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
Prince isn’t done yet! That SNL40 after party performance is apparently legendary
If I remember correctly (though he could’ve also performed afterwards on the other one), that postshow performance was actually after the 15th anniversary special.
As is, the episode was the very last public performance before his unfortunate abrupt death a year-and-a-half after. Of course, this, as well as his other performances, including the 15th postshow, would air in a tribute special shortly after.
No it was definitely SNL40. The performance is on YouTube and has Taylor Swift. Fallon, Hader and Armisen wouldn’t be able to talk about it because they wouldn’t have been there
I agree that this isn’t a disaster like people say it is. It’s more like the Peter Sarsgaard episode where the sloppiness gives it a weird energy, but not necessarily a bad one. It’s just unfortunate that this is the fifth show of the season and not a January or February episode, which is usually when those strange or messy shows happen.
As tasteless as it is, I actually like the idea of ‘ISIS on Shark Tank.’ That might be because my dislike for Shark Tank makes crossing it over with ISIS not that egregious in my mind, though ? The execution of the sketch obviously could be much better.
It feels like Chris Rock’s sketch abilities get worse and worse with each appearance he makes post-1993. By the time he hosts in 2020 he’s as wooden and stumbly as your average athlete host. It doesn’t bother me much here but in his 2020 episode the stumbliness kinda drained the comedy out of him, imo.
I agree with @Ruby, because while the execution is definitely lacking, I’ve always thought the premise itself was interesting and would’ve liked to see what they could done with it had the execution been better.
(Of the Shark Tank/ISIS sketch that is).
It was usually pretty obvious Leslie was way more in her element doing stand-up on WU over sketches. I think she’s said as much that she never really enjoyed doing the sketches as much and found them too stressful since that was a whole new beast for her, being a stand-up vet for close to 20 years before SNL and never really doing anything like this before. Her rawness in the sketches was part of her appeal I always kinda thought, similar to Tracy Morgan in his early seasons who I thought similarly came off as kinda awkward and stumbily in stuff where he wasn’t playing himself.
I was kinda sad when Leslie said a few months ago that she doesn’t miss SNL because of how difficult the format and process was for her to adjust to. That’s part of why I like her and don’t mind her stumbliness though, because it never seemed like she wasn’t trying (unlike Horatio or late era Spade or someone else in that vein.)
DRESS CUTS
Chuck’s Goodbye
~ Office employees wonder aloud about Chuck leaving. “He’s been with the company for years.” Chuck (Beck) enters, wistfully wishing to “take it all in” before clearing out his desk. We find out he was fired because of several sexual harassment charges. Chuck plays music while he says goodbye to his co-workers. “Maggie (Aidy), I got a squeeze with your name on it.” She refuses. Boss (Rock) enters. Chuck makes another plea for his job. “No Chuck. For one, you gave MY wife lingerie last Christmas!” Perry (Bobby) brings up the time Chuck got his balls stuck in their stapler. Chuck starts to rally the office: “That’s right, save my job! Mikey (Taran), call the capital! Maggie, take your top off! Cheryl (Cecily), starting French-kissing her and take your top off! We can do this!” Nobody moves. Chuck asks why he didn’t even get a goodbye cake. “Karen did!” “Karen didn’t molest everybody!” Chuck finally starts to leave. He tells Leslie he will take a mental picture to remember her, but he uses a real camera to snap a pic of her cleavage. She yells at him. Chuck walks into a hallway as he says “Everyone blames me, and not the video games I play! Well, goodbye, Princes Of New England, Tom’s Of Maine.” Maggie looks down the hallway: “He didn’t leave. He’s jacking off in the stairwell”
~ Beck gave a very funny performance. His voice was unlike anything we’ve heard from him. Audience was hesitant to laugh, though. With this sketch, ebola, the monologue, & ISIS, crowd seemed burned out on the more “sensitive” topics
Chief Diapers
