Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) says Iraq strike was meant to help Bill Clinton
— Funny reveal from Will’s Bush that he ordered a surprise military strike against Iraq just as an attempt to move former president Bill Clinton’s latest scandals off the front pages.
— Great “Live From New York…” fake-out with Bush setting it up by saying “I have just one more thing to say”, then starting to say “Live fr–” as the camera zooms in on him, only for him to cut himself off with “no, wait, two more things to say”, which results in the zoomed-in camera immediately zooming back out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen SNL play with a LFNY camera zoom-in like that in any prior cold openings.
— Overall, a pretty funny but average Bush cold opening.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host plays “A Fifth Of Beethoven” on piano & multitasks on-stage
— A very fun energetic and bouncy entrance from Sean Hayes.
— A lot of laughs and entertainment from all of the little things Sean’s doing during the funky portions of the “A Fifth Of Beethoven” song he’s playing. He is going ALL OUT on this, and I love it.
— Very strong monologue overall.
STARS: ****½
THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry trip out after eating portabello mushrooms
— This strong recurring sketch makes its final appearance of Molly’s tenure as a cast member, as tonight is Molly’s last episode.
— During the mid-commercial shot of this sketch being set up on the SNL stage during the preceding commercial break, we see that tonight’s Delicious Dish installment oddly takes place in front of a greenscreen instead of the usual radio studio set, which should tell you that something unusual is going to happen in this installment.
— Great look for Sean’s character.
— I like Molly’s stern delivery of “Okay, that’s enough” after Sean says one too many corny mushroom puns.
— Very funny turn with Margaret Jo and Terry having bizarre psychedelic, trippy hallucinations after eating toxic mushrooms. Now we see why this sketch had to resort to a greenscreen background.
— Odd use of Will, briefly playing a weird man with a phone for a head, and yet, it’s strangely a very fitting role for him. The only reason I even know it’s Will in that costume is because during the aforementioned mid-commercial shot of this sketch being set up on the SNL stage, the stage manager can be heard on the P.A. calling Will’s name among the performers who are called for this sketch.
— While this is VERY different for a Delicious Dish, I’m loving this.
— I really like the outer space sequence with Margaret Jo and Terry’s floating heads taking turns saying random foods.
— The reveal that the mushrooms that Margaret Jo and Terry were supposedly tripping off from were actually just portabello mushrooms was pretty funny, but too reminiscent of a previous Delicious Dish sketch where Margaret Jo and Terry got drunk off of eggnog, only to eventually find out that it was non-alcoholic eggnog.
— Overall, a very fun and unique way for this fantastic recurring sketch to go out… during Molly’s tenure, that is. SNL would unwisely go on to keep this recurring sketch going for the remainder of Ana’s tenure, with a certain cast member replacing Molly’s role.
STARS: ****
HOMOCIL
Homocil helps anxious parents of homosexual children deal with gayness
— I’ve always absolutely loved this commercial. I’m not sure how well this commercial holds up with most people in today’s more PC, gay-friendly age, but I’ll try not to let that affect my enjoyment during this current viewing.
— The style of this commercial is a spot-on parody of a real commercial that aired at this time for medication for Social Anxiety Disorder. I forget what medicine company that was for.
— The whole “Who wants crème brule?” scene with Tracy’s character and his son is particularly hilarious.
— A memorable and funny image of Will’s frozen fake big smile and thumbs-up.
— The announcer’s ending line, delivered towards parents of gay children: “Because it’s your problem… not theirs.”
STARS: ****½
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) piles on in wake of Clinton pardon scandal
— The Hardball parodies have officially become recurring.
— The debut of Kattan’s Paul Begala impression, which will go on to become a recurring punching bag in these sketches.
— Chris Matthews, to Paul Begala: “You’re boring… and you look like a fetus!”
— Darrell looks like he’s breaking after the hands-tied-behind-his-back scenario that Parnell’s Arlen Specter suggests for Bill Clinton.
— The whole back-and-forth between Chris Matthews and Paul Begala is great.
— Parnell is on fire in this sketch, as his Arlen Specter is having lots of priceless lines in regards to various insane scenarios he has for Clinton.
STARS: ****
JEFFREY’S
fashion-hip clerks (JIF) & (host) belittle customers’ style
— This is the first actual live sketch that Jimmy has appeared in since all the way back in the Charlie Sheen episode from a month prior. This also ends up being his ONLY non-Weekend-Update appearance tonight, making this the third consecutive episode in which he does little-to-nothing outside of Update. I wonder what’s going on with his airtime lately. It’s like SNL is experimenting with having Jimmy only concentrate on Update for a few episodes.
