Month: November 2020

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January 26, 2013 – Adam Levine / Kendrick Lamar (S38 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

INAUGURATION NIGHT
Martin Luther King Jr. (KET) visits re-inaugurated Barack Obama (JAP) to ask about Beyonce

— An okay concept of Martin Luther King vising President Obama right after his inauguration.
— Kenan’s pulling this off pretty well.
— Kenan-as-MLK’s line about a first black magician gave me a good laugh.
— Nice segue to LFNY.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
ANS, Cameron Diaz, Jerry Seinfeld [real] vie to be host’s comedy coach

— Good to see Andy Samberg in his first cameo after leaving SNL.
— Andy is as funny as ever here, especially his self-deprecating line, “I was in over 100 Digital Shorts as well as 3 live sketches.”
— Adam Levine, to Cameron Diaz, after she suggests he take his shirt off: “When you hosted, did you take your shirt off?” Cameron doesn’t answer that, but she actually did take her shirt off in at least one hosting stint, in the Woo The Musical sketch from her season 30 episode.
— Andy’s even managing to make some of the cheap homoerotic humor that he’s been given here come off funny.
— Jerry Seinfeld is fine here, even if this isn’t quite the way I’d prefer him to be utilized in a cameo.
— Blah at the non-comedic ending with Adam disrobing, not to mention how shamelessly unnecessary and pandering it came off.
STARS: ***


ROSETTA STONE
creeps (BIH), (BOM), (TAK) use Rosetta Stone to prepare for Thailand trip

— Is Bill intentionally doing a thinly-veiled variation of his John Mark Karr impression? He’s using the same voice and is even wearing what appears to be the same outfit.
— Pretty funny conceit with pervs wanting to use Rosetta Stone for their visit to Thailand.
STARS: ***


CIRCLE WORK WITH TRACY ALLSTAR & TODD ANTHONY
advice of (KET) & (host) comes from a homosexual perspective

— Boy, these James Anderson-written gay-centric sketches are so damn tired and cliched by this point of his tenure as a writer. Not that I’m sure there was ever a stretch of time where his gay-centric sketches were consistently good. He’s probably had a few isolated instances of writing actual good gay-centric stuff, but this sketch sure as hell ain’t one of them.
— Ugh at the part with Kenan slowly spelling out the whole “gay goose parade” statement.
— Very cute performance from Vanessa, who’s the only bright spot I’m finding in this mess.
STARS: *½


THE SOPRANOS DIARIES
The Sopranos Diaries reboots the mob drama in a 1980s high school setting

— Funny concept for a The Carrie Diaries spoof.
— I love Tim’s goofy, easy-going facial expressions as the principal.
— A laugh from one of the magazine reviews pointing out how implausible it is for these Sopranos characters to have been in high school in the 80s.
— From what little we can see of the sweater that Fred’s wearing under his blazer, it looks like the same sweater that was previously worn by both Chris Farley in the How Much Ya Bench sketch from season 19 and Bill in the Good Morning Meth sketch from season 31 (comparisons below).

   

— Funny reveal of a pole dancer having been on Tony Soprano and his friends’ cafeteria lunch table all this time.
— Showing how diminished Fred’s airtime has been this season in general, this pre-tape ends up being his only appearance all night. Certainly no complaints from me.
STARS: ***½


FIREHOUSE INCIDENT
drama queen’s (BIH) ex (NAP) leads him to shriek at his fellow firemen

— Hmm, between that Circle Work sketch and now Bill’s super effeminate character here, I’m sensing a theme in tonight’s episode.
— An extremely over-the-top performance from Bill to end all extremely over-the-top performances. But, dammit, he’s making me laugh my ass off. It helps that we pretty much never see Bill go THIS over-the-top, thus making it a novelty. It also helps if you imagine that this over-the-top performance is Bill basically channeling his inner Jim Carrey, and not channeling his inner Kristen Wiig (the latter of which I recall some online SNL fans implying back at this time in 2013, saying this felt too much like a typical annoying, over-the-top Wiig performance). Yet another thing helping this sketch is the fact that it thankfully never becomes recurring, because as much as I’m enjoying this as a one-time sketch, there is NO FUCKING WAY I would ever want this to become a recurring sketch.
— Ha, even the extremely-deep-voiced “Release the beating” (or whatever that voice said) at the beginning of the song that Bill dances to is cracking me up.
— The part with the dog attack is absolutely killing me. Man, this sketch is freakin’ INSANE.
— I love Bill’s way of saying the name “Rula” throughout this sketch.
— An actual punchline at the end. Not sure if it worked for me or not, though.
STARS: ****


YOLO
ANS, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone [real], host & musical guest promote extreme caution; Danny McBride cameo

— The first Lonely Island Digital Short after its retirement with Lazy Sunday 2 in Andy’s final episode as a cast member.
— Ha, random Danny McBride sighting, snorting coke in a club.
— The usual fun and catchy Lonely Island song, funny visual accompaniment, and excellent production values, even if 1) this particular one is far from a classic, and 2) the presence of Lonely Island Digital Shorts wasn’t exactly missed this season, with all the strong short films SNL’s been doing without them.
— “There’s no such thing as too much Purell”? Boy, that lyric hits differently in 2020 than it did when I originally watched this in 2013.
— The visual of Andy randomly getting choked by a flying blanket gave me an especially good laugh.
— Nice interlude from Kendrick Lamar, and I especially like the brief cutaway to him dressed as a middle-aged financial advisor.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swimming Pools”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Arianna Huffington (NAP) supports Hillary Clinton & women in combat

before the Super Bowl, emotional Ray Lewis (KET) sees divine influence

— Despite some funny lines, tonight’s overall Arianna Huffington commentary unfortunately wasn’t anywhere near as strong as usual. I did like the Wives With Knives bit towards the end, though.
— Meh, not much funny material in Kenan’s Ray Lewis commentary, despite a good performance from him.
— Hmm, interesting touch at the end after Seth’s sign-off, where Kenan returns to continue doing the Ray Lewis dance in front of the Update desk.
— The guest portion of tonight’s overall Update was pretty disappointing, and a few of Seth’s jokes didn’t do much for me either.
STARS: **½


RUMBLE
in a bar, host rumbles musically with Pat Monahan (TAK) & other crooners

— At the beginning of this sketch, did I just hear an off-camera voice cue an extra to leave by whispering “Go”?
— Pretty funny premise of a bar fight between Maroon 5 and Train.
— Good bit with the old guy who Taran’s Pat Monahan is trying to make look like him.
— I think I remember someone once saying that Aidy’s brief appearance being used as a human shield in this sketch was rather demeaning and was a sign that she wasn’t “making it” as a cast member.
— Jason’s entrance as Jason Mraz is hilarious.
— Adam’s timing is off during a lot of portions of this sketch, with quite a number of long delays before he speaks.
— Not sure how I feel about Vanessa’s intentional overacting throughout this sketch.
— Meh, I’m starting to get tired of all the entrances from various similar singers. This sketch in general is beginning to somewhat fizzle out for me, after having a promising start.
— Okay, Kenan is pretty funny right now as Darius Rucker, at least.
STARS: **½


CATFISH: THE TV SHOW
Nev Schulman (host) proves that (AIB) was duped by (JAP) online

— A laugh from the photo of Brian Williams’ head photoshopped onto a buff, shirtless body.
— Blah, I’m already sick of the smug demeanor that Adam’s using as the Catfish host, regardless of if it’s an accurate portrayal of the Catfish host or not (I’ve never seen Catfish, the movie nor the TV show). Those long pauses and self-amused laughing he keeps intentionally doing in character are just plain unfunny.
— During the “Coming up next” preview, I got a big laugh from Aidy’s whole “Is this reaction positive or negative? You can’t tell!” bit. While, as I said earlier, I’ve never seen Catfish, I’ve seen enough of certain other reality shows to know that Aidy’s “Is this reaction positive or negative?” bit is a spot-on spoof of “Coming up next” previews on reality shows in general.
— Another solid Aidy moment, as I absolutely love her exaggerated delivery of “Aw, dang! What the heck?!? I got Catfished!”
— There’s something about the pacing or atmosphere of this sketch that I’m not digging all that much.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Poetic Justice”


ADAM AND JANET
after a concert, host is the latest unlikely conquest for stocky Janet

— The second and final on-air appearance of Bobby’s Janet Peckinpaugh character. There would later be a cut-after-dress-rehearsal installment from the following season’s Andrew Garfield episode that would be posted online.
— I like the extremely random Law & Order bit at the beginning of the apartment scene.
— Nice continuity with Bobby’s Janet mentioning having a previous encounter with Tom Brady, which is referring to her sketch from the preceding season.
— Like last time, Bobby’s managing to make this potentially-hacky-and-annoying drag role actually work for me. To me, this character is kinda like an actual funny version of Horatio Sanz’s Carol character. What’s NOT working for me is Adam’s performance, as well as his constant little ad-libs. Have I made it obvious enough by this point of my review how much I haven’t been caring for Adam as a host?
STARS: ***


BIDEN BASH
Joe Biden (JAS) is having an unextravagant inauguration bash in Delaware

— A fun-seeming showcase for Jason’s always-fun Joe Biden.
— Great bit with Jason’s Biden imitating Macho Man Randy Savage. Other than that, I haven’t been laughing quite as much at this commercial as I expected to. Jason’s trying his best with somewhat throwaway material that he’s been given.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty blah-feeling episode as a whole, and easily my least favorite episode of this season so far. The fact that the only sketch that received an above-average rating from me was a very polarizing sketch centered entirely around an intentionally annoying, over-the-top performance (Firehouse Incident) kinda speaks volumes of this episode. Thinking back on it, however, I actually liked most of the stuff in the first half of this episode, aside from that Circle Work dreck. But once Weekend Update began, the show started to have an “off” feel that it sadly never really recovered from. Aside from the Janet Peckinpaugh sketch (and even that had its issues), I didn’t care too much for any of the segments in the second half of this episode, starting with Update. It also didn’t help that that was the half of the show where Adam Levine’s performances started kinda bugging me. I take it he’s better in small doses, as I usually find him decent in the brief sketch appearance or two he typically makes whenever Maroon 5 is the musical guest. Him as a full-on host of an episode, on the other hand? NO. Hell, even something about how his goodnights speech was oddly brief, overly generic, and didn’t thank the cast seemed a little off-putting, but I’m probably looking too much into that.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Firehouse Incident
YOLO
The Sopranos Diaries
Inauguration Night
Rosetta Stone
Monologue
Adam and Janet
Biden Bash
Rumble
Weekend Update
Catfish: The TV Show
Circle Work with Tracy Allstar & Todd Anthony


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Lawrence)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Justin Bieber hosts in an apparent attempt to give this Adam Levine episode a run for its money in the “My least favorite episode of this season” department

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January 19, 2013 – Jennifer Lawrence / The Lumineers (S38 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT
Lance Armstrong (JAS) doesn’t quite apologize

— Jason is very funny as an unlikable, douchey Lance Armstrong who’s showing no real remorse for his bad actions.
— Bobby is hilarious in his imitation of Manti Te’o’s frequently-seen stunned facial expression while his scandal was going on at this time.
— Kate-as-Jodie-Foster’s opening statement: “I can stretch and kick and stretch and I’m 50!” Uh, okay. Extremely random meta Sally O’Malley reference.
— As usual, Kate’s Jodie Foster is funny, as is her constant coming-out-of-the-closet fake-outs.
— I’m glad Taran has toned down the stammering as Piers Morgan, as he was a little too reliant on that in previous Piers Morgan sketches.
— This overall cold opening felt refreshingly somewhat short, though looking at the length of it right now, it was actually almost 6 minutes long. I wonder why it felt much shorter than that to me.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Interestingly, the audience’s applause is mixed in louder during tonight’s opening montage than it usually is in episodes from season 12 and beyond. You can hear a varying round of applause for each cast member and guest announced tonight, which was something I always liked about SNL before season 12, as it gave you an idea of which members of the cast were most popular with the general audience (Eddie Murphy being the most standout example, as the audience would always absolutely ROAR with loud cheers whenever his photo would come up in the opening montage during the 1982-1984 years). The cast members who receive the most applause in tonight’s opening montage are Bill Hader, Taran Killam, Seth Meyers, and Jason Sudeikis, the latter two especially. I’m honestly surprised about Taran, as he’s only in his third season at this time, his first season as a repertory player, and he’s the only one of those four cast members who’s not a veteran.


