Jack Black / John Mayer
October 4, 2003
Thoughts and Concerns about the upcoming season:
-- I'm not surprised Dean Edwards is gone, but it is surprising that he supposedly left on his own; I expected that if he didn't return, it would mean that he got fired. Kind of disappointing, too, since I was hoping he'd be able to finally show his stuff what with a possible promotion to regular castmember and Tracy Morgan now being gone. I guess now, he'll only stand out for being in that infamous list of most underused former castmembers.
-- Two new castmembers: Kenan Thompson and Finesse Mitchell. I was really surprised when I heard Kenan was joining. I liked him back when I watched Nickelodeon when I was younger, but it will be weird seeing him now on SNL. I hope he doesn't turn out disappointing like most already well-known people who join SNL. And all I know about Finesse Mitchell is that he's a stand-up. I hope he turns out good; I already like his name alone. Probably the most unique first name of a castmember since Siobhan Fallon.
-- Jack Black is a great choice for the season premiere. He's hilarious and did a great job hosting last time. I bet they'll bring back the Russell Putnam sketch.
--- And finally, I hope this season can avoid being the next "94-95" like most are predicting, and hopefully this can end the slump of weak season premieres that we've had for the last few years.
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(COLD OPENING) "Californians for Schwarzenegger"
Highlights:
-- Good to see Darrell's Arnold impression back, and he had some great lines.
Lowlights:
-- Darrell's Arnold voice is a little off.
Grade: B+
(OPENING MONTAGE)
-- Very interesting new look and music.
-- Glad to see Jeff and Seth finally promoted.
-- I'm really shocked to see Forte got promoted only after 1 season. While I'm happy for him, I'm disappointed too because Fred should've gotten promoted along with him; they're both just as good.
-- Isn't the SNL Band usually mentioned?
-- Out of all of the castmember picture sequences, I think Forte's is the funniest with that girl slapping him.
(MONOLOGUE) Jack Black sings scat around the studio
Highlights:
-- A great "musical/around the studio" monologue and reminiscent of Mike Myers' monologue and Steve Martin's "Tonight song".
-- Will Ferrell!! His appearance was random as hell, but I still loved it.
Lowlights:
-- None.
Misc. Comments & Questions:
-- I got really tired of the previous set since they had it since 1998, so I'm glad to see a new one. This one looks good.
-- I swear I saw Garrett Morris sitting at the front of the audience. It looked a lot like him.
-- All the castmembers except for Darrell was in this. No surprise; he never looks like he fits in around the rest of the current cast anyway.
Grade: A+
(COMMERCIAL) "Huggies Thong"
Highlights:
-- Good for a quick laugh.
Lowlights:
-- None.
Grade: B
(SKETCH) "Queer Eye for the Straight Gal"
Highlights:
-- A funny concept for a Queer Eye parody, and I'm glad they kept this short.
-- The "tearing up carpet" joke.
Lowlights:
-- The newspaper reviews fell flat and were unnecessary.
Misc. Comments & Questions:
-- Was that Paula Pell as the fat lesbian?
Grade: B
Nice new bumper picture format with the moving photos and graphics.
(SKETCH) "The Wade Robson Project"
Highlights:
-- Jack Black's funny dance moves, especially the Russian dance.
Lowlights:
-- Barely any real laughs here and almost as bad as the actual show.
Misc. Comments & Questions:
-- Finesse Mitchell in his first speaking role was alright.
Grade: D
(NEXT WEEK) October 11, 2003: Justin Timberlake
-- I groaned in disappointment at first probably like most others watching, but I'll give him a chance. Britney Spears, John McCain, and Al Gore all had surprisingly good episodes, so it can possibly happen with Timberlake as well.
(SKETCH) Art of Italian Cooking
Highlights:
-- Fred's Gabe character is back to being funny again, after his disappointing 2nd appearance in the Adrien Brody episode.
-- Horatio's Vasquez character always makes me laugh.
-- The band-aid ending.
Lowlights:
-- Parnell's character was alright, but didn't really fit in with the other characters. Tracy Morgan's character in these was better.
Grade: B-
(TV FUNHOUSE) "Yankee Super-Heroes"
Highlights:
-- A few funny jokes.
Lowlights:
-- The parts with the monsters were dull.
-- Seemed like a weaker knock-off of the X-Presidents.
Misc. Comments & Questions:
-- What was with the voice for Stuart Scott?
Grade: C
(MUSICAL PERFORMANCE)
-- No comment, but you could see poor Jack flash an embarrassed look after mispronouncing Mayer's name.
(WEEKEND UPDATE) Fallon & Fey, Rush Limbaugh, Finesse Mitchell, Bill Cosby & Wanda Sykes
Highlights:
-- Tina's Rush Limbaugh joke.
-- Jeff's Rush Limbaugh impression.
-- Jimmy's World's Oldest Man joke.
-- Good and surprising to see Finesse with his own Update segment in his first episode. His jokes were pretty good, though it seemed like it was recycled from an old stand-up bit with the mention of movies from a few years ago.
-- Jimmy's Britney/Madonna joke.
-- Tina's unmarried women joke.
-- Kenan's Bill Cosby impression was pretty good.
Lowlights:
-- Jimmy's Arnold/20 days joke.
-- What was with the identical twin segment?
-- Finesse should've focused on recent movies in his segment.
