Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)

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

A Message From Kevin Federline

Having just been awarded legal custody of the children he fathered by ex-wife Britney Spears, Kevin Federline (Samberg) shares his own expert parenting tips such as feeding them twice a day, using them to attract women in public parks and dealing with poison control.

• Kenan's semi-goofy voice over to start this amused me. A little odd that this cold open was so light on applause up front, though but I guess this was before the era when that was made mandatory.

• This feels like something that was originally supposed to be an Update commentary at dress rehearsal but was hastily moved to the top of the show to replace a scrapped cold open...but on my research on this particular episode, I'm not finding anything indicating this to be the case, so I'm left to assume this was always planned to be this episode's cold open.

• Still, I had no problems with this at all in spite of the subject matter being lost to the time fog...and it is nice to get a break from strictly political cold opens on SNL every once in a while (even as strange as it may seem to some that THIS would be the biggest news story in America that week).

• I guess Lazy Sunday alone would make Samberg over qualified for the role of K-Fed but he actually does less of a "generic dumb white guy acting black" and more of a focused and reigned in impression.

• There wasn't much to this writing-wise, but Andy certainly had the charisma to put this over in a way only he could (which is especially evident when he sings the Chillis' jingle)

• I got a kick out of Andy listing various ways he was "rockin' it right now" (especially his album debuting last year, dancing in his living room, suing FedEx for stealing his name).

• I liked his line about how it has now been legally declared that "Kevin Federline is slightly more responsible than Britney Spears" and that he thinks his lawyers put it in the constitution.

• One line I really liked was the one about how walking two babies in a park will get you laid "faster than you can say 'hey, can someone watch these kids while I hang out with this strange lady I just met?'"

• ...and of course, I liked his inclusion of "bartending", "baloon animals" and mentioning poison control three separate times in three different contexts among his qualifications as a baby sitter.

• Unfortunately, this had to end on the line that absolutely ages like fine milk not even a full decade after this aired: "I'm like the new Bill Cosby; I'm really funny, I'm good with kids and I'm black". C+

Monologue 

Seth Rogen reads the fantasy SNL monologue he wrote for himself around the same time he and Evan Goldberg started co-writing the screenplay for "Superbad"...at age 13. Rogens' "best friend" Steven Segal (Hader) makes a cameo.

• I got a kick out if Seth saying he was a huge comedy nerd as a kid and following that up with "I know...I don't look like that now."

• I loved how Seth just blatantly read his old monologue off of some crappy, loose leaf notebook paper for about 90% of this and how the Wayne's World reference instantly dates this.

• There wasn't a whole lot to this either, material wise...but there is a geeky, pathetic charm to Seth just outlining every single beat of the impossible dream life he had envisioned for himself in middle school (including driving a Lamorghini that talks to him, marrying his crush who fell in love with him after hearing him tell "a hilarious sex joke" in the hallway, being asked personally to join and lead the Wu-Tang clan by RZA and Ghostface Killa in ninth grade, suddenly having a two foot growth spurt and becoming incredibly muscular in eighth grade).

• I also loved how he just casually skipped over several pages of this monologue that were about the 2000 "Zarkon space wars" where he served as galactic army general that never happened as well as his ideas for new Magic The Gathering cards and how his old bully was blown up in the space wars because the army now prizes video game skills over any athletic ability.

• Finally, we end on a cameo from Bill as Steven Segal simply declaring Seth to "not be a virgin". Of course, Haders' Segal is solid and I loved how he broke character when Seth thanked him just to geek out over him hosting for a sec.

• Even though I find it a bit odd that a 13 year old SNL nerd like Seth would still look up to Steven Segal after having presumably seen his infamous 1991 episode (let alone anyone liking Segal on general now knowing what we know about him), I enjoyed this monologue now as much as I did then. B-

Veritas Ultrasound HD

With the latest in high tech ultrasound video technology, expecting fathers (Sudeikis) can now enjoy the sharpest, most high resolution images of the unborn baby currently in their wife's (Wiig) womb at the doctor's office while watching simultaneously watching a movie with the picture-in-picture setting. They can also see what their fetus looks like wearing the helmet of their favorite football team.

• This felt like a rather unique "of its time" premise (I guess this was still inbetween the eras of plasma screens being prized and the "HD DVD/Blu Rat wars" starting up and "smart TVs" becoming a thing?) that the writing and performances really helped put over.

• Of course, Bills' second appearance in this episode was as the pitchman of this product (and Freds' first was as the very peripheral doctor). I liked how Bills' very first line in this was "Ultrasound, ugghhhh."

• One line from Bill I liked in this was "We live in a high definition world. If you could see an NFL linemans' breath in a January playoff game, you shouldn't have to ask a doctor where you're baby's eyes are."

• The details of 1080p display resolution and a "flat panel liquid crystal screen" tickled me.

• Obviously, Jasons' standout line here was "Now, THAT’S a penis!" I liked the running theme of him being more concerned/impressed with these minor details than his baby's actual health or that they're visiting an actual good doctor. 

• Kristen gave a solid, underrated performance here contrasting Jason's misplaced excitability with her genuine concern over the baby's health and suppressed frustration with her husbands' sheer incompetence/gleeful detachment.

