Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM TOM DELAY
Tom DeLay (CHP) says his vote-securing methods have made him a target
— A laugh from the first stock footage cutaway, representing congressman Bob McKibben being blown up in his car.
— Blah, now this is just repeating the exact same joke over and over, with Tom DeLay’s threatened opponents being represented by stock footage of explosions, cars falling off cliffs, people crashing through windows, etc. A lazy and one-note comedic hook for this cold opening.
— I’m probably looking too much into it, but something about the way Chris delivered “Live from New York…” suggested to me that even HE was fully aware that he was in a crappy cold opening.
STARS: *½
MONOLOGUE
host shows his well-roundedness by demonstrating his non-football talents
— Ugh. A song-and-dance monologue, and with freakin’ Tom Brady of all people?
— The cast comin’ out in cheesy bright-colored shirts like they’re characters straight out of the legendary first Debbie Downer sketch.
— If I can find ANYTHING positive to say about this dull monologue, I guess it’s that Tom is at least performing this affably, and seems like he’ll be okay for an athlete host.
STARS: *½
DR. PORKENHEIMER’S BONER JUICE
— Rerun from 10/2/04. However, something VERY odd in this rerun: this commercial has been almost ENTIRELY re-shot, with Amy even wearing completely different clothes, even though all of her dialogue is the exact same! (below are side-by-side comparisons between shots from this commercial’s original airing and tonight’s repeated airing)
Why in the world did they go through all this trouble of re-shooting most of this commercial, even though no changes were made to what actually happens in the scenes, nor to Amy’s actual dialogue?!? What was the point? And I previously thought it was bizarre how, the last time this commercial was re-aired earlier this season, they re-shot a small portion of the end to replace the original shot of Rob “pitching a tent” under the bedsheets. But that’s nothing compared to THIS. And the sad thing is, none of these frequent modifications SNL inexplicably keeps making to reruns of this weak Boner Juice commercial are making it ANY funnier.
CARNIVAL
at a carnival, only (host) fails to win at a football toss target game
— This seems to be a well-liked, popular sketch, and it’s been shown in many of SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials. However, I’ve always found this sketch overrated.
— Part of why I find this sketch overrated is the premise comes off weak, corny, and thin to me. “Ha, look at the real-life professional football player playing a character who can’t throw a football into a simple target, while physically-weaker characters can!” I usually actually enjoy when hosts, especially non-actor hosts, spoof their image by playing a character who’s the exact opposite of themselves, but something about the idea behind this particular Tom Brady football toss sketch just comes off corny and too simplistic for me, and the execution isn’t any great shakes.
— OH, NO. And there goes yet another display of season 30’s hyperfocus on hacky gay humor for cheap laughs, with Seth and Fred entering as a gay couple.
— Now we get Amy playing to the cameras in the hammiest manner possible. I’m sure quite a lot of people find that funny in this sketch, but in a season where Amy’s been driving me nuts with her audience-pandering, UCB-abandoning overt cutesiness, I have very mixed feelings on her performance in this particular sketch.
— I will say that there’s some good interplay between Tom and Will right now, such as Tom, after getting fed up with Will always saying “Not a touchdown”, telling Will “Stop saying that”, which Will responds to with a deadpan “Stop missing.” I also like how, when Tom implies that the next football he’s going to throw will be at Will’s head, Will carelessly replies with an also-deadpan “I could not be less worried.”
STARS: **
DR. PHIL
insensitive husband (host) lacks emotional intelligence
— Solid Dr. Phil impression from Darrell. Better than the one last done by Jeff Richards, as much as I generally loved Jeff as a celebrity impressionist (the problem with his Dr. Phil impression was that the voice was too high-pitched). However, I remember someone on an SNL message board making a good point back at this time in 2005 about how frustrating it is that SNL gave this Dr. Phil role to a been-on-the-show-forever-and-needs-to-finally-be-on-his-way-out veteran like Darrell instead of the very-underused-but-promising newbie Rob Riggle, who seems like he would be very fitting in the Dr. Phil role and DESPERATELY needs this airtime, as his chances of being brought back the following season weren’t looking too good by this point.
— I can’t find much to say about this sketch so far.
— What was with the brief ending with Amy, Seth, and their son? Seemed like a waste of casting for something that contained no actual joke and only showed Amy, Seth, and the son onscreen for two measly seconds with no dialogue.
— Overall, nothing too special as a whole, despite a strong performance from Darrell as Dr. Phil, and a competent performance by Tom as Rachel’s dumb, inconsiderate husband. I might’ve enjoyed this sketch more had it aired much later in the episode. It felt a little out of place to me in such an early spot in the show.
