Tag: Mariah Carey

Posted on

March 15, 2008 – Jonah Hill / Mariah Carey (S33 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SPITZER & ASSOCIATES
in private practice, Eliot Spitzer (BIH) will handle sex-related cases

— Good to see a change of pace from all the Hillary/Obama cold openings that the show had been doing lately. Also great to see Bill play the lead in a cold opening, which feels very rare in these early seasons of his SNL tenure.
— I like the voice Bill’s doing here. 12 years after this Eliot Spitzer scandal, I now no longer have any recollection of what Spitzer’s voice sounds like, but I recall finding Bill’s vocal impression of him to be spot-on when this originally aired.
— A good laugh from the “1-800-T-A-W-D-R-Y” phone number.
— Without even saying a single word in this entire cold opening, Kristen is still doing such great work conveying the anger of her role as Spitzer’s wife.
— I absolutely HOWLED at Bill-as-Spitzer’s initially-calm-then-suddenly-loudly-angry delivery of “You, by the side of the road, wrapped in PLASTIC!!!!!”
— Lots of pretty funny lines regarding the sex-related cases Spitzer and his law firm will take on.
— Good little touch with how, after Bill-as-Spitzer’s “Live from New York…”, instead of SNL immediately cutting to the opening montage like usual, the camera precedes the opening montage by panning over to a silent Kristen-as-Spitzer’s-wife’s frowny face, keeping up the theme of her having a cold, unhappy demeanor throughout this cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
to combat his crude big-screen image, host sings about how he is fancy

— OH, GOD. A musical monologue for the second consecutive episode? Come on, SNL.
— I do like Jonah’s “fancy dance”, at least.
— A fairly funny cutaway to Amy as Jonah’s Grandma Nancy.
— An unintentional laugh from Jonah’s line flub when he tells us, through song, to “kliss” his classy ass.
STARS: **


MACGRUBER
competency questions bring about a crisis of confidence for MacGruber

— Feels pretty nice to see a MacGruber short right after the monologue for once.
— Due to Maya Rudolph’s then-recent departure from the show, the regular character played by her in these MacGruber shorts has been replaced with a new soon-to-be regular character played by Kristen.
— A pretty good laugh from the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion happening right at the turn where MacGruber suddenly starts to ask, in a worried, sincere voice, “You really think I’m not good at my jo–”.
STARS: ***½


WHAT’S YOUR SITUATION?
emcee (host) thinks game show is a singles bar

— Not too sure about this premise.
— I like Casey’s delivery of “Because….I….love my husband….?” when unhappily asked by a sleazy Jonah why she’s married.
— Jonah is at least executing this fairly well, surprisingly.
— I don’t know why, but in a weird way, this sketch feels to me kinda like a poor man’s precursor to the following season’s superior I’m Gonna Have Sex With Your Wife game show sketch with Bradley Cooper, despite that sketch having pretty much a completely different concept than the one this sketch has.
— I spoke a bit too soon in my compliment of Jonah’s performance, as his timing seemed kinda off at the end.
— At least this overall sketch was pretty short, but that may have been part of the problem, as it kinda feels like they didn’t really explore this concept enough. Then again, I’m not sure what else they could’ve done with this concept.
STARS: **


SIX YEAR OLD
precocious 6 year-old Adam (host) treats Benihana like a Borscht Belt gig

— The debut of what would go on to be a staple of most Jonah Hill-hosted episodes (I think his 2016 episode has been the only one without this sketch, as of 2020).
— Solid concept of Jonah playing a very precocious six-year-old who talks like a Borscht Belt comedian.
— Jonah is strong here, and his performance is a lot of fun. I’m also loving his endless amount of wisecracks.
— Overall, a great debut. We’ll see how I’ll feel about the subsequent installments of this sketch. I remember being so increasingly frustrated that those installments take place in the EXACT SAME Benihana location that this first installment took place in. So lazy. There are so many promising locations you can place Jonah’s character in. Why use the Benihana setting EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME?
STARS: ****


MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s paranoia over backstabbers results in abdication

— A very funny shot at the end of the opening title sequence, with MacGruber walking past the camera while rudely giving everyone the finger.
— This overall short, and the general conceit of tonight’s MacGruber shorts, was better than I had remembered it, but still don’t quite measure up to typical strong MacGruber shorts.
— Strangely, tonight’s SNL episode ends up not showing the third part of tonight’s MacGruber runner. It would be put online shortly after the original airing of this episode. From what my admittedly-fuzzy memory of it recalls, it involved Bill as some kind of therapist/trainer helping a very unconfident, practically-catatonic MacGruber in one of those control rooms that MacGruber and his assistants are always locked in, and the short ended with MacGruber aimlessly and repeatedly banging the leg of a chair onto a table before the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion.
STARS: ***½


THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
financial questions receive thrifty responses from Suze Orman (KRW)

— The debut of Kristen’s Suze Orman impression. Wow, I had completely forgotten about this recurring Suze Orman sketch until now.
— Kristen’s portrayal of Orman is very funny, and her delivery of every single line she has is making them fun.
— I like the interplay between Kristen’s Orman and Jonah’s character.
STARS: ***½


