Review of 1-9-1999 episode (MD-412; some spoilers) The 49ers' season ended yesterday with their 20-18 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC conference semifinals. Die-hard Nicole Sullivan fans are undoubtedly saddened by this news, since La Divina herself is a self-described 49ers fan. On the positive side, Mad TV last week achieved a 4.9 rating (with a 9 share), its highest rating for the season so far even though it was a rerun. Even this was not enough to finish ahead of the Howard Stern Radio Show, which had a 4.7 rating with an 11 share. It was also substantially lower than SNL (which was also showing a rerun), although SNL did not win by as large a margin as usual (SNL had a 7.3 rating with a 17 share). Opening Segment: A Mad look at Jesse Ventura (Will Sasso). Ventura finds it almost as hard to explain why he's stepping down as he does explaining how he sold the state's water supply to the Japanese. This was OK; it's a decent impression of Ventura and a stab, albeit a delicate one, at political satire. Sketch About Oral Sex: Woman (Nicole Sullivan) cannot say certain words (e.g. oral sex, suck, blow) without her husband (Michael McDonald) grabbing her by the back of her head and attempting to shove her head into his crotch. What is funny is that he tries to do it to other people as well: e.g. a deliveryman (who made the mistake of saying "B.J." - maybe you can't say "blow job" on broadcast television, so it all has to be done by innuendo), his father-in-law (Will Sasso), and even his mother-in-law (Alex Borstein?). The denouement has the wife trying to shove her husband's head into her crotch when he says "pussy" (he had been referring to their cat, not part of the female anatomy). This was admittedly low-brow humor, but it was also the hardest I had laughed at anything on this show in a long time. It's been done before, but this was still funny. Now all they need is a sketch about anal sex. Imagine what these two would do if you mentioned the words "Vaseline" or "tunnel." Ha-Ha Hut: With Steven Segal (Will Sasso). I never found this impression to be that funny (he doesn't even look like Segal), and this was no exception; still, it was funnier than most of the previous segments featuring this character (the funniest, though, I think was probably the one where he's in a Terms of Endearment-type movie with Jean Claude Van Damme) - although these segments are so predictable; you know someone is going to get his ass kicked before it's over. Saturnology: Couple (Will Sasso, Nicole Sullivan) who purchase a Saturn discover that Saturn is a front for a religious cult. At the end we discover its an ad for Honda ("we don't care who you are; you just pay us and take the car"). The couple is taken prisoner and the Saturn-ists (Alex Borstein, Aries Spears, Phil LaMarr) start chanting "[a] different kind of car, a different kind of people." This is making fun of the fact that the Saturn company (actually, it's just a subsidiary of GM) tries so hard to convince the public that they are sui generis in the auto industry - they are the only company that treats their workers fairly; they are the only company that you don't have to haggle with because you just pay the sticker price and that's final - that eventually, as is the case with so many companies that purport to be "different" (Apple Computer is an excellent example, especially in recent days) the company and its followers start to take on the properties of a religious cult. (I'm still waiting to see if die-hard Power Mac advocates start to drink cyanide-laced punch en masse.) As such, this is an excellent parody of corporate culture and one that is carried off well by the cast. Piano Bar in a Women's Restroom: Phil LaMarr is a blindfolded piano player who is playing in a women's restroom in Las Vegas. This had me confused at first because he kind of looks like Silvante here but apparently it's not the same character. Alex Borstein is the singer. I laughed out loud when LaMarr says "I'll be tinkling on the piano while you're tinkling on the porcelain." Again, as was the case with the oral sex sketch (say that five times really fast) this is scatalogical, barnyard humor, but not without effect, and if it's funny, that's what really counts. This is also one of the few sketches in which Debra Wilson appears (if not the only one). Ha-Ha Hut: This time with Keanu Reeves (Andrew Bowen, in one of his rare appearances in the show). The Keanu Reeves sketch was one of the funniest parts of the season opener and so I was glad that they brought it back, even if just for a silly little blurb like this. Reeves screws up his recitation of the joke - he sounds like Beavis and Butthead (they would often tell a well-known joke, only to screw it up in some way to make it turn out unfunny). I give it a thumbs up. Riggs and Murtaugh: The Lethal Weapon cops (Pat Kilbane, Aries Spears) go to a hospital to entertain small children because the scheduled entertainment (Benny the Bunny) is late. As might be expected, Riggs (I think that's the Mel Gibson character) flips out when the children are bored by their efforts to entertain them. Per usual, he threatens to kill others, he threatens to kill himself, and he dislocates his shoulder (intentionally). In an excellent parody of ultra-violent entertainment, he finally wins the kids over when he kills Benny the Bunny (it would have been nice if they threw in "[O]h my God, he killed Benny! You Bastard!" - but maybe Mad TV is too dignified to go for such a cheap laugh). The ending has