Justin Timberlake (12.16.2006)

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?

Santa's My Boyfriend 

Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig take a break from trimming their Christmas tree to sing of their extramarital affair with jolly ol’ St. Nick himself 

• This is one of two segments from this episode that will be no doubt familiar to those who tune into the same ol’ primetime SNL Christmas special every year or are just fans of 2000s era SNLs’ female cast in general. 

• The ladies actually sing well and can carry a tune. This sketch makes good use of their genuine singing talents, especially Maya who actually can sing well in her own voice when she's not mocking another female singer's vocal style or just purposely singing badly for comedic effect.

• Real crowd pleasing stuff here with the ladies singing vaguely suggestive but very primetime friendly PG lyrics representing what their idea of an affair with Santa Claus would be like. I guess with this week's host and this being the Christmas show the girls must've either known or heard Lornes’ casual warning to Samberg and his boys that “kids will be watching”.

• I did get a slight kick out of the line about Santa “leaving his bitch of a wife” for them. I wasn't quite as crazy about their self deluded naivete about breaking up a marriage being written in there.

• The ending with the girls singing LFNY to the tune of “Oh Holy Night” was lovely and possibly my favorite part of this. B-

Monologue 

Justin Timberlake sings “The Chipmunk Song” with world famous chipmunks Simon (Armisen), Theodore (Samberg) and a too-cool, disinterested Alvin (Hader)

• This sure as hell beats a glorified segue into Justin singing another one of his own songs or just a song crafted by SNLs’ writers that's just a rough approximation of his style of modern mainstream pop music but…y'know ABOUT his experience navigating through a typical SNL episode.

• This is definitely the type of thing that sounds a lot cornier on paper but the guys really bought an extra goofy cartoon charm to it in execution that was unexpected.

• Considering Bill, Fred and Andy are playing cartoon animal characters brought to life, I appreciate that the makeup didn't extend beyond “teeth”. Like, from a purely visual standpoint, I appreciate that the guys were essentially playing human versions of the chipmunks (or maybe the lack of makeup is this season's budget cuts on display once again?)

• Armisen didn't seem to add much beyond background vocals and Timberlake is no Dave Saville but I got a kick out of Sambergs’ giggle as Theodore and Hader’s whole non-singing performance, flirting with a woman in the audience. His “dude…seriously” lines had shades of his Frankenstein character from Hugh Lauries’ episode.

• Most of all, I'm glad this characterization of the chipmunks is based more on the 60s’ records and 80s’ cartoon than the slightly douchey late 00s live action CGI movies that weren't even out yet at this time. 

• I couldn't help but notice that Bill had his left hand in Justin's right arm near the end. I wonder if this was an anxiety thing? It didn't look like it on the surface and it's not one I've heard about in the course of my research for this podcast so he may not have talked about it in interviews to my knowledge. B-

Competing Charities 

A humble Salvation Army Santa (Forte) puts up with a big flashy mascot for a charity shelter simply known as “Homelessville” (Timberlake) encroaching on his turf. Dressed as a giant Cup O’ Soup, he sings and dances to hip hop tunes from his boom box. They almost come to physical blows but then realize the good they could do by working together.

• I've tended to run pretty hot & cold on these “dancing mascot” sketches. I liked these earlier ones just fine and as long as the song parodies are done well and audible, I'm mostly OK with them. 

• I thought Parnell, Forte and (at one time later) Moynihan were the best foils to Timberlakes’ character so those were among the ones I liked, but some of the later ones felt a little overlong, a lot more self indulgent and more than a little overdone.

• To put it another way, these sketches were pretty much the same thing to Justin Timberlakes’ episodes as the NYC Broadway Musical Medley sketches were to John Mulaney's episodes when he became a regular host.

• As for this one in particular, it mostly had everything going for it. The songs were quick and to the point. They were all upbeat 90s hip hop jams meant to keep up the energy and keep the sketch moving along (well, except for Snoop Doggs’ “Drop It Like It's Hot” which I still got a kick out of along with the “Tootsie Roll/Minestrone” parody).

• I do like how Timberlake's songs in this one were purposely not too long or self indulgent since this was one of the episodes where he was pulling double duty so he was fully aware he was going to actually get to sing and dance for real and didn't need to take his sweet time in these sketches to fulfill his need to perform musically or make love to the camera or just generally stroke his ego too hard here.

• Fortes’ eerie falsetto played well against Timberlakes’ pop star energy. I especially like Wills’ line questioning whether “there's even a legitimate charity called ‘Homelessville'”.

• The ending was charming. I liked the ones where they end up both working together instead of one person just bailing on the whole sketch so Justin can sing and dance some more or they just let the sketch fall apart.

• Other than that, the only thing that dragged this sketch down was the toothless PG-13 Disney Channel/Nickelodeon feel Timberlake's part had which even seeped through in his line about how “Christmas isn't supposed to be about Santa kicking a cup of soup in the croutons”. I know, I know, it's Christmas, it's the mid 2000s and kids may be watching, but still… B-

Target Lady

The Target Lady (Wiig) and stock boy Marcus (Timberlake) irritate and drive away customers (Rudolph & Forte). The Target Lady rambles about irrelevant details and runs off to grab similar merchandise to what customers have on them as they come in. Marcus prattles on about how the Chapstick he is applying to his chapped and burnt lips is giving him an allergic reaction.

• Well, I remember these sketches mostly from being done mostly before Kristen Wiig moved on to even more hammy, self indulgent and obnoxious characters, so…these are another thing from this era I never had too much of a problem with…compared to later Kristen Wiig characters. Still, there didn't seem to be a lot here.

• Timberlake's character was harmless and dull here. I did like the makeup job they did on his lips though. They would do one of these in the next episode he would host where he was in goofy old lady drag playing the character of “classic Peg” that really annoyed the hell out of me.

• These sketches are all very dialogue heavy and tend to follow the same formula so I can't really pick out any particular stand out moments (I didn't really have any here to be honest). C+

Digital Short: Dick In A Box

Two smooth talking early 90s style R&B singers (Timberlake & Samberg) sing about presenting their gift wrapped genitalia to their women (Rudolph & Wiig) as a “special” holiday gift…for every possible occasion.

• Well, what ELSE can be said about this overplayed classic that hasn't already been said?

• I personally would classify this in the same category as “Lazy Sunday” in that it was one of those sketches that I didn't know at the time it aired that I was seeing a future classic in the making. 

• Certainly, I was aware I was seeing a standout moment that felt much more brash and drastically different from everything else the show was doing at the time but it wasn't until I saw how this sketch blew up online shortly after the fact that I saw this become an era defining moment of the show that signaled a drastic shift in style and tone was coming (or in this case had fully arrived).

• The audience must have felt this exact same way too seeing as this got quite a bit of screaming laughter and they even broke into sudden applause during one of the parts you could obviously tell was taped in Conans’ studio at the time.

• Sure, a large part of the appeal to this may be due to it playing to a live audience full of younger fans of the hottest male pop star of the moment singing about his penis, but this had a bit more going for it than that.

• Obviously, this is the other piece from this episode that gets played a lot in modern prime time Christmas compilations. In fact, I think they're just straight up bookends by this and “Santa's My Boyfriend” at this point. 

• As overplayed as this may have been in subsequent years, you'd be hard pressed to find any SNL fan who didn't like this (or just openly said they hated it) at the time.

• Anyway, as someone who has always liked Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island on the show in general and is of the right age to see how hugely influential they were to millennial comedy in general, I liked this then and still like it now.

• Part of the reason this works so well aside from Timberlake is that it's a tightly edited pretape and essentially a music video done in an era when SNL wasn't doing them (probably since they were more MADtvs thing at this point anyway).

• Another part is the sheer commitment to such a silly dumb joke (especially from Maya and Kristen) seeing as the idea for this stemmed from both Samberg and Timberlake bonding that week over their shared love of early ‘90s Color Me Badd style R&B they grew up on, so it's another genre spoof done with love and affection for its subject.

• Timberlake just being in his element helped this a lot, too. He contrasted well against Andy trying to put his part over on sheer charisma.

• A couple of his moments that got me were his intense stares into the camera while wearing the various costumes for each holiday Samberg mentioned as well as the final shot of them getting handcuffed and shoved into a police car. See, The Lonely Island DOES have a social conscience! B+

Barry Gibb Talk Show

Barry (Jimmy Fallon) and Robin (Timberlake) Gibb alternately interview and berate Sandra Day O'Connor (Wiig) NY Times Columnist Thomas Friedman (Armisen) and former US President Jimmy Carter (Hammond)

• This is another series of Timberlake staple sketches I have always run hot and cold on. I liked the first two the most and this third in the series was okay, but I really didn't think they needed to be done anymore after that.

• Still, I totally understand why a performer like Justin Timberlake would feel the need to do this every time he is either the host or musical guest whenever Jimmy Fallon is in the building seeing as he started his career in the world of pop music where you're just expected to play the old hits on stage each night because that's what the crowd came to hear from you. 

• I can see why he would apply that approach to comedy as well since he hasn't had much acting experience under his belt at this time and he never came from a background of writing or improvising comedy either.

• Speaking of Jimmy Fallon, I'd imagine it must've been nice to see him come back for a cameo on SNL since at this point, he'd only made a couple of quickly forgotten movies since being away from the show and he was still a few years away from taking Conans’ old slot for the first time.

• Anyway, I liked how this sketch didn't feel as unnecessarily stretched out as future editions of The Barry Gibb Talk Show did while still giving Fallons’ Barry Gibb character enough breathing room to let two of his guests actually get a word in edgewise to him and respond to his question before he just starts threatening them. 

