Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
as Bill (DAH) lingers, wooden Hillary (ANG) Clinton speaks to New Yorkers
— Ana seems to have updated her imitation of Hillary Clinton’s speech pattern, as it sounds more accurate tonight.
— Great turn with Darrell’s Bill Clinton casually walking into the scene in the background, initially being unaware of the video Hillary’s doing, then playing to the cameras behind Hillary after he realizes what’s going on.
— Just now, Darrell’s Clinton began making one of his many walk-ons, but then made a panicked face and quickly jumped out of the shot. I can’t tell if that was an intentional bit or a genuine mistake on Darrell’s part.
— Some good laughs from the listed-off differences between the old and new Hillary.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host’s post-ER project deals with veterinary medicine; Noah Wyle cameo
— A funny “E.R.: Special Veterinary Unit” scene involving doctors trying to revive a guinea pig.
— I like how this monologue gets meta, with “audience member” Paula Pell mentioning that she’s not an audience member, but a writer on the show, and that she wrote what saying right now.
— Julianna Margulies’ under-the-breath insults to Paula are pretty funny.
— Good scene with an attempting-to-hide-his-identity Noah Wyle wearing a fake handlebar mustache and speaking in Spanish.
STARS: ***½
LITTER CRITTERS
Rerun from 10/16/99
BIRD FAMILY
(host) learns that her boyfriend’s (CHP) family feeds him mouth-to-mouth
— Here comes a very memorable sketch.
— I like the fake-out early on in this sketch, when Will begins cutting up Parnell’s meat for him, which made the audience think that was going to be the comedic concept of the sketch, judging from their laughter.
— Aaaaaand there goes the REAL comedic concept of the sketch, with the disgusting way Parnell is fed by Will. Absolutely priceless, especially hearing the audience reactions.
— Kudos to the performers for willing to do this.
— This one lady in the audience has a screaming laugh that keeps standing out. You can hear her all throughout tonight’s episode, actually.
— A blooper when Will begins choking on food while in the middle of angrily ranting at Julianna. Will humorously ad-libs “I’m upset!” during his choking. This scene is also another display of Parnell’s excellent skills in keeping a straight face when his scene partners lose it.
— Here’s Kattan doing his usual convincing job of playing a little kid.
— Great part with Kattan asking Julianna to chew his pie for him, resulting in the camera doing dramatic slow zoom-ins on each person while Julianna is contemplating what to do.
— Kattan’s facial expression after Julianna spits pie into his mouth is hilarious. Speaking of that part with Julianna spitting pie into Kattan’s mouth, Julianna kept a straight face just fine during this live version of that part, but in the “That’s When You Break” Digital Short from SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special, they show a clip from the dress rehearsal version of this sketch where Julianna busts out laughing when attempting to spit pie into Kattan’s mouth.
— Great ending freeze-frame on Julianna about to spit pie into Parnell’s mouth.
STARS: *****
E! NEWS DAILY
Donatella Versace (MOS) expounds her theories of fashion
— The tense banter between Will and Cheri is providing good laughs.
— It feels absolutely bizarre in retrospect seeing Donatella Versace being played by anyone other than the soon-to-join-the-cast Maya Rudolph. Molly’s take on Versace is very different from Maya Rudolph’s later version, as Molly’s basically just playing it in a typical Molly Shannon-esque way, only with an accent.
— Funny bit with Julianna’s Elizabeth Hurley wearing a phone receiver on her chest as part of her outfit.
— Elizabeth Hurley, when a phone is heard ringing: “Is that my rack ringing?”
— What was with Molly being heard off-camera saying what sounded like (in her Versace accent) “Come on, they walk like the sexy hookers” when footage of models walking the runway is being shown after Molly’s portion of the sketch ended?
STARS: ***
AUGUSTUS GENERAL
Nadeen recommends that emergency room visitors should “simmer down”
— I found the first installment of this sketch passable, but yeah, not sure I needed to see this become a recurring sketch.
— Cheri’s character already gets some recognition applause from the audience after her opening yell of “Simma dah nah!”, which shows how much the first installment of this sketch resonated with viewers.
— I got a good laugh from Cheri’s engine-revving-type delivery of “Simma dah nah”.
— A very funny disgusting visual of Tracy’s severed hand being in a bag of ice.
— Julianna’s performance is pretty fun.
— Overall, not bad. I liked this better than I thought I would. Let’s hope I’ll also have this tolerant reaction to the third and final installment of this sketch later this season.
STARS: ***
THE CROCODILE HUNTER
Steve (CHK) & Terri (host) Irwin love angry animals
— Hoo, boy. The nature of this sketch is quite odd to watch in retrospect, given the way Steve Irwin would die in real life.
