Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Donald (PHH) defeats Ivana (JAH) via thorough Trump prenuptial agreement
— Phil’s Trump impression has really improved from the previous times he played him.
— Very funny part with Donald telling Ivana that the contract she signed has allowed Donald to have mistresses, provided they are younger than Ivana.
— Ha, a mention of Donald Trump’s board game (“Trump: The Game”), something that I’m aware existed in real life only because I’ve recently been seeing commercials for it during some of the copies of live episodes I’ve been reviewing from this season.
— Great part with the Three-Card Monty trick.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— This is the first live episode that uses SNL’s 15th anniversary logo in the opening montage.
— Here’s another update that’s been made to the montage tonight: featured player Mike Myers has been promoted to a regular cast member! And he now has a live-action shot in the montage like the rest of the regular cast members (screencap below) instead of just a still photo like he had during his featured player days.
MONOLOGUE
host has an out-of-body experience after banging his knee backstage
— Good premise with Tom having hurt his knee backstage before making his entrance.
— Very funny reveal of Tom’s inner thoughts saying a monotone-but-pained “It hurts so much”, managing to name-drop some of his own hit movies, and begging God to make the pain stop.
— Hilarious visual of Tom’s ghost dancing delicately around the studio while having poetic inner thoughts.
— Most of this monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. One big difference is that in the live version, Tom’s ghost doesn’t go into the control room, whereas he does in the rerun version.
— Another difference between the live and rerun versions of this monologue: the way Phil and Victoria are dressed. In the live version, Phil’s still dressed as Trump from the cold opening and Victoria is wearing casual clothes. In the rerun version, Phil and Victoria are both dressed in their outfits from the Mr. Short-Term Memory sketch that appears later tonight. (side-by-side comparison below)
— A classic part right now with Abe Lincoln telling Tom “You’re an incredible pussy!”
— An overall great monologue that was perfect for Tom’s style.
STARS: ****½
MCDONALD’S
the Red Square McDonald’s offers Happy Meals containing basic necessities
— Hilarious how the prizes in the Happy Meal are things like a bar of soap, toilet paper, etc.
— Funny ending tagline from Jan’s happy spokesperson: “Good times, great taste, SOAP!”
STARS: ****
WAYNE’S WORLD
musical guest plays thanks to Garth’s roadie cousin (host)
— HUGE cheering from the audience at the beginning of this sketch.
— I like Nora sarcastically singing the Wayne’s World theme song when complaining about how she’s not allowed to appear on the show.
— Wayne freaking out about Aerosmith being in his breakfast nook is great, especially the line “Aerosmith is sitting where I eat my Nut & Honey everyday.”
— There’s the very first Wayne’s World utterance of the phrase “Monkeys might fly out of my butt”.
— And there’s Tom’s odd-but-now-immortal utterance of the term “sibilance” when doing a mic check.
— Fun seeing Aerosmith show up on the Wayne’s World set while an excited Wayne and Garth are doing the “We are not worthy” bowing-down to them.
— The Q&A segment is very funny, especially the Aerosmith members’ intelligent, verbose answers to the complicated question about socialism and the climate.
— Absolutely legendary part with Wayne, Garth, and Aerosmith performing a fleshed-out version of the Wayne’s World theme song. That propels this sketch into a popular classic and is pretty much what officially cements Wayne’s World in general as an untouchable recurring sketch.
STARS: *****
TALES OF RIBALDRY
(VIJ) & (JAH) enlist services of a bootblack (host)
— Great to see this sketch back.
— The heated, sensual boot-polishing sequence with Tom and Jan is very funny, especially when the camera later returns to the scene to show a now-sweaty Tom still polishing the boot.
— The delight from Jon’s character during his various reaction shots are priceless as usual, especially the camera catching him peeking at the boot-polishing scene through a hole in the wall.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Janie’s Got a Gun”
WEEKEND UPDATE
one-man mobile uplink unit ALF is discovered during Medellin cartel deal
— Seems to be an unusually high amount of corny, picture-based jokes from Dennis so far tonight.
— I love this idea of tonight’s One-Man Mobile Uplink Unit commentary, with a whispering Al showing us a cocaine transaction.
— Excellent payoff to Al’s commentary with him being spotted by the cartel and frantically running away from their gunshots while still reporting to the camera.
— Funny little blooper with one of the sheets of paper on the Update desk almost falling before Dennis catches it.
— The very first SNL mention of Dick Cheney, who’s mentioned tonight as a defense secretary.
— Ha, was Dennis’ random “Dude looks like a lady” bit ad-libbed?
