Drew Barrymore / Macy Gray
October 13, 2001
OVERVIEW
I'm not really excited at all about Drew Barrymore hosting. I don't hate her, but I don't care for her much. She hosted twice before, and I've never seen either episode. She hosted the show back in the 80's when she was only 7 years old, but since Comedy Central never shows any of the early 80's episodes, I've never seen it (DAMN YOU, Comedy Central!) She was the youngest host ever, so that makes her special in a way. The second time she hosted was in 1998-99, and I don't know why Comedy Central never shows that one when every other episode from 1998-99 has been shown (again, DAMN YOU, Comedy Central!). But I heard from the reviews at S-N-L.com that it was a great episode. Maybe this will be a good one, too. But this episode is an infamous "Third-Straight-Week" episode, and that's also worrying me a bit.
DICK CHENEY COLD OPENING (3:04)
- Great to see Darrell's Dick Cheney impression again.
- This was very funny. I liked the parts with his heart machine, and when he said to Osama not to use his toothbrush after what he did with it.
- When Darrell shrugged his shoulders like that toward the end, he reminded me of his Jesse Jackson impression.
- RATING: ****1/2 A-
OPENING MONTAGE (2:00)
DREW BARRYMORE'S MONOLOGUE (2:02)
- Any particular reason why she's dressed like that?
- This wasn't really that funny, but it was okay.
- I'm probably the only one who will say this, but I was happy to see Tom Green there. I wish he had more stuff to do in the show tonight, but then again, judging from the episode he hosted, maybe it was better that he didn't.
- RATING: **** B-
CROSSING OVER WITH JOHN EDWARD (5:00)
- Hmm, kinda weird they went straight from the monologue to the first sketch, with no fake commercial or commercial break in between. Drew must've gotten dressed real fast.
- I was so happy to see this. Ever since I first started watching this real show on Sci-Fi about a year ago, I kept saying that SNL should do a spoof of this show, since the show is so weird, yet I still watch it.
- Ferrell did a pretty good impression of John Edward.
- This one old guy in the fake audience is always given bit parts in the show. For example, he played the German guy in last year's Der Lacheln Berrscht sketch who was crying something like, "I'm so sorry", and a lot of other bit parts from the early 90's and late 80's.
- They should do a sketch where one of John Edward's guests doesn't believe him, and Edward gets mad and starts beating up the guest. Something similar to that happened in the real show when one guest kept saying to John Edward "You are freaking me out!" and Edward got pissed off. That show's hilarious in itself.
- RATING: ****3/8 B+
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
THE LUVAHS (6:57)
- I hated these characters at first, but they're improving a little. A "little"...
- I'm glad Ferrell's beard for his Luvah character was shorter this time. It looked like a freakin' forest the last two times.
- If you're keeping count, this is the 347th time Jimmy Fallon has broken character. Like someone else said before, never have this guy at a funeral. And this may be the 1,896th time we've seen Ferrell bare-chested.
- Other than the occasional character breaks, Jimmy's grossed-out reactions to the Luvahs were pretty funny.
- Ferrell forgetting his lines and just "uh" and "um"-ing caused everyone in the sketch (including himself) to laugh.
- Just wondering, what kind of accents are those that the "Luvahs" speak in?
- RATING: **** B-
NEXT WEEK:
A repeat of the Lara Flynn Boyle/Bon Jovi episode. Hmm, how come they're not telling us when the next live episode will be, and who the host is?
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACORY (4:17)
- This was really bizarre. I haven't seen this movie in ages, so I didn't think this was all that funny.
- Strange, Mario Lanza wrote a similar sketch for SNYou a few weeks ago.
- The Nelly Furtado/Oompah Loompah bit was pretty funny, though.
- If Chris Parnell was still in the cast, I bet he'd be the announcer of this sketch.
- RATING: ***7/8 C
TV FUNHOUSE - NBC'S FALL RETOOLING PREVIEW (4:07)
- Yaay! Rob Smigel's back!
- Who better to bash Emeril's new sitcom? This was classic Smigel.
- RATING: ****3/8 B+
FIRST LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK (2:48)
- Kinda boring, but some funny lines here and there from Ferrell.
- RATING: **** B-
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
[MUSICAL GUEST]
WEEKEND UPDATE (8:42)
- Hmm, they got rid of Parnell's voice-over at the beginning, and replaced it with a female voice (it sounded kinda like Rachel Dratch, although it may have been another voice).
- I guess Jimmy's spiked hair is gone for good, now.
- Favorite jokes: Colonel Sanders jokes; Cher/Britney Spears jokes; Michael Jackson joke
- Kattan's "Gay Hitler" bit was short but hysterical.
- Yes! My man Colin Quinn's back! As soon as Tina said "the New Yorkiest New Yorker," I knew she meant Colin. I loved his bit, and it was great to see him again and what he had to say about what's going on in the news.
