'Wasn't That Special' Season 31 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 Thirty-One 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: Steve Carell
Christian: Solid, but nothing better than "just fine."
Scot: The credits are so sharp in HD! - Totally competent season opener. Was Poehler in every sketch?
George W. Bush (Forte) press conference post-Katrina
Christian: Bush returns! - Not a failure but also not exactly encouraging.
Jet Blue Flight 292 - Carell and Poehler on board troubled Jet Blue flight
Christian: Hader gets a big laugh first time on the air.
Scot: Computer animation is great - Hader's first sketch.
Anderson Cooper 360 - celebrities help with Katrina reconstruction
Christian: Impression workouts are better when the impressions are good!
Scot: Third news show parody of the night already - Hader with a home run Pacino impression.
Kanye West - “Gold Digger” & “Touch The Sky"
Christian: First acknowledgment on the show that you can't say the n-word anymore?
Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour
Christian: Wow, with Fey and Rudolph both being pregnant, early 2005 was a fertile year for SNL.
Scot: Rudolph sings - I like the tone and feel of both of these so far.
TV Funhouse - John Roberts can't give a straight answer
Christian: Adam McKay strikes again, but it's...fine.
Kanye West - “Heard ‘Em Say”
Christian: In this song, Kanye raps that the government created AIDS. Maybe the evidence he's a lunatic was there all along?
Debbie Downer - Debbie Downer finds company in the misery of soulmate Bob Bummer (Carrell)
Christian: Predicts an Asian flu epidemic that could take a billion lives. Prescient?
Episode Two: Jon Heder
Christian: This cast seems like the first cast where SNL has been on TV their entire lives, and Forte seems the best embodiment of that. He knows how to twist the formula.
Scot: Heder was a weak host outside of the werewolf sketch - Seemingly good vibes here despite Fey, Rudolph, Parnell absent ... and one appearance by Meyers. (Or is that "because?")
Heder's college friend (Sudeikis) appears to have inspired Napoleon Dynamite
Scot: Napoleon Dynamite made a total of $46.1 million. And I hated it.
Christian: Well you're wrong because Napoleon Dynamite is awesome. And thus I liked this better.
4th Grade Science Fair - Kaitlin & Heder give a science fair presentation on insects
Christian: Poehler uncharacteristically blows a couple lines. Still very good though.
Scot: A cut below.
Wilson Bros Funeral Home - friends die consecutively under odd circumstances
Christian: Extra credit for trying something new. A spark of creativity.
Scot: Dratch just made it in the casket and now has to turn away - Kenan clearly breathing hard - "After the bear shot Lou, he turned the gun on himself" - Heder blows the key line but it's still fine.
Automated phone menu voicer Julie (Dratch) goes on a blind date with Heder
Christian: A Dratch banger. So fun to see talents like Dratch and Hader pass each other briefly on the cast.
Scot: Dratch is fantastic. Really one joke, but a neat idea and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Episode Three: Catherine Zeta-Jones
Scot: WU is better, I can't lie - You really feel the turnover happening with Sudeikis, Hader in big roles. Poehler still getting featured everywhere.
Butt Cancer Treatment Center commercial
Christian: This seems ten times easier to write than a Versace sketch and it's ten times as funny.
Scot: Did I laugh at the butt euphemisms? Yes, I did.
NewsNight with Aaron Brown - CNN reporter (Zeta-Jones) looks rough in Afghanistan
Christian: Actually thought this was pretty solid escalation.
Scot: We just did the funeral home thing, which has a similar rhythm and was much funnier.
Italian Hotel - Vinny Vedecci (Hader) & others mock American tourists
Christian: Hader already in the "talented enough to propel an otherwise lightly written sketch" category.
Spanking fetishists (Forte) & (CZJ) sing vows at wedding
Christian: Started out not cringe enough then turned sufficiently cringe.
Scot: It's basically a Tenacious D song.
Episode Four: Lance Armstrong
Christian: A whole episode that aged terribly.
Scot: A real dud all the way around.