• Speaking of, back in the fifth episode of the podcast, my cohost Deej mentioned that one of Lorne's criticisms of Bills’ first Vincent Price sketch was “why would guests keep coming back on his show if he's going to be mean to them?” and Bill took that to heart changing his role to the put upon host dealing with his guests craziness. Clearly, Lorne should've brought this up to Jimmy, Justin and Steve Higgins in between the first two Barry Gibb Talk Show sketches. C+

Dry Eyes

A game show where host Gary Pierce (Hader) challenges contestants NOT to cry at heartbreaking/heartwarming scenarios and quotes researched from their own real personal lives or during a medley of emotionally charged songs during the final speed round. Today's competitors are school teacher Jerry Bertrand (Armisen) and 22 time returning champion firefighter Brett O'Connor (Timberlake) 

• Hey, it's Bills’ FIRST game show host role that Deej & I somehow failed or just flat out forgot to include in our episode dedicated solely to Bill's game show host roles! Good for him for getting to break out in such a “utility man” capacity in such a notable episode! He was solid in a snarky support role here. Shades of Vince Blight?

• Anyway, I actually quite liked this sketch. Armisen and Timberlake were great in it. I liked Fred's drastic tonal shift to immediately crying and being dragged away by Wiig with the Kleenex consolation gift basket “for losers”.

• I especially liked Justin's wide eyed facial expressions he made to steel himself from crying (especially during the medley of Aerosmiths’ “Cryin'” Lionel Richies’ “Hello”, Celine Dion's “My Heart Will Go On” and Harry Chapins’ “Cats’ In The Cradle”). 

• I loved his casually blowing off the major self induced heartbreak and family neglect in his life just to win on a game show (to the point where he tells his own father to “suck it for eternity” for leaving when he was 13).

• One thing that makes this sketch work so well is it being a product of its era. It's so specifically crafted to this season and these performers that I can't really imagine any other hosts or cast members performing these parts. Ok, maybe I could see them trying this with Ashton Kutcher around this time, but he would drag it down somehow, I'm sure.

• I don't know if “toxic masculinity” was even being discussed in 2006 but today, this sketch could be seen as great subtle satire on it (especially with Bills’ barely audible line at the end that sounded like “better get to know a therapist?”) B-

Justin Timberlake Performs “My Love” & “What Goes Around”

• It's worth noting that Justin's first performance was introduced by Cameron Diaz (which I guess makes sense because they may have still been dating at this time so he could still call her “my love”) and his second performance was introduced by Jimmy Fallon…in a Beatles accent…because he was in the building?
• Oh, this second song is one of the songs about him and Britney cheating on each other. Yeah, that'll be a real good look for ya there, bud. Hell, it might be an even better look for the show considering what follows it.
• Yeah, I don't really have much to say about either of these songs other than they're pretty much exactly what you would expect from Justin Timberlake in this time period.

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

Lou Dobbs (Hammond) delivers a commentary on immigration reform and proposes several insane solutions.

The Gay Couple From New Jersey (Armisen & Hader) comment on their state's continued recognition of civil unions.

• Joke-wise, all that stood out to me so far were “Bush/nativity scene”, “tiny loans/stripping” and “Rumsfeld/Bin Laden”.

• I only vaguely remember who Lou Dobbs was so I can't really judge the accuracy of Darrell's impression. It sounds like a more toned down version of his Ted Koppel but since it's Darrell Hammond I'll trust that he got the voice right.

• I will say I'm glad they found a way to do a commentary on immigration of all subjects that doesn't sound too prescient as to apply to today's political situation and that I liked Darrell's cable news deadpan juxtaposed with lines about how we should build two 700 mile long walls (the second one having a sign that says “Wall 2 Of 50”) and a 700 mile long trap door with a just as long slide made me laugh. Speaking of, this is one of two strange cable news themed pieces that barely had any business being in THIS episode at all, but we'll get to the other one later.

• Ok, I liked Seth's “world's oldest person”, “Obama/Bush/did we catch ‘im?” and “Amish Blackberry” jokes. I even liked the joke about the fence company in California who hired undocumented immigrants to build a fence between California and Mexico.

• Still not too crazy about the return of the gay couple from NJ, but I did like Bills’ meat freezer joke along with the one about NJ not being as “gay” as Connecticut or Vermont (the only other two states to allow same sex civil unions around this time…which, yeah, that definitely wouldn't fly today but I'll let it slide given how it fits both the characters AND the time period). The mistletoe gag was a nice touch and a decent button to end this on. C+

Hip Hop Kids

After finding themselves trapped in a mineshaft for hours on end, Trey-J (Timberlake), Girlie-T (Poehler) and silent DJ K-Smoove (Thompson) start to question whether their go-to solution of dancing through their problems actually helped or hurt them. So far, all their break dancing has only gotten their friends Keisha (Wiig) and Jo-Jessica (Rudolph) killed by falling rocks and their other friend Flip Flop (Sudeikis) eaten by cave creatures (Hader & Forte) their dancing has attracted…which gave them the idea to eat Keisha and Jo-Jessica to stay alive only to find that they couldn't dance their way through a tiny crack of light.

• Hmm…this sketch seemed like it was constantly fighting against itself but there was just enough self aware stupidity in this to balance out what may have been too obnoxious to work. At least I can't say at any point that this felt too much like an All That sketch.

• Much like Justin's first musical performance, this kind of leans too heavily into the worst aspects of his whole “image” around this time.

• I liked the stalactite/stalagmite argument between Amy & Maya and Sudeikis was great with the few lines he had (even up to getting eaten by cave creatures). 

• Other than that, not a whole lot else stood out to me but at no point was I actively rooting against this sketch. C+

Elf Audition

Shelby Hastings (Timberlake) auditions to be a Macy's Elf with the help of her mother Virginica (Thompson). Two beleaguered agents (Armisen & Hader) only reluctantly give Shelby the part to get Virginica to stop seducing them.

• Uuugghhh…another one of these sketches.

• At least Justin only ever did one more sketch like this on SNL that I can remember. Thank God Kenan swore off drag roles like these…eventually…after six more years. 

• I got a mild kick out of Kristen's part at the beginning and Justin's heavily bejeweled glittery cellphone with a wacky sound effect ring tone. Other than that, I don't really WANT to say anything about this sketch. D-

A Holiday Message From Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace (Poehler) calls for more compassion for the exotic dancers who was just found to have falsely accused three Duke University LaCrosse players of sexual assault and threatens to hunt down those Duke LaCrosse players, pull out and eat their still beating hearts.

• Jesus Christ, what the fuck WAS this thing? Why was this allowed to air at the end of a Christmas show with a big pop star host? Who the hell was this for?

• I mean, my main takeaway from this is that the writers (probably Jim Downey if I had to guess) really wanted to make Nancy Grace look like an ass for very publicly supporting someone who made a false accusation of sexual assault?

• Yeah, this is WAY too dicey of a topic to really get into whether they had the right take or not. I'll just say it would've played differently today and they probably wouldn't handle this at all if there were no other way to handle it (which is obvious).

• I did actually laugh at her threats to rip out and eat the still beating hearts of the Duke LaCrosse players. Maybe the sheer chaos and insanity of this piece just looped back around to the point where part of it was funny? C-

Band Shot

• Ok, something was obviously cut for time here and it could've only been one of two things. Here's my theories as to what may have gotten cut...

Michael McDonald's McDonald's 

Former Doobie Brothers front man Michael McDonald (Timberlake) advertises his own fast food restaurant. This sketch quickly devolves into McDonald listing off various legal troubles he's been having with the restaurant itself, the least of which include the fact that there is already a fast food restaurant called “McDonald's”. Also, McDonald didn't have the necessary permits to open the restaurant and, as he sings to the tune of “What A Fool Believes”, “the sign fell off the rooooooof and it landed on the top of a school bus”.

• I know I heard Timberlake talk about this sketch on The Daily Show around this time. Also, SNL writer Emily Spivey talked about this sketch on Late Night w/Seth Meyers. They mentioned Colin Jost wrote it and even showed a brief clip which you can see here.

Quitting Time

Justin and Fred are stocking shelves in a big box Walmart type store. Justin is dancing, beatboxing and bragging about how he gets off at 5:00 instead of doing any actual work. Suddenly, Maya comes in as his boss and tells him he needs to stay until 11:00 to cover the shift of a coworker who called in sick…so Justin now brags about getting off at 11:00. 

• This was apparently included on the Best of 06/07 DVD. I only saw it because it was uploaded to either Vimeo or Dailymotion or some such “alternative” video site. As of this writing, I haven't been able to find it again…but I have seen it once, and it wasn't that great.

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, this episode as a whole is…about as uneven as I expected it would be. 

• Hey, this is the second episode in the first half of a season with a male double duty host at their peak of popularity who's there to put the last show before an upcoming holiday break over on his sheer charisma and energy.

• The main difference between JT and Luda here being that the former is relying much more on his crowd pleasing pop star talents, falling back on his ability to sing and dance his way through every other sketch.

• Still, he did a solid job. It's easy to forget that at one time Justin Timberlake was actually a welcome presence on SNL before his time had passed and the general public wasn't that interested in seeing him anymore (as is the way with most pop stars who don't later carve out a specific niche for themselves).

• This is one of those episodes that's mainly remembered for one or two “classic” moments that later get replayed and discussed as being among the show's “greatest hits”.

• Of course this also means that it's one of those episodes where when you look back at this one as a whole, you start to think that the entire episode doesn't quite measure up to its’ “classic” moments and may not have earned the “classic episode” status…outside of those specific moments.

