Month: March 2020

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December 1, 2001 – Derek Jeter / Bubba Sparxxx, Shakira (S27 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

YOU MIGHT BE A TERRORIST
John Ashcroft (DAH) & George W. Bush (WIF) do You Might Be A Terrorist If

— I’m always a sucker for that voice that Darrell uses as John Ashcroft.
— A particularly funny example from Darrell’s Ashcroft on being a terrorist: “If the return address on your mail reads ‘A cave’, then you just might be a terrorist.”
— Very funny part with Will’s President Bush interrupting Ashcroft to tell him he’s starting to sound like Jeff Foxworthy, then saying that’s a good thing because he loves Jeff Foxworthy and wants to join in.
— Bush: “If you have a really long beard, and you hang out in the desert, and you are not in ZZ Top… you just might be a terrorist.”
— Fun cold opening so far, and the very responsive, enthusiastic audience is helping the vibe.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host causes injuries & mayhem by hitting baseballs into the audience

— This would go on to be an often-played monologue in SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials.
— A good laugh from the things the audience is heard yelling out after Derek Jeter asks “What’s the one thing a baseball fan wants more than anything?”
— A very simplistic premise to this monologue, but it’s coming off pretty fun in the execution.
— There goes the use of an SNL trademark, the ol’ vomit hose, after one audience member (SNL writer Matt Piedmont, I believe) gets hit multiple times by baseballs.
STARS: ***½


PREPARATION H
Rerun from 9/29/01


MUCHAS IGLESIAS
(host) & brothers Enrique (JIF) & Julio, Jr. (CHK) sing

— Funny Enrique Iglesias impression from Jimmy. Believe it or not, this is the first celebrity impression he’s done all season. Very odd, considering how much more common his impressions were in his first three seasons. In fact, his non-Update airtime seems to have been reduced this season in general.
— Chris’ performance as Julio Iglesias Jr. is okay (I can’t judge the accuracy of the impression), but it feels like he’s played tons of roles in this same voice and demeanor before.
— Derek is funny as a less-appealing third Iglesias Brother. Also a good detail with the oversized, disgusting-looking mole on his face. I also like Rachel’s unexcited reactions to his bizarre attempt at swooning her.
STARS: ***½


YANKEE WIVES
(host) & other Yankee wives hate sluts (David Wells) & (David Cone)

— Derek actually looks pretty convincing in drag… at least facially. Those massive arms of his kinda ruin the illusion.
— I’m getting a lot of good laughs from Amy-as-Chuck-Knoblauch’s-wife’s various jealous lines regarding her husband potentially being with other women.
— Derek’s character: “Jeter does not do it for me. He looks like if The Rock had sex with a Muppet.”
— Funny walk-on from a drag-wearing David Cone and David Wells (the latter still having his facial hair). Huge audience reactions throughout this portion of this sketch.
— A strong and memorable sketch overall.
STARS: ****


PROMO

— When announcing next week’s guests, Don Pardo bizarrely announces Hugh Jackman as “Ralph Jackman”. I know Don is an old, old man by this point, but I have no clue how in the world “Hugh” could ever be misread as “Ralph”. Because they both end with an “h”???


MASSEUSE
music spellbinds inept romantic in daydream about giving host a massage

— After Derek shows reluctance to remove his robe, I got a laugh from Chris saying “One of us is gonna get naked in a few minutes, so it better be you.”
— The audience is loving Chris’ mesmerized, dramatic reactions during the various tender songs he’s playing, but I can’t really say I’m laughing.
— Seeing Chris with his legs wrapped around Derek like that reminds me of his Mr. Peepers character.
— The twist ending was kinda clever, I guess, but what was with the audience breaking out into sketch-ending applause well before the ending scene concluded? Did SNL mistakenly cue the “Applause” lights too early?
STARS: **


DISSING YOUR DOG
(WIF)’s tape shows how to train canines via mockery

 

— I love Will’s calmly-delivered line about how his previous dog-training methods involved starving dogs, locking them in a closet for days, or just beating them mercilessly, which led to three arrests and court-ordered anger management counseling.
— Throughout his SNL tenure, Will seems to have a specialty of doing hilarious dog commercials with a dark theme (e.g. Petchow Rat Poison, Wade Blasingame), and this is his greatest one yet, in my eyes.
— Great concept of Will delivering sarcastic barbs to dogs in order to properly train them. Will is absolutely fantastic here.
— A particularly funny sarcastic run-on barb from Will that ends with “but keep in mind you’re a fu(*bleep*)ing dog.”
STARS: *****


DEREK JETER’S TACO HOLE
host promotes his Mexican restaurant

— The first of a series of “non-actor SNL host does a musical commercial promoting a restaurant they own” sketches, a tradition that I would go on to HATE during their original airing. I’ll try to go into these with a more open mind in this SNL project of mine.
— I remember when this sketch originally aired, it felt to me like an inferior variation of the fantastic Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup sketch.
— I’m not laughing much so far, but this sketch has a pretty fun, infectious charm to it, and Derek is working well here.
— Overall, not bad.
STARS: ***


DEALING WITH MOM AND DAD
host helps youngster (CHK) with his bat technique

— Good opening parody of cheesy sitcom opening credits.
— Lots of airtime for Chris tonight.
— Amy is funny as Chris’ bratty sister.
— Amy, upon seeing Derek Jeter: “Oh my god, if I was 15, I would so have sex with you!”
— A good laugh from how, after Derek takes Chris outside to train him, they return almost IMMEDIATELY in a defeated manner, with Derek telling the parents “Hey, man, your kid sucks.”
— Funny turn with how the “secret technique” that Derek taught Chris turns out to involve him beating his bullies to a pulp with a baseball bat.
— When the cops are heard approaching during the bully-beating scene, I love Derek’s line “I’ll just get Steinbrenner to pay them off again.” I recall some SNL reviewers back at this time asking why a lot of people in the audience booed that line, but I didn’t hear any booing AT ALL when this originally aired, nor do I hear any booing right now as I’m re-watching this. So what were those reviewers talking about?
— A good ending “Next time on Dealing With Mom And Dad” preview scene, regarding a gasoline can and a breakup that Chris’s character is going through.
— I recall once reading somewhere that SNL later attempted to do a second installment of this sketch in the following season’s John McCain episode, which is AFTER Will and Ana both departed from SNL, but the sketch got cut after dress. I can’t quite remember which cast members I read took over Will and Ana’s dad and mom roles in that version the sketch. Possibly Chris Parnell (this was well after he was re-hired) and Maya.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Shakira performs “Whenever, Wherever”


WEEKEND UPDATE
host & SEM do a Point-Counterpoint about whether Derek Jeter sucks

clips of George Harrison’s SNL appearance mark his passing

— Boy, that opening Miss Afghanistan joke from Tina was AWFUL.
— Tina makes up for her opening dud joke with both her solid Britney Spears joke and her very mean-spirited Charlotte Church joke (and unlike the last time Tina told a Norm Macdonald-esque mean-spirited joke about someone, we thankfully don’t have Tina apologizing for the joke immediately afterwards this time).
— Tina continues to be on fire tonight, with the hilarious “Where would America be comfortable with Pee Wee Herman masturbating?” rant she’s now doing, which is one of her more memorable moments of her entire Update stint, in my eyes.
— At the end of Tina’s aforementioned Paul Rubens masturbation rant, when she says “Men masturbate all the time”, I love how Jimmy followed it up with an awkward “Rarely, if ever.”
— Ha, now I actually heard booing from tonight’s audience (unlike after the Steinbrenner line in the Dealing With Mom And Dad sketch), in response to Tina’s offensive-but-funny China/moon joke.
— Ah, the return of Point/Counterpoint!
— Already a laugh right from the established topic of Seth and Derek’s Point/Counterpoint: “Derek Jeter Sucks / No I Don’t”.
— Tonight’s Point/Counterpoint commentary further establishes Seth’s Red Sox fan persona in his Update commentaries.
— Seth’s getting a lot of good laughs throughout his and Derek’s Point/Counterpoint. I especially like him confessing that he once vowed that if he ever got within 6 feet of a real Yankee, he’d kick his ass, “… but then I saw you.”
— A classy way to end tonight’s Update, with SNL paying tribute to the recently-deceased George Harrison by showing various clips of him from the season 2 Paul Simon-hosted episode that he was a musical guest in. Nice to see all of this footage again, and it also takes me back to when I reviewed that episode early in this SNL project of mine.
STARS: ****


PEP TALK
in a cave hideout, Osama bin Laden (WIF) tries to boost morale of his men

— SNL finally debuts an Osama Bin Laden impression. Casting Will in this role makes sense, as he previously played Saddam Hussein.
— I like the little detail from Will of him imitating the limp way Osama always holds microphones.
— A funny meta bit with Will’s Osama saying “We got a real hot mic here”, referencing a trademark of the Culps sketches.
— Will’s Osama impression isn’t really turning out to be anything special. I would’ve preferred Will to continue his tradition of portraying famous psychotic men in a humorously very friendly, smiley, jovial manner (e.g. Saddam, Ted Kaczynski, Marshall Applewhite). Well, actually… now that I think about it, no. Portraying Osama as a jovial, likable person probably wouldn’t have exactly gone over well with America so soon after 9/11.
— Osama: “It’s cool to live in a cave; Batman lived in a cave!”
— This sketch hasn’t been doing much for me, though the performances are pretty fun.
— Funny bit regarding a bootleg copy of Harry Potter that Osama has.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


MAN PERM
(host)’s friends are concerned that he’s so happy with his home perm

— A good initial laugh from Derek entering in that wig.
— Derek’s pride in his ridiculous perm is very amusing.
— Funny sequence with a big-smiling Derek admiring and touching up his perm into a mirror, especially when he pulls out an afro pick at one point.
— Maya, regarding Derek’s perm: “It’s porno hair!”
— The comments from the group of Derek’s friends about his perm are getting kinda old and feel kinda unnecessary after a while. I understand you need a straight man for a sketch like this, but something about the execution of the straight man portions of this sketch feel kinda off.
— Funny ending with the various magazines/newspaper headlines regarding whether perms are in or not.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Bubba Sparxxx performs “Ugly” & “Lovely”


A HOLIDAY TREAT FOR ALL
as a holiday treat, HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty

— Great fake-out at the beginning with the legitimate professional string quartet, before revealing what it’s REALLY a front for. You guys know how much I love these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits.
— Tracy makes his ONLY appearance of the night. (I feel like I say that every time they do these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits.) For possibly that reason, he looks kinda pissed during this sketch, but it’s probably just me, as he ALWAYS has a dead-serious look on his face during these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits (which is part of what makes them work). However, his dancing-in-place looks more half-hearted than usual tonight.
— On a similar note to Tracy’s half-hearted dancing, Jimmy doesn’t seem as fun-loving and smiley as he usually is during these bits. He’s been surprisingly serious-looking throughout this.
— I love the VERY extended guitar (or whatever instrument that is that Horatio plays in these) solo from Horatio. It’s funny to see Chris trying to keep up with Horatio’s long solo by doing his rhythmic head-shaking in time to Horatio’s frantic guitar-strumming.
STARS: ****


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
specially-bred children in chapter 772


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid and fun episode, though the quality dipped a bit with the first few post-Weekend Update sketches. Overall, though, this probably stands out as one of the better and more memorable athlete-hosted episodes in SNL history. The particularly responsive, enthusiastic studio audience also helped the fun vibe of this episode. Considering his limitations as a non-actor, Derek Jeter did well as a host and had some solid moments.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Billy Bob Thornton)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
“Ralph” Jackman

Posted on

November 17, 2001 – Billy Bob Thornton / Creed (S27 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS BRIEFING
professorial Donald Rumsfeld (DAH) cows reporters during a press briefing

— The return of Darrell’s Donald Rumsfeld impression that debuted at the end of the preceding episode (in the Fiesta Politica sketch). I like how he’s really exaggerating the Rumsfeld eye-squinting tonight.
— Heh, even in just a normal straight small role here in which he doesn’t have any comedic lines, the audience STILL reacts well to Will’s appearance.
— Kinda of an oddly-paced cold opening, but I’m liking Darrell-as-Rumsfeld’s snippy, grumpy responses to the reporters’ questions.
— Some good laughs from the recurring bit with all of Rachel’s questions sounding awfully similar.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
castmembers’ Sling Blade impressions irk host; Ashton Kutcher cameo

— Good to see the return of Darrell’s Sling Blade impression from the Mike Myers episode from way back in season 22.
— A good laugh from Billy Bob Thornton mistaking Dean for Tracy. It’s also nice to see Dean getting to introduce himself by name immediately afterwards and say that he’s a new cast member, which actually receives a good amount of hearty applause from the audience. Too bad this bit doesn’t help him in the long run, though. In fact, starting in the very next episode, his airtime (which actually hadn’t been too bad up until this point, compared to what’s to come) takes a turn for the worse and NEVER recovers, despite how he ends up being on the show for TWO. ENTIRE. SEASONS.
— Billy Bob to Dean: “Just so you know, there are no black hillbillies.”
— I love the angry reveal from Steve Higgins that his daughter’s (Amy) Sling Blade “impression” is actually her real voice.
— Very random Ashton Kutcher cameo. I do love Billy Bob’s put-off facial reaction to him and then telling him “You’re not even a cast member.”
— After saying “We got a great show for you tonight; Creed is here”, I like Billy Bob adding in “…and evidently, french fried taters are here.”
STARS: ***½


FESTIVE THANKSGIVING
at the first Thanksgiving, gay (host)’s flamboyance embarrasses Pilgrims

— Meh, yet another “lol gay stereotypes = funny” sketch from this era. Lots of lazy, cliched humor in this particular sketch so far, despite good commitment from Billy Bob.
— I did get a laugh from Billy Bob rudely referring to an old lady pilgrim as “Goody One-Foot-In-The-Grave”.
STARS: **


E.P.T
Rerun from 11/3/01


NICK BURNS, YOUR COMPANY’S COMPUTER GUY
Nick Burns & his dad (host) humiliate users while fixing computers

— This is Nick Burns’ first appearance in a year, and his final appearance ever.
— I wonder why Jeff is replacing the role that Horatio usually plays in these Nick Burns sketches.
— Something about the pairing of Jimmy and Billy Bob as father and son seems very fitting.
— Hilarious line about Jeff refusing to open his email because he thought he’d get anthrax.
STARS: ***


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
a goat & a miniature horse cause confusion

— Despite this sketch debuting way back in season 24, this is only the third installment of this sketch, as these have been appearing VERY sporadically so far. Tonight is actually the beginning of this sketch starting to appear on a regular basis.
— After Tracy has played nothing but effeminate roles in the preceding two episodes, that streak has continued tonight with this Brian Fellow sketch. Very odd.
— For the first time in this recurring sketch, Tracy has begun mistakenly saying his own character’s last name as “Fellows” instead of “Fellow”.
— I love the look of Rachel’s character, which is a very accurate imitation of the look of quite a number of animal experts.
— So many laughs from Brian Fellow going on about the weirdness of Rachel’s goat.
— I howled at Brian Fellow saying “That’s the biggest dog I’ve EVER seen!” in regards to the miniature horse that Chris brings out.
— A very memorable Brian Fellow line about how “that goat had devil eyes!”
— Tracy’s one-liners as Brian Fellow are funnier than ever tonight, making this one of the better installments of this sketch.
STARS: ****


INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO
host is motivated to hunt James Lipton (WIF)

