Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE KELLY FILE
Chris Christie (BOM) quarantines Ebola nurse (KAM)
— Cecily-as-Megyn-Kelly’s opening line about Blacula being, in fact, white landed with a thud, bombing hard with the audience. I wonder if that already sets the tone for this infamous episode.
— Already a fun energy from Bobby as a brash Chris Christie, right from the start of his interview.
— Speaking of a fun, brash energy early in someone’s appearance, Kate is coming in super hot in this sketch, stealing it with a very funny performance.
— Hilarious exchange between Kate’s Kaci Hickox and Bobby’s Chris Christie when he confronts her by showing up out of absolutely nowhere in her house. Hickox: “What the hell are you doin’ here?!?” Christie: “I’m Chris Christie – I’m everywhere!”
— When Kate’s Hickox tells Bobby’s Christie that she cannot wait to sue him, I absolutely love him responding, “Oh, yeah? Well, get in line! It starts all the way back at the G.W. Bridge, and traffic is VERY slow!”
— The ending felt rather abrupt.
— An overall funny and mostly well-paced cold opening, thus making it this season’s first actual GOOD cold opening. Can’t believe it took this season five long episodes to achieve a good cold opening.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
CSR does stand-up about terrorism, Jesus & Christmas materialism, guns
— You gotta admire Chris Rock’s extremely ballsy choice to open his stand-up monologue with material on the Boston marathon bombing. Tonight’s already-subdued audience was clearly too nervous to laugh at this touchy material when it began, but they’ve gotten more and more into once they realized it’s okay to laugh.
— Uber mention #1 tonight.
— Chris: “People joggin’ for 26 miles! Their knees are hurtin’! Their feet are killin’ em! If you’re a woman, there’s blood comin’ out’cha titties!”
— Chris’ hot streak continues, as he gets more great material out of another ballsy, touchy subject matter, with him questioning the decision to build the Freedom Tower and why anyone would want to go inside of it.
— Chris, on how he’s never going in the Freedom Tower: “I don’t care if Scarlett Johansson is butt-naked on the 89th floor in a plate of ribs – I’m not goin’ in there!”
— Chris’ scenario about a hypothetical commercial cashing in on Martin Luther King Day by saying “These Toyotas are practically free at last! Free at last!” reminds me of a sketch SNL actually did on that topic of the commercialization of MLK Day (and I think even had Jon Lovitz saying the “practically free at last!” line) way back in season 11’s Harry Dean Stanton episode.
— Chris is doing an outstanding job in this monologue, much like his previous monologue from his season 22 hosting stint. (I’ve heard some not-so-great things about his season 46 monologue, which I’ve yet to see for myself, but we’ll see how I’ll react to it when I review that episode.)
— Some great punchlines to yet ANOTHER very ballsy, touchy topic Chris is covering: gun control.
STARS: ****½
HOW 2 DANCE WITH JANELLE
teen vlogger Janelle (SAZ) is oblivious to her sexiness
— Refreshing to see the very-underused Sasheer front-and-center in a rare lead role, and in a sketch with a very “current” style.
— A good awkward supporting character from Kyle.
— Yikes, HORRIBLE positioning of the performers in Jay’s first brief appearance in this sketch, as Chris is completely standing in front of him the entire time, which makes it mostly impossible to see him while he’s speaking (he’s behind Chris in the fourth above screencap for this sketch). Clearly, this was not planned. Is director Don Roy King to blame, or was either Chris or Jay standing in the wrong spot? Either way, it rendered Jay’s scene awkward as hell.
— Chris’ timing is very off at some points during this sketch, but he’s still getting some laughs from me in his performance.
— Nice bit with Chris and Sasheer dancing in unison.
— Wow, this sketch died a sad death in its final 35 seconds or so. In particular, the ending with the computer screen filter was AWFUL and came off very badly-executed, almost as if Chris was vamping very poorly.
— An overall decent sketch, but with a few really bad missteps, as mentioned.
STARS: ***
GOPROBE
GoProbe is colonoscopy camera of choice for middle-aged extreme sportsmen
— In a way, this can kinda be considered a companion piece to the Preparation H commercial from the season 27 premiere (where “x-treme” teen skateboarders were touting the great effects of Preparation H). Kinda funny to imagine that the middle-aged “x-treme” characters in this GoProbe commercial are actually aged versions of the same characters from the Preparation H commercial.
— The “Your Grandpa’s Colonoscopy” scene is hilarious.
— A good laugh from how, when shown the polyps in his colon, Beck responds “Sick!” in an upbeat, cool manner, and then Kenan as the doctor responds to that with a very matter-of-factly “Yes.”
— Overall, an improvement over the aforementioned Preparation H commercial (which itself wasn’t bad, but was nothing special).
STARS: ***½
HOW’S HE DOING?
black analysts cut Obama an infinite amount of slack
— The third and final installment of this sketch.
