Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
George W. Bush (JAS) has literally gotten USA into another Vietnam War
— Jason has replaced the still-on-the-show Will Forte as SNL’s latest George W. Bush impersonator, making him the show’s FIFTH Bush impersonator during Bush’s presidency so far. Absolutely insane that SNL has gone through that many Bush impersonators over the course of just SIX YEARS. (Sure, SNL previously rotated a lot of people in the Ronald Reagan role during his presidency in the 80s, but that’s understandable, as SNL’s cast went through many big overhauls during Reagan’s presidency, unlike SNL’s cast during Bush’s presidency.) Tonight’s sudden re-casting of the Bush role after Forte had been SNL’s regular Bush for a few years completely blindsided SNL fans at this time, especially since there was no prior announcement of this re-casting before tonight’s episode originally aired. I remember in the live discussion thread for this episode on the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board, as soon as this cold opening first showed Jason as Bush after the typical “And now, a message from the president of the United States” intro, many members of the board, including myself, simultaneously flocked to the live discussion thread to post literally the exact same message: “WTF?!? Sudeikis?!?” Haha, we were absolutely SHOCKED at this re-casting.
— Funny announcement from Jason’s Bush of America now being at war with Vietnam.
— Jason’s Bush portrayal isn’t bad so far.
— Towards the end, this cold opening has started dying with the audience.
— Overall, I wish I had more to say for Jason’s first outing as Bush, but I found this cold opening okay as a whole. Wish it ended better than it did, though.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo once again proves how incredibly old he’s getting, by bizarrely and inexplicably mispronouncing the name Ludacris as “loo-DAY-cris”, not once, but TWICE. Let’s just say this earned about as many “WTF?!?”s in the aforementioned live discussion thread for this episode on the saturday-night-live.com message board as the sudden re-casting of the Bush role did. Also, something funny about Don’s “loo-DAY-cris” mispronunciation is that it rhymes with the correct pronunciation of the name Sudeikis. And know what’s even funnier about THAT? When Jason Sudeikis was just an SNL writer before being added to the cast, I mistakenly assumed his last name was pronounced “SOO-duh-kis”, much like how the name Ludacris is correctly pronounced.
MONOLOGUE
host’s old friend Rick ‘Diculous’ (KET) wants credit for stage name idea
— A mildly funny bit with Ludacris differentiating the use of his stage name and his real name, but nothing special.
— A laugh from the exaggerated size of the antenna on Kenan’s old-school 90s cellphone.
— Not sure what else to say about this monologue. I hate to use the term “only mildly funny” again for this monologue, but I can’t think of a better description of this monologue as a whole.
STARS: **½
YOUNG DOUGLAS: HYPIN’ THE CLASSICS
classic songs get rap complements on hype man Young Douglas’ (host) album
— It almost feels like Ludacris might as well just be playing himself in this sketch instead of a fictional character (even though Ludacris isn’t a hype man). This sketch is still working decently, though.
— The “You’re Beautiful (That Ass!)” duet is very funny.
— A very Kenan Thompson-y gesture with Kenan not even pretending to make his trumpet-blowing look convincing.
STARS: ***
THE BITCHSLAP METHOD
Dr. Bitchslap’s (host) marriage advice infomercial prescribes face swats
— A laugh from Ludacris’ character’s surname being Bitchslap.
— I like Bill as Amy’s now-whipped (or, should I say, now-bitchslapped) husband.
— As Jason’s character is putting his arm around his wife Kristen’s shoulder a little roughly, Kristen’s soft little “Ow” while keeping a nervous smile on her face is the type of thing she’s always great at getting laughs out of.
— The ending showing the various Bitchslap Method books came off a little awkward.
STARS: **½
THE O’REILLY FACTOR
Bill O’Reilly’s (DAH) potential boycott of Def Jam is a hollow threat
— After just using his real voice in previous Bill O’Reilly sketches, which was a surprisingly lazy move for a so-called master of impressions, Darrell finally attempts to actually imitate Bill O’Reilly’s voice tonight. It’s an improvement, but I still prefer Jeff Richards’ take on Bill O’Reilly. Also, too little, too late for Darrell to finally improve his impression of O’Reilly, given the fact that this ends up being the last appearance it ever makes.
— Kenan stretched out his intentionally-awkward, silent reaction to the first ridiculous question from Darrell’s O’Reilly way too long.
— The whole interview portion with Kenan in general is too slow-paced, even if there are some chuckles.
— Pretty funny to see Ludacris playing a professional political talking head, and quite well, might I add.
— I don’t know how to react to the fact that Ludacris, a non-comedian, is giving a FAR better performance in his portion of this sketch than Kenan, a freakin’ sketch comedy veteran, gave in HIS portion of this sketch.
— As usual, some laughs from the mailbag segment.
— Overall, some decent parts, but as a whole, this sketch did NOT do it for me. The laughs were too few and far in between, the sketch’s pacing was weak (especially during Kenan’s performance), and the overall sketch was WAAAAAY too long (it was seriously about EIGHT MINUTES, I shit you not). I am so glad this ends up being the final O’Reilly Factor installment with Darrell.