MONOLOGUE
in advance of the Oscars, host trash-talks fellow Best Actress nominees

— Funny cutaways to Bill as a humorless, stone-faced Tommy Lee Jones, spoofing the reaction that the real Tommy Lee Jones was shown having to a bit that SNL’s own Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig did together at the then-recent Golden Globes.
— A pretty fun conceit with Jennifer Lawrence trash-talking her fellow Oscar nominees. The actual slams that Jennifer’s delivering towards the nominees aren’t all that funny in themselves, but she’s selling them with her delivery and general demeanor.
— It’s refreshing to finally see a non-musical monologue, after having four straight episodes of them.
STARS: ***


VERISMO
Starbucks’ robobarista Verismo brings coffee & bad customer service home

— Vanessa’s always good at playing characters who smile awkwardly-but-kindly through their uncomfortableness.
— A fairly funny concept, and an accurate spoof of bad customer service at Starbucks.
— I’m not sure how I feel about Cecily doing the voice of what seems to be a stereotypical black character (Verquonica), which I highly doubt she’d do today in 2020.
STARS: ***


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
new-in-school punk rocker (host) drives a wedge

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Jennifer’s good as this typical “edgy”, too-cool-for-the-room teenage girl.
— Ha, I was wondering why Aidy’s wearing that thick motherly-looking coat, which looks odd on what’s supposed to be a teenage character, and now they addressed it.
— I love Aidy’s intentionally-awkward delivery of “Okay, so I do…so…cool it.”
— Another well-delivered Aidy line, with her bitterly telling Jennifer, “You WISH you pooped little pellets!”
— Yet another hilariously-delivered line from Aidy, this time her responding to Jennifer asking her if she’s a cougar by sardonically saying, “Uh, no, I’m not a cougar! Do these human fingers look like paws?!?”
— Overall, this recurring sketch continues to do well, and tonight’s installment thankfully wasn’t much of a carbon copy of the first one. Hopefully, this freshness can continue in subsequent installments.
STARS: ***½


POST HUNGER GAMES NEWS CONFERENCE
Katniss (host) & Peeta (TAK) field questions at postgame press conference

— Tim is very funny during his little part (his first live speaking role in three episodes, by the way).
— Funny bit from Jay.
— Bill’s mere facial expression in that odd-looking beard is cracking me up.
— Ehhh, the joke of a short guy revealing he’s been standing all this time was already used earlier this season in the Katt Williams commentary that Jay did on Weekend Update.
— I love Bobby’s delivery of “When you shave, can I eat your beard?!?”
STARS: ***


MORE HOBBIT
The Hobbit’s tale will be stretched thin during 18 additional movies

— When introducing a clip from the “The elf queen tries to pick an outfit” Hobbit movie, the voice-over announces the title of it as “Hobbit 8”, but the actual title that’s displayed onscreen for that clip says “Hobbit 10”. Very odd.
— Some of the comically-generic, relatable scenarios being used for these Hobbit movies are decent, but some are kinda meh and “whatever”, especially that “For The Longest Time” gag, which is such a cliched gag that I’ve already seen other shows previously do (I think Family Guy was one of them).
— A big laugh from the “S#!t Vision” bit.
— Yikes, a big technical gaffe during the Ikea Dresser scene, where the screen keeps accidentally freezing repeatedly when the punchline of the scene is being delivered, causing the scene to die a sad death by the time the freezing finally stops. It’s simultaneously uncomfortable and humorous hearing the audience’s awkward reactions during this whole technical gaffe. At one point, it sounds like you can even hear an audience member go “Awww” in a deflated manner in reaction to the screen freezing mid-punchline. Also, this whole technical gaffe is kinda reminiscent of the technical gaffe that happened during the Taco Town commercial from the season 31 Jon Heder episode, in which the commercial accidentally got interrupted at one point by a very random exterior shot of a funeral home for a few seconds (which was intended for a sketch airing much later that night).
STARS: **½


JOHNNY TWO TONES
menacing waitress (host) goes beyond charmingly-mean vibe of theme diner

— A laugh from how the required insult that Jennifer’s supposed-to-be charmingly-snarky 1950s waitress says is just a blunt, unenergetic, and uncreative “You’re stupid” and “And I hate you”, and then she just walks away.
— Bobby’s reaction to being told that the water he’s drinking was taken from the toilet is hilarious.
— Some more decently amusing blunt insults from Jennifer’s character.
— Didn’t care much for the “Okay, these are not mashed potatoes” part.
— I love Bill’s upbeat 50s voice.
— This overall sketch felt kinda like it was missing a certain something, but what we got was okay enough.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ho Hey”


WEEKEND UPDATE
all of Anthony Crispino’s showbiz gossip items are in need of correction

— Seth’s punchline about how Mississippi’s stage legislature consists only of “30 hissing possums in a barn” is one of the biggest laughs I’ve gotten from a Seth Meyers Update joke in quite a while.
— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance that Bobby’s reliable Anthony Crispino character has made in what feels like a long while. Maybe it’s a good thing they’re not running this character into the ground and are keeping him fresh.
— Humorously, Anthony Crispino’s “raise the Depp ceiling” punchline receives a genuine “Oof!” from Seth, leading Bobby to admit in character, among some ad-libs he and Seth are making, “That one’s pretty dumb!” So fun seeing him and Seth freely make fun of the quality (or lack thereof) of that “Depp ceiling” joke.
— Crispino’s bit about Lance Armstrong admitting he’s Dopey from Snow White is absolutely hilarious.
— More loose, ad-libby fun during the Crispino commentary, with Bobby and Seth both riffing and imitating each other on how high Bobby’s voice goes when saying “I’m pretty sure.”
— I’m absolutely howling at Crispino imitating Lance Armstrong singing opera while admitting his drug use. Man, tonight’s Crispino commentary is even more of a blast than most of his commentaries usually are, which is saying something.
— There’s that German accent from Seth during an Update joke once again.
STARS: ***½


TOP DOG CHEF
canine cooks create meals from garbage bag ingredients

— Hmm, not too sure about this premise.
— Good part with Jason falling for the doorbell sound that he himself set up, then expressing shame at himself.
— Very funny delivery from Bill of the line “I thought, why not add a little muuuud? Mmmm!”
— I’m very mixed on how I feel about this sketch. I’m still not crazy about it, but I admit the execution is a little better than I expected, at least.
— Bobby’s getting good laughs from his solid delivery of his lines.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


B108 FM
intern (host) joins forlorn yet fervid Richard & Buffalo at radio gig

— The second and final appearance of this sketch.
— Bobby has been ALL OVER tonight’s episode. This has got to be one of the busiest nights of his entire SNL tenure.
— Jennifer is certainly a lot more fun here than Lindsay Lohan was in the previous installment of this sketch, and I like the running gag with how badly Jennifer’s promising freestyles always trail off at the end.
— Even though Bobby already said the “Yo, I’m gon’ kill myself!” line in the previous installment of this sketch, it was funnier tonight because of how he said it right before passing out on the floor.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stubborn Love”


DANIELLE
sex pervades flimsy plot of European movie from 1975

— I remember hearing that this is a spoof of a supposedly well-known European(?) porno from the 70s (I think the title is something like “Emmanuelle”), which I’ve never seen. Despite my lack of familiarity with the source material, I’ve always been really fond of this spoof, as it’s very funny on its own.
— Something about Fred’s delivery of “Damn peasant children!” cracked me up.
— The awkwardly-dubbed-in dialogue is cracking me up, especially Jennifer’s odd, wordy lines.
— I love the occasional musical interludes with the “Danielle” theme.
— I got such a big laugh from the random, brief close-up of Bill turning to the camera and simply stating “Danielle” in a deep, poignant, dramatic voice.
— A very funny comically-abrupt ending.
STARS: ****


LOVE LETTERS
soldier’s (TIR) Civil War letters to (host) request she send a tit pic

— This is the first lead role Tim has gotten in months.
— Tim’s character here has a VERY Andy Samberg feel, especially Tim’s gesture and facial expression in the group photo of him having his balls out. I can easily picture Andy doing this sketch if he were still on the show.
— As far as Tim Robinson-starring material goes, I prefer most of the other stuff he has a lead role in this season, especially the more absurdist, oddball, and creative stuff, which is in his wheelhouse, but this sketch is okay, and Tim’s execution of it is fine.
— The Andy Samberg similarities continue, as Tim’s delivery of “Um…are you breaking up with me???” sounded SO Samberg-esque, right down to the raised inflection Tim used when saying the “up with me” portion of that line.
— I love Tim’s sudden “Welp, this is my last breath!”, which he follows by hilariously making a frozen, open-mouthed goofy facial expression as he immediately dies (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— Great walk-on at the end from Bill as Abraham Lincoln, giving that nice absurdist, oddball, creative feel that I kinda wanted this whole sketch to have.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, with a forgettable feel and barely anything standing out as particularly strong. At the same time, however, there was barely anything I didn’t like, so it’s hard to complain about this one. At least this keeps up this season’s positive trend of mostly consisting of episodes that range from average to excellent and contain little-to-no segments that I give a rating under three stars to. (That being said, I unfortunately recall the next two episodes being pretty rough. We’ll see if I’ll feel any better about them now.)


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Danielle
Piers Morgan Tonight
Girlfriends Talk Show
Weekend Update
Love Letters
B108 FM
Monologue
Post Hunger Games News Conference
Johnny Two Tones
Verismo
More Hobbit
Top Dog Chef


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Short)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Adam Levine

Posted on

December 15, 2012 – Martin Short / Paul McCartney (S38 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SILENT NIGHT
The New York City Children’s Chorus [real] performs “Silent Night”

 

— A classy and touching way to address the previous day’s Sandy Hook school shooting tragedy, without being direct about it. Even now, when I’m 8 years removed from the tragedy, this cold opening is putting a lump in my throat.
— This would end up being this decade’s first of several somber cold openings that occur shortly after a tragic event has happened, usually tragic events involving mass casualties. Unlike this Silent Night cold opening, most of this decade’s other somber cold openings are direct in openly addressing the tragedy that had happened.
— When this cold opening originally aired, I remember that the moment where the camera fades to black after the Silent Night song concludes made me initially think that SNL was going to immediately go from that fade-to-black to the opening montage, without anyone saying “Live from New York…”, which shocked me, as it would’ve been the first time in, I believe, decades that a cold opening didn’t contain a “Live from New York…” or any kind of variation. However, when the fade-to-black in this particular cold opening was then followed by the camera fading back into the children to show them delivering an upbeat “Live from New York…”, I realized that SNL added the fade-to-black for a poignant, respectful touch.
STARS: N/A (not a ratable segment)


MONOLOGUE
MAS sings about holiday lustfulness; PAS, KRW, JIF, TIF, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson cameos

— Martin Short’s usual energy and comedic style is exactly what SNL and its viewers needed to lift up the show’s spirits during these times.
— Paul Shaffer!
— A huge laugh from the sudden part with Martin stepping right on Paul Shaffer’s hands when walking to the top of the piano, resulting in a great “OW!” from Paul.
— Martin’s whole “How does a man sit at the piano, I wonder” bit is great.
— This is now the FOURTH consecutive musical monologue, but for various reasons, I can’t complain about tonight’s particular instance of a musical monologue.
— Very nice to see that Cecily, Aidy, and Kate, “the new girls” as Martin calls them collectively, get their special little moment with Martin.
— And, of course, immediately after the special moment the new girls get, we get a Kristen Wiig cameo. Something about that succession seems strangely on-brand for SNL.
— Not sure, but I think Kristen rubbing Martin’s body with her “Dooneese” hand was an ad-lib, judging by Martin’s amusing reaction to that.
— Wow! Jimmy Fallon? Tom Hanks? Samuel L. Jackson? All randomly appearing in rapid succession backstage? Very fun.
— Funny unscripted bit with the llama.
— Such an enjoyable song from Martin, and as I often mention, I’m a sucker for former cast members doing monologues where they go all around the studio & backstage while singing.
— Now we get Tina Fey randomly seen standing next to Lorne. Yep, SNL’s definitely breaking out all the cameos in tonight’s Christmas episode.
— Martin even has the ability to make a cheap man-on-man kiss funny, as seen during his moment with Lorne.
— Interestingly, there’s no “Stick around, we’ll be right back” or anything else after Martin says “Paul McCartney is here!” at the end of this.
STARS: ****


A TONY BENNETT CHRISTMAS
Tony Bennett (Alec Baldwin) & brother Jerry (MAS) meet Kanye West (JAP)

— Tonight’s plethora of cameos from (mostly) SNL-related people continues, as we randomly get Alec Baldwin showing up and reprising The Tony Bennett Show sketches. With this being years before episodes containing a plethora of cameos would become a frequent habit and would be an annoyance to certain SNL fans (including myself), I can certainly enjoy it in this episode. In fact, the cameos are adding to the feel-good, Christmas-y spirit of this episode.
— This ends up being the final installment of the Tony Bennett Show sketches.
— Alec’s Tony Bennett is as funny as always, and Martin is solid as his similarly-traited brother.
— The story from the Bennett brothers about a girl with hemorrhoids is priceless, as is Jay-as-Kanye-West’s reaction.
— Fun and charming chemistry between Alec and Martin during the closing song.
— I like Martin unusual way of hugging the lower half of Alec’s body throughout this sketch.
— I’m surprised by how fairly short this overall sketch was, but no complaints from me.
STARS: ***½


ROYAL FAMILY DOCTOR
equerry (MAS) briefs Kate Middleton’s ob-gyn (BIH) on vagina protocol

— Hilarious characterization from Martin.
— The various vocalizations and phrases Martin uses in regards to how to refer to “the royal “*ahem*” are such a perfect use of Martin’s comedic style.
— I’ve always had a theory that John Mulaney possibly wrote this sketch and, between dress rehearsal and the live show, changed the scripted vocalizations and phrases that Martin was to use for “the royal “*ahem*”, in an attempt to catch Bill off-guard during the live show, ala the Stefon commentaries on Weekend Update. What makes me think that is the fact that Bill seems GENUINELY taken aback and amused by Martin’s various vocalizations and phrases for “the royal “*ahem*”, as if he wasn’t expecting them. Then again, Bill is easily breakable at this stage of his SNL tenure, so those vocalizations and phrases from Martin could possibly be stuff Bill was already familiar with, plus I can’t blame anyone for having a hard time keeping a straight face at Martin Short.
— Ha, Bobby could unintentionally be seen sneaking into the scene before he “magically popped up” to Bill’s side.
— Martin continues to be comedy gold in his delivery and performance here.
— Fred’s mere entrance gets a huge applause from the audience.
— Could’ve done without the ending gag involving Fred’s Queen Elizabeth hiking up her skirt and spreading her legs, as if we haven’t already seen Fred do that enough times in these later years of his SNL tenure. However, I did get a laugh from how him hiking up his skirt resulted in long, uncomfortable, awkward silence between Bill and Martin.
STARS: ****


YOU’RE A RAT BASTARD, CHARLIE BROWN
Al Pacino (BIH) heads all-star cast

— A very memorable and well-liked piece among SNL fans.
— Hilarious choices of out-of-place celebrities to play Peanuts characters.
— Martin is particularly spot-on as Larry David, both physically and verbally.
— Much like Martin as Larry David, Taran truly does have a strong facial resemblance to Michael Keaton here.
— The bleep-filled football scene between Bill’s Al Pacino and Kate’s Edie Falco is particularly funny.
— During the ending split-screen shot of the various actors playing Peanuts characters, Bobby can be seen among them (the last above screencap for this commercial), despite the fact that he wasn’t shown at any point earlier in this commercial. He’s playing Joe Pesci as the Peanuts character Woodstock, IIRC, but his main portions were cut from this commercial after dress rehearsal. Same goes for Fred, who could be seen very briefly in a Snoopy costume at one point in the middle of this commercial (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this commercial). I can’t remember which celebrity I heard he played in this.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Joe Walsh [real] perform “My Valentine”


