Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
EQUAL TIME TV
NBC satisfies equal time rule by incorporating candidates into programs
— Interesting characterization from Jimmy Fallon in his Jeff Zucker impression.
— Some laughs from the incongruous placement of presidential candidates on NBC shows.
— Okay, Fallon is starting to get out of control with the exaggerated hand mannerisms of his Zucker impression.
— An extremely crazed “Live from New York…” delivery from Fallon, most likely because this is only his second time saying it, if you can believe it (not counting the Weekend Update Super Bowl Halftime Special from the preceding season, where he said LFNY with Tina Fey). He delivered his first LFNY in a fairly crazed manner too, IIRC.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, the “Recorded from an earlier live broadcast” disclaimer, which is usually only reserved for reruns, is shown early in tonight’s opening montage, despite the fact that this is the original live broadcast I’m watching of this episode.
MONOLOGUE
host performs “I Feel Good” to show younger self (TRM) he hasn’t sold out
— There’s somebody in the audience who’s “cheering” sounds annoyingly like a chihuahua yapping.
— While it’s pretty soon for a Tracy Morgan cameo, at least he waited more than a mere four episodes, unlike Chris Kattan.
— Some funny interplay between Sharpton and Morgan.
— Sharpton’s James Brown dancing is pretty fun to watch.
STARS: ***
MOM JEANS
— Rerun from 5/10/03, which is from the preceding season.
— This re-airing alters Maya Rudolph’s voice-over to repurpose it for Christmas instead of Mother’s Day
MICHAEL JACKSON IN A ROLLER COASTER
legal troubles haven’t sunk in to Michael Jackson (AMP)
— Oh, god. Do we really need a variation of that baffling Michael Jackson In A Tree sketch from the preceding season? And the less seen of Amy Poehler’s Michael Jackson impression, the better. I do kinda like the roller coaster setting here, though.
— The funny thing about Sharpton playing Johnnie Cochran is the fact that the real Johnnie Cochran would soon be shown in tonight’s studio audience during a shot of SNL’s studio in the middle of the following commercial break (screencap below).
— Not even Rachel Dratch’s Elizabeth Taylor is giving this sketch the boost she gave the original Michael Jackson In A Tree sketch.
— I do like Horatio Sanz as a random mustached stranger just sitting in the back smiling.
STARS: *½
BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
Brian Fellow’s brother Ryan (host) plus a seal & a bat
— Boy, is see SNL is wasting no time in making Tracy Morgan feel back at home.
— A bit of a change of pace having Sharpton play Brian Fellow’s brother, co-hosting this edition of the show.
— Unusual for this recurring sketch how Chris Parnell is holding a baby seal that’s clearly mechanical.
— Some good laughs from the short bit with Brian Fellow arguing with his brother over whether or not Frosty The Snowman counts as an animal.
— Interesting casting of Fey.
— Some funny lines from Sharpton throughout this.
— I love Brian Fellow’s reaction to his brother’s witty comment to Fey about Batman.
STARS: ***½
THREE WISE MEN
Bethlehem-bound Magi (host), (TRM), (KET) fall victim to racial profiling
— Wow, Tracy Morgan in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight. Meanwhile, Finesse Mitchell is probably weeping backstage.
— Funny turn with the cop’s grilling of Three Wise Men having parallels to contemporary racial profiling.
— I love the little gag with Fallon’s cop using his torch as a flashlight when trying to see each of the Three Wise Men.
— Sharpton has a little trouble pronouncing “Frankincense”, much like Robert DeNiro in another Three Wise Men sketch (and a particularly wretched one) SNL would do in a John Goodman-hosted episode 10 years later.
— Kenan Thompson’s overacting and mugging is a bit much.
— Nice little touch with the roman numeral phone number at the end.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Trouble”
WEEKEND UPDATE
JIF & TIF insult cities not showing SNL tonight
JIF uses double entendres to broach sexual habits of Paris Hilton [real]
— Good lord, Fey’s opening Michael Jackson joke was hacky as fuck.
— Lately, Fey has a bad habit of laughing as loud as the audience at some of Fallon’s jokes, as if she never heard them before. This bad habit of Fey’s is especially in full-force tonight.
— I love Fallon’s “For the punchline of this joke, tune in next week when we have a different host” bit in regards to his slavery joke.
