Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Elaine Benes (JLD) questions Bernie Sanders (Larry David) at debate
— Despite still being on the show, Jon has been replaced by Beck in the role of Wolf Blitzer. Yep, it’s official: SNL has undeniably given up on Jon as a cast member by this point of the season. Making that even more official is the fact that Jon’s ONLY appearances in this episode will be two roles buried in the last two segments of the night, and he has little-to-no lines in them.
— Beck (looking almost exactly like Jason Sudeikis did when he used to play Blitzer) is doing a better attempt at a Blitzer impression than Jon did.
— I got a good laugh from Kate’s Hillary Clinton claiming she agreed on a debate date of “Mapril 33rd at bloop blorp o’clock”.
— The usual fun chemistry between Kate and Larry David in these Hillary/Bernie cold openings.
— A funny “cool” entrance from Kenan as “black moderator” (as he’s referred to here) Errol Louis.
— Kate’s delivery of the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme song lyrics that her Hillary breaks out into cracked me up.
— I absolutely love the turn with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes being the next person who asks the candidates questions, and I also love how the conversation between her and Larry’s Bernie Sanders turns into a whole bunch of Seinfeld-isms. Very fun.
— Hmm, having Vanessa’s Rachel Green now ask the candidates a question feels way too needlessly shoehorned in (despite it fitting enough with the “90s sitcom” aspect of this cold opening’s Seinfeld premise), though I can never complain about seeing this spot-on impression of Vanessa’s. It deserves better writing here, though.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Oddly, Darrell Hammond announces Sasheer Zamata as just “Sheer Zamata”. Maybe Darrell’s microphone briefly cut out when he said the “Sa” part of Sasheer’s first name.
MONOLOGUE
JLD recaps her career arc from SNL to present; Tony Hale cameo
— I love Julia’s self-deprecation when mentioning her “memorable” run as an SNL cast member, and showing a clip of her small non-comedic role in an Ed Grimley sketch as an example of one of her “well-known big characters”.
— Hey, a Brad Hall sighting! (the third above screencap for this monologue) Granted, it’s just an old clip from the movie Troll, but still, it’s a shocking novelty to see a close-up shot of a former cast member as forgotten as him in a new SNL episode from 2016. I’d like to think Julia threw that clip in as an excuse to work her husband back into SNL. (Julia and Brad are married, for any readers who didn’t know.)
— Some good talk from Julia throughout this monologue, including what she says about the blackface movie Soul Man.
— A nice Tony Hale cameo.
STARS: ***½
HEROIN AM
inclusion of caffeine & cocaine helps users remain productive
— A very funny concept.
— I like how Julia being among the performers in this timeless-feeling pre-taped commercial makes her blend back into the cast just like the old days.
— Cecily as the voice-over: “Side effects include: it’s heroin….so…all THAT stuff.”
— A good laugh from Julia hallucinating her husband and son as horrifying monsters.
— Hilarious dark reveal of Julia’s heroin-taking character being a school bus driver.
STARS: ****
HUGE JEWELRY
Long Island sisters’ (JLD) & (KAM) kids model their line of Huge Jewelry
— I sometimes find this type of Italian stereotype sketch in recent seasons to be lazy and dull, but Julia and Kate are at least pretty fun here in their characterizations and chemistry. That being said, this is a questionable choice for a post-monologue lead-off sketch. This feels more like a sketch that would be more fitting near the 10-to-1 slot.
— The gag of the increasing size of the jewelry is a bit ehh for me.
— Wasn’t too crazy about the ending with Nick Jonas appearing as a character who just gets fawned over, though he himself performed pretty well here.
STARS: **½
THE POOL BOY
housewife (JLD) is more invested in tryst than is pool boy Chad (PED)
— The debut of Pete’s Chad character.
— I recall getting tired of the Chad shorts when they became recurring back when these episodes originally aired, but judging this debut on its own merits right now, I’m currently finding Chad’s slow-witted, monotone, one-or-two-word sentences to be funny, especially in how they comically contrast against Julia’s very lengthy, dramatic lines.
