Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Tommy Flanagan clears up rumors about SNL’s poor ratings & reviews
— This is now the THIRD cold opening in a row starring Tommy Flanagan, and his fourth appearance in the last five episodes. Man, they’re definitely hurting for popular characters this season.
— This is the first time SNL is openly acknowledging how poorly-received this season has been.
— Several good laughs from Flanagan’s false claims of how well SNL’s ratings and reviews have supposedly been, only for him to hesitate when having to go into details of those ratings and reviews.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— After making a few uncredited Weekend Update appearances earlier this sesaon, writer A. Whitney Brown finally receives his first credit as a featured player tonight.
MONOLOGUE
host plays the “Wipeout” drum solo with only one hand
— Pretty funny gag with a chunk of Griffin’s hair coming out when he casually brushes it back with his hand while claiming he’s not nervous.
— Strangely, after only a minute, he makes it seem like this monologue is already ending, by announcing tonight’s guests (Roseanne Cash, Penn & Teller), but I’m aware that this monologue ends up going on for a lot longer.
— I got a pretty good laugh from the reveal of the giant pit stains on Griffin’s shirt.
— Was that a freakin’ rimshot I just heard after the aforementioned pit stain reveal? What the hell?
— Anthony Michael Hall makes his first SNL appearance after a two-month hiatus from the show while filming the movie “Out of Bounds”.
— Griffin doing the drum solo from “Wipeout” by musically patting his hand on a surfboard is cracking me up. It’s one of those “so dumb, it’s funny” things.
— Geez, only one sketch in, and Anthony Michael Hall is ALREADY reminding me why I was so happy we got a break from him the past two months. His mugging during Griffin’s hand-drum solo is pretty damn bad. And honestly, Terry’s facial expressions here aren’t much better.
STARS: ***
FERDINAND MARCOS MALACANANG PALACE LIQUIDATION SALE
Double R & son stage Ferdinand Marcos Malacanang Palace Liquidation Sale
— Another Double R sketch this season.
— I’m liking the overly-specific odd-sized clothing that Randy’s hawking.
— As usual, some laughs from Robert’s goofy character.
STARS: ***
MR. MONOPOLY
lawyer Mr. Monopoly (JOL) uses game cards to help his client (host)
— Ah, here an infamous sketch.
— And there goes the reason why this sketch is infamous: Damon is rebelliously playing his cop role in a stereotypical gay manner (basically doing the same voice he previously used in his Beverly Hills Cop appearance and would later use in the famous Men On Film sketches on In Living Color), when the character was just supposed to be played in a generic straight (both figuratively and literally) way. In the “Live from New York” book, there’s a whole backstory as to why Damon decided to do this. He was already not too crazy about having to perform this sketch in the first place, as he realized during read-throughs that it was a weak one-joke bit. During the dress rehearsal that Saturday, Damon and Randy’s cop characters in this sketch were dressed in trendy Miami Vice-style clothes. After the sketch ended, Lorne came up to Damon and complained “The sketch isn’t working; you look like a pimp!” Astounded over the fact that Lorne was apparently blaming him for the sketch not working, Damon had finally had ENOUGH. Damon’s growing frustrations with working at SNL had finally reached its boiling point, and he decided that he would sabotage the Mr. Monopoly sketch by rebelliously changing his cop character into a big-ol’ gay stereotype during the live show, which ended up adding confusion to the sketch, as Damon’s character being flamboyantly effeminate makes no sense concerning the scene. Needless to say, Lorne was EPICALLY PISSED. Upon exiting the sketch after it was over, Damon was confronted by Lorne, who absolutely WENT OFF on him in a heated, expletive-filled rant that ended with him basically telling Damon he’s fired. Despite this, Damon still gets to perform in a sketch later tonight and even appear during the goodnights (where I recall him just standing alone in the back the whole time while staring down the camera with an unhappy facial expression).
— Okay, after all that, let’s get back to the actual sketch at hand…
— It’s a testament to Randy Quaid and Griffin Dunne’s professionalism that they aren’t letting their confusion over Damon’s changed characterization register on their faces.
— The reveal of Jon entering the scene as Mr. Monopoly was ruined by the opening theme song, which already gave away the main premise. Jon’s entrance would’ve worked better without that spoiler.
— I did like Randy’s line just now about growing up in a house on Baltic Avenue.
— It feels kinda funny watching Damon at the very end of the sketch while the jolly Mr. Monopoly theme song is playing, when you’re aware Damon’s about to get epically chewed out by an angry Lorne.
— This overall sketch didn’t do much for me, though Jon gave a good performance as usual. Damon wasn’t exactly wrong in his assessment of this being a weak sketch, though I feel it wasn’t as one-joke as he claimed.
