Month: January 2021

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December 13, 2014 – Martin Freeman / Charli XCX (S40 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CHARLIE ROSE
torture consultants (BOM) & (KYM) take pride in evils

— Some funny opening lines from Taran, who’s doing a decent Charlie Rose impression.
— Great bit from Bobby and Kyle’s torture consultants about them being Time Warner Cable’s customer service.
— Very solid performances from Bobby and Kyle throughout this.
— We get a lot of other hilarious reveals of famous annoyances that Bobby and Kyle’s torture consultants are the ones behind.
— I love Bobby’s “It sure ducking was” comment about him and Kyle being the creators of autocorrect.
— For what initially seemed like an unexciting setting for a cold opening, this has turned out to not only be very funny, but have a great flow and a fun spirit.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
fellow British celebs Maggie Smith (KAM) & Alan Rickman (TAK) know host

— Right out the gate in this monologue, Martin Freeman’s delivery and comedic style has that refreshing, fast-paced, and charming English wit, which is encouraging.
— Good laughs from Taran’s Alan Rickman voice.
— A short and sweet monologue.
STARS: ***½


SUMP’N CLAUS
Sump’n Claus (KET) has cash for those on Santa’s (BOM) naughty list

— A very fun concept for a music video, and a perfect use of Kenan, who’s selling this material to absolute perfection.
— Good bit with Martin losing his temper in his office.
— I love the increasingly drawn-out pauses right before each time Kenan’s Sump’n Claus sings “Everybody gettin’ sump’n!”
— Throughout this short, Martin’s looking quite like another famous Martin: Martin Short.
STARS: ****½


WEDDING OBJECTIONS
everyone at the wedding of odd couple (host) & (LEJ) raises objections

— A good use of the extreme size difference between Martin and Leslie, having them play a loving couple being wed. I’m also loving the extreme differences between their personalities and backgrounds.
— Great reveal of Vanessa being Martin’s wife.
— Kenan’s “He just adopted the Wu-Tang Clan!” line was very funny.
— Solid line from Taran comparing the fragility of Martin’s reconstructed penis to a late-stage Jenga tower.
— Kate is killing it in this sketch, especially her disclosing that she has no idea who the bride or groom are – she just happened to be walking by this church, caught a brief glimpse of the couple getting married, and something told her “GET IN THERE AND SHUT! IT! DOWN!”
STARS: ****


THE OFFICE: MIDDLE EARTH
Bilbo (host) & Gollum (TAK) are paper salesmen

— A very promising concept, doing a hybrid of the two things Martin’s most famous for.
— I am loving Bobby’s performance as a Gandalf/Ricky Gervais hybrid. He’s hilarious here. Even the little detail of that beard stroke he did in one of his confessional shots had me in stitches.
— Yet another very funny vocal impression from Taran, this time of Gollum. His voice is absolutely slaying me.
— Such a spot-on and fantastic spoof of the The Office’s style.
— The little pratfall that Bobby (playing dual roles here) does at the end cracked me up.
— Overall, simply perfect.
STARS: *****


RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED WITH GRACELYNN AND CORY
(host) endures endless morning show segment teases

— Ohho, no. I completely forgot that this episode featured the debut of this, a recurring sketch that I’ve never liked. (*sigh*) For the second time this season, leave it to writers James Anderson & Kent Sublette to ruin an episode’s perfect streak of segments ranging pretty solid to excellent.
— An early display of SNL’s habit of randomly casting Kate as male celebrities/politicians for no apparent reason. (Her two drag roles in the preceding week’s James Franco episode, Justin Bieber and Kevin McAllister, at least made sense, as she was playing a short young adult and a prepubescent boy, respectively).
— Closest to a laugh I’ve gotten from this entire thing was from Martin awkwardly being made to dance next to Aidy, who has just disclosed very sad personal news about herself.
STARS: *½


ST. JOSEPH’S CHRISTMAS MASS SPECTACULAR
Christmas mass spectacular features liturgical tropes

— I think this counts as the first of a few of these occasionally-appearing pre-tapes presenting tropes from a boring traditional event in a specific upbeat style.
— This spoof is not only very true to life and relatable, but it’s hilarious, and every performer is nailing their respective roles.
— Nice to see tonight’s strong-so-far episode rebound very well after a slight setback with the Right Side of the Bed sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Boom Clap”


WEEKEND UPDATE
lacking African-American emojis, SAZ creatively employs other symbols

A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy (CES) follows comedy arc

Jacob talks about Hanukkah & thanks Derek Jeter for his service

— Some very strong jokes from Michael early on in tonight’s Update.
— Wow. Sasheer with her own Update commentary? As HERSELF??? Well, this is new. And it’s certainly nice to see her getting a big showcase as herself, given how very underused she is.
— Oh, now I remember this emoji commentary of Sasheer’s. I used to mis-remember this as happening later in Sasheer’s SNL tenure.
— Sasheer’s overall commentary was very good, had some solid racial commentary, and refreshingly felt very different for an Update commentary.
— Michael’s ballsy “foot race” joke about FDR had me howling.
— The first appearance of Cecily’s A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy, making this the second long-named character Cecily has played on Update.
— A spot-on characterization from Cecily here, being an accurate and funny spoof of this archetype. Her interaction with a confused Colin, however, reminds me a little too much of Vanessa’s interaction with a confused Michael in Vanessa’s romantic comedy commentary from earlier this season.
— Our first of, I think, multiple instances of Colin mining laughs out of his own childhood photo. I also love Michael’s very loud off-camera laugh while that photo is shown.
— Blah, another Jacob commentary. However, at least 1) Jacob’s last commentary prior to this shook a few things up, and 2) this is his first appearance in this new Update era.
— Unfortunately, it turns out that tonight’s Jacob commentary is going in the same-old same-old direction these Jacob commentaries always go, with no shake-ups this time. I also feel that, despite his efforts, Michael is too bland a straight man to Jacob, and isn’t bringing the fun and endearing chemistry that Cecily previously had with Jacob in his last commentary prior to this episode (probably the ONLY time you’ll hear me say Cecily was better at something as an Update anchor than Michael is).
STARS: ***½


ASSEMBLY LINE
Gordon (TAK) is slow to grasp simple duties of a ketchup assembly line

— Interesting characterization from Taran.
— An oddly charming gaffe when Martin initially uses the British pronunciation of “lever”, before correcting himself by re-stating the word in the American accent he’s supposed to be speaking in.
— A simple premise, but simple in a refreshing way, as it’s giving this sketch an old-school feel.
— A silly but decent ending.
STARS: ***½


HOLIDAY GIG
sax player’s (host) conflict with (TAK) leaks into Treece Henderson’s (KET) gig

— The first installment of these occasionally-appearing Treece Henderson sketches (so occasional, that the second installment isn’t until THREE YEARS after this).
— Kenan’s increasingly over-the-top, crazed “Tweedle-do-twee! Tweedle-do-twow!” singing (the most identifiable aspect of this soon-to-be recurring Treece Henderson character) is cracking me up.
— Where the heck is this sketch going? This has that bad, questionable, hard-to-figure feel that a lot of James Anderson/Kent Sublette sketches suffer from. Leave it to TWO Anderson/Sublette sketches to ruin the otherwise perfect flow of an episode.
— There’s Kenan killing it with another funny delivery in this sketch, with the way he pronounces “Red boooootssss”
— A very amusing scene-stealing appearance from Taran, and I like his silly dancing at the end.
— An overall baffling sketch, but with a decent amount of redeeming factors that almost made this sketch passable.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Break the Rules”


WATERBED WAREHOUSE
Waterbed Warehouse owner’s (host) wife (AIB) embraces company mascot role

— I remember an online SNL fan pointing out that Martin looked and acted very Buck Henry-esque in this sketch. I definitely see it, and I love that, given what an excellent host Buck always was, and how much I miss getting to review his hosting stints.
— I absolutely love Aidy’s occasional singing of the lyric “Our waterbeds are the beeeeeeeeest!”, which has stuck in my memory over the years.
— This is the type of questionable sketch concept that Aidy is probably one of the very few people who can sell. I try to imagine Kristen Wiig doing this same sketch in her later seasons, and I groan, as it would’ve come off way too typical of the annoying, hammy, badly-written, “Look at me!”-type of sketches the writers stuck Kristen with way too often. But when this sketch is given to a certain performer like Aidy who we’re not overly used to seeing do this type of material, it absolutely works and comes off very fun and charming.
— Speaking of imagining other cast members playing Aidy’s role in this sketch, the Martin Freeman/Buck Henry comparison mentioned earlier makes me imagine that, if this sketch were done in SNL’s original era and Buck had appeared in Martin’s role, I can easily picture Gilda Radner in Aidy’s role.
— Taran has had an EXTREMELY busy night, appearing in practically every single sketch, rather reminiscent of Will Ferrell at his most dominant. Jay, on the other hand, makes his ONLY live appearance of the entire night here, in a brief, shirtless walk-on in which he has no lines. I remember thinking, when this originally aired, that he looked visibly upset in this sketch over the fact that this was the only live role he got all night, but I’m not getting an upset vibe from him in my current viewing.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, almost rivaling the incredible Woody Harrelson episode from earlier this season. SNL was firing on pretty much all cylinders in tonight’s episode, minus two James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written missteps (one of which still had its moments).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Office: Middle Earth
St. Joseph’s Christmas Mass Spectacular
Sump’n Claus
Wedding Objections
Charlie Rose
Waterbed Warehouse
Assembly Line
Monologue
Weekend Update
Holiday Gig
Right Side of the Bed with Gracelynn and Cory


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (James Franco)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Amy Adams hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

December 6, 2014 – James Franco / Nicki Minaj (S40 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

POLITICS NATION WITH AL SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) addresses police shootings controversy

— There’s our obligatory joke about Al Sharpton gaining weight, as SNL’s attempt to explain why Kenan is still playing Sharpton after Sharpton’s real-life weight loss.
— A laugh from Jay constantly getting cut off during his interview.
— Of the typical fairly amusing misreadings from Kenan’s Sharpton, I particularly laughed at the “twattered” one.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Sony Pictures hack released private photos of host & Seth Rogen [real]

 

— Another cameo-based monologue. I guess this particular one is at least fitting, since James Franco previously cameoed in Seth Rogen’s monologue the preceding season.
— Blah at all the juvenile photos of James and Seth. Boring and unfunny. It also reminds me of Luke Wilson’s also-boring-and-unfunny monologue from season 30, where he and Horatio Sanz were the ones showing juvenile drunk photos of themselves.
— That’s the whole monologue? Boof.
STARS: *½


PETER PAN LIVE!
Tonkerbell contends with Captain Hook (host)

— “Peter Pan Live starring Allison Williams and Christopher Walken”? I wonder who’s going to play Walken in this.
— Oh, not this Tonkerbell thing again. I disliked this character enough the first time.
— I did laugh just now at Tonkerbell’s description of her job as a reverse tooth fairy (where she takes a dollar from a child’s bedroom and leaves one off her own teeth).
— They’re giving JAMES FRANCO the Walken impression?!? How do I not remember this from my previous viewing of this episode back when it originally aired?
— Oof, not the best Walken impression I’ve ever seen, and that’s being as kind as I can be. Actually, there’s almost a “So bad, it’s good” quality to his Walken impression, but not quite.
— A very awkward premature cutaway to Tonkbell during Peter Pan and Captain Hook’s stiff swordfight.
— Why is it always Bobby who walks on at the end of these sketches as Tonkerbell’s boyfriend from a cartoon movie?
STARS: *½


STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Han Solo (TAK), Princess Leia (BOM), Luke Skywalker (host), Lando Calrissian (KET) are old

— Good to see the return of Taran’s very funny Harrison Ford impression.
— Meh, the opening scene in this pre-tape didn’t turn out to be the best use of Taran’s Ford impression.
— Having a man (Bobby) play an elderly Princess Leia? Why??? This particular sketch doesn’t even seem to warrant a man playing this role. Besides, this season already had a cheap “Princess Leia played by a man in drag” gag with Chris Pratt in the season premiere.
— So far, this is just a lame, half-assed parade of “old people” stereotypes, only presented with flashy Star Wars special effects, as if that automatically makes this tepid humor “better”.
— Overall, I barely cracked a smile at anything in this. Man, between the monologue, the Tonkerbell sketch, and now this, tonight’s episode is ROUGH so far. Certainly moreso than I had remembered.
STARS: *½


JINGLE BALLERZ
Hip Hop Nativity features Kanye West (JAP) as Jesus

— A blooper when James is making his entrance: he accidentally trips over his own cape and almost falls down in a goofy manner that I couldn’t help but laugh at, in spite of myself.
— Kate’s Justin Bieber impression is still pretty funny, though the novelty is clearly wearing off by this point.
— The audience is going NUTS for each time Nicki Minaj (in her first of what will be several sketch appearances tonight) sings a brief musical note as Beyonce.
— Another segment tonight wasting a celebrity impression of Taran’s that’s usually very funny; this time, it’s his Eminem impression.
— Good to see Jay’s Kanye impression going back to being used outside of that Waking Up With Kimye recurring sketch, which quickly got tired.
— Overall, some laughs, but this was extremely forgettable and pretty boring. (*sigh*) Tonight’s episode continues to not do it for me.
STARS: **


GROW-A-GUY
friendless (MOB) germinates a companion (host)

— For the first time, a short film of Mike O’Brien’s opens with a title screen stating “A Mike O’Brien Picture”. Well-deserved, as his SNL shorts prior to this one were all fantastic, and viewers deserve to know the identity of the genius behind those films. It’s also great that SNL is letting him continue doing and starring in these films despite no longer being in the cast by this point.
— A very good offbeat concept of a “Grow-A-Guy”.
— Beck is playing this “low-key douchey friend” role to absolute perfection.
— As usual for Mike’s short films, this is an excellent mix of funny, odd, creative, interesting, and melancholy.
— Solid sequence with each character self-destructing after revealing they’re a Grow-A-Guy.
— Great choice to have a “#growaguy” chyron be displayed onscreen at the end, as a callback to the hashtag discussion earlier in this film.
STARS: *****


MAGIC BRIDGE
bridge troll (host) gets a kiss from (KYM) instead of a riddle solution

— The debut of Cecily’s Cathy Anne character, who would later become one of those recurring Weekend Update characters who some people probably forget actually started out in a sketch or two (some other examples of which include Roseanne Rosannadanna, Stefon, and Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy).
— I’m a few minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t gotten a single laugh. The closest to a laugh I got was from Kyle’s delivery of his line, “You’re not kissing her. She’s my fiancee!” Something about his delivery of that line and the way he put emphasis on the word “fiancee” came off Bruce Chandling-esque.
— When this sketch originally aired, I absolutely HATED Cecily’s characterization of Cathy Anne, and dismissed it as yet another bad “Cecily does a ‘funny’ voice” sketch, like that Oliver Twist sketch from the preceding season’s Andrew Garfield episode. I also hated the second sketch appearance that Cathy Anne would later make (in a Cinderella sketch, I think, with Dakota Johnson). I would later go on to like Cathy Anne much better as a Weekend Update correspondent. With that knowledge, re-watching her in this Magic Bridge sketch in hindsight right now is quite bizarre. She’s coming off very out-of-place in this, and it’s wasting her comedic potential.
— (*groan*) Aaaaaaand there goes the ol’ “two men kissing each other for a very cheap, unnecessary laugh” trope. We’re still doing this in 2014, SNL???
— We actually get TWO separate man-on-man-kissing sequences in this sketch. Because, as we all know, men kissing men obviously only gets FUNNIER AND FUNNIER with repetition……..
— Overall, a fucking wretched sketch. And, aside from that fantastic Grow-A-Guy short, tonight’s episode continues to be dire.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Skylar Grey [real] perform “Bed Of Lies”


WEEKEND UPDATE
MIC & COJ give their thoughts on non-indictment in Eric Garner death

Anthony Crispino is unduly confident in the quality of his news nuggets

LEJ advises potential dates to bring her marijuana instead of mushrooms

missing backgrounds reframe Kim Kardashian’s (musical guest) nude photos

— Ooh, an early-era interaction piece between Colin and Michael, which is surprisingly somewhat rare in their early Updates.
— Wow, this opening Eric Garner/grand jury conversation between Colin and Michael… It doesn’t even seem to be INTENDED to be funny, and is going more for a “social commentary” tone. There are damn good points being made by Michael about the ridiculousness of the non-indictment in the Eric Garner case, but, man, between the touchiness of that subject, the lack of intended big jokes being made here, and the audience’s tense silence, there’s a haunting feel to this. Perhaps that’s what SNL’s going for.
— Okay, even though Colin and Michael are continuing on their focus of the Eric Garner/grand jury matter, it’s now growing on me, as Colin and Michael are now going more for actual jokes here, and they’re handling the touchiness of this subject decently. I also like how this is breaking up the usual format that Update typically had in the past.
— Feels a little odd seeing Anthony Crispino appearing in this new Update era, in this new Update set, and interacting with Michael instead of Seth Meyers.
— Crispino’s Mariah/Drew Carey bit was very funny.
— An absolutely hilarious bit from Crispino on the big news about “Bing Crosby” being a “rappist”. I also love this exchange between Michael and Crispino during that bit: “I’m not even gonna TOUCH that one.” “Hey, Bing Crosby would, so…”
— When Colin was setting up the next guest commentary by bringing up things like marijuana and 420, I honestly thought he was setting up a Pete Davidson commentary (for obvious reasons). Instead, we get a commentary from the other member of this cast who frequently does Update commentaries as themselves: Leslie Jones. Either way, I’m looking forward to this.
— Leslie: “Man, when I took mushrooms, I talked to Harriet Tubman for two hours.”
— I love Leslie’s humbled delivery of “Have you ever been called a bitch…..by Harriet Tubman???”
— Tonight’s overall Leslie commentary wasn’t quite as hilarious as her previous commentaries, but it still worked.
— Feels weird seeing someone other than Nasim Pedrad play Kim Kardashian . Speaking of Nasim, I feel bad for saying this because I generally like her, but I surprisingly haven’t noticed her absence this season AT ALL until this episode.
— The reveals of the real backgrounds of the racy Kim Kardashian Paper Magazine photos are mildly funny.
STARS: ***


