Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
SADDAM IN PRISON
self-pitying Saddam Hussein (host) whines to guard (FRA) from behind bars
— Interesting casting of host Alec Baldwin as Saddam Hussein.
— Good gruff-voiced Iraqi accent from Alec.
— Something about the way Alec’s face looks when smooshed between those prison bars is oddly adding to the humor a bit.
— Very funny part with the cruel “Your family will be dead by morning” joke Alec’s Saddam plays on Fred’s character when getting him to reveal his name.
— The ending felt anticlimactic. I was expecting more from this cold opening.
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
host relates lessons learned during his past SNL appearances; TIM cameo
— Alec mentions that Steve Martin is the only person to host SNL more than him, then makes a humorous point that himself hosting 12 times from 1990 to then-present day is a more impressive feat than Steve hosting 13 times from 1976 to then-present day.
— I love the use of clips of some of Alec’s earlier sketches as he does a rundown of all the things he learned from his previous hosting stints, even getting self-deprecating laughs by saying he jinxed his relationship with Kim Basinger by hosting with her on Valentine’s Day.
— A Tim Meadows cameo! Ah, it feels so refreshing to see Tim back on my screen during this SNL project of mine, given how I had gotten so used to his comforting presence for so many seasons earlier in this project.
— Very funny line from Tim about how he’s actually still in the cast; he just hasn’t had any sketches on in, like, 6 years. Great to see he’s still as funny as ever here.
— Kinda odd how Amy walked on at literally the very end of this monologue, right as the camera was zooming out and about to fade to black, to give Alec a hug to show she has no hard feelings toward him after he mentioned one of the perks of hosting SNL is getting to squeeze Amy’s boobs during the plastic surgeon sketch we were shown a clip of.
STARS: ****
MORGAN STANLEY
— Jesus Freakin’ Christ. Yet another airing of this commercial, for the FIFTH time in the first half of this seaso–Nah, I’m just kidding. This commercial didn’t air in tonight’s episode. I’m just making fun of the insane number of times they’ve repeated this commercial in such a short amount of time this season so far, which they’ve thankfully stopped doing by this point of the season.
TYLENOL BM
Tylenol BM lets (host) sleep so soundly, bowel movements don’t awaken him
— A blah juvenile premise, though Alec seems like he can make it funny just with his usual reliable dryness.
— A pretty good laugh from Rachel’s yell of “Did you (*bleep*) the bed?!?”
— Overall, Rachel’s aforementioned line and Alec’s solid dry performance made this commercial, which would’ve otherwise been a dud.
STARS: ***
FACE TRANSPLANT
(host) rejects face transplants grafted onto his hospitalized wife
— Second episode in a row with a hospital room sketch.
— Pretty funny reveal of Alec having secretly wished to God that his wife’s body would reject her new unattractive transplanted face.
— Alec “accidentally” pulling out the I.V. tube of hormone medication to force the doctors to re-transplant his wife’s face was hilarious.
— I love Tina’s delivery of the line “You racist! Have you learned nothing from the wolf attack?!?”
— The whole bit with Kenan turning out to be a guy who Alec knew in the marines is hilarious, especially a baffled Tina questioning to Alec “Why did you go into business with him after he raped you?!?”
— Great escalation to this sketch, and this material is so perfect for Alec.
— Hilarious ending with an angry Tina revealing to Alec that the hospitalized woman who’s breasts he’s lovingly groping isn’t actually his wife, she’s just some random woman here for foot surgery, yet Alec asks “Just give me five more minutes.”
— At the very end, during the sketch-ending audience applause, Alec’s groping of Amy’s breasts turns into a callback to the monologue, with Amy “dropping character”, getting mad at Alec, and asking “Again?!?” I guess this is what Amy’s little walk-on at the very end of the monologue was setting up. A rare example by this point of SNL’s run of an episode having somewhat of a running thread.
STARS: ****½
THE O’REILLY FACTOR
John McCain (CHP) & Barney Frank (host)
— (*sigh*) Darrell’s Bill O’Reilly impression still just sounds like Darrell Hammond.
— A funny line from Chris’ John McCain asking, after the asinine so-called facts Darrell’s Bill O’Reilly has spouted off, “Bill, do you even have a research department?”
