Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
DRINKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Barack Obama (JAP) & Mitch McConnell (TAK) get drunk after election day
— I’m enjoying the structure to this, with all the time jumps.
— This is getting more and more fun the increasingly drunk and loose Jay and Taran’s President Obama and Mitch McConnell are getting.
— A very funny high-pitch shriek from Taran when the phone rings after his crank call.
— Love Taran’s delivery of “Oooooh, you’re in trouble!” after the tense exchange Obama has with his wife.
— This overall cold opening was not only strong, but it alone had a better energy and flow than almost anything in the preceding episode (Chris Rock).
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence [real] visit host
— Yet another musical monologue, but this one is more forgivable, given the fact that Woody Harrelson’s previous two monologues, both of which were good, were guitar songs like this one is. It also helps that I really like the conceit of his guitar song tonight, reminiscing about 1989, the year he first hosted SNL.
— One of Woody’s lyrics about 1989: “I think I had a mullet.” Indeed he did (screencap of him from his 1989 hosting stint below).
— This suddenly turns into another one of those cameofest monologues, which I’m rarely crazy about when it occurs in recent seasons like this. I at least don’t mind seeing Josh Hutcherson on SNL again, as I found him to be a likable host the preceding season.
— A good laugh from Woody initially thinking Jennifer Lawrence is Taylor Swift.
— Great ad-lib (“You’re always so stoned!”) from Jennifer Lawrence when she has a hard time getting a line out while quoting Woody. This ad-lib sets off an infectious and endearing stretch of giggling from all four of the performers that almost sounds like they really are stoned.
— Overall, for both a musical monologue AND cameofest monologue, two of my least favorite monologue tropes, this was surprisingly not bad at all, was actually pretty fun, and had a nice charm.
STARS: ***½
THE DUDLEYS
viewer feedback prompts changes to sitcom; Uzo Aduba cameo
— Very strong and clever satire here, with all the frequent and increasingly desperate PC changes this sitcom makes as their answer to the various social media complaints they’ve received.
— Another surprisingly fun cameo tonight, as the appearance of “Crazy Eyes” from Orange Is The New Black is adding well to this.
STARS: ****½
MATCH’D
horny contestants contend with bachelorette’s (CES) dad (host)
— When the guys are each giving their response to Cecily’s first question, I love Beck’s affable delivery of his very sleazy line, “I would take you back to my house and show you my special ingredient: my penis.”
— Absolutely priceless twist of Cecily being Woody’s daughter, after all of the raunchy, horny things the guys had just said to her in front of him. Love how the guys all suddenly change their tune immediately after this twist, by awkwardly forcing themselves to give Cecily’s questions very proper, gentlemanly answers in order to not upset Woody.
— An absolutely killer and classic moment, with Cecily’s “Can’t shake hands with a ghost!” line about her mother.
— Another excellent twist, with the casual reveal that Woody is an ex-marine. This must be a Chris Kelly/Sarah Schneider-written sketch, because, as I said in some previous episode reviews, those two writers seem to have a knack for throwing great shocking twists into their sketches.
— Very funny bit from Kyle about “Veteruss Day, the day we celebrate our veteruss”, delivered perfectly in that trademark oddball Kyle Mooney delivery.
— Hilarious crotchless panties bit with Taran.
— Great ending with Woody revealing he’s about to watch footage of the moment he had just given the guys and Cecily alone together, where the guys crassly let Cecily know how extremely horny they are right now.
STARS: *****
NEW MARIJUANA POLICY
end of pot possession arrests sends NYC stoners out-of-doors
— I am loving the wordless, excellently-shot sequence with Pete and his stoner neighbors all simultaneously exiting their houses with bags of weed.
— Another scene-stealing appearance from Leslie, as her mere facial expression as she exits her pot smoke-filled car in slow motion is hilarious.
— Perfect appearance from Woody, who’s obviously a natural for this short film’s subject matter.
— Another great little Leslie moment, with her proudly yelling “DEBLASIO, BABY!!!”
— A very fun, memorable, and oddly beautiful sequence of the whole town happily marching in the streets in pot-related unity.
— Lots of funny little details throughout this short.
— Excellent twist with it turning out that, while the new policy allows people to openly possess marijuana in public, they can’t actually smoke it in public.
STARS: *****
FOOTBALL HALFTIME SPEECH
football coach (host) relays overcautious safety measures to players
— A lot of good laughs from the sequence with Woody using Jay to demonstrate the extremely gentle new tackling technique. I especially love the phrase, “Back of the head…” “PUT YOUR PRINCESS TO BED!!!”
— Kenan’s brain-damaged, nonsensical rambling is classic and steals the entire sketch. Among some great lines from him are “Who said sumpin’ about some rings?!?” and “This one’s for ALL the Marlboros!”
STARS: ****
YOUNG TARTS & OLD FARTS
duets album pairs established & rising musicians
— A cheap laugh from the title of this album.
— I had mis-remembered this as being a Christmas-themed album that aired in one of the December episodes of this season. I was probably confusing this with one of the Christmas duets album ads from the previous two Jimmy Fallon-hosted episodes. Minus the Christmas theme, those ads have a very similar style to this Young Tarts & Old Farts ad.
— Oh, there’s that awful Macklemore impression from Kyle that I mentioned in a previous episode review. Actually, watching it again right now, Kyle’s impression isn’t as bad as I had remembered.
— I like Sasheer’s Diana Ross saying, in regards to Kyle-as-Macklemore’s lyric about homophobia in hip-hop, “I don’t need him educate me about gay people. I invented gay people!”
— Love the James Taylor/Sam Smith duet, especially Woody’s Taylor telling Taran’s Smith, “Lighten up, dude” and “It’s a happy song!” Also, the decision to cast Woody as James Taylor feels very fitting.
