Review of 2-6-1999 episode (MD-415; some spoilers) Did everyone see the latest ratings? Mad TV achieved a 5.8 rating and a 10 share against a 6.4 rating and a 16 share for SNL. Howard Stern finished behind both shows with a 3.5/9. While these ratings have to be taken with a grain of salt (SNL was not running a first-run episode but a compilation while the Mad episode was a first-run episode), overall the results were pretty favorable overall for Mad in the month of January. Maybe the word has finally spread that La Divina is back... Also, did anyone see those commercials for "Office Space," the new Mike Judge-produced film? I mention this because Mad TV alumnus Dave Herman is in it. I don't think he was mentioned in the credits at the end of the commercial, though; maybe later I'll freeze-frame it to confirm this. Jennifer Aniston stars in it (OK, they had to get an A-list actress to make it commercially viable), but Dave Herman is going to totally kick ass. ========================================================== ==================================== Opening Segment: The announcer introduces "the real Kenny Rogers" (Will Sasso) and talks about how he is confused about the strange impression of him on Mad TV (he is not alone). Although this wasn't very funny, what is interesting here is that they showed a clip from the Kenny Rogers Super Bowl halftime show, because usually they don't show clips from such recent shows (when they showed clips in that Antonia sketch last season, they didn't show a clip from the one where she pilots the airplane from two weeks earlier). Antonia: A commercial parody about a new fragrance called Antonia. Imagine a Calvin Klein-style ad, complete with black-and-white vignettes and a shirtless male model ("No way, Jose!"), Antonia striking a Marilyn Monroe pose, with her skirt flying up, and then choking. Later on, she takes a whiff, and states, "That smells bad - and it burns. Get it off." This was the funniest segment of the show, in my opinion. Star Wars - The Music: Randy Newman (Will Sasso) does the music for the new Star Wars movie. Rob Zombie (Pat Kilbane) helps out as well ("You can actually understand him when he sings"). The whole joke here is that Randy Newman hasn't written an original song in twenty years (or so it is alleged), and he doesn't see the movies for which he writes the music. These were decent impressions, but they should have found a better showcase for them; this segment has its moments but most of the time seems to drag. Big Top Circus Burger: The employee of the month at a burger place (Nicole Sullivan) has a hard time with a customer (Debra Wilson, in a reprise of the "Bunifa" character), who won't get off her cell phone and who is generally argumentative (when Sullivan suggests a California Burger, she retorts "You think I don't know what I want?"). Bunifa reduces the employee to tears, and then tells her boss (Aries Spears) that she doesn't need this minimum-wage job. She then goes up to Bunifa and asks her what she should do, and Bunifa replies "Don't ask me; I'm not Dionne Warwick," etc. This was OK; not rolling-on-the-floor funny but still decent; the new recurring character seems to work pretty well, too. The Artist Formerly Known as the Prince of Egypt: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (Phil LaMarr) stars as Moses in a movie purporting to tell the story of how Moses led the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt (its from DreamWorks SKG). If I were Pharoah, I would let the Israelites go on the condition that Prince doesn't show me his buttocks. What makes this parody funny on a sublime level is the fact that it parodies the way historically-based dramas tend to have the era in which they were produced written all over them: e.g. in ten or twenty years, it will be obvious to audiences that "Saving Private Ryan" is a 1990's film, Spielberg's assertions that it is the first movie to "really" tell the story of World War II notwithstanding. By putting Prince in the movie the producers will have ensured that future generations will not see it as a classic, but instead consider it dated as hell. Other than that, this movie parody suffers from the same problems that all movie parodies have suffered from this season - that is, no location filming, although here it doesn't matter as much. Bret Hitman Hart, Lieutenant Governor: The Hitman returns to Mad TV, this time in a sketch about how Jesse Ventura (Will Sasso) appoints Bret Hart as Lieutenant Governor. The joke here