Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
REPUBLICAN DEBATE
Donald Trump (DAH), Ted Cruz (TAK), Chris Christie (BOM) rule GOP debate
— A fun description from Cecily and Kyle of what’s going to happen to any of the candidates that dip below 3% during the debate.
— Wait, what? Kate first played Lindsey Graham THIS early in her tenure??? I had no recollection of that. I had assumed she didn’t start playing Graham until the “LOL Kate McKinnon is playing a male politician!” era that started around 2017. I don’t like how the bad aspects of Kate’s later years on SNL (2017-present) are starting to pop up around this time (e.g. her breaking throughout her Update commentary in the Fey/Poehler episode, her playing lots of male roles), especially since I had remembered this period being part of Kate’s best years on the show (2014-2017).
— A good laugh from Taran’s Ted Cruz demonstrating how, when he smiles, it looks like he’s peeing.
— I’m enjoying how increasingly desperate and fraught Beck’s portrayal of Jeb Bush is becoming over the course of this season.
— Another good laugh from Taran’s Cruz, with his “Liberal Jews” bit.
— I love the visual of Bobby’s Chris Christie slowly moving both himself and his podium away from Jay’s Ben Carson after Carson’s very creepy, unsettling speech.
— A funny walk-on from Kenan at the end.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host parries lightsaber wielder TAK, Kylo Ren cosplayer BOM, confused LEJ
— I laughed a lot at how Adam Driver was IMMEDIATELY able to tell it’s Bobby inside of that Kylo Ren costume, due to his body type. I then laughed even harder at Bobby’s dismayed response to that: “Hey, come on! It could be Kenan in here!”
— Leslie in her usual scene-stealing walk-on.
STARS: ***½
FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA
Packers’ 4th-string quarterback’s (PED) gruesome injury is replayed repeatedly
— A huge laugh from the initial footage of Pete’s horrific, cringeworthy injury on the field.
— The constant milking and replaying of the footage of Pete’s injury is very funny, a spot-on spoof of the way incidents like this are covered, and I like how it also reminds me of the same thing happening in the legendary Buckwheat Gets Shot piece.
— Kenan’s reaction to seeing the injury footage made me laugh out loud: “OH, LORD! TAKE MY EYES! BLIND ME, LORD!”
STARS: ****
UNDERCOVER BOSS: STAR KILLER BASE
Kylo Ren (host) poorly hides identity on Starkiller Base
— A well-loved short among many people.
— A very funny concept of Kylo Ren appearing on Undercover Boss and going undercover as “Matt, radar technician”.
— Leslie: “Can we rewire it please, so I can go have my muffin?!?”
— A particularly funny part with Adam’s Kylo revealing in his confessional that the reason for his guilt when Taran disclosed the death of his own son is because he’s (Kylo) the one who killed Taran’s son. I also love the part afterwards with Kylo trying to make it up to Taran by, while in disguise as Matt, giving Taran a cheap, sappy apology card on behalf of Kylo.
— So many great parts with “Matt”, especially him violently getting revenge on Bobby in the cafeteria.
STARS: *****
ALADDIN
Jasmine (CES) gets pelted during magic carpet ride with Aladdin (host)
— A decent laugh from the first hit Cecily’s Jasmine sustains.
— Meh, the progression to the hits that Jasmine suffers isn’t doing much for me.
— I do like the use of model toys to represent the visual of Aladdin’s carpet landing at an air base.
— The final minute of this sketch was at least good. However, this sketch as a whole felt very unfocused. The “Jasmine gets pelted with a whole bunch of things from above” conceit and the “Aladdin and Jasmine make an emergency landing at air base” conclusion felt like something from two completely different sketches.
STARS: **½
AMERICA’S FUNNIEST CATS
Joelle (CES) & Noelle (KAM) provide French ennui
— Blah, I don’t care for that opening “Finn Raynal-Beads” joke.
— Aaaaand now we get even more of writers’ James Anderson and Kent Sublette’s typical habit of giving characters “funny” names, with Kate and Cecily’s characters here having cutesy rhyming names: Noelle LeSoup and Joelle LaRue.
— After my complaints above, this sketch has really taken off with Cecily and Kate’s dark voice-overs for silly cat videos. The “Boi-oi-oing” thing is also a great running bit throughout their voice-overs.
— (*sigh*) That pointlessly ridiculous, out-of-place wig of Kenan’s in his small walk-on is yet ANOTHER typical bad Anderson/Sublette-ism.
