Elliot Page/Wilco (03.01.2008)

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?

MSNBC Democratic Candidates Debate

Moderators Brian Williams (Forte) and Tim Russert (Hammond) ruthlessly grill and interrogate Sen. Hillary Clinton (Poehler) on foreign policy question with the help of "Law & Orders'" Vincent D'Onofrio (Himself) while blatantly giving answers to her opponent Sen. Barack Obama (Armisen). 

Following the sketch, the real Hillary Clinton gives an editorial response to mostly praise the sketch and Amy's impression, but states it is not an endorsement of either candidate.

• I liked Fortes' dead on sounding Brian Williams (which he apparently stumbled ass backwards into at one point) and Hammonds' Tim Russert is one of his more fun impressions, so this sketch at least has that going for it. Although, I have to ask...why does Darrell appear to have eye makeup on in this sketch?

• Fred appeared to be still tweaking his Obama impression, focusing more on his speech cadences rather than capturing his actual tone of voice making him sound unintentionally goofier and way more cartoonish. At least he's more visually convincing as Obama than vocally. Thankfully, he doesn't have enough lines in the sketch for this to be a real issue.

• Vincent D'Onofrio showing up to basically play his character from Law & Order: Criminal Intent was a nice touch.

• I did get a kick out of Amy as Hillarys' whole speech about how she is the only candidate who is annoyingly pushy and irritating enough to nag the big energy lobbyists into submission.

• I believe Amy's lines about the hostile tone towards her and receiving the tougher questions may have been a more-or-less direct quote from the real Hillary Clinton during the actual debate this was a parody of. 

• In fact, the real Hillary may have been referencing the previous weeks' debate cold open because I now vaguely remember hearing an actual quote from her along the lines of "maybe we should go back to SNL and ask Obama if he wants another pillow?"

• Speaking of the real Hillary, her cameo wasn't up to much and was borderline forgettable, but she came across fairly well for another career politician making their debut appearance on this show just to up their "cool/hip" factor.

• She was a great sport in response to Amy's impression of her which doesn't mean much here but was especially nice to see because by the next time Hillary was running a major political campaign, that WOULD become a major issue (but not necessarily for the coolness or hipness of appearing on this shoe because that would quickly go out the window.

• Anyway, in most of the ways that matter, this was a noticeable improvement from the previous week's debate sketch. B+

Monologue 

Oscar winning "Juno" Screenwriter Diablo Cody (Samberg) shows up wanting to know why Elliot isn't delivering the monologue she wrote for him.

• OK, I totally get wanting to poke fun at Diablo Cody for being an annoyingly quirky screen writer who tries way too hard to be seen as hip...but having Andy in drag portray her comes across way different today (and even then made it seem a lot more unnecessary harsh than it was intended to be).

• I did get a kick out of Andy's forced "blog" puns...and yes, in case you were wondering...I do have the ability to relate to someone using the word "blog" a bit too much in everyday conversation. C-

The Dakota Fanning Show

Dakota Fanning (Poehler) asks impossible geopolitical questions to random kids on the street, further belittles her band leader Reggie Hudson (Thompson) and interviews Miley Cyrus (Page)

• This may have been the weakest of the three of these sketches (mainly due to the premise of an insufferably high cultured and well read Sheldon Cooper-like Dakota Fanning hosting a talk show with fellow kid actors as guests wearing a bit thin by this point) but this still had it's moments.

• I got a kick out of Dakota revealing her writers to be Casey as a Spanish playwright, Fred as a Japanese poet and Sudeikis as Bruce Villanch.

• Kenan as the beleaguered band leader was a consistent highlight of this from his reaction to the KidSpeak segment (which was mostly decent but Amy's line about Charlie Rose being her celebrity crush aged like milk for in about three different ways) to his reaction to Dakota not calling him to collaborate with him on her "Wanda Rwanda" album (the cover reveal and album description were very funny...although I do have to wonder if the "Tom Waits B-sides" line was an intentional reference to Scarlett Johanssons' attempt at music as a side gig from around this time?)

