Tag: Pearl Jam

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March 13, 2010 – Jude Law / Pearl Jam (S35 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MASSA EXIT INTERVIEW
Eric Massa’s (BOM) explanations of his untoward behavior don’t hold water

— A big technical gaffe literally at the very start of this cold opening, as the screen accidentally freezes while it was starting to fade into the opening shot of the U.S. Capitol Building (the first above screencap for this cold opening). Due to this gaffe, we have to stare at a boring, half-faded-in shot of the U.S. Capitol Building for A FULL MINUTE during Bill’s very long opening voice-over, which was supposed to be accompanied by an onscreen text crawl that states what Bill’s voice-over is saying. This gaffe would later be fixed in reruns.
— Something about Bill’s aforementioned opening voice-over is cracking me up, despite (or maybe because of) how long it’s going on.
— Funny snorkeling scene between Bobby and Andy.
— Solid performance from Bobby throughout this, and it feels nice and rare to see him front-and-center in a cold opening, given the fact that he’s a second-season featured player.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host gives an overview of what it was like to perform Hamlet on Broadway

— When talking about Ashlee Simpson infamously being the musical guest of his previous SNL episode, Jude Law blatantly lip-syncs the words “She…was…great!”, a cliched gag that SNL and other shows had been doing to better effect since way back in the Milli Vanilli days.
— Jude has a nice delivery here, but I’m finding this monologue itself to be really boring and a lot of nothingness, other than a few mildly funny asides from Jude.
STARS: *½


FORD
unlike the Toyota Prius, Ford’s hybrids won’t accelerate uncontrollably

— A hilarious turn the pleasant, tender tone of this commercial suddenly takes with the Toyota Prius accelerating at an insanely-fast speed while a panicky Abby and Kenan are inside. Some great reactions from Abby and Kenan here.
— Solid twist at the end with this whole commercial turning out to be Ford’s attempt to persuade us to try their hybrids instead.
— A good ending slow-motion exterior shot of Abby yelling out the car window.
STARS: ****


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & Russian ballet star (host) don’t have a clue

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— (*sigh*) Cue the already-tired running gag in these sketches with Kristen always immediately saying the secret word.
— Another thing I always hate about these Secret Word sketches is how they play to some of Kristen’s worst tendencies as a performer.
— An actual funny anecdote from a very deadpan Kenan about him once getting arrested for walking around a neighborhood where families live.
— After Kristen’s character says the name of a play she was in, I got a second rare laugh in this sketch, from Bill responding, with a friendly smile, “I saw that…and it was awful.”
STARS: *½


BROADVIEW SECURITY
Broadview Security protects against unlikely home invasions by nice guys

— Tonight’s second pre-taped fake ad ALREADY?
— Some funny over-the-top screaming faces from Nasim whenever somebody breaks into her house.
— An overall well-performed commercial, but I found the humor itself to be only decent.
STARS: ***


SPAIN
Spaniard (host) charms tourists (ABE) & (NAP) while vowing to murder them

— Pretty nice to not only see a showcase for featured players Abby and Nasim, but also in a realistic setting like this.
— A laugh from Jude’s random first reveal of “I will kill you” at the end of the romantic plans he discloses to Abby and Nasim.
— So far, while not bad, not much has been jumping out at me as particularly good in this sketch.
— Didn’t care much for the ending.
STARS: **½


BOOMBOX
(ANS) & Julian Casablancas [real] ply Pandora’s ghetto blaster

 

— The usual fun conceit of a Lonely Island music video.
— I love Andy’s overly intense delivery of “WHO’S GOT THE JUICE?!?”
— Pretty funny running gag with the boiled goose, especially the increasingly exaggerated ways Andy says “boiled goose”.
— The visuals of old people getting freaky with each other are almost more disturbing than funny, though I’m still laughing.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just Breathe”


WEEKEND UPDATE
defensive Poise Pads spokeswoman Whoopi Goldberg (KET) is epistemological

incredulous SEM & Jerry Seinfeld [real] say “Really!?!” about Eric Massa

— Kenan In A Dress alert…FOR THE SECOND DAMN WEEKEND UPDATE IN A ROW. Jesus Christ, SNL.
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kenan do his Whoopi Goldberg shtick outside of the View sketches.
— I’m at least finding this commentary to be a little funnier than Kenan’s Mo’Nique commentary in the preceding episode’s Update. Kenan’s Whoopi usually always manages to get some laughs from me.
— For the first time ever, Seth is joined in a “Really?!?” segment by a non-Amy-Poehler special guest, tonight’s guest being a very random Jerry Seinfeld.
— I’m finding this to be easily the funniest edition of “Really?!?” in quite a long while. Lots of hilarious one-liners from Seth and Jerry here about the Eric Massa scandal. Jerry is fitting well into the “Really?!?” format, which kinda makes me wish he did more of these.
STARS: ***½


TWILIGHT ZONE
at 20,000 feet, gremlin (BOM) is more than a nightmare

— I like seeing Bill do a Rod Serling impression, because, as I always say, Bill is such a natural in SNL’s black-and-white period pieces. That being said, I’ve seen better Rod Serling impressions.
— A very funny visual of Bobby as the gremlin from the legendary gremlin-on-the-wing Twilight Zone episode.
— Great detail of the gremlin wearing a “Kiss Me I’m Real” apron while cooking on a grill.
— Lots of funny increasingly-extensive, out-of-place actions that the gremlin is doing on the wing.
— I love that intimidating pose the gremlin strikes at the end of every scene.
— Classic turn with Pearl Jam randomly accompanying the gremlin on the wing and joining in on his aforementioned intimidating pose at the end of the scene.
— Towards the end, when the camera is panning over to Bill’s Rod Serling sitting in a passenger seat in the plane, you can hear the mic’ed off-camera voice of who appears to be Bobby groaning what sounds like “Ohh! What is–”, then it sounds like he cuts himself off when seemingly realizing he’s not supposed to be speaking right now. What was THAT all about???
STARS: ****½


HAMLET AUDITION
Nathan Lane (BOM) & Al Pacino (BIH) join host at audition for Hamlet role