• Still, what worked well really did hit and what didn't hit was mostly just dragged down by lame “pandering” humor since the host is someone they mainly bring out when they want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible (big Christmas show with families watching, big pop star host that the kids like, etc.)

• What's interesting about this episode is that it's only Justin Timberlakes’ second time hosting. We know now that Justin is one of those hosts that relies on certain recurring characters quite a bit, but only one character of his of the whole night was already an established recurring sketch (Robin Gibb…I'm not counting Virginica or Target Lady here since those didn't originate in his previous hosting stint).

• His other well known recurring characters either made their debut tonight (Dick In A Box) or are only being performed for the second time (Dancing Mascot) thus establishing them as “recurring” for the first time ever.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, the next full length episode from this season we do for the podcast and I for this blog might be either Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol or MAYBE Zach Braff/Maroon 5. We haven't fully planned it out yet, but that's all I can tell you at this point.

• Other than that, I don't know what other SNL episodes I might be reviewing for this blog until the new season starts on October 4th. 

• I will say though that I will be posting a brand new review of a mystery episode from a completely different era i have never reviewed before on this blog on Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. That day, I will also be reposting two "classic" episode reviews with new thoughts and commentary. 

• I really can't tell you which episodes those will be. I mean, as of this publishing I myself DO know which specific episodes those will be, but I can't reveal them at this time and place. I can just say I did NOT pick them myself. They have been picked for me.

• All I can say for sure is that you can all find out which episodes I will be reviewing in real time all together on Tuesday, September 2nd starting at 8PM EST time…when I will be appearing on the Saturday Night Networks’ 50 Greatest Episodes Of All Time Countdown with Jon Schneider, Bill Kenney and others.  

• The only other thing I can say for now without spoiling anything is that two of the episodes I will be talking about on the SNN countdown are ones that I have already reviewed on this blog a number of years ago. Still, they're ones that aired just long enough ago to feel like they're from a completely different time, so I felt it necessary to see how well they still hold up in 2025 so that's why I will be reposting my old reviews with fresh, new commentary added. 

• I vaguely remember Stooge having done something like this on the old Voy board around 2017-ish but since I can't find an example of that to post here to show you, just think of this like one of those old "rerun plus" episodes of 80s NBC era David Letterman.

• Be there! See you again soon!

Ludacris (11.18.2006)

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?

Presidential Address

President George W. Bush (Sudeikis) has just returned from an economic summit in Southeast Asia to announce that while he has made progress on many global trade, security and environmental issues…he has inadvertently gotten the United States into ANOTHER war in Vietnam (for which he has no strategy for).

• This is mainly notable for being Jason Sudeikis’ first appearance as George W. Bush (an impression he auditioned to join the cast with in 2004) after Will Forte…apparently asked to be let go from the role? 

• Jason's is more of a “traditional” G.W. Bush impression than Fortes’ and it's far from the worst or most awkward we've seen on the show (it is probably the least remembered simply by virtue of not being Ferrells’ or Fortes’) but its’ serviceable and still works just fine.

• This got literal “clapter” from the audience when Sudeikis/Bush mentioned that this may lead to the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He also mentioned wanting to cut taxes while fighting this war just to try it. Other than that, it felt like a string of typical Bush-isms from the time, so…not a lot stood out here.

• I wouldn't say it's TOO “lost to the time fog” because while an economic summit is very specific to the exact week it happened, comparing Vietnam to Iraq will always seem like an evergreen premise for political satire of its time given how heavily the Iraq war dominated the news around this time (especially in 2006 when the press had officially declared it the unwinnable quagmire it became). C-

Monologue 

Chris “Ludacris” Bridges explains which situations he uses his stage name (in the studio, in the club meeting girls and getting pulled over by BLACK cops) and his given name (applying for bank loans and meeting girls’ parents…as well as getting pulled over by WHITE cops). Suddenly, he gets confronted by his old friend Rick “Rickdiculous” Barnes (Thompson)

• I got a slight kick out of Don Pardo calling out host “Lou-DAY-Cris” twice.

• Luda handled the “Ludacris/Chris Bridges" stuff well. 

• It was clear he was leaning bit on presence and swagger a bit to get through the show (especially since director Don Roy King had to help reassure him to get through some nerves about doing the live show after a shaky, stumbly dress rehearsal). I wouldn't say he was truly poking fun at himself here, but he was able to handle some light comedy mined from his own image without seeming too full of himself early on. 

• This is the type of thing that gives the viewer confidence that THEY'RE going to enjoy this episode.

• Kenan's character was the true highlight of this (even if most of that was visual gags). I liked him basically being dressed as “temu Flava Flav” while beat boxing very badly and brandishing the biggest cellphone 1985 had to offer with the longest antenna 

• I also liked the “N.W.A./Northwest Airlines baggage handler” joke. That might have been the true highlight of this for me. (who calls someone at 11:40pm on a Saturday to tell them they've just got a new job anyway? I mean, I've seen a job interview take place at a table at Starbucks but THAT’S ridic..uh, nevermind. Let's move on). B-

Young Douglas: Hypin The Classics

Legendary rap “hype man” Young Douglas (Ludacris) releases a new album of himself backing up/shouting over the adult contemporary hits of such established artists as Harry Connick Jr (Sudeikis), Barbara Streisand (Rudolph), James Blunt (Samberg), Dolly Parton (Poehler) and Louis Armstrong (Thompson).

• This doesn't quite hold up as well as I remembered (well, it may hold up the BEST out of the sketches that don't hold up well from this episode) but Luda did his damndest to put it over by sheer energy. He played up the ridi…uh, the absurdity of this premise expertly.

• Out of all the impressions in this sketch, I'd say Jason's Harry Connick, Jr and Mayas’ Streisand worked the best for me and they're the ones that Luda played the best off of, too.

• Sambergs’ Blunt and Poehlers’ Dolly…left quite a bit to be desired, honestly (but I did like Andy's doe-eyed sad expression as James Blunt). Kenans’ Louis Armstrong was…somewhere in the middle for me.

• I see they used the Blunt/Parton segment to satirize the low-key misogyny and high-key body objectification of women in 2000s rap & hip hop. The way they went about it didn't quite work for me, but I'll admit to getting a shameful chuckle out of the Beyoncé joke here. 

• I did get a kick out of new song titles such as “It Had To Be You (Hell Yeah)”, “The Way We Were (Get Ya Damn Hands Up)” and “Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (Gangsta Anthem)

• Hearing Luda suddenly chant “take that, take that, take that” hits a lot different given what we now know about Diddy. B-

The Bitchslap Method

Samantha Hawkins (Rudolph) and Dr. Archibald Bitchslap (Ludacris) both plug their booklet and video series in this infomercial. They detail their, uh…unique communication method for saving your marriage or relationship with testimonials from real couples Pete & Donna Longhorn (Sudeikis & Wiig) and Jody & Debra Preston (Hader & Poehler)

• I don't even think this sketch held up that well the moment it aired, but it has inspired me to do something a bit different with this review and add on a section where I rank each sketch by how well it holds up in 2025. Stay tuned.

• Anyway, this sketch does seem to make light of spousal abuse and domestic violence. I'd almost say it trivializes those subjects if it weren't for how lightly the writing and execution of this sketch dances around those topics.

• Maya did a great job anchoring this sketch. I say this because she provided a warmth and a charm to this premise that was DESPERATELY needed to counteract the insidious, lingering menace exuded by Luda, Jason and Amy. She especially shines through in the pretaped montage of her and Luda applying “the method” to their mannequins.

• Of course, Kristen and (especially) Bill effortlessly sell the “now living in constant, perpetual fear” vibe of their characters. I liked Bill's flawlessly timed response of “Why? I mean, yes. I love you” to Amy's line about how “the method” should be used daily in their marriage.

• I guess one thing that this sketch has going for it is how it encourages both partners in a relationship (man AND women, husbands AND wives) to apply “the method” to each other. That's not necessarily a great thing, but it makes this sketch feel a bit more playful and less mean and nasty, so…because of that, at least you can't make TOO strong a case against this for “punching down” (pun definitely not intended, but phrasing sadly unavoidable). 

• Thankfully, this was executed in a way that didn't make it seem so harsh it would've played better on Chappelles’ Show or say…season 7 of MADtv or God forbid Season 19 of SNL.

• I did get a slight kick out of this sketch ending with a still, doctored image of the fake booklet and DVD set that plays over just muzak and nothing else because whatever voiceover that was supposed to play over it clearly wasn't working. C+

The O'Reilly Factor

In his “no spin zone” Bill O'Reilly (Hammond) grills Def Jam Records VP Michael Dantley (Thompson) and FOX News Legal Analyst Anthony Brooks (Ludacris). Dantley isn't phased by the threat of a boycott led by O'Reilly and his audience after a similar boycott got Luda fired as Pepsis’ spokesperson. Brooks agrees to join Bills’ Ludacris boycott despite not knowing his work.

• I wasn't exactly excited to see this sketch in this episode's rundown because parodies of Bill O'Reilly & FOX News in general felt a little played out by this point. 

• I don't say this just because Stephen Colbert had just entered the “truthiness” phase of his career and found a fresh new way to satirize right wing cable news punditry in general at this time. I say this because SNL (and MADtv to a lesser extent) had been parodying The O'Reilly Factor for about five years at this point. 

• While MADtvs’ Michael McDonald was just portraying O'Reilly as an extremely arrogant egomaniac, SNL had Darrell Hammond (and Jeff Richards several seasons earlier) doing more technical and speech focused O'Reilly impressions portraying him as a man who shouts down his guests with made up assertions as they calmly insist that their easily proven facts are the truth.

