Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

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?

Amy Poehlers' House

On this day in 1986, a teenage Amy Poehler vents in her diary about her horrible life when suddenly she falls into a hairspray induced delirium and hallucinates a long haired 80s Jon Bon Jovi coming down from his poster on her wall to inspire her to pursue her dreams of acting like her pursued his dream of being a rock star. He goes on to promise her that twenty (well...twenty one, really) years from now, she will be in the cast of Saturday Night Live when he hosts.

• Hmm...is is just me or does this cold open remind any one else of Seth MacFarlanes' "Ted" series on Peacock? Y'know, because of all the 80s fashion mixed with thick Boston accents?

• Anyway, most of the humor in this came from Amy's thick Boston accent paired with her dramatic 80s high school teen angst. In fact, I think her look here may have been based on an actual high school yearbook photo of hers.

• I can't really pick out one particular line that stood out the most aside from her saying she needed to get her hair higher before passing out, her dreams of shopping at "The Limited"instead of just working there and renting her own apartment to invite friends over for beers to and her mentioning that her monologue that got a lot of laughs at school was from "The Diary Of Anne Frank". 

• Amy really did the most with the material she had to make sure that this just BARELY got over. Fortunately for her, this cold opens shortcomings weren't her fault at all.

• Tonight's host, Jon Bon Jovi, makes his first appearance here and immediately exhibits near Steven Segal levels of mumbling his lines in the most flat barely audible way possible which, unfortunately,would continue throughout every segment he appears in for sure.

• I will say that this cold open does suggest that Mr. Bon Jovi was at least slightly easier to deal with backstage and less difficult than Mr. Segal was but still...he looks like he would rather be anywhere else but here through much of this episode (even in segments like this one that come across like one big exercise in stroking the hosts' ego). 

• As a huge SNL nerd, I gotta agree with a take I saw from Stooge after this episode first aired that it would've been better had Amy been surprised to find that SNL would still be on the air in 20 years rather than just Bon Jovi merely being the host instead of the musical guest and also having cut his hair. 

• After all, this would have been just after the infamous season 11 had concluded and the show was seriously on the brink of cancellation for the first of only two times in its now 50 year history. Realistically though, I can see the show in 2007 thinking it too "Inside Baseball" to include a joke where Amy says something like "I mean, have you SEEN that show lately? It sucks bad and it's wicked boring now." 

• Plus, October 12, 1986 would've been the day after season 12 premiered which did pretty much save the show but no one would've had any idea that would happen yet if they didn't watch the show last night or just read any TV critics reviews of it. This raises an interesting question of why a teenage Amy Poehler would be attending school on a Sunday? She does open this sketch by writing in her diary that she had gotten her period on the balance beam that day but even if she were on her schools'gymnastics team I doubt they would have practice on Sunday.

• Oh well, I'm sure I'm just splitting hairs and putting much more thought into this cold opening than the writers' did. I'll just faintly praise the unique nature of this rare non-political cold open and move on. C+  

Monologue

Jon Bon Jovi confirms that as host he will only be acting and not singing tonight to which audience members (Liz Cackowski, Steve Higgins) express disappointment. Jon's band mate Richie Sambora (himself) reminds him they have a new album out and expresses hurt feelings on behalf of the rest of the band which convinces him to preform.

• Yeah, there wasn't much to this monologue. It's only purpose was to set up Bon Jovi as our "unofficial" musical guest of the night (because how else can Jon Bon Jovi endear himself to the SNL audience at the top of the show and bring us into his own comfort zone with him, right?)

• I liked Liz and Higgins here essentially acting as literal audience surrogates (especially the way Higgins delivered his line "Who wants to see Jon Bon Jovi sing? I want to see him act! This will be the greatest night of my life! Let's go, honey.")

• I will say the one genuinely funny thing Jon did here was bail out his most well known band mate during his little deer in headlights moment by blatantly feeding him his big laugh line when he just straight up lost track of his own cue card. That alone probably made this about ten times funnier than if would've been had this part gone as smoothly as it was supposed to. C-

Bon Jovi Performs "Lost Highway"

• Eh, I've always liked "It's My Life" and "Livin' On A Prayer" just fine and passively tolerated "Dead Or Alive" but besides those...I've just never been a Bon Jovi fan.

• The fiddle in this song in particular really adds to the "completely indistinguishable from every other adult contemporary/country pop hit that came out in 2007" sound here.

• Pretty ironic that this song contains the lyric "farewell to mediocrity", huh?

Ohhhhhhhhh!

Host Johnny Vincente (Hader) hosts an Italian themed New Jersey based game show where the object is to see which of the three contestants (Armisen, Bon Jovi, Hammond) can produce the best outraged response to a minor shock or distressing situation for an every day Jersey resident. The game concludes with a speed round with prompts from a woman (Wiig) who is revealed to be the hosts goomar

• Ok, for the podcast this may seem like a cheat since this is one of the two sketches from this episode that Deej and I have previously discussed on the fifth episode of our podcast together...but I haven't talked about it on this blog yet, so in case you didn't listen to that episode, I'll get into that one again real quick here.

• Right off the bat, Bill is a solid anchor of this sketch in only his second game show host roll of his SNL tenure. Not only is he wearing the nicest suit he's ever worn on the show here but he's also giving the most entertaining performance in this.

• He's the second most convincing as a Jersey Italian (right behind the actual born and raised Jersey Italian who's hosting the show and keeps delivering all his lines in a too subdued fashion). Armisen's just trying a bit too hard. 

• Hammonds' just doing his James Gandolfini impression to justify his presence here because it's the only thing he actually can do with the material he is given. I did like his lines about his wife being fat and lazy and being a Tony Soprano impersonator that seems to perform exclusively at car washes and Bills' brief comment of "ay, all right" when he exited the scene in bills' shot when he apparently wasn't supposed to do that) more than I liked his constant shouting over the mere mentions of the word "homosexuality". 

