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
Oh boy, will tomorrow’s host be rather, um… problematic.
The Pandora sketch is so damn good. It’s easily one of my top ten sketches from this era. It also provides a nice comparison to the much weaker ripoff version they did with Arianna Grande a few years later. Thus showing the difference between one performer who has actual real stage presence (Mars) and, well, one who doesn’t.
I agree the Pandora sketch is terrific and that this version is better than the Grande one (although I like that too, even it gets too winky and cutesy). I think part of the fun of this sketch is that Bruno Mars is basically on an island of comedy–if he crashes and burns immediately, the sketch is death theater (or I guess an entertaining trainwreck). He nails the early stuff, so by the time he finally cracks on Louis Armstrong, it’s just pretty funny and even Sudeikis can lampshade it by saying it’s not his best work.
This era’s short films were a wonderful breath of fresh air, offering a completely different spin on the pre-taped film than the digital shorts, which, while great, had really lost their luster the previous year. I appreciated that a lot of them didn’t go for out and out laughs or edgy humor but rather kind of odd, conceptual, even borderline pathos humor. You get a huge mix of pre-tapes now–the closest thing I can think of to the style of humor in Sad Mouse might be that one where Harry Styles played Aidy’s dog.
I thought Ariana had great presence her whole episode. While Bruno’s overall performances were better, I actually thought she was a much more accurate impressionist in her version.
Wow, VERY rare at this point in their run for Kenan and Fred to only be in one sketch all night. I guess a lot of the sketches tonight were mainly Bruno showcases anyway, but still.
I actually think Tim is the only funny part of the Haters sketch. I love his academic character twerking at the audience. That sketch is still an example of how bad SNL generally was until Che at racial or race related humor.
Sad Mouse is beautiful, especially poignant now with the untimely death of Matt Villines (RIP). I LOVE the shorts Matt and Oz did while on the show, I’m so happy we’re at their (and Mike O’Brien)’s tenure.
Sidney Applebaum is probably the most famous example of Mulaney throwing in a new line at Hader during the live show. You can actually see the moment he first registers that he has a new line, and then the moment he hits the punchline, before he talks. To be fair to him, it’s an absolutely hysterical line.
As I said yesterday, tomorrow is the first truly great episode since the premiere, and is when the season is officially off and running in my view. Good luck talking about THAT one, though.
Hey Anthony. There Was The Time When John Mulaney Whispered In Stephon’s Ear That He Could Not Say Midgets And He Maybe Whispered What Do I Call Them And He Thought For A Minute And Whispered Little People And Then Stephon Said His Commentary And Said Little People !
Sidney Applebaum is a character that’s referenced in dialogue in Woody Allen’s Love and Death, the Woody Allen and Diane Keaton movie that isn’t Annie Hall.
Aidy’s Stories from the Show video is mainly about how she prepared for her first big role on the show as Candy Crowley. There are some other fun tidbits in there as well at 0:41 is a clip of a sketch cut from Seth MacFarlane / Frank Ocean. At 0:45 is a still of the Bill & Bonnie Update piece that got cut from the previous episode with Christina Applegate. At 1:55 is a still of social media expert Kourtney Barnes, Aidy’s first Update piece that aired and first big comedic role that appears in the next episode with Louis C.K.
The Pandora sketch is basically the Omeletteville sketches if they were a source of good instead of evil. Mars, who is a consummate entertainer in the absolute best way possible, gives a terrific performance that nearly overrides the sweatiness of the premise. I think it’s a definitive piece of the modern era and while I generally like the piece, I don’t necessarily mean that as a compliment. The sketch is great fun – not funny, but fun – and exists comfortably at the top of a great deal of corny pieces from the last few seasons.
The “scared Filipino girl” line was always my favorite from this episode.
I hope there’s not too much hand-wringing with the Louis CK episodes. I haven’t really engaged with Louis much since everything went down, but I can’t pretend there weren’t a couple years there where a ton of people knew what was up with him and he got to stay in the spotlight anyway. At some point the noise simply got too loud. He – like Cosby and like Woody Allen – was a GREAT standup and while it may be impossible to separate the man from the artist, it’s possible, I believe, to admire the craft (also, the difference between Louis and, say, Richard Pryor, is simply the era in which they were engaging in bad behavior). I heard his return to standup has included a lot of “Oh are you triggered??” pieces which is just so tiresome. It nearly undermined Chapelle’s entire routine a couple weeks back. I mean, I think it temporarily DID undermine it, which makes it less of a success than I think he and others believed it to be. Even Bill Burr, who I quite enjoy, sounds a bit out of touch when he gets into the “Oh am I cancelled?” bit, but his style runs a little bit more along those lines, so I get it.
