The following blog post is a companion piece to the latest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast with special guest, Demi Constantine, whom you might know from the SNN Patron Feedback Shows or as new permanent third cohost of the new Saturday Night Ladies podcast (which they very graciously allowed me to be a guest on very recently)
Give either one of our shows a listen, won't you?
5. The First Chocolate (Matthew Fox/Tenacious D - 12/02/2006)
The downfall of the once mighty and powerful Mayan civilization is attributed to the invention of hot chocolate. It's sheer overpowering sweetness is enough to completely destroy their fighting nature of their warriors.
- This is mostly a vehicle for Fred Armisen and Matthew Fox to ham it up over how great they find the taste of chocolate, but Bill stumbling in and delivering the world's first brownie recipe as he is dying from an arrow through his torso, switching from dramatic wounded warrior mode to casually talking about chocolate practically steals this.
4. Buying Beer (Shia LaBeouf/Avril Lavigne - 04.14.2007)
A convenience store cashier (Thompson) isn't persuaded by two obvious underage teens (LaBeouf and Samberg) to let them purchase two six packs without seeing their IDs despite their exaggerated talk of their adult ages, work histories, number of children or the other times they previously bought beer and cigarettes at other stores. He is then given a “certificate of responsibility” by an “official” ATF agent (Hader) whose wallet is taken by a “robber” (Forte) who assures everyone that the ATF agent's ID is very much real.
- Yeah, this is mostly a patented goofy Samberg/Lonely Island sketch thar I have written and talked about before...but Bill does come in and unravel one of four additional layers that needed to be peeled away for this sketch to arrive at it's conclusion in a cheerfully stiff manner.
- Still, he's very peripheral here and doesn't really show up to drive the plot until about halfway through the sketch.
3. Dry Eyes (Justin Timberlake - 12.16.2006)
A game show where host Gary Pierce (Hader) challenges contestants NOT to cry at heartbreaking/heartwarming scenarios and quotes researched from their own real personal lives or during a medley of emotionally charged songs during the final speed round. Today's competitors are school teacher Jerry Bertrand (Armisen) and 22 time returning champion firefighter Brett O'Connor (Timberlake)
- This is the first of many game show host roles for Bill (setting up an archetype he would reliably excel at throughout his SNL career).
- He does a great job of setting up the basic premise and rules of this sketch, laying the groundwork for Armisen and Timberlake to flesh out the more emotional parts of it.
2. Late Night Movie: The Curse Of Frankenstein (Hugh Laurie/Beck - 10/28/2006)
Frankenstein (Hader) somehow turns the tables on a group of angry, torch wielding villagers (Laurie, Wiig, Poehler, Armisen) tricking them into going after Dracula (Sudeikis) instead of him but then shames them for judging his appearance too harshly when Dracula sends them back to him.
- I put this at #2 on my list because Bill anchored this and was the main focus of it especially calling out the angry mob at the end. You can actually read and hear more of my thoughts on this sketch in the previous podcast episode and blog entry I put out reviewing the episode it came from.
- The only thing keeping it from being #1 in my mind is that there is another more Bill centric sketch from this season that hit harder for me that I haven't talked about yet...
1. Al Pacino Checks His Bank Balance (Dane Cook/The Killers - 09.30.2006)
Al Pacino (Hader) calls Wells Fargo customer service because the mattress store won't accept his debit card. A Teller (Wiig) moves 620.00 from his savings to his checking leaving him with 606.00 to purchase a mattress.
- I put this at number one because it's pretty much pure, unfiltered undiluted Bill Hader dominating a scene in the season premiere by shouting pure nonsense doing one of his most famous impressions. Doesn't get much better than that.
- Bills' Pacino was a hit with the audience of the previous season's premiere so it makes perfect sense for him to this in a sketch in the following season's premiere. Plus, you get to see him put his theory of how impression sketches should work into practice (i.e. they work better when you remove them any of their previous acting roles place the subject into an everyday situation where they must deal with a mundane disappointment).
- Hmm, something about seeing someone talk to an actual person at their bank on a flip phone JUST to find out what their balance is makes this feel...quaint. I mean, obviously, this was the pre-iPhone/Android era when there were no apps on your screen designed by your bank to let you SEE your balance, but still.
