April 12, 2014 – Seth Rogen / Ed Sheeran (S39 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COACHELLA
at Coachella, Paul Ryan (TAK) & Jeb Bush (BEB) attempt cool conservatism

— Hmm, I wasn’t aware that Beck’s Jeb Bush impression debuted this early in his SNL tenure.
— A decent premise and a fairly fun and out-of-the-ordinary setting for a political cold opening.
— I’m surprised to see this end already. I had remembered this cold opening showcasing more republicans than I saw here. Maybe I was getting parts of this cold opening confused with a very similar cold opening the show would later do in the following season’s Reese Witherspoon episode.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
Zooey Deschanel, James Franco, Taylor Swift [real] interrupt host

— Decent bit with Seth Rogen’s relatives having his trademark laugh.
— Of the three Seth Rogen monologues over the years, this is the second one with a Wu-Tang Clan reference. Seth clearly must be a fan.
— Kinda funny seeing Zooey Deschanel now standing in almost the exact same spot that Noel stood in a minute prior, given the resemblance that Noel and Zooey naturally have to each other (plus the fact that Noel has a Zooey impression in her repertoire, which SNL let her briefly display earlier this season). During the goodnights at the end of this episode, we’ll even see Noel and Zooey standing close together, eerily looking like they could be sisters, and even wearing somewhat-similar outfits (screencap below, with a circle I added pointing out where Noel and Zooey are).

— Wait, that non-speaking, blink-and-miss-it walk-on that Zooey made ends up being her WHOLE cameo??? What was the point of that?
— Another celebrity cameo. I don’t like where this monologue is going.
— Never mind my earlier comment questioning what the point was of Zooey only showing up to make a wordless, five-second cameo, as she’s now come back and has some lines.
— Yep, and here’s yet another pointless, corny cameo. Blah. Feels like I’m watching something from a more recent season. And these cameos in this monologue don’t even have anything to do with the established premise of Seth reading from his journal, which just randomly gets abandoned halfway through this monologue to focus on cameos.
STARS: **

DRUG SAFETY
Shallon reverses D.A.R.E. representative’s (host) say-no-to-drugs spiel

— Predictably, this goes the exact same route as the previous two installments of this sketch. However, the crack subject of tonight’s installment is admittedly more inherently funny than the van and fireplace subjects of the previous two installments, and is making this pretty fun, even if I feel it doesn’t measure up to the first installment, due to the derivative feel.
— I love Bobby’s happy delivery of the line “The hero of our story!” when Seth says he’ll play the drug dealer of this scenario.
STARS: ***

CNN PREGNANCY TEST
drawn-out CNN pregnancy test frustrates potential parents (BEB) & (VAB)

— A pretty funny topical premise of a CNN pregnancy test.
— A good slow burn from Vanessa and Beck throughout this, in regards to all the false alarms from the pregnancy test. Vanessa’s always so good at playing characters who force themselves to smile while slowly getting impatient towards something.
STARS: ***

STEAKHOUSE
(AIB)’s pair of broken arms draw attention at (CES)’s birthday dinner

— I’m currently two-and-a-half minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t enjoyed anything so far. In addition to bad writing, this James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written sketch is featuring some of their absolute worst tendencies as writers: every character speaking in an exaggerated southern accent, the pointless decision to give a character a very specific, standout, dissonant hairstyle (Aidy, who’s character actually blatantly calls attention to her hairstyle at one point, for no good reason), and the random decision to throw in exaggeratedly effeminate gay men (the waiters played by Brooks and John) who have nothing to do with the rest of the sketch.
— Aaaaaaand now, to further prove my point about how this features Anderson and Sublette’s worst writing tropes, the focus of this sketch turns to a very unnecessary and unfunny big ol’ fart gag. Yep, it’s now safe to say this sketch is a bonafide dud.
— Not even the usually-reliable Aidy can do anything to save this in her lead role, especially not her helplessly giggling out of character after the fart sound effect. I’d like to think she’s just giggling because that fart sound effect made her fully come to the realization of what a stupid, stupid sketch she’s stuck in.
STARS: *