— Good reaction from the audience at the beginning of this. You can tell they’re excited to see this sketch appear again.
— This is the second recurring sketch tonight that’s making its final appearance ever. This is also the third consecutive recurring sketch to appear tonight.
— James Lipton: “If I had a choice between interviewing my next guest or getting in my homemade time machine, going back in time, and interviewing William Shakespeare, I would tell The Bard of Avon to go screw himself.”
— Unusual for an SNL host to play themselves in an Inside The Actor’s Studio sketch, but it makes sense in retrospect when you’re aware where they’re going with this.
— I love Will’s James Lipton referring to Billy Bob as William Robert Thornton.
— A good laugh from Lipton saying in amazement, when listing off “significant” things that Billy Bob did growing up, “When you were eleven, YOU BOUGHT A HAT.”
— I’m enjoying Billy Bob’s puzzled, frustrated reactions to Lipton’s bizarreness.
— A very interesting out-of-the-ordinary turn with the sudden cut to Will’s Lipton watching his Billy Bob Thornton interview in the editing room.
— For some reason, when Lipton’s Billy Bob interview is shown on the monitor in the editing room, Billy Bob’s cap appears to be on backwards, even though it was on forwards during the actual interview we had just seen in real-time.
— I love the further out-of-the-ordinary turn in this sketch, with Will’s Lipton now being shown roaming the streets while Billy Bob plans his violent revenge on Lipton. They are truly going outside the box in tonight’s Inside The Actor’s Studio installment, and I absolutely LOVE it. Ah, if only SNL’s recurring sketches could go outside the box like this more often.
— Funny visual of Will’s Lipton chomping on every food item in sight even while he’s running for his life as Billy Bob is hunting him down.
— Billy Bob starts cracking up when Will’s Lipton is struggling in his injured state to reach an index card. There’s something strangely charming about seeing someone like Billy Bob Thornton losing it and cracking up out of character.
STARS: ****½


MARTHA STEWART LIVING
tips to put a patriotic spin on Thanksgiving

 

— Wow, the THIRD consecutive full-length live sketch to be performed back-to-back with no commercial break in between. This is also the FOURTH consecutive recurring sketch tonight.
— Very funny line from Ana’s Martha Stewart about her having a giant Martha boner.
— A good laugh from the plate of yams made to look like Dick Cheney’s face.
— Hilarious bit from Martha about serving a juicy 50-pound bald eagle for Thanksgiving, instead of a turkey.
— Watching this sketch in retrospect, all of the patriotism and anti-Afghanistan sentiment presents an interesting time capsule of the war in terror and the general post-9/11 patriotic climate in America at the time. I recall hearing that SNL re-aired this sketch in their most recent Thanksgiving compilation special in 2019 (I didn’t see it myself), and people on an SNL board made the observation that the post-9/11 patriotic and anti-Afghanistan sentiment of the sketch felt terrifying and weird to see nowadays.
— A priceless ending with Martha ripping open her shirt, revealing a bikini top, and eating a sandwich while dancing to Britney Spears.
STARS: ****


WAR PARTY
at a party, the fall of Kandahar inspires an impromptu jazzy dance number

— SNL would later show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns. In it, when Seth and Horatio make their entrance to deliver huge news, Horatio IMMEDIATELY cracks up for no apparent reason, leading to Jimmy also cracking up. My god. Jimmy also cracks up later in the dress version of this sketch, right after Tracy’s dramatic monologue. During that laughing of Jimmy’s, Will actually shoots Jimmy a very stern look (in jest, I assume), leading to Jimmy saying “Sorry” while putting on a straight face.
— I like the 1960s sound to the musical number that the partygoers suddenly break out into.
— Fantastic singing from Ana. Sure, we’ve long known that she’s a great singer, as her singing voice has been displayed in many prior sketches during her SNL tenure, but her voice comes off particularly strong in this sketch after hearing a few other cast members sing prior to her.
— This ridiculously extensive musical number (even featuring Maya doing a flip at point) is both very amusing and very fun. Sketches like this aren’t usually always my cup of tea, but it’s just working perfectly in this particular case.
— This sketch is another interesting time capsule of the post-9/11 patriotic and anti-Afghanistan sentiment of America at the time.
— Tracy’s streak of only playing effeminate roles has finally come to an end.
— The dress rehearsal version of this sketch shown in reruns humorously has Tracy’s noble character incongruously wearing a wild pimp outfit instead of the more logical dignified suit he wears in the live version.
— A hilarious and fantastic turn in this sketch with Tracy’s deep, dramatic monologue, complete with a spotlight, camera zoom-ins, and poignant camera angles.
— Will, regarding Tracy’s monologue: “Even though a lot of the words this wise man used are not real, he’s right.”
— The ending visual of Tracy’s cheesy whitebred dancing with the partygoers is cracking me up.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
exhausting press junket has left Harry Potter (RAD) unable to do magic

— An unusually late spot in the show for Update. When I watched the original airing of this episode back in 2001, I remember it was somewhere around 12:30 when this Update started. That’s almost Ebersol era-levels of a ridiculously late spot for SNL’s news segment.
— Pretty big night for Rachel, who has refreshingly been more prominent than she usually is.
— Perfect casting of Rachel as Harry Potter. In that wig and glasses, she’s a dead-ringer for a then-very-young Daniel Radcliffe.
— Not much to say about the overall Harry Potter commentary itself. It was kinda on the forgettable side.
— Quite a lot of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes tonight are weaker than usual.
— Tina, in an actual strong joke, regarding a Victoria’s Secret brand of diamond-encrusted thong panties worth $750,000: “Thanks, Victoria’s Secret, but the only way I’m putting $750,000 worth of diamonds in my ass is if the Nazis are coming.”
— An overall short Update tonight, but I guess it had to be short in order for them to fit it into such a late spot in the show.
— At the end of this Update, the way they faded to commercial really early before the camera even did its usual zoom-out on the Update set makes me think that the show is running long, forcing SNL to speed through the rest of the show.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Sacrifice”


FENCED-IN AREA
redneck (host) mulls the fate of the fenced-in area located in his yard

— Billy Bob has been fairly underused for a host tonight. He’s strangely been missing from half the sketches. At least this particular sketch is something that he was born to do.
— I’m really liking the vibe of this sketch, as well as how it’s being well-executed by all performers involved. The silly-but-dead-serious treatment of Billy Bob’s ridiculous fenced-in area obsession is hilarious.
— Overall, such a great and well-done sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bullets”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
tired of the Flannigans in chapter 702


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A largely solid episode, much better than I had remembered it being. Ignoring Weekend Update and the first musical performance, there was a long uninterrupted string of great sketches, from Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet to Fenced-In Area. The stuff outside of it, though, ranged from just average to weak, including a less-than-stellar edition of Weekend Update. The structure of this episode was very unusual, with us getting three full-length live sketches back-to-back with no commercial break in between (Brian Fellow, Inside The Actor’s Studio, and Martha Stewart Living), Weekend Update airing much later than usual, only ONE SKETCH airing after Update, and that one sketch being the ONLY thing to air in between Creed’s two musical performances. The latter three things I just mentioned may be explained by the show possibly running longer than planned and probably having to cut a scheduled sketch towards the end of the show.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gwyneth Paltrow)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Derek Jeter and, for the first time in what seems like ages, TWO separate musical guests (Bubba Sparxxx and Shakira)

Posted on

November 10, 2001 – Gwyneth Paltrow / Ryan Adams (S27 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) quells Muslims’ misgivings by dispelling some myths

— Good touch with the Arabic subtitles. This reminds me of an address-the-nation cold opening that Dana Carvey once did as Bush Sr. that also used Arabic subtitles, directed to the Iraqis.
— A pretty funny line with Bush mentioning “former Minnesota Vikings receiver Ahmad Rashad” as an example of how many prominent Americans are Muslim.
— Some good laughs from Bush’s debunking of various myths, particularly the whole bit about dying if you burp, fart, and sneeze at the same time.
— A nice alteration of the “Live from New York…” sign-on, with Will’s Bush delivering it in Arabic. Speaking of which, this entire cold opening would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, and it has Will’s Bush saying “Live from New York…” in plain old English instead of Arabic. Some SNL episode guides incorrectly claim that reruns show the live version of this episode’s cold opening, but just re-dub Will’s Arabic LFNY with an English one.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— In addition to the cold opening, the theme music would also be replaced with the dress version in reruns. I’m not sure, but I think the following monologue would be too (if not, then I’m probably thinking of the Boston Teens sketch that follows the monologue).


MONOLOGUE
host & overshadowed childhood friend MAR sing “Flashdance”

— Nice how Gwyneth Paltrow is bringing out her best friend since childhood who also happens to also be a member of the then-current SNL cast.
— Fun to see childhood pictures of Maya and Gwyneth together.
— Some amusing awkwardness between Maya and Gwyneth after Maya excitedly says “It’s almost like I’m hosting with you!”
— Funny running gag with Maya turning out to have always played a maid.
— I remember how rare it felt at the time to see Maya get such a big showcase as herself, since she had rarely played any roles on SNL that were remotely like herself up to that point, and I had yet to see her interviewed on talk shows.
— Quite a lot of genuine charm in this monologue, even though this isn’t consistently laugh out loud funny.
STARS: ***


FORMAL
at the fall formal, Sully scoffs at Denise’s friend’s (host) troubles

— After the preceding monologue ended, we got a cool transition to this sketch by the camera panning from the monologue to the set for this sketch. Reminiscent of what SNL did after the monologue in season 25’s Christina Ricci episode.
— An interesting setting for the Boston Teens, and a rare occurrence of us not seeing them in their usual outfits.
— Funny bit about vodka-soaked hot dog buns.
— Something about Gwyneth’s performance seems kinda off.
— I remember Tina’s appearance in this came as a big surprise to a lot of us viewers back then, as it was still very rare at the time for Tina to make a non-Update appearance in which she plays a character. It’s also interesting seeing her appear in this sketch knowing that she co-writes these sketches with Rachel and originally performed the Boston Teens with Rachel back in their pre-SNL improv days.
STARS: ***


GEMINI’S TWIN WEEKEND
Gemini’s Twin & newest member (host) ride the wave of USA patriotism

— Pretty funny CD cover for Gemini’s Twin’s “America The Bootyful”.
— In these last two installments, I’ve gotten pretty tired of this sketch.
— I will say that Ana’s voice and delivery as this character always makes me laugh.
— Gwyneth is at least fitting in much better with Maya and Ana than Jennifer Lopez did in the last Gemini’s Twin sketch to have a host play a third member of the group.
STARS: **½


BIRTHDAY PARTY
Mrs. Attebury is insensitive toward man of Middle Eastern heritage (CHK)

— This on-again off-again recurring sketch makes its final appearance. Interesting how this sketch has only been performed 4 times, yet still managed to span over Ana’s entire SNL tenure, appearing from her first season to her last.
— In passing, Gwyneth’s character mentions someone named Charlie McKittrick and his wife. This is actually an inside self-reference on Ana’s part (assuming she wrote this sketch herself), as Charlie McKittrick is the name of her real-life husband. Ana also namedropped him in a Culps sketch from two seasons prior.
— Will’s deadpan performances as this character, while okay, continue to not work for me nearly as well as Mark McKinney’s original performances as this character did.
— A good laugh from Ana and Gwyneth telling Chris’ character that, as a Persian-American, he must not know who to root for in this war on terror.
— Lots of other funny inappropriate, insensitive questions and statements that Chris’ character is bombarded with by Ana and Gwyneth’s characters.
— Over the course of me reviewing this late 90s/early 00s era, these Attebury’s sketches have really grown on me gradually. I remember kinda slamming the first installment of this sketch, only for me to end up gaining more and more of an appreciation for both Ana’s characterization and what these sketches bring with each passing installment.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- Michael Jackson’s entourage tries to curb his pedophilic habits

— Speaking of an on-again off-again recurring piece that first appeared in Ana’s first season (season 22) and spans over many seasons…
— A hilarious bizarre group of friends that MJ is casually shown with. I especially like a bloated, mumbling, overeating Marlon Brando, a gray-bearded Webster, and Liz Taylor’s arm.
— I always love the tastelessness of these Michael Jackson cartoons, as well as the spoof of classic Hanna-Barbera animation that these contain. I am feeling, though, that tonight’s cartoon, while still solid, isn’t quite as strong as the last Michael Jackson cartoon that Robert Smigel did years prior.
— Uh, wow. Quite an ending to this, with MJ landing butt-first on a flagpole, and it curing him of his pedophilic tendencies.
— This cartoon would later be removed from the NBC reruns of this episode and be replaced with a previously-unaired unrelated TV Funhouse cartoon that I assume was cut after another episode’s dress rehearsal.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “New York, New York”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF offers a pizza party to the first airport guard to catch a terrorist

defiant Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) declares himself NYC mayor-for-life

Jasper Hahn completes drawings related to the war against terrorism

— A solid and fun Jimmy/Tina side segment with their Pizza Party Against Terrorism announcement.
— I always crack up whenever Darrell’s Rudy Giuliani says “Go Yankeeeees!” in a dopey deep voice.
— Kinda interesting in retrospect seeing Michael Bloomberg being referenced and impersonated back when he wasn’t very well-known yet.
— A nice callback to the “Neuharth Awards” bit that Jimmy and Tina originally did in an episode a year prior. They seem to be trying to make this an annual routine whenever the Neuharth Awards occur, but I believe this ends up being the last time this routine appears on the show.
— Our first time seeing Jasper Hahn since the Colin Quinn era of Update.
— Jimmy’s not believable at all as an uptight straight man to Jasper Hahn, because you just KNOW this is going to soon devolve into the usual Fallon/Sanz gigglefest.
— Dammit, the poor visual quality of the old VHS rip I’m reviewing of this episode makes it very hard to see Jasper Hahn’s obscene drawings (as evidenced in the above screencaps).
— Yep, and there’s goes the obligatory Fallon/Sanz giggling and hammy overacting.
STARS: ***½


DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY DINNER
at dinnertime, gangsta-wannabe daughter (AMP) vexes irritable patriarch

— The first installment of this sketch with Sarah Michelle Gellar is fantastic and an all-time favorite of mine, but did they really need to bring it back? And FOUR SEASONS LATER at that??? Speaking of which, it’s odd how tonight’s episode is bringing back so many sketches that either appear very infrequently and/or last appeared years prior (The Attebury’s, Michael Jackson cartoon, Jasper Hahn, and now this).
— Yeah, so far, this sketch is paling horribly in comparison to the original installment. They’re even having Will yell inferior variations of his classic “I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!” line from the first installment.
— Just now, when Gwyneth said “Shut up, biotch”, she actually sang the word “biotch”. Very random, but absolutely priceless. Unfortunately, the version of this sketch that a lot of people nowadays are probably familiar with seeing (especially in SNL’s Thanksgiving compilation specials) is actually the dress rehearsal version, in which Gwyneth doesn’t sing the word “biotch”, but instead just says it normally, which is nowhere near as funny. Also, this makes me wonder if her singing “biotch” in the live version was an ad-lib. None of the other performers are seen smirking in response or anything, but then again, Will and Ana are usually always total pros.
— By the way, as you can tell by how many alterations I’ve pointed out this episode having in reruns, this is quite a heavily-altered episode in reruns. There are more dress rehearsal substitutions than usual, and there’s the whole thing with the Michael Jackson TV Funhouse cartoon being replaced with a completely different cartoon.
— Another difference between the live and dress rehearsal version of this Dysfunctional Family Dinner sketch is that, in the dress version, whenever the family argues over each other, Gwyneth oddly does her yelling DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA, in an apparent attempt to be funny.
— Overall, yeah, SNL should’ve just left the original Sarah Michelle Gellar-starring Dysfunctional Family Dinner sketch alone. This attempt at a sequel was just sad, in my eyes.
STARS: **


