bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 SNL Review- Johnny Knoxville/System of a Down I’m sorry this is so late. When the episode aired I was at ROH in New York City. The tape I received was an hour of ER and the 9/11 Commission Hearings. I applauded SNL for being so daring and thought it was comic genius. Then I found out that this wasn’t SNL and my friend’s tape didn’t work. Luckily, Louis Klein came to the rescue and gave me a copy of the tape. So here we go. TOP 20 MOMENTS IN SNL HISTORY 3. Can we be funny? Why not start now. The season finale occurred 18 days after September 11. During that 18 days there was lots of self doubt on how SNL could go on, after the most horrific terrorist attack in American history. SNL was a New York institution and it soon people began looking to it to provide a sense of calm and a sign that America was going back to normal. This was a tall order to fill and actually Ben Stiller wasn’t up to it. With America watching, SNL began the 27th season by paying tribute and moving forward after the events that shook the nation. On a personal note, I was here for the dress rehearsal version of this and this has great sentimental meaning to me. THE MOMENT: The show opens with Mayor Rudy Guiliani in the centre, flanked by Bernard Kerick, Thomas Van Essen and about two dozen NYPD and FDNY members. Guiliani begins by calling the FDNY and NYPD heroes and talks about what occurred on September 11 while stressing a return to normalcy. He ends his speech by saying: Our hearts are broken, but they are beating, and they are beating stronger than ever. New Yorkers are unified. We will not yield to terrorism. We will not let our decisions be made out of fear. We choose to live our lives in freedom. After Guiliani’s speech the camera pans to the music stage where Paul Simon is playing. Simon plays a haunting and moving version of the Simon and Garfunkel classic, The Boxer. He even added this verse: Now the years are rolling by me, They are rocking evenly. I am older than I once was, Younger than I'll be, That's not unusual. No, it isn't strange, After changes upon changes, We are more or less the same. After changes we are more or less the same. Now this was the first show that I ever got into doing standby and seeing Guiliani on stage was moving enough and I was already tearing up. Paul Simon is my favourite musician ever, and getting to hear him perform the Boxer live, especially in light of what was going on, I lost it as did a lot of other people. It truly was a very moving and special thing we were witnessing. Lorne Michaels is now on the other stage and he thanks Mayor Guiliani for being here. Then we get this awesome exchange: Mayor Rudolph Guiliani: Thank you, Lorne. Thank you very much. Having our city's institutions up and running sends a message that New York City is open for business. "Saturday Night Live" is one of our great New York City institutions, and that's why it's important for you to do your show tonight. Lorne Michaels: Can we be funny? Mayor Rudolph Guiliani: Why start now? Guliani then gives a rousing version of LIVE FROM NEW YORK IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT! The message was clear: SNL was back and ready to help the nation recover. Cold Opening Cast- Paula Abdul, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler, Chris Parnell, Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers, Will Forte, Finesse Mitchell, Kenan Thompson Thoughts- I don’t watch American Idol since I consider it to be one of the dumbest shows ever (and I watch and enjoy Full House so that’s saying something) but damn- Paula has a really nice rack. And of course this skit gets bonus points and a gold star for mentioning MC Skat Cat. This was a pretty funny skit- Finesse gave a solid performance and I really enjoyed Seth as Ryan Seacrest. Amy’s Abdul was it’s usual good self. Impersonatee confronts the impersonator is pretty played but Paula’s total burn zing slam on Amy saved it. ***1/4 Monologue Cast- Lorne Michaels, Don Pardo, Johnny Knoxville, Armisen, Poehler, Horatio Sanz, Meyers, Mitchell, Jason Sudeikis Thoughts- I miss Jackass a lot. It’s a shame we couldn’t get a cameo from Ryan Dunn or something and just have them do stupid stuff to each other the whole monologue. Some of the stuff they did to Knoxville wasn’t that great and it started out really lame. Don Pardo kneeing Knoxville in the balls and Seth spearing Knoxville out of nowhere pretty much ruled all. *** Mom Jeans Cast- Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Rudolph, Poehler, Parnell Thoughts- Haven't seen Tina in a commercial in a long time. I assume this joke was aimed at the female demographic but I still was laughing along with the rest of the women in the audience. Good commercial parody here. ***1/2 Bickering Couple Cast- Knoxville, Rudolph, Parnell, Meyers, Poehler Thoughts- Seth and Amy in a skit together? Yay!!!!!!!!!! According to MS Word, “yay” is not a word. I call bull on that one. Seth and Amy playing a couple in a skit together always seems to work because they have really good chemistry and play off each other so well. It really is fun watching them work together. There were tons of great one-liners from Seth and Amy going back and forth at each other and even Parnell got in on the act. (How was your vacation? Why did you ask them that?) The ending with them