Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

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?

Amy Poehlers' House

On this day in 1986, a teenage Amy Poehler vents in her diary about her horrible life when suddenly she falls into a hairspray induced delirium and hallucinates a long haired 80s Jon Bon Jovi coming down from his poster on her wall to inspire her to pursue her dreams of acting like her pursued his dream of being a rock star. He goes on to promise her that twenty (well...twenty one, really) years from now, she will be in the cast of Saturday Night Live when he hosts.

• Hmm...is is just me or does this cold open remind any one else of Seth MacFarlanes' "Ted" series on Peacock? Y'know, because of all the 80s fashion mixed with thick Boston accents?

• Anyway, most of the humor in this came from Amy's thick Boston accent paired with her dramatic 80s high school teen angst. In fact, I think her look here may have been based on an actual high school yearbook photo of hers.

• I can't really pick out one particular line that stood out the most aside from her saying she needed to get her hair higher before passing out, her dreams of shopping at "The Limited"instead of just working there and renting her own apartment to invite friends over for beers to and her mentioning that her monologue that got a lot of laughs at school was from "The Diary Of Anne Frank". 

• Amy really did the most with the material she had to make sure that this just BARELY got over. Fortunately for her, this cold opens shortcomings weren't her fault at all.

• Tonight's host, Jon Bon Jovi, makes his first appearance here and immediately exhibits near Steven Segal levels of mumbling his lines in the most flat barely audible way possible which, unfortunately,would continue throughout every segment he appears in for sure.

• I will say that this cold open does suggest that Mr. Bon Jovi was at least slightly easier to deal with backstage and less difficult than Mr. Segal was but still...he looks like he would rather be anywhere else but here through much of this episode (even in segments like this one that come across like one big exercise in stroking the hosts' ego). 

• As a huge SNL nerd, I gotta agree with a take I saw from Stooge after this episode first aired that it would've been better had Amy been surprised to find that SNL would still be on the air in 20 years rather than just Bon Jovi merely being the host instead of the musical guest and also having cut his hair. 

• After all, this would have been just after the infamous season 11 had concluded and the show was seriously on the brink of cancellation for the first of only two times in its now 50 year history. Realistically though, I can see the show in 2007 thinking it too "Inside Baseball" to include a joke where Amy says something like "I mean, have you SEEN that show lately? It sucks bad and it's wicked boring now." 

• Plus, October 12, 1986 would've been the day after season 12 premiered which did pretty much save the show but no one would've had any idea that would happen yet if they didn't watch the show last night or just read any TV critics reviews of it. This raises an interesting question of why a teenage Amy Poehler would be attending school on a Sunday? She does open this sketch by writing in her diary that she had gotten her period on the balance beam that day but even if she were on her schools'gymnastics team I doubt they would have practice on Sunday.

• Oh well, I'm sure I'm just splitting hairs and putting much more thought into this cold opening than the writers' did. I'll just faintly praise the unique nature of this rare non-political cold open and move on. C+  

Monologue

Jon Bon Jovi confirms that as host he will only be acting and not singing tonight to which audience members (Liz Cackowski, Steve Higgins) express disappointment. Jon's band mate Richie Sambora (himself) reminds him they have a new album out and expresses hurt feelings on behalf of the rest of the band which convinces him to preform.

• Yeah, there wasn't much to this monologue. It's only purpose was to set up Bon Jovi as our "unofficial" musical guest of the night (because how else can Jon Bon Jovi endear himself to the SNL audience at the top of the show and bring us into his own comfort zone with him, right?)

• I liked Liz and Higgins here essentially acting as literal audience surrogates (especially the way Higgins delivered his line "Who wants to see Jon Bon Jovi sing? I want to see him act! This will be the greatest night of my life! Let's go, honey.")

• I will say the one genuinely funny thing Jon did here was bail out his most well known band mate during his little deer in headlights moment by blatantly feeding him his big laugh line when he just straight up lost track of his own cue card. That alone probably made this about ten times funnier than if would've been had this part gone as smoothly as it was supposed to. C-

Bon Jovi Performs "Lost Highway"

• Eh, I've always liked "It's My Life" and "Livin' On A Prayer" just fine and passively tolerated "Dead Or Alive" but besides those...I've just never been a Bon Jovi fan.

• The fiddle in this song in particular really adds to the "completely indistinguishable from every other adult contemporary/country pop hit that came out in 2007" sound here.

• Pretty ironic that this song contains the lyric "farewell to mediocrity", huh?

Ohhhhhhhhh!

Host Johnny Vincente (Hader) hosts an Italian themed New Jersey based game show where the object is to see which of the three contestants (Armisen, Bon Jovi, Hammond) can produce the best outraged response to a minor shock or distressing situation for an every day Jersey resident. The game concludes with a speed round with prompts from a woman (Wiig) who is revealed to be the hosts goomar

• Ok, for the podcast this may seem like a cheat since this is one of the two sketches from this episode that Deej and I have previously discussed on the fifth episode of our podcast together...but I haven't talked about it on this blog yet, so in case you didn't listen to that episode, I'll get into that one again real quick here.

