OVERVIEW
I'm really looking forward to Jon Stewart hosting this show. He's hilarious on the Daily Show and his stand-up acts, and he should be great tonight. Several things about the cast: It's confirmed that Chris Parnell is back in the cast permanently! YES!!!! Will Ferrell will not be on the show this week and next week, since he's filming for a movie again. I hope they do well without him, it really felt empty without him last time in the Josh Hartnett episode, but now that they have Parnell there, he would be a great back-up star cast member. Darrell Hammond is back this week, it turns out that he didn't have a heart-attack, but was just feeling under the weather. And finally, there's a rumor that there is going to be a new featured player joining the show in this episode, Zac Ross. I don't believe this, because none of the major SNL sites said anything about this and I'm sure we'd know if there was going to be a new cast member joining before hand. If this does turn out to be true, then Lorne must be out of his mind, the current cast is already crowded, adding yet another cast member so late would just make the cast even more crowded, and we don't need that. Eh, the rumor's probably bull anyway.

 

(11:30) COLD OPENING: A Message from Vice President Dick Cheney
- Darrell really deserved that long ovation the audience gave him at the beginning.
- His Cheney impression is still excellent.
- SNL makes yet another jab at that Dell computer stoner.
RATING: 5/5

 

(11:35) OPENING MONTAGE:
- New cast member, my ass.
- Well they at least kept Ferrell's picture back in the opening this time, probably so as not to cause confusion like they did last time he was gone.
- Glad to hear Don Pardo is back.

 

(11:37) MONOLOGUE: Jon Stewart
- Ah, yes. Stand-up monologues rule! THIS is what a real monologue is.
- The Justin/Britney, Kid Rock/Pam before and after joke was hilarious.
RATING: 5/5

 

(11:42) COMMERCIAL: The Cheese Game
- A really funny commercial. Funny in how silly it was, and great performances by Parnell, Amy, and George Plimpton.
RATING: 4/5

 

(11:47) SKETCH: TRL
- Good to see Jimmy's Carson Daly impression again. His shutting the screaming girls up at the beginning was funny.
- Jon Stewart was hilarious here.
- The boy band brought back memories of the 7 Degrees Celsius sketches. Horatio's character even had the same wig his 7DC character had. I wonder if they'll bring that sketch back again.
- "Ass Face" was hilarious, especially the dancing.
RATING: 4/5

 

(11:53) NEXT WEEK: IAN McKELLEN / KYLIE MINOGUE

 

(11:56) SKETCH: The Bloater Bros. at the airport
- A lot of people hate these characters, but I actually kinda like the Bloater brothers in a weird way. Also, Parnell's wig and moustache for his character always crack me up for some reason (like Ferrell, Parnell always looks funny in moustaches).
- The usual good Bloater Bros. sketch. The only one I didn't like was the one from the Lara Flynn Boyle episode because that one wasn't funny at all.
- Jon was good as the Bloater Bros. father.
RATING: 3.5/5

 

(12:00) TV FUNHOUSE: Fun with Real Audio
- Fun with Real Audio died a long time ago. Everything done in this cartoon was something I've seen in early FWRA's from the past. Smigel should stop doing these types of TV Funhouses, they're his only weak point.
RATING: 1/5

 

(12:04) SKETCH: Talkin' to the Stars with Rachel and Tracy
- A random sketch, but pretty funny. Tracy was funny and again gets great laughs playing himself.
RATING: 3/5

 

(12:12) SKETCH: News Media
- A lot of impressions in this sketch were good to see again, such as Parnell's Tom Brokaw, Darrell as Dan Rather and Ted Koppel, and Ana's Helen Thomas.
- Seth's Stone Phillips wasn't as great as Rob Lowe's impression was.
- Jimmy actually doesn't to a half-bad Tom Brokaw voice.
- Tina breaking character and mentioning that she shouldn't be in a sketch anyway was very clever. I noticed that Tina's been making appearances in sketches more frequently now.
- Oh my god, it's about time SNL let's Jeff do his great David Letterman impression on the show. I've been waiting and waiting for this to happen, and now was the perfect opportunity to bring it in.
- The ending was great.
- Another sketch that came damn so close to having the entire cast in it, but only 1 cast member wasn't in it. Dueling Bassists with Jack Black was only missing Amy, Super Buzzers from last week was only missing Jeff, and now this sketch was only missing Rachel.
RATING: 5/5

