Month: October 2020

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April 2, 2011 – Elton John (S36 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
pianist (host) wants no part of Dooneese

— (*groan*) Another Lawrence Welk sketch.
— This cold opening begins rather awkwardly with a smiling Fred just silently staring at the camera for an extended amount of time before finally speaking. I’m not sure if the reason for this weird long pause of Fred’s is because perhaps 1) Fred hadn’t yet realized he was on the air, 2) there was a “The Lawrence Welk Show” title screen that was supposed to precede the opening shot of Fred but failed to show up, or 3) the audience was supposed to applaud before Fred spoke (you know, that dumb, pointless “Have the audience applaud at the beginning of every cold opening for no good reason” thing that SNL’s been doing in recent decades). Either way, clearly someone missed a cue.
— Ugh at that joke with Fred’s Lawrence Welk saying his favorite fingerlake is the middle one.
— When this originally aired, I remember thinking Elton John looked very Stuart Smalley-esque in this.
— As usual, nothing to say about the actual content of the Dooneese portions of this sketch. Same-old same-old.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
new father host describes aspects of his paternal role

— I like Elton mentioning his last time on the show was as a musical guest way back in 1982, then saying that, of all the things he tried back in the early 80s, SNL is the safest to try again.
— Elton is coming off as a total natural here, and is very likable, even doing a self-deprecating and actual funny gay joke about himself at one point (when mentioning that his new baby rejected the breast).
— An overall charming and fairly solid monologue.
STARS: ***½


KY JELLY LADIES SHOT PUT CHAMPIONSHIP 1985
Pete Twinkle, Greg Stink & brother Steve Stink (Tom Hanks) cover lady shot putters (KRW) & (Carmelo Anthony)

— The first appearance this recurring sketch has made in a year. And with that, we, of course, get the return of Will Forte! Feels so nice to see him for the first time since his departure from the cast.
— Hmm, no audience applause for Will’s cameo.
— Now we get a cameo from Carmelo Anthony, not too long after he started playing for the New York Knicks.
— Jason and Will’s characters are coming off as funny as ever.
— And now this sketch’s bevy of cameos continues, as we get TOM FREAKIN’ HANKS out of nowhere. Hard for anyone to complain about all the cameos in this sketch when two of them include Will Forte and Tom Hanks.
— Tom is great as Greg Stink’s similarly-traited brother.
— Pete Twinkle: “Make a little room for Paco, put some SAUCE on that taco………..(*extremely long pause, leading at one point to a brief cutaway to Tom Hanks staring at the camera with a frozen smile*)………..KY lubricant yelly!”
— Greg Stink, on his trip to Vegas: “They got the loosest slots.” Pete Twinkle: “Hey, speakin’ of loose slots, KY Jelly!”
STARS: ****


FANCY A JAR, DO YOU? / KNIGHTS OF THE REALM
Britcom has (BOM), (KRW), glass containers

host, Michael Caine (Tom Hanks), Bono (ANS), other knights weigh response to dragon attacking London

— Hmm, a British-accented Seth Meyers voice-over at the beginning of the BBC News special report.
— I like the bit with Paul’s fancy-named news anchor saying he’s filling in for an anchor simply named Fat Danny.
— I love Tom Hanks as Michael Caine, and I also love how it’s starting to feel like Tom’s the co-host of tonight’s episode.
— Elton accidentally messed up his “Sting taking forever to come” joke, but he had a charming reaction.
— Elton’s deadpan remarks to others throughout this sketch are great.
— Funny bit with a clone of Bill’s Richard Branson showing up immediately after Bill’s Branson got killed in a rocket accident.
— A particularly great snarky remark from Elton right now, with his Spider-Man slam to Andy’s Bono.
— I love Paul, as the news anchor, professionally delivering the breaking news that Sting “jizzed all over [the dragon] until it died.”
STARS: ****


LASER CATS THE MUSICAL!
coerced Tom Hanks [real] supports feline sci-fi

   

— Yes! Yet another appearance tonight from our unofficial co-host Tom Hanks.
— Our annual Laser Cats short. Hard to believe there’s only one left after this, as the following season is Andy’s final season, and it’s been a tradition to do one Laser Cats short per year ever since Andy’s first season.
— Great reveal of Tom being forced to push Laser Cats on Lorne because Bill and Andy are holding Wilson The Volleyball hostage.
— A good change of pace with tonight’s Laser Cats being a musical.
— I like Bill and Andy yelling at a passerby for entering the sideways-shot scene and ruining the illusion that Bill and Andy are climbing a wall.
— Funny running gag of a guy in a Spider-Man costume crashing into things in the background during a failed flying stunt, which I assume is making fun of the infamously troubled state of the then-current Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark play.
— Very fun involvement of Elton as the villain.
— I love the visual of a shrunken Andy jumping through the gap between Elton’s two front teeth.
— A hilarious voice for Wilson The Volleyball at the end. I think that’s Bill doing the voice, but I’m not 100% sure.
— Nice to see this end differently from most of the other Laser Cats shorts.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & Leon Russell [real] perform “Hey Ahab”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM matches GOP presidential hopefuls & Celebrity Apprentice counterparts

Moammar Khadafy (FRA) lobbies for the end of USA military action in Libya

recently-recaptured cobra has again escaped from Bronx zookeeper (KET)

Nicolas Cage (ANS) covets Jake Gyllenhaal’s [real] role in Source Code

— Uh-oh. Another innocent Weekend Update mention of Donald Trump considering a presidential bid, this time with Seth being a skeptic by calling it a “fake presidential run” and asking “Why are we talking about this guy [Trump] like he really might be president?” Ohho, Seth, if you only knew…
— Seth’s Apprentice-style breakdown of the GOP candidates is fairly clever and has some laughs.
— Ohhhhhhh, god. I am so fucking sick of 1) Fred playing Moammar Khadafy for so many consecutive episodes (this being the third consecutive episode), and 2) Fred playing so many Middle Eastern leaders in general this season, especially on Update lately.
— Ugh at all the lame, intentionally-dated pop culture references that Fred’s Khadafy is making, a gag that I recall SNL previously doing to death with Horatio Sanz, back in the days when he was SNL’s go-to performer for Middle Eastern leaders. And just like Fred, Horatio would play every Middle Eastern leader the exact fucking same, and it eventually got so tired.
— More and more groan-worthy parts of Fred’s commentary the longer it goes on. This commentary is TERRIBLE, and gives me yet another excuse to call Fred out on being the absolute bane of this season. And I still have TWO MORE SEASONS to put up with his tired nonsense.
— Why in the world is Fred’s Khadafy making a contemporary CSI reference right now, when earlier portions of this same damn commentary established the fact that Libya is so behind the times on pop culture that they’ve only recently received shows and music from the early 90s? This inconsistency just adds to what a mess this awful commentary is.
— Pretty funny reactions from Kenan when realizing the snake in his basket has gotten loose.
— Meh, I’m not caring for Kenan’s hammy overacting when beating the snake to death. Instances of Kenan hammily chewing the scenery can be really funny at certain times (especially in more recent years, when he only uses that hamminess at the right times), but this particular instance is coming off as some low-level Nickelodeon-esque stuff (which was my complaint about Kenan’s performance in the very polarizing St. Kat’s Middle sketch from earlier this season).
— The debut of “Get In The Cage”, which would go on to be the definitive use of Andy’s Nicolas Cage impression.
— Mm, I can’t tell if that “Block-duster” joke from Andy’s Cage is “so bad, it’s good” or just plain bad.
— The rest of this “Get In The Cage” commentary is working just fine.
STARS: ***


ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
Queen Elizabeth (FRA) & Prince Philip (BIH) want punk music at royal reception

— I liked the first installment of this sketch, but I’m iffy on the idea of making it recurring.
— Another funny instance tonight of Elton putting someone down with a deadpan snarky comeback.
— Even though the turn with Fred and Bill’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip brashly speaking to their guest in crude accents is no longer a surprise the second time around, there’s still some laughs from it here.
— This is starting to go a little heavy on the gay jokes about Elton.
— Ooh, a change of pace, with the turn involving the punk rock musical performance. Another instance of Fred working his real-life love of punk rock into the show, this time complete with him showcasing his drumming skills. No complaints from me here.
— Another fun display of silly dancing from Taran.
STARS: ***


THE SILVER SCREEN
gay partner cinefiles (host) & (TAK) quarrel & make up

— A sketch centering on a TV show starring two gay men reviewing movies? Hmm, never saw that in a sketch comedy show before. (*coughcoughInLivingColorcoughcough*).
— This sketch is at least taking a different-enough direction from the Men On Film sketches from In Living Color, but unfortunately, it’s a far less-interesting direction. I’m not finding myself laughing much here.
— The actions and dynamic between Taran and Elton’s characters are way too repetitive for my likes, despite Taran’s fun performance.
STARS: *½


THE OLD WEST
gruff gay cowboy’s (host) overtures go unrequited in an Old West saloon

— Wow, TWO consecutive sketches starring Elton as a gay character? And both of which came right after a sketch that made some gay jokes about Elton himself (Royal Engagement)? Really, SNL? I know Elton is openly gay, but having all these gay-themed sketches starring him is just plain lazy of the writers. On top of that, this particular sketch isn’t even the first time that this season did a sketch with a male host playing a gay cowboy in the Old West (the gift-wrappers sketch with Jeff Bridges).
— The cutaways to Jason’s puzzled reactions to Elton’s homosexual implications are getting old.
— My first and only laugh of this sketch came from something that’s not even in the script: Elton’s solid little ad-lib when his hat accidentally falls off.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & Leon Russell [real] perform “Monkey Suit”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— From what I gather, this episode seems to have somewhat of a reputation for being among this season’s worst, but I disagree. After watching and reviewing this episode just now, I didn’t find it any worse than a typical episode from this season. In fact, I actually found this episode to have far more good than bad, and I especially really liked the solid string of segments that aired between the monologue and the first musical performance. Elton John also added to this episode by being a pretty fun, likable, and game host. Too bad this episode fizzled out really badly with the final two sketches of the night, though. But aside from those two and the cold opening, I’m not sure why this episode is seemingly disliked by a number of SNL fans.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Laser Cats The Musical!
KY Jelly Ladies Shot Put Championship 1985
Knights Of The Realm
Monologue
Royal Engagement
Weekend Update
The Lawrence Welk Show
The Silver Screen / The Old West (tie)


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Zach Galifianakis)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Helen Mirren

Posted on

March 12, 2011 – Zach Galifianakis / Jessie J (S36 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SELECTION SUNDAY
tournament brackets revealed for World’s Craziest Person

— The idea of presenting crazy news stories in a March Madness bracket style is very clever and creative for a cold opening. This is the kind of creativity I wanted SNL to show in their Charlie Sheen spoof in the preceding episode’s cold opening, instead of the generic, lazy, tired “Let’s just have Sheen host a talk show” route they ended up taking.
— Funny Dick Vitale impression from Andy.
— Jason’s Jim Nantz, on Andy’s Dick Vitale: “It’s like Stanley Tucci snorted Adderall.”
— Hilarious comment about Nicolas Cage always looking he just witnessed a murder.
— Speaking of Charlie Sheen earlier in this review, we get a scene with Bill’s Charlie Sheen here, and the style of it is much more refreshing than the aforementioned talk show route they took in the preceding episode’s cold opening.
— Such a fun cold opening.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host delivers jokes while wearing Annie get-up & lip-syncing “Tomorrow”

