Shia Labouef/My Morning Jacket (05.10.2008)

The following blog post is a companion piece to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast. Give us a listen, won't you?

Clinton's Qualities

Hillary Clinton (Poehler) explains how being a sore loser with no ethical standards and a base of racist supporters somehow makes her a better choice to be the Democratic nominee for President.

• Wow...for a show that offered up a blatant endorsement of her three months earlier they're sure taking some wild ass flailing swings at Hillary Clinton here. Seriously, this might have been the roughest they've been towards her since she was still in the White House as first lady. If this was another Jim Downey piece, he must've been letting his "slight conservative leanings" run wild here.

• Still, it gave us a nice break from seeing Freds' Obama again and Amy performed this with an expert mix of charm, poise and an absurdist, tounge in cheek deadpan that was almost enough to obfuscate and offset the sheer vitriolic bluntness of this material. 

• I did get a kick out of her lines about expecting to recieve an endorsement from Rev. Jeremiah Right (iykyk) and how she'd be willing to simultaneously play both the race and gender cards despite that not even making sense.

• This cold open does seem pretty damn ironic in hindsight when you consider the fact that Hillary would go on to run against a guy who would turn out to be both a sore winner AND a sore loser who also had a base of blatantly racist supporters. B-

Monologue

Shia Labeouf agrees to answer any non-plot specific questions about the upcoming "Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull". Unfortunately, the only questions are from Sean Connery (Hammond), Short Round (Poehler) and a melted up Major Toht (Forte) wondering why they weren't cast as well as an audience member (Sudeikis) who somehow accurately guesses the ending.

• Shia handled this well and seems like he has matured a bit from his previous hosting gig but boy, what an auspicious film for him to be plugging.

• Jason did a fine job as a seemingly clueless audience member who somehow guesses the ending. I got a chuckle out of his line about not knowing who Speilberg & Lucas are and yet spouting a nonsensical (mostly inaccurate) ending that's just a riff on the most clichéd modern sci-fi/adventure/fantasy movie tropes of the past 25ish years 

• I have a feeling that this entire monologue was written as an excuse to just use Hammonds' Connery in something again. I thought the idea of him being mad about being left off the "Last Crusade" lunch box was kinda funny and a good setup to the one decent joke they wrote for him in this.

• Amy Poehler as a small Asian boy with a heavy accent? Hey, this is 2008. I certainly don't see how that could be seen as questionable or a necessary cut at all!

• The true highlight of this was the bonkers makeup job they did on Forte as Toht, but when the highlight of a monologue is just a particularly gruesome piece of prosthetic rather than anything actually written for it...something may be seriously wrong. 

• The part with Shia accidentally spoiling Indys' death in the movie (spoiler alert: he doesn't die but he might as well have because this one pretty much killed any residual good will toward the franchise) was possibly the best way to end this little bit of cringe comedy that wasn't quite as fun as I remembered it to be. C-

Macgruber (Pt. 1)

MacGruber (Forte) is now working with his estranged son Merril (Labeouf) who, to his father's shock and disgust, inadvertently outs himself by handing his dad a vial of anal lube to help diffuse a bomb.

• Well, this one is mostly here to set up a runner but I would say it's also notable for being the closest MacGruber gets to actually being competent at his job before inevitably becoming distracted by something absurdly trivial.

• I do like how well Kristen and Will play up the "all the air getting sucked out of the room" awkwardness (especially the first of two times we will see Fortes' expression of barely concealed disgust). B-

It's A Match

Detective Rob Perkins (Hader) questions washed up 70s game show personalities Pam Sumpter (Poehler), Steven Neilsen Perry (Armisen), Sarah Annette Boob (Wilson), Nancy Nan George (Wiig), Chipsey Boday (Thompson) and Dirk Densten (Labeouf) on the sudden backstage murder of host Guy Lange.

• Ok, this is clearly just a Mr. Show style "let's just purposely avoid using any real names or references in our little parody" Temu Match Game sketch with Amy as Brett Somers, Fred as Paul Lynde (but named after Charles Nelson Reilly), Casey as a composite of any number of '70s TV sexpots (but mostly Fannie Flagg it seems), Kristen as Marcia Wallace (both Kristen and Kenans' characters might have had a little Debralee Scott in them?) Kenan as Nipsey Russell and Shia as Doug Henning.

• Bill is DRESSED like Colombo but obviously he's not doing his Peter Falk since that wouldn't make a ton of sense here. Instead, he is playing it straight as a generic stern '70s detective questioning everyone.