WEEKEND UPDATE
newly bar mitzvahed Jacob tells story of Hanukkah & roasts family

The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is supercilious sot

— Vanessa’s Jacob character makes his first SNL appearance since his debut two seasons prior. That debut from two seasons prior was in a sketch, but all of his subsequent appearances are on Weekend Update.
— Vanessa’s doing a spot-on, enjoyable, and endearing spoof of typical bar mitzvah speeches, even down to the little detail of her Jacob character moving his finger along the words he’s reading from his speech.
— Some laughs from how Jacob never answers Seth’s questions, and instead just goes back to reading from his speech.
— This Jacob commentary is starting to get really repetitive (even if that’s the point), but the endearing quality that Vanessa’s bringing to this is maintaining my goodwill. I get the feeling I’m not going to be so lenient in this character’s subsequent Update commentaries, given how almost all of them are basically the EXACT SAME THING. We’ll see, though.
— Ha, even Seth has a hard time saying The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party’s name.
— Girl You Wish etc.: “You need to grow up, Seth. ‘Cause there are some people in Africa right now where it’s like, nooo.”
— Girl You Wish etc.: “I’m sorry…why can’t Secret Santa just be openly gay?!?”
— Girl You Wish etc.: “It’s origami. That’s Spanish for ‘goose’.”
STARS: ***


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Samuel L. Jackson & Carrie Brownstein [real] observe

— This ends up being the final installment of this recurring sketch, until it gets a surprise revival during an “SNL At Home” episode 8 years later.
— Curiously, Cecily has replaced Nasim in Nasim’s regular role as one of the two backup singers, despite Nasim still being in SNL’s cast, which must mean they have something different planned for her in tonight’s installment.
— Another rare instance of Jason’s red tracksuit dancing character (Vance) actually speaking.
— I love Samuel L. Jackson’s angry warning to Kenan’s Deondre Cole to not cut him off.
— Jackie Rogers Jr.!!!! Not only is it a blast to see Martin bring him back, but he’s actually very fitting in a What Up With That sketch.
— Tim’s dancing past the screen as a casually-dressed Santa is hilarious.
— Ah, there’s Nasim. Fun appearance from her as “Grinchina”. I wonder if the reason for her playing a different role than usual in tonight’s What Up With That installment is because she possibly spoke up to the writers or Lorne, telling them she was tired of being stuck playing one of the backup singers in this recurring sketch and wanted to finally get a comedic showcase in it.
— Other than the Jackie Rogers Jr. appearance, here comes the most noteworthy moment of tonight’s What Up With That installment: Samuel L. Jackson exclaiming in frustration an unscripted “Man, fu–”, cutting himself off before saying the full F-bomb. Then, while Kenan is responding to that by ad-libbing “Hey!” and “Come on, Sam!”, an off-camera Samuel adds in, “This some bullshit!” This results in an absolutely classic ad-lib from Kenan: “Come on, now! That costs money!”
— I love how, while Kenan is thanking her for being on the show, Carrie Brownstein does a mouth-zipping motion, referring to Samuel’s half-F-bomb and full-S-bomb. I also love the meta-ness of Kenan calling Brownstein “the funny one in Portlandia”.
— Overall, the Jackie Rogers Jr. appearance and the ad-libs between Samuel L. Jackson & Kenan make this one of the more standout installments of What Up With That. Not a bad way at all for this recurring sketch to go out (until 2020).
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic & Pat Smear [real] perform “Cut Me Some Slack”


OLD FRIENDS
old friends (FRA) & (MAS) meet while shopping & catch up on inadequacies

 

— Hmm, interesting and unusual how this sketch has an intro from Kenan, standing in front of the sketch’s set.
— Funny mention of Fred being a professional James Cameron impersonator at parties.
— We get a lot more hilarious bizarre reveals that Fred and Martin are casually making about themselves. I am loving the absurd humor in this, as well as the smooth way it’s flowing and the way it’s being played completely straight, all of which makes this sketch feel like a typical sketch from British sketch comedy shows. A very underrated little sketch, and this is easily one of the better things Fred has done in these past-his-prime later years of his SNL tenure.
STARS: ****


PAGEANT AUDITION
(MAS) won’t let his musical partner (musical guest) sing during Christmas pageant audition

— Amusing opening bit with Kenan.
— Very fun pairing of tonight’s host and musical guest.
— Although the “ironic” concept of Paul playing the member of a musical duo who can’t sing has potential to be too corny, there’s more than enough goodwill and charm from this sketch to prevent that corniness.
— Martin’s sudden angry “THAT’S YOUR CUE, MONTY!!!” outburst has me laughing out loud.
— Very funny bit with Paul now dinging his triangle too early, inducing another hilarious angry outburst from Martin.
— Wow, an awesome and clever way to segue from this sketch to Paul’s next musical performance. Love it.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & The New York City Children’s Chorus [real] perform “Wonderful Christmas Time”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Wow. This was an even better episode than I had remembered, which is certainly saying something, as I had always been very fond of this episode. I’m pleasantly surprised to see how even MORE fond of this episode I was during my viewing just now. I mean, man, look at all of those high ratings I gave out throughout the review. In fact, the only two things all night that got a rating below four stars was A Tony Bennett Christmas and Weekend Update, and those were still good. This episode probably has one of the highest rating averages out of this entire SNL project. And in addition to how consistently strong this episode was, it had such a feel-good, Christmas-y energy, helped by Martin Short’s always-fun presence. That combo of strong sketches and a feel-good, Christmas-y energy is how I like my Christmas episodes of SNL to be.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
You’re A Rat Bastard, Charlie Brown
What Up With That?
Monologue
Royal Family Doctor
Old Friends
Pageant Audition
A Tony Bennett Christmas
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jamie Foxx)
a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2013, with host Jennifer Lawrence

Posted on

December 8, 2012 – Jamie Foxx / Ne-Yo (S38 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
Barack Obama (JAP) takes pity on GOP ostracism target John Boehner (BIH)

— Pretty good laughs from Bill-as-John-Boehner’s disclosure of all the schoolkid-esque bullying that he suffered from his fellow republicans. Adding to the humor is Jay’s President Obama repeating some of those disclosures in his typically poignant voice.
— I love Bill-as-Boehner’s Cowardly Lion-esque crying after whimpering out an exclamation of “Rotten eggs!”, in response to Jay’s Obama asking him what kind of eggs was he pelted with.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
current events lead host to ask “How black is that?”; 2 Chainz cameo

— As usual, Jamie Foxx is absolutely great at getting the audience hyped up, as well as bringing a more urban audience to the show.
— Also as usual, Jamie’s energy is so fun here.
— The “How black is that?” running theme in this is pretty funny.
— I think I recall there being an online article shortly after this episode, pointing out how “wrong” it was that Jamie said, at one point of this monologue, “I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?!?”
— A good laugh from Jamie making fun of Obama’s dancing in his appearance on Ellen.
— Second consecutive monologue involving the host playing the piano and singing, and the THIRD consecutive episode with a musical monologue in general. Looks like this season is headed in a season 36-like direction in regards to an overabundance of musical monologues.
— The 2 Chainz cameo, while kinda pointless, at least adds to the fun and very energetic vibe of this monologue.
STARS: ***½


BITCH, WHAT’S THE ANSWER? WITH MOOKIE MEEKS
(host) verbally abuses game show contestants

— I like the name Mookie Meeks for Jamie’s character.
— Much like the prison sketch from the previous episode Jamie hosted (the sketch where Will Ferrell tenderly asks one of his cellmates, played by Jamie, “Am I still your bitch?”), it looks like this sketch is just a cheap excuse for Jamie to say “bitch” over and over for four minutes. I really didn’t care for that prison sketch, but at least the format of this particular game show sketch seems like it could make the redundant “bitch” theme work.
— Bobby’s real hair seems more grown-out than it usually is. It almost looks like he’s in the early stages of returning to his long hairstyle from his first few months as a cast member. IIRC, though, he cuts it short again after this episode.
— Very funny part with Bobby making Jamie mad by lightheartedly telling him “Bring it on, beeeyitch!”
— Looks like Jamie messed up the “Where Jupiter?” question by unintentionally using proper grammar when asking that question (“Where’s Jupiter?”), while the chyron on the bottom of the screen states “Where Jupiter?”, as does Bobby when he incredulously repeats Jamie’s question.
— I love the goofy photo of Tim in the screenshot of the home version of this game.
— Overall, this was better than the prison sketch from Jamie’s previous episode, Jamie was pretty fun here despite some stumbles, and Bobby was a great straight man, but this sketch was still nothing particularly great.
STARS: ***


J-POP AMERICA FUN TIME NOW!
sensei (host) is a fellow Japanophile

— This ends up being the final aired installment of this sketch. A later installment of it apparently got cut after dress rehearsal in the following season’s Josh Hutcherson episode. Given the fact that that installment would’ve been after Jason’s departure from SNL, I wonder how it dealt without Jason’s character. Did they get someone else in the cast to play a new teacher/other kind of straight man, or did they just do the sketch without a teacher/other kind of straight man (which doesn’t seem like it would work)?
— A laugh from Taran and Vanessa’s “Japwanzaa” tree.
— Very funny look of Jamie’s character. I’d almost swear he’s wearing the same wig that Tracy Morgan once wore when playing Busta Rhymes in a sketch from the Heather Graham episode, which, coincidentally, was from the same season that Jamie last hosted in prior to tonight’s episode (season 25).
— Ugh, one aspect of this recurring sketch I will certainly not miss ever seeing again after tonight’s final installment is Fred as Taran’s Japanese girlfriend.
— Wait, they’re actually letting Fred’s character speak this time, for once? Not necessary.
— I like Jason’s reaction to Jamie getting tense at him.
— The fact that the last thing Jason’s character does in tonight’s J-Pop installment is involuntarily add a “da-du” at the end of his sentence, then express fear that Taran and Vanessa have now got him doing that, is very fitting for what ends up being his final appearance in this recurring sketch, whether that was intentional or not.
STARS: ***


ALEX CROSS 2: MADEA: SPECIAL OPS
Tyler Perry’s (host) fusion of Alex Cross & Madea makes a mixed-up movie

— A great initial visual of Jamie in that half-Alex Cross half-Madea costume.
— Good Madea impression from Jamie.
— Jamie’s conflicting actions between each half of his body is good for some laughs.
— When each half of Jamie’s body is talking to each other, I love the cross-eyed face he makes, especially since it’s reminiscent of his Wanda character from In Living Color.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Let Me Love You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
sick of unromantic Santa, Mrs. Claus (AIB) is ready for some alone time

Ding Dong (host) complains of unequal treatment relative to Twinkies

— Aidy is very funny and likable as Mrs. Claus, and has so many good lines all throughout her commentary. I particularly like her message towards 2 Chainz: “I’ve got an ass that shakes like a bowl of jelly.”
— “New phone, who is this”??? Uh, Seth, shouldn’t that be “New phone, who dis?” I think I recall a previous Update in these early 2010s years where Seth, or maybe a guest correspondent, similarly inexplicably used proper grammar when making a “New phone, who dis?” reference.
— Ha, somebody in the audience boos Seth’s ballsy Jerry Sandusky joke, and then right after that booing, you can hear another audience member say “Oh, snap!” Much like I noted throughout my review of the previous episode Jamie hosted (review seen here), tonight’s episode has a much more responsive, lively, and urban audience than SNL episodes usually have.
— Also much like the previous episode Jamie hosted, he does an Update commentary, which is pretty rare for hosts.
— Jamie’s delivery of this Ding Dong material is solid, he’s (once again tonight) fantastic at getting the audience hyped up, and he’s managing to make some of the potentially-corny Hostess snack jokes come off funny (e.g. him saying “That’s my snack brother from another batter”). Even his occasional breaking is pretty fun and likable.
STARS: ***½


DYLAN MCDERMOTT OR DERMOT MULRONEY?
game show contestants confuse Dermot Mulroney [real] with Dylan McDermott

— A rare case of an episode containing TWO separate game show sketches.
— Fantastic premise for a game show sketch.
— Keeping up the weird connections that this episode keeps having to season 25, that season just so happens to be the season Dylan McDermott hosted in, funnily enough.
— An absolutely hilarious reveal of this game show’s contestants all being black men.
— Kenan, in regards to Bill saying the title of the game show show once again: “Can you put a bigger space between the names…s-s-so we know when the first name ends and the second name begins?”
— When listing off Dermot Mulroney’s filmography and occasionally getting it mixed up with that of Dylan McDermott’s, I love Bill’s constant “What’s that?”s before correcting himself. Excellent rapid-fire delivery from Bill during this portion.
— Speaking of excellent delivery from Bill, I also love his delivery of “Round three: hey………who’s this guy” as a new photo is displayed next to him.
— Yet another fantastic Bill Hader moment: his twisted laugh after being told by Kenan, “You’re a sick man!”
— An absolutely classic and standout part with Jamie’s written-down answer: Derbel McDillet.
— Hilarious how Kenan’s Rupert Everett answer somehow ends up being correct.
— A Dermot Mulroney cameo.
— I like how even Mulroney himself can’t tell himself and Dylan McDermott apart, and reveals he’s unwittingly been sleeping with McDermott’s wife all these years.
— Great bit regarding the mention of three teenage girls from Alaska being contestants on the game show that’s coming on next: Djimon Honsou Or Chiwetel Ejiofor, much to Jay, Jamie, and Kenan’s chagrin.
— Excellent sketch overall.
STARS: *****


MARCUS BANKS: TREE PIMP
pimp Marcus Banks (KET) treats Christmas trees as if they were his hos

