Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) is preferable to any of the current GOP candidates
— For some reason, it feels weird hearing Darrell Hammond announce the usual “And now, a message from the president of the United States.” It also makes me realize how seldom SNL has done presidential address cold openings in the post-Don Pardo era so far.
— Random Will Ferrell appearance as George W. Bush! I can’t remember if this cameo was a surprise when this episode originally aired, or if it was announced/spoiled beforehand.
— Already a big laugh from Will-as-Bush’s opening announcement: “I’m entering the race for president of the United States.”
— Lots of other great lines from Will’s Bush throughout this as he does a breakdown of the republicans running for president.
— A particularly funny bit about leprechauns.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
cast members barely tolerate host’s backstage jokey pranks & roughhousing
— A decently funny bit at the beginning with Chris Hemsworth reacting to a photo of himself from his March 2015 hosting stint as if it’s a photo of him at a much younger age.
— I’m always a bit of a sucker for host-goes-around-the-studio monologues.
— Chris, to Bobby: “How many sketches do you play Santa Claus in tonight?” Bobby: “(in a depressed manner) All of them.”
— Chris’ dickish “playful” behavior towards the cast members is providing some pretty good laughs.
— A predictable but still-funny part with Leslie.
— Absolutely love the bit with Colin and Michael.
STARS: ***½
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS ACTION FIGURES
adult collectors like to leave Star Wars VII action figures in the box
— A funny spoof of some obsessed adult collectors of Star Wars action figures.
— A classic part with the melancholy, deep look Taran silently stares off with when one of the young boys asks him “Does your wife like toys, too?”
— Love the contrast between the loud, upbeat transition shot and the extremely quiet scene it’s immediately followed by, where Bobby is VERY slowly and carefully placing a Star Wars action figure in a glass case, all the while the young boys are just looking on in a deadpan manner.
STARS: ****
ON THE RECORD W/ GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Ted Cruz (TAK) & other GOP candidates weigh in on Muslims
— Feels odd seeing Kate doing this impression, after I had gotten so used to seeing Kristen Wiig do this impression for years. Also feels odd seeing this sketch not appearing in the cold opening slot like Kristen’s Van Susteren sketches did.
— Looks like I’m in for a rare post-2010 hostless sketch, as I can’t see how they’re going to fit Chris Hemsworth in this.
— At least Kate is going for a different take on Van Susteren than Kristen did.
— I always love Bobby’s take on Chris Christie, and he’s very solid here as usual.
— When he, as Ben Carson, is intentionally butchering the names of several radical groups, Jay messes up by initially pronouncing “ISIS” correctly, even though Kate immediately reacts like he butchered it. He then butchers the pronunciation like he’s supposed to (“iss-iss”). As much as Jay has grown as a performer over the years, he still hasn’t outgrown his tendency to flub lines.
STARS: ***
TIME TO BLEED
gunshot doesn’t slow cop’s (host) crimefighting & wooing
— All of the interplay between Chris and Sasheer’s cop characters is such an accurate spoof of cop movies.
— A solid progression to this, and Chris is playing this role really well. Sasheer is also very strong in a rare co-starring role.
— Good ending, especially Sasheer’s delivery of the final line.
STARS: ****
BROTHER 2 BROTHER
Marky’s physiology is obviously inferior to Matty’s
— I liked the first installment of this sketch, but I’m not sure I needed a sequel.
— I’m not liking Beck’s long run of the differences between the twins as much as I liked Cecily’s delivery of that in the first installment of this.
— A very odd and awkward genuine gaffe where Chris, while making his entrance in the locker room, can’t get the door to open all the way and accidentally bumps hard into it, hurting himself and very audibly reacting in pain. Yikes.
— I got a laugh from the fake-out where the music sting made it seem like the show was going to end after the twins did their usual leaning-against-each-other’s-backs pose, only for the other characters to continue with their run of the differences between the twins.
STARS: **½
DEBRA’S TIME
obscure holiday song “Debra’s Time” derails Christmas carol singalong
— Oh, no. The second edition of these “Someone among a group of people sings a made-up song that they keep expecting everybody else in the group to join in on as if it’s a famous song” sketches that I never can stand.
— I’m getting sick of all the overdone cutaways to the straight man characters “reacting” with dumbfounded looks to the “Debra’s Time” song.