• Functionally, this is pretty much a Vincent Price sketch for Bill. He isn't the center piece of this like he us in those, but he is, once again, playing the role of "put upon host who grows increasingly frustrated at his guests lack of professionalism and basic competence." Naturally, he does a great job anchoring this.

• This was actually a fresh and creative premise of 70s celebrity game show panelists treating a sudden murder investigation like it's part of the game they're there to play, writing down their answers and presenting them as jokes one by one instead of grieving taking there friend and colleague's sudden death seriously (boy, they are in some serious denial, huh?)

• Surprisingly, Shia seems to be doing the best with his impression with Kristen and Kenan each a close second and third respectively. I say "surprisingly" in Shias' case because, as the youngest person in this sketch, he'd probably be the least likely to know who Doug Henning actually was.

• Why they didn't just do a straight "Match Game" parody and use the real names of people they were parodying I have no idea but I think it might have to do with the sketch itself taking place at a murder investigation and what I see as a general attitude of "well, Shias' still got young fans from his Disney days who probably tuned in and they sure as hell won't recognize what this is a parody of...so screw it".

• I did like everyone writing the same answers in response to the questioning of Bill's detective as a play on the various tropes of  bawdy "tee hee" 70s game shows (i.e. "making whoopee" and "in Steven's bedroom" in response to "where was the last place you saw your host?").

• Again, I'm not crazy about Fred playing once again playing another in a seemingly endless string of hacky gay stereotypes (and it doesn't help that he eventually capitulates to his own playful public outing when he admits to having a "secret life") but at least it was based on a real thing from the time and was at felt naturally written into this sketch at the exact moment it was called for.

• Some other stray moments I liked were Amy's holding up two cards with devil horns drawn on them to either side of her head and Kenan saying writing "getting my hair done" instead of "making whoopee" as to not upset his wife.

• I could've sworn Casey said she was "crying and eating pound cake" in her water bed instead of "making mouth whoopee" but that's not in the Peacock copy I am watching so they must've changed that between dress and air and inserted the dress version into all reruns. 

• Speaking of Casey's character, if she "auditioned for this show in Steven's bedroom"...would that make both Steven and the murdered game show host both bisexual? Ah, no need to nitpick. Strong sketch all around. Definitely my second favorite live piece of this episode. B+

Scared Straight

Officer Matthews (Sudeikis) introduces three teen shoplifters (Hader, Labeouf, Samberg) to prisoner Lorenzo McIntosh (Thompson) who spouts movie references, threats of gay sex acts and just general aggressive nonsense at them in a failed attempt to scare them straight. 

• Yup, this is the debut of one of this eras' big cookie cutter recurring sketches. It sure does hit all familiar beats, just not in such a boisterous, over the top manner because it's the first outing and none of said "familiar beats" have been established yet. 

• I do remember Stooge in his reviews constantly comparing these to Chris Farleys' Motivational Speaker sketches and saying that Kenan was obviously trying to start his own version of Farleys' Matt Foley character. While I see some similarities in how the characters are introduced (especially in the Phil Hartman-like way Jason introduces Kenan and brings him out), I think these sketches do become their own seperate thing soon enough.

• Kenan seems to have already settled on what his character will be as he's playing this role the exact same way he's always done. Still, since Jason isn't quite as incredulous in his part yet (hell, he doesn't even jump up on his desk at the end yet) and Kenan isn't hitting his threats to the teens as hard. He's even focused more on menacing them in general and threatening them with a more natural delivery.

• His first threat seems to be more focused on his Sharpied on face tattoo than pulling an obvious 80s/90s family movie reference out of nowhere. Even though Kenan's "deposit here" line seems to get the shocked gasp of a reaction that the writers may have secretly been hoping for deep down, he doesn't go quite as over the top or play as fast and loose with putting over the immature gay sex jokes as he would in future installments. 

• Sure, he's just as physical with Bill and Andy but more in a physically imposing way and not in such a fun, loose, brotherly way. All the little pieces and elements are here, but it would take a few seasons worth of time, repetition and finding the right chemistry before these become the exercise in deliberately making cast members break that these would soon become.

• As far as the movie references go, "Gone In 60 Seconds" was a logical and reasonable place to start building up from before absolutely reaching for nonsense like "Goonies" and "Weekend At Bernies'".

• I also liked Kenan's listing of "hats" and "newspapers" repeatedly among the odd items he stole, thinking the boys actually stole cars when all they did was shoplift a copy of Grand Theft Auto and suddenly telling Bill he knows plenty of necrophilliacs.

• Bill usually plays one of the teens (the one who usually calls Kenan out for his most blatant movie ripoffs which usually turn out to be at least his third ones). He didn't break as much here as you'd expect, but he did have a funny moment when he was the only one starting a slow clap until Andy & Shia give him a sideways look.

