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”.

Julia Loius-Dreyfus/Paul Simon (05.13.2006)

This blog entry is a companion piece to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader podcast. Give it a listen, won't you? 

You can either finish reading this blog post first and then listen or you could just listen first and then come back to this. Do whatever you want. It's up to you. I certainly won't mind.

Parallel Earth

In an alternate timeline, 43rd U.S. President Al Gore (Himself) addresses the nation on such crucial issues as giant renegade glaciers, bailing out the big oil companies and keeping the nations’ trillion dollar budget surplus inside the good ol’ lockbox.

• Even though the “lockbox” callback didn't quite land and this was a pure liberal fantasy (Michael Moore AND George Clooney on the Supreme Court? Come on, guys…) and seemed like it only served the purpose of the show indulging Gore's wish fulfillment even more than The West Wing Short from the episode he hosted four years earlier, parts of this were quite funny if you can get around Gore's typical dry, stuffy delivery.

• Gore's lines about having created “an anti hurricane and tornado machine” and George W. Bush being a mere MLB commissioner being tasked with tapping phones to find out which players are steroid abusers made me laugh.

• I also liked the lines about Six Flags Tehran, Afghanistan becoming a popular spring break destination, Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming “El Presidente” of “Mexifornia” in order to solve the immigration issue which has a strong economy. Other than that, the rest of this may have been lost to the mid aughts time fog. 

• I also liked his segue into LFNY being “the scariest thing we Americans have to fear.” C+

Monologue 

Julia Loius-Dreyfus discusses how “New Adventures Of Old Christine” captures the right audience and debunks the myth of her breaking “the Seinfeld curse” after chance encounters with Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld (Themselves)

• Very nice of Julia to acknowledge her time as a cast member AND the fact that she is the first female alum to host the show!

• The rant about retitling “Old Christine” with the words “New” and “Adventures” to appeal more to men instead of using other proposed titles like “Football Christine”, “Barbecue Spaceship Christine”, “Coke Off A Whores’ Ass Christine” and “CSI: Christine” didn't quite work for me but Julia did her damndest to put this over.

• I did like how this monologue incorporated another pre-taped “Digital Short but more upscale” piece with Julia bumping into Jason Alexander in the streets of NYC.

• Jason and Julia's interaction mostly worked for me with Jasons pathetic Costanza-like unraveling at Julia having a legitimate hit sitcom after his two failed shows in a row followed by Jason being hit by a car after excitedly running out into the street once Julia tells him she could try to get him on this week's SNL. All of this played out well in a funny and entertaining way.

• The ending with Jerry having cut the wires that led to the stage light falling and missing Julia felt kind of awkwardly shoved in. It didn't totally make sense and felt like a cheap excuse to get Jerry to make a filmed cameo just so the show would be able to say they had a “Seinfeld reunion” and the press could run with that as a headline.

• Speaking of which, it's a bit telling that Michael Richards wasn't involved in this monologue…and this would've been several months before the incident at the Laugh Factory. I think the best case scenario would be that he was simply asked to participate and declined.

• I am curious to know who wrote this as it doesn't seem to be totally in SNLs’ voice in this period (unless maybe Tina, Seth or Colin Jost contributed to the “Old Christine” rant at the beginning?) and the Jason/Jerry cameos make this feel like they got someone like David Mandell or another former Seinfeld scribe to come on as a guest writer this week? B-

Tech Pack

You'll be “blown away” by this new device that allows you to store your phone, mp3 player and digital camera on your body as you run through the airport.

• Get it? Because it's a wrap around waist fanny pack with extra wiring and a game show buzzer to “control” all of your devices that looks like a suicide bomb both up close AND from a distance!

• This was a decent blackout piece that worked well enough. The only thing that may have aged this was that the advent of smartphones may have rendered this obsolete but Sudeikis sold the sheer obliviousness of this well. C+

Bum Attention

Jen (Dreyfus) is distraught that the is the only one of her three friends at lunch not to get grossly hit on by a creepy, dirty, bum (Hader) on their way to lunch. Her friends (Dratch, Poehler, Rudolph) feel bad enough to pay this man to say something to her.

