Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (PHH) can’t answer any of census-taker’s (VIJ) questions
— Unless I missed it, they haven’t mentioned that it’s Ronald Reagan who Phil is playing here, though you can still tell. This is apparently a parody of Reagan’s behavior at then-recent Iranscam hearings, where he gave non-answers to almost every single question he was asked.
— For something that is one-joke, this is still coming off solid. Most of it is because of Phil’s performance and delivery, but it’s also because of his many variations of “I don’t know”.
— Even the comically awkward, drawn-out ending with Phil’s Reagan getting locked out of his house and unintentionally setting off the alarm made me laugh, even if it seemed like they were reaching for material there.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Some decent dry humor here, with Debra’s self-deprecating mentions of how quietly her career is currently going.
— Interesting ending with Debra flat-out saying “This is the end of the monologue”, keeping with the dry theme of this overall piece.
STARS: ***
WAYNE’S WORLD
Oscar Picks; Chick Court finds that (host) is not a slut
— For some reason, Wayne’s wearing a black long-sleeved sweater instead of his usual black short-sleeved shirt.
— Solid “Wayne’s World Oscar Picks” segment.
— Debra looks almost unrecognizable in that wig.
— The idea of this “Chick Court” segment is pretty fun.
— Interestingly, during a discussion between the characters, there’s a mention of a rumor-starting schoolmate named Tim Meadows… the same name of a certain future cast member who SNL hires a year later. Apparently, he and Mike Myers were friends from their Second City improv days together, and Mike threw his name into this sketch as a shoutout. Amusingly enough, the Tim Meadows that’s discussed in this sketch is referred to as a “gimp” and a “liar”, among other unflattering things.
— Haha, SNL makes yet ANOTHER Lambada reference.
STARS: ***½
URBAN TOONCES
Urban Toonces joins Bud (DAC) & Sissy (host) for tequila & a bull ride
— Dana’s Travolta is hilarious as always.
— Another good use of Toonces in a movie spoof, after the Driving Miss Daisy sketch earlier this season.
— Very funny visual of Toonces drinking tequila and then riding on the mechanical bull.
— Ha, for once, a Toonces sketch uses a different stock footage clip of a car driving off a cliff, since this scene is supposed to take place at night, whereas the usual stock car-off-a-cliff footage these Toonces sketches often use takes place at day.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “No Alibis”
WEEKEND UPDATE
demostration of HDTV makes DEM Sam Donaldson-like
Mr. Subliminal gives an editorial about Donald & Ivana Trump
— The bit with the HDTV version of Dennis looking like Sam Donaldson was pretty funny.
— I liked Dennis’ random “The Japanese bought EVERYTHING this week” one-liner news story.
— Odd technical error where a graphic of Mr. Subliminal’s name showed up on the bottom of the screen for only a nanosecond before immediately disappearing.
— Oh, never mind. After another occurrence of the quickly-disappearing “Mr. Subliminal” graphic, it’s obvious that it’s an intentional gag in which his name appears subliminally. Clever touch.
— The usual funny subliminal remarks from Mr. Subliminal, especially his sexual comments towards Marla Maples.
— We’re getting a string of brief, rapid-fire jokes from Dennis all of a sudden.
STARS: ***½
THE ADVENTURES OF CALAMITY JANE
therapy helps explain Calamity Jane’s (host) nature
— Two western-themed sketches tonight? And interesting how they both take place in a bar.
— I like the line about a reformed Wild Bill Hickok changing his name to Well-Adjusted Hickok.
— Jon’s exaggerated facial reaction to Calamity Jane pointing a gun at him was really funny (last screencap above).
— Overall, ehh. I liked this overall piece more for the idea and committed performances than for the actual execution. The resulting sketch came off kinda dull and overlong.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pretending”
SATAN’S ALBUM
Mephistopheles defends his album at Senate hearings on record labelling
— Funny beginning with Phil as Ozzy Osbourne.
— First time Nora Dunn has appeared all night. Lately, it feels like we’ve been seeing less and less of her with each passing episode, which makes me realize there’s truth to what Jon Lovitz has claimed in an interview in recent years, where, IIRC, he basically says at one point that towards the end of Nora’s SNL tenure, she was being phased out of the show even BEFORE the infamous boycotting stunt she pulls when a certain controversial stand-up comedian hosts a little later this season.
— I liked Mephistopheles’ only defense of his hellish lyrics being “I live in hell; I write what I know.”
— Hilarious Frank Zappa impression from Dana.
— I’m disappointed to see that this sketch is nowhere near as great as I had remembered it. Portions of this sketch feel kinda dead and aren’t doing all that much for me.
STARS: **½
THE WHITE PARROT
other castmembers upstage JOL’s attempt at a romantic scene with host
— I was wondering where this sketch was going, but Phil’s silly performance right now as the waiter is giving me some laughs.
— I like how the white-colored dessert Phil offers is “chiclets and the inside of an Oreo cookie”.
— Interesting fourth wall-break with Jon calling out Phil on trying to upstage him. I kinda saw it coming that this would turn meta by revealing this is a Jon Lovitz-written sketch, after all the unrealistic flirtatious comments Debra was making to Jon earlier in the sketch.
— Nora’s scene didn’t work much for me, though I liked Jon’s delivery of “Oh, are you DONE?!?” in response to Nora’s overdramatics.
— I like Jan now trying to steal the sketch as a restaurant singer.
— A nice, charming ending between Debra and Jon.
— Despite the laughs I got and the great premise, I couldn’t help but feel this sketch could’ve turned out a little better than it did. Something felt kinda missing in the execution, making the overall piece come off just average to me.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wonderful Tonight”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty forgettable episode. I dunno, I’m just not too crazy about what I watched as a whole. Thinking back on it, there were actually some pretty solid things in the first half, but the second half had an odd, ho-hum feel, and the show ended without there being ANYTHING all night that I felt stood out as particularly great. Even the subpar Quincy Jones episode from earlier this season had a few standout strong pieces. I also don’t like how tonight seemed to have an unusually small number of sketches, which I guess is due to Eric Clapton getting three musical performances, the third of which was quite long (albeit beautiful).
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rob Lowe)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Corbin Bernsen