Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CONGRESSWOMAN MICHELE BACHMANN’S RESPONSE TO THE PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS: THE SECOND ATTEMPT
Michele Bachmann’s (KRW) State Of The Union response has technical gaffes
— I barely remember the topical Michelle-Bachman-facing-the-wrong-camera speech that this is spoofing. Also, this seems like a flimsy thing to base an entire cold opening on.
— Meh, extremely predictable facing-the-wrong camera gags. The “flawed graph” gags aren’t doing much for me, either.
— That off-camera crash sound effect towards the end fell flat.
STARS: *½
MONOLOGUE
Mark Zuckerberg [real] reacts to portrayals of him by host & ANS
— Nothing much to say about this so far, but not bad.
— I got a laugh from Mark Zuckerberg cornily smiling into the camera when telling Lorne “Come on, I invented poking!”
— I love Andy’s “Awk-beeeerrrrrrg!” line during the Eisenberg/Zuckerberg meet-up.
STARS: ***
ONCE DAILY ESTRO-MAXX
pre-op transsexuals like (BIH) use Estro-Maxx hormone replacement therapy
— Ohhho, god. Much like I said about the Chaz Bono bit SNL did in the preceding episode, this transphobic commercial, which wasn’t remotely funny even when it originally aired in the pre-“woke” days of 2011, has not aged well AT FUCKING ALL. But what’s more is that, when this commercial originally aired, SNL deservedly ended up getting a lot of shit from GLAAD, who called the commercial out on its transphobia, and launched an online petition against SNL (here’s a link to an article). As a result, this commercial would end up getting removed from reruns.
STARS: *
MR. WIZARD’S WORLD
balloon-rubbing charges up teens (host) & (NAP)
— A very funny dirty turn this sketch takes with an innocent Jesse and Nasim curiously using balloons to experiment with each other’s private areas.
— Some good uneasy reactions from Bill as Mr. Wizard to Jesse and Nasim’s “experimentation”.
— Nasim’s sexual-related eagerness to use the Van De Graaff Generator is amusing.
— An impressively-fast wig change done on Nasim and Jesse when they were off-camera before we see them with their hair standing on end.
STARS: ****
DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS!
contestant’s (host) mistakes are Freudian slips
— Oh, wow, I completely forgot about this show (Don’t Forget The Lyrics) until now. (I feel like I’ve been saying that once in each of my latest episode reviews. This season’s been doing quite a number of spoofs of shows from the early 2010s that would end up not lasting too long.)
— Funny opening line from Jason’s Mark McGrath: “I’m your host, Mark McGrath, and yeah…I do this now!”
— I’m kinda meh on the main conceit with Jesse saying embarrassing incorrect lyrics to hit songs. I’m more amused by some this sketch’s throwaway jokes between Jesse’s songs (and even some of those aren’t too great).
— Okay, I did get a laugh from Jesse’s “Celebrate Saddam Hussein” lyric during his singing of the song “Celebration”.
STARS: **½
WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
Herb Welch gets defensive after botching college campus drug bust story
— These Herb Welch sketches have officially become recurring.
— The usual big laughs from Bill’s performance as Herb Welch.
— Good gag with Welch suddenly pulling out a second microphone and hitting Jesse with it right after hitting him with the first microphone.
— Bill seems to be amping up the mugging faces in some portions of tonight’s Herb Welch installment, but it’s not hurting this particular sketch.
— And now, right after one of his aforementioned camera-mugging facial expressions, Bill has started breaking, then turns away from the camera so we can’t see his laughing (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch). An off-camera Jason ad-libs “Come on, Herb. Hold it together, Herb!”
— A very funny line from Welch, saying “There you have it: the city college now fully integrated” at the end of his interview with a black student.
STARS: ****
THE CREEP
(ANS), (Akiva Schaffer), (Jorma Taccone) & (musical guest) are stalkerrific; John Waters cameo
— Ha, a very random John Waters cameo. Good to see him.
— The usual very fun and catchy music video starring all three Lonely Island members.
— A particularly funny scene with a 6-year-old Andy creeping in the room that his parents are having sex in.
— Nicki Minaj is fitting well in this.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Right Thru Me”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Hosni Mubarak (FRA) is oblivious to his culpability for Egypt’s troubles
fabulously successful Tyler Perry (KET) isn’t put out by Oscar snubs
— (*sigh*) So far, this Fred commentary is coming off as the usual bad Fred-plays-a-foreign-political-figure-on-Update commentaries from around this time.
