Saturday Night Live Season 11 Reviews - Episode 10 - Jerry Hall / Stevie Ray Vaughn

 

"(I can't get no) service in this place"

Cold Open: Bar

4 Stars

Tommy Flanagan hits on Jerry Hall

Jerry Hall is sitting alone at a bar when Tommy Flanagan slides in.  The character must have taken off by this point because for the first time we get no introduction to who he is.  Previously he would usually throw in that he was a member or perhaps the president of Pathological Liars Anonymous, here he just starts lying.  First he tells her that he's a doctor, no a senator, no a TV producer, no a movie producer and he was visiting the royal family at the White House last night.  He also invented rock and roll and swing and used to manage The Rolling Stones.  Jerry doesn't seem to be buying into his lines and before you can say "Cameo we totally saw coming" Mick Jagger shows up.  He says he was with Tommy the other night and that's why he didn't come home.  He turns to the camera as he's leaving to say "Live from New York...".  Not a bad way to start the show, I like when they get the cameos and self referential humor out of the way.

Jerry Hall Monologue

1 Star

Jerry describes her Valentine's Day

Jerry had a great Valentine's Day, there were rose petals on the bed and Mick got down on one knee to propose, again.  You'd think after 8 years and 2 children he would stop trying.  Jerry doesn't need to get married because their relationship is so '80s.  She mentions that Mick is in her dressing room with the kids because it's hard to get a sitter on a Saturday night.  She then says that Stevie Ray Vaughn is here and he's funky and Sam Kinison is also here and he's funny.  Good thing this was short because she's not showing much signs of comedic timing.  A bad monologue from a host who's not funny sets the bar real low right out of the gate.

The Limits Of The Imagination

2 Stars

A tourist gets visited by a spirit

So this is the 5th time I've seen Randy Quaid's floating head and while it was cute the first couple of times, now it just seems like unnecessary filler.  A tour group is visiting the house where Cat On A Hot Tin Roof was filmed, Terry Sweeney stays behind to rest his broken foot when Jerry Hall enters to do some really bad acting as Elizabeth Taylor from that film.  She tries to seduce him but he's obviously not interested.  He keeps trying to drop hints as to why, he's a florist from San Francisco, he loves to cook, he collects antiques, he dresses up as Marilyn Monroe for Halloween... She is still persistent until finally he just screams that he's gay, "A fag with a capital F".  It was a bit jarring hearing the F-word on SNL but I guess Sweeney's allowed to say it, not like when Charles Rocket said the N-word.  Quaid comes in as Big Daddy and tells Sweeney to get busy making him a grandchild.  Of all the incarnations of this sketch so far, this one probably had the weakest premise, the execution wasn't anything to applaud either but most of that was due to Hall's laughably bad performance.

Models Against The Wilderness

3 Stars

Jerry Hall and her model friends crash land in Alaska

Jerry Hall is in a plane with fellow models Julian Lynch and Brooke Shields.  The plane is piloted by Brooke's chain-smoking mother, Teri, played by Sweeney in drag.  Teri goes to grab something that fell on the wing and falls off, this is done with a cutaway to a model airplane and a miniature Sweeney puppet which I found very funny.  They crash land in Alaska and lament that they only have limited supplies but instead of being worried about food and water they are more concerned with their lack of lip gloss and styling mousse.  Randy Quaid shows up eventually as Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione to rescue them and fly them back to his jacuzzi but are then rescued from Guccione by Sweeney.  A fairly silly sketch with obvious jokes was saved by fun performances by Sweeney, Cusack, Quaid and, surprisingly, Jerry Hall who seems to be best at playing herself.

Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble

"Say What"

This is pretty much a 5 minute instrumental blues riff.  While cool, it begs the question, why does he need a microphone?  We barely see his face as he wears a big hat and mostly looks down at his guitar the whole song.  Not a bad performance by any means but seeing as how I'm not really enjoying this episode yet, a more energetic and livelier musical guest would have boosted my enthusiasm.

Weekend Update With Dennis Miller

"For a second there I thought this might break out into a hootenanny"

I'm probably a little harder on Weekend Update when I'm not enjoying the episode.  When the episode is going good I'm all in for some acerbic Dennis Miller wit.  When the episode is a flop I'm desperately looking to him to raise my spirits so it's kind of a no win situation.  This installment had a lot more topical jokes that I am 30 years removed from but luckily there were some fun, absurd and random asides
"Boy that Nell Carter is a big woman, isn't she?"

"There's only 6 more weeks till the start of the baseball season so if you gave up baseball for lent you made a smart move."

We also get another visit from the Weekend Update dancers who interpret Russian international politics to the tune of Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know", which is just the right amount of stupid.

We then get a desk piece from Babette a French model who doesn't have a firm grasp on the English language despite living in America for 17 years.  She talks about some shit.  I didn't think this was funny at all but I did enjoy Dunn's performance.  My favorite line was when she said she wasn't comfortable talking to a big group of American, how do you say?, people?

