Tag: Season 32

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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

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May 12, 2007 – Molly Shannon / Linkin Park (S32 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMERICAN IDOL
Mary Katherine Gallagher crashes American Idol & sings “Brass In Pocket”

— For whatever reason, Bill has replaced Seth as SNL’s Ryan Seacrest impersonator, despite the fact that Seth had last played Seacrest just earlier this same season in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Funny constant fake-outs and mind games from Bill’s Seacrest to Maya’s Melinda Doolittle, regarding whether she’s safe or eliminated.
— Feels interesting reviewing a Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch for the first time in many seasons.
— This is a good setting for MKG.
— I love the cutaway shot of Amy’s Paula Abdul after MKG mentions that Paula’s never drunk, just naturally drowsy.
— Molly’s hitting all the familiar MKG beats here, but she’s doing it well, and it’s coming off particularly fun and infectious tonight, possibly because of Molly’s return to the show and the fact that we hadn’t seen MKG in so long.
— Particularly strong delivery from Molly during her Jackson Five movie monologue.
— Kinda odd how all of the pratfalls in this MKG sketch are being done by other performers instead of Molly. I doubt she’s not up to the physical task of doing pratfalls anymore by this point.
— Solid “Live from New York…” delivery from Molly.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo accidentally bills Linkin Park as “special guest” instead of “musical guest”.


MONOLOGUE
’90s flashback shows MOS’s crush on LOM ending with a broken heart

— Molly’s expressed excitement for getting to host is very endearing.
— Some fun talk from Molly about her days as a cast member.
— I’m loving the pre-taped flashback scene between Molly and Lorne, complete with lots of fun 90s references.
— Great background details in Lorne’s office to make it convincingly look like 90s SNL, such as having individual photos of late 90s cast members on the wall behind Molly, a collage of bumper photos of 90s hosts seen next to Lorne (one minor nitpick though: the Charlie Sheen and Mena Suvari bumpers are from after the 90s), and the index cards on the corkboard of host/musical guest line-ups being episodes from season 24.
— I only wish the overall pre-taped flashback scene worked in a brief appearance from Darrell, since he’s the only 90s cast member who’s still on the show at this point in 2007. Having him in a 90s wig briefly interrupt Lorne and Molly’s conversation to tell Molly they need her for the rehearsal of a sketch would’ve been fun and a nice nod to Darrell’s longevity in the cast.
STARS: ****


URIGRO
Rerun from 1/20/07


TENANT MEETING
Penelope’s competitive behavior alienates her neighbors at tenant meeting

— I’m starting to notice how interesting it feels seeing Molly interacting with cast members she never worked with during her years as a cast member.
— Penelope’s entrance already gets some faint recognition applause, despite this being only her second sketch.
— Good gag with Penelope suddenly appearing opposite of the side of Jason she was standing in a few seconds prior.
— The Penelope routine continues to work for me so far in these early Peneople sketches, despite it’s one-note nature.
— A particularly funny line from Penelope about her recently-deceased cat being her baby who she gave birth to.
— They managed to top the Peyton-Manning-imitates-Penelope’s-habit-to-show-her-how-annoying-she-is bit from the first installment of this sketch by having Molly actually imitating Penelope’s voice and mannerisms while imitating her habit.
— An interesting otherworldly bit at the end with Penelope actually turning invisible like she claimed she could earlier in the sketch. IIRC, SNL would go on to do variations of that at the end of subsequent Penelope sketches.
STARS: ***½


THE FRINGE CANDIDATES DEBATE
Dan Rather (DAH) moderates debate of fringe presidential candidates

— A promising and fun-seeming idea.
— Will perfectly playing yet another creepy, boundaries-pushing child predator character, this time a NAMBLA member. I absolutely love the seedy casual look on his face.
— Yet another sketch featuring hilarious dancing from Jason.
— Poor timing from Andy, accidentally delivering his opening line too early when Darrell’s Dan Rather hadn’t finished introducing him yet, leading to awkward dead air after Darrell does finish introducing him.
— I like Darrell-as-Dan-Rather’s facial reaction to Molly’s Jews line.
— Boy, have I gotten sick of Fred frequently playing stock middle-eastern stereotype roles, which, by this point of his SNL tenure, he can do in his sleep.
— Maya’s loud laugh-speaking right now is really annoying, though it does cause Darrell to break.
— The mechanical devices in Maya’s wig are resulting in occasional distracting whirring noises being heard in the background while some of the other cast members are speaking. It’s particularly noticeable during Bill’s speech as Tony Blair.
STARS: ***½


THE SOPRANOS
Sally O’Malley auditions for dancer job at Bada Bing! Club

— Jason’s mannerisms at the beginning of this sketch are cracking me up.
— Another interesting instance tonight of a Molly Shannon recurring character being placed in a TV show spoof. I’m liking this use of her characters tonight.
— Watching and reviewing this Sally O’Malley sketch makes me feel like it’s 2000 or 2001 again. I love that nostalgic feeling, and it’s making me feel strangely kinda giddy, despite me never having been a fan of this character back when she regularly appeared. It’s funny how nostalgia works sometimes.
— A particularly boundary-pushing visual of Sally O’Malley’s camel toe right now, completely topping the cameo toe visuals from previous Sally O’Malley sketches. A funny moment, and I love the reaction to it from the audience and the Sopranos characters.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What I’ve Done”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Comedy Cul-De-Sac- Jeannie Darcy does stand-up on her relationship woes

disorientation thwarts demonstration by blind barbecue expert Pep Walters

What’s in a Word?- SEM & AMP debate the propriety of “panties” & “nipple”

— Great to see the return of Jeannie Darcy, one of Molly’s best recurring characters, despite her 1) not being as universally well-known as some of her other recurring characters (I’m assuming), and 2) debuting towards the very end of her SNL tenure, which was at a time when she was seemingly past her prime on SNL and giving a lot of weak performances.
— I like Seth’s exaggerated amusement over Jeannie Darcy’s bad, stiff jokes.
— Funny how we’re getting TWO intentionally bad stand-up comics in tonight’s Update, with us now getting Fred’s blind comedian character, Pep Walters.
— A laugh from Pep Walters accidentally flinging his steak off-camera.
— There’s the obligatory instance of the “a blind Fred Armisen blocks the camera after his Update commentary” gag. It’s still working for me by this point of Fred’s SNL tenure.
— Seth never did finish that Iran soccer joke of his that Pep Walters interrupted by blocking the camera. I’m surprised they didn’t just have Seth do the traditional tree frog joke that always gets interrupted.
— An interesting “What’s In A Word” segment, and I like Seth’s lines during it.
STARS: ***½


KAITLIN ENTERTAINS
Kaitlin’s equally-hyper mom (MOS) misses performance at an old-folks home

— Feels a little odd to see the return tonight of a non-Molly Shannon recurring character who’s been on a hiatus.
— It also feels odd seeing a Rick-less Kaitlin sketch; the only one in SNL history, as this ends up being the final Kaitlin sketch. SNL writes Rick out of this sketch by explaining he’s waiting outside in the car.
— I love Kaitlin quickly going through each decade from the 1920s to then-present day during her “This is your life” presentation to the senior citizens.
— I’m a little surprised this sketch is still working for me without the Rick character.
— I had been wondering where Molly was. Interesting use of her as Kaitlin’s similar-traited mother. It’s odd, though, that Molly didn’t appear until the end of this sketch, but at the same time, I kinda like that, as it makes it feel like she’s just a cast member again instead of a host.
— Speaking of it feeling like Molly’s a cast member again, the shirt she’s wearing in this sketch is the same one she once wore over a decade earlier in the Russell & Tate sketch from the season 22 episode hosted by another former cast member, interestingly enough: Dana Carvey (side-by-side comparison below).

   

STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
dirty bomb threat is eclipsed by MacGruber’s urge to make a Bloody Mary

— MacGruber has officially become recurring.
— Feels rare to see a MacGruber sketch with the non-Maya Rudolph/Kristen Wiig assistant role being played by a female host instead of a male one. The only other instance of that I can think of is with Betty White, but maybe I’m forgetting something.
— Funny reveal of MacGruber making a drink right before the explosion happens.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Tales From The Greatest Generation” by RBS- big-boobed Einstein is ogled

— A questionable premise to base a TV Funhouse on.
— The Franklin D. Roosevelt scene is actually very funny.
— Feels a little odd hearing Bill Hader’s voice in a TV Funhouse, I guess because it’s easy to forget that Bill’s SNL tenure overlapped with TV Funhouse’s tenure for a while. Speaking of which, is Bill doing the voice of practically ALL the characters in tonight’s cartoon? Sure sounds like it. What happened? Could Robert Smigel not afford to pay a lot of voice actors for this particular cartoon, so he had to resort to using a single SNL cast member to do almost all of the voices? If so, this is yet ANOTHER sign that TV Funhouse is dying.
— Overall, meh. Some individual laughs from the silliness of this, but as a whole, no. This continues the limping that Smigel has been making towards the finish line of his TV Funhouse tenure. A shame to see this happen to such a formerly-reliable SNL segment.
STARS: **


THE OAK ROOM
Charli Coffee shares the stage with fellow boozehound Toni Carlisle (MOS)

— The very random return of a forgotten one-time sketch Maya did two years prior in the season 30 Tom Brady episode. I hated this sketch the first time, but maybe I’ll be more lenient on it this time, because, unlike the first installment of this sketch, tonight’s installment is thankfully airing outside of a season where Maya did annoying, hammy singing sketches like this on a weekly basis.
— Maya’s delivery during her stories reminds me a lot of Alec Baldwin’s Tony Bennett. I’m kinda liking that.
— Molly’s delivery is fitting for this type of role and sketch, and I like the way she and Maya are playing off of each other.
— Not too many laughs here, but it doesn’t seem to be attempting them, aside from the occasional comedic lines from/about Kenan’s character. I like how this sketch is going for a more low-key, realistic, slice-of-life feel, as opposed to the first installment, which made a lot of bad attempts at wacky humor (especially the running bit with Maya’s pratfalls over tables and pianos). Tonight’s installment is a big improvement.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s drunken guitar playing takes precedence over hydrogen crisis

— I like how tonight’s episode is introducing the concept of each MacGruber short having new theme song lyrics that pertain to the plot of that night’s MacGruber’s shorts, instead of just using the same generic theme song for each short.
— A solid progression to tonight’s MacGruber shorts, with MacGruber’s increasingly drunk state.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bleed It Out”


TRUMP STEAKS
Donald (DAH) & Melania (MOS) Trump pitch co-branded Sharper Image steaks

— Darrell seems much more prominent than usual in tonight’s episode. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that his former cast mate Molly Shannon is hosting.
— A lot of steaks in tonight’s episode, between the Pep Walters bit on Weekend Update and now this.
— A laugh from Darrell-as-Trump’s “black anus beef” malaprop.
— Overall, not bad. Short and harmless enough, especially compared to some other Trump sketches from around this time that haven’t aged well.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s shirtless hamburger-eating stupor mirrors David Hasselhoff

— Particularly hilarious theme song lyrics in this.
— A very funny, spot-on, and timely spoof of the then-new viral video of a drunken David Hasselhoff.
— I strangely love Molly’s off-camera delivery of the line “The bomb you made when you were DRUNK!”
— Very funny how the obligatory explosion of this MacGruber short happens out of nowhere when MacGruber is quietly in the middle of eating his burger.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid and fun episode, with almost nothing I disliked. Molly Shannon played a big part in the fun vibe this episode had, and it was nice to see her back on SNL, doing good work. Despite being surrounded by a mostly-different cast than the one from her SNL tenure, Molly blended back into the show really well tonight. The energy and nostalgia in the air during this episode made some of Molly’s recurring characters come off even better than usual, particularly Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O’Malley.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scarlett Johansson)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 32 comes to an end, with host Zach Braff

Posted on

April 21, 2007 – Scarlett Johansson / Bjork (S32 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHITE HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE
evasive George W. Bush (JAS) lets Chuck Schumer-on-tape [real] start show

