Tag: Season 39

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May 17, 2014 – Andy Samberg / St. Vincent (S39 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM SOLANGE & JAY-Z
Solange (SAZ) & Jay-Z (JAP) spin their elevator fight

— The friendly Jay-Z/Solange voice-overs added to the video of their elevator fight is funny, especially the “foot five” part.
— Good part with the security cam footage of Bobby doing embarrassing things.
— Maya Rudolph, our first of an endless number of former cast member cameos tonight.
— Third consecutive episode with Sasheer saying LFNY. Granted, all the times she said it in these three episodes, she said it unison with one or more people (group LFNYs in general have become a trend in the last quarter of this season). Sadly, this three-episode run of LFNYs probably ends up being the high point of Sasheer’s notoriously-underutilized four-season SNL tenure.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— (*sigh*) The final episode with the legendary Don Pardo as SNL’s announcer, before he passes away that summer. Host Andy Samberg has the distinction of being the final name ever announced by Don in new audio.


MONOLOGUE
BIH tops ANS’s effort to surpass his impression tally; SEM & MAS cameos

— I wonder if this is the only time in SNL history where a celebrity (Justin Timberlake in this case) made their cameo appearance in the form of a photo. I feel like there was a previous time that may have happened that I’m forgetting.
— I love Andy’s little “I put on a suit to tell that joke” aside after his “And twiiiiiins!” line.
— Andy sure likes doing that “I’ve appeared in over 100 Digital Shorts and [insert small single-digit number here] live sketches” joke ever since he left the cast.
— Andy doesn’t say which website he learned that he did 23 fewer impressions than Bill Hader from, but I wonder if SNL Archives was the site. Then again, SNL themselves probably keep a record of stats like that.
— Our second former cast member cameo tonight, this time Seth Meyers, making his first cameo after leaving the cast earlier this season.
— Very fun concept of Andy doing a rapid-fire succession of impressions. This concept is perfect for Andy, and he’s doing lots of hilarious and clever impressions here.
— Our THIRD former cast member cameo tonight, and yeah, I’m gonna stop keeping count, because doing so is going to get exhausting, given what later portions of this episode has in store for me.
— I love the Andy Samberg impression that Bill Hader does.
— Whoa, of all the former cast member cameos in this episode, I honestly had no prior memory of this random Martin Short appearance.
STARS: ****


CAMP WICAWABE
preteens Cambria (AIB) & Piper (KAM) recap disobedience at Camp Wicawabe

— Kinda interesting how Kyle is playing a 6-year-old in this set-in-1990 sketch, given the fact that, in real life, Kyle actually was 6 in 1990 (as was I).
— Speaking of this sketch being set in 1990, uh…is there any particular reason why it’s set in that year? So far, there is absolutely NOTHING about this sketch that’s seems specific to 1990 nor any other year in the past. It makes no sense why this sketch couldn’t have been set in present day.
— Funny brief appearance from Cecily.
— While there are a few funny lines from the characters, and there’s a somewhat endearing quality to some of the more realistic aspects of Kate and Aidy’s child characters (e.g. them laughing at but not actually “getting” the more adult things that Andy’s character talks about), I hate the actual format of this sketch, and find it to be lazy. Thank goodness this sketch never becomes recurring.
STARS: **


WHEN WILL THE BASS DROP?
DJ Davvincii (ANS) & Lil Jon [real] kill fans

— Our obligatory Lonely Island Digital Short of the night.
— Some funny cutaways to cast members as wild audience members. I especially like some of the Bobby cutaways.
— Lots of pretty funny teases and build-up to Andy dropping the bass, such as the cutaways to the unrelated things he’s doing at his DJ table, like frying eggs.
— The sequence of audience members graphically dying when the bass finally drops is okay, but feels like a very inferior variation of the beautifully-dark-and-violent mass death sequence in the “Everyone’s A Critic” Digital Short from Paul Rudd’s season 34 episode. We even get a reprisal of the Indiana Jones/“Keep your eyes shut!” bit from that Rudd short.
— Not only is this pre-taped short the ONLY appearance that Noel, John, Brooks, and Mike make in tonight’s entire episode, but 1) their roles in this short are all bit parts with no lines (except for one quick line that Noel gets), 2) this ends up being the FINAL appearance that all four of those performers make as cast members, as all of them get fired after this season, and 3) half of them are playing characters who die in this short. After Noel, John, Brooks, and Mike were all extremely underused for most of this season, this is the ultimate final insult to them. For shame, SNL. You go through all the trouble of hiring so many new cast members at the beginning of this season and give them special focus in the season premiere, making a huge deal about them, only to immediately and unjustifiably discard most of them for the remainder of the season, then give them the ultimate middle finger in the season finale before firing them that summer. Just….(*sigh*) there aren’t enough words from me that can express the disgracefulness of the way this season handled what they themselves said was supposed to be a “rebuilding year” in terms of working in the new group in the cast. Rebuilding year, my ass.
— After the announcement of Noel, John, Brooks, and Mike’s firing that summer, I remember some online SNL fans jokingly saying that this Digital Short must’ve been SNL’s way of killing off all four of those fired featured players (though, again, only about half of them actually play characters who die in this short), almost like some kind of variation of the famous “cast party set ablaze” ending of the infamous season 11, or the “cast members get gruesomely killed one-by-one in a polar bear cage” ending of the infamous season 20. (The even sadder thing is, I recall reading in the dress rehearsal report for this season 39 finale that was posted online back at this time in 2014 by FeaturingEmilyPrager [a frequent commenter on this blog] that the Legolas/Taco Bell sketch that’ll be airing later in this episode had a running gag cut out after dress rehearsal in which Andy’s Legolas, in a fury, occasionally throws sharp weapons at random Taco Bell patrons, killing them. All, or maybe just some, of those patrons were played by featured players who would end up getting fired after this episode, which means that, between the “When Will The Bass Drop?” Digital Short and that Taco Bell sketch, the about-to-be-fired-from-SNL featured players were originally going to get killed off TWICE in this episode! My goodness. However, my memory of FeaturingEmilyPrager’s details about that aspect of the Taco Bell sketch is very fuzzy, so I may have some facts wrong. We’ll see when he re-posts his dress rehearsal report in the comments section of this review.) I remember fellow SNL blogger/reviewer Bronwyn Douwsma once accurately titled this episode “the ‘Fuck You, Newbies’ episode”, as a very spot-on way to sum up this episode’s horrible treatment of the featured players, treatment that’ll get even more horrible later in this episode when you see the cavalcade of cameos that takes away even more airtime from the featured players.
STARS: ***½


CONFIDENT HUNCHBACK
Quasimodo (ANS) swaggers through a 1482 Paris saloon

— This appears to be a variation of the Rude Buddha sketch that Andy did in the season 37 Lindsay Lohan episode, right down to having a very similar opening title sequence.

— Speaking of the opening title sequence, the theme song is catchy, though I can’t help but notice how similar the melody of it sounds to the theme song from the Girlfriends Talk Show sketches.
— Andy is fun in this role, which he was born to play.
— The ending was kinda weak.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Digital Witness”


WEEKEND UPDATE
darkness creeps into Bruce Chandling’s unfunny summer comedy routine

Nicolas Cage (ANS) thinks he’d be a better Ant-Man than Paul Rudd [real]

— This would end up being the final Update of Cecily’s short-lived tenure as Update anchor.
— A nice bookend to this season, having Kyle’s Bruce Chandling do an Update commentary for the first time since his debut in this season’s premiere.
— Like last time, Kyle is great at pulling off these hacky jokes as Bruce Chandling. I also like the new touch he’s added to the character this time: that eye-roll he does after each punchline.
— Also like last time, the sudden turn with Bruce Chandling getting depressed and reflecting on himself in a gloomy manner is very solid. In fact, it’s even better here than when they did it earlier this season. During this “Chandling gets depressed” part tonight, I love this particularly dark line from him: “Grim Reaper’s knockin’ at the door……..and I kinda wanna answer it.”
— Ugh at all of Cecily’s usual corny punchlines and “character voice” punchlines tonight. I will absolutely not miss seeing her as an Update anchor after tonight’s episode.
— Holy hell, that huge fivehead on Andy’s Nicolas Cage tonight…
— Second consecutive Update with a guest referring to Colin as “Seth”.
— We’re getting the usual funny lines from Andy’s Nicolas Cage, but I dunno, I’m having a hard time getting excited about this segment. I guess I’m STILL of the opinion that they should’ve officially retired this “Get In The Cage” segment after the memorable and solid one where the real Nicolas Cage was paired up with Andy’s Cage. You just can’t continue the segment after something special and definitive like that. There are other ways they could’ve used Andy’s Cage impression tonight without bringing “Get In The Cage” back.
— Overall, a characteristically meh way for the Cecily Strong/Colin Jost era of Update to end. Bring on the next era!
STARS: **


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
the Vogelchecks are initially put off by Michael Sam’s draft-day kiss

— (*Stooge stares at his laptop screen in a speechless manner for an entire minute upon seeing the resurrection of this wretched recurring sketch, and, after suffering through seeing an overlong applause break for each individual cameo in this, flips his laptop upside down with one angry swipe of his hands and then walks out of the room while saying, “That’s it, fuck this, I’m leavin’!”, Will Ferrell-style*)
— With each passing overlong applause break that each cameo in this sketch is met with, I can just picture a little bit of John Milhiser dying inside.
— Ugh, during his typically-annoying “I guess that’s what makes us…….Vogelchecks” speech, Fred Armisen openly starts breaking HARD for no apparent reason, and giggles his way through the rest of his speech. Bill seemed to be the cause of this breaking, judging from how Fred initially breaking is followed by Bill being heard mumbling ad-libbed statements throughout the rest of Fred’s speech, in an apparent attempt to keep Fred laughing. As if I needed a reminder of how annoyingly Fallon & Sanz-esque Fred and Bill became with their frequent unprofessional, inside-joke-y breaking together in their final season as cast members.
— Maya particularly hamming it up here.
— (*Stooge watches the ridiculous sequence with each Vogelcheck member passing air to each other via their mouths, and responds to that by ripping his own eyeballs out*)
STARS: *


WAKING UP WITH KIMYE
wedding planner (ANS) describes Kanye West (JAP) & Kim Kardashian’s (NAP) upcoming nuptials

— This ends up being Nasim’s final big showcase before leaving the cast that summer. I’d rather her final showcase be something more exciting than seeing this sketch once again. I liked this Kimye sketch in its first installment, but it’s meh as a recurring sketch.
— Jay’s Kanye: “What do they always say to you in Italy?” Nasim’s Kim: “Leave!”
— I have nothing to say about the rest of this sketch. It pretty much just came and went for me.
STARS: **


HUGS
ANS, Jorma Taccone & Pharrell Williams [real] sing about being cuddling Lotharios

— A second Digital Short tonight, this time a traditional Lonely Island music video, complete with Jorma and Akiva.
— Hmm, I had no prior memory of this short having a Maya cameo as Oprah and a Pharrell Williams cameo as himself. In fact, I remember almost NOTHING about this short from my previous viewing when it originally aired.
— I’m currently about halfway through this short, and I can now see why I had almost no prior memory of it. This short feels way too generic and by-the-numbers for a Lonely Island music video. Sure, this is well-produced and performed, but what does that matter when the actual humor and entertainment level is blah?
— I did get a good laugh just now from Pharrell’s great delivery of the lyric, “I just wanna hug your mama in a Subaru hatchback.”
— Overall, meh.
STARS: **


LEGOLAS FROM ‘THE HOBBIT’ TRIES TO ORDER AT TACO BELL
what the title above says

— An okay concept, feeling like it’s in the tradition of similarly-titled celebrity-tries-to-do-a-simple-task sketches from Andy’s era as a cast member, such as the Andre The Giant Chooses An Ice Cream Flavor sketch.
— A predictable but amusing ending line from a shaking-his-head Jay: “White people…..”.
— A short, simple, and decent sketch, if unmemorable.
STARS: ***


BLIZZARD MAN
during a recording session, 2 Chainz [real] vouches for Blizzard Man

— With the return of Blizzard Man, we of course also get the unnecessary return of Kenan playing the same technician character he plays in every installment of these Blizzard Man sketches who acts like he’s never seen Blizzard Man before and didn’t expect his rapping to be so bad. (*groan*)
— I had remembered tonight’s “Fuck You, Newbies” episode containing so many former cast member cameos, but had forgotten that it also throws almost as many non-SNL-alum cameos at us.
— For some reason, something about 2 Chainz’s laid-back, friendly way of telling Blizzard Man, “Get in the booth, fool”, made me laugh.
— As usual, they’re doing absolutely NOTHING new with the formula of this recurring sketch. The same-old same-old stuff. Sure, we had gotten a somewhat long hiatus from this formulaic recurring sketch, but even with that, there’s still way too much of a stale, unexciting, been-there-done-that feel to tonight’s return of this recurring sketch. It’s too old hat by this point.
— There’s SNL relying on that ol’, lazy “spinning newspaper headline” ending trope once again, which I know is the type of endings these Blizzard Man sketches always used to have back in the day, but even with that in mind, this particular headline ending still came off lazy and half-assed.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Birth in Reverse”


BVLGARI
separated twins (ANS) & (KRW) & vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Bulgari

— Ah, here’s Andy in a walk-on with…….Kristen Wiig?!? OH, COME THE FUCK ON, SNL! Wasn’t that unwatchable Vogelchecks sketch enough Wiig for one night? Not to mention all the other cameos from former cast members hogging up roles that need to be going to the in-danger-of-getting-fired featured players who have unfairly gotten no final chance tonight to try saving their SNL tenures, and are instead stuck watching this entire episode from their dressing rooms.
— Also, such a lame decision to cast Kristen in a male role for no good reason.
— Vanessa: “With a watch, you’ll never have to stop a stranger on the street to ask him, ‘Are you my dad?’”
— Cecily: “You’ll feel like you’re an Egyptian queen, like Cleomydia.”
— (*groan*) Kristen apparently hasn’t gotten rid of her giggles from the Vogelchecks sketch, as she’s openly laughing her way through some of her lines in this sketch, and looks strangely uncommitted to this character.
— The Andy/Kristen portions are ruining this sketch for me, and it’s already been sad enough that Vanessa and Cecily haven’t been having anywhere near as many killer lines as they usually have in this recurring sketch.
— Overall, easily the weakest installment of this sketch, and an underwhelming way to close out this season.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Aaaaaaand the season ends in a whimper. A truly poor and disappointing finish to the season. This episode started out decently if unnoteworthy (aside from the strong monologue), but felt like it got gradually worse as it went on, especially as so many gratuitous cameo appearances increasingly and frustratingly dominated this episode, to the detriment of the actual cast (a precursor of more recent years), who already had to fight for airtime all season long even without the cameos, due to how extremely overstuffed this season’s cast is. Even more frustrating was how the SNL alums making cameos tonight (minus Martin Short) are 1) all people who had been cast members within the last few years prior to this (and in Seth Meyers’ case, just earlier this same season), as if enough time had passed between then and 2014 for SNL to justifiably do a “late 00s/early 10s reunion” episode filled with cameos from an era that LITERALLY JUST FUCKING HAPPENED, and 2) a number of the alums from that era ALREADY make cameos way too frequently as it is, to the degree that you forget they even left the cast (Fred and Kristen, I’m lookin’ in your direction…..oh, and you, too, Amy Poehler, even though you weren’t in this particular episode), thus making their presence in this “reunion / nostalgia-fest” episode even less special-feeling. As a host, Andy Samberg, who certainly wasn’t the problem I had with this episode, deserved a much better episode than what he was given.
— Another disappointing thing about this episode is that I remember it was an underwhelming way to end my original 2000-2014 stint as a reviewer of newly-aired episodes. Lousy, refusing-to-let-go-of-the-recent-past episodes like this made me happy back at this time in 2014 that I was retiring from reviewing. Recently, I’ve had some people warn me that, based on the quality of SNL’s current 46th season, the final episode I review in my current SNL project will probably be a disappointing and unexciting note for me to end on. But after having already gone through the disappointment of this frustrating Andy Samberg episode being the final episode of my original reviewing stint, I feel like there’s nowhere to go but up in terms of what SNL has in store for me in the final episode I review in my current project.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
When Will The Bass Drop?
Confident Hunchback
A Message From Solange & Jay-Z
Legolas From ‘The Hobbit’ Tries To Order At Taco Bell
Weekend Update
Waking Up With Kimye
Blizzard Man
Hugs
Camp Wicawabe
Bvlgari
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charlize Theron)
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 (2012-13)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 40 begins, with host Chris Pratt, two new additions to the cast, a revamped Weekend Update with a new co-anchor joining Colin Jost, and a new replacement for Don Pardo as SNL’s announcer. After spending the past 14 seasons of this SNL project reviewing episodes that I already covered in my original stint as a reviewer, I’m excited that the remainder of the seasons I’ll be covering in my current SNL project will be ones that I’ve never reviewed before and, in the case of the episodes from December 2018 to whenever I complete this project, episodes that I’ve never even seen before. (For those who don’t know, I’ve been on an ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes after the Steve Carell episode from season 44.) And as for the episodes between May 2014 and December 2018, I’m eager to re-watch them because I don’t remember a lot of them all that well anymore. The reason for that is because, back when those seasons originally aired, since I no longer had to worry about analyzing new SNL episodes or feverishly taking notes during the show now that I was retired from reviewing, I went into season 40 and the next two or so seasons afterwards with such a lax and “casual viewer” attitude that it caused the more average or forgettable portions of the show to completely pass by me, to the degree that, today, I no longer have much or ANY memory of them, whereas I still have a vivid memory of practically everything from the 2000-2014 years that I covered in my original reviewing stint.

