Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
WHITE HOUSE
George W. Bush (WIF) empathizes with daughter Jenna (Julia Stiles)
— The opening reveal of Will’s President Bush asking his important question into a Magic 8 Ball is funny, but was already used in an Update joke about Bush earlier this season.
— We get a cameo from then-recent host Julia Stiles playing Jenna Bush, a casting choice that came off very random at the time, but would come off right at home if it happened in today’s age of stunt casting in SNL’s political cold openings.
— I like Stiles’ Jenna saying the made-up word “melodramaculous”, showing that she takes after her father.
— Funny fake-out from Will’s Bush, with the guy he’s telling a story about who you think is himself based on the description instead turning out to be a poor Mexican.
— Nice touch at the end with “Live from New York…” being delivered in Spanish. As I always say, I’m a sucker for the times that SNL alters their LFNY tagline.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— A Cartoon By Robert Smigel is credited in tonight’s montage, but no cartoon ends up airing tonight.
MONOLOGUE
host earns the grudging respect of vexatious Sean Connery (DAH)
— The Lawnmower Man bit didn’t get anywhere near as much audience laughter as was probably expected.
— A nice rare non-Celebrity Jeopardy appearance from Darrell’s Sean Connery, and a funny way of having tonight’s James Bond host meet a former James Bond.
— I like the abrupt violent ending of Connery’s story.
— As someone who usually dislikes musical monologues, I love Pierce Brosnan quickly putting the kibosh on Connery’s attempt to break out into a duet with Pierce.
— At the end of this monologue, Darrell can be seen whispering something in Pierce’s ear before walking off. Reportedly, the whispered statement in question was “You’re doing great”, as Pierce had let the cast and crew know beforehand how nervous he was to perform his monologue.
STARS: ***½
HOMOCIL
Rerun from 2/17/01
JUST FUNNIN’ WITH GEMINI’S TWIN
Gemini’s Twin welcomes expelled members (musical guest)
— The first, and I believe, only Gemini’s Twin sketch to not have a female host playing a third member of the group. They’re obviously only doing this sketch tonight because the musical guest is Destiny’s Child, the group who Gemini’s Twin is a parody of.
— Pretty funny music video, mainly due to the characters played by Pierce and Rachel.
— Here’s our obligatory Destiny’s Child walk-on, fittingly playing the original kicked-out members of Gemini’s Twin.
— Feels a little weird nowadays looking back at a young Beyonce as part of a musical group before she became a huge solo singer.
STARS: **½
WEAKEST LINK
origin of Anne Robinson’s (RAD) nastiness is revealed
— SNL gets in their obligatory parody of this hot then-new game show that was taking the nation by storm.
— The occupation that each contestant says they have during their respective intro are all funny.
— Random but kinda amusing how many of the contestants come from Texas.
— (*groan*) Figures that SNL would cast Kattan as a contestant who gets a gay joke hurled at him.
— Rachel-as-Anne-Robinson’s ruthless barbs to the contestants are providing a lot of laughs. Her “Fred Flintstone called, he wants his head back” insult to Horatio gets a particularly good audience reaction.
— I love the “In physics, can you hear this?” / “Let me turn it up for you” bit regarding the middle finger.
— Good turn with Anne Robinson’s childhood flashback.
— Robinson’s ending line about seeing a therapist kinda fell flat. SNL would later replace the ending of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns (or at least in the NBC rerun), which has a completely different ending line from Robinson, but I can’t remember what it was or if it was any better than her ending line from the live version.
STARS: ****
JEFFREY’S
at Jeffrey’s, style-challenged customers are made to feel inferior
— Parnell’s corny dad-type delivery of “He is hipper than you two will ever be” cracked me up, even though I doubt it was intended to get laughs.
— Pierce seems kinda out of place playing a sassy gay role like this, and his slow-paced, proper British delivery doesn’t match Jimmy’s delivery AT ALL, whereas Sean Hayes matched Jimmy’s delivery really well in the first installment of this sketch earlier this season.
— The second sketch tonight to make a fat joke about Horatio. At least it’s not as tired as the constant gay jokes about Kattan.
