Christopher Walken/Panic At The Disco (04.05.2008)

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?

Hillary For President

Bill (Hammond) and Hillary (Poehler) Clinton discuss the fall out of the recent release of their joint tax returns showing that they made $109,000,000 in the past five years and tease the nonexistent possibility of Hillary dropping out of the presidential race.

• Huh, I guess at this point in the season we're done experimenting with new and different types of cold opens and are going straight back to dry, direct to camera, Downey-style political speeches, then?

• This had a weird condescending tone to it, mostly making fun of the press and Obamas' campaign for having to feign shock that the Clintons would somehow become rich from their respective book sales and speaking engagements (I'm sure there were some insider trading and shady stock tips on Hillarys' part). 

• The only thing close to a joke were the repeated refrains of Bills' speaking engagements being his "favorite thing to do" but that got old quick. 

• This was mostly aimless word salad that washed over me and left me wanting to go back to a simpler, happier time when U.S. presidents at least waited until they were long OUT of office to shamelessly profit from said title...but that's a story for another time. C-

Monologue

Rather than performing one of his patented song and dance numbers, Christopher Walken decides he would much rather take questions from audience members (Jim Downey, Paula Pell, Bryan Tucker, John Lutz) reading Walkens' own pre-written questions off index cards.

• Right off the bat, I liked Walkens' joke about this being his 100th time hosting because he personally counts any and all reruns.

• Additionally, I really liked the idea of Christopher Walken putting his own strange, unique, idiosyncratic twist on what has to be the single most tired, played out SNL actor host monologue trope of the past 35 years.

• I liked Jim Downeys' brief moment of mild confusion/asking for brief clarification during his part. Did anyone else notice the strange detail of Christopher blatantly pulling a pair of glasses out of his pants pocket that we don't see him put on at all during the monologue?

• Is it just me or did Paula Pell look and sound almost unrecognizable during her part? Anyway, I got a kick out of Walken telling her how stupid he thought her asking him about his favorite color was before answering with "burnt umber".

• I also liked Walken refusing to answer Bryan Tuckers' question about what he does off camera before dressing him down with (among other statements) the phrase "I got a question. You should be a shamed of yourself."

• Of course, the entire "gigantic invisible bird" rant in response to Lutzs' question (before he asks him to turn his card over to thank him) was the real centerpiece of this monologue and was a true highlight of this for me.

• Well, we may not have gotten another Fred Astaire style song and dance number from Christopher this time around (which is a shame because he is one of the rare hosts with the talent and training to pull those off and make them feel genuine) but at least we got some brief flashes of patent Walken style surreal absurdity in its place to kick off the show. A+

Annuale

Repeat from the Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood episode. If you would like to read or listen to my thoughts on this one, you can do so here or here.

• I will say though that it's a bit strange of them to rerun a fake ad/pretape from a previous episode...that happens to prominently feature said previous episodes' host.

• I have seen them do something similar with certain previous hosts of this era (Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Matthew Fox) but with pretapes that got cut and DIDN'T air in their respective episodes.

• Oh well, I guess there is a first time for everything.

Grease Rehearsal

North Side High Schools' drama teacher (Walken) runs through a rehearsal of "Grease Lightning" with his male students (Hader, Samberg, Sudeikis, Thompson) to address the principals' concern over inappropriate lyrics. He shoots down the boys suggestions for replacement lyrics that actually make sense in favor of his own nonsensical ones.

• I immediately liked one of Walkens' first lines being "I am a drama teacher, I am not David Blaine". 

• I also got a kick out of Amys' brief bits of facial acting during the various cutaways to her as "Ms. Hash", gradually incorporating a bit more disgust and frustration into her "dazed, doddering old biddy" facade.

• What made this sketch for me was the way Walken hit the exact same beats in the exact same way four times during this sketch (responding to each questionable lyric with "That is DIRTY! Do you know what that means?" then asking a different student to whisper said meaning to him with each one requiring more whispers and then making said student whisper the correct confirmed meaning to the others) and made that the funniest part of this sketch.

• Bills' first live appearance is in this sketch. He suggests "chicks will scream" in place of "chicks will cream" which Walken rejects in favor of his own "chicks will fleem." Later on, Bill is asked to confirm his understanding of the phrase "she's a real pussy wagon" to Walken taking about four tries to do so. Walken comments "even Ms Hash knows what this means" to which Amy is shown smiling and nodding politely in response before Walken suggests "have you ever seen a dragon?" as this line's replacement.

