(Before you read this review, please read this comment I left in the comments section of the preceding episode, regarding political discussion in the comments section of this site, if you haven’t already. And also please read this follow-up comment I left in response to someone’s reply. Thank you.)
Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
TRUMP NATIONAL GOLF CLUB
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) drops promises & spurns Mitt Romney (JAS)
— (*sigh*) It’s after the election, and Alec Baldwin is STILL playing Donald Trump. I think this is where my slow burn towards Alec’s Trump impression might begin in my reviews. I was tolerant of that impression when reviewing the pre-election portion of this season, but there’s no way Alec’s Trump was ever meant to last beyond that portion, nor should it have. SNL should’ve had a back-up plan for an ACTUAL CAST MEMBER to officially take over the Trump role, if not by this point of the season (since I understand that SNL, given how sure they were that Trump would lose the election, may not have had enough time between Trump’s election win and this episode to re-cast the role), then AT LEAST by Trump’s inauguration two months later. Plus, I can’t help but feel that the Alec/Kate Times Square pre-tape from two episodes prior to this would’ve been a very fitting final appearance for Alec’s Trump, and I get the feeling that was SNL’s intention at the time. Maybe I’ll wait until the Trump inauguration point of this season before I slowly start unleashing my saltiness towards Alec’s Trump performances.
— A huge laugh from Alec’s Trump panickedly Googling “What is ISIS?”
— Bobby’s role here reminds me of the one he would soon play in the Through Donald’s Eyes pre-tape from this season’s John Cena episode.
— The briefness of the Trump/Mitt Romney meeting was very funny.
— Alec’s Trump, to Beck’s Mike Pence: “I love you, Mike. You’re the reason I’ll never get impeached.” Well…….
— Overall, not bad, and it turns out that my goodwill towards Alec’s Trump is still somewhat here by this point.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
Thanksgiving song of KRW, WLF, Steve Martin [real] has some inaccuracies
— So far, some funny oddball one-liners from Kristen Wiig, who’s delivering them in a comically deadpan manner. This is the RIGHT use of her talents, unlike the way SNL usually utilized her talents in her later seasons in the cast.
— A cute appearance from Melissa.
— A nice way to use what appears to be the entire cast (and more, including who I’m assuming are writers).
— Kristen’s song is solid, has a lot of funny silly lyrics, and the melody is damn catchy.
— Will Forte! I don’t know if it’s wrong that I’m more excited to see him than I am to see Steve Martin (not that I have a problem with Steve, but it’s more rare to see a Forte cameo, and I’m such a huge champion of him), but I am. Also very nice to hear a well-deserved big round of audience applause for Will, even if he followed it with a scripted-though-very-funny “Huh. Less applause than Steve Martin, gonna remember that.”
— The cutaway to an audience member’s head exploding (in reaction to a mind-blowing fact Kristen shared about Thanksgiving) cracked me up, due to how out-of-nowhere it came.
STARS: ****
THE BUBBLE
exclusive community The Bubble contains those avoiding Donald Trump’s USA
— I strangely have no memory of this, but from all of the glowing things I’ve heard some SNL fans say about it recently, I should remember this.
— Nice pairing of Kyle and Sasheer in rare spokesperson roles.
— So far, 1) a very solid and smart premise, 2) an instance of SNL actually spoofing liberals, and 3) the execution is excellent.
— A great grimace that Melissa makes when drinking the raw milk.
— A big laugh from the dollar bill with Bernie Sanders’ face on it.
— A hilarious facial expression from Sasheer after Kyle says “We don’t see color here…but we celebrate it”.
STARS: *****
SECRET WORD
Mindy Grayson & Italian bombshell (CES) flub the clues
— OH. NO. The return of…this. Boy, I didn’t realize how good I had it not having to regularly review this wretched recurring sketch anymore after season 37.
— Ugh at that “Choad” gag, regarding the surname of Kenan’s character. It’s also the second time that writer James Anderson used the term “Choad” (I’d really rather not explain what it means) as a character’s surname (the previous instance was in the Los Angeles Face sketch from the season 30 Hilary Swank episode).
— A funny taped message from Bill Hader’s Lyle Round character, giving a comically brief, blunt explanation for why he’s not hosting this show anymore.