-- Tina's crazy bread joke, though it looks like even she admitted afterwards it was lame.
-- Tina's Colin Farrell joke.
Misc. Comments & Questions:
--They should get a new Update opening. Jimmy and Tina look a lot different now than they did back when the current one was filmed.
Grade: B
(SKETCH) Guitarist and dad
Highlights:
-- None.
Lowlights:
-- This was really boring. Not even Jack's singing could save it.
Misc. Comments & Questions:
-- Why were Rachel and Jeff even in this? They did nothing and had no lines.
Grade: F
(MUSICAL PERFORMANCE)
-- No comment.
(SKETCH) The Wine Critic
Highlights:
-- Jack's spit takes were funny at first and I have to give Seth credit for taking all that spitting.
Lowlights:
-- Too one-joke and the spit-takes got old after a while.
Grade: D-
(SKETCH) The last telemarketing call ever
-- I can't rate this since it got cut off early due to the show apparently running out of time, so I don't know how much we missed. Too bad. This sketch seemed really interesting and reminiscent of the classic New Happy Birthday Song sketch from the last time Jack hosted. Plus, anytime Forte sings is funny (Give up the Ham, Kelly Brothers, U.S. Amen). I hope we get to see the full version of this in the reruns.
(GOODNIGHTS)
-- I guess they really were short on time. They cut Jack off right in the middle of his goodnights speech. I hate when that happens.
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(CONCLUSION)
Pretty disappointing for a season premiere and a Jack Black episode. The season premiere slump continues. Jack did his best and had some shining moments (monologue, dancing in Wade Robson, telemarketers song), but should've had some better material.
Overall Episode Grade: C
Overall Highlights:
-- Californians for Schwarzenegger.
-- New montage and set.
-- Monologue.
-- Will Ferrell's cameo.
-- Fred and Horatio in Art of Italian Cooking.
-- The last telemarketing call ever (or at least what we saw of it)
Overall Lowlights:
-- Fred not promoted along with Forte
-- The Wade Robson Project
-- Guitarist and dad
-- The Wine Critic
-- The last sketch getting cut off
-- Why no Tenacious D song?
Funniest Single Moment:
-- Most of the monologue.
Best Lines:
-- Darrell Hammond as Arnold Schwarzenegger: "I am for the affirmative action, and the rights for the Latinos and the Asians and the Native Americans and the Scientologists, and all of that. And also for the gays, with the men having sex with the other man, and the lesbians with each other, and the putting of the gerbils and hamsters and so on up into the bottom and things of this nature."
-- Jack Black as Melissa Baker: "We should tear this carpet up."
Tina Fey as straight girl: "Well, you guys would know about 'tearing up carpet'."
-- Jack Black as Gerald O'Shea: "This is the "Art of Italian Cooking". I'm gonna be your instructor, Gerald O'Shea."
Chris Parnell as Pete: "That doesn't sound very Italian."
Jack Black as Gerald O'Shea: "Well, it ain't."
-- Fred Armisen as Gabe: "I've been told that I can really 'cook in the bedroom', so I'd like to learn how to cook in the kitchen."
-- Jimmy Fallon: "A retired Japanese silkworm breeder documented as the World's Oldest Man died in his home Sunday at the age of 114. Fortunately, he died doing what he loved: Heroin."
-- Tina Fey: "According to a new study, women and satisfying marriage are less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases than unmarried women. So don't worry, lonely women, you'll be dead soon."
CASTMEMBER COUNT DOWN
Dratch: 6 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Huggies Thong; 3. Queer Eye for the Straight Gal; 4: Art of Italian Cooking; 5: Guitarist and dad; 6: The Wine Critic)
Fallon: 2 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Weekend Update)
Fey: 3 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2. Queer Eye for the Straight Gal; 3: Weekend Update)
Forte: 2 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: The last telemarketing call ever)
Hammond: 1 SKETCH (1: Californians for Schwarzenegger)
Meyers: 3 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: The Wade Robson Project; 3: The Wine Critic)
Parnell: 4 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Art of Italian Cooking; 3: Yankee Super-Heroes; 4: The last telemarketing call ever)
Poehler: 5 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2. Queer Eye for the Straight Gal; 3: The Wade Robson Project; 4: Guitarist and dad; 5: The last telemarketing call ever)
Richards: 3 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Weekend Update; 3: Guitarist and dad)
Rudolph: 8 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Huggies Thong; 3. Queer Eye for the Straight Gal; 4: The Wade Robson Project; 5: Weekend Update; 6 Guitarist and dad; 7: The Wine Critic; 8: The last telemarketing call ever)
Sanz: 5 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Art of Italian Cooking; 3: Guitarist and dad; 4: The Wine Critic; 5: The last telemarketing call ever)
Armisen: 2 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Art of Italian Cooking)
Mitchell: 3 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: The Wade Robson Project; 3: Weekend Update)
Thompson: 4 SKETCHES (1: Jack Black sings scat around the studio; 2: Weekend Update; 3: Guitarist and son; 4: The last telemarketing call ever)
The stars of the night were Maya, Horatio, and Rachel. Maya seemed to be in about every single sketch. For Forte's first episode as a regular, he sure could've been used more. Same goes for Jeff. Kenan and Finesse got decent airtime for their first episode.
ADIOS.