Tag: Pink

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October 14, 2017 – Kumail Nanjiani / P!nk (S43 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUCKER RALLY
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) goes off-message at a Pennsylvania rally

— I actually got some chuckles from some early Trumpwin lines in this cold opening, but after a minute, his lines devolved into the usual unfunny white noise that his lines typically are to me.
— The Mike Pence scenes at various locations are at least shaking the formula of this cold opening up a little, though I didn’t care for the predictable outcome of the wedding scene.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about being from Pakistan & dealing with Islamophobia

— Great bit from Kumail Nanjiani about making a movie about marrying a white woman just to rub it in his family’s face.
— Kumail’s mention of an “undercover KKK dragon” made me laugh a lot.
— A particularly good part with Kumail wondering if a seemingly-racist online commenter only sat through all of The Big Sick because they expected Kumail to rip off his mask and reveal himself to be Chris Pine.
— Lots of great, very solid humor all throughout this stand-up monologue.
STARS: ****½


BANK BREAKERS
(host) rues beating sympathetic game show contestant (CES)

— Lately, Mikey seems to have become SNL’s go-to cast member for game show host roles.
— Great turn with Cecily revealing that she’ll be using the prize money for an important medical procedure for her daughter, hilariously resulting in a now-guilty-feeling Kumail awkwardly reversing his playfully mean-spirited thumbs-down into a hesitant thumbs-up.
— Plenty of other hilarious reveals as this sketch progresses. This sketch is a lot stronger than I had remembered.
— A huge laugh from Kumail unintentionally getting the Darius Rucker question correct when he was trying to lose for Cecily’s sake.
STARS: ****½


KELLYWISE
Kellyanne Conway (KAM) snares Anderson Cooper (ALM) a la Pennywise

— Good to see another Kellyanne Conway pre-tape that spoofs a movie.
— Kate is absolutely hilarious in the voice she’s speaking in for most of this short. She’s having me in stitches.
— Pretty funny reveal of Cecily’s Rachel Maddow being in the sewer with Kate’s Kellyanne.
— Love the part with Kate’s Kellyanne showing Alex’s Anderson Cooper various newspaper headlines that contain his worst nightmares.
— A very interesting and solid part with Kate’s Kellyanne posing as Hillary Clinton.
STARS: ****½


OFFICE HALLOWEEN PARTY
potential hepatitis transmission kills fun at an office Halloween party

— Two minutes into this sketch so far, and I am not enjoying it. Not only is it not funny, but it’s featuring the type of wandering muddiness that’s typical of James Anderson and Kent Sublette’s sketches.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and, aside from a few chuckles, particularly from Aidy in her back-and-forth with Beck, I continue to not care for this sketch.
— This already-poor sketch really died towards the end.
STARS: *½


WOMEN’S ROUND TABLE
Debette Goldry has first-hand knowledge of sexual harassment in Hollywood

— Oh, this is around the time that the Me Too movement began, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that recently broke out at this time.
— A hilarious part with Kate’s Debette Goldry saying she couldn’t tell the difference between Weinstein’s genitals and face when he once tried to pass his genitals off as his face to her.
— The usual great lines from Kate’s Debette.
— This is the second consecutive sketch tonight that felt like it died off towards the end. I wasn’t crazy about the last minute-and-a-half of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What About Us”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Ivana Trump (CES) claims First Lady title based on marriage precedence

COJ & MIC encourage viewers to donate to Puerto Rico hurricane relief

— Given the aforementioned Harvey Weinstein scandal, I’m surprised that tonight’s Weekend Update is opening with a completely unrelated joke about new emojis. That seems like the type of joke that would open an Update in a slow news week, which this week certainly wasn’t.
— Ah, never mind. It turns out that the punchline of the new emojis joke is about Weinstein, launching some great Weinstein rants from Colin and Michael.
— Solid and fun delivery from Cecily as Ivana Trump. However, I’m not crazy about the material itself that she’s performing. This commentary is VERY wandering.
— The camera botched the close-up of the page that Cecily’s Ivana showed from the book.
— I am chuckling at Cecily’s Ivana Trump starting to speak unintelligibly in her heavy accent with her mouth full of chocolates, though this commentary also feels like it’s gone off the rails by this point. The wandering feel I got from this commentary earlier has now become a “This commentary is completely pointless” feel.
— Tonight’s Update ends on a serious note with Colin and Michael telling us where to make a donation if we’d like to help the people of Puerto Rico in regards to the hurricane they recently suffered.
STARS: ****