MANGO
Mango & high school sweetie host recall “Summer Nights”; Matt Damon cameo

— Right out of the gate in this sketch, we get an absolutely SPOT-ON and very funny Hugh Grant impression from Seth. He even looks just like him here. Between his heavy dominance and strong performances in the preceding episode and now his Hugh Grant impression tonight, Seth has been showing A LOT of promise lately. I remember having so much hope for him at the time. This makes me sad in retrospect, knowing what his SNL tenure would actually go on to be like (hint: I am not too big a fan of a lot of stuff he would go on to do on the show).
— (*groan*) And here comes Mango.
— During Gwyneth’s 80s high school flashback, I wonder if Maya is supposed to be playing herself as Gwyneth’s friend, given that we know Maya and Gwyneth were real-life childhood friends.
— During the many 80s pop culture references in Gwyneth and Maya’s conversation in the aforementioned 80s high school flashback, what was with the Crystal Pepsi mention? Wasn’t Crystal Pepsi not around until the early 90s?
— Jeff makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a pre-taped scene, and all he did was briefly walk on with some other guys and then IMMEDIATELY walk off, not having any dialogue at all. This is the second episode in a row in which he had no lines.
— Speaking of cast members who have been invisible these last two episodes, Tracy Morgan. Also, he’s been stuck in nothing but effeminate roles these last two episodes, oddly enough.
— Yikes, Gwyneth completely missed her cue to sing her first verse during her duet with Mango, a gaffe that’s sadly far more interesting and funny to me than most of this sketch.
— Ana has been getting good airtime tonight, which is very refreshing, considering the big decrease in airtime she had been experiencing this season.
— Ana: “Let’s go, Lavert.” “Will: “Okay, Gwyneth’s agent.”
— Matt Damon cameo.
— Matt Damon’s getting some chuckles out of me here. You can already see some of the solid potential that he would later show when hosting in season 28. (I don’t know how he did in his season 44 episode, as I have yet to see it, but I’m assuming he did another good hosting job there.)
— Funny bit with Matt and Gwyneth acknowledging that this is the first time they’ve seen each other since they broke up, before Gwyneth goes “Wait a minute, you’re not the one I went out with!” Great way to end this sketch. Odd how this Mango sketch had such a strong beginning (with Seth’s Hugh Grant impression) and ending, but everything in between was the usual weak Mango dreck.
STARS: **


FIESTA POLITICA
Donald Rumsfeld (DAH) is out of place at Telemundo show

— Believe it or not, this is the FIRST and ONLY non-recurring sketch to appear all night… at least at the time this episode originally aired. This sketch would later become recurring, which means that, when looking back at this episode in retrospect, this episode is comprised ENTIRELY of recurring sketches. The Rosie O’Donnell episode from season 22 is, I believe, the only episode in SNL history to be comprised entirely of sketches that were already recurring at the time.
— Maya has been a little more dominant than usual in tonight’s episode, for obvious reasons.
— A spot-on and and amusing parody of wacky Telemundo variety shows, and Maya is leading this sketch well.
— I like the out-of-place inclusion of Darrell’s Donald Rumsfeld, who has no idea what the hell he’s doing here.
— Tracy’s streak of playing nothing but effeminate roles these last two episodes continues. What’s going on?
— Despite being an excuse for mugging, the occasional cutaways to an extreme close-up of Horatio’s face saying a one-liner are making me laugh in this particular context, as it fits the sketch well.
STARS: ***


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
mauled by a lion in chapter 507


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, but not particularly great. The quality took a hit with the first few post-Weekend Update sketches (Dysfunctional Family Dinner and Mango), but other than that, the quality was just decent for most of the night. It rarely rose above that, though. Aside from TV Funhouse, there weren’t any segments at all that I gave a rating over three-and-a-half stars to.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Billy Bob Thornton

Posted on

November 3, 2001 – John Goodman / Ja Rule (S27 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
John Ashcroft (DAH) alarms the press with vague warnings about terrorism

— Interesting seeing newbie Seth Meyers right at top of the show, getting to start off this cold opening as Brian Williams. There’s a fairly funny part with his Brian Williams briefly pausing to mug the camera in a stone-faced smug manner.
— Darrell’s John Ashcroft voice is making me laugh.
— A big laugh from Darrell’s Ashcroft casually saying “Also, in the next three days, there’s probably gonna be a terrorist attack in our nation” before nonchalantly beginning to walk off.
— Always funny to see Ana’s Helen Thomas impression in these press conference sketches.
— Funny recurring bit with Ashcroft always looking down at the sheet of paper in his hand to confirm exactly how soon another terrorist attack will happen after also trying to convince us that he doesn’t know when it’ll happen.
— Good line from Chris’ Anthony Fauci about how the only protection given to post offices will be some baby wipes and a dustbuster.
— Chris’ delivery to Maya of the line “I haven’t been in New York in weeks! You think I’m crazy?!?” is very funny, as is the ensuing mocking faces that he and Darrell make at each other in regards to Maya.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim (CHK) gets host off the hook

— John doesn’t look too well here, and his voice sounds pretty bad. He must be under the weather. I remember this scaring some online SNL fans into worrying for the future state of John’s life, as they were reminded of how Chris Farley notoriously came off in the 1997 episode he hosted two months before his death. I recall feeling that that comparison was a bit much, as John’s not coming off quite THAT scarily unhealthy in this monologue.
— For some reason, John claims that this is his 13th time hosting. It’s actually only his 12th.
— Odd casting of Chris as Byung-Hyun Kim. Chris doesn’t look REMOTELY believable as an Asian man. (Then again, who in this season’s cast would? Horatio, I guess, but he’s not exactly the appropriate weight for this particular role of Byung-Hyun Kim.) At least they didn’t go the Molly-Shannon-as-Soon-Yi-Previn route and give Chris freakish-looking prosthetic eyelids that attempt to make him look Asian but instead make him look like a damn alien.
— Some okay topical lines from Chris’ Byung-Hyun Kim regarding his infamous performance in a recent World Series game.
— Overall, this was a pretty nothing monologue. I know that was the point, but it didn’t work. This monologue was way too half-assed, and way too proud of how half-assed it was.
STARS: **


HERBAL ESSENCES
shampoo spurs distinctively male orgasms

— A good way to spoof the ridiculous orgasmic feminine Herbal Essences ads.
— Will’s hilarious orgasm sounds and faces are really making this commercial. He’s having me practically rolling on the floor.
STARS: ****


HUDSON VALLEY COMMUNITY CIRCUIT
(DAA) interviews unfortunately-named victims of September 11th backlash

— Dan Aykroyd! That hair, tho.
— A solid comedic conceit with all of the guests each having unfortunate names that pertain to our 9/11 enemies.
— As much as it pains me to criticize Dan Aykroyd (my personal favorite of the original Not Ready For Prime Time players), his comically put-off facial reactions to what others are saying throughout this sketch are not working for me. He’s overplaying it, and the drawn-out long pauses he keeps making during those facial reactions aren’t helping.
— I love Dean’s sly delivery of “Afghan hash” when revealing what he and Jimmy deal in.
— Pretty funny bit with Dean and Jimmy’s hash dealers bragging about how their business has actually been doing better than ever after 9/11.
— A rare fun performance from Darrell in a non-impression role.
— Hilarious ending involving Dan innocently opening an anthrax-laced letter from an envelope.
STARS: ***½


LIBERTY MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Liberty Medical spokesman Wilford Brimley (host) neglects his own health

— John’s unhealthy-sounding voice throughout tonight’s episode is actually fitting this sketch well.
— Hilarious line from John’s Wilford Brimley about hiding his food boner in his Bermuda shorts.
— Another very funny line from Brimley, about how he hates oatmeal because “it always seems like somebody ate it first”.
— Excellent ending spiel from Brimley about how he’s going to get off of his horse by “getting onto a smaller horse, then onto a large dog, until I’m near enough to the ground to roll off.”
— Great sketch overall.
STARS: ****½


SHE’S THE GIRL WITH NO GAYDAR!!!
Nicole, The Girl With No Gaydar (RAD) is oblivious to sexual orientation

— Hoo, boy. The debut of THIS sketch. I used to find these sketches hilarious when they originally aired, back in the days when “lol, gay stereotypes = funny” was more accepted and also didn’t become hacky and overused by SNL in my eyes yet (though looking back at this era, there was more hacky gay humor than I had remembered), but I’m guessing this sketch hasn’t aged well at all.
— Rachel’s performance is still holding up as fun, and the theme song kinda is too. But the broad gay stereotypes from the male cast? Not so much.
— I’m guessing this sketch is the handiwork of writer James Anderson, the openly-gay SNL king of broad gay stereotype sketches. I remember someone on an SNL board once calling him a Stepin’ Fetchit for gay people. Ouch!
— Oddly, this ends up being Will’s final appearance of the entire night, and we’re only about 25 minutes into this episode. A shockingly light episode for Will.
STARS: **


E.P.T
college students (SEM) & (AMP) sweat result of pregnancy test

— Great to see a pre-taped ad where the only performers are two newbies.
— Seth: “I think I’m more nervous than Karen.” Amy: “Kelly.” Seth: “Kelly.”
— Funny interruption with Seth taking a phone call regarding his fantasy football draft.
— Our very first display of the fantastic chemistry between Seth and Amy.
— I feel like I say this about a lot of pre-taped ads in this era, but the style, camera angles, and visual details of this commercial are such a spot-on parody of the type of ads this is spoofing.
— Great little part with Amy expecting a kiss when Seth leans in, only for Amy to disappointingly realize that he’s merely reaching for his jacket.
— Amy’s ending line, after finding out she’s not pregnant: “I’m so psyched I’m not gonna get fat.”
STARS: ****½


CBS EVENING ANTHRAX UPDATE
Dan Rather (DAH) projects journalists’ health

— A promising idea for a sketch, given the great Dan Rather election sketch that SNL did the preceding season.
— A particularly funny announcement that Geraldo Rivera “has anthrax…. both kinds.”
— Great line about conservatives being disappointed that Katie Couric DOESN’T have anthrax.
— The hilarious announcements keep coming, with Wolf Blitzer having both anthrax AND rabies, Walter Cronkite having scurvy, and Andy Rooney having cholera from drinking stagnant water from an air conditioner.
— My god, this sketch just keeps getting funnier and funnier, with Rather now announcing that the cast of Friends has head lice.
— Dan Rather, on Jennifer Aniston’s lice-filled hair: “Her hairdo has more unauthorized guests than a Mexican Motel 6.”
— Dan Rather’s preface to one particular big announcement: “Carl, go down to the basement. Mabel, get in here, take your clothes off, and put these shoes on. Also, the hat. Now put one leg up on that chair, arch your back, and listen to this, ’cause it’s a humdinger.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always On Time”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Red Sox fan SEM will root against the Yankees in order to help them win

postal workers Mighty Mack & Elwood Blues sing “The Letter”

— Tina’s whole “Bitch, I can’t be any more alert” rant towards John Ashcroft’s high alert warning is fantastic. One of Tina’s most defining moments on Update, in my eyes.
— Seth in his very first Update commentary. Considering he’s only in his fourth episode, I like that Seth is getting to do an Update commentary as himself, which is especially surprising because, as far as I know, he’s not a stand-up.
— Kinda hard to believe this is the same Seth who would later become an Update anchor. He looks, sounds, and comes off so different and youthful in tonight’s Update commentary compared to how he would generally come off as an Update anchor.
— Seth, on how everyone and everything that Boston roots for loses: “If Boston rooted for gravity, we’d all be floating three inches off the ground.”
— Another great line from Seth, again in regards to Boston always jinxing what they root for: “Right now, Donald Rumsfeld is in West Roxbury, Mass., trying to convince eight guys named Murph to root for the Taliban.”
— This Update commentary of Seth’s is really defining his Red Sox fan persona that will become a recurring aspect of his subsequent Update commentaries as himself.
— Great bit with Seth calling out several individual Yankee players and harshly insulting them in an attempt to reverse-jinx them, because he wants them to win the World Series.
— Overall, Seth knocked it out of the park (no pun intended) with his first Update commentary. I’m not a fan of a lot of stuff he would later go on to do on SNL, but he has shown A LOT of promise in tonight’s Update commentary.
— Tina, regarding Will Smith calling himself human Viagra: “Well, if you mean you’re becoming a huge dick, I think I agree with you.” Two things about this great joke: 1) In dress rehearsal, the joke was actually delivered by Jimmy instead of Tina. 2) This joke would later be removed from NBC’s rerun of this episode (not sure about the syndicated 60-minute reruns on cable). I’m not 100% sure why the joke was removed, unless NBC just had a problem with the use of the term “huge dick”.
— Lots of strong jokes from Jimmy and Tina tonight.
— Interesting to see the Blues Brothers doing an Update commentary. This is, I believe, the only time on SNL where the Blues Brothers have done more than just perform a musical number.
— Boy, John’s hoarse, unhealthy-sounding voice tonight has now gotten even worse. I think I’m now starting to understand why people were making comparisons to a near-death Chris Farley.
— Huge laughs from Elwood Blues’ long, wordy, heated rant ending with “…smooching each other’s ball sacs, getting their compulsory beards all tangled up in each other’s ass hairs!” Fantastic delivery from Dan there, showing that he still has that great ability to impeccably deliver very wordy dialogue.
— Fun how we got to see the Update set being taken apart for the Blues Brothers to perform on the home base stage. However, as I said in my review of the Blues Brothers’ monologues from John Goodman’s seasons 20 and 23 episodes, I’ve never been a fan of the post-John Belushi Blues Brothers, and their performance tonight is doing nothing for me. To say nothing of how terrible John’s hoarse voice sounds during his attempts to sing here.
— I recall once seeing a dress rehearsal photo of tonight’s Blues Brothers musical number, and the photo showed the Blues Brothers being accompanied by Maya, Ana, and Rachel as backup dancers dressed in sexy postal worker uniforms. That appearance from Maya, Ana, and Rachel would be cut from the live version of this musical number. Wonder why.
STARS: ***½


AMERICA UNDERCOVER
trashy white couple (CHK) & (AMP) in domestic dispute

— I remember when this sketch originally aired, the exaggerated, slow-paced, slurred voice that Chris was heard speaking in during the opening 911 phone call honestly made me assume for one moment that Chris was playing… well… a mentally challenged character. This had me thinking (even back in these less-PC days of 2001) “Oh, god, is SNL really gonna go there?” Thankfully, I was wrong, and it turned out Chris was just playing a goofy white trash character.
— Great white trash voice from Amy.
— John, to Amy, after she claims that static electricity isn’t real: “Ma’am, static electricity is real. It’s real as toothpaste. You should learn about ’em both.”
— Another funny line from John to Amy, this time when he rejects her sexual advances: “I got a beautiful wife, and I can’t go home smelling like Jack Daniels and Easy-Off.”
— A noteworthy gaffe where, when Dean holds Chris upside-down, one of the leg holes of Chris’ briefs opens up, almost giving us a clear view of what’s inside the front of Chris’ briefs (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch). Yeesh. This near-wardrobe malfunction humorously results in Chris fearfully placing his hands on his briefs immediately afterwards, all the while the audience laughs hysterically. Dean’s extremely uncomfortable facial expressions during this part (which probably isn’t acting) while having his face awfully close to Chris’ barely-covered crotch is cracking me up.
— Funny bit about how Amy once gave up her big toe so Chris can have something to replace his thumb with after losing it in a firecracker accident.
— Wild sequence with Amy licking/sucking on Chris’ big toe-thumb.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Livin’ It Up”


BAD CONCEPTUAL THEATER
Leonard Pinth-Garnell offers monkey-authored play

— A surprise return of Leonard Pinth-Garnell and the recurring “Bad (insert type of play here)” sketches from the original SNL era! Very welcome to see this sketch appearing in a newer SNL era. Not sure how tonight’s installment will stack up against the originals, but I’m assuming the original writer(s) of these sketches came back to guest write tonight’s installment.
— Some good laughs from the actors’ nonsensical dialogue and ape-like actions when acting out a monkey-written play.
— Good visual of a monkey playwright being brought onstage during the “introducing the cast” segment at the end.
STARS: ***½


