Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Gwen Ifill (Queen Latifah) & debaters Sarah Palin (TIF) & Joe Biden (JAS)
— Good to see Queen Latifah reprising the role of Gwen Ifill, which she previously played in a Dick Cheney/John Edwards vice presidential debate sketch when she last hosted SNL in 2004, a sketch that, fittingly enough, ended with Latifah’s Ifill saying “I’m going back over to Public Television with Jim Lehrer where you won’t be seeing me for another four years.” Sadly, the only reason Latifah is reprising her Gwen Ifill role four years later is seemingly because of SNL’s lack of a black female cast member this season. (Sure, Maya Rudolph was a cast member when Latifah last played Ifill in 2004, but I assume the reason SNL gave the Ifill role to Latifah instead of Maya that night is not only because they wanted to work the host into the sketch, but because SNL couldn’t pass up the coincidence that a black woman happened to be hosting their show the same week they needed someone to play Ifill. Plus, Latifah has more of a resemblance to Ifill than Maya does.) IIRC, this decision to bring Latifah in a cameo tonight to play Ifill ended up really opening the media’s eyes to SNL’s lack of a black female cast member at the time (these people in the media also seemed to be completely unaware that Latifah had actually played Ifill before), leading to a few (or maybe just one, I can’t remember) articles criticizing SNL for their lack of diversity in the cast. A month later when Michelle Obama becomes First Lady-elect, the number of these articles on SNL’s lack of diversity would increase, as these article authors felt it was important for SNL to have a black female cast member to play Michelle. How does SNL answer these criticisms? By announcing the hiring of two white female cast members a week later (Michaela Watkins and Abby Elliott). Make of that what you will, folks. Nah, I don’t REALLY think SNL’s hirings of Michaela and Abby was an intentional “Fuck you” to the media. (Though if it was, it’s kinda amusing in hindsight what a huge contrast that is to how SNL would take similar media criticisms five years later in 2013, when SNL would cave in and famously hold mid-season auditions for a black female cast member.) Oh, and yes, I’m aware Michaela and Abby’s hirings probably had more to do with Amy’s pending departure. By why hire TWO women to replace Amy when you already had the still-pretty-new Casey Wilson, still struggling for airtime? I’ve always looked at the double-hiring of Michaela and Abby as a sign of Lorne having a huge and unearned lack of confidence in Casey as a performer. Wow, I am getting more and more off-topic in this long-winded tangent of mine.
— Funny bit with an “unbiased” Latifah-as-Ifill plugging her Obama book.
— As usual, Tina’s Sarah Palin is killing here. And, while seemingly not as well-remembered or quoted among viewers as the Palin portions of this sketch, Jason’s Biden is holding his own here and has a good share of strong lines.
— Some really good facial reactions from Latifah’s Ifill after some of Tina-as-Palin’s inane spiels.
— Tina’s Palin: “I believe marriage should be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers…”
— There’s the famous “Oh, are we not doing the talent portion?” part with a flute-holding Tina-as-Palin. This is the moment that, for me, officially propels this already excellent debate sketch to an all-out classic.
— I love the “Joe Biden…is better…than THAT” part of Jason-as-Biden’s closing statements.
— Great ending line from Tina’s Palin: “And for those Joe Six-Packs at home playin’ a drinking game: maverick.”
— Overall, not only yet another SNL Palin cold opening that knocked it out of the park, but this is one of my personal favorite debate sketches SNL has ever done.
STARS: *****
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Back when this originally aired, I remember being surprised that Anne Hathaway was willing to make light of the scandal she had recently been in in regards to a boyfriend of hers. In hindsight, her being willing to do that is ALREADY a good sign of what a great sport she’s going to be as an SNL host.
— The Nigerian prince premise isn’t all that great, but Anne’s delivery and execution of the material is making it charming enough.
STARS: ***
THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
Dooneese (KRW) is sisterly quartet’s freak
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Back when this originally aired, I recall not caring for this debut, and dismissing it as another example of how the “wacky Kristen Wiig character” trope was going more and more downhill. I would end up disliking this sketch even more when it would become recurring. I’ll try to keep an open mind in my current viewing of this sketch.
— An impressively pretty fast costume change for Anne, given the fact that this sketch is appearing immediately after the monologue, with no break in between.
— The audience actually applauds when Amy’s non-comedic character introduces herself, which I guess shows how popular of a veteran Amy is by this late stage of her SNL tenure. I feel bad for Casey receiving absolute silence from the audience when she follows Amy’s intro with her own intro.
