Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
it’s Black History Month, but ELC & TIM can’t find contemporary heroes
— Nice hearing such energetic applause for two underappreciated cast members each.
— A lot of laughs from Ellen and Tim’s bad luck in continuously picking troubled black celebrities to profile for Black History Month.
— I like Ellen quickly going through a series of black celebrity pictures and repeatedly saying “next one” when no good ones come up.
— Tim: “This was kind of a rebuilding year for black history.”
— Ellen and Tim claim that this the first time in SNL history where two black cast members say “Live from New York…” in unison. Uh, Damon Wayans and Danitra Vance have something to say about that. (And yes, I know Danitra wasn’t alive anymore by this point, but still…) The Rapping Wrapper cold opening from season 11, anyone? (One could argue that SNL doesn’t count that particular LFNY because Damon was only a featured player, but that’s reaching.) This is like how in Dennis Miller’s final episode as a cast member, he acted like he never said LFNY before, when he actually did say it once in a season 11 episode. Maybe everybody at SNL really does treat season 11 like it was just a “horrible, horrible dream”, as Madonna announced in the season 12 premiere. While my theory of season 11 being an example of canon discontinuity is fun, it’s disproved by the fact that Robert Downey Jr. opens his season 22 monologue by mentioning he used to be a cast member. There have probably been other on-air acknowledgements of season 11 that I’m forgetting at the moment (not counting anniversary specials).
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Molly Shannon has been added to the cast as a featured player.
Interesting how we get a new female cast member in what ends up being Janeane Garofalo’s final episode, much like the Mike Myers/Mark McKinney trade-off a little earlier this season. So many abrupt cast departures and cast additions in the middle of this troubled season, with still one more cast addition to come a few episodes from now.
MONOLOGUE
host performs liver transplant operation on audience member (TOD)
— Very wild audience tonight.
— Funny premise of George Clooney casually performing a liver transplant on an audience member.
— Typical season 20 over-reliance on gross-out humor and blood-spurting, but it’s actually coming off decent here, mostly due to good execution by both George and Tom Davis, with some decent assistance from newbie Molly Shannon.
STARS: ***
LEXON PARADOX
Rerun from 10/1/94
SEA PARK
(host) experiences good luck while (CHF) gets splashed by jumping whale
— WTF was with Farley’s “darling Mandy” bit at the beginning? It fell completely flat.
— (*sigh*) Here’s our obligatory Chris Farley yelling sketch of the night, after we got a nice break from it the past few episodes. This particular Chris Farley yelling sketch is a notorious example and features all of the unpleasant trademarks, including one joke being repeated over and over, and Farley screaming his season 20 catchphrase “SON OF A BITCH!”
— I do admit to getting a laugh from Farley’s line “Should’ve been vinegar and water, cuz I pretty much got douched!”
— What is with the dumb sideplot with George’s string of good luck? The gold coins in the railing bit in particular I’ve always found pretty cringeworthy.
— Stuff like this really helps you understand why Janeane was so miserable this season and why she chose to quit after this episode.
— Dear god, please end this repetitive sketch already.
STARS: *½
TAXICAB CONFESSIONS
passengers don’t mind telling their secrets on HBO
— Kevin makes his first appearance in two episodes. If anything, he should be counting his blessings that he wasn’t in any sketches in the disastrous Deion Sanders episode. Imagine how painful it would’ve been seeing him get dragged into doing that atrocious UFO sketch. Seeing him participate in the Gay Stripper Theater sketch back in the Jeff Daniels episode was depressing enough.
— The joke of passengers inexplicably being happy to sign release forms allowing their dark secrets to be aired on TV is kinda falling flat.
— George’s Jay Leno impression is cracking me the hell up, as is that pointy chin prosthetic he’s wearing.
— I felt this sketch started off weakly with some lowbrow humor (Farley’s gay bit, Adam’s anal warts bit), but after they got that out of the way, the sketch has been getting better and better.
— I love Michael as Vincent Price and especially Norm (in a rare season 20 sketch appearance) as Slim Pickens.
— Despite my complaint earlier about the lowbrow gay and anal warts bits, we get an actual funny callback to it at the end of this sketch, with an unhappy Farley revealing he got anal warts from a certain stranger. A nice full-circle ending.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Zombie”
WEEKEND UPDATE
inattentive O.J. juror (ELC) doesn’t seem to realize what her duties are
host gives his opinion on Chicago Hope’s use of leeches in an episode
KEN addresses Medicare comments to people with no attention span
— Ellen’s O.J. juror commentary is pretty good, and I loved her “Ain’t none of my business” line regarding whether O.J. is guilty or not.
— A rare occurrence of an SNL host doing an Update commentary.
— The brevity of George’s commentary reminds me of the brief hockey strike commentary Mike Myers did earlier this season.
— I love the lameness of Norm’s joke about the richest little girl in the world having two birthday cakes. Only Norm could sell such a bad joke.
— Very interesting seeing Kevin doing an Update commentary as himself after being replaced as an Update anchor.
— Kevin’s attention span commentary is great and feels very much in line with the type of Update commentaries he typically did in his early seasons when Dennis Miller was the Update anchorperson. I might be witnessing the final great moment of Kevin’s SNL tenure.
STARS: ****
WR
Dr. Ross (host) & Dr. Greene (CSE) keep patients in the waiting room
— Another example of a season 19/20 sketch doing a too-long recreation of a TV show’s opening credits, but this one actually has a few laughs and the audience is reacting well to several of the cast intros. My favorites of the intros are a perfectly-cast Elliott as Anthony Edwards, and Mark as a crying Noah Wyle.
