March 1, 2021 – The 'One SNL a Day' Project

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HILLARY & BERNIE
Hillary Clinton (KAM) sees off lingering Bernie Sanders (Larry David)

— The usual very fun chemistry between Kate and Larry David as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
— A very funny and charming part with Kate and Larry’s Hillary and Bernie reminiscing over memorable things from earlier in this election season while having a hearty laugh.
— Love the turn with Kate and Larry’s Hillary and Bernie tenderly slow-dancing with each other.
— Hey, a dance around the studio! This is very fun, very fitting for a season finale cold opening, and feels like a more tender version of the memorable Office Costume Contest sketch that Kate previously did with Jim Carrey.
— Now the whole cast is getting involved in a very elegant manner during the backstage portion. I love that, and it’s another thing about this cold opening that’s very fitting for a season finale, even if, as I always say, I prefer my season finale full-cast sketches to be at the very end of the episode. No real complaints here, though.
— Good bit with Kate’s Hillary tricking Larry’s Bernie into a closing elevator at the end of their dance together.
— A great and very energetic full-cast LFNY, back when particularly-large group LFNYs were still fairly rare.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
portion of FRA’s one-man show dramatizes his successful SNL audition

— I often say this when a former cast member hosts for the first time, but it feels so unusual to me seeing Fred Armisen entering the home base stage as the host.
— Fred’s coming off well in this monologue so far.
— This “one-man show” routine is actually very fitting for Fred, since he previously did two spot-on spoofs of one-man shows when he was a cast member (one in the Drama Club Morning Announcements sketch from the season 31 Dane Cook episode, and the other in a pre-taped commercial from the season 37 Jimmy Fallon episode). Like those two previous one-man show spoofs, Fred is pulling the one in this monologue off well, and I really like how this particular one is on the topic of him auditioning for SNL.
— A meaningful little part with Fred doing a brief Prince impression, as this is a month after Prince passed away.
— The funny bit with Fred seemingly trying to prompt an audience member to respond to a question he keeps asking her is reminiscent of when he did that with Bill Hader in the aforementioned commercial from the season 37 Jimmy Fallon episode.
— Overall, a fun, funny, and unique monologue, and easily one of the better things Fred has done in a long time on SNL by this point in the mid-2010s. I can see some people complaining that this monologue was too long, but the length didn’t bother me.
STARS: ****

EXPEDITION
classroom presentation depicts horniness of Lewis (FRA) & Clark (KYM)

— Kyle’s delivery when introducing himself is hilarious.
— Some laughs from the cheesiness during the early portion of the presentation that Cecily, Fred, and Kyle’s characters are doing.
— Blah, after a promising start, I’m not caring much for the big turn the main joke of this sketch has taken, with the cheap, low-brow homoeroticism between Fred and Kyle’s Lewis and Clark, and how that has become the focus of this sketch. Also, why in the world do the performers keep breaking during this? I feel like this is an inside joke that I’m not in on.
STARS: **

FINEST GIRL
Conner4Real’s (ANS) girl (VAB) has an Osama bin Laden fetish

— “An SNL Digital Short”. Whoa, Lonely Island returning out of nowhere.
— Oh, a tie-in to Andy Samberg’s then-new Popstar movie.
— The “Fuck me like we fucked Bin Laden” conceit is absolutely hilarious, and a fantastic use of Vanessa.
— Speaking of Vanessa, this is yet ANOTHER outstanding season 41 Vanessa Bayer showcase, concluding what has been an amazing season for her. If I had to pick an MVP for this season, Vanessa would get my pick in a heartbeat. Back when this season originally aired, I would’ve picked Kate as season MVP, as she was my favorite current cast member at the time and could do almost no wrong in my eyes, but looking back at this season years later in hindsight, especially after Kate has been on what I feel is a big decline from season 43 onward that now makes it a little hard for me to enjoy some things from Kate’s peak years (2014-2017), I now feel that Vanessa’s work this season holds up more.
— Oh, that’s right, Jay is SNL’s President Obama impersonator. I can be excused for forgetting that fact, considering this is the FIRST AND ONLY Obama appearance that Jay has made all season. Sadly, this brief Obama scene here will be the only really noteworthy thing Jay does in this entire episode, which ends up being his last episode before getting fired that summer.
— So many hilarious visuals all throughout this short.
— The random “Damn, the whole thing was just a virtual reality experience!” twist ending made me laugh so much, due to Andy’s great, intentionally-corny delivery of it.
STARS: *****