• Wiig made a good pissed off mistress, though. Speaking of this sketches' treatment of women in general, I liked how none of the guys had any offended response to the idea of getting serviced by a prostitute and suddenly remembering today is their wifes' birthday.

• One small detail I liked were the low quality prizes here (gift certificate to Sal De Antonis' undershirt emporium, seats to Devils home game, slightly worse seats to a Devils' home game).

• Anyway, I'm sure I had more to say about this sketch in the podcast episode I linked to above, so...go listen to that one, why don't you? B+

A Visit With Former Vice President Al Gore

Al Gore (Hammond) takes you on a tour of his personal trophy room where he shows off various awards he won for all the different versions of "An Inconvenient Truth' that have ever existed.

• At first I thought that going right from "Ohhhhhhhh!" into this sketch must've been quite the rush of a quick change for Darrell until I remembered that there was a whole commercial break in between these first two sketches.

• Speaking of, one thing this sketch has going for it is that by this point, Darrell Hammond actually looks more like Al Gore than he did when he started doing this impression regularly on the show eight years earlier (mostly due to the way that the real Al Gore has aged in that time). That plus SNLs regular audience just being used to seeing this impression on the show by this point...helped make this sketch work, I guess?

• Apparently, the real Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize this week which is what spawned this sketch. Somehow, I doubt that this had anything to do with "An Inconvenient Truth" like the rest of these awards do as they don't give those out for movies (especially not ones that are more than a year old at this point).

• Odd that the joke about Al Gore winning "The Poppy" (for winning the popular vote in an election without actually getting to be president) would get the applause it did in 2007.

• While this did start off a little repetitive, there were a few odd awards here that I did get a kick out of like his Harvard mention getting no applause, the AVN award a porno version of "An Inconvenient Truth", a participation certificate for the National Punt, Pass and Kick competition, the small, framed measles vaccination certificate, the "free DVD player or touring a time share"framed flyer and, of course, O.J. Simpsons former Heisman Trophy.

• This reminded me a lot of a sketch from the January 1993 Harvey Keitel episode called "An Insane Idiot And His Descending Size Collection Of Deer Heads". C-

Digital Short: People Getting Punched Just Before Eating

Andy Samberg lands a series of wild near-flailing punches on various people (Forte, Sudeikis, Jorma Taccone, Bon Jovi, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins) just before they take a bite out of whatever food they have in their own hands. Suddenly, he runs from a group of zombies (Armisen, Danielle Flora) and then dances with them.

• Like most early digital shorts of this era, this was just pure silly goofy fun designed to bring a much needed boost of energy to this episode right when it needed one.

• The beepity-boopity techno soundtrack of this short somehow complimented this well (especially when Andy would follow every other punch by doing a goofy tongue wiggling, finger pointing jig).

• It was good of Jon Bon Jovi to get in on this but him suddenly jumping back up with a guitar and the caption "full recovery" was a little off-putting to me. Given Bon Jovis' reputation, I do genuinely wonder if he insisted on that?

• I do like the gag immediately following this when Andy has to bring his whole body to a screeching halt to stop himself from punching Jason until his sudden cell phone call he answers is over.

• I especially liked the return of a black eyed Forte threatening to punch Samberg back causing him to back off, then suddenly sneak up behind him and strangled him followed by Sambergs' goofy dance to a caption of "murder"

• The "zombies" ending may seem a bit "lol random" to the untrained eye but if you look closely you'll see that the reason Andy is suddenly holding a severed human arm is because that's what the last person he punched was eating. I commend The Lonely Island for sneaking this little "blink and you'll miss it" detail in there. B-

TBS Postseason 07 Promo

Dane Cook (Sudeikis) hypes up the upcoming MLB Playoff match between the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians

• This is the debut of Jasons' Dane Cook impression which he would only do one more after this episode. I'd say it's a pretty accurate one as he's got a decent handle on the voice and he's got Cooks' physicality and joke delivery style down pat.

• I remember these Dane Cook TBS World Series promos from around this time and this really does a great job of mocking how odd and inexplicable they felt back then. This truly felt like TBS equivalent of ABCs' hiring of Dennis Miller as a Monday Night Football color man back in 2000/01 or (more accurately) ESPN hiring Hollywoods' Robert Evans to do any kind of promos for them whatsoever (which is something I'm only familiar with from Patton Oswalt describing it).

• I liked his line about then Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia: "This C.Cs' not a music factory, he's a pitching factory." as well as "there's only one logical spokesperson for baseball, Dane Cook". C+

La Revista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci

Italian talk show host Vinny Veddecci (Hader) struggles to conduct his interview in English as he and his spaghetti eating crew (Armisen, Forte) are in utter disbelief that a man with the last name "Bon Jovi" isn't perfectly fluent in Italian (which is why they never even bothered to arrange for a translator for this interview). Talk of The Sopranos, childrens' cigarettes and robot horses ensues ending with a unique and rousing cover of "Livin' On A Prayer".

• This is the third appearance of this character as a talk show host after debuting in the previous seasons' Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol episode as well as the Zach Braff/Maroon 5 finale. He's one of my favorite early Bill Hader characters as evidenced by how Deej and I based the entire third episode of our podcast on his appearances (and I wrote a whole 'nother accompanying blog post just to go with that one where I apparently ranked this sketch as my favorite of all of this characters appearances).

• Again, I realize this may seem like a bit of a cheat given how this is the second segment from this episode alone that we've talked about on a previous episode of our own podcast...but I'm trying to shake off this nagging feeling that I have unwittingly cheated myself and my audience out of a better blog entry and podcast episode by going along with a plan that involves reviewing this episode in full, so...bear with me here, please.

• Anyway, feel free to read what I already wrote in that above linked podcast post for a more in-depth analysis of this sketch. For now, I'm just going to gloss over a few highlights.