MONSTER PALS
(MOB) & (James Franco) undergo surgery to look human

— Great random concept for a Mike O’Brien short.
— The grunt-filled conversation between the two monsters at the bar is hilarious.
— I love the very realistic feel that Taran’s “Can’t just go around grabbing people, man. Gotta watch that” line gave to the end of the bar scene.
— A very funny line from Mike’s monster character when seeing the movie Monsters Inc. playing on a screen in a store window: “They took a lot of liberties on that one.”
— I absolutely love the sequence with Mike’s monster character searching for his friend among real New York citizens on the street, and I like the hint of pathos in this scene (and throughout this short in general, actually). Mike is always so great at adding pathos to his short films.
— Funny ending with Mike’s now-human-looking monster character admitting he chose this mediocre new face of his because it was cheaper.
— Overall, another excellent Mike O’Brien short.
STARS: *****

BLUE RIVER DOG FOOD
inferior kibble makes (host)’s wife (CES) crazy

— I recall not liking this sketch at all back when it originally aired, and I also remember subsequently being baffled to see this sketch go on to be considered pretty much a classic among a number of SNL fans. I’ll go into this sketch with an open mind in my current viewing, so I can hopefully understand what all the hoopla is about.
— Great delivery from Cecily of the line, “Bend over, Pat, they wanna get that ass!”
— A damn good angry outburst from Seth towards Cecily.
— Cecily is selling the hell out of this intense role. Definitely a standout performance from her.
— They’re overdoing the cutesy close-ups of the dog, though I guess that works as a comedic contrast to Cecily’s insane ranting.
— Solid ending.
— Overall, as I hoped, I’ve finally come around on this sketch, even if I still don’t find it to be quite a five-star classic like a number of SNL fans seem to. The rating I’m about to give this sketch is still very impressive, though, especially coming immediately after the five-star-rated Monster Pals short.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sing”

WEEKEND UPDATE
Samsung endorser David Ortiz (KET) acts as spokesman for other brands

Jacob talks about Passover symbolism & slowly warms up to CES

— I know it’s starting to become cliched for me to point out how ridiculously corny both Cecily’s Update delivery AND jokes have been lately, but man, I absolutely HATED her cheesy delivery of the punchline to that Kathleen Sebelius joke. (*sigh*) I just have to keep telling myself, only a few Updates left until the Cecily Strong era of Update is thankfully over…
— Showing how stiff and undeveloped as an anchor Colin is in these early Updates of his, when his Kim Jong Un voting joke is followed by an off-camera Cecily quietly asking Colin, in a comedic ad-lib, “Did you vote for him?”, Colin doesn’t even acknowledge that ad-lib of Cecily’s and instead just continues blandly and stiffly staring at the camera while moving onto the next Update joke. If this was about a year-and-a-half later or beyond and that was Michael Che ad-libbing the “Did you vote for him?” question, Colin would’ve easily played along with that ad-libbed question and gave it an answer.
— The debut of Kenan’s memorable David Ortiz impression.
— A very likable and funny performance from Kenan here, and the ads that his David Ortiz is doing are stupidly hilarious.
— Colin finally shows some personality, where, after the audience has an “Ohhhh!” reaction to his harsh punchline about Katherine Heigl now working at Duane Reade, Colin humorously ad-libs “Probably just researching a role!”, though part of me doesn’t like how that kinda felt like Colin copping out and basically telling Katherine Heigl, “No hard feelings.” I’m probably looking too much into that, though.
— Colin and Cecily have actually been having a few strong jokes tonight among all the clunkers they have. The clunkers still outnumber the strong jokes, though.
— Cecily, at the beginning of her introduction of the next guest commentary: “This Monday marks the first night of Passover. ” Oh, no. I can already tell from that statement of Cecily’s that it means she’s introducing a Jacob commentary, with Jacob doing the same thing he does in EVERY SINGLE COMMENTARY OF HIS.
— At least tonight’s Jacob commentary starts with an interesting interaction between him and Cecily, where Cecily assures him not to worry about Seth Meyers no longer being here, as she and Jacob will get along just fine. But of course, that’s immediately followed by Jacob launching into his same-old same-old routine.
— Cecily’s at least more far more fun and charming than Seth Meyers was at asking Jacob questions throughout Jacob’s commentary.
— An okay moment with Jacob quickly wiping away a tear when Cecily asks him how he feels about Derek Jeter’s upcoming retirement. That’s a good continuation of the minor story arc in these Jacob commentaries, where it’s established that he’s a Derek Jeter and Yankees fan.
— This overall Jacob commentary surprisingly didn’t turn out too bad, as they at least finally did some different things with the formula, and, like I said earlier, Cecily had a much more charming chemistry with him than Seth Meyers did.
STARS: **½