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May 10, 2014 – Charlize Theron / The Black Keys (S39 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MOTHER’S DAY MESSAGE FROM MICHELLE OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON
Michelle Obama (SAZ) & Hillary Clinton (VAB) spar before Mother’s Day

— (*sigh*) One of the last times we’ll ever hear Don Pardo’s voice introducing a sketch.
— Speaking of lasts, this ends up being the last time Vanessa plays Hillary Clinton.
— Some funny tension between Sasheer’s Michelle Obama and Vanessa’s Hillary.
— This is the most front-and-center we’ve ever seen Vanessa’s Hillary (all of her previous appearances were rather brief), giving me a better chance to assess her impression. I see what she’s going for in the voice she’s using, but something just feels wrong with how the voice is coming out, especially when her voice starts getting gradually loud and shouty halfway though this cold opening. I can understand why SNL would re-cast this role the following season.
— Great slam from Vanessa’s Hillary to Sasheer’s Michelle regarding childhood obesity being the “toughest” issue Michelle has tackled as First Lady.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
TAK, CES, KAM, SAZ, BEB, KET sing, which is the one thing host can’t do

— Ugh, there’s the use of that tired “Carlin line” (a.k.a. when a host sarcastically says a variation of “I did such a great job hosting [insert large number here] years ago that they couldn’t wait to have me back”, which originated with George Carlin in his season 10 hosting stint).
— I love that they show a clip of the Gemini’s Twin sketch from Charlize Theron’s first episode, because 1) I always like whenever a new SNL episode shows a clip from an older episode, and 2) Charlize’s first episode is a very significant one for me, as it’s the very first SNL episode I ever reviewed, during my original 2000-2014 stint as a reviewer of newly-aired episodes. Currently reviewing this season 39 Charlize Theron-hosted episode is very significant for me, too, because it’s the second-to-last episode I ever reviewed during my aforementioned original stint as a reviewer. (Yes, Charlize Theron indeed hosted both the first AND penultimate episode of my original reviewing stint. A crazy coincidence. Imagine if a similar coincidence ends up happening when I complete my current SNL project. The only realistic scenario I can see for that is if Paul Simon, who hosted and musical guested SNL’s second-ever episode, which, obviously, is the second-ever episode I reviewed in my current SNL project, hosts and/or musical guests one of the last episodes I review in this project. In fact, that would actually be two full-circle endings for me, because, believe it or not, Paul Simon also happened to be the musical guest in Charlize’s first episode, which is, again, the first episode I ever covered in my original stint as a reviewer. So many eerie coincidences.) Reviewing this season 39 Charlize Theron episode right now is honestly giving me an emotional and nostalgic feel, remembering the special, huge feeling I had back at this time in 2014 when I was about to retire from reviewing after 14 long years. This also makes me realize just how far I’ve come along in this current SNL project of mine.
— An okay premise for a musical monologue, but I don’t care for the style of the monologue song itself, and there’s not much funny stuff happening during it.
— Okay, the quick bit with Beck right now is pretty solid.
STARS: **


COME DO A GAME SHOW WITH YOUR MOM, IT’LL BE FUN, YES IT WILL!
(KAM) hosts a Mother’s Day game show with her kids (BRW), (KYM), (host)

— When Kate’s kids are all saying their opening greetings in unison, I laughed at how Kyle’s line during that is a quickly-delivered, whiny, monotone “I don’t wanna be heeerrre.”
— Just a mildly funny sketch so far, but it’s relatable and Kate is doing a very solid job in the lead role.
— A funny side role for Aidy.
— A good comically-brief appearance from Bobby as the father.
STARS: ***


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
passionate drama teacher (host) coaches Morgan

— Blah, there goes the obligatory, very tired “Aidy and the guest each say a different thing in unison when revealing a topic on the show “ trope.
— I’m really enjoying Charlize’s drama teacher performance here. I’m finding it amusing AND very believable.
— A very weak “My boyfriend’s crazy” story from Cecily tonight.
— Aidy doesn’t have as many funny moments as she usually does in this recurring sketch, though I do like her character’s wild, desperate delivery when trying to say “Well, that’s our sexy show” in a sexy manner during the conclusion of this sketch.
STARS: **


DRAGON BABIES
retired police officer (MOB) voices animated protagonist of Dragon Babies

— The most in-character we’ve ever seen Mike. He’s doing such a great job here, and his cop voice is fantastic.
— Very fun chemistry between Mike and Cecily.
— Great understated, controlled frustration in Taran’s director character during his interview portions of this short.
— I love the comically-uncomfortable moment with Mike somberly disclosing a story about once shooting an unarmed guy. Yet another Mike O’Brien short that adds in a comedic sense of melancholy.
— Overall, Mike does it once again with yet another very strong short. His shorts are so damn good that there’s no wonder why SNL let him continue doing them and starring in them the next few seasons when he’s not even in the cast anymore.
STARS: ****½


DATING SEMINAR
pelvic thrusts & sound effects accompany dating advice of Heshy & (host)

— The second and final appearance of this character of Nasim’s.
— For some reason, they changed Heshy’s surname. In this character’s previous sketch, her surname was Al-Fahi, and now it’s Farahat.
— Like last time, Nasim’s timing is excellent when making gestures to the various sound effects right on cue.
— Pretty fun addition of Charlize, playing against type as a frumpy character. I remember that, when this originally aired, I interestingly got a Mo-Collins-from-MADtv vibe from Charlize’s characterization here. I still kinda see it a little during my current viewing of this.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fever”


WEEKEND UPDATE
retiring SNL lampoonee Barbara Walters [real] gives tips for success

this year’s crop of graduates leads Drunk Uncle to fear for the future

— On a related note to me saying earlier in this review that I always like whenever a new SNL episode shows a clip from an older episode, I love the montage of SNL’s Barbara Walters impersonators over the years. Sadly, Michaela Watkins gets snubbed from this montage, for obvious reasons.
— A laugh from Barbara Walters demonstrating her “real voice”.
— I can’t find anything at all to say about the rest of Barbara Walters’ commentary. She’s at least coming off likable here. At certain parts, her timing is slow, awkward, and frail, but I can cut her some slack for that, given her age.
— A rare interaction piece between Cecily and Colin.
— The extremely random “Breaking Nudes” segment was a very funny little piece of absurdity.
— Drunk Uncle, in a random non-sequitur grumbling: “Jew Kids On The Block!”
— Ugh, is it necessary to have Colin carry on Seth Meyers’ tradition of always responding “That’s not anyone” whenever Drunk Uncle says “That’s not me”? It was tired enough when Seth did it.
— I love Drunk Uncle’s “What do you call a fish with no eyes?” joke. No idea if that’s an original joke from SNL or not (that joke is probably an oldie that I had just never heard before), but Drunk Uncle’s delivery of it was very fun.
— Drunk Uncle’s singing of “I Believe I Can Fly” is probably my favorite out of all the “Drunk Uncle butchers a hit song” moments that have occurred over the years.
— Some SNL fans seem very confused as to why Cecily says “No, no noooo!” to Drunk Uncle in a weird, growly voice towards the end of his “I Believe I Can Fly” singing, but I’m pretty sure that Cecily was imitating one part of the real “I Believe I Can Fly” song. I honestly don’t remember that song having a growly “No, no noooo!” part in it, but I’m guessing it’s in there.
STARS: **½


BIKINI BEACH PARTY
dead whale explosion interrupts teen fun of Bikini Beach Party movie

— I have mixed feelings towards the conversation between the girls. There’s some funny lines in that conversation, but some of the other lines in it that are intended to be funny are typical James Anderson/Kent Sublette-style bad randomness.
— A very memorable and priceless visual of the dead whale exploding an insane amount of blood and guts all over Charlize and Taran. I remember how much this visual absolutely FLOORED me when it originally aired.
— Kenan’s at the point of his SNL tenure where he can do almost no wrong for me, but his appearance in this sketch is unfortunately one of the instances where him hammily chewing the scenery actually doesn’t work for me. I really dislike that voice and delivery he’s using here, and it feels completely wrong for this sketch.
— Blah, it’s very unnecessary and harmful to this sketch to repeat the “blood-and-guts explosion” gag right after the first one. The second instance of that gag got nowhere near as many laughs from me nor the audience.
STARS: Very difficult for me to figure out what rating to give this. The first “blood-and-guts explosion” gag ALONE deserves a high rating, but 1) the scenes prior to that were iffy for me, 2) I hate how they repeated the “blood-and-guts explosion” gag to far less comedic effect, and 3) Kenan annoyed the living hell out of me. For now, I’ll rate this ***, but I might change my mind later on.


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— Not only is it fun how a blood-soaked Charlize from the preceding sketch carries over into this musical guest intro, but this is actually the second consecutive year in which something like this occurred in the penultimate episode of a season. Season 38’s penultimate episode had Kristen Wiig (that night’s host) and Aidy both introducing the musical guest while still covered in blood from the Acupuncture sketch that preceded it. At this time in 2014, I wondered if SNL was intentionally trying to make this a new annual tradition for every penultimate episode of a season. That could’ve been fun. But alas, the “tradition” stops here. I can’t remember if the following season’s penultimate episode (Reese Witherspoon / Florence + The Machine) has any sketches that involve blood in any way, but either way, that episode doesn’t contain any instances of a sketch carrying over into the host’s introduction of the musical guest.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bullet in the Brain”


WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara (KAM) & (host) show cats available for adoption

— This soon-to-be recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Charlize again playing against type tonight as an unattractive character.
— A good offbeat performance from Charlize.
— Some funny lines from Kate when disclosing each cat’s strange quirks.
STARS: ***½


TOURISTS
in NYC, foreign visitors ask passers-by for assistance

— I love the exaggerated American accent that Kyle’s foreigner character tries to say American expressions in.
— I’m loving the low-key approach to this, and I like the format with the cutting from one foreigner’s scene to another’s, and how each foreigner’s scene differs from each other’s.
— Funny subversion in Bobby’s scene, regarding directions to Arbalato Street.
— Charlize once again playing against type as a frumpy character, this time going the whole nine yards by donning a fat suit.
— A very funny initial facial reaction from Beck when finding out he’s in New York instead of Chicago.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Much longer goodnights than usual tonight. Probably one of the longest the goodnights have gone on in an episode from recent years.
— Poor John Milihiser is getting far more facetime during these goodnights than he regularly gets in actual episodes. (He was nowhere to be seen in tonight’s episode prior to these goodnights, and, showing how good-natured and likable he apparently is, he doesn’t even look upset by that, and is instead looking like he’s genuinely having a lot of fun interacting with others onstage during these goodnights, as seen in the third above screencap for these goodnights.)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, though it’s yet another season 39 example of pre-taped shorts standing out far more than the actual live segments. Also, reviewing this episode just now felt significant, emotional, and nostalgic for me, for reasons mentioned in my review of the monologue. And this hosting stint of Charlize Theron’s was an improvement over her previous one, which typecast her in an awful lot of “Hot girl gets lusted after by horny men” roles.


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

plus the first instance of this:


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dragon Babies
Tourists
Whiskers R’ We
Come Do A Game Show With Your Mom, It’ll Be Fun, Yes It Will!
Bikini Beach Party
Dating Seminar
A Mother’s Day Message From Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton
Weekend Update
Monologue
Girlfriends Talk Show


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Andrew Garfield)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 39 comes to an end, with host Andy Samberg. It’s the final episode for five-year cast member Nasim Pedrad, the final episode for first-year featured players John Milhiser, Mike O’Brien, Noel Wells, and Brooks Wheelan, the final episode that Cecily Strong co-anchors Weekend Update, the final episode for announcer Don Pardo, and the final episode I reviewed during my original 14-year reviewing stint.

