Top Five Bill Hader SNL Sketches & Moments From Season 32

The following blog post is a companion piece to the latest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast with special guest, Demi Constantine, whom you might know from the SNN Patron Feedback Shows or as new permanent third cohost of the new Saturday Night Ladies podcast (which they very graciously allowed me to be a guest on very recently)

Give either one of our shows a listen, won't you?

5. The First Chocolate (Matthew Fox/Tenacious D - 12/02/2006)

The downfall of the once mighty and powerful Mayan civilization is attributed to the invention of hot chocolate. It's sheer overpowering sweetness is enough to completely destroy their fighting nature of their warriors.

• This is mostly a vehicle for Fred Armisen and Matthew Fox to ham it up over how great they find the taste of chocolate, but Bill stumbling in and delivering the world's first brownie recipe as he is dying from an arrow through his torso, switching from dramatic wounded warrior mode to casually talking about chocolate practically steals this.

4. Buying Beer (Shia LaBeouf/Avril Lavigne - 04.14.2007)

A convenience store cashier (Thompson) isn't persuaded by two obvious underage teens (LaBeouf and Samberg) to let them purchase two six packs without seeing their IDs despite their exaggerated talk of their adult ages, work histories, number of children or the other times they previously bought beer and cigarettes at other stores. He is then given a “certificate of responsibility” by an “official” ATF agent (Hader) whose wallet is taken by a “robber” (Forte) who assures everyone that the ATF agent's ID is very much real. 

• Yeah, this is mostly a patented goofy Samberg/Lonely Island sketch thar I have written and talked about before...but Bill does come in and unravel one of four additional layers that needed to be peeled away for this sketch to arrive at it's conclusion in a cheerfully stiff manner. 

• Still, he's very peripheral here and doesn't really show up to drive the plot until about halfway through the sketch.

3. Dry Eyes (Justin Timberlake - 12.16.2006)

A game show where host Gary Pierce (Hader) challenges contestants NOT to cry at heartbreaking/heartwarming scenarios and quotes researched from their own real personal lives or during a medley of emotionally charged songs during the final speed round. Today's competitors are school teacher Jerry Bertrand (Armisen) and 22 time returning champion firefighter Brett O'Connor (Timberlake) 

• This is the first of many game show host roles for Bill (setting up an archetype he would reliably excel at throughout his SNL career).

• He does a great job of setting up the basic premise and rules of this sketch, laying the groundwork for Armisen and Timberlake to flesh out the more emotional parts of it.

2. Late Night Movie: The Curse Of Frankenstein (Hugh Laurie/Beck - 10/28/2006)

Frankenstein (Hader) somehow turns the tables on a group of angry, torch wielding villagers (Laurie, Wiig, Poehler, Armisen) tricking them into going after Dracula (Sudeikis) instead of him but then shames them for judging his appearance too harshly when Dracula sends them back to him.

• I put this at #2 on my list because Bill anchored this and was the main focus of it especially calling out the angry mob at the end. You can actually read and hear more of my thoughts on this sketch in the previous podcast episode and blog entry I put out reviewing the episode it came from.

• The only thing keeping it from being #1 in my mind is that there is another more Bill centric sketch from this season that hit harder for me that I haven't talked about yet...

1. Al Pacino Checks His Bank Balance (Dane Cook/The Killers - 09.30.2006)

Al Pacino (Hader) calls Wells Fargo customer service because the mattress store won't accept his debit card. A Teller (Wiig) moves 620.00 from his savings to his checking leaving him with 606.00 to purchase a mattress.

• I put this at number one because it's pretty much pure, unfiltered undiluted Bill Hader dominating a scene in the season premiere by shouting pure nonsense doing one of his most famous impressions. Doesn't get much better than that.

• Bills' Pacino was a hit with the audience of the previous season's premiere so it makes perfect sense for him to this in a sketch in the following season's premiere. Plus, you get to see him put his theory of how impression sketches should work into practice (i.e. they work better when you remove them any of their previous acting roles place the subject into an everyday situation where they must deal with a mundane disappointment).