• Pretty straightforward concept here. While this may have been an inauspicious start for him in this episode, Bill may have been the only male member of this cast who could properly sell the sleaze of this.

• Amy and JLD were the only ones on the female side who could make this work as well. I can't really imagine any other female host that could've made this work better.

• Sudeikis was great as the maitre d trying to kick out Hader’s character.

• James’ Taylor's “Shower The People” was the funniest possible needle drop here.

• I remember having read somewhere that this exact sketch was originally cut from the Billy Bob Thornton/Creed episode nearly five years earlier. Really would've been interesting to see how this played out then. C+

Morning Show

Cohosts (Wiig) and (Sanz) are plagued with production problems including audio problems rendering the weatherman (Armisen) inaudible, word of an old crew members sudden death on his 72nd birthday not getting around before air and a repeating peppy theme song accidentally playing over guest author (Dreyfus) relaying how her harrowing story of drug addiction inspired her new book.

• While I mostly liked the idea behind this sketch, it felt like a big case of “been there, done that” for me as I know for sure I've seen MADtv do several “local newscast goes horribly wrong” sketches around this time (hell, even SNL already did one of these with Ferrell and Gasteyer four years earlier and MADtv even based an entire sketch around that “leather chair making accidental fart sound when sat on” gag with JLD here).

• Unfortunately, this sketch didn't really escalate itself to any interesting or creative new places those previous sketches didn't.

• I suppose the “Happy Birthday, Stan!” callbacks were funny and JLD played her part well, though.

• The gag with Horatio walking back to his chair but tripping, falling and having to grab JLDs’ boobs for leverage was funny…but the fact that it was Horatio of all people makes it play…differently today. I'll explain why later. C-

MySpace Seminar

At the Learning Annex, hip 27 year old Danny (Samberg) teaches a group consisting of one dorky 40 year old suburban mom (Loius-Dreyfus) and six obvious middle aged pedophiles with flimsy covers (Hader, Forte, Meyers, Parnell, Sanz, Sudeikis) how to create and fill out their own MySpace profiles.

• MySpace references and cheap pedophile jokes? Is this the most 2006-ass SNL sketch ever? It has certainly aged weird for a sketch that may have been a well loved deep cut from this era (I'll get to that part a few bullet points from now).

• For starters, I'll say that Julia brings her own take and unique presence to the “cloying mom” role that we wouldn't get from Amy, Maya, Kristen or Rachel (some of whom have already played these roles in the past so much it's easy to picture any of them here).

• Similarly, Seth is bringing his own unique take to the “creepy, degenerate budding pedophile” role that's way further off the beaten path than what the other guys are giving us. His “Dateline” joke actually landed despite how telegraphed that might have felt. 

• Speaking of Seth, I have a feeling he may have written this sketch as well since it matches his style, he was co head writer with Tina this season (probably preparing to step up and fill that role full time once Tina left) and it reminds me a bit of the “Coach Burt” sketch from Steve Buscemis’ 2011 episode that I know he did write.

• Bill's few lines (and Jason's one) here aren't necessarily the big laugh getters in this sketch but he does a good job setting the tone here (as well as setting up some plausibility that the sketch is actually targeting MySpace and even just the internet itself for not doing a better job of safeguarding themselves against online predators instead of just being an “lol pedophiles” sketch).

• Speaking of parts of this particular sketch that have aged weird…Horatio playing one of the pedophiles in this sketch is…well, maybe a little too on the nose if you're aware of the lawsuit against him. That being said, his mini nervous breakdown while explaining his username “9thGradeSk8rBoi” username was actually funny.

• Forte seems to be playing a primitive, muted version of his classic Jeff Montgomery character here. It still works here and is still very funny particularly his fake typing and insincere “ooohh noooo I don't want thaaaat line read when Andy suggests he change his username from “NaughtyGirlHotStuff”.

