Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
SNL SPECIAL REPORT
CSR likens Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton to black men vs. white women
— Chris Rock! Feels interesting seeing him in this SNL era. Also, him cameoing in a Julia Louis-Dreyfus-hosted episode is strangely fitting, given the fact that, much like Julia, Chris was a cast member for only three seasons, didn’t do much on the show and was overshadowed by certain others in the cast, yet still went on to huge fame afterwards.
— This cold opening was originally a Weekend Update commentary that Chris did in this episode’s dress rehearsal.
— Wow, that comment about Rudy Giuliani’s sanity level was awfully prescient.
— Chris is an absolute riot here, as expected. He’s so damn funny that he’s even getting laughs from potentially touchy comments about the horrible treatment black people used to suffer.
— Hilarious mention of George W. Bush at the end, regarding if America is ready for a black president.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
JLD blames media for clips that put her in a negative light
— Great to see Julia hosting again so soon after her first hosting stint.
— In the real-life clip of Julia winning an Emmy, former SNL cast member (and Julia’s husband) Brad Hall can be seen congratulating her (the second above screencap for this monologue). Feels kinda nice seeing him on SNL again after so many years, even in this capacity. (I think I heard he could be spotted in the audience of the previous JLD-hosted episode I covered in season 31, but I didn’t catch him.) In Julia’s next SNL monologue from season 41, she shows an old clip of herself from an 80s movie that she (and Brad) was in, and the clip features a decent amount of face time for Brad, and I remember it felt so odd but nice seeing such an obscure Ebersol-era cast member like Brad get THAT amount of face time in an SNL episode from 2016, even if it was just in a clip from an old movie.
— The cutaways to Julia in the audience at the Golden Globes are hilarious. Kinda feels like a spiritual successor to the Golden Globes sketch with Megan Mullally in season 29.
— A huge laugh from Julia’s crotch-flashing scene. That excessive amount of pubic hair especially caught me off-guard.
STARS: ****
OPRAH
(JLD) is a disciple of Rhonda Byrne’s (AMP) book The Secret
— Funny look for Amy here.
— Maya’s Oprah portrayal feels a lot more animated than usual here. Not sure I can say that’s a good thing.
— Julia has some funny lines, but her interview scene is kinda dragging for me.
— Kenan’s Darfur refugee character, when asked how he’s doing: “Well, you know….BAD.”
— Kenan’s portion of this sketch is almost singlehandedly saving this otherwise iffy sketch.
STARS: **½
MONEX
gold bug (KRW) uses Monex to amass her favorite precious metal
— Kristen’s character mentions that this Monex program can be bought on a brochure and VHS tape. Stuff was still being sold on VHS in 2007?
— The framed Goldie Hawn photo in the gold-filled room is a funny gag.
— The part with Kristen resorting to drinking orange juice while wishing she could drink gold is kind of a stretch, because wouldn’t she just get, say, champagne or apple juice if she wanted a gold-colored drink?
— Hmm. I can’t say this commercial is working much for me. A lot of this is just washing over me. I want to say Kristen is at least performing this well, but I’m not even sure how to feel about her performance here.
STARS: **
R.P.S.
(JLD)’s husband (JAS) blames Restless Penis Syndrome for his infidelity
— Funny subversion with Jason’s big reveal to Julia turning out to be him having Restless Penis Syndrome when you think he’s going to reveal he’s having an affair.
— I like Kenan randomly appearing in Jason and Julia’s bedroom as Jason’s doctor.
— Pretty funny turn with Bill doing a PSA for Restless Penis Syndrome right in front of the main characters, which a confused Julia then calls attention to.
STARS: ***½
LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci’s argot foils monolingual JLD
— The debut of these La Rivista Della Televisione sketches, starring a character of Bill’s that debuted in an Italian hotel sketch from the preceding season’s Catherine Zeta-Jones episode.
— I probably said this in my review of the aforementioned Italian hotel sketch, but Bill’s fast-paced Italian gibberish is absolutely fantastic and sounds both funny and convincingly real.
— Funny cutaway to Fred as the producer and Will just silently sitting next to him while eating spaghetti and meatballs. I also like the back-and-forth arguing between Fred and Bill.
— Bill is a blast as this Vinny Vedecci character. And it still feels so rare at this point of Bill’s tenure to see him play the sole lead role in a sketch, so this is very refreshing.
— Great to see Bill work in his Kramer impression on SNL again. I also like him following it up with an intentionally-bad Jerry Seinfeld impression.
— The re-dubbed Old Christine clip is very funny.
— A lot of pretty fun nonsense at the end.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’re All I Have”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Seidlin’s (FRA) Justice Department commentary drifts to a zoo story
AMP drunk dials SEM after doing two shots for St. Patrick’s Day
— Oh no. An Update commentary from Fred as Judge Larry for THE SECOND DAMN EPISODE IN A ROW, and for no good reason this time. This was bad enough the first time.
