'Wasn't That Special' Season 28 Bonus Materials

As the Wasn’t That Special co-hosts watch each season of Saturday Night Live, they compare notes on each episode, chatting back and forth about both popular and long-forgotten sketches. Some of the topics they discuss make it to the final podcast; others are left on the cutting-room floor.

But for those of you who join at the Executive Producer level, you will have access to Christian and Scot’s behind-the-scenes notes, as well as bonus materials the co-hosts used to prepare for the episode.

Below is the Season Twenty-Eight bonus notes section, with the clips coming soon.

So please help keep the podcast advertisement-free and upgrade to the Executive Producer level, which will keep these emails coming in the future!

Episode One: Matt Damon

Christian: Chris Kattan is just a museum piece at this point.

Scot: Lotta lotta problems here from jump street. And the audience seems lost.

NBC Special Report - Dick Cheney (Hammond) rides a Tomahawk missile flying toward Baghdad

Christian: Trying to make "Bush is dumb" jokes without having a cast member who can play him yet.

Scot: Yikes for a cold open after a summer off. This is like 120 seconds long.

Brian Fellow's Safari Planet - porcupine & pot-bellied pig cause anxiety

Christian: Talking animal puppet - next level comedy.

Scot: Sanz giggling for no reason in the very first sketch of the season.

Hannibal Lecter Goes to Michigan State - Hannibal Lecter (Damon) in prequel

Christian: Same formula as Goth Talk - weirdo bullied by regular kids. Will Forte's debut.

Scot: Pretty decent Hopkins/Lector impression - audience has been unimpressed all night long (with good reason).

(Damon)’s government-funded sex robot project has come to naught

Christian: Prescient - sex robots now exist. In fact, you can even dictate your notes on SNL sketches to them. No, wait...

The War on Iraq - new reality series is coming soon to NBC

Christian: Nothing happening here so they throw in a lazy gay joke.

Scot: Time-filler.

Episode Two: Sarah Michelle Gellar

Christian: A few things at work early this season: Ferrell is missed, new cast members just getting their feet under them, and recurring characters (at least in this episode) are gone. The whole show is remaking itself.

Scot: Bad episode. Terrible runner, pointless Aguilera sketch. Kattan has no role.

President Bush (Parnell) and Dick Cheney (Hammond) threaten Saddam Hussein

Christian: Parnell begins his audition as Bush. Why is he wearing a fake nose?

Scot: Why is Cheney even there? - Another 120-second open.

Monologue - Vampires (Kattan, Dratch, Poehler) object to SMG - Jim Downey cameo

Christian: SMG and Freddie Prinze are still married!

Scot: "I knew we should have gone to the Caroline Rhea show." "It tapes in the daytime!"

Dentist (Kattan) flirts with his assistant while Parnell is in chair

Scot: No laughs found.

Trans-American Airlines says they will racially profile

Scot: Amy got her teeth fixed prior to this season.

Saddam (Hammond) uses look-alikes to avoid being killed

Christian: Another Tony Blair gay joke. Fallon breaks at Sanz for no reason.

Scot: Forgot Ferrell took Saddam with him, too.

Making the Christina Aguilera (SMG) video

Christian: The Edwards appearance kills an already terrible sketch.

Scot: You'd have to be a 12-year-old to think any of this is funny.

Bladder control by watching Arliss on HBO because it's not funny.

Christian: My pants remained dry during this sketch.

Scot: The writing freaking sucks so far this year.

Tracy Morgan and Maya Rudolph describe their lovemaking, Morgan gets hung up on her breasts

Christian: Wanted to like this - has all the elements, but it's not great.

Scot: Oh, this is that subway bit brought back.

Merv the Perv (Parnell) attends a sexual harassment seminar

Christian: It's half Bloater Brother, half Ferrell naked model guy.

Scot: Some good music made here with the back-and-forths between SMG and Parnell.

Episode Three: Sen. John McCain

Christian: One sketch away from being a perfect "3" episode. McCain wasn't great, but he was game.

Scot: Wish I could disagree but it's true.

Iraqi election coverage - Parnell anchors with Rudolph, two men vote against Saddam

Christian: Evil guy as regular cool guy.

Scot: Wasn't Hammond playing Saddam just last week? - Parnell, man. He really could have been a TV news anchor.

Hardball - ACLU rep (Dratch), Harry Belafonte (Morgan), McCain as John Ashcroft, Shaquille O'Neal now on terrorist watchlist

Christian: Rough on the ACLU here - remember when the left could make fun of itself?

Scot: The ACLU shots are from a different era, no doubt - Morgan was fun.

Lifetime - the Gillian Woodward Story - McCain as husband of cosmetics CEO who is stalking her

Christian: The angle on this is confusing. Is it making light of sexual assault? Is it saying creepy husbands should be prosecuted? Or just making fun of Lifetime movies in which the scary stuff a guy does isn't that scary?

Scot: So, I think the angle is Lifetime airs so many of these movies, they're running out of ideas/stories that actually have merit.

Meet the Press - Hammond as Tim Russert - keeps pressing McCain on whether he's running for president. What if President Bush forgets to run?

Scot: A MTP and Hardball in the same show? - "What if he forgets to run?" - It's done well, no doubt, but just one real laugh from me.

Weekend Update - Fey monologue on North Korea vs. Iraq - Fey on onion technology - Forte as Tim Calhoun - Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson are registered at the CDC

Christian: Forte already showing how he has a different gear than Edwards, Meyers, and Richards.

