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Dazed And Over-Used

In last night’s review of Ray Liotta’s episode, I pointed out that I had concerns about the upcoming show after sharing that I was surprised that I liked his visit so much. Though Liotta was able to pull off a pretty good show, that wasn’t the case tonight. Again, this is a case where I really like Matthew McConaughey as an actor but when left to his own devices he’s a good-looking guy who thinks he’s hilarious while all of his personal jokes one have that one, Wooderson, from Dazed And Confused, note.

I’m pretty sure that I loved this when I was young but I knew going into the viewing that I’m already over this character which is what led to my viewing concerns. It didn’t help that this was another fourteen segment evening meaning the sketches had the extra potential to drag on and get very boring. This happened right out the gate with the opening sketch that was hilarious as far as the concept is concerned but about halfway through, once I realized there was no expanding on the joke, I started to get really bored.

Then we went to the opening monolog only to have my next concern come to fruition right away with McConaughey being himself with many hints of his Wooderson character which don’t seem all that separate, making it extra hard to avoid the night of one-note jokes that I fear. Even though I’m a stoner myself, who usually loves stoner humor, there is something about McConaughey who may be a legitimate pothead but his stoner jokes feel pretty forced.

Then to add insult to injury, this night that already had too few sketches then gave us a repeat of a fake add taking away even more time from content that could have been fun if it was quick. In fact, that was my biggest issue with tonight’s show, the concepts of the sketches were good enough that if they cut them before they got boring, in order to add a couple more sketches, the night would have been super fun.

Where last night’s show eased my concern for the next couple of non-comedic hosts tonight’s episode has led to the return of this concern. Oh well, we’ll see how things turn out tomorrow with Jennifer Garner, who has the potential to be fun but I don’t see as a comedic actress which is the only reason I’m lacking trust. Until then, it’s now time for me to shift gears in order to wrap this thing up, so, with that, I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with parody C-Span coverage of a U.N. Security Session where U.N. delegate planned the lunch during a session with Darrell Hammond as Colin Powell while he tried to push for the unjust invasion of Iraq and pushing the weapons of mass destruction lie. The delegates were more concerned about maxing out their U.N. money allowances over anything close to important. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Matthew McConaughey then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he used to love SNL in the seventies when he was a sixteen-year-old long-haired stoner and how his father felt about his lifestyle. This eventually sent our host backstage to find a photo of him from this era only once he got to his dressing room it was filled with smoke and cast member who were higher than hell. McConaughey then closed the door and we here a couple of bong sounds before he returned to the main stage with a puff of smoke in his mouth but no picture.
Blind Date had Matthew McConaughey and Rachel Dratch on a blind date where we learned McConaughey was horrible when it came to guessing his date’s stats like thinking she was forty-eight when she was actually playing a thirty-four-year-old woman. After getting the age way off he then went on to embarrass himself even further by trying to guess her weight before attempting to draw and “accurate” portrait.
This was followed by a repeat of the Nutri-Quick commercial from earlier in the season which was a fake ad for a suppository diet supplement.
Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz then gave us another installment of their dorm room webcast, Jarret's Room where this time they interviewed McConaughey as a thirty-three-year-old college sophomore revision of his Dazed And Confused character, Wooderson, who loved the fact that he kept getting older while the girls all stayed the same age, which almost seemed to be his default character throughout the night.
We then went to an Anti-War Rally where McConaughey played a protester who struggled to assemble the unorganized crowd to join in on his chant against the war because everyone else in the audience was too hung up on their own agenda to create a singular voice.
The Dixie Chicks then took to the show to perform Traveling Soldier.
Once again, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey gave us the news. This week, Tracy Morgan dropped by as Joe Jackson in order to comment on how his son Michael was raising his own kids as if he had room to make judgments. Will Forte and Fred Armisen then introduced Patrick and Gunther Kelly who were a pair of accountant /singers that gave us a song that was written to help people with their taxes.
Clubb Traxx was a Euro MTV style show that had McConaughey on as a Eurotrash singer named Chrome who sang songs for a collection of anti-war, teen, music enthusiasts.
Office Stories took place in a stuffy workspace and had McConaughey as a weekend warrior of an employee who used Chris Kattan as a prop to illustrate one of his crazy bar-based stories.
Second Time Around was a parody of a talk show with Maya Rudolph as the host who interviews McConaughey as a despicable pyramid scheme promoter, only as a white wanna-be Rastafarian he had a whole new, misguided interpretation of what a pyramid scheme actually means.
The Dixie Chicks then returned to the stage to perform Sin Wagon.
We then got a fake ad for Matthew McConaughey's Red Hot Texas Chili which was promoted as a chili recipe that celebrates the gas it induces instead of treating it like a curse.
Finally, Matthew McConaughey closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

As I said up above if the sketches didn’t run so long to the point where they started to drag on, this would have been a really fun show thanks to sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the Anti-War Rally sketch because it reminds me how bad we are at organizing protest anymore because no one can clearly state a singular point for their cause. Next, I really liked this week’s Jarret's Room because even though I complain about McConaughey’s overall Wooderson vibe, it was still fun to see the character revised. Finally, I was a fan of Matthew McConaughey's Red Hot Texas Chili because who doesn’t like a sketch filled with fart jokes.