— This is too thin a sketch, and the running gag with the dramatic background music suddenly stopping when patients are told to wait in the waiting room has gotten old fast. This sketch is yet another example of season 20’s bad habit of repeating the same joke over and over during a four-minute sketch.
— Very funny part with David being manhandled off a gurney and onto a chair.
STARS: **
TALES OF FRAUD AND MALFEASANCE IN RAILROAD HIRING PRACTICES
railroad engineer applicant (MAM) is willing to do whatever (host) wants
— Feels so refreshing to see a Jack Handey-written piece in a season that’s sadly been severely lacking his trademark style of humor.
— I love Mark’s overly compliant responses to the increasingly bizarre, ridiculous things George requests of him.
— George: “Are you familiar with ants?” Mark: “I seen ’em in the movies!” Not sure why, but that exchange always cracks me up whenever I watch this sketch.
— Funny little touch of a running-away George briefly returning to the office just to push all the stuff off of the desk before running away again. Haha, I have no idea why he did that, but I love it.
— I’m always a sucker for Jack Handey’s trademark of showing fake sponsors.
— We get another Handey trademark with the character name Cameron Hormel, previously used as the name of Phil Hartman’s character in the Handey-written Showcase Playhouse Theater sketch from the season 17 Tom Hanks episode.
STARS: ****
THE MACK REARDON STORY
the career of a tough-luck country singer (host)
— Second sketch in a row with Mark doing a redneck accent, though it’s just a voice-over in this sketch’s case.
— Some good silliness here.
— The whole “I’m Black!” mix-up is hilarious.
— I love George saying this was the first time that the sales gross of an album was a negative number.
— George is a little stumbly with his lines here and there.
— The humor in this sketch has been getting funnier and funnier as the sketch goes along.
— Michael: “When Mack shot himself, most people in the industry wondered ‘Why?…. Why did he wait so long?’”
— I like the ski accident footage shown at the end.
— Overall, the execution could’ve used some work, but this was a good sketch with a lot of funny individual things.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ode To My Family”
ZAGAT’S
Hank Gelfand (ADS) gripes as wife Beverly (CHF) reads about eats
— One of Farley’s earrings accidentally fall off early in the sketch.
— Farley’s characterization is cracking me up, especially his big smiles & corny one-liners into the camera after each time he reads an entry from the book.
— Adam’s cranky one-liners started out as just whatever, but are now getting increasingly funny, especially him pulling out a gun just now.
— I mentioned in an earlier review that Farley has this certain over-the-top, hammy laugh that he does A LOT this season, and I always go back and forth between finding it either very annoying or goofily endearing. It’s the latter for me in this sketch. It works in the context of this character.
— Overall, this sketch wasn’t quite as hilarious as I had remembered it (maybe it’s the second installment from later this season that I’m remembering, or maybe I’m just so burned out on Farley and Sandler by this point of their tenures), but this is still a funny, solid sketch.
STARS: ***½
EMORY
mayor of Emory, Illinois (MMK) wants abortion protesters to come to town
— The display of the Largest Stump gave me a laugh.
— Overall, the premise initially had me thinking this would be pretty funny, but the end result was forgettable.
STARS: **
SNOWBIRD
by Bruce McCulloch- karaoke conflict devastates lip-sync life
— Great to see a second Bruce McCulloch film this season. Sadly, this ends up being the final one to air in a live episode.
— I like the cutaway to a man’s deapdan-delivered “This kid’s good” during Bruce’s terrible singing.
— I love Bruce’s performances in these films of his. Lots of interesting and funny little acting choices he makes.
— Another funny cutaway during Bruce’s singing, where a table full of tough-looking redneck guys each drink from their mugs at the same time while staring stone-faced at Bruce.
— Good turn with Bruce unwisely choosing to change his song choice to Snowbird, which he, of course, proceeds to butcher.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
— Janeane is front and center, and happily waving to the camera. Guess she knows this is the end for her on SNL.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode. While there were a few pieces I found weak, they were definitely outnumbered by what I liked. The post-Update half had a lot of good things, particularly Tales Of Fraud And Malfeasance In Railroad Hiring Practices and Snowbird. Tonight’s episode was also helped by a very lively audience, which added a nice feel to the show.
— Call me crazy, but so far this season, I’ve felt there have actually been more episodes ranging from okay to great (Marisa Tomei, John Travolta, Dana Carvey, Alec Baldwin, Jeff Daniels, David Hyde Pierce, Bob Newhart, and George Clooney) than there have been episodes ranging from kinda weak to disastrous (Steve Martin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Roseanne, George Foreman, and Deion Sanders). (John Turturro isn’t in either category, as I personally feel that episode ranks somewhere in the middle of “okay” and “kinda weak”.) I’m just as surprised as you are about this. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d soften on season 20. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely still feel this is a bad season as a whole, hands down, due to MANY individual problems and the fact that most of the weakest episodes are among the worst in SNL history. But while doing these reviews, I’ve been discovering a surprisingly large amount of silver linings and hidden gems (certainly moreso than seasons 6 and 11). I came into this season having a morbid fascination to cover all the disastrous things in it, but instead, it turns out I’ve actually been having a lot more fun covering the surprising amount of highlights that I had overlooked in the past.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Deion Sanders)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Goddammit, why is it that every time I think I’m starting to come around on season 20 and feel it’s not all THAT horrible, they have to follow it up with an episode that is horrible? Paul Fucking Reiser is our next episode.