[6.8/10] This was a weird episode. Without more context, I can’t tell if it was just an aberration or if 1994 was an off year for the whole show.
Anyway, the good news is that I got to enjoy the Star Trek-related humor, which if I’m honest with myself, is what I was here for. The monologue where he screws up all the details about The Original Series was worth a laugh (especially the repeated references to “Boney”), and the Love Boat/The Next Generation mash-up sketch had surprising attention to detail for both shows (including an inexplicable appearance from the set dresser who’s played Sulu in these sketches for like forty years!)
But the rest of the episode was really really dated. If you decide to revisit this one, I hope you like jokes about Michael Jackson, the Menendez Bros., Tanya Harding, the then-current Surgeon General, and a whole lot of pedophile/homophobic/otherwise lazy, crass, punching-down humor. Oh yeah, and the episode closes with a weird sketch of Adam Sandler in blackface playing Bill Cosby, which makes good on Sandler’s ability to make silly noises, but is discomfiting in 2019 for a whole host of reasons.
The best sketches, not coincidentally, are the ones that aren’t the least bit topical. Stewart as a baker selling only one variety of erotic cakes is a little on the grody side, but just ridiculous to works. And Stewart as the devil, slowly being undermined by his minions making fun of him, is the sort of high concept weirdness I always enjoy from SNL.
The rest of the sketches were pretty weak though. The Philadelphia action figures is fine as a one-joke fake commercial, but not particularly memorable. (I’d literally forgotten about it until I skipped through the episode again just now.) The bit with Mike Myers’s recurring Scottish character was a thin excuse for Stewart to use his Scottish accent and couldn’t really land on anything approaching a layered joke. Even weekend update was brief and couldn’t manage much more than a chuckle from the live audience.
It’s worth noting, however, that while I often skip the musical guests for these shows, it was really fun to go watch Salt-n-Pepa perform here. (It was John Mullaney’s stand-up bit about Stewart’s introduction of them that reminded me this episode existed.) Twenty-five years later, their songs are still catchy and their choreography is still very cool. So much of this episode feels dated, but for once, the musical guest doesn't.
Overall, this episode feels like a waste of Stewart’s considerable talents. Outside of the pair of Trek sketches, and the Devil sketch that let him ham it up Shakespearan style, he was tossed into pedestrian sketches and never really allowed to shine. Maybe, with his new Trek series, he’ll get another shot at it all these years later.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-09-30T04:08:01Z
[6.8/10] This was a weird episode. Without more context, I can’t tell if it was just an aberration or if 1994 was an off year for the whole show.
Anyway, the good news is that I got to enjoy the Star Trek-related humor, which if I’m honest with myself, is what I was here for. The monologue where he screws up all the details about The Original Series was worth a laugh (especially the repeated references to “Boney”), and the Love Boat/The Next Generation mash-up sketch had surprising attention to detail for both shows (including an inexplicable appearance from the set dresser who’s played Sulu in these sketches for like forty years!)
But the rest of the episode was really really dated. If you decide to revisit this one, I hope you like jokes about Michael Jackson, the Menendez Bros., Tanya Harding, the then-current Surgeon General, and a whole lot of pedophile/homophobic/otherwise lazy, crass, punching-down humor. Oh yeah, and the episode closes with a weird sketch of Adam Sandler in blackface playing Bill Cosby, which makes good on Sandler’s ability to make silly noises, but is discomfiting in 2019 for a whole host of reasons.
The best sketches, not coincidentally, are the ones that aren’t the least bit topical. Stewart as a baker selling only one variety of erotic cakes is a little on the grody side, but just ridiculous to works. And Stewart as the devil, slowly being undermined by his minions making fun of him, is the sort of high concept weirdness I always enjoy from SNL.
The rest of the sketches were pretty weak though. The Philadelphia action figures is fine as a one-joke fake commercial, but not particularly memorable. (I’d literally forgotten about it until I skipped through the episode again just now.) The bit with Mike Myers’s recurring Scottish character was a thin excuse for Stewart to use his Scottish accent and couldn’t really land on anything approaching a layered joke. Even weekend update was brief and couldn’t manage much more than a chuckle from the live audience.
It’s worth noting, however, that while I often skip the musical guests for these shows, it was really fun to go watch Salt-n-Pepa perform here. (It was John Mullaney’s stand-up bit about Stewart’s introduction of them that reminded me this episode existed.) Twenty-five years later, their songs are still catchy and their choreography is still very cool. So much of this episode feels dated, but for once, the musical guest doesn't.
Overall, this episode feels like a waste of Stewart’s considerable talents. Outside of the pair of Trek sketches, and the Devil sketch that let him ham it up Shakespearan style, he was tossed into pedestrian sketches and never really allowed to shine. Maybe, with his new Trek series, he’ll get another shot at it all these years later.