• I loved how she tensely responded "no one said that" to Jason's rhetorical question of "who said having a baby couldn't be exciting"? B-

2007 National Douchebag Championship

Blaine Savage (Sudeikis) hosts this...uh, "talent" competition where contestants Jake Hawkins (Hader), a nightclub manager from New Jersey, Todd "The Deetch" Deaton (Rogen) and Christopher Spanks (Forte), an activist and street juggler from California (Forte) must face celebrity guest judges Sharon Osborne (Poehler) and last years' winner Gerard (Samberg) to determine which of them will take home "the commemorative Jared Leto trophy" and a guest spot on "Entourage". 

• Having been around in 2007 to see that this was pretty much where a large part of male culture was at...this sketch just tickles me.

• Jason played a great host but at the same time he hit certain beats in his dialogue a bit hard in a way that made this feel a teeny bit underwritten and hamfisted...but I guess for some portions of the audience, the writers thought this may have been seen as a basic introduction to the idea of "douchebag" culture so it didn't bother me that much. 

• I especially liked Jason refusing to return "fist bumps" to Bill and Seth's characters and telling Wills' character to "shut up" and "cool it" when singing Jamiroquais' "Virtual Insanity".

• Ooh, Bills' character in this is a nightclub manager? That's some...interesting if unintentional foreshadowing. If Bill knew John Mulaney in their pre-SNL days, maybe he drew on an email John forwarded to him? Anyway, Bills' goofy facial expressions and hacky impressions were charming enough that I could see why his character placed third here.

• Jason noted that Bill's character sang "California Girls" as Borat, Austin Powers and Ace Ventura? Now, I know Katy Perry wasn't famous yet at this time so I guess that leads me to believe that he would've been singing David Lee Roths' cover of the Beach Boys original?

• Seth fit this sketch well enough as a charmless, misogynistic tool, complete with sunglasses, Ed Hardy truckers' cap and "Big Johnson" T-shirt straight outta 1996. Will wasn't featured too much in this, but his goofy look (hippie-ish hoodie, frosted tips) got some chuckles out of me too.

• This sketch may have been the best use of Amy's Sharon Osbourne impression I've seen on this show (certainly better than any of the generic "Osbournes" parodies the show did before this or the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch we got in season thirty when Will Ferrell first hosted).

• I especially liked every way she described Seth's character (except mentioning his "date rape" charges) and when she stumbled over the word "doucherty" (I'd really like to see what that cue card said).

• Fred's Gene Simmons really only works on a visual/visceral level in that he just looks like Gene Simmons and says things that are only a tiny bit more disgusting than what I'd believe the real Gene Simmons actually says. Other than that, something about the voice just seems off to me.

• Andy Sambergs character was delightful. I wouldn't say his various distractions were particularly "douchey" (certainly not "jamming on his P'Zone...I remember personally liking those things quite a bit during that brief window of time right before Covid when Pizza Hut actually bought them back) but they felt more unique to Andy and his sense of humor. The single beaded hair braid in particular fells very Ras Trent.

• I know this was written by Colin Jost & Rob Klein but some of Sambergs' whole character makes me feel like this was at least partially punched up by Jorma & Akiva that Thursday. B+

Macgruber (1/3)

Macgrubers' (Forte) vanity and fear of aging distract him from diffusing the bomb as he can't bear to let Casey (Rudolph) or Caleb (Rogen) see his huge bald spot once his bandana falls off.

• This is the third ever MacGruber. At this point we've only seen him become a Hasselhoff level alcoholic after failing to secure the dog turds, public hair and bum semen needed to get out of his previous jams. Now, he appears to be in full blown mid-life life crisis mode.

• MacGruber in that bandana gives off slight "Rock Of Love" era Bret Michaels vibes. Between this, the cold open and the "douchebag" sketch...I'm starting to sense a bit of a theme to this episode.

• All of that aside, this seemed goofily dumb enough to work for me...as most MacGrubers are. B-

Big Kids

Mr. & Mrs. Triggs (Hader & Poehler) overindulge their grotesquely large and unattractive twins Jeremy (Rogen) and Stacia (Wiig) need to "perform" and show off the the disgust of their own adult friends (Armisen, Forte, Rudolph, Sudeikis)

• This got off to a fine start with Maya, Will, Fred & Jason reacting in stunned shock at the photo. Those same people reacting in stunned confusion to everything else Seth & Kristen did almost got old but I did like Wills' line "That was, uh...that just, was".

• Seth was great in this and so was Kristen (even if she was a little stiff and "I SAID WE!!!" wasn't a great catchphrase). Bill and Amy played cheery ineffectual parents off of them very well.

• I didn't have a huge problem with this sketch or Kristens' performance in it, but it feels like the start of a dangerous trend in this era of Wiig playing a string of loud, spazzy characters that would plague the show for the next few seasons...so, it was hard to fully get that into it.

• My second biggest laugh of this was the visual of Kristen wearing a giant three piece drum set over her shoulders, tapping them with a complete lack of rhythm like she was practicing some kind of Native American war chant while Seth badly mangles the words to Amy Winehouses' rehab into a tiny pink Barbie-ish microphone attached to an oddly shaped boom-box/tape player. The playing of the absurd Harry Potter reenactment on tape is a close third. The robot scene was all right but didn't stand out much for me.

