Tag: Tracy Morgan

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October 17, 2015 – Tracy Morgan / Demi Lovato (S41 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Bernie Sanders (Larry David) outshines Jim Webb (Alec Baldwin) in debate

— Ugggghhhhh, Jon Rudnitsky’s infamous inaccurate and offensive Anderson Cooper impression, portraying him in a stereotypically gay manner. Also not helping matters any is the fact that, back when SNL’s hiring of Jon was initially announced that summer, Jon came under fire for homophobic tweets he had made in the past. So for him to go from that to portraying Anderson Cooper in an absurdly effeminate manner doesn’t make Jon look good AT ALL. But I’m also very disappointed in SNL for even allowing Jon to portray Cooper in this manner in the first place, after how far society had progressed by this point in 2015. How the hell did nobody on the show pull Jon aside at any point during rehearsals and tell him how backwards his portrayal of Cooper is? At least this portrayal would rightfully end up receiving complaints from the real Anderson Cooper. I hope SNL and Jon heard those complains loud and clear.
— Kyle’s pretty funny in his performance as Lincoln Chafee.
— Wait, what??? A very random Alec Baldwin cameo as Jim Webb??? Just a year before Alec would famously regularly cameo in the debate sketches as Donald Trump??? How did I not remember this???
— To Alec’s credit, he’s performing well as Jim Webb so far.
— As much as I hate laughing at anything Jon is saying in this sketch, I did get a good laugh just now from his line after introducing the first few candidates: “Now that we met those people, let’s bring out the REAL candidates.”
— Ah, the debut of Larry David’s Bernie Sanders. This is the celebrity cameo I had remembered this cold opening having. I’m still dumbfounded over how I had no memory of Alec Baldwin’s cameo in this. These cameos in this debate sketch also serve as an unfortunate harbinger of the cameo-filled debate sketches from 2019 and 2020.
— Right out of the gate, Larry is absolutely perfect and hilarious as Bernie.
— Very funny how Larry-as-Bernie’s idea of “dialing it up to a 10” is him delivering a panicked “WE’RE DOOMED!!!” speech.
— I am absolutely loving all of the interplay between Kate and Larry’s Hillary Clinton and Bernie. Their chemistry is so damn fun.
— Kate as Hillary: “In 2008, of course I lost – I was running against a cool black guy. But this year, I thought *I* got to be the cool black guy.”
— Every single line out of Larry’s mouth in this cold opening is pure gold.
— An overall 10-minute-long debate cold opening, something viewers of SNL’s current 46th season would probably shudder to hear, from everything I’ve heard about that season, but the difference is, this particular debate cold opening was certainly worth the long length.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
30 Rock characters welcome back Tracy Jordan (TRM)

— Good fake-out with Tracy Morgan initially speaking in a brain-damaged voice, making it seem like the tragic car accident he had just recovered from severely affected his ability to speak, only for him to reveal in his normal voice, “Nah, I’m just playin’!”
— A great and heartwarming “I’m back” speech from Tracy.
— Very funny self-deprecation from Tracy, saying he never had 100% mental capacity before the accident, and may actually be a few points higher NOW.
— Oh, so that’s why Alec was in the cold opening.
— Very fun how this monologue has turned into a full-fledged 30 Rock scene. I also like how the atmosphere of this makes this feel like the live episodes 30 Rock would occasionally do.
— A hilarious part with the Smash promo on the bottom of the screen, to comically keep up the illusion that this is a 30 Rock episode from 2012.
— Why does the audience laughter sound so tepid in the second half of this 30 Rock scene?
— A nice feel-good ending to this monologue.
STARS: ****


