Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESS CONFERENCE
Al Gore (DAH) seeks election redress via personal injury lawyer (CHK)
— Ha, there goes Darrell’s Gore doing his usual gloating over winning the popular vote.
— Kattan is funny in his performance as Gore’s attorney.
— When listing off Gore’s “injuries”, I particularly like Kattan mentioning that the election drama has caused Gore to appear stiff and awkward on TV.
— Another funny line from Kattan, about him being approached by Gore after Gore saw his ad on the Montel Williams Show.
— Pretty funny Joe Lieberman impression from Parnell, though I prefer the Lieberman impressions that Dana Carvey and Hugh Fink demonstrated earlier this season.
— Overall, a pretty good opening, even if it felt pretty forgettable compared to the epic election-related cold openings that SNL has been knocking it out of the park with around this time.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host gets the It’s A Wonderful Life treatment from angel Clarence (DAH)
— Fun premise of this monologue being an It’s A Wonderful Life take-off.
— I like how we’re seeing glimpses of sketches that we’ll be getting later tonight.
— When Val expresses surprise at hearing that Parnell would’ve become a big movie star, I love Parnell’s response: “Is that so hard to believe, Val? Jackass. (*shoves Val while walking away*)”
— After the aforementioned part with Parnell, we get this funny exchange between Val and Clarence the angel: “You said they couldn’t hear me or see me.” “(laughing) I never said that.” True, he never said it.
— Yet another funny on-air dig about Tracy not being in any sketches in an episode, this time with the added joke that he usually sells weed to the audience during the show.
— Funny visual of a crying Kattan in his Mango costume as Val is informed that a Mango sketch got cut after dress rehearsal. This is actually a very meta and last-minute addition to this monologue, as there really was a Mango sketch that got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. After dominating the preceding season, Mango’s been having a very rough go this season, as ALL of his sketches have been getting cut after dress rehearsal so far. Ha, can’t say I have any complaints about that. I’d like to think that all of Mango’s sketches getting cut so far this season is payback for how inundated us poor viewers were with Mango sketches in the preceding season (YMMV).
— I like the fourth-wall-breaking ending with Darrell removing his Clarence wig and telling Val that he’s getting ready for the next sketch.
STARS: ****
WADE BLASINGAME
attorney Wade Blasingame (WIF) sues dogs that do what comes naturally
— The visuals of a briefs-clad Parnell performing uncouth dog actions are absolutely priceless.
— Rachel’s terrified facial expression when being humped on the ground by Parnell is very funny.
— Such a hilarious premise for this commercial, and Will is, of course, perfect as the attorney.
— I love hearing the audience’s groaning at the claim “23 Dogs Exterminated”.
— Fantastic testimonial from Tracy, particularly him discreetly disclosing to us “Wade told me that for $50, he’d KILL a dog.”
— When the camera shows Will and Parnell sitting next to each other, I love the close-up of a silent Parnell with a smug and almost disgusted look on his face.
— SNL would re-air this commercial years later in a Will Ferrell-hosted episode from 2009. I remember it being fun and fascinating to see this early 2000s era’s cast again in a repeated commercial shown in a new episode from a completely different era. (Darrell was the only person who was part of both this 2000 cast and the 2009 cast.)
STARS: *****
BEHIND THE MUSIC
in Heaven, Jim Morrison (host) forms a supergroup
— Great concept of a rock-and-roll supergroup in heaven, and a nice way to have Val reprise his movie portrayal of Jim Morrison.
— Tracy is particularly funny as Louis Armstrong.
— Hilarious bit with Will-as-Jesus doing a testimonial, especially the classic moment of him expressing the line “Oh my dad!” in place of “Oh my god!”
— Voice-Over: “’But offstage, things were falling apart’ is a registered trademark of VH1 and Behind The Music.”
— I love that this sketch is getting even more odd now with the addition of Amelia Earhart as Jim Morrison’s girlfriend.
— Very funny ending with the reincarnated band performing.
