The Complete History of SNL Celebrity Jeopardy: May 14, 2005

May 9th, 1998

Duchovny is astoundingly great as Goldblum ("one, two, three, fourfivesix . . . ah SEVEN"). He gets all the cadences right and his bit about the "days of yore" was perfection. Hammond's first turn as Connery was not so great, but this time, he's in absolutely fine form: "A leather glove!" "Oh, I'll play your game, you rogue." "It's a man with a mustache!" Molly Shannon's Minnie Driver is kind of a waste of time; oh, maybe that's the joke!

October 24th, 1998

Mostly all good. Stiller does not entirely have Cruise down; the laugh is pretty painful and not at all right. But he has his motions right; the hair-flipping smile at his introduction is perfect as his angry gesturing after missing the Gone with the Wind question. Fallon's Sandler is phenomenal and his unbelivably great "abbie doobie" bit at the end leads into the sketch's best line: "I feel like I want to punch you." Ferrell steals the show again; his reaction to Sandler's explosion at being asked to pick a category has got to be one of the funniest things Ferrell has ever done. I'm completely serious. The In DOORS bit is inspired, I must say, particularly Trebek's astonished moment of joy: "Good Lord . . . are we recording this?" These keep getting better.

 

Stiller does get something right: his Cruise tries--very hard--to show he is not a complete megalomaniac by complementing Sandler and Connery. The spotlight can be shifted from ME, as long as I invite it to! Yeah, that rings true.

 

6. March 20th, 1999

March 20th, 1999

Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Calista Flockhart (Drew Barrymore)
Nicolas Cage (Jimmy Fallon)

"Jimmy Fallon impersonated a handful of stars in the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches including Adam Sandler, Hillary Swank, Robin Williams, and Nicolas Cage, and the sketch was the perfect opportunity for Fallon to show off his chameleon-like impersonation skills. He may have gotten flack on SNL for his corpsing (breaking character by laughing or making others laugh) habit, but Fallon thrives in sketches where he is allowed to either quickly change characters (like the radio DJ in his Z-105 sketches) or take one impersonation as far as possible (The Barry Gibb Show) ? something that?s also served him well on Late Night."

Nicholas Cage is another in a line of impersonations that are sharply observed and not bad, but don't take off to Looneyland.

I didn't recognize Drew Barrymore as Callista Flockhart, but she did get one good joke..."the pen was too heavy...!"

And Hammond as Connery does take off for Looneyland in spades, with the deathless "Penis Mightier" bit. "You're sitting on a goldmine, Trebek!"

Ferrell as Trebek is going mad trying to convince Connery and Cage that he is not supplying an enhancement device. Great stuff. At the end, though, he falls out of character briefly: "I don't git it" he says. Canadians don't say 'git', Will, and Trebek still has his Canadian accent. Also: there's nothing this guy doesn't *git*.

 

Hammond rises above mere impersonation to utter surrealism.

 

Yeah, and it always seems to be the celebrity host who's the deadweight.

Great skit. I love the way they're starting to play up Connery's random antagonism. The attention was really all on him this time, and Hammond just ran away with the character.

 

This isn't quite as funny as the "Famous Titles" one, but "The Penis Mightier" is still a classic.

 

You would think Connery wouldn't want to advertise his interest, but no--"I'll take a dozen!"

 

March 20th, 1999

Huh. That one, despite having the most iconic Connery bit (the "penis mightier" routine), is actually not that funny. Fallon's Cage impersonation is absolutely marvelous, but he doesn't get the chance to do much. Barrymore's Flockhart seems pretty good too; her brittle "Thank you" at the opening is perfect. But the script just isn't as sharp. The "penis mightier" is a great gag, but is "buck futter" really the best thing they could come up with? The best thing in this entire sketch is the way Hammond's Connery just breaks up into laughter as Trebek signs off. Real exuberance there. Hammond comes close to saving the sketch with his sheer energy. Best exchange: "Mr. Connery . . ." "We meet again." Second best: "What is Febturday?" "She said 'turd.'" "I hate you." Otherwise, fairly disappointing.

 

7. October 23, 1999

Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Burt Reynolds (Norm MacDonald)
French Stewart (Jimmy Fallon)

"Only two years after he was fired, MacDonald was asked to return to SNL to host, so Burt Reynolds returned to Jeopardy with Connery and Jimmy Fallon as French Stewart. This is the sketch that gave birth to Turd Ferguson, one of comedy?s greatest names, and to see four strong SNL impressionists working together this well makes this one of the stand-out Jeopardy sketches."

French Stewart: Again a fair impersonation, and that's about all you can say.

Burt Reynolds: Obliviously nutbar. "I remember he drove around in a van and solved mysteries."

Sean Connery: Surreal.

Alex Trebek: Is fraying at the edges quite noticeably. "And Burt Reynolds in a commanding lead with $14.00."

 

"Well, that's the sound your mother made last night!"

