TV.com

Saturday Night Live Season 33 Episode 3

Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 1

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

6.6

User Rating

51 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

AIRED: 10/13/07

Live from New York, it's... Amy Poehler!

Sketches include "Burlington, VT 1987," "Ohhhhh!," "A Visit with Former Vice President Al Gore," "People Getting Punched Before Eating" (Digital Short), "Actober.com (ALCS)," "La Rivista Della Televisione," "The Captain's Purse," "Actober.com (NLCS)," "Notre Dame Football," "Natural Disaster," and "Iconoclasts."

Bon Jovi performed "Lost Highway" and "Who Says You Can't Go Home"; Foo Fighters performed "The Pretender."moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

Your Wife's My Problem...

3.5

By whoaitsconner, Feb 18, 2009

I just realized something: We haven't had a season open with 3 episodes in a row since 2003/2004. And I remember that Halle Berry broadcast vividly. I was in 4th grade, and even for my brain power, it was horrible! You know why? Even after 3 episodes, the writers are still a little rusty. It doesn't matter if those 1st two episodes were immaculate, the writers are still coming back from a long hiatus. Should I be worried? I don't know. 2003/2004 was soo unstable. It was actually a weak season when you think about it. So, who knows? Maybe tonight's episode will be funny. I also have another thought lingering in my mind: I just have a strong feeling Bronx Beat will be on this week. "Look at him! He's so adorable!" I don't know...

This week's host is Jon Bon Jovi. Wow. Musical guest is Foo Fighters! That's cool! So... I heard prior this week that Bon Jovi is showing up? Really? Okay..

Amy's house 1986: Wow... this was actually a really funny opening. Like, it all came together. I loved it, actually. Amy's LFNY was also good, too! This gave me the impression that tonight's show would be good!

Monologue: This was a weak monologue. They could have done something much more than what they did. Steve Higgins was actually funny though. Richie Sambora made it a little bit more funnier, when he forgot his line ;).

Musical Performance: WOW! A performance by Bon Jovi!??! Soooo excited! Well, no, not really. In fact, I didn't enjoy Lost Highway at all.

Ohhhhhh!: Wow. This was our lead off sketch. Why am I being so negative though? We've had sooo many bad choices for post-monologue sketches. Kristen was the only funny one in this sketch.

Al Gore's awards: Oh. My. God. How in the world did this get past dress? How in the world did this get past read-through? And, Darrell's Gore sucks now. This all was just soo slow.

Andy Punching People Before Eating:I guess this had it's moments, and I am happy to see the silliness remain in digital shorts even after almost 2 years.

Post-October: Jason Sudeikis's Dane Cook was great! But, this went absolutely no where! But, then again, so don't those real promos.

La Revista Della Televisione: Listen, I like Hader, but this character just has gotten so old. I didn't like it when I first saw it, and after the streak we've been going through tonight, this did not help the cause at all! The cigarettes thing was good for a chuckle though.

Weekend Update: Man, when was the last time we did Update before first [official] musical performance? Felt like the late nineties, except for the fact that this show is making itself to be a weak one. Lots of the jokes were sooo cliched tonight. It wasn't even good. Interesting about the whole WGA thing though. I wonder what would happen if they ever really did strike. It would be interesting to see how we'd handle it in now-a-days.

Musical Performance: Foo Fighters go through their hit, "The Pretender". Sweet.

Where's My Purse?: Even though Kristen was decent in this, this whole sketch sucked. 'Nough said.

Post-October: Dane's back, except this time it is for the National league. All I've got to say is, this was sad. Maybe a one-time spot was alright, but doing the exact same thing twice was just plain lazy.

Notre Dame Football: Wow. You know the writers/cast aren't trying when they come back from a commercial break for 30 seconds with a TAPED segment. But, I've got to say, this was funny.

What To Name The Band: By this time, I was ready to hit the hay. Screw this episode. I watched this sketch cringing. Once again, just another pro-longed one-premise joke.

Iconoclasts: Wow! A funny sketch! I haven't seen a funny sketch since about 1 hour and 25 minutes ago! This was great! Kristen's Bjork and Kenan's Barkley was hilarious! I really hope SNL continues with Iconoclasts to put zany personalities in.