LITTLE SLEUTHS
kid detective Bookie Newton (SEM) helps (host) solve a grisly case

 

— Wow, Seth in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight? After doing little-to-nothing that was noteworthy in his prior episodes, he’s been having a great night and has been dominating this episode.
— Now we also get Amy in ANOTHER sketch tonight, who, like Seth, has surprisingly been dominant in tonight’s episode. Considering this is only their fourth episode as mere featured players and it was unsure at the time just how their SNL tenures would turn out, Seth and Amy have been having an amazing night, and have also gotten more airtime tonight than any of their far-more-established castmates. I remember how fun and exciting it was for us SNL fans at the time to witness this breakout night for two newbies, and it gave most of us a lot of hope for Seth and Amy potentially taking over as SNL’s next two biggest leaders in the future, especially with Will and Ana seemingly being on their way out (Ana in particular, who’s airtime has sadly taken a real hit this season so far). In retrospect, though, I cringe over the fact that a lot of us once thought Seth had the potential to fill in Will’s shoes. As the dreadful season 30 would later show us, SNL’s attempt to make Seth the male leader of the cast would be a failure.
— Funny cutaway to Seth and Amy’s speechless kiddie reactions to the gruesome details they’re told of a murder.
— Solid and fun characterizations from both Seth and Amy here, and we’re getting another display tonight of their strong chemistry together.
— (*groan*) There goes Horatio almost breaking once again for no apparent reason, during his angry rant after spitting a chunk of sandwich out of his mouth. He’s almost ruining the goodwill and momentum of this sketch.
— Seth: “I just learned how to masturbate, so I kinda wanna get home.” Also a great bit afterwards with Amy trying to figure out what “masturbate” means, by breaking down the word: “’master’ means to be in control, and ‘bait’ means a small worm.”
— SNL would later attempt MANY TIMES to make this sketch recurring, but it would always end up getting cut after dress rehearsal, until Seth and Amy apparently just gave up. One of the many cut-after-dress installments of this sketch would later be shown as a bonus feature on, I believe, Amy’s “Best Of” DVD.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. There was very little that didn’t work for me, and quite a lot of what did work was exceptionally great. John Goodman, despite health issues he appeared to be dealing with, still tried and he performed well enough, even if, as usual, he was overshadowed for most of the show. He did have one particularly good showcase tonight, though, with that strong Wilford Brimley sketch, one of John’s greatest sketches ever. This ends up being John’s final hosting stint for TWELVE YEARS, shockingly. I know I recently ranted in my review of John’s season 25 episode about how questionable it is that SNL kept bringing him back as a host on such a frequent basis, year after year for eleven consecutive seasons, but damn, that certainly doesn’t mean there needed to be a TWELVE-YEAR gap between two of his hosting stints. (And I recall his long-awaited hosting stint after that twelve-year gap being a big disappointment, with him being saddled with lame material like “The Three Wise Guys”). However, I think I recall him once saying in an interview during that gap that he feels he’s getting too old and out-of-shape to still be hosting SNL regularly. But still, a TWELVE-YEAR absence???


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on

October 13, 2001 – Drew Barrymore / Macy Gray (S27 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SECRET LOCATION
from Afghanistan, army-of-one Dick Cheney (DAH) tells how he’ll win war

— A good way for SNL to address Dick Cheney’s mysterious disappearance from the public during the 9/11 craziness going on at the time.
— Great reveal from Darrell’s Cheney of him being a one-man Northern Alliance.
— Another good reveal, this time of Cheney having a bionic ticker for his heart.
— I love the maniacal laughing face that Darrell keeps doing as Cheney throughout this.
— A very funny “The beard’s goin’!” message from Cheney to Osama Bin Laden.
— Overall, much like the Bush cold opening in the last episode, this was a solid balance of both comedy and patriotism that the nation needed.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host overcame her fears of terrorism to do SNL; Tom Green cameo

— An interesting anecdote from Drew detailing the timeline of her constantly changing mood towards hosting SNL so soon after 9/11, especially when she talks about the panic that had happened at the show earlier this week with anthrax being discovered in 30 Rock, which led to Drew initially walking out on the show and contemplating dropping out as this week’s host. Man, I remember what a crazy week that was for SNL. There were so many articles and discussions online about what the hell is going to happen to that weekend’s SNL episode. Nobody knew what desperate measures SNL might have to take under both the anthrax situation and the Drew-walking-out-on-the-show situation. At one point, there were sources that said SNL may have to resort to doing that weekend’s episode without a studio audience… and I’ll be honest, I remember part of me actually got kinda eager and excited when hearing that, as it made me very curious to witness what a live SNL episode would be like with no studio audience. (Actually, that just might end up happening soon in SNL’s current season, considering a certain pandemic we’re now dealing with.)
— Very nice how Drew is commending the bravery of both herself and the studio audience for being here tonight.
— All I’ll say about Tom Green’s cameo is that, if SNL had to put him in tonight’s episode, then giving him a brief, wordless appearance in a harmless cutaway to the audience was the right way to go.
— An overall simple and (mostly) non-comedic monologue, but one that was also heartfelt, endearing, and actually kinda important, given the circumstances. This also kinda felt like a monologue that I can see appearing in SNL’s early eras (the 70s and early-to-mid 80s), back in the days before it was a requirement for monologues to have a big comedic conceit.
— Not sure if this is true, but I recall once hearing that the dress rehearsal version of this monologue was completely different and did have a comedic conceit, with Will appearing as a bizarre white-haired character.
STARS: ***½


CROSSING OVER WITH JOHN EDWARD
John Edward’s (WIF) cold readings have low success rate

— I remember how excited I was at the time for SNL to finally spoof this John Edward show, as I used to occasionally watch his show at the time for some unintentional laughs and found the show ripe for parody.
— Between her opening montage photos, the monologue, and now this sketch (plus some of the SNL bumper photos of her we’ll be seeing later tonight), Drew’s been going for quite an androgynous look tonight.
— Will-as-John-Edward’s constant terrible psychic guesses are providing some good laughs.
— I like Edward now starting to get hostile when he thinks Maya and Drew are starting to doubt him.
— John Edward, when realizing that a psychic guess he has just made is way off: “No, no, no, I take it back. That was dumb.”
— I love the way Maya delivered the line “This is incredible” with very understated excitement.
STARS: ***½


LOVERS
in hotel hot tub, Roger & Virginia entice Dave (JIF) to be (host)’s lover

— I love Will-as-Roger’s way of pronouncing “hot tub” as “hah-TAHB”, which would go on to be a memorable trademark of The Luvahs.
— What’s with the bubbling under the water just now, shortly after Drew entered the “hah-TAHB”? Did Drew or one of the other performers… uh, break wind underwater? Jimmy and Drew’s sudden smirking right now would have you think so.
— This sketch has slowly been devolving into a gigglefit from EVERYONE, and not just the perpetually-giggly Jimmy. It also seems that Will is now trying to instigate further giggling from his scene partners by repeatedly going “Uhhh…” in a lost way while Rachel is speaking.
— As much as the performers are breaking throughout this sketch, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch that’s shown in reruns actually features EVEN HARDER breaking, to the degree that the performers have a seriously hard time continuing on with the sketch. On a similar note, Will’s famous cut-after-dress-rehearsal Old Prospector sketch comes from this episode’s dress rehearsal, and that sketch also features a VERY heavy amount of breaking from everyone. I chalk up all these instances of performers breaking particularly hard during this episode’s dress rehearsal and live show to the fact that SNL lost a day of rehearsals due to the anthrax mess.
— Will-as-Roger’s line “Below the surface, there is a frenzy of activity” was very funny.
— As Jimmy is making his exit from the “hah-TAHB”, Will jokingly places his hand on Jimmy’s butt.
— (*groan*) Why do these Luvahs sketches always have to end with Roger complaining to Virginia about his back when they’re starting to make love?
STARS: ***


WILLY WONKA COLLECTOR’S EDITION
DVD of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory has outtakes & cast commentary

— Another early display of a fantastic celebrity impression from Jeff, this time nailing Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka.
— The EXTREMELY brief clip of Horatio and Drew ends up being Horatio’s ONLY appearance all night, and it was just a pre-taped clip, plus Horatio didn’t even speak or do anything in the clip but just stand there. He ends up being far from the only cast member who gets shafted tonight, as we’ll see as this episode progresses.
— Hilarious scene with Maya as Nelly Furtado performing an Oompah Loompah song.
— Pretty fun small portion of this sketch showing some never-before-seen Willy Wonka celebrity screen tests (an idea that almost sounds like it could be a full sketch in itself, in the same vein of screen test sketches that SNL has done for classic movies like Star Wars, Back To The Future, etc.). Dean’s Sidney Poitier impression especially has me laughing out loud. This is the first time we’ve seen Dean in a while, by the way, making his first appearance since his first episode.
— Tracy’s ONLY role in tonight’s entire episode isn’t even a physical appearance; it’s just a voice-over heard at the end of this commercial, in which he says, in an amused, jovial manner, “Ha ha ha! Order the Willy Wonka Collector’s Edition today!” I admit that voice-over made me laugh for some reason (Tracy is just so damn naturally funny, even in voice-over form), but considering the fact that Will did the voice-over for most of this sketch, it makes no sense why Tracy was suddenly thrown in as the closing voice-over. Did SNL throw him into this sketch at the last minute during the live show because they felt bad that all of his appearances got cut after dress rehearsal?
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“NBC Fall Retooling Preview” by RBS- instant ratings guide Emeril genres

— Our first TV Funhouse to air in this season, three episodes in.
— Some laughs from the NBC execs’ constant desperate retooling of Emeril Lagasse’s troubled sitcom.
— Hmm, all of a sudden, this has started devolving into a string of cheap homoerotic gags, a lazy resort.
— Ha, Gary Condit. I forgot about that scandal until now. That Gary Condit scandal was inescapable on the news until 9/11 came along.
— While I’ve been enjoying this cartoon, it’s going on rather long and some parts are kinda dragging for me.
— I love one of the NBC exec’s monotone cheer of “Woo.” at the end when seeing how Emeril’s ratings have finally achieved success.
STARS: ***


FIRST LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK LIQUIDATION SALE
(WIF) announces currency liquidation sale

— Will’s performance is okay, but the material here isn’t exactly the greatest, and not even Will can enhance it much with his usual sketch-saving abilities.
— More lazy gay-related humor tonight, with Will’s ending line “Oh, and I’m gay. (sarcastically) SORRY, DAD!” I admit that I do kinda like Will’s delivery of that line, though.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sexual Revolution”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Gay Hitler (CHK) makes a brief flamboyant appearance

COQ gives his thoughts on the war against terrorism

Gay Hitler returns as Neil Diamond (WIF) performs “Heartlight”

 

— After leaving the recently-fired Chris Parnell’s old Weekend Update voice-over intro intact in the first two episodes of this season, SNL has now replaced it with a new voice-over from Amy.
— The debut of Gay Hitler. Blah. I just see this as yet another typical, lazy Chris Kattan gay role, not to mention even more cheap gay-related humor tonight.
— A Colin Quinn cameo! I also love how Tina introduces him as “the New York-iest New Yorker I know”.
— I may have had quite a lot of issues with Colin when I covered his stint as an Update anchor, but Update guest commentaries like this where he’s allowed to just rant about a particular story in the news in his usual stand-up style are where he’s really in his element. I love him in this venue.
— A particularly funny line from Colin when talking about the announcement of a Dr. Dre music video attacking Osama Bin Laden: “What are the odds that video rhymes ‘Osama’ and ‘yo mama’ at one point?”
— The return of Will’s Neil Diamond impression! Believe it or not, this is the first time we’re seeing this epic impression of Will’s since the classic Storytellers sketch this impression made its debut in four seasons prior.
— Fun ending to this Neil Diamond commentary, with the song he performs. Even Gay Hitler eventually joining Diamond has a lot of goodwill from me. At one point, Will hilariously ad-libs “Don’t do it, Gay Hitler!”, which sends Jimmy and Tina into hysterics in the background.
STARS: ***½


ACTION TALK SHOW WITH KLAUS VONBRAUNMAN
Klaus VonBraunMan (CHK) welcomes action actress (host)

— Geez, I can tell even from the opening title sequence that this new Chris Kattan sketch is going to be AWFUL.
— The voice Chris is using sounds like a variation of his Jean-Claude Van Damme voice from Jackie Chan’s season 25 monologue.
— The cutaways to a deadpan Dean Edwards doing a lethargic German accent are making me laugh.
— As I expected, this sketch is just plain bad so far. Even Dean’s deadpan occasional interjections have stopped being funny after a while.
— A ho-hum use of Seth Meyers right now, making his only appearance of the night.
— We finally get a genuine funny part of this sketch, with Drew’s character mentioning how challenging it was for her to learn an Australian accent for her movie, after we had just seen a clip from the movie, in which Drew didn’t use an Australian accent at all.
— Overall, all I have to say is, THANK GOD this awful talk show sketch never became recurring, even though I’m sure SNL originally intended for it to.
— I cannot stress enough this season how beyond his expiration date Chris clearly is by this point of his SNL tenure. It’s getting sad to watch him this season.
STARS: *½


WUUB PRIME TIME THEATER
while airing King Kong, TV station replaces World Trade Center finale

— During the opening King Kong movie clip, I got a big laugh from Jeff Bridges’ utterance of “World Trade Center” being very sloppily re-dubbed to “Chrysler Building” by another man’s monotone voice.
— Unconventional use of Darrell in this role. This role kinda feels to me like something that the recently-fired Chris Parnell would play had he still been in the cast at this point.
— Not quite sure what this sketch is going for so far. Well, I guess I kinda “get” what it’s going for, but it’s not doing anything for me.
— The reveal of Darrell and Drew’s “actor” characters actually being the network’s news anchors didn’t really work for me.
— Okay, I got a decent laugh just now from Cheers and Superman stock footage being randomly inserted into the re-done King Kong ending.
— Something about Darrell’s intentionally cheesy, stilted delivery throughout this sketch is starting to work for me.
— Will’s over-exaggerated “heart attack” is pretty funny.
— Drew’s exaggerated, stilted, stretched-out scream of “Kong” results in Darrell busting out laughing, which in turn leads to Drew herself busting out laughing, to the degree that both of them end up basically giving up on the sketch, forcing the ending credits to be abruptly cued up. Given the fact that bad, sloppy, low-budget acting was an intentional theme of this sketch, but also given the fact that there’s been a lot of GENUINE sloppy breaking among the performers in some of tonight’s sketches, it’s hard to tell if Darrell and Drew’s laughing breakdown at the end of this sketch was part of the script or not. I’m leaning towards the former, but Darrell and Drew did make it look awfully real. At least if Chris Parnell had indeed played Darrell’s role like I mentioned earlier, then we’d KNOW that his and Drew’s laughing in this sketch was scripted, because Parnell ain’t one to break so easily.
— Overall, this sketch started picking up near the end (sometime after the fake commercial break in the sketch), but this sketch as a whole is still hard for me to figure, and had a flat feel (even if that was the intention) that bored me.
STARS: **½


WHOLE LATTE LOVE
(WIF) heckles ex-girlfriend (host) & her new lover (MAR) at coffeehouse

