Queen Latifah
October 9, 2004

[COLD OPENING] The Presidential Debates

Highlights:

· An okay parody of Friday's debates, and a little better than last week's disappointing debate sketch.

· Forte and Seth's Bush and Kerry impressions.

· The "Need some wood?" part.

 

Lowlights:

· This was still kinda disappointing for a debate sketch, and several parts dragged.

 

Grade: B-

 

 

[MONOLOGUE] Queen Latifah sings with the Scat Cats

Highlights:

· The "Clean Yo Teefah" joke.

· Horatio's scatting was the funniest out of all of them.

 

Lowlights:

· I didn't care for most of this and it was pretty boring.

 

Grade: C-

 

 

[COMMERCIAL] Short & Curly

Highlights:

· Pretty funny commercial.  I heard this got cut from the show last week.  They should've left this in over that Boner Juice commercial.

 

Lowlights:

· None.

 

Grade: B

 

 

[SKETCH] Prince Show

Highlights:

· Fred's Prince impression is hilarious as always.

· Prince's tantrum.

 

Lowlights:

· Amy's lines could've been funnier.

 

Grade: B

 

 

[COMMERCIAL] Excedrin for Racial Tension Headaches

Highlights:

· A clever idea for an Excedrin parody and Latifah's lines were very funny.

 

Lowlights:

· None.

 

Grade: A-

 

 

[NEXT LIVE SHOW] October 23, 2004: Jude Law

 

 

[SKETCH] The Vice Presidential Debate

Highlights:

· Darrell and Forte's Cheney and Edwards impressions.

· Cheney's speech turning into the six degrees of separation.

· Forte's cheesy smile and thumbs-up.

· Several good lines.

· Overall, much better than either of the two Bush/Kerry presidential debate sketches this season.

 

Lowlights:

· None.

 

Grade: B+

 

 

[MUSICAL PERFORMANCE]

 

 

[WEEKEND UPDATE] Fey & Poehler, Martha Stewart, Finesse Mitchell

Highlights:

· Amy' s tax cut joke.

· Latifah as "Death-Giver".

· The "voting for single women" bit.

· Finesse's commentary was pretty funny.

· Amy's Britney joke.

· Tina's mormon shirt joke.

 

Lowlights:

· Rachel's Martha Stewart impression wasn't very good; probably just as bad as Amy's from last season. They should've gotten Ana Gasteyer to cameo for this.

· Amy's Afghanistan joke.

 

Miscellaneous:

· Unfortunately, they're still using Jimmy's opening voice-over from last week, but at least they got rid of the "Yay".

 

Grade: B-

 

 

[SKETCH] Letron's Basketball Offers

Highlights:

· Kenan as the grandfather.

· Good to see Rob in his first real non-straightman role on the show. He gave a good performance here.

· A few funny lines.

 

Lowlights:

· This was pretty weak and could have been funnier.

 

Grade: C

 

 

[TV FUNHOUSE] The X-Presidents

Highlights:

· Several funny parts.

· President Bush being hung upside-down.

 

Lowlights:

· Not quite as funny as the usual X-Presidents.

 

Miscellaneous:

· Ron Reagan Jr. being in this is funny, because coincidentally, the Classic SNL that NBC showed later tonight was the Ron Reagan Jr. episode from 85-86.

 

Grade: B-

 

 

[SKETCH] Rodney Dangerfield at Heaven's Gate

Highlights:

· Excellent tribute to Rodney Dangerfield. This was very classy while also telling some classic Rodney jokes at the same time.

 

Lowlights:

· None.

 

Grade: A+

 

 

[SKETCH] Anti-Bush Starkisha

Highlights:

· Amy's character.

 

Lowlights:

· At least they did something different with Starkisha this time, but this still didn't make me laugh much.

 

Grade: D

 

 

[MUSICAL PERFORMANCE]

· Kattan??? What the hell was he doing there?

 

 

[SKETCH] Zinger vs. Snap

Highlights:

· The usual good Zinger sketch.

· Latifah was great and had great chemistry with Seth.

· Latifah punching Seth.

 

Lowlights:

· None.

 

Grade: B+

 

________________________________________

 

Overall Episode Grade: B-

 

Overall Highlights:

· Queen Latifah did another great job as host and I hope SNL brings her back again.

· Excedrin for Racial Tension Headaches.

· The Vice Presidential Debate.

· Rodney Dangerfield tribute.

· Zinger vs. Snap.

 

Overall Lowlights:

· Monologue.

· Rachel's Martha Stewart impression.

· the Letron's Basketball Offers sketch.

· Anti-Bush Starkisha.

 

Best Lines:

· Darrell Hammond as Dick Cheney: (to John Edwards) "You have one of the worst attendance records in the United States senate. Strom Thurmond had a better attendance record in his last term in the senate, and he was dead."

 

· Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill: "I'm going back over to public television with Jim Lehrer, where you won't be seeing me for another four years."

 

· Amy Poehler: "Britney Spears is recording a rap song about the recent controversies in her life. 'I can't wait to hear that', said no one."

 

· Tina Fey: "The newest trend among students at Brigham Young University are t-shirts that read 'I can't. I'm mormon.' Which have been countered by t-shirts reading 'You will. I'm Kobe."

 

· Queen Latifah as Snap: "You so hairless, Michael Jackson still invites you to sleepovers."

 

CASTMEMBER COUNT DOWN:

ARMISEN: 3 sketches (Monologue / Short & Curly / Prince Show)

DRATCH: 3 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Weekend Update / Zinger vs. Snap)

FEY: 1 sketch (Weekend Update)

FORTE: 4 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Monologue / Short & Curly / The Vice Presidential Debate)

HAMMOND: 2 sketches (The Vice Presidential Debate / Rodney Dangerfield at Heaven’s Gate)

MEYERS: 4 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Short & Curly / Letron’s Basketball Offers / Zinger vs. Snap)

PARNELL: 4 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Short & Curly / Anti-Bush Starkisha / Zinger vs. Snap)

POEHLER: 4 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Prince Show / Weekend Update / Anti-Bush Starkisha)

RUDOLPH: 4 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Monologue / Prince Show / Anti-Bush Starkisha)

SANZ: 2 sketches (Monologue / Rodney Dangerfield at Heaven’s Gate)

MITCHELL: 4 sketches (Short & Curly / Weekend Update / Letron’s Basketball Offers / Anti-Bush Starkisha)

RIGGLE: 3 sketches (The Presidential Debates / Short & Curly / Letron’s Basketball Offers)

THOMPSON: 2 sketches (Letron’s Basketball Offers / Anti-Bush Starkisha)

 

Seth, Forte, and Finesse stood out the most tonight. The overall best performer was Seth.  Finesse better have enjoyed the plentiful amount of airtime he got tonight due to there being a black female host, because I bet next week, he'll go right back to getting no airtime as usual.

 

 

THE END