February 3, 2021 – The 'One SNL a Day' Project

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SUMMERTIME
Hillary Clinton’s (KAM) focus on presidency leaves no time for summer fun

— I recall it being pointed out in an online article that, when Leslie says “And I’m going to Spain” in this cold opening, someone onscreen can be heard farting if you listen carefully, and the article went into a very deep analysis trying to figure out which cast member in question was the culprit (I kid you not). Understandably, I have no desire to chime in on that analysis, I just wanted to put the story out there for anyone reading this.
— Pretty fun concept of Kate’s Hillary Clinton desperately trying to relate to random beach-goers. She has a lot of great bits here.
— I love how this is using the whole cast, especially given how this is the season finale. I prefer my season finale full-cast sketches to be at the very end of the episode, but I’m not complaining at all about the placement of this particular one.
— Solid walk-on from Darrell Hammond’s Bill Clinton.
— A particularly good line from Kate’s Hillary detailing how her final day as president will go.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about mild racism, Middle East strife, child molesters

— A piece of confetti can be seen falling from above when Louis C.K. enters the front of the stage. The confetti must be for a sketch later tonight.
— A good laugh from how Louis’ random “I grew up in the 70s, so…I’m not racist” statement is immediately followed by him saying a “HOWEVER…”.
— Huge laughs from the examples Louis gives of mild racism.
— I love Louis’ “Cuz I like this one a little more” aside to us when using an even worse mock-y gibberish voice for one of his two daughters over the other.
— Great analogy Louis makes between himself/his fighting two daughters and America/Israel/Palentstine.
— Oh, here’s the famous child molester bit in this monologue.
— Man, this whole child molester routine is not only EXTREMELY risky (easily one of the riskiest things aired on SNL in recent years), but pays off by being absolutely freakin’ priceless, particularly the “molesting children must be REALLY good…….from the child molester’s point of view, for them to risk so much” bit, and the Mounds bar analogy Louis makes to child molesting. This whole segment puts this monologue over the top as my favorite of Louis’ SNL monologues, which is saying something, as I’ve loved all of the monologues he’s done up to this point.
STARS: *****

THE SHOEMAKER AND THE ELVES
masochistic elves (KET) & (VAB) goad shoemaker (host) into punishing them

— Oh, no. The debut of a recurring sketch that I never liked.
— Even when currently watching this with a more open mind, I’m still finding myself not enjoying it. And something about Kenan’s delivery is somehow making this material even worse, which is rare at this point of Kenan’s run, where his delivery usually salvages sketches for me.
— At least Aidy has a fairly funny brief walk-on.
— Odd turn at the end with Louis’ character asking us viewers who he should pick between his wife and the elves, and telling us to give our answer via text. That whole bit is obviously fake, but if this was the Dick Ebersol era, that call-in phone number would’ve actually been real, and we’d have gotten the voting results at the end of the show. This Elves sketch ain’t worth all of that effort, though.
STARS: *½

SPRINT STORE
to avoid angering boss (LEJ), (host) is stuck with a sassy black accent

— An awkward brief moment with Leslie accidentally saying one of her lines too early while Louis is still speaking, resulting in Leslie making an “Oops” gesture and dropping character to tell Louis “I’m sorry, go ahead”, which is completely out of place for the mean, rude character Leslie’s supposed to be playing in this sketch.
— Despite how dodgy this “Louis talking in a mocking, stereotypical black voice” premise initially seems, it actually ends up turning hilarious with Louis’ character claiming that’s his real voice and having to keep up that facade to prevent Leslie from finding out he was initially mocking her. Louis is slaying me here, and is selling this concept so well.
— Love the “One year later” screen being shown immediately after Louis worriedly asks how long is he going to have to keep up his “black voice” facade.
— A priceless twist at the end with Louis getting busted on faking his “black” voice all these years. I absolutely love Leslie’s angry lines to him after that.
STARS: ****½

THE WOODWORKERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
diners’ failure to use toothpicks jeopardizes lumberjack’s (host) future

— A hilarious random twist ending to this short-but-sweet commercial.
— The ending mock-dramatic close-up of Louis with a tear rolling down his cheek is great.
— Also funny work from Beck as the passionate jingle singer in the background.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bitch Better Have My Money”

WEEKEND UPDATE
TV show credits place blame for ISIS with George W. Bush & Dick Cheney

