Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (02.23.2008)

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?

CNN Univision Democratic Debate

CNNs' Campbell Brown (Wiig), John King (Sudeikis), Univisions' Jorge Ramos (Forte) and Obama Girl (Amber Lee Ettinger) make absolutely no effort to hide their fawning, stalkerish favoritism toward Senator Barack Obama (Armisen) as they lob him softball questions and question and question Senator Hillary Clinton (Poehler) on how she could've fallen so drastically behind him in the polls

• Oof, here we go. Time to start officially discussing a much maligned political impression that would permeate this show for the next four years.

• First, let's just start at the beginning and discuss how the show even viewed Fred Armisen as an acceptable option to play Obama. As we've covered, Maya didn't have a workable, non awkward impression and was about to leave anyway. 

• As for Kenan, there was serious talk of putting him on an insane crash program to lose weight until it was determined it would be impossible and unhealthy for him to lose that much weight just over the course of one summer.

• Now, during the strike, the show did hold auditions specifically for black male performers who had Obama impressions including The Daily Shows' Wyatt Cenac, Donald "Childish Gambino" Glover and Jordan Peele, who the show actually liked and wanted to hire but unfortunately he was still in the cast of MADtv at the time and FOX wouldn't let him out of his  contract with them to join SNL so...this show had no choice to say "ah, fuck", look at Fred and just say to themselves "well, I guess he could work?"

• In particular, I could see the show thinking they could get away with this as they realized both Fred Armisen and Barack Obama are mixed race individuals...which shouldn't make it exactly right because  they are both mixes of completely different races from each other which becomes problematic if you're looking at this purely as a representation issue.

• Also, having Will Forte play Hispanic Univision reporter Jorge Ramos isn't exactly great either, but along with Fred's Obama (and Darrell Hammonds' Jesse Jackson) I would just chalk them all up to being naggingly questionable yet begrudgingly acceptable portrayals of ethnic figures by performers who don't exactly match the ethnicity of who they are portraying. 

• I say that simply because I don't quite see any hard evidence that the makeup department tried to actually darken or bronze Fred or Wills' skin for these parts like they obviously did with Darrell for his Jesse Jackson (in Fred's case it is mostly just an "ethnic wig" as Tom Hanks would call it 17 years later) but from what I can tell the way these portrayals were written ranges from "semi-funny" to just "not appearing to be written with any hateful or malicious intent".

• Speaking of the writing, it really doesn't matter all that much who is playing Obama here because he's barely given any dialogue here aside from his small "yes we can" speech at the very end. Even if they could have managed to get Jordan Peele to join the show just for this, his Obama wouldn't have been served NEARLY as well by SNLs' writing for him as a character as much as what how he would actually go on to do with his own Obama character on "Key & Peele".

• When you get right down to it, SNL just found it next to impossible to find a real "hook" for any of their portrayals of Obama on the show throughout his time as president so...they just had Fred play him as a rather goony, milquetoast kind of guy at first because when you get right down to it, that's who Obama really was as president for his first two years.

• Vocally, Fred sounds a lot like he would when he halter figured out his handle on what Obamas' voice would be. He doesn't quite have that odd mix between Goofy and Yogi Bear sound and seems like he's focusing more on cadence and rhythms rather than tone and vocals at this point.

• Aside from all of that, it seems like we've just gone from one member of the media admitting privately backstage to other candidates that they are totally in the tank for Hillary to a few members of the media basically admitting to the entire country that they are now totally in the tank for Obama. I do have to say that if you were around in 2008 that the sheer Obama-mania this sketch depicts feels...pretty accurate to the time and still does today looking back.

• As strange as it is to hear Amy's Hillary explain how losing to Obama was all "part of the plan", it feels a bit par for the course for the political writing of this era and her line about having support from "White women over 80" was pretty funny. Amy and Jason did a solid job of holding down the rest of this sketch with how small her part was.

• The cameo from "Obama Girl" was cute and Amy and Kristen scored some laughs off her but I doubt anyone still remembers her actual "I Got A Crush On Obama" YouTube video from around this time (especially since her entire cameo seems to have been edited out of the Peacock version. I can't imagine what rights issues got in the way there). C+

Montage

• Maya Rudolph has officially left the cast. Casey Wilson has just joined.

