Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A VERY SOMBER CHRISTMAS WITH SAM SMITH / DR. EVIL ADDRESS
Dr. Evil (MIM) thinks North Korea & Sony Pictures should up their game
— At first, I almost thought Beck’s opening voice-over was him attempting to do a Don Pardo vocal imitation.
— Taran’s Sam Smith impression is always funny.
— Was it intentional for Taran to point in the wrong direction when singing the “decorate the tree” lyric? The tree is in the opposite direction he pointed to.
— Wow, Mike Myers as Dr. Evil out of freakin’ nowhere!
— Mike has absolutely still got it as Dr. Evil.
— Ha, when this originally aired, I remember wondering if that Uber mention from Dr. Evil infuriated the SNL fans who complained online about the various Uber mentions that this season’s Chris Rock episode contained.
— Some good lines and slams from Mike’s Dr. Evil here, including the self-deprecating Love Guru slam. However, the humor in this Dr. Evil speech isn’t quite as strong as I want it to be, and a few of his slams feel too tame.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
KRW adds pizzazz to host’s rendition of “We Need A Little Christmas”
— MUSICAL MONOLOGUE WARNING
— Wait, screw what I said above. More like: KRISTEN WIIG CAMEO WARNING
— The audience proceeds to give Kristen’s entrance what practically feels like a 30-second applause break. Oh, so you mean she’s NOT still in the cast? Could’ve fooled me with how often she’s appeared after leaving.
— Amy Adams, to Kristen: “Isn’t this the second time you’ve crashed my monologue?” Hell, Amy, it’s the second time Kristen crashed someone’s monologue THIS SEASON. Also, to nitpick, Kristen technically didn’t crash your previous monologue, Amy. You brought her up onstage yourself to address the facial resemblance that people say you and her have.
— At least Kristen appearing in Bill Hader’s monologue earlier this season made sense, given the Skeleton Twins movie Bill was promoting. But this??? Come the hell on, SNL. Learn to cut the umbilical cord with Kristen already!
— I did at least get a laugh just now from Kristen randomly telling an SNL stagehand, “Thank you, Mariah Carey.” Kristen is admittedly always solid at delivering random one-liners like that in a very straitlaced, deadpan manner.
— Ugh, this Wiig-involved “We Need A Little Christmas” musical number is a chore to sit through. And I hate that I’m being so salty towards such a jolly, fun-loving traditional Christmas song, but a Wiig cameo in an era bombarded with Wiig cameos tends to have that effect on me.
STARS: *½
ASIAN AMERICAN DOLL
to avoid political incorrectness, Asian American Doll is a blank slate
— I love Cecily-as-the-voice-over’s disclosure that the company had to have a lot of sensitivity meetings about their doll.
— Yikes, an odd audio gaffe during a close-up of Vanessa (in the ONLY appearance she’ll be making all night, by the way) speaking, where you can hear audio of an SNL stagehand testing out a microphone live in SNL’s studio, which drowns out the line that Vanessa’s saying at this moment.
— Cecily, in a kind manner, towards the little girl asking a string of questions about the Asian American Doll: “You ask a lot of questions. You should go play outside”, a very funny line that’s accompanied by a great shot of Vanessa guiding that little girl out of the room.
— Hilarious bit with Vanessa getting cut off when struggling badly to come up with a non-offensive phrase that the Asian American Doll can say when you pull her string.
— So many fantastic lines from Cecily, doing terrific work as the commercial’s voice-over.
— An absolutely priceless bit with one of the little girls questioning the puppy and chef hat accessories by wondering if the chef hat is so the doll can eat the puppy because she’s Asian, resulting in Cecily as the voice-over going into a total panic and Vanessa nervously leaving the room in a hurry. To me, that’s the moment that officially propels this already-perfect commercial into a bonafide classic.
— I feel that, in a lot of ways, this commercial is like a companion piece to The Dudleys commercial from earlier this season in the Woody Harrelson episode. (And Chris Kelly & Sarah Schneider wrote both, I believe.) As fantastic and sharp as that Dudleys commercial is, I’ve personally always felt that this Asian American Doll commercial is an even better variation of that concept, which is why I only gave The Dudleys a four-and-a-half-star rating in my review of it. I was saving the five-star rating for this.
STARS: *****
TENDERFIELD CHRISTMAS 2014
family’s video Christmas card documents unhappy events from the past year
— An interesting and unique structure to this sketch.
