Tag: Tina Fey

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December 19, 2015 – Tina Fey and Amy Poehler / Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (S41 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Jeb Bush (BEB) acts tough with Donald Trump (DAH) during GOP debate

— So SNL’s making it a regular thing to have Jon play the moderators of this season’s debate sketches, even after the backlash he received for his Anderson Cooper impression earlier this season?
— Jon’s Wolf Blitzer impression doesn’t sound much different from his Anderson Cooper, only without the effeminate qualities.
— Darrell Hammond has taken over the Donald Trump role from Taran, and will end up remaining in that role for the rest of the season.
— A freakin’ fantastic angry rant from Bobby’s Chris Christie.
— I got a big laugh from Jon’s Blitzer responding to a statement from Kyle’s Rand Paul by telling him “Uh, sir, we’re not taking comments from the audience yet.” I also love Kyle’s defeated way of responding “No, I’m Rand Paul, I’m up here…”
— Jay’s Ben Carson impression is getting sillier and funnier over the course of this season. The increasingly cartoonish, fun, and caricature-ish nature of this impression is rather Dana Carvey-esque, which I like.
— Pretty funny speech from Pete’s Marco Rubio.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Christmas song by TIF & AMP is alternately jaunty fun & Biblical downer

— A decent beginning with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler being very simultaneous in everything they’re saying.
— Tina and Amy’s usual style of humor and rapport is coming off well here.
— The jarringly different tones to Tina and Amy’s respective Christmas songs are okay, despite the repetitive nature and the fact that it’s not anything I’m finding to be laugh out loud funny.
STARS: ***


A HILLARY CHRISTMAS
Hillary Clinton’s (KAM) 2008 self (AMP) & Sarah Palin (TIF) visit her

— I love this idea of having Kate’s Hillary meeting Amy’s Hillary. A great way to bring two different styles of the same celebrity impression together.
— The interplay between the two Hillarys is so damn fun.
— As much as I’m enjoying a lot of things in this sketch, all of the statements being made about what a cakewalk Hillary’s path to winning the election next November is (particularly both Kate and Amy’s Hillarys gleefully declaring in unison “We’re gonna be president!” upon Amy’s Hillary learning that one of her future opponents is Donald Trump, a moment that I remember finding to be pretty classic when this sketch originally aired) is casting a bit of a pall over this sketch.
— The inclusion of Tina’s Sarah Palin is adding to the very fun atmosphere and energy of this sketch.
— The bit with Kate’s Hillary furiously stopping Amy’s Hillary from sending those emails is great.
STARS: ****


MEET YOUR SECOND WIFE!
contestants’ future mates are much much younger

— An extremely awkward but hilarious big technical error right at the very beginning, where, when SNL tries to play audio of Steve Higgins’ opening announcement about Bobby’s character while the camera is on a close-up of Bobby smiling affably into the camera, they keep accidentally cueing up the wrong audio, going back-and-forth between the Bronx Beat theme music (giving away the fact that we’re getting the return of that sketch later tonight, and that Maya Rudolph is in the building), audio of Darrell Hammond announcing Tina and Amy for their monologue from earlier tonight, and the correct Higgins announcement for this sketch. Making all of this even funnier is the fact that, while all of these back-and-forth audio miscues are going on, Bobby, ever the pro, just continues affably smiling into the camera like he’s supposed to, and you can tell that he’s stifling his amusement over the gaffe.
— Great reveal of this game show’s title, as well as the subsequent surprised reactions the contestants have to that title.
— An absolutely priceless and shocking reveal of Bobby’s future second wife currently being an 8th grader.
— Bobby, to his currently-young future second wife: “I guess I’ll…see you again in 20 years.” Tina: “Actually, it’s 7.”
— Aidy: “I thought this was a home makeover show!” Tina: “In a way, it is.”
— Amy and Tina are perfect for the game show host roles in this particular sketch.
— An excellent progression to the shocking reveals in this sketch, with Taran’s future second wife currently being EVEN YOUNGER than that of Bobby’s.
— A very funny casual reveal that Aidy is going to die in a tragic kayaking accident. I also love Aidy’s reaction to hearing that.
— Love the initial cutaway to a very deadpan Leslie.
— Kenan repeatedly whispering to himself “Don’t be white” when his second wife is about to be revealed is a riot.
— A freakin’ perfect fake-out with the appearance of Cecily’s adult character, who you initially assume is Kenan’s future second wife, only for it to be revealed that she’s currently pregnant with Kenan’s future second wife.
— Aidy, after it’s announced that the contestants are all going home with a new kayak: “I know I shouldn’t, but they’re so fun!”
— Overall, a bonafide all-time classic. Everything in this was perfection, it kept topping itself with all of the surprising reveals, and there was an endless number of hilarious parts.
STARS: *****


HOVERBOARDS
exploding Hoverboards are the hot toy this Christmas season

 

— A good spoof of the Hoverboard craze from around this time.
— Great visual of Beck as an old man happily riding on a Hoverboard while he’s on fire.
— Hilarious visual of a fearfully-screaming Pete speeding through the streets on his suddenly-accelerated Hoverboard at sound barrier-breaking speed, complete with a funny close-up of the now-pee-stained crotch of Pete’s pants. Speaking of which, I remember some online SNL fans back at this time, including two hosts of a now-defunct podcast that covered old SNL episodes (not That Week In SNL, which is still running), didn’t notice the pee stain and were baffled over why SNL threw in a close-up of Pete’s crotch. The two hosts of the aforementioned now-defunct SNL podcast spent a good amount of time unsuccessfully trying to figure out why the hell SNL would throw in a close-up of Pete’s crotch during a scene of him speeding through the streets on a Hoverboard. How in the world did so many people miss the noticeable pee strain on his crotch???
STARS: ****


MOVIE SET
acting coach from The Jeffersons seeks inapt emoting during serious scene

— Yeah, I definitely didn’t need a second installment of this.
— Wait, now Kenan’s character says he did five seasons on The Jeffersons? In the previous installment of this sketch, he said he only worked on The Jeffersons for one day. And that made much more sense, because the cartoonish acting techniques he teaches are NOTHING like the acting on The Jeffersons.
— The more and more this sketch goes on, I’m actually kinda finding Tina and Amy’s imitation of Kenan’s cartoonish acting techniques to be kinda chuckleworthy (especially Amy doing the George Jefferson dance). While that still may be faint praise, it’s certainly more than I laughed at Chris Hemsworth and Kate doing that in the first installment of this sketch. (Odd coincidence how they brought this sketch back the week after Hemsworth hosted for a second time.)
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Meet Me in the City”


WEEKEND UPDATE
somebody’s mom Deenie (KAM) doesn’t know names of soap opera characters