— Immediately, I’m loving the tone of this film, and Kenan is fantastic here.
— Kenan’s pimp-like treatment of his Christmas trees is hilarious.
— I love the cutaway to Kenan telling the family decorating their tree in their living room, “Ya’ll got 20 minutes now.”
— Something about Kenan’s delivery of the word “photo-pimp-esis” made me laugh harder than it probably should’ve.
— Good bit with Fred having the tree he brought go down on him in his car.
— Nice way to involve Jamie.
— Hmm, Matt Lauer (or, as Jamie’s character humorously pronounces, “Matt Lerr-er”) is one of the other tree pimp’s A-list clients? Ha, figures. SNL sure likes implying in these early 2010s years that Matt Lauer is addicted to hookers and strippers. I’d almost think SNL knew about his sexual deviancy long before the public found out…
STARS: ****½


MAINE JUSTICE
(Charlie Day) testifies in wacky Acadia-Acadiana courtroom

 

— Ohho, here we go! One of my favorite sketches of ALL TIME, and a well-loved sketch among SNL fans in general.
— Right from his entrance, Jason is already slaying me. His delivery, his heavy Cajun accent, and his mouth-wiping with his hanky are all freakin’ HILARIOUS.
— I love Bobby saying a very casually-delivered “Also, what the hell is going on here?” at the end of his opening statement.
— Jason: “Ya’ll shut youah buuuutts!”
— All of the inexplicable southern-themed things about this alleged Maine-based courtroom show are so funny.
— Jamie’s occasional hand-clapping when miming an alligator chomp is adding well to the humor of Jason’s occasional alligator threats.
— Ha, the witness who gets called up is played by Charlie Day! One of my favorite one-time hosts. Also great to see a Horrible Bosses reunion between him, Jason, and Jamie.
— Charlie’s insane, unintelligible southern accent has me practically on the floor. The even funnier thing about that and his general hillbilly look is the fact that he’s supposed to be a congressman.
— Jason’s delivery continues to absolutely slay me, especially his delivery of “I don’t know if you forgit where you eeeyiiiis, but you in Maine now, boy!”
— Excellent reveal of the various possible reasons for this “Maine”-based show having so many southern-themed things, including the people in the courtroom being New Orleans citizens who were relocated after Hurricane Katrina and refused to change their ways.
— Oh, here’s what I consider to be the crème de la crème of this already-excellent sketch: Jason delivering the final ruling and doing so many hilarious physical and verbal things during it, and ending it by mentioning taking Bobby and “dragging his bare lily-white butt ‘cross the swamp to put out that ass fire!” This just may Jason’s greatest single moment of his entire SNL tenure.
— Even Jay’s (who has a walk-on as a parade dancer) goofy mugging toward Bobby during the ending New Orleans parade celebration in the courtroom has me laughing out loud.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “She Is”


SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS
vacuous ex-porn stars (VAB), (CES), (host) endorse Swarovski Crystals

— The debut of a well-liked recurring sketch.
— Vanessa and Cecily’s brain-dead portrayal of these ex-porn stars is excellent. And it needs to be pointed out what a very impressive first half-season Cecily’s been having so far. You can hardly tell from how fully-formed she comes off and how many big roles she’s gotten that she’s a new featured player.
— Cecily: “One time, I got banged to death for five minutes. Then I got banged back to life. Thanks, Crystals!”
— Vanessa: “I lost part of my foot. It broke off in a butt.”
— Man, there is an endless number of priceless lines from Vanessa and Cecily.
— Jamie has great lines himself right now.
— Good reveal that the ex-porn stars are planning on sending this tape to Swarovski Crystals in an attempt to get free crystals.
— Jamie: “Because there’s never one thing never goes out of style…” Vanessa and Cecily, trying to say the same thing in unison: “Crystals!” “Anal!”
— Love the ending bit regarding the meaning of the “Ewww” the ex-porn stars stated in reaction to hypothetically being covered in crystals.
— An overall classic debut of this recurring sketch.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first half of this episode was energetic, but average. But this episode was absolutely made by the strength of the post-Weekend Update half. I mean, can we TALK about that half of the show, people?!? It was on FIRE. That’s definitely one of the strongest post-Update halves I’ve ever reviewed in all 38 seasons I’ve covered so far, rivaling the post-Update half of the season 19 Heather Locklear episode (review seen here). I feel like there was another review of mine sometime between that Locklear episode and this Jamie Foxx episode that similarly had an average first half and an extremely strong second half filled with lots of five and four-and-a-half-star ratings, but I can’t remember which episode it is. (Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can figure out which one it is.) On another note, this is another episode this season that, much like the then-recent Anne Hathaway episode, impressively didn’t contain any segments I disliked.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Maine Justice
Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?
Swarovski Crystals
Marcus Banks: Tree Pimp
Monologue
Press Conference
Alex Cross 2: Madea: Special Ops
Weekend Update
J-Pop America Fun Time Now!
Bitch, What’s The Answer? with Mookie Meeks


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeremy Renner)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Martin Short hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

November 17, 2012 – Jeremy Renner / Maroon 5 (S38 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BOOKNOTES
Paula Broadwell (CES) reads from her salacious David Petraeus biography

— Some laughs from the very raunchy, glorified erotica that Cecily’s Paula Broadwell is reading from the All In book, made funnier by the very professional, straitlaced manner she’s reading it in.
— The audience members eventually walking out in droves is pretty funny.
— A huge rarity in SNL’s recent years like this one to have “Live from New York…” be delivered by an off-camera voice-over (Jim Downey, in this case).
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & sings songs he wrote for action movies he starred in

— Hmm, not too sure about Jeremy Renner’s delivery so far.
— When going to the piano, Jeremy says “Once again…I cannot believe I agreed to do this”, then proceeds to chuckle nervously for an extended amount of time. I’m finding that to be half-charming and half-worrying.
— A big gaffe, as there’s no sound coming from the piano when Jeremy starts playing, leading him to make awkward ad-libs towards the audience. Then he humorously says a cheerful “Oh, thank you!” to seemingly an off-camera stagehand who has fixed the problem.
— Jeremy now chuckles nervously for an extended amount of time again, then makes a nice ad-lib by saying, in regards to the piano blooper, “Good way to start the show, right?”
— Didn’t care for the first song, but the “Captain Amer” bit in the second song is pretty funny.
— An okay laugh from the third song just being a blatant “Use Somebody” knock-off.
— The brief Mission Impossible song was pretty funny.
— Overall, despite the piano blooper and Jeremy’s worrying nervousness in certain parts, this monologue was decent enough and had a bit of a charm to it, even the aforementioned blooper and nervousness.
STARS: ***


YOUR HOMETOWN
staying with your parents during a trip home makes for an unfun vacation

 

— A very relatable premise.
— A good laugh from the visual of Bill in those high-waisted briefs.
— I absolutely love the way that the mundane aspects of coming home for the holidays is comically being presented in the style of upbeat tourism ads. The execution of this is great.
— There’s that lovable Tim Robinson goofiness that I always enjoy, even when he plays a non-speaking role like this one.
STARS: ****½


THE CALIFORNIANS
Stuart mulls Southland geography & learns he has a son

— (*groooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaan*) Plus, didn’t they just do this sketch a few episodes prior?
— At least they’re doing something different with Vanessa’s maid character, who usually just announces when a guest has arrived.
— Much like the first installment of this sketch, Fred is very giggly in this installment so far. Unlike the first installment, none of the other performers are joining Fred in his laughing, not even the easy-to-break Bill.
— After the first scene, Fred seems to have gotten his act together in terms of his giggliness.
— Whoops, spoke too soon, as Fred has suddenly started giggling again for no apparent reason during the reveal of the baby photo. I think Fred’s giggling at his own delivery in general (especially that “seating arrangement” line that he delivered in a particularly exaggerated, awkward-sounding Californian accent, even for this sketch’s standards), further proving how annoyingly self-indulgent this recurring sketch (and so many other Fred Armisen-starring things from Fred’s later seasons) is.
— I did kinda chuckle at how one of the typical sequences of the camera showing mock-dramatic close-ups of each character during a shocking reveal includes a mock-dramatic close-up of the smiling baby photo.
— Fred has now started giggling even more in the scene currently taking place, and again, for no apparent reason, and with none of the other performers joining in on it.
— Feels odd seeing Taran play a different character than the effeminate character he usually plays in this recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
Tampa inquiry fails to shed light on Petraeus scandal

— Cecily playing both Paula Broadwell AND Jill Kelley in the same night?
— Funny bits involving The Situation Room only being able to show the one clip of Cecily’s Jill Kelley that’s available. It especially gets funny when they start playing with the footage, such as showing it in reverse.
— A huge laugh from Tim in drag now doing a dramatization of the one Jill Kelley walking-down-the-stairs clip that was shown repeatedly.
— Jeremy’s getting some chuckles from me.
STARS: ***½


THE STAND OFF
(TAK), (BOM), (host) keep guns aimed; Adam Levine cameo

— At least this is something that Jeremy is certainly in his element in, unlike some of the other stuff he’s appeared in in this episode.
— Very funny visual of Jeremy, Taran, and Bobby keeping their guns aimed at each other in that stand-off posture while cramped in the back of a taxi.
— More hilarious situations that Jeremy, Taran, and Bobby continue to hold their stand-off posture towards each other in, such as when Jeremy’s reading his daughter a bedtime story, when grace is being said at a Thanksgiving dinner, when they’re relieving themselves at urinals, and when they’re joyfully ice skating with each other.
— A good laugh from Bobby suddenly getting coldly gunned down by Jeremy and Taran while in the middle of a touching speech about how meaningful his time with Jeremy and Taran has been the past few days.
— Overall, this season continues its huge winning streak with their post-Lonely Island short films.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “One More Night”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups stakeholders in Petraeus scandal into Winners & Losers

self-described pimp Katt Williams (JAP) explains his erratic behavior

bossy but grateful Chris Christie [real] addresses Hurricane Sandy clean-up efforts

— Another Winners/Losers segment, fairly soon after the last one. I guess I can’t complain, given how strong I found the last one.
— Tonight’s overall Winners/Losers segment was decent, if nothing special or particularly noteworthy.
— The debut of Jay’s spot-on Katt Williams impression.
— Though it’s just a little thing, I love Jay’s delivery of the “This right here…this right here…this right here” bit.
— Some other laughs from Jay’s Williams commentary.
— A cameo from the real Chris Christie.
— Christie is actually coming off really natural and loose in his delivery, not being stiff at all like some non-actors tend to be in SNL cameos.
STARS: ***


THE AVENGERS
Hawkeye (host) is the least-useful Avenger when he runs out of arrows

— A few laughs here and there so far, but this sketch is both slow-paced and awkwardly paced. Maybe that’s to be expected for an action-heavy sketch like this that’s being performed live. Perhaps this would’ve benefited from being pre-taped instead.
— What was with Taran openly breaking when Jeremy popped back into the scene after being used as a weapon by Hulk? Jeremy also botched his line right afterwards.
— That’s…that’s it??? That’s the whole sketch? That was a little bit of laughs and a WHOLE LOT of nothing.
STARS: *½


MOVIE SET
actor (JAS) bungles a scene in which he’s supposed to be slapped by host

— “Wes Underballs”? Is this character of Bill’s supposed to be related to Bill’s Mike Underballs character?
— The reveal of Jason’s Dick Fuel character’s real name being Dick Juice is so juvenile and stupid, but I strangely kinda chuckled anyway.
— So far, the writing of this is questionable and quite dumb. In fact, it feels like the type of horrible “an actor keeps ruining the filming of one scene” sketch that Horatio Sanz would’ve done in his later seasons, where his shtick was beyond tired (e.g. that awful Zorro sketch from the season 31 Antonio Banderas episode). However, Jason is doing far more for this material than Horatio ever would have.
— Yet another dumb and juvenile part of this sketch, with Jason’s Dick Fuel randomly asking the others about the Kim Kardashian sex tape and complimenting Ray J on the size of his “piece”, but Bill actually made me laugh a lot when agreeing with Dick Fuel on Ray J’s “piece”, by saying an amused “It’s all true, it’s quite something.”
— Just now, Jason genuinely messed up by accidentally calling Jeremy by his real first name during the movie scene being filmed, before correcting himself in a somewhat amusing manner.
— Now Jeremy’s the one who genuinely messes up, by referring to Bill’s character’s surname as “Wonderballs” instead of “Underballs”.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Daylight”


MIDNIGHT SNACK – COOL DRONES
by Zach Kanin & Rob Klein- deadly pilotless flying weapons also constitute a boy band

— Oh, I completely forgot about this until now, much like the Fred Wolf-made American America cartoons from season 36. SNL attempts a new brand of cartoons, Midnight Snack, made by SNL writers Zach Kanin and Rob Klein. And much like the aforementioned American America cartoons, this attempt ends up being short-lived, even moreso, with only one Midnight Snack cartoon making it to air.
— I love the opening Midnight Snack title sequence, with a creature being shown eating a snack while watching TV.
— Feels kinda fun hearing the current cast’s voices as various characters in this cartoon.
— Not too crazy about the 90s-style boy band concept.
— I’m liking the animation here, though part of the reason for that could be because it’s such a rarity to see animation in this SNL era.
— Other than that one drone’s constant lines about booties, I’m not getting much laughs from this cartoon so far.
— The extended gun-firing sequence is fairly funny, especially the part with the goat.
— That’s the whole cartoon? Hate to say it, but this was really meh and forgettable. As much as I’d have loved to see SNL’s Midnight Snack segment take off and become SNL’s new TV Funhouse, it’s probably a good thing that never happened if all the Midnight Snack cartoons were going to be as mediocre as this.
STARS: **