— The usual priceless Zach Galifianakis stand-up one-liners.
— I particularly got an oh-so-wrong laugh from Zach’s joke about Axe Body Spray being called Ask Body Spray in urban neighborhoods, made even funnier by his addendum to that joke: “If you don’t get that joke…then you’re not racist.”
— Some fun bad character attempts from Zach.
— An absolutely hilarious turn right now, with Zach in the Annie dress lip-syncing “Tomorrow” while displaying various messages on an easel. Classic.
— Even the lettering style of the messages on the easel is somehow adding to the humor.
— I love the little touch with how Zack licks his hand each time before he rips a page off of the easel.
— Great callback to how Zach’s previous monologue ended, with him once again making a false “Hoobastank is here!” announcement.
— Overall, yet another legendary Zach Galifianakis stand-up monologue.
STARS: *****


THE TALK
panelists on lame knock-off of The View have little chemistry

— Much like her Rachel Maddow impression, Abby has Leah Remini’s New York accent down close enough, but the voice itself is too high-pitched, which is taking me out of the impression.
— Oh, wow. I completely forgot from my previous viewings of this episode that Nasim plays Sharon Osbourne in this sketch. Feels odd seeing Nasim in this role.
— Despite Amy Poehler being SNL’s definitive Sharon Osbourne, I’m finding Nasim’s impression to be good, and certainly much better than Drew Barrymore’s awful (and deservedly forgotten) Sharon impression from the episode Drew hosted the preceding season. It also feels a little rare to see Nasim go so over-the-top and silly like this.
— I like Vanessa’s Sara Gilbert hiding inside her sweater.
— The mention of The Talk co-host Holly Robinson-Peete being on vacation reminds me that, in dress rehearsal, she was actually portrayed by Jay in drag. Jay got cut from the live version of this sketch.
— A somewhat bad line flub from Abby just now. I’ve never seen the rerun version of this episode, but I’ve been told that reruns would fix Abby’s flub by replacing that small portion of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version, and reportedly, that dress rehearsal substitution was flawed in its own right, because Abby mugs the camera BADLY during it.
— Funny bits with Zach as an angry The View fan in the audience.
— Despite some funny lines, something about this sketch isn’t quite working for me. Not sure what, though.
STARS: **½


THE ORIGINAL KINGS OF CATCHPHRASE COMEDY
hack stand-ups headline the Original Kings Of Catchphrase comedy tour

— The debut of a memorable and well-loved recurring commercial.
— Such a hilarious spoof of hacky catchphrase-based stand-up comedians.
— I am absolutely howling at the “You ever come home and catch your wife eatin’ dookie?” bit that Kenan’s “Beeeeeeeef Jelly!” comedian is doing.
— Holy hell, Seth Meyers in a rare post-2006 non-Weekend Update appearance, playing an actual character!
— A fun way to get a lot of the cast involved. I think the second installment of this commercial uses the ENTIRE cast, which is one of the reasons that I think I might prefer it to tonight’s already-great installment (we’ll see when I review the second installment).
STARS: ****½


SCARED STRAIGHT
Lorenzo McIntosh & muzzled cousin (host) warn teens about prison rape

— This is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made in almost an entire year.
— Funny visual of Zach as a Hannibal Lecter-esque character.
— The “nuts and taint” line made me laugh so much.
— In response to Lorenzo MacIntosh and Zach’s Home Alone-related prison rape references, I love an appalled Jason saying “That’s only the first one; you’re leading off with that?!?”
— For the first in a long time, Bill doesn’t fully crack up during the usual part of these Lorenzo MacIntosh sketches where Kenan and the host gang up on Bill and playfully mess with him.
— Yeesh, what was with that half-assed ending? They seem to have run out of different ways to end this recurring sketch. In fact, despite me still enjoying tonight’s installment of this sketch, you can kinda tell the end of this recurring sketch’s run is near. There’s only one installment of this sketch remaining, and it doesn’t appear until an entire year later (in a Lindsay Lohan-hosted episode).
STARS: ***


ZACH LOOKS FOR A NEW ASSISTANT
host interviews elementary school kids

— A variation (of sorts) of the Zach Drops By The Set short from Zach’s previous episode, complete with a very similar-looking title sequence. However, unlike the Zach Drops By The Set short, this one opens with the “An SNL Digital Short” title screen.
— This cutesy concept, while not too bad in itself, isn’t really something I want to see Zach doing, and feels like a letdown after the great concept of Zach Drops By The Set.
— So far, I can’t find anything to say about the actual content of this short, but it’s decent enough.
— The ending could’ve been better.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & B.o.B [real] perform “Price Tag”


WEEKEND UPDATE
fired from Spider-Man musical, Julie Taymor (KRW) sings a song she wrote

Liam just woke up from wet dream about hooking up with hawk-human hybrids

SEM tells viewers how they can contribute to the Japan relief effort

— Boy, was that a lame opening joke from Seth.
— A big ol’ “meh” from me towards Kristen’s overall commentary. At least it didn’t make me want to rip my hair out like her last Update commentary (the disco meteorologist one from this season’s Dana Carvey episode) did.
— The unwelcome return of Andy’s weak Liam The Teenager Who Just Woke Up character.
— Andy’s in-character sleepy delivery during some portions of this commentary sounds quite Adam Sandler-esque (especially when he sings in a goofy, high-pitched voice), which is strangely fitting, given the fact that, as I mentioned in this Liam character’s first appearance, the conceit of Liam feels like an unintentional(?) variation of an obscure one-off Update character named Sleepyhead who Adam Sandler played.
— This Liam commentary is just plain dumb and unfunny, even moreso than his previous commentary. And much like Liam’s previous commentary, Andy’s usual ability to sell dumb humor and make it work isn’t at play here. Judging from Andy’s out-of-character smirking and giggling right now, even he’s aware of how weak this commentary is.
— Tonight’s Update ends on a serious note, with Seth telling us how we can contribute to the relief efforts for Japan. (Tonight’s episode is a day after the tragic Japan earthquake and tsunami).
— An overall mildly mediocre Update for Seth, which is a letdown after he just had one of his strongest Updates in the preceding episode.
STARS: **½


NOODLES
(host) & (KRW) tell kids the family dog, Noodles, died via autoerotic asphyxiation

— I like Nasim as the overly-wise young daughter.
— Really good laughs from all of the bad lies Zach and Kristen tell the kids in regards to how the dog died.
— Such a hilarious reveal of what the dog really died of: autoerotic asphyxiation.
— Funny visual of the dog porn magazine, which Zach makes even funnier by giving it a long, interested look before putting it down.
— The beginning of Kenan’s voice-over for the dog gets botched, causing Zach to break.
— Continuing tonight’s theme of bad endings (though it’s not like that’s a new criticism of SNL), this very funny sketch fizzles out poorly with the whole dog voice-over ending. Not sure why they thought that would be a good way to end this.
STARS: ****


CELEBRITY SCOOP
Canadian gossip show is unfailingly nice & well-mannered

— Boy, that is one lousy Canadian accent from Fred.
— The humor of Zach’s “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” character is just plain dumb, but he’s making it funny. It also, in a way, feels like a role tailor-made for Will Forte.
— Two minutes into this Canadian talk show sketch, and Zach has been providing my ONLY laughs. The main joke with Canadians being overly nice and folksy is doing absolutely nothing for me. Thank god this ends up being yet another instance of a potentially-recurring talk show sketch this season that stays one-and-done.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mamma Knows Best”


CORN SYRUP PRODUCERS OF AMERICA
rude mother (NAP) parrots Corn Syrup Producers Of America talking points

— Another sketch tonight with Nasim nailing a wise, smart aleck-y role, with her beautifully telling off Kristen’s character and putting her in her place. This has always been what I feel is one of Nasim’s best performances.
STARS: ****


TITANIC
crossdressed captain of the Titanic (host) shamelessly hogs lifeboat spot

— I’m not all that crazy about this premise, but Zach is well-cast in this role, and he’ll probably make this work.
— Mm, it turns out that, even with Zach’s typically-funny performance, this sketch still feels like a bit of a flop. Much like The Talk sketch earlier tonight, something’s not quite working and I can’t pinpoint what nor why.
— Nasim’s been having a fairly big night.
— Not even Bill’s appearance as a grown-up, mustached “baby” can make me laugh as much as I feel it should.
— I didn’t even notice Abby has been one of the women on the boat all this time, until near the very end of this sketch when she had to go through the trouble of leaning all the way to the side while speaking, so we could get a clear view of her (seen on the right end of the last above screencap for this sketch). She’s sitting all the way in the back of the boat, behind everyone, which makes it impossible to see her for most of this sketch. What’s the point of her even being in this, then?
— What in the world was with Zach’s long, awkward delay before doing his ending bit? He seemed to completely forget what he was supposed to do, and then, after a long, silent pause, Bill can be seen elbowing Zach to cue him, then by the time Zach gets up and mock-dramatically yells “Titanic!” like he was supposed to, the screen freeze-frames on him too early. This whole blooper is strangely amusing to me.
— Tonight’s theme of bad endings sadly continues once again, with the weak text crawl epilogue of this sketch.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS
host reveals that his hair & the Mr. T sketch have been cut

— As what’s seemingly a follow-up to how, in his previous hosting stint, Zach shaved his beard off-camera for the final sketch of the night and then wore a fake beard during the goodnights, Zach is seen in these goodnights with his hair shaved in a Mr. T style, and humorously tells us “Unfortunately, we did not get to the Mr. T sketch!”

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Much like the preceding Miley Cyrus-hosted episode, this was kind of an uneven episode, but it contained several more highs than the Cyrus episode, which makes it easier to overlook the lows. Some really solid pieces tonight. Zach Galifianakis was his usual very funny self, and I’m glad he was given much more speaking roles tonight than he got in his previous hosting stint.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
The Original Kings of Catchphrase Comedy
Selection Sunday
Corn Syrup Producers of America
Noodles
Scared Straight
Zach Looks For a New Assistant
The Talk
Weekend Update
Titanic
Celebrity Scoop


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Miley Cyrus)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Elton John

Posted on

March 5, 2011 – Miley Cyrus / The Strokes (S36 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DUH! WINNING! WITH CHARLIE SHEEN
Charlie Sheen (BIH) celebrates fellow deluded trainwrecks

— On one hand, it’s always refreshing to see a cold opening that, while very topical, isn’t political. On the other hand, why does this spoof of the Charlie Sheen scandal have to be in the lazy, overused talk show format? Of all the ways SNL could’ve spoofed the scandal, they chose one of the simplest, dullest routes.
— Good to see the Christina Aguilera impression being given back to Abby, as I like her take on Aguilera much better than Nasim’s. I’m still wondering why the hell the Aguilera impression was temporarily taken away from Abby in the first place and given to Nasim in this season’s Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— A good laugh from the reveal of Gary Busey being the writer of the viewer email praising Charlie’s crazy behavior.
— A rare instance of an SNL host appearing in the cold opening.
— Despite my frustration with SNL choosing the talk show format for this Sheen spoof, the execution of this isn’t too bad. Still nothing special, though.
— I like the defibrillator bit, which came out of nowhere.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
mostly-irreproachable host sings “I’m Sorry That I’m Not Perfect”

— There’s our obligatory instance of Miley Cyrus starting this monologue by dryly quoting the theme song lyrics of SNL’s Miley Cyrus Show sketches: “We’ve got guests and a show, and I’m ready to go, so I guess that’s pretty cool.”
— (*siiiiiiiigh*) Yet another season 36 musical monologue. I’m pretty sure that, up to this point of the season, season 36 has yet to go more than three episodes without a musical monologue. I wonder if that’s some kind of record.
— Overall, well, that was a whole lot of nothing. At least it was pretty short, and Miley came off well.
STARS: *½