— Pretty funny running gag with how Chad keeps appearing back to work at the pool every time Julia keeps turning around to him in the middle of her dramatic speech to him.
— Another Nick Jonas sketch appearance where he shows up just to be fawned over by a Julia Louis-Dreyfus character.
— Great delivery from Julia of her ending line: “I’m gonna f(*bleep*)k that kid.”
STARS: ***½
CINEMA CLASSICS
actress (JLD) relied on line cues written on props
— A very strong use of Julia’s comedic skills. This sketch has the feel of the type of legendary material that you would’ve seen being given to highly-esteemed classic female comedians in the past, such as Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball, and it feels great that Julia has gotten to the point of her acclaimed career where she’s considered to be worthy of performing a big Burnett/Ball-esque piece. And Julia’s proving with her performance in this sketch that she’s fully deserving of that honor.
— Pretty funny bit with Kenan’s Reese De’What realizing he’s alone in the studio.
— Love the bit with Julia reading “Made In China” off a prop as if it was one of her lines.
— A very funny visual of a wordy line of Julia’s being written on Taran’s bare chest.
— Is Kate doing the same voice and accent she did as Ingrid Bergman in the Casablanca spoof (which also happened to be a Cinema Classics sketch, like this one) from the preceding season?
— A particularly fantastic bit with Julia struggling for a long time through the fruit bowl to find one particular line. And her eventual delivery of said line, “I’ve been shoootttt!”, absolutely slayed me.
STARS: *****
MERCEDES AA CLASS
JLD endorses the car powered by 9,648 batteries
— Great to see so many pre-tapes tonight featuring Julia front-and-center. And she’s absolutely perfect in her performance here as the spokesperson.
— Another timeless-feeling commercial tonight.
— A priceless visual of all those batteries set in place under the car hood.
— The Battery Status report is hilarious.
— Another priceless visual, this time of the “Auto-Dump Feature” with two small hatches on opposite sides of the car dispensing ALL of the batteries for a very lengthy amount of time.
— Julia’s slyly-delivered “Batteries not included” line at the end was utter perfection, and was the best way to close this commercial.
— Overall, a forgotten (by me, at least) gem.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Tove Lo [real] perform “Close”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Charles Barkley (KET) & Shaquille O’Neal (JAP) mull retirement from NBA
Animal Annie (AIB) has problems with humans, including herself
A One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy details her degrading comedic role
— Our final Barkley/Shaq duo commentary, given the fact that this ends up being one of Jay’s final episodes before getting fired that summer. Speaking of which, I just now realized that Jay wasn’t in the preceding episode (Russell Crowe) AT ALL. No wonder he looked so miserable during that episode’s goodnights.
— A very funny line from Kenan’s Barkley regarding him betting on number “twive”.
— The formula of these Barkley/Shaq Update commentaries is feeling very standard in tonight’s commentary, but it’s still working for me.
— An interesting smiling-on-the-outside-crying-on-the-inside tone to Aidy’s commentary.
— A huge laugh from a puzzled Michael questioning why Aidy said he’d love the iguanas-having-two-penises factoid she told.
— I like Michael’s acknowledgment of how lazy and predictable Colin’s Wiz Khalifa joke was.
— The final appearance of Cecily’s One Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy.
— As usual in these One Dimensional Female commentaries, very solid delivery from Cecily, and spot-on satire of this character archetype in movies. In fact, the satire is coming off particularly biting tonight.
STARS: ***½
WHO WORKS HERE?
game show contestants try to identify CVS employees
— Decent concept for a game show sketch.
— A killer appearance from Bobby, who steals this entire sketch, and has one of the funniest moments of this entire episode.
— The “lighting” round is fun.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Champagne Problems”
MEET N’ MATCH
in a bar, aliens (JLD) & (KAM) are desperate to mate with human males
— A very promising oddball concept, and Kate and Julia (making another fun pairing tonight) are well-cast in these roles.
— I love the deep vocal modifier being used on Kate and Julia, which, along with the creepy contacts they’re wearing in their eyes, is adding perfectly to their odd, unsettling alien characters.