— I’m finding Kattan’s Australian accent as Steve Irwin to be humorously goofy, though I can see it annoying some people.
— Boy, tonight is one gross-out-heavy episode, between the repeated Litter Critters commercial, the Bird Family sketch, Tracy’s severed hand in a bag in the “Simma dah nah” sketch, and now all the stuff happening in this Crocodile Hunter sketch.
— Kinda surprised this sketch ended so early, but that’s probably a good thing. I started to get kinda tired of this towards the end.
STARS: **½
WEEKEND UPDATE
mousey Joy Lipton (CHO) shows Valentine’s Day gifts from the Erotic Attic
— Colin begins this Update by telling the audience “Simma down now”.
— Boy, did Colin botch the tossed salad/Hillary Clinton joke.
— The look and voice of Cheri’s Joy Lipton character kinda feels like a variation of Cheri’s Roberta character.
— Joy Lipton displaying a vibrating hero sandwich is really funny.
— Some laughs from Joy Lipton crouching on the Update desk while displaying an ill-fitting nightgown.
— Wow, it seemed to be a real blooper when Cheri fell backwards onto the floor off the Update desk when trying to get back in her chair. She recovered solidly, however, by immediately getting up and comically saying “It’s okay!”
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Party Up”
ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION
actor (WIF) is humiliated by commercial’s erectile dysfunction theme
— When going on about how Will is the face of erectile dysfunction, I love Parnell’s voice-over harping on Will’s face being all “hang-dog and sad” and having “goofy-ass ears”.
— Horatio often seems to play the boom mic guy in sketches where something is being filmed.
— This sketch is yet another example of SNL getting good mileage out of Parnell’s funny voice-overs. His drooping sound effect used to represent Will’s “droopy ol’ ding-dong” cracked me up.
— Very funny turn with Will’s girlfriend showing up and Will angrily exclaiming “Son of a bitch!” when she tells him the director said Will wanted her here.
— Funny little bit with Tim obnoxiously yelling the last word in his “And action, PEOPLE!” line into Horatio’s face after being told by Horatio that the crew has requested that Tim stop calling them “people”.
— I love how increasingly embarrassing each take of this commercial is for Will, with it now getting to the point where the voice-over gives out Will’s home phone number.
— Will’s high-pitched crying when telling an embarrassing beach sex story is hilarious.
— An excellent sudden reveal of this being a Tootsie Roll commercial, complete with a jolly animation playing on the screen. This sketch should’ve just ended like that. It was unnecessary to follow it with Will asking Tim “This was a Tootsie Roll commercial?” and Tim responding to him that it indeed was, which ended the sketch on a weak and awkwardly-executed note. I’m not 100% sure, but don’t they remove that portion of the ending in the rerun version of this sketch? I could swear I remember the rerun version just ending with the Tootsie Roll animation playing on the screen.
STARS: *****
SAVIN’ IT
girlfriends (host) & (ANG) sexually frustrate (WIF) & (JIF)
— Cheri’s face looks even cuter than usual in this sketch.
— Will’s tense actions during the intro shot of him and Julianna is very funny.
— Some laughs from Will and Jimmy’s reaction to Julianna’s suggestive yoga poses.
— Odd in retrospect seeing the part with Will failing in his attempt to demonstrate a yoga move that allows him to give himself fellatio, given that there would be a sketch later this season centered around Will successfully learning a yoga move that gives him the ability to fellate himself. It’s funny to think that Will is possibly playing the same character in both sketches.
— Good turn with Ana being outed as having had sex with someone other than her boyfriend.
— Ana: “I wasn’t sleeping with him! It was in the butt!”
— Funny ending with the wild sudden make-out session between Rachel’s nerd character, Will, and Jimmy.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What’s My Name”
HOTEL BAR
nerdy Kip (JIF) & Wayne (CHP) Bloater woo (host) but fail to consummate
— The debut of a recurring sketch that’s always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I don’t know why, but the endless corny one-liners from the Bloater Brothers always tickle me more than I assume they do other viewers.
— Good turn with the Bloater Brothers getting uncomfortable and speechless when Julianna actually offers to bring them upstairs to her hotel room.
STARS: ***½
PRICELINE.COM
priceline.com satisfies William Shatner’s (DAH) need to haggle
— Meh, Darrell’s William Shatner impression isn’t much to write home about. Not one of Darrell’s more accurate impressions.
— Why parody Shatner’s priceline.com ads, which are already tongue-in-cheek? This spoof isn’t much sillier than a typical one of those ads.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Two classic sketches (Erectile Dysfunction and Bird Family) and a lot of pretty good stuff, making this overall episode feel like somewhat of a return to form for this season after a long string of unmemorable episodes. Julianna Margulies was a pretty solid host.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alan Cumming)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Ben Affleck makes his hosting debut