BABY SPANX
Rerun from 10/23/10


OUR TIME! WITH TABOO AND APL.DE.AP!
Taboo (ANS) & apl.de.ap (KET) flee Fergie (host) and Will.i.am’s (JAP) shadow

— Blah, ANOTHER celebrity-hosted talk show sketch tonight? And this one isn’t even a particularly promising one. Plus, we already know we’re getting a THIRD celebrity-hosted talk show sketch later tonight with our obligatory Miley Cyrus Show appearance.
— Feels a little interesting seeing Abby’s Khloe Kardashian impression away from Nasim and Vanessa’s Kim and Kourtney Kardashian impressions for once.
— A pretty good laugh from Andy-as-Taboo’s line “And I am from The Matrix!”
— Like a lot of SNL’s celebrity-hosted talk show sketches, this seems like it’s set up to become recurring, with each installment likely having Andy and Kenan’s Taboo and apl.de.ap interviewing an overshadowed member of a famous group. However, this sketch (thankfully) never ends up becoming recurring.
STARS: **


THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE: THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Hispanic stand-up (FRA) was cut from The Sound Of Music

— (*groan*) Much like that awful Wizard Of Oz installment of The Essentials from earlier this season, we get another The Essentials installment starring Fred as a character cut out of a classic movie, this particular character complete with a bevy of awful Hispanic stereotypes. As if we needed ANOTHER sketch this season that proves Fred is the bane of this season.
— I’m three minutes into this sketch so far, and yep, not a single laugh from me yet.
— This sketch even ends the same way the aforementioned Wizard Of Oz sketch ended, with Fred’s character looking into the camera and saying the title of the movie in a mock-significant manner at the end of his final line.
STARS: *


THE DISNEY CHANNEL ACTING SCHOOL
host & Raven-Symone (KET) teach Disney Channel tropes

— Kenan In A Dress alert. Feels like this is the first time I’ve said that in a while. Hopefully, this is a sign that Kenan’s drag roles are being phased out (unintentionally, I assume, given the fact that it wouldn’t be until 2013 where Kenan would publicly take a stand against dressing in drag on SNL).
— A well-done and very spot-on spoof of Disney Channel tropes. Each individual scene here is on point.
STARS: ****


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Justin Bieber (host) is a male counterpart to Miley Cyrus (VAB)

   

— In the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s episode, this recurring sketch as a whole had been showing signs of running out of steam. I’m especially tired of the parts with Billy Ray Cyrus, which have gotten old pretty fast. All that being said, hopefully the real Miley being involved in tonight’s installment will shake things up a bit.
— Hmm, a Darrell Hammond shoutout. (Jason’s Billy Ray praises Vanessa-as-Miley’s celebrity impression skills by telling her “You’re like a pretty little Darrell Hammond!”)
— Fitting and amusing casting of Miley as Justin Bieber.
— Very funny cutaway to Taran as Bieber’s swagger coach, and a good example of Taran’s ability to get laughs even without speaking.
— Some decent meta humor during Vanessa-as-Miley’s interview of Miley’s Bieber.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under Cover of Darkness”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups entities affected by Charlie Sheen into Winners & Losers

The Devil doesn’t like the Westboro Baptist Church’s anti-gay protests

Anthony Crispino gets facts wrong about the Oscars, Libya, Charlie Sheen

— I like Seth starting tonight’s Update by sternly telling a photo of Charlie Sheen that he’ll have to wait his turn because “other things happened this week!”
— Seth’s Winners/Losers segment on the Charlie Sheen scandal is working much better for me than Seth’s last Winners/Losers segment from a few episodes prior.
— Good to see the return of Jason’s The Devil character.
— I’m getting my usual laughs from The Devil’s dialogue. I especially like him saying about gay people, during his complaints about them being so nice and always cleaning up what he worked hard to make bothersome, “I hate ’em…but I can’t stay mad at ’em!”
— Solid delivery from Seth of his wordy, long-winded, rapidly-spoken Playboy Mansion joke.
— Ah, another Update character tonight who I always enjoy: Anthony Crispino!
— Once again, I’m getting SO many big laughs from Crispino’s various false news scoops. Way too many funny ones here for me to single out. Everything here is slaying me.
— Hmm, there’s a bit with Crispino mangling the story about the Charlie Sheen scandal by saying Charlie Rose’s show is getting canceled due to a scandal. Little did SNL know that actually WOULD end up happening six years later when Charlie Rose would get MeToo-ed.
— Seth continues to have some really solid jokes tonight. This has definitely got to be one of his best Updates in a long time.
STARS: ****


LES JEUNES DE PARIS
jealous (host) & the song “Tekitoi” spur French teen dancing

— This sketch has officially become recurring. A very welcome return.
— Like last time, I absolutely love the visual of the characters suddenly simultaneously breaking out into wild dancing when the French music really kicks in.
— A particularly hilarious part with Taran shoving crepes into mouth in time to the portion of the French music that’s currently playing. Such spot-on timing from Taran.
— Good involvement of Andy as a mime.
— Very solid running gag with Taran getting wine thrown into his face. I especially love the instance of it when a wine glass is revealed behind the Playboy magazine.
— Overall, this recurring sketch continues to be an absolute blast.
STARS: ****½


BEASTLY
plot of movie starring host & Gene Hackman (ANS) involves beauty & the dweeb

— A technical gaffe early on in this pre-tape, where the Les Jeunes de Paris title screen (which failed to show up at the end of the actual Les Jeunes de Paris sketch) accidentally shows up during the opening scene.
— Oh, geez, they’ve made this Andy-as-a-grotesque-character-in-a-movie-trailer thing recurring? It was bad enough the first time. At least we don’t have a shoved-down-our-throats Justin Bieber in this one, though.
— Meh, the reveal of Gene Hackman playing Andy’s character didn’t make me laugh as much as the Sir Ben Kingsley reveal in the first installment of this.
— I did finally get a laugh just now at the end, with Andy’s Rango/Beastly mix-up.
STARS: *½


ROCK-A-BILLY LADY PARTY MOISTURIZING FACIAL CREAM
(KRW) & (host) sell facial cream & rockabilly CD only as a package deal

— A fairly funny random mish-mash concept.
— I was a little wary of this sketch at first, worried it would turn out to be a typical annoying, badly-written Kristen Wiig-starring sketch that we’ve been getting at least once on a weekly basis these past few episodes. (Speaking of which, it feels like SNL has refreshingly started scaling back the usually-dominant Kristen’s airtime these past few episodes. IIRC, that continues for most of the remainder of this season.) However, I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself liking this sketch more and more as it progresses. The absurd humor regarding the rockabilly CD/facial cream mish-mash is being executed pretty well.
— A funny passive-aggressive line about the company accidentally mixing up which name goes to which product.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Life Is Simple In The Moonlight”


CRUISE
unhappy cruise ship performer (host) sings “You People Are Gross To Me”

— A bit of a meh conceit with Miley singing about old people being gross.
— Vanessa gets a good laugh with her old lady character cluelessly asking Miley “Can you sing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Titanic?”
— Yet another sketch that Taran is one of my favorite parts of. Between his impressive big night in the preceding episode and now this episode, he’s continuing to really come into his own lately after having his breakout night in the Jim Carrey episode a few months prior. Also, when this episode originally aired, I remember this sketch being one of several things that made me wonder if Taran was hired to be Jason’s eventual replacement (especially with Jason’s diminished airtime this season, which made me incorrectly assume he was on his way out), given the fact that Taran’s grouchy old man character in this sketch felt to me like a role Jason would’ve normally been given.
— The ending almost seemed like it got cut off.
STARS: **½


CBS
in March, expect to see even more dead bodies on CBS during Gurney Month

— This was previously cut after dress rehearsal from, I believe, the preceding episode. The topical brief mention of Two And A Half Men in this commercial is obviously a new addition, since the Charlie Sheen/Two And A Half Men controversy hadn’t happened yet when the preceding episode aired.
— A pretty funny cheesy presentation of such a dark concept.
— Overall, short and simple.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Kind of an up-and-down episode, but there were a few more good pieces than bad. Given how some online SNL fans back at this time in 2011 (including myself) weren’t thrilled with the initial announcement of Miley Cyrus hosting, she ended up doing just fine. She played her parts well, and I had no problems with any of her performances.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Les Jeunes de Paris
Weekend Update
The Disney Channel Acting School
Rock-A-Billy Lady Party Moisturizing Facial Cream
Duh! Winning! with Charlie Sheen
The Miley Cyrus Show
CBS
Cruise
Our Time! with Taboo and apl.de.ap!
Beastly
Monologue
The Essentials with Robert Osborne: The Sound Of Music


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Russell Brand)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Zach Galifianakis

Posted on

February 12, 2011 – Russell Brand / Chris Brown (S36 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE O’REILLY FACTOR
Bill O’Reilly’s (JAS) interview wastes Barack Obama’s (FRA) time

— Jason becomes SNL’s latest Bill O’Reilly impersonator…and wow, he’s not even ATTEMPTING to sound like O’Reilly. I previously gave Darrell Hammond crap for using his normal voice the first few times he played O’Reilly (it took him several sketches to finally get O’Reilly’s voice down), but even THAT sounded more like O’Reilly than Jason’s non-attempt. That being said, Jason’s attitude here is at least close enough to O’Reilly’s.
— A laugh from Jason’s O’Reilly saying a very stretched-out “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllll……..” when disagreeing with a fact Fred’s President Obama is stating.
— The TV trivia questions being asked to Fred’s Obama are only mildly funny. Nothing great.
— A funny intimidating “SIT DOWN!” outburst from Jason’s O’Reilly when Fred’s Obama tries to leave during the Viewer Mail segment.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about tight trousers, the Oscars, being married

— I’ve never been a fan of Russell Brand nor found him funny, and thus, I’m not looking forward to an entire monologue featuring him alone just speaking to the camera.
— Hmm, maybe it’s because it’s been many years since I’ve last seen anything of Russell Brand, but I’m currently a few minutes into this monologue, and surprisingly, I’m not hating it at all. While I’m not really laughing much either, I’m actually kinda entertained by Russell’s style and delivery. In this monologue, I’m finding that he has a “1960s/1970s talkative British comedian” throwback style that I like, and it makes me imagine this being a monologue that would’ve appeared in, say, season 1.
— Boy, this monologue is going on a LONG time. Again, though, the “1960s/1970s talkative British” vibe of this comedy is making this bearable for me.
STARS: ***


GUBLIN & GREEN
Frank Gublin (FRA) specializes in lawsuits related to Spider-Man musical

— A pretty funny way of spoofing the Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark controversy from this time.
— I got a huge laugh from how “Green Goblin’s Pants Fell Down, Saw Package” is listed as one of the complaints this law firm will settle.
STARS: ***


ULTIMATE VACATION GIVEAWAY
unenthusiastic winner (host) stumps Cheryl

— Ugh, another appearance of this should’ve-stayed-one-and-done sketch. Thankfully, this ends up being the final installment.
— Kristen’s excited hollering and gestures, which made me laugh in the first installment of this sketch, have gotten increasingly annoying with each passing installment of this sketch.
— Taran steals this entire sketch, and gets my only laugh, in the clip of his reaction to being a winner.
— Lame ending with Kristen getting randomly knocked down out of nowhere by a gutter from above. It also felt a little too much like how a Michelle Dison (Kristen’s bi-curious news reporter character) sketch would end.
STARS: *½


DON’ YOU GO ROUNIN’ ROUN TO RE RO
impenetrable accents mark British noir

— So many laughs from all of the unintelligible “British speak” throughout this. Bill and Fred are particularly great in this.
— Hilarious reveal of the title of this movie.
— Nasim’s “……….What???” at the end was perfect.
STARS: ****½


