FIVE STAR RATINGS SYSTEM:

***** = Excellent, flawless

**** = Great

*** = Average

** = Poor, with only a few highlights

* = Just plain terrible

 

 

[COLD OPENING] If Al Gore Were President

-- Al Gore’s appearance was a complete surprise, and this whole thing was hilarious, especially the gas price and hurricane machine jokes.

RATING: *****

 

 

[MONOLOGUE] Julia Louis-Dreyfus

-- JLD’s alternate titles to “New Adventures of Old Christine” were pretty funny.

-- The taped scene with Jason Alexander was excellent, and ended perfectly. This also had the perfect feel of a lot of the outside scenes they would do on Seinfeld.

-- Jerry’s cameo at the end was also really nice. I don’t know why his voice sounded so scratchy, but it made me laugh even more for some reason.

-- They couldn’t get Michael Richards? Too bad. I guess it’s hard to locate the cave he’s been hiding in since The Michael Richards Show got cancelled.

RATING: ****1/2

 

 

[COMMERCIAL] Tech Pack

-- After hearing this got cut so many times in the last several episodes, it’s good to finally see it on the air. This was pretty funny and the ending with Jason running was the best part.

RATING: ***1/2

 

 

[SKETCH] Stinky Homeless Guy

-- Bill was great as the perverted bum and also his constant rejecting of JLD’s character.

-- His line to JLD at the end was hilarious as was her reaction.

-- The ending with the girls was cute.

RATING: ***

 

 

[SKETCH] The Morning Show

-- Kristen and Horatio? That’s an odd pairing, but it worked and Horatio was surprisingly good here.

-- A clichéd idea, but this still turned out great and I loved all the various embarrassing gaffes and the Stan references.

RATING: ****1/2

 

 

[SEASON FINALE] May 20, 2006: Kevin Spacey

-- He was an awesome host last time and hosted one of the best episodes in recent memory. He’ll be perfect to close out the season with.

 

 

[SKETCH] MySpace Seminar

-- Rare to see Andy with an actual lead role in a live sketch. He was really good here.

-- I thought Jason was Fred at first until he started speaking. Fred’s good at playing creepy characters, too, so I’m surprised he wasn’t in this.

-- All the guys in this sketch were great and there were a lot of hilarious parts, like Seth’s Dateline question, a lot of Will’s lines and him faking the keyboard typing.

-- Horatio’s having a rare good night. He in particular was very funny in this, especially him hiding behind the plant at the end.

-- Overall, an excellent sketch and one of the season’s best.

RATING: *****

 

 

[MUSICAL PERFORMANCE]

 

 

[WEEKEND UPDATE] Fey & Poehler, Gore, Wolfgang, Mitchell, Blaine

-- Only good jokes were the dental and Britney Spears jokes.

-- The debate between Al Gore and Amy was okay. Gore had several funny parts (such as when he showed the altered document), but Amy herself was pretty annoying and I hated her ruining the “You ignorant slut” bit. It would’ve been a treat to hear Gore say that.

-- The Wolfgang Fey bits started out okay but went on way too long and they shouldn’t have kept cutting back to him.

-- Finesse’s bit actually wasn’t too bad for once and he had a good and funny point about tuxes that make you look like a magician. Although it ended weakly with the lame joke about his mom taking him to prom. And Finesse still needs to work on his delivery.

-- Andy’s really having a good night. He was very funny as David Blaine, as was Jason as his assistant.

-- Good lord, this Update was long as hell. Thankfully, some of the commentaries helped bring up the usual weak Update grade.

RATING: ***

 

 

[SKETCH] Charades

-- This was a little similar to the Super Buzzers sketch several years ago with Jonny Moseley.

-- The suggestive charades movements were pretty funny, and how the panelists could quickly guess Amy’s but didn’t know JLD’s.

-- Parnell ignoring Rich Little’s constant impressions made me laugh.

RATING: ***

 

 

[SKETCH] Unsolved Mysteries

-- What made them decide to do an Unsolved Mysteries sketch in the year 2006? Still, this was pretty funny and all the ghosts/alien and bizarre movie characters showing up was good.

-- Kristen looked, acted, and sounded exactly like Mo Collins from Mad TV in this sketch. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing…

-- The ending with Robert Stack was a little weak.

RATING: ***1/2

 

 

[MUSICAL PERFORMANCE]

 

 

[DIGITAL SHORT] Peyote

-- This was originally supposed to air way back in December (which explains why the ending was similar to the Lettuce short and why Will and Andy were paired up again). Good to see this finally make it on the show, even though they obviously only threw this in for filler because there wasn’t enough time to end the show with a full sketch. This was really funny, but I do wish this aired in December since it pales a little in comparison to a lot of the post-Lazy Sunday digital shorts, and the style was a lot more simpler than most recent shorts.

RATING: ****

 

-------------------------------------------

 

OVERALL HIGHLIGHTS:

-- MySpace Seminar

-- If Al Gore Were President

-- The Morning Show

-- Monologue

-- Peyote

-- David Blaine commentary on Weekend Update

 

OVERALL LOWLIGHTS:

-- Some portions of Weekend Update

-- The ending of Unsolved Mysteries

-- No Michael Richards appearance

 

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: A very good and consistent episode, with all the sketches from the beginning of the show to end being good and nothing getting below 3 stars. Definitely one of the best episodes of the season. JLD was, as expected, a great host and fit in perfectly with this current cast for obvious reasons. I only wish Weekend Update was shorter so we could’ve got more sketches.

 

OVERALL RATING: ****

 

 

CASTMEMBER COUNT DOWN:

ARMISEN: 4 sketches [The Morning Show | Weekend Update | Charades | Unsolved Mysteries]

DRATCH: 2 sketches [Stinky Homeless Guy | Weekend Update]

FEY: 1 sketch [Weekend Update]

FORTE: 4 sketches [MySpace Seminar | Charades | Unsolved Mysteries | Peyote]

HAMMOND: 2 sketches [Charades | Unsolved Mysteries]

MEYERS: 2 sketches [MySpace Seminar | Charades]

MITCHELL: 2 sketches [MySpace Seminar | Weekend Update]

PARNELL: 3 sketches [MySpace Seminar | Charades | Unsolved Mysteries]

POEHLER: 3 sketches [Stinky Homeless Guy | Weekend Update | Charades]

RUDOLPH: 2 sketches [Stinky Homeless Guy | Charades]

SANZ: 2 sketches [The Morning Show | MySpace Seminar]

THOMPSON: 1 sketch [Charades]

HADER: 3 sketches [Stinky Homeless Guy | MySpace Seminar | Unsolved Mysteries]

SAMBERG: 4 sketches [MySpace Seminar | Weekend Update | Unsolved Mysteries | Peyote]

SUDEIKIS: 4 sketches [Tech Pack | Stinky Homeless Guy | MySpace Seminar | Weekend Update]

WIIG: 3 sketches [Tech Pack | The Morning Show | Unsolved Mysteries]

Back to Season 31 (2005-06)