Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
Dooneese has a muscle-bound sister (host)
— (*groan*)
— A funny and solid cheesy performance from Taran, at least.
— We get the addition of Melissa McCarthy as a Dooneese-like fifth sister to the group. Meh. However, I do kinda like the detail of Melissa having huge He-Man doll arms as a contrast to Dooneese’s tiny baby doll hands.
— Taran’s solid straight man performance is now starting to come off quite Will Ferrell-esque, definitely a good thing.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
supposed dance experts host & KRW never actually show off their steps
— Maybe it’s because it’s been a while since I’ve last seen Melissa McCarthy, but her voice sounds different here than how I recall it sounding in her later SNL appearances.
— (*groan*) Our first musical monologue of the season. My typical aversion to musical monologues has recently become heightened due to how extremely oversaturated the preceding season was with them. (Literally 40% of that season’s monologues were musical, and that’s not an exaggeration.)
— Two segments into tonight’s episode, and we’re already getting lots of pairings of Melissa and her close friend and then-recent Bridesmaids costar Kristen. Feels a little odd in retrospect seeing Melissa so closely connected with Kristen in this episode, given how we would get so used to seeing Melissa without Kristen in Melissa’s subsequent hosting stints. Also, I remember how, when this episode originally aired, the cold opening and monologue made me worried that practically every sketch was going to have Kristen and Melissa paired together as annoying characters. Instead, as it turns out, Kristen surprisingly ends up being almost completely non-existent for the remainder of the episode.
— The running joke of Melissa acting like she and Kristen are about to start dancing, only for Melissa to immediately refrain because “Haw haw, she’s overweight!” is getting old quickly.
— The silhouette dancing gag is kinda amusing, at least.
STARS: **
LIL POUNDCAKE
doll injects girls with human papilloma virus vaccine
— The disturbing HPV twist is a very funny contrast to the upbeat aesthetic of this spot-on spoof of little girls’ dolls commercials.
— A good unsettled facial reaction from Kristen when she sees a doll in the biohazard trash bin creepily turning its head toward her.
STARS: ****
OFFICE FLIRT
(host) generates no sparks during sexual harassment of co-worker (JAS)
— Now that Melissa’s not joined at the hip with Kristen for once tonight, it’ll be interesting to see a display of Melissa’s character work.
— After sadly being shut out of the preceding week’s season premiere, Jay finally makes his first appearance of the season…aaaaaaand it’s a quick non-comedic walk-on where he only has one or two lines, and this ends up being his only live appearance all night.
— A simple and thin sketch, but a strong lead performance from Melissa, who’s going all out here, and is cracking me up. Jason is also a decent straight man to her.
— When Melissa pops the balloons stuffed under her sweater, I love Jason worriedly saying “I hope that was a balloon.”
— This is a very minor thing for me to gripe about, but Jay couldn’t even be bothered to keep up the character voice he was doing, as he went from speaking in an affected nerdy, whitebred voice in his first brief walk-on to speaking in his real-life laid-back, urban voice in his second brief walk-on.
— A pretty good twist at the end with Bill.
STARS: ***½
STOMP
percussive police station guns down Blue Man Group (FRA) & (PAB)
— I like the jolly look on Jason’s face as a handcuffed criminal who’s gleefully dancing to the rhythmic office sounds at the police station.
— An initial laugh from the beginning of the sudden turn with this becoming an extensive Stomp musical.
— Wait, what? Why are we now spending so much time on the VERY extended and unfunny gunning-down of Blue Man Group? What is the the point of this?
— I did at least like Bill and Andy’s quick exchange at the end, after a long pause while they’re staring at the bodies of the two Blue Man Group members they had just killed: “Was that Blue Man Group?” “Yep.” “Sh(*bleep*)t.”
— Overall, after an okay-ish start, this Digital Short really lost its way. It tried too hard to do way too much, and resulted in this being an overall mediocre short. This is our first sign of how troubled the general quality of this season’s Digital Shorts will be without Jorma or Akiva around anymore. I recall some Digital Shorts this season being downright unwatchable, which was practically unheard of prior to this season.
STARS: **
THE COMMENTS SECTION
pathetic online loudmouths lose their anonymity
— A spot-on spoof of the toxic comments section of certain sites, such as YouTube.
— Good turn with Bobby being shocked to find out that the old lady who’s video he left a juvenile, mean-spirited comment on is being brought out to confront him.
