Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE BOBBITT TRIAL
Tonya Harding (MEH) whacks John Bobbitt (MIM) in the groin on Court TV
— After being misled by such a quiet and overly serious start, we get an outrageous and very funny sudden twist with Tonya Harding crashing the Bobbitt Trial and repeatedly whacking Mike’s John Wayne Bobbitt in the groin. I love this mash-up of two different huge scandals going on at the time.
— Good line from Julia about the Menendez brothers now changing their plea to a claim that their parents were beaten by Tonya Harding.
— I like how they kept this short and sweet.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. Same goes for the following monologue.
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— The whole “sick with the flu” thing is a pretty meh premise for this monologue, and isn’t being executed all that well.
— I did get a laugh from Sara’s line “Just tell them that that Urkel kid hosted.”
— Considering the very short length of both the cold opening and monologue, this monologue must’ve ended around the same time that a typical cold opening nowadays would still be in progress.
STARS: **
HIBERNOL
Rerun from 2/20/93, making this season 19’s THIRD repeated commercial from season 18
ROOMMATES
(ROS) claims to be a girl, but his female roommates won’t shower with him
— The concept isn’t bad, the execution is flat so far.
— I’m also iffy about Rob’s questionable character choice to speak in an exaggerated stilted delivery the whole time. It’s very hit-and-miss with me, more miss than hit.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **
SIMON
in the tub with dad’s girlfriend’s filthy daughter (host)
— First time we’ve seen this sketch in a whole year, and it feels odd seeing it at this point in the show’s run, especially with the new visual look this season has suddenly started having with the preceding week’s Jason Patric episode.
— Some funny comments from Simon about Sara’s physical dirtiness.
— Decent bit with Simon’s various euphemisms for his genitals.
— Why is Sara’s eyepatch on the wrong eye in the drawing of her (the third above screencap for this sketch)?
— This overall Simon installment started losing steam for me halfway through, though there was a bit of a charm to this piece as a whole.
STARS: **½
TATER JUNCTION
Gap girls Kristy & Lucy hang out with boss Cindy (CHF) at Tater Junction
— Nice to see these characters in a new setting.
— A legendary moment just now, with Chris’ sudden deep-voiced threat of “Lay off me, I’m starving!” while grabbing David by the throat.
— Another memorable moment just now, with David’s meta “I can’t believe we’re all wearing the same thing we did four days ago” line. I’d like to think that was an ad-lib, but I’ve never been sure. Does anyone know?
— During the phone conversation that David acts out, I liked the touch of him miming phone dialing sounds.
— Funny running bit with Chris’ character’s inability to tell a joke or insult.
— A fun sketch overall, and is probably the most iconic, quintessential Gap Girls sketch.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “‘Round Here”
WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM thinks that there’s too much figure skating on TV
SAS talks about stuff that happened to her during the week
— Some good laughs from Norm using his commentary to shoehorn in complains about figure skating, and negatively putting it on the same level as the violence of the Tonya Harding incident. Not the funniest Update commentary Norm will do this season, but it’s still solid.
— Kevin’s delivery of some of his jokes tonight is pretty awful. He sounds like he’s reading them for the very first time. I’m telling you, Norm’s stint as Update anchor can’t come soon enough for me.
— Sarah Silverman’s Update commentary finally makes it on the air. Believe it or not, this commentary had constantly been getting cut after dress rehearsal almost all season long, starting with the John Malkovich episode way back in October.
— Sarah’s commentary about news in her personal life feels out of place as an Update feature in this era, but I do kinda like the idea of this being a way for SNL to introduce her to us. There’s some sadness to that in retrospect, though, considering this would end up being Sarah’s ONLY claim to fame during her SNL stint.
— The humor in Sarah’s commentary feels like a primitive version of the type of standup she’d later become famous for, and the occasional interactions with Kevin feel too shoehorned in, but I’m getting some good laughs here. I loved the part about her sister thinking of shortening her long married Jewish surname to just “Jews”, and the pap smear/gagging bit. Her imitation of a high school best friend posing for a picture is also a memorable part.
— Some strong jokes from Kevin near the end of tonight’s Update, especially the memorable David Copperfield/Claudia Schiffer one.
— Two Update commentaries got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. One where Al Franken showed footage of himself and his family playing football with President Clinton, and another where Tim played a smooth-talking correspondent who constantly got distracted by the beauty of the women in the audience.
STARS: **½
BLOSSOM
dad’s (KEN) proud Blossom’s (MEH) having sex, but driving is out
a music video features Joey Lawrence (MIM) singing his hit song “Whoa”
— This is a sketch I’ve always hated in my past viewings. I’ll keep an open mind during this particular viewing, especially since I now have much more tolerance for Melanie Hutsell than I used to have. As the sketch goes along, I’ll list off the problems I’ve always had with it in past viewings.
— PROBLEM #1: The simple fact that Melanie Hutsell is starring in it. That was enough to make me dislike this sketch during the days when I couldn’t stand her.
— PROBLEM #2: The recreation of the Blossom opening credits. I guess it’s kinda cute seeing the SNL performers in the Blossom actors’ roles in it, but there are absolutely no jokes; it’s just a straight recreation of the credits. What’s the point?
— I am getting laughs from Sara’s take on Six/Jenna Von Oy.
— Melanie’s performance and delivery are actually making me chuckle throughout this.
— PROBLEM #3: The joke with Blossom’s dad having initially-shocked-then-accepting reactions to finding certain things in Blossom’s purse, a joke I used to find really dumb.
