The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started at Ross Perot's Reform Party headquarters where we got our very first SNL reference to Trump as a potential President as Darrell Hammond impersonated him in order to pitch why he would be a better replacement over Pat Buchanan for Ross Perot’s open spot as the Reform Party’s candidate. Perot felt that the problem was that the people of America wanted a president EVEN MORE NUTTY than him, which led both Trump and Buchanan to feel like they were a perfect fit, until Will Ferrell as Jesse “The Body” Ventura burst through the door to inform everyone that he was the perfect fit if America really wanted crazy. With this being the opening sketch it then wrapped up with the announcement of, “Live from New York…”    
2. Jerry Seinfeld then officially opened the show with a bit of his stand up about what he is doing now that the Seinfeld show is off the air. First, we learned that he moved back to New York, but other than that he said he mainly watched TV especially the show Wings which seemed to be constantly airing on multiple channels at that time. After listing off several other mundane shows that kept him busy he ended his update by sharing that he also had affairs with a couple of married women.
3. This was followed by a fake ad for an investment firm called Dillon/Edwards Investments that that seemed very typical at first until we learned that their web domain was clownpenis.fart thanks to the fact that they were late to the game in taking their company to the internet leaving this to be the only domain that was left.
4. Morning Latte the returned for another installment with Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell playing their over-caffeinated morning talk show host. During this segment, the two morning show mental-patients talked about the fact that Oteri was attacked by her gay hairdresser after she snapped at him for being late to the show. As Oteri explain how she became a victim, sounding very confused, we quickly learned that her approach to dealing with the hairdresser was homophobic with a touch of racism thrown in from time to time. We also met the shows new producer played by Chris Parnell who was so uptight that he didn’t even talk. They then went on to talk about movies and other morning show thing before finally bringing out Jerry Seinfeld who played the author of a crazy diet book that was a rip off of The Zone that had a very simple restriction where you could only eat fruit and meat. At times it felt like they crammed so much into this sketch that every time I tried to settle in to enjoy the path I thought they were taking, I’d have to shift gears to try and figured out the through-line of the sketch to where it felt almost too scattered to be funny.
5. Mary Katherine Gallagher also returned this time Molly Shannon’s spastic Catholic school girl character fell for Jerry Seinfeld as a little Jewish boy while hanging out on a basketball court as they all waited for the school’s interfaith basketball playoff. At first, he blew her off, acting too cool for school but then as soon as all of the other were gone we learned that the true reason he was ignoring her was that his parents would never allow him to date a non-Jew. Eventually, Mary managed to win him over by sharing a monolog from the movie Yentl.  
6. This was followed by another fake ad that started with Will Ferrell in a babies room where he talked about the first time that he changed a baby’s diaper, very lovingly as if this were going to be a diaper ad. That is until Ana Gasteyer came through the door and was shocked to find this home invader, which led Ferrell to panic and jump out the window. That’s when it was revealed that this was actually a fake ad for the Javis Home Security Systems that promised to save your family from this type of weirdo.
7. Action 8 News Watch had Jerry Seinfeld and Ana Gasteyer who would only throw out fear mongering teasers for upcoming stories without ever getting to the actual news.
8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, we got introduced to Weekend Update: The Millennium which was promised to be a new segment to recap the 1000s wind down the millennium as the year 2000 grew near. Part one focused on sharks, and how they will remain the same no matter how advanced humans become, complete with historical examples. Jerry Seinfeld debated Jimmy Fallon as Jerry Seinfeld over their views of the store The Gap when they were supposed to be talking about campaign finance reform.
9. David Bowie then took to the stage to perform Thursday's Child.
10. Oz was a parody of the old prison show with the same name that had Jerry Seinfeld transfer over to the Oz facility as a spin-off of the Seinfeld show since that ended with them all going to prison. Though the sketch didn’t have anyone else from Seinfeld, even through impersonations, this sketch was super cool because the entire real cast from the Oz show took part in this sketch and stayed in their characters while reliving some of the situations from Jerry’s classic sit-com that we all know and love.
11. 1-800-EAT-SHIT had Will Ferrell as a motorist who dialed the 800 number to report a rude driver. Though his wife, Ana Gasteyer, thinks the number to the “How Am I Driving?” sticker is just a joke and they both end up shocked to find that not only is the number legit but the people working the lines turn out to be even bigger jerks than the driver while speaking with very polite tones as they genuinely suggest they eat poo.
12. ...And A Pizza Place was a sketch that showed what happened to the last have of the title “Two Guys A Girls And A Pizza Place,” which Will Ferrell greenlit without having a strong grasp of the concept. We then went to the see a clip of the show that turned out to be nothing more than security footage of a pizza shop with a laugh-track. We then went back to the network meeting that started the sketch to see all of the execs try to figure out what went wrong as if it wasn’t obvious. They then made a few adjustments, and next thing you know, we were at an award show was Chris Kattan announce the suggested ricotta cheese as one of the nominees for best supporting-actor. Finally, the sketch crammed in one more reference by having A.J. Benza finish the sketch off by throwing a piece of pizza to the grand before delivering his famous catchphrase from the time, “Fame, ain’t it a bitch,” for what seemed to be no reason at all.  
13. David Bowie then returned to the stage to perform Rebel Rebel.
14. Keeping Him Alive had Will Ferrell as the leader of a gang of thugs who kept killing and reviving Jerry Seinfeld with his henchmen in order to be both good cops and bad cops as they tried to get the information that he needed out of our host. Though this sketch was pretty funny from everyone going overboard, it was never made fully clear who these people were or why this information was so important.
15. Finally, Jerry Seinfeld closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with and sketch that had Darrell Hammond as Al Gore who sounded like a robot as he tried to remind us who he was and why he would be a good President while Darrell Hammond also played Clinton to cheer him on from time to time. After a while, Clinton left and Will Ferrell as George W. Bush entered the scene with a bunch of his friends since he was certain that he would win the race. After the friends left, Bush and Gore started talking only to find very few differences between the platforms they were running on. This led Gore to come up with an idea that led the two to join forces in order to make a Genetically Created Candidate that was a hybrid of the two of them only to end up creating Horatio Sanz as a candidate who was split down the middle just like the villain Two-Face from Batman. Of course, with this being the opening sketch it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
2. Heather Graham then officially opened the show with a monolog that followed the popular trend of last season where Heather tried to get through her routine only to instantly be interrupted and of course, since she’s a good-looking host, the show dusted off the played out bit where all of the male cast members lined up in order to hit on her while she acted like a blonde idiot who fell for all of their tricks. Again, this joke always feels like it’s just an excuse to allow at least one cast member get a little handsy with someone out of the league. This intro also introduced putting your dick in a box as a gift, at least when it comes to SNL when Chris Parnell rounded out the lecherous line-up.
3. This was followed by a fake ad for Litter Critters for a new kitty litter that turned the cat’s waste into a Play-Doh-like consistency to make cleaning up the litter box a fun activity that gets the kids involved.
4. Of course, with there being a good looking host, Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan returned as The Zimmermans and this time Heather Graham and Will Ferrell played the couple to get confused by their aggressive public displays of affection. I’m a huge fan of this sketch in general but this time it was pretty funny because of how aggressive Heather Graham got with Will Ferrell when all he wanted to do was enjoy his seat in first class. I also liked how instead of Will Ferrell coming off as a jerk by mistaking a sign leading him to want to join in, this time he ended up accidentally making out with Chris Kattan which led to more confusion than anger, so it was nice to see that the show finally switched it up.
5. The Ladies' Man also made an unsurprising return considering Heather Graham’s looks but Leon Phelps doesn’t bother me that much because his whole joke is that he’s a misguided ladies’ man after all. Also, he usually teams up with the hot host to where they are more like a sidekick than a prop meant to be groped like this week how Graham revised her Rollergirl character from Boogie Nights to review dirty movies with Phelps.
6. Where Are They Now? was a parody profile sketch that brought us the reunion of Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey as Hans and Franz who shared what they did while they were apart which consisted of the two pumped up friends trying to make it as Home Shopping Network Pitchmen, and even trying an off-Broadway play but minus the success of Pumping Up the two ended up parting ways to then finally reunite as grey-haired versions of themselves.  This sketch was prerecorded to be from a 25th Anniversary Special that aired before the season opener but the special ran out of time.
7. NetAid was another parody of FarmAid only this time the collection of impersonated popular singers sang their own hit song from the time in an effort to raise awareness of global poverty. Not only was there not a group song, the main source of humor came from this sketch came from how insignificant VH1 had grown to become even though they were picking up the slack that came from the fact that there was no longer music on MTV.
8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Collin Quinn eviscerated a real six-year-old in a debate over the education crisis in America. Horatio Sanz also dropped by to comment on the recent Latin explosion that was taking place in pop-culture during this time.
9. Marc Anthony then took to the stage to perform I Need To Know.
10. We then got another installment of Dog Show which is a series of sketches that I have mixed feelings about because I like how quirky the characters are but it often feels like the sketches success depends on whether or not the live dogs act up to create unexpected obstacles for the cast. Unluckily, for this installment, the dogs behaved well once again making the sketch feel more like it was trying too hard to be weird.
11. No Blair Witch Parody was a sketch that evolved into a Blair Witch parody despite the fact that everyone involved in the sketch promised that there would be no parody of the sleeper hit of the year. The sketch started with Tim Meadows and Lorne Michaels discussing why they wouldn’t stoop so low, claiming instead that they would promote an ad to save starving children in Africa which led the parody to start through what appeared to be a documentary that followed a kid they adopted and then continued on from there.
12. Marc Anthony then returned to the stage to perform That's Okay.
13. Three-Way Couple showed us the aftermath of a successful attempt at a three-way between Chris Parnell and Ana Gasteyer who tried to make things seem normal after having their way with their babysitter who was played by Heather Graham.
14. Finally, Heather Graham closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with Giuliani's World Series Bets that had Darrell Hammond as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani so that he could announce a bet he had with the mayor of Atlanta where the winner would get a treat that their cities were known for, peaches for an Atlanta win and New York Strip Steaks for a New York win. Giuliani then went on to explain how this friendly bet wasn’t good enough for him before going on to share some of the crazy ideas that he had to raise the stakes for the wager. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, this all built up to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
