it was just one of them or both), both of whom I believe are Groundlings alums and are also two of my absolute least favorite writers in SNL history (the latter of which I’ve certainly made no secret of in my reviews). IIRC, this Sarah Silverman episode would also never get an NBC re-airing, and there’s been speculation on SNL boards that the reason for that is possibly because of the controversy over the plagiarism of this sketch. (Then again, I think I recall that this episode in general was pretty poorly-received by SNL fans at the time, so that might also have something to do with the lack of an NBC rerun.)
— And in case there was any doubt that this is indeed a James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette sketch, the writing style of Kenan’s opening speech is FILLED with known Anderson-isms, especially Kenan happily exclaiming “Yerm!” instead of “Yum!” Silly word substitutions in the style of “yerm” or “cornel of kern” (the latter being from a season 44 Steve Carell sketch that infamously went horribly awry) have been a staple of James Anderson-written sketches for years.
— Good to see Sasheer finally getting a lead role after being horribly underused in the season premiere and being overshadowed by the not-yet-a-cast-member Leslie Jones, but damn, why does it have to be in this, of all sketches?
— Blah, the mid-song stories from each of the ladies are all falling flat with me so far.
— I do kinda like Sarah’s “90 months” bit just now, but it’s not enough to get a laugh from me, and the rest of her story is falling just as flat with me as the other ladies’ stories are.
— Oof, the audience is absolutely DEAD during practically this whole sketch, and I don’t blame them one bit.
— There’s Kenan doing his Deandre Cole entrance dance from the What Up With That sketches.
— Overall, this was AWFUL. Anderson and/or Sublette really had to resort to stealing this weak material?!? That’s fucking sad, and just furthers the ire I’ve always had towards those two as writers. And history has shown that those two are perfectly capable of writing horrible sketches on their own without resorting to plagiarism.
STARS: *


HOME FROM VACATION
in a car, (BOM)’s surprise proposal to (SAS) goes awry; Adam Levine cameo

— Hilarious reveal of a shocked Bobby slowly rising from behind the backseat of the car immediately after overhearing Sarah’s confession to Taran that she cheated on Bobby, then we get another hilarious reveal right afterwards that Bobby happens to have an open engagement ring box in his hand, as he was planning on springing a surprise proposal on Sarah.
— I love Bobby’s angry delivery of “Gross! You grew?!? Shut your mouth!”
— All the surprise twists, as well as the way some portions of this sketch are intentionally being played in an uncomfortable manner, are reminiscent of that excellent and underrated Wedding sketch from the preceding season’s Andrew Garfield episode. Much like that Wedding sketch, this appears to be a Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written piece. I notice that a number of Kelly/Schneider sketches around this time are great at having lots of surprise twists, such as their fantastic Cartoon Catchphrase sketch from the preceding season’s Kerry Washington episode.
— Pretty funny sequence with how all the radio stations that Taran turns to are playing songs about cheating in a relationship, even if that gag feels a little cliched.
— Hmm, Adam Levine’s entrance, which was supposed to a funny appearing-out-of-nowhere gag, came off awkwardly-executed.
— More great angry line deliveries from Bobby.
— Ugh, in addition to how awkward his entrance came off, Adam Levine’s delivery of some of his lines is weak, reminding me of what a bad and unlikable host I found him to be back in season 38.
— Pretty funny gag with Levine getting hit by a truck off-camera and then flying over the hood of the car. The little “Whoooa!” heard from him as a dummy of his body is thrown over the car hood somehow added to the humor.
— Something about the whole “Let’s all go to Pizza Hut!” conversation the characters have at the conclusion of this sketch really rubbed me the wrong way. Feels like SNL was going out of their way to shill for Pizza Hut. Maybe I’m looking too much into that, but either way, it was a bad and out-of-place way to end a sketch like this.
— Overall, a great first half, but this sketch somewhat fell apart in the second half, despite still having some merits. This sketch as a whole, while not bad, doesn’t hold a candle to the aforementioned Wedding sketch with Andrew Garfield.
STARS: ***


POEM
love-hate triangle (SAS), (KYM), (BEB) duos finish each other’s sentences

— Very funny turn with how the “two people finish each other’s sentences while realizing they’re soulmates” romcom trope that was initially shown happening between Sarah and Kyle now happens between Kyle and a bully, played by Beck. The specific, immature threats that Kyle and Beck are romantically saying in unison are also hilarious.
— Funny montage of Beck’s bully character doing horrible, violent things to Kyle, made even funnier by the uncharacteristically tender music & filming effect used for that montage.
— I love the little detail of Kyle making a quick, disgusted, subtle “Urgh!” vocalization after revealing he was forced by Beck to eat “stinky stew supreme”.
— Satisfying turn at the end with Beck’s bully character getting his comeuppance.
— I recall hearing that Nick Rutherford (the member of Beck and Kyle’s original Good Neighbor group who SNL initially passed on when hiring the rest of Good Neighbor, then got hired this season as a writer) is the person driving a car both times a character in this short gets run over by a car while stuffed in a garbage can. You can see a brief glimpse of Nick in the driver’s seat (screencap below).

STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Maps”


VITAMIX
(VAB)’s pricey Vitamix blender puts her friend (SAS) on the defensive

— Even though it wasn’t even intended to be comedic (I assume), I laughed at Vanessa’s smiley delivery of “Well…it’s up there” when asked how much the Vitamix blender costs. She has a way of selling little lines like that so well.
— A good increasing negative tension between Vanessa and Sarah’s characters, even if I’m a little confused about where this sketch is trying to go.
— Yeah, more and more, I’m having very mixed feelings towards this sketch. I now “get” the tone this sketch is going for, but something about the execution feels a little ehh, which is a shame, because I am liking aspects of Vanessa and Sarah’s performances.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as weak as I had remembered, but this episode as a whole was still nothing to write home about. Despite a few strong highlights (two of which received a perfect five-star rating from me), 1) this episode felt like it never fully took off, 2) almost half of the segments were forgettable, and, 3) even though this episode was an improvement over the season premiere, something about this season is still kinda giving off that fairly rough vibe that it had in the premiere. To say nothing of that terrible River Cruise sketch, which is bad enough on its own even without having any knowledge of the plagiarism controversy.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Whites
Monologue
Poem
The Fault In Our Stars 2: The Ebola In Our Everything
Weekend Update
Home From Vacation
Forgotten TV Gems
Vitamix
Heaven
60 Minutes
River Cruise


