Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
QVC
John & Cindy McCain [real] sell merchandise on QVC with Sarah Palin (TIF)
— John McCain making a cameo just a few days before the election. This was presumably a last-ditch effort from him to garner up some desperate votes, as the writing was CLEARLY on the wall for him by this late stage of the election.
— Feels a bit odd seeing Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impression being paired with the real John McCain, but it’s always nice to see Tina’s Palin during these 2008 elections, and McCain is always a fun sport on SNL.
— A funny reveal from a sad McCain that, while Barack Obama purchased airtime on three major networks, he and Tina-as-Palin could only afford QVC.
— A lot of fun laughs from the ’08 election-related products McCain and Tina’s Palin are selling as part of an agreement with QVC.
— An absolutely classic part with Tina’s Palin “goin’ rogue” and secretly advertising “Palin in 2012” shirts to a side camera, then saying she’s not going anywhere after the election (“I’m certainly not goin’ back to Alaska”).
— At the time this originally aired, I assumed this would be the last time we’d ever see Tina’s iconic Palin impression. The impression would end up making a handful of appearances over the years after this election, mostly in Tina Fey-hosted episodes.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Given the direction of this monologue, the punchline of Ben Affleck announcing his endorsement of John McCain’s presidential campaign is predictable, but still funny enough.
— An overall very short and simple monologue. I’m at least glad this is the FIFTH consecutive episode that has a host-only monologue (again ignoring Oliver Stone’s brief interruption of Josh Brolin’s monologue). This has got to be the longest streak of host-only monologues since all the way back in the 80s. (I’ve heard that SNL would later return to the trend of host-only monologues at some point in season 44, but I personally can’t say for sure, as I’ve been on a hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since a few months into season 44.)
STARS: ***
JAR GLOVE
Rerun from 9/13/08
THE VIEW
Elisabeth Hasselbeck (KRW) & Alec Baldwin (host) argue politics
— SNL’s very first View sketch since the original, Tina Fey-written run of View sketches in the late 90s. Tonight’s installment launches a new run of these sketches.
— I never cared for Fred’s Joy Behar in these View sketches.
— I have mixed feelings on Casey’s Jennifer Aniston impression. On one hand, I can definitely see what she’s going for in the voice, and her impression is giving me mild laughs. On the other hand, the voice is pretty far off, feels too much like a work in progress (Casey stated in an interview the summer prior to this season that she was working on an Aniston impression that she hoped would get on SNL), and, in hindsight, this impression pales badly in comparison to the absolutely spot-on Aniston impression that future cast member Vanessa Bayer would later memorably do.
— Kristen’s political rants as Elisabeth Hasslebeck are making me laugh in this first sketch. However, I recall this going on to become a rather annoying staple of this era’s View sketches, even if it’s accurate to the real Hasselbeck’s political rants.
— Feels interesting seeing an impression of SNL favorite Alec Baldwin. Ben’s impression is pretty spot-on AND funny.
— Ben’s Baldwin, to Kristen’s Hasselbeck: “I can’t figure out if I wanna kiss you…or throw you off a cliff.”
— This sketch is okay, but really pales in comparison to the well-loved run of View sketches from the late 90s. Tonight’s sketch lacks that spark that the late 90s View sketches had.
STARS: ***
COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
Keith Olbermann’s (host) egoism flavors indignant hyperbole
— Ah, here’s a sketch I’ve always had very fond memories of.
— Right out of the gate, Ben’s Keith Olbermann impression is ALREADY slaying me. His voice and delivery are absolutely hilarious to me. I recall some unimpressed online SNL fans back at this time in 2008 criticizing Ben’s Olbermann impression (“Since when does Keith Olbermann speak in a half-British accent?”, I remember one of those SNL fans asking). While I admit Ben’s impression is certainly not spot-on in terms of nailing Olbermann’s voice, his performance as Olbermann is so damn fun and hilarious that I can EASILY overlook any inaccuracies in the impression, plus he’s at least nailing Olbermann’s general demeanor.