— I like the way the “…in my Christmas sweatpants!” lyric is being used as a recurring lyric throughout this, especially whenever it’s said after a disturbing revelation.
— I’m enjoying the increasingly unfortunate family stories being told.
— The way this ended felt kinda flat.
STARS: ***
SERIAL
Sarah Koenig’s (CES) podcast has Kris Kringle (KYM) skepticism
— I’m admittedly not familiar at all with Serial, but that’s never stopped me from finding this spoof of it to be absolutely fantastic. Even without having any familiarity with the source material, I have no trouble following the tone and style that this spoof is going for, and this spoof absolutely works for me on its own merits.
— Another outstanding performance from Cecily tonight.
— I absolutely love Kyle as a realistic, dodgy Kris Kringle. In particular, the phone calls messages of him throughout this are excellent.
— Man, the tone of this short, the acting, the humor, the way such a silly concept is being played so straight… everything in this is pure perfection.
— The courtroom sketch drawing of Aidy is hilarious, and is accompanied perfectly by the specific voice she’s using in her voice-over during it.
— Overall, an absolutely brilliant pre-tape, a season highlight, and an SNL highlight in general. I remember there were a lot of SNL reviewers at the time who didn’t like this Serial spoof at all and considered it to be overlong and a complete bore, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some SNL fans who still feel that way about it today, but let’s just say I strongly disagree and can’t understand the negativity.
STARS: *****
GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
dance squad members (musical guest) enchant Morgan
— Much like the Ex-Porn Stars recurring sketch, this Girlfriends Talk Show recurring sketch making its first appearance this far into the season is proof that it’s being phased out.
— I love Aidy’s delivery of her character’s awkward attempt at a sassy comeback: “You better take your chewable vitamins…along with your bitch sandwich…and then…go ahead and sit on the sandwich AS WELL!”
— Cue the incessant screams from teen girls in the audience upon One Direction making their obligatory sketch appearance of the night.
— Cecily’s “My boyfriend’s crazy” stories are beyond formulaic and tired by this point.
— Overall, aside from some good lines from Aidy as usual, this recurring sketch continues to be well past its expiration date, and the unnecessary One Direction involvement didn’t exactly help solve my lack of enthusiasm towards this sketch.
STARS: **
OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY
workers go mildly wild in corporate environment
— The first of many Pete Davidson rap videos, though, IIRC, these don’t become a regular thing until years later.
— The song itself isn’t very catchy, unlike a lot of SNL’s songs in this type of music video in this era (e.g. Boy Dance Party), but there are enough amusing things shown happening in this video, such as a drunken, uncontrolled Aidy diving into the Christmas tree. However, I’m not finding this short anywhere near as epic as SNL wants me to.
— Something about Pete’s rapper voice is coming off Samberg-lite at certain points of this short, though I know that’s not intentional.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Night Changes”
WEEKEND UPDATE
sniper attention leads BOM to call off his Kim Jong-un impression
MIC’s hard-luck neighbor Willie (KET) has unwarranted positive attitude
songs from Hanukkah album by Garth & Kat seem rather off-the-cuff
— The direct message that Michael delivers towards Kim Jong-un is funny, right from his memorable opening line: “Look, Kimberly….”
— A solid meta turn to Bobby’s Kim Jong-un commentary, reminding me of the Update commentary that Andy Samberg once did as Sarah Palin.
— The sniper laser bit is a very funny ending to Bobby’s commentary, as is him trying to save face by claiming he’s Seth Rogen.
— Ah, our very first of many instances over the years of Michael or Colin doing an Update joke where the punchline is about their co-anchor. In tonight’s case, Michael’s “Now That’s What Jost Calls Music” punchline was hilarious, as was the accompanying photo of that album cover (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Update).
— The debut of Kenan’s Willie character, who I’ve always loved.
— Lots of funny depressing stories from Willie about himself, delivered in a jolly manner. However, with this being his first appearance, the disturbing nature of his stories is fairly tame here compared to later appearances of his, where they up the ante on the disturbing humor.
— I recall hearing that Michael took some heat from some online SNL fans for his mispronunciation of “sedatives”, leading him to go off on one of his infamous back-and-forth arguments with people online. Did such a heated, nasty argument really break out over a mere (and understandable) mispronunciation of a word? Geez, I guess it’s a good thing social media didn’t exist yet when Joe Pesci mispronounced “maniacal” in a Joe Pesci Show sketch he cameoed in.
