Tag: snl

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April 15, 1995 – Courteney Cox / Dave Matthews Band (S20 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

EL ORATOR DE MOTIVACION
Matt Foley offers bilingual motivation for two latin kids (MWB) & (JAM)

— I’ve been completely burned out on Matt Foley during his last few appearances, but at least having him do a sketch where he speaks entirely in Spanish is a change of pace, even if they are basically just doing a Spanish recreation of the very first Matt Foley sketch. According to Jay in his SNL book, David Spade was even going to play the son in this sketch, as a reprise of him playing the son in the first Foley sketch, but ended up letting Jay play the role instead, because sometime right before rehearsals of this sketch, David had a perfect opportunity to score with a hot model. Goes to show you where David’s priorities are this season (even if I can’t blame him for not passing up an opportunity with a hot model).
— Farley is noticeably cracking himself up with his clumsy attempts at some of the Spanish words.
— I do like hearing the Spanish version of “van down by the river”.
— Morwenna looks like she’s trying not to crack up at Farley right now. Jay’s been stifling his laughter throughout this sketch as well, but that’s not surprising.
— One of the positives to this sketch is that Farley has thankfully toned down the AWFUL whine he kept speaking in during the last Matt Foley sketch from the George Foreman episode.
— I absolutely love that Matt Foley delivers “Live from New York…” in Spanish. I’m always a sucker for when SNL changes up the LFNYs, and I believe this is the first time LFNY has been delivered in Spanish since Gilda Radner did it in season 5’s Strother Martin episode…. and interestingly, that episode was one of the final ones of the original era, much like how tonight’s episode is one of the final ones of the early 90s era. Both episodes were also the final April episode of their respective season.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
Bruce Springsteen (ADS) joins host on-stage for “Dancing In The Dark”

— Feels kinda odd in retrospect to hear Friends being referred to as a new show.
— Fun premise with Courteney turning the tables on Bruce Springsteen by bringing him out of the audience to join her on stage.
— Kind of a thin monologue so far, but Adam is making this really fun (for season 20 standards) with his performance.
— They’re starting to go all Lou Diamond Phillips on that repeatedly-shown clip of Clarence Clemons clapping and dancing.
STARS: ***½


GOOD MORNING BROOKLYN
unlucky (CHF) receives “beating of the week”

— Unnecessary to make this tepid sketch recurring, and I certainly don’t need any reminders of the notorious Sarah Jessica Parker episode.
— A guy in the audience noticeably says an exuberant “YEAH!” after Jay tells Courteney to shut up. Make of that what you will.
— The “Please Stand By” bit fell completely flat.
— Much like in the first installment of this sketch, Adam’s entrance gets a HUGE audience reaction.
— Molly playing a character with her own first name.
— Speaking of Molly, she seems to be playing a variation of the character that Janeane Garofalo played in the first installment of this sketch, right down to wearing a similar wig.
— While this overall sketch was still weak, there was a big energy throughout it that I kinda liked, which made this installment slightly more tolerable than the first installment.
STARS: **


GAPARDY
Gap girls Kristy, Lucy, Cindy compete on a game show

— Farley and Sandler have been dominating tonight’s episode so far.
— Wow, this is the first time we’ve seen the Gap Girls in over a year. Interesting new format for these characters tonight, putting them in a Gap-themed gameshow. This idea has potential.
— The back-and-forth debate over Courteney’s eye color is going on way too long.
— Boy, what’s with Farley’s sloppily-applied blush makeup?
— Speaking of sloppy, the execution of this sketch feels sloppy (Farley even completely blanks on one of his lines at one point), though the sketch is still providing some laughs here and there.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What Would You Say”


WEEKEND UPDATE
eccentric English teacher Louise Ingstrom (MOS) punctuates her commentary

— A lot of Norm’s jokes are getting a really strong audience reaction.
— Molly with her very first big character piece during her SNL tenure.
— Interesting format to Molly’s commentary with her verbalizing the punctuation of her sentences.
— Solid performance from Molly, which feels like an early glimpse of the type of performances we would regularly see from her in the upcoming new SNL era.
— An overall short but fantastic Weekend Update, helped even more by the very lively audience.
STARS: ****½


RIDE HOME
(CSE) takes advantage of teenage babysitter Melanie (MAM) in a car

— Hoo, boy. Here comes a fairly notorious sketch from this season that I’m sure will be uncomfortable to review.
— Another Kids In The Hall character that Mark is bringing to SNL. Interesting how every KITH character he’s brought to SNL so far (Darrill and Melanie) has been paired with Chris Elliott.
— My god, the skeeviness of this sketch is indeed uncomfortable. And most importantly, it’s not funny. As off-putting and disgusting as the subject matter of this sketch is, there can be a way to possibly pull it off. The controversial Canteen Boy/Scoutmaster sketch, for example, where they wrote actual funny lines throughout the sketch, alleviating the skeeviness of the sketch to some degree (your mileage definitely may vary on that, as I’m well aware that there’s quite a number of people who still find that sketch too disturbing to laugh at). The Uncle Roy sketches with Buck Henry might be a better example of a morally wrong concept being pulled off well. This Elliott/McKinney sketch, on the other hand, is hard to tell if it’s even being played for laughs. It’s coming off too realistic (yes, even with Mark in drag), and not in the admirable Marilyn Suzanne Miller slice-of-life type of way. What is this sketch going for?!?
— No idea what to say about that “I’d do it again!” ending.
— Overall, a rare misfire for Elliott. Actually, this is the second episode in a row where an oddball sketch starring him surprisingly didn’t work (Cirque du Soleil being the sketch from the preceding episode). I hope he’s not in a slump, especially since we’re in the homestretch of his short-lived SNL tenure.
— I recall SNL later doing a sketch with a very similar premise in season 30 (another really bad year for SNL), with Chris Parnell in the Chris Elliott role and Lindsay Lohan in the Mark McKinney role. That sketch, from what I remember, was also uncomfortably unfunny and played too realistically, though at least in that one, the guy’s plans to have his way with the underage girl got cut short, due to his wife (played by Maya Rudolph) showing up.
STARS: *


HIRING MANSON
offhand remark leads to hiring of Charles Manson (ADS) as office manager

 

— Hmm, an interesting premise for this season’s standards, though we’re almost a minute into this sketch and I haven’t gotten any laughs so far.
— Adam’s Charles Manson impression is cracking me up.
— Wow, this overall sketch was fairly short.
STARS: **½


COMPANY MIXER
(TIM) keeps (KEN) on the defensive by alternating truth with “jokes”

— This sketch was originally cut from both the Alec Baldwin/Kim Basinger and Martin Lawrence episodes from the preceding season. In the Martin Lawrence version, Martin played Tim’s role. I definitely can’t picture that, as it’s a low-key, laid-back role that requires no spastic gestures or mugging, whereas Martin… well, you know.
— Kevin’s sudden deadpan “Yeah, I’m gonna have you fired” made me laugh.
— Pretty funny ending regarding the urinated-in punch.
STARS: ***


REPLACEMENT BASEBALL
a documentary on the scabs’ brief careers

— Right from the start, I really like this premise. This has potential to be a much better Ken Burns documentary parody than that Civil War Memories sketch from the Roseanne episode earlier this season.
— Elliott’s testimonial is really funny.
— For some reason, I love the character name Glenn Blumm.
— A lot of funny lines from the narrator, and the black-and-white photos being shown throughout this are adding to the humor.
— Wilma Jobads is another character name that’s oddly funny to me.
— I almost didn’t even recognize Morwenna (doing a convincing American accent) at first. She looks so different in every sketch she’s in. Maybe I feel that way because in all the years I’ve watched this season, I’ve never gotten used to Morwenna, due to her very brief time as a cast member.
— An overall well-done and underrated sketch.
STARS: ****


HIS MUSE FRIDAY
(host) & poetry editor (MMK) trade verse in film noir

— A huge and refreshing change of pace for the juvenile season 20. This is the type of sketch that would’ve felt right at home in SNL’s late 80s era.
— Wow, strong writing and performances here, and all the performers are nailing the 1940s style of speaking. Michael, in particular, is really in his element here, which makes you wish he was allowed to do pieces like this more often during his SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ants Marching”


MR. COOL
aloof (DAS) becomes obnoxiously cloying after a night with (host)

— Geez, Laura is just NOW making her first appearance of the night, in the final sketch. Molly, on the other hand, has gotten tons of airtime tonight. It’s like Lorne has already decided by this point of the season which of the two female featured players he would bring back next season.
— Very interesting use of David. I like the sudden turn his character takes halfway through the sketch, especially since it forces David to actually put effort and energy into a performance for once this season. He’s doing a good job here.
— Funny gaffe with David forgetting whether to call Courteney “Gumball” or “Sunshine”.
— Pretty good sketch overall.
— I believe this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. I don’t remember the rerun version having the “Gumball/Sunshine” gaffe, and I remember David delivering his ending line in a much more serious, dramatic way instead of the comedic, exaggerated way he delivers it in the live version.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An overall okay episode, though the first half was kinda weak and very recurring character-heavy. However, that half of the episode also had a consistent fun energy that I liked, which caused even the Good Morning Brooklyn sketch to not make me want to rip my hair out for once. The second half of this episode, while certainly not perfect, was a lot better, and I really appreciate how it tried a lot of out-of-the-ordinary (for season 20 standards) sketch premises.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bob Saget

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April 8, 1995 – Damon Wayans / Dionne Farris (S20 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A STATEMENT FROM JUDGE ITO
Judge Ito (MAM) reciprocates Alfonse D’Amato’s racial stereotype

— I’m cracking up at Mark-as-Judge-Ito’s constant “I do naaaat (not)…”s (e.g. “I do naaaat speak in a stereotypical Japanese accent”).
— I loved Ito’s passing comment abut Italians: “I’m a judge and I see A LOT of them coming through my courtroom.”
— A funny gag with Ito doing a stereotypical impression of Alfonse D’Amato’s sister making love to a mule.
— I like Ito’s nasal laughing after his stereotypical impression.
— A simple cold opening that was short and sweet.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Morwenna Banks has been added to the cast tonight, joining as a repertory player.

The way Morwenna’s picture is displayed epitomizes my problem with how the cast’s pictures are projected onto objects in this season’s opening montage. Morwenna’s picture is projected onto a freakin’ TRASH CAN, for crying out loud. A trash can, people!

— There are so many odd things about the hiring of Morwenna, some of which include: 1) the fact that she’s been hired so late into the season. There are only four episodes left this season, and a much-needed overhaul of the cast and writing staff is obviously around the corner. So why waste time hiring somebody new at this point? I’ve heard that Morwenna previously had fame in the U.K. from being on a sketch comedy show, so I wonder if maybe Lorne felt hiring a U.K. sketch comedy veteran was the shot in the arm that this troubled season needed. 2) This season’s female cast is already underused and disrespected enough. How is adding a FOURTH female to the cast going to change that? 3) The mid-season hirings of Mark McKinney and Molly Shannon made sense, as they were each replacing an about-to-depart cast member (Mike Myers and Janeane Garofalo, respectively). Morwenna, on the other hand, isn’t replacing anyone. 4) Morwenna is one of the very rare U.K. accent-having cast members in SNL history. I believe Pamela Stephenson from season 10 is the only other one, unless I’m forgetting someone.


MONOLOGUE
DAW does stand-up about African-Americans’ undesirable job assignments

— Damon’s imitations of a black reporter in the worst situations to report from are funny, especially the tornado bit.
— Some other really funny imitations of black people in bad occupations. I’m getting a lot of laughs here.
STARS: ****


BATHROOM MONKEY

— Rerun from 10/15/94.
— Oh, and by the way… WHY IN THE WORLD ARE THEY RE-AIRING A JANEANE GAROFALO-STARRING COMMERCIAL?!??! Last time I checked, Janeane hasn’t been in the cast since the George Clooney episode. So why re-air a fake ad where the only person featured is a recently-quit cast member who’s not credited in the opening montage anymore? Makes no sense at all. They must REALLY be hurting for fake ads to rerun. There hasn’t been a new pre-taped fake ad since Amazin’ Laser way back in January, nor do we end up getting any new ones for the remainder of the season. Did SNL just give up on these?


