Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
INSIDE POLITICS
USA Bosnia policy prompts a conservative anti-war rally
— A great cross-eyed look from Nancy as Bobbie Batista.
— Darrell’s Jesse Helms impression is hilarious.
— Funny premise of republicans holding a 1960s-esque protest against the war in Bosnia.
— Good bit with Koechner’s Phil Gramm singing Imagine but questioning every lyric.
— A laugh from Buchanan burning his Blockbuster Video card because he has no draft card.
— Solid ending with the slow-motion war fight, and how it comes to an end when Helms sticks a flower into barrel of one of the soldiers’ guns.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
audience likes gimmicky ER-reject character Swabby (DAK) more than host
— Nice energetic entrance from Anthony Edwards, literally leaping out from the door.
— Koechner is hilarious as Swabby.
— A pretty good laugh from Anthony losing his patience and rudely telling Swabby to get the hell out of here.
— Will and Cheri are reprising their characters from the Dole/Gingrich airplane cold opening from just one episode ago.
— Bad lighting during Will and Cheri’s part, causing a boom mike shadow to cover most of Will’s face (the third above screencap for this monologue). For this reason, this portion of the monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— I like the running gag with the increasingly un-ER-like medical shows that audience members mistake Anthony for being on.
STARS: ****
GRIMALDI CLASSIC CREATIONS
Grimaldi’s Nativity scene baby Jesus annoyingly cries throughout holidays
— The absolutely bizarre and indescribable sound the Baby Jesus device is making is priceless. I love the smile Koechner slowly looks up at Nancy with when the Baby Jesus sound begins.
— Some really amusing shots of the now-restless family being irritated and unhinged by the Baby Jesus sounds.
STARS: ****½
THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Joe Pesci (JMB) abuses Sharon Stone (NAW) & other guests
— After struggling badly so far this season, the underused Jim Breuer finally gets his breakout sketch. And what’s more, it’s placed as the lead-off sketch of the night, showing that SNL has a lot of confidence in this.
— Great Joe Pesci voice from Jim.
— Something I’ve never understood about Jim’s Pesci impression is his wig. Why give his Pesci a full head of hair when the real Pesci had a receding hairline at this time?
— Pesci’s whole angry rant to Nancy’s Sharon Stone is fantastic.
— The visual of Anthony as Macaulay Culkin is hilarious. I’m also loving his performance.
— Pesci to Culkin: “Hey, you know what was funny? When you died in that movie My Girl. I laughed my ass off!”
— Spot-on Jim Carrey voice from Mark.
— Pesci, when Carrey calls his show “smokin’”: “Smokin’, how? Smokin’ like my ass after some Mexican food?”
— Man, Jim is performing the hell out of this sketch.
STARS: ****½
NIGHTLINE
Dr. Greene (host) & other doctors argue about health care
— Good concept with all of the ridiculous fictional doctor guests.
— Pretty fun sketch so far.
— When Dr. J and Doc from Snow White are introduced, the chyron of their names that’s displayed on the bottom of the screen mistakenly includes the name “Doc Martens”.
I’m guessing that at dress rehearsal, a pair of Doc Martens boots was “interviewed” alongside Dr. J and Doc from Snow White, and then at the last minute during the live show, SNL decided to cut the Doc Martens portion of the sketch, but forgot to remove its name from the chryon. (In the above screencap, you can see the arm of an unoccupied chair to the left of Doc from Snow White.)
— I like Tim’s angry “Damn, Ted!” at the end of his speech.
STARS: ***½
WEDDING RECEPTION
Mary Katherine Gallagher acts inappropriately at a wedding reception
— Mary Katherine Gallagher officially becomes a recurring character. Of all of this character’s installments from over the years, this is one of the very few that I’m not all that familiar with. I know I’ve seen this installment before, but I have no memory of it.
— With this being only the second Mary Katherine Gallagher installment, the trademark putting-hands-under-armpits-and-then-sniffing-them routine, which was introduced in the first MKG installment, has been temporarily changed to her putting her fingers in her ears, looking at the earwax, then flicking and licking it.
— Molly’s really hammering home this character’s awkwardness, even moreso than in the first installment of this sketch. However, I’m not finding this installment as funny so far.
— Overall, I wasn’t crazy about this installment. There were a few laughs, but with this being only the second MKG appearance, you can tell they’re still experimenting with this character, and this installment felt unmemorable compared to most MKG installments. That’s probably the reason why I had no memory of this sketch before tonight’s viewing.