• I liked that Vinny starts off the English portion of this interview by over pronouncing hiswords as much as possible and just generally struggling more to speak in English than he was in his previous sketches (despite what a major backslide in basic language competency and literacy this represents for the character).

• Bills' Silvio/Van Zandt impression along with Freds' Paulie Walnuts worked well for me here. I especially liked the kids' cigarette commercial set to "Blaze of Glory" (especially Paula Pells' appearance as a smoking nun and Vinnys' defense of the commercial being that the smokers were not "little kids" but rather "seven...eight year olds...MEN!").

• The robot horse gag and "Livin' On A Prayer" cover were just silly enough to work for me. Hell, I even liked Jon Bon Jovi calling out Vinny and his crew for not speaking using any of the same Italian words that his grandmother used (despite it now being so obvious that both of them are so much more fluent in English than they are in actual Italian that it makes one question why either of them would need a translator for this interview and thus decimates the logic of this entire sketch). B+

Weekend Update w/Poehler and Meyers

NBC employee Rosa Santiago (Rudolph) pitches in with a few jokes in the face of an upcoming WGA strike

Publicly nude cellphone user Josh Drimmer (Samberg) walks by the Update desk from a nearby Tads' Steaks

Political comedian Nicholas Fehn (Armisen) tries to riff on todays' headlines but cannot get a word out edgewise

• Seth's Best Jokes: Blackberry vibrations, cadaver scalps, Dirty Lou

• Amy's Best Jokes: Che Guevara tribute, Rubiks' record, boy found in Amazon, robot facials

• Hmm, I don't quite know what to make of this odd anti-comedy bi Mayas' doing. I don't mind her telling purposely bad jokes but having her do so as a, um...latina custodian, seemed a bit iffy to me. 

• I did like the brief bit of improv with the loose desk, Seth's reaction to the naked driving joke and they way she delivered the Pam Anderson/Rick Solomon joke (Jesus, why did she agree to marry HIM?)

• I guess this got on the air because it was mutually understood that Maya already had a foot out the door for the last two seasons at this point and since there was a strong possibility that either this or the next show could be her last she just wanted one second to last chance to goof around with Amy. 

• Speaking of goofy, Sambergs' naked guy bit was just brief and silly enough to get by for me.

• Here it is, folks; the debut of Armisens' Nicholas Fehn character. 

• You know, this character has fully earned its bad rap but I think I can cut his first appearance some slack since I do remember liking the first one and this was before Armisen jumped the shark and hadn't burned off any Goodwill he had earned from exhibiting a brand of off-kilter anti-comedy that actually did work. Plus, this would end up being FAR from his absolute worst character in the long run.

• I had heard Fred tell Marc Maron that this character was essentially based on David Crossand was supposed to mimic his speech patterns when trying to make a point but not having his words handy to explain his point and yeah...I've seen enough footage of David Cross to be able to see exactly what he was talking about there. C-

Foo Fighters perform "The Pretender"

• Hey, it's our ACTUAL musical guest! All right!

• Unfortunately, this is the only song the Foo Fighters get tonight.

• The musical guest only gets to do one song post Update tonight? I thought I was reviewing season 33 not season 23!

• Yeah, this is a pretty solid performance much like the most of the rest of their performances. Normally, I like the Foo Fighters and this song in particular, but...something seemed a little off vocally with Dave, like he was having a little trouble staying on key or losing his voice or something.

Where's My Purse?

A doddering dowdy old spaceship captain (Wiig) is too distracted by thoughts of her missing purse (which turned out to be right next to her captains' chair where she left it) to properly fend off a boarding and attack from hostile aliens (Bon Jovi, Thompson, Samberg) who have set out to kill her first officer (Forte) or her crew (Armisen, Hader Rudolph)

• Yeah, my memory of this being the worst live sketch of the night (well, worst sketch of the show in general, really) still definitely holds up. 

• This does feel like one of those sketches that is a harbinger for things to come as far as Kristen playing annoying, self-centered characters between seasons 34-37 goes, but at least this one fells somewhat grounded.

• I mean, after all...haven't we all encountered an older woman exactly like this just talking your ear off about personal grievances in life?

• It speaks pretty poorly to Jon Bon Jovis' presence as a host here that his simply wearing the most basic, run of the mill alien/martian head prosthetic was the moment when he seemed the most "game for anything" as a host (even while STILL mumbling his lines just as flatly disinterested as ever)

• Bill does have a funny moment in this as the crew member running in to warn everybody about the boarding aliens in a panic before being zapped with a ray gun by Kenans' character and simply whining "aw, man".

• I did get a small kick out of Kristen's character finding her purse right where she was just sitting and casually taking a ray gun out of it to nonchalantly shoot Kenans' character in the face and the ending cutaway to Fred and Mayas' characters fighting off Sambergs' alien and the next cutaway to them being a shot of them slumped over their control panels dead. C- 

TBS Postseason 07 Promo II

Dane Cook (Sudeikis) hypes up the other upcoming MLB playoff match between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks

• Ah, the second part of tonight's two part runner. This one I did like much better than the first since Jason did make mention of my home team, the Colorado Rockies (who miraculously made it to the actual 2007 World Series but lost to the Boston Red Sox of all people who managed to win it three years prior...but yeah, it was fun as a Coloradan to watch that series)

• I appreciated the "Brandon Webb/Spiderman reference" (a nod to another odd reference to an actual thing Dane Cook said in these promos) the line "I'm pretty sure one of them's a hockey team" and the line about how Rockies player Todd Helton "shouldn't have a batting average, he should have a batting outstanding". B+

Notre Dame Football on NBC

This was a fake promo that's somehow neither on the Peacock edit not the non-Peacock live air copy that I am using for this review, but it's basically just stock footage of actual Notre Dame football games set to a voice over by Steve Higgins mocking how badly they play and saying that NBC is the only place you can see this highly disappointing action.

