The following blog post is a companion piece to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast. Give us a listen, won't you?
Bush' s Summer Vacation
As he prepares for a full length summer vacation, President George W. Bush (Sudeikis) denies that the true purpose of the Iraq War was to install a US controlled puppet government in Baghdad or to lower gas prices for American consumers by stating that the Bagdhad government isn’t exactly an ally and that gas prices are soaring. While speaking, he unsubtly glances over at Vice President Dick Cheney (Hammond) for approval on each of his talking points…except his last point conceding that the war was an incompetently run disaster. He then hands control of the government over Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who will take his place while he is on vacation.
Wow…Jason sure was blinking a lot at the beginning. Wonder if that was intentional, part of his Bush impression or a subtle “morse code” type gag that they thought most viewers wouldn’t notice?
On the surface, this was another largely forgettable Sudeikis as Bush cold open without a whole lot going for it but it becomes more accessible as it goes along. Another timeless criticism of how poorly the Iraq War went that you may not have needed to be around this particular week in May of 2007 to fully “get”. Pretty straightforward stuff.
I did like Sudeikis as Bush’s line about what a mistake it turned out to be for him to trade Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines when he was the owner of the Texas Rangers. I also liked the cuts to a silent Darrells’ various “thumbs up/winking A-OK” signs and the cut to him having disappeared when Jasons’ Bush admits the war was run incompetently.
Maya’s Condoleeza Rice seems to just be her current Oprah impression mixed with a vocal inflection that would become her Michelle Obama (pun unintended, but unavoidable) but she really gives it her all in what many were speculating would be her final LFNY as a cast member. C+
Monologue
As a tribute to his home state of New Jersey (and a not-so-subtle plug for his new movie “Garden State”) Zach Braff sings “New Jersey State Of Mind” (and a brief Jersey-fied version of “On Broadway”) with support from Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg and Kenan Thompson.
As hot and cold as I’ve always run on Zach Braff, I have to say that I appreciated his shout-out to the Church Lady and Toonces when outlining how big a fan of this show he was as a kid.
As for this being a showcase for Zachs’ singing, I found it a little self-indulgent. I wouldn’t say it was off-putting though. The worst thing I could say about it would be it felt like something you might have seen Joe Piscopo do in his “Club Piscopo” Showtime special from a few years back…but y’know, a little hipper and more contemporary.
I did get a kick out of his jokes about how Jersey’s governor drives the fastest out of all the other US governors (this had to have been before the days of Chris Christie, right?) I also liked how HBO's setting of The Sopranos in Jersey “felt right” despite the state having only the 4th highest Italian-American population in the nation.
The only real comedic highlight of this were Andy, Amy, Maya and Kenan walking on stage dressed as various Jersey landmarks so obscure that Zach just had to straight up tell them all just what the hell they were dressed as (especially Samberg with his “why am I dressed as a sandwich? Not that I mind” line). Other than that, this was pretty unremarkable. C+
Digital Short: Puppy Love
An apartment subletter (Braff) is disappointed when he finds out that his dog (Jorma Taccone V/O) has seduced yet another crushed potential tenant (Samberg) into giving him a plate of ham from the fridge…until the dog himself admits it was meant to be.
Hmm…strange that they would hard cut to a digital short rather than a commercial coming right off the end of the band vamping to the finish line of a big musical number. That seems like the type of thing that never happens before, but OK.
Anyway, this digital short wasn’t up to much either, but it was fun, brief and to the point. This may not be my favorite digital short of all time, but that early lo fi season 31/32 style of these shorts really saved this for me and I got a kick out of Jormas’ voice over on the shots of the dog.
Yes, this may have been the same basic premise as the season 18 fake ad “Canis” (a long, dramatic sexy buildup to a man kissing a dog) but I prefer this execution of the gag better than the overblown Calvin Klein type ad. C-
Prom Committee
Bethany “B.J.” Jacobs (Poehler) and Lauren “B.J.” Carlton (Rudolph) both want a James Bond themed prom but are forced to hear lame suggestions for alternate themes from their classmates. These include “Remember The Night We Mets” from Mets super fan Billy Zerillo (Armisen), “Get To Know Lyle Kane” from dweeby valedictorian Lyle Kane (Forte), “Garden State” from Garden State superfan Brian Bernstein (Braff), “Pink Floyd' s The Wall” from crunchy stoners Skooch (Thompson) and Mando (Sudeikis), an abstinence theme from repressed virgin couple Beatrice Mitchell (Wiig) and Mitchell (Hader) and the proposal of a virtual Middle Earth themed prom from even dweebier hobbit cosplayer Lomax (Samberg). Ultimately, the final decision comes down from the schools’ suspiciously Connery-esque Principal MacDoogal (Hammond).