• This sketch, however, began a bit differently by addressing a real life O'Reilly boycott of Pepsi over Ludacris being named their spokesman over his less than family friendly lyrics and image. So, unlike other O'Reilly Factor sketches produced after 2002, this one actually made sense as an inclusion in the episode it was in.

• I liked the reveal that Hammonds’ O'Reilly character doesn't get that a boycott is ONLY supposed to hurt the sales of the organization being boycotted and that the goal shouldn't be for them to just affect sales either way (positive, negative or neutral) and Kenan's underplayed bewilderment at the situation worked perfectly.

• This sketch seemed to have serious pacing problems, though. It felt like it was taking forever to set up an actual Ludacris cameo that the audience was no longer expecting by the time it finally happened. Darrell Hammond is a talented impressionist but by this point his impressions have always been very dry because he mostly aims for technical vocal accuracy over finding any hooks to a character he can expand on. 

• Yes, he's made notable and memorable “characters” out of impressions like Clinton, Connery, Koppel and, uh…that guy that used to host “The Apprentice” but that just goes to show how of the time he needs the right material and writing behind some impressions to not make them feel so dry as to test the audience's patience.

• Anyway, at this point Ludas’ character debates Hammonds’ O'Reilly on his support for a judge for naming a local businessman “man of the year”. Hammonds’ O'Reilly insists that this man murdered an eight year old girl when in actuality he awarded a veterinary scholarship to a 25 year old service woman returning from Iraq. Then, O'Reilly reads letters from viewers who alternately praise and challenge him on statistics regarding the largest rivers in the U.S.

• So, the last two thirds of this sketch are essentially identical to SNLs’ other previous O'Reilly Factor sketches.

• I admire this sketch for starting out doing something a little bit different but it must've been written by someone who thought that the mere concept would get a much bigger reaction than it ended up getting. It's a dry political piece, so naturally it has “late period Jim Downey” finger prints all over it.

• Part of me thinks this sketch would've worked better as one of the Nancy Grace parodies that Amy Poehler used to this season, but whoever wrote this probably just chose O'Reilly for the real life boycott and the fact that O'Reilly also used to frequently criticize rappers on his show (because…y'know, reasons) in ways that would certainly come back to bite him in the ass after FOX News fired him for sexual harassment, so…yeah. C+

Booty Bidness Workwear

Ludacris hawks his new line of women's business casual wear with all the trendy, hypersexualized slogans of women's club wear for today's working women (Poehler, Rudolph, Wiig) to get the “right” kind of attention.

• See, it's funny because if you wore something like this to an office job in real life, you would probably get sent home for the day and/or fired. Get it?

• Well, Ludacris was known for some pretty hypersexual lyrics himself around this time. If nothing else, this was as good a way as any for Luda to actually poke fun at his own image (whether he was actually in on the joke or not) and the show to effectively satirize the general “Girls Gone Wild” culture of oversexualizing women in these years that he no doubt helped contribute to. 

• Y'know, I think I may have Mandella Effected myself into thinking that this was a parody of an actual women's clothing line that Ludacris released (because yeah, that makes sense) when it was probably just based on the trend of girls everywhere wearing pink sweat pants with the word “Juicy” on the ass so, yeah…this was probably just a wild exaggeration of that. 

• Actually, I had just reread Stooges’ One SNL A Day review of this episode and he says he heard this was “repurposed” from a different pretape that got cut from a bunch of different dress rehearsals earlier in the season. So, yeah…it makes even more sense that this was originally something slightly different that they pretaped new footage with Luda for since it might play into his image better. C+

Blizzard Man

In the studio, Ludacris struggles to convince his agents (Sudeikis, Rudolph) and engineer (Thompson) to include freestyles from his good friend The Blizzard Man (Samberg) on his new album.

• I've always loved these sketches for the most part. I may not laugh as hard at these as I did in high school but they still give me a chuckle today.

• I remember Blizzard Man being a pretty divisive character in this era and feeling like I was his lone defender, but I always liked Samberg in general for his sheer goofiness and this works well as a purposely goofy deconstruction of ‘90s/’00s party & Gangsta rap.

• The Vanilla Ice/Parker Lewis “stuck in the early 90s” vibes from this character are icing on the cake here (although we would get a sketch from Samberg that puts his love of early 90s r&b to much better use a month later…and it seems to be a real crowd pleaser, but I think I'll have more to say on it later…) 

• You might get a kick out of the Lonely Island deep cut easter eggs on the Billboard “least bought albums” charts if you pause the sketch at the end long enough to read them. B+
  

Ludacris Performs “Money Maker” & “Runaway Love” (w/Mary J. Blige)

• The women of the cast introduce “Money Maker” dressed in turkey costumes. Kenan introduces “Runaway Love” in a turkey costume of his own. These may have been for an early version of the turkey chase sketch that got cut from this episode and was done in Tim McGraws’ episode two years later (which Ludacris would ALSO be a co-musical guest of).

• I don't have much to say about “Money Maker” other than it sounded pretty typical of Luda and of party/club rap in general from this time period.

• I will say that “Runaway Love” is…heartbreakingly catchy. I do appreciate that Ludacris at least tried to turn a “sincere message” song into a hit at this point in his career.

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

John Mark Karr (Hader) condemns OJ Simpson for his “If I Did It” book and falsely confesses to additional crimes.

Coach Bobby Knight (Sudeikis) berates Seth Meyers for a bad joke

Editor of “Sixteen & ½” Magazine Anoosa Rosenfeld (Rudolph) angrily pressures teen girls to donate ALL of their food to those less fortunate while eating lip gloss and commenting on the “generosity” of Hollywood's most dangerously thin actresses

• Joke-wise, Seth's “Trent Lott/Minority Whip” joke stood out because I remember it being a news story that was jumped on by political comedians at the time for the “low hanging fruit” of it all. Even Jon Stewart did a whole segment on it called “Ebony & Irony” where he actually interviewed Rev. Al Sharpton for it (not as his main guest that night, just for that one segment).

• Bills’ John Mark Karr commentary is funny enough. He puts over the creepiness of it well enough, but it probably requires a bit of background information.

• You see, John Mark Karr (now a Trans woman known as Alexis Reich) had falsely confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey that summer, but police saw right through his claims and eliminated him as a suspect at this time.

• Being a Coloradan and being from Boulder County myself, this was a pretty big story in my own neck of the woods but the above paragraph is all one needs to know why it's funny that he would also claim to have killed 50 Cent, Nicole Brown Simpson, Bambis’ mom and thrown a cell phone at the head of Naiomi Campbell's maid.

• Anyway, moving on to a lighter subject…Amy and Seth breakdown the seating chart at the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding. A bunch of Scientology/alien/nutjob jokes here. Feels like something Tina would've done four years earlier. Meh. On the plus side, Amy really sold that priest/celibacy joke.

• Sudeikis as Bobby Knight was probably my biggest laugh of the whole show so far. They probably lingered on that last beat a bit too long, though. Seth sold that Google sex site joke for me.

• Speaking of Weekend Update commentaries where someone just yells angrily, Mayas’ thing also worked just fine for me. She put it over on sheer deranged energy alone. It was an effective satire on the extreme weight shaming of young women and general “anorexia chic” trends of this time.

• I was at the exact right age to understand most of the teen buzzwords Maya was shouting throughout this so I did actually get what she meant when she uttered the phrase “wasn't Degrassi on The N super Crunk last night?” In fact, I'm pretty sure this was the first mention of Degrassi anywhere outside of “The N” or Canadian media before Drake's rap career took off.

• Oh, and by the way, apparently Mayas’ character is a parody of a real woman named Atoosa Rubinstein who was the actual editor of “Seventeen” magazine at this time. Why they found it necessary to change the names completely…I dunno. It's not like they're protecting the innocent here. They're not exactly Mr. Show, are they? C+

Pool Watch

A lifeguard (Ludacris) is too preoccupied with removing his expensive jewelry, clothes, Timbalands and gear to save a drowning victim in time much to the chagrin of his co-lifeguard Malik (Thompson) the elderly pool goer (Rudolph) who alerted him to the drowning. Also, he can't swim and he and Malik refuse to give another male drowning victim (Armisen) mouth to mouth.

• Ok, wow. This was just one long buildup to a slightly hackier racial stereotype than the one that preceded it.

• Also, this is framed as a new show on the new CW network. Now, this was The CW's first year in existence after UPN merged with The WB…and this sketch seemed to be written under the assumption that the CW would be more like UPN than The WB of the 2000s when this wouldn't be the case.

• I did get a kick out of Kenan's angry thousand yard death stare into the camera in his intro shot, though (and out of Fred's appearance as an unconscious drowning victim being his only appearance of the night). D+

Hair Transplant

Mr. Plotner (Forte) is eager to see the results of his hair transplant surgery. Dr. Schultz (Ludacris) is eager to put on his running shoes so he can get to “the opera” on time…with his passport and briefcase before undoing the bandages. Nurse Hamilton (Sudeikis) brings him some tinfoil (suspiciously the only reflective surface in the entire medical trailer) to reveal that the doctor merely switched his own natural black hair for Mr. Plotners’ Elton John-like hair top he desires so much as a black Elton John fan. Mr. Plottner confronts the doctor on the ruse when he comes back to retrieve his passport, so to make amends he gasses Mr. Plotter for one more free and honest session.

• This episode needed some good, absurd Forte inspired absurdity at this point (especially since this would turn out to be Wills’ only appearance of the night leading to much speculation on his future with the show because no one knew yet that he voluntarily gave up the Bush role to Sudeikis at the time). Ludacris played along quite well.

