Steve Martin/Prince (02.04.2006)

The following blog entry is a companion piece to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast which you can listen to here.

The Sabotage Of Baldwin

Steve Martin makes a mad rush to 30 Rock from a sexy dinner date with Kelly Ripa (Herself) when she reveals to him that Alec Baldwin (Himself) is hosting SNL tonight, tying his hosting record. Steve sneaks in and strangles Alec, wraps his unconscious body in a rug and dumps him out a window onto the skating rink.

• Already this episode has a unique and special feel to it. This cold opening is pretaped (like a much more refined Digital Short) and sets up a meta backstage runner. Plus, the return of Steve Martin as a host after a 12 year absence (minus a few small cameos here and there) makes this feel like a big “event.”

• The gag with Steve taking a Viagra was a bit cheap, but like I said…setting up a runner.

• The gag with Steve hailing a limo instead of a regular taxi was fun.

• Even as a gag, it seems a little weird to have Alec back “hosting” so soon after he actually did host in real life just barely three months earlier (or at least a cameo this soon from Alec WOULD'VE seemed strange prior to 2016) but hey besides the “runner” of it all at least it adds to the “meta/backstage” nature of this cold open since Steve set that record back in the days when Lorne was cool with having him, Buck, Elliott, Eric Idle & Michael Palin host multiple times in the same season.

• Fun fact: longtime SNL writer James Anderson plays “Jimmy” the wardrobe guy who gets Alec ready for the show. Even as divisive of a figure as James is in the online SNL fan community I liked the “inside baseball” feel this adds to this cold open. I also love how Steve snuck in with a fake beard to match his own.

• I loved Steve just casually and nonchalantly just “sneaking” past a cleaning lady and then casually walking through a hallway, holding a body rolled up in a rug while chatting with Andy Samberg.

• I especially love Steve not even letting Lorne finish his line “We can't find Alec! Somebody call Tom Hanks!” before suddenly punching him (which us where we get our very first glimpse of Bill Hader in this episode, by the way). Very rapid fire Tim-and-Eric-esque timing on that one. B+

Monologue 

Steve shares vague, half-muddled memories and super tightly cropped photos of his time with the original SNL cast. He then praises the women of the current cast and welcomes Maya Rudolph back from her four month maternity leave. Suddenly, the Viagra he took before leaving his dinner with Kelly decides to kick in.

• Ah, I see we're starting the live portion of the show now.

• Immediately I liked Steve's line “it's gonna be HARD TO KEEP FROM CRYIN’!”

• My favorite gag in this might be his attempt to tell an old anecdote while constantly correcting himself on the exact date and concluding the story took place in December 1980 because he remembers John Belushi asking about holiday plans.

• The bit with Steve showing old show photos from the ‘70s but super cropped/pulled into closeup so you can only see Steve's face was fun too as a quick gag to move this along.

• Wow, it's uh…real nice to see Maya back again after such a long absence from the show this season. She and Steve's obligatory mention of Prince made for possibly the ideal conclusion to the “Viagra countdown clock” from, oh roughly 15-20 minutes ago. 

• Luckily, Steve Martin is one of the few male comedians out there with enough charm and likeability to wash out the “horny/dirty old man” vibes this gives off. B+

A Teddy Bear Holding A Heart

This Valentine's Day, get your wife the gift that says “No, I certainly DIDN’T forget that today was, in fact, Valentine's Day and Yes, I was DEFINITELY planning to give you this extravagant gift of a small stuffed animal well in advance!”

• While it may now feel like this is the type of sketch SNL does some version of every single Valentine’s Day, this was actually the first if at least three of this type of “sarcastically fancy ad for the cheapest gift imaginable”.

• Forte and Poehler as the couple sold this well as did Wiig and then writer Liz Cackowski as the spectators.

• Paula Pell was great as the announcer for this.

• Some cute quick filler material, not much else to see here. C+

Oprah

Oprah Winfrey (Rudolph) invites author Stone Freeman (Martin) on her show to come clean in a very serious interview and admit that his devastating new memoir “Skating At The Bottom Of The Ocean” is 100% true…as he gradually admits that the book is 100% full of lies.

Obviously, this sketch is a reference to the then current controversy surrounding author James Frey exposed as a fraud after his memoir “A Million Little Pieces” was revealed to be full of largely fabricated details about his life...and the Oprah invited him back on her show to berate him in an interview.

I guess the writers and Maya thought this would be the best possible excuse to use her Oprah impression that she's so fond of since they knew she would be back at work this week.

I did like the fake audience reactions within the sketch getting to the point where Wiigs’ voice was the lone audience member shouting “oh my God” to which Maya replies “exactly, lady.” 

Maya uttering the line “steaming pile of shizz” caught me off guard. I did like her line to Steve “you doopity duped me” and that James Frey had just “dicked her over…as Maya Angelou would say”.

Anyway, this seemed to be a little dry on the surface but it was full of fun dialogue with Steve having to constantly contradict every word out of his mouth.

I especially like Steve pulling the old “hey, look over there” trick on Maya and then just tearing our a full page of the book she just read from. I also liked Steve briefly trying to trick Maya into leaving, acting as if he was the host and she was the guest.

I can see how some might not find this sketch funny due to it being tied to a now long forgotten real life news story that happened the week it aired nearly 20 years ago, but if you look past the surface there's a lot more cartoonishness in the execution that can still put it over at least for me personally. B-

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford

A groundbreaking, revolutionary new debt relief/money management program is centered around not buying things unless you actually have enough money saved to pay for them.

• This was a simple, straight forward sketch with Parnell as a pitchman and Poehler and Martin as the couple in need of debt relief (but simply can't grasp the concept of NOT making purchases solely on credit that they can't pay off).

• None of these characters have names or even much else in the way of identities, so they might as well just be playing themselves. It's rare to see something like that from any long established sketch show with a well known cast.

• This was another sketch that fit Steve Martin like a glove. He's one of the best of all time at selling “smart humor based slightly in stupidity” so it's only natural to place him with the two members of this SNL cast who are also the best at this exact thing.

• Boy, if this was live, Steve must have had to make one hell of a quick change to make it in on time here (even if said “change” was just him taking off a wig and beard and putting on a jacket).

• Bill Hader’s voice can be heard at the end as the announcer. His pitches for things like “a monthly subscription to ‘Stop Buying Stuff magazine” were neat.

• Perhaps what worked best about this particular sketch is that it had such a timeless, ageless feel to it, so it's kind of funny that the shoe sandwiched it between two other sketches that are certainly neither timeless nor ageless. B+

Hamas Party

Steve has some second thoughts about his latest “corporate” stand up gig in Palestine as he learns that he is about to go on stage at the Election Victory Party for Hamas, broadcast live on Al Jazeera…until he is told he can get paid extra and shamelessly promote “Pink Panther.”

• Right out of the gate, we get Steve talking lovingly on a cell phone to a woman he identifies as “Britney Spears”...in 2006. Continuing the “Steve Martin lusts after younger women” theme tonight, I see?

