February 19, 1994 – Martin Lawrence / Crash Test Dummies (S19 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM JEFF GILLOOLY
Jeff Gillooly (ROS) relates his concerns about Clinton health care plan

— What was that holler in the background while Don Pardo announced “The following is a message from Jeff Gillooly”? It sounded like an audience member shouting “LOOOOOSEEEEERRRR!” or something like that, which seemed to crack the audience up.
— Some pretty funny lines from Rob’s Gillooly so far.
— After a decent beginning, this ended up kinda dying off. A fairly dull opening overall, and not the most exciting way to start the show.
— Some interesting trivia: the cold opening in this episode’s dress rehearsal was actually a Dick Clark’s Receptionist piece, in which David’s character is working in the 30 Rock lobby. He won’t let Martin Lawrence and his posse go upstairs to SNL’s studio, until Martin’s bodyguards lift David in the air, causing him to scream out “Live from New York…”. I think I would’ve preferred that cold opening to this fairly dull Jeff Gillooly piece.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about penile dismemberment & feminine hygiene

— Oh, here we go. I’ve long been dreading having to cover this monologue, but now that I’ve arrived here, I do think this will be very interesting to talk about.
— I did get a laugh from Martin’s opening line when seeing the audience: “Man, look at all these white people.”
— “Pillypacker”? Really, Martin? I know he can’t say whatever dirty penis euphemism he would normally say in his uncensored stand-up act, but he went with “pillypacker”? Fucking “pillypacker”?!?!? And he somehow repeats it about 50 times throughout this monologue with a straight face!
— Now here comes the notorious turn this monologue takes, starting with Martin bluntly stating towards women “Some of you are not washin’ ya ass properly!”
— Needless to say, it’s sure is something hearing this raunchy feminine hygiene routine in a 1994 SNL monologue. I don’t know what in the world made Martin think he could get away with doing this material on NBC in freakin’ 1994.
— When telling women they need to put a Tic-Tac or a Cert in their vaginas: “This looks like a good place for a stick-up up in your ass!” I remember it took me years after I first saw this uncensored monologue until I finally found out what that line was referencing.
— God, now he’s going on about what it’s like to get a yeast infection on your lip when going down on a woman. The hell am I watching?!? This is probably something I might find funny in an uncensored HBO stand-up special, but in a 1994 SNL monologue?!?
— To cap it all off, he ends this monologue by bizarrely tearing off his shirt and doing absurd karate moves while mugging the camera to extreme levels.
— I can’t quite remember what the behind-the-scenes story is regarding what Martin was supposed to do for his on-air monologue. I think Jay Mohr mentions in his SNL book that Martin performed this same feminine hygiene material in dress rehearsal, but was told between dress rehearsal and the live show to either tone the feminine hygiene material way the hell down or replace it with something entirely different (can’t remember which). And, of course, Martin went on the air and didn’t do what he was told. Phil Hartman would later be quoted somewhere as saying Martin “stabbed us in the back”.
— Reruns of this monologue edit out the much-complained-about feminine hygiene portion and famously replace it with a Jim Downey-read disclaimer explaining in a very professional way what Martin discussed in the edited-out portion and how much it got SNL into trouble. That whole disclaimer is actually funnier than anything in the actual monologue. Something about the combination of Jim Downey’s dry voice-over and the overly serious wording of the disclaimer is unintentionally hilarious, especially hearing Downey paraphrase Martin’s raunchy rant in such a professional manner.
STARS: *½


MCINTOSH POST-IT NOTES
— Rerun from 10/23/93.
— What’s with the audience’s weird sounds during this? Am I hearing them having conversations while this is airing?