Message from VP -Dick Cheney (Hammond) disputes smoke & fire linkage
Christian: Starts with Hammond begging for recognition applause and goes down from there.
Scot: Lazy, perfunctory.
Lance's Song - Sheryl Crow listens to terrible love song Armstrong wrote for her
Christian: SNL relationship curse in effect.
Scot: A vague "so terrible it's OK" quality to it, but it's still pretty weak.
Episode Five: Jason Lee
Christian: Lee was middling. Did not see what you saw in this episode, which was just average. Writing now supervised by Seth Meyers.
Scot: Lee was fantastic, helping to rebound from the previous episode very nicely. (I don't miss Rudolph, sorry.) Kristen Wiig has been added to the cast.
J.J. Casuals commercial
Scot: Works better than I would have expected.
Christian: Works exactly as I expected.
Good Morning Meth - Lee, Poehler, Kenan, Hader host
Scot: Tina and James Anderson wrote - Amy was born to play a role like this.
Christian: Huh - didn't see much in this at all.
The Falconer - Falconer and Donald accept indecent proposal from land developer (Lee)
Scot: Lee accidently says dickhead instead of dickweed and mutters "shit" under his breath, then Forte ad libs a reply.
The Soaking Wet Killer - couple (Sudeikis) & (Wiig) help escaped murderer (Lee)
Christian: Wiig's debut. Not spectacular, but decent enough.
Caulk expert’s (Lee) tips are double entendres
Christian: I recall doing a caulking job at my fraternity house in the mid-90's and made every "caulk" joke imaginable at the time. So this isn't really anything special.
Scot: More dirty wordplay - Good laughs, a little short to be anything better.
Stachin' - Meyers, Lee, Dratch, Parnell love facial hair
Christian: Did nothing for me.
Scot: Seth and Erik Kenward wrote - "I was burning down a synagogue" gets it a "3."
American Taser - American Taser’s stun guns facilitate arms race amongst zap-happy populace
Scot: Boy does Hader sound like Aykroyd here - Love the format and the transitions.
Episode Six: Eva Longoria
Christian: Something I never thought I'd say: Parnell is actually hurting the show now. His range is limited and he really doesn't offer anything new.
Scot: Samberg has barely made a dent on this show.
George W. Bush (Forte) is defensive during a press conference in China - Brit Hume anchors
Christian: There's no reason to tack Brit Hume on the beginning of these. If you have a good direct-to-camera, then it should stand on its own.
Scot: They never really found the reason for this to exist.
The Needlers - Sally & Dan bicker & have make-up sex at their 10-year college reunion
Christian: Nope. Retread.
Scot: Wholly adequate thanks to Meyers/Poehler chemistry.
Vincent Price (Hader) Thanksgiving Special 1958
Christian: I know Hader has talked about flubbing a couple of lines in this one, and he regrets it to this day. Basically an impression workout carried by Hader's talent.
Scot: I mean, I wanted it to be better. It was interesting and well-performed but not great.
What Really Happened at the Desperate Housewives Vanity Fair Photo Shoot
Christian: I'm sure this killed at the time, but it doesn't hold up.
Scot: Seems bad. I don't get some of this stuff but have to assume it played better back then.
Trapped In The Closet 2: Still Trapped in the Closet
Christian: Dave Chappelle had already done the R. Kelly spoof "Piss on You" in 2003, which killed any future R. Kelly spoofs moving forward.
Scot: "Do we have anything for Finesse? Anything at all?"
Helga Englehart and Her Three Living Brothers - dead brother leaves a hole and a mystery
Christian: Would have been better had they not explicitly said what happened. Give the audience a little bit of credit to piece it together.
Firmium - Longoria uses euphemisms in diarrhea medicine commercial
Christian: Lot of bits are now just platforms for gross wordplay.
Episode Seven: Dane Cook
Christian: Cook REALLY wants people to know he could have been a cast member.
Scot: Cook refused to kind of blend in with any sketch. Always the loudest, biggest presence. Other than that, pretty OK episode.
