Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CHENEY IN MAKEUP
George W. Bush (WIF) asks Dick Cheney (DAH) to relinquish the spotlight
— Nice to see Darrell front-and-center in the cold opening of his final episode, especially given how much he’s disappeared in the second half of this season (hell, he didn’t even make any appearances in his penultimate episode).
— Darrell’s departure is quite a big deal in my SNL project, because, as I said in a recent review, it feels like I’ve been covering Darrell’s tenure forever by this point. To me, it feels almost like ages ago when I covered the season 21 premiere (Darrell’s first episode), even though it was only last October. (I guess reviewing episodes on a daily basis for such a long time does that to you.) Prior to this stage of my SNL project, I had never covered a cast member who’s consecutive years as a cast member lasted as long as this. As I said in my review of Darrell’s very first episode (link here), “Feels kinda odd seeing Darrell in his debut, knowing how very long we’re going to be seeing him in the cast. Even just saying the words ‘newbie Darrell Hammond’ feels weird.”
— Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush impression is always a welcome return.
— It’s very fitting that Darrell’s final episode turns out to be hosted by Will Ferrell, as they both joined the cast together during SNL’s big overhaul in 1995, and spent many years as castmates. For that reason, it’s charming seeing them interact with each other all throughout this particular cold opening.
— SNL’s been making quite a lot of references to the ShamWow guy around this point of the season, serving in hindsight as a time capsule of when those ShamWow commercials were prevalent.
— As usual, lots of funny lines from Ferrell’s Bush.
— I love Ferrell-as-Bush’s mention to Darrell’s Cheney of “the time you were dead for three days”, which we’re told was hidden from the public when it occurred.
— Good to see Darrell get one last LFNY as a cast member.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Tony-nominee WIF gets unwanted laughs while performing a dramatic scene
— This is the second consecutive monologue in which the host ad-libs a humorous “I love you, too” to an audience member who shouts “I love you!” Unlike Justin Timberlake in the preceding monologue, Ferrell adds on to his “I love you, too…” with a “…more than you know.”
— The black-and-white photos of Ferrell doing theater are very funny.
— Fun concept of Ferrell doing a mock-dramatic one-man play.
— I like Ferrell’s occasional “Please no laughter” requests to the laughing audience.
— A very funny exaggerated Irish accent Ferrell’s using when speaking as the mother in the play.
STARS: ****
WADE BLASINGAME
— A surprising rerun of a fantastic older commercial from Ferrell’s years as a cast member. I like the idea of doing that, and kinda wish SNL would do it more often whenever a former cast member hosts. They did do it at least once prior to this, when they re-aired the classic original-era Swill commercial when Bill Murray hosted in season 24.
— Seeing this old footage of early 2000s-era cast members casually airing in a 2009 episode feels odd, but fascinating and fun (which is part of the reason why I feel it would be fun if SNL regularly re-aired an old commercial whenever a former cast member hosts, especially if it’s a commercial that features a lot of that cast member’s castmates from back in the day, like this Wade Blasingame commercial does). Also, seeing the still-on-the-show-in-2009 Darrell Hammond among these long-departed early 2000s-era cast members makes you realize just how freakin’ long he’s been on the show (and he was already a 6-year SNL veteran when this Wade Blasingame commercial originally aired!).
— Tonight’s airing of this old commercial cuts out a testimonial from Ana Gasteyer. No idea why. Would’ve been nice to see her among the other early 2000s-era cast members seen in this.
THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
(WIF) avoids unwanted attention of Dooneese
— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— This is the first Lawrence Welk Show/Dooneese sketch to have a male singer who the sisters perform with, which would go on to be a regular aspect of these sketches.
— Ferrell demonstrates his ability to get good laughs out of something as little as singing in a cheesy, cocky manner.
— This worked for me as a one-off sketch earlier this season, but the whole Dooneese routine feels very been-there-done-that in this second installment. Doesn’t work as a recurring sketch.
— This even ends the EXACT SAME WAY as the first installment, with Dooneese cheerily grabbing at the bubbles with her tiny hands.
STARS: **
CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Sean Connery (DAH), Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW), Burt Reynolds (NOM), Tom Hanks [real]
— The return of a legendary recurring sketch, and also the final appearance it would make in a regular SNL episode, as of 2020. (The only remaining appearance, as of 2020, is in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special.)
