Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
TSUNAMI PRESS CONFERENCE
eloquent Bill Clinton (DAH) usurps George W. Bush (WLF) press conference
— For one episode only, Fred plays George Bush Sr. Needless to say, it certainly feels odd and almost wrong to see anyone other than Dana Carvey in this role after Dana did such a definitive, iconic take on him. That being said, Fred actually isn’t doing a bad job doing a straight imitation of Bush Sr. instead of aping Dana’s version.
— Kind of a one-note sketch, but there are some laughs from Will-as-President-Bush’s fumbling around when trying to make a point.
— Oh, god. There goes a reprisal of Will-as-Bush’s “It’s hard wooorrrrrrk”. NEVER AGAIN. That first presidential debate sketch from earlier this season permanently burned me out on that damn “We’re workin’ haaaaaarrrrrrd” phrase, thanks to their endless repetition of it in that sketch.
— I like the look on Rachel’s face when the camera does a brief cutaway to her while Darrell’s Bill Clinton is charming her.
— A good laugh from Will-as-Bush simply saying a surprised “Oh.” when Darrell’s Clinton points out that Monday is Martin Luther King Day.
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
host answers questions of Terrell & other audience members
— Okay, as pointed out by commenter Jack in the comments section of my season 28 Jennifer Garner episode review, the soon-to-join-SNL-in-season-31 Bill Hader, who auditioned for SNL the week of tonight’s episode and was invited to stick around to watch the live show, can be spotted standing in the background during a portion of tonight’s questions-from-the-audience monologue. I hadn’t been aware of any of these things about Bill until reading about it in the comments section. I’ll have to keep a sharp lookout for him here.
— Very funny part with John Lutz’s talk about internet rumors, including why Jennifer Garner had to drop out as this week’s host.
— Then-SNL writer, pre-cast member Jason Sudeikis prefaces his question to Topher Grace by greeting him with “Hey, buddy, how ya livin’?” I love that. Such a perfectly Sudeikis way to greet someone.
— Ah, I spotted Bill Hader! He’s in the background during the shots of Jason Sudeikis (screencap below, although the screencap quality renders Bill absolutely unrecognizable).
[ADDENDUM: I didn’t realize how dark the above screencap is until after I posted my review. Below is a brightened version of the screencap.]
It’s hard to see Bill’s face clearly (at least in my copy of this episode, even though my copy is HQ), but the hair looks exactly like how I recall Bill’s hair looking the following season when he joins SNL. As I expected, it feels odd seeing him in a season 30 episode. Seeing him here also makes me very eager to reach his first season on the show, not just for him, but for the great Class of 2005 in general. (The Class of 2005 being Hader, Sudeikis, Andy Samberg, and Kristen Wiig, the very strong featured player group of season 31.)
— Jason’s whole bit about shortened names is hilarious.
— Great to see the return of J.B. Smoove and Paula Pell’s audience couple characters, who are always a riot.
STARS: ****
TRUCKER TALK
rig drivers bemoan breakup of Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston
— The various trucker CB names are pretty funny, particularly Chris’ trucker CB name being Whiskey Dick.
— Meh. The fact that this Brad Pitt/Jennifer Aniston break-up gossip sketch is placed as the lead-off sketch of the night is YET ANOTHER example of this SNL era focusing way too heavily on pop culture and celebrity gossip. I guess it IS fairly funny seeing manly truckers emotionally discussing Brad and Jennifer’s break-up, but I’m not all that crazy about this.
— Nice to see yet another random appearance from Darrell’s Skeeter character.
— Pretty funny ending with all the trucks deliberately crashing into Fred’s house together.
— Meh, is it really necessary to do a “preview of next week’s episode” scene at the end of this sketch?
STARS: **½
PARAMEDICS
black paramedics (KET) & (FIM) won’t respond to emergencies on MLK Day
— Kenan and Finesse’s characters are pretty funny, especially when white guilt-ing their co-workers.
— Was Finesse’s delivery of that “commemorate” line supposed to be so horribly sloppy, or was it a genuine flub?
— Some laughs from Horatio’s failed attempt to convince Topher he has the same privilege Kenan and Finesse have to get Martin Luther King Day off, despite not even being black himself.
— Is Horatio capable of getting through a SINGLE episode this season without breaking? It’s especially annoying whenever he does it for no apparent reason, such as when he mentions Cesar Chavez Day at the end of his scene in this sketch.