ANDY’S DAD
ANS is distressed to learn that his dad (JID) is going out with host

— I remember finding this short to be a laugh riot when it originally aired in 2008, but the crass, cheap homoerotic premise doesn’t seem like the type of thing that will hold up quite as well in today’s age. Then again, Lonely Island has proven that they can make good shorts out of crass, cheap homoerotic premises and have it still hold up well today (e.g. Roy Rules, Iran So Far).
— A very interesting use of Jim Downey.
— Aaaaaand there goes the obligatory cheap, unnecessary, hacky attempt at a laugh with a man-on-man kiss (which I previously praised Lonely Island for refraining from doing in the aforementioned Iran So Far short). However, I do love how the kiss is immediately followed by a cutaway to a close-up of Andy with a VERY stern, frozen expression on his face (the sixth above screencap for this Digital Short).
— A big laugh from how Jonah lowering his head while laughing with Jim Downey turns into Jonah lowering his head further and going down on Jim below the camera view.
— Aside from the aforementioned kiss, I’m actually enjoying this short. Yet another example of Lonely Island executing a potentially-dodgy homoerotic premise well.
— Bill caps this short off well with his hilarious ending line, “We’ve been f(*bleep*)in’!”, followed by the screen doing a freeze-frame on him smiling at the camera while a random “Created by Lorne Michaels” credit is displayed onscreen.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Touch My Body”


WEEKEND UPDATE
incredulous SEM & AMP say “Really!?!” to Eliot Spitzer’s whoring

TRM’s electoral assessment- “black is the new president, bitch”

— Ha, the photo of Eliot Spitzer making a goofy-looking ashamed, disgraced face (the first above screencap for this Update) was shown a lot in the news and online back at this time, and used to always crack me up back then.
— Good ad-lib from Seth after Amy flubbed her Brita joke.
— Good to see Seth and Amy doing a “Really?!?” on the Spitzer scandal. This should be good.
— An overall pretty solid edition of “Really?!?”, even if it trailed off for me a little towards the end, though not even that was anything bad.
— Ha, not only does Colin Jost make his way into yet another comical Update photo, but we get to see him with what appears to be a natural beard! (the third-to-last above screencap for this Weekend Update)
— Tracy Morgan cameo!
— Tracy seems to have facially aged a lot in such a short amount of time since his last cameo prior to this, in the preceding season’s Alec Baldwin episode.
— As usual, Tracy is killing it here. He has an endless number of funny remarks. He’s even getting laughs from some of his non-verbal actions.
— Tracy brings up the “Bitch is the new black” declaration Tina Fey memorably made on Update three episodes prior, and has this epic rebuttal to it: “Bitch may be the new black…..but black is the new president, bitch.” Classic line.
STARS: ***½


TARGET
Target Lady advises daft fellow employee (host) on how to woo co-worker

— (*groan*)
— Well, at least we got a fairly long break from Target Lady, as her last appearance prior to this was in February 2007.
— Not caring for Jonah in this sketch. He’s trying too hard to play “quirky” and “twitchy”, and it’s coming off too forced.
— Seeing all those boxes of Nilla Wafers in Will’s shopping basket makes me hungry as hell. I haven’t had Nilla Wafers in ages.
STARS: **


NBC SPECIAL REPORT
Brian Williams (WLF) presents evidence proving John McCain (DAH) is old

— Hmm, something seems off about Will’s Brian Williams voice tonight. It’s not as spot-on as it was in the previous appearance Will’s Brian Williams impression made. He’s lacking the dry cadence of Williams’ voice that he nailed last time. Tonight, he just sounds like Will Forte talking in a slow voice.
— A pretty funny formal, professional announcement from Will’s Williams that “John McCain is, in fact, old.”
— The debut of Darrell’s John McCain impression.
— Just like I remember finding it to be, Darrell’s McCain impression is fine, but boring. I know that McCain himself is not exactly an exciting man to impersonate, but I’ve seen some actual funny McCain impressions from other comedians. Darrell’s take on McCain is just adequate, but nothing more. The idea of his boring McCain impression being paired with Fred’s awful (not to mention also-boring) Obama impression in the following season’s presidential debate sketches has me worried for how those sketches are going to turn out. Actually, I have only one Obama/McCain debate sketch to review anyway, as two of the three Obama/McCain debate sketches appear in Weekend Update Thursday specials.
— This is the second consecutive episode in which Fred has barely appeared in any sketches. I remember how, back at this time in 2008, I took Fred’s sudden huge drop in airtime as a sign that SNL was very hesitant to use him in sketches after the backlash he and SNL received for his then-new Obama impression. (For anyone wondering how strong that backlash was, well, you’re obviously aware that it wasn’t strong enough to get SNL to yank Fred out of the Obama role back at this time.)
— This sketch is basically just a parade of stereotypical jokes about old people, but it’s working decently enough, especially the bit with Fred and Amy questioning McCain.
STARS: ***


