Month: March 2021

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Site issues

These last few days, I’ve been having issues with the site, causing difficulties in me uploading new material. After spending a long time trying to find what the problem is, I realized that my site’s file limit is full. I then upgraded my account to receive a higher file limit, but I’ve been having a mess of ongoing complications in getting that upgrade to work, resulting at one point in me flat-out not being able to access my site for a few hours this morning.  I’ve been receiving help in all of these issues, and am currently awaiting an update, but I have no idea when these issues will be resolved.

Two days ago, in the midst of some of the above issues, I was still able to post my review of the Kumail Nanjiani episode, but due to the issues, I won’t be able to post any more reviews until the issues are resolved. As I said above, I have no idea when that’ll be. It could take a day, multiple days, maybe even longer. I apologize for not being able to post any new reviews until then, but please understand and be patient.

When my site issues are fixed, I’ll make a post letting you know.

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October 14, 2017 – Kumail Nanjiani / P!nk (S43 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUCKER RALLY
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) goes off-message at a Pennsylvania rally

— I actually got some chuckles from some early Trumpwin lines in this cold opening, but after a minute, his lines devolved into the usual unfunny white noise that his lines typically are to me.
— The Mike Pence scenes at various locations are at least shaking the formula of this cold opening up a little, though I didn’t care for the predictable outcome of the wedding scene.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about being from Pakistan & dealing with Islamophobia

— Great bit from Kumail Nanjiani about making a movie about marrying a white woman just to rub it in his family’s face.
— Kumail’s mention of an “undercover KKK dragon” made me laugh a lot.
— A particularly good part with Kumail wondering if a seemingly-racist online commenter only sat through all of The Big Sick because they expected Kumail to rip off his mask and reveal himself to be Chris Pine.
— Lots of great, very solid humor all throughout this stand-up monologue.
STARS: ****½


BANK BREAKERS
(host) rues beating sympathetic game show contestant (CES)

— Lately, Mikey seems to have become SNL’s go-to cast member for game show host roles.
— Great turn with Cecily revealing that she’ll be using the prize money for an important medical procedure for her daughter, hilariously resulting in a now-guilty-feeling Kumail awkwardly reversing his playfully mean-spirited thumbs-down into a hesitant thumbs-up.
— Plenty of other hilarious reveals as this sketch progresses. This sketch is a lot stronger than I had remembered.
— A huge laugh from Kumail unintentionally getting the Darius Rucker question correct when he was trying to lose for Cecily’s sake.
STARS: ****½


KELLYWISE
Kellyanne Conway (KAM) snares Anderson Cooper (ALM) a la Pennywise

— Good to see another Kellyanne Conway pre-tape that spoofs a movie.
— Kate is absolutely hilarious in the voice she’s speaking in for most of this short. She’s having me in stitches.
— Pretty funny reveal of Cecily’s Rachel Maddow being in the sewer with Kate’s Kellyanne.
— Love the part with Kate’s Kellyanne showing Alex’s Anderson Cooper various newspaper headlines that contain his worst nightmares.
— A very interesting and solid part with Kate’s Kellyanne posing as Hillary Clinton.
STARS: ****½


OFFICE HALLOWEEN PARTY
potential hepatitis transmission kills fun at an office Halloween party

— Two minutes into this sketch so far, and I am not enjoying it. Not only is it not funny, but it’s featuring the type of wandering muddiness that’s typical of James Anderson and Kent Sublette’s sketches.
— It’s now a minute-and-a-half later, and, aside from a few chuckles, particularly from Aidy in her back-and-forth with Beck, I continue to not care for this sketch.
— This already-poor sketch really died towards the end.
STARS: *½


WOMEN’S ROUND TABLE
Debette Goldry has first-hand knowledge of sexual harassment in Hollywood

— Oh, this is around the time that the Me Too movement began, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that recently broke out at this time.
— A hilarious part with Kate’s Debette Goldry saying she couldn’t tell the difference between Weinstein’s genitals and face when he once tried to pass his genitals off as his face to her.
— The usual great lines from Kate’s Debette.
— This is the second consecutive sketch tonight that felt like it died off towards the end. I wasn’t crazy about the last minute-and-a-half of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What About Us”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Ivana Trump (CES) claims First Lady title based on marriage precedence

COJ & MIC encourage viewers to donate to Puerto Rico hurricane relief

— Given the aforementioned Harvey Weinstein scandal, I’m surprised that tonight’s Weekend Update is opening with a completely unrelated joke about new emojis. That seems like the type of joke that would open an Update in a slow news week, which this week certainly wasn’t.
— Ah, never mind. It turns out that the punchline of the new emojis joke is about Weinstein, launching some great Weinstein rants from Colin and Michael.
— Solid and fun delivery from Cecily as Ivana Trump. However, I’m not crazy about the material itself that she’s performing. This commentary is VERY wandering.
— The camera botched the close-up of the page that Cecily’s Ivana showed from the book.
— I am chuckling at Cecily’s Ivana Trump starting to speak unintelligibly in her heavy accent with her mouth full of chocolates, though this commentary also feels like it’s gone off the rails by this point. The wandering feel I got from this commentary earlier has now become a “This commentary is completely pointless” feel.
— Tonight’s Update ends on a serious note with Colin and Michael telling us where to make a donation if we’d like to help the people of Puerto Rico in regards to the hurricane they recently suffered.
STARS: ****


HOTEL CHECK-IN
Marriott clerk (host) pitches hotel amenities to uninterested guest (MID)

— The Leslie/Chris bit didn’t do much for me, though it did result in a funny reveal of Mikey’s room being right next to theirs.
— This feels a bit like a sister sketch to the hotel sketch from the season 38 Louis C.K. episode, only without the good absurdist humor that sketch had. This sketch is still okay, though.
— A good laugh from Kumail’s overly calm, nonchalant reaction to getting punched in the face by Mikey.
— A solid ending reveal of Kumail being the lead singer of The Danny Band.
STARS: ***


NURSING HOME
nonagenarian’s (KAM) busy sex life leaves grandkids (MID) & (HEG) aghast

— TWO sketches tonight focused on Kate as an old lady? Yeah, not something I needed.
— Not caring for the constant close-ups of a silent Kate’s facial expressions.
— Kumail is very solid here.
— Kumail’s “They’re running a train, but she’s the conductor” line was good on paper, but he unfortunately flubbed his delivery of it.
— I can see why people would like this sketch, but the sketch’s premise and humor isn’t doing much for me, aside from a few reveals that I’m finding mildly amusing.
— Continuing a theme from earlier in this episode, this sketch felt like it died off during the final minute.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Beautiful Trauma”


CUSTOMER SERVICE
Melania Trump (CES) befriends a Pakistani call center worker (host)

 

— An interesting, more fleshed-out variation that Julio Torres is doing of his great Melania Moments pieces from the preceding season.
— I love the very charming rapport between Cecily’s Melania and Kumail.
— Overall, yet another beautiful short from Julio Torres, displaying a perfect combination of sentimentality and comedy.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Minus the cold opening, this episode had a very strong start with three consecutive segments receiving a four-and-a-half-star rating from me, but afterwards, this episode took a little bit of a hit-and-miss route for the remainder of the show, but there were enough good pieces in that portion of the show to keep this overall episode fine.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Kellywise
Bank Breakers
Customer Service
Monologue
Weekend Update
Women’s Round Table
Hotel Check-In
Nursing Home
Trucker Rally
Office Halloween Party


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gal Gadot)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Larry David

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October 7, 2017 – Gal Gadot / Sam Smith (S43 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

“I WON’T BACK DOWN”
Jason Aldean [real] marks Las Vegas shootings with “I Won’t Back Down”

— Another nice tribute from SNL after a mass shooting. Boy, were the 2010s a horrible decade in terms of shooting tragedies.
— A rare instance (especially in recent eras) of a cold opening being a full-fledged performance from a musical artist.
STARS: N/A (not a ratable segment)


MONOLOGUE
Times Square Wonder Woman (LEJ) compares herself to host’s version

— I didn’t even notice Gal Gadot’s accent here until she pointed it out.
— Leslie’s her usual funny and charming self as the Times Square Wonder Woman, and she has some pretty funny comparisons between herself and Gal’s Wonder Woman.
STARS: ***


E! NEW FALL LINEUP
E! offers brainless entertainment with Kendall Jenner (host) & others

— Pretty amusing how Gal’s playing two different roles in the same scene.
— A pretty good laugh from Gal’s Kendall Jenner using Alexa to find out her own identity.
— After sadly being shut out of his first episode the preceding week, Luke Null finally makes his very first appearance, and it’s not even live. His natural likability is still shining through in this role, though.
— A decent spoof of E! programming. The “Where’s Kanye” portion is standing out the most.
STARS: ***


FIRST DATE
no-longer-imprisoned O.J. Simpson (KET) has a dinner date with (host)

— A priceless reveal of Kenan playing a fresh-out-of-prison O.J. Simpson.
— Much like in his first episode, Chris Redd has the ability to get a big laugh out of me in just a small role.
— A lot of laughs from Kenan’s O.J. taking advantage of the fact that Gal doesn’t know who he is.
— Lots of other hilarious bits throughout this sketch, such as the reveal of Kenan’s O.J. having been given a plastic knife “for some reason”, Kenan’s O.J. expressing his anger over not being able to get back his trophies, and the reveal of a whole bunch of other restaurant patrons filming Kenan’s O.J. on their phones.
— Love the ending with Kenan’s O.J. saying “Still got it” into the camera.
STARS: ****½


THE CHOSEN ONE
fantasy world barely holds attention of pool boy Chad

— SNL continues to place Chad in good new settings in each short he appears in. I also like how this particular setting offers a change of pace from the previous Chad shorts’ premise of someone being in love with Chad.
— A particularly funny part where, after Cecily tells Chad she’ll gift him with her virginity, Chad responds “Dope!” and IMMEDIATELY drops his pants.
STARS: ***½


MIRAGE
mirage of (host) & Jamba Juice appears to (KET) & (BEB) in the desert

 

— Kenan in his old “Kenan & Kel”-era hairstyle, I see. He also used to wear a similar wig quite a bit way back in his earlier seasons on SNL, such as in the Good Morning Meth sketch from season 31.