— At least this is a President Bush press conference that has him interacting with reporters instead of delivering a barely-funny straight-to-camera speech once again.
— Jason-as-Bush’s random nicknames for the reporters are increasingly funny.
— This cold opening is dying for me during the back-and-forth between Jason’s Bush and Maya, and the audience apparently agrees with me, judging from their silence.
— Meh at the bit with the brainteasers book.
— Even the nicknames bit that I praised earlier in this cold opening has now gotten old.
— Kristen’s list of demands has some funny lines, and is being well-delivered by her.
— Jesus Christ, this cold opening has been going on for eight minutes. EIGHT FUCKING MINUTES, PEOPLE! That is absolutely ridiculous for something that contains material as scant and weak as this. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Jim Downey is given WAY too much free rein during these past-his-prime years of his SNL run. Lorne needs to realize that this is long past the days where Downey’s political writing was always reliable.
— An extremely random pre-taped Chuck Schumer cameo, just there to say “Live from New York…”.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host cheers Sanjaya Malakar (ANS) with “Something To Talk About” duet

— The return of Andy’s topical Sanjaya impression.
— Meh, a musical monologue.
— Some fairly interesting and impressively-fast hair changes from Andy all throughout the song. Not sure how they’re pulling those changes off so quickly. Unfortunately, that’s the only semi-interesting thing going on during this song.
STARS: *½


LIVE WITH REGIS & KELLY
Ivanka Trump (host) plugs away

— Wow, they haven’t done this sketch in years. The last time it appeared was when Donald Trump hosted (*shudder*) back in season 29. This also ends up being the final Regis & Kelly sketch that has Darrell and Amy. There would later be at least one Regis & Kelly installment with different performers playing the roles.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as Howie Mandel on standby in case Regis can’t go on with the show. And at least this means SNL refrained from having Chris Kattan do another cameo as Gelman, or resort to giving the Gelman role to a current cast member (I still can’t believe they stuck Rachel Dratch with that role last time this sketch appeared.)
— Speaking of Donald Trump, it feels kinda odd in retrospect seeing Scarlett debut her Ivanka Trump impression 10 years before it would become a regular role she’d play on SNL.
— Amy’s crying as Kelly Ripa right now actually looks very convincing.
— Okay, the cutaways to Fred’s Mandel are way too frequent. It ain’t funny anymore.
STARS: ***


PROM DRESS SHOPPING
Virginiaca helps stepdaughter (host) shop for hootchie-worthy prom dress

— Ugh, another Virginiaca sketch. And she’s now getting recognition applause from the audience?
— I once again ask: how many white stepdaughters does this character have?
— Once again, I can find nothing to really say during this sketch, except it’s the usual insufferable Virginiaca tripe.
STARS: *


ROY RULES!
ANS has more than a mancrush on his brother-in-law

— Interesting seeing Lonely Island take on 70s/80s heavy metal for once instead of the music genres they typically cover.
— Good use of SNL writer Bryan Tucker.
— The “24/7 69” lyric was very funny.
— I love the random, brief key change in the song, with Andy comically singing in a tender manner while playing piano.
STARS: ***½


MIKE’S MARBLEOPOLIS
Chandelier Galaxy scion Lexi (host) touts classiness of marble columns

— The second installment of this series of sketches, becoming a staple of Scarlett Johansson’s early episodes.
— Fred’s distinct, exaggerated, New York-accented delivery of “Maww-ble cahh-lums” is probably his funniest pronunciation of the product being sold out of all of the installments in this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***½


WIIX NEWS
Michelle Dison’s lesbian leanings resurface during interview with (host)

— The real-life TV station name used in the first installment of this sketch earlier this season, WVIR, has been changed to an apparently fictional TV station name in tonight’s installment: WIIX, which is apparently a play on Kristen’s real-life last name. Presumably, the reason for the change in station names is because WVIR is a Virginia station, and the infamous Virginia Tech school shooting had happened just a few days before this episode, and thus, SNL apparently felt it would’ve been in poor taste to use Virginia’s TV station name during this tragic time.
— It’s mentioned that Kristen’s Michelle Dison character is returning from a leave of absence she had taken for about 6 months, which I assume is continuity from the end of the first installment of this sketch, as that installment aired about 6-7 months prior to this.
— Between the Roy Rules short and Kristen’s bi-curious tendencies in this sketch, there seems to be a bit of a theme going on in tonight’s episode.
— I love Scarlett’s taken-aback delivery of “I…I don’t know what’s going on” when bombarded with a whole bunch of friendly-but-way-too-forward offers from an awkwardly flirtatious Michelle Dison.
— The random cat attack ending felt very inferior compared to the bird poop ending from the first installment of this sketch.
— Overall, this was basically just a re-write of the first installment of this sketch. It still worked for me, mostly due to Kristen’s good execution of the material, but this installment paled in comparison to the first installment.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Earth Intruders”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Alberto Gonzales’ amnesia

for Earth Day, WLF sings about the wonderful planet we live on

— Two big changes of pace right out of the gate in this Update: Amy’s hairstyle, and Seth getting to deliver the opening joke for, I believe, the first time ever.
— Boy, Bryan Tucker is getting lots of face time tonight (the third above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— Good to see the “Really?!?” segment from earlier this season return.
— Much like the last “Really?!?” prior to this, we get some more great barbs from Seth and Amy, though these aren’t as memorable as the ones from the Michael Vick-themed “Really?!?” from earlier this season.
— Yes! Another Will Forte Update song!
— Like Will’s last Update song prior to this, he gets assistance from a guitar-playing Fred.
— Very funny lyrics from Will about what bad things he does towards the planet.
— Pretty funny turn in Will’s song with him now singing the praises of the movie Battlefield Earth.
— Pretty nice hearing the audience get involved in clapping the beat of Will’s song.
STARS: ***


KUATOS
male (ANS) & female (host) Kuatos gross out dinner guests (FRA) & (AMP)

— This is now the THIRD recurring sketch tonight that debuted in this season’s Jaime Pressly episode. (The other two being Virginiaca and Michelle Dison.) I remember when tonight’s episode originally aired, I worriedly asked myself during this Kuato sketch, “What next? The return of that godforsaken Big Wigs sketch?”
— Not sure we needed to see a second installment of this Kuato thing. I still don’t know what to make of the first installment of it.
— Scarlett as a female Kuato? Meh.
— So far, I don’t think I’ve laughed a single time during this sketch yet.
— Fred: “I do NOT like where this is going.” That makes two of us, knowing in retrospect what this sketch is leading up to.
— Aaaaand there it goes. Why has this sketch suddenly turned into Rookie Cop 2.0, with the chain reaction of vomiting? The original Rookie Cop sketch is actually a guilty pleasure of mine, as fully disclosed in my review of it, but I certainly didn’t need this Kuato sketch to turn into some kind of pale version of it.
— Ugh, as if the parade of vomiting wasn’t bad enough, now SNL throws another appearance from Darrell’s fucking Ahnuld impression at us to close out this mess.
STARS: *


NEWS MAKERS WITH JANE PAULEY
Jane Pauley (KRW) interviews stars of viral online videos

— Shortly into the small scene with Fred as the dancing little person, I got a laugh from Kristen’s Jane Pauley just saying “Aaaaaand let’s just end the interview there.” Speaking of which, according to Fred in a blog he had on NBC.com’s SNL site back around 2007/2008, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch had MULTIPLE cutaways to him as the dancing little person all throughout the sketch. Fred was bummed to learn after dress rehearsal that SNL was cutting down the number of his scenes in this sketch to just one. I think SNL did us a favor with that decision.
— I love Kristen’s Jane Pauley questioning the bad puns she’s reading off the teleprompter.
— Boy, I haven’t seen that Grape-Stomping Lady video in ages.
— Another blast from the past, with Will’s spoof of the Star Wars Kid video that was popular back in this era.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Torboto” by RBS- at Guantanamo Bay, torturing robot does the dirty work

— Damn, that is a great theme song.
— A spoof of the old Anime series Gigantor, which I’m not all that familiar with, though I’m at least familiar enough with its animation to know that this spoof is doing a spot-on imitation of that animation.
— The Amish part was pretty funny.
— All of the torture the robot is doing to the prisoners feels like a poor man’s version of the Shazzang cartoon from the Will Ferrell-hosted season 30 episode.
— I don’t get the cat/tree/reassignment thing Torboto did at the end of this.
— Overall, I’m pretty meh on this. Aside from the classic Maraka cartoon, Robert Smigel hasn’t had a good track record lately as we head towards the end of his TV Funhouse run on SNL.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wanderlust”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An off episode, and the first episode I disliked in what feels like a long time (which at least shows how well this season had been going). Among the problems of this episode: none of the sketches stood out to me as strong (the highest rating I gave out was just a mere three-and-a-half stars, though I may soon change the Roy Rules rating to four stars, as I’m having a hard time deciding which rating I personally feel it deserves), there was a lot of unnecessary rehashing of about 30% of the sketches from the not-all-that-great Jaime Pressly episode, some of the non-recurring stuff was also weak, and the overall show had a very forgettable feel. Not a particularly awful episode, but mediocre for this season’s standards.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Shia LaBeouf)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Molly Shannon

Posted on

April 14, 2007 – Shia LaBeouf / Avril Lavigne (S32 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WINGS OF HOPE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) offer racist rehab for Don Imus

— Darrell makes his first appearance in THREE EPISODES.
— Pretty funny one-liners from Kenan’s Al Sharpton throughout this.
— Aaaaaaand there goes Darrell’s obligatory extended silent mugging & ticcing sequence as Jesse Jackson.
— I’m enjoying the detailing of the racism rehabilitation Don Imus will receive in Jackson and Sharpton’s rehab center.
— I love Darrell-as-Jackson’s mock inspirational speech about blacks and whites coming together.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
backstage, host can’t get cast members to share his SNL excitement

— Funny to think this is apparently at a time before Shia LaBeouf had much name recognition, as he opens this monologue with a self-deprecating “To those of you who know who I am…..hi, mom, hi, dad.”
— Great scene with Kenan panickedly trying to hide his smoking when a gleeful Shia approaches him. I also love Shia pointing out the Disney/Nickelodeon child star similarities between himself and Kenan. I think this is the very first mention an SNL episode has ever made about Kenan’s Nickelodeon past, but I may be forgetting something from prior episodes.
— Interesting use of Darrell.
— Pretty fun backstage interactions between Shia and individual cast and crew members.
— The gag with Lorne not knowing Kristen’s name certainly comes off ironic in retrospect, considering the huge favoritism Lorne would end up showing towards Kristen later in her SNL tenure.
— A very odd camera gaffe happens at the end when Shia is wrapping up the monologue. Someone apparently turned the camera switch off by accident, causing an odd camera jerk motion, followed by a few seconds of a black screen, before the camera switch is turned back on. Yikes! I’m pretty sure this is a first in SNL history of a camera accidentally being turned off mid-sketch.
STARS: ***½


THE HATHAWAY MOUSTACHE RIDE COMPANY
Hathaway Company visionary (Alec Baldwin) institutes free moustache rides

— Random Alec Baldwin cameo!
— The opening setting of this, with the 1880s business meeting, reminds me of the original Grayson Moorehead commercials from season 21. Plus, not only does Darrell play one of the old-timey businessmen at the table in both Grayson Moorehead and this mustache rides commercial, but he even has a very similar look in both (side-by-side comparison).

