Jason Bateman / Kelly Clarkson
February 12, 2005
[COLD OPENING] Kim Jong Il press conference
Highlights:
· Maya's introduction to Kim Jong.
· Fred's "question" being "You are very handsome".
Lowlights:
· Kim Jong's lines fell flat, resulting in a lot of this being weak.
Grade: C-
[MONOLOGUE] Jason Bateman and Amy Poehler promote Arrested Development
Highlights:
· Jason and Amy had several good lines together.
· Amy's constant boat references.
Lowlights:
· The 'Not-American Idol' joke at the beginning.
Grade: B
[COMMERCIAL] me-Harmony.com
Highlights:
· A pretty funny parody of the e-Harmony ads.
Lowlights:
· None.
Grade: B
[SKETCH] Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities
Highlights:
· The completely random intro with Parnell dressed in a rich snob-type outfit and just saying with a stone-faced deadpan expression "And now... monkeys throwing poop at celebrities".
· Despite the sophomoric premise, this turned out a lot funnier than it should have been, mostly thanks to good execution and great performances from Darrell and Jason.
· The Carrot Top, Sharon Stone, Bill Cosby preview at the end.
Lowlights:
· Didn't deserve to be the first sketch of the night.
Grade: B
[MISCELLANEOUS] An Important Moment in Black History #1
Highlights:
· All three of these Black History segments tonight were pretty funny and clever and didn't get old.
Lowlights:
· None.
Miscellaneous:
· Will looked just like his John George Peppers character from the Key Party sketch with that afro he had on in this one.
Grade: B (for all three of these segments)
[SKETCH/COMMERCIAL] The Best of T.T. & Mario
Highlights:
· Jason was hilarious in all the scenes with him and Amy.
· All of the raunchy songs with Maya and Kenan.
· The list of additional song titles, especially "Big Nippled Woman".
Lowlights:
· None.
Grade: B+
[NEXT WEEK] February 19, 2005: Hilary Swank
[SKETCH] Subway Entertainers
Highlights:
· The father & son, mariachi, and barbershop quartet performances.
· Rachel as the cranky old music critic.
· Rob's response to the barbershop quartet singers simply being "Eat me".
· Some of the funny throwaway lines with Jason and Amy, like Jason mentioning his cabbage patch collection and Amy's line about never seeing a Mexican in New York before.
Lowlights:
· The ending was weak.
Grade: B+
[MISCELLANEOUS] An Important Moment in Black History #2
[MUSICAL PERFORMANCE]
[WEEKEND UPDATE] Fey & Poehler, Prince Charles & Camilla Parker Bowles, Kenan Thompson
Highlights:
· Fred's facial expressions during the Prince Charles & Camilla Parker Bowles commentary.
· Tina's Ash Wednesday joke.
· Tina's Robert Blake joke.
· Amy's Hillary Clinton joke.
· Tina's Tracy Morgan joke.
Lowlights:
· Tina's Bush joke.
· The Condoleezza Rice bit.
· Amy's Ford recall joke.
· Amy's Ernst Mayr joke.
Grade: C
[SKETCH] Gays in Space
Highlights:
· All the guys gave good performances.
Lowlights:
· The usual predictable gay sketch (I'm starting to get REALLY tired of the overabundance of gay-themed sketches this season, BTW) and there wasn't enough genuinely funny material in this.
· The opening and closing songs with Maya had no point and were just annoying. And we just HAD a sketch earlier tonight featuring her singing ("The Best of T.T. & Mario", though at least that one was funny).
Grade: D
[SKETCH] Bill Curtis records his voice-over
Highlights:
· Darrell as Bill Curtis constantly going from a friendly conversation with the two technicians about their families to suddenly reading the disturbing murder story about men's rectums, etc. Classic disturbing humor.
· Darrell's Bill Curtis impression. Also good to finally see him trying out a new impression. He never does any new ones anymore.
Lowlights:
· None.