Carson,
I agree the “anti PC” shtick is beyond tired at this point. I literally can’t watch anything Ricky Gervais has done in the last few years because of how annoying he in particular has gotten with it, and Seinfeld and Burr are getting there too. I don’t mind it as much for some reason with Chappelle, I think because when you get past the inflammatory statements and the edgy shtick he is clearly thinking more deeply about these issues than the others, even if I don’t always agree with his outcomes.
Louis’s return has been disappointing (from what I’ve heard, I also haven’t actually seen any of his post scandal material, which to be fair, obviously means I can’t actually judge) but leaning into the anti PC crowd is at least slightly less irritating to me than the route Aziz Ansari took in his post scandal special, talking in hush, whispered, reflective tones the whole time to show how “changed” he is, all while never making any actual jokes. The guy’s obviously talented though. I (and assume most of the rest of us) would be lying if I said I didn’t absolutely eat up everything he did for a solid decade pre scandal.
I like Aziz, but more as a performer than a standup. I didn’t check out his post-scandal special because I already found his Live at MSG special from 2015 so insufferably laughless. Like, it was a kind of funny TED Talk, but as a comedy special it was a zero. Master of None was good though.
With Seinfeld, he has some opinions I agree with (like doing everything in service of the joke and not letting your “correctness” override the humor) and some old white man takes that are a little annoying. Then again, ever the pragmatist, I don’t think Seinfeld has let those opinions seep into his material.
Burr, eh, I feel like some of these topics are his domain to explore and he generally threads the needle really well of clowning on “wokeness” without really face-planting. His “cancelled” bit a few weeks back was the weakest point of his standup, but I didn’t find it as off-putting as Chappelle’s “triggered” rant. Maybe it’s because these days “triggered” is a word that’s only really used by alt-right chuckleheads and edgelords.
Gervais is INSUFFERABLE. The absolute worst of the lot – a completely self-absorbed non-talent who made one good TV show nearly 20 years ago. I have no time for his self-satisfied “boundary pushing.”
There are two cut sketches I have heard about from this episode. One had Tom Hanks playing Walter Cronkite, and another was “Active Jack”, which ultimately aired with Kevin Hart in season 43. Anyone else have more info on these and/or other cut sketches?
ADDENDUM: And apparently I just found out there was a Vincent Price Halloween sketch?!?! With Kate McKinnon as Janis Joplin?? What?!?! I can’t believe we missed out on an epic semi-torch-passing moment! Seriously, if anyone has any dress rehearsal info or stories… I’d love to hear it!!!
Hello Thatchos. Not Only Do I Not Remember Seeing A Vincent Price Sketch With Kate In There, BUT, I Don’t Think Vincent Price Would Ever Have Janis Joplin On A Special ! I KNOW This Is NOT The Real Vincent Price Doing A TV Special, But I Think Vincent Price May Have Had A TV Show ! Any Way, I Think He Would Want A Big Holly Wood Star ! I Don’t Think He Would Even Know Janis Joplin And He Would Have NO Interest In Having Janis Joplin Come Be On His Show !
“Louis C.K. makes his hosting debut”
Dum-de-dum-dum
Dum-de-dum-dum-CUM!
What’s good about this episode is excellent. What’s bad just doesn’t work. A hearty welcome to the unfairly short-lived Matt & Oz era. (Maybe the current era began with Taran and Jay getting fired *and* Matt’s death.) I agree with the Brad Pitt runner insofar that it should’ve stopped at the first two.
Ooh I like that distinction. 42- present feels like the Mikey Day era. Not that he’s the most dominant cast member, but his blandness as a writer and performer define the last few years of the show. Maybe I’ll warm up to him when he inevitably takes the Seth route after Jost leaves. Season 38-41 being its own era helps me separate my feelings about this cast, because that would be one of my favorite eras (38-40 really, second half of 38-first half of 39 especially).