Month: October 2020

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December 4, 2010 – Robert DeNiro / Diddy-Dirty Money (S36 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS / WIKILEAKS: TMZ
Julian Assange’s (BIH) latest undiplomatic WikiLeaks are TMZ-style videos

— Ha! A Fredbama presidential address got cut off out of nowhere! The gods have answered my prayers.
— Good fake-out with this Obama cold opening suddenly turning out to be Julian Assange introducing his TMZ-style show. Clever concept, and this also ends up being the first of a very rare three-consecutive-episode running gag in which a sketch gets interrupted by Bill’s Julian Assange.
— A spot-on TMZ parody.
— Vanessa has become SNL’s latest Hillary Clinton impersonator.
— Hilarious how the Hillary Clinton crotch shot video turns out to be filmed by Jason’s Joe Biden.
— An overall pretty fun cold opening, and felt refreshingly different for a cold opening in this era.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host’s henchmen bully audience members who point out his NYC inaccuracies

— A blah premise with Robert DeNiro comically listing off a whole bunch of inaccurate New York City facts. Maybe it would be funny if it wasn’t for DeNiro’s typical dull, halting, comedy-killing delivery. Doesn’t SNL later do a monologue with a very similar premise with Eli Manning the following season, or am I remembering wrong?
— Good to see SNL going back to using writers as fake audience members. That still doesn’t change the fact that this season is relying a little too heavily on audience interaction monologues.
— Yeah, this is becoming more and more of a chore to watch. DeNiro’s delivery is such DEATH.
— At least we get a funny gag with DeNiro’s henchmen handing an audience member a severed horse head.
STARS: **


THE ABACUS CONUNDRUM
Dan Brown-like author (host) hawks his latest book

 

— Some laughs from the ridiculous book titles.
— Nothing to say about the DeNiro portions of this commercial, though this is probably one of SNL’s better uses of him by default.
STARS: ***


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Hollywood tribute has host & Robin Williams [real]

— DeNiro playing himself as a What Up With That guest?!? Did a special guest for this sketch back out at the last minute?
— Ah, at least Robin Williams is an exciting choice for a guest.
— Geez, DeNiro can’t even say “Hello, Deandre” on cue, without preceding it with an awkward long pause. He even butchered the pronunciation of Deandre. Keep bein’ on-brand, Robert.
— I do like the change of pace during the usual part where the drum beat is heard starting back up while the guest in the first seat is speaking seriously about something, with DeNiro actually calling that out, leading to tenseness between him and Kenan’s Deandre Cole.
— I have no memory of this Wiig/Brittain musical number.
— I don’t remember this part with Andy as Mothra either. I guess this is one of the less memorable installments of this recurring sketch.
— The escalation to the “Lindsey Buckingham reacts to getting bumped once again” running gag in these sketches continues to be solid. I especially like how this one ends with Kenan’s Deandre asking Bill’s Buckingham “You want some cake?”, and then when Buckingham excitedly nods his head, Deandre says “Well, I guess we shoulda got some.”
STARS: ***½


FROM THE GARDEN WITH MR. PRODUCE
Mr. Produce’s (host) insolent son (ANS) wants attention

— Oh, god. A sketch starting with DeNiro front-and-center, onstage by himself? This spells doom.
— Ugh, and as expected, DeNiro is butchering his lines, blatantly looking for his cues on the cue cards before doing certain actions, and generally killing any comedic potential of this sketch.
— At least we have occasional Andy Samberg walk-ons to save this.
— Did…did I seriously just hear DeNiro call Andy by his real name just now, instead of by his character’s name?!?
— Jesus Christ, even for DeNiro standards, he mangled the living hell out of that “You might be racking your brains out…” line. If it wasn’t for Andy’s occasional walk-ons, this sketch would be a fucking DISASTER.
— I do admit that the part right now with DeNiro furiously throwing fruit very stiffly at an off-camera Andy while speaking in a staccato manner in time to each throw has a “So bad, it’s good” quality.
— Funny line from an emotional Andy, during the mock-sentimental turn: “Maybe you should ask yourself…have you watered your son lately?”
— What a stupid ending. Made no sense and wasn’t funny.
STARS: *½


PARTY AT MR. BERNARD’S
movie plot echoes Weekend At Bernie’s

— A random but interesting Weekend At Bernie’s take-off. Spot-on casting of Bill in the Jonathan Silverman role, by the way.
— A good deconstruction of Weekend At Bernie’s’ plot, with a more realistic and dark turn this spoof takes when the party guests see the dead body.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Coming Home”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Kim (NAP), Khloe (ABE), Kourtney (VAB) Kardashian rescind endorsements

upside-down understudy (ANS) from Spider-Man musical can’t right himself

1980s aerobics instructor (KRW) aims to fight childhood obesity epidemic

— This is the first instance of Nasim, Abby, and Vanessa all appearing together as the Kardashians. Nasim’s Kim Kardashian impression made solo appearances the preceding season.
— I find it a little odd how Vanessa isn’t doing the nasal, goofy voice that Abby and Nasim are doing.
— I laughed at the low-pitched, very quiet “Booooooo” from an audience member in response to Seth’s Polish joke.
— When this episode originally aired, I remember I spent Andy’s entire commentary mistaking him for Taran. It wasn’t until I rewatched this episode the following day that I realized it was Andy. I guess the cause of that confusion was a combination of Andy being upside-down the entire time (which I guess made it a little hard to make out his face) and me not being too familiar with then-newbie Taran’s face yet.
— I like the return of Seth’s occasional routine of doing one joke several times in a row with a different punchline each time, this time on the topic of a man marrying his dog.
— “Janet Judytran”?
— Kristen doin’ those future Triangle Sally hip moves, I see.
— What the heck is the point of this Wiig commentary? It’s going absolutely nowhere.
— SNL sure loves doing that gag where a performer uses a fake leg prop when stretching their leg upwards. Didn’t care for it in this particular instance.
STARS: ***


LITTLE FOCKERS
on the set of Little Fockers, everything but host wows Keith; BES cameo

— A random return of Bobby’s “It’s okaaaaayyyyyy?” little boy character, Keith, from a one-off sketch two seasons prior.
— Nasim takes over the role of Keith’s mother that Michaela Watkins played last time. It’s one thing to recast a departed cast member’s unspecific role like Will Forte’s announcer character from What Up With That, but I find it a bit much that they would recast the specific role of the Keith character’s mother, even though the character had only appeared once prior to this. Couldn’t SNL have just had Keith with his father in tonight’s sketch instead of recasting the role of his mother? [ADDENDUM: Scratch all of that. According to commenter Michael Cheyne in the comments section of this review, I didn’t catch a line early on in this sketch where Nasim’s character referred to Keith as her nephew. I went back to the sketch to check, and Michael Cheyne is correct. My apologies.]
— Meh, this sketch is using the exact same main joke from the first installment of this sketch.
— Okay, this installment has now actually taken a different and solid turn, with Keith’s biting comments towards DeNiro.
— Ben Stiller cameo. So I take it this is sometime after he and Lorne finally made up after the nasty drama with Ben dropping out from hosting SNL due to 9/11.
STARS: ***½


BLIZZARD MAN
Blizzard Man & his mother (host) join Sean Combs [real] in the studio

— I completely forgot about this recurring sketch by this point, given how long it had been since this sketch’s last appearance prior to this. This also ends up being the final appearance this sketch makes during Andy’s tenure as a cast member.
— There goes Kenan’s technician character once again acting like he’s never met Blizzard Man and doesn’t know he’s a shitty rapper, despite having gone through this in every single previous installment of this sketch.
— Was it necessary to repeat the bit from a previous installment of this sketch where Jason’s agent character says “Now you’re speakin’ my language!” in a corny upbeat manner?
— Even with the two-year hiatus this sketch had taken prior to tonight’s episode, this installment still has kind of a tired, tepid, been-there-done-that feel.
— Blizzard Man’s bad raps are at least still providing some chuckles, and continue to be strangely catchy.
— OH NO. DeNiro entering in fucking drag??? This sketch has gone from tepid to worse.
— Ugh, now we have to hear a whole bunch of sexual implications between Diddy and DeNiro’s drag character, and see DeNiro grinding his ass on Diddy’s crotch? Christ.
STARS: **


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci revisits host’s famous roles

— Not only is this the third consecutive recurring sketch tonight, but it’s the third consecutive one that’s making its final appearance (not counting the Blizzard Man sketch that appears when Andy hosts in season 39). Tonight’s episode seems to be where recurring sketches go to die.
— (*sigh*) Cue the beyond-tired “interviewee says they don’t speak Italian, leading to an argument between Vinny Vedecci and Fred’s character” routine that this sketch always begins with. That’s one part of this otherwise fun recurring sketch that I will not miss.
— Hoo, boy. I mildly griped earlier about Nasim replacing Michaela Watkins as Bobby’s mom in the Keith sketch, but having Paul Brittain replace Will Forte’s silent spaghetti-eating producer character in these Vinny Vedecci sketches is far more irksome to me.
— Very funny announcement from Vinny Vedecci that “the deer from Deer Hunter is here!”
— I love DeNiro throwing a pencil into the neck of the guy in the deer costume.
— Good part with a “Technicale Difficulto!” screen showing up when they’re checking up on the stabbed guy in the deer costume.
— Great trick Vinny Vedecci does to make DeNiro say his famous “You talkin’ to me?” Taxi Driver line, after he flat-out refused to say it when Vedecci requested it.
STARS: ****


BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Rerun from 9/25/10


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Swizz Beatz [real] perform “Ass on the Floor”


IT’S A LIVING
in a bar, (host) is the guy (ANS) & (JAS) have to screw to get a drink

— I like the “Aww, man, this is gonna suck!” line from Andy, after thinking it over upon finding out he has to screw DeNiro’s character to get a drink. Jason’s reaction to that line of Andy’s is also funny.
— A good laugh from Andy’s positive “He kinda looks like Gandalf!” line when defending his choice to screw DeNiro’s character.
— Great delivery of “Dammit. DAMMIT!” from Jason when realizing he, like Andy, is going to give in to the option of screwing DeNiro’s character.
— Andy and Jason’s performances and aforementioned funny lines are all making this cheap homoerotic premise come off better than it normally would.
— I’m iffy on that ending with Ben Stiller.
STARS: ***


AMERICAN AMERICA PRESENTS: I, HIPPIE WITH DANA CARVEY
by FRW- child of the ’60s (DAC) now works the counter at Burger King

— The second and final aired cartoon of this short-lived Fred Wolf-made American America series. I had mis-remembered this one airing in the second half of this season.
— Feels so welcome hearing Dana Carvey’s voice on SNL again.
— Wow, that twist ending with the Carvey-voiced hippie turning out to be a fast-food cashier was lame and hacky as FUCK. That punchline was absolutely not worth that lead-up, and was such a waste of Dana.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— By default, the best of the three Robert DeNiro-hosted episodes. (Faint praise, I know.) Even though I had a number of issues with this episode (most of those issues unsurprisingly being related to DeNiro’s typically horrible hosting job), and only one sketch stood out to me as particularly strong, this episode had a higher number of good sketches than either of DeNiro’s preceding two SNL episodes had, and the general feel of this episode seemed smoother than his other two episodes. Thank God this ends up being his final hosting stint (as of 2020), though.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci
What Up With That?
Presidential Address / Wikileaks: TMZ
Party At Mr. Bernard’s
Little Fockers
The Abacus Conundrum
It’s A Living
Weekend Update
Blizzard Man
Monologue
From The Garden with Mr. Produce
American America Presents: I, Hippie with Dana Carvey


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anne Hathaway)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Paul Rudd / Paul McCartney

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November 20, 2010 – Anne Hathaway / Florence + The Machine (S36 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW
Charlie Rangel (KET) steals the spotlight

— Rather surprisingly, this is the first time they’ve done this Abby Elliott-starring Rachel Maddow Show sketch since Abby’s fifth episode on SNL, back when that sketch was Abby’s very first big role. It’s sad that, in the almost two years that passed between then and tonight’s episode, Abby’s general airtime on SNL hasn’t progressed much, if at all.
— Abby seems to be trying harder in her Maddow impression tonight than she did in the last Rachel Maddow Show cold opening, but the voice she’s using is STILL too high-pitched to match Maddow’s voice.
— Bill sounded VERY Dan Aykroyd-esque in his-as-John-Boehner’s pronunciation of “barber”.
— Funny line about how Nancy Pelosi always looks like she’s staring at someone not using a coaster.
— (*groan*) Enough with all the cheap “Rachel Maddow looks like a man” jokes.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host lets ANS, BOM, KET think she’s going to do nude scenes on the show

— I love the genuinely very emotional, overjoyed look on Anne Hathaway’s face after she has entered the stage. You can tell how much hosting SNL means to her.
— Nice to see the underused and still-somewhat-new Bobby get some applause from the audience when he enters as himself in this.
— The premise of this monologue is a little cliched and tired (feels almost like a throwback to those “the male cast takes turns trying to hit on the female host” monologues from the late 90s, with hosts like Heather Graham and Sarah Michelle Gellar), but it’s being executed decently enough.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Kristen saying a sudden wholesome “And that’s what Thanksgiving is all about” right after all the sexual-related stuff in this monologue. Too bad she almost had to ruin it immediately afterwards by hammily staring down the camera during her exit for NO GOOD REASON. It made sense when Andy did that earlier in this monologue, but there was no logical reason for Kristen to do that at all.
STARS: ***


TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
TSA agents echo phone sex operators

— This TSA ad being presented in the style of a typical phone sex ad is a clever and very funny way to spoof the TSA pat-down controversy from this time.
— Solid delivery from Kenan of the line “But it’s proooobably gonna be us.”
STARS: ****


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Katie Holmes (host) is peppered with queries by Miley Cyrus (VAB)

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Jason takes over the Billy Ray Cyrus role that was played by Bryan Cranston in the previous installment of this sketch.
— Turns out Jason is a lot of fun in this role, moreso than Cranston was.
— Vanessa’s Miley, as a segue: “So, as you probably heard, I’m sexy now!”
— The “sexy” photos of Vanessa’s Miley are all funny.
— Anne’s Katie Holmes impression is killer, especially the long, awkward pauses, which remind me of just how awkward the real Katie Holmes came off in her season 26 SNL hosting stint that I covered.
STARS: ***½


