Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
WORLD SERIES BET
Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) wanted higher stakes for mayoral World Series bet
— Tim’s brief appearance in the opening portion of this sketch isn’t seen in reruns, as reruns replace this cold opening with the dress rehearsal version. With Tim’s appearance here missing in reruns, the rerun version of tonight’s episode has Tim making his ONLY appearance of the night in a Michael Jackson sketch that doesn’t air until towards the end of the show.
— Darrell’s Rudy Giuliani impression makes its debut.
— As no surprise, Darrell’s Giuliani impression is solid.
— Ha, after Darrell’s Giuliani praises the Mets, you can hear a sole “Boo!” from one person in SNL’s audience.
— Darrell has carried over the “laugh, then suddenly put on a straight face” mannerism from his Bill Clinton impression.
— A lot of funny lines from Darrell’s Giuliani as he’s going on about what he and the mayor of Atlanta have agreed to give each other if the Yankees or Braves win that year’s World Series. I especially love the one about New York getting the severed head of John Rocker on a stick. For anyone who remembers the colossal bigoted douchebag that was John Rocker (Will Ferrell does a great Weekend Update commentary as him later this season), you hopefully appreciate that joke.
— Another great line, this time with Giuliani’s bet about how if the Braves win, he’ll dress up as Scarlett O’Hara and the mayor of Atlanta can romance him with a plunger.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Rachel Dratch has been added to the cast tonight as a featured player.
MONOLOGUE
NOM deduces that SNL has gotten much worse in the time since he was fired
— Ah, it feels so great to see Norm making his entrance on SNL’s home base stage as the host.
— When a few people in the audience yell out “NORM!”, Norm asks “What was that?” and they repeat it, then Norm responds “Well, you’re absolutely right, that is my name.”
— Awesome how Norm is openly addressing his controversial firing from SNL, in the way that only he can.
— Norm’s great description of the disagreement he had with the management: “I wanted to keep my job, right? And THEY felt the EXACT OPPOSITE.”
— I love Norm pointing out how asinine it is that in just a year and a half, he’s gone from being considered not funny enough to even be allowed in the building to now hosting the show.
— Just now, Norm has gone “Heeeeeeeeeeeeey!” in the same way he hilariously did in the Sarcasm 101 sketch from season 23’s Matthew Perry episode.
— Norm: “How did I suddenly get so GODDAMN funny???”
— An absolutely priceless realization from Norm that he hasn’t gotten any funnier; the show has gotten really bad.
— Norm: “So, yeah, I’m funny compared to… well, you’ll see later.”
— Even the trademark sign-off line that every monologue ends with has a funny variation tonight, with Norm saying “We got a bad show for you tonight.”
— Overall, an absolutely epic monologue to end all monologues. One of the all-time best in SNL history.
STARS: *****
MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA
in the wake of her successful IPO, Martha Stewart (ANG) enjoys being rich
— A change of pace for a Martha Stewart sketch.
— Lots of great lines from Ana’s Martha bragging about her IPO.
— Martha Stewart: “The real Martha Stewart is a frigid 58-year-old divorcee with a filthy mouth and a mean streak.”
STARS: ****
GREAT MOMENTS IN YANKEE HISTORY
Lou Gehrig (NOM) was being sarcastic
— A hilarious and very Norm-esque twist on the famous Lou Gehrig speech, revealing that he was being sarcastic and starts going on about how horribly unlucky he is.
— Strangely, no audience applause can be heard at the end of this sketch in the live version.
— Overall, very short but sweet, and a quintessential Norm Macdonald sketch.
STARS: *****
CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
French Stewart (JIF), Burt Reynolds (NOM), Sean Connery (DAH)
— Sean Connery, after the contestants are warned by Alex Trebek to refrain from using ethnic slurs: “Ya think you’re pretty smart, don’t ya, Trebek? What with your dago mustache and your greasy hair!” Alex Trebek: “Look, what did I just say about ethnic slurs?!?”
