Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CBC NEWS TORONTO
trainwreck Rob Ford (BOM) finds a media friend in credulous 60 Minutes
— Seeing Taran do a Canadian accent here reminds me that he’s married to a Canadian in real life (Cobie Smulders).
— Hilarious look of Bobby’s Rob Ford, though I can’t help but remember how people back at this time wished Chris Farley was still alive, as they felt he would’ve been perfect for playing Rob Ford.
— Very funny scene with Bobby’s Ford making a crack deal under the podium in front of an entire audience.
— Bobby’s Ford continues to be a riot in this cold opening.
— I think I recall once hearing Bobby actually injured his hand badly when filming the pre-taped scene of him doing a pratfall over the podium.
— Pretty funny 60 Minutes twist.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host proudly panders to audience while performing “Applause”
— At least it makes sense to do a musical monologue here, even if I still don’t like this monologue trope.
— A nicely-done and professional-looking musical monologue, at least.
— The subplot of this monologue with Lada Gaga trying to garner cheap applause by saying audience-pandering statements reminds me a lot of Chevy Chase’s season 3 monologue and Karen Black’s season 6 monologue.
— Good appearance from Bobby.
STARS: **½
PAXIL: SECOND TERM STRENGTH
Barack Obama (JAP) needs second-term-strength Paxil to combat depression
— A clever way to spoof the rough time President Obama’s been having in his presidency around this time.
— Funny disclaimer about this medication not being covered by Obamacare.
STARS: ***½
WAKING UP WITH KIMYE
Kanye West (JAP) & Kim Kardashian (NAP) boast
— Third consecutive episode with Nasim having a starring or co-starring role in the lead-off sketch.
— Pretty funny part with the Kardashian family band.
— Jay’s carrying this sketch well in his Kanye portrayal, with good assistance from Nasim as Kim.
— If you’re familiar with my reviews, you’ll know my aversion to the overused SNL trope of celebrity-hosted talk show sketches, but so far, this sketch isn’t bad, and it’s much better than the last new celebrity-hosted talk show sketch the show did prior to this (the Lady Gaga Talk Show sketch from the Bruce Willis episode).
— Blah, I could’ve done without the very blatant, corny, and overlong “wink-wink”-style stare Gaga gave the camera after her self-deprecating comment about how people shouldn’t try too hard with their outfits.
STARS: ***
WHAAAT? THE WORST COVER SONGS OF ALL TIME
Adam Duritz (TAK) presents a CD of the worst cover songs ever
— An okay excuse for a parade of singer impressions.
— A very funny Britney Spears impression from Noel.
— I love the ending of Kenan-as-Rick-Ross’ “Cups” scene.
— Hilarious bit with Aidy’s Adele “covering” the L.A. Law theme song.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & R. Kelly [real] perform “Do What U Want”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Thanksgiving defender Mr. Senior (KET) disrupts early Christmas activity
catty speech critic Jebidiah Atkinson (TAK) takes on famous orations
— Cecily’s second Rob Ford joke is one of those cases where the set-up (in this case, quoting Ford’s statement about having “plenty to eat at home” regarding women he gives oral sex to) is much funnier than the actual punchline.
— I love the idea of Kenan’s commentary having a big pre-tape with him outdoors.
— An amusing dumb conceit to the Kenan pre-tape, and he’s selling this dumb material pretty well.
— I don’t know if it’s just me, if she’s just having a more “on” night than usual, or if she’s legitimately improving, but Cecily’s Update delivery is coming off better than usual to me tonight.
— Ah, the debut of Taran’s Jebidiah Atkinson, a character I remember absolutely loving when this SNL era originally aired.
— So far, Taran’s characterization is fantastic here, and his insults are priceless.
— One very minor complaint about the Atkinson commentary, a complaint that has nothing to do with Taran himself: shut up that annoying off-camera guffawing, Seth.
— A priceless unscripted bit with Taran misreading his slam about FDR’s Pearl Harbor speech, prompting some excellent ad-libs from Taran.