• Hmm, something about seeing someone talk to an actual person at their bank on a flip phone JUST to find out what their balance is makes this feel...quaint. I mean, obviously, this was the pre-iPhone/Android era when there were no apps on your screen designed by your bank to let you SEE your balance, but still.

• Kristen, of course, plays well off of him as the chipper customer service rep but Bill had so many great lines in this it's tough to single out just one. What does stand out to me though is that this is all in service of Bills' Pacino wanting to buy "an astronaut mattress that comes with a glass of wine on it."

• This may be a reference to a commercial that's very specific to this time (and may not be all that well remembered 20 years after it aired) but the performance by Bill sells this so well you don't need to know the reference to find it funny.

• Some light Googling does reveal that he was referring to a NASA designed memory foam mattress from Tempur Pedic, who around this time aired commercials where people would "test" their mattresses by jumping on one side with a glass of wine on the other to show that because the mattress absorbs energy WITHOUT transferring motion, the wine glass won't spill. Somehow, this was supposed to help you sleep better than a SleepNumber bed.

Honorable Mentions

Monster Under The Bed (Annette Bening/Gwen Stefani, Akon - 12/09/2006)

Casey (Poehler) sees a monster in her room which terrifies and alarms her parents (Bening, Forte) more than it does her. Eventually, Caseys' parents turn on her caring more about their own safety and well being than hers.

• This is mostly an insane, screaming Will Forte vehicle (and may be a cheap ripoff of a 32 yr old Simpsons joke, now that I think of if) but it still manages to be the most memorable moment of an otherwise "lame enough to never get repeated" episode of SNL mostly thanks to Bill.

• Hader steps out of Poehlers' closet as the "monster" in question, wearing insane gargoyle/demon makeup and singing "Have A Holly Jolly Christmas" way off key in a voice that can be best described as "Dean Martin meets Vincent Price" before being suddenly shot to death by Will and Annette, leaving Poehler to sleep next to a dead monster.

• Ladies and gentlemen, this is the only way you can truly follow insane, screaming Will Forte.

Monologue (Matthew Fox/Tenacious D - 12.02.2006)

After falling on dark, hard times since the cancelation of his previous hit series "Party Of Five", Matthew Fox has come to terms with being one of the only cast members from a hit TV series to not get asked to host SNL. After having a talk with Cheers' John Ratzenberger at a bar, he realized he's in the same league as Friends' Matt LeBlanc and Seinfelds' Michael "Kramer" Richards (Hader) who barges in to pitch him on the two of them cohosting SNL together as he's falling on even harder times after the Laugh Factory incident.

• Hmm, I...guess Lacey Chabert was either considered too young to host during Party Of Fives' heyday or the show got canceled before she even COULD host?

• Anyway, Bill comes roaring in to lighten up what was turning out to be a grim, creepy, almost too "low energy" for its own good monologue with a Kramer impression he was forced to study old Seinfeld clips come up with in two days time because it was one impression he didn't have in his back pocket then. 

• Apparently, whoever wrote this monologue insisted on keeping in Bill as Kramer. To Bill and that writer's credit, Bill developed an impressively good handle on this impression in such a short amount of time. I can tell how well he got the voice down by how many traces of Michaels Richards' early '80s pre-Seinfeld/Kramer "Fridays" era voice I can hear in there to point you'd think he'd studied whatever footage of that show was available at the time and just paired with with Michaels' exaggerated physical shtick as Kramer. The impression as a whole worked so well he decided to reuse it in a later sketch that season that turned out to be Vinny Vedeccis' talk show debut.

• Fun fact: in real life, Michael Richards was actually booked to host SNL in March 1994 but apparently NBC executives forced Lorne to dump him in favor of Nancy Kerrigan. He may have been booked again in 1998 but backed out saying he thought he couldn't do it anymore. A little "Fridays" related anxiety, perhaps?

Closing Thoughts

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

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

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

• I've also posted full length reviews of these episodes on my blog so if you'd simply like to READ my thoughts on these sketches and episodes feel free to read them here, here and also here.

• The next episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast will be another "Impression Spotlight" focused on Bills' James Carville impression. After that, we will start our season 33 coverage with a full length review of that season's premiere with host LeBron James & musical guest Kanye West.