• The ending with Finesse entering as a cop looking for his own class as the pedophiles rushed out and Horatio simply placing a plant in front of his face and standing in a corner worked for me. B-

Paul Simon - “How Can You Live In The Northeast” and “Outrageous” 

• Not much to say about these performances. I liked the songs even though they were semi Mellow deep cuts.

• He sure has a lot of questions to ask us though. He's like some kind of cross between Bob Dylan and Joan Osborne.

• I guess Paul just had some new album out at the time and given his connections to the earliest years of SNL I can see how they wanted to book him to make this episode feel like more of an “event”?

Weekend Update w/Fey & Poehler 

Al Gore (Himself) and Amy Poehler debate the merits of global warming

Finesse Mitchell delivers a commentary on the do's and don'ts of high school prom fashion

Tina's grandfather Wolfgang Fey (Armisen) has difficulty with the automated phone system (Dratch) used to sign up for prescription Medicare

David Blaine (Samberg) attempts to hold his breath at the Update desk for nine minutes…but only makes it to 21 seconds

• The only joke I liked during this Update was Amy's lone about new body armor for soldiers in Iraq looking “too goofy” (“Donald Rumsfeld said ‘that's good…we only ordered seven of them’).

• At least Tinas’ joke about high schoolers breaking their virginity pledges “if she's on her game” continues a minor THEME!!! for the night.

• If the bar starts at a new satellite channel for toddlers having a hit show called “CSI: Poopy Town” or New Jersey changing its slogan to “I Love NY”, something is seriously wrong.

• Good thing this Update was overstuffed with commentaries.

• Al Gore's second cameo of the night surprisingly didn't play well. It seemed like it mostly served the function of letting him plug “An Inconvenient Truth” against Amy playing up her “dumb blonde” persona. 

• I did like the part of Gore's commentary where he just showed a heavily redacted White House memo with just the words “CONJECTURE /UNSUBSTANTIATED/ LOONEY TUNES!!” and “Everything…is…great…drive…big…car…a lot.”

• Armisens’ segment playing Tinas’ grandfather trying to sign up for a Medicare prescription plan over the phone was…OK. I kinda liked the ending with him having accidentally ordered 18 tickets to Scary Movie 4 at a Magic Johnson Theater. It was funny enough but other than that it was just “lol old people and their Medicare problems”. Maybe with my new job this hits a little too close to home to be funny…but even when I saw this nearly 20 years ago it wasn't that funny either.

• Strangely, Finesses’ commentary might have been the funniest part of this Update. It was just some harmless riffing on outlandish teen prom fashion.

• I especially liked the “boots”, “pimp/magician” and “Skittles” jokes as well as his own admission that his mom took him as his date to her own prom because she couldn't find a babysitter.

• Sambergs David Blaine commentary is a close second to Finesses’ since he sold it on sheer Samberg goofiness alone with a small assist from Sudeikis.

• Seems odd to me that they put all that makeup on just his hands to achieve that “prune hands” effect when it wouldn't have taken THAT long to just soak his hands on water. C+

Charades 

In this vintage GSN rerun from 1979, host Bert Convy (Parnell) gives clues to stewardess Beth Burns (Poehler) and housewife Debbie Wagner (Dreyfus) that celebrity guest judges Rich Little (Hammond), Nipsy Russel (Thompson), Charo (Maya Rudolph) and Olympian Caitlyn Jenner (Forte) must guess based on the crude, accidentally blatantly sexual gestures Beth & Debbie must resort to making.

• This sketch was just…all over the place.

• Premise-wise, it was purely ribaldry. The only twist is that the panel of 70s celebrities are only able to guess Poehlers’ guesses correctly and make Dreyfus the butt of cheap sex jokes making Dreyfus lose and Poehler the reigning champion.

• Still, there's some fun to be had if one can see the forest for the trees.

• For instance, Kenan's chipper acting and less raunchy guesses (“checking for hernias?”) were delightful.