BRAIN SPACE
(PED) can’t remember new password because his brain is full of ephemera

— A fun concept.
— Taran is very funny as the Savage Garden guy.
— Nicki Minaj continues to be prolific in this episode, like she’s an honorary co-host.
— There’s something strangely fitting about the fact that Kate played both Justin Bieber and the Kevin McAllister character from Home Alone in the same episode.
— Wow, fast costume change for Taran, playing two different roles in this live sketch.
— I love James incredulously asking, “Who remembers a Billy Zane line from Titanic?!?”
STARS: ***½


TAD RANKIN
(host) immaturely trashes the 4-year-old to whom he lost mayoral election

— Extremely juvenile writing here, but James’ increasingly frustrated, immature delivery is somehow making it work well. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m cracking up at this sophomoric material.
— Even James starting to break after the “throwing my crapped pants into the woods” bit is funny. It also helps that he gets back into character pretty soon after that breaking of his, instead of letting his breaking take over the remainder of the sketch.
— Blah, the loud cheers from girls in SNL’s audience kinda hurt the gag of James showing off his “cute” facial expression, given the fact that the joke of him doing a “cute” facial expression was that it was a forced, silly, unflattering facial expression.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Only” & “All Things Go”


SUNSEEKER YACHTS
(host), (Seth Rogen), vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Sunseeker Yachts

— First time we’ve seen the Ex-Porn Stars all season, which is a sign that they’re apparently being phased out.
— Vanessa: “I’m Brookie.” Cecily: “No, that’s your name.”
— Cecily: “One time, I thought I got banged into a different dimension, like Intersmellar, but I was just stuck in a pull-out couch. I was like, what does ‘pull-out’ mean?”
— This sketch feels rushed. We’re already at the part where the character played by the SNL host (along with Seth Rogen, in tonight’s case) stays in the scene and takes over the commercial? That usually happens much later in each installment of this recurring sketch.
— The whole Franco/Rogen section of this sketch is doing NOTHING for me.
— I didn’t understand what Cecily said during the usual part in this recurring sketch where she and Vanessa’s characters both try to say the same innocent word in unison, only for Cecily’s character’s word to be something dirty and porn-related.
— Overall, a slight improvement over the extremely disappointing and frustrating Andy Samberg/Kristen Wiig installment of this sketch, but that’s still not saying much, as this was still a pale shadow of how strong this recurring sketch usually is. It’s become painfully and sadly obvious that the magic of this once-fantastic recurring sketch is officially gone by this point.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mediocre episode as a whole. The first half was DIRE and disheartening, aside from the Mike O’Brien film and a mildly-funny cold opening. There was an improvement in the second half of this episode, but that half still wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to save this episode as a whole from earning a thumbs-down.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Grow-A-Guy
Brain Space
Tad Rankin
Weekend Update
Politics Nation with Al Sharpton
Sunseeker Yachts
Jingle Ballerz
Peter Pan Live!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Monologue
Magic Bridge


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Cameron Diaz)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Martin Freeman

Posted on

November 22, 2014 – Cameron Diaz / Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (S40 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK!
Executive Order (BOM) creates policy, not Bill (KET)

— A refreshing change of pace for the setting of a political cold opening.
— Kenan singing the legendary “I’m just a bill” song from Schoolhouse Rock is giving me a nice blast of childhood nostalgia.
— A good laugh from the Bill getting casually shoved down the stairs by Jay’s President Obama.
— A very funny abrupt, unexciting end to the intro song from the Executive Order, with his “and I pretty much just happen…” lyric.
— I love the little bit with the Executive Order reading himself from the inside after being shocked to hear about the immigration law.
— The constant repetition of the Bill being shoved down the stairs is working for me, mainly due to Kenan’s voice-overs during the falling-down-the-stairs animation. I especially like him saying “So many steps! So! Many! Steps!”
— Everybody’s timing oddly seemed a little off at the end right before they all said LFNY in unison.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host fields dumb queries from audience members (KYM), (VAB), (LEJ), (BEB)

— Yeesh, even for a questions-from-the-audience monologue, the atmosphere of this feels strangely DEAD. Something about this is way off and flat.
— Aidy gets one of the very few laughs from me, with her “Let’s just say…box checked” comment regarding Tony Danza being her “celebrity sex exception”. However, it’s starting to feel like SNL’s going to the “Aidy Bryant says something sexual-related in a sly, smug manner” well kinda often around this time.
STARS: *½


BACK HOME BALLERS
home for Thanksgiving, women enjoy parents’ largesse

— A direct sequel to the beloved Twin Bed music video from the preceding season.
— I’m a minute-and-a-half into this so far, and, while Lil’ Baby Aidy and the rest of the girls are performing this well, I’m not finding myself laughing much at the actual humor of this.
— I do like the mid-song interlude right now, with the “What’s going on with you?” conversation between Aidy and our old friend Jean.
— Kate’s ridiculously long, complicated WIFI password is pretty funny.
— Leslie steals yet another segment on SNL, as I am loving her rap about bowls, which is easily what I feel is the best part of this somewhat underwhelming short.
— Overall, some highlights, but as a whole, this short was a little meh for me. I’ve always felt this short was overrated, and doesn’t come remotely close to touching the original Twin Bed.
STARS: **½


ANNIE
new orphan Annie (LEJ) is a large 43-year-old black woman

— Vanessa is well-cast as the traditional Annie.
— I’ve never seen anyone do a Jamie Foxx impression outside of this sketch, but Jay is unsurprisingly doing a very solid job at it. However, was it necessary to have him enter this sketch saying “I’m Jamie Foxx…I mean, Daddy Warbucks”? What was the point of that gag?
— A good laugh from the initial visual of Leslie as Black Annie.
— Leslie’s carrying this sketch pretty well, though there’s a bit of a dead feel to certain parts of this sketch, much like the monologue.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ***


NEST-SPRESSO
the Nest-Spresso machine instantly incubates chicks for urban farmers

— A pretty good laugh from the awkward way Taran and Kate have to climb over the fence to get to Vanessa’s house.
— When asked how her Nest-Spresso machine works, I love Vanessa bluntly responding, with a smile, “I don’t know that part.”
— An oddly specific look to Taran and Kate’s otherwise-generic characters. Are they modeled after people from a real commercial that this might be spoofing?
— I do kinda like the dark, disturbing part with the Nest-Spresso machine dispensing bones from a baby chick due to Taran operating the machine incorrectly, though I can definitely understand why that would bother some viewers.
— An overall very odd commercial that almost kinda felt like something was missing from it. I remember a lot of SNL reviewers pretty much hating this commercial and slamming it in their reviews (much like how they also hated another oddball Vanessa-Bayer-showcases-a-new-kitchen-device sketch from this season: the Vitamix sketch from the Sarah Silverman episode). However, the off-kilter approach to this Nest-Spresso ad worked decently enough for me.
STARS: ***


THEATER SHOWCASE
high school’s artsy Student Theater Showcase grates on audience members

— The debut of this recurring sketch.
— A lot of laughs all throughout this sketch, from the lousy “deep” social commentary in the scenes being performed within this play.
— Some solid little details within the bad play scenes.
— Kenan: “So…which one’s your daughter?” Vanessa: “I’d rather not say.”
— Meh, Kenan’s unnecessary over-explaining of the oddities in this sketch is feeling awfully Mikey Day-esque (as in, the “incredulous straight man who states the obvious by pointing out all the comedic oddities in a sketch, as if SNL thinks us viewers are too dumb to notice the oddities ourselves” role that Mikey Day plays an awful lot in more recent seasons). Are Mikey and Streeter Seidell the writers of this recurring sketch?
STARS: ****


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Mike Nichols marks his passing


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Uptown Funk”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Angela Merkel (KAM) is agitated following stressful G20 summit experience

Charles Manson (TAK) lied about his past to fiancee Star Burton (CES)

— A memorable line from Michael, in regards to all the then-recent sexual assault allegations made against Bill Cosby: “Hey, Bill Cosby – pull YOUR damn pants up!” I also love Michael saying afterwards, in a satisfied voice, “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
— As usual, Kate’s Angela Merkel is likable and pretty fun. Also as usual, I love that her appearances have a running gag about her crush on President Obama.
— The way (especially her gestures) Kate’s Merkel sang a “Baby Got Back” lyric just now reminds of the way Kate previously sang a lyric from a Beyonce song when playing Ann Romney in an important breakout appearance Kate made early in her SNL tenure.
— I like how the “study conducted on…ya momma” punchline has become a running gag for Michael in these early Updates of his.
— Taran looks hilarious as Charles Manson.
— A decent Taran/Cecily commentary, especially the reveal that Charles Manson’s fiancee thinks Manson’s in jail simply for tax evasion.
STARS: ***


BABY BOSS
angling for a promotion, (KET) has dinner at Mr. Patterson’s house

— I was going to say this is the third and final installment of this recurring sketch, but checking this page on SNL Archives right now, I see that this sketch actually has one more installment remaining after this, in the following season’s Drake episode. Wow, I have absolutely no memory of Baby Boss appearing in that Drake episode. Then again, I remember almost NOTHING from that episode.
— Glad to see them finally change settings for this character. Judging from the screencap in the afore-linked SNL Archives page, the following season’s Drake episode puts Baby Boss back in his old office setting. Can’t say I’m crazy about that decision.
— As usual, Beck’s baby-mannerism routine is reliable for laughs, and he’s always so damn likable as this character, though the novelty of this routine is really wearing off by this point.
STARS: ***


DR. DAVE AND BUGGLES’ ANIMAL HOUR
Dr. Dave (KET)’s animal show had genital trauma inflicted by Buggles

— The opening title sequence and general animal show concept kinda brings the Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch to mind, though the actual main conceit of this particular sketch goes in a completely different direction from the Brian Fellow sketches.
— Mixed feelings on this sketch so far. The conceit of this sketch is awfully juvenile and one-note, but Kenan’s making it work somewhat.
— Very noisy off-camera sounds by the monkey when an SNL stagehand is discreetly removing the monkey from his cage while the camera is on a close-up of Cameron.
STARS: **½


I’M GOING TO FIGHT ANDY RYDELL
tough-talking Chris Fitzpatrick picks a fight with Andy Rydell (BEB)

— Much like the Baby Boss sketch earlier tonight, it’s good to see tonight’s Chris Fitzpatrick short being taken in a completely different direction from the previous short he appeared in on SNL.
— I love the random detail of Kyle’s Fitzpatrick, while speaking into the camera, picking up a traffic cone at one point and acting like it’s a microphone.
— Beck looking very young and much thinner than usual in that photo shown of him here (the fourth and fifth above screencaps for this short).
— I’m enjoying the awkward hallway fight between Kyle and Beck.
— As usual, some pretty good laughs from the random cutaways to stock footage of car crashes and such. I also like how the Beck/Kyle hallway fight scene keeps getting abruptly cut off by extremely random, unrelated slideshows of facts that Kyle’s Fitzpatrick shares about himself.
STARS: ***½


POETRY CLASS
Miss Meadows’ friend (host) recites a sultry poem about the UPS Man

— The third and final appearance of this recurring sketch (feels like I’m saying that quite a bit in this episode review).
— For obvious reasons, we don’t get the usual opening to this recurring sketch this time, where the teacher character played by Mike O’Brien introduces Vanessa’s Miss Meadows.
— So far, tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch is going in the exact same ol’ direction as the previous two installments of this sketch, a direction that only worked for me in the first installment.
— (*groan*) And why is it always Aidy and Kenan who play the first two students who read a poem in front of the class in EVERY SINGLE INSTALLMENT of this recurring sketch? A prime example of how lazy and formulaic a lot of SNL’s recurring sketches in recent eras tend to be.
— I did at least like the part of Aidy’s poem where she proudly says, in regards to her stepfather’s habit of wearing a shirt that looks like a tuxedo, “Uh-oh! He fancy!”
— Okay, at least they’re finally doing something different with the formula, as Cameron’s character is taking this recurring sketch into a new direction.
— A funny racy UPS Man poem from Cameron, and I like the cutaway to Pete’s dainty, delighted reaction to it.
— Another laugh from Pete, with him saying, “No, no, this is awesome. Do one about the FedEx guy!”
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mystikal [real] perform “Feel Right”


NIGHT MURMURS
Night Murmurs phone chatters (CES), (host), (KAM) have some favors to ask

— A sloppy, baffling moment early on where, while Cameron is still speaking into the camera in her first scene, the screen crossfades to Kate, who then begins speaking into the camera while a now-off-camera Cameron is heard still speaking before abruptly cutting herself off when realizing Kate’s now speaking. What the heck happened there?
— This sketch feels like a failed attempt at random, oddball humor. Aside from one or two chuckles I’ve gotten, the absurd details the ladies are disclosing about a mysterious package are NOT working.
— This sketch is so “off” and sloppy that even a pro like Kate flubbed a laugh line just now, which feels rare for her at this point of her tenure.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A forgettable episode, with a bit of an “off” feel in a few segments (especially that extremely flat monologue). There was a decent amount of okay segments, but the problem is the episode rarely rose above that level, resulting in an unexciting, unmemorable episode that was just…there. A letdown after the incredible Woody Harrelson episode that preceded this. While SNL’s quality has pretty much always been up and down, something about the slightly “off” feel of tonight’s episode has always made me disagree with some people’s claim that the Harrelson episode is the turning point of this season after a bumpy start. To me, this Cameron Diaz episode showed that the slight shakiness in this first quarter of this season hasn’t exactly left the building quite yet.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Schoolhouse Rock!
Theater Showcase
I’m Going To Fight Andy Rydell
Annie
Weekend Update
Nest-Spresso
Baby Boss
Back Home Ballers
Poetry Class
Dr. Dave and Buggles’ Animal Hour
Night Murmurs
Monologue


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Woody Harrelson)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
James Franco

Posted on

November 15, 2014 – Woody Harrelson / Kendrick Lamar (S40 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DRINKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Barack Obama (JAP) & Mitch McConnell (TAK) get drunk after election day

— I’m enjoying the structure to this, with all the time jumps.
— This is getting more and more fun the increasingly drunk and loose Jay and Taran’s President Obama and Mitch McConnell are getting.
— A very funny high-pitch shriek from Taran when the phone rings after his crank call.
— Love Taran’s delivery of “Oooooh, you’re in trouble!” after the tense exchange Obama has with his wife.
— This overall cold opening was not only strong, but it alone had a better energy and flow than almost anything in the preceding episode (Chris Rock).
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence [real] visit host

— Yet another musical monologue, but this one is more forgivable, given the fact that Woody Harrelson’s previous two monologues, both of which were good, were guitar songs like this one is. It also helps that I really like the conceit of his guitar song tonight, reminiscing about 1989, the year he first hosted SNL.
— One of Woody’s lyrics about 1989: “I think I had a mullet.” Indeed he did (screencap of him from his 1989 hosting stint below).

— This suddenly turns into another one of those cameofest monologues, which I’m rarely crazy about when it occurs in recent seasons like this. I at least don’t mind seeing Josh Hutcherson on SNL again, as I found him to be a likable host the preceding season.
— A good laugh from Woody initially thinking Jennifer Lawrence is Taylor Swift.
— Great ad-lib (“You’re always so stoned!”) from Jennifer Lawrence when she has a hard time getting a line out while quoting Woody. This ad-lib sets off an infectious and endearing stretch of giggling from all four of the performers that almost sounds like they really are stoned.
— Overall, for both a musical monologue AND cameofest monologue, two of my least favorite monologue tropes, this was surprisingly not bad at all, was actually pretty fun, and had a nice charm.
STARS: ***½


THE DUDLEYS
viewer feedback prompts changes to sitcom; Uzo Aduba cameo

— Very strong and clever satire here, with all the frequent and increasingly desperate PC changes this sitcom makes as their answer to the various social media complaints they’ve received.
— Another surprisingly fun cameo tonight, as the appearance of “Crazy Eyes” from Orange Is The New Black is adding well to this.
STARS: ****½


MATCH’D
horny contestants contend with bachelorette’s (CES) dad (host)

— When the guys are each giving their response to Cecily’s first question, I love Beck’s affable delivery of his very sleazy line, “I would take you back to my house and show you my special ingredient: my penis.”
— Absolutely priceless twist of Cecily being Woody’s daughter, after all of the raunchy, horny things the guys had just said to her in front of him. Love how the guys all suddenly change their tune immediately after this twist, by awkwardly forcing themselves to give Cecily’s questions very proper, gentlemanly answers in order to not upset Woody.
— An absolutely killer and classic moment, with Cecily’s “Can’t shake hands with a ghost!” line about her mother.
— Another excellent twist, with the casual reveal that Woody is an ex-marine. This must be a Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written sketch, because, as I said in some previous episode reviews, those two writers seem to have a knack for throwing great shocking twists into their sketches.
— Very funny bit from Kyle about “Veteruss Day, the day we celebrate our veteruss”, delivered perfectly in that trademark oddball Kyle Mooney delivery.
— Hilarious crotchless panties bit with Taran.
— Great ending with Woody revealing he’s about to watch footage of the moment he had just given the guys and Cecily alone together, where the guys crassly let Cecily know how extremely horny they are right now.
STARS: *****


NEW MARIJUANA POLICY
end of pot possession arrests sends NYC stoners out-of-doors

— I am loving the wordless, excellently-shot sequence with Pete and his stoner neighbors all simultaneously exiting their houses with bags of weed.
— Another scene-stealing appearance from Leslie, as her mere facial expression as she exits her pot smoke-filled car in slow motion is hilarious.
— Perfect appearance from Woody, who’s obviously a natural for this short film’s subject matter.
— Another great little Leslie moment, with her proudly yelling “DEBLASIO, BABY!!!”
— A very fun, memorable, and oddly beautiful sequence of the whole town happily marching in the streets in pot-related unity.
— Lots of funny little details throughout this short.
— Excellent twist with it turning out that, while the new policy allows people to openly possess marijuana in public, they can’t actually smoke it in public.
STARS: *****


