Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
IRAQI STATE TELEVISION
on election day, Iraqi TV covers Saddam Hussein’s overwhelming victory
— Pretty funny concept of showing Iraq’s election, with Saddam Hussein facing off against nobody.
— Solid bit with Maya leading us through the “confusing” ballot.
— Funny picture of a horrified Fred and Seth as two “no-voters”.
— Wait, Horatio is Saddam now? Wasn’t Darrell just given the Saddam role in the preceding episode? Man, things haven’t been going too well for Darrell this season so far, between having his Bush impression (rightfully) yanked away from him before it could even make it on the air in the season premiere, and now him having his Saddam impression yanked away from him after it’s made it on the air.
— Hilarious detail of “We Built This City” being Saddam’s campaign song.
— Horatio’s goofy portrayal of Saddam is fine as a one-time thing here, but I don’t think I’m going to care too much for it as a soon-to-be recurring impression.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Fericito gives host tips on how to improve his comedic delivery
— Early on this monologue, John McCain is immediately displaying a likability and a good sense of humor.
— Fericito already becomes recurring, after debuting only two episodes ago. I wonder if this is a record for the earliest in a featured player’s tenure that a character of theirs has become recurring.
— When Fericito first enters this monologue, a few stray pieces of confetti can be seen falling from above, which is apparently left over from the end of the cold opening when Horatio’s Saddam was giving his victory speech.
— John’s attempt at imitating Fericito’s goofy facial expression is hilarious (the last above screencap for this monologue).
— Good bit with John giving Fericito a serious speech denouncing the stereotyping of Latin-American culture. Also a good sudden turn when he reveals that he was “just keeeediiiiiing!”
— Despite being one-note, Fericito continues to be fun… for now. Unless there’s a nice, long gap between this monologue and Fericito’s next appearance, I’m sure I’ll get tired of this character pretty soon.
— Interesting ending with John wrapping up the monologue while SNL’s costumers are getting him dressed into his costume for the next sketch, while the green screen for that sketch is being set up behind him (screencap below).
I’m always a sucker for rare times when monologues end by showing the host getting into costume for the next sketch (e.g. Bill Hader’s season 43 monologue).
STARS: ***
HARDBALL
John Ashcroft (host) & Harry Belafonte (TRM) say crazy things
— A new opening title sequence for these Hardball sketches.
— John is giving a solid performance as John Ashcroft, and he has plenty of great lines.
— I love Darrell-as-Chris-Matthews’ eagerness to hear his guests spout off crazy statements.
— A huge laugh from Tracy’s Harry Belafonte flat-out stating “Osama Bin Laden is an Uncle Tom!”, as well as Chris Matthews’ response to that: “Good God, I can’t even figure out who that’s offensive to.”
— Ashcroft’s line about Shaquille O’Neal being a terrorist sleeper agent because he once did a “Middle Eastern-flavored” movie titled Kazaam is great.
— So many laughs from Belafonte spitting out batshit insane one-liners on cue, such as “Poodles are the black man of the dog world!” and “Pokemon’s a slave trader, Pikachu’s a slave master!”
— Priceless closing line from Rachel, claiming that blowing up one embassy doesn’t make someone a terrorist, just as baking one cake doesn’t make someone a baker, or painting one painting doesn’t make someone a painter.
— Chris Matthews: “(singing to the tune of “Banana Boat Song”) Crazo, craaaazo, Belafonte is a crazy mofo”
— Overall, this has got to be the crème de la crème of Hardball sketches. As many great Hardball installments as there are over the years, I can’t think of any that equal this outstanding installment.
STARS: *****
TO LOVE, HONOR AND STALK: THE GILLIAN WOODWARD STORY
feminist Lifetime Original Movie demonizes invasion of personal space
real-life personal space invadee (RAD) says it actually was no big deal
— The overly-long opening disclaimer read by Jim Downey is giving me bad flashbacks to that parody that SNL did of The Real World in the Shannen Doherty episode from season 19, though the disclaimer in tonight’s sketch is probably an accurate parody of disclaimers in Lifetime’s movies.
