(S31E15) I went in to this episode expecting it
to be absolutely horrible. I'm sorry, but I just didn't see Antonio Banderas as someone with good SNL hosting
potential. I figured he was just coming on to plug his new film, Take
the Lead. Well he never plugged the movie once, and guess what? He was absolutely spectacular as host. For
those that haven't been paying attention to the news at all this week, immigration is the topic right now in
Congress and SNL made damn sure it was addressed last night.
Anderson Cooper 360° - I hope they start relying on this as a cold open more than Hardball. I don't necessarily think Seth Myers is better as Anderson than Darrell Hammond is at being Chris Matthews, but it's just time for Darrell Hammond to go. This sketch was very funny. Banderas as Mexican Prez Vincente Fox was hilarious. Claiming that Mexico had a huge American immigration problem due to spring break, bargain-priced tequila, and breasts was funny stuff. The stand-out was Kenan as Rep. Cynthia McKinney. When she yelled "I will slap the Kiehl's moisturizer off your face Ann-Uh-Sun Coo-Puh," I lost it... especially since I use Kiehl's moisturizer. You wouldn't believe how soft my face is.
Antonio's Monologue - I think this was the only low point of the show for me. After he stripped his clothes off to reveal that he was a woman, I laughed because, hey, Antonio Banderas has fake boobs on. Then it got old. Fortunately this didn't last long and they moved ahead.
Basic Instinct 2: Return of the Beaver - I don't care how old I get, when I hear the word "vagina" or the phrase "hair pie," I'm gonna laugh. Beyond the humor factor that this semi-fake movie preview had, I think it made a good point. Seriously, why did this movie need to be made? The only reason that anyone is talking about it is because of the Sharon Stone Hoo-Hah factor. Will we get to see it again or not?
Deal or No Deal - I've actually never watched an episode of Deal or No Deal before, but I've heard enough people talk about it and seen the commercials enough that I think I have a pretty good idea of how it works. Fred Armisen was great as Howie Mandel and I loved it when the briefcase girls started speaking up due to Howie's poor instructions to the contestants. When they showed the family members and one of them kept yelling "No Whammy," I smiled. Press Your Luck, now there was a great game show.
Voice Recording Lady - I think this is the second time, maybe the third, this has been done. "Cute" is the best word to describe the premise. I enjoyed this if only because it was short. I laughed a few times and then it was over before they let it go on too long. I enjoyed how Rachel had her Spanish co-worker accompany her to the party. It makes you wonder though. Who does actually do those voice recordings? Some sound electronic, but some are definitely recorded. That job must suck.
Besos y Lagrimas - I don't ever recall seeing an SNL sketch that was done entirely in Spanish. My Spanish is terrible but I believe the title translates to Kisses and Tears. Which makes sense, since that's all this telenovela spoof was about. I can't stand telenovelas, so anything that pokes fun is fine by me. This played up every stereotype though. Rich families. Affairs with gardeners and illegitimate babies. Oh, and gusts of wind that blow the shirts off of muscular men named Paulo. I was very impressed with this.
The 13th Annual Women's Basketball Coaches' Fashion Awards - It's rare, lately anyway, for a host to carry a sketch. Well, Banderas carried this one. As the emcee of the event, his songs were hilarious offering praise to these women who dress like men for the sake of basketball.
Weekend Update - This was probably the best WU they've had in a while. It was solid. It started with a Tom Delay montage set to Daniel Powter's "Bad Day," which I found very amusing. Darrell Hammond made his only appearance as Dan Rather. He spoke about the Katie Couric move to CBS and politely put her down. "She's a fantastic journalist. Look at her recent piece on ways to cook with a green bell pepper!" The highlight was definitely Chris Kattan showing up. In 30 seconds we got his Antonio Banderas impression, gay Hitler, Mango, and Mr. Peepers. It was great.
Zorro - Filming a scene during the last movie, apparently Banderas decided he would not make out with Catherine Zeta-Jones due to his fears of bird flu and herpes. So he got a "make out scene" stand in. Enter Horatio Sanz, who had just eaten a fish and bean chalupa. Mmmm. This could have been funnier, but this type of part is Horatio's bread and butter so he played it up well.
The Karaoke Bar - Amy Poehler was the drunk lady with a microphone
hostess at the bar and she kept getting in the way of Rachel Dratch's renditions of "Natural Woman,"
"Sexual Healing," and "Milkshake" by making out with her date played by Antonio. I thought this was
funny but then Poehler made some comment about how she loves her husband, and says, "Right honey?" Chris
Parnell, her husband, was there the whole time. Then I thought it was really funny.