FAMILY FEUD
remarried patriarch (TRM) plays against ex-wife (LEJ) & kids

— For once, a Kenan-as-Steve-Harvey-starring Family Feud sketch that’s NOT a celebrity-edition one.
— A priceless reveal of the second family being the new family that the ex-husband of the first family married into. I love how Kenan-as-Harvey’s reaction to that is a gleeful “Aw, DAYUM!”
— Given the similarities Leslie has to Tracy as a performer, I love seeing both of them paired together in the portion of this sketch where they’re both up at the main podium together,
— Such a fantastic sketch. So many great lines all throughout this. Too many for me to quote, in fact.
— Great bit with Michael (in a rare non-Weekend Update appearance) switching sides in this game, because the other family is actually happy.
— Okay, despite what I said about there being too many great lines to quote, I just have to quote this portion of the sketch: Kenan’s Harvey: “Looks like the Williams-Magill family has a chance to steal.” Leslie: “HE HAS STOLEN ENOUGH FROM ME, STEVE!!!” Kenan’s Harvey: “I guess I walked right into THAT one.”
— Another excellent line I just have to quote: Kenan’s Harvey pointing towards the Family Feud board and saying “Show me ‘I forgot to pull out’!”
STARS: *****


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
a smoking beaver & a camel discombobulate

— Great to see the obligatory appearance of this sketch.
— This is hitting all of the usual beats of this recurring sketch, but as always, it works.
— A good laugh from Tracy’s Brian Fellow telling Pete, “You’re a liar, skinny man! Stop tellin’ lies on my show!”
— Like I said in my review of the Brian Fellow sketch from Tracy’s season 34 hosting stint, it’s a pretty fun novelty seeing newer cast members appearing in an old recurring sketch like this.
— Ah, we actually get a subversion to the usual Brian Fellow formula, with Aidy’s very long-winded, wordy intro of herself constantly cutting off Fellow’s usual utterance of “I’m Brian Fellow!”
— The voice for the smoking beaver in Fellow’s thought bubble is hilarious.
— Another great subversion to the usual formula, with Aidy having a completely unrelated thought bubble of her own about Pete, and the camel having a thought bubble about a monkey smoking a cigar (a callback to something earlier in this sketch).
— Ha, the camel has unintentionally started covering the entire screen during Fellow’s thought bubble sequence, making the camera frantically try to re-position the shot to fix this. This is priceless.
— Another very funny blooper with the camel, as he blocks the camera while Tracy’s Fellow is signing off, leading Tracy to ad-lib “I can’t see, camel!”
— Overall, one of the best Brian Fellow sketches.
STARS: ****


MITCHELL’S
Mitchell’s Fake Cocaine & Fake Poop Spray are ruses for party defecation

— Not only is this odd, convoluted concept very funny, but I love how Jack Handey-esque it feels.
— Beck is absolutely perfect for this role, and is helping sell this great material.
— By the way, this pre-taped ad ends up being Beck’s only appearance all night. For someone who’s been promoted to a repertory player this season, he’s been almost completely unused so far. We are three episodes into this season, and his ONLY live appearances were two very small ones in the season premiere, one of which he didn’t even have any lines in. He’s gone through the second AND third episode of this season making his only appearance in one pre-taped segment in each episode, one of those appearances also not being a speaking role. It probably doesn’t help that he’s got Alec Baldwin taking some airtime away from him, as Beck most likely would’ve played Jim Webb in the cold opening had Alec not been there.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cool for the Summer” & “Confident”


WEEKEND UPDATE
online porn’s egalitarianism means that TIF won’t get to pose for Playboy