• I liked all the other nonsensical replacement lines from Walken ("flocks, flocks, flocks" to "get off my rocks" and glossing over anything else questionable with "hubba hubba hubba").

• I did get a kick out of Walkens line about how if he let these high schoolers sing these lyrics then the school board would put him in a box and push him down a hill.

• I did like the guys exaggerated reactions to Walkens explanation of the true "filthy" meaning of the phrase "Grease Lightning" before telling them to replace it with "Gene Rayburn" (and based on the crude hip thrusting gestures Walken made during this part I'm guessing this was the definition of "Grease Lightning" he was going with").

• Overall, what I liked most about this sketch is how it felt like it was written specifically to tap into the surreal, absurdist presence Christopher Walken was always known for bringing to the show (but not in a way that taps into his penchant for playing violent or creepy villainous roles because there's plenty of time to get into that later on) and how the sheer languid pacing of it made it feel like a sketch that Walken could've done in one of his early 90s hosting stints. The show was smart to make this the lead off live sketch of the night. A-

Eric's Goodbye

At Nathan's (Sudeikis) going away party on his last day at the office, Eric (Walken) gives what appears to their coworkers (Hader, Wiig, Wilson) to be a long and sincerely heartfelt goodbye speech to him complete with handmade gifts despite the fact that they've barely met or interacted. What quickly turns out to be Erics' creepy and intense declaration of unrequited love/possible confession to stalking scares Nathan away. 

• This may be a sketch that they theoretically could do with any male host of a certain age but only Christopher Walken could innately sell this enough to pull it off.

• Similarly, Jason was the best choice to play straight man as he's the best in this cast at selling the subtle panic that builds into exasperation and bewilderment as he quietly wonders how he's the only "normal" person in this scenario.

• I do like how they buried the lede a bit at first with the bathroom towels story before they giving free reign to Walken to let his freak flag fly.

• Bill and Casey have brief appearances as coworkers who pull Jason aside to say a quick thanks and goodbye before letting Jason get back to his "heart to heart" with Christopher despite his protests. They both played these parts well.

• This really picked up steam with the mixtape/radio bit and I got a kick out of Walkens' use of the phrase "Gosh dammit, we're like the same guy, you and I."

• Other highlights from Walken were his presenting Jason with a perfect portrait in his likeness "from memory...because a nude would be tacky for a going away party" and would lead to another sexual harassment charge, the comments about Jasons' suits hiding his "firm athletic body" as he bro hugs him and of course...the sobbing and singing followed by the brief tongue in the ear. 

• I also got a kick out of how Walkens' coworkers (Wiig especially) taking HIS side led to this having one of the strangest and most gleefully dark ending possible play out like the third act of a late 90s "Best Friends Wedding" type romcom with Wiig urging Walken to "go to him" because "he's in love" even after he stated his wish to hunt Jason down in the parking lot, choke him to death and "make love to his corpse for the rest of his life". B+

Digital Short: Laser Cats 3D

Bill Hader and Andy Samberg interrupt Lorne Michaels dinner outing with Sen. Chris Dodd (Himself) to show him a third installment of "Laser Cats" where Nitro & Admiral Spaceship must face off against Mayor Top Hat (Thompson) after he has criminalized Laser Cats as part of his plan to rule the universe.

• Usually, these Laser Cats segments kinda washed over me, but something about this one stood out.

• I liked the gimmick of Bill and Andy meeting Lorne in a fancy restaurant where he is dining with a sitting senator rather than in his office. 

• I also got a kick out of Bill & Andy having somehow managed to sneak a TV and VCR/VHS on a rolling cart into said restaurant unabated.

• Part of me questioned why this needed to be part of a Christopher Walken episode but I'll admit Walken playing their previously unseen boss/captain along with this featuring more dramatic orchestral string music and less of the typical synth fair were nice touches.

• I did like how they played the scene where Bill and Andy's characters were seemingly forced to "destroy" their Laser Cats with a gun and a hammer before suddenly noticing Kenan's message to earth playing as a QuickTime .MOV file on an iMac.

• I did get a kick out of Kenan saying he had "all the Laser Cats in the world" while standing next to a barb wire cage with only four cats in it.

• The biggest visual laugh for me was how the hatch opening scene played with the cheap green screen if the milky way behind a hallway door followed by the even cheaper stop motion paper Oxygen meter depleting followed by a cheap Ken doll dressed as Bills' character floating by on a string.

