Saturday Night Live/Molly Shannon/Linkin Park

Molly Shannon/Linkin Park is the nineteenth episode of the thirty-second season of Saturday Night Live, and the six hundred and twenty-sixth episode overall. It is the first appearance of former cast member Molly Shannon as host and the first appearance of musical guest Linkin Park.

Guest Stars: Molly Shannon (Host), Linkin Park (Musical Guest)

Voices By: Bill Hader, Brian Stack, Robert Smigel

Episode Breakdown

• American Idol - Mary Katherine Gallagher: Ryan Seacrest (Hader) stands with American Idol contestant Melinda Doolittle (Rudolph) and goes back and forth about whether or not she's still on the show. After over a minute of a "you're out, but safe" routine, he tries to move on to the other semi-finalists, Jordin and Blake, but is interrupted by Mary Katherine Gallagher (Shannon) who believes she still has a chance in the show even though she was cut in the first preliminary audition. Before singing, she congratulates Randy Jackson (Thompson) on his "partial weight-loss," says that she doesn't think Paula Abdul (Poehler) is always drunk but is naturally drowsy and that Simon Cowell (Sudeikis) is a very scary man. She does the armpit smelling thing, demonstrates her "gymnastics" and leaves them with a monologue from "Shooting Stars" about Joe Jackson berating his songs in Jackson 5. At the end, she accidentally knocks Seacrest through the screen in the back. When the judges tell her to get off stage a second time, she starts singing "Brass In Pocket" by The Pretenders and throws Cowell through a table.
• Molly Shannon's Monologue: Shannon talks about what she remembers from working on the show, especially all the sex that was going on all over the studio which she claims that she didn't have anything to do with. But she does recall having a crush on Lorne Michaels during the 90s when she worked on the show. The flashback parodies several popular things from the 90s including Lou Bega, complicated CD players, Zima and popular slang from the time like "the down low" and "all that and a bag of chips." In response to her impassioned attempt to bring their relationship to a new level, he plays a song by TLC and tells her not to chase waterfalls (and in this analogy he was the waterfall). Back in the present, Shannon says that it worked out for the best because otherwise she wouldn't have hooked up with Don Pardo.
• Urigro: A man (Sudeikis) endorses a product that cures Weak Male Urination Syndrome, a disorder which causes his urine flow to be weaker than average, as illustrated by a dripping hose. He explains that using Urigro has influenced the speed and quantity of urine drastically, which he goes on to display in the bathroom.
• Tenet Meeting: The apartment tenet meeting is about to get underway and Lisa (Shannon) made cookies and brownies for everyone, much to the delight of Lou (Thompson) and Gena (Poehler). She warns them that she hasn't used the brownie recipe before when Penelope (Wiig) appears and starts one-uping everything that anyone says, including Gena saying that 8AM might be too early for some people (she gets up at 3AM) and Lou showing off pictures of his granddaughters (she has pictures in her wallet upstairs). They start the meeting an one tenet (Sudeikis) says that he's finally going to take a trip to Italy (Penelope says she's going too) and that his brother will be watching his place. Gena tries to get everyone to sign a card for an elderly woman in the building whose cat died, but Penelope once again interrupts to say that he cat died moments ago and that she was literally pregnant with the cat. Fed up with how annoying Penelope is, Lisa makes up an outlandish claim about giving birth to cows and having a Olympic swimming pool full of milk, hoping that it'll shut her up. It doesn't, but apparently she really can turn invisible. She does so after everyone leaves to continue the meeting in Lisa's apartment.
• Fringe Candidates Debate: Dan Rather (Hammond) moderates a debate between the fringe candidates for the upcoming presidential election in 2008. Among the candidates are Eleanor Hatch (Wiig) of the New Revolutionary PETA Party, Trudy Westmoreland (Shannon) of the New American Nazi Party, Larry Budge (Forte) from NAMBLA, Aseeb Narzef (Armisen) from the Taliban, Blaine Goodbody (Sudeikis) from the Dance Party, Dennis Kucinich (Poehler) from the Democrats, Lord Simon Frothingham (Samberg) from the Whig Party, Fantasmagoria Purlene Robinson (Robinson) from the Wig Party, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (Hader) from the Labour Party and finally Rev. Hershel P. Chocula (Thompson) from the Black Vampire Party. Rather begins the debate by asking the NAMBLA candidate how he plans on changing the public image of his party, but he sees nothing wrong with his group. The woman from Nazi party says that since this is the "new" Nazi party, things are different, to which Narzef responds by saying she should be stoned to death for speaking out of turn. Rather moves on to Iraq and Kucinich, who he doesn't believe was really at the Democratic debate and thought that "Congressman" was Kucinich's first name. Rather makes an awkward joke about a steer in a sperm bank before asking Goodbody how he would describe the platform of the dance party. He responds by dancing, naturally. Rather moves on to the Whig Party, but the Wig Party is pissed off about Farthingham using her party's name. Hatch interrupts to lobby for mosquito rights and Blair interrupts her to say that he's most qualified to lead America. To end the debate, Rather picks a name from a hat for one closing statement. Budge from NAMBLA's closing statement is a crass attempt to hit on any little boys who may be watching.
• Sally O'Malley - The Sopranos: At the Bada Bing nightclub, Tony Soprano (Hammond) talks with his crew about the Miami job that the pulled. Paulie Gualtieri (Armisen) tries to steer the conversation towards Lost because he doesn't get it, and neither does another goon (Sudeikis). Uncle Junior (Forte) shows up to shoot Tony, even though he's supposed to still be in the nut house and he forgot his gun. Before they get down to business, they have to suffer through the audition of Sally O'Malley, a 50-year-old woman who wants to be a stripper. She pole dances to jazz music and Paulie keeps giving her chances, despite the disgust of everyone else, especially Tony. When two rival mobsters (including Hader) appear from backstage, O'Malley incapacitates them both and gets the job.
• What I've Done: Linkin Park song.
• Weekend Update:
  • In a new (or really, the first) episode of Weekend Update's "Comedy Cul-de-Sac," the anchors introduce Jeannie Darcy (Shannon), who has no sense of comedic timing. She makes a couple of stereotypical female comedian jokes about her ex-husbands and how the audience shouldn't "get her started."
  • Pep Walters (Armisen), the first blind man to win the Kansas City stops by to give some tips on grilling, but he accidentally hurls a steak into the crowd. He says that he has more steaks backstage and tells Meyers to continue on with his jokes while he gets them. He then walks in front of the camera while Meyers attempts to tell a joke about the Iranian soccer team.
• Kaitlin - Retirement Home: At a retirement home, Kaitlin (Poehler) has decided to volunteer. One of the employees (Forte) tries to tone down her excitement and keep her from doing her show by asking her to introduce herself. She gets halfway through her introduction before she goes nuts again. She overexerts herself during her crazed flashback of the past eight decades and decides to take questions. One woman (Rudolph) asks when dinner is, which causes Kaitlin to launch into a long story about how she ate all of the Rice Krispie treats that she made for them. She finishes with her "rollersneaker routine" when her mother (Shannon) comes in and tells a long boring story and takes her grandfather (Armisen) away.
• MacGruber #1: At a booby trapped bridge, MacGruber (Forte), Kacy (Rudolph) and April (Shannon) are trapped in a room with a dirty bomb that will go off in 15 seconds. MacGruber gets a beaker, some tomato juice, some celery and looks for Tabasco sauce. April asks if he's making a drink instead of stopping the bomb and the bridge blows up.
• TV Funhouse - Tales from the Greatest Generation: In this instance of "Tales from the Greatest Generation," they take time to tell the story of the life of big-boobed Einstein, which is just Albert Einstein except with giant breasts. Einstein couldn't get anyone to take him seriously. Instead, he winds up being chased around the oval office by Roosevelt. He's finally backed up by chesty Winston Churchill. The two decide that their only option now is to rob banks with big-boobed Lassie. Eventually, things work out for them when Truman takes office because he's a leg man.
• The Oak Room: Charli Coffee (Rudolph) comes on stage at The Oak Room to poorly sing and dance, while drinking, on stage. Also backing her up on stage is Lamont Cosby (Thompson), who is her "formerly gay step-son." She then introduces Toni Caryle (Shannon) to sing on stage with her. They do a duet with random rhyming words that's apparently about when they were both married to the same helicopter pilot. They finish by singing a song about their friendship and drinking.
• MacGruber #2: At a P.O.W. prison camp, MacGruber (Forte), Kacy (Rudolph) and April are once again stuck in a room identical to the previous sticky situation except with liquid hydrogen that will explode in 15 seconds. April looks to MacGruber for a plan, but he's drunk and sings a song on the guitar about how he wants to nail both of the girls to the theme of his theme song. The P.O.W. camp explodes.
• Bleed It Out: Linkin Park song.
• Trump Steaks: Donald Trump (Hammond) tries to sell people steaks on his website, which has a video commercial on it. But he mistakenly says that they're made from "black anus." To prove that his steaks are the best, he brings out his wife Milania (Shannon) to shill for the steaks that they can buy at Sharper Image for $999.
• MacGruber #3: One more time, the raging alcoholic MacGruber (Forte) is trapped with just April (Shannon) in a drug lord headquarters with a bomb. This time MacGruber made the bomb is too busy eating a hamburger to defuse the bomb. April decides to quit like Kacy did and the bomb explodes.