Posted on

May 3, 2014 – Andrew Garfield / Coldplay (S39 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
mistress (SAZ) & Dennis Rodman (JAP) stand up for Donald Sterling (BOM)

— Very funny line from Taran’s Adam Silver gloating that he received more high-fives from black people this week than any other time in his life.
— Interesting voice from Bobby as Donald Sterling, who has some good lines here.
— Jay’s Dennis Rodman impression has improved from the previous time he played him, though I keep hearing a bit of Will Smith in his voice this time.
— All of Kenan’s “Look……….”s and “Come on…….”s during his speech are cracking me up, and is exactly the type of thing Kenan always knows how to make funny. It would’ve been funnier, though, if his scene consisted of him literally only saying “Look……….” and “Come on…….”, and then walking off without having said anything else.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 co-stars Emma Stone [real] & AIB advise host

— I always forget Andrew Garfield is British until I hear him speak in his real voice.
— Another monologue where the premise is the host being upstaged by a cameo. Normally, I’d gripe about this like I did in my review of the preceding episode’s monologue, but at least this particular Emma Stone cameo makes sense in terms of the host, and Emma is always good on SNL, and thus, I can’t really complain about her presence here.
— Good bit regarding Emma assuring Andrew that the SNL Band laughs at anything during monologues, only for them to be stone-faced when Andrew does a bad attempt at a joke.
— A pretty funny clip of Aidy’s blink-and-miss-it appearance in the new Spider-Man movie.
STARS: ***


STANX
odor lock technology of Stanx expandable underwear contains (BEB)’s farts

— Season 39’s penchant for juvenile humor strikes ONCE AGAIN. Since I actually found some of this season’s juvenile humor pieces to be surprisingly not bad (e.g. the Jim Parsons elevator sketch), I’ll remain open-minded towards this commercial.
— A very blah sight gag of Beck’s Stanx wear constantly inflating while he’s farting in a laid-back demeanor. Certainly not a great sight gag to base an entire commercial around.
— Ha, an actual funny conclusion with Beck’s apartment exploding when he removes his Stanx after it contained his farts all day.
— I love both Beck’s intentionally cheesy delivery and (especially) facial expression when saying “Thanks, Stanx!” (the last above screencap for this commercial). He’s one of the only performers who could sell a line like that.
STARS: *½ for the first two-thirds of this commercial, ***½ for the last third, **½ for this commercial altogether


CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD
Justin Timberlake (host) dominates matchup of musicians

— Odd how the first installment of this sketch had Justin Timberlake playing that night’s SNL host, Jimmy Fallon, and now the second installment of this sketch has tonight’s SNL host, Andrew Garfield, playing Justin Timberlake. Does this mean that, in the next installment of this sketch, someone will play Andrew Garfield? (I already know in hindsight that the answer is no.)
— Another display of Nasim’s love for playing short men.
— Kenan’s Steve Harvey, to Noel’s Reba McEntire: “I seen your sitcoms. They are to white people what The Wayans Brothers are to black people – we’ll watch it…but we ain’t gonna TELL nobody about it.”
— A good Drake impression from Jay, and, as I mentioned in a recent review, I always love when a cast member impersonates a then-recent host, as I always like to assume that said cast member developed that impression from having worked with that host for a week.
— Not the most spot-on Timberlake impression in terms of voice or physical mannerisms, but Andrew’s at least doing a spot-on spoof of Timberlake’s penchant for being a screenhog who’s in love with himself.
— As usual, Kenan’s Steve Harvey has tons of hilarious lines throughout this sketch, especially “Show me ‘Fiddlin’ with ya giblets’!”, a line that has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Taran’s singing as Russel Crowe is priceless, as is the fact that it alone receives three Family Feud “X”s.
STARS: ***½


OLIVER TWIST
self-centered woman (CES) horns in on Oliver Twist’s (host) gruel query

— I’m not caring for Cecily’s character, nor do I care for that…that voice she’s doing. I remember, when this sketch originally aired, this was around the time I came to the conclusion that SNL was spreading Cecily too thin this season, pushing her too much, and starring her in lots of lousily-written big character showcase pieces, some of which she herself co-wrote with James Anderson and Kent Sublette. I remember all of those things caused me (and certain other online SNL fans) to kinda turn against Cecily at this time and worry that SNL was making the same mistake with her that they previously made with Kristen Wiig, in terms of overusing her, misusing her talents, and giving her lots of lousily-written big character showcase pieces. Over the following seasons after this one, where SNL stopped pushing her as the new “star” of the cast, Cecily would slowly win me back, to the degree that I now look at her as being a very valuable and underappreciated utility player, one with a timeless quality that feels like she would’ve fit into a lot of SNL eras, such as the prestigious late 80s era. However, even looking back at season 39 nowadays, I still feel this season wasn’t always the best use of Cecily’s talents, especially not with her Weekend Update anchoring gig and how bad some of her big character showcase pieces were, including this sketch.
— I laughed at Kate’s quivery-voiced, British-accented delivery of “I do the whippings!”
— Cecily finally got a laugh from me, when saying, during her claim that she’s not afraid to give people whippings, “And FYI, I whip the face!”
— The bit regarding Cecily eating all of Andrew’s soup fell very flat.
— Welp, folks, this ends up being John Milhiser’s final live role on SNL. And, being completely on-brand with his general airtime this season, his role in this sketch is a very small one with only one line. (*sigh*) Even though there are two episodes remaining this season, John does not make a single live appearance in either of them. He’s completely absent in the penultimate episode, and in the season finale, he (and all of the other featured players who get fired after this season) only appears in a non-speaking bit role in a pre-taped Lonely Island Digital Short that he dies in. Poor, poor John. He has one of the saddest SNL tenures I’ve ever witnessed. So much potential completely wasted by SNL.
STARS: *½


THE BEYGENCY
(host), (Kiefer Sutherland), (Mary Lynn Rajskub) are targeted for dissing diva Beyonce

— A famous Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written pre-tape that went very viral back at this time in 2014 and was considered a season highlight, deservedly so, in my opinion. I recall this short being a masterpiece.
— A very funny exaggerated dark turn after Andrew confesses he’s not crazy about Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love” song.
— Dramatic exchange between Taran and Jay’s agent characters: “It’s time to go to work.” “Work with an ‘e’?” “Of course.”
— After the tense “I like most of her music!” “MOST?!?” exchange between Andrew and Bobby, I love Bobby immediately whipping out a shotgun and aiming it at Andrew.
— Even the cameos in this are fun, with Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub playing their “24” characters. I especially love how, after calling one of Beyonce’s songs “the only good one!”, they’re both immediately shot in the back of the head by two bullets from off-camera. That also results in an absolutely hilarious muted, long, high-pitched scream from Andrew.
— Everything about the movie trailer aesthetic this is going for is absolutely perfect, from the way it’s shot, to the acting, to everything else.
— A particularly classic part with the hilarious visual of Taran and the other manly agents doing the Single Ladies dance in unison.
— A solid comically-unsettling performance from Kate. Even though it’s just a small role, it’s Kate McKinnon performances like this that made me start to realize back at this time in 2014 that she seemed to be on her way to becoming my personal favorite member of the then-current cast. It turns out, she would indeed go on to become my favorite then-current cast member the next few seasons (seasons 40-42), which feature her at her peak.
— The audience applause at the end of this short is so enthusiastic and premature that it drowns out Kate’s ending line, “(singing) Who run the world? (speaking) She does.”
— Overall, this short absolutely still holds up for me.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Magic”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Olya Povlatsky expects Russia-Ukraine tiff will make her life even worse

large-framed LEJ figures she would’ve been in demand during slavery

Jebidiah Atkinson has nothing nice to say about Tony Awards & theatre

— Lots of meh Update jokes so far tonight, from both Cecily AND Colin. (Usually, it’s just Cecily who gets the worst jokes.)
— Kate’s Olya Povlatsky character is always so fun and likable, but I hope they’re not starting to rely a little too frequently on her.
— Even SNL’s overused “foreigner makes dated pop culture-references because their country is decades behind on American pop culture” trope is made funny in this Olya Povlatsky commentary, with the solid Full House bit.
— I like Olya Povlatsky’s facial reaction to Cecily telling her the very tame “problems” that make Americans say “F my life.”
— Cecily’s “George Clooney engaged” joke is one of her stronger Update jokes this season.
— A very noteworthy moment right now, as we get our very first Leslie Jones SNL appearance, back when she was just a writer on the show.
— It feels really significant hearing Leslie Jones’ distinctive voice for the first time in my SNL project. Just one of those special moments that makes me realize I’ve officially reached a certain big SNL period/era. This also occurred when I first heard the comforting voice of Phil Hartman and Bill Hader (and a few other cast members who I can’t remember right now) when I reviewed their respective first episode.
— Ah, there’s our very first “Leslie hits on Colin” moment, which already feels fully-formed even in this first instance of it. I especially love the back-and-forth between Leslie and Colin during the second “Who would you pick…?” question she asks him.
— Leslie is so good here that she’s actually bringing out some personality in Colin, which is rare to see in these early days of Colin’s Update stint.
— A particularly memorable part of Leslie’s commentary, in which she demonstrates how frequently she would’ve had “superbabies” in the slavery days: “Shaq! Kobe! LeBron! Kimbo Slice! Sinbad!”
— Leslie, at the end of her commentary: “Can a bitch get a beef bowl?!? CAN A BITCH GET A BEEF BOWL?!?”
— Leslie absolutely knocked it out of the park in this overall commentary. She definitely made her presence known right out of the gate. One of the most impressive SNL debuts I’ve ever seen a performer make. I recall thinking back at this time that Leslie displayed far more comedic prowess in one appearance than Sasheer did in the entire second half of this season (I find Sasheer more likable in my re-watch of this season, even though I still find there’s too much of a blandness to her as an SNL performer, and I feel that SNL just wasn’t the right venue for her talents), and that a standout performer like Leslie being stuck in the writers’ room while the unmemorable and less-funny (to me back in 2014) Sasheer got to be in the cast was akin to 10 years prior where standout performer J.B. Smoove was stuck in the writers’ room while the unmemorable and less-funny Finesse Mitchell got to be in the cast. Leslie’s onscreen debut in this episode would not only go on to be much talked about (including some controversy caused by the slavery subject matter Leslie focused on), but would lead to her making more uncredited onscreen SNL appearances early the following season, which themselves would be so well-received that SNL would finally add her to the cast four episodes into that season.
— The punchline to Colin’s “Cheerleading has been made an official high school sport” news story being him saying “……Dad” in a defensive manner is something that would go on to be a running punchline he’d use over the years. As I said in a previous review, Seth Meyers was actually the first Update anchor to use that punchline, years prior to this.
— Cecily and Colin’s Update jokes have been improving over the course of tonight’s Update, after a bad start. Even Cecily’s corny “loaded potato” joke was the good kind of corny, and I especially like her jokingly-smug “You’re welcome” ad-lib afterwards.
— Jebidiah Atkinson!
— Jebidiah Atkinson, on the play Of Mice And Men: “The only thing slower than this play was Lennie…and at least someone put him out of his misery!”
— As usual in these Jebidiah Atkinson commentaries, we get a fantastic ad-lib from Taran at one point, this time when correcting himself after his “Tony/Tommy” slip-up.
— Jebidiah Atkinson, on the play Annie: “Sing as loud as you want, honey – your parents ain’t comin’ back!”
— Jebidiah Atkinson, on the play that Abraham Lincoln was attending when he got shot: “It may not have gone over that well in the orchestra…but it KILLED in the balcony!”
— I absolute love how Taran ends tonight’s Jebidiah Atkinson commentary by saying “Can a bitch get a beef bowl?!?”, as a callback to how Leslie Jones’ commentary ended earlier in this Update.
— Tonight’s overall Update was easily the best one of this troubled Update season so far.
STARS: ***½


SPIDER-MAN KISS
host & Emma Stone [real] kiss awkwardly on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 set

— Not one of the funnier premises for the ol’ SNL trope of “someone has a very difficult time doing a very simple thing during the filming of a movie/commercial/etc.”, but Andrew and Emma’s performances are somewhat fun.
— Taran’s a solid straight man here.
— Seeing Andrew, Emma, and Chris Martin onscreen together makes me realize that the last time both Andrew and Emma appeared together on SNL prior to this, when Emma hosted in season 37, Coldplay was the musical guest in that episode, too. Interesting coincidence.
— Aaaaaaand we go the cheap “men kissing each other for an easy, unnecessary laugh” route. As unfunny as that certainly is, I will at least say that Chris Martin is coming off very game and natural here, making me wish SNL gave him better material than this and that damn Garth & Kat commentary from the aforementioned season 37 episode that Emma hosted.
— What’s with Jay’s extremely goofy, muggy facial expression when he briefly re-entered the sketch to hand Chris Martin a blonde wig (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch)? Even the way he handed Chris Martin the wig was done in a very silly, exaggerated manner. Was all of that Jay’s unscripted attempt to make something out of a nothing role? If so, the way he did it feels kinda unprofessional, but I’m probably making too big a deal out of nothing.
— Aaaaaaand to make this sketch even worse after that “men kissing each other for an easy, unnecessary laugh” turn, we close this sketch with an always-lazy “spinning newspaper headline” ending, one that somehow manages to be even weaker than usual. Man, this sketch really went to hell after a tepidly-written-but-affably-performed first two-thirds.
STARS: **


WEDDING
best man (host) expresses love for bride (CES) at her wedding reception

— I laughed out loud at Kenan’s shocked delivery of “Aw, dayum!” when Andrew confesses he’s still in love with his ex, Cecily, who’s the bride at this wedding ceremony.
— I love the very-realistically uncomfortable turn this sketch takes when Cecily breaks Andrew’s heart by disclosing that she doesn’t reciprocate his love and, in fact, barely even knows him. Andrew is great at pulling this uncomfortable turn off while his character tries to remain jovial.
— Oh, an absolutely priceless reveal that Andrew is the best man of this wedding, and now has to give a toast RIGHT AFTER his embarrassing moment where he confessed his love to the bride and then got his heart broken by her.
— Another absolutely priceless reveal, where we find out that the maid of honor, who’s standing next to Andrew right now after all the things he had just said about the love he has for the bride, is actually HIS WIFE. Wow.
— Man, this sketch is keeping the hilarious shocking reveals coming. This is amazing.
— Yet another line delivered excellently by Kenan, this time at the end of this sketch when Andrew tries to go back onstage once again after the announcement of the garter toss: “HEY, HEY, BOY, SIT YO ASS DOWN!”
— Overall, a forgotten and underrated masterpiece. And, would you know it, much like tonight’s other masterpiece, The Beygency, I’m pretty sure this Wedding sketch was written by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (though I’m not sure if that was ever confirmed, so my apologies if I’m incorrect), further proving that those two are by far the MVPs of SNL’s then-current writing staff, and should’ve been promoted to head writers much earlier than they ended up being (which turns out to be in season 42, and ONLY season 42, because they both end up leaving the show after that season, which further proves my point that SNL waited too damn long to make those two head writers).
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Sky Full Of Stars”


THE BIRD BIBLE
Rerun from 3/1/14


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode contained three very noteworthy segments (The Beygency, Wedding, and Leslie Jones’ onscreen debut), all of which are season highlights and bolstered the quality of what was an otherwise average episode. Andrew Garfield was a likable host and did a particularly strong job in the Wedding sketch. He even came off very endearing during his goodnights speech.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Beygency
Wedding
Weekend Update
Celebrity Family Feud
Press Conference
Monologue
Stanx
Spider-Man Kiss
Oliver Twist


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seth Rogen)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Charlize Theron

Posted on

April 12, 2014 – Seth Rogen / Ed Sheeran (S39 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COACHELLA
at Coachella, Paul Ryan (TAK) & Jeb Bush (BEB) attempt cool conservatism

— Hmm, I wasn’t aware that Beck’s Jeb Bush impression debuted this early in his SNL tenure.
— A decent premise and a fairly fun and out-of-the-ordinary setting for a political cold opening.
— I’m surprised to see this end already. I had remembered this cold opening showcasing more republicans than I saw here. Maybe I was getting parts of this cold opening confused with a very similar cold opening the show would later do in the following season’s Reese Witherspoon episode.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Zooey Deschanel, James Franco, Taylor Swift [real] interrupt host

— Decent bit with Seth Rogen’s relatives having his trademark laugh.
— Of the three Seth Rogen monologues over the years, this is the second one with a Wu-Tang Clan reference. Seth clearly must be a fan.
— Kinda funny seeing Zooey Deschanel now standing in almost the exact same spot that Noel stood in a minute prior, given the resemblance that Noel and Zooey naturally have to each other (plus the fact that Noel has a Zooey impression in her repertoire, which SNL let her briefly display earlier this season). During the goodnights at the end of this episode, we’ll even see Noel and Zooey standing close together, eerily looking like they could be sisters, and even wearing somewhat-similar outfits (screencap below, with a circle I added pointing out where Noel and Zooey are).