• My actual biggest laugh was probably Wills' line of "I'm well aware of that" before jumping out the window as Amy tells him they are on the 15th floor. B-

Macgruber (2/3)

Macgruber (Forte) appears to be in full blown mid-life crisis mode after having noticeable plastic surgery and starting a relationship with much younger Taylor (Wiig) whom he is trying to convince is 25 and that Casey (Rudolph) and Caleb (Rogen) are his parents.

• Wills puffy collagen lips and chiseled chin/jawbone contrasting against his visible band spot were pretty funny, but not as funny as him whispering "I'm 25. Just go with it" to Seth and Maya after introducing them to Kristen but before referring to them as "mom" and "dad" when asking them to hand him random items. Their glum responses got me, too.

• The detail of Will and Kristen having met "in a hookah bar in Marina Del Rey" tickled me as someone who has been to both hookah bars that existed in Boulder during my sophomore year in college.

• Wills' repeated use of the word "tight" is the type of repetition I like in a sketch (well, it's MacGruber so it's short enough that there's no room for harmful repetition anyway) and thr Dave Matthews reference was pretty funny too. B-

A Message From Fred Thompson 

A decidedly unenthused Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (Hammond) draws upon his experience working with stand ins and stunt doubles on movie and TV sets announces his old "Law & Order" co-star Sam Watterson (Armisen) as his stunt president who will do all his campaigning while he sleeps in his trailer.

• OK, so I don't remember much from Fred Thompsons' 2008 Presidential Campaign (obviously it was very short lived and unsuccessful) but from this and other political material in this episode I gathered that he was lazy, didn't seem to really wanted to be president...or be anywhere in public around strangers, really...and must've had his own Jeb Bush "please clap" moment where he found himself having to literally beg his audience at an event for applause...and there's no doubt in my mind that all of these things contributed to the demise of his campaign 

• Still, whether you knew any of this going in or not...there's not much to find funny here but at least it's an interesting use of Darrell in a non-Dick Cheney/non-Chris Matthews political role just before they would stop having trouble using him this way all together.

• There's Fred with his bizarre off base Sam Watterson impression once again that only worked the last two times he did it in the previous season. As he's not depicting this character as either mentally unstable or just weirdly out of place, this doesn't do anything for me here.

• Anyway, writing about this sketch (and really this whole episode now has me feeling like Fred Thompson circa 2007 myself, so since I don't have a trailer to head back to, I'll just move on. C-

MacGruber (3/3)

After being handed a mirror, MacGruber (Forte) decides his jarring new look from an unlicensed south of the border plastic surgeon is "not so bad".

• I liked the creepy Marathon Man-esque tone this took with a gruff, corner facing MacGruber demanding a mirror, only showing his new, slightly weird non-deformed look in the mere nanosecond before the explosion.

• The control room they're all trapped on being in a monastery was a nice touch as the haunting, ambient choir music helped sell the odd horror vibes of this.

• I also liked how this was a complete 180 degree turn from your standard "mid-life crisis" MacGruber but again, these tend to be so short there's very little to say about them individually, so I'll just move on. B-

Spoon Performs "The Underdog" & "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"

• I don't have too much to say about this band or these performances. Their sound is pleasant enough but if you listen closely, you can hear the origins of that whole indie pop folk/stomp clap hey trend of music that would become omnipresent in about three more years and go on to plague major prescription drug commercials to this day, so...what would basically morph into this over time but still with a little indie/alt hipness to it

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

CNNs' resident anti-immigration pundit Lou Dobbs (Hammond) delivers an editorial on Canadian entertainers and producers like Seth Rogen and Lorne Michaels take money, film roles and valuable SNL hosting gigs away from deserving American performers

Seth & Amy deliver their third ever "Really?!?" on Senator Larry Craig's airport mens' room sex scandal

Mets Manager Willie Randolph (Thompson) and General Manager Omar Minaya (Armisen) struggle to form any coherent words, let alone come up with anything they would actually do to differently to have gotten their team to the playoffs this year

Senior Political Correspondent Chevy Chase (Himself) delivers an election report on the Democratic and Republican primary campaigns

• Seth's Best Jokes: Bush vetoes child health insurance, war on science, merit badges, nun convent fight, NY Knicks harassment suit

• Amy's Best Jokes: Hannah Montana/Yoda Minnesota, virtual colonoscopies, Ikea homes, MTA cell service

• Darrels' Lou Dobbs commentary was wonderfully deranged and I loved how he played the sheer outrageousness of it completely straight. I liked how he seemed momentarily distracted by a rogue audience member without letting that throw off his timing and performance.

• Highlights for this for me include his naming "Tom Hanks and Jonny Mosely" as fine upstanding American SNL hosts, naming long dead or irrelevant celebrities as potential American hosts such as David Brenner, Hal Holbrook, Jill Eikenberry and George Peppard and quoting his own "red faced" hotel bar rant that ended with him calling Seth Rogen "an economic Bin Laden".