— The only positive I can find in this is that Cecily is performing this masterfully.
— Aaaaaand there’s that typical dumb, corny “Hey, the other people in the group do know the song after all!!!!11!1!!!” twist that these sketches typically have.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Jeremih [real] perform “Paradise”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Jeb Bush’s new campaign ad solicits pity via Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel”
Time’s Person Of The Year Angela Merkel (KAM) struggles to celebrate
Breaking Bad fan LEJ plans to make meth to pay for her retirement
— A somewhat interesting commentary that Michael and Colin are making on Donald Trump, but, even though they’re still taking a lot of digs at him here, it seems like SNL has continued to be on their “We’re still a bit defensive of Trump since he recently hosted our show” kick, with Michael and Colin claiming here that they don’t believe Trump’s actually a racist. Hmm. I’m sure they (or at least SNL in general) would soon change their tune on that.
— A good laugh from the “Rescue Jeb” ad.
— Kate’s Angela Merkel, on Donald Trump’s claim that Merkel is ruining Germany: “Oh, yeah. I guess he prefers our earlier stuff.”
— Blah at that really bad “egg nod” joke from Kate’s Merkel. A weak way to end her otherwise-fine commentary.
— Leslie, on Walter White’s wife in Breaking Bad not being happy with him making meth: “I’m like, ‘You need to get’cho ass in there and juggle them balls, BITCH!’”
— An overall fairly short but still very funny commentary from Leslie about Breaking Bad.
STARS: ***½
BRUNCH
ladies’ friend “Claire” is host in drag seeking hunkiness reassurance
— The initial reveal of Chris in drag is almost groan-inducing, but becomes tolerable when you gradually realize that the conceit is Chris playing himself in drag out of insecure desperation to keep ladies talking about how hot he is.
— During the discreet conversation the ladies have while Chris is in the bathroom, I laughed when they realized that they’ve never met their “close” friend Claire (Chris) before.
— Good delivery from Aidy of her ending line: “No, this was bad and you’re weird now.”
STARS: ***
PIRATE SHIP
on a pirate ship, crewman Mark (JOR) lifts spirits with his buffoonery
— After struggling badly in the last handful of episodes since the Tracy Morgan one, Jon Rudnitsky gets his first noteworthy role in a good while, and his first overall comedic lead role.
— Are they kidding me with the conceit of this sketch? The unfunny, dumb, intentionally-corny humor in this is cringeworthy.
— Something about Taran’s performance when he’s going on about Jon’s character’s hilarious “Jeffy” routine is coming off really bad and annoying to me, and I rarely if ever say that about Taran.
— The performers sure are having a good laugh amongst themselves over the blooper with Kenan being the only one splashed with water. Too bad I’m not laughing as well.
— Overall, what a dreadful sketch. I also remember some online SNL fans said this sketch seemed to be SNL trying way too hard to make the audience like Jon. Whether intentional on SNL’s part or not, this sketch indeed gave off that desperate “Please like this struggling new guy, everyone!” vibe. (Basically the inverse of future one-season wonder Luke Null’s first lead role, where, after Luke struggles to get anything noteworthy to do in his first few months, SNL makes the questionable decision to have Luke’s very first lead role be a really off-putting, dickish character in a classroom sketch that would end up making him come off unlikable to a number of viewers.) And as we know now, this desperate attempt to make Jon a hit with the audience didn’t pay off. And sketches like this, along with some other things (particularly that ridiculous and offensive Anderson Cooper impression he did earlier this season), makes his firing after this season no big loss to me AT ALL.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sunday Candy”
HUNK JUNKTION
earnest dancers (TAK), (host), (JAP), (BEB) don’t get strip club concept
— Another display of giggliness from Kenan tonight, this time caused by a slight delay in the music being cued up.
— Meh, I’m not caring much for the comedic conceit of the stripping routine, nor Kate, Cecily, and Aidy’s Mikey Day-esque “Straight man characters incredulously describe the already-obvious oddness they’re witnessing from the comedic characters” roles. Not even the gag of Leslie being the only person in the group of female customers bopping energetically to the stripping routine is working much for me, as it’s such a cliched gag on SNL.
— I howled at Kenan’s angry delivery of “Whip…out…ya nekkid ding-dongs NOW!” That’s one laugh in this sketch, at least.