• We get our first live Bill Hader appearance of the night…playing one of three Palestinians/Hamas members along with Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers (gee, I wonder if he and/or Colin Jost wrote this one?)

• Well, we may be getting two white guys and a predominantly Hispanic man playing three middle easterners but this doesn't score quite as bad as you'd think on the “oopsie-doo” scale since it's quite forgettable really. The guys’ attempts at “accents” are doing most of the heavy lifting here.

• Speaking of continuing themes, we get another instance of “foreigners being hopelessly behind on American pop culture” comedy trope as the Hamas members confess to Steve that the only movies of his anyone in Palestine has seen are “The Jerk” “The Muppet Movie” and “The Man With Two Brains” (and of course Bills’ line that “the previews for ‘My Blue Heaven’ look hilarious”).

• Speaking of Bill, I noticed he kept touching his mustache in this sketch and I'm wondering if this was due to his anxiety or if his mustache was hastily applied and about to fall off?

• I did like Bills’ “EXCUUUUUUSE MEEEEEE!” line at the end.

• Perhaps the thing that ages the worst about this sketch (given what we've learned via modern social media about the actual Israel/Palestine conflict in recent years) is the idea that someone in the entertainment business appearing to publicly take a staunch pro-Palestine stance would be shameful or antisemitic on its own (even if it may still be treated as bad PR by the producers of the new “Scream” sequels of whoever) but it's probably for the best that we not get too heavily in to this topic right now and just move on. 

• …but hey, at least we got the added wrinkle to this sketch of “Steve Martin makes fun of himself for completely selling out.” C-

Digital Short: Two Inches 

Two old, dear friends (Martin & Forte) catch up and have a friendly chat at a near kissing distance. Things get a bit tense but they quickly apologize to each other.

• This was a rare Samberg/TLI-less Digital Short but it expertly blended real heartwarming pathos with Steves’ charm and oddball Forte humor.

• I still get a kick out if these early Digital shorts where they were clearly experimenting with the format and how they would use them in the show. B+

Quick Zoom Theater 

In a hospital scene sponsored by the Cannon Ultra Zoom camera, each line read is punctuated with a dramatic music sting and an unnecessary quick zoom.

• Even though this came off like blatant product placement (almost as much as the actual product placement for Polaroid the original cast had to do at one point) there was fun to be had.

• Parnell was a fun, dramatic host and everyone (Armisen, Rudolph, Martin, Thompson) played well off each other, heightening the most banal doctor's appointment.

• I liked Kenans’ botched closeup and I liked Steve trying to force a closeup on his own after uttering his final line to Armisen (“she's carrying your BABY!!!”) B-

Prince: “Fury” & “Beautiful, Loved & Blessed”

• What else is there to be said about this man that hasn't already been said?

• Even though he can be a bit pretentious at times and he was quite a bit rude and dismissive to “Weird Al” Yankovic for years, there's no denying his flair or his sheer musical talent.

• These songs may have been deep cuts but they certainly highlighted his excellent guitar skills supremely well.

• His second song prominently features guest vocals from a woman named “Támar”. I wonder whatever became of her?

• He dropped a Mary Katherine Gallagher “Superstar” reference at the end of his second song.

Weekend Update w/Fey & Poehler 

• Amys’ “ban on human/animal cloning/Bad news for the mangaroo” joke stood out to me for it's sheer strangeness. Her “Brownback Mountain” joke was OK but…meh.

• The Tina/Amy double handed “Samuel Alito/abortion ban” joke may still be hauntingly prescient today.

• The “African History Museum/congressional Black Eyed Peas” jokes may have been the hackiest things in this episode.

• Tinas’ joke about a 17 year old high school girl setting a new record “playing against the Knicks” stood out as a nice antidote to the types of cheap, misogynistic WNBA jokes we got frequently from Michael Che last year.

• A rare shockingly short Tina & Amy Update with no guest commentaries. After the last Update of theirs, I just reviewed…this (while not absolutely perfect) is a substantial improvement. C+

Super Bowl National Anthem 

Aaron Neville (Sanz), Aretha Franklin (Thompson) and Dr. John (Sudeikis) are too distracted by their own hunger and dry, cocoa butter starved skin to make it through their own rehearsal for The National Anthem at the Super Bowl.

• After seeing Kenans’ Aretha Franklin, I think I may have spoken too soon on what the hackiest thing in this episode was. Thank God Kenam swore off female/drag roles when he did.

• I get why they would want to use Horatios’ Aaron Neville in this sketch (that year's Super Bowl WAS in New Orleans after all) but I still don't get why this impression even exists in the first place (when even they themselves admitted in the 50th anniversary “In Memoriam” that it shouldn't have.

• Frankly, the only thing this sketch had going for it was Jason as Dr. John. If I'm not mistaken, this happens to be Jasons’ first live appearance in this episode. Amy and Seth were OK in their straight roles. C-

Backstage

Steve wants to renegotiate his contract with Lorne mid-show after instant high ratings and glowing reviews have come in. He wants to get paid $5500 to host instead of his usual rate of $5000 for hosting. When Lorne refuses, Steve refuses to go on and finish the show. Lorne forces his hand by pointing out that Jimmy Fallon (Himself) and a potentially brain damaged Alec Baldwin are on standby.

• A nice conclusion to this episodes’ “runner”. A little dry with the salary talk but Steve gets to really poke fun at his “sellout” image here (and I liked Lornes’ revelation that he earns 12 million per show).

• Nice of Jimmy to make a quick cameo here. At this point, Jimmy is more removed from hosting “Late Night” than he is from leaving SNL.

• This got in, got its punches in and got out pretty quickly. B-

Prince Show

Prince (Armisen) and (Beyonce) interview Drew Barrymore (Wiig) and Princes’ personal chef (Martin)

• Speaking of impressions the show now admits are problematic…

• This is the second to last Prince Show ever to air. I remember watching this one with my mom. She kept comparing this to John Belushi & Joe Cockers’ duet of “Feeling Alright” from 1976 (not too far removed from Steve's first hosting stint either) but Prince never showed up on screen (to the disappointment and confoundment of many, I'm sure).

• I have heard that Fred and Maya did get to watch Prince rehearse in an effort to ask him if he wanted to be in this sketch. They missed their chance because after his performance he took a sharp left and walked right past them.

• I see Fred is wearing a different wig to more exactly match Princes’ real hair which we saw on stage just now.

• Anyway, this sketch had its moments. It obviously felt like it was missing something, but it was largely saved by Steve doing a slightly less ridiculous French accent than he did in “Pink Panther.”

• Wiig did a serviceable Drew Barrymore. Again, I like revisiting these early moments I'm Kristen's tenure where we got to see her genuine talent for impressions.