• Right off the bat, Bill is a solid anchor of this sketch in only his second game show host roll of his SNL tenure. Not only is he wearing the nicest suit he's ever worn on the show here but he's also giving the most entertaining performance in this.

• He's the second most convincing as a Jersey Italian (right behind the actual born and raised Jersey Italian who's hosting the show and keeps delivering all his lines in a too subdued fashion). Armisen's just trying a bit too hard. 

• Hammonds' just doing his James Gandolfini impression to justify his presence here because it's the only thing he actually can do with the material he is given. I did like his lines about his wife being fat and lazy and being a Tony Soprano impersonator that seems to perform exclusively at car washes and Bills' brief comment of "ay, all right" when he exited the scene in bills' shot when he apparently wasn't supposed to do that) more than I liked his constant shouting over the mere mentions of the word "homosexuality". 

• Wiig made a good pissed off mistress, though. Speaking of this sketches' treatment of women in general, I liked how none of the guys had any offended response to the idea of getting serviced by a prostitute and suddenly remembering today is their wifes' birthday.

• One small detail I liked were the low quality prizes here (gift certificate to Sal De Antonis' undershirt emporium, seats to Devils home game, slightly worse seats to a Devils' home game).

• Anyway, I'm sure I had more to say about this sketch in the podcast episode I linked to above, so...go listen to that one, why don't you? B+

A Visit With Former Vice President Al Gore

Al Gore (Hammond) takes you on a tour of his personal trophy room where he shows off various awards he won for all the different versions of "An Inconvenient Truth' that have ever existed.

• At first I thought that going right from "Ohhhhhhhh!" into this sketch must've been quite the rush of a quick change for Darrell until I remembered that there was a whole commercial break in between these first two sketches.

• Speaking of, one thing this sketch has going for it is that by this point, Darrell Hammond actually looks more like Al Gore than he did when he started doing this impression regularly on the show eight years earlier (mostly due to the way that the real Al Gore has aged in that time). That plus SNLs regular audience just being used to seeing this impression on the show by this point...helped make this sketch work, I guess?

• Apparently, the real Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize this week which is what spawned this sketch. Somehow, I doubt that this had anything to do with "An Inconvenient Truth" like the rest of these awards do as they don't give those out for movies (especially not ones that are more than a year old at this point).

• Odd that the joke about Al Gore winning "The Poppy" (for winning the popular vote in an election without actually getting to be president) would get the applause it did in 2007.

• While this did start off a little repetitive, there were a few odd awards here that I did get a kick out of like his Harvard mention getting no applause, the AVN award a porno version of "An Inconvenient Truth", a participation certificate for the National Punt, Pass and Kick competition, the small, framed measles vaccination certificate, the "free DVD player or touring a time share"framed flyer and, of course, O.J. Simpsons former Heisman Trophy.

• This reminded me a lot of a sketch from the January 1993 Harvey Keitel episode called "An Insane Idiot And His Descending Size Collection Of Deer Heads". C-

Digital Short: People Getting Punched Just Before Eating

Andy Samberg lands a series of wild near-flailing punches on various people (Forte, Sudeikis, Jorma Taccone, Bon Jovi, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins) just before they take a bite out of whatever food they have in their own hands. Suddenly, he runs from a group of zombies (Armisen, Danielle Flora) and then dances with them.

• Like most early digital shorts of this era, this was just pure silly goofy fun designed to bring a much needed boost of energy to this episode right when it needed one.

• The beepity-boopity techno soundtrack of this short somehow complimented this well (especially when Andy would follow every other punch by doing a goofy tongue wiggling, finger pointing jig).

• It was good of Jon Bon Jovi to get in on this but him suddenly jumping back up with a guitar and the caption "full recovery" was a little off-putting to me. Given Bon Jovis' reputation, I do genuinely wonder if he insisted on that?

• I do like the gag immediately following this when Andy has to bring his whole body to a screeching halt to stop himself from punching Jason until his sudden cell phone call he answers is over.

• I especially liked the return of a black eyed Forte threatening to punch Samberg back causing him to back off, then suddenly sneak up behind him and strangled him followed by Sambergs' goofy dance to a caption of "murder"

• The "zombies" ending may seem a bit "lol random" to the untrained eye but if you look closely you'll see that the reason Andy is suddenly holding a severed human arm is because that's what the last person he punched was eating. I commend The Lonely Island for sneaking this little "blink and you'll miss it" detail in there. B-

TBS Postseason 07 Promo

Dane Cook (Sudeikis) hypes up the upcoming MLB Playoff match between the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians

• This is the debut of Jasons' Dane Cook impression which he would only do one more after this episode. I'd say it's a pretty accurate one as he's got a decent handle on the voice and he's got Cooks' physicality and joke delivery style down pat.