• Before we get to either of those though, I will continue my own personal coverage of SNLs' 51st Season as it progresses with next weeks' Melissa McCarthy/Dijon episode. See you guys then!

Zach Braff/Maroon 5 (05.19.2007)

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

Bush' s Summer Vacation

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

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

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

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

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

Monologue 

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

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

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

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

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

Digital Short: Puppy Love

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

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

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

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

Prom Committee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deep House Dish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TV Funhouse: Decision ‘08 - Spring ‘07 Cleaning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Song Memories II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

La Revista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bronx Beat

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

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

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

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

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

Melissa

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

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

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

Overall Thoughts 

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

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

Closing Thoughts

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

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

Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol (03.17.2007)

The following blog post is a companion piece to the newest episode of the We Heart Hader Podcast…and, in a way, the soft launch of my cohost Deej Barens’ new podcast Saturday Night Ladies. Give BOTH of our/her podcasts  a listen, won't you?

SNL Special Report: Road To The White House

Chris Rock weighs in on the presidential primary race.

• Apparently, this was supposed to be a Weekend Update commentary at dress rehearsal. I genuinely wonder what the original cold open to this episode was going to be that made them decide that THIS worked better?

• Hmm, according to SNL Transcripts, the original cold open must have been a Sudeikis as Bush piece where he talked about March Madness. I can see why Lorne must have thought a sudden former alumni cameo might have grabbed the audience's attention more. Too bad not a lot of Rocks’ material stood out that well.

• Anyway, if you’re familiar with Chris Rocks’ standup from…well, really ANY time period this hits just about all the specific beats you would expect (and if you’re familiar with Chris Rocks’ takes on current events and culture in general, you could probably guess which presidential candidate Rock was endorsing at this time).

• I guess you can’t say that the basic premise of “white women have suffered like this but black men have suffered like this” doesn’t hold up today since Bill Burr tackled this topic in his first SNL host monologue just five years ago. He must have been taking notes during this. Too bad Burrs’ take on the topic came at a time when it wouldn’t have been largely scrutinized on social media and just swept under the rug like Rocks’ was.

• One line that got me was Rock saying he thought “Farrakhan had died” when he saw Anna Nicole Smith had all black male pallbearers at her funeral.

• Boy, does the line about Giuliani being “great in a crisis” not hold up today. Hell, he arguably helped create the crisis America is in right now. The line about how Giuliani is like a pitbull who “might eat your kids” probably holds up way better than anyone could have imagined.

• Speaking of things that don’t hold up today, that last line…hoo boy. The fact that it’s an unoriginal burn on George W. Bush that Carlos Mencia would blatantly plagiarize a year later aside, that’s not something any TV show could get away with today. C+

Monologue

Coming off her recent Emmy win for “New Adventures of Old Christine”, Julia Louis-Dreyfus warns the audience to not judge recent candid footage of her too harshly because the media loves to take down beloved celebrities like her.

• Jokes about trashy female celebrities behaving badly may have seemed pretty played out by this point, but I’ll be damned if Julia doesn’t have the innate charm and likability to make this play well. 

• Even drunkenly vomiting into a wine glass while making “Green card” jokes aimed at America Ferrera, she’s endlessly funny in a “very primitive, unrefined shades of Selina Meyer” type way. Hell, she’s the only funny woman I’d ever want to see exit a limo with a Britney Spears-like crotch shot that reveals a bush so massive it spreads half way across her inner thighs. She even managed to add some class to THAT!

• One of my favorite lines in this from Julia: “They can even make a nice woman like that lovely Ann Coulter look like a monster!” 

• I liked how this was a very direct and to the point monologue that got in, got its laughs and got out. B-

Oprah 

Oprah Winfrey (Maya Rudolph) interviews author of “The Secret” Rhonda Byrne (Amy Poehler) on how her book can help regular people control the universe with their positive thoughts and energy. Recently divorced housewife Pamela Headley (Louis-Dreyfus) and Darfurian refugee Olessi Oneweja (Kenan Thompson) discuss how the positive thinking taught in “The Secret” has NOT changed their lives and are criticized for letting their own negative energy bring them down.

