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Saturday Night Live

Tina Fey/Ellie Goulding

Season 36, Episode 20, Aired May 07, 2011

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Live from New York, it's... the voice of Jim Downey! Sketches include "bin Laden's Video Will," "GOP 2012 Undeclared Candidates Debate," "The Little Mermaid," "Captain Jack Sparrow" (Digital Short), "Woman Whole," "Bedelia's Slumber Party," "Pregnant in Heels," "Googie Rene's Slightly Damaged Prom Wear Barn," and "Hallmark 'Mother' Collection." Ellie Goulding performed "Lights" and a cover of Elton John's "Your Song."moreless

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Cast & Crew

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GUEST STAR
Michael Bolton

Himself
GUEST STAR
Ellie Goulding

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Don Pardo

Announcer
Seth Meyers

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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

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My voice is both reassuring and deepy unsettling...

7.5

"Good"

By whoaitsconner, Aug 28, 2011

After a four-week break, SNL is back to wrap up the season. This season so far has been a very good one, and I've enjoyed much more broadcasts than not.
This week's host is the well known Tina Fey. She's a few months pregnant, so this should be interesting to see how much the broadcast is centered around maternity stuff. Musical guest is the up and rising Ellie Goulding who has a very interesting voice.
Osama's Will: This was a decently written cold open, but at times it was a bit too structured. It never really went off the wall, and the structure stayed the same as ironic comments to his death.
Monologue: The thought of Maya and Tina singing to their unborn fetuses was hilarious. It was a great idea, and the awful harmonizing by Kenan and Kristen helped.
GOP Debate: This was a great sketch. I laughed at the use of all the different candidates. Michelle Bachmann's speech was hilarious. It almost felt like a same ol' same ol' with Tina's Sarah Palin, though.
Below The Waves: I guess an Osama-centric sketch was inevitable. Though none of it was out loud laughter funny, it was still a pretty funny sketch. The conspiracy guy that Fred played was great.
Captain Jack Sparrow: This was such an over-done digital short, but it added on to the hilarity of it. I really laughed at some parts of it, such as the Forest Gump scene and the Scar Face scene.
Musical Performance: Ellie Goulding performs "Lights", which is a very interesting, almost new-age like song. Her voice adds on to the interesting array of the song.
Weekend Update: This was a strong weekend update, and all the commentaries were pretty well done. Stefon at this point is overdone, though, and they should really find more moderation of how much they put him in every season. But, the Devil was pleasant to see back, and the best act was Ghadaffi's best friends from growing up. Fred and Vanessa nailed it.
Birthing Seminar: This was the most left-field sketch, and possibly the funniest sketch of the night. Between the awkward husband-wife jokes made, and the actual video content, it was just really hilarious. It got more and more bizarre, and kudos to Maya to get that weird.
Sleepover: This was a standard Bedilia sketch, but there were still some good lines. It was probably one of the weaker sketches of the night, though.
Musical Performance: Ellie Goulding performs "Your Song". I found this very weird... Elton John was just on, and I hoped for him to perform a classic like this, but, instead, Goulding performs a cover to it the next episode. This cover didn't capture much essence to the actual song, so I didn't enjoy it too much.
Pregnant In Heels: This taped commercial was a great showing for Abby, but.... Can she perform a sketch live for once!?? It was still very funny to watch.
Googie Rene's Prom Wear: This was standard by the last two... nothing too enjoyable here.
Mother's Collection: I laughed at the bizarreness of this sketch, and it finally gave Paul something to do in the limelight.
The episode was a strong broadcast, but, after Ellie's second song, it seemed to fall apart a bit. Two of the three last segments were taped, which shows there wasn't much at dress to back the show up. It was looking up to be a very, very strong broadcast, but other wise, it was still strong, even with the slip-up after the musical performance.
Tina was a great host, as usual, and, yes, she did centralize a broadcast around the maternity part a little more than it should have been, but it was still enjoyable. Ellie was an interesting musical guest, but nothing exceptional.
Next week, Ed Helms finally hosts with musical guest Paul Simon!moreless
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5/7

6.0

"Fair"

By thefanof, May 10, 2011

Tina Fey returned to host SNL. Disappointing episode given this is one of America's funniest women.

Opening: They have Fred Armisen as yet another Middle East character, this time the deceased Osama bin Laden. He read his will as a translator read over him, with such "hilarious" lines as wanting Dakota Fanning to be a pall bearer. Terrible.
Monologue: Yet another song during the monologue, this time Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph singing about their future babies. Nothing here.
Debate: Bill Hader did a good job as the moderator and Tina Fey brought back her great Sarah Palin impression and Kenan's "rent" impression. Poor segment though.
Mermaid: How fish and a mermaid respond to Osama bin Laden landing on them. I guess it was supposed to be clever that they were having the same kind of debate people are having: it wasn't.
Digital Short: Lonely Island teamed with Michael Bolton for another "hilarious" song here.
Weekend Update: Nothing too memorable here. Probably got a few laughs out of me though.
Alternative Birth: A creepy video is shown on the tendency of couples to have alternative methods of birth here. Ran too long.
Bedelia: Nasim's funny character returned here and it is sad that this probably produced some of the only real laughs on the broadcast.
Used Prom Wear: Kenan and Tina sell dresses and tuxedos with stains on them. Not by humor though.
Weird Mother: Some stupid Paul Brittain stuff. Didn't really pay attention too it much.moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Just prior to her monologue, you can see Tina Fey trip down the staircase, then recover very quickly.
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QUOTES (0)
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NOTES (4)
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- Sketches/segments not shown in the 60 minute version: The Devil and Old Friends of Gaddafi segments on Weekend Update, "Bedelia," "Pregnant in Heels," "Googie Rene's Slightly Damaged Prom Wear," "Hallmark Mother Collection," and Ellie Goulding's performance of "Your Song."
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- The song that appears in the "Little Mermaid" sketch was written by Jeff Richmond, Tina Fey's husband and a longtime SNL musical consultant. He wrote new lyrics to "Under The Sea" after the producers failed to get copyright clearance from Disney to use the song in the sketch.
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- Sketches cut after dress rehearsal: Two A-Holes (Jason Sudiekis, Kristin Wiig) annoy all during a woman's (Tina Fey) book signing; Tina Fey is frustrated by her idiot assistant (Andy Samberg); Perspective Photo Studio (rerun 4/9/11); a sketch about a game show where all contestants are declared winners; Tyler Perry (Kenan Thompson) hosts his own late night talk show; Tina Fey discusses various female writers who influenced her; and Ravi (Paul Brittain) teaches a meditation class, but his mom (Nasim Pedrad) continues to disrupt.
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- Jay Pharaoh did not appear in any live sketches.
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