— Stock gay stereotype characters here (which, let’s face it, you knew SNL was gonna give Sean Hayes at least once tonight), but I admit, I’m actually really liking Jimmy and Sean’s snarky insults towards customers.
— I remember some SNL fans back at this time saying these Jeffrey’s characters are basically a gay male version of the Gap Girls. I can kinda see that, though the Gap Girls sketches had more storylines and character development than these Jeffrey’s sketches, which are literally just Jimmy and the hosts’ characters endlessly insulting customers, and then interacting with Will’s character at the end of the sketch.
— I love Horatio’s line “For your informacione, guy, I have a half-eaten taco in my Terce-e-e-e-el!”
— Sean is stumbling over some of his lines throughout this sketch whenever he and Jimmy say something to each other in between dealing with customers.
— Will’s walk-on immediately results in smirking from Sean and Jimmy. Otherwise, Sean and Jimmy are doing relatively okay in keeping a straight face throughout Will’s scene. The version of this sketch that everybody’s probably familiar with, in which Sean and Jimmy break HARD during Will’s entire scene, is actually the dress rehearsal version. I’m currently reviewing the live version, in which Sean and Jimmy keep their composure for most of Will’s scene, aside from some occasional smirks.
— The aforementioned dress rehearsal version of this sketch shown in reruns also has quite a lot of breaking from Jimmy during Horatio’s scene, as well as a more loose performance from Horatio.
— Will is absolutely hilarious in his appearance in this sketch, especially the business with his tiny phone.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “It Wasn’t Me”
WEEKEND UPDATE
snubbed & angry Jamie Bell (host), aka the kid from Billy Elliot, dances
— During Jimmy’s “Weekend Update Inside Joke” segment, he namedrops insider names like Phil Hymes and Wally, who are actual crew members of SNL (Wally being Wally Feresten, the cue card guy).
— A rare instance of a host getting their own Update commentary.
— Sean is great as The Kid From Billy Elliot, and I love all of his angry one-liners.
— Fun turn with Sean dancing in front of the Update desk and then going into the studio audience.
— After Sean’s commentary has seemingly ended, we get a fantastic continuation, with Jimmy and Tina being informed via a breaking note that “The Kid From Billy Elliot is still mad”, followed by a cutaway to him at SNL’s backstage area dancing around the hallway and punching Kattan and Maya.
— An overall pretty short Update, but a strong one.
STARS: ****
HELLO DOLLY
on Valentine’s Day, (host) boosts merits of replica children
— I was about to say that this is the final edition of Hello Dolly, but I just now remembered that the following season’s Hugh Jackman episode has the final Hello Dolly.
— Not caring too much for tonight’s installment so far, though there are a few funny lines. I recall liking this recurring sketch when it started out, but I’ve gotten gradually tired of it after a while.
— Okay, the “Oopz” doll in a full-body cast is making me laugh.
STARS: **½
BAND SHOT
going to commercial, G.E. Smith & T-Bone Wolk [real] play guitar & bass
FASHION WEEK
at fashion show, Sally O’Malley encourages age pride & displays camel-toe
— I like Sean making his entrance on a scooter.
— Yet another fun characterization from Sean tonight. He has been an amazing host so far tonight.
— Uh-oh, a Sally O’Malley appearance. If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you most likely know how I feel about these Sally O’Malley sketches. However, I’ll tone down the saltiness and go a little easy on this one tonight, because I don’t want to taint my review of Molly’s final episode by bitching and moaning too much about a sketch of hers. Despite my many complaints about Molly in these later seasons of hers where she’s gone downhill, I still like Molly as a performer in general and feel that her SNL tenure as a whole holds up.
— Just now, it looked like the camera tried to hide Molly’s obligatory breaking by immediately cutting to a close-up of Sean saying and doing nothing. Good work, SNL director. If only they did this during the countless other times that Molly broke during these last two seasons.
— Aaaaaaand there’s the famous “camel toe” sequence in tonight’s Sally O’Malley sketch. Molly’s having fun going all out here.
— I like Sean’s Sally O’Malley-esque phrase “I like to scratch, belch, and scratch! I’m 60!”