• The rest of this was typical Prince Show shtick I've been pretty ambivalent towards since it aired but Maya as Beyoncé looked real…nice this time. C+

State Of The Galaxy 2145

The Brian Williams 3000 (Meyers) reports on the State Of The Galaxy address given by Earth President George Q. Bush (Forte) with commentary from Hologram Chris Matthews (Hammond) and Hillary Clin-tron (Poehler, Dratch)

• Seeing Seth play Brian Williams feels odd since I've seen Forte play a dead on Brian Williams that he admittedly stumbled ass backwards into while trying out a totally different unrelated impression. The real Brian Williams of this era was never quite as boisterous as Seth portrayed him.

• Good use of Hammonds Chris Matthews here, too.

• While this sketch was well-performed, visually dazzling and I for sure liked the Space Mutiny-esque elements to it, the rest of the dialogue was almost white noise to me. It was a little too closely tied to the politics of the second term of the Bush 43 administration to truly be funny.

• “The Expedia.com US Capitol Building” feels like something Mike Judge edited out of the second draft of the Idiocracy screenplay.

• The gag that they are “very close” to capturing Bin Laden in 2145 got a bigger reaction in 2006 than it could've after May of 2011 for obvious reasons

• Bill can be seen here as a very elderly, wizard-like vice president who gets up and runs away in a panic when Fortes’ Bush states that “every American over 50 will be launched into the deep recesses of space” to solve the social security crisis.

• Horatio is seen as a speaker of the house who mistakenly applauds when Fortes’ Bush announces that Jupiter has pledged to destroy Earth within the year.

• What was the gag with both Poehler and Dratch playing a two-headed version of Hillary Clinton at the end? We're they also supposed to be robots or just some kind of two headed clone? Or were they just a two headed robot? I didn't quite get that one. B-

Digital Short: The Tangent

Joel (Armisen) is discovered on the street by two movie studio executives in the middle of a long, rambling endless rant about a restaurant. Joel is signed to a movie deal and cast in a space epic alongside Scarlett Johansson (Herself). After promoting the movie with interviews on MTVs’ TRL and Late Night With Conan O'Brien (Himself) the movie bombs at the box office and he is shunned. He is chewed up and spit out by the movie business before he can even bring himself to stop talking.

• TWO Digital Shorts? In one episode? In THIS economy? Neither of which have Andy Samberg in them? Just one of the many oddities of season 31 as SNL transitioned into a new era, I guess.

• Anyway, this was a fun inventive sketch that was stylistically very different from anything else on the show at the time.

• It seems like this may have been one of Armisen's ideas as it featured his usual collaborators and played to his better comedic instincts. It just came across like this was unique to him and his sensibilities as a writer. 

• Either this character is just the polar opposite of Nicolas Fehn or I'm detecting slight hints of Documentary Now! here.

• It's obvious this was made for a different episode but got cut at dress and used again here to fill time. Scarlett Johansson was in this and she hosted a few weeks prior to this episode. 

• This was kept afloat quite a bit by cameos from the likes of Conan and Brian Williams (weird sketch placement, huh?). I'm glad this did eventually air because it was quite fun. B+

Surfers

Ted (Martin) stubbornly refuses to accept that his surf group is kicking him out of the circle for being old, unhappy, just genuinely ruining the surf sessions and being the “un-gnarliest bro-ham in the tube”.

• This is definitely the weakest sketch of the night. I remember thinking this even at 15 when I first saw this episode.

• Bill Hader appears in this along with Samberg (who makes his first live appearance here and also wrote this sketch), Wiig, Sudeikis, Meyers, Forte and Armisen.

• The main thing this sketch had going for it was that it pretty much ran one joke into the ground. It's a shame this got a worse and worse reaction through the week because Steve, Andy, Jorma & Akiva fought so hard to make it work and yet it still pretty much bombed on air so badly it's a failure that still sticks with Steve to this day (at least according to the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast). Oh well, I'm sure the signs were there all along. D+

Naturally Crafting

Midge Hartsinger (Dratch) welcomes guest Jack Patrick (Martin) onto her craft show to make heart shaped organic Valentine's Day wreaths. He repeatedly turns down her invitations to stay the night or “crash” here at Craft Holler since he can drive in even the worst of snowstorms with his four wheel drive and abundance of supplies…until his passions get the better of him seeing her in winter gear and notices they have been snowed in.

• This sketch may be honestly better than I remembered. It's not up to much premise wise but only Steve Martin and Rachel Dratch can perfectly sell the budding tension of this perfectly.

• One highlight of this for me was when Steve mistakenly flubbed a line and “crash holler” when he was supposed to say “craft holler” and overcorrected himself the next time he had to say it. B-

Overall Thoughts

• This was honestly a stranger episode than I remembered, but not a disappointing one in the slightest.

• The episode was pretty much dominated by Steve and Mayas’ returns (still, nobody except Finesse was completely shut out)

• Still, at the same time, there was enough reliance on pre-tapes (and enough impressions done by people who shouldn't have really been playing the roles they were playing) that it felt like I was watching a season 10 episode.

• Maybe the abundance of pretapes was to cover for Steve Martin not being as able to participate in much of the show due to age or just nerves from not having performed live in several years?

Jack Black/Elton John & Brandi Carlile (04.05.2025)

Trumps’ Tariff Speech

• Speaking of numbers, I guess we're back to paint-by-numbers JAJ Trump Cold Opens again, huh?

• Well, at least they're making, uh, improvements to his makeup here.

• The “Make America Great Depression Again” stuff was OK, I guess.

• Hey, Dismukes is a commerce secretary. Neat.

• The forced Borat reference was completely unnecessary and the Cheesecake Factory McDonald Island jokes were…eh.

• I did like the gag of Trump explaining the “formula” though. Kind of reminded me of the equation in the background of the White And Nerdy video.

• The “reciprocal/bedroom” joke was good for a “wait, what? Oh nevermind” type near shock laugh.

• C'mon guys, that brief “God's country” callback wasn't worth a frigging applause break. Even JAJ himself looked slightly annoyed at having to deliver that nonsense. I liked the 30 Rock/Tina reference just fine.

• At least Mike Meyers’ Elon likened this up a little. The “self vandalizing Tesla” animation may have been the true highlight of this. I also liked the “tariffs sound dumb” ending. 

• Part of me has to wonder if JAJs line “it's time to never see you again” could possibly mean that Mike Myers has too busy of a schedule to play Elon again at any point in the season and this is his last cameo of season 50? C+

Monologue 

• After everything I saw last week, it's so nice to see Jack Black call band guitarist Maddie Rice by her first name and then kick off the show with a big Tenacious D style musical number that sprawls around the studio…even if all he's doing so far is just listing all the big paycheck family friendly films he's done since he last hosted.

• Heidi and Marcello were great sports. You can tell Heidi was clearly having a blast.

• Huh, quite odd to see them not call ANY attention to Bill Burr and Kieran Culkin being in the audience (straight from tonight's performance of “Glengarry Glen Ross” I see). B-

Love Match

• Hmm…this is the hardest sketch to get a bead on I've seen on this show in YEARS.

• I chuckled a bit at Marcellos’ “the true answer is butt” line.

