Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
unlike ailing workaholic Dick Cheney, George W. Bush (WIF) has no worries
— I like the twist on the usual Don Pardo-read “Saturday Night Live, normally seen at this time, will be delayed– etc.” announcements that these presidential address-to-the-nation cold openings usually begin with, by having Pardo now say “Saturday Night Live, normally delayed at this time, will be delayed again so we can give you this following– etc.”
— Will-as-Bush’s health comparisons between himself and vice president Dick Cheney have some laughs.
— A classic Will-as-Bush moment right now, with his definition of 24/7: “That’s 24 hours a week… 7 months a year.”
— These Bush-addresses-the-nation cold openings lately have been pretty average. These don’t seem to work as well as sketches where Will’s Bush plays off of other people. Also, I don’t think these latest Bush sketches have been written by Jim Downey, who wrote the acclaimed Bush sketches during the election in the first half of the season, so that may explain the drop in quality.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
TRM & Japanese tourists accompany host to his studio; Max Weinberg cameo
— Nice touch with Conan doing the same physical moves after his entrance that he regularly did around this time after making his entrance on his Late Night show on NBC.
— I like how he’s openly acknowledging that he started out as a writer on SNL.
— A very fun montage of Conan’s onscreen bit roles in sketches from his SNL writer days, complete with a fake clip of two people in a horse costume at the end.
— I love how Conan’s taking us on a trip to his Late Night studio, right here on live TV. Very unique for SNL. In my review of Buck Henry’s May 1976 monologue, I compared that to this Conan monologue, and pointed out how extremely rare and ambitious it is for SNL to do something this extensive on live TV.
— Tracy: “I’ve never seen a television studio before!”
— Tracy’s very Tracy Morgan-esque reaction to realizing he’s on TV is great.
— Very funny little touches with Conan running into random people like Japanese tourists and “live-saving paramedics”, and inviting them to join him on his journey to his Late Night studio.
— Hilarious turn with Conan finally entering his studio and finding Max Weinberg having sex on Conan’s desk.
— Watching this monologue nowadays, it’s a very nice and bittersweet blast of nostalgia to see Conan’s Late Night studio from this era.
— I love the unconventional way this monologue ends.
— Overall, this entire monologue is a personal favorite of mine.
STARS: *****
SUBSHACK
overstuffed Subshack sandwiches fatten up Jared Fogel (JIF) & friends
— (*tries hard to ignore the awkwardness of looking back at an old Jared Fogel portrayal in today’s age*)
— (*groans when just now remembering that I have an actual Jared Fogel cameo to eventually cover in the Michael Phelps episode from season 34*)
— Seeing Tracy in that fat suit reminds me of how much heavier he used to be during his first season on SNL, though he was certainly nowhere near as heavy as he is in the fat suit he’s wearing in this commercial.
— Overall, this commercial was funny enough, even if this isn’t quite as funny or as noteworthy as I had remembered it (and, no, it’s not the whole Jared thing that makes this less funny to me nowadays).
STARS: ***
CUMBERLAND FARMS
underage Sully manages to buy booze for Denise, (host), Donny Bartolotti
— In an interview that Rachel had then-recently done on Conan’s Late Night show, she and Conan mentioned Conan’s then-upcoming SNL hosting stint and they both gave a hint that Conan’s going to appear in a Boston Teens sketch in his SNL episode, given the fact that Conan is a natural-born Bostonian himself.
— Conan’s opening line: “You’re undah arrest for public display of a bonah!”
— As no surprise, Conan is fitting in this perfectly, and he’s adding a very fun vibe to this sketch.
— I like the whole conversation that Rachel’s Denise and Conan have about a past relationship they had together.
— Ben Affleck cameo! Nice to see him reprising his solid Donnie Bartolotti role from the Boston Teens sketch that he appeared in the preceding season. That sketch was, in my eyes, one of the best Boston Teens installments, and I feel that tonight’s installment is also one of the best ones.
— A rare Boston Teens sketch that doesn’t contain the traditional sexual innuendo/“Tommy, please tell me you got on tape!” moment.
STARS: ****
MOLECULO
catchphrase betrays secret identity of Moleculo, The Molecular Man (host)
— A very fun character for Conan, and yet another role tonight that fits him perfectly.