FOOTBALL HALFTIME SPEECH
football coach (host) relays overcautious safety measures to players

— A lot of good laughs from the sequence with Woody using Jay to demonstrate the extremely gentle new tackling technique. I especially love the phrase, “Back of the head…” “PUT YOUR PRINCESS TO BED!!!”
— Kenan’s brain-damaged, nonsensical rambling is classic and steals the entire sketch. Among some great lines from him are “Who said sumpin’ about some rings?!?” and “This one’s for ALL the Marlboros!”
STARS: ****


YOUNG TARTS & OLD FARTS
duets album pairs established & rising musicians

— A cheap laugh from the title of this album.
— I had mis-remembered this as being a Christmas-themed album that aired in one of the December episodes of this season. I was probably confusing this with one of the Christmas duets album ads from the previous two Jimmy Fallon-hosted episodes. Minus the Christmas theme, those ads have a very similar style to this Young Tarts & Old Farts ad.
— Oh, there’s that awful Macklemore impression from Kyle that I mentioned in a previous episode review. Actually, watching it again right now, Kyle’s impression isn’t as bad as I had remembered.
— I like Sasheer’s Diana Ross saying, in regards to Kyle-as-Macklemore’s lyric about homophobia in hip-hop, “I don’t need him educate me about gay people. I invented gay people!”
— Love the James Taylor/Sam Smith duet, especially Woody’s Taylor telling Taran’s Smith, “Lighten up, dude” and “It’s a happy song!” Also, the decision to cast Woody as James Taylor feels very fitting.
— Oh, I did NOT need the return of Kate’s terrible and baffling Lorde “impression” from the preceding season.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “i”


WEEKEND UPDATE
LEJ argues that it’s appropriate for women in relationships to be crazy

host’s True Detective co-star Matthew McConaughey (TAK) is a little loopy

 

— A classic opening to this Update, with the running “But dat ass, doe” gag in regards to Kim Kardashian’s famous Paper Magazine cover photo.
— Leslie in her first Update commentary as a cast member.
— A memorable moment, with Leslie repeatedly yelling at Colin, “LOOK AT MY BREAST!”
— Good ad-lib from Leslie after both she and the audience simultaneously giggle in response to a funny line of hers.
— As usual in her Update commentaries, Leslie is absolutely KILLING it tonight.
— Love the Lorne joke from Michael, despite his clumsy delivery of the set-up.
— Colin’s theme park/pedophiles joke is another early display of the great ballsy jokes he would often do on Update years later.
— Great to see Taran’s Matthew McConaughey impression back after that very funny commentary he did the preceding season. Also nice to see him paired up with McConaughey’s True Detective co-star Woody this time.
— Like last time, some very funny “deep” ramblings from Taran’s McConaughey, and I particularly love the Super Mario Bros. bit, especially the line, “Hop on a turtle’s back, send him into the abyss.”
— Overall, the first really strong Update of the Jost/Che era.
STARS: ****


OLD NEW YORK
at a bar, only (host) is wistful about the good old days of NYC crack

— Hilarious turn with how, after the other guys reminisce about normal, wholesome city things that are no longer around, Woody’s only contribution to the conversation is “Remember the crack?”
— A one-note premise, but it’s a damn funny one-note premise, and Woody is executing it very well.
— Kenan randomly deciding to use a loud and exaggerated voice when blurting out the line “I MISS THE RESPECT!!!” was very amusing, and clearly wasn’t in the script, given the fact that, when the camera cuts to a shot of Taran and Bobby immediately after that line, Taran’s smirking and Bobby’s stifling his laughter HARD.
— Priceless reveal of Woody’s “police badge” actually being a “Vote For Nader” button.
STARS: ****


CAMPFIRE SONG
(host) can’t get friends to help with apple song at a campfire singalong

— This feels like the most in character we’ve seen Woody all night, as he’s speaking in a different voice than his own.
— Oh, no. Our very first of way-too-damn-many James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written sketches with the premise of “A character sings a non-existent song that they expect their friends to join in and sing along as if it’s a famous song, but they’re not familiar with it”. Ugh, I’ve always strongly disliked this recurring concept, and never understood Anderson & Sublette’s fascination with it.
— As unfunny as Woody’s “Apples” song is, I do at least find it to have a catchy sound, I admit.
— I did get a laugh just now from the incongruously large amount of water splashing just from Woody throwing his guitar pick in the lake.
— Ugh, there’s that corny twist where “Hey, the main character’s friends actually DO know the song after all, and happily join in on the singalong!”, which would also become a staple of some (if not all) of the subsequent Anderson/Sublette sketches with this premise.
— Overall, leave it to Anderson & Sublette to ruin this episode’s perfect streak of segments ranging from pretty solid to excellent. That being said, as much as I didn’t like this sketch, I don’t find it to be as awful as some of the subsequent sketches with this same premise.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Chantal Kreviazuk & Jay Rock [real] perform “Pay For It”


LAST CALL
sex-starved (host) & Sheila Sovage necessarily lower their standards

— A little odd how this is the second post-Update sketch tonight that takes place in a bar.
— I always love that “Ha-HAAAAAA!” laugh that Kate’s Sheila Sovage does in an early moment of each installment of this recurring sketch.
— Woody’s “Eyebrows, eyebrows, eyebrows” line was very funny.
— A huge laugh from Sheila Sovage revealing her occupation: “I re-plaster unpopular glory holes!”
— Woody has even better chemistry with Kate here than previous hosts had with her in prior installments of this sketch.
— I love Woody’s “STDetroit” line.
— Another great Woody line, with him assuming CDC stands for “Center For Doin’ It Correctly”.
— Kenan’s way of saying “That’s for my fruit!” absolutely SLAYED me. (He’s been killing it with his line deliveries tonight in general.) He pronounced “fruit” in such an odd, comical manner with such a goofy voice that it caught me off-guard and has me in absolute stitches. I honestly cannot stop laughing at it right now. His pronunciation of “fruit” is hard to spell out phonetically, but here’s my best attempt at the spelling: “fruuuT” with a very hard ‘t’.
— Excellent ending with how, while Woody and Sheila Sovage are nastily making out with each other through plastic wrapping in front of their faces, Kenan begins dousing the whole bar with gasoline and says, “Well, I gotta kill us ALL, I guess.”
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fantastic episode. Not only is it easily my favorite episode of this season so far, but it honestly may even be one of the best episodes I’ve ever reviewed. (Can’t wait to see the rating average my review of this episode has when commenter Vax Novier tallies up the averages of each of my season 40 reviews.) Not only did this episode impressively go by with almost no bad segments at all, but almost every single one of this episode’s segments was great, receiving a rating in the 4-5-star range. And some of those great segments were particularly memorable or had at least one very memorable moment, and a few of tonight’s great segments are even classics. There was also an infectious energy in the air all throughout the episode, partly due to Woody Harrelson’s always-likable presence. Overall, a terrific episode, and, man, what an amazing turnaround from the troubled (though not as bad as its reputation) episode that preceded this.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Match’d
New Marijuana Policy
The Dudleys
Last Call
Weekend Update
Drinks at the White House
Old New York
Football Halftime Speech
Young Tarts & Old Farts
Monologue
Campfire Song


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Rock)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cameron Diaz

Posted on

November 1, 2014 – Chris Rock / Prince (S40 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE KELLY FILE
Chris Christie (BOM) quarantines Ebola nurse (KAM)

— Cecily-as-Megyn-Kelly’s opening line about Blacula being, in fact, white landed with a thud, bombing hard with the audience. I wonder if that already sets the tone for this infamous episode.
— Already a fun energy from Bobby as a brash Chris Christie, right from the start of his interview.
— Speaking of a fun, brash energy early in someone’s appearance, Kate is coming in super hot in this sketch, stealing it with a very funny performance.
— Hilarious exchange between Kate’s Kaci Hickox and Bobby’s Chris Christie when he confronts her by showing up out of absolutely nowhere in her house. Hickox: “What the hell are you doin’ here?!?” Christie: “I’m Chris Christie – I’m everywhere!”
— When Kate’s Hickox tells Bobby’s Christie that she cannot wait to sue him, I absolutely love him responding, “Oh, yeah? Well, get in line! It starts all the way back at the G.W. Bridge, and traffic is VERY slow!”
— The ending felt rather abrupt.
— An overall funny and mostly well-paced cold opening, thus making it this season’s first actual GOOD cold opening. Can’t believe it took this season five long episodes to achieve a good cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
CSR does stand-up about terrorism, Jesus & Christmas materialism, guns

— You gotta admire Chris Rock’s extremely ballsy choice to open his stand-up monologue with material on the Boston marathon bombing. Tonight’s already-subdued audience was clearly too nervous to laugh at this touchy material when it began, but they’ve gotten more and more into once they realized it’s okay to laugh.
— Uber mention #1 tonight.
— Chris: “People joggin’ for 26 miles! Their knees are hurtin’! Their feet are killin’ em! If you’re a woman, there’s blood comin’ out’cha titties!”
— Chris’ hot streak continues, as he gets more great material out of another ballsy, touchy subject matter, with him questioning the decision to build the Freedom Tower and why anyone would want to go inside of it.
— Chris, on how he’s never going in the Freedom Tower: “I don’t care if Scarlett Johansson is butt-naked on the 89th floor in a plate of ribs – I’m not goin’ in there!”
— Chris’ scenario about a hypothetical commercial cashing in on Martin Luther King Day by saying “These Toyotas are practically free at last! Free at last!” reminds me of a sketch SNL actually did on that topic of the commercialization of MLK Day (and I think even had Jon Lovitz saying the “practically free at last!” line) way back in season 11’s Harry Dean Stanton episode.
— Chris is doing an outstanding job in this monologue, much like his previous monologue from his season 22 hosting stint. (I’ve heard some not-so-great things about his season 46 monologue, which I’ve yet to see for myself, but we’ll see how I’ll react to it when I review that episode.)
— Some great punchlines to yet ANOTHER very ballsy, touchy topic Chris is covering: gun control.
STARS: ****½


HOW 2 DANCE WITH JANELLE
teen vlogger Janelle (SAZ) is oblivious to her sexiness

— Refreshing to see the very-underused Sasheer front-and-center in a rare lead role, and in a sketch with a very “current” style.
— A good awkward supporting character from Kyle.
— Yikes, HORRIBLE positioning of the performers in Jay’s first brief appearance in this sketch, as Chris is completely standing in front of him the entire time, which makes it mostly impossible to see him while he’s speaking (he’s behind Chris in the fourth above screencap for this sketch). Clearly, this was not planned. Is director Don Roy King to blame, or was either Chris or Jay standing in the wrong spot? Either way, it rendered Jay’s scene awkward as hell.
— Chris’ timing is very off at some points during this sketch, but he’s still getting some laughs from me in his performance.
— Nice bit with Chris and Sasheer dancing in unison.
— Wow, this sketch died a sad death in its final 35 seconds or so. In particular, the ending with the computer screen filter was AWFUL and came off very badly-executed, almost as if Chris was vamping very poorly.
— An overall decent sketch, but with a few really bad missteps, as mentioned.
STARS: ***


GOPROBE
GoProbe is colonoscopy camera of choice for middle-aged extreme sportsmen

— In a way, this can kinda be considered a companion piece to the Preparation H commercial from the season 27 premiere (where “x-treme” teen skateboarders were touting the great effects of Preparation H). Kinda funny to imagine that the middle-aged “x-treme” characters in this GoProbe commercial are actually aged versions of the same characters from the Preparation H commercial.
— The “Your Grandpa’s Colonoscopy” scene is hilarious.
— A good laugh from how, when shown the polyps in his colon, Beck responds “Sick!” in an upbeat, cool manner, and then Kenan as the doctor responds to that with a very matter-of-factly “Yes.”
— Overall, an improvement over the aforementioned Preparation H commercial (which itself wasn’t bad, but was nothing special).
STARS: ***½


HOW’S HE DOING?
black analysts cut Obama an infinite amount of slack

— The third and final installment of this sketch.
— I don’t recall previous installments of this sketch opening with the PBS station I.D. that tonight’s installment opened with, but maybe they did and I just forgot.
— Hmm, the second installment of this sketch already used tonight’s joke about President Obama’s approval rating among black voters dropping down to the “extremely” low percentage of 90-something.
— I love that we have much more guests than usual in tonight’s How’s He Doing installment, showing how much SNL’s black cast has grown after the first two installments of this sketch. It’s also nice to see Sasheer in her second big role for the second consecutive sketch tonight.
— I like how the wig Chris is wearing appears to an intentional replica of his hairstyle from his years as an SNL cast member (side-by-side comparison below).

   

— I already said this in one or two previous episode reviews this season, but it bears repeating that all of the Ebola talk in these early season 40 episodes is eerily very applicable to our current COVID times.
— Tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch has been decent so far, but doesn’t feel as strong as usual. There’s not much standing out here.
— Okay, I do like the part regarding a scenario of Obama having a lenient reaction to his daughters acting very rude towards him.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & 3RDEYEGIRL [real] perform “Clouds”, “Marz” & “Another Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ignorance of latex condom allergy led to PED sexting his mom

Katt Williams (JAP) & Suge Knight (KET) respond to camera theft charges

— Lame opening joke from Colin.
— Wow, I had forgotten how extremely frequently Pete did Update commentaries in his first few episodes, which is understandable, given how strong and very well-received his first one was. Hopefully, tonight’s commentary goes better than his underwhelming and unconfident-feeling second one.
— Another early SNL mention of Pete’s mom. Some very funny lines about her from Pete tonight, particularly one, in regards to how she’s seen plenty of penises because she’s a nurse: “My penis should be the most important to her in every way except one.” (My quoting of that line doesn’t do it justice. It’s Pete’s great delivery of that line that absolutely sold it.)
— Pete, upon receiving great news from a doctor that he no longer has to wear condoms: “What else? Is my dad comin’ back?!?”
— An overall pretty solid commentary from Pete, and an improvement over his second commentary.
— Yikes, Michel flubs his Tim Cook joke VERY badly. However, he saves himself with an absolutely fantastic ad-lib: “Prince, ladies and gentlemen!” Speaking of Michael and flubs, he surprisingly hasn’t been flubbing jokes anywhere near as often in these early Updates of his as I had remembered.
— Uber mention #2 tonight.
— Some amusing lines from Jay and Kenan’s Katt Williams and Suge Knight, but I can’t find anything specific to say about their commentary.
STARS: ***


SHARK TANK
moguls consider an investment pitch from members of ISIS

— I kinda liked Aidy’s mock-dramatic delivery of “I am RUINED!”, but something about it seemed off, possibly because she was thrown off by flubbing her line prior to that. (Why are so many performers flubby tonight anyway?)
— Hooooooooooooo, boy. This ISIS premise……. Look, I love me some ballsy humor, as my review of tonight’s monologue showed, but this? Wow, SNL.
— I remember some online SNL fans comparing the bad taste of this sketch to infamous bad-taste season 20 sketches (because this season apparently ALWAYS had to be compared to season 20 by some folks) like America’s Funniest Hate Videos (a sketch I actually like, as dumb and questionable as it is).
— I am currently two minutes into this ISIS thing, and I have yet to get a single laugh from it.
— Three minutes and counting, and still not so much as a mere smirk from me. Plenty of sighing and uncomfortable feelings from me, though.
— Was that ending even supposed to be comedic? The hell was that? Sure, it’s satisfying that the ISIS members deservedly got tricked into being arrested by the FBI, thanks to Kenan’s Daymond John, but that doesn’t automatically make it a well-written or well-executed conclusion. (Let’s remember that the aforementioned widely-disliked America’s Funniest Hate Videos sketch also ended with the skinhead characters being tricked into getting arrested, and that still doesn’t stop people from deeming that sketch to be horrible.) Something about it felt like an off way to end an already-very-off sketch.
— Overall, in a word: oof.
STARS: *


SWIFTAMINE
Swiftamine fights vertigo caused by Taylor Swift fan cognitive dissonance

   

— Lots of big laughs from the overdramatic vertigo symptoms various people display when finding out Taylor Swift is the singer of the catchy new song they love.
— Great performance from Beck as the spokesperson, and I love the silly little detail of him being named Dr. David Doctor.
— Funny reveal of the Swiftamine medication name, and the execution of this whole idea is very strong.
— Love Leslie’s wig, which is a funny little detail of her character.
— A hilarious slow motion shot of Aidy saying “Taylor Swift!”
— Absolutely priceless ending with Leslie in the ballerina costume.
STARS: ****½


THE COUPLE
an old couple (CSR) & (LEJ) argues while preparing for anniversary outing

— Ohhhh, here’s a very infamous sketch.
— Uber mention #3 tonight. Yeah, I’m starting to see what people mean when they complain about the excessive Uber mentions that this episode contains. However, the Uber mentions aren’t quite as frequent as those complaints had me expecting. (Also, I recall the following season’s Elizabeth Banks episode also having multiple Uber mentions, yet nobody seemed to complain about that.)
— Both Chris and Leslie’s delivery is already coming off pretty clunky early on in this sketch.
— I’m almost starting to think I should start an “Ebola mention” count, like the “Uber mention” count I’ve been doing.
— Chris: “When the government shuts down the cloud….I’ma have Luther!”
— OH. NO. And theeeeerrrre’s the most notorious moment of this sketch and one of the most notorious moments of this entire episode, where Leslie accidentally exits the scene WAY earlier than she was supposed to, realizes her gaffe, comes back into the scene, stands back in the proper spot where she had been standing, looks around completely lost, stares off-camera at a specific person (Lorne?) for a few seconds while having her shoulders shrugged and a very confused “What am I supposed to do?!?” look on her face, then pauses for ANOTHER two seconds, then finally continues with the script, only to immediately flub yet another line. All of what I described, by the way, happening to uncomfortable and PAINFUL dead silence from the audience. Ohho, man. That entire moment I just described has to be, hands down, one of the most cringeworthy moments in SNL history. I mean, WHAT…THE…HELL was that all about?!? Love ya, Leslie, but what HAPPENED?!? That’s also our very first of what would be a number of displays over the years of Leslie’s greenness as a live TV performer.
— Aw, dammit. Leslie even managed to flub her potentially-great “I will Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes this bitch to the GROUND!!!” line. Granted, the line itself was funny enough that it still got a decent laugh from both me and the audience, but still……
— I’m now a little further into this sketch, and Leslie and Chris’ delivery continues to come off clunky and flubby.
— I actually really appreciate the slice-of-life feel this sketch is going for, but man, it’s being completely undermined by how HORRIBLY rehearsed this sketch seemingly is. I mean, yeesh! This is a mess. Feels like I’m watching amateur hour.
— An angry Sasheer pops in out of absolutely nowhere.
— An actual funny ending reveal of this being Chris and Leslie’s anniversary.
STARS: *½