• The premise seems to be “what if a regular, sincere guy dressed like Indiana Jones whole vehemently denying knowing anything about Indiana Jones at all?”

• I have to say this feels like a premise we've seen numerous times but Black & Dismukes are acting the hell out of this.

• This does seem like a very Andrew Dismukes-centric idea too as it is reminiscent of his “Joker Wedding” and “Jumanji” sketches from the past few years.

• I chuckled a bit more at his line about Marcellos’ character looking 12 years old and JAJs’ character looking just like Jane Lynch.

• Most of all, I liked the very tight writing and pacing of this. Even once we saw Bowen revealed to be a guy dressed as Capt. Jack Sparrow (possible Lonely Island shout out there?) this never felt like it overstayed its welcome. B-

Flamin’ Hot Preparation H

• Ok, I liked how hard this leaned into its own gleeful stupidity and I liked how it gave us two back to back Jack Black/Andrew Dismukes pairings. (Yes, that was Andrew as the voice of the cheapest CGI Chester Cheetah you've ever seen).

• It was nice to see Jack Black INTENTIONALLY sweating his ass off for once (pun unintended but fuck it, I went with it anyway). C+

One Uppers

• Another “hip group of young, trendy people at a restaurant” sketch AND another “people constantly try to out do one another” sketch rolled into one. How…innovative?

• Ok, so maybe the framework of this isn't very new but I do admire the show risking a minor derailment and nearly throwing its own timing out if whack just for the sake of putting something on that very nearly defies accurate description. 

• Seriously, the best way I could describe this was just “Eagle Screech Whip Pans”.

• I did like the needle drop of Disturbeds’ “Down With The Sickness” during one of Ego's closeups.

• Even just a stupid fart noise punctuating Sarah & Dismukes announcing that they were “poly” just before Heidi summons the cheapest eagle puppet you may have ever seen made me chuckle when couched in with this chaos. B-

The First Play

• Another unique and creative premise on display here that genuinely feels the least like anything they've done before.

• I immediately liked the idea of people witnessing the historic moment of the first ever acting performance treating it as a dialogue or normal conversation because they may be unfamiliar with the basic concepts of “acting” or “pretending” even just “lies”.

• I loved the gag of Longfellow pulling a red streamer out of Bowens’ chest plate to simulate his stabbing death.

• I feel like the promise of later nudity in the play was a kind of cheap ending but this sketch (and this host in particular) had enough gravitas to put that over. A-

Goth Kid On Vacation

• I liked the bait-and-switch/mislead of this better than the main joke once it got revealed but hey, nice use of Longfellow here.

• I liked Jack Black singing “Black Parade” (THEMES!!!) possibly most of all here. C-

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• Come on, guys. Just let this Morgan Wallen thing die already!

• I liked Che's “Trump will not stand for plundering/Chinese tariffs/D.E.I. school funding/Matt Gaetz” jokes just for how much bite he gave them. Josts’ “#WhyVinDieselTrippin” and Kid Rock jokes were Ok.

• I'm actually pleasantly surprised to see Marcello and Jane's severely mismatched couple return. I actually liked these characters during their debut in Mulaney's episode from November and I still think this is the best use of Marcellos “loud shouting man” persona.

• Among Marcellos’ stand out jokes were Romeo & Juliet, going “stupid on a woodwind”, Doctor Who and doing dishes/cooking.

• The gag of Jane deadpanning risqué, suggestive/aggressive lines still works.

• The Russell Brand/Chris Brown flashback from Jost worked for me the way they intended, though. I ALMOST liked that code breaker joke.

• I liked Josts’ Subway Nachos/Goofy stuffed animal joke but the HBCU joke that preceded it may have been the point when the joke portion of this Update started to lose its sharp focus (hey, at least Che got through another whole Update without another “hey, it's the ‘90s”). The Hooters joke could've derailed it completely but the next commentary stopped this whole Update from falling off a cliff.

• I was DEFINITELY on board with Ego “Ms Eggy” Nwodim as a Queen Of Def Jam Comedy from the get go (even if her “voice” seemed to be a mix of Lisa From Temecula, Esther from Sanford & Son, her “TSIDDAHN!!!” teacher and her “Rich Auntie With No Kids” among possible others.  

• Her reaction to certain unexpected audience reactions really made this for me (and made me genuinely wonder if there could be any “fallout” from this or if this portion could be included in any possible 10pm “vintage” rerun slot). B-

Making Love

• Right off the bat, this seems like an exact cross between a similar high wire sketch from 2019 with Cecily Strong and Chance The Wrapper and both of Melissa Villaseñors’ “dirty talk” sketches with Aziz Ansari and Donald Glover.

• The “champagne” joke worked for me. Not sure we needed Bowen as the “third” but Brandi Carlile as the “fourth” fully justified his appearance.

• I could see this not quite working as well with any lesser hosts (or musical guests for that matter) but Jack Black and Brandy Carlile really had the gravitas to hit this out of the park. 

• I also liked how they pulled out to reveal the stagehands operating the cables on the side of the stage. B-

Bass Lake Jam Session

• Hmm, what if a cover performance of Tom Pettys’ “Free Fallin'” had so many bass players it literally caused structural damage to the pier it was being played on?

• Well, this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jack Black is the only performer on Earth that can make this specific sketch premise work. I love how he provided the detail heavy nature that needed to work.

• Is that Dismukes on drums?

• Thankfully, this didn't turn out to be a sketch that Heidi would ruin with her newest impossibly dumb one off character being the main focus. I mean, I wasn't exactly worried this sketch would tank when I saw her show up. Well, let's just say I was more…distracted…than worried and leave it at that (‘cuz I couldn't quite tell if those were 100% her real ones either…but anyway, moving on).

• I got a kick out of Marcello bringing up spoons and then saying they were just for crack.

• I got a kick out of Bowen bringing up his base in a keyboard shaped carrying case.

• Hey, any sudden appearance of The Simpsons theme song is A-OK in my book!

• The gag with Ego's dog being a bass player too was just goofy enough to work for me.

• Oh hai, Devon & Ashley.

• This reminded me a bit of an MTV Spring Break sketch with Cameron Diaz where Amy Poehler is taking song requests and is increasingly frustrated that everyone keeps requesting “That Don't Impress Me Much” by Shania Twain…even Tracy Morgan. Anyone else? No? Care to watch the sketch on TikTok? No? How about this other sketch from season 27 that the Preparation H thing reminded me of?

• Anyway, a surprisingly strong sketch for the back half of the show. 

• …and yeah, while I'm posting links to random season 27 sketches i found on TikTok I might as well share this one with you since it was the one that this sketch apparently reminded everyone else of. B+

WWII Times Square Kiss

• Hmm, I feel like I may have heard a joke with this exact same premise somewhere recently, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this one. 

• All the performers in this did a fine job of selling those old timey ‘40s voices. Kenan and Mikey were…there, too.