• Seth and Amy go pretty harder in the paint than Smigel did on Larry Craig in their "Really!?!" segment and the audience is pretty hot for it. What stood out to me were the "wide stance/Republican who likes dudes but hates capitalism" comments from Amy and Seth inadvertently tying this back to the first ever "Really!?!" from January (and the "Angry Dog" ad from last weeks' episode) by mentioning that Sen. Craig got Michael Vicks' lawyer to defend him in court.

• The Mets segment had some good fumfering from Fred and Kenan but...you would've had to have been following New York sports for quite some time or at least the 2007 baseball season to really get this. Plus, coming from Fred this really seems reminiscent of his Nicholas Fehn character (who we might be seeing real soon, kids) and that's not necessarily a good thing considering that particular characters' trajectory on the show. Kenan's growling with a cross eyed expression reminded me of his O.J. commentary from the previous week. I can't say anything else about this because there was literally nothing here.

• OK, say what you will about Chevy Chase but behind his old grey/off white Update set complete with phone and all, he seemed the most in his element and the least ill at ease he's been on the show since season one here. 

• I'd say he was downright charming by Chevy Chase standards and it was quite a fun novelty just to see a full 1975/76 style Update nestled within a modern 2007/08 Update.

• Most of his jokes actually got laughs and worked (except for the Fred Thompson "pigs in a blanket" joke with was just a random nonsequitir and a couple of his lines about Guilliani which bombed...especially that last joke comparing his and Hillarys' poll numbers)

• I actually heard that at one point the plan for these Chevy Update election features was to make them a recurring segment throughout this season. I'm sure the WGA strike and probably just Chevy being Chevy at some point put the kibosh on that but I don't think I or the SNL audience in general needed to see more of these that badly. B+

America's First Colonists: Stonetown

This History Channel series tells the story of town founder John Stone (Rogen) and how the special, almost magical "crop"  he was introduced to by the natives (Armisen) brightens the mood when smoked. Morale is boosted among all but one (Wiig) of his fellow settlers (Forte, Hader, Poehler, Thompson) in spite of their dwindling food supply and lack of defense or winter preparation which may have led to tht towns' demise.

• Steve Higgins' opening voice over was cute: "You're watching the History Channel...which means you're probably not too happy with the present."

• Bill not only narrates this but has the first line in the sketch after his opening narration and is later seen with Sudeikis licking corn on the cob the long way and trying to "spark" a musket bong with two actual stones that ends up firing a hole through his own hat. Those moments were fun.

• As for the rest of this sketch...it's called "Stonetown" because their all a bunch of stoners...and they've been smoking pot this whole time...get it?

• I guess this was the obligatory sketch they had to do this week to play up our hosts big pothead image. As expected, Seth played his part well as did Will and Kristen as a great stern voice of sober reason and concern. The various peripheral shots of Amy dancing and handing Kristen a flower were cute. I also liked the invention of the hacky sack and the "air lute".

• I didn't much care for Kenan popping in out of nowhere just to ask Seth for a "dime bag" nor did I care for the shot of Fred as a native DoorDasher (but I will admit the gag name "Constance Lee Stroking" did get me. C+

Rowlf & The Swedish Chef

Swedish Chef (Samberg) convinces Rowlf The Dog (Rogen) to sing a duet of "Beyond The Sea" after revealing that "Rainbow Connection" now has "too many painful memories" he associates with a night in a Vegas hotel room with Celine Dion. Of course, they're backed by fellow Muppets Janice (Rudolph) on tambourine, Zoot (Armisen) on saxophone and Animal (Hader) on drums.

• This is only the second appearance of Andy's Swedish chef character (which he apparently auditioned with). The first was during the brief commercial break advertising his cover of "Axel F" as a ringtone in the season 31 sketch "Smorgasbord" from Scarlett Johanssons' first episode where she and Seth played ennui riddled Bergman-esque niche Food Network hosts and Bill played her comatose husband. Considering that was Bills' only other role in that episode aside from "Fly High Duluth" and he had no lines in either, it should be obvious why Deej and I didn't cover that one at all when we went through season 31 on the podcast.

• I like how this one establishes a sort of mini SNLMSU (SNL Muppet Show Universe) with other cast members being incorporated as various Muppet Show characters that would continue into Seths' second episode next season and Blake Livelys' monologue the season after that.

• I also like this being the rare non-monologue sketch that only takes place on home base stage with no additional set. It really continues the seasons 1 & 2 1975/76 throwback vibes from the Chevy portion of Weekend Update.

• The cast pulled this off well. Seth, Bill and Andy all had great natural Muppet voices and Muppet energy to pull this off. Bill crushed it with that wild drum solo. Maya even gave off Laraine Newman vibes.

• It had been several years since I had ever watched an actual rerun of the original Muppet Show (and that's still the case really) but the Muppets are so universal that you didn't have to have seen them recently to appreciate this. Maybe it's just their omnipresent cultural osmosis or maybe it's just one of those pop culture things people my age pick up from seeing parodies of it on other, more contemporary comedy shows of our own time, but it's nice to have such a comforting sketch near the end of the show like this. 