• Geez, two seemingly laser focused pop culture themed sketches in a row? Was Tina Fey a guest writer this week?

• Anyway, I’ve never read “The Secret” and my only context for it were the few parodies of it I have encountered around this time. Still, I would say the overall message to this sketch is that you still need fame, wealth and social clout to make “The Secret” work for you (otherwise you appear as a mentally unstable loser with a tenuous grasp on reality in the eyes of others) still resonates today.

• I liked the small detail of Julia's character having unexplained adult braces. Even though Amy was mostly the straight woman in this sketch, her deranged facial expressions paired with her labored Australian accent were something I got a kick out of. Julia played her derangement well too but it’s a shame that Amy Poehler didn't get quite as many chances to play crazy eyed not-all-there Australian women as Kate McKinnon did.

• Mayas’ Oprah didn’t add too much here besides some necessary historical context and Kenan’s part was fine (if not a bit too telegraphed for my liking). Otherwise, this was a pretty decent sketch. C+

Monex

Ros Gentle (Kristen Wiig) wants you to invest in, lovingly caress and decorate your home in gold.

• Geez, yet another parody of a very specific advertisement from this time! (at least I think it is as I noticed Wiigs’ character was listed as an “impression” on SNL Archives).

• Anyway, this was very well acted on Wiigs’ part. She underplayed her main to the exact right hilt. It seemed like Kristen knew when to really rein it in here but it probably helps that this is a pretape and another focused impression of a specific pitchwoman from this time (again, hey! Two in a row).

• Some of my favorite moments in this were Wiig's line about the value of gold having “gone up a little bit”, the Goldie Hawn photo in her living room and her drinking Florida Gold brand Orange Juice. B+

Restless Penis Syndrome

Karen Danbury (Dreyfus) is highly suspicious of her husband's (Jason Sudeikis) claim that his staying out late is a result of his uncontrollable RPS diagnosis until his physician Dr. Highsmith (Thompson) suddenly shows up to help plead his case along with two commercial pitchmen (Hader and Samberg V/O). Karen suddenly changes her tune when she finds out that she is featured in a sudden PSA.

• Hmm, given what we know about Jasons’ dating history during his time on the show…I wonder how much of this sketch was drawn from real life?

• Anyway, this was another well crafted sketch that started with a hint of semi-dramatic, slice of life acting turning into a committed sophomoric gag and ending with a fourth wall dissolution. It almost felt like something out of a different era of the show. It even reminds me a bit of the “National Uvula Association” sketch from season one!

• Bills’ first appearance of the night. A-

La Revista Della Televisione

Italian talk show host Vinny Vedecci (Bill Hader) welcomes Julia who awkwardly stumbles through her outlandish interview as she doesn’t speak or know any Italian causing a spat between Vinny and his crew (Fred Armisen, Will Forte). Vinny's daughter Fabiola (Rudolph) makes an appearance.

• Bill actually debuted this character in the previous seasons’ Catherine Zeta Jones episode as an Italian hotel manager. Here, this character makes its debut in what would more or less become its regular form.

• This was a great “official” debut for this character and Julia was the perfect first guest for him. His Kramer and Jerry impressions were great here as was his dubbing over Julias’ part in “Old Christine”. Maya reciting the days of the week in slightly broken English was charming. 

• This sketch seemed more focused on establishing its own format and setting rather than setting up the sleaziness of its main character (which would come later in future installments). It seemed more focused on recreating the baffling absurdity of foreign talk shows to viewers from outside their culture and it really serves this sketch as well as the vibe of this season/episode strongly.

• Anyway, what else is there left to say about this sketch that I haven’t already mentioned in a previous blog and podcast? A-

Snow Patrol Performs “You’re All I Have” and “Chasing Cars”

• “You’re All I Have” lies somewhere between “indistinguishable from all the other bland mid aughts power pop out there” and “what if Mumford and Sons did indie rock instead of butt folk?” That is the best way I can describe this song.

• Now, “Chasing Cars” is the song that most people remember from this group. Typical sad indie rock that fits right in with the alt rock trends of this era.