Tree Re-lighting - a choir sings religiously neutral holiday songs, hosted by Harry Connick (Sudeikis), Al Roker (Kenan)
Christian: Really kind of an amazing cultural artifact. The "War on Christmas" would later become a talking point for how out-of-touch Republicans were - but in 2005, sane Democrats thought it was worth making fun of. Plus, the Trump angle makes it even more prescient. Wiig getting a lot of screen time as Megan Mullally.
Scot: Closed my eyes and thought Kermit the Frog was hosting this thing. It was Kenan as Roker.
Cook stand-up
Christian: He's got all the moves and mannerisms of a professional comic, the only problem is the words that actually come out of his mouth aren't funny.
Scot: I never enjoyed his act, so this is where it ends up.
High school drama club members perform theatrical morning announcements
Christian: This is now the third sketch this season that just exists to make fun of theater people?
Scot: Armisen's "one man show" harkens back to the bad ol' days of SNL stand-up in the first couple seasons.
Cook won't take off expensive & itchy wool sweater
Christian: Rarely do you see a guest host go for it like this.
Scot: Would have been a Farley once upon a time.
Heads of lettuce serve as comfort food as (Forte) consoles grieving friend (Samberg)
Christian: Ranked high on the "where the hell did this come from?" scale. Jorma Taccone cameo at the end.
Scot: First digital short. Good laugh at the pro-lettuce message at the end.
Target Lady - Target Lady (Wiig) abandons cash register to secure bargains for herself
Christian: Funny that in 2024, Wiig would start doing this character in actual Target commercials, given that the whole idea of Target lady is that she is awkward and makes customers uncomfortable.
Scot: Was ready to hate this, but found it ... shockingly fine? Hader, again, adds a lot.
One-Day Coma - After a 24-hour coma, Cook finds that girlfriend (Poehler) has moved on
Christian: It's the same gag as the S26 sketch where Sanz has his taint removed - his girl moves on right away. Chris Parnell plays a bad doctor, shades of his Leo Spaceman character from 30 Rock.
Fight Back with Victor Ramos -- inept vigilante Victor Ramos (Sanz) scouts subway terrorism
Christian: They had two weeks to write this turd.
Scot: Until now, this has been a blissfully Sanz-free episode.
Episode Eight: Alec Baldwin
Scot: There's a jump in the show's step and I think a good portion is dumping the celebrity-focused crap and allowing writers to get interesting and weird with their ideas. Non-reality (both definitions) based stuff.
Christian: Still not seeing the big jump you are. Writing is middling and Baldwin pulls it up to being just average. Armisen, Forte, Hader and Samberg are on the bench.
Saddam Hussein (Baldwin) whines to guard (Armisen) from behind bars
Christian: Bad guy as cool guy.
Scot: Baldwin's performance is strong.
Face Transplant - Baldwin's wife (Meyers) rejects series of face transplants
Scot: Outstanding. Great escalation and good callbacks. A tight little sketch. Big laughs.
The O'Reilly Factor - John McCain (Parnell) & Barney Frank (Baldwin)
Christian: Seems like I like these a lot more than you do, and yet we end up giving them the same grade.
Scot: The impression is getting better. There's something about the conceit of these sketches (O'Reilly is a total moron) that doesn't really work for me.
TV Funhouse - “Celebrity Mugshot Poker” - infamous prison photos play Hold ‘Em
Christian: This was awful. An attempt at a Terry Gilliam-style Python cartoon that flopped.
Scot: Dave Foley voiceover.
Brokeback Goldmine - old prospectors (Baldwin) & (Forte) fall in love
Christian: Literally just five percent different than Brokeback Mountain?
Carol! - Carol (Sanz) charms (Baldwin) at bowling alley
Christian: Sanz keeps yelling "I'm Carol!", stealing from Tracy Morgan's Brian Fellow. You can tell when he tries to make others break, but Sudeikis isn't buying it.
Scot: Kattan levels of paint-by-numbers writing for a recurring character.
Episode Nine: Jack Black
Christian: And now an episode we have flipped the other way. I have it in all-timer range and you merely have it as slightly better than average.
Scot: Also a throwback feel in that most musical guests are guitar-based acts, not sing-and-dance or hip-hop rap.