— Oh, I hate seeing poor Melissa stuck playing this dreaded straight man role to Kristen’s Mindy Grayson character.
— (*groan*) Cue all of the “blurting out the secret word” gags. At this point of SNL’s run, it had been 7 years since this recurring sketch debuted, and they NEVER changed the main gag of these damn sketches. I didn’t laugh at the “blurting out the secret word” gag the first time, so how am I supposed to laugh at it in the bazillionth rendition of it?
— Kenan is at least doing a very good job in this role of the new Secret Word host.
— (*groans louder*) And now cue all of the songs that Mindy Grayson breaks out into.
STARS: *½
ANDERSON COOPER 360
pundits get caught in loops a la Westworld
— Alex’s Anderson Cooper, during his intros of the panelists: “CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash.” Kristen’s Dana Bash: “It’s ‘Danna’…for some reason.”
— I’m liking the progression to this, with how the panelists are repeating the same conversation in an endless loop in an increasingly frenzied manner. This reminds me of that underrated, forgotten sketch from the season 30 Luke Wilson episode, where Wilson, Seth Meyers, and Kenan played businessmen repeating a conversation on an endless loop while getting increasingly drunk, with the wording of that conversation being increasingly boorish and inappropriate in each round. I liked that sketch better than this Anderson Cooper one, but this is still fine.
— Just like the previous time he played Anderson Cooper earlier this season, Alex is rather stumbly, flubbing a few lines lines. [ADDENDUM: Oh, the irony of me flubbing that of all sentences.]
— A funny reveal of the panelists and Alex’s Cooper all being malfunctioning robots.
— The Westworld twist at the end reminds me of the X-Files twist at the end of the Totino’s Pizza Rolls commercial from the preceding season’s Larry David episode.
STARS: ***½
TARGET
Target offers a respite from your family during the holiday season
— A very good premise, with the comically upbeat presentation of the simple-but-relatable concept of going to a Target parking lot just to unwind from holiday stress. Feels like a companion piece to that Your Hometown commercial from season 38.
— Given the host of tonight’s episode, it’s funny that a Target segment is appearing in this episode and DOESN’T feature a certain odd-voiced clerk from the host’s repertoire of recurring characters.
STARS: ****
QVC AUDITIONS
rival neighbors (CES) & (KRW) make competing audition tapes to be on QVC
— The Wiig/Strong ham-off sketch that I’m sure writers James Anderson and/or Kent Sublette were eagerly waiting YEARS to do. That’s not me automatically dismissing this sketch, though.
— Interesting structure to this sketch.
— I’m actually enjoying the escalation to this, and, while it had the potential to be annoying, the hammy, back-and-forth shoutfest between Cecily and Kristen during their confrontation is strangely fun. Even their goofy southern accents, a staple of bad Anderson/Sublette-written sketches, aren’t bothering me in this.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “On Hold”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Thanksgiving will be PED’s venue to release anger induced by Donald Trump
Willie fondly recalls atrocious occurrences from Thanksgivings past
— So many great points that Colin and Michael are making about president-elect Trump.
— The usual good commentary from Pete, even if some of the points he’s making here seem like clapter-bait.
— Good ending to Pete’s commentary, in regards to making political remarks at the Thanksgiving table.
— Kenan’s Willie character is as hilarious as always, even if he doesn’t have any lines tonight that I feel like quoting in my review.
STARS: ****
THANKSGIVING PARADE
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons crowd penthouse apartment window
— Funny visual of the performers as giant balloons outside of the window.
— A pretty good laugh from how unsettlingly close the creepy balloons are getting to the main characters’ window.
— This sketch now gets even funnier with Bobby popping up as a scary-looking clown.
— A good dark bit regarding Kristen Chenowith.
STARS: ***½
WHISKERS R’ WE
Barbara & new bae (KRW) promote Thanksgiving Catacopia
— (*sigh*) You know how tired I am of this recurring sketch, blah blah blah.
— Is it intentional for Kristen to be speaking in the exact same voice Kate is?
— I did laugh at one line about the ghost cat: “If she appears in your mirror, it’s over.”
