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Not Quite The Retroactive Classic As Predicted By Our Host

Other than looking somewhat familiar after finding out that Joshua Jackson was one of the Mighty Ducks, which I had to look up halfway through the viewing, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the host of tonight’s episode. As I said when both Katie Holmes and James Van Der Beek were on as hosts, not only was I a bit too old to like Dawson’s Creek, even ironically, the fact that it was an hour-long drama, would have been a turn off even if I was the right age.

That said, I did have some hope for this episode since I’ve often found that these hosts who are off my radar have been pretty good unless we’re talking about the many soap opera actors and actresses from the early SNL day. Right out the gate, I was rooting for this kid when during his introduction he openly admitted that he understood why the shows older audience wouldn’t be familiar with his work before promising to put on a show that would be redeemable with the passage of time.

I like how he gambled by pointing out that his target audience was too young to stay up this late while claiming the same thing about the fans of this week’s musical guest, *NSYNC, but he was confident that the kids would love this episode when they discovered the show in the future. He then went on to share examples of shows from the past decade and a half that brought about the same young host young band combo as evidence that his theory would be right.

Whether or not he actually knew of these episodes, assuming the examples were written for him the fact that he even attempted to pretend to know the history of the show made me feel like he was a fan/host which is my favorite type of host to see. Plus, keeping in mind that this kid is only two years younger than me, I could see him actually knowing these SNL facts because I know for sure that I did around that time.

Joshua Jackson then went on to put on a pretty good show but unfortunately, I don’t think it was good enough to stand the test of time, well, at least not to meet the level of success that he predicted. I’m fine with this considering how I’m just coming off of the Ben Affleck viewing that I was expecting to love only to find myself sitting through a bit of a bomb.

Then again, who knows, we’re still living with the same age gap, for all I know there are tons of girls maybe ten years younger than me that find this to be their favorite episode of all time and if they are out there, I hope they retweet the review if they find it.

We’ll see if that ever ends up happening, but whether or not it does or doesn’t it’s now time for me to shift gears and share what I actually saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

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…”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
*NSync then took to the stage to perform Bye Bye Bye.
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.
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.
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.
*NSync then returned to the stage to perform I Thought She Knew.
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.
Finally, Joshua Jackson closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Again, this was a surprisingly fun episode of SNL with the help of these three sketches that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the Wedding Singers not only because Will Ferrell and Horatio Sanz will always crack me up but it cracked me up how they only knew part of the song, I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight by Cutting Crew. Next, I really liked Let's Talk Books because even though I’m as old as I am name-based jokes like The Tigers Revenge by Claude Balls still gets a laugh out of me. Finally, I was a fan of Neil Armstrong: The Ohio Years because it reminded me of the Brian Regan joke where he casually announces, “I walked on the moon,” during a one-upsmanship filled conversation while enjoying a fancy dinner.