Willie’s life-coach Woodrow helps him maintain a cheerful attitude

— Michael: “Playboy Magazine announced that, starting next month, it will no longer feature pictures of naked women. While Cat Fancy is still straight-up pussy!”
— Much like Alec Baldwin’s cameo in this episode’s debate cold opening, here’s something else I had no memory of in this episode: Tina Fey doing an Update commentary.
— This “Playboy stops doing nude photos” story seems like a good subject for Tina, almost reminiscent of her classic deconstruction of Hugh Hefner’s seven girlfriends back in her first season on Update.
— The arm-butt bit Tina’s doing right now reminds me of a similar arm-butt bit that she actually co-wrote into a Boston Teens sketch, from the season 27 Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— An overall pretty solid commentary from Tina, even if it’s definitely not at the level of her aforementioned deconstruction of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends.
— Michael’s “The aliens are coming for us” rant to Colin is pretty odd, but I’m really enjoying it.
— I love Michael’s goofy, giddy little laugh (in response to the aliens bit he and Colin just did) while introducing the next guest commentary.
— Willie!
— A good laugh from the Halloween “candy” Willie proudly tells us he used to receive (e.g. raisins, duck sauce packets, rubber bands).
— Willie: “It’s like they always say: ‘Your daddy’s diddlin’ those pumpkins, Willie!’”
— Willie’s whole childhood story about his neighbor, “Jeff Dahmer”, is absolutely hilarious, especially his addendum to that story: “Plus, I always got a free homecooked meal.”
— Woodrow!!! Great to see the return of this Tracy character, and the pairing of him and Willie is strangely perfect.
— There’s that great pathos from Woodrow that was prevalent in his previous sketches.
— As always, a very funny bizarre, nonsensical song from Woodrow, this time with Willie dueting with him.
STARS: ****


THE LOVELIEST KINGDOM
lovely kingdom gets awkward when (TAK) mentions gay relationship

— A funny offbeat flavor Tracy’s character is adding to this sketch.
— Ugh at the sudden turn with Taran’s “I’m sleeping with this boy-child!” announcement. A very lame attempt at shock humor, and it taking over this sketch has really soured what was going well when it was just Tracy saying a whole bunch of nonsensical one-liners.
— That…that’s the whole sketch??? What kind of structure was that even? This sketch felt severely underwritten.
STARS: **


THE STANDOFF
barroom altercation is resolved when (TRM) & (TAK) dance

— A great novelty to see Tracy starring in the kind of pre-taped short film that’s typical for this era.
— I’m loving the conceit of this short, and Tracy in particular is selling the HELL out of this.
— The half-comical/half-serious sentimental turn this takes is reminiscent of Mike O’Brien’s typical short films. I doubt he made this, though (especially since this didn’t open with the usual “A Mike O’Brien Picture” intro screen).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stone Cold”


YO! WHERE JACKIE CHAN AT RIGHT NOW?
(KET) & (TRM) would like to know Jackie Chan’s current whereabouts

— A hilarious random sketch concept, and Tracy and Kenan are perfect in these oddball roles. This is EXACTLY the kind of absurd comedy that’s right up my alley.
— Ha, in two separate sketches tonight, Tracy has called a character of Pete’s skinny AND fat, respectively, as an insult.
— Love the sequence with the cutaways to various celebrities, one-by-one, each answering the “Where Jackie Chan at?” question.
— Sasheer has been quite prominent in this episode. Good to see after how particularly underused she was in the previous episodes of this season.
— I absolutely love how Leslie is randomly playing herself in the sequence of celebrities answering the “Where Jackie Chan at?” question. I also love her reveal that her Jackie Chan sighting was way back in 1997.
— The cutaway to the “Jackie Chan trap” that Tracy and Kenan have laid out is very funny.
STARS: ****½


ASTRONAUT JONES
red planet maroonee Astronaut Jones meets a Martian babe (musical guest)

— Great how what initially starts out as a spoof of The Martian actually turns into an Astronaut Jones sketch. A very clever fake-out, and a nice way to shake up the usual beginnings of Astronaut Jones sketches.
— Ah, that classic Astronaut Jones opening credits sequence and theme song is always a treat to watch. And, much like I said in my review of the Astronaut Jones sketch from Tracy’s season 34 hosting stint, it’s an interesting novelty seeing the huge difference between the look of modern-day Tracy and Tracy in 2002 when these Astronaut Jones opening credits originally aired.
— The main portion of this, with Astronaut Jones’ conversation with an alien, goes the same-old same-old route, but it’s always funny, especially after a long absence.
— The version I’m watching of this episode happens to be the West Coast airing, which uses the dress rehearsal version of this sketch. Understandable, because in the original East Coast airing of this sketch, Tracy badly botched his final laugh line to Demi Lovato’s character. In true Tracy Morgan fashion, however, he still made that botched line come off funny. In fact, I think I strangely kinda prefer it to his flawless delivery of that line in the dress rehearsal version I’m currently watching.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
TRM’s wife & daughter [real] join him onstage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An absolutely fantastic episode. Aside from the weak Loveliest Kingdom sketch, EVERYTHING in this episode was great and received a rating from me in the 4-5-star range. Man. This overall review of mine has definitely got to have one of the highest rating averages out of this entire project. And it goes without saying how funny of a host Tracy Morgan was, and how wonderful it was to see him make his big post-accident comeback, the latter of which gave this episode a feel-good vibe.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
(Way too many things to pick in this episode, as I’d just end up picking every single segment besides the Loveliest Kingdom sketch, so I’ll narrow it down to what I feel are the particularly best highlights)


