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!

Top Five Bill Hader SNL Sketches & Moments From Season 31

The following blog post is a companion piece to the latest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast with special guest, Jon Schneider of the Saturday Night Network.

Give us a listen, won't you?

5. Laser Cats (Lindsay Lohan/Pearl Jam - 04.15.2006) 

• Normally, I run pretty hot and cold on these sketches and tend to tune in and out of them a bit (I didn't think the fourth one had that much business being in a Steve Martin hosted episode, for example) but this being the first one makes things a bit different. 

• Yeah, there isn't much to these beyond the joke of Bill and Andy presenting a purposely cheap and bad looking short to a quietly irritated Lorne but I have to say Bill and Andy's commitment to the “acting” of their ridiculous sci-fi roles in such drastically budget-less short makes them fun and there's usually other small moments in these that are worth seeing, like the hallway fights between Will Fortes’ “Robot Tron” and Fred Armisens’ “bad guy”. These are the type of things they would improve on in later installments.

• Possibly my favorite moment in this inaugural short of the series would be Lindsay Lohan in the commissary suddenly being “replaced” with Rachel Dratch as the “princess” after not wanting to go along with any of this nonsense.

• There's no denying that this was one of the tone setting moments of the new SNL era viewers were about to fully enter back in 2006.

4. Weekend Update: Friendly New Guy Impression Off (Steve Carell/Kanye West)

• Hey, speaking of tone setting moments for a new era…it's Bill and Andy's first appearance as “themselves” on the show.

• It's not often that the show just gives new featured players their own guest spots on Weekend Update in their very first episode to carve out their respective niches in front of a live audience in real time, but amazingly we get to see Bill firmly establish himself as the shows’ next “go to” impressionist and Andy as the new big, silly goofball that the kids will love.

• Even doing impressions of long deceased silver screen stars from at least half a century ago (and repeatedly referencing a six year old beer commercial), both Bill and Andy exude an effortless command over the audience that let's viewers know the show will be in good hands once the old guard of the early aughts either moves on or gets completely swept away.

3. Joplin: Alive! Podcast (Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys - 03.11.2006)

• Speaking of moments that let viewers know the show is being left in good hands, here is another one.

• This sketch may be an obscure one off that never recurred, but it's carried solely by the featured players of SNL Season 31 and it showed they could easily carry sketches driven by detailed writing as well as they could big broad character pieces.

• Plus, it also came at a pivotal time in culture when new web media was coming into its own and showed that more traditional media like SNL could respond to those trends in real time (even if, at that time, they seemed to think podcasts were pretty much the same thing as live radio shows, but that's OK. It takes time for these things to be fully embraced and accepted by the public)

2. Vincent Prices’ 1961 St. Patrick's Day Special (Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys - 03.11.2006)

• Speaking of long deceased silver scree…oh no wait, that segues’ not gonna work now. Never mind.

• Anyway, this was a much funnier and more tightly written follow up to a similar sketch that aired previously in the Eva Longoria/Korn episode from 11.19.2005 so this officially marks the point where Bill has established his first recurring character on the show.

• In one fell swoop, Bill Hader has suddenly made the late Vincent Price both funny AND relevant to modern day SNL audiences (ditto for Kristen Wiig as Kate Hepburn).

• Bill also gets some great assists here from Darrell Hammond as Don Knotts and Matt Dillon as Rod Serling but this is a sketch that cements beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hader could easily carry any sketch.

1. Decicco Bros Unicornery (Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys - 03.11.2006)

• Speaking of obscure one off deep cut sketches from SNL season 31, this one tops my personal list.

• I've seen this one a few times now for the podcast, but it has never failed to make me laugh due to its sheer outlandish absurdity.

• Bill Hader and Matt Dillon as two very non-distinctly “Jersey” guys with slightly Midwestern vibes aggressively upsetting the magical powers of various “unicorns”. What else can I say? 

• It was an absolute joy to rediscover this forgotten gem of a sketch for this podcast.

Honorable Mention: American Taser (Jason Lee/Foo Fighters - 11.12.2025)

• No, Bills’ character may not be the central focus of this sketch, but he delivers such a standout performance in such a uniquely written sketch that I felt the need to mention it (even though it was a last minute cut from my personal list).

• Pretty much this seasons’ whole cast (minus Tina, Horatio and Kristen) and the star of “My Name Is Earl” electrocute each other one by one in this long form commercial for Americas’ leading stun gun manufacturer.

• Bills’ character tases Kenan just before saying the line “Was that man a criminal? Weeellll, he sure looked like one!”. After he gives his plug, he is tased by Finesse Mitchell who delivers a sincere statement on racial profiling in America, who is then tased by Andy Samberg promoting the Star Trek model taser in an extremely nerdy voice (which I also thought was pretty funny).