— Wait, that non-speaking, blink-and-miss-it walk-on that Zooey made ends up being her WHOLE cameo??? What was the point of that?
— Another celebrity cameo. I don’t like where this monologue is going.
— Never mind my earlier comment questioning what the point was of Zooey only showing up to make a wordless, five-second cameo, as she’s now come back and has some lines.
— Yep, and here’s yet another pointless, corny cameo. Blah. Feels like I’m watching something from a more recent season. And these cameos in this monologue don’t even have anything to do with the established premise of Seth reading from his journal, which just randomly gets abandoned halfway through this monologue to focus on cameos.
STARS: **


DRUG SAFETY
Shallon reverses D.A.R.E. representative’s (host) say-no-to-drugs spiel

— Predictably, this goes the exact same route as the previous two installments of this sketch. However, the crack subject of tonight’s installment is admittedly more inherently funny than the van and fireplace subjects of the previous two installments, and is making this pretty fun, even if I feel it doesn’t measure up to the first installment, due to the derivative feel.
— I love Bobby’s happy delivery of the line “The hero of our story!” when Seth says he’ll play the drug dealer of this scenario.
STARS: ***


CNN PREGNANCY TEST
drawn-out CNN pregnancy test frustrates potential parents (BEB) & (VAB)

— A pretty funny topical premise of a CNN pregnancy test.
— A good slow burn from Vanessa and Beck throughout this, in regards to all the false alarms from the pregnancy test. Vanessa’s always so good at playing characters who force themselves to smile while slowly getting impatient towards something.
STARS: ***


STEAKHOUSE
(AIB)’s pair of broken arms draw attention at (CES)’s birthday dinner

— I’m currently two-and-a-half minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t enjoyed anything so far. In addition to bad writing, this James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written sketch is featuring some of their absolute worst tendencies as writers: every character speaking in an exaggerated southern accent, the pointless decision to give a character a very specific, standout, dissonant hairstyle (Aidy, who’s character actually blatantly calls attention to her hairstyle at one point, for no good reason), and the random decision to throw in exaggeratedly effeminate gay men (the waiters played by Brooks and John) who have nothing to do with the rest of the sketch.
— Aaaaaaand now, to further prove my point about how this features Anderson and Sublette’s worst writing tropes, the focus of this sketch turns to a very unnecessary and unfunny big ol’ fart gag. Yep, it’s now safe to say this sketch is a bonafide dud.
— Not even the usually-reliable Aidy can do anything to save this in her lead role, especially not her helplessly giggling out of character after the fart sound effect. I’d like to think she’s just giggling because that fart sound effect made her fully come to the realization of what a stupid, stupid sketch she’s stuck in.
STARS: *


MONSTER PALS
(MOB) & (James Franco) undergo surgery to look human

— Great random concept for a Mike O’Brien short.
— The grunt-filled conversation between the two monsters at the bar is hilarious.
— I love the very realistic feel that Taran’s “Can’t just go around grabbing people, man. Gotta watch that” line gave to the end of the bar scene.
— A very funny line from Mike’s monster character when seeing the movie Monsters Inc. playing on a screen in a store window: “They took a lot of liberties on that one.”
— I absolutely love the sequence with Mike’s monster character searching for his friend among real New York citizens on the street, and I like the hint of pathos in this scene (and throughout this short in general, actually). Mike is always so great at adding pathos to his short films.
— Funny ending with Mike’s now-human-looking monster character admitting he chose this mediocre new face of his because it was cheaper.
— Overall, another excellent Mike O’Brien short.
STARS: *****


BLUE RIVER DOG FOOD
inferior kibble makes (host)’s wife (CES) crazy

— I recall not liking this sketch at all back when it originally aired, and I also remember subsequently being baffled to see this sketch go on to be considered pretty much a classic among a number of SNL fans. I’ll go into this sketch with an open mind in my current viewing, so I can hopefully understand what all the hoopla is about.
— Great delivery from Cecily of the line, “Bend over, Pat, they wanna get that ass!”
— A damn good angry outburst from Seth towards Cecily.
— Cecily is selling the hell out of this intense role. Definitely a standout performance from her.
— They’re overdoing the cutesy close-ups of the dog, though I guess that works as a comedic contrast to Cecily’s insane ranting.
— Solid ending.
— Overall, as I hoped, I’ve finally come around on this sketch, even if I still don’t find it to be quite a five-star classic like a number of SNL fans seem to. The rating I’m about to give this sketch is still very impressive, though, especially coming immediately after the five-star-rated Monster Pals short.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sing”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Samsung endorser David Ortiz (KET) acts as spokesman for other brands

Jacob talks about Passover symbolism & slowly warms up to CES

— I know it’s starting to become cliched for me to point out how ridiculously corny both Cecily’s Update delivery AND jokes have been lately, but man, I absolutely HATED her cheesy delivery of the punchline to that Kathleen Sebelius joke. (*sigh*) I just have to keep telling myself, only a few Updates left until the Cecily Strong era of Update is thankfully over…
— Showing how stiff and undeveloped as an anchor Colin is in these early Updates of his, when his Kim Jong Un voting joke is followed by an off-camera Cecily quietly asking Colin, in a comedic ad-lib, “Did you vote for him?”, Colin doesn’t even acknowledge that ad-lib of Cecily’s and instead just continues blandly and stiffly staring at the camera while moving onto the next Update joke. If this was about a year-and-a-half later or beyond and that was Michael Che ad-libbing the “Did you vote for him?” question, Colin would’ve easily played along with that ad-libbed question and gave it an answer.
— The debut of Kenan’s memorable David Ortiz impression.
— A very likable and funny performance from Kenan here, and the ads that his David Ortiz is doing are stupidly hilarious.
— Colin finally shows some personality, where, after the audience has an “Ohhhh!” reaction to his harsh punchline about Katherine Heigl now working at Duane Reade, Colin humorously ad-libs “Probably just researching a role!”, though part of me doesn’t like how that kinda felt like Colin copping out and basically telling Katherine Heigl, “No hard feelings.” I’m probably looking too much into that, though.
— Colin and Cecily have actually been having a few strong jokes tonight among all the clunkers they have. The clunkers still outnumber the strong jokes, though.
— Cecily, at the beginning of her introduction of the next guest commentary: “This Monday marks the first night of Passover. ” Oh, no. I can already tell from that statement of Cecily’s that it means she’s introducing a Jacob commentary, with Jacob doing the same thing he does in EVERY SINGLE COMMENTARY OF HIS.
— At least tonight’s Jacob commentary starts with an interesting interaction between him and Cecily, where Cecily assures him not to worry about Seth Meyers no longer being here, as she and Jacob will get along just fine. But of course, that’s immediately followed by Jacob launching into his same-old same-old routine.
— Cecily’s at least more far more fun and charming than Seth Meyers was at asking Jacob questions throughout Jacob’s commentary.
— An okay moment with Jacob quickly wiping away a tear when Cecily asks him how he feels about Derek Jeter’s upcoming retirement. That’s a good continuation of the minor story arc in these Jacob commentaries, where it’s established that he’s a Derek Jeter and Yankees fan.
— This overall Jacob commentary surprisingly didn’t turn out too bad, as they at least finally did some different things with the formula, and, like I said earlier, Cecily had a much more charming chemistry with him than Seth Meyers did.
STARS: **½


ENGAGEMENT PARTY
(CES) broaches cousin’s (host) gay experience at his engagement party

— I already don’t like the nature of this character that Cecily suddenly barges in playing.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and not only have I still yet to laugh a single time, but this sketch has gotten really uncomfortable, and not uncomfortable in a funny way. I also really don’t like the cheap attempt at laughs by using a disclosure about a past gay experience as the main “joke” of the sketch, nor do I like how it’s supposed to be “funny” that Seth’s character is ashamed that he sexually experimented with a man once, and we end up getting no resolution to that shame of his. Practically everything about this sketch’s script, premise, and execution is off-putting.
STARS: *


UNDERCOVER SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) clumsily participates in 1983 FBI mob sting operation

— A very funny opening credits sequence, and the concept of Kenan’s Al Sharpton ineptly working in an undercover drug bust is promising.
— After the aforementioned opening credits sequence, the actual sketch itself that follows the credits is letting me down. It’s so boring that, after a while, a lot of it has become white noise to me, despite Kenan’s efforts.
— A poor ending.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t”


A VERY SMOKY 420
non-pothead (KYM) revels in holiday weed tradition

— I love how this is featuring Kyle’s trademark weirdness being turned up to 11. His weirdness is proudly at its most unleashed and unfiltered here.
— Kyle is an absolute riot here with his made-up 420 holiday traditions and nonsensical songs.
— Given how well I remember this season’s Good Neighbor shorts, I’m kinda surprised that I had no previous memory of Beck’s appearance in this. This is also the third consecutive Good Neighbor short in which Beck either doesn’t appear or only appears in a brief walk-on.
— I got a huge laugh from how Seth’s “Could you…not use my last name?” line is immediately followed by his last name being suddenly removed from the chyron of his full name that’s been displayed onscreen ever since he made his entrance.
STARS: ****


HERMAN & SONS
Herman (host) & Sons (KET) are making their sperm bank into a yogurt shop

— I kinda like the random subversion with the “Sons” part of the “Herman & Sons” company name turning out to be the surname of one of the company owners, Eugene Sons.
— Aidy steals this sketch with her hilarious brief appearance, squealing in excitement while running past the camera with a shopping cart full of sperm samples.
— A juvenile but funny concept of turning a sperm bank into a yogurt shop. Like a lot of juvenile premises this season, this is being executed surprisingly decently.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Kind of a hard episode to figure, but my gut feeling sorta says this was one of the more “meh” episodes of this season. While this featured a strong one-two punch of Monster Pals and Blue River Dog Food airing back-to-back, and also featured a great oddball Kyle Mooney short airing towards the end of the show, this episode also featured two of the worst sketches of this entire season (Steakhouse and Engagement Party) and a very weak Al Sharpton sketch that squandered a promising concept. This episode’s remaining segments not mentioned in my preceding sentence all ranged from just average to mediocre. So yeah, kind of an all-over-the-place episode, one that ultimately left me with an unexcited feel. Possibly adding to my unexcited feel is the fact that it seems like with each passing hosting stint, Seth Rogen is more and more forgettable. He was pretty much a non-entity as a host tonight, as the writers gave him very few chances to stand out, mostly sticking him in generic, dull straight man roles that could’ve been given to any host. Even his monologue was written to have everyone else getting the laughs except him. Why waste a comedian in these types of non-comedic roles, even as polarizing as his comedy usually is?


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monster Pals
Blue River Dog Food
A Very Smoky 420
CNN Pregnancy Test
Herman & Sons
Drug Safety
Coachella
Weekend Update
Monologue
Undercover Sharpton
Steakhouse / Engagement Party (tie)


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anna Kendrick)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Andrew Garfield

Posted on

April 5, 2014 – Anna Kendrick / Pharrell Williams (S39 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

GM HEARINGS
new General Motors CEO Mary Barra (KAM) can’t recall ignition switch woes

— Lots of funny lines from Kate, especially the escalating ridiculousness and immaturity in her responses.
— Feels so odd seeing Mike being cast in this particular context.
— A great LFNY subversion, with Taran cutting off Kate’s LFNY and calling her out on using it as a means to escape answering a difficult question. This isn’t the first time SNL ever used this LFNY subversion, but it’s always fun whenever they do.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Belle” variant to share her SNL excitement with cast members

— Another musical monologue, but it’s understandable here, given Anna Kendrick’s musical theater background.
— Very funny little bit with Kate musically questioning Vanessa’s attempt at a Scottish brogue.
— This is being well-executed for a musical monologue, and has a charming, catchy, and pretty fun atmosphere.
— The visual of the entire cast lined up onstage together during the conclusion of this monologue is noteworthy, as 1) seeing them lined up in that manner really makes you realize how gigantic this season’s cast is, and 2) this visual brings to mind the memorable moment where the also-gigantic season 17 cast is lined up together onstage in the conclusion of the legendary Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight cold opening with Steve Martin. Also, seeing this entire season 39 cast together in this manner makes me wish this season got more of this kind of mileage out of having such a large cast, mileage that season 17 was good at getting out of their large cast.
— Ha, during the aforementioned full-cast musical number in the conclusion of this monologue, Mike is noticeably doing a half-assed attempt at making it look like he’s singing in unison with the rest of the cast. He’s barely even moving his mouth. I also noticed something similar earlier this season in Tina Fey’s monologue, where Mike barely even moved when he and the rest of the new featured players were doing silly dances. Either these things are yet another sign of how ill-fit Mike is as a live TV performer, or he must just have a Norm Macdonald-like aversion to performing full-cast singing/dancing numbers.
STARS: ***½


FOX & FRIENDS
Neil deGrasse Tyson (KET) discusses climate change

— Surprisingly, this is the first time we’re seeing this sketch all season. It hadn’t appeared since May of the preceding season.
— I guess showing how long it’s been since this sketch last appeared prior to this, real Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson left the show and was replaced with Elisabeth Hasselbeck at some point during the hiatus of SNL’s Fox & Friends spoofs. In an apparent attempt to keep the great chemistry that Taran, Vanessa, and Bobby always had in previous installments of this sketch, SNL makes the right decision to keep Vanessa in the group by having her play Hasselbeck, instead of them giving that role to another performer.
— The usual hilarious dimwitted comments delivered affably by Bobby’s Brian Kilmeade.
— I love Vanessa-as-Hasselbeck’s obliviousness to the fact that her husband was intentionally watching porn in the anecdote she tells.
— The traditional list of fact corrections that these Fox & Friends sketches typically end with is noticeably scrolling by in a slower speed than usual tonight, perhaps because SNL wants viewers to have a better chance of catching each fact correction without having to pause their screen.
STARS: ***½


DONGS ALL OVER THE WORLD
women fly globally for penis; Icona Pop cameo

— This dongs concept isn’t bad, I guess, but yeesh, the execution of it feels so flat and ineffective. This ain’t working.
— I do at least find the melody of the song to be very catchy. I just wish the lyrics themselves were actually funny or entertaining.
— Okay, we now get an actual decent interlude during the song, with Aidy and Vanessa’s awkward conversation.
STARS: **


THE LITTLE MERMAID
Ursula (AIB) doesn’t want Ariel’s (host) unmelodic pop singer voice

— This has been a musical-heavy episode so far.
— Not only do I love the voice Aidy’s using as Ursula, but I also like how unintentionally Julia Sweeney-esque it sounds at certain points.
— A very awkward music miscue on SNL’s part when Anna’s supposed to sing her first song, causing her to helplessly laugh a little. Aidy eases this awkward tension with a decent ad-lib until the music is cued up correctly.
— Solid execution from Anna of the various badly-sung pop songs, even if this is the type of humor that usually doesn’t do much for me. I’ve never been as big on this sketch as a number of SNL fans seem to be, but I still find the sketch to be fine.
— I love the following exchange between Anna’s Ariel and Aidy’s Urusla, after Ursula disapproves of Ariel’s choice to sing one particular song: “It’s okay. It’s Iggy Azalea, and she’s white!” “Now…I meant that because…she’s better than you, but…I guess…now we know you’re a racist.”
STARS: ***½


FLIRTY
shy (KYM) struggles to ask neighbor (VAB) out on a date

— This is the first time a Beck/Kyle short has aired in the pre-Weekend Update half of the show, possibly because the humor in this is more mainstream than their usual shorts.
— Such charmingly awkward and funny interactions between Kyle and Vanessa. The execution of this is fantastic, and I love the tender, slice-of-life feel this is giving to an SNL era that’s usually devoid of tender, slice-of-life pieces.
— Vanessa’s acting is particularly great and very believably romcom-ish. I particularly like how understated her growing frustration towards Kyle’s constant reluctance to ask her out is.
— A funny kiss fake-out.
— A big laugh from Beck coming in out of nowhere and bluntly asking Vanessa, “Do you wanna have sex with me right now?”, and then, after he’s told “Yes”, casually saying “I guess I’ll just go get set up and give myself a boner.”
— Such a lovely moment when Kyle finally asks Vanessa on that date.
— Excellent ending with Kyle’s very charming reaction to Vanessa accepting his offer to go out. I especially love the freeze-frame the screen does on Kyle’s jump when he’s mid-air.
— An overall perfect gem.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Happy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Angela Merkel (KAM) is tired of being responsible on the world stage