TIF & AMP tell the last two Weekend Update jokes of 2015

— The audience’s energy in this episode is so high that even Colin plays off of it during his sign-on while the audience is applauding after the Update opening title sequence.
— The first appearance of Kate’s Deenie character, who I recall hearing was based on writer Paula Pell’s mother.
— Hmm, Kate keeps occasionally breaking for no apparent reason throughout this commentary. Am I watching a Kate McKinnon performance from 2015 or 2021?
— While I certainly have no familiarity with Paula Pell’s mother, I’m still finding Kate’s character relatable (which I’m sure is SNL’s intention), as she reminds me of my grandmother in a lot of ways. Too bad Kate’s constant breaking is distracting from the material and is serving as an unfortunate reminder of what’s to come in her later years on SNL.
— A somewhat interesting breakdown from Colin on Martin Shkreli.
— A special bit, with Tina and Amy doing Colin and Michael’s last two jokes of 2015. Since these jokes were written by this season’s Update writers instead of whoever wrote Tina and Amy’s dreadful Update jokes from their Update era together, I won’t complain like I usually do about the Fey/Poehler teaming on Update.
— A decent joke from Tina and Amy each, and my goodwill towards that is helped by the aforementioned fun, feel-good energy that tonight’s audience and general Christmas episode is bringing.
STARS: ***½


THE CHAD & MRS. DOUGLAS SHOW COLLECTION
clips on 1970s variety show DVD are colored by alcohol, cocaine, roofies

— Naturally, a Fey/Poehler hosting stint brings us a Maya Rudolph cameo.
— Maya dusting off her hammy singing routine, I see. Since we’ve gotten a long break from it, I don’t mind seeing it here, and the ending of her scene with her randomly hiding in the gift bag is funny.
— The decent execution of this sketch’s material is helping me overlook all of the aggressive James Anderson/Kent Sublette-ness of the material.
— A huge laugh from the reveal of Kenan’s Bill Cosby in the “Baby’s It’s Cold Outside” clip.
STARS: ***


TINA & AMY’S DOPE SQUAD
Amy Schumer & Gayle King [real] provide Dope Squad support for TIF & AMP

— Funny delivery from a laid-back Aidy at the beginning of the interview.
— After Tina and Amy’s initial song, which was certainly funny, Aidy steals this short with the hardcore rap she suddenly breaks out into. She’s doing a solid job here, and her rapping is actually very catchy.
— I love Amy Schumer’s “Wait, who are we mad at???” line.
— Good ending with the ladies’ reaction to the cliched explosion they’re walking away from.
— Another good line from Schumer, with her responding to being asked if she’s okay after the aforementioned explosion by saying “No, I’m suing everyone here.” She’s making me laugh more in this one short than she did in her actual hosting stint earlier this season.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Ties That Bind”


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY & JODI
Betty & Philadelphian cousin (TIF) learn of Jodi’s pregnancy

— This ends up being the final appearance of this sketch (as of 2021).
— The usual solid performances from Amy and Maya as these characters.
— Fitting casting of Tina in this Philadelphia-accented role.
— The bit with Amy and Maya’s characters enviously saying they wish they had accents was already used in an earlier Bronx Beat sketch, the one from the season 34 Hugh Laurie episode.
— As expected, good interplay between Amy, Maya, and Tina here.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest, TIF, AMP, MAR, cast members, Paul McCartney [real] perform “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”

— Ooh, a change of pace, with Tina and Amy delivering their goodnights speech from the musical guest stage as Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are getting set to do their special next musical performance.
— Paul McCartney making his required annual SNL appearance.
— So damn fun and rare seeing the whole cast get involved in this great musical performance. A very special moment.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good and fun episode, and, as mentioned throughout the review, featured a nice infectious energy, which is perfect for a Christmas episode. The feel-good atmosphere of this episode was also given a boost by the exciting novelty of having two hosts.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Meet Your Second Wife!
A Hillary Christmas
Tina & Amy’s Dope Squad
Hoverboards
Republican Presidential Debate
Bronx Beat with Betty & Jodi
Weekend Update
Monologue
The Chad & Mrs. Douglas Show Collection
Movie Set


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Hemsworth)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2016, with Adam Driver making his hosting debut

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September 28, 2013 – Tina Fey / Arcade Fire (S39 E1)

(Before you read this review, please read this message I recently posted regarding the comments section of this site if you haven’t already. Thank you.)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) helps Barack Obama (JAP) promote Obamacare

— Great bit from Aidy.
— New cast member Beck Bennett gets the somewhat rare honor of appearing in his first episode before being announced in the episode’s opening montage.
— Hilarious lines from Bobby regarding his good-for-nothing son, played by Beck.
— A funny topical spoof of Ted Cruz’s then-recent Green Eggs & Ham speech.
— Lots of funny walk-ons from the cast all throughout this. This feels like an even more fun variation of the Obama sequester press conference cold opening from the preceding season’s Kevin Hart episode.
— Now we get a solid appearance from Aaron Paul as his Breaking Bad character, just one day before the highly-anticipated Breaking Bad series finale.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— After I had gotten so used to Fred Armisen being the first-announced cast member in every single opening montage since season 30, it feels unusual seeing anyone else now be the first-announced cast member.
— Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Cecily Strong have been promoted from featured players to repertory players. Aidy and Cecily’s promotions are particularly noteworthy, because they were promoted after only one season as featured players, which has been a rarity since the early 2000s.
— The photo of Cecily from the preceding season’s opening montage (first screencap below) has now been changed to a new photo (second screencap below).

— Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Mike O’Brien, Noel Wells, and Brooks Wheelan have all been added to the cast tonight, in the largest simultaneous influx of new cast members that the beginning of an SNL season has experienced since the big overhaul the show went through in 1995.


MONOLOGUE
TIF hazes new cast members BEB, JOM, KYM, MOB, NOW, BRW via dance routine

— I love the tongue-in-cheek bit regarding Tina Fey’s non-existent recurring characters.
— When talking about SNL’s hiring of six new cast members, Tina notably calls this a “rebuilding year”. Hmm. Interesting hearing that in hindsight, now being aware of how this season goes and how SNL’s original intention to transition into a new era that heavily features these six newbies sadly ends up not going the way SNL fans at the time hoped and assumed it would.
— I absolutely love that this monologue is focusing on the new cast members.
— Pretty fun seeing old clips of Tina and her female castmates doing humiliating dances in hosts’ monologues back in the early 2000s, as well as a bonus clip of Will Ferrell tap-dancing in Katie Holmes’ season 26 monologue. Interestingly, the Bernie Mac clip (the seventh above screencap for this monologue) clearly does not come from the aired version of that episode. I went into much more detail about this in my review of Bernie Mac’s monologue, seen here.
— Even though I’m aware it really rubs some SNL fans the wrong way, I’m enjoying the dumb dances Tina’s making the six new cast members do, and I personally feel that both Tina and SNL mean well in their good-natured “humiliating” and “hazing” of the newbies. I do have to admit, though, the fact that almost all of these newbies would end up getting severely underused over the course of this season and then get fired after the season sadly casts a pall over this monologue in hindsight for me, and makes it not hold up quite as well for me. A shame, given the fact that I remember absolutely loving this monologue when it originally aired, as I obviously wasn’t aware back then of how the newbies’ SNL tenures would turn out. I remember this monologue gave me so much hope for them.
— Some great moves from Beck.
— Tina, after the newbies’ dance number: “Congratulations, you’re done for the night.” Oh, Tina, you have no idea idea how true that statement would turn out to be in subsequent episodes this season, regarding the extreme under-utilization the newbies will find themselves facing, and how they’ll indeed be “done for the night” in each episode after doing very little in it.
STARS: ***