• Darrells’ jammed in bursts of dated-even-then impressions (“as W.C. Fields would say ‘ah yes, a housewife'”) and Parnells’ mock-polite-annoyance was possibly the funniest part of this whole sketch. 

• Seriously, Darrells’ portrayal of Rich Little as an out-of-touch dated hack does come across quite a bit funnier if you've seen the actual Rich Little “Christmas Carol” special from 1979.

• Chris' acting does remind me quite a bit of his acting opposite Jimmy Fallon as Kevin Pollack in that Celebrity Poker sketch from season 29.

• Forte as Caitlyn Jenner seemed like it was just there for set dressing and Armisens’ Carlin isn't quite as good as he seems to think it is. In fact, it's pretty much a watered down version of Rick Moranis’ George Carlin from SCTV. His constant guessing of “party at ___________s’ house” got old quick.

• Maya as Charo, while visually dazzling and understandably over the top, was probably the biggest thing weighing this sketch down. The “casting couch” type jokes were a bit off putting but hey, at least she's not slut shaming herself? C+

Unsolved Mysteries

Actress Michelle Armstrong (Dreyfus) is filming a reenactment of the abduction of Sandy Patterson (Wiig). She tells director Sean Driscoll (Parnell) that she has trouble suspending her disbelief at the outrageous story that somehow involves aliens (Forte) “led” by Dracula (Armisen) as well as E.T. (Forte V/O) a handful of gremlins and ghosts, and Col. Sanders (Hader) rescuing her. 

• Chris and Julia were both solid in straight roles while Kristen, in a rare feat, manages to play one of her paint-by-numbers over the top wacky/crazy lady roles (and this character, we're supposed to believe, is legitimately, mentally ill with Parnell simply enabling her) in a restrained enough capacity to NOT steal focus from any of the other players and place the focus onto herself. In fact, she seemed to be doing a milder version of her Target Lady voice here. I even liked how she over pronounced the hard T when she said “I was so fright-ened”.

• I got a kick out of the sounds of moaning ghosts including one's who just said “boo” and simply “ghost” (were Steve Higgins and Jason Sudeikis doing those voices?) as well as the prop E.T. arm hanging out of a closet.

• Bill really nailed his brief absurd walk on asking if his Col. Sanders is supposed to enter through the window.

• I even thought the ending where Darrel Hammond as Robert Stack came on to inform us that JLDs character was seemingly abducted by Cap'n Crunch was fun and thematically appropriate.

• The only criticism I have of this sketch is how it seemed like a cheap excuse to throw a bunch of random 80s pop culture references together (“monkeycheese” style as…a certain other popular SNL podcaster would say) and 2006 seeming like an odd time for an Unsolved Mysteries parody. I mean, I'm not even sure Robert Stack was still alive at this time let alone if Unsolved Mysteries was even on in reruns anywhere but hey…SNL got away with a lot of “random 80s pop culture reference” sketches around this era (in fact, a lot comedy did…particularly this show and internet comedy…I guess 80s nostalgia was just particularly en vogue in the mid aughts) and they mostly worked regardless of the time fog so, I think I can let this one slide. C+

Digital Short: Peyote

In a PSA for Peyote, Will Forte attempts to talk Andy Samberg out of suicide while they both appear to be in altered states.

• This was essentially a near blackout length gag and it was very funny, but at the same time rather complicated to explain without visuals, but I'll give it a try.

• The idea is that at first we see very tight shots of Forte (looking up & speaking through a megaphone) and Samberg (looking down slightly and leaning tightly against a wall with the corner of a window just above him in frame).

• About 38 seconds in we pull out to reveal both Forte & Samberg are on the sidewalk, Samberg standing with Forte on his knees and Jorma Taccone walking by and shooting them both a dirty look. The tag line for the whole thing is “Through Good Time And Bad: Peyote”

• Essentially, this digital short is basically a cross between “Lettuce” and “Close Talkers” but this was a great piece of brief drug induced absurdity to place in the ten to one spot that was a very uniquely Forte/TLI joint. B+

Overall Thoughts

• Boy, this episode was all over the place, wasn't it?