— Something very odd regarding Drew’s wig and clothes in this sketch: when SNL aired a Halloween compilation special a few weeks after the original airing of tonight’s episode, one of the sketches shown was a cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketch from tonight’s Barrymore episode, titled “The Morning After The Night Of The Living Dead”, which was a Night Of The Living Dead spoof with zombies having drunken-type hangovers the morning after a night of eating human’s brains. In that sketch, there’s a short scene with Drew playing Will’s wife/girlfriend/whatever (I can’t remember what). Drew’s wig and clothes in that scene are THE EXACT SAME wig and clothes that she wears in the live version of the Whole Latte Love sketch that I’m currently reviewing. As if that’s not odd enough, during NBC’s later re-airing of tonight’s Drew Barrymore episode, the dress rehearsal version of this Whole Latte Love sketch was shown, in which Drew is dressed completely differently, having a more “butch” look that stereotypically fits her character rather than the traditionally feminine wig and clothes she wears in both the live version of this sketch and in the cut-after-dress “The Morning After The Night Of The Living Dead” sketch. So what the hell happened during the live version of this Whole Latte Love sketch? Was SNL originally all set to do the Living Dead sketch on the air and even got Drew into costume for it, but then decided at LITERALLY the last minute to cut the sketch and instead do the Whole Latte Love sketch, but Drew didn’t have enough time to change out of her Living Dead costume before the show came back from commercial break? That’s the only theory I can come up with that makes any kind of sense.
— My god, this is Ana’s FIRST and ONLY appearance all night, and it’s just a somewhat minor role. Are you kidding me, SNL? Come to think of it, Ana’s airtime has been severely reduced in general this season so far, which, as I said in the last review, is a sign that she’s on her way out. Also, between Horatio and Tracy both being pretty much absent tonight, Ana making her only appearance of the night in a somewhat minor role in the final sketch, and a lot of the remaining cast members appearing in no more than one or two sketches, what has happened to the cast tonight? Very lopsided airtime among them, with Will starring or co-starring in almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH while almost all of his castmates are left with little to nothing. It’s giving the show kind of a weird empty feeling.
— Will’s role in this sketch is really weak, and a complete waste of his talents. His usual ability to save iffy sketches is NOT on display here, which is the second sketch tonight I’ve noted that in.
— Maya’s doing a good job keeping a perfectly straight face while getting paper thrown at her by Will.
— Maya and Drew are getting some laughs from me with their dialogue. However, the Will Ferrell portions of this sketch are hurting this… which, by the way, is a sentence I never thought I’d say in my life. As I said in a review from earlier this season, it takes truly bad writing to make Will Ferrell look unfunny.
— Rachel and Ana’s characters kinda feel like a feminist-themed hybrid of Cinder Calhoun and the Bloater Brothers. There’s some laughs from their portions of this sketch, but I just hate the fact that this is the ONLY thing that such a valuable veteran of Ana’s caliber has been relegated to doing tonight.
— I didn’t care for the ending with Drew getting back together with Will.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Baby”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
world-ruling dinosaurs in chapter 315


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I understand that this was another difficult week for SNL, with all of the anthrax mess that happened, but, meh, I was not crazy about this episode as a whole. The first 1/3 of the episode started off pretty well, but the show lost quite a lot of steam afterwards and never fully recovered. Aside from a fun Weekend Update, I didn’t get much enjoyment from ANYTHING that aired after the TV Funhouse cartoon ended, and the show especially hit almost rock bottom with that awful Action Talk Show sketch. Also, as I said earlier in the review, the odd lack of airtime for most of the cast kinda gave this show a weirdly empty feel.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seann William Scott)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman

Posted on

October 6, 2001 – Seann William Scott / Sum41 (S27 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) warns Osama bin Laden of reprisals to come

— Will-as-President-Bush’s opening line to Osama Bin Laden: “Buddy, you screwed up big-time.” A perfect way for this cold opening to immediately start.
— So many funny lines from Will’s Bush here, making his first appearance on SNL since 9/11. When this season began, there was a lot of concern over how SNL would handle their portrayal of Bush in a post-9/11 world. I remember when Will was interviewed on one of those Extra/Access Hollywood/Entertainment Tonight shows about a week before this season began (he was promoting Zoolander for this interview), he was asked about what approach SNL is going to take with Bush now, and Will shamefully admitted that he and SNL have no idea what they’re going to do with their Bush portrayal yet. Well, it would turn out that, in tonight’s cold opening, SNL has ended up taking the absolute right approach, finding the perfect balance between their famous old portrayal of “idiot Bush” and their updated portrayal of “patriotic leader Bush”, and this has been putting the studio audience in a very energetic and patriotic mood. This is truly a morale boost that the nation needed at this time.
STARS: ****½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The updated shot of Ana Gasteyer that was introduced in the preceding episode’s opening montage, in which she smiles really big into the camera (the first below screencap), has ALREADY been replaced by ANOTHER new shot, this time not featuring her smiling at all or even looking into the camera for most of the shot (the second below screencap).


MONOLOGUE
host’s ancestors also starred in movies featuring semen-tainted beer

— A unique entrance from Seann William Scott, in which, upon walking to the front of the stage, he immediately kneels down and kisses the floor (the first above screencap for this monologue), showing how honored he is to stand on the SNL stage.
— A lot of energy from Seann so far.
— During the silent movie clip, I like Seann beginning to clearly mouth an angry “Mother fu–”, only for an innocent “Darn you!” to show up on the subtitles.
— The various clips of Seann’s ancestors performing Stifler-like jizz-drinking actions are providing laughs, despite being a one-joke premise.
STARS: ***


LAW & ORDER: PARKING VIOLATIONS UNIT
spin-off puts focus on meter maids

— A “Parking Violations Unit” theme is a funny idea for a spoof of the many Law & Order spin-offs at the time.
— Some really good laughs from all of the overdramatic treatment of parking violations.
— Tracy steals this commercial at the end, with his way of justifying parking in a handicapped spot.
STARS: ****


JEFFREY’S
at Jeffrey’s, more customers insulted by more-stylish-than-thou attitude

— Jimmy has disparagingly addressed Kattan as “Corky” just now, referencing the then-new movie Corky Romano, Kattan’s attempt at a career as a movie star. The movie would bomb so badly that it would scare Kattan into staying on SNL (he originally claimed to be on his way out when this season began, eyeing a mid-season departure), leading to me having to suffer TWO MORE YEARS of him on SNL.
— What was with Maya’s cartoonishly exaggerated, teeth-gritted, straight-to-camera delivery of “Ooh, I hate this store!”? That didn’t work for me (nor the studio audience) at all, and felt out of place.
— Oh, god, here comes the usual Horatio Sanz walk-on in these Jeffrey’s sketches, a walk-on that’s always just an excuse for tons of hamminess, overacting, self-indulgence, and breaking between him and Jimmy.
— Not even Will has the ability to save this recurring sketch anymore, as his walk-on isn’t anywhere near as funny as usual in tonight’s installment.
— Overall, oof. These Jeffrey’s sketches, which originally started out funny in its debut, have been getting worse and worse with each passing installment. There was almost NOTHING that was redeemable in tonight’s installment. Thankfully, this ends up being the final appearance of this sketch.
STARS: *½


EMMY AWARDS PRE-SHOW
Joan Rivers (ANG) hijacks Emmy Awards Pre-Show to vex dressed-down celebs

— Something about Will’s way of saying “I’m Steve Kmetko” provided a good laugh.
— Hilarious how Ana’s Joan Rivers does away with Will’s Steve Kmetko by shooting a dart into his neck.
— Maya is a dead-ringer for Lisa Kudrow in her impression of her. She’s also doing a spot-on imitation of Kudrow’s facial mannerisms.
— Very funny line from Joan Rivers about Calista Flockhart looking like a broomstick with nipples.
— We get our very first display of newbie Jeff Richards’ great knack for celebrity impressions, doing a dead-on and funny Garry Shandling here. We’re going to be seeing a lot of strong impressions from Jeff throughout his somewhat-short SNL tenure.
— Great visual of Tracy’s Della Reese wearing a Hefty bag.
— A lot of fun celebrity impressions throughout this sketch.
— Kattan as Kid Rock is somewhat fitting casting.
— I love the “Is your forehead crying?” “No, that’s where my tear ducts are now” bit between Horatio’s Camryn Manheim and Ana’s Rivers.
STARS: ****


JARRET’S ROOM
winners of Freshman Facebook Awards announced

— Right out of the gate, Jimmy’s Jarret mentions that there’s been some big changes made to the show, which gives me some hope, as this recurring sketch has been very unimpressive in its previous installments.
— Good addition of Seth Meyers as the show’s new house D.J. I remember when this episode originally aired, I was so unfamiliar with the then-newbie Seth that I initially couldn’t tell if it was him or Kattan playing the D.J. in this sketch, as strange as that mix-up now sounds.
— Horatio’s Gobi makes his entrance tonight singing Afroman’s “Because I Got High”. Ha, remember that song? This really takes me back to how big and controversial that song was around this time.
— Horatio’s usual goatee as Gobi looks like it was mistakenly put on a little crooked tonight, which is probably a result of Horatio not having much time to get his costume changed in between the Emmy Awards sketch and this. This has been a rare busy night for Horatio, who’s been appearing in every single sketch so far.
— Seann’s performance in this is reminding me so much of one of my closest high school friends that I had around this time. Also, whenever Seann yells something into the camera throughout this sketch, his voice strangely sounds very Chris Farley-esque.
— A good immature laugh from the Jill Butt bit.
— What’s with so many sketches lately showing photos of Kattan as nerdy characters with braces? We get such a photo in this sketch, and we also got such a photo in that sketch from the homestretch of the preceding season in which Kattan played a teen obsessed with imitating the Golden Girls.
— A funny segment making fun of school yearbook pictures.
— Tonight’s Jarret’s Room installment has been surprisingly fun so far. Even Horatio’s typically over-the-top Gobi performance is coming off tolerable to me tonight.
— Another nice new addition to this sketch with Jeff Richards playing Jarret’s new next door neighbor, appropriately named… Jeff.
— An overall surprisingly good installment of this sketch. All of the much-needed tweaks made to the Jarret’s Room format definitely worked for the better. It remains to be seen, though, if these positive changes will work out in the long run for this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fat Lip”


WEEKEND UPDATE
threat of terrorism has convinced TRM of the wisdom of racial profiling

Weekend Update Joke Off- JIF & TIF riff on penis found in fruit juice

in midst of shark attack epidemic, TIF falls victim to Land Shark

— Jimmy’s hairstyle at least looks a little better than how horrible it looked in the last episode, but that’s still not saying much.
— Tina’s Visceral Editorial didn’t really work for me, but it was brief enough.
— A pretty solid commentary from Tracy regarding racial profiling in the wake of 9/11, made funny in the way that only Tracy Morgan could make it. I like his various “Shake ’em down!” examples.
— A fun “Weekend Update Joke Off” segment between Jimmy and Tina, regarding a news story about a severed penis being found in a bottle of fruit juice.
— We get the debut of the Weekend Update Door, which would go on to be a recurring bit in this era of Update whenever a guest shows up “unexpectedly”.
— It’s the return of the Land Shark routine! A random but very welcome return of a classic recurring bit from the original SNL era. Tina’s even doing a spot-on imitation of the typical demeanor that Laraine Newman et. al. had during the original Land Shark sketches.
— Land Shark: “Candygram.” Tina: “They don’t even have those anymore!”
— The unpleasant, unlikable vibe that Chevy Chase’s cameos typically bring is thankfully non-existent in his onscreen appearance at the end of tonight’s Land Shark bit.
STARS: ***½


SHOW YOUR PATRIOTISM
(WIF) disrupts meeting by showing patriotism via flag-themed short shorts

— Holy hell. An absolutely priceless entrance from Will wearing… THAT.
— I’ve always had a theory that Will wearing a full-out thong was GENUINELY not expected by Will’s scene partners. You see, shortly before the original airing of this episode, NBC advertised this episode with a quickly-made promo comprised of clips from that night’s dress rehearsal, which had just finished taping. (SNL dress rehearsal promos like that were a regular practice on NBC back in these days. When did they stop doing that?  Or do they still do it, and I just wasn’t aware?) One of those dress rehearsal clips showed Will from the back in this Show Your Patriotism sketch, but he wasn’t wearing a thong like he wears in the live version; he was just wearing short shorts that didn’t reveal much of his butt. It must’ve been a last-minute decision to change Will’s attire from short shorts to a full-out ass-revealing thong for the live version, as an attempt to make the sketch funnier and to also surprise Will’s scene partners on the air (the latter of which would explain why his scene partners have so much difficulty in keeping a straight face throughout this, particularly Rachel when she first gets a sight of Will’s buttcheeks). I’d love to get full confirmation on this. If my theory is correct, then this proves even further what a ballsy legend Will is.
— Something else that supports my above theory that Will’s thong wasn’t planned is that, as he’s casually speaking right after he makes his entrance, he suddenly starts smiling uncontrollably mid-line and has to hide it by turning his head away from the camera and putting his hand over his mouth (screencap below).

That uncontrollable smile of Will’s seems like he’s thinking two things: 1) “My scene partners aren’t going to believe what I’m springing on them as a surprise”, and 2) “I cannot believe I’m getting away with this on live TV.”
— We get the debut of Vazquez Gomez-Vazquez, an obscure and bizarre recurring character of Horatio’s. In retrospect, he’s coming off quite out of place as a supporting character in this particular sketch.
— This is a perfectly Will Ferrell-y sketch that was tailor-made for Will. I admit that the concept and writing itself is actually pretty thin, but who else but Will Ferrell could make a classic out of this? I can already picture some people making a case that I’m overrating this thin sketch, but I will defend this sketch to the grave.
— A noteworthy thing about the greatness of this 9/11-related sketch is that it was another one of those crucial post-9/11 moments that showed the nation “We can now laugh again.”
— Right now, all of Will’s scene partners are uncontrollably breaking in unison, except for Seann and Amy. Amy’s ability to keep a straight face here is admirable, considering how new she is at SNL.
— Will, during his “inspirational” speech, complete with background music: “The angle of my dangle is inversely proportional to the heat of my meat.”
— The part with Will’s thong loudly ripping just as he was about to make his triumphant exit has me HOWLING.
— Amy continues to show what a stone-faced pro she is, perfectly keeping a straight face while Will tries his damnedest to make her crack up by patting her on the shoulders while comically resting his thonged crotch against the back of her head.
STARS: *****


THE HOW DO YOU SAY? AH YES, SHOW
Paula Zahn (AMP) encounters sexiness

— Oh, god. Why are we getting the unnecessary return of this recurring sketch after THREE SEASONS? I see Kattan is once again showing that he’s overstayed his welcome as a cast member. There’s no real reason for him to still be on SNL this season, especially if he’s going to be dragging tired, old, seemingly-retired recurring sketches like this out of the mothballs.
— Tonight’s “How Do You Say? Ah Yes, Show” installment somberly opening without any theme music is at least an accurate spoof of how a lot of talk shows at the time made their post-9/11 return by starting their show in an uncharacteristically somber manner.
— When Kattan’s Antonio Banderas is addressing the 9/11 craziness currently going on, I did get a genuine laugh from his misguided mention of America trying to catch “the evil, evil Dalai Lama”.
— For a new featured player in only her second episode, Amy has refreshingly been getting tons of airtime tonight, which certainly makes up for her almost non-existent airtime in her first episode.
— This sketch was originally cut after the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal, in which the Paula Zahn role was played by that night’s host, Reese Witherspoon, instead of Amy.
— Banderas suggestively refers to what’s under Amy-as-Paula-Zahn’s skirt as her “Wolf Blitzers”. If he’s using Blitzer’s name as a euphemism for Zahn’s vagina, why did he pluralize it?
— Amy as Paula Zahn: “If I wanted to be treated like a blonde piece of meat, then I would’ve stayed at Fox News!”
STARS: **


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
tabulating blow darts in chapter 119

— Ah, we get the introduction of a new Jack Handey segment! It’s welcome to see a new recurring segment from him in the vein of Deep Thoughts and Fuzzy Memories.
— Very nice illustrations.
— Ehhh, can’t say I’m too crazy about that punchline. Hope this isn’t already a sign of how inferior this recurring My Big Thick Novel segment may regularly come off compared to Deep Thoughts or Fuzzy Memories.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Too Deep”