• Bills’ sheer charisma mixed with his wacky Charles Bronson-esque Chicago cop accent not only put this one over but save a slightly questionable joke by today's standards and actually make it laugh out loud funny. 

• Yes, Seth Meyers and Will Forte may have lines that would be considered…well, let's say “chauvinist” by today's standards especially but they also have likable enough personalities on and off the show to make those work, too.

Closing Thoughts

• …and that's my list of top five Bill Hader sketches and moments from his very first season of SNL which, once again, is the topic of the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast. 

• Of course, my regular co host Deej Barens and our gracious guest Jon Schneider each made up their own lists which you will have to listen to the podcast to get from them.

• Also, I have more in depth thoughts on some of these sketches that I have already gotten into in previous episodes of the We Heart Hader Podcast. If you would like to hear them, please listen to this episode as well as this one (oh yeah, and our very first one as well).

• My next blog entry will be a review of the upcoming Walton Goggins/Arcade Fire episode of SNL which I will publish by the evening of Sunday, May 11th. 

• I will say I'm glad SNL is booking hosts with proven comedic talent showcases on other network TV shows in the lead up to the 50th Season finale, so…I'm heading into the end of this season with the same feeling I had going in: extremely cautious optimism.

• See you then!

Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys (03.11.2006)

This blog entry is yet another companion piece to the latest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast which you can listen to here.

Spring Break Cold Open

Four young college girls (Dratch, Poehler, Rudolph, Wiig) excitedly detail their alcohol and drug soaked Spring Break plans at the airport within earshot of one of their parents who drove them all here. (Parnell & Paula Pell).

• Boy, this one aged…weird. I'm guessing Tina wrote this because it does reek of her “putting down other women” style of comedy. This feels like a left over season 30 sketch.

• I regret to inform you all that, once again, we are getting unconfirmed reports that Tina Fey may or may not have been like the other girls during this, the week of March 11, 2006.

• I liked Wiigs’ line about meeting up with a guy in Amsterdam she met on MySpace because she “thought it would be fun to try group sex & hash in the same week” just fine.

• Dratchs’ lines about going to Chechnya “because the drinking age there is NINE” and “bringing her own roofies” to which Poehler reminds with a random shout of “girl power!” stands out as a big “yikes”.

• Wiig has a line about bringing a Luna bar because she “swore she would eat something this year” and “rum showers on the beach” aren't great either (neither are Poehlers’ lines about Girls Gone Wild and finding a $10 bill in her butt followed by her stating she is a women's studies/feminist literature for that matter)

• Mayas’ lines about riding around in random cars in Cancun and her friend being missing after encountering an “all you can suck beer hose” is…unsettling. I didn't totally hate her line about having her bikini cut off for the “hot boobs contest” due to an extreme sunburn.

• I mean, the reveal of Parnell being Rudolphs’ dad was funny but it may not have been worth it.

• At least it was nice to get a non-political cold open for once buy I have to wonder if this was the original cold open in dress and if not what could've bombed hard enough for then to go with this instead.

• I guess a group LFNY would be fun for this era since they wouldn't be as necessarily overdone as they would be in the last five or six years, but now…it doesn't look so great. C-

Monologue 

Matt Dillon reads the acceptance speech he prepared for that years’ Oscar's had he won Best Actor for “Crash”

• Hoo boy, speaking of things that didn't exactly age well, this monologue is basically just “Oops! All Hacky 2000s Racist Stereotypes.” (Asians being visually interchangeable, Hispanics working Harder than everyone else, Middle Easterners bring “surprisingly” clean and nice, guys working in wardrobe, Jewish guys producing everything…yep, this monologues’ got ‘em all).

• I get that “Crash” was being criticized at the time for it's hack takes on race relations and basically just being a poor mans’ “Do The Right Thing” set in LA but…I would still like to think they could've done better (even if I get the sense that Dillon himself also wanted to pile on making fun of this movie).

• Even the lines about him not having seen Terrence Howard's “pimp movie” (Hustle & Flow?) and Ludacris “stretching as an actor” weren't great.

• The lines about his “big Irish family” were perhaps the most disappointing of all. D+

prisonmate.net

Dr. L. M. Fontaine (Mitchell) wants to find you the inmate of your dreams.

• This was just a brief eHarmomy spoof. MADtv would do quite a few of these in a couple of years.

• The testimonials from Dratch, Wiig and Poehler were just OK. I'm not sure Finesse would've been the right pitchman for this (hell, even Kenan would be too obvious a choice) but at least Finesse made the most out of his part.