~ NYPD Chief Reynolds (Kenan) calls in Officer Stevens (Rock) to his desk. Chief asks Stevens if the others have been talking about someone on the force wearing adult diapers, like as a joke at first, but then saying they have proof. Stevens hasn’t heard anything like that. Chief asks if he’s thirsty and gets up to go the the mini fridge. As he walks, we hear a crinkle sound, as if SOMEONE in the room is wearing diapers. “I have O’Douls or water.” Stevens says he isn’t thirsty. Chief sits back down, and sprays a bunch of scented air mist stuff around, presumably to cover up a stench that was just made. (Kenan & Rock broke character at this point.) Chief tells Stevens about someone who snuck into his private bathroom, tried to flush a bunch of adult diapers down the toilet, and then left the remaining package in his office. Stevens suggests taking the package into evidence, but Chief says he’ll just hold on to them for now. “So Chief, you want me to find this guy?” “No, I want you to tell everybody it’s you!” Stevens won’t comply, so he leaves. Chief calls Officer Jessica (Kate) in. She immediately says she won’t take the fall. “Thank you, Jessica. You saved me some time”
Later Daters
~ Anderson/Sublette welcome you back to hot new dating game show Later Daters. Host Gil Bassett (Rock) talks to bachelor Brandon (Mooney), an adult swim instructor (“If kids want to swim, I just tell them ‘No’.”). Brandon has made his final decision: only one of the three girls (standing in three chambers) will win. He tells Kerry (Aidy) that he had a great time, but he would like to be with someone who likes movies. Kerry: “Movies: who can follow them?” Since she lost, the door closes from above on her chamber. Brandon next tells Jenny (Kate) that she’s a great girl, but unfortunately she didn’t make this final cut. Jenny blames herself for not being into spicy foods. Door closes and hits her on the head. She falls to the ground, but gets up and claims she is okay. Jenny: “So now, maybe you wanna keep me around?” Brandon: “Eh, there are other options.” Door hits Jenny again and again. Gil asks Jenny why it’s so hard to stand back from the door, and points to Kerry as an example of how to “lose” properly. Kerry’s door comes back up, and she’s still inside. Gil asks her why she’s still in there. Kerry: “There is nowhere to go!” Third contestant Sasheer suggests wrapping up the game, because she must have won. Gil snaps back: “We don’t know that!” Stage manager Louis (Kenan) shows Jenny where to stand. The two stand behind the pink tape. Door closes, doesn’t hit anybody. Louis leaves. And EL OH EL, the door hits Jenny again. Gil throws to commercial as Jenny hazily walks in front of the camera
Why’d You Post That?
~ airs January 17: Kevin Hart replaces Kenan as host (Chris Rock did not appear in this sketch), Vanessa’s character the same, 2nd guest Trisha (stubbed toe) was played by Cecily, and Aidy played Kelly, the only person to “like” the pic and thinking she was going to be on The Price Is Right (hence the shirt). The two characters were combined for guest #2. Final guest was Justin Bieber (Kate), not Mooney. Bieber posted a shirtless pic: “I’m shy, but I’m also a rascal.” Kenan yells at him for not posting about missionary work as he claimed, but “your itty bitty titties!” Bieber poses on the couch as he is sent to the dungeon ** “Darnell Do Not” segment added to 1/17/15 ** Instagram usernames simply “registername01” & “registername02” ** couch stuttered a little bit whenever it came back from the dungeon. Kenan milked this for laughs (“Aaaaaaand the couch is back”) while cracking up
Update – Vote?
~ Che & Jost persuade everybody to vote in the midterm elections. They talk about past & present slogans (“Rock The Vote”, “Vote Or Die”, “Turn Down For What”) and give several NBA draft parallels. Che: “So go out and vote this Thursday.” Jost: “Wait, Thursday? I think it’s… oh well, anytime next week should be fine.” Title card & voice-over tell us that this has been “Vote?” Only a couple of Che’s lines from this made it to air
Update anchor interaction
~ Jost mentions an upcoming documentary that will reveal the identity of the Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden
~ Che: “Damn, I’m gonna have to change my story when I meet girls at bars”
~ Jost: “Wait, you’ve been telling girls that you’re the Navy SEAL who shot him?”
~ Che: “No, I’ve been telling girls that I’m Osama bin Laden. Girls love bad boys”
~ Jost: “Not THAT bad!”
Update – Jose Canseco (Killam)
~ Canseco recently shot himself in the finger. He talks with Jost for a bit then we hear a gun go off. He shot himself again. Jost asks why he brought a gun. “It’s in a holster!” We keep hearing shots. “How many bullets are in there?” “It’s a modified clip: 10 bullets for 10 fingers.” “I can’t believe I can finally say this, but ‘No way, Jose!’” Jose reveals his fingers are all shot off
~ Nice prosthetic at the end, and Killam & Jost tried to sell it, but the audience wasn’t into it. Che openly chuckled during the whole thing, knowing it was gonna get cut
TIDS & BITS
Kelly File: Megyn used her “condescending voice” when first talking to Chris/tie ** Kelly: “She was living in a tent with a port-a-potty” Christie: “In Jersey, that’s called a luxury bathroom!”
