Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
musical guest inaugurates happy Bill Clinton (PHH) a la Marilyn Monroe
— Pretty fitting casting of Mike as Barbra Streisand, given the Coffee Talk sketches.
— We’ve officially arrived at a new presidency during SNL’s timeline. The Clinton years are gonna be quite a doozy for SNL.
— Ellen’s Whoopi impression is cracking me up, even if I feel she’s not nailing the voice.
— A lot of laughs from the cutaways to the Clinton family’s differing reactions to Madonna’s Marilyn Monroe-esque singing, with a horny Bill, an upset Hillary, and a confused Chelsea.
— I love Bill making the “call me” gesture to Madonna while hugging Hillary.
— Regarding the ending with Madonna revealing she was directing her sultry singing towards Chelsea, I’m kinda surprised SNL would go there after the then-recent controversy over their comments about Chelsea in a Wayne’s World sketch.
— Madonna messes up when saying “Live from New York…”, instead saying “Live from S–” before cutting herself off, pausing for a second, and then saying it correctly.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
host thinks musical guest’s fans are there to see him
— At times, Harvey’s voice reminds me a bit of future cast member Colin Quinn for some reason.
— A simple premise, but there are some decent laughs from his obliviousness to the excitement being for Madonna, not him.
STARS: ***
JIFFY EXPRESS
— Rerun from this season’s Christopher Walken episode
BATHROOM ATTENDANT
fancy restaurant bathroom attendant (KEN) makes (host) self-conscious
— I love the realization when it’s gradually revealed that Kevin’s a bathroom attendant.
— A quintessential Kevin Nealon premise, as he’s always great at pulling off this type of concept.
— The awkwardness of this situation is providing lots of laughs. I’m also liking some of the little things like Kevin tearing off pieces of toilet paper in advance.
— Hilarious how Harvey is trying to use the newspaper to hide himself from Kevin.
— Chris Farley returns from his second rehab stint of the season, only to make a quick 3-second walk-on at the end of this sketch, which ends up being his ONLY appearance of tonight’s episode. Odd. I used to wonder if perhaps he got out of rehab just a day or so before this episode, and this was the only sketch they could manage to throw him into on such short notice, but then I learned he was in a few cut dress rehearsal sketches from this episode, including a now-well-known Eager & Jones sketch (Farley and Meadows as a musical duo who sing as if they’re gay) that will make it on the air later this season.
STARS: ****½
TRANSIT WORKERS
mush-mouthed transit workers produce unintelligible subway announcements
— Harvey’s completely unintelligible speech over the subway intercom is a hilarious spoof of how hard it is to understand the muffled announcements made over subway intercoms. As someone who grew up in New York, this sketch brings back childhood memories of often being baffled by those muffled announcements in New York subways.
— Great reveal of Harvey’s casual speak being just as muffled as his intercom voice, along with his co-workers.
— Ellen’s muffled speak in particular sounds hilarious when it’s heard over the intercom.
— I love the confused look on Tim’s face during Ellen’s intercom announcement.
— Funny PSA from an equally-muffled-voiced spokesman played by Phil.
— This sketch was kept the right length for a premise like this.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fever“
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about Bill Clinton’s inauguration
CSR discusses racial stereotypes, declares “yakoo“ as new anti-white slur
Hollywood Minute- DAS reviews 1992 celebrity news & recent movies
— I recently said that I wonder if the best days of Kevin’s subliminal routine are far behind us, but I feel his subliminal editorial tonight on Bill Clinton’s inauguration was his strongest in a while. The best subliminal terms in this one were Joey Buttafuoco, McNugget, and one-term.
— Funny how so many people in the audience just responded “Oooooh” to Kevin’s joke about the Clintons keeping daughter Chelsea chained up in a dungeon below the White House.
— I like Rock’s mini-rant about wishing there were more positive stereotypes for black people.
— Rock’s suggestions for a new racial slur against white people are okay. His use of placards for each slur is bringing back memories of Tim Kazurinsky’s Dr. Jack Badofsky commentaries from 10 years earlier.
— Tonight’s overall Hollywood Minute surprisingly felt a little below par for David’s standards. A number of his slams tonight didn’t hit as hard as usual. He still had some funny comments here, especially the one about Cindy Crawford’s attempt at singing in a recent commercial, and him about to do a joke about Madonna, only to nervously refrain when remembering she’s at the show tonight.