STARS: **
BOOTY BIDNESS WORKWEAR
host extends naughty slogans to women’s workplace attire
— This is a revamped version of a commercial that had gotten cut from at least one dress rehearsal (if not multiple dress rehearsals) earlier this season.
— Some laughs from the inappropriate sexual-related messages on businesswomen’s suits.
— Ludacris is absolutely perfect as the spokesperson here. I’m guessing the previous version of this commercial that got cut after dress rehearsal didn’t work anywhere near as well without the footage added in of Ludacris.
STARS: ***
BLIZZARD MAN
at a recording session, host ballyhoos Blizzard Man’s (ANS) dorky raps
— Andy’s Blizzard Man character makes its debut.
— I love Andy’s very early 90s look. SNL’s been getting some mileage lately out of early 90s-looking costumes, between Andy’s 1992 exercise gear in the preceding episode’s Out-Of-Breath Jogger From 1992 sketch, Kenan’s early 90s hip-hop outfit in tonight’s monologue, and now Andy’s Blizzard Man costume.
— I love Jason’s intentionally corny delivery of “Now you’re talkin’ my language, Luda!”
— Some really good laughs from Andy’s incredibly cheesy, whitebred raps, especially how it always immediately follows him prefacing the songs by doing actual solid and hardcore hype-man ad-libs into the mic. Very fun performance from Andy here.
— Meh, I could do without this sketch’s choice to do the “the camera cuts to a close-up of each straight man character having a frozen unpleasant facial expression while witnessing something odd the lead comedic character is doing” trope. That makes this feel too much like a damn James Anderson-written sketch, even though he obviously didn’t write this. I will say that I do like the comical intense look on Ludacris’ face (the last above screencap for this sketch) when the camera shows him jamming to Blizzard Man’s corny rapping during the aforementioned sequence showing a close-up of each straight man’s facial reaction.
— Funny twist at the end, with the Billboard chart that Blizzard Man’s song is listed #1 under turning out to be a chart of Least Bought Albums (screencap a little below). Not only that, but there’s an interesting subtle self-reference from Lonely Island: the #2 song on that Billboard chart is from Bing Bong Brothers, which was the name of a fictional R&B group played by Akiva Shaffer and Jorma Taccone in a pre-SNL Lonely Island music video.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Money Maker”
WEEKEND UPDATE
John Mark Karr (BIH) claims responsibility for high-profile crimes
AMP & SEM study guest seating chart for Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes wedding
following a weak joke, Bobby Knight (JAS) gets in SEM’s face
to editor (MAR) of a teen magazine, donating food is path to weight loss
— A very weak opening Bush joke from Amy.
— Bill killing it in yet another solo Update commentary this season. His John Mark Karr portrayal and dialogue are a lot of fun and are cracking me up so much.
— A fairly whatever bit with Amy and Seth breaking down who the guests were at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding. Too easy of a joke for my likes.
— Oh, I like this random bit with Jason as Bobby Knight chewing out Seth for his lame Tobey Maguire/Spider Man joke. And I’m always up for a showcase of Jason’s Will Ferrell-esque ability to play intimidating, screaming madmen.
— I could do without Amy’s bad, corny ad-libs after Jason’s Bobby Knight made his exit.
— Maya’s commentary is decent, and I’m enjoying her performance.
STARS: ***
POOL WATCH
urban lifeguard (host) isn’t ready to get in the water
— Lame stereotypical black jokes at the beginning, with the titles of black CW shows.
— Ugh, the screechy voice Maya’s using here is hard on the ears throughout this sketch.
— More weak stereotypical black jokes.
— A laugh from Ludacris wearing swimming trunks under his speedo.
— Believe it or not, Fred’s brief appearance at the end of this sketch as an unconscious body, a role that might as well have been played by an extra, is Fred’s ONLY appearance all night. Jesus Christ. Even odder, in dress rehearsal, Fred’s role was played by Will (who, by the way, has yet to be seen ANYWHERE in tonight’s live episode so far). I assume the reason for this role being re-cast from Will to Fred after dress rehearsal is because SNL felt bad that Fred was left with no appearances after the dress rehearsal cuts were made before the live show. I dunno, part of me feels that an SNL repertory player making their only appearance of an episode in a 5-second non-speaking role as an unconscious body is, in some ways, even more demeaning than making no appearances at all.
STARS: **
HAIR TRANSPLANT
shady plastic surgeon (host) schemes to steal (WLF)’s Elton John hair
— Will finally makes his first (and ONLY) appearance of the whole night. This, coupled with the fact that, earlier in this episode, SNL had unexpectedly re-cast the Bush role (and keep in mind that it wasn’t known yet among SNL fans that Will himself asked to be taken out of the Bush role, and thus, fans incorrectly assumed that Will got the Bush role yanked away from him against his wishes), made a lot of online SNL fans worry about Will’s job security at SNL, fearing he may be in for an upcoming firing at the end of this season. In fact, Will’s airtime has really taken a hit in the first half of this season in general. In a lot of episodes in this half of the season, he typically averages a measly 1-2 appearances per show, though his amount of airtime (thankfully) ends up returning to normal somewhere in the second half of the season, and, as we know now, he doesn’t end up getting fired after this season. I wonder what the reason is for his big decrease in airtime in the first half of this season. Was he busy filming a movie? “The Brothers Solomon”, perhaps?
