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A Successful Show With The Tall Guy

To start things off, I’ve always been a pretty big fan of Jeff Goldblum because he’s quirky like Christopher Walken but more in a charming way instead of coming across as a creep. I’ve liked him in everything from his mainstream hits like the Fly, Jurassic Park, and even Independent’s Day to his Indie odd films like The Tall Guy, Run Ronnie Run, and The Favour, The Watch And The Really Big Fish. I mean, how could you not like an actor who portrayed a character that played The Elephant Man in a musical featuring Mr. Bean.

Because of his personality alone, I had no worries that this wouldn’t be a great show, breaking the good but not great quality that carried over from last year. Even though I’m usually disappointed when I have high hopes but that wasn’t the case tonight. No this was a fun show from start to end and Jeff Goldblum isn’t the only one that deserves credit.

Another fun thing about tonight’s show is this was the night that they started to introduce the season's new cast member. I was pretty excited by this because even though there was a quick appearance by Norm MacDonald last week, it was so brief that I thought he was just a writer. Tonight’s episode not only feature Norm and a couple actual bits but we also got to see Sarah Silverman, Jay Mohr and even got a quick cameo from Dave Attell who actually was just a writer.

I love when they slowly roll out their new cast because it makes me more excited about future episodes than when they blow they wad and introduce everyone on opening night when the return cast and crew are still a little rusty which often leads to the newcomers getting the blame. Then again, it’s only been recently in this part of the challenge where they cycle people through individually instead of constantly replacing the entire staff whenever the ratings get stale.

Of the episodes that I’ve seen from this season, I’m pretty excited about this year because it feels like it has the potential to be a good one. With that said, 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 another parody of a Farm Aid style song called Rock For Michael which allowed the cast to impersonate musicians from the time as they attempted to get Michael Jordan to rethink retiring while he was at the peak of his fame. As always, this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Jeff Goldblum then officially opened the show with a monolog about his summer while promoting his latest movie which was a little film called Jurassic Park. He then went on to joke about all the other film that the movie beat in the box office before getting cut off by members of the audience who thought the dinosaurs were actually real.
We then got a repeat of the fake ad for Nerf Crotch bats from last season which was an ad for a nerf bat designed for hitting people in the crotch.
Subway Guitarist was, as the title suggests, a sketch that took place in the subway where Rob Schneider played a subway musician who gets offended when anyone tips him money because he claims that he’s not a beggar and is doing it for the art, only the songs that he sings contradict his claims that he’s actually doing okay.
We then went to Fulton County Stadium for a playoff game where Jeff Goldblum played a character who was obsessed with starting The Wave and then expected praise and credit for the obnoxious form of fan participation only no one cares being that they are more interested in the game.
Aerosmith then took to the stage to perform Cryin'.
Once again, Kevin Nealon gave us the news. This week, Ellen Cleghorne dropped in for a segment to discuss the latest conflict in Somalia and how she could capture the warlord we were after because foreign guys are drawn to her like a magnet. Norm MacDonald also made his news debut to do what must be his favorite routine about how his biggest fear in prison isn’t actually the loss of freedom, no, he’s more concerned with the anal rape that’s involved which was later acted out in his movie Dirty Work.
We then went to a Dance Club where we witnessed Jeff Goldblum reveal that he is the worst dancer in the world to the point where everyone in the club laughs at his every move while his girlfriend keeps telling him that he’s just being paranoid. His dancing is so bad that the band eventual had to stop their performance to check in to see if he’s okay. Even though he continued to be self-conscious his girlfriend continued to egg him on even if the other patrons are mocking him in front of his face.
Jeff Goldblum, as himself, then went to Karl's Video Store to rent some porn. As hard as he tries to tries to fly under the radar and sneak in and out, David Spade played the obnoxious cashier who talked so loud that everyone in the store got to overhear the selections of films that he chose.
We then went to a garage sale where Canteen Boy made his return to the show where everyone made fun of him openly even though he was too naive to pick up on any of the jokes that were made at his expense.
Aerosmith then returned to the stage to perform Sweet Emotion.
Christopher Walken's Celebrity Psychic Friends Network was a parody of the Psychic Friends Network that Dione Warwick used to pitch only with Jay Mohr playing the psychic pitchman.
History's Great Over-Thinkers was a talk show sketch hosted by Jeff Goldblum who interviewed famous Over-Thinkers throughout history only he overthinks who he should start the interview off with, which ended up taking all of the segments time so no one other than Goldblum got to speak at all.
Finally, Jeff Goldblum closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Unlike the other two episodes this year that were just barely better than last year, this episode was the first to fully get out of the good but not great loop thanks to these three of my favorite moments from the night. First, I loved The Wave sketch because it reminds me how back when I was a kid I would get so bored at baseball games that I would be more interested in what was going on in the stands over anything that was happening on the field. Next, I really liked the Karl's Video Store because I like the joke about how cashiers don’t fear speaking loudly when you’re trying to be subtle with a purchase you planned to hide. Finally, I was a fan of the Subway Guitarist sketch because of how it played with confusion in a way that makes me laugh.