— I love the recurring gag of Conan’s character always following someone saying his name, Moleculo, with exclaiming “The Molecular Man!” as the camera zooms in on him.
— Great turn with the “The Molecular Man!” exclamations and camera zoom-ins happening helplessly to a disguised Conan when his alter-ego’s co-workers keeps saying “Moleculo” around him. I especially like him doing it after he crashes through the wall.
— The whole Mexico scene is a perfect ending to this.
STARS: *****
NAPSTER TESTIMONY
Right Said Fred (host) & other one-hit wonders give Napster testimony
— The return of Kattan’s David Lee Roth impression, last done in a “Hey, Remember the 80s?” sketch in season 22.
— Conan is hilarious as Right Said Fred.
— Fun concept of this sketch, with performers coming on one-by-one giving testimonials as washed-up singers from the 80s and 90s.
— We get the return of another impression that a cast member once did in the past, this time Tracy as the guy from Cameo.
— Even though you know what the statement is going to be, I love the drawn-out set-up to the guy from Cameo’s statement, with him putting on glasses, drinking from a glass of water, and pulling out a sheet of paper with the statement.
— Rachel has refreshingly been getting a lot more airtime tonight than she usually gets this season.
— Geez, Jimmy screwed up the name of the celebrity he was playing, accidentally introducing himself as “Nigel Tennant” before correcting himself and saying “Neil Tennant”. We also get a tepid joke afterwards about Jimmy’s Neil Tennant working at an actual pet shop nowadays. They used a similar joke about another celebrity to better effect in a then-recent sketch, but I can’t remember what sketch I’m thinking of.
— Okay, I do give Jimmy credit for doing a spot-on imitation of Neil Tennant’s singing voice when just now singing a small sample of “West End Girls”.
— Horatio is priceless as a now-fat Rico Suave. I especially like his “Chocolate…. dooonuuuts!” line explaining what happened to his body.
— A funny bit about Will’s Corey Hart driving with sunglasses at night.
— A lot of laughs from Conan’s Right Said Fred disguising himself as the beekeeper from the Village People, before being called out on the fact that there was no beekeeper in the Village People.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Everything Is Different Now”
WEEKEND UPDATE
— During Tina’s Rudy Giuliani joke, I love the meta punchline about SNL’s own Tracy Morgan, showing once again how defined Tracy’s onscreen persona has become.
— I remember an SNL reviewer from back at this time in 2001 pointing out that Jimmy’s Chocolat joke (“The movie Chocolat was so choco-long and choco-boring that I wanted my choco-money back”) felt like something that Mike Myers would’ve said as Wayne Campbell in a Wayne’s World sketch. I can definitely see it, especially with the way Jimmy delivered that joke.
— Wow, that’s it? That’s the entire Update? The then-recent trend of Update getting shorter and shorter by the week continues, as tonight’s has got to be one of the shortest Updates of all time, or at least of the three most recent decades today. There also were no guest commentaries.
STARS: ***½
NO TAINT
(HOS) is distressed to learn that he lost his taint in a car accident
— There’s Rachel once again tonight.
— I’m loving all of the random absurdist humor that this sketch is filled with right out of the gate, such as Horatio preferring to travel all the way to another city just to get to the “good” McDonalds, Bruce Jenner being on Inside The Actor’s Studio, and Horatio foolishly thinking that if he drives 130 miles an hour, it’s possible for him to make it to another city and back home in just 10 minutes.
— Ana’s hillbilly prank on Horatio is very funny.
— Hilarious turn with Conan as a doctor revealing to Horatio that they were forced to remove his taint, resulting in a confused reaction from Horatio over what the hell a taint is. I also love Conan’s description of just what exactly a taint is.
— I got a big laugh from Horatio describing a taint as a “fleshy fun bridge”.
— Horatio: “Where’d you get your medical degree? In a box of Hill Street Blues cereal?”
— Funny running gag of Conan’s difficulty in pronouncing the simple name Brown.
— The random absurdist humor of this sketch beautifully continues, with Will (playing a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque sleazy character) entering wearing a blazer with no shirt underneath.
