Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
MCCAIN RECORDING SESSION
in a recording studio, John McCain (DAH) approves misleading attack ads
— Meh, some fairly hacky jokes early on regarding Darrell’s John McCain being out of touch with modern technology.
— Great use of Bill as a sarcastic announcer of attack ads.
— The ridiculous attack ads against Barack Obama are funny, especially the one comparing him to Charles Barkley.
— Some good bits with Kristen here, such as her explanation of the “tax benefits for pedophiles” claim that one attack ad made, and her knowingly responding “He won that election, right?” when Darrell’s McCain is about to negatively compare one of the anti-Obama attack ads to a ridiculous attack George W. Bush made on McCain during the 2000 presidential race.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Showing that he’s not yet used to saying newbie Bobby Moynihan’s name, Don Pardo mispronounces Bobby’s last name as “Monahan” tonight.
— Casey Wilson’s opening montage shot from all of the preceding live episodes she appeared in (first screencap below) has been replaced with a new shot tonight (second screencap below), which I believe remains her opening montage shot for the rest of her SNL tenure.
This new shot of Casey was actually previously used in a few NBC reruns of season 33 episodes (I was told that one of them was the reportedly heavily-edited rerun of the Ellen Page episode, a rerun of which I never saw myself), but tonight’s episode is the first time that shot has been used in a live episode.
MONOLOGUE
host has displaced Columbia University resident assistant (JAS) as BMOC
— Pretty fun use of Jason as a typical fratboy, and he fits this role well.
— Not much else to say about this monologue at all. Just average.
STARS: ***
THE COUGAR DEN
young musician (host) has a predilection for older women
— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Wow, the audience’s laughter is VERY tepid early on in this sketch. They don’t seem like they’re into this at all.
— Special guest Cameron Diaz has officially become a staple of this recurring sketch.
— The aforementioned surprisingly quiet audience has started getting into this sketch after a while.
— Kenan gets another killer one-liner in this recurring sketch, with his “sexual peak/beauty trench” slam at Amy, Kristen, and Casey’s characters.
— Overall, I found this sketch okay, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the first installment. To be honest, I’m not sorry that we’re only going to be seeing one more appearance of this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***
AGENT 420
stoned spy Agent 420 (host) bungles mission to investigate a laser
— Funny fake-out with 007 apparently being summoned.
— James Franco playing a variation of his character in the then-recent movie Pineapple Express, right down to wearing a similar wig and headband.
— A solid James Bond-esque theme song performed by Kristen.
— Blah, a few minutes into this sketch, and it’s been doing almost nothing for me so far. Just a whole bunch of lazy, lame stoner humor. Too bad, as the initial set-up to this actually seemed promising. This SNL era seems to be very poor at pulling off stoner humor, between the preceding season’s America’s First Colonists sketch (starring James’ Pineapple Express co-star Seth Rogen) and this Agent 420 sketch.
— (*groan*) Here we have yet another display of Fred’s classic Asian stereotype routine.
— Very weak ending. SNL themselves seem to agree, as they would alter the ending in reruns, by having the laser explosion be shown BEFORE Kristen performs the ending theme song (not that that made it any funnier).
STARS: *½
SIMPSON JURY SELECTION
unbiased jurors are hard to find for O.J. Simpson (KET) robbery trial
— I love Fred’s delivery of “Yeah, but he’s O.J.!” when it’s pointed out that he should’ve had no knowledge of the O.J. Simpson murders, given the fact that he had been locked in a bomb shelter since 1968.
— Good premise, and I’m loving how the potential jurors who shouldn’t have any knowledge of O.J. Simpson for one reason or another end up revealing they do, in fact, know about O.J. and the murders. A fun progression to that conceit.
STARS: ****
HEY! (MURRAY HILL)
both (host) & (Blake Lively) have little ding-dongs
— A very lame comedic conceit with James constantly mentioning his “tiny ding-dong” among his general angsty whining.
— My only laugh in this short so far came from Kristen’s deadpan annoyed facial reaction (the fourth above screencap for this Digital Short) to one of the many times James randomly mentions his “tiny ding-dong”.
