Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ELLEN
Barkhad Abdi (JAP) is pranked & Johnny Weir (host) is dapper
— I like Kate’s Ellen confessing that, in regards to always forcing herself to dance for the audience’s entertainment, “Wish I hadn’t danced in my first episode. Wish I just sat the heck down and had a smoothie.”
— Nasim in her ONLY appearance all night, and it’s not even a role with any lines (even if her silence in this sketch is part of the joke in her and Vanessa’s appearance). As I said in my last episode review, Nasim was busy around this time filming the pilot of John Mulaney’s then-upcoming sitcom, so that may account for her being almost completely non-existent in this episode.
— A very funny creepy turn towards the end of Jay’s scene as Barkhad Abdi.
— Interestingly, this is the fourth cold opening of these past five episodes in which the host actually appears.
— I remember that, when this originally aired, Jim Parsons playing a flamboyant gay role here made me worried that SNL was going to typecast him in that type of role all night, due to Jim’s real-life sexual orientation. Thankfully, my worries turned out to be wrong.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Colin Jost has been added to the cast tonight.
By this point of the season, there are now almost as many featured players as there are repertory players. It feels like the featured player portion of tonight’s opening montage goes on forever.
MONOLOGUE
host & other actors with signature roles sing “I’m Not That Guy”
— Oof, Jim botched that “rebroadcast 18 times a week” joke early on in this monologue, causing it to die with the audience.
— (*groan*) A musical monologue, and not even an interesting premise for one this time. This premise is lame.
— I assume this ends up being the last time Bill Cosby is portrayed in an innocent, lighthearted way on SNL, given what comes out about him later this same calendar year…
— None of the TV character walk-ons are particularly funny.
STARS: *½
PETER PAN
Tinkerbell’s brassy half-sister Tonkerbell (AIB) joins Peter Pan (host)
— Aidy’s performance is good, but I’m not caring AT ALL for this actual character she’s playing, and the writing for her is bad.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½
THE BIRD BIBLE
parents (MOB) & (KAM) endorse avian spin on Christianity
— I love the one son just bluntly saying to his family, “This sucks”, and immediately walking off.
— Great delivery from Mike of the line, “What’s the matter, kiddo? Lose another friend?”
— The idea of this feels rather derivative of the Myowling Bible commercial from season 12 (a commercial for a version of the bible that has photos of cats as biblical characters), but I’m actually finding this Bird Bible commercial to be far superior. The execution of it is solid, there are a lot of funny visuals, and I love the low-key execution of all the absurdity.
— A very funny cold look Mike briefly shoots towards his son after calmly telling him, “Let’s just enjoy it for what it is”, after the son suggests the Three Wise Men should’ve been owls.
STARS: ****
THE KILLER FILES
conspicuous serial killer (host) stalked TV dance shows
— Jim is perfectly cast as a killer, given his naturally creepy look.
— Good detail of Jim’s killer character having three names (Marc Allen Henry), like a lot of famous serial killers.
— A big laugh from Jim’s unsettling description of himself during his intro on Soul Train.
— The phone call transcription part is great.
— Hilarious part with Jim looking straight into the camera, flat-out saying “I’m the Dance Floor Killer!”, then giving a creepy smile.
STARS: ****
OSCAR PROFILES: 12 YEARS A SLAVE
reading for racist roles made 12 Years A Slave auditioners uncomfortable
— I like Brooks’ gravelly-delivered “Nooooo…” when initially giving the script a look-over and seeing all of the horribly racist lines he’s required to deliver.
— Another great line from Brooks: “You guys have any north parts?”
— Hilarious how Vanessa and Cecily are asking Jim to read a racist statement directly into the camera operated by a VERY stern-looking black man.
— The mere look of Bobby’s character is hilarious, especially those sideburns.
— After Bobby’s character’s very convincing racist tirade into the camera that’s operated by the aforementioned stern-looking black man, we get an absolutely priceless reveal that Bobby’s just a janitor and wasn’t even aware they’re filming auditions.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Blue Moon”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) discuss NBA current events
Jebidiah Atkinson pans Best Picture nominees & winners from years past
— Colin Jost has become Cecily’s new Update co-anchor.
— A slightly-revamped version of the Update opening title sequence from earlier this season.