— Uh, what??? Was Nasim’s confrontation of Bobby ending with her telling him “I think you’re rotten!” supposed to be lame and THAT was the joke, or was that a genuine cop-out from the writers? Either way, it fell flat for me.
— I like Taran’s uncomfortable reaction when it’s his turn to be profiled, after what had just happened to Bobby.
— Melissa’s toxic online commenter character being named “DaTruf” is a particularly accurate detail of this sketch.
— Jason’s such a likable host of this sketch.
— Good ending with Bill being brought out as some random guy just here to give each guest a much-deserved punch in the gut. IIRC, SNL later does a complete rehash of this gag in another internet-related panel talk show sketch from the season 40 Dakota Johnson episode, only instead of Bill (who was long gone from SNL by that point) punching each guest, it was Taran being brought out to slap each guest in the face.
STARS: ***½
ROCK’S WAY
Chris Rock (JAP) inserts his commentary into Broadway shows
— Jay finally gets his first showcase this season, but of course, it’s just pre-taped. Maybe that’s for the best, though, given how green and stumbly he sometimes tends to be as a live performer in these early seasons of his SNL tenure.
— A fun Chris Rock impression from Jay, right down to the little detail of Jay imitating that thing Rock does with his fingers while speaking.
— Taran’s sassy testimonial-giver character from the preceding season’s Meryl Streep On Ice commercial (in which Taran’s testimonial memorably consisted of him just saying “Um, the bitch can skate!”) returns, this time saying another funny one-liner in his testimonial: “It was…black-tacular!” For some reason, SNL Archives doesn’t count him as a recurring character (and I doubt it’s because he’s nameless, because that site counts certain other nameless characters as recurring).
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We Owned The Night”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Moammar Gaddafi’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up reveal his character flaws via sotto voce
Tyler Perry (KET) relishes being the highest-paid man in entertainment
— OH NO. The return of motherfucking Gaddafi’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up.
— As much as I despise Garth & Kat (another wretched Fred Armisen-costarring recurring Update duo) with the fire of a thousand suns, at least they, I dunno, sing different songs each time. With the Two Best Friends From Growing Up commentaries, it’s literally the EXACT same damn thing every time, and it wasn’t even funny the first time.
— Not sure we needed Kenan’s Tyler Perry doing his second Update commentary, even though I liked his first one.
— Kenan-as-Tyler-Perry’s “…or you may be white” bit at the end of his opening statement was funny.
— Despite my initial reservations, this second Tyler Perry commentary is actually turning out to be decent.
STARS: ***
TASTE TEST
overeager (host) disrupts Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing focus group
— Probably the most remembered sketch from this episode among SNL fans.
— I recently found out this is a piece that Melissa brought with her from her days at the Groundlings. I even saw a publicity photo of the Groundlings version of this sketch (I can’t look for the photo at the moment, but thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section of this review can find it), and one of Melissa’s scene partners in that photo is none other than future SNL writer & cast member Mikey Day.
— I like Melissa’s vague occasional comments about how the prize money “could really get me out of a couple of jams”.
— Another good performance from Melissa tonight, but the material of this particular sketch is getting too repetitive for my likes, and I’m gradually losing interest.
— An unforgettable visual of Melissa splattering a whole bunch of ranch dressing onto her face from the bottle, which, for me, bumps the sketch’s rating up half a star.
STARS: **½
THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE
stairs-related injuries crippled Mae West knockoff (host)
— Taran’s been getting a lot of airtime tonight for a second-season featured player.
— Boy, I complained that the preceding Taste Test sketch was too repetitive, but THIS sketch takes the cake. And the main joke that this sketch keeps repeating isn’t even all that funny to begin with.
— Yeah, more and more, Melissa’s constant stair pratfalls aren’t doing it for me. Some of Jason’s lines during his occasional scenes as Robert Osborne are providing my only amusement in this sketch.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just A Kiss”
COMPLAINTS
ex-lovers belie pickup artist’s (ANS) claim of complaint-free intercourse
— After two repetitive sketches in a row starring Melissa as a one-note wacky character, it feels nice to get a change of pace here.
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kristen again, and in a small straight role, after she was absent for so much of this episode after being so dominant in the first 10 minutes.
