The Rock / Andrew W.K.
April 13, 2002
OVERVIEW
Good to see The Rock hosting again. He did a surprisingly good job last time, and the show was great. One of my favorite sketches ever was from that episode, the Nicotrel sketch where the Rock would beat up Chris Parnell whenever he would smoke a cigarette. Parnell was hilarious in that.
(11:30) COLD OPENING: A Message from President Dubya
- Standard Dubya opening. These, and political openings in general, are really getting tiring.
RATING: 2.5/5
(11:34) OPENING MONTAGE
(11:36) MONOLOGUE: The Rock
- This was pretty good. The Rock's reactions to when Kattan punched him were hilarious.
- I liked The Rock and Kattan teasing each other as the camera faded out at the end.
RATING: 3/5
(11:40) SKETCH: Brian Fellow's Safari Planet
- Weird how they went straight from the monologue to the first sketch with no fake commercial or commercial break in between. I'm glad they're not repeating commercials at all nowadays, last season's repeats were ridiculous.
- I'll admit, I'm starting to like these sketches a little more now only because they've gotten so ridiculous and Tracy has gotten funnier when he plays this character, but why 3 Brian Fellow's sketches in 1 season? The character isn't that funny nor has enough depth to be used so much like this.
- The Rock made some really funny uncomfortable facial expressions towards Brian Fellow's comments.
RATING: 2.5/5
(11:48) SKETCH: The Scorpion King
- I haven't seen the real movie yet and have no intentions to, but I enjoyed this sketch. Seth Meyers was great here.
- Jimmy Fallon continues to crack up in sketches for no apparent reason. All he did was walk on camera, and he couldn't keep a straight face.
- I know this has nothing to do with the sketch, but once again, Maya looked sexy in that outfit.
- I usually hate the story-scroll endings to a sketch that SNL occasionally relies on, but this one was hilarious. "those people were also slaughtered."
RATING: 4/5
(11:53) COMMERCIAL: Arthur Andersen
- Once again, Chris Parnell makes an excellent fake commercial pitchman.
- Rachel Dratch was funny in her brief scene as the foreign janitor, just the goofy look on her face was hilarious.
RATING: 3.5/5
NEXT WEEK: Alec Baldwin / P.O.D.
YESSSS!!!!! Baldwin's coming back!
(11:58) SKETCH: Hardball with Chris Matthews
- YESSSSSS!!!!!! Finally another Hardball sketch!! I've been waiting for another one all season. I watch the real Hardball show frequently, and these spoofs of that always rule.
- Jimmy looked hilarious here.
- Kattan was still great as Paul Begala, making this one of the few roles he can be good in nowadays.
- Darrell's various names for Dick Armey were hysterical.
- I'm surprised Parnell wasn't in this, he's been in all the other Hardball sketches.
- Darrell started cracking up during the sketch. This isn't the only time he cracked up during a Hardball sketch, he also did it I think, two other times.
- I hope they do one more of these on the season finale.
RATING: 5/5
(12:05) MISCELLANEOUS: Drunk Girl gets lost backstage
- Good to see this character back again, and outside of Weekend Update.
- The Rock was great as Drunk Girl #2.
- Seth lost it during one part.
RATING: N/A
Wow, they're doing a lot of consecutive sketches without going to commercial tonight, like they did in the Billy Bob Thornton episode.
(12:07) SKETCH: Arguing couple on the train
- What the hell was this? I didn't laugh once during this whole sketch.
RATING: 1/5
(12:13) SKETCH: The Girl with No Gaydar
- I loved the first Girl with No Gaydar sketch, and I'm surprised they're making this recurring, though the theme song could've been an indication.
- It seemed weird seeing Darrell Hammond play this type of character.
- After having two major roles last week, Dean Edwards is going back to making his patented useless appearance of the night.
- Horatio was the only male cast member not in this sketch.
- I was about to comment on how the sketch seemed to slow down when the Rock was singing (we could've done without that), but the ending was hilarious.
- Not as good as the first Gaydar sketch, but still hysterical.
RATING: 4.5/5
(12:22) WEEKEND UPDATE: Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey
- Jimmy was a little better than usual tonight, and seemed to stand out over Tina.
- The Elton John/Hilary Clinton joke was hilarious and was really the only Update joke I found really funny tonight. The rest weren't that great.
- Horatio's bit as Gene Shalit was pointless, and was only an excuse to have him crack Jimmy up YET AGAIN.
- SNL goes from having possibly their longest Weekend Update ever last week to having an extremely short Update this week. One of the weaker Updates of the season.
RATING: 2/5
(12:30) MUSICAL GUEST: Andrew W.K.
(12:37) SKETCH: The Duets of Neil Diamond and Bigfoot
- The Rock just looked funny enough in that Bigfoot outfit.