ROBBERS
bank robbers (BEB), (BOM), (KYM) prove to be unironically accommodating

— Much like the Miley Sex Tape short, this Good Neighbor short (this is a Good Neighbor short, right???) has Bobby basically being a Nick Rutherford stand-in.
— Great delivery from Bobby of his simultaneously concerned and intimidating “He said sparkling…(*cocks his rifle*)…or still!” line when Kyle is offering Sasheer some water.
— I love all the subversions with how the buildups to something tense the robbers are seemingly about to do to a customer turns out to be something very kind and caring. I especially like the random Civil War lesson that Kyle and Bobby give to Taran’s character’s son.
— A very funny little “Look I got the money!” jolly musical number the robbers end their robbery with. The gleeful look on Beck’s face during that number is particularly good.
STARS: ****


WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
1990s training video has curious diversity advice

— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— Yet another wig on Chris tonight that seems to be a replica of his early 90s SNL hair.
— Vanessa’s bad attempt at a “black handshake” is hilarious.
— An apparent genuine gaffe, in which Vanessa accidentally talks over Chris at one point before cutting herself off. That’s yet ANOTHER example of how flubby the performers are throughout tonight’s episode, but that particular flub of Vanessa’s actually fits really well in this sketch, given the intentional bad, stiff acting it features.
— Like the previous installment of this sketch, we get some good humor from all of the absurdity and comical awkwardness in the training video scenes, and it’s a rare example of very random James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written humor coming off well (if they indeed are the ones who write these sketches).
— Interesting continuity with having Taran show up as the same character he played in the first installment of this sketch, complete with the same wig and cheesy sweater.
— Speaking of Taran, I like the way he randomly and slowly lowers to the ground in a stiff manner at the end of his scene.
— A funny biracial couple/“And I don’t do that” ending.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as bad an episode as its very negative reputation. That being said, what was bad in this episode was PAINFUL: that Shark Tank/ISIS mess, the promising-but-gaffe-filled-and-seemingly-under-rehearsed The Couple sketch, even a few moments of the otherwise-decent How 2 Dance With Janelle sketch, and a general sloppy feel to the night (especially with all the line-flubbing). However, if you ignore those things, you actually have a decent episode, a few very strong highlights, and an absolutely epic musical performance from Prince. Still, the mild shakiness of this first quarter of season 40 is undeniably still being felt.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Swiftamine
Robbers
The Kelly File
GoProbe
Women In The Workplace
How’s He Doing?
Weekend Update
How 2 Dance with Janelle
The Couple
Shark Tank


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Woody Harrelson

Posted on

October 25, 2014 – Jim Carrey / Iggy Azalea (S40 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

EBOLA PRESS CONFERENCE
Ebola czar Ron Klain (TAK) & Al Sharpton (KET) address public health

— As I said in a recent review, the constant then-topical Ebola virus mentions in these early season 40 episodes are relatable to our current COVID era.
— A few mild laughs from Taran’s Q&A session, but nothing special.
— The usual somewhat amusing comments from Kenan’s Al Sharpton.
— What was the point of having Beck as one of the reporters, when he has absolutely nothing to do or say at any point of this cold opening?
— Overall, while this cold opening wasn’t terrible, it was very forgettable, thus making this season now 0-for-4 in good cold openings. My goodness. I cannot remember the last season that started out with such a long consecutive losing streak with cold openings. Even the dreadful season 30 had at least one good cold opening by this point of that season.
STARS: **½


OPENING MONTAGE
— SNL writer Leslie Jones has been added to the cast, due to popular demand after making some very noteworthy, scene-stealing sketch appearances and Weekend Update commentaries.


MONOLOGUE
underworld rock & roll king Helvis (host) sings of his love for pecan pie

— Great costume from Jim Carrey upon his entrance.
— What was with the unseen voices of two(?) real audience members loudly howling “AWOOOOO!” in unison after Jim says Elvis Presley liked to raise a little hell? Or was that sound of men howling  “AWOOOOO!” just a planned sound effect played by SNL?
— Solid Elvis voice from Jim.
— (*sigh*) Yet another musical monologue. At least this has a fairly fun and out-of-the-ordinary concept for one, though.
— Meh, there’s SNL’s usual unnecessary habit of having a few cast members play cheesy backup dancers during a host’s musical monologue.
— Hmm, hate to say it, but nothing particularly funny at all is happening during the song, and I’m kinda starting to lose interest. Jim’s charm and fun energy is the only thing really carrying the song.
— Good ol’ Bobby shows up to add a little comedy. Love the way he pops into frame from under the camera as soon as his character is called.
— A nice wide shot of the studio during the camera pan-out at the end.
STARS: **½


LINCOLN
Matthew McConaughey (host) rolls a booger while driving his Lincoln

— A hilarious and spot-on spoof of Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln ads, and this spoof is also serving as a reminder of what a good impressionist Jim can be at times.
— I think this is SNL’s very first mention of Uber, which I’m pointing out because of the excessive number of Uber mentions that the (infamous) following Chris Rock-hosted episode is said by SNL fans to contain. (I personally only remember one Uber mention in that entire episode, but we’ll see how many there are.)
— Very funny comment from Jim’s McConaughey about his agent telling him it would’ve made sense to do these Lincoln commercials after doing the movie The Lincoln Lawyer.
STARS: ****


CARREY FAMILY REUNION
(Jeff Daniels) & other kin are like host’s characters at family reunion

— A variation of the Walken Family Reunion sketch from Christopher Walken’s season 33 hosting stint.
— Leslie’s first sketch appearance as a cast member, and she already has a great little moment with her over-the-top laughing response to a mild joke of Jim’s, followed by her saying a well-delivered “You are so crazy, Jim Carrey!”
— I like seeing Jim and Taran play off of each other here, reminding me of their fun chemistry at some parts of Jim’s previous season 36 hosting stint.
— The set-up to the Cable Guy bit is (intentionally) predictable in a very fun way.
— A very solid Fire Marshal Bill from Cecily.
— I really like how, as a contrast to the Walken Family Reunion sketch, this sketch is featuring the cast imitating the host’s movie characters instead of imitating the host himself. (I’ve heard that the later Sandler Family Reunion sketch, which I’ve yet to see, takes that same route.) It makes the sketch feel less redundant in that way, and I’d say this cast is more successful at these Carrey movie character impressions than most of the season 33 cast was at their Walken impressions.
— A nice cameo from Jeff Daniels, complete with him fittingly dressed as Jim’s Dumb & Dumber character.
— I remember that, when I watched this episode during its original airing, I assumed the guy in the Riddler costume at the end of this was just an uncredited extra, until a backstage photo of Pete in the Riddler costume surfaced online shortly after the show. Watching this sketch now with that knowledge, it’s strangely kinda endearing to see Pete imitating Carrey’s trademark mannerisms, as it feels so different from the type of acting Pete usually does on the show.
STARS: ****


LINCOLN
with kids in his Lincoln, Matthew McConaughey (host) channels Rust Cohle

— Funny reveal of two kids unexpectedly being in the backseat of the car during all of this rambling of Jim’s McConaughey, then we get an even funnier reveal that he has no idea who’s kids those are.
STARS: ****


GRAVEYARD SONG
unscary dead guys Paul (TAK) & Phil (host) haunt a graveyard on Halloween

— Odd how this is the second consecutive live sketch with Bobby’s entire face painted a color. Did they just quickly slap all of this gray face paint over his green face paint from the previous sketch? It’s just amusing to me to imagine that, under all that gray he’s wearing on his skin in this sketch, his skin is entirely green.
— Another fun pairing of Jim and Taran.
— This clearly must be an early Mikey Day/Streeter Seidell writing collaboration, as this sketch’s concept not only has Day & Seidell’s familiar fingerprints all over it, but the specific “non-scary, musical, meme-ish, catchphrase-driven characters among a group of legitimately scary horror characters” theme is very reminiscent of Day & Seidell’s iconic David S. Pumpkins sketch from a few seasons later. This Paul & Phil sketch is basically the lesser-remembered precursor to David S. Pumpkins.
— Great “SHUT UPPPP!” outbursts from Bobby right now.
— I can’t find much else to say about the sketch itself. I’m enjoying it, and Jim and Taran are certainly fun, but I don’t find this sketch to be nearly as outstanding or as noteworthy as some of Day & Seidell’s later sketches with a similar theme (not just David S. Pumpkins, but, say, the Kevin Roberts sketch with Larry David, which is my personal favorite version of all these sketches).
STARS: ***½


ALLSTATE / LINCOLN
Matthew McConaughey (host) runs over Allstate spokesman Dennis Haysbert (KET) in his Lincoln

— An absolutely classic turn with Kenan’s Dennis Haysbert ironically getting run over by a car out of absolutely nowhere while in the middle of doing an Allstate commercial, followed by another absolutely priceless reveal of a meditating Jim-as-Matthew-McConaughey behind the wheel of the car, continuing the Lincoln runner of tonight. A simply perfect conclusion to this runner.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fancy”

musical guest & Rita Ora [real] perform “Black Widow”


WEEKEND UPDATE
romantic comedy expert Daisy Rose (VAB) forces meet-cute script on MIC

Drunk Uncle complains about feeling tricked & mistreated by Halloween

— Meh, didn’t the cold opening earlier tonight already make that Ebola joke about New York City now officially having every disease?
— Yeesh, Colin’s delivery of his opening run of Ebola jokes was pretty bad, which shows that, as much as I’ve been liking him on Update this season, he still certainly has some growing to do until he reaches the stage where he’s officially become a reliable co-anchor.
— Love the bit with Michael comparing Ebola to black people.
— A one-off(?) Update character for Vanessa, which I have absolutely no memory of. This could be interesting.
— Already, early in this commentary, Vanessa’s doing an absolutely spot-on and very funny spoof of typical “meet cute” tropes from romcoms.
— Michael is playing off of Vanessa perfectly, as he has some hilarious reactions and one-liners towards her.
— An overall very strong Vanessa commentary. I’m surprised by how much I had forgotten about this little gem from her until now.
— After a bumpy start at the beginning of tonight’s Update, Colin has gotten better, especially his “I thought ‘convicted sex offender’ was Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’s key demographic” punchline, which feels like the type of ballsy joke he’d do in more recent seasons. And Michael’s been having a few strong jokes tonight, too, especially his “sex study being perfected last night by…ya momma” punchline.
— Maybe I spoke a little too soon about Michael, as that brass knuckle/meth pipe joke of his was lame as HELL. However, something about his kiddie delivery of that joke’s punchline tickled me. It felt so odd hearing him talk in that kiddie voice.
— An absolutely PRICELESS beginning to Drunk Uncle’s commentary, where he, upon reacting very negatively to seeing Michael (for obvious reasons), actually scoots his own chair aaaallll the way over to the opposite side of the Update desk (I love how Michael can be heard incredulously asking “Are you seri–?” at one point during that) so he’s now sitting next to Colin for the remainder of this commentary. Not only was that an absolute riot, but that move of Drunk Uncle’s certainly has to be a first in Weekend Update history.
— (*sigh*) SNL, please STOP with that beyond-tired “That’s not me” “That’s not anyone” exchange in EVERY DAMN ONE one of these otherwise solid Drunk Uncle commentaries. Not even the audience laughed at that exchange tonight.
— Tonight’s Drunk Uncle commentary as a whole, while funny, was a little too average for his standards, and not one of his more standout commentaries. However, that fantastic “Drunk Uncle scoots his chair all the way from Michael’s side of the Update desk to Colin’s side” opening gag alone is one of the highlights of this entire episode.
STARS: ***


SECRET BILLIONAIRE
eccentric & elderly (host) seeks to pair with (CES)

 

— Jim accidentally enters the shot briefly while trying to discreetly take his seat as the camera is on Taran and Cecily.
— Something about this sketch is already giving off a bit of a dire, worrisome vibe, but I’ll try to remain open-minded towards this sketch.
— It’s now a minute later, and that dire/worrisome feel is sadly continuing. Maybe it’s something about Jim’s EXTREMELY slow-paced delivery as this character that’s hurting my enjoyment.
— Okay, that whole very-detailed story from Jim’s character regarding pleasuring himself in a hot air balloon and falling 3,000 feet was actually very funny.
— An even funnier detailed story from Jim right now, about an airplane hangar filled with 250 men named Dennis and one named Brian, and Jim theorizing how’d they all react.
— Cecily has some funny little straitlaced responses, especially her responding to one of Jim’s disturbing stories by innocently saying “Aww, I love seafood!”
— Overall, I have very mixed feelings on this sketch. It had such a bad and worrisome first two minutes, then suddenly became much funnier with some of Jim’s disturbing stories, but even with that upswing, the sketch still had a bit of an “off” feel to it, and I still can’t help but feel that Jim’s extremely slow-paced delivery hurt some of the humor of this sketch for me.
STARS: I’m still torn, but I’ll give it *** as a whole, just on the strength of that brilliant “Dennis/Brian” story


GHOSTS: FACT OR FICTION?
(LEJ) gets spooked during paranormal search

— A good first major showcase for Leslie as a cast member.
— A simple premise and simple writing, but Leslie is selling it very well with her character’s skepticism and various frightened reactions.
STARS: ****


HIGH SCHOOL
amid zombie attacks, (host) maintains his undead son (PED) isn’t infected

— A much funnier character voice from Jim here than in the Secret Millionaire sketch.
— The timing seems really off at certain points of this sketch. Odd long pauses and such, particularly when Jim is clearly very late on his cue when he’s supposed to feed Pete pieces of brains from his pockets.
— Funny interaction between Pete and Jay.
— Good zombie growls from Pete throughout this.
— Overall, despite a few laughs, this, much like the Secret Millionaire sketch, suffered from having too much of an “off” and dragging feeling, except, unlike the Secret Millionaire sketch, this one didn’t have enough merits to earn it a decent rating.
STARS: **


OFFICE COSTUME CONTEST
for office costume contest, (host) & (KAM) dance a la “Chandelier” video

— I love the controlled frustration in Sasheer’s delivery when correcting Vanessa by saying “……I’m Vanna White.”
— The whole sequence at the beginning of this sketch with Vanessa’s really bad guesses on what each co-worker’s Halloween costume is is fantastic, so much so, that I could watch an entire five-minute sketch with just Vanessa doing that. I especially love her confusing poor Aidy’s non-costume red dress as her being dressed as a meatball, which gets great reactions from Aidy.
— Fun concept of a Chandelier-themed Carrey/McKinnon dance-off in the office.
— Oh, hell yeah. I love the fourth wall-break turn with the Carrey/McKinnon dance-off going from the sketch’s set to all throughout SNL’s studio. It feels like you rarely, if ever, see a recent SNL season like this have a fourth wall-break that goes this extensive.
— So many fun antics from Jim and Kate in their around-the-studio dance-off, with them even now going through some of the sets from tonight’s earlier sketches. All of this is fantastic.
— I will say the Lorne bit was meh and kinda unnecessary, but it was brief enough not to particularly hurt the great vibe this sketch has going.
— More and more as Jim and Kate’s around-the-studio dance-off continues, this sketch is having a truly epic feel, the type of epic feel that kinda gives me goosebumps and makes me feel like I’m witnessing something truly special. In fact, when this originally aired, I remember this was among the number of Kate McKinnon moments from 2014-2017 that made me feel like I was watching a legend in the making.
— Excellent random ending with Aidy unexpectedly winning the office costume contest, which gets a perfect exaggerated puzzled reaction from her.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & MØ [real] perform “Beg For It”


GEOFF’S HALLOWEEN EMPORIUM
Geoff’s (host) Halloween Emporium proprietor is possessed by a demon

— Interesting pairing of Vanessa and Cecily in this speaking-straight-to-the-camera ad, making this kinda feel like a bizarro universe version of the ex-porn stars sketches.
— Great vocal modifier on Jim.
— Jim’s vocalizations and mugging are priceless. You can tell that, at one point, Jim is attempting to crack Vanessa and Cecily up, but those two are such pros that they don’t bat an eye.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, it had been a long time since SNL last broke out the ol’ vomit tubes prior to this sketch. A nice disgusting touch with the vomit in this particular sketch being black/dark brown, which perfectly fits Jim’s demon character.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While definitely not having the overall classic feel that a Jim Carrey-hosted episode should have (and did have, in Jim’s beloved first hosting stint), this was still certainly a good episode, and received a nice amount of sketch ratings in the high 4-5-star range from me (granted, three of those were the Lincoln three-part runner).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Office Costume Contest
Allstate / Lincoln (Part 3)
Lincoln (Part 1)
Carrey Family Reunion
Lincoln (Part 2)
Ghosts: Fact Or Fiction?
Geoff’s Halloween Emporium
Graveyard Song
Weekend Update
Secret Billionaire
Ebola Press Conference
Monologue
High School


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Hader)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Chris Rock / Prince

Posted on

October 11, 2014 – Bill Hader / Hozier (S40 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

KIM JONG-UN
sore-footed Kim Jong-un (BOM) can’t convince his army that he’s healthy