• I particularly liked how Forte kept saying he felt safe and in trustworthy hands after he saw the doctors’ as spray painted on the side of an abandoned building. B+

Lesbian Cruise

Captain Ronald Huggins (Ludacris) is so “enthusiastic” about the lesbian lifestyle that he unsuccessfully tries to “mingle” with several lesbians (Wiig, Rudolph, a dozen female extras). Cruise director Arizona (Poehler) has to break it to him that none of these lesbians are in any way “bi-curious” and that what he has seen in lesbian pornos is not accurate to their real lifestyle. Suddenly, after offering to video tape some of their water sports, he is thrown overboard.

• Wow, some pretty hacky jokes about lesbians and horny ignorant men here.

• There's not much to say here as this sketch pretty much took too long to go absolutely nowhere.

• The only thing I got a slight kick out of was the mistiming of the pre-recorded “I love me some lesbians” voice over from Ludacris as his character is supposed to be falling overboard. D-

Two Old Men

Two Old Men (Hammond & Ludacris) ask each other questions about how life has changed over their soup in a Diner. 

• This was a nice, charming, genuinely funny sketch to end the show on.

• I liked Luda describing his love of land lines with a “long, funky, funded up cord”.

• I liked Hammond describing his love of TVs’ that are “big, chunky wooden bastards that get as hot as the stove”.

• It's especially nice of the show to give Darrell a chance to be genuinely funny in a non impression/non political role here (even if it is in the ten to one).

• I liked all of Luda & Hammond's rapid fire questions in the middle section on penis tattoos, smoking in JC Penny, picky prostitutes and chicken on pizza and no pee/stiffy medicine.

• I especially liked Luda addressing the elephant in the room on Hammonds’ loose mustache. I guess that didn't derail the sketch as much as I thought it did since it (and the episode) were pretty much over at that point anyway.

• Here's a question: why is it that each time SNL has ended an episode with a live sketch where an interracial pairing of old men complain about modern life, the sketch completely falls apart somehow? First Murphy & Piscopo in February 1984 and now this?

• Anyway, nice sketch. B+

Ranking These Sketches By How Well They Held Up In 2025 (Best To Worst)

1. Two Old Men
2. Hair Transplant
3. Monologue 
4. The O'Reilly Factor
5. Blizzard Man
6. Weekend Update
7. Presidential Address 
8. Young Douglas: Hypin’ The Classics 
9. Pool Watch
10. Lesbian Cruise
11. The Bitchslap Method
12. Booty Bidness Workwear 

Overall Thoughts

• Well, this was certainly a strange episode to review. It wasn't bad or dull, just quite uneven. 

• Ludacris was a solid host who proved to be game for pretty much anything and had the ability to elevate some of the weaker material. Most of what wasn't based around bad stereotypes to the point where it almost felt like a leftover season 30 sketch worked to some degree.

• Even cast airtime felt uneven. Maya and Kenan pretty much dominated the night (which is to be expected when a rapper hosts during this era). Jason, Andy, Darrell and Kristen got some assists in with everyone else forced to fight for scraps.

• I decided to review this episode when Deej pitched it to me for the podcast. At first, I was a little unsure about this one because Bill wasn't in all that much of it as it turns out. Once I started digging into it, I discovered there was enough here for us to review it as sort of a time capsule of the strange cultural moment that birthed it.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, at this point all I can confirm for certain is that the next “classic” episode I review for this blog will be Justin Timberlakes’ episode from this very same season of SNL.

• After that, I'm not sure. I will say you can expect a few more “classic” SNL reviews from me before season 51 starts. I just can't say which episodes those are yet because even I don't know which ones they'll be or when I will be reviewing them.

• See you then!

Shia LaBeouf/Avril Lavigne (04.14.2007)

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

Wings Of Hope

Rev. Jesse Jackson (Hammond) and Rev. Al Sharpton (Thompson), reveling in their renewed cultural relevance in the face of the Don Imus scandal, announce the opening of their new “Wings Of Hope” Racist Rehab Center where those who have publicly made racist remarks will be educated on the literary works of Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou as well as the films of Oprah Winfrey. Then, they will be made to atone for their misdeeds by parking cars at Jay-Zs’ party during NBA All-Star Weekend and go on Jackson and Sharptons’ apology tour…also known as “Apolopalooza”.

• Hoo boy, this is gonna be awkward.

• This is one of a few segments throughout the night that comment directly on former radio host Don Imus’ scandal stemming from his referring to the Rutgers women's basketball team as “hard-core hoes” and “nappy headed hoes” which led to his firing from his radio shows. Hell, if you're my age…this was probably the first time you ever found out who Don Imus was or even thought about him.

• Well, at least this feels different enough from the typical cold opens of the era to be interesting in a good way.

• Darrells’ Jesse Jackson…yeah, a white man in even a light amount of blackface in a sketch satirizing a white man for real life racist comments that demeaned a specific group of black women is…not the best look for the show, but hey…2007 was a different time.

• Thankfully, Darrell himself wasn't bad enough to detract from this sketch. Unfortunately, he didn't add much to it, either. 

• Fortunately, Kenan added enough to keep this sketch afloat. In fact, this might have been the best use of his Al Sharpton impression. 

• Kenan also had the better lines in this such as “you've lost your damn job”, “nothing sends a wave of fear through the hip hop world like the firing of a 66 year old white man” and “you will apologize to the Harlem Globetrotters and both Kool AND the gang”.

• The photoshopped pictures of Don Imus going through racist rehab could've been cut as they just looked awkward and…visually off.

• After Darrell's joke about Al & Jesse still being relevant, Kenan's next line is “you hear that, Barack? How you like us now?” I genuinely have to wonder if that was an actual reference to something Obama said about the real Al & Jesse that week? C-

Monologue 

20 year old Shia LaBeouf, fresh off his success from the film “Disturbia” and preparing for “Indiana Jones 4” is disappointed to learn that none of the cast (Sudeikis, Hammond, Thompson) or crew (Wally Feresten, Phil Hymes, Tom Broecker) share in his sheer youthful excitement in doing this show after Amy Poehler sets him straight. Suddenly, Kristen Wiig gives him a Glenda the Good Witch style pep talk just before Lorne tells her that the Wizard of Oz sketch had been cut.

• Well, I had seen enough “Even Stevens” and was familiar enough with the movie “Holes” to vaguely know who Shia was at this time. I remember my own father being confused but I think he knew who Shia was by the next time he hosted and he was actually promoting “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull”.

• Speaking of “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull”, hoo boy…the sight of him being excited about that one has aged like milk.

• Anyway, there didn't seem to be much to this monologue concept-wise to grab on to, but there was fun to be had.

• I liked Sudekis’ blasé reaction to Shia and Hymes and Hammonds’ appearances drinking tumblers full of Gas-X and Metamucil.

• I especially liked Kenan's appearance trying to hide the fact that he was smoking a blunt backstage when Shia accosted him for his “Disney/Nickelodeon/we DO make it rant” and Poehler dressing down Shia.

• Normally, Wiig as Glenda the Good Witch is something that would grate on me a bit but I did suddenly like her dropping the character to react to Lorne telling her the sketch was cut. C+

Hathaway Mustache Ride Company 

In 1887, ladies hair tonic magnate Leonidas Hathaway (Alec Baldwin) proposed to his board of directors (Hader, Hammond) that his company not only branch out into mustache rides but offer them to women for free. The company continues to expand, thrive and flourish to this very day.
Seeing as Alec Baldwin appears in only this and no other segments in this episode, this must've been a dress rehearsal cut from his previous episode this season.

• Yes, it's a very cheap, raunchy, tawdry gag that borrows a bit from the previous season's mustache talk show sketch with Jason “My Name Was Earl” Lee, but I admire its strong commitment to turning what's essentially a white trash t-shirt slogan into a faux-refined big corporate puff piece commercial.

• I got a kick out of Haders’ tearful expression at the end of the meeting as well as Seth's consultation with Wiig as she meets Forte with his vibrating mustache.

• I also liked seeing Sudeikis, Armisen, Samberg and a heavily dreaded rastafarian Kenan modeling their absurdly elaborate mustaches. C+

Prince Show

Prince (Armisen) and Beyoncé (Rudolph) welcome a too allergy conscious Toby Maguire (LaBeouf) and Nancy Grace (Poehler)

• This, I believe, is the last of these Prince talk show sketches that Maya and Fred would do as cast members. It may also be the last time Maya played Beyonce as a cast member, but the same thing CAN'T be said for Fred and his Prince impression.

• This definitely has a played out feel to it, in that by this point, the audience may have forgotten why the show thought it made sense why pair Prince and Beyoncé together as co hosts of a talk show. Didn't these start right after Prince and Beyoncé performed a duet at the Grammys or something? This would've been, like, three years after that, right? 

• I know they did a couple of these when the real Prince and Beyonce/Destiny's Child were in the building as musical guests (in fact, me and Deej covered one of those on the podcast a little while ago) but…what was going on with the real Prince and Beyoncé in pop culture at this time that warranted another one of these? I think Beyoncé might have had some new music out around this time, but was this the year Prince performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show or something?

• Anyway, the other impressions in this sketch were likely the bigger problem here. Shia didn't really look or sound anything like Tobey Maguire and while I can see why he gets criticism for not exactly being an electrifying choice to play a helm a big summer popcorn comic book Superhero franchise, Shia didn't exactly need to play him as THIS big of a Milhouse-like allergy obsessed dweeb here. Seth Meyers actually did a decent Toby Maguire impression a few years before this that worked better for what they were going for here. I did like how his hands swelled up from sitting on that cupcake.