Weekend Update w/Poehler & Meyers

Judge Larry Seidlin (Armisen) cries while reading a list of names of federal attorneys fired by Alberto Gonzales for not exhibiting enough “loyalty” to George W. Bush…and then tells a story about encountering elephants and monkeys with red plastic asses in the Bronx Zoo as a young peanut seller

Amy takes a shot to celebrate St Patricks’ Day and drunk dials Seth from across the desk who quickly offers her a cup of coffee to sober up.

• Geez, jokes about federal attorneys being fired for not being “loyal” enough to a sitting Republican US President play WAY differently in 2025, huh?

• Anyway, Amy had the lion's share of good jokes this week with that “Haliburton/Dubai, Alberto Gonzales, Bush visit Colombia, fat talk/The View” run.

• Armisens’ commentary was typical Armisen shtick from this era that’s easy to tune out (overly long, self indulgent, heavy New York accent) but I did get some chuckles from his absurd Bronx Zoo story.

• The St Patricks’ Day shots bit was cute and focused enough to not feel too self indulgent on Amys’ part. It definitely had the energy of a bit where one performer is desperately trying to get the other performer to break but the audience also feels like they are in on the joke.

• Seth’s only stand out joke was the salmon/grizzly bear one. I also liked Amys’ ski mask/James Brown/Angelina Jolie/Stray Cats jokes, too. B-

Deep House Dish

DJ Dynasty Handbag (Thompson) and T’Shane (Samberg) welcome edgy girl group Legguns (Poehler, Rudolph, Wiig), singer DeDe Wells (Dreyfus) and DJ Quality (Sudeikis)

• Ooh wee. Here’s one of the more low-key divisive sketches of this era from two of the most low-key divisive writers of any new millennium era of SNL (James Anderson and Kent Sublette).

• Personally, I’m not as down on these sketches as some were at the time. If you weren’t a fan of the less matured, less “grown up” pre-season 38 Kenan, I can see why you might have a problem with these. 

• While I’ve always thought Kenans’ character was the biggest demerit of these sketches, the songs were usually just ridiculous enough to work for me here. Plus, the season 32 versions of this sketch worked better for me because Samberg was a better “dumb, goofy sidekick” to Kenan than Rachel Dratch’s character Tiara and these sketches felt more punched up and focused in general by that point.

• That being said, Legguns did a fine job of answering the musical question “what if The Ting Tings were also The Bangles and Klymaxxx?” Julia and Jasons’ songs were great. Hell, Julias’ whole character was great in this. I liked Sambergs’ character admitting to being a guest at Julias’ disastrous hot tub chilli party. Seeing Jason break out his future “What Up With That” dance moves was also very fun. Could’ve done without Kenans’ direct message to Britney “Spurrs” though, but Andys’ jokes about her freshly shaved head were a funny enough counter to that. 

• Come to think of it, I did get a kick out of Kenans’ “Ann Coulter/Isaiah Washington” joke (I’m not even going to bother researching that one let alone explaining it). C+

CBS Cares

As Mike Underballs (Hader) directs Julia in a mammogram PSA, he must settle a spat between his star and his boom mike operator Jeff (Sudeikis)

• Hey, another sketch where Jason and Julia are stand out performers…oh, and Bill of course!

• Well, we just went from “low key divisive” sketch to “low key terrific” (as Ralph Nader would inspire That Week In SNLs’ Andrew Dick and Tim Cicalli to say).

• This might be more a Sudeikis showcase but once Hader suddenly shifts out of straight man mode, this really becomes a showcase for the two of them and how differently they play “angry/frustrated” off of each other and Julia.

• Jasons’ various insults to Julia were great, especially his pointing the boom mike at her breast and crotch level.

• Bills’ best moments were the various “Jyyyeeeffffs” and the line “I don’t need the jingle on every bad take.” B+

Homebots

A married couple (Julia and Jason) try to convince their friends (Hader and Wiig) that winning the lottery hasn’t changed them despite their newfound appreciation of three way sex acts between their new house cleaning robot (Forte) and the other two robots (Armisen and Thompson) whose sole purposes are to repair the other two robots after their many malfunctions

• Ok, this is obviously a very Will Forte-ish premise considering his affinity for playing various robots throughout his SNL career (and the fact that he actually did audition for the show with an old trunk bit of his where he sings as a robotic street performer about how he performs certain oral favors just for his face paint).