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Pratt)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bill Hader

Posted on

November 17, 2012 – Jeremy Renner / Maroon 5 (S38 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BOOKNOTES
Paula Broadwell (CES) reads from her salacious David Petraeus biography

— Some laughs from the very raunchy, glorified erotica that Cecily’s Paula Broadwell is reading from the All In book, made funnier by the very professional, straitlaced manner she’s reading it in.
— The audience members eventually walking out in droves is pretty funny.
— A huge rarity in SNL’s recent years like this one to have “Live from New York…” be delivered by an off-camera voice-over (Jim Downey, in this case).
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & sings songs he wrote for action movies he starred in

— Hmm, not too sure about Jeremy Renner’s delivery so far.
— When going to the piano, Jeremy says “Once again…I cannot believe I agreed to do this”, then proceeds to chuckle nervously for an extended amount of time. I’m finding that to be half-charming and half-worrying.
— A big gaffe, as there’s no sound coming from the piano when Jeremy starts playing, leading him to make awkward ad-libs towards the audience. Then he humorously says a cheerful “Oh, thank you!” to seemingly an off-camera stagehand who has fixed the problem.
— Jeremy now chuckles nervously for an extended amount of time again, then makes a nice ad-lib by saying, in regards to the piano blooper, “Good way to start the show, right?”
— Didn’t care for the first song, but the “Captain Amer” bit in the second song is pretty funny.
— An okay laugh from the third song just being a blatant “Use Somebody” knock-off.
— The brief Mission Impossible song was pretty funny.
— Overall, despite the piano blooper and Jeremy’s worrying nervousness in certain parts, this monologue was decent enough and had a bit of a charm to it, even the aforementioned blooper and nervousness.
STARS: ***


YOUR HOMETOWN
staying with your parents during a trip home makes for an unfun vacation

 

— A very relatable premise.
— A good laugh from the visual of Bill in those high-waisted briefs.
— I absolutely love the way that the mundane aspects of coming home for the holidays is comically being presented in the style of upbeat tourism ads. The execution of this is great.
— There’s that lovable Tim Robinson goofiness that I always enjoy, even when he plays a non-speaking role like this one.
STARS: ****½


THE CALIFORNIANS
Stuart mulls Southland geography & learns he has a son

— (*groooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaan*) Plus, didn’t they just do this sketch a few episodes prior?
— At least they’re doing something different with Vanessa’s maid character, who usually just announces when a guest has arrived.
— Much like the first installment of this sketch, Fred is very giggly in this installment so far. Unlike the first installment, none of the other performers are joining Fred in his laughing, not even the easy-to-break Bill.
— After the first scene, Fred seems to have gotten his act together in terms of his giggliness.
— Whoops, spoke too soon, as Fred has suddenly started giggling again for no apparent reason during the reveal of the baby photo. I think Fred’s giggling at his own delivery in general (especially that “seating arrangement” line that he delivered in a particularly exaggerated, awkward-sounding Californian accent, even for this sketch’s standards), further proving how annoyingly self-indulgent this recurring sketch (and so many other Fred Armisen-starring things from Fred’s later seasons) is.
— I did kinda chuckle at how one of the typical sequences of the camera showing mock-dramatic close-ups of each character during a shocking reveal includes a mock-dramatic close-up of the smiling baby photo.
— Fred has now started giggling even more in the scene currently taking place, and again, for no apparent reason, and with none of the other performers joining in on it.
— Feels odd seeing Taran play a different character than the effeminate character he usually plays in this recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
Tampa inquiry fails to shed light on Petraeus scandal

— Cecily playing both Paula Broadwell AND Jill Kelley in the same night?
— Funny bits involving The Situation Room only being able to show the one clip of Cecily’s Jill Kelley that’s available. It especially gets funny when they start playing with the footage, such as showing it in reverse.
— A huge laugh from Tim in drag now doing a dramatization of the one Jill Kelley walking-down-the-stairs clip that was shown repeatedly.
— Jeremy’s getting some chuckles from me.
STARS: ***½


THE STAND OFF
(TAK), (BOM), (host) keep guns aimed; Adam Levine cameo

— At least this is something that Jeremy is certainly in his element in, unlike some of the other stuff he’s appeared in in this episode.
— Very funny visual of Jeremy, Taran, and Bobby keeping their guns aimed at each other in that stand-off posture while cramped in the back of a taxi.
— More hilarious situations that Jeremy, Taran, and Bobby continue to hold their stand-off posture towards each other in, such as when Jeremy’s reading his daughter a bedtime story, when grace is being said at a Thanksgiving dinner, when they’re relieving themselves at urinals, and when they’re joyfully ice skating with each other.
— A good laugh from Bobby suddenly getting coldly gunned down by Jeremy and Taran while in the middle of a touching speech about how meaningful his time with Jeremy and Taran has been the past few days.
— Overall, this season continues its huge winning streak with their post-Lonely Island short films.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One More Night”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups stakeholders in Petraeus scandal into Winners & Losers

self-described pimp Katt Williams (JAP) explains his erratic behavior

bossy but grateful Chris Christie [real] addresses Hurricane Sandy clean-up efforts

— Another Winners/Losers segment, fairly soon after the last one. I guess I can’t complain, given how strong I found the last one.
— Tonight’s overall Winners/Losers segment was decent, if nothing special or particularly noteworthy.
— The debut of Jay’s spot-on Katt Williams impression.
— Though it’s just a little thing, I love Jay’s delivery of the “This right here…this right here…this right here” bit.
— Some other laughs from Jay’s Williams commentary.
— A cameo from the real Chris Christie.
— Christie is actually coming off really natural and loose in his delivery, not being stiff at all like some non-actors tend to be in SNL cameos.
STARS: ***


