Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CLINTON’S QUALITIES
Hillary Clinton (AMP) prizes being an unethical racist-backed sore loser
— Typical Amy-as-Hillary stuff so far, but it’s working here.
— A good laugh from Amy’s Hillary stating point-blank, with a smile, “My supporters are racist”, as one of the listed-off reasons for us to vote for her.
— Decent laughs from Amy’s Hillary about playing the gender and race cards.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
Sean Connery (DAH) & other Indiana Jones veterans are jealous of host
— A bit of an odd usage of Jason as an audience member (reminding me of when he frequently played one when he was just a writer), but he’s great here.
— A rare non-Celebrity Jeopardy appearance from Darrell’s Sean Connery. Fun to see him in this.
— Amy continues her trend of playing a lot of male roles this season.
— Great walk-on from Will as the face-melted-off Nazi.
— An interesting new addition to Darrell’s long-established Connery impression, with him punctuating his slams with a yell of “POW!” This would end up being the only appearance where Darrell’s Connery would do that.
STARS: ***½
MACGRUBER
silo crisis reveals son Merrill’s (host) homosexuality
— Something about the copy I’m watching of this episode makes the visual quality of this MacGruber short look blurry and dizzying (as can be seen in some of the above screencaps for this short and some of the screencaps you’ll soon see for the later MacGruber shorts in this episode).
— A big laugh from MacGruber’s puzzled delivery of “Anal lubricant?!?”
— Great bit with Shia LaBeouf answering MacGruber’s “Who’s the lucky girl?” question with a very hesitant “……..Scott……..”, receiving a very funny facial reaction from MacGruber.
STARS: ****
IT’S A MATCH
murder investigation follows 1970s game show format
— Fun portrayals of fictional counterparts to real-life 70s celebrities, even though I do kinda wonder why SNL’s just not having the actual 70s celebrities be portrayed. After all, SNL did so in the Super Buzzers sketch from the season 27 Jonny Mosely episode, and the Charades sketch from the season 31 Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode.
— Shia’s look as the fictional counterpart to Doug Henning is absolutely hilarious, and his performance is great.
— The murder premise is a strong twist to what we were led to initially think was just going to be a straightforward 70s game show parody.
— Bill doing great straight man work as usual. I love his stern, subtle frustration in response to the contestant’s wacky antics.
— Even though I’ve generally gotten so tired of Fred’s gay stereotype shtick by this point of his tenure, it’s working for me in this sketch as the Charles Nelson Reilly fictional counterpart he’s playing.
— Good bit with Shia’s character popping out of the deceased game show host’s bodybag.
— The dress rehearsal version of this sketch would later be used in reruns, and the biggest difference I can remember (and my memory of it may be a bit faulty) is that, in the dress version, Casey’s answer to the first question is a raunchy “I was making mouth whoopee”, whereas her answer in the live version was a tame “I was eating pound cake and crying on my waterbed.”
STARS: ****
SCARED STRAIGHT
inmate Lorenzo McIntosh (KET) can’t scare teens straight with movie plots
— The debut of these Scared Straight sketches with Kenan’s Lorenzo MacIntosh character.
— When this originally aired, I remember feeling this was Kenan’s shameless attempt at creating his own version of Matt Foley. All these years later, I no longer see many Matt Foley similarities in this, but that may because I’ve gotten so used to this MacIntosh character that I now just see him as his own entity.
— One big difference with Lorenzo MacIntosh in this inaugural appearance of his compared to his subsequent appearances is the scar on his face, which eventually gets called out as obviously having been drawn on with a marker.
— I guess I can see why the very crass prison rape jokes in these Lorenzo MacIntosh sketches would bother some people nowadays, but they’re giving me good laughs in tonight’s sketch.
— Good running bit throughout this sketch with MacIntosh describing movie plots as incidents that supposedly happened in his life. Kenan’s delivery is helping to make this running gag work.
— Speaking of Kenan’s delivery, I love his delivery of his threatening parting words, “There ain’t gonna be no grease! THERE AIN’T GONNA BE NO GREASE!”
— Overall, I’m surprised by how big I was on this inaugural Lorenzo MacIntosh sketch. It was stronger than I had remembered. We’ll see how this holds up as a recurring sketch when we get there.
STARS: ****
MACGRUBER
vibrator proves Merrill hasn’t been cured of his gayness
— Even though it’s just a very small moment, I love Shia bitterly calling MacGruber a “friggin’ dick” under his breath, in response to MacGruber making a passing reference to “undoing” Shia’s homosexuality. That muttered remark of Shia’s was such a believable, realistic moment, and was a remark that MacGruber deserved to have hurled at him for his attempt to “cure” Shia of his homosexuality.
— Hilarious how, when MacGruber is doing his usual bit where he asks his two assistants to hand him a nearby object, his only requests towards Shia are asking him to recite pro-heterosexual things that MacGruber seemingly taught him.
