Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESS CONFERENCE
GOP fundraisers wish Chris Christie (BOM) would obviate Mitt Romney (JAS)
— Heh, while Paul as a reporter is asking a question, Vanessa as a fellow reporter can be seen with a huge, gleeful, frozen, open-mouthed smile on her face, a definitive Vanessa Bayer facial expression (seen towards the lower left corner of the below screencap).
— Funny line from Jason’s Mitt Romney about how his voice sounds like a black comedian doing a white guy voice.
— When Bobby’s Chris Christie is listing off the reasons why he can never be president, I got a particularly big laugh from him pointing to his body and saying “This…this can’t go national.”
— The dynamic between Bobby’s Christie and the crowd of reporters who love him is decently funny.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
BES visits Jewish Willy Wonka’s (ANS) kosher wonderland during Yom Kippur
— Andy: “I’m Jewish Willy Wonka!” Ben Stiller: “So you’re Gene Wilder?” Andy: “Yeah, basically.”
— A nice-looking Jewish food-filled wonderland set.
— The Jewish stereotypes humor is coming off decent here.
STARS: ***
LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
(JAS) will have sex with his future self (JAS)
— I like the unsettling reveal of Jason’s future self wanting to have sex with his present-day self. The calm, smug smile on Future Jason’s face during all of this is adding to the humor for me.
— An overall fairly dumb ad, but one that worked for me.
STARS: ***½
FOX & FRIENDS
Hank Williams Jr. (JAS) won’t apologize for Obama remarks
— Good to see this solid sketch become recurring.
— Hmm, I didn’t recall from my previous viewings of this era that Fred’s doddering old fact-checker character from the first installment of this sketch got brought back. He eventually gets dropped from these sketches, but I’m not sure when.
— Vanessa: “[Hank Williams Jr.] compared President Obama to Hitler, and we just don’t say that on this show.” Bobby: “We imply it.”
— I love Jason’s mere look as Hank Williams Jr., as well as his portrayal of him.
— Funny bit with Jason’s HWJ going off-book during his apology song, and launching into another “Obama is Hitler” rant.
STARS: ****
LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
(BIH) meets his fat & suicidal future self (BIH)
— This seems like an odd choice for a runner to me.
— The deep “fat guy” voice Bill’s using is absolutely fantastic.
— I love the dark bit with Future Bill jovially implying that he’s flying to Hawaii just so he can commit suicide.
STARS: ***½
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS WITH HUGH JACKMAN
manly Daniel Radcliffe (Hugh Jackman) is musical
— The second and final appearance of this sketch. This is also the second consecutive live sketch tonight that’s being brought back from the preceding season’s Helen Mirren episode.
— Hmm, much like how I didn’t recall Fred’s fact-checker character from the first Fox & Friends installment being brought back in tonight’s Fox & Friends installment, I completely forgot that SNL made Abby’s Nancy Grace impression recurring. I had always remembered it only appearing in that So You Think You Can Dance parody from the season 35 Ryan Reynolds episode.
— The musical knife fight between Andy’s Hugh Jackman and Ben’s Mandy Patinkin is very funny.
— The debut of Bill’s memorable and very funny Clint Eastwood impression.
— They’re speeding through all the guests in this installment, it seems. The first installment of this sketch took its time with each guest.
— A cameo from Hugh Jackman himself, playing Daniel Radcliffe. The audience seems to take a while to recognize it’s Jackman under that get-up.
— A decent meta turn with Jackman, in character as Radcliffe, desperately refuting all the ridiculous claims that Andy’s Jackman makes about himself.
— Though I feel very wrong for this, I laughed at Andy’s Jackman saying, during his claim that he was born a girl, “The doctor turned me kangaroo pouch into a didgeridoo!”
— Why is it always Bobby who’s cast as the stage manager who gets gruesomely killed by the guests in these sketches?
STARS: ***
V-NECKS
(ANS) & (BES) show their chests in a clothing store showdown
— I wonder if Ben appreciates starring in a Digital Short, given the fact that, back when he was a short-lived cast member in season 14, SNL’s refusal to let him do short films that season was reportedly the reason for his very early exit.
— A laugh from the second V-Neck shirt Andy walks out in, where the “V” goes all the way down to his belly button.
— The escalation to the V-Necks is a little meh for me, despite some chuckles I’m occasionally getting.
— Not sure what the point is of Ben suddenly speaking in a goofy high-pitched voice when he’s being arrested by the cops.
— The diminished quality of this season’s Digital Shorts continues, though I found this overall V-Necks short a little better than the Stomp short from the preceding episode.
STARS: **½
BAND SHOT
going to commercial, Hank Williams Jr. (JAS) asks “Are you ready?” through song
— Oh, hell yeah! This is a great change of pace for this era, letting a cast member do a brief going-to-commercial musical number with the SNL Band, and it’s also a great way for Jason to reprise his Hank Williams Jr. impression from earlier tonight. This whole thing feels like a throwback to earlier SNL eras, which weren’t afraid to try different things like this.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pumped Up Kicks”
WEEKEND UPDATE
event planner Nan Washingtom’s (KRW) lone party theme idea is “pancakes”
look no further than the party held by Derek Zoolander (BES) & Stefon
— Odd how Seth starts his intro of the first guest commentary in tonight’s Update by saying “My first guest is a– etc.”, which is something Seth’s never done before in his Update guest intros. (Neither has any other Update anchorperson, as far as I know.)