going and having sex with Parnell wanting to watch, was also really funny. The timing was a bit off between Seth and Amy at times for me to truly declare this a classic, but this was still easily one of the best skits of the year and another great skit in the long line of Seth and Amy skits. ****1/4 Trump Pizza Cast- Darrell Hammond, Meyers Thoughts- I have to say that I’ve had the bacon cheeseburger pizza from Pizza Pizza and it’s quite awesome. It’s just a shame it’s one of Pizza Pizza’s “signature” slices or something so it costs more then a regular slice. Anyway, this was the usual funny Trump slice. They’re probably starting to overplay this a bit, but they’re also improving on it. I applaud them for cutting the skit off when Trump was rambling at the end, instead of having him ramble on and kill the skit like he always does. And Trump dressed like a pizza is funny. This was like every other Trump skit, in that it started out pretty funny but got old after a while. (There’s only so many times you can screw up the pronunciation of Dominoes and get a laugh out of me) But kudos to Darrell for finding a new impression that works. ***1/4 Versace Cast- Knoxville, Rudolph, Dratch, Sanz Thoughts- I had heard rumours that Maya wanted to retire Versace and never do it again. Those rumours have now been proven false. It’s amazing how they can keep doing Versace time and time again, and it’s not funny. At all. I know I sound like a broken record when I review Versace, but there really is only so many different ways you can say, “Wow- that sucked.” Johnny Knoxville did okay as his first gay character of the evening and Horatio was his usual self. I did laugh at the old lady version of the Versace music and that’s really about it. The usual terrible Versace. ¾* Channel Five Late Night Movie Cast- Knoxville, Forte, Parnell, Thompson Thoughts- This would be gay character #2 for Knoxville for those of you keeping score at home. I was at a bar after ROH on Saturday and caught this skit on mute and without sound, it really wasn’t that funny. With sound, I liked it quite a bit. Forte and Knoxville’s interplay was pretty funny, and Knoxville as a whole was really funny. Parnell as usual, played an effective straight man. I really hated the ending to this skit as I thought it was a lame way to wrap everything up. ***1/4 System of a Down “BYOB” Thoughts- WHY DOES THIS BAND HAVE TO PLAY SO GOD DAMN LOUD? I MEAN THERE IS MORE TO SINGING A SONG THEN JUST SHOUTING INTO THE MICROPHONE AND YELLING THE ‘F’ WORD. I mean seriously, I was about to get a headache from all this yelling. The lead singer looks like one of those guys who is all grungy and stuff, but you know you could kick his ass. I do give kudos for the guy who got the ‘f’ word on TV and causing NBC to probably panic. But yea, this was just loudness. *3/4 Weekend Update Cast- Mrs. Forte, Fey, Poehler, Forte, Armisen, Thompson Thoughts- First off, congratulations to Jeff Richmond for being able to prove to the world that he did have sex with Tina Fey. Tina and Amy were their usual crappy self. They actually did start out pretty good but after Will and his mom, they faded into crappy joke territory and became a lost cause. 18 shows in, and Amy still rushes her jokes. Amazing. Like every other Weekend Update that manages to eke out a good rating, this was all because of the commentaries. The bit between Forte and his mom was funny, if a bit disturbing. It did take him too long to get to the point but once he got there it was very good. Fred as the deaf comic once again stole the show. Even though it was essentially the same as the last bit, racial jokes and jokes about deaf people will always make me laugh and this was no exception. The basketball joke was hilarious and I can only imagine how good the last joke was. Per the usual with Update- eh jokes and hilarious commentaries. *** Mother’s Day Lunch Cast- Knoxville, Dratch, Meyers, Rudolph, Poehler, Riggle, Sudeikis, Mitchell, Thompson Thoughts- This was like Crash only without the social commentary on racism in our society and Jennifer Esposito’s tits. I thought the first story was pretty funny with Knoxville playing gay character #3. Seth and Sudekis were both very funny in their dealings with Tiffany. I really enjoyed the ending with Sudeikis explaining to his dad why he failed out of medical school. The second story was the best. I have no problem admitting that Maya was very funny here and all three worked well here. I didn’t enjoy the last story at all. It just seemed to drag and the baby talk got old quickly. Riggle isn’t good at this kind of stuff. Maya telling Parnell to call the po-lice, “What’s your first name?” “Grandma”. Was all good. So we have- Black people- **** Sex change people- ***3/4 Baby talk people- *1/2 It averages out to about ***1/4. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO Cast- Knoxville, Forte, Dratch, Armisen, Sudeikis, Thompson Thoughts- For whatever reason this just didn’t work that well again. I think Forte yelling out OH NOOOOOOOO for no reason was just a one time thing. I’m not going to take SNL to task for doing this again since I’m sure there was a lot of mileage to get out of OH NOOOOOOOOO- it just didn’t work that well. I thought Knoxville was very funny as the sleazy telethon host and I loved him yelling at Andy. Sudeikis as the guy who kept screwing up was pretty funny. I think it’s time to put OH NOOOOO out to pasture and have Forte find another random skit of the week. **1/4 Merv the Perv Cast- Knoxville, Parnell, Poehler, Rudolph, Dratch Thoughts- It’s MERV THE PERV!