ROYAL TASTER
medieval king’s (host) abuse of royal chef (BIH) dooms food taster (TAK)

— Bill’s hard-to-understand British-accented delivery of his second line makes me feel like I’m watching a continuation of the preceding Don’ You Go Rounin’ Roun To Re Ro commercial.
— This sketch is basically Russell and Bill engaging in a ham-off, but it’s working for me in this particular context. The silly, over-the-top nature of both their performances and this general sketch is cracking me up, as is Russell’s character being oblivious to all the blatant signs that Bill’s going to poison the food.
— Taran seemed to slip into his Ashton Kutcher impression (which debuts the following season) in his delivery of the line “Feed us poison!”
— I don’t usually like when sketches in this era have a very random, unrelated twist ending revealed in a screen crawl and voice-over (e.g. the Globe Theatre sketch from this season’s Gwyneth Paltrow episode), but I actually laughed at this sketch’s “This has been The King’s Speech – now you can say you saw it!” twist.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Yeah 3x”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Egypt’s troubles fail to dampen Hosni Mubarak’s (FRA) conviviality

implicitly misogynistic Lil Wayne (JAP) & Eminem (TAK) lyrics are omitted

Stefon is incapable of recommending normal Valentine’s Day destinations

— Ohhhh, no. Another Hosni Mubarak commentary from Fred, just TWO DAMN EPISODES after his first unfunny one?
— There goes Fred over-relying on that goofy-voiced “D’youknowwhatImean”s again, like the last Mubarak commentary he did.
— Dammit, now Fred’s Mubarak has broken out into a song (albeit a brief one, thankfully).
— Lil Wayne is another impression that I feel current cast member Chris Redd does better than Jay.
— Taran’s Eminem impression is fucking PRICELESS.
— Some laughs from all the self-censoring that Jay and Taran’s Lil Wayne and Eminem are making to their “clean” songs.
— John Mulaney must’ve been working overtime tonight in his usual last-minute rewriting of some of Stefon’s lines, as Bill seems to be breaking even more than usual during his reading of the new lines on the cue cards.
— Funniest parts of tonight’s Stefon commentary are Bill working his impression of Gizmo (from Gremlins) into the When Harry Met Sally bit, and the whole bit about “Jupids” (i.e. Jewish Cupids). I also like the genuinely sweet moment with Seth agreeing to be Stefon’s valentine, which furthers the story arc of the growing dynamic between Seth and Stefon. That story arc is just one of the things that separates Stefon from other recurring characters in this era.
STARS: ***


LIVIN’ SINGLE
rebuffed by (VAB), (TAK) can’t abide guest’s (host) gropes

— I love that the two biggest roles in this sketch are played by first-season featured players Vanessa and Taran (the latter of whom has been having a great night).
— Not much I can find to say about this, but the execution of this material is pretty good, and I like the turn with Taran reacting very sourly to the increasingly-raunchy sexual flirting going on between Vanessa and Russell.
STARS: ***


A SPOT OF TEA
temblors disrupt Pepperpots’ (host), (ANS), (BIH) supping

— Right out of the gate, I’m getting a very Monty Python vibe from this sketch.
— Two minutes later, and the Monty Python vibe has been continuing, which is helping make this dumb, repetitive sketch come off “fun dumb” instead of “bad dumb”.
— A pretty funny brief “Tall Cabinets Full Of Glass” segment, and the expect results.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “No Bullshit”


GEORGE WASHINGTON
time travel to the present day confuses violent George Washington (host)

— A laugh from the initial sight of Russell playing George Washington.
— A very funny insane turn this sketch suddenly takes, with the violent defensive actions from a confused George Washington.
— Taran’s strong night continues with his funny crying facial expression towards the end of this sketch.
— The Cowardly Lion-esque deep-voiced crying is becoming a trademark of Bill’s (who’s had a strong night himself) impression of John Boehner.
— I love Jason’s overly-kind delivery of “I’m not gonna lie…that did not go as planned” after the violent insanity that had just happened.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better episode than I had remembered. Even though there was only one segment all night that I gave a rating over three-and-a-half stars to, I enjoyed almost every single segment, and I also appreciate how Russell Brand’s presence seemed to inspire the writers to try some silly, absurd, British-style humor, with the Royal Taster and A Spot of Tea sketches. On a different note, the number of segments in this episode felt strangely scant, though I guess that makes sense now that I think about it, given how long both the monologue and Weekend Update were.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Don’ You Go Rounin’ Roun To Re Ro
Royal Taster
George Washington
Gublin & Green
Livin’ Single
A Spot Of Tea
Monologue
Weekend Update
The O’Reilly Factor
Ultimate Vacation Giveaway


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dana Carvey)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Miley Cyrus

Posted on

February 5, 2011 – Dana Carvey / Linkin Park (S36 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WAYNE’S WORLD
Winter’s Bone dominates the Oscar picks of Wayne & Garth

— Ah, Phil Hartman’s old voice-over intro.
— Fuck yeah! The return of Wayne’s World after many years! I remember what a huge shock it was to see this return when this episode originally aired, as no announcement of it was made beforehand.
— I like the callback to one of the last Wayne’s World sketches, with Garth saying “Last time you saw me, I got pubes.” To nitpick, though, that didn’t happen the last time we saw him (which was the season after Dana left the cast, and thus, he had to make a cameo for that night’s Wayne’s World sketch). That happened the second-to-last time we saw Garth (which was the final Wayne’s World sketch to be done during Dana’s tenure as an SNL cast member), and even then, Garth’s pubes announcement that night had already been made in an earlier Wayne’s World sketch.
— Such a novelty seeing a Wayne’s World sketch in such clear visual quality in a newer episode.
— I love that this cold opening is making me feel like I’m back to reviewing SNL’s late 80s/early 90s era again.
— A very funny meta “How old are you?” “Uh, it was never determined” exchange between Wayne and Garth.
— Despite Mike and Dana being much older than they were when these Wayne’s World sketches regularly appeared, these characters have not lost a step. We’re getting their usual hilarious humor.
— Even the overuse of the Winter’s Bone gag is made funny by Wayne’s self-deprecating “This joke has been done three times” line.
— Is it just me, or is Mike’s natural Canadian accent a lot more noticeable here than in previous Wayne’s World sketches?
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
JOL backs up DAC’s contention that their era’s cast was SNL’s best ever

— I can certainly let my fatigue towards this season’s oversaturation of musical monologues slide in this case, given the song Dana’s singing about 1986-1993 being SNL’s best years. It also helps that those years just happen to be my personal favorite SNL years.
— I love hearing Dana mention the underappreciated Jan Hooks among the three examples he gives of important cast members that made his era beloved.
— A notable lyric of Dana’s song: “I did Ching Change, but that’s racist now, oops!”
— Of all the then-current cast members who make a walk-on in this, Andy noticeably gets much more cheers from the audience than Bill or Kristen.
— This monologue now gets even better, as JON LOVITZ gets involved!
STARS: ****


i-SLEEP PRO
Rerun from 10/2/10


CHURCH CHAT
Snooki (BOM) is exorcised & Justin Bieber [real] is tempting

— Ah, another old Phil Hartman voice-over intro.
— The fun nostalgia trip of tonight’s episode continues with our obligatory Church Chat return.
— Some funny opening lines from Church Lady about current trashy shows on TV.
— As I said in a previous review(s), whenever Dana brings Church Chat back in his hosting stints and cameos, it’s always a fun novelty seeing Church Lady interact with modern-day celebrities.
— A solid and out-of-the-ordinary-for-this-recurring-sketch sequence with Bill’s priest character attempting to exorcise Bobby’s Snooki.
— Aaaaaaaand the fun of this sketch comes to a screeching halt with a Justin Fucking Bieber cameo out of fucking NOWHERE. Are you kidding me, SNL?!? Bieber being brought on in a nostalgia-filled Dana Carvey-hosted episode, of all episodes?
— And to make the Bieber portion of this sketch even worse, it basically turns into that insufferable Lonely Teacher sketch from the preceding season’s Tina Fey-hosted episode, with an adult female character having inner thoughts about their inappropriate lustful feelings for Bieber. Ugh. That was squicky and unfunny enough the first damn time.
STARS: ***½ (the Bieber portion brought the rating of this sketch down half a star, and even then, I’m being generous, as I hated the Bieber portion of this sketch enough that I have the urge to demote a FULL star from the rating)


CELEBRITY TEEN CRISIS CENTER
actors poorly answer youths’ calls for help

— Always great to see Bill’s eerily-uncanny Alan Alda impression.
— Mm, probably not a good sign that the opening scene of this sketch, with Bill’s Alda giving advice to a teen, already has a meh feel.
— Even though Dana’s Mickey Rooney was never one of my favorite impressions of his, it still feels welcome to see it return here.
— Despite the fact that I’ve seen better Ice-T impressions, and despite the fact that we’re at the point of Fred’s SNL tenure where I’m sick of him getting away with playing black celebrities (Barack Obama, Prince, probably others I can’t remember), Fred’s Ice-T impression is cracking me up.
— After a slow start, this sketch has gotten a little better, though it’s still nothing special at all.
— Much like Bill’s Alan Alda, Jay’s Eddie Murphy impression is always fun.
— Another example of Jay’s penchant for line-flubbing, with him botching his Yo Gabba Gabba line at the end of this sketch, which he then tries to ad-lib his way out of. When this originally aired, I didn’t even realize that was a blooper, as it came off as part of the sketch to me. Watching it now, it’s obvious that it was a blooper, judging from the awkward pause Jay makes after initially butchering the title Yo Gabba Gabba, then the hesitant way he tries ad-libbing about it afterwards.
STARS: ***


THE ROOMMATE
Justin Bieber [real] & Sir Ben Kingsley (ANS) in trailer for male version of The Roommate

— (*sigh*) Really, SNL? You’re really gonna let Justin Bieber slowly take over a freakin’ Dana Carvey-hosted episode? One sketch appearance wasn’t enough?
— No idea what to say about the comedy of this piece so far.
— And this commercial is now over, with my only real laugh in the whole thing coming from the reveal of Sir Ben Kingsley playing Andy’s character.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Waiting For The End”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups participants in Egypt’s political unrest into Winners & Losers

multitasker James Franco (PAB) loves keeping busy doing a variety of jobs

Angela Dixon’s (KRW) meteorology is colored by her disco queen background

— The debut of a Seth Meyers Update segment called Winners/Losers. With this and that “Come On, Dictionary” segment he did earlier this season, Seth seems to be trying to branch out from doing “Really?!?” segments.
— Seth’s Winners/Losers rant tonight ended up being pretty meh for me, sadly.
— Good to see the underused Paul Brittain with an Update commentary.
— A pretty solid performance from Paul as a workaholic James Franco. I particularly like his delivery of “I’m goin’ to Disney World!…to work at Space Mountain.”
— I love the turn immediately after the Franco commentary ends, with Paul’s Franco delivering Seth’s next Update joke for him before Seth quickly puts an end to that.
— I like how the Franco workaholic gag continues even two minutes after the Franco commentary has ended, with Seth stopping mid-joke when realizing Paul’s Franco is now holding Seth’s cue cards.
— (*groan*) Kristen’s disco meteorologist commentary is turning out to be a typical badly-written, annoying Kristen Wiig/James Anderson (IIRC) collab from Kristen’s later seasons.
— (*another groan*) The further this disco meteorologist commentary goes on, the more awful it gets. This is UNBEARABLE and feels endless.
— I like how, even at the end of Update after Seth says his sign-off, we get another continuation of the James Franco workaholic running gag, with Paul’s Franco now cleaning off the Update desk.
STARS: ***


