whatevs.org presents...

"SNL - SEASON 33 REVEALED"

by Nummer and H-Bomb

Episode 3 - Jon Bon Jovi / Foo Fighters (10/13/07)

CONEY RATING SYSTEM
= John Belushi
= Amy Poehler
= Tim Meadows
= Melanie Hutzel
= Charles Rocket
= Self-Explanatory

0-10 Coneys – Garbage
11-20 Coneys – Needs Improvement
21-30 Coneys – Average
31-40 Coneys – Above Average
41-50 Coneys - Instant Classic
51+ Coneys - Unparalleled Comic Genius

OAD = Original Air Date*

(*To be fair, coneys will be awarded the same as they were the first time they aired)

The funniest moment tonight was Fred Armisen’s Nicholas Fehn character on Weekend Update. Fehn, a “political comedian” who challenges you to use your brain struggles to get his point across, but that was the beauty of it. Hearing Armisen start and stop thoughts at such a rapid pace was so brilliant, even Poehler couldn’t hide her laughter. Fred has had a few funny bits over the past two episodes (namely last week’s Gene Simmons and NY Mets General Manager impersonations), but this was his first home run of the ’07-’08 season. Best.

Bill Hader got some significant face time tonight, probably his most in one episode since Julia Louis-Dreyfus stopped by in March. Tonight Bill delivered the third appearance of his slowly improving Italian talk show, “La Rivista Della Televisione”. I’m still not 100% sold on La Rivista’s concept, the English speaking guest on a foreign language game/talk show has been done to death on SNL, but tonight’s segment was notable for the hilarious “Blaze” cigarette-for-kids commercial. Everything from the music to Hader’s rationale that the cigarettes are for “7-8 year olds, you know, adults” was just too funny. Hader’s other sketch tonight (“Ohhhh!”) was nothing we’ve technically seen before, but it did feel a bit recycled. The tagline “By Jersey, For Jersey”, as well as the map-themed set was essentially identical to “What’s The Best Way?” (a show “By New Englanders, For New Englanders’) from the 1992 Glenn Close episode. Still, like always, Hader managed to add his own spin and avoid total disaster.

As a host, Jon Bon Jovi did a little better than I expected him to, but he wasn’t exactly challenged much either. Appearing in six non-musical segments, Jovi ended up playing himself in four of them. Still, he was always cool, confident and comfortable (which couldn’t be said of the line-flubbing Richie Sambora during the monologue) and obviously enjoyed being on the show.

Despite only getting one musical segment, the Foo Fighters churned out a great performance of “The Pretender” from last month’s excellent Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace album. Dave Grohl has been touting that he’s looking to take the band in a different direction and showing up as a seven piece (?) tonight definitely proved that. Loved seeing Pat Smear on National TV again too.

Right out of the gate, I felt like this week’s episode with host Jon Bon Jovi charged full speed ahead. Beginning with one of the best openers I’ve seen in a long time, the show was actually better than I expected up through the Foo Fighters first set. Unfortunately, that’s where the good sketches seemed to come to a screeching halt. Nevertheless, there were still some rather enjoyable moments during the show to comment about.

Out of all of the sketches aired, not including the musical acts, I would say the Cold Opener and Ohhh! were in the top two. I found Poehler quite amusing as a 1986 version of herself in the opening skit. From her Boston accent to spraying her hair with dual cans of hairspray, Poehler delivered a fantastic performance which really got the show off to a great start. “I made out with Kevin Parker and he told everyone I smelled like Doritos.” Hilarious. And even though the concept used in Ohhh! was definitely recycled from numerous game show ideas (think What’s the Best Way from Glenn Close’s 1992 episode), I still chuckled quite a bit at this skit. Armisen, as usual, cracked me up with his facial expressions and it’s always a good thing to see Hader for more than a few seconds. I was even surprised to see Hammond in a non-political bit, even if he did end up walking in front of the camera like a moron.

Despite their brief appearances, I also have to comment on Wiig’s Bjork impersonation and Armisen’s Resident Political Comedian character from Weekend Update, Nicholas Fehn. I don’t know how Wiig did it, but she nailed Bjork’s quirky accent and eccentric personality perfectly. From remarking on how her fingers are made of butter in her dreams to inquiring about whether or not people are just trees made of skin, Wiig certainly marked one of the more memorable impressions of the evening. As for Armisen, Nicholas Fehn was yet another outstanding character from him. How many people do we know who try to make witty observations about politics only to wind up incapable of even making a coherent statement? Spot on, my friend.

Finally, as expected, Foo Fighters put on an amazing performance of The Pretender. In fact, the band weighed in with the highest coney count of the night with a perfect 4 coneys. Why their second set was bumped so that Bon Jovi could play again is beyond me. I felt that it was a huge slap in the face to those guys, considering that they were, indeed, the musical act and one of the best things the show had going for it this week.

Tonight’s show was full of funny ideas, but unfortunately, most of them fell apart in execution. A perfect example is Jason Sudekis’ new Dane Cook impression. To be honest, Suds nailed everything about it. Everything from the voice and clothes to the hair and movements were all perfect. The only problem was that the dialogue just wasn’t very funny. Believe me, I’m sure that was the point since it was an obvious jab at Cook’s standup and joke style, but I wasn’t laughing out loud at it.