FREE THANKSGIVING DINNER
on Thanksgiving, volunteer Penelope harvests attention at a soup kitchen

— The first Penelope sketch to appear in a little over a year, and this also ends up being the final one.
— The audience’s laughter at some of Penelope’s lines tonight seems a bit mild and tepid. I’m enjoying this sketch a little more than they are, but I can understand the audience’s (or anyone else’s) lack of excitement towards this sketch.
— I like Penelope’s inappropriate comment about how it’s easy for homeless people to see fireworks on the Fourth of July because they live outside.
— An amusing cutaway to Penelope’s similarly-traited family members.
— While this Penelope installment is a slight improvement over the below-par last one that appeared prior to this, tonight’s installment still feels too average for Penelope standards. It’s a good thing this ends up being her final appearance, as this character has lost her novelty and seems to be running out of steam.
— I like how, at the very end of this sketch, after we see Penelope in her “celery boat”, the camera pulls back and reveals Kristen is lying on a greenscreen floor on SNL’s home base stage. In hindsight, there’s something strangely fitting about how that visual ends up being the last thing we ever see of Penelope.
STARS: ***


ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
secret chavs Queen Elizabeth (FRA) & Prince Philip (BIH) intimidate Kate Middleton (host)

— Good unexpected turn with Fred and Bill’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip suddenly dropping their dignified accents and demeanor, and suddenly talking brashly and threateningly in crude accents towards Anne’s Kate Middleton.
— Fred’s even managing to make this drag role not come off as groan-worthy as some of his other drag roles from around this time. I also like the almost-Mick Jagger-esque voice he’s using here.
— A funny “In the bedroom…THINK FERGIE” line from Bill’s Philip.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dog Days Are Over”


WEEKEND UPDATE
alcohol & raisins pervade Guy Fieri’s (BOM) extreme Thanksgiving menu

SEM says “Come On, Dictionary” to inclusion of Sarah Palin’s “refudiate”

Four Loko creator Chris Hunter (JAS) defends besieged upper-downer drink

JAP performs hip-hop Thanksgiving songs a la Jay-Z, Drake, Biggie Smalls

— Bobby’s always fun in the Guy Fieri role, and is making this otherwise nothing-special commentary work decently for me.
— Hmm, a variation of the recurring “Really?!?” segment, with Seth doing a new “Come On, Dictionary” segment.
— The overall “Come On, Dictionary” segment ended up being okay. My biggest laugh came from Seth’s “rafing” comment at the end.
— I always love seeing Jason play boorish fratboys like this.
— A funny passing mention from Jason’s character about his coke dealer getting busted.
— Wow, Jay appearing as himself here. A rarity in this SNL era to see a cast member do an Update commentary as themselves.
— Yeesh, Jay’s brief bit about how “Thank You For Being A Friend” should be a Thanksgiving song for white people was a lame and hacky joke.
— A fairly fun excuse to have Jay do a parade of various rapper impressions from his repertoire. The concept of this commentary of his kinda feels like a throwback to Jimmy Fallon’s routine of holiday song medleys, where he does impressions of various singers’ voices.
— Jay’s Drake impression here sounds a lot different from the version he would do in his later seasons, probably because this is before Drake really blew up in popularity.
STARS: ***


THE ESSENTIALS WITH ROBERT OSBORNE
whiny Weather Vane (FRA) was cut from The Wizard Of Oz

— The debut of Jason’s Robert Osborne impression.
— Blah, I already don’t like that nasal, dopey voice Fred’s using, which is worrisome given the fact that his character is the main comedic focus of this sketch.
— Great Cowardly Lion/Bert Lahr impression from Bill.
— Yeah, I’m currently a few minutes into this sketch, and the general routine of Fred’s character is doing nothing for me.
— The ending with Fred looking into the camera and saying “da Wizard of Oz!” in that nasal, dopey voice was just plain dumb.
STARS: *½


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
elderly TV reporter Herb Welch (BIH) hits his mic but misses the story

— The debut of Bill’s memorable Herb Welch character.
— Reportedly, this Herb Welch character and his hitting-people-in-the-face-with-his-microphone habit was based on ad-libs Bill made during rehearsals of the news sketch from the Emma Stone episode earlier this season, in which Bill played a normal reporter character. I guess that explains why tonight’s sketch is using the same WXPD news station name that was used in the Emma Stone news sketch.
— Bill is just as great as this character as I had remembered.
— Geez, I keep forgetting Paul Brittain is even in the cast. I know he’s still very new at this point, but compared to his fellow three newbies, the poor guy has gotten practically NOTHING to do these past three episodes.
— I love Bill’s Welch responding to a correction from Jason by angrily saying “You son of a bitch!” while lunging at the camera and repeatedly hitting it with his microphone.
— Funny ending with a dead Herb Welch suddenly coming back to life just to continue repeatedly hitting the camera with the microphone because he’s angry at Jason.
STARS: ****


MEGA-MART
Mega-Mart’s 12-minute Black Friday sale is irresponsibly hazardous

— Bobby: “That’s right, Coked-Up Rooster!”
— Strong performance from Bobby in a spokesperson role that I feel like we don’t usually see him in.
— I love the extremely fast-paced and frantic pacing of this. That, combined with the increasingly insane features of this Black Friday sale, is VERY much in the vein of the Kickspit Underground Rock Festival commercials. I wonder if this Black Friday commercial has the same writer(s) as those Kickspit commercials.
— Very fun testimonial from Anne as a hyper, rapidly-speaking customer waiting in line.
STARS: ****½


CAMEL TAME
Camel Tame overcompensates while camouflaging female genital definition

— Amusing snarky comment from Bill about Kristen’s camel toe during her office presentation.
— Some decent cheap laughs from the various visuals of proud women’s bulky Camel Tame bulge, and how it’s treated as totally normal by bystanders.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’ve Got The Love”


HORSE PLAY
star-laden soundtrack upstages animated equine baseball movie

— A variation of the Bunny Business sketch from the preceding season’s Taylor Swift episode.
— This even starts the exact same as the Bunny Business sketch, with Fred’s Randy Newman as the first singer.
— Kristen does another solid impression of a 90s singer, this time Dolores O’Riordan.
— Yet another fun performance from Anne tonight, even if I’ve seen better Alanis Morissette impressions elsewhere.
— Very funny take on Robert Smith from Andy.
— The “Buck You” song from Kenan’s Cee Lo Green has kinda stuck in my memory over the years.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, and a nice rebound after the rough episode that preceded this. A few segments tonight stood out as strong, and there were no segments I disliked, aside from a bad Fred Armisen showcase (The Essentials with Robert Osborne). For the second time, Anne Hathaway was a great and likable host, not just with her sketch performances, but even the littlest things, from her aforementioned emotional, overjoyed demeanor after she made her entrance in the monologue to her endearing “Let’s do it all over again!” declaration during the goodnights.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Mega-Mart
Transportation Security Administration
WXPD News New York
The Miley Cyrus Show
Royal Engagement
Horse Play
The Rachel Maddow Show
Weekend Update
Camel Tame
Monologue
Free Thanksgiving Dinner
The Essentials with Robert Osborne


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scarlett Johansson)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Robert DeNiro

Posted on

November 13, 2010 – Scarlett Johansson / Arcade Fire (S36 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHINA PRESS CONFERENCE
creditor Hu Jintao (BIH) preps to be shafted by USA & Barack Obama (FRA)

— OH NO. Why are they doing a reprise of this fairly unbearable cold opening from the preceding season’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt episode?
— Bill takes over the Hu Jintao role that Will Forte played in the aforementioned previous installment of this cold opening.
— I see Bill’s ability to make his fake Italian gibberish in those Vinny Vedecci sketches sound real has not carried over into his fake Chinese gibberish in this cold opening. His idea of sounding like he’s speaking in Chinese is to LITERALLY just say “kaow kaow kaow kaow” the entire time. Ridiculous. I rarely, if ever, criticize Bill Hader, but oof, this is definitely not one of his shining moments.
— Wait, are you fucking kidding me?!? They’re LITERALLY doing all of the exact same unfunny things from the previous installment of this cold opening, right down to Nasim’s “WHEN SOMEONE IS DOING SEX TO ME!!!” yells right before Bill suggestively bends over towards Fred’s Obama. How the hell do you make that into a recurring sketch? Such laziness. Even calling this cold opening a cheap rewrite would be too generous, because if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear this cold opening is LITERALLY (sorry for overusing that word in this review) using the exact same script from the previous installment of this, with absolutely no changes. Sure feels like it.
— (*sigh*) It feels like I’ve been watching this cold opening for 10 fucking minutes! This is endless and INSUFFERABLE.
— Oh, come the fuck on. Now Bill’s going one step further than Will Forte did in the previous installment of this, by pulling his pants down when bending over during one of the way-too-many “WHEN SOMEONE IS DOING SEX TO ME!!!” parts. This sketch’s desperation to get laughs is so pathetic.
— Overall, my god, did I hate this. One of the worst cold openings I have ever reviewed in this project of mine.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
host & tabloidites Dina Lohan (KRW) & Ke$ha (ABE) sing variant of “Class”

— Is it just me, or is Scarlett Johansson’s voice higher-pitched and smoother here than usual? Or maybe I’m just used to her deeper, huskier voice from more recent years. Are cigarettes to blame for her voice getting deeper and huskier over the course of just a few years?
— I like the fake-out with Scarlett saying “The movie Due Date opened last week”, which receives the usual audience applause whenever a host namedrops a movie or TV show of theirs, only for Scarlett to then say “I’m not in it, but I’m excited about it.” They’ve done a similar joke with some other hosts in their monologues, but it always gets me, and Scarlett’s delivery of the joke was good.
— (*sigh*) Another musical monologue this season? We’re only six episodes into this season, and this is already the THIRD musical monologue. After how extremely salty this episode’s cold opening made me, this isn’t the type of monologue I need to lighten my mood.
— Come to think of it, all three of Scarlett’s monologues up to this point of SNL’s run have been musical, and I believe her next monologue after this (from her 2015 hosting stint) is yet another musical one.
— Abby’s Ke$ha impression isn’t working for me at all. Doesn’t sound anything like Ke$ha. Surprising, given what a good impressionist Abby usually is.
— Overall, a typical meh musical monologue.
STARS: **


MTV: MATERNITY TELEVISION
slate of natal programs indicates MTV now stands for maternity television

— An okay concept with a preview of pregnancy-related MTV shows.
— Kinda interesting seeing Scarlett in the My Super Sweet 16 scene, given the fact that she previously starred in a spoof of that show in her season 31 episode.
— Jay’s Nick Cannon impression is funny.
— The comically brief and simplistic Cribs scene with Vanessa was hilarious.
— The usual fun appearance from Bobby’s Snooki.
STARS: ***


THE MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER
Patti Stanger (host) pairs a mousy nerd (VAB)

— I don’t think I’ve ever heard Vanessa use that high-pitched froggy voice in any other sketch during her entire 7-year SNL tenure. She almost sounds like a Kristen Wiig character here.
— Solid performance from Scarlett, even if she can do this kind of brash New Yorker role in her sleep (she seems to play a brash New Yorker at least once in EVERY hosting stint of hers, though I’ve yet to see her most recent hosting stint from season 45, and thus, I don’t know if she does any brash New Yorker roles in that one).
— Nothing else to say about this overall sketch, but it was okay.
STARS: ***


THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin flair punctuates a paternity controversy

— Ohhhhh, god.
— I’m currently almost two minutes into this, and as you can imagine, I am completely stone-faced.
— Bill finally gave me my first laugh of this sketch, with his delivery of “So this is whyyyyyyyy!”, along with his frozen open-mouthed facial expression right after that line.
— Ooh, I like Nasim’s delivery here. Her energetic, fiery delivery feels almost out of place in this tepid, by-the-numbers sketch.
STARS: *½


UNSTOPPABLE
Denzel Washington (JAP) & Chris Pine (TAK) have training day

— Great to see another showcase for Jay’s spot-on and fun Denzel Washington impression. I also love this pairing of him and fellow newbie Taran.
— A great smug smirk on Taran-as-Chris-Pine’s face after his put-down to Jay’s Denzel just now: “Where’d you learn trains, old man – from inventing them???”
— The “BOOM!” that Jay’s Denzel suddenly yells right before the train crash was hilarious.
— Not sure the ending with the train crashing into the Chrysler Building worked for me, but it didn’t taint the quality of this short for me.
STARS: ****


HOLLYWOOD DISH
host’s answers are manipulated during her interview with Hollywood Dish

— Another recurring sketch tonight that I never cared for. These Hollywood Dish sketches are just an annoying Wiig/Hader mugfest. (Yeesh, that’s two times in this episode review that I’ve had something negative to say about Bill Hader, one of my absolute favorite cast members of all time.) Thankfully, this ends up being the final installment of this sketch.
— As usual in this recurring sketch, the only laugh I’ve gotten in tonight’s installment so far is from when Kristen and Bill make their interviewee say or do something intense and exaggerated that makes them look insane.
— In this installment, during the usual part of these sketches where Bill spits/throws food all over Kristen during one of his shocked reaction shots, both Kristen and (especially) Bill break. Bill usually always breaks during that part in the dress rehearsal version of these sketches, some of which SNL has replaced the live version of with in reruns.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We Used To Wait”


WEEKEND UPDATE
reconciled George W. Bush (JAS) & Kanye West (JAP) now like hanging out

even before the fire, Carnival Cruise passenger (VAB) was very aggrieved

— Jason’s George W. Bush impression makes its first appearance in over two years, and this ends up being its final appearance. Feels odd seeing him on Weekend Update for a change.
— A pretty funny and solid Kanye West impression from Jay (though I kinda prefer current cast member Chris Redd’s Kanye impression). Jay’s been having a good night, with quite a lot of his impressions being showcased.
— The basic concept of Vanessa and Fred’s commentary as well as their characters is strangely reminiscent of a (very forgettable) Update commentary that Rachel Dratch and Chris Kattan did together in the season 28 Robert DeNiro episode, though I guess there’s enough differences between both versions.
— Vanessa is very good here as a ranting old Jewish(?) lady.
— One BIG difference between the aforementioned Dratch/Kattan commentary and this Bayer/Armisen commentary is that this has a much better punchline, with Fred responding to Seth’s “You let her [Vanessa] sleep for three days?” question by saying a deadpan “Wouldn’t you?” The punchline of the Dratch/Kattan commentary, on the other hand, was a lame, lazy, and cheap vomiting gag.
STARS: ***