GIRLS
Albanian (TIF) rebuffs First World problems of Hannah (NOW) & other Girls

— I’ve never watched Girls, but I’m familiar enough with Lena Dunham’s voice to find Noel Wells’ impression of her to be pretty spot-on and fun, and the other female cast members are also fun in their performances as Girls characters. Given how, when it was initially announced Noel was joining SNL, some SNL fans who were familiar with her pre-SNL online work heavily hyped her skills as a celebrity impressionist, it’s nice to see Noel immediately getting a showcase for her impression skills tonight.
— Making this already-fun Girls spoof even better is the added-in Albanian character played by Tina, who’s absolutely perfect in this role.
— I got a particularly good laugh from Tina asking if she can eat the donut from Vanessa’s character’s head, referring to the odd-looking bun her hair is in.
STARS: ****


AIRPORT
(TAK) & (TIF) give special passengers priority during airplane boarding

— Love the “children traveling with small parents” bit, getting good mileage out of the huge size difference between John Milhiser and Brooks Wheelan.
— Very fun structure to this sketch, with lots of very amusing quick walk-ons from various cast members, much like the cold opening.
— Bobby’s mere facial expression as the “farter” is a riot; the kind of gag he’s always perfect at selling.
STARS: ****


NEW CAST MEMBER OR ARCADE FIRE?
KYM, NOW, MOB mistaken for musical guest

— Wow, yet ANOTHER segment tonight focused on the group of new cast members.
— Despite the fact that I’m aware of the fate that this season’s newbies would sadly end up suffering after tonight’s episode, I still absolutely love the meta concept of this game show sketch.
— A rarity at the time for Kenan to play a game show host, which is obviously being done tonight in light of Bill Hader’s departure. Game show host would end up becoming a fairly frequent role for Kenan after this.
— Was Kyle Mooney supposed to initially walk in the wrong direction when making his exit, or was that a real gaffe? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter, remembering how green Kyle comes off as a live performer in this first season of his.
— Nasim makes her second of only two measly appearances tonight, both of them being extremely brief walk-ons that you’d be forgiven for completely missing because you blinked. In her walk-on in this particular sketch, she doesn’t even have any lines, and in the sketch she did have a line in during her walk-on (the Airport sketch), it was just her mumbling foreign gibberish.
— I admit to laughing at Kenan always scolding the newbies whenever any of them they try to say something or do a funny bit of business without having earned that right (as Kenan claims), even though, again, that pall that I mentioned in the monologue is looming.
— I love Tina’s various descriptions of Win Butler’s look, including “hipster Paul Bunyan” and “Civil War re-enactor.”
— When Kenan mentioned that a friend of Tina’s will be brought in as her lifeline, I was worried it would turn out to be YET ANOTHER Amy Poehler cameo, but thankfully, it’s just Lorne.
— A good laugh from Lorne guessing that, out of Win Butler and Mike O’Brien, the new cast member is actually “the black one”, Kenan, which leaves Kenan utterly shocked and upset.
— Kenan: “Well, the show is over.” Tina: “Oh, do I win anything?” Kenan: “Don’t you have enough?!?”
STARS: ****


E-METH
electronic pipe delivers methamphetamine but not social acceptance

— Funny concept.
— I love the visual of Kate laying in a bathtub in the middle of the road.
— Priceless bit with Taran casually yanking out one of his teeth to show us how perfectly white it is.
— Hilarious scene with Kenan chasing a half-naked Brooks Wheelan all around the living room.
— Solid ending appearance from Aaron Paul once again playing his Jesse Pinkman role.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Reflektor”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update veteran TIF gives tips to new newsreader CES

hacky veteran stand-up Bruce Chandling (KYM) plies well-worn material

Drunk Uncle bewails back-to-school season with Meth Nephew (Aaron Paul)

— Cecily has become the new co-anchor to the on-his-way-out Seth, as an attempt to transition into a new Cecily Strong-led era of Update, an attempt that, as we know now, ends up going about as well as this general season’s aforementioned attempt at a “rebuilding” year.
— After the previous Update opening title sequence & theme song was used for so many years (2006-2013), it feels refreshing to finally get a new one.
— Even the color motif of the Update graphics is different this season, now being blue instead of burgundy.
— Boy, as I expected, it feels so odd seeing someone new delivering Update jokes after I had gotten so used to Seth doing that for so many endless seasons.
— I have very mixed feelings towards Cecily’s delivery of Update jokes so far. There’s somewhat of a straitlaced professionalism to her Update delivery that feels natural for this venue, but there’s also something in her delivery that feels wrong for Update.
— A good laugh from Tina sheepishly wheeling back out of the shot when the female Update anchor who she assumed Cecily was about to praise as an inspiration turns out to be Jane Curtin instead of her.
— Pretty solid bit with the very tense, prisoner-esque advice Tina gives to Cecily in regards to anchoring Update.
— Blah, I didn’t like Cecily’s big smile after her somewhat-cringey sushi joke. That smile also reminded me way too much of how annoyingly, over-the-top cutesy Amy Poehler came off in her very first Update.
— Seth and Cecily’s respective delivery styles of their Update jokes aren’t meshing together well. Part of that could be because, obviously, 1) you have a very established anchor who’s delivery style we had become accustomed to for years now being paired with the delivery style of a brand-new Update co-anchor who had displayed no prior on-air chemistry with the established anchor, and 2) this is only Cecily’s first Update, and thus, it’s understandable that things aren’t immediately meshing. I’d be more forgiving of that lack of immediate meshing if I knew Cecily would eventually grow into a solid and long-lasting anchor, but that doesn’t turn out to be the case at all.
— Great to see Kyle Mooney already getting his own Update piece, doing his Bruce Chandling character from his pre-SNL days.
— Fun performance from Kyle, and his intentionally bad, hacky stand-up comedy here is reminiscent of how strong early-era Fred Armisen used to be at pulling off anti-comedy pieces on Update (before he made that stale).
— Solid turn with Kyle’s Bruce Chandling suddenly getting depressed when reflecting on how he occasionally gets turned down after certain auditions. Actual character depth on display here, which feels rare for a recent SNL era like this.
— I actually really like Cecily’s performance during the O.J. Simpson bit she and Seth did together just now, especially her delivery of the line “You stay strong, Juice.”
— I howled at Drunk Uncle’s “Someone’s gotta watch the white sports, Seth” line.
— With Drunk Uncle’s memorable “They’re all just twerkin’ 9 to 5” line, SNL gets in their very first mention of “twerking”, the then-hot word that had recently become widespread thanks to, IIRC, Miley Cyrus’ infamous VMAs performance that summer.
— Drunk Uncle: “(singing) Bluurrred liiiiines. (speaking) The only blurred line *I* know is our border with Meh-hee-co [Mexico].”
— Yet ANOTHER fun appearance from Aaron Paul tonight, this time as Drunk Uncle’s Meth Nephew.
STARS: **½


CINEMA CLASSICS
clips from 1940 movie reveal influence of taxidermist

— The debut of both Cinema Classics and Kenan’s Reese De’What character.
— Kenan has noticeably been given quite a number of important utility roles tonight, obviously because of the departure of utility veterans Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis. With the way Kenan’s been utilized in tonight’s episode, SNL is immediately making it clear who they’ll now be leaning on as the new utility player of the show.
— Dumb conceit with all of the taxidermy animals slowly taking over the movie scenes, but this dumbness is actually kinda working for me.
— The visual of a taxidermy animal driving the car that Tina, Taran, and Aidy are in is making me laugh more than I ever would’ve expected.
— Kenan is very solid here, especially the occasional comments that his Reese De’What character is making about his wife’s weight.
STARS: ***