— Another funny scene-stealing appearance from Leslie.
— All of the contrasts between the Gal mirages and the Kyle/Mikey mirages are pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


SAFELITE AUTOGLASS
Safelite AutoGlass worker (BEB) breaks windshields to be near teen (MEV)

— Oh, here’s a notorious piece. This would end up receiving complaints from Safelite due to the controversial content, resulting in SNL removing this commercial from both online (I think) and televised reruns. In the televised reruns, this Safelite commercial would be replaced with a cut-after-dress Beck/Kyle pre-tape.
— I think I recall that, during the aforementioned controversy over this commercial, it was even revealed that SNL modeled Beck’s character after a real-life Safelite worker seen in commercials, which would explain why Beck was given such a specific look for this.
— Beck is good in his performance as this creep, but I’m not finding this commercial all that great. I’m not HATING it, but there have been other times where SNL has done a better job of pulling off this kind of risky humor.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Too Good At Goodbyes”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (KAM) burns her fellow Supreme Court justices

PED’s mental health would improve if more of his material made it on SNL

— Much like in the Weekend Update from the season 41 Amy Schumer episode, Colin and Michael are getting funny points out of the touchy subject of gun control.
— As much as I don’t like the always-tiresome “Ginsburned” dance breaks in Kate’s RBG commentaries, there’s a pretty funny gaffe & ensuing ad-libbing in regards to Kate’s glasses accidentally flying off during one of her dance breaks.
— Tonight’s overall RBG commentary mostly got only mild laughs from me, but there were some good lines towards the end.
— Oh, this is shortly after Pete was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.
— A lot of laughs from the concept of Pete trying to guilt SNL into helping his depression by doing more of his sketches.
— Pete, on why he doesn’t write sketches more often: “My sketches SUCK, because they’re all written by a depressed person. (pause) Lorne said that!”
— One of the requests in the note from Pete’s “doctor:” “Use more of [Pete’s] rap videos.” Looks like SNL would eventually fulfill that request, starting the following season, I believe.
— Pete, at the very end of his commentary while the audience is applauding: “How have I not been fired?!?”
STARS: ****


THE MAIDEN AND THE MICE
ballgown made from detritus by fairy tale mice doesn’t wow maiden (host)

— The mere sketch concept of a storybook character speaking to three magically-appearing tiny characters initially has me a little worried, thanks to those awful Kinky Elves sketches that I had to suffer through the last few seasons prior to this, but this sketch seems to be going its own route, thankfully.
— A pretty funny line from Aidy responding to Gal pointing out the shoddiness of the dress with “Well…yeah. We’re workin’ on a budget of zero dollars.”
— Another good line, from Kate saying “We only live for a year. We basically gave you our 20s.”
— Didn’t care much for the ending, and Beck’s role reminded me a little too much of his role in that The Princess And The Curse pre-tape from the preceding season’s Felicity Jones episode.
STARS: ***


ESPIONAGE
sexy webcam show of (CES) & (AIB) interferes with online ransom drop

— Live Luke! It’s about time. Unfortunately, Luke’s live role here is just a minor, non-comedic one.
— The various “sexy” actions that Cecily and Aidy are performing on their webcam are pretty funny.
— Good bit at the end with the 40 million dollars that Alex sends ending up unintentionally going to Cecily & Aidy instead of Gal.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pray”


THEMYSCIRA
lesbians (AIB) & (KAM) are disappointed Diana (host) & Amazons aren’t gay

— Kate and Aidy are pretty funny in their constant frustration over the unintentionally homoerotic actions being performed by the non-lesbian Amazons. I especially like Aidy’s line, “It’s like we’re in a porn, but the plumber is just genuinely there to fix the pipes.”
— Gal: “Lay your head…on my tits.” Heh, that line came out of nowhere. I also think I recall hearing that the word “tits” in that line would later be bleeped-out (or muted-out) in a rebroadcast later that same night. If that’s true, that makes me wonder if Gal ad-libbed the usage of that word. Aidy did noticeably break out into what appeared to be a genuine giggle after Gal said it (while Kate, on the other hand, remained completely straight-faced and unfazed).
STARS: ***


THE NAOMI SHOW
(KET) becomes terrible teen’s (HEG) father figure

— Heidi gets her very first big role.
— A funny entrance from Heidi, bragging about her straws.
— Kenan’s getting laughs from me in his angry spiel as the sargent.
— The turn with Kenan becoming Heidi’s dad is a bit odd, and isn’t doing all that much for me. It’s certainly not awful, but I’m a little meh on it.
— I do like Kenan’s character admitting that he’s just an actor who previously appeared on Moesha.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode. Certainly not bad, and, much like what I said in my review of the preceding episode, makes me puzzled over why the first three episodes of this season gave me such a bad omen of a big decline for this SNL era back when those three episodes originally aired, but I feel like this episode rarely rose above “pretty funny” (I found myself saying “pretty funny” waaaay too much in this review).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
First Date
Weekend Update
Mirage
The Chosen One
Themyscira
Espionage
E! New Fall Lineup
Monologue
The Maiden and The Mice
The Naomi Show
Safelite AutoGlass


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ryan Gosling)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kumail Nanjiani

Posted on

September 30, 2017 – Ryan Gosling / Jay-Z (S43 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE CHAOS PRESIDENT
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) renews relationship with Jeff Sessions (KAM)

— Ugh. Trumpwin is NOT a sight I want to see right out of the gate at the beginning of a season premiere’s cold opening, but I knew to expect it.
— I did get a laugh from Aidy-as-Sarah-Huckabee-Sanders’ delivery of her line about people listening to her because she’s “no nonsense, but ALL nonsense.”
— Yeah, I’m at the point where my decreasing tolerance towards Kate’s Jeff Sessions impression has officially reached 0%.
— Though it’s just a small appearance at the end of this cold opening, I’m liking Alex’s take on Chuck Schumer, and it’s nice that, instead of giving a political role like this to a non-cast member celebrity, it’s been given to a newer, underused cast member, a choice that’s going to feel increasingly rare as the Trump era progresses.
STARS: *½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same opening montage from the preceding three seasons, making this the first time since season 19 where an opening montage was used for a fourth consecutive season.
— Heidi Gardner, Luke Null, and Chris Redd have been added to the cast.


MONOLOGUE
host takes credit for having saved jazz in La La Land; Emma Stone cameo

— The “I saved jazz” concept isn’t anything great in itself, but Ryan Gosling is executing it well, especially his “smooth” talk into the camera while playing the piano.
— There’s our first display tonight of Giggling Gosling, a common sight in Ryan’s preceding episode.
— Nice to see the SNL Band get some focus here.
— The “We saved jazz” turn from Emma Stone is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


ANOTHER CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Ms. Rafferty’s second close encounter wasn’t much of an improvement

— (*groan*) And they obviously only brought this sketch back in this particular episode because of how much Ryan memorably giggled in the first installment of it.
— Mikey has taken over the basic role that the recently-departed-from-the-show Bobby Moynihan used to play in these sketches.
— You know how my comments about this recurring sketch goes: it should’ve stayed a one-and-done classic, it doesn’t work as a recurring sketch, Kate’s delivery as this character remains on-point but still doesn’t stop the template of her lines from feeling increasingly and tiredly by-the-numbers (particularly her anal/vaginal rhyming euphemisms).
— The part with Kate demonstrating on Ryan’s butt while making goofy vocalizations is such a blatant attempt to get more giggling out of Ryan. It’s nowhere near as endearing to me this time because this attempt at getting Kate to make Ryan laugh feels way too forced and try-hard on SNL’s part.
— Okay, Kate finally got one big laugh out of me just now, with the “He’s never gonna forget his 12th birthday” bit towards the end.
STARS: **


LEVI’S WOKES
unoffensively indeterminate Levi’s Wokes jeans are universally wearable

 

— A spot-on, timely, and well-filmed spoof of both woke culture and the typical style of jeans commercial.
— The statements that the Woke Jeans wearers are saying are priceless.
— Parts I particularly love are “Pockets sold separately”, the 180-degree “uni-fly” zipper, and the proudly-made announcement that, instead of being made by Indonesian kids, these jeans were made by white kids.
— Chris Redd is coming off really well and very amusing in his first role.
STARS: *****


THE FLIPLETS
dark (host) dispirits his brothers’ home renovation show

— A fairly simple format for a sketch placed so early in the show, but Ryan is solid as the brother who throws off the rhythm of this light-hearted commercial by saying dark, deep, disturbing, spiritual things. He has plenty of great lines here.
— I like the charmingly cheesy brotherly rapport between Mikey and Alex.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Damian Marley [real] perform “Bam”


WEEKEND UPDATE
newly-reelected Angela Merkel (KAM) still pines for an Obama alliance

Guy Who Just Bought A Boat & cousin (host) offer oily dating advice

— An awful lot of clapter in this Update so far, even if some of Colin and Michael’s points that induced that clapter are good points.
— Some aspects of Kate’s Angela Merkel commentaries kinda blend together with her Olya Povlatsky commentaries, and I prefer Olya Povlatsky, but Kate’s Merkel commentaries still have some spark left in them by this point.
— As usual, this Merkel commentary is getting good mileage out of the running storyline of her pining for Barack Obama.
— After Michael says, in regards to healthcare horror movies, that he’s worried because we all know who dies first in healthcare horror movies, Colin hilariously ad-libs a quick “Not me!” in response.
— Colin’s joke about White Fudge Ding Dongs also being the name of what Jost/Che Weekend Updates are called in China is absolutely classic. Also great is Michael saying about it afterwards, “I don’t know who that’s more racist to.”
— Colin’s kinda overdoing it tonight with the “That’s a great transition” ad-libs whenever the audience laughs as he begins introducing a commentary right after an outrageous joke of Michael’s.
— Alex’s Guy Who Just Bought A Boat character has officially become recurring.
— Like the previous time this Guy Who Just Bought A Boat character appeared, I’m really liking Alex’s impressively-delivered rapid-fire run of abbreviated slang words, but I run hot-and-cold on the running gag with him subliminally making comments about his small penis.
— Ryan is 2-for-2 in making an Update appearance as a similar counterpart to a preexisting Update character whenever he hosts. (Bobby Moynihan’s Anthony Crispino character being the previous character who Ryan played a counterpart to.)
— Ryan’s a decent addition here, though I found him more fun as Anthony Crispino’s counterpart.
STARS: ***½


HENRIETTA & THE FUGITIVE
in a barn, fugitive (host) opts to remain loyal to fowl Henrietta (AIB)

 

— When this sketch originally aired, I spent most of it unamused, not knowing what to make of it, and repeatedly asking myself “What the hell am I watching???”, before eventually being won over by it towards the end, making me love this sketch as a whole when thinking back on it. Because of that, it’ll be interesting to watch this again for the first time since that original airing.
— I’m loving the unconventional tone of this sketch, as well as the way this silliness is being played so straight.
— Aidy is giving what I feel is one of her best performances ever.
— A funny gaffe with Aidy having trouble grabbing the gun out of Ryan’s pocket, resulting in yet another display of Giggling Gosling.
— I got a good laugh from Kenan’s delivery of “AAH! HENRIETTA, WHY?!?” after getting shot.
— I know some people feel that the “20 years later” scene at the end was unneeded, but I strongly disagree, as that was the part that won me over on this overall sketch during its original airing. Back then, the initial cutaway to Aidy’s scarf-and-sunglasses-clad Henrietta waiting outside of the prison with a suitcase was both very funny and (especially) very charming to me.
— Another funny gaffe with Aidy’s scarf and sunglasses falling off right as she delivers her final line, which was a great way to end this sketch.
STARS: ****½


ITALIAN RESTAURANT
(host) & (CES) feel betrayed by Pizza Hut commercial’s pasta switcheroo