• This probably would have benefitted from Hader and Forte playing two random prisoners but I did get a kick out of seeing writer Bryan Tucker in Hannibal Lecter like restraints.

• Pretty short ad. Not much to this. Just some quick filler. C-

SportsCenter

Dan Patrick (Meyers) and Stuart “Booyah!” Scott (Mitchell) interview Barry Bonds (Thompson) his personal trainer Greg Anderson (Dillon) and Giants mascot Lou The Seal (Samberg V/O) about the ongoing steroid scandal in baseball.

• I've seen enough of the real Dan Patrick that I would’ve picked Sudeikis to play him but Seth and Finesse both did a fine job anchoring this (no pun intended). Plus, Seth's enough of a sports fan that I would’ve guessed he wrote this.

• Kenan pretty much steals this as a version of Barry Bonds that now has giant, unwieldy fake rubber hands that barely function.

• Dillon was solid in his support role that really played up the slight “meat head/bro” vibes he gave off all night.

• Samberg as a goofy voiced Seal mascot was funny as was Hader in his brief appearance injecting his butt with steroids. B+

Digital Short: Doppelganger

Meyers, Forte & Samberg pick out each others’ “dopplegangers” on the street (Meyers in a top hat, Forte with a mustache & Sanz) on their lunch break.

• There wasn't much to this premise besides Seth & Will thinking Horatio as a slovenly homeless guy with gloves was a dead ringer for Andy (even over Andy himself with a green bandana around his neck).

• Still, this worked more for me once they heightened it to the point where Will shot Andy because he couldn't tell him apart from a gloveless Horatio and THEN realizing they shot the wrong guy.

• I do like revisiting these lower key small observational sketch-like non musical Digital Shorts from Andy's first two seasons, though. B-

2 A-Holes At A Travel Agency

A-holes (Sudeikis & Wiig) frustrate a travel agent (Dillon) with their inability to focus on choosing a vacation destination from all of their presented options.

• Typical 2 A-Holes silliness. This was silly enough without being too frustrating.

• Dillon held his own here but he wasn't the greatest foil to the A-Holes. It seemed like he was playing it too lowkey and composed compared to other hosts in previous A-holes sketches.

• The absolute height of this was when they started telling Dillons’ character they wanted to go to Hogwarts and then Wiig pointed to a framed picture of a plane and said she wanted to go there. B+

How To Order Sushi Like A CEO

A CEO Business Type (Dillon) advertises his book detailing how to impress clients and beleaguered waitstaff (Rudolph) at a sushi restaurant by convincing them (and hopefully even yourself someday) that you're a sushi expert and connoisseur.

• For some reason, this is a character I could see Jon Hamm pretty much nailing if they did this in his era of hosting. Maybe I'm saying this because their voices sound similar or Matt Dillon in a “corporate executive” type role gives me slight Don Draper vibes, but…just an observation.

• Maya doing a slightly questionable Asian accent seems…off to me, but I can let that slide as Dillons’ character is more the butt of the joke here than she is. Plus, her wild facial expressions upon exiting the scene were funny.

• Dillons line about loving nothing more than business sushi lunches “except mid morning fellatio” got a laugh. 

• His exaggerated distaste for actually eating sushi (to the point where he actually spits a sea urchin across the room) was played just well enough to dovetail well with the basic premise of this sketch and not be too over the top to ruin this sketch. C+

J.J. Casuals

Mellow pop folk songsmith Jack Johnson (Samberg) wants to sell you his special brand of “shoes that look like feet” for occasions where going barefoot is out of the question.

• Andy had an OK handle on Jack Johnsons’ voice and look but something about the impression still seemed a little…off.

• Still, the laughs from this sketch seemed to come from the grotesque visuals of people wearing hollowed out fake rubber feet instead of shoes. 

• This sounds like what little reaction it got from the crowd leaned more toward slightly disgusted groans than genuine laughter. 

• I did like the visual of a wedding between a black couple where the groom is wearing white J.J. Casuals.

• Hader playing a snooty maitre d to Forte and Dratchs’ couple was a good addition to this. C-

Joplin: Alive! Podcast 

Brendan Kern (Sudeikis) and Lane Singleton (Hader) host Joplin, Missouris’ only video podcast live from the local Bennigans off of I-69. They interview their server Janet Gentner (Wiig) who also happens to be “the girl who broke Brendan's heart” and their newly french accented pal Julian (Samberg) whos’ known for throwing the best parties in Joplin and attracting all the pretty girls…including Janet.

• Podcasts, huh? What a novel concept. 

• Wonder who was supposed to be holding the video camera?