HOTEL CHECK-IN
Marriott clerk (host) pitches hotel amenities to uninterested guest (MID)

— The Leslie/Chris bit didn’t do much for me, though it did result in a funny reveal of Mikey’s room being right next to theirs.
— This feels a bit like a sister sketch to the hotel sketch from the season 38 Louis C.K. episode, only without the good absurdist humor that sketch had. This sketch is still okay, though.
— A good laugh from Kumail’s overly calm, nonchalant reaction to getting punched in the face by Mikey.
— A solid ending reveal of Kumail being the lead singer of The Danny Band.
STARS: ***


NURSING HOME
nonagenarian’s (KAM) busy sex life leaves grandkids (MID) & (HEG) aghast

— TWO sketches tonight focused on Kate as an old lady? Yeah, not something I needed.
— Not caring for the constant close-ups of a silent Kate’s facial expressions.
— Kumail is very solid here.
— Kumail’s “They’re running a train, but she’s the conductor” line was good on paper, but he unfortunately flubbed his delivery of it.
— I can see why people would like this sketch, but the sketch’s premise and humor isn’t doing much for me, aside from a few reveals that I’m finding mildly amusing.
— Continuing a theme from earlier in this episode, this sketch felt like it died off during the final minute.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Beautiful Trauma”


CUSTOMER SERVICE
Melania Trump (CES) befriends a Pakistani call center worker (host)

 

— An interesting, more fleshed-out variation that Julio Torres is doing of his great Melania Moments pieces from the preceding season.
— I love the very charming rapport between Cecily’s Melania and Kumail.
— Overall, yet another beautiful short from Julio Torres, displaying a perfect combination of sentimentality and comedy.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Minus the cold opening, this episode had a very strong start with three consecutive segments receiving a four-and-a-half-star rating from me, but afterwards, this episode took a little bit of a hit-and-miss route for the remainder of the show, but there were enough good pieces in that portion of the show to keep this overall episode fine.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Kellywise
Bank Breakers
Customer Service
Monologue
Weekend Update
Women’s Round Table
Hotel Check-In
Nursing Home
Trucker Rally
Office Halloween Party


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gal Gadot)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Larry David

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December 6, 2003 – Rev. Al Sharpton / Pink (S29 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

EQUAL TIME TV
NBC satisfies equal time rule by incorporating candidates into programs

— Interesting characterization from Jimmy Fallon in his Jeff Zucker impression.
— Some laughs from the incongruous placement of presidential candidates on NBC shows.
— Okay, Fallon is starting to get out of control with the exaggerated hand mannerisms of his Zucker impression.
— An extremely crazed “Live from New York…” delivery from Fallon, most likely because this is only his second time saying it, if you can believe it (not counting the Weekend Update Super Bowl Halftime Special from the preceding season, where he said LFNY with Tina Fey). He delivered his first LFNY in a fairly crazed manner too, IIRC.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— For some reason, the “Recorded from an earlier live broadcast” disclaimer, which is usually only reserved for reruns, is shown early in tonight’s opening montage, despite the fact that this is the original live broadcast I’m watching of this episode.


MONOLOGUE
host performs “I Feel Good” to show younger self (TRM) he hasn’t sold out

— There’s somebody in the audience who’s “cheering” sounds annoyingly like a chihuahua yapping.
— While it’s pretty soon for a Tracy Morgan cameo, at least he waited more than a mere four episodes, unlike Chris Kattan.
— Some funny interplay between  Sharpton and Morgan.
— Sharpton’s James Brown dancing is pretty fun to watch.
STARS: ***


MOM JEANS
— Rerun from 5/10/03, which is from the preceding season.
— This re-airing alters Maya Rudolph’s voice-over to repurpose it for Christmas instead of Mother’s Day


MICHAEL JACKSON IN A ROLLER COASTER
legal troubles haven’t sunk in to Michael Jackson (AMP)

— Oh, god. Do we really need a variation of that baffling Michael Jackson In A Tree sketch from the preceding season? And the less seen of Amy Poehler’s Michael Jackson impression, the better. I do kinda like the roller coaster setting here, though.
— The funny thing about Sharpton playing Johnnie Cochran is the fact that the real Johnnie Cochran would soon be shown in tonight’s studio audience during a shot of SNL’s studio in the middle of the following commercial break (screencap below).

