Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
FOX & FRIENDS
Ben Carson (JAP) gives his thoughts on Syrian refugees
— Didn’t they just do this sketch a few episodes ago?
— This ends up being the final installment of this sketch with the Taran/Vanessa/Bobby lineup. This sketch would be revived for one installment years later with a new lineup of cast members playing the three hosts.
— The usual good laughs from Bobby’s dimwitted Brian Kilmeade.
— Kate’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz again, after she appeared in the last installment of this sketch prior to this. She’s fine here, but nothing particularly special, and it’s making this feel too similar to the last installment.
— An impression I’m more welcoming towards seeing is Jay’s Ben Carson, making its first appearance in a sketch that’s set in present day.
— Jay’s Ben Carson: “Oh, I’m like a koala bear – on the outside, I may seem nice, but on the inside, I’ve never held elected office.”
— Wow, for once, we get a deviation from the usual list of fact corrections that this recurring sketch typically ends with. This time, instead of showing a fact corrections list, the camera cuts to Leslie as the show’s fact checker, who answers Taran’s “How’d we do on our facts?” question with a very funny response: “Bad! Ya’ll gonna have me up all night!” I wonder if the reason for this deviation from the usual fact corrections list is because whoever writes these sketches was sick of coming up with those lists.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host recounts Dazed & Confused origin of “alright alright alright” phrase
— Much like Matthew McConaughey’s previous monologue from his season 28 hosting stint, this features him telling a very long-winded story.
— Is it true what Matthew says here about only having three lines in Dazed & Confused? I’ve never actually seen that whole movie, just a few clips, but from everything I’ve heard about Matthew’s iconic character in it, I assumed he certainly had more than a mere three lines.
— I do like the punchline of this story, but it wasn’t funny enough to justify neither the long length nor the dullness of the story. I also don’t like how self-indulgent both of Matthew’s long-story monologues feel. Plus, at least in his season 28 monologue, the long story was only the first half of the monologue, and the second half (featuring him going backstage and getting high with cast members in his dressing room) redeemed that overall monologue. Tonight’s monologue, on the other hand, just concludes after the story ends, leaving me with an unsatisfied feel.
STARS: **
A THANKSGIVING MIRACLE
musical guest’s “Hello” soothes tensions during family Thanksgiving meal
— Some great realistic tension in the opening Thanksgiving dinner table conversation about social and political issues, featuring strong acting from the cast.
— Very solid turn with Adele’s “Hello” song immediately stopping the tension at the table and leading to the family lip-syncing the song dreamily.
— The recurrent “Hello” lip-syncing sequences are getting funnier and funnier the more extensive they become in emulating the music video for this song. These lip-syncing sequences are also a great commentary on how much that song moves people.
— I’m loving how very well-done everything about this short is. Prior to my current viewing, I had forgotten just how damn strong this short is.
STARS: *****
BLUES SHACK
trouble-free (host) sits in with blues musicians who have legit hardships
— Something about the upper chin area of Kenan’s fake beard is distracting.
— Blah, the comedic conceit with Matthew’s character’s bad examples of blues isn’t doing anything for me.
— I do admit to laughing at the so-dumb-it’s-funny bit where, when told to act like Kenan’s character, Matthew’s character just mostly sings the words “I’m black, I am black!” over and over.
— Overall, aside from the above-mentioned part and some funny straight man reactions from Kenan, this sketch was a flop.
STARS: *½
3D PRINTER MAN
audience easily identifies 3D bioprinted man (host) via a Turing test
— Matthew’s unnatural sentence wordings and robot-like actions are fairly funny.
— The physical actions from Matthew when he and the other guys are demonstrating moves are providing pretty good laughs.
STARS: ***
STAR WARS AUDITIONS
Star Wars Episode VII roles go to Daisy Ridley & John Boyega [real] & not celebs
— A twist to the usual formula of SNL’s screen test pre-tapes, by having this one involve some real celebrities, including some from the actual Star Wars VII movie. This is providing more of a fresh feel to SNL’s usual screen test formula.