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Family Feud
Yo! Where Jackie Chan At Right Now?
Mitchell’s
Democratic Presidential Debate
The Standoff
Weekend Update
Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet
Monologue
Astronaut Jones
The Loveliest Kingdom


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Schumer)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
……………………………………………(*hesitates for 20 long minutes, before opting to just let the following screencap make the very unfortunate announcement of our next episode*)

Man, why does it always seem that the most notorious, controversial hosts come RIGHT AFTER a particularly phenomenal, feel-good episode? For example, in season 15, when Andrew Dice Clay hosted the episode right after Alec Baldwin’s legendary, outstanding first hosting stint. I dunno, maybe that’s the only other example. Wait, I just thought of one more: Milton Berle hosting right after the fantastic Richard Benjamin episode in season 4. And I guess you can count Paris Hilton hosting right after Paul Giamatti hosted one of the very few legitimately solid episodes of the dreadful season 30 (even if Hilton’s episode itself isn’t particularly awful). Granted, when it comes to notorious, controversial hosts, Dice, Berle, and Hilton are Tom Hanks compared to our next episode’s host.

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March 14, 2009 – Tracy Morgan / Kelly Clarkson (S34 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRACY RETURNS
TRM punches his way through Rockefeller Center; John Cena & TIF cameos

— Ooh, I love this huge change of pace for a cold opening in this era, and this is a great way to open a Tracy Morgan-hosted episode.
— Tracy’s serious opening speech about the excitement of Rockefeller Center is amusing in the way that only Tracy could make it.
— Funny interaction between Tracy and the security guard played by writer Emily Spivey.
— All of the punches delivered by Tracy are cracking me up, made funnier by the way this is filmed, with all the extreme close-ups, fast cuts, and slow-motion shots.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
TRM sees media bias in coverage of fishtank fire at his residence

— I remember how exciting it felt in 2009 seeing Tracy host. If you told me 10 years prior to that, during the peak of SNL’s under-utilization of Tracy as a cast member, that Tracy would ever be hosting SNL, I’d NEVER have believed you. He’s come a long way since those days.
— Already a good laugh from Tracy’s opening line: “Thank you, white people!”
— Good line from Tracy about how, tonight, he’s in more sketches than he ever was during his years as a cast member.
— A lot of the usual funny Tracy Morgan-ish oddball lines.
— Hilarious fake-out with the “Lorne Michaels” who Tracy brings up onstage turning out to be some stage manager. Speaking of the stage manager (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this monologue), I think he’s played by the same actor who played Angel on The Rockford Files. If so, that is VERY random casting on SNL’s part.
— Speaking of random, we get a random Seth Meyers sighting next to the real Lorne. This is the second consecutive episode in which Seth makes a rare non-Weekend Update appearance (or voice-over, in the preceding episode’s case).
— There’s our obligatory “Bring me a soda, BITCH!” during Tracy’s interaction with Lorne.
STARS: ****


CHEWABLE PAMPERS
— Another rerun of this commercial, from 1/31/09. Boy, am I sick of seeing this commercial being aired so frequently in such a short time span.