— Not even Rachel Dratch’s Elizabeth Taylor is giving this sketch the boost she gave the original Michael Jackson In A Tree sketch.
— I do like Horatio Sanz as a random mustached stranger just sitting in the back smiling.
STARS: *½


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
Brian Fellow’s brother Ryan (host) plus a seal & a bat

— Boy, is see SNL is wasting no time in making Tracy Morgan feel back at home.
— A bit of a change of pace having Sharpton play Brian Fellow’s brother, co-hosting this edition of the show.
— Unusual for this recurring sketch how Chris Parnell is holding a baby seal that’s clearly mechanical.
— Some good laughs from the short bit with Brian Fellow arguing with his brother over whether or not Frosty The Snowman counts as an animal.
— Interesting casting of Fey.
— Some funny lines from Sharpton throughout this.
— I love Brian Fellow’s reaction to his brother’s witty comment to Fey about Batman.
STARS: ***½


THREE WISE MEN
Bethlehem-bound Magi (host), (TRM), (KET) fall victim to racial profiling

— Wow, Tracy Morgan in yet ANOTHER sketch tonight. Meanwhile, Finesse Mitchell is probably weeping backstage.
— Funny turn with the cop’s grilling of Three Wise Men having parallels to contemporary racial profiling.
— I love the little gag with Fallon’s cop using his torch as a flashlight when trying to see each of the Three Wise Men.
— Sharpton has a little trouble pronouncing “Frankincense”, much like Robert DeNiro in another Three Wise Men sketch (and a particularly wretched one) SNL would do in a John Goodman-hosted episode 10 years later.
— Kenan Thompson’s overacting and mugging is a bit much.
— Nice little touch with the roman numeral phone number at the end.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Trouble”


WEEKEND UPDATE
JIF & TIF insult cities not showing SNL tonight

JIF uses double entendres to broach sexual habits of Paris Hilton [real]

 

— Good lord, Fey’s opening Michael Jackson joke was hacky as fuck.
— Lately, Fey has a bad habit of laughing as loud as the audience at some of Fallon’s jokes, as if she never heard them before. This bad habit of Fey’s is especially in full-force tonight.
— I love Fallon’s “For the punchline of this joke, tune in next week when we have a different host” bit in regards to his slavery joke.
— The “Jimmy and Tina yelling at cities that refuse to show Saturday Night Live tonight” segment is a fun variation of the preceding season’s “Jimmy And Tina Yelling At America” segment, though the writing of this one is nowhere near as strong. It’s worth it, though, just to hear Don Pardo conclude it by saying “This is Don Pardo saying, ‘Suck it, Des Moines!’”
— (*sigh*) Hoo, boy. Well, here’s the then-hyped Paris Hilton cameo.
— The sexual puns about “The Paris Hilton” aren’t bad, but man, Hilton’s lack of any kind of comic timing is killing the humor of this for me. You’d figure SNL would learn from this and not even entertain the idea of Hilton ever hosting the show, but… season 30, folks.
— Short Update overall.
STARS: ***


BLACK STEREOTYPES
in 1935, actor (host) doesn’t want movie to perpetuate black stereotypes

— A Weekend Update graphic of Paris Hilton’s name (which never actually showed up during Update) is accidentally displayed onscreen at the beginning of this sketch (screencap below).

— Tracy Morgan in a FOURTH appearance tonight. Between John MacEnroe’s many appearances in the Andy Roddick episode earlier this season, and now this, this season of SNL seems to be experimenting with treating some special guests as an honorary co-host. Interesting.
— Oh, there’s Finesse Mitchell, making his first and only appearance of the night. I love Tracy Morgan, but I can’t help but feel bad that Mitchell, who’s trying to make a name for himself on the show as one of two newbies this season, is being shut out of several black roles tonight that are given to a special guest instead.
— Oh, god. Another pairing of Fallon and Sanz.
— Jesus Christ, Sanz even manages to make his attempt to pull out a movie scene marker come off awkward, and he can be seen giggling at himself when exiting the shot afterwards.
— The camera fails to cut to a shot of Rudolph when she is heard off-camera saying “Whatever you say, Mike!” The shot would later be shown in the rerun version of this sketch, and in that shot, we see that Seth Meyers is playing one of several men hanging out with Rudolph’s character (the other men are played by extras, IIRC), which means Meyers made an appearance in this sketch that the live version didn’t even pick up.
— Am I missing something here? Why is Rudolph’s black 1930s character speaking in an exaggerated, old-timey white New Yorker voice? She sounds Edith Bunker-esque. What is this joke implying?
— The “No women” bit is pretty funny.
— I like Morgan’s reaction to a white guy (Will Forte) being wheeled into the scene in cooking pot at the end of this.
STARS: ***½