— A funny reveal of what the last sister, Dooneese, looks like.
— Pretty fun performance from Kristen, and this sketch is being executed pretty well.
— I remember an online SNL fan having a theory that the name of Kristen’s Dooneese character was actually supposed to be a certain other, much more normal-sounding name (I forget the name), but Dooneese ended up becoming her regular name because of a line flub Anne Hathaway made in this sketch when saying Kristen’s character’s name while angrily yelling at her. I don’t agree with this theory, because I haven’t noticed any inconsistency or flubbing of Kristen’s character’s name during my current viewing of this sketch. Kristen introduced herself as Dooneese right from when she was first shown in this sketch, and Anne didn’t seem to mess up on the name of Kristen’s character at all during the aforementioned part with her angrily yelling at Dooneese. (And yes, I’m watching the live version of this episode, not the rerun, though I don’t recall any changes being made to the rerun version of this sketch.)
— Overall, not a bad debut at all. I felt that this flowed much better than some of the other wacky Kristen Wiig sketches that have aired around this time (late season 33, early season 34). I’m glad I was able to come around on this inaugural appearance of Dooneese’s. This definitely now works for me as a one-off sketch. As a recurring character, however? Mm. I’ll still try to keep an open mind like I did in tonight’s installment, but if the subsequent Dooneese appearances are as repetitive and redundant as I remember, don’t expect glowing reviews from me.
STARS: ***½
BAILOUT PRESS CONFERENCE
Nancy Pelosi’s (KRW) financial sympathy cases don’t deserve a bailout
— Jason makes his first George W. Bush appearance in over a year. This also ends up being the final appearance his Bush makes during Bush’s presidency. (He has just one remaining appearance after that, long after Bush’s presidency, in a Weekend Update commentary he does with then-cast member Jay Pharoah as Kanye West.)
— Funny Barney Frank voice from Fred.
— I almost thought Kristen’s Nancy Pelosi introduced Bobby’s character under the name Michael McKean, interestingly enough. Turns out his character is named Michael McCune.
— I’m enjoying the faces Jason’s Bush is seen making in the background during other people’s speeches.
— Much like the New York Times sketch from the James Franco episode earlier this season, this appears to be a rather long, mostly-full-cast (I think Andy is the only non-Seth cast member missing from this), Jim Downey-written political sketch. And much like the New York Times sketch, this is a rare example of me liking that type of rather long, mostly-full-cast, Jim Downey-written political sketch from this era.
— Amy gets another big audience reaction with her mere walk-on, though she did do something funny this time to earn the big reaction.
— Darrell and Casey is SUCH an odd pairing.
— Speaking of Darrell and Casey, their segment in this sketch would end up causing controversy. The couple they’re playing, Herbert and Marion Sandler, is actually a real-life couple, and during this portrayal of them by Darrell and Casey, a graphic of the names Herbert and Marion Sandler is displayed on the bottom of the screen with a subtitle saying “people who should be shot”. The real Herbert and Marion Sandler ended up taking huge offense to the “people who should be shot” bit, and, IIRC, threatened legal action against SNL and/or NBC. SNL was forced to remove Darrell and Casey’s entire segment from all reruns of this sketch, in a VERY glaring edit. This results in Darrell and Casey being seen standing with the other characters in the background throughout this entire sketch, but never getting their own segment to speak in, unlike the other characters they were standing in the background with, rendering Darrell and Casey’s presence in this sketch completely pointless.
— I love Will’s voice as George Soros, and he has some really funny lines here.
STARS: ***½
BOYS NIGHT OUT
music helps (BOM) & (host) make a connection on the dance floor of a club
— I’m liking this dance sequence with Bobby and Anna, even if there are no jokes within it. This dance sequence is also a pretty fun showcase for newbie Bobby.
— Now we get an actual joke, with Bill, Fred, and Kenan’s slow-motion cheering-on of Bobby being walked past by Andy in normal motion, and him briefly looking back at them with a puzzled look. Funny bit.
— Overall, kind of an odd sketch, mainly in how few and far in-between the jokes were, and how, at first glance, this sketch almost comes off a tad pointless, but I enjoyed it. Not sure if this can be considered a slice-of-life sketch, but I liked the realism in certain portions of it, especially Bobby and Anne’s conversation with each other after their dance sequence.
