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Two For Two For The Start Of The Twentieth Year

As I said in the review of this season’s opening show, I’m very excited to see how this year ends up playing out. Again, my hopes are very high because even to this day I am still a huge fan of Chris Elliott, Janeane Garofalo, and Laura Kightlinger who all just made it one year. Though I remember most people being pretty critical of this year, I can’t remember if I actually agreed and was let down by these comedy heroes or if I felt that people were being unnecessarily harsh.

I tend to lean toward the latter because when it comes to me, I’m a pretty loyal fan of the things that who hates the phrase, “I remember when ________ used to be good, back when.” I get that there are highs and lows to even my favorite TV shows, so I don’t like to spread the negative vibes when something or someone that’s entertained me for so many hours might have slightly missed its or their mark.

This is why I might come across a bit too apologetic when I get nit-picky about any SNL episodes that I’ve watched. Like how, tonight’s episode felt just a little slow, but I credit this to the mostly new cast. That said, other than the slight tonal issues, this was a pretty fun show to watch, to where I can only see the season getting better and better with each episode.

The comedy is there in the content, while the acting is fine amongst the cast, and to top things off the lineup of hosts makes it seem like there’s no way it can fail. This leads me to believe that I even back in the day, I was the one reassuring the haters that the show was still actually doing alright. Then again, I was already warmed up to the new cast while most of my non-comedy nerd family and friends were not.

Oh well, we’ll see how things turn out but either way, I feel more excited about this season than the last one. With that, it’s now time to shift gears and move on to share what I saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with A Message From The President Of The United States where we learned that Mark McKean landed the role of Bill Clinton following Phil Hartman’s departure from the show. The address itself was actually about his failure to pass the Universal Health Care Reform Legislation thanks to Congress voting against Hillary’s ideas. He then went on to share his backup plan where he wanted to send every American a First aid kit and a home remedy-style book to help them solve any health problems on their own. Of course, this being the opening sketch, it eventually built to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Marisa Tomei then officially opened the show with a monolog about the controversial claims that she didn’t really win the Oscar for her role in My Cousin Vinny after rumors swirled about claiming the Jack Palance read off the wrong name. She then went on to share several other awards that she won with Jack Palance as the presenter. Finally, she finished her opening routine by sharing some insider secrets about New York City being that she’s a local, only all of her suggestions are for items and establishments that could be found in any city.
This was followed by a fake ad for the Lexon Paradox car which was designed for both luxury and affordability. This design plan led to a mutant of a machine because every single design choice led to a contradiction. Unfortunately, they never revealed the car, but the description was rather atrocious.
We then got more parody CourtTV of the O.J. Trial that was still in its infancy phase at the time. During this installment, Marisa Tomei and revised her My Cousin Vinny character to act as an automobile expert in an effort to help the defense prove that O.J. was not guilty.
Piercing Today was a talk show sketch where host Marisa Tomei played a piercing fanatic who interviewed her pierced quest about their extreme choices in body modification since aggressive piercing was the growing trend of the day when this episode originally aired. Her first few guests looked like your typical Grunge fan, but then we met guest three who had a piece of rebar going through his head due to a freak accident.
Bonnie Raitt then took to the stage to perform Love Sneaking Up On You.
Once again, Norm MacDonald gave us the news. This week, Mike Meyers got an extremely quick segment to talk about the postponing of the hockey season where he only said, “It’s stupid.” Tim Meadows followed this up with his input on the hockey delay acting as if the sport was vital to him and the black community. David Spade also introduced his new cool guy character who was too cool to say a single word with a look that sort of seemed inspired by a combination of Dave Navarro and Bono.
Chris Elliot and Janeane Garofalo then hosted a Making Better Love Workshop through the continued education program at the local high school. As much as the two instructors try to keep the class serious and mature, most of the students are just middle-aged perverted men who were there to watch the live sex that was promised, as part of the demo.
Daily Affirmation returned after a long while off. This time, host, Stuart Smalley had on “Michael J.” and “Lisa Marie P.” to discuss their marriage and awkward relationship where it was hard to tell which was the weirder celeb.
Monsters Of Monologue '94 was a sketch that tried to turn one-man-show performances into a major competitive event like it’s the Super Bowl of Off-Off-Broadway.
Bonnie Raitt then returned to the stage to perform Storm Warning.
Bobby Camilarri's Bridal Fair 2000 was a fake ad for a bridal fair for those who don’t want to pay top dollar for their wedding needs since they are not entirely sure their relationship will last long enough to justify the cost.
Framington High Fall Mixer was a sketch that took place at a high school dance with Adam Sandler and Marisa Tomei play awkwardly nervous teens at their first dance, trying to make small talk while keeping up with the song.
Finally, Marisa Tomei closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

This was another one of those shows that was pretty fun to watch even though there were no real highlights to write about which is why I think the show felt slow and why I struggled to find these three of my favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the My Cousin Vinny/O.J. Trail Parody because it was a perfect blending of references. Next, I really liked the Making Better Love Workshop sketch because it was super fun to see Janeane Garofalo and Chris Elliot team up. Finally, I was a fan of Monsters Of Monologue '94 because even back then it was exciting to see a Spalding Grey reference.