• Anyway, this was a great showcase for just all of this season's featured players only (all seemingly playing themselves to some small degree) and functioned as a great preview of the next era before these four pretty much take over the show.

• This was surprisingly ahead of the curve as far as tech/web/new media trends go; doing a sketch about podcasts as soon as they were being discovered (hell, this was just as iPods were starting to catch on)

• Bill seems to be playing a slight cross between his characters in “Popstar” and “Hot Rod” with just a hint of Shepard Smith, John Mark Karr, Sheldon Cooper and Anthony Peter Colemans’ “Clark/biscuits and waffles” voice. It's really the exact type of character I could really see James Austin Johnson nailing today.

• Andy slipping in and out of his goofy French accent was fun. There's so much snappy dialogue in this sketch that it's hard to pick out any one line that stands out but if I had to, I'd pick the line about Janet's boyfriend partially losing his hearing in Iraq being “the best thing that ever happened to him” does stand out to me for the crowd reaction it got.

• Normally, I wouldn't be crazy about the idea of Wiigs’ character immediately going for Sambergs’ character over Sudeikis’ character in spite of the fact that she already has a boyfriend but this sketch has so much more going for it that I didn't really mind.

• I do wonder how the town of Joplin, Missouri is significant in Bill Hader’s life since it appears both in this sketch and in Barry years later. Was Bill secretly hoping that this sketch would take off and be one of his first recurring hits (maybe his “Wayne's World” or “Jarretts’ Room”)? Did he sneak “Joplin” into Barry as a way of making it up to himself that “Joplin: Alive!” didn't quite take off on SNL?

• Boy, I bet Bill would have never guessed that podcasts in general would take off so much that there would be one solely dedicated to him nearly two decades from this moment, huh? 

• Anyway, this was a great underrated deep cut that i always loved. A-

Arctic Monkeys

• Didn't really recognize “I'll Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor” or “A Certain Romance” but I liked the latter song much better.

• These guys sounded so much like a poor mans’ version if The Strokes it's like they got on the “lo-fi garage rock” train about five years too late and didn't notice how trends in 2000s indie rock were starting to move on.

• The lead singer has a British accent. Maybe they were bigger in the UK?

• Speaking of, I happened to catch the lead singer suddenly say “that man was yawning” out of nowhere. I'm assuming that wasn't an actual lyric?

• I did get a kick out of the bassist just stopping himself short if smashing the amp Who-style at the end of the second song.

Weekend Update w/Fey & Poehler 

DP World Spokesman Fahard Nassir (Sans) explains his companys’ decision to back out of managing six of busiest ports in the U.S.

Will Forte sings a song detailing how to better understand the Iraqi conflict by telling Sunnis, Shias and Kurds apart

• Oh boy, I see Tina's not done slut shaming no one in particular with that “South Dakota abortion ban joke” (and possibly that “Wal-Mart birth control joke). I would’ve liked that “exit strategy” joke more if she hadn't made that “cutesy” face afterwards. Wasn't that Amy's thing? 

• Speaking of Amy, not a lot of her jokes worked for me (except for maybe that Yanni joke?) but that Dubai joke was snide enough I was shocked Seth didn't tell it.

• Tinas’ “skating with the nieces of terrorists” joke stood out to me simply because it was almost to strange to even BE a joke. Her “sex offender/cool it with the high fives” joke probably should've been cut

• Horatio as an Arab sheik dropping Loni Anderson/J.J. Walker/GnR/Huggy Bear references is just instant white noise to me but I did get a kick out of his line “I have 15 billion dollars. To me, Donald Trump is like a homeless person.” The fact that this is too hyper topical for its own good is the least of it's problems.

• I loved Fortes’ rapid fire song having no other lyrics or context clues beyond “this is a shia/this is a sunni/this is a kurd” as it started devolving from photos of middle eastern political figures to random American politicos and celebrities to just random objects including the number 17 and ending on Forte identifying himself as a “kurd” and Kenan as a “sunni”. Typical abstract Forte nonsense echoing his and Armisens’ double act as Patrick & Gunther Kelly. C-

Vincent Price’s 1961 St. Patrick's Day Special

Vincent Price (Hader) struggles to keep his St. Patrick's Day Special under control as Don Knotts (Hammond) demands he lighten up and have fun amidst bagpipers drowning him out, Katherine Hepburn (Wiig) stealing major focus and Rod Serling (Dillon) putting him down to his face.

• I believe this episode marks the point where Bill officially lands his first recurring character. Good for him.

• I got a kick out of his explanation of a fake druid origin of St. Patrick's Day (“the feast of flaggle-flaggle-duschen”).