— Overall, surprisingly not insufferable at all. I think the atmosphere of this being Molly’s last show made this Sally O’Malley installment come off more tolerable and fun than usual.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Angel”
ACTION NEWS 4 MORNING REPORT
reporter (host) covers events precipitated by crash involving a clown car
— I like the odd news stories that Ana and Kattan casually mention briefly at the beginning.
— Hilarious premise of the news covering a clown car accident. Will and the other performers are slaying me in their performances as the injured clowns.
— After being very prominent in the last two episodes and getting lots of comedic roles in them, things have unfortunately gone back to usual for Jerry Minor, as he makes his only appearance of the night in a late-in-the-show sketch in which he plays his usual bit role that doesn’t really give him anything funny to do. For what I remember of the remainder of this season, it’s going to be quite a while until SNL gives Jerry his next comedic role.
— I love how they’re upping the ante of this sketch’s bizarre nature, by adding crazy assorted things to the already-crazy coverage of the clown car accident, such as Big Mouth Billy Basses and a busload of horny prison inmates.
— Great ending shot of Horatio in clown makeup popping up in front of the camera and laughing maniacally (screencap below).
I recall some SNL fans back at this time saying Horatio was a little too scary-looking in that portion of this sketch.
STARS: ****
LAST SHOW
Mary Katherine Gallagher sings “School’s Out”
— A fantastic brief musical number, letting the departing Molly Shannon bring back her retired breakout character, Mary Katherine Gallagher, to perform the song “School’s Out” with the SNL Band on the home base stage.
— I love the ending with MKG doing the “superstar” pose while exclaiming “Last show!” A great little sendoff for Molly.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)
BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
animals-that-people-make-clothes-out-of
— This sketch has officially become recurring… after TWO YEARS. When tonight’s episode originally aired, I remember being surprised that they were bringing back this forgotten two-year-old sketch from the season 24 finale. Obviously, SNL had no idea at the time how well-liked these Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketches would eventually become.
— During the usual Brian Fellow opening title sequence, tonight’s installment actually displays text of the usual voice-over intro about Brian Fellow not being an accredited zoologist. This, I believe, this ends up being the ONLY Brian Fellow installment to have that text be displayed.
— I think this is also the only time that Tracy ever wears a wig in a Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch. It looks like it might be the same wig that Tracy wore the very first time he played Brian Fellow, in which Fellow was a Weekend Update sports correspondent instead of a host of his own animal show.
— A good laugh from Brian Fellow’s thought bubble of a rabbit taking a test.
— Just now, the rabbit in the thought bubble referred to Brian Fellow as “Brian Fellows”, something that would eventually go on to be a common mistake that Tracy himself would make in these sketches, leading to the common misconception among SNL fans that this character’s last name is Fellows instead of Fellow.
— Overall, a good installment of this sketch. Tracy’s characterization of Brian Fellow felt more developed here, and, unlike the first installment, this installment felt more like the Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet that people today remember.
STARS: ***½
CORN CHIP NAIL TIPS
Rerun from 10/7/00
TALKIN’ ‘BOUT ‘GINAS
female celebs speak frankly about their genitals
— A hilarious title for a Vagina Monologues knock-off. I’m guessing this has GOT to be a Tina Fey-written sketch.
— I love the format of this sketch, showing little snippets of female celebrities, one-by-one, talking about their vaginas.
— Nice how Molly’s been getting a lot more airtime than usual for her last episode.
— Will absolutely steals the sketch with his portion of the sketch, playing Chyna.
— Kinda chilling in retrospect how many of the celebrities portrayed in this sketch are now dead only 19 years later (Farrah Fawcett, Joan Rivers, Anna Nicole Smith, Chyna), most of them untimely deaths. I think Gayle King is the ONLY celebrity portrayed in this sketch who’s still alive today. I would ask if the woman who Rachel played is still alive today, but according to SNL Archives, she’s not even a real person. If that’s true, I find it odd that SNL made up a celebrity for Rachel to play in this sketch.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode that has broken the rut that SNL had been in lately of episodes ranging from average to weak. This was the first strong episode since Val Kilmer/U2 from all the way back in early December. Sean Hayes was absolutely fantastic as a host tonight, and came off as someone who was born to do SNL. He was exactly the host that SNL needed after Jennifer Lopez’s blah outing as a host the preceding week. The difference between J.Lo and Sean’s hosting performances is like night and day.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Lopez)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Katie Holmes