— I like the structure to this, as well as Andy’s various affable reactions to the complaints of his various ex-lovers, especially him responding to Kristen’s complaint by telling her “Deb, ya get me!”
— Ha, that taser bit came out of NOWHERE. Good way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly mixed episode. Melissa McCarthy made a strong first impression in her hosting debut, being a funny, fearless, balls-to-the-wall performer, and coming off like someone who would’ve been a complete natural as a cast member. However, my problem is that the writing of most of her big showcase pieces tonight left me cold, especially as the episode progressed and there started to be more and more of a one-note feel to her big showcase pieces. In regards to that, I’m not sure I can put all of the blame on the SNL writers (even though they’re certainly guilty of often giving a very talented female comedian bad, one-note writing, as seen with Kristen Wiig in these later years of her SNL tenure), because, as mentioned earlier, one of Melissa’s big showcase pieces that I wasn’t crazy about (Taste Test) was actually something that Melissa brought with her from the Groundlings (though perhaps SNL’s writers helped carve it out into a scripted sketch this week), and I don’t know how many other Melissa McCarthy character pieces in this or her other hosting stints also happen to be Groundlings pieces she brought to the show.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
plus this visual:
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lil Poundcake
Office Flirt
The Comments Section
Complaints
Rock’s Way
Weekend Update
Taste Test
Stomp
Monologue
The Lawrence Welk Show
The Essentials with Robert Osborne
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Ben Stiller
Was that the Law & Order: SVU set in the Stomp sketch?
Ah, yes, “Jay rocks about Broadway.”
Didn’t someone on an SNL message board comment with the name or a similar handle to “DaTruf” not long, if not practically right before the week of this show?
I think that sketch made a certain someone dance in her seat.
“The main joke that this sketch keeps repeating isn’t even all that funny to begin with.” – a one-sentence distillation of Anderlette (who did write the Lulu Diamonds sketch).
I believe McCarthy knew Sublette before he was on the show (Groundlings I would assume). Pretty sure Sublette pitched her as playing Spicer on the show
Oh does anyone remember Judd Apatow going on a twitter tirade after McCarthy was getting criticized for her hosting performance here? I can remember it being a pretty big deal at the time
@Stooge, this is the article that has the photo of Melissa and Mikey (it’s also in Google Images for Melissa McCarthy Mikey Day Groundlings)
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-13/groundlings-ucb-upright-citizens-brigade-systemic-racism
A bit of a hindsight is 20/20 review, but I get it. I think Melissa brought a ton of energy to the show and showed why she could have been a castmember, but a run of diminishing returns (tho I remember thinking the last one was fine) kind of sullied that. Still, I have fond feelings toward the Ranch dressing sketch. It’s a lot of McCarthy vamping, but I think it’s the best of the lot, culminating in a pretty special moment. It’s the only one of her sketches that I still can return to and enjoy. The low rating seems…especially low.
Yea, you’re in for a rough season of Digital Shorts. At least the last 2 are great send offs.
Congrats, you found the exact moment the Digital Shorts jumped the shark! I didn’t realize it was this early in Year 37. Writing them by committee did not work, though IIRC “Two Best Friends” was the best of the no Jorma/no Akiva bunch.
McCarthy was a dynamic host and a deserving Five Timer. Nevertheless, this episode has some obvious Year 36 spillover. A few good sketches, but nothing great as a whole.
This article mentions that Lorne nearly had Melissa host in May 2011 but decided to wait until after Bridesmaids had come out and people knew her more. It also mentions that Melissa brought two Groundlings pieces in (I kind of wonder if the other is the office sketch, as that has a very heavy improv feel).
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/arts/television/anna-faris-and-other-female-hosts-on-saturday-night-live.html
I can see where many would tune into this expecting a Bridesmaids reprisal, but Melissa is pretty much going her own way most of the night, with the exception of the very solid ten-to-one where she and Andy (in another good sketch performance) have to play off each other. So many of Melissa’s sketches in her 5 episodes are mostly just showpieces for her that I can see why some don’t care for her on SNL; I think her skills tend to make a lot of it work, but by the end, her cameos do start to feel exhausting.