— There goes Darrell’s typical habit of milking extra laughs from the audience by unnecessarily making exaggerated physical gestures.
— Very funny Barney Frank voice from Alec.
— Now there goes that stumbliness from Darrell that he’s developed this season.
— As usual, some laughs from the Mail Bag segment.
— Speaking of Darrell’s stumbliness, why didn’t he finish reading that letter about Tom Cruise? He left off the last word, for some reason.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“Celebrity Mugshot Poker” by RBS- infamous prison photos play Hold ‘Em
— Surprisingly, this is first TV Funhouse to air since this season’s premiere.
— It’s noticeable that this cartoon is being shown in SD 4:3 format instead of HD 16:9 format like the rest of this episode is.
— A very unusual but creative concept of this cartoon.
— Feels nice to hear Dave Foley’s voice on SNL. Too bad this is the closest he’s come to ever appearing on SNL.
— Hilarious bit with Nick Nolte raising during the poker game with a dead skunk he ran over.
— I like the unintelligible grunting being vocalized for each celebrity.
STARS: ***½
BROKEBACK GOLDMINE
grizzled prospectors (host) & (WLF) fall in love
— SNL’s obligatory spoof of the big then-new movie Brokeback Mountain.
— Sadly, Bill’s very brief and non-comedic appearance here ends up being his only appearance all night.
— Not caring for this sketch so far.
— There’s the required parody of the famous “I wish I knew how to quit you” line from the real movie. Can’t say this parody of that line did anything for me.
— I admit to getting a cheap laugh from the “Just prospecting” ending.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Bother”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Wolf Blitzer (CHP), Jane Pauley (KRW), others audition for ABC News gig
Sharif Omar Mohammed’s (KET) racially-charged ventriloquism offends AMP
a clip of Richard Pryor’s SNL word association sketch marks his passing
— A fun and out-of-the-ordinary segment for Update (and a much-needed break from Tina and Amy’s typical unfunniness at the Update desk), with us seeing an audition tape for ABC News.
— Much like Bill earlier tonight, Kristen’s very brief appearance here, in which she only says one non-comedic line, ends up being her only appearance all night. Certainly feels odd now to see there was once an instance where Kristen was this underused on SNL.
— Pretty funny bit with Darrell’s Dan Rather disguising himself with a fake mustache and the name Stan Mather. I also like the off-camera director cutting him off with a deadpan “Mr. Rather, let’s not do this.”
— Finesse plays Stuart Scott on Update for the second episode in a row.
— Meh, the otherwise fun ABC News audition tape segment ended with a thud, thanks to the unnecessary and overlong bit with Horatio’s Gene Shalit.
— Hated the brief Rent bit between Tina and Amy. That’s exactly the type of typical Tina/Amy unfunniness at the Update desk that I was talking about earlier.
— Hmm, a Brokeback Mountain gay joke sent in from Tina’s 72-year-old father. At least I now see who Tina gets her obsession with hacky gay humor from.
— The fact that the camera keeps cutting to a close-up of Kenan’s ventriloquist dummy whenever it “speaks” is making it very obvious they’re hiding the fact that Kenan’s not attempting to make it look like he’s doing that thing professional ventriloquists do where they throw their voice without moving their lips.
— What the holy fuck is Kenan’s commentary even going for?!? Not only is this not making me laugh, but I’m finding it baffling.
— Amy looked REALLY down after she made a very minor line flub during her set-up of the Dunkin’ Dog Nuts joke (which didn’t even hurt the audience’s reaction to the punchline), showing she has no confidence in herself as an Update anchor.
— We at least end this mostly-dire Update with a tribute to the then-recently-deceased Richard Pryor, by showing a clip of the legendary Word Association sketch.
STARS: *½
THE TONY BENNETT SHOW
Dick Cheney (DAH) discusses terrorism
— As always, Alec’s Tony Bennett impression is reliable for lots of funny lines.
— A particularly good laugh from the segment with Alec’s Bennett plugging the show’s sponsor, K-Y Warming Liquid.
— Overall, this was funny, but it’s probably the most forgettable installment of this sketch by default.
