SNL: S24E01... HOST: CAMERON DIAZ... DATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 1998

SNL: S24E01... HOST: CAMERON DIAZ... DATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a parody called Oprah 2002 that took us to the, then, future where the first joke was that it seemed like Tracy Morgan was portraying a future fat Oprah but it turned out he was just a pork chop eating announcer who introduced Tim Meadows as the Oprah that we’re used to. As for the actual sketch they used this future motif to allow Oprah to interview the key players in the 1998 Bill Clinton sex scandal between our president and his intern Monica Lewinsky with the freedom of knowing Bill’s second term was already done so they could say whatever they want. It also allowed for enough time to pass for this gathering of controversial characters to be more of a happy reunion than the more cutting interactions that took place when the scandal was actually going on which is sad because it does highlight how even the worst of our political scandals become almost quaint with the passage of time allowing the people in charge to do what they want and simply ride out any backlash. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Cameron Diaz then officially opened the show with a monolog where she made a quick hair joke in reference to her role in There’s Something About Mary before she randomly confronted an innocent audience member who was played by one of my favorite lesser-known comedians turned SNL writer, Hugh Fink. Though this routine was pretty fun, the shift in attitude came from so far out of the blue that it felt forced and awkward the way it actually played out.
  3. This was followed by a parody ad for MasterCard that used the Clinton/Lewinski sex scandal to add to the “Priceless” MasterCard marketing campaign that was huge at the time.  
  4. We then got another parody of The View that played out as usual only this time they had on Will Ferrell as Mark McGwire to play their special guest in order to talk about his human growth hormone controversy from the time. Other than that, it was the same old parody of the real show and other than Tracy Morgan’s random outburst, I’ve never been a big fan of either.
  5. This was followed by the classic fake ad for Oops! I Crapped My Pants which was an adult diaper that could hold up to a gallon of fecal matter that was marketed to people who were too old to know what their bladders were up to.
  6. The Ladies Man the returned for another installment where this time Leon Phelps had on Cameron Diaz, who was playing a local actress, in order to act out the Kenneth Starr Report on Clinton as if it was a scene from a movie. 
  7. This was followed by a parody ad for The Best Of The First 20 Minutes that made fun of the bonus video collection that SNL put out the year before and marketed a series that offered tapes of the first twenty minutes of the show before the episode had finished its original airing.
  8. We then got a parody of The New Hollywood Squares which allowed the entire cast along with the host to practice their obscure impersonation in order to make fun of the original game show which was nothing more than a celebrity-filled version of tic-tac-toe. During the first question, the tic-tac-toe structure came crashing to the ground bringing all of the celebrities with it but this didn’t stop the host from continuing on with the show.
  9. TV Funhouse then returned with another installment of Fun With Real Audio. This week Robert Smigel featured a crazy animation over the real audio of Bill Clinton as he made an address on the issues that came up thanks to The Starr Report.
  10. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Tracy Morgan’s Dominican Lou character returned and attempted to sell Gary Gaetti’s baseball that he came across somehow, thinking that it would bring in as much money as the Sammy Sosa ball that sold for a million dollars, figuring it may not be the Sosa ball but it was used in the same game.
  11. Smashing Pumpkins then took to the stage to perform Perfect.
  12. The Roxbury Guys then returned for more of their usual head bobbing until they lost their woman of interest who was played by Cameron Diaz to Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin who made a special appearance as their “Two wild and crazy guys,” characters.
  13. Witches Brew was a sketch where a trio of witches used crazy metaphors in their efforts to describe the foul smell that was coming from their witch’s brew.
  14. This was followed by a Gap Ad parody where Bill Clinton pitched Gap products while playing his sax and lying about Lewinski.
  15. Jingleheimer Junction was a parody of a kids’ show where Will Ferrell played a newcomer named Fred Friendship. Being the Jingleheimer tradition was to have the kids of the show wearing shirts with the first letter of their name, Friendly Fred’s “F” led to a stick situation considering the other three kids’ names started with a “U,” a “C,” and a “K.”  
  16. We then got a second installment of the Gap Ad parody where this time Hillary Clinton pitch gap products while playing a guitar and defending her philandering husband and finding it to be a difficult task to do.
  17. This was followed by another A Message From The Spice Girls which was a PSA about teenage pregnancy and things to think of when you’re about to have a child.
  18. Maakies brought animated segment to Saturday Night Live that featured a crow with a dead-end job of loading acorns into a stump for his friend the squirrel. He kept working for the squirrel until he was able to save up to afford a gun and enough booze to give him the courage and ability to kill himself.
  19. This was followed by the third and final installment of tonight’s Gap Ad parody where this time Kenneth Starr was the star of the spot but he didn’t do much at all.
  20. Finally, Cameron Diaz closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E02... HOST: KELSEY GRAMMER... DATE: OCTOBER 3, 1998

SNL: S24E02... HOST: KELSEY GRAMMER... DATE: OCTOBER 3, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with Bedtime At The White House which followed a fuming Hillary Clinton as she ignored Bill Clinton while the two were in bed following the release of The Starr Report that shared the full details of the Clinton/Lewinski scandal. To cope with the silence Bill decided to turn on the TV only to quickly find it to be a bad move considering the affair was being covered by every single channel he turned to. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Kelsey Grammer then officially opened the show with a monolog where he talked about how great it felt to be able to use SNL since it allows him to play more than just one character. He then joked that most people know him from his role in the movie Down Periscope. After the joke got a couple of chuckles he went on to promote Frasier and sang a few rejected versions of the Frasier theme song.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for KCF Shredders where new cast member, Jimmy Fallon played a teen who pitched this new hip treat made up of a head of lettuce with a large scoop of mayo that he claimed to be the snacker for his generations.
  4. Delicious Dish then returned for another installment where this time the monotoned NPR hosts went on the road for an outdoor special in order to have on Kelsey Grammer as a wilderness fanatic to talk about his favorite food. The calm interview eventually led to a slowly told tale of the time that he practiced cannibalism while off on one of his ventures.
  5. We then got a fake political ad called Terry Ferguson For Senate where Will Ferrell reassured the voters that he would never let them down with a sex scandal since he lost his genitals in an accident involving fire.
  6. This was followed by a special visit from Shaquille O’Neal to introduce Tracy Morgan’s Bernard character who played the “teenage” basketball player’s dad that paddled Shag’s gigantic ass for coming home too late in the evening.
  7. We then got a second installment of the fake Terry Ferguson For Senate ad where, this time, Ferrell claimed to not be a Washington insider before reminding the voters that he lost his genitals in a fire and doesn’t even think about sex because it caused phantom pains.
  8. Private Eye was a noir style sketch where Kelsey Grammer played a private eye whose inner monolog kept being distracted from the matter at hand as his burrito obsession filled his brain to where he couldn’t focus on anything else.
  9. We then got a sketch called Hose 'em Down! In it, Kelsey Grammer played a new director of the show Baywatch kept pushing the actors to show real emotions before having them blasted with a hose to create the beach atmosphere.
  10. The Best Of Horatio Sanz was another sketch that made fun of the recent release of a collection of Best Of SNL tapes, while also making fun of the fact that Horatio had only been in a handful of sketches at this time and for the most part was only in the background.
  11. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Kelsey Grammer played a tropical storm named George in order to share his complaints about the National Weather Service after he was downgraded from being a hurricane.
  12. Sheryl Crow then took to the stage to perform My Favorite Mistake.
  13. Mr. Peepers then returned after a long absence where this week Kelsey Grammer played a sociologist who tried to introduce the monkey man to his upper-crust friends after discovering him in a jungle. Grammer failed hard at getting Peepers to adapt to society because his human looks made it hard for others to accept that deep down he was still just a literal animal.
  14. Maakies comic strip inspired animation then returned where this week a rat got cut in half by the captain of a ship who was trying to scare off all of the rodents. Friends of the sliced rat then took him to a doctor whose solution was to save the top half by sewing it onto the bottom half of a fish creating a mermaid of sorts.
  15. Morning Latte then returned for another installment where this time Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell played the over-caffeinated hosts who had on Shaquille O’Neal as their guest but kept randomly interacting with the show producer played by Chris Kattan about a recent sexual harassment lawsuit.
  16. Hello Dolly was a Home Shopping Network sketch where Kelsey Grammer and Ana Gasteyer pitched a collection of dolls and end up sharing some very bizarre facts about themselves in between trying to talk up the product.
  17. ESPN2 Lumberjack Classic gave us parody coverage of one of my favorite sports. In the sketch, Will Ferrell played a lumberjack who won his competition and went on to thank Jesus for helping him win and then thank him even more for snubbing his competitors who were played by Horatio Sanz and Chris Kattan.
  18. Finally, Kelsey Grammer closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E03... HOST: LUCY LAWLESS... DATE: OCTOBER 17, 1998