Scot: The Liza/pills joke is very Norm-esque - Tim Calhoun is a supremely confident character choice.

Episode Four: Eric McCormack

Christian: Big night for Dratch - Sanz is fading away, Meyers and Kattan aren't in much, Richards just has bit parts, and Edwards is nonexistent. No Armisen this episode? The show feels like it belongs to the ladies.

Scot: Armisen has had a couple of killer moments of absolutely nothing else - Additional sketch by Al Franken? The cold open or the campaign ads?

Hammond as Rudy Giuliani endorsing congressional candidates - endorses candidate with two sex changes, one named Heinrich Himmler

Christian: Prescient: They have him just say sounds so they can create a speech in AI, essentially.

Scot: Parnell looks a lot like Sam Waterston here - Hammond has improved his Rudy - Enjoyed the escalation bit by bit here.

The Bachelor - “Amber,” Poehler’s one legged character, is a contestant.

Christian: Rudolph's stupid contestant is pretty good. Isn't Amber's catchphrase - "Jealous?" one of Lovitz' old ones?

Scot: She is always horny but ... she hates intercourse (we learned last season) - Actually, all three of the female characters are pretty well designed.

Couple (Dratch and McCormack) are bad at password

Christian: Great Dratch feature.

Scot: Will already is stealing "Jeff Richards roles" - There's a Murray sketch from a few years ago like this? (S24E14 Yahtzee players)

CNN - American Morning with Paula Zahn (Fey) - falls in love with guest co-anchor (McCormack), reporters are horrified

Christian: Fey is better in sketches than I remembered, but that shouldn't be a surprise given how good she is on 30 Rock.

Jay-Z and Lenny Kravitz - "Guns N Roses"

Christian: Unclear what guitar part Kravitz is actually playing - it's a backing track of a Cake song.

Scot: "Arco Arena" from Cake's best album.

McCormack uses bullhorn in court to throw off witnesses.

Christian: Extra point for the "where the hell did this come from?" factor.

Scot: Forte already showing a "only he could do that" quality.

Z105 Morning Crew - McCormack is on air with Fallon before his election

Christian: Contrast piece that doesn't really work.

Scot: I, uh, kinda liked it. But McCormack was unnecessary. It would have been better as a one-man piece. Sorta like the Ian McKellan thing from S27.

Jay-Z and Beyonce - "03 Bonnie and Clyde"

Christian: Again, there is no part of this song Kravitz is playing.

Episode Five: Nia Vardalos

Christian: Is Dratch...the star of the show now? Vardalos falls into the Lisa Kudrow bucket - a former improv actor who should have been better.

Scot: Sketches have the strangest timing, like they're waiting for Will to show up and be funny - Amy was ...not present.

Parnell as Bush direct to camera discussing midterms, can't get number of seats right

Christian: Parnell as Bush not going on his career highlight reel.

Monologue - Nia and Fey talk about being Greek, Tina's whole "family" shows up

Scot: Kattan: random mustache guy. That's why he's stayed another season.

CBS News Election 2002 Coverage - Hammond as Rather - Meyers reports from high school student council race

Christian: Credit where it's due, Meyers is good here. "Tough week for sluts." Being a nerd used to mean something specific, now everyone claims they're one.

Scot: Of note, there was just a midterm and the show didn't do anything on it leading up to the election - Great idea,pretty well executed - “That boy is cooler than Sister Mary Margaret’s nipples on a cool winter’s morning.”

Dratch gets a waxing

Christian: "You've got Robin Williams' forearms in your panties." A good lady-centric bit.

Scot: Vardalos is really good here.

Turkish TV show with Sanz - Vardalos is Turkish actress guest

Christian: They try hard to muscle this into something, but it is not.

The Falconer

Christian: Getting some of the great weirdness that left when Ferrell quit.

Dropping the LB's with Missy Elliott

Christian: God no.

Scot: Um. Is Dean Edwards still alive?

Community Accents with Vasquez Gomez Vasquez

Christian: This pudding is themeless. He's just an idiot who says "you're the best in the biz" over and over?

Scot: Oh, here's Dean. - Totally dumb start-to-finish.

Episode Six: Brittany Murphy

Christian: A total clunker damaged by whatever substance Murphy was on. She appeared to be out of her mind. When Murphy died in 2009, SNL pulled a clip of the show from that year making fun of her.

Adam Sandler performs "The Hannukah Song" with the Drei-Delles, Rob Schneider walks on

Scot: This is circa Anger Management.

The Leather Man

Christian: This? Recurring? Christ. A bad sketch made worse by Fallon's inability to keep his shit together.

Scot: Fallon and Sanz breaking for no reason at all - At least Tom Davis extended his AFTRA/SAG health insurance with this one - A total failure of writing, acting, pacing.

Gay scandal in British Parliament - Paul Burrell press conference (Meyers and Dratch)

Christian: Dratch is funnier than Meyers by standing there and saying nothing.

Scot: Mandatory gay-joke-filled sketch.

Scott Joplin, time traveler - loves women's tennis, has Ana Kournikova, Venus and Serena Williams (Morgan and Edwards) on the show

Scot: Just a whisper of an idea, not really developed.

Astronaut Jones with Nelly and Garrett Morris

Scot: "Dean. Yeah. You'd be perfect here. But we're using Nelly. And inviting back Garret Morris. No, sorry. Can't add a fourth person."

The Girl with No Gaydar - Murphy is a lesbian

Scot: A recurring sketch buried this late can't be good news.