Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE ALL-BUT-CERTAIN-TO-BE NEXT PRESIDENT
patronizing presumed president Hillary Clinton’s (AMP) future is perfect
— Darrell makes his only appearance of this entire season premiere in a brief, mostly-silent bit as Bill Clinton at the beginning of this cold opening, proving to me back in 2007 how pointless it was for SNL to keep Darrell in the cast for YET ANOTHER season.
— Some laughs from Amy’s Hillary Clinton treating her chances of becoming the next president as a foregone conclusion.
— Amy’s Hillary wig looks different tonight, and, for some reason, it really emphasizes that dumb and pointless prosthetic nose that she wears as Hillary that I always complain about.
— I’m enjoying Amy-as-Hillary’s personal messages to each of her opponents, especially her biting remark about John Edwards.
— Amy’s Hillary: “In 2016, when I will have completed my second term as president—”. Considering what does end up happening to the real Hillary in regards to the 2016 elections, this feels odd to see in hindsight.
— This is starting to drag a little bit towards the end, and the audience apparently agrees with me.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— This is the second consecutive season premiere with no new cast members. The cast is the exact same as the preceding season.
— Yikes, Don Pardo’s microphone isn’t working during the first 20 seconds or so of this montage, though his voice can start to be heard VERY faintly under the music a short while before his mic volume gets turned way up. Then when his mic volume does get turned way up, the mic is still faulty for a short while, as it makes Don’s voice sound extremely hollow and muffled. Then the voice of who I assume is an SNL technician is heard exclaiming something quickly and then saying what sounds like “This mic is (*unintelligible word*).” Wow, this is an absolute mess.
MONOLOGUE
watching SNL in Akron, The LeBrons (host) evaluate host’s performance
— Pretty fun dancing entrance from LeBron James.
— Good bit with LeBron lying to those of us not familiar with basketball about how his Cavaliers swept the Spurs in that year’s NBA Finals, then advising those of us who are familiar with basketball to “be cool and shut up”.
— A good use of LeBron’s characters from a series of Nike commercials he did at the time.
— A big laugh from LeBron’s pretty-boy character saying, in regards to SNL, “I thought they canceled it after Eddie Murphy, too.”
— I’m particularly liking LeBron’s performance as the grumpy grandfather character.
— An overall short but sweet monologue.
STARS: ***½
ANGRY DOG
the canine-riling kibble has Michael Vick’s picture on the bag
— A very funny, pretty creative, and timely way to spoof the then-recent Michael Vick dog-fighting controversy.
— I love Will’s aggressive, bleep-filled message.
— I almost thought the old guy sitting by the fireplace with his dog was Fred Willard at first glance.
— Great facial reaction from Kristen to the scary face the dog makes at her.
STARS: ****
CHILDREN’S HOPE AUCTION
Penelope’s self-aggrandizement cramps host’s role as charity auction item
— Feels odd seeing Maya this season, partly because of how the preceding season’s finale made it seem like that was her final episode, and partly because she only appears in the first four episodes of this season before she does officially leave.
— SNL leads off this new season with one of the preceding season’s new, breakout characters.
— Penelope gets some good recognition applause in this third appearance of hers.
— Once again, despite the one-note nature of this character, I’m still enjoying these early sketches of hers.
— Kinda funny in retrospect hearing LeBron talk about growing a big beard, given the trademark (and now-graying) beard he has in more recent years.
STARS: ***
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: RETURN OF THE SENIORS
host & Zac Efron (ANS) portray rival basketballers
— Andy is pretty funny in his portrayal of Zac Efron’s High School Musical character. This also reminds me that, back when this episode originally aired, in the comments section of a review of this episode on one of those AV Club-type sites, somebody left a comment complaining that Andy didn’t “gay it up” enough as Efron in this sketch.
— Funny look of LeBron.