CAMP UJAAMA
African-American day campers’ names come from dictionary & supermarket

— The first camper name Ellen calls out is Akeyla, which is her real-life daughter’s name.
— Some good laughs from the names of the black children so far. I especially love the name Spina Bifida.
— Okay, after you’ve gotten the point of this sketch, the same joke just keeps going on and on with no escalation or variation to the humor.
— Okay, I did get a big laugh from Farley’s delivery of the name Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon.
— All-in-all, despite the joke getting one-note after a while, they didn’t keep this sketch going TOO long and the overall sketch was harmless and enjoyable enough.
STARS: ***


MEN ON FILM
Blaine Edwards (DAW), Roger Ebert (CHF), Antoine Merriweather (David Alan Grier)

— Feels odd seeing an In Living Color character being brought to SNL.
— Damon’s character is dressed as an effeminate cop. There’s a theory among some SNL fans that this outfit of Damon’s is intended as a subtle nod to his improvised gay cop routine that got him fired from SNL when he was a cast member in season 11.
— Interesting pairing of Damon’s Blaine Edwards character and Roger Ebert.
— And there’s the famous “Haaated iiiiit!” catchphrase.
— Ha, I like the audience going “Awww” when Farley’s Roger Ebert looks depressed after Blaine calls him out on his weight problem.
— Not sure if the concept of Blaine “turning” Ebert gay has aged well, but judging it by 1995 standards, there’s a fun enough chemistry between Blaine and gay Ebert.
— David Alan Grier cameo!
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Know”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jeff Foxworthy (DAS) tells you how to know if you’re the Ebola virus
ADS tries to get recently-released Mike Tyson to beat up people for him

— Oh, god, the return of David’s tepid Jeff Foxworthy bit after only TWO EPISODES?!?
— Boy, David has pretty much given up in the middle of this weak commentary, not even finishing some of his punchlines. I don’t even know why I’m surprised; David’s been half-assing performances pretty much all season long.
— There’s Norm’s famous joke about the winner of the category for worst job being “…………crackwhore.”
— We’ve reached the late stage of Adam’s tenure where he starts wearing glasses as himself all the time.
— Adam’s commentary has some good laughs.
— Great ending to Adam’s commentary, with him informing Mike Tyson about the mean jokes that Norm has told about him on Update, only for Norm to panickedly deny being Norm Macdonald and then signing off with “I’m Kevin Nealon, and that’s news to me.”
STARS: ****


STILES MONROE
(KEN) & (MOS) get drenched by excess saliva of jazz trumpeter (DAW)

— As I’ve seen pointed out once, it’s absolutely surreal in retrospect to see Kevin Nealon and Molly Shannon paired together, two cast members who are now heavily associated with two very different eras that are far separated from each other (the late 80s era for Kevin, and the late 90s era for Molly).
— (*groan*) This lousy premise is pure season 20. The type of weak, juvenile, gross-out, fluid-spurting humor this season has a reputation for over-relying on.
— This sketch has been going on and on with little-to-no laughs from me.
STARS: *½


THE SIMPSON TRIAL
homeless Anton Jackson (DAW) testifies at the O.J. Simpson trial

— Our second In Living Color character of the night. It’s particularly fun seeing this character on SNL.
— Ha, they have an extra playing O.J. (since Tim is busy playing a different role in this sketch). I don’t know why I find that hilarious.
— As expected, Damon is getting some big laughs in this.
— Tim’s Johnny Cochran impression is completely different here from the famous one he would later do in the first cold opening of the upcoming season 21.
— I liked Kevin’s ending line about Homey the Clown.
— This ends up being the final of many season 20 O.J. Trial sketches.
STARS: ***½


PERSPECTIVES
the logistics of a black militant’s (DAW) upcoming march

— Glad to see this sketch being done with an actual competent SNL host playing a guest, after Deion Sanders almost completely derailed the last installment of this sketch.
— Good characterization from Damon.
— As always, lots of funny foolish questions and statements from Tim’s Lionel Osborne. I especially love the whole bit regarding the rain date.
STARS: ****


CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
Cirque du Soleil performers (MAM), (CSE), (MWB) offer animal-free acts

— Great makeup on Mark.
— Well, I can already tell early on that THIS is certainly going to be an out-of-the-ordinary piece. I’m interested.
— Morwenna Banks is just now making her first SNL appearance (and only appearance of the entire night) pretty late in tonight’s episode. That’s already a sign of how invisible she’ll be in her insanely short-lived SNL tenure.
— A few minutes into this, and Mark has been providing my ONLY laughs of this sketch, with his straight-to-camera interjections. I really WANT to like this sketch, as not only is it Morwenna’s first big showcase, but it features both absurd humor and Chris Elliott, two things that usually mix together beautifully. But almost NOTHING is working for me in this sketch.
— Put this on the list of many season 20 sketches where SNL uses a fancy and impressive-looking setting but forgot to write any actual funny material for it.
— I kinda felt embarrassed for Damon imitating the Cirque du Soleil members at the end.
STARS: *½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


CHRISTOPHER WALKEN FOR SKITTLES
Christopher Walken (JAM) endorses Skittles

— Here’s a famous sketch from this season.
— Hilarious concept for Jay’s Christopher Walken impression.
— I love how he occasionally keeps saying random Skittles flavors in between his statements.
— Haha, the exaggerated long pauses from Jay’s Walken throughout this are slaying me. I recall Jay saying in his SNL book that when he arrived backstage after this sketch was finished, he was met by Lorne, who, instead of congratulating Jay on the laughs he got in the sketch, complained to him about how overlong he dragged the sketch out with his lengthy pauses. Just one of many stories that fits the “Woe is me” / “I just can’t catch a break at SNL” narrative that Jay was pushing hard in his book.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Blackbird”


TOM JONES BRIEFS
Tony Bennett (JAM) offers Tom Jones’ (ADS) used underwear for sale

— Two lead roles in a row for Jay Mohr, a huge rarity for him.
— Adam doing a typically Adam Sandler-esque “impression” of Tom Jones.
— Speaking of Jay’s Christopher Walken impression a little earlier in this review, the way Jay’s Tony Bennett is getting “angered” over the lack of phone calls reminds me way too much of the running bit in the Celebrity Psychic Friends sketches where his Christopher Walken complains in a deadpan manner over how “upset” he is over the lack of phone calls.
— A tepid sketch, and I’m not getting many laughs so far.
— All of the underwear stains being displayed seems like typical season 20 lowbrow, juvenile humor (and also reminds me a bit of Elliott Gould’s season 6 monologue… which is definitely not a pleasant thing to be compared to, in my opinion).
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode with a pretty good first half, but a very mixed second half where there was an equal amount of really solid things and really lousy things. Damon Wayans was a pretty fun host, and it was nice to see SNL using him more to his full potential after often wasting his talents during his cast member days in season 11.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Courteney Cox, our first female host in what feels like ages

Posted on

March 25, 1995 – John Goodman / The Tragically Hip (S20 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY
Bob Dole (DAA) loses his temper

— Dan Aykroyd makes his first of many special guest appearances throughout tonight’s episode. Good to see his Bob Dole impression back.
— Seeing Mark and Michael as David Brinkley and George F. Will, respectively, makes me kinda miss Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey’s impressions of them.
— A lot of funny lines from Dan’s Dole.
— I like the turn with Dole’s angel and devil giving him advice.
— When Dole and his angel & devil are all supposed to say “Live from New York…” in unison, the pre-taped angel and devil Doles are accidentally played a few seconds ahead of live Dole. This would later be fixed in reruns.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Mighty Mack (host) & Elwood Blues perform “Flip, Flop, & Fly”

— When bragging about the benefits of being a five-timer, John says “You don’t even have to show up until Saturday.” I wonder if that’s an inside joke, considering John truly didn’t show up to SNL until late in this week, due to a scheduling conflict with the show Roseanne. That’s the reason we’ll be seeing so many Dan Aykroyd appearances tonight. That’s also the reason why all the SNL bumper pictures of John tonight are reused from John’s season 19 episode, reformatted to fit the style of this season’s bumper pictures (side-by-side comparison below).

— Interesting transition into a Blues Brothers number.
— Not sure what to say about this Blues Brothers number. The performance is kinda fun, but I’ve never cared for the revival of the Blues Brothers after John Belushi’s death, and needless to say, Goodman is no Belushi when it comes to these two characters.
STARS: N/A (I don’t usually rate segments like this)


BOB SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Irwin Mainway & Super Fans on Michael Jordan return; Brian Dennehy cameo

— The return of the Super Fans! I didn’t realize how much I missed this recurring sketch until its return tonight. And they have a great excuse to bring this sketch back with the then-recent announcement of Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA.
— I like the Pork Soda sponsor shown at the beginning.
— John takes over Mike Myers’ Pat Arnold character, who we’re told gained a lot of weight due to binge eating during Michael Jordan’s retirement.
— A significant meta moment with Farley, in character, ranting about how bad SNL has gotten lately, a moment made even more poignant by the slow zoom-in the camera does towards Farley during it. Some great self-aware lines during this rant, such as “They got that fat guy screamin’ all the time” (so very, VERY true) and “Pull the plug on that freakin’ thing.” I wonder if this whole meta bit was fueled by the fact that the infamous scathing New York Magazine article about the troubles of this season had come out the preceding week.
— Wow, now we get the return of Dan’s Irwin Mainway character. I love this hybrid of the Super Fans and Irwin Mainway. It fits perfectly, since Mainway always did have a Chicago-type accent.
— As usual, very funny dangerous toys displayed by Mainway. I especially like the Jordan Head toy’s warning label: “You be careful with that”.
— Now we get a Brian Dennehy cameo.
— An absolutely fantastic ending with Dennehy revealing he’s here to help set the record for most fat guys in a single sketch, a reveal that’s followed by a group photo being snapped of said fat guys.
STARS: ****½


THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER
calls & Tom Snyder’s (DAA) rambling marginalize host

— Wow, they’re bringing back all the classics tonight. A real treat and very fun. Such a turnaround from the dour Paul Reiser episode the preceding week.
— When it comes to impersonating Tom Snyder, Dan hasn’t lost it at all.
— I liked Snyder’s “We’re gonna get a lot of letters on that one” line after mocking the names of Chinese food.
— A lot of laughs during the John Goodman “interview”.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Grace, Too”

— The novelty of this choice of musical guest adds to the fun and special feel of tonight’s episode.


WEEKEND UPDATE
nervous Kato Kaelin (DAS) shows skills while testifying at the O.J. trial

— Interesting how they’re doing something a little different with David’s Kato Kaelin impression.
— Another instance of Laura giving an off-camera performance as Marcia Clark.
— Uh, yeah, no idea what to say about this Kato Kaelin segment so far, except that it feels more like a separate sketch than a Weekend Update commentary.
— A surprisingly fairly short Update.
STARS: ***½


DOG RUN
(host) talks with (LAK) while his “dog” (ADS) mingles with canines

— I think the dog costume Adam is wearing is the same one that would later be worn by Will Ferrell in another John Goodman sketch, Happy Smile Patrol, from season 24. I’ll do a side-by-side screencap comparison between Adam and Will’s costumes when I eventually review that season 24 Goodman episode.
— A hilarious unscripted part with a dog almost attacking Adam for trying to hump it. Adam’s reaction is priceless.
— Not too sure about the premise itself, but it’s coming off pretty fun in the execution.
— Weak ending.
STARS: ***


RUSH AND HOWARD
Rush Limbaugh (DAA) manages to steal Howard Stern’s (MMK) act & entourage

— Nice to see Dan introducing a new impression, after bringing back so many of his old characters and impressions earlier tonight.
— A welcome return of Michael’s Howard Stern impression.
— I love Ellen’s impression of Robin Quivers’ hysterical laugh. Ellen’s better at imitating it here than she did in the previous McKean-as-Stern sketch from the preceding season.
STARS: ***


LOSERS
self-deluded losers (CSE), (DAS), (MOS), (host) can’t identify rejection

— Is this Elliott’s first appearance of the whole night?
— A rare occurrence of David actually showing effort in a performance this season. Why can’t his season 20 performances be like this more often?
— A solid premise that’s being executed well by the writing and by all the performances.
— Weird how this is the second sketch tonight to end with a group of people at a restaurant table having their photo taken.
STARS: ****


UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
trail of evidence fails to lead to origin of universe

— An interesting choice to bring back Dan’s Robert Stack impression, one of his more forgotten and underrated impressions from back in the day. I like how he’s now updated his Stack impression from the Untouchables-era one he used to do.
— Uh, I’m not really getting what the comedic through line here is supposed to be.
— That’s the whole sketch? I wanted this to be so much better than it was, especially since it included a rare occurrence this era of pre-taped outdoors footage.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nautical Disaster”


COAL MINERS
coal miners (KEN), (host), (DAA), (MAM) tell anecdotes about cave-ins