• It's also kind of funny how Disney has apparently been planning an an actual revival of The Muppet Show here in 2026 that Seth Rogen is involved in which will supposedly air on ABC and Hulu just a few days after this blog post is published and the podcast that we talk about this on is put out into the world. B- 

Mad Joe Dixon

Delilah (Rudolph) and Abigail (Wiig) discuss Delilahs' true feelings toward Mad Joe Dixon (Rogen) until he shows up and they discuss their own likes and dislikes before deciding they were destined for each other

• I got slight Judy Grimes vibes from Wiigs' performance (look at me up here, referencing a character who wouldn't appear chronologically yet) and from Seths' performance I got the vibe that this sketch may have been (rightfully) cut from John C. Reillys' episode from the previous season.

• Other than that, I have no idea what the hell this even was. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. This started out like a more Southern version of "Tales Of Ribaldry" but once Seth started talking about wrapping his balls in hot/cold washcloths (depending on the temperature) it felt like this seriously got away from whoever was writing this or (more likely) punching it up on Thursday night.

• I'll admit that Maya talking about pooping in random mens' thermoses got me a bit but the origin of the name "Mad Joe" (short for JoAnn, he likes to kill people) was just too dumb. This definitely felt like it was going for a bit of a "random" vibe but non "lol silly absurd wacky" random as much as just "pointlessly and irritatingly dumb" random (not the kind of "random" people like. D+

Ranking Season 33 From Best To Worst

1. Lebron James/Kanye West (09.29.2007)
2. Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)

Overall Thoughts 

• While this episode may not have been quite as strong as Lebrons' season premiere from the previous week, it was mostly a pleasant surprise to go and review.

• Seth Rogen was a fine host who could've easily been a cast member in some alternate universe (maybe not one with a lot of range, but still) and Bill had a great night (as did Will, Andy, Kristen and Fred which is no surprise in this era).

• The only thing really bringing this episode down is that...a lot of it just doesn't go anywhere. The cast and host elevate a lot of this episode but the writing kind of just...lays flat. This aspect made it a more challenging episode to review as a lot of these sketches really left me with almost nothing unique to say about them. 

• I'm sure the fact that I have been working a new job with later hours and a longer commute didn't help but I think these are all the main contributing factors to me having to watch and write about this episode in shifts rather than all at once. Having to almost struggle to come up with something to say about such...plain and structurally bland sketches really drained what little mental energy I had when I tried to get through it. 

• Again, this isn't to say I didn't like this episode. It got off to a fairly strong start but a lack of creative energy started creeping in and settled in more toward the end of the show.

Closing Thoughts 

• The next entry on this blog is likely going to be my review of SNL season 51s' upcoming Alexander Skarsgard/Cardi B episode (which will be the shows' 1000th strangely enough) which should be posted two days from now if all is going according to plan.

• After that, it looks like SNL may be going on an extended break due to NBCs' Winter Olympic coverage but while that's going on, Deej and I will continue working on the We Heart Hader podcast.

• Our next episode will be a review of episode two of Documentary Now followed by a review of SNLs' Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters episode. I remember that one being on the weaker side of season 33 but I think since then Deej and I have found the brighter spots in that one, so maybe this one might be easier to review.

• See you then!

Zach Braff/Maroon 5 (05.19.2007)

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

Bush' s Summer Vacation

As he prepares for a full length summer vacation, President George W. Bush (Sudeikis) denies that the true purpose of the Iraq War was to install a US controlled puppet government in Baghdad or to lower gas prices for American consumers by stating that the Bagdhad government isn’t exactly an ally and that gas prices are soaring. While speaking, he unsubtly glances over at Vice President Dick Cheney (Hammond) for approval on each of his talking points…except his last point conceding that the war was an incompetently run disaster. He then hands control of the government over Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who will take his place while he is on vacation.

• Wow…Jason sure was blinking a lot at the beginning. Wonder if that was intentional, part of his Bush impression or a subtle “morse code” type gag that they thought most viewers wouldn’t notice?

• On the surface, this was another largely forgettable Sudeikis as Bush cold open without a whole lot going for it but it becomes more accessible as it goes along. Another timeless criticism of how poorly the Iraq War went that you may not have needed to be around this particular week in May of 2007 to fully “get”. Pretty straightforward stuff.

• I did like Sudeikis as Bush’s line about what a mistake it turned out to be for him to trade Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines when he was the owner of the Texas Rangers. I also liked the cuts to a silent Darrells’ various “thumbs up/winking A-OK” signs and the cut to him having disappeared when Jasons’ Bush admits the war was run incompetently. 

• Maya’s Condoleeza Rice seems to just be her current Oprah impression mixed with a vocal inflection that would become her Michelle Obama (pun unintended, but unavoidable) but she really gives it her all in what many were speculating would be her final LFNY as a cast member. C+

Monologue 

As a tribute to his home state of New Jersey (and a not-so-subtle plug for his new movie “Garden State”) Zach Braff sings “New Jersey State Of Mind” (and a brief Jersey-fied version of “On Broadway”) with support from Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg and Kenan Thompson.

• As hot and cold as I’ve always run on Zach Braff, I have to say that I appreciated his shout-out to the Church Lady and Toonces when outlining how big a fan of this show he was as a kid. 