• I did like the added detail of Jack's character just being an anti-Asian propaganda cartoonist whose work is considered too shockingly racist even for war time in the 1940s. C-

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Jack Black/Elton John & Brandi Carlile (04.05.2025)
3. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
4. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
5. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
6. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
7. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
8. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
9. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
10. Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)
11. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
12. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
13. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
14. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
15. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
16. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
17. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts 

• Ok, this may or may not be a hot take but I say this episode may be perhaps the strongest contender for best episode of the entire season (if you don't count the 50th anniversary special from February as an “episode” like I do).

• I know that last week set a ridiculously low bar for this episode to clear but the show played so well to Jack Blacks’ dynamic energy and strengths as a host that you would think he may have been heavily involved with the writing and pitching.

• It also helped that after a week packed with old recurring sketch templates this episode gave us a lot of fresh, unique ideas that felt very original for this era of SNL (or at least put some new twists on some old concepts we may have seen before).

• While Ashley and Devon took some minor hits in airtime this week, it still felt like a week where no cast member was shut out entirely. In particular, James, Andrew, Heidi and Ego made great strides this week.

Closing Thoughts 

• Next week, another four timer Jon Hamm makes his return to hosting after a 15 year absence of his own (minus the odd cameo every now and then).

• Whether in cameos or as a host, Jon Hamm was always a performer the show knew how to use effectively and two of his three host outings are certified classics, so let's hope that SNL can keep this weeks good, strong vibes going and hopefully ride that energy all the way to the end of the season next month.

• After I review that episode, the next post you're likely to see on this blog will be a review of the Julia Loius-Dreyfus/Paul Simon episode from season 31. Of course, this is going to be the next full length SNL episode that me and Deej will review for the We Heart Hader Podcast.

• Oh, that reminds me. You'll also be seeing a review of the Steve Martin/Prince episode on both the blog and the podcast this coming Thursday, April 10th.

• Have a good one, guys!

Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)

Wrong Group Chat?

• Hey, this looks like a different type of cold op…ooooooohhhh, I can see exactly where this is going.

• Nice way to use the host in the cold open right out the gate.

• Dismukes as Hehgseth? Ok, that's ONE way to…possibly annoy him and/or Trump?

• Hey, they actually knew how to write decently for Bowens’ JD Vance here. All right.

• Marcello as Rubio didn't add anything to this (neither did Mikey as Atlantic Jeffrey but hey, it was one of the many beats they absolutely had to hit in this).

• At least this was short (I mean, for a modern SNL cold open) and gave us a Matt Gaetz joke without giving us Sarah's portrayal. 

• I've seen some people compare this to the Clinton/Lewinsky/Hussein three-way phone call cold open from 1998 but I personally see more similarities to the cold open from Emma Stone's 2016 episode (where we kept switching back and forth between Baldwins’ Trump and Kate's Kellyanne in an important briefing and the people Trump was obsessively retweeting) and maybe the 1993 John Malkovich sketch where his character from “In The Line Of Fire” keeps dialing all the wrong numbers until het gets to a confused Clint Eastwood (played by Norms’ voiceover set against real footage of the film, of course). C+

Monologue 

• Mikey is bringing the exact right amount of energy to this monologue. She's not low energy enough to leave me worried but she's not overdoing it either.

• The “horse girl” chunk probably could've been cut but I liked her “obligatory montage of the host's film roles” (especially the OUATIH clips).

• The pole dancing part was fun just for the fact that they incorporated some “on the fly” editing tricks into a live monologue for once. C+

Strop Acting Academy II

• I heard a rumor there might be a “reprise of a Marcello led sketch from the Charli XCX episode” tonight. I might've preferred another “Banger Boys” to this but…we could've gotten something way worse.

• Again, I'm still not totally against Marcello here but this character isn't suited to him that well.

• I did chuckle at his playing off each of the girls commercial copy and I liked some of the gags involving he and Ms. Madison listing their “acting credits” (even if she came nowhere near close to matching his energy) but not much else in this landed with me. C-

Big Dumb Line (A Weekend In New York)

• Huh, so everyone in New York just spends their weekends waiting in impossibly long lines for various trendy bullshit they heard about on social media.

• Hey, there's Joe Jonas all of a sudden. Ok.

• Yeah, no. This plays into the worst instincts of everyone involved.

• Gee, Sarah really DOES resemble Melissa Villaseñor. I genuinely got confused for a second there.

• This reminded me a lot of Chloes’ “C**ts’ Really Crossed The Pond” music video she posted on her Instagram over the summer. I guess it took her about eight or nine months to figure out how to rewrite it into something appropriate to air on NBC? (Note: that bit if self censorship two sentences ago is just my attempt to avoid having this blog post put under any kind of content/trigger warning like a few recent previous one of mine have).

• Hey, that reminds me. Why was everyone talk-singing in bad British accents in this? Was this a pitch that Charli XCX rejected on Monday? 

• Also, I couldn't help but notice that the official title of this sketch on YouTube happens to be “Big Dumb Line”. I do have to wonder if the same writing team behind such classics as “Big Dumb Hats” and “Little Red Glasses” had a hand in creating this? I know that may be a dumb question given that this is a music video and the others were just straight to camera live sketches but the focus and themes are just similar enough that indi have to wonder out loud a bit here. D-

Jury Selection 

• Oh, I see. The PDD boys really ARE back because they took their school board/tenant meeting sketches from season 47 and turned them into jury selection. 

• I mean, I figured that's what this would be as soon as I saw Ego addressing a group of people straight to camera.

• Finally, something comes along to breathe some life into this big “meh” of an episode.

• I liked Sarah and Ashley's characters. I also liked how they finally found a way to sneak JAJs’ Jay-Z impression on the show again and I liked Jane's callback.to that at the end.

• I liked Bowens’ exit. Was that Carl Tart as the bailiff?

• I liked Devon basically playing “Temu Louis Farrahkan”.

• I was pretty cold on Chloe randomly showing up as herself but I like the idea that this could be a meta moment poking fun at her own sheer desperation (especially since Ms. Madison got what was probably gonna be her role in the cold open up until the last minute).

• I liked Heidi's performance (and Mikeys’) and Kenan and Emils’ callback following it (even as cheap as casting Emil as Luigi felt).

• I liked Longfellows blooper and I chuckled more than I probably should have at Marcello doing the worst Benson Boone impression ever. B-

Varsity Valley Spring Break 

• …and I see whoever wrote those “dramatic heartfelt scenes with a bunch of wild ass crazy shit” happening in the background” pretapes from seasons 48/49 bought those back too.

• Oh well, at least we get to see Chloe and Marcello in more restrained roles than what they're normally given.

• Overall, despite Mr. Day, Ms. Madison and Ms. Nwodim giving this everything they had, I would say this one wasn't as strong as the one from Jenna Ortegas’ episode but still better than "The Right Track" from Nate Bargatzes’ first episode last season. Still, this had the right amount of focus to make it work for me.

• Dismukes suddenly brandishing an alligator may have been the highpoint of this for me. JAJ, Kenan and Heidi did great support work in straight roles here.