• I remember these Dane Cook TBS World Series promos from around this time and this really does a great job of mocking how odd and inexplicable they felt back then. This truly felt like TBS equivalent of ABCs' hiring of Dennis Miller as a Monday Night Football color man back in 2000/01 or (more accurately) ESPN hiring Hollywoods' Robert Evans to do any kind of promos for them whatsoever (which is something I'm only familiar with from Patton Oswalt describing it).

• I liked his line about then Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia: "This C.Cs' not a music factory, he's a pitching factory." as well as "there's only one logical spokesperson for baseball, Dane Cook". C+

La Revista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci

Italian talk show host Vinny Veddecci (Hader) struggles to conduct his interview in English as he and his spaghetti eating crew (Armisen, Forte) are in utter disbelief that a man with the last name "Bon Jovi" isn't perfectly fluent in Italian (which is why they never even bothered to arrange for a translator for this interview). Talk of The Sopranos, childrens' cigarettes and robot horses ensues ending with a unique and rousing cover of "Livin' On A Prayer".

• This is the third appearance of this character as a talk show host after debuting in the previous seasons' Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol episode as well as the Zach Braff/Maroon 5 finale. He's one of my favorite early Bill Hader characters as evidenced by how Deej and I based the entire third episode of our podcast on his appearances (and I wrote a whole 'nother accompanying blog post just to go with that one where I apparently ranked this sketch as my favorite of all of this characters appearances).

• Again, I realize this may seem like a bit of a cheat given how this is the second segment from this episode alone that we've talked about on a previous episode of our own podcast...but I'm trying to shake off this nagging feeling that I have unwittingly cheated myself and my audience out of a better blog entry and podcast episode by going along with a plan that involves reviewing this episode in full, so...bear with me here, please.

• Anyway, feel free to read what I already wrote in that above linked podcast post for a more in-depth analysis of this sketch. For now, I'm just going to gloss over a few highlights.

• I liked that Vinny starts off the English portion of this interview by over pronouncing hiswords as much as possible and just generally struggling more to speak in English than he was in his previous sketches (despite what a major backslide in basic language competency and literacy this represents for the character).

• Bills' Silvio/Van Zandt impression along with Freds' Paulie Walnuts worked well for me here. I especially liked the kids' cigarette commercial set to "Blaze of Glory" (especially Paula Pells' appearance as a smoking nun and Vinnys' defense of the commercial being that the smokers were not "little kids" but rather "seven...eight year olds...MEN!").

• The robot horse gag and "Livin' On A Prayer" cover were just silly enough to work for me. Hell, I even liked Jon Bon Jovi calling out Vinny and his crew for not speaking using any of the same Italian words that his grandmother used (despite it now being so obvious that both of them are so much more fluent in English than they are in actual Italian that it makes one question why either of them would need a translator for this interview and thus decimates the logic of this entire sketch). B+

Weekend Update w/Poehler and Meyers

NBC employee Rosa Santiago (Rudolph) pitches in with a few jokes in the face of an upcoming WGA strike

Publicly nude cellphone user Josh Drimmer (Samberg) walks by the Update desk from a nearby Tads' Steaks

Political comedian Nicholas Fehn (Armisen) tries to riff on todays' headlines but cannot get a word out edgewise

• Seth's Best Jokes: Blackberry vibrations, cadaver scalps, Dirty Lou

• Amy's Best Jokes: Che Guevara tribute, Rubiks' record, boy found in Amazon, robot facials

• Hmm, I don't quite know what to make of this odd anti-comedy bi Mayas' doing. I don't mind her telling purposely bad jokes but having her do so as a, um...latina custodian, seemed a bit iffy to me. 

• I did like the brief bit of improv with the loose desk, Seth's reaction to the naked driving joke and they way she delivered the Pam Anderson/Rick Solomon joke (Jesus, why did she agree to marry HIM?)

• I guess this got on the air because it was mutually understood that Maya already had a foot out the door for the last two seasons at this point and since there was a strong possibility that either this or the next show could be her last she just wanted one second to last chance to goof around with Amy. 

• Speaking of goofy, Sambergs' naked guy bit was just brief and silly enough to get by for me.

• Here it is, folks; the debut of Armisens' Nicholas Fehn character. 

• You know, this character has fully earned its bad rap but I think I can cut his first appearance some slack since I do remember liking the first one and this was before Armisen jumped the shark and hadn't burned off any Goodwill he had earned from exhibiting a brand of off-kilter anti-comedy that actually did work. Plus, this would end up being FAR from his absolute worst character in the long run.

• I had heard Fred tell Marc Maron that this character was essentially based on David Crossand was supposed to mimic his speech patterns when trying to make a point but not having his words handy to explain his point and yeah...I've seen enough footage of David Cross to be able to see exactly what he was talking about there. C-

Foo Fighters perform "The Pretender"

• Hey, it's our ACTUAL musical guest! All right!