- Kristen, of course, plays well off of him as the chipper customer service rep but Bill had so many great lines in this it's tough to single out just one. What does stand out to me though is that this is all in service of Bills' Pacino wanting to buy "an astronaut mattress that comes with a glass of wine on it."
- This may be a reference to a commercial that's very specific to this time (and may not be all that well remembered 20 years after it aired) but the performance by Bill sells this so well you don't need to know the reference to find it funny.
- Some light Googling does reveal that he was referring to a NASA designed memory foam mattress from Tempur Pedic, who around this time aired commercials where people would "test" their mattresses by jumping on one side with a glass of wine on the other to show that because the mattress absorbs energy WITHOUT transferring motion, the wine glass won't spill. Somehow, this was supposed to help you sleep better than a SleepNumber bed.
Honorable Mentions
Monster Under The Bed (Annette Bening/Gwen Stefani, Akon - 12/09/2006)
Casey (Poehler) sees a monster in her room which terrifies and alarms her parents (Bening, Forte) more than it does her. Eventually, Caseys' parents turn on her caring more about their own safety and well being than hers.
- This is mostly an insane, screaming Will Forte vehicle (and may be a cheap ripoff of a 32 yr old Simpsons joke, now that I think of if) but it still manages to be the most memorable moment of an otherwise "lame enough to never get repeated" episode of SNL mostly thanks to Bill.
- Hader steps out of Poehlers' closet as the "monster" in question, wearing insane gargoyle/demon makeup and singing "Have A Holly Jolly Christmas" way off key in a voice that can be best described as "Dean Martin meets Vincent Price" before being suddenly shot to death by Will and Annette, leaving Poehler to sleep next to a dead monster.
- Ladies and gentlemen, this is the only way you can truly follow insane, screaming Will Forte.
Monologue (Matthew Fox/Tenacious D - 12.02.2006)
After falling on dark, hard times since the cancelation of his previous hit series "Party Of Five", Matthew Fox has come to terms with being one of the only cast members from a hit TV series to not get asked to host SNL. After having a talk with Cheers' John Ratzenberger at a bar, he realized he's in the same league as Friends' Matt LeBlanc and Seinfelds' Michael "Kramer" Richards (Hader) who barges in to pitch him on the two of them cohosting SNL together as he's falling on even harder times after the Laugh Factory incident.
- Hmm, I...guess Lacey Chabert was either considered too young to host during Party Of Fives' heyday or the show got canceled before she even COULD host?
- Anyway, Bill comes roaring in to lighten up what was turning out to be a grim, creepy, almost too "low energy" for its own good monologue with a Kramer impression he was forced to study old Seinfeld clips come up with in two days time because it was one impression he didn't have in his back pocket then.
- Apparently, whoever wrote this monologue insisted on keeping in Bill as Kramer. To Bill and that writer's credit, Bill developed an impressively good handle on this impression in such a short amount of time. I can tell how well he got the voice down by how many traces of Michaels Richards' early '80s pre-Seinfeld/Kramer "Fridays" era voice I can hear in there to point you'd think he'd studied whatever footage of that show was available at the time and just paired with with Michaels' exaggerated physical shtick as Kramer. The impression as a whole worked so well he decided to reuse it in a later sketch that season that turned out to be Vinny Vedeccis' talk show debut.
- Fun fact: in real life, Michael Richards was actually booked to host SNL in March 1994 but apparently NBC executives forced Lorne to dump him in favor of Nancy Kerrigan. He may have been booked again in 1998 but backed out saying he thought he couldn't do it anymore. A little "Fridays" related anxiety, perhaps?
- …and that's my list of top five Bill Hader sketches and moments from his very first season of SNL which, once again, is the topic of the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast.
- Of course, my regular co host Deej Barens and our gracious guest Demi Constantine each made up their own lists which you will have to listen to the podcast to get from them.
- Also, I have more in depth thoughts on some of these sketches that I have already gotten into in previous episodes of the We Heart Hader Podcast. If you would like to hear them, please listen to this episode as well as this one and also this episode.
- The next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast will be another "Impression Spotlight" focused on Bills' James Carville impression. After that, we will start our season 33 coverage with a full length review of that season's premiere with host LeBron James & musical guest Kanye West.
- Before we get to either of those though, I will continue my own personal coverage of SNLs' 51st Season as it progresses with next weeks' Melissa McCarthy/Dijon episode. See you guys then!
No comments:
Post a Comment