REVEREND AL SHARPTON’S CASA DE SUSHI
host doesn’t like raw fish, but he’ll sell it to you at his Casa De Sushi

— The first of many variations of the original Derek Jeter’s Taco Hole sketch. I found that Jeter sketch charming and pretty fun, but worry that the concept might not hold up well in subsequent sketches.
— Very catchy theme song from the four singers, parodying Tupac Shakur’s “California Love”.
— I like Sharpton’s delivery of “This stuff is nasty!” when disposing of a plate of sushi.
— I just realized, I think that’s long-time SNL favorite Akira Yoshimura as the Asian employee standing in the background of this entire sketch (seen on the left side of the below screencap).

— Sanz’s overly hammy take on Harvey Fierstein only succeeds in making me yearn for Jon Lovitz. Speaking of which, I recall hearing that the preceding episode had a sketch cut after dress rehearsal in which host Alec Baldwin played Harvey Fierstein appearing in a show called “Gay Dance Party”.
— And now, Sanz’s crash through a breakaway table only succeeds in making me yearn for Chris Farley. Well, not season 20 Chris Farley, who crashed through breakaway furniture on a damn weekly basis that season, it felt like. But, hell, even Farley’s overwhelming, one-note performances in season 20 are preferable to how awful Sanz has been this season. (And he only gets worse the following season, IIRC.)
— Despite Sanz’s annoying scene, I’m finding this installment of the “non-actor host advertises their own restaurant” sketches to have a charm like the original Derek Jeter one.
STARS: ***


CANDIDATE PARTY
jealous Democratic presidential hopefuls watch SNL during pity party

— A pretty fun gathering of democratic presidential candidate impressions in a unique setting.
— Forte portraying John Edwards as a kiss-ass servant is very funny.
— Some strangely charming corny jokes among the candidates.
— Unlike the last time he played John Kerry in Al Gore’s monologue the preceding season, Meyers appears to be attempting an actual impression of Kerry’s voice here.
— Parnell’s Joe Lieberman: “You’re like David Spade in a Hollywood comedy – it makes sense on paper, but the people just aren’t going for it.” Ooh, random burn at an SNL alum. Perhaps this is Spade’s karma for his notorious slam on Eddie Murphy 8 years prior. Unlike Murphy, Spade seems like he has enough of a sense of humor about himself to not be bothered by the joke.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “God Is A DJ”


THE LATOYA JACKSON SHOW
LaToya Jackson’s (MAR) father Joseph (host) & Chaka Kahn (KET)

— Oh, god, another celebrity-hosted talk show sketch in this SNL era.
— Sharpton is displaying a Tracy Morgan-esque odd habit of pronouncing a word various ways, as he goes back and forth between pronouncing “pedophile” the way it’s typically pronounced (“ped-a-file”) and pronouncing it as “ped-a-fill”.
— Thompson in drag again, but I gotta admit, his Chaka Khan having a difficult time singing in a fast tempo is making me laugh, which is more than I can say for anything else in this sketch so far.
— Ugh, I hate the running bit in this sketch with Rudolph’s LaToya Jackson saying “I’m gig-a-ling” (her odd way or pronouncing “I’m giggling”). It’s not even remotely funny. Is that based on something the real LaToya said? If not, I don’t understand why Rudolph’s LaToya keeps saying it.
— Oh, no, we get Poehler’s baffling Michael Jackson impression for the second time tonight. Even in just voice-over form, I dislike the impression.
— Sharpton’s Joseph Jackson: “This show is a travesty!” That’s how I feel about this sketch.
— Blah, the joke with Thompson’s Chaka Khan being out of breath has gotten old.
— Armisen is cracking me up as a cheap Michael Jackson impersonator, but it might just be because I’m so desperate for a laugh by this point.
— Sharpton’s Joseph Jackson, when asked if he had fun on the show: “No, I did not.” Once again, he echoes my feelings towards this sketch.
STARS: *½