2. Norm MacDonald then officially opened the show with a monolog about how his sudden rise in popularity had nothing to do with the fact that he’s gotten any funnier but instead he just seemed funnier because SNL has gotten to be so bad. This was unfortunate because even though I think Norm is one of the funniest people of all time and the show screwed him over, it still bummed me out that, even jokingly, he took it out on the cast that he was about to work with. There’s just nothing I hate more than a host who even jokes about being there under protest but there’s just something about Norm’s delivery that made it clear he was just having fun especially since he was also making fun of himself while he was making the joke.
3. Martha Stewart: The Commodity was a sketch where Ana Gasteyer as Martha Stewart announced how she was now living it up ever since her IPO became a stock market success which was extra fun considering the fact that this was years before she was even being looked at for her SEC controversy so it had nothing to do with the fact that she would someday end up serving time.
4. Great Moments in Yankee History had Norm MacDonald as a sarcastic Lou Gehrig who insisted that he was the unluckiest man on the face of the planet considering he was cursed with a disease that was so rare that they named it after him.
5. Celebrity Jeopardy! brought Norm MacDonald back as Bert Reynolds, AKA Turd Ferguson, so that he and Darrell Hammond and Sean Connery along with Jimmy Fallon as French Stewart badgered Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek as he attempted to just get through the game.
6. Crosstalk was the parody of a real panel talk show with the same name where Chris Parnell played the host with the topic on the table being “How Thin Is Too Thin?” His first guest was Cheri Oteri who played a plus-sized model who felt that the ideal tiny size was getting out of control. The next guest was Ana Gasteyer who made herself look disturbingly thin yet defended the super thin movement. The third and final guest led to Rachel Dratch’s show debut as Calista Flockhart who was so thin that it was just Rachel’s head above a shirt that was draped over the chair. Throughout the entire sketch, the plus-sized Cheri Oteri was the only person, including the host, to make any sense but she kept getting cut off by Chris Parnell making an insensitive fat joke.
7. Larry King's News & Views allowed Norm MacDonald to revise his Larry King impersonation in order to parody the talk show hosts real segment where he rambled on about random thoughts that came to his head.
8. TV Funhouse then returned with another installment of Fun With Real Audio where this week Robert Smigel provided animation to an address that Charlton Heston made to Congress in support or The NRA.
9. We then got the second installment of Larry King's News & Views where once again Norm MacDonald made fun of the random thoughts that come from Larry King’s head.
10. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, we got another installment of Weekend Update: The Millennium that, this time, highlighted a bunch of events that never actually happened, like when Mark Twain and Skeletor didn’t win a war by dropping a bomb on the St. Louis Arch. Cheri Oteri also dropped in as Marla Maples to share her regrets of accidentally turning twenty-six, making her too old to take advantage of her sexual exploit potential now that she was no longer married to Trump.
11. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg then took to the stage to perform Still D.R.E..
12. Tooth Brushers had Norm MacDonald as a toothbrush and Cheri Oteri as a tooth to play a married couple of dentist who had a routine planned out of the kids on Halloween but kept screwing up on their timing which led to vicious fights that would take place the second the kids would leave. As soon as things started to seem to be the most heated, the doorbell would ring starting the process all over again.
13. Michael Jackson In A Bar had Tim Meadows as the late pop-superstar in order to complain to a bartender, played by Norm MacDonald, about all of his recent marital woes. Even though Jackson kept sharing bizarre details like how even his monkey was depressed, Norm kept trying to reassure Michael that he was absolutely normal without ever even attempting to make a pedophile joke. Toward the end of the sketch, Jimmy Fallon joined the scene as Howard Stern who also had recently divorced his wife.
14. Dr. Dre and Eminem then took to the stage to perform Forgot About Dre.
15. This was followed by a parody of Inside The Actors Studio where Will Ferrell introduced his James Lipton impersonation in order to interview Norm MacDonald as Clint Eastwood but the auteur had a hard time answering any question since Lipton would constantly cut him off in order to keep the interview going which put Eastwood into Dirty Harry mode.
16. We then got a repeat of the Chess For Girls ad from a couple seasons ago that joked how chess was too hard for girls so they replace the board and game pieces with dolls and a doll apparel.
17. Finally, Norm MacDonald closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a parody of The Practice where our host made out with every attorney who walked through his office door whether they were a guy or a girl or in some cases guy’s playing girls and vice versa until once again Rachel Dratch as Calista Flockhart as Ally McBeal made a special visit to also make out with our host. I never watched either show so I didn’t really get the mash-up but I was bit disappointed that this seems to be setting up another hot host night. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
2. Dylan McDermott then officially opened the show with a monolog about his childhood connection to the show since his father owned one of the bars that the cast and the crew would hang out in after they were done taping the show. Though he was excited to share his connection with the original cast, he seemed to be a bit embarrassed with Horatio Sanz since the two were in a made-for-TV version of Miracle On 34th Street and had to be reminded by seeing a clip. Horatio then explained the reason he wasn’t remembered was that he didn’t land the role of Santa Clause and then called Dylan over to sit on his lap to show us how good of a Saint Nick he would have been and McDermott was happy to play along before throwing to the first non-opening sketch.
3. This was followed by a quick installment of The Jim Gray Show that had Chris Parnell as the sport’s host who offended Pete Ross who got his own show out of the controversy and is now going around offending other guests. The first guest to be offended in this series of sketches was Elizabeth Dole who recently had to drop out of this year’s Presidential Election.
4. Tim Meadows then played Bryant Gumbel as he moved into his new personal office for his new Early Morning Show that he landed after leaving The Today Show, while setting up, his former co-host dropped by to sneak in a few jabs as they attempted to congratulate him for his new promotion but couldn’t look past their behind-the-scenes feud.
5. The Culps then returned and this time the singing instructing duo sang Culp versions of the hits from the day while attending a Middle School assembly to send off the school’s principal.
6. We then got a second installment of The Jim Gray Show where this time Chris Parnell as Jim Gray interviewed Danny Glover and called him out over a complaint that he recently made about how cab drivers wouldn’t pick him up because he was an African-American, meanwhile, this Jim Gray character believed that the cabbies weren’t picking Glover up not because of his race but because they didn’t like his new films.
7. This was followed by a parody of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire which had Darrell Hammond as Regis and made fun of how he used to make the contestants look like idiots for not being able to answer the simplest questions even though they are multiple choice. All of the pressure from the show caused Ana Gasteyer to have a major meltdown while trying to work through the answer to an easy question about E.T. This caused Regis to switch his tone and become extremely supportive only to become insensitive again when she managed to get the answer wrong.
8. Mango then returned to the show and got shot in the butt in the middle of one of his shows. The sketch then became a parody of a detective drama when Dylan McDermott took on the case in order to go undercover as Mango in an effort to find out who shot the gun. The sketch then got a little Single White Female-like when McDermott got a little too into the Mango role leading to a parody of The Bodyguard when it was revealed that Mayor Giuliani was the man behind the gun and attempted to kill Mango in his efforts to get all of the strippers out of New York City.  
9. As the Mango sketch ended the rule of three was then completed with a third installment of The Jim Gray Show where Chris Parnell as Jim Gray tried to trap McDermott with his gotcha journalism but was instantly shot down.
10. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, had no special guests, it was just Colin Quinn and his jokes.
11. Foo Fighters took to the stage to perform Learn To Fly.
12. We then got to see Cheri Oteri’s pill-popping Colette Reardon character in her home, instead of on the news or in the pharmacy as usual. In the sketch, Dylan McDermott played a phone repairman who was a bit concerned about Reardon’s stockpile of drugs as she rambled on while he attempted to work.
13. Will Ferrell then played a network executive that explained that due to the fact that the network’s lottery pull’s ratings were so low they had a new plan to liven things up by mixing the number draw into a scripted show which led to a preview of Lotto Pick 4 Hospital. This fictional lottery-themed show had McDermott as a doctor who kept pulling lottery balls out of his patients.
14. Foo Fighters then returned to the show to perform Stacked Actors.
15. Oh No, Not My Baby! brought us to a projects apartment where Tracy Morgan played the mother to a man who was in trouble for selling drugs but she kept on insisting that her grown baby boy was no criminal. Her pleas of innocents carried on to where her son’s crimes actually brought him to court and no matter how clear the evidence became she still claimed that her boy was being framed.
16. Finally, Dylan McDermott closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with Breaking News that interrupted a Spartan’s sketch which then turned into a parody of Special Report that had Ana Gasteyer as a reporter who was out on the scene with Horatio Sanz as a crazed gunman as he attempted to attack the NRA Headquarters because he was upset by the increase of violence involving guns. Before actually getting to Sanz, Ana interviewed Charlton Heston who had mixed feelings about the event considering that he was disappointed that he was shot but impress by his use of the gun. The whole thing wrapped up with the NRA giving Horatio an award. With the story wrapped up, we then went back to the Spartan’s sketch where they announced of, “Live from New York…”
2. Garth Brooks then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he was secretly pleased to discover that Mango had a crush on Garth’s alter ego, Chris Gaines after seeing a clip from Garth’s first visit where he was hypnotized by the little stripper man.
3. Today Is Never Yesterday was a parody of a Bond film with Chris Parnell as 007 who learned that he had 107 venereal diseases from all of his exploits while out in the field. He then had to go back and alert all of the women from his past who he’d slept with.
4. This was followed by a parody of The Smurfs that, in the world of the sketch, NBC was promoting as an epic mini-series that would blow all of the other fantasy-themed specials out of the water.
5. Boston Teens introduced Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch as their classic couple from Boston who are both loud and love to have fun. In this installment Jimmy goofs off in a Hillshire Farms while Rachel attempts to land a job but it’s hard to tell if she is being serious or if they are both working together to pull off a prank considering all of this was being recorded by the never-seen Tommy who always operates the camcorder that constantly captures these two goofs.
