12-13-03 Host Elijah Wood and musical guest Jet...Cold Opening - Hardball with Chris Mathews - Darrell Hammond, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler, Kenan Thompson Hardball is one of my favorite political sketches. I particularly liked the Carol Moseley Braun segment with her becoming Jewish and training to be a Ninja so she would be enticing to every demographic. The wishy washy Hillary Clinton was pretty funny as well. Grade - A- Opening Monologue - Elijah Wood, Chris Kattan I was excited to see Chris Kattan as Gollum. I had been hearing all week Kattan would make an appearance, but I thought they were just going to do that Christmas song, so this was still a surprise to me. I almost wonder why Kattan didn't stick around for one more season. I guess everyone thought he had overstayed his welcome as a regular cast member, but when he makes a couple cameos everyone thinks it's great. The TV show pilot with Gollum and Frodo was pretty funny. Grade - A The High Voice Contest - Kenan Thompson, Will Forte, Jimmy Fallon, Elijah Wood It was kind of funny hearing them do the falsetto voices the whole time, but I didn't like this one all that much. It didn't really go anywhere. I knew one of their voices would change before the end. The concept that guys would want to have the best high voice was a funny idea though. Grade - B- Queer Eye does Santa - Chris Parnell, Fred Armisen, Jimmy Fallon, Elijah Wood, Seth Meyers, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz This was ok. It took me forever to realize it was Horatio Sanz as Santa. I have never watched the show, so maybe I would have appreciated it more if I recognized any specific parodies. Grade - B- TV Funhouse - Fun with real audio I have never been into TV Funhouse. I did think the part with Bush dressed as Spock to address NASA was funny. Grade - C+ Wake Up Wakefield - Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Elijah Wood, Horatio Sanz This is my favorite of Maya Rudolph's characters. I kind of miss the Randy Goldman element. I thought it was funny when she would act all awkward when Fallon came in. The Clay Aiken obsession was pretty funny though, and it was funny when she started liking Elijah Wood when he sang like Aiken. Horatio Sanz is always funny as the principal, and Rachel Dratch is good as Sheldon. Grade - A- Musical Performance - Jet This song was ok I guess. Grade - N/A Weekend Update with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon - Maya Rudolph, Finesse Mitchell, Kenan Thompson I can't stand John Mayer, so I thought Fallon's impression was pretty funny. He has the mannerisms down pretty good. I liked the ecstasy/pacifier joke, and there were a couple other funny lines. The Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown segment was ok. I mostly liked Kenan Thompson as their daughter. Grade - B Donatella Versace Christmas - Maya Rudolph, Elijah Wood, Horatio Sanz I don't like this character, I just don't find it funny. This one was particularly boring, almost nothing happened in it. It seems like they could have done a lot more with Rosie O'Donnell and Boy George. Grade - D Gore Endorses Dean - Darrell Hammond, Jeff Richards This one, I thought, was very good. Maybe it wasn't totally laugh out loud funny, but I thought it was clever. I also liked them poking a little fun at "the other side." I thought the part about Dean banding together with Saddam Hussein to fight Bush was pretty funny (little did we know this joke wouldn't work as well only a few hours later). Grade - A- The Rialto Grande - Chris Kattan, Elijah Wood, Fred Armisen, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler I have to say I didn't really like Elijah Wood in this. I didn't think the concept worked as well with a young bad comic. It's funnier with the old comics who were maybe considered funny when they were young, but now they're washed up and pathetic. It's still good to see Kattan though. Grade - C+ Musical Performance - Jet I thought maybe we weren't going to get a second performance, and after hearing this song I wish we hadn't. Grade - N/A |
SNL Episode Reviews
SNL Links SNL Movie Reviews Back to SNL Page Cinema Lowdown Homepage |