STARS: ***
EXTREME ACTIVITIES COMPETITION
WLF referees Extreme Activities Competition pitting ANS against KRW
— Ooh, you can already tell right from the beginning that this is going to be a lot of fun.
— The format of this feels kinda like it’s intended to be in the tradition of the Andy Popping Into Frame and People Getting Punched Just Before Eating shorts (both of which I love). The only thing missing from tonight’s short is a continuation of the story arc in which there’s some kind of rivalry/friction between Andy and Will, one of the best aspects of the Popping Into Frame and People Getting Punched shorts.
— This is such a blast so far.
— I particularly love the “Become Jane” bit involving Anne, a nod to her role in the movie Becoming Jane.
— I just now realized how rare it feels seeing Kristen star in a Lonely Island Digital Short. And seeing how fun she is here, it makes me wish she did stuff like this with the Lonely Island a lot more often during her SNL tenure.
— Strong ending regarding Will’s referee character.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Human”
WEEKEND UPDATE
WLF intends to document every bailout package yea & nay vote via song
— Seth’s joke about O.J. Simpson being found guilty for “armed robbery, assault, and kidnapping, but really murder” has stuck with me over the years. It’s definitely the type of O.J. joke Norm Macdonald would’ve done back in the day. Even the structuring and wording of the joke feels Norm-esque.
— Will being introduced under the name Orville Willis Forte IV when appearing as himself here seems to confuse some SNL fans, who assume Will was randomly using a fake name here. Orville Willis Forte is actually Will’s real, full name. I’m not sure if the “IV” at the end of the name is also real, or if he just added it for comedic effect in this Update commentary to make his naturally old-timey, fancy-sounding name sound even more old-timey and fancy. Can anyone confirm if his name really does end with an “IV”? Thanks in advance.
— Yes, a traditional Will Forte Update song! I just now realized we didn’t get any at all in season 33.
— A fun and ridiculously-repetitive yea/nay song from Will.
— I love Will’s passive-aggressiveness in regards to Amy interrupting his song.
— A good laugh from Will actually restarting his ridiculously long song from the beginning.
— I think that’s then-writer Colin Jost (sporting long hair AND some stubble) making YET ANOTHER appearance in a comical Update photo, this time in the ostriches photo (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— I love the bit right now with Amy constantly re-telling the “world’s heaviest man gets married” joke, with a different punchline each time. This bit with telling the same joke multiple times with a different punchline would end up being an occasional recurring gag that Amy and Seth, or just Seth alone, would do in some future Updates. I think even Cecily Strong does it at one point when she’s Seth’s co-anchor during Seth’s final season.
— Great fake-out with Seth initially having a disapproving reaction to Amy doing various punchlines to the “world’s heaviest man gets married” joke, only to end up doing one himself.
— Overall, I feel this was Seth and Amy’s strongest Update in a long time.
STARS: ****
SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS
Mary Poppins (host) is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious disease vector
— Fitting casting of Anne in this role, given the connection Anne has to Julie Andrews.
— A solid dark turn with Anne-as-Mary-Poppins’ explanation of what supercalifragilisticexpialidocious means.
— I love Bill innocently saying “Must be your cooking, Mary Poppins” in regards to his stomachache. I also love Anne-as-Poppins’ guilty facial reaction to that line.
— Another great turn, with Will’s Constable Jones also having contracted the disease from Mary Poppins.
— I always find Bobby and Casey to be a fun pair whenever they’re teamed together in a sketch.
STARS: ****
SIOUX CITY NEWS 3
gaffe-prone Sioux City TV news team is number one in YouTube viral videos
— Coincidentally, this sketch about news bloopers opens with a REAL blooper, with the screen accidentally freezing on Jason’s pre-taped intro shot for an absurdly long time while he’s speaking live.
— A fun concept of this sketch, and the execution is good. It’s even more fun to guess which real-life famous news blooper each scene is seemingly spoofing. The one that’s easiest to guess is the one with Bobby panicking and falling on the floor when the lizard (or iguana) jumps onto his suit. The real-life version of that scene is a very famous and frequently-seen YouTube clip.
— Amy’s scene didn’t work for me, but it was brief enough to not negatively affect this otherwise solid sketch.
— I remember someone in an online live discussion thread for this episode back in 2008 speculating that Will vomiting during the group shot at the end may not have been a spoof of a real news blooper, but rather a spoof of a real photo of a children’s hockey team posing together in a group shot. One of the little boys in that photo started vomiting right as the photo was snapped.