TOWN CAR
Vasquez makes conversation while driving host & aide (MAR) across town

— Oh, no, Vasquez has gone back to starring in his own sketches. Blah. I found him semi-tolerable in a supporting role in those adult students sketches, but I find him to be pretty unbearable and baffling when he carries his own sketches.
— Between Sharpton’s lack of acting experience and Sanz’s annoying-as-fuck habit of awkwardly pausing before delivering his lines, there’s an awful lot of dead moments in this sketch where nobody onscreen is saying anything.
— The song playing on radio (which I know is a real song, but I don’t know the name of) is the same song that was used as the theme song to the Community Accents talk show sketch that Vasquez starred in the preceding season.
— Sharpton’s Tracy Morgan-esque odd habit of pronouncing a word in different ways continues, as he pronounces Vasquez’s name as both “Vaz-kez” and “Vaz-kwez” all throughout this sketch, and pronounces “albino” in a very bizarre, stretched-out, stumbly manner (the latter of which provided the only thing close to a laugh I’ve gotten in this sketch so far).
— What the hell is with Vasquez’s fascination of constantly mentioning transvestites?
— This sketch is fucking terrible so far. This Vasquez character is DEATH.
— Oh, god, and now to fittingly close out this sketch, we get an appearance from a transvestite, played by Armisen. Just get this Vasquez sketch off my screen already, SNL.
STARS: *


CRYOGENIX
— Another rerun tonight, this time from 11/8/03. We’re only three months into this season, and this is the second consecutive episode to repeat two commercials, and hell, we almost got THREE repeated commercials in the last episode (the third of which got aborted on the air, as I detailed in that review). Has SNL already blown their budget on commercials this season?


UNEARTHED
ghost of Johnny Cash (DAH) plugs box set & talks about being in Heaven

— A good Johnny Cash impression from Hammond.
— What the holy fuck is with Hammond’s VERY awkward, long pausing while looking at the flying box set?
— Uh… what exactly is the point of this sketch? If it’s trying to be funny, it’s failing miserably. If it’s trying to be a charming Johnny Cash tribute, it’s failing miserably. If it’s supposed to be both funny AND a charming Johnny Cash tribute, it’s failing doubly miserably. Hammond would later do an actual successful funny and charming celebrity tribute the following season, when Rodney Dangerfield passes away.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent first two-thirds of the episode, then the episode died a horrible, horrible death for the remainder of the night. The last three sketches were dreadful and unwatchable. Even at its best, this overall episode didn’t contain anything particularly great or noteworthy. Even the highlights of the night didn’t rise above “pretty good”, in my eyes.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Elijah Wood hosts the Christmas episode

Posted on

January 12, 2002 – Josh Hartnett / Pink (S27 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUDDY’S MEMORIAL SERVICE
Bill Clinton (DAH) scores political points at Buddy’s memorial service

— Funny opening C-SPAN mention of the Enron scandal.
— Darrell’s Bill Clinton impression makes its first appearance of the season.
— Amusing cutaways to stock footage of real political figures in the crowd, in reaction to some of the things Darrell’s Clinton is saying. This seems to be in the tradition of SNL’s State of the Union sketches.
— Lots of funny lines from Darrell’s Clinton in regards to Buddy the dog.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Will Ferrell has been temporarily removed from the montage tonight, as this is the first of three episodes that he’ll be missing this season while filming the movie Old School. I remember what a stir his removal in tonight’s opening montage caused among unsuspecting online SNL fans at the time, including myself. There were even some online fans that started to wonder if Will flat-out left SNL without getting a sendoff or us being informed of his departure. While we were given a warning in advance earlier in this week regarding Will’s absence, via either an online rumor or an official announcement from NBC (I can’t remember which), I and others certainly weren’t expecting him to be removed from the opening montage. I don’t know about other SNL fans, but I remember *I* had assumed that this episode would have some kind of pre-taped segment (e.g. a commercial or short film) that Will filmed in advance to make up for his live absence tonight, kinda similar to what SNL had Eddie Murphy do in advance for when he had to miss certain episodes in season 9. It was a big surprise to come to the realization that tonight’s episode wouldn’t feature Will in any capacity, something that was hard to take and resulted in this episode having a weird and empty feeling.
— And here’s the other huge shock of tonight’s opening montage: Amy Poehler has been promoted from featured player to repertory player after only half a season. This was something that, like Will’s absence, was rumored online (and definitely not officially announced by NBC) earlier in the week of this episode, but some people, including myself, didn’t think it was true, and we turned out to be wrong. This mid-season promotion for Amy certainly makes sense, considering how experienced, well-known, and revered a comedian and sketch comedy veteran she already was before joining SNL, not to mention how well she had been doing on SNL so far. She’s, I believe, only the third cast member in SNL history to get the honor of being promoted in the middle of their first season, with the first two cast members being Harry Shearer and Eddie Murphy.