THE APPROVAL CENTER
losers testify to the nebulous joy of being approved

— Horatio’s rare busy night continues. This is probably the most appearances he’s ever made in a single episode up to this point of his SNL tenure.
— On an opposite note, it feels like Ana is appearing a lot less than usual this season so far. In retrospect, this seems to be an early sign that she’s on her way out. Also, it may just be me, but she feels a little out of place in this sketch.
— A great redneck look for Seann, and he’s getting really good laughs from his fast-paced quoting of a simplistic back-and-forth phone conversation he had with the Approval Center.
— Tracy once again kills it by just kicking back and being his natural self. I also love the detail of how he’s casually chomping on a slice of pizza throughout his entire testimonial.
STARS: ***½


PORN STAR
on a dinner date, (AMP) reveals her porn actress career to (host)

— Wow, Amy in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight. And she gets the comedic lead role in this one too. Great to see things going well for her so early in her tenure.
— Amy’s porn star reveal is a great turn in the sketch.
— Very funny bit with Seth as a waiter recognizing Amy from her porn movies.
— Amy: “I am not a porn star!… (*crosses fingers while gritting her teeth and shifting her eyes upwards*) yet!”
— Amy’s performance is strong in this, and you can see the huge potential that she has as a new cast member.
— Tracy in yet another great walk-on role. Much like Amy, it’s nice to see Tracy getting so much airtime tonight after having next-to-nothing to do in the preceding week’s season premiere.
— A very funny ending photo of Amy and Tracy.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Much like in the Lara Flynn Boyle episode from the homestretch of the preceding season, tonight’s goodnights get cut off VERY fast before Seann has even finished his goodnights speech.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid and refreshing episode. After the first post-9/11 episode the preceding week consisted of SNL walking on eggshells and trying to find their way back, SNL seems to be back in full force this week. It may be a little too soon to say that, though, considering a certain other unforeseen 9/11-related hardship the show will face the very next week, which will be mentioned in a little more detail at the very end of this review.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Reese Witherspoon)
N/A, because, as I said in the last review, it’s hard to judge the Witherspoon episode on the same level of a normal episode


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Drew Barrymore hosts during a week that an anthrax attack happens to occur at 30 Rock, an incident that leads to a huge panic for SNL

Posted on

September 29, 2001 – Reese Witherspoon / Alicia Keys (S27 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

9/11 TRIBUTE
in the wake of terrorism, Rudolph Giuliani [real] encourages perseverance

Paul Simon [real] performs “The Boxer” amidst NYC police & firemen

— Well, here we go, folks. A very important piece of SNL history.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember it felt very odd and jarring to see an SNL season begin in such a serious, dour manner, but I fully understood how necessary and crucial it was for SNL to immediately address the then-recent 9/11 in such a manner.
— Very inspiring words from Rudy Giuliani here.
— A great choice to have an unannounced Paul Simon performance during this cold opening. I recall there being confusion among online SNL fans at the time over what Paul’s song “The Boxer” has to do with 9/11, but I can see the connection, and this performance is beautiful, made even moreso by the occasional pan shots of the NYC firemen and police.
— Lorne: “Can we be funny?” Rudy: “Why start now?” That legendary exchange was not only the ice-breaking laugh that SNL needed during these trying times, but it was the ice-breaking laugh that New York and the nation as a whole needed, and let people know that things are going to be okay.
— Probably the most meaningful delivery of “Live from New York…” in SNL history. Great enthusiasm from both Rudy and the audience during it. Speaking of which, reruns of this cold opening oddly re-dub the “it’s Saturday Night” portion of Rudy’s LFNY with a more monotone-sounding utterance from him. I cannot for the life of me figure out why SNL would do that.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— A shot from the preceding season’s montage of the New York City skyline with the World Trade Center visible (the first screencap below) has been digitally altered to remove the two towers (the second screencap below).

— A new shot has been added early in the montage showing an American flag (screencap below).

— Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph have all been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— When the shot of the newly-promoted Tina Fey comes up after Will Ferrell’s shot, Don Pardo accidentally announces Tina as “Ana Gasteyer”, apparently being so accustomed to always announcing Ana’s name immediately after Will’s for the last 5 years. When the shot of Tina is then followed by Ana’s shot, Don attempts to cover for his flub by announcing Ana as “Ana Gasteyer with Tina Fey”.
— Speaking of Ana Gasteyer, the shot of her from the preceding season’s opening montage (the first screencap below) has now been changed to a new shot (the second screencap below).

— Boy, it feels sad seeing Chris Parnell removed from the opening montage.
— Dean Edwards, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, and Jeff Richards have all been added to the cast tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host tells a joke about a polar bear cub’s identity crisis

 

— I remember an SNL reviewer back at this time saying Reese Witherspoon had such an “I have to follow THAT?!?” look on her face early on in this monologue. Yeah, I can see that on her face. I feel for her.
— A good opening message from Reese about how they’ll (her and SNL) be giving it their all tonight, despite the circumstances.
— Hoo, boy. That “because I’m freezing my balls off” punchline was… well, not worth such a long, long set-up. Even Reese herself seems to agree, judging from her facial expressions afterwards. Reportedly, the punchline to Reese’s joke was originally going to be an uncensored “because I’m fucking freezing”, as SNL’s brave attempt to show that New York is back up and running. Lorne had planned in advance to pay the FCC fines and everything, but Reese put the kibosh on the whole idea, because she didn’t feel comfortable with saying the f-word on live TV, knowing how many young fans she had. I’m not 100% sure if any of that story is true, but if it is, that would explain the lame “because I’m freezing my balls off” punchline we were left with.
STARS: **½ (I’m being somewhat kind)


PREPARATION H
skateboarders sell hemorrhoid relief to youth culture

— Much like I said about Maya’s debut when I reviewed her very first episode, it feels so odd seeing Seth Meyers at this point of my SNL project, and lets me know that I’m slowly getting closer and closer to SNL’s modern-day era. And, man, Seth looks so young here.
— A good way to get all of the new male featured players in this youth-oriented commercial spoof.
— A fairly good comically out-of-place product to aim at early 2000s youth culture, and the visual style of this is a spot-on spoof of “x-treme” youth-oriented ads from this era, also reminding me of the visual style of another SNL spoof of “x-treme” youth-oriented ads: season 24’s KCF Shredders, which also heavily showcased THAT season’s new featured players: Jimmy, Horatio, and… (*sniffle*) Chris Parnell.
— Jesus Christ, did we need to see Kattan’s bare butt? Sure it was blurred out, but even through the blurring, we could still see WAY more of Kattan’s asscrack than I ever needed to see.
STARS: ***


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
Randy Goldman’s (JIF) girlfriend (host) is a guest

— Hmm, interesting how the lead-off sketch of the season stars two newly-promoted former featured players, showing how much confidence SNL has in Maya and Rachel.
— Amy Poehler makes her very first SNL appearance in a silent, almost indistinguishable role as one of several students making goofy faces in the viewer window (she’s the one sticking out her tongue in the fourth above screencap for this sketch), which ends up being Amy’s ONLY appearance all night. Yeesh. After so much online hype behind Amy’s hiring that summer, I recall this poor usage of her in tonight’s season premiere causing concern among some online SNL fans, worried that this was a sign that Amy’s SNL tenure would turn out to be comparable to that of Mark McKinney, who, like Amy, joined SNL as an already-established and revered sketch comedy veteran, and would sadly end up having his talent largely underused and squandered by SNL. Funny to think back in retrospect on this concern from SNL fans, considering the direction we now know that Amy’s SNL tenure would end up going.
— Geez, for the second segment in a row tonight, we get a guy showing part of his bare buttcrack to the camera, only this time, it’s NOT blurred out. Are all of these buttcrack flashes tonight another attempt from SNL to show that New York is back up and running? What’s more, I believe that’s newbie Jeff Richards who’s uncensored buttcrack we’re seeing in this sketch. If that’s indeed him, this has got to be one of the more… uh, unique ways for a cast member to make their live debut on SNL.
— As usual, I’m getting a kick out of Horatio’s teacher character, especially his corny delivery of “Don’t be a playa-hata. Be an inter-mural sports participata!”
— A funny and memorable part with Maya’s Megan passionately breaking out into a portion of the song “Truly Madly Deeply” in front of the viewer window that Jimmy’s Randy Goldman and Reese’s character are making out on the other side of.
STARS: ***½


THE LITTLE MERMAID
(WIF) is put off by Ariel’s (host) fish genitalia

— Seeing Will at the beginning of this sketch just gave me a sad reminder that this is his final season, which is even sadder when you’re aware in retrospect how much SNL ends up struggling without him the first few seasons after his departure.
— For some reason, I kinda like hearing the awkward light audience laughter during the some portions of Reese and Will’s non-comedic singing early on.
— Pretty funny turn with Reese’s Little Mermaid singing about the “increased flow of mucous in my fish genitalia”, throwing Will for a loop.
— When talking about how her legs turn human once she’s on land, I got a good laugh from Reese’s “But believe you me, the hoo-hah is all mackerel!” Something about that line sounds very Tina Fey-esque to me, which makes me wonder if she wrote this sketch, though I think I automatically assume that ALL vagina jokes from this SNL era are from Tina, knowing her comedic style and her various vagina euphemisms used throughout her Weekend Update tenure.
— Another instance tonight of all the new male featured players being paired together, this time as yellow-faced singing fish superimposed onto the screen. Stuff like this made it kinda hard for me (and many other online SNL fans at the time) to tell the difference between Seth Meyers and Jeff Richards back when this episode originally aired.
— A pretty funny and endearing visual of Rachel happily dancing around in a silly crab costume.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fallin'”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jesse Jackson (DAH) explains circumstances of proposed Taliban meeting

TIF & JIF lend drama to Maine’s decision to extend moose-hunting season

TIF encourages viewers to call 877-870-4278 & donate to Twin Towers Fund

— Surprisingly, they’re still using Chris Parnell’s old voice-over intro for Weekend Update. That wouldn’t last too long this season, though.
— A new brief shot of Tina wearing glasses has been inserted into the Update title sequence (screencap below), which doesn’t fit the rest of the Update title sequence, as plenty of shots of Tina sans glasses still remain.

— After donning the same hairstyle for his first three seasons, we now have Jimmy’s first of what will be MANY questionable hairstyles for the remainder of his SNL tenure. His hairstyle tonight is particularly tragic.
— Feels kinda sad seeing Darrell’s Jesse Jackson impression without Jerry Minor’s Al Sharpton by his side anymore, even though I’m certainly aware that Darrell previously did plenty of solo Jesse Jackson commentaries on Update years before Jerry even joined the cast. Jerry’s Sharpton added a fun change of pace to these, though.
— A lot of laughs from Darrell-as-Jackson’s detailing of the Taliban contacting him by phone.
— Darrell-as-Jackson’s “Come, Mr. Taliban, tally me banana” bit is hilarious.
— Tina’s IMMEDIATELY apologetic reaction after doing a mean-spirited joke about Janet Reno shows a huge difference between her and Norm Macdonald’s Update approach, as Norm did this same type of mean-spirited joke about Janet Reno on a regular basis during his Update days, and he never so much as batted an eye afterwards.
— Right when he’s supposed to do the next joke, Jimmy actually STOPS Update to a halt just to make several ad-libs about how terrible his hair looks as he glances at himself in the monitor and plays with his hair. I wonder if it’s moments like this that people who can’t stand Jimmy Fallon point to as an example of why he supposedly was a lousy cast member. (I’m not saying I agree, though I certainly have my own gripes with some of Jimmy’s habits on SNL.)
— The random moose-hunting conversation between Jimmy and Tina is a good, fun bit, like Jimmy and Tina’s side segments usually are. I also like how they end this one by saying “Aaaaaaaand scene” in unison.
— Jimmy and Tina end tonight’s Update on a classy note by letting us know how to reach the Twin Towers Fund if we’d like to help in the New York relief effort.
— Overall, considering the always-topical Weekend Update must’ve been one of the most difficult portions of the show for SNL to handle in this first post-9/11 episode, they handled it well and did a fine job.
STARS: ***½


COMMITMENT MEDLEY
Marty & Bobbi perform a medley at a lesbian commitment ceremony

— Feels pretty nice to see the always-reliable Culps during trying times like this.
— I’m getting some laughs from Marty and Bobbi Mohan-Culps’ details of their own bi-curious experiences from the past.
— As usual, a fun song medley from the Culps tonight. I particularly like their lesbian-related variation of “Mr. Roboto”.
STARS: ***½


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Chris Tucker (DEE), Anne Heche (host), Sean Connery (DAH)

— What’s going on tonight? The fairly-new and not-yet-established recurring sketch Wake Up Wakefield gets to lead off tonight’s season premiere, but actual established and long-time popular recurring sketches like The Culps and Celebrity Jeopardy get buried after Update??? Perhaps this is an early sign of a changing of the guard at SNL this season. After all, this DOES end up being Will and Ana’s final season.
— Dean Edwards gets his very first big role. It shows quite a lot of confidence on SNL’s part to let a newbie on his first night play a contestant in the prestigious Celebrity Jeopardy recurring sketch.
— A pretty good laugh from Reese’s Anne Heche delivering her intro statement in made-up space language.
— A decent Chris Tucker impression from Dean, though the material he’s been given in this sketch is pretty one-note and nothing special. By the way, word has it that Jerry Minor, the cast member who’s spot Dean has been hired to basically fill in, also had a Chris Tucker impression in his back pocket, but I’ve never seen it (and he certainly never did it on SNL).
— And there’s our obligatory classic category mix-up of tonight’s Celebrity Jeopardy sketch, with Darrell’s Connery misreading “horsemen” as “whore semen”. It’s quite a stretch for me to refer that particular mix-up as “classic”, though. I recall some online SNL fans at the time saying it was kinda sad and desperate on SNL’s part that Darrell’s Connery actually had to resort to WALKING UP TO THE BOARD and POINTING OUT where he saw “hor” and “semen” in the word “horsemen”. Unfortunately, I have to agree about how sad and desperate that came off, even if I still got some chuckles from it.
— A funny list shown of people that Anne Heche has slept with (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this sketch, though the visual quality makes it hard to read). It’s noteworthy that Chris Kattan is one of the people on that list. An also somewhat noteworthy entry on that list is “The Cream Of Wheat Guy”, which brings to mind that Pervert short film that the recently-departed Adam McKay did the preceding season. I’d like to think that SNL is subtly referencing that here, but that might be a stretch. It’s probably just inherently comedic to reference “The Cream Of Wheat Guy” in certain contexts, especially sexual ones.
— The surprising display of camaraderie between Trebek and Connery right now is an interesting change, even when you KNOW that Connery is just setting Trebek up.
— Overall… (*sigh*) I hate to say it, but it’s finally happened, folks: an average Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. This installment, while still funny, paled BADLY in comparison to the preceding Celebrity Jeopardy sketches. This installment felt lacking in parts, kinda empty, and was overall unmemorable. It’s understandable, given the difficulties the writers faced this week, but I wish they waited until a better week a little later into this season to do a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Woman’s Worth”


GASSY BABY
newborn baby’s nonstop farts & burps distress parents (WIF) & (host)