• Even Sarah puking was played as tastefully as possible while being cartoonish and absurd. B-

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• I didn't care for much of Josts’ opening Signal rant except for maybe the Jared reference for how out of left field it came compared to the second Matt Gaetz reference I was half expecting (which is definitely the same reason I liked Che's “oilman/Diddy” punchline and Josts’ “deepfake revenge porn” joke).

• I will admit I liked how Jost delivered the “sucked on/suck off/Forrest Gump” punchlines (even as heavily telegraphed as the latter seemed.

• I thought Che's “Tesla protest/full pardon” joke and Josts’ “J.D. Vance in Greenland” joke were both solid.

• Hey, Che got through an entire Update without ONCE uttering the phrase “it's the 90s”! Way to go, bud!

• Huh, we haven't seen Devon Walker as himself on Update (the first time he did this two and a half years ago…it didn't go so great).

• I saw some people speculating that the show might do a parody of the “morning routine” trend on TikTok. I haven't actually seen this myself but I suppose this would've been the best way they could've done this.

• Still, Devon usually scores on Update (and he did here) and it's nice that he figured out how to actually use his own “self” persona effectively on Update. I think my favorite part was him calling out Che (especially the “Buffalo Wild Wings” mini rant).

• The return of Josts’ “Hear Me Out” segment was a lot of fun. I especially liked how Jost leaned into his fake anger at Paddington there.

• Ooh, hey! An Ashley Padilla commentary on Update. This is something we literally haven't seen all season.

• Ashley turned in one hell of a performance as Joann of Joann Fabrics fame. She really put her all into it.

• Even though a lot of this can be boiled down to more “lol suburban middle aged white women, amirite?” humor and some of the material was a bit shaky, I liked this quite a bit. I especially liked her detailing what she does at the store each day and pulling out a bejeweled flask.

• Most of all, I liked how they used this as an opportunity to give Ashley some airtime to perform some material that they otherwise would've given to Heidi who probably would've made it worse. 

• Wow, this may have been the best Update overall that I've seen in several months. It's certainly a high point of this episode (which isn't saying a lot for this episode, but whatever). B-

Pops’ Regrets

• Another Dismukes led sketch. He plays an older mafia figure who gets shot in a drive-by, complete with squids and blood packs. This could be interesting.

• Now, he's mumbling about half thought out standup routines he never got to try out as he bleeds to death. Also, Ms. Madison is his wife and she turns in her strongest performances all night. JAJ & Marcello are his sons. Good support work from them. Mr. Day is his assassin.

• This felt like an inverted version of the coffee shop sketch from Timothee Chalamets’ episode from two months ago.

• Hmm, I liked the idea of this but the execution left a little to be desired. Something felt missing here. Not as much of it hit for me as I had hoped. C+

Barry The Midwife

• Huh…I see they also decided to bring back what was possibly the only truly weak sketch from Quinta Brunsons’ episode two years ago (well, one of the only two, now that I think about it).

• Impressive how this managed to travel back and forth through time but ultimately go nowhere.

• I did like the jammed-in Conan reference and some of the jabs at Hilary Duff though. Yeah, this was writerly and detail heavy but not in the way I normally like.

• However, it's pretty obvious that having this in the lineup caused some production delays and timing issues so either way you look at it, this sketch just wasn't worth it. C-

PDD: Mikey Madison Is Squidward 

• Ok, now Please Don't Destroy is bringing back the basic premise of their “What if Bad Bunny was suddenly Shrek?” pretape from last season but changing it to “What if Mikey Madison was suddenly Squidward and also Ben Marshall was bald Spongebob, John Higgins was Patrick Star and Martin Herlihy was Mr. Krabs?” Come on.

• Well, I liked this one a little better than the previous Bad Bunny/Shrek one mostly for the very streamlined “cut right to the chase” nature of it where we just immediately saw the fully developed HBO show.

• I couldn't fully get into this. I mean, I kinda liked the idea of a love action makeup heavy Spongebob reboot done as a Girls style dramadey but maybe I was just sick of all the blatant retread sketches in a row tonight in the back half

• …or maybe I just had a problem with how parts of this just seemed to be an excuse to just repeat actual lines and memes from the shows’ early run (looking at you John…and to a lesser extent, you too Big Mart-Mart).

• Yeah, no need to include that brief shot of Bad Bunny as Shrek as a flashback/memory within the sketch. We all know what you were going for there, guys. C-

So, Like, What Are We?

• Oh, COME. ON. Now, they're just bringing back an old Abby Elliott/Bill Hader sketch from Eli Mannings’ 2012 episode and mixing it in with the template of the shows’ recent “social media based game show sketches.” Why?

• Anyway, I did like the focused nature of this with Longfellow being the sole contestant and the stakes of this being raised to “losing 100k from your bank account”.

• I also chuckled at the “daddy hungry for butt?” text. Otherwise, this came at a point where I had already had more than my fill of retread sketches for me to be that patient with it. 

• Also, I have heard via SNN that this sketch originally featured Kenan, Chloe and others as various judges and contestants. While part of me is curious how much differently this would've made the sketch play out, the rest of me knows that whittling it down to just Madison and Longfellow was for the best. C+

An SNL Animated Short: Planning New York

• Ok, at least they're ending the show on the most original concept they could muster this week.

• I've heard about this getting cut from multiple episodes this season so I'm glad to finally see it.

• The rapid fire back and forth between Bowen and Longfellow was OK but most of this felt too specific to Manhattans’ infrastructure to appeal that much to me.

• I'm not that crazy about this janky, jittery style of animation with it's Spongebob style detailed close ups either. Basically, this was just a slightly inferior followup to the “God” short from Timothee Chalamets’ show two months ago. C+

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
3. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
4. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
5. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
6. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
7. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
8. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
9. Mikey Madison/Morgan Wallen (03.29.2025)
10. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
11. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
12. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
13. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
14. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
15. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
16. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts

• Obviously, this was far from the best of the season…yet it was far from the worst.

• There was nothing aggressively terrible about this episode. Everything about it just felt flat and underwhelming. It was the most “middle of the road” episode produced this season (possibly of all time).

• The biggest problem this episode had was it relied way to heavily on recurring sketches and premises from up to three seasons ago (or thirteen seasons ago in one specific case).

• Mikey Madison wasn't a terrible host either. It's just that the show surprisingly didn't know how to use her effectively. There was only one sketch where I felt she truly went “above and beyond” but other than that…she did fine with what she was given. She just didn't blow anybody away or anything.

• Cast airtime seemed evenly distributed tonight. No one seemed shut out of the show entirely (Jane came pretty close though) but Devon and Ashley obviously had a big week (maybe not as big as Marcello, Sarah, Bowen or Mikey Day but they made string gains and that's what counts).

Closing Thoughts

• Well, that was certainly another episode of SNL.

• Next week, Jack Black returns to host SNL for his fourth time after a near 20 year hosting absence from the show (not counting the time Tenacious D was an actual musical guest back in ‘06).