BRW warns that excess drinking can lead to unexplained butter in pants

George R.R. Martin (BOM) is behind schedule because he’s out of ideas

— Ugh, I see this is yet another Update where Cecily is saddled with a lot of corny punchlines and “character voice” punchlines. Much like the preceding episode’s Update, Colin has the better jokes of the two anchors tonight, despite him having not yet found his voice as Update anchor.
— Much like in her Olya Povlatsky commentaries, Kate is always fun and likable in her commentaries as Angela Merkel.
— (*groan*) Speaking of corny punchlines that Cecily is saddled with, is SNL freakin’ kidding me with that “horse jail” punchline that Cecily delivered just now? That’s a punchline I could’ve come up with when I was 10 years old, and that’s certainly no compliment from me.
— The second and final stand-up Update commentary Brooks does as himself.
— This “butter prank” routine was a somewhat well-known comedy routine of Brooks’ that he previously did at various venues. It’s a funny story, so I can’t complain about him doing it once again here.
— What’s this? An actual interaction piece between Cecily and Colin? Up until this point, I thought SNL forgot that the concept of Update co-anchors interacting with each other existed.
— I do feel this Cecily/Colin interaction piece had a strong ending, delivered well by Cecily.
— Aw, man, now even Colin’s letting me down with some Cecily-esque bad, corny, childlike punchlines, like that awful “hawks/library” joke.
STARS: **


LES JEUNES DE PARIS
(host)’s cups accompany (TAK) & “Louxor, J’Adore”

— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made in over two full years. This also ends up being its final appearance. I wonder if they only brought it back tonight because Anna possibly requested it, as I can picture her being a fan of previous installments she may have seen of this sketch.
— Showing how many changes have occurred in SNL’s cast since the last time this recurring sketch appeared prior to this, Cecily has now replaced Kristen Wiig’s station ID voice-over that this recurring sketch always opens with, John has replaced Paul Brittain’s regular role as one of Taran’s character’s friends, and Noel has replaced Abby Elliott’s regular role as one of the host’s character’s friends. Noel in particular seems perfectly cast as a French youth, as she looks very natural in that role.
— I like the reference/homage to “Cups (When I’m Gone)” that Taran and Anna do.
— This sketch is fun as usual, even if it’s just going the usual route that this recurring sketch typically goes in instead of doing something vastly different with the formula like the last installment prior to tonight’s installment did, in which they did a brilliant mash-up with the movie The Artist. I’m not complaining about the return to the old formula, though, since we had such a long hiatus from this recurring sketch in general.
— A very funny Chris Tucker/Ruby Rhod appearance from Jay at the end.
STARS: ****


FIELD TRIP
Principal Frye reprimands misbehaving students during zoo field trip

— Another recurring sketch tonight that’s making its final appearance.
— Jay-as-Principal-Frye’s reports are funny as usual.
— Anne is very solid in her upbeat delivery when quoting rude things the off-camera students are saying to her.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Hans Zimmer [real] perform “Marilyn Monroe”


BIG JOE
Big Joe’s (TAK) bone disease leaves him unable to free (BOM) from rocks

— Ah, a sketch that’s always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I’m aware that many SNL fans feel (or at least felt back at this time in 2014) that this is a very dumb sketch with a bad, thin script. I can understand that viewpoint, but man, Taran absolutely sells this sketch for me BIG-TIME. Everything about his performance here slays me, from his mere look, his deep-voiced southern-accented delivery, and more. I especially love his delivery of the line “He gon’ DAHH (die).”
— When Anna easily lifts a rock, I laughed at Taran’s Big Joe nervously saying, “I-I loosened that one, *I* get credit.”
— Between these past two episodes, SNL seems to be phasing Noel into the “little girl” roles that Nasim would usually get, possibly because they realize by this point that Nasim will be leaving after this season to do John Mulaney’s then-upcoming sitcom. (Speaking of Nasim, it feels like she’s completely disappeared from the show these past two episodes, after having a boost in airtime for a majority of this season. I mean, she’s been in these past two episodes, but she’s completely invisible in them. Perhaps the reason for that is she’s possibly been very busy filming episodes of Mulaney’s sitcom.) However, as we know now, this decision to phase Noel into the type of roles Nasim used to get would turn out to be for nothing, as Noel ends up going out the door with Nasim that upcoming summer, thanks to SNL firing her along with most of her fellow newbies.
— Love the sequence with sunrises and sunsets constantly passing while Big Joe is in a frozen position while struggling to lift a large rock.
— Showing what a musical-heavy episode this is, even this sketch has a song thrown in at the very end.
STARS: ****


AUDITION
(host) & off-key sister (VAB) want to be backup singers for musical guest

— Our obligatory spoof of Pharrell’s famous hat.
— Tonight’s musical theme continues once again.
— Uh, where exactly is this Anna/Vanessa musical number going??? What’s the main joke? If the main joke is supposed to be Vanessa’s bad singing, she’s not making her bad singing comical enough. In fact, she doesn’t even sound all that horrible, which is hurting the alleged joke of this sketch.
— And now to make me like this sketch even less, we get the use of the ol’ SNL trope of the camera doing cutaways to each straight man character having a frozen shocked look on their face while witnessing something odd. They subvert that a little here by having the “frozen shocked looks” sequence end with a shot of Pharrell actually smiling and bopping his head to the music, but even that’s an overused SNL trope.
— I did get a laugh just now from Taran rudely asking, “Did one of you not get enough oxygen in the womb or something?”
— The running gag with Kenan and Taran’s magically-appearing Pharrell Hats isn’t doing anything for me.
— Was that ending even an ending???
STARS: *½


NCAA TOURNEY BEST OF THE WHITE GUYS
Caucasians in NCAA Basketball Tournament are lauded

— Making fun of the lameness of white basketball players is far from an original concept, but the idea to present that in an mock-exciting, hyped-up NCAA commercial is a funny idea, and it’s being executed well.
— The various NCAA white guy tropes being glowingly advertised, such as “Checking into a blowout”, are all funny.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode with a likable and fun atmosphere, which even managed to make the heavy musical focus come off acceptable. Anna Kendrick contributed well to the likable and fun atmosphere of this episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Flirty
Les Jeunes de Paris
Big Joe
GM Hearings
Monologue
The Little Mermaid
Fox & Friends
Field Trip / NCAA Tourney Best Of The White Guys (tie)
Weekend Update
Dongs All Over The World
Audition


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Louis C.K.)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Seth Rogen

Posted on

March 29, 2014 – Louis C.K. / Sam Smith (S39 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HEALTHCARE.GOV MEETING
Barack Obama (JAP) seeks social media virality to promote HealthCare.gov

— Yikes. The (very pointless) audience applause that usually occurs whenever someone starts speaking at the beginning of cold openings of recent years seemed to be completely miscued on a timing delay tonight, leading Jay to awkwardly pause for a few seconds while waiting for the obligatory applause, then when we finally do get the applause, only about 20% of the audience do it, which then leads Jay and Taran to awkwardly break out into a giggle, then pause a little longer before finally going on with the script. Oof. All of this just shows how pointless and annoying it is for SNL to have the audience applaud at the beginning of every cold opening. For the life of me, I will NEVER understand why SNL made that a requirement.
— Even though she’s just playing a normal character, Noel is reminding me of Zooey Deschanel here, probably partly because of the hairstyle.
— Even with no lines, Brooks is doing very funny physical acting as Harry Styles.
— Funny delivery from Kyle as the pope.
— Some amusing sob stories from Taran, especially the heart-literally-made-of-gold one.
— Ah, the return of Kate’s hilarious Justin Bieber impression that debuted earlier this season.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about existence of God & existence of God’s wife

— Didn’t care for that “white noise is noise for white people” opening joke, which was surprisingly hacky for a Louis C.K. joke. Thankfully, he just treated it as a quick throwaway joke and immediately moved on to another topic.
— I love the “I’m, like, literally starving” voice Louis does.
— A very solid bit about men being worse than women, especially Louis analyzing the “She got her feelings hurt” comment that he quotes from someone.
— I like Louis getting further mileage out of the ditzy, lispy voice that he used earlier during the “starving” bit by now using it as an example of how he can’t do impressions.
— I wonder if that’s a real audience member who, while off-camera, answers some of Louis’ questions in a short back-and-forth exchange Louis is having with her. When the camera finally does briefly cut to that audience member (after she’s already finished speaking), there’s no lighting on the portion of the audience we see (the second above screencap for this monologue), which I kinda like, as it gives this audience interaction of Louis’ a raw, genuine feel, like something you’d see in one of his stand-up specials.
— This God/heaven material is fantastic, and feels a little in a George Carlin vein, which I love.
— Yet another very strong bit, this time with Louis questioning the logic behind giving the name “wifebeater” to a certain type of shirt.
STARS: *****


BLACK JEOPARDY!
white contestant (host) questions tenor of game show

— The debut of this well-liked recurring sketch.
— I love Kenan smugly introducing himself as “Alex Tre-BLACK!”, then lightheartedly laughing and saying “Nah, I’m just playin’. I’m Darnell Hayes.”
— Solid black-centric humor here. While the humor feels very stereotypical, it’s working here, especially with how it and Louis’ whitebred answers comically contrast with each other. Plus, the fact that a black person (Michael Che) co-wrote this sketch helps the stereotypical aspect of the humor come off more acceptable.
— A huge laugh from Michael Vick being Louis’ answer to the dogs question. Even funnier that the actual answer turns out to be Sarah McLachlan.
— When Louis’ answer to the question from the “White People” category is revealed to be correct, Kenan gets a great line towards Louis: “The truth is, we would’ve accepted ANY answer.”
— Solid ending.
— While this overall Black Jeopardy debut doesn’t measure up to some of the later installments (particularly the well-loved installments with Tom Hanks and Chadwick Boseman), this was still strong.
STARS: ****


BABY BOSS
Mr. Patterson’s employee (host) spoon-feeds his resignation to his boss

— Beck is still great at this body-of-a-baby routine, as well as his ability to seamlessly go back-and-forth from doing wild baby mannerisms to acting like a straitlaced, mature boss, but they didn’t have to put this character in the exact same office setting that he previously appeared in in his debut. This seems like a character that would be better off having a different occupation in each installment. Lots of comedic potential there.
— Great bit with spit-up coming out of Beck’s mouth after Aidy compliments him on being a handsome man.
— Love the part with Louis and Beck demonstrating their old fraternity handshake.
— Despite my gripes towards SNL reusing the office setting from the first installment of this sketch, this follow-up installment is still turning out very funny, and they’re managing to make this routine still come off fresh.
STARS: ****


JOS. A. BANK
disposable Jos. A. Bank clothing is suitable to replace paper towels

— A very funny random use of Jos A. Bank suits.
— I particularly love the suit dispenser that Vanessa demonstrates.
— Vanessa is absolutely perfect as the spokesperson.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stay With Me”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Stephen A. Smith (JAP) is a close friend of March Madness principals

— (*groan*) Another one of Jay’s one-note Stephen A. Smith commentaries. I’m so tired of this routine, which wasn’t funny the first time.
— Even the audience is barely laughing at Jay-as-Smith’s angry rants tonight.
— Oof, Cecily has some really corny jokes tonight. Some absolute groaners, almost comparable to ones that Charles Rocket and Gail Matthius regularly received in the dire Weekend Updates from season 6. Not helping the horrid jokes that Cecily’s been stuck with tonight is her forced and hammy delivery of them (as seen in the first and fourth above screencaps for this Update). Colin is actually faring much better than Cecily tonight, despite still being a pale shadow of his future, more-developed Update persona.
— That’s it? That’s the whole Update? Wow, an unusually short Update. Sure could’ve used an actual good guest commentary to give this very weak Update a much-needed boost. Some of Colin’s jokes were the ONLY thing keeping this Update from receiving the lowest rating I gave to an Update since the dreadful Fey/Poehler era of this segment.
STARS: **


MR. BIG STUFF
passerby (host) rejects women’s musical appellation of “Mr. Big Stuff”

— An interesting and entertaining format to this.
— Throughout the song, I’m really liking Louis’ detailed objections to being called “Mr. Big Stuff”. And after the song stops, I especially love his big monologue about his unappealing personal qualities.
STARS: ****


DOCTOR’S OFFICE
doctor (MOB) verifies that butts don’t contain Darth Vader action figures

— Good execution of a juvenile premise.
— Speaking of sketches with a well-executed juvenile premise, Kenan is playing the same janitor character that he played two episodes prior in the Elevator sketch from the Jim Parsons episode, at least according to SNL Archives (seen here), presumably because both sketches feature Kenan wearing the exact same janitor uniform with the “Reggie” nametag (side-by-side comparison a little below), which is probably just an example of SNL cutting corners by reusing the same costume rather than the writers intending for Kenan’s janitor character in both sketches to be the same person.

— Funny visual of Kenan mopping carpet.
— Mike is a solid straight man here, further proving how much more in-his-element he is in short films than in live sketches (the latter of which he does not appear in tonight).
STARS: ***½


PRIVATE EYES
detective (host) & partner (VAB) gaily negotiate pajama-clad sex

— When the loud background music first kicked in during the middle of a conversation Vanessa and Louis are having, I worriedly thought for a second that we were getting ANOTHER musical sketch tonight, which I certainly didn’t need a second helping of (as much as I liked the Mr. Big Stuff sketch). Thankfully, it turns out that the background music in this sketch didn’t lead to singing.
— A very strange concept and approach to this sketch. I am liking Louis’ intentionally stilted delivery of his lines, just because it’s Louis, of all people, delivering it.
— As this sketch progresses, the very odd dialogue and approach is really growing on me. And in addition to the funny novelty of seeing Louis, of all people, delivering lines like this, this sketch is also helped by Vanessa’s charming and solid performance.
— Bobby’s (who’s surprisingly making his first appearance all night here) brief scene adds to the intentional weirdness and stilted-ness of this sketch.
— Speaking of weirdness, we get a noteworthy unscripted bit at the end, where, after reading the strange-sounding line “I love you, no” off the cue card, Louis openly drops character and asks an amused “What?!?” in response to the oddness of the line he just read. I have absolutely no idea what in the world that was all about (did he misread “I love you, no” off the cue card, or did they put “I love you, no” on the cue card at the last minute to intentionally throw Louis off, because they knew it would get a funny reaction from him?), but it was certainly amusing.
STARS: ***


DYKE & FATS
Chicago policewomen Dyke (KAM) & Fats (AIB) embrace their salient traits

 

— A famous and highly-regarded piece.
— Hilarious reveal of the Dyke & Fats title, as well as the full names of the Dyke & Fats characters: Les Dykawitz and Chubbina Fatzarelli.
— A very fun and amusing opening credits sequence. This mid-2010s SNL era seems to be really good at recreating the look and spirit of the opening credits of 1970s/80s cop shows (one of my favorite TV genres), as the following season has that great “Blazer” pre-tape (where Taran plays a rogue cop who always goes out of his way to only punch black people).
— An actual very funny and well-done approach to spoofing lesbian and overweight stereotypes, and this is definitely one of SNL’s best uses of Kate and Aidy’s chemistry.
— Excellent twist with the negative, offended reaction Dyke & Fats have to Louis referring to them by their nicknames, and how that abruptly turns out to be the end of this sketch. And the “Created by Kate McKinnon & Aidy Bryant” closing credit, as well as the fact that this Dyke & Fats episode itself turns out to be far shorter than its lengthy opening credits sequence, gives this an Astronaut Jones feel.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lay Me Down”


CHRIS FITZPATRICK FOR ASB PRESIDENT
Chris Fitzpatrick (KYM) presents his high school class president platform

— Another trunk piece that Kyle has brought to SNL from his YouTube days.
— This perfectly captures the spirit of “edgy” teens, in that always-funny, intentionally stilted, low-budget Kyle Mooney way.
— I love the use of disturbing stock footage during the scene transitions. There’s an especially funny detail of one of the car crash clips having a GettyImages watermark.
— Lots of funny personal qualities that Kyle’s Chris Fitzpatrick is disclosing about himself.
STARS: ****


ROMANTIC SPEECH
crazy talk pervades (host)’s reconciliation with ex-girlfriend (AIB)

