Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
FOX & FRIENDS
Michael Bloomberg (FRA) takes heat for gun & soda control
— Funny bit from Bobby’s Brian Kilmeade about french-kissing his hand.
— I got a big cheap laugh from the comment Vanessa’s Gretchen Carlson makes in regards to gay athletes and the guy in football who hikes the ball.
— Is Fred always the guest in these Fox & Friends sketches? This is either the third or fourth consecutive installment that’s happened in.
— Great bit with Bobby’s Kilmeade drinking the entire oversized Big Gulp, causing him to have a sugar rush.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & does stand-up on myriad topics
— Interesting little detail with Zach Galifianakis entering with a rose in his hand and then placing it on the top of the piano.
— I love Zach saying “I haven’t really done anything, guys” when the audience is laughing endlessly over his comical opening line: “I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.”
— An absolutely priceless bit about a deaf couple being amazing at charades.
— Great sequence with Zach doing a whole bunch of set-ups with no punchlines.
— Zach: “The other day, I Googled how many Mexicans live in North Korea. (*pauses a little while*) Google didn’t know.”
— Zach: “Here’s something you’ll never see in braille: If You See Something, Say Something.”
— Hmm, no “Hoobastank is here” callback at the end of this monologue.
STARS: ****½
GAME OF GAME OF THRONES
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau [real] visits game show
— Not sure, but this may be the final instance of Bill playing a game show host during his tenure as a cast member.
— I don’t know why Aidy casually saying “bastard son” in a straitlaced voice tickled me so much just now, given the fact that it wasn’t even intended to be comedic. A testament to how naturally funny Aidy’s delivery is.
— After Zach states the obvious when saying “That’s a Game Of Thrones joke!” and Bill responds in an over-the-top mock-surprised manner, “It is?!?!?”, I love Bill immediately following that by making an eye-rolling-type face. It’s little touches like that that I’m going to miss about Bill’s game show host characterizations.
— Very funny subversion with the question Zach’s Game Of Thrones nerd character is asked turning out to be a non-Game Of Thrones real-world geography question, which naturally leaves him stumped.
— Another funny subversion, with Zach going out of his way to pick a definite Game Of Thrones-themed question, and the question initially starts out GOT-themed, only to suddenly turn into another non-GOT real-world question.
— Some laughs from the speed round.
— Ehh, the part with Zach glowingly making homoerotic comments to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau feels too typical and unnecessary.
— I got a good laugh from how, when asked to identify a photo of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Zach answers, “I don’t know, some old pilgrim?”
STARS: ***½
MATCH.COM
horny Martha Stewart (KAM) is amongst those looking for love on match.com
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kate playing Martha Stewart. Also, it goes without saying that, by nature, any non-Ana Gasteyer SNL impersonator of Martha Stewart pales in comparison to Ana.
— Blah, I’m not caring for how this is going the cliched route of “Martha Stewart says dirty things in a stiff, straitlaced manner”. Tired humor.
— I love how Taran, in between acting very casual towards Kate’s Martha Stewart, excitedly mouths “Martha Stewart!” into the camera. That’s exactly the type of little thing Taran’s always so good at getting laughs out of.
STARS: **
JENNIFER ANISTON LOOK-ALIKE COMPETITION
(Bradley Cooper), (Ed Helms) & others look more like Jennifer Aniston than (host)
— A good cheap laugh from Zach making his entrance looking like that.
— Zach, after receiving an offended reaction to his harsh comment about Helen Keller’s blindness: “Oh, shut up! She knew what she was doing! She was milking it!”
— Zach sure is stumbly with his lines throughout this sketch. He was a little stumbly in his appearances earlier tonight, too.
— I love the deep voice Bobby’s doing.
— I didn’t know Kenan still dressed in drag at this point of his SNL tenure, just a few months before he would publicly announce that summer that he was taking a stand against continuing to play black women on SNL. (Though in this Aniston Look-Alike sketch, Kenan’s technically playing a man dressed like Whoopi Goldberg.) Assuming he doesn’t dress in drag in the remaining two episodes of this season, I guess this sketch can be pinpointed as containing Kenan’s final drag role on SNL.
— Zach’s angry ranting throughout this sketch has me in absolute stitches, even with his constant line flubs.
— Hmm, has Jason’s microphone suddenly stopped working?
— Ah, we get our very first display of Vanessa’s spot-on and memorable Jennifer Aniston impression, which Vanessa would get good mileage out of on Weekend Update in her later seasons.
— Alongside Vanessa in this sketch, we also get good Aniston impressions from Nasim and Taran, the latter’s impression being especially funny.
— Oh, geez. Even in a mere cameo, Ed Helms is making a PAINFULLY long, awkward pause before delivering his line, which was something he occasionally did in the episode he hosted two seasons prior.
— Hilarious how the alleged Friends theme song that the Hangover guys sing together is actually “That’s What Friends Are For”.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Little Talks”
WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) analyzes the defeat of background checks for guns
tech correspondent’s (FRA) struggles belie unobtrusivity of Google Glass
The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is haughty & dippy
— This ends up being the final appearance of Bill’s always-fun James Carville impression.
— I love the ghost-walking-through-Obama sound effect (“Waauuuw”) that Bill’s Carville is doing.
— A hilarious harsh comment Bill’s Carville lightheartedly makes about his mother dying “peacefully” by falling into the propeller on a fan boat.
— Bill’s Carville is a freakin’ riot in his interactions with his mother’s ghost. Bill’s having so much fun here.