• Anyway, nice debut sketch for a series I've always appreciated...just not as much in live real time repetition. C+

MacGruber (Pt. 2)

Back from his stay at camp, a now "normal" Merril (Labeouf) is quizzed by MacGruber (Forte) on Bible verses and female genitalia while only Vicki (Wiig) is asked for bomb diffusing items. His dad tries to stop him from leaving which inadvertently causes a vibrating dildo to fall out of his backpack.

• Huh, placing this directly after "Scared Straight" was definitely...a choice.

• There wasn't much to this either. I liked the brief visual gag of Will nodding approvingly upon seeing Shia check out a passing woman from behind.

• I did get a brief kick out of Shias' half-hearted, insincere response of "the vagina, MacGruber" to Will asking his favorite part of a woman (to which Will of course tacks on "don't forget about the breasts").

• How did Merril think he was going to escape a room that's always either sealed in, welded shut or locked from the outside?

• The reveal of the dildo was one of the more bluntly risque things I've seen on this show. As much as I liked seeing Fortes' face if disgust again, this felt like it played for a beat too long. C+

Suze Orman Show

Suze Orman (Wiig) answers questions about female hair care and advised viewers to spend their recent economic stimulus checks however the hell they want and interviews failing buffet/nightclub owner Josiah From Miami (Labeouf) about how he should spend his stimulus money.

• Huh, I don't remember them ever having done more than two of these, but OK. I guess this week it was topical, too bad after this specific week it wasn't memorable.

• While overall this felt like a much shorter and weaker carbon copy of the version of this sketch that appeared in Jonah Hills' episode, this still had its moments.

• I got a kick out of Kristen showing off her snap on collar and detailing the absurd length she goes to travel by borrowed speed boat and rented car to a female specific barber shop in Arizona.

• Shia playing his character with an NYC/Jersey Guido type accent really added something to this. I liked the detail of his club being named "Regrets" and Kristen advising him to go and spend his stimulus money on a five o'clock shadow face tattoo because a) his own facial hair grows in patchy and b) she has a tattoo of buttons going down her chest so she always feels like she is wearing a jacket. 

• The idea of bathing in beef bullion cubes instead of saving money on self tanners got a chuckle out of me. C+

Digital Short: Best Look In The World

Andy Samberg and Shia Labouef sing a ZZ Top esque song about how a button down dress shirt and black socks with absolutely no pants (or underpants) is the best look in the world for grown men.

• Well, if you thought the precious episodes' "Daquiri Girl" was bad...

• The really sad thing is that this one actually had some writing and effort put into it whereas "Daiquiri Girl" was just improvised and cobbled together at the last possible secondg...which makes this one UNintentonally bad...the worst kind of bad.

• There was a time where I would've been much more generous in my assessment of this short. That time has since passed since I can no longer simply appreciate "Best Look In The World" for its sheer random goofiness.

• The lyrics aren't even that coherent but even with the captions/subtitles on there's just too much free flowing garbled nonsense here for me.

• I guess I still like the brief shot of Bill as an illiterate genie and the "cool down" part just find but...they don't get many laughs out of me.

• I liked the part where an oblivious Andy just grins mindlessly and says "right on" when Shia slowly walks away from him after telling him the song they both participated in was "pretty disturbing" but again...this Digital Short gives us absolutely nothing to work with. D+

My Morning Jacket Performs "I'm Amazed" And "Evil Urges"

• Really dug the dynamic sound of this band (especially the very honky tonk infused early 70s rock sound to their first song

• Quite possibly the strongest musical guest of this season

Weekend Update w/Seth & Amy

Liberty City residents Vlad (Hader) & Niko (Armisen) would like to counter the violent image of their hometown that is portrayed in the new Grand Theft Auto video game

French Def Jam comedian Jean K. Jean (Thompson) returns with some new material on rising "petrol" prices, foie gras and old "Asterisk & Tintin" cartoons

• Seth's best jokes: Gas Prices Increases, Amy Winehouse arrested, SAAB Used Cadavers

• Amy's Best jokes: Houston Teens Arrested

• Bill and Fred's GTA Vice city commentary may have been the sole highlight of this Update. This may not be saying much since there was very little written material given to them and this did seem like it was edited down quite a bit after dress rehearsal but they really sold it and they nailed the stiff herky-jerky NPC video game movements.

• The Weather Channel pick up lines bit felt straight out of season 30 (like most of this Update) and would've been extremely iffy if Seth & Amy didn't have the perfect chemistry to make it come across as fun and charming (ditto for Amy's delivery of that R. Kelly joke). Man, this was another Update that wasn't worth it for the jokes at all.