STARS: ****
MARK WAHLBERG TALKS TO ANIMALS
Mark Wahlberg (ANS) talks to a dog, a donkey, a chicken, a goat
— Oh, here’s an absolute classic. I had completely forgotten until now that this sketch comes from this episode.
— Such a priceless random concept, made even funnier by Andy executing it with a hilarious performance as Mark Wahlberg.
— Andy’s Wahlberg to a donkey: “You eat apples, right? I produce Entourage.”
— I literally cannot stop laughing during this sketch.
— Andy’s Wahlberg throughout this sketch: “Say hi to your mutha for me, alright?”
— Overall, an absolutely perfect sketch.
— This sketch would famously end up pissing off the real Mark Wahlberg, who would publicly complain about it (and, in the process, say the usual cliched “SNL hasn’t been funny in years” criticisms, and, at one point, even imply the then-current SNL cast is a group of no-names, by saying “I don’t even know who’s on the show anymore”), which somehow leads to SNL bringing him on in a cameo in the next live episode, with him attempting to prove he’s a good sport after all. Some people online back at this time in 2008 speculated that this whole thing with Wahlberg publicly complaining about SNL’s Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals sketch was a publicity stunt devised by SNL themselves, and that Wahlberg’s “complaints” was his and SNL’s stealth way of setting up the cameo spot that SNL had secretly pre-arranged for him to make. Honestly, I don’t have a hard time believing that theory. Walhberg doesn’t seem thin-skinned enough to be offended by such a silly, harmless sketch, but then again, I admittedly don’t know much about Wahlberg’s real-life personality.
STARS: *****
I’M NOT GAY
(JAS) pretended to be gay for five years in order to be (host)’s roommate
— Interesting reveal that Anne’s gay roommate of several years was actually just pretending to be gay.
— Anne, on how convinced she was that Jason was gay: “But you cut my hair!” Jason: “Yeeaaahhh, I got REALLY lucky with that one!”
— Hilarious bit about Jason having made up a fake Wikipedia page about the non-existent disorder “boner-plasia”, in an attempt to fool Anne in regards to why he would always get erections whenever he and Anne would dance together.
— When Anne tells Jason she previously walked in on him having sex with men multiple times, I love Jason bluntly responding “Yeah, you gotta sell it! You gotta sell it!”
— After also being “outed” as straight, a depressed Bill gets a great laugh from the audience (and me) with his slow heterosexual strut as he’s making his exit.
— We get a display of Jason’s natural singing talent. He has a fantastic singing voice, a fact that I often forget.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Spaceman”
THE LESS PROVOCATIVE SONGS OF KATY PERRY
Katy Perry’s (CAW) less provocative songs lack girl-kissing scandal
— A rare solo lead role for Casey. This sketch was actually cut after dress rehearsal from almost EVERY prior episode this season, IIRC. Reminds me of the story of how Jay Mohr had to endure his Rock & Roll Real Estate Agent sketch getting cut from multiple consecutive episodes before finally making it on the air. I wonder if, much like Jay when that sketch finally aired, Casey is just plain tired and frustrated by this point from performing this Katy Perry sketch so many consecutive weeks.
— In hindsight, this sketch serves as an interesting snapshot of a time where Katy Perry was known only for the song “I Kissed A Girl”, and how a lot of people back then (including myself, I admit) incorrectly assumed she had “one-hit wonder” written all over her.
— I like Casey’s Katy Perry just helplessly shrugging at the camera after her very brief “I Saw A Boat” song.
— I love the review from Rolling Stone that simply states “No.”
— An overall decent sketch, but not the standout great sketch that Casey desperately needs by this point. (I still don’t understand how that fantastic paraplegic stripper sketch from near the end of the preceding season didn’t end up leading to a big break for Casey.)
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first strong episode of this season. (By the way, given this season’s reputation among many SNL fans for being very solid, I’ve been surprised to see what a slow start it’s had before tonight’s episode.) Not only did every single segment tonight work for me, but I found a lot of them to be particularly strong, especially the impressive streak of sketches rated 4-5 stars in the post-Weekend Update half. Even Update itself got a 4-star rating, too. In fact, every rated segment from the Digital Short to the I’m Not Gay sketch received a 4-5-star rating. That’s GOTTA be one of the longest uninterrupted streaks of segments receiving a 4-5-star rating in a review of mine.