ST. KAT’S MIDDLE
(KET)’s broken knee outmatches fellow teens’ positive vibes

— UH-OH. Here’s a very notorious sketch that this episode is probably most remembered for, and is a sketch that I and certain other people have always absolutely despised.
— Holy hell. Yep, it turns out this sketch is just as unbelievably horrible and one-joke as I had remembered, and is bringing out Kenan’s worst Nickelodeon-level hammy tendencies, this time complete with EXTREME FACIAL CLOSE-UPS.
— Thanks to how germophobic our current COVID pandemic has made me, I now can’t help but kinda wince seeing Kenan constantly pressing his face (including the side of his mouth) against that dirty-ass floor throughout this sketch.
— When party music was supposed to play when Taran turned on the radio one of the times Kenan’s character was being forced out of his wheelchair, they accidentally played the doom-and-gloom dramatic music that’s supposed to play during Kenan’s various face-on-the-floor rants, before quickly switching it to the party music. That audio gaffe is sadly more amusing to me than the intended comedy of this sketch.
— This…this…just…how does a sketch like this make it on the air?!? Was the writer(s) of this sketch just dicking around and intentionally wrote a bad piece, just as a goof to see if it would somehow make it past dress rehearsal? That’s the only explanation I can think of for how this sketch came to be. I’d sure hate to think the writer(s) penned this thinking it was legitimately good.
— I can actually understand why some people would find an enjoyable, guilty pleasure, “So bad, it’s good” quality to this sketch. If you’re one of those people, more power to you. I wish I could have the same “So bad, it’s good” viewpoint, but nope. No dice. This sketch just ain’t for me AT ALL.
— When this originally aired, I remember thinking it felt very much like a typical disastrous sketch from season 20, and I pictured Chris Farley in Kenan’s role, and imagined that the extreme close-ups of Farley with his face pressed against the floor would’ve had him doing his badly-overused-in-season-20 screaming shtick, with him yelling his season 20 catchphrases like “SON OF A BITCH!”, “SHUT YER PIEHOLE!”, and calling an unhappy-looking Janeane Garofalo-played character a stupid whore (the latter complete with misguided wild laughter and applause from the audience), instead of the dialogue that Kenan’s yelling here (“GO AWAY!”, “LEAVE ME BE!”, “YOU DON’T LISTEN!”, etc.). As strange as what I’m about to say may sound, I find it more fun to imagine this sketch as a horrible season 20 sketch than I find it to watch the actual season 36 version of the sketch. Very reminiscent of how, when I reviewed the awful Big Wigs sketch from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode, I had far more fun imagining it as a bad season 6 sketch and theorizing which season 6 cast member would’ve played which role.
— Even the minor fact that, when the audience starts applauding as the sketch ends, Kenan can be seen IMMEDIATELY dropping character, getting up from the floor, and walking off the set (while having a look on his face that almost suggests he’s thinking “Well…THAT happened”), instead of waiting for the camera to fade to black, just adds to the “disastrous sketch” atmosphere of this, as well as the unprofessional “season 20” vibe. Kinda reminds me of how Kenan would later react at the very end of another sketch that I’ve seen some people consider disastrous: a sketch from the season 40 Dakota Johnson episode in which Kenan plays a surgeon dressed as Worf from Star Trek. (I personally don’t have any real opinion of that sketch, mostly because I remember very little of it, but we’ll see how I’ll react to it when I eventually review it.) When that sketch fades to black at the end as the audience is applauding, Kenan, apparently thinking his mic was turned off, can be heard dropping character and saying “Cue that applause” in a relieved, jokingly-kinda-bossy manner, as if he was not happy with the sketch he had just performed.
— Overall, this sketch was just as fucking horrible as I deemed it to be back when it originally aired.
STARS: *


WHAT WAS THAT?
student (ANS) & musical guest excoriate United Nations

— Something about the way Andy’s voice cracked when he whine-yelled “The Khmer Rooouuuuge?!?” made me laugh out loud.
— So far, I don’t know why this short is supposed to be funny, but Andy’s musical whining is strangely amusing me.
— Not sure what the point is of Arcade Fire taking over this short. Their appearance in this is doing nothing for me, even if it has a fun atmosphere.
— I love how one word in Arcade Fire’s song got bleeped out when I can barely even understand a word they’re singing in this short anyway. They could’ve left that bleeped-out expletive uncensored and I wouldn’t have even caught it.
— That’s it??? The whole Arcade Fire bit is the end of this short??? Another Digital Short this season that ended on a poor note, much like the I Broke My Arm short. At least everything else in that I Broke My Arm short was pretty solid. The pre-ending portions of this What Was That short, on the other hand, were just odd, despite how much Andy’s whiny delivery consistently tickled me.
STARS: **½


A TREAT FROM PAULA DEEN’S KITCHEN
Paula Deen’s (KRW) Big Ol’ Soakems sop oil from her butter-heavy recipes

— An okay portrayal of Paula Deen from Kristen.
— That sudden bleeped-out expletive from Kristen’s Deen came out of nowhere.
— This overall sketch kinda just came and went, but was okay enough, I guess. There wasn’t anything I found particularly bad about it.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”


STARS OF TOMORROW
peppy tweens (host) & Laura Parsons (VAB) declaw drama

— Great to see newbie Vanessa has been getting so many big roles in this episode. This is also the debut of her soon-to-be-recurring child actress character, Laura Parsons.
— Funny scenes with Vanessa and Scarlett’s characters each acting out heavy, dramatic iconic movie scenes in that cheesy child star delivery of theirs, though Vanessa is by far outshining Scarlett in that department. I’m sure this is a character Vanessa had been doing before SNL, judging from how polished and established Vanessa is instantly coming off in this role.
— A particularly funny scene with Vanessa and Scarlett both acting out the famous “I wish I knew how to quit you” scene from Brokeback Mountain together.
STARS: ****


MIKE’S BUSTERIA
Mike & daughter Lexi ballyhoo ceramic busts’ inherent class

— The fourth and final installment of this recurring sketch. Very odd how this installment is buried all the way at the end of the show, given how much earlier in the show the previous installments aired in their respective episodes.
— Meh, “ceramic busts” doesn’t sound anywhere near as funny in exaggerated New York accents as previously-advertised products in this recurring sketch like “maww-ble cahhh-lumns” or “pawww-celain fountains” did.
— Wow, the audience is DEAD during this sketch. Can’t say I blame them, though, as the usual routines in this recurring sketch have a tired feel tonight. Not even Scarlett’s usual “Look at this one, or that one” routine is getting much of a reaction from the audience, and they usually react BIG to that in these sketches.
— Overall, nope. This sketch did NOT work. A sad, hollow end to an otherwise fairly fun and harmless recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite two solid pieces and some average things, I find this to be a weak episode as a whole. There were a few too many annoying recurring sketches and some exceptionally bad pieces, mainly that fucking wretched cold opening and the notorious St. Kat’s Middle, two of the most anger-inducing things I’ve reviewed in a long time.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Stars Of Tomorrow
Unstoppable
The Millionaire Matchmaker
Weekend Update
MTV: Maternity Television
A Treat From Paula Deen’s Kitchen
What Was That?
Monologue
Hollywood Dish
The Manuel Ortiz Show
Mike’s Busteria
St. Kat’s Middle
China Press Conference


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Hamm)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anne Hathaway

Posted on

October 30, 2010 – Jon Hamm / Rihanna (S36 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT
Joe Biden (JAS) thinks we should emulate Chilean miners’ good attitudes

— A coincidence I’ve noticed: every single episode hosted by one of the main stars of Mad Men (Jon Hamm in each of his three hosting stints, and January Jones in her one hosting stint) has had Jason’s Joe Biden appear in the cold opening.
— A big laugh from the “Are you above ground?” question in the Joe Biden Checklist, and how that’s the ONLY question.
— Jason’s Biden is getting his usual laughs here.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host improvises ad slogans for products suggested by audience members

— Two consecutive monologues that rely on audience interaction? Are we in the 1993-94 season again?
— Why’d SNL officially stop using their writers as fake audience members ever since the late 2000s? It used to always be pretty fun seeing writers in these audience monologues.
— Jon Hamm is fantastic in his “on-the-spot” ad slogans that he comes up with after each audience suggestion.
— Andy’s always funny as this type of smarmy, smug character.
— Great sly delivery from Bill of the line “I mean, hey…it’s Jon Hamm.”
STARS: ****


RONNIE AND CLYDE
Shy Ronnie & musical guest are 1930s bank robbers

— This Bonnie & Clyde setting is an interesting and creative concept for a Shy Ronnie sequel.
— The usual laughs from Andy’s Shy Ronnie routine, and his “Ha-HAAAAA!”s in particular always slay me.
— Funny bit with Rihanna briefly returning to the bank just to bring a random Jon Hamm with her to have sex.
STARS: ****


VINCENT PRICE’S HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
in 1960, Liberace (FRA) taints Vincent Price’s (BIH) Halloween special

— This ends up being the final Vincent Price Special sketch. I recall this installment being VERY disappointing. We’ll see how I’ll feel about it now.
— This must be by far the earliest spot a Vincent Price Special sketch has ever aired in an episode. These usually air much later in an episode.
— As an unintentional full-circle aspect of these Vincent Price Special sketches, Kristen plays the same celebrity in tonight’s installment that she played in the very first installment: Judy Garland.
— Jon reprises the John F. Kennedy impression he did in the Barack Obama Variety Half Hour sketch from Jon’s first hosting stint.
— This sketch is going particularly heavy on the sexual innuendos, more than previous installments of this sketch did.
— Even for this sketch’s standards, the running gag with Kristen’s Garland popping pills seems too touchy. It’s rubbing me the wrong way.
— I did get a cheap laugh from the “sausage” gag at the end.
— Overall, meh. My recollection of this installment being disappointing was sadly right, though I don’t dislike it quite as much as I did when it originally aired. But between the still-good-but-not-as-strong-as-usual penultimate installment of this sketch from the preceding season’s James Franco episode and now tonight’s fairly mediocre installment, it’s probably for the best that they stopped doing this sketch after tonight’s episode.
STARS: **½


BACK TO THE FUTURE 25TH ANNIVERSARY DVD
unsuccessful screen tests on Back To The Future anniversary DVD

— Ah, a piece in the tradition of SNL’s legendary Star Wars Screen Tests from the season 22 Kevin Spacey episode.
— A nice way to work Jay’s great Eddie Murphy impression into the show.
— Lots of Colin Jost sightings all throughout this, as he plays the marker (as seen in the third above screencap for this segment).
— I’m surprised at how strong Jon’s Robin Williams impression is, even though Robin Williams impressions are probably very common.
— As expected, a fun piece, even if it doesn’t measure up to the quality of the aforementioned Star Wars Screen Tests.
STARS: ****


AUDITION
at an audition, (KRW) specifies what she is willing to do for a part

— A lot of laughs from the absurd things a deadpan Kristen lists off that she is and isn’t comfortable doing in the role she’s auditioning for.
— Ooh, even though it’s just a very small and minor part of an otherwise solid sketch, I did NOT like Kristen’s sudden loud, angry, over-the-top “NOOOOOOOO!!! GIVE IT TO MEEEEEEEEE!!!” outburst when she’s told she didn’t get the part. Her delivery of that outburst felt strangely forced and too out-of-place for the tone of this sketch. This is the second consecutive episode that I noted Kristen coming off too forced in her execution of an over-the-top bit. I wonder if this is a sign that she’s become very tired of the loud, over-the-top things the writers keep having her do in sketches, when, as most of this sketch is proving, she’s far better at lower-key, deadpan stuff.
— Jon’s absurd rant is very funny.
— Love the whole ending gag with Jason jumping out the window, revealing they’re on the first floor as he lands safely on his feet right outside the window, dusts himself off, then nonchalantly walks away.
STARS: ****


BACK TO THE FUTURE 25TH ANNIVERSARY DVD
more Back To The Future screen tests have actors not chosen for the film

— The debut of Bill’s freakin’ SPOT-ON Alan Alda impression. That voice is so damn impressive, almost eerily so. The voice also makes his already-humorous dialogue even funnier.
— The vibe of this second Back To The Future screen test piece feels even more fun than the first one. I also love how many SNL cast members from the 80s are being impersonated in these two BTTF pieces: Eddie Murphy, Gilbert Gottfried, and Joan Cusack.
— A decent Gottfried impression from Taran (Jimmy Fallon did a better one on SNL in the past, though), but it’s his Pee-Wee Herman at the end of this piece that’s far more dead-on and impressive.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What’s My Name?”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) assesses Tea Party’s impact on midterm elections

SEM groans as Garth & Kat think up & perform disjointed Halloween songs

— The usual laughs from Bill’s James Carville.
— (*sigh*) Get this Garth & Kat mess the fuck off my screen.
— I probably said this before, but I cannot believe the freedom Fred and Kristen are given to waste airtime doing this lousy and self-indulgent improv bit on live TV. And not just mere airtime, but LOTS OF airtime. Tonight’s Garth & Kat commentary feels like it’s going on forever.
— While I’m still ranting about this Garth & Kat trash, let me just disclose the pure, genuine joy it brought me to see these two characters absolutely BOMB with the audience when they would later perform in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special. Unlike SNL’s usual easy-to-please studio audiences filled with regular people, SNL’s celebrity-and-alum-filled studio audience in that 40th Anniversary Special was NOT having this Garth & Kat shit, and their un-amusement towards it brought such a perverse smile to my face. I had the same delighted reaction when that Californians recurring sketch also bombed (to a lesser extent) with the audience in that same anniversary special. So happy to see that it’s not just internet nerds like me who can’t stand such frustrating, self-pleasing Fred Armisen/James Anderson-written nonsense like Garth & Kat and The Californians, as I was always baffled by their popularity.
STARS: **½ (that overlong and unbearable Garth & Kat segment alone made me dock half a star from this otherwise-extremely-average Update)


I DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS
viral video victims don’t like being laughed at

— For someone who got promoted to a repertory player at the beginning of this season, it feels like we haven’t been seeing much of Bobby this season. Because of this, it’s refreshing seeing him star in this sketch.
— Bobby’s reaction to the screamer video is freakin’ priceless.
— So many laughs from Jon’s ridiculous stretched-out cry, spoofing a real-life viral video from the reality show Intervention.
— The clip of Jon crying has gotten even funnier when an autotuned version of it is playing on the screen behind him while he’s sincerely pouring his heart out in a message he’s delivering into the “Serious Cam”.
— All of the other characters trying to stifle their amusement after the autotuned clip of Jon was shown is very funny.
STARS: ****


HIGHWAY COPS
motorcycle-sharing (JAS) & (host) prefer gayety to policing

— Where is this sketch GOING?!? I’m currently over two minutes into this sketch, and the closest to a “comedic” conceit I can find is homoerotic implications with Jason and Jon’s friendship, and lots of hamminess from Kenan. (*groan*) I admit, though, that some of Kenan’s lines regarding his dead wife are making me chuckle.
— Why does it sound like Jon and Jason are cracking up off-camera during the close-up of Kenan in one of his many phone conversations right now?
— What’s with the use of Nasim in every photo of Kenan’s various love interests? Is it because Nasim’s the only non-white female cast member this season?
— Aaaaaaaaaaand now we have a “hilarious” man-on-man kiss between Jason and Jon, as a cheap attempt at a “funny” punchline. THAT’S what all of this was leading up to? Fucking oof.
STARS: *½


DARLIQUE & BARNEY
the lounge act of Darlique (KRW) & Barney (host) comprises fake arguments

— I don’t like how this sketch is immediately reminding me of the bad lounge singer sketches that Maya Rudolph often starred in back in season 30, but I’ll try to keep an open mind.
— Jon’s performance is at least fun, as is the interplay between him and Kristen.
— Overall, a little meh, but I didn’t hate the overall sketch as much as I was worried I would.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Only Girl (In The World)”


AMERICAN AMERICA PRESENTS: DOG IN PURSE WITH DAVID SPADE
by FRW- in a club, an irked chihuahua (DAS) dishes on celebrities

— Wow, I had forgotten all about this until now. SNL starts what ends up being a short-lived attempt at a new run of cartoons, American America Presents, years after Robert Smigel’s long and successful run of TV Funhouse cartoons on SNL. These American America cartoons are made by former SNL writer (and short-lived featured player) Fred Wolf (listed as “FRW” in the above synopsis for this cartoon). Only two of these American America cartoons end up making it on the air; there are others that would never make it past dress rehearsal.
— The American America cartoons also usually feature the voice of a former SNL cast member as the main character. In tonight’s case, it’s David Spade.
— Some funny snarky and sleazy comments from the Spade-voiced dog, and it’s certainly nice hearing David’s voice on SNL again.
— Overall, not a bad debut for this American America series.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode as a whole, though as a Jon Hamm episode, this did not live up to the phenomenal quality of Jon’s previous two episodes. He was still a great host tonight as usual, however. A damn shame this ends up being his final hosting stint, as of 2020. It makes no sense why he suddenly stopped hosting, especially after his first three hosting stints were all in back-to-back seasons. He seemed to be quickly on the way to becoming a five-timer.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Back To The Future 25th Anniversary DVD (Part 2)
Monologue
Ronnie And Clyde
I Didn’t Ask For This
Back To The Future 25th Anniversary DVD (Part 1)
Audition
A Message From The Vice President
American America Presents: Dog In Purse with David Spade
Weekend Update
Vincent Price’s Halloween Special
Darlique & Barney
Highway Cops


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Emma Stone)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Scarlett Johansson

Posted on

October 23, 2010 – Emma Stone / Kings of Leon (S36 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

REID RALLY
at a rally, Harry Reid (PAB) distances himself from Barack Obama (FRA)

— Feels a little odd seeing Jay standing in the background right behind Fred’s President Obama, knowing the far-better Obama impression Jay had in his back pocket at the time and would later regularly do on the show starting in his third season.
— The timing during Fred and Paul’s discreet conversation with each other seems off, with too many long pauses between lines. Not sure if that’s Paul’s fault or not. He is noticeably staring at the cue cards during this portion of the sketch. Speaking of which, Paul’s cue card-staring habit in tonight’s episode in general was something that some online SNL fans unfairly tore Paul apart for at the time. I guess those fans didn’t consider the fact that it takes some new cast members a little while to get the hang of how to read off cue cards without making it look too noticeable. Bobby’s a perfect example, as he blatantly stared at the cue cards all throughout the Of Mice And Men sketch from his second episode (and, yes, some online SNL fans tore him apart for that), but it’s not like that went on to become a habit of his.
— Speaking of Paul, it’s surprising to see a new featured player like him co-starring in a cold opening, especially given how underused he was prior to this and hadn’t been given any lead roles until this point.
— The brief interjections that Fred’s Obama keeps making throughout Paul-as-Harry-Reid’s speech are doing very little for me. Unfortunately, that’s the only comedic conceit of most of this cold opening. Typical snooze-worthy political writing from Jim Downey’s later years.
— Wow, Paul even gets to say LFNY! In only his fourth episode as a featured player! I wonder if this is a record for the fastest that a featured player has ever said LFNY in SNL history. Abby comes close, as she said LFNY in her fifth episode as a featured player. [ADDENDUM: I just remembered that Eddie Murphy said LFNY in only his third episode as a credited featured player, so I guess he holds the record.]
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
audience nerds (KET), (BIH), (ANS) ask host if she’ll make out with them

— This monologue ALREADY seems to be going the same route as Natalie Portman’s season 31 monologue, with the female host taking questions from male nerds in the audience.
— Taran’s Michael Cera impression is very funny, and is almost singlehandedly saving this monologue for me. On the other hand, I don’t know what Bobby’s going for in his Jonah Hill impression, but it’s harmless enough.
— I’m tired of all the “I thank you for your time” lines from the audience nerds.
STARS: **


BABY SPANX
foundation garment hides chubby infants’ embarrassing fat

— Very funny delivery from spokesperson Jason of his first line to us upon his entrance: “Do you have a fat baby?”
— Blah, a commercial in the tradition of bland “babies wearing adult things” SNL commercials like Huggies Thong and Baby Toupees. A tired SNL trope.
— Overall, Jason’s great delivery was the only big thing this otherwise-bland commercial had going for it.
STARS: **


DREAM HOME EXTREME
contest winner’s (host) phlegmatism stymies Cheryl

— A very random and unnecessary reprisal of a one-off sketch from a Brian Williams-hosted episode THREE YEARS PRIOR. Why make this sketch recurring after such a long time?
— Kristen’s excited vocalizations and gestures amused me enough in the first installment of this sketch, but in tonight’s installment, they’re just plain ANNOYING to me. Absolutely grating.
— This sketch is following the exact same pattern as the first installment, and it worked far better with Brian Williams in the “unexcited winner” role.
— I’ve finally gotten a laugh, from Bill, Nasim, and Jay’s over-excited reactions in clips of past winners.
— Speaking of Bill, Nasim, and Jay’s parts, do you know what their character names are? Rudy Plank, Laverne Terms, and Syd Awnit. Yeesh, I see I don’t have to ask which writer penned this sketch.
— Even the ending is the same as the first installment, with the unexcited winner finally having an excited reaction when receiving an unrelated mundane gift from someone. Again, it was much funnier seeing Brian Williams do that.
— We’re four segments into tonight’s episode, and I haven’t cared for ANY of them so far.
STARS: *½


WXPD CHANNEL 9 NEWS
local news reporter’s (BIH) made-up stories scare teen’s (host) mom (KRW)

— When talking about the bad “Souping” trend, I love Bill’s line “Mmm-mmm dead”, spoofing the Campbell Soup slogan “Mmm-mmm good”.
— Oddly, Kristen’s acting seems forced in this sketch, and I could do without her over-the-top reactions, especially coming RIGHT AFTER a sketch where she just played an over-the-top character.
— A very funny escalation to all of the ridiculous teen fads covered in this sketch, especially the “Trampolining” fad.
— Very amusing delivery from Bill’s reporter character throughout this.
— Overall, finally, this episode had something I enjoyed.
STARS: ****


I BROKE MY ARM
(host)’s injuries move her classmates from envy to pity

— A good use of Emma, and she’s pulling off her character’s sudden slips on the floor humorously.
— Hilarious escalation to the gag, with Emma now entering in a wheelchair and a Stephen Hawking-esque computerized device she has to speak though.
— WTF at Andy taking over the short as a rapping jelly stain?!? Even for Lonely Island Digital Short standards, I’m finding this very questionable.
— And that rapping jelly stain bit is how this short ends??? Yeah, this ending did not work for me. Too bad, given how enjoyable this short was before then.
STARS: ***½


THE VIEW
panel considers bullies, Halloween, Lindsay Lohan (host)

— The final View sketch of this era. I will not miss these sketches’ presence. They got nothing on the original View sketches from the late 90s era. I have yet to see the newer View sketches from SNL’s present-day era, but I hope they’re better than these 2008-2010 View sketches.
— Kristen-as-Elisabeth-Hasselbeck’s dialogue is even more one-note than it usually is in these sketches.
— Fitting casting of Emma as Lindsay Lohan.
— Meh, as it turns out, they ended up not doing much with Emma’s Lohan in this overall sketch.
STARS: **


WRANGLER OPEN FLY JEANS
Wrangler Open Fly Jeans abet exhibitionists like Brett Favre (JAS)

— A pretty funny concept for a spoof of the Brett Favre sexting scandal.
— Great sleazy performance from Jason as Favre.
— Jason’s Brett Favre: “Look, I put my pants on just like anyone else: one leg at a time. Then…I pull muh penis out.”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Radioactive”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM comments on Virginia Thomas’ exhumation of the Anita Hill controversy

New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan (KET) evinces innumeracy

John Mulaney [real] does stand-up with the theme of “I Love It”

Stefon’s nightclub suggestions for NYC tourists are not family-friendly

— Oof. The audience’s laughter during Seth’s Virginia Thomas/Anita Hill rant is VERY tepid. They are not into this.
— Wow, I had forgotten all about that “The Rent Is Too Damn High” guy. Kenan’s impression of him is good.
— Kenan’s lines and delivery are cracking me up, even though he’s just saying variations of what the real “The Rent Is Too Damn High” guy famously said in the viral video of him, and it’s hard to do a spoof of something that’s already comical enough on its own.
— I swear Seth (or maybe his former co-anchor Amy Poehler) already used that “fried chicken as bread” joke in a previous Update, but I can’t say for sure.
— John Mulaney in his second and final Update commentary during his tenure as an SNL writer.
— The “I Love It” motif to tonight’s Mulaney commentary is a good way to connect his various thoughts into one theme, and is very fitting for his distinct stand-up delivery.
— I love John’s comments about animals not knowing when they’re in a movie.
— Good ending to tonight’s Mulaney commentary, with him riffing on the style of Mad Men’s next-episode previews.
— Much like John’s previous Update commentary, he went through tonight’s commentary without Seth making any of the usual interjections he typically makes during guest commentaries on Update. I wish this was far more common. I don’t know when nor why it became a regular thing for Update anchors to always play a big part in a guest’s commentary, but it definitely started sometime in the 2000s.
— When this SNL era originally aired, I remember how I and several other online SNL fans took John Mulaney’s Update commentaries as a hopeful sign that this was SNL’s way of trying John out as a potential replacement for Seth as Update anchor. I and those aforementioned online fans were absolutely sick of Seth as Update anchor at that point (I’m finding him a lot more tolerable on re-watch, even if he’s still nothing particularly special), and we felt that John as an Update anchor would’ve been a refreshing and much-needed change from Seth. Fast-forward to today, 10 years later, when I’ve become more familiar with John and his comedic style, and it’s a little hard for me to imagine him as an Update anchor, and I’m now kinda thinking he might not have been as great in that role as we thought back in 2010.
— Our first Stefon appearance of the season. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only two Updates he’s appeared in by this point also happen to be Updates that Stefon writer John Mulaney did a commentary of his own in.
— Funniest bits in tonight’s Stefon commentary are the Cosby Face bit, a fat kid on a slip-and-slide being confused for Mick Jagger, and Furkels (a.k.a. Fat Urkels).
STARS: **½


LES JEUNES DE PARIS
in a bistro, “Ta Douleur” inspires youth dance-off

 

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— After Paul has finally gotten his first SNL lead role earlier tonight, now it’s Taran’s turn. Taran’s been having a good night, between his Michael Cera impression and this.
— I absolutely LOVE the part where all the characters suddenly start dancing in unison to the bizarre portion of the French song that’s playing.
— Great gag with Taran imitating Emma’s bra removal by removing his own bra, which we then find out belongs to Abby.
— I love that the only cast members in this sketch’s main roles are newer players (Taran, Nasim, Abby, Paul, and Bobby, plus Vanessa in a brief walk-on).
— The combo of the odd French music being played and all the very funny actions happening during it is giving this sketch an epic, fun feel.
— Was that Jason as the older gentleman passing by with a cane who the main characters briefly stop dancing for? SNL Archives claims it is (link here), but I’m skeptical. It’s hard for me to tell if that’s really Jason, as we can only see his face from the side as he’s walking past the camera (screencap below).