— The mere visual of Aidy in that ridiculous huge wig is alone worth a big laugh.
— Taran’s David Beckham scene is particularly funny.
— A hilarious scene with Bobby as Danny DeVito auditioning for BB-8.
— Jon Hamm!
— Ah, Hamm’s being his usual funny and charming self here.
— Leslie steals yet another segment.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hello”
WEEKEND UPDATE
COJ & MIC give their comedic takes on immigration & America
guest anchor Laura Parsons brings spunky delivery to serious news items
for Thanksgiving, COJ & MIC write jokes for one another to tell
David Ortiz (KET) is retiring from baseball but has endorsements lined up
— The usual very solid long-form news story breakdown from Colin and Michael, this time on the topic of immigration.
— Laura Parsons, an established sketch character of Vanessa’s, makes her first of several Update appearances.
— Laura Parsons delivering very harrowing news stories in her usual upbeat, child actor-y delivery is absolutely priceless. This is a great way to reinvent this character, and I feel she definitely works better on Update than in sketches.
— Ah, an important moment, as we get the official debut of the well-loved tradition of Colin and Michael swapping jokes. In this inaugural outing, the occasion for this joke-swap routine is Thanksgiving. IIRC, the occasion for this routine would later be changed to Christmas.
— The bad or self-insulting jokes Michael and Colin have been given in tonight’s joke-swap are very funny.
— The second-ever appearance of Kenan’s David Ortiz, after making his first appearance all the way back in season 39.
— The ridiculous ads that Kenan’s Ortiz is doing are hilarious, especially the “Smidgeon of Pigeon” and the “Go Outside” ones.
— Overall, yet another damn strong Jost/Che Update. It used to be rare for Updates to earn a four-and-a-half-star rating from me, but at the rate the Jost/Che era of Update has been going lately, it seems to be becoming a regular thing.
STARS: ****½
SHOULD YOU CHIME IN ON THIS?
ignorant contestants can’t resist engaging
— Yet another game show sketch in this decade where the game show host has a similar-sounding name to a celebrity (this time Allen DeGeneres), which is such a tired joke by this point.
— Something about the atmosphere of this sketch feels dead so far.
— Boy, Kenan is hamming up a storm in this sketch. Half of that is working for me, while the other half is too reminiscent of Kenan’s weaker tendencies as a performer in his earlier seasons before he became a reliable veteran. My problem is, his hammy, broad performance in this sketch doesn’t seem right for this particular role he’s playing.
— Pretty funny reveal of a long braid on the back of Matthew’s head.
— A surprising walk-on from Kate’s Hillary Clinton, who I had forgotten appears in this sketch.
— Overall, while this had a promising concept, I was underwhelmed by the execution of it.
STARS: **
RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED WITH GRACELYNN AND CORY
oven cleaner fumes overcome turkey chef (host)
— The third and final appearance of this sketch. Feels odd seeing this sketch buried so late in tonight’s lineup, given how early in the show’s lineup it previously appeared.
— Like the second installment of this sketch, the fun and charming interplay between Taran and Cecily continues to grow on me, after I didn’t care for it in the first installment.
— What was with Matthew goofily calling attention to his very minor opening line flub (so minor, that I didn’t even notice it until he called attention to it) and pointlessly making himself repeat the whole line?
— The different flavor that Matthew’s character is adding to this recurring sketch is…uh, interesting so far.
— Taran’s line about brush blocking Cecily’s “backwoods” area made me laugh.
— Ehhh, the more Matthew’s scenes go on, the less and less I’m liking them. His performance is reminding me an awful lot of how annoying and bizarre I found his performances in his season 28 hosting stint, if you remember my VERY negative review of that episode (link here).
— Ugggghhhh, the unfunny running gag of Kate showing up as a male singer in each installment of this recurring sketch continues.
STARS: **½ (Matthew’s performance brought this down for me)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When We Were Young”
TOWN HALL MEETING
at a community forum, inferiority complex leads (host) to object to train
— Oh, God. Looks like I’m in for another annoying McConaughey character piece, judging from his performance so far.
