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.)
Hell yeah, Sudeikis is joining the cast! We’re getting oh so close to the arrival of Bill Hader, which I could not be more excited about!!!!
I’ve seen some people say that the Knoxville episode is pretty bad. What exactly is so wrong with it?
It’s just the same trappings of S30: LOTS of hacky gay jokes, stuff that goes nowhere, bringing back previous sketches for diminishing returns, bad stuff with Maya, and Knoxville is wasted as a host.
There’s a lot of stuff in here that doesn’t work, but I’d say it’s one of the better shows of S30. For an athlete-hosted episode near the end of an awful season, it could’ve easily cratered, but instead it’s just meh. I will say that Jiminy Glick interviewing “Lorne” is one of my favorite moments of the season. It’s a bit inside baseball, but still funny even if you don’t care about SNL’s backstage stuff.
Is he saying not to wear the jersey untucked? Seth sort of looks down at himself after that line, like it’s part of the gag.
After going back and watching the sketch (and yes, Seth’s Peyton really really sucks), I think he’s saying “don’t wear that jersey out in public.” He could also be saying “don’t wear that jersey out in __,” referring to a New York location I guess.
Tom has way more Super Bowl rings, but Peyton Manning lucked out in hosting in a much more competently written season. Speaking of Tom and Peyton…I don’t feel like rewatching, but if I recall, Seth’s Peyton impression is pretty bad.
I think I found this an okay episode when I watched it live. I actually remember every sketch in this episode, so that means I didn’t just turn it off at some point. Brady was pretty competent–I think he seemed more at ease in the brief pre-taped material, but he didn’t ruin anything.
I confess to liking the “Brady sucking at throwing the football” sketch. It’s so intentionally over the top that even the hammy stereotypes at the end seem funny to me. And Forte, as you pointed out, is superb as the barker.
I’ve never enjoyed the show trope of “hacky performer is hacky” (heretical, I know, but Nick the Lounge Singer and the Sweeney Sisters are not some of my favorite sketches, although they’re worlds better than this)–but ye gods, both Maya and Wiig and now I guess maybe Strong REALLY REALLY lean into this trope. Somebody must find it funny, I guess.
Cecily has her moments, but she seems to do a lot of “straight” singing and doesn’t go down this particular route quite as much as Maya and Wiig did – it may be because the people on SNL at the time at the time who wrote similar pieces to Anderson (like Paula Pell) are gone so she gets a different version, or it may be down to the cast being so large now that airtime is more carved up, or it may be down to Kate and Aidy having their own slices of the campery pie…
It’s very difficult to make these dumb, deliberately bad singing sketches work. You have to fully commit to the characters and to the piece and you can’t let viewers remember that you’re just an actor doing shtick. I do love the Sweeney Sisters, I’ll admit, but I also think Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer were expert at this as the Culps. It just doesn’t really click into place as much in recent years because it’s too obvious, too phony, and also not trusting the audience enough (like all the dumb pratfalls in this Charli sketch).
Oddly enough the Charli sketch was the one I felt Tom Brady was most natural in, and most of my amusement came from his work.
Also of note: the last appearance of frequent sketch extra Andy Murphy. Nearly three decades of grumpy old guy parts ended on this night, 15-plus years ago. I have no idea if he’s still alive (though I doubt it); it’d be easier to find Yvonne Hudson’s whereabouts.
I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record, but this was another wildly uneven Year 30 show. Any mid-2000s episode with a “Falconer” sketch can’t be outright bad, but beyond that and the sexual harassment Smigeltoon, I wish I could say this show was simply ordinary. Brady wasn’t that impressive, but he made an effort. I could picture the circa 2000 cast doing wonders with the “Super Bowl Shuffle” sketch, then and now.
Google was about as helpful as you’d think. “Andy Murphy Saturday Night Live (and/or SNL),” “Andrew Murphy SNL,” “Andy Murphy SNL obituary” and such on … it didn’t matter, I kept getting results for Eddie.
IMDB has just three credits for him … SNL, Modern Problems (Chevy’s movie from ’81) and I Will … I Will … For Now, starring Elliott Gould and Diane Keaton.