Melissa’s journey through those 7 seasons of hosting and cameos, with little suggestion she plans to return anytime soon, do show how oddly sped up this past decade was in terms of host arcs. The days of occasionally appearing hosts or established hosts are still there, but you also have people who had their own arc completed within a relatively short period, pointedly not ending up as another Steve Martin/John Goodman/Alec Baldwin figure. Then you have hosts who sort of came out of nowhere for the average viewer and almost immediately became beloved friend-of-the-show figures, like John Mulaney. And the hosts who ended up finding romantic partners from the show. A lot of turnover and drama which was, on a number of occasions, much more interesting than the episodes they ended up hosting.
Lulu Diamonds is one of my quasi-guilty pleasure Anderlette sketches. A lot of that is down to Taran, who wrings so many laughs out of, “Oh Lulu, no!” The rest is down to Jason, who is just terrific in this, even though it’s been done to death (I’m looking forward to when Reese De’What finally appears, as his appearances always crack me up even when the rest of the sketch does not). Melissa, ironically, has the weakest role of anyone, but she does what she can.
I feel like I complain about this too often with SNL, but I may as well again – the Chris Rock pre-tape just drags on too long, making a fun point less fun with 3-4 repeats, and also betraying that Jay’s impression of Chris is best left to small doses.
There’s nothing that special about the execution of the troll talk show sketch (although the idea is clever), but the performances are all great. Jason’s performance is absolutely masterful, so layered in how he enjoys toying with the vile guests but never being too heavy-handed in that approach. Just fine, fine acting from him – I will never stop being disappointed that by Jason’s time in the cast, slice-of-life material was such a dirty word for SNL.
The “friends of….” duo remind me of the Colin Quinn recurring character who would work in the KKK, Third Reich, etc. but end up being killed because he kept talking trash about his job. The main difference is those sketches were well-written and funny. Not a laugh to be found here. Even worse, Seth is actually much better at the piece than Fred and Vanessa are, which surely was not the point, unless they just loved Seth and wanted to make him look good. Anyway, in contrast, the Tyler Perry pieces actually are pretty decently written (unlike a lot of Kenan Update stuff that gets by on his charisma/skills).
There’s also nothing that special about the office sketch, but I do enjoy seeing Melissa test just how far she can push the live format, and how much Jason tries to avoid breaking. Bill’s snake hips at the end of this are one of my favorite things he did on SNL. Just a hoot.
I had always wondered if I was missing the humor in the part of the Digital Short where the Blue Man Group gets gunned down. Glad it doesn’t work for some of you either. There are some positives until we get to that point – nice to see Bill and Andy together (and on a shallow note, this is maybe the best Andy Samberg ever looked on the show…), and the early part about the sounds, then getting to the Stomp-esque bit, etc. remind me of one of my favorite Schiller’s Reels (the one about the office workers and their variety show). I guess the Blue Man Group part could have just been an in-joke as Fred was one of them and Jason nearly was as well, but…not my type of thing.
It’s interesting that you (and some other commenters) don’t like the prolonged shooting joke in the digital short, as it’s something The Lonely Island do a lot – for example Rod falling down the cliff in Hot Rod, the prolonged punching in Hero Song, Popstar has a similar toned joke but with them saying something in a really long winded way, it’s even popped up in Brooklyn Nine Nine (there is a specific rock, paper, scissors joke i’m thinking of). The sweet spot of those jokes is to go for so long that it loops back around to funny and absurd, rather than just annoying, but maybe it just doesn’t work for some – I enjoy it though! It also could totally be an example of Andy’s own admission that he was so burnt out at this point he just let the shorts get darker, and start to eat themselves a lot…
This is the one McCarthy-hosted episode which I’d never seen till now, and I think it highlights the main pattern I’ve found with her work: if you look at the ranch dressing sketch, she is pretty much always playing some slight variation of that character in every hosting stint, in every sketch (not counting the Sean Spicer cameos, of course). I’d even go a step further and say her character in Ghostbusters (which I liked) and the cameo in Hangover 3 (blah) are the same person. All of these variations only seem to differ in their energy level. I’ve never understood it because, from what little I’ve observed, her “Gilmore Girls” and “Mike & Molly” characters are fairly well-rounded.
All that being said, I can see how the ranch dressing sketch was deemed an instant classic at the time. If she had just left it at that and stopped playing the same note over and over at SNL, it probably would have seemed fresher in retrospect.
I think I recorded this one but have yet to watch it as the machine I recorded it on was thrown away after a flood. That ranch dressing sketch, though, sounds like something I’d enjoy…