STARS: **
YOU BET YOUR FINGER
a malfunctioning mini-guillotine butchers (host)
— I’m already chuckling at the initial sight of the tiny guillotine that’s placed next to Griffin.
— Haha, hilarious part with the guillotine’s first premature drop. Griffin’s reaction had me DYING.
— Okay, it’s not necessary to repeat the gag of the guillotine prematurely falling over and over again. Hey, Damon, I think THIS is the one-joke sketch you were looking for.
— Our second Bruce McCulloch sighting of the season, seen in a still photo as a recent winner happily holding up a hand of missing fingers.
— Randy’s “give me a high three” line to Griffin was funny.
— Overall, despite some laughs, there weren’t enough variations on the repeated falling guillotine gag to keep it from running out of steam.
STARS: **½
BAD SEED
Nancy Reagan (TES) counters her daughter’s tell-all with her own book
— What was with Terry’s unnatural-looking silent book-reading at the beginning? Was that an intentional joke, or just bad acting on Terry’s part?
— What the hell? Just now, someone passed by right in front of the camera, briefly blocking our view of Terry.
— Fairly funny reveal of the “Bad Seed” book title directed towards Nancy Reagan’s daughter.
— I like how Steven King is randomly a co-writer of the Bad Seed book.
— Overall, some funny lines, but too many parts of this were kinda slow and dull.
STARS: **
BUON GIORNO IRELAND BUON GIORNO
Gianni Tucci (DON) doesn’t sing Ireland’s music in the original language
— Don Novello has a really nice singing voice, though he appears to be lip-syncing to a pre-recorded track of his own voice.
— Uh, where exactly is the joke here, besides the basic premise of an Italian singer doing Irish songs (which isn’t THAT funny)?
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hold On”
TWO JONES’ CABLE INSTALLERS
the “brothers” can get you a special deal
— Here’s the aforementioned sketch that Damon still gets to perform despite being fired.
— Damon’s hobo-from-In-Living-Color-esque voice in these Jones Brothers sketches always cracks me up.
— Wow, I thought Anthony’s camera-mugging during the monologue was bad, but THIS takes the cake. Anthony’s awful facial expressions throughout this sketch are just plain ANNOYING, as well as distracting.
— Overall, the writing itself was fine enough, but damn, couldn’t Damon have just done this sketch by himself, or at least have had a more competent scene partner than Anthony Michael freakin Hall?
STARS: **½
WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers are “Addicted to Love” over Ivy League sex scandal
AWB discusses whether giving $100,000,000 to the Contras is a good idea
DEM removes Central America from the Weekend Update map with a chain saw
Pinochet Countdown Contest- viewers guess when the Chilean leader will go
— Dennis’ whole mini-commentary about the Miranda Ruling was great.
— (*groan*) Here’s our obligatory pointless Weekend Update Dancers segment of the week.
— A. Whitney Brown’s overall commentary about the Contras had his usual funny quips and sarcastic statements. I especially liked the velvet paintings comment.
— An absolutely fantastic bit with Dennis chainsawing Central America off the Weekend Update map in the background. Unique, groundbreaking things like this just show why Dennis was such a breath of fresh air as an anchorperson after the endless string of dull, interchangeable anchorpersons that preceded him the previous five seasons.
— Interesting announcement of a “Pinochet Countdown” contest, where viewers will try to predict how long Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet will last. SNL continues to get self-deprecating humor out of their own troubled state this season, with Dennis amusingly explaining the contest is only good while SNL is still on the air, “so you might wanna get on that pretty soon”, and then adding “See who lasts longer: Pinochet or Saturday Night Live”. This really makes you realize how strong the possibility was of NBC canceling SNL before the end of this season. (In fact, I believe it’s mentioned in the “Live from New York” book that NBC president Brandon Tartikoff briefly DOES end up deciding to cancel SNL a little later this season, somewhere around the time of the Oprah Winfrey-hosted episode, before having a change of heart and immediately un-canceling the show) That feeling is even more evident in the very special next episode (you’ll see which episode that is at the very end of this review), where they REALLY double down on the “SNL is a sinking ship this season” sentiment and the whole episode has a “This may possibly end up being the last episode ever” undertone… but I’ll go into more details about that in my review of that episode.
STARS: ***½
YOU CAN PICK YOUR FRIENDS, YOU CAN PICK YOUR NOSE, BUT YOU CAN’T PICK YOUR FRIENDS’ NOSES
(host) is chided for trying to pick (RAQ)’s nose during panel discussion
— I’m already getting a laugh from the opening reveal of the title alone, as well as the ensuing dignified atmosphere of the show.