— The sudden dark ending to Dan’s first story, with someone dying in a cave-in, is pretty funny.
— Ehh, now they’re just repeating the cave-in story endings over and over again. I guess this wouldn’t be a season 20 episode without at least ONE one-joke sketch.
— Very interesting seeing so many great performers paired together in one sketch, but damn, couldn’t they have been given some actual funny material here?
— Oh, no, now the laziness of this sketch has gotten to the point where we get a text crawl ending, a sketch-ending crutch that SNL occasionally relies on.
STARS: *½


DENVER AIRPORT
in new Denver Airport, (CSE) surveys interest in penis-measurement device
CSE says he’s leaving SNL to make penis-measurer, is shot Oswald-style

— After a nice long string of episodes earlier this season where we got a delightfully oddball Chris Elliott piece on a weekly basis, there’s sadly been a complete absence of them in the last few episodes. Glad to see it make a return tonight.
— I love John’s facial reaction to being asked about a hypothetical penis-measuring device.
— Kevin also has some great responses to the penis-measuring device hypothetical, such as “I would have to know more” and “Would the device itself be heated?”
— Very interesting turn with Elliott breaking the fourth wall to make a big announcement to us.
— I love Elliott revealing he’s leaving SNL after “10 glorious years as a cast member” (a nice extreme exaggeration of his tenure on the show) to invent a penis-measuring machine.
— I like hearing the audience’s gradual realization that the black-and-white backstage scene of Elliott walking away with Lorne and a man in a cowboy hat is a Lee Harvey Oswald parody.
— Excellent gunshot ending, and I absolutely LOVE the comically pained look on Elliott’s face during the freeze-frame.
— Overall, one of my absolute favorite sketches of this entire season, and is probably Chris Elliott’s greatest SNL moment.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— One of the more popular episodes of this troubled season, and rightfully so. This was a great and very fun episode, and had a VERY atypical feel for this season. Of course, a big part of that atypical feel is due to the return of beloved things from the past, most of those things being from special guest Dan Aykroyd, who added much-needed life to the proceedings tonight (and might as well have been billed as tonight’s co-host if they were going to use him THIS heavily). I used to consider it a sad sign that they had to resort to bringing back old things from better days in order to have a truly strong episode this season (a move that, again, may have been fueled by the then-recent scathing New York Magazine article about the show), but that sadness has somewhat diminished for me now that my long-standing hatred of this season has recently softened to a degree while doing these reviews.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Reiser)
a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 11 rebel Damon Wayans hosts. We also get yet another new addition to this season’s cast.

Posted on

March 18, 1995 – Paul Reiser / Annie Lennox (S20 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
uneasy Newt Gingrich (CHF) meets the press with lesbian half-sister (MAM)

— Considering what season we’re in, I can already tell the lesbian premise probably won’t be handled well.
— This sketch feels really dead so far. Gingrich’s downplaying of his relation to his lesbian half-sister isn’t providing many laughs at all.
— That’s it? The cold opening’s over already? Well, this was a whole lot of nothing.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
audience members ask non-expert host questions about their relationships

— I recall once hearing that during the week of this episode, Paul Reiser was interviewed on Letterman, and when asked about hosting SNL that weekend, Paul responded “Yeah, well, I always wanted to know what it’s like to be on a sinking ship”, acknowledging the notorious year SNL’s been having.
— Oof, this lame cab-hailing routine of Paul’s is getting this monologue off to a really rough start, and reminds me of how much I’ve always hated Paul’s stand-up comedy.
— Ugh, the St. Patrick’s Day/drunk kids bit he’s doing now isn’t any better.
— After a year-long absence, we suddenly get a comeback of season 19’s extremely overused questions-from-the-audience monologue trope. I don’t know whether to groan at the return of this or count my blessings that Paul’s awful stand-up comedy has gotten cut short for this.
— Unfortunately, the questions-from-the-audience bit isn’t helping the humor here at all.
— At the very end when the SNL Band is playing the show to commercial after Paul concludes the monologue, Molly accidentally enters the shot when getting ready to head backstage, before realizing her mistake and nervously ducking back out of the shot. I’ll chalk that gaffe up to a case of new cast member greenness.
STARS: *


THE DAILY PLANET
with Superman out of action, lesser superheroes address incoming meteor

— I’m a minute into this sketch so far, and I haven’t got a single laugh.
— Yeah, I’m now a little further into this sketch, and I don’t have any idea what to say about this dull, laughless tripe, nor do I have any idea what the comedic through line is even supposed to be.
— Not even a rare season 20 Norm sketch appearance is doing anything for this.
— Laura’s long-winded rant about Farley’s Tic-Tac-sized brain feels like something that would normally have been given to the recently-quit Janeane Garofalo. Laura’s delivery of the rant was okay at first and I really wanted to laugh at it, but she seemed to lose her confidence towards the end and concluded it kinda awkwardly.
— Oh, god, not another fucking newspaper headline ending. I got my fill of those in the Deion Sanders episode, thank you very much.
STARS: *


ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
(host) & (KEN) pretend to like women’s basketball

— I’ve been hearing the term “rebuilding year” being used a lot these last few episodes. Trying to tell us something, SNL?
— Much like my complaint about the similar Dick Vitale “women’s basketball isn’t a real sport!” bit in the Espy Awards sketch from the Deion Sanders episode, this sketch is not only painfully unfunny, but insulting and sexist too. A very unlikable tone to this sketch, and it really shows the toxic attitudes of the behind-the-scenes Boys Club at SNL this season.
— Poor Kevin Nealon, having to be dragged into this trash. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: why, oh, why couldn’t you have left with Phil last season, Kevin?
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “No More I Love Yous”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jeff Foxworthy (DAS) gives tips on how to tell if you’re a tornado
Frank Dippy (ADS) & Hank Doodle (CHF) fail to give their viewpoints

— Oh, Norm, you are my only hope in this episode.
— David-as-Jeff-Foxworthy’s “You might be a tornado” routine kinda made me chuckle during the first few jokes, but it’s fizzled out FAST. At least David’s not half-assing this one QUITE as much as I recall him half-assing the second Jeff Foxworthy commentary he does later this season.
— Every time I’ve seen this episode, I always hate the Point/Counterpoint commentary from Farley and Sandler, which, to me, epitomizes the free rein those two performers are given way too much of at this late stage of their tenures.
— Norm’s joke about Michael Jordan’s baseball nickname being Senor Crappy has always been one of my favorite Norm Update jokes of all time.
STARS: ***½


SPARKLEBRITE
Sparklebrite toothpaste commercial prominently features interracial kiss

— What is with this season and miserable sketches dealing with ad execs pitching a commercial in a boardroom meeting? Nutriffic and now this tripe.
— I called the Road To The Final Four sketch earlier tonight insulting and sexist, but when it comes to being offensive, THIS sketch about the “uncomfortable” nature of an interracial kiss takes the cake.
— Another sketch tonight that hurts like hell to see Kevin heavily involved in. Put this, Road To The Final Four, Uncle Joe, and Gay Stripper Theater on the list of most embarrassing sketches that Kevin Nealon ever had a prominent role in. There may be a sketch or two I’m forgetting from this season.
— I’ve heard some people describe the “You’ll never go back… to other toothpastes” tagline as clever, but I’ve always found that joke groanworthy.
— Jay mentions in his SNL book that he was so zoned-out during this sketch that, at one point, he was worried that he may have forgotten to deliver a line earlier in the sketch, only for the sketch to end and him to realize that he didn’t even have any lines in this. Neither does Laura, for that matter. Why even have them there, then?
— Aaaaaand there goes the stock footage ending with Reiser and Elliott being murdered via exploding car, simply because they had the “gall” to pitch a commercial with an interracial kiss. A fitting insulting capper to this unbelievably insulting and unfunny sketch. A new low for SNL.
STARS: *


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart tries to help his drunk cameraman (CHF)

— Probably the longest gap between Stuart Smalley installments since the character debuted. The last time this character appeared was way back in the second episode of this season.
— The premise of this installment kinda has shades of Margot Kidder’s season 4 monologue, right down to repeating the gag of the camera slumping down to the feet of someone who’s speaking to the camera. I wonder if Al Franken was the writer behind that Kidder monologue.
— Ho-hum, Farley playing yet another loud, hammy, boorish role. What else is new for season 20?
— One of the more forgotten Stuart Smalley installments, and for good reason. This is a lesser Stuart Smalley installment, and in my opinion, easily the weakest one. It’s a damn sad day when not even the usually-reliable Stuart Smalley sketches can be depended upon in tonight’s disastrous episode.
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


ALIENS 4: MAD ABOUT YOU ALIENS
(host) enjoys life with his xenomorph wife

— The premise itself probably isn’t all that bad, but the execution of it is PURE DEATH. Awful. The writers didn’t even try with this.
— Even something about the “Mad About You Aliens” title seems lame and half-assed.
— The bit with Jay fell completely flat.
STARS: *


DATING IN THE NINETIES
host mistakenly labeled as sexually inexperienced

— Molly has only been in the cast for two episodes so far, and it feels like she’s already had a more visible presence than both Laura and the recently-quit Janeane Garofalo have had most of the season so far. Molly has also been displaying a nice enthusiasm and likability in her performances that’s a breath of fresh air in this season’s mess of a cast.
— (*sigh*) Lord help me. Yet ANOTHER sketch tonight that is absolutely dead. My god, tonight’s episode is the sketch comedy equivalent of a fucking funeral dirge.
— God bless Norm (making his second rare season 20 sketch appearance of the night), who’s given me my ONLY laugh of this sketch so far.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Train In Vain”


ONE BROTHER
at the One Brother Restaurant, (host) explains oddly-named menu items

— Oh, FUCK OFF, tonight’s episode. Just fuck off. At this point, you’re TRYING to insult my intelligence.
— On an SNL messageboard, I recall seeing someone once describe this sketch as being like an unfunny version of the Abbott & Costello “Who’s On First” routine.
— Just to further prove my earlier point about what a messy mishmash of a cast this season has, we have Michael McKean, Chris Farley, Mark McKinney, and Kevin Nealon all seated together in this sketch. It’s so hard to believe all four of those performers were ever in the cast together.
— Why in the world did they have to shoehorn in Farley’s “Aww, I’m an idiot!” routine? It felt very out of place in this sketch, and just further shows how one-note Farley has gotten this season.
STARS: *


O’CALLAHAN & SON
O’Callahan (MMK) & Son (JAM) Pub owners berate wimpy beverage choices

— Well, at least this is a sketch that has a backstory that’s interesting, though pathetic: in a move of utter desperation after not getting anything on the air in a good while, Jay pitched a sketch that he stole, word-for-word, from a comedy routine that he saw stand-up comedian Rick Shapiro do, involving Irish bartenders berating the drinking choice of customers. Sometime shortly after tonight’s episode originally aired, SNL would get busted by Shapiro on their plagiarism, but when asked about it by Lorne, Jay denied knowing anything about Shapiro’s stand-up routine. SNL would get sued by Shapiro, and as a result, this sketch would be removed from all reruns and be replaced with a cut-after-dress Bruce McCulloch short film titled Eraserhead.
— Man, if Jay was going to steal a stand-up comedy routine, couldn’t it have been a FUNNY one? This sketch is pure blah. Plagiarism is shameful either way, but Jay should be particularly ashamed that he had to resort to plagiarizing such weak material for a sketch. Then again, I’ve never seen Rick Shapiro perform this in his stand-up. Maybe this material is funnier as a stand-up routine than as a sketch.
— Wow, is this Tim’s FIRST appearance all night, just playing a small walk-on straight man role in the final sketch of the episode? Okay, he was in the Sparklebright thing earlier (*shudder*), but his appearance in that was pre-taped.
— Farley, on the other hand, has appeared in practically EVERY SINGLE sketch tonight. And surprise surprise, he’s playing a loud character in this sketch. Oh, how new.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Just three words: Lord. Have. Mercy.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Clooney)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode, this time with special guest star Dan Aykroyd

Posted on

February 25, 1995 – George Clooney / The Cranberries (S20 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
it’s Black History Month, but ELC & TIM can’t find contemporary heroes

— Nice hearing such energetic applause for two underappreciated cast members each.
— A lot of laughs from Ellen and Tim’s bad luck in continuously picking troubled black celebrities to profile for Black History Month.
— I like Ellen quickly going through a series of black celebrity pictures and repeatedly saying “next one” when no good ones come up.
— Tim: “This was kind of a rebuilding year for black history.”
— Ellen and Tim claim that this the first time in SNL history where two black cast members say “Live from New York…” in unison. Uh, Damon Wayans and Danitra Vance have something to say about that. (And yes, I know Danitra wasn’t alive anymore by this point, but still…) The Rapping Wrapper cold opening from season 11, anyone? (One could argue that SNL doesn’t count that particular LFNY because Damon was only a featured player, but that’s reaching.) This is like how in Dennis Miller’s final episode as a cast member, he acted like he never said LFNY before, when he actually did say it once in a season 11 episode. Maybe everybody at SNL really does treat season 11 like it was just a “horrible, horrible dream”, as Madonna announced in the season 12 premiere. While my theory of season 11 being an example of canon discontinuity is fun, it’s disproved by the fact that Robert Downey Jr. opens his season 22 monologue by mentioning he used to be a cast member. There have probably been other on-air acknowledgements of season 11 that I’m forgetting at the moment (not counting anniversary specials).
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Molly Shannon has been added to the cast as a featured player.