STARS: ***
CAROL!
on a blind date at a bowling alley, crass Carol somehow charms (host)
— I’m still waiting to be won over by these Carol sketches. Like when I reviewed the first Carol sketch earlier this season, I’m not hating this as much as I did when these sketches originally aired, and I am seeing some small flashes of “So bad, it’s good”-ness, but most of this sketch is eliciting no emotions from me. I’m so blankly neutral on this sketch. But, again, at least that’s still a step up from the frothing-at-the-mouth fiery hatred I used to have for these sketches when they originally aired.
STARS: **
HOT DOG FAMILY
hot dog’s husband (host) counsels his half-human kids (AMP) & (ANS)
— A good dumb, oddball premise to this Alec Baldwin sketch, and it’s the kind of thing that Alec can sell in spades.
— I like the little part with a distressed Amy, as the daughter, calling out “Mom!”, and the camera then cutting to a close-up of little hot dog resting on a pillow, unresponsive as always.
— Now THIS is a “So bad, it’s good” sketch that’s actually working for me (though “So dumb, it’s funny” is probably a more accurate description of this particular sketch than “So bad, it’s good”).
— Andy makes his only appearance of the night here (I’m noticing a theme tonight with the newbies, except for Jason). I remember an online SNL fan pointing out Andy looked pretty awkward and uncomfortable in this sketch, as this was back when a lot of online SNL fans were convinced Andy was not working out as an SNL cast member and that he had “one-season wonder” written all over him. We’re only one episode away, folks, from the legendary moment that would drastically change that.
— After asking his hot dog wife for some privacy so he and Andy can have a talk, I love Alec carelessly throwing his hot dog wife behind him.
STARS: ****
MEDICARE
Medicare’s high-tech info delivery methods will confuse elderly audiences
— Very fun cheesy singing from Jason.
— Uh, what exactly is the joke here? Besides Jason’s delightfully corny singing of the same lyrics over and over (which would be pure death if it were performed by a cast member less charismatic and fun than Jason), there’s no comedic conceit I can find at all here. If the joke is simply that the process of applying for healthcare online is confusing and complicated for elderly people, that’s not all that great of a premise, nor am I caring for the execution of it.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Alejandro Sanz [real] perform “La Tortura”
ELF MOTIVATION
(host) gives Glengarry Glen Ross motivational speech to Santa’s elves
— A fantastic idea to have Alec do an elf-themed spoof of his famous scene from Glengarry Glen Ross.
— Alec chewing out the elves Glengarry Glen Ross style is freakin’ great.
— A classic blooper where Alec initially misreads the written “Always Be Cobbling” motto on the chalkboard as “Always Be Closing”, which is what the motto was in the actual movie. Not only is that mix-up of Alec’s very funny, but there’s something strangely endearing about it, as it shows that Alec’s original Glengarry Glen Ross speech is SO ingrained in his memory.
— My only complaint about this otherwise fantastic sketch: it ended EXTREMELY awkwardly. What was with the uncomfortably long stretch of dead silence between the elves cheering the announcement of their Christmas bonuses and the audience applauding?
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Another good Alec Baldwin episode. Despite a few flops throughout the night, there were enough good sketches, and the episode as a whole had a pretty nice feel to it, no doubt due to Alec’s always-reliable presence as a host. Two sketches tonight were particularly strong and will likely make it to my end-of-season “Best Of” picks (Face Transplant and Elf Motivation).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dane Cook)
a very slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jack Black hosts the Christmas episode
Paula Pell wrote Tylenol BM.
Colin Jost wrote the hot dog sketch.
Seth wrote the Glengarry Glen Ross sketch.
This episode had some strong sketches at the very beginning and end, but a slew of reminders of Year 30 in the middle. As always, Alec was phenomenal with mediocre material. With Wiigy, Bill, and Andy relegated to overglorified extra status, it as well be a Year 30 show. Admittedly, this was the week I almost gave up on Samberg; I’m glad I ate crow not even a week later.
I’m sad they really buried the Glengarry Elf sketch, but perhaps they thought most people might not understand what was being parodied.
