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My Birthday Episode: Year 25

If you’ve read many of my past reviews you might think Katie Holmes seems like she should be yet another host who I only know from her talk show appearance considering the main thing that she’s known for is Dawson’s Creek which is an entire genre that I’ve never been a real fan of. As I’ve pointed out many times, I’ve always had a thing against hour-long TV since it was a sign of bedtime when I was a kid.

Granted, it seems like Dawson’s Creek aired early in the night since it is family programming but by the time it debuted, the hour-long feud had already started. After looking at her resume I was reminded that she’s actually in a few films that I really like but Pieces Of April is the only one that I know for sure was a movie where she played a key character since my memory is foggy when it comes to her roles in The Ice Storm, Wonder Boys, or Go.

Otherwise, she’s always seemed fun, and considering this was pre-Tom Cruise/Scientology, I had high side of average expectations for the night but unfortunately, I was a little off as this episode ended up being straight up average. Fortunately, however, my issues this time was another case where most of the reference material from the night has grown to be boring over time.

First off, the show started with a sketch where the Clintons were bragging about how America loved them for getting away with all of their scandals which looking back, seems to be the real feeling of the time, considering that Saturday Night Live wasn’t the only comedy show that would point out this problem and just treated it like a joke. I was fine with this back then because I was a Clinton supporter, but after all of these years, especially after the latest election, it just stopped being fun (to be clear, I’m a left-leaning independent voter whose issues are with the Clinton’s and the party and not the people who wanted better from both of them with their votes.)

The monolog was fun but then the very next sketch was a Dawson’s Creek parody which thankfully had Mr. Peepers because I didn’t know or care about any potential inside joke. The next segment bashed The Backstreet Boys who were already played out references at the time. The joke about Tom Green and Drew Barrymore house being on fire lost any significance for multiple reasons over time and this was the first half of the night.

After that, the show got fun as the jokes started to be more character based and didn’t feel as locked in a specific period of time. If they would have stuck to these types of sketches throughout the entire night, I would have been right and this would have been a high side of average episode instead of just another average night.

With all of that said, it’s now time for me to move on and share what I saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with The Clinton Gang which had Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton return with his gang of cohorts including Ana Gasteyer as his wife, Chris Parnell as his brother Roger, and Horatio Sanz as Hilary’s brother Hugh in order to acknowledge how much the public seems to love his wrong doings, especially following all of his last minute pardoning and justified it all by saying, “I do what I likes and I likes what I do,” and then went on to promise to do even more scandalous moved in the future. He then wrapped things up by announcing, “Live from New York…”
Katie Holmes then officially opened the show with a monolog about how excited she was to host and how she just lost her virginity to her ex-boyfriend’s ex-best friend, trying to make a Dawson’s Creek joke that didn’t get a single laugh. Keep in mind, her dress seemed to break when she was waving to the crowd so her entire delivery was a little off as she was distracted by holding up her clothes. After an awkward but quick moment of silence to recover, she then went on to say that she was happy to host a variety show because she loved to sing and dance. Enter Will Ferrell, who challenged her to a tap dance showdown. The wardrobe woman than entered with her tap shoe and fixed her dress which was followed by a tap-off where they both showed off their skills, Will’s being wild and phony with pre-recorded tap sound while Katie was the real deal.
This was followed by a parody of Dawson's Creek, where Katie revised her character from the show and falls in love with, new student, Mr. Peepers. At one point in the sketch, Katie almost ended up in another accident when Mr. Peepers hopped on the bed and knocked over the footrest.
KXLA Special Report covered the fire at Tom Green and Drew Barrymore’s home with Jimmy Fallon and Katie Holmes playing the former SNL hosts. Though the news reporter, Maya Rudolph treated the incident like a serious story Tom Green was up to his wacky antics while Drew Barrymore seemed to be blissfully accepting of everything.
TV Funhouse then gave us an animation that had The Backstreet Boys as crime fighters. Which mainly focused on how bad they suck since their horrible music was their superpower that scared all of the bad guys away.
Love-ahs brought of the debut of Will Ferrell’s and Rachel Dratch’s creepy, hippy, intellectual couple who disgusted their guest Katie Holmes and Jimmy Fallon with their HBO’s Real Sex brand of expressing their love. The Real Sex aspect was not a part of the sketch but is my own reference to how that show always featured the last people you wanted to see go into deep details about their sex.
Dave Matthews Band then took to the stage to perform I Did It.
Once again, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey gave us the news. This week we saw Horatio Sanz and Chris Parnell as Elton John and Eminem who performed the song Stan and then ended it with a gay kiss after Tina Fey claimed that it was a clip from the Grammy’s.
Jarrett's Room then returned with Jimmy Fallon as Jarrett and Horatio Sanz and Goby who gave us another installment of their dorm room webcast where this time Jarrett ended up in a love triangle between him, Katie Holmes and Chris Parnell.
Tough As Nails had Chris Parnell as a director who wanted multiple takes of what seemed to be a very painful crotch grab scene between Katie Holmes and Will Ferrell as a Steven Seagal looking, bad guy because Parnell kept getting new ideas between each shot to make it even more painful.
Dave Matthews Band then returned to the stage to perform The Space Between.
Passive-Aggressive Pam had Ana Gasteyer as the titular Pam who was so passive aggressive that it was hard for anyone to interpret what she was trying to say.
Singles Cruise had Chris Parnell as a cowboy meet a redhead Maya Rudolph just moments before this cruise designed for dating reached its final stop.
Finally, Katie Holmes closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

As I said up above, this show ended up being average due to the passage of time but it was still pretty fun that’s to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the Tough As Nails sketch, not just because all of the balls grabbing made me laugh but I loved how Will Ferrell looked like Steven Seagal yet wasn’t doing an impersonation. Next, I really liked the Singles Cruise sketch because it was one of those charming, end of the night sketches that I like and could relate to the characters since they didn’t find love until the end of their dating specific vacation since that would be my luck. Finally, I was a fan of the opening Clinton Gang sketch because, even though I pointed out it was a low point in the review, I still enjoy seeing this evidence of how a non-Republican could not be a fan of the Clinton Clan since most people act like that’s impossible.