ENGAGEMENT PARTY
(CES) broaches cousin’s (host) gay experience at his engagement party

— I already don’t like the nature of this character that Cecily suddenly barges in playing.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and not only have I still yet to laugh a single time, but this sketch has gotten really uncomfortable, and not uncomfortable in a funny way. I also really don’t like the cheap attempt at laughs by using a disclosure about a past gay experience as the main “joke” of the sketch, nor do I like how it’s supposed to be “funny” that Seth’s character is ashamed that he sexually experimented with a man once, and we end up getting no resolution to that shame of his. Practically everything about this sketch’s script, premise, and execution is off-putting.
STARS: *

UNDERCOVER SHARPTON
Al Sharpton (KET) clumsily participates in 1983 FBI mob sting operation

— A very funny opening credits sequence, and the concept of Kenan’s Al Sharpton ineptly working in an undercover drug bust is promising.
— After the aforementioned opening credits sequence, the actual sketch itself that follows the credits is letting me down. It’s so boring that, after a while, a lot of it has become white noise to me, despite Kenan’s efforts.
— A poor ending.
STARS: *½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t”

A VERY SMOKY 420
non-pothead (KYM) revels in holiday weed tradition

— I love how this is featuring Kyle’s trademark weirdness being turned up to 11. His weirdness is proudly at its most unleashed and unfiltered here.
— Kyle is an absolute riot here with his made-up 420 holiday traditions and nonsensical songs.
— Given how well I remember this season’s Good Neighbor shorts, I’m kinda surprised that I had no previous memory of Beck’s appearance in this. This is also the third consecutive Good Neighbor short in which Beck either doesn’t appear or only appears in a brief walk-on.
— I got a huge laugh from how Seth’s “Could you…not use my last name?” line is immediately followed by his last name being suddenly removed from the chyron of his full name that’s been displayed onscreen ever since he made his entrance.
STARS: ****

HERMAN & SONS
Herman (host) & Sons (KET) are making their sperm bank into a yogurt shop

— I kinda like the random subversion with the “Sons” part of the “Herman & Sons” company name turning out to be the surname of one of the company owners, Eugene Sons.
— Aidy steals this sketch with her hilarious brief appearance, squealing in excitement while running past the camera with a shopping cart full of sperm samples.
— A juvenile but funny concept of turning a sperm bank into a yogurt shop. Like a lot of juvenile premises this season, this is being executed surprisingly decently.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Kind of a hard episode to figure, but my gut feeling sorta says this was one of the more “meh” episodes of this season. While this featured a strong one-two punch of Monster Pals and Blue River Dog Food airing back-to-back, and also featured a great oddball Kyle Mooney short airing towards the end of the show, this episode also featured two of the worst sketches of this entire season (Steakhouse and Engagement Party) and a very weak Al Sharpton sketch that squandered a promising concept. This episode’s remaining segments not mentioned in my preceding sentence all ranged from just average to mediocre. So yeah, kind of an all-over-the-place episode, one that ultimately left me with an unexcited feel. Possibly adding to my unexcited feel is the fact that it seems like with each passing hosting stint, Seth Rogen is more and more forgettable. He was pretty much a non-entity as a host tonight, as the writers gave him very few chances to stand out, mostly sticking him in generic, dull straight man roles that could’ve been given to any host. Even his monologue was written to have everyone else getting the laughs except him. Why waste a comedian in these types of non-comedic roles, even as polarizing as his comedy usually is?

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monster Pals
Blue River Dog Food
A Very Smoky 420
CNN Pregnancy Test
Herman & Sons
Drug Safety
Coachella
Weekend Update
Monologue
Undercover Sharpton
Steakhouse / Engagement Party (tie)

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anna Kendrick)
a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Andrew Garfield