— Wow, until now, I (and I’m assuming just about everybody else) had completely forgotten about the nude picture controversy that Vanessa Hudgens (or, as she was called back then, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, according to this sketch) was in over the summer. This overly-topical portion of the sketch doesn’t hold up very well after all these years. Then again, I remember not finding it all that funny even when this originally aired.
— Despite some funny performances, there’s not much to this sketch.
STARS: **
IRAN SO FAR
ANS & Adam Levine [real] sing a ballad to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (FRA)
— A great and creative way to spoof Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial Columbia University speech that week.
— Ha, Adam Levine appearing for the second consecutive SNL episode (Maroon 5 was the musical guest in the preceding episode).
— This is incredibly well-shot. Such beautiful cinematography for a Digital Short, especially the occasional shots of Andy playing the piano on a moving platform on a bridge, which is impressive for SNL.
— Hilarious lyrics from Andy, accompanied by some great and funny cutaways of Fred’s Mahmoud.
— I love the very brief, silent, blink-and-miss-it cameo from Jake Gyllenhaal, stroking his beard and flashing a cool pose while staring into the camera with a bug-eyed look.
— I’m glad Lonely Island restrained themselves from throwing in a cheap, hacky man-on-man kiss between Andy and Mahmoud.
STARS: ****
READ TO ACHIEVE
unprofessional basketball-passer Jeff bugs host during PSA taping
— The Jeff/Mike Underballs sketch has officially become recurring. This is probably the most well-known and popular installment of this recurring sketch, perhaps partly due to it being aired in many of SNL’s Sports Extra compilation specials.
— And there goes Bill’s angry pronunciation of Jeff that I always love in these sketches: “JYYYYEEEEEEEFFFFF!”
— Great delivery from Jason on his rude line to LeBron just now: “You’re 22, right? Go sit at the kids table, have a juice box.”
— I laughed so hard at the book bit just now, with Jason randomly tossing LeBron a book instead of a basketball, which LeBron responds to by asking “What the hell is this?!?”, and Jason answers from off-camera by yelling “THAT’S A BOOK!”
— A particularly biting slam from Jason to LeBron: “We should get Dwyane Wade anyway, at least he’s got a ring.”
— I absolutely love the one-on-one game between LeBron and Jason, and how LeBron effortlessly shows Jason up and eventually gives him a much-deserved nosebleed.
— Fantastic sketch overall, and one of Jason’s all-time best.
STARS: *****
THE LYLE KANE SHOW
fellow dweebs (BIH) & (host) are out-of-place on BET
— The return of Will’s Lyle Kane character, after debuting just one episode ago in the preceding season’s finale. Interesting how not only has SNL made him recurring after only one episode, but he’s gotten spun-off from an ensemble sketch into his own sketch. I wish it wasn’t in the lazy and beyond-overused talk show format, but this Lyle Kane character seems like he can definitely still make the format of this sketch work.
— Already a laugh right at the start, with the theme music being badly played on a flute.
— This show being aired on BET, of all channels, is hilarious.
— I love how Lyle Kane keeps referring to BET as “the Black E.T. channel”.
— I said it before and I’ll say it again: the Forte/Hader duo is an underrated pairing that we should’ve seen much more often during their years in the cast together.
— Funny seeing LeBron talking in this type of voice and imitating Lyle Kane’s “Hi, derrrreee”s. For a non-actor, LeBron’s doing a good job in this goofy role.
— The “B.J.” question that LeBron relays to Lyle Kane is very funny, as is Lyle actually answering the question.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stronger” & “Good Life”
WEEKEND UPDATE
O.J. Simpson (KET) defends the reclamation of one’s sold property
(MAR) translates Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s (FRA) affinity for mannish women
— A very different and much shorter hairstyle from Amy this season. And no, I’m pretty sure it’s not a wig. I remember how, somewhere around this time, her and Tina Fey filmed an interview for an HBO (or one of those channels) special that gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the movie Baby Mama (released the following year in 2008), and during the interview, Amy had the exact same short hairstyle she has in these early season 33 Weekend Updates.