CLANCY T. BACHLERATT AND JACKIE SNAD SING SONGS ABOUT SPACESHIPS, TODDLERS, MODEL T. CARS & JARS OF BEER
Clancy T. Bachleratt (WLF) & Jackie Snad (KRW) do what the title above says

— Oh, I recall this being a fantastic bizarre Forte/Wiig sketch.
— Very funny reveal of the album title, seen above as the title of this sketch in my review. (There’s no way I’m typing all those words a second time.)
— Will and Kristen’s absurd toddler/beer jars/spaceship/Model T-related songs are absolutely PRICELESS.
— Wow, Jonah’s doing a great Horatio Sanz impression! Seriously, what’s going on with him? Why is he laughing his way through this entire sketch, for no apparent reason? (He’d later do the same thing in a J-Pop America Funtime Now sketch in his second hosting stint.) Did he…uh…take a little toke in his dressing room right before this sketch or something?
— The new National Anthem song at the end is particularly hilarious, made even funnier by Will’s insane facial expressions.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & T-Pain [real] perform “Migrate”


FACE TO FACE
upon meeting in real life, (CAW) finds that (host) is an online liar

Sadly, this sketch is strangely missing from the copy I’m currently watching of this episode. Too bad, as it features Casey Wilson in a fairly rare co-starring role. If you’re curious to see my thoughts on this sketch, read it here in the original 2008 review I did back when this episode originally aired (the sketch is titled “Online Dating” in my review). And a screencap can be seen here on SNL Archives’ page for this sketch, if you’re curious what this sketch looks like, given how mysterious and seemingly-forgotten the sketch is, and the fact that I can’t find an online video of it to link to.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. Even though only about two or three things stood out to me as strong, most of the sketches were enjoyable, and there wasn’t much that dragged this episode down.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Amy Adams)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christopher Walken returns for his seventh and final (as of 2020) hosting stint

Posted on

November 15, 1997 – Claire Danes / Mariah Carey (S23 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY’S TIME
Bill (DAH) reluctantly gives Hillary (ANG) Clinton a chance to speak

— I got a big laugh from the fake-out with Darrell-as-Bill-Clinton’s false announcement of America now being at war with Iraq, which he then reveals he only said just to make his approval rating go through the roof.
— A pretty significant moment right now: we get the debut of Ana’s Hillary Clinton impression.
— Amusing how Bill is using a timer to let Hillary speak for 60 seconds.
— A good laugh from Hillary beginning to disclose an incident from 1983 where she caught Bill on all fours wearing an E.T. mask.
— So far, Ana is solid in the Hillary Clinton role; a big improvement over the last cast member who tried to take a stab at a Hillary impression (Janeane Garofalo).
— Yet another Mark McKinney impression gets taken over by another performer, with Will now playing Al Gore and even doing the same random “Hi, I’m Al Gore” bit that Mark used to do. The gag still comes off funny with Will in the role.
— Now we get a random “Hello, I’m Barbara Walters” from Cheri. I like the manner she walked off in afterwards.
— Ana delivers her first-ever “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. Same goes for the following monologue.


MONOLOGUE
audience members challenge host’s qualifications for admission to Yale

— And there’s the reason why this monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. After mentioning that SNL is five years older then her, Claire Danes is supposed to say “I think I was born in the Tim Kazurinsky years”, but when saying that line, she unintentionally struggles through the pronunciation of Kazurinsky badly, and then ad-libs “I’m sorry, I don’t even know who that is.” Ouch. If Kaz was watching SNL this night, I hope he had a good sense of humor about himself.
— The audience members’ questions are pretty funny so far
— Steve Higgins is stealing this monologue with his great bit.
— Good delivery from Claire during her defensive speech to the doubtful audience members.
STARS: ***½


THE WESTON COLLECTION
“I’m #1” hat & “I’m Hot Stuff” necklace let others know how cool you are

— A simplistic but funny premise for a fake ad, and Will is perfect for this.
STARS: ***½


BARRY SCHECK’S HOME
infamous defendants administer Barry Scheck’s (NOM) courtroom karma

— I love Norm-as-Barry-Scheck’s yell of “DAAH!” when Claire’s Louise Woodward (the British nanny who was in the news at this time for allegedly shaking a baby to death) asks if she can be his nanny.
— A laugh from Woodward’s only references in her resume being Barry Scheck and the country of England.
— Very funny bit with Woodward violently shaking the ketchup bottle to get the ketchup out.
— An even funnier bit right now with Tim’s O.J. Simpson casually using a knife to get the ketchup out, even going so far as to use a glove for his knife.
— Ha, and now we get an appearance from Will as the Unabomber! This sketch is getting funnier and funnier.
— Norm is a solid straight man here.
— Having Jim now show up as the Oklahoma City Bomber is pretty funny in itself, but humor-wise, it feels like a step down having his entrance follow the Unabomber’s entrance. You’re never going to top the Unabomber entering this sketch.
— Great cutaway to O.J. with a now-bloody-looking shirt.
— During his straight-to-camera epilogue speech about the tragic things that his clients ended up doing to him and his family, I like Barry Scheck saying his house got blown up twice.
STARS: ****


