Tag: Season 39

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January 18, 2014 – Drake (S39 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PIERS MORGAN LIVE
Chris Christie (BOM), Alex Rodriguez (host), Justin Bieber (KAM) respond to their scandals

— This ends up being the final appearance of both this recurring sketch and Taran’s Piers Morgan impression.
— I got a laugh from how one of the “positive” New Jersey qualities that Bobby’s Chris Christie lists off is “a vague chemical smell”.
— Drake already showing what a fun host he’ll be tonight, as he’s doing a solid job here in his scene as Alex Rodriguez.
— The debut of Kate’s Justin Bieber impression, back in the days when Kate playing a male in a cold opening was actually rare.
— Kate is absolutely priceless and spot-on in her Bieber impression here, especially the gestures.
— Kate’s Bieber, when asked what his age is: “I think I’m 40. Maybe I’m 5…I don’t know, my brain is broken.”
— That LFNY from Kate seemed abruptly thrown in out of absolutely nowhere. Makes me wonder if this wasn’t originally the cold opening in dress rehearsal. The fact that Drake appears in this supports that theory of mine, given how rare it is for hosts to appear in cold openings in recent SNL eras.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Sasheer Zamata has been added to the cast tonight, as SNL’s answer to all of the criticisms they faced this season for having no black women in the cast while hiring an overabundance of new white cast members.


MONOLOGUE
black & Jewish halves of host’s family commingle at his bar mitzvah

— Drake is immediately coming off very likable here.
— A rare instance of a sketch within a monologue, utilizing a different set and everything. This could be fun.
— Some good corny lines from Vanessa and Jay as Drake’s parents.
— I like the little bit with Drake’s mom making him change his new “Drake” moniker to the Jewish-sounding “Drakob”.
— It sure didn’t take them long to drop the comical pretense of this bar mitzvah taking place in 1999, as the rap that Drake is doing is oddly making references to celebrities like LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West, none of whom I believe were famous yet in 1999.
STARS: ***½


HIP HOP CLASSICS
hip-hop artists got started on unlikely TV shows

— A fun and promising concept.
— Taran’s Eminem impression always cracks me up, and his “CHOOSE YOURSELF! YOUR INTERNSHIP’S IMPORTANT!” line from this sketch has stuck in my memory over the years.
— Boy, does this Family Matters spoof really take me back to my childhood in the 90s.
— Kenan’s Carl Winslow/Reginald Vel Johnson voice is absolutely spot-on and hilarious.
— The spoof of the Blossom opening credits is something else that’s taking me back to my 90s childhood.
— Jay’s 2 Chainz is very funny during his angry confrontation of Kate and Noel.
— The Wonder Years/Flavor Flav scene is pretty awful, and is kinda hurting the momentum of an otherwise good sketch.
STARS: ***½


NANCY GRACE
to Nancy Grace (NOW), legalized Colorado marijuana is a cause for alarm

— A rare Noel Wells showcase. It’s about damn time, SNL.
— Is Drake going out of his way to do ALL of the impressions from Jay’s repertoire? (Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and now Katt Williams.) Drake has been funny in all those roles, though, so I’m not complaining.
— As much as I want to root for Noel, I’m having very mixed feelings towards her Nancy Grace performance here.
— I’m also noticing that the audience isn’t all that into Noel’s performance either. They’re laughing less and less at her as this sketch progresses, to the degree that her last “WHAT ABOUT THE BABIES?!?!?!?” outburst receives a long, uncomfortable stretch of absolute dead silence from the audience. Ouch! If this sketch had any chances of convincing SNL to give Noel more airtime, the bad audience reaction must’ve put the kibosh on that fast. This would sadly end up being her final lead role on SNL, despite the fact that the woman still has, you know, HALF A SEASON remaining on the show. While I’m iffy on her performance in this sketch, she still deserved another chance to prove herself after this.
STARS: **½


RESOLUTION REVOLUTION
(TAK), (host), (JAP) undergo willpower failure

— Very catchy opening song from Taran. I kinda wanted it to go on longer before it cut off.
— The abruptness of the cutaway to Jay’s sex doll-humping scene is very funny.
— I like the randomness of how extended the cosplay scene goes on, and how that scene starkly contrasts to the rest of this music video.
STARS: ***½


SLUMBER PARTY
at a slumber party, Melanie (AIB) yearns for girl’s (SAZ) dad (host)

— Drake is surprisingly PERFECT as a cheesy middle-aged dad. And I’ll never forget some people on an SNL board jokingly referring to his character in this sketch as “Black Ned Flanders”, based on his look.
— Interesting kid voice from Kate. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her use that voice before or after this.
— Aidy’s doing well in this, and has good lines all throughout.
— Very funny ending regarding Aidy suggestively lying face-down on a beanbag with her hands under her body.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Started From The Bottom” & “Trophies”


WEEKEND UPDATE
spacey Jacqueline Bisset (VAB) has trouble getting from audience to stage

Arianna Huffington (NAP) mulls Hillary Clinton’s presidential viability

— I’m loving Vanessa’s bit as Jacqueline Bisset in SNL’s audience, spoofing Bisset’s appearance at the then-recent Golden Globes. This is not only funny and features solid execution by Vanessa, but the studio audience setting is a refreshing change of pace for an Update segment.
— For the second time this season, my growing tolerance towards Cecily as an Update anchor unfortunately gets set back by her regressing, though I don’t put the blame all on her this time. She’s been saddled with a lot of corny, weak jokes tonight that I’m not sure any Update anchor could’ve made work.
— This ends up being the final appearance of Nasim’s Arianna Huffington.
— As usual, some good comments from Nasim’s Huffington, even if I feel she’s had some better commentaries in the past.
— Given the trend the last few Updates prior to this of Update guests getting emotional over Seth’s soon-to-come departure, and also given the trend of Nasim’s Huffington always flirting with Seth, I’m surprised tonight’s Huffington commentary went by without her saying anything about how much she’s gonna miss Seth. Maybe SNL felt they overdid the “guests emotionally say goodbye to Seth” thing in the last few Updates, especially since Seth ends up staying a little longer than SNL originally expected, reportedly.
— A good continuation of Vanessa’s Jacqueline-Bisset-in-the-audience bit.
— Cecily’s punchline to the news story about a man who experienced an erection for five weeks after falling off of his mountain bike: “So…I know what I’m gettin’ my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day…..” Ugh. While that’s actually a funny joke in itself and Cecily’s delivery sold it, it’s a little disturbing when you realize Cecily’s real-life boyfriend at this time was her castmate Mike O’Brien. And thus, that mountain bike/erection joke of Cecily’s plants an image of Mike in my mind that I could’ve happily lived the rest of my life not ever having.
— The conclusion to the Jacqueline Bisset runner was somewhat predictable, but Vanessa executed it well.
STARS: **½


DISNEY WORLD SHOW
at Disney World, language barrier hamstrings would-be Indiana Jones (NAP)

— Nasim, upon her entrance, constantly repeating “I…am…Rahat” to increasingly dead silence from SNL’s audience makes me worried for what kind of sketch awaits me.
— And now, we get another often-repeated line from Nasim’s character: “This is my rice.” Blah.
— Most of Nasim’s character pieces work for me, but this is a big ol’ miss for me.
— Drake gives yet another fantastic performance tonight, and he is spot-on as a typical upbeat amusement park host (whatever the official title for that occupation is). He’s making me laugh far more than the actual main comedic focus of this sketch: Nasim’s Rahat character.
— Great line from Drake about a video of this whole Rahat situation being put up on YouTube.
— The ending was just plain dumb. And why did Nasim fall down a full second BEFORE the boulder “knocked her over”? And then she gets up and randomly throws herself onto the boulder??? Why???
STARS: *½


DETENTION
Miss Meadows brings her love of poetry to students serving detention

— A cute and oddly likable character from Vanessa the first time she appeared earlier this season, but I’m not sure I needed a second appearance from her, especially one that’s in the exact same classroom setting as last time.
— Oof, Brooks’ delivery of his one line in this sketch was pretty rough.
— When Vanessa’s Miss Meadows character asks if the students have any poetry-related questions, I love how the question Drake asks her is a concerned, “I’m just tryin’ to make sure, like, are you alright?”, in regards to her odd behavior and vocalizations.
— So far, this is way too much of a lazy carbon copy of the first installment of this sketch, right down to having the exact same two cast members (Aidy, Kenan) read a poem in front of the class. I did like Aidy’s poem in tonight’s installment, though.
— This continues to be a lazy carbon copy of the first installment, as Drake now reads a love poem that becomes increasingly clear that it’s about Miss Meadows, leading to Drake suddenly kissing Meadows on the neck, all of which Miley Cyrus previously did in the first installment.
— Continuing to show what an awkward live performer he is, Mike breaks in response to Vanessa’s over-the-top vocalizations while Drake is flirting with her.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Hold On We’re Going Home”
host & Jhené Aiko [real] perform “From Time”


MORNIN’ MIAMI
(host) & fellow Mornin’ Miami anchors are only sunny when the camera’s on

 

— Not only is this the SECOND consecutive sketch tonight that’s being brought back from this season’s Miley Cyrus episode, but these two consecutive sketches also aired back-to-back in Miley’s episode (separated only by a musical performance, much like tonight), though in the opposite order than they’re airing tonight.
— Unlike the Miss Meadows sketch, this retread is actually working, thanks to the fact that the bizarre promos that the three Mornin’ Miami hosts deliver into the camera are not only new in each installment of this sketch, but are hilarious. I especially like Bobby’s “One fish, two fish, red fish, Jew fish” line, and his mention of Orthodox fisherman Schmooley Majors.
— Like last time, I can forgive the repetitiveness of the sequences with the three hosts angrily sitting in miserable silence between promo shoots, but it was very unnecessary to repeat one particular gag from the first installment of this sketch, where Kate breaks the miserable silence by starting to sing, only to IMMEDIATELY get shut down by Bobby.
— I like the running gag this recurring sketch has with the mentions of “actor Topher Grace”.
— Like last time, we get a funny reveal of what Bobby’s character’s “B.F.” initials stand for. This time, instead of “Bitch Fantastic”, it’s “Burt Fingerblast”.
STARS: ****


I KNOW
(KYM) annoys (BEB) with nonstop casual claims of omniscience

 

— First time we’ve gotten a Beck/Kyle short in quite a while.
— A good and realistic situation for Beck and Kyle, and I’m enjoying all the fast cuts from Beck and Kyle at one location to another.
— I laughed at the intentionally bad, unconvincing way Kyle slipped on the floor.
— More laughs from intentionally bad cheesiness, this time with the visual of Kyle’s ghost and his stilted delivery.
— Speaking of Kyle’s delivery as his ghost, I like the little touch with the humorous “poignant” manner in which he says the word “smart” (“sss…mart”).
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Drake gives a special shoutout to newbie Sasheer, and asks the audience to give her a round of applause. Between the fairly large amount of appearances Sasheer made in this debut episode of hers, and now this special moment she gets during the goodnights, plus the special attention that her hire in general got in the media due to the many complaints SNL previously received for not having any black women in this season’s cast, I remember this episode made me think at this time in 2014 that Sasheer was a cast member we would be seeing PLENTY of over the years. Little did I know…….

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode, even if there were barely any segments that stood out to me as particularly great. Drake was a strong host, being fun, funny, and likable, and adding something to every single sketch. He even came off engaging during the longer-than-usual goodnights speech he gave, and even managed to throw in a funny mention of Lorne at the end of the second musical performance.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Mornin’ Miami
Slumber Party
Hip Hop Classics
i know
Resolution Revolution
Piers Morgan Live
Monologue
Weekend Update
Nancy Grace
Detention
Disney World Show


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Fallon)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jonah Hill

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December 21, 2013 – Jimmy Fallon / Justin Timberlake (S39 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WRAPPINVILLE
singing & dancing mascot & gift bag (JIF) contend with a wrapper (AIB)

— Pretty funny singing from Aidy early on in this cold opening.
— (*groan*) Yet another one of Justin Timberlake’s tepid Dancing Mascot sketches. On the bright side, 1) this thankfully ends up being the final one, and 2) at least there’s a slither of a change of pace by having Jimmy Fallon partnered up with Justin. Having Jimmy in this actually makes sense, given the fact that the style of the typical song parodies in these Dancing Mascot sketches is similar to the song parodies Jimmy often used to do on Weekend Update while playing the guitar. (In fact, one of the songs he and Justin spoof in tonight’s Dancing Mascot sketch, Ludacris’ “Rollout”, was even previously spoofed by Jimmy in one of his Update song parodies.)
— What in the WORLD is with that off-camera female audience member who keeps interrupting this sketch by shouting a very annoying cheer like a lunatic (“AY-YA-YA-YA-YAAAA!”) whenever Aidy tries to speak each time after a Timberlake/Fallon musical number ends? At one point, that audience member’s shouting forces poor Aidy to basically drop character while in the middle of delivering a line, and, in a taken-aback manner, briefly acknowledge the audience member’s yells before going back on-script. Shortly after one of those yells from the audience member, Justin also ad-libs, “Quiet, mom.”
— Meh at Justin and Jimmy’s homoerotic “deck-sacking” disclosure.
— I am at least finding some of the hit songs being spoofed here to be catchy, especially “Somebody That I Used To Know”, “Thrift Shop”, and the aforementioned “Rollout”.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
JIF & Paul McCartney [real] sing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

— I got a laugh from Jimmy bluntly disclosing, “Unfortunately, they can’t be here”, after getting the audience’s hopes up by telling them which legendary singers he’s supposed to do a musical number with.
— A fairly fun format with Jimmy having to run from mic to mic while imitating the legendary singers who he was supposed to do this number with, even if most of these are impressions that we’ve previously seen Dana Carvey do either just as well or better. Jimmy at least does a better David Bowie than I think I’ve ever seen anyone on SNL do.
— It’s getting less and less surprising to see Paul McCartney show up on SNL, given the frequency of his SNL appearances, but I guess it’s still pretty nice seeing him assist Jimmy here.
STARS: ***


CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD
CBS & NBC network stars do battle

— The first of many Steve Harvey-hosted Celebrity Family Feud sketches.
— Pretty solid Jim Parsons impression from Jimmy, even nailing the mouth movements.
— A meta aspect with Justin (who’s starting to feel like a co-host of this episode) playing Jimmy. Even if this feels very inside joke-y between Justin and Jimmy (you can tell this is designed to make the easily-breakable Jimmy break hard), I’m finding Justin’s impression of Jimmy to be pretty good.
— Lots of very funny lines from Kenan’s Steve Harvey throughout this sketch.
— Hilarious Ice-T impression from Jay.
— Speaking of meta, we get a very memorable meta bit with Brooks randomly playing himself as one of the contestants on the NBC team, and making fun of his own lack of screentime at SNL. I remember loving this meta bit when it originally aired. I don’t know if Brooks eventually getting fired after this season now casts a pall over this meta bit in hindsight or not, but it still works for me, and it adds to how likable and relatable Brooks typically is as a performer.
— There’s our obligatory breaking from Jimmy in response to Justin’s impression of him when both of them are up at the main podium together. When Jimmy turns his head away from the camera to hide his giggling, I do kinda like how Justin actually imitates that head-turn, keeping up the impression he’s doing.
— I generally like Noel as an impressionist, but something about her Alyson Hannigan impression here feels like she’s trying too hard to be funny.
— During our second obligatory display of breaking from Jimmy in response to Justin’s impression of him, Jimmy literally DUCKS BEHIND HIS PODIUM to hide his laughing from the camera (the last above screencap for this sketch). I remember hearing about something similar once happening at a party that both Jimmy and Ben Affleck were at. (This was many years ago, I think back when Jimmy was still a cast member on SNL.) At one point during that party, Ben suddenly pulled out an impression of Jimmy to impress the other partygoers, and that made Jimmy get so shy and embarrassed that it resulted in him immediately dashing out of the room (while giggling, of course) and hiding in another room.
STARS: ***½