6. Tracy Confronts Garth was the classic behind-the-scenes sketch where Tracy Morgan discusses how he thought that Chris Gaines is a queer after catching Garth leave the stage from the Boston Teens scene. This caused Garth to be unsure how to handle the situation since he assumed that Tracy is unaware that Gaines was actually his own alter-ego. Lorne Michaels eventually attempted to break things up only to be told by Tracy to, “Shut up and go get me a soda… Bitch.” Tracy continued to bash Chris Gaines until Lorne returned with the soda and we found out that Tracy was fully aware of the alter-ego situation the entire time.
7. Great Moments In Corporate History was a sketch that shared a time where a slip-up during the introductions of the Warner-Lambert team ended the companies merger with American Home Products because Will Ferrell was able to remember what seemed to be at least one hundred people’s names but Rachel Dratch was the one who slipped-up and stumbled when sharing her own name.
8. Express Flowers showed Garth Brooks as he struggled to create the perfect message to go with the flowers that he wants to send to his girlfriend to make up for a fight that they were in over a bunch of different white trash reason and he couldn’t figure out which one to focus on.
9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week gave us another installment of Weekend Update’s Millennium where this time they profiled a basketball player named Darryl Dawkins who they claimed was the Man Of The Millennium who beat out Shakespeare and Einstein since basketball abilities turned out to be the deciding factor. Molly Shannon also dropped by with her new segment called The World Is Crazy!!! where this time she focused on how crazy Julianna Margulies was for leaving the show E.R only Molly is clearly far crazier than the former E.R. actress.
10. Garth Brooks’ alter-ego Chris Gaines then took to the stage to perform Way Of The Girl.
11. Mango then returned for another installment where he snuck into what he thought was the musical guest dressing room after he just got off the stage to admit that he was in love with the singer. Garth Brooks then took off his wig and admitted that his whole Chris Gaines character was nothing more than an effort to win over the tiny male stripper which ended up blowing Mango’s mind.
12. The Devil Can't Write A Love Song was a parody of The Devil Went Down To Georgia only in this version it turned out that the Devil, as played by Will Ferrell, provided very little useful assistance to get Garth Brooks’ musical career off the ground since he was a horrible songwriter himself. By the end of the sketch, Garth ended up writing a song on his own about the whole situation that sounded like it could’ve been a hit.  
13. We then went to a store called Wilson's where Cheri Oteri gave us the full version of her Simmer Down Now character who once played a small role in an unrelated sketch making this not a character debut. In the sketch as with always, this character is a rude clerk who has no time for the customers who are there to exchange a gift.
14. We then got a repeat of the classic ad for the Royal Deluxe II from way back in 1977 which was a fake ad for a land-yacht of a car that claimed to be such a smooth ride that you could circumcise a child while driving on even the bumpiest of roads.
15. WXLU Facelift showed us a failed attempt for a local TV network to lighten the news by having a kids’ show motif as their newscast intro sequence following a meeting with a group of network executives who attempted to be creative.
16. Finally, Garth Brooks closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with Donald Trump's Address where Darrell Hammond as Trump announced his bid to run for the President because he wanted to fulfill his childhood list of things to do where being president and building the largest building on Mars were his only two remaining list items. After sharing his plans Trump went on to add that his running mate would be a guy named John Carpenter, not the famous director, but a guy who was in the news at the time for winning Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The …Millionaire winning John Carpenter then joined Trump in the scene where he got the honor to announce, “Live from New York…”
2. Jennifer Aniston then officially opened the show with a monolog where she started out with the usual host pleasantries only to be interrupted by the audience when one woman asked if the cast of Friends were friends in real life. Aniston found this question to be very annoying since people ask it all the time but, writer at the time, Tina Fey then annoyed her even more by asking if her boyfriend, Brad Pitt, was backstage to show support. This caused Jennifer Aniston to give un on the monolog and head backstage to start the show, only to have a run in with Molly Shannon who tried to comfort our host which quickly devolved into an all-female Fight Club with all of the women from the cast, where they all performed some pretty impressive stunts.
3. Pretty Living then returned for another installment with Ana Gasteyer of a daytime talk show whose only guest seems to be Molly Shannon’s, “I love it, I love it, I love it,” Joyologist character. As usual, Molly Shannon brought on a couple of guest of her own which this time was Sting and Jennifer Aniston who played a couple who ran the Woundology Institute For Self-Esteem which seemed more like a swingers club.
4. Nick Burns, Your Company Computer Guy had Jimmy Fallon as a company IT guy who rolled around the office, fixing computers and making fun of the employees for being too dumb to figure it out by themselves.
5. Wayne Porter had Chris Parnell in the titular role as an island castaway who sought re-election as the leader of the survivors of a plane crash. He made a pretty good pitch but also pointed out his own major flaw that he was standing in the middle of nowhere talking to no one since the camera he was talking to was nothing but a coconut on a stick and that the inescapable sun was driving him out of his mind while at the same time continuing his claims that he would be the best pick for the group’s leader.
6. This was followed by a fake ad for Privolin that had Jennifer Aniston in a business meeting and broke the fourth wall to talk about genital herpes before going into the benefits and side effect of this new Privolin drug, only as the sketch went on we eventually learned that this actually wasn’t a commercial at all.
7. We then got a parody of Sex And The City where Jennifer Aniston played Carrie Bradshaw and attempted to seduce Chris Kattan’s monkey man character Mr. Peepers after meeting him at a bar while out having drinks with the girls.
8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Will Ferrell dropped by as George W. Bush to read a few lines from his biography in an effort to promote his run to become the president and kill all of the rumors that he was still an active coke head but struggles to sit still or stay on topic. Colin Quinn also had a subliminal debate on race with Tracy Morgan based on a recent controversy brought to light by Jesse Jackson where a group of African-American students were treated unfairly. Though the two were both very cordial with their words, the subtitles told a completely different story.
9. Sting then took to the stage to perform Brand New Day.
10. Christmas Urchins had Jennifer Aniston and Rachel Dratch as Street-Urchins-For-Hire who would beg in place of their renters during the holiday season. Before we learn of this rental scheme, this felt like a surreal sketch with these Dicken’s era urchins living in modern times trying to win over a family with their songs that got darker and darker as the sketch went on.
11. Kim Plunkett had Will Ferrell as the titular Kim who landed on the same island as Wayne Porter from earlier in the night and decided to run against him because he was hopped up on sea water which led him to think that he had superpowers.
12. Pokemon Parents had Jennifer Aniston as a mom who kept yelling at her son for not caving in to the Pokemon fad that was getting big in America at the time.
13. Sting then teamed up with Cheb Mami and the two took to the stage to perform Desert Rose.
14. Roberta's Thanksgiving brought us to a Thanksgiving dinner where Cheri Oteri played the titular Roberta who was invited to join this family of strangers because she was the lonely lady in Chris Parnell’s office who had no family of her own to celebrate the holiday with and turned out to be a total wacko.
15. Finally, Jennifer Aniston closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with A Message From The President Of The United States where Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton addressed the nation in order to rate the Republican frontrunners for the 2000 Presidential election after sharing his concerns over several issues that he didn’t plan to deal with since he was so close to the end of his term. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
2. Christina Ricci then officially opened the show with a monolog where she joked about how her parents used to let her watch SNL with the original cast when she was a kid and then went on claim that her favorite original cast members were David Spade and Adam Sandler. She then went on to explain that she started her career acting with her twin sister, playing off the fact that most roles for real young kids are acted out by twins in order to split the work to avoid breaking any child labor laws. This led our host to be joined by Petina Ricci as portrayed by Rachel Dratch and the two shared how Christina focused on the dialog while Petina was more of a body double for wide shots and stunts. Finally, we got to see a clip from a film where they attempted to steal from the Olson Twins and finally act together in a film called The Great Marmalade Caper, which was a complete disaster because of Petina’s inability to act.
3. This was followed by the Spartans Holiday Parade where the Spartan performed their cheers at a holiday parade even though they were not invited. Other their uninvited cheers, in this segment we learned that Cheri Oteri was dating Jimmy Fallon who was part of the marching band and the two attempted to set up a double date by trying to get Will Ferrell to ask Christina Ricci out who was a member of tall flag. This plan really backfired when Jimmy ended up hooking up Christina who pointed out that they were both too good for these two cheerleading spazzes.  
4. We then got a fake ad for an upcoming NBC special called, And So This Is Chanukah where several cast members impersonated popular music performers from the time performed Chanukah-themed songs even though not a single one of them was actually Jewish.
5. Who Wants To Eat? was pretty much an offensive version of Slum Dog Millionaires from almost a decade before the movie was made that had a Middle Eastern version of Regis Philbin named Rajneesh Philbin who taunted the contestants who were playing for food instead of money. Christina Ricci played a Bosnian refugee who won the chance to play and had to answer questions that were mainly themed about how wasteful Americans are with food. With each question she got correct, she earned more food for her prize bank building up to the grand prize of a live goat, only to fail the final question about anorexia, since it was a concept she just couldn’t grasp and ended up walking away with nothing at all.
6. This was followed by a parody of Taxicab Confessions that had Tim Meadows as a cab driver who kept getting distracted by Christina Ricci as a sexy teenage passenger who kept talking about her job as an exotic dancer in a very flirtation tone. This pattern keeps going until Tim Meadows eventually gave up and stopped even trying to watch the road or even notice that he hit a pedestrian.
7. TV Funhouse then returned for another installment of Fun With Real Audio where this time, Robert Smigel animated a version of Friends that had the group of coffee drinking buddies continued on with their quirky sit-com ways as the Apocalypse struck New York City playing up the Y2K fears that I’m sort of surprised hasn’t been more of a reoccurring joke from this season considering that I remember it being a pretty big deal at the time.
8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Will Ferrell dropped by as a spokesman from the WTO who ended up talking louder than even he expected while trying to defend the controversial organization’s stance following the Seattle riots that broke out during the annual meeting from that year.
9. Beck then took to the stage to perform Mixed Bizness.
10. Goth Talk then returned after a long hiatus so that Molly Shannon’s Circe Nightshade character could give her sidekick Azrael Abyss a mock funeral, only Azrael was terrible at trying to play dead and kept interrupting Circe and her guest as played by Christina Ricci and Will Ferrell who tried to send him off to the afterworld through their mourning ritual. We also got to see home video footage of Azrael as a child which didn’t help at all in getting him to sit still.