• Putting aside any feelings about how Jack may have basically dissolved Tenacious D himself last summer out of apparent fear of potential boycotts of “The Minecraft Movie” or whatever family friendly DreamWorks fare nets him the biggest paycheck these days, this is a pretty intriguing “get” for modern SNL. I'm always interested to see someone come back to the show after at least a decade long absence just to see how they would fit into the mold of the modern show.

• After this episode, SNL absolutely NEEDS a host who can inject the show with some goddamn ENERGY! Plus, it's not like Jack Black was big on recurring characters and sketches during the times he hosted in the early aughts so it'll be interesting to see what they try to do with him this time.

• After that, you may see another retro review on this blog that I have pretty much already written for the Steve Martin/Prince episode from February 2006. As you may have heard if you've been listening, that particular episode will be the subject of the next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast set to be released on Thursday, April 10th.

• See you guys then!

Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys (03.11.2006)

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

Spring Break Cold Open

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monologue 

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

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

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

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

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

prisonmate.net

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

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

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

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

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

SportsCenter

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

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

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

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

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

Digital Short: Doppelganger

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

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

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

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

2 A-Holes At A Travel Agency

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

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

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

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

How To Order Sushi Like A CEO

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

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

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

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

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

J.J. Casuals

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joplin: Alive! Podcast 

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

• Podcasts, huh? What a novel concept. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arctic Monkeys

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

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

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

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

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

Weekend Update w/Fey & Poehler 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relaxation Tape

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

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

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

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

Appalachian Emergency Room

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

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

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

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

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

Dicicco Bros Unicornery

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

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

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

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

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

Overall Thoughts 

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

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

Closing Thoughts 

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

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

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

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

Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)

White House Truce

• I had a feeling they might do another Trump cold open involving Mike Myers as Elon Musk again. 

• I hadn't heard about the meeting with the blowup between Musk & Rubio (guess he's finally starting to grow something resembling a spine?) 

• At first thought they might do something on Trumps’ Joint Address to congress but even with Kenan as Al Green and Longfellow silently reprising his role as Speaker Mike Johnston that might not be enough to sustain a whole sketch. Makes sense that they would rather just throw in a couple of callbacks to it instead.

• Still, I figured they might want to reprise Mikes’ Elon impression simply because it got under the real Elons’ skin more than Carveys’ did.

• Somehow, Marcello seems ill suited to play Marco Rubio, but it should at least appease his biggest critics to see him in a quieter straight man role off of Update.

• I did like JAJs line “we tried that in 2016 and it didn't work” line.

• Huh, so we're going from the “Curb” theme playing in Rubios’ head to JAJ/Trumps’ inner monologue. Not a huge fan of that.

• …and HERE'S the Mike Myers cameo this was building to!

• Seems like Mike either fine tuned his facial expressions for this role or the makeup department stepped up their game.

• Still, I don't mind seeing Mike Myers in this role (he certainly has a better take on Elon than his buddy Carvey did anyway). 

• I did like the “buffering” gag as well as Marcello asking Mike “what's this?” when he did his Elon dance again. 

• JAJ as Trump coaching Elon & Rubio on insulting each other was cheap and “been there, done that” but it is “on brand” for both Trump as a character, I'll give them that.

• I probably liked Myers “inner monologue” the most out of the three, forced Dr. Evil reference and all…because Mike's basic handle on this character seems to be “lane Dr. Evil but played AS a senile Austin Powers”. 

• Honestly, I still don't mind the idea of occasional Mike Myers cameos. I like seeing Mike pop up on the show sometimes. I just hope that if he is going to cameo on a regular basis like Carvey did that they at least attempt to fold him into the show in some other non-Elon/non cold open roles. C+

Monologue 

• Well, as I suspected, a more mature Gaga showed us she was more than comfortable poking fun at herself. I still feel like I haven't seen her act enough to really judge her acting abilities, but she must be better at acting and light comedy than she is at picking movie roles (heyooooo!)

• The lines about her performance with R. Kelly felt a little too tacked on. I thought acknowledging his unfortunate musical cameo in her first hosting stint during the “In Memoriam” at the 50th was enough.

• The Joker 2 stuff was fine. I did like the “Razzies/EGORT” lines.

• Her listing the other current pop girlies “ages” was fun (Chappel Roan is 58, Charli XCX is 75, Tate McRae is her biological grandmother)

• I like even the mildest SNL meta references but I would’ve cut Bowens' appearance since it didn't do anything for me…especially since he did a great job of actually introducing Gagas’ first performance anyway.

• The stuff about her engagement was cute but fell a little flat compared to the rest of the monologue. C+

A Long Goodbye

• Hmm, this is a slightly more Marcello heavy show than I was expecting.

• I really wasn't sure what the hell this was going for but the sight gag of Gaga riding a luggage caddy down a highway was enough to keep me interested.

• I did like the further escalation of this gag by having JAJ, Dismukes and (surprisingly the funniest part of this whole sketch) Jane Wickline as a Sons Of Anarchy-style biker gang riding on similar luggage caddies with Marcello chasing them on his own luggage. I might have cut the dog out of this sketch, though. That part felt too awkwardly shoehorned in for me.

• I also liked how this made good use of the backstage quick change hallways but perhaps most of all, I managed to blend sheer goofiness with sweetness. B+

Midnight Matinee: Pip

• Huh. Seems like a mouse named Pip is about to enter a weightlifting competition. Lady Gaga sings him an inspirational song, which might have genuinely been the best part of this.

• It's good they're spacing out these Dan Bulla pretapes because they are really all starting to feel the same thematically.

• Well, I can at least appreciate the cute sentimentality these go for…until the first in a series of “twists” is revealed.

• I do like how this didn't feel the need to stretch itself out and on as long as “Beppo” did.

• I did appreciate the ending, as telegraphed as it felt. B-

Wonderful Tonight

• Ah, HERE'S the exact type of sketch I was expecting to see as much of as possible. A Bowen and Gaga two-hander.

• It's the exact type of refined, odd-detail heavy sketch I would expect from Bowen but Gagas’ performance is really making this work for me and actually making me laugh.

• “Italians aren't white?” Geez, Gaga was a REAL good sport to go along with that

• “I recently…came…into some money?” Well, I could see where that was going…but I'm still a little surprised NBC could air that at any point before midnight.

• Even though the ending seemed a little rushed and clumsy for my liking, I enjoyed that. C+

Funeral Planners

• Hmm…they really seem stuck on this “roaring 20s” theme for a funeral.

• Roaring 20s? More like BORING 20s, am I right, folks?

• Kenans’ brief appearance was funny. Still, strangely late into the show for him.

• That was a helluva quick change for Heidi & Gaga there. Wonder how they pulled that off?

• Overall, while this felt like a retread of a long worn out SNL sketch trope that I had almost memory holed until now, I didn't hate it. C+

L’Oréal Easy Run Mascara

• This seems like a very specific premise. I mean, I know I may not be the “target audience” for this but I still feel like I “get it” enough. 