— Fitting to have this sketch appear in Darrell’s final episode.
— I remember the inclusion of Kristen’s Kathie Lee Gifford impression in this sketch drove me (and a number of other online SNL fans) nuts back when this originally aired, as I couldn’t fucking STAND Kristen’s Kathie Lee impression back then and I felt the inclusion of it in this sketch was further proof of SNL’s growing favoritism towards and extreme over-utilization of Kristen. However, after having recently reviewed the Today sketch from two episodes prior to this, I’ve begun to warm up to Kristen’s Kathie Lee, so hopefully, I’ll have a more positive reception to her in this sketch.
— TOM HANKS!!! Randomly playing himself as a ridiculously dumb contestant! Absolutely brilliant idea.
— After his opening slam to Ferrell’s Alex Trebek, Darrell’s Sean Connery exclaims “Pow!”, which was a random new catchphrase of his in Shia LaBeouf’s season 33 monologue, though Darrell doesn’t deliver it quite as strong tonight, because he was distracted by a gaffe in which the wire on his pen got tangled on his arm.
— Uh-oh. I can already tell as soon as the “Catch These Men” category has been shown what dirty phrase it will be misread as by Darrell’s Connery later in this sketch (“Catch The Semen”). On one hand, I did already watch this sketch once before, back when it originally aired, so maybe that’s why I was able to pick out the dirty phrase so quickly in my current viewing, but on the other hand, I dunno, “Catch These Men”/“Catch The Semen” seems like a really obvious joke, and feels kinda lazy compared to funnier dirty category misreadings in other Celebrity Jeopardy sketches.
— Whaaaa? A contestant actually choosing the perpetual category Potent Potables??? That’s a first.
— I love Ferrell’s Trebek saying to Tom Hanks, after witnessing some of his idiocy, “I had such high hopes for you.”
— My newfound goodwill towards Kristen’s Kathie Lee has thankfully carried over into this sketch, as she’s not bothering me in this. However, her Kathie Lee shtick still doesn’t compare to the usual greatness from most of the contestants within these Celebrity Jeopardy sketches over the years. It feels a tad out of place here.
— And there’s the predictable and very meh “Catch The Semen” misreading. I did, however, get a laugh from Darrell’s Connery asking, during that gag, “Is that what the mustache is for, Trebek?”
— Whenever the camera cuts to Tom Hanks, I love Ferrell’s Trebek saying stuff like “Aaaaaaand he has his hand caught in a pickle jar” and “Aaaaaand he’s caught in a dry cleaning bag.” The latter bit with the dry cleaning bag is particularly fucking HILARIOUS. Tom’s facial expressions inside the plastic bag are comedy gold.
— Oh, fuck yeah! NORM MACDONALD returning out of nowhere as Burt Reynolds!!!! As if this sketch weren’t already so much fun. It’s too bad there have been some mild shortcomings in this sketch, because so many epic things about this sketch belong in a prime, A+ Celebrity Jeopardy.
— Every single moment of the Hanks stuff is so fucking classic. He’s selling the HELL out of this so perfectly.
— When Ferrell’s Trebek is walking away from Tom after Tom’s Final Jeopardy bit, I, as an SNL nerd, absolutely love the detail of Tom saying (in an apparent ad-lib) “Sibilance” into his pen, as a callback to an oddly memorable detail in the classic Wayne’s World Meets Aerosmith sketch that Tom appeared in in his season 15 hosting stint.
— Hilarious how Norm’s randomly-appearing Burt Reynolds has randomly disappeared during the Final Jeopardy segment, and Darrell’s Connery claims to a confused Ferrell-as-Trebek that Reynolds was never here to begin with.
STARS: ****½
INSIDE THE NBA
Charles Barkley (KET) loves (WIF)’s on-screen super promo
— In hindsight, it’s feels odd and empty to see that Inside The NBA apparently only had Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley as its hosts back in these days, before the line-up became a very popular quartet with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith.
— An interesting and rather unique use of an SNL host. This is the type of thing that Ferrell can effortlessly make very funny.
— Fun conceit with Kenan-as-Charles-Barkley’s fascination with the corny Mark promos that are slowly taking over this Inside The NBA broadcast.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Know Your Enemy”
WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Arizona State’s self-importance
the ghost of Harry Caray (WIF) fails to discuss steroids in baseball
— As a special occasion for this season finale, Seth welcomes back Amy Poehler (making her first SNL appearance since leaving the cast in December of this season) as tonight’s special guest co-anchor.