Grade: A-
[MISCELLANEOUS] An Important Moment in Black History #3
[MUSICAL PERFORMANCE]
[SKETCH] Rap Night with Chubb Hotty
Highlights:
· Kenan talking about Horatio eating Free Willy.
Lowlights:
· Why the hell did they make this crap recurring? Just like the last time, this was awful, got almost no laughs at all from the audience, and Horatio's performance was horrible.
Grade: D-
[SKETCH] Public Speaking
Highlights:
· All of the different speeches were funny, especially Parnell's gesture dyslexia during his speech (I particularly liked his Hitler salute at the end of the speech).
· Amy's straight-man reactions to everyone.
Lowlights:
· None.
Grade: B+
________________________________________
Overall Episode Grade: B-
Overall Highlights:
· Jason Bateman's overall performance tonight. One of the best hosts of the season.
· The Best of T.T. & Mario
· Subway Entertainers
· Bill Curtis records his voice-over
· Public Speaking
Overall Lowlights:
· Kim Jong Il press conference
· Gays in Space
· Rap Night with Chubb Hotty
Best Lines:
· Jason Bateman: (regarding Arrested Development) "We're up against Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Truly, I mean - who's gonna watch us when they can watch a hot shirtless guy build a skate ramp for a kid with no bones?"
· Amy Poehler: "According to a new poll, democrats are favoring Hillary Clinton as the democratic presidential nominee in 2008. Democrats say they're looking for a fresh and exciting new way to get their asses handed to them."
· Tina Fey: "Al Franken said this week that he would consider running for a senate seat in Minnesota in 2008. Franken would be the first SNL alum to hold office since last year when Tracy Morgan declared himself the mayor of Scores!"
· Kenan Thompson as DJ Sugar Shock: (to Chubb Hotty) "That wasn't a Red Lobster, Chubb - it was Seaworld. And you ate most of Free Willy in front of a class of school kids!"
CASTMEMBER COUNT DOWN:
ARMISEN: 4 sketches (Kim Jong Il press conference / Subway Entertainers / Weekend Update / Gays in Space)
DRATCH: 2 sketches (Subway Entertainers / Gays in Space)
FEY: 2 sketch (Weekend Update / Gays in Space)
FORTE: 6 sketches (Kim Jong Il press conference / me-Harmony.com / Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities / An Important Moment in Black History #1/ Subway Entertainers / An Important Moment in Black History #3)
HAMMOND: 2 sketches (Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities / Bill Curtis records his voice-over)
MEYERS: 7 sketches (Kim Jong Il press conference / me-Harmony.com / Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities / An Important Moment in Black History #1 / Weekend Update / An Important Moment in Black History #3 / Public Speaking)
PARNELL: 6 sketches (Kim Jong Il press conference / Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities / Subway Entertainers / An Important Moment in Black History #2 / Gays in Space / Public Speaking)
POEHLER: 7 sketches (Monologue / Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities / The Best of T.T. & Mario/ Subway Entertainers / Weekend Update / An Important Moment in Black History #3 / Public Speaking)
RUDOLPH: 6 sketches (Kim Jong Il press conference / me-Harmony.com / The Best of T.T. & Mario / Gays in Space / Bill Curtis records his voice-over / Public Speaking)
SANZ: 4 sketches (Kim Jong Il press conference / me-Harmony.com / Subway Entertainers / Rap Night with Chubb Hotty)
MITCHELL: 4 sketches (An Important Moment in Black History #1 / Subway Entertainers / An Important Moment in Black History #2 / An Important Moment in Black History #3)
RIGGLE: 3 sketches (me-Harmony.com / Subway Entertainers / Public Speaking)
THOMPSON: 7 sketches (me-Harmony.com / Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities / The Best of T.T. & Mario / Subway Entertainers / Weekend Update / Gays in Space / Rap Night with Chubb Hotty)
Amy and Kenan stood out the most tonight. I'm really surprised Kenan was in 7 sketches; I don't think I've ever seen any featured player used that much before. Speaking of which, Kenan really needs to be promoted already. I think he's doing a good job on the show, he's already well-known, and he's being used a lot lately.
THE END