• The brief 3D gimmick scene was etymologically inevitable enough for them to feel they had to do it, I guess. Really,  it was only good for the cut back to Lorne, Andy, Bill and Sen. Dodd each wearing 3D glasses in the restaurant.

• I liked the callback to Andys' robotic Laser eye surgery and the "showdown" between Andy's cat and Kenan's "Laser dog" (a tiny pug) was a cute way to segue into the ending (well, it was better than the predictable ending with Sen. Dodd anyway). B-

Surprise Sue

Sue (Wiig) is the only member of the family (Forte, Hader, Poehler) who has extreme trouble keeping her cool as Roger (Walken) asks for help planning a surprise party for his granddaughter.

• Here it is, folks. The debut of one of Kristen's most well known over the top characters...and the point in her run that I personally consider to be her "jumping the shark" moment.

• I've softened on Wiig quite a bit since she returned to host in recent years and like her as a cast member just fine in her first few seasons...but this was just the first character of hers I actually formed a thoroughly negative opinion of at the time.

• Looking back, I suppose I can appreciate the way she threw herself into this physically (especially the bits that involve her breaking through glass near the end).

• I did like her suddenly shrieking "YES" when Walken asked if they should get balloons.

• Bill does have some decent moments in this where he reveals Sues' "notes" she was writing were just squiggles and him opening a bag if chips for her because her hands suddenly became paralyzed.

• Amy played well off Kristen too but other than all of that, this is still kind of a slog and this character probably should have made her debut in a different episode. C-

Panic At The Disco Performs "Nine In The Afternoon" & "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies"

• Hey, here's a band I remember passively tolerating in high school. I think my sister was a bigger fan of these guys than I was.

• Well, this would be their first and ONLY time on SNL so it was smart of the show to just let them perform their two biggest hits ever.

• I find it funny how they were backed by a marching band and string section just for that faux-Sgt. Peppers type sound they were going for at this time and they weren't really done any favors by SNLs' notoriously bad live sound mixing.

• Still, at least their first song sounded much better than their second because the mixing was even worse and the down tuning REALLY didn't help at all.

Weekend Update w/Seth & Amy

Pregnant man Thomas Beattie (Samberg) invites Seth & Amy to his baby shower

• Seth's Best Jokes: Hillary Compares Herself To Rocky Balboa, Clinton/Richardson

• Amy's Best Jokes: Olympic Torch, Madonna Criticizes NYC, Early Jewelry Discovered

• Boy, this Thomas Beattie commentary from Andy is...awkward. He had a couple of decent lines, but I'm really not sure how well it ages in 2026 (not just for people not remembering who Thomas Beattie was). I really don't have anything to say about this, so I'll just move on.

• This Update was all over the place with both "great" and "meh" jokes and a commentary that nearly bombed. Not a "good" or "bad" Update necessarily. Just a very uneven one. C+

Walken Family Reunion

At a bar gathering, Christopher catches up with similar sounding (and uniformly hairstyled) relatives Stanley Walken (Hader), John Walken (Sudeikis) and his two kids Maxine (Poehler) and Scott Walken (Samberg), recently out of the closet Nathan Walken (Armisen), his Uncle Richard (Hammond) and Aunt Martha (Wiig) and their adopted African son Uleke (Thompson)

• This would be the first of a trilogy of host centric sketches that would be pretty evenly spread out over the next decade.

• It's a shame Casey Wilson couldn't have been in this just to make it a full cast sketch. It's a shame Forte was only allowed to play a waiter, too but hey...he'd be the first to tell you he is no impressionist by trade.

• Here it is, folks. Bill Haders' biggest moment in this episode where he finally delivers on the Walken impression he promised us he had in his back pocket from his first episode as we get some scattered laughs and recognition applause as the audience settles in and gradually realizes what they're about to see.

• Good on the show for leading off with the most accurate Walken impression they're about to see all night. Unsurprisingly, Bill does nail a younger Walkens' cadence, accent AND voice, hitting many of the same beats as many of the other just as accurate Walken impersonations I've seen.

• Jason comes in a close second with his Walken impression. I do get a kick out if everyone Walken relative in this sketch mostly wearing Hawaiian shirts and having Christophers' blown out, longish hairstyle from this time but just in various colors and various shades of grey.

• From this point forward, the rest of the cast isn't so much doing direct or accurate Walken impression as they are just copying Walkens' unique accent and very idiosyncratic cadence and delivery...but doing so in their own voices and a bit less gruffly.