~ Time for some good ole fashioned double entendres and Merv awesomeness. Okay, I’ll admit it. Merv wasn’t that funny this time around. His quips weren’t up to the usual standards that Merv has set for himself, and Amy seemed to be on the verge of cracking up. Either way her constant smiling really pissed me off. Johnny Knoxville did an okay job as Irv the Perv. There were some good lines here, but it was just disappointing compared to the other Mervs we’ve seen this year. **1/4 System of a Down ‘Aerial’ Thoughts- Why did Paula get to introduce them? That’s really not fair to Johnny. This was worse then the first song and didn’t have any F-bombs to keep me amused. The good mg streak ends at 2. *1/2 Action News Cast- Everyone Thoughts- I think this might be the 94,493,582nd parody of a newscast in SNL history. I laughed at Horatio as the Puerto Rican guy and Parnell’s character but this was just a one joke skit and the one joke was really not that funny. *1/2 Bear City Thoughts- T. Sean Shannon just keeps cranking out the hits. There was one Bear City that I found funny, the rest were just not very funny. This one was hard to follow, due to the fact that the bears don’t talk. Maybe one day SNL will come up with a funny short film. I anxiously await the day. DUD Todd Foxworthy Cast- Knoxville, Thompson Thoughts- Congratulations to Jeff Foxworthy for playing four gay characters in one night. I don’t know if that’s a record and I think it would be a bitch to research. Jackass was pretty homosexual at times (Pontius anyone?) so this should come as no surprise. I laughed at some of Todd’s gay redneck jokes and Kenan was funny as always. Not a bad way to end the show. **1/2 The Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.5 making this a thumbs up show. The last 20 minutes were pretty bad, but the first half was very strong with the Bickering Couple skit standing out. Johnny Knoxville was a good host, if a bit too one dimensional with the gay characters, but he tried really hard and was very funny. Versace was really the only low point on what was otherwise a solid episode. Thumbs Up Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mik 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Weekend Update Cast- Mrs. Forte, Fey, Poehler, Forte, Armisen, Thompson Thoughts- First off, congratulations to Jeff Richmond for being able to prove to the world that he did have sex with Tina Fey. What? And you better get cracking, Bob, we expect tonight's episode recapped by tomorrow. It should be good with Ferrell. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iliketurtles 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Ferrell is on tonight? Man, this is going to be funny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smh810 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 What? Tina Fey is pregnant. Jeff Richmond is an SNL band member who happens to be her husband. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Weekend Update Cast- Mrs. Forte, Fey, Poehler, Forte, Armisen, Thompson Thoughts- First off, congratulations to Jeff Richmond for being able to prove to the world that he did have sex with Tina Fey. What? And you better get cracking, Bob, we expect tonight's episode recapped by tomorrow. It should be good with Ferrell. Jeff is the music supervisor. I got the job because of his ability to make Tina scream with pleasure when he puts his tongue on her clitoris. And the review should be up the same time it usually is. None of this week 1 week wait pussy stuff anymore. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DrVenkman PhD 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Good review as usual... If there was ever a night to bring Celebrity Jeopardy out of the mothballs, this would be it. However I fully expect to NOT see that and instead see that awful character that enjoys hot tubs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Yea I have a bad feeling about the Luvahs. I heard the monologue is supposed to be amazing, though I have no details on it, They did tease Celebrity Jeopardy in the promo on Thursday Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NYU 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 The monologue was what it was. Celebrity Jeopardy was gold though. Kenan does an amazing Bill Cosby and the Sean Connery bits were as funny as they've always been. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Downhome 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Jap Anus Relations! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Downhome 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Please tell me that's not actually a reoccurring sketch. Please, somebody. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