Monologue 

Tina discusses the fine print details on the streaming revenue deal that got worked out during the strike. Steve Martin (Himself) makes a cameo to make Tina see herself as more of a performer than a writer.

• Tina was as charming as ever here even if this monologue dates itself with its idea of how online streaming video was supposed to be monetized back in early '08. I did like the boom mic gags when she mentioned the crew missing out on work during the strike.

• Steve Martin was a genuinely unexpected cameo, but it was a pleasant surprise as it was pretty nice to see him again. I got a kick out of hin saying he "was just sitting at home watching the show" as he is just now making an appearance on it to comment on the last thing Tina just said three seconds ago.

• I got a kick out of seeing the brief shot of then current writers Rob Klein, Marika Sawyer and Simon Rich looking a bit dumpy and pathetic after Steve shaded them.

• I think we could've done without the slaps but most of the "I can do its" were fun (I dunno about the drunk Chinese one though).

• The theme of this monologue is quite interesting as it does mark an pivotal turning point in Tinas' career. She had left SNL to start producing her own sitcom which was fast becoming a critical darling (ratings would follow soon after a certain other impression she contributed to this seasons' election cycle) so she was becoming less of a "writer on SNL who made it big once she was given an opportunity to fill her own niche on camera" and more of a "performer and influential producer", so it's interesting to see Tina hang a bit of a lampshade on this point in her career as it was really happening. B-

Annuale

A 44 week supply hormone pills that allows women to have one big, destructive mega-period rampage once a year instead of one normal one every month.

• Apparently, this is a parody of a real medication from the time called "Seasonale" which was designed to reduce women's periods from 12 times a year to just four. 

• Bills' first appearance in this episode is in this sketch. He and Andy are seen ducking and running away from Tina as she swings a big pink ax at them.

• This has become a well remembered semi-classic in this era. It may have been shown in various "best of commercials" and "Women of SNL" compilations over the years

• Great use of all the women in the cast. As a cis male, I guess I'm...not equipped to fully appreciate why this is so funny but at least I can laugh as at the scenes of chaotic violence in this like Tina with the axe and Amy just ruthlessly beating the shit out of Fred.

• Casey devouring and entire cake at a kids birthday party and Kristen happily making out with a dog were very funny.

• For a fake ad, this had a very distinct visual style to it like it wasn't shot with the same type of "cinematic" cameras they usually use for fake ads or digital shorts. This felt very "fluid" (if you'll pardon the expression).

• This definitely felt very Tina/30 Rock coded, not just for the obvious reasons but this was thoroughly coated with a layer of 30 Rock level hyper specific absurdity to it (which can especially be seen or heard in the list of side effects at the end). B+

Rock Of Love 2

Bret Michaels (Sudeikis) eliminates one legged Amber (Poehler) from the competition and allows Kristy Jo (Wilson), Daisy (Fey), and Peyton (Wiig) despite how unattractive he finds her.

• Huh, this had potential to be just interesting and funny enough when it looked like it was going to be just a direct Rock Of Love parody...and then Amber shows up and I remembered that this is pretty much the only way SNL could ever parody trashy reality/dating TV shows from the 2000s.

• Jason asking Bret had some decent lines deconstructing this show. Tina and Caseys' impressions of...whoever they were playing were pretty funny (especially when they "made out" with Jason).

• Kristen's character wasn't my favorite. She wasn't too obnoxious, though. I liked her line about how she has seen Bret Michaels make out with a pair of sweatpants but he still refuses to make out with her.

• Part of me just wishes this didn't have to be an Amy Poehler "Amber" sketch, even though it is legitimately the last one until Amy hosts in a couple years. This wouldn't have been my first choice for first post monologue sketch. C+

Digital Short: Grandkids In The Movies

An elderly man advertises bootleg DVDs of the newest Hollywood movies his wife copied for him featuring walk-ons and cameos from his two grandsons Kevin (Hader) and Thomas (Samberg) who are there to keep him from getting confused and scared by all the intense action scenes, new slang and other strangers in the films.