• There may have been a couple of lowkey classic deep cuts in this episode but overall it felt shockingly…forgettable given all the names involved (and especially when you compare it to both of JLDs’ subsequent host outings).

• I think the one thing bringing this episode down a little was the palpable sense of burnout lingering through the proceedings. 

• I mean, the lead off sketch was a dusted off dress cut from four seasons ago and Update especially felt like it was running on fumes. 

• They must've been pinning their hopes on Julia putting a lot of sketches over (which, hey…I get it) but this episode really had the feeling of “we're really just running put the clock on this season so we can get to figuring out how we can reconfigure the show in the face of looming cast departures and upcoming budget cuts at NBC”.

• At least they seemed to have been able to figure out a way to make Julia the main focus of the show without making it seem like cast airtime was unbalanced at all. No cast member was completely shut out of the show.

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, that was an episode more notable for its significance in the context of SNLs history more than…most of the sketches from it that aired.

• …and hey, if you haven't already done so BEFORE reading all of the preceding words for whatever reason, please find the time in your day to listen to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast that I essentially wrote this specific blog entry for.

• Yes, I know about 90% of this blog is literally a transcription of said podcast as these are essentially all the notes I prepared for said recording, but still…I put a lot of effort into both and it would mean the world to me if you took the time to listen to the podcast I made with Deej in addition to reading this blog.

• Speaking of, the next entry on this blog will likely be a full length review of the upcoming Quinta Brunson/Benson Boone episode of SNL which will air on the night of May 3rd (so, naturally, that review will be posted to this blog on the evening of May 4th).

• The next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast will be available two weeks from today and it will feature our first ever guest! That's right, Jon Schneider, the main host and creator of The Saturday Night Network himself will join us as we each count down our personal top 5 Bill Hader sketches of season 31!

• Deej and I are both eternally grateful to Jon for giving us each our first shot on his show and continuously having us both on as part of his Patron Feedback shows. Naturally, we always wanted to have him on with us as a guest at some point down the line but very recently Deej and I discussed it and decided that Jon should be our FIRST EVER guest because it just wouldn't seem right to have it any other way as we start bringing on guests in general…so yeah, we moved those plans up quite a bit.

• Now, I know I have been teasing some potential upcoming guests for our podcast myself (whom I have since reached out to privately and fortunately they both have expressed interest) but I was actually just hinting at two other people I wanted to possibly get on for a very specific season 32 centric discussion that I have no idea when we'll get to record at this point…so, I guess I should hold off on saying any more about those tentative plans until they get nailed down in the near future.

• Anyway, see you soon!

Ranking Each Vinny Vedecci Sketch (Worst To Best)

This "special edition" blog post is meant as a companion piece to the latest episode of me and Deej Barens' podcast "We Heart Hader" which I, as always, will encourage you to go listen to if you're reading this.

9. Drew Barrymore - 10/10/09

• This may have been the weakest of all the Vinny Vedecci sketches for me, personally.

• The "et/E.T" and "Whip It" jokes were real low points (as sad as that is to say about a Devo reference). Drews' line about how "this must have never happened before" was an even more tired button on a lame tired trope.

• The Letterman/Mrs. Vedecci references and "female director/speaking of your breasts" jokes were OK but they felt a little too telegraphed for my liking. The Letterman jokes at least added a nice topical wrinkle to these.

• On the plus side, we at least get to see Vinny Jr as a belligerent drunk now.

8. Catherine Zeta Jones - 10/23/05

• This is the characters' first appearance in SNL. He doesn't host a talk show yet, but he does run a hotel in Italy. Rather than playing herself, Catherine is playing Vinnys' wife. She, Beppo (Armisen) and Sanz all run the hotel together.

• Sudeikis, Poehler & Thompson are three American tourists who enter asking to use their phone because their bus broke down. Sanz tells them the bus will not work so they are forced to stay the night.