— When Cecily welcomes Colin to Update at the beginning of this, Colin takes the time to sincerely tell us he’s so grateful to be here, and that this is a dream come true for him. I remember the decision to have Colin disclose those things really bugged some online SNL fans at the time, including myself, as we felt it was Colin basically begging us to like him and not dare criticize him. I’m a little less salty towards it now (maybe because I’m aware in hindsight that I would eventually go on to like Colin a lot as an Update anchor starting at some point in the following season), but there’s still something about the “It’s a dream come true for me” disclosure that feels very unnecessary to me.
— Feels odd seeing Cecily tell the first Update joke for once, after she previously was always the second anchorperson to deliver jokes in each of this season’s Updates, presumably due to Seth Meyers’ seniority.
— As expected, it also feels so odd no longer seeing Seth delivering Update jokes, after having gotten so used to him doing that in every single Update for these past eight seasons I’ve covered.
— I don’t like how some of the jokes Cecily and Colin are doing tonight feel like ones Seth would’ve done (e.g. the comical Boston accent Colin used when saying Derek Jeter’s last name during the “First openly gay athlete” joke, and Cecily’s “Yakety Sax chase music” joke, the latter of which Seth actually did do at least twice in the past). A huge sign that Colin’s new presence at the Update desk still isn’t changing the undeniable fact that the style of Update itself is in dire need of a complete overhaul (which we would thankfully get the following season).
— When Kenan and Jay’s Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal make their entrance, the camera accidentally cuts to an odd-looking brief close-up of Cecily shaking her head while looking at Kenan and Jay in amazement with an open-mouthed smile on her face (screencap below).
After this camera gaffe, Kenan seems to be aware something went wrong, as he ad-libs an amused “What just happened???”, and a now-off-camera Cecily is then heard ad-libbing “I was enjoying you!”
— This Barkley/Shaq commentary is so fun that even Jay’s accidental delay in his delivery of a punchline at one point comes off affable and funny instead of hampering the joke.
— Jay’s Shaq childishly imitating Kenan-as-Barkley’s hand movements when Kenan’s Barkley is speaking to Colin reminds me of Alex Moffat’s Eric Trump regularly doing that in the later Update commentaries that he and Mikey Day’s Donald Trump Jr. would do together.
— So far in this first Update of his, Colin is indeed coming off stiff, bland, and Seth Meyers-lite (the latter of which is the last thing Update needs after so many damn endless years of affable blandness from Seth himself), just like all the critics said about him back at this time, but I’m not finding all of these things about Colin to be quite as bad in hindsight (again, probably because I’m now aware of how much I would later like him on Update the following seasons). However, he’s still coming off as a pale shadow of his future, more-developed Update self.
— Jebidiah Atkinson! This character always kills.
— (*groan*) Did Cecily inherit Seth’s annoying habit of loudly laughing off-camera when a guest is doing their commentary?
— A fantastic unscripted bit right now during the Jebidiah Atkinson commentary, in which an index card that Taran throws in the air ends up unexpectedly landing neatly on top of the cards in Taran’s hand (seen in the last in the above group of screencaps for this Update), leading Taran to ad-lib a great “Couldn’t do it again if I tried.”
— Jebidiah Atkinson: “I’d rather let Woody Allen watch my kids than watch this again! (*audience reacts in offended amusement*) So let me get this straight – you all trust him?!?”
— At the end of this inaugural Update they have together, Colin and Cecily do their own version of the traditional Seth/Cecily “fist bump” move by doing a “finger bump”.
STARS: **½
MURDER MYSTERY
murder mystery participant (host) is unhappy with his assigned character
— Funny blooper with Taran’s “Dinner will be sherved…” line flub, resulting in a taken-aback smirk from him as he tries his best to stifle his laughter. The fact that Taran doesn’t usually break often makes his flub here come off likable, as does something about the fact that he just played the ad-lib-heavy Jebidiah Atkinson right before this sketch.
— A pretty funny “harmless, oversexed nutball” description of the Simply Dudley character that Jim’s assigned.
— I like Jim’s delivery of “Now what the HELL does that mean?!?” when reading the direction, “Simply Dudley goes to town.”
— A laugh from the “fabulous fanny tickler” glove Jim is given for his Simply Dudley character, as well as the very negative reaction that both Kate and Taran have when Jim uses the glove on a playing-dead Kate.