Musical Performance: There's Jack Nicholson! And there he goes! Now, if Bon Jovi is going to do a song from an older album, then do something from Slippery When Wet. I mean, "Who Says You Can't Go Home" is a nice song, but it wasn't originated from Bon Jovi.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Holy Sh*t. Oh my god. What in the world? This was soo not the episode I intended. Maybe a weaker show, yes, but this episode flat out bombed. The best sketch of the whole night was placed at the 10-to-1 spot, and our real musical guest got one performance in, while a faux musical guest group got 2 performances in! Jaime Pressley and Jake Gyllenhaal episodes both showed this episode up! I guess I called it? I don't know. The cast and writers didn't even try to salvage this show at all! Because of what he did, Jon will be one of the worst hosts of this season. I would have given this show more points if it were Jon Bon Jovi/Bon Jovi. At least it would have made Jon look like less of an ass, because let's face it, the host gets most say in an episode. Foo Fighters were good, but I really couldn't get a sniff of them because of Jonny-boy.

Come November 3: Brian Williams/Feist. Hm. Sounds like another head scratcher. Oh boy.

Next week and the week after: Repeats of the first two episodes of this season [James/West, Rogen/Spoon]. Too early? Yes. Lame? You bet! No sign of JBJ/FF? Wooo hooo!moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 1

Flag
Share Hide
Another decent episode. The lack of political sketches was refreshing as was the high number of original sketches. I think the writers and cast are definitely getting more confident.

6.0

By FarleyRules, Nov 09, 2008

Amy cold open - Flashbacks of my youth. The clothes and hair were period correct. Bon Jovi stepping out of the poster was predictable and reminiscient of the The Purple Rose of Cairo. The dialogue was enjoyable, especially about Amy's personality. The end was especially nice with Amy getting to say "Live from NY." The second week in a row we get spared the pain of a politcal opening. I enjoyed this but I probably would have gone with the current Ann Coulter controversy. Grade: A-

Monologue - Simple and a few laughs, most notably from Sambora blowing his lines. I liked this up until the song. Grade: B

Ohhh! - With JBJ, Hader gets to expand his NJ guy into a full sketch. The sketch wasn't going much of anywhere until Wiig did her NJ s1ut routine. We could have used another NJ s1ut (Maya?) and had her compete for the guys' attention. Grade: C-

Al Gore - One of my favorite of Hammond's characters. We all know Al has gotten a lot of awards for his movie. A fairly amusing jab at his ever growing collection of awards along with his ego. I probably would have added something like, "And here's the note that President Bush sent me after I conceded." Note: "You lost sucka!" Grade: C+

People Getting Punched - The juxtaposition of ultraviolence and humor has been played to great effect before in movies such as A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club, but this short managed to crystalize the subversive humor of those movies into a three-minute masterpiece of psycho aggression. The post-punch celebratory dancing was a stroke of genius. Kudos to the Lonely Island gang for this beuaty! Grade: A+

Dane Cook Promo - Great to see Sudeikis slam Dane the hack. Those promos that Dane has been doing for the playoffs are totally annoying and this little piece captured that perfectly. Grade: A-

Vinny Vedecci - It must be Hader's night. He is great at doing Italian guys so it is only natural that he would appear a lot on the Bon Jovi episode. The high point was definitely the commercial for Blaze cigarettes as well as Jon calling out Hader's fake Italian at the end of the sketch. Grade: C+

Weekend Update - Most of the jokes were flat. Rosa Santiago was weak. Crappy jokes don't automatically improve because of a crappy Latin accent. Armisen as Nicholas Fehn was the highlight as the braindead social commentator. Samberg was also enjoyable as the naked guy. Grade: B-

Lost Purse - First off, I'm a Star Trek geek, so I have a positive bias towards Trek parodies. Unfortunately this one didn't offer much besides an airhead for a captain. If that was the tack they wanted to take, why not take it further and have her back the spaceship into the alien's spaceship as she attempts to leave? And then have her get out and look at the damage while a bunch of papparazzi take photos. Maybe, maybe not. Grade: C-

NBC football promo - Not much to say. A time filler that is typically saved until the end. Grade: C

Bon Jovi - A slap at Jon's ego that was further reinforced tonight by the fact that he performed 2 songs as the host while the musical guest only got to perform 1 song. What's up with that? Anyway, it was nice to see yet another original sketch tonight even though it had a rather slim premise. Grade: C

Iconoclasts - Kristen as Bjork was truly hilarious. It was very short and they may have been limited by time from developing this into a more fully realized sketch. Still, Kristen's Bjork holds promise for future visits. Grade: C+moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Watchin' on a Prayer

3.0

By HelloStuart, Oct 14, 2007

A Review by "HelloStuart," Amateur Critic and Tico Torres' Hair Gel Handler

As you've probably guessed from all the bad jokes I've just made, tonight's host is rocker/sometime actor Jon Bon Jovi. On top of the fact that his eponymous band will also be appearing on the program, the official musical guest is Foo Fighters, a newly minted member of the Five-Timers' Club. One might assume that this will be an unusually music-oriented show, but nothing like that has happened in several decades.