   

— Funny dignified execution of a raunchy premise, and Alec’s typical dry delivery is perfect for this.
— A non-Weekend Update appearance from Seth!
— Great visual of Will’s vibrating mustache.
STARS: ***½


PRINCE SHOW
Tobey Maguire (host) & Nancy Grace (AMP) drop by

— (*groan*) This tired, formulaic recurring sketch again. This thankfully ends up being the final installment of this.
— Shia’s not attempting much of an imitation of Tobey Maguire’s voice, but his dialogue is pretty amusing.
— This is actually a fun use of Amy’s Nancy Grace impression (also making its final appearance). I love her whole spiel about how much of a Prince fan she and her girlfriends were back in the day.
— Great wild dancing from Amy at the end.
STARS: **


BUYING BEER
underage (host), (ANS), (BIH), (WLF) stage elaborate ruses to buy beer

— Good detail with Andy’s lopsided fake mustache, adding to his and Shia’s character’s unconvincing attempt to come off as adults of legal drinking age.
— I love the increasingly elaborate, convoluted attempts from Andy, Shia, and Bill to buy beer without showing I.D., especially with Will unconvincingly staging a robbery and allegedly stealing Bill’s I.D.
— I enjoyed the surprise reveal at the end.
STARS: ****


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Dakota Fanning’s (AMP) sister Elle (musical guest) is a rival

— Two celebrity-hosted talk show sketches not only in the same episode, but both in the pre-Weekend Update half of the show?
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, we get some fantastic slow burn reactions from Kenan’s Reggie in response to Amy-as-Dakota-Fanning’s backhanded remarks to him.
— A pretty good laugh from Amy’s Dakota asking the Sprouse Twins “Why???” when they tell her they’re playing with toys.
— It wasn’t necessary to repeat the bit from the first installment of this sketch with Kristen’s snack-providing character humbly responding “You can call me mom” when Amy’s Dakota tells her “Thank you , Catherine.” That joke doesn’t work as well when you use it a second time.
— A hilarious part with Kenan muttering a very bitter “Yeah, I’ll put a cap somewhere, all right” after Amy’s Dakota tells him “Reggie, you better put on your thinking cap!”
— Overall, this was good, but not as strong as the first installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


DEAR SISTER
(BIH), (ANS), (host), (KRW) off each other a la The O.C.

— Ah, a legendary Digital Short and one of my all-time favorites.
— When this originally aired, not only was I one of quite a number of SNL fans who wasn’t aware of the fact that it was spoofing a scene from the show The O.C. (though that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of this short AT ALL), but I remember being simultaneously weirded-out and intrigued by the Imogen Heap “Hide And Seek” song played in this short, combined with how that song first played right after the baffling and inexplicable part with Andy shooting Bill out of nowhere while Bill was talking about his sister. I didn’t know during the live airing that “Hide And Seek” was a real, non-SNL song, so I assumed it was another original Lonely Island musical creation, and I wondered if that was someone in the cast singing it.
— The escalation to this is fantastic, and it especially starts getting really fun when Shia is the one to suddenly get shot when entering the room while laughing lightheartedly. After all these years, even though I know this entire short beat-for-beat, line-for-line, I still get no end of enjoyment from watching it. And that “Hide And Seek” song still intrigues me; it’s so oddly catchy and haunting.
— I’m loving how watching this short right now is taking me right back to the late 2000s, reminding me not only of how frequently I watched this short back in those days, but also how frequently I watched amusing YouTube videos where people gave the Dear Sister treatment to TV/movie clips in which someone gets shot or similar.
— A particularly hilarious part with Kristen repeatedly getting shot while the same “Mmm, whatcha saaaaayyyyyyy” part of the “Hide And Seek” song plays over and over. Also a great little touch with how Shia is seen pointing his gun in increasingly intimidating, gun expert-like positions each time the camera cuts to him during that sequence.
— Excellent ending with the two cops shooting each other after reading the letter, while different parts of “Hide And Seek” play simultaneously.
STARS: *****


SOFA KING
Mattress King proprietors say their new enterprise is Sofa King great

— A sketch sorta in the vein of polarizing dirty wordplay sketches from the early 2000s like Colonel Angus and Cork Soakers.
— Funny bit with a graphic of couch photos being displayed over Maya’s face, forcing her to eventually have to awkwardly lean to the side to get her face back onscreen.
— The performers are doing a good job walking the fine line between making their foreign-accented sayings of “Sofa King” make you realize what dirty phrase it sounds like, but not saying it in a way that makes it sound like they’re directly saying the ACTUAL dirty phrase.
— The humor of this wordplay is only mildly funny at best. For me, the performances are making the material better than it is.
— Bill’s quivery mannerisms are very funny. Also, this is yet another Bill Hader performance that reminds me so much of Dan Aykroyd, especially the way Bill is smiling.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Girlfriend”


WEEKEND UPDATE
MAR interviews Anna Nicole Smith paternity loser Howard K. Stern (ANS)

same-sex couple from Connecticut (FRA) & (BIH) is swishy-WASPy

after apologizing, Don Imus (DAH) causes more problems for himself

— An interesting sports-esque set-up to the Howard K. Stern commentary, and I like the dry way the commentary itself is being executed.
— Meh, we didn’t need a variation of the Same-Sex New Jersey Couple, with this now being a Connecticut same-sex couple, played by the same two cast members.
— Bill’s extended cartoonish snooty laughing sequence as his rich snob character has me practically on the floor, even if he’s overdoing it. I feel like a hypocrite for laughing at this and complaining about Darrell’s extended mugging & ticcing sequence as Jesse Jackson earlier in this episode (and especially in the Jackson/Sharpton Update commentary from the then-recent Forest Whitaker episode), but maybe Bill is just better at pulling that kind of thing off than Darrell is. Also, Bill seems to be relying heavily on the cartoonish snooty laughing to make up for the lack of actual funny written material.
— Speaking of Darrell, he’s been getting surprisingly decent airtime in his first episode back after being M.I.A. in the last two episodes prior to this.
— Darrell’s Don Imus voice is making me laugh, but the comedic conceit of his commentary itself is very lame.
STARS: ***


KNIFE SALESMEN
salesman (WLF) cuts off thumb in attempt to sell Mrs. Ginsu (KRW) a knife

— Solid salesman delivery from Will during his sales pitch to Kristen.
— The ridiculous “Am not” “Are too” argument between Will and Kristen is pretty funny.
— A huge laugh from Will nonchalantly cutting through his own finger, much to Kristen and Shia’s horror.
— A projectile bleeding sketch in the tradition of stuff like Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child sketch.
— No idea what to think about that dog attack ending.
— Overall, some good laughs here, but for an oddball Will Forte sketch, this wasn’t one of his best, nor was it one of the more memorable projectile bleeding sketches.
STARS: ***


AN INTIMATE MOMENT WITH JOHN MAYER & JESSICA SIMPSON
for John Mayer (BIH) & Jessica Simpson (KRW), musical spasms are intimacy

— I love the mere look on Kristen’s face as Jessica Simpson.
— Funny imitation from Bill of John Mayer’s trademark guitar-playing faces.
— Kristen’s musical vocalizations as Jessica is priceless.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can Do Better”


SHIA & MAYA
in her dressing room, MAR attempts to seduce host

— A very funny sudden escalation early on, after Maya and Shia’s friendly opening conversation.
— Feels rare at this point of SNL’s run to see a sketch like this with a cast member playing themselves, not counting monologues.
— Maya’s performance is incredibly silly and over-the-top, but it’s definitely working for me here (it’s somehow helped by the fact that she’s playing herself), and the jokes are coming at us a mile a minute.
— I like the turn with Shia’s mock dramatic monologue to Maya.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid episode. Very little to dislike here, and this contained one of my all-time favorite pieces (Dear Sister).


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Peyton Manning)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Scarlett Johansson

Posted on

March 24, 2007 – Peyton Manning / Carrie Underwood (S32 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUSH’S PRESS CONFERENCE
Alberto Gonzalez (FRA) is uneasy despite George W. Bush’s (JAS) support

— Pretty funny background facial expressions from Fred’s Alberto Gonzalez as his mood goes back-and-forth depending on what Bush says regarding the consequences he may or may not suffer.
— The fact that the comedic conceit of this particular President Bush press conference cold opening isn’t focusing solely on the speech Jason’s Bush is giving is making me like this more than the tepidly-written Jason-as-Bush press conference cold openings.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host tells a joke & introduces dad Archie, brother Eli, mom Olivia [real]

— The Tom Brady/circus/three rings joke Peyton relays was very good.
— Funny line about Peyton’s mom being a disappointment to the family because she never made it to the NFL.
— A short and simple but fairly charming monologue.
STARS: ***


UNITED WAY
host is a poor role model for kids during a United Way activity

— A very famous and often-played piece.
— A great way for Peyton to spoof his role model image. Every moment of this commercial is a riot to me. Petyon hitting and knocking over kids with the football when passing to them, him speaking very harshly to them, him teaching them inappropriate things like picking the lock of a car, etc.
— The tattoo part is particularly hilarious.
STARS: *****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
Betty & Jodi are impressed by the size of zookeeper (host)

— Amy and Maya’s flirtatious compliments to Peyton are pretty funny, but feel like an inferior knock-off of their flirtatious compliments to Jake Gyllenhaal in the first installment of this sketch.
— Some laughs from Amy and Maya’s talk about if Peyton’s head size made it difficult for his mother to give birth to him.
— I like Maya calling up her husband to see if he’ll get mad by her flirting with Peyton.
— Overall, the weakest Bronx Beat by default, but still not bad. However, I hope the quality of Bronx Beat isn’t already slowly starting to diminish, after the pretty solid start it had in its first two installments.
STARS: ***


ESPN’S NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL PARTY
lucky (AMP)’s girly rationales produced a perfect NCAA basketball bracket

— The “huge whore” comments from Amy about her college roommate are pretty funny.
— I love the brief cutaway to Peyton’s deadpan confused face during the discussion of one of Amy’s girlish reasons for her picks, even though the whole latter gag with Amy’s girlish picks and her having no knowledge of sports is starting to feel lazily stereotypical.
— Solid turn with Jason and Amy using “Peyton Manning” as an unflattering term for disappointments, offending Peyton’s character.
— Funny line from Amy about how she’s going to donate her prize to a charity for cats who are overfed.
— More laughs from more unflattering things being said about Peyton Manning.
— A pretty good laugh from Jason yelling “Don’t pull a Peyton Manning!” to Peyton’s character after he angrily walks off the show.
STARS: ***½


PARTY POOPER
at a party, Penelope (KRW) compulsively one-ups guests’ small talk

— The debut of this Penelope character.
— Kristen’s delivery and the one-upping habit of this character are already making me laugh.
— So far, a one-note character from Kristen, and a precursor to an unfortunate endless number of one-note “look at me” recurring characters of hers, but this particular character is working pretty well in this inaugural appearance of hers.
— Funny escalation to Penelope’s lies after an unhappy Peyton tries to beat her at her own game.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Maraka” by RBS- multilingual explorer poses myriad questions to viewers

— A spot-on spoof of Dora The Explorer, as well as children’s shows in general that rely on the “The main character asks viewers a question and pauses for a long time while waiting for viewers to answer” trope.
— The increasingly random, unrelated, inappropriate questions Maraka asks viewers are priceless.
— I love Maraka saying to viewers “Don’t question it, just do it!” during the arm-flapping bit.
— A hilarious inclusion of random foreign tongue-clicking sounds from Maraka in the middle of her very long-winded spiel delivered in Spanish.
STARS: *****


LOCKER ROOM MOTIVATION
“Casino Royale Theme” inspires terpsichorean basketball coach (WLF)

— Oh, yet another classic tonight. This sketch is also a fantastic one-two punch with the Maraka cartoon that preceded it.
— Peyton: “I just thought about going out there in the second half, and a little bit of pee came out.”
— Another great line from Peyton: his random one about practicing French kissing with his French-kissing puppet.
— Even just the build-up to Will’s famous dance, where he’s initially just intensely listening to the music with a very serious look on his face, is coming off funny, though even moreso when you know what’s coming.
— And there goes the famous dancing. Absolutely priceless and legendary. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it never fails to bowl me over with laughter. Even there mere Casino Royale music itself is hilarious-sounding when combined with Will’s dancing to it.
— I love watching the reaction of the performers in the background during Will’s dancing, and how some of them are attempting to hide their genuine amusement (Bill in particular has his hand strategically placed over his mouth in a resting manner almost the entire time, because he already KNOWS he’s going to break at Will’s dancing) while some of the others are just openly smirking without hiding it. It’s also pretty fun to imagine what Will’s dancing must look like from the perspectives of his giggling scene partners, considering they’re standing/sitting behind Will.
— Great turn with Peyton joining in on Will’s bizarre dancing, complete with him playing Will’s leg like a guitar.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Before He Cheats”


WEEKEND UPDATE
presidential candidate Tim Calhoun lays out his scattershot platform