Dick Cheney (Hammond) plays Santa to kids’ Xmas wishes, plus Bush (Forte)
Christian: Hammond keeps mugging for applause as Cheney - it is off-putting.
Scot: Pretty good stuff here, actually.
Black sings his King Kong song, which didn’t make it into the movie
Christian: It certainly helps to have a host that writes funny songs for a living.
Scot: Upper-end among song performances for a monologue.
Sbarro customers battle gusts of cold wind in restaurant
Christian: Hey, you know how it sucks when it's cold outside and you're sitting by the door of a restaurant? Maybe it would be funny if we demonstrated that five times.
Scot: James Anderson and Emily Spivey wrote. The problem is there's no real escalation.Same joke over and over. It's windy.
TV Funhouse - “Christmastime For The Jews” - gentile absence brings opportunities
Christian: This is nearly perfect: The song is vintage Motown, the jokes are good, and the animation is dead-on.
Scot: This has an epic reputation and it was ... good. - Darlene Love as Darlene Love.
Lazy Sunday - Parnell and Samberg rap about a trip to see The Chronicles Of Narnia
Christian: It's not often you see a moment that changes the show forever, but this is one. And it deserves it - the jokes are still great.
Scot: (Revised upward because a) it is very, very good and b) it's a landmark moment for the show that help change trajectory).
Black is stranded in space with hermaphrodite alien (Samberg)
Christian: It's "he's gay!" but with enough of a twist.
Scot: “You broke it…but you also fixed it!”
Spelling Bee - Forte can't spell business, inspires song by Tenacious D
Christian: The perfect Forte: It doesn't work without the tortured setup.
Scot: All Forte.
Episode Ten: Scarlett Johansson
Scot: Hader has been frozen out of stuff. Armisen also dead in the water right now. But Sudeikis is freaking taking over the joint.
Duluth Live - Jim Morrison-esque (WLF) & band perform epic theme song
Christian: "Oh, not another morning talk show bit," then...THIS.
Scot: Erik Kenward wrote - Another funny song sketch - Oh, but this one works - Forte with some Ferrell in him here for sure.
Once In a Lifetime Jewelers - Ed Mahoney (Sudeikis) tries to buy ring from a jewelry store
Scot: There's some Chevy Chase in this performance - Sudeikis is fantastic here.
Submarine Affair - Johansson is cheating on Meyers with Sanz on a mini-submarine
Christian: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou had come out the year before. Clearly a stylistic tribute.
Scot: First Sanz of the night?
Fey, Dratch, Johansson pine for Mr. Willoughby in Jane Austen movie
Christian: It's the female Bill Brasky.
Episode Eleven: Peter Sarsgaard
Anderson Cooper 360 - Ray Nagin (Finesse) asks for Chocolate City; Jesse Jackson (Hammond) & Hillary (Poehler)
Christian: We're still doing Hammond as Jesse Jackson in 2006?
Scot: Meyers is *incredibly* awkward as Cooper.
Target Lady’s manager (Sarsgaard) lets customers wait while he’s on break
Christian: I like these slightly more than you do - Wiig is strong just a couple of eps into her career. But it is confusing - was a Target cashier leaving to go find a product for themselves a common occurrence? Is that relatable?
Scot: Already just a hollow rewrite of the first one.
Cat Fancy Magazine editor (Sarsgaard) fires reporter (Meyers) for made-up stories
Christian: This is brutally disjointed and cats are gross.
Scot: Sarsgaard stumbling all over himself here.
Gays In Space - captain (Sarsgaard) runs into ex-boyfriend (Finesse) in a bar
Christian: Kind of interested in this just as a writing exercise. Presumably Pell wrote it, so can a lesbian write a sketch about gay men if it also makes fun of lesbians?
Scot: Forte takes Maya's intro role.
Hotel guest (Sarsgaard) can't change channel, forced to listen to Dratch
Christian: This teetered on the edge of blowing up, but they pull it out in the end, even if it is a bit predictable.