THE VIEW
Barbara Walters (CHO) & panelists consider issues superficially

— An important debut of a popular series of Tina Fey-written View parodies that this era would do.
— Second appearance tonight from Cheri’s Barbara Walters.
— Funny opening title sequence with Cheri-as-Barbara-Walters’ intros to her various co-hosts, such as calling Star Jones “A sassy black woman” and Debbie Matenopoulos “A total idiot”.
— A laugh from Cheri’s Barbara singing The View theme song.
— I love the other ladies’ increasingly irritated non-verbal reactions to Debbie Matenopoulos’ various idiotic statements.
— The childish Spice Girls question that all the ladies are asked is pretty funny.
— A really good harsh reality check that Ana’s Cokie Roberts delivers to both Barbara and Debbie.
— I’m loving Tracy as Star Jones, especially the end of the statements she’s heard saying after all the ladies stop talking in unison.
— An overall solid and well-written showcase for the female cast, Tracy, and Claire.
STARS: ****


PARENTS’ WEEKEND
(host)’s parents Marty & Bobbi embarrass her at college with a medley

— Interesting meeting the Culps’ daughter.
— I loved Will’s line about the “University of Gettin’ Down”.
— Some of my favorite opera-ized songs the Culps are performing tonight are “Super Freak” and “American Woman”.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Blow Hot, Blow Cold” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo battles ice monster

— I’m surprised it took this long for this season’s first Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon to appear.
— I love how when Ace and Gary decide to take action against the villains, we get a cutaway to them trying on jackets at a Barney’s store.
— Funny when the villains’ conversation about Ace and Gary’s apparent lack of girlfriends turns to Big Head’s own lack of a public love life.
— Memorable bit with Ace and Gary crashing through the ice monster’s butt.
STARS: ****


PETER PAN
jealous Tinkerbell (host) spews venom at Peter Pan (CHK) & Wendy (ANG)

— Meh. I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I’m not too crazy about this cliched premise of a family-friendly character going off on an obscenity-filled angry rant.
— I will say that Claire is performing this as well as she can, though I can’t help but think that a more comedy-experienced female host would make this material feel less cliched.
— I do kinda like the cheesy special effect of Tinkerbell drinking an entire bottle of whiskey.
— What was with the non-ending?
— Fun how after the sketch ends, we get to see the set being disassembled behind Claire as she dances while still hanging in the air on wires (though it feels like SNL only did this to hide the lack of an ending). It’s sad that I liked that better than most of the stuff in the actual sketch.
STARS: **½


WEEKEND UPDATE
Joe Blow gives the latest news about his neighborhood & family

— Man, the audience is quiet during a lot of jokes tonight. After one particular tepid audience reaction a joke receives, a guy in the audience breaks the tension by randomly yelling out “Norm!” and Norm humorously responds “Hello, hi, how are ya?”
— It’s about time SNL lets Colin do his first Update commentary of the season. Considering how badly SNL has been struggling to find appropriate roles for him this season now that he’s a repertory player, you’d think they would’ve already let him do an Update commentary or two earlier this season, since Update commentaries are clearly his niche at SNL.
— I think this is the last time we ever see Joe Blow, considering we’re only a few episodes away from a certain change in Weekend Update anchors.
— As always, Joe Blow is getting a lot of laughs out of me from his ranting about his personal life. I especially like his whole bit about the differences between public and catholic schools.
— I’m getting tired of how the Joe Blow commentaries always end with him grilling Norm about a beer he wants them to have together. That was a nice running bit for a while, but tonight, it felt like they did it just for the sake of doing it. At least this is the last time I’ll have to see it, if this indeed ends up being Joe Blow’s final appearance.
— An unusual amount of scattered booing from the audience in reaction to some of Norm’s jokes tonight.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Butterfly”


MR. PEEPERS
(WIF) & (host) attempt to release Mr. Peepers back into the wild

— Meh, though at least the setting for this Mr. Peepers appearance is different and may be interesting.
— So far, this is just going through the same tired beats these Mr. Peepers sketches always go through. Yawn.
— When Mr. Peepers is humping the truck, Claire starts cracking up and tries to hide it by burying her face into Will’s chest, which then causes Will himself to crack up, who also tries to hide his face (screencap below). Rare at this point of Will’s tenure to see him breaking.