RICK’S MODEL T’S
(MOB) & mad wife (TIF) sell Model Ts in world’s first used-car commercial

— The second consecutive sketch tonight set in an older time period.
— Mike: “Lots of firsts here today, folks.” Throwing in some reality subtext, are we, SNL?
— Hmm, not too sure Mike’s delivery is working me. And I’m not finding the old-timey salesman delivery he’s attempting to be very convincing.
— I do at least like the running bit with Mike excitedly only listing off one thing when touting his car dealership (e.g. “This car’s got everything: seats………….!”)
— Tina’s demented one-liners are great.
— Yeah, the more and more this sketch is going on, the more and more Mike’s delivery is sounding awkward. There’s this slow, unsure, halting style to his line readings that keeps kinda taking me out of the sketch. Our first sign of how ill-fitting Mike would often come off as a live performer this season. This sketch is still pretty enjoyable, but this solid material isn’t coming off as strong as it would’ve under a performer more comfortable-seeming on live TV. For example, Bill Hader, given how fantastic he always is at playing old-timey roles, would’ve absolutely killed it in this role of Mike’s had this sketch been done when Bill was still a cast member.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Afterlife”


MANOLO BLAHNIK
(TIF) & vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Manolo Blahnik shoes

— Feels a little odd seeing this recurring sketch appearing in two consecutive episodes. Granted, there was a whole summer break in between the preceding episode and this episode, but since I watch these episodes in chronological order on a day-to-day basis, it feels like SNL literally just did this sketch.
— Cecily: “You’ll feel like you’re riding in a glass blumpkin.”
— I love Vanessa’ delivery of “What the heck???” when telling us the reaction she once had to finding out her butt was amputated.
— Cecily: “I thought I got banged into a solar eclipse. But I was really just locked in a trunk lookin’ through the keyhole.”
— Vanessa, regarding getting banged by rapping gerbils in the back of a Kia: “I think some of them were people. Ya live and ya learn.”
— Tina, at the end of her message to her 8th grade gym teacher: “P.S.: I saw you on House Hunters, you picked the wrong house, bitch.”
— How did they go through this entire sketch WITHOUT having one of the “Manolo Blahnik” mispronunciations be “Mayim Bialik”? It writes itself, people!
— Overall, while this was still solid, this wasn’t quite as strong as these sketches usually are. This had a slow first minute-and-a-half or so.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Tina mentions that the network is letting them go long and Arcade Fire is about to do a show. Indeed, an Arcade Fire special (which, IIRC, was kinda like a concert, plus some interspersed comedy segments starring famous comedians like Zach Galifianakis and Aziz Ansari) immediately followed the original airing of this episode. Reruns of this SNL episode show the dress rehearsal version of these goodnights, because it features no mention from Tina of the Arcade Fire special, which reruns of this SNL episode obviously aren’t followed by.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and promising season premiere. Aside from Weekend Update, I liked every segment in this episode, and gave out a lot of four-star ratings, especially in the pre-Update half of the show. I remember how, when this originally aired, seeing so many new cast members peppered all throughout this season premiere gave the show such an exciting, fresh feel. Very sad how that ends up being a huge misnomer for how the rest of this season goes for the newbies. The strength of this episode in general also ends up being a huge misnomer for this season, as I recall this season going on to be dull and bland, with little-to-no standout strong episodes besides the one I just reviewed. We’ll see if that opinion of mine changes on my re-watch of this season.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Airport
Girls
e-meth
New Cast Member Or Arcade Fire?
Manolo Blahnik
Affordable Care Act
Rick’s Model T’s
Cinema Classics
Monologue
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2012-13)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Miley Cyrus

Posted on

May 7, 2011 – Tina Fey / Ellie Goulding (S36 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OSAMA BIN LADEN VIDEO WILL
the final wishes in Osama Bin Laden’s (FRA) video will won’t be fulfilled

— Oh, Lord help me, another translator cold opening. On top of that, that makes this 1) yet another Middle Eastern leader Fred has played this season, and more specifically, 2) the SIXTH consecutive episode with Fred playing a Middle Eastern leader.
— Of all the choices SNL had in how to do their opening spoof of that week’s huge news of Osama Bin Laden’s death, it’s so lazy of them to have it be a damn translator cold opening.
— The Dakota Fanning stuff is awful and unfunny.
— As you can imagine, I am completely stone-faced during this typically-bad translator opening. None of this tripe is making me laugh.
— Blah, such a lame “ironic” ending comment from Fred’s Osama about how “America will never catch me”.
— Yet another thing I’m sick of seeing Fred do is say LFNY every week. This is the third or fourth consecutive episode with him saying LFNY.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
pregnant TIF & MAR plus their fetuses (KRW) & (KET) are a singing quartet

— A pregnant Tina Fey. Unless I’m forgetting someone, I believe Tina’s the first person in SNL history to host while THIS visibly pregnant.
— TV.com’s trivia notes for this episode in their SNL episode guide (link here) claim that, when making her monologue entrance, Tina trips down the staircase, then quickly recovers by grabbing onto the railing. I’m pretty sure that factoid is incorrect. There’s no visible part at all where Tina trips on the stairs, and I always assumed she intentionally grabbed onto the railing, especially given the fact that, while holding onto the railing, she walks down the stairs sideways (screencap below).

I’m pretty sure walking down the stairs sideways while holding onto the railing is what pregnant women do for safety reasons. I think I recall seeing my mother regularly do that many years ago when she was pregnant with my sister.
— Pretty funny bit regarding Tina’s “most famous impression” (which turns out to be a Sling Blade impression). It also makes me wonder if she wrote Billy Bob Thornton’s monologue from season 27.
— Now we get a cameo from a pregnant Maya Rudolph, something that current SNL viewers in 2020 are used to regularly seeing, minus the pregnancy.
— (*sigh*) The second consecutive musical monologue in a season very oversaturated with musical monologues.
— Tina at least has funny lines during her spoken dialogue in the mid-song interlude. Maya has some fairly amusing lines during that part, too.
— A decent turn with Tina and Maya each singing a duet with their respective fetuses.
STARS: **½


GOP 2012 UNDECLARED CANDIDATES DEBATE
Sarah Palin (TIF) & Donald Trump (DAH) debate undeclared GOP candidates

— Ah, there’s that Shepard Smith voice from Bill that I always love.
— The debut of Jason’s Mitt Romney impression.
— There’s tonight’s obligatory appearance from Tina’s iconic Sarah Palin impression.
— Darrell Hammond makes his first cameo since his various season 35 cameos. No comment from me on the fact that he’s playing Donald Trump as an undeclared presidential candidate.
— A solid unsettling, threatening message from Kristen’s Michele Bachmann into the camera.
— As expected, good lines from Tina’s Sarah Palin, even if there’s nothing classic here.
— Blah, the Trump dialogue in this is so by-the-numbers.
— Bill’s closing line: “I’m Shepard Smith, and I’m a silly little catfish.”
STARS: ***


BELOW THE WAVES
mermaid (TIF) & fauna under the sea react to Osama Bin Laden’s corpse