Scot: This is a mess, but a good mess. TV accidently breaks, forcing weird camera shots to fix. Stagehand heads are seen twice, Sarsgaard and Dratch talk over each other when trying to get through the problems. Yet, there's a manic energy to this and the Q&A section works.
Peter Sarsgaard's Sars Guards
Christian: He just needed to hang on to these bad boys for 14 more years.
Scot: Prescient for some story that happened back in 2020, can't remember exactly what it was.
Episode Twelve: Steve Martin
Christian: So many bits in this one, and the lesser ones pulled it down. But still a good episode, just not an all-timer.
Scot: Hey, this is going to be a great show! .... Well, it's gonna be fine. ... Oh. No. No. .... (Wheezing to finish line).
Martin prevents Alec Baldwin [cameo] from tying SNL record; Kelly Ripa cameo
Scot: Already confident enough in taped stuff to use it for a sold open - It's great! The Viagra clock was introduced and then just kinda dropped.
Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford - Martin, Poehler, Parnell
Christian: One of the great conservative moments in the show's history.
Scot: Prescient: Predicts Dave Ramsey Show and all his advice.
Hamas Party - Lucrative gig at Hamas victory celebration creates moral dilemma for Martin
Christian: Remember when entertainers could agree that Hamas was bad?
Prince Show - Prince’s personal chef (Martin) & Drew Barrymore (Wiig)
Christian: It's just fine, but I appreciate the ballsiness of doing this with Prince on the show.
Scot: Ah, the rite of passage of a new female cast member playing Drew Barrymore.
Digital Short: The Tangent - (Armisen)’s endless anecdote spans a whirlwind movie career
Christian: Really liked this. Almost predicts podcasters and influencers. They never shut up.
Scot: It's a real-life TV Funhouse "Fun with Real Audio."
Uncool guy (Martin) is kicked out of surfer club
Christian: I lightly chuckled once.
Scot: Oh, this is terrible top-to-bottom.
Episode Thirteen: Natalie Portman
Christian: Definitely a Daily Show competition thing going on. The WU political jokes are joyless and feel forced, as if just to keep up with Jon Stewart.
Scot: This show felt like everything I hated about S30 tied up in a bow - characters past their prime, pointless political, bad, bad super-cutesy WU, gay jokes with Larry King, Sanz breaking. I'm having bad flashbacks.
George W. Bush (Forte) & Dick Cheney (Hammond) make apologies
Christian: Being generous. These are dead.
Portman handles audience members’ questions on Star Wars & The Professional
Christian: Echoes of Shatner answering questions from Trekkies.
Jamba Juice employees (Portman), (Sanz), (Meyers) sell smoothies with energy
Christian: Meyers is supposed to be staring straight ahead but he turns to look at Sanz because he already knows he's going to lose it.
Scot: Sanz cannot even stand there doing nothing without breaking.
Larry King Live - transsexuals (Poehler), (Forte), (Portman) interviewed by confused Larry King (Armisen)
Christian: If made today, SNL would be done after its 31st season.
Scot: This is going to be a trainwreck - And it is.
Art Dealers - Nunni (Portman) & boyfriend (Sudeikis) visit home her parents
Christian: Just burned another two minutes of my life listening to them do the "Nuni" joke for the fourth time.
Scot: I have no idea why you'd bring this back again.
Wake Up Wakefield - Sheldon fails to reunite with ex-girlfriend (Portman) at his bar mitzvah
Christian: Dratch is 40 years old here and still does a convincing 16 year old boy.
Scot: Laughed at the Conan look-alike.
Fall Out Boy - “Sugar We’re Going Down”
Christian: One of the few bands where the lead singer isn't the most famous member.
Episode Fourteen: Matt Dillon
Christian: Meyers, Sanz being moved out, Hader, Sudeikis, Armisen taking over. Samberg's biggest hits still on the digital shorts.
Scot: Dillon seemed wooden in almost everything (I know that's kinda his thing, but ...)
Young women (Poehler), (Rudolph), (Dratch), (Wiig) anticipate Spring Break debauchery
Christian: Extra credit for trying something new as a cold open.