• Well, as strange and haunting as it feels to witness an elderly man (who, strangely enough, neither SNL Archives OR iMDB have a credit for, by the way) slowly succumb to the icy grip of either dementia or Alzheimers', this was actually pretty funny and might have been my favorite Bill segment of the night (or at least my favorite pretape anyway).

• This is a unique digital short in that it's one of only a select few that are framed as some kind of ad or infomercial.

• This is Bills' second appearance of the night and right out of the gate we see him and Andy silently mouthing the words their grandfather is reading off the cue cards. I like how they chose to sneak in that cute detail.

• I love how this whole thing is just Bill and Andy's characters just cheaply green screened into each movie (and wearing the same shirts as whichever characters' they're replacing onscreen).

• I got a kick out of him saying how much he loves his wife "even though (they) sleep in seperate beds".

• I especially liked the scenes with the grandsons playing "themselves" in their supposedly normal clothes just telling their grandpa not to answer the ringing phone during the "Michael Clayton" scene as it's not his phone and it's only in the movie and when they tell grandpa to turn the TV off during the big battle scene in "The Transforming Robots" rather than just change the channel or hit the "input" button or whichever one switches from his DVD player to his regular linear TV channels.

• I got a pretty big kick out of the grandsons simply walking across the screen and waving during Daniel Day Lewis' big closeup in "There Will Be Blood".

• I also got a big kick out of the ending shots of Bill and Andy's faces just cut and pasted over those of each of the actors on each DVDs' cover followed by a shot of Grandpa holding a blank DVD with the caption "Available At The Store".

• Another reason this is a unique digital short is it doesn't totally feel like it's an SNL sketch from this era. It also feels like it could be a bit they wrote for the MTV Movie Awards or The Oscar's (with all the editing of real movie footage). 

• This especially feels like it could also be a piece from Will Ferrels' era as that was the golden age of "fake ads from unreliable narrators who may only be advertising an imagined product just to themselves" like his fake album ad he did with Dwayne Johnson of fake duets between Neil Diamond & Bigfoot, the two part "Wayne Porter vs Kim Plunkett" desert island campaign ads he did with Chris Parnell or even the Lux 420 XL "car for crazy people" ad (where Cliff Robertson was the actual pitchman and Ferrell was the crazy person in question...also, that one apparently had Stephen Colbert as Dr. Zaius...who knew?)

• Anyway, before we get too off topic...it was great getting to rediscover another forgotten gem of an early Digital Short. B+

What's That Bitch Talking About?

Host Gregory Dubois (Thompson) makes two contestants Katherine Bagwell (Fey) and Richard Dinwiddie (Hader) guess the full context of complete strangers (Poehler, Wiig, Wilson) semi-private conversations based on random out of context snippets. Only Katherine gets to move on to the "Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?" bonus round. Richard only gets to leave with the home game.

• Hey, Kenan in what I believe to be his first game show host role! There's the debut if something new and notable that would become a show staple decades later!

• I do love the detail of this show's grand prize being a 1992 Canary Yellow Mazda Protégé.

• Out of all the "bitches" presented, I liked Casey's performance the most. I liked how little they gave Kristen for her part. Amy was fine but I feel like I've seen her play that specific type of character before.

• Bill played his sheer bewilderment at Tinas' ability to make extremely specific and always some how exactly correct niche guesses about the lives of these random strangers very well here.

• I have read some notable reviews of this episode from notable online reviewers state that this sketch could've used some explanation as how Tinas' character was always able to make these absolutely correct guesses about the lives of total strangers, but for me this works better the more unexplained, mysterious absurdity there is behind every little detail. B-

Carrie Underwood Performs "All American Girl" and "Flat On The Floor"

• Eh, I really don't have much I WANT to say about Carrie Underwood here. Typical corny country pop from this era so let's move on.

Weekend Update w/Poehler and Meyers 

Governor Mike Huckabee (Himself) explains his refusal to drop out of the Republican primary despite his victory now being mathematically impossible

Tina Fey delivers a "Womens' News" update which, among many other topics, delivers a case for Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Presidential Nominee

• Seth's Best Jokes: Castro Resigns, Satellite Destroyed

• Amy's Best Jokes: Kosovo Independence, Toad Discovery, Kitten Survival

• Ugh, Mike Huckabee. Well, at least SNLs' writing staff could make him appear palatable as they weren't complete out of touch, right wing hacks like he gradually revealed himself to be once he finally got on Twitter a decade later but seriously fuck this guy.