— Feels odd seeing Amy deliver Update jokes again after I’ve gotten so used to the solo Seth Meyers era of Update.
— Another reminder that we’re in the early stages of the Twitter era, with Seth’s First Twitter From Space joke.
— Good to see a Seth & Amy edition of “Really?!?”, especially after how odd it felt seeing Seth do one by himself earlier this season.
— This “Really?!?” segment isn’t working quite as well for me as usual, but I’m still getting a decent amount of laughs.
— Yesssss! The return of Ferrell’s Harry Caray, this time as a ghost, after his last appearance (way back in 1998) humorously had him still appearing alive despite acknowledging that he died.
— Very funny bit from Ferrell’s Caray about how the Predator would make a great ballplayer.
— Another great bit from Ferrell’s Caray about his meeting with “Pete Rose” in heaven.
— I like Seth’s reaction to his own Harrison Ford/Chewbacca joke.
STARS: ***
REMEMBRANCES
at a funeral, eulogies by Glenda Goodwin & others fail to pay respect
— A funeral-themed variation of the wedding toasts sketch from the Hugh Laurie episode earlier this season.
— I love the odd detail of Bill requesting that whoever has his missing watch place it inside an Ugg boot on top of the casket.
— Ha, Graham Yost, a strangely perfect name for a Will Ferrell character.
— Funny speech from Kristen’s oxygen tank lady character.
— Always welcome to see Forte’s Hamilton character, who always kills it in these sketches.
— Hamilton, after mentioning the full name of our president, Barack Hussein Obama: “I say his middle name because it matters.”
— I love how Hamilton’s speech randomly ends with “I took the watch”, as a callback to Bill’s missing watch.
— Despite just being an exact carbon copy of what he did in the aforementioned wedding toasts sketch, Bobby’s “WHAAAAAAT??? (*mic drop*)” bit made me laugh just as much as it did last time.
— Tonight’s cameofest continues with a VERY out-of-nowhere walk-on from Maya Rudolph as her Glenda Goodwin character, of all people.
— The very random “Amazing Sasquatch” song that Glenda Goodwin is singing is so dumb and bizarre that it’s having me laughing out loud.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “21 Guns”
GOODNIGHT SAIGON
traumatized by a Vietnam vacation, Fritz (WIF) sings “Goodnight Saigon”
Anne Hathaway, Paul Rudd, Artie Lange, Elisabeth Moss [real], others join Fritz
— Oh, here we go. A very well-remembered piece.
— Ooh, as an IMMEDIATE sign that we’re in for a special sketch, the setting of this sketch is at Grand Central Station, utilizing the fact that SNL’s home base stage is modeled after Grand Central Station. When this originally aired, I optimistically took this as a sign that this was going to be the final episode with this home base stage, and that SNL was going to build a new one for the following season. Sadly, that didn’t turn out to happen – in fact, today, 11 years later, SNL still hasn’t changed the home base stage, which was first used as far back as 2003(!!). Yet, for some inexplicable reason, SNL has no problem randomly remodeling the musical guest stage every now and then, at the most random times (December 2014 and April 2018). Honestly, I’ve completely given up hope that SNL will ever change the home base stage again. And, damn, you gotta admit, wouldn’t this Goodnight Saigon sketch have been an appropriate farewell to this particular home base stage?
— A great and intriguing turn with a war-traumatized Ferrell suddenly getting up and singing a segment of the song “Goodnight Saigon” while shaking maracas.
— Hilarious reveal that Ferrell “being in Vietnam” meant that he was just there on vacation four years prior.
— I love how more and more cast members, all playing instruments, are joining Ferrell’s occasional “Goodnight Saigon” singing, to the degree that he’s eventually joined by the entire cast, even the Weekend Update-only Seth Meyers!
— Lots of fun back-and-forths between Ferrell sitting at the table with his friends and him performing “Goodnight Saigon” with the rest of the cast.
— This already epic-feeling sketch is now getting even more epic, with Ferrell’s musical number being joined not only by tonight’s musical guest and tonight’s earlier special guests, but new special guests (Anne Hathaway, Paul Rudd, Elisabeth Moss), continuing tonight’s cameofest.
