Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
INAUGURAL SPEECH
Rudolph Giuliani’s (KEN) son Andrew (CHF) upsets NYC mayoral inauguration
— A funny contrast when the footage of the real Giuliani and his son crossfades to a shot of them being played by Kevin and Chris.
— Chris’ various actions are a funny spoof of how Giuliani’s son acted at the real inauguration.
— There’s practically no material in this cold opening, but Chris is impressively milking every possible laugh out of such a thin piece and and is actually making it very memorable.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host is less than thrilled to be on SNL; LOM asks him not to be a downer
— A notorious monologue. I’m a bit conflicted, as I really want to like Jason Patric’s dryness here, and he (or should I say, whoever wrote this monologue) isn’t wrong about some of his criticisms of the then-current state of the show, but geez, the man is not coming off well at all here, and it feels wrong for an SNL episode in an increasingly less-than-stellar season to start in such a dour manner. A funnier host more skilled at deadpan, snarky humor would at least sell the anti-SNL attitude thing much better and give it an amusing feel instead of a sour feel.
— Jason riffs on the fact that going backstage to talk to Lorne is an overused, cliched monologue trope, and he adds “Let’s run this device into the ground together” (which is a funny line that, again, would’ve killed had it been delivered by someone more adept at snarky humor). Hmm, I think he’s picking on the wrong monologue trope. Considering the trend of the monologues this season, he should consider himself damn lucky they aren’t having him take questions from the audience.
— I kinda smiled at him explaining to us that, unlike hosts who like to run back to the home base stage after a backstage scene, he’s just going to take his time. Again, I’m conflicted on this monologue. Part of me strangely kinda loves this idea of a host using their monologue to deconstruct SNL’s bad cliches, but the wrong host is delivering it.
— Oddly, at the very end of this monologue as the SNL Band starts playing the show to commercial, Jason walks back to the home base stage’s entrance doors behind him and starts to open the door, only to pause, turn back and run past the camera to get changed backstage. What was that all about? Reruns of this monologue hide this by fading out early when Jason stats to head towards the home base stage’s entrance doors.
STARS: **
THE NFL ON FOX
John Madden (CHF) & Luke Perry (host) anchor at halftime
— Funny start with the “90210”-style opening credits for NFL on FOX.
— Boy, Chris is doing the world’s worst John Madden impression ever heard.
— The joke of Jason’s Luke Perry only speaking in moody “90210”-esque one-liners has gotten old fast.
— I’m really liking Julia’s Peg Bundy impression. Considering how badly underused and misused Julia has been this season (and it only gets worse the next few months), often being relegated to small straight roles, it feels refreshing to actually laugh at a performance of hers.
— The Deion Sanders/Kim Wayans scene is freakin’ terrible.
— Minutes later, they’re still running the unfunny Luke-Perry-says-deep-one-liners joke into the ground.
— Boy, talk about terrible, the jokes for Jay’s Don Rickles are cringeworthy. In his SNL book, Jay blames the audience’s silence during his portion of this sketch on the fact that they couldn’t recognize him under that heavy makeup (he mentions in that part of the book that he could hear a girl in the audience ask “Is that Spade?”). Sorry, Jay, but I think the audience was dead because your lines weren’t funny and your Rickles impression didn’t work.
— I kinda like what Adam’s going for with his Richard Lewis impression.
— The “Melrose Place” scene with Phil’s Jimmy Johnson is yet another scene in this sketch that’s falling flat.
— Reruns show the dress rehearsal version of the “Melrose Place” scene. Phil’s wig in that version is a bit different, and the scene goes on a little longer, at one point featuring Sarah Silverman’s Heather Locklear leaving and Phil’s Jimmy Johnson saying something to himself while in deep thought.
— Mercifully, this bore of a sketch has ended. This overall sketch just plain didn’t work, which is a shame considering the format itself was fun and had promise.