— Ugh, THAT’S the joke they open this season of Update with?
— Maybe it’s just the visual quality of this new season in general, but the Update set and lighting look darker than usual tonight.
— The debut of Kenan’s O.J. Simpson impression.
— A laugh from Kenan-as-O.J.’s lightheartedly exasperated “Grrrrrr!” in reaction to Amy not understanding his point.
— Seth’s smiling delivery of “No” when Amy asks him if he understands O.J.’s logic was very funny.
— Something about the way Seth followed the 9/11 punchline of his Rudy Giuliani joke by silently mouthing the term “9/11” again and staring at the camera with a smarmy smile, all the while the audience was reacting to the punchline, felt VERY David Spade-esque. I can totally picture Spade doing that whole thing in a Hollywood Minute segment.
— Hmm, Fred’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears a second time tonight? They’ll never top his appearance in the Digital Short from earlier tonight.
— Meh, a predictable and not-very-funny comedic conceit of this Mahmoud commentary, with his description of his ideal woman turning out to just be a description of men. Yeah, they should’ve just left the number of Fred’s Mahmoud appearances tonight at 1, with that far-superior Digital Short.
— Some pretty solid jokes throughout this Update, despite some occasional clunkers from Amy.
STARS: ***½
BEST OF SOLID GOLD
DVD highlights Solid Gold Dancers (MAR), (KRW), (AMP), (WLF), (host)
— Kenan playing a very effeminate male character with the gag name C. Micah Kring (See My Cock Ring)? AND introducing a Solid Gold spoof? Yeah, I don’t need to ask which person in SNL’s writing staff penned THIS sketch.
— Very funny inclusion of LeBron, of all people, as a Solid Gold dancer.
— I feel bad for Will having to follow LeBron’s entrance, as he’ll never top that. Poor Will had to resort to lots of mugging into the camera during his entrance in an attempt to get any kind of reaction from the audience after the huge response they had just given LeBron.
— LeBron is killing it in this sketch. His performance, delivery, and facial expressions are providing the only real amusement, as the humor of the rest of this sketch has run out of steam fast.
STARS: **
TV FUNHOUSE
“First Served, First Come” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo foils loo trap
— This ends up being the second-to-last TV Funhouse during TV Funhouse’s regular run.
— Holy hell! The return of the Ambiguously Gay Duo after a very long hiatus! This is much-needed at this point, given how much the quality of TV Funhouse has diminished in this late stage of its SNL run (with a few exceptions).
— Hmm, they shortened the usual AGD theme song.
— A timely tie-in to the Larry Craig toe-tapping/bathroom stall scandal going on at this time.
— I’m no prude, but the constant shots of characters groaning and straining on the toilet while having diarrhea feels unnecessary and too desperate for laughs, though I am chuckling at the odd detail of how the police officer inexplicably still has his pants fully on while using the toilet (the last above screencap for this TV Funhouse).
— A nice subversion of the usual “What’s everyone looking at?” “Nothing!” bit in these AGD cartoons.
— For some bizarre reason, Maya’s headshot that was used for a special occasion in the ending credits of the preceding episode’s TV Funhouse (because it was assumed by many at SNL that Maya was leaving) is still left intact in the ending credits of tonight’s TV Funhouse, despite the fact that 1) tonight is obviously NOT Maya’s final episode, and 2) Maya didn’t even do a voice in this cartoon.
STARS: ***½
106 & PARK TOP TEN LIVE
failure to win awards induces tantrums in musical guest
— A very strong and well-remembered sketch, with Kanye West making fun of his own penchant for interrupting people’s acceptance speeches at awards shows. The even funnier thing about that in hindsight is the fact that this sketch is two years before Kanye’s most infamous interruption of an acceptance speech: the Taylor Swift one at the 2009 MTV VMAs, which I guess proves that, while Kanye was certainly a great sport to do this 106 & Park sketch back in 2007, he did not learn his lesson AT ALL. I guess no matter what, Kanye’s gonna Kanye.