— Much like the preceding episode, Robert Smigel had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he reprises his Hank Fielding “Moron’s Perspective” character giving an analysis of Bill Clinton.
STARS: ***
IT’S PAT
(host) tries to figure out the gender of fellow castaway androgynous Pat
Audience McGee intercedes to maintain androgynous Pat’s aura of mystery
— I love Harvey’s diary entry about he and Pat having had sex 8 times and him STILL not knowing what gender Pat is.
— In interviews, Julia has famously talked about how she was once approached by a female fan who said she knows Pat’s a woman, because of the way Pat’s head was positioned in tonight’s sketch when sharing a kiss with Harvey. Turns out that was just a natural, subconscious move from Julia and wasn’t intentional for this character.
— Yet another Pat sketch with a refreshing twist, as we get a great fourth-wall break with Audience McGee putting a stop to Pat’s big gender reveal. I especially love McGee bringing up NBC’s pending loss of Cheers and David Letterman as reasons why we need Pat.
STARS: ****
BUSH’S SWAN SONG
George Bush (DAC) cleans out desk & talks with Dan Quayle (Jeff Renaudo)
— Damn, where ya been, Dana? This is the first time we’ve seen Dana in THREE episodes, and this ends up being his ONLY appearance of tonight’s episode, in a sketch buried in the back half of the show. Geez. Lately, it’s ALREADY been starting to feel like Dana’s officially left SNL. He only has one episode left before that happens.
— I love how Bush’s only response during a phone call he receives is a frankly-delivered “Bomb ’em. I’m still the president; bomb ’em good.”
— Nice premise for the final Bush sketch of his presidency. I’m loving all the wistful reminiscing from him here.
— Very funny prank Bush leaves for the about-to-take-over Bill Clinton, involving the removal of the device inside the oval office phone’s mouthpiece.
— I love the big ball of foil Bush rediscovers.
— Jeff Renaudo, the child actor who regularly plays Dan Quayle, has really grown since the last time we’ve seen him. Dana’s Bush even mentions how tall he’s getting.
— I’m liking how Dana’s Bush is particularly goofy and giddy during certain parts of this sketch.
— I usually DESPISE that Tomorrow song from Annie, but given the nature of this sketch, the song actually feels fitting and heartwarming in this context.
— Overall, a solid final Bush sketch that was both funny and bittersweet. This actually would’ve been really fitting as Dana’s final SNL sketch. It could’ve been his official sendoff. Unfortunately, as we’ll see, his actual final episode turns out to feature no special sendoff pieces for him at all. It’s just a run-of-the-mill episode for him. A shame.
STARS: ****
UNFROZEN CAVE MAN LAWYER
Cirroc tries primitive act in Mexican court
— Speaking of final sketches, this ends up being the final Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer sketch during Phil’s tenure as a cast member, not counting the one they would later do when Phil hosts in season 21.
— As usual, some nice bizarre fake sponsors at the top of the sketch. I especially like how one of the sponsors is the planet Xylon, made funnier by the announcer’s cheerful reading of the planet’s warning to us earthlings: “Change your ways or we’ll come there and destroy you!”
— An interesting change of pace for this recurring sketch, with this installment taking place in Mexico City and all the dialogue being delivered in Spanish.
— I’m enjoying how the Spanish version of Cirroc’s usual “Your world frightens and confuses me” speech to the jury comically has a few select English words thrown in.
— Rob’s mostly serious speech went on for a long time, but I liked his use of air quotes when saying “shakes” and “shimmies” during his Spanish dialect.
— This sketch ended on a really empty, weak note with Cirroc just silently smiling into the camera. And why was there no “preview of next week’s episode” scene at the end, like these sketches usually end with?
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bad Girl“
musical guest tears up a photo of the “real enemy“– Joey Buttafuoco
AN INSANE IDIOT AND HIS COLLECTION OF DESCENDING-SIZE DEER HEADS
an insane idiot (host) shows his collection of descending-size deer heads
— I love that we get two back-to-back oddball Jack Handey sketches tonight (not counting Madonna’s musical performance in between).
