Review of 11-18-2000 episode (MD-607; some spolers) This review can also be found at: http://www.nic0lesullivan.org/md607.txt ========================================================================== Salon Nookie Nook: Lil' Kim (Debra Wilson) advertises a new salon she's opened so that conservative-looking women can slutify themselves. We see the results of some of these makeovers; we also witness Lil' Kim's failure to say "cosmotology." This was a pretty good commericial parody; it wasn't the most inspired idea but overall it was fairly well executed. *****ing Lucky: In this video parody, Hillary Clinton (Nicole Sullivan) reflects on her life as First Lady and Senator-elect. Scenes include her shredding up Vince Foster's diary, putting on a Yankee's cap to campaign in New York, and denying that she'll run for President in 2004 (as she holds up a sign reading "Hillary in 2004"). Bill Clinton (Will Sasso) is treated as an appendage, and barely so. Again the production values were good; the parody was well-executed as they usually are, and as for content, it was about as good as the "Listening Tour" sketch, which is to say pretty good. This is yet another example of the TV show tapping into political satire, which has always been a mainstay of the magazine (this is perhaps one of the few associations the TV show retains with the magazine). Win Your Land Back: Three contestants - a Native American (Mo Collins), a Mexican (Nelson Ascencio), and a black (Aries Spears) compete in a game run by the Bureau of Land Management. They're supposed to be competing to win back the land taken from their ancestors by the United States, but the final question is virtually impossible - they have to guess a word without any clues. Even so, the Mexican correctly guesses the word - and therefore would have won Southern California - if not for the fact that the word was changed after he guessed it - it was never the intention of the show's creators to give back any of the land. This almost seems like a throwback to the first and second seasons, which contained many amusing game show parodies - e.g. "First to a Million," "Vague," and "Schitzophrenic Jeopardy." Although the choice of a game show parody here shows a certain conservativism - they are essentially sticking to what has been proven to work before - the idea of descendants of people who have had land taken from them (in the case of blacks, it was actually just an unfulfilled promise) is fairly original. The parody is funny, not so much for the jokes but because of the situation. Overall this was pretty good, though not uproariously funny (although the point where "alabaster" becomes "Alabama" was pretty funny). Girly Time: This is another one of the "sex education" films along the lines of "You, Your Body, and You" purportedly co-sponsered by the Daughters of the American Revolution and Philips Petroleum. A teenage girl (Alex Borstein) goes through puberty - that is, "girly time" - in the middle of the film, and therefore sprouts hairy legs, enlarged boobs, and zits all over her face, and even starts ovulating. In the bathroom, her parents (Christian Duguay, Mo Collins) explain to her the facets of "girly time," including the fact that she will remain hideous through puberty and will have cramps. This was not an exceptional segment (except for the fact that once again "Mad TV" did a pretty good job with a period piece), although there were some funny moments - e.g. the onset of puberty is represented by a ray of light extending out towards the girl's crotch. Trina: Trina (Mo Collins) is invited to Thanksgiving dinner by a co-worker (Debra Wilson) who feels sorry for her. She repays them by essentially ruining their Thanksgiving dinner by describing how she's barren and how her dog drowned. Overall the sketch was quite funny; Trina is a character that induces laughter and cringing in equal amounts, and in that sense, it is a fairly unique character. Also funny is that there are probably people like this, whose lives revolve around Precious Moments figurines and getting their picture taken at Sears - how quintessentially middle class. Although I didn't thing this was quite as funny as the previous Trina segment - the one from last season's season finale - it was still pretty good, especially at the point where she describes in vivid detail the death of her dog. Allison: The woman (Alex Borstein) who inexplicably breaks into song is back, this time to see a psychiatrist (Andrew Daly). She professes her love for him in song, then when he proclaims her to be cured (so that he can get some poontang), she walks out - if she's cured, she doesn't have to see the psychiatrist anymore. This was a little better than the last Allison sketch, even though it was essentially Allison- by-numbers. Birth Control Pilgrim: The birth control pilgrim is a miniature pilgrim which, when a couple is about to get in on, ruins the mood by threatening the couple with eternal damnation. It also works on gay couples (Christian Duguay, Andrew Daly) and masturbators (Michael McDonald). This was pretty good - if nothing else, it at least showed considerable originality - but behold, it's not a Spishak product! This Cold House I: In a sketch similar to "Cold Angry Bed" from MD-425, Michael McDonald and Nicole Sullivan appear as a married couple who host a home improvement show and who don't leave their marital disputes to be resolved off-camera. This sketch is also somewhat similar to the "Literally" sketches although there the couple's venom is mainly directed at others. Here they manage to annoy their master carpenter (Christian Duguay), and while some may find the approach of these segments somewhat formulatic and predictable, I rarely tire of them; there was an especially good line where Sullivan asks Duguay if "traditional" (he used in in the context of woodwork) means "a husband with a taste for bisexual porn." Outkast: Outkast's blend of gritty Southern soul, fluid raps and the rolling G-funk of their Organized Noize production crew epitomized the Atlanta wing of hip-hop's rising force, the Dirty South, during the late 1990's. Ah, who am I kidding - I had the sound turned down and I was listening to a UFO album while this segment was on. This Cold House II: More sparring from TV's most contentious couple. OK, the skid mark joke may have been a little cheap, but overall this was quite good, especially the bit about him painting her with white clown makeup so he could pretend he was screwing a corpse - are these actual fetishes that people have, or do the writers just invent them? Mad TV Classic?: This is a repeat of the Darlene McBride Thanksgiving album segment from two years ago. I thought it was a repeat since they haven't done this character much in recent times, and I was right. There was no logo in the corner of the screen indicating it was a repeat either, unlike the last time. This Cold House III: By now the master carpenter has quit, and they are painting the hutch by themselves. This was about as good as the first two segments; what was interesting here as that at the end of the segment Sullivan and McDonald walk off with their backs towards the camera, and you can see they did a good job of padding Sullivan's outfit so that she appears to have a big fat butt - not as bad as when she appeared as one of the Olsen twins, but pretty big nonetheless. Closing Segment: Nelson Ascencio closes the show. Again, Nicole Sullivan is absent. This was OK. ========================================================================== Overall, I thought this show held up pretty well. It was slightly weaker than last week's show, but none of the sketches bombed, which is a good sign. On the negative sign, none of the sketches with the possible exception of the Hillary Clinton parody really epitomized the best that sketch comedy has to offer. Still it was a good show and die-hard Nicole Sullivan fans will likely be glad she was in the show. [7/10] ========================================================================== Number Six | http://www.nic0lesullivan.org dzien@nic.com | (The Unofficial Nicole Sullivan Tribute Page) ==========================================================================