— Anne Hathaway was a great first-time host, being funny, likable, charming, and fitting into the show really well. Even during her goodnights speech, her expressed genuine appreciation and joy for the experience SNL gave her was heartwarming. I look forward to her subsequent hosting stints.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anna Faris)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Josh Brolin
I seem to remember that James Anderson wrote the “Boys Night Out” sketch. With Bobby, maybe?
Two things:
1. The Mary Poppins sketch was so strong that it ended up being moved to the front of the show before The Killers’ first song. I was puzzled as to why it was placed post Update to begin with.
2. Yes, Orville Wills Forte IV is Will Forte’s real full name.
While I don’t think Lorne hired two white women specifically to send a message to people who complained about lack of diversity (I think he was doing with Casey/Michaela/Abby what he did with Siobhan Fallon/Melanie Hutsell/Beth Cahill, where he just tried them out and then kept one), I wouldn’t be surprised if that played some part. It took 6 years, Kenan and Jay Pharoah refusing to dress in drag, and Kenan getting heavy backlash for trying to defend the show for Lorne to change his mind. Generally you either get stonewalling or a passive-aggressive response (like Tina’s season 43 finale monologue). That’s one of the reasons I was surprised they actually did let Shane Gillis go, but that’s a whole other topic…
Agree on Casey and Bobby being an underrated pair I wish we got to see more of, I recall hearing about a cut sketch that sounded funny with the two of them as homely stand-ins or body doubles during a sex scene for whoever was playing the more attractive actors they would stand in for. Casey’s airtime so far hasn’t been as bad as I remembered, I think it really didn’t take a hit until the new arrivals came in, I would assume if the Katy Perry sketch aired a month or so later Abby more likely would’ve played the role, as I think she did later end up playing Perry a season or two later. Casey generally seemed to do better in the female hosted episodes, which surprisingly Anne Hathaway is the last for quite some time and I think there’s only one more later this season with Rosario Dawson, thats gotta be a record low for female hosts in a single season.
Odd that I have no memory of that gay roommate sketch with Jason, but I could swear I remember a very similar sounding premise like that on a sketch from Mad TV, I wanna say?
I recall some of Casey Wilsons haters at the time complaining about the way she was singing in this episode, particularly in the Lawrence Welk and Katy Perry sketches. I personally always liked that funky vibrato she does, her and Maya Rudolph (fittingly since she was her replacement) both have that in common, doing the whole comedically singing over the top thing really well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiOARiq9orw
She got to put her funny singing to better use on other shows and in a lot of random Comedy Bang Bang bits (tv show and podcast) over the years- that Les Mes Cheez-It ad never fails to make me laugh . I personally miss the original “Close Up The PlugBag” song from her and Ken Marino from the old days of Comedy Bang Bang. (thats a good song!) With much respect to Ben Schwartz and Horatio Sanz.
Now that you mention it, I do remember a MAD TV sketch about six years prior to the one from this episode where Will Sasso and Bobby Lee play two straight buddies pretending to be a gay couple for many many years even going into old age together. They do this because Sasso’s character operates under the extremely mistaken assumption that straight womens’ biggest turn on is to “convert” gay men. Speaking of sketches that both MAD TV and SNL did that were eerily similar to each other, MAD TV did their own Katy Perry “I Kissed A Girl” parody maybe a week or so prior to this that mainly involved Nicole Parker as Ellen Degeneres
Oh yes, thats gotta be the one I’m thinking of. Couldn’t remember the exact details, but was thinking it was a Will Sasso sketch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPrKrnKLCBM
Been revisiting that show a bit on HBO Max recently, even though a lot of their sketches have a real “middle school edgelord” feel rewatching it as an adult, a lot of Sasso’s still makes me laugh pretty hard. In an alternate universe he could’ve been SNL’s Farley for the early 2000s if they discovered him instead.
I agree that this is the first strong episode for S34. It’s surprising considering that this was the end of a four week streak. They must’ve been real burnt out after this. Everything works for me in some capacity except for I’m Not Gay.
Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals is definitely a classic and the standout moment from the episode. I hope the thing about Wahlberg’s angry response being a publicity stunt isn’t true, because that’s kinda uncool on both his and SNL’s part (though Wahlberg has definitely done significantly more uncool things than agreeing to that.)
I don’t know what’s up with the show’s lack of trust in Casey. She wasn’t that bad at all. In James Franco’s SNL documentary they show her doing a sketch at the script readthrough that bombs hard, but I doubt that was the case with her every single week. She’s not stumbly or annoying so I don’t know why she got so neglected, along with Abby Elliott later in the season. Abby was there four times as long as her father and yet she still got the rawer deal. S32 and S33 did a better job with representing the entire cast, so it sucks that from here on out you get that classic SNL case of at least one or two cast members struggling for substantial airtime each season.