— The increasing absurdity of this sketch is fantastic, especially when the descending-size deer heads start getting less and less deer-related, such as a mouse with deer horns glued to it, and an ant along with its three eggs.
— Harvey is executing this really well. There’s probably not many hosts who could pull off such a bizarre premise this well all by themselves in a solo sketch.
— Great reveal of the sketch’s title at the end. I like that they waited until then, because if they had displayed the title right at the beginning, I feel that the randomness of this sketch wouldn’t have worked quite as well.
— This overall sketch has always been one of my personal favorites, and some of Jack Handey’s best work.
STARS: *****
CAB
(MIM) & (JUS) get alternating orders to get in or out of (host)’s cab
— Ha, they’re not even attempting to make that street backdrop look real.
— I’m getting some laughs from the ridiculous back-and-forths with Harvey repeatedly letting Mike and Julia in his cab, then sternly ordering them to get out over every little disagreement.
— Funny how even Phil’s cop is getting into the “get in/out of the cab” act.
— Pretty funny ending, though the studio audience took an unusually long time to applaud.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
— For some reason, the scrolling credits abruptly stop halfway through, even as the goodnights continue. The same thing happened in the preceding season’s Christmas episode hosted by Steve Martin.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and the best in a while. Not only did every single sketch work for me tonight, but a lot of them were particularly great. This is usually always one of the first episodes to automatically pop up in my mind whenever I think about how strong this particular season is.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Danny DeVito)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Luke Perry hosts, and we get Dana Carvey’s last hurrah
The monologue seems VERY reminiscent of the monologue from the Paul Rudd/Paul McCartney show.
1. I love that subway sketch. I think the funniest touch is that Phil’s union rep still speaks garbled, but *slightly* less so than the workers.
2. I actually forget the deer head thing was from this episode; I always think it’s a Walken thing.
The subway sketch (which was my favorite of this episode) and the cab sketch remind me of the “New York” feel that SNL still had in this period and began to move away from within a few years. John Mulaney tries to bring that back any time he hosts. He started watching around this era so I wonder if he missed it too…
Per Wikipedia, this is the only time Madonna ever performed “Bad Girl” live. The song and especially the video (also starring Christopher Walken) are a strong rebuttal to all the publicity at this time that she was just exploiting sex and was sex-obsessed. I was never much of a fan of her cover of “Fever” and this episode didn’t change that – Nora Dunn’s sort-of-cover a few years earlier is much more fun and much closer to Peggy Lee’s.
I kept thinking Madonna went on to make a movie with Harvey Keitel but was thinking of Body of Evidence – it was Dangerous Game, released later in 1993. I wonder if she and Harvey talked about doing the movie when they met up at SNL…
I think this is the last appearance Madonna would make on the show for about 16 years. I wonder if there was any reason why.
All the anti-Buttafuoco content (which I certainly don’t disagree with) just makes Lorne having him cameo on the show two years after this even more confounding.
I think this was a pretty good episode. I can see why it’s one of your favorites. It’s an example of “weird” sketches that could have probably used a trim, but at their best, manage to have a coherent tone and are backed up by good performances and energy. Too often “weird” sketches are just there to be weird, with no other effort made.
Keitel seemed very nervous, but the edge worked well with what he was given.
There are only two things in the episode that threw me:
– I guess Madonna being interested in Chelsea, not Bill, was supposed to be Madonna spoofing the image of her in these years as depraved, but it just comes across as crass to me and kind of ruins the whole thing.
– The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer reprisal almost feels like some kind of anti-sketch, designed to alienate people. Not enough that Handey wrote a sketch mostly in another language, and gave Rob Schneider a lengthy, deadening speech, but instead of a comedic ending, we get a shot of all the sick people he helped keep from getting compensation, followed by him smirking. I wonder if this was a character they didn’t really want to bring back or got a different response than they expected the first time, so this was the choice they made? It’s all just a bit odd.
I wonder how much of the audience was just there for Madonna, based on their reactions through the night. Kevin Nealon got more boos and oohs than his WU would have ever likely had, and many sketches had lengthy periods of silence. I think the most awkward was the Pat sketch, although for all I know, the audience was told to just sit there when Sandler kept trying them to sing the theme song. I kind of wish they’d dropped all that part as the bit with Sweeney and Keitel felt funnier and they’d already done the gag about stopping the audience from hearing Pat’s gender.