• Darrell, as expected, does a great job as Don “Barney Fife” Knotts. This was especially fun because it was rare to see Darrell used effectively in a non political role buried later in the show as he mostly seemed relegated to playing either Dick Cheney or Chris Matthews in cold opens by this point (or Bill Clinton, Sean Connery or Apprentice era Trump whenever they could find an excuse to sneak one of those roles in there)

• The gag with him being drowned out twice by bagpipers was played very well.

• Wiig is a great addition to this sketch as Katherine Hepburn. It's nice to see her this early in her run in impression roles that don't essentially force her to ham it up or overact.

• Dillon does a solid Rod Serling and his passive aggressive insults to Vincent Price were played expertly by both him and Bill. 

• Great sketch all around. Possible highlight of this episode as it really gives you a nice sneak peek at what the next era of SNL will bring. A-

Relaxation Tape

Frank (Dillon) is fired from a recording session for a relaxation tape for being too brusque and rough for a relaxation tape until he relentlessly guilt trips his coworkers (Armisen, Hader, Wiig) into hiring him back.

• I find it kind of funny that Bill Hader is playing the main straight role of producer (and Fred Armisen is in a lesser straight role as one if the new age hippie narrators on the tape) while Matt Dillon plays the Jersey/Sopranos tracksuit guy role that Hader and Armisen would make meals out of starting next season.

• Anyway, this had a basic yet decent enough premise that it didn't really go anywhere with. It was well acted on everyone's part. Dillon even played his character well but it seemed like he couldn't lean into it enough because it was like the writing wasn't strong enough to support what they were going for.

• I did like the brief glimpse of Amy as the confused tape listener though. C-

Appalachian Emergency Room

Various hillbillies (Hammond, Poehler, Rudolph, Thompson, Dillon, Parnell) detail their strange medical problems to the receptionist (Meyers)

• I liked Poehlers’ character admitting that her and Hammonds’ “druggie son only has a car port because someone stole his house”

• Maya and Kenans’ characters were funny (as was Parnells’ of course).

• Dillon did a serviceable “redneck accent” and his bit about “chatting up” Seth's character while his wife steals a car outfront because they can refill her saline breast implant anywhere was OK but, why was he dressed like Ace Ventura of all people?

• Did Parnell accidentally knock out a light fixture when he did his headstone there? C+

Dicicco Bros Unicornery

Fast talking high pressure salesmen Davy (Dillon) and Little Mikey (Hader) want to sell you these little magical horses

• This was definitely the funniest sketch of the night. A near perfect ten-to-one!

• This commercial lists their address as being in Passaic, NJ and yet their accents are clearly more Chicagoan/Midwestern than anything and their wardrobe seems to scream “1980s Californians/very poor mans’ Miami Vice” for some reason.

• I love how Hader & Dillon just spent the entire sketch alternating between putting down the Unicorns (“look at this idiot!” “what about this dum dum?”) and touting their magical abilities (my God, the LORE of this sketch!)

• Single funniest line in this whole sketch: “Look at this bag o'donuts! It's like they took a unicorn and teeny sized it! Who would do that?” There were a lot of amazing line deliveries in this but THAT one takes the cake! One that comes a close second is “My daughter's got THREE of these stupid things! Can't get enough if ‘em! But it keeps her happy so I don't give a CRAP!” A-

Overall Thoughts 

• This was a real mixed bag of an episode that got off to a rough start but it had a solid back half thanks to the new featured players who would go on to become the shows’ core group.

• Matt Dillon was a serviceable yet forgettable host. He was fine, but didn't really elevate anything he was in so it's no mystery why he hasn't been back on the show in the past couple of decades.

Closing Thoughts 

• Well, as of this posting, we now know that SNL's next new live episode of season 50 will air two nights from tonight on March 29th with host Mikey Madison (Hey! Oscar winner! This year's best actress winner from this year's best picture! This is an excitingly big get for SNL right now!) and musical guest Morgan Wallen (fucking why? Oh well, as long as he's not also in any fucking sketches I can live with it).

• So, yeah, my next blog entry will be posted on March 30th and it will be a review of SNLs’ Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen episode.

• As for more classic We Heart Hader reviews like these, well…we've got a few specific episodes and sketches from seasons 31 and 32 in mind. 

• Me and Deej have been tossing a few ideas around for the podcast but we don't want to give too much away just yet so we'll just have to wait until we nail down a couple of topics and recording dates down before I give you any updates on future plans. See you then!

Steve Carell/Kanye West (10.01.2005)

White House Press Briefing

Tim Russert (Hammond) throws to President George W. Bush (Forte) insisting that the Hurricane Katrina devastation in New Orleans was "getting better" as he has been there "seven times". He gives evasive answers on the federal budget, the war in Iraq and the investigations into other prominent Republicans to Terry Moran (Sudeikis) Wolf Blitzer (Parnell) and Nora O'Donnell (Poehler).

