Tag: Larry David

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November 4, 2017 – Larry David / Miley Cyrus (S43 E4)

NOTE: For anyone who didn’t read my post from yesterday, this is going to be my final review. And, as you’ll notice throughout the review, there isn’t a finality to the tone of this review, because it was written over a week ago, before I came to the decision to end this project.

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PAUL MANAFORT’S APARTMENT
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) visits house-arrested Paul Manafort (ALM)

— A pretty funny cutaway to Cecily’s Melania communicating with a Donald Trump inflatable lookalike.
— Yikes, after the aforementioned Melania scene, what the hell happened? The camera cuts back to Alec, who’s seen awkwardly rushing out of the shot while looking off-camera as if he realized he wasn’t supposed to be in the current scene, but then, after a long pause as the camera just holds on a shot of nobody onscreen, Alec (or someone else) is heard off-camera saying “Wait, wait”, then Alec re-enters the shot with Alex. What in the world went wrong?
— Not caring much for anything happening during the shower scene. It’s resulting in me having the usual reaction I have to Trump-era political cold openings.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about dating as Quasimodo & in a concentration camp

— Already a good laugh right from the start, with Larry David opening this monologue by telling the cheering audience a Sally Field-esque “You tolerate me! You really, really tolerate me!”
— Larry’s whole bit about Quasimodo is hilarious, especially the voice and gestures he uses as Quasimodo.
— I’m cracking up so much at Larry’s very drawn-out hesitance when bringing up the fact that a lot of the men who have been Me Too’ed are Jewish.
— IIRC, Larry’s bit about picking up women at a concentration camp, which is definitely making me laugh, would end up receiving complaints, which is possibly what prevented this episode from receiving an NBC rerun.
STARS: ****½


THE PRICE IS RIGHT
Bernie Sanders (host) wins; Liam Hemsworth cameo

— Chris is hilarious as Lil Wayne.
— A fun Chris Hemsworth impression from Alex.
— A decent way to work in Larry’s Bernie Sanders impression.
— Mixed feelings on Alec’s appearance here, as I always love his Tony Bennett impression, but all of the Trumpwin stuff from both this and the preceding season has made me burned out on Alec’s sketch appearances.
— Boy, Beck’s Drew Carey impression is really off. I have no idea what he’s going for.
— A funny description Larry’s Bernie gives on how he washes his suit.
STARS: ***½


CONFIDENT
“Confident” & dismissive Sarah Huckabee Sanders (AIB) sidelines reporters

— I was about to say that I’m not caring for the recurrent musical cutaways in this short, but the humor in those cutaways and the press conference scenes have gotten better after a while.
— This feels a bit like a precursor to Aidy’s “Aidy B” short from later this season.
— I love the “Bruce?” “There’s no Bruce here” exchange between Aidy and Cecily, as well as how Cecily nonchalantly goes on with her next question immediately after that line.
— Aidy is performing really well in this, which is helping to make this work.
STARS: ***½


AD COUNCIL AWARDS DINNER
in retrospect, directing honoree’s (host) old PSAs are rather offensive

— I’m enjoying the 80s aesthetic in the PSAs. Speaking of which, Mikey looks like he’s wearing the same shirt that Josh Hutcherson wore in the 80’s Song sketch (e.g. the Outfield “Your Love” sketch) from his season 39 hosting stint.

— The increasingly un-PC-by-today’s-standards taglines of the PSAs are hilarious, as is how uncomfortable everybody at this awards dinner is becoming over that.
— The very casual, unacknowledged reveal of Larry’s character having a big ponytail was a bit surprising to me.
STARS: ****