— Another quirky one-off Wiig Update character. Ever since somewhere around March of the preceding season, it feels like Update is the only place Kristen does new characters anymore.
— This so-called new character of Kristen’s feels too much like an amalgamation of various quirky characters Kristen previously played, right down to the detail of her holding the microphone too close to her mouth the whole time.
— I’m not caring at all for where Kristen’s pancakes commentary has been going, nor do I like how EXTREMELY slow and drawn-out it is. This feels like a lame, failed attempt at both absurdist humor and patience-testing humor, mixed with tired “Wacky Wiig” character tropes. I remember how, when this originally aired, some online SNL fans defended this commentary of Kristen’s from people like me who bashed it, but yeah, 9 years later, I’m still not seeing the appeal of Kristen’s commentary at all.
— I love the audience reaction to Seth’s first Pet Costumes joke.
— I like how Stefon’s commentary begins with a callback to the summer vacation we previously saw him and Seth heading on their way to in the preceding season’s finale.
— A particularly memorable and hilarious Stefon moment right now, with his description of what a Human Fire Extinguisher is.
— An interesting change of pace in this Stefon commentary, with his new friend showing up, who turns out to be Ben’s Zoolander character. Good to see this, and seeing Stefon and Zoolander teamed up is a pretty fun pairing.
— I got a big laugh from Zoolander’s explanation of what the complicated SoWoHoNoBoHeWo abbreviation stands for.
STARS: ***
HALLOWEEN PARTY
at a Halloween party, sexy & foul Shana mixes her co-workers’ emotions
— This ends up being the final Shana sketch.
— How is Shana always “the new girl” in every single one of her sketches, when her co-workers are always the same people (aside from the character played by the host)?
— Yeesh, that “man from the 90s”/“Oh, I’m not wearing a costume” gag between Abby and Ben fell horribly flat.
— Speaking of Abby, she has officially broken the curse of cast members getting fired after playing the “ignored girl” role in just one Shana sketch.
— For most of this Shana character’s run, I’ve been a lot more tolerant of her sketches than some SNL fans appear to be, but I seemed to finally get tired of her sketches halfway through the last one prior to this (the basketball court one with Bryan Cranston). My newfound tiredness towards these sketches has been continuing in tonight’s installment, as I’m not all that entertained by what I’m currently watching.
— Ugh. Aaaaaaaaaaaand there goes the unnecessary, loud, long fart sound effect, something that this sketch had thankfully refrained from using in previous installments. The fact that this occurs at the climax of this sketch is sadly a fitting final nail in the coffin for this past-its-prime recurring sketch. Good riddance.
STARS: *½
LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP
(BES) is drawn to his female future self (BES)
— Short but not sweet. Just a cheap man-in-drag punchline, even with the initial fake-out involving Abby being mistaken for Ben’s future self.
— Oh, and this makes another sex change joke tonight.
STARS: *½
COLUMBUS DAY ASSBLAST
Under-Underground Columbus Day festival features Eckhart Tolle (BES)
— This is the third recurring piece tonight that last appeared in the preceding season’s Helen Mirren episode.
— Love the fake band name Crucifying Kudrow.
— I didn’t even realize that Jay hadn’t appeared in tonight’s episode until this point. And, of course, keeping in the theme of Jay having a rough go this season, not only is his first appearance of tonight’s episode so late in the show, but it’s a pre-taped appearance.
— Speaking of Jay, I fucking hate that high-pitched sound his character in these Under-Underground pieces always makes.
— A particularly funny event, with a party featuring the cast of the 90s show Dinosaurs, without their costumes.
— A funny change of the usual tone to these Under-Underground pieces, with Ben’s tender, soft-spoken speech as a spiritual advisor.
STARS: ****
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: JUST THE STORIES
DVDs have Bruce Springsteen’s (BES) between-song tales
— Pretty funny premise, and a decent execution of it.
— I like the unintelligible “Hunh hunh hainh hunh!” countdowns Ben’s Bruce Springsteen keeps doing before each song, and how each DVD clip abruptly ends with him about to start the song.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Kenny G [real] perform “Houdini”
— Ha, Kenny Motherfuckin’ G out of nowhere!
TINYBALLS
Moneyball follow-up dramatizes role of steroids in baseball
— Seems to be a lot of pre-taped segments in the post-Weekend Update half of this episode.
— Hmm, we’re seeing a different version of Taran’s Brad Pitt impression, with no yells of “Bdaaaah!” this time.
— Jay continues to make his only appearances tonight in pre-taped form, making this the second of the three episodes that have aired so far this season that Jay hasn’t made any live appearances in.
— Funny moment with Taran’s character’s daughter proudly smiling at him when he tells her, in a poignant manner, “We’re cheating, honey.”
— The steroid-fueled wild, insane celebration in the locker room is hilarious.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. A tad unmemorable as a whole (at least to me), but still decent. So much so, that there’s nothing else I can find to say about it.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Columbus Day Assblast
Fox & Friends
Tinyballs
Lincoln Financial Group (Part 2)
Lincoln Financial Group (Part 1)
The Best Of Both Worlds with Hugh Jackman
Press Conference / Monologue (tie)
Bruce Springsteen: Just The Stories
Weekend Update
V-Necks
Lincoln Financial Group (Part 3)
Halloween Party
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Anna Faris