Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
MAG & JLD act out a simulated cat fight to turn on the male viewers
— Julia angrily telling Mary “Kiss off!” gave me an unintentional laugh just because it seemed to be such a bad censor-friendly substitute for “piss off”.
— Mary and Julia’s wild catfight is pretty fun.
— Interesting turn with Mary and Julia breaking the fourth wall and explaining to us how this was just a “simulated cat fight” for viewers.
— An overall decent idea for a cold opening, though it felt like the catfight should’ve gone much further.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host is typecast as George Washington because of his miniseries role
— I liked his line about being tired of hearing “Martha [Washington]’s got splinters in her gums” jokes.
— The George Washington screen effects they’re secretly using on an unsuspecting Barry are fairly funny. Not much else to this monologue, it seems.
STARS: ***
FOLDGERS CRYSTALS
— Rerun
LIE DETECTOR
(JIB)’s extensive criminal record is revealed by a lie detector test
— The ridiculous truths about Jim are really funny, and this sketch is having a nice season 10 feel.
— Ha, now it’s revealed that Jim was a Nazi… “briefly!”
— I like the escalation the humor in this is taking.
— Good ending twist with Joe and Brad happily hiring Jim for the embassy in Nicaragua.
STARS: ****
ICEMAN
unfrozen greaser (host) sings “Waking Up Is Hard To Do”
— Barry’s neanderthal-esque choppy utterances of random 50s gibberish song lyrics are pretty funny.
— I’m liking Brad’s constant eagerness in wanting to cut Barry up. Brad Hall continues to grow on me as a performer.
— Interesting turn this has taken with the “Waking Up is Hard to Do” musical number. Very good performance from Barry here.
— The part with Barry’s character hurting himself trying to do a split made me laugh.
STARS: ***
BUDDWEISER LIGHT
— Another rerun
2 ON THE TOWN
Whiners win a tour of NYC for being 1,000,000th visitors
— Ohh, god, it’s the Whiners out of nowhere. SNL fooled me with the whole pre-taped set-up with Gary and Julia.
— At least this is a different setting for the Whiners, and I see SNL is continuing to get mileage out of their newfound love for doing extensive pre-taped segments.
— I loved Gary’s angry, loud delivery of “TAKE THAT HOT DOG AND SHUT UP, OKAY??!?”
— Good turn this has taken with Gary and Julia “rewarding” the Whiners by shoving them into an alley to be mugged by two criminals.
— Predictable that the Whiners’ whininess would eventually drive away the muggers.
— Randomly, we end with a live shot of the Whiners in SNL’s audience. I almost expected this to lead into a return of the “audience caption” gag from the original era, but I think that returns next season.
— Overall, a little more tolerable than the usual Whiners sketches, and it also helps that I know this is mercifully the last time these characters ever appear. This sketch DID feel like an appropriate way for them to go out.
STARS: **½
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Fernando describes some bogus new programs for the upcoming fall season
Nancy Reagan (MAG) shows slides of the first couple’s trip to China
— A random return of Billy Crystal, playing Fernando as a Saturday Night News guest anchor once again. Between Billy’s hosting stint a few episodes ago, his guest appearance tonight, and his return (co-)hosting stint in the next episode, it looks like Ebersol is phasing Billy Crystal into the SNL mold. It’s so interesting how you can see aspects of season 10 starting to form in the homestretch of this season.
— I do like this segment right now with Fernando recapping canceled TV series and upcoming new fall series.
— I ashamedly admit to chuckling at Fernando’s bad “reporter/re-puerto ricans” pun when talking about a new series starring Menundo.
— Interesting seeing Mary play Nancy Reagan, though I get the feeling she may have already played this role once before and I’m just not remembering what sketch it was.
— Mary’s characterization of Nancy is pretty good here, and a bit of a change from how Mary usually plays roles.
— Not too crazy about Mary’s vacation photos commentary so far.
— I liked Fernando’s comment to Nancy regarding eating a “dalmatian pie”.
— Boy, this Nancy Reagan commentary is going on for a really long time. It’s basically transitioned from a straightforward commentary to a full-fledged interview between her and Fernando. It’s almost like an early precursor to the Fernando’s Hideaway sketches we’ll be seeing next season.
— And Saturday Night News is already over? Surprised by how little this featured.