(DO IT ON MY) TWIN BED
sex during the holidays is awkward in women’s childhood rooms

— Our very first of many instances of the female cast starring together in a music video. And what a very famous first instance this particular one is.
— And with this being the first female cast-starring music video, we get our very first mention of Aidy’s classic moniker, “Lil’ Baby Aidy”.
— A perfect mixture of both an excellent song and subject matter, and the female cast is great in this.
— Very funny bit from Aidy regarding “a whole thing with Jean”.
— Great small appearance from Beck as Noel’s uncle.
— One of my absolute favorite parts of this has always been the sequence in which we see a childhood photo of each of the girls and Jimmy. I always find it so fun seeing what cast members looked like as kids, which reminds me that Reese Witherspoon’s Mother’s Day-themed season 40 monologue is coming up soon, and if you remember that monologue, you’ll know why I’m reminded of it and why I’m looking forward to covering it.
— Overall, a true classic. I recall SNL having a fairly hit-and-miss track record with their subsequent female cast-starring music videos, but this one definitely still holds up for me.
STARS: *****


THE BARRY GIBB TALK SHOW
Madonna & Barry Gibb [real] take part

— (*groan*) Much like with the cold opening earlier in this episode, I’m sure you readers know how I feel about seeing this sketch return.
— At least it was refreshing to get a much-needed break from this sketch the last time both Jimmy and Justin each hosted (separately). And, much like the Dancing Mascot recurring sketch, this thankfully ends up being the final time this sketch appears (at least as of 2020).
— So are we just supposed to ignore the fact that the real Robin Gibb had been dead for a year-and-a-half by this point? They don’t even try to acknowledge that in this sketch, not even in a humorous way like they memorably did in one brief point of the Joan Allen-involved Space The Infinite Frontier sketch that Will Ferrell did not too long after the real Harry Caray’s death. (Joan Allen: “Please forgive me for asking this, but didn’t you die?” Harry Caray: “Yes I did. What’s your point?”)
— Random Madonna.
— Hmm, a change of pace with Madonna actually standing up to Jimmy’s Barry Gibb, and taming him. As much as I appreciate them trying something different with the formula for once, I’m still left a little underwhelmed by this confrontation between Madonna and Jimmy’s Barry. And whatever Madonna was attempting with that grille she put in her mouth during the confrontation didn’t land with me nor the audience.
— Some of Jimmy-as-Barry’s typical angry rants at the guests are coming off hard to decipher here.
— A sudden cameo at the end from the real Barry Gibb, hopefully there to intentionally give this sketch its official sendoff so we can NEVER SEE IT AGAIN FOR THE REST OF HUMANITY.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Only When I Walk Away”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Billie Jean King (KAM) relishes bringing gayness to the 2014 Olympics

JIF, SEM, Michael Bloomberg [real] will soon be leaving their jobs

— Another then-innocent Donald Trump joke that’s interesting to hear years later in hindsight (for obvious reasons), this particular joke being about Trump’s announcement that he’s considering running for governor of New York (wait, what???): “Explained Trump, ‘If I’m not constantly in the news, I will die.’”
— I like Cecily’s little “I’m from Chicago, I can do that” ad-lib after her Kim Jong-Un/Dennis Rodman joke. These past two Updates, I’ve gradually been warming up to Cecily as an Update anchor.
— Tons of cliched lesbian jokes in Kate’s Billie Jean King commentary, and there have been funnier “Kate McKinnon plays a brash hardass” bits elsewhere on SNL. Probably not a good sign that Kate doing this type of “brash hardass” characterization is ALREADY starting to feel stale and cliched when she had only been on SNL for a little over a season-and-a-half by this point. Because of how somewhat-new she still is by this point, and knowing in hindsight that the upcoming 2014-2017 years would be Kate at the peak of her strength as a performer (or at least, that’s how I felt at the time; we’ll see if that opinion of mine holds up in my re-watch of those years), I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt here and assume that it’s just the tepid writing that’s to blame for her “brash hardass” characterization feeling stale and tired here. That being said, I’m actually still getting a few laughs from her in this commentary.
— Meh, I’m not caring much for this Jimmy Fallon/Michael Bloomberg commentary.
— At one point during the Fallon/Bloomberg commentary, the choked-up voice Jimmy uses when comically holding back tears sounds JUST LIKE Mike Myers whenever his Linda Richman character would get “a little verklempt” in Coffee Talk sketches. Possibly another sign of how much Jimmy idolized that early 90s era of SNL. (In the “SNL In The 90s” documentary, Jimmy talks about how exciting it was for him to watch the Bad Boys years in the early 90s, because, as he says, that was the first SNL era to speak to his generation. Plus, you can see some Adam Sandler and Mike Myers influences in some of Jimmy’s character work during his SNL years.)
— For the third consecutive Update, an Update guest gets sentimental when bringing up Seth’s soon-to-come departure from SNL. I do like how Jimmy mentions here that he got to introduce Seth the very first time Seth ever did an Update commentary. (Just for kicks, below are a few screencaps of how young Jimmy and Seth looked during that very first Update commentary of Seth’s.)

— I never realized until now that Michael Bloomberg’s voice sounds kinda John Malkovich-esque at times.
STARS: **½


WAKING UP WITH KIMYE
Kimye’s Christmas message is similar to “Bound 2” video

— Jay’s overdoing the “HEHH!” exclamations as Kanye West in tonight’s installment.
— The spoof of Kanye’s “Bound 2” music video is very funny. Unfortunately, that’s the only real standout part of this sketch. The rest of this hasn’t been anything special.
— A rare post-2010 live sketch to not have the host in it. Jimmy actually was originally going to appear in this as Ed Sheeran, but he got cut from the live version. Not sure if he would’ve given this sketch a much-needed boost, but I am a little curious what his take on Ed Sheeran was like.
STARS: **½


NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL CHRISTMAS
Shakira (KAM) & others do covers on CD

— Interesting how Jimmy is playing Michael Bublé here, given the fact that Jimmy’s previous hosting stint not only had Bublé as the musical guest, but at one point in that episode, Bublé starred as himself in a Christmas album ad that’s similar to this one.
— Noel’s Zooey Deschanel scene was way too brief compared to most of the other scenes in this commercial (perhaps yet ANOTHER sign of how much Noel keeps getting screwed over by SNL). I wanted to see a little more of her take on Deschanel, as that’s an impression she was born to do.
— Boy, that is a TERRIBLE Axl Rose impression from Kyle. I love Kyle, but impressions have never been his niche, which SNL refuses to believe, for some reason. A year after this, in another one of these “Christmas duets” album ads, I recall Kyle doing a Macklemore impression that’s laughably bad.
— Funny scene with Bobby as Andrea Bocelli.
— Solid Billie Joe Armstrong impression from John.
— I don’t get what Kate’s going for AT ALL in her Lorde impression. She couldn’t sound less like Lorde if she tried.
— An overall fairly fun piece, but was nowhere near as strong as the aforementioned “Christmas duets” album ad from Jimmy’s previous hosting stint.
STARS: ***


A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Ebenezer Scrooge (TAK) realizes his homosexuality outweighs miserliness

— Oh, I don’t like where this is going…
— Yep, this is just a lame and hacky “What if young Ebenezer Scrooge was gay?” sketch. Are we really still doing “It’s funny because it features a man acting gay!” humor in 2013? Did James Anderson pull this out of his old “cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketches I wrote in season 30” file? This sketch would’ve felt right at home with James Anderson-written horrific gay-themed duds that dominated season 30 like Gay Frankenstein and Gays In Space. I almost included the equally-horrific Gay Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde sketch in there, before I remembered that was actually from season 35, in the notorious January Jones episode.
— Not a single redeeming moment to be found here, overall.
STARS: *


BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
(JIF) & (CES) reverse roles in second verse of “Baby It’s Cold Outside”

— Hmm, this appears to be an interesting and out-of-the-ordinary piece for this SNL era, and I like how it’s set on SNL’s home base stage.
— I really like the conceit of this, theorizing what Baby It’s Cold Outside possibly went like AFTER the song ends.
— A really nice, sweet turn this sketch takes at the end.
— Overall, a strong, well-done, and refreshing piece. I also like how old-school this felt in a positive way, as this is one of those sketches that I can easily picture appearing on SNL in the 70s and 80s (the aforementioned fact that this sketch was set on the home base stage adds further to the “70s/80s SNL” feel), and is the type of thing I wish recent SNL eras would try more often.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pair of Wings”


GOODNIGHTS
CSR joins JIF & cast members onstage

— Chris Rock out of absolutely nowhere. I like how even he’s doing comical “Hey, I don’t know why I’m here, either!” gestures.
— Mike O’Brien noticeably looking quite sullen and lonely during these goodnights, while everyone around him is in a jolly, Christmas-y mood. You can just hear Mike sadly thinking in his head, “This cast member gig isn’t working out for me, is it?” He made no live appearances in this episode (besides these goodnights, obviously, which don’t count), and, in fact, hasn’t gotten ANYTHING significant to do in a live sketch in…what, two months? I think the Edward Norton episode was the last one in which Mike got a meaty role in a live sketch, and that was all the way back in October! Geez. Plus, I’m sure he’s aware of how painfully awkward he tends to come off whenever he gets a speaking role in a live sketch. Looks like SNL has already given up on him as a live performer and has begun phasing him out of live sketches by this point. By the final quarter of this season, in April and May, Mike’s practically relegated to only appearing in his own short films. That would eventually lead to him continuing to appear in his own short films the next few seasons even after being fired from the cast and returning to the writer’s room.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode that was all over the place, and sadly didn’t come REMOTELY close to measuring up to the fantastic Christmas episode that Jimmy Fallon previously hosted in season 37. Two strong pieces tonight, including one beloved classic (Twin Bed), and there were also a few okay sketches, but we also got quite a number of sketches I really could’ve done without.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
(Do It On My) Twin Bed
Baby It’s Cold Outside
Celebrity Family Feud
Now That’s What I Call Christmas
Monologue
Weekend Update
Waking Up With Kimye
The Barry Gibb Talk Show
Wrappinville
A Christmas Carol


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2014, with host Drake. We also get the new addition of a black female cast member, in response to the public outcry for one.

Posted on

December 14, 2013 – John Goodman / Kings of Leon (S39 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
fake sign-language interpreter (KET) gets on Barack Obama’s (JAP) nerves

— SNL gets in their obligatory spoof of the clueless sign language interpreter at the then-recent Nelson Mandela memorial service.
— Kenan’s doing a decent job, but this feels like an inferior reprisal of the translator bit in the preceding season’s Hurricane Sandy Press Conference cold opening, which worked much better for me. SNL should’ve gone with a more original angle in this spoof of the Mandela translator.
— A good laugh from Kenan’s sign language for the word “thrilled” being him doing the Thriller dance.
— I like how there’s a growing story arc in Kate’s Angela Merkel appearances, with us finding out more and more about her crush on President Obama.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host & KET sing “All I Want For Christmas Is Booty”

— Boy, does it feel nice seeing John Goodman entering the home base stage again for the first time in 13 years. It’s also a novelty seeing him entering this particular home base stage for his first-ever time, which just goes to show you how long it’s been since he last hosted, given how extremely long this particular home base stage had been used by this point (and would continue to be used long afterwards, to this day in 2020). Hell, Goodman’s last hosting stint prior to this was so long ago that not even Kenan was in the cast yet back then.
— Goodman brings up the fact that he hosted SNL every year from 1989 to 2001. To nitpick, he didn’t host in 1991. And, if by “year”, he meant season, he didn’t host in season 26.
— Only two segments into tonight’s episode, and we’re already getting an early sign of how extremely dominant Kenan will be in tonight’s episode.
— Catchy song, but the lyrics themselves aren’t anything special, and this isn’t exactly the type of monologue I want to see Goodman doing for his big return after a long hiatus. This feels like a monologue they could do with almost any host.
STARS: **½


GUY FIERI’S FULL THROTTLE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
bad taste characterizes Guy Fieri’s (BOM) Christmas special

— For some bizarre reason, when the camera is on a close-up of Brooks (who looks unrecognizable in this) as Kid Rock showing us his Bud Lime Gazpacho drink, his line about the drink is completely muted out, even though the background music still plays as normal. What the hell?
— Hilarious occasional animation sequences of Bobby’s Guy Fieri punching various famous Christmas characters in the face.
— I have no familiarity with Big Ang, but Kate is hilarious as her here.
— I remember an online SNL fan back at this time in 2013 mistakenly thinking that the Duck Dynasty guys were played by four of the five new male featured players, as SNL’s way of doing a meta joke about how supposedly interchangeable the new male featured players are (I don’t agree with that latter part, for the record). Heh, that’s actually Kings of Leon playing the Duck Dynasty guys.
— Pretty funny seeing Bobby as all of the Pawn Stars guys.
— Throughout this commercial, in various groups shots of celebrities, you can see Noel as one of the celebrities, but she never gets a line, a close-up, nor does this commercial even bother to tell us who she’s playing. According to various people who saw the full version of this commercial one way or another, Noel’s playing Reba McEntire, who she would play again later this season in a Celebrity Family Feud sketch. In the shortened on-air version of this commercial that I’m currently reviewing, all of Noel’s main parts are completely cut. (*sigh*) Yet ANOTHER sign of how this season’s new featured players keep getting screwed over.
STARS: ***


DANCE OF THE SNOWFLAKES
snowflake-costumed (host), (VAB), (KET), (AIB) rue holiday pageant dance

— Goodman’s delivery of his first inner thought, “Oh, no. Is this…….DUMB???”, gave me a good laugh.
— I love Kenan’s first inner thought: “Hooollllyyy f(*bleep*)!”
— A nice out-of-the-ordinary structure to this sketch with almost all of the dialogue being pre-taped inner monologues.
— More good lines from Kenan throughout this, especially “My wife’s never gonna wanna see my penis again.”
— An unexpected and interesting happy ending with the characters suddenly convincing themselves to be proud of what they’re doing.
STARS: ***


THREE WISE GUYS
wise guys (host), (Sylvester Stallone), (Robert De Niro) go to see Jesus