Interesting how we get a new female cast member in what ends up being Janeane Garofalo’s final episode, much like the Mike Myers/Mark McKinney trade-off a little earlier this season. So many abrupt cast departures and cast additions in the middle of this troubled season, with still one more cast addition to come a few episodes from now.


MONOLOGUE
host performs liver transplant operation on audience member (TOD)

— Very wild audience tonight.
— Funny premise of George Clooney casually performing a liver transplant on an audience member.
— Typical season 20 over-reliance on gross-out humor and blood-spurting, but it’s actually coming off decent here, mostly due to good execution by both George and Tom Davis, with some decent assistance from newbie Molly Shannon.
STARS: ***


LEXON PARADOX
Rerun from 10/1/94


SEA PARK
(host) experiences good luck while (CHF) gets splashed by jumping whale

— WTF was with Farley’s “darling Mandy” bit at the beginning? It fell completely flat.
— (*sigh*) Here’s our obligatory Chris Farley yelling sketch of the night, after we got a nice break from it the past few episodes. This particular Chris Farley yelling sketch is a notorious example and features all of the unpleasant trademarks, including one joke being repeated over and over, and Farley screaming his season 20 catchphrase “SON OF A BITCH!”
— I do admit to getting a laugh from Farley’s line “Should’ve been vinegar and water, cuz I pretty much got douched!”
— What is with the dumb sideplot with George’s string of good luck? The gold coins in the railing bit in particular I’ve always found pretty cringeworthy.
— Stuff like this really helps you understand why Janeane was so miserable this season and why she chose to quit after this episode.
— Dear god, please end this repetitive sketch already.
STARS: *½


TAXICAB CONFESSIONS
passengers don’t mind telling their secrets on HBO

— Kevin makes his first appearance in two episodes. If anything, he should be counting his blessings that he wasn’t in any sketches in the disastrous Deion Sanders episode. Imagine how painful it would’ve been seeing him get dragged into doing that atrocious UFO sketch. Seeing him participate in the Gay Stripper Theater sketch back in the Jeff Daniels episode was depressing enough.
— The joke of passengers inexplicably being happy to sign release forms allowing their dark secrets to be aired on TV is kinda falling flat.
— George’s Jay Leno impression is cracking me the hell up, as is that pointy chin prosthetic he’s wearing.
— I felt this sketch started off weakly with some lowbrow humor (Farley’s gay bit, Adam’s anal warts bit), but after they got that out of the way, the sketch has been getting better and better.
— I love Michael as Vincent Price and especially Norm (in a rare season 20 sketch appearance) as Slim Pickens.
— Despite my complaint earlier about the lowbrow gay and anal warts bits, we get an actual funny callback to it at the end of this sketch, with an unhappy Farley revealing he got anal warts from a certain stranger. A nice full-circle ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Zombie”


WEEKEND UPDATE
inattentive O.J. juror (ELC) doesn’t seem to realize what her duties are
host gives his opinion on Chicago Hope’s use of leeches in an episode
KEN addresses Medicare comments to people with no attention span

— Ellen’s O.J. juror commentary is pretty good, and I loved her “Ain’t none of my business” line regarding whether O.J. is guilty or not.
— A rare occurrence of an SNL host doing an Update commentary.
— The brevity of George’s commentary reminds me of the brief hockey strike commentary Mike Myers did earlier this season.
— I love the lameness of Norm’s joke about the richest little girl in the world having two birthday cakes. Only Norm could sell such a bad joke.
— Very interesting seeing Kevin doing an Update commentary as himself after being replaced as an Update anchor.
— Kevin’s attention span commentary is great and feels very much in line with the type of Update commentaries he typically did in his early seasons when Dennis Miller was the Update anchorperson. I might be witnessing the final great moment of Kevin’s SNL tenure.
STARS: ****


WR
Dr. Ross (host) & Dr. Greene (CSE) keep patients in the waiting room

— Another example of a season 19/20 sketch doing a too-long recreation of a TV show’s opening credits, but this one actually has a few laughs and the audience is reacting well to several of the cast intros. My favorites of the intros are a perfectly-cast Elliott as Anthony Edwards, and Mark as a crying Noah Wyle.
— This is too thin a sketch, and the running gag with the dramatic background music suddenly stopping when patients are told to wait in the waiting room has gotten old fast. This sketch is yet another example of season 20’s bad habit of repeating the same joke over and over during a four-minute sketch.
— Very funny part with David being manhandled off a gurney and onto a chair.
STARS: **


TALES OF FRAUD AND MALFEASANCE IN RAILROAD HIRING PRACTICES
railroad engineer applicant (MAM) is willing to do whatever (host) wants

— Feels so refreshing to see a Jack Handey-written piece in a season that’s sadly been severely lacking his trademark style of humor.
— I love Mark’s overly compliant responses to the increasingly bizarre, ridiculous things George requests of him.
— George: “Are you familiar with ants?” Mark: “I seen ’em in the movies!” Not sure why, but that exchange always cracks me up whenever I watch this sketch.
— Funny little touch of a running-away George briefly returning to the office just to push all the stuff off of the desk before running away again. Haha, I have no idea why he did that, but I love it.
— I’m always a sucker for Jack Handey’s trademark of showing fake sponsors.
— We get another Handey trademark with the character name Cameron Hormel, previously used as the name of Phil Hartman’s character in the Handey-written Showcase Playhouse Theater sketch from the season 17 Tom Hanks episode.
STARS: ****


THE MACK REARDON STORY
the career of a tough-luck country singer (host)

— Second sketch in a row with Mark doing a redneck accent, though it’s just a voice-over in this sketch’s case.
— Some good silliness here.
— The whole “I’m Black!” mix-up is hilarious.
— I love George saying this was the first time that the sales gross of an album was a negative number.
— George is a little stumbly with his lines here and there.
— The humor in this sketch has been getting funnier and funnier as the sketch goes along.
— Michael: “When Mack shot himself, most people in the industry wondered ‘Why?…. Why did he wait so long?’”
— I like the ski accident footage shown at the end.
— Overall, the execution could’ve used some work, but this was a good sketch with a lot of funny individual things.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ode To My Family”


ZAGAT’S
Hank Gelfand (ADS) gripes as wife Beverly (CHF) reads about eats

— One of Farley’s earrings accidentally fall off early in the sketch.
— Farley’s characterization is cracking me up, especially his big smiles & corny one-liners into the camera after each time he reads an entry from the book.
— Adam’s cranky one-liners started out as just whatever, but are now getting increasingly funny, especially him pulling out a gun just now.
— I mentioned in an earlier review that Farley has this certain over-the-top, hammy laugh that he does A LOT this season, and I always go back and forth between finding it either very annoying or goofily endearing. It’s the latter for me in this sketch. It works in the context of this character.
— Overall, this sketch wasn’t quite as hilarious as I had remembered it (maybe it’s the second installment from later this season that I’m remembering, or maybe I’m just so burned out on Farley and Sandler by this point of their tenures), but this is still a funny, solid sketch.
STARS: ***½


EMORY
mayor of Emory, Illinois (MMK) wants abortion protesters to come to town

— The display of the Largest Stump gave me a laugh.
— Overall, the premise initially had me thinking this would be pretty funny, but the end result was forgettable.
STARS: **


SNOWBIRD
by Bruce McCulloch- karaoke conflict devastates lip-sync life

— Great to see a second Bruce McCulloch film this season. Sadly, this ends up being the final one to air in a live episode.
— I like the cutaway to a man’s deapdan-delivered “This kid’s good” during Bruce’s terrible singing.
— I love Bruce’s performances in these films of his. Lots of interesting and funny little acting choices he makes.
— Another funny cutaway during Bruce’s singing, where a table full of tough-looking redneck guys each drink from their mugs at the same time while staring stone-faced at Bruce.
— Good turn with Bruce unwisely choosing to change his song choice to Snowbird, which he, of course, proceeds to butcher.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Janeane is front and center, and happily waving to the camera. Guess she knows this is the end for her on SNL.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode. While there were a few pieces I found weak, they were definitely outnumbered by what I liked. The post-Update half had a lot of good things, particularly Tales Of Fraud And Malfeasance In Railroad Hiring Practices and Snowbird. Tonight’s episode was also helped by a very lively audience, which added a nice feel to the show.
— Call me crazy, but so far this season, I’ve felt there have actually been more episodes ranging from okay to great (Marisa Tomei, John Travolta, Dana Carvey, Alec Baldwin, Jeff Daniels, David Hyde Pierce, Bob Newhart, and George Clooney) than there have been episodes ranging from kinda weak to disastrous (Steve Martin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Roseanne, George Foreman, and Deion Sanders). (John Turturro isn’t in either category, as I personally feel that episode ranks somewhere in the middle of “okay” and “kinda weak”.) I’m just as surprised as you are about this. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d soften on season 20. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely still feel this is a bad season as a whole, hands down, due to MANY individual problems and the fact that most of the weakest episodes are among the worst in SNL history. But while doing these reviews, I’ve been discovering a surprisingly large amount of silver linings and hidden gems (certainly moreso than seasons 6 and 11). I came into this season having a morbid fascination to cover all the disastrous things in it, but instead, it turns out I’ve actually been having a lot more fun covering the surprising amount of highlights that I had overlooked in the past.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Deion Sanders)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Goddammit, why is it that every time I think I’m starting to come around on season 20 and feel it’s not all THAT horrible, they have to follow it up with an episode that is horrible? Paul Fucking Reiser is our next episode.

Posted on

February 18, 1995 – Deion Sanders / Bon Jovi (S20 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SIMPSON JURY FIELD TRIP
O.J. Simpson (TIM) sways jurors during a field trip to his house

— Tim’s O.J. letting Ellen keep his Heisman Trophy is pretty funny.
— Ha, Mark takes over Mike Myers’ Judge Ito impression. Something about that re-casting cracks me up, for some reason.
— Just now, the party music was cued up too early and then quickly stopped.
— Not all that much to laugh at here overall, but I guess this had kind of a charm to it and was harmless enough. Maybe I’m just being somewhat lenient towards this because I know what tonight’s episode has in store for me.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— My god, Deion’s exaggerated, corny delivery of “About a week ago, Lorne Michaels calls me up!!!” was CRINGEWORTHY.
— Deion equating SNL to a football team is awful.
— Hmm, interesting how during his “SNL is a football team” analogy, he calls SNL “a rebuilding effort”. I see SNL is acknowledging the rough year they’ve been having.
— Overall, not a single laugh to be had here, thus beginning the pure hell that is this episode.
STARS: *


MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
other sources of income allow host to promote baseball strike solidarity

— My god, EVERY SINGLE TIME Deion lowers his hand on the podium (which he does at the end of EVERY sentence), his wristwatch makes a loud and distracting “clunk” sound on the podium’s wood. Every single time. The fact that there have been zero laughs in this sketch so far makes the “clunk” sounds even more noticeable.
— Boy, is Deion fumbling through his lines throughout this.
— Enough with the running gag with Deion’s ringing cellphone.
— This sketch is DEAD so far.
— Not even Farley’s John Kruk is doing anything for me here.
— Deion, in one of his many line flubs: “…..do what we can to make men’s ends meet.” Closest I’ve come to laughing at this whole damn sketch.
— Now we get a lousy newspaper headline ending, one of SNL’s laziest go-to sketch-ending tropes.
STARS: *