— The “Jimmy and Tina yelling at cities that refuse to show Saturday Night Live tonight” segment is a fun variation of the preceding season’s “Jimmy And Tina Yelling At America” segment, though the writing of this one is nowhere near as strong. It’s worth it, though, just to hear Don Pardo conclude it by saying “This is Don Pardo saying, ‘Suck it, Des Moines!’”
— (*sigh*) Hoo, boy. Well, here’s the then-hyped Paris Hilton cameo.
— The sexual puns about “The Paris Hilton” aren’t bad, but man, Hilton’s lack of any kind of comic timing is killing the humor of this for me. You’d figure SNL would learn from this and not even entertain the idea of Hilton ever hosting the show, but… season 30, folks.
— Short Update overall.
STARS: ***
BLACK STEREOTYPES
in 1935, actor (host) doesn’t want movie to perpetuate black stereotypes
— A Weekend Update graphic of Paris Hilton’s name (which never actually showed up during Update) is accidentally displayed onscreen at the beginning of this sketch (screencap below).
— Tracy Morgan in a FOURTH appearance tonight. Between John MacEnroe’s many appearances in the Andy Roddick episode earlier this season, and now this, this season of SNL seems to be experimenting with treating some special guests as an honorary co-host. Interesting.
— Oh, there’s Finesse Mitchell, making his first and only appearance of the night. I love Tracy Morgan, but I can’t help but feel bad that Mitchell, who’s trying to make a name for himself on the show as one of two newbies this season, is being shut out of several black roles tonight that are given to a special guest instead.
— Oh, god. Another pairing of Fallon and Sanz.
— Jesus Christ, Sanz even manages to make his attempt to pull out a movie scene marker come off awkward, and he can be seen giggling at himself when exiting the shot afterwards.
— The camera fails to cut to a shot of Rudolph when she is heard off-camera saying “Whatever you say, Mike!” The shot would later be shown in the rerun version of this sketch, and in that shot, we see that Seth Meyers is playing one of several men hanging out with Rudolph’s character (the other men are played by extras, IIRC), which means Meyers made an appearance in this sketch that the live version didn’t even pick up.
— Am I missing something here? Why is Rudolph’s black 1930s character speaking in an exaggerated, old-timey white New Yorker voice? She sounds Edith Bunker-esque. What is this joke implying?
— The “No women” bit is pretty funny.
— I like Morgan’s reaction to a white guy (Will Forte) being wheeled into the scene in cooking pot at the end of this.
STARS: ***½
REVEREND AL SHARPTON’S CASA DE SUSHI
host doesn’t like raw fish, but he’ll sell it to you at his Casa De Sushi
— The first of many variations of the original Derek Jeter’s Taco Hole sketch. I found that Jeter sketch charming and pretty fun, but worry that the concept might not hold up well in subsequent sketches.
— Very catchy theme song from the four singers, parodying Tupac Shakur’s “California Love”.
— I like Sharpton’s delivery of “This stuff is nasty!” when disposing of a plate of sushi.
— I just realized, I think that’s long-time SNL favorite Akira Yoshimura as the Asian employee standing in the background of this entire sketch (seen on the left side of the below screencap).
— Sanz’s overly hammy take on Harvey Fierstein only succeeds in making me yearn for Jon Lovitz. Speaking of which, I recall hearing that the preceding episode had a sketch cut after dress rehearsal in which host Alec Baldwin played Harvey Fierstein appearing in a show called “Gay Dance Party”.
— And now, Sanz’s crash through a breakaway table only succeeds in making me yearn for Chris Farley. Well, not season 20 Chris Farley, who crashed through breakaway furniture on a damn weekly basis that season, it felt like. But, hell, even Farley’s overwhelming, one-note performances in season 20 are preferable to how awful Sanz has been this season. (And he only gets worse the following season, IIRC.)
— Despite Sanz’s annoying scene, I’m finding this installment of the “non-actor host advertises their own restaurant” sketches to have a charm like the original Derek Jeter one.
STARS: ***
CANDIDATE PARTY
jealous Democratic presidential hopefuls watch SNL during pity party
— A pretty fun gathering of democratic presidential candidate impressions in a unique setting.
— Forte portraying John Edwards as a kiss-ass servant is very funny.
— Some strangely charming corny jokes among the candidates.
— Unlike the last time he played John Kerry in Al Gore’s monologue the preceding season, Meyers appears to be attempting an actual impression of Kerry’s voice here.