I honestly don’t remember this episode much aside from that sketch. I was in my mind conflating it with the NEXT Baldwin episode, which I remember a lot more.
Did I read correctly in the comments earlier that this is the only time Tim Meadows, not counting specials, has appeared on SNL since leaving? That’s disappointing, although not exactly surprising. I would have guessed he would have shown up during another alum’s hosting gig though.
Ditto, I remember more than you do, but Baldwin’s following episode eclipsed this one.
Yeah, they made a big mistake in putting the Glen Garry sketch at the end, considering how popular it became afterwards.
I was the one who brought that up. Sad but true.
If it counts, Tim cameoed on the first episode after he left (the S26 premiere.)
I mainly remember Tina’s Brokeback Mountain joke, the show’s tribute to Richard Pryor with that most famous sketch he did with Chevy Chase, and that last sketch where Alec mixed his words because of the similarities between Glengarry Glen Ross and that elf spoof.
One episode away from the sketch seen ’round the world.
Also, it was a nice surprise that n-word from that Word Association sketch was allowed on air as I think the networks started either bleeping or muting that particular word by this time which continues to this day as happened when ABC redid the first ep of “The Jeffersons” last year…
I saw a rerun of the next episode on Classic SNL a couple years ago. I don’t remember much from it, except for Lazy Sunday and Christmastime for the Jews. And, I’m going to be completely honest here, I didn’t see what was so special about Lazy Sunday. I don’t hate it, but it pales in comparison to some of the other stuff they’d put out in years to come.
Well, you can consider that a case of the “Seinfeld is Unfunny” trope- back when that first aired, it was only the second short, and it’s humor no doubt blew everyone away.
I agree I never loved Lazy Sunday as much as everyone, although that is not to say it isn’t fucking great. It’s funny as hell, changed the course of the show, made Andy a star and helped popularize Youtube. It’s undeniably important.
I think Parnell actually makes that sketch for me though (not to knock Andy in any way) Seeing him unleashed from his countless thankless roles on the show was mega refreshing. It sucks that he had to be fired twice when he was just as capable of leading iconic sketches .
I don’t understand why they reaired Morgan Stanley after the monologue if they were just gonna air Tylenol BM afterwards. Lorne must’ve LOVED that ad.
Re-read the comment, Rube.
I was going along with the gag. I don’t understand why that ad in particular was repeated so often before this, other than it being pretty strong and them not having many HD pretapes stockpiled.
I can’t think of another ad that was used as much aside from maybe some of the early Ebersol-era ones.
IIRC, sometime during the week Tina and Lorne first pitched the idea for what would become 30 Rock to Alec.
Theory on “Elf Motivation” as the 10-to-1: if Baldwin still ingrains Glengarry Glen Ross in his memory, he could feasibly blurt out the actual words that “elf you” and “elf’n”-type lines cover up. GGR isn’t that obscure if The Simpsons infamously reuses its Shelley Levene parody for years afterwards…also, “Realty Bites” features the last major Lionel Hutz appearance, so Phil Hartman’s death and ol’ Gil won’t let me forget THAT episode.
The crazy thing about this episode is that I distinctly remember Kirsten Wiig’s Jane Pauley impression.
It was so brief but I remember being stunned at how remarkable she sounded.
I do obviously remember the Elves sketch because I love that play and movie, but no so much anything else.
I’m definitely glad to see the show slowly rising from the ashes!
Back when this first aired, Global (the Canadian network that carries SNL) actually cut to a commercial break when TV Funhouse begain, so I missed the first part of Celebrity Mugshot Poker. They did that a few more times that season (Johanssen’s show was a mess, IIRC). For the most part they’re better now, but I remember they made a similar mistake during the 50 Shades of Gray auditions sketch in Miley Cyrus’s 2013 show.
I thought this was an improvement over Baldwin’s 2013 show, but this one kind of gets lost between the other two December 2005 shows (especially the next one) and Baldwin’s next hosting gig.
They should’ve had Tim come out for Eddie’s season 45 monologue. I was bummed he wasn’t there.
On that Kevin Nealon hiking talk show, Tim said he was asked, but had a previously scheduled vacation with his family.