- Fortes' George W. Bush may not have been as technically accurate or as crowd pleasing as Ferrells' but his whiny defensiveness works here. Still, he doesn't do a whole lot to liven up this dry ass late period Downey material.

- Parnells' Wolf Blitzer gets sudden unexpected laughter. Fortes' FEMA rant gets unexpected clapter with the line "who's in charge of this situation?" The "wake up calls" ramble was a solid way to end this. C+

Montage 

Same as season 30 but in wide-screen with Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis credited as featured players (Sudekis officially joined the cast in May of 2005).

Monologue

Steve Carell, coming hot off the critical and commercial success of "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (which just made $100,000,000 at the box office) and the first season of The Office, sings of his greatness (compared to other "frat pack" comedic film stars of this time).

- Steve Carell mentions this is the first SNL episode filmed entirely in high definition. He then claims he auditioned for SNL in 1995 but lost to Will Ferrell. Ten years later, Carell would tweet that this was an untrue joke. That tweet has since disappeared along with Carells' entire Twitter feed. Funny that he would still name check Ferrell twice in this monologue.

- This felt like a cute, quaint throwback to the years when an R-rated comedy was seen as a viable box office success by most studios. Amy, Kenan and Horatio made decent cameos.

- I did like the the "Stillers' a big kiss ass and Owen Wilson is gay" line as well as the repetition of "money falls from my ass". C+

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley insurance agent (Forte) is tougher on a high school girl (Poehler) and her friend (Samberg) than her own dorky, eager to please, push over father (Armisen)

- I remember this being one of the better non-Digital Short commercial pretapes of this season. Unfortunately, the show having repeated one too many times throughout the season lessened its impact.

- Sambergs' first appearance on the show (well, his first pretaped appearance but still...)

- Fortes' line to Armisen "Dammit, Frank. Grow a pair!" was the perfect button to end this on. Already, this episode feels worlds away from the doldrums of season 30. B+

Jet Blue Flight 292

A passenger (Poehler) on a Jet Blue Flight watches a CNN report on the very same plane she's on having malfunctioning landing gear which will cause an emergency landing in Los Angeles. She is much more frightened than her oblivious ignorant husband (Carell) and even the plane's pilot (Parnell V/O) about their situation as she watches anchorman Aaron Brown (Hammond) discuss their doomed, sealed, fate with aerodynamics expert Greg Benedetto (Meyers) and psychologist Dr. Daniel Lane (Hader). She is extremely relieved that this plane has landed safely.

- This feels like the type of specifically hyper topical sketch that the show could've only pulled off in mid to late 2005.

- Steve played the dumb husband well and his "three weeks in Burbank" line got a laugh out of me.

- Haders' first ever live appearance on SNL. He does a great job of switching between "stuffy professor" voice and "casual slightly freaked out regular guy" voice between his two lines in this sketch. Still, he doesn't quite compare to Amy Poehler playing "existential terror" perfectly. 

- Not only is this Bill Haders' first ever appearance on the show, it's also a young Colin Josts' first sketch as a writer that made it to air. Impressive for two different newbies!

- Seth's part was fun with the computer models of the exploding plane and fire trucks. Darrell was great at displaying a callous, morbid detachment as he strung this sketch together. B-

Anderson Cooper 360

Anderson Cooper (Meyers) reports live on the scene from the damaged site of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (Mitchell) thanks those who turned out to support the cause, including big name Hollywood Celebrities who showed up in person. We see Tony Danza (Armisen), Sharon Stone (Poehler), Al Pacino (Hader) and Aaron Neville (Sanz) very ineptly help build a house for displaced Hurricane victims Mamie Thibodaux (Rudolph) and her son Gartrell (Thompson). Ray Romano (Carell) has even showed up to calm down an angry, gun toting Sean Penn. Suddenly, Geraldo Rivera (Hammond) shows up to steal the focus before being scared away himself by errant gunfire.

- Seths' not exactly known for his impressions but you can tell he's trying to hit some really specific beats and tics with his Anderson Cooper and that works well enough for me. He did a fine job anchoring this sketch (no pun intended). Maya and Kenan as mother and costumed son were a nice touch and set up a nice callback later. Finesse as Mayor Ray Nagin didn't add a whole lot but I liked his rant about Sean Penn and his boat full of guns.

- It's a bit strange to think that SNL could mine this much comedy out of a natural disaster that got the attention of the entire country, but it was after roughly six weeks and it's more satirizing self serving media coverage than anything.