• ...and of course, Kenan's "fiddle with your car breaks" line was his high point.

• Elliot Page as Disney/Hannah Montana era Miley Cyrus came off as incredibly awkward and was the biggest thing dragging this sketch down. Obviously, he's no Vanessa Bayer. He approached a vague Southern accent without sounding like her. He just seemed to be emulating a kid-like energy while copying Mileys' style from the time as well as SNLs' wardrobe department would allow without really looking like her.

• The bit with the two of them playing with a Hannah Montana doll and an Anastasia Somoza doll (yes, that's the real name of the real person with cereal palsy Dakota Fanning actually played in "Hurricane Mary") comes off as especially cringey today when you consider the fact that Amy had inadvertently deeply offended the real Somozas as well as some of the actors involved in the film. To Amy's credit, she did reach out to the family and make amends by donating to and becoming involved with their charity. I would encourage you to read more about this story here.

• If you're watching the Peacock edit of this episode, you may notice that the sketch just cuts off there. It does have an actual ending in the live version where Elliot as Miley sings the Hannah Montana theme while Amy as Dakota backs her up on the hurdy gurdy. It's not much of an ending, but it's still a better out than...what preceded it. C+

TV Funhouse: The Obama Files

When Rev. Jesse Jackson (Hammond V/O) and Rev. Al Sharpton (Robert Smigel V/O) offer to help Sen. Obama (Hasani Isa V/O) on his campaign, he sends them on wild goose chases to non-existent foreign lands to distance himself from them. He even asks Sharpton to wear an "honorary" shock collar to his next speech. When they catch on and try to drop in on his next speech dressed as podiums, they end up falling through a trap door and landing in the same "community van" as fellow liabilities Chuck Norris and Bill Clinton (Smigel V/O)

• Here it is, folks. The last regular TV Funhouse segment before NBC cuts them entirely due to the high cost of animation. 

• It would be a bit of a bittersweet moment if it weren't for fact that we do get one true final TV Funhouse three years later that is part live action, but for right now...this is just an "Irish goodbye" for Robert Smigels' flagship contribution to post-bad boy era SNL until he can come back for one last big hurrah because sadly...this would be an odd and forgettable note for these to go out on.

• The main thing dragging this one down was that it felt much longer than it needed to be. Plus, we get a vocal impression of Obama that is so much better than Freds' that it makes one wonder why SNL didn't at least invite Hasani Isa to audition to join the cast?

• Right off the bat, we get Barack telling Michelle to "distract the media" when Jesse Jackson approaches...and she suddenly starts vomiting on the floor? I don't think this was based on any specific real life incident so I'm just going to assume that Smigel threw this in here just because he felt he needed to throw in a cheap gross out gag to make the audience laugh and keep them engaged for a long, slightly dry piece of political humor.

• I did get a kick out of Barack having an aide shoot a tranquilizer dart at Brian Williams neck as Sharpton approached. Hell, I'd even go as far as to say Smigels' Sharpton impression was a highlight of this (especially when he kept inadvertently shocking himself when arriving for Baracks' speech and when he wore a lion costumes simply because "lions are cool").

• The ending was all right if not a bit odd. I get Clinton being in the van, but why Chuck Norris? Isn't he a republican? I'm pretty sure he was actually campaigning for Mike Huckabee at this time. The two reverends selling this story to Marlon & Shawn Wayans for them to make a movie called "Podiums" was a nice semi-absurdist touch to this.