razazteca 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 COWBELL! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NYU 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Yikes, that Smigel cartoon was pretty awful. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Downhome 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Everything since cowbell has been a dud in my book. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DMann2003 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Terry Funk?!? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Yikes, that Smigel cartoon was pretty awful. Never post again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NYU 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Oh no, Bob, it was pretty terrible. Hence, almost no laughs from the crowd. Furthermore, almost no laughs from me either. It bombed with both. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Oh no, Bob, it was pretty terrible. Hence, almost no laughs from the crowd. Furthermore, almost no laughs from me either. It bombed with both. I was laughing hysterically- until the kinda weak ending, this was one of the best stuff Smigel's ever done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beast 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 It was not one of the better Smigal cartoons, I agree. Ferrell was the only thing great about the show. I can't remember every skit right now, but I did laugh out loud at his one man Oracle thing. He really fell right back into things very easily. It's too bad the show has fallen so far though. It was more a case of him pulling everyone else up an extra notch or two than anything else I guess. Most of the material for the last 45 minutes was just there. Plus - That Terry Funk thing had to be intentional... didn't it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreatWhiteNope 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Oh no, Bob, it was pretty terrible. Hence, almost no laughs from the crowd. Furthermore, almost no laughs from me either. It bombed with both. I was laughing hysterically- until the kinda weak ending, this was one of the best stuff Smigel's ever done. No, the joke got old after the first 30 seconds. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RavishingRickRudo 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Keenan said "Lie cheat and steal" earlier on, so I imagine the wrestling reference was intentional. The TVfunhouse thing was too dark and uncomfortable for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 They've done the Terry Funk character before. It was also cut from dress last week. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Spoiler from my upcoming review- This was the best show of the season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RavishingRickRudo 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 I agree. At points, I was laughing very hard. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Downhome 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Overall, I give the show two thumbs down. Just because WF was hosting doesn't make it a great show. Loved the CJ sketch, MORE COWBELL was a nice surprise, and the opening was fine. Everything else was either a dud, pure shit, or "just ok". Having WF should have been a two thumbs up show, with pretty much everything clicking just right. I have to be harder on this episode more than most others, simply because it was WF hosting. I mean, how in the hell do you screw up this episode, even in the slightest? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Overall, I give the show two thumbs down. Just because WF was hosting doesn't make it a great show. Loved the CJ sketch, MORE COWBELL was a nice surprise, and the opening was fine. Everything else was either a dud, pure shit, or "just ok". The expectations some people had for this show are completely ridiculous Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beast 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Then this season has really sucked. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Having WF should have been a two thumbs up show, with pretty much everything clicking just right. I have to be harder on this episode more than most others, simply because it was WF hosting. I mean, how in the hell do you screw up this episode, even in the slightest? That's stupid, as you were just purposely setting yourself up for disappointment so you could rag on how SNL sucks now. They didn't screw this up- this wasn't like Bateman and Kutcher where they did fuck it up. They let Will run with the ball and he did. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bob_barron 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Then this season has really sucked. Yea, it hasn't been SNL's best to say the least. That slump they just had was pretty sad Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Downhome 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 The only way that this show sucking is Will's fault, is if he wrote all of the sketches. Did he write this episode? I can understand them fucking up other shows with other hosts, but how in the world do you screw up a show with WF hosting? The material writes itself. The fact that most of this show sucked just shows how badly the writing is now, that much more than usual. All of that said, this was the best episode I've seen this season. I haven't seen them all, but from what I have caught this was the best. That isn't saying much at all for SNL either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beast 0 Report post Posted May 15, 2005 Bob, I don't know if you wanna save this for your review or not, but what do you think SNL can realistically do to get back to goodness? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