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
a baby cow is perceived to be arrogant

— Our obligatory appearance of one of Tracy’s two biggest recurring characters.
— An interesting novelty seeing then-current cast members appearing in an old recurring sketch like this, which is always one of the fun things when a former cast member’s recurring sketches are brought back when said former cast member hosts (such as seeing current cast members appear in Church Chat sketches whenever Dana Carvey hosts or, in some cases, cameos).
— Brian Fellow is getting the usual good laughs hitting his usual beats.
STARS: ***½


THE VIEW
scatterbrained Sherri Shepherd (TRM) is uniformly uninformed

— Given the fact that Tracy had a regular role (Star Jones) in the original (and far superior) run of The View parodies back in the late 90s, it feels kinda odd seeing him in tonight’s View sketch playing a different role. That just makes tonight’s View sketch pale even more in comparison to the View sketches from the late 90s.
— Not caring all that much for the running gag with Tracy’s Sherri Shephard not knowing what anything is.
— Why no guest in tonight’s View sketch?
— Overall, this era’s View sketches continue to underwhelm me.
STARS: **


SCARED STRAIGHT
beer-drinking teens aren’t scared by Lorenzo McIntosh & fellow con (TRM)

— This is the first Scared Straight sketch with Kenan’s Lorenzo McIntosh character being joined by a partner. This would set the template for subsequent installments of this sketch, all(?) of which have that night’s SNL host playing a partner of McIntosh’s.
— Pretty fun pairing of Kenan and Tracy.
— McIntosh’s “Penis Noir” line was hilarious.
— Bill uncontrollably cracks up when Kenan and Tracy ad-lib by touching his face while threateningly ganging up on him. This was a big deal at the time, as it was such a fun rarity to see the then-very professional Bill Hader break. At the time, it was considered comparable to seeing the also-very-professional Phil Hartman famously break in that talk show sketch (Succinctly Speaking) in which he was interviewed as Frankenstein. Little did anyone know back then that this would end up starting a habit of Bill cracking up quite frequently and easily in sketches (including subsequent Scared Straight installments), a habit that would last for the remainder of his SNL tenure.
— Speaking of breaking and things becoming a tradition, we get our first instance of Lorenzo McIntosh’s exit being followed by Jason hopping onto the desk in a sitting position, causing Andy, Bobby, and (again) Bill to crack up.
STARS: ***½


DATELINE
Keith Morrison (BIH) & murderer (TRM) share sociopathy

— Bill’s Keith Morrison impression is always a blast.
— A big laugh from Bill’s Morrison saying, in his slow, trademark voice, “You liked it, so you put a ring on it.”
— This sketch is basically just repeating the same beats from the first installment of this sketch earlier this season, but it’s still working, and, hey, it’s not like the Bob Waltman Special sketches from the late 80s (which these Dateline sketches feel like they’re in the tradition of) didn’t repeat their own same beats as well, though those sketches seemed a little less one-note than these Dateline sketches.
— I like Bill-as-Morrison’s disappointed “Ohhhh” when hearing nobody got killed from the roof-caving-in accident.
— Great bit with Tracy joining Bill’s Morrison in his delighted, creepy vocalizations. SNL would later repeat this gag with Steve Buscemi in the Dateline sketch from Buscemi’s season 37 episode.
STARS: ****


ASTRONAUT JONES
space female’s (ANS) hermaphroditism isn’t a deterrent

— And here’s our obligatory appearance of the second of Tracy’s two biggest recurring characters.
— Every post-monologue sketch in the pre-Weekend Update half of this episode has been a recurring sketch.
— Interesting to see the old, epic Astronaut Jones opening title sequence being shown in a 2009 HD episode. For that reason, the visual quality of this title sequence looks kinda weird here. Also, you can really see from this title sequence how much Tracy’s looks have drastically changed since 2002 when this title sequence was originally filmed. Hell, you’d think it was filmed twenty years prior, judging from how much younger and thinner Tracy looks in it compared to how he looks in 2009.
— I notice they’re using the original Astronaut Jones theme song from season 27, and not the one from season 28 in which SNL (pointlessly) added female backup vocals to the theme song.
— A twist on one of the usual Astronaut Jones tropes, with the female alien he encounters turning out to apparently be transgender this time. Meh. I found that funny back in 2009, but it doesn’t quite work for me in 2020.
— The ending one-liner Astronaut Jones follows the alien’s long speech with didn’t hit quite as hard as his usual ending one-liners in these sketches, but I still laughed. The nature of these Astronaut Jones sketches, and Tracy’s killer delivery, always make the ending one-liner of these sketches work.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Life Would Suck Without You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM baits Bernie Madoff victim John Malkovich (BIH) into a screaming fit