— Oh, god, there goes Horatio’s overacting and breaking, which in turn, causes Jimmy to break, of course. That being said, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch shown in reruns (much like the first Jeffrey’s installment in reruns of this season’s Sean Hayes episode) has far more breaking from Horatio and Jimmy, and an even more hammy, exaggerated performance from Horatio. That dress rehearsal version of this sketch also has lots of breaking from Jimmy during Kattan’s scene, because Kattan enters with a very odd and unnatural-looking pushed-back hairstyle that makes his forehead look HUGE (he has his normal hairstyle in the live version of this sketch), which apparently caught Jimmy off-guard. At one point when Jimmy is giggling uncontrollably at him, Kattan even stops mid-line and asks an unscripted “What?” while feeling his own hair.
— As always in these Jeffrey’s sketches, Will steals this with his walk-on at the end. I love the ridiculously tiny laptop he’s using, complete with a pair of microscope glasses so he can read from it.
— Very funny ending with Will crashing his motor cart into the store’s fountain.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Survivor”
WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM thinks that he should be Lamont Bond, the first black 007
— The cues for the news photo graphics displayed next to Jimmy and Tina seem slow tonight, as whenever the camera cuts to one anchor, the photo from the other anchor’s last joke would still be onscreen for a second. Odd.
— For the second time this season, Jimmy screws up the set-up of an Update joke really badly and, again, stops mid-joke to make an ad-lib about it, this time saying “This is what happens when you don’t sleep, kids.”
— I like the meta joke about Rudy Giuliani dressed in drag, showing a picture from a Rita Delvecchio sketch that Giuliani appeared in on SNL.
— Good point from Tracy about how it’s time for a black James Bond.
— Tracy’s commentary is hilarious and is pure Tracy Morgan, and a big improvement over his underwhelming Update commentary about Darryl Strawberry two episodes prior. I especially like his message to Star Jones, and the bit with the undressing-woman pen.
STARS: ***½
EVIL BOSS
interviewee (host) is put off by (WIF)’s brutal treatment of employees
— Oh, here’s one of my all-time favorite Will Ferrell sketches. I remember even when I watched this during the original live airing, I had the exciting feeling that I was watching a sketch that I knew would go down in history as a legendary Will Ferrell sketch.
— Will to Kattan, regarding a paper he’s handed in: “This looks like you took a crap or a dump in the printer!” I love how Will’s character apparently thinks that taking a crap and taking a dump are two separate things for some reason (or am I missing something?).
— Haha, holy hell at Will telling Kattan, “I am THIS close to raping you!”
— This is, I believe, Tina’s very first non-Update appearance where she plays an actual character instead of herself, not counting her onscreen appearances from before she was a cast member. I remember her appearance in this sketch was a big surprise to many viewers at the time, including myself.
— So many things in this sketch are SO wrong, but have me laughing my ass off.
— Will to a knocked-down Jerry: “Get up, you crazy black man! I’m gonna make you drink my piss!”
— Fantastic turn with a trident-and-net-holding Parnell challenging Will to a fight.
— An absolutely classic sequence with Will stabbing Parnell with a trident ENDLESSLY, a sequence that propels this already-perfect sketch into legendary status. I believe it’s been said various places that the number of times Will stabs Parnell in this portion of the sketch is 33. I also recall hearing that it wasn’t in the script for the stabbing sequence to go anywhere NEAR this long; supposedly, Will kept stabbing Parnell because the device that was supposed to shoot projectile blood during the stabbing wouldn’t work. That would explain why, when Will finally stops stabbing Parnell, Will taps something on Parnell’s back with his foot, causing fake blood to spurt out from somewhere on Parnell.
— I love how a bloody-faced Will is now nonchalantly conducting a calm talk with Pierce.
— IIRC, the NBC rerun of this episode would move this sketch all the way to the end of the show, presumably because they wanted to end the show with a bang.
STARS: *****
THE WEST WING
episode content is influenced by Aaron Sorkin’s drug use
— Hilarious concept of a West Wing episode written by Aaron Sorkin while high on mushrooms, spoofing a real-life controversy that Sorkin had recently gotten into.
— Not sure if Darrell’s Martin Sheen impression is working for me. I feel like even I could do a better Martin Sheen impression than that.
— Is Pierce supposed to be playing Rob Lowe’s character? If so, that is very odd and out-of-place casting, and Pierce isn’t even attempting to sound like anybody but himself in this.
— Ehh, this sketch isn’t turning out as funny as the concept initially made me think it would be.
— Some of the random bizarre stock footage visuals are kinda funny, but it’s not enough to carry this sketch.
STARS: **½
FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT
by Adam McKay- (MOS) shoplifts dogs for kicks
— Here’s what ends up being the final Adam McKay short film to air on SNL.