— I always enjoy Bobby’s Nathan Lane impression.
— Ha, then-writers and future cast members Colin Jost and Mike O’Brien are sitting next to each other in the background (as seen in the fourth above screencap for this sketch). I feel like this is the most visible that Colin Jost has been in a live sketch up to this point of SNL’s run, even though he made a few other live sketch appearances prior to this. Or maybe his appearance in this particular sketch just feels jarring to me because he looks like his modern-day self in it, especially since he’s sporting the coiffed hairstyle that would later become his trademark look in his Weekend Update years. (He had very different hairstyles in his live sketch appearances prior to this Jude Law episode, including a long hairstyle at one point.)
— Great to see Bill’s Al Pacino impression back after a very long absence. (I think the last time Bill did this impression prior to this was way back in the premiere of season 32, when Bill was only in his second season on SNL.)
— The usual very fun performance from Bill as Pacino.
— This feels like the first time we’re seeing Jason all night, though he previously appeared in a very small role in the cold opening earlier tonight. Still, a very light night for him.
— Funny Sam Elliott performance from Jason. “The butt abides.”
STARS: ***½


KICKSPIT UNDERGROUND ROCK FESTIVAL
— Rerun from 12/5/09. A rather odd choice to rerun, given the fact that 1) this doesn’t follow the format of a typical SNL commercial, and 2) this is much longer than a typical SNL commercial. Is SNL trying to kill time or something? We’re not even at the end of the episode, though.
— This rerun choice also comes off odd in retrospect because SNL would later do several new Kickspit Underground Rock Festival pre-taped commercials (and even a live sketch at one point, which is coming up in just a few episodes from now).


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Unthought Known”


COURT STENOGRAPHER
Elinda Nade gets jewelry caught in her typewriter & loses her Chapstick

— OHHHH (insert an insanely long string of furious expletives here).
— I pointed out how ridiculously underused Jason has been in tonight’s episode, but geez, that’s NOTHING compared to poor Will Forte. His ONLY appearances in tonight’s episode, including this sketch, have literally been just bit roles. You know, the type of bit roles usually reserved for featured players, not freakin’ EIGHT-YEAR VETERANS like Will. (Hell, the actual featured players in this season’s cast, minus Jenny, have been getting plenty of big roles in this episode.) This is probably the nadir of SNL’s sad under-utilization of Will this season. When this episode originally aired, I remember saying to myself, in a sullen manner, “Yep, it’s official: this is definitely going to be Will’s final season. The writing is clearly on the wall.”
— Not even Will playing a creepy murderer in this awful Stenographer sketch could get a laugh out of me, and Will usually kills (pun not intended) in roles like that.
— I see Fred’s endlessly-delivered “I can’t find my crackers” catchphrase from the first installment of this sketch has been altered tonight into “I can’t find my chapstick.” It makes no damn difference, because it’s equally insufferable and suicide-inducing.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember this sketch was the point where I officially had to come to terms with the fact that Fred had become a bad cast member (as seen here in my original 2010 review of this Stenographer sketch, though you’ll notice that I still criticized Fred with kid gloves in that sketch review, by generously calling his typical season 35 work “insanely hit-or-miss” instead of “terrible” like I truly felt at the time), which was fucking painful for me to admit back then, because I had been a huge fan of Fred in his previous seasons. During those years (seasons 28-34), he was one of my absolute favorite then-current cast members, and he could do almost no wrong in my eyes. I felt he was a consistently funny, creative, and brilliant performer. Souring on him was NOT easy for me back when this season (season 35) originally aired. I hope you readers remember that when you see me shitting all over Fred in my current reviews of this season as well as the next few seasons. I’m not hating his performances just for the sake of hating them, or because he’s been on the show “too long” (the latter of which a Fred Armisen defender/SNL reviewer once wrongfully accused me of disliking Fred for back in 2011), or because hating his performances is the “popular” thing to do among some hardcore online SNL fans. The fact that a former diehard Fred Armisen fan like me can (hesitantly) sour on him so harshly shows you how REALLY fucking bad he’s gotten in these later seasons of his.
STARS: *


TALK SHOW WITH RAVISH
exacting Indian dad (FRA) pushes son Ravish (NAP) into a talk show career

— At the very beginning of this sketch, the wall on the left end of the screen can be seen wobbling VERY unstably. This is because, even after SNL returned from the preceding commercial break, SNL’s stagehands still hadn’t finished assembling the final wall for this sketch, so that wobbling you see the wall doing early in this sketch is the unseen SNL stagehands still trying to get the wall properly in place. About a year later, NBC would air, I believe, an SNL Backstage special (which used previously-unaired interview footage of SNL cast members, writers, etc. originally filmed for the Kenneth Bowser-made SNL documentaries each covering a different decade of the show), and at one point when they focus on how frantic and last-minute some things during live SNL airings are, they use a behind-the-scenes clip of SNL stagehands being late in their efforts to assemble the final wall for this Talk Show With Ravish sketch as an example.
— I believe this is our first of MANY displays of Nasim’s affinity for playing young boys.
— Nasim has been getting lots of airtime tonight for a first-season featured player.
— I like the casting of Jenny as the sole member of Nasim’s house band, as it pairs this season’s two new cast members together.
— Funny “Jay Leno Walking With Ravish” segment title.
— Hmm, Bobby playing a drunken uncle. In retrospect, this could be taken as a bit of a precursor to a certain famous Weekend Update recurring character Bobby would play later in his SNL tenure.
— Despite my well-documented dislike for the lazy and overused talk show format, Nasim is pulling this sketch off decently enough, and I’m finding her likable here. It’s probably for the best, though, that this sketch ends up never becoming recurring.
— I like how Nasim’s Ravish character is making Jude uncomfortable by bringing up unfortunate things from his career.
— Am I crazy, or does that sound like former cast member Maya Rudolph doing the closing voice-over?
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, though blandly so (and blandness is sadly par for the course this season). The first half of the episode was a little shaky, but things got a little more consistent in the second half, minus that unwatchable Court Stenographer sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Twilight Zone
Ford
Boombox
Hamlet Audition
Weekend Update
Massa Exit Interview
Broadview Security
Talk Show with Ravish
Spain
Monologue
Secret Word
Court Stenographer


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Zach Galifianakis)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tina Fey / Justin Bieber

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April 15, 2006 – Lindsay Lohan / Pearl Jam (S31 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM
staff turnover yields presidential spokesteen (host)