THE AVENGERS
Hawkeye (host) is the least-useful Avenger when he runs out of arrows

— A few laughs here and there so far, but this sketch is both slow-paced and awkwardly paced. Maybe that’s to be expected for an action-heavy sketch like this that’s being performed live. Perhaps this would’ve benefited from being pre-taped instead.
— What was with Taran openly breaking when Jeremy popped back into the scene after being used as a weapon by Hulk? Jeremy also botched his line right afterwards.
— That’s…that’s it??? That’s the whole sketch? That was a little bit of laughs and a WHOLE LOT of nothing.
STARS: *½


MOVIE SET
actor (JAS) bungles a scene in which he’s supposed to be slapped by host

— “Wes Underballs”? Is this character of Bill’s supposed to be related to Bill’s Mike Underballs character?
— The reveal of Jason’s Dick Fuel character’s real name being Dick Juice is so juvenile and stupid, but I strangely kinda chuckled anyway.
— So far, the writing of this is questionable and quite dumb. In fact, it feels like the type of horrible “an actor keeps ruining the filming of one scene” sketch that Horatio Sanz would’ve done in his later seasons, where his shtick was beyond tired (e.g. that awful Zorro sketch from the season 31 Antonio Banderas episode). However, Jason is doing far more for this material than Horatio ever would have.
— Yet another dumb and juvenile part of this sketch, with Jason’s Dick Fuel randomly asking the others about the Kim Kardashian sex tape and complimenting Ray J on the size of his “piece”, but Bill actually made me laugh a lot when agreeing with Dick Fuel on Ray J’s “piece”, by saying an amused “It’s all true, it’s quite something.”
— Just now, Jason genuinely messed up by accidentally calling Jeremy by his real first name during the movie scene being filmed, before correcting himself in a somewhat amusing manner.
— Now Jeremy’s the one who genuinely messes up, by referring to Bill’s character’s surname as “Wonderballs” instead of “Underballs”.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Daylight”


MIDNIGHT SNACK – COOL DRONES
by Zach Kanin & Rob Klein- deadly pilotless flying weapons also constitute a boy band

— Oh, I completely forgot about this until now, much like the Fred Wolf-made American America cartoons from season 36. SNL attempts a new brand of cartoons, Midnight Snack, made by SNL writers Zach Kanin and Rob Klein. And much like the aforementioned American America cartoons, this attempt ends up being short-lived, even moreso, with only one Midnight Snack cartoon making it to air.
— I love the opening Midnight Snack title sequence, with a creature being shown eating a snack while watching TV.
— Feels kinda fun hearing the current cast’s voices as various characters in this cartoon.
— Not too crazy about the 90s-style boy band concept.
— I’m liking the animation here, though part of the reason for that could be because it’s such a rarity to see animation in this SNL era.
— Other than that one drone’s constant lines about booties, I’m not getting much laughs from this cartoon so far.
— The extended gun-firing sequence is fairly funny, especially the part with the goat.
— That’s the whole cartoon? Hate to say it, but this was really meh and forgettable. As much as I’d have loved to see SNL’s Midnight Snack segment take off and become SNL’s new TV Funhouse, it’s probably a good thing that never happened if all the Midnight Snack cartoons were going to be as mediocre as this.
STARS: **


CORONER
in the morgue, (host) can’t grasp the concept of body identification

— I laughed a lot at Jeremy matter-of-factly saying, when identifying the dead body, “It’s Steven Tyler.” The audience reaction to that is SO dead that you can clearly hear a giggling woman in the otherwise-silent audience repeat the “It’s Steven Tyler” line to herself in amusement.
— Okay, the audience is getting more into this now.
— Kinda like the Movie Set sketch from earlier in this episode, this premise is dumb, but the execution is making it work.
— Very funny ad-lib with Bill musically patting his hands on the body of Taran, who’s playing a dead person. If Bill’s attempting to get Taran to break, it doesn’t work.
— Bill’s “I kinda wanna see what he’s gonna say” line made me laugh, even if it felt like a variation of something he said in the courtroom sketch from the preceding season’s Eli Manning episode.
— I love the rapid succession of guesses Jeremy is now making on the dead body’s identity, as if it’s the speed round of a game show.
— Jason is a fantastic straight man.
— When Jeremy says, regarding the dead body, “It’s his (Bill’s) brother”, I love Bill foolishly responding “Dennis?!?” while looking at the body in a shocked manner.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier. I’m loving this.
— Even the detail of the voice Taran’s using is great.
— When the “dead” body comes back to life and Jason gives Bill a puzzled look, I got a huge laugh from Bill innocently saying “He said he was dead!”
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better episode than I had remembered. However, for this season’s standards, this was a very unremarkable episode, though with a few really strong highlights. Kind of a messy-feeling episode, too, with all the gaffes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Your Hometown
Coroner
The Stand Off
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Booknotes
Weekend Update
Movie Set
Monologue
Midnight Snack – Cool Drones
The Avengers
The Californians


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anne Hathaway)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jamie Foxx

Posted on

November 5, 2011 – Charlie Day / Maroon 5 (S37 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE GHOST OF KADDAFI
the ghost of Muammer Kaddafi (FRA) says his final farewells from Hell

— Ugh. Much like the first cold opening SNL did after Osama Bin Laden’s death the preceding season, we open the show with a post-death address to the nation from Fred as a recently-killed Muammer Kaddafi (how many damn spellings of the man’s name are there?). So lazy and uncreative, which is sadly on-brand for a lot of SNL’s writing in 2009-2012. Not to mention SNL’s overuse of Fred’s unfunny Kaddafi impression the preceding season (appearing FOUR EPISODES IN A ROW at one point) made me permanently sick of it. At least the fact that Kaddafi is dead by this point means I don’t have to suffer through this impression anymore, but I’m sure Fred will find another Middle Eastern leader to play ad-nauseam.
— I do at least kinda like the line about how hell looks like Libya.
— Boy, that joke from Fred’s Kaddafi about his face being melty got a very forced, tedious “Ehhh…” laugh from the audience.
— Overall, most of this was just as painful to get through as I was worried.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
relaxed host puts out by playing piano & harmonica; Danny DeVito cameo

