Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Jimmy Carter’s (DAA) hemorrhoids affect the State Of The Union address
— Funny opening commentary from Tom Davis'(?) voice-over at beginning about President Carter’s “painful medical problem”.
— Amusing pained slow entrance from Dan’s Carter.
— Dan’s Carter’s use of hemorrhoid-related words to express the U.S.’s inflation problems is hilarious! A lot of big laughs there.
— The random “next president” disclaimer under the stock footage shot of Ted Kennedy was great.
— Overall, a very funny opening, and an improvement over the preceding State of the Union cold opening the show did in season 3.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
if only NBC had given non-wool socks to host, the show would be perfect
— Not sure how he can top his cats-down-the-pants monologue from last time.
— LOL at the woman in the audience who keeps loudly cheering “Woo!” after every single cast member name Michael mentions.
— Michael, in an ad-lib(?) regarding the audience: “Is that my mother up there?” Kinda funny hearing that, as Michael would later co-host SNL with his mother in the early 80s.
— I now keep hearing the distinctive laugh of the aforementioned “Woo!” audience member from earlier.
— Overall, this was pretty disappointing for a Michael Palin monologue. The whole “wrong socks” thing just wasn’t that interesting of a premise, despite Michael’s efforts to wring laughs out of it. They could’ve given him something much funnier than this.
STARS: **
NERDS MUSIC LESSON
lonely Mr. Brighton shifts his attention from Lisa to Enid to Todd
— These characters are now finally getting Coneheads-level huge cheers from the audience upon their entrance at the beginning.
— Nice continuity by bringing back Michael’s piano teacher character from last time he hosted.
— Michael: “You stir my manhood!”
— Funny sight gag with Bill entering with the bra over his eyes.
— Heh, I should’ve seen the ending coming where Michael turned his romantic attention towards Bill, but it still caught me off-guard and gave me a laugh.
STARS: ***½
WHAT IF?
the possibility of a Nazi Superman (DAA) is explored
— Jane’s back to being the “What If?” host, after Steve Martin took over her role last time.
— Oh, this is the Superman-as-a-Nazi one I’ve always heard about. I already love the concept alone.
— Garrett’s answer getting cut off was pretty funny.
— Some great laughs from Michael-as-Hitler’s speech about how many steps Russians are above other minorities/groups he hates (e.g. negro gypsy homosexuals).
— John doing his great Brando impression as Jor-El.
— I like the Nazi version of Superman’s name: Uberman.
— LOL at Dan’s x-ray vision revealing that Franken’s character is “a jew”.
— Overall, this was fantastic. Easily the best of the “What If?” sketches so far.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What a Fool Believes”
WEEKEND UPDATE
fired Ohio State coach Woody Hayes (JOB) hits wife (GIR) in BIM interview
photos show Rosalynn Carter’s proclivity for being around mass murderers
Chico Escuela gives advice to athletes- “keep your eye on the ball”
Father Guido Sarducci analyzes the bill for the Last Brunch
— Hmm, a lesser-known edition of Bill Murray’s Celebrity Corner.
— Wow at John suddenly beating the hell out of Gilda. I kinda wish I was keeping count of the number of times John has done that to Gilda in a sketch, because it’s gotta be near the double-digits by this point in the show’s run.
— Chico Escuela’s whole “keep your eye on the ball” commentary was short and didn’t really go anywhere, but it still made me laugh. Hope they do more noteworthy things with this character in his future appearances, though.
— Amusing seeing Guido Sarducci with the sombrero.
— Funny story from Sarducci about a man trying to sell him a high school graduation picture of Jesus and the bill for the Last Supper.
— Loved the part of Sarducci’s Last Brunch story about the guy who just had egg and tea having to pay as much as others at the brunch who ate more.
— I think this is the first time they had Bill do the “pleasant tomorrow” sign-off instead of Jane.
STARS: ***
MILES COWPERTHWAITE
Charles Dickens’ Miles Cowperthwaite (host) comes of age as drool handler
— Oh, I heard about this sketch. Supposedly, it’s one of the longest and most elaborate sketches in SNL history. This must be around the time when the show started doing some really long sketches (e.g. the epic “Pepsi Syndrome”, which appears later this season); a trend that would carry over into season 5.
— Jane’s voice and accent are great.
— Oh my god at Dan’s whole scene so far. He is priceless!
— Some good gross-out humor here.
— Bill’s talking in a voice similar to his character in the Theodoric of York sketches.
— For some reason, the part with Michael giving Dan a loud bop with a mallet to stop Dan’s spasms is absolutely slaying me. I cannot stop laughing right now.
— Ah, here’s the part I always heard about, with John as the effeminate ship captain of The Raging Queen.
— Wait, what? The sketch is over already? It can’t be. I had always heard that most of this sketch took place on a ship, with John’s captain character being a huge part of the sketch. Instead, this sketch contained zero ship scenes, and John’s character only appeared in the last minute of the sketch. WTF? I’m also surprised to see that this sketch was NOWHERE NEAR as long as I had heard. I’m starting to think I must be watching a different Miles Cowperthwaite sketch than the one I heard about. I know Michael hosts again later this season; maybe that episode has a continuation of this sketch. Anyone know?
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Taking it to the Streets”
NAME THE BATS
(JOB) & (GIR) are attacked on (host)’s game show
— Strange but interesting concept so far.
— I’m laughing my ass off at Michael beating on the outside of the barn to make the bats show up inside.
— Part of the barn door falls off when Michael beats on the barn. Wonder if that was a real mistake.
— HAHA this is insane with Gilda and John’s various off-camera yells during the bat attack while Michael as the sadistic host is forcing them to stick to the game show’s premise and give the bats names.
— Great ending with Gilda and John’s “consolation prize”.
— Overall, wow, what a hilarious insane sketch that got great reactions from me. I think I just discovered a new favorite sketch of mine.
STARS: *****
THE FRANKEN AND DAVIS SHOW
communists ALF, TOD, LAN, GIR preview their pornographic TV plan
— The concept of communist porn is pretty funny.
— I like the porn’s opening credits sequence.
— The stilted talk of “back-rubbing” as a raunchy sex act is good.
— HA at Franken loudly cracking Laraine’s neck.
STARS: ***
MR. BILL GOES TO COURT
by Walter Williams- Sluggo sues after Spot bites
— They waited two episodes since the last Mr. Bill film, but it’s STILL too soon to bring this back.
— Spot with the ball & chain around his rabies-infested mouth is a pretty funny visual.
— Interesting seeing Mr. Bill’s mom.
— Mr. Bill’s mom returning from the cross-examination room all beat-up gave me a good laugh.
— The electric chair ending was great.
— Overall, wow, that was actually really good. Just when I thought I had officially gotten tired of the Mr. Bill films, they win me back with this one.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
host thanks viewers who mailed in socks
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Overall, a really strong show. While this unfortunately didn’t have the Monty Python-esque feel that Michael Palin’s previous episode had, there were still several great unique concepts I absolutely loved that were executed perfectly, like the Uberman and (one of my new all-time favorites) Name The Bats sketches, and there was also a really strong Miles Cowperthwaite piece.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Cicely Tyson