Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
FOX & FRIENDS
Michael Bloomberg (FRA) takes heat for gun & soda control
— Funny bit from Bobby’s Brian Kilmeade about french-kissing his hand.
— I got a big cheap laugh from the comment Vanessa’s Gretchen Carlson makes in regards to gay athletes and the guy in football who hikes the ball.
— Is Fred always the guest in these Fox & Friends sketches? This is either the third or fourth consecutive installment that’s happened in.
— Great bit with Bobby’s Kilmeade drinking the entire oversized Big Gulp, causing him to have a sugar rush.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host plays piano & does stand-up on myriad topics
— Interesting little detail with Zach Galifianakis entering with a rose in his hand and then placing it on the top of the piano.
— I love Zach saying “I haven’t really done anything, guys” when the audience is laughing endlessly over his comical opening line: “I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.”
— An absolutely priceless bit about a deaf couple being amazing at charades.
— Great sequence with Zach doing a whole bunch of set-ups with no punchlines.
— Zach: “The other day, I Googled how many Mexicans live in North Korea. (*pauses a little while*) Google didn’t know.”
— Zach: “Here’s something you’ll never see in braille: If You See Something, Say Something.”
— Hmm, no “Hoobastank is here” callback at the end of this monologue.
STARS: ****½
GAME OF GAME OF THRONES
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau [real] visits game show
— Not sure, but this may be the final instance of Bill playing a game show host during his tenure as a cast member.
— I don’t know why Aidy casually saying “bastard son” in a straitlaced voice tickled me so much just now, given the fact that it wasn’t even intended to be comedic. A testament to how naturally funny Aidy’s delivery is.
— After Zach states the obvious when saying “That’s a Game Of Thrones joke!” and Bill responds in an over-the-top mock-surprised manner, “It is?!?!?”, I love Bill immediately following that by making an eye-rolling-type face. It’s little touches like that that I’m going to miss about Bill’s game show host characterizations.
— Very funny subversion with the question Zach’s Game Of Thrones nerd character is asked turning out to be a non-Game Of Thrones real-world geography question, which naturally leaves him stumped.
— Another funny subversion, with Zach going out of his way to pick a definite Game Of Thrones-themed question, and the question initially starts out GOT-themed, only to suddenly turn into another non-GOT real-world question.
— Some laughs from the speed round.
— Ehh, the part with Zach glowingly making homoerotic comments to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau feels too typical and unnecessary.
— I got a good laugh from how, when asked to identify a photo of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Zach answers, “I don’t know, some old pilgrim?”
STARS: ***½
MATCH.COM
horny Martha Stewart (KAM) is amongst those looking for love on match.com
— Feels kinda odd seeing Kate playing Martha Stewart. Also, it goes without saying that, by nature, any non-Ana Gasteyer SNL impersonator of Martha Stewart pales in comparison to Ana.
— Blah, I’m not caring for how this is going the cliched route of “Martha Stewart says dirty things in a stiff, straitlaced manner”. Tired humor.
— I love how Taran, in between acting very casual towards Kate’s Martha Stewart, excitedly mouths “Martha Stewart!” into the camera. That’s exactly the type of little thing Taran’s always so good at getting laughs out of.
STARS: **
JENNIFER ANISTON LOOK-ALIKE COMPETITION
(Bradley Cooper), (Ed Helms) & others look more like Jennifer Aniston than (host)
— A good cheap laugh from Zach making his entrance looking like that.
— Zach, after receiving an offended reaction to his harsh comment about Helen Keller’s blindness: “Oh, shut up! She knew what she was doing! She was milking it!”
— Zach sure is stumbly with his lines throughout this sketch. He was a little stumbly in his appearances earlier tonight, too.
— I love the deep voice Bobby’s doing.
— I didn’t know Kenan still dressed in drag at this point of his SNL tenure, just a few months before he would publicly announce that summer that he was taking a stand against continuing to play black women on SNL. (Though in this Aniston Look-Alike sketch, Kenan’s technically playing a man dressed like Whoopi Goldberg.) Assuming he doesn’t dress in drag in the remaining two episodes of this season, I guess this sketch can be pinpointed as containing Kenan’s final drag role on SNL.
— Zach’s angry ranting throughout this sketch has me in absolute stitches, even with his constant line flubs.
— Hmm, has Jason’s microphone suddenly stopped working?
— Ah, we get our very first display of Vanessa’s spot-on and memorable Jennifer Aniston impression, which Vanessa would get good mileage out of on Weekend Update in her later seasons.
— Alongside Vanessa in this sketch, we also get good Aniston impressions from Nasim and Taran, the latter’s impression being especially funny.