— Interesting seeing Mr. Peepers’ family, portrayed by Ana, Cheri, and Jim all doing Mr. Peepers impressions.
— So, wait. Was this originally intended to be the final Mr. Peepers sketch ever? The way this sketch ended sure made it appear so. This would’ve been fitting closure for Mr. Peepers. Why, oh, why couldn’t they have kept this his final appearance?
— Without looking it up on SNL Archives, I’m trying to remember when Mr. Peepers’ next appearance is, to see how long SNL kept him retired after tonight’s sketch before needlessly resurrecting him. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember any Mr. Peepers sketches appearing in the remainder of this season. The next Mr. Peepers sketch I can think of is with Kelsey Grammer early in the following season (and I recall that sketch being particularly bad). I wonder what made SNL bring Peepers back after a year-long retirement. It’s not like Chris was desperate for a popular recurring character by that point. After all, he was busy shoving Mango down our throats at that time.
STARS: **


C.E.O. DREAMBOATS
teens (host), (CHO), (MOS), (ANG) adore moguls of CEO Dreamboats magazine

— Funny premise and good execution from Claire and the female cast.
— A good laugh from Molly french-kissing her C.E.O. poster.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My All”


SOUTHERN GALS
hick tourists (MOS), (CHO), (ANG) keep trip’s Frenchness at a safe level

— Wow, yet another sketch tonight starring the entire female cast. This is a huge night for them. They’re very dominant in this episode.
— Lots of little laughs all throughout this, from the southern ladies’ various observations and mistakes. And as usual, this is being well-performed by the female cast.
— Funny appearance from Tracy as a Frenchman, especially with that wig he’s wearing.
STARS: ***


THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode. There wasn’t much in this episode that I felt stood out as great, but most of the show had a consistently good, comfortable quality to it, and the episode as a whole flowed pretty well. Also, it can’t be said enough what a very dominant and strong night the female cast had, particularly Ana Gasteyer. It feels like this is the turning point where the Gasteyer/Oteri/Shannon female group officially became a dynamic trio.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Lovitz)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Posted on

November 16, 1991 – Linda Hamilton / Mariah Carey (S17 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Louisiana governor’s race loser David Duke (DAC) gives concession speech

— Interesting how this is starting off with a Kevin Nealon Weekend Update report.
— Kevin breaking down various voting patterns has some pretty good laughs.
— Funny little bit that Kevin does with his finger after holding it up to his “earpiece” like news anchors typically do when receiving breaking news.
— After a promising start, this cold opening has unfortunately gone downhill with the David Duke speech. There’s not many laughs in that portion of the sketch, and it’s coming off too dull.
— Melanie Hutsell makes her SNL debut (last screencap above).
— Overall, the first subpar cold opening of this season.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— Beth Cahill and the aforementioned Melanie Hutsell have been added to the cast tonight as featured players.

That raises the already-large number of cast members this season to EIGHTEEN, officially making this the all-time largest number of people who were in the cast at the same time. Season 39 also has 18 cast members total, but they weren’t all on at the same time. Colin Jost joined right after Seth Meyers’ mid-season departure.


MONOLOGUE
film clips tell the story of host’s explosion-filled life

— A one-joke bit, but a funny one-joke bit. The stock footage explosions representing Linda’s “average American life” are entertaining, especially the clip of her high school sweetheart running while being on fire and the “Scanners” clip of a man’s head exploding.
— It’s also fun recognizing some of these stock footage explosions from other sketches. The first shot of an exploding house was used at the end of the Tom Hanks sketch where he has a habit of repeating things as a double take, and I think the exploding car footage was used in both Shannen Doherty’s wedding monologue and the end of season 20’s Sparklebrite sketch.
STARS: ***½


LEEVI’S 3 LEGGED JEANS
the latest in strange denim legwear

— I’m loving the very early 90s aesthetic to this commercial. I also like how this is utilizing the large group of newer cast members (oh, and Victoria).
— The three-legged jeans reveal is priceless, as is the various displays of people doing physical actions in the jeans.
— Very catchy jingle.
— Tim’s one-liner “It’s not any dumber than acid wash” was perfect.
STARS: *****


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
Sarah (host) & John (Edward Furlong) Connor try to escape The Tooncinator

— I like the “Bad joke” bit shown from Terminator’s perspective.
— Surprisingly, this is the first Toonces sketch in an entire year.
— Very creative use of Toonces and a great twist with him as a Terminator-type character.
— Awkward long delay before the first cutaway to Toonces crashing his car off a cliff. This would later be fixed in reruns.
— I’m really liking how Toonces keeps forming into different versions of Terminator each time he gets destroyed.
— I got a good laugh from Phil’s Terminator saying “I’m scared!” in that Arnold accent.
STARS: ****


IT’S PAT
health club employee (host) tries to tailor a workout for androgynous Pat

 

— Good set-up to Pat’s appearance here.
— Starting with this installment, the “It’s Pat” opening title sequence and theme song would be shortened.
— Funny scene with Linda using a tool to try to pinch Pat’s body fat.
— Didn’t care for the exercise bike scene. That could have easily been removed from this sketch.
— I enjoyed Pat’s line “This place is so kinky!”
— An absolutely classic and famous part with the men and women’s locker rooms, where Pat’s decision on which locker room to go to gets interrupted by a brief special report from Weekend Update anchorman Kevin Nealon. When they return to the sketch, we find out we missed Pat’s big gender reveal.
STARS: ****


MASSIVE HEADWOUND HARRY
Massive Headwound Harry’s (DAC) scalp gore ruins (host)’s cocktail party