 

(12:21) WEEKEND UPDATE: Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey
- Jimmy FINALLY cut his hair shorter.
- I especially loved the joke about Anna Buffalo Smith, who I can't stand.
- Okay, are they deliberately putting Kattan on Update every week? He's been on every Update since the Josh Hartnett one. Whether it's deliberate or not, they should stop because his Update bits aren't one bit funny anymore.
- Jon Stewart's bit was great. I, too, was hoping he'd anchor Update tonight, so this was a funny treat.
- Alright!!! Drunk Girl's back! This was just as funny as the first time. Jeff does great with this character.
- The correspondents in this Update, Drunk Girl and Kattan's Terrible Re-Enactment, were also the two correspondents in the Hugh Jackman Update.
RATING: 4.5/5

 

(12:32) MUSICAL GUEST: India.Arie

 

(12:38) SKETCH: Jazz Visions
- Damn, this sketch was terrible. Hardly any laughs.
- This is the first time Dean made me laugh since all the way back to the Drew Barrymore episode.
RATING: 1/5

 

(12:46) SKETCH: We Were Soldiers That Knew What Women Want
- Parnell does great voice-overs.
- This was a hilarious movie spoof.
- Wow, Dean is making a lot of appearances tonight.
RATING: 5/5

 

(12:51) MUSICAL GUEST: India.Arie

 

(12:57) MISCELLANEOUS: My Big Thick Novel by Jack Handey

- Damn!

 

(12:59) GOODBYES

 

CONCLUSION: An excellent episode, and as expected, my man Jon Stewart was excellent as the host and ranks right up there with Jack Black and Hugh Jackman as one of the best hosts of the season. Overall Rating: 5/5

 

BEST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: News Media; We Were Soldiers That Knew What Women Want
WORST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: Jazz Visions
MOST BIZARRE SKETCH: Nothing really
SKETCHES THAT'LL PROBABLY BE CUT ON COMEDY CENTRAL: Jazz Visions; TV Funhouse; The Cheese Game

 

CAST MEMBER COUNT DOWN

RACHEL DRATCH: 1 sketch (Talkin' to the Stars)
JIMMY FALLON: 4 sketches (TRL, The Bloater Bros., News Media, Weekend Update)
WILL FERRELL: 0 sketches
TINA FEY: 2 sketches (News Media, Weekend Update)
ANA GASTEYER: 3 sketches (The Bloater Bros., News Media, Soldiers)
DARRELL HAMMOND: 3 sketches (Dick Cheney Address, News Media, Jazz Visions)
CHRIS KATTAN: 3 sketches (News Media, Weekend Update, Soldiers)
TRACY MORGAN: 3 sketches (Talkin' to the Stars, News Media, Jazz Visions)
CHRIS PARNELL: 5 sketches (The Cheese Game, TRL, The Bloater Bros., News Media, Soldiers)
AMY POEHLER: 3 sketches (The Cheese Game, News Media, Soldiers)
MAYA RUDOLPH: 3 sketches (News Media, Jazz Visions, Soldiers)
HORATIO SANZ: 2 sketches (TRL, News Media)
DEAN EDWARDS: 4 sketches (TRL, News Media, Jazz Visions, Soldiers)
SETH MEYERS: 3 sketches (The Cheese Game, TRL, News Media)
JEFF RICHARDS: 3 sketches (News Media, Weekend Update, Jazz Visions)

Star of the night was Chris Parnell.

And that's all for my review. Until next time, I'm outta heah...

Back to Season 27 (2001-02)