— Ohho, no. NO. I recall this sketch being absolutely DREADFUL, and one of the nadirs of this season.
— I wish I could be more excited about a Sylvester Stallone cameo. The DeNiro cameo, on the other hand? Get him off my screen.
— Ugh, so many bad, hacky, and groanworthy wiseguy lines throughout this. Not even that camel toe one-liner of Stallone’s could elicit so much as a smirk from me.
— Making this already-painfully unfunny sketch even worse is the fact that it is SO damn sluggishly paced.
— Aaaaaaand there goes that obligatory halting, delayed delivery from DeNiro that you can always depend on whenever he appears on SNL. At one point here, he even squints hard when struggling to read the word “Frankincense” off the cue card.
— Overall, yep. This lived up (or down?) to my extremely negative memory of it. Pure oof.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Temple”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Santa Claus (KET) makes an appearance to reveal that he is indeed black

Drunk Uncle & his Drunker Uncle (host) take issue with the holiday season

— Some good comments from Kenan all throughout his Santa commentary.
— Seth and Cecily’s jokes tonight are an okay improvement over their very blah jokes in the preceding episode’s Update.
— A big laugh from Drunk Uncle’s opening “I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas” bit.
— Drunk Uncle: “We got Black Friday now???? Barf! Wasn’t February enough?”
— Tonight’s Drunk Uncle commentary feels faster-paced than usual. He’s still a riot as usual.
— Nice inclusion of Goodman as “Drunker Uncle”.
— (*groan*) Freakin’ Seth and that damn habit he often has of loudly laughing off-camera during a guest commentator’s segment. His loud off-camera guffawing made it a little hard to hear the ending of Goodman’s funny opening line: “All I want for Christmas…is my two neighbors not to be Chinese anymore.”
— A sweet ending with even the harsh Drunk Uncle giving Seth a sincere goodbye hug because, as is acknowledged here, this is the final Update that Drunk Uncle and Seth are appearing in together before Seth’s soon-to-come departure. (Between Vanessa’s Jacob commentary in the preceding episode’s Update and now this Drunk Uncle commentary in tonight’s Update, SNL is kinda making Seth’s departure seem like it’s coming sooner than you’d think. We still have four episodes left of him after this.) Speaking of which, seeing Goodman’s Drunker Uncle also hug Seth during this acknowledgment of Seth’s departure makes me realize something: Goodman’s last hosting stint prior to this was all the way back in Seth’s fourth episode as a cast member (and an important night for him, as that was his breakout episode, after he quietly spent his first three episodes not standing out at all and being considered by SNL fans to be interchangeable with one of his fellow newbies, Jeff Richards), and now Goodman’s return as host just so happens to be one of Seth’s last episodes as a cast member, which means Goodman basically bookends Seth’s SNL tenure. Interesting coincidence. This also makes you realize just how extremely long Seth has been a cast member.
STARS: ***


TOO HOT
lawyer (CES) argues that (BEB) fired mannish (host) for being too sexy

— I love how Taran’s opening argument to the “Fired for being too hot” claim made about Goodman’s female character is just Taran saying “I meaaannnn…” while gesturing towards Goodman.
— Mixed feelings towards this concept, given how hacky “men in drag” humor can be in more recent decades, but Goodman seems like he can make this work, especially after we’ve gotten such a long break from seeing him host SNL.
— Goodman’s “Tee hee!”s are cracking me up, and it turns out he’s indeed making this material work. The supporting performers are also helping make this work, especially Taran, who’s a solid straight man here.
— Funny dance moves from Beck (who’s stuck in nothing but two non-speaking roles all night) at the end.
STARS: ***½


FIRE SAFETY
fireman’s (host) holiday safety message is flipped completely by Shallon

— Like last time, Nasim is very funny as this character.
— Yikes, Milhiser clearly missed a line at one point, as the camera cuts to a close shot of him when he’s supposed to say his second line in this sketch, only for him to just sit there blankly, unaware that it’s his turn to deliver the next line, leading to long awkward silence before an off-camera Goodman tries to keep the sketch moving by jumping ahead of the script a little and saying his own next line. Right as Goodman does this, Milhiser FINALLY starts saying his line, only to immediately cut himself off because Goodman is now speaking. I like Milhiser and generally feel really bad for how screwed-over he got in terms of airtime this season, but man, you’d figure he’d cherish the few lines he got in this sketch, given how little he gets to speak or do anything on SNL. I remember how, back at this time in 2013-2014, gaffes like the one Milhiser made here contributed to me feeling that most of this season’s newbies came off awfully green, and made me wonder if THAT was the reason why they barely got any airtime this season. In my re-watch of this season, I’m not finding the newbies to be all that green, minus Mike O’Brien and the gaffe that Milhiser made here.
— So far, this is just a variation of the first installment of this sketch from earlier this season, only with the kids’ van fascination being replaced with a fireplace fascination. This variation, while still providing a few laughs, isn’t working anywhere near as well for me as the first installment did.
— A good laugh from Aidy randomly saying, when the kids are proudly saying which dangerous fireplace-related location they’re going to hide in, “I’m gonna hide in a dry cleaning bag!”
— Goodman is quite stumbly with his lines throughout this sketch. Also, I’m not finding him to be as good a straight man as Edward Norton was in the first installment of this sketch. Goodman’s performance seemed especially off towards the end of the sketch right before Kate came back into the classroom.
STARS: **½


HALLMARK CHANNEL COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS
Hallmark Channel is chock-full of tedious holiday movies with minor stars

— A good laugh from the “Phylicia Rashad’s Christmas Nap” movie title.
— An overall quick, simple, and decent-enough piece.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wait For Me”


THE CHRISTMAS WHISTLE
movie’s titular noise drives characters crazy

— Two-and-a-half minutes into this sketch, and the only thing I can think of to say in my review is that the whistle sound is pretty annoying. Yes, that’s the point, but that doesn’t automatically make it funny, which it certainly isn’t. And nothing else funny has been happening in this so far.
— Bobby’s off-camera yell of “What the hell is a Christmas whistle?!?!?” made me laugh, only because of his delivery.
— We at least get a decent bit regarding Kate’s mother, played by Aidy.
— Not even Taran’s walk-on at the end can save this, as much as I like the characterization he’s doing here.
STARS: *½


H&M
(JAP) & Wale [real] rap about H&M’s cheap, colorful, undersized clothes

— What the heck is that (admittedly catchy-sounding) lyric that Jay keeps singing at the beginning of his song? I can’t understand the last few words of it, despite how frequently he keeps singing that same lyric over and over: “You an H&M shoppin’ (something something something)”. Thanks in advance if anyone can answer my question.
— This is another segment tonight that I’m having a very hard time finding anything to say about. Aside from a few amusing cutaways of Kyle and Mike suavely looking into the camera while wearing stylish clothes, and the brief sequence with Goodman straining when putting on skinny jeans, I’m not even sure this music video is supposed to be funny or entertaining as an SNL piece. It’s become white noise to me after a while. For all I know, this could be a legit H&M commercial that just so happens to feature SNL cast members and John Goodman. It might as well be, because it sure ain’t working as a comedy piece.
— Overall, blah. I guess not all of this season’s music videos can be winners.
STARS: *½


LAST CALL
drunk & lonely (host) & Sheila Sovage settle for a sad make-out session

— Kenan’s extremely busy night concludes. He’s been all over this episode, far more than most of his fellow repertory players. I remember this really bothered a number of online SNL fans at the time (including me, though I’ve gained a much bigger appreciation for Kenan in these re-watches of mine), who were not pleased with SNL’s decision to make Kenan the cast’s new utility player this season in general.
— A very funny “66” bit from Kate.
— As usual in this recurring sketch, Kate’s delivery absolutely kills, and also as usual in this recurring sketch, we get some good gross-out humor here. But so far at this point of SNL’s run, there has yet to be a Last Call installment that comes close to measuring up to the great first one. I believe that eventually changes, as I recall some really strong installments with Woody Harrelson, Larry David, and Dave Chappelle, though my memories of what actually occurs in those installments are fuzzy. I’m pretty eager to revisit them.
— Sheila Sovage: “My heart and my genitals say ‘no’. But my hypoglycemia says ‘yes’.”
— Great whipped cream make-out session between Sovage and Goodman, both of whom are going all out.
— An absolutely hilarious and outrageous sequence with Goodman motor-boating Sovage as she makes cat orgasm noises. Tonight’s Last Call installment is getting funnier and funnier as it goes along. While it, for me personally, still doesn’t quite measure up to the first installment, it’s very close.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mediocre episode. A lot of pretty forgettable stuff, some flat-out weak stuff, and one of the worst sketches in recent memory (Three Wise Guys). The only segment all night that I gave an above average rating to happens to be a sketch that didn’t air until the very end of the episode (Last Call). Hell, there was almost nothing in this episode that even got so much as a mere three-and-a-half-star rating from me. An overall letdown for John Goodman’s big hosting return. Not only that, but it doesn’t even lead to Goodman going back to hosting regularly or at least semi-regularly. After his return in this episode, he’s seemingly gone back to no longer hosting the show.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Last Call
Too Hot
Dance of the Snowflakes
Guy Fieri’s Full Throttle Christmas Special
Weekend Update
Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas
Monologue
Fire Safety
Presidential Address
H&M
The Christmas Whistle
Three Wise Guys


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Rudd)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Fallon hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 7, 2013 – Paul Rudd / One Direction (S39 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SOUND OF MUSIC: LIVE & CONDENSED
The Sound Of Music featuring Dooneese and Lawrence Welk (FRA)

— Former cast member Kristen Wiig out of freakin’ nowhere. And why tonight, of all nights? After all, there was a big announcement earlier in the week of this episode that we’d be getting cameos from Paul Rudd’s fellow “news team” members of the then-released Anchorman 2: Will Ferrell, David Koechner, and Steve Carell (and with that, the big announcement also revealed that Anchorman 2 director Adam McKay was returning behind-the-scenes at SNL to write a new installment of a certain late 90s recurring sketch we’ll be seeing at the end of this episode). That announcement was certainly exciting, but how am I supposed to also get excited about this episode throwing in an additional cameo from a former cast member who 1) comes from a much more recent era than Ferrell and Koechner, 2) appears on the show too often after she left just a mere year-and-a-half prior to this, and 3) is reprising an overdone character that only worked for me the first time?
— Oh, wow, folks. There goes Dooneese fondling somebody’s nipples with her baby hands. Something we’ve totally NEVER seen her do a million times before. [/end sarcasm]
— I can’t even enjoy this change in setting for Dooneese. She’s just doing the same old crap she always does.
— I did get a laugh just now from Taran’s Captain Von Trapp angrily ordering the kids to “march outside and stare at the sun!”
— Showing how Kristen’s recurring characters tend to blend together, wasn’t that butt-whistle gag that Dooneese did just now already previously done in one of Kristen’s Sexy Shana sketches?
— Aside from a few chuckles from some of the non-Dooneese parts of this Sound Of Music spoof, I’m miserable while watching this.
— (*groan*) Aaaaaaand now we get a Fred Armisen cameo (his first of way too many this season), as this Sound Of Music sketch concludes by randomly turning into yet another Lawrence Welk Show sketch, making this Dooneese appearance fully complete. Ugh. Very unnecessary.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host, musical guest, WIF, DAK, Steve Carell [real] do “Afternoon Delight”

— Paul Rudd mentions being overshadowed by a musical guest in his prior two hosting stints. To nitpick, it wasn’t just musical guest Beyonce who overshadowed Paul in his first episode. Remember, Justin Timberlake also made a few random cameos that night, and you know a Timberlake cameo is automatically going to take away the spotlight from someone.
— A very welcome sight of Paul’s “man band”: his Anchorman co-stars. And, man, it feels so great seeing David Koechner on the SNL stage again for the first time since he was unfairly fired after only one season as a cast member two decades prior. And seeing him and Will Ferrell onscreen together in an SNL segment makes me nostalgic for season 21.
— Steve Carell, to One Direction: “Why don’t you kids sit on Santa’s lap and ask for a pair of balls?”
— Not much to laugh at in the musical number, but it’s likable enough. However, I’m still not sure why they chose this as the monologue for the “Best Of This Season” special that aired in the middle of this season. (Is that the last time to this day that a season had a “Best Of” special?)
— Will Ferrell is so front-and-center for most of this monologue that, every time I watch this, I keep expecting him to be the one to say the usual monologue tagline (“We’ve got a great show for you tonight, etc.”), as this monologue tends to make one eventually forget that Paul is the host, not Will.
STARS: ***


POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Huffington Post contributor (host) discusses Obamacare

— Kenan’s Al Sharpton yelling “It’s fixed-ded!” reminds me of Kenan’s “FIX IT!” character from season 34.
— So far, the same-old same-old routine, but this recurring sketch somehow manages to always work decently for me.
— I got a good laugh from the ending with Kenan-as-Sharpton’s “Coming up next” announcement being him unknowingly reading off of the label on the side of one of the TV cameras.
STARS: ***


ONE DIRECTION’S #1 FAN
grown man Dan Charles (host) considers himself musical guest’s #1 fan

— A promising concept for a pre-taped Paul Rudd showcase.
— Paul is great in his execution of this, and it’s refreshing that they’re not taking this the predictable and overdone route of having Paul’s character act like a sexual predator towards the young girls.
— A big laugh from Paul’s excited initial reaction to One Direction making their entrance, made funnier by a spitwad being seen flying from Paul’s mouth when excitedly saying “It’s them!”
— Speaking of One Direction’s entrance, why are Jay and Brooks standing in the background as bodyguards? They have absolutely nothing to do or say in these roles, nor does the camera even focus on them at any point. They’re just silently standing in the background. What, SNL couldn’t be bothered to put two extras or writers in those roles?
STARS: ****


DIVORCE
divorcing (host) & (VAB) can’t resist grooving to “I Don’t Want To Know”

— Pretty funny bizarre bit about Paul’s new girlfriend being Wiccan.
— Another funny bizarre bit, this time regarding the pronunciation of the name of Vanessa’s new boyfriend, Dunkin Danish.
— A repetitive conceit with Paul and Vanessa always breaking out into jolly dancing whenever “I Don’t Want To Know” suddenly plays, but Paul and Vanessa are making this a lot of fun. I especially love Paul’s very energetic, spastic dance moves.
— Lots of funny oddball clarifications from Paul and Vanessa about their new lovers.
— Good reveal of “I Don’t Want To Know” turning out to be playing from Kenan’s phone, as it’s his ringtone.
— I like Paul knocking his chair backwards when getting up to energetically dance once again at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Story Of My Life”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob outlines Hanukkah & gets emotional over SEM’s pending departure

