Saturday Night Live/Jack Black/Neil Young

Jack Black/Neil Young is the ninth episode of the thirty-first season of Saturday Night Live, and the five hundred and ninety-seventh episode overall.

Guest Stars: Jack Black (Host), Neil Young (Musical Guest)

Special Guests: Johnny Knoxville (Himself), Tracy Morgan (Charles Lepani), Kyle Gass (Tenacious D member)

Cartoon Voices: Darlene Love (Vocals)

Episode Breakdown

• Cheney Claus: Vice President Dick Cheney (Hammond) plays Santa Claus for local children (Dratch, Samberg & Poehler), whose Christmas wishes are suspiciously similar to Bush Administration policies. At last, President George W. Bush (Forte) sits on "Santa's" lap and requests an XBox 360.
• Jack Black's Monologue: Black talks about his new movie King Kong and sings King Kong Jam, a song he wrote, which he intended be used in the film, but which director Peter Jackson turned down. The song, a Tenacious D-style rock ballad, talks more about Black's experiences during filming and less about the plot of the film. In fact, much of the talk of the film's plot is nonsensical, including such lyrics as, "King Kong, pass the Grey Poupon! King Kong, fighting the Viet Cong! King Kong! Everybody bang a gong for King Kong, 'cause he don't belong."
• Stuart Little Mouse Removal Kit: A commercial for a new kind of mousetrap. Spokesman Parnell explains to a couple (Wiig & Sudeikis) how the device—a toy car similar to the one driven by the CGI-animated hero of the children's film Stuart Little—works: The mouse drives the car out of the house, where it explodes, killing its driver.
• The Wind: A holiday shopper (Black), his wife (Poehler), her mother (Dratch) and their baby take a break for lunch at the only available table at a Sbarro, but whenever the door is open, a strong gust of icy wind nearly blows them away. Another table opens up, and the husband tries to claim it, but a homeless man (Armisen) swipes it. When their server (Thompson) comes to the table, the wind blows the hot pizza in his face and causes severe burns. The father tries to stop another man (Parnell) from opening the door, but he is unsuccessful, and his mother-in-law is blown into the ceiling. When they leave, the strong winds outside blow them off their feet, and a holiday message from The Weather Channel pops up.
• Appalachian Emergency Room - Christmastime: The patients whom Nerod (Meyers) admits during the holiday season are: Percy and Netti Bo Dance (Hammond & Poehler), who are there because Percy slipped on a frozen satellite dish left in the baby pool by their "druggie son" (Young) and electrocuted himself on Christmas lights; Otis Peaks (Sudeikis) and Tiny Nations (Hader) who are there for a lawn jarts accident—not the one sticking out of Tiny's prosthetic wooden hand, but rather the one sticking out of Otis' head; Tyler (Parnell), who got a watermelon he was going to give Nerod frozen to his penis when he was having sex with it; Sandy Joey Juggerson (Black), dressed as a shepherd, who dislocated his colon while having a drunken farting contest with his girlfriend in a live Nativity scene; and Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, who has had a board nailed to his perineum for two weeks.
• TV Funhouse - Christmastime for the Jews: A black & white claymation music video in which a Supremes-style Motown girl group sings about all the fun Jews have on the streets of the city when the gentiles desert it for the holiday.
• Channel Five Photo Shoot: Photographer Marcus (Sudeikis) is doing a photo shoot for the new billboard ads for the Channel 5 News Team. He suggests that the team—Chet (Black), J.J. (Thompson), Topper (Parnell) and a female anchor (Poehler)—point at each other, but Chet is upset that nobody is pointing at him in any of the pictures. Despite his desperate tries to force a point, he is only further ignored. At last, Marcus calms the team down for what he claims is the "final" shot, but when the photos go to press, a picture with Chet out of frame is used.
  

  

  The Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!

• SNL Digital Short - Lazy Sunday: A hip hop video featuring Samberg and Parnell rapping about eating cupcakes and going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
• It's a Dream: Neil Young song.
• Weekend Update
  • Joseph and Charles Lepani (Thompson & Tracy Morgan), heads of the tourism board for Skull Island from the movie King Kong, try to convince people to come to Skull Island despite its dinosaurs, giant apes, lack of museums, giant insects, sacrifice of blonde women and "murderous scorpions."
  • In response to a news story about a 37-year-old woman impregnated by a 15-year-old boy, Fey and Poehler editorialize about the "sexiness" of fifteen-year-olds.
• Debbie Downer - A Very Downer Christmas: Santa Claus (Black) is depressed by young Debbie Downer (Dratch) when he finds her awake on Christmas Eve. She sits on his lap to ask him for what she wants for Christmas, but none of Santa's suggestions sound good to her. While Santa hits the scotch, Debbie asks for depressing gifts. At last, Santa presents her with a calendar of medical oddities, which she loves.
• Deserted Moon: Human Steve (Black) and his enemy alien Glurk (Samberg) are stranded on a lifeless moon, where the alien reveals it has both female and male sex organs. Glurk propositions Steve, who is uninterested, but Glurk won't drop the issue. Glurk even tries to trick Steve by playing truth or dare, but no dice. A drunken Glurk shows Steve his glowing green genitalia, which nauseates Steve. Steve tries to fix his spaceship, but when Glurk smacks the ship in frustration, it fixes the ship. The joyous Steve has sex with Glurk, which causes his testicles to rot off.
• Two A-Holes - Buying a Christmas Tree: The A-Holes (Sudeikis & Wiig) drive a Christmas tree salesman (Black) insane when they request hot chocolate, a bathroom, a "big tree" that's only two feet high, an impossibly large tree and a street lamp. After the salesman storms off, the A-holes try to buy a tree off a hot dog vendor (Mitchell).
• Spelling Bee: At the State Spelling Bee Finals, a little girl (Dratch) correctly spells "xylophone." The moderator (Parnell) gives the next contestant, Daniel Strong (Forte), the word "business." Daniel procrastinates in spelling the word, and when he finally does, his spelling is extremely wrong. The lights go down on the scene and come up on Tenacious D, who sing the song "Spelling Bee," which reveals "Daniel" is really J.B. of Tenacious D.
• He Was the King: Neil Young song.