— Oh, geez. Even in a mere cameo, Ed Helms is making a PAINFULLY long, awkward pause before delivering his line, which was something he occasionally did in the episode he hosted two seasons prior.
— Hilarious how the alleged Friends theme song that the Hangover guys sing together is actually “That’s What Friends Are For”.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Little Talks”
WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) analyzes the defeat of background checks for guns
tech correspondent’s (FRA) struggles belie unobtrusivity of Google Glass
The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party is haughty & dippy
— This ends up being the final appearance of Bill’s always-fun James Carville impression.
— I love the ghost-walking-through-Obama sound effect (“Waauuuw”) that Bill’s Carville is doing.
— A hilarious harsh comment Bill’s Carville lightheartedly makes about his mother dying “peacefully” by falling into the propeller on a fan boat.
— Bill’s Carville is a freakin’ riot in his interactions with his mother’s ghost. Bill’s having so much fun here.
— Feels like Seth is doing an unusually low number of jokes between each guest commentary tonight, but I guess I can’t say that’s a bad thing, given how burned-out I’ve recently become on the solo Seth era of Update. Having to review SO MANY consecutive seasons of Blandy McBlanderson, a.k.a. Seth Meyers, solo at the Update desk has taken its toll on me lately. I’m craving a positive change at the Update desk, and the changes we get at the desk in the upcoming season 39 sure as hell ain’t it. Season 40 of Weekend Update cannot come soon enough for me.
— Interesting and rare seeing Fred do an Update commentary as a normal, one-off character in this late stage of his SNL tenure.
— Fred’s actually doing a good job here, making this the second consecutive episode in which he turns in a surprisingly solid performance during these way-past-his-prime years of his SNL tenure. Good to see him showing signs of new life in the homestretch of his SNL tenure.
— The Girl You Wish etc.: “There are 90-year-olds dying every single day. It’s like – oh, thanks, congress.”
— The Girl You Wish etc., to Seth: “For all intents and porpoises, you’re a facade.”
— I just realized this ends up being the last Update commentary this character of Cecily’s does before we get a year-long break from her, due to Cecily’s stint as an Update co-anchor.
STARS: **½
M&M STORE
at M&M’s World, racist greeter (host) apologizes to fellow employees
— A big laugh from Zach’s “How” bit towards Nasim’s Indian character.
— Zach, in how grossed-out he is by the thought of what his two allegedly-gay co-workers do together: “And I know I made that abundantly clear, often through song…”
— After Zach asks his co-workers to bury the hatchet, I laughed so much at him telling Nasim’s Indian character, “No offense.”
— The fact that this whole situation is happening in an M&M store, of all settings, is somehow making this even funnier.
— This sketch is such a riot that even Zach’s black-people-talking-in-a-movie-theater joke (making this the second consecutive episode with a joke about that, by the way) came off hilarious instead of hacky.
— Zach’s “Swing low…” bit towards Kenan had me howling.
STARS: ****½
DARRELL’S HOUSE
Darrell Sparks (host) plans to fix his cable access TV show in post
— I absolutely love the odd, low-budget opening title sequence and theme song, featuring a graphic of Zach’s head bouncing around the screen.
— A priceless sudden escalation to this sketch, with Zach’s heated exchange with Vanessa.
— A very fascinating and unique structure to this sketch, with Zach constantly stopping what he’s doing to give elaborate directions on what edits he wants made in post. It’s even more fascinating and unique in hindsight when you’re aware of what it’s going to lead to later in this episode.
— Kenan’s delivery of “I’m not Jon Hamm” while slyly smirking is great.
— So many things about this sketch are, on top of being fascinating, amusing the hell out of me. This is such a strong piece.
— Another great line delivery from Kenan, with his “I bet it’ll be me” when Zach tells him “You’re not going to be on, Jon Hamm’s gonna be on.”
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mountain Sound”
MICHAEL JORDAN’S WEDDING
Charles Barkley (KET) & others toast Michael Jordan at his lavish wedding
— I like Kenan-as-Charles-Barkley’s comment about Michael Jordan’s infamous Hitler-esque mustache in that Hanes commercial.
— Funny visual of Zach and Jason returning with cocaine under their noses.
— Blah, a display of Fred playing a very typical foreigner role, which he’s done to death and beyond over the years.
— Zach and Jason’s cocaine-induced hyper behavior in their third scene is cracking me up.
— Jay is absolutely HILARIOUS as Dikembe Mutombo.
— Jay as Dikembe Mutombo: “You know what my wife gave me for our wedding? MALARIA.”
— Jay’s whole “taunting God” spiel in that accented, gravely voice is pure comedy gold.
