Matthew Fox / Tenacious D
December 2, 2006
RATING SYSTEM:
***** - Future classic
**** - Almost perfect
*** - Average in every way
** - Eh
* - Is this 1994-95 again?
COLD OPENING: Special Report
- Jason’s Bush impression is really coming into its own, although he wasn’t exactly the focus in this sketch.
- Weird seeing Will in a Bush opening after getting the impression taken away from him.
- Fred and Will were good and all their statements about the carbombings and whatnot were hilarious. Overall, a pretty good opening.
- Armisen has still yet to say LFNY alone. I’m still waiting for him to say it.
RATING: ***1/2
MONOLOGUE: Matthew Fox
- Matthew talking about his whole life falling apart just from not being asked to host was a good, unexpected turn in the monologue.
- I like how he mentioned John Ratzenberger and Matt Leblanc as other actors from their shows who didn’t get to host.
- I was wondering who would play Michael Richards if they made fun of him this week, and Bill did an excellent job. He sounded exactly like him and he was hilarious. The writers didn’t really do much, though, and they should’ve went further with him.
RATING: ***1/2
COMMERCIAL: Sale-Mart
- This is another commercial that got cut several times before making it on the air. And like the E-Z date commercial, you can see why it kept getting cut.
- Kenan’s teeth and the man falling off the ladder were funny, but that was it.
RATING: **
SKETCH: Nancy Grace
- Good to see Amy’s Nancy Grace impression back again. She’s great in these sketches.
- The interview with Kenan was the best part, especially Amy’s “The only n-word I would call you is nice” and Kenan’s reaction to it.
- The Kramer vs. Kramer comment was really clever.
- The “who moved this chair/who changed my pen” comments in these sketches have got to go, though, because they make no sense and bring down these sketches.
RATING: ****
SKETCH: Deep House Dish
- What?!! No! I thought one of the good things about Rachel Dratch’s departure was that it meant the end of this wretched sketch, but noooo - they had to replace her character and now the sketch is gonna be kept alive for god knows how much longer.
- Andy as the new sidekick actually wasn’t too bad. He had a few comments that made me laugh. But I know he’s gonna get old after a while if they keep playing that same joke (and you know they will). And Kenan reacts to him the same way he did to Rachel. Why does he keep thinking that saying “Ooh-wee” over and over again is so funny?
- Matthew’s part was pretty funny. The rest of the performances/interviews sucked as usual, though.
RATING: *1/2
NEXT WEEK: December 9, 2006 – Annette Bening
SKETCH: Lost discussion in an elevator
- When this started out with Fred talking to Matthew, I thought this was going to be a rip-off of those Elevator Fans sketches with Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon in the early 90’s. But after a while, this sketch came into its own and turned out to be really good.
- Fred sounded kinda like Tony Danza here.
- There’s been a lot of Kenan on tonight’s show.
RATING: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WEEKEND UPDATE: Poehler & Meyers, with Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton, Aunt Linda, and Whitney Houston
- The jokes were pretty consistently good tonight and nothing was too horrible.
- Best jokes: Christmas tree, Pamela Anderson/Kid Rock, and Spray-on Condoms
- The Jackson/Sharpton commentary was good use of Darrell, and them saying Kramer in place of the n-word was hilarious.
- I knew we’d see Aunt Linda again, but I didn’t think this soon. It felt like she was just on like a week ago. Either way, this was still funny though, and Kristen’s really good with this character and the facial expressions to go along with her rating system.
- Maya kills Update for the second episode in a row, as the Whitney Houston commentary and prank phone call was drawn out WAYYYYY too damn long and was mostly a dud. Although I did laugh at the random Chaka Khan comment at the end.
RATING: ***1/2
SKETCH: Mountain Man
- I was wondering where the hell this was supposed to be going at first, but once they started to drop character and I realized what was up, I laughed a lot for the rest of the sketch. This was really clever.
- The Emily Spivey cameo was hilarious.
- Maya as Lorne was so bizarre, it was funny.
RATING: ****
SKETCH: History Buff vs. Math Whizz
- Another excellent Bizarre Will Forte Sketch. This sketch was brilliant and Will’s insane performance and expressions were so hilarious and he had me dying.
- Great twist with Will not knowing how to count.
RATING: ****1/2
SKETCH: History Channel: The Ancient Mayans
- A nice sketch with them reacting so happily to something so simple as chocolate, and Fred’s laid-back demeanor was good. Good to see Armisen actually doing stuff tonight, after his miniscule, wasted 3-second appearance in the Ludacris show.
- Bill’s small part was the funniest in the sketch.
- The ending was weak and predictable, though, and could’ve been funnier.
RATING: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
__________________________________
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
- History Buff vs. Math Whizz
- Nancy Grace
- Mountain Man
- Lost Discussion in an Elevator
- Most of Weekend Update
- Bill’s Michael Richards impression
- Tenacious D’s performances. One of the few times I actually looked forward to the musical guest, and it was awesome how they got the cast involved in the 2nd performance.
SHOW LOWLIGHTS:
- Deep House Dish. Just let the sketch die already.
- Whitney Houston commentary on Weekend Update
- Sale-Mart
- The ending of the History Channel sketch
FINAL THOUGHTS:
A very good episode, with almost all of the sketches being good and the few weaker stuff being at the beginning. The second half of the show was particularly strong. Matthew was a decent host, but nothing too special. He could’ve made a bigger contribution to some sketches and his parts in a few sketches could’ve been played by anyone.
TONIGHT’S RATING: ***1/2
CASTMEMBER/HOST COUNT DOWN:
ARMISEN: 5 sketches (Special Report, Sale-Mart, Lost Discussion in an Elevator, History Channel: The Ancient Mayans, Musical Performance #2)
FORTE: 2 sketches (Special Report, History Buff vs. Math Whizz)
HADER: 4 sketches (Special Report, Monologue, History Channel: The Ancient Mayans, Musical Performance #2)
HAMMOND: 2 sketches (Weekend Update, History Channel: The Ancient Mayans)
MEYERS: 1 sketch (Weekend Update)
POEHLER: 6 sketches (Nancy Grace, Deep House Dish, Lost Discussion in an Elevator, Weekend Update, Mountain Man, Musical Performance #2)
RUDOLPH: 6 sketches (Special Report, Deep House Dish, Lost Discussion in an Elevator, Mountain Man, History Channel: The Ancient Mayans, Musical Performance #2)
SAMBERG: 5 sketches (Special Report, Deep House Dish, Lost Discussion in an Elevator, History Channel: The Ancient Mayans, Musical Performance #2)
SUDEIKIS: 3 sketches (Special Report, Sale-Mart, Musical Performance #2)
THOMPSON: 6 sketches (Special Report, Sale-Mart, Nancy Grace, Deep House Dish, Lost Discussion in an Elevator, Weekend Update)
WIIG: 7 sketches (Special Report, Sale-Mart, Deep House Dish, Weekend Update, Mountain Man, History Buff vs. Math Whizz, Musical Performance #2)
MATTHEW FOX: 7 sketches (Monologue, Nancy Grace, Deep House Dish, Lost Discussion in an Elevator, Mountain Man, History Buff vs. Math Whizz, History Channel: The Ancient Mayans)