— Louis’ extremely random, insane non-sequitur lines to Aidy are cracking me up. I’m enjoying the absurdist approach to this sketch.
— One part I’m “meh” about is the running bit with Louis pronouncing “man” as “mang”, as it’s not making me laugh anywhere near as much as the rest of his oddball lines.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— A particularly generous and very sweet goodnights speech from Louis, even namedropping Phil Hymes (SNL’s lighting director for many years) at one point when complimenting Hymes’ great work on the lighting of the studio.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Easily the best episode since the first third of this season. SNL is now 2-for-2 in damn strong Louis C.K.-hosted episodes. Two solid hosting stints in, and Louis is becoming more and more comfortable AND comforting as a host, and I always find it fun on SNL to see him occasionally attempt something way out of his element, such as the Private Eyes sketch tonight and that Polish immigrant play from his later 2017 episode. It’ll be interesting to see if the streak of Louis C.K.-hosted episodes being strong continues after this. I recall loving his aforementioned 2017 episode, but I’m kinda having a hard time remembering half of the stuff from his 2015 episode off the top of my head.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dyke & Fats
Monologue
Jos. A. Bank
Black Jeopardy!
Mr. Big Stuff / Chris Fitzpatrick For ASB President (tie)
Baby Boss
Romantic Speech
Doctor’s Office
HealthCare.gov Meeting
Private Eyes
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lena Dunham)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anna Kendrick

Posted on

March 8, 2014 – Lena Dunham / The National (S39 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Liam Neeson [real] targets Vladimir Putin with Barack Obama (JAP) video

— Good involvement from Liam Neeson, which thankfully prevents this from being another full-fledged “politician sits behind a desk and talks straight to the camera” cold opening, a format that’s rarely exciting to watch.
— An entertaining Putin-like action pre-tape of Jay’s Obama.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host endures sexual oversharing from VAB, AIB, BOM, her grandmother (KAM)

— Very funny lines from Vanessa.
— The predictable route this monologue takes is basically a Girls-themed variation of Kerry Washington’s Scandal-themed monologue from earlier this season, right down to the format of three cast members coming up to the host one-by-one asking for advice. However, this is being executed decently.
— Interestingly, the voice Kate’s using as Lena Dunham’s grandmother is the same voice she would later regularly use as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
STARS: ***


OOH CHILD
GPS navigation voice interrupts carpooler’s (host) singalong

— A pretty funny conceit with Lena’s growing frustration as each attempt she makes at a singalong of “Ooh Child” always gets cut off by the GPS voice.
— A solid dark twist at the end.
STARS: ***½


SCANDAL
newly-hired (host) is in over her head on Olivia’s (SAZ) team

— Funny how I mentioned Scandal in my review of the monologue.
— Funny how I also mentioned derivative premises in my review of the monologue, as the concept of this sketch reminds me a bit of the 1940s newspaper office sketch from the season 37 Zooey Deschanel episode.
— Is it Lena’s known trademark to often ask “I have 1,000 follow-up questions”? She said it in both the monologue AND this sketch.
— Funny interaction between Sasheer and Taran.
— Lots of good comments from Lena throughout this.
— Hilarious comment from Jay revealing he’s already taken the trip to Mexico that he was asked to go on just a minute ago.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S POPPIN’
lily-white self-styled rap group performs on hip-hop show

— A laugh from the names of Kenan and Jay’s characters: LeGod Williams and Lil’ Taint Anthony.
— A decently funny odd concept to this “rap” group.
— (*groan*) Cue the obligatory cutaway to the straight man characters having frozen shocked looks on their faces while witnessing something weird, which is such an overused SNL trope in recent eras.
— Lena: “Break it down now, girls!” Mike: “…and Tim.”
— A good laugh from Aidy’s “Hey! My flute amp!” line.
— Some good lines during Kenan and Jay’s angry confrontation of the “rap” group. I also love Mike’s reveal that Tim is just his rapper name.
— The running bit about Sprite is too much of a weak non-sequitur that’s not necessary to this sketch.
STARS: ***


GIRL
Adam Driver (TAK) & host portray Adam & Eve in Garden Of Eden reimagining

— An okay idea for a Girls spoof.
— One of the newspaper reviews stating “If this is feminism, then I’m confused” is pretty funny.
STARS: ***


WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING? YOU’RE BEING CRAZY
teens (NAP) & (host) are flirty; Jon Hamm cameo

— The set-up of this kinda reminds me of the My Brother Knows Everything one-off sketch that Nasim did in season 36.
— Meh, so far, this feels too generic for an “adolescents host a talk show” sketch. Nothing much to get excited about here.
— At least Bobby is funny in his side role as the brother.
— Random Jon Hamm. Always nice to see him on SNL.
— I love Jon worriedly asking, “Is this like a Dateline/Chris Hansen thing?”
— Bobby: “Is that freakin’ Josh Hamm?!?”
— Jon’s uncomfortable demeanor continues to be funny. I probably would like this overall sketch better if there wasn’t so much mediocre lead-up to the Jon Hamm part. I personally didn’t need the Kyle interview that preceded the Jon interview.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Graceless”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (TAK) offers more enigmatic wisdom

Vladimir Putin’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up (FRA) & (VAB) badmouth him via sotto voce

— Third consecutive episode with Taran doing an Update commentary, all of which he has knocked out of the park. His Matthew McConaughey impression here is spot-on and very funny, and his nonsensical “deep” ramblings are priceless.
— I don’t like how it’s becoming more and more of a regular thing lately for Cecily to do a “character voice” as the punchline to an Update joke. She’s relying on that particularly heavily tonight. That’s taking too much of a goofy approach to Update that doesn’t work for me in this format.
— Nothing to really say about Colin in his second Update. I see a slight improvement over his first showing in the preceding episode’s Update, but he’s still suffering from the same problems and is still practically doing leftover Seth Meyers material.
— Aaaaaaaaand in an apparent attempt to drive me insane, not only do we get yet another season 39 Fred Armisen cameo, but it’s the return of those fucking dreadful Two Best Friends From Growing Up characters. SNL really went out of their way to bring THIS tripe back???
— Also, at this point of the season, it’s starting to feel like Fred never even left the damn cast. In fact, I’m pretty sure his total amount of airtime this entire season outnumbers that of actual cast member John Milhiser (who will be nowhere to be seen in tonight’s entire episode, by the way, which only further proves my point).
— Ugh, and that overlong and insufferable Two Best Friends commentary is how they chose to end this Update? Talk about going out with a whimper (though it’s not like this Update had anything else going for it besides Taran’s McConaughey commentary).
STARS: **


JEWELRY PARTY
at a jewelry party, Venezuelan (CES) grasps her boyfriend’s (MOB) sexism

— A rare instance of Mike getting quite a lot of live airtime in an episode. Also interesting how both of his lead roles tonight have him paired up with a group of women.
— Fairly funny reveal of Mike being a men’s rights activist.
— The execution of this is letting me down. There’s an interesting premise there, but the approach is too flat, uncomfortable, and boring.
— I have very mixed feelings towards Cecily’s performance here, but I like some of what she’s doing.
STARS: **


PIMPIN’ PIMPIN’ PIMPIN’ WITH KATT WILLIAMS: OSCAR EDITION
Katt Williams (JAP) interviews crazy white celebrities

— During the TV One station I.D. bit at the beginning, we get a funny mention of a year-long “Martin” marathon.
— Not only is this another talk show sketch tonight, but SNL makes a typically lazy decision to place Jay’s solid Katt Williams impression in the ol’ “celebrity-hosted talk show” setting. If Jay had to continue doing this impression, I’d rather see it in other venues.
— It turns out that Jay’s Williams at least has good lines towards his guests.
— Yet another hilarious celebrity impression from Taran tonight, this time doing an absolutely PRICELESS Harrison Ford.
— I love Jay’s “Oh, shut it up” ad-lib towards an SNL audience member who is heard responding “Ohhh!” to Jay-as-Williams’ Rob Ford slam.
— Hearing Lena Dunham speak throughout an entire SNL episode makes me appreciate Noel’s impression of her even more than I did when it appeared earlier this season. Too bad that 1) Noel’s impression is only a brief part thrown in at the very end of this sketch, and 2) it’s Noel’s ONLY appearance all night.
— Further making me think that “I have 1,000 follow-up questions” must be something Lena Dunham is known to often say, Noel says a variation of it here as part of her Dunham impression.
— Overall, this was actually not bad for a celebrity-hosted talk show sketch. I also notice that it felt like this was set up to eventually become a recurring sketch, especially with how this sketch opened with Jay’s Williams saying each episode of this new talk show of his will feature him interviewing crazy white celebrities. We end up never seeing this sketch become recurring.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Need My Girl”


PLANNING
co-workers (KYM) & (BEB) embroil (BRW) in cockamamie outing planning

— A great increasing absurdity in regards to the email planning, absurdity that’s made even funnier by how straight Beck and Kyle are perfectly playing this.
— Good touch with how each transition title screen stating the day of the week is playing a snippet of the Fresh Prince theme song.
— Brooks is a solid straight man here. Back at this time, stuff like the 12 Years A Slave and Cowboys segments from the preceding episode and now tonight’s Jared Leto bit in the Katt Williams sketch and the straight man performance in this short made me think Brooks was finally “making it on the show” (to quote Bill Murray), and that he now had a decent chance of coming back the following season. Unfortunately, all of that ended up being dead wrong, and the progress that Brooks showed in these past two episodes ended up being short-lived, as he sadly goes right back to being used extremely little for most of the remainder of the season.
— The “Will Smith doesn’t do concerts anymore!” realization is very funny.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The absolute epitome of an average episode. Most of this episode was just fine, with barely anything standing out as strong, and very little standing out as weak.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Planning
Ooh Child
Scandal
Pimpin’ Pimpin’ Pimpin’ with Katt Williams: Oscar Edition
Presidential Address
Monologue
Girl
What’s Poppin’
What Are You Even Doing? You’re Being Crazy
Weekend Update
Jewelry Party


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jim Parsons)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Louis C.K.

Posted on

March 1, 2014 – Jim Parsons / Beck (S39 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ELLEN
Barkhad Abdi (JAP) is pranked & Johnny Weir (host) is dapper

— I like Kate’s Ellen confessing that, in regards to always forcing herself to dance for the audience’s entertainment, “Wish I hadn’t danced in my first episode. Wish I just sat the heck down and had a smoothie.”
— Nasim in her ONLY appearance all night, and it’s not even a role with any lines (even if her silence in this sketch is part of the joke in her and Vanessa’s appearance). As I said in my last episode review, Nasim was busy around this time filming the pilot of John Mulaney’s then-upcoming sitcom, so that may account for her being almost completely non-existent in this episode.
— A very funny creepy turn towards the end of Jay’s scene as Barkhad Abdi.
— Interestingly, this is the fourth cold opening of these past five episodes in which the host actually appears.
— I remember that, when this originally aired, Jim Parsons playing a flamboyant gay role here made me worried that SNL was going to typecast him in that type of role all night, due to Jim’s real-life sexual orientation. Thankfully, my worries turned out to be wrong.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Colin Jost has been added to the cast tonight.

By this point of the season, there are now almost as many featured players as there are repertory players. It feels like the featured player portion of tonight’s opening montage goes on forever.


MONOLOGUE
host & other actors with signature roles sing “I’m Not That Guy”

— Oof, Jim botched that “rebroadcast 18 times a week” joke early on in this monologue, causing it to die with the audience.
— (*groan*) A musical monologue, and not even an interesting premise for one this time. This premise is lame.
— I assume this ends up being the last time Bill Cosby is portrayed in an innocent, lighthearted way on SNL, given what comes out about him later this same calendar year…
— None of the TV character walk-ons are particularly funny.
STARS: *½


PETER PAN
Tinkerbell’s brassy half-sister Tonkerbell (AIB) joins Peter Pan (host)

— Aidy’s performance is good, but I’m not caring AT ALL for this actual character she’s playing, and the writing for her is bad.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½


THE BIRD BIBLE
parents (MOB) & (KAM) endorse avian spin on Christianity

— I love the one son just bluntly saying to his family, “This sucks”, and immediately walking off.
— Great delivery from Mike of the line, “What’s the matter, kiddo? Lose another friend?”
— The idea of this feels rather derivative of the Myowling Bible commercial from season 12 (a commercial for a version of the bible that has photos of cats as biblical characters), but I’m actually finding this Bird Bible commercial to be far superior. The execution of it is solid, there are a lot of funny visuals, and I love the low-key execution of all the absurdity.
— A very funny cold look Mike briefly shoots towards his son after calmly telling him, “Let’s just enjoy it for what it is”, after the son suggests the Three Wise Men should’ve been owls.
STARS: ****


THE KILLER FILES
conspicuous serial killer (host) stalked TV dance shows

— Jim is perfectly cast as a killer, given his naturally creepy look.
— Good detail of Jim’s killer character having three names (Marc Allen Henry), like a lot of famous serial killers.
— A big laugh from Jim’s unsettling description of himself during his intro on Soul Train.
— The phone call transcription part is great.
— Hilarious part with Jim looking straight into the camera, flat-out saying “I’m the Dance Floor Killer!”, then giving a creepy smile.
STARS: ****


OSCAR PROFILES: 12 YEARS A SLAVE
reading for racist roles made 12 Years A Slave auditioners uncomfortable

— I like Brooks’ gravelly-delivered “Nooooo…” when initially giving the script a look-over and seeing all of the horribly racist lines he’s required to deliver.
— Another great line from Brooks: “You guys have any north parts?”
— Hilarious how Vanessa and Cecily are asking Jim to read a racist statement directly into the camera operated by a VERY stern-looking black man.
— The mere look of Bobby’s character is hilarious, especially those sideburns.
— After Bobby’s character’s very convincing racist tirade into the camera that’s operated by the aforementioned stern-looking black man, we get an absolutely priceless reveal that Bobby’s just a janitor and wasn’t even aware they’re filming auditions.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Blue Moon”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) discuss NBA current events

Jebidiah Atkinson pans Best Picture nominees & winners from years past

— Colin Jost has become Cecily’s new Update co-anchor.
— A slightly-revamped version of the Update opening title sequence from earlier this season.
— When Cecily welcomes Colin to Update at the beginning of this, Colin takes the time to sincerely tell us he’s so grateful to be here, and that this is a dream come true for him. I remember the decision to have Colin disclose those things really bugged some online SNL fans at the time, including myself, as we felt it was Colin basically begging us to like him and not dare criticize him. I’m a little less salty towards it now (maybe because I’m aware in hindsight that I would eventually go on to like Colin a lot as an Update anchor starting at some point in the following season), but there’s still something about the “It’s a dream come true for me” disclosure that feels very unnecessary to me.
— Feels odd seeing Cecily tell the first Update joke for once, after she previously was always the second anchorperson to deliver jokes in each of this season’s Updates, presumably due to Seth Meyers’ seniority.
— As expected, it also feels so odd no longer seeing Seth delivering Update jokes, after having gotten so used to him doing that in every single Update for these past eight seasons I’ve covered.
— I don’t like how some of the jokes Cecily and Colin are doing tonight feel like ones Seth would’ve done (e.g. the comical Boston accent Colin used when saying Derek Jeter’s last name during the “First openly gay athlete” joke, and Cecily’s “Yakety Sax chase music” joke, the latter of which Seth actually did do at least twice in the past). A huge sign that Colin’s new presence at the Update desk still isn’t changing the undeniable fact that the style of Update itself is in dire need of a complete overhaul (which we would thankfully get the following season).
— When Kenan and Jay’s Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal make their entrance, the camera accidentally cuts to an odd-looking brief close-up of Cecily shaking her head while looking at Kenan and Jay in amazement with an open-mouthed smile on her face (screencap below).