• Unfortunately, this is the only song the Foo Fighters get tonight.

• The musical guest only gets to do one song post Update tonight? I thought I was reviewing season 33 not season 23!

• Yeah, this is a pretty solid performance much like the most of the rest of their performances. Normally, I like the Foo Fighters and this song in particular, but...something seemed a little off vocally with Dave, like he was having a little trouble staying on key or losing his voice or something.

Where's My Purse?

A doddering dowdy old spaceship captain (Wiig) is too distracted by thoughts of her missing purse (which turned out to be right next to her captains' chair where she left it) to properly fend off a boarding and attack from hostile aliens (Bon Jovi, Thompson, Samberg) who have set out to kill her first officer (Forte) or her crew (Armisen, Hader Rudolph)

• Yeah, my memory of this being the worst live sketch of the night (well, worst sketch of the show in general, really) still definitely holds up. 

• This does feel like one of those sketches that is a harbinger for things to come as far as Kristen playing annoying, self-centered characters between seasons 34-37 goes, but at least this one fells somewhat grounded.

• I mean, after all...haven't we all encountered an older woman exactly like this just talking your ear off about personal grievances in life?

• It speaks pretty poorly to Jon Bon Jovis' presence as a host here that his simply wearing the most basic, run of the mill alien/martian head prosthetic was the moment when he seemed the most "game for anything" as a host (even while STILL mumbling his lines just as flatly disinterested as ever)

• Bill does have a funny moment in this as the crew member running in to warn everybody about the boarding aliens in a panic before being zapped with a ray gun by Kenans' character and simply whining "aw, man".

• I did get a small kick out of Kristen's character finding her purse right where she was just sitting and casually taking a ray gun out of it to nonchalantly shoot Kenans' character in the face and the ending cutaway to Fred and Mayas' characters fighting off Sambergs' alien and the next cutaway to them being a shot of them slumped over their control panels dead. C- 

TBS Postseason 07 Promo II

Dane Cook (Sudeikis) hypes up the other upcoming MLB playoff match between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks

• Ah, the second part of tonight's two part runner. This one I did like much better than the first since Jason did make mention of my home team, the Colorado Rockies (who miraculously made it to the actual 2007 World Series but lost to the Boston Red Sox of all people who managed to win it three years prior...but yeah, it was fun as a Coloradan to watch that series)

• I appreciated the "Brandon Webb/Spiderman reference" (a nod to another odd reference to an actual thing Dane Cook said in these promos) the line "I'm pretty sure one of them's a hockey team" and the line about how Rockies player Todd Helton "shouldn't have a batting average, he should have a batting outstanding". B+

Notre Dame Football on NBC

This was a fake promo that's somehow neither on the Peacock edit not the non-Peacock live air copy that I am using for this review, but it's basically just stock footage of actual Notre Dame football games set to a voice over by Steve Higgins mocking how badly they play and saying that NBC is the only place you can see this highly disappointing action.

• Man, it is hard as hell even finding a rigging TRANSCRIPT of this sketch, but what I have read about sketch its basically very "Inside Baseball"but for...well, football about what a crappy team Notre Dame is.

• One of Higgins' lines that seems to stand out among those who saw this when it aired was "Touchdown...other guy!" so, at least there's that.

What To Call The Band

As he and his band mates hold a vote, Jon Bon Jovi has a hard time convincing band mates Richie Sambora (Sudeikis), Tico Torres (Armisen), Alan Jon Such (Forte) and David Bryan (Samberg) to name the band after him instead of calling themselves "Natural Disaster"

• Well, at least we KINDA get to see Jon Bon Jovi poke fun at the idea that he has a huge ego?

• It's a little strange that this is the second sketch of the whole night where our host plays his previous, long haired 80s self but the first was the cold open which probably wasn't written until Friday at the earliest and it was decided that this was a slow enough news week/month politically that they could get away with it (unless the Al Gore thing was supposed to be the cold open at one point?)

• Anyway, this did go on a bit too long and meander, but I gotta say Jason sold his frustration just right, I liked the sequence where Jon Bon Jovi said he didn't remember the names of Will and Andy's bandmates and Will line about only wanting to stay for the first 25 years.

• I gotta say though, the ending didn't quite work for me as its' not that odd now for new up and coming artists to self title their albums. C-

Iconoclasts on IFC

IFC continues its proud tradition of having a show where two random famous people say words at each others' faces in public locations by filming singer Bjork (Wiig) and former athlete Charles Barkley (Thompson) talking about God knows what a Cheesecake Factory.

• This was a fun little goofy note to end this episode on. The timing of this is interesting because it comes right after the actual "Iconoclasts" show had Lorne Michaels and Paul Simon featured together (as well as Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle in a completely separate episode) but you could tell this was done in good spirits (not mean ones) after NBC and Lorne gave them behind the scenes access to SNLs' production schedule.