Man, when I remembered this sketches’ existence…I started looking forward to reviewing this particular episode a bit more! Still, even this had its weaknesses.
Amy and Maya really made the most out of their stereotypical bitchy high school girl roles, even if they got a little too…snide at points. I liked the opening joke about each of their “B.J’ initials but the constant vocal fry soaked “thanks BJ”s got old pretty fast (especially since I have a vague memory of watching this sketch in a VH-1 rerun of this episode where any and all utterances of the initials “B.J’ were obnoxiously bleeped out.
Freds’ character seems the most out of place in this sketch. It’s like he’s playing a 1970s high schooler stuck out of time. It’s the type of character you’d most expect to see from Billy Crystal in season 10. I know Fred has this weird affinity for playing stereotypical Brooklynite sports fans but in THIS sketch it’s a real “square peg in a round hole” situation.
Ah, the debut of Will Fortes’ criminally underrated Lyle Kane character. Even his brief appearance here may have been my biggest laugh of the entire sketch. This character would go on to make a much bigger splash in the very next episode (which would be the following seasons’ premiere).
Zachs’ character in this sketch I wasn't crazy about. I guess it just barely qualifies as him making fun of himself? With lines like “Looking out at all of you, I think, “Wow! What a generation we are’” he almost seems more aged out of this sketch than Fred does and his talk about “alienation” makes him seem like a mid-80s/early 90s teenager stuck out of time. I wouldn’t say it detracted too much from this sketch because Amy and Maya played their disgust off him well.
Kenan and Jasons’ stone characters were very silly and were pretty different from the types of characters they usually played early on in their tenures (but we would still see Kenan play this type of character more frequently later on).
Bill and Kristen were committed as ever to playing their extreme sexual tension off each other very well without it coming off like they were trying too hard. I especially liked Bills’ “after prom/after marriage” line (although I wonder if there was any discussion with the censors regarding the leadup to Bills’ exit? The initial audience reaction made it seem like a crucial visual gag may have had to play out offscreen.
Andy’s geeky Tolkien fan wasn’t as laugh out loud funny as anything else in this sketch but it was a silly enough gag to start closing this sketch out on. The best part of Andy’s character was him setting up Forte for the line about wanting to go to a real prom “and get laid for real”.
Darrell just doing his Connery impression as the schools’ principal wouldn’t have seemed like it would work on paper but it was just absurd enough to close this already slightly off the wall sketch out. The line about how “the two B.J.s were the most convincing” really may not fly today but other than that…this might have been the most wholesome use of Darrell Hammonds Sean Connery impression outside of the first Celebrity Jeopardy sketch with Martin Short. B-
Deep House Dish
Dj Dynasty Handbag (Thompson) and T’Shane (Samberg) bring on performers Shereals Davis (Rudolph), G-Thug (Braff), Francesca Freem (Poehler) and her “backup dancer” Forte
This sketch wasn’t in back to back episodes of the shows’ actual run but somehow ended up in chronologically back to back episodes that Deej & I reviewed for this podcast. We didn't intentionally set up our season 32 coverage that way, I assure you.
Anyway, while this sketch being in this episode seems to suggest your typical season finale burnout, there were some fun moments in this.
We’re off to a promising start with Kenans’ reaction to Andy’s alternately decent and senselessly bad jokes about Paris Hilton going to jail. I loved how Kenans’ “laughing” just consists of him rapidly shaking his shoulders up and down in near silence with a small grin on his face.
I wasn’t crazy about Mayas’ song or interview but I did get a chuckle out of the title “It’s My Bootys’ Duty”.
Zach as G-Thug was something that was slightly better than it had any right to be. I liked the title of his song/album being “I’m Riddled With Bullet Holes” and him ending his performance by shouting “G-Thug, I’m violent yo.” The interview portion didn’t add much beyond some telegraphed jokes but I did get a chuckle out of Andy shrieking at Zachs’ “scary face”.