— Mikey Day! I’m surprised to see him appearing so early in my SNL project (seen behind Taran and Beck in the second above screencap for this cold opening), as this is two seasons before he would get promoted from a writer to a cast member. I didn’t know he made onscreen appearances as an extra this early into his tenure as an SNL writer. I’m aware he has some noteworthy actual speaking bit roles towards the end of the following season, which was probably Lorne testing the waters with Mikey as a possible future featured player.
— It also feels kinda odd to see Mikey and Taran standing right next to each other here, knowing in hindsight that Mikey would basically replace Taran’s spot in the cast when he’s added to the season 42 cast right after Taran’s firing.
— Good performance from Bobby as usual, but so far, the material itself is bad.
— It’s now a minute later, and yeah, it’s definitely safe to say the writing of this is pretty awful. It’s sad that the most interesting thing about this entire cold opening is the sighting of a pre-cast member Mikey Day as a silent background extra.
— This season so far is now 0-for-3 in good cold openings, with tonight’s cold opening being the worst of the three.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
KRW & Harvey Fierstein [real] draw forth BIH’s deep singing voice

— Lots of fun energy from Bill Hader at the very beginning of this, getting the crowd hyped up.
— A comforting demeanor from Bill here, and I particularly like him sharing the true story of how Megan Mullally discovered him and suggested him to Lorne.
— (*sigh*) It’s way too soon for yet another Kristen Wiig appearance, after the Cameo Torturefest that was the season 39 finale. I know Kristen is the co-star of the Skeleton Twins movie that Bill is promoting in this hosting stint, but still, come on, SNL.
— Blah, I could’ve done without Bill making a “Don’t make me sing” reference.
— Kristen at least does have a few mildly amusing Wiig-esque deadpan random lines.
— (*groan*) Cue the musical monologue. Between that and a Wiig cameo, there’s a lot for me not to like in this monologue. Bill deserves so much better than this.
— Not even the gag with Bill’s comically-deep singing voice is doing much for me.
— Harvey Fierstein cameo. At least he’s always a pretty fun presence.
STARS: **


WXPD NEWS NEW YORK
crotchety Herb Welch whiffs on high school abstinence pledge story

— Good to see Herb Welch back, even if these sketches got repetitive towards the end of their original run.
— Taran’s anchorman character opens this sketch by saying he’s filling in for Jack Burns. If that was supposed to be a mention of the name of Jason Sudeikis’ character from previous installments of this sketch, they got his name wrong. It’s Jack Rizzoli, I believe.
— I got a good laugh from Herb Welch rudely telling Taran, “I know you’re smooth down there!”
— Another good angry remark from Herb Welch to Taran: “Stick a Zagnut in it, sideburns!” I don’t know if John Mulaney writes these Herb Welch sketches or not, but that Zagnut line had a very specific Mulaney feel to me.
— Yet another good line from Herb Welch to Taran, with Herb responding to a “Why didn’t you…” question of Taran’s by rudely asking him, “Why didn’t your wife take your last name?”
— It feels a little odd not seeing Jason in the anchorman role. Taran is fine here, but I’m not finding him to be quite as strong as Jason was in this role. Jason had a better and funnier chemistry with Bill in this sketch’s previous installments.
— Surprised by how short this overall sketch was. What we got was certainly fine, but was too much of a straight rehash of previous installments. They didn’t try doing ANYTHING new with the formula this time.
STARS: ***½


THE GROUP HOPPER
movie comprises young-adult fiction cliches

— Some funny lines from the movie trailer voice-over throughout this.
— Beyond commercials/trailers I vaguely recall seeing back at this time in 2014, I have no real familiarity with the Maze Runner movie that I think this pre-tape is spoofing. However, that’s still enough for me to “get” and enjoy this spoof.
— Hilarious look and voice from Bill.
— Pete’s doing a solid job in this out-of-his-element role.
— When Sasheer reveals that she’s a virgin pregnant with Pete’s baby, I absolutely love Pete’s delivery of “Well, that sucks!” into the camera.
STARS: ***½


HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT
Al Pacino (BIH), Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW) & other celebrities are unhelpful

— Very fun performance from Kate as Jane Lynch.
— Lots of other amusing impressions from the cast.
— (*groan*) Oh, come on, SNL! Kristen Wiig in a second appearance tonight?
— Am I crazy, or does it kinda sound like SNL’s using a phony laugh track at the beginning of Kristen’s appearance as Kathie Lee Gifford, particularly when she mimes drinking from her wine glass? I’m not trying to be mean or anti-Wiig with that observation, as I can understand the audience’s amusement towards Kristen’s Kathie Lee shtick, even if I myself am not laughing at it in this sketch (I did like it in the later Today sketches from Kristen’s tenure as a cast member, but that was in the past, and I sure as hell wasn’t clamoring for the random return of her Kathie Lee shtick in this Bill Hader-hosted episode), but the audience laughter at her antics at the beginning of her appearance here just sounds strangely kinda canned to me.
— I love Kate-as-Lynch’s frustration over the dumb answers the celebrity contestants give. I’m also getting almost a Will-Ferrell-as-Alex-Trebek vibe from said frustration of Kate’s Lynch, even though this sketch obviously doesn’t come remotely close to approaching the quality of a typical Celebrity Jeopardy sketch.
— (*groans again*) Not only is Kristen needlessly appearing in this sketch like I pointed out earlier, but she is ALL OVER it, getting a large majority of the comedic lines with her old Kathie Lee shtick. Oh, I’m starting to get those very unfortunate “season 39 finale” vibes agaaaaaiiin….
STARS: **


HELPFUND
poor HelpFund beneficiaries wish (BIH) would ask for more than 39 cents

— Great turn with Jay, while tending to his labors, discreetly whispering to Bill, “Ask for more!” and “Ask for more money!”, while Bill is speaking into the camera about 39-cent donations.
— I love how a now-frustrated Bill, still speaking into the camera, keeps trying to drown out the conversation the citizens are having in the background about the measly 39-cent donation amount Bill keeps asking us for.
— Yes! Then-writer Leslie Jones in another onscreen appearance! She’s gotten so noteworthy in her occasional onscreen appearances by this point of her tenure as a writer that you can actually hear a woman in SNL’s audience cheer “Woo-hoo!” when Leslie enters this commercial.
— The questions that Bill is now being bombarded with by the four citizens as they crowd around him are excellent.
— I howled at the four citizens all throwing their hands up and exclaiming “Awwwwww!” in an aggravated manner when Bill takes a wild guess and says that the country he’s in is Africa.
— An excellent ending line from scene-stealer Leslie Jones, delivered into the camera, as Bill is being taken away against his will: “If you wanna see this cheap-ass white man again, you better send us $200 cash, right now! Don’t hesitate!”
— An overall perfect, spot-on, and brilliant takedown of these ads.
STARS: *****


JAN HOOKS TRIBUTE
BIH & KRW mark JAH’s passing

“Love Is A Dream” {rerun}

— Hoo, boy. This is going to be really emotional for me to get through.
— Man, do I vividly remember how extremely heartbreaking it was when the sad news broke about Jan Hooks’ death earlier that week.
— I’m very appreciative that SNL has taken the time out of a new episode to give Jan a much-deserved full-fledged tribute. Given the fact that, after she left SNL, she never achieved the post-SNL fame she deserved, nor did her amazing SNL tenure go on to be anywhere near as known among people as it should be (I’m still fuming at all of the rude “Uh, Jan who???” comments I remember reading shortly after her death, on social media and in the comments section of news articles announcing her death), I recall being kinda doubtful during this week in 2014 if SNL’s then-upcoming Bill Hader episode would do a full-fledged tribute segment to Jan, complete with an intro featuring somebody eulogizing Jan, or if SNL would go the usual route of just throwing a brief little In Memoriam photo or clip of Jan after Weekend Update or before the goodnights. I was very glad to see they ended up going the full-fledged tribute segment route.
— Speaking of a tribute to Jan, the episode that aired on SNL Vintage (which was only in its second-ever month on the air at this time) earlier the same night of this Hader episode was also a wonderful way to pay tribute to Jan, as it was the Alec Baldwin episode from season 15, which is undeniably Jan’s absolute best episode as a cast member. (The Tom Hanks/Aerosmith episode, also from season 15, was originally scheduled for that weekend’s SNL Vintage slot, but after Jan’s death, they made a last-minute change to air the Baldwin episode as a way to honor Jan.) For some great praise I gave to Jan in that Baldwin episode, and a story I shared about how my very first viewing of that episode back in a Comedy Central rerun in 2000 instantly made me a huge Jan Hooks fan, here’s my review of it.
— A nice simple, short, and heartfelt message here from Bill and Kristen about Jan. Given the fact that I’m sure both Bill and Kristen were big fans of the late 80s era of SNL and probably grew up idolizing that cast, I wonder if they persuaded Lorne to put on a full-fledged tribute for Jan, instead of a measly still photo or brief clip. Maybe I need to give Lorne more credit, though, and assume that a full-fledged tribute for Jan was his own choice.
— For my full thoughts on the Love Is A Dream short film that’s receiving an encore presentation, read it here in my review of the episode it originally aired in.
— Even though Love Is A Dream was previously already shown as a tribute to the deceased Phil Hartman during SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special (and would spark some unfortunate, “What?!? That short didn’t have any laughs! Why didn’t SNL honor Phil with one of his actual FUNNY sketches?!?” comments from some online SNL fans back at that time in 1999), it’s still a perfect choice for a tribute to Jan. Such a beautiful, wonderful short, and given the strong connection that Phil and Jan always had both as cast members and as people, it’s very fitting and poignant that the same short film would be aired as a tribute for both of them at separate times.
— Speaking of Phil’s death, I’ll quote something I wrote in my afore-linked original review of this short, as it bears repeating in this Bill Hader episode review, since the Hader episode is mentioned in the quote: “The part right now with Phil’s character first showing up reminds me that when this film aired as a tribute to Jan in the aforementioned Hader episode, it wasn’t until Phil’s entrance that it fully hit me that both cast members in this film are now gone. And then my heart sank.” As an addendum to that quote, just let me add right now that, as long as I live, I will never forget that eerie, vivid heart-sinking feeling that I mentioned in the quote.
— Given the context of why this short is being re-aired in tonight’s episode, the ending of this short has honestly reduced me to a crying, blubbering mess right now (even moreso than it did when I previously reviewed this short in the afore-linked review), so much so, that I actually have to pause the video I’m watching of this episode so I can have a moment. That has rarely, if ever, happened to me during this SNL project of mine.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Take Me to Church”


WEEKEND UPDATE
PED mostly regrets his decision to buy a gold chain to get hip-hop cred

all of Stefon’s autumn entertainment recommendations feature Dan Cortese

— Michael, in another early instance of him or Colin going off on a stand-up-style rant about a news story, makes a particularly funny hypothetical quote at one point of his gay marriage talk, about how there are some people in gay couples who REALLY don’t want to get married: “You know, I wanna marry you! But society, man…….”
— Great to see Pete in his second Update commentary, just two episodes after he knocked it out of the park with his first.
— Some good comments from Pete here, and, like his first Update commentary, he’s coming off likable and relatable. However, his commentary tonight is nowhere near as strong as his first one. Some of the material in this one feels kinda ho-hum.
— Only three Updates into this new Jost/Che era, and Colin and Michael’s delivery already kinda feels to me like it’s practically reached the stage that’s now considered to be their trademark delivery. (Maybe it only feels that way to me because it’s been a long time since I’ve last seen a present-day Jost/Che Update.) However, they’re still doing a lot of Seth Meyers-esque jokes in these early Updates of theirs. But, as I said in my last episode review prior to this one, their delivery makes those jokes work far better for me than Seth’s delivery ever did.
— Reminiscent of Stefon’s last few appearances during Bill’s tenure as a cast member, the audience is already cheering WILDLY while Michael is only in the middle of setting up Stefon’s commentary.
— I love how tonight’s Stefon commentary begins with him looking around at the new Update anchors and new Update set in a puzzled manner, then asking “How long have I been on anesthesia???”
— Very funny how Stefon responds to seeing the multiracial pairing of Michael and Colin by lustfully saying, “Mmm, one of each!”
— Yet another very funny remark Stefon makes about Michael and Colin, referring to them as “Barack and Mitt”.
— A few slow portions early in tonight’s Stefon commentary, but it’s getting better and better as it goes along.
— Bill is noticeably stumbly with some of his lines in tonight’s Stefon appearance, but it’s forgivable when you’re aware that a lot of Stefon’s lines are traditionally re-written at the last minute by John Mulaney to surprise Bill on the air.
— Some of my favorite moments of tonight’s Stefon commentary: him imitating the Spanish TV voice-over of Seinfeld ads, him saying one club is located “where Donald Trump Jr.’s chin should’ve been”, him saying one club opened in the two hours between when Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died, and, of course, that very memorable running gag tonight with how each different club Stefon describes has a mention of Dan Cortese, the latter gag of which is reducing Bill to absolute tears.
STARS: ***½


PUPPETRY CLASS
Anthony Peter Coleman brings traumatic Grenada tales to puppetry class

— Oh, what are you doing, SNL? While the original installment of this sketch is an all-time favorite of mine and many other SNL fans, a follow-up to it was never needed and will obviously never come close to measuring up to the original installment, which should’ve been left as a classic one-off. In fact, I remember Bill even doing an interview shortly after leaving the SNL cast, where, when talking at one point about the first Puppetry Class sketch, he mentions that when the idea came up at SNL to possibly do a Puppetry Class follow-up at one point of Bill’s final season as a cast member, Bill and the writer(s) of the sketch decided against the idea, because they knew there was no way to top the first installment and that it shouldn’t be touched. So what happened this week? Why’d they change their minds?
— Kinda interesting how both of tonight’s sketches that are brought back from Bill’s tenure (Herb Welch and this) have Taran replacing the performer who played the main straight man role in the previous installment(s).
— I like the “Mosquito…mosquito…mosquito” bit from Bill’s Anthony Peter Coleman.
— Coleman, when told to lighten the mood of his puppet because they’re telling jokes now: “Here’s a joke: GOD!”
— Wasn’t necessary to do a variation of the gag from the first installment where the puppet blows real smoke out of its mouth.
— It’s good to see Bill is still killing it in his portrayal of this character, even if this sketch itself pales in comparison to the first installment and is trying too hard to recreate it.
— Oh, I’m liking this flashback war sequence right now. A nice change of direction from anything that happened in the the first installment of this sketch.
— In the flashback war sequence, I love Bill’s delivery of “It’s not ya damn stuffing!”
— An empty ending to this sketch.
STARS: ***


INSIDE SOCAL
(PED) & (BIH) contribute reports from a teen perspective

— Nice to see this for a second time, as this works as a recurring piece.
— A funny tiff between Kate and Taran.
— Like the previous Inside SoCal installment, some of the little details and things add to the humor.
— Pretty fun addition of Bill as a reporter, and the unsure direction that his report goes in is providing some laughs.
— I love the heated fight that Beck and Kyle get into with Bobby at the end.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— Showing how rather dominant she was back in the first half of this episode, Kristen Wiig shows up to flat-out do this musical guest intro by herself, as if she has gradually become this episode’s official host or co-host over the course of the night. Before you ask “What the hell?!?”, there’s a reason Bill isn’t doing this intro, as we’ll understand when we see him appear in the sketch after the following musical performance.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene”


CAT
The Cat In The Hat’s (BIH) old flame (CES) derails kids’ rainy-day fun

— Pete has been all over this episode. That’s nice to see, after he was completely shut out of the preceding episode (which was shocking, given how highly-acclaimed his debut in the season premiere was). And given the fact that Bill was the one who originally discovered Pete and suggested him to Lorne (much like Megan Mullally did with Bill himself), it makes sense that Pete would be heavily utilized in this particular episode.
— Now we see why Bill couldn’t introduce Hozier’s second musical performance, as it seemingly took a long time to apply those Cat In The Hat prosthetics onto him.
— Very funny turn with Bill’s Cat In The Hat suddenly going from his typical goofy, jolly voice to a subdued, straitlaced voice when recognizing Cecily as an old flame of his.
— Bill’s doing a solid job in his back-and-forth shifts from “jolly mode” to “serious mode”.
— Absolutely perfect casting of Taran as Thing 2.
— Cat In The Hat: “Hey, Thing 2.” Thing 2: “(sternly) Actually, I go by Jonathing now.”
— A killer departing line from Bill’s Cat In The Hat: “Oh, the places she let me go…”
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, but definitely not as strong as I would’ve expected a Bill Hader-hosted episode to be, which is further proof of how shaky the first quarter of this season has been. This episode was still easily the best of the three episodes this season so far, though. And Bill Hader was his usual excellent, reliable self. I’m also relieved that, aside from some Kristen Wiig appearances I griped about, SNL didn’t go the full route they went in the last hosting stint from a late 00s/early 10s-era cast member (Andy Samberg) by bombarding the whole episode with a “reunion” of the late 00s/early 10s cast.


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

 


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
HelpFund
Cat
(tie) The Group Hopper / Inside SoCal
WXPD News New York
Weekend Update
Puppetry Class
Hollywood Game Night
Monologue
Kim Jong-un


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Silverman)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jim Carrey hosts, and a certain scene-stealing female writer is added to the cast

Posted on

October 4, 2014 – Sarah Silverman / Maroon 5 (S40 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

60 MINUTES
Barack Obama (JAP) gives examples of the online savvy of ISIS

— Some mild laughs here and there, but this cold opening is mostly dragging. Feels like the typical tepid, dull, overly-talky political humor that Jim Downey used to regularly write in his past-his-prime later years at SNL, even though he officially left the show over a year before this. (He was credited as a guest writer in the preceding episode this season, which had a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Obama cold opening that tonight’s different Obama cold opening has repurposed some lines for, but Downey’s not credited as a guest writer in this episode.)
— Overall, this season so far is 0-for-2 in good cold openings.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— The overhead shot of 30 Rockefeller Plaza with the G.E. sign in plain view (first screencap below), which was shown between the musical guest and host portions of this new opening montage in the preceding week’s season premiere, has been replaced tonight with a long shot of New York City (second screencap below). I recall hearing that the reason for this change is because of a G.E./Comcast sign changeover at 30 Rock.