If that is Jason, it’s very odd they would give a seven-season SNL veteran like him such a tiny, non-speaking role like that (though it did happen to him then-recently in the Bryan Cranston episode), especially in a sketch where the main roles are all played by new or new-ish cast members. Also, if that is Jason in this sketch, then it’s his ONLY live appearance all night. Aside from the Jane Lynch episode, Jason’s strangely been getting very little airtime this season, and it continues for quite a lot of the remainder of this season, IIRC. What’s the reason for this? Is he busy filming a movie this season? Horrible Bosses, perhaps?
— Such a strong and fun sketch overall.
STARS: ****½


MY BROTHER KNOWS EVERYTHING
annoyed (ANS) is little sister’s (NAP) hero

— Nice to see two consecutive sketches tonight starring a featured player(s).
— Nasim playing yet another child character, I see.
— In response to Emma saying Nasim’s brother is a hunk, Nasim says a well-delivered “Eww! Gross!….but yeah.”
— Emma’s comments about each of the “hot” posters from Andy’s room are pretty funny.
— Some decent in-show segments that Nasim and Emma’s characters do throughout this.
STARS: ***


“SEX” ED VINCENT’S SEX SYMPOSIUM
Ed Vincent’s (PAB) amateur lecture seminar opens minds

— Wow, the THIRD consecutive segment tonight starring a featured player. And it’s Paul’s SECOND lead role tonight.
— Right out of the gate, this already seems like a very promising character from Paul, and I love the format of this piece.
— Excellent performance and characterization from Paul. You can tell this is a character he had been doing before SNL.
— The “side of the penis/top of the penis” bit is particularly funny.
— I’m enjoying the “Tim & Eric”-esque vibe of this short.
— Great piece overall.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pyro”


GOOGIE RENE’S PARTIALLY DAMAGED HALLOWEEN COSTUME DISCOUNT BASEMENT
Googie Rene’s Halloween costumes are cheap but marred

— Another instance tonight of SNL randomly bringing back a one-off sketch from two or more years prior.
— Paul continues to get lots of airtime tonight.
— A cheap laugh from the “Stank Basket” that’s displayed.
— Kenan’s offbeat portrayal of this Googie Rene character continues to amuse me, but I can definitely see why it would annoy some people.
— Good portion of this sketch with the examples of things you can hide the stain on your costume with.
— Abby’s extremely brief, non-speaking walk-on might as well have been played by an extra.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A rough and worrisome start with the first four segments of this episode, but things got better as the show went along, especially when they started letting the featured players take over the show in the first few post-Weekend Update segments, which backs up my viewpoint that this season’s four new hires are breathing some much-needed new life into the show.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Les Jeunes De Paris
“Sex” Ed Vincent’s Sex Symposium
WXPD Channel 9 News
Wrangler Open Fly Jeans
I Broke My Arm
My Brother Knows Everything
Weekend Update
Monologue
Baby Spanx
The View
Dream Home Extreme
Reid Rally


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jane Lynch)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Hamm hosts for his third and, as of 2020, final time

Posted on

October 9, 2010 – Jane Lynch / Bruno Mars (S36 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ASK GLORIA ALLRED
attention-hungry Gloria Allred (NAP) addresses own awfulness

— Interesting and very rare to see Nasim starring in a solo person-delivering-a-straight-to-camera-message cold opening. Also refreshing and surprising that SNL didn’t give this Gloria Allred lead role to Kristen by default, and instead gave it to a less-popular featured player.
— There’s something quite Cheri Oteri-esque in Nasim’s portrayal of Gloria Allred, especially that cheesy big smile she keeps quickly flashing at the camera after each of her answers.
— The premise of Nasim’s Allred kindly answering rude rhetorical questions asked to her is VERY reminiscent of that great The Referee Pitman Show sketch with John Goodman in season 15.
— Nasim’s solid execution of this material is helping me somewhat look past the aforementioned similarities to the far-superior Referee Pitman sketch.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
the theme song host wrote for Glee puts the focus on Sue Sylvester

— Right out of the gate, Jane Lynch is (unsurprisingly) coming off as such a natural in this monologue.
— (*sigh*) TWO song-and-dance monologues in a row?!? However, at least it makes sense to do one with Jane Lynch. Not that that automatically makes this monologue okay to me, though.
— Other than some funny occasional asides from Jane, I’m not finding myself laughing here. However, Jane’s enthusiasm, energy, and performance style is making this song a little more tolerable to me than other song-and-dance monologues from around this time.
STARS: **½


DAMN IT, MY MOM IS ON FACEBOOK FILTER
filter sanitizes perilous status updates

— A fairly solid and relatable premise.
— Bill’s spokesperson role in this commercial alone is bigger than ANY of the roles he got in the entirety of the preceding episode. (I still can’t believe how extremely underused he and Jason were in that episode, with them both almost being treated as glorified extras.)
— Some good laughs from all the innocent things the Facebook filter changes Andy’s crude photos and writing into.
STARS: ***½


GLEE / GILLY
Sue Sylvester (host) enjoys havoc Gilly wreaks on singing students

— Not sure how I’ll react to this Glee parody, given the fact that I’ve never watched that show. Then again, my lack of familiarity with High School Musical and Twilight didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the fun spoofs SNL did of them in the preceding two seasons’ Zac Efron and Taylor Swift episodes, respectively.
— Much like Bill in the preceding Facebook commercial, Jason’s role in this sketch alone is far bigger than anything he got to do in the preceding episode.
— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— Vanessa’s delivery of “You guys know I had a baby, right?” made me laugh.
— Out of nowhere, this turns into a Gilly sketch. The audience can actually be heard gasping in shock when Gilly shows up here.
— As I said in my review of the last Gilly sketch prior to this, in the preceding season’s Drew Barrymore episode, I’ve surprisingly started to somewhat come around on the dreaded Gilly. That’s been happening to me with a few Kristen Wiig characters and impressions in general that I used to pretty much hate (e.g. Kathie Lee Gifford, Target Lady). Like I joked at one point recently, I almost wonder if this is some form of Stockholm Syndrome.
— It doesn’t feel right seeing Jason doing Will Forte’s “Gillyyyyyyyy” shtick.
— Yeah, just as I was afraid of, a lot of this sketch’s spoofs of specific Glee things aren’t working for me. And sadly, my newfound mild tolerance of Gilly isn’t working for this sketch, either.
— This ends up being the last sketch we see Gilly in until a year-and-a-half later, near the homestretch of Kristen’s SNL tenure, when the character is brought out of her hiatus to get a proper (albeit unofficial) farewell sketch in a Sofia Vergara-hosted episode.
STARS: *½


THE NEW BOYFRIEND TALK SHOW
(ANS) interviews mom’s (host) conquest (JAS)

— A funny entrance from a just-got-out-of-bed Jason as both Jane’s new boyfriend and Andy’s interviewee.
— A good laugh from the unexpected “Are you my new daddy?” question Andy asks Jason, which gets a great understated taken-aback reaction from Jason.
— Fantastic reveal that this is the 100th episode of this New Boyfriend talk show, which gets another great taken-aback reaction from Jason.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier with all the priceless shocking reveals that are happening in succession throughout this sketch.
— Jason’s horrified reaction to finding out Jane once had sex with Magic Johnson is hilarious.
— Excellent sketch overall. A forgotten (with me, at least) gem.
STARS: *****


THE COVEN TO ELECT CHRISTINE O’DONNELL
Christine O’Donnell (KRW) unconvincingly insists “I am not a witch”

— An okay conceit, helped by Kristen’s solid delivery during her-as-Christine-O’Donnell’s calm-but-suspicious denials of being a witch.
STARS: ***


SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & comedienne (host) flout game show’s rules

— (*groan*)
— At least Jane’s a lot of fun as the Phyllis Diller-esque comedian character she’s playing.
— Good frustrated delivery from Bill of the line “And I am not full of bananas.”
STARS: **


RELAXATION THERAPY
(ANS)’s therapist (host) alternately calms & upsets

— Some increasingly funny odd non-sequitur visuals in the fantasy that Jane makes Andy visualize.
— I like the annoyed look on Andy’s face when he realizes Jane’s ordering lunch in the middle of this therapy session.
— A pretty good laugh from the very out-of-nowhere ending shot of a nude Jane lying next to Andy on the couch.
STARS: ***½


RETURNS & EXCHANGES
researching a role, Denzel Washington (JAP) mans the Macy’s returns desk

— A freakin’ fantastic Denzel Washington impression from Jay, in one of Jay’s earliest celebrity impression showcases on SNL.
— Jay-as-Denzel’s very tense interrogation of Jane over a simple bag return is a lot of fun.
— The ending to this otherwise-solid sketch came off VERY awkwardly executed.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just The Way You Are”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mark Zuckerberg (ANS) assesses the accuracy of The Social Network

Mexico tourism rep (FRA) doesn’t comprehend questions about drug cartels

— Hoooooo, boy. Seth’s joke about President Obama’s presidential seal accidentally falling off of his podium “two years early” is IMMEDIATELY followed by an innocent joke about rumors of Donald Trump considering running for president in the future.
— Andy’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg is okay, but I prefer the Mark Zuckerberg portrayal that current cast member Alex Moffat would later do.
— Kelly “Ripka”? No wonder Seth’s Kelly Ripa punchline bombed with the audience, after that slip of the tongue from him.
— Meh at this Fred commentary. It’s doing nothing for me.
STARS: ***


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
Suze Orman’s (KRW) ex-roommate (host) is in denial about her lesbianism

— Lots of Kristen Wiig showcases tonight, or maybe it just feels like a lot compared to how Kristen surprisingly appeared in only one sketch in the preceding episode.
— This ends up being the final Suze Orman Show sketch. I feel like they’re only doing this sketch tonight because of Jane’s real-life sexual orientation.
— Funny Halloween advice from Kristen’s Orman early in the sketch.
— Hmm, a different conceit to this Suze Orman Show installment, with this focusing far more on the repressed lesbianism of Jane’s character rather than the financial advice that Kristen’s Orman usually gives her guests.
— I’m (pleasantly) surprised Fred wasn’t the one who got cast in the walk-on role of Jane’s obviously-gay flamboyant husband.
STARS: **½


SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
Faith Hill’s (host) Sunday Night Football theme extends past the kickoff

— I don’t know what Bill’s going for in his Cris Collinsworth impression, as the real Collinsworth doesn’t sound a thing like that. That being said, the dopey voice Bill’s using is amusing me.
— A fairly cliched SNL premise of a theme song going on forever, done to better effect in some other sketches (mainly Will Forte’s legendary Duluth Live sketch).
— I find it hard to buy Jane as Faith Hill, but this is another pretty fun performance from her tonight.
— I got a laugh from Bill’s Collinsworth saying, point-blank, “That was a nacho recipe”, in reaction to a verse from Jane-as-Hill’s theme song.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Grenade”


TAX MASTERS
Patrick Cox (JAS) & vestigial conjoined twin (FRA) shoot Tax Masters spot

— Nice to see Jason being given so many big roles tonight, after the aforementioned extreme under-utilization of him in the preceding episode.
— Very funny reveal of the hidden-from-the-camera side of Jason’s face having a half-formed twin brother. I can see how the writers came up with this idea, given the fact that the real-life guy who Jason’s playing here does stand in an odd profile that suspiciously hides the left side of his face in the real Tax Masters ads this sketch is spoofing.
— You can tell the show is running long, because Jason now seems to be absolutely rushing through his lines.
— The ending with a close-up of Fred delivering a message to us as Jason’s half-formed twin brother didn’t work, mostly because it came off sloppy and kinda botched, presumably due to how rushed this sketch was. Reruns of this episode use the dress rehearsal version of this sketch’s ending, which is performed a lot more smoothly.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— I like how Jason, still in costume from the preceding sketch, is standing with his twin-on-the-side-of-his-face prosthetic facing the camera (as seen to Jane’s left in the above screencaps for these goodnights).

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly mixed episode, though there was a little more good than bad, and even most of the bad stuff had some merits. As expected, Jane Lynch was a pretty solid host, and was utilized pretty well. In fact, it sure felt like the writers played more to her comedic strengths than they did to Bryan Cranston in the preceding episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The New Boyfriend Talk Show
Returns & Exchanges
Tax Masters
Damn It, My Mom Is On Facebook Filter
Relaxation Therapy
Ask Gloria Allred
The Coven To Elect Christine O’Donnell
Weekend Update
Sunday Night Football
Monologue
The Suze Orman Show
Secret Word
Glee / Gilly


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bryan Cranston)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Emma Stone makes her hosting debut

Posted on

October 2, 2010 – Bryan Cranston / Kanye West (S36 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Rahm Emanuel (ANS) & new chief of staff Pete Rouse (BOM) are antithetical

— I always love Andy’s portrayal of Rahm Emanuel. A bit of a shame this is one of the last times we’re going to see it (he makes one more appearance in the cold opening of this season’s Jeff Bridges episode).
— Good turn with Andy’s Emanuel giving Bobby’s Pete Rouse frightening, overly-intense advice.
— Bobby’s nervousness and whininess as Rouse is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host hopes to up his name recognition with “Charlie Kane” variant

— Funny underwear photos of Bryan Cranston throughout his career.
— Geez, they’re wasting Bryan on a freakin’ song-and-dance monologue? And a very generic one at that? (*sigh*)
— Nothing particularly noteworthy about the song, except a laugh from the big photo of “Bryan Cranston” (really Bill Paxton) that Nasim is briefly seen carrying into the shot.
STARS: **


PEPTO-BISMOL ICE
Pepto-Bismol Ice brings diarrhea relief during a night of clubbing

— A decent and strangely-kinda-cool premise of a version of Pepto-Bismol that’s marketed as a malt liquor for clubbing.
— Pretty funny interaction between Andy and Nasim.
STARS: ***


THE MILEY CYRUS SHOW
Miley Cyrus (VAB) doesn’t let Johnny Depp (PAB) say much

— Wow, it shows a lot of confidence on SNL’s part to place such a big Vanessa Bayer showcase in the lead-off spot of this episode, when Vanessa’s only in her second episode as a featured player.
— Vanessa’s take on Miley Cyrus is very solid. This is an important moment for her, as it ends up being her breakout role.
— Odd to see in retrospect that the first installment of this soon-to-be-recurring-sketch has Bryan playing Billy Ray Cyrus, given the fact that Jason would take over the role in all subsequent installments.
— I love that tonight’s lead-off sketch is now heavily featuring TWO newbies, as Paul (in his first noteworthy SNL role) has now shown up as Vanessa-as-Miley’s interviewee, Johnny Depp.
— Turns out Paul’s performance as Depp is nothing to write home about. He’s doing a pretty generic take on Depp, and it’s not showing off Paul’s comedic skills.
— Given how new Vanessa is, it’s charming seeing her soaking in the extended audience laughter she gets after she says “Yeah, me, too” in response to Paul’s Depp saying he’s taken on darker roles.
STARS: ***½