— Oh, no. I recall this being a fairly notorious sketch from this season.
— Yep, and there it goes: the endless farting from the baby has officially begun. (*sigh*)
— It’s a bad sign when the audience has ALREADY stopped laughing at the non-stop farts only 30 seconds into the sketch. And this sketch is supposed to go on for God knows how many more minutes.
— And now we get the addition of endless burping to accompany the baby’s endless farting, as if that’s going to make this any funnier. (*sighs deeper*)
— Kattan’s appearance as the doctor is the first sketch tonight that I’ve noticed the lack of Chris Parnell (not counting the opening montage). This seems like the exact type of role Parnell would’ve been cast in had he still been on the show.
— And now the baby’s endless farting and burping is accompanied by endless projectile peeing. (*sighs even deeper*) Look, I’ve been cutting the writers some much-needed slack throughout this episode review, understanding what a difficult time they must’ve had this week, but geez, they’re putting something like THIS on the air? Really? I recall lots of SNL reviewers at the time saying this sketch was akin to a typical bad, juvenile sketch from season 20, though I’d like to think that even season 20 would scoff at this sketch, though that may be giving that season too much credit. Hell, if that season did this sketch, they’d probably have the baby projectile vomiting instead of farting, burping, or projectile peeing.
— It hurts seeing a reliable sketch-saving pro like Will failing to save this D.O.A. sketch. Only a truly bad sketch like this could make Will Ferrell look unfunny. I should probably be glad that Chris Parnell isn’t around to also get his talents wasted in this embarrassing sketch.
— Hmm, a very strange but somewhat interesting mid-sketch interlude with the coffee discussion between Will and Kattan, complete with wholesome background music being played. While this portion of the sketch is hard to figure and isn’t exactly making me laugh, I kinda appreciate what it’s going for, mostly just for giving us a (temporary) break from the unfunny juvenile humor of this sketch. I remember when this sketch originally aired, I felt that the dialogue in Will and Kattan’s coffee discussion seemed improvised, a hunch that would later be heightened when NBC would air the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns, which contains different dialogue during Will and Kattan’s coffee discussion, IIRC (I haven’t seen the rerun version of this sketch in ages, so my recollection may be faulty).
— Tracy makes his first and only appearance of the night, and immediately provides my ONLY laughs of this entire sketch with his perfectly Tracy Morgan-esque reaction to the farting/burping/peeing baby.
STARS: *½


DONATELLA VERSACE FOR THE CHILDREN
Donatella Versace (MAR) & fashionistas sing kids songs

 

— The debut of Maya’s Donatella Versace impression, which would go on to be one of Maya’s signature roles on SNL.
— Maya continues to have the impressive ability to convincingly look like any given ethnicity she plays (Italian this time) via the simple use of a wig.
— Maya’s Versace voice sounds kinda different in this debut than how it would go on to regularly sound, but it could just be that it’s been a LONG time since I’ve last watched any of her Versace sketches.
— For a newbie in his first episode, Dean Edwards has actually been getting quite a lot of airtime tonight, which is particularly surprising in retrospect, knowing how EXTREMELY underused he would infamously go on to regularly be throughout his short-lived SNL tenure. (In fact, in the very next episode, he doesn’t make ANY appearances, which already lets us know what to expect from his SNL tenure.) It’s funny how tonight’s episode makes it seem like, out of the four newbies, Dean is going to be the most prominent face while Amy’s going to be extremely under-utilized and treated like a glorified extra, only for things to turn out THE EXACT OPPOSITE between Dean and Amy.
— There goes the first yell of “GET OOOOUUUUTT!”, which would go on to the signature catchphrase of Maya’s Versace impression.
— Boy, this one guy in the audience has a very loud, noticeable cackling laugh (“Hhhhhhhaaa ha ha ha!”) being heard all throughout this sketch. His voice stands out over the rest of the audience so much that it sounds like he’s mic’ed.
— A fairly fun format to this sketch, but I dunno, I’m not finding myself laughing all that much, though Maya is performing well.
— Okay, I am getting some amusement out of the randomness of Versace’s conversation with “Mr. Pantyhose Leg”, a pantyhose sock puppet.
STARS: **½


SIDE NOTE: I like the unique touch of how the final bumper photo of Reese has a signed message written by her (screencap below), which would go on to become a tradition for the final bumper photo shown of hosts in this season’s episodes (with the Kirsten Dunst episode being the only exception, I believe).


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Hard to judge this episode on the same level of a normal episode, knowing the unprecedented circumstances and difficulties SNL was dealing with. I commend SNL for going out there and trying, and I’m satisfied with what we ended up with as a whole. It was far from a strong episode, in my opinion; in fact, there wasn’t a single segment I gave a rating over three-and-a-half stars to (though if I rated individual Weekend Update commentaries, Darrell Hammond’s Jesse Jackson commentary would get four stars), and the post-Weekend Update half was largely underwhelming. But again, under the difficult circumstances, SNL still tried, they still provided laughs, they provided an important cold opening for the ages, and overall, the finished product of their efforts was palatable. For all of these reasons, I’ll forgive even the biggest missteps of the night (*coughGassyBabycough*).


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2000-01)
N/A, because, again, it’s hard to judge this episode on the same level of a normal episode


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Seann William Scott

Posted on

May 19, 2001 – Christopher Walken / Weezer (S26 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
despite marital woes & a broken penis, Rudolph Giuliani (DAH) is doing OK

— At the beginning of this, why did the audience applaud immediately after Darrell started speaking? Years later, that would become an annoying weekly trend in cold openings that, I believe, still continues to this day in 2020 (I can’t say for sure yet, given that I haven’t watched a new episode since November 2018).
— I like Rachel’s silent, sheepish interjections as Judith Nathan, peering out from a plant that she’s hiding behind.
— A tasteless but hilarious line from Darrell’s Rudy Giulani, where he expresses envy at Robert Blake for having the guts to kill his wife.
— Very funny line from Giuliani about his wife secretly writing the name Combover Jones on the back of his windbreakers.
— Rudy Giuliani: “What can I say? 57 with a combover and a broken penis, and the ladies still fight over me.”
— A somewhat half-assed “Live from New York…” delivery from Darrell. And right after he says it, you can even see him IMMEDIATELY get up from his chair and exit the shot before the opening montage starts, as if he’d rather be ANYWHERE but here. (SNL would later hide that in reruns by cutting to the opening montage a few seconds earlier.) I wonder if Darrell’s getting tired of saying LFNY so often lately. I’m certainly starting to get tired of SEEING him and Will be pretty much the only cast members to say LFNY around this time (and it would soon get even worse the following season, in which Darrell and Will are literally the ONLY people in the cast who get to say LFNY in the entire first half of that season, I kid you not).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
oblivious to pronunciation, host sings “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”

— A lot of laughs from Christopher not doing the required pronunciation change of “potato” and “tomato” during certain parts of the song “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”.
— I love Christopher greeting Jimmy with “Jimmy, wazzup?”
— Classic turn with Christopher misunderstanding Jimmy’s advice and now ALWAYS pronouncing “potato” and “tomato” as “po-tah-to” and “to-mah-to” during the song.
— Christopher’s “They’re all spelled the same on the cards!” line is a great self-deprecating dig at Christopher’s habit of always staring at the cue cards.
— Jimmy is a giggly mess during his interactions with Christopher, but it’s hard to fault him in this specific case, as how can ANYONE keep a straight face at Christopher Walken, especially with how hilarious he’s naturally being as himself in this monologue?
— Overall, my personal favorite of Christopher’s many musical monologues.
STARS: *****


MANGO
wowed janitor (host) imagines himself & Mango in famous screen roles

— At least we’ve gotten very minimal Mango in this overall season, with this only being the second and, obviously, final Mango sketch of the season, which is refreshingly little compared to the 6,834 Mango sketches from the preceding season.
— What has been happening to Kattan’s portrayal of Mango? There’s too much of a giddy, animated, “wink-wink”, self-aware nature to Mango’s appearance tonight (yes, even moreso than usual), such as him constantly playing DIRECTLY to the cameras, doing random little plugs for products, and other nonsense like that. Not funny in the least. Kattan has gotten way too loose with his portrayal of this character.
— A good laugh from Christopher explaining how fooled he was by Mango’s policeman stripper routine.
— A lot of charm in Christopher’s performance as a love-stricken janitor.
— Now tonight’s already self-aware, meta Mango sketch is getting even more self-aware and meta, with Mango dating “TV’s Jimmy Fallon”.
— A great fantasy sequence with Christopher and Mango while Christopher sings.
— Among the crowd of Mango admirers briefly seen outside of Mango’s dressing room, Will can randomly be seen dressed as his backstage alter ego Ron (who I’ve previously gone into detail about here). I remember when this episode originally aired, online SNL fans, including myself, were unfamiliar with the concept of Will’s Ron, so we didn’t understand why the hell Will was randomly playing a background extra in this sketch while dressed in that silly specific outfit.
— Hilarious visual of Christopher now entering in a wig and sparkly janitor’s uniform.
— What in the world is with the sudden fourth-wall-breaking turn at the end with Mango delivering a straight-to-camera message about wrapping up the final Mango sketch of the season while the supporting characters from the sketch are partying behind him, complete with closing credits being displayed onscreen? Yeah, again, these Mango sketches are getting way too giddy, “wink-wink”, and self-aware.
STARS: ** (I wanted to give this a higher rating for all of the solidness that Walken brought, but Kattan’s overly loose, giddy, self-aware Mango performance dragged it way down for me)


HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Chris Matthews (DAH) likes Bob Barr’s (CHP) crazy energy scheme

 

— They’ve been going heavy on these Hardball sketches lately.
— As always in these Hardball sketches, Parnell has tons of funny lines. I love that SNL consistently trusts him to carry the best of the comedic load in these Hardball sketches. I particularly like his cruel lines tonight about things you can burn.
— Pretty funny bit with Ana being fed answers through an earpiece.
— I hate to say it, but the recurring gag with Darrell-as-Chris Matthews’ constant insults to Kattan’s Paul Begala, while still funny to me, isn’t nearly as funny as I had remembered finding it when these sketches originally aired. Maybe I’ve just gotten sick of Kattan doing roles like this where he plays someone who either gets gay-related insults hurled at him or just gets insults hurled at him in general. He seems to be playing roles like that more and more often at this point of his tenure. That being said, I do like the final insult that Darrell’s Matthews yells at Kattan’s Begala in tonight’s sketch: “Go home and tell Santa you wanna be a dentist, you freakin’ elf!”
STARS: ***½


THE CONTINENTAL
a lost brooch provides The Continental with another chance to woo

— Ah, here we go.
— The Continental: “I recall the first time I saw you in my periscope… I mean, my terrace.”
— Ha, and we now see the aforementioned periscope hidden in The Continental’s closet.
— Great story from The Continental about accidentally running over his first love with a van.
— The dazed facial expression Christopher makes after getting punched in the face is hilarious (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— A good laugh from The Continental showing the woman his collection of erotic hummel figures that he got on eBay.
— The chloroform bit is hilarious.
— Great bit with The Continental swallowing the key to prevent the woman from leaving the apartment, only for her to punch Continental in the stomach, forcing him to cough the key out of his mouth.
— Overall, while not as classic as the Continental sketch that Christopher last did the preceding season, this was still great and reliable as always.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
in a terrible re-enactment, Joey Fatone (CHK) injures his foot

KEN does a subliminal editorial to remind viewers he’s no longer on SNL

JIF, TIF, Winona Ryder [real] stage a Weekend Update cliffhanger

— Tonight’s Terrible Re-enactment from Kattan isn’t as funny as usual. The novelty of these has gotten old and tired (just like practically everything else Kattan does at this point of his tenure).
— Jimmy’s random Old-Timey Joke Corner segment is fairly fun. More fun than funny, but I enjoy when Jimmy and Tina have fun with the Update format by doing random, silly segments like this.
— Kevin Nealon! Wonderful to see him making an SNL cameo. I’m so glad that SNL has allowed him to cameo on the show even despite not having much going on at the time in his post-SNL career.
— Kevin’s subliminal commentary about him not being on SNL anymore is a riot. He hasn’t lost his touch at all with this subliminal routine.
— Just now, Jimmy narrowly averted terribly botching YET ANOTHER joke this season.
— The turn with Jimmy suddenly being seen wearing glasses per doctor’s orders seems to be acknowledging his bad habit of flubbing Update jokes.
— Took the audience awhile to recognize Winona Ryder.
— Winona Ryder appearing in tonight’s season finale is interesting in retrospect, considering she would end up hosting the very next season finale.
— Yet another example of a fun, silly Update segment from Jimmy and Tina, with their “Weekend Update Cliffhanger” bit, spoofing the endless barrage of season finale cliffhangers that was particularly rampant on TV around this time.
— An overall pretty strong Update to end Jimmy and Tina’s first season at the Update desk. They’ve really done a turnaround on the format and quality of Update this season. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks, as I recall it eventually getting tired not too long from now (IIRC, the downhill slide of their Updates start in season 28, which coincides with a downhill slide of SNL’s quality in general).
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hash Pipe”


LOVERS
(ANG) learns that Dr. Walter (host) was once a lover of Roger & Virginia

— The Luvahs (Roger and Virginia Klarvin) have officially become recurring.
— I already got a laugh right from Rachel’s opening line: “Would anyone care for some baba ganoush or some hummus before we start our main course?” There’s just something about Rachel and Will’s delivery and wording as these Luvahs characters that now tickles me. As I said in my review of the first Luvahs sketch, teenage me used to HATE these Luvahs sketches with a fiery passion back when they originally aired, but I’ve been gaining an appreciation for them now that I’m older and am going into their sketches with more of an open mind. I do wonder, though, if I’m still going to get tired of these characters after a few installments.
— Christopher’s delivery is perfect for this sketch, and his lovemaking story about him and his wife Ana trying “shinshi-shinshi” (however it’s spelled) in the ear canal is hilarious.
— Good turn with Christopher revealing to Ana that he once had a three-way with the Luvahs.
— Great departing line from Christopher, in regards to his walking-away wife: “I best chase her… for she is my ride.”
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Anatominals Show” by RBS- beasts’ genitals spur LOM Faustian crisis

— A hilarious concept of Yogi Bear-type characters having huge and overly-realistic-looking genitalia.
— A very funny Parnell-read opening disclaimer.
— Some good and hilarious gross humor here. This is the type of gross humor that Smigel is great at selling, as opposed to that “Sex And The Country” abomination of his earlier this season, where he crossed too much of a line and seemed to focus more on the shock value than on the actual humor.
— As we’ve seen before, Smigel does a spot-on imitation of the animation style of Hanna-Barbera’s 1960s cartoons.
— Lorne, while miserably watching the Anatominals cartoon on a monitor backstage: “This is what it’s come to? It’s not fu(*bleep*)ing worth it.”
— Lorne, when calling off his deal with the devil: “You never said it would get this bad. I want out!” Devil: “Come on, you say that after every SNL movie.”
— During the devil scene, the snickering guy in the green shirt behind Lorne appears to be Robert Smigel himself in animation form (screencap below).