STARS: ***
CO-OP BOARD
weirdos on NYC co-op board interview prospective residents (BEB) & (VAB)
— A good odd and inappropriate bit with Aidy and Kyle regarding lovemaking sounds.
— Some more funny oddball, disturbing characters throughout this sketch.
— Gaga’s doing a decent job disappearing into character in her imitation of Marisa Tomei’s My Cousin Vinny character.
STARS: ***½
SPOTLIGHTZ!
Laura Parsons & hammy kids do serious scenes at acting camp
— The return of Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character, who last appeared all the way back in one of Vanessa’s earliest episodes of SNL.
— Kyle is cracking me up a lot in his appearance.
— A funny “exploring the space” bit with Taran and Noel.
— Lots of good “hammy child actor” performances from all of the cast members and Gaga.
STARS: ***½
BLOCKBUSTER
now-jobless Blockbuster Video workers (MOB), (TAK), (BOM) seek a new home
— Not even sure if it’s intended to be funny, but Beck’s wig is something that I find to be a funny little detail of his character.
— So far, I’m loving the tone of and approach to this film. Very good work here, and lots of nice visuals.
— Great scene with Bobby giving his beloved Croods cardboard cutout a Viking funeral.
— Fun scene with the main characters discovering a hidden Blockbuster paradise in the woods.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Gypsy”
4TH GRADE TALENT SHOW
at a talent show, parents (JOM) & (host) act out their kid’s routine
— John Milhiser finally getting his first (and what sadly ends up being his ONLY) lead SNL role that visibly features him front-and-center.
— A very funny escalation to John and Gaga’s dancing routine.
— This is a great use of John’s knack for physical comedy that I mentioned in an earlier review this season.
— A good laugh from the reveal of John in a bra after Gaga reveals her own.
— Great ending to the dance sequence.
— An overall simple, fun, short, and solid sketch. How this didn’t lead to John getting more and more big roles on SNL, I’ll never know. Dude had potential, and, from what I’ve little I’ve seen of him on and off SNL (including a cut-after-dress sketch starring him and Charlize Theron that would be put online), he seems like such a likable and fun performer. And his specialty in physical humor could’ve given him an identity in this cast, even if there are other male members of this cast who are good at physical humor as well (e.g. Taran).
STARS: ****
FUTURE GAGA
in 2063, forgotten host tries to impress her building’s super (KET)
— I always like when SNL does futuristic sketches with the host playing themselves as an elderly person.
— Good part with Kenan thinking Future Gaga’s singing of Bad Romance is her having a stroke.
— Kenan’s line about only knowing “Born This Way” as a jingle for laser toilet cleaners is an accurate dig at how some hit songs from decades prior are only known to some young people as altered commercial jingles.
— Pretty sweet ending.
STARS: ***
ROSÉ ZONE
the Rosé Zone delivers concentrated reality show trash to female viewers
— A funny affable, non-sassy delivery from Vanessa of lines like “Bitches be crazy.”
— A fairly funny idea of a Red Zone-esque network for only the exciting, trashy moments of reality shows, and Cecily, Vanessa, and Aidy are helping this with good performances. This commercial probably resonates more with people who actually watch these reality shows, but I’m still finding this to be okay.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good, though somewhat unmemorable, episode. Aside from the monologue (and even that wasn’t too bad), I liked every single segment in this episode. It feels like there was barely anything that stood out as strong, but looking back at my review, there was a decent number of strong pieces.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Blockbuster / 4th Grade Talent Show (tie)
CBC News Toronto
Paxil: Second Term Strength
Spotlightz!
WHAAAT? The Worst Cover Songs Of All Time
Co-Op Board
Waking Up With Kimye
Future Gaga
Rosé Zone
Weekend Update
Monologue
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kerry Washington)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Josh Hutcherson
Gaga was a good host. I always liked that Future Gaga sketch. It was different.
One of those shows that I seem to like more than most people, and I’m not even a Gaga fan. I just thought she came off like a truly impressive host, and that future sketch towards the end would have been a great end to the show had they not squeezed the ad in after it. I just remember absolutely loving this one at the time it aired, even as most people chalked it up to this season’s general mediocrity. Still kinda do. Gaga should have hosted again, there I said it.