— Nice to see the return of Jimmy’s eerily-spot-on French Stewart impression. In the first cutaway to him here, you can hear an audience member say “Oh my god” in surprise.
— Wonderful to see Norm’s Burt Reynolds make his triumphant Celebrity Jeopardy return.
— Absolutely classic how Norm’s Reynolds is requesting to be addressed as Turd Ferguson.
— We get TWO category mix-ups tonight. One being Burt Reynolds referring to the “condiments” category as “the condom thing”, and the other being Reynolds’ far-more-classic “Ape Tit” misreading.
— Alex Trebek: “This is the sound a doggy makes.” Sean Connery: “Moo.” Alex Trebek: “No.” Sean Connery: “Well, that’s the sound your mother made last night.” This is the very first “your mother” slam that Connery would make towards Trebek in a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. Surprised it took this long.
— We now already get a second “your mother” slam from Connery in tonight’s sketch. (Alex Trebek: “We would’ve accepted ‘bow wow’ or ‘ruff’.” Sean Connery: “Ah, ‘ruff’ – just the way your mother likes it, Trebek.”)
— Yet another classic moment, with Norm’s Burt Reynolds/Turd Ferguson now walking up to Trebek with an oversized foam cowboy hat.
— After Reynolds walks away from Trebek after the aforementioned cowboy hat bit, I got a huge laugh the minor bit with Trebek incredulously saying to himself “What’s going ON?!?” I love that the show has gotten so ridiculous that Trebek has to briefly stop just to question the insanity that he’s been witnessing, by saying to himself “What’s going ON?!?”
— At the end of this sketch, I believe it’s an ad-lib when Norm places his foam cowboy hat on Will’s Trebek during the sign-off, which Will goes along with perfectly by growling in character “Would you get that off me?!?” while angrily yanking the hat off of his head.
— Overall, this has always been what I feel is the best and most quintessential Celebrity Jeopardy installment, which is really saying something, considering how strong these sketches always are.
STARS: *****
CROSSTALK
the sexiness of unhealthily-thin women is championed
— Some good laughs from Parnell’s rude comments about Cheri’s plus size.
— A great trick Ana is doing to make herself look freakishly skinny.
— Parnell’s skeevy lusting after extremely skinny women is very funny.
— Hilarious bit with footage of the rail-thin Lara Flynn Boyle being represented by a dancing skeleton from a black-and-white cartoon from what appears to be the 1930s.
— Rachel Dratch makes her debut doing a very funny Calista Flockhart impression, complete with a puppet body. Rachel’s making a great first impression here.
— When asked what her secret is to staying thin, I love Ana’s Helen Gurley Brown responding “Actually, I died six months ago.”
— Funny visual of Rachel’s Flockhart spitting out some vomit before answering a question.
STARS: ****
LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) relates yet more News & Views
— Great to see this back. I’m always a sucker for these.
— Interesting how this edition of News & Views is being performed live, considering the previous ones were pre-taped.
— Larry King: “Of all the figures of the 20th century, one of the greatest has to be Robert Urich.”
— A typical classic Norm moment right now with him staring down the camera for a VERY long time after saying “Does anyone remember baseball cards?” (the last above screencap for this sketch)
— Larry King: “Margarine has its place, but nothing beats the real deal………………………………..(freakishly long pause)………………………………..BUTTER!”
STARS: ****
TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Charlton Heston rails against gun control
— Kinda surprising that the first TV Funhouse of the season isn’t airing until now, though there was an epic one at SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special right before this season began.
— The audience is dead during this so far.
— Funny visual of Heston’s gun acting like a pet and eating bullets as if they’re pet food.
— Tom Selleck’s constant stammering and unfinished sentences are strange, but are cracking me up.
— Overall, despite some laughs, I dunno, something about this cartoon as a whole did not work for me, especially when it got towards the end. I wanna give Smigel the benefit of the doubt and assume this cartoon was just too “smart” for me, but I’ve seen some other reviewers express disappointment towards this cartoon too.
STARS: **
LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) delineates additional News & Views
— Good to see a second one of these.