STARS: ****½
PALM BEACH
psephologic drama swamps George W. Bush (WIF) & Al Gore (DAH)
— This season offers up yet another epic Bush/Gore sketch parodying the Florida recounts fiasco. Turning the election drama into a soap opera TV show is a brilliant concept. Simply fantastic.
— Ana’s mere facial expressions as Katherine Harris continue to be hilarious, as does her impression of Harris in general.
— Good casting of Val as Jeb Bush. I can see a pretty strong resemblance between them.
— I love Will-as-Bush’s reaction to finding out that the presidency lasts four years instead of one day.
— Katherine Harris: “Al, I thought you were dead.” Al Gore: “I’m Al Gore. I just appear that way.”
— Jeb Bush, on his brother, George: “The more people that learned about his disability, the more popular he became. Kinda like Tom Arnold.”
— Nice inclusion of Parnell’s Tom Brokaw.
— Ha, during the dramatic close-ups of each person, we get the sudden return of Will’s spot-on imitation of a cat, last seen in the Vince Vaughn episode from season 24.
— During the aforementioned sequence with dramatic close-ups of each person, Darrell, during his close-up, gets distracted by Will’s cat routine behind him and starts cracking up.
STARS: *****
VERONICA & CO.
supermodel Veronica (MOS) leads unfocused panel discussion
— At the very beginning of this sketch, Molly misses her cue to start speaking and actually looks off-camera at someone and, while giggling like crazy, silently asks if it’s time for her to start the sketch. My god. Molly sure has been kind of a mess these last two seasons of hers. Her gaffe at the beginning of this sketch would later be removed from reruns with a rather noticeable edit.
— Molly apparently liked playing Gisele Bundchen in the VH1 Fashion Awards sketch earlier this season so much that she decided to create a character out of it. Her “new” character in this sketch is just a recycled version of her Bundchen impression, right down to wearing the same wig and doing the same voice. Can’t say this is something I really needed.
— Several minutes into the sketch, Parnell gives me my first real laughs of the whole thing, with his funny and very impressive robot dance.
— When Parnell’s character is suffering a horrific allergic reaction to what he just ate, I do admit to liking Molly’s line about how they have a doctor in the house, Val, after it’s been established that Val isn’t a real doctor.
— Overall, this sketch wasn’t quite as terrible as I had remembered (IIRC, I absolutely trashed these Veronica & Co. sketches in my original 2000-2001 reviews from when this season originally aired), but I still didn’t care for this, and I still look at it as a sign of how downhill Molly has gone in her later years on SNL. I’m not looking forward to seeing a second installment of this sketch later this season.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Beautiful Day”
WEEKEND UPDATE
I Have An Opinion- JIF is proud to say “I like election turmoil”
lyrical rhetoric carries Jesse Jackson (DAH) & Al Sharpton (JEM) away
— Right out of the gate in tonight’s Update, we get a rare use of a news screen behind Jimmy and Tina, as they break down all of the batshit insane election recount news from the last 24 hours. Solid segment.
— Jimmy’s “I Have An Opinion” segment was okay, I guess. I liked it more for his performance than for what he was actually saying, as none of his dialogue was particularly noteworthy.
— Darrell’s Jesse Jackson returns, this time being paired with Jerry as Al Sharpton. Good to see Jerry actually getting something comedic to do.
— Sharpton’s interjections during Jackson’s speech are hilarious, especially him breaking out into a New Edition song. Jerry’s portrayal of Sharpton is adding a fresh new feel to the typical Darrell-as-Jesse-Jackson Update commentaries.
— I like how towards the end of the Jackson/Sharpton commentary, it gets to the ridiculous point where they’re both preaching/singing different things simultaneously.
STARS: ***½
ICEMAN: THE LATER YEARS
easily-excited commercial jet pilot Iceman (host) is living in the past
— A great way of having Val reprise his Iceman character from Top Gun, and this is a fun setting for him.