STARS: **
WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM’s very nervous brother Gary (DAK) tries to tell some newsy jokes
— This is the second consecutive Weekend Update using the opening theme music that would go on to be Norm’s regular Update theme, so I think it’s safe to say they’ve finally settled on it after experimenting with many different opening themes earlier this season.
— Yes! We get the debut of Norm’s brother, Gary Macdonald, played by Koechner. This has always been one of my favorite Koechner SNL bits from his short-lived tenure.
— Koechner is very good at getting laughs out of his character’s very awkward uncomfortableness.
— I love how Norm reveals Gary Macdonald’s paper just says “God, don’t let the fear swallow me whole.”
— Koechner has been knocking it out of the park these last few episodes with some great original characters.
— Particularly huge cheers this time for Norm’s weekly “O.J. is a murderer” joke.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’ll Stick Around”
THE NASTY
singer G-Dog’s (TIM) psychosomatism causes him to rethink his raunchy hit
— The opening exchanges between Will and Anthony are really funny.
— I love the voice Anthony is using in this. He’s hilarious here.
— The debut of Tim’s short-lived and underrated recurring character G-Dog.
— Funny opening line from G-Dog: “Yo, Phil, somebody ate my Skittles, man.”
— The family-friendly variation of the “Let’s Do The Nasty” song is pretty funny, especially the “Do The Handshake” dance.
— Hmm, a meta turn with Tim as himself waking up in bed and revealing the sketch was a bad dream. I don’t think this sketch was anywhere near bad enough for SNL to get all self-deprecating about. In fact, I had actually been enjoying the sketch.
— Good ending with Lorne’s shifty-eyed look.
STARS: ***½
SPADE IN AMERICA
DAS relives a barroom father-son Thanksgiving reunion
— Spade’s childhood anecdote about receiving a Nerf football from his dad and sarcastically responding “Wow, it’s two colors. You spoil me, ya prick” was told by him on the show before, in a Mother’s Day Weekend Update commentary he did back in season 17, as I mentioned in my review of it.
— Spade In America has had a lot of interesting changes of pace these last few installments, and tonight we get another one, with him re-enacting an entire conversation he recently had with his father. Great touch with the dimmed lighting during this re-enactment.
— I’m enjoying Spade’s storytelling skills here, as well as the way he’s constantly going back-and-forth between the voices of himself and his father. Speaking of which, I like the voice Spade’s using for his father.
STARS: ***½
TURNING POINT
(MAM) interviews a slightly loony Princess Di (host)
— The debut of Cheri’s Barbara Walters impression.
— Wow, Cheri’s Barbara Walters sounds nowhere near as good as it would eventually go on to sound later in Cheri’s tenure. I guess it took her some time before she was able to nail the voice.
— Oh. My. God. Anthony’s look as Princess Diana is EERILY dead-on. Uncanny.
— I’ve been saying this all throughout this episode review, but Anthony is really funny in this sketch.
— A lot of funny actions from Anthony’s Diana, especially her using her foot to flirt with Mark’s Martin Bashir, and her revealing she’s had a chip planted in her head.
— Now Anthony’s Diana is humorously singing a bizarre little ukulele song .
— Great sketch overall.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “For All The Cows”
THE HULK HOGAN TALK SHOW!!!
Hulk Hogan’s sub (WIF) attempts a serious show
— The ridiculously endless Hulk Hogan Talk Show theme song cracked me up, made even funnier by how its immediately followed by Will as an average joe just straightforwardly saying “Hulk Hogan is on vacation. I’m your guest host, Phil Tobin.”
— The awkward back-and-forth transitions from Anthony’s traumatic story to the Hulk Hogan show’s usual segments are okay, but I’m disappointed to see that they’re nowhere near as funny as I had remembered. In fact, they’re starting to get a little tired after a while. I think in past viewings, I only loved this sketch for the ridiculously long opening theme and the subsequent reveal of Will as the guest host.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Even though this episode is not a classic, I’ve personally always considered it to be a really fun episode and a prime example of what a refreshing turnaround this season is from the infamous preceding season. After reviewing the episode just now, that opinion still holds up. This was a solid episode that was indeed fun, and had a lot of good sketches that I’ve always remembered well, even if some of them aren’t particularly great. Adding to the fun feel of this episode was Anthony Edwards, who was a very game host and gave some really funny performances, especially in the Turning Point sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Laura Leighton)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
David Alan Grier