• Zut alors! It's the return of Jean K. Jean (speaking of bits that only get by on the performers charisma). This was all right, but I can only take so much humor that is specifically designed to go over my head. The foie gras bit was fun though. Incroyable! C+

La Revista Della Televisione

Vinny Vedecci (Hader) interviews Shia Labouef about Indiana Jones, his recent smoking related arrest Transformers (despite not knowing anything about the subject)

• Ok, now you might know that not only have I already given my thoughts on this particular sketch (and all the other Vinny Vedecci sketches) on this blog but Deej and I have already done the same on the podcast before. I don't have a ton of new things to say on it or anything, but looking back at that blog post where I ranked all of these, I can see why I ranked this one third. 

• A few positive moments stand out such as the "arrested for smoking" gag (with brief terrified reaction shots of Italian versions of several crew members and even an exasperated, white suited Lorne himself lighting up) which somehow plays well even if that particular arrest of Shias' has been looooong since forgotten among his many other transgressions since then and the fact that this is the sole edition that breaks format and does away briefly with the translator joke by having Vinny clearly state that his English is good enough to conduct this interview without one.

• The one big negative that really drags this down is this is the "transformers/penis or vagina" gag that gets called back to twice (the second time being with brief shots of Wiig and Sudeikis each in drag as the "transformers" that got bumped for time) which...even in 2008 felt like the cheapest of laughs and in 2026 is just...simply not done (even if the entire joke is played off of a fictional characters non-malicious ignorance as it is here).

• The highlight of this sketch may have been the moment where Vinny goads Shia into discussing Indiana Jones' likes and dislikes (his dislike of snakes in particular) just so he can shout "HE HATES SNAKES!!!" to cue up a drop of plastic snakes that occurs so late and way off the mark that Vinny has already begun setting up a question about the film "Disturbia" by the time it happens followed by a shot of Vinny chewing out a slack jawed Samberg in a tank top standing by a lever. There was a gag that involved Vinny dubbing the voice of one of the goons who tears out a human heart in "Temple of Doom" that didn't work for me.

• Like I said, this was one of the better early installments of this even if it didn't exactly have all it's elements working in its favor. B-

MacGruber (Pt. 3)

Merril (Labeouf) is back to help his dad (Forte) and Vicki (Wiig) diffuse a bomb. This time, he's bought his "platonic" male friend Scott (Samberg) with him much to MacGrubers' chagrin. When MacGruber asks to see his sin kiss Vicki to "prove" his sexuality...Merril vomits on her.

• This was a decent if not jarring and slightly cynical end to this runner. 

• One might ask why this didn't end with MacGrubers' son getting to truly be who he is in defiance of his dad's controlling close mindedness, but this wouldn't truly be MacGruber if that were allowed to happen because as we've seen with his dad's alcoholism and plastics surgery addiction, living out a self destructive lie runs in the family.

• As intentionally squicky as the ending vomit was, executing it with "blink and you'll miss it" timing right as the explosion happened was what made it work for me. B-

Admirers

Emily (Wiig) and Stacy (Poehler) find themselves mutually attracted to all the unsettlingly stiff and statuesque men in the same restaurant as them with bizarrely frozen facial expressions are either pained and fearful (Armisen, Samberg, Forte) or just creepily deranged (Hader, Labeouf, Thompson)

• Ok, this sketch has been a deep cut favorite of mine for eighteen years now. It's definitely my favorite piece of this whole episode.

• Everyone really shined in this. The woman played their parts well (even Casey Wilson as the waittress who brings them drinks bought for them by Will, Bill, Kenan and Fred).

• Andy set the tone for this absurdity really well, initially. Fred, Bill and Kenan matched his energy and stylistic choice really well, especially Bill whose near rigor mortis rictus grin is the face most viewers of this sketch would probably say is the funniest. 

• Freds' would be a close second as he looks like he is just straight up ugly crying. Andy is a close third as he looks like he is just right on the verge of doing the same thing. Andy & Bill are the only guys that noticablly move during this sketch (Samberg darts his eyes back and forth while Hader does raise his glass in toast to the ladies) Andy & Bill also look the least like they are just creepily peering at women while Kenan looks the most like he is doing that but hey, it still works. 

• I'm not quite sure what Will was going for other than looking like a crash test dummy who wished to become human but it still works and it would be a crime to not include him somewhere in a sketch that is this wonderfully odd. Shia just did a simple, crooked goofy smirk and that was it. A little unambitious but it worked for this sketch.

