Saturday Night Live/Paul Giamatti/Ludacris f/ Sum 41

Paul Giamatti/Ludacris f/ Sum 41 is the tenth episode of the thirtieth season of Saturday Night Live. The episode is the first appearance for both the host and the musical guest, although featured musical guest Sum 41 has appeared once prior.

Guest Stars: Paul Giamatti (Host), Ludacris (Musical Guest), Sum 41 (Musical Guest)

Episode Breakdown

• The Bush Daughters: Following the inauguration of President George W. Bush's (Forte) second term, his daughters Jenna (Poehler) and Barbara Pierce Bush (Fey) are about to go to bed. They talk about how drunk Jenna was and how boring the speeches were until Barbara asks if Jenna thinks their father is a good president. Jenna warns her not to wonder about things like that aloud, but Barbara goads her into answering in their "secret twin language," which just turns out to be talking like Mushmouth from Fat Albert by adding "buh" to the end of all of their words. They have a spirited debate in their "language" until their father comes in asking if they want more creme brule and is confounded by their twin speak. Eventually, Dick Cheney (Hammond) comes in to tell everyone to go to bed and that he knows what they were talking about.
• Paul Giamatti's Monologue: Giamatti talks about how great it is that everyone came out despite New York having the first big snow storm of the season. He also talks about being in Los Angeles for the Golden Globes since he was nominated for Sideways, including about a speech by Jamie Foxx and the honor of being seated at a table next to Clint Eastwood (which he took advantage of by putting his fingers in his soup).
• Rice Confirmation Hearing: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is undergoing confirmation hearings for secretary of state nominee Condoleeza Rice (Rudolph). Senator Richard Lugar (Giamatti) is the presiding chairman and tries to wrap up the entire hearing quickly since Rice clearly has everything wrapped up. Unfortunately for him, Senator John Kerry (Meyers) has some more things to say. He goes off on a long-winded speech about how happy he is to be in the senate after losing the presidential election, although he does share his plans for what would have been his inauguration ceremony. Lugar tries to close things up again, but Senator Barbara Boxer (Poehler) voices her opinion as well, which involves a great deal of maps, graphs and a plaster volcano although Lugar insists that they're just going to confirm her anyway. In the end, Lugar postponed the hearings until after the inauguration.
• Gaystrogen: A gay couple, Steven (Parnell) and Russ (Armisen), are having a conflict because of Russ' recent loss of gayness. To counteract the change in life, Russ starts taking "Gaystrogen," which replenishes the natural gayness of a man.
• Golden Globes Limo: After the Golden Globes ceremony, Giamatti and his wife Elizabeth Cohen (Dratch) get into a limo headed for their hotel at the Four Seasons. Their driver, Trey Love (Mitchell), mistakes Giamatti for Rob Schneider and speaks loudly about how happy he is that Jamie Foxx won (much to Giamatti's chagrin). Love also gets choked up about Foxx's speech and says that all of the actors have to get used to seeing the tattoo on the back of his head since he's got all of those awards locked up. Giamatti tries to inform his driver about who he is by naming some of his movies like Sideways and Private Parts, which Love mistakenly assumes is porn. Love hasn't seen of those movies and Giamatti's claims of being one of the apes in Planet of the Apes are dubious according to him. Giamatti eventually accepts being mistaken for "Rob Schneidly" and says hello to Love's aunt, "Peaches" over the phone.
• Kaitlin's Instrument: Kaitlin (Poehler) and Rick (Sanz) are in a music store where her uncle Chazz (Giamatti) works to pick out an instrument for her to play so that her music teacher won't make her play the recorder. She wants to play drums, but Rick has nowhere to put them and they'll make too much noise. Chazz says that drummers are "douchebags" who steal wives, so she should pick another instrument anyway. While she looks at instruments behind them, Chazz regales Rick with tales of his band and their "refolkomet" concept album. Kaitlin tries to decide between the clarinet, trump, violin and using her voice as an instrument. Chazz later breaks down and says that Kaitlin should play the drums after all, Rick agrees to rent the drums for a month. Rick also gets her out of having to go to Chazz's gig.
• Get Back: Ludacris song, featuring Sum 41.
• Weekend Update:
