Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Dirty Square Dancing- at a hoe-down, (host) & (JAH) do all but go down
— Great sudden reveal of the “Dirty Square Dancing” title.
— Hilarious dirty lyrics from Phil and dirty moves from the dancers, especially the “lift your dress up over your head” and “stick your face in your partner’s crotch” ones.
— I like how they kept this overall cold opening short and sweet.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— After appearing in lots of uncredited bit roles since the homestretch of the preceding season, writer Rob Schneider joins the cast as a featured player tonight.
MONOLOGUE
host sings “All I Need Is A Girl” & dances with wife Lisa Niemi [real]
— Nothing much at all to say about this overall monologue. It was very light on humor and mostly focused on the dancing between Patrick and his wife, but it was at least charming.
STARS: **½
PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Franz has unexplained feelings for host
— We haven’t seen these characters in a while.
— Excellent turn with Franz developing feelings he doesn’t understand for Patrick Swayze.
— Hans’ high-pitched deliveries of his various “What do you mean you didn’t notice–” questions are making me laugh.
— Classic part with Franz’s fantasy sequence of Patrick horseback riding and eventually being joined by Franz.
— Hans sneaks in a “Ja, that’s the ticket” while wrapping up the sketch.
STARS: *****
GHOST
Ghost romance sours when Sam (host) sees Molly’s (VIJ) disgusting habits
— Victoria doing increasingly disgusting things is very funny.
— Patrick is also helping sell the material with his funny grossed-out reactions.
— I love the casting of Rock as Whoopi Goldberg’s character from Ghost, especially how Rock barely has to change his voice to sound like Whoopi, as his natural voice is already close enough. In fact, I’d say Whoopi actually has the deeper voice of the two.
— One of Victoria’s overall best performances during her SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½
TAX AD
Sam Walton (PHH) offers $100,000 to anyone who opposes a tax hike
— Meh, a forgettable and bland message that not even Phil could make all that interesting.
STARS: **
SUPER FEUD
Latino crooners (host) & (DAC) one-up each other on album
— I love the melody the songs are being sung in.
— Dana’s accent is hilarious.
— Dana and Patrick’s increasingly blasphemous accusations of each other through song are hilarious, especially Dana claiming Patrick stuffs his trousers “with a plastic peeeeniiiiss” and how it “fell out in Liiiiiimaaaa”.
— Very fun sketch.
STARS: ****½
TAX AD
rescinding previous deal, Sam Walton (PHH) now offers chance to win a hat
— Unlike the first one, this one has an actual funny message with Phil’s Walton realizing he couldn’t possibly pay out the insane amount of money he offered in the first ad.
— His new offer being a raffle where the winner receives Walton’s hat is pretty funny.
— Classic unscripted moment right now: when Phil’s Walton is concluding his message and telling us to let him worry about things, a VERY loud off-camera crash is suddenly heard from somewhere in the studio. Phil looks towards the direction of the crash with a hilarious frozen open-mouthed smile (second screencap above) and says “Thank you”, and then tells us “Well, you just let me worry about THAT too!” An excellent save from Phil that receives huge applause.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vision of Love”
WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB warns that not voting in elections can only make things worse
— Loved the soundbyte of a knocked-out-by-Evander-Holyfield Buster Douglas saying “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”, made even funnier by the fact that it’s then-writer David Spade doing the voice in that soundbyte.
— A. Whitney, on what the future generation will inherit: “If voter turnout is no better than it usually is, there’s a good chance they’ll also inherit our congress… or should I say, inherit the wind.”
— I love Dennis doing multiple jokes about a suggestive-looking photo of Dan Quayle taking the snap from a football player.
— Speaking of David Spade earlier, according to GettyImages, he had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he apparently played some kind of Russian (pic here).
STARS: ***½
CHIPPENDALES
sexy (host) & flabby (CHF) compete for a job as a Chippendale dancer
— Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to witness a star being born. Not only is this a very popular and legendary sketch, it’s also a very important sketch, as it’s Chris Farley’s official breakout moment as an unproven featured player who’s only in his fourth episode.
— I’ve always liked the little detail with Patrick and Farley’s characters being named Adrien and Barney, respectively.