— Funny interview between Ben’s Olbermann and Kenan.
— Ben-as-Olbermann’s intentionally hammy, exaggerated, over-the-top delivery and camera-mugging during the “Worst Person In The World” segment is freakin’ priceless.
— A hilarious and particularly memorable “Special Comment” segment, with Ben’s Olbermann ranting INSANELY in a spitting-mad manner in regards to his building’s no-pets policy. I am practically on the fucking floor laughing at Ben’s execution of this segment.
— Funny touch throughout Ben-as-Olbermann’s no-pets policy rant with him constantly turning from one camera to another, eventually including a ridiculously-placed ceiling camera.
— Quite a long sketch (a sign of this being a Jim Downey-written piece, I take it?), especially for one that mainly consists of just the host speaking to the camera, but I have absolutely NO complaints.
— Overall, great to see this sketch still holds up. This sketch remains a personal favorite of mine. Ben absolutely KILLED IT in this mostly-solo sketch, and he was given lots of very funny material to back him up.
STARS: *****
TARGET
UPS driver (host) wants to get romantically involved with Target Lady
— (*groan*) Another Target Lady sketch.
— At least we get a very funny character from Ben. And the premise of him falling in love with Target Lady is a good and much-needed change of pace for this recurring sketch.
— I admit that, the more these Target Lady sketches appear, the funnier I’m gradually finding the running bit with Target Lady revealing the convoluted usage she intends to get out of the items that she leaves the cash register to get.
— Ben’s message over the P.A. is cracking me up.
— Bobby managed to make the most of his small appearance here (his ONLY appearance all night, by the way).
— Love the bit with Ben scanning Target Lady with the handheld scanner device and then saying “Just what I thought…PRICELESS!”
— Overall, by far the best (and first good) Target Lady sketch I’ve covered so far, thanks to Ben’s great character and performance.
STARS: ***
STATEN ISLAND ZOO
giraffe-themed follow-up to “Sloths!!” is equally zoologically inaccurate
— A somewhat questionable decision to do a follow-up to/variation of the epic Sloths installment of this sketch, which will be hard to top or even equal.
— I’m now a minute into this, and I gotta admit, despite my initial reservations, I’m actually loving the hell out of this Sloths follow-up/variation.
— Ha, we actually get a brief cameo from one of the sloths in the original Sloths sketch, yelling “GIRAFFES, MOTHERF(*bleep*)ER!” into the camera.
— Meh, Jason’s puzzled ending message after the Giraffes video, in which he just says a very taken-aback “I…I…”, pales badly in comparison to Kristen’s ending message from the Sloths version of this sketch.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Light On”
WEEKEND UPDATE
John McCain [real] presents his last-ditch campaign strategy options
Patrick & Gunther Kelly explicate voting machine issues with a song
Aunt Linda has negative reactions to new television season’s offerings
— I’m slowly getting used to seeing Seth anchor Update without Amy, but there’s still a bit of an odd feel.
— Among the cheers from the audience when McCain’s commentary is introduced, he receives some loud boos. Showing what a good sport he is, McCain doesn’t let it visibly bother him, and, in response to it, even laughs and mugs hammily in a good-natured manner (screencap below).
— Another fun Update commentary from McCain. I particularly like the part about him pulling “The Sad Grandpa” move.
— Odd coincidence that McCain’s booed-by-the-audience-early-on Update appearance is immediately followed by Seth doing a “Booed At Rally” joke about Sarah Palin.
— Wow, this is the first time we’ve seen Fred and Will’s Patrick & Gunther Kelly characters in years. This also ends up being their final appearance.
— Will’s insanely high-pitched singing in these Kelly Brothers commentaries never fails to get me.
— Although these Kelly Brothers commentaries have always used the same joke, it always works for me, especially when we’ve gotten a long break after their last appearance before this.