THE BABY STEP
host refuses to participate in infant-themed rap video

— I love Larry getting angry at the camera for repeatedly cutting back to him for his rap solo, after he made it clear that he wants no part of this.
— I absolutely LOVE the bit with Kenan being animated as a Rugrat, especially given his Nickelodeon history.
— After the aforementioned bit with Larry getting angry at the camera for repeatedly cutting back to him, his continued objections to participating in this music video aren’t quite as hilarious as I remembered, but they’re still funny.
— Larry, to Kenan, when calling each of the performers out on doing this ridiculous music video: “You??? How long do ya have to be here not to do this kind of stuff?” Kenan: “……..I wish I knew.”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bad Mood”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Donald Jr. (MID) & Eric (ALM) defend pa Trump from suggestions of guilt

archetypal movie boxer’s girlfriend Angel (HEG) has had enough

Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, George Springer [real] give Astros swag to LEJ

— Great to see another Trump Brothers Update commentary, which are usually very funny.
— A hilarious facial expression from Alex’s Eric Trump after tasting the sugar in the Fun Dip candy (the seventh above screencap for this Weekend Update).
— The debut of Heidi’s Angel character, a.k.a. every boxer’s girlfriend from every movie about boxing ever.
— Heidi is absolutely spot-on as this movie archetype.
— The comedy in Heidi’s Angel piece wasn’t doing all that much for me at first, despite her solid performance, but the comedy has become increasingly funny the more ridiculous her rants have become with each passing topic, especially the phone bit.
— A lot of laughs from Leslie’s talk about baseball.
— Ohho, NO. The Houston Astros. Even though I don’t know much about baseball (I’m much more of a football and basketball viewer), I’m certainly well aware of the Astros’ notorious cheating scandal. This is the season that they later got busted for cheating during, right? If so, oof, this SNL appearance of theirs has aged like milk.
— It’s a shame that this Astros appearance is souring my enjoyment of Leslie’s commentary, though she still does have a few funny comments during the Astros appearance, and is still coming off as her usual likable self.
STARS: ***½


FRESH TAKES WITH DUSTIN PURCELL
teacher (host) shares improper gossip on high school show

— If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that was the no-longer-on-the-show Vanessa Bayer doing the opening announcement for this sketch. After several seconds, though, the announcer’s voice has started to sound a bit like Cecily.
— Nice to see yet another display of the fun and charming chemistry that Mikey and Alex usually have together.
— Mikey’s professional delivery of and emphasis of the word “beefed” when saying “Someone BEEFED in first period gym” tickled me so much.
— A funny low-budget ad with Pete and Chris.
— The way Larry’s character is delivering gossip about high schoolers is funny just because it’s Larry David, of all people, dishing that gossip.
— Sad that this is the closest that Luke has gotten to a comedic role so far in his SNL tenure, and it’s just a small role with a predictable (to me, at least) punchline.
— Good bit with Leslie making announcements of which students have scoliosis. I can also relate to that, having had scoliosis when I was younger.
STARS: ***½


NEW WIFE
at a party, (host)’s gay-famous new wife (CES) performs her club routine

— This sketch is SO stupid, and has some of James Anderson’s worst tendencies as a writer, but Larry David is probably the only person in existence who could sell this material. Similar to what I said about him in the preceding Fresh Takes sketch, these lines of his are only funny because it’s Larry David, of all people, delivering them.
— Now this has gotten even funnier with Larry starting to break towards the end of the sketch, causing him to laugh his way through the rest of his lines. His speaking-while-laughing-hysterically voice is absolutely priceless, as also seen in the rehearsal footage of the Kevin Roberts sketch from Larry’s previous episode.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Would Die For You”