No need to worry about being wrong this time: Charli Coffee was an Anderson/Spivey/Rudolph collaboration.
Sudeikis and Joe Kelly wrote the carnival sketch.
Wasn’t it Sudeikis’s performance in the Super Bowl Shuffle sketch that actually made Lorne take notice of him as being a potentially good cast member? I thought I remembered hearing that on a podcast somewhere (Lutz on Improv Nerd, maybe?).
Decider had an article last year panning Tom’s work in this, but I think he does a decent enough job – moreso when he’s in the back half of the episode.
I’m not that into Jiminy Glick, but the interview with “Lorne” is great; Will playing him also feels like another indication of Lorne being a bit partial to his work on the show. This sketch and the decent Falconer reprisal is a good return to episode-saving form for Will after taking a bit of a backseat.
The cold open feels so phoned in – some Downey cold opens are at least well-detailed in their writing, even if they’re a chore to watch. This one is just sloppy. There were real instances of Republican Congressman who felt strongarmed into voting for certain legislation – that could have been used for some type of comedy rather than doing the stock footage and using fake names. And Parnell does seem over it. At least he got another LFNY.
The carnival sketch is very “cute,” too much so for me, but I can see why people enjoy it. Will is, again, a highlight. Rob also has a few fun line readings. The reminder that it’s embarrassing if gay men are better than you at sports makes me cringe, but, that’s a common attitude even now…at least I don’t have to see it on the show anymore.
Did anyone else notice that the two episodes this season which both have non-Asian cast members playing Asian roles (complete with stereotypes) have also had Asian extras or Asian actors in bit parts? I’m not sure if this is a coincidence or if it was someone’s way of trying to atone for such hackiness in 2005 rather than, you know, having someone who was actually Asian in the cast.
I had to skip the last half of the Kaitlin sketch. Just too much “adorable” antics.
Your hilarious commentary on Horatio in that Falafel sketch says it all…they didn’t seem to have any real trust in Tom to overshadow him out the way they did, so why not just cut the whole thing? If this had been trimmed, that would have helped…by the time we got the second or third appearance of the quartet, the whole thing just feels like a death (and I could swear Amy looks a bit done with the whole thing).
The sexual harassment film I still see people talking about today. A good piece of work all around.
I liked the last sketch more than I normally would have, for some reason.
Brady was great in the carnival sketch. He did have to keep missing the target convincingly. If just one of the balls went in, the sketch would have been over.
You’re right about Falafel City. Non-actor non-comedian Tom Brady getting over better than a cast member who had been there for six years is just…why. Pretty cringeworthy.
I wonder if anyone tried to talk to Horatio about how he, yknow, completely forgot how to be a cast member. Maybe they just didn’t care enough to get him back on track, but that one time where Seth got annoyed with him can’t be the only time someone on the show got sick of his nonsense.
The botched performance in Falafel City pushes Horatio towards the top of the “worst cast list”. How somebody could continue to act this unprofessionally and survive for EIGHT SEASONS highlights a clear fundamental shift in the standards of what’s expected from the cast. Lorne would have dismissed Horatio in a different era.
I mainly remember “Sexual Harassment and You” (I felt sorry for Fred’s character there) and Jimmy Glick’s interview with “Lorne Michaels”. Both of which I enjoyed…
I remember in his interview with Carson Daly, Jason said he ended up on SNL in the Superbowl Shuffle sketch when there was no one else in the male cast who was able to do what he was able to do, which was true.
Speaking of Jason, here is how he got on the show as a writer, and he originally did not want to be on the show:
Was the inclusion of Jason Sudeikis as a cowbell player in the Super Bowl Shuffle sketch intended to be a nod to “More Cowbell”? After all, they’re both presented in the form of a “Behind the Music” special.
Nowadays the sexual harassment piece seems like it would have been written by an incel.
well now we know that Sudeikis’ dancing in the Behind the Music sketch essentially got him on cast the following episode.
Apparently, this past week, SNL asked Tom to host again, which he declined.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/03/whats-next-for-tom-brady-retired-qb-turns-down-tv-offers-including-snl-gig/