NEW GIRLFRIEND
(JAS) overstimulates his holier-than-thou new girlfriend Regine

— The door opens and in walks both Fred as his fucking wretched Regine character from back in the day and good ol’ Jason Sudeikis in a cameo. I have rarely ever felt as many mixed emotions as I do right now.
— More and more as this sketch goes on, the “miserable” side of my aforementioned mixed emotions is becoming my dominant emotion. Any goodwill I had towards Jason’s cameo is sadly canceled out by all of the usual horrible Regine-isms in this sketch, particularly the interminable number of those damn “Watch her face while I (insert sensual action here)” bits.
— I did get a big laugh just now from Jason responding to Regine’s foot being in the guacamole dip by saying “That makes it better” and then proceeding to dip a chip into that guacamole and eat it nonchalantly. That moment alone sums up so much of Jason’s appeal as a cast member.
— (*barf*) Cue the usual part of every Regine sketch where Fred spreads his legs apart, letting us see up his skirt.
— A rare display of Vanessa breaking. Fred’s given her the giggles bad.
— For the second time in this dreadful sketch, Jason gets a laugh from me, this time with the way he exaggeratedly yelled “Hey!” in an angry manner (“HAAAAAEEEEEEEEYYYYYY!”) This sketch is reminding me of how fun and damn strong Jason was as a cast member. Man, where’s his hosting stint?
STARS: *½

FAREWELL, MR. BUNTING
schoolboys’ poetic tribute to ousted Mr. Bunting (FRA) goes horribly wrong

— Ah, a VERY memorable and beloved short film.
— So far, a spot-on spoof of an iconic scene in Dead Poets Society, and I love how this is taking its time in revealing the eventual comedic conceit. Hell, even the dramatic seriousness in this short so far is making me laugh, but maybe that’s because I know in hindsight what’s coming.
— And there’s the classic dark twist. Holy. Freakin’. Hell. This is absolutely PRICELESS.
— After Beck catches Pete’s now-headless body, I particularly love the visual of a horrified Beck’s face being DRENCHED in blood from Pete’s open neck hole (the fifth-to-last above screencap for this short).
— Bobby’s reaction when catching Pete’s severed head is hilarious.
— A particularly HUGE laugh from the bit with the off-camera lawnmower.
— It is absolutely incredible the amount of rapid-fire hilarious gags they’re jam-packing into this relatively short severed head sequence. Hands down, HANDS DOWN, one of the funniest things I have ever seen on SNL.
— A perfect way to end this, with Fred breaking the long, uncomfortable, taken-aback stretch of silence in the room right after the severed head sequence by just saying a subdued “Alright……I’m gonna take off”, and throwing in a forced little “Go, Wyndemere!” cheer before walking out the door with a box of his office belongings.
STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party”

WEEKEND UPDATE
impeached Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (MAR) is in good spirits

Willie has happy memories of traumatic incidents from summers past

— Maya Rudolph all of a sudden, ladies and gentlemen. Then again, this is a Fred Armisen-hosted episode, where cameos from some of Fred’s castmates from back in the day are to be expected, I guess. I’ll be tolerant as long as SNL doesn’t go too overboard with these cameos, like they did two season finales prior when Andy Samberg hosted. We refreshingly also haven’t haven’t gotten any Kristen Wiig tonight.
— An EXTREMELY hammy performance from Maya here, but I admit it’s working for me and cracking me up.
— Colin: “This Thursday was National Hepatitis Testing Day, and good news – I got an A! (*audience reacts, while he smiles*)” Michael: “Why are you smiling?!?” Colin: “(deadpan) Last year, I got a C.”
— For the second season finale in a row, we get a special segment with Colin and Michael doing their favorite cut-after-dress-rehearsal jokes that were deemed too harsh to make it on the air earlier this season. It’s nice how this has become a season finale tradition.
— Several hilarious jokes from Colin and Michael in this “Favorite cut-after-dress-rehearsal jokes” segment, especially the very off-color joke Colin tells about the Lucky Charms leprechaun’s voice actor’s tumor turning out to be “(*in a sing-songy manner, ala the Lucky Charms jingle*) maaaagically malignant!”
— The usual big laughs from Kenan’s Willie character, especially the bits about the candy van and his dog being locked in a hot car.
— And thus ends another strong season of Update in the Jost/Che era.
STARS: ****