— For once this season, Bobby is actually making a lot of appearances. This is also the second consecutive sketch that he steals.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Dare You”
SURPRISE
surprise-loving Sue can’t wait to see unannounced military homecoming
— Oh, no. But at least, unlike Secret Word, this sketch was never overused back in the day. (I think I remember pointing out that this sketch seemed to only appear once a season after it debuted, plus it completely skipped season 36). Still not looking forward to sitting through another installment of this sketch, though, given how I’ve never been a fan of it.
— Wait, Leslie’s in this? Heh, oh, you just KNOW she’s gonna crack up at Kristen at some point of this sketch.
— As expected, this sketch is hitting all of its old beats from back in the day. Yawn. If it weren’t for the newer cast members being in this, I’d swear I’m watching a repeat of an earlier installment of this sketch.
— Yep, as predicted, there’s Leslie fighting to keep a straight face. It is kind of a novelty seeing a former cast member who Leslie was never in the cast with (though they did work together in Ghostbusters) be the one who makes Leslie break, instead of it being someone like Kate as usual.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, and a big improvement over the previous episode that Kristen Wiig hosted. Despite some weak recurring sketches tonight and the fact that the show ended on kind of a bummer note with two sketches that I didn’t care for, this episode gave us a lot of good material, some very strong pre-tapes, and a better use of Kristen than her previous episode had.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
The Bubble
Target
Monologue
Weekend Update
Anderson Cooper 360
QVC Auditions
Thanksgiving Parade
Trump National Golf Club
Whiskers R’ We
Surprise
Secret Word
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dave Chappelle)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Emma Stone
Kristen seemed to like these two characters, since she’d also bring them back in her S46 episode. Sue, if I recall, would DIE with the 2020 audience.
I do think this is her best hosting gig, because she had more opportunities to give herself over to the writing team and do more idea-based sketch rather than performance-based ones [anderlette notwithstanding].
It’s only been 4 months. How do I not remember she brought those characters back? I will disagree with you and say her most recent is her best hosting gig, but I think that’s because of relying on weird ideas rather than her characters and Anderlette material.
It’s been 3, Curly Joe. She hosted at Christmas
Eh, I didn’t hate Kristen’s 2020 episode, but the only material (not including Update) I’d consider rating above ***1/2 are the two pre-tapes. Meanwhile this episode has 4 sketches I’d give at least **** to. I didn’t hate it at least, like I worried I would from the opening 1-2-3 punch of:
1. Political cold open (featuring Kate as a male politician for good measure)
2. Musical monologue (a MUCH cutesier and lamer one than this one)
3. Secret Word
But after that everything was at least tolerable, with a few decent sketches. I’d honestly probably rank it third of her episodes though, since at least her first had the acupuncture sketch I love.
It’s weird that you think this is better than her previous hosting stint, given the fact that I felt the exact opposite when I watched a few months ago. Of course, that was before I discovered this site. Even though you don’t like Secret Word, I do think Cecily’s execution of her saying the secret word is really funny, especially how she doesn’t hesitate to say it at all. This may be a spoiler, but the most recent installment actually does change up the formula a bit. (There’s a moment where one character doesn’t know it, causing her to show the word to her partner, which leads him to say it, so Kenan says ‘Just try another word’.)
Unfortunately, I don’t think I have any memories of tomorrow’s episode, but I’ll try my best to see if there’s anything noteworthy.
Also, “Oh, I hate seeing poor Melissa stuck playing this dreaded straight man role to Kristen’s Mindy Grayson character.” That’s exactly what I thought when I saw her Dooneese character standing next to Noel Wells. No one takes away airtime from Noel, and especially not Melissa.
One more thing to note: I’m surprised that this episode has a slightly higher rating average than the Lin-Manuel Miranda episode. You’d think it’d be lower, given your tendencies towards Kristen. But hey, it doesn’t always represent your opinions. (It does to me.)
All I know is in tomorrow’s episode, Emma meets her future husband, and the dueling Rachels.
“You’d think it’d be lower, given your tendencies towards Kristen.”