— Hilarious close-up of Randy speaking while Griffin’s finger enters the shot, slowly reaching toward’s Randy’s nose.
— More laughs with Griffin now using some kind of grabber device to try picking Randy’s nose.
— Jon as the stern host suddenly having a mood change and attempting to pick Randy’s nose himself was kinda funny, though it bombed with the audience.
— An overall very silly sketch that really tickled me in its execution.
STARS: ***½
PENN AND TELLER
Penn & Teller [real] demonstrate VCR-based card trick you can do at home
— Penn: “(to Teller) Do you watch Saturday Night Live?” (*Teller grabs throat and makes gagging face*) I see we’re getting MORE jokes about SNL’s dying state this season.
— Funny trick with Penn as a preacher on the TV screen revealing the card.
— I’m really enjoying the carefully-detailed explanation of how viewers can do the VCR card trick on their friends.
— Overall, the usual solid Penn and Teller piece.
STARS: ***½
BUSINESS BEAT
panelists are literal examples of workplace cliches
— Danitra is just now making her first appearance of the night, pretty late in the show. Feels like we see less and less of her with each passing episode lately. It’s a shame SNL doesn’t know what to do with this talented woman.
— Right off the bat, Danitra messes up the title of the show and then saves herself by making a bit out of it. I’m guessing her real-life dyslexia is what causes these frequent line-misreadings that I’ve been noticing from her quite a bit throughout this season.
— The workplace items on display aren’t particularly funny so far. There haven’t been any real laughs yet.
— Okay, Griffin’s kicking device initially made me chuckle, but even that portion of the sketch ended up petering out after a while.
— At the end, Dantira did a good job continuing to play off of her title flub from the beginning of the sketch, making it seem natural, but this overall sketch itself was a waste.
STARS: *½
TEA AND SYMPATHY
undead (host) receives counsel from his old girlfriend’s mother (JOC)
— This has an okay premise, but the execution isn’t coming off well so far.
— This is when I start to realize Nora Dunn hasn’t appeared in tonight’s episode AT ALL. Joan’s character in this sketch feels like a role that Nora would’ve fit perfectly. From my past viewings of this episode, I recall Nora being completely M.I.A. all night. Does anyone know what happened to her that week?
— Now we get a walk-on from a female extra playing Joan’s teenage daughter, and she even gets a little bit of dialogue, making it even more obvious that Nora Dunn isn’t in the building tonight. Any other week, I’m sure this sketch would’ve had Joan playing the daughter role that the female extra played while Nora would’ve played the mother role that Joan’s playing.
— Overall, they had a promising idea with this sketch, but couldn’t back it up with good writing, resulting in the sketch just coming off dull and forgettable. A letdown.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Don’t Know Why”
GOODNIGHTS
— Ah, there’s Damon’s aforementioned camera staredown, though he doesn’t look quite as pissed-off as I had remembered. (you can see him in the background on the right side of the screen in the last screencap above)
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— In my past viewings of this episode, I used to think it was absolutely TERRIBLE. Like, “one of the worst SNL episodes ever” levels of terrible. Back then, I considered this episode a perfect representation of this troubled season as a whole, and felt the episode also came off just sad (which wasn’t helped by the overabundance of self-deprecating jokes about the poor state of this season and how close the show is to getting canceled). Watching this episode again just now, I see it wasn’t quite as horrible as I had remembered. There were a few more highlights than I gave the show credit for in my past viewings, most of the bad sketches weren’t as trainwreck-y as I had recalled, and all-in-all, this is certainly not what I would now consider “one of the worst SNL episodes ever”. That being said, this was still a BAD episode. After a decent beginning with the cold opening, monologue, and Double R sketch, it didn’t take long for mediocrity to take over the show. However, there was at least a nice upswing in the middle of the show, where we got three solid consecutive segments (Weekend Update, You Can’t Pick Your Friends’ Noses, and Penn & Teller), though that was of course immediately followed by a string of more weak sketches.
— The most interesting thing about the whole show still remains Damon Wayans’ Mr. Monopoly/gay cop incident. It’s a shame that we would end up losing Damon over something like that (though he does end up getting invited back for the season finale, to perform a stand-up segment), especially considering how he’s been one of the very few cast members this season who’s consistently been reliable for laughs. If Lorne hadn’t fired him, one has to wonder how he would’ve fared had he carried over into the next season’s fantastic revamped cast.
— This has been the third subpar episode in a row. A few episodes ago, I said even though I see the many problems of this season, I felt this season has had more good episodes than bad so far. However, I now seem to have officially reached the point where the badness of this season is in full swing.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jay Leno):
— a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola. One of the most fascinating, conceptual, format-breaking episodes in SNL history, with a running premise of Coppola “directing” the show.