Yeah, we oddly just got a trio of one time hosts who 100% deserved to come back again. Even tomorrow’s episode I remember being above average for this season, even if I can’t remember being all that impressed by Hutcherson himself.
Lady Gaga was a great host, and she brought some life to some sketches that probably wouldn’t have been as good without her (Child Actors, Co-Op Board). Agreed about Milhiser, he brought a unique flavor to the show, even if some argued he was just a less funny hybrid of Taran and Kyle (which I disagree with).
One question I’ve always had for you, Stooge, is why don’t you give separate ratings for Weekend Update guests. It would probably contribute to a better overall ranking once the railings are averaged out, instead of being just a unavoidable 2.5 star sketch every episode.
“One question I’ve always had for you, Stooge, is why don’t you give separate ratings for Weekend Update guests. It would probably contribute to a better overall ranking once the railings are averaged out, instead of being just a unavoidable 2.5 star sketch every episode.”
I’ve never seen any SNL reviewer rate Update that way, and, although I myself once considered doing it, I ended up deciding against it because I don’t really have any interest in it. It’s a very good suggestion, Mickey, but to be honest, I don’t feel like changing my rating system after 39 seasons. Besides, the overall rating I give every Update is basically me averaging out in my head how I felt about the Update as a whole, though I always let the Update jokes and Update anchor(s)’s performance be the main factor in what the overall Update rating averages out to, because the Update anchors and their jokes are typically the main focus of Update. Since I don’t care much for this season of Update in terms of jokes or anchors, that’s why a majority of this season’s Updates so far have rarely got anything higher than a 2.5 rating (this episode’s Update got a 3). I don’t feel it would be right for me to give a specific Update a really high rating just because, say, Stefon or Jebidiah Atkinson killed that night, when I didn’t care much for that night’s actual Update jokes. (I made a special exception for the Update with the big Stefon’s Farewell segment.)
I really thought John would get more roles after this episode. He was really good in that Talent Show sketch.
I still remember the Blockbuster bit, especially with the Best Buy shout out included.
Gaga was a good host and like some of the ones before her in S39 (except for Willis), she should have been brought back to do double duty again.
Unfortunately, the duet with R. Kelly has aged well and Gaga would eventually remove the version featuring him. A planned music video was filmed but never released.
Was there a planned bit in dress rehearsal with Vanessa’s Gaga interacting with the real Gaga?
I meant has not aged well. Sorry for the typo.
I liked this one a lot. The Blockbuster film was really funny and had an interesting vibe.
Regarding John Milhiser: It seems like ever since Kattan and Molly left, SNL hasn’t really been that big into physical comedy. Jon Rudnitsky is another one season wonder who’s very physical but didn’t showcase it much on the show.
“One very minor complaint about the Atkinson commentary, a complaint that has nothing to do with Taran himself: shut up that annoying off-camera guffawing, Seth.”
I’m glad Michael Che and Colin Jost moved away from this. They laugh at eachother’s jokes, but they keep quiet during the correspondents.
I remember Seth’s off-camera giggling getting really annoying in his later seasons, something about it felt so forced like he was trying to convince the audience how hilarious it was or something to get them to laugh more.
I wondered if John Milhiser (believe he was the first out gay male cast member since Terry Sweeney) worried about being typecast as “the gay guy” in the cast and didn’t want that to become his identity on the show, and knowing how a lot of the SNL writers like to keep people in boxes that could’ve hurt him if he made it known he didn’t want to just play stereotypes all the time. I do recall thinking he was really funny in that cut Louis CK “alien who likes posters of hunky earth men” sketch, which was probably the closest I can remember to him went played it up to Terry Sweeney levels of camp. Now that you mention it, I did like that “Viper” sketch he did a lot, forgot all about that, too bad that never made it to air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NNHow_iK64
Found the aforementioned alien sketch, NBC took it down but found a bootleged version not yet taken down.