I don’t want to speak for Stooge (and admittedly am also partly speaking for myself here) but I don’t think Stooge disliked her as a cast member (I think we all seem to agree at the bare minimum that she’s very talented) as much as he was often disappointed in the way she was used, especially in her last 3 and a half seasons.
I’ll also say that I started watching live halfway through S34, so while I can easily acknowledge the flaws in most Kristen sketches, I was primed to love her (turns out, most of those sketches are really funny when you’re 12). She’s still tied with Jan for my favorite female cast member, flaws and all.
Does tomorrow not have “Wells for Boys”? That’s easily in my top 5 sketches from this era.
I wasn’t implying that he disliked her. What I was trying to say was the fact that a lot of her recurring sketches don’t work for him, plus her previous hosting stint got a rating average of 51. Also, for me, I’m not sure if I would pick her as my favorite female cast member. As someone who hasn’t seen a lot of the classic episodes, there are two female cast members who I feel never got their worth: Noel Wells and Melissa Villasenor, but you probably already guessed that from my previous comment.
Kristen being my favorite female cast member is pretty much exclusively because I had a bit of crush on her as a kid, and now that I’m my 20’s because she actually reminds quite a bit of a close friend. Completely understand if others don’t share the opinion.
@Anthony Peter Coleman
“I don’t want to speak for Stooge (and admittedly am also partly speaking for myself here) but I don’t think Stooge disliked her as a cast member (I think we all seem to agree at the bare minimum that she’s very talented) as much as he was often disappointed in the way she was used, especially in her last 3 and a half seasons.”
Bingo. Kristen is very talented, and I find her first few seasons to be consistently strong, but I don’t like how, starting somewhere in 2008, there was a turn where the remainder of her tenure (as well as a lot of her cameos afterwards and her first hosting stint) featured the show focusing VERY heavily on her weaker tendencies as a cast member and saddling her with lots of bad, one-note writing. I don’t put most of the blame on Kristen herself for all of that; my issue is mainly with the writers.
That’s what I thought you said. Still, though, the fact that the writers haven’t been playing to her strengths means that this episode could get a low rating average, but surprisingly, it ended up being slightly higher than the Lin-Manuel Miranda episode. (The key word being “slightly”.)
I mainly remember the “Thanksgiving Parade” sketch which I remember seeing on my new big-screen TV when this was rerun later in the season since-as I mentioned in my comments of the last two eps-I had just gone through a flood so neither of my TVs from the past were working so I had to watch any “SNL” sketches from this period online…
Alec Baldwin doesn’t care about black people.
…
“I’m kiddiiiing!!!!” – Ferecito
(DISCLAIMER: The first sentence was just a jab/poke at the heatedness of the comments, not an actual opinion I hold. Also for those who don’t know, it’s a jab at Kanye’s infamous remark about George Bush from 2005. Just putting that out there to clarify the meaning behind my words, since meaning can be hard to read through Internet posts like these.)
All that aside, it’s nice to see both Jason and Will appearing for this episode, even if they didn’t have much to do. Definitely more refreshing choices of Wiig castmates than, say, Fred or Maya.
This episode definitely has strong material and uses Wiig very well. I remember Melissa saying in an interview she and Kristen (Melissa has a killer Wiig impression) talked about doing an Update feature together or something. Sadly, that never happened, but at least they got to share the Home Alone 2 sketch last December.
Also, speaking of last December’s Wiig show, I was rather disappointed to see that not only did they bring back the exact same Wiig sketches as this episode but put them in the EXACT SAME SLOTS on the show (Secret Word as the leadoff, Sue’s Surprise as the last sketch). A Penelope would at least shake things up a bit…
If the above comment rubs you the wrong way, Stooge, feel free to remove it. I don’t mind.
As for the musical guest, I really like the songs they performed, but I think they’re the weakest musical guest from all of Kristen’s hosting stints. It’s rare to see an indie-pop band whose beats are made from a laptop, and I want to like it more than I actually do. In my opinion, Dua Lipa really brought the goods to Kristen’s next hosting stint.
The Bubble is a fantastic satire of a specific subculture. It’s one of the first sketches I think of that has Sasheer in it. The bit about lack of police & fire departments and Mikey’s perfect encapsulation of McSweeney’s articles “Heh… clever” make me laugh every time.