• As for this being a showcase for Zachs’ singing, I found it a little self-indulgent. I wouldn’t say it was off-putting though. The worst thing I could say about it would be it felt like something you might have seen Joe Piscopo do in his “Club Piscopo” Showtime special from a few years back…but y’know, a little hipper and more contemporary.

• I did get a kick out of his jokes about how Jersey’s governor drives the fastest out of all the other US governors (this had to have been before the days of Chris Christie, right?) I also liked how HBO's setting of The Sopranos in Jersey “felt right” despite the state having only the 4th highest Italian-American population in the nation.

• The only real comedic highlight of this were Andy, Amy, Maya and Kenan walking on stage dressed as various Jersey landmarks so obscure that Zach just had to straight up tell them all just what the hell they were dressed as (especially Samberg with his “why am I dressed as a sandwich? Not that I mind” line). Other than that, this was pretty unremarkable. C+

Digital Short: Puppy Love

An apartment subletter (Braff) is disappointed when he finds out that his dog (Jorma Taccone V/O) has seduced yet another crushed potential tenant (Samberg) into giving him a plate of ham from the fridge…until the dog himself admits it was meant to be.

• Hmm…strange that they would hard cut to a digital short rather than a commercial coming right off the end of the band vamping to the finish line of a big musical number. That seems like the type of thing that never happens before, but OK.

• Anyway, this digital short wasn’t up to much either, but it was fun, brief and to the point. This may not be my favorite digital short of all time, but that early lo fi season 31/32 style of these shorts really saved this for me and I got a kick out of Jormas’ voice over on the shots of the dog.

• Yes, this may have been the same basic premise as the season 18 fake ad “Canis” (a long, dramatic sexy buildup to a man kissing a dog) but I prefer this execution of the gag better than the overblown Calvin Klein type ad. C-

Prom Committee

Bethany “B.J.” Jacobs (Poehler) and Lauren “B.J.” Carlton (Rudolph) both want a James Bond themed prom but are forced to hear lame suggestions for alternate themes from their classmates. These include “Remember The Night We Mets” from Mets super fan Billy Zerillo (Armisen), “Get To Know Lyle Kane” from dweeby valedictorian Lyle Kane (Forte), “Garden State” from Garden State superfan Brian Bernstein (Braff), “Pink Floyd' s The Wall” from crunchy stoners Skooch (Thompson) and Mando (Sudeikis), an abstinence theme from repressed virgin couple Beatrice Mitchell (Wiig) and Mitchell (Hader) and the proposal of a virtual Middle Earth themed prom from even dweebier hobbit cosplayer Lomax (Samberg). Ultimately, the final decision comes down from the schools’ suspiciously Connery-esque Principal MacDoogal (Hammond).

• Man, when I remembered this sketches’ existence…I started looking forward to reviewing this particular episode a bit more! Still, even this had its weaknesses. 

• Amy and Maya really made the most out of their stereotypical bitchy high school girl roles, even if they got a little too…snide at points. I liked the opening joke about each of their “B.J’ initials but the constant vocal fry soaked “thanks BJ”s got old pretty fast (especially since I have a vague memory of watching this sketch in a VH-1 rerun of this episode where any and all utterances of the initials “B.J’ were obnoxiously bleeped out.

• Freds’ character seems the most out of place in this sketch. It’s like he’s playing a 1970s high schooler stuck out of time. It’s the type of character you’d most expect to see from Billy Crystal in season 10. I know Fred has this weird affinity for playing stereotypical Brooklynite sports fans but in THIS sketch it’s a real “square peg in a round hole” situation.

• Ah, the debut of Will Fortes’ criminally underrated Lyle Kane character. Even his brief appearance here may have been my biggest laugh of the entire sketch. This character would go on to make a much bigger splash in the very next episode (which would be the following seasons’ premiere).

• Zachs’ character in this sketch I wasn't crazy about. I guess it just barely qualifies as him making fun of himself? With lines like “Looking out at all of you, I think, “Wow! What a generation we are’” he almost seems more aged out of this sketch than Fred does and his talk about “alienation” makes him seem like a mid-80s/early 90s teenager stuck out of time. I wouldn’t say it detracted too much from this sketch because Amy and Maya played their disgust off him well.

• Kenan and Jasons’ stone characters were very silly and were pretty different from the types of characters they usually played early on in their tenures (but we would still see Kenan play this type of character more frequently later on).

• Bill and Kristen were committed as ever to playing their extreme sexual tension off each other very well without it coming off like they were trying too hard. I especially liked Bills’ “after prom/after marriage” line (although I wonder if there was any discussion with the censors regarding the leadup to Bills’ exit? The initial audience reaction made it seem like a crucial visual gag may have had to play out offscreen.

• Andy’s geeky Tolkien fan wasn’t as laugh out loud funny as anything else in this sketch but it was a silly enough gag to start closing this sketch out on. The best part of Andy’s character was him setting up Forte for the line about wanting to go to a real prom “and get laid for real”.