— I’m surprised to find myself loving that opening theme music of The Situation Room. Catchy and epic.
— This season, SNL seems to be attempting lots of replacements for the phased-out Hardball sketches. In just one season, we’ve gotten non-Hardball political talking head show sketches like Anderson Cooper 360, The O’Reilly Factor, and now The Situation Room, none of which end up enjoying anywhere near the long-term success that the Hardball sketches enjoyed in their prime.
— Nice to see big roles for newbies Jason and Kristen right at top of tonight’s episode.
— Kristen’s delivery of many of her lines is making me laugh. She’s always reliable at getting laughs out of low-key roles like this.
— Meh, not caring for the comedic conceit of Lindsay Lohan’s character during her press conference. After the first minute of this scene, after you’ve gotten the joke, Lindsay’s lines have stopped getting much laughs.
— Yikes, Lindsay’s voice is so unsettlingly scratchy and raspy tonight that it almost completely gave out when she said “Night” at the end of her “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” I remember on an online SNL message board, during a discussion of this episode right after it originally aired, a board member comically addressed Lindsay’s scratchy, raspy voice by saying “Hmm, I didn’t know Harvey Fierstein was appearing on SNL tonight.”
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host lectures drunk Easter Bunny (KET) about his excessive partying

— Didn’t care for Lindsay’s self-deprecating opening joke, “I think I hosted SNL more times than I’ve wrecked my car.”
— A bit of an odd use of Kenan at this point of his SNL tenure.
— Not caring for the writing of this, and Kenan’s performance is actually fairly irritating and unfunny.
— Blah, Lindsay’s second attempt at self-deprecating humor in this monologue, with her sternly giving the Easter Bunny an intervention (which Lindsay herself was reportedly given backstage at SNL immediately after hosting the preceding season’s finale), is falling flat.
STARS: *½


NEUTROGENA COIN SLOT CREAM
low-cut pants call for Neutrogena Coin Slot Cream buttcrack moisturizer

— Is there any real joke to this, besides the idea of a moisturizer cream for buttcracks, which isn’t exactly something funny enough to base an entire commercial spoof on? Feels kinda like a leftover premise from the awful season 30.
— I will at least give this credit for accurately imitating the visual style of typical Neutrogena commercials, which is the closest to a positive thing I can say about this.
— Overall, blah.
STARS: *


DEEP HOUSE DISH
boring Tiara Zee (RAD) grooves to divas (AMP) & (host)

— (*sigh*) Tonight’s episode had ALREADY not been doing it for me, and now SNL throws THIS recurring sketch at me? You readers probably already know what my reaction to seeing this sketch pop up tonight is. Actually, in my reviews in this SNL project, I haven’t been hating these Deep House Dish sketches as much as I did when they originally aired; I’ve just been extremely meh on these sketches in my reviews, which, while still negative, is at least somewhat of a step up from my seething hatred for these sketches when they originally aired.
— (*sighs again*) Cue the one part of this sketch that I still do hate: the constant, repetitive, and unfunny “Ooh-wee, Tiara, that was so boring”s.
— Hmm, kinda interesting how Fred and Bill are reprising their Jake Gyllenhaal-obsessed singing duo from an earlier Deep House Dish sketch.
— Why weren’t Fred and Bill interviewed after their song, like singers in these sketches usually are?
— I think I spoke too soon about not hating these Deep House Dish sketches anymore, because I have not gotten a single shred of enjoyment from ANYTHING in tonight’s Deep House Dish installment. Either my fatigue towards these sketches has finally set in, or perhaps tonight’s DHD installment just seems worse to me because this episode in general has been putting me in a very bored mood so far.
STARS: *


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- kids’ Journey To The Disney Vault reveals unsettling Walt secrets

— During the listing-off of fictional direct-to-DVD Disney sequels, I love how one of them is Bambi 2002, a previous TV Funhouse from season 27.
— A laugh from the quick “101 Fellations” gag, which seems like a variation of the “Pokahotass” gag from the aforementioned TV Funhouse, Bambi 2002. Also, a few days before tonight’s episode originally aired, this 101 Fellations bit was heavily hyped in an online article as something big that would be airing on SNL that weekend and would be including a famous porn star (who’s name I can’t remember at the moment) as one of the “dalmatian” women. One portion of that article interviewed the porn star about the 101 Fellations bit, and the way she described it made it seem like it was going to be an entire full-fledged segment. She went into a whole bunch of detail about the plot and all the various characterizations, as if it was going to be some huge, fleshed-out, standalone segment. Cut to a few nights later when this episode is airing live, and I’m sitting in my living room watching the show like normal, and I find myself utterly baffled to see that 101 Fellations was nothing more than a brief two-second cutaway gag, with no so-called plot or characterizations to speak of. WTF??? Did Robert Smigel originally film 101 Fellations as an entire fleshed-out segment, but ended up editing it down to just a two-second gag, or was the aforementioned porn star just full of shit in that interview?
— I love the voice for the little girl.
— The extremely un-PC “very original version” of Song Of The South is so wrong, but absolutely HILARIOUS.
— A huge laugh from the kids incredulously asking Mickey Mouse “You’re supposed to be FUNNY?!?”
— Great bit with one of the kids finding a still-alive Jim Henson and a Kermit puppet bound and gagged to a chair, which results in Mickey Mouse breaking down in tears while yelling “He wouldn’t sell! He wouldn’t seeeeeeelllllllll!”
— Overall, not only a very strong TV Funhouse, but leave it to Smigel to deliver the first actual good segment in this episode so far.
STARS: ****½


THE O’REILLY FACTOR
Seymour Hersh (FRA) & Newt Gingrich (WLF)

— Shortly after I mentioned SNL’s various failed attempts to replace Hardball as their regular political talking heads show sketch, here’s another one of them tonight. Do we really need this AND The Situation Room in the same episode?
— Feels kinda odd seeing Will play Newt Gingrich.
— I’m starting to get tired of these O’Reilly Factor sketches, as well as Darrell’s non-attempt at sounding like Bill O’Reilly. I know his impression eventually gets better, but it has yet to happen by this point.
— I did get a chuckle from the bit right now with Darrell’s O’Reilly, during a back-and-forth disagreement with Will’s Gingrich, childishly saying an increasingly loud “Yes they are, yes they are, yes they are, YES THEY AAARRRRE!”, and then, after a beat, finishing it off with a soft-spoken and modestly-delivered “Yes they are” while lightly emphasizing his point with his hand.
— I like Will-as-Gingrich’s “last word” being him telling O’Reilly “You gotta read some books, man.”
— The “A-1 dickface” bit in one letter in the mailbag is pretty funny.
STARS: **½


CHOCOLATE CAKE
rich chocolate dessert stirs diners’ (host), (JAS), (RAD), (FRA) emotions

