May 14, 2011 – Ed Helms / Paul Simon (S36 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
with Osama Bin Laden dead, cocky Barack Obama (FRA) plays stand-up comic

— This is easily one of the few legitimately strong Obama performances Fred has ever given. The escalation to his-as-Obama’s newfound laid-back, smug demeanor while bragging about killing Osama Bin Laden is great, especially his catchphrase “Kiiiiiiilllllled Bin Laden!”
— Jason’s occasional mumbling as Wolf Blitzer always makes me laugh, and I like the touch with him even doing it during his LFNY at the end of this.
STARS: ****

OPENING MONTAGE

— For the first time in years, long after the TV Funhouse segment has been retired, we get an “A Cartoon By Robert Smigel” announcement in tonight’s opening montage, which I remember was a HUGE shock at the time, as there wasn’t a prior announcement of it before the show (as far as I know, at least).

MONOLOGUE
host relives his beloved childhood stint as a spandex-clad baton twirler

— I recall Ed Helms being a surprisingly awkward host in this episode, but in this monologue so far, he’s handling himself just fine.
— A long-winded but good childhood story from Ed.
— Funny twist with Ed ripping off his clothes to reveal a unitard, and then proceeding to launch into his old baton-twirling routine.
STARS: ***½

CORN SYRUP PRODUCERS OF AMERICA
Rerun from 3/12/11

WHAT UP WITH THAT?
musical guest, Chris Colfer [real], Lindsey Buckingham (BIH) & Lindsey Buckingham [real] are saluted

— This is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made in half a season, which is pretty surprising, given how frequently this popular sketch appeared prior to its half-season-long hiatus. That hiatus makes the presence of this sketch tonight come off more refreshing.
— Ooh, a change of pace, with the guest in the first seat, Paul Simon, sticking up for Bill’s Lindsey Buckingham by pointing out to Kenan’s Deandre Cole that Buckingham never gets a chance to speak on the show.
— Wow, and now Fred, Jason, Nasim, and Vanessa’s usually-non-speaking background characters (well, not counting the usual singing from Nasim & Vanessa) not only speak, but we even find out their names: Giuseppe (Fred), Vance (Jason), and Poppy & Pippa (Nasim & Vanessa). I’m loving all of the changes of pace in tonight’s WUWT installment.
— A display of Ed’s real-life banjo skills.
— Holy hell, this sketch continues to break format, as we, in a surreal twist, get an appearance from a second Lindsey Buckingham, played by the real Lindsey Buckingham, doing an awesome acoustic guitar solo.
— Overall, definitely one of the best installments of this always-fun sketch. So nice to see them try so many different things. Speaking of which, it would later be revealed from someone on the show (I can’t remember who; it may have even been Kenan himself) that this was intended to be the farewell installment of What Up With That, which explains why there were so many changes of pace and format breaks within it. However, WUWT’s retirement would end up being short-lived, because just a year later when Maya Rudolph hosts, they bring the sketch back due to how much she reeeaaaaalllly wanted to do it.
STARS: ****½

SIDE NOTE: The mid-commercial break shot of SNL’s studio shows an office set being assembled on SNL’s home base stage for the next sketch (screencap below). However, when the show comes back from commercial, the sketch that the office set was assembled for is nowhere to be seen. Strange.

TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- Dr. Brainio’s (Stephen Colbert) gun fleshes Ace (Jon Hamm) & Gary (JIF)