— Even though the concept of Ryan having a very angry overreaction to the mere reveal of his food being switched with another brand is bringing Chris Farley’s classic Hidden Camera Commercials short to mind (right down to a slowly-delivered “You son of a bitch” being the first words out of Ryan’s mouth when standing up after the reveal), this is still standing up on its own legs as a funny sketch.
— Even in just a small role, Chris Redd is cracking me up with 1) his delivery of his worried response to a threatening line Ryan said to him, and 2) him muttering in regret, “I wish I hadn’t told you my name.”
— Ryan’s performance is starting to remind me of his very intense performance in the fantastic Santa Baby short from his previous episode.
— Cecily: “Is this wine even real?!?” Mikey: “You ordered a Diet Coke.” Cecily: “(worried) Then why am I buzzed???”
— Ryan: “I oughta beat the death out of you!”
— Ryan breaking out into his usual giggling fit right now is why I’m so happy the aforementioned Santa Baby short was pre-taped (as I said in my review of that short), though his giggliness in this Italian Restaurant sketch is both brief and late-into-the-sketch enough that it’s not hurting it for me.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “4:44”


PAPYRUS
lazy font choice for Avatar logo obsesses & infuriates (host)

— Ah, yet another Julio Torres classic.
— A priceless reveal of what’s bothering Ryan so much: the movie Avatar using the papyrus font for its logo.
— I love Ryan getting up and flipping over the table in response to Kate revealing that the font used for the Avatar sequel’s logo looks similar to the papyrus font.
— Chris, on the possibility of Avatar using the papyrus font: “Maybe that was the starting point, but they clearly modified this.” Ryan: “Well, whatever they did…IT WASN’T…ENOUGH!!! (*smashes a glass in anger*)”
— Chris, on the papyrus font: “Where else do you even see this font?!?” Ryan: “Hookah bars…Shakira merch…off-brand teas.”
— Ryan, while looking at Kyle through a window in Kyle’s house: “I know what you did. I KNOW WHAT YOU DIIIIIIID!!!”
— An absolutely perfect ending with a simple screen of the word “papyrus” being displayed in the comic sans font.
— Overall, such a masterpiece. And Ryan is now 2-for-2 in giving an absolutely fantastic intense performance in a pre-taped short in an episode he hosts, after the aforementioned Santa Baby short from his previous episode.
STARS: *****


DIVE BAR
flautist’s (host) mysterious personal drama leaks into Treece Henderson’s gig

— The Treece Henderson sketch (a.k.a. the “Tweedle-do-twee! Tweedle-do-twow!” Kenan singing sketch) has officially become recurring after THREE YEARS, believe it or not. Its previous appearance was in the Martin Freeman episode from season 40.
— Ryan’s usual giggliness (which he isn’t even trying to hide in this sketch) is apparently contagious here, as Kenan is quite giggly himself throughout this sketch.
— The formula of this recurring sketch is so copy-and-paste that SNL has even plugged new cast member Heidi Gardner into the same role that the recently-departed-from-the-show Vanessa Bayer played in the first installment of this sketch, and they even keep Beck as the husband.

— Speaking of new cast members, let me just take the time right now to mention this: poooooor Luke Null. It’s the man’s first episode, and he has made NO APPEARANCES in it at all. AT. ALL. My goodness. You really gotta feel sorry for him. The writing is already on the wall for the poor guy’s SNL future.
— Kyle’s delivery of his one-liners is great. Much like with the first installment of this sketch, I’m torn. Kyle and Kenan’s delivery of their lines (especially Kenan’s occasional mentions of his “good jeans”, and his yell of “Durtricia! It was yooouuuuu!”) are making me laugh, but I’m not caring much for the actual material in this sketch.
— Another amusing gaffe, this time Leslie’s difficulty in tearing Kenan’s “good jeans”.
STARS: **½


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Hugh Hefner marks his passing


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good season premiere. When this season originally aired, I noticed worrying signs of a big decline for this SNL era right from the first three episodes of this season, but in my rewatch just now, I found this episode to be fine. Two five-star segments (Levi’s Wokes and Papyrus) and a lot of other good segments. Certainly not much to complain about.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Papyrus
Levi’s Wokes
Henrietta & The Fugitive
Italian Restaurant / The Fliplets (tie)
Weekend Update
Monologue
Dive Bar
Another Close Encounter
The Chaos President


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2016-17)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gal Gadot

Posted on

May 20, 2017 – Dwayne Johnson / Katy Perry (S42 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HALLELUJAH
Ivanka (Scarlett Johansson) & the rest of team Trump sing “Hallelujah”

— SNL spoofs their own serious Hallelujah cold opening from earlier this season.
— So far, this spoof is doing absolutely nothing for me, and neither are the walk-ons from Trump cabinet members throughout the song.
— Blah, cue the applause break for Scarlett Johansson’s walk-on as Ivanka.
— Okay, I did kinda laugh just now at the brief gag with Trumpwin doing the “Look, no hands” gesture while still “playing” the piano.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
Five-Timers host & Tom Hanks [real] are running for president; Alec Baldwin cameo

— Quite a lot of hosts becoming Five-Timers in these last few months of this season (Scarlett Johansson, Melissa McCarthy, and Dwayne Johnson).
— Random casting of Alex, briefly showing up just to get the “honor” of placing the Five-Timers jacket on Dwayne.
— A funny fake-out with the Five-Timer who Dwayne says will be his presidential running mate turning out to be Tom Hanks instead of Alec.
— A nice charm to this monologue, and a good way to get mileage out of Dwayne and Tom’s beloved public images.
— A decent laugh from Dwayne and Tom each demonstrating how they would handle a national crisis as president/vice president.
STARS: ***


CARTIER FIDGET SPINNER
Cartier’s diamond-encrusted fidget spinner occupies annoying babe (VAB)

— Wonderful to see a new Vanessa Bayer-starring commercial in her final episode.
— This commercial is initially bringing the Kristen Wiig “Red Flag Perfume” commercial to mind, as well as (to a lesser extent) the Ivanka Trump “Complicit” commercial, but this Vanessa ad ends up taking its own turn.
— A very funny and inspired way to spoof the fidget spinner craze from this time.
— As expected, Vanessa is excellent in her performance here, and it’s great to see her play against type once again in these last two seasons of her tenure.
— Beck-as-the-voice-over’s various descriptions of Vanessa are hilarious.
— A great “Because, GOD, the sex is good” punchline.
— Overall, a Vanessa Bayer gem that I had surprisingly forgotten all about until now.
STARS: *****


WRESTLEMANIA PROMO
Koko WatchOut psychologically wrecks Trashyard Mutt again in Wrestlemania promo

— It’s gonna be hard to top the first installment of this, but I can’t complain about this second installment being part of Bobby’s swan song tonight.
— Beck replaces Taran Killam as the announcer from the first installment of this sketch, and they repeat the same running gag of the announcer always being preoccupied with his phone before he suddenly goes into “professional announcer mode”. Just like last time, I don’t care for that running gag, and don’t see why it’s necessary (though it’s certainly not hurting the sketch or anything).
— I love Bobby’s “Ohhhh, nooooooo” when Dwayne brings up Bobby being a Katy Perry fan (even if this whole “Katy Perry fan” portion of this sketch feels to me like SNL pandering to this episode’s musical guest).
— While this installment isn’t quite measuring up to the first installment for me, this is still very funny, and Dwayne’s overly-personal trash talk about Bobby is providing big laughs. I especially love Dwayne’s “You’re the DeVito!” line during the reveal of Dwayne and Bobby being twins.
STARS: ****


ONE VOICE
eighteen additional artists are featured on Big Chris’ (KET) rap song

— Very funny how out-of-hand the increasing number of additional rappers is getting, much to Kenan’s frustration.
— Ha, not only are Colin and Michael involved in this, but they’re playing a rap duo hilariously given the incongruous name “2 Black Guyz”. Colin making a non-Weekend Update appearance rarely fails to be inherently funny.
— This is fun as hell, and I love the very different personality and style each performer gives to their rapper character. This short is also a great way to get the entire cast involved. As I always say, I love seeing a full-cast piece in a season finale (even if, as I also always say, I prefer those full-cast season finale pieces to air at the end of the episode).
— Tom Hanks’ famous David S. Pumpkins character from earlier this season returns in the form of David S. Pimpkins.
STARS: ****½


SCORPIO
(host)’s self-made costume gets more attention than his superhero status

— Meh, the big comedic turn this sketch has taken isn’t doing much for me, despite the likability of Cecily’s performance when she first starts fawning over Dwayne’s sewing skills. This sketch’s type of humor usually isn’t my bag, kinda like I said about that The Boy Is Mine sketch from the Chris Pine episode.
— I do kinda like Dwayne explaining why he prefers not to have a scorpion label on the chest of his costume.
STARS: **


JURASSIC RIVER RAPIDS
Gemma is part of unplanned double date on splashy Universal Studios ride

— Blah. However, at least it makes sense to do this in this episode, given how solid Dwayne was as the boyfriend in the first installment of this sketch. I guess they also realized this is their last opportunity to do this sketch when Vanessa’s in the cast.
— I did get a chuckle from the new addition of Gemma having a pet pig.
— Like last time, Dwayne is fun and natural in this role.
— All of the water that Vanessa keeps getting splashed with throughout this sketch must be a good-natured case of “reverse hazing” for Vanessa’s last show.
STARS: **


XENTREX
(host) uses sketchy male enhancement drug despite side effects

— Dwayne’s various “And he said…” “And I said…”s when relaying the conversation he and his doctor had about the dangerous Xentrex drug are increasingly hilarious.
— A great background visual of Dwayne roughing up Kyle while a long list of the medication’s side effects are shown onscreen.
— I love Dwayne’s very straitlaced, deadpan “Hail Satan” at the end when showing various bad effects of the medication.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swish Swish”


WEEKEND UPDATE
“Bad Day” accompanies photos of departed Trump administration members

high-strung Dawn Lazarus delivers more meteorological gobbledygook

Drunk Uncle lists things in America that need to be made great again

— Great to see Dawn Lazarus already return after only two episodes, as part of Vanessa’s swan song tonight.
— Like last time, Vanessa is absolutely fantastic at this character’s nonsense-speaking routine. I particularly got a laugh from her smiley, affable delivery of “Hopefully, no goddamn rain.” And, of course, her legendary utterances of “Hap” never fail to kill.
— A good callback to Michael’s Dwayne “The Scissors” Johnson joke from a previous Update.
— As part of Bobby’s swan song, we get our final Drunk Uncle commentary, which is this character’s first appearance since the notorious Donald Trump-hosted episode from a year and a half prior. I’m glad that episode didn’t end up being Drunk Uncle’s final appearance.
— (*groan*) There goes Colin ONCE AGAIN responding to Drunk Uncle’s usual “That’s not me” line with “That’s not anyone.” I’m sure most of you readers know how much that gets on my nerves. Well, this is the last chance for Colin to say that, so…
— Ah, we get an acknowledgment of this being Drunk Uncle’s final appearance, with him asking Colin to do one shot with him “for the road”. However, I wish they did something far more noteworthy than that to make his final appearance special.
— The Russian Roulette bit at the end of Drunk Uncle’s commentary is hilarious.
— Drunk Uncle’s overall commentary was the usual great stuff.
— Surprised this season finale Weekend Update didn’t contain either Colin and Michael’s joke-swapping routine or their “favorite cut-after-dress-rehearsal jokes” routine.
STARS: ****


IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Brad Grey marks his passing
— Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode


RKO MOVIE SET
in 1948, star actress (VAB) can’t stop farting while shooting film noir

 

— The “Solomon and Klein – Detectives” window sign in the background (seen in the second above screencap for this sketch) is presumably a reference to SNL writers John Solomon and Rob Klein.
— Hooooooooo, boy. While I’m so happy to see SNL give Vanessa so many showcases in her final episode, and while it’s certainly a novelty seeing Vanessa do a fart sketch, that sure as hell doesn’t mean her doing a fart sketch is a GOOD novelty. I had no desire to ever see Vanessa do a fart sketch, especially not one that feels like a complete rehash of that notoriously horrible Rear Window sketch with January Jones back in season 35. Not to mention this is our second fart sketch of the second half of this season alone (the sit-ups sketch from the Alec Baldwin episode being the first), and the first one was bad enough.
— Speaking of the sit-ups sketch, I’m assuming Steve Higgins is the one providing the fart vocalizations in this RKO sketch, like he did in that sit-ups sketch.
— Well, Higgins is at least managing to get some rare breaks out of Vanessa, which is actually charming in her case, and also a special note to mark her final episode with. My goodwill towards that is the only thing keeping me from completely hating this sketch.
— Lame ending.
STARS: **


INTERNATIONAL MAD SCIENTIST SOCIETY
(host)’s child-molesting robot wins mad scientist evil invention contest

— Ah, yes, here we go…
— An absolutely PRICELESS very dark reveal of Dwayne’s evil invention: a child-molesting robot. Holy hell.
— I love that combination scream/gasp/laughter reaction from SNL’s audience in response to the initial reveal of the child-molesting robot.
— I love Dwayne’s “Robo-ChoMo” name for his child-molesting robot.
— Sasheer’s facial reactions are making me laugh a lot. Our final display of Sasheer’s good straight man skills (which are much better than I had remembered before reviewing these past few seasons).
— Dwayne, on how to build a child-molesting robot: “What you do is, you start by building a regular robot, uh, then you molest it and hope that it continues the cycle.”
— This sketch is easily one of the ballsiest things SNL has ever put on the air, and it absolutely pays off.
— Dwayne, on evilness: “Benito Mussolini used to force-feed people castor oil until they literally died of diarrhea. (pause) I mean, that’s gotta be where the goal posts are, right?”
— At many points in this sketch, Dwayne’s voice and inflections sound VERY Barack Obama-esque (even moreso than his voice usually does).
— Yikes, the random White Castle turn this sketch takes towards the end is freakin’ TERRIBLE. Thankfully, the rest of this sketch is classic enough to not be hurt by that. But still – damn, that was the best way they could end this sketch???
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Migos [real] perform “Bon Appétit”


WINGMAN
while being (host)’s wingman, bartender (BEB) adds himself to hookups

— A big laugh from the first threesome reveal.
— Beck is solid in this lead role and has a pretty good amount of funny lines.
— A very funny sudden appearance from Bobby as “Carlos”, our final display of Bobby’s great ability to steal a sketch with a simple walk-on.
STARS: ***½


SENIOR SKIT
high school seniors (BEB), (KYM), (BOM), (VAB) perform valedictory sketch

— (*sigh*) Welp, this is it, folks. Bobby and Vanessa’s final sketch as cast members.
— Man, when Bobby says, in a sad, emotional manner, “Now it’s coming to an end” in regards to the crazy ride that his and his classmates’ four years of high school have been, you can tell that 1) there’s a lot of reality subtext in that line, given his and Vanessa’s SNL departures, and 2) his sad, emotional delivery of that line was NOT acting. His delivery of that line is heart-breaking.
— A very good running gag with a deadpan Leslie as the lunchlady whenever her cooking gets slammed.
— This sketch probably isn’t anything special on paper, but there’s a nice charm to it when seeing it played out, obviously helped by the fact that this is Bobby and Vanessa’s sendoff. Too bad SNL didn’t put Sasheer in this as one of the students performing this play. She and SNL apparently knew at this time that she was leaving, as an SNL fan once mentioned back at this time that there were photos online (can’t remember where) of Bobby, Vanessa, and Sasheer each being lifted in the air by their castmates at the end of this episode’s goodnights (not seen in the televised version of this episode’s goodnights, unfortunately).
— The ending of this sketch seemed like it got cut a little short due to the show running long. That also probably explains why this sketch in general had a rushed vibe.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Interesting seeing the audience actually give a standing ovation in these season finale goodnights.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fitting end to such a good, memorable season. Much like this season itself, while this episode certainly had some lowlights, they were far outnumbered by some great highlights, including two five-star pieces (Cartier Fidget Spinner and International Mad Scientist Society). Dwayne Johnson did his usual fantastic hosting job, and his hosting skills & comforting presence were particularly welcome in a season finale.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
International Mad Scientist Society
Cartier Fidget Spinner
One Voice / Xentrex (tie)
Wrestlemania Promo
Weekend Update
Wingman
Senior Skit
Monologue
Jurassic River Rapids
Scorpio
RKO Movie Set
Hallelujah


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melissa McCarthy)
a slight step up


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

 


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2015-16)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 43 begins, with host Ryan Gosling, and three new additions to the cast

Posted on

May 13, 2017 – Melissa McCarthy / HAIM (S42 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUMP INTERVIEW
Lester Holt (MIC) questions Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) about James Comey

— Ugh.
— Not only do I dislike whenever SNL has Trumpwin deliver uncharacteristic pop culture-centric lines, such as the Beyonce-playing-her-hits-at-a-concert one in this cold opening, but Alec butchered that Beyonce one with his stumbly delivery.
— After having Trumpwin admit to obstruction of justice, I like Michael’s Lester Holt looking around in surprise and asking, “So, wait – did I get ‘im???”, and then, after being told something over his earpiece, responding “So…absolutely NOTHING matters anymore? Okay.”
— Feels a little odd seeing Mikey doing a Paul Ryan impression, given the fact that it was a role that the then-recently-fired Taran Killam used to regularly play.
— The Anderson Cooper eye-roll bit gave me a laugh.
— While the running gag with Trumpwin always referring to Michael’s Holt as other famous black people isn’t doing anything for me for the most part, I did laugh at the meta bit with him referring to Michael’s Holt as “Kenan” at one point.
— Overall, not as awful as some of the last few Trumpwin cold openings, but still blah as a whole, mainly Trumpwin’s lines.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host shows backstage SNL to a mom; Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively cameos

— A sweet bit with Melissa McCarthy making every mother in the audience stand up to receive applause, in honor of Mother’s Day.
— I recall hearing that Joan, the audience member who McCarthy is giving a tour of the studio to, is writer Sarah Schneider’s mother. Joan does mention the name Sarah here when telling McCarthy the names of her two kids.
— A fun, charming, and different approach to the usual “around-the-studio monologue” trope.
— A rare instance of someone calling attention to the traditional backstage llama. Coincidentally, one of the only other occurrences I can remember of the llama being acknowledged by someone happens to be in another Melissa McCarthy monologue: her season 39 one.
— As I sorta mentioned in my review of Emily Blunt’s monologue from earlier this season, McCarthy calls Kyle “Mike Mooney” here in a genuine accident, and doesn’t seem to realize her mistake.
— At one point, right before McCarthy introduces Joan to HAIM, McCarthy’s mic cuts off for a few seconds while she’s in the middle of a sentence.
— It’s fascinating seeing some portions of SNL’s backstage that we usually never see, including the area behind the entrance door of the home base stage. The only other two times I remember seeing the latter in an actual episode (meaning I’m not counting behind-the-scenes videos) is the cold opening of Bruce Dern’s season 7 episode and, most memorably, the monologue from Danny DeVito’s season 14 episode.
— Interestingly, when Joan’s name is announced right before she enters the home base stage like a host, not only is that not Darrell Hammond’s voice doing the announcing (because he didn’t do his announcements live for most of [if not all of] this season, and thus, I guess SNL didn’t have enough time between the writing of this monologue and the airing of this episode to get Darrell to tape an announcement of Joan’s name), but whoever that is doing the announcing is doing a Don Pardo impression.
— I like how the SNL Band replays the opening theme music when Joan enters the home base stage.
STARS: ***½


JUST DESSERTS!
unlucky contestant (host) gets pies & cakes in the face

— I love Kenan’s voice-over cheesily exclaiming “PIE!” whenever McCarthy gets hit with a pie. By the way, for the longest time, I had remembered that voice-over shockingly being Kenan’s ONLY involvement in this entire episode, before I recently remembered that he also appears in a pre-taped commercial later in this episode.
— I haven’t been caring for where this sketch has been going.
— McCarthy’s starting to worry me with that unscripted(?) coughing and hacking sound she keeps doing off-camera, which seems genuine. When she got sprayed with sprinkles earlier, did some of them go down her throat and get stuck in it?
— The extended clean-up sequence is kinda funny, at least.
STARS: *½


AMAZON ECHO SILVER
Amazon Echo Silver is tailored to respond to old folks’ verbal inquiries

— Very relatable humor here, and it’s being executed perfectly.
— Excellent use of Cecily’s always-reliable voice-over work.
— Feels rare seeing Kyle play this type of role.
— The “black jazz” bit is particularly hilarious.
STARS: *****


PRESS CONFERENCE
Sean Spicer (host) explains Russia investigation with matryoshka dolls

Sean Spicer (host) drives podium to confront Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin)

— The debut of Aidy’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders impression.
— Our obligatory Sean Spicer sketch of the night.
— What in the world does McCarthy say after using a fire extinguisher on Mikey’s pants? I could make out a lot of that line, but most of the last third of it completely lost me. Here’s a quote of the line: “You know why I had to put your pants out? ‘Cause your (something something) lyin’ in there!” The “(something something)” part is the words that I can’t make out. Back when this sketch originally aired, I remember rewinding this part over and over again trying to understand the “(something something)”, to no avail. And in my current viewing four years later, I still can’t understand the “(something something)”. She seemed to mess something up in that line, as she half-heartedly adds “Pants lyin’” afterwards in what appears to be an ad-lib, as if she’s correcting herself. If anyone reading this review can help me figure out what the “(something something)” part of the afore-quoted line that I’m confused about is, thanks in advance.
— Another odd gaffe, this time when McCarthy is showing the various Russian dolls. The wrong doll seemed to be included at one point when McCarthy meant to show the Slimer-from-Ghostbusters doll, resulting in initial awkwardness from McCarthy when realizing the error, but she recovers well by humorously blaming Bobby’s Glenn Thrush in an ad-lib, which is followed by the camera doing a hilarious brief cutaway to Bobby slyly shrugging his eyebrows repeatedly in an ad-lib of his own.
— Good bit with the pillar that McCarthy’s Spicer throws at Vanessa.
— A fun and well-filmed outdoors sequence with McCarthy’s Spicer driving his motorized podium across the city.
— Feels a little odd seeing Trumpwin in this sketch.
— Somebody seemed to forget a line just now during the Trumpwin/Spicer conversation, resulting in a stretch of awkward silence.
— A very weak ending with the Trumpwin/Spicer kiss.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Want You Back”