  • In a new segment called "Dratch on the Ones," Dratch is reporting from outside at Rockefeller Center in the blizzard. But, she can't see anything due to "white blindness" and can't warm up since there's no van like they promised. She did climb into a van that she thought was their's but a man with a face tattoo tried to sell her stereo equipment and wouldn't let her leave. She's also hit with snowballs from teenage punks and her crew.
  • Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (Hammond) talks about California's environmental concerns, especially the mudslides, and explains that he is not a violent person despite his action movie roles. Schwarzenegger also explains that he can't be president because he was not born in the United States, although his supporters insist that they can change the laws, give him Jay Leno as vice president and remove term limits.
  • Fey and Poehler briefly go back to Dratch and taunt her by drinking hot chocolate. They also refuse to let her come in despite icicles forming on her nose. Since their McDonalds food is frozen, the anchors make her go get more and tell her to find a Diet Snapple Root Beer for Ludacris, even though that doesn't exist.
• The Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour: From the depths of TV Land's Variety Vault, the Lundford Twins (Giamatti and Armisen) star in their own unaired variety show. In the show, the Lundfords sings a song and "Granny Crabtree" (Poehler) is used as comic relief before they bring out Lydia Fish (Rudolph). Fish sings a story song about her husband getting the flu, which transfers into the Lundford Twin Dancers (Parnell, Dratch, Fey, Forte) doing a dance in a honky-tonk saloon set. Lastly, a gospel singer named Chut Whitley (Thompson) sings about Jesus.
• Reinhold Investments: At an investment firm, the manager (Poehler) introduces new client Ms. Dowden (Dratch) to her new financial planner Dave Parker (Giamatti). They start to work out an investment profile and take questions about the finer points of investments, like what annuities and CDs are. But while Parker is talking, the receptionist, Andy (Forte) answers the phone and loudly moans "Ohhhh no!" After a while of this, Dowden decides to leave because she doesn't feel comfortable at the firm and Parker is told to deal with Andy. He tries to give him another chance so that he won't get fired, but Andy just starts moaning again.
• Number One Spot: Ludacris song.
• Spy Glass: Ian Gerrard (Meyers) and Zoe Anderton (Poehler) host a British entertainment magazine show which entirely consists of bad puns about Prince Harry's Nazi costume, Jennifer Garner's pregnancy, Brad Pitt's break-up with Jennifer Aniston and Anderton stalking David Beckham. They throw to Rupert Smythe Pennington, who regularly covers the parliament for BBC but is filling in as the teen correspondent. He makes puns about the Olsen twins, Justin Timberlake and Jude Law. After more puns from the earlier stories, they go to Cinema correspondent Reginold Eugene Hereford Shalitshire (Sanz), a British Gene Shalit, who makes particularly bad puns about his favorite Oscar potentials: Hotel Rwanda, Finding Neverland and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Anderton updates her Beckham stalking by saying she has "Spanish chlamydia" and so does everyone else on the show since they've all slept with her.
• Pet Cat: After a date over dinner, Phoebe (Dratch) and her date (Giamatti) go up to her room. The man starts putting the moves on her, but she stops him so that he can meet her huge cat Franklin (Armisen). They get to talking about alcoholism and her date's divorce, but Franklin acts as obnoxious as possible. Her date tells Phoebe about his dream to own his own cafe while she plays with the cat. They get close to kissing again, but Phoebe stops to give Franklin his medicine. Franklin nearly attacks the date, making him want to leave, but he reconsiders. Although, this just leads to Franklin spraying them with kitty litter.

Notes

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

• Amy Poehler and Tina Fey as First Daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush.

Music

• Get Back, performed by Ludacris & Sum 41: The first song performed by Ludacris was "Get Back," which also features Sum 41 as a backing band. The version of the song performed on the show was a remixed version of the song which originally appeared on Ludacris' 2004 album The Red Light District. The "Rock Version" of the song was included in the UK version of the album as a bonus track.

• Number One Spot, performed by Ludacris: Ludacris' second song was "Number One Spot," which does not feature Sum 41. The song, produced by DJ Green Lantern, was the biggest hit from The Red Light District and sampled "Soul Bossa Nova," otherwise known as the theme from Austin Powers. In the song, Ludacris notably criticized Bill O'Reilly, his rival in right-wing news, by bringing up the sexual harassment scandal that plagued O'Reilly's career in 2004.