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Oh No, Another Dynasty Host

This is either the second or third time that someone from the TV show Dynasty has hosted Saturday Night Live since I started this challenge. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head because the appearance/appearances were just that unmemorable so I didn't have high hopes for this episode.

It was nice to see that Paul Simon was signed on as co-host because I knew I would at least like the music and I figured he might be in a funny sketch or two of his own. The show started with a Paul Simon performance of You Can Call Me Al, which was a pretty good way to kick things off, even though I'm not a huge fan of starting the show with a song.

After than Catherine Oxenberg took to the stage for her monolog and it didn't take long for me to double down my thoughts that this wasn't going to be an episode for me when this British sounding cheerleader type kept going on about her character from Dynasty. As always, it's not that I have a problem personality or acting, I just feel that neither are a good fit when it comes to comedy because when it comes to good looking, dramatic actors/actresses, they can't really act past seeming like they're in on the joke.

Luckily, my guess about Paul Simon was also right because, just after a somewhat funny fake commercial, he and Jon Lovitz starred in a pretty funny sketch. The rest of the night then bounced back and forth between bland and kind of funny bits to create an episode that was just as average as the rest of the season minus a couple stand out shows but this episode was still at the bottom of the aforementioned average stack.

Alright, now that I'm done with my average review of this average episode it's time to move on and share what I saw, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with Paul Simon taking to the stage to perform You Can Call Me Al. He then ended the song b very politely announcing, "Live from New York..."
Catherine Oxenberg then officially opened the show with a monolog about how different she is from the character that she played on Dynasty.
We then got a fake ad for an upcoming special where Geraldo Rivera was going to open the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier.
Jon Lovitz and Paul Simon then played two Shackled Prisoners plotting their escape from jail. When the time comes for the guard ambush everything goes wrong as the two idiots are completely unaware of how limited their movement is due to their chains. When attempt one doesn't work they try again, this time attempting to get let out on the spot due to good behavior and when they are denied they try to attack again.
The Late Show with Joan Rivers was a parody of Joan's real show where Terry Sweeney does a great impersonation and in the world of the sketch Joan stole Ed from Johnny then goes on to interview three famous actresses who wrote a tell-all-book to rebut a tell-all-book about themselves but it wasn't interesting enough to go back and figure out who these women were or what they were talking about because they all seemed to be impersonating the same exact character, at least by the sound of their voices.
The Limits of the Imagination then returned for another installment with its long introduction where this week Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall played two boys from Queens in 1959 who are obsessed with bassoons and turn out to be Simon and Garfunkel who sell their souls to the devil to become famous but the devil's clause is that they also had to give up the bassoon. Years then pass and an old Paul Simon arrives in a building lobby to find a bassoon player that brings back the memory before he gets stuck in the elevator haunted by Muzak versions of his greatest hit which literally turns out to be hell.
Dirk Landers was a sketch where Robert Downey Jr. played an American James Bond type character who gets shot seconds after an enemy spy entered the room, making the entire series last about a minute before getting the end to the show.
Once again, Dennis Miller gave us the news. This week, we learned that the Russian Nuclear Program was just the game Mouse Trap that's been super-sized, A. Whitney Brown gave us the Big Picture about how the Chernobyl Meltdown was being downplayed by the Russian media as well as other world news from the week, and Dennis Miller announced that Saturday Night Live will be coming back for at least another year.
Paul Simon then returned to the stage with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the two performed Homeless.
Penn and Teller then returned to the show yet again for yet another one of their comedic magic routines where Teller is put in a strait jacket and hung upside-down by his feet while Penn read a poem Kasey At The Bat while Teller tries to escape before getting dropped on giant spikes if he doesn't manage to get out before the story is over. When it looks like Teller is about to pull it off Penn starts to read the story faster but the two manage to finish at the exact time so the crisis was successfully averted.
The Pathological Liar also returned to the show where he visited a country club and tries to pick up on Catherine Oxenberg who is lying as well because she's actually just the waitress on a break and trying to hook up with this "Producer."
Brim Decaffeinated was a fake ad for a decaf coffee where the cast is too tired to even act as they yawn their way through the scene. The sketch is intentionally so slow that it almost put me to sleep, but in a way that wasn't annoying.
We then got A Mothers Day's Message from Joan Cusack who gives advice but whispers her way through the important parts in a sketch that I didn't really get, it might be because it was in reference to something from the time that I am just not aware of because I was lost when the audience laughed.
We then got yet another repeat of the fake Trojans condoms ad that has aired several times throughout this season.
Paul Simon then returned to the stage alone to perform Graceland.
Finally, Catherine Oxenberg and Paul Simon closed the show by thanking the audience and saying their goodnights.

Thought this show landed at the bottom of the average stage it still had these three average moments that were still good enough for my list. First, I loved the Shackled Prisoners sketch because it cracked me up how they kept forgetting that they were chained to a wall when making an otherwise good plan to escape. Next, I really liked The Pathological Liar's meeting with Catherine Oxenberg because it actually felt like a natural pairing and both had believable reasons to lie. Finally, I was a fan of the Brim Decaffeinated sketch because I actually got tired while watching it which in this case was good because it was the point that they were trying to make.