Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
LARRY KING LIVE
Jay Leno (DAH) & Conan O’Brien (BIH) state cases
— SNL tackles the notorious 2010 Leno/Conan Tonight Show saga.
— Another Darrell Hammond season 35 cameo.
— Feels rare to see someone do a Conan O’Brien impression. Some online SNL fans back at this time in 2010 called Bill’s Conan impression really poor, but I strongly disagree. Bill’s doing a spot-on impression of Conan’s more serious, low-key voice, and it’s an interesting choice on Bill’s part, as I feel most comedians would’ve gone for a more obvious impression of Conan’s more goofy, over-the-top mannerisms.
— I’m groaning at all the tired, cliched “Larry King is an old man” and “Larry King is out of touch” jokes.
— Jason’s impression of David Letterman is absolutely slaying me, just being a collection of trademark Letterman vocal tics and camera mugging, not even saying any actual dialogue.
— I like the line from Fred’s Larry King comparing leaving NBC to being rescued from the Titanic. That is such a spot-on statement, given NBC’s horrible state in 2010. Too bad SNL had to hurt that funny line by immediately following it with another lame “Larry King is an old man” joke with Fred’s Larry saying he was on the Titanic.
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
host reveals her fears & reads her father’s prescient Tonight Show memo
— I love that we’re shown a photo of Sigourney Weaver from her season 12 SNL monologue (the second above screencap for this monologue).
— Some mildly funny talk from Sigourney about her fear of certain movie genres.
— Interesting to see a photo of Sigourney as a little girl with her parents.
— Another reference to the Leno/Conan saga, with the Tonight Show memo Sigourney reads from her father.
STARS: ***
GRADY WILSON’S FIFTY AND FREAKY
(host) contributes Dutch sex moves to Grady Wilson’s DVD
— Feels a little odd to see this recurring sketch appearing right after the monologue.
— As usual, some pretty funny sex moves demonstrated by Kenan’s Grady Wilson.
— I like Grady Wilson calmly taking a sip from a can of beer in the middle of his wild demonstration of “The Exorcist” sex move.
— Interesting seeing a character played by an SNL host demonstrating sex moves of their own in these Grady Wilson sketches.
— “The Brandy Snifter” move that Sigourney demonstrates is particularly funny.
STARS: ***½
SUMMER’S EVE LADY STARS OF DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP 1988
Pete Twinkle & Greg Stink cover 1988 ladies’ darts championship
— I just now noticed that the surname of Kristen’s various characters in all three ESPN Classic sketches that have aired up to this point are always cities (Milwaukee, Saint Louis, and now Vancouver).
— Jason: “When something’s going wrong, and it’s the smell of your thong – Summer’s Eve……….douche!”
— Will’s “Well, I wouldn’t put darts anywhere near a vagina” line was priceless.
— Jason: “When your man’s in a coma from your panty aroma – Summer’s Eve……….douche!”
— This overall sketch felt shorter than usual, or maybe I was just surprised by how soon it ended.
STARS: ****
JAMES CAMERON’S LASER CATS 5
oeuvre mashup meets feline sci-fi
— Our annual Laser Cats short of the season.
— I love how Bill and Andy are “drinking” from drinks displayed on their phones.
— Great sudden turn with the Aliens homage. Great way to involve Sigourney as well.
— Very fun how this short has now become a general James Cameron/Sigourney Weaver homage, with the Avatar spoof and even a brief Titanic reference.
— Love the ending to the Laser Cats film that’s shown to Lorne.
STARS: ****½
DISCO BOOTY JUNCTION
duo (host) & (KRW) clouds who’s Amber & who’s Cream
— The opening conversation Kenan has with an off-camera crew member about a mouse in his dressing room is making me laugh.
— I’m not caring at all for the main conceit of this sketch with Sigourney and Kristen being mysterious about which one of them is named Amber and which one is Cream.
— Kenan’s ending conversation with the aforementioned off-camera crew member about the show being canceled provided my first laugh since all the way back at the beginning of this sketch.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “That’s Not My Name”
WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM analogizes late-night war to bigamy & lays out its other implications
Larry The Goose provides avian view of Miracle On The Hudson anniversary
hummus on Weekend Update nets self-effacing Meryl Streep (ABE) two Oscars
SEM tells viewers how they can contribute to the Haiti relief effort
— I’m enjoying Seth’s whole analysis of/rant about the Leno/Conan saga (our THIRD reference tonight, which shows you what a big deal it was at this time).