Nice to see Julio Torres and i’m pretty sure Anna Drezen as two of the three wise men. Who is Santa? I always thought it was Sudeikis, but I’ve heard that it’s not, could it be someone like Streeter (Who played Santa in Wiig’s season 46 monologue) or Kent Sublette?
Speaking of Sublette, I’ve noticed that there are barely any 2.5-3 star Anderlette sketches, just a lot of 1-2 star and slightly lesser amount of 3.5-4.5 star sketches.
Personally I’d rate the Westworld sketch about a star higher (of course, Stooge is free to rate the segments whatever he’d like! I’m only saying my personal rating). I think it was a really clever way to tie together something that was big in the zeitgeist at the time while also mocking just how repetitive the discourse around Trump quickly got (before he was even inaugurated).
As a rather embarrassed avid watcher of CNN, I can say that all the impressions in the Anderson Cooper sketch are at least somewhat accurate. The David Axelrod one always cracks me up, as he always sounds like he’s eating something.
Kenan basically took over the game show host mantle from Bill…and has done a very good job (although he hasn’t played the intentionally sadistic hosts Bill would do).
I think I could quasi-tolerate Secret Word more if they at least changed BOTH celebrity contestants each time, to allow for at least a slight change in jokes. Like I don’t get why Kristen likes this character so much (assuming she does)–she does the same one or two jokes each time.
Kristen might like the Character And that She is A Broadway Star more Than What ever the Jokes Might Be !
Speaking of Wiig, did anyone here see Barb & Star? I really enjoyed it. The type of silly comedy movie we get far too few of these days (very disappointed in the trend of Hollywood comedies the last 10 years to pretty much completely abandoned absurdity).
Just seeing the political post now, too. Sorry if I contributed in any way to the negativity (I was called out by name in the post, so there’s a good chance). Agree to keep things strictly SNL related from now on. On another note, its a minor miracle you’ve made it this far in your SNL project, Stooge. I know we’re in the home stretch, but if you need to take a little break before getting into these more potentially aggravating seasons, we’d all understand.
I’m a sucker for sketches where the same round of dialogue is repeated over and over, so I love the CNN sketch and thought it was pretty clever. I need to give the Luke Wilson episode a chance because I have no memory of the sketch you described.
Kristen’s episodes are hard for me to rate, the same way it’s hard to rate episodes during the ‘hammy’ period of her tenure. I don’t think any of these hosting stints are particularly strong because the recurring characters she pulls for them aren’t the best, though I liked her enough as a cast member to find the episodes tolerable. In a way, that really embodies the spirit of ‘09-‘12, doesn’t it. “I like this cast member and the episode is okay, but the writing and recurring character usage could be better.” This one is probably the best of the three. The strong pretapes are what put it over.
The face Sasheer makes at Kyle in The Bubble is so good. Sasheer was such a good straightperson (love her performance in the World’s Most Evil Invention sketch coming later this season) that I wish Mikey Day used her more in his material, though I guess that would’ve made Mikey’s own role redundant. It’s unfortunate but I see why this was her last season. She has the same vibe as the one-season hires from season 39, where she *is* funny but her sensibility just doesn’t fit in with the show at the time and the writers aren’t even attempting to make it fit.
Holding onto Alec Baldwin as Trump is one of the weirder SNL missteps. I don’t buy that they couldn’t find another Trump impressionist over the summer, or that Pete or Beck’s impressions weren’t good enough (didn’t someone here comment that Beck would read for Trump during some of the readthroughs?) Because it’s not like Baldwin’s impression is SO good that we needed to basically make him a featured player for four years.
I feel like I’m being gaslighted whenever people glow about Baldwin’s impression because to my ears he doesn’t sound a damn thing like Trump. He did a little bit during the debates but by the end of this season he’s just Alec Baldwin in a wig speaking in a weird voice. And I’d be fine with him not sounding like Trump if he took the Norm Macdonald approach to impressions, where you nail the mannerisms and cadence rather than the voice and pitch, but Baldwin doesn’t even do THAT. He doesn’t get the essence of the character down. I never understood why he always did the weird “O” mouth thing too, considering the real Trump doesn’t do that and he already has a ton of other real traits and bizarre characteristics that could easily be parodied instead.