— A good setting for the topic of Osama Bin Laden’s death. Why couldn’t THIS have been SNL’s obligatory cold opening spoof of Osama’s death instead of that incredibly lame and tired translator cold opening? Well, aside from the fact Tina, in her pregnant state, might not have had enough time to do a quick-change between the cold opening and monologue, but if that were the case, then a cast member could’ve played her role in this instead.
— I’m guessing legal reasons prevented SNL from doing a direct Little Mermaid parody here, which is why they have to use knock-off songs and character names.
— I really like Paul’s performance as a drunken seahorse.
— Fred is pretty funny as a conspiracy theorist manta ray.
— An overall fairly short and simple but pretty good sketch.
STARS: ***½


JACK SPARROW
Michael Bolton’s [real] movie obsession pervades song

— Odd technical gaffe at the beginning.
— A very famous and well-loved Digital Short.
— Increasingly hilarious lyrics and memorable visuals of Michael Bolton obsessing over various iconic movie characters.
— Bolton’s performance is excellent here, and he’s selling this great concept perfectly.
— Solid ending.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lights”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Devil isn’t pleased that Osama Bin Laden has joined him in Hell

Moammar Gaddafi’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up (FRA) & (VAB) badmouth him via sotto voce

Stefon presents some inappropriate places to take mom on Mother’s Day

— A particularly strong joke from Seth about, in regards to Osama Bin Laden’s death, Barack Obama being the first black person in history to have to prove he killed someone.
— Coincidentally, Jason’s The Devil character has appeared in these past two Tina Fey-hosted episodes.
— When revealing NBC is the only TV station in Hell, I love The Devil innocently asking “Hey, whatever happened to Outsourced???”
— Didn’t care for the reveal of The Snapple Lady being The Devil’s mother. They could’ve picked someone funnier and more fitting for that.
— Another good overall commentary from The Devil, though I didn’t find myself laughing quite as much as I did at his preceding commentary.
— OH, NO. The debut of Fred and Vanessa’s “(insert name here)’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up” routine, which I’ve always absolutely hated. This continues the trend of every other Update these past few months having a horrible commentary from Fred.
— I’ve gotten so beyond sick of seeing Fred play Moammar Gaddafi for so many consecutive episodes that even merely seeing Fred talk about Gaddafi while playing a different character (as is happening here) is enough to give me chills.
— Ugggghhhhh, I absolutely DESPISE the main joke of this Two Best Friends From Growing Up commentary. And if I hate it this much in its first appearance, imagine how I’ll feel about the subsequent appearances of this bit.
— Very lame joke from Seth about how many times men think about sex per day. Even the audience knows it’s a lame joke, judging from their lack of response.
— Another instance of this Update giving me chills, as the things Seth is saying during his intro of the next Update commentary initially made me almost certain he’s introducing a godforsaken Garth & Kat commentary, until I realized that’s impossible because Fred already appeared in this Update as a different character. (Then again, Tim Kazurinsky and Chris Kattan previously had one instance, respectively, of doing two separate Update commentaries as two different characters in the same Update, or Saturday Night News in Tim’s case.)
— Ah, it turns out that what I was initially afraid would be a Garth & Kat intro instead turns out to be a Stefon intro. Far more welcome.
— My biggest laugh in tonight’s Stefon commentary has been from the deep and sassy voice Bill uses when saying the club name “SPIIIIICY!”, a memorable Stefon moment.
— The story arc of the growing dynamic between Seth and Stefon continues, with 1) the kiss on the cheek Stefon quickly gives Seth (a precursor to a much bigger kissing moment between them the following season), and 2) Seth agreeing to bring Stefon home to meet Seth’s mom.
STARS: ***


BIRTHING SEMINAR
natural childbirth video of (BIH) & (MAR) creeps out expectant couples

 

— Maya seems to play quite a number of characters named Leilani.
— What’s with that dumb and unfunny non-sequitur gag with the giant VCR and VHS tape?
— Jason, regarding the insane amount of pubic hair that an about-to-give-birth Maya has: “She can try any position she wants, that baby’s not comin’ outta there without a weedwhacker.”
— When Kristen makes her entrance in the birthing video, an off-camera Tina exclaims a seemingly-comical line that we can’t hear clearly, due to her mic being turned off by mistake. The same thing happened to Fred at one point towards the end of the Below The Waves sketch earlier tonight.
— The questioning of if the devil made this birthing video is interesting, given the Update commentary from The Devil that Jason just did before this sketch.
— A laugh from Bobby all of a sudden being into the birthing video, due to Maya and Kristen’s homoerotic birthing posture with each other.
— Boy, this is one bizarre hell of a sketch. While I usually encourage weirdness from SNL, it unfortunately turns out that I’m finding this particular sketch as a whole only mildly amusing at best. I’m not finding myself laughing anywhere near as much as this sketch wants me to.
STARS: **½


SLEEPOVER
at a sleepover, Bedelia prefers her mom’s company to that of her peers

— Nasim’s Bedelia character makes her first appearance in a year, and this ends up being her final appearance, despite her still being a fairly-new character.
— For some reason, in this installment of this recurring sketch, Tina’s character isn’t wearing glasses, which she wore in the first installment.
— Even though I really like this Bedelia character, and I usually find her sketches to be solid and refreshingly slice-of-life, there’s a tiny bit of a tired feel in tonight’s installment, especially in the usual beats these sketches always hit. I’m still enjoying this installment well enough, but I think I’m starting to see why they retired this character so early.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Your Song”


PREGNANT IN HEELS
Rosie Pope (ABE) coordinates (TIF)’s chic childbirth

— When this originally aired, I remember some online SNL fans were put off by how Abby sounded like she was speaking in a mentally-challenged voice. Then it was pointed out by someone that the real-life woman who Abby’s playing here really does talk like this.
— When the camera first showed Taran in that gray wig, I honestly thought that was Chris Parnell in a wig for a quick second.
— Jay’s airtime continues to take a hit these past few episodes, as his appearance in this pre-taped piece is the only thing we see of him all night.
— I’m not finding myself laughing much here.
— The “celebrity appearance in the ultrasound” bit was fairly funny, at least.
— Overall, maybe it’s because I have no familiarity with the reality show this was spoofing, but I was meh on this. That was also my reaction to the pre-taped Deidra Wurtz piece Abby starred in earlier this season. Given how underused Abby is and the fact that I generally like her as a performer well enough, I really wish I could like these pre-taped Abby Elliott showcases a lot more than I do (and I’m aware that I’m apparently alone in not caring for the Deidra Wurtz piece).
STARS: **


GOOGIE RENE’S SLIGHTLY DAMAGED PROM WEAR BARN
Googie Rene’s store offers soiled formalwear

— Much like Bedelia, Googie Rene makes his third and final appearance here.
— As usual, I’m getting some laughs from Kenan’s off-beat characterization as Googie Rene.
— Overall, eh, turns out there wasn’t anything to really say about this sketch. This wasn’t too bad, but, kinda like Bedelia, this was probably the right point to retire this character, as they’ve done all they could with these sketches and it had a bit of a tired feel tonight.
STARS: **½


HALLMARK “MOTHER” COLLECTION
Hallmark’s Mother’s Day collection has greeting cards for Norman Bates wannabes