WHAT UP WITH THAT? BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION
Morgan Freeman & Ernest Borgnine [real] sit & watch

— Vanessa has taken over Jenny Slate’s role as one of the backup singers of this recurring sketch, and Taran has taken over Will Forte’s role as the announcer.
— Great guests in tonight’s What Up With That: Morgan Freeman and Ernest Borgnine!
— I love the anxious, stifled-mouth look on Kenan’s face during Morgan Freeman’s serious spiel about school (the sixth above screencap for this sketch).
— Absolutely hilarious visual of Bryan as a George Clinton-esque singer. Also, the detail of him in briefs is a good callback to the monologue.
— The “back to school” theme of tonight’s What Up With That is adding a nice bit of a change of pace to this recurring sketch’s formula.
— I like the creepy-eyed look on Paul’s face during the Mary Kay Letourneau / Vili Fualaau bit.
— The big open-mouthed smile on Ernest Borgnine’s face throughout this sketch is so fun and charming.
STARS: ****½


BASKETBALL GAME
on a basketball court, Shana simultaneously attracts & repels co-workers

— For the second time tonight, Taran has taken over a recurring Will Forte role.
— On a similar note, Abby has taken over the “ignored girl” role that Casey Wilson and Jenny Slate played in the previous two installments of this recurring sketch. Unlike Casey and Jenny, Abby doesn’t end up suffering the “curse”, in which each cast member who plays the “ignored girl” role in this recurring Shana sketch gets fired before getting to appear in a second Shana sketch.
— Bryan’s disturbing turned-on facial reactions to Shana’s actions are pretty funny. He’s making something out of a fairly nothing role.
— As usual, standard Shana stuff, but it still works for me. What doesn’t work for me in these sketches, however, is the repetitiveness of Andy, Kenan, and Will/Taran’s reactions to Shana.
— Hmm, this installment is going a little too heavy on the burp/fart humor.
— This sketch surprisingly ends up being Kristen’s ONLY appearance all night, believe it or not.
STARS: **½


RESCUE DOGS 911 APP
emergency response promotes movie & thwarts robbery; Helen Mirren cameo

— An extremely random brief cameo from Helen Mirren (who will be hosting later this season) in the Rescue Dogs promo shown on Andy’s phone.
— For the names shown in Andy’s address book, SNL uses the first and/or last names of SNL writers and other staffers from around this time, strangely even including two writers who got fired (or left on their own, I’m not sure) after the preceding season: Hannibal Burress and Jillian Bell.
— A laugh from Kenan’s “Let’s shoot this motherf(*bleep*)” and subsequent gunshot when Bobby has shown up as the pizza delivery guy.
— Good visual of the rescue dog chewing off Fred’s arm.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Power”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anthony Crispino is misinformed about Ground Zero mosque & LeBron James

as her comic strip run comes to an end, Cathy (ANS) plans for retirement

— Bobby’s second-hand news guy, Anthony Crispino, has officially become recurring.
— Like last time, some amusing false into relayed by Bobby’s Crispino, though his false info tonight feels a little less funny than the ones from his first appearance.
— Seth sure loves breaking out that German accent whenever he does an Update joke about Germany. I love his delivery during the World War I Reparations joke tonight.
— This is the first time Andy’s Cathy has appeared in over a year, and, I believe, the last time we’d end up seeing her.
— Hilarious how the sentimental Cathy goodbye montage consists of just two brief clips.
STARS: ***


KID SMARTZ
(KET) is lone contestant to rebuff emcee’s (host) kisses

— Bryan is a natural as a cheesy game show host.
— I see SNL’s doing a spoof of a real-life viral video of an early 1980s children’s game show host creepily taking delight in kissing his prepubescent female contestants on the cheek.
— Aaaaaaaand cue the obligatory “hilarious” man-on-man kissing between Bryan and Andy.
— This sketch now takes another horrible turn, with us not only getting a Kenan In A Dress sighting, but him portraying this particular female character in his tired “sassy black female” manner.
— Somehow, this sketch continues to get even worse as it goes along. What is the point of this mess?
— The Bryan/Andy portions of this sketch are some low-rent Vogelchecks-level shit.
— Overall, wow, that was just awful.
STARS: *


THE BJELLAND BROTHERS
zero-hit wonders (host) & (FRA) perform song about sparkling apple juice

— In both of Jason’s only appearances all night, including this sketch, he’s just playing a background role with no dialogue. Geez. Really, SNL? (Granted, one of those background roles of his was in What Up With That, where his background dancing always steals the show, but still, it’s fucking insane that a veteran as fantastic and reliable as Jason gets stuck in nothing but non-speaking background roles in an episode from his SEVENTH season.) Bill, who’s playing the guitarist in this sketch, has also gotten shockingly very little to do in tonight’s episode. All of this combined with Kristen only appearing in one sketch all night (albeit in a lead role) is quite jarring.
— This sketch is destroying my patience, between the annoyingly repetitive “I’ve sent a bottle of sparkling apple juice…etc.” singing, and the lame lines about how poorly the careers of Fred and Bryan’s characters have gone. Fred used to be so masterful at doing anti-comedy pieces back when he was in his prime earlier in his SNL tenure. This sketch’s seeming attempt at anti-comedy is just sad and frustrating.
— I could do without the audience participation bit.
— Lame ending line from Fred: “This is the only song we’re doing tonight.”
— Overall, the second consecutive sketch tonight that I absolutely hated. What’s happened to this episode all of a sudden?
— This sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. Two big differences I remember in that version: 1) the placement of the cast members playing Fred and Bryan’s band is different, with Jason’s drummer character now being very visible behind Fred and Bryan during the entire sketch, instead of being off to the side where we can only occasionally see him whenever the camera cuts to a wide shot of the stage. 2) Whenever Fred and Bryan ask the audience to sing some of the lyrics of the repetitive chorus, the audience humorously doesn’t respond at all (keeping up this sketch’s illusion that nobody’s in attendance at Fred and Bryan’s concert), unlike the live version, where the audience did respond, which hurt the joke (as bad as the joke was).
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Pusha T [real] perform “Runaway”


BASEMENT KARATE
fifth-grader Henry (NAP) suffers his dad’s (host) self-defense lessons

— A laugh from Bryan bluntly punching Nasim’s young boy character in the face when making him simulate an attack.
— Yet another solid characterization from Nasim as a child character. This character’s manner of describing the flaws in his own fighting performances throughout this sketch is amusing me.
STARS: ***½


i-SLEEP PRO
black noise generator allows (KET) to slumber peacefully

— A fairly cheap and stereotypical premise, but at the same time, it’s a pretty fun and unique way to utilize newbie Jay Pharoah’s talent for doing many voices, as he’s providing all of the various recorded “black noise” voices heard from the i-Sleep device.
— I particularly like the Friday bit, with Jay doing the voices of both Ice Cube and Chris Tucker’s characters from Friday. Odd, though, how Jay has done a Chris Tucker impression in the 10-to-1 segment in both of his first two episodes. This kinda reminds me of when Rachel Dratch, back when she was a new featured player, played Calista Flockhart/Ally McBeal in both of her first two episodes.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An okay episode, and, like a lot of other episodes from around this time, was not as bad as I had remembered. (As I mentioned in a recent review, I tore this episode apart in my original 2010 review of this episode, and, much like my original 2010 review of the Ryan Phillippe episode, it ended up receiving a lot of backlash from members of the now-defunct saturday-night-live.com message board, who felt I was being way too negative and “nerdy”.) That being said, that horrific one-two punch of Kid Smartz and The Bjelland Brothers airing back-to-back damn near destroyed me. Bryan Cranston sadly wasn’t used to his full potential in this episode, and was given a few too many poor roles, but he still managed to make the most of it.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
What Up With That? Back To School Edition
The Miley Cyrus Show
Basement Karate
Press Conference
Rescue Dogs 911 App
Weekend Update
Pepto-Bismol Ice
I-Sleep Pro
Basketball Game
Monologue
The Bjelland Brothers
Kid Smartz


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Poehler)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jane Lynch

Posted on

September 25, 2010 – Amy Poehler / Katy Perry (S36 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

RNC HEADQUARTERS
additional closet skeletons imperil Christine O’Donnell’s (KRW) candidacy

— New cast member Vanessa Bayer gets the fairly rare honor of not only appearing in the cold opening of her first episode before she’s even been intro’ed in the opening montage, but she delivers the first big line of the beginning of this cold opening.
— As apparently yet another sign of how popular Kristen is, the audience actually applauds her entrance here.
— The explicit masturbation talk is providing some pretty good laughs.
— Good portrayal of Christine O’Donnell by Kristen.
— A funny “3½ minutes later” title screen being shown onscreen while Kristen’s O’Donnell has left the room to masturbate.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— The preceding season montage’s and bumpers’ commemoration of SNL’s 35th anniversary has been removed this season.
— Starting with this episode, and lasting for the remainder of his tenure as SNL’s announcer, Don Pardo no longer does his announcements live, and instead tapes it from his hometown, I believe. Something about his taped voice sounds a little oddly mixed with the theme music in tonight’s opening montage.
— Abby Elliott and Bobby Moynihan have been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam, and Jay Pharoah have all been added to the cast tonight.

— For some inexplicable reason, during the featured players portion of this montage, Nasim Pedrad is credited before Taran Killam, despite the fact that Nasim’s last name alphabetically comes after Taran’s last name. This would later be corrected in all subsequent episodes this season, and, I believe, in reruns of this episode. I guess you can say this episode is the first time in which a category of cast members weren’t listed alphabetically since all the way back in the very first episode.


MONOLOGUE
Justin Timberlake [real], RAD, JIF, TIF inhabit AMP’s preshow stress dream

— Another SNL monologue with a Betty White mention, as Amy Poehler jokingly says that, much like Betty White, she’s 88½ years old.
— Blah at Amy’s reveal that the beautiful boys she’s “had” are Nick Jonas and Taylor Lautner.
— A nice-albeit-jokingly-brief introduction to tonight’s four new cast members.
— During the Twilight Zone-esque montage at the beginning of the dream sequence, they strangely include a photo of Amy’s character from that largely-forgotten Big Wigs sketch from the season 32 Jaime Pressly episode (the third above screencap for this sketch).
— I love the bit with Nasim playing Amy’s Kaitlin’s character.
— Random Justin Timberlake cameo, much to the chagrin of a certain number of SNL fans, I’m sure.
— A great “Poehler Bear/polar bear” bit during Rachel Dratch’s appearance.
— It feels kinda odd seeing all of these appearances from early 2000s female cast members (including tonight’s host, Amy), given the fact that they all had then-recently cameoed in the Betty White episode towards the end of the preceding season.
— A good excuse for Seth to make a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Reportedly, Jimmy Fallon wasn’t in the dress rehearsal version of this monologue. Kinda hard for me to imagine this scene with just Tina Fey bullying Amy, instead of both Tina AND Jimmy bullying Amy.
— Despite this monologue being an absolute cameo-fest, I’m enjoying this, and am finding the whole dream sequence conceit to be fun. Plus, at least all of these cameos are from SNL-related people.
— Hilarious seeing Kenan randomly playing Lorne, a gag that would probably come off less random if it appeared in a more recent episode in the modern-day SNL era.
STARS: ****


BRONX BEAT WITH BETTY AND JODI
busty teen (musical guest) distracts kids at her library gig

— In addition to all the SNL-related cameos in the monologue, particularly from early 2000s female cast members, we now get another one here, with Maya Rudolph.
— The usual funny comments and gripes from Amy and Maya’s Betty and Jodi characters.
— Katy Perry’s cleavage-revealing Elmo shirt is a good subtle(?) reference to her Sesame Street controversy from earlier that week, and it’s taking this recurring sketch into an interesting new direction.
— A lot of great lines from Amy and Maya in reaction to Katy’s physical appearance.
STARS: ****


BOSLEY HAIR RESTORATION
Bosley Hair Restoration fills scalps with transplanted pubic hair

— A cheap laugh from the visual of a scientist extracting pubic hair from a patient.
— Meh, the visuals of various clients with pubic hair transplants on their heads aren’t doing much for me.
— I did get a chuckle from Kristen’s line about still having plenty pubic hair left down there.
— Funny ending visual of Nasim lovingly burying her face into the pubic hair on top of Fred’s head.
STARS: **


MATERNITY MATTERS
Rodger Brush offers chauvinism to expectant mothers

— Oh, no. Not this again.
— As usual, the routine of Fred’s Rodger Brush repeatedly asking his guests to speak up is absolute MISERY.
— “Terry Facials”?
— I did get a laugh from Rodger Brush advising Amy to just get a flowery dress, put on makeup, and tell her husband “I’m sorry, honey, this is whatcha get.”
— Surprisingly, I got another chuckle from a Rodger Brush line just now, when he responds to Andy’s sex-during-pregnancy question by telling him that’s not the first thing Andy’s going to want his baby to see.
STARS: **


MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO
The Mosque At Ground Zero further affronts with gay weddings & more

— I’m noticing in all her appearances tonight that Vanessa Bayer looks a little different and so young-faced in this debut episode of hers compared to how I remember her looking throughout her SNL tenure.
— I’m iffy about this “gay weddings at the Ground Zero Mosque” premise, as it seems like an excuse for this SNL era to rely on even more lazy gay humor as a crutch, right after a season that already relied a little too heavily on that crutch, but Bill’s performance as the spokesperson is so damn fun that he’s making me enjoy this. Furthering my enjoyment are all the various photos of the cast members.
— An interesting RNC twist ending.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “California Gurls”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy

Will Smith (JAP) exults in the success of his family members

911 call documents (SEM) being attacked by a parrot (AMP)

