Phishbulb

I know Vanessa co-wrote "Santa Baby", which was one of the better short films last season, and also the bullying one with Ronda Rousey. It seems like a lot of times her best work is in the pre-taped films (like the "Totino's" commercial this season).

I really enjoyed that "movie villains" sketch in the Bradley Cooper episode, which was basically just an excuse for Bill Hader to do his hilarious impression of Jamie Gumb from Silence of the Lambs. I think I remember hearing Bill say on a podcast once that he and John Mulaney had been trying to figure out a way to work the impression into a sketch, and they actually wrote a talk show sketch hosted by Gumb but the resulting sketch was "too dark" to ever air on SNL. "Trust me, I'm the all-time wrongest tree to ever bark up" does sound like a line that Mulaney would have written.

I thought this was a really interesting episode. Before the episode started, the announcer guy said something about "real time", which led me to believe that each of these 5-minute stories was actually taking a real 5 minutes. 5 minutes for each story times 4 stories would equal 20 minutes, which is probably about the length of an episode minus commercials and the final tag. It meant that the show, which is usually super fast with the quips and cutting from story to story, had to slow down and the pacing of the show became much slower and more talky. The Gloria/Jay/Manny story, for example, was essentially just 5 minutes of the three of them in a car having a conversation. It went on and on and seemed like an eternity in sitcom time; went on for much longer than a normal scene would in a sitcom. It started to seem like a David Mamet play or something. Also, were these stories supposed to be taking place at the same time? I kinda thought so when the thunderstorm happened during the Haley/Rainer story, when earlier in the episode there was that electrical malfunction that caused the power to go out on the plane with Cam and Mitchell. If so, then the structure of the episode was kind of like "Pulp Fiction" in a way I guess (compounded by the briefcase-like gag with Mitchell and the bag at the end).

Maybe they should have just kept this season to 13 episodes so we don't tire of the premise so quickly? Also, this episode was the 13th episode produced, the last in the series' initial order. Seems weird that if the show hadn't gotten picked up for more episodes it would have just...ended like this. They must have been fairly confident they were going to get a full pickup. Hopefully with the remaining 4 episodes they'll build to some kind of resolution of the plotline with the parents and the FBI surveilling them or at least a cliffhanger leading into next season.

The Elijah the Prophet sketch had such a Larry David feel to it. I wonder if Larry was there with him that week helping him write stuff.

I think the actor who plays Chip looks like a young version of Nick Kroll.....lol...he is interesting looking but I don't know if I would describe him as "dreamy" necessarily.

It was mentioned (unspoilered) earlier in the thread, but

The second song ("Liability") appears on the album pretty much the way she did it on the show; it's just her and a piano (which I guess is being played by the album's producer, Jack Antonoff from the band Bleachers. He was the one playing the piano during her performance). Antonoff really likes piano I guess, because there is that piano break in "Green Light" which he produced as well. The bombastic-ness of that song is more in line with his usual work (he cowrote "Out of the Woods" from Taylor Swift's 1989 album).

One reason for this being like this is because this episode was the third episode recorded and was supposed to go between "The Grandparents" and "The Buffer" (the Sabrina having sex episode). It was recorded really early on during the filming of the series. Not sure why it was held onto for so long before airing, although maybe the plotline of a little boy being made to wear a dress and pose as a transgender student was one they knew was going to be controversial? So yeah, by the time that Alba sings "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with the stoners in "The Mess" (the 10th episode filmed), that would have been an intentional running joke, if it had aired in the correct order.

Watching the repeat of this episode last night, I was reminded that nothing that occurred at the end of this episode was ever really resolved. The episode ended with Sabrina thinking she was pregnant, her boyfriend Kai proposing to her, her saying yes, and then Sabrina finding out she wasn't really pregnant. However, Kai asked her if she still wanted to get married and she said yes. Kai hasn't been seen again since this episode. Also, the episode sort of ended with the possibility that Micky might get pregnant because she and Jimmy had been having a lot of sex and Ben switched her birth control pills with candy. That I can understand them dropping as a storyline, but the way the episode ended (with Jimmy saying "I'm gonna be a dad!" -cut quickly to credits) seemed like they were going to continue it. They have played fast and loose with airing the episodes out of production order ; the next episode after this that was filmed was "The Country Club", followed by "The Master", "The Balloon", "The Fire", and "The Snitch", even though that's not at all how they aired. The puzzling complete disappearance of Kai as a character without explanation is rather strange though. Edit: Wow. I'm gonna spoiler this for anyone who wants to be surprised, but

A funny thing about Laura Parsons: She actually originated in the episode that Scarlett Johansson hosted in 2010 (which was Vanessa's first season on the show). It was a sketch called "Stars of Tomorrow" where she and Scarlett played child actresses who over-enunciated everything in that typical way that bad child actors do. They did this sketch a few times and now Parsons has found new life as a Weekend Update character. I actually find the character a lot funnier in this context, with the juxtaposition of her cheerful attitude and the horribly depressing news stories she chooses to report on. I guess because they just did it in the last episode they probably wouldn't pair Parsons up against Scarlett in this week's episode but it would be a funny nod to the character's beginnings if they did.