Notes

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

• Will Forte as President George W. Bush.

Music

Neil Young performs "It's a Dream."

• "It's a Dream," performed by Neil Young: A track off Young's 2005 album Prairie Wind. The album is much more reflective and sedate than Young's succeeding album Living with War, released only eight months after Prairie Wind. Where Living with War is a protest album reminiscent of Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' or Young's own Freedom, Prairie Wind is an acoustic album similar to Harvest Moon. In most of the songs, Young describes his feelings on aging and nostalgia for his youth. "It's a Dream" is a love song of sorts, and along with "Here for You," one of only two on the album.

• "He Was the King," performed by Neil Young: A nostalgia song off Prairie Wind, dedicated to 1950s and 1960s music superstar Elvis Presley.

Trivia

The Show

• Credited, Not Appearing: Although credited, Horatio Sanz and Maya Rudolph do not appear in this episode. Although they technically appear, Fred Armisen appears only as the homeless man (who has no full dialogue) in "The Wind," and Finesse Mitchell's only role is a very small one, as the hot dog vendor in "Two A-Holes Buying a Christmas Tree." Seth Meyers, Bill Hader and Tina Fey also all appear in only one sketch each ("Appalachian Emergency Room - Christmastime" for all except Fey, who anchors "Weekend Update"), but their roles were more substantial.

• The Misspelling of Business: In the "Spelling Bee" sketch, Daniel Strong spells the word "business" with 19 Q's, 15 of them consecutive. In all, Daniel uses 17 letters to spell the word, all of them consonants (assuming Y is used as a consonant). The four consonants not used are C, V, X and Z.

Behind the Scenes

• Internet Phenomenon: The second of the SNL Digital Shorts written and produced by Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, "Lazy Sunday"—co-written by Chris Parnell—became one of the most popular sketches in the series' history, and certainly the most popular of the season. Immediately after its appearance on the show, it was uploaded to YouTube, where it was viewed millions of times in the following two months. (The only other SNL sketch which approached "Lazy Sunday" in popularity during that time on YouTube was the "Behind the Music, Blue Oyster Cult" sketch—featuring Christopher Walken repeating the catchphrase "more cowbell"—from an episode episode hosted by Walken.) Network NBC, whose peacock logo commemorates its being the first network to broadcast in color, demanded YouTube pull the video so they could add it as streaming video to their own site, thus jumping on yet another technological advance. However, the sketch had already become an unstoppable phenomenon within two weeks of its airing. The line "Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = CRAZY DELICIOUS" had already become a common catchphrase made into T-shirts, and the NBC sitcom The Office made multiple references to the sketch. It was played in karaoke bars and holiday parties over the Christmas and New Year's break, and by the time the show returned for the first episode of 2006, it was well-known enough that Samberg and Parnell made light of their newfound stardom in promos for the episode. In fact, the sketch helped launch Samberg into the limelight, and such subsequent Digital Shorts as "A Day in the Life of Natalie Portman" and "Laser Cats!", would cement his position as one of SNL's key cast members.

Allusions and References

• Hoth: Hoth is the icy, desolate planet which serves as the setting for the opening scenes of The Empire Strikes Back, the 1980 sequel to the 1977 film Star Wars. A rebel base was stationed on the planet until the Empire attacked, forcing the rebellion to scatter and regroup elsewhere.

Holiday Shopper: Let's eat this before the portal to Hoth opens again.

• Ashlee Simpson: American pop star who had an infamous incident as musical guest on Saturday Night Live in an episode aired in the previous season, in which a technical error made it obvious Simpson was lip synching the vocals to her song and not performing it live. An embarrassed Simpson did a dance and ran off set after a few seconds, leaving the band on stage.

Tina Fey: Ashlee Simpson collapsed after a performance in Tokyo Thursday. Simpson spent Friday in the hospital while her show that night went on as scheduled without her.

• Enemy Mine: The sketch "Deserted Moon" is a parody remake of the 1985 science fiction film Enemy Mine, starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. and directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

Quotes

• Daniel Strong: Business. B-R-D-T-F-K-L-M-G-H-R-K-W-T-F-N-Y-L-K-B-Q-W-Q-R-T-D-F-B-L-M-K Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-Q-S-T-F-J-R-Q-M-T-S-D-T-Q-M-P-R-F-T-D-B-D-P-L-H-R-K-T-B-T-F. Business.