Jebidiah Atkinson lays waste to beloved Christmas TV specials & movies

— (*groan*) Yet another Jacob commentary, continuing to beat that same one note into the ground.
— The only positive thing I can say about this Jacob commentary is that it at least ends on a different note, with him getting emotional over Seth’s soon-to-come departure from SNL.
— Oof, most of tonight’s Update jokes are awful so far, even for Seth and Cecily’s standards.
— We get a rare instance of interaction between Seth and Cecily, in a brief ad-lib they make towards each other after one of Cecily’s jokes. I’m probably forgetting something, but I think this is the first time we’ve Seth and Cecily interact with each other since their very first Update together. Sad how the only interaction between them since then was just a brief ad-lib. SNL’s not even trying to develop a chemistry between these two anchors, but then again, I guess SNL figured “Why even bother?”, considering Seth is outta here in February. But even when his mid-season replacement, Colin Jost, comes in, it’s not like SNL ends up trying to establish much chemistry between him and Cecily either.
— The great Jebidiah Atkinson has officially become recurring, only TWO EPISODES after his debut, which I guess shows how very well-received his first commentary was.
— Ha, SNL even openly acknowledges Jebidiah’s extremely-soon return, in the following exchange between Seth and him: “In case anyone forgot, the last time you were here, you shared your negative review of the Gettysburg Address.” “How could they forget it, Seth? It was only three weeks ago. Run things into the ground much?” That nice meta, self-deprecating bit sadly receives practically NO reaction from the audience.
— Man, the audience is kinda lousy during this Update in general. Some of Jebidiah’s great slams aren’t getting the big reactions they deserve. I blame Seth and Cecily’s lame-ass Update jokes for probably being what killed the audience’s mood.
— I love Jebidiah explaining “Time is not linear for me!” when Seth questions the credibility of Jebidiah’s statement about National Lampoon’s Vacation preceding Jesus’ birth.
— I admit tonight’s Jebidiah commentary is not as strong as his previous appearance, but he still has a lot of good lines here, and he’s certainly far preferable to anything else that this blah Update threw at us.
STARS: **½


MICHELANGELO’S DAVID
Michaelangelo (TAK) based David sculpture on (host), small penis & all

— Cecily’s delivery of “Oh, my god” when initially seeing the small penis on the David sculpture kinda made me laugh.
— Paul, when pointing out the size of the sculpture’s hands: “You know what they say about a man and his hands.” Cecily, pointing to the penis on the statue: “N-no. I can see it.” Jay, popping up out of nowhere: “Really? *I* can’t!”
— Another funny one-liner from Jay: “Man, kill yo’self!”
— Taran’s performance is kinda sloppy in this sketch, to the degree that he even flat out forgets at one point that it’s time for him to deliver a line, causing an awkward stretch of long silence.
— Other than the aforementioned lines, this sketch is nothing but a juvenile “small penis” joke, and not even a particularly good one.
STARS: **


WHITE CHRISTMAS
host stars in White Christmas, the black holiday movie for white people

— Funny concept.
— This is nailing a lot of tropes of black holiday movies, even if this isn’t turning out quite as strong as I feel it has the potential to be.
— Feels like Aidy has been almost non-existent in this episode. Geez, is this pre-taped short her first appearance all night???
— The black magazine review of this movie just stating “Can’t we have anything?” was funny.
— I got a huge laugh from another black magazine review, calling this “The Macklemore of movies”.
STARS: ***


SANTA’S WORKSHOP
elves don’t like skinny & health-conscious Santa’s (host) new attitude

— I feel like that opening exterior shot of “Santa’s Workshop” (screencap a little below in this review) is recycled from a previous sketch from years prior. It looks strangely very familiar. It was possibly used in the famous Glengarry Glen Elves sketch with Alec Baldwin in 2005, but I don’t have enough time to check right now.

— (*sigh*) Yet another sad reminder of how invisible SNL keeps making a lot of this season’s new featured players, as this sketch feels like the first time we’re seeing a lot of them tonight.
— Shortly after the reveal of Paul as a newly-thin Santa, something about this sketch is already giving off weak vibes.
— Yeah, it’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and I haven’t been caring for this sketch AT ALL.
— Not even Kate can steal this sketch in her walk-on.
— Okay, I do love Aidy’s (who’s finally making a live appearance in this episode, by the way) innocent delivery of “I don’t wanna hear Santa say…..’my junk’.”
— Overall, a real bummer. Aside from Aidy’s aforementioned line delivery, I got absolutely NOTHING from this sketch.
STARS: *½


PAST LOVERS
embarrassingly, (CES)’s memories of lost loves include pizza guy (host)

— I’m liking the structure to this sketch.
— Very solid acting from Cecily throughout this.
— A pretty good goofy characterization from Paul.
— Interesting turn with one of Cecily’s past lovers being a woman.
— I like the hint at the very end that Paul’s character isn’t an imagined spirit after all, but is unsettlingly actually there in person at Cecily’s apartment.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Through the Dark”


BILL BRASKY
(host) & fellow drunk businessmen laud Bill Brasky at Chuck E. Cheese’s

— YEEEESSSSS!!! The special return of Bill Brasky, one of my personal favorite recurring sketches of all time.
— David Koechner: “Brasky’s testicles have an I.Q. of 91!”
— Taran: “Brasky’s ejaculate can cure leprosy!” David: “I wish I had leprosy!”
— Man, Taran is coming off as an absolute NATURAL as one of the Brasky guys. He is nailing the usual characterization of these guys. He either must’ve been a big fan of this recurring sketch back in the day, or he binge-watched all of the Brasky sketches after being cast as one of the Brasky guys in this week’s reprisal of this recurring sketch. I’m guessing it’s the former and not the latter.
— Paul is also fitting in well as one of the Brasky guys.
— It would’ve been great if Steve Carell was also one of the Brasky guys here, not only so all of the Anchorman 2 stars who appeared earlier in tonight’s monologue could play Brasky guys here, but also because Carell seems like he’d fit in well doing a “Brasky guy” characterization.
— Cecily appearing in Ana Gasteyer’s usual “Would you men please quiet down?” role from previous installments of this sketch.
— Now Kenan appears in Tim Meadows’ usual “Hey, you guys talkin’ about Bill Brasky?” role. I recall hearing that Tim later disclosed he was bothered by the fact that SNL didn’t call him up to reprise this role.
— Overall, an absolute treat, as anticipated. This did not let me down.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, but nothing special as a whole. A little better than I had remembered, but there were still a few real bummers in here (the Dooneese cold opening, some of the non-Jebidiah Atkinson portions of Weekend Update, the Santa’s Workshop sketch). Despite being “overshadowed” by One Direction and the various special guests of the night, Paul Rudd still held his own tonight and had some shining moments, moreso than he had in either of his prior two hosting stints.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bill Brasky
One Direction’s #1 Fan
Divorce
Past Lovers
White Christmas
Monologue
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Weekend Update
Michelangelo’s David
The Sound Of Music: Live & Condensed
Santa’s Workshop


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Josh Hutcherson)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman makes his hosting return after a long 13-year hiatus

Posted on

November 23, 2013 – Josh Hutcherson / HAIM (S39 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PIERS MORGAN LIVE
George Zimmerman’s latest trouble is discussed

— For some reason, I have no memory of Kate’s part of this cold opening from my previous viewing.
— A pretty funny coy smile from Kate after saying “He stole my heart.”
— Good part with the ankle monitor footage of George Zimmerman.
— Bobby gets his usual laughs.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host dissuades cast members from killing each other a la Hunger Games

— Pretty funny Hunger Games-themed idea of the cast about to violently battle each other.
— Ooh, I like the idea of Noel getting airtime as herself, as well as the mention that she’s a new featured player.
— Aww, and, in what’s sadly very fitting, as soon as Noel stands onstage and optimistically says, “At least I’ll get some screentime”, she’s IMMEDIATELY interrupted by Cecily (who’s basically this season’s “It girl”) jumping in front of her and taking the attention away from her, causing her to sheepishly exit the monologue. I know that’s just a gag, but damn, SNL. There’s way too much unfortunate reality subtext in that gag for me to laugh at. Besides, didn’t poor Noel already have this same thing basically happen to her in the Miss Universe sketch from the Kerry Washington episode? SNL’s not very good at hiding their waving-off of most of this season’s newbies.
— Very funny brief walk-on from Kenan.
— When Josh Hutcherson tells Cecily, “Now you’re gonna have to carry me into the next sketch”, it would’ve been nice if they followed that up by actually showing that happening instead of just fading to a commercial break as Cecily carries Josh off the home base stage.
STARS: ***


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
Morgan’s crush (host) puts her in the friend zone

— This is the first (and I think ends up being the only) time in an on-air installment of this recurring sketch that the guest who’s being interviewed is a male. (I say “on-air installment” because there was previously a cut-after-dress-rehearsal installment of this sketch with Zach Galifianakis playing the guest.) Hopefully, that’ll change up this recurring sketch’s formula, because, despite me liking all of the prior installments of this sketch, the formula of it is definitely in risk of getting tired and overly formulaic.
— Yeah, as I was afraid of, the usual bit with Aidy being blindsided by Cecily bringing on a guest has gotten way too old hat. How many times is she supposed to be surprised by the same thing happening in every edition of this sketch?
— Another now-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.
— At least the romantic connection between Aidy and Josh is indeed taking this sketch into somewhat of a different direction, though even with that, there’s still a bit too much of a same-iness to the feel of this sketch. I think the problem is the stale talk show format that this sketch is always stuck in. It’s not necessary for this particular recurring sketch. Why can’t we see Aidy and Cecily’s characters in just normal, real-life situations, without the TV show setting?
— At least Aidy is still providing a good amount of laughs for me, as usual in this recurring sketch.
— Meh, Cecily’s “My boyfriend’s crazy” story wasn’t as funny as usual. That appears to be yet another staple of this recurring sketch that’s gotten tired.
STARS: **½


BABY BOSS
new employee (host) finds boss Mr. Patterson (BEB) has body of a baby

— The debut of Beck’s Mr. Patterson character, far better known as “Baby Boss”.
— Great physical humor from Beck, who’s doing spot-on and funny imitations of typical baby mannerisms. And I love that such a physical sketch starring a new cast member is placed in such an early spot of this episode, offering further proof that, even as most of his fellow new featured players struggle badly for airtime, Beck is immediately fitting in on SNL.
— I love Taran remaining humorously straitlaced and deadpan while Beck, who’s in Taran’s arms, is sloppily splattering spaghetti all over Taran’s face.
STARS: ****


MATCHBOX 3
subway performers specialize in dancing in crowded cars

— A promising concept, and I like the mockumentary angle.
— Some good laughs from the extreme adjustments the guys have to make to their dance routine in crowded trains, such as substituting their “Stir the pot” move for a “Stir the Expresso” move, and substituting their “Running man” move for a “Running neck” move.
— Good bit with Josh getting lost in the crowd.
— Kinda fun seeing John Milhiser get to show a little of his knack for physical humor, even if just a throwaway role at the end of this film.
— An overall solid little mockumentary, continuing this season’s strength in the short films department.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Wire”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Worst Lady On An Airplane’s (AIB) travel tips have a tendency to annoy

— Seth’s “No one came to my party” joke about Justin Bieber is killer, and I’d like to think is the show’s way of airing out their frustrations over what a Grade-A douche Bieber was when he hosted in the preceding season.
— When Seth introduced Aidy’s commentary by saying, at one point, “Here with some helpful travel tips…”, I got worried and thought it was going to be yet another Judy Grimes commentary (even though I have no real problems with that character), until I remembered  Kristen Wiig is long gone from the show.
— Aidy’s playing her role really big, which I have very mixed feelings about. However, I am getting some laughs from her commentary.
— Cecily’s Update delivery, which showed nice signs of improvement in the preceding episode’s Update, is kinda taking a step back tonight. I find that her Update delivery typically has a lot of potential, but there’s something about the way she delivers her punchlines that kinda takes me out of it, as does the toothy smile she usually gives the camera after certain punchlines. That smiling habit is a little too cutesy and “I’m just kidding, folks”-ish for my likes, and reminds me of some of Amy Poehler’s weaker tendencies as an Update anchor. I think it’s just nerves on Cecily’s part.
— Short Update.
STARS: **½


80’S SONG
in the 1980s, (host) lip-syncs “Your Love” in the course of wooing (VAB)

— Some funny exaggerated 80s-isms in the opening conversation that the girls have, especially Aidy’s line about note-passing.
— An excellent random concept of Josh only speaking by lip-syncing particular “Your Love” lyrics as responses to Vanessa’s lines. I love how out-of-the-ordinary and unique this premise feels, and it also helps that “Your Love” is such a damn catchy song.
— I love Vanessa negatively breaking down the “And I’ll never keep it undercover” lyric that Josh lip-syncs to her at one point.
— This sketch is so much fun so far.
— An absolutely perfect “Jessie’s Girl” ending.
— Overall, a very strong sketch, and, after my current re-watch of it, I now feel it’s probably one of my all-time favorites.
STARS: *****


BEST BUY FIRING
Best Buy employees Niff & Dana bad-mouth their co-workers

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch.
— Something about Cecily’s furious delivery of “Planet of the Apes-lookin’ bitches!” tickled the hell out of me, especially the particularly angry emphasis she put on the word “Apes”.
— I wish they wouldn’t always have Bobby say “We goin’ out on top like (insert TV show here)!” early in these sketches, as they’ll never top him saying “We goin’ out on top like Seinfeld!” in the first installment of this.
— Funny bit regarding Beck having mysterious orange stains around his mouth.
— A decent Edward Scissorhands bit.
— In a previous episode review, I expressed confusion over why Taran’s creepy-smiling character’s name was changed from Andrew in the first installment to Randrew in the second installment. Well, now in this third installment, his character’s name has been changed to Mandrew. The hell??? Guess it’s some kind of weird running gag.
— This sketch is sadly missing something without Tim Robinson’s old man character, Carl, who appeared in the previous installments of this.
STARS: ***


DANCING
(KYM) rapidly gains & loses fame without leaving his apartment

— I like how the Beck/Kyle shorts that have aired so far by this point have each opened with a simple black title screen stating the title of the short (examples below).