— I see SNL is still trying to figure out how to do Update without Seth having a co-anchor, as I’ve been noticing tonight has VERY few jokes in between the guest commentaries. Almost reminiscent of how the Dick Ebersol era’s later years (seasons 9 and 10) would sometimes have Updates (or Saturday Night Newses, rather) that have the anchorperson doing literally only ONE news joke in between each of the guest commentators.
— Speaking of recurring characters we haven’t seen in a while, we now get the return of Aunt Linda. Unfortunately, this is a character I’m NOT happy to see back, nor does this end up being her final appearance. This character only worked for me the first time she appeared.
STARS: ***
NIGHT SCHOOL MUSICAL: SENIOR YEAR EQUIVALENT
middle-aged students sing about adult concerns
— An okay concept for a High School Musical parody.
— During her lyrics in the song right now, I like Casey’s whole bit about what she’s going to smoke.
— Another episode this season in which Darrell makes his ONLY appearance in an awkward, small, non-impression, walk-on role that feels like SNL just threw him into out of desperation, just to give him something to do. As I said in a recent episode review, I’m starting to forget Darrell’s even still in the cast this season.
— Casey’s been standing out in this sketch. It’s nice to see her getting a lot of focus here.
— Funny look of Ben’s character.
— Ben seems to not know most of the lyrics to the song that he and the other performers are singing in unison, as he can be seen only moving his mouth to a few of the words.
STARS: ***
GRADY WILSON’S PUT THE FIRE BACK IN YOUR MARRIAGE TECHNIQUES
Grady Wilson’s (KET) sex DVD
— The debut of Kenan’s Grady Wilson sketches.
— I wonder why they gave Kenan’s character the same name of a character from the 70s sitcom Sanford & Son.
— The mere bluntness of Kenan’s sex demonstration scenes is hilarious, as are the sex moves he demonstrates.
— Very fun sketch, and Kenan is selling the hell out of it.
STARS: ****
MOVIE PITCH
(host)’s queer brother Stefon (BIH) puts homoerotic spin on a movie pitch
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut! And, boy, does this particular character eventually gain larger-than-life popularity. One of the biggest recurring characters in the history of SNL.
— It’s frustrating that Bill’s ONLY appearance all night is in a sketch airing so damn late in the show, but, knowing in hindsight that this sketch is basically a huge turning point for Bill, especially in terms of airtime, this will hopefully be the last time I will ever have to complain about how much SNL consistently underutilizes this brilliant performer.
— Being so used to seeing Stefon as a Weekend Update-only character in his subsequent appearances, it certainly feels interesting in hindsight seeing him make his debut not only in a sketch, but an unassuming, late-in-the-show sketch at that.
— Right out of the gate, Stefon is a hilarious character. And I’m loving the contrast his bizarre, raunchy, homoerotic movie pitch has to Ben’s family-friendly, cliched movie pitch. I’m sure people say Stefon works better as a Weekend Update character, and that’s most likely true, but we’ll see how I’ll feel about that when I reach this character’s stint as an Update correspondent.
— Feels a bit odd in retrospect not seeing the Stefon trademark of Bill breaking in reaction to some of the lines he’s reading cold off the cue cards. Obviously, this was before writer John Mulaney started the tradition of making last-minute changes to some of Stefon’s lines to surprise Bill on the air.
— I love Jason describing Stefon’s movie pitch as “some kind of half-remembered gay nightmare”.
— A funny ending fake freeze-frame on Stefon.
— A surprisingly fairly short sketch, further adding to my point of how unassuming this Stefon debut comes off. Nobody, not even Bill or Mulaney themselves, would’ve ever guessed back at this time in 2008 the heights this character’s popularity would eventually reach. In fact, we don’t even see Stefon make his second appearance until a year-and-a-half later, at a time when his original sketch from tonight’s episode was almost completely forgotten by most SNL fans.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Declaration”
BIERHOFF BROS. HOUSE OF GERMAN COATS
Bierhoff Brothers’ (FRA) & (host) coat for German tourists is overdone
— Ben gives yet another fun performance tonight, as I love the German accent he’s using here.