Zoo News- SEM considers the fate of Knut the polar bear cub

Sanjaya Malakar’s (ANS) version of “You Really Got Me” moves DAA to tears

— Maybe it’s just me, but Seth’s delivery sounds a lot more low-key tonight. Is he under the weather this week?
— Yes! TIM FUCKING CALHOUN! Will Forte keeps the classic performances coming tonight.
— Tim Calhoun’s personal Bay Of Pigs revelation was hilarious.
— I absolutely love Calhoun’s delivery of “I will NOT budge on this” when proposing that the presidential seal be replaced by a real seal.
— A reminder of those “Head-on, apply directly to the forehead” (*repeat several times*) commercials that were rampant in this time period.
— Calhoun’s “anal” answer regarding which side he would pick in the same-sex debate had me laughing so hard.
— An interesting-seeming side segment, with Seth doing a Zoo News segment.
— Seth’s lower-key delivery tonight (yeah, he’s definitely gotta be under the weather this week) is particularly noticeable during his Zoo News segment. I’m not caring much for this segment, aside from the comically harsh comment about putting down Abigail Breslin.
— I think I recall hearing that Seth unknowingly mispronounced the name of the polar bear all throughout the Zoo News segment.
— Second Update in a row with the traditional tree-frog-joke-gets-interrupted gag.
— The random Sanjaya interruption, while a very dated reference when watching this in 2020, still works for me, mostly because Andy’s Sanjaya impression is pretty funny, as are Seth and Amy’s reactions to his singing, all of which makes this hold up better than, say, Fred’s equally-now-dated Judge Larry commentaries in then-recent Updates.
— A random inclusion of Dan Aykroyd as one of the crying audience members during Sanjaya’s singing. And in typical annoying Amy-Poehler-on-Weekend-Update fashion, Amy hurts the gag of Dan’s random cameo by pointing at him afterwards and asking “Why is he here?!?” Ugh, why does Amy always have to call attention to things like this? Dan’s random cameo would’ve been funnier had no acknowledgment been made about it by Seth or Amy.
STARS: ***


300
while filming 300, (host) fails to smash boulder onto fellow actor (FRA)

— Good facial make-up on Peyton, rendering him unrecognizable.
— This premise is just plain dumb, thin, and questionable, and not in the funny way that those kinds of premises can sometimes be. It also doesn’t help that there’s no escalation to the main joke.
— I do like Jason’s performance as the increasingly agitated director, and there are some occasional laughs from Peyton, but otherwise, oof.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wasted”


PORCH TALK
daft & indiscreet (host) & (KRW) sip coffee on a pleasant spring evening

— The second and final edition of the Porch Talk sketch that debuted in this season’s Jaime Pressly episode. I heard they would later do a variation of this sketch in one of the wraparound segments in an updated Best Of Mike Myers special that would air around 2007/2008 (this updated special includes newly-filmed wraparound segments with Mike interacting with individual members of the then-current SNL cast from season 32/33), but I’ve never seen the updated special myself.
— Much like last time, Kristen’s delivery is absolutely perfect here, and Peyton is complementing her performance well with solid delivery of his own.
— Lots of funny odd, disturbing, and very random revelations being delivered by Kristen and Peyton in a calm, affable manner. These sketches are growing on me even more, and I already really liked the first installment. I wouldn’t have minded this sketch appearing at least one more time in a regular episode.
— Like the first installment, this overall sketch was kept at a perfect short and sweet length.
STARS: ****


THE MERCEDES 550
the oven-equipped Mercedes 550 is the car for meatloaf lovers like host

— Pretty funny random concept.
— Great reveal of Peyton not having pants on.
— Hilarious visual of each car seat being a toilet.
STARS: ***½


AIR FORCE ONE
awful basketball players don’t need Nike Air Force One shoes

— Two commercials in a row?
— Cool look of the male cast in those white tracksuits they’re shown walking in unison in.
— A fairly fun use of what appears to be the entire male cast, minus Seth, of course, and Darrell, the latter of whom not only is missing from this commercial, and not only is missing from this ENTIRE episode, but has been missing from these PAST TWO episodes. Does the man need a search party sent out for him or something?
— An overall forgettable commercial.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS
host’s brothers Eli & Cooper [real] give him a birthday cake

— A nice and unique change of pace for SNL’s goodnights, with Peyton being presented with a birthday celebration. I wonder if he was genuinely not expecting this.
— Nice touch with how the birthday cake is a replica of SNL’s home base stage.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and memorable episode. There was an impressive amount of THREE sketches that I rated five stars, and there was barely anything that I didn’t like. Peyton Manning was also one of the better athlete hosts I feel SNL has ever had.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Shia LaBeouf

Posted on

March 17, 2007 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Snow Patrol (S32 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SNL SPECIAL REPORT
CSR likens Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton to black men vs. white women

— Chris Rock! Feels interesting seeing him in this SNL era. Also, him cameoing in a Julia Louis-Dreyfus-hosted episode is strangely fitting, given the fact that, much like Julia, Chris was a cast member for only three seasons, didn’t do much on the show and was overshadowed by certain others in the cast, yet still went on to huge fame afterwards.
— This cold opening was originally a Weekend Update commentary that Chris did in this episode’s dress rehearsal.
— Wow, that comment about Rudy Giuliani’s sanity level was awfully prescient.
— Chris is an absolute riot here, as expected. He’s so damn funny that he’s even getting laughs from potentially touchy comments about the horrible treatment black people used to suffer.
— Hilarious mention of George W. Bush at the end, regarding if America is ready for a black president.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
JLD blames media for clips that put her in a negative light

— Great to see Julia hosting again so soon after her first hosting stint.
— In the real-life clip of Julia winning an Emmy, former SNL cast member (and Julia’s husband) Brad Hall can be seen congratulating her (the second above screencap for this monologue). Feels kinda nice seeing him on SNL again after so many years, even in this capacity. (I think I heard he could be spotted in the audience of the previous JLD-hosted episode I covered in season 31, but I didn’t catch him.) In Julia’s next SNL monologue from season 41, she shows an old clip of herself from an 80s movie that she (and Brad) was in, and the clip features a decent amount of face time for Brad, and I remember it felt so odd but nice seeing such an obscure Ebersol-era cast member like Brad get THAT amount of face time in an SNL episode from 2016, even if it was just in a clip from an old movie.
— The cutaways to Julia in the audience at the Golden Globes are hilarious. Kinda feels like a spiritual successor to the Golden Globes sketch with Megan Mullally in season 29.
— A huge laugh from Julia’s crotch-flashing scene. That excessive amount of pubic hair especially caught me off-guard.
STARS: ****


OPRAH
(JLD) is a disciple of Rhonda Byrne’s (AMP) book The Secret

— Funny look for Amy here.
— Maya’s Oprah portrayal feels a lot more animated than usual here. Not sure I can say that’s a good thing.
— Julia has some funny lines, but her interview scene is kinda dragging for me.
— Kenan’s Darfur refugee character, when asked how he’s doing: “Well, you know….BAD.”
— Kenan’s portion of this sketch is almost singlehandedly saving this otherwise iffy sketch.
STARS: **½


MONEX
gold bug (KRW) uses Monex to amass her favorite precious metal

— Kristen’s character mentions that this Monex program can be bought on a brochure and VHS tape. Stuff was still being sold on VHS in 2007?
— The framed Goldie Hawn photo in the gold-filled room is a funny gag.
— The part with Kristen resorting to drinking orange juice while wishing she could drink gold is kind of a stretch, because wouldn’t she just get, say, champagne or apple juice if she wanted a gold-colored drink?
— Hmm. I can’t say this commercial is working much for me. A lot of this is just washing over me. I want to say Kristen is at least performing this well, but I’m not even sure how to feel about her performance here.
STARS: **


R.P.S.
(JLD)’s husband (JAS) blames Restless Penis Syndrome for his infidelity

— Funny subversion with Jason’s big reveal to Julia turning out to be him having Restless Penis Syndrome when you think he’s going to reveal he’s having an affair.
— I like Kenan randomly appearing in Jason and Julia’s bedroom as Jason’s doctor.
— Pretty funny turn with Bill doing a PSA for Restless Penis Syndrome right in front of the main characters, which a confused Julia then calls attention to.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s argot foils monolingual JLD

— The debut of these La Rivista Della Televisione sketches, starring a character of Bill’s that debuted in an Italian hotel sketch from the preceding season’s Catherine Zeta-Jones episode.
— I probably said this in my review of the aforementioned Italian hotel sketch, but Bill’s fast-paced Italian gibberish is absolutely fantastic and sounds both funny and convincingly real.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as the producer and Will just silently sitting next to him while eating spaghetti and meatballs. I also like the back-and-forth arguing between Fred and Bill.
— Bill is a blast as this Vinny Vedecci character. And it still feels so rare at this point of Bill’s tenure to see him play the sole lead role in a sketch, so this is very refreshing.
— Great to see Bill work in his Kramer impression on SNL again. I also like him following it up with an intentionally-bad Jerry Seinfeld impression.
— The re-dubbed Old Christine clip is very funny.
— A lot of pretty fun nonsense at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’re All I Have”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Seidlin’s (FRA) Justice Department commentary drifts to a zoo story

AMP drunk dials SEM after doing two shots for St. Patrick’s Day

— Oh no. An Update commentary from Fred as Judge Larry for THE SECOND DAMN EPISODE IN A ROW, and for no good reason this time. This was bad enough the first time.
— Ugh, tonight’s Judge Larry commentary is even more difficult to sit through than the first one, which is certainly saying something. The huge amusement the audience is getting from this makes me feel so lost.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Fred-as-Judge-Larry’s mention of the monkeys “with the plastic asses”, but then even THAT got ruined by him proceeding to repeat it several times afterwards.
— Boy, this Judge Larry bit is so bad and endless. This feels kinda like an unfortunate precursor to Fred’s later, past-his-prime seasons, where he’s given so much free rein to waste all the airtime he wants with unfunny, meandering, self-indulgent bits.
— I love Seth’s Anne Frank joke, as well as his great ad-lib afterwards.
— The extended drunk bit with Seth and Amy is a little weird and much longer than the usual Seth/Amy interaction pieces. I’m not even sure if I like it or not.
STARS: ***


DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (AMP), (KRW) & (JLD) & (JAS) perform their hits

— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish that has aired up to this point.
— Hmm, I notice the Kenan/Andy interactions in tonight’s Deep House Dish thankfully don’t have Kenan yelling the usual “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”………..so far.
— Oh, I love the voice Julia’s using during her post-song interview. I’ve never heard her use that distinct voice before, nor did I know she was capable of talking like that.
— Hmm, a change of pace with Kenan’s character directing a special concerned message to the troubled Britney Spears (or, as Kenan’s character calls, “Britney Spurrs”).
— Oh, god. There goes the obligatory “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”, after I gave them credit for not using it. At least they waited more than halfway into this sketch to unleash it on us.
— Jason is a blast during his musical performance, especially his dancing. Jason Sudeikis dancing = always fun to watch.
— Overall, slightly better than usual Deep House Dish sketches, even if that’s still faint praise from me.
STARS: **½


CBS CARES
unprofessional boom mic operator Jeff (JAS) bugs JLD during PSA taping

— Another big role tonight for the underused Bill Hader.
— The debut of these sketches with Jason as a douchey crew member and Bill as the director.
— A pretty good cheap laugh from Bill’s name being Mike Underballs.
— I love the negative tension between Jason and Julia. Jason has some great rude, uncalled-for remarks to Julia.
— I love how they keep playing the lighthearted CBS Cares jingle when each take gets ruined, which Bill’s eventually calls his sound crew out on.
— Whenever Bill angrily says the name of Jason’s character, Jeff, I absolutely love how he says it as “JYYYEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Very funny reveal of the below-the-camera part of Julia’s body that Jason is immaturely placing the boom mic over during the final take.
STARS: ****


HOMEBOTS
lottery winners’ (JAS) & (JLD) robots (WLF) & (FRA) have sex & break down