SNL: S24E03... HOST: LUCY LAWLESS... DATE: OCTOBER 17, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a parody of NBC News Special Report where Chris Parnell took over the Tom Brokaw impersonation and had on Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond and Cheri Oteri played arrogant Republicans Henry Hyde, Jesse Helms and Mary Bono as his guests in order to share how confused they were that America still seemed to love Bill Clinton even though he was on the verge of being impeached. This confusion makes the guest more aggressive in sharing their plans for America once the Republicans are back in command. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Lucy Lawless then officially opened the show with a monolog where she got a cheer from the crowd by mentioning a Yankees win and then went on to promote Xena, only to be interrupted by a very young Jimmy Fallon who asked her about being a lesbian. This led to a line of lesbian-themed questions from the audience about the sexual preference of both Lucy Lawless as herself and her as Xena: Warrior Princess. This included a quick question from Tina Fey, who was still a non-performing writer at the time this originally aired.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for Shirt In A Can which was pretty much just spray paint that allowed users to quickly cover themselves with color in order to solve any wardrobe issues that may arise. One of the selling points is how the burning sensation of the spray is what lets you know that it’s working.
  4. We then got another parody of Judge Judy with Cheri Oteri as the Judge and Tracy Morgan as her trusty bailiff/sidekick. This week’s case, once again, had Ana Gasteyer as the defendant and this time she was getting sued by Lucy Lawless for not paying for her services after discovering that Lawless was a stripper clown who was completely inappropriate for her son’s birthday party. The sketch went right up until Cheri Oteri was going to give her verdict when the real Judge Judy broke the scene in order to shut Cheri down and give a verdict of her own. As always, Judge Judy sided with the plaintiff even though it was completely clear that Lawless was in the wrong.
  5. The History Of Presidential Scandal was a parody profile sketch that shared a few legitimate scandals from our presidential past, ending on a fictional scandal where they claimed Andrew Johnson had sex with a bird.
  6. This was followed by a parody of MSNBC: White House In Crisis where a collection of female MSNBC reporters who handled the Clinton/Lewinski scandal with a slumber party mentality, spreading gossip and talking trash instead of strictly sticking to the news.
  7. TV Funhouse the returned with another installment of Fun With Real Audio where this time Robert Smigel animated a segment from the Howard Stern radio show where Howard criticized the SNL while offering suggestions on easy it would be to fix it since he used to be a fan since it was a bit of a friendly feud.
  8. Stevie Nicks' Fajita Roundup had Lucy Lawless play Stevie Nicks in order to sing parodies of Stevie’s songs that promoted her new fictional Fajita themed restaurant.
  9. The How Do You Say, Ah Yes, Show was a talk show where Chris Kattan played sexy host, Antonio Banderas who had to fight through his accent in order to interview Lucy Lawless as an author who was there to promote her latest book about Lyme Disease.
  10. The History of Presidential Scandal then returned for another installment where this time they jumped straight to the point as it claimed Lyndon B. Johnson’s Mexican whores’ nickname for the leader was El B.J. instead of L.B.J.
  11. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Colin Quinn almost got stabbed twice after falling for the doll Chucky from Child Play’s attempts to sneak in as a commentator in order to share his views about the Lewinski affair. The second stabbing almost came when Chucky returned disguised as Dominican Lou in order to talk about the World Series since the puppet was there to promote his new movie, The Bride Of Chucky.
  12. Elliot Smith then took to the stage to perform Waltz #2.
  13. We then got another parody of Biography where Darrell Hammond played the drunken host who was drinking because the show has already covered the greats which meant that he now was stuck narrating the life of Puff Daddy.
  14. This was followed by the return of Terrance Maddox where once again, Will Ferrell’s homeless looking character stood in as a nude model for an art class and went on to creep the students out while they attempted to work.
  15. Goth Talk also returned after a bit of a hiatus and this time the two gothic cable access hosts celebrated the opening of a brand new gothic boutique and had on Lucy Lawless as their guest because she was the store owner.
  16. The Culps were the final set of reoccurring characters to return and this time the singing instructing duo performed a medley of pop songs at the World Series.
  17. Finally, Lucy Lawless closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.
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SNL: S24E04... HOST: BEN STILLER... DATE: OCTOBER 24, 1998

SNL: S24E04... HOST: BEN STILLER... DATE: OCTOBER 24, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a Rooftop Kung Fu Fight where Ben Stiller had a rooftop Kung Fu battle with Lorne Michaels after finding out that the SNL producer was the former cast member actual father. We learned of this fact during the actual fight which started because Ben Stiller’s head was getting too big over the fact that he now held all of the control as the host as opposed to his experience as a member of the SNL cast. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Ben Stiller then officially opened the show with a monolog that continued on from the opening sketch where our host ran to the main stage after his fall from the rooftop fight and then went on to unknowingly accept applause from the audience, unaware that they were actually cheering for the results of the Yankees World Series win as several of the Yankee players joined our host on the stage without him knowing since he was too busy talking up his career.
  3. This was followed by another installment of Celebrity Jeopardy where this time Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek hand to wrangle Ben Stiller as Tom Cruise, Jimmy Fallon as Adam Sandler, and Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery while also trying to host his game show.
  4. Pretty Living also returned and once again, Ana Gasteyer as host interviewed Molly Shannon’s Helen Madden “joyologist” character who is more manic that joyful, who constantly says, “I love it, I love it, I love it.” Though I like this “joyologist” character the fact that she always and only has ever played a guest on this, otherwise lame, parody talk show makes her seem extra repetitive. I can’t wait for Helen Madden to venture out into other scenes. Toward the end of this sketch, Ben Stiller came out as Helen’s fitness guru which added to the fun but didn’t really change my overall opinion about the sketch.
  5. TV Funhouse then took over SNL to give us an animation “from the Family Christian Value Network” where a preacher/superhero named Hete-Roy was on a special mission was to transform all gay people into heterosexuals.
  6. Alanis Morissette then took to the stage to perform Thank U.
  7. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Jimmy Fallon made his first appearance as himself in order to share a few songs that he planned to sing while out Halloween Caroling. Unlike Sandler, who performed original songs for the holidays, these songs were Halloween-themed parodies of hits from the day. Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell also dropped in as Yassir Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu in order to discuss the latest Middle East peace Talks where Netanyahu uses a full globe to highlight just how small the land being fought over actually is when looking at the world as a whole. They also joke that this will not lead to peace but it’s just part of the give and take that comes with a never-ending war.
  8. The Zimmermanns also returned for another segment where Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri continued on as a couple who can’t control their public displays of affection which, as always, leads to an awkward double date between them and Ben Stiller and Ana Gasteyer who they had over to celebrate Halloween.
  9. This was followed by a parody of Real Stories Of The Highway Patrol where Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell played a pair of racist cops who harassed Tim Meadows and Horatio Sanz during a routine pullover. Though the cops’ racism was expressed through jokes, this sketch still felt a little too on the nose as far as cops and race goes for this sketch to be all that funny, especially through modern eyes.
  10. Alanis Morissette then returned to the stage to perform Baba.
  11. Kevin Still Lives With His Parents was a sketch where Ana Gasteyer and Chris Parnell played the parent of Ben Stiller (AKA the titular Kevin) who was an angry adult who refused to leave the nest. It turns out that the anger actually stems from Kevin feeling that his parents are too pleasant, making it too easy for him to not want to leave the house and is desperate for some discipline.
  12. Steve Wynn's Bellagio Hotel And Casino was a parody ad of sorts where Ben Stiller played the titular Steve Wynn who bragged about his Bellagio building which was the first one in Las Vegas that took over a billion dollars to build.
  13. This was followed by the parody series of Bat Problem Campaign Ads where Ben Stiller and Tim Meadows played two politicians who had different promises as to how they would take care of their town’s bat problem which got more extreme as the series went on.
  14. Finally, Ben Stiller closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E05... HOST: DAVID SPADE... DATE: NOVEMBER 7, 1998

SNL: S24E05... HOST: DAVID SPADE... DATE: NOVEMBER 7, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with David Spade's Therapy Session where prior to returning to the show as a host Spade shared details of his fear of success to his therapist who, after a surprise reveal, we learned was played by Brad Pitt. Of course, with this being the opening sketch this eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. David Spade then officially opened the show with a bit of a stand-up routine where our homecoming host joked about a drunken encounter with a polar bear while on a trip to the zoo and followed this up with a bit about the suspects on the show COPS.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for the Mercury Mistress which was a luxury car that was designed so that drivers could have sex with it.
  4. Monica's Interviewers showed Molly Shannon as Monica Lewinsky as she ran through a long line of interviews from various talk show hosts since this was the style of interview where the hosts come to the guest and not the other way around.
  5. We then got a fake political ad for Mack North who was such a jerk that he kept making attack ads against his opponent even after he beat him in the race and the election was already over. 
  6. Accruing Equity And Making Hot, Sweet Love was a talk show sketch hosted by Will Ferrell who along with his guest spent the segment talking about financial news from the day and followed up sharing their insights by switching the focus to talk about making hot, sweet love.
  7. This was followed by another Mack North ad where he continued to attack his political opponent through advertising even though the election was over.
  8. The Sensitive Drill Sergeant had Will Ferrell as the titular Drill Sergeant who yells and screams at his cadets like a traditional troop leader but everything being shouted focused on very emotional matters.
  9. Mango & Kiwi introduced Chris Kattan’s Mango character to David Spade as Kiwi and the two butted heads right out the gate since they were in competition. To add to the conflict, Kiwi’s hypnotic male stripper powers worked better than Mango’s to the point where he won over Chris Rock as a new fan. The feud continued to grow until the two ended up hypnotizing one another with their dance and drove off together like Thelma And Louise 
  10. We then completed the rule of three with another post-election attack ad that was financed by Mack North who continued to mock his failure of an opponent.
  11. Happy Birthday, Grandma had Will Ferrell talking over the phone to his mom. Soon after finding out that it was the mother’s birthday, Ferrell forced his three children to sing Happy Birthday to their grandma and then yelled at them for messing the song up. He then made the kids sing again, warning them that they better not screw up again because he was tired of them making him look like an ass. This goes on over and over again until we learn where Will got his anger from after he yells at his mom over the phone.
  12. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, David Spade dropped in to bring back Hollywood Minute with the help from a puppet version of himself since Spade claimed that he was so out of practice that he didn’t want to do it himself.
  13. Eagle-Eye Cherry then took to the stage to perform Save Tonight.
  14. Felicity Shoot took us behind the scenes during the filming of Felicity where David Spade played a new character who was being introduced to the show. I’ve never seen the real show but thankfully the joke was that David Spade would speak everyone’s lines and not just his own. This allowed me to find the sketch funny even though I didn’t get any of the show references that may have been slipped in.
  15. Dr. Laura was a parody of the Dr. Laura Schlessinger talk show where Ana Gasteyer played the titular host who berated her callers without seeming all that concerned that it was Take Your Child To Work Day.
  16. We then went to a Bachelor Party where David Spade security for a stripper and set down the rules for how his guest should behave which included rules as to what the guy could and couldn’t do. As he shared these rules he kept bouncing back and forth from being super protective when the guys were being too crude but then would get filthy himself when describing what the girls will do.
  17. Finally, David Spade closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E06... HOST: JOAN ALLEN... DATE: NOVEMBER 14, 1998

