Debbie Downer is such an easy sketch, but it’s still so much fun. It’s the little things, like the zooming shots and the trombone, and then the theme and variation, like the quick zoom on the turkey rather than Debbie, or the meow-y sting when she talks about feline aids. It’s the same reheated sketch just deposited into a Thanksgiving setting, but it works!
I just loved the Paul Simon as a Turkey sketch. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it in clips before, but never the whole thing. Just the look of him in that hardscrabble turkey costume, singing “Still Crazy After All These Years” and then going on a fed up rant about it is hilarious. And Lorne reassuring him backstage, feigning as if he doesn’t know what’s wrong, is the icing on the cake.
I’m still a fan of the sketch where the awkward political discussion at Thanksgiving is interrupted in a semi-magical fashion by Adelle’s “Hello.” It’s got the random sort of humor, and hilarious escalation that I like in a piece like this.
The “Feed Chris Parnell Like a Baby Bird” sketch is tremendous. It would be so easy for this to be a one joke sketch, fuelled entirely by the shock value of seeing one castmember chew up food and spit it in the mouth of another. But instead, they go big on characterization for everyone, making Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer such normal parents besides, and making it such a “meet the parents” kind of thing that it both grounds the weirdness and accentuates it by contrast.
Adam Sandler’s Turkey song filled with random rhymes about nonsense and current events is standard but enjoyable Sandler.
Kristin Wiig’s “Penelope the One-upper” was fun for one sketch or two, but got driven into the ground, and transplanting the character into a Thanksgiving setting does little to make the bit fresh again. The escalating absurdity is usually in my wheelhouse, but in contrast to the Baby Bird sketch, there’s nothing tethering it to reality to the breaks from it don’t really have any impact. On a weird side note, it feels like Anne Hathaway is channeling Annie Edison here.
Martha Stewart’s jingoistic Thanksgiving is a miss, if only because the jokes don’t have much juice in them, but the sketch is an interesting time capsule from the time when the War in Afghanistan was just getting started.
Chris Rock’s “Pump-Up Turkey” is a really fun riff on two early 90s trends – Will Smith’s rap videos and pump up shoes. There’s not much to it, but it’s still an amusing combo.
The Californians sketch is bad and the people who write it should feel bad. Everytime.
I’m a sucker for Jack Handey’s bit, but his little story about parents telling their kids there’s no money for turkey, and then getting caught eating one later wasn’t one of his finest outings.
The “Son’s Thanksgiving Date is a Turkey” sketch is a fun absurd premise, but the sketch never really gets out of first gear. There’s some great reactions from the cast – Aidy Bryant in particular, but the bit never really jells.
The rehash of the “I Drive a Dodge Stratus” still has the well-observed uncomfortable family dynamic at play, but doesn’t really add anything with Gwenyth Paltro speaking in ebonics. It’s stretching the Thanksgiving connection, and if that’s the case, they’d be better off just showing the original sketch.
The Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein recurring sketch is always a welcome bit of weirdness, and while there’s not much to it, their halting tones are still chuckle-worthy.
“Back Home Balla” is a lesser light among the Kate McKinnon-era ladies’ songs relative to “Twin Bed” and “Dongs All Over the World,” but it has its moments, including Aidy Bryant’s awkward neighbor interactions and Leslie Jones’s bridge about bowls.
The Ladies Man Thanksgiving Segment is a blast from the past. On the one hand, a lot of the racial and sexual undertones of the character haven’t aged well. On the other hand, it was so rare to see Tim Meadows get to really inhabit a character despite his long tenure on the show, and he does it with an infectious glee here that makes the sketch a lot of fun even if there’s some cringey stuff in there. The same is basically true for the “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” sketch, which I found kind of dated even when I watched as a kid. But Eddie Murphy’s facial expressions sell the bit better than the actual dialogue.
The Loud Family is such a dumb idea for a sketch, but the performances make it funny. There’s an endearing ramshackle quality to the early episode that helps sell sketches like these, especially with the dark humor of an exchange like “Our eldest daughter died in a skiing accident” “What happened?” “Avalanche!” It embraces the ridiculousness in a crowdpleasing way.
I had totally forgotten about the crystal gravy sketch! It’s the kind of brilliantly bonkers bit that works both as a parody of crystal pepsi, but also as its own kind of gross thing. Hilariously out there. And the Autumn’s Eve Pumpkin Spice douche commercial is in the same great spirit.
“Right Side of the Bed” has never been a funny sketch, and throwing in Matthew McConaughey doing a bad Cajun accent doesn’t improve it. The same goes for Garth and Kat with Chris Martin of Coldplay. Thank goodness for fast forward.
I like the concept of reframing a trip home through the lens of a travel video, but the sketch feels like a reheated stand up bit, with only Bill Heder’s awkward Walter White-esque tighty whiteys bringing any real comedy.
