Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
Mike Krzyzewski (TAK) says biology test trumps basketball title game
— Quite a number of sports-related cold openings in the second half of this season. I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts, as this probably ends up being the final season I’ll cover where there’s a good amount of non-political cold openings.
— No Shaq in this line-up of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley impressions?
— A good goofy appearance from Bobby.
— Some funny lines from Kenan’s Barkley, including a genuinely botched delivery of one particular term.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
fans TAK & BOM want host to play Batman & Beetlejuice with them
— Much like Dwayne Johnson’s “Franchise Viagra” monologue in the preceding episode, I can excuse tonight’s musical monologue, as it’s always been an absolute favorite of mine.
— The “Will you play Batman/Beetlejuice with us, Michael Keaton?” song is very memorable, and the geeking-out from Taran and Bobby is so damn charming and fun.
— A hilarious part with Bobby, after his reveal that he has only six weeks to live, explaining “It’s just a guesstimate based on the choices I’ve made” while gesturing towards his body.
— I love the running gag with Taran and Bobby’s angry outbursts at Jay’s walk-ons, especially when he has an angry outburst of his own back at them.
— The pre-taped Batman/Beetlejuice sequences are absolutely priceless, and really puts this already-strong monologue over the top.
— I love the long, deadpan, tense stare Keaton does into the camera before his poignant delivery of “I’m Batman”.
STARS: *****
CNN NEWSROOM
amateurish reenactments fail to shed light on news items
— A pretty good laugh from the cheap animated reenactment, and the comparison of it to the music video for Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing”.
— Some more pretty good laughs from other cheap reenactments, one with puppets and another with a local performance arts group.
— Odd usage of tonight’s host.
— A pretty fun silly sketch overall.
STARS: ***½
PROM QUEEN
high school student (MOB) asks loser teacher (host) to be his prom date
— I remember, when this originally aired, I thought to myself upon seeing that new hairstyle of Mike O’Brien’s, “Is he trying to look even more like Sam Smith than he already does?”
— A very solid premise, and, as usual for Mike’s shorts, he’s perfectly blending comedy and sentimentality.
— Vanessa’s selling her “neglected wife” role to perfection.
— Love the turn with Mike winning Keaton back in the door entrance of Keaton’s house.
— Excellent ending, and that little twirl Mike does towards the camera as the screen irises out on him is such a great touch.
— Overall, Mike does it once again with another phenomenal short.
STARS: *****
CALL YOUR GRANDPARENTS
despite the downsides, (SAZ) suggests calling your grandmother for Easter
— An amusing juxtaposition of a sexy late-night phone ad and the concept of calling your grandparents.
— Kate using her Ruth Bader Ginsburg voice for this generic grandma role. In Kate’s defense, though, her RBG voice hadn’t become a recurring part of her RBG appearances yet at this time.
— A nice novelty seeing Sasheer in such a front-and-center role.
— I had absolutely no prior memory of this sketch, though Leslie’s scene kinda rang a bell to me just now. I think I previously got her scene and the rest of this sketch mixed up with that pre-taped “Alexa for old people” commercial from an episode within these next few seasons.
— Some good relatable humor here.
STARS: ***½
AD AGENCY
advertising boss (host) interjects incongruous sex & violence into pitches
— I like Leslie’s unhappy reaction to how her corny, lighthearted joke didn’t get the laughs from her co-workers that Kenan’s corny, lighthearted joke did.
— I’m laughing out loud at all of Keaton’s off-kilter, immature, pervy suggestions to the employees’ more traditional, family-friendly commercial ideas.
— Even the random side gag with the blood stain from Keaton’s stomach is absolutely working for me, and is adding a twisted feel that I like.
STARS: ****
NEUROTOLOGY
annotations show fates of those in 1990 Church Of Neurotology music video
— I’m not familiar with the actual Scientology music video this is spoofing, but I don’t need to be to have always absolutely loved this short and found it to be a classic.
— Such a biting takedown of Scientology.