worried TRM says “Really!?!” to the prospect of a strip club tax

50 year-old Barbie (KRW) looks great but is limited by her plastic form

— Hell, yeah! The return of Bill’s spot-on John Malkovich impression, after we got a vocal sample of it in the Vinny Vedecci sketch from the episode Malkovich himself hosted earlier this season. Given that Malkovich is one of my favorite actors, and the fact that he has such a distinct, unique voice, I’m always a sucker for seeing impressions of him, though I’ve barely seen any, actually. The only other one besides Bill’s that I can remember seeing is from Martin Short in, I think, a Jiminy Glick episode.
— Great angry outburst from Bill’s Malkovich after such a long build-up to it.
— I must be watching the West Coast version of this episode (come to think of it, the SNL opening montage earlier in this episode did have that “Recorded from an earlier live broadcast” disclaimer), because the version I’m watching doesn’t have a technical gaffe from the live East Coast airing in which the camera accidentally cuts to a wide shot of Seth and an empty seat next to him (reserved for Tracy) when Seth begins his strip club joke that “unintentionally” sets up Tracy’s sudden appearance.
— Tracy’s overly simplistic and brief version of “Really?!?” was hilarious.
— From my previous viewings of this episode, I have almost no memory of this Barbie bit of Kristen’s.
— Kristen’s getting some laughs from the extended bit with her having trouble opening the whiskey bottle with her stiff doll hands.
STARS: ***


BIG LOVE
bigamist Bill’s (JAS) fourth wife (TRM) is not a woman

— Casey casually asking “Hey, guys, who’s baby is this?”, regarding the baby she’s been holding, made me laugh. Boy, speaking of Casey, lately, she’s really been fading away by this point of her SNL tenure. Feels like this sketch is the first semi-noteworthy thing she’s done in a while (and that’s sadly still not saying much).
— I like Jason’s imitation of Bill Paxton’s voice.
— Tracy in drag again tonight. Come to think of it, there’s an awful lot of men-in-drag humor in general tonight, between Tracy, Kenan, and Fred in the View sketch, Andy in the Astronaut Jones sketch, and now Tracy in this sketch.
— Blah at the main comedic conceit of this sketch so far. Even for a Tracy-in-drag piece, this feels like a throwaway sketch.
— I love Jason’s goofy exclamation of “DUH-OH!” when he can’t come up with a good explanation for why Tracy’s “female” character is shaving.
— (*groan*) Again, with this apparently being the West Coast version I’m currently reviewing, a huge technical gaffe at the end of this sketch is unfortunately removed. In the original East Coast airing, after Jason’s aforementioned “DUH-OH!” line, SNL’s control room operators were VERY late on their cue to roll the Big Love closing title sequence, resulting in long, painfully awkward dead air as the screen stays on Jason and the female cast members just standing there not knowing what to do. Eventually, in an attempt to break this painfully awkward silence, Jason, in character, ad-libs a mock-nervous “Eeeee!” sound while pretending to bite his nails (it’s been years since I’ve last seen this, so my recollection may be a little faulty), right before the closing title sequence FINALLY plays (and even then, it’s accidentally initially stuck on a freeze-frame shot). Call me weird, but I was really looking forward to seeing this huge gaffe again, because I remember it being uncomfortably funny, probably funnier than the intended main comedy of this weak, seemingly half-written sketch.
STARS: *½