After this camera gaffe, Kenan seems to be aware something went wrong, as he ad-libs an amused “What just happened???”, and a now-off-camera Cecily is then heard ad-libbing “I was enjoying you!”
— This Barkley/Shaq commentary is so fun that even Jay’s accidental delay in his delivery of a punchline at one point comes off affable and funny instead of hampering the joke.
— Jay’s Shaq childishly imitating Kenan-as-Barkley’s hand movements when Kenan’s Barkley is speaking to Colin reminds me of Alex Moffat’s Eric Trump regularly doing that in the later Update commentaries that he and Mikey Day’s Donald Trump Jr. would do together.
— So far in this first Update of his, Colin is indeed coming off stiff, bland, and Seth Meyers-lite (the latter of which is the last thing Update needs after so many damn endless years of affable blandness from Seth himself), just like all the critics said about him back at this time, but I’m not finding all of these things about Colin to be quite as bad in hindsight (again, probably because I’m now aware of how much I would later like him on Update the following seasons). However, he’s still coming off as a pale shadow of his future, more-developed Update self.
— Jebidiah Atkinson! This character always kills.
— (*groan*) Did Cecily inherit Seth’s annoying habit of loudly laughing off-camera when a guest is doing their commentary?
— A fantastic unscripted bit right now during the Jebidiah Atkinson commentary, in which an index card that Taran throws in the air ends up unexpectedly landing neatly on top of the cards in Taran’s hand (seen in the last in the above group of screencaps for this Update), leading Taran to ad-lib a great “Couldn’t do it again if I tried.”
— Jebidiah Atkinson: “I’d rather let Woody Allen watch my kids than watch this again! (*audience reacts in offended amusement*) So let me get this straight – you all trust him?!?”
— At the end of this inaugural Update they have together, Colin and Cecily do their own version of the traditional Seth/Cecily “fist bump” move by doing a “finger bump”.
STARS: **½


MURDER MYSTERY
murder mystery participant (host) is unhappy with his assigned character

— Funny blooper with Taran’s “Dinner will be sherved…” line flub, resulting in a taken-aback smirk from him as he tries his best to stifle his laughter. The fact that Taran doesn’t usually break often makes his flub here come off likable, as does something about the fact that he just played the ad-lib-heavy Jebidiah Atkinson right before this sketch.
— A pretty funny “harmless, oversexed nutball” description of the Simply Dudley character that Jim’s assigned.
— I like Jim’s delivery of “Now what the HELL does that mean?!?” when reading the direction, “Simply Dudley goes to town.”
— A laugh from the “fabulous fanny tickler” glove Jim is given for his Simply Dudley character, as well as the very negative reaction that both Kate and Taran have when Jim uses the glove on a playing-dead Kate.
— After a very frustrated Jim asks “Well, what do you guys want me to do?!?”, I love Cecily aghast delivery of “Not tickle a dead woman’s ass!”
STARS: ***


SPOTLIGHTZ!
Laura Parsons & Spotlightz! peers act in Best Picture nominee adaptations

— I wonder if SNL got the idea to bring this sketch back tonight because Jim shares the same last name as Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character.
— Having the movies the child actors perform be this years Oscar-nominated films is a good way to change this up a bit from the previous installment of this sketch.
— Good performance from Noel, but I didn’t care much for her scene with Jim.
— I like Jim’s character mouthing Laura Parsons’ lines and subtly imitating her gestures.
— This overall sketch wasn’t quite as good as the previous installment of this from earlier this season, but was still decent.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wave”


ELEVATOR
boss who crapped his pants (host) shares elevator ride with his employees

— Given what an awkward live performer he usually tends to be, Mike is surprisingly not bad in his live appearance here.
— I like the realization us viewers gradually come to that the mentioned loud boom from a nearby construction site was the cause of Jim’s “dirty undergarment”.
— While this is a juvenile concept, and poopy humor is worryingly starting to feel like it’s becoming a regular thing in the second half of this season between that game show sketch with Jonah Hill and this, this particular Elevator sketch is actually being executed well, surprisingly.
— Though I hate admitting to laughing at it, I love the jarring contrast that Kenan’s loudly-delivered “Aw, dayum! Smell like dookie in here!” has to the quieter tone this sketch had prior to his appearance. That tone shift was pulled off well.
— Good ending reveal of this taking place in a very tall building, though it doesn’t make sense why Jim is heard exclaiming “Oh, no!” during that exterior shot of the tall building, as if he’s finding out the same time we are of how tall this building is, despite the fact that he’s, you know, A BOSS WHO WORKS IN THAT BUILDING, and thus, should’ve already been well-familiar with how lengthy that building is. A minor nitpick, though.
STARS: ***½


COWBOYS
on the range, (host) pushes for birthday surprise for fellow cowboy (BEB)

— I’m loving Jim’s character’s commitment to his increasingly harebrained popping-out-of-the-ground birthday surprise idea. I especially laughed at the odd detail that he’ll paint his body brown to match the dirt.
— Brooks is doing a really good job blending in with the rest of the cast in this sketch. He doesn’t feel like an underused rookie at all here, and is instead coming off like a comfortable, familiar veteran.
— Even the out-of-place jolly contemporary music played during the “The next day” scene transition is adding to the fun silly nature of this sketch.
— Very funny ending.
— An overall underrated sketch. I not only liked it a lot as a silly little 10-to-1 piece, but I also love how this felt like something I can picture airing in SNL’s late 80s era. More specifically, it had the feel of a typical silly, oddball idea that writers Jack Handey or Conan O’Brien would’ve come up with in that era, and Handey and Conan are two of my personal favorite SNL writers of all time. I can even picture specific late 80s cast members playing the roles in this sketch, such as Phil Hartman in Beck’s role, Dana Carvey in Kyle’s role, Jon Lovitz in Kenan’s role, and Kevin Nealon in Brooks’ role.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I take it this is a notorious episode that’s considered by a number of people to be pretty much a disaster, judging from 1) recent things I’ve heard about this episode, and 2) an online article published shortly after this episode’s original airing that was titled something like “SNL Has Their Worst Episode Ever”. Frankly, I don’t get the hate AT ALL. While this episode did have a real rough and worrisome beginning with that monologue and Tonkerbell sketch, things improved greatly afterwards, with the post-Tonkerbell segments in the first half of the show all being strong, most of the sketches in the second half of the show being decent, and the final sketch of the night (Cowboys) being good-ol’ Jack Handey/Conan O’Brien-esque silliness. I assume that that poopy-pants elevator sketch is just one of the reasons for the ire that a number of people have towards this episode, but come on – I usually hate that type of humor, too, and even *I* can admit that SNL executed it well in this particular sketch. All-in-all, I’m taking the apparently unpopular route and saying this episode was fine, minus a worrisome start and a mediocre Weekend Update debut for Colin Jost.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Oscar Profiles: 12 Years A Slave
The Bird Bible
The Killer Files / Cowboys (tie)
Elevator
Murder Mystery
Ellen
Spotlightz!
Weekend Update
Peter Pan
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Lena Dunham

Posted on

February 1, 2014 – Melissa McCarthy / Imagine Dragons (S39 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HALFTIME SPECTACULAR
Broadway performers are last-minute Super Bowl halftime show replacements

— Kyle’s delivery in the beginning of his appearance cracked me up.
— Funny how the preceding episode’s cold opening had a gentle, fancy sport (ice skating) being presented in an uncharacteristically masculine way, while tonight’s cold opening has a masculine sport (football) being presented in an uncharacteristically gentle, fancy way.
— It’s sadly on-brand for SNL that they don’t even bother putting any lighting on poor, neglected John Milhiser in the close-up of him during his brief appearance (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— Meh, I’m finding myself losing interest in this as it goes on. This Broadway Super Bowl halftime show concept would’ve been funnier as some kind of quick cutaway gag rather than an actual full-length cold opening.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host & BOM settle an old score by fighting while suspended from wires

— A funny backstage pre-tape of Melissa McCarthy and Bobby, and I like how we get a rare instance of the traditional backstage Abraham Lincoln, showgirls, and/or llama actually being acknowledged by someone, with Melissa rudely shoving Lincoln and randomly taking the llama with her as she exits the building.
— Boy, was that cutaway back to Bobby live in the studio after the pre-tape really awkward.
— Ooh, I like this out-of-the-ordinary monologue concept, with Melissa and Bobby engaging in a battle while raised in the air on wires. Some pretty fun visuals and humor here.
STARS: ***½


CVS
girlfriends hate Some Dumb Little Thing From CVS for Valentine’s Day

— Am I crazy, or can you hear a crying baby in the background when Taran realizes at CVS that he forgot Valentine’s Day?
— A solid spiritual successor to the Teddy Bear Holding A Heart commercial from season 31.
— I love Bobby’s smug, shameless delivery of “One minute ago” when Aidy asks him, regarding her cheap Valentine’s gift, “When did you get this?”
— Good voice-over work from Cecily throughout this.
— Absolutely fantastic delivery from Aidy when frankly telling Bobby, “You have hurt me today.”
STARS: ****


DELAWARE 1 NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
newscast airs video of congresswoman Sheila Kelly’s arrogant rampage

— I like that they’re trying to make it a running thing in Melissa McCarthy-hosted episodes to spoof a male figure currently in the news for aggressive, abusive behavior by using Melissa’s Sheila Kelly character as the female version of that figure. This running theme stops after this episode, but in a lot of ways, the Sean Spicer sketches that Melissa would later do are like a repurposed version of these Sheila Kelly sketches.
— Funny escalation to this with the succession of different types of cameras filming Sheila Kelly.
— According to the Camera Blocking Rundown sheet shown during the teaser in the middle of the preceding commercial break (screencap a little below), Melissa was originally going to make a live appearance at some point in this sketch (Melissa and Taran are the only people in the Camera Blocking Rundown sheet’s cast list, which means that the cast list was excluding the pre-taped portions of this sketch, which had various cast members), but her planned live appearance seemingly got scrapped after dress rehearsal.

— Overall, this wasn’t quite as strong or memorable as the basketball coach version of this sketch from Melissa’s season 38 episode, but this was still fine and enjoyable.
STARS: ***½


WOMEN’S GROUP
(host)’s vengeful goals are out of place at housewives’ group meeting

— A huge rarity in recent SNL eras for two full-length live sketches to air back-to-back without a commercial break separating them (even if a majority of the preceding sketch was pre-taped).
— A laugh from how the darkness of Melissa’s character’s opening reveal about herself contrasts with the other women at this group meeting.
— Very funny part with Melissa randomly having yogurt as part of her disturbing, violent collage, like Nasim did.
— Melissa is selling this dark humor well with a solid understated performance.
— I love the reveal from Melissa that the box she brought to the meeting consists of “mostly ears and one penis”
— Melissa, to Vanessa: “How do you feel about gunfire in your home?” Vanessa: “Well…I asked you to take off your shoes, so…”
— A questionable decision to end this sketch by immediately following Melissa jumping through the living room window by showing the same exterior shot of the house that this sketch opened with (a staple of director Don Roy King), where we can clearly see that there’s no shattered living room window.
STARS: ****


PROMO

— Well, this may be a first in SNL history: the “Next live episode” promo just has “SNL” listed in place of a host or musical guest. Obviously, the show must not have had the next host or musical guest booked yet by this point, and I guess the only reason they’re showing this promo tonight is to have Don Pardo’s voice-over let us know the date that SNL returns live after the month-long hiatus they’re about to take due to the Winter Olympics.


GUESS THAT PHRASE!
weird contestant (host) completely fails at game show

— Meh, not caring for this character piece for Melissa, basically being one of the lesser-quality instances of the all-too-familiar “Melissa McCarthy plays an awkward weirdo” trope that dominated her previous two hosting stints. Quite a number of these “Melissa McCarthy plays an awkward weirdo” showcase pieces tend to blend together way too much, as is the case here.
— Beck is a solid straight man game show host here.
— Vanessa, in a consistently cheery manner, regarding what letter she’s picking: “Well, my daughter’s name is Erica, so I’ll pick ‘e’. (a beat) Uh, screw my daughter! ‘T’!”
— I did get a laugh from Melissa discreetly disclosing to Beck the dirty meaning behind the “Pass the mash” phrase.
STARS: **


28 REASONS
high school Black History Month report has slavery rebuke

— A huge laugh from how, after the very lighthearted first reason to hug a black guy, reasons 2-28 are a very-bluntly-and-sternly-delivered-by-Jay “SLAVERY.”
— Between the Resolution Revolution short from two episodes prior and now this short, SNL seems to be trying to make it a regular thing for Sasheer to sing the chorus of their music videos.
— A hilarious twist to the “Raise your hands in the air” part, with Kenan suddenly changing his tune and sternly telling the hands-still-raised-in-the-air white students, “Keep ’em up if your ancestors OWNED US.”
— Great part with a stiffly-rapping Bobby starting to play devil’s advocate, only for Kate to immediately put an end to that.
— I’m loving the cutaways to Kate’s various non-verbal reactions to the song.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Kendrick Lamar [real] perform “Radioactive”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Buford Calloway (TAK) dramatically recalls two inches of Atlanta snow

AMP, Stefon, ANS, David Paterson (FRA) wish SEM farewell on his last SNL

— Seth’s final Weekend Update, after a whopping 8 years behind the desk.
— Taran is always killer in his Update appearances around this time.
— I like Taran’s Southern gentleman character referring to Seth as “Sethory” throughout this commentary.
— I absolutely howled at “Obama’s white friend” being one of the names Taran’s Southern gentleman calls snow.
— Taran’s delivery is tickling the HELL out of me throughout this commentary. He is priceless here.
— Ah, Seth’s final Update joke, which Cecily acknowledges right afterwards. Speaking of which, Seth actually kinda flubbed that final joke of his, mistakenly pronouncing “police” as “poluce”, but I’m glad he didn’t acknowledge that minor flub (or maybe he didn’t even catch it), as acknowledging it would’ve put a damper on the special-ness of it being his final Update joke.
— The initial transition to Seth’s special farewell segment feels kinda awkward and forced, though I know SNL means well here.
— Bill Hader in his very first cameo after leaving the cast.
— I like Stefon’s callback to the club name “…………..(*looks around in a concerned manner*)…………Kevin????”, originally mentioned in one of Stefon’s previous appearances.
— I love Stefon’s various catty, jealous outbursts towards Cecily.
— Andy Samberg out of nowhere, joining in on the Seth farewell.
— Andy’s innocent “It’s your last show???” question after singing a brief farewell song to Seth gave me a pretty good laugh.
— A nice heartfelt goodbye speech that Seth delivers into the camera, and I like the continuity of him referring in passing to Stefon as his husband.
— Amy’s voice is noticeably very hoarse all of a sudden when it’s her turn to say her sign-off at the end of Seth’s goodbye speech. That speech of Seth’s must’ve made Amy get choked-up. I know she and Seth are close friends, which could account for her emotions here, but I wonder if a bigger reason for her getting choked-up is because she and Seth joined SNL together, and, for that reason, perhaps she feels a special connection to Seth saying goodbye.
— And we close out Seth’s farewell by having Fred Armisen’s David Paterson showing up out of nowhere, doing his usual “pop up lost in front of the camera” bit right before the screen fades to black. A very random but decent way to get Fred’s Paterson involved without giving him any actual lines, and this is probably the only one of Fred’s many season 39 cameos that I’ll be tolerant of.
STARS: ***


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Pete Seeger marks his passing

Not included in the copy I’m watching of this episode


ART EXHIBIT
museum technician (host) disrupts Frida Kahlo portrayer (NAP) in live art exhibit