This tradition helps give these Beck/Kyle shorts their own identity, differentiating them from other SNL short films. Unfortunately, that title screen trademark of these Beck/Kyle shorts would soon get dropped a little later this season.
— Hilarious dancing from Kyle when Beck is filming him. I also love that a clip of that would later be shown during the “short films” montage in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special, as a nice representation of the solid film work that Beck and Kyle were currently bringing to SNL in the modern era (and it felt nice seeing that clip among older film clips from other SNL eras).
— I love the random gag in which Beck sloppily throws a VHS tape at the VCR and the VHS tape then falls on floor, only for the TV to still somehow play the tape.
— Much like the Miley Sex Tape short from earlier this season, this is another Beck/Kyle film that gives us a very funny display of something progressing at an insanely rapid speed during a very short timeframe.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Save Me”


ANIMAL HOSPITAL
animal hospital workers (host), (KAM), (CES) casually announce pet deaths

— A laugh from the first casual “Your pet is dead” reveal.
— Okay, after a decent start, this is unfortunately taking a weak one-note route, just repeating the same “Your pet is dead” joke over and over.
— Something about Kenan’s mock-emotional delivery of “My Tiffany!” cracked me up.
— Josh’s “Well, call me a dead uncle’s monkey” line was seemingly a flub, as he was presumably supposed to say “Well, call me a dead monkey’s uncle”, as per the dead animals theme of this sketch. You can tell by how haltingly he delivered that line, as well as the way he smirked afterwards, that he knew he flubbed the order of the words.
— A dumb and unfunny twist with the “dead” pets turning out to be alive after all.
STARS: **


WINSTON SAM BASS – INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Winston Sam Bass (MOB) conducts investigative report on why bugs hurry

— Well, this certainly looks interesting. It’s also a further sign of how heavily reliant this season is starting to become on short films.
— A very dumb but funny concept, being very well-executed by Mike, with some good assistance from Josh.
— Funny bit with the degrading sound effects being played for the fat bug’s movements.
— I like the occasional turns with Mike having a sad, emotional moment. An early display of Mike’s predilection for displaying some pathos in both a genuine AND comical way in his short films.
STARS: ****


THANKSGIVING GUEST
Thanksgiving meal with (host)’s family upsets his turkey girlfriend (VAB)

— The camera accidentally prematurely gives away the reveal of Josh’s date being a turkey, then the camera tries to cover for it by awkwardly panning away from the turkey.
— An off-beat and silly but somewhat interesting premise, and Vanessa seems well-cast in this role.
— I love Taran’s angry delivery of “I didn’t know your girlfriend was a GOD-DANG TURKEY!”
— A good mock-emotional/poignant speech from Vanessa.
— The execution of this is making this potentially-somewhat-iffy material work pretty well.
— There was something I oddly really liked about Taran’s delivery of “Weeellllll….” when Josh angrily tells him “Thanks a lot, dad!” while we’re shown footage of an animated turkey exiting the house.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode that, like the last few episodes prior to this, featured little to complain about, and had some strong high points.
— Aside from the Bruce Willis episode, this season so far has been doing better than I recalled. Unfortunately, I think this season’s struggles start to kick in during the upcoming December stretch of episodes, but we’ll see.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
80’s Song
Matchbox 3
dancing
Baby Boss
Winston Sam Bass – Investigative Report
Thanksgiving Guest
Piers Morgan Live
Best Buy Firing
Monologue
Weekend Update
Girlfriends Talk Show
Animal Hospital


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lady Gaga)
a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Paul Rudd

Posted on

November 16, 2013 – Lady Gaga (S39 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CBC NEWS TORONTO
trainwreck Rob Ford (BOM) finds a media friend in credulous 60 Minutes

— Seeing Taran do a Canadian accent here reminds me that he’s married to a Canadian in real life (Cobie Smulders).
— Hilarious look of Bobby’s Rob Ford, though I can’t help but remember how people back at this time wished Chris Farley was still alive, as they felt he would’ve been perfect for playing Rob Ford.
— Very funny scene with Bobby’s Ford making a crack deal under the podium in front of an entire audience.
— Bobby’s Ford continues to be a riot in this cold opening.
— I think I recall once hearing Bobby actually injured his hand badly when filming the pre-taped scene of him doing a pratfall over the podium.
— Pretty funny 60 Minutes twist.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host proudly panders to audience while performing “Applause”

— At least it makes sense to do a musical monologue here, even if I still don’t like this monologue trope.
— A nicely-done and professional-looking musical monologue, at least.
— The subplot of this monologue with Lada Gaga trying to garner cheap applause by saying audience-pandering statements reminds me a lot of Chevy Chase’s season 3 monologue and Karen Black’s season 6 monologue.
— Good appearance from Bobby.
STARS: **½


PAXIL: SECOND TERM STRENGTH
Barack Obama (JAP) needs second-term-strength Paxil to combat depression

— A clever way to spoof the rough time President Obama’s been having in his presidency around this time.
— Funny disclaimer about this medication not being covered by Obamacare.
STARS: ***½


WAKING UP WITH KIMYE
Kanye West (JAP) & Kim Kardashian (NAP) boast

— Third consecutive episode with Nasim having a starring or co-starring role in the lead-off sketch.
— Pretty funny part with the Kardashian family band.
— Jay’s carrying this sketch well in his Kanye portrayal, with good assistance from Nasim as Kim.
— If you’re familiar with my reviews, you’ll know my aversion to the overused SNL trope of celebrity-hosted talk show sketches, but so far, this sketch isn’t bad, and it’s much better than the last new celebrity-hosted talk show sketch the show did prior to this (the Lady Gaga Talk Show sketch from the Bruce Willis episode).
— Blah, I could’ve done without the very blatant, corny, and overlong “wink-wink”-style stare Gaga gave the camera after her self-deprecating comment about how people shouldn’t try too hard with their outfits.
STARS: ***


WHAAAT? THE WORST COVER SONGS OF ALL TIME
Adam Duritz (TAK) presents a CD of the worst cover songs ever

— An okay excuse for a parade of singer impressions.
— A very funny Britney Spears impression from Noel.
— I love the ending of Kenan-as-Rick-Ross’ “Cups” scene.
— Hilarious bit with Aidy’s Adele “covering” the L.A. Law theme song.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & R. Kelly [real] perform “Do What U Want”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Thanksgiving defender Mr. Senior (KET) disrupts early Christmas activity

catty speech critic Jebidiah Atkinson (TAK) takes on famous orations

— Cecily’s second Rob Ford joke is one of those cases where the set-up (in this case, quoting Ford’s statement about having “plenty to eat at home” regarding women he gives oral sex to) is much funnier than the actual punchline.
— I love the idea of Kenan’s commentary having a big pre-tape with him outdoors.
— An amusing dumb conceit to the Kenan pre-tape, and he’s selling this dumb material pretty well.
— I don’t know if it’s just me, if she’s just having a more “on” night than usual, or if she’s legitimately improving, but Cecily’s Update delivery is coming off better than usual to me tonight.
— Ah, the debut of Taran’s Jebidiah Atkinson, a character I remember absolutely loving when this SNL era originally aired.
— So far, Taran’s characterization is fantastic here, and his insults are priceless.
— One very minor complaint about the Atkinson commentary, a complaint that has nothing to do with Taran himself: shut up that annoying off-camera guffawing, Seth.
— A priceless unscripted bit with Taran misreading his slam about FDR’s Pearl Harbor speech, prompting some excellent ad-libs from Taran.
STARS: ***


CO-OP BOARD
weirdos on NYC co-op board interview prospective residents (BEB) & (VAB)

— A good odd and inappropriate bit with Aidy and Kyle regarding lovemaking sounds.
— Some more funny oddball, disturbing characters throughout this sketch.
— Gaga’s doing a decent job disappearing into character in her imitation of Marisa Tomei’s My Cousin Vinny character.
STARS: ***½


SPOTLIGHTZ!
Laura Parsons & hammy kids do serious scenes at acting camp

 

— The return of Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character, who last appeared all the way back in one of Vanessa’s earliest episodes of SNL.
— Kyle is cracking me up a lot in his appearance.
— A funny “exploring the space” bit with Taran and Noel.
— Lots of good “hammy child actor” performances from all of the cast members and Gaga.
STARS: ***½


BLOCKBUSTER
now-jobless Blockbuster Video workers (MOB), (TAK), (BOM) seek a new home

— Not even sure if it’s intended to be funny, but Beck’s wig is something that I find to be a funny little detail of his character.
— So far, I’m loving the tone of and approach to this film. Very good work here, and lots of nice visuals.
— Great scene with Bobby giving his beloved Croods cardboard cutout a Viking funeral.
— Fun scene with the main characters discovering a hidden Blockbuster paradise in the woods.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Gypsy”


4TH GRADE TALENT SHOW
at a talent show, parents (JOM) & (host) act out their kid’s routine

— John Milhiser finally getting his first (and what sadly ends up being his ONLY) lead SNL role that visibly features him front-and-center.
— A very funny escalation to John and Gaga’s dancing routine.
— This is a great use of John’s knack for physical comedy that I mentioned in an earlier review this season.
— A good laugh from the reveal of John in a bra after Gaga reveals her own.
— Great ending to the dance sequence.
— An overall simple, fun, short, and solid sketch. How this didn’t lead to John getting more and more big roles on SNL, I’ll never know. Dude had potential, and, from what I’ve little I’ve seen of him on and off SNL (including a cut-after-dress sketch starring him and Charlize Theron that would be put online), he seems like such a likable and fun performer. And his specialty in physical humor could’ve given him an identity in this cast, even if there are other male members of this cast who are good at physical humor as well (e.g. Taran).
STARS: ****


FUTURE GAGA
in 2063, forgotten host tries to impress her building’s super (KET)

— I always like when SNL does futuristic sketches with the host playing themselves as an elderly person.
— Good part with Kenan thinking Future Gaga’s singing of Bad Romance is her having a stroke.
— Kenan’s line about only knowing “Born This Way” as a jingle for laser toilet cleaners is an accurate dig at how some hit songs from decades prior are only known to some young people as altered commercial jingles.
— Pretty sweet ending.
STARS: ***


ROSÉ ZONE
the Rosé Zone delivers concentrated reality show trash to female viewers

— A funny affable, non-sassy delivery from Vanessa of lines like “Bitches be crazy.”
— A fairly funny idea of a Red Zone-esque network for only the exciting, trashy moments of reality shows, and Cecily, Vanessa, and Aidy are helping this with good performances. This commercial probably resonates more with people who actually watch these reality shows, but I’m still finding this to be okay.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good, though somewhat unmemorable, episode. Aside from the monologue (and even that wasn’t too bad), I liked every single segment in this episode. It feels like there was barely anything that stood out as strong, but looking back at my review, there was a decent number of strong pieces.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Blockbuster / 4th Grade Talent Show (tie)
CBC News Toronto
Paxil: Second Term Strength
Spotlightz!
WHAAAT? The Worst Cover Songs Of All Time
Co-Op Board
Waking Up With Kimye
Future Gaga
Rosé Zone
Weekend Update
Monologue


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Josh Hutcherson

Posted on

November 2, 2013 – Kerry Washington / Eminem (S39 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OVAL OFFICE
SNL’s lack of black female cast members makes host busy; Al Sharpton cameo

— Oh, I absolutely LOVE the meta turn with Kerry Washington unhappily getting the hint that she’s going to have to change from Michelle Obama to Oprah because the show doesn’t have a black female cast member. I also love Kerry asking “And Kenan won’t….?”
— It’s funny hearing how long it takes the audience to realize just what exactly the meta turn in this cold opening is digging at.
— A very funny disclaimer lampshading what’s going on, and also acknowledging the backlash SNL was facing this season from not hiring a black female cast member while hiring five white male cast members. It’s nice that SNL can address this while being self-deprecating and NOT being passive-aggressive towards the critics (which is more than I can say for some of the other criticisms SNL has addressed in recent years, such as when Tina Fey’s 2018 monologue addressed complaints at the time about excessive cameos taking airtime away from the cast).
— Kerry re-entering the sketch in a different role after an extremely hasty quick change reminds me of the gag of Jan Hooks having to do the same thing in the famous Twin Peaks sketch from the season 16 Kyle MacLachlan episode, because, as mentioned in that sketch, SNL only had two female cast members at the time.
— I got a big laugh from Kerry knowingly asking Jay’s President Obama, in regards to the announcement that Beyonce is here, “Is Jay-Z with her?”, suggesting Jay himself would have to do a quick change to play that role, only for Jay’s Obama to proudly answer “Nope!”
— Great gag with six different Matthew McConaugheys played by the new male featured players…and Bobby, for some reason.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
BOM, VAB, KET ask host to fix indiscretions a la her Scandal character

— A predictable direction this monologue goes in, but it’s being executed well.
— A laugh from Vanessa’s straightforward way of stiffly saying “da club” in the middle of her sentence.
— Vanessa, after Kerry advises her to leave town immediately: “But…who will play Miley???” Kerry, in a comically sincere manner: “Haven’t you played Miley enough lately?”
— Great casual delivery from Kenan of the line “Oh my god, I’m covered in blood.”
STARS: ***½


CAREER WEEK
self-styled success Heshy (NAP) uses sound effects in motivational speech

— Second consecutive week in which the usually-underused Nasim gets to star in the lead-off sketch of the night, showing that things are getting better for her this season in terms of airtime.
— I think I recall hearing this is one of the very first sketches that Mikey Day penned as an SNL writer. Yeah, I can sense his familiar fingerprints on this sketch’s style.
— Hilarious performance from Kerry.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time tried to use this sketch as an example of how terrible, stiff, and uncharismatic Mike O’Brien is as a live performer. Not that I disagree about him, but this sketch isn’t a good example to use, as his character in this is supposed to be stiff and uncharismatic.
— The usual good character work from Nasim, and she’s both funny and well-timed in her constant thrusting to the various sound effects throughout this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MY GIRL
two sides of relationship in “The Fox” variant

— This truly takes me back to when that “what does the fox say” song was everywhere.
— I am loving this “The Fox” take-off. Really good work here, and another fun performance from Kerry.
— Solid turn halfway through the song, with it now being told from Kerry’s side of the relationship.
STARS: ****


HOW’S HE DOING?
Obama’s policy blunders don’t weaken his black support

— The return of a sketch from the season 37 Maya Rudolph episode.
— Even though they did this gag in this sketch’s previous appearance, I laughed at the part where Kenan, Jay, and Kerry’s character all break out in simultaneous hearty laughter after a pause when asked by Kenan if there was ever a time in this rough month President Obama’s been having that they ever thought they wish they voted for Mitt Romney.
— Jay has so many great lines here so far.
— Like last time, I’m finding this to be a fun black-centric sketch that feels very refreshing and much-needed for SNL. Unlike the last time this sketch appeared in season 37, we’re now in the Michael Che era of SNL’s writing, where we’ll thankfully be seeing well-done black-centric pieces appear more and more.
STARS: ****


MISS UNIVERSE MOSCOW 2013
contestants from undeveloped countries disrupt Miss Universe Pageant

— Decent premise of a Miss Universe pageant adding new contestants from less-developed countries.
— Yet another hilarious performance from Kerry, who has been killing it in tonight’s episode so far.
— Well, that girl-on-girl kiss between Kate and Nasim sure came out of nowhere.
— Poor Noel, relegated to having her only appearance of this entire episode be a forgettable throwaway bit in this sketch where she quickly ends up getting karate-chopped out of the scene by Aidy.
— Aidy’s attempt at a Greenland accent is a classic case of “So bad, it’s good”. Hell, her Greenland accent somehow turns into a full-on hillbilly accent towards the end of her spiel.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Rick Rubin [real] perform “Berzerk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
cellphone tapping revelations embarrass lonely Angela Merkel (KAM)

Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) give their NBA thoughts

— The debut of Kate’s Angela Merkel impression.
— A solid performance from Kate, as usual whenever she appears on Update in these early years of her SNL tenure. Her Angela Merkel has some good lines during the part about internet search history.
— Cecily’s Kanye West joke was easily one of her better jokes this season, though the rest of her Update jokes tonight (or at least her delivery of them) so far are the usual “meh” they’ve been this season.
— The first of a few Update appearances that Kenan and Jay’s Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal make together.
— Jay’s Shaq impression is hilarious.
— Some fun ad-libs between Kenan, Jay, and Seth during this Barkley/Shaq commentary.
— Funny Toni Braxton story from Kenan’s Barkley.
STARS: **½