PARTY GUYS
(BIH) & (ANS) literally identify fellow party attendees

— Fantastic escalation to this, with the cutaways to each increasingly oddball character matching the insulting name that Bill and Andy refer to them by. I also love how each cutaway is being done in an increasingly faster, briefer pace.
— Will steals this short with the cutaway to him as a “cereal rapist”, furiously fucking a box of cereal in the bathroom before shutting the door (while still mid-fuck) when realizing he can be seen. Yet another example of how Will Forte is one of SNL’s all-time most fearless cast members at pulling off daring, ballsy humor.
— Love the ending with Bill and Andy’s reflection, especially Bill depressingly responding “(*long, deep sigh*)……..That’s us.”
STARS: ****½


SUPPRESSEX
Suppressex enforces social norms by damping unwanted public erections

— After his innocent interaction with his cheerleader daughter and her fellow cheerleaders, I love Will looking into camera and delivering a stern “This is NO time for an erection!”
— Tracy is a very funny spokesman for such a product as this.
— Great testimonial from Bill as a department store Santa.
STARS: ***½


HIGH IQ
goofy distracters thwart brainy contestants on game show set

— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season that makes me say “Oh, that’s right. Darrell Hammond is still in the cast”, as he’s sadly relegated to making his ONLY appearance of the night in a late-in-the-show sketch that has him in a non-impression role that he comes off awkward in.
— Funny to see Tracy playing a game show host. I’m enjoying him in this role.
— Something about this sketch, perhaps the wacky character walk-ons all throughout, feels like a bit of an embryonic version of the famous What Up With That sketches (which will debut later this calendar year – 2009), though tonight’s sketch has an awful lot of “Why is this weird thing happening right now???”-type responses from the game show contestants (the type of role that some SNL fans complain that current cast member Mikey Day plays too often in current-era sketches that over-explain the weirdness of their premise instead of letting it speak for itself).
— Despite this paling in comparison to the future What Up With That, this sketch is still fairly fun.
— I like the ending credits randomly starting to scroll when the game hasn’t even been completed yet.
— Pretty funny how Jason can occasionally be heard saying a very un-amused, stern “Get away from me” in the background towards one of the oddball characters (we can’t see which oddball character he’s speaking to, given how crowded the screen has become with oddball characters in general).
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Do Not Hook Up”


ROCKET DOG
many human & canine actors died when (TRM) made Rocket Dog

— A very well-loved sketch among a number of SNL fans, including myself.
— I love Tracy’s over-exaggerated laughing reaction to Kristen’s very corny opening joke.
— Hilarious how the first movie clip Tracy shows strangely gives away the ending of the movie.
— Tracy throughout this sketch: “Houston, we have a dog!”
— Tracy is so perfect for this material. He was born to do this sketch.
— Tracy, on why he filmed his Rocket Dog movie in Thailand: “I wanted a place that was heavy on dogs and light on laws.”
— So many laughs from the increasingly random and bizarre In Memoriam montages for seemingly every dog and human in the movie, eventually even Tracy himself. What makes those In Memoriam montages even funnier is the fact that they’re all accompanied by the “Life Is A Highway “song.
— Kristen’s straight man performance is perfect. Another example of how great she is at pulling off deadpan, a talent that’s sadly underutilized by SNL in the second half of Kristen’s SNL tenure.
STARS: *****


GAS RIGHT
ANOTHER rerun of a low-brow commercial tonight, this time from 12/6/08


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fun episode, as expected for a Tracy Morgan-hosted episode. While this was far from perfect (Tracy’s later episode from season 41 is stronger, IIRC), there was some stuff I really liked, and I enjoyed the general feel of the episode, no doubt due to Tracy giving it the perfectly Tracy Morgan-esque feel it should’ve had. It was a blast seeing him host.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Rocket Dog
Party Guys
Tracy Returns
Monologue
Dateline
Suppressex
Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet
Scared Straight
High IQ
Astronaut Jones
Weekend Update
The View
Big Love


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dwayne Johnson)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Seth Rogen