MONOLOGUE
based on personal experience, JIF advises host not to re-create himself

— Lots of screaming from teen girls in the audience towards heartthrob Josh Hartnett all throughout this monologue.
— Geez, even SNL’s own heartthrob, Jimmy Fallon, receives teen girl screams from the audience when he walks onstage in this monologue.
— The bizarre photo of Jimmy is fairly funny, at least, which is more than I can say for anything else in this monologue so far.
— Overall, aside from the aforementioned photo, this was a completely nothing monologue. Lots of poor material and incessant teen girl screams. Worst monologue of the season by far up to this point, and doesn’t exactly give me any confidence in tonight’s host.
STARS: *½


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
guest who hit a growth spurt (host) excites Megan

— Hmm, most of Wake Up Wakefield’s house band, Jazz Times Ten, is missing tonight, due to a… strep throat epidemic. Uh, oof. Needless to say, it certainly feels odd and kinda uncomfortable hearing that in today’s climate, for obvious reasons.
— A pretty good laugh from how one of Sheldon’s New Years resolutions is to translate The Hobbit into Latin.
— Yeah, all of the things the characters in this sketch keep saying about the strep throat epidemic and all the advice that Horatio’s character is giving on how we can stay safe during this epidemic and stop the epidemic’s spread (e.g. wash your hands thoroughly) has an awful lot of parallels to what we’re currently facing.
— A fairly funny squeaky voice from Josh, at least initially. It’ll probably get old after a while.
— (*sigh*) There goes that screaming from teen girls in the audience again, not only when Josh makes his entrance, but also when Maya’s Megan character compliments Josh’s character on his looks.
— A very funny visual of Josh flipping Sheldon onto the ground. I also like how, when Sheldon stands back up with a wet ink stain bleeding through one of his pockets, he panickedly asks Megan in regards to the stain “Is this blood or pen???”
— (*sigh*) And, of course, Jimmy’s walk-on is welcomed by the same teen girl screams from the audience.
— Josh delivered his final line of this sketch too oddly, causing it to receive uncomfortable silence from the audience.
— An overall lesser installment of this recurring sketch, but still had its moments.
STARS: **½


HELLO STEPSON, NOW LET’S GO TO BED: I WENT TO BED WITH MY STEPSON: THE LARA BENGAL COVINGTON STORY
actress (ANG) overemotes in melodramatic Lifetime Original Movie

— A funny long title, spoofing the titles of typical Lifetime movies.
— This looks like this’ll be a solid Ana Gasteyer showcase, which is refreshing, considering 1) how poorly tonight’s episode has been going so far, and 2) how somewhat invisible Ana has been so far this season.
— (*sigh*) Cue the teen girl screaming from the audience when Josh removes his shirt and reveals a wifebeater under it.
— Eh, it turns out I’m not crazy about this sketch so far, despite a solid performance from Ana.
— Okay, I do love the mirror-smashing sequence. Ana is particularly great there.
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo helps find Osama bin Laden

— Feels kinda odd seeing an X-Presidents cartoon in 2002.
— I like how this edition of X-Presidents is addressing the war on terror.
— Ronald Reagan’s bitter one-liners in these X-Presidents cartoons always slay me. In these past few X-Presidents cartoons, he’s become one of the most consistent sources for laughs.
— Great to see the return of recent X-Presidents inductee Bill Clinton and his ridiculous trademark costume.
— Ronald Reagan, to Bill Clinton: “Maybe if Bin Laden were a fat girl, you might’ve tried to find him.”
— Nice inclusion of Bob Dole as the X-Presidents lowly butler.
— Jimmy Carter, to Ronald Reagan, in regards to the Afghanis: “But I have experience negotiating with this culture.” Ronald Reagan: “I know you do. That’s how I got elected.”
— As a huge Three Stooges fanatic (which anybody who’s known me online for a long time would be aware of), I immediately recognized Reagan’s Afghani gibberish (e.g. “B-I bicky bye, B-O bo”) as a reference to the Three Stooges’ classic Swingin’ The Alphabet song.
— Ha, this has suddenly turned into an Ambiguously Gay Duo/X-Presidents crossover! Random but awesome.
— Very funny suggestive visual of Ace and Gary’s penis-shaped car self-lubricating so it can squeeze into a tight cave hole.
STARS: ****