CORONER
in the morgue, (host) can’t grasp the concept of body identification

— I laughed a lot at Jeremy matter-of-factly saying, when identifying the dead body, “It’s Steven Tyler.” The audience reaction to that is SO dead that you can clearly hear a giggling woman in the otherwise-silent audience repeat the “It’s Steven Tyler” line to herself in amusement.
— Okay, the audience is getting more into this now.
— Kinda like the Movie Set sketch from earlier in this episode, this premise is dumb, but the execution is making it work.
— Very funny ad-lib with Bill musically patting his hands on the body of Taran, who’s playing a dead person. If Bill’s attempting to get Taran to break, it doesn’t work.
— Bill’s “I kinda wanna see what he’s gonna say” line made me laugh, even if it felt like a variation of something he said in the courtroom sketch from the preceding season’s Eli Manning episode.
— I love the rapid succession of guesses Jeremy is now making on the dead body’s identity, as if it’s the speed round of a game show.
— Jason is a fantastic straight man.
— When Jeremy says, regarding the dead body, “It’s his (Bill’s) brother”, I love Bill foolishly responding “Dennis?!?” while looking at the body in a shocked manner.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier. I’m loving this.
— Even the detail of the voice Taran’s using is great.
— When the “dead” body comes back to life and Jason gives Bill a puzzled look, I got a huge laugh from Bill innocently saying “He said he was dead!”
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better episode than I had remembered. However, for this season’s standards, this was a very unremarkable episode, though with a few really strong highlights. Kind of a messy-feeling episode, too, with all the gaffes.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Your Hometown
Coroner
The Stand Off
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Booknotes
Weekend Update
Movie Set
Monologue
Midnight Snack – Cool Drones
The Avengers
The Californians


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jamie Foxx

Posted on

November 10, 2012 – Anne Hathaway / Rihanna (S38 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ELECTION NIGHT
at home on election night, Mitt Romney (JAS) comes to terms with defeat

— Good to see Kate’s Ann Romney impression back after the breakout moment she had as her earlier this season, though she doesn’t get anything noteworthy to do in this particular cold opening.
— I like the use of a beer can-opening sound effect when Jason’s Mitt Romney opens a milk carton.
— A good laugh from Taran’s Tagg Romney once again threatening to punch someone.
— Funny running gag with Taran entering as a different Romney son while having the exact same look each time.
— Jason’s Romney, regarding Paul Ryan weightlifting in the Romney house: “Well, I’d like to see him carry Wisconsin!”
— Taran as one of Romney’s sons: “Come inside, father. Donald Trump is doing a very amusing thing where he’s racist………”
— What in the world is with the “Mitt & Ann Forever” part??? Why’d SNL feel the need to put that in this? I’m all for putting some heart and sentimentality into some of your comedy, which this season has done well quite a few times so far, but this “Mitt & Ann Forever” thing just felt odd and unnecessary.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & theatrical cast members sing SNL-linked “One Day More” variant

— As usual, I love the genuinely very emotional, overjoyed look Anne Hathaway always has on her face whenever she enters the stage at the beginning of her monologues.
— When Jason mentions he’s been on the show for 8 seasons, I, as an SNL nerd, like how he adds in as an aside, “two as a writer”.
— A great part of the song with Anne singing the lyric, “What a show I could have done…if they’d let me play Stefon”, a lyric that Anne makes complete by doing the Stefon hands-over-mouth thing. The Stefon mention, combined with the fact that this musical number is Les Miserables-based, makes me wonder if John Mulaney wrote this, given the fact that the episodes he would later host traditionally have a big musical sketch based on Les Mis and other Broadway musicals. Then again, I’m confused about John Mulaney’s status as a writer this season. I had always been under the impression that he left the show after the preceding season and only occasionally came back as a guest writer this season to write Stefon pieces for Weekend Update, but there was an earlier episode this season where I spotted his name among the rest of the writers in the goodnights credits, and I’ve recently seen a clip from a stand-up special of his where he mentioned that he was an SNL writer for four-and-a-half seasons. So was he only on for half of this season?
— I particularly love the part of the song where Tim and Aidy sing about Sundays AND Saturdays being their day off, and that they’re not in the show much because “we are new”. How does that explain all the airtime their fellow newbie Cecily’s been getting, though?
— While we’re on the subject of Tim and Aidy’s airtime, I’ve noticed that the respective trajectory of their airtime so far this season has been the exact opposite of each other, with Aidy being invisible the first few episodes, then gradually getting bigger roles after that, while Tim was given a decent amount of big roles his first few episodes, then pretty much disappeared after that.
— I was iffy on this monologue’s musical number at first, given my aversion to musical monologues and my lack of familiarity with Les Miserables, but after a minute or so, I’ve gotten really into this number. It’s very catchy (especially once it gets amped up), Anne and the cast are putting their all into this, and I like the meta-ness of the whole number.
— Now this musical number has gotten even better, as the whole cast is getting involved. When this monologue originally aired, I couldn’t help but notice how awkwardly out-of-place Fred looked standing with the rest of the cast by this late stage of his SNL tenure. I still feel the same way about that during my current viewing.
STARS: ****


GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
Kyra’s (CES) new pal (host) estranges Morgan (AIB)

— And Aidy’s stock continues to rise. And I love that the two main roles in tonight’s lead-off sketch are played by two new featured players.
— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Anne’s been given the generic role of this typical teenage girl archetype, but Anne is nailing it so much. I love her delivery in this.
— I got a big laugh from Aidy suddenly saying, as an insult towards Anne, “It looks like clothes dead women are found in!”, then shaking her head side-to-side in a sassy way. Unfortunately, IIRC, that shaking-her-head-side-to-side-in-a-sassy-way goes on to be a move that Aidy overuses quite a bit these first two seasons of her SNL tenure. She’d eventually drop it, thankfully.
— Aidy continues to have some funny reactions to being sidelined by Cecily for Cecily’s other best friend. I especially like her surprised delivery when asking Cecily, “You have a basement???”
— A funny story from Cecily about how crazy her boyfriend is.
— An overall good debut for this recurring sketch. When this SNL era originally aired, I recall quickly getting really tired of this recurring sketch after only two or so appearances, but we’ll see how I’ll now feel about this as a recurring sketch in these re-watches of mine.
STARS: ***½


THE LEGEND OF MOKIKI AND THE SLOPPY SWISH
Mokiki (TAK)’s Sloppy Swish dance enthralls (host)

— SNL’s first post-Lonely Island music video.
— I love this absolutely bizarre character for Taran. When this originally aired, this was yet another thing that had me thinking Taran was definitely on his way to becoming SNL’s next Will Ferrell, as I could easily picture Will doing something like this Mokiki bit in the late 90s.
— Kenan is great as the narrator.
— So many fun visuals of Taran’s Mokiki doing the “Sloppy Swish” dance move in various locations in the city.
— A very funny slow motion shot of Bobby mouthing “What the fuck” after Mokiki crashes Bobby and Kate’s picnic.
— Great fake-out with Mokiki and Anne’s pending kiss turning out to be him vomiting venom on her face.
— Oh, I love Anne now turning into a female Mokiki clone.
— An overall excellent, memorable, and catchy piece. SNL’s post-Lonely Island shorts have all been knocking it out of the park so far.
STARS: *****


HOMELAND
Saul (BIH) wants unstable Carrie (host) to do an interrogation

— I’ve never watched Homeland, but I’m currently only about 40 seconds into this sketch, and this Homeland spoof is already working for me just for Anne’s performance alone. Her performance in this is priceless.
— Now I’m noticing good supporting work from the cast, especially Taran’s funny performance and that great voice Bill’s doing.
— Very funny walk-on from Nasim.
— The “jazz freak-out” Anne’s doing is particularly hilarious.
— Bill: “Let me tell you something one of my 10 rabbis once told me…”
— Man, I’m loving practically everything about this sketch.
STARS: ****½


MCDONALD’S FIRING
McDonald’s employees Niff (BOM) & Dana (CES) badmouth their co-workers

— Bobby saying “We goin’ out on top like Seinfeld!” made me laugh even harder than it probably should’ve.
— It looks kinda dumb how, all throughout this sketch, Bobby and Cecily are facing and staring directly at the camera while telling off the co-workers who are located TO THEIR LEFT SIDE. I know Bobby and Cecily are just following the staging directions they were given, but this sketch shouldn’t have been directed this way in the first place.
— There are a lot of things about Bobby and Cecily’s characters that have the potential to be a little too annoying to watch, but it’s actually working well here, and I’m enjoying their insults to each co-worker of theirs. I also like how this sketch is using what appears to be the full cast, for the second segment tonight.
— I got a big laugh from Bobby and Cecily saying in unison, to one co-worker, “(*to the tune of the McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it’” jingle*) Ba-da-ba-ba-ba, go kill yourself!”
— I like Kate’s deadpan “…….Yes.” when rudely asked by Bobby and Cecily if her weird-looking leg had been burned.
— Now this truly is a full-cast sketch, as even the Weekend Update-only Seth has gotten involved as the voice of the co-worker heard through the phone.
— Even with his mere facial expressions and body language, Tim is very funny as the old worker. Good to see him get something funny to do again after practically disappearing the last few episodes prior to this.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Diamonds”


WEEKEND UPDATE
confident Barack Obama (JAP) will use mandate to set the political agenda

same-sex couple from Maine (FRA) & (BIH) relishes marriage equality

Drunk Uncle feels the election is representative of national decline

— Feels a little weird seeing Jay’s President Obama impression appearing on Weekend Update.
— Jay-as-Obama’s looseness here is pretty fun, especially the “Bounce with me” part.
— Hmm, a new outfit has been created for infants so they can clean the floor as they move around the house? Looks like SNL predicted the future with that (wretched) Swiffer Sleepers commercial they did 10 years prior.
— Wait, we’re still doing these “A Gay Couple From (insert place here)” bits all these years later? Another example of how Fred seemingly has little to offer this season other than bringing back old, tired recurring bits that don’t fit in the new, fresher direction SNL has been going in this season. I can’t even remember the last time this “A Gay Couple From (insert place here)” bit appeared prior to this. I think it was the “gays in the military”-based one from the Gerard Butler episode all the way back in season 35.
— I surprisingly have no memory at all of this Gay Couple From Maine commentary, even though I remember the rest of this episode fairly vividly. Maybe it’s for the best that I don’t remember this Maine commentary, especially since I never liked any of these “A Gay Couple From (insert place here)” bits. They’re at least progressive in terms of SNL’s portrayal of gay people, but I don’t find any of these characters funny.
— I did at least get a laugh just now from Bill (in what I’m assuming was an ad-lib) giving Fred a playful slap on the face while their characters are flirting with each other.
— I’m getting my usual amusement from Drunk Uncle, even if I can’t find any standout parts to mention here.
— Okay, I found one standout part I laughed at just now in the Drunk Uncle commentary, which him bitterly exclaiming out of nowhere, “Jeeewwwspapers!”
— Is it necessary to repeat that “That’s not me” “That’s not anybody” exchange between Drunk Uncle and Seth? That exchange was funny the first time it was used in Drunk Uncle’s last appearance prior to tonight’s episode, but it doesn’t work with repetition. IIRC, they even go on to have Colin Jost carry on the tradition of delivering the “That’s not anybody” line in Drunk Uncle’s appearances after Seth leaves.
STARS: ***


ELLEN
dancing precedes Ellen’s (KAM) interview with Katie Holmes (host)

— Good to see Kate’s Ellen DeGeneres impression back after its debut in that Bond Girls pre-tape earlier this season, even if I don’t find the idea of her starring in a straightforward spoof of Ellen’s talk show all that exciting.
— Cute appearance from Vanessa and Nasim.
— Great to see the return of Anne’s Katie Holmes impression from a Miley Cyrus Show sketch two seasons prior.
— Overall, not a bad sketch, though certainly not memorable.
STARS: ***


AMERICAN GOTHIC
American Gothic subjects (JAS) & (host) tried to bring levity to painting

— Kenan gets a good line after lightheartedly pointing out that the stereotype of Asians loving their cameras is apparently true: “Then again, I was 20 minutes late to work today.”
— A fairly interesting-seeming concept showing the making of the American Gothic painting.
— Simplistic humor here, but Jason and Anne are executing it really well.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stay”


FLARITIN
Flaritin is the fake Claritin for attention-seekers with fake allergies

— Kind of a rarity for a new pre-taped commercial to debut at the end of an episode. I think they only do that when there’s time to kill at the end of an episode.
— I like Vanessa’s delivery of her angry spiel about being lactose intolerant.
— Some laughs from the listed-off fake allergies you can claim to have when taking Flaritin.
— The premise is kinda flimsy and dumb, but the execution is okay enough.
— Good ending with Vanessa sneezing an exaggerated amount of nasty-looking mucus onto Kenan’s face.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— As usual, such a charming goodnights speech from Anne that stands out a bit from usual hosts’ goodnights speeches in these years.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode, in what’s been a streak of good episodes lately. The first half of this episode was strong, and, while things slowed down a little in the second half, that half was still good. There impressively weren’t any segments in this episode that I disliked. Another benefit of this episode was that it contained no pre-existing recurring sketches at all, which is further proof that this season has refreshingly been focusing very little on recurring sketches. Much like in her previous two hosting stints, Anne Hathaway did a great job as a host. It’s a damn shame this ends up being her final hosting stint (as of 2020).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Legend Of Mokiki And The Sloppy Swish
Homeland
Monologue
McDonald’s Firing
Girlfriends Talk Show
American Gothic
Election Night
Ellen
Weekend Update
Flaritin


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Louis C.K.)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jeremy Renner

Posted on

November 3, 2012 – Louis C.K. / fun. (S38 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
sign-language interpreters (CES) & (NAP) augment Hurricane Sandy presser

— Cecily is fantastic in her parody of the sign-language interpreter from Michael Bloomberg’s Hurricane Sandy press conference that week. Cecily’s getting a lot of laughs here.
— Nasim is also very funny as a crude New Jersey interpreter during Bobby-as-Chris-Christie’s speech. Bobby-as-Christie’s speech itself is also hilarious, and is delivered excellently by him.
— We end with a funny spoof of the real Michael Bloomberg’s penchant for making poor attempts at speaking Spanish. During that spoof, there are also good laughs from what Fred’s Bloomberg says about white people loving the show Homeland.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about helping an old lady who fell at the airport

— Feels like it’s been too long since I last reviewed a stand-up monologue, though I guess Russell Brand and Zach Galifianakis’ season 36 monologues weren’t that long ago. I usually always enjoy reviewing this type of monologue.
— An endless amount of funny comments from Louis C.K. about his experience helping one particular old lady.
— Very funny accent from Louis whenever he imitates the old lady’s voice.
— A particularly great portion of this monologue with Louis explaining he loves the fact that old ladies say whatever’s on their mind. Some great lines from Louis during this bit are “The filter comes off around 72”, “8-year-old boys and old ladies have the same sense of propriety”, and Louis equating old ladies’ habit of freely speaking their mind because they’re on their way out to a guy who just got fired and says rude things to his co-workers while carrying his box out of the office.
STARS: ****½