WEEKEND UPDATE
rehab got PED sober & also revealed that he’s allergic to horses

Cathy Anne recognizes evidence of junkie-grade paranoia in Donald Trump

— Michael has a very distracting smudge of light makeup on his forehead (seen in the second, fifth, and sixth above screencaps for this Weekend Update), left over from his portrayal of Lester Holt earlier tonight. The smudge almost looks like a band-aid.
— I’m kinda surprised Michael’s not doing his usual “Trump voice” when reading all of those Trump tweets.
— I like how the running gag with a record-scratch sound effect and James Brown’s “I Feel Good” playing whenever Michael points out how a crazy thing Trump has done sounds like something from a wacky movie trailer is bringing to mind that fantastic Loews Theater sketch from the season 23 Garth Brooks episode.
— I couldn’t find anything to say about Pete’s overall commentary while watching it just now, but it was okay as a whole, and had some decent lines and interesting anecdotes.
— The makeup smudge on Michael’s forehead is finally gone. Somebody at the show must’ve noticed and had somebody come over and remove the smudge while Pete’s commentary was going on.
— Lots of very strong jokes from Colin and Michael tonight.
— Nice recovery from Michael when stumbling during his introduction of the next guest commentary.
— Good to see another Cathy Anne commentary.
— Meh, I could’ve done without Cathy Anne’s preachy, clapter-bait non-comedic lines during one portion of her commentary.
— Lots of good interplay between Cathy Anne and Michael here.
— This overall Cathy Anne commentary was good, though not quite as strong as usual.
STARS: ****


FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
Debette Goldry & fellow veteran actress (host) describe sacrifices made

— Oh, I forgot until now that there’s a Debette Goldry sketch with Melissa McCarthy playing a similar character to Kate’s.
— I’m not too crazy about the voice that McCarthy’s using here.
— The usual hilarious lines from Kate’s Debette (even if there’s nothing here that I’m bothering to quote in this review). McCarthy’s character, on the other hand, feels unnecessary.
STARS: ****


KYLE AND LESLIE
relationship of KYM & LEJ grows more complex via marriage & parenthood

— Ah, our second entry in the great Leslie/Kyle saga.
— I love the footage of Leslie and Kyle’s wedding inside the SNL studio.
— A great reveal that Leslie and Kyle now have a son, and that they named him after Lorne (even if SNL already used that joke years prior in a cameo that Jimmy Fallon made during a Fey/Poehler-era Weekend Update, where it was revealed that Jimmy and Tina Fey are the parents of a young boy named Lorne.)
— I like the usage of various TV/movie clips of Leslie and Kyle, respectively, to show how the past year of their careers have been.
— Love the mock-dramatic depths that the Leslie/Kyle relationship is being taken in this short, such as them speaking to a marriage counselor, only for us to eventually see that the “marriage counselor” is an unwitting Melissa McCarthy, who’s just trying to read a script.
— An absolutely hilarious part with Kyle angrily shooting Colin in the leg.
— When everybody in the studio is running away in a panic after Kyle fires the gun, I got a huge laugh from the camera zooming in past those running people to show Lorne just standing there in a deadpan manner, followed by a very funny confessional of him where he explains that Kyle’s shooting of Colin was justified because “Colin can be annoying”.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Little of Your Love”


FIRST BIRTHDAY
fellow moms usher in (MEV)’s requisite selection of a theme animal

— I believe this is the first big role Villasenor has gotten in months.
— A variation of the Baby Shower sketch from the previous Mother’s Day, when Brie Larson hosted.
— Much like in the aforementioned Baby Shower sketch, Sasheer is coming off very natural here, presumably because she co-wrote this (and the Baby Shower) sketch, which I recall someone online once claiming.
— Also much like in the Baby Shower sketch, Vanessa’s delivery of her disclosure of how she received her calling is particularly strong.
— When the ladies are making aggressive animal sounds in unison, I laughed at Leslie’s very calm, spiritual delivery of “I’m an angel.”
— The ending felt rushed.
— Overall, not as strong as the aforementioned Baby Shower sketch, but still good.
STARS: ***½


PRODUCTION LOGO
production company logos proposed by designer (BEB) are all unpleasant

— Oddly, this sketch opens with a disclaimer stating “Promotional consideration for SNL furnished by Apple”. This is a serious, non-comedic disclaimer, but you can tell the audience is unsure, as two(?) female audience members are heard laughing out loud during it.
— Well, I guess that Apple laptop Beck’s using explains the Apple disclaimer at the beginning.
— Funny running bit with Beck’s “Feast your ass on this” lines.
— A good, different approach to the usual “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” trope, which is more than I can say for McCarthy’s previous episodes, as those episodes had a number of “Melissa McCarthy plays a weirdo who other characters react in confusion to” sketches that left me cold.
— The McCarthy-holding-a-knife-while-screaming-at-the-camera production logo gave me a particularly good laugh.
— A technical error, as the screen is stuck on the final shot of the previous production logo (the aforementioned McCarthy-holding-a-knife one) when the next production logo is supposed to be shown. Bobby, who’s mic is turned off during this moment, can faintly be heard off-camera ad-libbing “No, that was the one before”, which made me chuckle. Another example tonight of Bobby smoothly ad-libbing his way out of somebody else’s gaffe. Man, this is just one of the MANY reasons why I’m going to miss him after his upcoming departure.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS
Steve Martin [real] presents Five-Timers jacket to host

— A great callback to the Leslie/Kyle short from earlier tonight, by having Colin in a leg cast & crutches during these goodnights. Numerous examples of continuity like that is just one of the things that makes this season so fun. I also like how Colin’s leg cast is never pointed out in these goodnights, just keeping it a nice background gag.
— Ah, we get a special moment right now, with Steve Martin showing up to give McCarthy her Five-Timers jacket. McCarthy and one of the members of HAIM both looked genuinely surprised when Steve first showed up, as if they truly didn’t expect him, but after a while, I’m feeling more and more that they were probably just acting.
— I love how this Five-Timers induction for McCarthy even works in the Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin rivalry storyline. How often do you see this type of “scene” being performed during the goodnights of recent eras like this one? I like how the vibe of this “scene” feels like a throwback to some of the goodnights from the 70s and 80s.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I feel like I’m running out of things to say in this portion of my reviews lately, given how consistently good (for the most part) the quality of this season’s episodes as a whole have been, but yeah, this was yet another good season 42 episode. There was especially a nice consecutive string of great segments from Amazon Echo Silver to the Leslie/Kyle short, minus the Sean Spicer sketch (which I still liked).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Kyle and Leslie
Amazon Echo Silver
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Weekend Update
First Birthday
Production Logo
Monologue
Press Conference
Trump Interview
Just Desserts!


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Pine)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 42 comes to an end, with host Dwayne Johnson, another host who is entering Five-Timer status. It’s the final episode for Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan, and Sasheer Zamata.

Posted on

May 6, 2017 – Chris Pine / LCD Soundsystem (S42 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MORNING JOE
Joe Scarborough’s (ALM) romance with Mika Brzezinski (KAM) flummoxes panelists

 

— Good to not see a Trumpwin cold opening for the first time in a while.
— Fun interplay between Kate and Alex.
— Spoke too soon about this not being a Trumpwin cold opening, though his involvement is thankfully just a small voice-over, and it’s not hurting this cold opening for me.
— The cutaways to the panelists reacting to Kate and Alex’s romance is starting to get old for me after a while.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Uptown Girl” variant to differentiate Chris hunks’ identities

— Blah, there’s yet another usage that tired, old “I did such a good job on the show (insert big number here) years ago that they couldn’t wait to have me back” joke.
— Good fake-out with Chris Pine getting the audience to applaud his mention of him being in Guardians Of The Galaxy, only for him to reveal that it was Chris Pratt who was in that movie.
— A decent visual of the poster of all the famous Chris hunks.
— Our first of what will end up being MANY song-and/or-dance numbers in tonight’s episode.
— The musical number here isn’t anything special, but it’s passable enough.
STARS: ***


WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KELLYANNE CONWAY?
nobody cares to find Kellyanne Conway (KAM)

 

— As a 90s kid, I love how this Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego spoof is bringing me back to my childhood. Even the “Corporation For Public Broadcasting / Viewers Like You” intro that this sketch opens with is such a blast of nostalgia for me.
— A creative topical concept for a WitWiCS spoof.
— The guys are very funny as Rockapella.
— Sasheer is doing a good job in her impression of The Chief from WitWiCS, playing this role for the second time (after the Yo Where Jackie Chan At Right Now sketch from the preceding season).
— A very funny twist and comically-abrupt conclusion. I also like how that makes this the second consecutive episode with a quick blackout gag sketch (after the Take Me Back sketch).
STARS: ****


SONG FOR PEACE
slavic Stav D (BEB) bemoans crises, particularly porn

   

— Beck is absolutely hilarious in this.
— Solid supporting work from Kyle and (especially) Chris.
— The look of Kyle’s character is very similar to that of his character MC Strategy from those town hall sketches from season 41 (the Amy Schumer and Ronda Rousey episodes). He also reminds me of how Mikey looked in the Thank You Scott short from this season’s Louis C.K. episode.
— The porn turn in the song is so damn funny. Beck’s “Softcore is da best!” lyric in particular has stuck in my memory over the years.
STARS: ****½


SWAT RECON
stakeout stumbles upon innocent sugar-fueled glee of (host) & (MID)

— The shots of Mikey and Chris’ adult characters engaging in various childish activities are both very funny and very charming. Mikey in particular is fantastic at channeling his inner child. Also adding to the sketch for me is the way Mikey and Chris’ actions are being humorously described in a very straitlaced manner by Kenan and Beck’s cop characters.
— Leslie in a zoot suit is a riot.
— I like Kenan occasionally reflecting wistfully on why he doesn’t have this kind of childish fun anymore.
STARS: ****½


THE BOY IS MINE
boss (AIB) & personnel rep (VAB) fight over (host) via “The Boy Is Mine”

— Hmm. This “The Boy Is Mine” musical number that Aidy and Vanessa have broken out into towards Chris seems like the type of thing I might get tired of fast, as this type of humor usually isn’t my bag. I’ll try to be open-minded towards this sketch, though.
— It’s now two minutes later, and, while Aidy and Vanessa are both fun here, and Vanessa had a particularly funny and well-written line describing herself as “a childless MILF with an eye for design”, I’m not crazy about the musical number.
— This really died for me at the end.
STARS: **


THE HOUSE
reality show roommates (host), (KYM), (BEB) are overdramatic

— Great to see a second installment of this, after a two-season gap (the first installment of which, funnily enough, was done with one of the other famous Chris hunks: Chris Hemsworth).
— Also great to see our SECOND Beck/Kyle pre-tape in tonight’s episode alone, both airing in the pre-Update half to boot.
— Like last time, I’m loving the random reality show-esque treatment of such a mundane situation, perfectly nailing just about every reality show trope.
— A hilarious cutaway to a completely random, previously-unseen guy saying in his confessional, in regards to a dramatic confrontation currently happening, “I’m staying out of this.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Call the Police”


WEEKEND UPDATE
nervous contest winner Dawn Lazarus (VAB) double-talks weather forecast