11. We then got a parody of Sally where Ana Gasteyer as Sally Jesse Raphael enlisted the help of Tracy Morgan for a boot camp episode where he attempted to get, punk teen, Christina Ricci to clean up her act. When Tracy first took to the stage, he thought that he was there to whip Ricci’s mother into shape because he thought she was fat. After they corrected his mistake we got to see clips from the boot camp where Tracy and Ricci started out fighting only to end up making out. We then got to meet the “after” Ricci who was now a polite Asian girl that Tracy offered up since Ricci was too wild and managed to escape from the camp after blinding Morgan with her nails. The mom was happy with this swap out but the happiness didn’t last all that long before Ricci returned and a Battle Royal broke out on the stage.
12. Beck then returned to the stage to perform Sexx Laws.
13. The night ended with a Madeline Kahn Tribute where we got to see a clip from her classic sketch where she played The Bride Of Frankenstein in order to sing, I Feel Pretty.
14. Finally, Christina Ricci closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a parody of NBC Special Report with Chris Parnell as Tom Brokaw who interviewed Darrell Hammond as Arnold Schwarzenegger about his new movie End Of Days and how it related to the upcoming Y2K fear. Though Arnold claimed that there was nothing to fear Brokaw preferred to stick the media’s fear mongering ways as he tried to find holes in Arnold’s crazy attempt to be logical. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
2. Danny DeVito then officially opened the show with a monolog about how not only was he excited to join the Five-Timers Club but he was also excited to be the final SNL host of the Millennium giving the final monolog of 1999. He then went on to try a tell a few jokes before he was interrupted by Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell who brought out Mr. Peepers as his Five-Timers’ gift. DeVito was a bit confused at first but then decided to make the best of the situation by trying to sing a Christmas song with his new pet, only to have Mr. Peepers rush off and attempt to dry hump the cameraman.
3. This was followed by a fake ad for the Press Conference Play Set that allowed kids to put on playful press conferences with their friends with a play set made up of a podium to talk behind and curtains to have for a backdrop.
4. Delicious Dish then returned for another installment where once again Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon played their monotoned NPR host characters who continued to broadcast even after the Y2K apocalypse and had on Danny DeVito as their guest to talk about food you can make out of the random things that are left and laying around like a clam chowder dish made up of white out and dice that DeVito found in the recording studio.
5. Mango's Christmas started in Chris Kattan’s dressing room as the mini male stripper was getting pestered by all of his fans before we saw him jump in a Greyhound to visit his family to celebrate the holidays. While at home we found a family of Mangos that all had his look and sense of style but were a bit homophobic and all held traditional jobs even though they all wore the same tiny sequin shorts. After a family fight, Mango rushed off to bed where he was greeted by musical guest, Michael Stipe as The Christmas Fairy who showed Mango his Christmas past to learn how his dad, Danny DeVito was once a male stripper named Guava and had the same curse which was why he wanted more for his son. This new bit of information changed how the family got along just like in A Christmas Carol.  
6. The Boston Teens then returned. This time Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch played their always recorded characters while goofing around in metal shop making their holiday gift. Mainly, the goofy Boston Couple snuck in their jokes while talking to their shop teacher who was played by a very pleasant Danny DeVito who was encouraging almost to a flaw.
7. Happy Holidays From The Ladies' Man allowed Leon Phelps a segment to sing us a song called Merry Christmas To The Ladies.
8. TV Funhouse then returned with another installment of Fun With Real Audio where this time we got an animated recap of the top stories that were making the news in honor of this being the last episode of not only the year but of the millennium as well.  
9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Joe Franken dropped by with his father Al Franken who claimed the ‘80s as the Al Franken Decade then passed off the ‘90s decade to his son. Young Joe Franken was a bit pissed off by the fact that his father included him in this joke and had even less interest in Al’s announcement that we were entering the Al Franken Millennium.
10. R.E.M. then took to the stage to perform The Great Beyond.
11. Rockettes’ Open Auditions introduced Molly Shannon’s character Sally O’Malley who was over the moon about the fact that she’s now fifty and can still do the high kicks or whatever else it would take to compete with the younger girls trying out for the role of newest member of the Rockettes while proudly showing off her camel toe. Even funny than Shannon’s audition was the fact that Danny DeVito played the Rockettes’ choreographer who was running the audition and showed the girls all the moves.
12. Oh No, Not My Baby! then returned for another installment where once again Tracy Morgan played the mother of a hardened criminal who once again was in court for a crime that he was obviously guilty of and no matter how much evidence Tracy saw that proved otherwise, she swore up and down that her son was not guilty and for some reason at one point she broke into the song, I Just Called To Say I Love You.  
13. R.E.M. then returned to the stage to perform Man On The Moon.
14. Finally, Danny DeVito closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a sketch called Hillary's Departure where Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton was more interested in talking with Will Ferrell as Vladimir Putin over the phone about his recent victory in the recent Russian presidential election over saying goodbye to his wife, as played by Ana Gasteyer, who was leaving town after being elected as the senator of New York. As always, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
2. Jamie Foxx then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he was excited to be back in the world of sketch comedy following his recent serious role in the movie Any Given Sunday before he was interrupted by Will Ferrell as Oliver Stone who wanted to direct our host through the rest of his intro in order to keep total control of his film even throughout the promotional phase. Jamie Foxx fought through the distraction and started to tell a story about an interaction with Al Pacino which led Chris Kattan to take to the stage as to add even more value to the plug.
3. This was followed by a fake ad for Hamburger Helper Antibacterial promised you could add this product to any meat that’s past its expiration date or has been improperly stored in order to kill all the germs and make it completely harmless to eat.
4. Puff & Jennifer In Therapy had Jamie Foxx as P. Diddy and Cheri Oteri as Jennifer Lopez in order to show how the biggest power couple from that time attempted to salvage their relationship with the help of Tim Meadows as their therapist. Most of the jokes were based on the impersonations, and since I’ve never been a real fan of either performed most of the humor didn’t really register to me. I did, however, find it funny that Diddy wasn’t able to share a single feeling without ripping off the lyrics from an already established song.
5. Blackjack's Bitch took us to a prison in the middle of the night where Jamie Foxx played the titular Blackjack while Will Ferrell played his cellmate who was desperate to reassure the alpha male of the cellblock that he was still his prison bitch because he was feeling a bit insecure. The best part was that the tone of the conversation was more that of kids at a slumber party than a conversation you’d expect from a couple of prisoners in a cell.
6. A Special Message From John Goodman was a quick segment where John Goodman took to the stage as Linda Tripp and while speaking as himself, promised the audience that he would continue to do his Tripp impersonation without any change despite the fact that the real Linda had recently lost a lot of weight and looked way different after an extreme make-over via tons of plastic surgery.
7. Nick Burns, Your Company Computer Guy then returned for another installment only this time, Jimmy Fallon, as the arrogant IT guy, had a spaghetti western-style standoff with Jamie Foxx, while Jimmy was tried to fix a few issues after a major system update. Unlike the rest of the staff, Jamie was competent enough to solve all of his issues on his own which started this nerdy feud.
8. Tracy Confronts Jamie had Tracy Morgan approach our host as he attempted to leave the stage in order to share how pleased he was to have a black actor as the host for this week of SNL because usually, he feels so alone since he didn’t recognize Tim Meadows as a black guy. He also made a few jokes about how there is usually only one black host a year and how he was happy they chose Foxx over Alan Keyes. They ended the sketch by trying the bit where Tracy tells Lorne, “Now get me my soda… bitch,” once again but this time it felt so forced that it wasn’t funny at all, and this is coming from a huge Tracy Morgan fan.
9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Jamie Foxx as Stevie Wonder dropped in to remove his bandages following a vision restoration surgery and was pissed to find how his handlers dressed him as well as what they did to his hair and was super freaked out when he first saw his wife, as portrayed by Tracy Morgan. Horatio Sanz also got a segment his Jasper Hahn character who would draw what appeared to be pornographic images only to reveal extremely innocent finished products. Will Ferrell rounded out the news a John Rocker who really pissed of the New York crowd by adding more to the controversial statements that he recently made about the city.
10. Blink-182 then took to the stage to perform All The Small Things.
11. We then got a parody of It's Showtime At The Apollo! In the sketch, Tracy Morgan played Steve Harvey in order introduce Chris Parnell and Chris Kattan as two white dancers who failed to win over the crowd. Cheri Oteri also headed a group of TLC wannabes who also performed to nothing but boos. The night finally ended with Jamie Foxx as a thirteen-year-old who looked like Urkel who won over the crowd with a horrible rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Even though the crowd seemed to behind Foxx’s effort he lost to a girl who simply took off her top.
12. Stereotypically Jeffrey brought us to an office breakroom where Tracy Morgan played a new hire named Jeffery who was hanging out with the rest of the staff until he left to get back to work. Horatio Sanz then entered the room and overheard a conversation about this Jeffery character and when he asked who Jeffery was everyone described him without ever mentioning that he was black. After a few hints Horatio announced, “Oh, the new black guy,” which got everyone in the room to turn on him, especially Jamie Foxx who was pissed because all Sanz saw was that Jeffery was black. Horatio then tried to apologize but could fit in a word as Jamie Foxx spouted out a laundry list of racist stereotypes that could have better described Jeffery that were way worse than simply identifying him as being black.
13. Blink-182 then returned to the stage to perform What's My Age Again?
14. A Martin Luther King Day Moment was a profile sketch that had Jamie Foxx as MLK and highlighted an early version of the famous King sketch only the dream in this speech was about how he was naked in front of his high school class the evolved into the typical dream telling scenario with flying fish and faceless people where nothing makes sense to anyone other than dreamer.
15. Finally, Jamie Foxx then closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with parody coverage of an Elian Gonzalez Press Conference where Chris Parnell as Tom Brokaw threw to a press conference where Chris Kattan played little Elian who when asked by his uncle, as played by Horatio Sanz, if he wanted to go back to Cuba, freaked out and said no as if he were terrified. This was because, as the English subtitles revealed, Horatio actually asked in Spanish if he wanted to go back on the innertube where he would have to deal with the sharks again. This wasn’t enough for the members of the press who wanted to hear more from the little boy. Elian then obliged and went on to admit that he wanted to piss all over the people of America. Uncle Horatio then corrected the boy who went on to bash America a little more while throwing in a few jabs at Cuba as well until he eventually admitted that he preferred to be a boy without a country. He then went on to sing a song about how both sides involved in the conflict where misguided, ending on the line, “Live from New York…”