FOX & FRIENDS
FEMA official (host) tries rebutting bad disaster advice

— Feels so odd seeing Jason play Donald Trump, for the only time ever. As I mentioned in a recent review, I doubt a lot of SNL fans today remember Jason ever doing this impression.
— A few okay comments from Jason’s Trump, and his impression comes off less stale than how Darrell Hammond’s Trump gradually became prior to this.
— A particularly funny moronic line from Bobby’s Brian Kilmeade, disclosing the fact that he calls piranhas with AIDS “parades”.
— Louis is a solid straight man here.
— Another very funny moronic line from Bobby’s Kilmeade: “I threw my milk out and now I dunk my cookies in shampoo!”
STARS: ****


LINCOLN
stand-up comic Abraham Lincoln (host) expects assassination in dramedy

— Great to already see our second post-Lonely Island short film just one episode after the first one, which was fantastic (Sad Mouse).
— The opening scene between Louis’ Abe Lincoln and Kenan is excellent.
— A priceless reveal of this being a “Louie”-style sitcom starring Abraham Lincoln, complete with a spot-on and hilarious recreation of the Louie opening credits. I’m pretty sure I even spotted a passerby giving Louis’ Lincoln the finger, much like a passerby doing that to Louis in the actual Louie opening credits. Interestingly, in this version, it looks like the finger was left uncensored.
— Seeing Louis’ Lincoln doing stand-up in Louis’ trademark style is very funny.
— A solid tense conversation between Louis’ Lincoln and Aidy’s Mary Todd Lincoln.
— There’s even some great details in the names shown in the ending credits during the conversation Louis’ Lincoln has with Jay.
STARS: ****½


AUSTRALIAN SCREEN LEGENDS
down-under accents undermine dramatic scenes

— A funny unexpected turn during the opening love scene between Bill and Kate, with them suddenly breaking out extremely goofy Australian accents and expressions after such a long, tender build-up with their affectionate non-speaking actions.
— Seeing Louis C.K. attempt an Australian accent is alone worth a laugh.
— Louis, to a dying Kate: “Any last words?” Kate: “Uh…kangaroo, I guess.”
— Humorous goofy charm throughout this.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Some Nights”


WEEKEND UPDATE
sidelined by Hurricane Sandy, Mitt Romney (JAS) makes a final vote-for-me pitch

social media expert Kourtney Barnes (AIB) defends inane online commentary

The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is strident & spacey

SEM tells viewers how they can contribute to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort

— During the Mitt Romney commentary, I like the mention of how Hurricane Sandy took so much attention away from the fact that there’s a presidential election taking place in just a few days. This really takes me back to this hectic portion of 2012.
— A laugh from Jason-as-Romney’s dismissive and mumbly “…or woman” and “…or she” when making statements like “It takes a man…”.
— Great to see Aidy finally get her very first comedic lead role.
— Aidy’s proving herself really well in this first big comedic showcase of hers. Her delivery in this commentary is terrific, making the ridiculous immature social media posts she reads come off even funnier than they already are.
— Kinda interesting how both of this season’s new female cast members each get their own Update commentary in the same episode.
— This is the first appearance that Cecily’s Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party makes in a regular episode. She made her actual debut earlier this season in a Weekend Update Thursday special.
— Cecily’s got a great handle on this character, and is making so many funny dumb “informed” statements and malaprops.
— Girl You Wish etc.: “Seth, can I sing a negro spiritual real quick?” Seth: “NO!”
— Tonight’s Update ends on a serious note with Seth telling us the URL and phone number to make a donation for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
STARS: ***


MOUNTAIN PASS
while on a Middle Ages quest, (host) annoys folk with his horn blowing

— Hoo, boy. I recall this sketch being…uh…something.
— A funny little detail with Louis subtly moving the horn away from his mouth a bit while the horn-blowing sound effect is still playing.
— Another laugh, this time from Louis moving the horn away from his mouth in a longer, more exaggerated, blatant manner the third time he blows the horn.
— Wait, is the horn-blowing going to be the whole joke of this sketch?
— Okay, at least now, the sketch is going in a different direction. Not sure I like this direction, though.
— A big laugh from what’s probably the most remembered part of this sketch: Louis giving up when having to read a hard-to-pronounce Middle Ages-type word off the cue card, and opting instead to just refer to that word as “something” while chuckling out of character.
— Boy, where is this sketch going??? Is this another example of SNL wasting money by going through the trouble of using an impressive, fancy set and costumes for a lousy sketch with little-to-no laughs?
— Bill at least has a funny line right now, where, after calling the name Zorg weird, he reveals his own name is Nornt.
— Another funny line from Bill right now, with him exasperatedly exclaiming “Zesus Jeist!”
— Overall, despite my occasional complaints about this sketch, and as mediocre as the material itself as a whole indeed was, it was given a boost by a few laughs and a really likable atmosphere, the latter mainly helped by Louis’ “Don’t give a fuck”-type looseness.
STARS: **½


HOTEL FEES
at the end of (BOM)’s hotel stay, (host) reviews items charged to bill

— Pretty funny bit regarding the diamonds Bobby’s being charged for.
— Something about Louis’ way of saying “potatoes” in that dignified, professional voice tickles me.
— I’m enjoying Louis causally mentioning bizarre things on Bobby’s bill, like “16 cubic meters of argon”.
— Good bit with Fred passing by with the stuffed bobcat that was mentioned earlier as being stolen from Bobby’s hotel room.
— An odd but pretty charming little moment at the very end, with Bobby and Louis both dropping character and openly laughing with each other right before the screen fades to black.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— Louis even gets a good laugh from the audience during this musical guest intro, by quickly changing his smiling facial expression to an exaggeratedly serious facial expression when realizing the show has come back from commercial break, then playfully gesturing to the now-laughing audience to shut up.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Carry On”


LAST CALL
desperate (host) & Sheila Sovage (KAM) hurtle toward a last-call hook-up

— The debut of both Kate’s Sheila Sovage character and the Last Call recurring sketch.
— I’m already loving the offbeat, non-sequitur-filled conversation between Kate’s Sovage and Louis, right from the beginning of it.
— Kate and Louis’ conversation and interplay are getting increasingly hilarious, and are being so well-performed by both Kate and Louis.
— A very funny disgusting make-out session between Kate and Louis, which gets a wild audience reaction.
— Solid ending with Kenan trying to block Kate and Louis’ lovemaking outside the window by spraypainting the window and saying to us, “I don’t wanna know how that pans out.”
— An overall very strong closing sketch.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, especially with that great string of segments rated four or four-and-a-half stars in the first 20 or so minutes. Even the only segment I found weak in this episode (Mountain Pass) had its redeemable factors. Louis C.K. did a solid job in his hosting debut, even coming off a little out of his element in a fun way during some sketches.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Lincoln
Press Conference
Last Call
Monologue
Fox & Friends
Hotel Fees
Australian Screen Legends
Weekend Update
Mountain Pass


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bruno Mars)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Anne Hathaway

Posted on

October 20, 2012 – Bruno Mars (S38 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
undecided voters question debating Barack Obama (JAP) & Mitt Romney (JAS)

— Aidy gets her very first big role. However, it’s just a (mostly) non-comedic straight role. I remember, back at this time in 2012, I was antsy and impatient for SNL to finally give Aidy big comedic roles, especially given the fact that her fellow two newbies Cecily and Tim had both gotten their share of big comedic roles by this point.
— Fred’s small appearance here ends up being his ONLY appearance all night, another sign that he’s (thankfully) on his way out this season.
— A pretty funny, if not all that creative, angle in this presidential debate sketch, with the childish over-the-top bickering and threats between Obama and Romney throughout this.
— Hilarious cutaway to Taran as Tagg Romney holding a fist up while angrily saying “Let me at ‘im, dad!”
— For a new and underused cast member, Aidy’s doing a good job with so much wordy dialogue.
— A good laugh from Jay’s Obama saying, in response to how the “plan” he shows Jason’s Romney is his middle finger, “And the best thing about my plan is, you can sit on it AND spin.”
— Aidy actually gets a funny line right now, one she delivers very well, when she says “You’re setting a terrible example for this audience, and these people are VERY impressionable. They are from…Long Island!”
— Not sure if this is intentional or not, but Bobby’s New York-accented citizen sounds JUST LIKE Joe Pesci. In fact, Bobby sounds far more like Pesci here than when he actually played Pesci in that Delaware Fellas sketch from the preceding season’s Daniel Radcliffe episode.
— A standout part right now, when Cecily’s question to the candidates about what they would do to keep dangerous assault weapons off the street is answered with a point-blank “Uhh, nothing” “I would also do nothing.” A biting and eerily prescient moment. In fact, after the Sandy Hook school shooting would happen two months later, this portion of the cold opening would be removed in the ensuing NBC rerun. No idea if it was ever restored.
— TOM HANKS!!!
— Even in just a small part, Tom is his usual fantastic self here.
— Another standout part, where, after Jason’s Romney is proven wrong on his claim that Jay’s Obama took too long to call the attack in Benghazi a terrorist act, Jay’s Obama does an epic mic drop in response.
— Good to see the underused Aidy say LFNY so early into her tenure.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host sings his way from self-doubt to confidence about his SNL gig

— This is the second consecutive musical monologue, but it at least makes sense for Bruno Mars to do one.
— Much like Fred in the cold opening, Kenan’s appearance in this monologue surprisingly ends up being the only time we see him all night.
— A very fun and upbeat turn the song takes after Kenan gives Bruno the confidence he needs. This more upbeat song is also a great use of Bruno’s infectious singing style.
— Overall, Bruno did a solid job here, and this was certainly better than a lot of the usual musical monologues from these late 00s/early 10s years.
STARS: ***½


CHANEL NO. 5
lack of a script explains Brad Pitt’s (TAK) incoherent Chanel No. 5 spot

— 8 years after this aired, I now barely remember the actual Brad Pitt commercial this is spoofing. However, this seems to be the type of spoof you can still “get” even without having seen the source material.
— Taran’s Brad Pitt: “Also, is it just me, or do I look super homeless?”
STARS: ***


HATERS WITH SUNNY TAYLOR TOMPKINS
twerking (BOM) & daughter (host) accuse audience of jealousy

— Right from Bobby’s walk-on as this type of character, I’m getting a bad feeling about this sketch.
— As I’ve mentioned multiple times in the past, Bobby has the ability to make potentially-hacky man-in-drag roles come off entertaining. But ugh at his dialogue in this, even if it is an accurate spoof of things that girls like Bobby’s character say on this type of trashy daytime talk show. Also, was it still considered timely in 2012 to spoof trashy daytime talk shows? It seems like spoofing that went out of style a whole decade prior.
— Bruno is at least fun in his performance, but like Bobby, his actual dialogue is ugh.
— Not even Aidy smashing a chair on Jay did anything for me.
— Oof, what a waste of Tim Robinson.
— Thank god this talk show sketch never ends up becoming recurring like I’m sure it was intended to.
STARS: *½


TACO BELL
Brad Pitt (TAK) extols the merits of Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos

— Pretty funny Taco Bell twist, though it reminds me too much of the twists from those Clint Eastwood ads that Bill did in the preceding season’s Zooey Deschanel episode.
— The sudden silliness in Taran-as-Brad-Pitt’s demeanor after the Taco Bell reveal is pretty fun.
STARS: ***


PANDORA INTERNET RADIO
intern (host) provides vocals after power outage at Pandora headquarters

— An impressively spot-on and funny Billie Joe Armstrong impression from Bruno during the first song he performs in this.
— More great singer impressions from Bruno throughout this sketch.
— The premise of this sketch is increasingly implausible, but I don’t give a damn, as the execution of it is so fun and very infectious.
— I love the Louis Armstrong bit. Even Bruno briefly laughing when starting to do the Armstrong voice was very charming.
— Ohh, hell yeah, now we’re about to get a Michael Jackson impression from Bruno.
— Very funny little gag with all the employees just happening to have a Michael Jackson glove available.
— Man, the energy in this sketch is fantastic. I’m having an absolute blast watching this.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****½


SAD MOUSE
Times Square tourists ignore depressed (host) in rodent suit

— Several big firsts here: our first post-Lonely Island short film on SNL, our first Mike O’Brien short film, and our first Matt & Oz-directed short film.
— I love the opening scene between Bruno and Jason. Fantastic acting there, as well as good subtle laughs.
— An excellent and memorable montage of Bruno in the mouse costume failing to garner up any interest from Times Square tourists, then slowly having a miserable meltdown. Even the music playing in the background is adding perfectly to the scene.
— Such a sweet ending. It honestly nearly brought me to tears.
— A fantastic short film overall, and I love how different this felt for this SNL period up to this point. A great introduction to Mike O’Brien’s refreshing style of films, which will be a treat over these next few seasons.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Locked Out Of Heaven”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Dos & Don’ts- SEM gives debating advice to presidential candidates

most folks won’t want to follow Stefon’s freakish Halloween itinerary

— Yet another new (I think) Update segment from Seth: “Dos And Don’ts”.
— Wow, tonight’s overall “Dos And Don’ts” segment ended up being a huge flop for me. I didn’t get a single laugh during it, and the humor was so corny and bland.
— Stefon in his first appearance of the season.
— I love the little bit with Stefon starting his commentary by telling Seth “Hi, I’m Stefon” while holding his hand out for a handshake, as if they’re meeting each other for the first time.
— A nice change of pace with Stefon walking us through his Halloween routine.
— A particularly hilarious and memorable Stefon moment right now, with him revealing Jewish Dracula’s name is Sidney Applebaum (which results in Bill breaking harder than he probably ever has in any Stefon bit).
— Wow, just now during the Stefon commentary, they actually address the fact that “midget” is an outdated term, which Stefon responds to by humorously replacing the word “midget” with “fun-sized”.
— Yet another great change of pace in tonight’s Stefon commentary, with him telling a scary Halloween story.
STARS: ***