Tom Brady (TAK) uses charm & platitudes to dodge blame for Deflategate

PED is losing interest in Harry Potter & is amazed that he’s on SNL

Riblet once again steals the spotlight from MIC with his news delivery

— Funny bit with the sitcom-esque closing credits for ISIS. I especially love the “Sit, Ubu, sit”-esque Halliburton Productions vanity logo.
— Taran at least seems to be attempting more of an impression of Tom Brady’s voice here than he did the previous time he played him. His Brady voice here still doesn’t sound very accurate, but then again, Brady doesn’t have an easily-imitable voice.
— A pretty funny novelty to see Colin displaying some acting, in the shots of him being charmed by Taran’s Brady.
— Good ad-lib (“That was a rare Brady flub there, huh, Michael?”) from Taran after flubbing a line.
— Nice to see this season of Update be bookended by a commentary from Pete.
— A very funny comment from Pete in regards to how he and his high school friends would’ve used and ruined Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.
— A meta, self-deprecating end to Pete’s commentary, with him pointing out his lack of range as a cast member, and asking “How did I get on this show, Colin??? Did my mom seen an NBC executive hit a kid and drive off?”
— Ooh, I like this special segment for this season finale Update, where Colin and Michael each tell an Update joke that was cut after dress rehearsal earlier this season.
— A good intentionally-groanworthy “…if your boyfriend was jalapeno business” punchline from Colin in the cut-after-dress joke he tells here.
— I love this particular way Bobby’s Riblet character suddenly pops up, though I’m surprised it interrupted Michael from doing a cut-after-dress joke.
— The usual laughs from Riblet, even if this is just treading the same ground as always and they’ll never top him stripping down to a suit and removing the sides of his hair during his previous commentary.
— Ha, another Mikey Day walk-on in a Riblet commentary (the last above screencap for this Weekend Update), back when Mikey was just a writer.
— An overall strong final Update of the season, and a perfect example of the growth this new Jost/Che era experienced over the course of this inaugural season of theirs.
STARS: ****

COUPLES RETREAT
Gemma & her new overbearing boyfriend (host) order champagne & shrimp

— Hmm, I had absolutely no prior memory of a Gemma sketch appearing in this episode. Louis seems like he’s an odd fit for this particular role of Gemma’s obnoxious bro-type boyfriend, which Dwayne Johnson previously played to perfection.
— Blah, even Gemma’s song here is in the EXACT SAME melody of her bananas song from the first installment of this sketch. Lazy.
— This sketch in general is just repeating the EXACT SAME beats from the first installment, and I already wasn’t crazy about it the first time.
— I do kinda like the way Louis is playing this role, but he’s got nothing on Dwayne Johnson in that department.
STARS: *½

ACTOR LINE-UP
actors suspected of mugging treat police line-up as audition opportunity

— An interesting rarity of Kyle being seen with his natural stubble all throughout this episode’s live sketches. Did he say to himself, “Ehh, fuck it – it’s the season finale. Why bother shaving?”
— Fun concept of a police line-up of actors, each of whom humorously treats this line-up as an audition. The execution of this is great.
— I love how Taran, Kyle, Beck, and Louis are each giving their actor characterization its own individual flavor, each of which is so spot-on.
— All of the interplay between the actor characters is not only funny, but it’s actually very charming.
STARS: ****½

THE WOODWORKERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
switch from physical to virtual books threatens lumberjack’s livelihood

— The twist at the end is a very funny and unexpected continuation of the Woodworkers Association ad from earlier tonight.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “American Oxygen”

FORGOTTEN TV GEMS WITH REESE DE’WHAT
lesbian housewife (KAM) is vehicle for sitcom hijinks

— Feels like we just saw Reese De’What, as he appeared only three episodes prior to this.
— Tonight’s Reese De’What anecdote about a rude thing he once told his wife is an improvement over the not-as-funny-as-usual one from the last installment of this sketch three episodes prior.
— A questionable premise, but the performances in the sitcom scenes are pretty fun. Not the best sketch to end a season on, though.
— Reese De’What’s “body surf” line cracked me up.
STARS: **½

GOODNIGHTS

— Some actually funny antics from Rihanna during Louis’ goodnights speech, with her playfully goofing around behind his back.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another strong Louis C.K.-hosted episode, making him 3-for-3 in that department by this point of SNL’s run. While this episode did have a few misfires and a questionable choice for a 10-to-1 season-closing sketch (all of which just so happen to have been written by James Anderson and Kent Sublette, unsurprisingly), literally all of the other segments in this episode were great and received a rating from me in the 4-5 star range. Damn impressive. This overall episode was a very nice way to end the season, which is a refreshing turnaround from how insanely frustrating and underwhelming the preceding season’s tired-cameo-filled finale was. (In fact, come to think of it, this Louis C.K. season finale I just reviewed featured no cameos AT ALL, which makes this episode even more refreshing in comparison to the preceding season’s finale.)

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Monologue
Sprint Store / Actor Line-Up (tie)
The Woodworkers Association Of America (both parts)
Summertime
Weekend Update
Forgotten TV Gems with Reese De’What
Couples Retreat
The Shoemaker And The Elves

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Reese Witherspoon)
a big step up

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER (Note: The 40th Anniversary Special is not included in this)