— Ugh, tonight’s Judge Larry commentary is even more difficult to sit through than the first one, which is certainly saying something. The huge amusement the audience is getting from this makes me feel so lost.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Fred-as-Judge-Larry’s mention of the monkeys “with the plastic asses”, but then even THAT got ruined by him proceeding to repeat it several times afterwards.
— Boy, this Judge Larry bit is so bad and endless. This feels kinda like an unfortunate precursor to Fred’s later, past-his-prime seasons, where he’s given so much free rein to waste all the airtime he wants with unfunny, meandering, self-indulgent bits.
— I love Seth’s Anne Frank joke, as well as his great ad-lib afterwards.
— The extended drunk bit with Seth and Amy is a little weird and much longer than the usual Seth/Amy interaction pieces. I’m not even sure if I like it or not.
STARS: ***
DEEP HOUSE DISH
(MAR), (AMP), (KRW) & (JLD) & (JAS) perform their hits
— Amy continues her streak of appearing as a different singer in every single Deep House Dish that has aired up to this point.
— Hmm, I notice the Kenan/Andy interactions in tonight’s Deep House Dish thankfully don’t have Kenan yelling the usual “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”………..so far.
— Oh, I love the voice Julia’s using during her post-song interview. I’ve never heard her use that distinct voice before, nor did I know she was capable of talking like that.
— Hmm, a change of pace with Kenan’s character directing a special concerned message to the troubled Britney Spears (or, as Kenan’s character calls, “Britney Spurrs”).
— Oh, god. There goes the obligatory “Ooh-wee, T’Shane!”, after I gave them credit for not using it. At least they waited more than halfway into this sketch to unleash it on us.
— Jason is a blast during his musical performance, especially his dancing. Jason Sudeikis dancing = always fun to watch.
— Overall, slightly better than usual Deep House Dish sketches, even if that’s still faint praise from me.
STARS: **½
CBS CARES
unprofessional boom mic operator Jeff (JAS) bugs JLD during PSA taping
— Another big role tonight for the underused Bill Hader.
— The debut of these sketches with Jason as a douchey crew member and Bill as the director.
— A pretty good cheap laugh from Bill’s name being Mike Underballs.
— I love the negative tension between Jason and Julia. Jason has some great rude, uncalled-for remarks to Julia.
— I love how they keep playing the lighthearted CBS Cares jingle when each take gets ruined, which Bill’s eventually calls his sound crew out on.
— Whenever Bill angrily says the name of Jason’s character, Jeff, I absolutely love how he says it as “JYYYEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Very funny reveal of the below-the-camera part of Julia’s body that Jason is immaturely placing the boom mic over during the final take.
STARS: ****
HOMEBOTS
lottery winners’ (JAS) & (JLD) robots (WLF) & (FRA) have sex & break down
— Yet another big role for Bill tonight. So glad to see SNL finally giving him lots of airtime for once. Jason’s been getting some pretty strong airtime himself tonight.
— Pretty funny chaos from Robot Will’s actions.
— A very funny and out-of-left field turn with the two robots mentioning their robot genitals when contemplating how Robot Will is going to repay Robot Fred.
— Some good laughs from Julia and Jason trying to start a casual, friendly conversation with a disturbed Bill and Kristen during the loud robot sex noises.
— I love the audience’s groaning over the fluid-y pop sound at the end of the robots’ sex before they break down.
— It feels like Julia has been making quite a number of light stumbles over her lines throughout tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Cars”
THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL
mildly talented (KRW), (MAR), (AMP) want to be the next Pussycat Doll
— The timing in this sketch feels off so far.
— I love the shot of Maya just staring at the camera while doing nothing during the “Not write songs” part advertised in this reality show promo.
— Maya, Amy, and Kristen are all getting some laughs here.
— Pretty funny how the claim-to-fame listed under Andy’s character’s name, McKenzie Jazz, just states “Nobody”. However, a technical error occurs where the graphic of Andy’s character’s name and claim-to-fame is accidentally displayed again for Kenan (as you can see in the last two above screencaps for this sketch). I remember this gaffe made me wonder back at this time in 2007 what Kenan’s character’s name was supposed to be, and whether he was playing a woman or an effeminate man. I had to wait until the NBC rerun of this episode God knows how many months later to find out that the “character” Kenan was playing is actually Lil’ Kim, who, as we know, is a real person. (Oh, that reminds me: Kenan In A Dress alert.) So that makes this YET ANOTHER female celebrity who Kenan has done a terrible and unfunny impression of.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode started out strong with the cold opening and monologue, only to end up being an overall average episode. Not bad, and there were a few strong highlights, but the episode as a whole wasn’t all that memorable, and it pales in comparison to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ fantastic season 31 episode.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rainn Wilson)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Peyton Manning