Drew Barrymore / Lily Allen
February 3, 2007
2006-2007 Mid-Season Review
Best Episodes:
1. Alec Baldwin/Christina Aguilera
2. Hugh Laurie/Beck
3. Matthew Fox/Tenacious D
Worst Episodes:
1. John C. Reilly/My Chemical Romance
2. Jaime Pressly/Corinne Bailey Rae
3. Jake Gyllenhaal/The Shins
Best Host
1. Alec Baldwin
Worst Host:
1. Annette Bening
Best Sketches:
1. Dick in a Box
2. Platinum Lounge Club
3. Carpool Conversation
4. The First Person in the History of the World to Dance
5. The Tony Bennett Show
Worst Sketches:
1. Big Wigs
2. Cool Food
3. Jennifer at the Mexican Restaurant
4. Deep House Dish
5. A Holiday Message from Nancy Grace
Best Cold Openings:
1. Borat
2. Santa’s My Boyfriend
3. A Message from Nancy Pelosi
Worst Cold Openings:
1. Eckstrom for Comptroller
2. A Message from Dennis Hastert
3. Special Report with Brit Hume
Best Commercial:
1. Valtrex
Worst Commercial:
1. E-Z Date
Best Weekend Update Commentaries:/
1. Tim Calhoun
2. Peter O’Toole
3. Aunt Linda
Worst Weekend Update Commentaries:
1. Flavor Flav
2. Whitney Houston
3. Same Sex New Jersey Couple
THE CAST
FRED ARMISEN
Best Performance: Martin Scorcese (New York Stories)
Runner-Up: Ancient Mayan (The Discovery of Chocolate)
Worst Performance: Robert (Jennifer at the Mexican Restaurant)
WILL FORTE
Best Performance: Father (Monster Under the Bed)
Runner-Up: Tim Calhoun (Weekend Update)
Worst Performance: Hangman (Lansford Brothers & Associates)
BILL HADER
Best Performance: Peter O’Toole (Weekend Update)
Runner-Up: John Mark Karr (Weekend Update)
Worst Performance: Hangman (Lansford Brothers & Associates)
DARRELL HAMMOND
Best Performance: Donald Trump (Trump Press Conference)
Runner-Up: Rich Little (Weekend Update)
Worst Performance: Dennis Hastert (A Message from Dennis Hastert)
SETH MEYERS
Best Performance: Himself (Weekend Update: 01.20.07)
Worst Performance: Himself (Weekend Update: 09.30.06)
AMY POEHLER
Best Performance: Betty Caruso (Bronx Beat)
Runner-Up: Periwinkle (The Unicorn Forest)
Worst Performance: Kim Jong Il (Korean Television)
MAYA RUDOLPH
Best Performance: Jodi Deitz (Bronx Beat)
Runner-Up: Herself (Santa’s My Boyfriend)
Worst Performance: Whitney Houston (Weekend Update)
ANDY SAMBERG:
Best Performance: Singer (Dick in a Box)
Runner-Up: Blizzard Man (various)
Worst Performance: Out-of-Breath Jogger (various)
JASON SUDEIKIS
Best Performance: Male A-Hole (various)
Runner-Up: George W. Bush (various)
Worst Performance: Grandfather (A McMillan Family Moment)
KENAN THOMPSON
Best Performance: Al Sharpton (Weekend Update)
Runner-Up: Dolemite (Kaplan, Liebowitz & Dolemite)
Worst Performance: Flavor Flav (Weekend Update)
KRISTEN WIIG
Best Performance: Co-Worker (Carpool Conversation)
Runner-Up: Michelle Dison (Bi-Curious News Reporter)
Worst Performance: Target Employee
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RATING SYSTEM:
***** - Future classic
**** - Almost perfect
*** - Average in every way
** - Eh
* - Is this 1994-95 again?
COLD OPENING: American Idol
- Good to see a non-political cold opening again.