• We also get the debut appearances of two notable SNL impressions here: Kristen Wiigs' Bjork (another in a long litany of sketch impressions of this woman focusing solely on how weird and quirky she is as an artist rather than anything else about her as a singer) and Kenans Charles Barkley (an impression of his I've always liked and found very funny).

• This being the debut of Kenans' Barkley means we are seeing an early, primitive version of it before Kenan decided he needed to tighten it up which means he has slower speech patterns that are closer to the way the actual Barkley speaks. This also somehow gives his Barkley a more distinctly effeminate and flamboyant vibe that brings it closer to his "DJ Dynasty Handbag" character from "Deep House Dish" or Little Richard.

• Among the standout lines and moments for Wiig here were her making it "snow" by throwing salt up in the air and bringing along a single bicycle wheel claiming she used it to get here today. Among the stand out lines and moments for Kenan were his calling Bjork "Bork" and comparing her to Dennis Rodman "if he were a tiny white lady". B-

Goodnights

Jack Nicholson (Himself) introduces hosts' second performance

• Wow, this guy must really hate doing television because not has he only never hosted SNL in 50 years (despite making the odd cameo now and then) but I can't say I've ever seen him as a guest on that many American talk shows either.

• In fact, what did he even have in common with Jon Bon Jovi around this time? I vaguely remember hearing that they were both part owners/investors in arena football teams or something?

Bon Jovi Performs "Who Says You Can't Go Home"

• Well, it's at least nice that Jon Bon Jovi could thank "Lorne, Marci and Steve"or having him on...before closing out the show with a song that sounds exactly identical to the first one he did instead of a monologue. I guess he just named those he had to negotiate with to get to be billed as host and still do both these songs with his band?

Ranking Season 33 From Best To Worst

1. Lebron James/Kanye West (09.29.2007)
2. Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)
3. Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

Overall Thoughts

• Revisiting this episode, I have discovered that that is wasn't quite as "bad" as i remembered...just a rather uneven show that is sightly weighed down by a lackluster host. I'm slightly tempted to put him in the same category host as Steven Segal or Robert Blake but he's not as big a monster as them (although not much here suggests that he wasn't difficult to work with at all.

• Jon Bon Jovi may not have actively bought down the show or anything but he didn't exactly go out of his way to elevate any of the material...or really play many roles besides some variation on himself for that matter. Thankfully, this current cast doesn't have that problem as they could easily elevate a lot of this material without even trying. This episode really shows a lot of the cast having to pitch in to pick up some of the slack from the host.

• The best way I can assess Jon Bon Jovi as SNL host is to compare him to an Early 80s Dick Ebersol era host because that is truly what he reminds me of. That was the era of hosts being more "hands off" and not in every single sketch the whole night. Hell, even the aforementioned Robert Blake was only in two sketches outside of his own monologue back in '82 (which might be due to him turning down every pitch that was presented to him).

• Yes, I know that Jon Bon Jovi appeared way more than four times in his own episode but his basic onscreen presence during non-musical sketches was such that he pretty much disappeared into the background so much that even him not appearing in a mere two sketches was enough to make you even forget he WAS the host.

• Like I said, this episode was more truly "uneven" than bad, but for the reasons I just stated it it still the weakest of this season so far by default.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed reading this review and listening to the podcast that went along with it. I also certainly hope you enjoy reading my review of the upcoming Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons episode of SNL which I will have published by this Sunday evening.

• You know, I was thinking that if I could somehow find a way to watch/stream the upcoming premiere of SNL UK that I MIGHT just review that on this blog. If you'd be at all interested in reading that, please sound off in the comments below.

• Right now, there's three things I definitely know for sure that I will be reviewing. I've just mentioned one of them. The other two things will be the Kunuk Uncovered episode of Documentary Now for our next We Heart Hader episode and the Brian Williams/Feist episode of SNL Season 33 for the episode after that (which I will also publish a review of on this blog as well).

• See you then!

Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol (03.17.2007)

The following blog post is a companion piece to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast…and, in a way, the soft launch of my cohost Deej Barens’ new podcast Saturday Night Ladies. Give BOTH of our/her podcasts  a listen, won't you?

SNL Special Report: Road To The White House

Chris Rock weighs in on the presidential primary race.

• Apparently, this was supposed to be a Weekend Update commentary at dress rehearsal. I genuinely wonder what the original cold open to this episode was going to be that made them decide that THIS worked better?

• Hmm, according to SNL Transcripts, the original cold open must have been a Sudeikis as Bush piece where he talked about March Madness. I can see why Lorne must have thought a sudden former alumni cameo might have grabbed the audience's attention more. Too bad not a lot of Rocks’ material stood out that well.

• Anyway, if you’re familiar with Chris Rocks’ standup from…well, really ANY time period this hits just about all the specific beats you would expect (and if you’re familiar with Chris Rocks’ takes on current events and culture in general, you could probably guess which presidential candidate Rock was endorsing at this time).