— A random Blake Lively cameo (who we’ll be seeing hosting SNL the following season) in a bad ending gag involving her speaking in a comically-deep man’s voice.
— Overall, a big ol’ flop. Easily one of my least favorite Lonely Island-made Digital Shorts to air up to this point.
STARS: *½
THE LOOKER
TV show stars Penny Marshall (FRA) as interrogation expert The Looker
— While I’m beyond sick of Fred dressing in drag by this point of his SNL tenure, his non-verbal Penny Marshall impression is spot-on and is amusing me.
— A technical gaffe at the end of James’ scene, causing his final line to accidentally get drowned out by the next line from the pre-taped announcer.
— I like the short scene with Jason easily giving in and confessing simply due to The Looker putting on even smaller glasses.
— Andy is actually pretty spot-on here in his facial resemblance to Juliette Lewis.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sex On Fire”
WEEKEND UPDATE
destitute Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld (JAS) missed out on bailout
creepy American Apparel CEO Dov Charney (FRA) sexually harasses SEM & AMP
— A bad return of Update’s former habit of having Amy open every Update with one of her lamest, most tepid jokes of the night, a habit that Update had thankfully been moving away from for a while.
— A good premise for this Jason Sudeikis commentary, related to the notorious 2008 financial crisis.
— Jason is great here, as he typically is whenever he does an Update commentary.
— Funny bit with a clip of Dora The Explorer being voiced by Amy as Rosie Perez, an impression of Amy’s that I always love. This is also the second consecutive episode where Weekend Update had a bit in which Seth and/or Amy do an off-camera voice of someone during a brief segment.
— A very Will Ferrell-esque role for Fred.
— I can definitely see people being annoyed and bothered by Fred’s sleazy sexual harassment commentary, especially in today’s Me Too age, but his performance is cracking me up in spite of myself. While Fred’s no Ferrell when it comes to playing this type of role and making it still come off harmless enough in today’s age, he’s still making it work for me.
— Okay, Fred’s commentary has lost me towards the end. I especially didn’t care for the boob-grab bit he did with Amy. Also, not that I want to bring this up, but I can’t help but now notice the unfortunate coincidence of this sexual harassment commentary appearing in an episode hosted by James Franco. (Then again, doesn’t Franco’s season 43 episode have an actual Me Too-based office sketch, not too long before he would get Me Too-ed in real life?)
— Amy milking the dog-themed Law & Order “bomp-bomp” sound effect is both amusing me and annoying me at the same time.
— Ugh, Amy’s iffy night continues, as she now resorts to the hacky habit of explaining the punchline of one’s own joke, always a comedy sin.
STARS: **½
THE NEW YORK TIMES
city slicker New York Times reporters are ill-suited for Alaska datelines
— Kristen’s first line was funny.
— This is actually a good use of Darrell’s typically low-energy performance style.
— Though it’s a very little thing, I love Jason’s cocky smiling and tie-straightening in the background when James is introducing him. Jason has the ability to make even something as little as THAT come off amusing.
— A noteworthy appearance from Kumail Nanjiani as an extra with a few lines (the sixth above screencap for this sketch). This is years before he became well-known. I can’t remember the reason for him appearing in this sketch. I know he guest-writes for SNL at some point towards the end of season 37, but I’m not sure if he guest-wrote for this episode.
— Very funny running bit regarding Will’s paranoia of getting attacked by a polar bear.
— I love Bill’s overconfidence in his incorrect answers.
— This rather long, full-cast sketch (I think the only non-Seth cast member missing from this is Amy, who’s barely appeared in anything tonight in general, presumably because of her pregnancy) has Jim Downey’s fingerprints all over it, but I’m enjoying this more than Downey’s typical long-winded, full-cast political cold openings. It also helps that we’re getting a lot of interesting different characterizations from each cast member in this.
— Hooooo, boy. If Fred’s sexual harassment commentary in this episode’s Weekend Update has aged poorly, then that goes double for Bobby’s comedic bit here about being in the middle of a sex change transition. This SNL era in general REALLY seems to be doubling down on transphobic humor ever since the last quarter of the preceding season.