— Charlie Day already bringing lots of fun energy right out of the gate in this.
— Danny DeVito! In his first SNL appearance in years!
— So much fun interplay between Charlie and Danny in this.
— Charlie Day is one of the very few hosts who can make me forgive SNL for doing yet another musical monologue in this era.
— Charlie, to Danny: “(*in an aggravated manner*) It’s called a monologue ’cause one person does it!” Ha, tell that to SNL’s writers.
— Great piano/harmonica song from Charlie, especially the lyric about it being “Charlie Day day”.
STARS: ****½


KIM’S FAIRYTALE DIVORCE
Kardashians make a spectacle of Kim’s (NAP) separation

— I remember this being really solid and fun.
— A hilarious facial expression from Taran’s Bruce Jenner.
— I love Charlie as the divorce attorney.
— Andy’s caveman-like portrayal of Kris Humphries is very funny.
— I like the running gag with Kristen’s Kris Jenner desperately trying to pass herself off as a young, fourth Kardashian sister.
— Overall, this lived up to my positive memories. Easily my favorite of SNL’s many Kardashian spoofs in this era. I think the fact that this one was pre-taped played a part in it coming off more fun than SNL’s typical Kardashian parodies in this era.
STARS: ****


THE DR. OZ SHOW
(host)’s dead rectum isn’t treated discreetly by Dr. Oz (BIH)

— A spot-on Dr. Oz impression from Bill.
— I’m currently about two minutes into this sketch, and I’m not too crazy about it so far.
— This sketch is over already??? This was a big ol’ pile of “meh”, despite some chuckles I got towards the end.
STARS: **


GREEK GODS
on Mount Olympus, Greek gods dodge blame for Hellenic economic woes

— I always love these fun ensemble sketches that utilize the entire cast and give each of them their own bit.
— Andy’s disgusting suggestion is very funny, especially with his various “hear me out”s throughout it.
— Jason is excellent as the leader here, and he has so many funny reactions to the other gods.
— A laugh from Adam Levine’s failure in his attempts to brush the long windblown hair out of his face.
— Bobby’s delivery of “Hahahaha SHUT UP” was great.
— Some fun interplay between Charlie and Jason here (a precursor to lots of fun interplay we’ll be seeing between Charlie and Jason in a certain sketch airing later in this episode).
— Meh, a newspaper headline ending, usually a lazy resort.
STARS: ****


IT’S GETTING FREAKY WITH CEE LO GREEN!
Cee Lo Green (KET) helps (ANS) & (ABE) enliven marriage

— Speaking of lazy resorts SNL loves relying on, we get the debut of another celebrity-hosted talk show sketch.
— A good vocal imitation of Cee Lo Green from Kenan.
— For a celebrity-hosted talk show sketch, this actually has a very fun atmosphere and approach. In fact, the fun atmosphere and approach is quite What Up With That-esque, such as the look of the band, and Charlie’s Freakasaurus character. Given the fact, at this time, What Up With That was retired (it would be un-retired later this season), perhaps SNL intended this sketch to become WUWT’s replacement.
— Some funny lines from Kenan’s Cee Lo throughout this, especially “Well, much like my arms and legs, this is a stumper.”
— Now we get another WUWT-esque fun aspect of this sketch, with Bill entering as “Colonel Nasty”, featuring Bill doing his ol’ reliable “70s pimp” voice.
STARS: ***½


THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF CATCHPHRASE COMEDY VOLUME 2
more hack stand-ups are along for the second Kings Of Catchphrase tour

— The second and final installment of this piece, though there’s a third one that gets cut after dress rehearsal from this season’s finale and would be posted online.
— An absolutely spot-on and funny Dane Cook spoof from Charlie.
— Nasim’s “my vagina” routine is a particularly accurate and funny spoof of some female stand-ups.
— I love the randomness of Adam Levine’s whole stand-up gimmick being him suddenly getting attacked by a hawk in the middle of his act.
— Bill’s bit particularly stands out as absolutely priceless.
— Unlike the first installment of this piece, tonight’s installment is using the entire cast, making this the second full-cast segment tonight that gives each cast member their own moment to shine. I absolutely love that, and for me, that puts this one over the top as my favorite of the two Kings Of Catchphrase Comedy pieces.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Moves Like Jagger”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rick Perry (BIH) is as loopy as he seemed during his New Hampshire speech

A Closer Look At Europe- SEM summarizes the continental financial crisis

eternally-nervous Judy Grimes free-associates quickly & peripatetically

— Bill is very fun here as Rick Perry, so much so that even he and Seth are visibly having a lot of unscripted, infectious fun here, particularly with Bill’s hilarious “Hola!” ad-lib during the Hawaiian doll bit.
— Holy hell, Seth is doing a segment called “A Closer Look at Europe”. Can this be considered a direct precursor to his famous “A Closer Look” regular segment from his current Late Night show? I’ve never actually watched his Late Night show, so I don’t know how similar the actual content of this “Closer Look at Europe” segment has to the content of his “Closer Look” segments on Late Night.
— An overall decent “Closer Look at Europe” segment.
— I completely forgot about Kristen’s Judy Grimes character until this point. She hadn’t appeared in quite a long while. I didn’t even realize until now that she completely skipped season 36.
— Checking SNL Archives right now, this actually ends up being Judy Grimes’ final appearance. I keep forgetting this is Kristen’s final season on SNL.
— Wow, tonight’s Judy Grimes commentary contains what has got to be her longest run-on “Just kidding” spiel of all time. That’s not a complaint, though, as I’m still getting my usual laughs from this character. And given the fact that this ends up being her final appearance, it’s very fitting that this contains her longest-ever run-on “Just kidding” spiel, whether that’s intentional on SNL’s part or not. I’m glad that, contrary to my initial worries when I covered Judy Grimes’ debut, I somehow ended up never getting sick of this character, despite her shtick always being the same.
STARS: ***½