STARS: **½
SPINAL TAP INTERVIEW
host interviews musical guest (MMK), (CHG), (HAS)
— Love the idea of this segment, and it’s so interesting in hindsight seeing Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, considering they end up joining the cast just next season.
— Like a lot of things that have been popping up in the last quarter of this season, this segment feels like a preview of season 10.
— I cracked up at the sudden jump cut after McKean’s sneeze.
— So many funny random lines between the three of them. This feels largely improvised.
— All the devil talk is hilarious, especially Guest’s “poke poke” line.
— Their defense of the song “Big Bottom” is another really funny part.
— Overall, excellent segment as expected, and a great lead-in to the musical performance.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Christmas With The Devil”
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer on more Unanswered Questions of the Universe
— I like the bit regarding Captain Hook’s name before he lost his hand.
— Funny frustrated reaction from Tim to the tedious Ty-D-Bowl Man question.
— Wow, the “Was anybody having sex on Gilligan’s Island?” question was certainly random.
— “What does a cheese say when taking a picture” was a funny question, but Tim’s answer didn’t do much for me.
— Overall, this was decent for what I’m assuming ends up being the final appearance of this character. Still, I think I preferred his earlier commentaries on Saturday Night News where he would just ask a string of random mysterious questions.
STARS: ***
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
La Cage Aux Folles Rick Springfield (host) wishes he was “Jessie’s Girl”
— Barry’s Rick Springfield voice is a little weird.
— I’m liking where this is going, but then again, I’m always a sucker for the song “Jessie’s Girl”.
— Pretty funny La Cage Aux Folles twist with the camera revealing Barry’s Rick Springfield in a dress.
STARS: ***
A. WHITNEY BROWN
AWB does stand-up about his driving difficulties
— Hey, it’s future SNL writer/featured player A. Whitney Brown! AND WITH A MUSTACHE!!!
— It’s amazing how many future cast members have been in tonight’s episode. You have Billy Crystal, all three members of Spinal Tap, and now AWB.
— Brown looks so young in this.
— His jokes and delivery are all amusing so far, and I like how laid-back this feels. It’s strange, though, seeing him do regular stand-up that’s not political-related like his future Weekend Update commentaries would always be.
— Pretty solid stand-up segment overall.
STARS: ***½
THE TURKEY LADY
lab mishap turns (JLD) into The Turkey Lady (ROD); Soupy Sales cameo
— Oh, I’m already loving this just from the horror movie-esque opening title sequence alone.
— Haha, oh my god at Robin’s entrance in that insane turkey make-up.
— I like the “leg man” conversation between Gary and another guy, though their timing seemed off at first.
— Wow, it’s great how this sketch is carrying over into a talk show segment.
— Julia’s fly-esque cries of “Help me!” over the phone were funny, as was Jim getting amusement from that.
— Now the sketch is carrying over into another new segment, with Robin’s Turkey Lady doing a tea commercial. This is all great.
— Now we’re back to the science lab.
— I loved how Barry’s pre-procedure statement to the press was simply “I hope this works. I’m a very horny man.”
— A hilarious random cameo from Soupy Sales. I’m ashamed to admit, though, that the only reason I know it’s him is because of comments I had read about this sketch over the years. I wouldn’t have recognized him on my own, which I guess shows my relatively-young age.
— Fantastic sketch overall, and it’s incredible how they went all out for this and gave this an epic feel.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Big Bottom”
DOG DAY P.M.
canine filmmaker (host) recalls being mistreated by humans
— Well, this looks like an… um… interesting sketch.
— One minute later, and boy, this sketch has not working for me so far.
— The “puppy porn” part of the narrated footage is pretty funny, at least.
— Not sure about Barry’s delivery here. It may be a little TOO goofy for my likes.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode. I also like how it had a bit more of an experimental feel than usual, with SNL trying various ambitious things tonight, most of which payed off. Even the Whiners were put in a much different setting than usual. And, of course, it goes without saying how much Spinal Tap added to the show.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George McGovern):
— a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 9 comes to an end, with a stunningly large number of FIVE hosts, all of whom hosted either earlier this season or late last season: Billy Crystal, Mayor Ed Koch, Edwin Newman, Father Guido Sarducci, and Betty Thomas. We also get the last hurrah of cast members Joe Piscopo, Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Brad Hall.