THE 1995 ESPY AWARDS
sports honors with John Goodman (CHF); Manute Bol cameo

— I love Chris Elliott and I love what he’s been bringing to SNL this season, but he’s no impressionist, as his take on Chris Berman is showing.
— The bit with Elliott’s Berman doing gimmicky variations of athlete’s surnames is just plain stupid, and not in the funny way.
— Speaking of lousy celebrity impressions, Farley as John Goodman.
— The constant cutaways to the same stock footage of a laughing Lou Diamond Phillips sums up season 20’s habit of relying on one joke over and over. Same goes for Farley-as-Goodman’s constant “The Mets suck” jokes.
— Speaking of lousy celebrity impressions, Adam as Bobcat Goldthwait.
— Random casting of Jon Bon Jovi, who looks almost unrecognizable here.
— Speaking of lousy celebrity impressions, EVERYONE ELSE IN THIS SKETCH.
— Oof, Manute Bol should’ve just left his SNL camoes one-and-done with his funny Majestic Caribbean Cruise commercial from the preceding season. He could barely get through his one line in tonight’s sketch without stumbling over practically EVERY SINGLE word.
— This sketch is death personified. How long can this overlong, laughless tripe continue to go on?
— Oh, now we’re getting insulting and sexist, with Jay’s Dick Vitale screaming angrily about how women’s basketball is “not a real sport”. This is another bit in this sketch that sums up some of the problems of season 20. Oh, and even better, we soon end up getting an entire fucking sketch based on the “who cares about women’s basketball?” sentiment, when Paul Reiser hosts a few episodes later.
— The bizarre award show categories are just plain dumb, even if that’s the point. “Biggest stadium”??? WTF? This ain’t funny.
— Janeane’s Susan Sarandon, regarding a list she and Mark’s Tim Robbins are about to read off: “If you think sitting through this list will be excruciating torture…..” No, Janeane, excruciating torture would be sitting through this sketch.
— Overall, a quintessential example of SNL’s poor track record with award show sketches. Probably the all-time worst award show sketch in SNL history.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Operaman sings about Colin Ferguson, Demi Moore, Brad Pitt, more

— Here comes Norm to give me my first big laughs of the whole night.
— TONS of O.J. jokes tonight, most of them gold.
— Our first instance of what would go on to be a recurring Norm gag, with the punchline of a joke being Norm flashing a whole bunch of money while greedily saying “Don’t I know it!”
— Operaman makes his first appearance in a year, and his final appearance during Adam’s tenure as a cast member. Feels odd seeing him in a Norm Macdonald Update, as I’m so used to seeing him in Kevin Nealon Updates.
— Operaman is on fire tonight.
— Ha, Norm has a bad habit of often accidentally referring to Adam Sandler Update characters as “Adam Sandler” before correcting himself.
— I love hearing the audience reaction to Norm’s so-wrong-but-priceless “Best retard” joke about Tom Hanks and Jodie Foster.
STARS: ****½


JUGGERNAUT FORCE
mission into UFO leaves macho commandos naked, defensive, emasculated

— A particularly notorious sketch from this already notorious episode.
— Holy hell, there goes the famous blooper with Farley’s accidental mooning when his pants fall off (the sixth above screencap for this sketch). I’m certainly laughing, but it’s a sad day when the sight of Farley’s bare entire ass is one of the very few highlights of an episode.
— Speaking of which, when talking about this Farley mooning incident in his SNL book, Jay Mohr says that as Farley pulled his pants back up, Farley accidentally hit his head on the top of the spaceship’s entrance, resulting in him yelling “SON OF A!”
— Ugh at all the gay panic and typical season 20 homophobia in this sketch.
— My god (have I said that enough in this review?), the tedious, non-stop cutaways to newspaper headlines is driving me INSANE. I understand that SNL is probably showing all of those headlines so the cast can do quick changes, but at least make the headlines HUMOROUS.
— Now Elliott almost has an accidental mooning incident of his own, as his pants almost fall down as he’s running up the spaceship stairs, and you can almost see his crack.
— This sketch feels ENDLESS and just keeps getting worse and worse and worse as it progresses.
— I swear to God, if they show one more newspaper headline…
— Finally, this abomination is over.
STARS: *


RAP CONCERT
rappers (host), (TIM), (ADS) perform short songs with simple lyrics

 

— Hoo, boy. Every time it seems like a sketch is the lowest that tonight’s episode can sink, SNL manages to keep outdoing themselves by following it with a new worst sketch that would go to live on in infamy.
— Michael introduces himself as “JD Smooth”. I’ll leave it to you to figure out why that name is interesting in retrospect.
— Speaking of Michael, what the bloody hell is he, of all people, doing playing an urban, hip-hop character in a setting like this? Or is it an intentional throwaway joke that such a character is played by the oldest, whitest guy in the cast?
— This sketch was originally cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding season’s Martin Lawrence episode. In that version, I believe Rob Schneider played McKean’s role.
— What’s with the odd, awkward long pause just now before Tim spoke?
— “Peace, we outta here” as the only joke repeated a billion times in a four-minute sketch…… Goddammit, SNL. The only good thing about this is that it gave the That Week In SNL podcast their immortal sign-off line.
— Ladies and gentlemen, I am practically comatose by this point of tonight’s episode. The horribleness of tonight’s episode has officially broken me.
STARS: who gives a fuck anymore?


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night”


PERSPECTIVES
Lionel Osbourne & director of boys’ athletic club (host)

— Finally, a silver lining.
— Nice to see this sketch officially become recurring.
— Oh, dear. The awful character voice Deion is speaking in is threatening to derail this sketch. Don’t ruin my precious Perspectives, Deion!
— The whole bit with the five New York boroughs is really funny.
— Great bit at the end regarding an immediate rebroadcast of this episode of Perspectives.
— Overall, a solid sketch in itself, but Deion’s dreadful delivery in this (which I admit I might’ve considered “so bad, it’s good” in a better episode) made this not quite as strong as it otherwise would’ve been.
STARS: ***½


HOT DOG FOR JASON
to help a sick boy (CHF), host hotdogs & taunts opponents during a game

— Unlike many of the other atrocious sketches tonight, there’s nothing all that wrong with this sketch’s premise, but the resulting sketch is still a complete flop and is providing zero laughs. I’m sure an episode with better writing could’ve gotten SOMETHING out of this premise.
— I can’t find anything else to say about this. By this point of tonight’s episode, I’ve completely run out of negative things to say about bad sketches tonight.
STARS: blaaagh


RAPPING DEION
host performs “Must Be The Money” & “It’s On”

— OH. MY. GOD.
— Deion’s blatant lipsyncing, his ridiculous spastic “dancing”, his outfit, the attitude he’s attempting to pull off, the mere idea to even give him a segment like this… all of this is making this the unintentionally funniest segment of tonight’s entire episode.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— …………………………………………………………………..Yeah, I got nothin’. I’m pretty much speechless after sitting through this unbelievable trainwreck of an episode. Worst episode ever? It certainly may be.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bob Newhart)
the biggest step down imaginable


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
George Clooney hosts. It’s also the abrupt end of the road for a frustrated Janeane Garofalo, as well as the beginning of the road for a certain new female hire.

Posted on

February 11, 1995 – Bob Newhart / Des’ree (S20 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLIN FERGUSON TRIAL
Colin Ferguson (TIM) tries to defend himself against murder charges

— Boy, they sure are getting a lot of mileage out of Court TV sketches lately. Weird seeing one that’s NOT about the O.J. Trial for once this season.
— A big laugh from Tim’s Colin Ferguson claiming he didn’t shoot the passengers, they shot him.
— This is a solid Tim Meadows showcase. I love his performance here. These last few episodes, SNL has finally been giving him more to do.
— Man, David seems so checked out in his performances this season. I find his aloof, half-assed performances this season to be very off-putting.
— Ferguson ducking out of the way when asking David to point out who shot him was very funny.
— Interesting inclusion of Bob Newhart. His deadpan style is absolutely perfect for this, especially his delivery of the line “Well, it was a normal day until you started shooting people.”
— A lot of funny turns throughout this cold opening.
— A delayed camera switch causes us to miss a gag where a bored Mark is shown building a model ship inside a bottle. The gag would later be shown in reruns.
— I love Mark’s constant “No more questions, your honor.”
— Kevin “Oh, He’s Still On The Show?” Nealon (who gets thrown a bone in this cold opening by getting to say his first “Live from New York…” of the season) keeps pausing in between lines to jut out his lips as Terry Moran. I’m guessing that’s part of the impression (I can’t say for sure, since I don’t know what Terry Moran looks like), kinda similar to how he used to hold down the sides of his eyes when playing Brent Musberger or how he imitated Bill Bradley’s double chin when playing him in a debate sketch.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo stumbles when saying “It’s Saturday Night Live”. This would later be fixed in reruns.


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about a new security guard’s King Kong phone call

— There goes what’s sometimes known as The Carlin Line (named after host George Carlin), when someone who’s hosting for a second time many years after their first hosting gig (15 years in Bob Newhart’s case) says a sarcastic variation of “I did such a good job hosting (insert large number here) years ago that they couldn’t wait to have me back.”
— This King Kong phone call bit is an absolutely classic Bob Newhart routine that’s fun to watch. A quintessential display of his brilliant stand-up style.
— I particularly love the line “My jurisdiction only extends to his navel.”
STARS: *****


RICKI LAKE
Bob Hartley (host) gives advice about odd love triangle

— As I mentioned in my review of the Montel Williams Show sketch from the season 18 Kirstie Alley episode, not only does that sketch remind me of this Ricki Lake sketch and not only does Farley play a guest in both sketches, but he even wears the same shirt in both sketches (though with a blazer over it in the Montel sketch) (side-by-side comparison below).

— Speaking of recycled costumes, is Ellen’s first outfit and wig the same one she wore in the Geek Dweeb Or Spazz sketch (side-by-side comparison below)?

— A nice way to have Bob reprise his character from The Bob Newhart Show.
— I like the running gag with Ellen playing various audience members.
— I also like how you can see Ellen changing outfits in the background, though I’m not sure if that sighting is intentional.
— Lots of funny lines from Bob throughout this, again perfectly utilizing his deadpan style. Nobody else can make the line “These sick puppies just gotta stop doing the nasty” as funny as him.
STARS: ***


BOOK BUZZ
(CHF)’s world record book has only personally verifiable feats

— Speaking of the season 18 Kirstie Alley episode, this Book Buzz sketch was originally cut after dress rehearsal from that episode. In that version, Mike Myers played the role that Bob Newhart is playing here.
— The premise of this sketch is reminiscent of a season 10 sketch with George Carlin (I’ve been mentioning him a lot tonight). I guess tonight’s sketch has a slightly different spin on it, but I definitely prefer the Carlin sketch.
— At least Farley is playing a subdued role for once this season.
— Kind of a slow-moving, quiet sketch that would’ve felt more fitting later in the show.
— Farley’s getting some laughs, especially his bit about the mammal with the largest sex organ.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Gotta Be”


WEEKEND UPDATE
while on the witness stand at the O.J. trial, (CSE) mugs for the camera
DAS evaluates potential suitors for Cindy Crawford
for Valentine’s Day, ADS plays guitar & sings about the “Sex Phone Lady”

— I love how it’s become a running gag these last few Updates for Norm to do an exaggeration of the final score of that year’s Super Bowl.
— I got an unintended laugh from Norm’s odd way of pronouncing “juror”, putting very heavy emphasis on the “or” part of the word.
— Poor Laura. Is 70% of her appearances this season just playing Marcia Clark? She’s not even on camera in this one.
— Elliott’s bit is freakin’ hilarious, especially when he starts making “boop” type sounds into the camera.
— Can it be any more obvious that David is beyond done with Hollywood Minute? It’s been an entire year since he last did a Hollywood Minute, and his commentary tonight is some weird thinly-veiled variation of it.
— Oof, some really dead spots in David’s commentary, not helped by him ONCE AGAIN giving a lethargic, aloof, half-assed performance. However, I did get a big laugh from his crack about Bud Bundy (David Faustino): “This guy couldn’t get laid in a monkey whorehouse with a bag of bananas.”
— Another amusingly odd Norm Macdonald pronunciation tonight, with him pronouncing “taco” as “tack-o”. Is that pronunciation a Canadian thing?
— HUGE audience reaction to Adam showing up to do a guitar song.
— This is one of Adam’s lesser-known Update guitar songs, but I recall this one being decent. Let’s see if it still holds up.
— Interesting deep voice Adam’s singing with here.
— An overall okay-if-not-memorable song from Adam, with my favorite part being how he tells the sex phone lady that his name is Chris Farley.
STARS: ***½


BAYWATCH
the lifeguards are slow to react to a drowning man (CHF)