— The return of Garth & Kat?!?? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDI– (*without even finishing that last sentence, Stooge immediately douses himself with gasoline and sets himself aflame, welcoming the sweet pain that brings, finding it to be far more soothing than sitting through another dreaded Garth & Kat commentary*)
— Once again, I ask, has Kristen Wiig left the cast? Oh, the same goes for Fred Armisen, for that matter.
— Oh, how I look forward to seeing these wretched Garth & Kat characters deservedly bomb HARD with the audience when they appear in SNL’s then-upcoming 40th Anniversary Special that I’ll be reviewing when we come to that point of this season.
STARS: *** (as usual, Garth & Kat’s commentary was bad and overlong enough to bring Weekend Update’s rating down half a star)
A VERY CUBAN CHRISTMAS
lifted embargo inspires a scattershot special
— Because we didn’t already have enough Fred Armisen in our lives, we now hear him doing the voice-over throughout this sketch. Is he further trying to prove my point that it doesn’t feel like he ever left the cast?
— So far, the format of this sketch seems very boring, and seems like the type of “musical TV special” sketch I often dislike in recent SNL seasons like this.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and yep, I’m indeed very bored by this sketch.
— Kate playing her stock “brash hardass” role. As been-there-done-that as it feels here, it’s still working more for me than almost anything else in this sketch.
— Aaaaaaand there goes Fred now appearing in person in this sketch. (*sigh*) I know he’s part Venezuelan, but his appearance in this Cuban sketch still feels completely unnecessary. Lorne’s endless hard-on for nostalgia towards SNL’s then-recent late 00s/early 10s era just makes me shake my head, given how way-too-recent that era is at this point in 2014 for constant nostalgia and mini-reunions.
— Poor Beck has been almost completely non-existent tonight. I could use his and Vanessa’s extreme lack of appearances tonight as another excuse to bitch about how Fred and Kristen are taking away airtime from actual current cast members, but I don’t even have the strength anymore.
— Not even the Obama bit is anything great.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ready to Run”
A MAGICAL CHRISTMAS
in 1947, raccoons (KAM), (host), (CES) get to be human nightclub singers
— I recall absolutely hating this sketch when it originally aired, dismissing it as typical James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written tripe. However, it would later grow on me. I’m not even fully sure why it grew on me, but I think it has to do with the fact that, when re-watching it and knowing in hindsight about the raccoon reveal at the end, it causes Amy, Kate, and Cecily’s questionable actions to make sense and come off funnier to me than it did when I originally watched this sketch live and had no knowledge of the ending twist that was coming.
— I’m still enjoying this sketch in my current viewing, despite some typical annoying Anderson/Sublette tropes in this (e.g. Amy’s character being named Frebecca).
— The comically brief songs from the ladies are amusing me.
— As I somewhat implied above, I strangely like the ending reveal of the ladies actually being raccoons, and I also like the silly visual of puppet raccoons singing one of the (oddly catchy) brief jingles from earlier in this sketch.
STARS: ***
WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & her new girlfriend (host) give away cats
— Are literally half of this episode’s sketches (including the monologue) written by Anderson and/or Sublette?
— I liked this sketch in its first installment, but I can’t say this is working much for me as a recurring sketch. I’m finding most of the humor here only mildly funny at best. And it’s pure laziness to just repeat the same sexually frisky behavior that the character played by the host displays towards Kate’s character. At least give the character played by the host their own individual characteristic in each installment of this sketch.
— I did like Kate’s line just now towards a touchy-feely Amy: “I think you know where the cat ends and my boobs begin.”
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite two outstanding highlights, both of which are all-time favorites of mine (Asian American Doll and Serial), this episode was fairly meh as a whole. There were too many things that I either didn’t care for or felt were forgettably average, there was too much of the tired and completely unnecessary cameos from Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen, and there was a little too much of a “James Anderson/Kent Sublette influence” feel to the night (even if I liked their raccoons sketch).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Asian American Doll
Serial
A Very Somber Christmas with Sam Smith / Dr. Evil Address
A Magical Christmas
Weekend Update
Tenderfield Christmas 2014
Office Christmas Party
Girlfriends Talk Show
Whiskers R’ We
A Very Cuban Christmas
Monologue
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Freeman)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
We enter the year 2015, with host Kevin Hart
Certainly not as strong as I remembered (I had been hyping it up in the comments) but I’ll say 2 things:
1. I think Stooge is a little harsh on the monologue. I don’t love it, but it’s not unwatchable.
2. I actually love the raccoon sketch, and it’s easily in my top 5 sketches from Anderlette.
Also, maybe I should be keeping a count of how many S39 episodes and on have their only really strong material be pre taped.