THUGS
muggers (host) & (PHH) offer commentary during a night of work

— I swear I recall seeing In Living Color once use this exact same premise of a Cops parody that follows the criminals instead of the police, during this same season (1993-94). Am I crazy, or did that really happen? If so, which sketch came first, the In Living Color version or this SNL version? I’d hate to think SNL stole from ILC, especially something from ILC’s 93-94 season, which was a lesser year for that show, from what I remember (this was after the Wayans family left, right?). Then again, Martin brought in some of his own writers this week (their names are seen during the third screencap of the goodnights later in this review), so maybe one of them is responsible for the possible sketch thievery.
— This sketch is sometimes cited by SNL fans as a prime example of how poorly utilized Phil is this season.
— Martin playing a typical Martin Lawrence character, involving tons of excessive mugging into the camera……
— The use of pre-taped outdoors footage is kinda fun, as it’s rare to see that in this era.
— The repeated “You got the time? *punch*” gag is getting really old.
STARS: **


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
initially-hostile host eventually opens up to Stuart

— I kinda like the opening with Stuart Smalley’s uncomfortable, intimidated looks into the mirror while Martin is behind him staring him down with a disapproving look.
— I want to appreciate the change of pace in this installment, but Martin playing himself as an angry black man isn’t working for me.
— I got a laugh from Stuart doing his typical “Trace it, face it, and erase it” spiel towards Martin’s racial anger.
— Now we have Martin calling Stuart homophobic slurs, though I suppose it was only a mater of time before there was a Daily Affirmation sketch in which Stuart’s sexual orientation was finally addressed at length (the Daily Affirmation sketch with Roseanne and Tom Arnold in season 17 had Tom disparagingly calling Stuart a “little fruit” at one point, but nothing more was said about it and that sketch quickly moved on). Not sure if THIS is the way to address his sexuality, though.
— Nice to see Stuart standing up for himself for once, and going off on Martin.
— I’m conflicted on the turn with Stuart finally connecting with Martin and getting him to open up. It’s actually a good turn and is pretty well-written, but I dunno about all the unnecessary typical Martin Lawrence hamminess.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”


WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM says Michael Jackson may be a child molester, but he’s no plagiarist
Hollywood Minute- DAS talks about Jim Carrey, Gerard Depardieu, others

— I liked Kevin’s dismissive “Tonya Harding, blah blah blah, Nancy Kerrigan, blah blah blah” opening joke, but it seems hypocritical of SNL, considering who they end up booking as host for the very next episode (you’ll see who at the end of this review). Granted, word has it that NBC is the one to blame for that booking.
— A lot of huge laughs from Norm “defending” Michael Jackson in a very typically Norm Macdonald-esque way, by explaining that Michael is merely a child molester, not something horrible like a plagiarist. Hilarious bit.
— As Kevin introduces David’s commentary, we get an accidental early cutaway to David getting a clip-on mic applied to his tie by an off-camera assistant (screencap below).

— David seems more animated than usual during tonight’s Hollywood Minute, often playing to the audience in between jokes (just look at his face in some of the screencaps above, as well as in the below screencap).

— David’s overall Hollywood Minute commentary tonight wasn’t my favorite from him, but I still enjoyed it as a whole and got some good laughs, such as his comparison between Kate Moss’ “Obsession” ad and Schindler’s List, and his comment about Ann Wilson’s ribs.
— Rob had a commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal, in which he reprised his Sports Bloopers bit from earlier in the season. Yeah, not sure we needed to see that again. (We eventually end up seeing it again anyway next season, only with Jay Mohr being the one who presents the bloopers, though he has a different spin on it.)
STARS: **½


SCARED STRAIGHT
Matt Foley & fellow prisoner (host) scare juvenile delinquents straight

 