— Oh, as if this episode weren’t already strong enough, now here comes one of my favorite sketches of all time.
— Third sketch in a row tonight starring a character with their own opening title sequence.
— A freakin’ priceless and outrageous visual of Dana casually entering the party with that gruesome huge head wound.
— I loved Farley’s reaction to the head wound, screaming “OH MY GOD!” while spitting out his food.
— Hilarious part with Dana unknowingly rubbing his head wound all over the bowl full of shrimp, sending a disgusted Phil running towards the bathroom while trying to hold in his vomit.
— There’s the legendary moment that puts this sketch over the top, where a dog begins licking Dana’s wound and then pulls at the wound with his teeth, nearly yanking off Dana’s wig in the process. After an uproarious response from the audience, Dana memorably says “He probably smells my dog!”
— Here’s something I never understood: what’s with the huge red stain on Siobhan’s shirt before she makes her exit (last screencap above)? It’s never explained. Did she or one of the other performers accidentally spill punch on her shirt off-camera while reacting to the dog incident? I recall one SNL fan having a theory that a portion of this sketch was removed from reruns in which Dana’s head wound comes into contact with Siobhan’s shirt, leaving blood stains on it. However, I’m watching the live version of this episode, and that never happened.
— Very funny ending regarding Dana putting on Kevin’s hat.
— And thus ends an all-time SNL masterpiece.
— They made the right decision to never turn this into a recurring sketch. Though I swear I remember reading a false claim at one time, back in my early SNL fandom days, that SNL supposedly did end up doing a follow-up to this sketch a season or two later, only with DAVID SPADE(!) in the Massive Headwound Harry role (because Dana Carvey was no longer in the cast by that point).
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the sky as a metaphor for a salmon


BACKSTAGE
Zoraida bothers host by confusing her past roles with real life

— This character officially becomes recurring.
— I’m getting some laughs from Zoraida comparing the beast from the “Beauty and the Beast” TV series to her boyfriend Enrique.
— The quality of this has fallen off a bit after the first minute.
— Yeah, I can tell it won’t be too long until I officially get sick of seeing these sketches.
— We get the very first utterance of Zoraida’s “What makes you think I won’t cut you?” soon-to-be catchphrase, but it was drowned out by the sketch-ending audience applause here.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Can’t Let Go”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Roman (DAC) jokes about Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video

— Fun segment with Kevin providing a “Louisiana Sports Update” for racist David Duke supporters.
— An amusing “metamorphosis” sequence, showing a montage of Michael Jackson’s physical changes over the years, ending with a future picture of him having a missing face.
— Interesting use of Larry Roman, an obscure recurring character of Dana’s.
— Loved Larry Roman’s description of the controversial ending of the “Black or White” music video, where Michael Jackson smashes a car and, as Roman says it, “proceeds to masturbate”.
— I like Dana’s ad-lib “I never know which ones you’re gonna go for!” when a joke of his gets a bigger reaction than he expected.
— Starting with the last episode’s Update, Kevin seems to have finally developed a niche. His Updates lately have had a nice consistent flow.
STARS: ***½


TOUGH GIRLS
(VIJ), (SIF), (BEC), (ELC), (JUS) challenge “buff” host to barroom brawls

— Surprisingly, this is the only appearance Mike makes in this entire episode, and it’s just a thankless small straight role.
— I’m really liking seeing Victoria playing this type of hard-ass, aggressive character. Very rare for her to be cast in a role like this. She’s giving a very good performance.
— Only one episode in, and Melanie Hutsell is ALREADY showing unfortunate signs of overacting tendencies.
— Good use of Beth Cahill in her very first SNL appearance.
— I like the increasing number of appearances from old-timey tough women challenging Linda to a fight.
— Ellen: “This Hamilton bitch is mine!”
— Weak ending.
STARS: ***


THE CHRIS FARLEY SHOW
CHF amateurishly interviews Martin Scorsese [real]

— This great sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Random Martin Scorsese cameo.
— Even though I know what’s coming, the set-up to Farley’s first “You remembeeerrrrr when…” in this installment is already making me laugh right before he’s even said it.
— Great part with Farley making Scorsese re-enact DeNiro’s famous “You talkin’ to me?” scene. I also love Farley excitedly mouthing things to the camera during that.
— A good laugh from how the caller (Melanie Hutsell) is doing Farley’s shtick.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If It’s Over”


BABY TALK
at a restaurant, baby talk of (DAC) & (host) makes (JUS) & (PHH) uneasy

 

— Some good laughs from Dana and Linda’s exaggerated baby-ish, lovey-dovey treatment of each other.
— I liked Phil’s blunt “No we shouldn’t” response when Julia tells him maybe they should go to the same relationship seminar Dana and Linda went to.
— For once this season, David Spade has actually been in quite a lot of sketches tonight, though his roles have just been the usual forgettable bit parts that he’s usually stuck in this season. Just to show you how bad his airtime has been lately, this is only the sixth episode of this season and he’s already spent THREE episodes not being in any sketches at all (Jeff Daniels, Kirstie Alley, and Kiefer Sutherland). He’s also only had about three speaking roles all season so far, and only one of those speaking roles was noteworthy (his Matthew Broderick impression in the Christian Slater episode). This is Luke Null/Dean Edwards/John Milhiser levels of underusage.
— Another funny exchange between Phil and Julia, with a confused Phil explaining “We’re having the same thing!” when Julia tries to romantically offer him a bite of her meal just like Dana and Linda have been doing with each other.
— Dana’s increasingly baby-ish speaking and actions (e.g. “Baby want sauce”) are funny.
— Very amusing visual of Linda sincerely apologizing for her and Dana’s actions while still casually having her finger in Dana’s mouth.
STARS: ***½