SNL: S24E06... HOST: JOAN ALLEN... DATE: NOVEMBER 14, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a sketch called Opposites Attract which first had Will Ferrell as Bob Livingston helping Chris Parnell as Newt Gingrich pack up his office after taking Newt’s job as The Speaker Of The House. Eventually, Darrell Hammond as President Clinton entered the room and he and Newt reflected upon the time they’ve spent together through song and dance after forcing Livingston to leave. Of course, with this being the opening sketch the song and dance built to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Joan Allen then officially opened the show with a monolog about how she is out of her element working in comedy and how she thinks she’ll do fine thanks to her experience working live as an actress who often worked at the Steppenwolf Theaters. This led a burn-out character played by Will Ferrell to interrupt as a Steppenwolf fan who wanted our host to sing the band’s hit song Magic Carpet Ride.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for The Jenson Mint which offered a fake currency that allowed the rich to look like good guys while handing out fake cash to hobos. These coins and bills not only cost more than the real currency that it was meant to replace, it was marked as stolen so that if a homeless person did attempt to cash it in, they’d only end up in jail.
  4. This was followed by another parody of Martha Stewart Living with Ana Gasteyer as Martha who tried to host her usual show while also having to take the abuse of her overbearing mother who was played by our host Joan Allen.
  5. VH-1 Spirituality Awards was a parody of a reward show for spiritual leaders that allowed the cast and the host to try out some obscure impersonations of celebrities and religious figures of the day to make fun of the award show format in general.
  6. Chris Kattan’s mumble-mouthed, Suel Forrester then returned but this time as a lawyer who no one could understand as he tried to interrogate special guest John Goodman.
  7. Space, The Infinite Frontier also returned for another installment where Will Ferrell played the recently passed Harry Caray to continue his space-themed learning show, even though in the world of the sketch he was also dead which really confused his guest who was played by Joan Allen.
  8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Cheri Oteri’s pill-popping character dropped in to comment on a new drug that claimed to be side-effect-free that she had her eye on.
  9. Jewel then took to the stage to perform Hands.
  10. Learning With Jennifer Tilly had Joan Allen as herself along with Jimmy Fallon as French Stewart unwillingly ended up as guests on Cheri Oteri as Jennifer Tilly’s talk show where there wasn’t much learning at all.
  11. Southern Gals had all of the females of the show acting as Southerners as they took in the sights of New York City and we got to see their small town reactions to coping with the big city world. In the sketch, we caught the women in a pizza shop taking a break from their tourist trap filled activities as opposed to a sketch where they could have taken to the street with video cameras for some prerecorded material.
  12. Jewel then returned to the stage to perform Down So Long.
  13. Tarmac Talk had Jimmy Fallon as Jerry Seinfeld who had to endure being a guest on a talk show that was set up on a windy airport tarmac in order to share his observations about airline food while he and the hosts kept getting blown around the set whenever a plane would come or go.
  14. Finally, Joan Allen closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.
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SNL: S24E07... HOST: JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT... DATE: NOVEMBER 21, 1998

SNL: S24E07... HOST: JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT... DATE: NOVEMBER 21, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a recreation of a Lewinsky/Tripp Phone Chat where they claimed to use an expert to analyze the ambient sounds during a recorded phone conversation between Molly Shannon as Monica Lewinski and John Goodman as Linda Tripp in order to recreate what the two were actually doing while they talked. It turned out they both mainly ate while talking about the Clinton affair. At one point, Tripp made a visit to the bathroom but for the most part, all of the humor came from all of the eating going on which feels like a cheap joke even for the time. As always, with this being the opening sketch the overeating kept going all the way up to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Jennifer Love Hewitt then officially opened the show with a monolog about how excited she was to host and then went on to open up about a rumored feud between her and one of her co-stars. I’m not sure who the real co-star being referenced was but for the joke, it turned out to be the killer from I Know What You Did Last Summer, which I can only assume was playing against expectations. Either way, the two went on to sing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart as a duet.
  3. The Ladies Man then returned for another installment where this time Leon Phelps wished a Happy Skanksgiving to all of his fans before taking a couple of calls. During one of the calls, he goes on to explain that Skanksgiving is a day where all the lonely ladies, who are under two-hundred and fifty pounds are welcome to celebrate with The Ladies Man.
  4. This was followed by a fake ad for an album called More Duets That Prove That I Am The Best Singer In The World where Ana Gasteyer as Celine Dion tried to display her dominance on her latest self-indulgent album.
  5. The How Do You Say? Ah Yes, Show then returned for another installment where once again they pretty much just made fun of “host,” Antonio Banderas’s accent while he tried to sexually assault Jennifer Love Hewitt who he had on as her guest.
  6. The Spartans also returned for another installment where this time the cheerleaders worked as candy strippers at the local hospital and struggled to hold back from performing the perfect cheer while Jennifer Love Hewitt tried to deliver her child.
  7. TV Funhouse then brought us another installment of The Ambiguously Gay Duo where this week the two homoerotic heroes answered some viewer main and gave ambiguously gay answers to the blatantly gay letters being read.
  8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week there were no special guests, just Colin Quinn, and the news.
  9. The Beastie Boys took to the stage to perform Three MC's And One DJ.
  10. Clean Teen Deodorant Spokesperson Search brought the return of Mary Katherine Gallagher who tried out to be the spokesperson against Cheri Oteri, Horatio Sanz, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. All of the finalists are neurotic spazzes except for Jennifer Love who would have been a hands-down winner if this were real but after ruling out Oteri and Sanz, JLH and MKG had to participate in a talent contest where Mary Katherine did a monolog and destroyed the entire set in the process which also caused her to sweat and stink which is want the producers wanted over Love Hewitt who openly admitted that she naturally smells like vanilla.
  11. Let's Make This Happen! was a game show sketch where contestants pitched their crazy movie ideas to Tim Meadows as the host who then got to decide which project he wanted to greenlight.
  12. The Beastie Boys then returned to the stage to perform Sabotage.
  13. Saddam's Private Bunker had Will Ferrell as the evil dictator who tried to stop the U.N. inspectors from searching his personal bunker, more because he was afraid that they’d find out he was a freak because of the things that he own since he had no weapons to hide but his misplaced fears did nothing but make him look guilty.
  14. Finally, Jennifer Love Hewitt closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights. 
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SNL: S24E08... HOST: VINCE VAUGHN... DATE: DECEMBER 5, 1998

SNL: S24E08... HOST: VINCE VAUGHN... DATE: DECEMBER 5, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with parody coverage of the Bill Clinton Impeachment Hearings where many members of the cast got to impersonate politicians and various random celebrity witnesses in order to add their two cents to the impeachment process that stemmed from the obstruction of justice and perjury claims that came from the Clinton/Lewinski affair. As always, with this being an opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Vince Vaughn then officially opened the show with a monolog but before he could even finish the usual host pleasantries about being happy to be in New York hosting the show, he was interupted by Darrell Hammond as Alfred Hitchcock who claimed to have been back from the netherworld in order to admit that he feels Lauyn Hill is awsome even though Vaughn correctly felt that the deceased auteur was actually there out of anger since our host was there to promote the shot-for-shot remake of Psycho which I don’t think went over all that well with the critics.
  3. This was followed by a repeat of the Oops! I Crapped My Pants commercial from earlier in the season which marketed diapers for old people that claimed it could hold up to a gallon of feces.
  4. Dog Show was a cable access show of a sketch where Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon played two dog fanatics who hosted said show with their favorite pets as their sidekicks. A bulk of the humor came from Will Ferrell having to wrangle his horny little dog while trying to read viewer mail. Toward the end of the sketch, Vince Vaughn dropped in as a wheelchair-bound old guy who sang a quick song about his dog but this just felt like a way to crowbar the host into the first non-opening sketch of the night.
  5. Mr. Peepers In Las Vegas had Chris Kattan as the monkey man who was in Las Vegas to parody the movie swingers with Peepers playing the Jon Favreau role.
  6. The Joys of Marriage had Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, and Jimmy Fallon as three friends who were just hanging out. In the sketch, both Vaughn and Ferrell were married and shared a bunch of stories about how great marriage is, going against every cliché jokes about marriage that are usually used in comedy. This was so shocking to Fallon who recently got engaged that he lost any fear that he had over his upcoming nuptials. It wasn’t until Fallon was gone to use the bathroom that the two married lads let on that they were just telling lies to get their friend to join them in their misery.
  7. This was followed by a fake ad that started out sounding like it was a serious ad for a college and how being an educated person could help lead to a better world. That is until it was revealed that the education intro was just the backdrop to set up our commercial’s hero’s average before showing how he handles the night with his trusty Brew Dude hat that sprayed beer all over the room, instantly turning our hero into the life of the party.
  8. John Lennon Memorial took place in a park where Vince Vaughn, Cheri Oteri, and Chris Kattan were honoring the late John Lennon’s birthday before getting a visit from his ghost. The three Lennon fans quickly became annoyed by the ghost of their biggest hero as he talked in circles in an effort to make himself seem like a deep thinker. The three then said screw it and ventured to San Francisco only to be annoyed by the ghost of Jerry Garcia’s rambling stoner philosophy.
  9. Exxon-Mobil Merger took place in a small town that had an Exxon gas station on one side of the street and a Mobil gas station on the other. We then went in to the Exxon shop where Vince Vaughn and Chris Parnell were working and Will Ferrell came in from Mobil to talk to the two about the news. At first, they argued over which company was the one doing the purchasing and which one had been purchased while showing loyalty to whichever gas station the person talking was working for until they found out that the merger meant that both gas stations were getting shut down which led any loyalty to go out the door.  
  10. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Ana Gasteyer’s folk-singing comedian character named Cinder Calhoun reported from the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree that she was chained to in order to protest the commercialization and tree-killing that comes with this giving time of year. She then sang a Tenacious D sounding song about the slaughtering of Christmas trees.
  11. Lauryn Hill then took to the stage to perform Doo Wop (That Thing).
  12. We then got a parody of Psycho where Cheri Oteri played what Norman Bates imagined of his mother while he envisioned that she was still alive. It turned out that the Psycho’s mom was more overbearing, treating him like a little kid who she loved to the point of being obnoxious, over being the abusive mom that you’d think.
  13. Pimp Chat was a talk show that aired on The Pimp Channel and took place in a pimped out limo with Tracy Morgan as host, Bishop Don “Mack” Donald, who was a parody of the real Bishop Don “Magic” Juan, and his sidekick Tim Meadows as Pimpin’ Kyle. The two went on to announce the winners of their Pimp Of The Week Award that went to Bill Clinton before having on Vince Vaughn as their guest to discuss what it’s like to be a white pimp.
  14. Lauryn Hill then returned to the stage to perform Ex-Factor.
  15. Delco Cat Toys took place in a corporate meeting room where Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell talked as if they were executives at some important Fortune 500 company, only to have Chris Parnell enter the scene to reveal this was actually a company that made cat toys but were still just as serious about the business as if their products were the most important things in the world. To add to the humor, Ferrell and Vaughn would have to act like cats in order to test new products as they came in.
  16. Finally, Vince Vaughn closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E09... HOST: ALEC BALDWIN... DATE: DECEMBER 12, 1998