• Man, it is hard as hell even finding a rigging TRANSCRIPT of this sketch, but what I have read about sketch its basically very "Inside Baseball"but for...well, football about what a crappy team Notre Dame is.

• One of Higgins' lines that seems to stand out among those who saw this when it aired was "Touchdown...other guy!" so, at least there's that.

What To Call The Band

As he and his band mates hold a vote, Jon Bon Jovi has a hard time convincing band mates Richie Sambora (Sudeikis), Tico Torres (Armisen), Alan Jon Such (Forte) and David Bryan (Samberg) to name the band after him instead of calling themselves "Natural Disaster"

• Well, at least we KINDA get to see Jon Bon Jovi poke fun at the idea that he has a huge ego?

• It's a little strange that this is the second sketch of the whole night where our host plays his previous, long haired 80s self but the first was the cold open which probably wasn't written until Friday at the earliest and it was decided that this was a slow enough news week/month politically that they could get away with it (unless the Al Gore thing was supposed to be the cold open at one point?)

• Anyway, this did go on a bit too long and meander, but I gotta say Jason sold his frustration just right, I liked the sequence where Jon Bon Jovi said he didn't remember the names of Will and Andy's bandmates and Will line about only wanting to stay for the first 25 years.

• I gotta say though, the ending didn't quite work for me as its' not that odd now for new up and coming artists to self title their albums. C-

Iconoclasts on IFC

IFC continues its proud tradition of having a show where two random famous people say words at each others' faces in public locations by filming singer Bjork (Wiig) and former athlete Charles Barkley (Thompson) talking about God knows what a Cheesecake Factory.

• This was a fun little goofy note to end this episode on. The timing of this is interesting because it comes right after the actual "Iconoclasts" show had Lorne Michaels and Paul Simon featured together (as well as Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle in a completely separate episode) but you could tell this was done in good spirits (not mean ones) after NBC and Lorne gave them behind the scenes access to SNLs' production schedule.

• We also get the debut appearances of two notable SNL impressions here: Kristen Wiigs' Bjork (another in a long litany of sketch impressions of this woman focusing solely on how weird and quirky she is as an artist rather than anything else about her as a singer) and Kenans Charles Barkley (an impression of his I've always liked and found very funny).

• This being the debut of Kenans' Barkley means we are seeing an early, primitive version of it before Kenan decided he needed to tighten it up which means he has slower speech patterns that are closer to the way the actual Barkley speaks. This also somehow gives his Barkley a more distinctly effeminate and flamboyant vibe that brings it closer to his "DJ Dynasty Handbag" character from "Deep House Dish" or Little Richard.

• Among the standout lines and moments for Wiig here were her making it "snow" by throwing salt up in the air and bringing along a single bicycle wheel claiming she used it to get here today. Among the stand out lines and moments for Kenan were his calling Bjork "Bork" and comparing her to Dennis Rodman "if he were a tiny white lady". B-

Goodnights

Jack Nicholson (Himself) introduces hosts' second performance

• Wow, this guy must really hate doing television because not has he only never hosted SNL in 50 years (despite making the odd cameo now and then) but I can't say I've ever seen him as a guest on that many American talk shows either.

• In fact, what did he even have in common with Jon Bon Jovi around this time? I vaguely remember hearing that they were both part owners/investors in arena football teams or something?

Bon Jovi Performs "Who Says You Can't Go Home"

• Well, it's at least nice that Jon Bon Jovi could thank "Lorne, Marci and Steve"or having him on...before closing out the show with a song that sounds exactly identical to the first one he did instead of a monologue. I guess he just named those he had to negotiate with to get to be billed as host and still do both these songs with his band?

Ranking Season 33 From Best To Worst

1. Lebron James/Kanye West (09.29.2007)
2. Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)
3. Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

Overall Thoughts

• Revisiting this episode, I have discovered that that is wasn't quite as "bad" as i remembered...just a rather uneven show that is sightly weighed down by a lackluster host. I'm slightly tempted to put him in the same category host as Steven Segal or Robert Blake but he's not as big a monster as them (although not much here suggests that he wasn't difficult to work with at all.

• Jon Bon Jovi may not have actively bought down the show or anything but he didn't exactly go out of his way to elevate any of the material...or really play many roles besides some variation on himself for that matter. Thankfully, this current cast doesn't have that problem as they could easily elevate a lot of this material without even trying. This episode really shows a lot of the cast having to pitch in to pick up some of the slack from the host.

• The best way I can assess Jon Bon Jovi as SNL host is to compare him to an Early 80s Dick Ebersol era host because that is truly what he reminds me of. That was the era of hosts being more "hands off" and not in every single sketch the whole night. Hell, even the aforementioned Robert Blake was only in two sketches outside of his own monologue back in '82 (which might be due to him turning down every pitch that was presented to him).

• Yes, I know that Jon Bon Jovi appeared way more than four times in his own episode but his basic onscreen presence during non-musical sketches was such that he pretty much disappeared into the background so much that even him not appearing in a mere two sketches was enough to make you even forget he WAS the host.

• Like I said, this episode was more truly "uneven" than bad, but for the reasons I just stated it it still the weakest of this season so far by default.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed reading this review and listening to the podcast that went along with it. I also certainly hope you enjoy reading my review of the upcoming Connor Storrie/Mumford & Sons episode of SNL which I will have published by this Sunday evening.

• You know, I was thinking that if I could somehow find a way to watch/stream the upcoming premiere of SNL UK that I MIGHT just review that on this blog. If you'd be at all interested in reading that, please sound off in the comments below.

• Right now, there's three things I definitely know for sure that I will be reviewing. I've just mentioned one of them. The other two things will be the Kunuk Uncovered episode of Documentary Now for our next We Heart Hader episode and the Brian Williams/Feist episode of SNL Season 33 for the episode after that (which I will also publish a review of on this blog as well).