— Much like the Wind sketch from this season’s Jack Black episode, this is another sketch that I recall a few online SNL fans back at this time making comparisons to the dreaded Hot Plates sketch from the preceding season. I recall strongly disagreeing with those comparisons, but we’ll see.
— Jason’s insane reactions to the great taste of the cake are hilarious.
— A lot of increasingly fun maniacal reactions from each person at the table. Jason is definitely running away with this sketch with his reactions, though. He’s phenomenal here.
— I love how one of Fred’s reactions has him tightly tying a belt around his neck.
— A particularly strong and perfectly-timed moment from Jason, where, after Lindsay spins a dummy of him around and then throws it onto the ground behind the table, he IMMEDIATELY hops up high in the air from behind the table and casually dusts himself off, which was SO damn impressive that even the audience applauded.
— Overall, a fun, silly, and well-performed sketch that I pretty much loved. And, unlike the aforementioned Wind sketch with Jack Black, I can actually now kinda see why people compared this to Hot Plates, but this was miles better. This sketch was pretty much what Hot Plates should’ve been.
— I’m not 100% sure, but I think this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, though off the top of my head, I can’t remember if there were any major differences between it and the live version.
— Speaking of reruns, I recall once catching this sketch a few years ago in a syndicated 60-minute rerun on a cable channel (can’t remember which channel), and this sketch was sped-up so badly in that version that it was pretty much impossible to follow what was going on. Does anyone else remember seeing this sped-up version?
STARS: ****


LASER CATS!
ANS & BIH pitch low-budget feline sci-fi movie to LOM

— Good to see Andy and Bill front and center here, after the extremely-little-to-no-airtime they received in the preceding episode.
— Our very first Laser Cats short, which would go on to be a once-a-year tradition during Andy’s entire SNL tenure.
— Very fun how the extremely cheesy, low-budget action that started in an outdoors park is now taking place in SNL’s backstage, and how there’s no attempt to hide the NBC and SNL-related visuals in the background.
— Funny cutaway to a very deadpan Lorne watching this inane Laser Cats short on the TV.
— When Lindsay refuses to say she’ll have sex with either Andy or Bill, I love the sudden and sloppy splicing-in of a shot of Rachel sitting in Lindsay’s place while wearing a Lindsay Lohan wig and saying “I’ll have sex with both of you guys.”
— The “Get out” ending with Lorne was funny, though it’s something that would be repeated at the end of EVERY SINGLE subsequent Laser Cats short, and doesn’t work for me as a repeated ending gag.
— Overall, lots of good dumb fun all throughout this short. Solid debut for these Laser Cats shorts.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “World Wide Suicide”


WEEKEND UPDATE
meteorologist Stormy Windbreaker (SEM) forecasts apocalyptic weather

American Idol contestant Taylor Hicks (JAS) is full of enthusiasm

— After how increasingly hoarse her voice sounded over the course of the preceding episode, Amy’s voice still sounds slightly on the hoarse side tonight, but definitely nowhere near as bad. I’m also glad SNL hasn’t been overworking her tonight like they did in the preceding episode.
— Seth’s meteorologist segment is a good change of pace for Update. By the way, I think this ends up being Seth’s final appearance on Update before he takes over as Amy’s new Update co-anchor the following season.
— Seth is very solid in this commentary, and he has a lot of funny weather forecast details. And the smart and inspired feel of this commentary is very unusual and refreshing for this dire Fey/Poehler Update era.
— A great ending yell from Seth of the line “REPENT, BITCHES, REPENT!”
— I absolutely love Jason’s portrayal of American Idol’s Taylor Hicks. Yet another example tonight of how solid, hilarious, and fun Jason is as a performer, and how refreshing and desperately needed his presence is on SNL after the awful season 30.
— Very funny comments from Jason’s Hicks regarding his pubic hair.
— A lot of Amy’s jokes tonight are getting a (deservedly) fairly tepid audience reaction.
— Tina closes this Update with by far one of her best jokes in a long time (the teen pregnancy/“Your Mouth Can’t Get Pregnant” joke). That was a joke and delivery worthy of Tina’s first two years at the Update desk, back when she was actually consistently solid as an anchor.
STARS: **½


DEBBIE DOWNER
Debbie Downer deflates (host)’s Las Vegas strip club bachelorette party

— Normally, I’d groan at this sketch popping up tonight, but the last two Debbie Downer installments before this were much better than usual and shook up the formula. Plus, this thankfully ends up being the last Debbie Downer appearance before Rachel leaves the cast. (Years later, Debbie Downer would make a brief walk-on in the cold opening of SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special, and, though I haven’t seen it yet, I’m aware that Debbie Downer has a surprise full-fledged sketch in SNL’s most recent normal, live episode in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic forced SNL to do taped “At Home” episodes.)
— I recall in an interview Lindsay did earlier in the week of this episode, the interviewer brought up at one point the famous first Debbie Downer sketch from Lindsay’s season 29 episode, and the interviewer asked Lindsay if we can expect to see a new Debbie Downer sketch this weekend. In response, Lindsay claimed that, after initially considering doing the sketch this weekend, she and the people at SNL decided against it. So why is this sketch on my screen right now? People being full of shit during interviews regarding what was or wasn’t going to appear in this episode seems to be a theme, given the whole “101 Fellations” oddity I talked about earlier in this review.
— Lindsay’s excited yell of “ILOVEITILOVEITILOVEIT!” was eerily Helen Madden-esque (Molly Shannon’s character from the Pretty Living sketches), so much so, that I almost wonder if it was an intentional reference, but I highly doubt it.
— Lindsay’s scratchy, raspy voice tonight is sounding particularly rough during certain parts of this sketch.
— Blah, this sketch is pretty awful so far. After we’ve gotten such a nice change of pace in the last two Debbie Downer sketches before this, it’s unfortunate to see them going back to the usual unfunny and tired formula that these sketches normally follow.
— The perpetually-underused Finesse Mitchell makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in the non-speaking role of a scantily-clad stripper. Just sad. If he’s not fully aware by this point that his days at SNL are beyond numbered, then there’s no hope for this man.
— A noticeable gaffe right now, where the beginning of the “wah-wahhhhhh” sound effect accidentally plays at the wrong time before getting cut off. I’ve seen some people theorize that SNL planned this gaffe, in an attempt to recapture the magic of the first Lindsay Lohan-involved Debbie Downer sketch by starting a major chain reaction of laughing among the performers in this sketch. Rachel responds to this sound effect gaffe by giving an impromptu comical look into the camera while shifting her eyes around, and Lindsay then goes into her scripted angry rant at Debbie Downer while stifling some genuine laughter, but otherwise, this sound effect gaffe doesn’t set off the huge laughing meltdown among the performers that SNL seemingly intended.
— Odd how this didn’t end with the usual pre-taped headshot of Debbie Downer saying a typical depressing one-liner during the ending theme song. The lack of that possibly shows how little effort was put into tonight’s Debbie Downer installment. Rachel was forced to just mug awkwardly into the camera for a long time while the ending theme music played during a live close-up of her.
— Overall, a poor way for the Debbie Downer character to go out. I can’t say I’ll miss her.
STARS: *½