— Kanye: “I used to believe the children were our future…but (*bleep*) that!”
— For some reason, Bill’s very dry, droll, deep voice during his speech in the Nobel Peace Prize scene is cracking me the hell up, especially his delivery of the name George F. Smoot. (Then again, George F. Smoot is a funny name in itself.)
— The quiet and dignified Nobel Peace Prize ceremony suddenly getting crashed by Kanye yelling a very loud and jarring “AW, HELL NAH!” had me freakin’ howling.
— The pumpkin scene is particularly funny, especially the champagne in Kanye’s pumpkin.
— Despite the repetitive, one-note nature of this sketch, it’s still working very much for me. It’s all in the execution, and Kanye is perfect here.
— I like the meta turn with Kanye being shown backstage at SNL angrily ranting in his dressing room over the fact that LeBron is hosting instead of him. This is also rather prescient, as Kanye would later infamously end up going through a real-life angry backstage rant at SNL in his 2016 appearance (in an episode hosted by Melissa McCarthy), when finding out SNL’s crew changed the design of the musical guest stage after rehearsals without asking him in advance. (Audio of this rant was leaked online shortly after the episode aired.) This has probably been forgotten by most people in the wake of Kanye’s far-more-infamous onstage post-goodnights political rant at SNL two years later (in a season premiere hosted by Adam Driver).
— Kanye: “Man, give a black man…give a SHORT black man a chance!”
— Maya’s sign-off at the end seemed like it should’ve been funnier, instead of just the line “More screamiiiiiiiin’!” But I guess it doesn’t matter, when the rest of this sketch was as strong as it was.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champion” & “Everything I Am”
GREAT MOMENTS IN GUIDANCE COUNSELING
(JAS) steers host away from college
— Great to see another big Jason Sudeikis showcase tonight, after the fantastic Read To Achieve sketch from earlier tonight.
— Hilarious reveal of Jason sharing an office with a meek Will.
— Wow, SNL’s camerawork is an absolute MESS during this sketch. Not only does the camera constantly keep mistakenly cutting to close-ups of the wrong person when someone else is speaking, but we get one PARTICULARLY bad and jarring gaffe at one point, where the camera accidentally briefly cuts away from this sketch to a darkened part of SNL’s studio (screencap below), completely ruining the gag where Jason takes his diploma off the wall and dismissively throws it onto the floor. WTF?!?
Ehh, I chalk all the camera gaffes in this sketch up to the fact that this is a season premiere, and SNL’s control room crew understandably must be a little rusty after their summer break. I also assume that’s the reason for Don Pardo’s mic issues during the opening montage earlier tonight.
— I am absolutely loving Jason’s performance here.
— I like Jason’s constant threats to Will every time Will says something.
— Keeping up the bad technical issues in this sketch, this sketch ends in a very awkward manner, as if the people in the control room didn’t know when to fade out of the sketch. There’s actually a reason for this. This sketch was supposed to end with a brief preview of another “Great Moments in Guidance Counseling” scene, where a young Kanye West (complete with nerdy glasses and a high-pitched voice) is given advice by his high school guidance counselor, played by Kenan, but the show ran long and was forced to cut that ending scene at the very last minute. During the goodnights, both Kanye and Kenan can even be seen wearing their outfits for this sketch, which just goes to show you how last-minute the decision to cut their scene was. I’m not 100% sure, but I think in reruns of this episode, SNL would insert the original Kanye/Kenan ending scene from the dress rehearsal version of this sketch. I can’t remember if that rerun replaces this entire sketch in general with the dress version, but I assume it does, given the aforementioned bad camera gaffes that kept happening all throughout the live version of it.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good start to the season, and there was a nice number of strong sketches, including an all-time favorite of mine (Read To Achieve). LeBron James was also pretty good for an athlete host.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2006-07)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Seth Rogen