• Tina's "womens' news" segment was kind of all over the place but ultimately it was decent. A lot of her opening one liners felt like left over season 30/31 update jokes that got cut but the Hillary stuff was decent so it was smart of her to make this the center piece of this. 

• Hmm...I don't quite know how well her take on Hillary being the right candidate because "she's a bitch" and "bitches get stuff done" ages today, but again, the rest of this was solid.

• Seriously though, Tina actually delivers a fair, rational and well thought out take on why Hillary should've been president and I do respect her for standing by her own personal convictions here.

• I actually did like the Rush Limbaugh/Ronald Reagan/Jeb & George W Bush jabs here.

• One thing that does age this very awkwardly is Tina ending this by saying "bitch is the new black". Hell, in my mind calling anything "the new black" is...just incredibly awkward and sounds wrong. Like, who the hell even came up with that phrase? It barely means anything...but that's really my only minor complaint about Tinas pro-Hillary screed (which kudos to her for delivering this in an episode that opened with a sketch about how the "real" news media is just as in the tank for Obama as she is for Hillary and providing some as much political balance as the show could've hoped to have had at the time. C+

Celebrity Apprentice

A promo for various spinoffs of the new "Celebrity Apprentice" hosted by Donald Trump (Hammond) and featuring new contestants Jennifer Tilly (Wiig), "Queer Eyes'" Ted Allen (Sudeikis), Rachel Ray (Wilson), Charles Barkley (Thompson), Mary Jo Buttafucco (Fey), John Mark Karr (Hader), Matthew Lesko (Samberg), and the dancing old man from the Six Flags commercials (Poehler) with special guest judges Gene Simmons (Armisen) and Judge Lance Ito (Forte)

• Ah, fuckin' christ...

• Well, once again, you have to remind yourself that you're only watching Darrell Hammonds Trump from the time when he was ONLY doing "The Apprentice" so...in theory this should be much easier to laugh at with the stakes much lower and a better performer for the role.

• ...and you may have to not think about the writers' strike from around this time probably being the thing that led NBC to order more episodes of Celebrity Apprentice thereby giving you-know-who that much more media exposure, but, well...here we are.

• Hammond did a fine job anchoring this. The opening bit with Wiig and Sudeikis was weird and absurd enough to work.

• Always nice to see Kenan's Charles Barkley again. Casey is making some strong choices, but hey...I guess there's only so much you can do with a Rachel Ray impression.

• Bill makes an appearance reprising his John Mark Karr impression from season 32 which Deej and I have previously talked about on the podcast. He has only one line here and I didn't quite like this as much as I liked this as an Update commentary from two seasons before this mainly because this impression works much better when the jokes isn't just "lol he's creepy...creepy enough to give Donald Trump 'the willies' if he ever made a sex tape...just shows you how much we all underestimated his sheer awfulness...such an innocent time". I just think the impression works much better when the actual joke is "he's falsely confessing to crimes he couldn't have possibly comitted". Plus, this being paired with the sheer skeevy awfulness of Tina and Freds' parts was...pretty offputting.

• Andy, Amy and Freds' parts were a nice, goofy enough way to end this, I suppose. C-

Wedding Toast

Best man Ed Mahoney (Sudeikis) gives an goofily inappropriate wedding toast that humiliates both bride (Fey) and groom (Forte)

• Ha! I loved this! Very funny, slightly abrasive character work from Jason here. Very funny underrated deep cut with this sketch.

• Once I saw Jason with that disheveled hair and saying Kristens' character "had more problems than a math book" after she chugged a glass of champagne and calling Forte "this ol' sack of potatotes" I knew I was in for a treat.

• Tina, Will and Kristen played their extreme disgust off him extremely well at the exact right moments.