— We get another long camera staredown from Norm, this time complete with him briefly taking a sip from his coffee mug in the middle of the staredown (the second, third, and fourth above screencaps for this sketch).
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
The Millennium- moments from the past 1000 years that never occurred
gold digger Marla Maples (CHO) tries to assail Donald Trump’s character
— Well… this Update feels a little awkward to watch, knowing who’s in the building tonight.
— Tonight’s “The Millennium” segment has a priceless succession of random events that never occurred, such as Lucille Ball being executed by Capt. Crunch.
— I love Colin’s joke about how TV networks will soon stop indicating whether an episode is a rerun or not, resulting in Colin asking us to watch next week’s “live” SNL episode: Fran Tarkenton/Leon Redbone.
— Pretty funny unscripted moment with Colin stopping mid-joke to humorously say “God bless you” to an off-camera audience member who sneezed.
— The only real laugh I’ve gotten from Cheri’s Marla Maples commentary so far was her remark about her “Park Avenue cooch”.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg perform “Still D.R.E.”
MCMULLINS HOUSE
between visits from trick-or-treaters, dentist (NOM) & wife (CHO) fight
— I like Cheri’s dancing to the Ghostbusters theme music.
— Cheri greets one trick-or-treating child by saying “Is that little Lori Nasso?”, an inside reference to an SNL writer with that name.
— Cheri to Norm: “I rue the day I ever uncrossed my legs for you.”
— Norm has some great barbs during his and Cheri’s various tense arguments.
— I like how one of the trick-or-treating kids is dressed like Austin Powers. Some of the other trick-or-treating costumes seen throughout this sketch provide a nice time capsule for 1999, especially the Pikachu and Jar Jar Binks costumes.
— Tracy makes his only appearance of the night being stuck in his usual useless bit role where he only gets one measly line. We’re THREE episodes into season 25, and Tracy has made only two appearances all season so far, and only one of those appearances was a noteworthy role where he got more than one line. Man, thank god this season’s Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines episode is coming up very soon, because Tracy desperately needs it at this point. (You’ll know why I’m saying that if you remember a certain famous and important piece Tracy does in that episode.)
STARS: ***
BAR
newly-single Michael Jackson (TIM) & Howard Stern (JIF) commiserate
— Given his many ruthless-but-hilarious homosexual pedophile jokes about Michael Jackson on Weekend Update back in the day, I love the idea of Norm playing a bartender having a chat with a depressed, recently-divorced Michael Jackson.
— Hmm, turns out Norm’s just playing a generic friendly bartender. This sketch would be FAR better if it had Norm just going full-on Norm, by riffing hard on Tim’s MJ all throughout the sketch.
— Very funny gag with MJ unintentionally showing Norm his “Macaulay” tattoo when attempting to show him a tattoo of his ex-wife’s name.
— For some odd reason, right in the middle of his story, Tim’s MJ randomly goes “So I says to the nurse, I says, I says…”, which appears to be an ad-libbed reference to a semi-famous Chris Farley bit. Norm cracks up uncontrollably after this apparent ad-lib of Tim’s.
— An interesting tidbit about the appearance from Jimmy as an about-to-be-divorced Howard Stern is that it was a last-minute addition to this sketch. News of Howard Stern’s divorce came out earlier the same day of tonight’s episode, and thus, SNL must’ve figured it would be fitting to throw in Jimmy’s Stern at the end of a sketch that’s already about a celebrity divorce. In fact, some SNL reviewers back at this time in 1999 have said that they didn’t even know about Stern’s divorce until watching this sketch. Some people, to this day, have a hard time telling who Jimmy is even supposed to be playing here, especially since his Stern is never mentioned by name within this sketch. It doesn’t help that Jimmy sounds like he’s inexplicably using a hint of an English accent for his Stern. I’m hearing some of Jimmy’s John Lennon in there. Sorry, Jimmy, but Michael McKean still remains the unquestioned SNL master of the Howard Stern impression.