BEERS
in a sitcom, (KYM) & (BEB) realize that (host) has a drinking problem

— Ah, I always love this recurring nameless 80s/90s sitcom pastiche of Beck and Kyle’s. The humor in these shorts really speaks to me, and these shorts are what I consider to be among Beck and Kyle’s best pre-taped work.
— I’m surprised to realize that this pre-taped short is Kyle’s first and ONLY appearance all night. Coincidentally, he didn’t make any live appearances in the previous Larry David-hosted episode, either.
— Kyle’s intentionally horrible non-verbal overacting whenever Larry smashes a chair is hilarious.
— Like the previous installments of this short, I love the increasingly random and out-of-place establishing shots shown between scenes.
— A good laugh from the extreme brevity of the scene that only consists of Beck saying “Alright, let’s go on our bike ride.”
— Ha, holy hell at the out-of-nowhere turn with Larry stabbing Kyle in the gut.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— While not as strong or memorable as the previous episode Larry David hosted, this was still a fairly solid episode. Aside from the cold opening, I enjoyed every segment, there were a few great overall highlights, and Larry did yet another strong job hosting.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Beers
Monologue
Ad Council Awards Dinner
New Wife
Weekend Update
Fresh Takes with Dustin Purcell
The Baby Step
Confident
The Price is Right
Paul Manafort’s Apartment


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kumail Nanjiani)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
That’s it. No more reviews from me. On the bright side, it appears that this One SNL A Day project will continue on another blog, with reviews being written by commenters from my blog who are graciously willing to cover the remaining episodes that I will no longer be reviewing. (Read more about that plan here.) After this Larry David review I just posted, the only thing left for me to do now is a big, special farewell extravaganza post to officially wrap up my part of this project (but not officially wrap up this project altogether, because, as I said, it appears that others will continue this project on another blog). Because of how long and extensive my farewell post will be, it will most likely take me a few days to complete, so don’t expect it to be posted by tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have it ready the day after that, but don’t be surprised if it takes me even longer. As for what kind of content the post will contain, you can expect review stats, a collection of some of the lists (of things like rating averages) that people have kindly provided in the comments sections of my reviews, new lists made by me, and various other things.

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February 6, 2016 – Larry David / The 1975 (S41 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM TED CRUZ
Ted Cruz (TAK) exults in having overcome his inherent disadvantages

— The setting of this reminds me of one of the Mitt Romney cold openings Jason Sudeikis starred in four years prior.
— I’ve never felt Taran nailed his Ted Cruz impression in previous appearances this season, but the off-ness of the impression is particularly noticeable in this cold opening, now that he’s front and center.
— Decent part with Kate as Cruz’s daughter.
— Overall, not much to say about this at all. Despite Taran giving an animated performance, this felt too typical of the boring person-speaking-straight-to-camera political cold openings that dominated Jim Downey’s later years as a writer.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about his journey from poor schmuck to rich prick

— Already getting Larry David’s hilarious typical attitude right out of the gate during his opening “greetings”.
— I’m a little disappointed Larry didn’t mention being a writer on SNL when he mentions auditioning for this show in the past.
— Larry is absolutely slaying me with practically everything he’s saying here.
— I’m surprised this monologue is already wrapping up. This felt a little short and I was left wanting more, but I certainly can’t complain about what we got.
— Even the ending of this monologue is hilarious, with Larry breaking up the usual monologue tagline.
STARS: ****½


FBI SIMULATOR
neon-clad Kevin Roberts (host) is target in & creator of street simulator

 

— Ah, an all-time favorite of mine.
— A huge laugh from the initial sight of Larry’s Kevin Roberts character.
— Kenan’s delivery of the straight man lines is absolutely perfect.
— Leslie’s yell of “I’M HIGH ON BATH SALTS!” had me howling.
— Larry is freakin’ priceless as this ridiculous character.
— Kevin Roberts: “Can a bitch get a donut?!?”
— I absolutely love Bobby’s brief appearance as Kevin Roberts’ friend who “got the bitch a donut!”
— Kenan: “He said he got to second base, and I was like, ‘Who would do that with Kevin Roberts???’”
— Overall, my personal favorite of the countless number of this type of Mikey Day/Streeter Seidell-written character sketch (you know the type, though I’m not sure how to accurately describe it), even moreso than than the iconic David S. Pumpkins sketch from the following season (though I love that one as well).
STARS: *****


BERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM
Bernie Sanders’ (host) neuroses lead to Iowa defeat