— Yet another big role for Bill tonight. So glad to see SNL finally giving him lots of airtime for once. Jason’s been getting some pretty strong airtime himself tonight.
— Pretty funny chaos from Robot Will’s actions.
— A very funny and out-of-left field turn with the two robots mentioning their robot genitals when contemplating how Robot Will is going to repay Robot Fred.
— Some good laughs from Julia and Jason trying to start a casual, friendly conversation with a disturbed Bill and Kristen during the loud robot sex noises.
— I love the audience’s groaning over the fluid-y pop sound at the end of the robots’ sex before they break down.
— It feels like Julia has been making quite a number of light stumbles over her lines throughout tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Cars”


THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL
mildly talented (KRW), (MAR), (AMP) want to be the next Pussycat Doll

— The timing in this sketch feels off so far.
— I love the shot of Maya just staring at the camera while doing nothing during the “Not write songs” part advertised in this reality show promo.
— Maya, Amy, and Kristen are all getting some laughs here.
— Pretty funny how the claim-to-fame listed under Andy’s character’s name, McKenzie Jazz, just states “Nobody”. However, a technical error occurs where the graphic of Andy’s character’s name and claim-to-fame is accidentally displayed again for Kenan (as you can see in the last two above screencaps for this sketch). I remember this gaffe made me wonder back at this time in 2007 what Kenan’s character’s name was supposed to be, and whether he was playing a woman or an effeminate man. I had to wait until the NBC rerun of this episode God knows how many months later to find out that the “character” Kenan was playing is actually Lil’ Kim, who, as we know, is a real person. (Oh, that reminds me: Kenan In A Dress alert.) So that makes this YET ANOTHER female celebrity who Kenan has done a terrible and unfunny impression of.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode started out strong with the cold opening and monologue, only to end up being an overall average episode. Not bad, and there were a few strong highlights, but the episode as a whole wasn’t all that memorable, and it pales in comparison to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ fantastic season 31 episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rainn Wilson)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Peyton Manning

Posted on

February 24, 2007 – Rainn Wilson / Arcade Fire (S32 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM
Anna Nicole Smith coverage displaces hard news

— Darrell takes over the Wolf Blitzer impression that the no-longer-on-the-show Chris Parnell regularly played the preceding season.
— So many laughs from the Anna Nicole Smith-centric news crawl on the bottom of the screen.
— Ha, after the Situation Room opening title sequence, the size of the news crawl has suddenly gotten HUGE.
— “Darfur bad”. Boy, does that take me back to 2007.
— Very funny how Darrell-as-Blitzer’s head is now being played with onscreen by The Situation Room’s graphics department, angering him.
— Good to see our host Rainn Wilson in the cold opening.
— Rainn is fantastic in his performance as a reporter. The fact that he’s coming off so natural here, combined with the fact that hosts don’t usually appear in cold openings, could easily cause one to mistake him for a cast member in this.
— I like the turn with Rainn taking over the report from a female reporter who Darrell’s Blitzer has thrown to.
— The length of Rainn’s bit could use some trimming.
— I still have no opinion on Fred’s take on Larry King. He’s certainly no Norm Macdonald when it comes to this role, I’ll say that. He’s not even a Kevin Nealon (who’s Larry King I’ve always felt was kinda underappreciated).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
cast members & Karen (Rashida Jones) make backstage SNL like The Office

— A very fun Office-esque backstage atmosphere we’re shown SNL having.
— Kristen and Jason are absolutely PERFECT as Pam and Jim. Not only are they very funny and spot-on in their Pam and Jim impressions, but they are pretty much dead-ringers for them here.
— A blink-and-miss-it cameo from Rashida Jones. Nice to see her, though part of me can’t help but be curious what it would’ve been like to see Maya play her in this monologue. Speaking of missed opportunities, how does this monologue not include a rare non-Weekend Update appearance from Seth as his Office doppleganger Ryan?
— Great seeing Lorne get involved in this, who’s typical deadpan is adding to this perfectly.
— When Lorne shows his “World’s Funniest Boss” coffee mug, you can hear an audience member shout “Yeah, Lorne!”, which is amusing to me.
— Overall, such a strong monologue.
STARS: ****½


SONG MEMORIES
“Danny’s Song” evokes icky reminiscing by (host), (BIH), (WLF), (JAS)

— The debut of these Song Memories sketches. Wow, until just now, I had completely forgotten about these sketches, as well as the fact that they debuted in this episode. I recall this being a pretty solid recurring sketch.
— Yet another episode where the criminally-underused-in-his-early-seasons Bill Hader is stuck making only one live appearance (he does appear in the following pre-taped Digital Short), though he at least gets a comedic role here, unlike his sole appearance in the preceding episode.
— Great format to these Song Memories sketches, with the guys’ disturbing stories being interspersed with the guys engaging in a jovial singalong of the chorus from the song playing on the jukebox.
— I could be wrong, but I think I recall that the “I have a dad with Down’s Syndrome” punchline to Bill’s story ended up causing some controversy back when this originally aired, and would result in SNL bleeping out the words “Down’s Syndrome” in reruns of this sketch. Am I remembering correctly, or am I mistaken?
— Rainn’s “The other guy’s pee came out of my nose” punchline paled in comparison to the punchlines of the other guys’ stories, but Rainn still made it work. I’ve seen some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 have a theory that, instead of pee coming out of his nose, Rainn’s line was probably originally written to have him say a certain male bodily fluid came out of his nose (given the fact that he was…uh, orally servicing a man), but the censors must’ve nixed it and forced SNL to use a tamer version of the line.
— Even the very random Pulp Fiction-esque twist ending is working for me.
STARS: ****


BUSINESS MEETING
(host) asks his motley employees to propose cuts to the corporate budget

— I love the exchange between Rainn and Kenan, when Rainn is asking individual employees for their thoughts: “Water guy?” “I don’t work here.”
— Hilarious fake-out regarding which one of the employees is Chief Big Cloud.
— Gigantic Turkey Sub: “I say we put MUSTARD on it!”
— You can see a young Colin Jost throughout this short as one of the employees (the left side of the seventh-to-last, third-to-last, and second-to-last above screencaps for this Digital Short, though why does his suit jacket keep disappearing and re-appearing between shots?). He looks so baby-faced in this, and it’s funny seeing him without what’s now known as his trademark hairstyle.
— This short is an absolute riot. So many rapid-fire hilarious cutaways, characters, and subversions, so much so, that I’m missing a few of the quick gags due to laughing so hard at some of the other quick gags.
— I love how this is not only using what appears to be the entire SNL cast, but is having some of the cast members play multiple roles.
— Even the random gag of Rainn speaking into his hand as if it’s a cellphone is fitting the tone of this short perfectly.
STARS: *****


ART DEALERS
(host) & (KRW) interview Nuni & Nuni for Architectural Digest profile

— Ugh, this sketch once again. Thankfully, this ends up being the final appearance of these characters.
— (*sigh*) Cue the beyond-tired obligatory portion of these sketches where the Nunis clarify how to differentiate the pronunciation of their names, then proceed to butcher the simple pronunciation of their visitors’ names.
— I do like the toast chair that Rainn is forced to sit on.
— Having Rainn play a dull straight man in a Nuni sketch is such a waste of his comedic talents (why not have him play a comedic role like Will Ferrell got to play in the Nuni sketch he appeared in?), though at least he’s further proving his impressive versatility by playing a convincing straight man character here.
— Another reminder tonight that Chris Parnell is no longer on the show, as his butler character from these Nuni sketches has been replaced by a new character played by Andy.
— I did get a cheap laugh from Andy’s cotton candy pubic hair sticking out from the top of his pants.
STARS: *½


PEEPING JERRY
peeper (host) imposes his voyeuristic mindset upon a police lineup

— Rainn is wearing the same jacket that Will has been seen wearing as two child predator characters (who I personally have a theory are actually the same character), one being a character in the MySpace Seminar sketch from the preceding season’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode, and the other being the future recurring character Jeff Montgomery (a.k.a. the trick-or-treating sex offender character). SNL’s wardrobe department must have that jacket on standby for every time someone plays a creepy sexual deviant in a sketch in this era.
— For some reason, I kinda love the intentionally cheesy part with Maya cornily telling Rainn “The next time you peep at me, THIS is what you’re gonna see!” while angrily waving her fist in front of his face.
— Excellent characterization from Rainn, who is hilarious here.
— I love how Rainn is only able to identify the murderer in the police line-up by having a curtain substitute be displayed in front of him so he can peep from behind it.
— A great escalation to this, by now having Rainn request Jason mimes taking a shower and then sing during it. (Though why did Rainn word his request as “Make him sing again?”, when Jason’s character didn’t sing prior to this portion of the sketch?)
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Intervention”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anna Nicole Smith judge Larry Seidlin (FRA) weepily reads his reviews

Aunt Linda has nothing nice to say about the crop of Oscar nominees

the dangers of deployment to Iraq finally dawn on Prince Harry (ANS)

— Hmm, Fred playing the judge from the Anna Nicole Smith trial. Well, this sure comes off dated today. I remember the fact that this Judge Larry guy was pretty big back at this time, but 13 years later, I now remember little-to-nothing specific about the man. I think he broke down in tears during the Anna Nicole trial while delivering a long spiel, or something like that? Even my memory of seeing viral clips of him doing THAT is very vague and iffy. I worry that my lack of memory about this guy is going to hurt my enjoyment of this spoof of him that Fred’s doing.
— I do like the detail of Fred’s Judge Larry doing his commentary in a judge’s chair instead of the usual Update chair.
— We get an extended hysterical laughter break from the audience in response to Fred’s Judge Larry saying “When I was a kid…I used to go to the circus every day.” Am I missing something? What’s so hilarious about that line?
— Yeah, this Judge Larry commentary isn’t doing it for me. Just as I was afraid of, my lack of memory of the specifics that Fred is spoofing about this judge makes this hard for me to understand and laugh at. Then again, I get the feeling this commentary wasn’t all that funny even when it originally aired. This commentary is just coming off badly drawn-out and sluggish. (And guess what’s even worse? We’ll be seeing Fred do ANOTHER Judge Larry commentary on Update in the very next episode! Geez.)
— (*groan*) Kristen’s Aunt Linda routine continues to suffer diminishing returns, and I’m finding her ratings system increasingly cringeworthy in its corniness. That corniness feels like something straight out of SNL writer James Anderson’s playbook, even though I have no idea if he even writes these Aunt Linda commentaries (I think I remember hearing it’s another writer who’s behind these Aunt Linda commentaries, though I don’t remember who).
— SNL breaks out the ol’ vomit hose for the first time in, I believe, years. While I admit to chuckling at this particular instance of it in this Prince Harry commentary from Andy, it feels like a poor man’s version of Will Ferrell’s Update commentary about Ellen DeGeneres back in season 22 (a commentary that I love, problematic or not). I do love Seth’s deadpan during Andy’s over-the-top vomiting, though.
— Boy, this is one long Update. A huge contrast to how short and compact the last few Updates prior to this were.
STARS: ***


FIRST DAY AT WORK
Neil & Jean orient their new fellow uptight co-worker Oliver (host)

— An interesting change of pace to see this recurring Forte/Wiig/(insert host here) introverted co-workers sketch now taking place at the characters’ workplace instead of at another bar.
— Yet another very fun quirky characterization from Rainn tonight.
— Very funny and charming reveal of Will and Kristen’s extremely tame “hazing” of Rainn.
— As usual, a countless number of very funny little quirks from these characters. Even Will and Kristen’s mere delivery makes even non-comedic lines very humorous.
— The usual twist in these sketches with us suddenly seeing Will detailing the night of raunchy lovemaking he has planned for him and his two co-workers has been changed up tonight, which is another refreshing change of pace.
STARS: ****½


WHITE POSSUM SCREAM
(KET) chains (host) in Black Snake Moan knockoff

— A laugh from how this Blake Snake Moan-based movie is titled White Possum Scream.
— Funny visual of Rainn as a briefs-clad male version of Christina Ricci’s character from Black Snake Moan.
— I like the other Chase Danker-made preview-based films we’re shown movie posters of, especially the dark Dunston Checks Out.
— Even Kenan’s mugging and loud hamminess, which, in these early seasons of his, can be a bit much and too uncontrolled, is kinda working for me here.
— This sketch is showing itself to be thin, but the execution is making it passable enough.
STARS: ***


BAND SHOT

— There appears to be a sketch cut at the last minute at this point of the show, as SNL does the old “come back from a long commercial break only to show the SNL Band playing for a few seconds before going back to another long commercial break” move they occasionally resort to when needing to fill time after a sketch gets scrapped at the last minute for time reasons. However, that usually happens at the very end of episodes. Odd how THIS particular instance is occurring at around 12:45, when we still have a sketch and an Arcade Fire musical performance remaining.