BECAUSE OF ONE DOLPHIN
on a movie set, actor (host) has trouble during a scene with a dolphin

— For some reason, it feels a little odd seeing Kristen playing a director in a movie filming sketch. As frequently utilized as she is, I can’t think of any other time she played this specific type of role.
— Some laughs from Taran’s dolphin command sounds and gestures.
— I’m being somewhat amused by Kenan’s stern “I do my job” catchphrase throughout this sketch.
— Pretty funny turn with Kenan immediately ripping off his clothes to reveal he’s wearing the same costume that Charlie’s wearing for the movie, and then proceeding to seamlessly step into Charlie’s movie role.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Travie McCoy [real] perform “Stereo Hearts”


CRIME SCENE
(host) belies ignorance while investigating murder in Seinfeld apartment lookalike

— Ah, an all-time favorite of mine, and I know that a number of other SNL fans love it as well.
— A genuine and relatable big laugh from the simple moment of Jason finally pointing out what we all noticed right from the start of this sketch: this apartment looks like the famous Seinfeld apartment.
— Charlie’s increasingly ridiculous and inexplicable lack of knowledge about certain TV shows and historical events is great.
— Charlie, when Jason brings up the name Adolf Hitler: “What’s he, another one of your Fieldstein characters?”
— Now this is getting even funnier with Charlie’s character unwittingly making references to the exact TV shows and historical events that he claimed to have no knowledge of.
— Jason and Charlie are making an AMAZING comedy team in this. They are an absolute blast together here, and the way they’re selling this sketch is nothing short of phenomenal.
— Even Jason’s mere delivery of “What the hell?!?” when Charlie’s character intentionally makes a CSI reference killed me and has been one of the parts of this sketch that has stuck in my memory over the years.
STARS: *****


LIL POUNDCAKE
Rerun from 10/1/11


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I called the preceding Anna Faris-hosted episode pretty fun, but THIS episode takes the cake. This episode was the textbook definition of fun, with stuff like the monologue, Greek Gods, It’s Getting Freaky, Kings Of Catchphrase Comedy, Bill Hader’s Rick Perry commentary on Weekend Update, and (especially) Crime Scene. Charlie Day’s performances also added a lot to the fun vibe of this episode. There was so much of this episode that I loved. The number of segments that didn’t work for me were thankfully kept to a very small minimum, and are easy to ignore with how strong a lot of this episode was. And even as awful and derivative as the cold opening was, at least Fred Armisen brought a lot of energy in it, which, thinking about it in hindsight, fits the fun, energetic feel of this episode in general.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Crime Scene
The Original Kings Of Catchphrase Comedy Volume 2
Monologue
Greek Gods
Kim’s Fairytale Divorce
It’s Getting Freaky with Cee Lo Green!
Weekend Update
Because Of One Dolphin
The Dr. Oz Show
The Ghost of Kaddafi


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anna Faris)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Emma Stone

Posted on

May 19, 2007 – Zach Braff / Maroon 5 (S32 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PUPPET BUSH
George W. Bush (JAS) perversely feels vindicated by Iraq failures

— This ends up being the last time we’ll be seeing Jason’s Bush for over a year (he completely skips season 33). I will not miss seeing these tepidly-written straight-to-camera Bush-addresses-the-nation pieces that Jason often gets stuck with.
— An odd but pretty funny first cutaway to Darrell’s Dick Cheney silently giving Jason’s Bush a thumbs-up.
— The occasional cutaways to Darrell’s Cheney are getting old, but are sadly the funniest thing to me in this cold opening so far.
— I like Darrell’s Cheney missing from the cutaway to him after Jason-as-Bush’s remark about critics being right about the Bush administration conducting the Iraq war incompetently.
— Maya’s Condoleezza Rice randomly being thrown into the end of this and saying “Live from New York…” was taken at the time by online SNL fans (including myself) as one of many signs in tonight’s season finale that this is Maya’s final episode. We would end up being wrong about that, but I do believe that Maya did originally intend this to be her final episode. From what I remember hearing, her coming back the following season was a late-in-the-summer decision she made only as a favor to Lorne, who asked her to come back because he wasn’t satisfied with any of the women he auditioned that summer to fill in Maya’s spot in the cast. The announcement of Maya being in the season 33 cast wasn’t even made until literally just two or three days before that season premiered, which is insane. And, IIRC, when she initially signed a contract for that season, she didn’t sign for a full season, which is why she bails after the writers strike starts a few episodes into that season. (She doesn’t even appear in the special Michael Cera-hosted writers strike SNL episode at the UCB Theater.)
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
proud of his place of birth, host is in a “New Jersey State Of Mind”

— When mentioning the characters he would see on SNL when staying up to watch the show as a kid, I love that Zach Braff mentions Toonces alongside Church Lady.
— I don’t think I’m going to care for this monologue, and not just because it’s another musical one. I’m not caring for the insider New Jersey premise.
— The inclusion of the cast dressed as New Jersey landmarks was somewhat fun, but was too brief to salvage this monologue.
STARS: **


PUPPY LOVE
apartment-seeker (ANS) falls in love with (host)’s talking dog

— Wow, a Digital Short right after the monologue? That’s new.
— Funny voice of the seductive dog. Who IS that doing the voice anyway? It doesn’t sound like a cast member. Is it perhaps Jorma Taccone or Akiva Schaffer?
— I love Andy’s mock-dramatic delivery of “You used me.”
— Blah at the ending with Andy making out with the dog in slow-mo. Could’ve done without that, even if that was the only logical conclusion of this.
STARS: ***


PROM COMMITTEE
popular (MAR) & (AMP) quash prom theme ideas of Lyle Kane (WLF) & others

