Saturday Night Live/Dana Carvey/The Wallflowers

Dana Carvey/The Wallflowers is the third episode of the twenty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live. This episode marks the third appearance of former cast member Dana Carvey as host and the second by musical guest The Wallflowers. Incidentally, the first appearance by the Wallflowers was on an episode hosted by Chris Rock, also a former cast member.

Guest Stars: Dana Carvey (Host), The Wallflowers (Musical Guest)

Special Guests: Baha Men (Special Musical Guest), Robert De Niro (Himself)

Episode Breakdown

• Third Presidential Debate: At Washington University in St. Louis, Jim Lehrer (Parnell) moderates the third and final presidential debate between Vice President Al Gore (Hammond) and Texas Governor George W. Bush (Ferrell). The debate follows a "town hall" format where the undecided voters ask the questions, starting with Leslie Dos (Gasteyer). She asks if Gore and Bush differ on protecting abortion, fighting global warming and cracking down on oil companies, Bush admits that she's more "in tune" with Gore than him and chuckles about her indecision. He flat out tells her that he thinks she should vote for Gore, but she still doesn't get it. Lehrer sighs and moves on to Dan McGrath (Kattan), who asks if either of them fit all of the bare minimum requirements. Of course, they do (although only Gore takes the time to explain each requirement) and Lehrer is clearly perturbed by the fact that no one seems to know even the basics about the candidates. The next to ask a question is "George H. W. B.," (Carvey) the former president, who wants to vote for his son but has "reservations about character." Lehrer insists that Bush is not an undecided voter and tells him to sit down while he goes onto another question. While Roger Kliman (Fallon), obviously a Gore plant, asks an elaborate question about Governor Bush's "risky tax scheme" and thereby leading into Gore's "lockbox" idea. The former president tries to ask a question posing as "Jorge H. W. B.," a Mexican wearing a poncho and sombrero. Lehrer sees through the ruse and tells him to sit down again, but only winds up throwing to Bush one more time with him pretending to be his wife, Barbara.
• Dana Carvey's Monologue: Carvey opens his monlogue with the current score from the Mets/Yankees World Series game playing at the moment in New York City before moving into political comedy about the potential next president. He doesn't get into politics, exactly, but instead makes fun of how Al Gore and Joe Lieberman talk and all of the absurd faces that George W. Bush makes. His impressions lead to saying Bill Gates looks "like a turtle" and an impersonation of Johnny Cochran, Microsoft's appeal attorney.
• Magic Mouth: Dr. Richard Ludwin (Ferrell) advertises "The Magic Mouth," a product inserted into the anus which turns awkward flatulence into quips written by writers for the New Yorker magazine. Various customers (Fallon, Gasteyer, Kattan and Sanz) are shown being saved in these uncomfortable situations by the mechanical voice of the Magic Mouth.
• The Delicious Dish - Gordon Hoover: Margaret Jo McCullin (Gasteyer) and Terry Rialto (Shannon) host a special Halloween edition of their public radio cooking program and celebrate by bringing out guest Gordon Hoover (Carvey), proprietor of "scary town." The two talk about what they're doing for Halloween briefly and Rialto mentions that she's going to wait for the Great Pumpkin but takes offense when McCullin asks if it's like the Peanuts cartoon. Hoover is brought out to talk about his haunted house that has been running for 15 years, but he only talks about how he's constantly being hassled by a Latin gang called "the Black Draculas" who roll his house and steal his electronics. They try to end the segment but he goes on to say that he's going to boobytrap his house with razor blades and buckets of human waste.
• Church Chat: The Church Lady quickly brings out her first guest, Hilary Clinton (Gasteyer), who is running for senate in New York at the time. Clinton angrily reacts to the Church Lady insinuating that her husband Bill will spend his time cheating on her while she's in the senate and that she didn't preform her Christian wifely duties. Without getting a word in Clinton is told to move aside for second guest Anne Heche (Kattan), who Church Lady calls "Anne He/She." The Church Lady tries to get her to decide on whether she wants a hot dog or a taco, but Heche refuses to take either. For her last guest, Church Lady brings out Eminem (Parnell) and plays a bit of one of his songs about beating his wife. In response, Church Lady sings a parody of "The Real Slim Shady."
• Dad & Son Go Hunting: While on a hunting trip, George Bush and his son George W. take a break when W. misses a deer. The former president tries to have a heart-to-heart chat with his son about his high chances of being elected, but W. doesn't really get it. Instead his fiddles with antlers and chatter about how much he wants to shoot the deer that got away. While Bush talks about how proud he is of his son, W. gets a bead on the deer and drops him (despite being told to let it go). W. goes off to check on his kill and his father briefly considers shooting him to save the country.
• Who Let the Dogs Out?: Baha Men song.
• Weekend Update:
  • Anna Nicole Smith (Shannon) comes on to talk about being a sudden widow, but she isn't upset about her late husband at all. She's more interested in hitting on Fallon and all of the money that she inherited from her husband than she is in being a widow. She says that she plans on using the money to buy Ohio University and turn it into the Anna Nicole Smith University, where she'll teach young girls how to marry old wealthy men.
  • Weekend Update correspondent Adam McKay hit the streets to ask average people about politics, but because people don't trust the media, he decides to wear an Iron Maiden t-shirt and roll through the city in a beat-up van. Of course, no one wants to talk to him, much less get in his van. When this doesn't work, he shifts his focus to children that he tries to coerce with candy. McKay is beaten senseless by the father of the kids and he quickly forms a mob to chase down his van.
  • In response to Fallon's unfavorable review of Meet the Parents in last week's "Movie Minute," Robert DeNiro reviews Fallon's review. DeNiro gets Fallon to do his impression of him before intimidating him into recanting his review. Fey signs off, followed by DeNiro doing an impression of Fallon.
• Sleepwalker: The Wallflowers song.
• VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards: Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Minor) and Gisele Bundchen (Shannon) host the 2001 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. Gooding makes a joke about his signature line from Jerry Maguire, but Bundchen only stares at him, bewildered, before they introduce Macy Gray (Rudolph), who is drunk and stumbles off stage without singing anything. Dylan McDermott (Kattan) presents the Male Celebrity Style Award, but he co-opts the time to have a moment of silence so that people can "look at his package." Samuel L. Jackson (Morgan) wins the award and accepts by threatening to kick some supermodel ass if anyone mistakes him for a Wayans Brother. Sting (Fallon) and Sheb Mami (Dratch) sing an original song in the style of "Desert Rose" but Sting storms off stage when Mami keeps singing over him. The hosts finally present the "Fashion Trendsetter of the Year" award, which is given to Rudy (Carvey) from Survivor instead of any of the nominees. Rudy spends the time complaining about how everyone on the show is "queer."
• Ching Chang's Broadway Show: A man (Morgan) goes to a store which sells chickens but is kicked out by owner Ching Chang (Carvey) who refuses to sell any of them on the basis that they make lousy house pets. His father (Sanz) yells him for not selling and mocks his idea for producing a Broadway play about his chicken. J. Gordon Herrington III, the famous millionaire, interrupts the two to ask if Ching sells chicken feathers, but Ching decides to tell Herrington about his play idea instead of selling his chicken actors. He shows a scene where he's narrating the chickens' lines while they peck at their cage. Herrington tells Ching that his play is terrible and decides to go buy fake feathers. Ching sings a parody of "Tomorrow" and Herrington comes back to produce the play after all.
• Hand Me Down: The Wallflowers song.