— During the recreation of the Baywatch opening credits, the audience initially laughs out loud at the group shot of the SNL cast as Baywatch actors, and at the individual intro shots of Michael as David Hasselhoff and Janeane as Pamela Anderson, but then the audience is dead silent for the rest of the cast intros. There’s no real joke in this overly straightfoward recreation of the Baywatch opening credits, other than Janeane’s fake chest. This reminds me of a gripe I had with how the Blossom parody from the preceding season’s Sara Gilbert episode did a straight recreation of the Blossom opening credits with no joke. But hell, even THAT recreation had a goofy charm that I now can see kinda worked, whereas this Baywatch credits recreation is just dull.
— I’m kinda ashamed to admit this, but that Baywatch theme song is damn catchy.
— Two episodes in a row with a sketch involving Farley screaming for help while drowning in water?
— I bet Janeane particularly hates playing this role.
— Where is this sketch going?
— Wow, that twist ending was awful.
— The sketch is over, and I’m left just scratching my head over what the hell this was supposed to be.
— Overall, our first bomb of the night. I hadn’t realized until now how consistently I had been enjoying tonight’s episode before this sketch showed up.
STARS: *


POST OFFICE HR
employee relations officer (host) talks with a disgruntled postal worker

— Very interesting first-person perspective format of this, feeling like a sister sketch to The Continental sketches with Christopher Walken. And with Bob Newhart in the lead role, this feels like a creative way to build a sketch around a possible stand-up routine of his. (I doubt this actually is a stand-up routine of his, I’m just saying it seems like it could be.)
— I love the part with Bob saying the postal worker being interviewed wrote “What’s it to you?” when answering what his social security number is.
— Yet another sketch tonight that Bob’s delivery is perfect for. He’s especially hilarious delivering the line “I find it hard to believe that the devil would have spent the past 45 years sorting mail.”
— The lack of audible speaking or head-nodding responses from the postal worker being interviewed (who’s perspective the camera is showing) and the fact that we can’t see this disturbed character actually helps the sketch, as it adds to the character’s unsettling vibe.
STARS: ****½


HI BOB
host tries to discourage CHF & CSE from playing “Hi Bob” drinking game

— Feels very rare this season to see SNL’s backstage.
— An odd but interesting pairing of Farley and Elliott.
— Fun sketch, and a good way to get pretty much the whole cast involved, even if most of them are just briefly passing by the camera while saying “Hi, Bob”.
— Some funny twists and variations to the “Hi Bob” bit, such as David saying “Bob, hi”, and a confused Farley & Elliott pulling out a “Hi Bob” rule book when there’s a back-to-back instance of Adam saying “Hi” and Jay saying “Bob”.
— I like Farley and Elliott’s drunkenness now getting to the point where they’re seen in the background being unable to stand.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Feels So High”


SPORTS BEAT
ups & downs of a manic-depressive announcer’s (host) career

— Right out of the gate, Kevin flubs his opening line, but saves himself with a decent ad-lib afterwards.
— Funny reveal of Bob’s manic depression as we see his stone-faced demeanor, right after we hear soundbytes of his excitable sports announcing.
— A very slow-moving, dry sketch, but it’s absolutely PERFECT for Bob, especially given the subject matter. This is another sketch that I can’t picture anyone but him selling.
— I love the soundbyte of Bob’s out-of-place depressed-sounding announcement of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run, as well as a soundbyte of his out-of-place excited announcement of an out during a Phillies game.
STARS: ****½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


GOODNIGHTS / THE VERY END OF THE SHOW
Bob Hartley tells wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) about his bad SNL dream

— Very charming out-of-the-ordinary goodnights moment with a smiling Norm (making a rare goodnights appearance) getting his Bob Newhart comedy albums signed by the man himself.
— And now we get something even more out of the ordinary in these goodnights, with an excellent sudden turn after the goodnights end, where we get a parody of the series finale of the sitcom Newhart, with Bob waking up in bed with his TV wife and revealing the SNL episode we saw was just a dream. A classic move on SNL’s part.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Season 20 continues to not completely suck, much to my pleasant surprise. The show’s been on a nice streak lately of episodes ranging from okay to great, and tonight’s episode was particularly strong. It was even better than I had remembered it being from past viewings. Some really high-quality sketches tonight, especially in the post-Update half, and the episode was capped off by a classic post-goodnights bit. There was only one thing all night that I flat-out disliked (Baywatch). Bob Newhart was a wonderful host, and the writers accommodated his comedic style perfectly by writing him into sketches where his trademark delivery fit like a glove. His style of humor dominating the night probably explains why this was such a strong season 20 episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (David Hyde Pierce)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
OH NO. I spoke too soon about my pleasure in how season 20’s not completely sucking lately. Our next episode is DEION FUCKING SANDERS. Get ready for the mother of all trainwrecks, folks.

Posted on

January 21, 1995 – David Hyde Pierce / Live (S20 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ALLOWED EVIDENCE
Judge Ito (MIM) decides what evidence will be allowed in the O.J. trial

— For some reason, the way Farley looks as F. Lee Bailey cracks me up.
— A good laugh from Mark high-fiving his opposing team after the Pamela Anderson announcement.
— Just now, a mysterious blue light flashes onscreen from off-camera (first screencap below). No idea where that blue light came from (somebody snapping a photo, maybe?), but SNL would later hide this in reruns by substituting this small portion of the cold opening with the dress rehearsal version, a substitution that’s very noticeable, as the wig that Mark wears throughout the sketch is suddenly missing and he’s sporting his normal hair (second screencap below).

— Very funny line about a request to show Mandingo and the whipping scene from Roots.
— Poor Laura, being stuck in yet another non-speaking role in what ends up being her only appearance of the entire night.
— I guess it’s nice that Mike gets to say “Live from New York…” on his final episode as a cast member, whether they know he’s leaving or not.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. Same goes for the following monologue.


MONOLOGUE
host sings variant of “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General”

— Very interesting, out-of-the-ordinary format for this monologue. I love this. This has always been one of my favorite monologues of this season.
— Very catchy song with funny lyrics.
— David Hyde Pierce’s timing seems a little off and shaky with some of his lyrics.
— Just now, Pierce completely misses his musical cue to start singing a verse, so he just stays silent and does a goofy little finger dance while waiting for the next go-around in the music to sing his verse. This, along with his aforementioned shaky timing earlier in this monologue, is presumably the reason why this monologue would be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version.
STARS: ****


AMAZIN’ LASER
lawn care barely taps the potential of the Amazin’ Laser garden gun

— Years ago, I used to dismiss this as a poor man’s hybrid of two classic commercials from the late 80s/early 90s years: Happy Fun Ball and Yard-a-Pult. I would later come around on this commercial and realize how unfair I was in my dismissal of it.
— Elliott is perfect for this.
— A lot of laughs from the disclaimers shown throughout this, even if it does have somewhat of a Happy Fun Ball-esque vibe.
— Towards the end, you can hear a voice in the studio loudly yell “Ten secoooonds!”, which is presumably the stage manager alerting the performers on when the next sketch is about to go on air.
STARS: ****


POETRY CLASS
(CHF) & (JAG) use rock song lyrics to do well in (host)’s poetry class

— One of the more popular sketches of this troubled season.
— I’ve always noticed that the leather jacket Farley wears in this sketch seems to be the same one he wears in another popular classroom sketch from earlier this era, French Class with Alec Baldwin (side-by-side comparison below). I wonder if this connection between both sketches is intentional or just a coincidence.

— The reveal of Farley’s poem being lyrics from “You Shook Me All Night Long” is absolutely hilarious.
— Is Janeane trying not to laugh during the part with Pierce having her and Farley stand with him together in front of the class?
— Janeane and Adam’s poems also being from rock songs are funny as well. Adam’s delivery of his poem is especially priceless.
— Pierce is helping sell the joke with his obliviousness to all the plagiarism.
— Good turn with Pierce mistaking Adam’s “Jump” poem as a cry for help.
— Great line at the end with “Wanna go fire up a doobie?”
STARS: ****½


TALES OF LITTLE WOMEN
prim kids turn nasty after falling through the ice

— I’ve always felt this sketch was highly overrated. To me, this is just one of a billion tired season 20 Chris Farley yelling sketches, which I’m noticing the show has been relying particularly heavy on these last two episodes.
— Much like the Mystery Dinner Theater sketch in the preceding episode, I probably would enjoy the turn with Farley’s prim 19th century character yelling a whole bunch of crude things had this sketch appeared in one of Farley’s earlier seasons, before the days of him screaming his way through every single sketch.
— I think in the “Live From New York” SNL book, Janeane discloses the fact that she was very bothered by the audience laughing and applauding at Farley calling her a “stupid whore”.
— The other performers joining Farley in the “yelling crude things” bit isn’t helping at all. Pierce is actually pretty good at the crude yelling, but the other performers’ attempts are kinda cringeworthy to me, especially Janeane’s.
— Oh, and goody goody, we end the sketch with a child rape joke! Ugh. This is exactly the type of unnecessary, unfunny, tasteless humor that season 20 has a reputation for over-relying on.
STARS: *½


SCOTTISH SOCCER HOOLIGAN WEEKLY
rowdies Andy (MIM) & Ian (MAM) talk shop

— The opening theme song is in the same melody as the theme song from the later recurring sketch Dog Show, from the Will Ferrell era.
— Very interesting pairing of Mike and Mark, one of them a veteran cast member in his final episode and the other a new cast member in his second episode, both Canadians, and both have the initials MM. This sketch feels like it’s intended as a passing of the torch between the two performers.
— We get a random part with Mark throwing a dart at someone off-camera, because we apparently needed to hear Farley screaming YET AGAIN tonight. Admittedly, his off-camera yell in this sketch used to crack me up when I was younger.
— I’m liking the way Mike and Mark are playing off of each other here. Makes me wish Mark joined earlier in Mike’s SNL tenure, so they could’ve done other sketches where they’re paired together.
— Even though this sketch features Mike ONCE AGAIN treading old ground by playing a character with a U.K. accent, I find that this sketch actually has a fairly fun and enjoyable vibe. Even the typical season 20 over-reliance on blood and gore is coming off tolerable in this.
— I like how we see during the camera pull-out at the end that this sketch’s set is placed on the Tales of Little Women set (screencap below).

— And with the end of this sketch, we officially reach the end of the Mike Myers era of SNL.
— SNL would end up bringing back this potentially-recurring sketch a few years later when Mike hosts in season 22, where Mark would still be a cast member.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Alone”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIM & entire African-American community are glad the hockey strike’s over
JAM’s Wacky Sports Bloopers consist of crudely-manipulated videotape

— Nice to see Tim “Little Hockey” Meadows doing a follow-up to his hockey commentary from earlier this season. Solid bit from him tonight.
— I liked Norm’s “I’m afraid to know why you’re applauding at that” ad-lib after some audience members applaud a joke about gays only being allowed at a parade so they can get beat up.
— Interesting seeing Jay doing a commentary as himself.
— Jay’s doing a variation of Rob Schneider’s sports bloopers commentary from the preceding season. This at least has a different spin on it, with the gimmick being that the “bloopers” are just manipulated videos of normal sports plays. I used to really like this bit when I was younger, but now it feels kinda on the hacky side to me.
— I love Norm’s amusement at Jay showing a “real” sports blooper, with a basketball player’s missed dunk.
STARS: ***½


ROBOT SPY
the crew of a spaceship suspects nerdy (host) of being the robot spy

— I could do without Ellen’s constant repetition of “freakin’”, which started out funny but is increasingly getting old.
— Overall, not really sure what to say about this sketch. I’m not too crazy about it and I didn’t get too many laughs, but it wasn’t horrible and it was adequately performed.
STARS: **


NERVOUS HABITS
(MMK) dislikes fellow lawyer’s (host) nervous habit of sheep shearing

— A very funny casual reveal of Pierce’s nervous habit being sheep shearing, of all things. I really like this absurd premise.
— Haha, things are going off the rails with Pierce struggling to keep the sheep from roaming around the set, and the camera (unsuccessfully) trying to hide that by doing a clumsy zoom-in to a close-up of Michael. At one point, you even see a stagehand accidentally enter the shot when trying to handle the sheep (on the lower half of the screencap below).