— Funny bit regarding why Amy and Maya’s characters are each called B.J.
— The debut of Will’s short-lived but very funny Lyle Kane character, who I admit I’ve completely forgotten about until now.
— Ugh, I don’t like the idea of Zach’s tongue-in-cheek, meta Garden State-obsessed character. Between the monologue and this sketch, Zach has been kinda putting me off as a host. Something seems really self-indulgent about him.
— A fun ensemble piece with everyone in the cast each getting their own chance in the spotlight.
— While the celibacy bit with Kristen and a sexually-tense Bill feels kinda derivative for SNL, it’s being executed well, especially Bill’s reaction to Kristen innocently touching his back.
— Random inclusion of Darrell as a Sean Connery lookalike, even if it does tie into the 007 prom theme. Funny line from him, though, about the two B.J.s.
STARS: ****


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (host), (AMP) & (WLF) perform quirky jams

— I admit to laughing at the exaggerated quivery laugh Kenan did in response to a joke from Andy, even though it feels like Kenan’s done stuff like that ad nauseam during his SNL tenure.
— I think there’s been a Dora The Explorer reference in just about EVERY episode in the last quarter of this season, which I guess shows how big that show was at this time. An interesting time capsule in hindsight.
— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish sketch to air up to this point.
— Ha, a Deep House Dish musical performance is actually making me laugh for once: the Brown Eye song with Amy and Will. Catchy beat to it, too.
— The voice Amy’s using during her and Will’s post-song interview is basically a variation of her Rosie Perez voice.
— Something about Will’s accented delivery of “It’s so obvious!” was hilarious.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- on Oprah, presidential candidates air shocking revelations

— Feels a little weird to hear an impression of early-era Barack Obama, before the days when people started noticing his distinct vocal mannerisms. As expected, whoever’s voicing Obama in this cartoon is using a pretty generic voice for him.
— Some pretty funny revelations from the candidates, especially Obama’s real name, and both of Bill Richardson’s halves being Mexican.
— For some reason, Oprah’s facial expressions in this cartoon are making me laugh.
— The violent brief fight between John McCain and Rudy Giuliani feels like a throwback to early TV Funhouses, back when humor like that was much more common in these cartoons of Robert Smigel’s.
— Clearly, Smigel must’ve gotten word that this is potentially Maya’s final episode, as he includes a headshot of her in the ending credits of this TV Funhouse.
— Overall, a rare good cartoon during these waning days of TV Funhouse. It felt good to consistently laugh for most of this, after how weak the last few TV Funhouses prior to this were.
STARS: ***½


SONG MEMORIES
“The Weight” evokes creepy memories in (host) & other icky reminiscers

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Hilarious punchline to Jason’s oral sex story.
— I like how every song in these Song Memories sketches reminds Bill of “muh dad”.
— Another great punchline, this time to Will’s drunk-driving story.
— Blah, what’s with Zach’s story immediately being about him mailing people his own poop? That’s too dumb and blunt even for the silly nature of these Song Memories sketches. Not even the Rachael Ray punchline could save Zach’s story.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Makes Me Wonder”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Aunt Linda isn’t going to enjoy the upcoming summer blockbusters

Sam Waterston (FRA) objects to AMP’s Law & Order joke

Whitney Houston (MAR) celebrates summer with cocaine brownies

— Meh, Aunt Linda once again. Thankfully, this ends up being the last time we’ll be seeing her for a long while, as she’ll be joining Jason’s Bush impression on a year-long hiatus.
— At least Aunt Linda’s commentaries are getting shorter and shorter lately, which almost seems to be the writers admitting the thinness and diminishing returns of these pieces.
— Wow, Amy’s surprisingly been having some strong jokes tonight. Usually, Seth gets the better jokes.
— Fred’s Sam Waterston impression always cracks me up, and I like how they kept this appearance brief and simple.
— Ha, a reminder of ABC’s ill-fated decision to make a TV series out of those Geico caveman ads from this time.
— I think that’s Colin Jost I’m seeing in the punchline photo to Seth’s soccer joke just now (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update). Funny to see him on Update in this capacity years before he would become an Update anchor.
— Another meh, as we get the return of Maya’s Whitney Houston, who’s been pretty insufferable in most of her appearances this season.
— A rare instance of breaking from Maya when she randomly calls Amy what sounded like “Seth Meyers”. Possibly another sign tonight that Maya was potentially on her way out.
— And now we get yet another sign of Maya’s potential departure, as her Whitney randomly returns to the Update set at the very end of this Update after Amy and Seth’s sign-off to be embraced by Amy and Seth with a big hug and what appeared to practically be a dry-hump session on the Update desk right before the camera faded to black.
STARS: ***


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
host & Vinny Vedecci fight language barrier

— Another sketch tonight that has officially become recurring.
— Bill continues to be an absolute riot as this character.
— Great to see Bill work in his funny Peter Falk vocal impression that he last did on Weekend Update in his very first episode.
— A good laugh from the Scrubs clip being re-dubbed into a deep Italian drama.
— Quite a lot of projectile vomiting in the last quarter of this season. I do love the way Vinny Vedecci responds to the vomiting in this sketch by saying “She vomit! In your face!”
STARS: ****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
unpaid production intern (host) fills in for a no-show

— A Bronx Beat sketch airing THIS late in the show, around 12:40? After the previous installments of this sketch all appeared with the first 15 minutes of the show? Wow. I take this as an admission from SNL that tonight’s Bronx Beat is not up to snuff and/or must’ve received a poor audience reaction at dress rehearsal.
— This sketch feels really rushed so far, and a lot of the usual beats from Amy and Maya’s characters feel kinda half-assed tonight.
— I did get a laugh just now from Amy’s “balls of garbage” line during the bit about how restaurants make meatballs.
— A few laughs during Amy and Maya’s interview with Zach, but this still feels below par for a Bronx Beat sketch.
— I cracked up at Maya randomly saying “I’m sicka seein’ Tony Soprano doin’ it” at the end of this sketch.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Won’t Go Home Without You”