— Some minor glitches with Kate and Julia’s vocal modifier here and there, which is actually kinda adding a bit of a strange charm to this sketch.
— A funny casual visual of Kyle and Taran’s skeletons being left in the restroom.
STARS: ****
GOD IS A BOOB MAN
Christian (VAB) resists cultural rise of homosexuality
— I’ve never seen the type of religious movies that this pre-tape is spoofing, but I’m still enjoying this a lot and finding it to be very well-done.
— Yet another strong Vanessa Bayer performance in a season filled with standout Vanessa Bayer performances. (Seriously, you could almost make a full-length “Best Of” for her just out of this season alone, though she, of course, has great stuff from other seasons, too.)
— I love the detail of Kyle’s Jewish lawyer being named Schmool (not sure of the spelling).
— A lot of funny little parts all throughout this, such as Sasheer’s “Maaayybee” response to Vanessa’s statement about Christians being the most oppressed people in the world.
— A very funny reveal of the ridiculous movie title at the end.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. And SNL finally got it right in regards to how to perfectly play to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ comedic strengths, unlike in her previous two hosting stints (where, while she had funny moments, I recall her being used in a lot of generic straight man roles) and her tenure as a cast member (where she was notoriously underutilized and overshadowed).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Cinema Classics
Mercedes AA Class
Democratic Presidential Debate
God Is A Boob Man
Heroin AM
Meet N’ Match
Weekend Update
Who Works Here?
Monologue
The Pool Boy
Huge Jewelry
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Russell Crowe)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Brie Larson
I guess you could say this is a another perfectly timed review, given that Nick Jonas is hosting and performing this week.
I think the Cinema Classics might be the first Anderlette sketch you’ve given the full five to!
I’m not sure why, but Huge Jewelry being the first post-monologue live sketch feels more reminiscent of something seasons 44-46 would do rather than this part of the era.
I remember when Jost and Che were on Late Night with Seth Meyers around 2018 they talked about rejected sketch ideas, and for some reason they brought up both Heroin AM and Who Works Here. So I guess either Seth or Colin forgot about this episode or something.
The cold open for this episode has a huge amount of dislikes on YouTube, for ‘Bernie vs. Hillary’ reasons that probably shouldn’t be elaborated on. It might be the most disliked sketch on their YouTube page other than a Weekend Update segment Melissa Villaseñor did in season 45 about “white male rage” (the dislikes and responses to that segment *completely* proved her point, by the way.)
Huge Jewelry reminds me of the Hoops from the most recent Jennifer Lopez episode. I prefer that one, because Melissa’s performance feels more lived in than Kate’s (and that was J Lo’s best performance of the night too, unless I’m forgetting something.)
Julia’s first two episodes were probably when she most needed to host, as Old Christine struggled to stay on the air. By 2016, she was at a career peak, so this one feels more like a victory lap, well-earned. I won’t be surprised if this was her last involvement with SNL, but if so – not a bad way to exit.
The Heroin AM pre-tape has a lot of “Heroin doesn’t do that!!!” replies on Youtube, which both amuses me and concerns me that people really might be getting their information about drugs from SNL pieces.
I think I remember some talk about the car pre-tape in one of the Creating SNL pieces, but I can’t find it.
(speaking of that, this is another episode where the pre-tapes are not on Youtube for some reason – actually, very little of the episode is on Youtube)
Nick Jonas was really being pushed at this time, and also had a TV show which involved those incredibly irritating press tours where we would be reminded he was a straight man playing a gay character and what a brave move and so on and so forth. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t host in this period, rather than in 2021, but maybe he was too busy at this point.
Chad sort of exemplifies why I’m not sorry SNL has mostly phased out recurring characters and why I don’t necessarily believe you need them to “make it” outside of SNL. Most of these are fine, then easily hit their peak around season 44 (when Pete was probably at an all time low in his personal life), then we got what was probably the worst Chad in season 45 when we were nearing the peak of is-Pete-going-to-show-up-this-week? mania (JLo’s episode). Pete’s had what I would say is his strongest season in 46, so when Chad popped up again in Adele’s episode, it felt strange, and also showed how much he had aged out of the role – he was no longer able to play the basic beats of the character. There was a reminder of the inherent sadness in keeping recurring characters around too long.