— As this season progresses, it’s becoming more and more awkward and sad to see Kevin “Oh, He’s Still On The Show?” Nealon pop up in a sketch at this late stage in his SNL tenure.
— Good ending with the insemination of a pony.
— I love how at the end, the sheep from earlier can be seen in the background just randomly wandering back into the scene.
— Unfortunately, I believe SNL would later replace this sketch with the error-free dress rehearsal version in reruns, robbing us of the funny animal bloopers.
STARS: ***½


BROKEN ENGLISH
Jersey kids’ (ADS) & (DAS) fun with foreigner (host) makes instant karma

— Solid characterization from Pierce here.
— Adam and Spade’s nonsense translations to Pierce’s sentences are providing good laughs.
— Great twist at the end.
— A weird little overall piece, but it really worked. I used to kinda hate this sketch when I was younger and dismissed it as typical lousy season 20 fare, but I now have much more appreciation for what this was going for.
STARS: ****


PERSPECTIVES
urban community programming with Lionel Osbourne (TIM)

— I’m very happy to see the debut of this Tim Meadows sketch.
— I love Tim’s constant “If you’ve just tuned in…”s and reintroductions.
— Some good laughs from the dryness and blandness of this interview, and from Tim’s bad interviewing skills.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Selling The Drama”


INTERNET CHAT
Claire (CSE) finds an unwilling Internet sex partner in Darrill (MAM)

— Ladies and gentlemen, SNL has officially entered the internet age. An important milestone, as this is the very first SNL sketch centered around the then-novelty called the internet.
— Our very first instance of Mark bringing a Kids in the Hall character to SNL.
— Speaking of Mark, he’s been getting a lot of airtime tonight, which is great to see, especially after he made only one brief appearance in his debut episode the preceding week. The way Mark’s being utilized tonight is how it should regularly be for him on SNL, but sadly, his tenure would instead go in pretty much the opposite direction.
— It’s funny in retrospect seeing internet terms like LOL and ROFL being treated as such a novelty that Janeane’s character doesn’t understand what they mean and Darrill has to explain them to her.
— I love the inclusion of Elliott as a sleazy, naked, hairy perv (is he wearing the same fake body hair from the Bad Striptease sketch earlier this season?). Ever since December, we’ve been getting an oddball Chris Elliott character piece on a weekly basis, and I, for one, could not be happier about that.
— This sketch really feels ahead of its time.
— Some really good laughs from the Elliott/McKinney online chat, especially the “How big is your hard drive?” innuendo.
— Janeane must be uncomfortable being “naked” at the end, as she can be seen quickly putting her robe back on before the sketch even fades to black.
STARS: ****


MOVIE NEWS
small print reveals the “show” to be a vehicle for Disney ads

— The constant disclaimers of “(insert company here) is a subsidiary of Disney” are getting repetitive and are not that funny.
— Okay, the disclaimers are now getting funnier, such as the one about Sharon Stone.
— I got a chuckle from a female audience member being heard screaming in excitement at the mere mention of Sylvester Stallone.
— Funny gag with the person who’s typing the disclaimers making Pierce say something ridiculous about Arnold Schwarzenegger.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid and consistent episode, and I feel it’s definitely one of the better episodes of this troubled season. There were some really strong sketches, some pretty good sketches, and very few sketches that I disliked. The post-Update half in particular had a nice run of sketches ranging from decent to strong once they got the Robot Spy sketch out of the way.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Daniels)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bob Newhart

Posted on

January 14, 1995 – Jeff Daniels / Luscious Jackson (S20 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

104TH CONGRESS
Newt Gingrich (CHF) disregards procedure & passes legislation rapid-fire

— Fun format to this cold opening.
— It’s Mark McKinney! His Barney Frank voice is very funny, albeit brief.
— Great energy and terrific pacing to this cold opening. Even Farley doing his typical season 20 screaming shtick has a lot of goodwill here and is perfect for this.
— A lot of good laughs from the increasingly insane proposals that Gingrich is rapidly passing.
— The Sonny Bono part cracked me up.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Mark McKinney has been added to the cast tonight, joining as a repertory player.

Sadly, his brief debut in the cold opening ends up being his ONLY appearance all night. We’re already getting signs of how unfairly underutilized the poor guy is going to be in his SNL tenure.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Some laughs from Jeff downplaying how bad it was that he was given poor treatment at Dumb and Dumber compared to co-star Jim Carrey, though this is kinda going on too long.
— Good line from Jeff about his kids calling Jim “dad”.
STARS: ***


ETERNA REST
Rerun from 11/12/94


MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
near MLK Day, (TIM) exploits the white guilt of (host), (CSE), (ADS)

— You KNOW I loved Elliott’s line about bringing over some Three Stooges videos.
— I love Adam bluntly and repeatedly asking “You wanna get drunk and go to Atlantic City?”
— Very solid writing and acting in this sketch, and something about it feels kinda atypical of this season.
— The guys’ feigned excitement over the MLK Day gifts they’re receiving is really funny.
— Hilarious how Jeff gives Tim his laptop as a MLK Day gift, and Elliott gives Tim his wallet. Also a funny addition to the wallet bit with Adam telling Tim, regarding the wallet, “I went in on that, so that’s kinda for both of us.”
— Great ending twist with Tim and Ellen after all the white co-workers leave.
STARS: ****½


CHUNG / GINGRICH
Connie Chung (LAK) solicits more soundbites from Kathleen Gingrich (JAG)

— I feel like this is the most in-character we’ve seen Janeane all season. She’s giving a good “old lady” performance.
— Funny visual of a badly hidden camera in Connie Chung’s bag.
— I could do without Farley turning this into yet ANOTHER screaming season 20 performance of his, as if we didn’t already have one earlier tonight.
— Just now, Laura seemed to help Janeane when Janeane was late in delivering a line.
— A lot of laughs from Connie Chung’s deceitfulness throughout this.
— Now Farley’s yelling has gotten to the point where he’s accidentally yelled himself into a minor choking fit. (Perhaps some of the food he spit out moments earlier went down his throat.) His face is turning an uncomfortable-looking shade of red while he’s simultaneously yelling his dialogue and coughing uncontrollably.
— This sketch is going on pretty long and has a repetitive feel, but it’s still working well, and I absolutely LOVE the turn now with an angered Connie Chung busting through the door and holding Mama Gingrich at gunpoint.
— In addition to Janeane surprisingly putting effort into her characterization, Laura’s performance is surprisingly strong; probably her best performance of her entire short-lived SNL tenure.
— Tonight’s episode has been starting off hot with a lot of great sketches. This is season 20 I’m watching?!? I almost feel like I’m watching an episode from a few seasons earlier, from the late 80s/early 90s glory years. This Connie Chung sketch in particular, I can imagine appearing in the late 80s era. Nora Dunn could’ve played Chung and Jan Hooks would’ve been perfect as Mama Gingrich, complete with the wrinkly makeup Jan often wore when playing old ladies.
STARS: ****


ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
Ron Wood (MIM) mumbles along with stars of Nell

— Uh-oh, looks like I spoke too soon about how great tonight’s episode has been going. The episode’s quality comes to a screeching halt with this tired Ron Wood routine.
— The opening gag with the Entertainment Tonight hosts announcing obviously false ages of celebrities is funny, but I swear I remember that same gag already appearing in the Entertainment Tonight sketch from another infamous season, 1985-86, when Tom Hanks hosted. Probably not, though; this is most likely just a case of me getting both sketches mixed up with each other.
— This sketch just feels like a continuation of the weak Ron Wood Show sketch from this season’s premiere.
— Feels kinda awkward watching Jeff as Liam Neeson in this, knowing the notorious behind-the-scenes prosthetic nose incident that happened with Jeff earlier that week. (Link here for anyone not familiar with the story)
— This sketch was short enough, at least.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Citysong”


WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS gripes about Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, Green Day concerts he attended
O.J. survivor Marquerite Simpson (ELC) sings variant of “You Gotta Be”

— Haha, holy hell at Norm’s very blunt “bitch” jokes about Hillary Clinton.
— David’s rant about concerts has some funny comments, such as his imitation of Lynyrd Skynyrd fans yelling unintelligibly behind him, and him calling out Green Day on their faux British-isms.
— A particularly great O.J. joke from Norm tonight.
— Ellen’s Marguerite Simpson commentary being done in the form of a black-and-white music video is a very interesting change of pace for Update, and her You Gotta Be parody is pretty fun and catchy.
— Okay, the You Gotta Be parody doesn’t need to last TWO verses. They’re spreading the joke too thin.
— Two very interesting-sounding Update commentaries got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. One in which Jeff Daniels and Mark McKinney do a Point/Counterpoint as a Nazi and a KKK member, and another in which Norm throws to a supposedly old clip of Victoria Jackson performing one of her Weekend Update songs, but during that “clip”, Victoria unintentionally gives away the fact that it’s actually a new, live scene. That’s right, folks. I kid you not, a Victoria Jackson special guest appearance was cut after dress. What the hell, SNL?!? Why would you cut that?!?
STARS: ****


MYSTERY DINNER THEATER
mystery dinner theater actor (CHF) milks part by prolonging death scene

— This is a sketch that I’ve always hated and have considered to be a representation of some of this season’s problems. While I’ve found that doing these season 20 reviews has slightly softened my long-standing seething hatred of this season (that’s right, folks; while season 20 is still undeniably bad, I’m pleasantly surprised to now realize that it isn’t quite as horrible as I had always believed), I doubt I’m gonna develop any new goodwill towards THIS particular sketch during this current viewing.
— Mike is once again using his tired old Kenneth Reese Evans (host of Theatre Stories) voice for what’s supposed to be a generic British character.
— THREE screaming Chris Farley roles tonight? It was fine in the cold opening, but come the hell on, SNL.
— Aaaaaand for good measure, in addition to the obligatory Farley screaming, we get an obligatory Farley pratfall through a breakaway table, which feels tacked-on this sketch.
— As I watch this, I admit that this is material that I would’ve found funny had it been in one of Farley’s earlier seasons, before the days where him screaming his way through sketches was all too common. For example, Farley’s “My head just popped like a ripe melon!” line in this sketch would’ve absolutely slayed me if he delivered it in, say, season 17.
— This sketch was originally supposed to air in this season’s premiere, but got cut after dress. I’ve heard that that cut version of this sketch is included as a bonus feature on Steve Martin’s “Best Of” DVD, but I’ve never seen it. There’s a picture of that version of this sketch on GettyImages (see here), and I notice that Adam is in it, playing a character that doesn’t appear in the Jeff Daniels version of this sketch. Is Adam playing his Audience McGee character in that pic? And why does he have blood on his sweater and face?
STARS: *½


FILM BEAT
(CSE) documents host’s career with Dumb & Dumber potty clip

— Oh, here comes a Chris Elliott sketch that I’ve always loved.
— The constant replays of the Dumb and Dumber diarrhea clip are increasingly hilarious. A rare example of a juvenile one-joke sketch being pulled off well.
— I love the way Elliott keeps completely downplaying the use of the same clip after setting it up by claiming it’s from other Jeff Daniels movies. Jeff’s increasing frustration is fantastic.
STARS: ****½


GAY STRIPPER THEATER
queer male exotic dancers add drama to performances

— Oh, god, the title alone has me groaning, especially considering what SNL season this is.
— The name of Jeff’s character, Ryan Shiraki, is the name of an SNL associate producer who appears as an extra in several sketches throughout the 90s (most notably in Jamie Foxx’s season 25 monologue).
— Are they kidding me with this material so far?
— Why do they keep playing the EXACT SAME Snoop Doggy Dogg song for each stripper scene?
— More inside references with character names, as the names of the five strippers also happen to be the names of the five Kids in the Hall members (Mark, Bruce, Dave, Scott, and Kevin). But why tho? Because it’s Mark’s first week at SNL???
— Oh, poor Kevin Nealon, having to be dragged into this. Why, oh, why couldn’t you have left with Phil last season, Kevin?
— Thank god this sketch is finally over. This was dreadful.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Here”


AEROSMITH GREATEST HITS 1990-1994
Steven Tyler (ADS) & Joe Perry (JAM) play Aerosmith’s same-sounding songs

— A weak one-joke bit that, while it may be making a good point about the sameness of Aerosmith’s songs, is just going on and on and on, with no laughs from me.
— Adam has done some really good impressions of rock stars throughout his SNL tenure (e.g. Eddie Vedder, Axl Rose), but his Steven Tyler certainly ain’t one of them. Even looking at his Steven Tyler as just a typical Sandler-esque goofy characterization (like the Tom Jones impression he would do later this season), it’s still not working for me.
— The most interesting thing about this sketch is a backstory told by Jay Mohr in his SNL book, involving him and Adam nearly coming to blows right before this sketch went to air. As the story goes, about a minute or two before this sketch started, Jay kept telling Adam that he should change his sunglasses, as Jay felt that the sunglasses made Adam resemble Elton John more than Steven Tyler, but Adam kept waving it off, basically telling Jay that a change of sunglasses isn’t necessary. Jay’s refusal to stop needling Adam about the sunglasses eventually led to Adam losing his temper and yelling “Why don’t you shut the fuck up?!?” in Jay’s face. As a result, Jay was initially stunned and speechless, then got angry and REALLY wanted to punch Adam, but refrained because they were standing right by the audience members in the floor seats, and Jay knew that if the floor seat members saw some little-known featured player like him getting into a fight with a popular fan-favorite like Adam, some of them would rush to Adam’s defense. So Jay and Adam just went on and performed the Aerosmith sketch, which Jay claims “killed with the audience” (I’d love to know which sketch he was watching, because in the sketch I’m watching, the audience is mostly dead silent), then after the sketch was over, Adam turned to Jay and said “We’re good. Respect”, putting an end to the negative tension between them.
STARS: *


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very mixed episode. There were some REALLY strong sketches, especially in the first 15 minutes, but there was also an equal amount of absolutely terrible sketches, especially in the last 15 minutes. However, the strong sketches are worth bragging about, especially for this season’s standards. Some really great stuff. I just wish they could’ve kept that momentum going for more of the show.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Foreman)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
David Hyde Pierce hosts. We also get the last hurrah of Mike Myers.