HIDDEN CAMERA COMMERCIALS
(TOS) interviews angry victim of hidden camera ad (CHF)

 

— For some reason, I like the odd name of Tom Schiller’s character, Knorben Knussen.
— I love the sudden dark turn with Farley’s great slowburn after hearing his coffee has been switched.
— So many laughs from the insane, chaotic turn with Farley going completely berserk over such a minor thing, and doing things like throwing pies at customers and smashing everything in sight. He is killing me in this, and this is a perfect use of his knack for yelling, long before it became a tired weekly crutch.
— Great ending with a bruised and bandaged Farley explaining in a satellite interview that he’s “Aaaaannnnngrryyy…”
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and also a very memorable one that I’ve always felt is a good microcosm of this season as a whole. You have well-remembered installments of recurring sketches like Pat, Toonces, and The Chris Farley Show, you have beloved one-off pieces like 3 Legged Jeans and Massive Headwound Harry, and you finish the show with a great Schiller’s Reel that features one of Chris Farley’s greatest performances.
— Aside from the mixed Jeff Daniels episode, this season has been on an absolute roll so far. This is one of the hottest starts that I’ve witnessed a season have during this SNL project of mine so far.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
An 11-year-old Macaulay Culkin

Posted on

October 27, 1990 – Patrick Swayze / Mariah Carey (S16 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Dirty Square Dancing- at a hoe-down, (host) & (JAH) do all but go down

— Great sudden reveal of the “Dirty Square Dancing” title.
— Hilarious dirty lyrics from Phil and dirty moves from the dancers, especially the “lift your dress up over your head” and “stick your face in your partner’s crotch” ones.
— I like how they kept this overall cold opening short and sweet.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— After appearing in lots of uncredited bit roles since the homestretch of the preceding season, writer Rob Schneider joins the cast as a featured player tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “All I Need Is A Girl” & dances with wife Lisa Niemi [real]

— Nothing much at all to say about this overall monologue. It was very light on humor and mostly focused on the dancing between Patrick and his wife, but it was at least charming.
STARS: **½


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Franz has unexplained feelings for host

— We haven’t seen these characters in a while.
— Excellent turn with Franz developing feelings he doesn’t understand for Patrick Swayze.
— Hans’ high-pitched deliveries of his various “What do you mean you didn’t notice–” questions are making me laugh.
— Classic part with Franz’s fantasy sequence of Patrick horseback riding and eventually being joined by Franz.
— Hans sneaks in a “Ja, that’s the ticket” while wrapping up the sketch.
STARS: *****


GHOST
Ghost romance sours when Sam (host) sees Molly’s (VIJ) disgusting habits

  

— Victoria doing increasingly disgusting things is very funny.
— Patrick is also helping sell the material with his funny grossed-out reactions.
— I love the casting of Rock as Whoopi Goldberg’s character from Ghost, especially how Rock barely has to change his voice to sound like Whoopi, as his natural voice is already close enough. In fact, I’d say Whoopi actually has the deeper voice of the two.
— One of Victoria’s overall best performances during her SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


TAX AD
Sam Walton (PHH) offers $100,000 to anyone who opposes a tax hike

— Meh, a forgettable and bland message that not even Phil could make all that interesting.
STARS: **


SUPER FEUD
Latino crooners (host) & (DAC) one-up each other on album

— I love the melody the songs are being sung in.
— Dana’s accent is hilarious.
— Dana and Patrick’s increasingly blasphemous accusations of each other through song are hilarious, especially Dana claiming Patrick stuffs his trousers “with a plastic peeeeniiiiss” and how it “fell out in Liiiiiimaaaa”.
— Very fun sketch.
STARS: ****½


TAX AD
rescinding previous deal, Sam Walton (PHH) now offers chance to win a hat

— Unlike the first one, this one has an actual funny message with Phil’s Walton realizing he couldn’t possibly pay out the insane amount of money he offered in the first ad.
— His new offer being a raffle where the winner receives Walton’s hat is pretty funny.
— Classic unscripted moment right now: when Phil’s Walton is concluding his message and telling us to let him worry about things, a VERY loud off-camera crash is suddenly heard from somewhere in the studio. Phil looks towards the direction of the crash with a hilarious frozen open-mouthed smile (second screencap above) and says “Thank you”, and then tells us “Well, you just let me worry about THAT too!” An excellent save from Phil that receives huge applause.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vision of Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB warns that not voting in elections can only make things worse

 