Joplin: Alive podcast - Missourians (Sudeikis) & (Hader) podcast from a Bennigan’s
Christian: Pretty early in time for a podcast sketch.
Scot: Extra point for the Wilco "I'm Always In Love" usage - low-key, solid character work.
Episode Fifteen: Antonia Banderas
Christian: This episode...how do you say...ah yes...sucked.
Scot: Off for a month and return with this???? Has to be the worst ep of the season. And it's a writing issue, no doubt about it. The whole night is half-assed. - Poehler is in everything. Her voice is gone by the end
Anderson Cooper 360 - Tom Tancredo (Sudeikis), Vicente Fox (Banderas) & Cynthia McKinney (Kenan)
Christian: These Anderson Cooper bits are a dud. We were still doing hosts in the cold open in 2006?
Scot: Kenan in a dress - Meyers is ultra-generic in the Cooper role.
Automated phone menu voicer Julie (Dratch) at a party
Christian: Still liked it, but seems like it's cashed out.
Scot: Recurring because ... ??? - They tried to twist with Fred, but it's really just the same beats as the first one.
Besos Y Lagrimos - gardener’s (Banderas) bare chest spurs passionate reactions
Christian: Now the whole Californians cast is in place. This is just an appetizer.
13th Annual Women's Basketball Coaches Fashion Awards
Christian: I laughed numerous times. Another "never done today" bit, but...might be the perfect zag for the show these days given you're not allowed to make fun of women's sports anymore? Another example of the things liberals used to joke about.
Scot: Awful today but just as awful then. Does an awards sketch ever work on this show?
Legend Of Zorro stand-in (Sanz) repulses Catherine Zeta-Jones (Poehler)
Christian: Everyone seems tired.
Scot: Seth as director! - Blech. Completely unwritten "fat guy tries to kiss pretty girl" sketch.
Parnell, Poehler, Sudeikis talk immigrant stereotypes which Banderas , Armisen, Sanz then confirm
Christian: Is this a Trump ad?
Episode Sixteen: Lindsay Lohan
Christian: Sneaky old cast - Dratch, Armisen, and Parnell are all 40, Fey, Poehler, Wiig, Rudolph, Sudeikis and Meyers are mid-30s, Sanz is 38. Only cast members in their 20s are Samberg, Hader and Kenan.
Scot: Finally struck me: Dratch reminds me of a more refined Cheri Oteri - Mostly slop once again.
The Situation Room - Parnell as Blitzer - Bush staff resignations, Sudeikis and Wiig play replacements - Lohan is press secretary
Christian: I liked the Mean Girls vibe in the Lohan section.
Scot: Kinda two sketches at once and neither works incredibly well.
Lohan lectures drunk Easter Bunny (Kenan) about his excessive partying
Christian: Has Lohan been 19 years old for three years?
Scot: Lohan giving advice she should be/is getting doesn't seem very fun.
The O'Reilly Factor - Seymour Hersh (Armisen) & Newt Gingrich (Forte)
Christian: Prescient - talking about a border wall ten years before Trump. A step down from previous ones.
Scot: Forte's Gingrich is nowhere close - Basically fine, once again.
Digital Short - Laser Cats! - Samberg & Hader pitch movie to Lorne
Christian: Just feels fresher than most of the prerecorded bits on the show.
Debbie Downer at Lohan's Las Vegas bachelorette party
Christian: Makes sense Debbie Downer would be an environmentalist. Sad trombone on Forte's crotch was funny.
Episode Seventeen: Tom Hanks
Christian: The female writer that appears during a lot of the monologues is Liz Cackowski, who is now married to Akiva Shaeffer.
Scot: A mid-range Hanks episode, with a few inspired moments and one big clunker.
Bill Frist (Hanks) sells his new gas rebate plan to George W. Bush (Forte)
Christian: The show is starting to realize you get a pop when a big star is in the cold open, even if it's the host.
Scot: "Under my new plan..." sounded like Gore - I liked the twist to an infomercial.
Hanks takes DaVinci Code questions from audience
Christian: Hanks, sarcastically to Sudeikis: "I'm sure we'll see you in September."