2. Freddie Prinze Jr. then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he was worried that his visit was almost canceled when he learned that the rest of the cast was trying to do the show while each and every one them was sick with the flu. We then learned that the cast continued out of contractual obligations and not the showbiz spirit of “the show must go on.”

3. This was followed by a fake ad for Colonel Belmont's Old Fashioned Horse Glue where Will Ferrell played a pitchman who took pride in his family’s tradition to use four entire horses to make a single bottle of his family’s branded glue.

4. We then got another parody of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? This time Well Ferrell played a high-rolling contestant who was so excited to win a hundred bucks that rather than risking to lose it all, he decided to take the money and run which Darrell Hammond as Regis found extremely hard to grasp.

5. Boy Band Blowout 2000 had Cheri Oteri and Ana Gasteyer as overly excited teens who hosted an MTV style show where they interviewed Freddy Prinze Jr. and a handful of the male members of the cast who portrayed a Backstreet Boys-style boy band. After the interview, the boys sang a song called Girl, You’re Still Phat where even though they were spelling fat with a “ph” it still sounded like they were talking about weight. They also sang a song called AOL which was about chat rooms and cybersex.

6. Jenny Craig Dinners had Molly Shannon as Monica Lewinsky who, in the world of the sketch, became the new spokeswoman for Jenny Craig and pitching her new line of phallic-shaped meals.

7. Ugly Models had Cheri Oteri and Rachel Dratch as the titular ugly models who were unaware of how unattractive they are. This led the two girls to think that their blind dates, Freddy Prinze Jr and Jimmy Fallon, were fully into them simply because they were models. It turns out their attitude matched their looks but the fact that they were so arrogant tricked the guys into thinking that they had to be hot after all since an ugly girl wouldn’t act with such confidence.

8. This was followed by a parody ad for The Sopranos that was all voice over that hyped the show with critic’s quotes that got stranger and stranger as the commercial continued on.

9. Dr. Beaman's Office had Will Ferrell as a doctor who had to call one of his patients to apologize to them for leaving a signed baseball in his chest during surgery. After the apology, we learned that he was mainly calling because he wanted to ball back and not really to say he was sorry. We then got to see him deal with more patients in person and got to see how horrible his bedside manner was in person as he got every detail wrong while making bizarre diagnoses. At one point, Tim Meadows joined the scene to do the robot for no reason. This led everyone else in the scene to struggle until it got to the end.

10. We then got a parody of Charlie Rose where Darrell Hammond as the PBS host attempted to interview Freddy Prinze Jr. and Chris Kattan as Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin who were all that helpful at all because they both acted as if their only job was to look good.

11. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Cheri Oteri dropped by to talk about the age gap between Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones and it turned out that not only was she fine with it but she was also involved in a May/December of her own, only in her case, she was dating a little child.  

12. Macy Gray then took to the stage to perform I Try.

13. The Giffords At Home had Darrell Hammond as Frank Gifford and Cheri Oteri as Kathy Lee who welcomed Freddie Prinze Jr. into their how to babysit their boy Cody so that they could go out on a date, which led to a whacky interaction between Freddie and the dysfunctional Gifford family.

14. Macy Gray then returned to the stage to perform Why Didn't You Call Me?

15. Flacko And Teddy's World Of Martin Luther King Day Trees had Freddie Prinze Jr. and Tracy Morgan who were trying to start a new MLK holiday tradition by selling abandoned Christmas trees for fifty bucks a pop.

16. Finally, Freddie Prinze Jr. closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a sketch called Breakfast In New Hampshire where Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, Chris Parnell as John McCain, Tim Meadows as Alan Keyes, Darrell Hammond as Al Gore, and Jimmy Fallon as Bill Bradley met up for breakfast prior to the New Hampshire convention and ribbed one another throughout the meal in a way that good friend joke during a friendly game of golf as if they were all a part of the same club. McCain was the only one who wasn’t having fun as the laughing and pointing sent him into a flashback from when he was a prisoner of war and started to choke George W., thinking that he was the enemy. When McCain came to, he announced of, “Live from New York…”

2. Alan Cumming then officially opened the show with a monolog about how New York was his second home being that he worked just down the street in the Broadway play Cabaret. Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri then interrupted to share how they were huge fans of his work in the play and kept interrupting him by reciting lines. After Kattan and Oteri left, Ana Gasteyer interrupted to show off her skills by singing The Sun Will Come Up, while dressed as Annie. Chris Parnell then broke this up while dressed as The Phantom Of The Opera and then ended with Tracy Morgan running across the set while dressed as a character from Cats and Will Ferrell attempted to present Alan Cumming with his headshot.

3. This was followed by my favorite sketch of all time which is the classic fake ad for Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor where Tracy Morgan played a Drunken Uncle Jemima in order to hawk his homemade booze that he drank to cope with dealing with Aunt Jemima. At one point he drinks so much that he seems Disney-style creatures to parody The Song Of The South only Tim Meadows points out that these animal are just products of Uncle Jemima’s drunken mind.

4. Fried Chicken Dreams Forever was a parody of a VH-1 biopic that shared a what-if story that share the tale of a potential time where Jimmy Fallon and Alan Cumming tried to start a chain of fried chicken restaurant after The Beatles broke up only to have it ruined by Cheri Oteri as Yoko Ono who had crazy new ideas for their chicken.

5. The Culps then returned to sing more popular songs in their singing instructor style only this time they were performing at a couple’s enhancement retreat. For the first time since this sketch started, the Culps were joined by a third as Alan Cumming grabbed an extra mic after he made their introduction.

6. Dog Show also returned for another installment where this time Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, and their real-life dogs had on Alan Cumming as a character who was a bizarre blend of what seemed to be a hippie, a dominatrix, and a boat captain, between his look and attitude. Again, this sketch only works for me when the dogs act up and throw off the human actors but other than that it feels like it’s trying too hard to be surreal and quirky which is my favorite brand of humor when correctly done.

7. The Heat Is On brought us our first short film by Adam McKay that had Ben Stiller bets Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz that he can get Will Ferrell as Glenn Frey in bed while hanging out in a bar after the crew was playing a game where Stiller claimed that he could predict how many lines it would take to get any girl in the bar to go home with him. This sketch took place at a time where a lot of humor came from guys making out so, of course, Ben Stiller won.

8. Jennifer Lopez then took to the stage to perform Feelin' So Good.

9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Tracy Morgan got a segment called Great Moments In Black History where he did an autobiographical profile of himself. Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton also dropped by to share his perspective on the 2000 Presidential Election.

10. Siegfried and Roy's Night Of 1000 Tigers had Alan Cumming and Chris Kattan as Siegfried and Roy who were hosting a benefit show for the few remaining tigers that were still living out in the wild. I kept expecting this to build up to a joke about the attack on Roy but this was still three years before that incident. Instead, this benefit show had a talk show format where they interviewed Cheri Oteri as a woman who just had reconstructive surgery in her efforts to look like a lion. There was also a segment where the two tiger obsessed performers went to the streets in an effort to create a prank segment for their show. We then went back to the studio where Siegfried and Roy performed once last magic trick before singing a song.

11. Hello Dolly returned for another installment with Ana Gasteyer as Deana Nolan-Grey who played a Home Shopping Network host who had a show where she pitched a bunch of crazy dolls, this time with her special guest who was played by Alan Cumming.

12. Jennifer Lopez then returned to the stage to perform Waiting For Tonight.

13. Finally, Alan Cumming closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with A Message From the First-Lady Of The United States where Ana Gasteyer as Hillary Clinton checked to officially announce that she was running for the New York Senate. Meanwhile, as she tried to awkwardly pull off being human in order to sell herself to the public, Darrell Hammond as Bill wondered around the background eating pizza and goofing off. After a while of goofing off, Bill checked in to say hi which sent Hillary into one of her rages that I personally didn’t realize was as big of a thing until I saw her blowing up at voters when she felt she was losing to Trump. Anyways, she went on selling this new her until Bill Clinton stole the screen one more time in order to announce, “Live from New York…”

2. Julianna Margulies then officially opened the show with a monolog about how this was her last season on ER which led her to complain about all of the medical jargon she had to learn for the role and understood why people thought she was crazy for quitting such a high paying job. She then reassured the audience that she was on to better things before she showed a clip from her fictional new show which was a veterinary version of ER. Then one of the writers stood as if she were a member of the audience as usual only this time she admitted to her real role and called out our host by saying her new show was the same. This led Margulies to share a different clip where an ER castmate joined her in the scene with a dark mustache and could only speak in Spanish.

3. This was followed by a repeat of the Litter Critters ad from earlier in the season which was a kitty litter that clumped in a way that made it possible for kids to play with their pet’s waste as if it were Play-Doh.

4. The Bird Family was the classic sketch that had Chris Parnell bring Julianne Margulies, as his girlfriend, home to visit his family where she was shocked to find that due to a medical deficiency Parnell only ate pre-chewed food. This didn’t go over all that well until Julianne gave into the pressure and fed her boyfriend’s brother, as played by Chris Kattan, with this momma bird feeding technique.

5. This was followed by a parody of E! Fashion Week that had Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell impersonating the real show’s hosts in order to make fun of the show in order to bicker a bit before throwing to a segment about Fashion week where cast members portrayed influential fashionistas from the time with Molly Shannon as Donatella Versace as our guide.

6. Augustus General brought us to an emergency room but not really to parody ER. Instead, this hospital trip brought us another visit from Cheri Oteri’s Nadeen character who tells everyone to “Simmer down now!!!”

7. We then got a parody of The Crocodile Hunter where Chris Kattan and Julianna Margulies played Steve and Terry Irwin in order to host a show out of Oregon where right away The Crocodile Hunter was bitten by a rattlesnake and then spent the rest of the sketch getting attacked by various other forms or wildlife while his wife/sidekick watched on.

8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Cheri Oteri as Joy Lipton dropped by to share some of the products she was selling for Valentine’s Day at her New York City Erotic Boutique store even though she looked and sound more like someone who would be running a comic book store.

9. DMX then took to the stage to perform Party Up.

10. We then got the behind the scenes look at an Erectile Dysfunction Ad where Will Ferrell played an actor who felt that the voice over guy was getting way too personal while trying to describe their drug. Meanwhile, Tim Meadows played a director who felt pushing people buttons was the best way to get the performance that he wants. After this embarrassing scene was played out and Tim Meadows and the voice over guy got Ferrell to truly break-down it was revealed that this wasn’t an erectile dysfunction ad at all but instead was for Tootsie Rolls.

11. Savin' It had Cheri Oteri as, goodie two shoes Jessica Simpson in a parody of her talk show where she interviewed a collection of virgins who were waiting for marriage to have sex, only it seems that the female guests where the only to be really into this deal. Meanwhile, the men are so pent up that they can barely sit still. It turns out that the reason the girls were so calm was that they were still getting their sexual release since they were only technical virgins which really blew the guys’ minds.