— I like how Sara keeps claiming that things Blossom’s dad finds in her purse are “balloons… for a party!”
— PROBLEM #4: The terrible and unnecessary ending with Mike-as-Joey-Lawrence’s “Whoa!” music video, which has a strangely shoddy season 20 feel (not a good thing).
— Overall, I’m happy to say after this viewing that I didn’t hate this sketch nearly as much as I did in the past. However, I still didn’t find it anything great. Plus problems #2 and #4 listed above still bugged me. I’m iffy on where I now stand with problem #3.
STARS: **½
LUNCHLADY LAND
ADS plays guitar & sings “Lunchlady Land” amongst dancing cafeteria food
— Here comes a Chris Farley/Adam Sandler classic.
— Weird and perhaps kinda telling of the show’s declining quality that two very popular Chris Farley performances tonight involve him in drag (Gap Girls and this sketch). Plus, there was that Blind Melon bee girl thing in the last episode.
— Very solid, funny storytelling from Adam’s lyrics, while Chris is great acting out the song.
— I love how things start to get ramped up when the song starts REALLY kicking in.
— Now this already-fun piece is getting even more fun with other performers playing embodiments of lunch items. I’m absolutely loving this.
— This feels kinda different for a sketch from this era.
STARS: *****
FAMILY VACATIONS
only EuroDisney can satisfy a sullen teen’s (host) vacation requirements
— Here comes Sara evidently doing a Jason Patric impression.
— Boy, this sketch is really flat. Little-to-no laughs from me so far.
— This is another thing tonight that seems to have a season 20-like atmosphere (again, not a good thing).
— I got an unintentional laugh from Jay’s awkwardly-delivered straight-to-camera “Welcome to the Pleasure Dome!”
— In the Gap Girls sketch earlier tonight, David riffed on the fact that they were wearing the same clothes in a scene that supposedly took place four days later. We could’ve used some riffing like that in this Family Vacations sketch, as this family wears the same clothes every YEAR.
— I did like Kevin’s line “But [Madonna’s] having sex with two midgets. I thought you’d like that.”
— Very weak punchline of EuroDisney being the only place that satisfies Sara.
— My god, this is Phil’s FIRST appearance all night (not counting the rerun of the year-old HiberNol ad), and we’re in the last 30 minutes of the show! I know they’ve been phasing him out this season, but relegating him to a small appearance in the last 30 minutes of an episode is inexcusable.
— Geez, it’s sad that Phil made his first appearance of the night just for THAT. They didn’t even bother to give him any good lines in his small scene. And, boy, am I getting tired of those “a message from Michael Eisner” pieces they keep shoehorning into this season.
STARS: *½
ROB SCHNEIDER’S GIRLFRIEND THEATER
KEN & host act out her evilness
— Creative premise.
— Kevin appears to be going for an imitation of Rob’s voice during his portrayal of him, but the voice sounds NOTHING like Rob.
— Despite the interesting idea, this is unfortunately turning out to be yet another sketch tonight with a pretty flat feel.
— The titles for each act in this play aren’t that funny.
— I do like Phil (in his second and final small appearance of the night, by the way; a damn shame) as the devil being appalled at Rob’s girlfriend’s evilness.
— Overall, this sketch sadly didn’t work for me as much as it should have.
— Rob’s been having a weird season so far. After a very strong year in season 18 where he could do no wrong for me, he’s taken a step down this season. While he still has been doing some really solid work, he’s been a lot more hit-and-miss. He’s also been kinda invisible lately, and in fact has been mysteriously absent from two episodes (Nicole Kidman and Jason Patric).
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mr. Jones”
20 QUESTIONS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL
host is repeatedly asked “Why?”
— I’ve been mentioning season 20 harbingers an awful lot throughout tonight’s review. Well, here’s another one, though this is a much more minor point: the font used for the words “20 Questions” in this sketch’s logo looks like the same font SNL would use a season later for their own 20th anniversary logo (side-by-side comparison).
— Tim is just NOW making his first appearance of the night, in the 10-to-1 sketch.
— Pretty funny froggy voice from Tim’s Bryant Gumbel.
— Unfortunately, Tim’s aforementioned voice has been the only thing that’s been closely resembling anything funny in this sketch. This is an awful one-joke sketch that’s falling horribly flat. Guess that’s yet another season 20 harbinger tonight.
— What was with the bit at the end with Tim’s shoe?
— Tim would later disclose in the “Live from New York” book that this sketch was the most uncomfortable he’d ever been while performing a sketch in all his years on SNL, due to how badly this sketch bombed with the audience. Tim even mentions in that part of the book that he was sweating a lot during this sketch because of how uncomfortable the dead atmosphere made him.
STARS: *
APOLOGY
ROS apologizes to his girlfriend for the sketch earlier in the show
— A pointless, unnecessary brief piece, though the lawsuit comment just now was kinda funny.
STARS: *½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty blah episode for me, especially the post-Update half, where there was an endless string of sketches that I found to be either iffy, dull, or downright bad, minus Lunchlady Land. In fact, this was a pretty flat episode all around, aside from two memorable highlights with Gap Girls and the aforementioned Lunchlady Land, and a funny outrageous punchline in the cold opening. I’ve also noticed that, similar to the infamous preceding episode with Jason Patric, there was a pretty quiet, low-energy feel to this episode (though not as bad tonight as it was in the Patric episode), which seems as if it will be the theme of the second half of this season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Patric)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Patrick Stewart