• Normally, I run pretty hot and cold on Amys’ Nancy Grace impression and it didn't really make a ton of sense here either but I did get a kick out of her mangling the words to Sheena Eastons’ “You've Got The Look”. C-

Buying Beer

A convenience store cashier (Thompson) isn't persuaded by two obvious underage teens (LaBeouf and Samberg) to let them purchase two six packs without seeing their IDs despite their exaggerated talk of their adult ages, work histories, number of children or the other times they previously bought beer and cigarettes at other stores. He is then given a “certificate of responsibility” by an “official” ATF agent (Hader) whose wallet is taken by a “robber” (Forte) who assures everyone that the ATF agent's ID is very much real. 

• This Lonely Island written sketch was definitely my favorite live sketch of the night.

• Every purposely stilted beat of this hit perfectly for me from Sambergs’ slightly too big suit and fake obviously fake mustache to Bill entering with the phrase “good work, guy” with every other word out of his mouth being delivered as if he were narrating a 1950s’ school filmstrip.

• Fortes’ chipper, matter-of-fact entrance prompting an ever so wooden “Oh no! A robbery!” was the icing on the cake here. 

• Yeah, the ending seemed a bit cheap and forced but Kenans’ line “see you guys back at the dorm” really sold it (as long as you don't consider any darker implications that could be behind that one). A-

Dakota Fanning Show

Dakota (Poehler) continues to insult her band leader Reggie Hudson (Thompson), alienates Disney's “Suite Life” stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse (LaBeouf & Samberg) and belittles the career of her own little sister Elle Fanning (Avril Lavigne) until their mom/PA Catherine (Wiig) steps in.

• This is the second one of these they did. They would only do three. Honestly, the first one of these was the only one that worked and hit the right beats for me.

• I'm not even sure where this slightly off putting portrayal of Dakota Fanning as this impossibly cultured and well read child actress came from. I just remember reading that she agreed to stop doing it after learning that the real Dakota and her family were apparently deeply offended by a reference to one of her real life movies from the third one.

• Basically, Amy portrays Dakota as a real life Lisa Simpson with a very low, Sheldon Cooper level of self awareness. That last part really makes this something you can only take so much of so really it IS amazing that they ended up making three of these sketches.

• Amy playfully insulting Kenan's character can be a little much but thankfully Kenan's good natured reactions are funny enough to balance this out (up to and including his line “yeah, I'll put a cap somewhere all right”)

• Andy and Shia tried their damndest to put this over with their energy but what worked more for me was when Amy led them into an existential crisis asking them why they were “just playing” with their orange blimps culminating in Andy's quietly delivered “you're scaring us”.

• Having Avril play Elle Fanning was a good way to sneak her into this sketch. I don't know if having Dakotas’ sister being almost as absurdly intelligent and cultured as her worked but her performance sold it for me as did Wiigs’ underplayed delivery of her line “you can just call me ‘mom'”. C-

Digital Short: Dear Sister

As Keith (Hader) writes a letter to his sister (Wiig) he is shot by Dave (Samberg) and shoots back. They then both shoot Eric (LaBeouf) and Keith's sister as they walk into the room. Then, two cops (Armisen and Sudeikis) walk in, read the letter detailing the order of each of these shootings and then shoot each other.

• Ah, here it is, ladies and gentlemen. Peak millennial meme comedy. The perfect balance of silly 2000s “randomness” with even sillier 2000s “melodrama” that doesn't come across as too dark or tasteless. Doesn't get much better than this, folks.

• Anyone with a working knowledge of Lonely Island history knows that this short stemmed from the boys’ love of 2000s FOX teen soap opera “The O.C.” which led them to creating their own parody series called “The ‘Bu” which they made for Dan Harmons’ Channel 101. In fact, this sketch itself is a parody of the infamous shooting scene at the end of The O.Cs’ second season finale. 

• This is a sketch that Andy brought to the show pre-written from that time and used when the show was asking them for more short films.

• Like Lazy Sunday before it, this one was being put on and taken off of YouTube constantly. This was partially due to music rights and other copyright related reasons and particularly due to the fact that this episode aired right around the same time as the Virginia Tech shooting, which…yikes. Yeah, this short was just a victim of unfortunate timing which now we can look back and say THAT’S the worst thing about this one.

• This was at least The Lonely Island's third “viral” Digital Short from their time on the show and inspired a whole YouTube trend. In fact, on the Seth Meyers & Lonely Island Podcast Seth said he could see this blowing up on TikTok today. I'm not sure I can see that. See, this got me thinking…

• I think you can trace a devolution of viral video meme trends from the early YouTube era when The Lonely Islands’ stuff went viral to the current TikTok era when the newest SNL sketch to blow up and inspire new viral trends THERE is, well…Domingo.

• See, if you look at the Lazy Sunday and Dick In A Box YouTube “parodies” from when that went viral you'll see people actually taking the time to get an actual camera and film themselves “recreating” those videos (in some cases, even changing the words to the song itself and in a few cases with Lazy Sunday some people even wrote and produced an entirely new “diss track” of their own as a west coast/Midwest “response” to Lazy Sunday.

• When Dear Sister went viral, people still recreated the sketch word for word adding very little “twists” or variance of their own but you also got people just editing famous scenes of violence from popular movies and TV shows in slow motion to Imogen Heaps’ “Hide and Seek” (the song from the original short, you see) and calling it a “parody” (which is still valid, but…requires less effort).

• Nowadays, “Domingo” gets an absurd amount of views on TikTok and pretty much all the “memes” in response to it are either people filming themselves on their phones dancing and lip syncing to it or just placing a green screen template of Marcellos’ singing from the first sketch over an background image with a caption about different situations where something delicate has to be explained.

• See where I'm going with this? 

• Look, all I'm saying is that as we condensed more and more of our online media consumption to our smartphones and smart TVs rather than actual computers and started looking to these phones of ours for more and more “instant gratification” and quick dopamine hits our attention spans have shortened and our work ethics has been somewhat diminished along the way. 

• We're consuming shorter and more “bite size” content on our phones and now the most effort it takes to follow a meme trend seems to be just placing two images on top of each other and pairing a song or a soundbite over that before posting.

• I don't even want to think about the effect this is having on the next generations coming up after mine.

• I'm not saying this as an old boomer or anything who's completely against smartphones or the internet or anything, I'm just saying we would do well to recognize this as the most immediate everyday danger of TikTok and smartphones in relation to the other wide reaching societal problems with them and adjust our viewing and consumption habits accordingly for our own mental health and wellbeing. That's all.

• …and of course, I say this as a guy who wrote and researched most of this blog post ON a smartphone ON TikTok (and no, the irony is not lost on me there, either).

• Anyway, Dear Sister is a fun Digital Short that I will fondly remember as something that has always hit for me the same way since high school. B+

Sofa King 

Local furniture sales couple Katir (Armisen) and Hasar Mutar (Rudolph) along with their sons Nasir (LaBeouf), Onan (Samberg) and Nasir II (Hader) sell us on their own unique deals that are “Sofa King” great!

• This may be the shortest “naughty word play” sketch SNL has done in history. Compared to the likes of “Schweddy Balls” and “Cork Soakers” this feels like a real blackout.

• The main thing that drags this down just a bit for me is the “been there, done that” feeling I get because I believe the “sofa king/so fucking” joke may have already been passed around as an early online meme mere months before this sketch even aired.

• I wasn't crazy about their need to have everyone in this play uniformly unibrowed middle easterners in order to make this work, but they ended up having the exact right energy to put this over.

• Maya peering out from behind the graphic placed directly over her face Mike Wazowski style felt a little cheap, but I did get a kick out of Shias’ wide eyed thousand yard stare, Hader’s goofy grin and shoulder shaking as well as Andy playing his character as just a slick slightly sleazy looking smoker. C+

Avril Lavigne Performs “Girlfriend” And “I Can Do Better”

• Eh, typical cute, fluffy 2000s girl power pop punk. Not much else to say here.

• My sister was a fan but I think I was kind of “over” Avril by this point.

• Also, isn't it more believable that the “real” Avril just got some cosmetic surgery at some point after her first album did well than her being replaced “Paul Is Dead” style by a sound-alike hanger on? Maybe that's a story for another time.

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

Maya Rudolph (Herself) interviews Attorney Howard K. Stern (Samberg) on his second place finish in the Anna Nicole Smith Paternity Case

A Gay Couple From Connecticut (Armisen & Hader) discuss same sex marriage being allowed in their state

Don Imus (Hammond) issues a sincere apology for his racist remarks, but brutally puts down any guests on his former radio show who didn't rush to his defense

• Yeah, not a lot stood out to me joke-wise from either Seth or Amy tonight. I did get a slight kick out of Amys’ “Spongebob Squarebeer” and “Herbie Goes To Paris” jokes and Seth's “house I grew up in” (but what the hell was with that Duke LaCrosse players joke, Seth?)

• I will give credit for this PGA style post game interview between Maya and Andy for being…surprisingly pleasant and a decent format break for Update, but…really, what the hell was this? A joke about a dead celebrities' paternity trial being treated like a Golf tournament? (I only say Golf because Andy and Maya were speaking in very low, whispery tones here). I'd say it must be a grim commentary on the state of America's 24 hour news cycle and overall celebrity obsession but much like the rest of this Update, it feels too lost to the time fog to make much sense out of now.