• This sketch plays upon a well worn comedy trope of foreigners making numerous references to '70s/80s American pop culture as if they just got them there.

• Vinny and his wife frequently fight (especially when he tries to hit on Poehlers' character) but quickly make up. Hader treats "ma bella" as something of a catchphrase.

• They also do imitations of the tourists in nerdy, nasal voices (especially Armisens character). This also plays upon some slight racial tropes with Hader making an out of nowhere Rodney King reference to Kenan and at one point simply saying "we are not afraid of you".

• The tourists all leave by the end with the reveal that Sanz has stolen their passports.

• This wasn't the best debut for this character so it's probably for the best that the setting is changed and the writing is focused and tightened up. Hader undeniably brings a fresh new energy and charisma to the show that was sorely needed at this time.

7. Robert Deniro - 12/04/2010

• Same old intro but even the stiff Walken-lite presence of latter day Deniro on SNL really adds something to this and Bill plays off him greatly with his abundant energy.

• Deniro killing the "deer" from Deer Hunter, angry drunk Vinny Jr and the "you talking to me?" gag were the highlights of this.

6. John Malkovich - 12/06/08

• Armisens' character lies and says Malkovich told him he could speak Italian. Vinny mimics Malkovichs' voice expertly.

• Vinny plugs his own film similar to "Being John Malkovich" titled "Being Vinny Vedecci" which is 20 hours of pornography spread across an 8 DVD box set.

• Naturally, with this being Bobby Moynihans' first season, we are introduced to his character of Vinny Vedecci Jr. A small boy who smokes just like his proud papa.

• Not the strongest of these sketches but the impression and "pornography is sex film?" joke may be the highlights of this one.

5. Seth Rogen - 04/04/09

• The "glasses" gag with Armisen was just an unnecessary button on a tired intro trope of these sketches.

• Here Seth Rogen learns that he is known in Italy as " The Bear Man" and all his films are part of the "Bear Man" series of Horror films. 

• "Super Bad" being known as "Bear Man And A Very Very Handsome Gentleman" was cute.

• Vinny imitating Seth's voice (dead on of course) may have been one of my biggest laughs of the tail end of season 34. Glad to see that still holds up today.

4. Zach Braff - 05/19/07

• Set is more minimal as it would be for other installments. Columns and reflected light are removed.

• Vinny does Peter Falk/Columbo impression after learning Zach Braff made his acting debut in "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (which Peter Falk was NOT in).

• Zach learns that Scrubs is dubbed over to be very intense as it is shown as the #1 drama in Italy. The Italians do not find this show funny. The edited out of context Scrubs clip might have been the comedic high point of this. The editing made it obviously better, I'm sure.

• Zach is then asked to kiss a puppet that sprays "vomit" on him which highly amuses the crew. Karate Gorilla is bumped, much to his frustration. That got a laugh out of me.

• Zach Braff seemed an odd fit for this sketch in the first part, but they made it work. This wasn't as good as the JLD installment, but far from the worst of these.

3. Shia LaBeouf - 05/10/08

• Refreshingly, this is the only Vinny Vedecci sketch NOT to begin with the hassle over the host revealing they do not speak Italian followed by Vinny getting into a shouting match with his spaghetti chomping producers (Armisen and a silent Forte). They immediately clear up the confusion by having Vinny explain that he speaks English.

• The Transformers/sex change joke annoyed me slightly back in 2008 but definitely wouldn't hold up today. The smoking arrest (especially with Lorne and Cue Card Wallys' cameos) and Indiana Jones dubbing jokes make up for that though.

• The "HE HATES SNAKES!!!" Joke with Sambergs' sudden appearance may be the high point of this episode. In fact, it almost seems like a gag taken straight out of a Vincent Price sketch.

2. Julia Loius-Dreyfus - 03/17/07

• This is the first sketch with Vinny in his new permanent setting as host of a Charlie Rose-like talk show (in all ways possible, apparently).

