Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
END OF AN ERA
Fox News election coverage prematurely declares the end of the Obama era
— Funny Greta Van Susteren impression from Kristen.
— The debut of Bill’s underrated Shepard Smith impression, probably one of my favorite things Bill has ever done on SNL. That voice and the “I’m a naughty boy” demeanor he always uses as Smith always slays me.
— Funny line from Bobby’s Karl Rove, in regards to President Obama: “And don’t forget, it was under his watch that we lost the King of Pop.”
— Fantastic Glenn Beck performance from Jason, and his segment steals this sketch.
— Great trick Kristen does at the end where she seamlessly switches from speaking out of one corner of her mouth to the other.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & sings about topics unsuitable for her monologue
— As a funny variation of a joke SNL previously used with a few young adult hosts in the past (e.g. Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake), in which they say they watched the show when growing up “way back” in the days when (insert cast members from not too long ago here) were on the show, Taylor Swift goes one step further and says she used to stay up past her bedtime to watch SNL “way back” when [current cast members] Bill Hader and Andy Samberg were on the show.
— Despite being yet another damn musical monologue, Taylor is making it very fun. Her song has a lot of very solid lyrics about what she’s “not” going to sing about, and she’s doing a great job getting me and the audience on her side, especially during the bit about her celebrity ex-boyfriend, Joe Jonas.
— Great bit with Bill and Jason as security guards holding up a police sketch of Kanye West.
— Speaking of the Kayne bit, I remember being relieved back at this time in 2009 that the obligatory reference to the then-overexposed Kanye/Taylor/VMAs incident ended up only being a small bit in this monologue. Unfortunately, a month later, SNL would have Taylor Lautner do an entire monologue focusing on the Kanye/VMAs incident.
— Very strong monologue overall, and it’s given me a lot of confidence in Taylor as a host.
STARS: ****½
CARTER N’ SONS BBQ
Carter (BOM) N’ Sons BBQ restaurant regrets its “swine fever” ad campaign
— Very funny conceit with this innocent “Swine Fever”-themed commercial coming off very unfortunate when airing during the Swine Flu epidemic at this time in 2009. This hits even more nowadays when watching this during a certain pandemic going on in our current times.
— Andy’s brief, lighthearted one-liner about Swine Fever being the death of him is hilarious.
STARS: ****
THE VIEW
attention-hungry Kate Gosselin (host) & Nicolas Cage (ANS)
— Nasim’s not doing the best Barbara Walters impression, but I still like it, and I feel it’s better than the one Michaela Watkins did the preceding season.
— I can’t judge the accuracy of Taylor’s Kate Gosselin impression, given that I’m not familiar with Gosselin’s voice, but Taylor definitely seems to be going for a distinct portrayal here, and her performance is coming off really good.
— Boy, Kristen-as-Elisabeth-Hasselbeck’s constant rants are so grating, and not grating in the funny, satirical way it’s intended to be.
— The debut of Andy’s great Nicolas Cage impression.
— The interview with Andy’s Cage ended up being way too short. I would’ve taken more of that and less of certain other aspects of this sketch.
STARS: **½
FIRELIGHT
Twilight-knockoff movie substitutes Frankensteins for vampires
— Solid idea of a Frankenstein-themed Twilight spoof.
— Much like the High School Musical 4 sketch from the preceding season’s Zac Efron episode, I’ve never seen the source material this Firelight short is spoofing and I can still tell this spoof is very well-done, and I’m enjoying it a lot.
— Good lip-biting mannerism Taylor keeps doing throughout this.
— This is so well-filmed.
— Funny appearance from Andy as a teenage mummy. Speaking of which, when this originally aired, I remember some online SNL fans speculating if that might have been Taylor Lautner making a cameo as the mummy. I guess those SNL fans felt that what little we could see of the performer’s face behind the mummy bandages resembled Lautner. The voice makes it VERY obvious it’s Andy playing the mummy.
STARS: ****
HOLLYWOOD DISH
Hollywood Dish anchors (BIH) & (KRW) elicit desired responses from host
— The first appearance of this occasionally-appearing recurring sketch.
— So far, I’m having very mixed feelings on the humor here, and those mixed feelings are leaning closer to the “Don’t like it” side. This seems like just an excuse to have Bill and Kristen make various over-the-top facial reactions.