IN MEMORIAM
a clip of Lou Reed on SNL marks his passing


CARTOON CATCHPHRASE
contestant’s (AIB) husband (TAK) is very unfaithful

— I recall absolutely loving this sketch when it originally aired, and deeming it to be one of the best sketches of this season. It’s also a turning point in Aidy’s SNL tenure, as I remember this sketch made me (and I’m sure certain others) fully realize how strong she is as a cast member (the preceding week’s Edward Norton-hosted episode put her on my radar a bit), and this sketch basically jumpstarted what ended up being her breakout season.
— Mike: “I’m a waiter at a steak restaurant.” Oh, is he playing the same character he played in the Ruth’s Chris sketch in the preceding episode?
— I love Aidy’s low-key delivery of “Oh, Duane. No, Duane” when initially realizing he’s having an affair.
— When an emotional Aidy mentions the lie her husband Duane told her about going to see the new Hobbit movie, I got a big laugh from Kerry responding to that by jovially saying, “That’s not out yet! 10 seconds on the clock, Diane!”
— Aidy: “Diamond, ya damn hussy. I hate that I need you, but I do.”
— Hilarious reveal of Duane also sleeping with Vanessa’s friend.
— Aidy: “Duane, what is this day of yours?!? Are you just goin’ door-to-door and ass-to-ass?!?”
— Good subversion in the third phone call, with Duane being at the pharmacy that Mike phones, buying tiny condoms.
— Aidy, angrily, when she’s asked to answer one of the game show questions: “Can you give me one second??? I’m havin’ a raw-ass time with my husband!”
— Even Aidy’s ending “Why did you marry me yesterday?!?” reveal is great.
— Overall, just as fantastic as I had remembered, and Aidy indeed gave a killer performance.
STARS: *****


FALL CARNIVAL
Principal Frye dresses down delinquents during high school carnival

— A decent change of scenery for this recurring sketch.
— Solid New York accent from Kerry here.
— Maybe it’s because I’m currently in the right mood, but Jay’s lines as Principal Frye are making me laugh more than usual.
— Kerry: “One of youse even turned on a hose…ON A BLACK LADY! Know your history! You little ass-baskets!”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Skylar Grey [real] perform “Survival”


DATE OR DISS
trio of freaky MTV-chosen bachelorettes creeps out (TAK)

— Good lines from Aidy when introducing herself to Taran.
— Cecily: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, I’m num-num hungry for this guy’s balls.”
— While a fairly one-note sketch, and I remember some online SNL fans saying this fictional MTV show felt too dated for 2013, the disturbing nature of the girls’ one-liners is decent, and just about all of Kerry’s revelations are making me laugh.
STARS: ***


ICE CREAM
joke about ambulance response to sugar overdose doesn’t land

— I really don’t like how rare it’s become to see this season’s new cast members get a lead role. With so many new cast members and with the huge deal SNL made about them in the season premiere, it shouldn’t be so scarce to see ANY of them get noteworthy roles in an episode.
— Kyle’s offbeat, unsure initial facial reaction to Beck’s ambulance joke is very funny.
— I’m enjoying the increasingly convoluted introspection sequences that Kyle and Taran are having over the simple ambulance joke.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Aside from the seemingly-perpetually-mediocre-this-season Weekend Update, this was an all-around good episode, with a season highlight (Cartoon Catchphrase) to boot. This is also the second consecutive episode with a host who really wowed me. Kerry Washington was absolutely great. (Didn’t I later find out she had sketch comedy experience back in high school or something?)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Cartoon Catchphrase
Oval Office
How’s He Doing?
My Girl
Ice Cream
Career Week
Fall Carnival
Monologue
Miss Universe Moscow 2013
Date Or Diss
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Edward Norton)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Lady Gaga

Posted on

October 26, 2013 – Edward Norton / Janelle Monáe (S39 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OBAMACARE WEBSITE
Kathleen Sebelius (KAM) offers workarounds for faulty Obamacare website

— Some pretty good laughs from the pages we’re shown of healthcare.gov’s low-res website.
— The Kayak bit was very solid.
— Bobby steals this cold opening in his walk-on, smashing the computer monitor with a baseball bat and then proudly declaring “Fixed iiiit!” in a dopey voice while giving a sideways thumbs-up.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Alec Baldwin & Miley Cyrus [real] warm up host for his first SNL gig

— A laugh from the bit with Edward Norton being under the wrong impression that Chris Kattan is still on the show.
— A funny passing compliment from Alec Baldwin about Edward being hilarious in American History X.
— The host warmup routine that Alec makes Edward do is fun, especially the part with Edward doing a string of celebrity impressions. I particularly love his absolutely spot-on Woody Harrelson impression.
— Wait, now we’re getting a very random Miley Cyrus cameo, just two episodes after she hosted? I don’t normally have anything against her, but I’m not exactly pleased to see her here, probably because I wasn’t too crazy about the hosting performance she gave earlier this season.
— So it turns out Miley’s just here to plug her upcoming concert? Really, SNL?
— Ugh at Miley making her then-trademark tongue-sticking-out, winky-eyed face into the camera. Didn’t we see enough of that in the episode she had just hosted?
— For some reason, Alec mentions that his very first hosting stint was in 1991. It was actually 1990.
— Throughout this monologue, Alec keeps comically plugging his then-current MSNBC show. Oof, this gag has not aged well AT ALL, given the fact that his MSNBC show would end up being canceled not too long after this episode, I think due to (I can’t remember for sure, so please forgive me if what I’m about to say is incorrect) behind-the-scenes drama caused by his well-known belligerent attitude.
STARS: **½


AUTUMN’S EVE PUMPKIN SPICE DOUCHE
Autumn’s Eve Pumpkin Spice Douche provides seasonal feminine freshness

— Good premise.
— A big laugh from the scene with Kate cleaning out a pumpkin that’s suggestively placed in front of her crotch while she’s casually speaking into the camera.
— Very funny swing scene between Cecily and Aidy.
— Another great Kate moment, with her little “Ooh!” wince in response to her peppermint douche.
STARS: ****


STRANGER AWARENESS
Shallon (NAP) inverts cop’s (host) stranger-safety elementary school talk

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Good characterization from Nasim here, and she’s carrying this sketch well.
— Funny conceit with the students gradually getting the completely wrong idea of what Edward’s trying to teach them about strangers in vans.
— Great delivery from Bobby of the line “No vans??? Ugh, I already hate THIS.”
— Nasim’s Shallon, when thinking Edward is her long-lost father: “What’s up, dad? I get why you left. Mom is a meeesssss….”
— Another well-delivered line from Bobby, when angrily telling Edward, “Be a man and take responsibility for your child!”
— An overall solid little sketch. Funnier than I had remembered.
STARS: ****


STEVE HARVEY
wordplay-based Halloween costumes fail to register with Steve Harvey (KET)

— Good bit with Kenan’s Steve Harvey telling us his annual Halloween routine.
— I like how, when having to guess what Kyle’s “cereal killer” costume is, Kenan-as-Harvey’s guesses are “Jeffrey Dahmer Toast Crunch” and “John Wayne Gacy Grahams”.
— I’m not 100% sure, but I think a short film that Kyle would do on SNL several seasons later would show a clip of him from this sketch as an example of how he sometimes struggles on SNL.
STARS: ***


THE MIDNIGHT COTERIE OF SINISTER INTRUDERS
horror flick per Wes Anderson

 

— A famous piece.
— Such a great premise of a Wes Anderson-directed horror movie.
— Solid Owen Wilson impression from Edward.
— I love the kindly-written “Dear Home Owner, can we kill you?” letter that Edward’s Wilson receives.
— Man, this Wes Anderson spoof is absolutely SPOT-ON and perfect, right down to every single little detail.
— Nice reveal of Alec having been the narrator all along.
— An overall classic.
STARS: *****


CRITTER CONTROL
possum in office ductwork enthralls pest control workers (BRW) & (host)

— When this originally aired, I remember being very surprised seeing Brooks playing a character that’s so different-looking and acting from his normal self, as I previously had him pegged as a cast member who would basically play himself in all of his appearance. I think I recall him even being quoted somewhere, shortly before this episode, as admitting he doesn’t know why SNL hired him as a cast member, given the fact that he doesn’t do characters.
— Brooks’ exaggerated reactions when initially seeing the possums inside the vent are cracking me up.
— Great characterization from Edward.
— I love that we’re getting a lot of camera angles from inside the vent, as that’s a very out-of-the-ordinary type of camera angle for a live SNL sketch from a recent season like this.
— Edward’s details and narration of what he’s witnessing from the possums inside the vent is hilarious.
— Solid line from Beck: “Can we stay? I kinda wanna see how this turns out.”
— Such a dumb but very funny conceit to this whole sketch, especially Edward and Brooks lightheartedly going on and on about how funny the possums are. The more and more lovably dumb this sketch is coming off, the more it feels like something Tim Robinson would’ve been great at performing had he still been in the cast. Given the fact that he’s a writer this season, I wonder if he wrote this.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****½


NUMBERS GUY
drug money counter (host) looks & acts like Rain Man but isn’t a savant

— Good reveal of Mike’s “numbers guy” being a very Rain Man-esque person. I really like the idea of this, given the fact that Rain Man is one of my all-time favorite movies.
— Edward does yet another spot-on impression tonight.
— Some good subversions regarding Edward’s counting skills, and there are some funny reactions to him from Bobby and Taran, despite the latter badly flubbing one of his laugh lines.
— What’s with Mike openly giggling in a Jimmy Fallon-esque manner when Kenan genuinely flubs his “Bumblebee” line?
— That’s the end of the sketch???
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dance Apocalyptic”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anthony Crispino relays another round of off-base scuttlebutt

— During the Anthony Crispino commentary, SNL makes their very first on-air mention of Seth’s upcoming Late Night hosting gig that’s starting in February.
— As usual, Bobby is very fun as Anthony Crispino, even if none of his false stories are standing out to me tonight.
— Okay, I did get a big laugh just now from the John Mayer/legislative body comment at the end of the Crispino commentary.
— Cecily’s Florida state flag joke seemed to be a throwback to state flag jokes that Seth used to do years prior.
— Wow, this Update is over ALREADY?!? This is one of the shortest Updates I’ve reviewed in a long time.
STARS: **½


12 DAYS NOT A SLAVE
newly-emancipated (JAP) misreads social change pace

— When this originally aired, it was a very rare novelty to see Jay leading a sketch in a non-impression role.
— Kate’s bug-eyed mugging (something she’s always had a bad habit of relying on) feels unnecessary in this sketch.
— A big laugh from Aidy’s great “These have been the best 12 days of my life!” line.
— Despite me liking certain aspects of this sketch, something about this sketch in general feels wanting. I can’t put my finger on what exactly the problem is, though. It’s not Jay, as I feel he’s doing decently in a then-rare non-impression role.
— ANOTHER unnecessary Miley Cyrus cameo in tonight’s episode, this time featuring her twerking as a 19th century woman. (*groan*)
STARS: **


RUTH’S CHRIS
virgin waiters (host), (NAP), (CES), (MOB) anticipate becoming sexperts

— I love Aidy’s delivery of “Ohh, please…don’t call me ‘son’.”
— Much like in that Rick’s Model T’s sketch from this season’s premiere, we have another display of Mike’s irksome habit of delivering his lines very slowly, unsurely, and haltingly, further showing what an awkward live performer he is.
— Funny brief walk-on from Beck.
— I have very mixed feelings on this sketch. The performances are fun, but the material itself is just too dumb for my likes, and not the funny kind of dumb (like the Critter Control sketch from earlier in this episode).
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Electric Lady”


HALLOWEEN CANDY
(host) comments on the items he intends to give to trick-or-treaters

— A variation of one of my all-time favorite sketches, the Christmas ornaments sketch from the season 37 Steve Buscemi episode.
— Edward is a blast in this sketch.
— I remember an online SNL fan pointing out that it almost seemed like Edward’s characterization in this sketch was him intentionally doing a Kevin Spacey impression. Not sure if I agree with that or not, but I do think he looks like Spacey here. This all brings up an interesting comparison I’ll make: much like in Spacey’s first hosting stint, Edward is displaying a fun knack for doing a lot of great impressions in this episode. In fact, Edward even did a brief William Hurt impression in the monologue, which Spacey also did in his first episode’s David Letterman sketch.
— A laugh from Bobby’s character calling his skeleton Halloween costume, “Bones!”
— Love the bit with Edward revealing the inside of the Cars 2 DVD box is empty, and then snarkily asking us, “Now who’s in control?!?”
— Funny cutaway to Aidy as “Adult Ruth”.
— A particularly great part with Edward showing us a package of razor blades still sealed, so “this time, they’ll have to arrest me for generosity!”
— For me, the only thing keeping this fantastic sketch from being as perfect as the Steve Buscemi version of this sketch is the fact that the side bits with Bobby are not quite as good to me as the side bits with Kristen Wiig decorating a Christmas tree in the Buscemi version. Some of Bobby’s bits here feel a little too forced, like the “I got T.P.-ed” bit.
STARS: ****½


BAND SHOT

— For our “10-to-1” in tonight’s episode, the show comes back from commercial only to show the SNL Band immediately playing the show back to commercial, which usually means a segment was scrapped at the last minute because the show ran long.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty strong first half, but a weak second half until the show rebounded nicely with a very strong final sketch. A good episode as a whole. Edward Norton was a fantastic host. I remember being wowed by him when this episode originally aired, and I still found him impressive in my re-watch just now. He not only did a great job, but he also served as a much-needed palate cleanser after Bruce Willis’ horrible hosting performance in the preceding episode. Definitely put Norton on the list of great one-time hosts who have sadly never hosted a second time.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Midnight Coterie Of Sinister Intruders
Halloween Candy
Critter Control
Stranger Awareness
Autumn’s Eve Pumpkin Spice Douche
Numbers Guy
Obamacare Website
Steve Harvey
Monologue
Weekend Update
Ruth’s Chris
12 Days Not A Slave


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bruce Willis)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kerry Washington

Posted on

October 12, 2013 – Bruce Willis / Katy Perry (S39 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

NASA SHUTDOWN
government shutdown impacts NASA & Gravity astronauts (TAK) & (CES)

— Pretty funny non-verbal reaction Kenan’s night janitor character initially has to Taran and Cecily’s panicked call. I also like him answering that call by innocently asking a light-hearted “Yello?”
— SNL gets more good mileage out of the government shutdown.
— A good laugh from Taran’s delivery of “Why don’t we make this asphyxiation…an erotic one?”
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
BOM plays harmonica poorly & fancies himself to be like host’s son

— Wasn’t too crazy about Bruce Willis’ joke about six Die Hards. His delivery of it was pretty awkward, which already sets a bad tone for how his hosting performance will go in tonight’s episode.
— Thank god Bobby has shown up to offer some much-needed comic relief.
— Despite the humor Bobby’s bringing to this, the interplay between him and Bruce feels kinda weird, thanks to Bruce’s lack of ANY kind of believable chemistry with Bobby.
— Much like Bruce’s last monologue from all the way back in 1989, we get a display of his harmonica-playing skills. Some entertaining tunes from him here.
— Love the gag with Bobby repeatedly breathing in and out of his harmonica because he’s out of breath and needs his inhaler.
STARS: **½


24-HOUR ENERGY FOR DATING ACTRESSES
harrowed boyfriends cope by drinking 24-Hour Energy For Dating Actresses

— Funny reveal of this being an energy drink ad for men who are dating actresses. A relatable premise, though I’m sure this resonates more with people who can relate to this more than I can.
— Cecily’s angry outburst is giving me some good laughs.
— Another amusing non-verbal reaction from Kenan tonight, this time when seeing his girlfriend Cecily do a physical romantic scene with a shirtless Jay.
— Good ending about an energy drink for women dating hacky comedians.
STARS: ***½


BLACK OPS
(host)’s unrealistically-cinematic attack plan sways fellow Navy SEALs

— A funny blunt, short, and to-the-point clarification from Beck after Bruce’s very long-winded and detailed first answer.
— I have mixed feelings on this sketch so far. Actually, the premise isn’t bad, and the cast members are doing good work. I think my problem with this sketch is Bruce’s delivery, especially how mumbly and low-talky he occasionally gets. John Milhiser would later disclose in an interview (I can’t remember who interviewed him) that, during the table read for this episode, people in the room called attention to Bruce’s habit of mumbling and low-talking his way through his line readings, and asked him to speak louder and more clearly. In response, Bruce nodded his head and gave a thumbs-up gesture, only to IMMEDIATELY continue mumbling and low-talking his way through his line readings. Looks like that habit of his has carried over into parts of the live show, as this sketch is showing.
— I’m loving Bobby’s over-excited reactions to Bruce’s details in his action movie-like plan.
STARS: **


THE OL’ BARBERSHOP
(host)’s unembellished anecdotes fall flat compared to fellow barbers’

— Very fun performances and delivery from Kenan and Jay, the latter of whom seems to intentionally be doing an impression of Eddie Murphy’s barber character from Coming To America.
— Bruce is wearing a wig that seems to be an intentional replica of his real hairstyle from his previous hosting stint in 1989 (side-by-side comparison below).