- Oh my god, you don't know how happy I was to see Ferrell's Neil Diamond impression back! The Neil Diamond sketch he did back in 1997-98 was a classic, and it was pleasing to see him back.
- The string of great updates just keep coming and coming! The jokes and correspondents were all great.
- RATING: ****3/4 A
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
ACTION TALK SHOW WITH KLAUS VONBRAUNMAN (5:24)
- Whenever they do a German-related sketch, it's ALWAYS bizarre (Der Lacheln Berrscht, Sprockets, most of Adam McKay's movies). This was okay, though.
- That bear that Kattan was fighting with reminded me of Conan O'Brien's Masturbating Bear.
- During the middle of the sketch, you can see Drew walk off-stage too early (to get ready for the next scene) before the camera fully faded away.
- RATING: **** B-
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
WUUB PRIME-TIME THEATRE (5:41)
- This sketch really bored me.
- It was funny, though, when in the stock footage from the 70's version of "King Kong" they poorly re-dubbed the man's line about the World Trade Center to change it to "Chrystler Buildling".
- I didn't know they could say "God damn" on live TV. Though Norm said it in his monologue and when he played Clint Eastwood when he hosted, but I just assumed that was ad-libbed.
- What was up with Darrell? He kept cracking up throughout the whole skit, and completely broke at the end when Drew exaggerated her screams (she laughed, too). He has made a few subtle giggles during a few sketches last season (like in the Meet the Press sketch), but I don't think he ever lost it like this. Though I won't dock them for it (and neither should Lorne) since the character breaking was the only funny thing in the sketch.
- RATING: ***3/8 D
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
LESBIAN SINGERS (5:26)
- Pretty boring skit, but Ferrell, once again, saved it.
- Why the hell was this Ana's only sketch? When you have a funny and talented person like her, you don't use her as a small part of just one sketch.
- Man, there's a lot of character breaks in tonight's episode.
- Maya's good at not breaking character. When the paper cup (or whatever that was) that Ferrell threw in the air hit her in the face and another one got caught in her guitar, she still kept a straight face.
- I wonder how Tom Green feels about Ferrell making out with his Drew.
- RATING: ***7/8 C+
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
[MUSICAL GUEST]
JACK HANDEY'S BIG THICK NOVEL (:35)
- Aha, so this will be a recurring segment now. I'm happy about this and I like Handey's bits, but it just wasn't funny this time. They're either hit or miss, and this was a miss.
- Was that even Jack Handey's voice-over? It sounded different today than usual.
- RATING: n/a
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
GOODBYES (:46)
- I like the way Tina's hair looked during the goodbyes.
OVERALL - Not too great of an episode tonight. It wasn't a horrible show, but it was just very average and nothing all that great. You can sort of tell they were working three weeks in a row, although I've seen worse "Three-straight-weeks" episodes. Drew did an okay job as host. B-
BEST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: Crossing Over with John Edward; Dick Cheney Address; TV Funhouse
WORST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: Lesbian Singers
MOST BIZARRE SKETCH: Willy Wonka; Action Talk Show
CAST MEMBER COUNT DOWN
RACHEL DRATCH: 3 sketches (Luvahs, Willy Wonka, Lesbian)
JIMMY FALLON: 2 sketches (Luvahs, Update)
WILL FERRELL: 7 sketches (Crossing Over, Luvahs, Willy Wonka, First Liberty, Update, King Kong, Lesbian)
TINA FEY: Her inevitable one sketch
ANA GASTEYER: 1 sketch (Lesbian)
DARRELL HAMMOND: 4 sketches (Cheney, Crossing Over, Willy Wonka, King Kong)
CHRIS KATTAN: 2 sketches (Update, Action Talk Show)
TRACY MORGAN: 1 sketch (Willy Wonka)
MAYA RUDOLPH: 3 sketches (Crossing Over, Willy Wonka, Lesbian)
HORATIO SANZ: 1 sketch (Willy Wonka)
DEAN EDWARDS: 2 sketches (Willy Wonka, Action Talk Show)
SETH MEYERS: 1 sketch (Action Talk Show)
AMY POEHLER: 1 sketch (Willy Wonka)
JEFF RICHARDS: 1 sketch (Willy Wonka)
As usual, Ferrell in the house with 7 sketches tonight. But nobody else even came close. Fallon was only used in one sketch (not counting Update), Horatio was barely noticable, Ana was wasted and badly, and Tracy Morgan wasn't seen at all (he just did one little voice-over part in the Willy Wonka sketch. But for once this season, each of the featured players actually were treated like featured players. I was hoping they'd use Seth and Jeff a lot tonight, like they did with Dean and Amy the last two weeks.
That's all for tonight. I'm outta heah...