Loved Phil and Jan dancing for a bit in the goodnights.
Harvey Keitel and Willem Dafoe were both in lead roles in The Last Temptation of Christ so I understand how easy it is to confuse the two.
I met Kevin Nealon several years back (incredibly nice and gracious guy btw) and he told me that the Bathroom Attendant sketch was his personal favourite of his sketches.
This is a knockout episode, one of about five or six from this season.
The Gerard Butler/Shakira episode in season 35 has a promotional tie in from Budweiser Golden Wheat and Jason Sudeikis announces that they’ll be showing dress rehearsal clips throughout the episode instead of an endless string of Budweiser ads. One of the clips is from this episode. It’s a sketch that didn’t make it to air called “Indian Casino” and features Harvey Keitel as an Indian chief being unable to control his laughter while a bemused Rob Schneider is the blackjack dealer trying to move the sketch along.
I remember reading an interview from one of the writers from that era, but they had to really talk NBC into letting Harvey host as he was just a solid character actor then and not a big name for ratings.. I guess that’s why Madonna was probably the music guest, they musta felt shoulda been the star power.
Harvey naturally busted his butt to make this a good show and prove NBC wrong. Shame he never hosted post Pulp Fiction or From Dusk Till Dawn.
I thought the Harvey/Madonna pairing was because the recently did a movie together at that point?
This one…
They were still filming that movie. It wasn’t released until later in the year.
Body of Evidence, however, was recently released and in theaters at the time of this episode. Keitel’s frequent co-star Willem Dafoe was in that movie. Keitel and Dafoe tend to play similar characters so it’s easy to confuse the two.
Even watching this in 2020, I am still laughing my ass off over the entire episode! Keitel did a fantastic job! The back to back sketches (Bathroom Attendant/Subway Announcements) had me chuckling normal nonstop! Didn’t care much for the Madonna performances, including the Buttafucco photo tear.
Here’s my thoughts and rating of the musical performances.
Fever — Very fun and inventive dance/techno cover of this Peggy Lee classic. Nice job on vocals by Madonna and great job by her backing band. Really adds to the loose, breezy feel of this episode.
Stars: ****
Bad Girl — Never been a fan of the mawkishly self-pitying, after school special vibe of the lyrics to this song. An odd choice too, considering how upbeat the overall episode has been all night, and how cheerful her first number was. However, I really like what Madonna’s band is doing instrumentally, especially her drummer — some of those fills are quite tasty.
Stars: **1/2
Barring a change, this will be the vintage episode on February 6th.
As mentioned above, looks like this is still on as the vintage. I am interested in what reactions will be to that cold open….
Watched this tonight
Cut pieces: It’s Pat, Bush Swan Song, Chris Rock commentary from Update
They cut It’s Pat from John Goodman too. I wonder if it’s considered problematic today.
It’s possible. On last week’s Vintage (Nicole Kidman) they made a strange edit to the Sprockets Jeopardy sketch to identify Phil Hartman’s character as “Germany’s most famous [champion]”
It’s funny because Che still makes transphobic jokes. I guess after 7 seasons and likely being in his last season, he does his own thing.
I think they are probably right to cut It’s Pat, but I’m sorry that younger viewers won’t know what a special performer Julia Sweeney was. I wish more of her other work was shown.
There was apparently a “Deep Thoughts” after the Cab sketch and before the Goodnights. It should have been this one:
“I believe in making the world safe
for our children,
but not for our children’s children,
because I don’t think children
should be having sex.”
I just watched this episode and did not see this Deep Thoughts. Possibly cut for being not even remotely funny, nor a particularly deep thought, lol.
———-
Great job by Harvey Keitel as host. I’m not really a Madonna fan (I know her music but don’t own any) but I thought she looked beautiful and sexy on this night. Nice dig at Sinbad O’Connor 🙂
@Geoff Well, at least history proved O’Connor right anyway 🙂
Madonna’s jab at Chelsea in the cold opener probably was a parody of that infamous Wayne’s World incident much like her “Fight The Real Enemy” aimed at a picture of Joey Buttafuoco at the end of “Bad Girl”.