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The Birth Of The Cox Boss Effect

My only connection with Josh Brolin was that I used to joke about how he actually was the wrestler Bradshaw from the WWE. Even this connection isn’t all that strong because it came about at the tail end of my time where I lived in the party house where we would watch wrestling multiple times a week, so I only got to use the joke a couple of times.

Of course, I also know that Brolin was in the movie Goonies, but that’s a late in life discovery that everyone overshares like how it wasn’t until about a decade ago that everyone wouldn’t shut up about how Die Hard was actually a Christmas film. There’s got to be a Jump The Shark-esque term for this type of information, that also has a Mandela Effect-like vibe, in that, it’s only interesting the first few times that you hear of it, but you burn out quickly the faster the information spreads. How about, The Cox Boss Effect because that was one of the first fun fact like this that I remember from modern times.

We’ll see if that sticks so that I can be the next John Hein and sell my coined phrase to become a millionaire. It would be nice, but I doubt that anything will come from this random thought, so let's get into the actual episode. Again, not having a strong connection to the host, only having seen a couple of his films due to their critical acclaim and not from the fact that he was in them, I found that he actually did a real good job.

If I had any problems, it would be the same issues that I’ve had with the rest of the shows from this season where there are too many sketches that don’t feature our host and that the political content didn’t age all that well. Yes, it’s great to see Tina Fey as Sarah Palin week after week, but now that the Alaskan politician is nothing more than a novelty throwback joke, you don’t get the same effect you did when there was a genuine fear that she could end up living in The White House. I’m also not fully share why the Suze Orman parody is getting so much airtime considering I barely remember the real show and all that they do is joke about her jackets.

Hopefully, this season will figure out how to properly use their hosts because looking at the line up of host, I will be very disappointed if the show continues to underutilize their hosts. If you think that I was pissed about Anna Faris only being in a handful of sketches, just wait and see how I handle Tracy Morgan or The Rock getting the same type of treatment. Then again, I’m not all that concerned because I don’t think either host used in that example would allow the show to underutilize them even if it actually was the show’s goal.

We’ll just have to wait and see, and in order to do so, I must first wrap this one up, so with that, I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with parody C-SPAN coverage of a Palin Press Conference where once again Tina Fey returned to play Sarah Palin to make fun of one of the Alaskan senator’s speeches while the real Sarah Palin watched with Lorne Michaels from backstage. Toward the end of the sketch, a hotheaded Mark Wahlberg came looking for Andy Samberg before Alec Baldwin approached and started to complain about the potential VP thinking that he was talking to Tina Fey. Of course with this being the opening sketch, this mix up led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
Josh Brolin then officially opened the show with a monolog about all of the movies that he proud while tiptoeing around the fact that he recently portrayed George W. Bush. He then shared what went into his George W. impersonation and then did a little routine where he actually showcased Bush’s mannerisms. Before he could go too deep the real Oliver Stone interrupted from the audience to remind our host to mention their new film by its name being that he failed to up until this point.
MacGruber then returned for another series of sketches where this time our parody TV hero was distracted from defusing the bomb while checking his stocks online.
Surprise Proposal had Josh Brolin as a guy who was excited to share with his friends the plan he had for a surprise proposal for his girlfriend, Casey Wilson. This is when it was revealed that this sketch was actually the return of Kristen Wiig’s character who gets more excited over hearing of surprises than the person who is actually being surprised could ever get.
MacGruber then returned for round two where this time he and his crew blew up after our parody TV hero tried to steal from Kristen Wiig and Josh Brolin because he was desperate for money after the last installment where he learned that all of his stocks had failed.
This was followed by another parody of The Suze Orman Show where once again Kristen Wiig played the titular host and again mainly made fun of her jackets while being ignorant to her viewer's financial hardships while dealing out advice about finance.
Wahlberg's Confrontation had the real Mark Wahlberg drop by to confront Andy Samberg over last week sketch where he impersonated Mark talking to animals. Mark then went on to talk to everyone, including a behind-the-scenes donkey, the exact same way that Andy portrayed him in the sketch that incited this incident.
This was followed by a fake ad for I'm No Angel where a very pregnant Amy Poehler played flirted with a bunch of rough riders at a honky-tonk bar in order to promote Fill Forte as Greg Allman’s new fragrance.
MacGruber then returned for round three where this time our parody TV hero attempted to solicit money out of Kristen Wiig and Josh Brolin by trying to get them to pay for him shooting ping-pong balls out of his ass for entertainment.
Adele then took to the stage to perform Chasing Pavements.
Once again, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers gave us the news. This week, Will Forte returned as the monotone Tim Calhoun to nervously announce that he was representing America’s Write-In Party. Kenan Thompson also returned as his French Def Jam comedian character so that he could tell some jokes about the economy. The real Sarah Palin also stopped by, and Amy Poehler had to take over in order to perform a rap that was written for and about Palin that the Alaskan Senator felt would be in bad political form to perform the rap herself. (Clip 2) (Clip 3)
Fartface was a sketch where an old Bill Hader bestowed the Fartface nickname to his grumpy old co-worker who was played by Will Forte who quickly took out his anger on Josh Brolin when he was told of the nickname and refused to call Forte anything else. Both Hader and Forte eventual found that Brolin was taking it to far to the two old codgers started calling Brolin Fartface instead which really hurt our host’s feelings.
Narc School was a sketch where Casey Wilson played a teacher who was unable to do her job because the entire student body was replaced by undercover cops that were attempting to entrap one another into scoring some drugs.
We then got a fake ad for ReadiTrade.com that had Jason Sudeikis as a pitchman for a website with the primary goal of selling (aka unloading) your stocks as quickly as you can as you attempt to avoid being affected by the next market crash.
New York Underground had Bill Hader as host Trevor Dix who profiled a New York underground musician named Joshua Rainhorn as played by Fred Armisen who perform a hybrid of a concert and one-man show while playing various forms of pianos.
Adele then returned to the stage to perform Cold Shoulder.
Fall Foliage had Josh Brolin as a maniacal business executive who tried to push his employees to be as psyched about the Fall foliage as he is.
Finally, Josh Brolin closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

Though I did claim that this was an entertaining episode, I forgot to add the note for a non-comedic actor, that said, the show was still pretty good with the help of sketches like these that contained my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the Narc School sketch because the idea of a school with so many undercover cops posing as students leaving no room for real students really cracked me up, especially when they kept trying to entrap one another with made up drug deals. Next, I really liked Wahlberg's Confrontation especially with the way they set this up much earlier in the opening sketch, making Mark Wahlberg hunting down Andy Samberg over a sketch from last week seem just a tad bit extra real and extra funny as well. Finally, I was a fan of Alec Baldwin confusing the real Sarah Palin for Tina Fey, especially considering his constant impersonations of Donald Trump.