— I like the actor credits displayed on the bottom of the screen during Amy’s opening scene, especially the credits for random actors who are Lifetime movie staples (e.g. Valerie Bertinelli, Nancy McKeon).
— So far, this is a spot-on and fun parody of Lifetime movies, especially Maya’s cliched dialogue as the best friend of the main character.
— John is priceless in this creepy stalker role, perfectly playing the type of character you’d never expect to see him play.
— At the beginning of the shower scene, a technical gaffe occurs in which there’s an accidental cutaway to a shot of a police station (which is supposed to be shown later in the sketch). This is the second consecutive episode with a gaffe of that nature, after one of the Corona commercials in the preceding episode was interrupted by an accidental cutaway to a plain black screen with the words “Corona #2”.
— John’s line “Shall I loofah your back?” is hilarious, and has always been my favorite part of this sketch.
— Some good laughs from the very questionable examples Amy lists off of how her husband “stalks” her.
— Funny visual of John sitting obnoxiously close to Amy in the courtroom’s witness box, with his face pressed up against hers.
— A decent post-movie scene with Rachel as the real Gillian Woodward.
STARS: ****
WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
visual arts teacher (host) is a former hippie
— Rachel’s been getting good airtime tonight, which is refreshing after how underused she was in the first two episodes of this season.
— The Halloween costumes are adding a bit of a nice change to this sketch.
— John continues to be a very fun host tonight, this time perfectly playing a hippie burnout teacher.
— Rachel’s Sheldon has a lot of funny lines throughout tonight’s installment, especially the one about accidentally getting paint on the front seat of his mom’s new Volvo.
— A good laugh from John bringing out jack-o-lanterns made to resemble the original Steely Dan lineup, which prompts yet another funny line from Sheldon: “That’s a dead-on Donald Fagen.”
— Hmm, Horatio is playing his recurring teacher character in a much lower-key manner than usual tonight.
— Jimmy’s Randy Goldman character makes a passing mention of a classmate named Gerard Bradford, which is an inside reference, as Gerard Bradford is one of Jimmy’s real-life best friends since his school days, IIRC.
STARS: ***½
TV FUNHOUSE
“The Third Leg Of Justice” by RBS- trap set for The Ambiguously Gay Duo
— Our first full-fledged Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon in three seasons (not counting Ace and Gary’s cameo in an X-Presidents cartoon in season 27), and our last Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon until years later in season 33’s LeBron James episode, not counting the Best Of TV Funhouse special that would air in 2006.
— I like how Big Head’s unending obsession with Ace and Gary’s alleged gayness always gets questioned by his fellow villains.
— Ace and Gary’s interpretive dancing to the Five For Fighting song “Superman” is hilarious.
— A funny random bit with a disclaimer explaining why the hell former G.E. chairman Jack Welch has suddenly shown up in this.
— During the ending credits of this TV Funhouse, former SNL writer Adam McKay is credited with writing an additional joke.
STARS: ***½
MEET THE PRESS
host repeatedly denies that he’s running for president
— Darrell-as-Tim-Russert’s endless attempts to get John to say he wants to run for president in 2004 are very funny.
— I love how the ridiculousness has now gotten to the point where Russert asks John if he’s willing to run for president of Iraq.
— Tim Russert, to John, regarding President Bush in the 2004 elections: “What if he forgets to run?”
— John’s response to Russert’s above-quoted line about Bush: “I would call the president and remind him to run.”
— A very funny crazy hypothetical scenario from Russert, regarding if John would be willing to run against a re-animated Jimmy Carter zombie in 2028 if genetic engineering could extend the human lifespan. (I’ll just ignore the fact that John ended up not coming close to experiencing the year 2028.)
— Such a strong sketch overall. And between Hardball and this, Darrell’s been having his best night since the Calista Flockhart episode from season 26.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground”
WEEKEND UPDATE
soft-spoken candidate Tim Calhoun (WLF) proffers oddball initiatives
— While Tina’s long opening rant was a step up from her god-awful Seattle rant from the preceding episode, it was still meh. Tina has really not been herself this season so far.