It was funny when she stopped to take a sip of coffee and her coffee mug said "I (HEART) TO FART" too. There was a lot of potential with this idea; it's too bad the sketch was kind of rushed and stuck in as the last sketch of the night.

While this was funny, it also required them changing Alex's character just for this joke to make her as dumb as Haley would normally be. Alex is intelligent and would realize the double-entendre of what "motorboating" means.

Haha, yeah. I guess it's always on a Sunday so it doesn't really matter because most people aren't working at that time and are at home to watch it. In fact, living in LA might actually be a better place to watch it because you can watch the entire show and still be done a little after 9 o'clock; none of this having to stay up until midnight to see the end of the show.

In California, do they actually air the Oscars live (which would mean that they would start at 5:30 PM), or do they record them and air them later so that they start at 8:30? My instinct would tell me that they air them live, but I really don't know. I live on the East Coast so I never have to worry about this; "live" is usually always live for me. If you're on vacation, I guess you take the celebrity tour when you can take it, although waiting until 5:30 in the evening to do so the night of the Oscars does seem a little strange to me.

"What was that? Why was I Jewish???"

Yeah, let's give Alec a break, he's only been married twice. Our current President has been married three times and was actively cheating on his first wife with his second one before he married her. Haha...it's not like Alec is some serial playboy or something.

I said "chest hair" for the Alec question; I guess because I was remembering the younger, more attractive Alec and I was trying to think of something specific to him. It seems like the questions kind of vacillate (unfairly, I think) between having too many possible answers and not enough. Like the Dr. Seuss/Fifty Shades of Grey one- there were so many possible answers there: Horton Whips a Who, Spanks a Who, Beats a Who, etc. Or the hot dog/buns one- "ketchup" was what I said but mustard, relish, etc. were all good answers too ("Man-Aise" was Lamorne Morris trying a little too hard to be clever, however.) Yet the "crossfit" one- there was pretty much ONE answer to that which all 6 panelists answered. Once that lady got 6 matches there was no way that other guy was going to be able to catch up.

In real life, Joe Mande (the stand-up comedian that plays Claire's assistant) is 33; I would imagine doing those kind of scenes with a (barely) 19 year old girl would be kind of uncomfortable for him. With Haley and Rainer, it's a little different as she's an adult and I don't think the show has ever shown them being physical (has it?), even though it's been implied. Alex is (I guess) supposed to be 19 by now but that relationship seems weirder than one between a girl in her 20s and an older guy to me.

I had this same thought too! Except I was thinking maybe they might have actually stopped filming so that Ana could change her answer and they would have a match so they could move on with the game. Wouldn't really have been fair to the other contestant though. Otherwise, what would they have done? If they get to the end of the entire first round and nobody has scored a single point, I don't think they can just start adding on extra questions, they don't really have time for that. I fail to see how any sane, right-thinking person (especially one who usually gives intelligent answers like Ana does) would have thought "fire" was a good answer to that question.

I realize the show aims to be outrageous, but this was really stretching credibility just a tad :) Aren't Chip and his friend supposed to be like around 14 years old? I was expecting this girl to be playing some kind of trick on them, like she was going to get them to take off their clothes and then lock them out of the room so they'd be naked in front of the entire school, with everybody filming it, etc. I didn't expect the scene to end with her legitimately being an overly horny (and extremely underage) girl willing to go through with it. The show took kind of a weird turn there.

Guy who Just Bought a Boat seemed like something Seth Meyers would have done back when he was an actual cast member and used to do sketches on the show. In fact I think I've even seen Seth's brother Josh play a similar douche-y guy character somewhere.

Homer and the other fat guys lugging the caboose up the mountain is a reference to the Werner Herzog movie "Fitzcarraldo", from which this episode gets its title. A lot of film references in this episode.

Going back a ways in the thread, but the millenial Youtube kid correspondent was Drew Tarver from "Bajillion Dollar Propertie$".