FIRST NIGHT OUT
uptight co-workers Neil (WLF), Jean (KRW), (host) awkwardly get social

— The debut of a sporadically-appearing Forte/Wiig/(whoever’s hosting that week) recurring sketch that I recall loving back when it originally aired.
— Fantastic character voice from Will. Lots of funny subtle mannerisms in Kristen’s voice as well. And even though it initially feels weird seeing 19-year-old Lindsay Lohan playing such an older, mature role like this, her real-life unsettling scratchy, raspy voice tonight actually makes her convincing as the forty-something woman she’s playing here.
— Something about these low-key, subtle, mature characters of Will, Kristen, and Lindsay’s feels refreshing for this SNL era.
— Another pairing tonight of Andy and Bill. Again, I really like that, even though this is just an extremely minor, non-speaking role for them.
— I love Lindsay’s delivery of “Sometimes you gotta say ‘What the mess!’” This sketch contains what I feel is easily the best performance Lindsay has given all night (and maybe her best performance out of all of her hosting stints).
— Poor Chris gets stuck in a very small non-speaking walk-on as a bartender, and he’s only shown from the back. Really, SNL? While it makes sense for you to put Andy and Bill in a useless non-speaking role, given how new they are, how do you give a role like that to a freakin’ 8-year veteran, especially one as proven and reliable as Chris? Then again, speaking of 8-year veterans being very poorly utilized tonight, Horatio has been COMPLETELY shut out of this episode. Ha, certainly no complaints from me there. (And this is actually the SECOND time this season that Horatio has made no appearances in an episode, which further proves how out-of-date he is this season.) Maya’s nowhere to be seen tonight either, because, as I said in my last episode review, she asked Lorne to have these past two episodes off so she can spend more time at home with her new baby.
— Hilarious turn with Will’s introvert character now suddenly detailing the very raunchy night of lovemaking he has planned with his fellow two introverts, details that Will’s character is delivering in his usual soft-spoken, affable voice.
— Overall, this sketch was just as strong as I had remembered it.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Severed Hand”


MOVIE ARCHIVES
Ann-Margret (host) & Liberace (FRA) had no chemistry

— The debut of Fred’s Liberace impression. I smell a whole bunch of hacky gay jokes coming up.
— I do admit to at least getting a laugh from Fred’s facial expression in the initial cutaway to him as Liberace.
— Kristen’s cheesy 1960s dance is pretty funny.
— So far, the gay jokes in this sketch aren’t as awful or cringeworthy as I expected (maybe I was mistakenly thinking of those later Vincent Price sketches that Fred’s Liberace appears in), but they’re still doing nothing for me.
— While the bit at the end with Liberace vomiting just because a woman kissed him is extremely blah, I got an unintended(?) chuckle from Liberace’s male assistant (or whoever he’s supposed to be) in the background just staring at the vomiting Liberace while looking unfazed and emotionless, having no reaction at all to the vomiting he’s witnessing.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A difficult episode to figure. We got a very rough and worrisome start with the first few segments, pretty much all of which I hated, but then starting with the very strong TV Funhouse cartoon, the remainder of the episode was EXTREMELY hit-and-miss. I’m not even sure whether I like the overall episode or not. Thinking back, I’m pretty sure this episode contained a little more bad than good. We did get a good number of strong highlights, though. Lindsay Lohan did not make much of a case for herself regarding SNL’s questionable decision to bring her back for her THIRD hosting stint in as many years, but I did find her work in the (underrated) First Night Out sketch to be surprisingly solid.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Antonio Banderas)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Legendary five-timer Tom Hanks makes his long-awaited return as a host after a 10-year absence

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April 16, 1994 – Emilio Estevez / Pearl Jam (S19 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CANING
Michael Fay (host) gets his punishment from a friendly caner (KEN)

— A funny idea for a spoof of the Michael Fay caning incident.
— A perfectly Kevin Nealon-y concept, and great execution of it by him. I love his casual, friendly performance as the caner, and how he’s a little too eager about his job.
— Knowing how the upcoming season 20 goes for Kevin (hint: not well at all), I guess we can consider this sketch one of the final successful displays of his brand of humor.
— Poor utilization of Phil, but what else is new for season 19?
— A huge laugh from Kevin’s story about caning a dead guy.
— The good news/bad news bit at the end, with Rob delivering “Live from New York…” as bad news while looking into the camera with an apologetic face, appears to be a self-deprecating jab at SNL’s declining quality and the fact that viewers have recently developed a lot of ire towards the show. At least that was the theory on the SNL newsgroup back when this episode originally aired (read here and here). There’s kind of a sad quality to that self-deprecating jab, especially with how the audience is oddly silent after that “Live from New York…” and don’t applaud until after the theme music and opening montage starts. (Reruns would later fix this by adding in canned applause after the “Live from New York…”.)
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Nothing special overall. A promising idea, updating us on what the Brat Pack is up to nowadays, but aside from one or two chuckleworthy lines, the result was fairly forgettable, and all the jail stuff at the end was overkill.
STARS: **


GEEK DWEEB OR SPAZZ
cool kids identify types of high school outcasts

— Interestingly, Ellen’s character is named Serena Williams.
— I loved Adam’s line “Yeah, Steven Tyler sang at my bar mitzvah.”
— I’m kinda iffy on the premise, as it has the type of mean-spirited, sneering tone that both this and (especially) the following season are negatively associated with, but I can look past that and enjoy the sketch, as it’s being executed well.
— I’m getting good laughs from David’s character, who appears to be a more fleshed-out version of the “shweet!” character he briefly played in the Bike Messenger sketch earlier this season.
— Good turn with Emilio’s unexpectedly bad-ass character.
— I love Adam’s quivery-voiced “No more questions” and “I swear to god, just leave me alone” responses to Emilio.
— Another good turn, with it being revealed what Emilio was like at his previous high school.
STARS: ***½