— The bit with the blurred-out vibrator is an absolute RIOT, made even funnier by the facial expression Will looks ahead with right before the obligatory end-of-sketch bomb explosion.
STARS: *****
THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
(host) gets economic stimulus check advice from Suze Orman (KRW)
— A big laugh from Kristen-as-Suze-Orman’s “I love the smell of a man” line.
— Funny bit involving Kristen-as-Orman’s snap-on collar.
— Like the last time this sketch appeared, Kristen’s delivery as Orman makes every single one of her lines fun.
— Very funny ending tip from Kristen’s Orman on how to make your own homemade maxi-pad.
— This overall sketch felt unusually short, but still worked.
STARS: ***½
THE BEST LOOK IN THE WORLD
the best look in the world equals dress shirt, black socks, no pants
— Ooh, I recall this short being a HUGE dud for Lonely Island, a rarity for them in these early seasons of theirs. I remember 2008 Me being STUNNED at how unbelievably awful this short was (especially coming just one episode after Lonely Island did an intentionally bad short, with Daiquiri Girl). Let’s see how I’ll feel about it now, 12 years later.
— Wow, it appears that the audience is ALREADY not onboard with this short. The comical reveal of Andy being pants-less early on in this short got almost NO reaction from the audience. That’s usually the type of thing from Andy that KILLS with the audience.
— Much like the Roy Rules short from the preceding season, we have the Lonely Island trying their hand at a different music genre than the ones they usually spoof. That change of pace worked with the 70s/80s heavy metal genre they took on in Roy Rules, but it’s not turning out so well with the honky-tonk (or whatever music genre tonight’s short is spoofing) genre they’re taking on in tonight’s short.
— Oof. Something about this short just reeks of desperation. Oh, and I’m not finding myself laughing.
— I guess the “Cool Down” part is kinda funny, but I’m just desperate for a laugh by this point.
— Not even Andy’s smug “Riiiight on” at the end got a big response from the audience, and, again, that’s usually the type of thing from Andy that SNL audiences eat up.
— Overall, yeah, this Digital Short just didn’t work. Even though I admit it wasn’t as unbelievably awful as I had remembered, I still cannot call this short even remotely good. This already-poor short comes off even more disappointing when you remember the last Digital Short that Shia appeared in prior to this.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Amazed”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Vlad (BIH) & Niko (FRA) dispute the accuracy of Grand Theft Auto IV
Jean K. Jean’s cultural references all come from across the Atlantic
— Ha, I love this idea of Bill and Fred playing Grand Theft Auto characters, complete with spot-on physical movements.
— What the heck was with that abrupt, empty ending to the Grand Theft Auto commentary? This overall commentary in general, while it provided a few laughs from me due to Bill and Fred’s funny performances, felt SEVERELY underwritten. I get the feeling it went through a heavy re-write right before airtime (that would certainly explain the abrupt “ending”).
— I like Seth and Amy’s side bit with Seth spouting off sleazy weather-related sexual harassment pick-up lines. Why don’t we get these interaction bits between Seth and Amy more often?
— Kenan’s Jean K. Jean character has officially become recurring. A pretty big night for Kenan, between the debut of Lorenzo MacIntosh and the return of Jean K. Jean. The original airdate of this episode is Kenan’s birthday, so perhaps that’s the reason for his fairly big night.
— I’m not enjoying tonight’s Jean K. Jean commentary quite as much as I enjoyed his first one, but Kenan is still making this pretty fun.
— Ah, shortly after I mentioned Kenan’s birthday, we actually get a thinly-veiled on-air mention of it, with Amy saying “Happy 30th birthday, Jean K. Jean” during the audience applause at the end of Jean K. Jean’s commentary.
STARS: ***½
LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s talk with host goes astray
— I appreciate how the interview begins with Shia immediately letting Bill’s Vinny Vedecci know he doesn’t speak Italian. The gag at the beginning of all the prior installments of this sketch, in which the interviewee has a very blindsided, taken-aback reaction to Vinny Vedecci starting the interview by speaking in Italian was getting old, so I’m glad they changed it up tonight.
— The Transformers mix-up, with Vinny Vedecci thinking “transformers” means transsexuals, probably won’t hold up well with a lot of people nowadays, and probably guarantees this sketch will get removed if NBC ever airs this episode on SNL Vintage.
— Hilarious bit with Vinny and his cigarette-smoking crew (including an epic Lorne cutaway!) reacting in nervous, guilty silence after learning from Shia that cigarette-smoking can be an arrestable offence.
— Even though the running gag in these Vinny Vedecci sketches with a TV/movie clip getting re-dubbed by Vinny is getting predictable, tonight’s re-dubbed Indiana Jones clip still made me laugh.