— The annotations of every Neurotology member’s grim future are fantastic. Not only are they funny as hell, but I love the creepy, dark, unsettling vibe they’re giving this short.
— All of the little details in making this look like an authentic 1990 video are pitch perfect.
— An absolutely hilarious cutaway to a cheesily-smiling Colin, making a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Even the melody of this intentionally-corny song is catchy.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Really Like You”
WEEKEND UPDATE
mistaking him for a zombie, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) shoots stoned PED
Jebidiah Atkinson thinks television has always been a vast wasteland
— A good Lethal Weapon bit from Colin.
— Some okay if slow-paced (even if that may be the intention) bits in Pete commentary, but it picks up with the whole Walking Dead turn towards the end.
— The Jost/Che era of Update continues to be on a hot streak within these past few episodes, suggesting that we have indeed reached the point where this Update era has fully hit its stride. (Colin has especially shown improvement.) I could not be happier about that, given how, as I disclosed in a previous review, this is one of my top 3 favorite Update eras of all time.
— Yes! As if tonight’s Update wasn’t already solid enough, we now get Jebidiah Atkinson! Believe it or not, this sadly ends up being his final appearance.
— Damn, Jebidiah’s slams are starting out hot tonight, with his “Hey, AMC, if I wanted to know what life was like in the 1960s, I’d move to Indiana!”, which receives loud “Ohhhhhhh!”s from the audience. Usually, the audience doesn’t react that wildly to a slam of his until a few minutes into his respective commentaries.
— Jebidiah, on The West Wing: “The best lines on that show were the ones that went up Sorkin’s nose!”
— Jebidiah, on Lost: “Sure, it started out good, but I haven’t seen a final season that bad since Joe Paterno’s! (*the audience reacts in shock and Jebidiah mocks that reaction*) If you don’t like that joke, just do as Joe did and turn a blind eye!”
— Jebidiah, in a meta moment, commenting on Saturday Night Live: “The same tired characters repeating the same tired catchphrases. (*throws his index card into the air*) NNNNEEEEXT!!!”
— I like the audience genuinely groaning as soon as they realize Jebidiah’s about to bash I Love Lucy.
— The overall usual great Jebidiah Atkinson commentary. I’m going to miss the hell out of him; one of my all-time favorite Update characters by far. I never understood why they suddenly stopped using him after only a handful of appearances. Maybe I should be happy they refrained from running him into the ground.
STARS: ****
SMART HOME
inventor (host) & wife (CES) show toaster & couch concepts to neighbors
— (*sigh*) Between everyone’s exaggerated southern accents and the completely random gag involving the guests standing outside the front door, we’re ALREADY starting off with a whole bunch of gags that are aggressively James Anderson & Kent Sublette-y.
— I liked the “googly eyes on inanimate objects” gag better when Christopher Walken did it.
— Ugh at the sequence with Cecily and Keaton describing the tube that anally recognizes you.
— I am at least liking Cecily’s laid-back performance, which I find strangely kinda comforting. That’s the only positive I can find in this whole thing.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All That”
AN EASTER MESSAGE
host presents his Easter basket contents with Portia (KAM) & Jordan (BOM)
— Good to see another variant of this sketch, previously done with Steve Buscemi and Edward Norton. These always work for me, though I’ve never had the time to watch the cut-after-dress ones that were posted online.
— Solid side character from Kate, and an improvement over Bobby’s side character from the Edward Norton installment of this sketch.
— Keaton: “This is unleavened bread, which means, unlike Jesus, it doesn’t rise. Jesus: 1, bread: nothing.”
— Keaton, on Cadbury eggs: “I gave these up for Lent last year. Know what I gave up this year? Cocaine…………………almost.”
— I love Keaton’s creepy delivery of his random line, “Something’s wrong with me.”
— Speaking of Bobby and side characters, he actually shows up as this sketch’s second side character, and is a lot funnier here than he was in the Edward Norton version of this sketch.
— Very funny gag with Kate feeding her “child chicken” a McNugget.
— Keaton, about Kate’s character: “This kid has aaaallll the warning signs.”