This was the episode I really started to think Bobby reminded me of Farley a bit, in the Mary Poppins bit especially, maybe it was just the blonde wig. His impressive dance move (especially for a big guy) maybe was what made me think of Farley a bit too. I guess with the somewhat longer hair he actually resembled Belushi quite a bit too in those earlier shows.
One thing about the Dooneese sketches (and Gilly) is that that Kristen seems to be playing a little bigger and more to the audience in the later installments; I thought her original characterizations worked better.
I always liked Casey; she brought something different to the mix than Kristen or Amy did, and it’s a shame the show started to sideline her so quickly after Amy went on mat leave.
Looks like the short lived experiment of framing the show for 4:3 ends with this episode as the graphics, bumpers, and blocking returns to the HD 16:9 ratio.
I don’t have a ton to say about this good episode–in regards to some of the points made:
-I think Lawrence Welk was a really funny one-off. I remember loving it at the time. I agree it tanks pretty hard in its follow-up installments, mostly because it follows the same stupid formula that doesn’t work once you know the surprise. I think in some of the character’s later appearances, she gets placed in different settings, but by then, she was too played out.
-The press conference/bailout sketch was really good and underrated–it had some real bite and perhaps is one of the few sketches from this period that could be construed as “pro Bush.” I laugh a lot at Amy’s “whazzzzup?” and the George Soros appearance.
-My take on the Wahlberg/SNL beef is that probably Wahlberg wasn’t actually THAT legit pissed, but may have been a little annoyed and didn’t really get the sketch (particularly if he didn’t know anything about Andy’s humor). Anyway, I guess you can possibly add him to the list of people “who appeared on the show after being angry that they had been made fun of” (which unfortunately will eventually include Dan Crenshaw).
The bit with the Sandlers was removed in the network rerun and from NBC.com, I don’t recall the sketch being included when this episode ran in the SNL vintage time slot. The version that appeared on Seeso contains the Sandler part without the “People who should be shot” graphic
@Jack, do you know what was in the Vintage repeat? I can guess at a few things (the Digital Short, the cold open, probably the Mary Poppins sketch) but didn’t watch it.
60 minute Vintage cut Bailout (which was the cold open at dress and then swapped places with Vice Presidential Debate for the live show), Boys Night Out, I’m Not Gay, Katy Perry Album and The Killers performing Spaceman.
Thanks, @Jack. That makes sense from their point of view as I’m sure those were the most popular bits.
It can’t be overstated how hard this debate sketch crushes. From top to bottom every joke lands. I’m less fond of debate sketches as direct parody, but this definitely in the top 3 ever for me and far and away the best of the Palin sketches (with apologies to the Palin/Clinton open). We know the hell that the cameo parade wrought, but in ’08, it really did kind of seem worth it.
I think, in a vacuum, the first Dooneese sketch is very strong. Then again, you can’t watch it in a vacuum, can you? Honestly, if they had changed up the format AT ALL after the first installment, it would have held it’s power, but we are now fully immersed in the era of Ctrl+C – Ctrl+V sketch writing at SNL. It’s a shame, I think this first edition on its own is really strong and a highlight in a season full of highlights.
The Bailout sketch is a pretty broad Downey swipe in a season with a handful. There are some good digs, although there is something jarring about SNL so desperately trying to do “both sides” comedy. I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing, and this scene plays more pointedly than the muddled NYT sketch from the Franco episode, but it’s also funny to get a snapshot of the kind of conservative resentments that curdled into total Trumpism less than a decade later.
The dance sketch is a nothing. It’s aimless and hurried, feeling more like a ten-to-one piece that endured a sizable last minute edit. Stunned it plays so early in the episode, seemingly fully intact.
The Digital Short is the kind of silliness I love from this era, with the “Hate the Referee” twist being a particularly potent joke. Great piece.
It’s funny, Seth’s OJ joke always stuck with me too. Very Norm, though Norm’s deliver would have had a little extra, you know, Norminess.
Forte’s Update piece is so great too. His weird scolding of Poehler being from another culture is representative of how so many Forte pieces involve extended detours away from the pieces primary joke (think Dancing Coach’s pee talk). It’s something about his work that I love. A great Update overall.