   

— The main comedic conceit of this sketch with Bruce’s weird, offbeat stories isn’t bad, but once AGAIN tonight, I am not caring much for Bruce’s delivery. Kenan and Jay’s side characters are amusing me far more than Bruce’s main character is.
— What the hell? Bruce completely fucked up the whole ending. He missed his cue to remove Bobby’s barber cape and started making his exit a little too early, forcing Bobby himself to awkwardly start removing the cape, only for Bruce to finally realize his mistake and come over to help Bobby remove the cape, revealing an orange prison jumpsuit that Bobby’s randomly wearing under the cape. That prison jumpsuit reveal, which was supposed to get a big laugh from the audience, falls completely flat and is met with confused silence from the audience because Bruce screwed up the timing it so damn badly. Then Bruce proceeds to completely botch his timing of his “It was Sheryl Crow” reveal right as he makes his scripted exit, leading to awkward silence before Kenan and Jay keep the ending of the sketch going. Man, Bruce has been a trainwreck-y host tonight so far.
STARS: **


BOY DANCE PARTY
regular guys bust a move when the ladies are away

— Oh, I’m eager to re-watch this right now. I remember this music video being a blast when I last saw it back when it originally aired 7 years ago.
— Yeah, so far, this is absolutely holding up for me. I’m loving this. The catchy music, the visuals, the gags, the performances…everything about this is working for me.
— Great bit with Taran continuing to spray Bobby with silly string while all the men are holding in a frozen pose when Vanessa briefly comes back in the apartment to get her purse.
— The “Shake that sack” part is priceless.
— Even the stiff-in-tonight’s-episode Bruce Willis is coming off silly and loose here, for once tonight. And, if you know me, you’ll know I appreciate Bruce’s Three Stooges reference with him doing Curly’s spinning-around-on the-floor routine at one point.
— A solid yell from Vanessa at the end.
STARS: ****½


THE LADY GAGA SHOW
Lady Gaga (VAB) interviews Michael Kors (host) & Penelope Cruz (KAM)

— Wait, Vanessa as Lady Gaga?!? Ooooookay, unexpected casting there.
— Yeesh. I love Vanessa as much as the next SNL fan, but in this sketch so far, her Lady Gaga impression is NOT working, especially not that voice she’s using, which is all wrong for this role.
— Oh, and it goes without saying how I’m not crazy about seeing yet another display of one of SNL’s laziest, most overrelied-upon crutches: a celebrity-hosted talk show sketch. Now that I think of it, however, it does feel like SNL has thankfully been cutting back on the number of celebrity-hosted talk show sketches the last few seasons prior to this.
— Oh…my…god at that insane, over-the-top, high-pitched, shrieky delivery Bruce is using here, basically playing a caricature of a caricature of a caricature of a gay stereotype. (From what I’ve heard from some other SNL fans, the real Michael Kors, who Bruce is playing in this sketch, sounds NOTHING like this.) It’s almost like Bruce heard my complaint about how stiff most of his performances in this episode have been, and is now overcompensating for that by going the opposite end of the extreme, giving a super over-the-top, animated performance in this sketch. Whatever he’s trying to do here, I can’t say it’s working for me.
— The gag with Kate’s Penelope Cruz mispronouncing shampoo ingredients in her thick accent is just repeating what SNL did the last time Kate’s Penelope Cruz appeared, which was actually in Kate’s very first episode. I enjoyed that Penelope-Cruz-mispronouncing-ingredients gag the first time, especially since it was Kate’s very first big showcase on SNL, but I didn’t need a reprisal of it being questionably shoehorned into this completely unrelated Lady Gaga Show sketch.
— Aidy’s reaction to her Gaga-style makeover is hilarious, and is the only real positive I can find in this bad sketch (aside from a chuckle or two I got from Taran’s DJ character).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Roar”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Senate chaplain Barry Black (KET) wishes harm on obstructionist Congress

BRW gives the cautionary tales behind his three ill-advised tattoos

— Yeesh, Seth and Cecily’s jokes tonight are pretty awful so far.
— Good performance from Kenan, but I’m not all that crazy about the material in his commentary so far, aside from a laugh I got from the detail of his comment about beating someone with a pillowcase full of Skittles.
— Okay, Kenan’s commentary is getting better as it goes on.
— Speaking of getting better as it goes on, Seth and Cecily’s Update jokes are somewhat improving after a rough first two minutes. I especially liked Seth’s George Clooney joke. Cecily’s general Update delivery, however, still isn’t working much for me, aside from her comically-sleazy delivery during the punchline of her joke about sexual harassment.
— I like the return of the old recurring bit where Seth (and sometimes Amy Poehler, when she was his co-anchor) tell the same Update joke multiple times in a row, with a different punchline each time. Prior to tonight’s episode, Seth hadn’t done this bit in years.
— Cecily, in one of her and Seth’s multiple Jenner divorce jokes: “’It’s sad, but I’m excited to start my new life as a single middle-aged woman’, said Bruce.” The fact that the audience laughs hysterically at that joke just goes to show you how much society and standards have changed in the mere seven years since this episode originally aired.
— Great to see Brooks getting his own Update commentary as himself, especially given how the tradition of cast members doing stand-up-style Update commentaries as themselves had long been abandoned prior to this.
— Brooks is pretty solid here. He’s displaying good self-deprecating humor regarding the dumbness of his tattoos, and he’s coming off likable and relatable. It should’ve become a common occurrence for him to do Update commentaries as himself this season, but we end up only seeing him do one more, and it’s not until towards the end of this season.
STARS: **½


ARMAGEDDON
Kirby goes on about his heroic kitty cat during Armageddon-like mission

— The second and final appearance of Bobby’s Kirby character, a.k.a. the “I miss my little kitty cat” guy.
— Despite only appearing once prior to this, this character of Bobby’s surprisingly gets enthusiastic recognition cheers from the audience as soon as the camera first cuts to him in tonight’s installment.
— Like the last time this character appeared, Bobby has the amazing ability to make this very questionable character and material work for me, despite how unnecessary it feels to do this sketch a second time.
— (*groan*) Yet another instance tonight of Bruce hurting the timing of something by pausing for an awfully long time before delivering one of his lines.
— Also like the last time this character appeared, Kirby’s sudden panicked, emotional outburst when thinking his cat perished is making me laugh (even though it’s just a rehashed gag), though unlike last time, it’s not also making me almost shed a sad tear.
STARS: ***


CENTAURI VODKA
(host) is concerned about the back half of his centaur costume (JOM)

— A very funny brief shot of John Milhiser desperately gasping for air in the one second that Nasim lets his head out of the centaur costume. However, it’s sad that that one-second shot has been the ONLY noteworthy face time John has gotten in a live sketch so far in his SNL tenure. I recall hearing from some people who were familiar with John’s performance style at improv shows that he had a knack for physical comedy, which this sketch is somewhat utilizing, with the jerky, spastic leg movements John’s making in the back of the centaur costume. It’s just too bad his first (of what ends up being only TWO this entire season) noteworthy comedic showcase in a sketch has him hidden from the camera most of the sketch. Also, his chances for doing some good physical comedy in this sketch end up getting cut unexpectedly short, because Bruce…well, you’ll see a little later in this sketch review.
— Hilarious cutaway to Beck as Vin Diesel staring at a wall and then slowly turning his head away from it with a dumb, bewildered look on his face.
— Okay, we need to talk about that ending, folks, because boy, is there an interesting backstory to it. This sketch ends EXTREMELY abruptly and confusingly with Bruce suddenly making a comical exit, dragging John behind him inside the centaur costume, who suddenly goes from making jerky, spastic leg movements (because his character is running out of oxygen) to immediately acting like he’s dead, by making his legs be limp on the floor. As Bruce exits, Nasim comes back into the shot, looks confusedly at the exiting Bruce, then spins around in a lost manner, pauses awkwardly as if she doesn’t know what to do, and then randomly yells “Bruce Jenner…is horrified!” as the camera cuts to an exterior shot of the nightclub this sketch is set in, followed by the audience applauding and the sketch fading to black. Here’s the thing about all of that: the exit that Bruce made was mistakenly WAY TOO EARLY, when he still had minutes of material left to perform in this sketch. In the same John Milhiser interview I previously mentioned in my review of this episode’s Black Ops sketch, John talks about this incident. My memory of what John said is a little fuzzy, and thus, some of the details I’m about to relay might be a little off, but anyway, John explains that Bruce was apparently under the completely wrong impression of when he was supposed to exit this sketch. You see, in the script, after Nasim’s “Bruce Jenner…is horrified!” line, the camera was supposed to cut to Taran as Jenner making a comically horrified face, and then we were supposed to have a few more minutes of material dealing with Bruce (Willis) and John’s characters, with John’s character gradually dying from lack of oxygen, and his legs being seen lifelessly dragging on the floor by the culmination of the sketch (which is why John abruptly makes his legs be limp on the floor during the live version of this sketch’s ending when he realizes Bruce is making his exit way too early). All of that had to get scrapped on the fly because Bruce mistakenly exited the sketch very prematurely. That makes this the SECOND time tonight that Bruce completely fucked up the ending of a sketch. Oh, and you know that part I mentioned from this sketch about Nasim coming back into the shot, looking confusedly at the exiting Bruce, then spinning around in a lost manner, and then pausing awkwardly as if she doesn’t know what to do? She was not acting there, people. That was her GENUINE REACTION to Bruce mistakenly exiting this sketch early. In other words, Bruce botched the ending so badly that it resulted in a true professional like Nasim momentarily dropping character onscreen and physically expressing her genuine confusion (seen in the last above screencap for this sketch) over why the fuck Bruce is exiting the sketch early, leaving Nasim momentarily having no idea what to do next before she decides to go on with her scripted “Bruce Jenner…is horrified!” line that ends up not even getting the intended payoff. Yikes. This whole thing has got to be one of the most (if not THE most) botched sketch endings in SNL history.
— The botched ending of this sketch makes me wonder, did NBC ever re-air this episode? I think I recall hearing they didn’t, but I can’t say for sure. If they didn’t re-air this, I’m assuming it’s because they’re not proud of this episode (backing up that theory of mine is the fact that, according to what I once heard, practically NONE of this episode’s sketches are on YouTube), due to the weak quality of both the episode itself and Bruce’s hosting performance, not to mention all of the gaffes. If they did re-air this, does anyone know if they fixed the botched ending of both this and the Barbershop sketches by showing the dress rehearsal version of those, or did they just leave them unaltered?
STARS: Not even sure I can fairly rate this, given how much of the sketch we missed due to Bruce’s way-too-early exit. If I am supposed to give this a rating, I’ll give it a *½, but I feel bad for that, because if the sketch played out in full like it was supposed to, it most likely would’ve been a pretty good piece that got a decent rating from me.


PROTECTIVE SON
newly-fatherless Eddie mocks his mom’s (VAB) date’s (host) verbal slip-up

— Oh, geez. Look, I could tolerate a sequel to Bobby’s Kirby sketch, but I did NOT need a sequel to Taran’s Eddie sketch, a.k.a. the “glice” sketch, which I was iffy about in its first installment. Man, the writers must’ve been hard up for material this week if they’re resorting to bringing thin-as-hell characters like Kirby and Eddie back. I wonder if SNL intentionally only brings out this Eddie character whenever the show has a bad host (Justin Bieber, Bruce Willis). Well, I guess not, since SNL attempted to do an installment of this sketch when Zach Galifianakis (who is certainly nowhere near being a bad host) hosted the preceding season, but it got cut after dress rehearsal.
— Much like in the Kirby sketch earlier tonight, the audience surprisingly gives Taran’s entrance as Eddie a lot of recognition cheers, despite the fact that he previously only appeared in one sketch.
— “Chun”? That’s not even inherently comical-sounding like “glice” somewhat was. (Neither is “vrest”, for that matter, which was the slip-of-the-tongue word that the aforementioned cut-after-dress Zach Galifianakis installment of this sketch centered around.)
— Bruce, after Taran’s Eddie yells something in his face: “You’re spitting right in my mouth, Eddie.” The way Bruce said that line, I get the feeling it was an ad-lib.
— I like that we actually get continuity from the previous installment of this sketch, by mentioning the father character that Jason Sudeikis previously played, and writing him off in tonight’s installment by explaining he walked out on his family because he was sick of Eddie’s antics.
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, Taran’s doing his damnedest to milk laughs out of this nothing material, but, unlike the last installment of this sketch, there are a lot of moments here where Taran is unfortunately bordering on annoying the living HELL out of me. I know this Eddie character is supposed to be annoying, but he’s supposed to be annoying in a way that makes you laugh. I ain’t laughing. Instead, I’m almost more like how Bruce’s character is unhappily reacting to Eddie.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Eddie tearfully saying Bruce’s character looks like he would take care of him if he were trapped inside a Japanese-named office building.
— Terrible ending.
STARS: *½