MELISSA
homely receptionist Melissa (FRA) displays her infatuation with host

— Ugh, we’re closing the season with a random Fred-in-drag sketch?
— I think I recall hearing this got cut from an earlier season, but I forgot who the host in the sketch was.
— Maya appearing in a prominent role in yet another sketch tonight is yet another sign that this was potentially her final episode.
— Boy, this sketch is awful, and feels like a really unfortunate precursor to the typical annoying work that Fred would often do in his later seasons. A shame, considering I generally still like him by this point of his tenure.
— Aaaaaaaaand as if this sketch wasn’t already bad enough, both it and this season in general closes with one of the cheapest, desperate, hackiest attempts at a laugh ever: a man-on-man kiss. Not to mention it’s the second segment tonight to end with a cheap, unconventional kiss (the Digital Short being the first one).
— Overall, wow, this has got to be one of worst season-ending sketches in SNL history. Can’t think of any time prior to this where I gave the final sketch of a season a measly one-star rating. I guess the Bag Lady short film from the end of the final episode of season 6 comes close (if memory serves correct, I gave it one-and-a-half stars), but that episode wasn’t an official season finale.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty forgettable season finale, and an unexciting way to end this season. There was some good stuff tonight, but barely anything stood out as particularly strong, there was too heavy a reliance on rehashed sketches, and the episode ended with one of the worst season-ending sketches in SNL history.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Molly Shannon)
a big step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2005-06)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 33 begins, with host LeBron James

Posted on

February 21, 2004 – Christina Aguilera / Maroon 5 (S29 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Gary Bauer (CHP) & Rosie O’Donnell (HOS) debate gay marriage

— A lot of technical screw-ups with the name graphics early on in this sketch, as seen in some of the above screencaps.
— Horatio’s Rosie O’Donnell is starting to approach the same levels of annoyance for me as Horatio’s Elton John.
— Interesting how Darrell is playing dual roles here, with his Arnold Schwarzenegger being pre-taped.
— Hmm, Darrell’s usually-off Schwarzenegger impression actually sounds better than usual in pre-taped form. Maybe SNL has finally found the solution in improving Darrell’s Schwarzenegger.
— Darrell’s Schwarzenegger is basically just repeating same lines about gays that he said in the cold opening from this season’s premiere.
— This season’s streak of forgettably average Hardball sketches sadly continues. It’s becoming more and more obvious that the glory days of Hardball being a sure-fire killer sketch are behind us.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
after declining requests to “whore it up,” host performs “Beautiful”

— Pretty good bit with Christina Aguilera calling Jimmy out on the acute/askanky joke he did about her on Weekend Update earlier this season, complete with a clip of said joke.
— As I said in an earlier episode review, the joke of Lorne playing a horndog towards the host and/or musical guest has gotten overplayed. Also, this monologue is starting to feel like Part 2 of Halle Berry’s monologue from earlier this season, and I already disliked Part 1 enough.
— When Lorne asks the guys “Who’s that?” in regards to Finesse, and is then told “That’s the new guy, Finesse”, I love Lorne incredulously asking “We hired a guy named Finesse?!?”
— At least Christina’s singing of “Beautiful” (a song she already performed on SNL a year prior) isn’t being done as a full-fledged musical performance with her going to the musical guest stage.
STARS: **½


SEX AND THE CITY
finale has punny Carrie (AMP) & shemale Samantha (host)

— An absolutely PERFECT Samantha impression from Christina. Shockingly good.
— Some good laughs from Rachel’s poor handling of the obviously fake baby she’s holding.
— I’m having a hard time buying Amy as Sarah Jessica Parker.
— This comedic premise of Samantha coming out as a “tranny” will probably not hold up well with a lot of people nowadays. However, Christina is selling it so damn hard that it’s still working for me, even if I’m not finding this material quite as hilarious as I remember finding it in 2004.
STARS: ***½


DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS?
snotty scions ply privilege on game show

— Feels like we haven’t seen an original game show sketch like this in quite a long time, though I’m probably forgetting something.
— Chris doing his usual solid and low-key-funny work as a game show host.
— Seth’s accented, high-pitched delivery of “Do you know who my father is?” was so over-the-top that it cracked me up.
— Will: “I can’t even GO to Switzerland. Stupid date rape trial!”
— Despite some laughs, this sketch as a whole is pretty forgettable.
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- banal showbiz questions haunt Pat O’Brien

— Robert Smigel apparently continues to be very busy elsewhere, as this is surprisingly on his THIRD TV Funhouse of the season.
— Oh, geez, what is with SNL’s Access Hollywood obsession this season? I’ve gotten so sick of these frequent Access Hollywood parodies that not even Smigel can make me excited to see another one.
— I guess I see what this cartoon is going for, but this isn’t working much for me.
— Not even the part with the Dalai Lama beating up Pat O’Brien made me laugh much.
— Meh, the joke about O’Brien being dropped down to hell, which turns out to be Access Hollywood, felt like an inferior version of a joke used in a David Brenner-starring TV Funhouse from season 23.
— Overall, I seem to be in the minority, but I did not care for this cartoon.
STARS: **


CELEBRATION OF WOMEN WEEK
in 1880, liberated (host) challenges stuffy women to flout the status quo

— An out-of-the-ordinary use of Darrell’s Phil Donahue impression. Reminds me of his Jack Perkins hosting that jazz profile show sketch from the preceding season’s Queen Latifah episode.
— Rachel’s old-timey dignified accent and facial expressions are very funny.
— Great exit line from Chris: “If you need me, I’ll be discussing negroes in the brandy room.” Reminds me of his great exit line from the Governess sketch in the Andy Roddick episode earlier this season: “Your mom and I have some bedroom-related things to work out.”
— Some funny lines from the women about how oppressed they’ve always been.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “This Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ignorant white guy WLF is ill-suited to honor Black History Month

— I like the fake-out with Kenan being introduced for a Black History Month commentary, only for Will to unexpectedly show up in his place while Kenan’s name still gets displayed in a graphic on the bottom of the screen.
— A great line with Will rude answer to Tina’s question of why Maya can’t do the Black History Month commentary: “Tina, it’s not Half-Black History Month.”
— Hilarious part with Will calling out individual black audience members to wish a happy Black History Month to.
— Will is so damn fantastic in this Black History Month piece, and it’s so nice seeing him get to shine while playing himself for once. Moments like this really solidify what a strong secret weapon he is on SNL in these early years of his.
— A nice little shoutout to Bill Murray during Jimmy and Tina’s sign-off, with Jimmy wishing Bill luck at the Oscars, as he was up for Best Actor for Lost In Translation. (He would end up losing and would famously have an openly bitter reaction.)
— Another short Update, for the second episode in a row.
STARS: ***