Another offender would have to be the “Picking a Band Name” sketch which traces the Bon Jovi band back to 1986 where the other band members are questioning the name. Sure it was a little funny, but didn’t I hear the exact same routine on Norm MacDonald’s 2006 comedy album “Ridiculous”. The only difference was on Norm’s CD, the members of The Fantastic Four are arguing with Mr. Fantastic over the team’s name. You can’t tell me nobody on the SNL cast or writing team hasn’t heard that CD.

Tonight’s biggest surprise had to be the near misfire from the otherwise bullet proof team of Wiig and Forte. Their “Spaceship Captain’s Missing Purse” sketch was probably the weakest I’ve seen either one in a long time. Thank God for Kenan and Jovi’s alien characters or else this thing would have been a total waste.

Finally, after Hammond’s semi-dull outing in last week’s “A Message from Fred Thompson”, tonight he came back with the equally average “A Visit With Former Vice President Al Gore”. Hammond’s Gore impression is good in small doses, and this was just the fifth time he’s brought it out in nearly four years, but once he started talking about the adult version of “An Inconvenient Truth”, we all got the point. If it wasn’t for Hammond’s hilarious reactions to homosexuality in “Ohhhh!”, the night would have been a complete waste for him.

While it would seem from my Good comments that I was quite fond of this week’s show and, in reality, it did earn more coneys than I anticipated, I was actually pretty disappointed with the rapid decline of the sketches, especially after the Foo Fighters. The first sign of this deterioration, for me, was the Where’s My Purse skit. After that, the show just seemed to lose its steam entirely, especially with the likes of Notre Dame Football, What to Call the Band and the second Dane Cook Postseason ‘07 installment. Why was this second one necessary when the first bit was just merely passable? It’s really a shame that with such a strong opening, the show would just end up tumbling downhill.

Now, I realize Bon Jovi has been around for the last two decades; they are a celebrated band and are quite impressive in the fact that they have sustained a high status as musicians over the past 20 years. But, come on, 4 sketches devoted to Bon Jovi? And, worse than that, Bon Jovi was awarded a second song, ultimately usurping the actual musical guest. Regardless of whether this was their sixth time playing the SNL musical stage, I still felt very let down that Foo Fighters only had the opportunity to put on one song since I was really looking forward to their performances. Totally worst, yo.

While I liked Jon Bon Jovi as a host, I don’t understand why NBC even bothered booking the Foo Fighters as musical guests. It would have made more sense to just have Jovi do double duty versus paying and flying out Foo Fighters for what ultimately became just one musical segment. Perhaps things got shifted around or cut due to timing issues, but still. And sure, I loved seeing Jack Nicholson introducing Bon Jovi as much as anyone, but having Jovi’s band play over the credits felt too much like a bad attempt at recapturing the excitement and energy of U2 doing the same thing back in 2004. Hell, even Arcade Fire doing a surprise song at the end of their episode earlier this year felt more necessary than this.

All in all, Jovi delivered a decent, if not head-scratching episode, that at times suffered a bit from non-stop Jersey humor (was Sopranos impressions in two separate sketches necessary) and rough execution. That said, it was still better than the average episode from just two seasons ago.

Despite the fact that this week’s episode started off strong, it fizzled out significantly toward the end. Having a sketch or two dedicated to the host, Bon Jovi, and his band would’ve been acceptable, but it felt like almost all the skits were based on Jovi, when he was even in them at all. Sadly, the best part of the show, Foo Fighters, were only able to garner one performance and a brief appearance in the evening’s standard digital short. Had they been given the chance to turn up more, I feel this week would’ve certainly earned more coneys than it did.

CONEY COUNT

1. Cold Opening: Amy Poehler’s House – 1986
Premise: Young Poehler dreams about Bon Jovi

2. Monologue: Jon Bon Jovi
Cameo: Bon Jovi band

3. Sketch: Ohhhhh!
Premise: New Jersey based game show

4. Sketch: A Visit With Former Vice President Al Gore
Premise: Recent Nobel Prize winner Al Gore gives a tour of his trophy room

5. SNL Digital Short: People Getting Punched Before Eating
Premise: See title

6. Sketch: MLB Postseason ’07 Promo #1
Premise: Dane Cook discusses the ALCS matchup

7. Sketch: La Rivista Della Televisione
Premise: Recurring spoof of an Italian talk show

8. Weekend Update
Guests: Maya, Samberg and Armisen

9. Foo Fighters “The Pretender”

10. Sketch: Spaceship Captain’s Missing Purse
Premise: A spaceship Captain focuses on her missing purse

11. Sketch: MLB Postseason ’07 Promo #2
Premise: Dane Cook discusses the NLCS matchup

12. Filmed Segment: Notre Dame on NBC
Premise: NBC tries to attract viewers to the current Notre Dame season

13. Sketch: Picking a Band Name
Premise: Members of Bon Jovi discuss their name

14. Sketch: Iconoclasts
Premise: Bjork and Charles Barkley have a discussion in this Sundance Channel spoof

15. End Credits/Bon Jovi “You Can’t Go Home”
Cameo: Jack Nicholson

TOTALS

37 / 60 Coneys

32 / 60 Coneys