Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE CENSUS
Barack Obama (FRA) encourages USA to answer invasive census questions
— Some laughs from the inappropriate sexual-related census questions.
— At least all of these census questions are distracting somewhat from the usual drabness of Fred’s Obama and his typically-boring address-to-the-nation cold openings.
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
support crew helps TIF juggle it all; Mark Sanchez & Steve Martin cameos
— Already a funny opening line from Tina Fey about how her second time hosting is a record….“a personal record”.
— When disclosing her least favorite questions that people often ask her, I half-expected one of the questions to be “How’d you get that scar?”, but I was incorrect. Maybe the scar thing is too sore a subject for Tina. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her joke about it.
— Meh, a musical monologue, but Tina seems like she’ll make this fun.
— As expected, it turns out there’s some good and fun typical Fey-esque silliness during the song.
— Two hosting stints in, and Tina is 2-for-2 in her monologues having a Steve Martin cameo.
— Our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on.
— Kenan In A Dress alert, for the third damn episode in a row.
STARS: ***
BROWNIE HUSBAND
Duncan Hines Brownie Husband fills women’s need for companionship & fudge
— Decent concept.
— Nice showcase for Tina, and it feels like a very rare novelty to see her starring in a solo, pre-taped commercial.
— I like how Tina’s really going all out in her engorging of her brownie husband towards the end of this commercial.
STARS: ***½
MASTERS
Tiger Woods’ mistress (TIF) provides expert commentary at The Masters
existence of chiding ad voice-over by Tiger Woods’ (KET) dad (BIH) is its basis
— Despite playing a cliched character that feels too been-there-done-that, Tina has some funny lines here, and she’s making the role work decently.
— I like Jason’s delivery of “Oh, god, no!” when Tina whispers the definition of “dog leg” to him.
— The Tiger Woods Nike commercial with Kenan is cracking me up.
— The fact that the aforementioned Tiger Woods Nike commercial is having Bill do a “black” voice as the voice-over of Tiger Woods’ deceased father makes it painfully obvious that Kenan’s the only black member of this season’s cast. At least they didn’t resort to having Fred do the “black” voice-over for Tiger’s father.
STARS: ***
SARAH PALIN NETWORK
line-up of shows reflects Sarah Palin’s (TIF) political views
— Our obligatory Sarah Palin sketch of the night. I like the concept of this particular Palin sketch.
— Tina spoofs the Katie Couric/Sarah Palin CBS interview for the second time, after the famous cold opening from the preceding season’s Anna Faris episode.
— The “Todd!” scene is absolutely great.
— Funny bit with Bobby’s Bob Ross-esque painter character painting a Hitler mustache onto a cloud.
— A laugh from the slam against The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
STARS: ***½
LONELY TEACHER
teacher (TIF) imagines pupil (musical guest) musically requites her crush
— Oh, no. After our obligatory Justin Bieber walk-on in the monologue, we now get our obligatory Justin Bieber-starring sketch of the night.
— Another “Oh, no” from me, as Bieber is now breaking out into a fucking song. Oh, and, of course, we also have his cringey try-to-sound-cool-and-“black”-by-saying-stuff-like-“Aight” shtick.
— Multiple Bieber songs in this sketch? (*groan*)
— Seeing Tina have to perform this pandering mess of a sketch is sad. I feel embarrassed for her.
— The bored, miserable look on Bobby’s character’s face in the background (screencap below) perfectly matches my face during this whole sketch.
— I finally got a mild chuckle in this sketch, from Tina’s “I should NOT have put wine in my cereal this morning” line. Still not enough to make up for the dreadfulness of the rest of this sketch, though.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Baby”
WEEKEND UPDATE
The Devil (JAS) takes moral stand against molestation by Catholic priests
Aunt Linda likes The Tooth Fairy much better than 3D movies full of CGI
Women’s News- TIF slags Bombshell McGee & bewails the ubiquity of whores
— The debut of Jason’s The Devil character.
— Jason portraying the devil in a very Jason Sudeikis-y manner is great.
— Pretty sensitive subject matter for this Devil commentary, focusing on the priest child molestation scandal, but Jason is making it work.
— I had completely forgotten about Aunt Linda until now. Her last appearance was quite a long while ago, which itself was her first appearance in quite a long while. These long gaps between these past two commentaries of hers are not long enough for my likes, given how I’m of the opinion that this character only worked in her first appearance. Thankfully, tonight’s appearance ends up being her final one.
— As expected, tonight’s Aunt Linda commentary contains her usual tired shtick, especially her groan-worthy corny-ass ratings system.
— Good to see the return of Tina’s recurring Women’s News segment from her Weekend Update years.
— Bombshell McGee? I have no memory of who that is, but Tina sure is focusing heavily on her here.
— Some of the usual solid lines from Tina in tonight’s Women’s News sketch. I especially like how it ends with her meta comment about her having her leg and pubic hair ripped out earlier today so she could wear a hooker costume for a sketch that ended up not even making it to air.
STARS: ***
AL ROKER’S RUFF, RUGGED AND ROKER
Al Roker’s (KET) nightclub party pauses for weather reports
— What we initially see in this sketch is an interesting change of pace for typical Kenan’s Al Roker portrayal.
— Blah. During the occasional weather reports, not only do we suddenly get the return of that Bullwinkle-esque hokey voice Kenan typically portrays Al Roker with (which I never liked), but the turns this sketch keeps taking with Kenan’s Roker alternating between acting hokey and whitebred when he’s on the Today Show camera, and coming off badass and urban when the Today camera turns off, is straight out of that memorable season 21 sketch with another Today Show personality, Bryant Gumbel, played by David Alan Grier. That Gumbel sketch was pulled off much better than this.
STARS: **
SCHOOL DANCE
(TIF) wishes her too-sensible daughter Bedelia (NAP) would act her age
— The debut of Nasim’s Bedelia character.
— A solid character piece for Nasim, and, much like with the Roomies sketch she did earlier this season with Taylor Swift, Nasim continues to prove herself to be adept at slice-of-life material.
— I got a good laugh from Bedelia’s inappropriate “So Grandpa’s startin’ to go, huh?” line to her mother.
— (*groan*) Our THIRD Justin Bieber sketch appearance tonight.
— The ending with Nasim and Bieber had a sweet feel, at least.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “U Smile”
TINY HOOKER
nine-inch-tall hooker (TIF) gives up on a trip to Paris to save orphanage
— Interesting concept, even if it feels a tad like a variation of both Cool Mite (a forgotten Andrew Dice Clay sketch) and Tiny Elvis.
— Yet another solid showcase for Tina tonight, and the writing of this sketch is certainly better than I found the writing in the aforementioned Cool Mite and Tiny Elvis sketches to be.
— (*sigh*) Yet another episode this season in which Will feels sadly invisible, and in which the sight of him popping up in a sketch reminds me that, contrary to how it may seem, Will Forte is, in fact, a cast member this season.
— Jason’s delivery of “And don’t you ever COME BAAACK!” was hilarious.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, despite the overuse of Justin Bieber and one or two other misfires. Most of the episode had a good feel, even if there was nothing I found particularly stand-out great until the final sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Tiny Hooker
School Dance
Brownie Husband
Sarah Palin Network
Monologue
Masters
Weekend Update
The Census
Al Roker’s Ruff, Rugged And Roker
Lonely Teacher
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jude Law)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Ryan Phillippe