Notes

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

• Molly Shannon as Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Music

• Brass in Pocket, performed by Molly Shannon: The song that Molly Shannon sang briefly in the cold opening as Mary Katherine Gallagher was "Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders, the hit single off their debut self-titled album.

• Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega: During Shannon's flashback in Lorne's office, the song "Mambo No. 5" is playing in the background to drive the point home that this is the 90s. The song was released by Lou Bega in 1999 on the album A Little Bit of Mambo. A "mambo" fad did not pick up, however, and he quickly faded into obscurity.

• Waterfalls by TLC: The second song played on Lorne's boombox in the monologue flashback was "Waterfalls" by TLC, a R&B girl-group that was popular during the mid-1990s. The song was from their album CrazySexyCool and was their best selling album, although they filed for bankruptcy nearly a year after it was released because of incidents involving arson and medical bills.

• What I've Done, performed by Linkin Park: The first musical performance by Linkin Park was of "What I've Done," the band's first single of their third album Minutes to Midnight. The song is written as a goodbye to how the band has been in the past and welcoming the different sound they're attempting to embrace with this album.

• Bleed It Out, performed by Linkin Park: The second Linkin Park song was "Bleed It Out," also off their 2007 album Minutes to Midnight. The song attempts to mimic the style which mashed their albums together with verses by Jay-Z on the EP Collision Course and was not released as a single at the time that this episode aired.