Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A VERY SOMBER CHRISTMAS WITH SAM SMITH / DR. EVIL ADDRESS
Dr. Evil (MIM) thinks North Korea & Sony Pictures should up their game
— At first, I almost thought Beck’s opening voice-over was him attempting to do a Don Pardo vocal imitation.
— Taran’s Sam Smith impression is always funny.
— Was it intentional for Taran to point in the wrong direction when singing the “decorate the tree” lyric? The tree is in the opposite direction he pointed to.
— Wow, Mike Myers as Dr. Evil out of freakin’ nowhere!
— Mike has absolutely still got it as Dr. Evil.
— Ha, when this originally aired, I remember wondering if that Uber mention from Dr. Evil infuriated the SNL fans who complained online about the various Uber mentions that this season’s Chris Rock episode contained.
— Some good lines and slams from Mike’s Dr. Evil here, including the self-deprecating Love Guru slam. However, the humor in this Dr. Evil speech isn’t quite as strong as I want it to be, and a few of his slams feel too tame.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
KRW adds pizzazz to host’s rendition of “We Need A Little Christmas”
— MUSICAL MONOLOGUE WARNING
— Wait, screw what I said above. More like: KRISTEN WIIG CAMEO WARNING
— The audience proceeds to give Kristen’s entrance what practically feels like a 30-second applause break. Oh, so you mean she’s NOT still in the cast? Could’ve fooled me with how often she’s appeared after leaving.
— Amy Adams, to Kristen: “Isn’t this the second time you’ve crashed my monologue?” Hell, Amy, it’s the second time Kristen crashed someone’s monologue THIS SEASON. Also, to nitpick, Kristen technically didn’t crash your previous monologue, Amy. You brought her up onstage yourself to address the facial resemblance that people say you and her have.
— At least Kristen appearing in Bill Hader’s monologue earlier this season made sense, given the Skeleton Twins movie Bill was promoting. But this??? Come the hell on, SNL. Learn to cut the umbilical cord with Kristen already!
— I did at least get a laugh just now from Kristen randomly telling an SNL stagehand, “Thank you, Mariah Carey.” Kristen is admittedly always solid at delivering random one-liners like that in a very straitlaced, deadpan manner.
— Ugh, this Wiig-involved “We Need A Little Christmas” musical number is a chore to sit through. And I hate that I’m being so salty towards such a jolly, fun-loving traditional Christmas song, but a Wiig cameo in an era bombarded with Wiig cameos tends to have that effect on me.
STARS: *½
ASIAN AMERICAN DOLL
to avoid political incorrectness, Asian American Doll is a blank slate
— I love Cecily-as-the-voice-over’s disclosure that the company had to have a lot of sensitivity meetings about their doll.
— Yikes, an odd audio gaffe during a close-up of Vanessa (in the ONLY appearance she’ll be making all night, by the way) speaking, where you can hear audio of an SNL stagehand testing out a microphone live in SNL’s studio, which drowns out the line that Vanessa’s saying at this moment.
— Cecily, in a kind manner, towards the little girl asking a string of questions about the Asian American Doll: “You ask a lot of questions. You should go play outside”, a very funny line that’s accompanied by a great shot of Vanessa guiding that little girl out of the room.
— Hilarious bit with Vanessa getting cut off when struggling badly to come up with a non-offensive phrase that the Asian American Doll can say when you pull her string.
— So many fantastic lines from Cecily, doing terrific work as the commercial’s voice-over.
— An absolutely priceless bit with one of the little girls questioning the puppy and chef hat accessories by wondering if the chef hat is so the doll can eat the puppy because she’s Asian, resulting in Cecily as the voice-over going into a total panic and Vanessa nervously leaving the room in a hurry. To me, that’s the moment that officially propels this already-perfect commercial into a bonafide classic.
— I feel that, in a lot of ways, this commercial is like a companion piece to The Dudleys commercial from earlier this season in the Woody Harrelson episode. (And Chris Kelly & Sarah Schneider wrote both, I believe.) As fantastic and sharp as that Dudleys commercial is, I’ve personally always felt that this Asian American Doll commercial is an even better variation of that concept, which is why I only gave The Dudleys a four-and-a-half-star rating in my review of it. I was saving the five-star rating for this.
STARS: *****
TENDERFIELD CHRISTMAS 2014
family’s video Christmas card documents unhappy events from the past year
— An interesting and unique structure to this sketch.