Amy’s song with Will slowly gyrating his ass at the camera (because the songs’ hook has the lyrics “keep your brown eye winking up at me”) was probably the best “song” portion of this by default, but again…the interview portion of this didn’t do much for me. C+
TV Funhouse: Decision ‘08 - Spring ‘07 Cleaning
Oprah Winfrey (Rudolph) lets all the candidates from this years’ US presidential primary air out all their previous dirty laundry so that hopefully, their insane revelations will all be forgotten by the time the polls open next year.
Well, this may not be the most well remembered Smigeltoon in SNL history but it certainly sticks out in some peoples’ minds.
It’s basically a list of rapid fire insane statements that almost goes on too long until it aims for “going on until long after it stopped being funny and then circles back to being funny again” territory.
There’s a bit too much chaos in this to list any individual lines but the ones I liked the most were from Guiliani, Gore, Obama, Richardson, Edwards and McCain (especially when John McCain suddenly beats up Mitt Romney out of nowhere and then simply states “I just did that”)
It’s sweet of them to include Mayas’ actual headshot along with the head of her animated Oprah character as one of the requisite closing credit headshots at the end of this.
Hmm, looking more closely at these credits I see Louis CK has a writing credit (and I think I can guess what lines he may have pitched) so I think the less said about this one, the better. Moving on… B-
Song Memories II
At a bar, four best friends (Braff, Forte, Hader, Sudeikis) reminisce to “The Weight” by The Band about incredibly risky church hookups that ruin weddings, smuggling dads’ heroin filled condoms through airports, drunk driving school buses and mailing poop until they suddenly strip to Kool & The Gangs’ “Jungle Boogie”.
This was nearly a carbon copy of the first of these sketches from this season's Rainn Wilson/Arcade Fire episode. They go just a little bit less dark. Zach was the weak link in this but thankfully he's the only thing dragging it down.
They start to establish a pattern with these at this point that thankfully wouldn’t stick all the way through subsequent installments. You can see the pattern in the types of stories the guys tell. Sudeikis gets his penis injured in the most inappropriate setting possible, Hader tells a story about his dad, Forte endangers school children in a relatively PG-13 way, the host seems to be the wild card but so far usually tells a story involving human waste.
Still, Forte and Hader prove they have the likable personalities to put such highly questionable humor over so easily (Hader more so than Forte in this case although Forte probably gave me my biggest laugh in this) and that's what truly makes these sketches work. They're really the glue holding these together.
I had a lot more to say about this sketch in a previous episode of We Heart Hader, so feel free to listen to that at your own leisure. C+
Maroon 5 Performs “Makes Me Wonder” and “Won't Go Home Without You”
Well, it’s Maroon 5…and it’s one of their weaker periods…and Adam Levine still thinks pretty highly of his own “sex symbol” status. What else NEEDS to be said?
Hey, here’s a fun fact. Since lead singer Adam Levine makes a cameo in the “Iran So Far” digital short in the very next episode of SNL (the following seasons’ premiere) this at least puts him right up there with Bad Bunny as another host/musical guest with consecutive appearances in back to back live episodes (even if Adam here isn’t officially billed as either one in the following seasons’ premiere).
That’s neat and I only really bring it up because the “Iran So Far” digital short has to by default be my favorite thing he’s ever done on SNL (which isn’t saying much, but still…)
Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers
Aunt Linda (Wiig) reviews the biggest movie sequels of the summer
Sam Waterson (Armisen) chastises Amy for her Law & Order joke
Whitney Houston (Rudolph) details her summer plans, laughs off a potential lawsuit from Bobby B and brings her own special brand of brownies
Amy’s best jokes: Immigration reform bill, Bin Laden, American Girl auditions
Seth’s best jokes: Bush leads orchestra, Miami road rage, German sex shop
Nice to see Aunt Linda again. I got a kick out of her opening line being “I can push myself” as well as her Pirates Of The Caribbean and Rush Hour 3 reviews. This being the summer of 2007, I gotta say it’s a shame we didn’t get to see Linda's review of The (first) Simpsons Movie.
Amy’s Law and Order joke was well done. I like Armisen' s Sam Waterson just fine mostly for how loopy he plays the role (whether he’s aiming for that or not). It’s one of those impressions where the voice isn’t quite right but you can see what the performer is aiming at for it to work.
Nice to see a shaggy pre-Update photo of Colin Jost in the role of fictional soccer player “Otto Von Dildo” during Seth' s German sex shop joke.