STARS: ***½
NEW BALANCE
New Balance is the running shoe for out-of-shape guys who stand around
— Meh, lots of generic, forgettable humor here.
— I did get a pretty good laugh from Zach casually grabbing half of a passerby’s pretzel.
STARS: **
DARRELL’S HOUSE: THE FINAL CUT
clumsily-edited finished product features Jon Hamm [real]
— Oh, this is absolutely BRILLIANT, showing us the finished product of all the edits Zach’s character called for in the Darrell’s House sketch from earlier tonight. I always like the idea of waiting until later in the show to give us a delayed punchline to a certain sketch, much like what we got with the Z Shirts thing from earlier this season. What’s even more impressive and amazing about this second Darrell’s House piece is that SNL made this edited version on the fly after the first Darrell’s House sketch ended. HUGE props to SNL for pulling that off.
— I love how the voice of the edited-out-of-this-final-cut Vanessa is sloppily left in for a nanosecond.
— Even the little detail of loud, muffled, off-camera sounds in the badly spliced-in close-up of the now-filled snack tray is a very funny comedic touch.
— A huge laugh from the jarring dubbing-in of Zach saying “AL….JOL-SON.” in a monotone, robotic-sounding voice. Not to mention how inherently hilarious it is that Al Jolson is the only singer this Darrell’s House show could get cleared.
— Hilarious visual of Jon Hamm being very poorly edited into the same shots as Zach via a split-screen effect, including, at one point, a blink-and-miss-it full shot of Kenan as Jon’s placeholder flashing on screen for a quick second.
— Overall, simply excellent. Bravo.
STARS: *****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A really solid episode with some VERY strong highs, including an all-timer with the Darrell’s House pieces. As usual whenever he hosts, Zach Galifianakis added to the episode’s strength. A damn shame he has yet to continue hosting any further after this episode, but if he had to stop hosting, at least this episode was a great way for him to go out.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Darrell’s House / Darrell’s House: The Final Cut (tie)
Monologue
M&M Store
Jennifer Aniston Look-Alike Competition
Fox & Friends
Michael Jordan’s Wedding
Game Of Game Of Thrones
Weekend Update
New Balance
Match.com
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Vince Vaughn)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Kristen Wiig
Darrell’s House might be my favorite sketch since the 1980s.
Here to add to the Darrell’s House love. The type of sketch that makes this season a personal favorite, and the kind of thing the show desperately needs more of.
“Season 40 of Weekend Update can’t come soon enough.”
From what I remember it takes about a full season for Jost & Che to click. Jost had to graduate beyond Seth Meyers light (which is what I and many others online referred to him as for a while) and of course it took Che a while to get over his greenness (though I wonder if upon rewatch I’ll find he flubs his lines less than I remember).
“From what I remember it takes about a full season for Jost & Che to click.”
I’m aware that’s the consensus, but personally, I was onboard with them after only about a month or so into their first season together. (In fact, I was onboard with Che right from his very first Update, line flubs and all. I remember I immediately saw him as a new-age Norm Macdonald, with a little of Dennis Miller. It was Jost who it took me a month into season 40 to finally come around on, after how much I hated him in season 39 and initially felt at the beginning of season 40 that Che should’ve been doing Update by himself.) Regardless of how long it may or may not have taken Jost and Che to fully click, their first season together is still preferable to sitting through four-and-a-half straight, endless seasons of Blandy McBlanderson (Seth Meyers) solo at the Update desk and SNL’s failed experiments with Update in season 39.
I guess I’m in the minority but I thought Jost improved rather quickly. He was a total bland to start but started to click when he played up his smarmy persona. Funny I don’t like Seth’s smarm but find Colin’s entertaining. Che has that edge that maybe Norm was the last one to have.
I kind of forgot how little Seth did for me as an Update anchor, given that I generally don’t mind his late night show (Closer Look is always solid and the type of thing he should have done more of on Update). 39 is going to be rough though. Even Cecily would tell you she had no place being on Update.
“Blandy McBlanderson”
Oh, Stooge no.
Regarding Jost and Che, their partnership was unexpected and rough in the beginning but its aged better than most other anchors. Their Updates in S45, between impeachment and the covid shutdown feature some of their strongest material and best work.
I suspected Darrell’s House: The Final Cut uses dress rehearsal footage (similar to the ‘Best of the First 20 Minutes of SNL’ ad) but from comparing the two halves that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s super impressive how fast the editors there work.
I guess Zach Galifianakis hasn’t hosted in awhile because he’s kinda disappeared, outside of the Between Two Ferns movie. He can be lumped in with Anne Hathaway and Jon Hamm as hosts from this era who should’ve become five timers but suddenly stopped after three.