• I really wasn't crazy about Armisen and Haders “Two Gay Guys From Connecticut’. It's basically the same shtick as the “Two Gay Guys From New Jersey” bit, except changing them from Tony Soprano type mobbed thugs to rich, stuffy Thurston Howell type WASP preppies made them LESS appealing. I will say Hader’s still a better actor than Armisen when it comes to these and I got a little bit of a kick out of their lines about intentionally crashing their 40 million dollar yachts into each other.

• Hammond as Don Imus may have genuinely been the funniest part of this. I liked the slow, sincere sounding buildup and how Darrell's delivery of his blunt insults was funny enough that you didn't even have to know or remember who Don Imus was to at least get a chuckle out of it. C-

Knife Salesman

Door to Door Knife Salesman Blade P. Cutsworth (Forte) and his protégé Bernard Throttlehunt (LaBeouf) come very close to selling a knife to Melanie Ginsu (Wiig) after she sees them cut through frozen carrots, reams of paper and Blade P. Cutsworths’ own thumb. 

• Ha! Typical Forte goofiness leading into the most low key blood spurting ever employed in an SNL sketch.

• I got a kick out of Wiig specifying she wanted to see the guys cut through a thicker finger bone than a pinky and that 13.00 for two knives was too expensive for her.

• I also liked how this ended with a cutaway to a dog attacking the most obvious mannequin dummy you've ever seen. B-

An Intimate Moment Between Jessica Simpson and John Mayer

Jessica Simpson (Wiig) and John Mayer (Hader) struggle to make small talk before deciding to have sex.

• Gee, was Tina Fey a guest writer this week?

• …but seriously, I do admire this era giving us the occasional blackout sketch near the end of the show.

• While this one wasn't my favorite (I never would've picked Wiig to play Jessica Simpson but she did a fine job), it was well done enough for what it was and I was okay with it. You could tell what she was going for facially and vocally.

• I liked the brief bursts of absurd disconnected one liners such as “I love the blues” being followed by “my highlights are too shiny”.

• I liked Bill imitating John's intense guitar mugging…and the more I think about it, the more I suspect that all of John Mayers’ relationships with famous women were actually like this to some degree. C+

Shia & Maya

Maya Rudolph aggressively seduces Shia LaBeouf in her dressing room…because their first names rhyme. Shia is…somehow used to this sort of treatment from older women and…welcomes her advances.

• Maya was actually great in this. It seemed like a sketch written solely for one performer to get another performer to break (Shia came close once), but it was a fun little low-key absurd thing that didn't take itself too seriously.

• Yeah, Maya was a little over the top but this was a pretty self contained sketch and she was self aware here.

• This was really one of the most “we made an absolute meal out of a threadbare premise" sketches ever produced. C+

Overall Thoughts 

• Hmm…not AS consistently solid of a season 32 episode as the last one I reviewed (mostly since it seems to have built its reputation on one or two singular sketches, tops)

• Still, not a bad episode outside of the specific standout moments I chose it for.

• Not everything in this episode stands up to scrutiny (but hey, it's 2007, that comes with the territory, I was just impressed by what held up THAT well from this time) but still there's fun to be had.

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, I'm honestly not really sure what I'll be doing next for this blog right now or my own podcast for that matter.

• I have a feeling I may end up making myself write up a few more SNL reviews real soon for a different era of the show. 

• Of course, those won't be for my own podcast, but rather another SNL related podcast that I might (hopefully) be making a guest appearance on soon.

• Naturally, I have no idea what those episodes will be or if let alone when I may get to do them, but I hope to be able to find out and let you guys in on it real soon.

• See you then!

Hugh Laurie/Beck (10.28.2006)

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

Kazakhstan Ministry Of Information 

Lorne Michaels (Himself) informs the audience (while pouring himself a glass of fine scotch and being served a fancy club sandwich) that due to the effects of drastic budget cuts at NBC, he had to sell this weeks’ cold open to a foreign government. What follows is a brief presentation from Borat (Sascha Baron Cohen) accompanied by his assistant/producer Azamat (Ken Davitian) touting the highlights of his Kazakh homeland and encouraging viewers to see his new film next weekend.

• When Lorne is handed his club sandwich, his line “these are hard times, we do what we can” is nearly drowned out by sudden applause and especially so is something that sounds like “thank you, Tina” or possibly “thank you, Jimmy”. It would make a lot more sense if it just turned out some audience members saw who our next cameo was going to be a little early and wildly applauded than if Tina Fey and/or Jimmy Fallon made brief, wordless cameos where they don't even appear onscreen (unless that somehow plays into the whole “extreme budget cuts” theme, too…which I sincerely doubt). Lorne also breaks a bit at having to pronounce the name “Kazakhstan” which I found charming, considering how little we see Lorne genuinely laugh whenever he knows cameras are on him.

• I remember Saschas’ cameo playing very well at the absolute height of Borat-mania in the fall of ‘06 and as gleefully crude and crass as a lot of this is, Sascha sells the absolute hell out of this with his sheer, goofily infectious energy.

• I even got a kick out of Kev Davitian just glowering silently in the background until the moment when Sascha translates his “wizard sleeve” joke to him, and he briefly chuckles, before going back to glowering.

• If I had to pick an absolute favorite moment of this (out if what still comes close to holding up in 2025 anyway) it would be the introduction of “Johnny The Monkey” who is Kazakhstans’ biggest movie star and Borat describes as a “children's favorite” and “star of over 300 pornos”. He likes to dress like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.He doesn't mind the jacket, but is NOT having the hat at all. I liked the fact that a man with a curly mustache came on whose only job was to carry the monkeys’ leash and put his hat back on his head whenever he removed it. 

• The less said about the shows’ opening line being changed to “Live from New York, home of the jew…it's Saturday Night” the better (well, at least Sascha himself is Jewish). C+

Monologue 

Hugh Laurie, addressing the audience collectively as “sweetcheeks”, convinces the audience that he himself is much sweeter and less misanthropic in real life than he is in the title role of “House” (mostly due to the effects of Lithium), fills in the audience on his background as an English actor with Shakespearean roots and explains subtle differences between British and American humor humour that you might not notice.

• This was a very fun monologue which Hugh sold with his effortless charm. It's very evocative of the very dry, wordy, writerly nature of “A Bit Of Fry And Laurie”.

• I liked Hugh describing himself as “the yelp of a small puppy just freed from the microwave”, “the click of an empty chamber when it's your turn at Russian roulette” and “you grandmother just as you reverse the tractor off her leg”

• I especially liked the bit where a map of just the U.S. is wheeled out and Hugh is forced to explain that England would be where his right nipple…used to be.

• A personal highlight of mine is the ending when Hugh outlines all the personal details of what to expect from British comedy (sketches about bad teeth, overly elaborate puns it will take you days to understand with very little payoff, rain inside the studio, sketches served with Peas, starting an electrical fire if you plug in a hair dryer).

• Boy, if only SNL could get away with sketches about or regarding bad teeth on British actors or actresses in 2025, huh? Wouldn't that be something wild? B+

Most Haunted

While searching for the ghost of a dead boy, the crew of a ghost hunting show (Armisen, Hader, Poehler) find themselves over investigating an obvious fart from the shows’ host (Laurie)

• Ugh, well…I'm not a big fan of fart jokes so this was pretty much 100% white noise to me (well, up until the “thermal camera” part anyway). 

• I will say that this was sold well by the cast members who can do the most convincing British accents. It was professionally acted for something so juvenile. C-

TV Funhouse: Political Attack Ads

President George W. Bush (Jim Morris) announces the RNC is pulling back on “scare tactics” in campaign ads (like one that recently featured quotes and images from Bin Laden) and presents some more festive Halloween themed ads.

• This was a deep cut late period Smigeltoon I've always been a lowkey fan of.

• The Bush/Cheney wraparound of this look just cheap enough to lend some truth to the claims of massive budget cuts at NBC. In fact, they look exactly like the unfinished animation from the scrapped 2003 era TV Funhouse featuring Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Colin Powell that Robert Smigel himself just posted on his socials.

• Anyway, the real highlight of these for me were the ridiculous over the top South Park like visuals of Ted Kennedy as Dracula French kissing Bin Laden whole Obama (dressed as the count from Sesame Street) counts off gay marriages.

• I especially got a kick out of a screeching Alien chestburster of Hillary Clinton in a witch hat offering trick-or-treaters “condoms and abortion pills” in a cheap Marge Simpson like voice before French kissing her host mother as Bin Laden appears again just to wave at you.

• I loved a cowering child like Dubya's reaction to that as Cheney growls at him to finish.

• This may have seemed like more 2006 shock humor that may not fly today, but the sheer ridiculousness of it puts it over. It's a real time capsule of a time when Republican talking points were dumb as hell in a silly way and not an aggravating and toxic way.

• I notice Al Franken had a writing credit on this. Given what we know about Al Franken now (mostly as an SNL writer) and given how this seems to just be an updated version of his “1994 attack ads” Update commentary from the season 20 Dana Carvey episode, that definitely tracks. B-

National Anthem 

At the opening of Game 5 of the 2006 World Series, Sportscaster Joe Buck (Sudeikis) and Tim McCarver (Hader) introduce local contest winner Pamela Bell (Rudolph). Winner of local grocery chain Schnucks’ “Anthem Idol” contest, Ms. Bell is here to sing the National Anthem which she mangles so badly that Buck and McCarver are just left to look on in baffled silence.

• This is obviously a Maya singing showcase more than anything. Bill and Jason are there just to react. Still, it's a well remembered sketch from this era (possibly due to its inclusion in the Best of 06/07 DVD & Special and its second life on YouTube…which is kinda ironic since the sketch itself I heard is based on a viral video).