• Unfortunately, this is the type of Forte weirdness I’m not typically a fan of since it feels more like testing the audiences’ patience and boundaries than being truly weirdly funny. This seems more designed to get the type of audience reaction that the Vogelcheck sketches do than anything.

• Bill, Jason, Kristen and Julia were great at playing their disgust off them, though which really added to this and I’ll admit I did get a kick out of Kenan coming in at the end just to utter the closing line “extreme robot threesome”. C- 

The Search For The Next (Pussycat) Doll

Judges Robin Antin (Dreyfus), Lil Kim (Thompson) and McKenzie Jazz (Samberg) lead the search for the most mediocre and unremarkable moderately attractive female singers and dancers (Poehler, Wiig, Rudolph) to join The Pussycat Dolls and blend into the background perfectly against the lead singer

• Wow, this really is 2007, huh?

• From the way Bill as the announcer pretty much spends 75% of this sketches’ runtime laying out exactly what SNLs’ whole take is here, this sketch felt more like a watered down version of something MADtv or Family Guy would have done around this time. SNL doing this in the same episode as the Oprah/Secret sketch just shows that they weren’t quite as removed from seasons 30 and 31 as I remembered.

• Yeah, this sketch mostly consisted of the same tired “trash culture” observations about reality competition TV and prefabricated, oversexualized pop music girl groups you could find anywhere at this time but the performances from the female cast were the only thing this had going for it. Samberg did the most he could with his one and only line here.

• Ugh, Kenan in drag as Lil Kim seems like a grim sign of things SNL may be going back to in season 51 now that Ego Nwodim is out…and Kam Patterson is somehow still in. Let’s just all hope and pray that it doesn’t come to that again. C-

Overall Thoughts

• Like most SNL episodes I have reviewed from this specific time period, there’s a couple of well-remembered and often replayed classics in this that somehow managed to not get lost in the shuffle of more than a few bits that don’t hold up. That same thing could be said about this episode, too. 

• Fortunately, this episode didn’t have a lot of blatantly noticeable “punching down” as much as just a running theme of “sorry folks, this is just where our culture and politics are at right now” contributing to what doesn’t hold up.

• Even more fortunately, Julia Louis-Dreyfus was the ideal host to carry this episode and bring the best out of this cast (especially the women). Thankfully, this episode had an infectious energy to it that was somehow missing from Julias’ first hosting stint a year earlier. It also probably helps in that regard that they were too far away from the end of the season to be completely burnt out yet.

• Not only does this episode have enough notable Bill Hader moments for Deej and I to dissect it on our own podcast, it has enough moments with SNLs female cast from two different eras collaborating together that we both thought it would the timing and synergy of it all would be the ideal cross promotion for Deejs’ new podcast Saturday Night Ladies with cohost Shari Fesko (who you may also have seen on the SNN Patron feedback shows much like Deej and myself). 

• The only better cross promotion we could think of would be if we could’ve gotten Shari to be a guest on this episode with us, but sadly, (much like all the other guests we have tried to book for We Heart Hader besides Jon Schneider who’ve expressed interest) we couldn’t get our recording schedule to sync up with their availability. Don’t worry, Shari. You’ll get your chance some day!

Closing Thoughts

• Once again, I can’t guarantee what will be coming up next on this blog or my own podcast at this time as we haven’t nailed down any more specific future plans yet. The only thing I can even come close to confirming right now is that I should have a new review of SNLs’ Season 51 premiere up sometime on October 5th, 2025. See you then!

• Oh, one more thing. Due to the new demands on Deejs’ podcasting schedule, new releases of We Heart Hader episodes will now be pushed back from Thursday to Friday. I know our previous episode dropped on a Saturday but this was due to technical difficulties and various illnesses (on both sides).

• Full disclosure: I’ve been visiting my father in the hospital for the past two weeks, so if something seemed a little off about our previous recording, that’s on me. I was still getting into the right headspace to record as we started recording so only about halfway through it was I fully “there”.