— As if the aforementioned special guests appearing in this sketch weren’t already surprising and fun enough, now we get the shocker to end all shockers: ARTIE LANGE!!! Holy hell. The even greater and funnier thing about this cameo from him is that he made an appearance earlier that same night on MADtv’s big series finale. On a similar note, with MADtv having debuted in fall 1995, just a few weeks after Darrell’s SNL debut, and with MADtv officially ending on May 16, 2009, the same night of both tonight’s SNL episode and Darrell’s final episode as a cast member, this means that both Darrell’s SNL tenure and MADtv’s run spanned pretty much the exact same period of time.
— When everybody is exiting the stage one-by-one, we get a great little sighting of Artie Lange and Bobby both appearing in the same shot, with Bobby right behind Artie (screencap below), which is noteworthy because lots of people back in these early days of Bobby’s SNL tenure used to point out his strong resemblance to Artie.
— I like the ending with the guys at Ferrell’s table realizing that this very elaborate musical number was just a ruse for Ferrell to leave without paying for his meal…….once again.
— Overall, an absolutely legendary sketch. Such a blast, and, unlike a lot of SNL’s future cameo-filled sketches that this sketch is said to have unfortunately paved the way for, the cameos here actually added to the fun, random, and epic feel of this already-unique sketch, and it was also very fun to see all of those special guests working together in this specific context.
— With this being the final aired sketch of this season, this is easily one of the best season-ending pieces in SNL history, and is (along with some prior season-ending sketches like the So Long Farewell number from Phil Hartman’s final episode as a cast member, and the Grease number from Jimmy Fallon’s final episode) a great argument for why SNL should end every season with a big, epic piece utilizing the show’s entire current cast.
— Speaking of this being the final sketch of this season, that apparently wasn’t planned. After the commercial break that follows this sketch, SNL just shows the SNL Band immediately playing the show back to ANOTHER commercial break, which, as I always say whenever SNL does that (including just ONE EPISODE AGO when Justin Timberlake hosted), is a sign that a planned sketch got cut at the last minute. It’s hard for me to fathom why SNL intended to do another sketch tonight AFTER the show-stopping Goodnight Saigon piece. I wonder what the cut sketch was.
STARS: *****
GOODNIGHTS
— At the end of his goodnights speech, Ferrell gives a special mention to Darrell, who the camera then shows a close-up of while everybody applauds him. Apparently, this is SNL hinting to us that this may be the final episode for the 14-year SNL veteran. However, his departure would end up never being confirmed over the summer that followed this season. In fact, there would even be some news articles that summer saying Darrell is in negotiations to return for a 15th season in the cast. PLUS, he would also appear in the two Weekend Update Thursday specials that would air on the two Thursdays before SNL’s official season 35 premiere. We had to wait until the opening montage in that season premiere to find out that, despite what the aforementioned news articles said, and despite his aforementioned appearance in the two Weekend Update Thursday specials, Darrell was, in fact, NOT in the cast anymore, which caused a lot of shock and confusion among SNL fans back then (including myself). Then, shortly after that season premiere, I recall there being a news article announcing that, despite no longer being in the cast, Darrell would be making lots of special guest appearances that season, ala Jan Hooks in seasons 18 and 19 (only without the “Special guest appearance by…” credit in the opening montage that Jan received). Indeed, we will be seeing quite a lot of Darrell cameos in the first half of season 35.
— Ha, in true Norm Macdonald fashion, both he and Artie Lange can be seen eventually ditching the goodnights by playfully running off the stage together towards the end of these goodnights. A funny sight.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid season finale, and there were two all-time very memorable pieces in which SNL went all out (Celebrity Jeopardy and Goodnight Saigon). Those two pieces had even more impact in this episode than they would’ve in most episodes, because there was a much-smaller-than-usual number of segments in this episode, with only three sketches pre-Update and two post-Update. (Again, we apparently were going to get three sketches post-Update, but the last one seemingly got cut at the last minute.)
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Goodnight Saigon
Celebrity Jeopardy
Monologue
Cheney in Makeup
Remembrances
Inside The NBA
Weekend Update
The Lawrence Welk Show
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Justin Timberlake)
a step up
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2007-08)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 35 begins, with host Megan Fox. We get two new female additions to the cast, one of whom has a notorious unplanned moment in her first big showcase that night.