David Paterson [real] dislikes David Paterson (FRA) goofing on blindness

— Oof, Seth stumbles over his opening joke, causing it to get a tepid audience reaction.
— I see SNL ain’t wasting no time bringing the “Really?!?” segment back, as they break it out only two or three jokes into tonight’s Update. Maybe this is a good thing, given how Seth was kinda struggling with some of his first few jokes.
— Some pretty good comments from Seth and Amy during tonight’s “Really?!?”. I especially like Seth’s comment towards Lady Gaga that “it’s very hard to be the girl in the meat suit on Sunday and the voice of reason on Tuesday.”
— After the “Really?!?” segment ends, Amy casually sticks around by being an unofficial guest co-anchor and doing Update jokes.
— I notice that Seth’s spirits and the quality of tonight’s Update in general both seem to have risen ever since Amy showed up.
— Nice to see Jay Pharoah get a showcase for his celebrity impression skills right in his first episode.
— Even if he’s relying on A LOT of repetitive vocal tics, Jay’s doing the most spot-on Will Smith vocal impression I’ve ever heard. I think I recall Jay later disclosing in an interview that he was told Justin Timberlake, while watching Jay’s Will Smith commentary on a TV monitor in his dressing room, was so impressed by Jay’s Smith impression that he ran out of his dressing room and went around excitedly talking to others backstage about it.
— A pretty fun return of Seth and Amy’s 911 phone call routine from back in the day, where they do the voice of a dispatcher, a caller, and a parrot.
— Fred-as-David-Paterson’s insults are weaker than usual so far tonight.
— Now to hurt my enthusiasm for this Paterson commentary even more, the real David Paterson shows up, turning this into a corny traditional “sneaker-upper” bit, where a celebrity confronts their impersonator.
— The real Paterson gets in a Giuliani-esque lighthearted jab at SNL: “Working in Albany is just like watching Saturday Night Live: there are a lot of characters, it’s funny for 10 minutes, and then you just want it to be over.”
— The real Paterson is at least coming off affable and laid-back here, and seems to be a good sport.
— Much like when she was delivering a sentimental goodbye message to us at the end of the Weekend Update from her final episode as a cast member, Amy’s serious speech about Jeff Zucker stepping down from NBC gets interrupted by both Fred’s Paterson and the real Paterson popping up in front of the camera.
STARS: ***


THE LEAN YEARS
AMP stars as one-legged Amber in a new Showtime program

— Kristen’s bit as Mary-Louise Parker’s Weeds character absolutely BOMBED.
— The return of Amy’s one-legged Amber character.
— I kinda like the format of this sketch, with the typical Amber scenes being interspersed with Showtime interview footage of Amy as herself explaining the Lean Years show that Amy’s Amber character is starring in.
— Meh, the Amber scenes are getting less and less funny as this sketch goes on. The only real comedy seems to be coming from the interview clips of Amy, and even those are only mildly funny.
STARS: **


BOOGERMAN
Boogerman (Peter Sarsgaard) movie song is up for award

— A very interesting and unusual way of presenting this concept.
— Funny visuals of the ridiculous Boogerman musical being performed by Andy and others.
— Pretty fun use of the cast and Amy in individual Boogerman movie clips.
— A very random Peter Sarsgaard cameo as Boogerman in the final movie clip.
— Funny abrupt ending to the awards scene with Bill.
STARS: ***½


LADIES WHO LUNCH
tiny hats allow fashionable Trish (AMP) to one-up jealous Sylvia (KRW)

— I recall there being accusations of plagiarism towards this sketch, but I can’t remember the specifics at all, nor if the accusations turned out to be accurate.
— Even in just a supporting role in her first episode, Vanessa’s already coming off as a total natural and a comforting presence.
— A fairly amusing escalation to the tiny hats gag, with Kristen’s hat now being only visible through a microscope.
— I like the further escalation, with a now microscopic Amy AND Bill appearing on Kristen’s head.
— A laugh from Bill’s “It should’ve been you!” line towards Kristen when he’s mourning Amy’s death.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Teenage Dream”


ACTOR II ACTOR
ANS’s music question upsets Justin Timberlake [real]

— Strangely, that’s Maya Rudolph’s voice as the opening announcer.
— An amusing dead-serious demeanor from Andy and Justin at the beginning of the interview.
— Hilarious twist with a serious Andy suddenly asking Justin in a ditzy voice, “When are you gonna make more music???”, which pisses Justin off and leads to him walking off the show, immediately concluding this sketch. Short and sweet.
STARS: ****


THE UNWATCHABLES
sequels to The Expendables feature actors who are available & unwatchable

— This is the type of impression parade that I find fairly fun and worth a few laughs.
— Two spot-on celebrity impressions from Jay in his debut episode.
— I got a very cheap big laugh from the whole Brigitte Nielsen scene with Andy.
— Very funny ending to Kenan’s Tracy Chapman scene, with his Chapman stopping mid-song to admit “I should not be in this movie.”
— A very minor detail, but I like some of the individual greenscreen backgrounds used for the celebrity scenes, especially the one used for the aforementioned Brigitte Nielsen scene.
— The very topical Steven Slater bit with Taran Killam has probably aged poorly among general audiences, because, other than me, I doubt many people today, 10 years after this episode, have any idea who Steven Slater is. Taran at least gets a very good audience reaction for what’s his first noteworthy comedic role on SNL.
— Speaking of Taran, every single role he’s gotten in tonight’s episode (not counting him appearing as himself with the other newbies in the monologue) has been as a gay guy: 1) a photo of him and Paul Brittain as a gay soldier couple in the Mosque At Ground Zero commercial, 2) a lispy effeminate guy in a blink-and-miss-it appearance in one of the Boogerman movie clips, 3) and now Steven Slater. Wow. Quite an odd feat for a cast member in their first episode. I wonder if this holds the record for most gay roles played by a cast member in a single episode. I’m sure that not even Fred or Chris Kattan have equaled that.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good season premiere, and I liked most of the segments. Amy Poehler blended back into the cast pretty well, which gave some portions of this episode a refreshing host-less feel.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bronx Beat with Betty and Jodi
Actor II Actor
Monologue
Boogerman
RNC Headquarters
The Unwatchables
Mosque At Ground Zero
Weekend Update
Ladies Who Lunch
Bosley Hair Restoration
Maternity Matters
The Lean Years


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2009-10)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bryan Cranston

Posted on

May 15, 2010 – Alec Baldwin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S35 E22)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OIL SPILL PRESS CONFERENCE
Tony Hayward (BIH) lists absurd ideas to stop Deepwater Horizon oil spill

— I love Jason’s little “We’re baaaaaack” early on.
— I’m really enjoying the accent Bill’s using.
— Some decent laughs from the absurd ideas of how to stop the oil spill, such as “Dolphins With Mops”.
— Bill’s delivery of the line “we will get back to do what we do best: robbing you blind at the gas pump” made me laugh, and deserved a better audience reaction.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host shunts Steve Martin-on-tape [real] & gives SNL commencement address

— Our obligatory Betty White mention, with Alec Baldwin mentioning in a jokingly bragging manner that he’s hosted 14 times more than Betty.
— Alec mentions he’s now tied Steve Martin in number of SNL hosting stints, and we get a welcome callback to the famous SNL “rivalry” between Alec and Steve.
— Second monologue in these past five episodes to have a Steve Martin cameo.
— Another Betty White reference, with Steve humorously thanking Facebook Mexico for campaigning for him to appear in this monologue.
— I like Steve re-activating the TV monitor he was on that Alec had just turned off.
— Interesting premise of an “SNL commencement address”, which is very fitting for a season finale.
— Meh, Alec’s commencement speech is kinda losing me.
— Okay, I did like the Charlie Sheen twist just now at the end of the commencement speech.
— When telling us Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are here, Alec doesn’t follow it with the usual “Stick around, we’ll be right back” final words. The monologue instead just ends without him saying it.
STARS: **½


GREAT DAY
coked-up (ANS) blithely wrecks his life; Tom Petty cameo

— Already some big laughs right from the start of the song performed by a coked-up Andy.
— A great “HEY, GET THE (*BLEEP*) OFF ME!!!” outburst from Andy when one of the backup dancers innocently taps him on the shoulder.
— This already-funny song has now gotten even more hilarious when the tempo has gotten much faster in an insane way.
— Good way to include both the host and musical guest.
— A priceless shot of Andy suddenly saying “OR WAS IT?!?” into the camera with a cartoonishly demonic face and voice.
STARS: ****½


ARIZONA EVENINGS
incompetent bucktoothed script supervisor Starfish (KRW) ruins soap opera

— Meh at the reveal of this new wacky Starfish character (who thankfully never goes on to become a recurring character). From the traits we’re seeing of Starfish so far, she seems way too typical of Kristen’s general characters.
— An AWFUL main joke with Starfish repeatedly interrupting the filming by walking into the shot or blocking the camera with various things.
— Was that “ending” even an ending?
— Overall, I found this sketch to be completely laughless. Even typically weak Wacky Wiig Showcase sketches like the Don’t Make Me Sing sketch from earlier this season had some merits, unlike this Starfish sketch.
STARS: *


SWIM TEAM AWARDS
coach (host) disses his swimmers at a high school sports awards banquet

 

— (*sigh*) Will Forte’s final appearance as a cast member. And it’s only a very brief, non-comedic role at the beginning of this sketch, which is also his ONLY appearance all night. Geez. I’m aware that it wasn’t known by SNL at the time that this would end up being Will’s final episode (I believe, a week or so later, Will would say in an interview for the movie MacGruber that he’s planning on returning to SNL for another season), but still, this is an extremely disappointing way for such a strong and reliable 8-year veteran to spend his final episode.
— Some funny insults from Alec towards each swim team member he presents an award to.
— Very typical that Fred would be cast as the character of this sketch who’s accused of being gay.
— I love the little exchange between Alec and Jason.
— Another good exchange, this time between Alec and Kenan.
— A fairly interesting way to get the entire cast to appear in a sketch, one-by-one, even if most of them aren’t being truly utilized here, as most of them are given nothing noteworthy to do. I always like when a season finale has a sketch that uses the entire cast, though I prefer said sketch to air at the end of the show.
STARS: ***


BIRTHDAY COOKOUT
at her 14th birthday party, non-juvenile Bedelia worships her dad (host)

— Good to see the return of this solid slice-of-life character of Nasim’s. Also nice to see this sketch appearing in a much earlier spot than it did in its first installment earlier this season.
— At the beginning of this sketch, Alec accidentally calls Nasim’s Bedelia character “Belinda”.
— Between the first installment of this sketch and tonight’s installment, it’s interesting how Bedelia’s parents are played by the two leads of the show 30 Rock (Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin).
— Bedelia to her father: “Heard mom doesn’t want anymore kids. You gettin’ snipped?”
— A funny inappropriate and unsettling compliment from Bedelia about how her dad’s new fit shape has probably carried over into the bedroom.
— This sketch ends in basically the same way the first installment of this sketch did, with Bedelia meeting her male counterpart, but I like this installment’s ending better, as it doesn’t have Bedelia’s male counterpart being played by Justin Freakin’ Bieber, who’s overexposed presence in that episode soured the ending of that night’s Bedelia sketch for me.
STARS: ****


PRENIVA
Sally Field (ABE) recommends Preniva after fomenting bone loss fears

— A very solid Sally Field impression from Abby, and it’s good to see Abby front-and-center in a rare showcase.
— Abby’s Sally Field, after disclosing some harrowing facts about bone loss: “Are ya bummed yet?”
— I like Abby-as-Field’s ending line, “I’m not f(*bleep*)ing around, you guys”, delivered in a suddenly stern manner.
STARS: ***


GRADY WILSON’S INTIMATE & INTERNATIONAL
Greek (host) & Grady Wilson partner for sex DVD

— I feel like I’m finding Grady Wilson’s sex moves less and less funny with each passing installment of this sketch.
— At least Alec’s humorous Greek accent is providing some chuckles to the otherwise fairly stale feel of these sex move demonstrations. His delivery of “I poke you” during the Facebook scene is especially funny to me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Should Have Known It”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Snooki (BOM) is ready for Jersey Shore’s summer excursion to Miami

Stefon isn’t able to think of mainstream attractions for NYC travelers

unrehearsed Garth & Kat preview their outdoor summer concert series

— Bobby’s always very fun as Snooki, managing to make both the tired man-in-drag trope and some of the hacky orange jokes work.
— I absolutely love Bobby-as-Snooki’s legitimately funny explanation for why her nickname is Prison Jumpsuit: “Because I’m bright orange, and once I’m on you, you really start to question the life decisions that led you to this point.”
— Showing what an instant hit Stefon’s first Update appearance was, SNL already brings him back just two episodes later, and he already gets HUGE cheers from the audience upon his entrance tonight. He’s broken out and has become a beloved character a lot faster than most Update characters.
— One of the bizarre club features Stefon mentions is a cat from a bodega. Knowing that John Mulaney writes these Stefon pieces, that bodega mention reminds me of a Bodega Bathroom sketch that I heard Mulaney would later star in and (I assume) write himself in one of his hosting stints, as part of a series of musical epics that traditionally appear in Mulaney-hosted episodes. (I can only go by what I’ve heard on online SNL boards, because, remember, I’ve been on a still-ongoing hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018, and thus, the only one of those musical epics from Mulaney-hosted episodes that I’ve seen is the first one: Diner Lobster.)
— My favorite bizarre club features mentioned by Stefon in tonight’s commentary are Germfs (German Smurfs) and D.J. Baby Bok Choy.
— Oh, are you kidding me? In an Update with Stefon, SNL instead chooses to have fucking GARTH AND KAT close this season of Update out?!? Get this mess off my screen.
STARS: ***


TIMECROWAVE
meals cooked in the Timecrowave can disrupt the space-time continuum

— After a very-straightforward-though-subtly-funny first minute-and-a-half of this sketch, this has started to get really amusing and fun with all the history-altered differences in Alec and Kristen’s respective physical appearance each time the camera cuts to an individual close-up of them.
— The second consecutive segment tonight with Bobby in drag. Amusingly, his fingers noticeably still have a faint tinge of orange left over from his Snooki makeup on Weekend Update.
— A hilarious background gag with Nazi flags now appearing on the houses seen through the background window.
— Alec has begun accidentally delivering his long spiel right now into the wrong camera.
— I love the creepy ending with the giant cat outside the window, and how the giant cat meows in an unsettling slow, deep voice.
STARS: ****


WHISTLE IF YOU CAN
in a 1952 movie, (host) humanizes a hooker (JES) before re-debasing her