• Perhaps the funniest part of this was Smigels anecdote about Lorne asking Hillary to stay an extra 20 minutes after the cold open just to watch this cartoon and being thankful that Amy came in to partially distract her from the joke about Bill that she was polite enough to laugh at (along with the rest of this) that Lorne confessed to having completely forgotten about. C+

College For Excellence

A decent establishment that happens to be located above a Korean bank promises to teach you all the most professional sounding generic office terms relating to files, meetings and phone calls. Their spokesman (Armisen) is self aware of their chintziness and defensive enough about it to ask viewers not to share this commercial online for cheap laughs.

• This almost seems like a carbon copy of a semi viral sketch Armisen did a few years earlier called "Rafael Alonzos' I.T.F. Technical Computer Institute" (yes, that's from the infamous Paris Hilton episode). 

• It actually seemed like there were a lot of different sketches and bits on a few comedy shows around this time (and online of course) that poked fun at cheap, local commercials or just used that type of aesthetic for laughs (Tim & Eric seem to be the biggest perpetrators of this that come to mind right now). 

• Maybe the self awareness Fred's character employs in this sketch is a meta gag, meant to be a subtle nod that this was a trend in comedy that had already peaked?

• Anyway, I did like this for the purposely stilted bad acting moments such as Andy walking in and out of the background during Fred's moments, Kenan ducking into frame during Elliots' lines and Kristen silently mouthing Kenan's lines when she's supposed to be in the shot with him.

• I also got a kick out if Kenan handing his files to Kristen accidentally when he was supposed to be handing them to Elliot (which he only realizes he was supposed to do when he hears Elliot has a line and Kristen doesn't).

• Speaking of Elliot, you may get strong Jane Wickline vibes from some of his performances throughout the episode (mainly here and possibly in the final sketch). Of course, this is a sentence that can only make sense if you're watching this episode in 2026 and not 2008. C+

The Other Bolelyn Girls

The trailer for a new film where Anne (Page) and Mary (Wilson) Bolelyn compete with Eunice Bolelyn (Wiig) and two others (Forte, Thompson) for the affections of King Henry VII (Sudeikis) 

• Yes, "The Other Bolelyn Girl" was a new film coming out at this time. Elliot is playing the role that Natalie Portman had. Casey Wilson is playing the Scarlett Johansson role and Jason is in the role that went to Eric Bana.

• It doesn't speak so well of this sketches' intentions that the only real genuinely funny moment is the "sistaaaaaa" back and forth between Elliot and Casey...which is immediately followed by Kristen entering the scene with a unibrow and buck teeth, affecting a double chin in order to achieve one of the most "lol generic comedically ugly woman" looks ever with her the second of her only two lines being about how she just had sex with a horse.

• I suppose Forte in a dress affecting a coy, coquettish cockney accent telling us he just passed out on a pile of fish was good for a cheap laugh as was Kenan in his dress, not bothering to disguise himself as a woman beyond that (not even a wig) at the head of a line of other older men doing the same.

• Beyond that, I just wished this rather forgettable sketch had more of a focused or point to it. C-

Digital Short: Nightmare (The Mirror)

In a scene shot in the style of a modern horror film, Elliot keeps waking up from the same nightmare where the same wounded zombie-like creature (Samberg) always appears in her mirror

• This was probably the first ever "cinematic" digital shorts and probably the second big "meme" one after "Dear Sister".

• This was an early, more mature subtler version of this style of digital short where Andy plays a character who just shows up repeatedly in different places (and a very minimalist version of this trope at that since this seems to take place entirely in the same bedroom/bathroom).

• It's pretty rare that a Lonely Island Digital short doesn't go for big hard laughs, but this was still pretty early in The Lonely Islands' run on SNL which means they weren't completely gassed out on these yet and felt they had plenty of room to he experimental and try out new ideas. Plus, Andy and Elliot have the chemistry to pull this off (so do Kristen and Jason with their whole Dracula/Debbie Leiberstein interlude). B+

Wilco Performs "Hate It Here" And "Walken"

• This band is definitely one of this seasons stronger and more unique musical guest choices. 

• They were a semi established band at this time, but I still dig their sound more than most of the musical guests in SNL episodes I have reviewed recently.