- Not only that, but this sketch somehow got four different mini applause breaks for four different impressions. 

- Speaking of, Hader has his first real breakout moment and nearly runs away with this sketch with his DEAD ON Scent Of A Woman/Frank Slade era Al Pacino impression. Seriously, he pretty much nails it! That was the first big applause break of this sketch and got him a lot of buzz on SNL message boards at the time (even around Conans' offices that time as well as you can see from his first appearance).

- The second big applause break comes from Steve Carells' Ray Romano. Maybe not as good as Haders' Pacino but...it's serviceable even if it feels more like Carell affecting a generic goofy voice than anything. It's at least good for a callback to "Sean Penns' boat full of guns" gag.

- The third applause break came from Horatios' Aaron Neville. Oof. Well, in spite of the strange use of makeup and prosthetics and the general "oopsie doo" nature of it all, it's a little less awkward than it was as the focus of it's own sketch last season (see "Aaron Nevilles' City Court" from season 30s Hilary Swank/50 Cent episode). At least it makes Armisens' Tony Danza seem much less awkward than it really is.

- The fourth applause break was from Darrell Hammonds Geraldo Rivera suddenly running scared from gunfire. I've always liked this impression of Darrells and this was definitely the best use of it. I'll say the same about Amys' Sharon Stone even if I was always pretty ambivalent about that one. The callback here to the three costumed sons was a nice touch.

- Overall, this was a real, multifaceted time capsule of a sketch but it was still the real highlight of the episode and they were wise to make it feel like the real centerpiece of the night. B+

The Needlers

Neil & Karen (Carell & Dratch) come to regret their decision to announce their engagement to intensely bickering Sally & Dan Needler (Poehler & Meyers)

- This is now a recurring sketch as it was the followup to a very similar sketch from the previous seasons' Johnny Knoxville/System Of A Down episode from May of 2005. The main difference is that the names of Amy & Seth's characters were changed from "Henderson" to "Neddler".

- This feels like something only Seth & Amy have the right chemistry to pull off and put over. 

- The combination of Amy and Seths' natural warmth mixed with their penchant for snark helps keep this from becoming too offputting.

- Steve and Rachel play uncomfortable bystanders real well. Sudeikis had possibly his best lines in the entire show as the waiter. B-

Girls Gone Wild Katrina

Doug Stanhope (Sudeikis) swims through the wreckage of Katrina offering fresh water and shelter to women who will flash their breasts on camera.

- Wow. This wasn't quite as tasteless as I remembered (in fact, it's a little more grating and repetitive with all the censored flashing and screeching) but still, the audience is pretty much stunned into near silence as if the barely knew how to react. 

- It serves as a scathing indictment of the culture that gave us "Girls Gone Wild" in the first place, that's for sure.

- I'll also say that I liked the cheap digital camera feel of this. This also looks and feels different than any pretape SNL has done in the past. I wonder if Jorma and Akiva were involved in filming this seeing as it would be their first show as writers, too? C+

Backstage

Lorne convinces Maya her eighth month of pregnancy is unnoticeable on camera and asks Finesse to make sure Kanye isn't going to say anything too crazy on live TV. An immediately suspicious Kanye walks out for his performance of "Gold Digger" and "Touch The Sky" and has an awkward reunion with Mike Myers (Himself).

- After appearing in this episode, Maya would go on maternity leave and miss quite a great deal of this season up until the Steve Martin/Prince episode in February of 2006.

- It's amazing that Kanye once had the ability to convince America he had something resembling a sense of humor about himself. I genuinely have to wonder what really happened to Kanye over the years that made him increasingly self absorbed.

- Mike Myers was fine here. He did a fine job of mining his own awkward discomfort...six weeks later.

- Even Maya was charming here but Finesse and Lornes' parts felt like something that could've been cut from this (especially Mayas' "he still works here?" line). 

- Maybe this wasn't the best "meta/backstage" sketch the show has ever done, but hey...I'll take it. C+

Weekend Update w/Amy Poehler & Tina Fey Horatio Sanz

Amy Poehler immediately announces Tina is on "assisgment" maternity leave as she has just had her first child. 

Horatio Sanz is filling in the anchor chair and delivers an editorial explaining why President Bushs' increasingly damaging scandals make him look like "a genius".

Finesse Mitchells' report on the New York club scene turns into a story about his accidentally picking up a cross dresser.

Featured players Bill Hader and Andy Samberg introduce themselves with a "friendly new guy impression off".