monologue not crazy long in dress like C.K.’s in March. I think everything from dress made it to air
arguing couple not quite as flubby in dress, but still not very smooth. I think the rerun & online versions mix dress & air
Rock, while waiting to introduce Prince: “I’m glad the card is there, cuz then I wouldn’t know who to intro!” Hilarious that SNL feels the need for cue cards to musical guest intros that never change ** Rock’s intro not so energetic at dress, just the typical “Ladies & gentleman…” business ** I was #28 in standby, very close to the cutoff, but two seats opened up in the balcony directly facing the musical guest stage. One of the rare times I’ve cared about sitting close to the musical guest. Usually they put most stand-bys in the opposite corner of the balcony, tucked away, but sometimes you can luck into other areas ** Prince medley “aired” after Update, a rarity since 2003 ** microphone pole got in the way of the sky visual, otherwise performance basically the same ** neither Prince nor anybody associated with him showed up for the dress goodnights. Lianne La Havas & 3RDEYEGIRL did for the live show ** purple-clad members of Prince’s entourage were omnipresent all around the studio
Shark Tank: henchmen handed the panel some tea “made by our brand new slaves” ** Cut End Bit: next time on Shark Tank: stung-up-faced Brandon Bestracchio (Bobby) presents his idea: Box Of Bees
How’s He Doing?: the line “too early for football, but too late for church” got a huge, drawn-out laugh in dress; just some chuckles on air ** at one point during the ebola talk, Leslie says she prays from the safety of her sanitized home (harbinger of current days)
Update: Katt Williams: “[…] setting off metal detectors at LGA airport right GOTDAM now!”: these are the waning “taboo” days of saying GODDAMN or any variation on SNL — pops up in the show more in recent seasons
DRESS RUNDOWN
Kelly File
monologue
Later Daters (CUT)
SWIFTAMINE
How 2 Dance
Shark Tank
ROBBERS
How’s He Doing?
chief diapers (CUT)
Update
Katt & Suge
Vote? (mostly CUT)
Pete Davidson
bin Laden chatter (CUT)
Jose Canseco (CUT)
Prince jam
arguing couple
GOPROBE
Why’d You Post That? (CUT)
Chuck’s goodbye (CUT)
Women In The Workplace
goodnights
They really dodged a bullet not having Later Daters in the live show (as bad as Shark Tank and The Couple ended up being).
Chuck’s Goodbye sounds like a sketch only Beck could make hilarious but man would I have loved to have seen it. He excels at playing clueless losers.
The Shark Tank sketch was really awful. The topical aspect was in poor taste and it was uncomfortable to sit through.
I did wish Chris brought back I’m Chillin’ and Nat X. That would have been better.
I revisited this episode a few months ago on my blog; TBH, I “Get” the hatred that the Shark Tank sketch got when it first aired; ISIS was relatively fresh in the news, and for the show to make fun of them seemed like playing with fire. 6 years later, Maybe because ISIS isn’t as big a threat as it used to be, but I think the only thing about the sketch that I find “Bad” now is how off the mark everybody’s impressions were (except for Kate). But yes, the sketch is still uncomfortable to watch in spite of age & time cooling things down a little.
” ISIS was relatively fresh in the news, and for the show to make fun of them seemed like playing with fire”
I don’t think ISIS supporters were a large portion of SNL’s demographics.
I said this before but I wonder if the focus on pretapes is what led to all the live sloppiness
It is ironic in retrospect to see all the heat Chris Christie was getting for enforcing an Ebola quarantine.
Definitely a stronger episode than I remember, even if it still was a bit off. I tend to remind episodes by their highs and lows, and this episode has some VERY high highs (Rock’s monologue / Prince’s epic performance, which is maybe my favorite performance I’ve seen live on the show since I started watching in Season 34, especially since I’ve always thought “Clouds” was fantastic and underrated in the Prince cannon because it came so late) and some VERY low lows (Shark Tank, which like others I’ll defend in theory / The Couple, which, in a contrast to Prince featured the worst gaffe I’ve seen live, worse than Jenny’s “fuck” or the kernel of kern sketch, which if my memory serves me correctly was ALSO caused by Leslie, because I believe she’s the one who knocks over the gun. I liked her energy a lot, but Leslie was REALLY green at time, more than any other veteran I can remember.)
I thought Rock’s S46 monologue was pretty good, though it doesn’t live up to his first 2. I honestly think I prefer this episode to that one. None of the sketches outside maybe the Cold Open get as bad as the big 2 duds here (though NBA sketch got close) but literally nothing stood out. Honestly, Rock’s monologue probably ended up being the highlight. I’ve called Adele’s episode the worst of the season before, but at least that had one of my favorite sketches of the season (Fortune Teller, which manages to take Kate’s late era Senioritis performances and make it work for once) and Adele being a generally fun presence, vs Rock who was just depressingly low energy and off game all night.
Honestly these “shaky” early S40 episode are fine in retrospect. I only really disliked Pratt’s episode and some of this one. The show feels a little off, to be sure, we should be out of the woods soon. I remember particularly loving the one two punch of Martin Freeman & Amy Adams in a few episodes time, and this season has my favorite Rock (the wrestler) episode.
Prince’s performance really is just as amazing as I remembered. Watching it again with the knowledge that it’s his last performance, I had goosebumps by the end.
Jost’s “ok, I’ll try sex” gave me a big laugh.
As tasteless as the Shark Tank sketch is, seeing the Geico logo always cracks me up for some reason. The rest of the sketch… not so much.
Like a Beatle, with Prince in studio no rehearsal was being done.
Here’s my own take on this disaster of an episode, including those TWO sketches we all know:
https://bloodsnlreviews.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/november-1-2014-chris-rock-prince-s40-e5/