— Who is that doing the off-camera voice of a singing Saddam Hussein during Jimmy’s Saddam/American Idol joke? It sounds like a woman. Is that Tina herself doing the voice while off-camera?
— Further proof that we’re in the early stages of Tina’s decline as an anchorperson: her preachy, clapter-inducing AIDS joke was cringeworthy.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut! Wow, it’s seriously been a long time since I last used that line. I think the last time was way back in season 25. In retrospect, I probably should’ve used it when covering Fericito’s debut a few episodes ago, but it had been so long since I last used the line that I completely forgot about it until now.
— So great to see Will Forte not only finally getting his very first big role, but having his very first big role be Tim Calhoun, one of my all-time favorite SNL characters.
— Will’s voice, delivery, and panicked facial expression as this character are absolutely PRICELESS. Hell, even the detail of his hand mannerisms while speaking is great.
— Tim Calhoun is having so many hilarious random one-liners and revelations about himself. I especially like the mention of him having a “China baby”.
— Tim Calhoun: “America needs another big lake.”
— Overall, Will knocked it completely out of the park in his first big showcase, and he killed with the audience. A very promising sign of the greatness Will is going to be unleashing on us throughout his SNL tenure. I remember when tonight’s episode originally aired, this Tim Calhoun debut alone immediately made me a Forte fan, which I have yet to stop being to this day, 18 years later.
— Pretty funny ending joke from Tina, regarding a news story about a man having sex with a pumpkin.
STARS: ***
MCCAIN SINGS STREISAND
host turns the tables by mangling Barbra Streisand’s standards
— John once again showing what a great sport he is.
— A lot of laughs from John’s monotone, off-key, tone-deaf singing of Barbra Streisand songs.
— An excellent reveal of why John’s doing this: “I’ve been in politics for over 20 years, and for over 20 years, I’ve had Barbra Streisand try her hand at my job. So I’ve decided to try her job.”
— I love John’s vibrating moves while singing “Papa Can Your Hear Me”, and then following it up with a perfect aside to the camera: “Pretty annoying, huh? Now you know how *I* feel.”
STARS: ****½
MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
a cannibalism dilemma in chapter 619
TOP O’ THE MORNING
moody Patrick (JIF) & William (SEM) on Irish TV
— This sketch makes its debut.
— IIRC, this ends up being the only installment of this sketch where Seth wears a leather jacket over the sweater that he would always wear in these sketches.
— Right out the gate, this sketch feels like something straight out of Mike Myers’ playbook. I can totally picture Mike starring in this sketch (kinda like what I once said about Jimmy’s Nick Burns character). In fact, Mike actually did star in a recurring sketch similar to this. Scottish Soccer Hooligans Weekly, anyone?
— Jeff unfortunately makes his only appearance of the entire night in a very small role that fell pretty flat.
— This sketch is even featuring mechanical, by-the-numbers catchphrases, a staple of many a Mike Myers recurring sketch.
— The aping of Mike Myers (whether intended or unintended) continues even further, as Jimmy and Seth are now doing a “Not here, not now” routine when they try to fight back a crying outburst, which is awfully reminiscent of Mike’s “I’m feelin’ a little verklempt” routine whenever his Linda Richman character would get teary-eyed.
— Very funny goofy Irish accent from John. He’s adding a much-needed fun vibe to this otherwise extremely derivative sketch.
