"I guess I just thought more vomit would be funnier"
Cold Open: The Tonight Show
5 Stars
Johnny lets his hair down on his way out
This is pretty classic. Not only is it funny but it's SNL taking a stab at NBC in a time of uncertainty. At the time, most people thought The Tonight Show would fail without Johnny Carson and if it was competing with David Letterman. It's Johnny's 29th anniversary show and since it's his last one he decides to be a little looser with his tongue. He first tells Victoria Jackson to get the hell off his show because he's tired of her stale act (a bit that makes me wonder if it was an actual dig at Victoria). Then he shows some clips from years past, an animal peeing on his shoulder and a crazy party with Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise. Then Jeff Daniels comes out as Jay Leno to present him with a certificate calling him "The King Of Late Night". Johnny talks him down so much that he ends up shrinking and running away. Everything about this worked for me, the performances from Dana, Phil and Jeff, the subtle shot at Victoria, the snarkiness, the mixture of live and pre-filmed bits and a special mention to Farley, peeing his pants as Dom DeLuise. Quite possibly in the top 50 funniest moments in SNL history.
Jeff Daniels Monologue
5 Stars
Jeff needs some help with his monologue moves
Jeff comes out and doesn't know what to do. He freezes and runs off the stage. Luckily, Lorne and Dana are back there ready to give him some pointers. Dana walks Jeff through some of the classic bits like "Celebrity Skip", "Pigeon Neck", "Falling Star", "Trained Seal" and "Open The Fridge". Now filled with confidence, Jeff returns to the stage and milks the applause with all of these moves also adding a goofy face, moonwalk and a little sailor dance. This is one of my favorite monologues of all time. It deconstructs the monologue in a hilarious way and Jeff is really funny.
Earthies
3 Stars
A diaper you can plant to grow vegetables
Julia and Victoria are taking care of their babies while talking about what the future holds for them. They can ensure a beautiful planet by giving their babies Earthies, a diaper you plant in the ground when used and an ear of corn will grow from it. I'm guessing this was a commentary on companies being environmentally conscience but I think they were going for gross out humor that didn't completely work for me. I think Phil and Kevin eating the corn was supposed to be a sight gag on par with the bird whistle in Litter Critters but it didn't have that effect.
Copy Machine
2 Stars
Rich meets an equally irritating work rival
The Richmeister gets a pretty sizable applause for his first outing in Season 17. He's up to his old tricks, giving people nicknames. Then in comes Jeff as Larry, a guy who takes people's names and puts them into popular songs. Rich is instantly threatened for name play supremacy. They go back and forth trying to annoy Kevin but eventually find common ground. I liked the idea of giving Rich a rival. It freshened up the sketch ever so slightly but there is just nothing to this character. He says people's names funny, how did this ever catch on?
Community College Bowl
2 Stars
Community college kids compete in a knowledge bowl
So community college students aren't as smart as other college students. That's the joke of this sketch and it just keeps repeating long after it's amusing. Jeff asks them a question, they don't know the answer, lather, rinse, repeat. Not only does it go on too long but it creates pointless filler when we get a profile of one of their crappy colleges. I got a slight chuckle when Rock accidentally answered a question correctly by just saying his last name but they could have made a joke of it by having Adam or Ellen try the same strategy with different results.
The Chris Farley Show
5 Stars
A gosh darn classic
It's Chris Farley interviewing Jeff Daniels about his films and if he remembers specific scenes in them. Then he asks him if he saw Die Hard, and if he remembers the scene where Bruce Willis had to walk across broken glass. Farley's heart and soul comes out in this sketch and you can see his warmth and love. I just love this sketch and everything about it.
Color Me Badd
"I Wanna Sex You Up"
Well, we needed something cooler than Public Enemy to really up the stakes from the season premiere. I present to you Color Me Badd, one of the weaker groups of the early 90s boy band craze. The song's not good, the guys are kinda weird looking and what does "I wanna sex you up" even mean? It sounds like a 3rd grader wrote it.
Weekend Update

"Is this the face of a liar?"
Kevin opens his 2nd Update with "I'm Kevin Nealon and I'm an alcoholic". Not sure where the joke is here. Speaking of not knowing where the jokes are, this entire segment. We get a joke about Bill Clinton announcing his presidential run. He'll be the tallest candidate yet. Get it? No? Oh, the picture was taken at an angle that made him look taller than the crowd. Still don't get it? Oh yeah, it's not funny. Think the worst joke had to be Spike Lee being forced by the MPAA to change the title of Malcolm X to Malcolm NC-17.