ESCAPE POD
(FRA)’s spaceship crewmates’ magnanimity dims as he activates escape pod

— Man, I forgot Taran was even still in the cast before he showed up in this sketch. There’s a very staggering and saddening tone to how much he’s gradually disappeared in the homestretch of what ends up being his final season before getting fired. I, like many other SNL fans, remember being absolutely blindsided by the announcement of his (and Jay’s) firing that summer, but while doing reviews of this season these past few weeks, I’ve seen so many signs this season that Taran’s formerly-solid SNL tenure was slowly dying a sad death. That was nowhere near as visible to me when this season originally aired.
— Speaking of Taran’s decline this season, it’s sadly fitting for his final episode that he’s making his first actual appearance of the night (aside from the full-cast portion of the end of the cold opening) playing a depleted, non-comedic supporting character who’s about to die.
— A lot of pretty good laughs from the extremely drawn-out activation of Fred’s escape pod.
— A good twist ending. (And, hey, turns out Taran’s character didn’t die after all.)
STARS: ***½

THEATER SHOWCASE
self-congratulatory Student Theater Showcase is a crowd displeaser

— Always good to see this recurring sketch. Odd seeing it buried so late into tonight’s episode, but given the fact that this is the season finale, I actually like that.
— At least for once tonight, Taran has been given an actual good, comedic role.
— Ha, Larry David as an audience member in this sketch!
— Even funnier, Larry’s character immediately walks off after hearing that he watched what’s only the first of 85 scenes in this play. Even though that gag was basically just a knock-off of something Leslie did in a previous installment of this sketch, Larry still made it very funny.
— Very funny how, after Kyle demonstrates he has the Zika virus by exclaiming “Cough, cough!” and Kate demonstrates she has Ebola by exclaiming “Achoo, achoo!”, Aidy demonstrates she has malaria by exclaiming “Malar, malar!”
— The line about the theater showcase students getting into NYU was a topical reference to something, and got a big reaction from SNL’s audience, but I forgot the news story that it was a reference to. Thanks in advance if anyone in the comments section can refresh my memory on this topical reference.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pedestrian at Best”

THE HARKIN BROTHERS
honkytonkin’ Harkin Brothers Band comprises (Carrie Brownstein) & 19 more

— A sketch in the tradition of “Fred as the lead singer of a band” sketches from Fred’s later years as a cast member (e.g. the Blue Jean Committee sketch with Jason Segel, the sports bar sketch with Dana Carvey), only this one involves the entire cast (even Jost and Che!), as well as the cameos from earlier tonight, and Carrie Brownstein. Looks like I spoke too soon earlier in this review when I expressed minor disappointment that this episode’s full-cast cold opening wasn’t placed at the end of this episode. I absolutely love that this season finale has TWO full-cast sketches. And this particular sketch gives the cast more to do than this episode’s cold opening did.
— Ah, this is such a feel-good way to end the season. Also, with this sketch, Taran and Jay (oh, and you, too, Jon) get to end their SNL tenures in style, even if this sketch DEFINITELY doesn’t make up for how Lorne did Taran and Jay dirty in the manner that he fired them.
— This overall sketch felt like it got cut very short, probably because of how extremely late in the episode it started (about 12:57, IIRC). We’re lucky we even got as much of the sketch as we did.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong way to end the season. We got two classic short films (one of which, Farewell Mr. Bunting, is a particularly standout SNL piece), lots of other solid segments, and very little that I disliked. Fred Armisen was actually a good host. And I’m so glad that, aside from the Regine sketch, we got performances from Fred that not only didn’t bother me, but reminded me of how very good he was in the earlier seasons of his SNL tenure (in fact, he was, along with Will Forte, my favorite current cast member back in those days) instead of reminding me of how irritating and harmful to the show he became in the later seasons of his tenure.

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

RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Farewell, Mr. Bunting
Finest Girl
Hillary & Bernie
Weekend Update
Monologue
Theater Showcase
The Harkin Brothers
Escape Pod
Expedition
New Girlfriend

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

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