LIVE WITH REGIS & KELLY
Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW) drops by

— Feels odd seeing a Regis & Kelly sketch without Darrell Hammond and Amy Poehler in the roles, but it’s certainly nice to see the return of Dana’s Regis impression.
— I see what Nasim’s going for in her impression of Kelly Ripa’s voice, but it’s not fully coming through, as Nasim’s natural voice is too distinctive, and the mish-mash of her natural voice attempting to imitate Ripa’s voice just sounds odd and a little grating.
— A relief to see a Regis & Kelly sketch that doesn’t portray Gelman as a flamboyant gay stereotype for once.
— Feels odd how they’re just letting Kristen as Regis’ former co-host, Kathie Lee Gifford, completely hijack this sketch with her usual shtick. I’ve gained a lot of tolerance for Kristen’s Kathie Lee over the past few seasons, but I can’t say this is the best way to end this sketch, and it feels too out of place for the tone this sketch set prior to Kristen-as-Kathie-Lee’s appearance.
STARS: **½


PAGEANT PREVIEW
boy (ANS) competes in preteen girl pageant coordinated by (DAC) & (KET)

— The first Dana Carvey sketch role all night that’s not a character or impression from his SNL tenure.
— I haven’t been caring at all for the campiness of this sketch. This is completely boring me.
— It figures that, out of all the female cast members, Wiig would be the one who plays the one little girl in this pageant who’s a screenhog. Even for 2009-2012 standards, there is so much wrong with the way tonight’s episode in general has been utilizing Kristen.
— Dana’s having a little fun with his role, but that’s the only enjoyment I’m getting out of this sketch.
— A poor reveal at the end with all the contestants onstage being disqualified.
STARS: *½


DEIDRA WURTZ: DOWNSIZING EXPERT
Deidra Wurtz (ABE) delivers bad news with empty apologies & platitudes

— A rare Abby Elliott-starring piece. Even more rare to see her starring as a character and not a celebrity impression.
— This was cut from preceding week’s episode, made obvious by the fact that Jesse Eisenberg can be seen as one of the employees during the office meeting scene (seen to Abby’s left in the third above screencap for this commercial).
— Good performance from Abby as this character. However, the humor itself is too generic and one-note for my likes. There’s not much to see here.
STARS: **


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
JOL, MIM, DAC introduce musical guest


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When They Come For Me”


SPORTS BAR
New Wave band spoils Packer-fan Super Bowl party at nepotist’s (TAK) bar

— Another sad example of Jason’s diminished airtime in some episodes this season, as he’s just NOW making his first appearance of this entire episode…in the final sketch of the night. Geez.
— Another “Fred band” sketch this season, I see. Given the track record of these sketches, I’m very wary of what this particular one has in store for me.
— I do like seeing Fred and Dana paired together as these British-accented 80s singers. Makes me wonder what fun collaborations we could’ve seen Fred and Dana do if they were castmates back when Fred was still in his prime on SNL.
— A fairly meh conceit with the juxtaposition of this extremely soft 80s song being performed at a sports bar filled with manly guys who have no tolerance for this type of music. I’m also getting tired of all the cutaways to the manly guys’ frozen-faced reactions to the music.
— There is something a little catchy about that “Embrace Me” song being performed.
— I love Taran’s silly dancing at the end. One of our very first displays of Taran’s ability to elevate a sketch just by dancing in a wild, silly manner.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS
DAC’s sons Dex & Tom [real] join him onstage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first 20 or so minutes of this episode were strong, fun, and nostalgia-filled. However, as no coincidence, Justin Bieber’s cameo halfway through the Church Chat sketch seemed to start a turning point where the quality of this episode gradually died off. The show sadly never recovered; in fact, the post-Weekend Update half didn’t contain ANY segments I fully liked. An overall pretty disappointing Dana Carvey episode. Certainly no fault of Dana himself, though. A shame this ends up being his final hosting stint (as of 2020).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Wayne’s World
Monologue
Church Chat
Celebrity Teen Crisis Center
Weekend Update
Sports Bar
Live with Regis & Kelly
Deidra Wurtz: Downsizing Expert
The Roommate
Pageant Preview


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jesse Eisenberg)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Russell Brand

Posted on

January 29, 2011 – Jesse Eisenberg / Nicki Minaj (S36 E13)

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

Posted on

January 15, 2011 – Gwyneth Paltrow / Cee Lo Green (S36 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

EMBRACING CIVILITY
James Carville (BIH) undermines Fox News pundits’ attempt at civility

— They don’t have to throw that “Greta Van Susteren switches from talking out of one corner of her mouth to the other” gag in every one of Kristen’s Greta Van Susteren sketches.
— Good to see Bill’s James Carville making a non-Weekend Update appearance for once.
— I love Bill’s Carville pointing out how Fox News’ attempt at civility is never going to work, then tries to bait them into losing their temper by mentioning things that right-wingers hate.
— Funny involvement of Abby’s Rachel Maddow.
— Wait, that’s it? The cold opening is over just like that? That “ending” was way too abrupt, especially when things were getting more and more interesting. It feels like some last-minute rewrites were made to this.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host flubs lyrics in “Islands In The Stream” duet with Kenny Rogers (JAS)

— A laugh from Gwyneth Paltrow mistaking Jason’s Kenny Rogers for Garth Brooks.
— Only a few mild laughs in the Gwyneth Paltrow/Kenny Rogers duet. Otherwise, meh. And it goes without saying how sick I am of this season having so many musical monologues.
— I remember an SNL reviewer back at this time criticizing Kristen’s Dolly Parton impression by saying “That’s not a Dolly Parton impression. That’s Kristen playing Paula Deen again.”
STARS: **


NBC
a slew of clothing-based superhero shows join The Cape on NBC’s schedule

— Ha, I had completely forgotten about NBC’s short-lived The Cape show until now.
— Some decent laughs from the ridiculous clothing-based The Cape-like shows, particularly the Scrunchy one, just for Jason’s facial expression.
STARS: ***


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & socialite (host) ignore game show’s concept

— (*groan*)
— I have absolutely no memory of this episode having a Secret Word sketch. I wonder what kind of character Gwyneth plays.
— “Mindy Elise Grayson”? Why are they now using the middle name of Kristen’s Mindy Grayson character? Why am I supposed to give a fuck about what this annoying recurring character’s middle name is?
— Oh, it turns out I do kinda remember the conceit of Gwyneth’s character making innocent-but-discriminatory comments to her game partner, Kenan.
— Kenan’s asparagus quiz line made me laugh.
— (*sigh*) Cue the obligatory, irritating, redundant, predictable “You just said the secret word” gags.
— Ugh, Kristen’s Mindy Grayson is somehow getting even more annoying than usual right now with her singing loudly in a horrific, annoying voice.
STARS: *½


ANDY AND PEE-WEE’S NIGHT OUT
Pee-Wee Herman [real] & ANS drink shots & go wild; Anderson Cooper cameo

— Pee-Wee Herman! Making his first SNL appearance since 1985!
— A good laugh from Andy and Pee-Wee physically attacking Anderson Cooper, though I can’t help but feel a little bad in hindsight, knowing that this is just a few weeks before Cooper infamously ended up getting physically attacked in real life at Cairo.
— If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost swear that’s John Larroquette as the cop (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this short).
— I love how Pee-Wee’s friends at the intervention are characters from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Such a nice blast from the past (as this short in general is).
STARS: ****


BAR MITZVAH
Taylor Swift (host), Jay-Z (JAP), others perform at Jacob’s (VAB) bar mitzvah

— The debut of Vanessa’s Jacob The Bar Mitzvah Boy character. I wonder how many people reading this review are shocked to see that this character debuted in a sketch, especially given the fact that 1) this sketch in general is probably forgotten by most people, and 2) all of Jacob’s subsequent appearances are on Weekend Update, and thus, most people today probably remember him as an Update-only character.
— Hmm, Fred is playing the father of Vanessa’s Jacob character here. Am I correct in remembering that when Billy Crystal would later make a cameo as a Jacob-like character during one of Vanessa’s Jacob commentaries on Update, Billy played Jacob’s father? If so, I guess SNL forgot or ignored the fact that Fred originally played that role.
— An okay premise with famous singers singing a bar mitzvah-themed variant of a hit song of theirs.
— I always love Jay’s scarily-uncanny vocal impression of Jay-Z.
— Nasim Freakin’ Pedrad as Alicia Keys??? Really, SNL? Another sad reminder that this cast doesn’t have a black female cast member, so they have to resort to having their Iranian cast member play a black woman. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the last time Nasim would play a black celebrity on SNL. There’s a certain appearance Nasim makes as Nicki Minaj in the following season’s Maya Rudolph-hosted episode that will certainly be…uh, interesting to talk about when I reach that episode.
— Vanessa’s Jacob: “Dad, I told you – I just wanted a modest luncheon!”
STARS: ***


RECORD MEETING
record exec (host) bugs FCC about use of “forget” in musical guest’s hit

— I have very mixed feelings about the concept of this sketch, with fake swear words being used as real swear words. On one hand, there’s a bit of a novelty to it that I kinda like, but on the other hand, there’s a corniness to it that I don’t like. This is also a sketch that, much like the Big Wigs sketch from season 32 and the James-Franco-talking-to-Christmas-trees sketch from season 35, some online SNL fans back at this time negatively said had a very season 6 feel. Not sure I agree with that, though.
— Odd delayed entrance from Paul, causing us to stare at a close-up of a closed door for two awkward seconds before he finally enters through it. This hardly ends up being the last time in his short-lived SNL tenure where he makes a delayed entrance in a sketch.
— Is Cee Lo Green tonight’s co-host? You’d sure think so from all the sketch appearances he’s making.
— I like the bit with everyone else getting mad at Jason when he says “Nintendo” as an N-word substitute.
— Ooh, I love the way this sketch creatively segues into Cee Lo’s SNL musical performance. Extremely rare to see a recent SNL era like this do something THAT clever and out of the ordinary with a musical guest intro. Words cannot express how much of a sucker I am for the rare occurrences of recent SNL eras breaking format.
STARS: *** (this sketch was on its way to getting a **½ rating, but the ending segue alone bumped this up half a star)


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fuck You” variant


WEEKEND UPDATE
Constitution Corner- SEM questions Founding Fathers’ utility in modernity

presidential hopeful Jimmy McMillan (KET)- “the deficit is too damn high”