Riggs, Murtaugh, and even the nurse (Alex Borstein) shooting at people in the parking lot. This was not the funniest sketch I've ever seen but I liked it, not only because it was actually a pretty good sketch but because Riggs and Murtaugh are one of the few recurring segments they haven't beaten to death. Dawson's Crib: It's like Dawson's Creek but the teenaged actors/actresses are replaced by pre-pubescent youths. There isn't much to this - the dialogue is similar to something you would hear in a show like this, only it's being recited by small children - but even so it was rather funny, although the idea of Dawson's Creek with small children is funnier the actual execution. I think one of the kids was in the last "Story Time with Will Sasso" segment. Brisotine: Spishak presents a guillotine which can be used for circumcision, and the Spishak spokesperson (Pat Kilbane) demonstrates it to a Jewish couple (Michael McDonald and Alex Borstein [who actually is Jewish]); unfortunately, he forgot to set the control to "Bris" and winds up mutilating himself. The funniest moment is Kilbane's reaction after mutiliating himself, the general premise is also pretty funny. Ellen Degeneres At Home (The Gays of Our Lives): Ellen Degeneres (Alex Borstein) and Anne Hecht (sic? Mo Collins) discuss having a child; in order to do so, Hecht is going to have sex with Charlie Sheen. The general premise of this sketch is that Hecht is not really a lesbian and is just using the story about wanting to be impregnated as an excuse for having heterosexual sex. Another undercurrent of this sketch is the idea that Degeneres' career seems to be in a decline since the cancellation of her television series, while Hecht's career seems to be in ascent. OK, I guess you really have to follow show business news to really get this; still it was pretty funny to me. Mad TV Classic?: Again they did not preceed this segment with "[A]nd now, a Mad TV Classic" like they did in the past. This time we get "Swantonia," in which Ms. Swan (Alex Borstein) and Antonia (Nicole Sullivan) compete in a game show hosted by Mark Hamill. Interesting here is that we have the old foils for these characters (Chris Hogan, Phil LaMarr), whereas this season, they haven't appeared in these characters' sketches (Chris Hogan is not in the cast, but LaMarr is, and he didn't appear in the one Antonia sketch this season). At the time this originally aired, I said that I liked it, and even though I thought the Ms. Swan sketches were getting a bit tired at this point, this was an excellent segment, mainly because they finally tried something different. I also liked Nicole Sullivan's performance as Antonia (who is so stupid that when the attributes of a cat are described to her, she replies "C.C.," which is her cat, rather than with "cat."). A good sketch from one of the better episodes from season three! Packers Girl: The yellow and green-haired, buck-toothed Packers Girl (Mo Collins) is back (actually I don't think it was made explicit that she was a Packers fan last time, although one could have deduced it), in a sketch about her freezing up on national television that is somewhat reminiscient of those "Da Bears" sketches on SNL from the early 1990's. This was OK; interesting that they did a sketch based on a game that turned out to be one of the highest-rated playoff games in years. ======================================================= ==================================== It may be just the fact that we haven't seen a first-run Mad TV episode in almost a month, but I thought this was a very good episode. For once, I won't be embarassed at the fact that I told all my friends on Friday to watch Mad TV. There was something for everyone here: old school Mad TV fans were probably pleased that Nicole Sullivan and Phil LaMarr were put to good use, and for the new jack fans there was plenty of Alex Borstein and Mo Collins. Also, one of the common complaints recently is the overreliance on recurring characters, especially Ms. Swan (at one point she was appearing almost every week), Rusty and Stuart. This week, none of the most popular recurring characters were used, and the ones that were used were either new ones (like Packer Girl) or what I would call second-string recurring characters (like Riggs and Murtaugh). The overall effect was good, mostly because the sketches were well-written, but let's not discount some of the performances; Collins was good in the last sketch; Borstein while not bearing much of a physical resemblence to Ellen Degeneres nevertheless did a convincing impression of her and was also good as the nurse in the Riggs and Murtaugh sketch. Nicole Sullivan was good at what she often does very well: playing characters that are thrown into very wierd situations and we laugh as she has trouble coping with it (e.g. Saturnology and the oral sex sketch). After the month-long hiatus, the show is off to a running start. Next week: Some of the sketches that were taped a month ago (12-19-1998). We get Celine Dion's tribute to Martin Luther King day and the sketch with Ms. Swan at an ATM. Many thanks to MAXMOUSE and the other girl for providing advance information about these sketches. Web site update: Added Nicole Sullivan .WAVs page. ===================================================================== Num ber Six | http://www.nic.com/~dzien/nicolesullivan/ dzien@nic.com | (The Unofficial Nicole Sullivan Tribute Page) ================================== =================================== ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