— Very weak ending.
STARS: *½
ARONS LIST
Rerun from 11/14/15
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A bit of a meh and unmemorable episode. Actually, there was a decent number of good things, but I can’t help but feel they were overshadowed by all of the things I either didn’t care for or felt were forgettably average.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Action Figures
Presidential Address
Time To Bleed
Monologue
Weekend Update
Brunch
On The Record w/ Greta Van Susteren
Brother 2 Brother
Hunk Junktion
Debra’s Time
Pirate Ship
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ryan Gosling)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, SNL’s first dual hosts in 11 years, host the Christmas episode
I think at one point you call Sasheer Ego in the review.
I have almost no memory of this episode. I remember Debra’s Song, which is actually my favorite entry in this sketch series that I don’t enjoy. I’m not sure why…there’s something about Hemsworth’s performance that tickles me (“I’ll drive faster!” always cracks me up at the end).
“The second edition of these “Someone among a group of people sings a made-up song that they keep expecting everybody else in the group to join in on as if it’s a famous song” sketches that I never can stand.”
You’re gonna love the sketch from this past week then. (Let alone the many other examples over the years)
Ego? That’s sasheer. Come on bruh
Other than the classic game show sketch that I’m sure will get the full five I can remember being a little disappointed with Tina and Amy’s show coming up tomorrow. I think everyone was expecting a classic and I remember it being okay-ish
Given the track record of their past host episodes I wonder why people had such high expectations….
(I do LOVE the sketch you are talking about)
I’m pretty sure that his was during the “Tina and Amy should host everything!” which was a popular take at the time. So it seemed to raise expectations
I’m so excited for the next episode. We have two hosts for the first time since 2004. That year, there were two episodes with dual hosts (Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen).
I’m so disappointed to learn they tried to recur Brother 2 Brother. The first is just terrific and never needed a second helping. I’m glad I have never seen it.
I have NEVER heard of this Jon pirate sketch. You always just hear about the Weekend Update Dirty Dancing bit as his ‘moment’ this season. Was this sketch so bad people just memory holed it?
One of my absolute favorite sketches getting reviewed tomorrow!!
Anyone watching tonight’s show? That had to be one of the longest updates in recent memory
Two quick thoughts on tonight’s episode:
-The show continues its slow rebuild. This wasn’t on the level of the Burr or Chalamet episodes, but King was a lot of fun and I liked more than I didn’t.
-Kate’s Update pieces are officially at the same levels of self indulgence as Season 20 Sandler.
I agree with you on Kate. She’s playing the same character all over again ugh. This episode is a little too painful to watch for me (although Regina did an excellent job as a host). It looks like the audience sounds dead, probably due to them wearing masks mandated by the COVID protocols.
Kate and Aidy seemed to have dominated the last few shows.
The live sketches were nothing great. The southern women sketch has been done to death. They added a new wrinkle but still was stale. The fifteen strikes sketch kinda went too long.
Pre tapes were okay I guess.
Still wouldn’t call this a good episode
c’mon, debra’s time is good! it’s a funny idea and would have been even funnier had they not redone the same concept a half dozen times over the following few years.
as for tonight’s episode, i love Kate and Aidy but i am beyond done watching them do the same tired shtick they’ve done for half a decade. the show needs new blood and new voices in the worst way.
Yea, I’m definitely going to disagree that was just a “southern women” sketch. It had a legit funny premise and ran with it, I was cool with that one (also, I could be wrong, but I don’t even think the girls were doing Southern accents in that sketch). I also thought Gorilla Glue had a fun, Tracy Morgan energy (even if went on too long) and What’s Your Type? had maybe my favorite Mikey performance ever. Again, not my favorite episode, but I liked more than I didn’t.
I guess initially I thought it seemed like the southern women sketches from Schumer, Larson, several other episodes but I think only a couple characters had the southern accent. I thought it had the same format with increasingly absurd things happening but yeah I guess it was a different tone
It definitely had a similar start as the mom cut and spirit animal sketches (which are admittedly way better, as they go way further into absurdity), but yea, like I said I think it went off a different way and made fun of a different aspect of momhood.
It looks like I’m in the minority on this one though from what I’m seeing as a lot of people are calling it one of the worst of the season. Then again a lot of people liked Levy’s episode which I though was blah (and to a lesser extent Rae’s) so what do I know?