— I don’t recall previous installments of this sketch opening with the PBS station I.D. that tonight’s installment opened with, but maybe they did and I just forgot.
— Hmm, the second installment of this sketch already used tonight’s joke about President Obama’s approval rating among black voters dropping down to the “extremely” low percentage of 90-something.
— I love that we have much more guests than usual in tonight’s How’s He Doing installment, showing how much SNL’s black cast has grown after the first two installments of this sketch. It’s also nice to see Sasheer in her second big role for the second consecutive sketch tonight.
— I like how the wig Chris is wearing appears to an intentional replica of his hairstyle from his years as an SNL cast member (side-by-side comparison below).
— I already said this in one or two previous episode reviews this season, but it bears repeating that all of the Ebola talk in these early season 40 episodes is eerily very applicable to our current COVID times.
— Tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch has been decent so far, but doesn’t feel as strong as usual. There’s not much standing out here.
— Okay, I do like the part regarding a scenario of Obama having a lenient reaction to his daughters acting very rude towards him.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & 3RDEYEGIRL [real] perform “Clouds”, “Marz” & “Another Love”
WEEKEND UPDATE
ignorance of latex condom allergy led to PED sexting his mom
Katt Williams (JAP) & Suge Knight (KET) respond to camera theft charges
— Lame opening joke from Colin.
— Wow, I had forgotten how extremely frequently Pete did Update commentaries in his first few episodes, which is understandable, given how strong and very well-received his first one was. Hopefully, tonight’s commentary goes better than his underwhelming and unconfident-feeling second one.
— Another early SNL mention of Pete’s mom. Some very funny lines about her from Pete tonight, particularly one, in regards to how she’s seen plenty of penises because she’s a nurse: “My penis should be the most important to her in every way except one.” (My quoting of that line doesn’t do it justice. It’s Pete’s great delivery of that line that absolutely sold it.)
— Pete, upon receiving great news from a doctor that he no longer has to wear condoms: “What else? Is my dad comin’ back?!?”
— An overall pretty solid commentary from Pete, and an improvement over his second commentary.
— Yikes, Michel flubs his Tim Cook joke VERY badly. However, he saves himself with an absolutely fantastic ad-lib: “Prince, ladies and gentlemen!” Speaking of Michael and flubs, he surprisingly hasn’t been flubbing jokes anywhere near as often in these early Updates of his as I had remembered.
— Uber mention #2 tonight.
— Some amusing lines from Jay and Kenan’s Katt Williams and Suge Knight, but I can’t find anything specific to say about their commentary.
STARS: ***
SHARK TANK
moguls consider an investment pitch from members of ISIS
— I kinda liked Aidy’s mock-dramatic delivery of “I am RUINED!”, but something about it seemed off, possibly because she was thrown off by flubbing her line prior to that. (Why are so many performers flubby tonight anyway?)
— Hooooooooooooo, boy. This ISIS premise……. Look, I love me some ballsy humor, as my review of tonight’s monologue showed, but this? Wow, SNL.
— I remember some online SNL fans comparing the bad taste of this sketch to infamous bad-taste season 20 sketches (because this season apparently ALWAYS had to be compared to season 20 by some folks) like America’s Funniest Hate Videos (a sketch I actually like, as dumb and questionable as it is).
— I am currently two minutes into this ISIS thing, and I have yet to get a single laugh from it.
— Three minutes and counting, and still not so much as a mere smirk from me. Plenty of sighing and uncomfortable feelings from me, though.
— Was that ending even supposed to be comedic? The hell was that? Sure, it’s satisfying that the ISIS members deservedly got tricked into being arrested by the FBI, thanks to Kenan’s Daymond John, but that doesn’t automatically make it a well-written or well-executed conclusion. (Let’s remember that the aforementioned widely-disliked America’s Funniest Hate Videos sketch also ended with the skinhead characters being tricked into getting arrested, and that still doesn’t stop people from deeming that sketch to be horrible.) Something about it felt like an off way to end an already-very-off sketch.
— Overall, in a word: oof.
STARS: *
SWIFTAMINE
Swiftamine fights vertigo caused by Taylor Swift fan cognitive dissonance
— Lots of big laughs from the overdramatic vertigo symptoms various people display when finding out Taylor Swift is the singer of the catchy new song they love.
— Great performance from Beck as the spokesperson, and I love the silly little detail of him being named Dr. David Doctor.
— Funny reveal of the Swiftamine medication name, and the execution of this whole idea is very strong.
— Love Leslie’s wig, which is a funny little detail of her character.
— A hilarious slow motion shot of Aidy saying “Taylor Swift!”
— Absolutely priceless ending with Leslie in the ballerina costume.
STARS: ****½
THE COUPLE
an old couple (CSR) & (LEJ) argues while preparing for anniversary outing
— Ohhhh, here’s a very infamous sketch.