— I’m getting a bit of a Hans & Franz vibe from Fred and Ben’s characters. In fact, this sketch is almost basically what a Hans & Franz sketch would be like if they advertised coats instead of hosted a bodybuilding show, and didn’t spout off catchphrases every 20 seconds.
— Ben seemed lost on what he was supposed to do while displaying the Sausage Pouch. I think SNL’s crew forgot to give him a sausage for this portion of this sketch. The crew has strangely been making mistakes like this these past few episodes. In the preceding episode, they forgot to give Fred a handheld microphone for the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch.
— The red flag, removable sleeves, and tent features of the German coat are pretty funny.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The streak of solid episodes continues. Much like in most of the last few episodes before this, there wasn’t a single sketch I didn’t like tonight, and there were a few standout strong segments, one of which is a personal favorite of mine (Countdown With Keith Olbermann). We also got some noteworthy recurring character debuts tonight, with Grady Wilson and (especially) Stefon. Ben Affleck, despite some sloppiness here and there, continues to be a fantastic recurring host, and had some really strong moments tonight. He even managed to make a Target Lady sketch work for once.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Hamm)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Paul Rudd makes his hosting debut, in an episode that would be dubbed SNL’s “gayest episode ever” at the time, due to an unusually big focus on gay/homoerotic humor. (I’ll explain why that episode focuses so much on that type of humor when I review the episode.) We also get two new female additions to the cast.
Yes, we’ve finally gotten to Stefon! No matter how stereotypically gay the jokes can be in his sketches, something about his performance and the way he looks just resonates with me.
If I recall, the next episode also has a lot of random gore in it for some reason.
I may be wrong, but Stefon’s debut may have marked one of the last times that a “Major” character would debut. While there have been some sketches that have “repeated” sporadically since 2008, this (and perhaps “What up with That” a few years down the line) may be the last/most recent time the show ever had traditional “recurring characters” in sketches outside of Update or portrayals of Political figures. We’ve barely had any new ones established since (if I’m not mistaken, and if that makes sense).
Depends what you define as “major” characters:
The closing time bar woman played by Kate, the alien abduction woman played by Kate, Girlfriends Talk Show, the ex porn stars, Chad…I don’t know if they are major or not though.
This very recent cast had a large portion of people who really did not use recurring characters and were more comfortable playing themselves, doing impressions, or, as you point out, doing all the recurring bits on Update (Leslie, Melissa, Beck, Alex, Mikey, and, Chad aside, Pete, kind of fall in this vein).
When it comes to “Major” characters, I often use the 20th anniversary coffee table book as a guideline. If the character is big enough to get a multi-page section, I consider it “Major”. If they get a mere mention or a blurb elsewhere despite appearing multiple times, then it’s “Minor”–but that’s just me. Stefon would certainly be one of the majors based on how many of them Hader did altogether.
They also had Gilly, The Woman In the Bar was Named Sheila Savage which is Pronounced SUH Vahg In TWO Syllables, The Southern Couple where Taran Comes On To Cecily, Vanessa’s My Hungry Guys, Good Neighbors, Beck and Kyle Being Sprayed Off with A Hose Whiskers Are We, Fats And Dyke, Thirsty Cops, High School Talent Show, Black Jeopardy And Many Other Characters !
If I can throw this in: my favorite Jennifer Aniston impression:
https://youtu.be/MlKH183Vb1A?t=82
Though the Stefon segments are by and large formulaic in structure, they NEVER fail to make me laugh! A large part is due to Bill Hader’s performance, John Mulaney’s writing and seeing how John will crack up Bill. Bill and John’s partnership might be one of my favourite between writer and performer in the show’s history. Though Phil Hartman/Jack Handey, Gilda Radner/Alan Sweibel, and Will Ferrell/Adam McKay might give them a run for their money.
Hey Shawn, don’t forget Murphy/Sheffield/Blaustein.