— Yeah, more and more, I’m seeing that this humor just isn’t for me.
— I do like the part with Taylor being forced to do a very stiff, unnatural laugh, and how the Hollywood Dish show eventually airs it out of context in a cruel manner during a preview of Taylor’s interview.
STARS: **
T.R.A.A.A.P.D.
teen (host) lists parental car sins worse than driving-while-texting
— Lots of solid relatable humor here. I particularly like the “Birds and The Bees Talk” scene, and how it ends with Taylor desperately trying to put an end to it by grabbing the steering wheel and swerving the car.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier. The “He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!” part is especially hilarious.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “You Belong With Me”
WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM suspects that Nicholas Fehn doesn’t actually have anything to say
Sarah McLachlan (ABE) upsets SEM with plaintive animal-rights crooning
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Goldman Sachs’ H1N1 vaccine use
— OH, NO. Nicholas Fehn once again.
— Sure, we’ve gotten a long break from Nicholas Fehn since his last appearance, but not even that makes this character come off fresher to me. His initially-funny shtick became officially played-out after his second appearance.
— Much like how the Judy Grimes (a.k.a. Kristen’s “Just kidding” character) commentary earlier this season had a brief, half-assed attempt at a change of pace with her bringing out a chart, SNL does a brief, half-assed attempt at a change of pace in tonight’s Nicholas Fehn commentary by having him try to write down a point he’s failing to say, but it ends up going the exact same route you’d expect it to.
— This Sarah McLachlan commentary is a solid showcase for Abby, and ends up being one of the more memorable things she would do in her forgettable SNL tenure.
— One complaint I have about the Sarah McLachlan commentary is that Seth’s interjections are way too much, and are unnecessary. He’s overdoing it.
— Loved Seth’s “Women with two vaginas” jokes, especially the second one.
— An Amy Poehler appearance out of nowhere, joining Seth in a “Really?!?” segment.
— With the cameo Amy made at the end of the preceding season, her randomly co-anchoring ALL of the Weekend Update Thursdays from earlier this season (a decision from SNL that I still don’t understand to this day), and now her cameo in tonight’s episode, I remember it felt to me back at this time in 2009 like Amy never left the show in the first place. We’re clearly in the era of recently-departed cast members being afraid to cut the proverbial umbilical cord after leaving the show. I take a lot of issue with that. Fred would be one of the absolute WORST at this, making a countless number of unnecessary cameos the season (season 39) after he leaves. I’m pretty sure his total amount of airtime that season is higher than that of some of that season’s featured players (e.g. John Milhiser).
— Hate to say it, but a lot of Amy and Seth’s quips during tonight’s “Really?!?” edition are coming off kinda meh and are washing over me. This is the second consecutive subpar “Really?!?” edition they’ve done together (the first one being in the preceding season’s finale).
STARS: ***
WEDDING RECEPTION
Penelope’s hyperbolic attention-seeking upstages newlyweds at reception
— A fairly funny bit with Penelope wearing horse blinders.
— I’ve been tolerant of Penelope’s shtick for a long time, despite its one-note nature, but it’s actually coming off fairly tiring tonight. Even the audience seems to somewhat agree with me, as they’re usually more responsive during these sketches. I’m still getting some laughs, though.
STARS: **½
SCARED STRAIGHT
joyriding teens aren’t fazed by Lorenzo McIntosh & fellow con (host)
— Feels odd seeing this recurring sketch appearing so late in the show.
— Oh my god at the initial visual of Taylor dressed like…THAT.
— This has to be the shortest that Andy’s hair has looked up to this point in his SNL tenure. This is noteworthy given the trademark shaggy hair Andy was known for having in his preceding seasons.
— Feels a little odd seeing Taylor Swift participating in prison rape jokes, but perhaps that shows what a game host she is.
— I like Jason’s “Gave you guys WAY too much leeway on that one!” line after Kenan and Taylor’s rape-related Sound Of Music song bit.
— There goes Bill’s now-obligatory character break when Kenan and the host gang up on him in these Scared Straight sketches. After recently seeing how badly he lost his composure during the dress rehearsal version of the Shia LaBeouf installment of this sketch, shown as a Bud Light Golden Wheat-sponsored clip in one of the commercial breaks of the preceding Gerard Butler-hosted episode, Bill’s laughing in this sketch seems very tame.