— Ah, so nice to see that TV Funhouse opening title sequence (“Come back here with myyyy shooow!”) again after so many seasons.
— Kinda amusing to see how primitive the original Ambiguously Gay Duo opening title sequence from 1996 looks when airing in a 2011 episode.
— Given the fact that Ed Helms is the host of tonight’s episode, it’s fitting hearing the voices of his former Daily Show co-stars Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert playing their usual characters in these AGD cartoons.
— The usual laughs from the usual AGD beats, such as the suggestive homoerotic visuals of innocent things Ace and Gary do, and the conversations between the villains on the topic of Ace and Gary’s sexual orientation.
— Whoa, we get the turn to end all turns! Ace and Gary suddenly get transformed into live-action characters, played by Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon.
— Now the villains have gotten transformed into live-action characters, most of them being played by their voice actors. This is so great to see.
— Steve Carell looks almost completely unrecognizable in that Bighead getup.
— This whole live-action sequence is incredible, and I love the visual quality of the nighttime outdoors scenes, making it feel like I’m watching a movie.
— Overall, an absolute blast. Such a great novelty. I’m glad Smigel went all out on this, and this feels like a much more fitting farewell for TV Funhouse than the actual final TV Funhouse cartoon to air prior to this one.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rewrite”

WEEKEND UPDATE
out-of-the-loop Anthony Crispino botches reportage of current events

Will Smith (JAP) makes his trailer & everything else bigger & better

the latest Garth & Kat ouevre addition comprises impromptu vacation songs

— Another instance of Seth having fun doing a British accent during the punchline of an Update joke.
— I like the Fergie tie-in during Anthony Crispino’s Prince William/Will.i.am mix-up.
— Crispino makes an amusing and unexpected namedrop of SNL’s own Maya Rudolph during his mix-up about the 2012 apocalypse.
— I love Crispino proudly yelling “We finally killed Oksana Baiul!” during his Osama Bin Laden mix-up.
— Given how reduced his airtime had been the last handful of episodes prior to this, it’s nice to see Jay get an Update commentary. That being said, it’s kinda hard for me to get excited about it being a Will Smith commentary, given the fact that it feels like they’ve been over-relying on that impression. It’s losing its novelty for me.
— As I was worried, there’s not much to this Will Smith commentary so far. It’s completely meh.
— What was with Jay’s extended frozen smile into the camera after the photo of Kim Kardashian posing with Will Smith’s trailer was shown?
— (*screams in anger for 10 straight minutes*) Fred continues to be Weekend Update poison (hell, “season 36 poison” is more accurate in terms of Fred) in his frequent Update appearances in the second half of this season, with us now getting a damn Garth & Kat commentary. And it’s just my luck that this happens in the episode RIGHT AFTER one where I was worried Seth was introducing a Garth & Kat commentary, only for it to thankfully be a Stefon commentary instead.
— The only positive thing I can say about tonight’s Garth & Kat commentary is that at least it’s appearing in the second-to-last episode of the season instead of the actual last episode of the season, like how SNL disappointingly ended the preceding season of Update with these characters.
STARS: **½ (as usual, Garth & Kat’s painful and overlong commentary brought the rating down half a star)

SONG MEMORIES
“Wild World” evokes family secrets of (host) & other icky reminiscers

— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in over a year, and its first-ever appearance without Will Forte as one of the four “icky reminiscers”. Andy takes over Will’s place in tonight’s installment.
— There’s our obligatory topical punchline to one of the guys’ stories, with Bill’s father (who he always refers to in these sketches as “muh dad”) turning out to be the recently-killed Osama Bin Laden.
— As expected, it initially feels a little odd seeing Andy telling one of the stories in this sketch, though he’s fitting in well-enough with the other guys.
— I like how tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch has returned to the tradition of having each icky reminiscer say a humorous addendum to their story, after singing the chorus of the song with the other guys. This recurring sketch dropped that aspect in the last few installments prior to tonight’s.
— Funny bit with Ed unknowingly drinking the ashes of Jason’s grandfather in the drinking cup, and then coughing out a cloud of the ashes.
— While not one of the best installments of this recurring sketch (this sketch’s best days are probably long behind us), I’m enjoying all of the punchlines to the guys’ stories more than I enjoyed the story punchlines in the last two installments of this sketch.
— Ha, a Human Centipede ending. That alone is worth the price of admission.
STARS: ***½

ONE TAKE TONY
in 1941 Hollywood, bad actor One-Take Tony’s (ANS) nickname is a misnomer