— Holy hell, I completely forgot about that Chuck show on NBC.
— I absolutely love the meta way Seth’s Leno/Conan rant ends, with him lamenting that if Conan loses the Tonight Show, Conan could potentially return to Late Night, which means Jimmy Fallon (then-host of Late Night) could potentially return to SNL, which would be bad news for Seth, because, as he says, “I cannot go back to being in a sketch once every three weeks.”
— The celebrity-related goose names that Andy’s Larry The Goose character lists off are corny, but Andy’s making it work decently. There’s a fairly fun Tim Kazurinsky/Dr. Jack Badofsky vibe to these corny celebrity goose names.
— Nice to see another Weekend Update showcase of Abby’s knack for celebrity impressions, and I’m enjoying the Meryl Streep impression she’s doing here.
— Seth has some really fun jokes tonight.
— Tonight’s Update ends on a serious note, with Seth giving out the Red Cross phone number and website for Haiti relief efforts.
STARS: ***½
AVATAR
Jake Sully (BIH) flexes while his avatar (ANS) has sex with Neytiri (NAP)
— I like Jason’s performance, even though I have no familiarity with the Avatar character he’s doing a specific impression of, as I’ve never seen Avatar.
— I remember some online SNL fans back at this time in 2010 mistook Nasim in this sketch for Jenny, due to the heavy makeup and prosthetics Nasim was wearing and the fact that some people went through this entire season not being able to tell Nasim and Jenny apart in general (which I never understood, as I see no resemblance between them at all). If you go back and watch this sketch nowadays, after having gotten used to five seasons of Nasim on SNL, it’s obvious by the voice that it’s her in this sketch, not Jenny.
— Very funny visual of Bill’s very skinny legs wildly thrusting up and down during the lovemaking simulation.
— The sketch is over already? Wasn’t too crazy about the big gag at the end.
STARS: **½
RILEY
at dinner, gravel-voiced boy Riley (FRA) behaves like a gay insult comic
— Ohhhhhhh, god. Just from the reveal of Fred’s character, with his stereotypically-effeminate, gravelly-voiced “You bitch!”, and his ensuing theme song after the reveal of him, this sketch looks fucking INSUFFERABLE.
— Ugh. Yeah, I’m now a few minutes into this sketch, and it is absolutely unwatchable. This highlights so many of Fred’s bad traits as a performer that have become so heavily prevalent this season. I want to find a “So bad, it’s good” quality to this sketch, as I can see some people finding that, but nope. Not me. Maybe I’d go easier on this sketch if it appeared in a better season and didn’t star a performer known for often playing annoying, stereotypical gay roles like this.
— Overall, not a single laugh from me during this tripe.
— SNL would later attempt to make this sketch recurring, but thankfully, none of the subsequent installments would ever make it past dress rehearsal.
STARS: *
INTERNET BUZZ
excitable host skips Golden Globes to read online comments about herself
— Second consecutive sketch with Sigourney and Jason playing a married couple.
— A laugh from the “Dances With Smurfs” criticism about Avatar that Sigourney tearfully reads aloud from an IMDB message board.
— I love Jason’s comment about how he secretly turned the house’s power off and is just waiting for the battery in Sigourney’s laptop to die.
— The audience is kinda dead during this. I’m enjoying this more than they are. (Conversely, they enjoyed the preceding Riley sketch far more than I did.)
— Sigourney’s performance throughout this sketch is pretty fun, and I like Jason’s emotional breakdown towards the end.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Shut Up And Let Me Go”
FIRE & RICE
height of husband’s (BOM) piano unnerves acrophobic lounge singer (host)
— Not much of a premise, despite Sigourney’s commitment to the material.
— Did we really need a second joke in tonight’s entire episode in which Sigourney says she peed herself? (The first was in the monologue.)
— Overall, meh. Fun supporting performance from Bobby, though, who even did his best to sell the blah ending.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly forgettable episode. Not terrible, but nothing special as a whole (despite a few highlights), and most of the post-Weekend Update half didn’t work much for me.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
James Cameron’s Laser Cats 5
Summer’s Eve Lady Stars Of Darts Championship 1988
Weekend Update
Grady Wilson’s Fifty And Freaky
Internet Buzz
Monologue
Avatar
Larry King Live
Fire & Rice
Disco Booty Junction
Riley
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charles Barkley)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jon Hamm