— I like the detail of Iceman balding on the top of his hair.
— After one of Iceman’s many utterances of “You guys are dangerous!”, I absolutely love Parnell’s great delivery of “Tom, I’m gonna ask you to stop saying that.”
— I’m enjoying the structure to this sketch, presenting it as various little scenes with interstitial musical shots of airplanes and airports played in between.
STARS: ****
SEASON’S GREETINGS
HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty
— Ah, yes! Here we get the debut of a soon-to-be-recurring famous Sanz/Fallon/Kattan/Morgan Christmas song routine that has long been a favorite of mine.
— So much fun watching the initial edition of this song.
— I love how Tracy’s only contribution to the song is just running in place the entire time with a dead-serious look on his face.
— Even Jimmy being his usual giggly mess of a self works in the fun, charming, and endearing nature of this sketch.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Elevation”
— An incredible turn mid-song with Bono leaping off of the stage and, while still singing, traveling all around the studio and doing lots of interesting little things along the way, including singing a Doors lyric to Val. I remember in my viewing of this episode when it originally aired, this mid-song turn from Bono surprised and excited the hell out of me, especially because at the time, I had never seen a musical performance where the musical guest traveled around the studio to this extent before.
DOING VOICES
Margaret Healey finds a kindred spirit in accent-loving blind date (host)
— I kinda liked the first installment of this sketch, but this is definitely not something I needed to see become recurring. Pretty random too, to bring this forgotten sketch back after two seasons.
— Will has some great unhappy, deadpan one-liners in reaction to the voices routine that everyone around him is doing.
— Holy hell. A genuine big blooper where Parnell, playing a waiter, accidentally SPILLS an entire tray of drinks he’s carrying, some of which spills on poor Ana’s back. Yikes! Ana, ever the consummate pro, doesn’t even let it phase her.
— Overall, meh. Aside from Will’s unhappy lines, I didn’t care for this. Another weak Molly Shannon sketch tonight. Parnell’s gaffe with the tray of drinks provided my biggest laugh, and that wasn’t even in the script.
STARS: **
RECORDING SESSION
horn-playing brothers (CHP) & (WIF) do Burt Bacharach (host) session-work
— Has anyone else noticed that Ana and especially Parnell have been appearing in practically EVERY SINGLE SKETCH tonight? This level of airtime is rare for Parnell, and as someone who has always felt that Parnell is criminally underrated and underused, I’m very happy for him receiving this huge boost in airtime tonight. Probably the most airtime he’s ever received in a single episode during his entire SNL tenure.
— I’ve noticed throughout Parnell’s tenure that whenever he has a lead role in a sketch, he often partners up with another cast member to play a pair of brothers. Unlike the Bloater and DeMarco Brothers, the Tyson Brothers in this sketch never end up becoming recurring, though I’m not sure if they were even intended to.
— Val is cracking me up in his funny performance as Burt Bacharach.
— Quite an odd and slow-paced sketch, but it’s definitely working for me, especially the funny silent actions and gestures from Will and Parnell throughout this very long instrumental. There’s some hints of an Andy Kaufman-style approach to this sketch, especially in how it tests the audience’s patience. Take notes, Tom Green. This is how to successfully pull off Andy Kaufman humor.
— I love the angry sudden back-and-forth argument between the Tyson Brothers, especially Will’s character repeatedly screaming “SHUT UP!” in an increasingly high-pitched voice.
— Burt Bacharach, to Ana’s character: “Debbie, they are brilliant.” Ana: “It’s Brenda.” Burt Bacharach: “No, it’s Debbie.”
STARS: ****
CORN CHIP NAIL TIPS
Rerun from 10/7/00
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and the return to form that this season needed after that Tom Green fiasco. Many great sketches all throughout tonight’s episode, two segments that received a perfect five-star rating from me, and musical guest U2 delivered an all-time memorable and epic number in their second performance.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Green)
a colossal step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Lucy Liu hosts the Christmas episode