• See you then!

Alexander Skarsgard/Cardi B (01.31.2026)

ICE Meeting

• What the absolute fuck?

• A diffie opening text crawl followed by an even DIFFIER political impression.

• I don't know how far down the list of "People Who Should Play Tom Homan On This Show" fucking Pete Davidson was, but I'm pretty disappointed that the guy who would've been my first choice if they absolutely HAD to stunt cast this (John Goodman, of course...I mean, he's gotta have a good handle on the voice) was obviously unavailable.

• Hell, I'd have a slightly easier time buying Pete in this role if he used the same voice and facial prosthetics that he was using to play Andrew Cuomo a few years ago.

• I'll say Kenan, Dismukes, Ben, Mikey, JAJ and Jeremy as the ICE agents Pete is addressing are picking up the slack from Pete and just BARELY making this work for me...and it is at least mice to get a break from another JAJ/Trump centered cold open...and this is probably preferable to a sudden cameo from Cardi as Nicki as a few people online were suggesting.

• Is this reminding anyone else of the Airport Security sketch from the season 32 premiere back in '06?

• It seems like there's not a lot here just because of the slow pacing of this (well, not JUST because of that), but there are some actually funny and decent lines here to pick out that were delivered well.

• Another reason there doesn't seem like much to go on here is that the main take seems to be reiterating what incompetent unqualified doofuses ICE agents are (a point that has been beaten to death by both "real" and "fake" news shows alike).

• Beyond that, having Pete Davidson of all people just barely gloss over what a corrupt evil bastard Tom Homan is and then have Pete Davidson of all people portray him as a mild mannered school marm is WAY the wrong thing for the show to be doing. In fact, this is almost MORE toothless and tone deaf than what they did LAST week.

• You know, this was one of many, many different moments in my life in the past 48 hours where I had to just sit in silence and ask myself...what the fuck am I even doing with my life right now? 

• Granted, I find myself doing this a lot for a plethora of deeply personal reasons that are entirely unrelated to this particular SNL cold open that i refuse to divulge on this goddamn fucking blog right now (it's supposed to be a distraction from that, obviously)...but I'm starting to wonder how many people involved in putting this show on the air have the capacity to even ask themselves this and that makes me sad...well, not as sad as some of that personal stuff I refuse to talk about here...but still. C-

Monologue

• Wow, an actual mention of the 1000th episode. I like how Alexander underplayed that.

• Hey, this dude's legitimately paying tribute to the band...AND letting them speak! All right!

• Hey, Lenny's got jokes!

• Alexanders' saxophone bit was fun and a great capper to this.

• That monologue may just be one big clock punch for those of us who listen to (and even some times record and release their own) podcasts about SNL but...already this is LIGHTYEARS better than three of the last five episodes of the show put together (which already makes this episode better than but just as uneven as last week's show). A-

Mom's Confession

• Already this reminds me of the "bad thing" sketch from Kristen Wiigs' last episode but with Ashley trying to do a better version of it.

• ...and it turns out that Sarah, Tommy, Dismukes and Jane are her kids who are exasperated that she didn't turn on Trump sooner or more drastically. 

• I liked Alexanders' line about how Ashley "gets a different internet" because her laptop is old and Jane's line about Ashley asking her if she "just liked hats" when she came out to her.

• I'll give the show this, the smartest thing they did all year so far was make this particular sketch an Ashley showcase and make it the first post monologue sketch. B+

Winter Olypmics Profile 

• Hey, another weird ass Jane thing but as a flashy pretape and she's killing it with this already! All right! Alexander is pretty great as her coach, too.

• The only thing negative I could say about this is that it does remind me a bit of that Patti Harrison Shark Tank sketch from ITYSL which will probably make the discourse around this sketch/episode a bit annoying...but other than that I'm glad we got to see this on air. B+

Stench Of A Family

• Already I can tell this is going to be a sequel to that Chloe movie shoot sketch from Glenn Powells' episode. 

• Smart move. That sketch did kill the first time and it does fit Alexander like a glove. Even Jane is scoring in this.

• This one seems to be going in a darker direction but making it work. It didn't have much of an out either but at least the Stellan cameo lent it some credibility...but not an actual ending or a non-rushed out, it seems. B-

Immigrant Dad Talk Show III

• This was a pleasant surprise. I genuinely wasn't expecting this to return any time soon, but I suppose Alexander playing up the repressed Nordic stoicism his homeland is known for works here just as well.

• This felt a bit more rushed but that's probably because they didn't need to establish as much with this being the third one and the focus shifting from sons amd daughters to wives.

• I don't think we needed to see the exact same beat with Mikey amd Dismukes as the father and son who kiss but the Stellan cameo that moment spawned worked even better.

• ...and if Cardi was going to cameo in a sketch, I guess this would be the one for her to be in. B-

Viking Raid

• Hmm, this seems to be the "obligatory host sketch" of the night.

• Huh, this turned into more of a "host plays against type" as it became more focused on Alexander overcoming his own insecurity. 

• I liked how they played that against a backdrop of modern manufactured SNL pretape gore set during the crusades. That made for some interesting juxtaposition and this was well acted by all the cast members involved.

• I did like the various gags that involved vikings just casually holding severed limbs. C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Che's best jokes: Kristi Noem, Jost/ICE Mask, Jamaican bobsled team, Luigi Mangione, Obese Americans

• Josts' best jokes: Dry January, Walz/Epstein, Kash Patel/Mr. Bean, Waffle House, McDonalds Decaf Coffee, UPS

• Well, this Update seemed like it might slowly grind this episode to a halt at first...but Che and Jost actually had some decent jokes later on.

• I dunno, editing Melania footage into Rush Hour still seems a little beneath SNL to me.

• Interesting coincidence that we're seeing Sarah's "out in the cold" weather report the same week That Week covered the episode with "Dratch On The Ones" on Update. 