— A brilliant concept of a Bernie Sanders/Curb Your Enthusiasm hybrid.
— Great bit with Larry’s Bernie Sanders refusing to shake Leslie’s “germ-infested hand”.
— Jay is priceless and spot-on as Leon/J.B. Smoove.
— The imitation of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s typical style and humor is absolutely top-notch, and the Bernie Sanders aspects of the premise are being worked perfectly into the CYE style.
— Larry’s Bernie: “I-I’m from Brooklyn, we don’t pop in Brooklyn.”
— Much like Jay, Taran is also doing a hilariously spot-on impression.
— Excellent reveal of the five people who voted against Larry’s Bernie.
— I’m sure it’s just me, but seeing a close-up of Kyle and Larry next to each other makes me realize that they both kinda look like different-aged versions of each other, even though we know what Larry looked like when he was around Kyle’s age and he looked nothing like Kyle back then.
— Overall, a true masterpiece, and my second consecutive five-star rating in tonight’s review.
STARS: *****


STEAM SHIP
passenger on sinking ship (Bernie Sanders) decries upper-class privilege

— Larry’s “Check for pubes!” request about the young boy being let on the boat is hilarious.
— Love the concept of Larry as a whiny passenger on a sinking ship.
— At first, I was almost kinda surprised just now that SNL could still use the word “midget” in 2016, until Larry followed it up by humorously saying “I can say that, it’s olden times!”
— Surprise Bernie Sanders cameo.
— While it’s not the best direction the last third of this sketch could’ve gone, Bernie’s appearance here is actually pretty fun, and he and Larry are playing well off of each other.
— Bernie, when asked his name: “I am Bernie Sanderswitzky, but we’re gonna change it when we get to America so it doesn’t sound quite so Jewish.” Larry: “(sarcastically) Yeah, that’ll trick ’em!”
STARS: ***½


TOTINO’S PIZZA ROLLS / THE X-FILES
hungry guys are chanting zombies during Super Bowl

— Ah, time for our second entry in the fantastic Vanessa-starring annual Totino’s trilogy.
— I’m loving the guys’ repetitive, generic chants of “GO GO GO GO GO GO! TOUCHDOWN!” and “NO NO NO NO NO NO! AWWW, FUMBLLEEE!”, and how it eventually keeps cutting off Vanessa’s statements into the camera.
— A priceless reveal that nothing is even playing on the TV that the guys are watching.
— An excellent creepy, thriller-y tone change this commercial suddenly takes.
— Great visual of all the guys slowly turning around towards Vanessa, revealing they now have creepy alien-type eyes, and proceed to now deliver their “No no no no no no! Awww, fumblleee!” chant in a slow, unsettling manner.
— Vanessa: “(horrified and confused) WHAT’S?!? HAPPENING?!? TO MY HUNGRY GUYS?!?!”
— Some people don’t like the X-Files twist at the end, but I’m fine with it.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
host & Bernie Sanders [real] introduce musical guest

— More fun interplay between Larry and Bernie, with Bernie doing Larry’s “Pret-ty good” catchphrase.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Sound”


WEEKEND UPDATE
COJ breaks down footage of Ben Carson’s failure to enter GOP debate stage