- Horatio Sanz delivering Weekend Update jokes is truly a sight to behold. He's not necessarily bad, but you can sense an awkward stilted discomfort in his delivery...kind of like Aykroyd in season 3 but worse. His panda bear mating joke has aged particularly poorly given certain personal revelations about him that came out in more recent years. His Bush editorial was fine though. He seemed more in his element there.

- As far as Amys' jokes went, her first one (about what was "hurting the nations' image" at that time) was the only one that hit for me. All her others just slid right out of my brain.

- Finesses' stand up bit is...pretty embarassing at this point. This is definitely something that would NOT have flown at any point in the last ten years or so. Still, he debuted his catchphrase "snap famous" with this one which he would use as the title of a future standup special, so...at least HE got something out of it.

- At least they already have a new cast member who could deliver MUCH better commentaries on the NYC club scene five years down the road...

- Obviously, Bill and Andys' debut was the true highlight of this Weekend Update. According to The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast, this was mostly written by Andy Samberg. Bill Hader may have helped as he and Andy had been bonding and becoming friends at this time.

- According to him and Seth, all of Andys' attempts at writing original weird sketches were bombing at table reads and getting cut so they took someone's suggestion to write an Update feature since it's typically much easier for new cast members to break into the show that way.

- It expertly showcases Bills' talent for mimicry with Andys' penchant for silly abstract goofiness. You can see how these two guys would be major players in making the show feel fresh and relevant to a new generation again. 

- Speaking of, even though all of Bills' impressions in this episode have been strictly apolitical and of movie stars (only two of which were still alive at the time and one of which was still somewhat relevant to modern audiences in 2005) it didn't hurt him or this episode at all seeing as he and Andy were just the type of fresh blood the show needed to move it into a new direction at this time. C+

Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour

The Lunford Twins (Armisen and Carell) emcee an old timey Hee Haw/Smothers Brothers type musical variety show from 1967 with special guests Canadian singer Connie Brenda (Rudolph), the Lunford Dancers (Forte, Parnell, Dratch, Danielle Flora) "cry song" king Dimothy Daniels (Thompson) and of course Dorothy Winkster as "Granny Crabtree".

- This was a sequel to a sketch that originated with the Paul Giamatti episode from the previous season. I do have to wonder if Tina and Maya had a hand in writing the first one? It definitely feels like something that would be well within their wheelhouse especially since they both did lowkey one woman tributes to 70s variety shows on Mayas' short lived 2016 sketch show with Martin Short.

- This was fine. It might have felt a little dry years ago but it wasn't too self indulgent for a musical sketch that Fred Armisen was front and center for.

- It's the type of sketch that grows on you over time. I might not really have been able to appreciate this at all today without having seen the various 70s variety offerings the That Week In SNL Twitch stream occasionally provides (especially on "weird nights").

- Fred and Steve did a fine job anchoring this. Maya performed her song well (I liked how much of an obvious "I Am Woman, Here Me Roar" knock off it was) and Kenans song may have been the funniest part of this.

- The dance number was fun. Longtime SNL coreographer Danielle Flora was obviously filling in for Tina this week as she was one of the dancers in the last installment. That was NOT writer Liz Cackowski as some people had originally thought. B-

TV Funhouse: Fun With Real Audio

Supreme Court Chief Justice Nominee gives long winded, evasive legalese filled answers to questions in everyday situations to even the simplest of questions.

- I liked the visual gags of Judge Roberts having sex with his wife (very toned down by Smigel standards) in the McDonalds' drive thru, discovering a Janitor is Chuck Schumer in disguise, at a Rolling Stones concert and getting beat up as a Referee at his kids Little League game. 

- Otherwise, this was another political piece that felt too tied to one very specific point in history and partly confirmed my suspicion from this time that Smigel was losing his edge a bit and TV Funhouse was starting to run out of steam with political "Real Audio" stuff. C+

Debbie Downer

Debbie (Dratch) is immediately smitten with similarly minded Bob Bummer (Carell)

- Wow, between this, Nick Burns, Merv The Perv and The Needlers the early to mid 2000s turned out to be a real underrated golden era for "recurring characters that have their own opening montage and theme songs", didn't they? Boy, those made comebacks in a big way!

- I was never that big on Debbie Downer (the revival in Daniel Craigs' season 45 episode was just fine) but this might have been my favorite. Carells' facial expressions, "boing" sound effect and his theme song really added something to this. B-

Overall Thoughts

- This had to have been one of the stronger season premieres SNL has seen in some time (especially coming off the downward spiral that lead into one of the most historically weak SNL seasons of all time). 

- There was a lot of promising stuff that hinted toward a newer, brighter era for the show that would lead to it producing more creative and formative humor for my generation and beyond. Maybe Seth filling in for Tina as head writer this week helped give this episode a fresher feel?