I was never all that crazy about Mayas’ all over the place Whitney Houston impression but thankfully it got right in and right out without going on for too long. C+
La Revista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci
After Zach Braff admits he doesn’t speak Italian, talk show host Vinny Vedecci (Hader) yells at his producers (Armisen, Forte), shows a clip of Scrubs reedited as an intense drama and vamps with an impressions of Peter Faulk before a vomiting puppet gets the biggest reaction of the whole show.
Hey, it’s another slightly weaker second installment of a recurring sketch that debuted this season AND the second sketch of this episode I have previously talked about on a previous podcast and blog!
I liked how Bill just went into his Peter Faulk because Vinny knew Zach Braff' s first movie was “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and even though Peter Faulk wasn’t actually in it he just free-associated “mystery” with “Colombo” to get there.
I liked how the Scrubs clip they showed was so outlandishly absurd when removed from any context that it could work as either comedy OR drama.
I appreciated seeing writers Doug Abeles, John Lutz and John Solomon as additional crew members laughing at the puppet vomit
Other than those, this does hit all the typical beats that every other Vinny Vedecci sketch would. Bill, of course, saves it with this performance as Vinny Vedecci was a very consistently funny character (well, until about season 35 anyway).
I’m sure I had more to say about it when we covered all these sketches on the We Heart Hader podcast and when I compiled those notes into something for my blog, so again…feel free to check those out at your leisure. B-
Bronx Beat
Co-hosts Betty Caruso (Poehler) and Jodi Deitz (Rudolph) detail summer plans, complaining about their husbands and kids and interview 25 year old intern Mike Drucker (Braff) when their planned guest, chef Don Barbieri of “Chez Don” suddenly falls through.
This is the fourth one of these sketches…which by itself isn’t remarkable unless you also consider the fact that this sketch debuted in this season and it is their fourth one in four months.
Thankfully, this is an early one so Amy and Mayas’ characters are fairly restrained and more grounded and lived in than they would be in future installments. I’ve always run pretty hot and cold on these characters for this reason, so that’s nice to see
So…they didn’t feel the need to explain why Zach' s character is 25 years old and still an intern?
Well, what else is there to say about this besides the fact that this hits all the same beats and patter that you would expect from a Bronx Beat (and since it’s Bronx Beat there’s a lot of both of those things). Thankfully, due to the more restrained nature of this installment and the sense that they may still need to figure out what this sketch is at this point, this sketch was a LOT shorter than most Bronx Beats (or just felt a lot shorter, one of those two). C+
Melissa
Horny receptionist Melissa (Armisen) inappropriately hits on Zach Braff and annoys his agent Sandra (Rudolph) as they wait to take a meeting with producer Brian Grazer (Hader). Suddenly, Zach confesses his true feelings toward Melissa and they make out.
Ugh, Fred Armisen in an Itchy and Scratchy like impossibly screechy voiced drag role. My least favorite thing he does on the show. Ending this on a homoerotic beat is not the best way to end the show or the season, guys (but I did like the goofy choice of music over that).I heard this got cut from the previous season's Tom Hanks/Red Hot Chilli Peppers episode. Wow…just, wow.
I did get a kick out of Fred' s line about Zach being “down to earth…unlike Hank Azaria.” Maya got some good lines too and Haders’ sudden shouty appearance as Brian Grazer may have been the sole saving grace of this (as on brand as that is for me to say). D+
Overall Thoughts
Well, this episode wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered. Yes, with all the recurring stuff (and the stuff that was just made recurring with THIS episode) there is that “gassed out, running out the clock season finale vibe” that’s pretty common around May, but what dragged didn’t drag as much as thought it would and what held up then still holds up just fine now.
Again, I’m not too crazy about Zach Braff (hell, the main reason we’re doing this episode is because Deej is a bigger Braff/Scrubs fan than I am and she pitched this episode to me) but he did a serviceable job here and was kept in check enough to not actively detract from the show. Its’ too bad such a fun and memorable season got such a lackluster finale instead of one it deserved.
Closing Thoughts
Well, at this point I can pretty much confirm that my next blog post will be a full length review of the upcoming Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile episode of SNL's 51st season.
The next episode of We Heart Hader will be a continuation of our "No Small Roles" series focusing on Bills guest spots in animated TV shows. See you then!