VAB interviews Christina Aguilera (NAP), Cher (BIH), Chaz Bono (BOM)

songwriter Kim Castle (host) joins Garth & Kat for winter-related tunes

— An interesting side segment with Seth doing a rant about what it would be like if the Founding Fathers were around today. This feels kinda like something Colin Quinn or Michael Che would do on Update.
— Some pretty good laughs from Seth’s aforementioned Founding Fathers rant, though it ended on a corny note with the fairly cliched bit about how long it takes to load a 1700s musket.
— Oof, Seth’s marble-mouthed delivery of the punchline of his Mark Zuckerberg joke caused it to die with the audience.
— Another Update commentary from Kenan as “The Rent Is Too Damn High” guy? I like Kenan’s impression of him, but doing a second Update commentary with him is kinda pushing it.
— Did…did I just hear Seth pronounce Vanessa Bayer’s last name as “Byer”???
— Ah, a change of pace for this Update era, with Vanessa playing herself as a reporter doing a remote segment away from the Update set.
— Why is Nasim playing Christina Aguilera here? Abby, who’s main identity on SNL is being an impressionist, previously played Aguilera in the Bunny Business sketch from the preceding season and did a passable (though unmemorable) impression of her, so why’d SNL yank the role away from her this week and give it to Nasim? It’s not like Nasim’s doing a better job at the impression. Are they trying to put Abby in as few sketches as possible by this point? This is the second consecutive episode in which she appears very little.
— Ohhhhh, no, no, no, no, no, NO. This transphobic Chaz Bono bit with Bobby has not aged well AT ALL. Sadly, there’s another horribly transphobic bit we’ll be seeing in the very next episode, a certain pre-taped commercial that would end up causing controversy.
— When Vanessa’s remote segment ends, Seth actually pronounces her last name correctly this time, then proceeds to butcher his salutation to her by mistakenly telling her “Thanks you!” instead of “Thank you!” Wow. Why’s Seth so stumbly and mush-mouthed with some of his words tonight? Maybe, after that Founding Fathers rant he did earlier tonight, Seth’s channeling Colin Quinn in more ways than one.
— (*insert a string of furious expletives here to express my reaction to seeing another motherfucking Garth & Kat commentary*)
— The addition of Gwyneth as a third member is doing nothing for my “enjoyment” of this Garth & Kat tripe.
STARS: **


GLOBE THEATRE
modern moviegoing tropes accompany Globe Theater’s Shakespeare previews

— A fun concept of 16th century actors performing live “coming attractions” in the style of modern-day movie previews. Taran’s performance style is perfect for something fun like this.
— I love the little detail of how the squawk sound effect used for Jason’s falcon is the same squawk that was regularly used in Will Forte’s Falconer sketches.
— Mm, not sure how to react to the use of the old hacky “black people yelling at the movie screen” trope. Well, this is making fun of that trope along with other movie theater tropes, so I guess it’s passable.
— Great cutaway to Kenan as a painter getting caught illegally “recording” the play onto his canvas.
— That “False History” twist at the end got another “Mm, not sure how to react to that” response from me. A bit of a weak note to end an otherwise fun sketch on.
STARS: ***½


THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR 20TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
Will Smith (JAP) admits to Fresh Prince acting missteps on DVD commentary

— As a 90s kid, I love the idea of SNL doing a Fresh Prince sketch.
— What’s with the cheesy-voiced white guy heard briefly singing the Fresh Prince theme song in the background when Jay’s Will Smith starts speaking in the interview footage? In fact, the cheesy-voiced white guy singing sounds like Andy. I take it music licensing issues prevented SNL from using the actual Will Smith-sung Fresh Prince theme song?
— A big laugh from Jay-as-Will’s “Aroo?” reaction into the camera when Kenan’s Carlton somberly reveals he was molested.
— Another reminder of SNL’s low number of black cast members this season, as it feels odd seeing Will and Carlton as the only Fresh Prince characters portrayed in a Fresh Prince sketch. Couldn’t they have at least had Kenan doing double-duty by playing Carlton in an early scene and then Uncle Phil in a later scene? (After all, Kenan would later play Uncle Phil in a great Fresh Prince pre-tape SNL does with Chris Redd in a Jessica Chastain-hosted episode from 2018.) I was about to say “Maybe there wouldn’t have been enough time for Kenan to make such a costume change in a live sketch”, but then I remembered Maya Rudolph previously managed to play both Thelma and Willona at two different points of a live Good Times sketch from the season 29 Janet Jackson episode.
— Some laughs from the various inappropriate “Will Reacts” choices Jay’s Will makes at the end of each clip.
STARS: ***


ESPN DEPORTES
Latin anchors anglicize USA proper nouns & phrases

for Tres Equis cerveza, the extra X means “mas fun”

— Ah, a showcase for the underused Paul Brittain! It’s about time.
— Very funny delivery from Paul when his Hispanic character says occasional English words in an exaggerated American voice. I particularly love his exclamation of “Pop goes the weasel!”
— Jay’s been getting a lot more airtime tonight than he usually gets this season.
— A fun silly, hammy appearance from Bobby at the end of the Tres Equis commercial.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bright Lights Bigger City”


SPITZER AUDITIONS
Eliot Spitzer (BIH) auditions potential replacements for Kathleen Parker

— I always crack up at Bill’s Eliot Spitzer voice, even if he does overuse that deep-voiced dopey laugh. Also, is it odd that I usually hear a little bit of Phil Hartman’s Frank Sinatra in Bill’s Spitzer voice?
— During the bit with Gwyneth’s Heidi Klum repeatedly saying “in and out”, I like Bill’s Spitzer saying “I’m about to say something awful, you should go!”
— The David Paterson twist at the end is making me laugh, and I can’t help but always be a sucker for the pairing of him and Bill’s Spitzer.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode. Barely anything stood out as strong, but most of the episode was pretty good, especially the post-Weekend Update half, which had a consistent quality to it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Andy and Pee-Wee’s Night Out
Globe Theatre
Embracing Civility
ESPN Deportes
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 20th Anniversary Collection
Spitzer Auditions
NBC
Bar Mitzvah
Record Meeting
Weekend Update
Monologue
Secret Word


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jim Carrey)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jesse Eisenberg

Posted on

January 8, 2011 – Jim Carrey / The Black Keys (S36 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
Michael Bloomberg (FRA) details lazy NYC workers’ inept blizzard response

— A decent Michael Bloomberg impression from Fred.
— A pretty good spoof of 1) the overreaction from New Yorkers to the big blizzard that had recently hit the city, and 2) the slow response NYC workers had to said blizzard. As a New Yorker myself, this is bringing back a lot of memories of this time.
— Funny reveal from Fred’s Bloomberg that the reason for a certain New York area being cleared of snow was just because of a gas explosion.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
unworried by the looming apocalypse, host wants to wed an audience member

— Jim Carrey jokingly calls the then-recently-ended year 2010 a nightmare and says we wouldn’t want to go through it again. Uh, Jim, I know you’re just kidding, but I got bad news for you regarding what’s in store for us 10 years after 2010.
— This “doomed year” stuff is a bit of an odd and unexciting topic for a Jim Carrey monologue, but he’s making it work, in his usual way.
— Some laughs from the examples Jim gives for how he always makes the best out of dire situations.
— A pretty fun interaction between Jim and a female audience member.
— A nice deviation from the usual “Stick around, we’ll be right back” monologue tagline.
STARS: ***½


BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Rerun from 9/25/10


BLACK SWAN
Nina’s (NAP) mannish rival Lily (host) is more adept at Black Swan role

— Despite the tired man-in-drag trope, Jim seems like he can definitely make this role fun, and I like how it, in some ways, feels like a slight throwback to his Vera De Milo character from In Living Color.
— I like a lightly-dancing Taran feeding Jim bread crumbs.
— A big laugh from Jim’s fist-in-mouth bit.
— I bet it took Bill everything in him not to crack up when Jim screamed in his face twice while “flashing” him.
— Good pre-taped ending shot of Jim.
STARS: ***½


FINDING YOUR POWER
hidden-camera footage belies self-assertion claims

— The name of Jason’s character, Zach Twinefeld, made me chuckle more than it probably should’ve.
— Pretty funny turns with hidden camera footage revealing how each guest didn’t exactly stand up for themselves like they claimed to.
— I can’t help but hear Vanessa’s Miley Cyrus in Vanessa’s crying rant.
— Hilarious turn with the quick “Well, we put a camera in your wife’s mouth. Roll it!” “What?!?” exchange between Jason and Jim, followed by a P.O.V. camera angle from inside Jim’s wife’s mouth while Jim’s tearfully pleading to her. You also have to imagine how silly the wife must’ve looked standing there with her mouth wide open like that the whole time while secretly filming Jim.
STARS: ***½


GRADY WILSON’S TANTRIC ‘N TASTY
guru (host) adds Eastern skill to Grady Wilson’s Tantric ‘n Tasty sex DVD

— The final Grady Wilson sketch. For some reason, unlike the previous installments of this sketch, this entire installment is pre-taped. I have no idea why.
— As I said in my review of the last installment of this sketch prior to this one, this recurring sketch has been getting less and less funny with each passing installment.
— At least we now have Jim to hopefully milk some laughs from this tired format.
— Meh, it turns out that not even Jim can help this tired format all that much. Good riddance to this recurring sketch. It started out strong and fun in its very first installment, but probably never should’ve become recurring.
STARS: **


THE WORST OF SOUL TRAIN
the ’70s & ’80s were full of awful musical acts

— Already a laugh just from the initial sight of Bobby, as well as him introducing himself as Smokey Robinson’s white half-brother, Coughy Robinson.
— A fairly fun and promising sketch concept of a collection of horrible Soul Train performances.
— I love Bobby’s explanation that Triangle Sally died halfway through her performance, “and we did NOT edit it out!”
— A funny comically brief song from Taran and Paul’s bizarre robotic singing duo.
— After a somewhat slow first two minutes, this sketch has gotten increasingly funnier starting with the Triangle Sally scene. I particularly love the scene happening right now with Jason’s Billy Ocean-esque “Get out of my car, get into my trunk” song.
— Jim’s “one titty” song is absolutely priceless, and a strong way to end this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Howlin’ For You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ousted Nancy Pelosi (KRW) easily triggers John Boehner (BIH) crying jags

Anthony Crispino’s supposed scoops are based on things that were misheard

Arkansan red-winged blackbird (ANS) & fish (TAK) ponder animal die-offs

— Bill’s deep-voiced, cartoonish, Cowardly Lion-esque crying as John Boehner is making me laugh out loud.
— This has to be the funniest Anthony Crispino commentary by this point of his run. A lot of his false info here is giving me big laughs.
— A variation of Andy’s Larry The Goose. As an odd coincidence, the only times Andy has played Larry The Goose and tonight’s similar character have all been in January episodes.
— Fairly fun to see Taran get involved in Andy’s commentary.
— Given the fact that SNL doesn’t have a black woman in the cast this season, I wonder who that was doing the Oprah voice-over during the “Oprah-calypse” bit in Andy and Taran’s commentary.
— A pretty fun dumb, silly conceit to Andy and Taran’s commentary.
STARS: ***


MERRYVILLE TROLLEY RIDE
sinister Merryville animatrons (host), (TAK), (BIH) unsettle (KET)

— Ah, here comes an absolute favorite of mine, and an important moment for Taran as a cast member.
— Taran and Jim’s robotic movements as the animatrons are absolutely SPOT-ON (almost eerily so) and hilarious. Very impressive, especially from Taran. Who knew before this sketch aired that he was capable of something like this? I remember being so wowed by him when this sketch originally aired.
— Bill’s animatron character occasionally popping up just to ding the triangle (there seems to be a triangle-dinging theme in this episode, between Triangle Sally and this) while having a creepy smile is a great example of Bill’s ability to get laughs out of the smallest things.
— I love the animatrons’ increasingly creepy and sinister actions towards Kenan.
— Hilarious when Bill’s animatron character pops up with his head missing and wires poking out of his neck.
— Great ending visual of a Kenan mannequin.
— Overall, a classic in my eyes, and a huge turning point in Taran’s SNL tenure. Back when this episode originally aired, this sketch was what led to me and many others to start becoming a big fan of Taran’s work on the show, and he would go on to build on the great progress he showed in this sketch.
STARS: *****


PSYCHIC MEDIUM
psychic (host) channels his previous career as a celebrity impressionist

— A very fun excuse to have Jim showcase his underrated knack for doing great celebrity impressions.
— I like the running gag with Vanessa calling out Jim’s lack of hygiene from his bathroom break.
— I particularly love Jim’s Alan Thicke impression, as well as Jason having an over-excited foot-stomping reaction to that and then yelling “No one does a Thicke!”
— Great ending with Jim doing a Sammy Davis Jr. impression while using the crystal ball as a glass eye.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tighten Up”