— The things being said in the text crawl make me think that this sketch was written by whoever (possibly Adam McKay) wrote a certain other great sketch, Buckwell’s Follies, from season 21’s Alec Baldwin episode, as that had a similar message in its text crawl ending.
— A hilarious listing-off of taint-less celebrities. I especially love the little bit with the announcer, Parnell, accidentally misreading the name of basketball player Pervis Ellison for the name of another basketball player, Purvis Short.
— When Parnell as the announcer tells us that we probably had no idea that he has no taint, I love the distinct voice of Tracy responding “Nah, we knew! We knew!”
— Overall, my god, what a bizarre masterpiece. One of my absolute favorite oddball sketches from this entire era.
— SNL would later replace this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. It’s been ages since I’ve seen the rerun version of this sketch, but off the top of my head, the only big difference I remember is that Conan wears a wig in the dress rehearsal version, whereas he has his real hair in the live version.
STARS: *****
TV FUNHOUSE
“Find The Black People At The Knick Game” by RBS- off-the-court, not many
— Wow, what a very random concept (quite a lot of random humor in tonight’s episode in general, which is right up my alley). But I love it.
— A rare instance of a non-animated TV Funhouse.
— I love the how, after running out of black people in the stands, this has now desperately resorted to finding black people among the players on the court, where the circles go off like mad.
— An odd but strangely good ending with Horatio and Tracy as themselves randomly being in the stands.
STARS: ****
VH1 DIVA-THON
during a concert, Deandra Wells barely avoids a mutiny by her band
— The second and final appearance of Ana’s Deandra Wells character.
— Ana’s doing another solid job as this character, but so far, this sketch is following the exact same formula and pattern as the first installment.
— We at least get an inclusion of Conan as an additional band member, Deandra Wells’ son.
— Deandra’s comments about her son are really funny.
— Like last time, we get another angry outburst from the band towards Deandra. This sketch in general is a little too derivative of the first installment for my likes.
— I like Conan complaining to Deandra about her decision to have Anthony Michael Hall play him in a “movie of the week” about his life story.
— Ana’s initial reaction when Will actually strikes her during an angry confrontation made me laugh.
STARS: ***
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
Marc Rich (CHK) can afford to be against a tax cut because he doesn’t pay
— At the beginning, I like the audience’s groaning when it’s revealed that Kattan’s playing Marc Rich.
— Quite an oversized-looking suit on Kattan. Is that intentional?
— Overall, blah. A few light laughs, but this was mostly dull and forgettable.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Heart Of The Matter”
— This musical performance would later be removed in NBC reruns and be replaced with a cut-after-dress-rehearsal DeMarco Brothers sketch involving Don Henley. Odd decision to replace a Henley musical performance with a sketch that Henley co-stars in, but from what I remember, this DeMarco Brothers sketch was actually a rare funny one, as Conan played a third DeMarco Brother, and hilarity ensued as his character awkwardly tried to fit in with the other two DeMarco Brothers.
SPORTS CENTURY
black opponents end career of boxing pioneer (host)
— A good laugh from Conan’s old-timey boxer character having a handlebar mustache in his baby picture.
— Yet another role tonight that Conan is perfectly cast in.
— The Conan/Kattan fight with both of them just waving their fists for a countless number of rounds is cracking me up, even if the gag is being stretched a little longer than it should.
— Hilarious turn with Conan’s character immediately getting endlessly punched in his first match against a black boxer.
— A great image of Conan’s head immediately bleeding at the beginning of a match before any punches were even thrown. I also love his line to his opponent during that bleeding: “I’ll baste your turkey!”
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fantastic episode. Not only is this one of my favorite episodes of both this season and this entire era, but it’s one of my favorite episodes of all time. This episode was filled with the type of Conan-inspired fun, creative, oddball silliness that epitomizes my comedic tastes. Conan O’Brien was a truly remarkable host as expected, and I love how the roles he was given fit him to a T and played to his strengths. A lot of the sketches he was in were the type of comedy bits that I can picture appearing in this same era of his Late Night show (one of the writers and frequent onscreen performers of Conan’s Late Night show, Jon Glaser, was credited as an additional sketch writer in tonight’s episode, so I’m sure that at least partially explains why).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Katie Holmes)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Julia Stiles hosts SNL’s 500th episode