— I forgot to mention this in my review of the preceding episode when bringing up the fact that Darrell Hammond has taken over as SNL’s new announcer, but Darrell’s announcing sounds very low-key in these early episodes compared to how he would sound in later seasons. I remember some online SNL fans back at this time saying Darrell’s announcing is too unexciting. I assume that, at some point, someone at SNL must’ve had a talk with Darrell, telling him he needs to up the energy.


MONOLOGUE
SAS sits on audience member’s lap & takes questions from her younger self

— Some pretty funny jokes from Sarah Silverman in the first few minutes of this monologue, and I loved the cue card bit, but I’m even more excited by the great turn this has now taken with Sarah actually going into the audience and sitting in an audience member’s lap while having a conversation with her. I know that this audience member must be a plant, but this is being executed perfectly, as the back-and-forths between Sarah and her are actually coming off very natural, and Sarah has fantastic remarks to what the audience member says. This is also a fun use of Sarah’s usual laid-back style.
— Ah, there’s Sarah finally mentioning her previous stint as an SNL featured player. Initially, it was kinda disappointing that she didn’t bring it up at the beginning of this monologue, but now we see she was saving it for this portion of the monologue.
— Oh, I absolutely LOVE this sequence with Sarah taking questions from clips of herself as an audience member in season 19’s frequent questions-from-the-audience monologues, made even funnier by how 2014 Sarah is playing it completely straight by giving a serious answer to 1993/94 Sarah’s specific questions that are comically shown out of their original context (e.g. her “Are you going to be doing a solo album now that you’ve left Wilson Phillips?” question originally asked to Rosie O’Donnell, and her “What did you feed the dinosaurs?” question originally asked to Jeff Goldblum). I also find it interesting seeing the 20-year difference in both SNL’s visual quality and Sarah’s looks. I’m amazed at how little Sarah has aged in 20 years.
— Aw, a missed opportunity not to include a clip of Sarah from Charlton Heston’s season 19 questions-from-the-audience monologue, where Sarah is dressed as an ape (screencap a little below) and asks Heston, “Are you some kind of talking mu-tant?” Imagine how truly hilarious it would’ve been to see a clip of that being shown out of context in this 2014 monologue. And I would’ve loved to have seen 2014 Sarah’s serious answer to the “Are you some kind of talking mu-tant?” question.

— Overall, this is one of my personal favorite monologues from recent years.
STARS: *****


THE FAULT IN OUR STARS 2: THE EBOLA IN OUR EVERYTHING
(TAK)’s love for (SAS) is tested by Ebola

— A great reveal that the illness the lead female character in this Fault In Our Stars sequel has is Ebola. Taran’s reaction to that reveal is hilarious.
— Lots of solid scenes between Sarah and Taran after the Ebola reveal.
— Funny Terrance Howard impression from Kenan.
— Given our current times, the then-topical Ebola premise still comes off rather relatable to today.
STARS: ****


HEAVEN
in Heaven, just-arrived Joan Rivers (SAS) roasts other dead celebrities

a photo of Joan Rivers marks her passing

— A promising concept and setting, having the then-recently-deceased Joan Rivers give a comedy roast of other dead celebrities.
— Funny cutaways to Bobby as a hysterically-laughing Ben Franklin.
— Interesting seeing Adam Levine and Kyle sitting next to each other here, as I’ve always noticed somewhat of a facial resemblance between them.
— Yikes, Sarah is stumbling over her punchlines left and right throughout this sketch, which is hurting a lot of the humor, given the fact that she has most of the comedic lines in this sketch.
— I’m not crazy about Kate’s Lucille Ball impression. She seems really miscast in this role.
STARS: **


WHITES
whites will enjoy time remaining until they’re dethroned by demographics

— The recently-demoted-from-the-cast Mike O’Brien casually appearing with the rest of the cast in this. I’m guessing he wrote this commercial himself.
— Speaking of appearing with the rest of the cast, Sarah is blending in well with the cast here, as if she was back to being a cast member again.
— A hilarious and biting concept.
— During the whites’ expressed desire for “four more white presidents”, Beck gets a great laugh with his lighthearted “Even if they have to be girls.”
— I love the part with the voice-over saying “It’s all yours, Mexicans!” while we see an again-lighthearted Beck acting like he’s going to hand a Mexican man a globe, only to playfully yank it away from, then puts his arm around the Mexican man’s shoulder in a friendly manner.
— Overall, perfect execution of this brilliant premise. If this was indeed a Mike O’Brien-written piece, then he has succeeded once again with yet another fantastic pre-tape.
STARS: *****


FORGOTTEN TV GEMS
backstabbing is absent from Supportive Women soap opera

— A rare non-Cinema Classics appearance from Kenan’s Reese De’What character. Also a rare glasses-less appearance from him.
— The usual funny story from Kenan’s De’What about a rude thing he once told his wife.
— Pretty funny kind-hearted twist that Cecily and Sarah’s initially-tense soap opera scene takes.
— Taran’s basically playing the same type of “straight man character making an uncomfortable face” role he played in the Ebola commercial earlier tonight.
— The second and third scene in this sketch is basically repeating the basic joke of the first scene, but the execution is okay, especially the third scene.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Animals”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Sharpton (KET) has ideas to counteract Secret Service ineptitude

COJ & MIC each identify phrases that are inappropriate for them to use

to feminist musical duo Garage (KAM) & Her (SAS), everything is “a woman”

— Ah, the very first time that a Jost/Che Update features one of the anchors going off on a stand-up-style rant about a news story after delivering a traditional Update joke about said story. That’s one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Jost/Che era of Update, and Michael’s rant here is very good.
— Michael’s delivery of general Update jokes, while still not at the familiar stage it would eventually go on to be, is getting closer and closer to it tonight.
— The usual “Kenan’s Al Sharpton misreads something” gags, but sue me, it always gets a cheap chuckle from me.
— Like Michael, Colin’s Update delivery is also improving and getting closer and closer to the delivery we’re now familiar with.
— Honestly, I was pushing it in my last review prior to this, where I proudly declared that the jokes in the inaugural Jost/Che Update thankfully don’t have that corny, tame Seth Meyers feel from the last few seasons of Update. I think I was just overexcited by the new feel of that inaugural Jost/Che Update in general that it blinded me to any Seth similarities in the jokes. However, even if it is true that some of that Seth Meyers influence has carried over into a lot of the jokes in these early-era Jost/Che Updates (a carry-over that thankfully wouldn’t last forever, as we know now, as Colin and Michael would gradually develop their own style of jokes over time), to me, Colin and Michael’s delivery is selling them so much better than Seth’s delivery ever did.
— Much like his “and all the ass” punchline about Derek Jeter’s MLB career stats in the preceding episode’s Update, Michael’s hilarious punchline about Jimmy Carter snorting peanut dust off a hooker’s ass is an early instance of what would go on to be known as a trademark Che-like joke.
— Ah, our very first interaction piece between Colin and Michael, with Colin asking Michael if it’s okay for him to say words like “bae” and “in da club”. This is a solid segment, especially Michael using “Thank you for your help, officer” as an example of things black people can’t say, and him telling Colin he ruined the term “cray-cray” for everybody.
— Good to see Sarah appearing with a current cast member in an Update commentary, once again making Sarah come off like she’s a cast member once again.
— Meh, Sarah and Kate’s song is falling kinda flat for me.
STARS: ***½


RIVER CRUISE
(CES), (SAZ), (SAS) are stuck doing “Proud Mary” on a Nebraska steamboat

— Oh, here’s a sketch would gain notoriety right after its original airing. There were huge accusations from some Groundlings comedians that SNL stole this sketch from them almost entirely verbatim without permission, and an online video of the original Groundlings version of the sketch was offered as full proof that, yes, this SNL sketch was indeed plagiarized. I believe it would be revealed that the culprits of this plagiarism were James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette (can’t remember if it was just one of them or both), both of whom I believe are Groundlings alums and are also two of my absolute least favorite writers in SNL history (the latter of which I’ve certainly made no secret of in my reviews). IIRC, this Sarah Silverman episode would also never get an NBC re-airing, and there’s been speculation on SNL boards that the reason for that is possibly because of the controversy over the plagiarism of this sketch. (Then again, I think I recall that this episode in general was pretty poorly-received by SNL fans at the time, so that might also have something to do with the lack of an NBC rerun.)
— And in case there was any doubt that this is indeed a James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette sketch, the writing style of Kenan’s opening speech is FILLED with known Anderson-isms, especially Kenan happily exclaiming “Yerm!” instead of “Yum!” Silly word substitutions in the style of “yerm” or “cornel of kern” (the latter being from a season 44 Steve Carell sketch that infamously went horribly awry) have been a staple of James Anderson-written sketches for years.
— Good to see Sasheer finally getting a lead role after being horribly underused in the season premiere and being overshadowed by the not-yet-a-cast-member Leslie Jones, but damn, why does it have to be in this, of all sketches?
— Blah, the mid-song stories from each of the ladies are all falling flat with me so far.
— I do kinda like Sarah’s “90 months” bit just now, but it’s not enough to get a laugh from me, and the rest of her story is falling just as flat with me as the other ladies’ stories are.
— Oof, the audience is absolutely DEAD during practically this whole sketch, and I don’t blame them one bit.
— There’s Kenan doing his Deandre Cole entrance dance from the What Up With That sketches.
— Overall, this was AWFUL. Anderson and/or Sublette really had to resort to stealing this weak material?!? That’s fucking sad, and just furthers the ire I’ve always had towards those two as writers. And history has shown that those two are perfectly capable of writing horrible sketches on their own without resorting to plagiarism.
STARS: *


HOME FROM VACATION
in a car, (BOM)’s surprise proposal to (SAS) goes awry; Adam Levine cameo

— Hilarious reveal of a shocked Bobby slowly rising from behind the backseat of the car immediately after overhearing Sarah’s confession to Taran that she cheated on Bobby, then we get another hilarious reveal right afterwards that Bobby happens to have an open engagement ring box in his hand, as he was planning on springing a surprise proposal on Sarah.
— I love Bobby’s angry delivery of “Gross! You grew?!? Shut your mouth!”
— All the surprise twists, as well as the way some portions of this sketch are intentionally being played in an uncomfortable manner, are reminiscent of that excellent and underrated Wedding sketch from the preceding season’s Andrew Garfield episode. Much like that Wedding sketch, this appears to be a Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written piece. I notice that a number of Kelly/Schneider sketches around this time are great at having lots of surprise twists, such as their fantastic Cartoon Catchphrase sketch from the preceding season’s Kerry Washington episode.
— Pretty funny sequence with how all the radio stations that Taran turns to are playing songs about cheating in a relationship, even if that gag feels a little cliched.
— Hmm, Adam Levine’s entrance, which was supposed to a funny appearing-out-of-nowhere gag, came off awkwardly-executed.
— More great angry line deliveries from Bobby.
— Ugh, in addition to how awkward his entrance came off, Adam Levine’s delivery of some of his lines is weak, reminding me of what a bad and unlikable host I found him to be back in season 38.
— Pretty funny gag with Levine getting hit by a truck off-camera and then flying over the hood of the car. The little “Whoooa!” heard from him as a dummy of his body is thrown over the car hood somehow added to the humor.
— Something about the whole “Let’s all go to Pizza Hut!” conversation the characters have at the conclusion of this sketch really rubbed me the wrong way. Feels like SNL was going out of their way to shill for Pizza Hut. Maybe I’m looking too much into that, but either way, it was a bad and out-of-place way to end a sketch like this.
— Overall, a great first half, but this sketch somewhat fell apart in the second half, despite still having some merits. This sketch as a whole, while not bad, doesn’t hold a candle to the aforementioned Wedding sketch with Andrew Garfield.
STARS: ***


POEM
love-hate triangle (SAS), (KYM), (BEB) duos finish each other’s sentences

— Very funny turn with how the “two people finish each other’s sentences while realizing they’re soulmates” romcom trope that was initially shown happening between Sarah and Kyle now happens between Kyle and a bully, played by Beck. The specific, immature threats that Kyle and Beck are romantically saying in unison are also hilarious.
— Funny montage of Beck’s bully character doing horrible, violent things to Kyle, made even funnier by the uncharacteristically tender music & filming effect used for that montage.
— I love the little detail of Kyle making a quick, disgusted, subtle “Urgh!” vocalization after revealing he was forced by Beck to eat “stinky stew supreme”.
— Satisfying turn at the end with Beck’s bully character getting his comeuppance.
— I recall hearing that Nick Rutherford (the member of Beck and Kyle’s original Good Neighbor group who SNL initially passed on when hiring the rest of Good Neighbor, then got hired this season as a writer) is the person driving a car both times a character in this short gets run over by a car while stuffed in a garbage can. You can see a brief glimpse of Nick in the driver’s seat (screencap below).

STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Maps”


VITAMIX
(VAB)’s pricey Vitamix blender puts her friend (SAS) on the defensive

— Even though it wasn’t even intended to be comedic (I assume), I laughed at Vanessa’s smiley delivery of “Well…it’s up there” when asked how much the Vitamix blender costs. She has a way of selling little lines like that so well.
— A good increasing negative tension between Vanessa and Sarah’s characters, even if I’m a little confused about where this sketch is trying to go.
— Yeah, more and more, I’m having very mixed feelings towards this sketch. I now “get” the tone this sketch is going for, but something about the execution feels a little ehh, which is a shame, because I am liking aspects of Vanessa and Sarah’s performances.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as weak as I had remembered, but this episode as a whole was still nothing to write home about. Despite a few strong highlights (two of which received a perfect five-star rating from me), 1) this episode felt like it never fully took off, 2) almost half of the segments were forgettable, and, 3) even though this episode was an improvement over the season premiere, something about this season is still kinda giving off that fairly rough vibe that it had in the premiere. To say nothing of that terrible River Cruise sketch, which is bad enough on its own even without having any knowledge of the plagiarism controversy.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Whites
Monologue
Poem
The Fault In Our Stars 2: The Ebola In Our Everything
Weekend Update
Home From Vacation
Forgotten TV Gems
Vitamix
Heaven
60 Minutes
River Cruise


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Pratt)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bill Hader

Posted on

September 27, 2014 – Chris Pratt / Ariana Grande (S40 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

STATE OF THE UNION
Ray Lewis (KET) can speak to NFL legal woes but won’t

— Very funny line from Aidy about how, as part of her relaxation routine, “a crack team of Korean ladies rehabilitate my feet.”
— Feels kinda odd seeing the host appear in the cold opening of a season premiere.
— Wow, Aidy is unusually stumbly with some of her lines throughout this. Season premiere jitters, I take it?
— Nothing much to say about the cutaways to Chris Pratt’s Roger Goodell, though the “We Fight 4 Women” confusion is fairly amusing.
— Pretty funny running bit with Kenan’s Ray Lewis constantly changing the uncomfortable subject by going back to his faux-noble talk about schoolbuses.
— Jay’s Shannon Sharpe impression is usually good for a laugh, but he’s going a little too over the top tonight, even for an impression of an inherently goofy-voiced person like Shannon Sharpe. I HATE that ridiculous, unfunny laugh Jay keeps doing at the end of each of his bits in this, which makes Jay come off like he’s trying way too hard to get a cheap laugh.
STARS: **½


OPENING MONTAGE
— New montage.

— SNL has a new logo for the first time in 8 years. The number “40” is an additional part of the new logo, commemorating this being the milestone 40th season. (Speaking of SNL reaching their 40th anniversary, I will make the one and only exception to my strict “Review only regular episodes and no specials” rule by reviewing SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special when I reach that point of this season, due to popular demand and some good arguments that were made for why I should do that.)
— Former cast member Darrell Hammond has taken over for the recently-deceased Don Pardo as SNL’s new announcer.
— Michael Che and Pete Davidson have been added to the cast.
— Nice touch with how the chyron of each cast members’ name follows their movement.
— Seeing this opening montage and SNL logo, as well as the arrival of Michael and Pete, all make me truly feel like I’m officially in the now-current SNL era, especially since this opening montage was the current one when I started this One SNL A Day project in June 2018.


MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & sings about his SNL experience; Anna Faris cameo

— I love the meta “van down by the river” reference that Chris Pratt makes.
— (*sigh*) We already open the season with a musical monologue.
— Chris seems a bit nervous, but in an affable, likable, relatable way instead of a worrisome, detrimental way.
— Hmm, I had absolutely no prior memory of Anna Faris’ (brief) appearance in this monologue. Me having no prior memory of something in an episode is something I should get used to for these next handful of seasons I’m reviewing, for reasons mentioned at the end of my last review prior to this.
— Some of the lyrics to Chris’ song are kinda amusing, and at least SNL’s not going the “Bring out cast members as cheesy backup dancers” route they usually go for musical monologues in this era, but I’m still a little meh on this.
STARS: **½


CIALIS TURNT
Cialis Turnt raises sexual performance & bedroom excitement to extremes

— Blah, this “turnt” stuff is the type of modern pop culture thing that I don’t like, sometimes not even when SNL spoofs it, which is the case here. It also doesn’t help that it feels like SNL goes to the “erectile dysfunction” route for fake ads too often in the 2000s and 2010s.
— Beck looks very Jeff Richards-esque in some shots here.
— Some amusing lines, but yeah, this type of humor isn’t for me.
STARS: *½


ACTION FIGURES
life-size & alive He-Man (host) & Lion-O (TAK) action figures wreak havoc

 

— Something about those fake eyebrows make Taran resemble Will Ferrell, to me at least.
— Some good laughs from the various observations and discoveries made by the now-live-action toys.
— Lots of good destruction of the set throughout this.
— Some timing issues during this sketch, where it feels like people are late on their cues, resulting in stretches of awkward silence.
— I love Aidy’s “Oh, my sweet meats!” line when He-Man and Lion-O are getting hot-and-heavy towards her.
— Another funny Aidy line, with her responding “Oh, I know” after being told that patting your own crotch feels good.
— Yet ANOTHER great Aidy line, with her telling She-Ra, while heading towards the hot tub with He-Man and Lion-O, “She Ra, come on. I know you’re a freak.”
— More timing issues, as this sketch ends in a very awkward and empty manner.
STARS: ***½


ANIMAL HOSPITAL
(host) & fellow animal hospital workers are unfazed by pet mortality rate

— (*groan*) They’re really doing this tepid sketch a second time?!?
— Aaaaaand predictably, this is going the exact same route as the first installment of this sketch, repeating the “Your pet is dead” joke over and over and over and over.
— Kyle noticeably keeps staring at the cue cards in an awkward, unsure manner, but the reason for that is because he was thrown into this role after dress rehearsal. According to the dress rehearsal report that FeaturingEmilyPrager (a frequent commenter on this blog) posted online shortly after this episode originally aired, Kyle’s role was played by newbie Pete Davidson in dress rehearsal, but Pete was taken out of the role for the live show because he reportedly performed the role rather awkwardly in dress rehearsal, a total contrast to how smoothly he performs elsewhere in this episode (as we’ll see later on when he starts making appearances).
— Ugh, this sketch reprisal is insufferable. Never should’ve brought this back.
STARS: *


MARVEL
success of Guardians Of The Galaxy spurs more odd Marvel superhero movies

— Some okay laughs from some of the ridiculous premises being made into big-budget Marvel superhero movies.
— Aidy, who’s been on somewhat of a hot streak in tonight’s episode (minus her occasional line flubs throughout the cold opening), is very well-cast in this commercial as “Pam”.
— Okay, this commercial’s concept is starting to get kinda old and dull.
— Meh, a long way to go just for a “Chris Pratt dressed as Princess Leia” punchline.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Break Free”


WEEKEND UPDATE
The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is patronizing & dim

unlucky-in-love LEJ details the comforts & pains of being a single woman

PED is willing to go down on a guy as a means of financial responsibility

Cheer Up, President Obama- KET sings “Ooh Child” for COJ & MIC pep talk

— Michael Che has become the new co-anchor of Weekend Update.
— I love both the new Update opening title sequence and new Update set. Both of these things are also making me feel even more like I’ve officially reached SNL’s now-current era.
— Wow, they’re letting brand-new Update anchor Michael deliver tonight’s first Update joke, instead of letting the slightly-more-experienced Colin do that? That’s very rare for a new co-anchor in their very first Update.
— Oof, Michael is already showing how new he is, and showing that it probably wasn’t the best decision to have him deliver the first joke in tonight’s Update, as he stumbles really badly during his first joke, which hurts the audience response to the punchline. Michael at least remains completely nonchalant after finishing the punchline, not looking remotely flustered over his gaffe like most anchors would. I do recall his first few Weekend Updates having quite a number of line flubs, which drew criticism from some viewers.
— Much like the preceding season, Colin’s delivery is still very stilted-sounding. His jokes themselves have improved, though.
— Michael’s delivery sounds very different in this first Update of his. He’s using a more straitlaced delivery. Reminds me of how Norm Macdonald used a VERY professional-sounding, somewhat-stiff delivery in his first few Updates before resorting to his now-famous natural delivery.
— A fitting decision to have Cecily, in her first Update after either being removed or stepping down from her position as Update co-anchor, do an Update commentary as a character, which is where her strength on Update truly lies.
— Good to see Cecily’s Girl At A Party character back after a year-long hiatus, a hiatus that even gets acknowledged at one point of her commentary tonight, with Michael asking her where she’s been all this time, and her responding, “I went on my birthright trip to Israel”, leading to a funny back-and-forth between her and Michael.
— Girl At A Party: “There are babies in China…who don’t even know they’re adults.”
— Cecily hasn’t lost a step with this character after her year-long hiatus. I even love the detail of how, after trying to wow Michael with a supposedly-brilliant fact, she tells him “I just blew your brains out” instead of “I just blew your mind.”
— The punchline to Michael’s Derek Jeter joke, with Michael saying “and all the ass” at the end of the listed-off stats that Jeter achieved over his career, is our very first of what would go on to later be known as a trademark Che-like joke.
— Then-writer Leslie Jones appears in her second Update commentary, after her much-talked-about first Update commentary from towards the end of the preceding season.
— Like last time, Leslie’s performance is incredible here, and she is absolutely taking charge with her hilarious stage presence. So many laughs from her commentary tonight, even if it’s not quite on the same level as her famous previous commentary.
— I wonder if Colin threw that Kid Rock joke in as an intentional nod to his recently-fired castmate Brooks Wheelan, given what a huge Kid Rock fanatic Brooks is known to be.
— Pete Davidson makes both his very first SNL appearance AND his very first (of what will be a very large number over the years) Update commentary, notably being introduced by Michael as “resident young person”.
— Pete is impressively coming off as a total natural in this debut of his.
— Pete, on why he didn’t need to go down on a guy for money during his high school years: “I lived with my mom at the time. I had food, clothes, I had a TV in my room. I didn’t need to go down on a guy. My mom was already doing that.” Not only a hilarious line, but it comes off even funnier in hindsight knowing the close relationship Pete’s mom would later develop with SNL.
— Lots of laughs from Pete’s details and scenarios about the concept of going down on a guy for financial security.
— Pete’s overall commentary tonight really wowed me, both in 2014 and now. He came off poised, laid-back, and likable, he delivered his comedy routine with great quick pacing and a witty demeanor, and his comedy routine itself was strong enough to feel like something you’d expect to see from a long-time veteran stand-up comedian, not some 20-year-old kid like Pete was at this time. Very impressive.
— Boy, 2014 SNL sure loves that “Ooh Child” song, between the Lena Dunham episode and now this Kenan segment on Update.
— One of our first of many ISIS mentions this season. Hoo, boy. There’s going to be quite a number of…uh….interesting ISIS-related things that I’m going to have to review this season.
— I’m loving this “Cheer Up, President Obama” segment that Colin, Michael, and Kenan are doing. This format is very refreshing and new for Update (I can never in a million years picture it appearing in any Updates from the preceding season), and Colin and Michael have a lot of good lines here. Michael in particular is coming off very laid-back here, much like the fully-formed Update persona he’d later have.
— Overall, we have definitely entered a new era of Update. It felt very exciting and fresh just now to experience this. I’m really liking the new, different feel of this Update era. Despite the rough start with his first joke, Michael had a pretty good night. Even though there’s still some early-era kinks he has to shake out, you can still definitely see the potential in him. And even Colin’s jokes tonight were improved over his corny Seth Meyers-esque jokes from the preceding season, although, like Michael, Colin’s delivery isn’t fully-formed yet. While this new Update era would definitely improve later on (and eventually go on to be one of my all-time favorite Update eras, probably somewhere in the top 3 with the Norm Macdonald and Dennis Miller eras), tonight’s Update provided hope and let it be known that we were no longer in the corny, tame Seth Meyers-influenced years of Update.
— My reaction to this Update when this episode originally aired was interesting. Right from the announcement that summer that Michael would replace Cecily as Update co-anchor, I was IMMEDIATELY very onboard with that idea, having been familiar with some of Michael’s stand-up and his then-current stint on The Daily Show. However, I was very unhappy with the decision to have Colin remain on Update as co-anchor, as I strongly disliked him on Update the preceding season and felt that Michael was solid enough of a comic to do Update himself. Then when this episode aired, I was so ridiculously biased towards Michael and against Colin that I was very eager every time it was Michael’s turn to do an Update joke, whereas I would have a very dismissive, “Ugh, THIS guy…” attitude every time it was Colin’s turn to tell a joke. One of the things I liked back then about Michael as a new Update anchor was that I got a “Norm Macdonald/Dennis Miller hybrid” vibe from his anchorman approach, which had me excited, because (as I mentioned a little earlier) Norm and Dennis are my personal all-time favorite Update anchors. Now that I know in hindsight how Michael’s tenure as anchor would end up going, I’d say that the Norm comparison I initially made back at this time in 2014 was fairly spot-on, but not quite the Dennis comparison, even though Michael DOES have a similar laid-back, smug-in-a-likable-way, “Hey, I’m just gonna be me” approach that Dennis had. (YMMV on me describing Dennis as “smug in a likable way”, given how unlikable I know some SNL fans find him to be when watching his old Updates nowadays.) Anyway, back in 2014, I went through this season’s first few Updates feeling that Michael was knocking it out of the park while Colin was dead weight. However, Colin would gradually grow on me over the first few months of this season, to the degree that, by about December, I was absolutely fine with him as an anchor and felt that he complemented the already-good Michael well and that they both made a great team. And, as I said earlier, their Update era is now among my all-time favorites.
STARS: ***½


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of DOP marks his passing


BOOTY RAP
at a bar, shy (AIB) & (host) get to know one another with sexy rap lyrics

— Oh, no. I remember absolutely HATING this sketch when it originally aired, especially Aidy’s constant singing of the term “BIG FAT ASS!”
— In my current re-watch of this sketch so far, I will say that Aidy at least did a convincing job selling her first “swaggy” delivery of the term “BIG FAT ASS!” However, it still didn’t make me laugh at all. In fact, it kinda reminds me of the issues I had with the pop culture-centric Cialis Turnt commercial from earlier in this episode.
— Now it’s Chris’ turn at attempting “swaggy” singing, which is doing even less for me than Aidy’s did.
— Yeah, this sketch in general is NOT for me. When this originally aired, I looked at both the Cialis Turnt commercial and this Booty Rap sketch as pandering to the young crowd and trying too hard to be “hip” (I have these exact same problems with a similar sketch from the next season premiere, where host Miley Cyrus plays a modern-day rapping girl in a school dance from the 1950s), and I worried if it was a bad sign of what this new season might have in store for me. During pretty much all of my adult years, I admittedly have lived under a rock when it comes to current pop culture, mainly in music (as shown by the fact that I didn’t get the Harlem Shake reference in the season 38 Justin Timberlake episode I reviewed fairly recently), and stuff like the Cialis Turnt commercial and this Booty Rap sketch, and the lack of amusement I have towards them, always make me feel old and out-of-touch with the audience that recent SNL seasons sometimes seem to target themselves towards, even though I was only 30 years old when this episode originally aired.
— Blah at the ending of this sketch being the ol’ corny “Everybody dances” trope.
STARS: *½


BAD BOYS
sitcom drama tropes reign as (host) runs with the wrong crowd

— The first on-air installment of Beck and Kyle’s recurring nameless 80s/90s sitcom pastiche. A previous installment from the preceding season’s Andrew Garfield episode was cut after dress rehearsal and subsequently posted online.
— Only one minute in, and I am absolutely loving this spoof of typical 80s/90s sitcoms. Every little thing about this short is perfectly and hilariously nailing so many tropes from 80s/90s sitcoms (particularly “Very special episodes” of said sitcoms), with that lovable Good Neighbor absurdist touch added in. I also love how all of this is bringing me back to my 90s childhood, where I ate up corny sitcoms like this.
— The increasingly random and out-of-place establishing shots are very funny, especially the shot of a fantasy-looking castle (the fourth-to-last above screencap for this short).
— A very funny quick bit with one of the child actors getting the door shut on him when trying to leave through the door with the other child actors, resulting in him panickedly exiting the shot through the fourth wall.
— I remember being disappointed to see this short get a poor reception among online SNL fans when it originally aired. It made me feel at the time like I was the only one who liked this short. I’m glad to have recently seen appreciation for this short from a few SNL fans.
STARS: ****½


NFL ON CBS
players state their crimes while introducing themselves

— I love Michael’s delivery of the “at the Ohio State University” portion of his line. When this sketch originally aired, it initially had me assuming Michael was going to be a regular sketch performer in addition to doing Update, instead of being confined to Update like I had seen Colin be the preceding season. I was thrilled by the idea of Michael being a regular sketch performer, but then I saw the Update-only Colin also appear about a minute later in this sketch, and then I became confused, wondering “So are Michael and Colin only in this sketch because it requires all of the male cast members, and thus, Michael ISN’T going to be a regular sketch performer after all?” That question of mine turned out to be correct, as Michael (and Colin) would go on to rarely make non-Update appearances over the years, with Michael usually only doing so whenever an additional black performer is needed for a sketch that all of the other black cast members are already appearing in.
— Jay: “I punched a mailman. That’s federal, baby!”
— A great use of Colin’s comically-bland natural delivery, having him say an enthusiastic-but-monotone “And I’m the punter. Tax fraud!” That line wouldn’t have come off nearly as funny had any other performer delivered it. By the way, it feels so odd seeing Colin in a sketch after my recent re-watch of season 39 got me so used to him only appearing on Update.
— The concept of this sketch is very fun and topical, with NFL players one-by-one stating their crime during the introductions, made even more fun by how Chris and the cast members are playing multiple roles through quick costume changes. This is definitely the better of tonight’s two sketches about the NFL controversy going on at the time.
— Pete continues to come off as a total natural in his first episode and also be very funny and likable. When this episode originally aired, so many online SNL fans, including me, were VERY impressed by how Pete came off in this first episode of his, especially given his very young age at the time. He was the talk of the town on online SNL boards after this episode originally aired, with even some of the saltier SNL fans on those boards giving him lots of acclaim, saying stuff like “This kid is so ready” and glowingly declaring that he is “definitely part of the future.” I even made a prediction back at this time that, based on his comedic style and demeanor in this episode, Pete was going to be the young Norm Macdonald of modern-era SNL (odd how both of this episode’s new cast members, Michael and Pete, reminded me back then of Norm). I ended up being horribly wrong in that prediction about Pete. But even now having that knowledge in hindsight and knowing how much I would gradually go on to strongly dislike Pete over the course of these next few years (and, no, not just because he didn’t live up to my initial Norm Macdonald comparison, which is a comparison that I now admit was unfair to Pete and was expecting too much from someone so young) to the degree that I cite him as one of the main things responsible for driving me away from SNL in late 2018 and causing me to go on a (still in effect) hiatus from watching new episodes, I’m still finding myself impressed by him in my current re-watch of this first episode of his. He’s having a damn good first showing. As I enter his tenure in this SNL project of mine, I’m going into it open-minded, hoping to gain a higher opinion of his general tenure than I used to have. (It also helps that I hear he’s actually been doing much better on the show in the current 46th season, and has been putting a lot more effort into his performances.) There have been a number of cast members who I used to not care at all for, but have grown on me in my re-watch of their respective tenures during this SNL project of mine (don’t ask me who those cast members are, as I plan on mentioning them in one section of my special final post after I officially complete this SNL project). I’m hoping Pete can be one of those cast members.
— Why is Chris using the same fey, lispy, southern-accented voice for EVERY different football player he’s playing? It is making me laugh, though, just because it works in the fun and rapid-fire style of this sketch.
— Showing once again tonight how much she needs to be a part of the cast pronto, Leslie Jones absolutely STEALS this whole sketch with her hilarious brief appearance, which gets a huge audience reaction. When this originally aired, it just furthered my and other SNL fans’ opinion that Leslie not being in the cast while Sasheer is in the cast is a huge mistake on SNL’s part. In fact, not only are both of Leslie’s appearances in this episode far more noteworthy than ANYTHING Sasheer does in this episode, but Leslie’s Update appearance earlier tonight occurred before Sasheer even made her first appearance of the night! Nowadays, having recently started to find a likability in Sasheer during my re-watch of this SNL era while still acknowledging that SNL wasn’t the right venue for her talents, I now just feel bad for how underused Sasheer was in this episode and how overshadowed she was by someone who wasn’t even in the cast at the time (Leslie). Back on the topic of Leslie, after SNL would finally make Leslie a cast member a little later this season, I admittedly would go on to have mixed feelings on her tenure as a cast member (though I would always like her as a person), but even re-watching tonight’s episode while having that knowledge, I still can absolutely understand why I and everyone else were clamoring at the time for SNL to add Leslie to the cast, kinda like the aforementioned fact that I can still enjoy Pete’s strong debut in this episode even with the knowledge that he went on to be a cast member I strongly disliked.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & The Weeknd [real] perform “Love Me Harder”


VIDEO GAME
video game focus group dislikes incongruous eroticism of Puzzle World 6

— Poor, poor Sasheer.
— I have mixed feelings on the raunchy, romantic turn that Chris and Vanessa’s scene is taking. Something about that turn feels a bit cliched for SNL, and it’s not making me laugh all that much here.
— Listening to Pete’s voice throughout this first episode of his reminds me that an online SNL fan mentioned at some point this season that Pete has pretty much the exact same voice as Gilbert Gottfried’s real voice in season 6 (years before Gilbert adopted the “screechy voice” persona). Yeah, even today, long after I’ve become very familiar with Pete’s voice, I can still hear the Gottfried similarity in his voice now that I’m listening for it.
— Yeah, as the eroticism of Chris and Vanessa’s scenes goes on, I’m caring less and less for this sketch.
— Pete’s great night continues, as he got a pretty good laugh from me just now with his delivery of an unhappily-muttered “Ohh, man….” as it’s his turn to play the off-putting video game.
— The ending of the Chris/Vanessa portions of this sketch is actually good, with the “Ghost” reference.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An underwhelming season premiere. There were some positive points, as well as some promising and exciting new things & people introduced tonight, but the amount of things I liked were far outnumbered by the amount of things I didn’t like. There was also a bit of a sloppiness at certain points of the show, sloppiness that I would normally cut SNL some slack for in a season premiere, as it’s understandable that there would be some rustiness from SNL immediately after a long summer break. However, I recall this mild sloppiness actually continuing for quite a while this season (which is just one of the things that sparked A LOT of comparisons that some online SNL fans made between this season and the notorious season 20), sloppiness that wouldn’t stop until about December. We’ll see if my memory of that is correct or not.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Bad Boys
NFL on CBS
Weekend Update
Action Figures
Marvel
State of the Union
Monologue
Video Game
Cialis Turnt
Booty Rap
Animal Hospital


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2013-14)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Sarah Silverman

Posted on

May 17, 2014 – Andy Samberg / St. Vincent (S39 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM SOLANGE & JAY-Z
Solange (SAZ) & Jay-Z (JAP) spin their elevator fight

— The friendly Jay-Z/Solange voice-overs added to the video of their elevator fight is funny, especially the “foot five” part.
— Good part with the security cam footage of Bobby doing embarrassing things.
— Maya Rudolph, our first of an endless number of former cast member cameos tonight.
— Third consecutive episode with Sasheer saying LFNY. Granted, all the times she said it in these three episodes, she said it unison with one or more people (group LFNYs in general have become a trend in the last quarter of this season). Sadly, this three-episode run of LFNYs probably ends up being the high point of Sasheer’s notoriously-underutilized four-season SNL tenure.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— (*sigh*) The final episode with the legendary Don Pardo as SNL’s announcer, before he passes away that summer. Host Andy Samberg has the distinction of being the final name ever announced by Don in new audio.