MERRYVILLE HAUNTED CASTLE
(Tom Hanks) & fellow Merryville animatrons spook a haunted house ride

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch.
— Is it just me, or, after being utilized a lot in this season’s premiere (to the extent that some online SNL fans at the time assumed SNL would make her the new Kristen Wiig), Vanessa’s been having a quiet season so far? It feels like we haven’t been seeing much of her lately.
— Much like Jim Carrey and Justin Timberlake in previous installments of this sketch, Bruno is great at doing the robotic moves with Taran.
— I love the visual of Taran wearing a Freddy Krueger-esque knife glove.
— Now Tom Hanks is getting involved as one of the Merryville Brother animatrons!
— When this originally aired, I realized that, much like with the Roxbury Guys, both Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks have played a Merryville Brother, on separate occasions. I recall kinda wondering back then if this coincidental trend would continue. Funnily enough, Martin Short, another host who once appeared as a third Roxbury Guy, actually hosts a little later this season, but there’s no Merryville Brothers sketch in that episode.
STARS: ***


FRANKLIN’S DOG CONDOMS
Brad Pitt (TAK) recommends Franklin’s Dog Condoms in lieu of castration

— Meh, I didn’t get much of a laugh from the dog condoms reveal, nor at the repeated “Let your dog keep his balls” slogan.
STARS: **


YETI POINT
at Yeti Point, (JAS) & (VAB) doubt (BIH) was cryptozoologically molested

— Some very funny hammy suspenseful facial expressions into the camera from Bruno.
— A great Doc Brown-esque look of Bill’s character.
— Hmm, not too sure about the conceit this sketch has taken. Bill’s character revealing what the yeti did to him isn’t doing much for me.
— There’s a bit of a Christmas Kangaroo vibe to the encounter we see Bill and the yeti having outside the window, though this one ends up going in a less crude, more comically-romantic direction. Despite that, I still prefer Christmas Kangaroo.
STARS: **


JONATHAN ZIZMOR M.D.
Brad Pitt (TAK) touts the tattoo removal services of Dr. Jonathan Zizmor

— (*sigh*) We’re still doing these?
— Yikes, the tattoo-removal reveal fell COMPLETELY flat for me. It didn’t get a single laugh from me (nor did it get much of one from the audience).
STARS: *


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Stefon introduces host


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Young Girls”


DONKEY PUNCH THE BALLOT!
Under-Underground Donkey Punch The Ballot! festival is vaguely political

— Nasim makes her ONLY appearance of the entire night in a pre-tape that was cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding episode and is being buried in the 10-to-1 slot of tonight’s episode.
— This ends up being the final installment of this recurring piece.
— The usual funny Ass Dan scene, this time involving him reuniting with his twin, Butt Dave. I love the bit with them both dying seconds apart from each other, especially the way the split-screen In Memoriam is done for each of them.
— Holy hell, I had no idea Kate’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg impression debuted this early into Kate’s tenure. It feels so odd reviewing this impression so early in my SNL project, as I heavily associate this impression of Kate’s with the mid-late 2010s years of SNL, specifically the Jost/Che era of Weekend Update. In fact, I think the second appearance Kate’s RBG makes isn’t until well into the Jost/Che era, years after this debut.
— The audience barely reacts to Kate’s RBG appearance here, which feels weird in hindsight, knowing how popular the impression would later go on to be with the audience. Kate also uses a very different voice for RBG here than the one she’d regularly use in later appearances.
— The “Binders Full Of Women” mention is obviously a new addition that wasn’t in the version of this that aired in the preceding episode’s dress rehearsal, as it’s referencing a controversial Mitt Romney statement that was made earlier the week of this episode.
— Bruno’s portion of this was also obviously a new addition to this previously-cut-from-dress piece.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode that I had always remembered being a bit better than it is, due to 1) the fantastic one-two punch of the Pandora Internet Radio sketch and the Sad Mouse film airing back-to-back, and 2) how fun and extremely likable Bruno Mars was as a host. Despite not quite living up to my memory of this episode’s quality, this episode was still enjoyable and had a few great highs.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Sad Mouse
Pandora Internet Radio
Donkey Punch The Ballot!
Second Presidential Debate
Monologue
Merryville Haunted Castle
Weekend Update
Taco Bell
Chanel No. 5
Yeti Point
Franklin’s Dog Condoms
Haters with Sunny Taylor Tompkins
Jonathan Zizmor M.D.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christina Applegate)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Louis C.K. makes his hosting debut

Posted on

October 13, 2012 – Christina Applegate / Passion Pit (S38 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Paul Ryan (TAK) & vice president Joe Biden (JAS) debate; Usain Bolt cameo

— Already, Jason’s Joe Biden is a blast in this debate sketch, during Taran-as-Paul-Ryan’s opening statement.
— A big laugh from Kate’s Martha Raddatz telling Biden and Ryan, “Then don’t try and f(*bleep*)k me like I’m Jim Lehrer.” Also, that shot of her saying that was actually pre-taped, surprisingly. You can tell by the sudden change in audio quality, as well as the sudden change in the way Kate’s hair looks. Seems odd to pre-tape that small portion of this sketch just because it required a bleeping-out of a swear word. Was SNL afraid they’d mess up the timing of the bleep if they did it live? They’ve certainly done bleeped-out swearing in live sketches before, but the timing of the bleeps in those sketches sometimes got messed up and revealed that the performer was saying a fake swear word (e.g. “frick” instead of “fuck”), so maybe SNL didn’t want to risk that happening for what was supposed to be a big laugh line from Kate in tonight’s cold opening.
— Are Jason-as-Biden’s disparaging remarks about Scranton, Pennsylvania a callback to him previously doing that in the VP debate sketch from 2008? If so, I love that callback.
— The camera accidentally catches Jason putting fake Biden teeth into his mouth at one point (screencap below).

— Fantastic comment from Jason’s Biden detailing his workout routine involving an Amtrak.
— I love the non-sequitur of Kate’s Raddatz bringing up the baseball playoffs, then suddenly turning that into an unrelated question asking Biden and Ryan their thoughts about abortion.
— Jason continues to absolutely kill it throughout this debate sketch.
— Taran doesn’t have as many standout great moments here as Jason or Kate do, but he’s still doing a fine job.
— A laugh from Usain Bolt being brought out just to clarify a ridiculous lie Taran’s Ryan makes up about winning the Hundred Meters at the London Olympics.
— A priceless ending, with Jason’s Biden wiping off Taran-as-Ryan’s widow’s peak.
— An overall very fun, well-written, and underrated debate sketch, made even more entertaining by a fantastic Jason Sudeikis performance. Compared to some other debate sketches from over the years, this particular one never got the attention and acclaim that I feel it’s always deserved.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings about how she’s happy that the holidays aren’t here yet

— I like that Christina Applegate brings up her last hosting stint from all the way back in 1993, and mentions that was the first appearance of the Matt Foley character, a mention that’s accompanied by a screenshot of that legendary Foley debut. I also like how we’re subsequently shown a screenshot of Christina, in a very 90s outfit, introducing one of the musical performances in that 1993 episode. Feels like it was just yesterday when I was reviewing that SNL era.
— (*groan*) A musical monologue. I do kinda like the conceit of this one, though, with Christina saying this is her favorite time of year because there are no holidays yet, as it’s shortly before the bombardment of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. As someone who also, at the risk of sounding like a grouch, doesn’t care much for the Thanksgiving/Christmas portion of the year (I have no issues with Halloween) and doesn’t care much for how those two holidays are bunched so close together, I can relate to this premise, especially since, as of the writing of this review, we’re currently in that portion of the year.
— A fairly fun appearance form the “Fruppets”, and Bill further proves that he can perfectly imitate almost any voice (Kermit, in this case).
— The return of Jason’s spot-on and funny Dane Cook impression!
— Despite the aforementioned highlights and how much I can relate to the premise of the song, I’m still not all that crazy about the actual singing portions of this monologue, and I always hate when SNL has cast members play corny backup dancers in musical monologues like this.
STARS: **½


GILLETTE
razor-free Jerry Sandusky (JAS) uses the Gillette Fusion ProGlide Styler

— A hilarious disturbing reveal of Jerry Sandusky randomly being one of the celebrities shown using the Gillette product in this suavely-filmed commercial.
— Adding to the humor of the Sandusky reveal is the dopey overbite facial expression Jason perpetually makes as him.
— I like that they kept this overall commercial short and simple, and didn’t hurt the Sandusky reveal by belaboring the point.
STARS: ****


THE CALIFORNIANS
Stuart (FRA) maps out his impending marriage to (host)

— (*groooooooooaaaaaaaaaaan*)
— If I was watching this sketch with my eyes closed, I’d swear that was the no-longer-on-the-show Kristen Wiig I was hearing every time Christina Applegate spoke. The Californian voice Christina’s using here sounds EXACTLY like that of Kristen’s from previous installments of this sketch.
— Boy, this endless back-and-forth between Fred and Bill is not only unfunny and overlong, but it’s melting my brain.
— Christina even seems to be imitating some physical Wiig mannerisms here.
— Not even good ol’ Bobby can save this mess of a sketch in his walk-on.
— They’re even getting Usain Bolt involved in this?
— As much as I hate to admit it, Usain Bolt doing the typical camera mugging during the mock-dramatic close-up actually made me laugh. Maybe it’s funnier seeing him do that close-up camera mugging than it is seeing others in this sketch do that because it’s Usain Bolt, of all people. Plus, perhaps that shot of him mugging got in my good graces subconsciously when it was shown during the “athletes on SNL” highlight reel in SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special.
STARS: *½


TECH TALK
Chinese workers’ woes eclipse first-world problems of iPhone 5

 

— Maybe it’s because I just came from a sketch where I had to hear performers talk in exaggerated Californian accents non-stop for 5 minutes, but it sounds like Bill used a silly Californian accent when saying his opening greeting in this Tech Talk sketch.
— Okay, as Bill continues speaking, I now see he’s just doing a bit of a silly, nerdy voice, not a Californian voice.
— A good sudden turn with Christina bringing out the Chinese sweatshop workers who designed the iPhone 5, to come face-to-face with the guests on this show who expressed shallow complaints about the phone.
— A lot of strong lines from Fred, Nasim, and Cecily’s Chinese worker characters in their sarcastic remarks to the guests. It’s just too bad those strong lines have to be delivered in such broad, stereotypical Asian accents. I could see this strong material actually coming off MORE effective and maybe even more biting if the accents were downplayed to an extent. However, I sure as hell don’t consider this sketch itself to be “racist”, like I once saw someone on SNL’s Reddit claim. Obviously, the Asian characters in this sketch are the ones who get the upper hand on the American characters, and deservedly put the Americans in their place.
— Cecily’s handbag line has always been one of my favorite lines in this sketch.
— Oh, I love Nasim performing a slow motion sarcastic dance while Kenan is expressing more shallow complaints about the phone.
— Christina’s ending line seemed like it should’ve been funnier.
STARS: ***½


GIVE US ALL OUR DAUGHTERS BACK!
stars work the phones in revenge movie

— That opening shot of masked gunmen entering a daycare and pointing guns at frightened children reminds me that, IIRC, this entire pre-tape would later be removed from at least one NBC rerun of this episode after the Sandy Hook school shooting in December of this year (2012). Similarly, an Obama/Romney presidential debate sketch in the very next episode I’ll be reviewing has a small portion that would be removed from reruns for reasons related to the Sandy Hook shooting, as we’ll see when I review that sketch.
— Very funny and spot-on Liam Neeson impression from Taran.
— A pretty funny spoof of this prevalent movie trope.
— Jay-as-Denzel-Washington’s whole “Are you a sheep or a wolf? etc.” rant is fantastic.
— Bill’s Arnold Schwarzenegger voice is cracking me up, though his scene itself is nothing special.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Take A Walk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Arianna Huffington (NAP) reviews Martha Raddatz vs. Joe Biden & Paul Ryan

Lance Armstrong doping scandal inspires a stand-up set from Jean K. Jean

— I love Nasim-as-Arianna-Huffington’s bit about likening a debate between two men to a penis-measuring contest, mainly because of her humorous, accented pronunciation of “penis” (“pennis”).
— Some really good comments from Nasim throughout this Arianna Huffington commentary. These Huffington commentaries of hers seem to get better and better with each passing appearance. I’m glad I’m now appreciating them, because when these originally aired, I think I unfairly dismissed them simply because Nasim wasn’t Michaela Watkins (who originally did an Arianna Huffington commentary on Update during her sole season on SNL).
— Kenan’s Jean K. Jean makes his first appearance in what feels like a long time. This also ends up being his final Update commentary, though he has one appearance remaining: a minor, non-speaking appearance he makes among many Update characters/impressions who are celebrating Stefon’s marriage to Seth in this season’s finale.
— As usual, some pretty good laughs and fun delivery from Kenan as Jean K. Jean. Also as usual, I could do without those dance breaks Jean does after some of his jokes, but at least this is the last time I’ll have to deal with that (until it’s repurposed years later for Kate’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg commentaries on Update, and I care for the dance breaks even less there).
STARS: ***


THE SIRENS
Sirens (host), (CES), (KAM) tempt Odysseus (JAS) with hits from the 1990s

— Meh at the comedic conceit of this sketch with the Sirens’ songs being hit 90s female-sung songs. That type of humor just isn’t for me, plus it feels like SNL already used a premise like this before, but I can’t remember when. Maybe I’m actually thinking of a sketch that would be done sometime after this: the Little Mermaid sketch with Anna Kendrick the season after this one, but, IIRC, that sketch actually works, for various reasons.
— Not even Jason’s giddy reactions to the girly songs can get me into this sketch, and I usually always love Giddy Jason Sudeikis.
— Okay, Jason’s giddiness towards the songs is now finally starting to get me smiling, though I’m still not caring at all for the main concept regarding the songs the Sirens are singing.
— I got a chuckle from Bobby saying “I do what everyone else dooooeees!” while flinging himself off of the ship like the other sailors did.
STARS: *½


HALLOWEEN BALL
Principal Frye reproves unruly students at literacy-themed Halloween ball