— Feels like Seth is doing an unusually low number of jokes between each guest commentary tonight, but I guess I can’t say that’s a bad thing, given how burned-out I’ve recently become on the solo Seth era of Update. Having to review SO MANY consecutive seasons of Blandy McBlanderson, a.k.a. Seth Meyers, solo at the Update desk has taken its toll on me lately. I’m craving a positive change at the Update desk, and the changes we get at the desk in the upcoming season 39 sure as hell ain’t it. Season 40 of Weekend Update cannot come soon enough for me.
— Interesting and rare seeing Fred do an Update commentary as a normal, one-off character in this late stage of his SNL tenure.
— Fred’s actually doing a good job here, making this the second consecutive episode in which he turns in a surprisingly solid performance during these way-past-his-prime years of his SNL tenure. Good to see him showing signs of new life in the homestretch of his SNL tenure.
— The Girl You Wish etc.: “There are 90-year-olds dying every single day. It’s like – oh, thanks, congress.”
— The Girl You Wish etc., to Seth: “For all intents and porpoises, you’re a facade.”
— I just realized this ends up being the last Update commentary this character of Cecily’s does before we get a year-long break from her, due to Cecily’s stint as an Update co-anchor.
STARS: **½
M&M STORE
at M&M’s World, racist greeter (host) apologizes to fellow employees
— A big laugh from Zach’s “How” bit towards Nasim’s Indian character.
— Zach, in how grossed-out he is by the thought of what his two allegedly-gay co-workers do together: “And I know I made that abundantly clear, often through song…”
— After Zach asks his co-workers to bury the hatchet, I laughed so much at him telling Nasim’s Indian character, “No offense.”
— The fact that this whole situation is happening in an M&M store, of all settings, is somehow making this even funnier.
— This sketch is such a riot that even Zach’s black-people-talking-in-a-movie-theater joke (making this the second consecutive episode with a joke about that, by the way) came off hilarious instead of hacky.
— Zach’s “Swing low…” bit towards Kenan had me howling.
STARS: ****½
DARRELL’S HOUSE
Darrell Sparks (host) plans to fix his cable access TV show in post
— I absolutely love the odd, low-budget opening title sequence and theme song, featuring a graphic of Zach’s head bouncing around the screen.
— A priceless sudden escalation to this sketch, with Zach’s heated exchange with Vanessa.
— A very fascinating and unique structure to this sketch, with Zach constantly stopping what he’s doing to give elaborate directions on what edits he wants made in post. It’s even more fascinating and unique in hindsight when you’re aware of what it’s going to lead to later in this episode.
— Kenan’s delivery of “I’m not Jon Hamm” while slyly smirking is great.
— So many things about this sketch are, on top of being fascinating, amusing the hell out of me. This is such a strong piece.
— Another great line delivery from Kenan, with his “I bet it’ll be me” when Zach tells him “You’re not going to be on, Jon Hamm’s gonna be on.”
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mountain Sound”
MICHAEL JORDAN’S WEDDING
Charles Barkley (KET) & others toast Michael Jordan at his lavish wedding
— I like Kenan-as-Charles-Barkley’s comment about Michael Jordan’s infamous Hitler-esque mustache in that Hanes commercial.
— Funny visual of Zach and Jason returning with cocaine under their noses.
— Blah, a display of Fred playing a very typical foreigner role, which he’s done to death and beyond over the years.
— Zach and Jason’s cocaine-induced hyper behavior in their third scene is cracking me up.
— Jay is absolutely HILARIOUS as Dikembe Mutombo.
— Jay as Dikembe Mutombo: “You know what my wife gave me for our wedding? MALARIA.”
— Jay’s whole “taunting God” spiel in that accented, gravely voice is pure comedy gold.
STARS: ***½
NEW BALANCE
New Balance is the running shoe for out-of-shape guys who stand around
— Meh, lots of generic, forgettable humor here.
— I did get a pretty good laugh from Zach casually grabbing half of a passerby’s pretzel.
STARS: **
DARRELL’S HOUSE: THE FINAL CUT
clumsily-edited finished product features Jon Hamm [real]
— Oh, this is absolutely BRILLIANT, showing us the finished product of all the edits Zach’s character called for in the Darrell’s House sketch from earlier tonight. I always like the idea of waiting until later in the show to give us a delayed punchline to a certain sketch, much like what we got with the Z Shirts thing from earlier this season. What’s even more impressive and amazing about this second Darrell’s House piece is that SNL made this edited version on the fly after the first Darrell’s House sketch ended. HUGE props to SNL for pulling that off.
— I love how the voice of the edited-out-of-this-final-cut Vanessa is sloppily left in for a nanosecond.
— Even the little detail of loud, muffled, off-camera sounds in the badly spliced-in close-up of the now-filled snack tray is a very funny comedic touch.
— A huge laugh from the jarring dubbing-in of Zach saying “AL….JOL-SON.” in a monotone, robotic-sounding voice. Not to mention how inherently hilarious it is that Al Jolson is the only singer this Darrell’s House show could get cleared.
— Hilarious visual of Jon Hamm being very poorly edited into the same shots as Zach via a split-screen effect, including, at one point, a blink-and-miss-it full shot of Kenan as Jon’s placeholder flashing on screen for a quick second.
— Overall, simply excellent. Bravo.
STARS: *****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A really solid episode with some VERY strong highs, including an all-timer with the Darrell’s House pieces. As usual whenever he hosts, Zach Galifianakis added to the episode’s strength. A damn shame he has yet to continue hosting any further after this episode, but if he had to stop hosting, at least this episode was a great way for him to go out.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Darrell’s House / Darrell’s House: The Final Cut (tie)
Monologue
M&M Store
Jennifer Aniston Look-Alike Competition
Fox & Friends
Michael Jordan’s Wedding
Game Of Game Of Thrones
Weekend Update
New Balance
Match.com
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Vince Vaughn)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Kristen Wiig