— This ends up being Jenny’s final SNL appearance as a cast member before getting fired that summer, but at least this final appearance of hers is a co-starring role. Rather surprising in hindsight that she, a one-season featured player not known for doing all that much on the show, gets a big showcase in what ends up being her final episode while Will, an established veteran, got nothing but a bit role tonight (even though it wasn’t known at this time that neither Will nor Jenny would return the following season).
— After a season of some iffy performances and occasional gaffes, Jenny’s actually giving a very solid performance here. This fact is bittersweet in hindsight, as it makes you wonder what might’ve been if Jenny had been given a second season to continue the growth she’s showing as a performer in this sketch.
— A big laugh from the twist with Alec’s blunt “Gertrude….give me a handjob” request, after his tender and heartwarming treatment of her.
STARS: ***½


SNIPERS
snipers (JAS) & (KET) don’t know if (host) wants them to take the shot

— Jason playing another character from his real-life hometown of Kansas City, I see.
— Alec’s performance is pretty fun here so far.
— The conceit of this sketch just doesn’t work, especially when you can very easily tell what supposedly-unintelligible thing Alec is yelling (“Taayy the shaaahhh” = “Take the shot”).
— What the hell just happened? Alec seemed to mistakenly jump ahead of the script before realizing his mistake: he got on top of Jason’s body as if he was about to begin to do something, but then he laughed out of character, immediately got off of Jason, and then rolled over to Kenan to do the part of the sketch that he was apparently supposed to do. Jason’s facial reaction to this blooper was kinda funny.
— Alec has now mistakenly started saying his “God, you must be addicted to doing squats” line to Jason too early, before he even got on top of Jason’s body (the latter of which explains why Alec mistakenly got on top of Jason’s body at the wrong time a little earlier in the sketch, as mentioned above). Some of this sloppiness in Alec’s performance isn’t helping the weak script of this sketch.
— All of Alec’s occasional homoerotic lines towards Jason and Kenan are just unnecessary, but that’s season 35 for you.
— A very lame twist with Alec revealing that his yells of “Taayy the shaaahhh” actually meant “Stand by”, because, as he explains, “I’m inconsistent”. Blah.
— This ends up being our final sketch of the season? Disappointing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jefferson Jericho Blues”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better season finale than I remember, which I guess is fitting, given the fact that this season as a whole was not as bad as I and certain others had remembered. (I’m aware that, in my recent review of this season’s Zach Galifianakis episode, I provided a link to an old 2010 review of mine that contained a huge rant about how supposedly “bad” this season was, as I wanted to give you readers an idea of how this season was perceived by me and certain others back when it originally aired, but here’s a different link to another long rant of mine about the “bad” quality of this season, in my end-of-season wrap-up from my original 2010 review of this Baldwin season finale [the rant can be seen in the last large group of paragraphs at the end of the review].) For the most part, Alec Baldwin was good tonight, but this certainly wasn’t one of his more memorable hosting stints, and he also seemed a little sloppier than usual, noticeably making some Gabourey Sidibe-esque flubs throughout the episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Great Day
Birthday Cookout
Timecrowave
Whistle If You Can
Swim Team Awards
Preniva
Oil Spill Press Conference
Weekend Update
Monologue
Grady Wilson’s Intimate & International
Snipers
Arizona Evenings


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Betty White)
a slight step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2008-09)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 36 begins, with host Amy Poehler, and four new additions to the cast

Posted on

May 8, 2010 – Betty White / Jay-Z (S35 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
(host)’s daughter Dooneese frightens (WLF)

— For once, I actually got a chuckle from something Fred’s Lawrence Welk said, when pointing out how odd it is that he can pronounce the “th” in “mother”, but not the “th” in “thank you”.
— Deservedly huge applause for the first appearance of tonight’s special host, Betty White.
— We also get nice applause for the special return of former female cast members Tina Fey, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Ana Gasteyer. Their presence tonight gives a fun novelty to the already-special feel of this Betty White-hosted episode.
— All that being said about Betty and the returning former female cast members, we unfortunately still have to see all of them get stuck playing second fiddle to a one-note Kristen Wiig character.
— Nothing to say about the Dooneese portions of this sketch. Same-old, same-old routine.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host thanks Facebook for the gig but prefers traditional youth activities

— Already such a charm to the opening spiel of an overwhelmed Betty.
— Funny line about how, unlike live TV shows in her day, SNL has no excuse to be live instead of taped.
— A much-deserved thanks Betty gives to Facebook for campaigning for her to host SNL.
— So many laughs from a lot of the things Betty’s saying here.
— I know a lot of SNL fans find Betty’s line about her needing a Ouija board to connect with old friends to be really groan-worthy, but it made me laugh, perhaps just due to my goodwill towards Betty and her comic timing.
— Betty wistfully mentioning the historic things she’s lived through in her long life, then gratefully saying she’s here because we wanted her here is actually making me feel emotional.
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber (host) insists on “thank you” & “please” and tells embarrassing stories

— Our final set of MacGruber shorts to ever air on SNL. These can also be considered the real last hurrah of Will Forte, given the fact that he sadly gets no noteworthy roles in his final episode the following week, as you’ll see when I review that episode.
— Good laughs from the embarrassing things about MacGruber’s childhood that his grandma is revealing.
— I love Will’s extremely angry outburst.
— A very standard ending compared to some of the more noteworthy endings of MacGruber shorts, but still a funny one.
STARS: ****


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry celebrate dietary fiber with (host)’s famous muffin

— Wow. Feels very special and refreshing to see this recurring sketch back after so many years.
— So nice to see that Molly and Ana have not lost their touch at all with these great characters.
— Ah, a variation of the legendary Schwetty Balls installment of this recurring sketch, I see.
— While none of the Schwetty Balls sequels or variations will ever measure up to the original, in my opinion, all of the “dusty muffins” puns in this sketch are hilarious and hold their own pretty well.
— Betty: “As I used to say to my loving husband, Irving, of 55 years: What are you waiting for, stupid? Eat it!”
— I love Betty’s very deadpan delivery of “Not a fan” upon hearing that the topic of the next episode will be pork buns.
STARS: ****


THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin vibe permeates a love quadrilateral

— Ugh. This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Maya is at least a natural for this sketch.
— A very funny and memorable visual of Betty sloppily attempting to do the traditional dance of this recurring sketch. Easily the funniest thing to ever happen in any installment of this sketch.
— I like the awkward look on Ana’s face when the music stops very short while she’s doing the traditional dance.
— Will’s parents, upon finding out he’s gay: “That explains why he doesn’t like tacos!” Ugh. Hacky joke alert.
STARS: **


MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber tells more embarrassing stories & plays dead

— Solid bit with playing MacGruber’s grandma playing dead and MacGruber calling her out on it.
STARS: ****


GINGEY
only (host) sees folly of feminizing Antebellum lesbian grandkid (AMP)

— An oddly Chucky-from-Child’s-Play look for Amy’s character.
— Amy’s cheesy old-timey way of playing this character is pretty funny, and is right in her wheelhouse.
— Very one-note lines from Betty, but as usual, her delivery is tickling me.
— I particularly like Betty disclosing the fact that she wouldn’t miss balls if she could go back in time and “lez it up”.
STARS: ***


MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber accepts her grandson’s marriage proposal

— MacGruber’s comedic throwaway line about going through a gay phase in his past felt unnecessary. Between these past few sketches and shorts tonight, tonight’s episode seems to be doubling down a little too much on lolgay jokes.
— An absolutely hilarious turn with MacGruber’s “It’s a shame you can’t marry your own grandma…or can you?” I especially like the cutaway to Kristen’s smile fading during that.
— Very funny ending with MacGruber and his grandma’s romantic kiss getting cut off by what ends up being our final end-of-MacGruber-short explosion. (*sigh*) These MacGruber shorts had such a great run, and I’ll miss them.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of his hits; Bridget Kelly cameo


WEEKEND UPDATE
Whitney Houston (MAR) fails to rebut bad reviews of her comeback tour

Sally O’Malley’s 90 year-old counterpart (host) likes to stand, bend, sit

incredulous SEM, AMP, TIF say “Really!?!” to anti-terror schemes & Greece

— Seth’s Iceland volcano joke suddenly gets interrupted by an appearance from Maya’s Whitney Houston impression. I got sooooo sick of this impression during my coverage of Maya’s later days on SNL, but I’ve at least gotten a long break from it since then.
— There goes Maya’s usual extended dance-mugging as Whitney. That and lots of the other ad-libs Maya’s making here is making this commentary go on awfully long.
— This Whitney commentary is whole bunch of nothingness. Maya’s frequently ad-libbed lines and dancing, which themselves aren’t doing anything for me, are the only thing standing out here, as the written material isn’t up to anything at all.
— Okay, at least the bit with Maya’s Whitney instantly being out-of-breath when trying to sing “How Will I Know” is something different, but it’s still doing nothing for me.
— Ah, a Sally O’Malley appearance. My opinion of her is the inverse of me going from tolerating Maya’s Whitney Houston shtick in its earliest appearances to eventually getting sick of it, in that I couldn’t stand Sally O’Malley when I covered her first few sketches, then I came around on her in both her appearance in Molly’s final episode as a cast member and the episode that Molly hosted in season 32.
— A change of pace with Sally O’Malley getting interrupted by Betty playing a fun 90-year-old counterpart to O’Malley.
— The topics that tonight’s “Really?!?” segment is focusing on aren’t all that great compared to some of the past topics covered in this segment, but Seth and Amy are making a lot of good points here, and their comments are getting funnier as this goes along.
— Ah, now Tina joins in on tonight’s “Really?!?” to add a Greek flavor.
— At the very end of this Update, right before the camera fades to black, we get a very charming ending shot of a smiling Seth lowering his head in an overjoyed manner when Amy and Tina are embracing him (screencap below). You can tell it means a lot to him being surrounded at the Update desk by Amy and Tina.

STARS: ***


SCARED STRAIGHT
disobedient teens turn deaf ears to Lorenzo McIntosh & his grandma (host)

— Very funny visual of Betty in that wig.
— I know I keep pointing out Kenan’s weight loss this season, but it’s particularly noticeable here, compared to how he looked in the installments of this sketch from previous seasons.
— The usual laughs from the movie plot and prison rape references in this recurring sketch.
— There goes Bill’s obligatory character break whenever Kenan and the host gang up on him in these Scared Straight sketches. Jason makes it funnier this time by playfully throwing a shoe (the same one taken off of Bobby earlier in this sketch) at him from off-camera. Humorously, somebody on an SNL board back at this time in 2010 was really put off by that thrown shoe bit, because they mistakenly assumed the shoe was thrown by an unruly audience member. I remember that board member saying something like “This Betty White episode is getting a little too rowdy. Now we’re having audience members throwing shoes at performers during sketches?!?”
— A classic “Wizard of ASS!” line from Betty, especially when she comes back to repeat it in an emphasized manner at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


CSI: SARASOTA
(RAD) & David Caruso’s aunt (host) in geriatric procedural

— Of all the returning female cast members tonight, it feels like Rachel’s been somewhat shafted in this episode. Up until this sketch, she hasn’t felt as visible or prominent as the other returning females tonight. She did have a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Debbie Downer sketch that would be posted online sometime after the show, (along with several other cut-after-dress sketches from this episode).
— Rachel appears to be playing her Abe Scheinwald character from back in the day, but her character is given a different name in this sketch.
— Betty’s David Caruso-esque one-liners into the camera at the end of each scene are pretty fun.
STARS: ***


THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND
cast members’ “Thank You For Being A Friend” precedes host’s metal version

— This tender singing of “Thank You For Being A Friend” by the cast and returning former female cast members is putting such a big smile on my face, and it’s so fun seeing this mixture of then-current and former cast members.
— A priceless turn with a masked Betty performing a wild and violent metal version of the song.
— I love the brief shot of Nasim screaming in absolute horror when she gets splattered by some blood from a hit-in-the-face-with-a-bat biker.
— Great shot of an intrigued Jason starting to film these wild actions on his phone.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mr. Hudson [real] perform “Young Forever”


THE CENSUS
census taker (TIF) records apartment dweller’s (host) crazy responses

— Much like how we got a variation of the classic Schwetty Balls sketch earlier tonight, we’re now getting a variation of the classic Census sketch from Christopher Walken’s season 25 episode.
— It makes sense that Tina’s playing the Tim Meadows role in tonight’s variation of the Walken-starring Census sketch, as Tina wrote that Walken sketch, and I assume she also wrote this one.
— Tina: “How many people live at this residence?” Betty: “Uh, zero.” Tina: “You don’t live here?” Betty: “Oh, including me? Three.”
— Very funny bit about Betty not being able to tell if the cats living in her home are really cats or just homeless guys in fur coats.
— Betty: “Ah, ascertain – that used to be my stripper name.”
— Overall, much like the variation of Schwetty Balls earlier tonight, this doesn’t compare to the original, but was still a strong sketch in its own right.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Such a wonderful way to end tonight’s special episode, with Betty being presented with two bouquets of flowers. The live version I’m watching of this episode cuts these goodnights off VERY early while the camera is on a close-up of an overjoyed Betty holding her two bouquets of flowers (the last above screencap for these goodnights), but that’s a strangely fitting, significant, and heartwarming image to end this episode on.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode deserving of its high acclaim. While not without its issues, this episode as a whole was a lot of fun, had a very special and unique feel, and contained a good number of strong pieces. The return of the former female cast members contributed to the important feel of this episode, and it was an interesting novelty seeing them interacting with then-current cast members throughout the night’s sketches. And the esteemed Betty White lived up to people’s high hopes by doing an excellent hosting job and even managing to appear in every single segment of this episode (not including Jay-Z’s musical performances), all of which is an impressive feat for someone her age.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Thank You For Being A Friend
MacGruber 3
Monologue
The Delicious Dish / The Census (tie)
MacGruber 1-2 (tie)
Scared Straight
CSI: Sarasota
Gingey
Weekend Update
The Manuel Ortiz Show
The Lawrence Welk Show


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gabourey Sidibe)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 35 comes to an end, with host Alec Baldwin. It’s the final episode for veteran Will Forte and newbie Jenny Slate.