— I like the way the “…in my Christmas sweatpants!” lyric is being used as a recurring lyric throughout this, especially whenever it’s said after a disturbing revelation.
— I’m enjoying the increasingly unfortunate family stories being told.
— The way this ended felt kinda flat.
STARS: ***
SERIAL
Sarah Koenig’s (CES) podcast has Kris Kringle (KYM) skepticism
— I’m admittedly not familiar at all with Serial, but that’s never stopped me from finding this spoof of it to be absolutely fantastic. Even without having any familiarity with the source material, I have no trouble following the tone and style that this spoof is going for, and this spoof absolutely works for me on its own merits.
— Another outstanding performance from Cecily tonight.
— I absolutely love Kyle as a realistic, dodgy Kris Kringle. In particular, the phone calls messages of him throughout this are excellent.
— Man, the tone of this short, the acting, the humor, the way such a silly concept is being played so straight… everything in this is pure perfection.
— The courtroom sketch drawing of Aidy is hilarious, and is accompanied perfectly by the specific voice she’s using in her voice-over during it.
— Overall, an absolutely brilliant pre-tape, a season highlight, and an SNL highlight in general. I remember there were a lot of SNL reviewers at the time who didn’t like this Serial spoof at all and considered it to be overlong and a complete bore, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some SNL fans who still feel that way about it today, but let’s just say I strongly disagree and can’t understand the negativity.
STARS: *****
GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
dance squad members (musical guest) enchant Morgan
— Much like the Ex-Porn Stars recurring sketch, this Girlfriends Talk Show recurring sketch making its first appearance this far into the season is proof that it’s being phased out.
— I love Aidy’s delivery of her character’s awkward attempt at a sassy comeback: “You better take your chewable vitamins…along with your bitch sandwich…and then…go ahead and sit on the sandwich AS WELL!”
— Cue the incessant screams from teen girls in the audience upon One Direction making their obligatory sketch appearance of the night.
— Cecily’s “My boyfriend’s crazy” stories are beyond formulaic and tired by this point.
— Overall, aside from some good lines from Aidy as usual, this recurring sketch continues to be well past its expiration date, and the unnecessary One Direction involvement didn’t exactly help solve my lack of enthusiasm towards this sketch.
STARS: **
OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY
workers go mildly wild in corporate environment
— The first of many Pete Davidson rap videos, though, IIRC, these don’t become a regular thing until years later.
— The song itself isn’t very catchy, unlike a lot of SNL’s songs in this type of music video in this era (e.g. Boy Dance Party), but there are enough amusing things shown happening in this video, such as a drunken, uncontrolled Aidy diving into the Christmas tree. However, I’m not finding this short anywhere near as epic as SNL wants me to.
— Something about Pete’s rapper voice is coming off Samberg-lite at certain points of this short, though I know that’s not intentional.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Night Changes”
WEEKEND UPDATE
sniper attention leads BOM to call off his Kim Jong-un impression
MIC’s hard-luck neighbor Willie (KET) has unwarranted positive attitude
songs from Hanukkah album by Garth & Kat seem rather off-the-cuff
— The direct message that Michael delivers towards Kim Jong-un is funny, right from his memorable opening line: “Look, Kimberly….”
— A solid meta turn to Bobby’s Kim Jong-un commentary, reminding me of the Update commentary that Andy Samberg once did as Sarah Palin.
— The sniper laser bit is a very funny ending to Bobby’s commentary, as is him trying to save face by claiming he’s Seth Rogen.
— Ah, our very first of many instances over the years of Michael or Colin doing an Update joke where the punchline is about their co-anchor. In tonight’s case, Michael’s “Now That’s What Jost Calls Music” punchline was hilarious, as was the accompanying photo of that album cover (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this Update).
— The debut of Kenan’s Willie character, who I’ve always loved.
— Lots of funny depressing stories from Willie about himself, delivered in a jolly manner. However, with this being his first appearance, the disturbing nature of his stories is fairly tame here compared to later appearances of his, where they up the ante on the disturbing humor.
— I recall hearing that Michael took some heat from some online SNL fans for his mispronunciation of “sedatives”, leading him to go off on one of his infamous back-and-forth arguments with people online. Did such a heated, nasty argument really break out over a mere (and understandable) mispronunciation of a word? Geez, I guess it’s a good thing social media didn’t exist yet when Joe Pesci mispronounced “maniacal” in a Joe Pesci Show sketch he cameoed in.