SNL: S24E09... HOST: ALEC BALDWIN... DATE: DECEMBER 12, 1998

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with A Message From The President Of The United States where Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton admitted that he was sorry for the impeachment trial. This sketch must have been in reference to an actual address because the audience laughed a lot at certain statements and the overall tone that didn’t seem funny at all minus having the reference material to rely on. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it all built up to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Alec Baldwin then officially opened the show with a monolog where he went through the usual opening pleasantries before breaking down and admitting the state of the world had him too rundown to be in the mood to joke around. He was then interrupted by John Goodman as the Ghost Of SNL Hosts Present, who offered our current host a glimpse backstage to see how excited the cast was to work with him while also learning that Lorne was threatening the cast that if tonight’s show wasn’t good their time at SNL would be over. Goodman then left and Jimmy Fallon took his place as the Ghost Of SNL Hosts Future who took Alec to the show in 2011 where Fallon was the host and was still making fun of Baldwin over tonight’s appearance since it was such an epic failure. This look at the future changed Baldwin’s attitude back to where he enthusiastic to host in order to avoid the future jokes at his expense.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for NBA On NBC that promised an extra exciting season since it would be following all of the players in court as they tried to work through their contract negotiations in order to end their strike and get back to playing the game.
  4. Morning Latte then returned or another installment where Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri revised their over-caffeinated morning show host who kept making fun of their new pot-smoking producer, played by Alec Baldwin while they share stories of the time spent at his Christmas party.
  5. Cassidy took place in a hospital and had Alec Baldwin as the titular Cassidy who was supposed to be an ill six-year-old girl that had a rare condition that made her look like Alec as himself as a full-grown man. His looks made it hard for Molly Shannon to resist falling in love as she attempted to lift Cassidy spirits as a female version of Patch Adams.
  6. TV Funhouse then returned to give us an animation showing the Harlem Globetrotters on their first Christmas where they traveled back in time to take on the Three Wise Men on the day that Jesus was born. With baby Jesus on the Wise Men’s team, the game was super close but the Globetrotters still won in the end.
  7. 10-10-1776-5-28-1830-242-3-316-68-22 was a fake ad for a new way to make long distance calls in order to save a few bucks because this was still back in the days of land-lines where this type of discount code that you’d dial into your phone was pretty common.
  8. Luciano Pavarotti and Vanessa Williams then took to the stage to perform Adeste Fideles.
  9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Tim Meadows dropped in as Kwanzaa Timmy to perform an erotic Kwanzaa themed song in an attempt to explain Kwanzaa traditions, with Vanessa Williams singing backup.
  10. The Delicious Dish then returned for probably the most classic Alec Baldwin sketch of all time where he played Pete Schweddy to share his Schweddy Balls with Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer as their monotoned NPR talk show character.
  11. Impeachment Hearings was almost a continuation of last week’s opening sketch only this time Alec joined in with the cast to impersonate a handful of politicians and random celebrities while parodying the coverage of the Clinton Impeachment Hearings.
  12. Chanukah Hymns was a fake a for an album filled with Chanukah songs that make the holiday sound miserable.
  13. Bill Brasky On Wall Street was a typical Bill Brasky sketch only this time the collection of characters who bragged about their mythical friend were drinking to drown their sorrows after a really rough day on Wall Street.
  14. Finally, Alec Baldwin closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E10... HOST: BILL PAXTON... DATE: JANUARY 9, 1999

SNL: S24E10... HOST: BILL PAXTON... DATE: JANUARY 9, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a sketch called Mac's Bar where Chris Parnell and Newt Gingrich was drinking at the titular bar, drowning his sorrows after losing his position as The Speaker Of The House and was joined by Will Ferrell as Bob Livingston who was completely baffled by him getting fired as well. Neither could fully grasp how they ended up getting the worst of the backlash following the Bill Clinton sex scandal. After a couple sips and many complaints, Darrell Hammond as Mr. President passed through the scene with another stranger woman in arm, which further outraged our two drinking politicians. As always, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Bill Paxton then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he had a very close personal friendship with Sissy Spacek as he reflected on the first time he was in the SNL studio as an audience member to watch her back in the ‘80s when she was the host of the show. As he rambled on and on about the relationship, we got to see backstage as the cast members complained that Spacek was all Paxton ever talked about. As the monolog started to wind up, the cast and crew doused our host in pig’s blood, recreating Sissy Spacek's famous scene from the movie Carrie which then led to the same creepy results from the film.
  3. This was followed by another parody of The View which was more of the same. The main focus of this installment was the fact that Debbie Matenopolous was recently fired the show and the rest of the hosts were pleased as punch to be doing the show without her. That is until the real Matenopolous entered the scene completely unaware that she had been canned since she was too dumb to pick up on the very blatant clues.  
  4. The Culps also returned for more of the same with the singing instructing couple who sing pop songs in their music instructor style only this time the performed while they were snowed in by a blizzard at the O’Hare Airport. Though I take issue with The View sketch being more of the same, with The Culps, I always love when I see them in the sketch lineup. They also managed to crowbar Bill Paxton into the scene as a very grumpy flight attendant who introduced the quirky duo and their impromptu delay distracting show.
  5. We then a parody of Titanic that showed the “original ending of the movie” where Cheri Oteri as Rose got savagely beaten for not sharing the whereabouts of the diamond necklace which turned out to be the true reason the search crew brought the old Rose along to explore the sunken ship. We also learned that the Rose from this sketch was a complete liar and her Titanic tale was actually a story from Love Boat. The sketch ended with the real James Cameron explaining why he decided to reshoot this scene since it didn’t test well during the marketing research.
  6. Fat Albert: Behind The Music was a parody of the VH1 show that profiled the downfall of Fat Albert’s Junkyard Gang band. We learned through interviews and stock footage of all of the sex, drugs, and alcohol that traditionally tempt newcomers to the world of living as a famous musician.  
  7. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Ana Gasteyer dropped by as Elizabeth Dole to share her crazy plans she had for the upcoming 2000 Election after she was inspired by the song 1999 by Prince. At first, it sounded like this song was going to be the deciding factor as to whether or not she’d run for president but it turned out the song inspired her to want to party out the rest of her life and share how she already started to live like a rock star.
  8. Beck then took to the stage to perform Nobody's Fault But My Own.
  9. NewsForce was a sketch that made fun of all of the graphics that fill the screen when trying to watch the news. These graphics are so aggressive that it’s hard to make out what the reporters were saying even though we got hints that the stories were very important.
  10. We then got a repeat of the KCF Shredders commercial from earlier in the season which was just head of lettuce and some mayo that KCF was trying to promote as being the new extreme snack to ask for.
  11. Pick Your Postal Service was a sketch that pitted UPS, Fed-Ex, and the USPS up against one another as Ana Gasteyer played a businesswoman who had to decide which service was the best at handling their packages based on the delivery guy’s ability to pull off a sexy lap dance.
  12. Fantastic Voyage was a parody of a SciFi Channel show that followed a group of scientists who shrunk themselves down in order to explore the inner workings of Bill Clinton’s penis as they attempted to fight off a virus that was going on in the president’s brain and ended up a bit off course, or maybe not considering that this is Bill Clinton we are talking about.
  13. Beck then returned to the stage to perform Tropicalia.
  14. Extreme Hunting was a talk show sketch that featured Bill Paxton as Ted Nugent and Darrell Hammond as his guest in what was almost a parody of the movie Surviving The Game. In this case, the human the Nuge and friend were hunting was Chris Kattan as Prince instead of Ice-T.
  15. Finally, Bill Paxton closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E11... HOST: JAMES VAN DER BEEK... DATE: JANUARY 16, 1999