• Amy's whole pro-doll/anti spooky ghost tangent was the second real highlight of this. It was at this point that audience seemed fully on board with this sketch and could see it was going somewhere good. 

• Andy as the sullen, angst riddled teenage boy was something to be expected, but he and Christopher played off each other quite strongly. I got a kick out of Christophers' line about how adolescence makes a Walken feel like "the only normal person in a school full of nut jobs." Even Christophers' delivery of that borderline nonsensical "bar room/elephant fart" joke was the only thing really saving that one 

• Fred's part is really the only demerit against this sketch. Sure, it had a heartwarming message of acceptance to it on the surface...but in a way that made it seem like it was supposed to be funny for the wrong reason. Plus, Fred seemed like he was already playing a few too many stereotypically gay characters around this time anyway and couldn't even pull off the Walken impression as well as the others, sounding more like a significantly more nasally congested version of himself.

• Kristen and Darrells' parts were a fun note to end this on. I did get a kick out of them both saying they just watched "The Deer Hunter" and found it to be "hilarious" Kristen's Walken was pretty much what you'd expect but Darrells was fun. It's not the most deadly accurate Walken I've seen but I liked how he just mixed his generic "crazy old man from Brooklyn" voice mixed with Walkens' delivery.

• I hate to sound like a broken record, but Kenan's Walken was also about what you would expect from him. Still, he only had one line and it was decent enough that i would've still kept this over Fred's walk-on.

• I think what makes this stand out from the other two "family reunion" sketches is that here SNL is dealing with a much smaller cast this time and they're focused more on impersonating the man as himself rather than any characters from the hosts' actual film career...so, no need to shove most of the entire cast plus a few surprise cameos out there in a costume no ones' wore yet.

• Yes, this entire sketch subscribes to the Bill Hader philosophy of "why just quote one of your subjects movies when you can place them in an everyday situation?" which is probably the main reason it works so well. B+

Indoor Gardening Tips From A Man Who Is Afraid Of Plants

An extremely paranoid and skittish gardener (Walken) repeatedly advises viewers to put large googly eyes on all their plants so they can look their plants in the "eye" and know where they stand with them.

• This was just pure, unabashed, undiluted absurdity from Walken and I loved every second of it. Somehow, it turned out to be a completely different thing than what it was setting you up to expect. 

• This wasn't one of your typical quick in-and-out Family Guy-esque brief blackout gags (like you would expect something introduced with Don Pardo reading a very wordy title card to be) but rather something so uniquely insane it felt like another sketch stuck out of time. 

• This felt like another sketch that could have just as easily been done in any of Walkens' 90s pre-Cowbell episodes (specifically his 92/93 one since that season also gave us "An Insane Idiot And His Descending Size Collection Of Deer Heads" with Harvey Keitel).

• Sure, it may have been a one joke sketch but it was a one note sketch that worked because it was placed in the trusted hands of the only performer on the face of the earth who could possibly make sense of it let alone make it work in execution.

• Two stand out moments in this to me were him sprinkling tiny googly eyes in some patches of grass he grew (he couldn't figure out how else to do it) and his misquoting Winston Churchill ("eyes are the windows...to your FACE"). B+

Top Chef

Contestant Dave (Walken) wanders around complaining to fellow competitors (Poehler, Samberg, Thompson) and host Padma Lakshmi (Wiig) about how he can't cook under these conditions and doesn't know what he's doing thus squandering his allotted time and eliminating himself from the competition.

• Well, this was a bit of a letdown from the last couple of sketches Walken was in.

• While not the most egregious example in this episode of "sketches that should've been done in a totally different episode", it does feel more like a sketch that could've been done with any host.

• Actually, the more I think about it the more I realize how this sketch exists in a bleak purgatory like space where Walken plays his role with exact right flavor (if you'll excuse that turn of phrase here) of "old and in the way" desperation that this calls for but gets washed off the screen in the sheer chaos of Kenan, Andy and Amys' frantic prop work (partly by design but partly by minor but noticeable volume deficiencies).

• It's like Walkens' character exists in this dispiriting liminal space where the part was specifically designed for him but not in such a way that he could enhance it let alone make it memorable.

• However, I did like his response to Kristen's direction of "pack your knives and go" being to shout "KNIVES?!? WHAT?!? WHO KNEW FROM KNIVES?!?"