— Loved the soundbyte of a knocked-out-by-Evander-Holyfield Buster Douglas saying “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”, made even funnier by the fact that it’s then-writer David Spade doing the voice in that soundbyte.
— A. Whitney, on what the future generation will inherit: “If voter turnout is no better than it usually is, there’s a good chance they’ll also inherit our congress… or should I say, inherit the wind.”
— I love Dennis doing multiple jokes about a suggestive-looking photo of Dan Quayle taking the snap from a football player.
— Speaking of David Spade earlier, according to GettyImages, he had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he apparently played some kind of Russian (pic here).
STARS: ***½


CHIPPENDALES
sexy (host) & flabby (CHF) compete for a job as a Chippendale dancer

 

— Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to witness a star being born. Not only is this a very popular and legendary sketch, it’s also a very important sketch, as it’s Chris Farley’s official breakout moment as an unproven featured player who’s only in his fourth episode.
— I’ve always liked the little detail with Patrick and Farley’s characters being named Adrien and Barney, respectively.
— Farley is incredible to watch during his hilarious dancing here, especially when you’re aware of this being a groundbreaking moment for the then-newbie. His comical physicality, his fearlessness, etc. are all on FULL display for the very first time. I can only imagine what it was like in 1990 to watch this sketch live and witness this new kid completely and unexpectedly steal the entire show in this manner.
— All that stuff about Farley’s dancing being said, they would later show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns (which is the version of this sketch that everyone today is familiar with), where Farley’s dancing is even funnier. As awesome as the live version of this sketch is, Farley’s not QUITE as unleashed in his dance moves as he is in the dress rehearsal version (I wonder if he was suffering from live TV jitters, considering how new he is at this point).
— Besides the main joke, one aspect that helps make this sketch work so well is how the judges are treating this competition so ridiculously seriously, as if it’s truly a difficult decision to choose between Swayze and Farley.
— I love the camaraderie between Farley and Patrick throughout this sketch, especially during the backstage scene.
— Funny touch with Farley unsuccessfully trying to change the judges’ minds by starting to open up his robe while slowly beginning to break out into another dance.
— Sweet, charming ending with Patrick’s voice-over epilogue.
STARS: *****


THE TONIGHT SHOW
guests are Susan Dey (JAH) & Arsenio Hall (CSR)

— Good to see the return of Jan’s Susan Dey. So many dead-on and funny details in her vocal imitation.
— Rock’s Arsenio is a riot right from his entrance.
— So strange to think there was a time when Arsenio’s show was predicted to eventually overtake the Tonight Show in popularity. All I can say in hindsight is: Ha!
— I really like Dana-as-Johnny-Carson’s reactions to hearing how out-of-touch and unhip The Tonight Show has become lately.
— A good laugh from Phil’s Ed McMahon having no problem admitting he would stay on if Jay Leno took over.
STARS: ***½


WHITE TRASH BED AND BREAKFAST
reviewer (DAC) visits the trailer park clan

   

— Catchy opening theme song. This late 80s/early 90s era is so damn good at creating jingles, even for one-off sketches like this.
— Jan, on her bedroom: “I shared it with four husbands.” Patrick: “Mama, give it a rest.” Jan: “Oh, you’re just mad cuz none of ’em was your daddy!”
— Great redneck performances from the cast and Patrick.
— I like Kevin and Rob Schneider’s entrance as strange twins.
— Very funny part with Mike coming in with a dead dog and putting it on the table (where Dana’s character is trying to eat), only for Patrick to sternly order Mike to “put him in the sink!”
— Wild ending with the Phil/Patrick fight on the table.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vanishing”


MOUSE TRAP SEMINAR
seminar helps people who don’t quite grasp the concept of a mouse trap

— Unfortunately, the copy I’m reviewing of this episode is missing the entire first half of this fantastic sketch that I’ve always loved.
— Very funny little bit with Farley sheepishly and slowly lowering his raised hand in reaction to Kevin indirectly answering his dumb question before he’s even asked it (a gag that Farley would later reprise the following season in a famous sketch with Jerry Seinfeld as a history teacher).
— I’ve always found Dana’s look in this sketch to be odd and random. Why the dark skin and wig combo? Why give him such an oddly specific, detailed, almost-ethnic look for a generic, supporting, Caucasian role like this?
— Writer Bob Odenkirk’s brief walk-on gets ruined when the crab hanging on his nose IMMEDIATELY falls off by accident (third and fourth screencaps above). If you watch Odenkirk as he exits the scene, he can be seen shaking his head in disappointment. Reruns would replace his portion of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version where the crab stays on his nose during his entire walk-on.
— I love Dana trying to grab at the image of cheese shown on the screen projector, and Kevin having to inform him “This is only MOVIE cheese”.
STARS: ***** (And that’s only based on my memory of this sketch as a whole. The incomplete version I watched just now is too short to rate accurately.  With its first half missing, this sketch sadly loses some of the context that makes it a masterpiece.)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An incredible episode. The legendary Chippendales sketch was, of course, this episode’s centerpiece, but it was surrounded by plenty of sketches that were very memorable and strong in their own right. An overall almost flawless, very impressive, and incredibly fun episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Steinbrenner)
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Smits hosts. We also finally get the addition of a third female cast member.