Foreigners - This was my favorite sketch of the night. It was like a weird PSA. Amy and Jason Sudeikis were talking about Mexicans and how if NBC had their way, the entire cast would be "border hopping Mexicans." Of course, Horatio walks by. He's then joined by Fred and Antonio who are there to inform us Americans of their three-pronged plan. Number one, take our jobs. Number two, have babies with our women. And number three, cut us with knives. Simple plan, we should all watch out. This was good though. I liked how they took all the stereotypes head-on.
Wine Snobs - I found this to be very funny because I took a wine appreciation class about a year ago and Chris Parnell's character reminded me of the guy that taught the class. When they were taking in the various wines' bouquets, all the notes they were listing were hilarious. Electronics, gun metal, a whore's sweat. There were some other funny ones, but they escape me now. Which ones am I missing?
Overall, I thought this was a great episode. I didn't watch the two Mary J. Blige performances so if anyone wants to comment on those, please do. Also, was it just me or was Amy Poehler in just about every sketch? She was all over the place. Another thing I noticed was in the credits. Mindy Kaling, of The Office, was in there. After the writer's list, it said "Additional Sketch by Mindy Kaling." Anyone have any idea which sketch it was?
Next week is another new episode with Lindsay Lohan and Pearl Jam.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-09-2006 @ 4:16PM
Joel Keller said...
Really, an overall good episode... though Banderas' English is somewhat... uh... interesting, they utilized his accent effectively.
Two notes: The women's basketball coach sketch, to me, was the least funny sketch, especially given the fact that Army's 28-year-olf ladies' b-ball coach died earlier this week of a heart ailment. They should have put this sketch off a couple of weeks, don't you think?
The karaoke sketch: The part of the sketch where Amy gets involved with Rachel's boyfriend came *directly* from a scene the two of them did at UCB's ASSSSCAT a few weeks back. How do I know? Well, I was there, and laughed my ass off at it.
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4-09-2006 @ 4:38PM
elf said...
I have a vague memory of Bill Murray as the host of the game show parody "Quien es Mas Macho?" done entirely in Spanish.
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4-09-2006 @ 5:05PM
Brendan Van Doan said...
great episode, but would have liked samberg to have more lines than "take 2" and for him to be on stage for more than 7 seconds. also there was no hader.
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4-09-2006 @ 5:35PM
Sam said...
Joel, I've been thinking about going to see ASSSSSCAT for the longest time ... I take it it's worth going to?
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4-09-2006 @ 6:14PM
Joel Keller said...
Most definitely, Sam. ASSSCAT is UCB's best show week in and week out, mainly because it's performed by improv experts. Amy Poehler is there every week, but any of the other original UCBers (Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, Matt Besser) will also perform if they're in town. You'll ususally see SNLers like Horatio Sanz, Tina Fey, or Rachel Dratch at one point or another, as well as various people you'd see on The Daily Show, Best Week Ever, Conan, etc., in addition to the best people from the theater's current improv teams. You have to remember that a lot of the people you see on TV now came from UCB's (or Second City's or Improv Olympic's) ranks, so they're all great at improv. It's just a really funny and entertaining show, and I recommend it highly to anyone who's in NYC or LA (UCB has theaters in both cities).
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4-09-2006 @ 6:34PM
Barb said...
If I'm not mistaken, there was also a sketch done in Spanish when Christina Aguilera was on SNL. It might have even been the same "telenova."
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4-09-2006 @ 7:27PM
Clint said...
Maybe I was just tired, but I didn't think this was a very good episode. Not because of Banderas, who did a pretty good job. It's just none of the sketches stood out. I don't expect all of them to be laugh-out-loud funny, but at least one or two hilarious bits and a couple of sketches that produce some chuckles makes for a good episode. Everything thing in this episode was so mediocre.
Now I did like the Foreigners thing, but that's about it. With Weekend Update, I probably won't ever like it so long as Fey and Phoeler continue this look-at-me-I'm-so-funny approach. Some people may enjoy that, and that's cool, but it's just not for me.
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4-09-2006 @ 9:10PM
Greg said...