Oh my @hellostuart, how could I forget Murphy/Sheffield/Blaustein. The Mr. Robinson sketches are easily in the top 10 recurring SNL sketches ever!
Another Year 34 winner. Nothing bad in the bunch. You don’t even notice there’s only two women in the cast. Even if it was a stand-alone sketch, Stefon Zolesky was such a unique, fleshed-out character that the sketch worked. Ben as Olbermann had me mesmerized.
@Doc that book is actually how I got into SNL. I found it in a library when I was a kid and was blown away by how many of my favourite actors had been on the show, which made me curious enough to catch the show live one Saturday night. I’ve been hooked ever since. I also think of recurring characters in those terms. Would they have their own section? Stefon definitely would and maybe MacGruber…
I agree with the other comments that Stefon might be one of the last major recurring characters you’ll ever cover. When you reach 2017 or so, you might notice that the show minimizes their use of recurring characters and instead has recurring “ideas.”
I absolutely love the Keith Olbermann sketch here. It’s one of my favorite SNL sketches ever, and is probably my favorite sketch anchored solely by a host. Ben just nails the way a lot of people perceived Olbermann at the time and he gives so much life to all that dense writing.
Last season in particular I felt like the show tried to phase recurring characters back in, even as, with the exception of Chad, the few who had recurred in the wilderness years were not around (Gemma, Last Call, Close Encounters, etc.). Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman were even the first new cast members in a number of years to have recurring characters outside of Update, surely.
The success of Stefon on Update probably accelerated the move to having recurring favorites mostly just on there rather on the show, along with some of the current cast having recurrers that were burnt through relatively quickly (Ex-Porn Stars, Girlfriends Talk Show, etc. – I had no idea there were 9 Ex-Porn Stars sketches in just a few seasons…).
I think it was Michael Che who said Youtube makes it more difficult for recurring characters to work. I’m not sure I agree – I think that with creative writing, a recurring character can still feel fresh. The problem is somewhere along the way recurring characters were deemed as formulaic and they work solely because of that formula. So the next episode will introduce us to a recurring sketch that exists for no other reason than to have actors awkwardly shove their mouths together and occasionally grope each other…there are 28 minutes of that on Youtube, while sketches like Olympia Diner or the Coneheads are few and far between, a distant memory.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The at home episodes took some Update recurring characters I’d either never enjoyed or had grown bored of, and made them much more fun in their own format. Maybe, even if the show goes back to “normal” this season, they can keep some of that inspiration.
Heidi & Alex are very good at character work and have had success at Update characters, wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually got a hit recurring sketch.
Off the top of my head, the only major recurring character contenders I can think of are Drunk Uncle, Diondre Cole Et al. Girl At a Party, Mrs. Rafferty, David S. Pumpkins.
Bill’s Keith Morrison impression gets cut at dress, his first appearance is two episodes from now in the Tim McGraw episode.
Stuart mentioned Blaustein & Sheffield writing for Eddie, which got me thinking that Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood is formulaic the same way Stefon is. Robinson enters, says the word of the day, answers the door, then escapes out the window and it’s funny every single time. Stefon comes on Update, mentions 2-3 clubs, does the same bits, hits on Seth, and then leaves and it’s funny every single time.
So at the start of this decade SNL has a very near-the-knuckle cold open invoking “crazy Vietnam vet” McCain (Parnell) choking out Asian extras, only to end the decade with a generous and mostly dignified farewell to him. They even had his wife Cindy appear with him (also a clever way to hide the lack of female cast members, admittedly).
The true goodbye to the McCain-and-SNL era probably happened last year, when his daughter Meghan had her generally unpleasant appearance on Seth’s show, followed by her husband’s extremely unpleasant meltdown.
The let’s-all-be-friends-please-please era of political comity on SNL may not be entirely gone, but it will never feel as (relatively) natural as it did with McCain.