• It feels like an improvement over whatever last seasons “Diet Coke from Olay” pretape was supposed to be.

• Not a whole lot of individual lines stood out to me in this, but this was well performed and I did like how it made good use of the entire female cast (especially Jane and Ashley). C+

Weekend Update w/Jost & Che

• I liked Josts’ meta jab at Mike Myers right off the bat and Che's “Bin Laden” joke. 

• I also liked that Linda McMahon joke just for the odd visual element to it.

• Che's “40lbs of fentanyl/two buttfuls” joke was just goofy enough to make me chuckle.

• That Zelenskyy joke was WAY too awkwardly constructed for its own good.

• I like the IDEA of Update going in harder on Elon, but those punchlines didn't hit for me. I thought the Don Jr joke was OK (despite the audience reaction to just the set up). None of their other jokes really hit for me at all (except maybe “labia puffs/Honey Smacks”).

• Kenan seems like he's going for just a goofy voice and slightly silly dialogue with this Kendrick Perkins impression. The only context I have for this impression is that it's the guy Kenan was playing in those “cut for time” First Takes sketches from a few years ago. I did like the sight gag of him removing his beard to wipe his sweat.

• Mikey as “Lord Gaga”? Was this just a throwaway idea Mikey had for Taran Kilam or something from Gagas’ LAST hosting gig? Hell, we know for SURE it was used in a 2009 promo with Fred Armisen.

• Seemed like this wasn't going anywhere at first. Seems like the idea at first was to poke fun at the casual misogyny of the age of ACTUAL “lords and ladies” until Mikey revealed this to be another incredibly labored and stinging Jost roast.

• Overall, this was the rare Update that carried itself mostly on the strength of its own jokes than its commentaries. B-

Friendly's

• So far, the premise is Bowen is lying to a restaurant wait staff about Heidi's birthday to get a free song and dessert…and is SWORN to a veracity they see right through.

• Seems like this might go somewhere interesting with the whole angle of this being a Temple of Doom-esque satanic ritual.

• While this didn't quite escalate enough for my liking, the sheer strangeness of it was enough to keep me interested.

• I did like Sarah's brief voice modulated, bloody mouthed speaking part during the “ceremony”. 

• I'm especially curious to know who did write this because it seems like a long-gestating idea that Bowen or someone was saving for a specific host and thought Gaga would be ideal for (or maybe Mikey and Streeter wrote this? It explains enough of its own details that it makes me think this could be them). B-

Killah

• Yeah, I know I don't normally comment on the musical guest performances but I did like how she started this one by sprawling around the hallway before getting to the stage.

• Oh and also, did she actually say “talking that shit” on air? Oh well, it is about 12:45am where they are anyway. No big whoop, I guess?

Little Red Glasses

• Hey, speaking of sketch premises that would be ideal for a Lady Gaga hosted episode…

• I guess some combination of Allison Gates, Anna Drezen, Sudi Green and/or Fran Gillespie were guest writing this week?

• Even though Gaga, Squirm and Ego were carrying this, I liked Ashley and Heidis’ cameos a bit more.

• Speaking of Squirm, I did like Sarah's line “I was ahead of the curve on gay marriage…and that's where it stuck”

• Chloes’ impression is going right over my head but, ah, THERE'S the Chuck Schumer/Mom from Bobs’ Burgers’ references I was expecting (too bad Alex Moffat was apparently unavailable to cameo this week). C+

No More Slay

• Ok, good thing Bowen and Gaga were there to pretty much sing my immediate reaction to this sketch just as I was starting to wonder why they felt this was worth sneaking in under the wire.

• I did like the “Ollipop can” and “Diva Down” jokes. I especially liked Dismukes line “I named my son mother” as well as the final verse of the song. B+

Ranking The 50th Season Best To Worst

1. SNL50: The Anniversary Special (02.16.2025)
2. Nate Bargatze/Coldplay (10.05.2024)
3. John Mulaney/Chapell Roan (11.02.2024)
4. Bill Burr/Mk.Gee (11.09.2024)
5. Chris Rock/Gracie Abrams (12.14.2024)
6. Paul Mescal/Shaboozey (12.07.2024)
7. Lady Gaga (03.08.2025)
8. Timothee Chalamet (01.25.2025)
9. Dave Chappelle/GloRilla (01.18.2025)
10. Martin Short/Hozier (12.21.2024)
11. Ariana Grande/Stevie Nicks (10.12.2024)
12. Charli XCX (11.16.2024)
13. Shane Gillis/Tate McRae (03.01.2025)
14. Jean Smart/Jelly Roll (09.28.2024)
15. Michael Keaton/Billie Eilish (10.19.2024)

Overall Thoughts 

• Well, it was not a difficult feat, but SNL did clear the very low bar set by last weeks’ episode with Shane Gillis.

• This shouldn't be a surprise. As I said in last weeks’ blog, Lady Gaga did prove to be an effective SNL host when she was used in exactly the right spots back in November of 2013.

• More than a decade later, Gaga has shown she can be trusted to helm the entire show and be a more prominent host as she had gotten much more acting experience under her belt in the ensuing years.

• Plus, the show currently employs more die hard fans of hers who know how to play to her strengths as an actress (comedic or otherwise).

• Naturally, this led to a more fun and inviting atmosphere around the show this week which carried over into this episode very well.

• Cast airtime didn't change much. Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim are still hurting for screentime and Kenan took a slight hit but Ashley and Jane have made great gains. We saw a bit more of Marcello than we were expecting but everyone elses’ airtime seems to have stabilized.

Closing Thoughts

• Well, at this point, we have no idea who SNLs’ next live host will be, but I have heard that the next new episode will air on March 29th.

• I am cautiously optimistic about the next few episodes because lately it's been the late March/early April run where we've been getting some of the stronger episodes and better hosts of the season (Quinta Brunson, Kristen Wiig). 

• Hell, if nothing else we get at least one, unique off the beaten path choice of host around this time like Jerrod Carmichael or Molly Shannon (I say this because it wasn't clear what she was promoting in April of 2023 besides, maybe…the most recent season of The Other Two?)

• However, I do know what my next entry for this blog is going to be. I will write a review of the Matt Dillon/Arctic Monkeys episode from season 31. Of course, I'm doing so because this will be the next full length episode Deej and I cover on the "We Heart Hader" podcast. We hope to record that one in a couple of weeks.

• The next episode of the podcast that we HAVE just recorded should be out this Thursday. It's a deep dive into all of Bills’ guest appearances in the first two seasons of The Mindy Project.

• In addition to all the rest of our channels, you can now also listen to We Heart Hader on iHeartRadio as well as on our own new YouTube channel.

• Additionally, you can follow us on TikTok. That's right, folks. Deej actually created a new TikTok account just for the podcast so I actually made myself get on TikTok just so I could have another place to plug it to death. That's how much I care about reaching as wide an audience as possible with this thing.

• Anyway, see you soon!