I thought it was a pretty weak show, the cold open and the Deal/No Deal sketch nonwithstanding. The other thing I found interesting was in the cold open was they took jokes straight from Carlos Mencia (the 'cheap labor' and 'Home Depot parking lot' parts), who is often criticized by fellow comedians for stealing material. Curious...
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4-09-2006 @ 9:23PM
Katie said...
Yeh, I must say, this entire show struck me as "a little below mediocre". Nothing absolutely terrible, but as one person said before, no one sketch really stood out. I may be biased towards to featured players this season, but just the fact that there was NO "SNL Digital Short" this time already sets it a notch below even the sub par Steve Martin show. Did anyone notice that Amy Poehler was in pretty much EVERY sketch? Yes, she does have talent, I'll grant her that, but they have a huge cast this season. Come on, share the screen with a few other people besides Amy, Rachel, and a few shots of Horatio and Seth. They can definitely improve for next week, as they set the bar pretty low with this show
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4-09-2006 @ 9:49PM
Nicki said...
Don't forget the drugs. Take jobs, make babies, cut with knives, drugs.
I enjoyed this episode. It wasn't particularly laugh out loud funny, but that's just as well, because I prefer a quieter type humor anyway. I snickered appropriately, and was very impressed by the moments the show did have- and there were quite a few of them.
It really makes me wonder what others actually find funny if that show wasn't and the Steve Martin episode was "sub par." They were two of my favorites this season.
Additionally, I love the Digital Shorts and featured players as much as anyone, but they shouldn't be considered a requisite for a good show. Kristin Wiig also seemed to be in more sketches than usual. There really was a ton of Amy, but that isn't all that unusual. She did the Basic Instinct thing on Conan the other day too, kind of.
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4-09-2006 @ 11:22PM
Urbey said...
The first skit (and the same error made by the writer of this posting) shows you how some Americans really don't pay too much attention to other countries. The guy is the freaking head of state in Mexico and STILL they can't get his name right! On the show they had his name printed on the screen and the actor said his name incorrectly, as "Vincente". These people specialize in making fun of politicians and they can't get his name, Vicente, correct?
Also, does Amy Poehler know female anatomy? When they gave her the line in that Basic Instinct skit, "This is my vagina," why didn't she say to the writers, "Uh, guys? They couldn't see my vagina without some gynecology tools. It's my vulva. Change the line." Tina Fey is head writer. Doesn't she know the names of female body parts?
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4-10-2006 @ 2:26AM
Danny Cohen said...
Uh, Urbey, everyone calls it a vagina. No one goes around commenting about vulvas. Give these people a break.
Fred Armisen was very impressive thsi episode. The telenovela sketch was probably the best one.
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4-10-2006 @ 2:52AM
The Phil said...
I really thought it was a boring show. While watching I kept wondering why Banderas was in almost every skit. There's those hosts that you wish were in more skits and then there is Banderas who was in every skit and it made everything seem like everything else. It was as if it were the Banderas Show and if it were, I'm sure it would be cancelled quicker than Heist.
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4-10-2006 @ 11:02AM
Mike said...
Mary J. Blige was great. The sketchy sequences were okay, but Mary was my reason for tuning in. She looked great and sounded excellent.
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4-10-2006 @ 2:23PM
Katie said...
Yes, the vagina/vulva issue is correct, but come on, no one actually calls it that except OBGYNs and sticklers for correctiveness. Has ANYONE, in the context of pop cultre, that is, EVER used vulva when referring to that area of a woman's body?
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4-10-2006 @ 3:10PM
Justin said...
I thought it was a pretty good show. I disagree about Update though. I thought most of Tina's jokes stunk. And the Kattan cameo wasn't that funny.
Every skit was pretty good, except the only ones I didn't like were the Wine-tasters skit and the Horatio as Zorro skits. They seemed really random and unfinished.
Antonio was a GREAT host though. He put tons of energy into every skit and was REALLY into his characters. Please bring him back. Even in the cold opening, you could tell he was right on target.
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4-17-2006 @ 7:35PM
Tracey Motolanez said...
Chris Parnell is not Amy Poehler's husband. It is Will Arnett.
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4-17-2006 @ 10:12PM
Nicki said...
Chris Parnell, her husband IN THAT SKETCH
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5-24-2006 @ 6:46AM
Angela said...
#15 I didn't care about the vagina/vulva thing, but Mulva rhymes with vulva. Jerry's girlfriend...Seinfeld! That's probably the only time I've ever heard vulva in pop culture.
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