Al Franken drops by with a look at the presidential race. He talks about how he's a life long Democrat, which is odd because he's rich. So even though he's doing well and enjoying the tax cuts he's been getting from 11 years of a Republican presidency, he's still a Democrat. He admits that they are gonna lose and lose bad.
Apex Novelty
4 Stars
The boss is upset at his employee's novelties
Jeff has only been with Apex Novelty for a month but his boss is not pleased with some of his work. He constructed a comically large pile of vomit, a fake log through the head and a shrunken head in an ice cube. Jeff stands by the fact that these are funny because they are so absurd but the boss is confused. How could someone vomit so much? It wouldn't be believable. And how does a head get so small and then frozen in ice? It makes no sense. The boss is won over by Jeff's extra powerful explosive cigar though, which turns his head into a skeleton. This really tickled me but Jeff and Phil's performances really put it over the top for me. They were so low-key describing the stupid joke products to make it all the more funny.
Simon
3 Stars
Simon shows off his drawings from his tub
Had to check the archives to get a timeline. This is the 2nd appearance of Simon, the cheeky monkey who makes drawings in his tub. We first saw him a year before this in the ungodly awful Jimmy Smits episode. He sits in the tub and shows us his drawings which illustrate just how terrible his life is. Since he's too young to realize his terrible lot in life he shows us pictures of his grandmother's house on fire with a smile on his face. It's a Mike Myers character with an English accent and it's a straight to camera monologue. Nothing too incredible but short and fun enough.
Real Life With Jane Pauley
2 Stars
The world's smartest woman and dumbest man share their marriage secrets
Not sure what this one was about. I guess just to make women are smart, men are stupid jokes. Nothing wrong with that, just wish it was funnier. Julia interviews Siobhan, the world's smartest woman, who is married to Jeff, a model train enthusiast who is not retarded but does have a very very low IQ. She talks about how good their marriage is while he says dumb things. Not horrible but definitely end of the night material.
Color Me Badd all sit on stools in brightly colored shirts to sing "I Adore Mi Amor". On the plus side, and this is an extremely backhanded compliment, you can tell that they were hired for their voices.
Don't Get Me Wrong
4 Stars
3 guys express their feelings about their friends
Something tells me that Kevin Nealon wrote this sketch. This seems like something taken directly from his standup act. Kevin, Dana and Jeff talk about the bad qualities of their other friends but quickly change directions by saying "don't get me wrong".
"Oh, you mean Nick the Thief? Nick the Liar? That son of a bitch overbilled me twenty grand. I should kick his ass. He's a real backstabber, let me tell you."
"I thought you were happy with him?"
"He's scum. I mean... don't get me wrong, there's no one I care more about on the planet than Nick. You know, if he were dirty I'd lick him clean with my tongue and then apologize for not having a towel to dry him with."
Things go around like this until Dana and Kevin take offense when Jeff says he would let his freeloading brother-in-law massage him in oil for two hours and then ride him like a big boy. They apparently don't understand this metaphor and call Jeff a freak and make him leave.
FINAL ANALYSIS
"I'd give him a sponge bath and rock him to sleep if I had to"
Average
Chris Farley
The Tonight Show, Community College Bowl, Chris Farley Show
Real Life With Jane Pauley
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
I want to swap Community College Bowl with Apex Novelty because the former was such a momentum killer. I kind of expect a stinker to come right after Update. We were going incredibly well. The cold open and monologue were classics, the first sketch was recurring, which is to be expected, and then the sketch after that was just so long and dull. I needed an energy boost going into The Chris Farley Show.
I said this during my season 20 reviews but, why has Jeff Daniels only hosted twice? He's one of my favorite hosts of all time. Both of his episodes were funny and had a good feeling to them. I can't really explain it but these episodes just make me feel good and Jeff is a huge part of that. He seems to be having fun, he's got a carefree attitude, he's funny and he's professional. I don't see him glancing at the cue cards and he nails all his comedic beats.
Even with a few duds peppered throughout, this was a really good episode and felt more like an episode of SNL than the premiere. Having a good host at the helm really makes a difference. Last week felt like a variety show hosted by Michael Jordan. This week felt like an all around good episode of SNL. Starting the show off with a bang and ending it solidly probably has a lot to do with how high I was on it.
Up Next
Cheers star Kirstie Alley hosts with musical guest Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. Sounds like a good idea to me.
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