SNL: S24E11... HOST: JAMES VAN DER BEEK... DATE: JANUARY 16, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with Larry Flynt At The White House where Horatio Sanz played the famous pornographer in order to meet with Darrell Hammond as President Clinton only to find out that they are both super honored to meet one another, both being fans of the other’s work. Ana Gasteyer as Hillary entered the scene and was angry about there being a pervert in the White House only to be unclear as to which person she was talking about. As always, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. James Van Der Beek then officially opened the show with a monolog where he attempted to get through the usual host pleasantries before going on to promote his work only to continually be interrupted by Don Pardo’s disembodied voice as he tried to flirt with our hunk of a host. Note: Don Pardo’s voice was actually played by Darrell Hammond who was filling in for the O.G. announcer who was out sick for tonight’s episode.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for Teeny Weenies! This ad promoted the fun fertility kit that allowed infertile women to create as many babies as they wanted with the added promise that some of them would even come out in a working condition with most ending up as miscarriages.
  4. National Spelling Bee Championship had Will Ferrell as the host of a national spelling bee and struggles to come up with words for the kids after losing the index cards that contained all the words and refused to admit to his mistake since the fact that these cards were supposed to be stored in a secure place in order to avoid any cheating. Though it’s a bit easy for Will to come up with the words he has no idea how to answer the contestant’s requests for additional information or whether or not they spelled the words correctly. In the end, we learned that this incident was actually the birth of the technique where you say, “Hey, look over there,” and then bail out in the opposite direction while everyone is looking in the direction that was pointed out.
  5. Cats Home Video had Darrell Hammond as Andrew Lloyd Webber who was pitching a VHS version of the famous Broadway play. We then got to see some behind the scenes footage that was part of the video that highlighted just how bored the cast and crew have become from working on the same show daily for about fourteen years with over eleven thousand performances at that time.
  6. Teen Pulse then returned for another installment of the teen talk show hosted by the Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, and Ana Gasteyer who had on James Van Der Beek and a few male members of the cast as their guests who portrayed the latest boy band sensation called, 7 Degrees Celsius where every band member fell into one of the boy band clichés, including the cute one, the nerdy one, white one with dreads, the bad one and the one who seems way too old for the rest of the group
  7. Dog Show also returned for another installment with Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon as cable access hosts who had on James Van Der Beek as their, weirdo, cape-wearing guest to talk about his favorite pet. I’m not sure about this series of sketches because, for one, Molly Shannon seems to be playing a toned down version of her, “I love it, I love it, I love it,” character who may or may not be the same Molly Shannon character from the future who likes to highlight her camel toe while loving the fact that she’s fifty. Other than that, most of the humor seem to depend on any bloopers that may come from the characters acting with real-life dogs which was funny last time but this time the dogs stay under control. To give the host his credit, Van Der Beek’s character ended up being pretty fun.
  8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week introduced one of my favorite characters of all time to this show which is Tracy Morgan as animal expert Brian Fellow only during this visit he wasn’t the animal expert quite yet but instead was a gay guy who was an expert on sports who really knew what he was talking about but like to throw in some gossip between his sports updates.
  9. Everlast then took to the stage to perform What It's Like.
  10. Laser Pointers was a sketch where Tracy Morgan and James Van Der Beek played two jokers at a Harry Connick Jr. show who kept ruining the night by distracting Jimmy Fallon as the famous crooner with a laser pointer whenever he attempted to perform his popular songs.
  11. The War Abroad And At Home was a parody of a History Channel special from back when the joke was the channel only focused on the second World War as opposed to the non-educational nonsense that the channel has grown to focus on. For this fictional documentary, they used footage from random shows and movies like Hogan’s Heroes and Down Periscope to provide the imagery that complimented to narrated information that was being shared, that I feel was mostly accurate until the sketch got to the end where the recap was as ridiculous as the visual presentation.  
  12. We then went to a pitch meeting at NBC where Tim Meadows played an executive who created Frankenteen which was like the Frankenstein monster played by James Van Der Beek which allowed him to be the ultimate heartthrob of a teen who was completely controllable with the added benefit that his already dead body would never grow old. We then got to see a clip from the show that was produced where Frankenteen killed freaked out and killed his co-star over the fear of the flame that came from her trying to light her cigarette.
  13. Maria & The TV Repairman had Horatio Sanz play an unkempt Cheri Oteri as Maria’s dad who tried in vain to hook his daughter up with James Van Der Beek who dropped by the house to repair the families TV and is a bit of a mess himself making them more of a fit than you’d expect, yet still, the relationship just didn’t work out.
  14. Finally, James Van Der Beek closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E12... HOST: GWYNETH PALTROW... DATE: FEBRUARY 6, 1999

SNL: S24E12... HOST: GWYNETH PALTROW... DATE: FEBRUARY 6, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with A Message From The President Of The United States where Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton as well as several members of his staff gave empty promises to the nation that wouldn’t gloat over the fact that Clinton survived the Lewinski scandal completely unscathed to the point where the Democrats actually ended up thriving when there should have been more shame considering the fact that Clinton was technically impeached by the House Of Representative. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Gwyneth Paltrow then officially opened the show with a monolog where she started out sharing the usual host pleasantries while speaking with a British accent before getting confronted by “members of the audience” who were all pretty sure that our host was actually from America. Eventually, Ben Affleck, who had just become her ex-boyfriend at the time, stepped in to remind Gwyneth that she’s not actually British no matter what she did with her voice.
  3. E! Impeachment Coverage was a parody of an E! red carpet style show that took place outside of the site where the Bill Clinton Impeachment Hearing was being held and once again, the cast and the host impersonated politicians and random celebrities who all chimed in with their two cents about the event while being asked questions about their fashion decisions by Jimmy Fallon and Cheri Oteri as hosts, Todd Newton and Melissa Rivers.
  4. Behind The Music: Joan Jett was a parody of the VH1 show that used to focus on the downfall of music careers. As the title suggests, this installment focused on Gwyneth Paltrow as Joan Jett who recalled the horrifying inspirations for her songs and music videos.
  5. Mary Katharine Gallagher then returned to the show in order to attempt to join the Black Angels which was a gang made up of the tough girls from her Catholic school. Though the girls from the gang thought that they had a very tough initiation process Mary Katherine accepted each challenge as if it were absolutely nothing at all, only to still end up getting rejected which caused her to spaz out and scare away the gang.
  6. Behind The Music: John Oates brought us another VH1 parody only this installment did go all that dark but instead focused on John Oates claimed that he was the innovator of people using clapping in their music.
  7. Mindy And Skye was a sketch where Jimmy Fallon played Mindy and Gwyneth Paltrow played Skye who were a singing duo at an open mic night event where Mindy was a hippy type who was so nice/desperate/into his hippy ways that he cut Skye a ton of slack for her horrible song introduction and inability to stick to the set list as he tried to perform song about saving the world but she had her own pot-fueled agenda. At one point Mindy tried to break up mid-performance only to give in right away after realizing he’s dating a woman that is way out of his league.
  8. TV Funhouse then brought us another installment of The X-Presidents where this week the presidential superheroes stepped in to fight The Constitution which came to life and started to eat politicians because of their partisan bickering that took place during the Clinton Impeachment trial.
  9. Staten Island Nurses was a fake promote for an upcoming NBC show where Cheri Oteri and Gwyneth Paltrow played two trashy nurses from Staten Island who treated their job like they were back home hanging out on the porch with most of the humor coming from clichés and Staten Island accents.
  10. E! was a sketch that carried on the E! theme of the night with this quick commercial spot that had Darrell Hammond as Trent Lott who simply announced, “You’re watching E!,” which was the channels logline at the time.
  11. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Tim Meadows dropped in as Vernon Jordan in order to talk more about his role in the Clinton impeachment process only to end up singing a Broadway-style tune in an effort to share his qualification and history in politics.
  12. Barenaked Ladies then took to the stage to perform It's All Been Done.
  13. Doing Voices was a sketch where Will Ferrell played Molly Shannon’s boyfriend who got introduced to her family. The moment that Molly and Will entered the family house they were greeted by Gwyneth Paltrow who was speaking in a silly voice. Shannon then responded with a sill voice of her own when Ana Gasteyer as the mother of the bunch joined in and spoke with a funny voice as well. At first, this seemed really fun but quickly got annoying when Will realized that this is just how the family communicates, never speaking in the real voices at all. At one point, the girls all left the room which allowed Will to meet Horatio Sanz who played the day and warned Will to get out while he can.
  14. Behind The Music: Colin Hay brought us another VH1 parody segment where this time Colin Hay from Men At Work pretty much sang the song Who Can It Be Now while attempt to explain what inspired the tune.
  15. A&E Biography then returned for another installment where this time the original A&E show host was fired and returned to the studio to say his farewells and then took the opportunity to smear his replacement by slandering him with his own special A&E Biography profile.
  16. Senate Voting had Will Ferrell as Judge William Rehnquist who was desperate to break the deadlock between the Democrats and the Republicans over the impeachment hearings which then led to nothing but party-line voting in general.
  17. Hardcore Rock was a fake ad that started out with Gwyneth Paltrow as herself as she openly admitted to her love of porn. At first, it felt like this was going to be a parody PSA but then it turned out to be a fake ad for an album featuring rock songs from your favorite adult movies.
  18. Finally, Gwyneth Paltrow closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.
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SNL: S24E13... HOST: BRENDAN FRASER... DATE: FEBRUARY 13, 1999

