“It’s also fun complaining”
Cold Open: Press Conference
3 Stars
Mitt Romney wants reporters to see him as the front runner in the election despite their wants to cover literally any other politician. Chris Christie shows up as the more electable candidate (that’s gonna change real quick).
Ben Stiller Monologue
3 Stars
Ben’s been fasting for Yom Kippur and Jewish Willy Wonka takes him to a land of magical Jewish food, with delicacies from salty to fishy. You’d think Andy would be more confident singing but for whatever reason he seems lost during the song. Props to the set design though.
Lincoln Financial Group
5 Stars
I believe this is a parody of a real commercial from the time. Jason meets his future self on an airplane and in this ad they decide to fuck each other. I loved old Jason trying to talk his younger self into it and young Jason’s “watch this” as he goes for his own old crotch.
Fox And Friends
4 Stars
2nd appearance after debuting late last season in the Helen Mirren episode. A whole lot of funny lines before the interview with Hank Williams Jr, who was in the news for comparing Obama to Hitler, and the interview was fun too. I paused to read the corrections scroll, my favorite was ‘Whole Foods does not provide free abortions’.
Lincoln Financial Group
4 Stars
We got a runner! Bill meets his older self and it’s a big, smelly, fat guy. He’s lost all his money and is gonna kill himself. He also tries for some older self on younger self action.
The Best Of Both Worlds
2 Stars
And we get another sketch brought back from last season’s Helen Mirren episode as Hugh Jackman hosts a talk show with fellow Hollywood actor/Broadway stars Mandy Patinkin, Clint Eastwood, and Daniel Radcliffe (played by the real Hugh Jackman). It’s weird that Hugh has only hosted once in 2001 despite a 20+ year A-list career. They do that thing I always hate where the real person meets their impression and it gets all meta. Does have a fun ending with all of them murdering Bobby but took a little while to get there.
V-Necks
2 Stars
Andy and Ben compete for who can have the deepest or most creative V-neck shirt. Leading to Ben with a V so deep his balls are hanging out. It seems like they ran out of ideas pretty quick as they get to balls after like 3 gags.
Jason as Hank Williams Jr sings us to commercial. This was awesome and something I wish the show would do more often. Made me miss G.E. Smith.
Foster The People
"Pumped Up Kicks"
Weekend Update
Nan Washingtom wrote a book about theme parties but when asked about it she can only talk about pancake parties. This felt like Garth and Kat without the Garth.
Stefon promotes clubs with human fire extinguishers and shaved lions that look like Mario Batali before being joined by Derek Zoolander.
Halloween Party
3 Stars
Last of 4 Shana sketches. I feel a little ashamed to enjoy these as much as I do. Maybe it’s because it’s slightly different than the normal Kristen sketch. Usually you have a group reacting to crazy Kristen (Penelope, Target Lady, Surprise Sue) but here you have one character infatuated with her. Or maybe it’s just because it’s funnier than the usual Kristen sketches. Shana grossly eats a caramel apple, throws things when she gets scared, farts, and eats peanuts from her poo. All to the delight of Ben and the disgust of everyone else.
Lincoln Financial Group
2 Stars
The third in our runner is a bit of a drag and not just because Ben dresses like a lady. It’s just a dude in a dress gag, at least it’s short.
Columbus Day Assblast
4 Stars
DJ Supersoak and Lil Blaster promote a festival with Baby Nutsack, Mrs. Potato Dick, Yo Gabba Gabba, the cast of Dinosaurs without their costumes, horny ass bonobos, and a crap-off with Greg Norman.
Bruce Springsteen: Just The Stories
2 Stars
A DVD with just the stories Bruce tells between songs. I liked Ben’s “hun, hoo, hee, hah” countdown after each story but this felt a bit like filler.
Foster The People return with "Houdini" and…is that Kenny G? And does this rock?
Tinyballs
2 Stars
Parody of Moneyball where instead of using statistics to win games they choose steroids. This feels like something that could have been cut at dress, the fact that it’s this late in the show makes me feel they didn’t have much confidence in it.
FINAL ANALYSIS
“Just Batman and bananas”
Average
3 Stars
MVP
Jason Sudeikis
Press Conference, Lincoln Financial Group, Fox And Friends, Columbus Day Assblast
Best Sketch
Fox And Friends
Worst Sketch
Tinyballs
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Cut the third Lincoln Financial Group and Tinyballs and give me another sketch. The show really started to peter out after Update with only one real live sketch (as most of the Springsteen sketch was pre-recorded). In fact this show felt much more pre-recorded than shows from this era. I wonder if Ben had anything to do with that given his want for more videos when he was a cast member.
Host Analysis
Seeing the success of his career and his first episode plus his alumni status, I was surprised this was the first time we’ve seen him in over a decade. Turns out we weren’t missing much. I didn’t really like him at all. His Bruce impression was probably the highlight. He wasn’t bad but he didn’t really bring anything with him.
Final Thoughts
A pretty ho-hum episode. Nothing bad but nothing great. It was a just fine episode with nothing I hated but also nothing I’ll be talking about on Monday.
Up Next
Anna Faris returns for her second time with musical guest Drake
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