— A Molly Shannon cameo for the second episode in a row. Pulling a Jon Lovitz, are we, Molly? Actually, this McKay film was originally supposed to air in the preceding episode, but got cut after dress rehearsal.
— UBC performer Patrick McCartney has been utilized a lot in Adam McKay’s films this season. He’s particularly good in tonight’s film. Makes me think he could’ve possibly made a good SNL cast member.
— Very good scene with Adam McKay as a fake blind guy.
— Funny reveal of Molly having a puppy hidden in front of her tight pants.
— Overall, the usual solid Adam McKay film. McKay had a consistently good run with these short films of his on SNL. There wasn’t a single film of his that received a rating lower than four stars in this SNL project of mine.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Emotion”
BRAVERY AND UNITY
WWII soldiers’ combat memories comprise old stereotypes
— A lot of funny racial stereotypes and sophomoric humor here, which is working because of how it’s being presented in such a serious, straitlaced way in a History Channel setting.
— Pierce’s delivery is perfect for this.
— A huge laugh from Irish soldiers’ idea of a 7-course meal being a potato and a six-pack of beer.
— A particularly good spiel from Will with an endless amount of funny lines, first mentioning that a half-Italian half-Polish man “made me an offer I couldn’t understand”, then mentioning a half-Hispanic half-Asian man who stole an enemy jeep but couldn’t drive it, then mentioning a friend from Alabama who only had to write to one person when writing to his wife, sister, and mother.
STARS: ****½
THE FLAMINGO PARADISE LOUNGE
casino daycare center treats kids to a Vegas-style floor show
— A fun, creative concept, and Horatio is perfect for this.
— Good side role from Jerry. This sadly ends up being the last comedic role he would get during his short-lived SNL tenure. IIRC, he makes ZERO appearances in the next episode, and then in the season finale the week after that, his only appearance is a dull straight role in a sketch towards the end of the show.
— Wow, Tina in a SECOND non-Update appearance tonight where she plays a character. Not sure what got into her this week, but I like it.
— Great bit with Tina’s inappropriate-for-kids risque stripper/animal balloon routine.
— I love how this sketch has now ramped up the oddness, with Maya appearing as an extremely tiny Spanish man.
— Pierce’s bad stand-up comedian character saying “Give us back our plane!” to the Asian kid is a very funny topical reference to the America/China spy plane standoff that was going on at the time. This portion of the sketch probably goes over the heads of quite a number of people watching it years later.
— Pierce is having trouble with his upper teeth, as he seems to keep awkwardly adjusting them. Is he wearing fake upper teeth for this sketch?
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode, particularly the post-Weekend Update half, which contained a lot of strong segments. Pierce Brosnan was a hit-and-miss host. He had his moments, but also had some sketches where he had some awkwardness, came off badly miscast, or felt like he was thrown in just for the sake of giving him something to do.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Renee Zellweger)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Lara Flynn Boyle
Next episode has Kattan getting injured badly in the Golden Girls sketch. Broken neck that still ailing him to this day
The evil boss sketch is such a classic. I also like the kicker that they all work for a subpar inflight magazine, although that ending gets stretched out.
I use the line “I love it! I love it! I am actually going to murder you!” a lot.
Parnell attacking Will with the trident is so hilarious. It has to be the inspiration for the wild news-station brawl in Anchorman, right?
Adam McKay writes killer sketches and films all the way through these final days of his tenure (, culminating in the centaur-centered Walken/Parnell classic). Evil Boss is what we watch SNL for and Five Finger Di$count showcases the side of Molly Shannon we needed more of in her final months. Ferrell has many great moments in his last season coming up, but the departure of McKay is certainly felt. He should host.
They really should have stopped the Gemini’s Twin sketches after this one.
Patrick McCartney was also a pretty frequent Conan sketch regular around this same time, I always recognized him on Conan and the SNL shorts because I thought he looked a lot like british comedian Tony Slattery.
When Tina Fey appeared on Conan around this time, she would always set up a clip from some fake movie she was supposedly promoting and they would cut to the footage of the cats fighting that was used in the West Wing sketch.
That sketch wasn’t great in itself, but I do love Kattan gravely telling everyone “The President can’t run for another term…because he is melting.” As annoying as he could be, his delivery is perfect on that.
I remember the dress Weakest Link just had Dratch doubling down on the abuse.
