(S35E18) Tina Fey gives hope to all nerdy funny girls out there. You may be frumpy and strange now, girls, but all you have to do is work really hard, be yourself, create/write/star in a hit show with Alec Baldwin and become super-famous. Then you will finally be able to soothe the flame of self-hate this is currently raging within you. This is the only option to escape your ugly duckling phase. Sorry if you were convinced otherwise.

All right, seriously, this was a solid episode. It felt like Fey had a strong hand in what kind of material was being produced; most of the sketches worked very well for her. This was also the first time I had heard Justin Bieber. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Cold Open: Obama breaks down the Census for all of America. All the weirdly sexual questions were hilarious but my favorite line is a tie between "Have any individuals residing in this household on April 1, 2010 criticized President Obama's health care reform plan? What are their names?" or "If some member of this household had to die, so that others might live, who should that be?"



Monologue: Man, Tina Fey has gotten really excited about her own boobs in the past few years. The cut of her tops have been increasingly bold. Anyway, enough about cleavage. This monologue was all right. I've never been a fan of Fey's... rap voice... but I still really enjoyed the shout-outs. And Steve Martin? That guy will find any reason -- any reason at all -- to show up on 'SNL'.

Brownie Husband: I was stunned by Brownie Husband. The sheer (and disturbing) genius of it. It really only would have worked if Tina Fey was the host. What other actress would understand the vigor and aggressiveness required to attack a man-sized brownie with an exploding caramel face?



Tiger Woods at the Masters: The Tiger Woods scandal is a never-ending exercise in slow self-destruction, and it looks like 'SNL' is planning on milking it for as long as they can. This sketch was all right. There were a few good lines here and there, ut the best part was the controversial Tiger Woods ad, featuring Kenan Thompson darting his eyes back and forth guiltily as Bill Hader (possibly?) voiced his late father.



Sarah Palin Network: Perfect, right down to the shimmering flag pin on a black leather jacket. I would love to see a series of sketches just showing soap operas based on right-wing panic. Or, hell, maybe even sketches showing 'Todd!', which was especially great. I also demand that someone bring '30 Main Street' to life.



Teacher: This sketch was so wrong. But also super-great. All the songs were hilarious, as were the Fey's reactions and weird attempt at bedroom eyes directed at the camera. And, geez, good for Justin Bieber being such a sport throughout this entire episode, but I don't think he realized just how creepy some of those moments were. This sketch alone would have been fine, but then he just had to throw in that head-in-boobs side-hug he gave Fey during the good-bye, his little shout-out to her during the song about smiling or whatever... Kid, aren't you, like, thirteen? Months old?



Weekend Update: A totally solid Update this week, apart from a slightly weak appearance from Aunt Linda (after several Kristen Wiig-heavy weeks, she was surprisingly light on material in this episode). A lot of laugh-out-loud moments, including "Four electric trucks!? Well, let me be the first to say, welcome back, glaciers!", Jenga with glue and Jason Sudeikis's devil sharing his thoughts on the Pope scandal and what constitutes as watercooler talk: "Gossip is normally stuff like, 'Hey, did you hear how drunk Tracy from reception got last night?' It's not like, 'Didya hear who got molested? Thousands of kids.'"

I was a little disappointed about the Asian-American Snooki joke, though. I mean, give us some credit. We can be just whores and disappointments to the human race as much as anyone on 'Jersey Shore.' Don't make me prove a point.



Of course, Tina Fey had to step in and put on the ol' Update blazer again. She talked about lady-news and, after Seth Meyer's "Good night!", made sure to drop in a "And have a pleasant tomorrow." Memories.



Al Roker's Ruff, Rugged and Roker: One of the weaker sketches from the night, but still a pretty funny concept. Nasim Pedrad's Kim Kardashian is a little too Fran Drescher and not enough girly-baby voice.



School Dance: Wow, Tina Fey can really look like Sally Jesse Raphael. Nasim Pedrad played this character beautifully, making this sketch kind of adorable. And creepy. But mostly adorable. Once again, Bieber showed up. His presence is inescapable.



Lolene, the 9-Inch Tall Hooker: This sketch was incredibly weird but, for some reason, I really liked it. To take a completely surreal situation and make it overly heartfelt works. She's a hooker! With a heart of gold! And she's only nine-inches tall!



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