Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Snow Patrol
March 17, 2007
RATING SYSTEM:
***** - Future classic
**** - Almost perfect
*** - Average in every way
** - Eh
* - Is this 1994-95 again?
COLD OPENING: SNL Special Report
- Chris Rock!!!!! Awesome! Great to see to him back on the show.
- Rock was his usual hilarious self and his political commentary had so many great lines.
- The retarded president joke at the end ended this perfectly.
RATING: *****
MONOLOGUE: Julia Louis Dreyfus
- What was with those multicolored stage lights at the beginning that was pulled away as soon as Julia walked onstage?
- A good monologue for Julia. The America Ferrara/Golden Globes clip was great (although it reminded me of a sketch Megan Mullally did when she hosted), and the limo one was even funnier.
RATING: ***1/2
SKETCH: Oprah
- Maya seems to be trying hard, but she still sounds NOTHING like Oprah. Nothing. And this sketch wasn’t very good at all. Why was it the first sketch?
- Amy’s expression and accent was good.
- Julia’s dorky look was funny, but the whole talk about her ex-husband was too long and drawn out.
- Kenan’s part was the best in the sketch.
RATING: **
COMMERCIAL: Monex
- I thought this would be really funny when it started out, but it ended up being extremely dumb. This went absolutely nowhere and flat out BOMBED with the audience. Not even Kristen could save this.
- I did laugh at the Goldie Hawn picture, though.
- If she wanted a drink that looked like gold, she should’ve just gotten apple juice or tea.
RATING: *1/2
SKETCH: Restless Penis Syndrome
- Not quite as funny as it could’ve been; it felt like they could’ve done a lot more, but this was still okay and all the random stuff that kept popping up and happening was good.
- The ending was a little weak.
RATING: ***
SKETCH: La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci
- I think this is the same character Hader played in that Italian hotel sketch with Catherine Zeta Jones. He acted and looked very similarly in both sketches.
- This was great and it’s always nice to see Hader in a leading role. The arguing back and forth between Hader and Armisen was good, as was Julia’s confusion over the whole show, and the re-dubbed Old Christine clip. Great ending, too, with the random ostrich appearance. And I loved Hader breaking out his Kramer impression once again.
- I had to laugh at the fact that Forte just sat there eating meatballs the whole time.
RATING: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
WEEKEND UPDATE: Poehler & Meyers, with Judge Larry Seidlin
- The Update set seemed to have changed slightly yet AGAIN. The map in the background looked noticeably a lot darker this time.
- Best jokes: The View, Salmon, ski mask, CP30
- Jokes weren’t quite as strong overall tonight. Even Seth had some bombs, although his ad-lib after the Anne Frank joke tanked was good.
- WTF? They just did the Anna Nicole judge on Update in the last new show. Having him on again was random and unexpected. Oh well, Armisen’s portrayal is still really funny and dead-on, but it’s gonna get old if they keep using it, especially when he’s not even in the news anymore.
- I’m usually excited for any Seth/Amy interaction pieces, but I thought the drunk bit was actually a little disappointing. Amy’s goofiness in these pieces usually plays off of Seth’s straightman really well, but Amy was just too obnoxious for me here.
RATING: ***
SKETCH: Deep House Dish
- Well, at least this is now on AFTER Update where it belongs, instead of right after the monologue like it usually is…
- This still sucked as usual, but they did try to change some things up a bit during the Kenan/Andy parts by having them do a few different things. And for once, this didn’t have Kenan saying “Ooh wee, Tiara/T’Shane” 10 damn times.
- Julia looked kinda out of place here.
- Sudeikis’ song was the best part with his crazy dancing.
RATING: *1/2
SKETCH: CBS Cares
- Hader’s last name being Underballs cracked me up.
- Nice sketch and Sudeikis was great as the asshole boom mike guy.
- I liked how they kept playing the CBS Cares jingle after every bad take, and Hader eventually calling them out on that.
RATING: ***1/2
SKETCH: Robot Sex
- There’s been lots of Hader tonight, which is very good considering how underused he had been lately.
- I knew this would be good when Forte showed up as the robot. This had a slow start, but once they got to the robot penis part and then them having sex, I was rolling.
- The three-way ending was pretty funny.
RATING: ***1/2
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
SKETCH/COMMERCIAL: The Search for the Next Doll
- The ladies were funny here with their lousy singing and dancing and the announcer (Hader) had some great lines.
- There was this long, awkward pause before Julia was first shown.
- They put the same name on the bottom of the screen for both Andy and Kenan (I like how the caption under their name said “Nobody”, though). Was that intentional or a technical goof?
RATING: ***
___________________________
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:
- SNL Special Report
- La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci
- Monologue
- Robot Sex
SHOW LOWLIGHTS:
- Deep House Dish
- Monex
- Oprah
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Not a very good show. In fact, the weakest one in quite a while. The first half of the show after the monologue mostly dragged, even Update wasn’t as strong as usual, and the episode only started to get very good sometime after Update with the CBS and Robot sketches. But the show as a whole never really felt like it took off. Julia Louis Dreyfus did a good job as host again, but her first episode was far superior to this one. Hopefully, the show will bounce back next week, but I'm reluctant to believe that with an athlete host.
TONIGHT’S RATING: **1/2
CASTMEMBER/HOST COUNT DOWN:
ARMISEN: 3 sketches (La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci, Weekend Update, Robot Sex)
FORTE: 2 sketches (La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci, Robot Sex)
HADER: 5 sketches (Restless Penis Syndrome, La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci, CBS Cares, Robot Sex, The Search for the Next Doll)
HAMMOND: 0 sketches
MEYERS: 1 sketch (Weekend Update)
POEHLER: 4 sketches (Oprah, Weekend Update, Deep House Dish, The Search for the Next Doll)
RUDOLPH: 4 sketches (Oprah, La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci, Deep House Dish, The Search for the Next Doll)
SAMBERG: 2 sketches (Deep House Dish, The Search for the Next Doll)
SUDEIKIS: 4 sketches (Restless Penis Syndrome, Deep House Dish, CBS Cares, Robot Sex)
THOMPSON: 5 sketches (Oprah, Restless Penis Syndrome, Deep House Dish, Robot Sex, The Search for the Next Doll)
WIIG: 4 sketches (Monex, Deep House Dish, Robot Sex, The Search for the Next Doll)
JULIA LOUIS DREYFUS: 8 sketches (Monologue, Oprah, Restless Penis Syndrome, La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci, Deep House Dish, CBS Cares, Robot Sex, The Search for the Next Doll)