STARS: **½
THE FALCONER
The Falconer still gets the worst of it after swapping places with Donald
— Hell yeah, The Falconer! Strangely, I have no memory of this particular installment of this recurring sketch.
— A very interesting premise, with The Falconer and Donald switching bodies. Nice change of pace.
— Ah, it’s all coming back to me now. That “body switching” special effect sequence brought back my memories of having watched this sketch before.
— I love The Falconer, in Donald’s body, being forced to participate in a cockfight.
— Great brief inclusion of Kenan as Don King.
STARS: ****½
TV FUNHOUSE
“Sexual Harassment & You” by RBS- being attractive keeps lawsuits away
— A very rare instance of a TV Funhouse being entirely live-action.
— This sexual harassment premise feels even more timely nowadays than it did in 2005.
— I love how Fred very timidly saying an innocent “Hi” to Tina from afar inexplicably results in her calling security and having him taken out of the office.
— Hilarious visual of Tom casually walking up to Tina in his briefs (complete with an obviously fake bulge).
— The style of this film is a very spot-on parody of 1950s educational films.
— Very funny how, as this film progresses, it’s obvious that the film’s only “tip” to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits is to be handsome.
— Overall, a very solid and memorable TV Funhouse.
STARS: ****½
TOM BRADY’S FALAFEL CITY
host’s restaurant offers Middle Eastern cuisine
— Our fourth and final edition of the “non-actor host advertises their own restaurant” series of sketches. SNL was actually going to do one earlier this season with Paris Hilton advertising a fictional “House Of Crabs” restaurant of hers (the sketch reportedly was going to open with Paris delivering the one-liner “Hi, I’m Paris Hilton, and I have crabs”), but the sketch got nixed during the week.
— And there goes season 30’s obligatory weekly instance of Maya singing.
— Fairly catchy jingle based on the Beach Boys song “Barbara Ann”, but not my favorite of the jingles in these “non-actor host advertises their own restaurant” sketches (that honor goes to the jingle used for Reverend Al Sharpton’s Casa De Sushi).
— Here comes Horatio’s traditional walk-on as a random famous singer in these non-actor restaurant ad sketches.
— OH, DO NOT GET ME STARTED. Just now, Horatio has botched the living shit out of his scene and derailed this sketch, in true Horatio Sanz fashion. Fucking ugh. Halfway though his scene in this sketch, after performing competently, Horatio suddenly came off completely lost, paused for a long time, and started laughing at himself while making very awkward, painfully unfunny, and bizarre ad-libs in a failed effort to save himself. Jesus Christ. Even Tom Brady, a football player with zero acting or comedy experience, is handling himself well and is coming off as a compete pro in this scene compared to Horatio, who, last time I checked, is a PAID SKETCH COMEDY PROFESSIONAL. Fuck outta here with that shit.
— Much like in the last edition of these non-actor restaurant ad sketches, it’s fairly cute how this sketch ends in a meta manner by showing a map of the locations of all the previous restaurants from this series of sketches.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “E-Pro”
WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF & AMP enact a possible forthcoming silicone breast implant commercial
celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick (MAS) plugs his DVD & upcoming movie
in 1975, boring interviewee Lorne Michaels (WLF) exasperates Jiminy Glick
— (*sigh*) In typical Fey/Poehler Update fashion, we open tonight’s Update with a string of groanworthy lame jokes.
— Meh, didn’t care for Tina and Amy’s silicone commercial (complete with a soft-focus screen filter).
— Oh, fuck yeah! A Martin Short cameo as Jiminy Glick!
— As expected, Jiminy Glick is very enjoyable here, and is adding much-needed life to this Update.
— Funny to hear Jiminy Glick call out former Update anchor Jimmy Fallon for his habit of stopping mid-joke to fix his messy hair (which is something he infamously did in the Update from the Reese Witherspoon episode in season 27; can’t remember if there were any other Updates he did that in).
— Oh, I absolutely love this turn during the Jiminy Glick commentary, with us seeing a 1975 interview between Jiminy Glick and a young Lorne Michaels, the latter amusingly and fittingly played by Will, who I remember people often pointing out during his first few seasons resembles 1970s-era Lorne.
— Sad that this is the second episode in a row where the only way SNL was able to make a Fey/Poehler Update semi-tolerable was by bringing in a very special and fun cameo from a former cast member.
STARS: **½
KAITLIN’S UNCLE
Uncle Scott’s (host) cold feet threaten Kaitlin’s upcoming bridesmaid gig
— At least Horatio gets a chance to redeem himself from his embarrassing trainwreck moment in tonight’s earlier Falafel City sketch, by doing his usual solid work in these Kaitlin sketches.