• I guess you can’t say that the basic premise of “white women have suffered like this but black men have suffered like this” doesn’t hold up today since Bill Burr tackled this topic in his first SNL host monologue just five years ago. He must have been taking notes during this. Too bad Burrs’ take on the topic came at a time when it wouldn’t have been largely scrutinized on social media and just swept under the rug like Rocks’ was.

• One line that got me was Rock saying he thought “Farrakhan had died” when he saw Anna Nicole Smith had all black male pallbearers at her funeral.

• Boy, does the line about Giuliani being “great in a crisis” not hold up today. Hell, he arguably helped create the crisis America is in right now. The line about how Giuliani is like a pitbull who “might eat your kids” probably holds up way better than anyone could have imagined.

• Speaking of things that don’t hold up today, that last line…hoo boy. The fact that it’s an unoriginal burn on George W. Bush that Carlos Mencia would blatantly plagiarize a year later aside, that’s not something any TV show could get away with today. C+

Monologue

Coming off her recent Emmy win for “New Adventures of Old Christine”, Julia Louis-Dreyfus warns the audience to not judge recent candid footage of her too harshly because the media loves to take down beloved celebrities like her.

• Jokes about trashy female celebrities behaving badly may have seemed pretty played out by this point, but I’ll be damned if Julia doesn’t have the innate charm and likability to make this play well. 

• Even drunkenly vomiting into a wine glass while making “Green card” jokes aimed at America Ferrera, she’s endlessly funny in a “very primitive, unrefined shades of Selina Meyer” type way. Hell, she’s the only funny woman I’d ever want to see exit a limo with a Britney Spears-like crotch shot that reveals a bush so massive it spreads half way across her inner thighs. She even managed to add some class to THAT!

• One of my favorite lines in this from Julia: “They can even make a nice woman like that lovely Ann Coulter look like a monster!” 

• I liked how this was a very direct and to the point monologue that got in, got its laughs and got out. B-

Oprah 

Oprah Winfrey (Maya Rudolph) interviews author of “The Secret” Rhonda Byrne (Amy Poehler) on how her book can help regular people control the universe with their positive thoughts and energy. Recently divorced housewife Pamela Headley (Louis-Dreyfus) and Darfurian refugee Olessi Oneweja (Kenan Thompson) discuss how the positive thinking taught in “The Secret” has NOT changed their lives and are criticized for letting their own negative energy bring them down.

• Geez, two seemingly laser focused pop culture themed sketches in a row? Was Tina Fey a guest writer this week?

• Anyway, I’ve never read “The Secret” and my only context for it were the few parodies of it I have encountered around this time. Still, I would say the overall message to this sketch is that you still need fame, wealth and social clout to make “The Secret” work for you (otherwise you appear as a mentally unstable loser with a tenuous grasp on reality in the eyes of others) still resonates today.

• I liked the small detail of Julia's character having unexplained adult braces. Even though Amy was mostly the straight woman in this sketch, her deranged facial expressions paired with her labored Australian accent were something I got a kick out of. Julia played her derangement well too but it’s a shame that Amy Poehler didn't get quite as many chances to play crazy eyed not-all-there Australian women as Kate McKinnon did.

• Mayas’ Oprah didn’t add too much here besides some necessary historical context and Kenan’s part was fine (if not a bit too telegraphed for my liking). Otherwise, this was a pretty decent sketch. C+

Monex

Ros Gentle (Kristen Wiig) wants you to invest in, lovingly caress and decorate your home in gold.

• Geez, yet another parody of a very specific advertisement from this time! (at least I think it is as I noticed Wiigs’ character was listed as an “impression” on SNL Archives).

• Anyway, this was very well acted on Wiigs’ part. She underplayed her main to the exact right hilt. It seemed like Kristen knew when to really rein it in here but it probably helps that this is a pretape and another focused impression of a specific pitchwoman from this time (again, hey! Two in a row).

• Some of my favorite moments in this were Wiig's line about the value of gold having “gone up a little bit”, the Goldie Hawn photo in her living room and her drinking Florida Gold brand Orange Juice. B+

Restless Penis Syndrome

Karen Danbury (Dreyfus) is highly suspicious of her husband's (Jason Sudeikis) claim that his staying out late is a result of his uncontrollable RPS diagnosis until his physician Dr. Highsmith (Thompson) suddenly shows up to help plead his case along with two commercial pitchmen (Hader and Samberg V/O). Karen suddenly changes her tune when she finds out that she is featured in a sudden PSA.

• Hmm, given what we know about Jasons’ dating history during his time on the show…I wonder how much of this sketch was drawn from real life?

• Anyway, this was another well crafted sketch that started with a hint of semi-dramatic, slice of life acting turning into a committed sophomoric gag and ending with a fourth wall dissolution. It almost felt like something out of a different era of the show. It even reminds me a bit of the “National Uvula Association” sketch from season one!