— Farley is incredible to watch during his hilarious dancing here, especially when you’re aware of this being a groundbreaking moment for the then-newbie. His comical physicality, his fearlessness, etc. are all on FULL display for the very first time. I can only imagine what it was like in 1990 to watch this sketch live and witness this new kid completely and unexpectedly steal the entire show in this manner.
— All that stuff about Farley’s dancing being said, they would later show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns (which is the version of this sketch that everyone today is familiar with), where Farley’s dancing is even funnier. As awesome as the live version of this sketch is, Farley’s not QUITE as unleashed in his dance moves as he is in the dress rehearsal version (I wonder if he was suffering from live TV jitters, considering how new he is at this point).
— Besides the main joke, one aspect that helps make this sketch work so well is how the judges are treating this competition so ridiculously seriously, as if it’s truly a difficult decision to choose between Swayze and Farley.
— I love the camaraderie between Farley and Patrick throughout this sketch, especially during the backstage scene.
— Funny touch with Farley unsuccessfully trying to change the judges’ minds by starting to open up his robe while slowly beginning to break out into another dance.
— Sweet, charming ending with Patrick’s voice-over epilogue.
STARS: *****
THE TONIGHT SHOW
guests are Susan Dey (JAH) & Arsenio Hall (CSR)
— Good to see the return of Jan’s Susan Dey. So many dead-on and funny details in her vocal imitation.
— Rock’s Arsenio is a riot right from his entrance.
— So strange to think there was a time when Arsenio’s show was predicted to eventually overtake the Tonight Show in popularity. All I can say in hindsight is: Ha!
— I really like Dana-as-Johnny-Carson’s reactions to hearing how out-of-touch and unhip The Tonight Show has become lately.
— A good laugh from Phil’s Ed McMahon having no problem admitting he would stay on if Jay Leno took over.
STARS: ***½
WHITE TRASH BED AND BREAKFAST
reviewer (DAC) visits the trailer park clan
— Catchy opening theme song. This late 80s/early 90s era is so damn good at creating jingles, even for one-off sketches like this.
— Jan, on her bedroom: “I shared it with four husbands.” Patrick: “Mama, give it a rest.” Jan: “Oh, you’re just mad cuz none of ’em was your daddy!”
— Great redneck performances from the cast and Patrick.
— I like Kevin and Rob Schneider’s entrance as strange twins.
— Very funny part with Mike coming in with a dead dog and putting it on the table (where Dana’s character is trying to eat), only for Patrick to sternly order Mike to “put him in the sink!”
— Wild ending with the Phil/Patrick fight on the table.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vanishing”
MOUSE TRAP SEMINAR
seminar helps people who don’t quite grasp the concept of a mouse trap
— Unfortunately, the copy I’m reviewing of this episode is missing the entire first half of this fantastic sketch that I’ve always loved.
— Very funny little bit with Farley sheepishly and slowly lowering his raised hand in reaction to Kevin indirectly answering his dumb question before he’s even asked it (a gag that Farley would later reprise the following season in a famous sketch with Jerry Seinfeld as a history teacher).
— I’ve always found Dana’s look in this sketch to be odd and random. Why the dark skin and wig combo? Why give him such an oddly specific, detailed, almost-ethnic look for a generic, supporting, Caucasian role like this?
— Writer Bob Odenkirk’s brief walk-on gets ruined when the crab hanging on his nose IMMEDIATELY falls off by accident (third and fourth screencaps above). If you watch Odenkirk as he exits the scene, he can be seen shaking his head in disappointment. Reruns would replace his portion of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version where the crab stays on his nose during his entire walk-on.
— I love Dana trying to grab at the image of cheese shown on the screen projector, and Kevin having to inform him “This is only MOVIE cheese”.
STARS: ***** (And that’s only based on my memory of this sketch as a whole. The incomplete version I watched just now is too short to rate accurately. With its first half missing, this sketch sadly loses some of the context that makes it a masterpiece.)
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An incredible episode. The legendary Chippendales sketch was, of course, this episode’s centerpiece, but it was surrounded by plenty of sketches that were very memorable and strong in their own right. An overall almost flawless, very impressive, and incredibly fun episode.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Steinbrenner)
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jimmy Smits hosts. We also finally get the addition of a third female cast member.