— Speaking of the worry that a lot of SNL fans had for Will with the combination of his Bush impression suddenly being given to another cast member and Will not appearing in this episode until towards the end, I remember how Will making his entrance in this Hair Transplant sketch with a head bandage made one online SNL fan initially worry for a second that Will’s head bandage was REAL, with that SNL fan mistakenly assuming Will had suffered a head injury earlier that week and that that was the reason for both SNL re-casting the Bush role tonight and Will barely appearing in this episode. An odd misconception. I’m pretty sure if a cast member ever suffered a horrific head injury earlier in the week of an episode, an injury horrific enough to require a head bandage, there’d be an announcement of this injury sometime before the episode would air. I doubt SNL would just have a head-injured cast member waltz onto a sketch wearing their big-ol’ head bandage with no prior warning to us viewers.
— I love Ludacris preparing to jet the hell out of his office right before he reveals Will’s hair transplant.
— Very funny reveal of Will having the hairtop of a black man after the transplant.
— A lot of mentions of Atlanta in tonight’s episode.
— Will is playing his naive straight man character really well. Even just his way of cornily saying in shock “What in sam hill…?!?” when finally seeing his hair transplant made me laugh out loud.
— Hilarious reveal of Ludacris having switched hairtops with Will, just because Ludacris desperately wanted Will’s Elton John-like hair.
— I love the absurdity of this sketch, and Ludacris is proving to be actually really adept at this absurdist material. I would call this another oddball Will Forte sketch, and in some ways, it IS, but this sketch seems to be focusing more on Ludacris than on Will. And even though this sketch has kind of an oddly hollow, quiet, slow atmosphere, making it almost feel like a fugitive from this season’s wretched John C. Reilly episode, it is definitely working for me here.
STARS: ****
LESBIAN CRUISE
captain (host) futilely hopes lesbian cruise will become a porno fantasy
— I like Kristen’s little “Is…is he supposed to be drinking?” when she sees the captain holding up a glass of champagne.
— Not caring for where this sketch is going AT ALL, though Ludacris is, once again tonight, performing this well. Even something about the way he said “Yes, Arizona?” when Amy called his name made me laugh.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & Mary J. Blige [real] perform “Runaway Love”
TWO OLD MEN
in a diner, old guys (DAH) & (host) question the worth of modernity
— Wow, Darrell starring in a non-impression role? AND IN THE 10-TO-1 SKETCH?!? Two huge rarities in one for Darrell.
— I’m liking the premise of this, and Darrell and Ludacris are surprisingly making a good duo, playing off of each other really well.
— The audience is getting lots of amusement from Darrell’s increasingly-hanging-off fake mustache. It’s adding to the fun nature of this sketch.
— A good laugh from Ludacris’ question about why companies can’t combine the “no pee” medicine with the “stiffy” medicine.
— Now Darrell is starting to crack up a little due to his hanging-off mustache, making the audience laugh even more.
— When Darrell is struggling to ask Ludacris “Do you….do you…” while stifling his laughter, Ludacris cuts him off with a fantastic ad-lib: “I know that your damn mustache is hangin’ off, I know that!” Priceless.
— Interestingly, after the aforementioned ad-lib from Ludacris, both he and Darrell, in character, signal for the sketch to end, without Darrell having even gotten to ask Ludacris the question he was supposed to, as if they know they can’t top the unscripted hilarious moment that had just happened. After this signaling from Ludacris and Darrell, the sketch indeed ends. That was odd, but actually kinda cool. I can’t think of many other times in SNL history that a sketch ended in this manner, with performers signaling to the show to cut the sketch off after it peaked with a great ad-lib. The only other instance that comes to mind right now is in a Norm Macdonald Weekend Update from season 22, where, after getting a HUGE audience reaction from an absolutely hilarious and classic ad-lib in which he ate fake vomit on the Update desk left over by Will Ferrell (who had just done an Update commentary reacting to Ellen DeGeneres coming out of the closet), Norm decides not to do the rest of the Update jokes (a photo for the next joke even shows up on the news screen next to him), and instead just says to the camera “Let’s just end it”, and then turns to the other camera and delivers his usual end-of-Update sign-off.
— Very fun closing sketch overall.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Meh, a lukewarm episode. Almost completely forgettable. There was still a pretty good number of strong highlights, though. And Ludacris was a fun, likable, and solid host, and made even the weaker material of the night less worse than it otherwise would’ve been, even that bad Lesbian Cruise sketch.
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 big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Matthew Fox / Tenacious D