— Parnell’s Joe Lieberman: “You’re like David Spade in a Hollywood comedy – it makes sense on paper, but the people just aren’t going for it.” Ooh, random burn at an SNL alum. Perhaps this is Spade’s karma for his notorious slam on Eddie Murphy 8 years prior. Unlike Murphy, Spade seems like he has enough of a sense of humor about himself to not be bothered by the joke.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “God Is A DJ”
THE LATOYA JACKSON SHOW
LaToya Jackson’s (MAR) father Joseph (host) & Chaka Kahn (KET)
— Oh, god, another celebrity-hosted talk show sketch in this SNL era.
— Sharpton is displaying a Tracy Morgan-esque odd habit of pronouncing a word various ways, as he goes back and forth between pronouncing “pedophile” the way it’s typically pronounced (“ped-a-file”) and pronouncing it as “ped-a-fill”.
— Thompson in drag again, but I gotta admit, his Chaka Khan having a difficult time singing in a fast tempo is making me laugh, which is more than I can say for anything else in this sketch so far.
— Ugh, I hate the running bit in this sketch with Rudolph’s LaToya Jackson saying “I’m gig-a-ling” (her odd way or pronouncing “I’m giggling”). It’s not even remotely funny. Is that based on something the real LaToya said? If not, I don’t understand why Rudolph’s LaToya keeps saying it.
— Oh, no, we get Poehler’s baffling Michael Jackson impression for the second time tonight. Even in just voice-over form, I dislike the impression.
— Sharpton’s Joseph Jackson: “This show is a travesty!” That’s how I feel about this sketch.
— Blah, the joke with Thompson’s Chaka Khan being out of breath has gotten old.
— Armisen is cracking me up as a cheap Michael Jackson impersonator, but it might just be because I’m so desperate for a laugh by this point.
— Sharpton’s Joseph Jackson, when asked if he had fun on the show: “No, I did not.” Once again, he echoes my feelings towards this sketch.
STARS: *½
TOWN CAR
Vasquez makes conversation while driving host & aide (MAR) across town
— Oh, no, Vasquez has gone back to starring in his own sketches. Blah. I found him semi-tolerable in a supporting role in those adult students sketches, but I find him to be pretty unbearable and baffling when he carries his own sketches.
— Between Sharpton’s lack of acting experience and Sanz’s annoying-as-fuck habit of awkwardly pausing before delivering his lines, there’s an awful lot of dead moments in this sketch where nobody onscreen is saying anything.
— The song playing on radio (which I know is a real song, but I don’t know the name of) is the same song that was used as the theme song to the Community Accents talk show sketch that Vasquez starred in the preceding season.
— Sharpton’s Tracy Morgan-esque odd habit of pronouncing a word in different ways continues, as he pronounces Vasquez’s name as both “Vaz-kez” and “Vaz-kwez” all throughout this sketch, and pronounces “albino” in a very bizarre, stretched-out, stumbly manner (the latter of which provided the only thing close to a laugh I’ve gotten in this sketch so far).
— What the hell is with Vasquez’s fascination of constantly mentioning transvestites?
— This sketch is fucking terrible so far. This Vasquez character is DEATH.
— Oh, god, and now to fittingly close out this sketch, we get an appearance from a transvestite, played by Armisen. Just get this Vasquez sketch off my screen already, SNL.
STARS: *
CRYOGENIX
— Another rerun tonight, this time from 11/8/03. We’re only three months into this season, and this is the second consecutive episode to repeat two commercials, and hell, we almost got THREE repeated commercials in the last episode (the third of which got aborted on the air, as I detailed in that review). Has SNL already blown their budget on commercials this season?
UNEARTHED
ghost of Johnny Cash (DAH) plugs box set & talks about being in Heaven
— A good Johnny Cash impression from Hammond.
— What the holy fuck is with Hammond’s VERY awkward, long pausing while looking at the flying box set?
— Uh… what exactly is the point of this sketch? If it’s trying to be funny, it’s failing miserably. If it’s trying to be a charming Johnny Cash tribute, it’s failing miserably. If it’s supposed to be both funny AND a charming Johnny Cash tribute, it’s failing doubly miserably. Hammond would later do an actual successful funny and charming celebrity tribute the following season, when Rodney Dangerfield passes away.
STARS: *
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent first two-thirds of the episode, then the episode died a horrible, horrible death for the remainder of the night. The last three sketches were dreadful and unwatchable. Even at its best, this overall episode didn’t contain anything particularly great or noteworthy. Even the highlights of the night didn’t rise above “pretty good”, in my eyes.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Elijah Wood hosts the Christmas episode