Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
incompetent translator (KEN) covers his mistakes during Gorbachev speech
— A lot of laughs from Kevin’s bad translations, especially him pulling out a language translation book at one point.
— Ha, now he’s making up stuff in his translations to cover the fact that he messed up.
— Phil’s response to Kevin’s long-winded, absurd, convoluted explanation was very funny, with him simply uttering a taken-aback order to “…….Get out.” He also had another fantastic line right afterwards, with his offended “Not ONLY have you disgraced the Fox Network…”
— Great “Live from New York” variation, with Kevin’s translation of one Gorbachev statement being “Live out of New York, it’s night, this Saturday!”
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— What’s with A. Whitney Brown’s picture constantly changing this season? He’s had a different one in almost every episode this season. (comparisons below)
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— An extremely short monologue, where nothing noteworthy was said. Still, Angie at least came off likable and showed good enthusiasm for doing the show.
STARS: **½
DOCU-FRESH
Docu-Fresh rids your historical documents of constitution odor
— The “constitution odor” voice-over cracked me up.
— Pretty solid commercial overall. I really liked the randomness of this concept.
STARS: ***½
WEDGIE FEVER!
masochist contestant (JOL) gives wrong answers on purpose
— There’s the name Dale Butterworth, making it obvious who wrote this.
— The concept of this is hilarious.
— Funny walk-on from Kevin as last week’s winner, especially the line about there no longer being a chance of him having children.
— Jon’s repeated, increasingly-higher-pitched yells of “Ooooklahoooma!” are priceless.
— I like it gradually being revealed that Jon is losing on purpose.
— Overall, I really liked this sketch. Makes sense that Andy Breckman wrote it, as it’s reminiscent of the type of conceptual gameshow/talk show sketches he often wrote for the show in seasons 9 and 10. I can especially picture this sketch appearing in season 9.
STARS: ****
DONAHUE
Raisa Gorbachev’s (NOD) popularity bugs Nancy Reagan (JAH)
— Donahue listing off unpleasant things about Nancy Reagan has some laughs.
— Funny part with the Donahue audience’s disappointed “Aww”s when Raisa announces “We have no intention to take over your country.”
STARS: ***
CHRISTMAS PARTY
guests at a party accidentally bring up each other’s traumatic memories
— This sketch opens with a shot of the same blonde female extra who I erroneously thought may have possibly been Brynn Hartman in the Wall Street Week sketch from this season’s Sean Penn episode. However, I’m told that Brynn DOES appear as an extra in a close-up during a Sweeney Sisters sketch in the very next episode. I’ll try to see if I can spot her when reviewing that episode.
— I had almost forgotten about tonight’s host until now. Why is this the first sketch Angie Dickinson is appearing in all night?
— Pretty funny premise of every innocent comment somebody makes turning out to remind somebody else of a traumatic incident in their life. However, I can’t help but notice the similarities to a certain classic Carpool sketch the show would later do with Alec Baldwin and Kristen Wiig (the “Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother” sketch).
— The ending was kinda weak.
— Overall, this was a decent sketch. However, while it’s probably unfair for me to compare the quality of this to a sketch that hadn’t even aired yet at the time, this pales in comparison to the aforementioned Baldwin/Wiig sketch.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE
VIJ’s star-rating system complicates her review of Three Men & A Baby
Stephen King (JOL) types rapid-fire while DEM interviews him
AWB draws parallels between deals with the Soviets & Native Americans
— Victoria’s confusing rating system is pretty funny.
— Wait, that’s it??? Victoria’s whole commentary is over already? That was short as hell and, while I got laughs from the rating system, it felt like this commentary was supposed to go further.
— I liked the audience’s negative reaction to Dennis’ lame “Three Wise Men and a Baby” joke, followed by Dennis ad-libbing “settttlllleeee” to the crowd.
— Like last week, some of Dennis’ jokes have been surprisingly weak and are getting tepid audience reactions. Some jokes have been working tonight, though.
— I like the visual of Jon as Stephen King.
— The very brief writer’s block part of Jon’s commentary was funny.
— A. Whitney’s overall Big Picture commentary from tonight was decent, though no particular comment really stood out to me, besides maybe the “history repeats itself” bit towards the end.
— Tonight’s overall Update was marginally better than the disappointing outing in the last episode, but that’s not saying much. Dennis still appears to be in a slump.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Buster Poindexter performs “Hot Hot Hot”
POLICE WOMEN
Mary Beth Lacey (NOD) goes undercover a la Pepper (host)
— Interesting idea of a Cagney and Lacey/Police Woman crossover.
— Jon’s “Oh my god, get outta here!” as soon as he sees Nora’s unattractive Lacey enter his office was hilarious.
— Jon has so many funny lines in general towards Nora’s Lacey. There’s also some good laughs from his general sleaziness.
— Nora’s getting some pretty good laughs herself.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
David Gilmour performs “Song For My Sara”
AIRPLANE
stewardess (host) discreetly checks if anyone on board can land the plane
— I like the subtle hint that the plane needs an emergency pilot.
— Okay, after a promising beginning, this sketch is starting to drag badly.
— Okay, they’re slowly starting to win me back. The part with Angie smothering Jan with a pillow was hilarious.
— The ending with Phil’s helpful character turning out to be a lunatic was very funny.
— Overall, a slow, dull build-up, but ended up having a funny payoff.
STARS: ***
THE ASSIMILATED JEW’S HANUKKAH
Henry Kissinger (ALF) touts record album
— Another good use of Al Franken’s Kissinger impression.
— The “Assimilated Jews Hanukkah” record title was worth a laugh.
— I’m enjoying this premise of Hanukkah-ized classic Christmas songs.
— Okay, this is starting to kinda run out of steam after the joke was established. Still fairly funny, though.
STARS: ***
DRUNK MAN
alcohol-fuelled hero (DAC) has superhuman confidence
— Funny entrance from Phil as a shady-looking tough guy.
— Interesting “Drunk Man” turn this sketch has suddenly taken.
— Drunk Man’s theme song is the same instrumental that would later be used as Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update theme music from 1995-1997 (his Updates had a different theme during his first season as anchorperson in 1994-95). SNL would also re-use this instrumental as the theme song to another superhero sketch: Young Superboy, starring Macaulay Culkin.
— Good drunk performance from Dana.
— Loved Phil’s panicky reaction to Drunk Man pointing the gun at him.
— An overall okay sketch, if nothing particularly great.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Eh, an okay episode, I guess. But I dunno… I can’t help but feel it had a forgettable quality to it. I came out of this episode not having too exciting a feeling for what I just watched. Still, I guess I can’t complain TOO much, as there wasn’t anything that I strongly disliked, and there were two segments I felt were great (Wedgie Fever and the Gorbachev Translator cold opening).
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Danny DeVito)
— a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Paul Simon hosts the Christmas episode