I thought it was a pretty boilerplate SNL episode of recent years, the most interesting difference probably being that it had the more experimental and rough-edged flair of the early ’00s – Gorilla Glue and the disco diva sketch could have come from that time, and even part of the theater sketch was reminiscent of the “talking ’bout ‘ginas” sketch from the early ’00s (just with the added _____ REACTS!!! that we never get away from now). The technical errors and card-reading really distracted in the last few sketches, a number of decent pieces were somewhat spoilt by being too long (Pelotaunt), and this was one of the thinner Updates in a while, but I wouldn’t say this was one of the worst of the season. I would say it was better than Rock, Levy, and Wiig at least, and about on par with 2-3 others.
It’s Kate and Aidy getting so much focus that weighed the episode down for me – I am just exhausted with WOMEN DRESSED AS MEN IS SO FUNNEEE AND SO DARING and with their double act upstaging interesting sketch ideas and with Kate doing endless Update pieces the way that Spade/Sandler/Farley/Kristen/Fred did where you can tell no one wants to say “no.” Kate just drains such life out of the premises. If she would just take a step back, the way Cecily mostly has (yes she still has some showcases but they are more suited for someone likely in their last season), I would not complain so much about her. We’ve seen everything that Kate, Cecily, Aidy, Beck and Kyle have to give, so that leads to an imbalance with those who feel like they are just getting started.
I didn’t think the wine signs sketch was that similar to previous sketches. I thought it was a funny and mean little sketch that mostly existed to poke at the subset of people who love to “joke” about how they are drunk all the time. It was also one of those times that Aidy’s talents were used effectively (she is always more suited to playing “normal” people who come unspooled, rather than the quirky try-hard characters she likes to do with Kate). That, the equally mean gorilla glue sketch (even if it was too long) and the disco diva sketch (minus the card-reading) were probably my favorites of the night. (the performances in the weed gummy pre-tape were also fun and even though I didn’t love it by this season’s standards it was one of the stronger pre-tapes).
Dan Bulla, Steven Castillo and Dan Licata wrote the gummy weed pre tape according to twitter
I’m at the point with SNL where I struggle to identify the good SNLs from the bad ones. I thought the Regina King Episode was decent. The wine signs sketch, the disco sketch and even the elbows sketch were honestly enough to keep me happy. Everything else ranged from completely pointless (the monologue) to fun enough (Pelotaunt). I didn’t hate Kate’s commentary, but I’m also sick of the Kate/Aidy double act.
I think I liked the Levy episode even more, so it’s a surprise to see it get pop-pooed in so many places. I thought his Universal Studios tour character was great and the the monologue, though drained by a non-responsive audience, actually attempted something.
My favorite of the Regina King ep was the game show sketch in which she has to pick the cringiest of the white male contestants she wants to bed…
I thought that one had good performances that worked overtime to overcome a sloppy premise. Too much going on in that one, but everyone delivered.
@Carson, I agree that episodes of late tend to blur together enough to make it harder to pick good or bad. I guess that will be the case for the rest of this season. I did like elements of the Levy episode (I think all the brouhaha over that Zillow pre-tape soured me a little just because I thought the whole controversy was so stupid [even Elayne Boosler weighed in at one point]), I think King’s episode just had premises I liked more, although the execution wasn’t quite there.
@avmon, that one was so cringe it sort of paralyzed me (I know it was deliberate), but I did appreciate how hard the performers worked. It was also interesting to see Mikey delve fully into a Judy Grimes/Michelle Dison type of performance. I guess you can take the cast member out of the Groundlings…
Is it the plagarism controversy? As I’ve said before, I wonder how much of this is two people having the same joke, which happens, vs them actively ripping off a joke.
It is, yes. There were at least 3 different sources for that joke (one going all the way back to 2016), but I guess the first guy got the publicity he wanted…
There’s a new profile in Variety on Kenan and it sounds like no one is ever leaving the show again.
Here it is:
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/kenan-thompson-saturday-night-live-snl-1234903357/?fbclid=IwAR2cSqoWBoff6ijQUieijWn1AHWahvgeCrgWqhvYwMlXDxE0LlAvag3JVfc
The recurring theme of Kate-distressed-over-current-events bit could’ve been fresh if not for the self indulgence aspect.