— It feels kinda rare seeing Andy starring as an old-timey 1940s character, even though this particular 1940s character feels like a very fitting role for him.
— A genuine surprise from me when Andy did that Matt Foley-esque pratfall through the breakaway table.
— Funny appearance at the end from Kenan as Louie Armstrong singing One-Take Tony’s randomly-appearing ending theme song.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Beautiful Or So What”

ANN-MARGRET TRIES TO THROW AWAY A WAD OF PAPER INTO A TRASHCAN
Ann-Margret (KRW) does what the title above says

— Here’s the type of sketch I call a Wacky Wiig Showcase, but unlike some Wacky Wiig Showcases from these later seasons of Kristen’s SNL tenure, I’m not instantly groaning at the sight of this particular one, because in these past few months of this season, SNL has thankfully cut back big-time on the number of Wacky Wiig Showcases, outside of Update commentaries. It’s been refreshing not seeing Kristen so dominant on the show anymore, so hopefully, that’ll make this Ann-Margret sketch come off more welcome than it would’ve if it had aired during the days of endless Wiig Domination.
— For some odd reason, when the camera cuts to a close-up of Ed saying “Should’ve done this myself”, he suddenly stops mid-sentence, pauses awkwardly for a few seconds, and then repeats the line in full after the camera cuts away from the close-up of him. He seemed to think he mistakenly started saying that line too early, even though he clearly didn’t say it too early, because the camera was on a close-up of him during that.
— Fun performance from Kristen, and a good execution from her on this comically-scant premise, even if I don’t find this to be anywhere near the classic that SNL wants me to. Earlier in this sketch review, I pointed out that, if this sketch had aired during the days of endless Wiig Domination (2008-2010), I’d probably have found it tired and annoying. Well, conversely, if this sketch had aired in 2006 when Kristen was new, fresh, and wasn’t cast in wacky roles anywhere near as often, I’d probably be much more impressed by the sketch, having a “Wow, that new girl is GREAT!” reaction, and I might’ve indeed found the sketch to be a classic. By this point in 2011, there’s a feeling of “We’ve already seen everything Kristen can do, 100 times over”.
— An overall simple and funny sketch.
STARS: ***½

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE
unspecified white male GOP presidential candidate (host) is plain vanilla

— Ah, there’s the office set that, as I pointed out, was shown being assembled on SNL’s home base stage much earlier tonight during a mid-commercial break shot. I’m VERY curious why they suddenly decided at literally the last minute to move this sketch to the very end of the show. Did something go wrong?
— Another instance tonight of Ed suddenly stopping in the middle of a line, then pausing awkwardly for a few seconds, then repeating the line in full. This time, it happens during the “My dad” bit, and this gaffe of Ed’s hurts the gag of that line.
— Another overall simple sketch. Aside from Ed’s aforementioned gaffe, this sketch wasn’t bad, though it was a little too much on the forgettable side, given the promising concept it had.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode. The pre-Weekend Update half had some impressive highs, with the special farewell (for a while) installment of What Up With That, the also-special live-action return of TV Funhouse, and one of Fred Armisen’s very few strong Obama performances. While less impressive than the pre-Weekend Update half, the post-Weekend Update half of the show was consistently good. Aside from one gaffe in both the Ann-Margret and Republican Candidate sketches, Ed Helms wasn’t as awkward or ill-prepared a host as I had remembered. However, he was very forgettable, which is disappointing, given how reliably funny he can be elsewhere. On another note, I found the way this episode was structured to be a little odd, with how scant the number of segments between the monologue and Paul Simon’s first musical performance was, especially with there only being ONE actual live sketch in that portion of the show. Then again, as mentioned earlier, that Republican Candidate sketch was all set to air in the first half of the show, before something behind the scenes seemingly caused a change of plans.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
TV Funhouse
What Up With That?
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Song Memories
Ann-Margret Tries To Throw Away A Wad Of Paper Into A Trashcan
Monologue
One Take Tony
Republican Candidate
Weekend Update

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Season 36 comes to an end, with host Justin Timberlake