• Darrell just doing his Connery impression as the schools’ principal wouldn’t have seemed like it would work on paper but it was just absurd enough to close this already slightly off the wall sketch out. The line about how “the two B.J.s were the most convincing” really may not fly today but other than that…this might have been the most wholesome use of Darrell Hammonds Sean Connery impression outside of the first Celebrity Jeopardy sketch with Martin Short. B-

Deep House Dish

Dj Dynasty Handbag (Thompson) and T’Shane (Samberg) bring on performers Shereals Davis (Rudolph), G-Thug (Braff), Francesca Freem (Poehler) and her “backup dancer” Forte

• This sketch wasn’t in back to back episodes of the shows’ actual run but somehow ended up in chronologically back to back episodes that Deej & I reviewed for this podcast. We didn't intentionally set up our season 32 coverage that way, I assure you.

• Anyway, while this sketch being in this episode seems to suggest your typical season finale burnout, there were some fun moments in this.

• We’re off to a promising start with Kenans’ reaction to Andy’s alternately decent and senselessly bad jokes about Paris Hilton going to jail. I loved how Kenans’ “laughing” just consists of him rapidly shaking his shoulders up and down in near silence with a small grin on his face.

• I wasn’t crazy about Mayas’ song or interview but I did get a chuckle out of the title “It’s My Bootys’ Duty”.

• Zach as G-Thug was something that was slightly better than it had any right to be. I liked the title of his song/album being “I’m Riddled With Bullet Holes” and him ending his performance by shouting “G-Thug, I’m violent yo.” The interview portion didn’t add much beyond some telegraphed jokes but I did get a chuckle out of Andy shrieking at Zachs’ “scary face”.

• Amy’s song with Will slowly gyrating his ass at the camera (because the songs’ hook has the lyrics “keep your brown eye winking up at me”) was probably the best “song” portion of this by default, but again…the interview portion of this didn’t do much for me. C+

TV Funhouse: Decision ‘08 - Spring ‘07 Cleaning

Oprah Winfrey (Rudolph) lets all the candidates from this years’ US presidential primary air out all their previous dirty laundry so that hopefully, their insane revelations will all be forgotten by the time the polls open next year.

• Well, this may not be the most well remembered Smigeltoon in SNL history but it certainly sticks out in some peoples’ minds.

• It’s basically a list of rapid fire insane statements that almost goes on too long until it aims for “going on until long after it stopped being funny and then circles back to being funny again” territory.

• There’s a bit too much chaos in this to list any individual lines but the ones I liked the most were from Guiliani, Gore, Obama, Richardson, Edwards and McCain (especially when John McCain suddenly beats up Mitt Romney out of nowhere and then simply states “I just did that”)

• It’s sweet of them to include Mayas’ actual headshot along with the head of her animated Oprah character as one of the requisite closing credit headshots at the end of this. 

• Hmm, looking more closely at these credits I see Louis CK has a writing credit (and I think I can guess what lines he may have pitched) so I think the less said about this one, the better. Moving on… B-

Song Memories II

At a bar, four best friends (Braff, Forte, Hader, Sudeikis) reminisce to “The Weight” by The Band about incredibly risky church hookups that ruin weddings, smuggling dads’ heroin filled condoms through airports, drunk driving school buses and mailing poop until they suddenly strip to Kool & The Gangs’ “Jungle Boogie”.

• This was nearly a carbon copy of the first of these sketches from this season's Rainn Wilson/Arcade Fire episode. They go just a little bit less dark. Zach was the weak link in this but thankfully he's the only thing dragging it down. 

• They start to establish a pattern with these at this point that thankfully wouldn’t stick all the way through subsequent installments. You can see the pattern in the types of stories the guys tell. Sudeikis gets his penis injured in the most inappropriate setting possible, Hader tells a story about his dad, Forte endangers school children in a relatively PG-13 way, the host seems to be the wild card but so far usually tells a story involving human waste.

• Still, Forte and Hader prove they have the likable personalities to put such highly questionable humor over so easily (Hader more so than Forte in this case although Forte probably gave me my biggest laugh in this) and that's what truly makes these sketches work. They're really the glue holding these together. 

• I had a lot more to say about this sketch in a previous episode of We Heart Hader, so feel free to listen to that at your own leisure. C+

Maroon 5 Performs “Makes Me Wonder” and “Won't Go Home Without You”

• Well, it’s Maroon 5…and it’s one of their weaker periods…and Adam Levine still thinks pretty highly of his own “sex symbol” status. What else NEEDS to be said?

• Hey, here’s a fun fact. Since lead singer Adam Levine makes a cameo in the “Iran So Far” digital short in the very next episode of SNL (the following seasons’ premiere) this at least puts him right up there with Bad Bunny as another host/musical guest with consecutive appearances in back to back live episodes (even if Adam here isn’t officially billed as either one in the following seasons’ premiere). 