When I first watched the aliens sketch, I briefly thought Beck was in Taran’s role and vice/versa. It unintentionally underscores – not for the first time – how much Beck’s presence had steadily eaten away at Taran’s own voice on the show.
Speaking of Taran, this is the cut piece from the episode. It’s…alright, but reminds of another Taran problem of his last few seasons in that he does not resemble a number of the men he is impersonating, which doesn’t matter if the performance or writing are strong enough, but when they aren’t, just leads to a big question mark on the screen for 2-3 minutes.
Definitely agree Pete’s been having his best year this year. Nice to see him pull a reverse Sandler and really recommit in his (presumably) final year. Not super into the Chad sketches, though I do remember kind of liking the Saoirse Ronan one (which feels a bit like a meta commentary on the appeal of Pete).
Yes, Ms. Louis-Dreyfus really was front-and-center most of this ep compared to her two previous hosting stints and especially her three-year cast member status during the Dick Ebersol era! No way would she have previously been allowed to have said “I’m gonna “bleep” that kid!” in the past or do any of the other things she just did here…
…though my favorite bit of hers will always be “The Julia Show” she did with Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis during the 9th season…
Slightly dissenting voice here: I actually quite LIKE the Chad sketches. Of course, the joke is that there’s no character there, but what the effectively do is change the setting, which is a preferred way to write for these characters than the CTRL+C/CTRL+V sketches. Yes, some of the sketches are better than others, but there’s still enough general variety to the pieces to keep me relatively pleased. The sketches add enough variety (including one live version that I really enjoy) to validate the multiple returns. OK, the last couple veered closer to dud territory, but they squeezed a lot of juice out such a one-note piece.
The Chad sketch from Adele seemed to go on forever
The Chad sketch with Adele seemed to be more about Adele, which was understandable I suppose (It’s Adele, after all, and what else can you do with Chad by that point), but I think the flabbiness of the pre-tapes earlier this season (in how they were put together) didn’t help. Looking back at least it did seem to be a definitive end to the character, which is more than a lot of recurrers get.
I think the only Chad short I’ve actually disliked is the JLo one.
Sorry, I meant to add that I think the last (?) Chad is also the most he ever spoke since the first one. It’s not a bad way to go full circle, I suppose, if that was the intent.
DRESS CUTS
Fart Smeller Audition
~ Julia & Cecily audition Beck (fictional actor Michael Yanis) for the role of “man at party who smells fart”. Throughout the audition, Julia/Cecily describe the fart: “No, the fart is bigger than that.” “Big & fat.” Bart (Mooney) is the writer of the scene and throws in some suggestions. Julia/Cecily say the movie shoots in Syria, “so fly yourself there, & then fly us there.” They go through a series of celebrity farts for Beck to react to: Fergie, Patti LaBelle, Property Brothers… Julia Louis-Dreyfus is named: Beck sniffs & nods pleasingly. Agents: “That was the correct answer”
~ now-unfindable Splitsider article of Chris Kelly & Sarah Schneider reveals they originally wrote this sketch for Paul Rudd in 2013 & tried it at dress many times since
~ “Space Babies 2” poster in the office
Jury Confidential
~ Jury foreperson (Julia) gives personal information about the other jurors that intrigue the defendant (Killam) & his accomplice (Pharoah), as well as the judge (Cecily). Julia refers to 2 jurors as “Anal Annie” (Sasheer) & “Anal Adam Masters” (Bobby). She mentions Tom (Kenan)’s home security broke, plus embarrassing things about Kyle, Kate, & Beck. Julia talks about her script for a movie about Megalops; final frame is “Revenge Of Megalops” poster
Paul Ryan For President 2016
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/cut-for-time-paul-ryan-ad/3021132
TIDS & BITS
Che during warm-up: “I would rather hang with Trump than Obama. You can’t tell a dirty joke in front of Obama. All he’d say is, ‘Michael, that is NOT the way we treat women!’”