This is the 6th, after 5 episodes in S39 where the 2-3 highest ranked sketches were all pre-taped (Bruce Willis, Melissa McCarthy, Jim Parsons, Lena Dunham, Charlize Theron).
The Serial spoof was great on its own, but if you listened to the podcast when it was hot, you’ll notice Cecily really nailed Sarah Koenig’s voice and cadence and even Kyle Mooney got Adnan Syed’s speech pattern down to a T.
It’s so damn good.
Serial was also spoofed that same week with another SNL person playing Sarah Koenig, Michaela Watkins.
youtube.com/watch?v=gww53yFfMnI
The Funny or Die spoof of the Serial podcast, since the link didn’t come up before.
Office Christmas Party felt too Lonely Island-lite. Most of Pete’s later songs feel tonally different from TLI material but I don’t think this one quite gets there.
The Serial parody is one of the most spot-on parodies they’ve done in this era. And like Jamal said, everyone’s vocal impressions in it are dead on. I differ from your review and think that it wouldn’t have worked for me at all had I not already listened to Serial, but that’s just me. Even though you were able to enjoy it, it definitely does feel like something that washed over a lot of people.
Hello Ruby. I have not ever heard of Serial and I have never seen Serial Before, but I thought they did a good job with that kind of A Program !
By The Way, I Like Cecily’s Version Better Than The Funny OR Die Above ! It might be that the Funny Or Die is more like The actual Serial, But IF That Was Michalea, Then I thought She was Too Hesitant and I like Cecily’s Voice Better !
Agreed Ruby. A lot of the humor also felt like that warmed over Project X style frat humor. Either way very lame. Also with these comedy songs, the joke doesn’t work unless the song sounds like a real song, and “Office Christmas Party” (and most of Jay’s raps, come to think of it) just sucks musically. Pete’s definitely gotten better on that front, his quarantine song with Sandler especially was ridiculously catchy.
The movie Office Christmas Party is also bullshit frat humor, if anyone hasn’t seen it. Basically that sketch for an hour and a half. Kate and Vanessa are in it though, and they (and Courtney B Vance and Jillian Bell) provide the only laughs in the movie.
Remember Kristen, we can’t miss you unless you LEAVE.
I think I remember seeing Asian American Doll getting mentioned on one of the old boards as a potential “controversial” skit. No one seemed to care. I thought it was underwhelming, as was the racoons bit.
I will that the presence of Fred, Kristen and Anderlette have always seemed to sour the show around this time. It makes an episode much less enjoyable.
Dress cuts posted online:
Christmas Cue Card Romance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzTSyzjclck
~ once again, the best live sketch of the night gets cut
Soldiers Of The Nativity Battle Force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_impOpJGZdw
Commercial bumper preceding Cuban Christmas showed the air rundown sheet with more live sketches “Cut After Dress”:
~ Christmas Song
~ Audition
~ Lift Line
~ Frosty The Snowman
They seemed to upload quite a few more cut for time pieces in these years. I wish they still did now.
I’m with Tony C; you have to expect the Christmas monologue to be a little corny. If you hated this, you’re going to *loathe* the monologue from Wiigy’s Year 46 hosting stint.
Somehow, the “Serial” parody is only the second podcast-centered sketch SNL ever did. The first one was all the way back in Year 31. I think there’s only one or two more after this. I suppose it’s a hard medium to parody.
You take away Update, Mike Myers, and the two filmed pieces, and this is a perfectly average episode. “Christmas 1947” was just fine, but I know some people love this sketch.
I would say the season 46 monologue is better than this one. Neither are great, but that monologue is much more focused. This one I can’t even blame entirely on Wiig’s inclusion – there is just way, way too much going on (too many people, too many shifts in tone), to the point where by the end, they even decided to completely drown out both ladies, as…part of the joke, I guess? If they had just had Amy and Kristen singing it would have been a nicer and simpler way to segue into the rest of the show.