Posted on

December 17, 1994 – George Foreman / Hole (S20 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

GIFTS FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS
Bill (MMK) & Hillary (JAG) Clinton pander to the middle class with gifts

— Hoo, boy, tonight’s episode is already starting rough.
— Hartman and Hooks, these two are not. This feels just plain sad to watch.
— This ends up being the ONLY time in SNL history that we ever see Janeane as Hillary, and the second and final time we ever see Michael as Bill. SNL must’ve realized how poorly the new Bill Clinton impression was going, and put the kibosh on it real quick. And considering there’s nobody else in this season’s cast suitable for the role, SNL ends up going through the entire second half of this season without doing ANY sketches portraying the president, which is almost unheard of.
— The topical bit with gunshots being heard outside the White House fell completely flat.
— Feels odd (and sad) seeing Mike doing his usual George Stephanopolous impression next McKean’s Clinton, when I’m so used to seeing Mike’s impression in Hartman-era Clinton sketches.
— (*groan*) They keep repeating the unfunny gunshots bit when it didn’t even work the first time.
— This whole cold opening is very weak political satire that’s landing with a resounding thud.
— Even the “To Angela” gift bit at the end came off lazy.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— I did get a chuckle (my first of this entire episode) from George trying to keep the opening applause going by saying “I said ‘thank you’, not ‘stop’.”
— I do like his mentions of some of the individual cast members, but nothing he’s saying about them is particularly hilarious.
— “Your shoes untired”??? Our first of many odd line flubs from George tonight.
— This ended pretty awkwardly.
STARS: *½


TIME BOXER
host fights Hitler (MIM) in 1939; Michael Buffer cameo

— Oh, god, I’ve always absolutely hated this sketch and have found it an absolute chore to watch.
— After playing broad Asian stereotypes for an endless amount of consecutive episodes this season, Mike takes the only logical step left by now playing freakin’ Adolf Hitler.
— Also, since when was Hitler a redhead?
— Even something about Farley’s fight introduction into the camera is coming off so shoddy, poorly staged, and low-budget-looking.
— They got the “Let’s get ready to rumble” guy to cameo for THIS?
— Wow, that “Yaaay…. I mean, booo” comedic line from an off-camera extra was very poorly delivered and fell completely flat. Man, what is happening to SNL this season? Why do some things this season have such a low-budget, high school production-esque feel? Actually, I started noticing this in the second half of the preceding season, but it’s carried over into this season.
— The “Let’s get ready to rumble” guy and Farley sloppily keep accidentally talking over each other throughout this sketch. Did SNL even bother doing rehearsals for this sketch?
— The ending with George asking “New fuhrer? What??!” was awful.
— Oh, god, now we get a text crawl ending, one of the laziest ending tropes that SNL has a habit of occasionally falling back on.
— Mercifully, this sketch is over. Unmercifully, this is FAR from the last bad, laughless sketch I’ll have to suffer through tonight.
STARS: *


LOOKING GOOD
host’s makeovers involve beating up his subjects

— George has appeared in three things so far tonight, and every single one of them have revolved around “George Foreman solves everything by beating people up… because he’s a boxer, get it?” Could SNL’s writing tonight be any lazier?
— Pretty dead sketch so far, and George’s line deliveries are painfully awkward.
— I got a laugh from Adam entering with that grotesque makeup. Jesus Christ, I just realized, we’re about 15 minutes into tonight’s episode, and I’ve only gotten TWO laughs all night so far. TWO laughs, and one was more of a chuckle than an outright laugh.
— The “before” picture of Elliott with that goofy grin is hilarious (the second-to-last screencap above).
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Doll Parts”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Martha Stewart’s (JAG) past Christmases don’t jibe with New Jersey locale
Two Guys From A Religious Cult & their Leader (CHF) review a restaurant

 

— Boy, the audience is pretty dead during Norm’s jokes so far. Has all the horrible comedy from earlier tonight completely killed the audience’s energy by this point?
— Okay, the audience is starting to get more responsive.
— As odd as it was seeing Janeane doing a Hillary Clinton “impression” earlier tonight, it’s almost as weird seeing her as Martha Stewart. I can’t help but compare her impression to the famous one that Ana Gasteyer would later do, and even the forgotten one-off impression that Nancy Walls would do in the upcoming season 21, and needless to say, Janeane’s take is coming up short.
— Norm’s baffled questioning of the odd words Janeane’s Martha keeps throwing into her sentences is making this whole commentary.
— Norm makes his very first joke about The Byron Allen Show, which would go on to be a running gag this season.
— God, no. The damn Two Guys From a Religious Cult become recurring. I hate these characters.
— Yep, this Religious Cult commentary so far is more of the same.
— Now we get an addition of Farley as the leader of the Religious Cult, which is just yet ANOTHER season 20 Chris Farley screaming role.
— I do admit to getting a big laugh from Farley’s coy delivery of “The peach cobbler was deliiiiightful!”
STARS: ***½


FOLEY TRAINS FOREMAN
Matt Foley’s unorthodox training revives host’s will to hit people

 

— Interesting different use of Matt Foley, and it seems to be a fun idea seeing where he lives.
— Yikes at Farley’s voice in this. I recall commenter and fellow SNL reviewer Ben Douwsma saying in the comments section of my Martin Lawrence episode review that by the time of the George Foreman episode, Farley’s increasingly exaggerated Matt Foley voice has gotten to the point where it’s just a whine. Ben definitely wasn’t kidding. Farley’s voice is unbearable in this.
— Turns out the change of format in this Matt Foley sketch, which initially seemed promising, isn’t doing ANY good. This sketch is not working at all, and the training montage is completely laughless. It’s sad seeing a Matt Foley sketch die a horrible death like this. While I’ve always been of the opinion that they should’ve kept Foley a one-off character after his classic first sketch, at least most of his subsequent installments have had SOME laughs, despite how few they are in comparison to the laughs in the classic first sketch. But THIS installment is simply pathetic.
STARS: *


UNCLE JOE
(KEN) recruits reluctant Uncle Joe (host) to sing at a wedding reception

— This sketch is known as the nadir of Kevin’s SNL tenure and is often used as an example of how unnecessary this 9th season of Kevin’s tenure is.
— The “comedy” in this sketch is dreadfully unfunny, and yes, it’s indeed sad watching Kevin in this, considering how consistently funny his character pieces were during his prime years.
— THAT’S how the sketch ends? Man, they didn’t even TRY with this sketch.
STARS: *


THE INCREDIBLE HULK
Incredible Hulk (host) shares viewers’ ire toward SNL writers, G.E. Smith

— Aaaaand the show continues to sink further and further. As if things hadn’t already been dire enough tonight, here comes a particularly notorious sketch from this season.
— What’s with Elliott playing so many scientists in this episode?
— I did get a chuckle from Elliott’s deadpan delivery of “What the hell was that?” after the first instance of Hulk Foreman transforming back into Tim.
— Jesus Christ at the unfunny repetitive nature of this. If they cut to that Hulk transformation pre-tape ONE more damn time…
— (*sigh*) Yep, and there goes the transformation pre-tape once again. My god, you are DESTROYING me with tonight’s episode, SNL. Destroying me.
— Now Hulk Foreman breaks the fourth wall and calls out the sketch on its bad writing and repetitive one-joke nature. This is just coming off as a poor man’s version of what they did in the first Hub’s Gyros sketch. At least the repetitive one-joke nature of that sketch was actually FUNNY, even before they broke the fourth wall and called the sketch out.
— Now Hulk Foreman goes further with the fourth wall-breaking, by calling out how bad this season is, expressing the same complaints that many viewers had towards SNL at the time. At least this shows how self-aware SNL is of its own suckiness lately, but openly mocking that doesn’t make the problem go away.
— Okay, I do love the ending with this sketch overlapping with the subsequent SNL Band shot, by having Hulk Foreman interrupt G.E. Smith’s guitar-playing to smash his guitar to pieces (a bit that would sadly be cut from this sketch in Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of this episode). Considering the ire that some SNL fans at the time had developed towards G.E. Smith’s “mugging” and “grandstanding” during the SNL Band shots (I’m not saying I agree with those complaints), this Hulk bit probably satisfied those G.E. haters.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Violet”


BEDTIME STORY
CSE wants host to read him a bedtime story so he can sleep during show

— God bless Chris Elliott, who has come to save tonight’s trainwreck of an episode with another one of his patented oddball sketches, which have been a consistent bright spot these last few episodes.
— Elliott, on if he’s supposed to be getting ready for a sketch right now: “I’m gonna leave that for the kids. You know, the Farleys and the Spades and the Piscopos.”
— A lot of funny little lines from Elliott from here.
— I love the reveal that Elliott wants George to read him a bedtime story; Goodnight Moon, to be specific.
— Elliott’s really good at selling the childlike behavior while George is reading to him.
— Good inclusion of Lorne at the end, and I like seeing the interaction between him and Elliott.
STARS: ****½


STALKING
by Bruce McCulloch- stalkee (JAG) calmly converses with suitor

— Our first Bruce McCulloch film of the season. Needless to say, his work is VERY welcome in this particular season.
— I like Janeane’s very casual reaction to Bruce flat-out telling her he’s stalking her.
— This film is a very interesting change of pace, not only for this episode, but this era in general.
— Great turn with Bruce disturbingly waxing poetic about why he decided to stalk Janeane, complete with a lighting change.
— Solid film overall.
STARS: ****


JACKIE STALLONE’S PSYCHIC CIRCLE
be like Sylvester, not Frank

— I’ve sometimes seen this referred to as one of Janeane’s better performances during her short-lived SNL tenure, a compliment that I’ve never understood. To me, Janeane’s performance in this sketch is just one of her many sullen, lifeless, “I don’t wanna be here”-type of performances, which gives this sketch too much of a dead, slow feeling for me. I can’t help but think of how much better this Jackie Stallone role would’ve come off had it been given a season earlier to Julia Sweeney, who, despite her many frustrations with SNL that season, still would’ve put actual effort into the role and would’ve done an actual characterization, unlike what Janeane is doing here.
— Using the name “Frank” as a substitute for negative words is an okay idea, and is coming off funny with Adam’s delivery during his testimonial. David’s testimonial, on the other hand, was pretty bland, adding to the slow, dead feeling of this sketch. (Much like Janeane, David is another cast member who’s guilty of giving many lifeless, “I don’t wanna be here”-type of performances this season.)
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Simply awful. One of the worst episodes I’ve reviewed so far in this SNL project. Until the last 15 minutes, this episode was one laughless, painful dud after another (aside from Weekend Update) and seemed to get even worse and worse in the second half of the show. Thankfully, that disastrous downhill slide was cut off by a brief sudden upswing in quality towards the end of the show, with our weekly oddball Chris Elliott sketch and a refreshing Bruce McCulloch film, before the episode’s quality dipped again with the not-terrible-but-dull closing Jackie Stallone sketch. Tonight’s episode also wasn’t helped by George Foreman’s dreadful hosting performance and his consistently awkward line deliveries. This was also possibly the least Christmas-feeling Christmas episode in SNL history. Almost none of the material was holiday-related.


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

plus this bonus shot…


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 1995, with host Jeff Daniels. We also get a new addition to the cast.