STARS: *½
THE ROAD TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Don Lapre’s (DAS) word truncation scheme
— Good to see David’s Don Lapre impression back. I’ve always liked tonight’s Don Lapre sketch even more than the one from the preceding season’s finale.
— The “airport schmairport” bit is funny.
— This is the first time all night where a Jason Patric performance is actually working for me (and will probably end up being the only time all night, from what I remember of the rest of this episode).
— Lots of funny little lines all throughout this sketch.
— I love the dark humor of Phil’s prisoner character cheerfully revealing he’s going to be executed by “leath injecsh”.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “No Rain”
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal commentary on excessive criticism of Bill Clinton
— Not crazy about the jokes so far.
— WTF?!? In the copy I’m watching, right as Kevin begins his Subliminal Commentary, the audio suddenly cuts off and is randomly replaced by audio from a freakin’ Empty Nest episode. I kid you not. I’m aware that this is a local NBC affiliate error.
— Jesus, it’s now almost a minute-and-a-half later, and even long after Kevin has ended his Subliminal Commentary and has moved on back to news jokes, the Empty Nest audio has yet to stop. One of Kevin’s jokes I missed involved him flinching in fear from a picture displayed of Jesse Jackson on the news screen. Wonder what that was all about.
— Finally, the Empty Nest audio has ended.
— Great joke from Kevin about Latoya Jackson not being nominated for a Grammy because there’s no category for “crappy”. I recall hearing an opinion that this seems like an Update joke that Norm Macdonald would’ve done the following few seasons, and I can definitely see that. He would’ve sold the punchline even better than Kevin did.
— No guest commentaries tonight?
— Despite a few good jokes and a funny weather map bit, I found this to be a rough Update as a whole and it had a fairly dead atmosphere in some portions, not helped by the lack of a guest commentary, giving this Update even more of an empty, dead feel. The bizarre Empty Nest audio gaffe also didn’t help things, though that’s certainly not Kevin nor SNL’s fault.
STARS: **
MR. INTENSE
Mr. Intense (host) goes to a party & does the hokey-pokey
— I’m currently a little over a minute into this weird sketch, and I have no idea what to say so far, except point out that I haven’t laughed a single time.
— Okay, I can definitely see why Mr. Intense naming off each of the Seven Dwarves in his typically intense, dramatic manner is supposed to be hilarious, but this sketch is another example tonight of something Jason Patric’s doing that would actually be funny if it were given to a more capable host. Imagine Christopher Walken performing this sketch’s material.
— What’s up with Kevin’s overly broad performance? It seems out of place for the tone of this sketch.
— As if this sketch wasn’t already off-putting enough, what the bloody hell was with the fourth wall-breaking ending? Not only was it terrible, but it seemed to be a weird continuation of the “I don’t want to be here” storyline of Jason’s monologue earlier tonight. If this is the show’s way of doing a meta Charles Grodin-type running gag throughout an episode, then this is sad. (Actually, what they’re going for is probably more comparable to what they did with Garry Shandling, but the point still stands) If you’re going to attempt what the Grodin episode beautifully did, you need to be much more clear about it and show far more commitment to the concept. Don’t establish the concept in the monologue and then wait half an episode later to do a half-assed continuation of it, only to never speak of it again for the remainder of the episode.
STARS: *½
COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Richard Simmons [real] gives diet tips by singing Streisand
— (*sigh*) Fourth appearance of this sketch in just ten episodes so far this season…
— Hmm, a Richard Simmons appearance. At least he’s providing a distraction from the typical Coffee Talk dullness.
— Simmons is adding a fairly fun vibe to this. His energy is welcome, considering the lethargic atmosphere throughout tonight’s episode.
— Another positive thing about this Coffee Talk sketch is that it has thankfully cut down on the use of Linda Richman’s catchphrases that never make me laugh.