Granted, I'll admit that I'm not a Bon Jovi fan in the slightest, but I will try to keep an open mind during tonight's broadcast. Some musician-hosts have worked out (Justin Timberlake, Paul Simon), but it can be a crapshoot (Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera).

And now, the sketch-by-sketch analysis:

COLD OPENING: In some fruitless attempt to rehash every Afterschool Special cliché they can find, JBJ pops out of a poster to give a teenaged Amy Poehler a pep talk. Some clunky allusions are made towards the present day, and the ending to the sketch was bordering on hokey. I can already sense this will be a long night…

MONOLOGUE: Ah, the ol' "writers disguised as audience members" trick. Steve Higgins and Marika Sawyer (I think) can't figure out why Jon won't sing tonight, but Richie Sambora won't take no for an answer. Without much hesistation, this segues into…

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: …their insipidly countrified hit "Lost Highway."

"Ohhh!": Three Italian-American stereotypes (FA, JBJ, DH) from the Garden State are quizzed on the proper way to use a certain interjection in this one-note game show spoof. If there were any redeeming qualities, it was a toss-up between Darrell's reaction to a question on homosexuals and Kristen's accurate mimicry of an IAP mistress.

"A Visit with Former Vice President Al Gore": I want to assume that this was originally pegged as the cold opening before lukewarm heads prevailed; that doesn't mean the sketch was any funnier, though. The ex-veep (DH) shows off his trophy room just as he's about to mount his Nobel Peace Prize, but it turns out that he's obsessed with anything he can put his name on.

DIGITAL SHORT: "People Getting Punched Before Eating" is just that, at least until the homicide and the zombies. It works as a companion piece to last year's "Andy Everywhere," but it's just as unremarkable.

"Actober.com": Dane Cook (JS) mixes up a bunch of baseball analogies while selling off what remains of his soul to Major League Baseball. "Logical spokesperson," indeed.

"La Rivista Della Televisione": Jon is the latest patsy for Vinnie (BH), who was essentially the same character seen in the "Ohhhh!" sketch from earlier. What makes this different, however, was Vinnie's belated attempt at mastering English, an ad for kid-friendly cigarettes, and an abortive attempt at a sing-along.

WEEKEND UPDATE: WU before the first proper musical performance? What is this, 1997? Tonight, Seth and Amy welcome their new, non-union gag writer (MR) over fears of a possible scribes' strike starting next month. Andy played a naked guy talking on a cell phone (an allusion to some "wacky news" story that made the NY Post last week), while amateur political satirist Nicholas Fehn (FA) is incapable saying anything meaningful. Though this was a marginal improvement over the last couple of weeks, I'm still not feeling anything.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: Dave Grohl, his band, Pat Smear, a cellist, and some other guy roll through the soaring hit "The Pretender."

"The Captain's Purse": The flighty commander of a spaceship (KW) obsesses over her missing belongings while under attack. Half-hearted in every way possible.

"Actober.com": Second verse, same as the first… but now Dane's promoting the NLCS.

"Notre Dame Football": NBC's sports voiceover guy sarcastically sings the praises of the struggling college pigskin powerhouse. Fancy how those 20-year exclusive TV deals never work out…

"Natural Disaster": Another weak 80s-flashback sketch, with Jon convincing his band-mates to change their group's name to his surname. Some bickering ensues, while I count down the seconds until I can change the channel to the Indians-Bosox game.

"Iconoclasts": For those of you that aren't familiar with this fascinating Sundance Channel series, two famous people with nothing in common spend an afternoon together. This time around, Charles Barkley (KT) and Bjork (KW) have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, with the hoops great playing straight man to the singer's existential weirdness. Of a night riddled by mistakes and a lack of creativity, we finally see a purely original sketch. I especially loved Bjork's people-are-snowflakes analogy.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: Jack Nicholson comes out of nowhere to introduce a final song from Bon Jovi, "You Can't Go Home." Where U2's closing performance three years ago was towering and energetic (even a U2-hater can admit that), this particular moment reeked of arrogance.