— I don’t think I like that stereotypical ending where Kenan and Finesse finally respond to an emergency only because they found out they get to tend to plus-sized female models.
STARS: ***
CBS EVENING FRAUDULENT DOCUMENT UPDATE
Dan Rather (DAH) apologizes
— These solo Dan Rather pieces with Darrell have had a great track record in the past, and hopefully that continues tonight.
— I’m now almost two minutes into this, and I’ve barely gotten any laughs so far.
— Okay, the World’s Greatest Dad bit right now is pretty funny.
— Funny Andy Rooney mention.
— Overall, some highlights, and this got a little better as it went along, but this was a little meh as a whole and certainly doesn’t measure up to the last two great solo Dan Rather sketches.
STARS: **½
BEAVER RANCH
(host) is uneasy about losing virginity to elderly brothel worker (RAD)
— Will’s character being named Thew is a nice random little callback to the monologue.
— Good reveal of Rachel’s old hooker character.
— Rachel’s performance as this character is pretty solid.
— Some of the senior citizen cliches here are being executed well.
— A funny ad-lib with Rachel saying “Changed by itself!” when the music on the record player changes before she could make it look like she’s changing the music herself.
— A decent ending.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Somebody Told Me”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Alison Jackson-filmed party footage shows Prince Harry in Nazi garb
Cliff (KET) & Claire (MAR) Huxtable offer themselves as good role models
— Odd usage of a short film by Alison Jackson (who, as I mentioned in my review of this season’s premiere, was hired to be SNL’s regular filmmaker of this season, but ended up only getting TWO films on the air, including this short Update piece), with it being passed off on this Update as being from a young woman who obtained footage of Prince Harry at a Nazi party.
— Tina and Amy’s half-assed color commentary during the Alison Jackson film feels unnecessary and pointless to me.
— Fun idea of a commentary with Kenan and Maya and Cliff and Claire Huxtable. They’re both spot-on in their impressions, especially when Maya is imitating Claire’s trademark angry rants.
— Interesting seeing Tina being referred to by her real full name, Elizabeth Stamantina Fey, when Maya’s Claire Huxtable is telling her off.
STARS: **½
ART DEALERS
arty Nuni (FRA) & Nuni (MAR) welcome (host) & (RAD) to their home
— The debut of these Nuni sketches.
— I recall getting REALLY sick of this recurring sketch the more and more it appeared back when these seasons originally aired, but I’ll judge this first installment on its own merits, given that I recall thinking it was a pretty funny surreal, absurd sketch when it originally debuted.
— I got a really good laugh from Fred’s delivery of the line “You sit on that and it will ruin your ass!” in that accent.
— I’m enjoying the eccentric visuals all throughout this sketch, such as the unconventional furniture and unconventional food & drinks. A fairly fun sketch.
STARS: ***½
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Howard Dean (ROR), Armstrong Williams (KET), Zell Miller (WLF)
— Not only is this the first in a long time where Hardball appeared outside of the cold opening slot, but wow, it’s buried all the way towards the end the show. Very odd to see a Hardball sketch so late in an episode.
— Rob is absolutely hilarious as Howard Dean.
— Kenan’s portions of this sketch aren’t working much for me.
— Yes! The return of Will’s Zell Miller!
— As always, Will’s Zell Miller steals the entire sketch.
— Wow, this sketch is already wrapping up? This felt kinda short for a Hardball sketch.
— I’ve gotten so used to seeing Hardball as a cold opening that it feels weird seeing Darrell’s Chris Matthews conclude the sketch WITHOUT saying “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½
THE NOT INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF THE DOWN AND OUT DOLLAR
poor exchange rates subject dollar (AMP) to taunting by other currencies
— Interesting setting for a topical sketch.
— Topher’s performance as the French Euro is really solid.
— As always, I like whenever SNL does a flashback scene that’s obviously performed in real-time.
— Overall, not a laugh-out-loud hilarious sketch, but it wasn’t trying to be one. For what was supposed to be a more cutesy sketch (something I don’t usually like seeing Amy perform), this was fine.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mr. Brightside”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, especially for this season’s standards. Even though almost nothing stood out as particularly great, the episode flowed pretty smoothly and the few things I disliked weren’t anything particularly awful. Overall, this is only the SECOND episode all season that I actually liked, and even those two episodes (this and Luke Wilson) were no great shakes as a whole. Still waiting for that first actual strong season 30 episode, and at this point, I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever get it.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert DeNiro)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Paul Giamatti