This cold open lays bare the reported tensions and dislike between the Palin and McCain camps – there are some pretty harsh shots directed her way, probably harsher than any of the previous sketches…and this is with her running mate participating! This episode also shows us, if we needed any reminder, of just what a great sketch comedian Tina Fey is – she lets McCain shine, underplaying all of her material just right while still maintaining her usual spark in the role.
Other than The View sketch (just tired and flat, and seemingly only revived for the Elisabeth Hasselbeck shtick that was already annoying enough the first time around) and that Grady Wilson sketch (which isn’t bad but was too long and felt a bit lazy – naturally this becomes recurring), it’s a pretty good episode. Great to see Ben Affleck back hosting. I said this in one of your first Affleck reviews, but I do think in another world he probably would have been a big cast member. He’s a bit messier here than some past appearances (he can’t hold back laughter in the View and Countdown sketches), but then it had been over 4 years since his last appearance.
His performance in the Target Lady sketch is legitimately hilarious and reinforces why this is one of Wiig’s more tolerable recurring characters for me – the hosts get a chance to have fun too, rather than just react to her. It’s also a nice surprise that the Target Lady does accept his dinner invitation.
I would have trimmed the Olbermann sketch just a tad, but it’s still a terrific piece. Apparently Olbermann himself came to watch a rehearsal, which unnerved Affleck:
https://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/1008/Olbermann_crashes_SNL_set_.html
Jason’s brief stunned reaction in the “giraffes” sketch worked for me and generally I’m impressed the reprisal was nearly as good as the original. The coat sketch mostly made me wish we’d seen Affleck in Sprockets. The HSM parody is fine, but I think it would have worked better as a pre-tape – the idea of the sketch means some of the awkwardness feels believable, but as it trundles along and we get one song after another the awkwardness begins to feel overwhelming. Still, it’s nice to see Casey get a big role (although it feels like it was written for Amy), and Affleck’s solo is pretty good. I wonder who wrote this. I would have said Jost/Mulaney, but we probably would have heard that story, so I guess Anderson?
Feels like we’re already heading into the smiley, Seth-Meyers-And-Friends Update era, although he still has a bit of edge. A decent goodbye for the Kelly brothers, and, if nothing else, an Aunt Linda that wasn’t as awful as her previous appearance (a lot of people complained about the “Life on Mars” title being misleading, so I wonder if that alone brought the character back).
Here is Mulaney, back around 2011, talking about the men he and Bill knew who inspired Stefon.
https://nypost.com/2011/02/20/club-kidding/
Bill has said the joke with Stefon was never about him being gay, but about him being bad at his job. I’m aware some would dispute this, but I do think he’s pretty much right. One of the great things about Stefon is he is in his own little world, which we don’t need to gawk at…he just is who he is. The understated absurdity, and the writing never asking us to see him in a negative light, is what makes these work (along with the ridiculous wordplay and Bill’s performances). Some argue that these sketches aren’t right because they are written and acted by straight men, and I get that criticism, but I can enjoy this much more than I do Gays in Space, even though that is written by a gay man, because the latter mostly just feels like mockery and leering, whether that was intended or not.
Mulaney, Casey, Andy, Akiva, and Jorma wrote the HSM parody.
@Jesse, thanks. It didn’t feel like Anderson (not very campy) and reminded me more of Mulaney (due to so many songs being packed in there) so that makes sense. Casey and Lonely Island being involved also makes sense. I wonder how many of them were involved in the fun parody from Efron’s upcoming episode.
@T, I’ve only seen one of Watkins’ Baba Wawa takes, so I can’t really judge, but I think both she and Nasim Pedrad (the last cast member to impersonate her) suffer from the limited View format and also from how many times she had been impersonated by that point. Cheri’s take is the best for me, but I also realize she had a 15-year gap with no one else on SNL playing the role.
(I didn’t realize until today that SNL Archives doesn’t count Gilda as playing Barbara Walters, just as ‘Baba Wawa’)
I think Mulaney and Bill wrote Stefon from the start.