— Keaton, on his chocolate bunny being hollow: “Some people like the solid ones, but then, how would you get your little wiener in there?”
— Great reveal at the end that Keaton was playing himself in this sketch the whole time.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I had always liked this episode a lot in the past, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how big I was on this episode in my current viewing. I mean, man – THREE five-star-rated segments in this episode, lots of other very strong segments, and only bad segment all night. Such a great episode. Odd structure to it, though, with how minimal the amount of segments in the post-Weekend Update half was. Clearly, a sketch got cut at the last minute, made even more obvious by the fact that our “10-to-1” for the night was just a shot of the SNL Band playing the show back to commercial after the show had just come from a commercial break. I think I once heard that the cut-at-the-last-minute sketch in question was a Nick Rutherford-written Pee Wee’s Playhouse pastiche that would later be posted online (seen here). I’ve never watched it myself, but if that sketch is as strong as I’ve always heard it was, it’s a damn shame it got cut at the last minute, as it would’ve made this already-fantastic episode even better.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Neurotology
Prom Queen
Monologue
An Easter Message
Ad Agency
Weekend Update
CNN Newsroom
Call Your Grandparents
Road To The Final Four
Smart Home
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dwayne Johnson)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Taraji P. Henson
“No Shaq in this line-up of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley impressions?”
Shaq doesn’t work on the March Madness broadcasts. Just NBA on TNT.
Anderlettedowns (Jost era episodes where Anderlette have the only sub-par material): 4
Saturday Night Taped (Episodes from S39 on where the top 2 or more highest ranked sketches are pre-taped): 9 (though it feels wrong to include this one)
That Carly Rae album is fantastic.
DRESS CUTS
Toby’s House
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/cut-for-time-childrens-show/2887263
~ very happy they put this online, but the live pace could’ve improved it jus’ a little bit. Keaton in general was much better & less stumbly in the live show
Sporting Goods Sport-House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VquS5Az_hBs
A.D.: The Bible Continues
~ We now return to [title above]: Jesus (Killam) rings the doorbell at his old house. Thomas (Keaton) answers the door, very surprised to see Jesus there; he didn’t think he’d ever see him again. Jesus was under the impression that he would have a giant gold & diamond tomb, not the simple stone one he ended up with. Thomas thought it wouldn’t matter, since Jesus wouldn’t see it anyway. Simon (Beck) exits the house chanting for a party, stopping immediately when he sees Jesus. Simon reveals that the apostles are selling all of Jesus’s stuff. Another apostle (Kenan) says he just sold a bunch of it on “THEE Bay. Uh, I don’t know why I said it that way. I meant to say ‘the bay’. It’s just a bay over there that you can float stuff down, get some money.” Delivery guy (Pharoah) from Regular Caesar’s PIzza arrives with several pies for the party. Next time on “The Bible Continues” (Higgins v/o): Thomas tells Jesus that “Mary Magdalene & some of her work friends” are coming over, and he has a ton of water that needs to be turned into wine
Piccolo Solo
~ Albany Chamber Orchestra rehearsal: crazy-gray-haired maestro (Kenan) tries to get the players to focus. He hopes they all had a nice breakfast “with your po-ta-toes, hash browns, & large sausages.” Laney (Vanessa) admits she only ate a small sausage. Todd the flautist (Beck) says something. Laney wants to do the piccolo solo, but maestro brought in someone from the Seattle Symphony. Colby DeClair (Keaton) introduces himself, says some silly things, and ends with “Oh, and I’m a lot of fun.” Rehearsal begins. Maestro yells at Colby to make the right face during the piccolo solo: “FACE! FACE!” After the botched first attempt, Colby holds 1 note for his second try. Maestro: “So those are our 2 choices, huh.” Maestro is fed up, so he packs everything. Colby calls the group a “dorkestra” and leaves. Laney insists they still need a piccolo solo. Maestro agrees: “Laney… give me your piccolo.” He proceeds to play crazily