— Uber mention #3 tonight. Yeah, I’m starting to see what people mean when they complain about the excessive Uber mentions that this episode contains. However, the Uber mentions aren’t quite as frequent as those complaints had me expecting. (Also, I recall the following season’s Elizabeth Banks episode also having multiple Uber mentions, yet nobody seemed to complain about that.)
— Both Chris and Leslie’s delivery is already coming off pretty clunky early on in this sketch.
— I’m almost starting to think I should start an “Ebola mention” count, like the “Uber mention” count I’ve been doing.
— Chris: “When the government shuts down the cloud….I’ma have Luther!”
— OH. NO. And theeeeerrrre’s the most notorious moment of this sketch and one of the most notorious moments of this entire episode, where Leslie accidentally exits the scene WAY earlier than she was supposed to, realizes her gaffe, comes back into the scene, stands back in the proper spot where she had been standing, looks around completely lost, stares off-camera at a specific person (Lorne?) for a few seconds while having her shoulders shrugged and a very confused “What am I supposed to do?!?” look on her face, then pauses for ANOTHER two seconds, then finally continues with the script, only to immediately flub yet another line. All of what I described, by the way, happening to uncomfortable and PAINFUL dead silence from the audience. Ohho, man. That entire moment I just described has to be, hands down, one of the most cringeworthy moments in SNL history. I mean, WHAT…THE…HELL was that all about?!? Love ya, Leslie, but what HAPPENED?!? That’s also our very first of what would be a number of displays over the years of Leslie’s greenness as a live TV performer.
— Aw, dammit. Leslie even managed to flub her potentially-great “I will Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes this bitch to the GROUND!!!” line. Granted, the line itself was funny enough that it still got a decent laugh from both me and the audience, but still……
— I’m now a little further into this sketch, and Leslie and Chris’ delivery continues to come off clunky and flubby.
— I actually really appreciate the slice-of-life feel this sketch is going for, but man, it’s being completely undermined by how HORRIBLY rehearsed this sketch seemingly is. I mean, yeesh! This is a mess. Feels like I’m watching amateur hour.
— An angry Sasheer pops in out of absolutely nowhere.
— An actual funny ending reveal of this being Chris and Leslie’s anniversary.
STARS: *½
ROBBERS
bank robbers (BEB), (BOM), (KYM) prove to be unironically accommodating
— Much like the Miley Sex Tape short, this Good Neighbor short (this is a Good Neighbor short, right???) has Bobby basically being a Nick Rutherford stand-in.
— Great delivery from Bobby of his simultaneously concerned and intimidating “He said sparkling…(*cocks his rifle*)…or still!” line when Kyle is offering Sasheer some water.
— I love all the subversions with how the buildups to something tense the robbers are seemingly about to do to a customer turns out to be something very kind and caring. I especially like the random Civil War lesson that Kyle and Bobby give to Taran’s character’s son.
— A very funny little “Look I got the money!” jolly musical number the robbers end their robbery with. The gleeful look on Beck’s face during that number is particularly good.
STARS: ****
WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
1990s training video has curious diversity advice
— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— Yet another wig on Chris tonight that seems to be a replica of his early 90s SNL hair.
— Vanessa’s bad attempt at a “black handshake” is hilarious.
— An apparent genuine gaffe, in which Vanessa accidentally talks over Chris at one point before cutting herself off. That’s yet ANOTHER example of how flubby the performers are throughout tonight’s episode, but that particular flub of Vanessa’s actually fits really well in this sketch, given the intentional bad, stiff acting it features.
— Like the previous installment of this sketch, we get some good humor from all of the absurdity and comical awkwardness in the training video scenes, and it’s a rare example of very random James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written humor coming off well (if they indeed are the ones who write these sketches).
— Interesting continuity with having Taran show up as the same character he played in the first installment of this sketch, complete with the same wig and cheesy sweater.
— Speaking of Taran, I like the way he randomly and slowly lowers to the ground in a stiff manner at the end of his scene.
— A funny biracial couple/“And I don’t do that” ending.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as bad an episode as its very negative reputation. That being said, what was bad in this episode was PAINFUL: that Shark Tank/ISIS mess, the promising-but-gaffe-filled-and-seemingly-under-rehearsed The Couple sketch, even a few moments of the otherwise-decent How 2 Dance With Janelle sketch, and a general sloppy feel to the night (especially with all the line-flubbing). However, if you ignore those things, you actually have a decent episode, a few very strong highlights, and an absolutely epic musical performance from Prince. Still, the mild shakiness of this first quarter of season 40 is undeniably still being felt.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Swiftamine
Robbers
The Kelly File
GoProbe
Women In The Workplace
How’s He Doing?
Weekend Update
How 2 Dance with Janelle
The Couple
Shark Tank
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jim Carrey)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Woody Harrelson