12. DMX then returned to the stage to perform What's My Name?

13. The Bloder Brothers had Jimmy Fallon and Chris Parnell as two free-associating loser brothers, with curly red hair and constant nervous laughs, who tried to pick up on Julianne Margulies while she was just trying to enjoy a drink following a high-stress out-of-town work convention. After a while of failed flirting, Margulies decided to play along after being humored by the two laughing morons. When she started to flirt back and asked the brothers to join her in her room, they got super scared because they didn’t know how to handle not getting rejected.

14. This was followed by a fake ad for priceline.com where Darrell Hammond as William Shatner sang a few songs Shatner-style with pitching the priceline.com product.

15. Finally, Julianna Margulies closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a parody of Nightline where Darrell Hammond as Ted Koppel interviewed several members of the cast who were dressed up as Peanuts characters in order to mourn the passing of Peanuts creator, Charles Schultz. After a while one of the Peanuts’ teachers chimed in and spoke with the “wha wah wha,” horn created language that was completely foreign to Koppel which led the kids to inform the news anchor what she actually said was, “Live from New York…”

2. Ben Affleck then officially opened the show with a monolog where he started out with a joke about how this was his second time on the show considering last year he was a part of Gwyneth Paltrow’s monolog since their relationship was still going strong at the time. Gwyneth Paltrow then joined Affleck on the stage and made fun of him while stealing his limelight since he stole a bit of her’s back when she was on as the host and he made fun of her for talking with a British accent.

3. This was followed by a fake ad for Victoria's Secret where a talking set of breasts had become the lingerie company’s latest spokesmodel.

4. Ben Loves Mango started out like the usual Mango sketch where Ben Affleck fell under the strippers spell after seeing him at a celebrity event, only this time, Mango made it clear that he was only interested in meeting Matt Damon. This announcement led the sketch to evolve into a parody of The Talented Mr. Ripley where Affleck disguised himself as Damon in an effort to trick Mango into bed. The scene then got a little rapey before Mango broke things up and reminded Affleck and us the audience that he’s not gay.

5. The Boston Teens then returned where this time, the always recorded Boston Couple had a bit of a falling out after Jimmy Fallon witnessed Rachel Dratch flirting with Ben Affleck while they were all hanging out at a party. Since everything with this couple is always being taped they then rewatched the footage to see if Dratch was actually innocent or if she was flirting back. Every time they replayed the scene Rachel looked more and more like the aggressor which led Fallon and Affleck to fight but then, with them being Boston boys, this fighting actually drew them closer together and everything was forgotten by the end of the sketch.

6. TV Funhouse then returned for a segment where Robert Smigel presented his animated parody called The All New Adventures Of Mr. T that was animated like the real Mr. T cartoon with Tracy Morgan as T’s voice in order to let everyone know that Mr. T was back and ready to work. We then saw Mr. T with his team of kids hijack a role in a local play in Mr. T’s effort to force his way into the gig.

7. Fretts Film Forum was a panel talk show where Ben Affleck and several members of the cast sat in director’s chairs to talk about the latest films. Though there were several funny references to movies from that era, the main source of humor throughout this sketch was how lispy they male critics were and how Cheri Oteri talked the most like a traditional man.

8. This was followed by a parody of the show Fanatic where Ben Affleck portrayed a fan who was chosen to spend an entire day with the celebrity he was a fan of, which in this case was Molly Shannon as Anna Nicole Smith. This sketch was filled with quick MTV style cuts that showed how big of a loser Affleck’s character is while we also got to see Molly Shannon recreate a couple of Anna Nicole Smith’s scenes from her movie Skyscraper until the two met up. Once again, it got a little rapey when Anna Nicole beat up Ben for attempting to make-out without any sign of consent.

9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Colin examined a bunch of “live press conferences” held by Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, Chris Parnell as John McCain, and Tim Meadows as Alan Keyes who were the three frontrunners to be the Republican Candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

10. Fiona Apple then took to the stage to perform Limp.

11. The Zimmermans then returned for more inappropriate public displays of affection only this time Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan kept talking dirty and making out while shopping for a car with Ben Affleck as a sleazy salesman who was an extra hairy Armenia for no reason that added anything to the scene, and of course ended up getting in trouble when he misreads a cue and attempts to join in on the action, adding another rapey scene to the night.

12. Police Recruit Fitness Testing brought back Molly Shannon’s Sally O’Malley character who is as proud of the fact that she’s fifty as she is of her camel toe, and this week was attempting to join the police force while showing off how high she could kick. After impressing Ben Affleck, who played the test instructor, he had our hero, Sally O’Malley, attempt to take on some real cops from the force and she took them all down with a combination of high kicks and throws.

13. We then got a fake ad for Trilocaine which was a medication designed to treat the symptoms of a simple head itch. This was one of those fake ads that made fun of the fake that the side effects seem far worse than the issue the drug’s meant to cure, only in this ad, those side effects include things like being sent to a dimension of the damned while being so sedated that you can’t even move.

14. Who Wants To Be Groped By An Eleven-Thousandaire? was a sketch where Ben Affleck played a semi-rich redneck who was the prize of the titular game show which was a parody of a show called Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire that originally aired around that time. We then got to meet the finalists who were played by Ana Gasteyer, and Cheri Oteri who were excited to win the grand prize and be molested, along with Chris Kattan who played a confused man who was unsure how he got on the show. Of course, with this being comedy, Kattan was the contestant who was chosen to round out this rapey night.

15. Finally, Ben Affleck closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a sketch called Newsmen Phone Chat that had Darrell Hammond, Chris Parnell, and Tim Meadows as Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, and Bernard Shaw who discussed over the phone how disappointed they were over the probability that it was going to be a Bush V. Gore election and how no matter who won it was going to be horrible for their shows’ rating for the next four to eight years. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”

2. Joshua Jackson then officially opened the show with a monolog where first he had to explain who he was before going on to promise that between him and the musical guest *NSYNC, tonight’s teen-based episode may not be all that thrilling to the target audience of the time but will one day be looked back at as a very memorable show once their teen fan base goes back to revisit the night. He then went on to share a few examples of similar teen-based host and band combos throughout the history of Saturday Night Live.

3. This was followed by a repeat of the Hamburger Helper Antibacterial ad from earlier in the season which was an additive that would revitalize even the most rotting pieces of meat.

4. Regis Co-Host Auditions made a parody of the time when Regis had to find a new co-host after his longtime sidekick, Kathie Lee, left to pursue a better offer. This sketch allowed us to see several cast members impersonate the frontrunners in order to see how the potential new morning team.

5. Wedding Singers was a sketch that had Horatio Sanz and Will Ferrell as a pair of wedding singers who were performing at Joshua Jackson’s wedding and kept ruining his speech by missing their cue by singing I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight by Cutting Crew randomly when they were supposed to be singing a Louis Armstrong because it was the only song that they knew. When the husband and bride finally give in and tell goofy duo to just perform we then learned they didn’t know all the words to the Cutting Crew song either.

6. On the Road With The Boys brought back the SNL boyband 7 Degrees Celsius so that they could put on a press conference where they met with their biggest fan as played by Joshua Jackson who could barely muster up the courage to talk because he was over excited and acted like a much younger girl. We also got introduced to a new boy band called No Refund who were played by this week’s musical guest *NSYNC who sang a song called Super-Size It which was a fast food-themed song that was a hit with the crowd of girls.

7. Lez It Up had a group of frat boys make a wish for some lesbians to liven up their scene. Though their wish does come true, the two lesbians that arrived are more realistic, and not the lipstick-lesbians of the frat boys’ dreams.

8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, show writer, Kevin Brennan got a segment to list the differences between Bush and Gore since one of the two was going to be our next president. The main difference turned out to be not all that much at all other than the name of their parties.

9. *NSYNC then took to the stage to perform Bye Bye Bye.

10. Let's Talk Books was a PBS-style panel talk show where panelists discussed some of the latest books which just happened to sound extremely dirty when the author and title were said in combination like Yellow River by I.P. Freely and many other juvenile hits like The Tigers Revenge by Claude Balls.

11. Cheri Oteri then returned as the pill-popping Collette Reardon who visited her nephew, Joshua Jackson’s prep school for Bring Your Father To School Day where Ms. Reardon filled in for Joshua Jackson’s dad who was stuck at home due to an issue that came up at work. Though the rest of the kids were a bit rude at first, Collette eventually won them all over by showing off her stockpile of drugs.

12. Neil Armstrong: The Ohio Years was another short film by Adam McKay that show how Neil Armstrong was still obsessed with his memories of walking on the moon and did nothing but watch his “One small step for man…” declaration over and over again. We also got to see him take a trip to the local store where he kept trying to get credit for his moon adventure but none of the townsfolk seemed to care. That didn’t stop Armstrong from being proud of his moment as he went on and on about his moon visit during every single part of his day.

13. *NSYNC then returned to the stage to perform I Thought She Knew.

14. Three-Way Couple also returned where this time, Chris Parnell and Ana Gasteyer attempted to talk their landscaper as played by Joshua Jackson, to join them in bed for one of their three-way sex session only as opposed to Heather Graham who played their babysitter who joined in, Jackson freaked out and ran away but then returned after giving it some thought and offered to do it for an extra sixty bucks.

15. Finally, Joshua Jackson closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a sketch called Vince McMahon's Rules where we went backstage to see special guest Vince McMahon go over the rules of the night with other special guests Mick Foley, Triple H and The Big Show since they were all rivals of The Rock and the time and McMahon didn’t want them to ruin this SNL/WWE collaboration and promised Mick Foley and Triple H that they could be the next host is everything went as planned. Meanwhile, all that the wrestlers wanted to do was figure out a way to fight tonight’s host. At one point The Big Show wondered off and came back with Mango in his arms, which led McMahon to demand that he put the little stripper down before he went on to announce, “Live from New York…”

2. The Rock then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he wasn’t used to working with such tiny people and how that led to a couple of accidents during rehearsal from The Rock going a little too hard. Mick Foley, Triple H, and The Big Show then caused a ruckus in the audience as they took to their seats to watch the show. The Rock went on to tell a few jokes before we went backstage where Vince McMahon was reassuring Lorne Michaels that nothing would go wrong. We then went back to the stage in time for a wrestling style confrontation that ended with Triple H wishing our host good luck with the show while the rest of the wrestlers cheered him on.

3. We then got a repeat of the Uncle Jemima's Mash Liquor ad from earlier in the season which is my favorite sketch of all time that had Tracy Morgan trying to pitch his homemade moonshine in an ad that parodied Song Of The South.