— I did get a laugh just now at the reveal of Matthew’s ridiculous-looking fake hand.
— Matthew actually has funny lines here, but something feels wrong about the overly hammy, broad way he’s playing this role, similar to my complaint about Kenan’s performance in the Should You Chime In On This sketch. Matthew’s bad performance is hurting the humor of this sketch.
— Surprisingly, this is Pete’s first and ONLY appearance all night, and it’s not even a speaking role.
— The ending was pretty awful.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly weak episode. Despite a few strong things in the first half, including the classic A Thanksgiving Miracle piece, this episode as a whole never fully took off for me, and there were a number of underwhelming pieces, especially in the second half of the show, where I didn’t care much for ANY of the sketches, despite all of them having potential. Matthew McConaughey is now 0-for-2 in good SNL episodes. And while I found him tolerable for a majority of his performances in this episode compared to his performances in his awful season 28 episode, the last 15 minutes of this episode sadly featured him relapsing into his annoying self from his season 28 stint. Might be a good idea to just keep him away from SNL from now on. I just don’t feel he and sketch comedy mix all that well.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
A Thanksgiving Miracle
Weekend Update
Star Wars Auditions
Fox & Friends
3D Printer Man
Right Side of the Bed with Gracelynn and Cory
Should You Chime In On This?
Town Hall Meeting
Monologue
Blues Shack
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elizabeth Banks)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Ryan Gosling
McConaughey reminds me of some friends who are kinda funny and have a decent sense of humor (i.e., they’ll laugh at your jokes and show good humor), but think they’re way funnier than they are. I feel like he’d be more palatable in this episode if he just played to form more than anything. I appreciate (I guess) the attempts to play characters, but not every host is cut out for that.
I haven’t seen Dazed and Confused in a while, but while I do think his role is smaller than you might think, he has more than three lines for sure.
I hadn’t been following anything about The Force Awakens’ casting, so I was slightly confused seeing the real Star Wars cast members in the sketch at first. If I recall, all of them showed pretty good humor and comic timing (and yet, I believe only Adam Driver has hosted).
Driver is the only one from the main series of new Star Wars to host, though Felicity Jones hosted later to promote Rogue One. I guess when Driver turned out to be such a natural, he became their consistent Star Wars host. Would have been fun to see any of those other 3 host, though, they’re all fun (I also was foolishly hoping for Mark Hamill to host in 2017, which I think could have been a classic.)
I do wonder if Ridley may have been considered but then Felicity Jones was asked instead due to Rogue One opening not far off the time SNL returned from break. I will say Ridley and Boyega didn’t really give much of a hint they would be a good host here (although Boyega did have some energy), but then, they probably would have been about as passable as Jones was.
Jones was the last Star Wars host before the franchise went from being seen as a modern American touchstone to something very divisive and ugly (I guess one could say the same about SNL in these years, in a smaller way…), so that may have also impacted hosting choices, although that’s a reach. For a while I actually thought Ridley DID host due to seeing this and briefly mixing her up with Jones.
Aside from a bit of sadness at Boyega’s seeming enthusiasm considering what would become of his role in these movies, there’s not a whole lot to say about the first half (the highlight probably being Aidy as Wynonna, the low being yet another interchangeable old British lady impression from Kate), but it picks up a lot in the second half – Jay’s Chris Tucker, Taran’s Beckham, and most of all, Bobby’s George Lucas, just sort of wandering around aimlessly.
The celebrity cameos are interesting more because of how random they feel. Jon Hamm, of course, tends to pop up every season or two (and is a lot of fun here, along with wearing the costume well), but Michael Buble hadn’t done much with SNL in several years and this would be his last appearance. Did he have an album to plug or was he just free that week…? Emma Stone’s cameo makes me wonder if her people were still reeling from all that media backlash over Aloha and called up SNL for a distraction? Again, like Hamm, she looks so good here that I’m half-surprised she didn’t get more work in this type of genre…
The cut for time piece has a lot of material that deserved to be cut (Matthew), but Taran as JGL and Kyle as Shia are priceless. I’d go as far as to say the bit as Shia may be one of the best things Kyle has done on the show.