Notes

"Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!"

• Dana Carvey as former president George H. W. Bush, pretending to be his wife, Barbara.

Music

• Kim by Eminem: The song that plays when "Eminem" appears on Church Chat is "Kim," a song about Eminem's ex-wife which has frequently been held as a evidence of hate and misogyny in his lyrics. The song was removed entirely from the censored version of the album sold in chain stores like Wal-Mart and replaced with a South Park themed song which features less violence and swear words.

• The Real Slim Shady, performed by Dana Carvey: At the end of Church Chat, The Church Lady sings a parody of "The Real Slim Shady," the single from The Marshall Mathers LP and the only upbeat track on the entire album. The song was written hours before the final cut of the album was due to the label because Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine asked that he make a song to "introduce the record."

• Who Let the Dogs Out?, performed by The Baha Men: The surprise performance just before Weekend Update, where the musical guest typically appears, was of "Who Let the Dogs Out?," a novelty dance song that inexplicably exploded in popularity during the summer of 2000. The song is frequently used for sporting events and has been described as one of the most annoying songs ever.

• Sleepwalker, performed by The Wallflowers: The first performance by the credited musical guest, The Wallflowers, was of "Sleepwalker," the first single from the band's third album (Breach). Despite the popularity of the band's previous album and of critical acclaim regarding the album's maturity, it did not sell well and was quickly forgotten.

• Tomorrow, performed by Dana Carvey: In two instances during the "Ching Chang's Broadway Show" sketch, Ching sings a parody of "Tomorrow" from the Broadway musical Annie, except with the words twisted slightly to be about chickens.

• Hand Me Down, performed by The Wallflowers: The Wallflowers' second performance was of "Hand Me Down," also off their 2000 album (Breach).

Trivia

The Show

• Dress Rehearsal: In the rebroadcast version of this episode, the "Dad & Son Go Hunting" sketch is replaced with a version from the dress rehearsal. In the original broadcast, Carvey fake-slaps Ferrell on the wrong cue and the two quickly ad-lib to make it back on track.

Allusions and References

• Subway Series: At the very beginning of his monologue, Dana Carvey says "The Mets 3, The Yankees 2!" This is a reference to the current score (at that time) of the first World Series game between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, a match-up which is commonly referred to as a "subway series." At the time that Carvey did his monologue, the Mets scored three runs in the seventh inning, placing them ahead until the 9th inning when the Yankees tied the score and later won in the 12th. The rest of the World Series went to the Yankees, who won four games out of five. Later on in the episode, when Carvey introduces The Wallflowers a second time, he can be seen wearing a jersey sporting both teams' logos.