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Grilling It While Killing It On A Saturday Night

If I’m being honest, I’ve never been more than a casual viewer of boxing, mainly watching Tyson fights and highly publicized bouts like the late life comeback fight that Foreman won just prior to hosting the show. That said, I’ve always been a huge fan of George Foreman going back to when I was a little kid because he was one of my favorite guests to watch on Letterman. Not only that, but I also love his current comeback on the series Better Late Than Never. Thanks to these connections, I had high expectations going into the viewing of this episode.

Fortunately, this was the first “high hopes episode” that actually paid off to the point where it’s my new favorite episode of the season, surpassing Alec Baldwin who just took the top spot last night. Once again, this was a case where attitude meant absolutely everything since Foreman’s acting traditionally stilted just like every other sports star host. Even though you could see him reading the lines that he still flubbed from time to time, or laugh in the middle of a joke, these mistakes came from a genuine place to where it was hard not to laugh along.

That’s not to say that this episode was driven by humbled charm of an untrained actor because not only was Foreman just fun to watch, the content was pretty funny as well. Mainly, I liked how this episode branched off into the world of sports instead of focusing too heavily on all of the lame mid-term election politics that they been tied to for the rest of the year.

Hopefully, with the episode being the end of the calendar year, the cast a crew will come back from their winter break with a whole new energy so that the rest of the season will be as good as these last two episodes because it’s fully possible and just what this season needs.

We’ll see what ends up happening, but until then, it’s now time to shift gears and share what I saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with A Christmas Message From The President And Mrs. Clinton with Michael McKean as Bill and Janeane Garofalo as Hillary Clinton who shared their message of about how Bill’s new tax break for the middle class should provide enough extra cash for an extra special Christmas, while completely ignoring the poor. There was also a reference to another plane hitting the White House, which is another one of these news stories from this year that I barely remember since it never led to anything. It must have been funny back then because it did get a few laughs before leading to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
George Foreman then officially opened the show with a monolog about his late-life comeback to boxing which led him to joke about how easy it was to beat up the entire cast during any disagreements that came about during their rehearsals.
Time Boxer was a sketch where George Foreman played himself as a time-traveling boxer who accidentally got sent back to 1939 where he ended up in a boxing match with Adolf Hitler. The beating he gives to the angry dictator inadvertently created a butterfly effect where George Foreman ended up the Fuehrer of the world, only using peace while avoiding the whole holocaust.
Looking Good was a makeover infomercial with Janeane Garofalo and George Foreman as the pitchman. The way this system being sold works is that George Foreman beats the ugliness out of his customers.
Hole then took to the stage to perform Doll Parts.
Once again, Norm MacDonald gave us the news. This week, Janeane Garofalo dropped in as Martha Stewart to share some ideas to make your house more festive for the holidays only Norm MacDonald kept getting hung up on her fancy choices of words. Adam Sandler and David Spade also returned as their, Two Guys From A Religious Cult, characters who reviewed a new New York City restaurant. We also got to hear from Chris Farley who played the cult leader who joined in on the review via satellite.
Matt Foley: Motivational Trainer was a sketch where Chris Farley’s motivational Matt Foley character returned to share the tale of how he was the one who trained the great George Foreman for his amazing late-life comeback to the sport of boxing. Mainly, Foley’s annoying ass inspired Foreman to want to hit people again, after he had found peace and swore off any acts of violence.
George Foreman then played a character named Uncle Joe who was attending his niece's wedding. Even though he just wants to enjoy his time as a guest, the host of the night keeps pressuring Uncle Joe to get involved and provide the entertainment by singing multiple songs even though he keeps aggressively saying no.
We then got a parody of The Incredible Hulk where Tim Meadows played Bruce Banner who kept turning into Foreman as the Hulk over even the slightest of injuries. Fortunately, since the Hulk was so old, he kept having to nap before he could do too much damage to the room. Eventually, the Hulk broke the sketch to complain to the writers about how their sketches are so repetitive.
Hole then returned to the stage to perform Violet.
Chris Elliot's Bedtime Story was a sketch where Chris Elliot barged into George Foreman’s dressing room in order to take a nap on the couch and demands that our host read him a bedtime story since he can’t sleep without a tale to send him into slumber. George then read the book Goodnight Moon while Elliott acted like a child who kept chiming in with questions about the simple plot.
"Stalking" by Bruce McCulloch was a short film written, directed, and starring the founding member of The Kids In The Hall where he got caught stalking Janeane Garofalo. Even though she doesn’t accept him as a mate, she does seem excited about the introduction.
Jackie Stallone's Psychic Circle was a parody of Jackie’s Psychic ads only in this version she claimed to be able to predict if her caller would be a success like her son Sylvester or a failure just like Frank.
Finally, George Foreman closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

As I said up above, I this is my new favorite episode of the year thanks to these three of my favorite moments of the night. First, I loved Time Boxer because how could you not like a sketch where George Foreman travels through time to beat up Hitler. Next, I really liked the Looking Good sketch even though it wasn’t the best-written sketch but the special effects makeup of the people who got beat up had me laughing the hardest that I’ve laughed in quite a while. Finally, I was a fan of The Incredible Hulk sketch because not only did I think the sketch, in general, was funny but it made me laugh how Foreman broke the scene as the Hulk and not as himself to bitch about the writing staff.