4. The Ladies Man then returned for another installment where Leon Phelps announced that he was officially in love before introducing us to the woman of his dreams. This led The Rock to enter the scene dressed in drag, and despite all of the clues, including the fact that The Rock made no attempt to disguise his voice, it took our host blatantly admitting that he was an undercover cop working a sting to catch Johns for Leon to realize what was actually going on, since he was so blinded by love.

5. Mr. Peepers also returned for another installment where Chris Kattan’s little monkey man character finally got to meet his dad, as played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who had all of Mr. Peepers’ moves only he was super-sized.

6. Morning Latte was another reoccurring sketch to return with Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri as their over-caffeinated, morning talk show host characters. For this installment, the two coffee fiends started out rambling on about a recent Chuck Woolery party before they went on to introduce The Rock as himself as their guest. This was around the time that he first started to become an anti-hero which led the two amped up hosts to foolishly fear their guest as if they believed in the fiction-based sport, even though he wasn’t putting on his wrestling persona and was being as polite as he could be. The sketch ended with The Rock singing, Are You Lonesome Tonight and was joined by Mick Foley and The Bog Show singing backup.

7. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, brought the return of Horatio Sans artistic character named Jasper Hahn who once again kept drawing images that started out looking extremely pornographic but this time were actually images of the presidential candidates by the time that he got to the finished piece of art. Jimmy Fallon also got a segment where he sang a few parody songs in honor of the upcoming spring break.

8. AC/DC then took to the stage to perform Stiff Upper Lip.

9. The Rock then played Clark Kent who did a horrible job at keeping his superhero secret identity with his Superman suit constantly hanging out of his clothes.

10. The Goombahs was a parody of a fiction Showtime show that was attempting to capitalize on HBO’s success with The Sopranos, only this show had way more Italian stereotypes to the point where most of The Rocks lines ended by him saying, “That’s a spicy meatball,” if he did manage to say more than those four words on their own.

11. We then got a fake ad for Nicotrel which started out sounding like a new aid meant to help smokers quit which technically it was since we eventually found out that Nicotrel was actually The Rock’s character’s name and for a price, he would beat the hell out of you if he ever catches you with a cigarette in your mouth. During the sketch, The Rock showed how the program worked by beating Chris Parnell to near death and by the end of the bit, Triple H, Mick Foley, and The Big Show joined in.

12. Today's Lady was a talk show sketch that had Rachel Dratch as the host who interviewed Cheri Oteri and Molly Shannon who had polar opposite outlooks on their careers with Oteri being a stuffy businesswoman and Shannon was a wacko who actively practiced witchcraft. After the girls shared a few facts, The Rock joined the show to share which type of woman he preferred but his appearance alone got all of the women on the show to act like a group of school girls.

13. AC/DC then returned to the stage to perform You Shook Me All Night Long.

14. This was followed by a repeat of the Colonel Belmont's Old Fashioned Horse Glue ad from earlier in the season which was a glue that actually bragged about how many horses had to die in order to make their glue products.

15. Finally, The Rock closed the show by thanking the audience and saying their goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with Father And Son Bush which had special guest, Dana Carvey drop to revise his George Bush impersonation in order to give fatherly advice to Will Ferrell as George W. Bush on how to deal with Al Gore since he had just recently officially landed the role as the Republican candidate for the upcoming Presidential Election. The main advice that the elder Bush had for his son was to never commit to anything while slipping out of answering questions that could potentially lose him even one vote. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually built to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”

2. Christopher Walken then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he was happy to be back and missed hosting since he’s growing to be a bit of a bore as he aged. This led him to sing the song Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week while the women of the cast danced in the background.

3. We then got one of the most quoted SNL sketches of all time with the classic parody of Behind The Music: Blue Oyster Cult where I think I can sum up the sketch simply by saying, “More cowbell!!!”

4. This was followed by a fake ad for a new Broadway musical titled, Elian, The Cuban Boy! Which had Christopher Walken as Fidel Castro, Ana Gasteyer and Elian’s aunt, Will Ferrell as Janet Reno, Chris Kattan’s as Elian’s dad and Rachel Dratch as Elian Gonzalez who all had songs to sing about the Elian incident and following deportation case.

5. This was followed by another installment of The Continental which once again was pretty much the same sketch only this time Christopher Walken attempted to woo his neighbor and trap her in his luxury apartment when she dropped by to pick up her mail.

6. We then got a fake ad for Viagra that showed the exasperated wives who weren’t as thrilled as their unappealing husbands were by the fact that these boner pills actually worked since that means they were back to being pestered for sex again after getting used to the slower sex lives of the old.

7. This was followed by a parody of Jenny Jones where Christopher Walken played an audience member who was very excited to be able to express his thoughts through cliché hip terms from the time (IE You ain’t all that and a bag of chips) while making comments to Jenny’s guest. The topic of today’s parody show was people who went from not to hot after high school who were there to confront their bullies.

8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Will Ferrell dropped by as Jacob Silj to discuss an Anti-Trust settlement against Microsoft that was recently in the news, the sketch didn’t have much to do with the case but was more about how Ferrell’s character couldn’t control the volume of his voice which led him to always sound like he was yelling.

9. Christina Aguilera then took to the stage to perform I Turn To You.

10. The Census had Tim Meadows as a census taker who had to endure a very strange encounter with Christopher Walken while he attempted to ask him the question required for him to fill out his census form. Throughout the questioning, Walken kept admitting that he was terrible when it came to numbers and other details, making this census poll an impossible task for Meadows. An example of how bad it was, at one point, Walken wasn’t sure if there were eighty or four people living in his one bedroom apartment only to eventually discover he actually lives by himself and the wife he kept referring to was a bobcat.

11. Miss Greenwood Hills Beauty Pageant had Molly Shannon’s Sally O’Malley character brag about being fifty and doing her high kicks while participating in a beauty pageant.

12. Christina Aguilera then took to the stage to perform the songs At Last and What A Girl Wants back to back.

13. Finally, Christopher Walken closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with Tobey Maguire as he recited The Studio 8-H Rules to the cast members who all lived together in the studio’s attic and where kept uneducated so that they couldn’t read these rules on their own, in what seemed to be a parody of The Cider House Rules based on the sketch title and the real movie’s description since I’ve never seen the actual film. After leaving the attic, Tobey then had a run in with Lorne Michaels, who based on his quirks, must have been making fun of the baddy from the film and their exchange eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”

2. Tobey Maguire then officially opened the show with a monolog about how excited he was to experiment with character work since he only got to play one character at a time in his films. Before he could get too far into his explanation he was then constantly be interrupted by Adam McKay who kept confusing out host with the movie Jerry Maguire as well as confusing all of Tobey’s roles for projects with similar names.

3. This was followed by another installment of Celebrity Jeopardy! This time, Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek had to wrangle Tobey Maguire as Keanu Reeves, Jimmy Fallon as Hilary Swank, and Darrell Hammond as his nemesis Sean Connery while trying to get through the dumbed-down celebrity version of his answer based game show.

4. Burger Castle brought back Cheri Oteri’s Nadeen character who now worked in a burger joint and kept silencing any complaining guest by telling them to, “Simmer down now.” Tobey Maguire played her boss who showed us that Nadeen wasn’t the only staff member to use “Simmer down now,” to solve even the smallest customer service problem.

5. TV Funhouse then returned with another installment of Fun With Real Audio where Robert Smigel provided an animation that played out the scene of a real audio of Sharon Stone as she explained her views on lesbianism mix with Geppetto playing the role of the interviewer which eventually led to Pinocchio becoming a real boy after the animated Sharon revised her leg-crossing scene from Basic Instinct which got the puppet to dry hump her leg.

6. We then got a new parody of Inside The Actor's Studio with Will Ferrell as the host James Lipton who became enamored by Tobey Maguire as TV’s Screech while interviewing Saved By The Bell for his acting-based interview show.

7. Attebury Tennis Lesson had Ana Gasteyer and Will Ferrell as Ginger and Leslie Attebury who played super-rich white folks who were waiting for this lessons at the local country club. Tobey Maguire played the instructor who recently left a mental ward after having a breakdown. Throughout the entire sketch, Ana Gasteyer rambled on in an elitist way, completely unaware of how this recently released mental patient felt about her views on mental health while Will Ferrell simply seemed to be there to fulfill an obligation.

8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Colin Quinn gave himself a segment to editorialize the upcoming film Gangs Of New York and how he was angry he wasn’t asked to be involved with the Irish-gang/New York-based film. Molly Shannon as Angelina Jolie then joined the news with Chris Kattan as her brother James Haven Voight so that they could address their whacky antics at during the recent Academy Awards this led to the introduction of Rachel Dratch as Qrplt*xk who was their love child and had a tiny arm growing out of her head but after a bit we learned this inbred baby turned out to be just a prank so that Jolie and her brother could prove a twisted point about how people will believe anything without thinking twice. Cheri Oteri also returned as her character Joy Lipton who looked like a complete nerd but owned an erotic bookstore and was there to promote her top selling products.

9. Sisqo then took to the stage to perform The Thong Song.

10. Yoga Class was the classic sketch where Will Ferrell finally achieved his yoga dreams and pretty much moved into the yoga class after finally figuring out how to get into the right position that allowed him to fellate himself.

11. Stavenhagen's Pawn Shop was another short film by Adam McKay that had Steve Buscemi and Horatio Sanz as a pair of pawn shop workers at the only shop in New York that bought and sold used food.

12. Porno Magazines had Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer enter the corner store of the neighborhood where he used to live and Tobey Maguire played a cashier who remembers Will’s porn habits from years ago back when he made regular visits and struggled to read the signs that this wasn’t a topic to be brought up in front of Ana Gasteyer who was his soon to be new wife.

13. This was followed by a fake ad for Westlink that was a company so advanced that even they don’t know what they do.

14. Finally, Tobey Maguire closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with a parody of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Celebrity Edition where Darrell Hammond as Regis Philbin had to wrangle John Goodman as Emeril Lagasse, Cheri Oteri as Kathie Lee Gifford, Horatio Sanz as Rosie O’Donnell, Chris Kattan as David Duchovny, Tim Meadows as Vanessa L. Williams and Chris Parnell as Lance Bass in order to get through the dumb down celebrity version of his “Millionaire” game show. After the introductions, the show went to an alert reminding viewers that with Disney now owning the cable provider they can easily interrupt their completions’ most popular shows with these types of notes on a whim, ruining the viewing experience. Of course, with this being the opening sketch it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”

2. John Goodman then officially opened the show with a monolog about how happy he was to host for the eleventh time and then went on to plug the new Flintstones movies that he wasn’t even in, after struggling to come up with a joke. At first, it seemed like the joke was that he’s hosted so much he ran out of things to say and was simply phoning it in but then the joke evolved to where we went backstage to find that the cast was concerned about Goodman’s drinking problem. This was followed by a quick intervention before we went back to the show.

