March 12, 2016 – Ariana Grande (S41 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CNN ELECTION CENTER
Ben Carson (JAP) endorses Donald Trump (DAH); Bernie Sanders (Larry David) enjoys a win

— Two episodes in a row with a Jake Tapper cold opening???
— There’s Jay’s always-funny Ben Carson impression.
— Jay-as-Carson’s parting words at the end of his speech: “Bye, America! It’s been weird.”
— Another welcome Larry David cameo as Bernie Sanders, and as usual, he’s been given a lot of great lines here, especially the digs at Bernie’s supporters.
— Darrell’s Donald Trump, towards his supporters, after they’ve beaten up Jay’s Ben Carson: “Guys, what did I say?!? Not THIS one!”
— Jay’s Carson, on Darrell’s Trump: “Donald’s actually got a lot of black friends. Omarosa, Dennis Rodman…” Darrell’s Trump: “The list goes on.” Carson: “Mike Tyson…” Trump: “The list ends.”
— Very funny how Larry’s Bernie is brushing his teeth while in his pajamas when the camera cuts back to him, as he assumed the interview was over.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
host sings “What Will My Scandal Be?” in eager anticipation of disgrace

— As a 90s kid who grew up watching Kenan on Nickelodeon, I love him appearing right after Ariana Grande brings up the fact that she got her start on Nickelodeon.
— Kenan: “I’ve been on this show for 13 damn years, and people still ask me twice a week, ‘Where’s Kel?’” Ariana: “I loved you guys. Do you still stay in touch?” Kenan: “(angrily) A LITTLE BIT!”
— Ariana’s coming off as a natural here.
— Yet another musical monologue, but at least it makes sense with this particular host.
— After her lyric about pimp-slapping Adele, Ariana ad-libs “Oh, shit.” No idea why, as it came off really random.
— Insert obligatory statement here about how odd it is in hindsight to see Ariana and Pete innocently interacting with each other in this monologue, given their future, blah blah blah. Let’s just move on.
— I will say that, when Ariana responds to Pete’s offer to smoke pot by saying “Pot? Let’s smoke some crack, man”, I love Pete’s fearful delivery of “I’m good!” while walking away.
STARS: ***

HILLARY FOR AMERICA
to appeal to young voters, Hillary Clinton (KAM) mimics Bernie Sanders

— Good conceit with Kate’s Hillary Clinton, in a message she’s delivering to America, slowly and desperately transforming into Bernie Sanders while occasionally slipping back into her normal persona. Kate is executing this perfectly.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****

KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS PRE-SHOW
countdown to conclusion of Kids’ Choice Awards pre-show is mistimed

— Was it intentional for the chyron of Vanessa and Taran’s character names to be displayed in the wrong order (Vanessa’s name was displayed under Taran, and vice-versa), or was that intentional? I remember the same thing later happening in the United States Of Talent sketch from the following season’s John Cena episode, and I’ve always wondered if that was a gaffe or not, too.
— For obvious reasons, it’s fitting to have the lead-off sketch tonight be a Nickelodeon-themed sketch.
— I always kinda get this sketch mixed up with the Kids’ Choice Awards Orange Carpet sketch from the season 43 Natalie Portman episode. I think Mikey Day is the writer (or at least co-writer) behind both sketches, which makes sense, given his experience writing children’s entertainment.
— Meh, the premise of the hosts mistiming the countdown clock seems flimsy for a full four-minute sketch.
— Once again tonight, Ariana is coming off as a total natural and likable.
— Ha, I did get a laugh just now from the countdown clock now inexplicably counting back upwards after counting down to 0:00.
— More and more, I can totally see Mikey Day playing Taran’s role in this sketch, and not just because Mikey would end up later playing this same basic role in the aforementioned Natalie Portman-involved Kids’ Choice Awards sketch. Playing characters who are stuck in an awkward situation while still trying to maintain their pleasant, smiley demeanor would later go on to be one of Mikey’s trademarks as a cast member.
— Bobby steals this sketch with his small appearance.
— Another decent laugh from the countdown clock, with it now repeatedly blinking 12:00.
— Overall, not bad, given how wary I initially was over the flimsy-seeming premise. However, I would’ve preferred if this sketch took the route of Vanessa, Taran, and Ariana slowly being driven to absolute insanity by the endless countdown, kind of in a Wake Up & Smile-esque manner, though with enough originality that this sketch wouldn’t just come off as a knock-off of Wake Up & Smile.
STARS: ***

THIS IS NOT A FEMINIST SONG
potential feminist song is hedged by women afraid of a political misstep

— A funny and smart concept that’s being executed well, and the melody of the song is both catchy and fun.
— A laugh from Beck’s very brief involvement.
— Good turn towards the end with the ladies coming to the realization that this actually is a feminist song.
STARS: ****

TRUE TALES FROM THE SEA
(BEB)’s blobfish-based mermaid Shud (KAM) is homelier than other seamen’s

— A good display of Kate’s utter fearlessness in playing grotesque roles.
— Kate’s line about her “front ass” made me laugh out loud.
— When each mermaid sings a beautiful brief song after kissing their sailor, it’s quite funny how Kate’s song is that famous chant from the beginning of “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— An absolutely hilarious gaffe with Larry David messing up Ariana’s name, then making a comical “Ah, darn it!” gesture as the camera is panning away from him, without him even correcting himself. Classic.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Dangerous Woman”