The portions about the Interview feel like the classic trap of “we have to say SOMETHING” SNL has fallen into in recent years. Nothing they have to comment on about it is of much worth – Che’s Update joke is so labored and helps get Update off on a bad foot, which, aside from the Willie segment, it never really recovers from. The cold open is mostly adequate, but at least Mike Myers (with Dr. Evil Lornier than ever) is having fun, and this is much more suited to him than his attempts at playing Wayne again.
My main disappointment with this episode is how they use Amy Adams. She’s a very likeable, charismatic performer, a good comic actress and a good singer, but you only get to see this in the raccoon sketch. She mostly gets generic female host roles, or material that doesn’t really suit her – that “bad year” sketch seems more like something Kristen would have been at home in. Amy feels out of place, and along with the “Kenan gets loud” copout ending, it’s a waste of a promising idea.
The Asian doll pre-tape is excellently performed by Cecily, Vanessa, and the child actors, and it’s also a very good piece about how being too ‘aware’ and cautious leads to nothing being acceptable. However, it’s something that would probably work better outside of SNL, with the show’s history of reacting defensively toward criticism. That this piece aired only a few episodes after the Dudley pre-tape and aired in the same episode that white actors play a North Korean and Cubans makes it feel even more defensive.
Speaking of the Cuban sketch, the main point seemed to be that Cuba sucks and was trying to latch onto the US. It’s not that this is some kind of forbidden concept, but there are few actual jokes to be found in the whole thing; it veers toward having that dreaded “dead” feeling on a number of occasions. The Elian/Tony Montana/Diana Nyad in particular makes me cringe a bit from the badness.
Office Christmas Party is…there, mostly. There’s a general malaise in the thinnest of the Pete Davidson Raps! installments, and this is a preview of such. The Teacher Snow Day coming later this season is a much better attempt at a full cast rap-pop pre-tape.
I know little about Serial, but the idea is sound enough that on top of the sterling work from Cecily and strong work from everyone else it all holds up beautifully. If, as mentioned above, they’ve only covered podcasts a few times, at least most of those have been worth the wait (the Podcast Awards sketch coming up in season 44 is a real gem).
(interestingly I think this is the last season which has material in the current Christmas special)
I’ve never been a big devotee of Kat and Garth, but I don’t think any of them were EVER near as bad as this one was. It was clear Fred and Kristen hadn’t done this in several years and had lost track. The main amusement was from Che half-heartedly trying to go along with the old Seth Meyers reactions. At least the anniversary version will probably be an improvement…
This is a lower-key introduction for Willie, but the main strengths are still there, promising good, and dark, laughs to come. Kenan is at his best here, using his positivity in the most subversive of ways.
This is probably the best known Girlfriends Talk Show sketch, due to One Direction. This isn’t that long before Zayn Malik left the group, and there was some talk at the time about how clearly not into doing this he was. As for the sketch itself, it’s another waste of Amy and the Cecily character in this is (and had long been) much too annoying to be recurred, but Aidy has some very funny moments.
I’ve wanted Amy to host again since I saw her first episode, but after watching this one I definitely want to see her get one more go-round.
Promos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qd20gcqQ0M
I remember the Dr. Evil thing being viral when this episode came out. Also, no need to worry, Stooge. This is the last show of Kristen’s way-too-soon-cameo streak. As for Fred’s cameos… well, I hope for your sanity you grow on them somehow. He does have his post-cast moments.
Also, outside of The Rock Obama when Dwayne Johnson hosts and the Finest Girl music video in (ironically enough) Fred’s hosting gig, this is sadly the last we see of Jay’s Obama on the show. Unless I’m forgetting any cut-for-time sketches.
One of his cameos that I actually do like comes in the JK Simmons episode, where he performs a killer drum solo in the monologue. I love it whenever Fred gets to show off his musical abilities, and sort of wish he was utilizing it more often when he was on and after he left the show.
@Curly Joe, I definitely agree about Fred’s JK Simmons cameo. That’s the kind of thing where he really gets to show his stuff. I sometimes wish we could see more of Fred drumming, but maybe the rareness of it makes it that more amazing when it happens. Fly High Duluth, the Rialto Grande sketches, the JK Simmons monologue… any more great Fred-on-drums moments I’m missing?
The only saving grace of Kristen’s excessive cameos is that her appearances after this point are limited to hosting stints.