— Fred’s relying too heavily on those “D’youknowwhatImean?”s to milk laughs from the audience.
— Kenan’s Tyler Perry commentary started off slow, but has gotten funnier halfway through. I especially like him throwing in occasional non-sequitur statements about his success (“My best friend is Oprah”, “I own an island”).
— Seth’s been having a few really solid jokes tonight.
STARS: ***½
THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE: BRIDE OF BLACKENSTEIN
Blackenstein’s (KET) Bride (musical guest) is Blaxploitatiously cheeky
— With this sketch, I see this SNL era is getting full mileage out of finally having a black woman on the show for once.
— A laugh from Jay’s “Oh, no, that’s not good” when finding out his Bride Of Blackenstein creation can speak.
— The line about Bride Of Blackenstein getting her mouth from “a ho who didn’t know her place” made me laugh a lot, though I feel a little wrong for it.
— Dr. Blackenstein: “You ever been with a sista?” Igor: “No.” Dr. Blackenstein: “Then you wouldn’t understand.” Igor: “I’ve just been with Jewish girls.” Dr. Blackenstein: “Oh, then you kinda understand.”
— Bill steals this whole sketch with his hilarious “70s pimp” voice.
— A funny drab close-up of Kristen’s flat butt in contrast to the various close-ups of Bride Of Blackenstein’s shapely butt.
STARS: ***½
SKINS
promiscuous druggie minors’ product placements restore ad revenue
— I laughed more than I probably should’ve at the announcer’s opening line, “You’re watching MTV. Shut uuuuuppp!”
— Well, to continue using my unintentional new catchphrase, I completely forgot about this show (Skins) until now. Watching this 36th season of SNL all these years later has become a nostalgia trip for things I completely forgot about, moreso than the last few seasons that preceded this.
— As this generic MTV programmer, Andy looks the same way he used to look when playing Kevin Federline several seasons prior.
— A big laugh from Andy referring to L’Oreal as “French Oreos”.
— A very amusing blooper with Andy accidentally knocking over the MTV Moonman award on the desk, and then, after both he and the audience can’t stop laughing about it, he just casually tosses the award off the desk while in the middle of delivering his lines.
— Some decent laughs from Skins desperately resorting to having its actors plug low-budget, random, out-of-place products during scenes.
— Abby: “That sounds great…for young vaginas.”
— A funny ending line from Paul, with him revealing “I’m 12”.
STARS: ***
SPA TALK WITH TYLA YONDERS
Tyla Yonders’ (KRW) poo-based balms don’t soothe family discord
— Like I said recently, I know it isn’t right to judge a non-recurring sketch from its first 15 seconds, but damn, I can already tell early on in this sketch that I’m in for a typical annoying, badly-written Wiig character piece. A lot of those just have a way of feeling D.O.A. right from motherfucking jump street.
— Kenan’s delivery is at least funny during his and Abby’s appearance.
— I’m getting no amusement from the arguments going on between the various families.
— Overall, as I expected, I did not like this sketch, nor did I like Kristen’s character, and I certainly didn’t like all the sophomoric, unfunny animal poop mentions. Thank god this sketch never ends up becoming recurring, given the fact that it kinda feels like it was set up to.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Moment 4 Life”
EL SHRINKO
(ANS) & (host) claim they need to take a penis-reducing medication
— Despite this being another sketch with a sophomoric premise, this one is at least coming off mildly funny.
— I like Vanessa’s testimonial with her reciting her lines monotonely while eating chips.
— Another sketch-stealing walk-on from Bill tonight, as brief as this one was. I also love Andy’s reaction to him.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode, which has pretty much become par for the course this season. (I’m still waiting for that standout strong season 36 episode, and at this point, I’m sadly starting to think I’m never going to get it, and should just accept this season’s bland averageness.) The first half of this episode did have a few strong pieces, though.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Creep
Mr. Wizard’s World
WXPD News New York
The Essentials with Robert Osborne: Bride Of Blackenstein
Weekend Update
Skins
Monologue
El Shrinko
Don’t Forget The Lyrics!
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s Response to etc.
Spa Talk with Tyla Yonders
Once Daily Estro-Maxx
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gwyneth Paltrow)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Dana Carvey