YOU GOT SERVED
Venice Beach teens serve up lame moves during a low-stakes dance-off

— The beginning of this sketch feels oddly silent. It feels like there should be background music or something.
— Boy, I can tell I’m going to hate this sketch. This feels like a variation of that very unfunny Wade Robson Project sketch from this season’s premiere. Sketches like this epitomize some of the MANY problems I have with this 2003-2005 SNL era.
— Blah. Not a single one of these dance moves from any of the performers is funny. At least in the Wade Robson sketch, we only had to sit through a dance sequence from three performers. This sketch, on the other hand, has, like, seven performers who’s individual dance sequence I have to suffer through.
— There goes Maya using that lean-all-the-way-back-in-a-staccato-manner dance move ONCE AGAIN. She’s taken a once-hilarious dance move that was great when she debuted it in that MTV Spring Break sketch with her and Cameron Diaz, and has completely run it into the ground by this point of her SNL tenure.
— Christina’s dance sequence came off just plain lazy compared to the rest of the cast (or maybe she forgot that her dancing is supposed to be COMEDIC), which is ironic, as she has far more professional dance experience than any of the cast members in this sketch.
— Not even Will could save this sketch with his goofy walk-on at the end.
STARS: *


DRESSING ROOM
host rejects “skank” tag implicit in well-wishers’ backhanded compliments

— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— Finesse’s Al Reynolds constantly being referred to as Stedman is making me laugh, even though it kinda feels like a hacky joke.
— Some of the many sexual euphemisms being said to Christina are funny, but this sketch in general isn’t all that great and and feels too repetitive.
— Another instance this season of Horatio pulling a Chris Farley and crashing through a breakaway table. Meh. However, I did like Amy’s Sharon Osbourne explaining to Christina why Horatio’s Ozzy fainted: “You made Ozzy think!”
STARS: **½


BESOS Y LAGRIMAS
maid (host) inspires kisses & tears in telenovela

— This sketch makes its debut and would go on to appear VERY sporadically within the next six(!) years just about every time SNL has a Hispanic host. Speaking of which, I recall hearing that tonight’s installment originally got cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s Salma Hayek episode, which Christina was the musical guest of.
— The bizarre nature of this sketch is cracking me up, as are the increasingly over-the-top dramatic close-ups of characters.
— The format of this sketch is almost starting to give me a very unwanted reminder of the future Californians sketches (a very polarizing recurring sketch that I despise with the fire of 1,000 suns), but this is miles funnier to me.
— When the camera showed a (very funny) close-up of an eyepatch-wearing Chris during the current sequence of each character being shown in a dramatic close-up, why didn’t he say “Helena” like everybody else is saying in their respective close-up? Was that an intentional joke?
STARS: ***½


HUGGIES THONG
— Oh, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. We’re only a little over halfway through this season, and this is the FOURTH DAMN TIME this commercial has been shown this season. Ridiculous. This may possibly have broken the record for most frequently repeated fake ad in the shortest amount of time, until season 31 eventually comes along and replays the living fuck out of that Morgan Stanley ad (the one with Will angrily chewing out Amy and then-newbie Andy Samberg as if he’s Amy’s father, only for him to be revealed as Amy’s family’s Morgan Stanley guy) within just the first few months of that season.


FIRING SANDY
(CHP) fires childishly insubordinate employee (WLF) for absenteeism

— I love the bizarre opening conversation Chris has with Amy regarding his lunch order.
— Hilarious how Will claims that he took one of his many sick days because he had the Elephant Man’s Disease.
— The insane dialogue in this sketch is having me howling.
— After one of Will’s many utterances of “No way, Jose”, I absolutely love Chris angrily responding “Stop using my first name, it’s disrespectful!”
— I’m surprised this sketch is over already, after only about two minutes, but this was a good length.
— Not only was this the usual fantastic Oddball Will Forte Sketch, and not only was this Will’s second strong showcase in tonight’s episode alone, but it was also great to see him paired with Chris (who, like Will, is one of the secret weapons of this cast, only SNL seems far less aware of that than they are with Will), who more than held his own in this sketch. Between the great U-S-Amen bit from the preceding season and now this sketch, I’m starting to think that the Forte/Parnell comedy duo is something we viewers needed to see MUCH more often than we do in this era.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Harder To Breathe”


DON’S APOTHECARY
apothecary Don’s lack of discretion creates more customers for Walgreens

— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— Blah. Much like last time, this sketch is just a series of unfunny sophomoric jokes. In other words, typical unfunny Horatio Sanz jackassery, which I am beyond sick of by this point of his SNL tenure. I mentioned in my review of the first installment of this sketch that Horatio intended for these Don’s Apothecary sketches to be a relatable, slice-of-life piece that he based off of something from his own childhood. I appreciate the idea he had behind these sketches, but it is so sad that THIS is the result of his attempt at a so-called “relatable” and “slice-of-life” piece.
— Maya got a good laugh from me with her delivery of “It’s for the vagina, baby.”
— Another funny Maya line, with her telling Rachel “You go ahead and buy your ‘gina cream, baby.” She’s becoming the sole highlight of this entire sketch.
— Ugh, another Walgreens twist at the end. It wasn’t funny in the first installment of this sketch, and it’s just plain lazy to just repeat it a second time. Thank god this ends up being the final installment of this lousy recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

— After I had just shit on Horatio in my review of the last sketch, I will say that I appreciate the fun bit during these goodnights with him driving his motorized cart (from the last sketch) around outside of the home base stage. You rarely see anything out of the ordinary like that happen during the goodnights by this point of SNL’s run.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mixed bag. There was about an equal amount of things I liked and disliked… actually, the latter probably slightly outnumbers the former. Can’t think of anything else worth saying about this episode.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Colin Firth