— A good laugh from the disturbing passage John reads about eating an eye.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We’re Going To Be Friends”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Pretty much a perfect episode. Okay, the Top O’ The Morning sketch was fairly weak and derivative, but John McCain made it fun enough. Other than that, this episode was not only filled with wall-to-wall solid sketches, but some of them were particularly strong standouts that’ll definitely be going into my end-of-season “Best Of” picks. And John McCain was truly a phenomenal host, especially considering his lack of acting experience. He was wonderful in every single sketch he appeared in. Overall, this episode was such a great turnaround from the worrisome preceding Sarah Michelle Gellar episode. I recall it being said that Lorne was so displeased with the Gellar episode (and I think the preceding Matt Damon episode as well) that, sometime after the Gellar episode aired, Lorne held a tense meeting in which he chewed out the SNL cast and writing staff, and ordered them to get their act together. That stern chewing-out must’ve been what helped lead to such a strong show this week. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. While this season thankfully doesn’t turn out to be the season 20-like disaster year that the Gellar episode had a lot of us SNL fans at the time worried it would, the assuring solidness of tonight’s McCain episode also doesn’t lead to a stable season like it had a lot of us at the time hoping it would. This would go on to be a shaky season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Eric McCormack
In the Washington DC area, this episode was joined in progress about half way through the Lifetime movie sketch after a breaking news alert on the DC sniper.
Church Lady also appeared in two of the first three episodes of season 12 and Pinky & Leo Waxman from What’s It All About? appear in two of first three episodes of season 6. The Bees appear in the first six episodes of season 1 but not all episode guides classify them as recurring characters.
Definitely getting Mike Myers vibes from the “not here, not now” bit. It reminds me of the I Will Not Cry sketch from the Susan Lucci episode in season 16. At least the Top O’ The Morning sketches get better with Salma Hayek and Dan Aykroyd.
“Church Lady also appeared in two of the first three episodes of season 12 and Pinky & Leo Waxman from What’s It All About? appear in two of first three episodes of season 6. The Bees appear in the first six episodes of season 1 but not all episode guides classify them as recurring characters.”
I just meant characters from featured players, not repertory players.
McCain is really, really good during his series of 2008 cameos as well. I appreciated that in this episode he played himself when appropriate (and is funny) but also tried his hand at playing a few characters.
And yes, that is the best Hardball sketch. I quote the Pikachu line a lot.
And I think the McCain funeral tour is still going on as we speak.
McCain was definitely one of the most at-ease politicians to host the show. He was willing to truly let loose in a way that a lot of others weren’t.
That anecdote about Lorne chewing out the staff because of SMG is interesting, if true. I find that surprising considering how many truly wretched streaks of episodes he’s allowed over the years (the Kim Basinger/Martin Lawrence/Nancy Kerrigan triforce of suck, for example.)
He was supposedly detached in that period, from what the NYMag piece suggested, but I do wonder where he was around the time of weeks like Paris Hilton/Jason Bateman (Paris’ episode isn’t awful but it feels like a desperate booking; Bateman’s episode has some of the cruddiest material I can remember seeing on SNL).
Thank you for mentioning the Bateman episode. I remember watching it live and just not understanding why absolutely none of it was clicking with me.
“lol morbidly obese rappers” and “lol monkeys throwing shit at everyone” doesn’t inspire much confidence. If you had asked me who had the better episode of the Bateman siblings, I never would have chosen Justine.
Man, I love the “Monkeys Throwing Shit at Celebrities” sketch!
I also like the sketch from Bateman where he is guilt tripped into giving money for increasingly ridiculous/bad subway singers and then has no money when Kelly Clarkson sings.
I liked the subway sketch (and, reading the old review…the class sketch at the end and some of the black history pre-tapes). So that may still put it somewhere above Hillary Swank’s, I guess.
I’m always weirded out by Fred Armisen and Will Forte being in this era’s cast. They’re often bright spots, but they stick out from the rest of the cast just in general. I associate them with the entrance of Bill Hader/Kristen Wiig/Andy Samberg so much more. I think part of it is that they (Forte in particular) fit in better with the more esoteric sensibility the show gained with Seth Meyers as headwriter, compared to how increasingly trashy and pop culture focused the show became in that 2002-2005 window.
I tend to associate Fred more with those years, because he was so tied to Bill and Kristen. The only thing I remember of Fred from when I was watching at this point was the “oh I was just keeding” routine. Forte sort of has his own bubble all the way through his tenure, although he clicks more with the 05-10 group and being freed of playing W means he can have even more of his own Forte-esque pieces.