Overall, tonight's show felt like a weird mix tape, with the proper order of things completely out of whack, with little satisfaction to justify it. To say it was a mess would be justified, marred by repetitive sketch ideas and a pointless cameo by one of our greatest living actors. The funniest sketch of the evening aired in the ten-to-one spot, for Pete's sake. For the two or three people that thought my review of Rogen/Spoon was too lenient, I think we can agree that this broadcast was definitely a stinker.

Sketches/Segments That Will Probably Be Removed from the 60-Minute Edit: both "Actober.com" spots, "The Captain's Purse," "Notre Dame Football," and "Natural Disaster."

In Two Weeks: Following the tradition of Edwin Newman (is he still alive?), NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams hosts with musical guest Feist.

Contact "HelloStuart" at sma17kc@aim.com.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
8 0

Flag
Share Hide
Hmmm...not bad, but not much to comment on.

7.0

By babygreens, Oct 14, 2007

Okay, I am a Bon Jovi fan, so I had high expectations for the show. Jon Bon Jovi did a good job, but 3 musical numbers meant fewer sketches.

I did not think that the "SNL Short Film" was that funny - punching people is funny? Was this supposed to be a joke on the rash of viral videos of people hitting unsuspecting people? I didn't get it.

I did not think that "Weekend Update" was very funny. What was up with the characters? That newspaper comic was supposed to be funny???

It feels like there are fewer and fewer sketches on SNL and longer commercials. It's very disappointing.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 2

Flag
Share Hide
Bon Jovi background with humor

6.5

By limbodrive, Oct 14, 2007

This was an episode for any Bon Jovi fan to see. They played more songs than the Foo Fighters as musical guest for crying out loud. Richie Sambora even got to do a piece on the host opening. The pieces were silly picking on Bon Jovi, but that is the show! I personally enjoyed the piece giving Al Gore a hard time on his awards. I will say I enjoyed the show more for Jon being on than the pieces presented. They were kind of weak, but the points were taken. I guess I could have watched a repeat SNL on E! with Paris Hilton.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 2

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Seth Meyers	Himself
Fred Armisen	Himself
Darrell Hammond	Himself
Amy Poehler	Herself
Jason Sudeikis	Himself
Kristen Wiig	Herself

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Jon Bon Jovi	Himself	Guest Star
Jack Nicholson	Himself	Guest Star
Bon Jovi	Themselves	Recurring Role
Foo Fighters	Themselves	Recurring Role
Dave Grohl	Himself	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (0)
ADD TRIVIA
- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (0)
ADD QUOTES
- ADD QUOTES from this episode.
NOTES (6)
ADD NOTES
- Sketches not shown in the 60 minute version: "Rosa Santiago" and "Josh Drimmer" segments on Weekend Update, "A Visit with Al Gore," "La Rivista Della Televisione," "Where's My Purse?" the second "Postseason MLB" segment, "Notre Dame Football on NBC," and "1984 Band Meeting."
  EDIT SHARE
- This broadcast was produced just as negotiations were being held to avoid a work stoppage by the Writers' Guild of America. As of this writing, the deadline was November 1st.
  EDIT SHARE
- The "Notre Dame Football" promo was cut from the previous week's dress rehearsal.
  EDIT SHARE
- Sketches cut after dress rehearsal: UPS delivery men (Kenan Thompson, Jon Bon Jovi) discover that the office they are delivering to employs children; a man (Fred Armisen) tries to convince others that his mascara is for men; a show about private militia ala Blackwater; a man (Bon Jovi) asks another (Jason) for help only to be ignored; a Weekend Update commentary with Kenan Thompson talking financial matters; and a baseball promo with George Carlin (Fred).
  EDIT SHARE
- Jack Nicholson was originally in the audience for the live broadcast. Jon Bon Jovi spotted him between sketches and invited him to appear on-camera.
  EDIT SHARE
- This was Dave Grohl's 8th time as a musical guest on SNL, tying the record for most musical guest appearances without hosting. This is also Foo Fighters' fifth appearance on the show.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (0)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.