A TASTE OF NEW YORK
grubby trio (host), (FRA), (KRW) sings to tourists about NYC’s underbelly

— Geez, Abby is making her first and ONLY appearance all night in the final sketch of the episode, playing a very small straight role where she only has one or two lines. I feel for her.
— A very blah reveal of the comedic conceit of the song that Fred, Jim, and Kristen’s homeless group sings.
— Not a single laugh from me so far. Not even Jim can save this.
— Overall, an awful sketch, and such a poor note to end this episode on, especially after the extremely fun two sketches that preceded this. I guess we can consider this YET ANOTHER of many wretched Fred Armisen-starring sketches this season. The man continues to be the bane of this season.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While this comes absolutely nowhere close to measuring up to the beloved first Jim Carrey-hosted episode (continuing this season’s frustrating failure to produce a standout strong episode), this was an overall pretty good episode, and hit a big peak with the first two post-Weekend Update sketches. Jim Carrey was his reliably hilarious self as expected.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Merryville Trolley Ride
Psychic Medium
Black Swan
Finding Your Power
Monologue
The Worst Of Soul Train
A Message From The Mayor
Weekend Update
Grady Wilson’s Tantric ‘N Tasty
A Taste Of New York


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Bridges)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on

December 18, 2010 – Jeff Bridges / Eminem and Lil Wayne (S36 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHRISTMAS EVE IN WASHINGTON D.C.
on Christmas Eve, Democrats dream of better headlines in the year to come

— An interesting and refreshingly out-of-the-ordinary concept to this political cold opening.
— A definitive Vanessa Bayer face, with the funny gleeful, open-mouthed, glass-fogging smile her Hillary Clinton makes in reaction to the pantsuits headline she imagines.
— A really bad technical gaffe happens at the very beginning of the Joe Biden scene, where the camera accidentally cuts to a black screen with a graphic of Biden’s name displayed on the bottom of it.
— The look on Jason-as-Joe-Biden’s face is freakin’ PRICELESS, as are the insane headlines he imagines.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & Cookie Monster (David Rudman) sing “Silver Bells”

— Jeff Bridges brings up that his last hosting stint was all the way back in 1983, then does the cliched and tired “I guess I did a pretty good job, considering how fast they had me back” joke.
— I absolutely could’ve sworn I remembered this monologue showing a photo of Jeff and his brother Beau from the episode they co-hosted in 1983. I was looking forward to seeing that photo in my current viewing of this monologue, but it’s nowhere to be seen. Odd. Why’d my memory play tricks on me?
— A Cookie Monster appearance, referencing his then-well-publicized bid to host SNL.
— Jeff and Cookie Monster’s “Silver Bells” duet is certainly charming, but there’s absolutely nothing else to say about this, and, at the risk of coming off heartless, I’m kinda bored watching this. Maybe I’d like this duet more if this season wasn’t oversaturated with musical monologues.
STARS: **½


A MESSAGE FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG / A MESSAGE FROM JULIAN ASSANGE
Julian Assange (BIH) compares WikiLeaks to Mark Zuckerberg’s (ANS) site

— Ha, for the third and final consecutive week, a sketch gets interrupted by a message from Bill’s Julian Assange. Like I mentioned in my last episode review, it’s a huge rarity in recent decades for SNL to have a running gag that stretches over several consecutive episodes.
— It definitely bears mentioning that Bill actually has an on-air panic attack while performing this sketch. He talks about it in this interview (the link takes you directly to the portion of the interview where he talks about the panic attack). I’ll have to pay attention to if there are any visible signs of his panic attack in this sketch.
— Okay, I think I can see where Bill’s panic attack starts, as I’ve noticed that he’s suddenly coming off a little more…I dunno, self-conscious in the middle of his speech right now. It’s hard to describe, but something about his tone and demeanor has slightly changed in the middle of his speech. However, this panic attack is certainly not as noticeable as Bill was probably worried it came off to us viewers. I do notice that he seems to be really overdoing the laugh-evilly-while-sipping-his-wine move all throughout this sketch, which could possibly be a sign of him trying to hide his panic attack. After all, he does say in the afore-linked interview that he held a wine glass in front of his mouth for most of the sketch to hide his panic attack, though that’s not quite accurate to what I’m watching in the sketch.
— Overall, kinda meh for a Julian Assange interruption piece. While not too bad, this didn’t work nearly as well as the last two Assange interruption pieces from the preceding two episodes. Maybe me scrutinizing Bill’s performance so intensely to find signs of his panic attack took me out of the comedy of the sketch, but I think it’s more that SNL has milked these Assange interruption pieces for all they’re worth these past three episodes, to the degree that there wasn’t much left for them to say in this final one.
STARS: **½


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Nick Nolte’s (host) media scandal was meatier than Miley Cyrus’ (VAB)

— Hate to say it, but the lines given to Billy Ray Cyrus in these sketches are getting old, despite Jason’s always-fun portrayal of him.
— They’re completely wasting Jeff in this sketch.
— Overall, as you can see, there wasn’t much at all to say about this installment. Much like the preceding Julian Assange sketch, this was a little on the meh side, in that it wasn’t bad, but felt too by-the-numbers for a Miley Cyrus Show sketch.
STARS: ***


I JUST HAD SEX
ANS, Jorma Taccone & Akon [real] revel in coitus

— Good to see an epic music video Digital Short in the Christmas episode, especially since it used to be a (short-lived) tradition in the Lonely Island’s earlier SNL seasons to do an epic music video Digital Short in every Christmas episode (Lazy Sunday and Dick In A Box).
— As usual for these epic Lonely Island music videos, the concept of this is very funny.
— Great visual quality of some of the scenery, especially the parts with Andy, Jorma Taccone, and Akon on the roof of a building.
— A pretty funny random John MacEnroe cameo.
— A particularly funny part with Jorma’s “I think she might’ve been a racist” lyric as we’re shown him staring at a KKK hood in his girl’s bedroom.
— A strong ending visual of Andy, Jorma, and Akon’s crotch fireworks.
STARS: ****


LARRY KING LIVE
Jermaine Jackson (KET) & other D-listers on the show’s finale

— With the mention of the final episode of Larry King Live, that thankfully means this is the final installment of this sketch I have to suffer through, as I never cared for the Larry King sketches that star Fred.
— A laugh from the mere look of Kenan’s Jermaine Jackson. His voice is amusing me as well.
— Another laugh from Fred’s Larry King describing Jeff-as-Dog-The-Bounty-Hunter’s crying as being “like a Sasquatch who found a dead bird and just doesn’t understand”.
— Not much exciting discussions going on in this sketch.
— Ugh at that lame, unnecessary farting line.
— Such a poor ending.
— This overall sketch had a few mild laughs early on, but slowly died a really bad death as it went along.
STARS: *½


CRUNKMAS KARNIVAL!
Under-Underground Crunkmas Karnival features music, risks, nigh-unknowns

— A pre-taped sequel to the first pre-taped Under-Underground commercial.
— The usual hilarious Ass Dan “In Memoriam” bit.
— What the hell is with that annoying and unfunny high-pitched sound Jay keeps making between each sentence of his? Reminds me of him making that annoying and unfunny sharp inhale sound between each of his sentences in the preceding episode’s Principal Frye sketch. I like Jay, but lately, he’s been displaying some bad tendencies he has as a performer.
— Like last time, there’s so many laughs from all the mentions of random, insane festival events and band names. I particularly like the part about the Growing Pains cast “reunion” with just the mom.
— Very funny ending with the mention of this festival taking place at the Metrodome, as tonight’s episode is airing several days after the infamous Metrodome roof collapse incident.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “No Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Michael Steele’s (KET) bid for RNC reelection shows he can’t take a hint

weatherman Brad Pitt (TAK) punctuates his forecast with phonemes

Stefon, Snooki (BOM), David Paterson (FRA) sing “O Christmas Tree”

— From my past viewings, I have absolutely no memory of this Michael Steele commentary of Kenan’s.
— Okay, after watching this Steele commentary again just now, I can see why I don’t remember it. It was completely forgettable, despite a pretty funny performance from Kenan.
— The debut of Taran’s Brad Pitt impression.
— I have no idea what to make of those “Bdaaaah!” exclamations Taran’s Pitt keeps making, nor do I know what it’s supposed to be a dig at, as Pitt isn’t known for saying that (is he?). I remember one person on an SNL message board asking at this time, “Is he supposed to be saying ‘bad’???” Also, I can’t help but notice how Tony Danza-esque Taran’s “Bdaaaah!”s sound (not that Danza’s known for saying that either).
— As this Brad Pitt commentary goes on, despite my continued bafflement over the “Bdaaaah!” exclamations, there is something about Taran’s general portrayal of Pitt that I find pretty fun.
— The Harvard bit is another instance of Seth taking delight in doing a character voice during an Update joke, feeling like a nice throwback to the days when he regularly appeared in sketches.
— Seth calls Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds’ separation unfortunate “since they’re probably the only ones who had a chance with either of them.” Ohhhho, the irony on SNL’s part. Little did SNL know which of their own writers at the time would later get married to Scarlett. The fact that this joke of Seth’s came IMMEDIATELY after the aforementioned Harvard bit is even more of an odd and funny coincidence, given the fact that Scarlett’s future husband in question, Colin Jost, graduated from Harvard, and I’d like to think he’s the one who wrote Seth’s Harvard bit.
— Ah, a change of pace for Update, with us getting a Christmas song from Weekend Update favorites Snooki, Stefon, and Gov. David Paterson. I always like when SNL does something that groups together Weekend Update “all-stars”, such as in the Neil Diamond musical number that Will Ferrell and the real Neil Diamond did with then-Update staples Gay Hitler, Drunk Girl, and Geraldo Rivera at the end of the Weekend Update from Will’s final episode as a cast member.
STARS: ***


THIS YOU CALL A WONDERFUL LIFE?!
Jewish version of It’s A Wonderful Life was full of arguing & complaining

— Pretty funny premise of a Jewish version of It’s A Wonderful Life.
— Good to see Jason’s Jimmy Stewart impression appearing in something more promising than that notorious Rear Window sketch with January Jones.
— Much like in the cold opening earlier in this episode, we get another bad technical gaffe: when the guests are showing that they’ve brought food, the camera cuts to a close-up of THE FREAKIN’ FLOOR by mistake (screencap below). Ha, how in the world did that happen?