Overall, it’s a fun compilation/special with a few duds, but a number of classics from different eras of SNL.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-12-01T03:14:29Z
Debbie Downer is such an easy sketch, but it’s still so much fun. It’s the little things, like the zooming shots and the trombone, and then the theme and variation, like the quick zoom on the turkey rather than Debbie, or the meow-y sting when she talks about feline aids. It’s the same reheated sketch just deposited into a Thanksgiving setting, but it works!
I just loved the Paul Simon as a Turkey sketch. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it in clips before, but never the whole thing. Just the look of him in that hardscrabble turkey costume, singing “Still Crazy After All These Years” and then going on a fed up rant about it is hilarious. And Lorne reassuring him backstage, feigning as if he doesn’t know what’s wrong, is the icing on the cake.
I’m still a fan of the sketch where the awkward political discussion at Thanksgiving is interrupted in a semi-magical fashion by Adelle’s “Hello.” It’s got the random sort of humor, and hilarious escalation that I like in a piece like this.
The “Feed Chris Parnell Like a Baby Bird” sketch is tremendous. It would be so easy for this to be a one joke sketch, fuelled entirely by the shock value of seeing one castmember chew up food and spit it in the mouth of another. But instead, they go big on characterization for everyone, making Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer such normal parents besides, and making it such a “meet the parents” kind of thing that it both grounds the weirdness and accentuates it by contrast.
Adam Sandler’s Turkey song filled with random rhymes about nonsense and current events is standard but enjoyable Sandler.
Kristin Wiig’s “Penelope the One-upper” was fun for one sketch or two, but got driven into the ground, and transplanting the character into a Thanksgiving setting does little to make the bit fresh again. The escalating absurdity is usually in my wheelhouse, but in contrast to the Baby Bird sketch, there’s nothing tethering it to reality to the breaks from it don’t really have any impact. On a weird side note, it feels like Anne Hathaway is channeling Annie Edison here.
Martha Stewart’s jingoistic Thanksgiving is a miss, if only because the jokes don’t have much juice in them, but the sketch is an interesting time capsule from the time when the War in Afghanistan was just getting started.
Chris Rock’s “Pump-Up Turkey” is a really fun riff on two early 90s trends – Will Smith’s rap videos and pump up shoes. There’s not much to it, but it’s still an amusing combo.
The Californians sketch is bad and the people who write it should feel bad. Everytime.
I’m a sucker for Jack Handey’s bit, but his little story about parents telling their kids there’s no money for turkey, and then getting caught eating one later wasn’t one of his finest outings.
The “Son’s Thanksgiving Date is a Turkey” sketch is a fun absurd premise, but the sketch never really gets out of first gear. There’s some great reactions from the cast – Aidy Bryant in particular, but the bit never really jells.
The rehash of the “I Drive a Dodge Stratus” still has the well-observed uncomfortable family dynamic at play, but doesn’t really add anything with Gwenyth Paltro speaking in ebonics. It’s stretching the Thanksgiving connection, and if that’s the case, they’d be better off just showing the original sketch.
The Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein recurring sketch is always a welcome bit of weirdness, and while there’s not much to it, their halting tones are still chuckle-worthy.
“Back Home Balla” is a lesser light among the Kate McKinnon-era ladies’ songs relative to “Twin Bed” and “Dongs All Over the World,” but it has its moments, including Aidy Bryant’s awkward neighbor interactions and Leslie Jones’s bridge about bowls.
The Ladies Man Thanksgiving Segment is a blast from the past. On the one hand, a lot of the racial and sexual undertones of the character haven’t aged well. On the other hand, it was so rare to see Tim Meadows get to really inhabit a character despite his long tenure on the show, and he does it with an infectious glee here that makes the sketch a lot of fun even if there’s some cringey stuff in there. The same is basically true for the “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood” sketch, which I found kind of dated even when I watched as a kid. But Eddie Murphy’s facial expressions sell the bit better than the actual dialogue.
The Loud Family is such a dumb idea for a sketch, but the performances make it funny. There’s an endearing ramshackle quality to the early episode that helps sell sketches like these, especially with the dark humor of an exchange like “Our eldest daughter died in a skiing accident” “What happened?” “Avalanche!” It embraces the ridiculousness in a crowdpleasing way.
I had totally forgotten about the crystal gravy sketch! It’s the kind of brilliantly bonkers bit that works both as a parody of crystal pepsi, but also as its own kind of gross thing. Hilariously out there. And the Autumn’s Eve Pumpkin Spice douche commercial is in the same great spirit.
“Right Side of the Bed” has never been a funny sketch, and throwing in Matthew McConaughey doing a bad Cajun accent doesn’t improve it. The same goes for Garth and Kat with Chris Martin of Coldplay. Thank goodness for fast forward.
I like the concept of reframing a trip home through the lens of a travel video, but the sketch feels like a reheated stand up bit, with only Bill Heder’s awkward Walter White-esque tighty whiteys bringing any real comedy.
Overall, it’s a fun compilation/special with a few duds, but a number of classics from different eras of SNL.