"It's funny 'cause it's, uh, bigger than a normal hat."

Just sublime. Connery and Reynolds together are killer, and Trebek is losing it more and more.

 

October 23rd, 1999

Fallon is, again, amazingly on point as French Stewart, not that anyone still knows who that is. Hammond's Connery is in fine form; the matter of fact way he says "moo" is brilliant. But it's the Reynolds/Trebek show this time and both Macdonald and Ferrell are about as good as they've ever been. "Why don't you gimme ape tit for 200?" "It's not ape tit . . . *astonishingly funny look of disgust* It's A Petit never mind let's just go to Animal Sounds." The best bit is a masterpiece of absolute absurdism: "Burt Reynolds." "That's not my name." *Trebek looks absolutely pained* "Okay, Turd Ferguson." "Yeah, whattya want?" "You buzzed in." "No, I didn't." "Yes, you did." "Yeah, that's your opinion." This is Ferrell's best performance yet. "It's funny because it's bigger than a reg'lar hat." "Yes, I see that. Get back to your podium." "Take a look at that." "I see it. Go back to your podium. *brilliant pause* What is going on?" Amazingly funny. I think this is my favorite sketch so far.

 

"V is a Roman numeral, so despite your best efforts, you answered correctly!"

 

I thought Rogue was referring to us here and now remembering who he was.

 

I still maintain that Third Rock from the Sun is one of the finest television comedies in existence. But French Stewart is currently a footnote in the entertainment biz, though he was, rightfully, pretty big at the time.

 

8. April 15, 2000aka "Colors That End in 'Urple'"

Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Hillary Swank (Jimmy Fallon)
Keanu Reeves (Tobey Maguire)

"Most hosts hadn?t been SNL cast members, but that didn?t stop some of them from stealing the spotlight. Tobey Macguire?s Keanu Reeves is adorable here, David Duchovny does a great Jeff Goldblum, and Winona Ryder takes the cake for me with her creepy spot-on Björk impression (?When I look at the veins in my hands, they remind me of these two snakes that laugh.?). A good SNL host is one thing, but a good SNL host who can do a celebrity impression and hold their ground against the Jeopardy regulars is pretty impressive."

Hillary Swank: The joke seems to be her androgyny and her Oscar acceptance speech. Okay, but not great. Fallon doesn't get the accent right: it's not Southern. Born and brought up in Washington State, kid. The publicist joke is funny, though.

Keanu Reeves: Tobey Maguire *is* good here, he should try comedy more often. "Is it *iced* tea?" "That's not even a real number!" "Yet."

Sean Connery: Sui generis. "...and Charo, twice" is just ******* crazy.

Alex Trebek: The intelligent guy beset by famous fools to the breaking point. "Regis Philbin, that mongerel idiot..." "Oh, good, Mr. Connery wants to say something..."

Great video daily double, too.

 

Connery was fantastically aggressive, and the Video Daily Double was just sublimely bizarre. Other than that, though, it wasn't as good as the last few. Both Swank and Reeves were one-note and didn't get much in the way of good lines, and Trebek at the given-up stage isn't as funny as when he's struggling to keep it together.

 

I thought the best part of this episode was just the questions/answers.

Trebek: This color ends in urple.

Swank: What is light urple?

Keanu: I will venture a guess. Who is Jaleel White? Is that not the gentleman who played Urple, the humorous fellow with the glasses who loves cheese?

 

9. December 16th, 2000

Video Clip

Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Robin Williams (Jimmy Fallon)
Catherine Zeta-Jones (Lucy Liu)

"Another great part of these sketches is when Connery purposely confuses a category with something offensive. In this case, ?An Album Cover? becomes ?Anal Bum Cover,? but there are plenty others. And now that they?re all grouped together, it?s surprising to know this level of humor made it to air, but I guess you can get away with more as long as it?s in Sean Connery?s Scottish burr."

Fallon's better than usual here (as Robin Williams). Hyper and ultra-annoying.

Lucy Liu doesn't do much but look cross-eyed and act stupid, though the diaper joke is gross but funny.

Hammond is Sean Connery. I frankly thought there would be more trouble with "Will This Hurt if You Put This in Your Mouth" and "Make Any Noise", or just maybe my mind flies into the gutter with Connery.

A rare moment of agreement between Connery and Trebek:

Connery: [to Williams] "You may just be legally retarded, boy."

Trebek: "He has a point."

Trebek: [to Williams] "For the love of God shut your mouth." [to all] "You'd have to be the dumbest people in the world to mess this up...now...let's see how you messed it up."

However: Do horses do the missionary position? Just asking, fellas.

 

Trebek twisting the pen and telling Williams to never come here again was awesome.

"Yeah, that's a horse having sex with me."

Connery was great, but someone else finally stole the show. Fallon's Williams was a hilariously accurate impersonation. I loved the way Trebek got even more fed up with him than with Connery.