or...

A Night Of Old Thought And A Tiny King

First off, this episode with Nicolas Cage as the host was well worth the watch because it reminds you how Nicolas Cage was once a comedic actor with movies like Raising Arizona, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Trapped In Paradise highlighting his funny side. I was a huge fan of his work all the way up until National Treasure which is when I stopped following his career, but even that was more due to the fact that I was losing interest in film once I started to work in the industry.

With all of that said, I had pretty high expectations for the night, which I already pointed out was met. In fact, this episode was so fun that my top two favorite moments would be a tie if I allowed for that type of nonsense. Not only were these two sketches equally good, I would put either one in my overall top ten list of favorite sketches of all time.

My only issue with this viewing was that it reminded me of last season’s finale where it didn’t feel special enough to be a season opener. I mean, there was no rolling out of new cast member or no introduction to reoccurring character and to top it off there were five repeat Deep Thought segments from last season.

Though the first two issues don’t bother me all that much, the fact that there were so many repeats on the very first night makes me a tad bit nervous for the rest of the season. Not only that but five segments of Deep Thoughts in one night is a bit too much on its own, to the point where if it wasn’t for the Deep Thoughts whether repeated or new, I don’t think my other issues would have been noteworthy and I would have just focused on the positive aspects of this episode.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case which led me to write these words, and now that I’ve shared my views, it’s now time to move on and share what I saw as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with a sketch that took outside of a movie theater that was playing Woody Allen’s Husbands And Wives when Woody and Soon-Yi exit having just watched the movie while on a date. Woody is disappointed by his work and started to neurotically think out his issues when he noticed Mia Farrow and Allen Dershowitz standing in line for the next viewing which led to an extremely awkward interaction that was interrupted for more awkward interaction with more people who Woody’s been awkward with which built up to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Nicolas Cage then officially opened the show with a monolog about working with Sarah Jessica Parker in Honeymoon In Vegas and how he was excited to work with her big breast. Next, he discussed how much he liked working with Cher’s ass in Moonstruck which got groans from the crowd and Nicolas Cage called backstage to be lectured by Lorne Michaels over the fact that he was being so sexist. To correct this, he returned to the stage to talk about James Kahn’s ass as well.
We then got a fake ad for Canis which was a cologne for dogs that parodied a Calvin Klein ad from that time.
The Adventures of Tiny Elvis then made his debut with Nicolas Cage playing the tiny King who noticed how big everything is around him now that he’s this tiny sized and it seems to be the favorite new past time of him and his entourage.
Ross Perot Makes A Deal was a sketch where Dana Carvey as Ross Perot contemplated jumping back into the presidential race after jumping out, then jumping in and jumping out once again. While weighing out his options he started to play a game similar to the end of Let’s Make A Deal where Monty Hall would pay random people if they could meet his on-the-spot demands. This was also very reminiscent of the WWF’s Million Dollar Man and his man-servant Virgil.
This was followed by a repeat of the Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey from last season where Jack reminisced about his uncle that he used to call Uncle Caveman who was actually a bear.
Bobby Brown then took to the stage to perform Humpin' Around.
Once again, Kevin Nealon gave us the news. This week, Kevin Nealon slipped into his Subliminal Man character to talk about the media’s involvement in the presidential elections. Chris Rock dropped in to talk about the first day of school inspired by this being the show’s first episode of the season and Opera Man stopped by once again to sing a recap of the news from the week.
Baby Names was the classic sketch where Nicolas Cage is over insistent that he and his wife name their baby a name that impossible to make fun of, with Nicolas find a flaw in even the most innocent of names. The finally decide Bjaardker on because it’s Icelandic and safe only to hear the full name will be Bjaardker Asswhipe.
This was followed by another repeat of a Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack ponders how great it must have felt to be a Native American who killed a settler that was stealing their land.
We then got a parody of Nightline where Ted Koppel interviews a group of undecided voters who were allowed to ask Bill Clinton whatever question they want in an effort to get them to finally make their choice. As always, they treat these undecided voters as idiots instead of people who don’t like the lesser of two evils choice.
Bobby Brown then returned to the stage to perform Good Enough.
This was followed by yet another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack
The Queen Shenequa Show then made its debut outside of the news where Ellen Cleghorne as the Queen interviews Bobby Brown as himself in what was close to being a legitimate interview filled with compliments and fanning out. This was a sketch where you had to enjoy the character to appreciate the jokes which wasn’t the case with me.
Once again, we got another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handy repeat where Jack pondered a world gone mad.
Lorne Michaels then addressed the crowd about a recent controversy where Dan Quayle took issue with Rob Schneider’s Mr. Casual Sex character then went on to introduce the next installment of the sketch which was filled with all of the same characters that mainly made fun of Dan Quayle for not being able to spell potato which was a really big joke at the time.
We then got yet another repeat of the Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey from last year where Jack share what he thought you should do if you go temporarily insane.
Finally, Nicolas Cage closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Again, minus all of the Deep Thoughts repeats, this was a pretty fun show especially thanks to these three of my favorite moment of the night. First, I loved the Baby Names sketch because I specifically remember watching this when it originally aired and having no idea what it was building to and completely lost it when I first heard Asswhipe as a name. Next, I really liked Tiny Elvis, which could easily be number one because it was so random and surreal but for now, I’m delegating it to position two since there is potential that I can make the next installment number one the next time Nicolas Cage drops in to host the show. Finally, I was a fan of Ross Perot Makes A Deal because I was a fan of Ross Perot as a kid, love Let’s Make A Deal to this day, and also the sketch reminded me of the WWF’s Million Dollar Man and his man-servant Virgil, creating multiple layers of nostalgia.