SNL: S24E13... HOST: BRENDAN FRASER... DATE: FEBRUARY 13, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with more parody coverage of The President On Trial where Chris Parnell, as Tom Brokaw introduced the segment before throwing to the White House where Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton simply announced, "I am bulletproof," as a mic drop of a statement before walking off like a boss. We then returned to the studio, where Brokaw then threw to the next news segment which was an interview where John Goodman returned as Linda Tripp who was now being tagged as the villain for bringing to light the damning evidence that the Lewinski affair was real. As always, with this being the opening sketch, this all built up to the announcement of, "Live from New York..."
  2. Brendan Fraser then officially opened the show with a monolog which started with the usual host pleasantries before continuing on to promote his new movie Blast From The Past. During his talk up he took us backstage to show off a time capsule where Tom Davis of the SNL writing team Franken and Davis has been hiding for all of these years since he was last seen on the show. It turned out that while Tom Davis was locked away, he put on shows of his own using New York City rats as his hosts and cast. This rat version of SNL ended up being an idea that Lorne Michaels seemed tempted to steal when he dropped in to get our human host back on the stage.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for the Bio Flex which had Will Ferrel as a customer who was willing to step up to the challenge and fight the Bio Flex Total Workout Creature which turned out to be the way the product worked.
  4. We then got another parody of Judge Judy with Cheri Oteri as our Judge and Tracy Morgan as her Bailiff/sidekick. This week Brendan Fraser attempted to sued Horatio Sans, claiming that the defective helium canisters he used while working his day job at Horatio’s balloon shop ruined his nighttime career as a Bruce Springsteen impersonator. Throughout the case, Fraser's voice kept going high pitched after every other line. It soon became clear that this actually happened because Fraser kept taking hit from the gas while filling up kids balloons which led Judge Judy to rule in favor of Horatio Sanz.
  5. Just Enjoy The Ozzy was a sketch that took place at a restaurant where Brendan Fraser and Molly Shannon were out on their very first date. Before they could even order, they kept getting interrupted by Horatio Sanz, who played a singing waiter and insisted on singing nothing but Ozzy songs which almost ruined the special night. What made things worse was these weren't pleasant acoustic covers of Ozzy's songs, no, Horatio went whole hog.
  6. Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri then returned as The Zimmermans where once again they went overboard with their public displays of affection, only this time they weren't on a double date as usual. Instead, they were in a gym and got Brendan Fraser all hot and bothered by their antics only to get super offended by any efforts he made to play along, which confused the hell out of our host.
  7. TV Funhouse then brought us another installment of Fun With Real Audio where this time Robert Smigel animated a chapter out of a poetry book written and read by Jewel. The animation had a tiger and a unicorn in the background that both got confused by all of the new age hippy talk and ended up attacking the animated folk singer.
  8. You're A Champion, Charlie Brown was a sketch where Brendan Fraser portrayed Charlie Brown who was once again tricked by Ana Gasteyer as Lucy when she pulled the football away while the round-headed boy tried to kick it. Though this was supposed to be a harmless joke as always, this time, Charlie Brown missed so hard that he ended up flying through the air and cracking open his head so bad that blood was gushing out and led the rest of the Peanuts gang to fear that he might end up dead.
  9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Tracy Morgan dropped in as a U.S. Vet named Private Larry who shared his Oscar picks, mainly focusing his attention on the war flicks from that year while rolling a joint as if he were completely unaware that he was on live television. Darrell Hammond also got a segment as Jerry Falwell in order to discuss the real Falwell's claims that Tinky Winky from the Teletubbies was a gay. Finally, since it was close to Valentine’s Day, Jimmy Fallon got a segment to sing a few cover song in his effort to get more chicks considering that his Halloween songs landed him a bunch of candy.
  10. Busta Rhymes and The Roots then took to the stage to perform Gimme Some More.
  11. Two Fat Ladies was a parody of a Food Network show with the same name where Darrell Hammond and Brendan Fraser played the overweight female hosts in order to attempt to show us how to cook a healthy meal. Even though all of the recipes started out with nothing but healthy ingredients, the prep work required ingredients that were so extremely unhealthy that you'd be better off eating nothing but dessert.
  12. Carrie Donovan's Escort was a sketch where Brendan Fraser played a male escort, with Tracy Morgan as his pimp, who had an evening planned out with fashion designer, Carrie Donovan who was featured in all of the Old Navy ads from that time.
  13. Busta Rhymes and The Roots then returned to the stage to perform Tear Da Roof Off.
  14. Finally, Brendan Fraser closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E14... HOST: BILL MURRAY... DATE: FEBRUARY 20, 1999

SNL: S24E14... HOST: BILL MURRAY... DATE: FEBRUARY 20, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with another installment of The Ladies Man where host, Leon Phelps hand on special guest/supermodel, Stephanie Seymour to demonstrate how to pick up on women at bars and then how to abandon them once the night is over as he attempted to promote his new class Doing It The Leon Phelps Way. Of course, with this being the opening sketch this all built up to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Bill Murray then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he was so excited about the Broadway debut of Footloose: The Musical that he could barely contain himself after a major buildup that this excitement was over something that was not just life changing but could potentially save the world. The went on to tell the tale of Footloose and finished up the routine by singing the Footloose theme song.
  3. Yahtzee was a sketch that had Bill Murray and Molly Shannon out on a double date with Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer. At first, all was going well until, after dinner, the two couples got uber competitive during what started out as a friendly game of Yahtzee but end up starting a fight that led Bill Murray to suggest to switch to a game of Russian roulette.
  4. The Knicks City Dancers that told the tale of the first males who were allowed to be Knick City Dancers since this was apparently the first year where this was allowed. We also got to see the routine featuring most of the male members of the cast who weren’t needed for other roles (IE Tracy Morgan who played a heckler who physically attacked Chris Parnell because of his homophobic views, which seem to be the main issues of the booing crowd, at least in the world of the sketch.) At the end of the sketch, we learned that all the other characters where fictional but Will Ferrell was playing himself.
  5. This was followed by a repeat of the Swill commercial from Bill Murray's first season with the show back in 1977.
  6. This was followed by a fake ad to The Quotable Caddyshack which was a reference guide being pitched to yuppies who wanted to stay hip, with Bill Murray and Chevy Chase as the product’s pitchmen.
  7. Morning Latte then returned for another installment where this time the over-caffeinated morning show hosts had on Bill Murray as their special co-host for the week who and was playing a C-Level celebrity who was there to promote his new late night talk show on the brand new WB network. After the intros, the sketch felt like it evolved into a sketch that was loosely scripted improv since it was funny but it also felt like it meandered at points.
  8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Darrell Hammond dropped by as Bill Clinton in order to share that he was saddened by the fact that he was no longer in the papers since things were finally starting to settle from his sex scandal with Lewinski. He then went on to complain that he felt the world liked his better when he was bad before going on to promise that there were more scandals out there to easily be found that would get him in the headlines again. Bill Murray also got a special segment where he brought back his Oscar picking routine from back when he used to be on the show.
  9. Lucinda Williams then took to the stage to perform Can't Let Go.
  10. A Bear Ate My Parents! was a bit of a parody of the, “A dingo ate my baby,” reference from the movie A Cry In The Dark where Chris Parnell tried to host an elegant art party only to have it be constantly interrupted by Horatio Sanz who kept randomly yelling, “A bear ate my parents,” while taking it out on the house. After a while, the other guest felt so sympathetic that they help Horatio trash the place which led Parnell to get extra concerned as the host. Whenever Parnell tried to be rational and calm the chaos he was treated like a heartless villain. Things got so bad that he had to call the cops but before he could dial, a bear with flowers came to the door as a novelty gift to Parnell but when Horatio saw the beast, he freaked out so bad that he jumped out the high rise’s window.
  11. Third Eye Bookstore had Bill Murray as a shopkeep in a hippy/new age bookstore who dressed the part and sold the goods but had no real grasp of the beliefs or concepts behind the good he was trying to sell to his customers were very confused by his effort to upsell the products. It turned out that Bill Murray wasn’t even a new age person at all and had the real store owner tied up in the back in order to pretend to be in charge.
  12. Lucinda Williams then returned to the stage to perform Too Cool To Be Forgotten.
  13. Steve Baxter, Hollywood Gynecologist had Bill Murray as the titular celebrity gynecologist who attempted to promote his services with the help of Chris Parnell who was known for his one-man Las Vegas lounge act.
  14. Finally, Bill Murray closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E15... HOST: RAY ROMANO... DATE: MARCH 13, 1999

SNL: S24E15... HOST: RAY ROMANO... DATE: MARCH 13, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a sketch called Barbara Walters Tries Phone Sex where, as the title suggests, Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters gave phone sex a shot after having her interest piqued during an interview with Monica Lewinsky who talked about having phone sex experience with the President while he was actively ruling the free world. Of course, with this being Saturday Night Live, Walters made these attempts with several public figures who were making news at the time ending on Hilary Clinton who was the only person willing to play along because she was excited to take on the role of a man in order to fulfill Barbara’s fantasies. Also, as usual, with this being the opening sketch, it ended with the announcement of, “Live from New York…”  
  2. Ray Romano then officially opened the show with a one of his stand-up routines about his children that was quickly interrupted by special guests Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts who played Raymond’s parents on his show and acted like his parent in real life by letting Raymond know that he was opening the show wrong claiming you’re not supposed to start the show with stand-up. They also came bearing clips of their own work, hijacking our host’s time for plugs.
  3. This was followed by a parody of SportsCenter where Ray Romano played a new sports anchor who came across as desperate as he attempted to figure out his signature catchphrase in an effort compete with the head anchor who was played by Tim Meadow who overly used the word BOOYAH a catchphrase of his own.
  4. We then got another parody of VH-1 Behind the Music, this time the perform being profiled was Horatio Sanz as Meat Loaf who shared other warning signs that he planned to turn into songs following the success of his song Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Actually Are.
  5. Roberto Benigni At Carnabie's too place in the titular high-end restaurant where Ray Romano played the titular Oscar-winning actor who entered the establishment like a madman with the eccentric antics that made him famous yet the rest of the patron didn’t seem to mind, even when his actions completely destroyed their meals. In some cases, his crazy pranks not only ruined the food but also caused physical harm that ruined the person’s life, like when he cut off Horatio Sanz’s arm after finding an emergency ax hanging on the wall.
  6. Pimp Chat the returned for another installment with Tracy Morgan and Tim Meadows as Bishop Don “Mack” Donald and Pimpin’ Kyle as the cable access talk show hosts who broadcast from their pimped out limo. For this installment, they had on special guest, Pretty Tony as played by Ray Romano who was a New York City cop who recently switched sides to become a pimp himself while learning the tricks of the trade when he was on the force.
  7. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Molly Shannon dropped by as Monica Lewinski in order to promote her book, but she couldn’t stop laughing at her route to this world of fame. Cheri Oteri also got a segment where she used a Barbie doll to illustrate the troubled history of women.
  8. The Corrs then took to the stage to perform What Can I Do?
  9. Chris Kattan then returned as his mumble-mouthed Suel Forrestor character this time as an NCAA basketball coach who frustrated his team because they couldn’t understand his encouragements.
  10. The Big Baby was a sketch that had Will Ferrell as a salesman who broke down and cried like a baby when his marketing campaign went awry.  
  11. The Corrs then returned to the stage to perform So Young.
  12. Petracelli's Dreams took place in a foxhole during WWII and had Ray Romano as a soldier who shared with the rest of the troops his plans for after the war which included his dream to enter a hot dog eating contest to eat as many hot dog as he can that then put on pants that were too tight to freak out little boys. He then went on to share his dream about buying a house to kidnap hobos to turn into zombie slaves that would free up his time to publish a coffee table book filled with pictures of random guys wangs, claiming that this was the true sign of freedom.
  13. Finally, Ray Romano closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E16... HOST: DREW BARRYMORE... DATE: MARCH 20, 1999