• That’s neat and I only really bring it up because the “Iran So Far” digital short has to by default be my favorite thing he’s ever done on SNL (which isn’t saying much, but still…)

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

Aunt Linda (Wiig) reviews the biggest movie sequels of the summer

Sam Waterson (Armisen) chastises Amy for her Law & Order joke

Whitney Houston (Rudolph) details her summer plans, laughs off a potential lawsuit from Bobby B and brings her own special brand of brownies 

• Amy’s best jokes: Immigration reform bill, Bin Laden, American Girl auditions

• Seth’s best jokes: Bush leads orchestra, Miami road rage, German sex shop

• Nice to see Aunt Linda again. I got a kick out of her opening line being “I can push myself” as well as her Pirates Of The Caribbean and Rush Hour 3 reviews. This being the summer of 2007, I gotta say it’s a shame we didn’t get to see Linda's review of The (first) Simpsons Movie.

• Amy’s Law and Order joke was well done. I like Armisen' s Sam Waterson just fine mostly for how loopy he plays the role (whether he’s aiming for that or not). It’s one of those impressions where the voice isn’t quite right but you can see what the performer is aiming at for it to work.

• Nice to see a shaggy pre-Update photo of Colin Jost in the role of fictional soccer player “Otto Von Dildo” during Seth' s German sex shop joke.

• I was never all that crazy about Mayas’ all over the place Whitney Houston impression but thankfully it got right in and right out without going on for too long. C+

La Revista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci 

After Zach Braff admits he doesn’t speak Italian, talk show host Vinny Vedecci (Hader) yells at his producers (Armisen, Forte), shows a clip of Scrubs reedited as an intense drama and vamps with an impressions of Peter Faulk before a vomiting puppet gets the biggest reaction of the whole show.

• Hey, it’s another slightly weaker second installment of a recurring sketch that debuted this season AND the second sketch of this episode I have previously talked about on a previous podcast and blog!

• I liked how Bill just went into his Peter Faulk because Vinny knew Zach Braff' s first movie was “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and even though Peter Faulk wasn’t actually in it he just free-associated “mystery” with “Colombo” to get there.

• I liked how the Scrubs clip they showed was so outlandishly absurd when removed from any context that it could work as either comedy OR drama.

• I appreciated seeing writers Doug Abeles, John Lutz and John Solomon as additional crew members laughing at the puppet vomit

• Other than those, this does hit all the typical beats that every other Vinny Vedecci sketch would. Bill, of course, saves it with this performance as Vinny Vedecci was a very consistently funny character (well, until about season 35 anyway).

• I’m sure I had more to say about it when we covered all these sketches on the We Heart Hader podcast and when I compiled those notes into something for my blog, so again…feel free to check those out at your leisure. B-

Bronx Beat

Co-hosts Betty Caruso (Poehler) and Jodi Deitz (Rudolph) detail summer plans, complaining about their husbands and kids and interview 25 year old intern Mike Drucker (Braff) when their planned guest, chef Don Barbieri of “Chez Don” suddenly falls through.

• This is the fourth one of these sketches…which by itself isn’t remarkable unless you also consider the fact that this sketch debuted in this season and it is their fourth one in four months.

• Thankfully, this is an early one so Amy and Mayas’ characters are fairly restrained and more grounded and lived in than they would be in future installments. I’ve always run pretty hot and cold on these characters for this reason, so that’s nice to see

• So…they didn’t feel the need to explain why Zach' s character is 25 years old and still an intern?

• Well, what else is there to say about this besides the fact that this hits all the same beats and patter that you would expect from a Bronx Beat (and since it’s Bronx Beat there’s a lot of both of those things). Thankfully, due to the more restrained nature of this installment and the sense that they may still need to figure out what this sketch is at this point, this sketch was a LOT shorter than most Bronx Beats (or just felt a lot shorter, one of those two). C+

Melissa

Horny receptionist Melissa (Armisen) inappropriately hits on Zach Braff and annoys his agent Sandra (Rudolph) as they wait to take a meeting with producer Brian Grazer (Hader). Suddenly, Zach confesses his true feelings toward Melissa and they make out.

• Ugh, Fred Armisen in an Itchy and Scratchy like impossibly screechy voiced drag role. My least favorite thing he does on the show. Ending this on a homoerotic beat is not the best way to end the show or the season, guys (but I did like the goofy choice of music over that).I heard this got cut from the previous season's Tom Hanks/Red Hot Chilli Peppers episode. Wow…just, wow.

• I did get a kick out of Fred' s line about Zach being “down to earth…unlike Hank Azaria.” Maya got some good lines too and Haders’ sudden shouty appearance as Brian Grazer may have been the sole saving grace of this (as on brand as that is for me to say). D+

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, this episode wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered. Yes, with all the recurring stuff (and the stuff that was just made recurring with THIS episode) there is that “gassed out, running out the clock season finale vibe” that’s pretty common around May, but what dragged didn’t drag as much as thought it would and what held up then still holds up just fine now.

• Again, I’m not too crazy about Zach Braff (hell, the main reason we’re doing this episode is because Deej is a bigger Braff/Scrubs fan than I am and she pitched this episode to me) but he did a serviceable job here and was kept in check enough to not actively detract from the show. Its’ too bad such a fun and memorable season got such a lackluster finale instead of one it deserved.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, at this point I can pretty much confirm that my next blog post will be a full length review of the upcoming Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile episode of SNL's 51st season.

• The next episode of We Heart Hader will be a continuation of our "No Small Roles" series focusing on Bills guest spots in animated TV shows. See you then!