• Vinny gets into shouting matches with his spaghetti eating producer (Armisen) over JLD not being fluent in Italian. This will essentially be the opening of all but one installment of this sketch.

• JLD is plugging "New Adventures Of Old Christine" but Vinny does his impressions of Michael "Kramer" Richards (a strong one, reusing and improving upon the one he developed for the Matthew Fox monologue earlier in the season) and a squeaky high pitched barely accurate Jerry. He then reveals he does JLDs voice in the Italian dub of Old Christine. 

• He brings out his daughter (?) Fabiola (Maya Rudolph) to recite the days of the week in slightly broken English as Vinny asks "you put her on show?"

• Vinny then puts a foam cowboy hat on JLD and makes her join in on a song she does not know. She is pecked by a man in an ostrich costume. This continued the theme of 80s/90s pop culture references from the debut sketch as he mentions his guest on his next show will be Jan Michael Vincent of Airwolf fame.

• This character seems to still be finding its own identity and doesn't rely quite as much on stereotypical sex, wine and cigarette jokes as much as in later installments. It seems more occupied with mimicking the real life confusion and horror of American actors appearing in foreign language talk shows. This is reminiscent of "Weird Al" Yankovics' appearance on Japanese television in 1984 performing "Eat It".

1. Jon Bon Jovi - 10/13/07

• The traditional opening gag is made slightly funnier by Vinny outright stating there would be no translator because he assumed a man named "Bon Jovi" would be fluent in Italian. 

• Despite this being the fourth time we've seen this character, he visibly struggles to speak in English more than he has done previously.

• Vinny does his Silvio/Van Zandt impression and Armisens character does his Paulie Walnuts because Bon Jovi mentions he is from New Jersey which of course means...Sopranos reference. This is the last time he extrapolates or free associates to get to an impression or makes an American geography reference so Vinny feels a bit more removed from his original character here. 

• Bon Jovi is not pleased at all to learn he is spokesman of a tobacco brand that prominently features 7 & 8 year Olds (not kids...MEN!) smoking Blaze cigarettes.

• Vinny calls off the robot horse after learning that the "steel horse" he references in "Dead Or Alive" is merely a tour bus.

• Vinny singing "Living On A Prayer" in "Italian" was a cute button on this but having the real Bon Jovi call him out on not speaking REAL Italian was a funnier ending (despite it kind of selling the sketch out and breaking its own reality a but too much) but I can forgive that because I remember this sketch being one of two real bright spots in an otherwise underwhelming episode that showed plenty if evidence if Bon Jovi taking himself and his image too seriously to have much (if any) real fun.

...and, that's it for now. My next blog post might just be a mini-review of the upcoming SNL 50th Anniversary Special. If I have enough stray observations to share with you guys after watching it, I will post them here. 

If I do, in fact, post a whole new blog just about SNL50, you can expect something resembling my "mini-review" of Saturday Night (2024) from a few months ago (or my blog post about the SNL 40th anniversary special from a decade ago...but, y'know obviously a lot better written this time). 

Aside from that, the next episode of "We Heart Hader" will be released in two weeks. It will be another SNL related episode mainly focusing on Bills' assorted game show host parts in sketches over the years (aside from "Vince Blight" from "What's That Name?" who will, of course, be the focus of his own "character spotlight" episode some time down the road). Whether or not I will put together a new blog post to go with THAT one...well, I haven't decide yet but don't count on it.

I'd like to tell you about some more future plans for the blog and podcast, but I think it's best to wait until Deej and I have the next few episodes scheduled and planned out better first. 

For now, just count on my next blog post being a full length review of SNLs' next planned regular episode after the 50th anniversary special...whenever that may air. If I decide to suddenly change course and make another blog post related to the podcast, I will tell you here but you can always find out what my plans for this blog (and the podcast) are by following my three main socials where I regularly announce new blog posts and podcast episodes (Twitter, Bluesky & Threads).

See you again real soon!