— Overall, despite all of my minor quibbles, this was actually a solid sketch as a whole, as the main conceit carried the sketch through.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Parachute”
WEEKEND UPDATE
PED weighs in on who should undergo gun-purchase background checks
guest anchor Laura Parsons has partial understanding of adult news items
— A solid rant from Michael about the Oscars.
— Ha, for the second time in two seasons, Weekend Update does a hilarious brief cutaway to Colin giving the camera a cheesy smile and thumbs-up (the fourth above screencap for this Update).
— We get our first-ever direct mention on SNL of Pete’s mental health issues.
— Some good self-deprecating comments Pete’s making about his mental health issues.
— A great breakdown Colin does about Michael Bloomberg.
— Some really fantastic jokes from Colin and Michael tonight.
— Like the previous time Vanessa’s Laura Parsons appeared on Update, there are so many huge laughs from her delivering harrowing news stories in her typical cheesy delivery. The Bill Cosby bit at the end especially had me howling.
STARS: ****½
AWARENESS SEMINAR
“social puppeteering” warning instead inspires kids to bully elaborately
— I love the first example Adam gives of “social puppeteering”.
— Even funnier is Cecily’s disclosure of once “Honey I Shrunk The Kids-ing” her cousin.
— This sketch continues to be very funny with all the different styles of gaslighting-esque pranks being described.
— Solid bit with Bobby realizing he’s been “21 Jump Street-ed”, and I love his delivery here.
STARS: ****
DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE
FRA marks David Bowie’s passing by setting up 1979 SNL performance clip
David Bowie [real] performs “The Man Who Sold The World” {rerun}
— The audience wildly applauding and screaming cheers at a Fred Armisen cameo for practically HALF A FREAKIN’ MINUTE as if Fred hasn’t made a bazillion cameos on SNL these past few seasons. You’d think that was, say, the seldom-makes-cameos-in-this-era Bill Murray or Adam Sandler up there from how long the audience’s wild cheers went on.
— I’ll go light on my typical salt towards Fred, because I’m really liking the childhood story he’s telling here about staying up late one night in 1979 to watch David Bowie’s SNL performance that year. This story is heartfelt, touching, and interesting.
— A very nice way for SNL to honor Bowie after his then-recent passing, by showing a clip of one of his season 5 musical performances.
GOLDEN GLOBES
married (host) & (VAB) party after Golden Globe win; Liev Schreiber cameo
— I absolutely love the sweet, sentimental, realistic tone of the scenes with Kyle and Kate.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, I guess this can be counted as the very first of this era’s short films that go back and forth showing a gentle scene and a related chaotic scene, which would become a running theme of a number of SNL’s short films over the following years (e.g. the Day You Were Born short from the season 43 Amy Schumer episode).
— The increasingly wild scenes with Adam and Vanessa are serving as a hilarious contrast to the lovely scenes with Kyle and Kate.
— A particularly hilarious part where, after Vanessa trips and falls down when she and Adam are running away, Adam initially stops running, looks back at Vanessa on the floor, then immediately continues running away without even helping her.
— A nice Liev Schrieber appearance, reminding me of how much I like his later hosting stint from season 44.
— A beautiful ending with Kyle and Kate.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nobody To Blame”
THE DOCTOR IS IN… MY BUTT 4
actual kid interrupts (host) & (BEB) in porno set in doctor’s office
— Already a decent cheap laugh from the porn title shown at the very beginning.
— Wow, Aidy is just NOW making her first appearance all night, in the final sketch of the show???
— Like the previous sketch this character of Aidy’s appeared in, there’s some pretty good laughs from her obliviousness towards the porno being filmed.
— Aidy, regarding an innocent statement Adam made to her: “Are you positive?” Adam: “Yeah, but don’t tell or they’ll make me leave.”
— A funny rapid-fire run of innuendos in the back-and-forth that Aidy and Adam have right before she leaves.
— What’s with Taran’s big pot belly in this? Or is he just randomly sticking his stomach out for comedic purposes?
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. An impressively large number of highly-rated sketches, one often-referenced classic short (Undercover Boss), one lesser-referenced-but-very-well-done short (Golden Globes), and only one thing all night that I didn’t care for (Aladdin, and not even that was horrible). Adam Driver is off to a solid start as a reliable recurring host.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Undercover Boss: Star Killer Base
Golden Globes
Weekend Update
Football Night In America
America’s Funniest Cats
Awareness Seminar
Republican Debate
The Doctor Is In… My Butt 4
Monologue
Aladdin
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Ronda Rousey