— Hmm. Not that I want to weigh down my review of a Kaitlin sketch by nitpicking yet another thing about Horatio, but it turns out this sketch actually has a few instances of breaking from Horatio in response to Amy’s typical antics as Kaitlin. It doesn’t derail this sketch or anything, but I point it out only because people claim Horatio’s always able to keep it together in these Kaitlin sketches. We can’t even depend on him for THAT in tonight’s installment.
— Overall, while this was still tolerable and brought the usual slice-of-life charm, this Kaitlin installment was a little below par in comparison to previous installments of this recurring sketch. There were no particular strong moments that stood out to me at all here.
STARS: ***
BEHIND THE MUSIC – THE SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE
Chicago Bears recall “The Super Bowl Shuffle” phenomena
— Ha, I’m always down for a Superbowl Shuffle spoof, and it’s a funny premise to do a Behind The Music special on this. This could be a fun sketch.
— A little detail I found funny: when we’re shown how low “The Stay In School Shuffle” ranked on the Billboard chart, it’s ranked right above “Party All The Time” from SNL’s own Eddie Murphy (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Jason Sudeikis, still just an SNL writer at this point and not yet a cast member, makes a noteworthy appearance here in a cowboy hat and sunglasses, playing the cowbell while dancing around Tom’s Jim McMahon, during McMahon’s solo song (the last two above screencaps for this sketch). Jason gets to do some really fun dancing here, giving us an early glimpse of the entertaining dance skills that he would later display in various sketches (most famously What Up With That).
— Overall, much like the preceding Kaitlin sketch, this was an okay but ultimately pretty forgettable sketch. I was expecting better for a Behind The Music spoof of Superbowl Shuffle.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Girl”
THE OAK ROOM
boozy lounge singer Charli Coffee (MAR) falls down while performing
— (*groan*) And there goes season 30’s obligatory weekly instance of Maya singing, for the SECOND time tonight. This is also the typical washed-up lounge singer-type sketch that I recently mentioned Maya would do too much around this point of the season. I would say tonight’s particular Maya-plays-a washed-up lounge singer-type sketch is a James Anderson-written piece, but, as I said in a recent review, I almost always end up being proven wrong when I assume a sketch has been written by James Anderson. (I still don’t understand how he didn’t write that Jingle Singers sketch from this season’s David Spade episode. That sketch had so many of Anderson’s trademarks. It scares me to think there are OTHER writers this season who are using hacky trademarks typically found in musical James Anderson sketches.)
— A cheap laugh from seeing Tom freakin’ Brady in a Kenny G.-esque wig. It may be a cheap laugh, but at least it’s a laugh, which is certainly more than I can say for anything else in this terrible sketch so far.
— Lots of very lame and unfunny pratfalls through breakaway props from Maya all throughout this sketch. Feels like I’m watching a poor man’s Matt Foley or Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch, and quite frankly, Chris Farley and Molly Shannon were much better at doing pratfalls than Maya is in this sketch. I also kinda feel like I’m watching a damn Chubb Hotty sketch (which is NOT a sketch you ever want to remind me of), especially when Maya did a pratfall through a breakaway piano just now, which is the same thing Chubb Hotty did in a sketch earlier this season.
— Ugh, Maya sure loves singing in a grating nasal voice in various sketches. Too bad I don’t love hearing it.
STARS: *½
BACKSTAGE
slighted Peyton Manning (SEM) & Donovan McNabb (FIM) meet host backstage
— As I implied in my review of Hilary Swank’s monologue, it feels rare to see a backstage sketch this season.
— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— For some reason, Tom precedes his exit in this sketch by telling the others “I gotta get ready for the next sketch”, even though this is the final piece of the night.
— Right before he leaves, Tom gives Seth’s Peyton Manning a word of advice, which I couldn’t fully decipher, but it seems as if it was supposed to be a comedic line: “Don’t wear that jersey on (word I can’t understand), man. Oof.” What was the word I couldn’t understand in that line? Thanks in advance if anyone can answer.
— Overall, a few chuckles, but not much going on here. Pure end-of-the-show filler.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— (*sigh*) YET ANOTHER weak season 30 episode, though this felt a little better than the drab two episodes that preceded this. A few strong and noteworthy highlights tonight, but ultimately, there were still many weak things bogging this episode way down, and we got a consistently forgettable post-Weekend Update half of the show, in which not even the usually-reliable Kaitlin sketch could knock it out of the park for once. (*sighs again*) I’m telling you guys, season 31 cannot come soon enough for me. Mercifully, we’ve only got three episodes left until then.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Cameron Diaz)
a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Johnny Knoxville. We also get a late-in-the-season new addition to the cast. (Hint: the new cast addition just so happens to be somebody I mentioned earlier in this review.)