- Holy crap, Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond again? YESS!!! I guess Neil Diamond is the replacement for Robert Goulet this season as the singer that Will frequently impersonates.
- This was a really weird but hilarious sketch.
RATING: 5/5
(12:44) SKETCH: America Undercover White Trash Couple
- This is another one of those few sketches this season that Kattan is tolerable in.
- Amy and Kattan wrecking havoc in the emergency room was hilarious.
- At least Dean didn't get stuck playing the old role again where he's holding Kattan upside down and having his face too close to Kattan'suh, you know what.
RATING: 4/5
(12:51) MUSICAL GUEST: Andrew W.K.
(12:57) MISCELLANEOUS: A Message from Saturday Night Live
- This was unexpected. I was expecting another Big Thick Novel bit, thank god it wasn't that.
- This was a variaton of the Christmas Time is Here songs that Horatio, Jimmy, Kattan, and Tracy did several times before and I always loved those so I was loving this, too and I liked the new direction.
- However, the sketch got cut off at the end, right when Tracy was in the middle of saying something. I HATE when that happens. I wonder what Tracy was going to say, and how this would end. They should do this bit again or another variation of it on the season finale like how they ended last year's finale with the Memorial Day song, and hopefully, they won't get cut off then.
RATING: N/A (got cut off, but I probably wouldn't have rated this anyway since I don't really rate these miscellaneous segments)
(1:00) GOODNIGHTS:
They were REALLY pressed for time, this got cut off only after a few seconds.
CONCLUSION: A very weird show with a lot of bizarre sketches and a strange feel to it, and I'm kinda not sure what to think of it. But looking back on the grades I gave in this episode, most of the sketches were in the high ratings, so I guess that means this was a really good show. Anyway, the Rock did another very good job as the host again, and this time he didn't play himself in any sketches, which was good. Overall Grade: 4/5
BEST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: Hardball w/ Chris Matthews; The Duets of Neil Diamond and Bigfoot; The Girl with No Gaydar
WORST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: Arguing couple on the train
MOST BIZARRE SKETCH: The Duets of Neil Diamond and Bigfoot; Brian Fellow's Safari Planet; Arguing couple on the train; A Message from Saturday Night Live
BLOOPERS: Character breaks galore tonight. Jimmy did it twice, once during the Scorpion King sketch and again during Update in the Gene Shalit segment, Darrell cracked up in the middle of the Hardball sketch, and the Rock and Jeff Richards made Seth laugh during the Drunk Girl bit
SKETCHES THAT'LL PROBABLY BE CUT ON COMEDY CENTRAL: The Duets of Neil Diamond and Bigfoot; A Message from Saturday Night Live; Arguing Couple on the Train; Drunk Girl backstage
CAST MEMBER COUNT DOWN
RACHEL DRATCH: 2 sketches (Arthur Andersen, Girl with No Gaydar)
JIMMY FALLON: 6 sketches (Brian Fellow's Safari Planet, The Scorpion King, Hardball, Girl with No Gaydar, Weekend Update, A Message from SNL)
WILL FERRELL: 6 sketches (A Message from President Dubya, Arthur Andersen, Hardball, Girl with No Gaydar, Neil Diamond and Bigfoot, White Trash couple)
TINA FEY: 1 sketch (Weekend Update)
ANA GASTEYER: 2 sketches (Arthur Andersen, Girl with No Gaydar)
DARRELL HAMMOND: 2 sketches (Hardball, Girl with No Gaydar)
CHRIS KATTAN: 5 sketches (Monologue, Hardball, Girl with No Gaydar, White Trash couple, A Message from SNL)
TRACY MORGAN: 4 sketches (Brian Fellow's Safari Planet, Arguing couple, Girl with No Gaydar, A Message from SNL)
CHRIS PARNELL: 3 sketches (Arthur Andersen, Girl with No Gaydar, Neil Diamond and Bigfoot)
AMY POEHLER: 2 sketches (Arthur Andersen, White Trash couple)
MAYA RUDOLPH: 2 sketches (The Scorpion King, Arguing couple)
HORATIO SANZ: 2 sketches (Weekend Update, A Message from SNL)
DEAN EDWARDS: 1 sketch (Girl with No Gaydar)
SETH MEYERS: 3 sketches (The Scorpion King, Drunk Girl backstage, Girl with No Gaydar)
JEFF RICHARDS: 1 sketch (Drunk Girl backstage)
The stars of the cast tonight were Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, and Chris Kattan. I'd like to add that Kattan didn't get on my nerves as much as usual, and was pretty decent in most of his appearances. Tracy Morgan also had a little more to do than usual. And after the female cast dominated the show last week, nobody in the female cast was used much tonight, and this is the first time in a long time that Tina only had Update.
That's my review. Thanks for reading. I'm outta heah...