• Bills’ first appearance of the night. A-

La Revista Della Televisione

Italian talk show host Vinny Vedecci (Bill Hader) welcomes Julia who awkwardly stumbles through her outlandish interview as she doesn’t speak or know any Italian causing a spat between Vinny and his crew (Fred Armisen, Will Forte). Vinny's daughter Fabiola (Rudolph) makes an appearance.

• Bill actually debuted this character in the previous seasons’ Catherine Zeta Jones episode as an Italian hotel manager. Here, this character makes its debut in what would more or less become its regular form.

• This was a great “official” debut for this character and Julia was the perfect first guest for him. His Kramer and Jerry impressions were great here as was his dubbing over Julias’ part in “Old Christine”. Maya reciting the days of the week in slightly broken English was charming. 

• This sketch seemed more focused on establishing its own format and setting rather than setting up the sleaziness of its main character (which would come later in future installments). It seemed more focused on recreating the baffling absurdity of foreign talk shows to viewers from outside their culture and it really serves this sketch as well as the vibe of this season/episode strongly.

• Anyway, what else is there left to say about this sketch that I haven’t already mentioned in a previous blog and podcast? A-

Snow Patrol Performs “You’re All I Have” and “Chasing Cars”

• “You’re All I Have” lies somewhere between “indistinguishable from all the other bland mid aughts power pop out there” and “what if Mumford and Sons did indie rock instead of butt folk?” That is the best way I can describe this song.

• Now, “Chasing Cars” is the song that most people remember from this group. Typical sad indie rock that fits right in with the alt rock trends of this era.

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

Judge Larry Seidlin (Armisen) cries while reading a list of names of federal attorneys fired by Alberto Gonzales for not exhibiting enough “loyalty” to George W. Bush…and then tells a story about encountering elephants and monkeys with red plastic asses in the Bronx Zoo as a young peanut seller

Amy takes a shot to celebrate St Patricks’ Day and drunk dials Seth from across the desk who quickly offers her a cup of coffee to sober up.

• Geez, jokes about federal attorneys being fired for not being “loyal” enough to a sitting Republican US President play WAY differently in 2025, huh?

• Anyway, Amy had the lion's share of good jokes this week with that “Haliburton/Dubai, Alberto Gonzales, Bush visit Colombia, fat talk/The View” run.

• Armisens’ commentary was typical Armisen shtick from this era that’s easy to tune out (overly long, self indulgent, heavy New York accent) but I did get some chuckles from his absurd Bronx Zoo story.

• The St Patricks’ Day shots bit was cute and focused enough to not feel too self indulgent on Amys’ part. It definitely had the energy of a bit where one performer is desperately trying to get the other performer to break but the audience also feels like they are in on the joke.

• Seth’s only stand out joke was the salmon/grizzly bear one. I also liked Amys’ ski mask/James Brown/Angelina Jolie/Stray Cats jokes, too. B-

Deep House Dish

DJ Dynasty Handbag (Thompson) and T’Shane (Samberg) welcome edgy girl group Legguns (Poehler, Rudolph, Wiig), singer DeDe Wells (Dreyfus) and DJ Quality (Sudeikis)

• Ooh wee. Here’s one of the more low-key divisive sketches of this era from two of the most low-key divisive writers of any new millennium era of SNL (James Anderson and Kent Sublette).

• Personally, I’m not as down on these sketches as some were at the time. If you weren’t a fan of the less matured, less “grown up” pre-season 38 Kenan, I can see why you might have a problem with these. 

• While I’ve always thought Kenans’ character was the biggest demerit of these sketches, the songs were usually just ridiculous enough to work for me here. Plus, the season 32 versions of this sketch worked better for me because Samberg was a better “dumb, goofy sidekick” to Kenan than Rachel Dratch’s character Tiara and these sketches felt more punched up and focused in general by that point.

• That being said, Legguns did a fine job of answering the musical question “what if The Ting Tings were also The Bangles and Klymaxxx?” Julia and Jasons’ songs were great. Hell, Julias’ whole character was great in this. I liked Sambergs’ character admitting to being a guest at Julias’ disastrous hot tub chilli party. Seeing Jason break out his future “What Up With That” dance moves was also very fun. Could’ve done without Kenans’ direct message to Britney “Spurrs” though, but Andys’ jokes about her freshly shaved head were a funny enough counter to that. 

• Come to think of it, I did get a kick out of Kenans’ “Ann Coulter/Isaiah Washington” joke (I’m not even going to bother researching that one let alone explaining it). C+

CBS Cares

As Mike Underballs (Hader) directs Julia in a mammogram PSA, he must settle a spat between his star and his boom mike operator Jeff (Sudeikis)

• Hey, another sketch where Jason and Julia are stand out performers…oh, and Bill of course!

• Well, we just went from “low key divisive” sketch to “low key terrific” (as Ralph Nader would inspire That Week In SNLs’ Andrew Dick and Tim Cicalli to say).