— Great to see the underused Paul Brittain starring in a solo commercial. Lately, he’s been slowly moving out of the Bit Part Hell that he was stuck in for most of this season.
— A very funny and disturbing Norman Bates-esque reveal of Paul acting as his own mother. Solid performance from Paul here.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A middling episode. The quality especially took a dip for most of the post-Weekend Update half, though the Hallmark commercial and the slightly-disappointing-but-still-decent Bedelia sketch balanced it out somewhat.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Jack Sparrow
Hallmark “Mother” Collection
Below The Waves
GOP 2012 Undeclared Candidates Debate
Weekend Update
Sleepover
Googie Rene’s Slightly Damaged Prom Wear Barn
Monologue
Birthing Seminar
Pregnant In Heels
Osama Bin Laden Video Will


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Helen Mirren)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ed Helms

Posted on

April 10, 2010 – Tina Fey / Justin Bieber (S35 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE CENSUS
Barack Obama (FRA) encourages USA to answer invasive census questions

— Some laughs from the inappropriate sexual-related census questions.
— At least all of these census questions are distracting somewhat from the usual drabness of Fred’s Obama and his typically-boring address-to-the-nation cold openings.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
support crew helps TIF juggle it all; Mark Sanchez & Steve Martin cameos

— Already a funny opening line from Tina Fey about how her second time hosting is a record….“a personal record”.
— When disclosing her least favorite questions that people often ask her, I half-expected one of the questions to be “How’d you get that scar?”, but I was incorrect. Maybe the scar thing is too sore a subject for Tina. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her joke about it.
— Meh, a musical monologue, but Tina seems like she’ll make this fun.
— As expected, it turns out there’s some good and fun typical Fey-esque silliness during the song.
— Two hosting stints in, and Tina is 2-for-2 in her monologues having a Steve Martin cameo.
— Our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on.
— Kenan In A Dress alert, for the third damn episode in a row.
STARS: ***


BROWNIE HUSBAND
Duncan Hines Brownie Husband fills women’s need for companionship & fudge

— Decent concept.
— Nice showcase for Tina, and it feels like a very rare novelty to see her starring in a solo, pre-taped commercial.
— I like how Tina’s really going all out in her engorging of her brownie husband towards the end of this commercial.
STARS: ***½


MASTERS
Tiger Woods’ mistress (TIF) provides expert commentary at The Masters

existence of chiding ad voice-over by Tiger Woods’ (KET) dad (BIH) is its basis

— Despite playing a cliched character that feels too been-there-done-that, Tina has some funny lines here, and she’s making the role work decently.
— I like Jason’s delivery of “Oh, god, no!” when Tina whispers the definition of “dog leg” to him.
— The Tiger Woods Nike commercial with Kenan is cracking me up.
— The fact that the aforementioned Tiger Woods Nike commercial is having Bill do a “black” voice as the voice-over of Tiger Woods’ deceased father makes it painfully obvious that Kenan’s the only black member of this season’s cast. At least they didn’t resort to having Fred do the “black” voice-over for Tiger’s father.
STARS: ***


SARAH PALIN NETWORK
line-up of shows reflects Sarah Palin’s (TIF) political views

— Our obligatory Sarah Palin sketch of the night. I like the concept of this particular Palin sketch.
— Tina spoofs the Katie Couric/Sarah Palin CBS interview for the second time, after the famous cold opening from the preceding season’s Anna Faris episode.
— The “Todd!” scene is absolutely great.
— Funny bit with Bobby’s Bob Ross-esque painter character painting a Hitler mustache onto a cloud.
— A laugh from the slam against The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
STARS: ***½


LONELY TEACHER
teacher (TIF) imagines pupil (musical guest) musically requites her crush

— Oh, no. After our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on in the monologue, we now get our obligatory Justin Bieber-starring sketch of the night.
— Another “Oh, no” from me, as Bieber is now breaking out into a fucking song. Oh, and, of course, we also have his cringey try-to-sound-cool-and-“black”-by-saying-stuff-like-“Aight” shtick.
— Multiple Bieber songs in this sketch? (*groan*)
— Seeing Tina have to perform this pandering mess of a sketch is sad. I feel embarrassed for her.
— The bored, miserable look on Bobby’s character’s face in the background (screencap below) perfectly matches my face during this whole sketch.

— I finally got a mild chuckle in this sketch, from Tina’s “I should NOT have put wine in my cereal this morning” line. Still not enough to make up for the dreadfulness of the rest of this sketch, though.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Baby”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Devil (JAS) takes moral stand against molestation by Catholic priests

Aunt Linda likes The Tooth Fairy much better than 3D movies full of CGI

Women’s News- TIF slags Bombshell McGee & bewails the ubiquity of whores

— The debut of Jason’s The Devil character.
— Jason portraying the devil in a very Jason Sudeikis-y manner is great.
— Pretty sensitive subject matter for this Devil commentary, focusing on the priest child molestation scandal, but Jason is making it work.
— I had completely forgotten about Aunt Linda until now. Her last appearance was quite a long while ago, which itself was her first appearance in quite a long while. These long gaps between these past two commentaries of hers are not long enough for my likes, given how I’m of the opinion that this character only worked in her first appearance. Thankfully, tonight’s appearance ends up being her final one.
— As expected, tonight’s Aunt Linda commentary contains her usual tired shtick, especially her groan-worthy corny-ass ratings system.
— Good to see the return of Tina’s recurring Women’s News segment from her Weekend Update years.
— Bombshell McGee? I have no memory of who that is, but Tina sure is focusing heavily on her here.
— Some of the usual solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News sketch. I especially like how it ends with her meta comment about her having her leg and pubic hair ripped out earlier today so she could wear a hooker costume for a sketch that ended up not even making it to air.
STARS: ***


AL ROKER’S RUFF, RUGGED AND ROKER
Al Roker’s (KET) nightclub party pauses for weather reports

— What we initially see in this sketch is an interesting change of pace for typical Kenan’s Al Roker portrayal.
— Blah. During the occasional weather reports, not only do we suddenly get the return of that Bullwinkle-esque hokey voice Kenan typically portrays Al Roker with (which I never liked), but the turns this sketch keeps taking with Kenan’s Roker alternating between acting hokey and whitebred when he’s on the Today Show camera, and coming off badass and urban when the Today camera turns off, is straight out of that memorable season 21 sketch with another Today Show personality, Bryant Gumbel, played by David Alan Grier. That Gumbel sketch was pulled off much better than this.
STARS: **


SCHOOL DANCE
(TIF) wishes her too-sensible daughter Bedelia (NAP) would act her age

— The debut of Nasim’s Bedelia character.
— A solid character piece for Nasim, and, much like with the Roomies sketch she did earlier this season with Taylor Swift, Nasim continues to prove herself to be adept at slice-of-life material.
— I got a good laugh from Bedelia’s inappropriate “So Grandpa’s startin’ to go, huh?” line to her mother.
— (*groan*) Our THIRD Justin Bieber sketch appearance tonight.
— The ending with Nasim and Bieber had a sweet feel, at least.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “U Smile”


TINY HOOKER
nine-inch-tall hooker (TIF) gives up on a trip to Paris to save orphanage