— Overall, Dennis had some of the usual solid jokes, but there were too many picture-based jokes tonight for my likes. Still a slight improvement over Dennis’ surprisingly dire Update in the preceding episode.
STARS: **½
MR. SHORT-TERM MEMORY
Mr. Short-Term Memory visits an injured friend (PHH) in the hospital
— Nice to see this officially become a staple for Tom Hanks’ SNL appearances.
— As usual, Tom is selling this perfectly and is making it very fun. I can’t see anyone else pulling off this character quite as well as him.
— I like how his bad memory has now gotten to the point where he suddenly doesn’t even recognize his friend (Phil), after having just spoken to him for most of the sketch and having no trouble recognizing him then.
STARS: ****
EYE ON CHEST HAIR
hirsute celebrities show off follicular endowments
— An amusingly random talk show concept, made even more random by Martina Navratilova being the host.
— Interesting how Tom is playing Randy Travis, considering Randy Travis was a musical guest in one of Tom’s earlier episodes. I wonder if casting Tom as him tonight was an intentional reference to that.
— Pretty funny with the guys each saying what they see in each other’s chest hair, like it’s some kind of psychology test.
— Dana’s Joel Siegel impression is cracking me up, even though I have no familiarity with what the real Joel Siegel is like.
— An absolutely hilarious unexpected bit with red ants being seen in a close-up of Gene Shalit’s chest hair.
— Good part with Kevin as an also-shirtless Kenny Rogers performing a (obviously lip-synced) song, especially the casual reveal of him having many gray patches of hair on his back.
— Seeing a studio audience full of shirtless guys reminds me of the Nude Talk Show sketch that’s coming up later this season.
— Funny bit regarding Tom Davis and chest hair implants.
STARS: ****
JENSEN SYRINGE COMPANY
drug-awareness ad imagery belies intent of Jensen Syringe Company spot
— Uh…….. okay. This was so brief and indescribable that I’m left wondering what I just watched.
STARS: *
THE MOB
personal testimony of (NOD) recalls how the mob saved her business
— Funny reveal of Nora having joined the mob to help her financial issues.
— Some good laughs from the professional way that this, of all things, is being presented, and from Nora’s nonchalant attitude towards the mob’s actions.
STARS: ***½
JENSEN SYRINGE COMPANY
reliable Jensen Syringes are thrown at dartboard in more drug ad imagery
— Okay, at least this one had more of a comedic point with the use of the syringes as darts, even if this still isn’t particularly hilarious.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Monkey on My Back”
— Just now, Steven Tyler noticeably uttered the lyric “(something something) fuckin’ monkey off my back”. While most of the words in that lyric were unintelligible (as are most of Tyler’s lyrics in this performance), the “fuckin’” was loud and clear. It would later get muted out in reruns.
GIRL WATCHERS
the desensitized losers try to work a cruise ship full of elderly women
— Here comes what would end up being the final appearance of these characters.
— Love how the Girl Watchers’ bad luck with the ladies has gotten to the point where they’re forced to resort to hitting on women in a cruise ship for elderly singles.
— Jon’s unibrow from the first installment of this sketch has returned, after not being used in the second installment.
— The usual very funny comments from Jon and Tom.
— Great part with one old lady slowly passing by with a walker and then suddenly speeding past the Girl Watchers just to get away from them.
— Loved Tom’s smug “We… are iiiiiin hell” at the end.
STARS: ****
BLACK HISTORY MOMENT
Andy Rooney (PHH) on George Washington Carver
— Hilarious idea of a Black History Moment being presented by Andy Rooney, fresh off a controversial statement he made about black people, even if I’m not familiar with what exactly the controversial statement was (there was also a reference to it in the previous episode’s Weekend Update).
— Haha, the ending “It’s f*gs I hate” line was so wrong but was a killer punchline.
STARS: ****
JENSEN SYRINGE COMPANY
Jensen Syringes seen washed up on beach are “fresh as a mountain stream”
— Ehh, a step below the last one, which is saying something. This also felt like a poor man’s version of the McDonnell-Rand commercial from the previous season’s Matthew Broderick episode.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
— Tom Hanks at the end of his goodnights speech: “He shoots, he scores!” I can’t think of a better way to sum up his overall performance in tonight’s episode.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The usual strong Tom Hanks episode, and a return to form for this SNL era after the previous week’s underwhelming Quincy Jones episode. Tonight gave us one all-time classic (Wayne’s World Meets Aerosmith) and tons of very solid pieces. The back half of the show was structured strangely, though, with an unusually high amount of filler and mini-segments, though the only ones I wasn’t satisfied with were the Jensen Syringe Company pieces.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Quincy Jones)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
A 13-year-old Fred Savage