Saturday Night Live/Peyton Manning/Carrie Underwood

Peyton Manning/Carrie Underwood
Season 32, Episode 16
Airdate	March 24, 2007
Production Number	1487
Written by	Seth Meyers Andrew Steele Paula Pell (head writers) Doug Abeles James Anderson Alex Baze James Downey Charlie Grandy Steve Higgins Colin Jost Erik Kenward John Lutz Lorne Michaels Matt Murray Marika Sawyer Akiva Schaffer Robert Smigel John Solomon Emily Spivey Jorma Taccone Bryan Tucker Robert Smigel Matt O'Brien (cartoon)
Directed by	Don Roy King
← 32x15 Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Snow Patrol	32x17 → Shia LaBeouf/Avril Lavigne
Saturday Night Live — Season Thirty-Two

Peyton Manning/Carrie Underwood is the sixteenth episode of the thirty-second season of Saturday Night Live, and the six hundred and twenty-third episode overall. It is the first appearance by both the host and musical guest.

Guest Stars: Peyton Manning (Host), Carrie Underwood (Musical Guest)

Special Guests: Dan Aykroyd (Himself), Archie Manning (Himself), Eli Manning (Himself), Olivia Manning (Herself)

Cartoon Voices: Becca Lish (Maraka)

Episode Breakdown

• Press Conference: President George W. Bush (Sudeikis) talks to America about the dismissal of several US Attorneys and his mandate that interviews for his staff were conducted without transcripts, in private and not under oath. Bush is presently conferring with his legal council not to answer questions from the press any more due to the recent fallout. However, when posed with the demand to fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (Armisen), Bush refuses. He does say that Gonzalez would be the first to go if there were any wrong doing in the administration, which makes Gonzalez look very scared. Bush goes from praising to dismissive several times, causing this shift in attitude from Gonzalez and eventually sending him completely off screen when jail time is mentioned. Bush tries to turn the podium over to him, but by now he's long gone.
• Peyton Manning's Monologue: Super Bowl champion quarterback P. Manning talks about how he stays motivated for the future, which is mainly from being insulted by aging football players. He then introduces his family, father Archie, brother Eli and mother Olivia, who are all football players except for Olivia who never made it to the NFL because she was cut by the Dolphins and couldn't work her way out of Canadian football.
• United Way: P. Manning shows how he uses football to teach kids skills like communication, but instead of teaching kids and going easy on them, he hurls the ball as hard as he can at them and yells at them for not catching it. He also teaches them how to steal cars, get tattoos and help him pick up women, and he generally acts as a terrible role model. In the end, the point of the commercial is to persuade parents to take care of their kids, because P. Manning clearly won't.
• Bronx Beat - Joseph Ryan: Betty (Poehler) and Jodi (Rudolph) hold their talk show in the Bronx and talk about how gross flip flops on the subway are before bringing out their guest, Joseph Ryan (P. Manning) from the Bronx Zoo. Ryan is there to talk about exciting events at the zoo coming up in the spring, but the two steer the conversation towards how tall he is and the likelihood that he was a large baby. Eventually the conversation comes back to an Easter event at the zoo, which the hosts aren't interested in, and they come back around to how cute he is. They then call Al, Jodi's husband, to see if he's going to be jealous over Jodi flirting with Joseph.
• NCAA Pool: Chris Graham (Sudeikis) hosts a show on ESPN2 with the top two leaders of their national NCAA tournament pool: Ted Rimble (P. Manning), a prominent sports writer who specializes in college basketball, and Mandy Jensen (Poehler), a woman who basically just guessed on the entire tournament bracket. Graham shows clips of NCAA games and asks for both of their insights, which leads Rimble to respond with detailed sports analysis and Mandy with superficial comments about the uniforms and mascots. Mandy, shockingly, hasn't made any wrong decisions on her bracket, while Rimble missed two. Suddenly, the sketch takes a turn when Rimble calls Arizona's loss "pulling a Peyton Manning," because they came in with great stats and failed to deliver. Rimble stops the conversation to question Rimble on why that's a "Peyton Manning" and later storms off after another joke at the expense of Peyton Manning.
• Stealing the Spotlight: At a house party, Sue (Poehler) has invited several friends over to break in her new place, including Glen and Nicole (Rudolph). After Sue wanders off, a woman standing in the corner named Penelope (Wiig) starts to nonchalantly one-up everything that the two say, constantly stealing the focus away from them. This behavior continues when Sue's husband Anthony (Hader) chats with the two and when Sue tries to give a speech. Glen attempts to put a stop to Penelope by saying he's done completely impossible feats, such as losing 500 pounds and having a baby who spoke French out of the womb. She, of course, doesn't stop, and the two leave out of frustration.
• TV Funhouse - Maraka: In a children's program featuring a Hispanic girl named Maraka and her cat Mittens, the two go on an adventure to see some penguins from a hot air balloon. However, as their adventure progresses, Maraka bids the audience for more and more participation and demands they answer questions which progressively get more difficult and abstract. To compound matters, her bilingual nature starts to jumble up with languages other than English and Spanish. She ends the adventure by asking the audience whether or not her cat truly has free will.
• NCAA Motivation: A college basketball team (Samberg, Sudeikis, Armisen, Hader and Thompson) is down by 34 points, but the coach (Forte) tries to motivate them into playing better. The team captain (P. Manning), however, suggests that they all leave through a door in the locker room and not come back. He claims to be so terrified of the other team that he may pee his pants. The coach struggles to gain their respect again by playing a slow jazz song for the team, but his intentions clearly fail considering the team's embarrassed looks while he enthusiastically dances to the music. The captain joins in to dance awkwardly as well and the two run out onto the court while the rest of the team escapes.
• Before He Cheats: Carrie Underwood song.
• Weekend Update:
  • Senator Tim Calhoun (Forte) has decided to run for the presidential election nomination, but he quickly sinks any of his presidential aspirations by admitting he thinks the Presidential seal should be a real live seal and that he can't bring the troops home because he has a small apartment. He also makes awkward jokes about Jack Abramoff, anal sex and the "Head-On" commercials. He ends his speech with a plea to vote for him so he won't have to run for president of Mexico again.
  • American Idol performer Sanjaya Malakar (Samberg) interrupts a news story about tree frogs to sing poorly "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks. Even though he's terrible, he makes Ashley Ferl (Wiig), Armisen and Aykroyd openly weep in the audience.
• 300 Green Screen: Director Zach Snyder (Sudeikis) is filming a sequence in 300 where Mitch (P. Manning) is to throw a large rock at Blaine (Armisen). A production assistant (Wiig) starts the take, but Mitch won't throw the rock, assuming that it'll be done in post-production with special effects. They go through several takes with Mitch refusing to throw the rock, even though the director, and occasionally the cameraman (Thompson) is telling him to do so. They're forced to pack up without the shot when the camera runs out of film, and they decide to cut the sketch while Mitch is walking off stage.
• Wasted: Carrie Underwood song.
• Hot Coffee: A married couple (P. Manning and Wiig) are drinking coffee outside on the porch, mundanely talking about their lives and thoughtfully drinking their coffee. Slowly the conversation gets more and more dysfunctional with talk about how they're going to fertilize the garden with their own feces and how one of their friends hanged himself in his garage as a birthday present to his wife.
• Mercedes 550: P. Manning shills for the Mercedes 550, even though he starts out talking about meatloaf. The reason for this is the car has a meatloaf oven built into the console and comes with the ingredients for making a meatloaf. Also, the seats are also toilets so you don't have to wear pants while driving.
• Air Force One: A team of incredibly bad basketball players (Forte, Armisen, Hader, Samberg and Thompson) are featured in a Nike commercial for their "Air Force One" shoes. The tagline for the commercial mocks them and says they shouldn't buy these shoes.