— Interesting concept, even if it feels a tad like a variation of both Cool Mite (a forgotten Andrew Dice Clay sketch) and Tiny Elvis.
— Yet another solid showcase for Tina tonight, and the writing of this sketch is certainly better than I found the writing in the aforementioned Cool Mite and Tiny Elvis sketches to be.
— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season in which Will feels sadly invisible, and in which the sight of him popping up in a sketch reminds me that, contrary to how it may seem, Will Forte is, in fact, a cast member this season.
— Jason’s delivery of “And don’t you ever COME BAAACK!” was hilarious.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, despite the overuse of Justin Bieber and one or two other misfires. Most of the episode had a good feel, even if there was nothing I found particularly stand-out great until the final sketch.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Tiny Hooker
School Dance
Brownie Husband
Sarah Palin Network
Monologue
Masters
Weekend Update
The Census
Al Roker’s Ruff, Rugged And Roker
Lonely Teacher


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jude Law)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ryan Phillippe

Posted on

February 23, 2008 – Tina Fey / Carrie Underwood (S33 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CNN UNIVISION DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
media favorite Barack Obama (FRA) cruises during debate; Obama Girl cameo

— (*sigh*) Hoooooooo, boy. The debut of Fred’s Barack Obama impression, a.k.a. Fredbama. This is gonna be a long four-and-a-half years.
— I will say that I remember being very impressed by the makeup job on Fred’s Obama back when this episode originally aired.
— Kristen’s Campbell Brown: “Like nearly everyone in the media, the three of us are totally in the tank for Senator Obama.” Funny how much things had changed since SNL’s last episode before the writers’ strike, given the fact that, as pointed out in my last episode review, that episode contained a sketch dealing with Hillary Clinton being the media favorite to become the Democratic nominee, much to the other Democratic candidates’ chagrin.
— Kristen’s whole opening spiel about her and her colleagues suffering from Obama-related ailments is very funny.
— This cold opening is doing a solid spoof of the media’s fawning over Obama at this time.
— Very funny line from Amy’s Hillary bragging that her only supporters are white women over 80.
— Ha, Obama Girl (a.k.a. Amber Lee Ettinger). Anyone remember her today, 12 years later? Even back at this time in 2008, there were some online SNL fans who had no idea who she was, and some of those fans mistakenly assumed she was the new female cast member SNL had just hired (who’s name I’ll soon mention, after my review of this cold opening). In a live discussion thread for this episode on an SNL message board, one of the aforementioned people who mistook Obama Girl for the new female cast member made a post saying “Is that the new cast member? Wow, she’s HOT!”
— I absolutely love Kristen’s deadpan, stern “If you ever interrupt Obama Girl again—” threat to Amy’s Hillary.
— For being such a heavy focal point of this cold opening, Fred’s Obama is largely silent for most of this. (Probably a good thing, in hindsight.) Is that SNL’s way of hiding the fact that Fred hasn’t mastered his Obama voice by this point? (Ha, as if he ever would master it.) I recall it being obvious that his Obama voice was still a work in progress in these early Obama sketches of his, because, IIRC, he uses an utterly BIZARRE, cartoonish-sounding voice as Obama in the cold opening of the very next episode. I can’t wait to see if his voice in that cold opening is as bad as I remember.
— Hmm, I spoke a bit too soon about Fred’s Obama being largely silent in tonight’s cold opening, as we now get a long speech from him.
— Kristen’s orgasmic reaction to the big, noble speech Fred’s Obama just made was hilarious.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Casey Wilson has been added to the cast tonight.


MONOLOGUE
Steve Martin [real] gets unsure performer TIF to say “I can do it!”

— A lot of very good, perfectly Tina Fey-esque lines from Tina early on in this monologue in regards to the writers’ strike she participated in.
— Nice to see a Steve Martin appearance here, and his interplay with Tina is very fun.
— Much like Tina’s perfectly Tina Fey-esque lines here, Steve has so many perfectly Steve Martin-esque lines, especially in regards to the differences between a writer and a star.
— I love the bit with Steve having Tina say “I can do it!” in different specific voices (e.g. as an old-fashioned movie character, as a cartoon mouse, as a cartoon mouse in Spanish).
STARS: ****


ANNUALE
pill concentrates menstruation into a once-per-year paroxysm

— A female-oriented commercial that feels like it’s in the tradition of famous Tina Fey-era female-oriented Fey/Poehler/Dratch/Rudolph-starring commercials like Mom Jeans and Kotex Classic.
— An absolutely hilarious and epic turn with us being shown a montage of the insane actions of the women when they get their annual period. I especially love Tina’s character scaring her co-workers away by running around the office while swinging an axe like a madman.
— Great little detail throughout this commercial with how one object in each scene is pink while the rest of the objects are either a drab color or are shown through a black-and-white screen filter.
— A hilarious ending screen crawl disclaimer regarding the “Do not take if…”s of the medication.
— The ending voice-over from Amy was kinda pushing it and wasn’t necessary, but didn’t hurt this fantastic ad.
STARS: *****


ROCK OF LOVE 2
Bret Michaels (JAS) doesn’t choose one-legged Amber

— In hindsight, this sketch now serves as a time capsule of these “……Of Love” reality shows that dominated VH1 in the late 2000s.
— Tina is very funny here.
— I see SNL’s already letting Casey Wilson know her status as a newbie (which, as we now know, SNL would sadly NEVER stop doing for the remainder of Casey’s short-lived run as a cast member), as she’s the only contestant in this sketch who doesn’t get her own pre-taped confessional sequence like the other contestants are.
— After almost two minutes of being a straightforward (but funny) Rock Of Love parody, this turns into an Amber sketch OUT OF NOWHERE. This ends up being the final Amber sketch while Amy’s still in the cast.
— Ha, at least Casey gets a sloppy tongue-kissing make-out session with Jason, which is certainly……….something. I remember Casey talking about that in an interview she did on a podcast just a few months after tonight’s episode originally aired.
— I’m glad this sketch isn’t focusing as heavily on Amber as her previous sketches did, as the humor involving her character can tend to get a little tedious at times. Plus, in her limited airtime in this sketch, she’s actually working well.
STARS: ***½


GRANDKIDS IN THE MOVIES
edited-in grandsons (BIH) & (ANS) quell anxiety in DVDs for old people

— “The following is a message for old people.” That opening disclaimer made me laugh harder than it probably should’ve.
— A decent premise, even if it seems a little unexciting for a Digital Short in SNL’s first episode back after a long hiatus.
— The part with Bill and Andy telling the grandfather, in regards to the ringing phone in the Michael Clayton movie clip, “That phone’s in the movie, grandpa. That’s not your phone”, is particularly funny to me, because when I watched this Digital Short back when this episode originally aired, I mistakenly thought that was my phone ringing, too, and I’m not even remotely elderly (I was 23 when this originally aired).
— I love the bit with Andy struggling to translate Rainn Wilson’s ridiculous slang in the Juno clip.
— In hindsight, this short is unintentionally a good time capsule of big Oscar-nominated movies from around this time (No Country For Old Men, Juno, There Will Be Blood, etc.).
— Pretty odd how this Digital Short’s lead role of the grandfather is being played by a completely unknown actor. However, I’m enjoying his performance here, and he’s charming and likable.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S THAT BITCH TALKING ABOUT?
(TIF) intuits females on game show