is that Hart is a thug used to intimidate reporters who ask embarassing questions (e.g. when one of the reporters asks about Ventura suggesting that prostitution should be legalized). As an added bonus, Hart beats the crap out of Sasso, and then claims that he did it to avenge Sasso's picking Hart up and twirling him around at the end of a sketch that in which he appeared in late 1997 (MD-306?). It was kind of funny when Debra Wilson's wig fell off, but overall it was a little disappointing - Hart is pretty much a one-trick pony, I guess, but I shouldn't have expected much more. Still, they could have written a better sketch around these two; the first "Hitman" sketch from last season was a lot funnier. Nevertheless, with the growing popularity of wrestling, this sketch will undoubtedly boost the ratings, the fact that pro wrestling is fake notwithstanding. Stuart: Stuart (Michael McDonald) visits the doctor (Nicole Sullivan); he is uncooperative when she tries to take his temperature, when she wants a urine sample, and when she gives him a booster shot. Mo Collins also appears as his mother. Most of the humor is scatalogical (as might be expected in these "Stuart" sketches), but some of it is quite funny: for example, when he produces a urine sample (instead of peeing into the small cup, he returns with about a gallon of the stuff, and the doctor, handling the container, says, "oh, that's hot," or words to that effect - how do you get hot pee?). The denouement involves Stuart pushing the doctor out the window and as he and his mother watch, Mrs. Larkin says, "She landed on her feet - just like a kitty-cat!" This was about average for a "Stuart" sketch, which is to say it had its moments. Alanis Morissette Pop-Up Video: Apparently based on a real video in which Alanis Morissette appears nude (they also did a parody of this in this month's Mad Magazine; it's the one with two wrestlers on the cover). This was sort of funny but I kept comparing Mo Collins' impression of Morissette to Lisa Kushell's (and my vague memories of Debra Wilson's from MD-207); Collins doesn't look as much like Morissette as Kushell, and also I thought Kushell's Fiona Apple parody from last season was a better music parody than this one; still this was OK. Funny that even as the show distances itself in some ways from the magazine, this episode we get an appearance by a WWF wrestler as Mad Magazine does a wrestling parody, and we also get a parody of the same video in the magazine and on the TV show. Odd Couple III: In a remake of the Neil Simon play, Ice Cube (Aries Spears) is Felix, and Steven Segal (Will Sasso) is Oscar. Rosie Perez (Debra Wilson) and Roseanne Barr (Alex Borstein) are the Pigeon sisters. The funniest thing in this parody is the way Ice Cube calls everyone "bitch." Also the new Roseanne impression by Borstein is pretty good. But other than that, this was dumber than dumb! We know that this is a sketch comedy show and we shouldn't expect the profundity of Proust or E.M. Forster, but all of these sketches with the Segal character pretty much end with everyone getting either killed and/or beat up, and it's pretty lame, at least in my opinion. And when he shoots Ice Cube, you don't even see any blood, I might add. Lowered Expectations: With Keanu Reeves (Andrew Bowen). He does impressions of characters from his movies in order to impress his would-be date. This was pretty funny! Especially this: "I can be sexy: 'There, do you like that?' Then I'll keep on doing that." Mad TV Classic?: Clops III; not the best of the Clops but extremely funny anyway. The best is when the Pillsbury dough boy goes nuts and starts shooting at people at a bakery. We also get Paddington bear exposing himself. If I had time, I'd dig up my original review of this segment, but I think it's on the other computer. ====================== ======================================================================== On the whole, this was an OK episode, but not particularly strong. The only segment that made me laugh hard was the one with Antonia; the rest varied in quality from "not funny" to "good"; the Bret "Hitman" Hart segment was a bit of a let-down although I shouldn't have expected much anyway. ================================================================= ==== Number Six | http://www.nic.com/~dzien/nicolesullivan/ dzien@nic.com | (The Unofficial Nicole Sullivan Tribute Page) ================================== =================================== ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