The back half of the show is just a bunch of sturdy pieces that really help to elevate the show beyond just it’s two most famous pieces. The Mark Wahlberg piece has kind of been lost to the sands of time (and the next episode’s walk-on is more off-putting than enjoyable – a theme for the episode), but it captures a lot of the dumb, simple goofiness that Samberg could so effectively pull off. A piece like that really helps to round out the episode, adding another voice to an effectively varied episode.
This ep has to be why Tina won the Emmy, no? It masterfully punches down without being too mean — the third grade class helping with debate prep, the dig at the moral hypocrisy of Palin being against same-sex marriage while her teenage daughter was unmarried and pregnant. Of course it’s weird to look back in hindsight, but Palin’s initial popularity was because of how charismatic she was, and Tina, not known for playing flashy characters, is able to channel that here.
Weird to think an “Anne” hosted right after an “Anna” and that Anne hosted only two episodes after her notorious Oscars co-host James Franco.
The cold open is pleasing in large part because I think this is the one that actually manages to most effectively lampoon Sarah Palin (before that became completely cliched) – the first two pieces are strong (maybe even stronger than this one), but also rely on her own words or on viewers appreciating the sight of Tina-as-Palin. This manages to take us to a sillier place that can still be believable, like Palin playing the flute for the talent portion. While Biden is a support figure, Jason Sudeikis does a great job as well. He recently said that the fake teeth do the work, but he does himself a disservice – he nails the bravado, but doesn’t overplay it, allowing others to shine. Queen Latifah is also fun in her reaction shots and with the book plug. I already posted the interview back when Queen played Gwen Ifill in 2004, but there’s an interview with Ifill where she talks about running into her at an event post-2004 and asking if she would get to play her again, with Queen replying that she hopefully would if they had a reason. Glad Ifill got to see this one more time as she was clearly amused by the whole thing.
This is a more solid episode than the first 3 of this season, helped by the debate sketch and the Digital Short (another example of how much more I tend to enjoy their lo-fi efforts and perfect use of Kristen and Will), and a few other bits in the front half. Overall I don’t think the rest of the material lived up to the better moments of the earlier episodes (like the OJ sketch in the Franco ep or the Scores sketch in Faris’ ep), and the back half suffers from the “modern problems” feeling of SNL – namely the, “OK…and…?” problem.
The club sketch I would be happy to call slice-of-life – the closest we will get these days, anyway. I’d also call it a better version of that very awkward “booty rap” sketch Chris Pratt and Aidy Bryant did (also featuring Bobby Moynihan). Bobby and Anne make the dancing seem as infectious as it is goofy, and the slo-mo is used to good effect. The fakeout ending before she tells him that yes, she does want to go home with him also works. This is one of the main sketches of the night that feels complete, and also the one that goes beyond Anne singing and reacting, or Anne just being there.
I do agree with @Carson about the blatant “both sides” feel of the press conference sketch, but once I get past that, and Fred’s shameless mugging, there are some good moments, mainly in the biting populist feel which is out of the norm for SNL. It’s unfortunate that the most biting part (Casey and Darrell’s roles) had to be removed because of such a shocking oversight on the show’s part. I will say that the choice of having George Soros as some suave Bond villain (he does…not look like that in real life) is odd, especially as it feels like it’s playing into all the raging conspiracy theories about him (I don’t remember if they were as heavy at this point as they are now).
While we’re talking about Forte, his Update song is not only entertaining, but a good subversion – you expect the wacky song but instead the whole joke is everything surrounding the song. Feels like the first time in a while he’s gotten his voice in the mix. For a moment I wondered if Amy would respond forcefully to him, given the escalating conflict and him talking down to her as part of the bit, but it was another case where wanting to be liked by the viewers took precedence to the joke (maybe that’s for the best, as Jane Curtin was the only anchor who could ever pull that off anyway).
The only real dud of the first half (probably of the whole episode) for me would be the Dooneese debut. Yes, it’s better than some later installments, I guess, but it’s still a one-note character with an ear-bleeding voice, with a ton of cast (not to mention the host) essentially just watching her mug. This isn’t even the first Wiig character to get this type of treatment – it’s Penelope all over again. Much as I disliked all the repeat Matt Foley sketches, at least that was the only Farley recurrer who called for so many around him to have no voice of their own. The most interesting parts of these for me tend to be the revolving door of sisters. Otherwise they pale so much in comparison to the variety show parodies from 05-06 which managed to get use out of almost the whole cast as well as the host.