~ Kenan packing up his conducting equipment hilariously lasted about 15 seconds …in total silence. Keaton had a habit of talking way too softly & mumbly in most sketches (especially this one), which he rectified for the live show
Mangione Treatment
~ Doctor (Keaton) informs patient (Kenan) that his high blood pressure needs to be remedied. Doc plays “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione and explains that if you snap & dance along, it’s good for your health. “I met Chuck on a plane once. I went to kiss his lips.” Nurse Coco (Cecily) dances with the two of them
~ Dr. Keaton talked more about Chuck but this whole sketch was very short (like 2 minutes), a rarity for this era
Update – JAY Z (Jay P)
~ Che welcomes JAY to talk about his new Tidal Music Streaming Service. JAY lays down some samples of what we can expect to hear. He sings the song by Carly Rae that we just heard, and punctuates it with “Did I say really?” plus some of those JAY Z noises he always makes. More songs: “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies, 1-800-Karz-4-Kids, & the Frasier theme: “Why them eggs callin’? Hov! You crazy, Niles.” He ends with the Meow Mix theme
~ this crushed with the audience (& Che), so maybe it was scheduled but the show ran long
~ Jost later told a joke about Michele Bachmann, that ended like: “…However, Bachmann’s decency, like that Malaysian plane, is still missing.” Low audience reaction. “Meow meow meow meow…”
Update – religion rant
~ Jost asks Che if he watched “Going Clear”, the new Scientology documentary. Che says he did, but “it got weird” because Scientology is trying to help people. Jost reminds him that’s what’s religion’s all about. Che: “Thetin, please! Religion is about miracles and snakes selling apples” & an “Invisible Sky Giant”. Che rants more, but the audience isn’t really feelin’ it, so he tells everybody with his hands up: “I go to church!” Jost tries to continue with jokes, but ad-libs “The women at my white church have bigger hands.” Audience doesn’t quite understand, but all laugh anyway. Che: “Who should be offended by that? I can’t tell”
Update – Lorne calls the desk
~ Jost tells a joke about a woman stabbing her boyfriend over salsa. “You would too if your boyfriend was ‘jalapeño’ business!” A phone under the desk rings. Che answers. He says it’s Lorne, then has a conversation along the lines of: “No, he just ad-libbed it. No, it wasn’t funny. Okay, no more jokes like that.” Resume joke telling
Depend Legends
~ airs next week; no “Stars Of Syndication” scene in this version
plus a repeat of Bird Bible from last year, perhaps to show Mike O’Brien some love since he made another classic film tonight
TIDS & BITS
monologue: at the end, all the cast (minus the Update boys) appear on stage. Vanessa, Aidy, Leslie, & Kyle were not part of the song an’ dance on air ** Pete wore a white shirt with denim overalls (Mr. Mom)
Easter basket: “These are jelly beans, & these are jelly stringbeans.” Keaton holds up elongated green tube-lookin’ candy. The visual wasn’t enough to sell the joke, and the audience didn’t really respond ** instead of feeding the “child chicken” a nugget, Kate put it in her mouth. Later, she says the chicken went to church ** “Some people dye eggs. I dye Egg Beaters.” Keaton pours out pink liquid from a carton. Nice big groan, but they cut it anyway ** some whiteboy crew member with a black shirt and back to the camera handed Keaton the egg salad cosmo
CNN: Cecily was behind a desk the whole time, not standing up ** Sasheer explained that the door animation was just “a standard door, but a cockpit door could look similar” ** 3rd animation: a big “down arrow” to explain that the plane went down ** Kenan & Aidy threw the money around when they all started dancing ** Jay’s voice didn’t have the vocoder/autotune effect
Grandparents: Sasheer stood on home base, so everyone could see her Minnie Mouse jeans the whole time; SNL has a strange history of ruining reveals by placing certain sets on highly visible home base
Wallace Advertising: Beck said the first “hands off my lunch” line. When Leslie repeated it to no reaction, she added, “So y’all racist, now, huh?” ** as Keaton leaves, he tells everyone to have the commercials fully shot by the end of the day