Master Thespian

4 Stars

Master Thespian falls for his leading lady

Master Thespian is directing and starring in a film and has fallen in love with his leading lady.  On set they are gearing up for their big kissing scene but she wants more lines, Thespian agrees and before he calls action looks a live camel in the face and tells it to "prepare to improvise", this might be one of the greatest things I've seen on the show ever.  Unfortunately the rest of the sketch hinges on Jerry Hall delivering lines so it kind of falls apart.  They do the scene, they kiss, he yells cut and then confesses his real life love to her.  She isn't interested in him at all she was just, say it with me, acting!  If a better host were in this it may have been the best Master Thespian sketch yet but Hall kind of ruins it with her lifeless performance.  Still, that moment with the camel is a contender for top 10 best SNL moments of all time.

Sam Kinison

3 Stars

Sam sings a song for Valentine's Day

I haven't really enjoyed Sam this season but I got some laughs from this, even though if it seemed like more of the same.  He hates his ex-wife and screams a lot.  Jesus couldn't have been married because his wife would be wondering where he was when he was dead.  He's not afraid of telling Jesus jokes because after being married for 2 years, hell would be like a Club Med.  He then gets ready to sing a song for Valentine's Day.  He gets a spotlight and sets the mood before just screaming that she's a lying bitch who never loved him and he hopes she dies.  This was probably my favorite Kinison set of the year so far, I just don't find him very funny.

Line Of Death

3 Stars

2 girls stumble upon the Libyan border

Nora Dunn and Jerry Hall are sunbathing on a boat when they approach the line of death and are met by Muammar Gaddafi.  He says that they have entered Libyan waters and need to be murdered.  They refuse to take him seriously.
"It's a free country."
"No, it is not a free country, that is my point."
It was a fun but forgettable sketch bolstered by a good performance by Lovitz as Gaddafi.

The Pat Stevens Show

2 Stars

Pat interviews Jerry Hall

Oh man, it's a little too late in the show for some Pat Stevens.  You can't give me half of a show I'm not enjoying and then give the ball to Pat Stevens.  She reads a letter from a lady wanting travel advice, Pat brings her own stylish blindfold in case she gets taken hostage, which was pretty funny.  Then Jerry Hall comes out and, just like with the Dudley Moore episode, this feels sloppy and unrehearsed.  Maybe it's just that Hall is not a good actress and seems uncomfortable on screen, but this feels unscripted.  Like Nora Dunn had the confidence to go on live TV with a person who with no comedic expertise without a script.  If that's the case she is either the dumbest person ever on the show or the ballsiest.  I think it's just that Hall is not a good actress though because she mostly just giggles throughout the whole sketch.

Mick Jagger shows up at home base to help Jerry Hall re-introduce Stevie Ray Vaughn to perform "Change It" with the help of Jimmie Vaughn from The Fabulous Thunderbirds.  I liked this song a lot better than the first

Sore Toe

4 Stars

A man is just trying to rest his sore toe

Before I start, this is one of those sketches where I can imagine someone might think this is the worst SNL sketch ever, for some reason it was just stupid enough for me to love it.  Quaid and Hall are discussing his sore toe and she goes to make him some soup.  Downey comes in as his son and he's got a hammer and a couple of nails, Quaid points out that there's a loose floorboard right next to his sore toe and he really wishes that he could put a nail into it.  Downey starts hammering wildly and inaccurately because he hates his contacts and refuses to wear them.  Cusack then comes in as Quaid's daughter and she's bought a new snapping turtle that she sets down next to dad's sore toe and it's also time for his scalding hot soup which he suggests gets put on a rickety old stool that they've been meaning to fix, and they might as well set it right next to his sore toe.  Maybe it was just Stockholm Syndrome, but I loved this.  The absurdity and stupidity kept heightening to the point where I was really loving the sketch but it ends with Quaid going down to the basement and hanging himself.  Now, to be fair, I can't think of how to end this sketch but I wish it would have had a better ending.  Still, a fun way to end a lackluster episode.

FINAL ANALYSIS

"God put models on this earth for a reason, to look as good as we can until we're 31 or 32 and we just can't do it anymore."

Average

2.9 Stars

MVP

Jon Lovitz
Cold Open, Master Thespian, Line Of Death

Best Sketch

Sore Toe

Worst Sketch

The Limits Of The Imagination

How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It

Pat Stevens Show needs to move up and Limits Of The Imagination needs to move down.  I don't make the rules but there is something just inherently wrong with Pat Stevens interviewing Jerry Hall at the end of the show after we've seen her try to act all night and play characters.  I think my issue with it is Jerry Hall is not an actress so I'm expecting her to play herself, having her play herself and models after watching her try to act seems like a cheat.  It's like you have to earn the right to play a character and Jerry Hall hadn't earned it yet so she played a character first and then hid behind playing herself the rest of the night.  Nobody wants to wait to see the thing they expected to see all night.

Host Analysis

You know how last week Ron Reagan was only in 2 sketches?  That's how it's done when your host is not the most charismatic person.  For some reason they put Jerry Hall in every sketch, including the cold open.  I couldn't get away from her.

Final Thoughts

At least the writers stepped up their game this week.  Looking back on the sketches, they were all good ideas and well written, even if Jerry Hall derailed them.

Up Next

Future Tonight Show host and entertainment pariah Jay Leno hosts.  I used to love Leno when I was a kid, it wasn't until the Conan O'Brien snafu that I started to dislike him.  He's not the greatest actor in the world but he's a talented stand-up so I'm hoping for a bit of a quality boost.