RIVER BLISS
New Age musicians (FRA), (MAR), (host), (KET), (KRW) bicker in the studio

— Kenan’s character being named Nasim certainly brings a future SNL cast member to mind, mostly because she’s the only real-life person I’ve ever heard with that name.
— Fred’s gestures when playing the keyboard are funny, and Rainn does yet another characterization that I like (even his constant hair flips are getting laughs), but the sketch itself is not doing it for me. Also, I’m getting that ol’ pesky feeling again that this is another James Anderson-written sketch. The style of this sketch and the character types sure make me think so, especially Kenan’s character. I’ve noticed that almost ANY sketch that Kenan plays this type of effeminate, sassy male character in is a James Anderson-written sketch.
— Kenan yelling very loudly “I…HATE…YO…FACE!” has kinda stuck with me over the years, even though I could never remember which sketch it came from until now.
— Aaaaaaaand there’s the fart humor to further add to my hunch that this sketch is a James Anderson piece.
— Overall, blah. A poor and aimless sketch to end a great episode on (the following musical performance notwithstanding).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Keep The Car Running”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and definitely one of the best of this season. The first half of this episode in particular was very impressive, with a majority of the segments receiving a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Adding to the strength of this episode is Rainn Wilson, who was an excellent host, came off perfect for SNL, and was utilized very well with the various oddball roles the writers gave him.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Forest Whitaker)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Posted on

February 10, 2007 – Forest Whitaker / Keith Urban (S32 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE CHENEY FAMILY
Dick (DAH) & Lynne (KRW) Cheney read unlovely Valentine’s Day cards

— The Scooter Libby Valentine card is really funny.
— I was expecting the Valentine card from the guy who Dick Cheney shot in the face to have a funnier punchline.
— I love Darrell’s Cheney cutting off his reading of the obscene final verse in the Valentine card from an Iraq soldier.
— This is the first time in quite a while that a political cold opening has really worked for me.
— Why didn’t the camera do the traditional zoom-in on Darrell during his “Live from New York…” at the end?
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & MAR sing “Get Ready”

— I like Maya giving a shoutout to Forest’s early role in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, a movie I often forget he was even in.
— The first of what I recall being several instances of singing from Forest tonight.
— Blah at this turning into a joke-less musical monologue, though at least the number is uptempo.
STARS: **


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
Betty & Jodi think doctors (host) & (KRW) are in love

— More on-point and fun characterizations and interplay between Maya and Amy in these Bronx Beat sketches.
— Amy: “The way things are going these days, the whole world’s gonna blow up.” Feels more fitting hearing that today than in 2007.
— I love Kristen’s tenseness when Maya and Amy point out that Forest is clearly in love with her.
— Some pretty good laughs from Maya and Amy putting pressure on Forest and Kristen to date each other.
— Even the voice Fred is using over the phone as Maya’s son is making me laugh.
— After Forest clarifies to Maya and Amy that “We’re not in love” as he and Kristen are making their exit, I love Kristen’s little “What? We’re not?”
— These Bronx Beat sketches continue to be pretty solid. I’m enjoying these much more than I did when they originally aired.
STARS: ***½


ANDY POPPING INTO FRAME
ANS adds himself to various camera shots

— I love this minimalist short, and how late 2000s it now feels. A quintessential example of the kind of simplistic concept that Andy and Lonely Island in general can make into such a fun and charming blast.
— Some great suspenseful build-ups in the occasional shots that Andy is missing from for the first few seconds.
— A very funny turn with Will getting involved and gradually taking the focus away from Andy, resulting in a now-non-smiling Andy forcing Will away by pointing a gun at his head.
— I love how some portions of this are exploring SNL’s studio.
— This pre-taped short ends up being Andy’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode.
STARS: ****½


ASSAGIO’S
waiter (host) interminably sings “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”

— Speaking of a cast member making only one appearance tonight, tonight is yet another episode where Bill is stuck making his only appearance of the night in a forgettable straight man role. (*sigh*)
— This HAS to be a James Anderson sketch.
— Forest’s performance is pretty fun, but I’m not caring for the premise of this sketch itself. The execution of this isn’t anything great, though at least it isn’t as bad as it could be.
— Fred accidentally gives away the broken glasses gag by switching his glasses when the camera is still on him.
— I do like Bill’s line explaining Forest is now singing in a pitch that only dogs can hear.
STARS: **


URIGRO
Rerun from 1/20/07


MAN VERSUS BEAST TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS: THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
mountain lion advances to final four by mauling (JAS)

— Amy, in a smiley, jovial manner: “I love animals, and I absolutely despise human beings.”
— An interesting and creative premise, and I like Forest’s delivery during the set-up to the match we’re about to see.
— “Aerosmith engineer”? A little odd how Forest misread the term “aerospace engineer” as that.
— A good laugh from the blurring-out of Jason’s brutal mauling by the mountain lion.
— A great bloodied, torn-up look of Jason during his post-match interview. This is pretty much a more extensive version of Jason’s eternally-bleeding chewed-off arm in that Bear Shark Project sketch from earlier this season.
— I love Jason’s long, pensive pause while he’s contemplating an answer to a question of Maya’s while his neck continues to eternally bleed.
— So many great lines from Jason during his interview. I especially like the one about him literally getting his ass handed to him by the mountain lion.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stupid Boy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (KET) rank Barack Obama’s blackness

like all ladies, Lisa Nowak fell for fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein (JAS)

— Jesus Christ, Darrell is going EXTREMELY heavy on the physical tics as Jesse Jackson tonight. He’s trying WAY too hard to milk laughs from the audience, even for his standards. (At one point during this extended mugging and ticcing of Darrell’s, Kenan even ad-libs by looking at his non-existent wristwatch in a comically impatient manner.) I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2007 saying Darrell seemed like he was on coke during this commentary.
— A pretty solid concept of the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton commentary, with them displaying and explaining a Blackness Scale, and where Barack Obama ranks on it.
— I particularly like the part about Obama being moved way up on the Blackness Scale because he dated white women.
— Seth continues to hone his smarmy Update persona, with his joke tonight about lazy gay people, a joke that his delivery made work.
— This is exactly the type of smug role that Jason can sell in spades.
— I love Jason’s line about “giving intricate high-fives”.
— Meh, I don’t care much for Amy’s cutesy act when being charmed by Jason.
— Jason’s commentary ended on a weak note.
STARS: ***


LOVE WHITNEY: WHITNEY HOUSTON’S VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL
Tommy Brown (host) joins Whitney Houston’s (MAR) Valentine’s Day Special

— Oh, no. Maya’s Whitney Houston Weekend Update commentaries this season were bad enough; now SNL spins her off into her own sketch? I am in for a looooooong sketch, aren’t I?
— Kenan In A Dress alert. Oh, I *am* in for a looooooong sketch. (*sigh*)
— This sketch is basically nothing but an unfunny 4-minute collection of annoying tics that Maya regularly does as Whitney on Weekend Update.
— Forest’s delivery is a bit rough here, and he’s unfortunately not saving this sketch like I desperately want him to.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was fucking awful.
STARS: *


AM I A CRAZY STREET PERSON?
(host) is contestant on & topic of game show

— Fun concept for this game show sketch.
— A solid game show host performance from Jason.
— I love Jason’s little “What the hell…” when Fred randomly walks right past the camera during his exit.
— Forest’s amazement at each guest is very funny and charming. I also love Kristen’s growing cynicism towards each guest.
— Great turn with Kristen recognizing Forest as an escapee from an institution.
— Ha, Kenan’s hair…
— Such a fun performance from Forest.
— Great ending line from Kristen: a deadpan “I’m definitely suing” after being terrified by Forest doing a crazy, wild dance around her.
— A technical glitch occurs at the end, where the screen mistakenly fades to black way too early as soon as the “Am I A Crazy Street Person?” logo starts showing up onscreen while Jason is wrapping up the show.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Once In A Lifetime”


STATEN ISLAND ZOO
high schoolers’ sloths “documentary” fudges zoological accuracy

— A hilarious, very memorable, over-the-top, and extremely catchy Sloths music video. And the intensity of it is a hilarious sudden tone shift after Kristen’s calm, smiley intro.
— A few great vulgar, bleeped-filled lyrics.
— I love the inclusion of the character Sloth from The Goonies performing a guitar solo…in a church, of all places, which is such a funny little random detail.
— Second sketch in a row tonight with a perfect ending line from Kristen, this time her saying a very taken-aback “That…was not…entirely accurate” after the Sloths video has ended. Yet another solid example of how damn good and reliable Kristen always is at playing straight roles and selling a funny low-key-perplexed one-liner.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The streak of pretty solid episodes continues. Other than two flops (Whitney Houston Valentine’s Day Special and Assagio’s, though the latter wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been) and a monologue I didn’t care for, there was a lot to like in tonight’s episode, and a few VERY strong pieces.


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
Rainn Wilson

Posted on

February 3, 2007 – Drew Barrymore / Lily Allen (S32 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMERICAN IDOL
judges criticize animals for their poor performances

— Wait, what’s this? Seth IN A SKETCH?!? And in a lead role here?!? During his Weekend Update-only years?!?
— A laugh from Maya’s successful audition only being shown for a split second before getting cut off to show bad auditions.
— Mm, not sure I care for this premise of animals auditioning for American Idol.
— Solid Simon Cowell impression from Jason.
— Yeah, these constant reveals of animals being critiqued by the Idol judges aren’t working for me.
— Why do I hear Kenan laughing off-camera during one of the scene transitions (right after the donkey scene)?
— An unintentional chuckle from the two cats both looking alarmed when a sound effect of meowing cats is played.
— I do like the gag with the auditioning dog’s family of dogs waiting for him outside of the audition room.
— Yet another strong and energetic “Live from New York…” delivery from Seth.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host’s backstage encounter with ANS follows romantic comedy boilerplate

— Drew sets up her backstage visit by claiming she’s going to take us to the Five-Timers Club, as this is her fifth time hosting, only for this monologue to blindside us with a cookie-cutter rom-com spoof that has nothing to do with the Five-Timers Club. Really, SNL? I don’t have too much of a problem with SNL doing this kind of monologue spoofing rom-coms, but why lie to us by prefacing it with an exciting-sounding Five-Timers Club visit?
— Hmm, I see SNL still has binders with the old circular SNL logo from 1988-1995 (as seen held by Amy in the third above screencap for this monologue). Ellen Cleghorne was seen with that same green binder in the backstage cold opening from the season 20 finale, back when that was still the current SNL logo. I think there’s a later backstage monologue/sketch sometime after tonight’s Drew Barrymore episode where that same green binder with the 88-95 SNL logo is also seen, but I can’t remember which episode.
— Pretty funny lines from Will, perfectly playing the douche of typical rom-coms.
— I like the slow-motion montage of backstage scenes that had literally just happened.
— Am I crazy, or does the look of Andy’s hair keep changing back-and-forth throughout this monologue? (side-by-side comparison a little below) Are some portions of this monologue pre-taped for whatever reason? I’m currently watching the live version of this episode, so this isn’t a case of a dress rehearsal substitution being made in reruns.