THE WHITEWATER FOLDER
host in latest movie based on a John Grisham book

— Interesting format for a topical Whitewater parody.
— During Emilio’s rapid typing, I love the reveal where the computer monitor shows that he’s just typing gibberish.
— The unnecessary repetition of car explosions and Emilio subsequently yelling a stiff “Noooo” into the camera is overkill.
— The overall sketch was kind of a letdown. What could’ve been an interesting sketch ended up being forgettable and a little bland. I wonder if this would’ve been executed better if it were done as a pre-taped movie trailer.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Not For You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about flogging in Singapore
Operaman sings a medley about Whitewater, Singapore, Eddie Vedder

 

— Here comes a Subliminal Editorial, which IIRC, ends up being Kevin’s last one ever during his tenure as Update anchor.
— Tonight’s overall Subliminal Editorial ended up being Kevin’s best one in a good while. (I’ll just ignore the fact that he stumbled over the Leona Helmsley bit.) The bit with him subliminally mentioning Pee Wee Herman when talking about a public “beating” especially had me howling. Good to see Kevin’s subliminal routine go out on a good note.
— Operaman’s appearances have been strangely scarce this season, compared to how frequently he appeared the preceding season.
— Operaman’s overall commentary tonight was particularly solid, especially the Singapore bit, “Coppa-feelo!”, and the very memorable Eddie Vedder bit.
STARS: ***½


HOW MUCH YA BENCH?
supposedly steroid-free weightlifters take some calls

— This seems to be a fairly popular sketch, but I’ve always felt it was overrated. I usually still enjoy it to an extent, though.
— Phil’s tough guy voice-over at the beginning always cracks me up whenever I watch this. It feels a little weird, though, hearing Phil do new voice-overs at this late stage of his SNL tenure, maybe because it sometimes feels like he’s starting to do more voice-overs than actual sketch appearances (a.k.a. the Chris Parnell treatment).
— Funny reveal of the performers each having fake skinny, tiny legs (minus David, who’s apparently considered skinny and tiny enough that his real legs are being used).
— A screaming Chris Farley role, but I admit his energy is actually coming off contagious in this sketch so far.
— Ha, and now David even acknowledged Chris’ contagious energy, by following up one of Chris’ rants by initially saying “I can’t follow his energy. HOWEVER–”, which has me wondering if it was an ad-lib.
— I loved Emilio’s “It’s my guess we lost a few callers with that one” line after Adam showed off his nasty back hair.
— The homophobic jokes peppered throughout this sketch make me realize that there’s been an unusually large amount of homophobic jokes in tonight’s episode in general (e.g. Adam guessing that David’s “shweet!” character in the Geek Dweeb or Spazz sketch is a “homo”, Kevin subliminally calling Operaman a “queer” after his confessed feelings for Eddie Vedder, etc.). A sign of the growing homophobia and misogyny that soon comes to a head in season 20. I recall Julia Sweeney once saying in an interview that one of the many reasons she was so miserable working at SNL this season is because of all the rampant homophobic jokes thrown around backstage. According to her, Norm Macdonald was the king of homophobic jokes. While I love Norm, that’s not hard for me to believe AT ALL.
— We get a sudden breaking-the-fourth-wall turn with Charlie Sheen calling and threatening his brother Emilio. Is that really the voice of Charlie Sheen on the phone? Unlike the previous callers, who’s voices were clearly coming from inside SNL’s studio, “Charlie Sheen’s” lines sound like they’re really being delivered via phone.
— When talking about this sketch in his SNL book, Jay Mohr gripes about the fact that the audience was completely dead for all of his lines despite laughing consistently at his more popular scene partners. He’s not wrong: his lines ARE being met with uncomfortable silence from the audience, yet the audience is eating up all the Farley and Sandler stuff. But here’s the thing: Jay’s delivery in this sketch is TERRIBLE. I think perhaps that may have a little something to do with your lack of audience reactions, Jay.
— Okay, Chris’ screaming rants in this sketch are starting to get tired.
— Overall, not a bad sketch as a whole, but yeah, it’s still overrated in my eyes. It also could’ve used some serious trimming, as it was too long.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rearviewmirror”


THE HERLIHY BOY GRANDMOTHER SITTING SERVICE
he wants to bathe, marry her

— Aaaaaaaand season 19 continues to run this “Only funny the first time” Herlihy Boy idea into the ground.
— Even Adam’s delivery seems a little off compared to the previous Herlihy Boy sketches.
— Speaking of Adam, he’s been dominating tonight’s episode.
— Chris’ look seems to change every time they do this Herlihy Boy sketch. The first installment had him with a dark wig, the second installment had him with a gray wig, and now he has glasses (comparisons below).

— Chris is ALREADY exaggerating and overacting his delivery right from the start, when he’s supposed to be speaking calmly the first minute or so. He’s ruining the whole concept of his character, who’s supposed to start off low-key and rational, and then gradually build up to crazy screaming rants.
— Yeah, this sketch isn’t working for me at all. The magic from the first Herlihy Boy installment, which was still around slightly for the second installment, is officially gone by now. And Chris’ screaming rants are falling completely flat for me.
— Oh, and speaking of which: TWO screaming Chris Farley roles back-to-back tonight? I feel like I’m already in season 20.
— Okay, 3 or 4 minutes into this, I finally got a laugh, just from the unexpectedness of Herlihy Boy bluntly saying “Let me shave your grandmother’s beard.”
— Emilio’s interjection is actually funny, unlike when they tried to do a similar thing with Jason Patric in the preceding Herlihy Boy installment.
— You can tell Chris is trying particularly hard to make Adam crack up throughout this sketch. Well, I’m glad SOMEBODY’S having a good time during this sketch, because I’m sure not.
— This sketch is going on too long for something that’s just an endless cycle of “Please let me (insert innocent thing here) your grandma” and “For god’s sake, let the boy (insert innocent thing here) your grandma!” 6 minutes of that, people. 6 minutes! END THIS ALREADY.
— This at least ended on a funny note, with Jim Downey’s deadpan voice-over saying “He loves your grandmother because he is your grandmother. I don’t know what that means.”
STARS: *½


POKER BILLY
stupid Poker Billy (host) doesn’t know how to play the card game

— This sketch is AWFUL so far. Just the same unfunny joke being repeated over and over and over and over and over and over. Yet ANOTHER unpleasant characteristic of season 20 that we’re seeing a preview of tonight.
— I want to like Michael’s musical narration, but it’s doing nothing for me.
— Chris, in one of his lyrics: “Even though it’s clear we’ve gone on way too long…” Truer words have never been spoken about this sketch.
— Julia makes her first and only appearance of the episode, in a very small straight role in the final sketch of the night. (*sigh*) It’s becoming more and more obvious that the end is near. This has been a terrible final season for her.
— Overall, not a single redeeming factor to be found here.
STARS: *