Zach created and starred in Baskets, which had three seasons on FX.
thirding the darrell’s house love, which is another one of those moments i’ll always remember watching live. vividly recall going from “wait, is this a runner?” to literally yelling within the first shot or two, once it became clear what this was going to be. just a totally ambitious, perfectly executed classic of a sketch.
has there ever been a bad “callback to earlier in the show” sketch? i haven’t given it that much thought, but the only ones i can remember recently are darrell’s house, z-shirts, and the closet organizer, all of which i adore.
pretty great episode all around and the last one of a pretty great season. the GOT game show and the aniston contest are so much goofy fun and endlessly quotable (“let’s go with geo-graphy”; “she’s not even wearing a friends t-shirt!”), even if zach is kind of playing the same character in both aniston and the m&m employee sketches.
Does anyone know who wrote Darrell’s house? Feel like they deserve some credit.
Its not the same thing as you were saying but the show’s definitely had bad runners before, like the Brad Pitt commercials from the Bruno Mars episode, which got worse and worse as they went on
Or the “Miles Away from Sober” ads in Season 27.
DRESS CUTS
Kanish
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/dress-rehearsal-kanish/n36361
Condolences
~ Hosted by Dr. Frederick Benjamin (Kenan) & Kyle (Zach), whose turtleneck’s up to his forehead. Dr. Fred tells him to pull it down to see the guests. “Kyle’s not good at talkin’, but he’ll do his best.” Dr. takes recent widow Henrietta Marcus (Nasim)’s hand: “Your husband may be dead, but you’re still right and tight.” Kyle crashes cymbals: “Did you see his dead body?” Henrietta speechless. Kyle would move a dead body like a puppet on strings. Dr. offers Henrietta a “free putting lesson”: an excuse to spoon standing up. Kyle: “What did your husband smell like?” Henrietta leaves. Dr. speaks calmly to the next widow (Vanessa), but Kyle interrupts: “If you don’t seal the coffin properly, the bacteria makes the body explode!” Dr. silences Kyle and asks Vanessa to “look into my eyes, girl.” Kyle asks her to look into his closed eyes: “Is this what your dead husband looked like, but without my mouth moving?” Dr. tells Kyle he needs to see a doctor. Kyle: “My doctor said I am the strongest non-animal masturbator he’s ever seen!” Vanessa leaves. The show ends, so the two set up for NBC Nightly News. Dr. Frederick assumes the role of stage manager, and talks to Brian Williams (Taran) about the HBO show “Girls”. Kyle puts make-up on Brian in patchy, uneven spots. Williams: “It’s news time, baby.”
Vrest (Glice II)
~ Mr. & Mrs. Tabbs (Sudeikis & Vanessa) finish hosting a tuna noodle casserole dinner for Mr.’s top employee (Bobby). Eddie (Taran) & his friend Beau (Zach in wool beanie & “Trump For President” t’shirt {2 years before it wasn’t a joke}) loudly interrupt and introduce themselves. Bobby says to Eddie that his father is the “vrest”. After Eddie & Beau laugh, Bobby claims he meant to say “very best”. Eddie & Beau continue to use the word “vrest” to mock Bobby. (“How are your in-vrest-ments?”) Beau pelts Bobby with cheeseballs. Mom & Dad reveal Bobby is soon getting married. Bobby tries to lighten the mood by poking fun at himself. (“I haven’t decided on a ‘vrest’ man yet!”) Eddie & Beau angrily shout “it doesn’t work when you do it! You’re the idiot who said it in the first place!” Beau spits more cheeseballs onto Bobby. Dad gets fed up and yells at Eddie. Eddie breaks down and is just glad that his father is paying attention to him; it’s all he ever wanted. Dad softens up, but Eddie laughs at him: “I’m just messing with you!”