— Wait, what? Now this randomly turns into a questions-from-the-audience monologue? This monologue, while pretty funny, is an unfocused mess.
— Ah, never mind. The questions-from-the-audience bit is just a set-up for Andy to interrupt with a Say Anything spoof. Lots of odd fake-outs throughout this monologue.
— Ugh, I see a Target set in the background during the shot of Andy holding a radio up in the air ala John Cusack, which gives away the fact that there’s going to be a damn Target Lady sketch tonight. Didn’t they just DO one, like, 2 episodes ago?
STARS: ***


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Dakota Fanning (AMP) is mature beyond her years

— Oh, I absolute LOVE how SNL transitions from the monologue to this sketch by having the camera pan over from the home base stage to the set where this sketch is taking place. Reminiscent of what SNL did after the monologue in the season 25 Christina Ricci episode and the season 27 Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— Boy, Amy sure got changed fast from her appearance in the middle of the monologue.
— “The” Family Guy? What’s with Kenan referring to the show Family Guy as that?
— Kenan’s slow burn facial reactions to Amy-as-Dakota-Fanning’s backhanded remarks to him throughout this sketch are freakin’ perfect.
— Why does Bill’s shirt look so insanely wrinkly?
— For obvious reasons, it’s fitting to have Drew Barrymore play a child actress.
— The tenseness from Amy’s Dakota during the Abigail Breslin interview is solid.
— I love the “Thank you, Catherine” “Okay, you can just call me mom” exchange between Amy’s Dakota and Kristen’s snack-providing character.
— A killer way to end this sketch, with Drew-as-Abigail-Breslin’s bragging about her important upcoming movie role being responded to by Amy’s Dakota saying a casual, fake-gleeful “I get raped in my next movie! Anyway…”
STARS: ****


POISON THERAPY
therapist (KRW) counsels (WLF) & the wife (host) who poisons him

— Interesting facial prosthetics on a poisoned Will.
— I absolutely love the oddball, absurdist, creative premise of this sketch, especially for a sketch placed in such an early spot in this episode.
— Very strong understated performances from all involved in this sketch. A perfect mix of a great premise and great execution by the writers and performers.
— Funny reveal of Will being a model.
STARS: ****½


BODY FUZION
’80s exercise tape has low-impact workout & softcore porn

— A change of pace for a Digital Short.
— Funny random detail of two of the girls being named Donna.
— I love Maya’s aggressive brief shout of “WOO!” during one exercise.
— Kristen giving us an early display of her future Triangle Sally dance.
— So many hilarious little gags all throughout this.
— The recreation of the look of a typical video from an old, worn-out 1980s VHS tape is absolutely DEAD ON, right down to the littlest details like the occasional bad tracking.
STARS: ****½


TARGET
Target Lady teaches trainee (host) how to ring up items at the checkout

— (*sigh*) And here’s our Target Lady sketch that was spoiled earlier in this episode.
— I do somewhat like Target Lady’s subtly disappointed/heartbroken reaction when Jason decides to buy something she really wants that is now out of stock, which I kinda appreciate just because it’s a change of pace from the usual tired dreck we see with Target Lady.
— This was mercifully somewhat short for a Target Lady sketch.
STARS: **


JOB INTERVIEW
hyper job applicant (host) digs a deeper hole following botched interview

— This is a sketch that I recall getting a lot of acclaim from online SNL fans back in 2007, but I’ve also seen online SNL fans in recent years have a negative reaction to this sketch and say it comes off like a bad James Anderson-written one-note Kristen Wiig-starring sketch. In my original 2007 review of this episode back when this episode originally aired (seen here), I didn’t care much for this sketch. I’m curious how I’ll react to this sketch during my current viewing, after what I just said about how wildly differing the reaction from fans in 2007 and 2020 are.
— Shaundra Shart? Is this a sister character to future cast member Mikey Day’s character Matt Schatt?
— Never mind, Drew’s character reveals that she messed up her last name, which is actually Sharpe.
— I love Drew calling Kenan “Grown-Up Webster”.
— Drew is selling her character’s tenseness, hyperness, and antsiness really well.
— Did I just hear Amy pronounce the first name of Drew’s character completely differently from how Drew herself pronounced it?
— A fart gag in this sketch? Oof. As this sketch goes along, I’m starting to get more and more of a James Anderson vibe from it.
— Didn’t care for the ending at all.
— I’m torn on this overall sketch. One one hand, I loved Drew’s performance, she did a great job with the material, some of the material itself was really funny, and the structure to this sketch was interesting and unique. On the other hand, some portions of this sketch kinda rubbed me the wrong way and reeked of bad James Anderson trademarks, and I hated the ending.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Smile”


WEEKEND UPDATE
menacing nanny Barbara Birmingham (KET) is against spanking ban

— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— The debut of a very short-lived and forgotten Kenan Thompson recurring Update character.
— At least Kenan’s playing this particular black female role differently from the interchangeable way he portrays most black female roles.
— I love Kenan angrily lunging over the desk at Seth.
— Seth’s mean-spirited joke about his grandmother dying was odd but very solid.
— I like Amy’s hints at her small chest size during the breast-enlarging shampoos/soaps/lotions bit with her and Seth. However, she almost ruined it in typical Amy-Poehler-on-Weekend-Update fashion by making an annoyingly corny, hammy, cutesy ad-lib at the end of the bit.
STARS: ***½


VERSACE SUPER BOWL PARTY
Elton John (HOS) attends Donatella Versace’s (MAR) Super Bowl Party

— Jesus Christ, they’re still trotting out these way-past-their-prime Versace sketches in 2007? By this point, I had forgotten these sketches were even a thing. After all, the last Versace sketch prior to this was two seasons ago when Johnny Knovxille hosted. Tonight’s Versace sketch also (mercifully) ends up being the final one.
— Maya’s Versace explains her long absence by saying she was in rehab for two years. Meh, SNL could’ve come up with a funnier reason for her two-year absence.
— Somewhat interesting to see Fred’s Prince outside of those tired and formulaic Prince Show sketches, but I’m not sure putting him in a Versace sketch is the way to add new life to this impression.
— They’re even repeating the tired “Hey, where did Prince go?” gag from the Prince Show sketches, though I guess that adds up, as James Anderson is, I believe, the writer of both the Prince Show and these Versace sketches.
— The atmosphere of this sketch feels kinda dead so far, which is further proof of how way-past-their-prime these Versace sketches are.
— Wow, TWO big sketch appearances tonight from the Weekend Update-only Seth!
— Seth’s high-pitched British accent as David Beckham reminds me of Dana Carvey, for some reason. Anyway, Seth’s adding some much-needed fun life to this otherwise laughless tripe.
— Was that a “Da Bearrrsssss” self-reference SNL randomly made just now, with Versace telling the Beckhams that they’re so boring, if they were a football team, they’d be called “Da Borrrreeeesssss” (ugh, what an awful, hacky joke).
— As if this sketch weren’t insufferable enough, we now get a random Horatio Sanz cameo? And as Elton John? (*groan*)
— Horatio is noticeably a little thinner here compared to how he looked in his days as a cast member. As we now know, this is only the beginning of a drastic weight loss that would eventually result in a legitimately thin and healthy-looking Horatio. Maybe getting fired from SNL was the best thing to happen to his health.
— Ugh at that joke about Elton John being a “musical fruit”, not to mention the subsequent barrage of hacky gay jokes about Elton John that these Versace sketches always bombard us with.
STARS: *½


JO-JO THE VALET
at a country club, valet (AMP) woos out-of-his-league divorcee (host)

— Amy playing a character that, in hindsight, comes off as a very Kate McKinnon type of character. After having gotten so used to seeing Kate play roles like this in recent years, it feels odd now seeing Amy play it in an old sketch that I hadn’t seen since 2007.
— Amy’s portrayal of this character is solid.
— Amy as Jo-Jo: “I don’t have a fancy house…or a house.”
— Funny snobbish voices from Will and the sadly-very-underused Bill Hader, reminding me of the snobbish voices they used in that great tennis sketch from the preceding season’s Tom Hanks episode.
— A very odd sketch, but Amy’s performance is definitely making it work for me.
— SNL would later attempt to bring this Jo-Jo character back in an episode later this season (I think the Peyton Manning episode, but I’m not sure), in a sketch where Jo-Jo is a waiter at a restaurant, but the sketch would end up getting cut after dress rehearsal. I think I recall hearing that the sketch can be seen in the bonus features of SNL’s “Best Of 2006-2007” DVD.
STARS: ***½


FIRESTARTER BRAND SMOKED SAUSAGES
pyrokinetic Charlie McGee (host) hawks Firestarter-brand smoked sausages

— SNL keeps the unique and oddball sketch concepts going tonight, as we now get this wonderfully-absurd and creative piece.
— Great callback to a childhood movie role of Drew’s.
— I absolutely love Jason’s performance as this bizarre singer character, a very Will Ferrell-esque role.
— This was cut after dress rehearsal from Drew’s season 29 episode. I’m VERY curious as to who played Jason’s role in that version of this sketch, given the fact that Jason was only a writer that season and wasn’t in the cast yet. The only season 29 cast member I can picture playing this role is Will Forte (and I’m sure he would’ve killed it in this role just as much as Jason, if not moreso), but he’s still on the show by this point in 2007, and I doubt SNL would take the role away from him. Then again, maybe Jason himself was the one who wrote this sketch back in season 29, and perhaps that’s the reason for SNL now letting him play this singer role.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “LDN”


FORMOSA CAFE
Peter O’Toole (BIH) & progenal sot host elegize drinking’s glory days

— Ah, Bill Hader front-and-center as the lead in a sketch. Sad how that feels rare at this stage of his SNL tenure.
— Great to see Bill’s Peter O’Toole impression back, after that very solid Weekend Update commentary he did earlier this season.
— I love the style of this sketch, as well as the interplay between Bill and Drew. Bill also has lots of great lines here. I especially love his line about flashing his “O’Toole”.
STARS: ****


NELSON’S BABY TOUPEES
— They’re still re-running this commercial from the preceding season?


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode, despite two typical weak recurring things (Target Lady, Versace), and a tepid American Idol cold opening. A big part of what I admire about this episode is how it tried a lot of different, unconventional sketches (especially in the post-Weekend Update half of the show), all of which worked for me to varying degrees.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeremy Piven)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Forest Whitaker

Posted on

January 20, 2007 – Jeremy Piven / AFI (S32 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Obama-fearing Hillary Clinton (AMP) backtracks on Iraq stance

— This ends up being SNL’s final Hardball sketch.
— The Hardball sketch from earlier this season shook up the usual Hardball format, but tonight’s Hardball sketch PARTICULARLY shakes up the format. It’s 100% different tonight, right down to Darrell playing Chris Matthews in a very non-comedic, straightforward way (which makes his typical Chris Matthews delivery come off out of place).
— That goofy laugh from Amy’s Hillary Clinton is apparently an attempt from Amy to make her Hillary impression her own.
— Some funny lines, but I’m not caring too much for the sluggish pacing of this. This feels like it’s going on FOREVER. I seem to be in the minority in not caring much for this cold opening, as I remember a lot of my fellow reviewers back in 2007 gave this a positive review. I guess I’m just not a fan of SNL starting episodes with dull, slow-paced, long-winded, talky political cold openings (though there are some exceptions, I guess). How is that supposed to get me eager for the episode we’re about to see?
— A pretty good laugh from Amy’s Hillary smugly laughing off a criticism while saying “Heavens to Murgatroyd!”
— An okay sudden turn with Amy-as-Hillary’s angry, bleeped-filled rant, but I dunno, even THAT feels a little too forced and out of place to me.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host uses intimate table for two to connect with a female audience member

— Ooh, I like this out-of-the ordinary monologue premise of “host attempts an intimate connection with a random audience member”. However, I’m not sure Jeremy Piven is the right person to pull this off. Maybe it’s because I’ve always found something about him kinda off-putting, even long before he got Me Too-ed.
— Hmm, turns out Jeremy actually isn’t bad at all in this. He’s handling this expertly, and his offbeat dialogue to the audience member (a plant, I’m sure) is consistently making me laugh. Lots of fun stuff here.
STARS: ****


URIGRO
Urigro ensures that (JAS)’s urination will be forceful & voluminous

— A juvenile premise, but Jason is absolutely perfect for this, and this is being executed really well.
— I love Jason’s ending line, “This one’s a two-flusher.”
STARS: ****


NFL ON CBS
ill boy Danny Hoover’s (ANS) catchphrase irks NFL broadcasters in booth

— An okay execution of a fairly simplistic premise. This is the kind of thing that Andy is typically good at making work.
— Jeremy’s mean-spirited, angry rant complaining about Andy’s “terminal illness” being ADD is pretty funny.
— Good reveal of Andy’s ADD actually standing for Automatic Death Disease.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio And Stuff” by RBS- cartoon chipmunks will rule in 2007