• Jasons' other highlights were the whole "long and hard" jokes, the "Mario Brothers/mushrooms" rant and the comment "poop, drugs and gay stuff; every brides' dream". The "segue into an area he couldn't have anticipated" was the icing to the cake. A-

Virgania Horsens' Hot Air Balloon Rides

Virgania Horsen (Wiig) wants to take you on a personal hot air balloon ride and help you avoid long lines, security threats and other pitfalls that come with air travel.

• This was very brief but packed with just enough floating green screen absurdity to work for me.

• I liked her saying "see ya later, suckers" as she walked past the security line and punching and kicking various floating words (except "winner" of course)

• It's nice to see some Tim and Eric level absurdity on SNL that doesn't go as far as being as abrasively abstract as they were (although to be fair, a lot of late aughts viral comedy was like this). B+

I Drink Your Milkshake 

Oilman Daniel Plainview (Hader) and his son H.W. (Poehler) travel to the best malt shops in town and annoy various patrons (Forte, Thompson, Wilson) to find the perfect milkshake with special guests Anton Chigurh (Armisen) and Juno (Fey)

• Gee, with this sketch working in actual parodies of "There Will Be Blood", "Juno" and "No Country For Old Men", I guess this and the digital short are really our big "this is what going to the movies was like in late 2007/early 2008" sketches tonight, huh?

• I have to admit that I still haven't gotten around to seeing "There Will Be Blood" yet but I like that this sketch was written so that you didn't have to have seen the actual film but rather have just been aware at the time that the whole "I Drink Your Milkshake" scene was the big catchphrase/meme that the young audience who saw it took away from it at the time.

• Forte sang a very funny theme song at the beginning and was great as the old man patron at the end. Armisen has the face but certainly not the voice to pull off the Javier Bardem/Anton Chigurh impression.

• Bill gives a very committed and commanding performance here and Kenan holds his own next to him. I liked how well he and Amy played off the "I've abandoned my boy!" bit.

• Tina as Juno was cute but a bit odd considering who next weeks' host will be. B+

Lady Business

A flashy new series in the vein of "Lipstick Jungle" and "Cashmiere Mafia" following another group of four strong glamorized business women including Nanette (Poehler), Ms St. George (Wiig) and their other friend Nan Winters Rodriguez (Fey)

• Gee, I feel kinda bad that this is the second sketch in a row Casey Wilson appeared in with no lines, but oh well...

• Bill and Jason can be seen as executives in the boardroom during Poehlers' opening scene

• Andy can be seen during Kristens' scene and Fred can be seen during the final scene with Tina

• I guess you may have to have been around at the time to have been aware of the new strain of "girlboss feminism" Ally McBeal knockoff dramas this was meant to be a spoof of but there were still plenty of funny lines in this such as Amys' "womandatory", Kristen' "Bitch in the boardroom/bore in the bedroom/bear on the toilet" line.

• I also like Tinas' character being just as flashy as the other women despite her job basically just being animal control/removal. C+

Goodnights

Tina announces on stage that this is Don Pardos' 90th birthday and has him blow out nearly as many candles on a cake.

• I just wanted to mention this because it's a real thing that happened in this episode and I would genuinely like to know how they thought it would be a good idea?

Ranking Season 33 From Best To Worst

1. Lebron James/Kanye West (09.29.2007)
2. Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)
3. Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (02.23.2008)
4. Brian Williams/Feist (11.03.2007)
5. Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

Overall Thoughts 

• A decent episode compared to some of the ones that preceded it. I'm sure having Tina around boosted morale after finally getting to get back to work because this episode had a lot of great energy

• Like with much of this season, most of what didn't work was just due to some things being very much products of their time. That didn't necessarily hurt this episode. It just made it a little bit uneven.

• Naturally, Amy and Kristen had surprisingly strong nights as did Bill, Jason and Fred. Casey Wilson seemed almost shut out of her first episode but hey...she is a new hire, so...there's that.

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, the next blog post you see from me will be a review of the Nicola Coughlan/Foo Fighters episode of SNL UK followed by a review of the Olivia Rodrigo episode of SNL US and then the Aimee Lou Wood/Meek episode of SNL UK...some time after that.

• The next episode of We Heart Hader will focus on part one if the Documentary Now two part season finale "Gentle And Soft: The Story Of The Blue Jean Comittee"...which Deej and I will also split into two parts when we cover it.

• See you again real soon!