STARS: **½
WHERE’S THE REST OF ME?: THE FABRICE STORY
a hand model (host) copes after losing a finger
— It’s taken two minutes into this sketch for me to get my first laugh, with the whole bit involving Norm giving a rundown on the casualties from the car accident. Great use of Norm’s trademark delivery style.
— Mike seems to be playing a bit of a Dr. Evil prototype here, especially the pinky-in-the-mouth mannerism. Or maybe he’s just doing a variation of his behind-the-scenes Lorne Michaels impression, but then again, that’s what Dr. Evil supposedly is.
— This is the second consecutive episode with a long movie-like sketch involving many scene and set changes, after Sally Field’s I Want My Baby Back sketch. I usually love this type of sketch, but it didn’t work for me much in the Sally Field sketch and it’s DEFINITELY not working for me in this sketch.
— Adam’s line was chuckleworthy, providing only my second (and probably final) laugh of this overlong sketch.
— God bless Phil for trying to save this sketch like the consummate pro he always is, but I’m afraid it ain’t workin’ here.
— The montage of Jason having success with his stump-fingered hand is actually charming in itself, but is going on too long for something not intended to be funny in a sketch that’s already been long and has been failing in its attempts to be funny. In a better sketch, I would’ve loved that montage.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Paper Scratcher”
THE HERLIHY BOY DOG SITTING SERVICE
Mr. O’Malley & (host) beg “let him sit”
— Here’s our latest victim of season 19’s bad habit of making recurring sketches out of stuff that have no legs as a recurring sketch and clearly should’ve remained a solid one-off. And did we really need to see the return of this particular sketch only TWO EPISODES after it debuted?
— Chris is mining some laughs out of this material, but the gradual buildup to his eventual angry screaming rant isn’t being pulled off anywhere NEAR as well as it was in the memorable first installment. This is coming off as a pale and clumsy imitation.
— All I can say about Jason’s random psychotic-ranting character is: WTF?!?!
— Herlihy Boy’s begging eventually getting to the point where he now tells us “Let me be your dog” is worth a good laugh.
— I love how Chris immediately cuts off his “Let the boy be your dog” screaming rant to ask Herlihy Boy in a low-voiced, sensible manner “Tim, I’m not sure what we’re going for here” and “Have you thought this through, Timmy?”
STARS: **
SKI LIFT
while riding a ski lift, (host) has a strange conversation with (KEN)
— Kevin: “Boy, if I had a nickel for every time somebody asked me that, you’d be a dead man, Tony.”
— Finally, a sketch that’s actually making me laugh a lot. This is a very silly sketch that Kevin is perfect for. I’m loving his string of off-beat, disjointed, unsettling one-liners.
— Unfortunately, Jason Patric as this sketch’s straight man is yet ANOTHER example tonight of a role that would’ve worked better with a different host. Thankfully, though, this sketch is making me laugh so much to the degree that Jason’s less-than-stellar straight man performance isn’t hurting it much.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very rough episode as a whole, and probably the weakest one I’ve reviewed in quite a long time. There were certainly still some really solid highlights tonight, but they were few and far in between, and a lot of the stuff in between was pretty brutal. While most of the writing did the show no favors, a good chunk of the blame for the lousiness and lethargic atmosphere of this episode goes to Jason Patric, who had a baffling presence, wasn’t funny for the most part, and killed the energy of a lot of pieces. And the half-assed Charles Grodin/Garry Shandling-type conceptual theme they seemingly were going for him was a huge flop.
— Tonight’s episode, the first one of the second half of this season, has really set the tone for the remainder of this season, as we’ve entered what turns out to be a sharp downhill slide in the show’s quality that eventually leads into the infamous season 20. While the first half of the season we’re in wasn’t too great itself, so many things about this season has changed starting with tonight’s midpoint episode; even the look. Have you ever noticed how drastically different the visual appearance of the second half of this season is compared to the first half? That’s always stood out to me, even in the days when I was originally exposed to this season in 60-minute Comedy Central reruns.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sally Field)
a fairly big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Sara Gilbert