I do remember Whoopi and Joy saying as much (I’ve sometimes wondered how Whoopi feels about SNL as she never had any real presence on the show, but she did cameo a few times…). Joy was on The New Show, Lorne’s brief sketch comedy attempt in his wilderness years – I’ve also wondered if that’s why they only barely parodied Joy in the ’90s sketches.
Was this and last week the only other time besides the start of 90-91 season when SNL only had 2 women in the cast?
Gotta say even though I was usually pretty tired of all the Fred in drag roles, his Joy Behar used to kill me. These View sketches didn’t hold a candle to the original, but a few of the impressions were fun. Kenan’s Whoopi always made me laugh with that stare down the glasses thing he always did. I can see what Casey was going for with the Jen Aniston, thats a specific vocal tic Jen does sometimes but seems like the kind of impression that would come off more impressive as a one word impression rather than saying a whole bunch of stuff, like those “micro-impressions” Dana Carvey has started doing on his recent talk show appearances. If I remember right, don’t the rest of them start to have Michaela Watkins doing Barbara Walters? Seems hard to follow Cheri Oteri’s great impression from the 90s, can’t remember how Michaelas Babs was, but I think I remember it being pretty decent, though not nearly as animated as Cheri’s impression was.
Funny enough when SNL did a View parody a year or so ago, I remember The View ladies playing the clip and then saying how happy they were to finally have themselves all being played by women for once, I think Joy in particular was always a bit offended by Fred’s impression if I remember right.
Super weird to see how Stefon started. Did Mulaney actually write this one as well?
This review got me thinking about which episodes had only two female cast members. Here’s the list I came up with:
S8 Ep 5-October 30, 1982
Women: Mary Gross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Reason: Robin Duke did not appear
S11 Ep 12-March 15, 1986
Women: Joan Cusack and Danitra Vance
Reason: Nora Dunn did not appear
S15 Ep 19-May 12, 1990
Women: Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson
Reason: Boycott from Nora Dunn
S16 Ep1 to Ep4-September 29 to October 27 1990
Women: Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson
Reason: Only two women in the cast
S18 Ep19-May 8, 1993
Women: Julia Sweeney and Melanie Hutsell
Reason: Ellen Cleghorne did not appear
S20 Ep9-December 17, 1994
Women: Ellen Cleghorne and Janeane Garofalo
Reason: Laura Kightlinger did not appear
S22 Ep10-January 11, 1997
Women: Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer
Reason: Cheri Oteri did not appear
S31 Ep2-October 8, 2005
Women: Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler
Reason: Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey on maternity leave
S34 Ep7-November 1, 2008
Women: Kristen Wiig and Casey Wilson
Reason: Amy Poehler on maternity leave and absent from pretapes
Here’s video of Keith Olbermann commenting on Ben Affleck’s spoof of him:
https://youtu.be/yHetdoxxSwI
Off the top of my head, outside of Kate’s work I know Taran scored a minor hit with Jebidiah Atkinson, but David S. Pumpkins may be the last big recurring character, if it’s even fair to credit it as such, that Stooge will review.
I’d love to know what made Hader and Mulaney, after a year-and-a-half, try Stefon on Update for the first time. Is that the longest gap between a first and second appearance for a recurring character?
Feels weird seeing Stefon in a sketch instead of Update. Is this the only time this happens?
@Brady Yes. Beyond Update I think he just appears in a promo and on an off-SNL telethon thing.
I mainly just remember the Cold Open with John McCain’s appearance and Fey’s Palin showing her “Palin ’12” shirt. Good thing that didn’t come true, I’ll just say…
Five-Timers Individual Rankings
7.4 – Ben Affleck/N.E.R.D. (29.15)
7.3 – Ben Affleck/David Cook (34.07)
6.9 – Ben Affleck/Fiona Apple (25.13)
5.3 – Ben Affleck/Nelly (30.01)
I am only partially exaggerating when I say the Olbermann sketch is the best thing Ben Affleck has ever done in his career. “This, sir, is a GENOCIDE! A FELINE genocide!” always, always makes me laugh.