— The return of Garth & Kat?!?? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDI– (*without even finishing that last sentence, Stooge immediately douses himself with gasoline and sets himself aflame, welcoming the sweet pain that brings, finding it to be far more soothing than sitting through another dreaded Garth & Kat commentary*)
— Once again, I ask, has Kristen Wiig left the cast? Oh, the same goes for Fred Armisen, for that matter.
— Oh, how I look forward to seeing these wretched Garth & Kat characters deservedly bomb HARD with the audience when they appear in SNL’s then-upcoming 40th Anniversary Special that I’ll be reviewing when we come to that point of this season.
STARS: *** (as usual, Garth & Kat’s commentary was bad and overlong enough to bring Weekend Update’s rating down half a star)
A VERY CUBAN CHRISTMAS
lifted embargo inspires a scattershot special
— Because we didn’t already have enough Fred Armisen in our lives, we now hear him doing the voice-over throughout this sketch. Is he further trying to prove my point that it doesn’t feel like he ever left the cast?
— So far, the format of this sketch seems very boring, and seems like the type of “musical TV special” sketch I often dislike in recent SNL seasons like this.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and yep, I’m indeed very bored by this sketch.
— Kate playing her stock “brash hardass” role. As been-there-done-that as it feels here, it’s still working more for me than almost anything else in this sketch.
— Aaaaaaand there goes Fred now appearing in person in this sketch. (*sigh*) I know he’s part Venezuelan, but his appearance in this Cuban sketch still feels completely unnecessary. Lorne’s endless hard-on for nostalgia towards SNL’s then-recent late 00s/early 10s era just makes me shake my head, given how way-too-recent that era is at this point in 2014 for constant nostalgia and mini-reunions.
— Poor Beck has been almost completely non-existent tonight. I could use his and Vanessa’s extreme lack of appearances tonight as another excuse to bitch about how Fred and Kristen are taking away airtime from actual current cast members, but I don’t even have the strength anymore.
— Not even the Obama bit is anything great.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ready to Run”
A MAGICAL CHRISTMAS
in 1947, raccoons (KAM), (host), (CES) get to be human nightclub singers
— I recall absolutely hating this sketch when it originally aired, dismissing it as typical James Anderson/Kent Sublette-written tripe. However, it would later grow on me. I’m not even fully sure why it grew on me, but I think it has to do with the fact that, when re-watching it and knowing in hindsight about the raccoon reveal at the end, it causes Amy, Kate, and Cecily’s questionable actions to make sense and come off funnier to me than it did when I originally watched this sketch live and had no knowledge of the ending twist that was coming.
— I’m still enjoying this sketch in my current viewing, despite some typical annoying Anderson/Sublette tropes in this (e.g. Amy’s character being named Frebecca).
— The comically brief songs from the ladies are amusing me.
— As I somewhat implied above, I strangely like the ending reveal of the ladies actually being raccoons, and I also like the silly visual of puppet raccoons singing one of the (oddly catchy) brief jingles from earlier in this sketch.
STARS: ***
WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & her new girlfriend (host) give away cats
— Are literally half of this episode’s sketches (including the monologue) written by Anderson and/or Sublette?
— I liked this sketch in its first installment, but I can’t say this is working much for me as a recurring sketch. I’m finding most of the humor here only mildly funny at best. And it’s pure laziness to just repeat the same sexually frisky behavior that the character played by the host displays towards Kate’s character. At least give the character played by the host their own individual characteristic in each installment of this sketch.
— I did like Kate’s line just now towards a touchy-feely Amy: “I think you know where the cat ends and my boobs begin.”
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite two outstanding highlights, both of which are all-time favorites of mine (Asian American Doll and Serial), this episode was fairly meh as a whole. There were too many things that I either didn’t care for or felt were forgettably average, there was too much of the tired and completely unnecessary cameos from Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen, and there was a little too much of a “James Anderson/Kent Sublette influence” feel to the night (even if I liked their raccoons sketch).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Asian American Doll
Serial
A Very Somber Christmas with Sam Smith / Dr. Evil Address
A Magical Christmas
Weekend Update
Tenderfield Christmas 2014
Office Christmas Party
Girlfriends Talk Show
Whiskers R’ We
A Very Cuban Christmas
Monologue
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Freeman)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
We enter the year 2015, with host Kevin Hart