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You Lika Da Episode… Da Episode Isa Good… No???

I’ve always been a fan of Jason Alexander, not just a George from Seinfeld but as the man himself. Not only do I like seeing him when he randomly pops up in movies, he’s always seemed like a really cool guy whenever I’ve seen or heard him be interviewed. There’s something about his non-George, nice guy persona that always felt genuine and real.

This is why I was rooting for him right out the gate and was happy to see that he put on a pretty good show. Again, I think a big part of the reason that I liked this episode as much as I did was due to the fact that he seemed like another one of these hosts who seemed to be genuinely having a lot of fun from the opening sketch to the closing goodnights of the show.

I like this approach over the hosts who seem happy to be there but there’s still a sense that their appearance is mainly a promotional gig, especially now that the show has evolved to where almost every host now opens the show by plugging the reason they’re there. This open promotion aspect of the show was something that started with the turn of the decade because up until the ‘90s, only a handful of host actually shared that there was an alternative reason to why they accepted the gig.

That’s another thing that I liked about this episode. Jason Alexander was the first host in quite a while where there wasn’t a hint as to what he was promoting which made it more believable when he started with the standard line that he was really excited to be there.

Looking forward, I’m very excited about the rest of the shows because this season seems like it’s going to end pretty strong which won’t be that big of a surprise because this entire good but not great season has been super close to nailing it only most of the shows have felt just a tiny bit off.

I’d dig deeper into the reasons but I’ve already covered these points in past reviews. So with that, it’s now time to switch gears and share what I saw as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with parody coverage of the Clinton-Yeltsin Summit with Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton and Farley as Boris Yeltsin. The sketch eventually evolved into a parody of Indecent Proposal when Clinton offers Russian financial aid in exchange for an evening with the Russian leader’s wife, played by Julia Sweeney. The being the opening sketch, this all built up to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Jason Alexander then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he started his acting career on Broadway before performing a low budget rendition of the song I’m Flying while dressed as Peter Pan where the pulley system only allowed him to go up and down after being promised that he would be able to fly all around the stage. We learn of this promise when Jason stopped halfway through to complain to Lorne Michaels.
We then got another repeat of the Jiffy Express commercial from earlier in the season which again was a fake ad for a delivery service that takes the blame for the packages you shipped past their deadline.
Woody Allen Fan Club took place at a New York rec center where a handful of men doing Woody Allen impersonations discuss their favorite directors and defend the recent lawsuit with Mia Farrow over him being inappropriate with their adopted kids.
This was followed by another installment of Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared how his dad’s belief that laughter was the best medicine led to a lot of problems within his family.
Hub's Gyros might be my favorite bad sketch with the staff of a Greek Diner who are obsessed with whether or not their patrons, “Lika da juice,” aka the sauce that comes with their gyros. David Spade eventually broke the sketch by complaining that it was going on too long to the point where it was getting boring which I’m sure is in reference to why they barely used any reoccurring characters this entire season.
Peter Gabriel then took to the stage to perform Steam.
Once again, Kevin Nealon gave us the news. This week, Chris Farley dropped in as a new character named Bennett Brauer who feels a little like his Matt Foley character that uses a lot of finger quotes as he talks bad about himself while trying to share the story that he never ended up getting to.
Food Union Break Room was a sketch that took place in a grocery store breakroom while Jason Alexander shows new hire, Rob Schneider the break room only to get interrupted by a wondering customer. He then showed him his secret hiding spot in the stockroom only to be interrupted by the store manager. Next, they went into a tiny room by the furnace only to be interrupted by Canteen Boy who played a coworker who bugs the two with an update on both the customer and manager who interrupted them earlier. Finally, the two put their heads through two holes in the ceiling to e get some alone time with the rats.
We then got another Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey where Jack wished that aliens would come down to Earth and turn him into a pet.
Mr. DeAngelo was a mafia sketch with Jason Alexander as the mob boss who has to teach Tim Meadows a lesson after he stole money from the mob only Meadows is too tough and beats Alexander just as bad if not worse every time the two henchmen let their guards down.
Ignorant Proposal was another parody of the black version of Indecent Proposal with “Eddie Murphy,” Mary J. Blige” and “Billy Dee Williams” playing the starring roles only the money involved is fifteen dollars and the Blige is just a baby momma and not a wife.
This was followed by yet another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared what really scares ants.
Tales of Irony was a PBS style show where Jason Alexander introduced three different tales of irony that were then acted out. The first one was about two humans played by Kevin Nealon and Julia Sweeney who escaped planet Earth before things got too bad and traveled through space to track down another planet which for some reason they think is Earth, for some reason Sweeney also thought Nealon’s character’s name was Adam and the planet they were headed toward was named Eden, only Nealon’s name was Al, and was also wrong about the new planets name. We then went back to Jason Alexander who realized that none of this was a good example of irony as he went on to introduce story number two which took us on a blind date where again there was more confusion than irony involved to tell the tale. Again, Alexander pointed out the flaw and how easily it could have been fixed before sharing story number three which as simply a prospector who struck it rich which infuriated our stuffy host and led to the cancellation of the show.
Once again, we got yet another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack talks about how he gets pissed at people who don’t think there’s life in the desert because it isn’t true since there is always a desert circus.
Peter Gabriel then returned to the stage to perform In Your Eyes.
Black Co-Workers was a sketch that took place at a restaurant for a group of coworkers who got together for some after-work drinks. Jason Alexander played a new guy who didn’t quite know everyone and kept confusing Tim Meadows with Chris Rock as they kept switching places every time Jason Alexander’s back was turned, making the new guy look like a jerk. Not only does he confuse Rock and Meadows but he also mixed up Ellen Cleghorne due to an innocent mistake that was actually Meadows’ and Cleghorne’s faults.
Finally, Jason Alexander closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Though this episode wasn’t quite as good as the last couple shows have been it was still better than the good but not great quality of the rest of the season thanks to these three favorite moments of the night. First I loved the Hub's Gyros sketch because I loved that these characters were intentionally meant to be annoying to make fun of the critics’ takes on the show’s reoccurring characters. Next, I really liked Tales of Irony because I thought it was funny the way the sketch made fun of the most misused word in the world. Finally, I was a fan of Black Co-Workers sketch because it was funny how it turned Jason Alexander’s character into a jerk when he really was being a super nice guy and none of his racist mistakes where his fault at all.