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY

— Man, even THIS fell flat for me, which is unheard of for a Deep Thoughts.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Daughter”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Only marginally better than the weak episodes that have been dominating the back half of this season. Most of what was good tonight was solid and memorable, but I found that there was an equal amount of bad stuff, particularly some of the dreadful and insufferable things towards the end of the show. I also don’t like how overly long some of the sketches were – thanks to that, there was an unusually low number of only FIVE sketches all night, though another reason for that is because Pearl Jam got three musical performances (then again, so did Aretha Franklin a month earlier, yet that episode had LOTS of sketches). Another thing hurting my enjoyment of this episode is the fact that I couldn’t help but see so many warning signs of the doom that awaits us in season 20 (e.g. unfunny one-joke sketches, homophobia, overreliance on Chris Farley screaming and overacting, sketches with a mean-spirited and sneering tone, etc.). I noticed those warning signs in previous viewings of this episode, but back then, I was able to ignore them and still enjoy the episode. I think the warning signs bother me more now because I’m going to actually have to review all of season 20 just three episodes from now.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kelsey Grammer)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode. Goodman’s apparently a last-minute substitution, as tonight’s episode had a bumper announcing Heather Locklear as the next host. A scheduling conflict must’ve ended up occurring with Locklear, as she would instead host the episode after next.

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April 11, 1992 – Sharon Stone / Pearl Jam (S17 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Wayne’s World- the annual Best & Worst of the Oscars are announced

— A lot of great comments from Wayne and Garth making fun of Juliette Lewis’ bad cornrow hairstyle from that year’s Oscars.
— Very funny recalling of a famous scene in Silence of the Lambs where a man in a cell flicks his “man goo” (as Wayne puts it) onto Jodie Foster’s face.
— An overall particularly strong installment of Wayne’s World.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host keeps studio on edge by setting up for a Basic Instinct leg cross

— Shortly after this monologue turns into a parody of the famous interrogation room scene from Basic Instinct, things get notorious as angry voices from the audience are suddenly heard VERY loudly chanting “Fight AIDS, not women!” Those angry chanting voices are from a gay activist group who got tickets to be in SNL’s audience as an excuse to protest Sharon Stone’s role in Basic Instinct, due to the movie’s negative portrayal of LGBT characters.
— This protesting/heckling incident is very reminiscent of what infamously occurred during Andrew Dice Clay’s monologue two seasons earlier. To Sharon Stone’s credit, she’s handling the heckling professionally, and is keeping a laid-back demeanor as she tries to go on with her dialogue. She occasionally keeps stopping mid-sentence, though, due to the protesters’ loud voices being too much, which is throwing off her set-up to the main joke of this monologue (which is various people’s comedic reaction shots to what she’s saying).
— Just now, while the protesters are still loudly chanting, another voice in the studio can be heard calling out “Security!” (it sounds like Lorne, who is standing nearby as he waits for the camera to show a comedic reaction shot of him later in the monologue), which is followed by the protesters’ chanting voices fading away as they’re seemingly being taken away by security guards. Reportedly, those protesters were arrested after being escorted out of the studio. I recall hearing that part of the protesters’ intended plan was to eventually march to the home base stage where Sharon Stone was and chant right in front of her. Geez, could you imagine if that happened on live TV during an SNL monologue?
— For obvious reasons, the whole protesters portion of this monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. While my above descriptions probably make it sound like the protesting incident lasted a long time, it was actually only a small portion of this monologue. It stopped right as the camera showed Farley’s reaction shot to Sharon (third screencap above).
— The cutaways to various people’s reactions to Sharon are very funny, especially Victoria licking her lips. In Lorne’s cutaway (fourth screencap above), he does a good job not showing his dismay over what had just occurred with the protesters.
— This overall monologue was fine, but comes off funnier in reruns without the distraction from the protesters.
STARS: ***½


JIFFY POP AIRBAG
— Rerun from the Jason Priestley episode.
— During the shot of Tom Davis eating popcorn from the airbag, you can hear the voice of someone live in the studio calling out “Jon Lovitz!” The following sketch explains why.


HITTING ON WOMEN
intimidated (CHF) & (ADS) babble while hitting on (host); JOL cameo

— Farley’s neanderthal-esque babbling while trying to speak to Sharon is really funny, especially his self-deprecating remarks about himself.
— Now Adam’s babbling to Sharon is even funnier, and is an early display of an archetypal Sandler performance. I especially like when he randomly brings out a pencil for no reason.
— Great line from Adam bluntly telling Farley “Forget it, man, she’s a bitch.”
— Excellent twist with Jon Lovitz (in his first cameo of the season) showing up to woo Sharon. I especially liked his pick-up line simply being “Did I mention I have a penis?”
— This entire sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most visible difference is the way Jon is dressed in both versions (side-by-side comparision below).

STARS: ****


SEX GAMES
(KEN) can’t lose himself in sex-game role playing with wife (host)

— What’s with the wholesome background music throughout this?
— Some good laughs from how bad Kevin is at sex role-playing, and how he constantly gets angry and drops character at some of the things Sharon mentions. Kevin always excels at pulling off characters like this.
— Kevin, regarding keeping his first name during the sex role-playing: “My last name’s different, though, because I don’t wanna bring my parents into this.”
— Just to show you how bad David Spade’s airtime has been this season, his walk-on in this sketch is his first speaking role in over a month. This also ends up being a typical bit role for him, and is his only appearance all night. It’s easy to see why the poor guy almost ended up getting fired before hitting it big with Hollywood Minute next season.
— Speaking of David’s walk-on in this sketch, at one point during it, a girl in the audience can be heard excitedly calling out “Spade!”, which makes him kinda smile out of character.
STARS: ***½


FLIPPY, THE FLIPPING CHIHUAHUA
Toonces runs over Flippy The Flipping Chihuahua before driving off cliff

— A funny very random concept of a flipping chihuahua.
— A good laugh from the visual of a sad Flippy half-heatedly trying to flip when chained in the backyard.
— A hilarious unexpected part with Flippy suddenly getting run over by a car immediately after being set free.
— Ha, it turns out to be Toonces who runs Flippy over! Great sudden twist.
STARS: ****