• This might be more a Sudeikis showcase but once Hader suddenly shifts out of straight man mode, this really becomes a showcase for the two of them and how differently they play “angry/frustrated” off of each other and Julia.

• Jasons’ various insults to Julia were great, especially his pointing the boom mike at her breast and crotch level.

• Bills’ best moments were the various “Jyyyeeeffffs” and the line “I don’t need the jingle on every bad take.” B+

Homebots

A married couple (Julia and Jason) try to convince their friends (Hader and Wiig) that winning the lottery hasn’t changed them despite their newfound appreciation of three way sex acts between their new house cleaning robot (Forte) and the other two robots (Armisen and Thompson) whose sole purposes are to repair the other two robots after their many malfunctions

• Ok, this is obviously a very Will Forte-ish premise considering his affinity for playing various robots throughout his SNL career (and the fact that he actually did audition for the show with an old trunk bit of his where he sings as a robotic street performer about how he performs certain oral favors just for his face paint).

• Unfortunately, this is the type of Forte weirdness I’m not typically a fan of since it feels more like testing the audiences’ patience and boundaries than being truly weirdly funny. This seems more designed to get the type of audience reaction that the Vogelcheck sketches do than anything.

• Bill, Jason, Kristen and Julia were great at playing their disgust off them, though which really added to this and I’ll admit I did get a kick out of Kenan coming in at the end just to utter the closing line “extreme robot threesome”. C- 

The Search For The Next (Pussycat) Doll

Judges Robin Antin (Dreyfus), Lil Kim (Thompson) and McKenzie Jazz (Samberg) lead the search for the most mediocre and unremarkable moderately attractive female singers and dancers (Poehler, Wiig, Rudolph) to join The Pussycat Dolls and blend into the background perfectly against the lead singer

• Wow, this really is 2007, huh?

• From the way Bill as the announcer pretty much spends 75% of this sketches’ runtime laying out exactly what SNLs’ whole take is here, this sketch felt more like a watered down version of something MADtv or Family Guy would have done around this time. SNL doing this in the same episode as the Oprah/Secret sketch just shows that they weren’t quite as removed from seasons 30 and 31 as I remembered.

• Yeah, this sketch mostly consisted of the same tired “trash culture” observations about reality competition TV and prefabricated, oversexualized pop music girl groups you could find anywhere at this time but the performances from the female cast were the only thing this had going for it. Samberg did the most he could with his one and only line here.

• Ugh, Kenan in drag as Lil Kim seems like a grim sign of things SNL may be going back to in season 51 now that Ego Nwodim is out…and Kam Patterson is somehow still in. Let’s just all hope and pray that it doesn’t come to that again. C-

Overall Thoughts

• Like most SNL episodes I have reviewed from this specific time period, there’s a couple of well-remembered and often replayed classics in this that somehow managed to not get lost in the shuffle of more than a few bits that don’t hold up. That same thing could be said about this episode, too. 

• Fortunately, this episode didn’t have a lot of blatantly noticeable “punching down” as much as just a running theme of “sorry folks, this is just where our culture and politics are at right now” contributing to what doesn’t hold up.

• Even more fortunately, Julia Louis-Dreyfus was the ideal host to carry this episode and bring the best out of this cast (especially the women). Thankfully, this episode had an infectious energy to it that was somehow missing from Julias’ first hosting stint a year earlier. It also probably helps in that regard that they were too far away from the end of the season to be completely burnt out yet.

• Not only does this episode have enough notable Bill Hader moments for Deej and I to dissect it on our own podcast, it has enough moments with SNLs female cast from two different eras collaborating together that we both thought it would the timing and synergy of it all would be the ideal cross promotion for Deejs’ new podcast Saturday Night Ladies with cohost Shari Fesko (who you may also have seen on the SNN Patron feedback shows much like Deej and myself). 

• The only better cross promotion we could think of would be if we could’ve gotten Shari to be a guest on this episode with us, but sadly, (much like all the other guests we have tried to book for We Heart Hader besides Jon Schneider who’ve expressed interest) we couldn’t get our recording schedule to sync up with their availability. Don’t worry, Shari. You’ll get your chance some day!

Closing Thoughts

• Once again, I can’t guarantee what will be coming up next on this blog or my own podcast at this time as we haven’t nailed down any more specific future plans yet. The only thing I can even come close to confirming right now is that I should have a new review of SNLs’ Season 51 premiere up sometime on October 5th, 2025. See you then!

• Oh, one more thing. Due to the new demands on Deejs’ podcasting schedule, new releases of We Heart Hader episodes will now be pushed back from Thursday to Friday. I know our previous episode dropped on a Saturday but this was due to technical difficulties and various illnesses (on both sides).

• Full disclosure: I’ve been visiting my father in the hospital for the past two weeks, so if something seemed a little off about our previous recording, that’s on me. I was still getting into the right headspace to record as we started recording so only about halfway through it was I fully “there”.