Obviously Farley would have been PERFECT as Ford, but Bobby is also a perfect fit. His delivery really reminded me of Farley at times in this sketch, especially when he said “alchy-hol” Sad that today they’d probably bring in James Corden or Jim Belushi or someone instead of a cast member, though that’s also partially because they are no plus sized male cast members on the show right now (even Kenan’s slimmed down significantly).
Honestly would give this Update 4 stars, critical as I am of this season’s Update. Kenan was absolutely hysterical in his piece, and of course Jebidiah is legendary and possibly the best Update character since Stefon.
I weirdly remembered Blockbuster as a Good Neighbor piece, but seeing it now it pretty clearly feels like a Mike piece. I already remembered liking it a lot, but man I really loved it this time around. Easily one of my favorite sketches so far this season.
A better episode than I remember. I nearly forgot about that Fourth Grade sketch with Steph* and John; that put a nice button on the first half of his sole year on SNL, but he languished the rest of the season. I follow him on Twitter; it’s too bad his post-SNL career so far hasn’t been remarkable, either.
You’re right, there wasn’t a bad sketch all night. It was apparent the moment the Rob Ford crack tape came out that Bobby would play him. I tried not to get caught up in the wistfulness of wishing Farley had played Ford, but Bobby was very good. At least they didn’t drag Horatio out of the mothballs.
*Lady Gaga’s real name. Just roll with my weird flexes.
Did Seth just not show up for rehearsals? He giggles like he wants us to believe he’s hearing the commentaries for the first time.
That’s the same thing that Jost and Che, laughing at each other’s jokes, when it’s obvious that they have heard the jokes at least several times before. It’s beyond annoying, much more annoying than I ever found Seth to be.
It bothers me less with Jost and Che because, while they can come across as smug or rehearsed, I think they play off each other better. Hearing Seth tee hee for 5 minutes at Garth and Kat ends up feeling like an event that viewers were not invited to. They also do a better job (even if I don’t care for some of the segments) at having Jost interact with the correspondents who tease him or spray water on him, because he’s basically made a part of the bit, whereas with Seth, they would too often rely on Seth being “shocked” or “surprised” at seeing the same bit (500 different times.
One of my favorite things with Jost is how easily he gets embarrassed, and how often the other cast members will play off of this (Kate as Dr Wenowdis complimenting him, or Leslie doing her whole thing, and even Pete talking about how differently each of them are received in Staten Island).
True. To be fair to Seth there are times this also works for him (I love the “lucky lady” Update where Stefon/Bill tease him to the point where he is just about blushing). It’s more when we have stuff like Garth and Kat, or odd moments like that Update where Seth and Bill giggle all the way through (the Valentine’s Day Spitzer piece), that it comes across as something that was best left to a dress rehearsal.
Stefon was by far Seth’s best Update performance, since it actually gave him a role to play. He also worked well with Amy, but that was more due to their natural chemistry than anything else.
Jost’s smug smart ass persona and Che’s free thinking Centrist persona may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but at least they’re, you know, PERSONAS, whereas Seth just came out and basically said “please like me” for 6 years.
I guess it’s just a matter of personal likes and dislikes. Seth never bothered me at all, but the phoniness of Jost especially is one of the most grating things I’ve experienced in 45 years of watching SNL.
@Anthony Peter Coleman, I wouldn’t say it was that extreme, but I feel like when he started out with Amy, he kinda leaned into more of a “smug” persona, but then once he was on his own, he kinda dropped it, which I feel like mainly has to do with him originally having someone to play off of (like how Amy was more cutesy, which I feel came from wanting contrast, like a yin yang sorta thing) but then he didn’t have much of a singular voice, making him come off bland and boring, because he tried to be closer to himself, but it’s not just written by him, so without that persona it became hard to find that voice.
Sorry if that’s kinda rambly, I’m not great at these kinda things.
As someone who still mourns the death of video stores (streamings more convenient and all, but I just miss that video store experience!) I really enjoyed that Blockbuster short.