- What’s this? Seth finally in a sketch again? It took him half a season, but it’s about time. You could tell he was excited about his first sketch of the season, too.
- Sudeikis was surprisingly really good as Simon. His voice sounded exactly like him.
- The animals being judged was funny at first, as was Kenan calling the dog “dog”, but they didn’t build up on the joke after the first contestant and the sketch just got old.
- I liked how they only showed the good singers for a millisecond before quickly cutting away.
- The dog's family waiting for him at the end was pretty good.
- Nice energetic LFNY from Seth.
RATING: **1/2
MONOLOGUE: Drew Barrymore
- Damn, I was hoping they really were going to do a Five Timers Club-type thing like Drew said, but they gypped us and gave us a standard clichéd “romantic comedy” parody instead. Boo.
- This only got funny toward the end with the Say Anything parody and Will/Kenan bit.
- I was wondering why Kenan was wearing that ridiculous wig at first, but my question got answered in the next sketch.
- Nice camera transition from the monologue to the following sketch.
RATING: **
SKETCH: The Dakota Fanning Show
- As soon as the title showed up, I knew Amy would play her since she already kinda looks like Dakota.
- Amy was perfect here, especially her insults to Kenan, her calling her mom by her first name, and her reactions when Drew was bragging about the Oscar nomination.
- The rape line was hilarious.
RATING: ****
SKETCH: Dioxin Poison Counseling
- A good idea for the typical Bizarre Will Forte Sketch, but the sketch felt like it could’ve been executed a lot better. It certainly had some really good laughs and I’m a fan of dry comedy, but they should’ve went all out a little more with it. They held back too much. And the pacing could’ve been quicker.
RATING: ***
DIGITAL SHORT: Body Fusion
- This was very different from the usual digital shorts, but this was great and redeemed the Lonely lsland guys after their rare misfire with the Nurse Nancy short.
- It was eerie how they made this look EXACTLY like something from 1986. The look of the video, and the hair and costume, and every other detail was just dead-on.
- Funniest parts were the finger exercising, the lifting of pencils and then air, and when they blurred out Kristen’s camel-toe.
- All the ladies looked good here, but Kristen in particular looked really hot. And the ending with the girls rubbing against each other was great.
RATING: ****1/2
SKETCH: Target Employee
- All I have to say is, the day this sketch finally dies is the day I’ll be a happy man.
RATING: *
SKETCH: Nervous Job Interviewee
- This sketch went on way too long and Drew was too hyper for my likes, but there were some funny comments like the Grown-Up Webster bit and the bitches line. But the sketch never really went anywhere. And the missing wallet ending fell flat.
RATING: **1/2
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WEEKEND UPDATE: Poehler & Meyers, with Barbara Birmingham
- Best jokes: Grandmother, Nets Senior Dancer
- The tea tree bit with Seth and Amy was another good interaction piece between them.
- Kenan’s commentary was the standard “Kenan in drag” bit, but this one wasn’t too bad. And I laughed a lot at him trying to beat up Seth over the desk.
- Another very short Update. That seems to be a theme the last few weeks.
RATING: ***1/2
SKETCH: Versace Super Bowl Party
- Why, why, why??? They rightfully stayed away from this sketch for the last two years, and then they suddenly drag it back out of the blue like this? And just for the super bowl? Why? They should’ve at least waited until Maya’s last show (which will hopefully be this May) to bring this back.
- Odd seeing Fred’s Prince impression outside of the Prince Show sketches. Unfortunately, they wasted it here. He didn’t really do anything funny and he was gone after, like, 10 seconds.
- Seth in TWO sketches tonight?! Wow, I wonder what got into him this week. I admit, his voice made me laugh here.
- And to make this already dying sketch even worse, they drag out Horatio fucking Sanz for a cameo. You gotta be kidding me. This just reminded me of how happy I am that he’s not on the cast anymore. And if they were going to bring him back for a cameo, it at least would’ve made more sense last month if he appeared as Rosie O’Donnell during the Trump/Rosie feud.