— In one portion of Jay Mohr’s SNL book, he discusses this sketch at great length and gives a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits about it. As this sketch goes along, I’ll share each tidbit as they occur.
— MOHR TIDBIT #1: Jay says that right before he was to arrive at the set for this sketch in the live show, he started feeling a panic attack coming on (which is something that happened to him very often during his SNL tenure), so he brought a Klonopin (I think) pill with him and kept it hidden in his hand during the sketch so he could sneakily ingest it if needed be. Supposedly, over the course of the sketch, Jay’s hands became so sweaty that they caused the pill he was holding to dissolve into powder. However, I’ve been paying attention to him since this sketch started, and neither of his hands look like there’s anything hidden in them.
— Interesting use of Matt Foley. I like how starting with the Sally Field episode, they’ve been putting Matt Foley into creative new settings.
— MOHR TIDBIT #2: The huge sweat stains on Matt Foley when he enters wasn’t part of the script. Chris added that right before the live version of the sketch, in an attempt to crack the other performers up. Jay explained in the book that his amusement at seeing those huge sweat stains ended up soothing his pending panic attack.
— I’ve been noticing throughout this SNL project of mine that Chris has been increasingly exaggerating his Matt Foley voice with each passing sketch this character appears in. Not sure that’s working for me. I prefer the voice he used in the very first installment. The voice he’s using in tonight’s installment seems like he’s playing a caricature of his own character.
— MOHR TIDBIT #3: When Chris is supposed to say “Sold – seven bitches to the homey in the cornrows!”, he instead just stands there silently for a long time, seemingly forgetting it’s his turn to speak. Then he quickly spits out “Sold – seven bitches to the corny in the homeroars!”, then goes “Oops!” in embarrassment when realizing he mangled the line. This causes EVERYONE in the sketch (except Martin) to crack up – even the usually-unbreakable Phil Hartman!
— Reruns use the dress rehearsal version of most of this sketch (up until the climax with Matt Foley and Martin having a chair fight), and you can tell the exact point when they switch from the dress rehearsal version to the live version, because Chris’ shirt suddenly goes from having no sweat stains at all to having a crapload of sweat stains all over.
— MOHR TIDBIT #4: After Matt Foley’s pratfall through the prison wall, the teen delinquents suddenly making a mad dash out of the wall hole wasn’t part of the script. You see, Adam Sandler concocted a plan after dress rehearsal, in which he and the other performers playing the teen delinquents would pile on top of Chris immediately after he pratfalls through the wall during the live sketch, so Chris wouldn’t be able to finish the sketch, thus sabotaging the sketch’s ending on live TV. (A prime example of Adam’s growing unprofessionalism) However, it turns out Chris impressively was strong enough to push off each of the guys piled on top of him, and he was able to finish the sketch as scripted.
— All of the above fun tidbits were almost enough to distract from the fact that this overall sketch just wasn’t very good. My least favorite Matt Foley sketch so far, but the worst from him has yet to come.
STARS: **


BIKE MESSENGER
bike messenger (MIM) waxes poetic about his job & talks with pedestrians

— This sketch was cut from the preceding week’s Alec Baldwin/Kim Basinger episode. In fact, this sketch was actually scheduled to make it on their air that night, according to a photo I once saw (during some kind of SNL documentary) of that episode’s live schedule on a board on Lorne’s office wall. The rundown in that live schedule photo matches exactly how the live show goes, EXCEPT for Bike Messenger being listed as the final sketch of the night. The show must’ve run long and they had to cut the sketch for time.
— Another interesting fact about the version of this sketch that was supposed to air in the Baldwin/Basinger episode: Alec Baldwin was cast as Bike Messenger, not Mike Myers. It’s very hard for me to picture Alec pulling off this role after being familiar with Mike’s take on it. I’m guessing Alec’s characterization was very different from Mike’s.
— Speaking of Mike’s characterization, he seems to be recycling his voice from another character or impression of his, but I can’t put my finger on which one it is.
— Not only is the very brief shot of Julia her first and ONLY appearance tonight, but it’s the first time we’ve seen ANY of the female cast members tonight. We’re in the last 30 minutes of this episode, and the female cast members are just NOW making their first appearance. I kid you not. I wonder if this is the longest an SNL episode has ever gone without any female cast members appearing. This is a prime example of how neglected SNL’s female cast is gradually becoming in this increasingly Boys Club era.
— Phil’s voice trailing off at the end of his statement gave me a big laugh.
— I’m loving the absurd, offbeat nature of this sketch. This refreshingly feels very different for a sketch from this season.
— Excellent meta turn with Norm (who’s gradually becoming the savior of this season) in another perfectly Norm Macdonald-esque role, with him pointing out the flaws in this sketch and trying to find the logic in how Bike Messenger can hear any of the pedestrians while rapidly cycling past them. Norm’s lines are freakin’ hilarious.
— I’ve been noticing in his appearances throughout tonight’s episode that Adam’s been rocking some facial fuzz. Looks like he’s in the process of growing a goatee (screencaps below).