• My mom and (especially) my sister are bigger fans of this one than I am. I guess how you would feel about this depends on your level of tolerance for “Maya Rudolph makes fun of different wacky ‘diva’ singing styles of the 2000s” sketches.

• I'm still not the biggest fan of this sketch but it's grown on me ever so slightly over time. Maya can be a likable presence in sketches even if she goes over the top with it.

• I did like how easily she switched between Christina Aguilera style belting and Britney Spears like whiny mewling mush. I also got a kick out of her suddenly sneaking in the last verse of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” for no apparent reason. C+

Advance Man

The Equiry (Laurie) for the Queen of England addresses the manager of an upscale hotel (Wiig) that Her Majesty will be staying about her bizarre personal requests.

• Another dry yet patently absurd and near Python-esque piece from Hugh written in the vein of his “Bit Of Fry And Laurie”.

• I got a kick out of his adlib that the glasses he struggled to put on were “fortunately…just an affectation”

• I especially liked his outlining the queen's request for a room full of mini furniture staffed solely by two little people for the Queen to pretend she is a giant and the request that the staff only make direct eye contact with her breasts and begin each sentence with “homina homina”.

• I also liked the request that the hotel dub over all 60 cable channels they offer with British accents simply because “she flips around” and that they install hooks in the bathroom capable of sustaining the full weight of a 200lb man before admitting he will not be here when the queen arrives. B+

Hardball

Chris Matthews interview RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman (Samberg) and DNC Chairman Howard Dean (Sudeikis) about how various scandals befalling down ballot Republican candidates are negatively affecting the chances of a GOP controlled house & Senate

• Good to see they're still letting Darrell use one of his stronger impressions this late into his run. Hardball was always a solid vehicle for SNLs’ more brash and cartoonishly blunt political humor of the mid 2000s. I believe this was the second to last one they ever did so it's nice to see these go out in such a fun way.

• It's also really nice to see that the show had enough faith in Andy Samberg, the shows’ go-to “goofy young guy” that they thought he could hold his own in a more toned down political role this early in his tenure. I liked his character having to defend all the goofy photos of him with Congressman Glenn Beasley (played by longtime SNL lighting director Ken Aymong) after he was revealed to be “the TCBY strangler” and then revealing that the only candidate they could get to replace him is John Wayne Gacy Jr.

• I also got a kick out of Sudeikis as Howard Dean flawlessly switching from bluntly admitting to the Democratic partys’ incompetence to bluntly and calmly just challenging Samberg to a fist fight after saying he is “filled with rage” and wants to free all the terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to make room for Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. B+

Protest Song

Hugh Laurie sings a Bob Dylan style Protest Song about the world's problems, but awkwardly and incoherently mumbles the one big “solution” to all of them.

• Ok, this is literally an almost exact recreation of a sketch Hugh did on “A Bit Of Fry And Laurie” but it still works quite well here.

• I do love the very timeless quality of this. Even for something written some time in the mid to late ‘80s, it feels like it works just as well in any era.

• I also love the stage direction in this and how it gives us a chance to see some angles of the host on home base stage we don't often get to see.

• Fun note: this is the reason Andy Sambergs’ sketch “Wanna Come With” got cut from the show and ended up having to be performed on Late Night With Seth Meyers as part of “Second Chance Theater” nearly a full decade later.

• According to Samberg, Hugh played Andys’ boss in that sketch (Seth's role in the Second Chance Theater version) but this has to be cut because he wouldn't have enough time to get from this sketch to home base stage to do this song which is why Andy suddenly says “OK, have a great song, Hugh Laurie” in the Second Chance Theater version. B+

Beck performs “Nausea” & “Clap Hands”

• I remember watching these performances with my mother at the age of 15 and hearing her remark “Beck is one of those musicians where you never know whether he's gonna be a genius or if he's just gonna be weird”.

• Well, I've always liked his music just fine. I liked his subtle Alfred E Neuman/Cat In The Hat cosplay and I liked the visuals of a marionette puppet recreation of his live performance right next to it and I liked that about 99% of “Clap Hands” seemed to be played on the spoons, so…I'd say this leans more toward “genius”.

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

Senate hopeful Tim Calhoun (Forte) once again outlines his platform

A Gay Couple From New Jersey (Armisen and Hader) comment on their state's new ruling on same sex civil unions

• I liked Seth's Hillary/Obama “great, great, great” joke. That genuinely did age well. 

• I wasn't that crazy about most of Amy's jokes but her participation in Seths’ “sleep sex study” joke worked for me.

• Hey, Tim Calhoun is back! He's always great! I liked his Kim Jong IL, 24 strikes and “voracious reader” jokes.

• Fortes’ “dwarf planet/Mexico planet” joke is the type of joke that only HE and no one else could get away with.

• This is the debut appearance of Bill and Freds’ oft recurring “gay couple from ____________” characters. This was much shorter than I remembered (subsequent appearances felt a lot more dragged out) and Armisen seems to have dominated it with Hader left with little else to shout but “Ohhhhhhhhhh!” but at least Hader anchors this by being about ten times as believable in the role of a Sopranos type mobbed up Jersey tracksuit a-hole than Armisen. Hell, he even sells the gay aspect of it better as well. C+

Trust Your Physician 

Dallas Rivers (Thompson) and his wife (Laurie) are very combative and dismissive of his attending physician (Forte) and nurse (Rudolph) who are simply trying to treat his broken leg.

• Well, I'm not quite sure what to make of this sketch but I have to admire Kenan and Hugh's commitment to such a steady stream of loud, chaotic nonsense that has certainly aged…quite questionable.

• I do appreciate Hugh's character being…well, let's just say “in drag” is hardly acknowledged or made too big of a deal.

• Forte and Rudolph play well off them. It's a good thing that this sketch is stacked with performers with likable enough personalities to put just about anything over effortlessly. Only Kenan Thompson and Hugh Laurie can make sudden shouts of “TUSKEGEE!!! TUSKEGEE!!!” seem funny in a way that doesn't just elicit the “uncomfortable” type of laugh. I even liked his “don't buy those cookies rant.”

• Hell, I even liked Hugh's sudden turn to camera to deliver his sincere “trust your physician” rant at the end. It didn't feel too nonsensical and actually tied this thing all together. 

• Still, this is the type of sketch that makes the viewer wonder just how much of this was cut from dress rehearsal. C+

Late Night Movie: The Curse Of Frankenstein 

Frankenstein (Hader) somehow turns the tables on a group of angry, torch wielding villagers (Laurie, Wiig, Poehler, Armisen) tricking them into going after Dracula (Sudeikis) instead of him but then shames them for judging his appearance too harshly when Dracula sends them back to him.

• This was a real hidden gem of a sketch from this time period and a great early showcase for Bill Hader during the period when he really needed the airtime. He anchored this strongly for a second year featured player and I liked his and Jason's “regular everyday guy” portrayals of Frankenstein and Dracula respectively.

• I got a kick out of seeing his hands only being painted green up to but not past his wrists when he pointed out where Draculas’ house was and exposed his bare, unpainted forearms.

• I especially liked Bills’ “you're all a bunch of dicks and fascists/seriously dude, get that fire away from me” rant near the end before his right arm fell off completely (wonder how they rigged that up for him while the sketch was in progress?)

• Hell, in a just world this would've taken the place of “Most Haunted” in all those SNL Halloween Special airings. Maybe it was in those until it got cut at some point (just like Ed Grimleys’ Thanksgiving got cut from the Thanksgiving specials around 2015). I remember having seen this a few times but I'm not quite sure this would've been in the Best of 06/07.

• One small detail I got a kick out of was Steve Higgins as the announcer saying “do they still do these Late Night Movie things anymore?” and “I swear, nobody's done one of these in, like, 20 years”. Well, I guess it was FOX, CBS and various syndicators giving Joan Rivers, Pat Sajak, Arsenio Hall, Dennis Miller, Chevy Chase and Whoopi Goldberg their own Late Night shows that didn't work before David Letterman moved from NBC to CBS that killed the era of various local access stations and CBS affiliates being forced to just throw on any old cheap black and white movie they could get the rights to if they truly had nothing else to compete with Carson, Letterman, Nightline and SNL at that hour. At some point, they must have figured out that they'd have to just dump all those old movies somewhere on cable, after that? Anyway, I liked this sketch. Enough of that semi unrelated rant. B+

Job Interview 

Rebecca (Poehler) finds herself put off during a job interview with Linder and Bowles (Armisen & Laurie) by their constant impressed high pitched squeals of “OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!” at all of her qualifications. She gets the job, but it backfires on her when she tries to get in on this.

• This was a nice piece of early Armisen absurdity before he got too self indulgent with these types of sketches. This was also very reminiscent of the types of nonsensical songs Armisen would sing with Forte on Update as “Patrick And Gunther Kelly” two seasons earlier.

• It was very fun and not too overlong or grating. Poehler played well off of them and this might have been Laurie's loosest performance of the night. C+

Overall Thoughts 

• This was definitely a fun episode to revisit for the podcast. I liked it just as much now as I did when I was fifteen.

• About 99% of this episode still holds up well but the few small parts that don't work for aren't too much of a distraction from the best of this episode.

• Of course, Hugh Laurie was an outstanding host who put his previous sketch comedy experience to good use.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, as of this writing I can't quite tell you what my next blog post is gonna be because the current SNL season is over for the summer and we haven't quite planned out what else we're going to cover on the We Heart Hader podcast that far out yet, but you could possibly expect a review of the Shia LaBeouf/Avril Lavigne episode soon and possibly something on the “song memories” sketches. Whatever it is, I will find a way to keep you guys updated. See you then!