— Oh, I did NOT need the return of Kate’s terrible and baffling Lorde “impression” from the preceding season.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “i”
WEEKEND UPDATE
LEJ argues that it’s appropriate for women in relationships to be crazy
host’s True Detective co-star Matthew McConaughey (TAK) is a little loopy
— A classic opening to this Update, with the running “But dat ass, doe” gag in regards to Kim Kardashian’s famous Paper Magazine cover photo.
— Leslie in her first Update commentary as a cast member.
— A memorable moment, with Leslie repeatedly yelling at Colin, “LOOK AT MY BREAST!”
— Good ad-lib from Leslie after both she and the audience simultaneously giggle in response to a funny line of hers.
— As usual in her Update commentaries, Leslie is absolutely KILLING it tonight.
— Love the Lorne joke from Michael, despite his clumsy delivery of the set-up.
— Colin’s theme park/pedophiles joke is another early display of the great ballsy jokes he would often do on Update years later.
— Great to see Taran’s Matthew McConaughey impression back after that very funny commentary he did the preceding season. Also nice to see him paired up with McConaughey’s True Detective co-star Woody this time.
— Like last time, some very funny “deep” ramblings from Taran’s McConaughey, and I particularly love the Super Mario Bros. bit, especially the line, “Hop on a turtle’s back, send him into the abyss.”
— Overall, the first really strong Update of the Jost/Che era.
STARS: ****
OLD NEW YORK
at a bar, only (host) is wistful about the good old days of NYC crack
— Hilarious turn with how, after the other guys reminisce about normal, wholesome city things that are no longer around, Woody’s only contribution to the conversation is “Remember the crack?”
— A one-note premise, but it’s a damn funny one-note premise, and Woody is executing it very well.
— Kenan randomly deciding to use a loud and exaggerated voice when blurting out the line “I MISS THE RESPECT!!!” was very amusing, and clearly wasn’t in the script, given the fact that, when the camera cuts to a shot of Taran and Bobby immediately after that line, Taran’s smirking and Bobby’s stifling his laughter HARD.
— Priceless reveal of Woody’s “police badge” actually being a “Vote For Nader” button.
STARS: ****
CAMPFIRE SONG
(host) can’t get friends to help with apple song at a campfire singalong
— This feels like the most in character we’ve seen Woody all night, as he’s speaking in a different voice than his own.
— Oh, no. Our very first of way-too-damn-many James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written sketches with the premise of “A character sings a non-existent song that they expect their friends to join in and sing along as if it’s a famous song, but they’re not familiar with it”. Ugh, I’ve always strongly disliked this recurring concept, and never understood Anderson & Sublette’s fascination with it.
— As unfunny as Woody’s “Apples” song is, I do at least find it to have a catchy sound, I admit.
— I did get a laugh just now from the incongruously large amount of water splashing just from Woody throwing his guitar pick in the lake.
— Ugh, there’s that corny twist where “Hey, the main character’s friends actually DO know the song after all, and happily join in on the singalong!”, which would also become a staple of some (if not all) of the subsequent Anderson/Sublette sketches with this premise.
— Overall, leave it to Anderson & Sublette to ruin this episode’s perfect streak of segments ranging from pretty solid to excellent. That being said, as much as I didn’t like this sketch, I don’t find it to be as awful as some of the subsequent sketches with this same premise.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest, Chantal Kreviazuk & Jay Rock [real] perform “Pay For It”
LAST CALL
sex-starved (host) & Sheila Sovage necessarily lower their standards
— A little odd how this is the second post-Update sketch tonight that takes place in a bar.
— I always love that “Ha-HAAAAAA!” laugh that Kate’s Sheila Sovage does in an early moment of each installment of this recurring sketch.
— Woody’s “Eyebrows, eyebrows, eyebrows” line was very funny.
— A huge laugh from Sheila Sovage revealing her occupation: “I re-plaster unpopular glory holes!”
— Woody has even better chemistry with Kate here than previous hosts had with her in prior installments of this sketch.
— I love Woody’s “STDetroit” line.
— Another great Woody line, with him assuming CDC stands for “Center For Doin’ It Correctly”.
— Kenan’s way of saying “That’s for my fruit!” absolutely SLAYED me. (He’s been killing it with his line deliveries tonight in general.) He pronounced “fruit” in such an odd, comical manner with such a goofy voice that it caught me off-guard and has me in absolute stitches. I honestly cannot stop laughing at it right now. His pronunciation of “fruit” is hard to spell out phonetically, but here’s my best attempt at the spelling: “fruuuT” with a very hard ‘t’.
— Excellent ending with how, while Woody and Sheila Sovage are nastily making out with each other through plastic wrapping in front of their faces, Kenan begins dousing the whole bar with gasoline and says, “Well, I gotta kill us ALL, I guess.”
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fantastic episode. Not only is it easily my favorite episode of this season so far, but it honestly may even be one of the best episodes I’ve ever reviewed. (Can’t wait to see the rating average my review of this episode has when commenter Vax Novier tallies up the averages of each of my season 40 reviews.) Not only did this episode impressively go by with almost no bad segments at all, but almost every single one of this episode’s segments was great, receiving a rating in the 4-5-star range. And some of those great segments were particularly memorable or had at least one very memorable moment, and a few of tonight’s great segments are even classics. There was also an infectious energy in the air all throughout the episode, partly due to Woody Harrelson’s always-likable presence. Overall, a terrific episode, and, man, what an amazing turnaround from the troubled (though not as bad as its reputation) episode that preceded this.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Match’d
New Marijuana Policy
The Dudleys
Last Call
Weekend Update
Drinks at the White House
Old New York
Football Halftime Speech
Young Tarts & Old Farts
Monologue
Campfire Song
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Rock)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Cameron Diaz