Oh I didn’t know that, thanks for the info John 🙂
No problem. I was glad to hear he was at least asked as, like you said, Tim really was missed given his history with the show, and after his unhappiness over not being asked back in 2014 for the Bill Brasky revival I wasn’t sure what his relationship with the show was now.
I tend to agree this has the feel of an improved season 30 episode for long stretches – not one of my favorites this season.
Alec does a variation of this monologue when he hosts (for the last time, possibly) in 2017. It doesn’t quite work either time, but I prefer the 2005 version. My only real complaint is that in order to sell the joke about Tim’s return (and boy was it great to see him!), they have Alec say that everyone had left, even Tim, when Darrell hadn’t left…and even appears in a sketch with Alec in this episode. Just another example of how very disconnected Darrell had become from the rest of the show by this point.
I have to admit the Glengarry Glenn Ross sketch doesn’t click for me, probably because I haven’t seen the film. It’s certainly well-performed though, and I can see why it’s become a staple of the Christmas specials.
The face sketch I have mixed feelings about. Some elements work (Seth is hilarious, and the part where Alec’s disgust over Rachel and her brothers being ugly makes him sabotage her treatment is good for a dark laugh), but as it goes along and they start talking about rape and so on it starts to feel like the latest, maybe the last, attempt at generating the old Canteen Boy controversy one more time (similar to his ’98 episode and the nurse sketch with Molly Shannon).
Alec is handed quite a bit of lazy, warmed-over material this week, to mixed results. I think my favorite performance from him here is his Walter Brennan impression in the Brokeback Mountain parody, but the writing isn’t there. Presumably they didn’t want to have gay jokes or rape jokes, which is great, but instead they told no jokes whatsoever. Such a waste of Will Forte.
I think the best piece in the episode is the hot dog sketch, which hits the absurdity just right and uses Alec’s talents in the way most suited to him. I’m surprised to learn above that it was written by Jost, as it reminds me little of most of the show’s current output.
I like the IDEA of the Medicare sketch – Jason singing and dancing away in nonsense jargon to hide how incredibly complicated the plan is – but it doesn’t translate. Still, Jason makes it fun…they shouldn’t have cut off just as he was starting to really get into the dancing though.
Again I like the idea of Kenan’s Update piece – the calm NoI recruiter whose puppet spews out all the prejudice he can’t express himself – but Kenan’s talents were not suited for the part (and I’m not sure he would be even now). They should have asked Tim do it since he was there. Not helping matters was Amy’s terrible acting in that segment. This isn’t the first time that Amy has sounded sick and seemed very frazzled in her Update run. The bright spot here were a few of the audition pieces, especially Kristen and Seth (Seth had a good night).
I appreciate Smigel trying something new but this just ended up reminding me of one of those cheapie computer games from 1994 or 1995.
This is a pretty cookie cutter, tired Carol installment, but I did get a guilty chuckle out of Sanz bellowing “I-69!!!”
Five-Timers Individual Rankings:
8.8 – Alec Baldwin/The B-52’s (15.18)
7.8 – Alec Baldwin/Luciano Pavarotti (24.09)
7.7 – Alec Baldwin/Paul McCartney (18.13)
7.1 – Alec Baldwin/Beastie Boys (20.08)
7.1 – Alec Baldwin/Coldplay (26.16)
7.0 – Alec Baldwin/Tori Amos (21.11)
6.9 – Alec Baldwin/Tina Turner (22.14)
6.8 – Alec Baldwin/Whitney Houston (16.14)
6.7 – Alec Baldwin/P.O.D. (27.18)
5.9 – Alec Baldwin/Shakira (31.08)
5.5 – Alec Baldwin/Missy Elliott (29.06)
5.3 – AB & KB/UB40 (19.13)
I went to an Alec Baldwin book signing and I told him how much I loved Glengarry Glen Ross. He offered to write A Always B Be C Closing but I asked him to write Always Be Cobbling instead. He obliged.
I think you misread Amy’s reaction to the Dunkin Dog Nuts joke. She wasn’t down because she didn’t think the joke landed (it did), but because – in the world of the joke – her Dunkin Dog Nuts coffee shop will never be opened. No lack of confidence, just someone staying in character.