Forte’s Bush was downright bad. I think he was very relieved when Jason took over the role, so Forte could go back to being Forte ?
Speaking of that shift in cast member eras, Fred & Seth don’t really do much together on camera until Seth becomes an Update anchor.
“Increasingly trashy and pop culture focused”? You sure you aren’t talking about Season 45?
Hmm, I think modern SNL has a lot of problems, but I don’t know if trashy and pop culture-focused is exactly the criticism I’d lob. I mean, the show has always done lowbrow, so I can’t really blame the show if that’s a direction it occasionally goes, but I find the modern era of SNL to be more staggeringly corny than trashy. Any examples that come to mind?
As for pop culture-focused…I don’t know, maybe the Fey-era just inundated me so much I can barely notice it now. The other problem is that there is no monoculture any more, so if they do a pop culture sketch, it’s not always a widely known reference. For instance, every Game Of Thrones parody is completely lost on me, but I absolutely loved the Weezer sketch. The best of those sketches are specific, but that can be really difficult to pull off. It’s not that SNL is constantly doing pop culture sketches, it’s just that doing a pop culture sketch is immediately alienating when you aren’t familiar with the source.
I agree. If anything I think SNL had become a bit too insider-ish with the last years of some of the current cast, with a lot of theater kid type of pieces (it took a global pandemic to get pop culture-oriented pieces back in a more central role…). I think Tina Fey’s era was the opposite in being much too pop culture focused, in sketches and in host choices, leading to a number of picks that aged very badly. There is a balance, which I think the late ’80s and early ’90s managed best.
A few months ago, when Chloe Fineman had her Weekend Update debut and did various camp celebrity impressions (Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, etc.) to positive audience response, in a week where the host had a large camp following, I started thinking about how much a new cast member’s fate can rise or fall on the audience of the week of that first Update week. The same is true for Will – Tim Calhoun isn’t exactly cutting political satire, of course, but it was perfect material for a politician-hosted episode, as people were more willing to embrace Will’s eccentricities and the subject matter. If he’d debuted Tim even a week earlier, he might have had a very different tenure on the show.
Seeing McCain with Seth reminds me of all that unpleasant mess with McCain’s daughter (who was an intern at SNL or 30 Rock somewhere in these years) and her husband and Seth last year. Just a reminder of how much the cozy world between politics and entertainment has changed, and of the bubble that SNL was in during these years (John Mulaney also had some interesting thoughts on this topic). I have always and will always believe that Lorne never should have started tailoring the show’s comedy to attract politicians, I think it has been detrimental, but of everyone who has popped up over the last 25 years, McCain and Steve Forbes were the two I enjoyed watching.
Future star alert!
In the cold open from 3:50 – 4:06, look closely at the extra on the far right side, to Horatio’s left – that’s a very young Amir Arison who now plays Agent Mojtabai on NBC’s The Blacklist
Now, Jack White is coming back to serve as musical guest replacing the artist who was originally booked for the second episode of S46, but was booted for partying without a mask on and kissing random strangers. A lot of people find Jack to be an upgrade from the original artist (a Country singer).
SNL’s Youtube channel has uploaded the White Stripes performances from this episode. Enjoy while you can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgJ-nb9GEJs
I’d like to think the Saddam changes are a bit. Like when he had all the body doubles rumors, this would be a funny throughline of changing Osamas. This Fat Osama is the same body double from the last episode lol HE DIDN’T DIE!
Just noticed a WU joke Tina read of the first woman commander of the International Space Station Peggy A. Whitson complaining about the food brought with her onboard (“Peggy, you want them to keep women being astronauts… SHUT UP AND EAT THE SHRIMP!”) has been cut from the Sen. McCain repeats, including the Peacock version and the ep aired September 2018 following McCain’s passing.
I actually thought Tina’s onion joke was a pretty funny take on the frivolousness of making tearless onions, and didn’t come off preach to me. On the other hand, the Streisand sketch had a decent premise, but having McCain play it as him getting his revenge (rather than earnestly attempting to do Streisand’s job) took away from the humor and made it come off as preachy for me.