• It's MUCH less interesting that she immediately turned it into another perverted Jost roast but I liked her dress (and how she interacted with the audience during that reveal). The Jack McBrayer cameo was nice.

• Speaking of now recurring sketches that debuted in November, it was smart of them to being back Ashley and Andrews "two people who just hooked up". I know Ashley does most of the heavy lifting in these (and she did great as usual) but Dismukes had a lot of the lines I liked (especially "game of inches" and "tush push"). C+

Agnes

• So, Alexander is in very basic low frils drag...and shouting at the girls in a Farleyesque manner when they are incredulous about what she does and doesn't know about things...and Ashley is the mom

• This may be the dumbest thing ever on paper but I kinda like the absurd direction this is going in with the repeated Sarah dummy toss.

• Even Jane had the line that made this sketch for me: "Stop asking her if she knows things". C+

Tarzan & Jane

• I like the use of miniatures here.

• Anyone else get slight CBS era Kids In The Hall vibes from Alexander here? This does seem like something a Don Ohlemeyer type would casually suggest.

• I do like how this is fundamentally reconstructing the basic relationship between Tarzan and Jane in a way that makes it feel so evergreen that it COULD have actually been done as early as 1993.

• Kenans' leopard bit was cute but I could've done without it.

• I do like the fourth wall break that suggests "Jane" is a long islander faking her English accent. Did she cowrite this with Martin and Ben? Some of the other slight Sarah self depreciation (the "boobs" line mostly) makes me think so.

• Overall, another decent sketch in a standout episode but probably one of the things that "blew me away" the least. B-

Funny Boyfriend

• Hmm, a sketch built around "Cards Against Humanity"? This sounds like something that had been cut from many dress rehearsals...since about 2011.

• I didn't care too much for the reveal but I'll say that I liked how Andrew, Ashley, JAJ were great at dramatically calling out what they just found out Alexander said on his cards earlier that day.

• Also, Alexander did great with his dramatic origin story. I didn't even mind how telegraphed the ending was since I had just enough fun with this sketch to enjoy it. B-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
2. Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
3. Alexander Skarsgard/Cardi B (01.31.2026)
4. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
5. Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
6. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
7. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
8. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
9. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
10. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
11. Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)
12. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, if nothing else, this episode shows just how well this season of SNL can dig itself out of a hole. This is at least the third time this season alone that this show had managed to pull off a shockingly strong episode just after a demoralizingly bad and empty one just in time for a notable chronological milestone in the show's history. 

• We've seen this at the very start of this season with Amy Poehlers' episode following by Bad Bunnys' on the actual to the date 50th anniversary of SNL and if you want to count Bowen leaving as such a milestone we saw it with Ariana Grande/Cher following Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen. 

• Now, we just saw them pull this off in time to give us a surprisingly fun 1000th episode that honestly may not have seemed quite as good had it not been preceded by that dreadful one two punch of Finn Wolfhard/Teyana Taylor.

• Yes, Alexander was a much more game host than Teyana who bought the right energy and showed quite a bit more range, but the writing is still a bit uneven and their political commemtary does still fail to "meet the moment" in a way that makes one wonder why the hell they are even still doing this show anymore (hell, SNL can't even tell "the moment" from either it's own collective asshole OR a hole in the ground let alone find it with a map in a flashlight) but still, there were a lot of refreshing little elements to this that made me glad to see such a feel good episode close out its January run.

• One thing that I think is the leading cause of the show's instability problems right now is the shift in cast dynamics in Bowens' absence but it is still great to see the show remember how best to use Jane, Ashley, JAJ, Marcello, Dismukes, Sarah and even Chloe lately.

• It's a shame we didn't see as much of Kam, Kenan or Jeremy and that they're still figuring out what to do with Ben, Tommy, Mikey and Veronika at this time.

Closing Thoughts

• At the end of thext month when the Milan Winter Olympics are over, Connor Storrie makes his SNL hosting debut. At this point, I'm glad that Ben Marshall has already gotten "Heated Wizardy" out of his system but given that the current show's staff still let that on the aid as their first big pop cultural parody pretape of 2026, I'm extremely wary of how such an episode COULD go.

• Well, I hope you've enjoyed my reviews of both SNLs' 1000th AND 638th live episodes (the latter of which is the subject of of the latest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast as well as my previous blog post). Later this month, we'll be reviewing more of Documentary Now (the "Dronez" episode specifically) and I'll be a guest on the "Cover Wars" podcast (more on that later, closer to when my episode comes out).

• See you soon!

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!

Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)

The First Annual Trumps

• Huh, OK. This is framed a bit differently. This seems like the type of thing that could've been a season 48/49 cold open in an alternate universe (and if it were, it would be the last SNL cold open everyone on Earth would live to see). Let's see where this one goes.

• JAJ had some good lines in his opening rant. I did like the one about his "dead purple hands...exploding with blood" if he claps and his "brain tumor" joke while accepting his award. At least this strayed from the typical "Trump talks directly to camera" cold opens by bringing in various others throughout.

• They're still sticking with Jeremy as Vance. It still works.

• I liked the way they framed the four way split screen of JAJs Trump waiting to win this award.

• Marcello in the role of Argentinas' President works for me.

• I liked Andrew and Sarah as Lady Gaga as Aunt Gladys from Weapons and Stephen Miller presenting the "Best Kiss (Of Trumps' Ass) award.

• Ugh, I knew JAJs' Trump was gonna drop some sort of Kanye/Taylor 2009 VMAs reference when Ashleys' Kristi Noem won an award.

• Personally, I could've done without the cutaway to Ben as Loki (which was his only appearance in the whole show which, given the fact that he apparently wrote "Heated Wizardy" last week is...understandable.

• Hey, Mike Meyers is back as Elon Musk! Legalize comedy indeed.