— A good laugh from how, after learning there will be no Thai food, Andy and Kenan react by looking at each other and then storming off in unison.
— During the epilogue at the end, I love the part about what happened to Will’s character.
STARS: ***
OF MICE AND MEN
in lost Of Mice And Men ending, Lennie (BOM) wishes he had been leveled with
— As I explained in my review of the Of Mice And Men parody in the season 19 John Malkovich episode, Of Mice And Men is my personal favorite book of all time, and I’m always a sucker for SNL’s spoofs of it. The fact that this particular spoof is written by then-new SNL writer John Mulaney is the icing on the cake.
— I love the turn with Bobby’s Lennie realizing he was lied to by James’ George, and slowly becoming wise to lots of things.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time complaining about how blatantly Bobby was staring at the cue cards all throughout this sketch (those complaints probably came from some of the many people who unfairly wrote Bobby off as a dud after the poorly-received Mark Payne sketch he starred in in his very first episode), but he deserves some slack cut for that, as he’s only in his second episode, and understandably has yet to master how to read off of cue cards without making it blatant. As we know now, Bobby wouldn’t become a notorious cue card-starer during his SNL tenure.
— An overall very funny and clever sketch. Only two episodes in, and Mulaney hits a SECOND home run. Bobby also continues to show a lot of promise in his second episode as well, and this sketch is closer than the preceding episode’s Mark Payne sketch was to representing the type of work Bobby will typically do on SNL.
STARS: ****
YANKEE STADIUM STORIES
Martin Scorsese (FRA) & Rosie Perez (AMP) say bye
— A variation of the New York City Stories three-part runner from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode, in which Fred and Amy played a different pair of celebrities in each part. One of the celebrity pairs they played in that runner was Martin Scorsese and Rosie Perez, who they’re also portraying in tonight’s Yankee Stadium Stories piece.
— This was actually cut from the preceding season’s finale. (You can tell even by just watching this that it must’ve been filmed at a much earlier time, given the fact that Amy’s belly is much less pregnant-looking.) Kinda odd, though, how SNL is airing this in the same episode in which Amy already does her Rosie Perez impression, in the Dora The Explorer bit on Weekend Update.
— A good laugh from the little scene with Fred and Amy’s Scorsese and Perez playing a game of baseball using a loaf of bread and a meatball.
— Fred’s Scorsese impression is coming off even funnier here than it did in the aforementioned New York City Stories piece.
— Overall, short and sweet.
— Much like the New York City Stories pieces, this Yankee Stadium Stories piece was originally supposed to be a three-part runner with Fred and Amy playing a different pair of celebrities in each part, but the other two parts don’t air. I think I recall one of them had Fred playing Gene Simmons, but that’s all I can remember from the details I read of it years ago.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Use Somebody”
DAFOE’S REVENGE
in host’s dressing room, Willem Dafoe (BIH) wants him to kill ANS
— Nice to see the underused Casey Wilson getting to do a scene as herself at the beginning of this, even if it’s just a small bit.
— I absolutely LOVE this concept, and it’s a very fun and creative use of a Willem Dafoe impression from Bill. Bill has been having a very strong night, by the way, which is so refreshing to see after how invisible he was in the preceding week’s season premiere, not to mention how constantly underused he was in his prior seasons.
— A very funny reason for Bill’s Dafoe wanting Andy Samberg dead.
— I love Bill’s delivery of “James, I played your father in a movie. YOU. OWE. ME.”
— Andy’s ridiculous Willem Dafoe “impression” feels like a nice throwback to/variation of the ridiculous celebrity “impressions” he did in his and Bill’s Impression-Off segment on Weekend Update from their very first episode.
— Funny bit with James incorrectly assuming a mirror is between him and Bill’s Dafoe when he throws a coffee mug towards Bill’s Dafoe.
— Great ending.
— Overall, an underrated Bill Hader sketch. This is one of my personal favorite things he’s ever done on SNL.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode. A few duds in the first half of the show, but the solid run of segments in the last 20 minutes of the show balanced it out.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Phelps)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Anna Faris