MONOLOGUE
BIH tops ANS’s effort to surpass his impression tally; SEM & MAS cameos

— I wonder if this is the only time in SNL history where a celebrity (Justin Timberlake in this case) made their cameo appearance in the form of a photo. I feel like there was a previous time that may have happened that I’m forgetting.
— I love Andy’s little “I put on a suit to tell that joke” aside after his “And twiiiiiins!” line.
— Andy sure likes doing that “I’ve appeared in over 100 Digital Shorts and [insert small single-digit number here] live sketches” joke ever since he left the cast.
— Andy doesn’t say which website he learned that he did 23 fewer impressions than Bill Hader from, but I wonder if SNL Archives was the site. Then again, SNL themselves probably keep a record of stats like that.
— Our second former cast member cameo tonight, this time Seth Meyers, making his first cameo after leaving the cast earlier this season.
— Very fun concept of Andy doing a rapid-fire succession of impressions. This concept is perfect for Andy, and he’s doing lots of hilarious and clever impressions here.
— Our THIRD former cast member cameo tonight, and yeah, I’m gonna stop keeping count, because doing so is going to get exhausting, given what later portions of this episode has in store for me.
— I love the Andy Samberg impression that Bill Hader does.
— Whoa, of all the former cast member cameos in this episode, I honestly had no prior memory of this random Martin Short appearance.
STARS: ****


CAMP WICAWABE
preteens Cambria (AIB) & Piper (KAM) recap disobedience at Camp Wicawabe

— Kinda interesting how Kyle is playing a 6-year-old in this set-in-1990 sketch, given the fact that, in real life, Kyle actually was 6 in 1990 (as was I).
— Speaking of this sketch being set in 1990, uh…is there any particular reason why it’s set in that year? So far, there is absolutely NOTHING about this sketch that’s seems specific to 1990 nor any other year in the past. It makes no sense why this sketch couldn’t have been set in present day.
— Funny brief appearance from Cecily.
— While there are a few funny lines from the characters, and there’s a somewhat endearing quality to some of the more realistic aspects of Kate and Aidy’s child characters (e.g. them laughing at but not actually “getting” the more adult things that Andy’s character talks about), I hate the actual format of this sketch, and find it to be lazy. Thank goodness this sketch never becomes recurring.
STARS: **


WHEN WILL THE BASS DROP?
DJ Davvincii (ANS) & Lil Jon [real] kill fans

— Our obligatory Lonely Island Digital Short of the night.
— Some funny cutaways to cast members as wild audience members. I especially like some of the Bobby cutaways.
— Lots of pretty funny teases and build-up to Andy dropping the bass, such as the cutaways to the unrelated things he’s doing at his DJ table, like frying eggs.
— The sequence of audience members graphically dying when the bass finally drops is okay, but feels like a very inferior variation of the beautifully-dark-and-violent mass death sequence in the “Everyone’s A Critic” Digital Short from Paul Rudd’s season 34 episode. We even get a reprisal of the Indiana Jones/“Keep your eyes shut!” bit from that Rudd short.
— Not only is this pre-taped short the ONLY appearance that Noel, John, Brooks, and Mike make in tonight’s entire episode, but 1) their roles in this short are all bit parts with no lines (except for one quick line that Noel gets), 2) this ends up being the FINAL appearance that all four of those performers make as cast members, as all of them get fired after this season, and 3) half of them are playing characters who die in this short. After Noel, John, Brooks, and Mike were all extremely underused for most of this season, this is the ultimate final insult to them. For shame, SNL. You go through all the trouble of hiring so many new cast members at the beginning of this season and give them special focus in the season premiere, making a huge deal about them, only to immediately and unjustifiably discard most of them for the remainder of the season, then give them the ultimate middle finger in the season finale before firing them that summer. Just….(*sigh*) there aren’t enough words from me that can express the disgracefulness of the way this season handled what they themselves said was supposed to be a “rebuilding year” in terms of working in the new group in the cast. Rebuilding year, my ass.
— After the announcement of Noel, John, Brooks, and Mike’s firing that summer, I remember some online SNL fans jokingly saying that this Digital Short must’ve been SNL’s way of killing off all four of those fired featured players (though, again, only about half of them actually play characters who die in this short), almost like some kind of variation of the famous “cast party set ablaze” ending of the infamous season 11, or the “cast members get gruesomely killed one-by-one in a polar bear cage” ending of the infamous season 20. (The even sadder thing is, I recall reading in the dress rehearsal report for this season 39 finale that was posted online back at this time in 2014 by FeaturingEmilyPrager [a frequent commenter on this blog] that the Legolas/Taco Bell sketch that’ll be airing later in this episode had a running gag cut out after dress rehearsal in which Andy’s Legolas, in a fury, occasionally throws sharp weapons at random Taco Bell patrons, killing them. All, or maybe just some, of those patrons were played by featured players who would end up getting fired after this episode, which means that, between the “When Will The Bass Drop?” Digital Short and that Taco Bell sketch, the about-to-be-fired-from-SNL featured players were originally going to get killed off TWICE in this episode! My goodness. However, my memory of FeaturingEmilyPrager’s details about that aspect of the Taco Bell sketch is very fuzzy, so I may have some facts wrong. We’ll see when he re-posts his dress rehearsal report in the comments section of this review.) I remember fellow SNL blogger/reviewer Bronwyn Douwsma once accurately titled this episode “the ‘Fuck You, Newbies’ episode”, as a very spot-on way to sum up this episode’s horrible treatment of the featured players, treatment that’ll get even more horrible later in this episode when you see the cavalcade of cameos that takes away even more airtime from the featured players.
STARS: ***½


CONFIDENT HUNCHBACK
Quasimodo (ANS) swaggers through a 1482 Paris saloon

— This appears to be a variation of the Rude Buddha sketch that Andy did in the season 37 Lindsay Lohan episode, right down to having a very similar opening title sequence.

— Speaking of the opening title sequence, the theme song is catchy, though I can’t help but notice how similar the melody of it sounds to the theme song from the Girlfriends Talk Show sketches.
— Andy is fun in this role, which he was born to play.
— The ending was kinda weak.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Digital Witness”


WEEKEND UPDATE
darkness creeps into Bruce Chandling’s unfunny summer comedy routine

Nicolas Cage (ANS) thinks he’d be a better Ant-Man than Paul Rudd [real]

— This would end up being the final Update of Cecily’s short-lived tenure as Update anchor.
— A nice bookend to this season, having Kyle’s Bruce Chandling do an Update commentary for the first time since his debut in this season’s premiere.
— Like last time, Kyle is great at pulling off these hacky jokes as Bruce Chandling. I also like the new touch he’s added to the character this time: that eye-roll he does after each punchline.
— Also like last time, the sudden turn with Bruce Chandling getting depressed and reflecting on himself in a gloomy manner is very solid. In fact, it’s even better here than when they did it earlier this season. During this “Chandling gets depressed” part tonight, I love this particularly dark line from him: “Grim Reaper’s knockin’ at the door……..and I kinda wanna answer it.”
— Ugh at all of Cecily’s usual corny punchlines and “character voice” punchlines tonight. I will absolutely not miss seeing her as an Update anchor after tonight’s episode.
— Holy hell, that huge fivehead on Andy’s Nicolas Cage tonight…
— Second consecutive Update with a guest referring to Colin as “Seth”.
— We’re getting the usual funny lines from Andy’s Nicolas Cage, but I dunno, I’m having a hard time getting excited about this segment. I guess I’m STILL of the opinion that they should’ve officially retired this “Get In The Cage” segment after the memorable and solid one where the real Nicolas Cage was paired up with Andy’s Cage. You just can’t continue the segment after something special and definitive like that. There are other ways they could’ve used Andy’s Cage impression tonight without bringing “Get In The Cage” back.
— Overall, a characteristically meh way for the Cecily Strong/Colin Jost era of Update to end. Bring on the next era!
STARS: **


AFFECTIONATE FAMILY
the Vogelchecks are initially put off by Michael Sam’s draft-day kiss

— (*Stooge stares at his laptop screen in a speechless manner for an entire minute upon seeing the resurrection of this wretched recurring sketch, and, after suffering through seeing an overlong applause break for each individual cameo in this, flips his laptop upside down with one angry swipe of his hands and then walks out of the room while saying, “That’s it, fuck this, I’m leavin’!”, Will Ferrell-style*)
— With each passing overlong applause break that each cameo in this sketch is met with, I can just picture a little bit of John Milhiser dying inside.
— Ugh, during his typically-annoying “I guess that’s what makes us…….Vogelchecks” speech, Fred Armisen openly starts breaking HARD for no apparent reason, and giggles his way through the rest of his speech. Bill seemed to be the cause of this breaking, judging from how Fred initially breaking is followed by Bill being heard mumbling ad-libbed statements throughout the rest of Fred’s speech, in an apparent attempt to keep Fred laughing. As if I needed a reminder of how annoyingly Fallon & Sanz-esque Fred and Bill became with their frequent unprofessional, inside-joke-y breaking together in their final season as cast members.
— Maya particularly hamming it up here.
— (*Stooge watches the ridiculous sequence with each Vogelcheck member passing air to each other via their mouths, and responds to that by ripping his own eyeballs out*)
STARS: *


WAKING UP WITH KIMYE
wedding planner (ANS) describes Kanye West (JAP) & Kim Kardashian’s (NAP) upcoming nuptials

— This ends up being Nasim’s final big showcase before leaving the cast that summer. I’d rather her final showcase be something more exciting than seeing this sketch once again. I liked this Kimye sketch in its first installment, but it’s meh as a recurring sketch.
— Jay’s Kanye: “What do they always say to you in Italy?” Nasim’s Kim: “Leave!”
— I have nothing to say about the rest of this sketch. It pretty much just came and went for me.
STARS: **


HUGS
ANS, Jorma Taccone & Pharrell Williams [real] sing about being cuddling Lotharios

— A second Digital Short tonight, this time a traditional Lonely Island music video, complete with Jorma and Akiva.
— Hmm, I had no prior memory of this short having a Maya cameo as Oprah and a Pharrell Williams cameo as himself. In fact, I remember almost NOTHING about this short from my previous viewing when it originally aired.
— I’m currently about halfway through this short, and I can now see why I had almost no prior memory of it. This short feels way too generic and by-the-numbers for a Lonely Island music video. Sure, this is well-produced and performed, but what does that matter when the actual humor and entertainment level is blah?
— I did get a good laugh just now from Pharrell’s great delivery of the lyric, “I just wanna hug your mama in a Subaru hatchback.”
— Overall, meh.
STARS: **


LEGOLAS FROM ‘THE HOBBIT’ TRIES TO ORDER AT TACO BELL
what the title above says

— An okay concept, feeling like it’s in the tradition of similarly-titled celebrity-tries-to-do-a-simple-task sketches from Andy’s era as a cast member, such as the Andre The Giant Chooses An Ice Cream Flavor sketch.
— A predictable but amusing ending line from a shaking-his-head Jay: “White people…..”.
— A short, simple, and decent sketch, if unmemorable.
STARS: ***


BLIZZARD MAN
during a recording session, 2 Chainz [real] vouches for Blizzard Man

— With the return of Blizzard Man, we of course also get the unnecessary return of Kenan playing the same technician character he plays in every installment of these Blizzard Man sketches who acts like he’s never seen Blizzard Man before and didn’t expect his rapping to be so bad. (*groan*)
— I had remembered tonight’s “Fuck You, Newbies” episode containing so many former cast member cameos, but had forgotten that it also throws almost as many non-SNL-alum cameos at us.
— For some reason, something about 2 Chainz’s laid-back, friendly way of telling Blizzard Man, “Get in the booth, fool”, made me laugh.
— As usual, they’re doing absolutely NOTHING new with the formula of this recurring sketch. The same-old same-old stuff. Sure, we had gotten a somewhat long hiatus from this formulaic recurring sketch, but even with that, there’s still way too much of a stale, unexciting, been-there-done-that feel to tonight’s return of this recurring sketch. It’s too old hat by this point.
— There’s SNL relying on that ol’, lazy “spinning newspaper headline” ending trope once again, which I know is the type of endings these Blizzard Man sketches always used to have back in the day, but even with that in mind, this particular headline ending still came off lazy and half-assed.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Birth in Reverse”


BVLGARI
separated twins (ANS) & (KRW) & vacuous ex-porn stars endorse Bulgari

— Ah, here’s Andy in a walk-on with…….Kristen Wiig?!? OH, COME THE FUCK ON, SNL! Wasn’t that unwatchable Vogelchecks sketch enough Wiig for one night? Not to mention all the other cameos from former cast members hogging up roles that need to be going to the in-danger-of-getting-fired featured players who have unfairly gotten no final chance tonight to try saving their SNL tenures, and are instead stuck watching this entire episode from their dressing rooms.
— Also, such a lame decision to cast Kristen in a male role for no good reason.
— Vanessa: “With a watch, you’ll never have to stop a stranger on the street to ask him, ‘Are you my dad?’”
— Cecily: “You’ll feel like you’re an Egyptian queen, like Cleomydia.”
— (*groan*) Kristen apparently hasn’t gotten rid of her giggles from the Vogelchecks sketch, as she’s openly laughing her way through some of her lines in this sketch, and looks strangely uncommitted to this character.
— The Andy/Kristen portions are ruining this sketch for me, and it’s already been sad enough that Vanessa and Cecily haven’t been having anywhere near as many killer lines as they usually have in this recurring sketch.
— Overall, easily the weakest installment of this sketch, and an underwhelming way to close out this season.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Aaaaaaand the season ends in a whimper. A truly poor and disappointing finish to the season. This episode started out decently if unnoteworthy (aside from the strong monologue), but felt like it got gradually worse as it went on, especially as so many gratuitous cameo appearances increasingly and frustratingly dominated this episode, to the detriment of the actual cast (a precursor of more recent years), who already had to fight for airtime all season long even without the cameos, due to how extremely overstuffed this season’s cast is. Even more frustrating was how the SNL alums making cameos tonight (minus Martin Short) are 1) all people who had been cast members within the last few years prior to this (and in Seth Meyers’ case, just earlier this same season), as if enough time had passed between then and 2014 for SNL to justifiably do a “late 00s/early 10s reunion” episode filled with cameos from an era that LITERALLY JUST FUCKING HAPPENED, and 2) a number of the alums from that era ALREADY make cameos way too frequently as it is, to the degree that you forget they even left the cast (Fred and Kristen, I’m lookin’ in your direction…..oh, and you, too, Amy Poehler, even though you weren’t in this particular episode), thus making their presence in this “reunion / nostalgia-fest” episode even less special-feeling. As a host, Andy Samberg, who certainly wasn’t the problem I had with this episode, deserved a much better episode than what he was given.
— Another disappointing thing about this episode is that I remember it was an underwhelming way to end my original 2000-2014 stint as a reviewer of newly-aired episodes. Lousy, refusing-to-let-go-of-the-recent-past episodes like this made me happy back at this time in 2014 that I was retiring from reviewing. Recently, I’ve had some people warn me that, based on the quality of SNL’s current 46th season, the final episode I review in my current SNL project will probably be a disappointing and unexciting note for me to end on. But after having already gone through the disappointment of this frustrating Andy Samberg episode being the final episode of my original reviewing stint, I feel like there’s nowhere to go but up in terms of what SNL has in store for me in the final episode I review in my current project.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
When Will The Bass Drop?
Confident Hunchback
A Message From Solange & Jay-Z
Legolas From ‘The Hobbit’ Tries To Order At Taco Bell
Weekend Update
Waking Up With Kimye
Blizzard Man
Hugs
Camp Wicawabe
Bvlgari
Affectionate Family


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charlize Theron)
a big step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2012-13)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 40 begins, with host Chris Pratt, two new additions to the cast, a revamped Weekend Update with a new co-anchor joining Colin Jost, and a new replacement for Don Pardo as SNL’s announcer. After spending the past 14 seasons of this SNL project reviewing episodes that I already covered in my original stint as a reviewer, I’m excited that the remainder of the seasons I’ll be covering in my current SNL project will be ones that I’ve never reviewed before and, in the case of the episodes from December 2018 to whenever I complete this project, episodes that I’ve never even seen before. (For those who don’t know, I’ve been on an ongoing hiatus from watching new episodes after the Steve Carell episode from season 44.) And as for the episodes between May 2014 and December 2018, I’m eager to re-watch them because I don’t remember a lot of them all that well anymore. The reason for that is because, back when those seasons originally aired, since I no longer had to worry about analyzing new SNL episodes or feverishly taking notes during the show now that I was retired from reviewing, I went into season 40 and the next two or so seasons afterwards with such a lax and “casual viewer” attitude that it caused the more average or forgettable portions of the show to completely pass by me, to the degree that, today, I no longer have much or ANY memory of them, whereas I still have a vivid memory of practically everything from the 2000-2014 years that I covered in my original reviewing stint.