— Hmm, a bit of a change, with “Fun with Real Audio and Stuff”.
— Not too crazy about this chipmunk premise, but there are some laughs from the initial scene of Chipmunk President Bush.
— Okay, the chipmunk version of The Sopranos is actually really funny.
— Meh, not only is the farting underwater bit not working for me, but it’s going on WAAAYYY too long.
— This is the second consecutive episode where SNL has used that same stock footage of a squirrel water-skiing.
STARS: **


THE FIRST PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD TO DANCE
caveman (JAS) discovers dancing

— I remember when this originally aired, some online SNL fans, including myself, had a hard time telling which performer that was playing the dancing caveman in this sketch. I was only able to eventually figure out the performer was Jason because I noticed the performer resembled Dane Cook under those facial caveman prosthetics, and Jason typically already has a somewhat strong facial resemblance to Dane Cook (which some online SNL fans had pointed out when Dane hosted earlier this same season).
— Such a fun, random, and creative concept, and Jason is a blast in his discovery of dancing.
— Great escalation to the gag, with Jason now randomly pulling out glow sticks.
— The fact that there’s no dialogue at all in this sketch (not counting Don Pardo’s voice-over intro and outtro) is adding to its unique feel.
STARS: ****½


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s (WLF) escape plan requires JoJo (host) to handle a dog turd

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Incredible theme song, sung by Will himself.
— Pretty funny line from Maya about how she can’t pick up the dog turd because she’s keeping count of how many seconds they have left before the bomb explodes.
— Amusing in hindsight to see how simple this first MacGruber short comes off compared to the concepts of the later MacGruber shorts. Still a very solid debut in its own right, though.
STARS: ****


TWO A-HOLES AT AN ADOPTION AGENCY
at an adoption agency, (host) deems A-Holes unworthy of becoming parents

— Another solid setting for these solid characters.
— Hilarious bit with the A-Holes bombarding Jeremy with non-stop questions during his phone conversation. I especially love Jason randomly asking “What’s your vertical? Can you get rim?”
— A very good laugh from the reveal that the A-Holes want their baby to look like Baby Gonzo.
— What the holy fuck happened at the end of this sketch? Did something go wrong? Why was there such a long, awkward pause, with none of the characters doing anything while just standing around and looking at each other, before the screen cut to the “Two A-Holes at an Adoption Agency” title screen? Did someone forget a line? Was the ending of this sketch re-written at the last minute, but Jeremy refused to read the cue cards, and thus, wasn’t aware of the last-minute change? Was the sketch scripted to end awkwardly like this? I WANT ANSWERS, DAMMIT! 😉
STARS: **** (despite that baffling ending)


MACGRUBER
JoJo refuses to contribute pubic hair to unlikely escape plan

— Will, after Jeremy refuses to cooperate when asked to find pubic hair: “Look, I would use my own, but I’m a shaver!”
— Somebody getting cut-off mid-sentence by a hard cut to an explosion never fails to crack me up each time it happens in these MacGruber shorts.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Like Winter”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Rich Little (DAH) will use impressions to embarrass George W. Bush

incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Michael Vick’s bonehead pot move

— Seth has been doing quite a number of controversial Islamic jokes lately.
— Darrell once again playing his earlier-era counterpart, Rich Little.
— Pretty fun to see Darrell doing vocal impressions of celebrities who we’ve never seen him actually play on SNL before (Ronald Reagan, Pee Wee Herman, etc.), and his topical jokes are amusing me.
— Meh, I could do without the turn in Darrell-as-Rich-Little’s Johnny Carson bit, with Amy poorly doing an Ed McMahon voice and laugh. It also reminds me of Michael McKean, as Robert Shapiro, doing a bad McMahon in that season 20 sketch with Dana Carvey as Johnny Carson cross-examining at the O.J. Simpson trial.
— Seth bitterly exclaiming “MOM!!” at the end of his joke about video games satisfying deep psychological needs and improving the players’ well-being feels like a precursor to a running joke that future Update anchor Colin Jost would occasionally do, only his punchline has him saying “Dad” instead of “Mom”. I prefer Jost’s version. Seth exaggerated his facial expression way too much during his “MOM!!” punchline tonight, making it come off corny and try-too-hard. Jost, on the other hand, always sells his “Dad” punchlines perfectly with a great deadpan, almost-sullen facial expression.
— The debut of Seth and Amy’s “Really” segment.
— Funny how the controversial marijuana-related Michael Vick incident that tonight’s “Really” is focusing on comes off very tame in hindsight compared to the dog-fighting controversy Vick would get into and become forever infamous for just later this same year (2007).
— Seth and Amy are on fire during this “Really” segment, and they’re making plenty of very funny and biting points. IIRC, some of the later editions of “Really” would be pretty tepid, tame, and flavorless, but tonight’s debut is killer.
— Meh, I’m kinda lukewarm on how Seth ended tonight’s otherwise-flawless “Really” edition with a corny “I know you’re a running quarterback, but throw your weed away!” That corny pun itself deserves a “Really?!?” reaction. (I’ve been using the word “corny” to describe Seth an awful lot in this review, which I feel bad about, because I typically like him as an anchorperson in these early years of his Update tenure. Amy is usually the far-worse offender in this Update era when it comes to cringeworthy corniness.)
— Ha, the running gag of SNL writer John Lutz being shown in a comical Update photo continues! (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this Update)
STARS: ***½


BLIZZARD MAN
Common [real] doesn’t want to share a stage with dweeby Blizzard Man

— A huge audio gaffe right out of the gate, as all of the dialogue is almost completely inaudible in the first 15 seconds of this sketch.
— Oh, apparently, Kenan Thompson is a cast member this season. He’s been appearing so little lately that I’ve honestly been starting to forget he’s in the cast. And why does it feel like most of his only appearances lately have been as a DJ?
— No audience reaction to Common? Maybe he wasn’t all that big yet in 2007. I recall an online SNL fan back at this time in ’07 having a theory that the reason for the audience’s non-reaction to Common’s cameo is because he facially resembles the then-recently-fired-from-SNL Finesse Mitchell so much that the audience may have mistakenly though he was Finesse. Meh, I personally think that theory’s a bit of a stretch, even if I can see a facial resemblance between Common and Finesse. Plus, let’s be honest: audiences probably already forgot what Finesse looks like even when he was still on the show.
— I love the extremely early 90s-looking 8-ball jacket Andy’s Blizzard Man enters in.
— I like the change of scenery for this Blizzard Man sketch, taking this character out of the recording studio. Unfortunately, SNL would end up going back to the recording studio setting for all of this character’s subsequent appearances.
— Hmm, even with the change of scenery, this sketch is still basically using the same script from the first installment of this sketch. It’s still funny, but I prefer the first one far more. If you’re going to make this sketch recurring, you need to change the script up more. (Unfortunately, as we now know, SNL would end up NEVER doing that, and they would instead just keep re-writing the same script in every single one of Blizzard Man’s subsequent appearances, right down to lazily having Kenan play the exact same record producer character every single time who gets blindsided by how bad Blizzard Man’s raps are, as if Kenan’s character hadn’t ALREADY been blindsided by how bad Blizzard Man’s raps were in previous installments.)
— There’s Kenan delivering what today is recognized as a Kenan Thompson trademark: him yelling a very stern “NO!” in reaction to something.
— Common’s delivery is coming off slow-paced and stiff in this sketch.
— I love Blizzard Man’s random Humpty Dance reference.
— The ending came off as a knock-off of the weak ending from that season 29 sketch with Colin Firth doing a flamboyant, lispy, gay-sounding accent when trying to sound American in a movie he’s doing.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
forget the escape plan, JoJo won’t touch a bucket of bum sperm

— Another case of “Early Installment Weirdness” regarding tonight’s inaugural MacGruber shorts: we don’t get new lyrics in the theme song of each MacGruber installment tonight like we do in subsequent SNL episodes that contain a MacGruber runner. Tonight, each MacGruber installment just has an increasingly shortened version of the same initial MacGruber theme song.
— It’s strangely hilarious how each MacGruber short has MacGruber and his friends still alive and completely unaffected by the explosion they endured at the end of their previous appearance, and also has them locked in YET ANOTHER control room that looks the exact same as the last control room they were locked in. I love that.
— Wow, this has got to be the shortest MacGruber short ever. I like how simple this was, though. It’s surprising brevity was part of what made it so funny.
— Surprisingly, these pre-taped MacGruber shorts are Maya’s ONLY appearances all night. She’s nowhere to be seen in any of this episode’s live segments.
STARS: ****


CRYSTAL FALLS TOWN COUNCIL
pixie (AMP) tries to stop shopping mall slated for Unicorn Forest site

— Jesus Christ, Bill is just NOW making his first appearance of the night? And in just a straight man role? (*sigh*) Man, SNL’s poor utilization of Bill in his early seasons hurts to watch. I can’t wait until we reach the point of Bill’s tenure where SNL uses him much more often and embraces him as an essential utility player.
— I love Jason’s character. Even the little character detail of him having a mustache is a solid touch.
— I really like how this oddball sketch feels like a spiritual successor to the delightfully-oddball Magic Fish Town Meeting sketch from the season 18 Luke Perry episode. Tonight’s sketch isn’t quite as good, but it’s still very solid.
— A fun use of most of this cast as an ensemble, with each performer getting their turn in the spotlight, one-by-one.
— I wanted to like that random ending with a Will Forte-voiced talking unicorn more than I did.
STARS: ****


NURSE NANCY
Scott Garbaciak (ANS) plays all roles in fatsuit flick

— A pretty funny and accurate spoof of comedy movies with an actor playing multiple characters, including a fatsuit character.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Miss Murder”

— Apparently, the audio issues from the beginning of the Blizzard Man sketch have returned, as AFI’s lead singer cannot be heard AT ALL at the beginning of this performance.
— Okay, the lead singer’s microphone has now finally gotten turned on.
— I think I spoke too soon, because even after the lead singer’s mic got turned on, the volume of it keeps going up and down all throughout this performance, making at least 50% of his singing barely audible. Yikes.
— I recall an online SNL fan back at this time in 2007, who was clearly not a fan of AFI’s music, saying SNL may have been doing us a favor with these audio gaffes during this musical performance.


LANSFORD BROTHERS & ASSOCIATES: HANGMEN-AT-LAW
hangmen-at-law Lansford Brothers (WLF) & (BIH) won’t botch an execution

— A fairly funny concept, and I absolutely LOVE this Forte/Hader pairing, an SNL duo that we deserved to see paired together much more often than we end up seeing in this SNL era. The only subsequent Forte/Hader pairings after tonight’s episode that I can think of off the top of my head are the “Fartface” sketches (the first of which I recall being a notorious and very poorly-received sketch, but is a huge guilty pleasure of mine, so much so, that I can quote pretty much that entire sketch by heart), and a suicide prevention sketch where Paul Rudd is a man about to jump off the ledge of a building. All sketches feature very fun chemistry between Will and Bill.
— Several funny lines from Bill throughout this.
— Yet another fun and hilarious performance from Jason tonight, this time as “Sammy Han-gar”. Jason has been killing it in tonight’s episode. If I chose an MVP for each episode in my reviews (please don’t ask me to start doing that), Jason would easily get my pick for this episode.
— For a host, Jeremy Piven seems to be absent from an unusual amount of segments tonight, though he was in all three of the MacGruber shorts. It also feels like in all the live sketches he’s appeared in, he’s played nothing but forgettable straight man roles, which is particularly strange to me after he proved his comedy chops in a monologue that a lot of hosts wouldn’t have been able to pull off.
STARS: ***


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of camerman Michael DiBari marks his passing


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. A lot of four-star ratings from me throughout this review, though that’s partly because I rated each of the three MacGruber shorts separately, which is really going to make this review’s rating average make this episode seem better than it is. (I guess we should get used to that for episodes I review that have multiple MacGruber shorts.) Overall, not much to complain about in this episode, and a lot of really good stuff.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jake Gyllenhaal)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Drew Barrymore becomes a five-timer