SHOUT OUT!! SHOW
Grandmaster Freddy (TRM) gives props to everything

— Good to see Tracy starring in his own sketch as a character, after being very underused so far this season and playing nothing but himself for the last few episodes.
— Geez, even freakin’ Kattan is receiving screaming cheers from the teen girls in tonight’s audience. Believe it or not, I do recall being told how, in his earlier seasons, Kattan was the cast member who young female viewers swooned over, before Jimmy joined the cast and stole Kattan’s heartthrob thunder.
— A lot of very stereotypical racial humor here so far, and it’s not exactly making me laugh.
— I do kinda like the part with the out-of-place shout-out from a whitebred middle-aged guy.
— Fitting use of Pink.
— After a very weak first half, this sketch has started picking up with Tracy constantly interrupting Josh’s serious pleading to give inappropriate shout-outs to things like starving children, irregular menstrual cycles, and eating garbage.
— I wonder if this was intended to become a recurring sketch. We end up never seeing it return, which is a good thing, as I’m sure subsequent installments of it would’ve just repeated the same basic jokes, which wouldn’t work well with repetition.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get The Party Started”

— Immediately after this performance ends, a “sponsored by Budweiser” ad is played as the camera does a pan shot of the studio (screencap below).

This would go on to be a regular part of the show these next few seasons at the end of each episode’s first musical performance. This kinda gives SNL an “awards show” feel.


WEEKEND UPDATE
verse & sentiment of Maya Angelou’s (TRM) greeting cards don’t match

videophone delay kills timing of comedy routine by (HOS) & (CHK)

— Some pretty tepid audience reactions towards some of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes so far.
— An okay bit with Tina questioning if it’s the 80s again, due to the Middle East currently being a mess and us having a President Bush recently declare “No new taxes”. I also like Jimmy imitating Don Pardo’s voice when announcing the next SNL episode’s (fake) 80s-centric host/musical guest line-up: Molly Ringwald/Simple Minds.
— The juxtaposition between Tracy-as-Maya-Angelou’s deep, wise poems and the greeting cards they’re being used in was funny at first, but it’s a one-joke premise that’s gotten kinda old and one-note after a while.
— Tracy’s getting kinda stumbly with his lines here.
— After a rocky start earlier in this Update, Jimmy and Tina’s jokes are gradually getting better.
— Eh, spoke too soon, as we just now got a very lame joke from Tina about Yves St. Laurent’s glasses and a tepid joke from Jimmy about Argentina pesos.
— Hmm, the name of the fictional comedy team that Horatio and Chris are playing is Henley & Stiles. I remember an online theory at the time that SNL possibly got this comedy team’s name from the names of guests in two back-to-back SNL episodes from the preceding season. You see, that season has two consecutive episodes at one point in which Don Henley is the musical guest in one episode and Julia Stiles is the host in the other episode. There’s a possibility that SNL randomly took the surname of both Don Henley and Julia Stiles to make the fictional comedy team name of Henley & Stiles. If so, that’s a bizarrely interesting move on SNL’s part, but who knows? This whole name connection could just be a coincidence.
— Some laughs from how badly hindered Henley & Stiles’ long-distance comedy routine is due to the long audio delay on Chris’ part.
— Ehh, this Henley & Stiles bit has been going on way too long, even though that’s the point. I’m usually a fan of both slow burn humor and Andy Kaufman-style humor that tests the audience’s patience, but the execution of this Henley & Stiles bit hasn’t been getting many laughs from me.
— There goes that hammy overacting from Horatio again, something that I run hot and cold on (though I run far more cold than hot on it in Horatio’s later seasons). It’s kinda making me laugh here, but I think I’m just desperate for a laugh at this point.
— An overall fairly subpar Fallon/Fey Update.
STARS: **½