Notes

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

• Jason Sudeikis as President George W. Bush.

Music

• Before He Cheats, performed by Carrie Underwood: The first performance by Carrie Underwood is "Before He Cheats," the fifth single off her debut album Some Hearts. However, the song is also the album's third specifically country single, despite its crossover appeal with mainstream pop. The song has experienced high chart positions on both relevant charts.

• Casino Royale Theme, performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass: The song the NCAA team's coach uses to motivate his players is the theme song for the 1967 James Bond spoof, Casino Royale. The song was composed by Burt Bacharach and performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Although the version used in the sketch is instrumental, the song does have lyrics which were sung over the credits by Viv Stanshall.

• You Really Got Me, performed by Andy Samberg: At the end of Weekend Update, Sanjaya Malakar (played by Samberg) sings "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks. In the "Top 11" episode of the sixth season of American Idol, the real Malakar sang this song for the "British Invasion" theme. Although he's widely thought to be the worst contestant on the program, his performance of the song caused a young girl named Ashley Ferl to weep (an event which was also parodied in this performance).

• Wasted, performed by Carrie Underwood: "Wasted" is the second song performed by Carrie Underwood, off her debut album. The song is her sixth single from the album as well as her fourth country single. The song is about two characters dealing with alcoholism as it grasps their lives.

Trivia

The Show

• M.I.A.: Darrell Hammond once again does not appear in any live sketches in this episode. Hammond would have made two appearances in the episode, one as former New York Governor Rudolph Giuliani during Weekend Update and another as his recurring character in Appalachian Emergency Room. Both sketches were cut following dress rehearsal.
• Happy Birthday: This episode was broadcast live on Peyton Manning's 31st birthday. During the good nights, several cast members roll out a birthday cake, and everyone sings "Happy Birthday" to him.
• Idol Legacy: Carrie Underwood is the third American Idol contestant and second winner to perform on Saturday Night Live. Winner Kelly Clarkson performed on an episode in season 30 hosted by Jason Bateman, and runner-up Clay Aiken performed during season twenty-nine.

Behind the Scenes

• Undead Sketch: The final commercial parody for Nike Air Force One was cut from the previous three shows during dress rehearsal. It was finally broadcast because it fit the sports theme of the show.
• Ratings: This episode was seen by 7.9 million viewers over all, according to Nielsen. The episode received a 3.5/15 in the 18-49 demographic.

Allusions and References

• Dora the Explorer: The sketch "Maraka" is a parody of this popular educational children's cartoon, which is framed as a computer game in which the Hispanic heroine speaks in both English and Spanish as she encourages young viewers to actively participate in her adventures with her sidekick Boots the monkey.