— Already a cheap laugh from the title right at the beginning of this sketch.
— This is the very first of what would be many instances of Kenan playing a game show host, though his second instance wouldn’t be until as much as five years later (in the “New Cast Member Or Arcade Fire” sketch, which, coincidentally, happens to be in another Tina Fey-hosted episode). After that, he’d go on to play game show hosts pretty often.
— A pretty good laugh from how the game show prize is an old canary-yellow 1992 Mazda Protege.
— I love Casey’s angry rant during her small appearance, especially her exaggerated southern-accented pronunciation of the word “ass”.
— A likable game show host performance from Kenan.
— Another sketch tonight that Tina is fun in, especially her extremely detailed, long-winded answer to the third question, involving a character played by Kristen.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All-American Girl”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in politics & SNL, Mike Huckabee [real] misses his cue to exit the stage

TIF thinks the value of Hillary Clinton’s bitchiness is underappreciated

— I forgot to point out in the preceding episode that Barack Obama’s cameo is just the beginning of what will be MANY cameos from presidential candidates during this 2008 presidential race. Tonight’s Mike Huckabee cameo continues that.
— For a non-actor, Mike Huckabee is actually performing well here, not being stiff at all like some politicians tend to come off on SNL. He’s coming off likable and laid-back here.
— Having Tina bring back her recurring “Women’s News” segment from her Weekend Update tenure is a good way to work the obligatory commentary from her into tonight’s Update.
— A lot of solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News segment. And the turn at the end with her bragging about the perks of being a bitch is memorable, especially her “Bitch is the new black” declaration (which would soon be one-upped by Tracy Morgan in a cameo appearance three episodes later). Even the interaction between Tina and Amy here, which seems to be attempting somewhat of a throwback to the Fey/Poehler era of Update (and you KNOW how I felt about that Update era), is coming off better than I typically found their interactions during their era of Update together.
STARS: ***½


THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
Donald Trump’s (DAH) axe swings for minor stars

— Great to see the return of Kenan’s Charles Barkley after how much he killed it in the Iconoclasts sketch earlier this season.
— I love Kenan’s Barkley firing himself for his poor idea, and walking out of the scene.
— Another return of a fun impression from a cast member: Bill’s John Mark Karr.
— A big blast from the past now to see impressions of Matthew Lesko (the Question Mark Suit Guy from those commercials in the 90s) and Mr. Six (the dancing old guy from the Six Flags commercials in the 2000s).
— Between playing Dennis Kucinich then-recently and now playing Mr. Six in this sketch, I’m getting a big Kate McKinnon vibe from Amy lately.
— I love Will-as-Judge-Ito’s sing-songy delivery of “I brought my own gaveeeeeellllll!”
STARS: ***


WEDDING TOAST
Ed Mahoney’s careless loquacity upsets newlyweds’ (WLF) & (TIF) reception

— Yes! The return of Jason’s Ed Mahoney character, a forgotten-by-most-people favorite of mine from a sketch in season 31. I remember hearing SNL attempted at least once to make him recurring back in season 31, but the sketch didn’t make it past dress rehearsal. The description of that cut Ed Mahoney sketch made it sound like a blatant carbon-copy of the first Ed Mahoney sketch, right down to ending the exact same way with him attempting to run out of a store with a stolen object and then getting brought down by a guard with a taser, so maybe it’s a good thing that sketch got cut. Tonight’s Ed Mahoney sketch is thankfully doing new, fresh things with the character instead of being a lazy carbon-copy of his first sketch.
— So many funny inappropriate lines from Ed Mahoney, and, as always, I absolutely love that trademark laugh of his.
— A very funny blunt, rude “I hope you two die!” parting message from Mahoney to the newlyweds.
STARS: ****


VIRGANIA HORSEN’S HOT AIR BALLOON RIDES
Virgania Horsen (KRW) wants you to take a ride in her hot air balloon

— So much bizarre, low-budget randomness here, but I am loving it, and it’s being executed so well. This definitely feels like the type of thing that would’ve aired at the time on Tim & Eric.
— Kristen is absolutely perfect here.
STARS: ****


I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE
Daniel Plainview (BIH) intensifies egg creams

— I absolutely love this unusual, creative way of spoofing the famous “I drink your milkshake” scene from There Will Be Blood.
— Amy plays her second male role in tonight’s episode alone.
— A great opening title sequence and Will Forte-sung theme song. (Side note: between the MacGruber sketches and now this, I’m starting to think every sketch that contained a theme song in this era should’ve been sung by Will Forte.) One minor little question about the title sequence, though: why does Amy’s character have light blonde hair in it, while having dark brown hair in the live portions of this sketch?
— Bill is absolutely brilliant in his performance as Daniel Day Lewis’ There Will Be Blood character. At this time back in 2008, it still felt somewhat rare to see Bill in a lead role in a sketch, which made this sketch come off particularly refreshing.
— Fred is a dead-ringer for Anton Chigurh. I can’t say for sure if he’s nailing the voice, though.
— Much like the Digital Short earlier tonight, this sketch, in hindsight, is a good time capsule of the big Oscar-nominated movies from around this time.
— Bill-as-Daniel-Plainview’s “I’VE ABANDONED MY CHIIIIIIILD! I’VE ABANDONED MY BOOOOYYYYY!” panicked outburst is not only hilarious, but has stuck in my memory over the years. It’s hard to forget that specific shouting from Bill.
— Second episode in a row where Fred makes his exit in a sketch by slowly walking past the camera in an obnoxious, hammy, screen-hogging manner. Ugh, I hope that’s not becoming a habit of his, even if I did kinda chuckle at it in this context of him doing it as Anton Chigurh (it would’ve been funnier had he not already done it in the preceding episode).
— Interesting having this week’s SNL host play a character (Juno) that the following week’s SNL host played in a movie.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Flat On The Floor”


LADY BUSINESS
yet another TV show features determined career women

— The semi-theme tonight of female-oriented sketches/commercials pairing Tina and the entire female cast together continues.
— Very funny little moment from Kristen with her clarifying to Andy that her last name, St. George, is pronounced “stuh-gorg”.
— Poor Casey, being one of the four female leads in this sketch, but getting no lines, nor her own scene like the other three female leads are getting. I’ll give SNL the benefit of the doubt and assume it was planned for her to have her own scene in this sketch, but portions of this sketch had to go through some hasty, last-minute trimming due to the show running a little long. I can’t remember if I’ve seen it confirmed that Casey did indeed get her own scene in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS
90 year-old DOP blows out the candles on his birthday cake

— A special occasion during these goodnights, as SNL holds a wonderful little celebration for Don Pardo’s 90th (!!!) birthday.
— An interesting coincidence how both times Carrie Underwood was a musical guest on SNL (the preceding season’s Peyton Manning episode being the first time), a big birthday celebration was held during the goodnights.
— A memorable visual of Don blowing out the 90 candles on his birthday cake. Too bad the goodnights get cut off before he finishes.
— I believe this ends up being Don’s final onscreen SNL appearance, despite remaining SNL’s announcer for the next 6 years. It’s significant that this birthday celebration is what ends up being his final appearance.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, and a great return for SNL after the writers’ strike. Every single segment in this episode worked for me, and there was a high number of segments that received a rating from me ranging from 4-5 stars. Much like Molly Shannon in her hosting stint the preceding season, Tina Fey being given a lot of the same type of non-Weekend Update roles she typically played during her cast member years, including some very minor roles, made this episode refreshingly feel almost like there was no host, and that Tina was just a cast member again.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Brian Williams)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ellen Page