— Fourth episode in a row with then-writer Mike O’Brien making an onscreen appearance. I remember thinking at the time that they must’ve been grooming him to become a featured player soon. He would end up not becoming a featured player until three years later.
— Geez, until he showed up just now, I forgot Jeff Bridges was even tonight’s host. He’s appeared so little tonight, including in this sketch, with him being relegated to only making an appearance at the end of this.
— Ha, during the “Cast of Characters” shown in the ending credits, “Moishe Samberg” is credited as playing himself. That’s a callback to the memorable (and polarizing, like pretty much everything involving Justin Timberlake on SNL) Immigrant Tale sketch from Justin Timberlake’s season 34 episode, where Justin played his own ancestor at Ellis Island and Andy made an appearance at the end as an ancestor of his own named Moishe Samberg.
STARS: ***


JEFF’D
host nips his good-natured pranks on fellow actors in the bud

— Finally, a sketch with Jeff Bridges front-and-center as the star.
— Blah, the premise of a prankster pulling very tame pranks and then having a friendly conversation with the prank victim is way too derivative of a radio show sketch SNL did two seasons prior with Tim McGraw.
— At least Andy’s Billy Bob Thornton impression always amuses me.
— I kinda like the turn with Andy’s BBT pulling a gun on Jeff when finding out he’s been pranked. But, damn, the audience is dead during this scene. In fact, they’ve been pretty quiet during this sketch in general. Can’t blame them there, though, as I haven’t been enjoying the non-BBT portions of this sketch myself.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Eminem performs “Won’t Back Down”
Lil Wayne performs “6’7”


GENERAL STORE
in the Old West, gift-wrapping pioneers (host) & (KRW) faze shopgoers

— I know it’s not right to judge a non-recurring sketch just from its first 30 seconds, but damn, it’s very clear from the introduction of Kristen and Jeff’s characters that I’m in for a bad campy sketch.
— While it’s kind of a novelty seeing Jeff Bridges play a silly effeminate character, that doesn’t automatically make this sketch good, especially not in an era like this that relies too heavily on campy gay stereotypes as a comedic crutch.
— Ugh, I hate the “Just make your face like this” routine that Kristen and Jeff keep doing. A typical badly-written and unfunny Wiig mugfest.
— At least we get a fun performance from Jason as an Old West bandit.
STARS: *½


A HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM THE KARDASHIANS
Kim (NAP), Kourtney (VAB), Khloe (ABE) Kardashian deliver holiday message

— It feels like Abby’s been getting more airtime than usual tonight.
— I like how this is taking place on SNL’s home base stage, as it makes this feel like the type of miscellaneous piece that would usually take place on the home base stage in the 70s and 80s.
— Nasim-as-Kim-Kardashian’s “I got a Roleeeeeex” line has been the only real laugh I got out of this so far.
— Overall, nothing special at all, despite my appreciation for the setting.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A blah Christmas episode. The post-Weekend Update half of this episode was especially weak, with the only good piece in that half (This You Call A Wonderful Life) being completely average and unmemorable. I also wasn’t crazy about how they underused Jeff Bridges in this episode, and didn’t exactly give him the best material in the stuff he was in.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Crunkmas Karnival!
I Just Had Sex
Christmas Eve In Washington D.C.
The Miley Cyrus Show
This You Call A Wonderful Life?!
Weekend Update
A Message From Mark Zuckerberg / A Message From Julian Assange
Monologue
A Holiday Message From The Kardashians
Larry King Live
Jeff’d
General Store


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Paul Rudd)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2011, with host Jim Carrey

Posted on

December 11, 2010 – Paul Rudd / Paul McCartney (S36 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TAX PACKAGE
Stockholm Syndrome has left Barack Obama (FRA) voicing GOP talking points

— OH, FUCK. After the preceding episode’s Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening thankfully turned out to be a fake-out, with it quickly getting interrupted by a far-more-welcome WikiLeaks TMZ piece, we end up getting a full-on, uninterrupted Fredbama-addresses-the-nation cold opening in tonight’s episode. Is SNL trolling me?
— An actual fairly funny premise with Fred’s Obama agreeing with the GOP due to Stockholm Syndrome, as he explains.
— Blah, a very lame turn with Fred’s Obama complaining about Bristol Palin getting eliminated from Dancing With The Stars.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host belatedly realizes musical guest is the show’s most popular Paul

— Though the bit with Paul Rudd assuming that the people lined up outside 30 Rock chanting “Paul!” are fans of his is cliched and has been done on SNL before (Harvey Keitel’s season 18 monologue, for example), it’s coming off decent enough here, and Rudd has some funny lines.
— Our obligatory meeting of the Pauls.
— Great little bit with the new and underused Paul Brittain joining in on the meeting of the Pauls, only to sulk away when realizing which Paul the Paul fans outside 30 Rock are really fans of.
STARS: ***


FELINE CULINARY CREATIONS
gloppy presentation overshadows gourmet ingredients

— Some laughs from the fancy atmosphere and visuals of this cat food commercial being interspersed with incongruous shots of nasty-looking cat food being carelessly plopped onto plates.
— Great brief shot of Brittain doing a chef’s kiss gesture during his cooking of the fancy cat food.
— Another great brief shot, this time of Nasim as a chef tasting a bit of the cat food herself.
— Funny ending shot of the cat’s paw clinking wine glasses with Abby.
STARS: ****


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
Austin Vogelcheck’s girlfriend (VAB) is wary of his clan’s yule canoodles

— (*groooooaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn*)
— So far, the only thing I can find to say about tonight’s installment of this typically horrible sketch is that Brittain’s getting quite a bit of airtime so far tonight.
STARS: *


WHAT’S THAT NAME?
contestants (host) & (VAB) fail to identify vassals

— This soon-to-be-very-occasionally-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— After a simple beginning with the contestants easily guessing celebrity names, we get a very funny turn with Kenan entering as Rudd’s doorman.
— Such a great and realistic concept to this sketch.
— I love Kristen’s bitter, foreign-accented delivery of “But Steve Zahn you know.”
— Bill doing his usual excellent job as a game show host. His incredulous delivery of “Those people???” was particularly great.
— Solid escalation to the type of guests who show up.
STARS: ****½


STUMBLIN’
(ANS) & (host) trip to “9 to 5” theme; Mario Batali cameo

— Such a fun concept and very catchy music.
— Funny random inclusion of Paul McCartney, especially the “Tiny Harmonica Solo” part.
— Wait, has that been Kristen singing the “Stumblin’” song the whole time? If so, it’s odd how I didn’t even notice until the final verse of the song, where I heard a distinct Wiig-ism in the singer’s vocal inflection.
STARS: ****


A MESSAGE FROM MASTERCARD / A MESSAGE FROM JULIAN ASSANGE
jailed Julian Assange (BIH) threatens online attacks if he’s not released

— It’s great how it’s become a weekly running gag for a sketch to suddenly get interrupted by a message from Bill’s Julian Assange. How often in recent SNL decades like this do you get a running gag that lasts for a string of consecutive episodes?
— That joke from Bill’s Assange about America still not having caught Osama Bin Laden would no longer be relevant just a few months later.
— I love how Bill now portrays Assange like a diabolical villain, complete with him smugly taking a sip of tea each time he laughs evilly.
— A funny list of cruel website attacks Bill’s Assange threatens to make, especially the Netflix/Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper threat.
STARS: ***½


SEXUALLY SPEAKING
Rodger Brush’s facile sexist coital advice doesn’t help

— I was about to groan at the appearance of this bad recurring sketch, but the preceding installment of it from this season’s premiere was slightly better than usual, as Fred’s Rodger Brush actually had a few funny lines. Then again, that sketch as a whole still sucked.
— I will groan at the obligatory and insufferable portions of this recurring sketch where Rodger Brush repeatedly asks the guests to speak louder.
— Funny cutaway to an ashamed, head-shaking Bobby.
— We get at least one funny Rodger Brush line in this installment, with him asking “You want Dr. Linda up here peein’ out of her ass?”
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jet”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM & musical guest create an audio caption for a British royal photo

all of Stefon’s club ideas for NYC holiday visitors are non-traditional

— The Weekend Update Audio Caption segment with Seth and Paul McCartney doing the voices of Prince Charles and Camilla is silly fun. Seth also seems to be having fun reprising the stuffy high-pitched British voice he used to regularly do in sketches earlier in his SNL tenure, when playing Prince Charles and other Brits.
— Stefon’s explanation of what a Human Parking Cone is receives what may be one of Bill’s biggest and more memorable breaks in these Stefon pieces.
— Funniest parts of tonight’s Stefon commentary are his Miss Piggy vocal imitation and his twisted version of the Twelve Days Of Christmas song.
STARS: ***½


HOLIDAY JAM
Principal Frye (JAP) gives crisis updates during high school assembly

— The debut of Jay’s Principal Frye character, who’s reportedly based on Jay’s real-life high school principal.
— Jay’s Principal Frye voice is fairly amusing, as are his various reports, but I hate that sharp inhale sound he keeps making between sentences. I believe Jay would thankfully drop that aspect of this character in subsequent installments of this sketch.
— Kenan’s angry speech gets my biggest laughs of this sketch so far.
STARS: ***


MERYL STREEP ON ICE
audiences love Meryl Streep’s (ABE) effortless rink artistry

— An okay-seeming concept for a showcase of the Meryl Streep impression that Abby previously did in a Weekend Update commentary.
— This is Jason’s first appearance ALL NIGHT. And it’s not even a live appearance! Wow. I know his airtime has been diminished in a number of episodes this season in general (I’m still wondering if he was possibly filming Horrible Bosses at this time. Does anyone know?), but THIS is insane. At least he’s his usual likable and charming self in this commercial, though.
— Taran’s testimonial gets my only big laugh of this rather forgettable commercial. Despite him playing a gay stereotype, his testimonial simply being him saying a sassy “Um…the bitch can skate” certainly made me laugh.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Band on the Run”


BROADWAY CARES
unprofessional spotlight technician Jeff foils host’s Cabaret performance

— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in years, surprisingly. This also ends up being its final appearance, though there’s a variation of it in the season 38 Jeremy Renner episode, where the name of Bill’s Mike Underballs character is changed to Wes Underballs for some inexplicable reason, and instead of playing a douchey crew member named Jeff who ruins every take being filmed, Jason plays an idiot movie star named Dick Fuel who ruins every take.
— Very odd how Jason is making his first and ONLY live appearance of the night in 1) the final sketch of the night, and 2) with his scenes taking place in the rafters in SNL’s studio. (How often has a live sketch involved a performer in SNL’s rafters? Hell, is this the ONLY time in SNL history? Jerry Seinfeld had a scene in the rafters in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ season 31 monologue, but his appearance was pre-taped.) When this originally aired, I remember almost wondering if the fact that Jason’s only live sketch appearance in this episode had him appearing in a separate part of the studio from the rest of his scene partners meant his appearance was filmed at a different time or in a different studio or something. This, and his diminished airtime in general this season, also almost made it feel to me back then like he was only a “part-time cast member” this season, much like how Eddie Murphy was, in some ways, only a “part-time cast member” in his final season, and Dana Carvey kinda was, too, in his final half-season. I hear that several of the veterans in SNL’s present-day season 46 cast will also only be “part-time cast members” this current season. (If you didn’t know, I’ve been on hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018, and thus, I can only go by what I’ve read about the current season.)
— I got a good laugh from Jason explaining that his mind is so distracted because “I saw Tangled again this week”.
— There’s Bill-as-Mike-Underballs’ angry pronunciation of “Jeff” that I always love: “JYYEEEEEEFF!”
— Jason’s getting the usual big laughs he always gets as this Jeff character, even if this installment isn’t quite as memorable as either of the previous two installments of this sketch.
— Unlike Rudd’s preceding episode from season 34, in which he got a number of fun things to do, especially with cast members like Bill and Andy, Rudd has been utilized poorly tonight. It feels like he’s been given nothing but forgettable straight roles practically all night.
— Very funny ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Day in the Life” & “Give Peace a Chance”


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest performs “Get Back”

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Not great, but pretty good. (“Pretty good” sadly seems to be the best this season can achieve, it feels like so far. There has yet to be a standout strong season 36 episode by this point.) Also, even though I don’t usually factor musical performances into the quality of episodes, it goes without saying that the many musical performances from the legendary Paul McCartney added a nice vibe to tonight’s episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What’s That Name?
Stumblin’
Feline Culinary Creations
Broadway Cares
A Message From MasterCard / A Message From Julian Assange
Weekend Update
Monologue
Holiday Jam
Meryl Streep On Ice
Tax Package
Sexually Speaking
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert DeNiro)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jeff Bridges, after previously hosting the show a whopping 27 years prior, hosts the Christmas episode