Final Four: Killam played the coach from Kentucky, not Duke. I don’t think his costume or make-up changed. Karl-Anthony Towns was the player with a biology test
I’ve never seen an SNL audience so indifferent to a musical guest before. Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2 songs just came & went. People didn’t even applaud for her in the opening montage. While setting up for Update, Jost quipped he “really really liked” the first song
Update: after the Indonesian smoker boy joke, Che said “Let they who are wearing Nikes cast the first groan” ** Che’s joke about a self-driving automobile: “It’s a ghost car! I know what I saw!” His delivery made me one of the only people who laughed ** Pete botched the arrow mechanism, so in the live show, he unnaturally turns to Colin. He giggled his way through most of his commentary ** Norman Reedus gave Jost the crossbow. (“Yeah, get your prints all over it.”) Later, after a bad joke, Jost aims the crossbow at the audience ** Jebidiah: during the “House Of Cards” bit, he turns to a 2nd camera to rip on the show some more. The low response causes him to yell at everyone for not watching the show and understanding the reference ** one of Jeb’s thrown cards flew high, then landed right in front of Che ** “‘The Big Bang Theory’ turned me into a creationist!” ** Flintstones reference not in dress ** Jeb ended with a roast of “The Cosby Show”. The mere mention generated huge groans. Jeb milked it and smirked knowingly. “This is a man who runs an OB-GYN practice out of his house. Trying to tell us something, Cosby? The only thing he dropped more than hints was HIS PANTS!”
DRESS RUNDOWN
Final Four
monologue
Wallace Advertising
DEPEND LEGENDS (CUT)
Toby’s House (CUT)
CNN NewsRoom
ALWAYS BELIEVE
Call Your Grandparents
Carly Rae Jepsen #1
Update
JAY Z (CUT)
religion rant (CUT)
Pete Davidson
Lorne calls (CUT)
Jebidiah Atkinson
A.D.: The Bible Continues (CUT)
piccolo solo (CUT)
PROM QUEEN
smart house
Mangione treatment (CUT)
BIRD BIBLE (R) (CUT)
Sport-House (CUT)
Carly Rae Jepsen #2
Easter basket
goodnights
That Piccolo sketch sounds just…wow. It goes without saying who wrote that one.
Man, some of these cut sketches sound great. Glad to know my personal favorite episode from Year 40 had more where that came from.
Michael Keaton is, to date, the only person to host three times with three completely different casts. Teri Garr would have the honor if it weren’t for Don Novello.
Man, if Rutherford’s kid show host sketch had replaced the spot of the Anderlette one, this would probably be a full 5/5 episode. I won’t spoil it for you but the way everyone in that sketch sells the twist is great.
Can’t believe it didn’t make it. It’s not quite a full ***** for me (I love the first 2 twists but could do without the final one) but it’s INFINITELY better than the Anderlette sketch.
Yeah, HelloStuart from TV.com, I actually thought of Teri Garr that way but since you brought Don Novello (from her 5th and 11th season hosting stints), that makes sense!
How is that Anderlette kept getting their sketches on the show each week, but not any of the actual good material? Were they in Lorne’s inner circle?
Everyone seems to like James Anderson, which probably helped.
I wonder if just plowing ahead with writing sketches without worrying whether they’re any good or not is the reason Anderson lasted 20 years at the show without burning out.
Keaton’s season 18 episode is fine, but this one is the real capper on his involvement with SNL – he went from being heavily sidelined by Dick Ebersol for lack of faith in his hosting abilities, to being a real star here, trading both on his famous roles and his own charisma and energy all through the night. I truly, truly love the Prom Queen sketch (I especially like how it plays to the tropes of this genre without ever needing to add in forced gay jokes), but the monologue is also a blast – probably the best use of the infectious energy Bobby and Taran brought as cast members.
If Michael doesn’t return, I’d rather see this as his final bit rather than the pointless S44 cameo mostly just memorable because it was the worst time to cameo due to the dead audience only there to watch BTS.