Debate: instead of breaking into the Fresh Prince rap, Hillary rhymed that she was “shootin’ Osama with my black friend Obama”
monologue: Julia added other “memorable” lines from her cast member days: “Someone to see you, Mr. Gumby” & “He’ll be right with you, Mr. Sinatra”
Cinema Classics Cut Character: at closing, Leslie enters as Mrs. De’What, screaming at Reese about the joke he told at the top of the show
Meet n’ Match: Julia’s name was Harry Megan instead of The Barbara ** Jonny Ruddy played the host at the door who first greeted the aliens, a slightly smaller part than Dude #2 in live show ** audience saw crewguy put blood drops on Vanessa, so she & Cecily cracked up, then in joined the crowd & rest of sketch cast ** Kate’s real voice creeped in a few times, but they mostly fixed it for the live show
Who Works Here?: before Cecily left, she incredulously repeated “Ma’am?” as she walked off ** Bobby shouted “Walgreens!” over and over instead of “I work here” while pumping detergent ** both Pete & Kate had final quick lines that I don’t remember ** Leslie was President of CVS instead of a full manager ** Ending: Taran is told to collect his prize in the cashier’s line, which is several people long (extras). Taran looks to the empty cashier: “Is there even anybody there?”
Update first joke: Colin says the real loser of the debate was the “drunk CNN sound guy”. Almost nobody laughed. Colin also ranted about soup later on with a bomb-level crowd response ** Che did a joke about a Trump statue with a punchline about Joe Paterno looking the other way. Huge audience groans, the best. Why cut? ** Animal Annie tries to transition to koalas by insisting that “Colin” sounds like “koala”. Colin agrees a little bit: “Kinda” ** Mr. Magic squirmed around a lot to the delight of everyone on stage & off ** Colin told a joke about a prom-posal, & told us we had the worst reaction ever to a joke ** One-Dimensional Female went more in-depth about “lying in a puddle of semen instead of sneezing into a tissue full of it” & on & on. Audience reaction was a delightful mix of crazy guffaws & audible discomfort; shoulda went for it on air
God’s Not Gay: Vanessa says “God is crazy for titties!” at the end, so they used a different take & changed the title to “God Is A Boob Man”
Huge Jewelry: Sasheer & Vanessa’s big pearls drooped to the floor ** did well in dress, but agree this was weird choice for first sketch of the night: musta wanted to space out the many Kate-prominent sketches
goodnights: Taran was still dressed as the creepy defendant from the last sketch (jury). For a minute, he was the only person on stage staring down the audience, good for a chuckle ** Julia & Larry held hands while waiting for the camera to roll ** Julia thanked Larry, Nick, & Tony, then stumbled when she didn’t know what “Tove Lo” meant. She and Larry laughed about it during the whole goodnights
Dress was lighter on sketches than most; only 3 live ones post-Update. Something musta got scrapped as this dress rehearsal was a few minutes short of the usual 2 hours
DRESS RUNDOWN
Democrat debate
monologue
MERCEDES AA CLASS
Who Works Here?
Woman Tormented
HEROIN AM
Huge Jewelry
Nick Jonas #1 +f- Tove Lo
Update
Barkley & Shaq
Animal Annie
1-Dimensional Female Character
Meet n’ Match
fart smeller (CUT)
PAUL RYAN 2016 (CUT)
POOL BOY
Nick Jonas #2
jury (CUT)
GOD’S NOT GAY
goodnights
Thanks for the rundown. I’m glad they cut seeing Mrs. De’What. It’s better to leave her offcamera, and surely they had already done more than enough of jokes about Leslie being an angry, shouting woman crashing into a scene for a cheap laugh.
Hey Stooge. Seinfeld Is A Male Comedy That Has THREE Males And One Female ! There Is Jerry, George Which is Based On Larry David And This Man That I Think Larry David Knew Named Kenny Kramer With Very Long Hair So They Had Kramer Be A Neighbor And That Is Why He Always Bursts Through The Door With Out Knocking And Elaine Which Is Based On Carol Leifer I Think Her Name Is So She Is Playing An Old Girl Friend OF Jerry !