WEEKEND UPDATE
despite her claims, The Bachelor’s drunkest contestant (CES) seems crazy

Riblet complements anchor work with a report from MIC’s mom’s house

— Some absolutely great riffing from Michael on racist Trump supporters.
— Cecily as The Drunkest Contestant On The Bachelor: “Can I get a second-chance kiss?” Colin: “No! And if Leslie Jones hears about this, we’re both dead.”
— This seems like a really standard Cecily role, but she’s pretty fun here, especially when she ad-libs with her “smile” towards Colin.
— Michael, in a very Norm Macdonald-esque moment: “March is Women’s History Month (*some women in the audience ‘whoo’ in excitement*), so ladies……that cake is not gonna bake itself. (*audience reacts*) Before you ladies get angry and send a bunch of messages about how sexist that joke is, let me just remind you…to finish bakin’ that cake.”
— After Cecily’s commentary, Colin and Michael have been having a (mostly) fantastic string of killer jokes.
— First time all season that we’ve seen Riblet. This also ends up being his last appearance ever.
— I keep kinda expecting the usual aspects of every Riblet commentary to get old, but they manage to always work, including in tonight’s appearance.
— Love Riblet throwing to a supposedly-live remote report from himself.
— Great ending to the Riblet commentary, with the split screen of him dancing both live in the studio and out in the street as a reporter. Also a nice nod to SNL’s history with him signing off by saying “Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.”
STARS: ****½

TIDAL
intern (host) provides vocals after power outage at Tidal headquarters

— A remake of the great and memorable Pandora sketch with Bruno Mars. Ariana probably saw that sketch and asked SNL this week if she could do something like that. I understand the SNL writers’ need to fulfill a host’s request, but man, couldn’t they have come up with a more original way to have Ariana do a whole bunch of singer impressions WITHOUT literally just redoing the Pandora sketch?
— I like Sasheer’s cheesy delivery of her corny Billy Joel joke.
— Credit to Ariana for giving an admirable performance and doing spot-on impressions of various singers, but this sketch is just way too derivative for my likes, and is trying way too hard to re-capture the naturally fun magic of the Bruno Mars sketch. I’m sure I’d be much higher on the Ariana version if it preceded the Bruno Mars version.
— Kenan’s fine here, but I’m not finding him to be quite as strong in this role as Jason Sudeikis was in the Bruno Mars version. Plus, Kenan flubbed one line really badly here (though it certainly didn’t derail the sketch or anything).
— At least this sketch has a completely different ending than the Bruno Mars version.
STARS: **

CELERITY FAMILY FEUD
Jennifer Lawrence (host) & other actors take on directors

— Kinda surprised to see this recurring sketch being buried so late into tonight’s episode.
— Another spot-on impression from Ariana, this time of Jennifer Lawrence. I remember an online SNL fan saying this impression felt really mean-spirited, but I’m not seeing that at all.
— SNL already used that joke referring to Tilda Swinton as David Bowie.
— I see what Taran’s going for in his Quentin Tarantino impression, but the result isn’t fully working for me, and he’s no Norm Macdonald when it comes to this impression. Then again, Taran may be going for a more modern take on Tarantino than Norm did. I’m far more familiar with 90s Tarantino than 10s Tarantino, so maybe I’m not the right person to gauge the accuracy of Taran’s Tino (sorry, I couldn’t resist calling it that) impression.
— I mentioned a few episode reviews ago that Jon’s Dirty Dancing routine was the first of only two things that he did in his short-lived SNL tenure that I liked back when this season originally aired. The second thing is his Martin Scorsese impression in this sketch, which I found to be very spot-on back then, and still do in my current viewing. On a semi-related note, man, Jon really disappeared after that Dirty Dancing routine. When that routine originally aired, so many online SNL fans called it his star-turn moment and assumed we would now be seeing much more of him on the show, but he instead has ended up doing practically NOTHING since then until this Scorsese impression. And the only noteworthy thing I recall him doing for the remainder of this season after this episode is him unfortunately adding another infamous moment to his SNL repertoire: him mysteriously making a very late entrance to a certain famous Mikey Day/Streeter Seidell-written music-involved sketch that appears in the very next episode I’m reviewing.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Be Alright”

THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Maria (host) complains about nuns’ musical shade

— Meh, I’m not caring for the premise of The Sound of Music’s Maria angrily confronting her fellow nuns in a very 2010s sassy manner. Seems like the type of thing that would appeal more to Ariana’s fanbase, who’s probably far more into this type of humor than I am.
— I wouldn’t call this sketch horrible as I’m not exactly miserable watching it and I can fully acknowledge it’s a sketch that’s just not for me rather than an outright bad sketch, but the only consistent positive I can find in it is that Ariana is at least performing this lead role well.
STARS: **

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, despite somewhat of a drop-off in the post-Weekend Update half. Ariana Grande helped give this episode a nice feel, and, much like most former Nickelodeon and Disney Channel stars who host this show, came off as a natural in every sketch tonight.

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

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Weekend Update
This Is Not A Feminist Song
Hillary For America
CNN Election Center
True Tales From The Sea
Monologue
Kids’ Choice Awards Pre-Show
Celerity Family Feud
Tidal
The Sound of Music

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonah Hill)
a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Peter Dinklage