— Ooh, I recall this being a notorious, absolutely dreadful sketch. A part of me is morbidly fascinated to review this.
— Yikes, the awkwardness of Melissa’s entrance is ALREADY setting a bad tone for this sketch, as SNL keeps mistakenly cutting to the wrong camera, causing Melissa to not even be visible onscreen for the entire first 15 seconds she’s in this sketch while angrily ranting to someone.
— This tense back-and-forth between Nasim and Melissa is going absolutely NOWHERE and isn’t remotely funny. In fact, a lot of it isn’t even coming off like it’s intended to be comedic, though I’m sure it IS intended to be. I will say, though, that I did like Nasim’s very pissed-off delivery of “I’m Frida Kahlo, you FULL IDIOT.”
— Not only is Nasim and Melissa’s back-and-forth bickering continuing to be comedy poison, but something about the raw tenseness of it is getting downright uncomfortable to watch.
— What is with all of Melissa’s damn references to this mysterious “Danny Tranz” character? That’s yet ANOTHER aspect of this sketch that’s going absolutely nowhere and is resulting in zero laughs.
— And now this sketch has progressed to Nasim and Melissa’s characters physically fighting each other? In a non-comedic way, to an uncomfortably dead audience? Man, this sketch just gets harder and harder to both figure out AND sit through. I also recall one online SNL fan being under the impression that this physical fight between Nasim and Melissa was actually REAL, instead of being part of the sketch. You see, shortly after the next new episode, when some people on IMDB’s (now-defunct) SNL message board were wondering why Nasim made only a brief, non-speaking appearance that entire night, and some people speculated that that brief, non-speaking appearance of Nasim’s may not have even been live (she was said to be busy that week filming the pilot of John Mulaney’s doomed then-upcoming sitcom, which Nasim would soon leave SNL altogether for after this season ends), the aforementioned online SNL fan said the reason for Nasim making her only appearance of the night in a possibly-pre-taped brief shot was because SNL was punishing her for getting into a real fight with the preceding episode’s guest host, Melissa McCarthy, on live TV. Wow. I know that Nasim/Melissa fight had an uncomfortably believable vibe in how straight and humorless it was being played, but geez, it actually made an SNL fan think that it was REAL? That two utmost professionals like Nasim and Melissa got so angry with each other during a sketch that they came to GENUINE BLOWS on live TV? Heh, I find it far more amusing than anything in this actual sketch that an SNL fan took this obviously-scripted fight as being 100% real, almost like SNL was trying to pull some Andy-Kaufman-on-“Fridays” mess.
— And mercifully, this utter trainwreck of a sketch is now over, and absolutely lived up to my horrible memory of it. I’d really like to know what the flying fuck whoever wrote this sketch was attempting with this.
STARS: *


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
Morgan’s divorcee friend (host) has Hawaiian beau

— Huh? What’s this recurring sketch doing on so late in tonight’s episode? All of the previous installments of this sketch aired in the very cushy, coveted post-monologue lead-off spot. Now, all of a sudden, it’s thrown on around the 12:40 timeslot, just 20-25 minutes before the show ends? Perhaps a sign that even SNL themselves are aware that this recurring sketch has lost the promising steam it started out with in its first two or so installments. Pretty telling for this recurring sketch that not only is it being buried unusually late in the show tonight, but that even the “Danny Tranz” debacle of a sketch somehow got a better timeslot in this episode than Girlfriends Talk Show did. Ouch!
— Ah, at least we get a change of pace with Aidy’s character finally getting to be the one to choose the guest, instead of being blindsided ONCE AGAIN by Cecily’s character choosing the guest without her knowledge. Not only that, but the guest Aidy’s character brings on is Donna, the adult divorcee character who was mentioned in previous installments of this sketch as someone Aidy’s character frequently hangs out with. Nice continuity. All that being said, I’m still very wary on know this sketch will turn out, given the fact that the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s episode tried to change up the formula a bit, and that still didn’t stop the sketch from feeling stale and old hat.
— (*sigh*) And, just as I predicted above, the “change of pace” in tonight’s installment ends up going the same damn direction this recurring sketch always goes in.
— Ugh, and there’s goes yet another beyond-tired staple of this recurring sketch, with Aidy and the guest each saying a different thing in unison when revealing what today’s topic is.
— I do like Aidy’s delivery of “That gay silver fox is miiiine!”, regarding her bedroom poster of Anderson Cooper.
— Solid ad-lib from Melissa when she has a hard time getting one of her lines out.
— Geez, did we need TWO instances tonight of the “Aidy and the guest each say a different thing in unison when revealing a topic on the show” trope?
— A good “5-0” double entendre from Melissa.
— Cecily’s obligatory “My boyfriend’s crazy” story is somewhat of a step up from the weak one she had in the last installment prior to this.
— Blah, unlike the aforementioned “5-0” double entendre, Melissa’s second double entendre, the “lei” one, was lame and cliched.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Demons”


SUMMER IN A DAY
(BOM) romanticizes brief park bench encounter with obnoxious Diane (host)

— Meh, yet another “Melissa McCarthy plays a disgusting, awkward weirdo” sketch. I do kinda like the unusual format of this particular sketch, though.
— Bobby’s narration is decent, though the sketch itself isn’t making me laugh all that much.
— Melissa: “Watch my shit, I gotta pee.” Well, oooookay. A very casual and random s-bomb from a three-time host. I remember there was a little debate on SNL boards regarding whether Melissa said the actual ‘s’ word or just a similar-sounding substitute. Although she said it in a fairly mush-mouthed manner, due to having food in her mouth, that word sure sounds like “shit” to me, no matter how many times I watch it.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


SUPER CHAMPIONS WITH KYLE
in Times Square, doubletalking KYM interviews Super Bowl fans

— Yesss!!! Kyle doing his “awkward man-on-the-street interviewer” routine that he used to do pre-SNL on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live and Sports Show With Norm Macdonald. Those shows were where I originally discovered Kyle, how I instantly became a fan of his oddball comedy, and why I was so happy a year or so later when it was announced he was joining the SNL cast.
— Kyle’s awkward mumbliness and bizarre interactions with people on the street are hilarious.
— A very funny touch with the incredibly bad, low-budget computer graphics shown during scene transitions, which also used to be a staple of this man-on-the-street routine of Kyle’s in the aforementioned shows he originally did it on.
— All of this is a true riot so far.
— I love Kyle’s “That’s not what he sounds like!” response in regards to the voice that the guy in the Super Mario costume speaks in.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, this is the first Good Neighbor SNL short to not have Beck in it.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good pre-Weekend Update half, though not without its problems. But the show’s quality took a real dive in the post-Weekend Update half, including one of the most uncomfortable, unfunniest sketches (Art Exhibit) I’ve ever had to sit through for this SNL project of mine. And some of the same-ol’ problems that plagued the previous two Melissa McCarthy-hosted episodes crept up tonight, in which there’s an overabundance of “Melissa McCarthy plays an awkward weirdo” showcase pieces, which I always run extremely hot-and-cold on, and SNL having a night full of them starts feeling too same-y and tired. If those “Melissa McCarthy plays an awkward weirdo” showcase pieces at least had consistently good writing instead of being so wildly hit-and-miss, maybe I wouldn’t complain much about them dominating Melissa’s episodes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Super Champions with Kyle
CVS
28 Reasons
Women’s Group
Delaware 1 News Special Report
Monologue
Weekend Update
Summer in a Day
Girlfriends Talk Show
Guess That Phrase!
Halftime Spectacular
Art Exhibit


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonah Hill)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jim Parsons hosts. We also get the addition of a new cast member/Weekend Update co-anchor.

Posted on

January 25, 2014 – Jonah Hill / Bastille (S39 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE U.S. MEN’S HETEROSEXUAL FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS
heterosexual male figure skaters (BOM), (JAP), (BEB) lack flamboyance

— Funny concept of ridiculously-heterosexual male figure skaters, as a result of the controversy regarding that year’s Winter Olympics.
— Pretty solid performance from Bobby.
— Beck is very funny during the pairs team scene, especially the lengths he goes through just to take an upskirt photo of Kate with his phone.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Leonardo DiCaprio [real] deflates Oscar nominee host’s self-admiration

— It feels a little rare to see questions-from-the-audience monologues anymore in these past few seasons that I’ve been covering. At least this monologue format is a way for some of this season’s very underused featured players to get much-needed-albeit-still-too-brief airtime, much like how the (many) questions-from-the-audience monologues in season 19 gave some much-needed-albeit-still-too-brief airtime to very underused featured player Sarah Silverman.
— The conceit with all of the audience members’ questions to Jonah Hill just being about his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio feels derivative of a few other questions-from-the-audience monologues (e.g. Jason Priestley).
— It’s very surprising that this is the first (and, I believe, only, as of 2020) SNL appearance DiCaprio has ever made.
— I like the What’s Eating Gilbert Grape reference Jonah drops to Leo.
— Some okay interplay between Jonah and Leo, but this feels drawn-out and a little corny at times, and I’m finding myself getting a little bored at certain points.
STARS: **½


SIX YEAR OLD
6 year-old Adam once again uses Benihana as a venue for his comedy material

— This staple of Jonah Hill episodes returns, and, as usual, he appears in that same-old Benihana setting. (*groan*) I actually like this character a lot (probably more than most people do), but damn, SNL, would it kill you to put this character in a non-Benihana setting for once? There are so many fresh, promising settings this character can be put in. It’s so lazy to always relegate this character to only appearing in a Benihana.
— Nice continuity and passing-of-the-torch by having the guardian who’s accompanying Jonah’s Adam Grossman character tonight be his now-stepmother, who was introduced as Adam’s father’s new girlfriend in the last installment of this sketch prior to this episode. A good way to work around Bill Hader no longer being around to play Adam’s father.
— As usual, Jonah’s very good in this role and is cracking me up all throughout this, even if I can’t find much to say about this.
STARS: ****


THE HIT
gunmen (KET), (TAK), (JAP) are enchanted by nighttime snowfall

— Pretty funny conceit with hardcore gangsters gradually and uncharacteristically speaking glowingly about the snowfall, to the degree where Jay’s the only sane one left in the bunch.
— Good ending with Kenan and Taran immediately driving off in a casual manner after Jay gets gunned down.
STARS: ***½


COUPLES QUIZ!
game show contestant (host) admits to clogging toilet

— Not crazy about this premise, though I got a laugh from Kenan’s friendly, innocent delivery of “So, uh…….who did this???” when trying to get the contestants to confess to clogging the toilet.
— They seem to be trying to make it a regular thing for Kenan as a game show host to have an angry “NO!” outburst and rant towards someone, after the New Cast Member Or Arcade Fire sketch from earlier this season.
— I continue to have very mixed feelings towards this premise. It’s way too juvenile and questionable for my likes, and the fact that they would end up making this premise a semi-staple of Jonah Hill-hosted episodes sours me somewhat even more in hindsight, but the ridiculous lengths that the characters are going through just to get Jonah to confess are making me chuckle, as are some of Kenan’s outlandish reasons for why this game show is making such a big deal about a mere clogged toilet.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pompeii”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Miami police officer (KET) was amused during his arrest of Justin Bieber

miserable Olya Povlatsky can’t fathom why the Olympics would pick Russia

— Ha, that Bieber mugshot photo always cracks me up (the first above screencap for this Update).
— Kenan’s good in his laid-back commentary as the cop who arrested Justin Bieber, and he has some funny lines, especially his remarks about Bieber’s father.
— Cecily’s drunk Scottish fish joke (“YOU…DON’T…KNOW…ME!”) is probably her most-remembered Update joke from her entire short-lived Update tenure.
— I like how Seth, after a weak joke, ad-libs a callback to Cecily’s “YOU…DON’T…KNOW…ME!” line by quoting it, leading into an all-too-rare instance of actual interaction and chemistry between Seth and Cecily.
— Another ironic SNL instance of Kate playing a character who says at one point, “I wish I was gay.”
— As usual, Kate’s Olya Povlatsky is very funny and likable, and has some great lines.
STARS: ***


WILLOW
a horse kicks, headbutts, bites, brands its groomers (host) & (CES)

— A laugh from the first hit that Cecily receives from the horse.
— Boy, after the aforementioned first hit, this sketch has fizzled out for me FAST. The comedic conceit is one-joke and weak. Maybe if the horse’s violent actions were increasingly outlandish, over-the-top, and non-horse-like, I’d find this funny.
— I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2014 saying this felt like a throwback to Jack Handey-written sketches from the late 80s and early 90s. When I initially read that comparison, after having not enjoyed this sketch during my original viewing the night it originally aired, my ears perked up (Handey’s my personal favorite SNL writer of all time), so I then followed that by giving this sketch a re-watch with that new perspective, and I ended up enjoying it. However, all these years later, during my current re-watch, I’m no longer finding myself enthusiastic at all about this sketch, nor do I find the sketch to be Handey-esque. Handey likely would’ve done much more creative, oddball stuff with this premise if he wrote this.
— Okay, so they actually fulfilled my wish for the horse’s violent actions to be more outlandish and non-horse-like, with the ending of this sketch having the horse brand Cecily’s face. Unfortunately, even that fell completely flat for me.
STARS: *½


ME
Theodore Twombly (host) is narcissistic with surrogate (Michael Cera)

— A somewhat interesting concept for a “her” parody.
— Pretty solid scene with Jonah and Vanessa in an elevator.
— Figures that Michael Cera would be cast in this particular role.
STARS: ***


BOSS DINNER
at his boss’ (BEB) house, unnerved (host) yells at himself within earshot

— Another sketch tonight with a thin, dumb, and repetitive premise, but Jonah is actually making this one work. His delivery of his off-camera yells has me in absolute STITCHES. I guess I can place this sketch in the “guilty pleasure” file.
— Jonah’s “Jeffrey has a tummy-ache!” bit, and his reaction to that, is very funny.
STARS: ****


INSIDE SOCAL
laid-back teens (BEB) & (KYM) make TV at a house party

— A trunk piece from Beck and Kyle’s pre-SNL days on YouTube.
— Funny cutaway to Mike and Brooks, though there’s also a lot of reality subtext there, whether intended or not, as Mike and Brooks’ appearance here is brief and just features them standing there with awkward looks on their faces, not saying a single word, all of which sadly sums up the way SNL typically under-utilizes them (and a lot of this season’s other featured players). This also ends up being the ONLY appearance Mike and Brooks make all night (and it’s not even a live appearance), so…yeah.
— Some pretty good laughs from the intentional stilted, low-budget presentation of this show, especially the bad segment jingles.
— Great walk-on from Bobby as Jonah’s pissed-off father.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Oblivion”


LAMBORGHINI
(host) & vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Lamborghini

— Vanessa’s monotone “Meep meep” made me laugh.
— Vanessa: “Hasta la vista, scabies.”
— There’s something I loved about Cecily’s extremely random “Why I oughtaaaa…!” non-sequitur.
— Vanessa, when trying to remember the word for pedals: “What are those things you press with your feet?” Cecily: “Testicles.”
— Cecily: “One time, I thought I banged Seal Team Six, but it was actually 16 seals. I was like, ‘Thanks, America! Arf arf.’”
— Vanessa’s whole funeral story is very funny.
— Cecily: “I thought I was in the movie Alien, but it was just a big penis in my stomach.”
— Jonah’s “Well, I don’t know if you can fit a whole car…” line during his confusion about Lamborghini being a vaginal device made me laugh out loud.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, though, for some reason, I’m left feeling it was kind of forgettable. Despite the good ratings I gave out throughout the review, I can’t help but have kind of a nagging “It was fine, but in a very average, unexciting, ‘just there’ kind of way” gut feeling towards this episode, which, in some ways, is kinda par for the course in regards to how I typically feel about Jonah Hill-hosted episodes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lamborghini
Boss Dinner
Six Year Old
The U.S. Men’s Heterosexual Figure Skating Championships
Inside SoCal
The Hit
Weekend Update
me
Monologue
Couples Quiz!
Willow


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Melissa McCarthy hosts. It’s also the final episode for 13-year veteran Seth Meyers.