LUNG BRUSH
— Another rerun tonight, this time from the Kiefer Sutherland episode


INTERROGATION
Basic Instinct interrogation scene doesn’t discern sex of androgynous Pat

— Second sketch in a row with a surprising unexpected reveal of a recurring character. This one had a great reveal of Pat being in the Basic Instinct interrogation chair, after the set-up made you think it would be Sharon again.
— Classic part with Pat’s “beaver shot” (second-to-last screencap above).
— This setting is offering a nice change of pace to the usual “people ask Pat gender-specific questions to try to figure out Pat’s gender” premise of these Pat sketches.
— For some reason, I got an unintentional laugh from an excited person in the audience randomly cheering “OWW!” after Dana’s intense “I’m gonna figure you out! I’m gonna figure you out, Pat!”
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Alive”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ROS recounts escalating responses he got during his door-to-door survey
Queen Shenequa- “my ancestors’ labor should exempt me from income tax”
newly-engaged VIJ sings “I Love A Cop” & does a handstand on the newsdesk

— Rob is getting good laughs detailing the increasingly bothered responses he got from a couple he surveyed, especially with the disturbing turns Rob’s actions during the survey keep taking.
— A forgettable Queen Shenequa commentary overall. The only thing noteworthy was that one part of it offered yet another display tonight of mockery towards Juliette Lewis’ cornrow hairstyle.
— A great random bit from Kevin just now, where he says “When we come back, a surprising report from the Philippines” and then the camera zooms out as the Weekend Update theme music plays, as if this is a real news broadcast about to go to commercial, only for Kevin to immediately continue on with Update with no commercial break. I always like when Kevin randomly plays with the Update format with that type of mock-serious spoof of real news broadcasts, which helps differentiate him from his predecessor at the Update desk, Dennis Miller.
— Kevin seems particularly stumbly with his delivery of jokes tonight. Quite a number of his jokes are also getting a very tepid audience reaction.
— After having a rapidly diminishing presence in the back half of this season, Victoria gets her first big live thing to do on the show in months.
— Fun turn with Victoria breaking out into a catchy “I Love a Cop” song after announcing she got engaged to a cop. This is surprisingly her first Update song in YEARS, after being a frequent feature of the peak years of Dennis Miller’s Weekend Update.
— And now, Victoria reprises her classic Update handstands.
— Nice how Kevin incorporated Victoria’s “I Love a Cop” commentary into the first news joke after her commentary ended (third-to-last screencap above).
— An overall fairly subpar night for Kevin, though he almost redeemed himself with some pretty strong jokes at the end.
— According to GettyImages, the extremely underused David Spade had YET ANOTHER Update commentary that was cut after dress rehearsal (pic here). I lost count of how many of his Update commentaries have been cut after dress this season. Also, it’s odd how this ALREADY jam-packed Weekend Update was originally going to have as much as FOUR guest commentaries.
STARS: **½


SECURITY CHECK
male airport security guards abuse their authority & make (host) undress

— Something about the New York(?) accent Kevin’s using sounds odd and forced.
— Funny part with the security guys just waving off Farley and telling him to go ahead when the alarm keeps going off on him.
— I love how after Sharon complains “I’m gonna miss my flight”, Phil as the pilot is suddenly revealed to be standing to the side, saying in a professional, deadpan tone “This plane ain’t going anywhere. Now, please, for the love of humanity…. take off your shirt.”
STARS: ***


ERNIE’S
shopkeeper (CSR) bombards his wife (ELC) with participle-based insults

— Interesting format with most of the dialogue only consisting of Rock’s endless succession of name-calling related to what Ellen is doing at the moment.
— I like the fake-out with Rock taking a sip of water as if he was finished with his insults, only to immediately continue afterwards, as well as him momentarily stopping mid-insult to look up something in a dictionary/thesaurus when having trouble coming up with one particular word.
— This sketch ended up being the perfect length and didn’t go on longer than it should’ve.
STARS: ***½


TAYSTER’S CHOICE SPERMICIDAL JELLY
(host) borrows Tayster’s Choice Spermicidal Jelly from neighbor (DAC)

— Something about Dana looks a bit unusual in this, especially his hair and eyes. He probably had just recently removed his wig and dark makeup from the Security Check sketch, which would explain his somewhat unkempt hair and face in this sketch.
— I’m aware this mini-sketch is a word-for-word recreation of a real series of Taster’s Choice ads, only replacing “coffee” in the dialogue with “spermicidal jelly”. This spoof isn’t funny to me, not even after having once been provided a YouTube video of the real Taster’s Choice commercials. And unfortunately, this is only Part 1 of a runner throughout the back half of tonight’s episode.
STARS: *½


PHIL HARTMAN CREATIONS
PHH demonstrates the many uses of his wigs

— Here’s the sketch that I mentioned can be seen getting cut at the last minute during the Zoraida sketch in the Susan Dey episode.
— Fun premise with Phil as himself advertising his line of men’s wigs.
— Phil’s “Troy” wig looks almost like Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley’s wig (first screencap above).
— I’m enjoying the accompanying picture and varying background music for each wig that Phil details. The music played during the part with the foreign guy wig is particularly funny.
— An overall great showcase for Phil as himself.
STARS: ****


TAYSTER’S CHOICE SPERMICIDAL JELLY
Tayster’s Choice Spermicidal Jelly borrower will repay neighbor later

— Still not funny.
— An awkward, unflattering-looking freeze-frame of Dana at the end (screencap below).

SNL would later fix this bad freeze-frame in reruns by showing the dress rehearsal version of this sketch.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Porch”


PORNO COUPLE
(PHH) & fiancee (host) come clean about their pornography-based lives

— Phil’s initial confession of acting in porno movies is fairly funny.
— Aaaaaand the joke quickly dies off with the increasingly less funny confessions of other porno-related secrets.
— Weak newspaper ending.
STARS: *½


TAYSTER’S CHOICE SPERMICIDAL JELLY
Tayster’s Choice Spermicidal Jelly borrower meets neighbor at party

— Ugh, a THIRD one of these.
— As no surprise by now, I’m still not getting any laughs from these.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode that started off with a lot of solid things in the first half, then got more average around the middle, then died a miserable death towards the end with the endless number of unfunny Spermicidal Jelly mini-sketches along with the terrible Porno Couple sketch. An overall mixed bag of an episode, but had a good-enough number of solid highlights in the first half.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mary Stuart Masterson)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jerry Seinfeld