— A big laugh from the “1.21 jizz-a-watts” line during the Back To The Future bit.
— Now we get the also-now-obligatory character break from Bill, Andy, and Bobby when Jason hops up onto his desk in a sitting position in these Scared Straight sketches. This time, even Jason himself cracks up.
STARS: ***
ROOMIES
boyfriend (ANS) feels excluded by (NAP)’s close bond with roommate (host)
— Andy (and his new short hairstyle) is all over tonight’s episode. Talk about making up for his absence in the preceding episode.
— Nice to see such a big showcase for Nasim. I believe this is the first actual sketch she’s had a lead role in, after previously having a lead role in a Weekend Update commentary earlier this season. She’s been fitting in on SNL really well so far. (Fellow newbie, Jenny Slate, on the other hand, made her ONLY appearance of tonight’s entire episode in a pre-taped bit role in the Digital Short.)
— A good conceit with Taylor and Nasim’s overly-clinginess with each other, and how it shuts Andy out.
— I saw it coming a mile away that Taylor (who’s in the other room) was going to be revealed as the person on the other end of the phone call that Nasim receives.
— Much like the T.R.A.A.A.P.D. sketch earlier tonight, there’s a lot of solid relatable humor here. I’m even getting a fair amount of slice-of-life vibes from this, which, as I’ve said other times, is so rare at this point of SNL’s run, even if this particular sketch doesn’t have the semi-dramatic tone that SNL’s slice-of-life sketches from the 70s and 80s had.
— I love the bit with an emotional Nasim being dragged on the floor while grabbing onto the blanket that a walking-away Taylor is holding, made even funnier by how Nasim is also dragging the couch behind her via her feet.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
— Something seemed to go awry during this part. This musical guest intro opens on a typical far-away shot of the musical guest stage while some stagehands are strangely seen in the shot, but there’s nobody in front of the camera to introduce Taylor’s performance (usually in the 90s and onwards, a cast member or special guest introduces the musical performances if the musical guest also happens to be that night’s host), and there’s an awkward stretch of silence with nothing happening. Then the mic’ed, off-camera voice of who appears to be Amy Poehler giggles loudly, then, while still off-camera, shouts out a half-audible “Once again, Taylor Swift!”, then Taylor begins her musical performance. What the hell happened there? Why wasn’t Amy (or whoever that was) onscreen during this intro, and why was there a long delay before it?
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Untouchable”
BUNNY BUSINESS
star-laden soundtrack relegates movie to an afterthought
— The first of a series of occasionally-appearing sketches.
— Funny Randy Newman impression from Fred.
— Absolutely spot-on Natalie Merchant from Kristen.
— I love seeing Taylor doing an impression of Shakira, given the fact that Shakira was the musical guest in the preceding episode, and I’m always a sucker for SNL spoofing hosts or musical guests right after they were on the show. Taylor’s even wearing what appears to be the same outfit Shakira wore in the preceding episode, and is spoofing the “She Wolf” song that Shakira performed in that episode. On top of that, Taylor’s Shakira impression is a lot of fun.
— Yet another sketch appearance tonight from the omnipresent Andy Samberg.
— Bill’s facial expression as Eddie Vedder is very funny.
— Oh, no. Just when I was enjoying everything in this sketch, we get a Kenan In A Dress alert, doing a groan-worthy take on Jennifer Hudson.
— An overall mostly fun sketch, but it went on a little too long, and the Kenan-in-drag bit was a poor way to end this.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode. While not without its clunkers, this episode was mostly good and had several strong high points, especially in the pre-Weekend Update half. Considering her young age and lack of much acting experience, Taylor Swift did an impressive job as a host, being surprisingly very good in every single sketch, and committing to every single role. She also added well to the atmosphere of this episode, giving the show a fun, likable feel.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
T.R.A.A.A.P.D.
Firelight
Roomies
Carter N’ Sons BBQ
End Of An Era
Bunny Business
Scared Straight
Weekend Update
The View
Wedding Reception
Hollywood Dish
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gerard Butler)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
The notorious January Jones episode