LEJ met someone & got her groove back during a vacation in Jamaica

— Ah, the debut of Vanessa’s Dawn Lazarus character.
— Vanessa’s delivery of these nonsense-filled sentences is utter perfection, and this character’s whole routine is priceless. Her occasional utterances of “Hap” are particularly classic.
— It’s easy to see why Dawn Lazarus would go on to be one of Vanessa’s most beloved recurring characters. On that subject, not only is it odd and interesting to realize that one of Vanessa’s most beloved recurring characters debuted in the homestretch of her tenure, but also that we never would’ve gotten this character at all if this year’s potential writers strike had happened and cut this season off after the Jimmy Fallon-hosted episode.
— Ah, great to see a random continuation of Vanessa’s Lazarus commentary a few minutes later, in a “Break’n Hnews” segment.
— Leslie beginning one sentence by just saying, in regards to her new boyfriend, “For what he did to me in that shower…….” is already slaying me.
— A good laugh from Leslie’s imitation of a crab watching her have sex.
— The usual strong Leslie Update commentary overall.
STARS: ****


AUTO SHOP
auto mechanics lip-sync after owning their love of RuPaul’s Drag Race

— This reminds me a little of that sketch from Paul Rudd’s season 34 episode where he and Bill Hader played manly parking lot workers who dismissively discussed the topic of same-sex marriage while being in denial of the fact that they’re in love with each other.
— There’s a nice charm to this sketch, especially with how much all of the guys are into the “Lip-sync for your life” sequence. Bobby is especially fun in the latter.
STARS: ***½


THE HANDMAID’S TALE
bros barely noticed society’s misogynistic shift

— Cecily makes her first appearance all night, and it’s not even a live appearance.
— Blah, I have not been caring for the comedy of this piece so far.
— Overall, yeah, this came and went without me caring for it AT ALL.
STARS: *


TV LAND FUTURE CLASSICS
(BOM) played a wild Vulcan in unaired Star Trek episode

— This feels like a variation of the Cinema Classic sketches, right down to having Kenan play the host.
— Akira Yoshimura! Keeping alive an SNL Sulu tradition that’s been going on for 40+ years!
— Fun performance from Bobby. This may end up being our last display of his great ability to sell the type of character that probably would’ve come off lame from other performers.
— Akira’s one speaking moment here steals this sketch and gets a good reaction from the audience.
— Ha, even THIS sketch includes a song-and-dance number, much like most of the rest of this episode.
— Kenan is fun as Neil deGrasse Tyson, and has good lines here.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “American Dream”


COUPLES GAME NIGHT
(host) & (CES) derail couples’ game night with Joe Frazier musical theme

— (*groan*) Our latest of writers James Anderson and Kent Sublette’s interminable, interchangeable “Come on, join in, you know this song!” sketches, none of which I’ve ever liked.
— This even feels like a blatant remake of one particular “Come on, join in, you know this song!” sketch: Debra’s Time.
— Speaking of remakes and rehashing, this sketch even reuses the “character smashes his hand through glass and now has a bloody hand” gag from another Anderson/Sublette-written sketch from just a few episodes prior: the Soda Fountain sketch with Louis C.K.
— Even some of the straight man performances are bugging me, especially Kate’s.
— Ugh, aaaaaaaand there’s the usual “The other characters DO know the song after all!!1!!11!!!” twist, though this time, it happens with a different song than the main one that’s sung in this sketch.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode that, much like the preceding episode, had a fun, feel-good vibe, though I’d give this episode the edge in terms of quality because there was a good number of standout strong pieces in the pre-Weekend Update half.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Song For Peace
The House
SWAT Recon
Weekend Update
Where In The World Is Kellyanne Conway?
TV Land Future Classics
Auto Shop
Morning Joe
Monologue
The Boy Is Mine
The Handmaid’s Tale
Couples Game Night


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Fallon)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Melissa McCarthy becomes a Five-Timer

Posted on

April 15, 2017 – Jimmy Fallon / Harry Styles (S42 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OVAL OFFICE
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) picks Jared Kushner (JIF) as his top advisor

— Ugh.
— Boy, that “If these walls could talk” bit was so groanworthy.
— Self-aware Trumpwin lines like the “me in my golf clothes” one in this cold opening doesn’t work with the angle that SNL previously established with the Trumpwin portrayal.
— I’m not too crazy about how they gave the Jared Kushner impression to Jimmy Fallon tonight, given the fact that, in the preceding episode, Alex had a big showcase as Kushner in a cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketch that sounded good from the description I read years ago (my memory of the description is very fuzzy by this point, but the sketch had to do with Kushner as an adventurous secret agent or something like that). Yet another example in this era of someone who’s not even a current cast member taking a Trump-related role away from the current cast (even if this Kushner impression doesn’t end up becoming a role that Jimmy ends up regularly playing).
— The turn with the reality show elimination is lame.
— Was it necessary to reuse the gag from an earlier Trumpwin sketch, where Trumpwin goes to his real desk and plays with that sphere toy?
— Ugh at that “twink” line from Trumpwin to Jimmy’s Kushner.
— Overall, in a word: oof. I did not enjoy a single thing in this cold opening. Man, it feels like these Trumpwin cold openings are getting worse and worse by the week.
STARS: *


MONOLOGUE
JIF leads caravan backstage as Nile Rodgers [real] performs “Let’s Dance”

— No jokes at all in this monologue, but this around-the-studio musical number is a fun, infectious, and charming way to celebrate SNL having their first live coast-to-coast episode.
— This musical number is also a good use of Jimmy’s solid David Bowie impression.
— I like the shot of EVERYBODY on the home base stage in the conclusion of the musical number. That may be the most crowded I’ve ever seen the home base stage in a regular SNL episode (meaning I’m not counting anniversary specials).
STARS: ***½


FAMILY FEUD
1977 & 2017 versions of John Travolta (JIF) compete

— This time-travel concept is an interesting oddball change of pace for a Celebrity Family Feud sketch.
— Second consecutive Family Feud sketch with a cast member playing a then-recent SNL host (Alex as Casey Affleck last time, Kate as Kristen Stewart this time). I’m liking Kate’s Kristen Stewart impression.
— After Harry-Styles-as-Mick-Jagger’s mostly-incoherent line about engaging in hanky-panky, I like Kenan’s Steve Harvey slyly responding “I don’t know what’choo sayin’…but I know what’choo sayin’!”
— Oh, I love the concept of Jimmy having to go back and forth playing 1977 John Travolta and 2017 John Travolta, especially when Kenan’s Harvey begins comically milking that. Very impressive fast costume changes from Jimmy as well.
— Jimmy’s mic noticeably sounds very muffled right now, presumably due to his latest hasty costume change.
STARS: ***½


BEFORE THE SHOW
middle schoolers overrate quality of their Legally Blonde musical staging

— Our latest of this era’s “Back-and-forth cutting between tender and chaotic scenes” shorts.
— So far, this is more low-key than the previous “Back-and-forth cutting between tender and chaotic scenes” shorts, and the “chaotic” scenes here aren’t particularly hilarious to me compared to the ones in previous shorts of this ilk, but this is still working well. However, much like the Crucible Cast Party short from earlier this season, I’d probably be higher on this short if I could relate to the “theater kids” premise as much as some other viewers might.
— Okay, the “chaotic” scenes are having a solid escalation at the end, when Aidy gets raised in the air on wires. I wish they didn’t wait until the end, though, to go all-out on the humor like that.
STARS: ***½


TAKE ME BACK
(CES)’s ex (JIF) tries winning her back by singing “Truly Madly Deeply”

— A decent laugh from Jimmy breaking out into a badly-sung “Truly Madly Deeply” in an attempt to win Cecily back.
— An absolutely hilarious reveal of Jimmy being the man responsible for dragging a man off a plane, from a major news story that week.
— Yet another hilarious reveal at the end, with Beck revealing he recently directed a certain Pepsi commercial. This is also a fantastic callback to Beck playing that Pespi commercial director in the preceding episode.
— I love how short they kept this overall sketch, making it a blackout gag that you rarely see in this era.
STARS: ****½


A MESSAGE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE EASTER BUNNY
during Passover, Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) retracts Hitler comment

— Interestingly, Melissa McCarthy isn’t actually in the studio during this sketch, nor is she even in New York. This sketch is being broadcast live from, I think, L.A. That explains certain things, like why this sketch has an odd visual quality, and why McCarthy delivers lines during the long applause break that her entrance receives.
— Feels a little odd not seeing McCarthy’s Spicer interacting with reporters for once.
— A pretty good laugh from McCarthy-as-Spicer’s United Flight faux pas.
— Some funny comments and the usual great commitment from McCarthy, though this sketch doesn’t measure up to the previous two Spicer sketches.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sign of the Times”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jacob delineates the significance of traditional Passover foods

over-the-hill Bruce Chandling drifts from unfunny comedy into pathos

— I absolutely love Michael’s “First of all, you don’t know what cakes I’ve seen!” response to a Trump clip.
— This is the first Jacob appearance in two years, and this also ends up being the final Jacob appearance. This almost ended up being Vanessa’s send-off, given the fact that this was the final episode before a potential writers strike, which, if it happened, would’ve made this the final episode of this season. As we know now, the writers strike ended up not happening, and this season got to end on its originally-scheduled date.
— So far in tonight’s Jacob commentary, we’re getting the same-old, same-old repetitive beats that appear in every single Jacob commentary. As I always say, those beats only worked for me in the first Update appearance this character made. The extremely repetitive nature of Jacob’s routine doesn’t work for me in multiple commentaries.
— This was pointed out by some people on an SNL message board back when this episode originally aired: when Jacob is concluding tonight’s commentary by giving special thanks to some of his friends & family members, the names mentioned of those friends & family members are the first names of SNL writers that Vanessa has worked with over the years (I don’t think I caught all of the names in my current viewing, but some of them are Zach, Marika, Seth, and John, a reference to Zach Kanin, Marika Sawyer, Seth Meyers, and presumably John Mulaney), which was a huge sign that not only was this Vanessa’s way of giving official closure to this Jacob character, but that Vanessa was aware that this Jacob appearance might end up being her SNL swan song, due to the aforementioned possible writers strike coupled with the fact that she was planning on leaving SNL at the end of this season. Thankfully, the writers strike doesn’t happen and Vanessa gets three more episodes to add closure to her SNL tenure (including debuting one of her most beloved recurring characters). At least if this Jimmy Fallon episode DID end up being the final episode of this season, Vanessa would’ve had a swan song in this Jacob commentary, unlike her also-about-to-depart castmate Bobby, who gets no lead roles AT ALL in this episode (a sad sign of how underutilized he’s been this season). Thus, it would’ve been a shame if this ended up being Bobby’s final episode. I recall an online SNL fan who was in the audience for the live version of this episode saying that, at the end of the goodnights, after most of the people onstage made their exit, Bobby and, I think, Kate were the only two people left onstage, and Bobby was in tears while Kate consoled him. Presumably, the reason for Bobby being in tears was because he was aware that this might end up being his final episode. It was also revealed sometime that a second installment of the Broderick & Ganz lawyers sketch from the Aziz Ansari episode got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal, and I guess that would’ve been Bobby’s swan song had this ended up being the final episode of the season.
— Two “down south” sexual jokes in tonight’s Update alone (one from Colin, and the other from Bruce Chandling).
— I’m getting the usual big laughs from Bruce Chandling.
— I love Michael’s off-camera “Ohh, god” when Chandling, while in his depressed mode, is about to spout off another bad catchphrase when transitioning back to his upbeat mode.
— As a great callback to a joke he did in the preceding episode, Michael is seen starting to eat the butt end of a chocolate Easter bunny at the very end of this Update (seen in the last above screencap for this Update). Nice to see that this is actually the second callback that this episode has made to the preceding episode (the first callback being the Pespi commercial director one).
STARS: ****


CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS
Civil War soldier (JIF) adds bouncy hook to morale-boosting Union song

— This sketch is getting increasingly fun the more the other characters get into the comically-anachronistic hook that Jimmy keeps adding to the traditional war song.
— Bobby revealing that he was just pretending to be the angry dad in the song is very funny.
— I love the detail of a backflipping dancer passing by the screen at the end of the final singalong of the hook.
STARS: ***½


TURTLE SHIRT
the Turtle Shirt is a garment into which embarrassed people can retract

— I like Bobby and Vanessa’s (a significant pairing, by the way, given how this almost ended up being their final episode) very somber reveal to Pete that Vanessa was “capped “ by an orangutan.
— I have extremely mixed feelings on this commercial. Half of me feels that this commercial’s idea is dumb (and not the fun kind of dumb) and that the head-sinking-in-shirt visuals have gotten old fast, while the other half of me feels that there’s kind of a self-aware “So dumb, it’s funny” charm to this, and that the use of the song “Turn Down For What” whenever someone’s head sinks into their Turtle Shirt adds to the humor. I’m very conflicted on how I feel about this commercial.
STARS: **½, I guess, though I may eventually change my mind if I ever develop a definitive opinion of this commercial


HARVARD TOUR
Sully & Denise join their Harvard-accepted daughter (KAM) on campus tour

— Surprising that tonight’s big return of the Boston Teens is buried towards the end of the show.
— Interesting seeing Jimmy and Rachel Dratch playing these characters while looking a lot older than they did as cast members.
— I like how, much like the Boston Teens reprisal from Jimmy’s season 37 hosting stint, SNL continues to age and modernize these characters, this time by having them be parents to a college-aged girl, and having them substitute their usual use of the “r” word with “intellectually disabled”.
— A good laugh from Jimmy’s line about calling paint chips “radiator nachos”.
— Two Chipotle diarrhea jokes in the same episode (one on Update and one in this sketch).
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ever Since New York”


BASKETBALL SCENE
spastic extras (JIF) & (MID) are distracting during basketball film shoot

— Increasingly funny distracting background antics from Jimmy and Mikey.
— A particularly good laugh from Jimmy and Mikey knocking down the boom mic guy.
— A very funny reaction from everyone when Jimmy’s character miraculously and unintentionally kicks the basketball into the basket behind him while facing away from it. I especially laughed at an excited Mikey thrusting his fists and furiously chanting “Yeah!” in an over-the-top manner.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, even if it felt like there weren’t many segments that stood out to me. Jimmy Fallon did his usual good job of hosting and adding a fun-loving vibe to the episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Take Me Back
Weekend Update
Basketball Scene
Family Feud
Civil War Soldiers
Harvard Tour
Monologue
A Message From The White House Easter Bunny
Before The Show
Turtle Shirt
Oval Office


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Louis C.K.)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Chris Pine

Posted on

April 8, 2017 – Louis C.K. / The Chainsmokers (S42 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

TRUMP’S PEOPLE
Donald Trump’s (Alec Baldwin) policies harm Kentuckians who voted for him

— Ugh.
— I’m currently three minutes into this cold opening, and I’ve yet to get ANY big laughs.
— Okay, I finally got a laugh just now from the very apt finger-in-chili analogy that Trumpwin makes to his own presidency.
— Overall, even for Trumpwin standards, this was mostly awful. Such a lousy way to open an episode. And I still have three more seasons of this crap to go through.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up on racist chickens & leveraging his white privilege

— Interesting how, unlike his previous monologues, where he dressed casually in a plain black shirt and (I think) jeans, Louis C.K. is dressed professionally in a suit in this monologue. That’s strangely fitting for what ends up being his final SNL episode, though he didn’t know it at the time.
— Hilarious beginning with the chicken-followed-by-a-black-guy joke, and Louis explaining how that’s not a racist joke.
— I got a big laugh from Louis’ “I’m not your soup yet, ya Jew!” line.
— Louis’ imitation of what giraffes must be thinking is hilarious.
— Lots of huge laughs from Louis riffing on cheap motels and his experience at fancy hotels.
— A priceless aside with Louis calling out how white people get preferential treatment, and how that’s “bad”. His asides like that towards the audience whenever he says something objectionable in this monologue is just one of the things that shows the appeal of his stand-up comedy in general.
STARS: ****½


LAWYER LASHES
prosecutor’s (host) distractingly gorgeous eyelashes upend murder trial

— A very solid sketch concept, and it’s being executed well.
— Hilarious delivery from Aidy when exclaiming “My gooodddd!” while being mesmerized by Louis’ eyelashes.
— Blah at that Maybelline ending. A poor way to end an otherwise great sketch.
STARS: ****


THANK YOU, SCOTT
armchair activist (host) does his part on social media

— A very good satire on social media activists.
— Love the bit with the hand clapping emojis.
— A really catchy chorus, especially when it goes up higher during the final round.
STARS: ****


SODA FOUNTAIN
soda jerk (host) & teen (CES) explore power dynamics during date fantasy

— A solid unsettling turn this sketch takes.
— When Vanessa says she’d go to the dance with Louis if he asked her, I got a big laugh from Louis responding, “Well, I didn’t ask ya, stupid, I asked Louise.”
— Louis: “The next time I kiss my wife will be at her funeral.”
— Sasheer’s worried delivery of “I don’t think he’s taking her to school” was great.
— Interesting seeing Pete do a cheesy 1950s voice.
— Another one of Leslie’s trademark awkward line flubs.
— Great ending with the jukebox-smashing/blood-on-hand gag.
STARS: ****


PEPSI COMMERCIAL
director (BEB) belatedly realizes folly of Kendall Jenner (CES) Pepsi ad

— I love Beck’s smile slowly fading when his sister over the phone responds to his description of the “great” Pepsi commercial he’s about to film.
— Hilarious how Beck’s second description of the Pespi commercial to a different person over the phone gets abruptly cut off by the person on the other line telling him all of the things wrong with his idea.
— A very funny touch with the brief cutaway to two dancers rehearsing while Beck continues to listen to the person on the other line.
— Beck’s performance in this is excellent, especially his conveying of how deflated his mood has gradually become when slowly realizing his commercial that’s about to be filmed is a huge, huge mistake.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Paris”


WEEKEND UPDATE
clip of Three Stooges’ mutual abuse reflects USA, Syria, Russia interplay

Cecilia Giminez (KAM) thinks the rictusy Cristiano Ronaldo bust is a masterpiece

— I think this is the first time in quite a while where Colin delivers the opening joke, which used to be a regular thing.
— If you know me (as commenter and apparent fellow Three Stooges fan Curly Joe evidently does, judging from something he said in the comments section of my last review), you’ll know that I love the fact that SNL uses a Three Stooges clip to represent the convoluted Trump/Syria situation. Even better, that clip is from the first-ever Three Stooges short made at Columbia Pictures.
— As always, Kate is very fun as Cecilia Giminez, and I’m getting good laughs from the details in her description of the Cristiano Ronaldo bust.
— Very strong jokes from Colin and Michael throughout this entire Update.
STARS: ****½


THE O’REILLY FACTOR
Bill O’Reilly’s (Alec Baldwin) sexual harassment woes chase sponsors

— Hmm, an Alec Baldwin-starring non-Trump sketch. Wish I could say I was excited to see this, but so many bad Trumpwin sketches this season have given me my fill of Alec Baldwin by this point of the season, plus this O’Reilly sketch is Alec taking further airtime away from the actual cast.
— Alec has Bill O’Reilly’s mannerisms down, at least, but certainly not the voice.
— Cecily having her face and voice distorted at the end of her interview is pretty funny.
— What was with that odd long pause from Alec when he was about to mention the new sponsors?
— The ridiculous new sponsors are all funny, especially Dog Cocaine.
— Now we have Alec talking to himself, as his O’Reilly interviews his pre-taped Trump via satellite. Blah. I will say, though, that this brings back memories of one of Chris Rock’s Nat X sketches where he as Nat X interviewed himself as a pre-taped Michael Jackson via satellite.
STARS: **


BIRTHDAY CLOWN
on his 53rd birthday, depressed (host) hires a children’s clown (BOM)

— I recall hearing that the people who wrote this short (the BriTaNick guys, I think, though I’m not sure if I got the spelling right) would later get called out on supposedly plagiarizing this short. I think I even heard that they would fess up to the plagiarism. A damn shame if this short was indeed stolen, because I recall absolutely loving it when it originally aired.
— Two priceless big reveals that Bobby’s character is shocked to realize: 1) that the “little birthday boy” is a full-grown man, and 2) that nobody else is coming to this birthday party.
— I absolutely love Louis’ very sullen, deadpan responses to Bobby’s jolly questions, establishing an excellent tone to this short.
— A particularly hilarious part with Bobby muttering “Jesus” to himself in shock when Louis reveals his age.
— Bobby, when Louis is confused over whether he should give Bobby his tip now or after his act is over: “Yeah, there’s no protocol for whatever this is.”
— I love Bobby continuing to pull the long paper coil out of his mouth when looking around confusedly after Louis has randomly walked off to take a pee break.
— A huge laugh from Bobby’s extremely blunt “You don’t want this” to the other birthday entertainers at the door.
— Readers, I need your help in the comments section of this review. Please let me know whether or not there’s been enough evidence that this short was indeed plagiarized. If so, I’m afraid I have to give this short a one-star rating, as I have to keep up consistency by following a “Zero-tolerance policy for plagiarized sketches” rule I set for myself in these reviews ever since season 40. It would be an absolute shame if I have to give this short a failing rating, because if this were an original piece, it would’ve earned an EASY five-star rating from me. Thanks in advance, readers, for your assistance in helping me figure out if it’s been officially proven that this short was plagiarized. [ADDENDUM (3/23/21): I’ve been given enough evidence that this short was plagiarized.]
STARS: * (for plagiarism)


SECTIONAL SOFA EMPORIUM
(host) shares his sectional couch obsession, but not the sofas themselves

— The extremely odd, absurdist tone of this commercial is right up my alley, and Louis is executing it wonderfully. His oddball deadpan delivery of his PARTICULARLY weird asides are pure perfection.
— The pre-taped footage of Aidy is adding to the hilarious, weird vibe of this sketch.
— Love the reveal at the end that this isn’t even a commercial, nor are these sectionals for sale.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Break Up Every Night”


TENEMENT MUSEUM
Tenement Museum actors (host) & (KAM) portray racist Polish immigrants