I tend to see both points of view about the kids’ show sketch that was cut, but it’s a very strong piece and I wish it had aired. I also wish that Nick Rutherford had been given another season or put in the cast (possibly over Jon Rudnitsky, who didn’t do much for me). He was very easy on the eye, and a reliable performer in the Good Neighbors videos…I will always wonder what might have been.
Neutromony is an absolutely fantastic piece, and much tougher than you tend to get on modern SNL. I would love an oral history on this one.
Promo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn24jP9kAWo
Sitting here with a smile on my face, basking in the light of Trumpless SNL. That was the best cold open in ages (which still means it was only about a ***1/2-****, but baby steps).
And followed by the worst monologue of the season (tied with Wiig at least). Ok, I won’t update all night lol, just a little giddy after having to wait so long for new episodes.
Yea I spoke too soon. After Adele & Rock that’s the worst of the season for me. A couple ok sketches, but some nothing really stood out and a lot of it was just mediocre (which, again, puts it above Adele & Rock, which had a couple DREADFUL sketches. I’d say this was tied with Bateman & Wiig – shows that are fine but simply forgettable.)
I agree with you Anthony. The John Krasinski episode is the worst ever of the entire season I’ve ever seen. Not a single one of sketches (even the monologue) made me laugh, everything is meh. The only and funny good parts are in my opinion, that creepy twins sketch and a little bit of Weekend Update. The rest is trash (not counting the musical guest parts by MGK cause of course). No wonder why many other people think SNL went downhill and it isn’t funny anymore.
I also hated that they still poke fun both at that QAnon lady and MyPillow guy even though their jokes are ACTUALLY way so serious. They just only copying their real-life versions of them, ugh.
*they are poking fun both
Oops, grammar issues. Sorry about that.
I totally agree!
That last comment was related to my opinion of the Cold Open of the John Krasinski ep…
The post-election episode, in my humble opinion, with Dave Chappelle was the worst (to date) for Season 46. Not a single laugh from me.
Dismukes in 2 sketches in a row!!
Kind of weak in them to be honest (also, ok Kate performance in the open, but man was she phoning it in in the twins sketch. Mikey fucking Day should never be more in character than Kate McKinnon.)
I actually thought that “Twins” sketch was the funniest of the night!
I did too, I just thought it would have been even stronger if Kate gave a committed performance (and a few less Seidell/Day style “hey, audience, isn’t this weird?” asides from the news anchors).
Has anyone saw a newer Wayne’s World earlier? I was shocked when I saw that and I legit thought it was a sketch or a part of the show (it’s literally after the monologue ended) but it turns out it’s a teaser of their upcoming Super Bowl commercial (by Uber Eats). It’s nice to see both Myers and Carvey as Wayne (wearing his black shirt again after so many years) and Garth and I’m happy cause this is the first time I’ve ever seen them during this current era since I became an SNL fan a few months ago, but damn they looked old as hell now.
I did see that. Initially I also thought it was a sketch. To be honest seeing them do Wayne’s World in more modern times has tended to make me feel a bit sad.
I thought Andrew was fine enough, considering he’s had few real roles in sketches and was clearly not hired for strong sketch work. I keep waiting for him to get more of a chance to use his voice in his own sketches or pre-tapes.
As for the episode itself, I had low expectations because a) SNL tends to suck at handling topical news in modern times b) this particular topical news would be hard for any era to make work c) I just don’t think John Krainski was ever going to be a strong host (I saw someone say “He’s such a great talk show guest, they wasted him!” but…that’s not really the same thing).
I thought it was a boilerplate episode. John was mostly used about as adequately as he could be, especially without Office or Emily Blunt cameos – competent, solid, likeable. I’d put it smack in the middle for the season. I didn’t dislike anything but also nothing stood out as especially strong. I did appreciate that they used the entire cast, and considering the truly appalling writing on display at times in recent years regarding political material, they did a better job on that front as well. There were a few sketches I did genuinely enjoy and with some tinkering they would have been real highlights. Unfortunately it’s going to take time to get the sketch performances to become more grounded again (if it ever happens again, as this has been a problem for a long long time – I’d go all the way back to the late ’90s/early ’00s, with some exceptions like the first few years of Hader, Sudeikis and Wiig), and also for the overall writing to be tightened up, which isn’t likely to happen until Jost and Che are gone. So really, we are in a holding pattern for the rest of the season, most likely.