RATING: *
SKETCH: Jojo the Parking Valet
- I thought Amy was supposed to be playing a lesbian or some kind of hermaphrodite at first before they made it obvious she was just a guy.
- A really bizarre sketch and on paper it wasn’t all that funny, but Amy’s performance helped elevate it. She was great. It wouldn’t have been funny at all if a guy played this role.
- Forte’s voice reminded me of the tennis snob character he played in the Tom Hanks show last season.
- Fred’s facial expression cracked me up.
RATING: ***
SKETCH/COMMERCIAL: Firestarter Smoked Sausages
- I liked how they picked a sort-of obscure Drew Barrymore movie to make fun of instead of something obvious like ET. And this was a really interesting and creative way of parodying it.
- Sudeikis was hilarious in this, especially his bizarre singing, the hook hand and him panicking from the fire at the end. He gives me a bit of a Will Ferrell vibe at times, and that especially rang true in this sketch.
RATING: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
SKETCH: O’Toole and Barrymore
- Great to see Hader’s Peter O’Toole impression back. Also nice to finally see Hader getting a funny main role in a sketch again, after getting mostly subpar roles the last few weeks.
- This was a creative, different, and funny 10-to-1 sketch. Hader and Drew had a lot of great one-liners, especially Hader’s line about Peter’s “O Tool”.
RATING: ***1/2
COMMERCIAL: Nelson’s Baby Toupees
- WTF? Why this again? If you’re going to reair a commercial from last season, at least reair one that was actually funny.
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SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
- Body Fusion
- The Dakota Fanning Show
- Firestarter Smoked Sausages
- O’Toole and Barrymore
SHOW LOWLIGHTS:
- Versace Super Bowl Party
- Target Employee
- Monologue
FINAL THOUGHTS:
An average show. The first half was a little slow, but things picked up as the show went along. They noticeably tried a different, more experimental approach in a lot of places (especially the poisoning, Firestarter, and Peter O’Toole sketches) and I like that. Drew Barrymore did her usual good job.
TONIGHT’S RATING: ***
CASTMEMBER/HOST COUNT DOWN:
ARMISEN: 5 sketches (American Idol, Monologue, Target Employee, Versace Super Bowl Party, Jojo the Parking Valet)
FORTE: 4 sketches (American Idol, Monologue, Dioxin Poison Counseling, Jojo the Parking Valet)
HADER: 4 sketches (The Dakota Fanning Show, Jojo the Parking Valet, O’Toole and Barrymore, Nelson’s Baby Toupees)
HAMMOND: 0 sketches
MEYERS: 3 sketches (American Idol, Weekend Update, Versace Super Bowl Party)
POEHLER: 7 sketches (American Idol, Monologue, The Dakota Fanning Show, Body Fusion, Nervous Job Interviewee, Weekend Update, Jojo the Parking Valet)
RUDOLPH: 4 sketches (American Idol, Body Fusion, Nervous Job Interviewee, Versace Super Bowl Party)
SAMBERG: 2 sketches (American Idol, Monologue)
SUDEIKIS: 3 sketches (American Idol, Target Employee, Firestarter Smoked Sausages)
THOMPSON: 5 sketches (American Idol, Monologue, The Dakota Fanning Show, Nervous Job Interviewee, Weekend Update)
WIIG: 6 sketches (Monologue, The Dakota Fanning Show, Dioxin Poison Counseling, Body Fusion, Target Employee, Jojo the Parking Valet)
DREW BARRYMORE: 10 sketches (Monologue, The Dakota Fanning Show, Dioxin Poison Counseling, Body Fusion, Target Employee, Nervous Job Interviewee, Versace Super Bowl Party, Jojo the Parking Valet, Firestarter Smoked Sausages, O’Toole and Barrymore)