— I don’t seem to like these Principal Frye sketches quite as much as other people do, but I certainly have no problems seeing it return again.
— There goes Jay’s obligatory break that seems to happen at least once in these sketches.
— A bit of an awkward and confusing line flub from Jay at the end, where he starts addressing what he calls “a young woman who came dressed up as a leprechaun”, and then, after going on a little about said leprechaun-dressed student, suddenly refers to that student as “son”, then ad-libs “excuse me, it’s a boy”, which is an acknowledgment from Jay that he genuinely messed up his line when calling that student “a young woman” earlier. Despite that confusion, I still laughed at the punchline of the leprechaun bit.
— I can’t find anything else to say about tonight’s overall installment of this recurring sketch, except that I had my usual reaction to it that I always do. However, I didn’t like Christina’s character quite as much as I liked Josh Brolin’s character in the last installment of this sketch prior to tonight’s.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Carried Away”


DANCE STUDIO
dance instructor (host) ultimately imbues students with Bob Fosse gestalt

— Another sketch tonight where, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear Christina is intentionally doing a Kristen Wiig imitation. The similarities Christina’s character voice and mannerisms in this sketch have to a typical Wiig character are downright UNCANNY.
— I’m currently more than halfway through this sketch, and I’ve yet to get a single laugh. Typical James Anderson-written material that’s a complete chore for me to watch. Kenan’s character is humorous-seeming, at least, but I’m still not finding myself actually laughing at him.
— Geez, Christina even did a Wiig-like wheezing laugh just now. Yeah, I’m starting to wonder, did writers James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette sit Christina down and have her study a whole bunch of old Kristen Wiig tapes or something? Do Anderson & Sublette miss Kristen that much?
— Such a corny and unfunny turn with all the students, one-by-one, suddenly “getting” how to do Christina’s confusing dance moves.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good first half, but a disappointing second half. Even what I found to be the only good sketch in the second half (Halloween Ball) was merely average to me. Tonight’s episode also ends this season’s impressive streak of episodes that contain very few things I disliked. However, despite containing more lows than any of the prior episodes this season did, at least tonight’s episode contained better highs than the forgettably-average preceding episode with Daniel Craig did.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Vice Presidential Debate
Gillette
Tech Talk
Give Us All Our Daughters Back!
Weekend Update
Halloween Ball
Monologue
The Sirens
The Californians
Dance Studio


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Daniel Craig)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bruno Mars

Posted on

October 6, 2012 – Daniel Craig / Muse (S38 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Barack Obama (JAP) loses focus during first debate with Mitt Romney (JAS)

— Well, here we go, the first debate sketch of this election season. The political satire in this election season doesn’t seem to be all that remembered among SNL fans, especially compared to the election season that preceded this (the 2008 one). However, I recall this season’s second Obama/Romney debate sketch being solid, and I recall absolutely LOVING this season’s VP debate sketch between Jason’s Joe Biden and Taran’s Paul Ryan, which airs in the following episode.
— Much like in the 2008 election season, SNL brings Chris Parnell back to reprise his Jim Lehrer impression.
— Jay continues his streak of having the lead or co-lead role in every cold opening so far this season.
— A funny split-screen shot of Jason’s stone-faced Mitt Romney staring coldly at Jay’s President Obama.
— A laugh from Jay’s Obama having a “whatever”-type reaction to being told Jason’s Romney claimed to have killed Osama Bin Laden.
— The conceit of us hearing Jay-as-Obama’s various inner thoughts is a somewhat interesting and unique angle for a presidential debate sketch, and an okay spoof of how uncharacteristically distracted and uninterested Obama acted at the real debate. This isn’t exactly biting political satire, nor is it memorable in regards to SNL’s presidential debate sketches over the years, but it’s decent enough.
— A fairly funny turn with us now hearing Chris-as-Lehrer’s inner thoughts.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— This season’s new theme music is being played at a faster tempo tonight than it was in this season’s previous episodes. This faster tempo will remain for the rest of this theme song’s run (2012-2014).


MONOLOGUE
host plays In Memoriam reel of the people he’s killed in the movies

— At the end of Daniel Craig’s entrance, after the camera shows the usual brief shot of the host from behind while we see the audience applauding, we get a change of pace tonight with the camera showing a brief side shot of Daniel from the angle of the floor seats (screencap below).

This new camera angle shot becomes a regular thing at the beginning of hosts’ monologues for the remainder of the 2012 half of this season, then stops for some unknown reason in the 2013 half of this season.
— A fun concept of showing an In Memoriam reel for characters that Daniel killed in his movies. The result is only average, though.
— I like Daniel’s side comment asking to Shazam the song that’s playing during the In Memoriam reel.
— The “The Dog Who Saw Too Much” bit was a decent ending of the In Memoriam reel.
STARS: ***


CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
unlike the other construction workers, (host) isn’t very good at catcalls

— Pretty funny delivery from Kenan during his catcalls throughout this sketch.
— The premise isn’t all that great, but Daniel’s execution of it is decent and likable.
— A funny sleazy “If You See Something, Say Something” reference from Bobby.
— A big laugh during the flashback scene where Bill’s character gets shot out of nowhere by the woman he catcalled.
STARS: ***


BOND 50
DVD collection has forgotten, unsexy Bond girls like Diane Keaton (VAB)

— Fun premise, and a decent excuse for the female cast to do celebrity impressions.
— A solid Diane Keaton scene with Vanessa.
— For some reason, I had no memory of the portion with Vanessa’s Molly Ringwald, even though I remember everything else in this.
— A lot of funny fictional Bond movie titles.
— Kate is stealing this whole thing with her respective scenes as Jodie Foster and Ellen DeGeneres, the latter scene of which is particularly funny.
STARS: ***½


THREE DAYS LATER: A LOOK BACK AT THE OBAMA DEBATE DISASTER
Rachel Maddow (CES) & MSNBC pundits assess Obama’s weak debate showing

— Cecily takes over the Rachel Maddow impression that the no-longer-on-the-show Abby Elliott used to do. I’m finding Cecily’s Maddow impression to be much better than Abby’s. Cecily’s nailing both the facial mannerisms and the voice well enough.
— Speaking of taking over former cast members’ impressions, we get Jason playing Chris Matthews. Feels odd seeing Jason in this role. Also, this doesn’t end up being the only time this season where Jason takes over an impression that Darrell Hammond used to frequently do. In what I’m sure a lot of SNL fans don’t remember (hell, I myself didn’t remember it until just now), Jason plays Donald Trump in a sketch later this season. I kid you not.
— While Jason isn’t exactly dethroning Darrell as SNL’s most accurate Chris Matthews impersonator, I’m absolutely loving Jason’s impression. His performance and delivery are SLAYING me in this.
— Kate gets a laugh from her “gloating” as S.E. Cupp.
— Some funny insane theories from Kenan’s Al Sharpton throughout this sketch.
STARS: ***½


LONG ISLAND MEDIUM
Theresa Caputo (KAM) reads fellow Italian-Americans

— A funny exaggerated crying outburst from Taran.
— We get our very first onscreen interaction between Kate and Aidy, who would later go on to be inseparable castmates. Their interaction here is very brief, though.
— Another standout Kate McKinnon performance. She’s been killing it these past two episodes.
— I love Cecily’s mere facial expressions and demeanor as a supermarket customer who accepts Kate’s Theresa Caputo just randomly coming up to her and immediately giving her a psychic prediction.
— Bobby steals the supermarket scene with his perfectly-delivered “Hey, f(*bleep*)k you!”
STARS: ***½


MARS MISSION
Mars-bound, baby-talking Kirby (BOM) goes on about missing his kitty cat

— Oh, I forgot all about this “I miss my little kitty cat” character of Bobby’s. From what I remember, I pretty much hated these sketches when they originally aired, but I get the feeling I’ll have a bit of a different reaction during these re-watches.
— So far, such an odd, one-note character from Bobby, and I can see why I and certain others were annoyed by him, but in my current viewing, I’m finding Bobby’s portrayal of this character to be somewhat entertaining and strangely endearing in the way that only Bobby can make it. Also, I’m oddly getting a bit of a Chris Farley vibe from Bobby’s characterization and look here.
— Daniel is rather stumbly with his lines throughout this sketch.
— Bobby’s emotional screaming outburst (another Farley-esque trait) when thinking his cat got destroyed in the duffel bag is making me simultaneously laugh and, strangely, almost shed a sad tear. Bobby is such a lovable performer in general that he has the strange ability to tap into my emotions sometimes.
— For some reason, the fact that Bobby, while still under the impression that his cat got destroyed, yells “I hate this trip! I hate it so much!” is cracking me up.
— An actual cute ending.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Madness”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups those affected by presidential debate into Winners & Losers

political football Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) reacts to recent attention

unrepentant Ecce Homo defacer Cecilia Gimenez (KAM) wants her money

— Another edition of the Winners/Losers segment, a segment that’s usually hit-and-miss.
— Seth manages to work his spot-on Hugh Grant impression from back in the day into one portion of tonight’s Winners/Losers segment.
— Tonight’s overall Winners/Losers was easily the best edition of that segment. Seth had a lot of great quips in tonight’s edition.
— A noteworthy moment right now, as we get a Big Bird appearance on SNL, in response to Mitt Romney’s infamous “Don’t get me wrong, I like PBS, I like Big Bird” remark at that week’s presidential debate. Seeing Big Bird on SNL feels special, and actually warms my heart.
— This Big Bird commentary has a lot of tame, lighthearted humor, but that’s very understandable for this particular character (obviously, SNL’s not going to have him do dirty late-night-worthy humor or make a politically-divisive statement in regards to Mitt Romney), and he’s making it lovably charming instead of corny or cringeworthy.
— After having her breakout SNL moment in her very first Update commentary just one episode prior, Kate already appears in her second Update commentary.
— Kate’s solid night continues, as she’s cracking me up all throughout her Update commentary tonight. And the goofiness and looseness of her performance is coming off fresh in this early stage of her SNL tenure. As I said in my last episode review, the stage presence Kate has is very impressive for someone so new on SNL.
STARS: ***½


A SORRY LOT WE ARE
sad sack working-class Brits commiserate at the pub

— A promising idea of such a British-centric sketch. Good casting of Bill in this, as he always nails British-centric roles.
— A decent spoof of depressing British tropes.
— Ugh, Fred’s appearance as a guy who’s eager to see the “poofter convention” is cringeworthy. And SNL’s casting of Fred in this particular homoerotic role is sadly so on-brand for him in his later seasons.
— Aidy gets the most noteworthy role she’s had up to this point of her SNL tenure, and that’s still not saying much. (It takes a while this season before Aidy starts getting really good parts that showcase her talents well. She definitely has a slower start than her two fellow newbies Cecily and Tim.) I remember, when this originally aired, I was bothered by the fact that the first noteworthy role SNL gave to their very first plus-sized female cast member was a disgusting, unappealing character, which was exactly the type of role that I remember I and some other online SNL fans were worried SNL would typecast Aidy in when we first learned of her hiring and found out she’s plus-sized. In my current viewing of this sketch, I’m not bothered anymore by the decision to cast Aidy in this role, probably because I’m now aware that Aidy doesn’t go on to be typecast in disgusting roles. Aidy’s making this amusing enough, and in fact, I’m not even finding this character all that disgusting in my current viewing, which may be a testament to Aidy’s likability as a performer.
STARS: ***


LOVING COUPLE
at a dinner party, (host)’s girlfriend Regine (FRA) is sensual & smug

— Uggggggghhhhh. Not only is this Fred’s second drag role of tonight’s episode alone, but it’s the debut of a character of his who I absolutely DESPISE. (*Insert my typical, overdone rant here about how Fred has gotten so unbearably annoying in his later seasons and should’ve left years ago*)
— I’m also tired seeing Fred spoof pretentious people like this. He did that so much better in his earlier seasons when he was in his prime.
— Oh god at all of the “Watch her face while I (insert sensual action here)” bits throughout this sketch, which are just an excuse for Fred to mug in the most exaggerated, hammiest way possible.
— I finally got one laugh in this sketch, when the camera did a cutaway to Bill’s stone-faced angry look in response to Fred’s Regine refusing the drink Bill’s giving her, because “I wanted it then, not now.”
— Oh, now this sketch somehow gets even MORE unwatchable, with Fred now spreading his legs apart and letting us see up his skirt.
— Our first of what I recall many instances this season of Fred and Bill causing each other to break, basically becoming SNL’s new-age Fallon & Sanz. However, it turns out Bill is actually doing an okay job in his attempt to keep a straight face here. It’s mostly Fred who’s breaking at this moment.
— And now, after starting to break, Fred has gotten too loose in his performance and has taken to practically screaming the remainder of his lines in an exaggerated manner. (*groan*)
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Panic Station”


LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS OF AMERICA
— Rerun from 9/22/12…which was just ONE EPISODE AGO. Is this the first time in SNL history where a commercial was re-aired just one episode after its debut? Even that Will Forte/Amy Poehler-starring Morgan Stanley commercial from season 31, which was re-aired an insane amount of times in the first half of that season, wasn’t re-aired in the episode that followed its debut. I get the feeling I did once review an episode that re-aired a commercial just one episode after its debut, but I’m blanking on it right now.


GOODNIGHTS

— Such a sweet visual of an eager, starstruck Bobby slowly giving Big Bird a hearty hug.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. So much so, that the episode feels forgettable. There wasn’t a single segment that I gave a rating over three-and-a-half stars to. On the other hand, there was only one segment I gave a rating below three stars to, so I can’t complain too much. At least this season continues its impressive streak of having episodes that contain almost no bad segments. I recall online SNL fans considering Daniel Craig to be a dud of a host in this episode, but I never understood that, as I had no problems with him as a host, aside from his stumbliness in the Mars Mission sketch. He was an adequate host, though nothing memorable. I’m a little curious to see how he does in his season 45 hosting stint, which aired during my ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Long Island Medium
Bond 50
Three Days Later: A Look Back At The Obama Debate Disaster
Weekend Update
First Presidential Debate
Monologue
A Sorry Lot We Are
Mars Mission
Construction Workers
Loving Couple


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christina Applegate