3. This was followed by a fake ad for the Platinum Mach 14 which was a new fourteen-bladed razor that claims to give the closest shave since the Triple-Trac which was the razor from the fake ad that aired in the mid to late ‘70s with the original SNL cast.

4. Wanna Be A VJ 3 was a parody of an MTV show where the Music television channel would offer fans a chance to win a spot on the MTV VJ team. Jimmy Fallon played Carson Daly who hosted this show with his sidekick John Goodman as Dave Holmes. After meeting our host and co-host we went on to meet Maya Rudolph who made her show debut as MTV VJ Ananda who held the mic while other cast members portray douchie contestants and special musical guests.  

5. The Office Skank had Cheri Oteri as Adele, the titular office skank who flirted with her co-workers in the break room while dropping not so subtle sexual innuendos as jokes.

6. TV Funhouse then gave us a segment where Robert Smigel explored the life of the SNL catchphrase by having an animated Lorne Michaels share what goes into the development of a catchphrase-based sketch from concept to cashing in.

7. We then got a parody of The Christopher Lowell Show which had Chris Kattan as host, Christopher Lowell who gave kitschy decorating tips with his panel of flamboyant experts.

8. Neil Young then took to the stage to perform Razor Love.

9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, show writer Kevin Brennan dropped in again to share his final thoughts on the Elian Gonzalez incident which was, as a youngest of ten kids, he was jealous of all of the attention being given to the spotlighted Cuban kid and then went on to compare their lives while mainly focusing on himself. Darrell Hammond dropped in as Bill Clinton in order to defend his latest actions while shooting from the hip and getting real now that he only had a couple of months left in office.

10. Rock & Roll Paradise took place in a ‘50s diner filled with memorabilia with a group of cast mates out on a double date. At first, this group thought that the wait staff was made up of celebrity impersonators only to find out the one-hit-wonders or aged-out singers were the real deal, except for Horatio Sanz who played that latter-years Jim Morrison who was so committed to the role that he scared off the couples with his crazy drugged out antics.

11. The Bloder Brothers then returned with Jimmy Fallon and Chris Parnell as the giggly, ginger-headed brothers who, this time, get pulled over for a DUI and struggled to talk their way out of it because they were actually sober but couldn’t hold back on making lame DUI jokes like “I’m not as drunk as you think I am,” which didn’t go over well with the cops.

12. Neil Young then returned to the stage to perform Silver And Gold.

13. We then got a fake ad for Tek-Co which pitched as press like appliance used by pirates with poor teeth to test the validity of gold coins by biting the coins for them.

14. Finally, John Goodman closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with parody coverage of Giuliani’s Press Conference where Ana Gasteyer as Hilary Clinton actually spoke in favor of Mayor Giuliani’s extramarital affair after Darrell Hammond as the Mayor tried to spin the story to make it seem like it was no big deal. Hilary’s argument was that having an affair was just a thing that men in politics do and if anything this incident with Rudolph was a sign that he was rising within the political world. As always, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”

2. Britney Spears then officially opened the show with a monolog where she denied both the rumors that she lip-syncs and that she has breast implants. While trying to defend herself, not only did she end up lip-syncing the telling of half of the joke but her boobs started to dance around in her shirt when she got to the point of whether or not they were real.

3. This was followed by a fake ad for Gap Fat that had Horatio Sanz as the lead dancer in a Gad ad that marketed the store’s new XXL line of clothes.

4. Morning Latte the returned for another installment of Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri as over-caffeinated morning show hosts. This time, they rambled on about current events for quite a bit as always before they finally got around to interview Britany Spears as a girl who was a Mickey Mouse Club reject. This character was there to promote a book that she wrote about the seedy underbelly of the Disney world even though she was fired after four days on the show due to her own shady behavior.

5. The Boston Teens also returned with Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch as the always-recorded Boston couple who, this time, kept pestering Britney Spears as she played an old-timey milk maiden at a Boston colonial museum while making their immature jokes.

6. TV Funhouse then gave us another installment of The Ambiguously Gay Duo. For this week’s adventure, the two not-so-questionably-gay heroes foiled Big Head’s plot to hijack the NBA Finals while freaking everyone out with their antics.

7. Woodrow then introduced Tracy Morgan’s sewer-dwelling Woodrow character who enjoyed a romantic moment with Britany Spears after she followed him to his sewer home because she felt sorry for the way her fans were treating him when he showed up to an event to get her autograph. The sketch ended with Tracy singing a beautiful schizophrenia inspired love song that truly won over the pop star.

8. Britney Spears then switch to musical guest mode to perform Oops! ...I Did It Again.

9. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Chris Parnell rapped about his dream date with Britney Spears that he wrote after finding out she was going to host. His shy intro made it seem like it was going to be a slow and romantic attempt at hip-hop but when he started his rhymes they were more raunchy and fit for the clubs but at the same time was also very white. Molly Shannon as Angelina Jolie, Jimmy Fallon as Billy Bob Thornton also dropped in to talk about their recent marriage only to have their segment interrupted by Chris Kattan as her brother, James Haven Voight, who was jealous of the surprise wedding which led Rachel Dratch as Qrpil*xk to return as the Jolie/Voight inbred love-child who Voight was using to double down of the guilt he was dealing out.  

10. The DeMarco Brothers had Chris Kattan and Chris Parnell audition to become Britney Spears’s dancers and Britney was dumbstruck by their terrible routines which were very literal dance interpretations of a few of her greatest hits.

11. We then got a fake ad for a series of commemorative plates with the theme of America's Worst Moments which included everything from the Elian Gonzalez incident to the Iran Contra Scandal involving Oliver North but also included pop culture disasters like Woodstock ‘98.

12. Deandra Wells Comeback Tour had Ana Gasteyer as Diva, Deandra Wells who kept taking moments to mock the members of her backup band while in the middle of their big comeback tour, showing that the feud that broke them up in the first place wasn’t quite over. By the end of the performance, the entire band started to fight live on the stage only to go back to the performance as usual after everyone felt they were heard, or at least gave up on arguing.

13. We then got yet another repeat of the Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor commercial from earlier in the season which had Tracy Morgan pitching moonshine in a parody of Song Of The South.

14. Britney Spears then switched back to musical guest mode to perform Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know.

15. Finally, Britney Spears closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

The Wicker Breakdown:

1. This week's show started with another installment of The Ladies Man where Leon Phelps attempted to introduce his new game show, Who Wants To Be My Skank? The game that had more of a Dating Game setup that had special guests, Sarah Michelle Geller, Gina Gershon and Florence Henderson answer kinky questions as they vied to be The Ladies Man summer fling for the year. Eventually, Florence Henderson won after a joke about liking anal penetration which then led to a group announcement of, “Live from New York…”

2. Jackie Chan then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he was excited to be there because it was the first time he’d ever been asked to host anything which also made him a bit nervous. He then went on to claim that he was the first action star to host SNL. Before he could get much further Will Ferrell as Steven Seagal interrupted to point out how he hosted the show close to a decade before Mr. Chan. Jackie then told Seagal that his movies are all jokes making him more of a comedian than an action star. Seagal then whimpered off only to be replaced by Chris Kattan as Jean-Claude Van Damme and then Horatio Sanz as some obscure Asian action hero who both just wanted to intimidate this week’s host. Finally, a guy from the audience stood, claiming to be Ralph Macchio’s makeup guy during The Karate Kid who then rushed the stage to get in a quick kung-fu fight.

3. Nick Burns, Your Company Computer Guy then returned with Jimmy Fallon as the arrogant IT guy informed the idiots from his work that Jackie Chan would be filling in for him while he was out on vacation. Where Nick Burns was more of an arrogant jerk, Jackie was more of a jokester who was just as full of himself but delivered all of his insults with a smile and a laugh.

4. The Culps also returned with Ana Gasteyer and Will Ferrell as the singing instructors who sing pop hits from the time in their unique Culps’ style, this time while attending a junior high school’s Renaissance Festival.

5. TV Funhouse then gave us an animation behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Madonna’s recent American Pie music video, which kept getting interrupted by fans who got exponentially more explicit with their request for celebrity interaction starting with an autograph seeker and ending with a hillbilly couple trying to kickstart a three-way.

6. The Zimmermanns also got another installment with Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan as the annoying couple who can’t control their public displays of affection. As usual, this really confused the couple they ended up on an impromptu a double date with who just wanted to play mini-golf. Jackie Chan and Molly Shannon played the second couple and of course, as always, everything eventually went awry when Jackie Chan misread Cheri Oteri’s blatant but unintended highly sexual flirting.

7. Legends In Concert was a sketch that brought us to a concert filled with rock legend impersonators which included Jackie Chan’s horrible attempt to imitate Elvis. Musical guest, Kid Rock wrapped up the event as Jerry Lee Lewis after announcing that he had just married his fourteen-year-old cousin with Joe C. playing the little girl.

8. Once again, Colin Quinn gave us the news. This week, Darrell Hammond dropped in as basketball coach Bobby Knight who was there to defend his latest anger induced incident where he attempted to coach one of his players and was barely able to keep his composure while sharing how he had changed.

9. Kid Rock then took to the stage to perform American Bad Ass.

10. Pretty Living was another sketch to return for another installment and as always, Ana Gasteyer’s first guest was Molly Shannon’s joyologist character, who then brought on Jackie Chan as her new lover/aerobics instructor, while repeatedly saying her catchphrase, “I love it, I love it, I love it,” as she described how they met.

11. We then went to a laundromat for a fake ad where Jackie Chan played the owner who went a little overboard in his efforts to protect the ancient Chinese secret of Calgon from his nosy customers and kicks Chris Parnell’s ass when he caught on to the secret ingredient.

12. The Men At The Center Of The Earth had various men from all over the world whose tunnels all met in the middle of Earth after they all tried to dig straight through to the other side.

13. Kid Rock then returned to the stage to perform Only God Knows Why.

14. Finally, Jackie Chan closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.