• Boy, Tommy Brennan really disappeared into the role of The Village People's construction worker, didn't he?

• Even though Carrie Underwood herself is now seen as kind of a joke, it's the perfect role for Veronika to show off her singing abilities.

• I had heard via The Saturday Night Network that this was originally 10 minutes long in dress rehearsal and what was cut from this was Chloe as Sydney Sweeney and Mikey as Greg Bovino.

• So, yeah...cuts had to be made and they definitely made the right choices there but that Mikey/Bovino impression sounds like something that they should only bring back if they have some really scathing, biting material about this guy, but let's face it, that's probably never going to happen.

• Some people were upset over SNL doing this comparatively evergreen cold open (or any cold open really) instead of a somber, single person direct to camera opening addressing that mornings' lethal ICE shooting. Personally, I would say I understand how difficult it would probably be to address something like this that happened the day of at the last possible minute.

• I've only seen SNL do those types of somber, serious cold opens for deadly tragedies that occurred at least the Friday before the show or earlier than that. I'm not saying whether I think SNL doing this opening was in questionable taste or not. I'm just saying I wasn't going in to this episode with any expectations on how (if at all) the show would address this at the very top because from what I've seen, they know their limitations. Hell, they didn't even directly address the previous ICE shooting in Minnesota from two and a half weeks ago, so why WOULD they address this outside of Update? C+

Monologue

• Anyone else get Keke Palmer/Megan Thee Stallion vibes here?

• I liked her comments about finding our she was nominated for an Oscar while "getting fitted for a bald cap next to Mikey Day" and getting "eight hours of sleep a week" as a mom. 

• Other than that, it was a typical modern "host gives a quick rundown of their entire career while plugging/making self effacing jokes about their latest project" SNL monologue where not a lot stood out. C+

Airport Delay

• I some how knew that this premise would involve Kenan and Teyana singing, but somehow they left a little more to be desired. 

• I will admit that they "accept deez nuts" gag got me as did Teyana ambushing Dismukes phone call.

• ...and suddenly out if nowhere JAJ comes in to save this just in time. Boy, him singing "Blame It" really continues the "2009 nostalgia" theme of the night, huh? C+

OBAA Action Figures 

• I was pleased that they'd bring back this mid-90s ass pretape template and it was executed well for sure...but at the same time I feel like the premise of "toys marketed TO kids based on a movie that is NOT made for kids" is something that feels like it's been done before.

• Maybe one of the scenes of Ashley and Mikeys parents reacting to their kids inappropriately quoting the movie to them could've been cut. Otherwise, this was just fine. B-

NFL on ESPN/Quefs

• Well, as a Coloradan, I'm pleased that tomorrow night's Broncos game was the setting for this sketch. I'm not even bothered by Teyana and Tommys' negging of the team because...c'mon. I live here. I'm well aware the Broncos have their flaws.

• The rest of this seemed to be a condensed version of a sketch JAJ did in his first episode almost five years ago...which I think they improved on a bit (namely with flashier, more professional looking graphics for "Quefs" and Dismukes sounding like he stepped up his impression game with his Troy Aikman). C+

Confidence Class

• Even though this was an Ashley led sketch, I wasn't so sure about it at first until the sketch collectively moved on from Ashley's character simply being ASKED about her disastrous interview to when we actually got to see her prepared powerpoint and her ridiculous resume/Michelle Obama speech writing sample.

• It's obvious that they uploaded the dress rehearsal take of this as it contains Ashley's character doing a purposely bad Yoda impression that wasn't in the aired live sketch to replace Ashley's line about not being able to do Dolly because she "doesn't have her boobs with her...and those are a big part of it." This seems to be a trend with the official SNL YouTube account uploading Ashleys' sketches from disappointing episodes.

• The part where Ashley was describing her boyfriend could've been cut because it didn't go anywhere and they could've just got right to the part where she races through the rest of her slides without it. Plus, it could only really save the sketch if we actually SEE her boyfriend (I'm sure they had enough prosthetics to pull off the NYC goblin look).

• The ending with the Dolly impression barely put this over but really, that just speaks to the power of Ashley Padilla. C+

Geese performs "Au Pays du Cocaine" and "Trinidad"

• OK, since I have a feeling that some of you reading this may be wondering where I stand on this band...I think they're just fine.

• I've listened to quite a few of their songs and I haven't been able to form my own opinion on whether they're "good" or "bad". I like then OK but I just can't get hugely into then right now. 

• I'm guessing "Cocaine" may be the song that JAJ was parodying with his portrayal of Cameron Winter last month? (Sorry Andy, I did see you tweet that their first song wouldn't be a great introduction to them but I really liked that Bee Gees cover they did that someone posted in your Discord server. Do they have anymore original sings like that or with that energy?)

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Che's best jokes: ICE/are we dicks? (as sad as it is that this could be the strongest anti-ICE statement we would get tonight...especially on such short urgent notice), merit badges/most molested boy (just for Colins' reaction), Dorito shaped aircraft

• Josts' best jokes: female crash test dummies, suicide pods

• I don't know what to make of Marcellos' commentary. It's fairly subdued by Marcello standards but it's just another Jost roast...but Marcellos' ONLY roasting him for being old?

• Aside from that, I'm glad he explained what "chopped" meant...and then proceeded to use a string of buzzwords to describe WWII that I weirdly didn't need explained to me somehow?

• I guess I DON’T need to go back and rewatch both "Snack Homiez" sketched in a brand new context after seeing this after all, do I? This would not have helped me "get" what little there was to "get" there.

• Colins' "clap back" at Marcello was probably his highlight of this whole Update but the excessive use of tombstones followed by a "nooo!" reaction made this feel like just a slight variation in Aidy and Bowens' "trend forecasters"

• Hey, they're finally letting Jeremy debut an Update character that turned out to be one of the funniest things of the night!