— After a very frustrated Jim asks “Well, what do you guys want me to do?!?”, I love Cecily aghast delivery of “Not tickle a dead woman’s ass!”
STARS: ***
SPOTLIGHTZ!
Laura Parsons & Spotlightz! peers act in Best Picture nominee adaptations
— I wonder if SNL got the idea to bring this sketch back tonight because Jim shares the same last name as Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character.
— Having the movies the child actors perform be this years Oscar-nominated films is a good way to change this up a bit from the previous installment of this sketch.
— Good performance from Noel, but I didn’t care much for her scene with Jim.
— I like Jim’s character mouthing Laura Parsons’ lines and subtly imitating her gestures.
— This overall sketch wasn’t quite as good as the previous installment of this from earlier this season, but was still decent.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wave”
ELEVATOR
boss who crapped his pants (host) shares elevator ride with his employees
— Given what an awkward live performer he usually tends to be, Mike is surprisingly not bad in his live appearance here.
— I like the realization us viewers gradually come to that the mentioned loud boom from a nearby construction site was the cause of Jim’s “dirty undergarment”.
— While this is a juvenile concept, and poopy humor is worryingly starting to feel like it’s becoming a regular thing in the second half of this season between that game show sketch with Jonah Hill and this, this particular Elevator sketch is actually being executed well, surprisingly.
— Though I hate admitting to laughing at it, I love the jarring contrast that Kenan’s loudly-delivered “Aw, dayum! Smell like dookie in here!” has to the quieter tone this sketch had prior to his appearance. That tone shift was pulled off well.
— Good ending reveal of this taking place in a very tall building, though it doesn’t make sense why Jim is heard exclaiming “Oh, no!” during that exterior shot of the tall building, as if he’s finding out the same time we are of how tall this building is, despite the fact that he’s, you know, A BOSS WHO WORKS IN THAT BUILDING, and thus, should’ve already been well-familiar with how lengthy that building is. A minor nitpick, though.
STARS: ***½
COWBOYS
on the range, (host) pushes for birthday surprise for fellow cowboy (BEB)
— I’m loving Jim’s character’s commitment to his increasingly harebrained popping-out-of-the-ground birthday surprise idea. I especially laughed at the odd detail that he’ll paint his body brown to match the dirt.
— Brooks is doing a really good job blending in with the rest of the cast in this sketch. He doesn’t feel like an underused rookie at all here, and is instead coming off like a comfortable, familiar veteran.
— Even the out-of-place jolly contemporary music played during the “The next day” scene transition is adding to the fun silly nature of this sketch.
— Very funny ending.
— An overall underrated sketch. I not only liked it a lot as a silly little 10-to-1 piece, but I also love how this felt like something I can picture airing in SNL’s late 80s era. More specifically, it had the feel of a typical silly, oddball idea that writers Jack Handey or Conan O’Brien would’ve come up with in that era, and Handey and Conan are two of my personal favorite SNL writers of all time. I can even picture specific late 80s cast members playing the roles in this sketch, such as Phil Hartman in Beck’s role, Dana Carvey in Kyle’s role, Jon Lovitz in Kenan’s role, and Kevin Nealon in Brooks’ role.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I take it this is a notorious episode that’s considered by a number of people to be pretty much a disaster, judging from 1) recent things I’ve heard about this episode, and 2) an online article published shortly after this episode’s original airing that was titled something like “SNL Has Their Worst Episode Ever”. Frankly, I don’t get the hate AT ALL. While this episode did have a real rough and worrisome beginning with that monologue and Tonkerbell sketch, things improved greatly afterwards, with the post-Tonkerbell segments in the first half of the show all being strong, most of the sketches in the second half of the show being decent, and the final sketch of the night (Cowboys) being good-ol’ Jack Handey/Conan O’Brien-esque silliness. I assume that that poopy-pants elevator sketch is just one of the reasons for the ire that a number of people have towards this episode, but come on – I usually hate that type of humor, too, and even *I* can admit that SNL executed it well in this particular sketch. All-in-all, I’m taking the apparently unpopular route and saying this episode was fine, minus a worrisome start and a mediocre Weekend Update debut for Colin Jost.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Oscar Profiles: 12 Years A Slave
The Bird Bible
The Killer Files / Cowboys (tie)
Elevator
Murder Mystery
Ellen
Spotlightz!
Weekend Update
Peter Pan
Monologue
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Lena Dunham