— An absolutely great bit regarding the delay with falling snake props from above. One of my favorite bits ever in a Vinny Vedecci sketch.
STARS: ****
MACGRUBER
Merrill would rather kiss Scott (ANS) than Vicky (KRW)
— Particularly funny theme song lyrics in this one.
— A good laugh from Shia unconvincingly mentioning the parts of Kristen’s body he supposedly can’t stop lustfully thinking about (including her womb).
— The ending with the camera abruptly cutting to a bomb explosion as soon as vomit starts to flow from Shia’s mouth during his forced heterosexual kiss with Kristen is not only absolutely hilarious to me (and is pulled off much better than another “gay man vomits when a woman kisses him” gag SNL previously did in a Liberace sketch with Fred), but, during the original airing back in 2008, that gag caught me so off-guard that it gave me one of the hardest laughs I have EVER gotten from SNL in all my now-21 years of being an SNL viewer. In fact, I laughed so hard at it that I literally fell off of my couch and, while laying on the floor, continued to uncontrollably laugh non-stop for almost the ENTIRE commercial break that followed this MacGruber short. That is not an exaggeration, folks. There are very, VERY few sketches in SNL history that I can say got THAT extreme level of a laughing reaction from me (in fact, not just SNL, but any comedy I’ve ever watched in general), and for that, I will always love this particular MacGruber short, and consider it to be one of my personal all-time favorite SNL pieces.
STARS: *****
ADMIRERS
in a restaurant, (KRW) & (AMP) are thrilled by guys’ uncomfortable stares
— I have really nice nostalgic memories of this sketch, though part of that is because of the great mood I was put in after the aforementioned 2-minute-long extreme laughing fit that the ending of the preceding MacGruber short put me in during the original airing.
— A priceless cutaway to Andy’s goofy, unappealing facial expression as the “irresistible” admirer.
— More hilarious goofy, unappealing facial expressions from Shia and other performers playing “irresistible” admirers.
— This already-funny sketch has now been propelled to an even greater and more memorable level with the “doy doy doy” musical number from the admirers via their inner thoughts.
— Solid ending.
— This sketch was apparently so well-liked at the time that I remember even once seeing it play on a little TV monitor in one of the waiting lines of a supermarket I was at sometime that summer (which is also part of what adds to the aforementioned really nice nostalgic memories I have of this sketch).
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Evil Urges”
NEW YORK FUNKY
Georgian (AMP) seeks funky New York styles for daughters (KRW) & (host)
— Amy is basically doing her Nancy Grace voice. Her voice and general demeanor in this sketch also eerily remind me of a history teacher I had in high school.
— Blah. A random and unnecessary reliance on the ol’ man-in-drag comedy trope.
— Second consecutive sketch tonight with Casey stuck in a useless small role where she basically only shows up to call other women beautiful. Something about this utilization of Casey seems a tad demeaning to me, but such is the life of a new featured player, I guess. It hurts more in this particular case with Casey, though, because we now know that her SNL trajectory unfortunately ends up not officially going past this stage.
— I kinda like something about the general aura of this sketch, but the sketch itself and Amy’s character’s constant catchphrases (“funky”, “no…YES!”, etc.) are not doing it for me. A blah way to end such a strong episode.
STARS: *½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not only was this yet another good episode this season, but I found this episode to be particularly strong. In fact, I’d say it’s one of my all-time favorites from this late 2000s era of SNL. Aside from two big misses with the Digital Short and the New York Funky sketch, every single segment worked for me, and a lot of segments stood out as particularly great and memorable, two of which are absolute favorites of mine (Parts 2 and 3 of the MacGruber runner, Part 3 of which, as detailed earlier, gave me one of the pure hardest and longest laughs I’ve ever gotten from SNL). Another thing I love about this episode is that, for so many years, I’ve felt (and still do, to this day) that it epitomizes a lot of what I like about this late 2000s era of SNL. If I had to pick an episode that best represents the general feel and style of this SNL era (much like what I said at the end of my Steve Martin/Blues Brothers episode review here), tonight’s episode would definitely be at least one of my top picks, if not THE top pick.
— Shia LaBeouf hosting for two consecutive seasons, and both of those episodes being good, fun, and containing at least one really memorable thing, made it seem at the time like he was on his way to becoming a frequent host, but nope, this second hosting stint of his ends up being his last. Perhaps the…rather odd trajectory his career took sometime after 2008 put the kibosh on him becoming a frequent SNL host. Kind of a shame, as I actually enjoyed his presence as a host in both of his hosting stints (especially tonight’s episode), and I felt he worked really well with the male cast in tonight’s episode. It seemed like he was getting better and better as a host with each passing episode. I would’ve liked to have seen if the trend of both him getting better and his episodes containing at least one very memorable piece would’ve continued after this.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ashton Kutcher)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 33 comes to an end, with host Steve Carell