Weekend Update w/Seth & Amy

Rudy Guiliani (Himself) cites his SNL hosting stint from 1997 (where he appeared in drag in a single sketch) as the reason he had to drop out of the presidential race

Nicolas Fehn (Armisen) returns to fumfer his way through another appearance

• Seth's Best Jokes: Obama Photos, Hussein/Methuselah, Oscar Winners

• Amy's Best Jokes: Beef Shortage/Hot Pockets, CU Boulder study, German napping

• Aw, fuckin' christ, this guy. Guiliani? I know he had a history at the show and he just dropped out of the race himself, but...COME ON.

• The SNL nerd in me wants to appreciate him pointing out how he once hosted and wore a dress but the parts of me that know everything else Rudy Guiliani has done since then is screaming "yeah, this guy can go straight to hell."

• The return of Nicolas Fehn. Not nearly worth hating as much as another fucking Guiliani cameo but that doesn't make this worth bringing back. 

• Even back then I immediately noticed how this was basically a carbon copy of the first one.

• Maybe it's because he followed Guiliani but I may have liked this a little more than the first one. I will admit to having chuckled at Fred's comments "who asked?" and "I saw Demitri".

• Seth and Amy were really the saving grace of this Update. Even the more "mid" jokes they told, they still looked like they were having fun telling them. C-

Shopping With Virginiaca

Virginiaca Hastings (Thompson) and her step-daughter (Page) go shopping for impossibly toght booty shirts shorts...at Baby Gap, ignoring the repeated warnings of the stores lone employee (Samberg)

• Oh God, not this again.

• I've always thought this character was basically the worst of Kenan...and on top of that, Elliot Page of all people is the absolute LAST person on Earth who should ever be playing "street" or doing a "blaccent" in anything.

• Not even Andy as the put upon store clerk could add anything worth while to this but about the only part of this I did like was his sudden "aaaaaaaaand I quit" at the end. D-

Peter Pan: Hooks' Revenge

A frustrated Captain Hook (Hader) wonders aloud why his crew of adult male pirates with loaded guns (Armisen, Forte, Thompson, Sudeikis) don't simply shoot Peter Pan (Page) and his crew of lost boys carrying only wooden swords whenever they fly on to their ship to steal their treasure.

• OK, as annoyingly on brand as this might be for me to say, this was the best and only genuinely funny sketch of the night.

• I got my biggest laughs from this and, of course, Bill did an excellent job of anchoring this. I liked how he played Captain Hook in much the same "put upon regular guy" manner he played Frankenstein in the previous season's Hugh Laurie episode.

• The one thing that does bug me is that it's the same basic joke as the 300 sketch from Peyton Mannings episode (and those "West Side Story" & "Evita" sketches with Norm MacDonald from season 22) but the writers definitely added much more to it than that.

• Specifically, what they added to this was that Captain Hooks' crew just gets too into Peter Pans and his lost boys' song & dance routine to actually shoot him (and when Haders' hook gives Armisens' Redbeard clear directions on exactly where to shoot Peter Pan he only waits until Pan has flown out of frame to fire one single flare at the spot he was just in which was a fun goofy visual gag).

• My biggest laugh likely came from Haders' Hook asking everyone to grade themselves and being exasperated at Armisens' Redbeard giving himself a B+. Forte had some great lines as Smee, too. 

• I liked how enthusiastically dialed in Elliot was (contrasted with how enthusiastically detached Jason was) and how they both really threw themselves into their performances. 

• I also liked how it then got to the point where the rest of the pirates joined in the song and dance once Amy floated in as Tinkerbell at which point Capt. Hook just threw Tink on the ground and stopped her to death.

• I also liked the semi-interactive this got with the audience when Peter Pan instructed us to clap to bring Tinkerbell back to life to which Hook responds by bailing on the whole scene once this plays out.