The Mary Poppins and “I’m Not Gay” sketches both feel like someone had an idea and then didn’t go further. I wish they had tried Casey in the lead role, rather than Anne, because while I like Anne fine (an underrated host who has some great turns in her second and third shows), she feels very bland in this part. Casey was able to bring a certain edge to her roles when given the chance, which would have helped flesh out the concept of Mary Poppins casually singing about having VD and her sexual partners finding out that she gave them VD. As it is, we have Mary barely reacting to anything, and Bill and Will barely reacting to anything, so beyond “what if Mary Poppins had a lot of sex and had sexually transmitted diseases,” there is no actual joke to be found. It all has that “dead” feeling that I tend to dread most with modern SNL.
The “I’m Not Gay” sketch is somewhat better for me, mostly thanks to Jason’s more filled-out performance and because of some of the side gags (like Jason revealing that he’d slept with 50 men for the sake of realism, or Anne pointing out that he cut her hair and his saying he just got lucky, as viewers are allowed to see [without being told clunkily] that her hair is a rat’s nest), but it also doesn’t go anywhere. It’s not that a sketch has to always go somewhere, but if you base something solely around one idea, then the idea should be better put together if you aren’t going to expand on it. Like @RICKROLLED said, this does remind me of a Mad TV sketch, although they would have heavily escalated the sketch (like a sketch Michael Macdonald did where he was pretending to be a lesbian so he could have sex with a lesbian). I’m not sorry they avoided that here – if the sketch had ended with Anne deciding to sleep with Jason, or whatever, it would have just been dumb and unearned – but at least I would have understood the point here. The part I enjoyed most was hearing Jason sing, which we’ll get another glimpse of in Anne’s season 38 monologue.
The Katy Perry sketch is a harmless enough bit which Casey is alright in (I did laugh at the end where she’s holding a cat and suddenly talks about making out with a lesbian golfer), but there are a few problems. One is that this type of tone in a sketch had become much less common by this time on SNL (just compare it to the other one-off in this episode – Andy’s wonderful Mark Wahlberg spoof, which is pitched firmly within the wheelhouse of current viewer expectation), and the other is that the past cast members who tried this type of piece, like Adam Sandler in his last few seasons, were already very known and popular with fans. Casey didn’t have that relationship, and, sadly, never would.
Promo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxkZc7eVul8
A quick post-show look at a third performance The Killers gave, with some glimpses of cast and crew:
I’m far from Mr. Political Correctness but I just don’t get the humor in the Lawrence Welk sketches. The only joke is let’s-laugh-at-this-poor-woman’s-physical-deformities. Just awful. Shameful, really.
I always wondered if Dooneese was supposed to be a Thalidomide baby.
At the time, I despised the Lawrence Welk sketches and never understood the humor. Like Mark said “The only joke is let’s-laugh-at-this-poor-woman’s-physical-deformities”. I recalled the sketch occurring constantly, but a quick glimpse of the Archives says the Welk sketches occur one or twice a season (spaced distantly) for the rest of Wiig’s run on the show (the same is true for a lot of Wiig’s characters). The Welk sketches are an interesting view into how poorly treated the non-Wiig female cast was treated at the time as the sisters lineup is always changing between appearances.
Wait until we get into the Curse of Hoda Kotb.
I remember Conan’s Jon Glaser being kinda miffed at the time after that aired because right around the same as this he was making a bunch of video shorts for the web as a character called “Tiny Hands” who had the same baby doll hands they used in this sketch.
Forgot to include the video links. Not really that similar, but the baby doll hands idea is basically the same.
When that sketch first aired I remember thinking it’d be a fun retro thing to do recurring Lawrence Welk parodies but with different odd acts every time, instead of the same Kristen character on every appearance.
I swear I remember the dancing sketch here getting a lot of praise at the time. Maybe I’m mixing it up with another nightclub sketch from this era
Sorry for the delay. This isn’t just the first good show of Year 34, its a season high point. Almost everything here is a banger, including a classic debate sketch and one of my favorite Digital Shorts. The monologue is the closest thing to a clunker; that scandal is long forgotten about.
Maybe it’s because I read the transcript first before watching it initially, but IMO the Mary Poppins sketch is something that literally works better on paper than in execution.
I mainly remember that Cold Open with Tina’s Palin playing the flute thinking it’s the talent portion of the show and that first Lawrence Welk sketch with the first appearance of Doonese. I think I also remember really enjoying Ms. Hathaway’s first “SNL” hosting stint…