• Speaking of Kristen, casting her as Padma Lakshmi...didn't work. Still, she wasn't distrsctingly bad in the role. I did get a kick out of her "fauxhawks" joke and her listing strange ingredients such as "beets, cous-cous, frozen yogurt, medicine, a paper bag and stale peeps" as what they were supposed to use to make a deep dish pizza. 

• Oh, look. It's Fred in another pointless sketch role that should've been cut entirely.

• All in all, a pretty weak sketch with even attempted jokes let alone laughs being few & far inbetween. D+

Larry King Live

Larry King (Armisen) grills former US President Jimmy Carter (Hammond) on why he continues to write book after book after book after book that no one will ever read.

• Speaking of existing only in empty liminal spaces...

• Ugh, I think I spoke too soon about Fred roles that should've been cut from this episode.

• You might know how I feel about Fred's Larry King impression by this point if you've been reading my blog closely (it's...not one of his or the show's best) but at least his presence here is balanced out by Darrells quietly goofy and gooberish Jimmy Carter which is...pleasant if not terribly funny.

• Boy, this sketch really belabors the one banal yet snide observation it has to make, doesn't it? At least it doesn't drag on too long in doing so.

• Another sketch with noticably sparse yet well placed laughs.

• Really, how this ever made it to let alone past dress at any point is beyond me. D+

Ranking Season 33 From Best To Worst

1. Lebron James/Kanye West (09.29.2007)
2. Christopher Walken/Panic At The Disco (04.05.2008)
3. Seth Rogen/Spoon (10.06.2007)
4. Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood (02.23.2008)
5. Amy Adams/Vampire Weekend (03.08.2008)
6. Jonah Hill/Mariah Carey (03.15.2008)
7. Brian Williams/Feist (11.03.2007)
8. Elliot Page/Wilco (03.01.2008)
9. Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters (10.13.2007)

Overall Thoughts

• Without question, this is one of the stronger episodes of season 33. However, it is quite the uneven one.

• The highs in this one were at an all time high seeing as we got a much beloved regular host from a completely different era coming back. The lows weren't quite as low, but anything that seems like standard middle of the road fare for this season/era pales a bit more in comparison. In fact, this episode does remind me quite a bit of Melissa McCarthys' recent episode from this past season in that way.

• A lot of the stronger Walken centric stuff stood out because it showed that even when he works with a completely different cast and writing staff, the show in all of it's forms always seems to intuitively know how to play to Walkens' unique acting presence, always finding new, different and creative ways to key into his talents.

• The low points of this episode were pretty much just topical "of the moment" sketches that they do every week. If Walken was in any of them, they obviously didn't utilize him well enough and they just ended up being the type of sketch that could've been dragged and dropped into any other episode this season without anyone noticing.

• The fact that I personally ranked this episode as second best of the season over all despite how "all over the place" it truly is just speaks to what an unusually truncated short season this one ended up being due to the writers' strike.

• As far as cast usage, it felt like everyone got an equal amount of airtime. Obviously, Walken was the MVP of this episode and the rest of the cast did a fine job supporting him.

• Out of strictly cast members only, Amy seems to be the stand out performer of the night (with Kristen a distant second fir better or worse). Bill had a strong night by the standards how how he was being used at this time. Everyone else pretty much seemed to be evenly on par with each other.

Closing Thoughts

• The next entry you'll see on this blog will be a review of the next episode of SNL Season 33 which is...*checks notes* oh boy, umm...Ashton Kutcher/Gnarls Barkley. Well, if memory serves that one will somehow hold up better than his other three hosting stints for the most past.

• Before that though, you'll be getting another episode of the We Heart Hader podcast. This one will be another Documentary Now season 2 review. Specifically, the "Parker Gails' Location Is Everything" episode which is a parody of "Spalding Grays' Swimming To Cambodia". Now, Spalding Gray is famously a monologist known for his one man shows so this episode of Doc Now is gonna be all Bill, baby (and probably structured differently in a way neither Deej nor myself have quite figured out yet...but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).

• Plus, this should be the episode where our listeners will find out who this super secret surprise guest I've been hyping up these past few weeks will be. Again, I don't want to reveal anything for sure until we've at least recorded the full episode with this person in case scheduling falls through or anything, but I can tell you this...it's someone who you wouldn't expect.

• Anyway, after that it will likely be September when SNL UK returns for its second series which we don't know anything about yet...but I know that you should expect some reviews of those episodes here on the ol' blog when they start airing.

• In the meantime, have a great rest of your summer, everyone!