Strange to see that in Adam’s SNL tenure, as he’s usually always clean-shaven on the show.
— Mike’s bizarre one-liners are making me laugh more and more as this sketch progresses.
— It’s interesting seeing the different types of performances each cast member is giving as a pedestrian.
— Solid ending with Norm solving the logic problem by joining Bike Messenger on a bike of his own.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Afternoons & Coffeespoons”


BENCH WARMER
during a game, New Jersey Nets benchwarmer (host) shows (TIM) the ropes

— I’m a few minutes into this sketch, and I have no idea what to say, except this sketch is just Martin doing his typical shtick, which I’m beyond tired of seeing at this point of tonight’s episode. The preceding Bike Messenger sketch was a nice break from that.
STARS: **


RICKI LAKE
Joe Jackson (host) & Ike Turner (TIM) defend themselves

— Melanie (in her first and only appearance of the night) appears to be going for an imitation of Ricki Lake’s voice, but……. yeah, not sure it’s working for me.
— Tim’s Ike Turner appearing for the second week in a row? At least it’s a change of pace not seeing him on Update for once.
— Of course, after sitting still for most of the sketch, Martin suddenly has to get up and do his typical Martin Lawrence-esque wild physical gestures for the billionth time tonight.
— Tim’s Ike Turner hasn’t been adding much to this sketch.
— I got a laugh from Martin’s Joe Jackson expressing his regrets at once taking his son Michael to Disney World, because “now my boy thinks he’s Peter Pan.”
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS


IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As expected, a weak episode. While the controversy over the monologue overshadows nearly everything in the show, there wasn’t much in the show worth remembering anyway. Even Daily Affirmation was kinda iffy for once. It also feels like there was an unusually low number of sketches tonight, which must mean the sketches were longer than usual. Bike Messenger was the only sketch I felt highly about all night. While I’ve certainly found Martin Lawrence’s shtick funny at times in other venues (though most of those times were back when I was a kid, which may explain it), his act was spread way too thin over the course of tonight’s episode. It only took about one or two sketches for me to quickly get tired of his mugging, vocalizations, over-the-top gestures, etc., and yet he kept bringing it back sketch after sketch after sketch.
— This season lately has been starting to give off a tired, low-effort vibe that’s becoming really sad, almost depressing, especially when remembering how often the late 80s/early 90s years were on their game, even as recent as a mere year earlier in season 18.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Nancy Kerrigan. Well, THAT oughta cheer me up! [/end sarcasm] We also get a new addition to the cast.

28 Replies to “February 19, 1994 – Martin Lawrence / Crash Test Dummies (S19 E14)”

  1. Yeah, this is episode is kind of a mess. Martin Lawrence’s monologue, his constant hamminess, the self-indulgence of the Matt Foley sketch, Phil and the women getting nothing to do, the overly-long nature of everything…this is on par with some of ’94-’95.

    The amount that the Foley sketch was derailed and chaotic kinda emphasizes the feeling that the show was more fun for the cast than the audience at this point.

    1. I’m guessing the new cast member is McKean. Can’t wait for him to liven things up (slightly).

  2. That monologue…holy shit. I remember watching it live. I was 13 and will admit I didn’t exactly “get” everything he was talking about, but I understood enough to know it wasn’t gonna go over so well.

    I did like Phil’s “…back in Ireland!” line when talking about the long line of thugs in his family.