Scot: Thought it was a highly successful monologue.
Wheel of Fortune - dumb contestants (Poehler), (Armisen), (Wiig) can’t solve puzzle
Christian: Boy, these game show guests are really dumb. Haven't seen that before.
Scot: Is this our first Wheel parody ever - Started well-paced and fun, then dead-ended.
Hanks & Armisen yell at their lost mother (Dratch) at theme park
Christian: I did chuckle a couple times as Dratch wandered around.
Scot: Is this the worst SNL sketch Hanks has been in?
Claremont Yoga Center - in a yoga class, (RAD) is unhappily partnered with sweaty & gross (host)
Christian: Hanks was my age.
Scot: This better not be a repeat of that Ferrell sketch - Also would have been a great role for Murray - Poehler breaks - Fantastic combo of physical comedy and great writing.
Episode Eighteen: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Christian: Will check on this, but has to be the best episode in at least 10 years. New cast members making their presence felt, while Meyers and Sanz fade away.
Scot: Super host and across-the-board great ensemble play tonight. Felt like a real throwback, especially with Paul Simon.
Everything is great under president Al Gore [cameo] on parallel Earth
Christian: Eh, it's lefty writer fanfic.
Scot: Is it a "4"? Yeah, I guess it is.
Jason Alexander [cameo] thinks JLD has broken the Seinfeld curse
Christian: Alexander mentions Listen Up, which was the sitcom about Tony Kornheiser's life that lasted like three episodes.
Scot: JLD is 45 years old here.
The Morning Show - everything goes wrong during live television broadcast with Wiig & Sanz
Christian: A little predictable in spots, but certainly better than average.
Scot: A couple of big laughs in places here. They've tried the concept a few times before and finally land it here.
MySpace Seminar - students in Samberg’s Intro To MySpace class are mostly sexual predators
Christian: Nailed every bit of this (except for the MySpace part, which adds a layer of comedy 18 years later.)
Scot: This show is flying high. Another ensemble piece in which everyone nails the part.
Charades - contestants’ (Poehler & JLD) have sexually suggestive clues - Hammond as Rich Little
Christian: Loved the small touches, like the computer being as big as a door.
Unsolved Mysteries re-enactor (JLD) doesn’t believe (Wiig)’s alien story
Christian: "Why is Dracula here?" In her 13th episode, Wiig already making a claim to Female Cast Member 1.
Scot: Wringing good chuckles out of a pretty thin premise.
Episode Nineteen: Kevin Spacey
Christian: It is a crime that Dratch didn't get the sendoff that Fallon did. A CRIME! Usually, a Carol sketch means the show has waved the white flag. But this one came roaring back to be one of the best of the season.
Scot: Recovered from a flat-out bad beginning to become a respectable finale. Last show directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. Final episode for Frank Sebastiano, T. Sean Shannon, JB Smoove, and Liz Cackowski. Last episode for Dratch, Finesse, Sanz, Parnell, Fey.
Carol! - Spacey falls in love with Carol
Christian: The biggest black mark on this season.
Scot: Kattan-like in its predictability.
Samberg give Spacey excuse for why he was late, Usual Suspects twist
Christian: Extra level of creativity.
The Falconer - quest to save Donald via time machine produces 14 copies of The Falconer
Christian: Had to be a big hit in the writer's room when you get everyone in the cast involved.
Scot: Who writes these? I think it's in our notes somewhere. But there's always a fresh idea/fresh perspective. Recurring done right.
Legends of History - Inventor of sarcasm (Spacey) is profiled
Christian: Stonehenge - the first sarcastic structure. Everything in this works.
Scot: Parnell is a dress! - Somewhat brilliant to make this guy a King (Prince?), whose every command would be taken utterly seriously.
Neil Young - I Do Not Agree With Many of This Administration's Policies - commercial
Christian: Funny this show would make fun of obvious politicization given what's happened to Weekend Update.
Scot: Loved the first half, the final performance was shaky. Living with War had just been released 5/2/06, which was about the most unsubtle political album possible - songs/lyrics are well done.