HBO FIRST LOOK
George Lucas (DAH) defends Attack Of The Clones casting

— Tracy’s surprisingly been getting lots of airtime tonight. Perhaps this is a byproduct of Will Ferrell’s absence, as well as an early sign of how good Tracy’s airtime is going to be in the upcoming Ferrell-less season 28.
— Seeing Josh and the male cast playing N’Sync reminds me when most of these performers used to play the fictional boy band 7 Degrees Celsius.
— After going two consecutive episodes without having ANY lines, Dean finally speaks again!… only for it to sadly end up being him playing a crude Jar Jar Binks variation who’s only line is “Meesa go pee-pee and poo-poo” while making armpit fart noises. Just embarrassing, unfunny, and juvenile. And, yes, I’m aware that the point was it was intentionally juvenile, but it also wasn’t remotely funny, and I can’t help but find this role demeaning for Dean. Oh, and of course, this ends up being his ONLY appearance of the entire night. My god, his airtime lately has become an absolute joke. Just sad.
— The cutaways to random famous characters and celebrities as the new members of the Jedi Council are kinda funny, but nothing particularly great to me. Odd seeing Rachel as Monica Lewinsky among those random celebrities, but I guess it just feels odd because I’m so used to Molly Shannon being SNL’s resident Lewinsky impersonator.
— I like the understated frustration in Seth’s Ewan McGregor whenever he has to introduce N’Sync.
— Weak way to end this sketch, with the overlong and unfunny N’Sync performance, which just seems to be pandering once again to the screaming teen girls in the audience, who are, of course, eating this portion of the sketch up.
STARS: **


HOLIDAY TRAVEL
flight crew offers lame entertainment to passengers stuck on runway

— As I said earlier, this is Amy’s first episode as a repertory player. So why in the world is she JUST NOW making her first appearance of the night, in one of the last sketches of the episode? Really, SNL? Way to show why you gave her an early promotion. I remember when watching this episode live, how frustrated I got halfway through the episode, wondering where the hell the newly-promoted Amy was.
— Once again, Seth and Amy work perfectly together.
— Tracy’s rare big night continues, as he makes YET ANOTHER noteworthy appearance tonight.
— At least Josh is playing against type here. It doesn’t say much, though, that his best role of the night is playing a character doing corny, bad celebrity impressions.
— Amy and Seth’s cheesy little color commentary throughout Josh’s parade of celebrity impressions is funny.
STARS: ***


MY BEST LIST FOR 2001 BY JACK HANDEY
picks reflect sponsors’ influence

— Ah, a random one-off Jack Handey segment! Hopefully, this is an improvement over his then-current regular My Big Thick Novel segments, which can best be described as “A poor man’s Deep Thoughts, with pretty drawings”.
— I love the vague, narrow categories and the obvious picks for them (e.g. “Best flat Italian pie: pizza pie”).
— Funny turn with how the picks are gradually devolving into nothing but wax-related picks.
— I don’t usually rate random Jack Handey filler segments, but since this particular piece was much longer and more extensive than the usual Handey filler segment…
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Let Me Get Me”


THE PLAYBOY CHANNEL
to promote multicultural awareness, the Playboy Channel screens Arab porn

— Rachel and especially Maya are doing a good mockery of typical Playboy bimbos.
— Funny premise of the Playboy Network trying to tackle the seriousness of the war on terror.
— This sketch was cut from the preceding episode, in which Amy’s role was originally played by host Ellen DeGeneres. As good as Amy’s doing in this role, I think I’d rather have seen the Ellen DeGeneres version, as I’m already laughing just imagining Ellen making the same uncomfortable facial expressions that Amy’s making here.
— Some pretty good laughs from the Arab porn, and this is one of those times where Horatio’s hammy overacting works for me. His over-the-top horny reactions to all the “hot face action” he’s witnessing are cracking me up.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode. The show was dominated by sketches that were pretty tepid and underwhelming, and even the times that this episode wasn’t weak rarely rose above average. Josh Hartnett was a bland host as expected, and there aren’t enough words to express how irksome it was hearing all of the screaming from teen girls in the audience throughout the show anytime Josh or any of the teen-friendly established male cast members made an entrance or did anything that could be considered remotely “dreamy”. Will Ferrell’s absence was also felt tonight, and the poor quality of this episode is a worrisome early sign of how much SNL will be struggling the next few seasons after Will’s official departure. Though regarding all of the latter, the odd thing in retrospect is that the remaining two episodes this season that Will is absent in (Jon Stewart and Ian McKellen) both actually end up being very solid, IIRC.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ellen DeGeneres)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jack Black