Pat Boone was particularly offended by God is a Boob Man: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pat-boone-accuses-snl-anti-885253
““I asked them to promise that they wouldn’t make fun of my faith or my family, and they wouldn’t do it, so I declined. I know they would have treated me like a complete sap,” he said. “I used to love SNL. I’d record it every week. It’s gotten filthy, though, so no more.””
I’m so glad that Pat was able to savor the pure, wholesome moments of Uncle Roy sketches or Chevy miming a heroin injection.
I never knew he was asked to host. That sounds like a season 1 type of booking. Glad that teen idols like Ricky Nelson (much more talented and handsome…) ended up getting on instead, if they were going down that road.
Thought Jonas’s show was pretty good. A bit of an improvement over Jean Page’s, though I’m in the minority of thinking that one was a dud. I liked all the live sketches (though none blew me away), outside of that awful Cinderella piece. Jonas himself was fine, but mostly played straight men and didn’t get much in the way of a comedic showcase. Naturally, he seemed most at home in the songs (two great comedy songs, and, though they’re harmless enough, HUGE improvements over the comedy songs we typically get from Pete).
Pretty solid show. Cinderella sketch was terrible probably one of the worst of the season but everything else was alright. Another huge night for Kate who seemed to be almost everything. They also seemed to protect Jonas by having him to very little
Very Kate heavy but one of her better nights this season. She still relied too heavily on character types she’s done before (male politician, oddball old lady, awkward flirter) but she felt more comitted than in other episodes this season. If anything, Heidi felt more like Kate, barely able to keep it together in that Disneyland sketch.
I complain frequently about Kate’s work on the show, but this episode is one of the reasons why I will never completely write her off. Once we get past all the indulgences (the double act with Aidy, the drag, the endless Update segments), she is still able to bring quality work when in the right circumstances. She was genuinely great in the mirror workout sketch (indeed, it was Mikey going so far into the well of explaining and reacting that made this worse than it could have been) and she had just the right tone in the ‘classy Last Call’ sketch closing out the night. I agree it was her best episode this season.
Nick Jonas was mostly just used as a prop, but that isn’t a bad thing – not trying to put a shaky host front-and-center is an old SNL tradition they may as well bring back.
Once we got past the cold open, monologue, and that Cinderella sketch, I thought the whole night had plenty of positive qualities. My only other complain would be Cecily bringing back Marjorie Taylor Greene – I don’t think SNL needs to try to make her a figure of fun. I’m sure Cecily believes she is making Greene look awful, but really it just minimizes Greene and makes her seem like a wacky character. Such a waste of Cecily’s talent in what are likely her last months as a cast member, and just not something I want to watch.
Anyway, the rest of the episode had some good stuff – various sketches actually had proper endings, a variety of cast on display, some slice-of-life material, some material that didn’t spoonfeed the narrative to viewers, and the pre-tapes being gender-balanced and talking about different rites of passage or coping mechanisms for men and women felt like one of the few times SNL has tried to use a theme for the shorts. I hope that idea continues. I especially liked the boner pre-tape, which was much better than it probably should have been. (and continuing Beck’s very strong season – how many cast members could find the pathos in “my ad got hard with his friends too”?)
The return of Dionne Warwick sort of reminded me why I would prefer not to have recurring sketches unless they are top-tier, but Ego was confident and fun to watch, and the bird blooper added a great deal of new life to the reprisal.
These last two episodes have been a real step forward for the show. I hope that will continue with Maya and they won’t just have her making meme faces and doing yas kween routines – she is much more talented than that, even if the writing doesn’t always show it.
And now we’ve already got our next installment of “Stooge Has Eerily Great Timing”, as the season 41 finale features almost certainly the best Regine sketch thanks to a passionate guest performance from a certain SNL alum who JUST WON A GOLDEN GLOBE TONIGHT FOR TED LASSO.
Stooge…
HOW?!?!?!