I’ve gone back-and-forth on Serial over the years, initially not getting it before understanding the reference and appreciating the commitment. After watching it in this year’s Christmas special, however, I feel that it goes on forever and is too dull in the wrong context. It didn’t help that it was immediately followed by only 20 seconds of Mr. Robinson’s Christmas going into commercial and I already had to sit through the Casey Affleck Ms. Rafferty sketch.
A Magical Christmas is probably a highlight of the season. It’s a premise that should only work the first time you watch it, but there’s enough captivating aspects to make it enjoyable on further viewing. The off-kilter performances combined with funny dialogue and catchy tunes allow the sketch to really stand out. Once again, Bobby and Kyle make a good duo that never became established despite them being on the show together for two more years. Another fun part about the ending twist was that it revealed why Taran was seemingly playing a role that would usually go to an extra. If I had to fault it for anything, it would be how it wasn’t the 10-to-1 segment and Whiskers R’ We ended the show since the energy was made for closing out the night. Watching the sketch live would honestly have to be one of my all-time SNL viewing experiences.
In short, my personal rating of the two sketches would be switched.
Had no idea Kelly & Schneider wrote Asian American Doll. They really were a fantastic duo. I’ve recommend it on another post here, but I’ll just once again say their show The Other Two is very strong. Molly Shannon’s in the main cast and there’s a couple other SNL cameos, like Che in the finale.
Where does Cecily rank in terms of voice over work on SNL? Obviously Phil is #1, but I’d put Cecily up there with Parnell. I think I said this before too, but her voice over work is strangely comforting to me in the same way Kristen playing mom roles was to Stooge.
I truly love Phil, I’d rank him over Parnell (who had so much incredible potential but was poorly used for much of his tenure) in most areas of SNL, but I’d have to give Parnell #1 for voiceovers. He had more versatility and some of his voiceovers, like the Sopranos promo, are all-timers.
I’m not sure who I’d rank between Phil and Cecily. Both excellent at the voiceover craft. Cecily’s work on Amazon Silver is so incredible I may have to put her second, Phil third.
I feel like Mark McKinney was underrated in the often used v/o and announcer department. Not only during his stay in the cast, but they used his voice quite a bit in 85-86 season when him and Bruce worked there pre-KITH tv show. Darrell was pretty reliable too in his cast member days, though I never thought he was the greatest choice to replace Pardo, he just doesn’t have the right energy for the opening credits IMO.
I should know this but who was the name of the deep voiced actor who did the VOs from 85/86 -90/9 1ish? Thought he was great as a kid
John Henry Kurtz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kjoUjOHjPI&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=TheHoldernessFamily
The video “Christmas Sweatpants” is making fun of, because it makes that sketch infinitely funnier.
I have to ask, with all of attacks that are targeting Asian-Americans and how they have escalated a lot more lately, does it all make segments like Asian American Doll (and everything else, including that one character from Dana Carvey) unwatchable or at least something SNL will stay away from going forward?
Asian American Doll is still fine to me because at no point are actual Asian people meant to be the butt of the joke. As for stuff like Ching Chang, I always hated that. The most relevant skit I can think of is the Jeremy Lin one, where the show rightly pointed out that as recently as 2013 you could make racist Asian jokes on national TV and face no backlash.
Stooge, really not sure which installment has you convinced Garth & Kat are bound to “bomb” with the crowd…
As I later explained in my review of the 40th Anniversary Special, the Garth & Kat appearance in it didn’t bomb quite as hard as I had remembered when I wrote this Amy Adams episode review.
Wow, I had never seen your MASSIVE write up of the 40th special! What a hell of an undertaking Stooge.
I only commented because, as an unabashed lover of Garth & Kat, I (obviously) think they get a bum rap and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them bomb. The formula is relatively short and sweet, and regardless of how we all feel about Wiig and Armisen at the tail ends of their tenures, it’s an impressive piece of improv. Honestly, if we can swallow down Judy Grimes and Gov. Patterson, I feel like we can cut G&K some slack. Yeesh, the mere thought of Judy Grimes gives me that sharp pain behind the eyeball.
Now, is clapter some sort of concrete proof of the comedic genius of G&K? Hell no! My lord, even The Californians and Barry Gibb TS got consistent clapter. But unlike those turds, G&K at least had a joke to get across.