    The bench warmer sketch probably could’ve worked with a less hammy actor, but then again you could say that about pretty much any sketch Lawrence was in

  3. Phil Hartman’s quote is from a March 11, 1994 Entertainment Weekly article as part of its “can X’s career be saved” occasional recurring feature: https://ew.com/article/1994/03/11/martin-lawrence-can-his-career-be-saved/

    The choice of musical guest is baffling. Usually I don’t care about the host/musical guest juxtaposition, but that pairing is a study in extremes. “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” is Crash Test Dummies’ only Billboard Top 10 hit, and SNL couldn’t ignore that at the time. Still, a high-energy black stand-up, and SNL pairs Lawrence with one of the whitest, most laid-back bands of the 1990s. Eventually, Brad Roberts moves to Harlem and CTD incorporate urban music elements, but even in 1994 that band was a love-’em-or-hate-’em proposition.

    1. Interesting example of how much things have changed. There was certainly some controversy over Larry David’s and Louis CK’s monologues, but never any suggestion of career suicide. I guess the accusations of Lawrence not being honest may have been the main issue.

  4. Guest writer John Bowman wrote for SNL during the ’88-89 season (along with his wife Shannon Gaughan), and later became a key writer for ILC (and Martin).

  5. Always suspected Martin was coked out of his mind that night.

    And I know I’m not the only one who loves MMMM MMMM MMMM, one of my favorite 90s music guilty pleasures.

  6. I used to enjoy Martin (the sitcom). When I watch clips on Youtube, I still do, even though I know many aspects of the show haven’t aged well. That was a very different setting than SNL, and he seemed to have no idea how to pitch his performances for the live sketches. If he had his own writers, they also did him no favors. The only sketch he carried that had the potential for quality was the basketball sketch, and he ruined it with his lousy performance.

    This is already an all time worst episode for me and it would have gone even lower down the list if Lawrence had completely butchered the Stuart Smalley sketch. Thankfully Franken’s characterization is so self-possessed that there was still something fresh to find – and I’m glad that they didn’t let Stuart being gay (even if it never is said out loud) be too much of the butt of the joke.

    It’s just bizarre as hell seeing Phil Hartman and Norm Macdonald appearing in a sketch together. Two very different men in very different eras of the show. Anyway, the positive audience reaction to Norm, which started a while back, even though he was still relatively unknown to viewers, is usually very positive, to the point where he is often the main – or the only – part of a sketch that gets laughs. It’s too bad he starts to become more polarizing as he takes over WU. I think he’s usually more interesting in sketches, and through him you can see the direction the show is going in (by and large he was the most effective voice for those changes).

    I sort of enjoy the bike messenger sketch as it goes along, but Mike Myers doing his same old shtick all over this takes away most of my enjoyment. I would have been interested in seeing Alec Baldwin’s version.

    I couldn’t sit through the Matt Foley sketch, but I enjoyed your Jay Mohr anecdotes.

    Speaking of Mohr, he would take over the Ricki Lake impression, and was better than Melanie, who just seems ill at ease. I wish they’d just had Kevin Nealon play Ricki and do the Ike and Kevin road show one last time. Why not? Not like anything funny was going on here anyway.

  7. The exaggeration of the Matt Foley voice gets even worse by the time of the George Foreman show in December; it’s practically just a whine by that point.

    It’s amazing how far the show sunk in quality by the time Lawrence hosted. As much as he stunk up the joint tonight, the show was only a slight step below the Baldwin/Basinger show in terms of quality. A big plummet from the quality of the previous year.

  8. Stooge, I know how you like to find Getty images photos from the dress rehearsals of these old shows. You wouldn’t happen to have one of the scrapped Dick Clarks’ receptionist cold open from this same episode, would you? If so, would you mind terribly sharing it with the rest of us?

    1. No, John, the ILC sketch I’m thinking of followed the premise of the SNL sketch much more closely. Thanks anyway.

  9. The other thing I forgot to say about this episode is it’s kind of funny that both films Spade gave the jeering commentary to went on to become much more important to many – What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? became known as the start of Leonardo Dicaprio’s rise to stardom, and Hocus Pocus became a beloved cult film for that generation of kids.

    (personally I’m on Spade’s side about Hocus Pocus…)

  10. Strangely, this is the final “proper” Hollywood Minute with Spade at the Update desk while still in the cast. He skips next season (though the Cindy Crawford commentary from next February is kinda in the Minute style), and then does three of ‘em in Spade In America for his final season, plus during guest appearances in Feb ’97, Nov ’98, and sort of in April ’01. After only a year and a half, he must have been sick of it already, despite the segment defining his “voice” and leading to more airtime.