— Good turn with the devil transferring Lorne to a peace corp.
STARS: ****


CENTAUR
(host)’s personal questions dominate centaur’s (CHP) job interview

— For some reason, the bizarre opening job interview between Kattan and Christopher kinda reminds me of the fantastic bizarre Job Interview sketch that Kattan previously did with Steve Buscemi in season 23, though in tonight’s sketch, the tables have turned, as Kattan is the one playing the weirdo instead of the straight man.
— Geez, the “See you Monday morning!” “You didn’t get the job!” bit with Kattan and Christopher bombed HARD with the audience. I personally was cracking up, but mainly just because of Christopher’s trademark odd delivery when saying “You didn’t get the job!”
— A great, bizarre casual entrance from Parnell as a centaur.
— I love Parnell’s response about how he’s heard them all when Christopher says he has some questions about Parnell’s centaur life.
— So many hilarious and interesting specific centaur questions from Christopher, as well as hilarious and interesting answers from Parnell. Both performers are absolutely perfectly cast in these roles. I can’t see this sketch working quite as well with different casting for either role.
— Christopher: “(bluntly) The rest of the interview will be centaur questions.”
— Parnell, when being asked by Christopher if he’d have sex with a horse wearing a mask of a woman: “No. I mean, would YOU have sex with a monkey if it had a mask on?” Christopher: “This interview is not about me.”
— Parnell’s understated eventual frustration over the questions Christopher is bombarding him with is fantastic.
— Christopher: “If I were to watch centaur porn, but with the bottom of the screen blocked out with a piece of cardboard, would I find the human halves of the female actresses appealing?” Parnell: “Well… maybe, but you gotta remember that at some point, there’s gonna be a horse penis in there.”
— A classic ending line from Christopher: “We don’t hire dirty centaurs.”
— In retrospect, this excellent sketch can be considered Parnell’s temporary swan song, as this ends up being his final lead role before getting fired over the summer. Words cannot express the shock, disappointment, and frustration that I (and quite a number of other online SNL fans) experienced that summer when hearing the news of Parnell’s undeserved firing. Thankfully, his firing would turn out to be temporary, as he would get re-hired halfway through the following season, after much lobbying from both Will AND Kattan. It’s already well-known that Will fought hard to get Parnell rehired, but it’s lesser known that Kattan also played a big part in that, and he deserves credit.
— As a side note in relation to Parnell’s firing, I’m not sure how reliable the source is, but word has it that when the powers that be were contemplating which cast member to fire that summer (besides Jerry Minor), the other three cast members on the chopping block with Parnell were supposedly Horatio, Rachel, and Maya. Just putting that out there.
STARS: *****


BADGER UP THE BUTT
(WIF)’s irritability stems from the badger that crawled up his butt

— Jerry makes his only appearance of the night, his first appearance in two episodes, and the FINAL appearance of his short-lived SNL tenure playing a dull, forgettable, supporting straight role, which sadly sums up how poorly utilized he’s been in the last quarter of this season. Unlike Parnell, Jerry’s eventual firing over the summer wasn’t a shock at all, but it’s still a shame, given how funny and talented he is, and the huge potential he showed during the times SNL would give him a chance to shine. He could’ve went on to be a really solid cast member if SNL held on to him longer and gave him more chances.
— I remember when this sketch originally aired, I mistakenly almost thought that the initial shot of Will slowly and sarcastically applauding Ana’s opening presentation was intended as some kind of take-off/follow-up/rip-off of the famous Sarcastic Clapping Family Of Southhampton sketch.
— A funny bizarre premise, for the second consecutive sketch tonight. Good to see all of these oddball, absurdist sketch premises in tonight’s season finale.
— A great pre-taped black-and-white sequence showing how a badger got stuck up Will’s butt.
— Christopher is perfect in the doctor role of this oddball sketch.
— The ending seemed abrupt and empty, but I’m not sure where else they could’ve taken this. The potroast dinner scenario that Christopher came up with as a plan to release the badger from Will’s butt was funny when being described, but most likely wouldn’t have been anywhere near as funny if we had actually seen it play out. Still, something felt missing at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & WIF perform “Island In The Sun”

— The bizarre sighting of Will’s Ron alter ego as a random background extra in the Mango sketch earlier tonight has come full-circle, as we now have Ron randomly playing the maracas during this Weezer performance, also making this a rare occurrence of a cast member getting to participate in a musical guest’s performance.
— Will’s Ron is surprisingly fitting this musical performance really well.
— I’d love to know how this whole idea came about. Did Will as Ron interrupt Weezer’s rehearsal earlier in the week, much like he famously did a few years prior during Puff Daddy’s rehearsal for the season 23 finale, and Weezer was such good sports about it that they ended up letting Ron perform with them for the live show? That’s my theory.


MEMORIAL DAY GREETINGS
for Memorial Day, HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF perform a happy Christmas ditty

— Funny set-up, with Horatio faking us out into believing he’s about to launch into a Memorial Day song, only to hit us with the traditional “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song once again.
— Jimmy has literally played himself in every single segment he’s appeared in tonight: monologue, Mango, Weekend Update, and now this. I wonder if that’s a record for a cast member in a single episode. Probably not.
— Tracy makes his only appearance of the night.
— Adding to the fun-loving nature of this song is the new addition of Kattan occasionally slowly peering his smiling face into the close-ups of Horatio and Jimmy (the third above screencap for this sketch). This reminds me that when this season finale originally aired, I was convinced that this was most likely Kattan’s final episode, partly due to his heavier-than-usual airtime in this episode, partly due to his particularly giddy and animated performances in both this sketch and tonight’s earlier Mango sketch, and partly due to the very random fourth-wall-breaking ending of the Mango sketch. I turned out to be wrong, but I would later go on to feel that this SHOULD’VE been his final episode, because until recently, I had always been of the opinion that he ended up suddenly going BADLY downhill in the following two remaining seasons of his SNL tenure, truly overstaying his welcome. However, after having now just reviewed his first six seasons in chronological order, I now see that his downhill slide started earlier than the following season 27, though I can’t pinpoint when exactly it started. Your mileage may vary on that, especially since I’m aware there’s probably quite a number of you readers who already disliked Kattan pretty early on in his tenure.
— Overall, as I always say, I’m a sucker for this “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song, and this was a fun way to end the season.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— After the preceding season’s Christopher Walken episode had some great P.O.V. shots of the Continental cameraman joining the cast and guests onstage at the goodnights and offering some of them a drink, SNL ups the ante by now having the Continental cameraman actually show his face while donning a feminine blonde wig when joining the cast and guests onstage at the goodnights. In the goodnights of Christopher’s next hosting stint, the ante will be upped even more, as we’ll see when I review that episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid season finale, even if it doesn’t measure up to the legendary episode that Christopher Walken last hosted in the preceding season. It’s certainly a huge step up from the last season finale with Jackie Chan, though. Christopher Walken was utilized perfectly tonight as always, especially with the weirder sketches they gave him in the post-Weekend Update half, and he had what I feel is his all-time best monologue.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Lara Flynn Boyle)
a step up


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1999-00)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 27 begins under challenging circumstances, as it’s just a few weeks after 9/11. Reese Witherspoon hosts this important episode, and we get four new cast members.

Posted on

May 12, 2001 – Lara Flynn Boyle / Bon Jovi (S26 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

VICE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Dick Cheney’s (DAH) economy of energy expenditure exemplifies efficiency

— A good number of funny low-key lines from Darrell’s Cheney. Even just the way Darrell is speaking as Cheney is amusing me here, for some reason.
— Funny concept of Cheney making his personality energy efficient.
— A big laugh from Cheney stating Roberto Benigni used 47,000 calories while speaking during his famous Oscars acceptance speech from a few years prior.
— Good bit with Cheney demonstrating “different” monotone emotions.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
audience member Keith razzes host about her weight & Jack Nicholson

— What the hell is Lara Flynn Boyle wearing (screencap below)?!?

— Another Adam-McKay-interrupts-a-monologue-as-an-obnoxious-audience-member monologue. The last one from the Tobey Maguire episode was pretty funny.
— I cannot picture Lara Flynn Boyle and Jack Nicholson as a couple AT ALL.
— Lara is coming off kinda awkward in the way she’s playing off of Adam McKay. Tobey Maguire played a better straight man to Adam the last time SNL did this type of monologue.
— A good laugh from Adam asking Lara how big Jack Nicholson’s “joker” is.
— Some funny witty retorts from Adam to Lara.
— A very odd and kinda-disgusting gag with Lara showing food outlines sticking out from inside her stomach, but Lara’s at least coming off fairly likable during it.
STARS: ***


CORN CHIP NAIL TIPS
— Rerun, for the BILLIONTH time this season, originally aired on 10/7/00. This season is getting out of hand with the excessive amount of fake ads they’re repeating. If I see Corn Chip Nail Tips or Homocil one more time before this season ends…
— Even the studio audience sounds tired of seeing this commercial, especially judging from their VERY hesitant applause at the end.


PHYSICAL
(CHP) coughs during faux hernia test administered by (WIF), (host), (RAD)

— Some pretty good laughs from Will CONSTANTLY asking Parnell to cough while he feels Parnell’s testicles.
— I like how this is now getting to the point where Will brings in more and more fellow doctors and nurses to feel Parnell’s testicles while asking him to cough. I particularly love Rachel’s eager “My turn!”
— Good turn with Darrell entering as a doctor and asking Will and his co-workers “Who the hell are you people?”, resulting in them dashing out of the room, making Parnell realize that they weren’t even doctors.
— A funny “I’m a butt man” ending with Darrell.
STARS: ***


AUDITION
Kyle & Sean DeMarco don ’80s hair while auditioning for musical guest

— Not sure if Horatio’s intentional overacting at the beginning (“WHY, GOD, WHY?!?! WHY’D YOU MAKE ME A DANCER?!?!”) worked for me. He seems to be giving more and more over-the-top performances lately (especially when he’s sharing a scene with Jimmy), an unfortunate sign of things to come.
— Oh, god, another DeMarco Brothers sketch.
— I did laugh for a while at Parnell’s comically intense facial expressions when miming playing the keyboard, until it went on too long.
— Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both bust out laughing HARD out of character when seeing Kattan and Parnell in 80s Bon Jovi wigs, as if that was unplanned. This seems completely genuine… until you see the dress rehearsal version of this sketch that would later be aired in reruns, which contains the EXACT SAME “genuine” laughing from Jovi and Sambora when seeing Kattan and Parnell in the wigs. So what’s the story here? Was the wig bit genuinely unexpected by Jovi and Sambora at dress rehearsal, and SNL liked their laughing reaction so much that they told them to “re-create” their laughing for the live show, fooling us viewers into thinking their laughing was genuine? If so, boo to SNL for that move. I’m docking half a star from my already-low rating of this sketch just for that alone.
— The “Get out” / “Come back” bit at the end is going on WAY too long.
STARS: *


MTV CRIBS
Robert Downey, Jr. (CHK) gives a very quick tour of his jail cell

— A funny quick in-and-out parody of Cribs, with an imprisoned Robert Downey Jr. giving us an incredibly brief tour of his jail cell.
STARS: ***½


SAVE THE STARVING ACTRESSES
host makes an appeal on behalf of Save The Starving Actresses Foundation

— A pretty good self-deprecating way for Lara to spoof her known extreme skinniness, as well as a way to spoof the unsettling then-current trend of skinniness among actresses in general.
— Lara: “For just the price of a cup of coffee, you can buy Courteney Cox… a cup of coffee.”
— Why are they mentioning Sarah Jessica Parker? I don’t recall her being freakishly skinny around this time.
— Lara’s voice keeps occasionally getting hoarse and phlegmy-sounding throughout this.
STARS: ***


PREMIERE PLAYHOUSE
town elders welcome (host)’s Scarlet Letters B & J

— The men’s sleazy reaction to seeing that Lara’s scarlet letter is “BJ” is okay, if a cheap premise.
— A hilarious walk-on from Will, even if he’s playing a broad gay stereotype. Will just manages to always make funny walk-ons like this work.
— Will’s overly prissy way of saying “No!” when Parnell is ordering him to leave make both Horatio and Lara break.
— Interestingly, Parnell exclaims “Sweet sassy molassey!” when seeing Rachel and Maya’s scarlet letters. A kinda random way for SNL to self-reference a legendary Ray Romano sketch.
— Funny ending reveal of this airing on the Spice Channel.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “It’s My Life”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Lou Reed [real] addresses rumors of his death circulating on the Internet

— A nice fast pacing to Jimmy and Tina’s jokes so far tonight.
— Jimmy and Lou Reed’s serious interview about how “dead” Reed is is fairly funny.
— Wow, Update’s over ALREADY? This was a very short Update that rivals the string of short Updates from around February-March of this season.
STARS: ***½


MOULIN ROUGE!
anachronistic Moulin Rouge pairs 1890s setting with 1970s music

— Moulin Rouge focusing on 70s music is fairly funny.
— Will is instantly cracking me up with his facial expressions when he begins singing.
— A huge laugh from Will breaking out into “Kung Fu Fighting”.
— An overall pretty fun sketch, even if I wasn’t laughing all that much during several portions.
STARS: ***


MSNBC INVESTIGATES
teen boys’ Golden Girls copycat syndrome is worrisome

— A hilarious way of spoofing the bad trend at the time of teens injuring themselves when attempting to imitate stunts from Jackass.
— A big laugh from the “How was that? Did I look sexy?” aside that Will as a reporter asks someone off-camera after doing his intro.
— Very funny visual of Jimmy casually doing an interview acting like a typical young guy while dressed as Rue McClanahan’s Golden Girls character.
— Interesting seeing a childhood picture of Kattan (screencap below).

As I said a few times in earlier reviews, I’m always a sucker for seeing what cast members looked like as kids.
— A very funny home video of four teens imitating the Golden Girls. Interesting how those four teens are played by the exact same group of cast members who do the traditional Season’s Greetings song in this era (Jimmy, Horatio, Tracy, and Kattan).
— An interesting tidbit is that the part with Kattan throwing himself backwards out of his chair during the choking bit actually resulted in a serious real-life back injury for Kattan. [ADDENDUM: According to commenter Strummer, it was actually Kattan’s neck that got injured.] To this day, all these years later, Kattan reportedly claims that that injury still affects him.
— Ana’s Bea Arthur impression is surprisingly weak.
— I like Parnell and Maya as the melodramatic, upset parents.
— Very funny ending scene of a large group performing “Thank You For Being A Friend” as a tribute to Kattan’s character.
STARS: ****½


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
phys ed teacher (host) prepares Sheldon for the prom

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— A good laugh from the mustache on Lara’s female gym teacher character.
— Horatio’s teacher character in this recurring sketch always works for me, because, as I said in my review of the first installment of this sketch, I had a teacher at the time who acted and looked eerily like Horatio’s character.
— Decent bit with Lara using Rachel’s Sheldon to demonstrate a dance.
STARS: ***


A MESSAGE FROM SHAQUILLE O’NEAL
voice-immodulant Shaquille O’Neal (TRM) was joking about his sex life

— Already a laugh right from the start of this, with the opening visual of Tracy’s Shaq sitting on a small chair in a room with small furniture to emphasize Shaq’s huge size.
— Tracy’s monotone voice as Shaq is cracking me up, even if this is far from the most dead-on Shaq impression I’ve seen.
— Between Will’s Jacob Silj character, Darrell’s Chris Matthews impression, and now Tracy’s Shaq impression, SNL’s been doing a lot of characters and celebrity impressions lately who seem to lack the ability to modulate the volume or tone their voice.
— Tracy’s Shaq: “When I said that Tyra Banks gets sexually aroused when I put on a huge diaper and dance for her, that was not true….. she did not enjoy it at all.”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Give Love A Bad Name”


SHOOTERS
Bloater brothers overextend themselves while flirting with barmaid (host)

— The Bloater Brothers, one of my biggest SNL guilty pleasures, make their first appearance in a whole year. Also odd how they’re appearing the same night as another pair of brother characters co-starring Parnell (DeMarco Brothers).  Not exactly the most revered sets of recurring characters among SNL fans these days.
— Lara, when the Bloater Brothers imply they’d like to sleep with her: “I turned gay the moment you two walked in.” Wayne Bloater: “Call Richard Roundtree, I think we got the shaft!”
— When Lara supposedly flashes the Bloater Brothers while having her back to the camera, you can clearly see that she has a bra on.
— The show must be running long, as the ending of this sketch gets cut off a few seconds too early by an SNL bumper photo of Lara.
— Overall, not one of the better Bloater Brothers sketches, but still tolerable to me.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— Yep, the show is indeed running long. These goodnights get cut off FAST, before Lara even finishes her goodnights speech.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, which seems to have become the norm in the back half of this season. Barely anything in tonight’s episode stood out as great or memorable, but there weren’t any real flops either, besides a DeMarco Brothers installment that particularly frustrated me for various reasons.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Pierce Brosnan)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 26 comes to an end, with host Christopher Walken. It’s also the final episode for both Jerry Minor and, temporarily, Chris Parnell. You’d think Jerry had ALREADY left before this point, judging by how absent he’s been from the show lately.

Posted on

May 5, 2001 – Pierce Brosnan / Destiny’s Child (S26 E18)

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