• This was the exact type of gleeful, flashy go nowhere stupidity that I could get into and it was just what this episode needed at this point. I love how Jeremy just leaned into his "Mr. On Blast" shtick giving off full Beck & Kyle vibes and even let Colin get in on it. C+

Grandpa Jackson

• Well, I guess I should've expected some kind of sketch drawing on Teyanas' background as a dancer/coreographer (hell, that's primarily what I knew her as before I found out she was in OBAA anyway) but...that's literally ALL this was.

• I mean, the way Ashley introduced Teyanas' character made me think this might be going in a more bizarre direction, but...apparently she just wanted to show off her moves in old man drag with the most hastily applied bald cap ever?

• I did get a chuckle out of Kenan telling Mikeys' DJ to "stop playing Earth, Wind and Fire, dude."

• There was no escalation or other gag or even any explanation as to what the hell was going on here (aside from JAJs line about Grandpa Jacksons' bones breaking and turning into powder all at once) but hey, this sketch served its purpose of showcasing the specific talent of the host that they told everyone they wanted to build an entire sketch around this week and I was a fool to expect anything more from it. C-

Backstab Island 

• OK, this went on WAY too long for what it was. I mean, a reality show where only one contestant IS there to make friends feels like it should've been done by any non-SNL cable sketch show about 10-15 years ago (and it barely has the potential to be stretched out into full sketch length).

• Marcello, Chloe, Mikey and Kam each had a few decent lines and I liked the gag of Jane repeatedly having guava juice thrown on her but beyond that there was absolutely nothing here. C-

Beyond The Headlines

• I went into this half expecting another "Mid Day News" but got something more akin to "Inside The Beltway" mixed with Dave Chappelles' "Election Night 2016" with little dashes of "Linderholm & Bates", "Stop That" and "The Christopher Lowell Show" thrown in for good measure (kudos to anyone out there who recognizes all of those deep SNL pulls).

• Other than that, this went on WAY too long for my liking as it pretty much belabored its main point immediately.

• I did get a kick out of the Allen Iverson joke at the end. Hey, he used to be a Denver Nugget. The Denver Sports Theme continues! D+

Blowing It

• OK, this Martin Herlihy short gave me my biggest laughs of the night.

• I laughed my ass off right from Martin brutally mocking Jeremys' southern accent.

• I loved the reveal of the central conceit of this being that he was plugging a book with a hilariously long title aimed at cowardly men who are looking to trick their girlfriends into breaking up with them (even after she does or says some very small thing that gives you "the ick" at one point).

• Each and every "highly charged moment" killed me (gifting her a box of 100 tampons, showing up to a family funeral dressed as a member of The Lumineers, another Denver based group, and ordering Doordarsh while there, responding to a tender emotional moment with an impression of Harry Potters' sorting hat, talking about how your fireskin is killing you).

• The "man who believes women" T-shirt was just OK until he turned around to reveal the back said "and Kevin Spacey" followed by an inset of a very real clip of Kevin Spacey introducing Nelly Furtado in the season 31 finale which killed me.

• I also got a kick out of Martin proposing to Sarah in front of her parents...that they open up their relationship followed by the botched Leno chin implant at the wedding.

• Anyway, it felt like such a nice breath of fresh air to end such an odd and dispiriting episode on such a fun pretape. A-

Ranking The 51st Season From Best To Worst

1. Nikki Glaser/Sombr (11.08.2025)
2. Glenn Powell/Olivia Dean (11.15.2025)
3. Melissa McCarthy/Dijon (12.06.2025)
4. Ariana Grande/Cher (12.20.2025)
5. Amy Poehler/Role Model (10.11.2025)
6. Miles Teller/Brandi Carlile (11.01.2025)
7. Finn Wolfhard/A$AP Rocky (01.17.2026)
8. Josh O'Connor/Lily Allen (12.13.2025)
9. Sabrina Carpenter (10.18.2025) 
10. Teyana Taylor/Geese (01.24.2026)
11. Bad Bunny/Doja Cat (10.04.2025)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, this was a hard one to review. I initially thought of having this tie with Finn Wolfhards' episode from last week. I thought they were very similarly uneven shows except this week's brief highs were higher and lows were lower.

• Even though this week, the show has the advantage of not having to deal with a host with a weird fan base, I ranked this episode lower because more consistently bad episodes had brief moments that have grown on me by now.

• Plus, this episode had the disadvantage of having a host they seemingly didn't know how to use outside of two sketches at the end of the show.

• I didn't have much of a problem with Teyana herself but performance-wise she bought this weird, tightly wound low energy to most sketches that felt like they could've been done by almost any host. She didn't have that strong a presence and was used to the point that after Update age just disappeared from the show for a long stretch.

• Yes, I think putting aside that mornings breaking news this episode would've bombed no matter what on a fundamental level.

• Sarah and Ben were the only near shut outs tonight, but on the bright side this was another episode where Ashley and JAJ (in a variety of different roles) dominated the show. Everyone else was just...there. Kenan had such a surprisingly lightly night that I'm wondering if he is phasing himself out of the show because he knows it's his last season at this point.

Closing Thoughts

• Next week, for SNLs' 1000th episode, Alexander Skarsgard makes his hosting debut with Cardi B as musical guest. He's another wild card host I'm not terribly familiar with and barely know what to expect from. 

• Still, it looks like we got our weakest of this run of three in a row out of the way so I can't imagine how that episode would be any worse than this one.

• Before my review of that episode hits this blog, you'll probably be getting my review of the Seth Rogen/Spoon episode from season 33 dropping here as Deej and I continue reviewing that entire season for the We Heart Hader Podcast. We just recorded that episode on Saturday just before this episode I just reviewed aired and we hope to have it out this coming Friday.

• After that, we'll continue our alternating episode by episode schedule of reviewing the first two seasons of Documentary Now by reviewing the "Dronez" episode (that'll be a fun one I am looking forward to!)

• See you then!