    1. Frankly, it’s a bit telling that in his autobiography Almost Interesting, he just completely skipped most of the SIAs… as well as past most of season 19 (all that’s brought up is the Skid Row cameo in the opening episode and, IIRC, the Matt Foley Halloween skit briefly when talking about Farley) and the entirety of season 20. It jumps straight from the Skid Row segment right into him explaining the aftermath of the Eddie Murphy incident. So either he was focusing on films more and just didn’t care, or he didn’t want to remember. Or maybe he chose to save it for a later follow-up.

  11. Yeah, this is a tough episode. Matt Foley was…ooh boy, not that good. Farley gives it is all though. The only thing I really liked this episode was seeing the old-school Nets jerseys in the basketball sketch. 🙂

  12. After wanting to see the final Tom Schiller film you mentioned airing in the repeat of this episode as a replacement for Lawrence’s monologue, I finally managed to find it on Facebook. Certainly not one of his best, but charming enough, a rare late-stage showcase for Melanie, and another nice example of Phil’s warmth and old school Hollywood charisma. I can’t imagine how people at the time would have felt seeing this dropped into such a truly wretched episode so far away from the world Schiller was trying to present.

    https://www.facebook.com/141835625951538/videos/343239019144530

  13. I should add that the ’93-’94 season of ILC was indeed after the Wayans family left the show. It was not the same when they were all gone.

  14. I’m surprised to find out that the Bike Messenger sketch was originally slated for Baldwin – it feels so natural with Mike in the lead that I thought it would be all him.

    IMO, this is the last great sketch of Myers’ tenure; I know he has Amazing Time Savers and Japanese Game Show coming up, but Locklear and Farley are the real stars of those pieces IMO. I never really noticed until recently that Myers had sort of an Armisen-esque fall from grace in his last two seasons. He went from doing brilliantly off-beat character pieces (albeit with a more mainstream sensibility than Fred) to hammy vanity pieces and cringeworthy ethnic stereotypes. At least he didn’t stay for 11 years!

    1. This episode might be the worst one I’ve seen thus far (Mind you I haven’t started at season 1, I started with the 80s episodes, for the most part the ones w the golden era cast).
      As a female maybe I’ll sound “inappropriate” but the highlight for me was catching a brief young and very ripped Jay Monr), I would have been 5/6 when this aired but as an adult I can say he was attractive then. though that really has nothing to do with the show, that and hearing CSD mmm mmm mmm were the two highlights.
      Oh, also I feel like as weak as the episode was w the guest (feel like ML didn’t give a sh’t and it played off on the cast), I felt like the Stuart Smalley sketch seemed like it might have veered off course a bit and Al Franken seemed genuinely peeved so while props for the character for standing up, I think that seemed like AF pissed that ML wasn’t following script.

      Also disagree on Spades Hollywood Minute, “what’s eating Gilbert Grape” is a great movie, someone mentioned how it launched Leo’s Career for an Oscar (he should have gotten it), It was also early Johny Depp to his breakout from jumpstreet & more serious roles).

      Find it ironic that Spade would go on body shaming Kate Moss when he dated many skinny women, Laura Flynn Boyle dumped him for Jack Nicholson and she might have been skinnier than Moss…or just as

      I know they wouldn’t do these things on weekend update with Jost and Che but it is crazy to see how much fat shaming and then later on “anorexic period” would be ok, but now, it would be seen as cancel culture.

      Also interesting tidbits reading from Stooge from Mohrs book, esp the klonopin, the pills usually have a dye on them, so whether it was white or blue etc I’d be surprised and interested in watching his hands in the future for pill dye ifs no longer in his hand…

      Nancy Kerrigan was labeled the ice Princess after her Disneyland Appearance saying “this is corny as sh’t” on a Mickey Float and looking miserable. So I can only imagine the amount of Harding hitting her knee and predictable monologue will be like…

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