self-assured Sturdy Barbie (KAM) isn’t among the new doll body types

JOR mimes fallout of partner-catching fail in Dirty Dancing Live audition

Derek Zoolander (BES) & Hansel (Owen Wilson) critique political fashion

— I absolutely love the bit with Colin riffing on footage of Ben Carson missing his cue to enter that night’s republican debate.
— Hmm, I have absolutely no memory of this Sturdy Barbie commentary of Kate’s.
— So far, I’m not finding this commentary of Kate’s to be overly exciting or anything, but it’s the type of role she can sell well at this point of her tenure, and she has some good lines here, particularly the one about the accessories she comes with.
— Here we get Jon’s one claim to fame of his short-lived SNL tenure. This Dirty Dancing routine was something he previously did at his SNL audition, and some online SNL fans speculated that Jon dusted off this audition routine this week out of desperation due to how much he had been struggling this season.
— Very fun and increasingly-dark miming that Jon’s doing to the song “The Time of My Life”. I’m finding this to be an absolute blast. When this season originally aired and I, by this point of the season, had officially considered Jon to be a bust of a hire (especially with stuff like that painfully bad pirate sketch he did in this season’s Chris Hemsworth episode), he impressed me with this Dirty Dancing routine, and it ended up being the first of only two things he did all season that I liked back then (the second thing being a far more minor moment in a later episode, but I’ll point it out when we arrive at it).
— A number of online SNL fans at the time considered this Dirty Dancing commentary to be Jon’s breakout, “A star is born” moment (right down to some of Jon’s castmates eagerly pointing to him during the goodnights of this episode, an action that’s usually only reserved for new cast members in their first episode). Weird to think back on that glowing assumption people made about Jon’s SNL future, now that we know in hindsight the complete opposite direction his SNL future would end up taking. However, this Dirty Dancing commentary of his definitely still holds up for me.
— Wait, they’re not ending tonight’s Update with Jon’s commentary? His commentary seems like the perfect and most fitting way to end an Update.
— A surprise Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson cameo as their characters from Zoolander. I guess that’s why Jon’s commentary wasn’t what tonight’s Update ended with.
— Stiller and Wilson are fine here, but I’m a little meh on this commentary. And I liked Stiller’s Zoolander reprisal on Update better when he previously did it in a Stefon commentary.
— Colin and Michael’s mics seemed to be turned up abnormally high during their sign-off at the end. Come to think of it, there seemed to be some mic issues in general during this Update, as I noticed Jon’s voice strangely sounded a bit tinny at the beginning of his commentary.
STARS: ****


SONGWRITING CLASS
at a songwriting class, (host) eschews rhymes in favor of frog-toad saga

— Love Vanessa’s awkward look after singing her opening statement.
— EXTREMELY dumb and questionable material here, but it’s the kind of thing that Larry David is probably the only person in existence who could sell. His delivery of this incredibly stupid, badly-written material is cracking me up, making this sketch a guilty pleasure of mine.
— Pete’s doing a good job in a type of straight man role that he doesn’t seem to be cast in often during these early seasons of his tenure.
STARS: ***


A SUPER BOWL GREETING FROM CAM NEWTON AND PEYTON MANNING
Cam Newton (KET) & Peyton Manning (TAK) sing “Ebony & Ivory” variant

— Some pretty fun chemistry between Kenan and Taran here, and it’s helping to put this sketch over, even if I’m still not finding this sketch to be anything special.
— Second sketch tonight with Taran doing an overexaggerated goofy laugh as part of an impression. I can’t help but look at that as a sign that his SNL tenure is nearing the end at this point, even though he didn’t know it at the time.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Me”


LAST CALL
(host) & Sheila Sovage convince themselves they have chemistry together

— First time we’ve seen this recurring sketch in a while.
— Kate’s Sheila Sovage, when telling Larry her name: “You can remember that because if you mix up the letters, it almost spells ‘Vagisil’.”
— Sheila Sovage, after Larry reveals he’s a “before” model for teeth-whitening ads: “Get out! I have teeth!….for now!”
— Out of all of the installments of this recurring sketch, Larry is one of the better hosts at having fun chemistry with Kate.
— Love the bit with the tiny blinds that Kenan closes in front of his face.
— Another funny ending to this recurring sketch, this time with Kenan wrapping “Crime Scene Do Not Cross” tape over the bar while Larry and Kate are disgustingly making out.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A great, great episode, and has always been one of my favorites of this era. A fantastic host, THREE five-star segments in this episode, a few other great pieces, and almost no segments that I gave a low rating to.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
FBI Simulator / Bern Your Enthusiasm (tie)
Totino’s Pizza Rolls
Monologue
Last Call
Weekend Update
Steam Ship
Songwriting Class
A Super Bowl Greeting From Cam Newton and Peyton Manning
A Message From Ted Cruz


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ronda Rousey)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Melissa McCarthy