• Another thing that tickles me about this sketch from a hair and makeup stand point is how much Bill resembled "Weird Al" Yankovic on the cover of his then semi-recent "Straight Outta Lynwood" album (especially since I was just getting into my Weird Al phase at the time myself).

• Anyway, a sketch like this in an episode like this is a great reminded of why I signed up to cohost a podcast about Bill Hader (and his era of SNL in general, really) a year and a half ago. B+

Marty Goes Gay

As Marty (Page) excitedly raves about her experience at a Melissa Etheridge concert in great detail, her live-in boyfriend (Samberg) must help her come to terms with the fact that she may be a lesbian.

• Well, it's nice to see this era of SNL attempt a decent Marilyn Suzanne Miller-esque slice of life piece with fewer hard laugh lines and it's nice to see how well this delicate subject matter regarding real life speculation of the host's sexuality was handled at the time. It was an in-depth, detailed character study that didn't go for cheap gay jokes at any point.

• I'm not sure how well this holds up today, though...not just because Elliot has since come out as a trans man (years after coming out as a lesbian which was still years after this sketch aired) but because Sambergs' character talks about "going gay" if Pages' character turns out to be a real lesbian so they can still live together.

• I'm pretty sure a lot of people would argue that sexuality or sexual preference isn't that much of a choice or a switch you can flip on or off and anyone who says otherwise is coming from a place of ignorance or just being demeaning.

• Anyway, much like the monologue, this is mostly put over by Andy and Elliots chemistry no matter how it plays today. C+

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. Elliot Page/Wilco (03.01.2008)
6. Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

Overall Thoughts

• Upon rewatching this episode nearly two decades later, it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered it to be...but it is just as strange. Elliot wasn't quite the weak link of this episode as I had remembered, but something still felt more than a little...off.

• I don't think it's as much the writing as much as it is a combination of two specific elements. One being certain things about this episode from 2008 not having aged very well by 2026 (which I won't get into here since that's enough of a tired old complaint from me in these reviews by this point).

• The other element being that this was the second episode in a run of four in a row (which at this time SNL had not done since the back half of their first season in early 1976 and this cast would do again to kick off the following season). This would be due to Lorne Michaels wanting to get in as much election coverage as possible and make up for lost time coming back from the WGA strike as possible. 

• Normally, SNL doesn't do more than three episodes back-to-back-to-back like this (except for when they would do this again in 2016 to kick off a big fall election season and in the fall of 2020 when both that election and the height of the Covid 19 pandemic would necessitate a record breaking SIX episodes in a row).

• It's natural for an eagle eyed SNL viewer such as myself to notice a palpable burnout on the show at some point of a typical run of three episodes in a row (usually on the second or third) but when you start to notice this during the second of four or even the first of three...something may seriously be wrong backstage.

• This isn't to say Elliot didn't gel well with the cast either. He had chemistry with Andy and Amy especially. Still, something seemed...different and slightly off. This ended up being an episode that was more uneven than outright bad, at least.

• As far as cast usage goes, Amy, Andy and Fred had great nights. Kenan, Will and Jason were used decently. Kristen seemed to have an unusually light night and Bill was completely shut out of all but one sketch which still makes me wonder why we covered this entire episode on our podcast.

Closing Thoughts

• By the time this blog has been published, the current seasons of both SNL US and SNL UK will be done and both shows will be taking the entire summer off. Still, I hope you will have enjoyed reading my reviews of the last two episodes of each show's most recent seasons hosted by Matt Damon and Will Ferrell in the US and Hannah Waddingham and Ncuti Gatwa in the UK.

• As for me, you can expect Deej & I to begin covering Documentary Now Season 2 on the pod as well as moving further along with SNL season 33 over the summer. I'll have a few more blogs out during the summer reviewing those specific SNL episodes as well. I'll of course continue to review the upcoming new seasons of both SNLs when they return in the fall. See you soon!