— Louis’ bizarre attempt at a Polish accent is absolutely priceless.
— I love how Louis’ accent has gotten to the point where it’s making Kate and himself crack up. One of the better instances of breaking in recent seasons.
— After Louis’ out-of-nowhere “filthy greasy Italians” line, we get a funny brief cutaway to Kenan’s smile quickly fading.
— Man, the more and more this sketch goes on, the more Louis’ increasingly exaggerated accent is absolutely SLAYING me. He has me practically on the floor by this point.
— Very funny how Louis and Kate’s lines within this play have just devolved into them doing anti-Italian jokes.
— Priceless bit regarding Louis giving Kenan the answer to the question he was about to ask.
— The increasing looseness of Louis’ performance is making this sketch so damn fun.
STARS: ****½


IN MEMORIAM


GOODNIGHTS
host marks Don Rickles’ passing

— Very nice words from Louis about Don Rickles.
— Ha, I absolutely LOVE how, after Louis’ aforementioned Rickles eulogy, Louis comically delivers his goodnights speech in the same goofy accent from the final sketch, which makes everyone onstage at these goodnights (especially Alec Baldwin) bust out laughing. One of my personal favorite goodnights moments ever.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— SNL does it once again with yet another fantastic Louis C.K. episode. Aside from an awful Trumpwin cold opening and another weak Alec Baldwin-involved sketch (The O’Reilly Factor), I felt very highly about EVERY segment in this episode, with none of those segments receiving a rating lower than four stars. [ADDENDUM (3/23/21): Even though it turns out that I had to give the Birthday Clown short a one-star rating for plagiarism, it still remains that I love everything in that short.] Since, as I said earlier, this ends up being Louis C.K.’s final hosting stint, he has gone down as having one of the best (if not THE best) track records that a recurring host has ever had. Every single one of his episodes was astoundingly strong.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS (Note: As usual for exceptionally strong episodes, since there are too many choices to pick for a “Best Of”, I’ll narrow it down to what I feel are the particularly best highlights)


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Sectional Sofa Emporium
Monologue
Pepsi Commercial
Weekend Update
Tenement Museum
Lawyer Lashes
Thank You, Scott
Soda Fountain
The O’Reilly Factor
Trump’s People
Birthday Clown


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scarlett Johansson)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Fallon hosts the first live coast-to-coast episode

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March 11, 2017 – Scarlett Johansson / Lorde (S42 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ALIEN ATTACK
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) fails to inspire troops during alien invasion

— At least this is putting Trumpwin in a somewhat creative setting, but I’m sure it won’t stop my Trumpwin fatigue.
— Sasheer steals this sketch for me with her hilarious deadpan delivery of “Oh, okay…no.”
— Can’t find anything else to say about this cold opening. Yep, as I was afraid of, this cold opening ain’t stopping my Trumpwin fatigue.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
KET marks host’s Five-Timer status with clips featuring mostly himself

— A good laugh from how Kenan-centric the highlight reel featuring a clip from each of Scarlett Johansson’s previous hosting stints is. As commenter Jesse Nathan pointed out in the comments section of my last review, this highlight reel also happens to feature some of my least favorite sketches, including three sketches I gave an absolutely scathing review of (Virginiaca, St. Kat’s Middle, and Dino Bones). This highlight reel unfortunately shines a light on how blah a lot of Scarlett-hosted episodes are.
— Some good lines from Kate describing her night at the Oscars.
— Another good laugh from how the Kenan-centric theme of Scarlett’s clips continues, as her movie clip turns out to be a clip of Kenan in the Fat Albert movie.
— An okay part with the Subway-inspired Five-Timers song.
STARS: ***


GOOD DAY DENVER
show mislabels animal photographer (MID) as pornographer

— Bobby showing some real-life stubble, I see. IIRC, the reason for this is because he started filming the pilot of his CBS sitcom around this time.
— The first of several Mikey Day sketches over the years with this “dirty-sounding miscaption during a good-natured news interview” concept.
— A lot of laughs from how Mikey’s innocent statements and the caption quotes on the bottom of the screen are made dirty by the “animal pornographer” mislabeling.
STARS: ****


CHERRY GROVE
lesbian counterpart to Fire Island is much more low-key

   

— Some pretty good laughs from the extreme contrasts between Fire Island and its lesbian equivalent.
STARS: ***


PET TRANSLATOR
thoughts-vocalizing device creator (host) learns her dog is a Trump fan

— This sketch went viral after its original airing and was very popular, but I’ve always found it overrated.
— I recall it being pointed out that the dog in this sketch is the same dog from Cecily’s Blue River Dog Food commercial in the season 39 Seth Rogen episode.

— The initial reveal of the dog being a Trump fan made me laugh, but I haven’t been laughing much at where this sketch has gone after that reveal.
— An amusing unscripted bit where the dog removes the device from his head mid-sketch. Beck as the dog’s voice-over keeps up with this by making some good ad-libs.
— Scarlett, to the dog: “What about [Trump’s] record on women’s rights? Don’t you want me to have a choice over my own body?” Dog: “You didn’t afford me a choice when you cut off my balls.”
— Overall, some parts of this sketch were SLIGHTLY better than I remembered, but I’m still not crazy about this sketch as a whole.
— I recall hearing that SNL would later do a sequel to this sketch in Scarlett’s season 45 episode. Much like the Posters sequel in Emma Stone’s season 44 episode, I haven’t seen it yet. And also like the Posters sequel, the decision to do a sequel to this Pet Translator sketch seems so baffling and unnecessary.
STARS: **


OLIVE GARDEN
(BEB) gives odd directions to actors shooting an Olive Garden commercial

— Second consecutive segment tonight getting a lot of mileage out of Beck’s voice-over work.
— Wait, actually, this is the third consecutive segment tonight getting a lot of mileage out of Beck’s voice-over work, as I just now remembered he was also the voice-over in the Cherry Grove ad.
— A lot of hilarious oddball directions from Beck that the performers have to follow, which they execute very humorously.
— Scarlett: “I wouldn’t laugh at a little person.” Beck: “But Olive Garden customers would.”
STARS: ****


COMPLICIT
fragrance describes Ivanka Trump’s (host) administration role

— Scarlett reprises her Ivanka Trump impression from a Live With Regis & Kelly sketch that aired 10 years prior. This (needlessly) ends up becoming a regular role that Scarlett would make cameos to play.
— A clever and very funny way to spoof Ivanka’s famous “complicit” comment.
— During the Titanic part, I love Cecily-as-the-voice-over’s line, “Sorry, girl, you’re Billy Zane.”
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Green Light”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Franken (ALM) tries to continue questioning Jeff Sessions (KAM)

MIC mentions that A Day Without A Woman was sponsored by Jergens lotion

PED gives his first impressions of those who defend Donald Trump

— Third episode in a row with Kate’s Jeff Sessions.
— Alex continues to be very prominent at the Update desk within these last few episodes.
— While I definitely see what he’s going for, Alex’s Al Franken impression is kinda leaving a little to be desired. Jeff Richards once did a better Franken impression in a Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch.
— Kate’s Sessions is gradually forming into the version of this impression that I don’t care for, though at this early stage, I still have slight bit of goodwill left towards it.
— I’m still getting a David Spade Hollywood Minute vibe from Pete’s First Impressions segments, even if they certainly lack the wit of David’s Hollywood Minutes.
— Very funny ad-lib from Pete towards Michael.
— That first Sean Hannity burn from Pete felt unnatural being delivered by him.
STARS: ***½


TRUE TALES FROM THE SEA
Shud & anglerfish-mermaid (host) put the moves on marooned pilot (MID)

 

— I liked the first installment of this sketch from the preceding season, but yeah, I did not need a second one.
— SNL seems to like having Scarlett play a grotesque character’s lookalike in the second installment of said grotesque character’s sketch, as it happened 10 years prior to this with Andy Samberg’s Kuato character, and now it happens with Kate’s Shud character.

— Having a second grotesque mermaid isn’t preventing this sketch from feeling VERY inferior to the first installment.
— Okay, Kate got a pretty good laugh from me just now when she disgustingly gobbled up the raw fish.
STARS: **


SHANICE GOODWIN: NINJA
Shanice Goodwin & fellow ninja (host) rescue their kidnapped sensei (BOM)

— Speaking of sequels with Scarlett playing someone similar to the main character…
— Surprised to see Leslie do a second installment of this sketch, given the fact that she tore her ACL during the first installment.
— I still haven’t gotten used to Bobby’s real-life stubble in this episode.
— Vanessa appears to be playing the character who was kidnapped in the first installment of this sketch, but she’s unfortunately not using that adorable mock-cloying delivery she used in the first installment.
— A pretty fun sequence with Leslie and Scarlett both performing “discreet” ninja actions on the villains, even if this sketch definitely isn’t measuring up to the first installment for me.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Jack Antonoff [real] perform “Liability”


A SKETCH FOR THE WOMEN
female cast members are sidelined in pro-women sketch written by BEB & KYM

— A very interesting pre-sketch intro where I can already tell I’m in for a very funny sketch.
— Hilarious how Scarlett and Aidy have mostly been given no lines by Beck and Kyle, and have to just sit awkwardly while watching Beck and Kyle go on and on about unfair treatment that women receive.
— A big laugh from the way the non-Aidy female cast members are briefly shoehorned into this sketch.
— Great ending with Beck and Kyle cutting off Lorde’s pro-women song by breaking out into “Royals”.
STARS: ****½


FUNERAL SERVICE
widow (VAB) learns her husband wrote deep club tracks for (KET) & (host)

— When this sketch originally aired, I remember saying on an SNL message board that not only was it obviously a James Anderson-written sketch, but that it felt like a bad parody of typical James Anderson-written sketches. I also remember saying on that same message board that, if SNL ever does an updated version of the “Kenan/Scarlett highlights from each Scarlett-hosted episode” montage from this episode’s monologue, the clip that’s chosen from this 2017 episode will most likely be of her and Kenan in this funeral sketch. If so, it would fit with that montage’s theme of sketches that I don’t like.
— Leslie playing a rabbi is inherently hilarious.
— Meh at the big reveal of this sketch’s main comedic concept. It’s doing nothing for me in my current viewing, though I’m at least not hating it as much as I did when it originally aired. I know some people find this to be one of the better James Anderson-written sketches, but to me, it isn’t much better than Anderson’s usual material.
— I am at least finding the melody of the final song (the “Here is my butt” one) to be damn catchy right now. If that was the only song that Kenan and Scarlett had sung, maybe I’d like this sketch a lot more, but by the time the catchy “Here is my butt” song came on, I was too numbed to the humor of it due to the previous songs already having the same humor, only with a far-less-catchy melody.
— I do love Leslie’s delivery of “I gotta say, them songs was LIT! Made me question my whole path!”
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A little better than I remembered. Scarlett Johansson-hosted episodes typically have a way of leaving something to be desired (aside from her season 31 episode, which was a good one), but this one was helped by some good highlights and a not-TOO-high number of segments I didn’t like.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
A Sketch For The Women
Olive Garden
Good Day Denver
Complicit
Weekend Update
Shanice Goodwin: Ninja
Monologue
Cherry Grove
Pet Translator
Funeral Service
True Tales From The Sea
Alien Attack


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Octavia Spencer)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Louis C.K.