SNL: S24E16... HOST: DREW BARRYMORE... DATE: MARCH 20, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a parody of the Academy Awards Pre-Show that had Ana Gasteyer as Joan Rivers who literally morphed into a demon as she pestered celebrities who were walking the red carpet about the clothing that they were wearing and her daughter Melissa vapidly chimed in as well, from time to time. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Drew Barrymore then officially opened the show with a monolog that started with the usual host pleasantries and then, after she shared a clip from her first appearance from when she hosted as a tiny kid. After the clip, Barrymore sang a song about the wild Hollywood lifestyle and long career since she was practically born into the biz.
  3. Jeopardy! then returned for another parody where this week, Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek had to wrangle Drew Barrymore as Calista Flockhart, Jimmy Fallon as Nicolas Cage and last but not least, Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery since everyone struggled to follow the show.
  4. We then went to a Banana Republic where Drew Barrymore and Chris Kattan played sweater folding employees who panicked when Horatio Sanz came in as a customer who stubbornly refused to reply to their greeting of, “How are you doing?” Based on the employees’ reactions, you would think that this unwillingness to answer was a violent threat that led Kattan to put the store on lockdown as they continued to try and get a response.
  5. This was followed by another parody of VH1: Behind the Music that highlighted the ups and downs of Drew Barrymore and, special guest, Edward Norton who played Captain and Tennille and shared how the Sgt. Pepper album inspired the creation of the band since Sergeant is similar to Captain only with a touch of a different look.
  6. The How Do You Say? Ah Yes, Show brought us another segment of the Antonio Banderas talk show where this time Drew Barrymore played the host’s wife Melanie Griffith who tried to act as sexy as she could to capture the attention of her husband since he was so preoccupied with himself. Apparently, this sketch got Chris Kattan into just a little bit of trouble due to a last minute decision where he decided to glue hair to his leg to make it look like his pubes were so think that he couldn’t cover them with his undershorts.
  7. TV Funhouse then gave us another installment of Fun With Real Audio where this time, Robert Smigel animated the announcement of an obscure technical lifetime achievement award that was given out during the Oscars. Then again, I’m willing to bet that this was a much bigger honor that I’m giving it credit for since I didn’t recognize the name of the recipient.
  8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Bill Clinton dropped by in order to encourage his wife to run for Senate in an effort to free up some time for himself. Chris Kattan also got a segment where he attempted to interpret Cher’s new song, Believe. My head almost exploded when I type the words, “new song, Believe,” considering the fact that it’s almost been two decades since this song was considered a hit.
  9. Garbage then took to the stage to perform Special.
  10. Dog Show also got another segment with Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon as public access show hosts who have real dogs all over the set. I’m not a huge fan of this series because most of the humor depends on how well the dogs are behaving and it’s only funny when they’re behaving badly. Unfortunately, the dogs all stuck to the script but it was pretty interesting to watch through modern eyes considering Drew Barrymore played a female to male crossdresser who Will Ferrell found cute because he was gay, and Tim Meadow play a male to female crossdresser and in the end, Drew Barry made out with Molly Shannon. For the time I was kind of surprised that no one was treated like a freak. In fact, I was kind of impressed how they handled the whole situation which makes me miss the days when we used to be able to joke about our differences without it being considered offensive.
  11. VH1: Behind the Music then returned for the second time of the night so that Chris Parnell could portray Def Leppard drummer, Rick Allen imposter but struggle to pull it off since he failed to hide what should have been a missing arm.   
  12. Terrence Maddox And Lucy took us to another art class where Will Ferrell returned as his disheveled nude model character for what started to be the same old same old until Drew Barrymore joined him as Lucy, his disheveled girlfriend who joined her naked man on the stage and the two attempted to work through their relationship issues.
  13. Garbage then returned to the stage to perform When I Grow Up.
  14. VH1: Behind the Music then returned for installment number three and this time Will Ferrell played Fred Schneider from the B52s in order to admit that he named all of their hit songs by simply mashing random odd words together.
  15. Finally, Drew Berrymore closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.
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SNL: S24E17... HOST: JOHN GOODMAN... DATE: APRIL 10, 1999

SNL: S24E17... HOST: JOHN GOODMAN... DATE: APRIL 10, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with A Message From The President Of The United States where, after getting in trouble for finally saying something truthful, Darrell Hammond as Clinton promised that, from this day going forth, he would go back to be the lie telling President that the people have grown to love. As always, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. John Goodman then officially opened the show with a monolog where before he could even get out the usual host pleasantries an audience member interrupted to ask if the show was a rerun consider that not only was this Goodman’s tenth time as host, it was also the second time that he was paired Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers as his musical guest for the night. Completely confused by how someone in the live audience could question whether or not the show was live, Goodman quickly shut her down only to have more audience member back the questioning woman up as they claimed to have seen this episode before as well. Even Jimmy Fallon came out and admitted to loving this episode back when he watched it as a kid. A frustrated John Goodman then through to the first non-opening sketch to start the night.   
  3. Adult Literacy Program took us to a high school for an extended education where John Goodman played a fifty-year-old student who still had a class clown mentality and claimed to “rule the school,” while the other adult students simply wanted to learn. To add to the confusion to Goodman’s defiant attitude, the class was both free and voluntary meaning that he was purely there by his own choice but didn’t seem to understand that aspect either.
  4. We then got a fake ad for Shaun Mondavi Vineyards where Will Ferrell played the son of a famous winemaker, who turned out to be a bit of a black sheep of the family. It also turned out that his father wouldn’t help out with an investment so the wine Will was pitching was actually cheap tequila, 5-Alive, and other random ingredients mixed in a two-liter Mountain Dew bottle which didn’t go over well with Goodman who played Will’s dad.
  5. This was followed by parody CNN coverage of the conflict that was going on in Kosovo at the time. Apparently CNN recently started teaming up with magazines like People and Time to promote their stories at this time because this sketch was more of a parody of a promotional spot as it jumped back and forth between serious sounding coverage mixed with more frivolous fun news where CNN teamed up with publications like Cat Fancy, Highlights, and other less news-themed rags in order to earn an extra buck.
  6. Wrap It Up took place in a gift wrapping shop in a mall with Chris Kattan working the front counter who turned out to be the worst gift wrapper in the world as he did nothing more than crumple a bunch of wrapping paper around the gifts and wrap it all up with a bunch of packing tape creating an eyesore of a gift. Though it seems like Kattan is horribly suited for the job we quickly learn that his father is John Goodman who owns the shop and felt that his kid could do no wrong.
  7. Hello Dolly was a sketch that parodied a Home Shopping Network segment with Ana Gasteyer and John Goodman as the pitch-people/hosts who both went a bit overboard in their efforts to promote the cuteness of these creepy dolls that all had weird features like the ability to poop themselves.
  8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Tracy Morgan dropped by to share his views on the FUBU line of clothing that was marketed to black folks and shared who used to design black people clothes before the For Us By Us movement. Cheri Oteri also returned as her pill-popping old lady character who once again wanted comment on some of the specific drugs that she uses, this time, focusing on her drug schedule for dealing with her allergies.
  9. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers then took to the stage to perform Swingin'.
  10. Springtime Santa shared how Santa and Mrs. Clause spend their time off where Santa eats nuts as he watches TV while Mrs. Clause attempts to pay their bills. The noises that Santa makes while trying to enjoy his time off is super annoying to Mrs. Clause who wished that her husband had more than just a one day a year job which almost led to a bout of domestic violence that was broken up by Chris Parnell and Cheri Oteri who dropped by as a pair of elves/dinner guest. By this point, Santa was wasted and was stricken by a bout of self-pity that got everyone else to leave the room.
  11. Happy Smile Patrol was a parody of a pre-recorded children’s show that was continually interrupted by breaking news of a crime spree being perpetrated live by the members of the kid’s show’s cast that all started when the supporting cast members killed the main star while they were all hopped up on drugs and that was just the start to the crazy night of chaos that ended in a group suicide.
  12. This was followed by another parody of VH1: Behind the Music that profiled Horatio Sanz as Bun E. Carlos who shared how the Cheap Trick album, Live From Budokan turned him into a huge star, even though he was being interviewed while working his new job at the local bowling alley where he was responsible for collecting the rented shoes.
  13. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers then returned to the stage to perform Room At The Top.
  14. Cathouse Computer System had John Goodman as a John who got completely embarrassed while trying to navigate the new payment system that the whorehouse set up to properly charge for all of the services that were used when all that Goodman wanted to do was pay for the night and leave. This sketch also introduced Cheri Oteri’s “Simmer down now,” character.
  15. Finally, John Goodman closed the show with by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E18... HOST: CUBA GOODING JR... DATE: MAY 8, 1999