SIGMA
fraternity’s beer pong rules value whimsy over getting drunk

— At the very beginning of this, you can hear the SNL Band playing the show to commercial, before abruptly stopping when realizing their mistake. The decision to air this short film in this particular spot of the episode must’ve been made at LITERALLY the last minute (and the SNL Band must not have been notified), presumably because Bruce horribly botching the ending of the Centauri Vodka sketch threw this episode’s schedule out of whack, leaving the people at SNL scrambling to fill the unexpected extra airtime left in the show.
— Glad to see SNL continue to establish Beck and Kyle as SNL’s new short film guys.
— Kyle’s delivery in this is cracking me up so much.
— The convoluted, bizarre beer pong rules are hilarious. I especially love the “custom made baseball cards” one, and the “Chug! Chug! Chug!” bit with the toy train.
— In the preceding episode’s Beck/Kyle short, I praised the fast pacing of the gags within it. Well, that goes double for this, as the gags here come at you at a super rapid-fire speed, and I love that.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walking On Air”


E-METH
Rerun from 9/28/13. The fact that this is airing in the 10-to-1 slot tonight is yet another sign that SNL is scrambling to fill the unexpected extra airtime left in the show from the botched ending of the Centauri Vodka sketch.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A poor episode, and the two pre-taped shorts were the only standout strong things all night. (Pre-taped shorts being the only standout strong segments in an episode is something I recall sadly going on to be a frequent trait of this season. Hopefully, I’m wrong about that, but we’ll see.) The thing about this episode is that the writing, while definitely bad in certain segments, wasn’t all that bad in some of the things that didn’t work. Some of this episode’s sketches had potential, but were ruined by Bruce Willis’ poor delivery and performances. I remember, earlier in the week this episode originally aired, online SNL fans were nervous about how Bruce would turn out as a host, given his infamous reputation at the time for being completely humorless, grumpy, and difficult to work with on movie sets. While it turns out he occasionally (VERY occasionally) displayed a surprising willingness to get silly and loose in this episode, I did not enjoy him as a host AT ALL in this stint. In addition to the aforementioned two separate instances of him completely fucking up the ending of a sketch, I was also put off by how slow and delayed his timing came off in some sketches (resulting in brief moments of dead air). And in general, I just didn’t find him funny in the slightest. From what I recall of his previous hosting stint in 1989, he wasn’t exactly a laugh riot there either, and I remember I had some issues with his performances in the Wayne’s World and Johnny O’Connor sketches from that episode, and he also made a bad gaffe at one point in the The Man & His Music sketch. However, he certainly didn’t hurt that overall episode anywhere near as much as he did this overall one. It also helped that that 1989 episode didn’t utilize him all that heavily, as there were several live sketches that night that didn’t have him in it, which is something that tonight’s episode would’ve benefited greatly from.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Sigma
Boy Dance Party
24-Hour Energy For Dating Actresses
NASA Shutdown
Armageddon
Weekend Update
Monologue
The Ol’ Barbershop
Black Ops
Centauri Vodka
Protective Son
The Lady Gaga Show


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Miley Cyrus)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Edward Norton

Posted on

October 5, 2013 – Miley Cyrus (S39 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

VMAS BACKSTAGE
backstage at the 2013 VMAs, host’s new image has former self (VAB) leery

— I don’t like how the typical pointless, unnecessary audience applause that always follows the first line delivered at the beginning of a cold opening (which has become a regular thing for SNL since sometime around the mid-2000s) forced Kenan to awkwardly repeat his “raccoon meat” line to Noel.
— Our obligatory spoof of Miley Cyrus’ VMAs incident. At least this means we’re not getting a political cold opening in this episode.
— Not a bad premise, and at least it’s a way to use Vanessa’s Miley impression without doing another Miley Cyrus Show sketch.
— A decent and well-timed part with both Mileys reciting the exact same speech in unison, which also reminds me of when Calista Flockhart and Rachel Dratch’s Ally McBeal did that in Flockhart’s season 26 monologue.
— Taran’s Robin Thicke, to Miley: “You ready to start grabbin’ at my junk while I half-sing?”
— Comically emotional outbursts from a teary-eyed Bobby never fail to kill.
— Good lines from Jay’s Will Smith.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
for her SNL gig, host nixes Hannah Montana, twerking, BOM’s wrecking ball

— Pretty much immediately in this monologue, Miley promises no twerking tonight. Hmm, we’ll see.
— Uh…okay at Miley’s point-blank reveal that Hannah Montana was murdered.
— Hilarious cutaway to a shot of Bobby ready to do a Wrecking Ball spoof, only to be told there won’t be one.
— Wow, this monologue is over already? This was seriously only about a minute-and-a-half long. Easily one of the shortest monologues in recent years.
STARS: **½


FIFTY SHADES OF GREY AUDITIONS
screen tests for Fifty Shades Of Grey movie feature unkinky celebrities

— I love Noel’s Emma Stone impression.
— Taran’s Christoph Waltz impression is priceless, made even funnier by the fact that Taran presumably developed this impression from having worked with Waltz for a week earlier this same calendar year (2013) when Waltz hosted SNL. I always like when someone on SNL does an impression of a then-recent host or musical guest.
— Feels odd seeing Beck do a Philip Seymour Hoffman impression, because 1) that was one of the signature impressions of the recently-departed-from-SNL Jason Sudeikis, and 2) Hoffman would sadly end up passing away just a few months after this episode.
— Very strange how Aidy’s Rebel Wilson “impression” features her doing and saying nothing, aside from occasionally muttering half-audible “Yeah…”s. The Kristen Stewart impression that Noel did earlier in this pre-tape also featured her doing and saying nothing, but that was clearly the point of that impression. Aidy’s Rebel Wilson doing and saying nothing just shows that both Aidy and SNL were presumably aware that Aidy must not have been able to do a good Rebel Wilson impression and was seemingly only cast in the role because of her size.
— As usual for SNL’s screen test pre-tapes, this is lots of fun, even if nothing will ever match the Star Wars screen test pre-tapes from 1997.
STARS: ****


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
hip-hop wannabe (host) draws Kyra’s attention

— I’m not caring at all for Miley’s performance here.
— Geez, only one sketch into tonight’s episode, and Miley ALREADY breaks her promise of “no twerking tonight”.
— As usual, Aidy has the funniest moments here, especially her comments about consoling a divorcee, and the part with her making up a song.
— Another funny “My boyfriend’s crazy” story from Cecily.
STARS: ***


WE DID STOP
John Boehner (TAK) & Michele Bachmann (host) in “We Did Stop” music video

— The first of many music videos in this SNL season.
— Very fun idea to do a topical government shutdown-related spoof of Miley’s “We Can’t Stop”. I’ve never seen the music video for that song of Miley’s, but that’s not hurting my enjoyment of this spoof at all.
— Taran is a riot in his John Boehner performance here. He has an endless amount of funny moments all throughout this music video, and is displaying lots of Will Ferrell-esque fearlessness.
— Lots of fun visuals throughout this.
— Great shot of Jay’s President Obama peeking through the window with a worried look on his face.
STARS: ****


PIERS MORGAN LIVE
many Hillary Clinton biopics are in development

— Taran’s Piers Morgan: “Good evening, I’m Piers Morgan, and if I were in a cartoon, I would be the voice of a fancy hedgehog.”
— Feels odd seeing Nasim’s Arianna Huffington appearing outside of Weekend Update for once. By the way, it’s good to see Nasim getting some noteworthy roles tonight after being almost non-existent in the preceding week’s season premiere.
— Holy hell! I (and I’m sure just about everybody else) completely forgot until now that Beck played Bill Clinton once, early in his SNL tenure. Wow. It feels utterly bizarre seeing a post-1995 episode have anyone other than Darrell Hammond play Bill Clinton. This reminds me of that forgotten-among-SNL-fans one time in 2005 when George Bush Sr. was played by Fred Armisen (doing an actual accurate impression) instead of Dana Carvey.
— Beck’s not doing the best Bill Clinton I’ve ever seen, but man, it’s such an interesting novelty seeing him do this impression.
— An even more noteworthy moment right now, as we get the debut of Kate’s Hillary Clinton impression, though the only reason she’s playing her in this specific sketch is because this sketch has several different women portraying Hillary in separate biopic spoofs. Vanessa is technically still SNL’s regular Hillary impersonator at this point, and would remain so until the following season, where Kate officially takes over the impression.
— I could do without Nasim’s Huffington constantly calling Taran’s Morgan flirty pet names, as it’s just a rehash of when she does that towards Seth in her Weekend Update appearances.
— The concept of having various women portray Hillary Clinton in individually-themed biopic spoofs is pretty fun, and reminds me of how the season 18 Danny DeVito episode had a very fun running theme where, throughout the episode, each female cast member played Amy Fisher in individually-themed TV movie spoofs. I kinda wish these Hillary spoofs were done in the same manner as those Amy Fisher spoofs, with each spoof airing as its own individual sketch in separate parts of the show.
— Good bit at the end regarding Taran-as-Morgan’s accent being fake.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Wrecking Ball”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM & CES group government shutdown constituencies into Winners & Losers

Connecticut mom Pat Lynhart (KAM) loves being wild in Grand Theft Auto V

lip-smacking Shannon Sharpe (JAP) gets hyperbolic about NFL happenings

Jacob won’t deviate from script presenting Shabbat origin & light comedy

— Aww, they’re back to using a burgundy color motif for this season’s Update graphics. I preferred the new blue color motif they used in the preceding week’s season premiere. Why’d they change it back to burgundy after only one episode?
— Much like in the preceding episode, I’m still very iffy on Cecily’s general delivery of Update jokes. However, I absolutely loved her sly delivery of “That’s good weed” at the end of her weed-on-the-bus joke.
— Hmm, Cecily getting involved in a Winners/Losers segment, a segment that Seth usually does by himself.
— An overall good Winners/Losers segment tonight, and Cecily surprisingly fit well into it. I wonder why her delivery worked well there, but not so much when telling regular Update jokes.
— Kate is fantastic in this Grand Theft Auto commentary. When this originally aired, I was so wowed by her performance in this. Unfortunately, it would later become rather cliche to see Kate play this type of hardass, which kinda takes away the novelty of this Grand Theft Auto commentary of hers. It’s definitely still working for me, though.
— The goofy voice, constant lip-licking, and general gestures that Jay’s doing as Shannon Sharpe are cracking me up (and, yes, the real Shannon Sharpe’s voice truly does sound like that), and he has some funny lines here.
— I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s a certain something Cecily keeps doing at the end of a lot of her jokes that I dislike.
— Blah, the same-old same-old Jacob routine that, while it worked in his first Update commentary, never changes in his subsequent Update commentaries and gets increasingly old with each passing appearance. And, as I said in my review of the last Jacob commentary prior to tonight’s, I’m starting to really hate the constant (and I mean CONSTANT) gag within every one of his commentaries in which he never responds to Seth’s questions and instead just goes back to reading from his speech.
— Oh, we actually get something different for once in a Jacob commentary, with his endearingly nervous, unsure reaction when meeting Seth’s new co-anchor, Cecily. Although this moment is only brief, it’s a nice change of routine for this Jacob character.
STARS: **½


CHEER SQUAD
during practice, (host) sees fellow cheerleaders abducted by alien (KET)

— A laugh from the “I like to cheer – deal with it, dad!” lyric at the end of Taran’s cheer.
— Aww, the copy I’m currently watching of this episode must be the West Coast airing, as it’s missing a really bad technical error that happened during the live East Coast airing. (My memory of the technical error is fuzzy, but from what I recall, at one certain point of this sketch when the camera was on a close-up of Miley, the camera started glitching, making the screen flicker a green color, which forced SNL’s control room operators to hastily cut to a different camera, which then accidentally revealed an SNL stagehand on the set applying Nasim and Noel’s wires that will be lifting them in the air later in the sketch.) Call me crazy, but I was kinda looking forward to seeing that gaffe again. From what I recall of this sketch, the technical error was the only interesting thing in what was a painfully unfunny sketch.
— So far, I’m not caring at all for where this sketch in general is going, though, contrary to my negative memory of it, this sketch actually has a few amusing lines, mostly from Taran. Not enough to save this sketch, though.
— Now we get an alien appearance? Yeah, this sketch is NOT working for me.
— The whole bit with Kenan’s alien character announcing his demands in the style of a cheerleader-esque cheer is awful.
— A blah ending.
STARS: *½


MORNIN’ MIAMI
anchors (host), (BOM), (KAM) parcel jollity for Mornin’ Miami promo shoot

— A good laugh from the first instance of Miley, Bobby, and Kate following the director saying “Cut” by immediately slamming their coffee mugs down onto the table, dropping their cheery facades, and angrily sitting in miserable silence.
— The promos are increasingly hilarious and random, particularly the ones that Kate’s doing, as her delivery of them is great.
— Despite the constant repetition of the aforementioned gag with Miley, Bobby, and Kate sitting in miserable silence in between promos, it works as an amusing contrast to their cheery attitudes during their bizarre promos.
— During one of the “sitting in miserable silence” sequences, I love Bobby immediately cutting off Kate’s singing of “I’ll Stand By You” by telling her “Oh, shut it!”
— A particular funny promo from Kate about a racist foley artist
— Hilarious ending reveal of Bobby’s character’s “B.F.” nickname standing for Bitch Fantastic.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “We Can’t Stop”


POETRY CLASS
Miss Meadows (VAB) tries fueling high schoolers’ interest in poetry

— Good delivery from Mike on his “I have a job interview, thank Christ” line.
— Funny little mumbling Vanessa’s lightly doing at the end of her sentences. Not sure what to make of that loud, sharp sound she occasionally makes, though.
— Okay, I’m starting to find Vanessa’s odd characterization in general here to be cute and likable, even the aforementioned loud, sharp sound she occasionally makes.
— Some laughs from Kenan’s “Where my weed at?” poem.
STARS: ***


MILEY SEX TAPE
KYM’s unfounded hesitancy costs him perfect girlfriend host

— Ah, our very first Beck/Kyle short!
— I wonder if it’s intentional to have Bobby basically be a Nick Rutherford (the Good Neighbor member who SNL initially didn’t hire with his partners Beck and Kyle) surrogate here, given the fact that, at this early stage of their SNL tenures, Beck and Kyle were probably still so used to having Rutherford teamed up with them. I also wonder if they put Bobby in this role because they figured having a recognizable cast member like Bobby in a co-starring would help this inaugural SNL short of theirs make it on the air.
— This inaugural Beck/Kyle SNL short is displaying the usual quirky and fun brand of Good Neighbor-style humor, and I really like the fast-pacing of the gags in this. A pretty solid way to introduce Beck and Kyle’s humor to general SNL audiences.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Although not as strong as the season premiere, this was a pretty good episode, and had a few great highs. I wasn’t too thrilled with Miley Cyrus’ performance as a host in this episode. There was too much of a same-iness to some of the obnoxious roles she played, and I felt she both came off more likable and blended in with the show better in her previous hosting stint.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
We Did Stop
Mornin’ Miami
Fifty Shades Of Grey Auditions
Miley Sex Tape
Piers Morgan Live
VMAs Backstage
Girlfriends Talk Show
Poetry Class
Weekend Update
Monologue
Cheer Squad


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Former one-time host Bruce Willis makes his return 24 years after his previous hosting stint