Agree this was a particularly strong show, especially in the back half. So much from this show still sticks in my mind years later (I can’t hear “Popcorn” without thinking of Maya dancing and shouting “SNACK TIME!”)
They polished this one up good in the network and Comedy Central reruns.
IIRC Rachel’s Anne Robinson says “This has made me realize something very important, you are the dumbest morons I’ve ever met! You are all the Weakest Link!”
The sound effects for Will’s email bit in Jeffrey’s didn’t work and are replaced with the dress version.
Manager: “It’s Chloe, no it’s Stella. She’s leaving Chloe.”
AOL Voice “Goodbye”
The lag in the graphics on Update is fixed and the sound levels on the kids in Flamingo Lounge are lowered so you can here Maya more clearly.
I’m absolutely fascinated by the decision to give sketch roles to 5 women, one of whom was not even in the cast. Given that Maya played a white character in the West Wing sketch, she could have played Jenna Bush. Maybe, given how popular the W sketches were around this time, they wanted a bigger name for what they knew would be a very short term role? Tina’s roles confuse me even more. I guess stripper isn’t exactly a role Ana played very often, but generally I would have thought they might have put Maya in that role and Rachel could have taken her role? (then again I don’t remember Maya playing strippers very often either…) I’m certainly not complaining – I thought Tina became somewhat tiresome on Update after a year or two and I enjoy her sketch appearances more (she’s great in the Oprah and key party sketches in the Mulally and Colin Ferrell episodes).
Speaking of Update – imagine Jimmy struggling so much just for a lazy “that’s so gay!” joke. The shine’s worn off for me and him with WU earlier than I’d expected…
The Weakest Link is a hoot, other than, as you said, the ending. A perfect showcase for Rachel. I used to watch the show (and yes it was run into the ground very quickly) and I remember them having a large amount of Texas players.
I wish they’d had Pierce host a few years earlier, but he has his moments. They at least mostly know how to keep him in a limited role. I enjoyed him in the Jeffrey’s sketch, as he was at least trying to play a character and not just breaking the whole time. Other than Horatio yell-acting again (also an issue for me in the last sketch – I wish Parnell or Will had had that role), it’s an improvement over the first, to me anyway.
This Gemini’s Twin video is the highlight of their appearances as far as I’m concerned.
From the Lohan/Coldplay review comments:
“It’s almost certainly the kind of piece the uber-commenter John would poo-poo (he sidesteps it altogether in that episode’s comment thread), but there is something thrilling about pure, unbridled Asshole Ferrell – even if A LOT of this is pretty damn problematic. ”
If I had a negative opinion about it I probably would have had more to say – the reason I didn’t is probably because Ferrell did so many sketches like this they tend to blur in my brain. The other problem, similar to a John Rocker Update piece he did a year or two earlier, is that when you play something which at its core is based on ugliness and bigotry and violence, then you immediately crash up against being on a network television show, leading to having to say “crap” or “black man” when that probably is not what you would be hearing in real life. Of course I don’t want to see someone using racial slurs (although we already got that anyway…), but if you work around it so clumsily, then it gets in the way. You could say it wasn’t intended as a racist comment, but if so, they shouldn’t have even involved the word “black.” It just comes across as half-hearted and confused.
There are other minor things that distract me. In Michael Keaton’s ’92 episode he slaps Adam Sandler in the face, hard, which adds some realism that makes a somewhat middling sketch more memorable. I do not want Will Ferrell to slap Tina Fey in the face, and I don’t think you should have to be slapped around on any show just for the sake of realism or what have you, but it’s another thing that throws me out of the sketch, and it could have been avoided – Ferrell is, presumably, not violently knocking Jerry Minor to the ground, but the camera angles do a good job of faking it. For some reason, they don’t bother with Will and Tina.
So for me, it has its moments (especially once Parnell gets involved), but overall feels like boilerplate late stage Ferrell, let down by some writing and blocking choices.
Sorry, I meant Farley, not Sandler.
So…sounds like I was right haha. I don’t disagree with a thing you say btw. This is another piece that I adore but, 20 years later, makes me feel a bit iffy.
Also, anytime I summon your name, John, know that it is in love. I appreciate your perspective.
I imagine Julia played Jenna because she was in town or something and they thought it would be a fun cameo. And Tina very likely played the stripper due to having experience making balloon animals. (I mean, that’s just a guess, but I think it’s a pretty solid one.)