Poor John. They did a backstage video/favorite moments with him and Noel over the summer. The timing couldn’t have been worse as I recall the next day news of their firings broke. The cut sketch from the Theron episode would have *possibly* got him a chance at a second year. It’s amazing to watch how fast they lost faith in most of the new cast members.
This Laura Parsons sketch draws a red circle around why these don’t quite work for me – Vanessa, incredibly talented as she is, is just too obviously “playing” bad acting. The reason Parsons works better on Update for me is because it’s not as much about just watching her “act” and is instead about watching Che react to how fame-hungry and sadly naive she is…like the old Our Gang short films where the kids would meet jaded child actors. Gaga is a bit better, but it’s really Taran, Noel, and especially Kyle who shine here.
Lady Gaga was crashing into a career wall around this point, which adds an underlying layer of desperation and sadness to her mostly fine, if Timberlake-esque, uber-aware, theater kid performances in this episode. The nadir on that front is easily her incredibly degrading performance with R Kelly, which has since been memory holed, and is something no one should have allowed even in 2013. The only good thing I have to say about any of that mess is it is nice Bobby got to intro both songs.
The future sketch feels like an attempt at meta commentary on her hitting career lows, but it’s just a little bit too long and a little bit too self-pitying. Thank goodness she had a comeback several years later (ironically enough, even filming on the SNL stage as part of that comeback) because this would be just about impossible to watch otherwise. The best part of this for me is some of Kenan’s fun lines (I love the bit where, after he says he likes rock like “One Direction,” he adds, “The Smiths – Willow and Jaden”). Is it me or does she look a lot like Joan Rivers did in her future sketch in 1983? A bit eerie considering Joan wouldn’t be around much longer.
The parents sketch has a weak ending – there was no need for Aidy to tell us the child fled the stage or to go back to another shot of the parents dancing; it is one of many examples of modern SNL ruining the magic by overwriting. Otherwise, it’s a fun sketch, with lots of energy and physicality from both John and Gaga. I have to wonder if Gaga being in this just made many completely ignore her male scene partner, even though John is very good here.
That’s a microcosm for John’s problem this season – he’s good, he’s fine, but someone else was always going to overshadow him because others did physical work (Taran, Beck) and others were better at playing the juvenile roles that on paper he might have fit (Kyle) and others were able to play goofy comedy (Bobby). This likely also hurt Mike and Brooks. John also has to deal with the show probably not knowing quite what to do with an openly gay actor (especially since the days of Terry Sweeney’s drag revues were long past) – although I guess it wasn’t exactly known to viewers, considering poor John had to tweet in response to an article a few years after this claiming Terry had been the last openly gay man who was in the cast. Anyway, it’s not until Bowen that a gay male cast member manages to navigate the Anderlette waves that put such a high degree of camp on the air, and also utilize their own voice. I’m guessing this cut for time sketch is Anderlette, and John, playing a stereotype, seems a bit ill at ease.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YuanGU018U
As others have said, if John had managed to last just one more season, when Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider started to get more of a bloc and the theater kid aspect took over more (can’t you see John killing in those ‘high school theater club’ sketches?), he would have had a very different and likely much more successful run. As is often the case with SNL, it’s about timing and fate and is out of the hands of many of the one-season (or even two or three) season-wonders,
Chris Farley didn’t really need to play Rob Ford in a sketch.
He WAS Rob Ford in real life.
Yeah, I really don’t remember John being out *at all* this season. And as a gay kid, I looked, since I could tell.
*Groans* Christ on a cracker I just DESPISE the “winky look to the camera” trope. Especially for someone as overwhelmingly famous and well-documented as Gaga.
There is no one on those planet who didn’t get that “meat dress” reference. Hell, most of us knew going into the episode that she would go self-deprecating about that. Blinking at the camera for 10 seconds is just begging for attention.
If any future host wants to know how to subtly introduce themselves into a joke, they should go watch NPH’s monologue and find the tiny “I’ve always been gay” gag he slips in. You could tell it was a small addition, but it was clever and slayed the crowd.