SNL: S24E18... HOST: CUBA GOODING JR... DATE: MAY 8, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with a look into Bill Clinton's Dream where we got to see Darrell Hammond as the President while he imagined his post-presidential life in Malibu with his new wife, Monica Lewinski where she made her first special guest appearance as herself. As always, with this being the opening sketch it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Cuba Goodinght Jr. then officially opened the show with a monolog where he talked about his career and shared other stories that all seemed to build up to him saying his famous Jerry Maguire catchphrase only to end up with him saying something else. After a while, we got to hear the thoughts of “audience” and cast members and they thought to themselves, “Why isn’t he saying ‘Show me the money’.” This bait and switch routine went on throughout the entire monolog until Cuba got to the end and yelled “Show me the money,” after throwing to the first non-opening sketch of the night.
  3. This was followed by a fake ad for the Lotto that had Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell as parents to a little baby and promoted the lottery as if it were a valid safety net for their child’s future played to the tone of a life insurance ad.
  4. Improvised Bible Miniseries had Chris Parnell as a TV/Movie director who had the bright idea to have his actors, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Will Ferrell, improvised their lines while film a new Bible-based miniseries. The fact that neither of the actors was all that religious, they struggled to get through the scene and more often than not would end up talking about modern things, especially after the director threw the sound guy into the scene because he liked the cut of his jib. Eventually, the shot evolved to be Jesus and Paul staring in a Biblical version of Dawson’s Creek.
  5. Looking For Monica had Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters who was scouring the SNL hallways in an effort to find Monica Lewinsky, since she still hadn’t left since her special guest appearance during the opening sketch, and Barbara was interested in learning more about the phone sex conversation that came up in a real interview that inspired last week’s opening sketch.
  6. Pretty Living then returned for another installment where once again Ana Gasteyer was the host of a daytime fashion talk show and as always had on Molly Shannon as the joyologist who constantly says, “I love it, I love it, I love it.” I don’t mind either character but I don’t understand why this talk show sketch only features interviews with this one specific guest, and I also don’t understand why this Molly Shannon character never ends up in any other situation than as a Pretty Living guest. For this installment, the big difference was Cuba Goodding Jr. portrayed Molly Shannon’s beach bum of a boyfriend.*****
  7. We then got the second installment of the fake Lotto ad where this time where again they treated the lottery as if it were a valid solution for the underprivileged to handle their financial needs.
  8. The Ladies Man then returned for another installment where this time Leon Phelps welcomed, special guest, Monica Lewinsky who played herself in order to talk to the Ladies Man about her sex scandal with the President. Of course, Leon felt this was no big deal at all and actually encouraged her choices while taking calls from the audience that were obvious references to the scandal instead of directly asking Monica about everything that was involved.
  9. TV Funhouse the introduced a spin-off prequel to The Ambiguously Gay Duo called AmbiguoBoys that followed the adventures of our not so questionably gay superheroes back when they were in high school. This was pretty much the same as the regular routine only instead of being judged for the superhero antics their sexuality came into question while they were wrestling, changing in the locker room, and sharing a foot-long sub, eating from either end.
  10. Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters then came lurking around the studio again for the second installment of Looking For Monica where this time she pestered a Spanish speaking janitor about the whereabouts of the controversial special guest.
  11. Ricky Martin then took to the stage to perform Livin' La Vida Loca.
  12. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Darrell Hammond dropped by as Jesse Jackson to talk about a recent hostage situation that he helped to resolve from the Kosovo conflict that was going on at the time of this show. Jimmy Fallon also got a segment where he sang a parody song about his excitement over the upcoming release of the first prequel to Star Wars.
  13. Cuba Loves Mango brought the return of Chris Kattan’s Mango character so that this time he could hypnotize Cuba with his male stripper charm but this time we learn that Mango actually has a wife and family and might not be as gay as we were lead to believe that he was. In fact, at one point Mango had a major homophobic meltdown when Cuba tried to make a move.  
  14. This was followed by the third installment of the fake Lotto ad that again promoted the lottery as a viable source of income while crediting the idea of the scratcher as the source of the American Dream.
  15. We then got another Martha Stewart Living parody with Ana Gasteyer as Martha who this time our craft-making host shared a few brunch ideas to celebrate Mother’s Day in hopes that viewers might be able to cheer up their disappointed moms.  
  16. We also got the third installment of Looking For Monica where once again, Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters interrupted Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tracy Morgan who were playing two Lincolns which led Cuba to question the point. Cuba Gooding then broke the scene to complain that he felt ripped off since his night kept getting interrupted by the special guest of the night.
  17. Finally, Cuba Gooding Jr. closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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SNL: S24E19... HOST: SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR... DATE: MAY 15, 1999

SNL: S24E19... HOST: SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR... DATE: MAY 15, 1999

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with the Culps Graduation Medley where Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer returned as the singing instructing Culps who sang a medley of popular songs in the singing instructor style in order to honor the graduating class of 1999. If the two musicians weren’t quirky enough, this time they were a little extra out of it due to the drugs from a recent car accident that put them both in neck braces. This information about the accident ended up playing into their song choices since neither seemed more out or their mind than usual. Of course, with this being the opening sketch it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
  2. Sarah Michelle Gellar then officially opened the show with a monolog about how happy she was back to be hosting the season finally before she could get any further past the host pleasantries, Chris Kattan interrupted to remind Sarah Michelle that she promised to hook up with him the last time she was on. She quickly but politely turned down Kattan’s advances and then went back to her monolog before Tim Meadows, and then Molly Shannon both interrupted and went on to try to pick up on Gellar as well. It seemed like they were going to stop at the rule of three before the rest of the cast along with a few writers, attempted to hit on Sarah as well. I’d like to say that this routine is no longer funny in the age of the #MeToo movement but thanks to my lecherous grandpa, I didn’t even like these jokes back then.
  3. Tiger Beat's Ultra Super Duper Dreamy Love Show was a teen talk show that our host along with all of the female members of the cast acted as teens in order to talk about boys and current pop culture trends. Although all of the girls exaggerated their energy to match the enthusiasm of girls that age, except for Ana Gasteyer who wanted her crushes to leave with her in order to join a cult. Darrell Hammond was their guest who played the manager of Seth Green, David Boreanaz, and Howie D., from tonight’s musical guest the Backstreet Boys. Darrell surprised the girl by having his three clients on as his present for having him on and the three men joined the scene as themselves. From this point on the joke was that the boys were a bit bashful and ashamed while hinting that their manager struggled to keep his hands to himself, which again seems a bit weird considering what’s going on in the news about the Hollywood elite.
  4. Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri then returned as The Zimmermans in order to make Chris Parnell and Sarah Michelle Gellar uncomfortable with their public displays of affection only to get offended when they get called out. The only difference this time was that they were in a log cabin and this time it was Gellar who miss read the signs and attempted to join in when usually it’s the other guy in the scene who gets hot and bothered by all of the action. Then again, Chris Parnell became the bad guy in the end by pulling down his pants to highlight how ridiculous everyone else was being, with no intention of joining in.
  5. Get On The Bag! took us to a little league field where several members of the cast played parents to the kids on the field. At first, everything started out pleasant as the parents tried to make small talk, until Will Ferrell started freaking out and yelling at his son to, “Get on the bag,” whenever he felt his son was taking too far of a lead off of first. This led to a bunch of tension in the audience as everyone sat nervously waiting for Will’s next outburst that got more and more aggressive with each and every pitch.
  6. TV Funhouse then introduced a new segment called Unsold Cartoon Pilot Shack where Robert Smigel shared a fictional cartoon of his that didn’t sell. The cartoon being featured this week was The Ginsburg Gang that used this children’s show defend the real Ginsburg’s actions in the media during the Clinton affair.
  7. Shame Attack was a parody of an MTV game show that had Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jimmy Fallon as the hosts who allowed contestants who once dated and ability to air their dirty laundry for a chance to win the grand prize.
  8. Backstreet Boys then took to the stage to perform I Want It That Way.
  9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Cheri Oteri as Amy Fisher dropped in to discuss her plans since she was recently released from jail for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the head. Tim Meadows as Billy Dee Williams also got a spot where he shared his review of the sneak preview he watched of Star Wars: Episode One since the movie was coming out in a couple week while the show was off on vacation. His main finding was that it sucked but mainly because he wasn’t in it since this was before he could have known about the actual flaws.
  10. Dusty's Love was a parody of ‘70s movies that was the featured film for a TV matinee show. This meant that the movie was bad enough that the TV station could afford to pay off the licensing agreement which was why most of these movies were weird. In the parody film, Sarah Michelle Gellar was a blind girl who lived on a farm and fell in love with Horatio Sanz who was half human half unicorn. To add to the surrealness of the sketch Will Ferrell also played John Denver whose opaque head would pop up from time to time to provide the movie’s soundtrack.
  11. Nickelodeon Press Conference had Horatio Sanz as Rosie O’Donnell close out the Nickelodeon Award show. We then went backstage where the host and the cast went on to answer kid journalist questions for the award show press conference. Though all of the adults in the scene acted extremely immature, the kids asking the questions acted like adults.
  12. Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine was a fake ad for a new magazine devoted to nothing but a photo of, as the title suggests, women holding this own boobs, making fun of the classic magazine pose.
  13. Backstreet Boys then returned to the stage to perform All I Have To Give.
  14. Brian Fellow's Safari Planet then made its show debut where Brian Fellow switched from his position as a sports commentator on Weekend Update for this new role as an animal expert who knows absolutely nothing about nature (keep in mind that the sport commentating history had nothing to do with the sketch.)
  15. Finally, Sarah Michelle Gellar closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
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