I believe Glover was also technically promoting Solo when he hosted, though he was really just promoting how good of a year he was having.
Dazed & Confused is an all time favorite for me. Like Michael said, his role is definitely more than 3 lines though not as big as you’d think from its reputation. Maybe the 3 lines thing is a reference to the fact that everyone one really remembers his 3 big lines (“Alright, alright, alright” “JKL – just keep living” & the high school girl thing).
McConaughey & sketch comedy definitely isn’t the best mix. We see this again later this season when Russel Crowe hosts, one of the worst examples I’ve ever seen of a talented dramatic actor being FAR too confident in his comedy skills.
Tomorrow marks the moment Kate officially becomes a superstar and takes over the show, in my mind. Hillary and a few of the other impressions were getting her quite a bit of buzz, but Close Encounters was such a huge hit and is her official “moment” in my eyes.
I can’t wait for tomorrow’s episode, Gosling probably holds the record for most sketches with the host breaking.
“I just don’t feel [Matthew McConaughey] and sketch comedy mix all that well.”
This is bizarre considering McConaughey has brought up that his favorite sketch show is Exit 57, which has super locked-in performances and isn’t hammy at all. But that show is much like McConaughey himself in that it is *very* rambling and wordy, though it works better there.
I feel like if he traveled back in time to host during an ’81-’84 episode he’d do well, especially in those kinda meandering sketches that feel lifted straight from the Second City stage.
I think McConaughey is a decent dramatic actor, but I’ve mostly found him to be arrogant and dull otherwise (and one of those tedious hypocrites who takes big paychecks from Hollywood while droning on about “illiberals” to sell his books on shitty podcasts). The only interesting thing about his episodes is probably that this installment of Right Side of the Bed ended up thrown into the latest version of SNL’s Thanksgiving clip show.
I didn’t realize they were already doing “Kate’s playing a man…so funny!!!” stuff this early on. Just another reminder for me that her style has not changed much in her time as a cast member, she just gets too much focus and it burns out her talents.
So many ****½ ratings for Jost and Che. I thought this was a first, but then I looked back at some of Norm MacDonald’s, and quite a few have 4.5 stars. Which begs the question, has there ever been a five-star Update yet for this blog? And do we think there are any episodes where Jost and Che will get the perfect five?
I haven’t gone back and rewatched these as I don’t want to spoil the memory, but I’d probably give the Updates from Eddie Murphy’s episode and the last before the pandemic shutdown (Craig 5 stars. I thought the guests were first-rate, especially on Murphy’s, and I thought the pandemic Update had great guests (including the amazing feat of Cecily managing to successfully bring back the “Girl You Wouldn’t…” character) and managed to successfully mine dark humor and feel “real” while still being satirical in a way it is hard for Update to do. The Update before that one is also strong but probably not a 5 star.
On my “Favorite Sketches Not Given Five Stars” list from the 95-00 era (in the Jackie Chan thread), I listed the Will Ferrell puke edition (John Goodman 1997) as a potential five star sketch. I also would add Dennis’ Update from the 88 premiere.
Actually, Miller’s debut is basically perfect too.
On last night’s SNL, Oscar Isaac said he was asked to host in 2015. He may have just been joking (the next part was that he said no because of the pandemic, their reply being “What pandemic?”), but if he was asked I wonder if this was the episode – it was not far off the Force Awakens premiere, and Matthew was not really doing much at this time to promote for SNL.
As much as I love Jon Hamm, my GOD, he has got to hold the world record for “sudden, spontaneous” appearances on comedy shows. My wife and I joke that he hangs out just outside various TV studios offering to just walk on and be Jon Hamm for 3-7 seconds.
It’s rarely a bad thing, as he’s hilarious. But at least from around 2008-15, we got serious burnout from the many “I’m Jon Hamm and I’m uncomfortable” cameos that stretched across our favorite shows.