Girlfriends Talk Show
~ Kyra is annoyed with Morgan for crying on air last show. Morgan is disappointed that none of her invitees ever show up, which is why Kyra always picks the guests. Morgan picks “teachers and pastors, not flashy girls with a bad attitude.” Morgan’s favorite uncle Jack (Zach) has agreed to be the guest. Jack speaks with a voicebox microphone and works at the Panda Express in the upscale mall. First topic will be “turtles & frogs” according to Morgan, “bikini weather” according to Jack. Morgan talks about going to a singing camp that Jewel almost went to. Kyra doesn’t believe Morgan can sing, so Morgan sings a song about something I don’t remember. Jack asks who wrote the song. (Zach screwed up here. Cecily was supposed to ask that {since Uncle Jack co-wrote it}. Zach says the line; pause; Cecily says the line; Zach: “I want to know, too.” All three crack up.) Morgan reveals she co-wrote the song with Jack. Jack sings a song about Panda Express, with lyrics rejected by the chain for being too weird
and Verismo again
TIDBITS
dress crowd too low-key to start off monologue. At piano, Zach grew impatient with this: “It’s only dress rehearsal! Nothing matters! Loosen the FUCK UP!” And they did. ** “tofu charades” bit was in, but not “deaf charades” follow-up; also no “JFK/ LGA/ Newark airports” line ** Original Ending: after the cellphone bit, Zach says he likes to put Altoids up his butthole. He doesn’t like the way that sounds, so he brings in a gospel choir of robed persons to repeatedly sing “He puts Altoids in his butthole!” as he throws to commercial ** sadly, no Hoobastank reference in dress, either…
GoGoT: Zach yelled the gameshow title at the end when no audio played of the audience shouting
Racist M&M leaves with the only employee who still likes him, eskimo Timtuk (played by an older gentleman I didn’t recognize)
Aniston Look-alike: Zach called the judges “a bunch of fat pussies” ** Zach chastised Taran & Nasim for not wearing t’shirts –with an apostrophe, not a hyphen (“tuh’shirts”– kinda said in the same way as “charades/ shaRODS”) ** Ed Helms wasn’t so awkward in dress
2nd song followed Vrest; Zach spit out another cheeseball before introducing
Martha Stewart tells her date that she has a taupe genitalia
Darrell’s House played out the same in both dress and air, but much less time to edit during the live show
Update: Seth gave his Cookie Monster impression a “B-” ** Fred’s wi-fi password was “wireless”, not “peacock”
no live roles for Kate at dress, only appearing in the Martha pre-tape. While not uncommon for a someone to get shut out of the live show, usually everybody has SOME stage work to do in dress. She was present during the goodnights for both dress and air. She’ll get copious airtime for the next 8 years
DRESS RUNDOWN
Fox & Friends
monologue
Game Of Game Of Thrones
wedding jugglers
NEW BALANCE
racist M&M
Of Monsters And Men #1
Update
Carville
Randall Meeks
Girl At A Party
Aniston Look-alike
VERISMO (R) (CUT)
Darrell’s House
Vrest (CUT)
Of Monsters And Men #2
KaniSH (CUT)
MATCH.COM
Girlfriends Talk Show (CUT)
Condolences (CUT)
DARRELL’S HOUSE EDIT
goodnights
Another couple of 2-part call back sketches that killed, both from season 12:
– Steve Guttenberg (12/13/1986): Jan Hook’s Marge Keister returns from “Movie Talk” and interrupts Steve before he intro-s The Pretenders again.
– Valerie Bertinelli (2/28/1987): Nora Dunn as spokesperson for “Washington Center Cosmetic Surgery”, then “Washington Center Attorneys”.
“…and who the hell is Ross !?!”
Sorry… Darrell’s House looked like crap. No love there. None of the sketches from this show were any funny. Again, sorry.
No love from SNLLOver??? Well I never! Good god man, are you about to have an aneurysm again?
Who are you sorry to?
For someone who claims to “Love” SNL, you sure LOVE to bash everything. Pretty much have no sense of humor.
SNL Lover, What do you want ? They had A Game Show, TV Show, M&M’s and other Various Sketches ! ! Did you think All Zach did was to Insult People in Every Sketch ? Was That The Problem ?
…Jody maybe check out the “comments on this site” post. You’re actually mentioned in it quite a bit.
That’s Lenny Pickett performing the Darrell’s House theme BTW.
Jennifer Aniston Look Alike is one of my favorites. Its VERY easy, audience pleasing humor, but damn if every last joke doesn’t land. I particularly love Zach referring to Whoopi Goldberg as Whoopi Goldstein, him thinking Aniston would wear a Friends shirt because “she got it for free from work” and my personal favorite, “who the hell is Ross?!”
Also I have to say, even though Bayer’s is obviously the most famous, I think I prefer Nasim and Taran’s Anistons. Taran especially is DEAD ON.
Stooge, I don’t want you mad at me, but this is just my opinion . Fred is nearly gone and you really liked him when he was in that musical group where he liked Margaret Thatcher ! Fred is playing Michael Bloomberg so I think you could perhaps not say anything ! AT least, Fred is not playing Obama which is who I guess was on those Other Fox And Friends The Last Three Times !
I’ve been looking for that Al Jolson song that’s playing since 2014…
Can anyone please help me?
It’s “I Gave Her That,” released just 94 years before this episode.