I am dead tired from yet another wrestling tournament, and of course, I get back in time to watch SNL. The tournament was in Fresno, and I had to get up extremely early this morning to leave for the three-hour drive down there from San Jose. After going 4-1 at the JV tournament, I'm home and hoping that this SNL episode won't put me to sleep.
Charlie Sheen: Hey, don't look at ME, I didn't write the ones I wasn't in, right?
Twenty bucks says there will be something on this show about the inauguration of W. Hell, Comedy Central is gonna make a whole show about the misadventures of Bush Jr. in the office already.

Opening Observation
Last show's commercial is pretty controversial, don't you think? I wonder if SNL got any complaints since they were sure to cover three particularly taboo topics (herpes, incest, cannibalism), although these have all been covered in the past, I'm sure that some of those stupid easily-offended Indiana hick-farming prudes from hell with corks up their asses will complain. Oh well.
(Indiana prude: Dear Mr. Buxton, this is a protest concerning your comments made about what YOU call " stupid easily-offended Indiana hick-farming prudes from hell with corks up their asses." I would like to clarify that no, we do not have corks up all of our asses, just some. And we may be easily offended prudes, but we is no stupid in any ways.)

Previewing the Guests
I am definitely looking froward to Mena Suvari hosting, she is extremely hot. As for the musical guest, Lenny Kravitz is cool, so this episode should be good. Hopefully the bad sketches at the end of last week's show are not a mirror of what will happen today.

New Format
This review will be written LIVE as it happens. That's right, to keep with the tradition of the live SNL format, I'm doing all the descriptions of the sketches on the fly, as it happens, and touch it up briefly during commercials. The post-show review will be written in a 5-minute timespan after the show's completion. Enjoy!

OPEN - A Message from the Former President of the United States
- Well, what do you know, what did I tell you. Inauguration was mentioned.
- This was pretty funny. Great line about the Bush orgy.
- "I was boogying down to the Marshall Tucker Band" -- W
- "Here it is my talking fish Billy Big Mouth Bass!" --W
- Rating: 8/10

Live From New York it's Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton

MONO - Mena Suvari
- She is fricking HOT!!!!!!!!
- Nice boobs.
- She's not even wearing a bra, is she?!?!
- That Will Ferrell thing was a bit weird.
- The Molly Shannon /M.K. Gallagher thing with American Beauty was pretty clever.
- "Man, you fine!" Tracy Morgan, to Mena Suvari
- It figures Lorne thinks those nasty thoughts.
- Rating; 9/10

COMM - Gatorade Love Bucket
- Now this is pretty cool, just in time for the Super Bowl. I sort of expected this, but I wasn't sure when a Gatorade dumping parody would show up. Not enough to make me laugh out loud, though.
- Rating: 7/10

SKCH - Airport Security
- Airport sketches prior to this so far this season have been crappy, huh?
- Maya Rudolph is funny? What? This is true??? Yes.
- "Oh, I'm ALWAYS happy!" - Maya Rudolph
- Hey, it's Dante from the Not My Baby sketches! That part was pretty funny!
- The Lenny Kravitz appearance was not all that meaningful, since the sketch had gotten repetitive by then!
- Rating: 7/10

NEXT - Next Episode
February 10, 2001 - Jennifer Lopez (host and musical guest)

SKCH - Janet Reno Dance Party
- Started off a bit weird, doesn't look like it'll be as good as the original, I'd think.
- This was just a retrospective. Not all that funny.
- Whoa.. Janet Reno just popped in, never mind. At least she'll never show her ugly self again, she'll have no reason to.
- Rating: 8/10

SKCH - Rap Street
- This is my vote for best new recurring sketch of the year. Let's see how this one did
- Look like Horatio nearly lost it while announcing the canceled dates.
- No wonder, his moustache fell off, this is the funniest part of the sketch by far, Horatio is really losing it now!
- It's a good thing that the moustache fell off, otherwise the audience would have completely fallen asleep.
- Rating: 7/10

TOON - X-Presidents
- This is pretty funny!
- What's with all those weird songs at the end of the cartoon? Those 1960s things are usual, but R&B?
- Other than that, it was a pretty solid cartoon.
- Rating: 9.5/10

COMM / SKCH - Wake Up, Little Susie
- Tracy Morgan is funny, and it's great to see him get some new sketch.
- In love with someone in a coma? Man, you got issues!
- Rating: 8.5/10

WKUP - Weekend Update with Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey
- Tina's Español accent was pretty cool.
- Some dumb jokes, like the bald magnate one.
- Will Ferrell's character was hilarious because of his voice!
- "You are a bigot, Tina Fey!" --Will Ferrell as Jacob Silj
- "We're loud, you're proud, get used to it!" --Will Ferrell as Jacob Silj
- Tina's jokes weren't all that good, except for the Manson one.
- Jerry Minor seems to appear in a lot more sketches than usual, eh?
- Speaking of Jerry, he was great as Al Sharpton.
- This was a very weak update in terms of audience participation.
- Whoa, Tina, you almost said you were Jimmy!
- Rating: 6/10

MUSC - Lenny Kravitz: "Again"
- This is a new song, but I don't know what movie it's from.
- Sounds good, except for the fact that it's a little too soft.
- Rating: 9/10

SKCH - Veronica & Co.
- The last time this was on, I hated it with a passion
- "This one's a natural, she's already starving" -- Ana Gasteyer, about the Serbian 12-year-old model.
- Ana's character was really clever. The other two guests were not all that impressive, but Ana and Mena did a great job.
- "If you're 12 years old in Serbia, what does that make you here?" --Will Ferrell, to Katrinka.
- Overall, a little better than last time, which is a big surprise.
- Rating: 8/10

SKCH - Kyle and Shaun DeMarco
- Good music all around, because it's Lenny Kravitz!
- Some stuff was funny, but some of it just plain sucked as bad as the DeMarcos suck at dancing to videos.
- Lenny could actually host a show, he's a surprisingly able actor.
- Rating: 7.5/10

MUSC - Lenny Kravitz
- This time, I don't know the name of the song. Is it "Mr. Cab Driver," because that's what he repeats a lot during the song?
- Not as good as the first song.
- OK, why the hell did they cut the song short? Were they short on time or something?
- Rating: 8/10

Parting Shots
- First of all, the end of the show was really sloppy. They cut off Lenny Kravitz's second song, and they showed the goodbyes for about 3 seconds in order to promote the f___ing stupidass XFL. What a waste of my time. I'd rather see the credits than see the XFL, unless its those cheerleaders
- This was a pretty tepid show. The season started off with a bang, but since then has slowly gone down. The only real power sketches have been political ones.

Goodbyes
For SNL.com, I'm Paul Buxton, and as Fred Durst would say, "Where the f--- you at, punk, shut the f--- up! And back the f--- up! Before I f--- this track up!"

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