If I have any real complaint it’s with how rote the pre-tapes were, and how often this has started to happen in the last few seasons. With Dave McCary and Julio Torres gone, and many heavy hitters in that arena likely in wrapping up their stints (Pete, Kyle, Beck) or having used up much of their ‘greatest hits’ (Mikey), it only makes sense I suppose, but this is an area they really need to work on because pre-tapes have come to be such a backbone for the show. It is odd to have multiple episodes where the pre-tapes end up being some of the weaker parts of the night.
“Wayne’s World” shilling for Uber Eats. 30 years ago, who’d a thunk it…
Noticed last night that Heidi’s air time seems to have significantly decreased this season
Heidi will always be shoehorned in until Kate, Aidy and Cecily leave. I felt like she was adrift for most of last season until the At Home episodes. She had a stronger first half of this season, but now that all three main ladies are back that is probably over.
“I also hated that they still poke fun both at that QAnon lady and MyPillow guy even though their jokes are ACTUALLY way so serious. They just only copying their real-life versions of them, ugh.”
I’d rather they not portray these people at all, but compared to how this usually goes I thought they did a decent enough job with Marjorie Taylor Greene, just having her sit there as her actual views are read out. They did write more of a comedy turn for the MyPillow sleaze, but they made him look awful, so much so that I am already seeing some people say the show was too mean or cheap. My only response to that is assuming these people never sat through most of SNL’s tougher years, especially Jim Downey’s take on Bill Clinton. This was mild in comparison, and was a mostly amusing way to harness Beck Bennett’s manic energy (which we don’t get enough).
That’s nothing compared to how Melissa Vilisenor is continually given short shrift, even the featured players get more air time!
The show needs to stay away from the “two men kissing” troupe to get cheap laughs like in last night’s monologue. Society is way past that and it’s 2021, not 1991.
Nah, there is actually nothing controversial or issue about both Pete Davidson and John Krasinski kissing each other. Based on the audiences reaction on that as well as on social media like Twitter and Reddit, they are loving it not making fun of them. This is way different than the previous ones. I do not think SNL is making fun of gay kiss nowadays.
I disagree @Ezra. I find it to be tacky and tiring. If people like it, fine. I do think needs to be more creative that crappy trope.
I’m on SNLLover’s side. That was a bullshit, hacky, pandering monologue, and the “man kisses man” joke, like he said, has been lame since the 90’s.
Yeah you guys are right. The monologue made me cringe and not funny. I do not like there are some The Office references (are they trying to promote that show on Peacock?). The “Kiss Pam” part isn’t necessary and it made the monologue worse. Although some folks on Twitter world love it, maybe majority of them are first timers who watch the show.
I definitely think the monologue and John singing the Office theme later were results of notes from NBC/Peacock.
Yep. I hated that theme songs sung by the stars sketch. It looks like a poor man’s version of Bill Murray’s Nick The Lounge Singer.
I generally don’t mind the impression showcases sketches, but outside of Chloe & Cecily literally no one was trying to sound like the person they were playing (and what the fuck was that Frasier joke? Unless that’s parodying something I don’t know about Kelsey Grammar, like he tries to be modern and fails at it a lot, that was one of the laziest jokes I’ve seen…well since John’s monologue). Even Melissa didn’t really try to do an Anya Taylor Joy impression, though that is a harder one (I can’t think of anything particularly distinctive about her voice.)
That last comment was related to my opinion of the Cold Open of the John Krasinski ep…
That “I totally agree” comment was related to my opinion of the Cold Open of the John Krasinski ep…
This is the Vintage repeat tonight.
The Michael Keaton song is well catchy and Bobby and Taran dressed up as Catherine O Hara and Glenn Shadix is great
Hard to believe that Keaton will only be hosting his fourth SNL tomorrow night. I hope they don’t make him wait 9 years to finally join the Five-Timers Club.