• Of course, the moment that made this entire sketch (and episode for me) was the sudden "doy doy doy doy doy" ditty that started playing in each guy's head when the girls wonder what they are thinking. That never fails to crack me up no matter how many times I see it.

• Although Shias' "doy doy doy" seems almost an octave out range with the others, he was a nice backup vocalist for Andy and helped him carry his own tune. Still, I get the feeling that Shia may have understood the assignment the least here.

• The only other criticism I have of this near perfect sketch would be that the line about how Andy's character looks both happy and scared could've been cut since it kind if needlessly explains the joke but other than that this was just stellar. I even liked Anys' line at the very end saying they should all just have an eight-way because "when it rains, it pours". A-

New York Funky Style

A mom (Poehler) from Decatur, GA takes her daughters Monica (Wiig) and Melana (Labeouf) shopping at an Anthropologie on a trip to New York City. With the help of a random store clerk (Wilson) she hopes to find the right looks for each daughter to bring back home after experimenting with New York Style funky fashion and accessories.

• Well, first things first...one semi meta clock punch I did like was how one of Amys' many shopping bags said "NBC Experience" on it with the modern peacock logo and everything. While I didn't much care for the rest of this, it has started to grow on me on rewatch.

• I could be wrong, but...I'm guessing this is a James Anderson/Kent Sublette co- written sketch? I feel like this entire thing had to be based on a real interaction one of those guys saw in a store recently at that time. Either way, if it is them it's definitely the side of their writing that never really clicked with me.

• Oh look, there's Casey in another thankless role in a row as a customer service employee whose main purpose seems to be complimenting two women and saying how beautiful they are. Whoopee.

• The big tent poles of this sketch seem to be the sight of Shia in drag...as a mouse, insecure, mannish young woman and Amy simply repeating the words "New York", "funky" "no" and "yes" as many times as she can in one sketch when not expressing concerns over her second daughters' mannish physical appearance to Casey's character.

• I liked Amy's line to Kristen about how her second outfit makes her look like such a convincing New Yorker that people will come up to her on the street and ask "which subway train to take to get to the Empire State Building?"

• I didn't exactly hate this sketch. I just have no idea who it was for, honestly. What would've improved the run down of this episode just a bit would've been if this had switched places with "Admirers". C-

Ranking Season 33 From Best To Worst

1. Lebron James/Kanye West (09.29.2007)
2. Christopher Walken/Panic At The Disco (04.05.2008)
3. Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)
4. Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (02.23.2008)
5. Amy Adams/Vampire Weekend (03.08.2008)
6. Ashton Kutcher/Gnarls Barkley (04.12.2008)
7. Shia Labouef/My Morning Jacket (05.10.2008)
8. Jonah Hill/Mariah Carey (03.15.2008)
9. Brian Williams/Feist (11.03.2007)
10. Elliot Page/Wilco (03.01.2008)
11. Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

Overall Thoughts

• This episode was solid, but not quite as fun or as much of a collection of back to back bangers as I remembered. It's one of those episodes where you just remember what hits the most because the highs are quite high but the lows are merely forgettably bland and not enough to drag down the episode.

• Shia still showed himself to be a game host who was up for just about anything but at the same...he gave off this vibe that he was taking himself much more seriously as an actor. I say that not because he was plugging an ill fated Indiana Jones film but now that he was getting some dramatic roles under his belt and just got his first big popcorn blockbuster he seemed like he wanted to move away from comedy and exclusively toward drama from this point (which he definitely got to do for sure anyway you look at it). 

• I say all of that as speculation as to why this episode as a whole felt noticeably less "fun" than his first one from the previous season since he wasn't quite as energetic here as he was then, but again, I guess he had grown and matured a bit since then in the previous year.

• For cast usage, Bill, Will, Amy, Kenan and Fred seemed to have the strongest nights. Andy, Kristen and Casey each come in a close second as they mostly were relegated to solid support roles. Jason and Darrell were definitely seen the least, sadly and didn't have the best weeks in terms of appearances.

Closing Thoughts

• The next SNL Season 33 episode I will take after this will be this season's finale with host Steve Carrell and musical guest Usher. I don't exactly remember this being a stand out episode of this season either, but it will finally be nice to finally close the book on season 33 of SNL.

• Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this review (and hopefully listening to the podcast episode that it was written for) just as much as I hope you've enjoyed reading my reviews of SNL UK series two I've been posting. I've got two more of those coming soon with my review of the upcoming Jalen Brunson episode of SNL US and Amelia Dimoldenberg episode of SNL UK. Knowing the way I write about SNL US vs how I write abiut SNL UK, I'm sure I'll have my review of the former posted here quicker. See you again here real soon!