— It looks like Tim made another ad-lib right now in an attempt to get Jimmy to crack up the same way he made Norm crack up earlier in this sketch, but Jimmy surprisingly keeps a completely straight face and stays in character. It’s not very often you’ll be hearing me say that about Jimmy as his SNL tenure progresses.
— The ending felt weak.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Dr. Dre & Eminem perform “Forgot About Dre”
INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
James Lipton (WIF) rankles Clint Eastwood (NOM)
— The debut of the Inside the Actor’s Studio sketches.
— A hilarious blank open-mouthed look on Will-as-James-Lipton’s face when this sketch begins (the first above screencap for this sketch).
— Nice detail of a huge stack of index cards that Lipton is using for this interview.
— I’m liking Norm’s Clint Eastwood impression, which we previously heard a brief voice-only sample of in the great In The Line Of Fire sketch from John Malkovich’s season 19 episode.
— Will’s absurd characterization of his James Lipton impression is freakin’ priceless.
— A very funny dark story from Eastwood about Lipton having his teeth kicked in while sleeping.
— Clint Eastwood, after being asked what he would like God to say to him: “James Lipton is in hell right now being raped by the devil.”
— Ha, just now, Norm has dropped three more unscripted “goddamn”s, after he did so once earlier tonight in the monologue. Unsurprisingly, all of his “goddamn”s in tonight’s episode would later be muted out in reruns.
— Overall, a fantastic debut for the Inside the Actor’s Studio sketches, though in my opinion, there are even more memorable installments of this sketch to come.
STARS: ****½
CHESS FOR GIRLS
— A rerun… from TWO SEASONS AGO.
— Due to taking time off from SNL this week to film the live-action Grinch movie, Molly has not been seen at all in tonight’s episode (I believe that’s part of the reason Rachel Dratch made her on-air debut tonight), until this re-aired old commercial. I guess SNL’s re-airing this just to say Molly was in SOMETHING tonight, even though her appearance in this commercial is just a VERY brief walk-on. Odd how SNL had to go all the way back to season 23 just to find a pre-taped commercial that Molly appeared in. Was she seriously not in ANY pre-taped season 24 commercials? The only one that comes to mind right now is that Teeny Weenies commercial, but I think it was based on a then-current news story, and thus, was too topical to be re-aired in a season 25 episode. If they HAD to re-air a season 23 commercial that Molly was in, why not one that she appeared in for more than two measly seconds? Lemon Glow? The “I’m #1” hat commercial?
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As expected for a Norm Macdonald episode, this was very solid as a whole, mainly because of the first 1/3rd of the show, which was INCREDIBLE in my eyes. That portion of the show consisted of a very long string of sketches that I gave a high four-or-five-star rating to. After that, the quality cooled down for the remainder of the show, until we got a very strong Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch towards the end of the night. Norm Macdonald did not disappoint as a host, and it was wonderful to see him getting his chance in the host spotlight tonight.
— Felt like we barely saw most of the cast members tonight. Even the usually-dominant Will Ferrell was only in 3 sketches. Chris Kattan, Horatio Sanz, AND, as mentioned earlier, Molly Shannon were all absent tonight. Very rare to have an episode where THREE cast members aren’t in any sketches. There’s a common misconception that the reason for Kattan’s absence in this episode is that he refused to even show up this week due to the well-documented animosity between him and Norm. That’s incorrect, as according to an online dress rehearsal report I remember reading years ago from an SNL fan who was in the audience at this episode’s dress rehearsal, Kattan was in at least one dress rehearsal sketch that got cut from the live show, though I can’t remember any details given about the sketch. (I do remember the details given about another cut sketch from this episode, in which Norm reprised his Bob Dole impression, portraying him this time as hopped up on Viagra and eagerly awaiting sex with his wife Elizabeth, played by Ana Gasteyer. At one point in the sketch, Norm reportedly ad-libbed towards Ana’s Elizabeth, “Hurry up! Bob Dole’s about to fuck the couch!”)
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Heather Graham)
a fairly big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Dylan McDermott