And starting with this cold open, what we’re gonna see is that the writers don’t really know how to define Trump as a character. They flipflop between the “in over his head” angle, willful maliciousness, or even self-awareness, like the Kanye West cold open from the Seth Meyers hosted episode. I guess the argument could be made that the real Trump is a combination of the first two, but the writing never articulates that well. I do feel bad for Kelly and Schneider (did they write the opens in this season?) and Che, Jost, and Sublette because having to speedily concoct these every week was probably a miserable experience.
The worst of the cold opens would be where they’re clearly writing them for the media coverage, and feel the need to stretch them out to touch on EVERY dumb/awful thing Trump said or did (or anything else that made the news) since the last show, plus add Kate in drag for good measure. They may as well have flashed “GIVE US EMMY PLS” at the bottom of the screen.
@Bronwyn And not only are they not comedically exaggerated well, often this ‘news recreation’ sketch model ends up making the events seem tamer than what actually happened. While this wasn’t one of those sketches that just reiterated headlines, I think the first Trump/Biden debate cold open was a good example of the writers making something with significantly less lunacy than what actually happened.
The only reason that SNL has for keeping the Baldwin Trump in the long term is that it made the actual president very annoyed. (And if that was the reason why, then I get it.) But as a comedy product, it hurts the show. It would take a pandemic for this long cameo fest to end.
The thing that hurts the show the most is that the writers on the show weren’t the most political savvy out there. And the ones that do the best with the new status quo (aka Sarah Scheider) end up leaving at the end of season. And that leaves the quality of show to be middling until 2020 election.
I can’t remember exactly what the article was, but there was a piece in Variety or Hollywood Reporter about the political sketches of this period and it quoted someone on Beck, how he played Trump when Baldwin wasn’t there, and he could be so good in the role, etc.
I think Lorne didn’t want to lose face, wanted to try to find more lightning for the bottle, and Alec probably didn’t want to lose the easy publicity or headlines – I suppose Lorne could have begged him to stay, but they’re good enough friends that I think if Alec had really told him he was done, Lorne would have respected his decision. I am more curious about what went on with Jim Carrey (if he wanted to stay, if he never planned to stay, if the lukewarm/withering reaction led Lorne to get cold feet about bothering with Biden).
Bad as the checklist cold opens are (and they are abysmal), I do prefer them to the dying gasps of trying to have a “hook” in these pieces by having one character treated as a voice/conscience of the audience. The attempt to paint Kellyanne Conway – with zero basis in reality – as being ashamed of working for Trump – is one of those moments that just makes me feel extremely bitter, much more than a sketch comedy show should probably make me feel.
So do we consider Wiig a 4 time host or 3? Do the “at home” eps. count?
Since Wiig was the only host to participate in other sketches with the regular cast members during that period, I’m thinking it would.
I don’t think it counts. I mean, the whole thing is so arbitrary that I’m not going to be annoyed or anything if they call her a 5 timer next time she hosts, but in my head it’ll be her 4th time. Again, the whole thing is so arbitrary though. Can anyone really say George Carlin “hosted” the show more in the pilot than Aykroyd did as a “guest” in Goodman’s S20 episode?
For me, Tom Hanks and Kristen did enough to be counted as hosts (I do not consider Brad Pitt to be a host – although I don’t even know if Lorne and co do either).
Didn’t Hanks only do a monologue and musical guest intro? That’s about what Pitt did.
Brad didn’t have a monologue and he didn’t introduce the musical guests, I believe.
Of Kristen’s hosting episodes, this is also my favorite, but there’s something very specific about Kristen that means all of her episodes feel like they either need to be turned over to her and if they aren’t, you can see the show trying to contain her. This was especially noticeable in her season 46 episode, where the absence or limited participation of the cast members she had the most history with (Kenan, Kate, Cecily, Aidy) meant she spent the night with a sea of performers who were very different to her and were either thrown into her greatest hits (which gave us what will probably be the most earnestly acted Surprise Sue ever) or she was thrown into various attempts at quirky pieces she sometimes fit very well in (the Home Alone pastiche) and other times stood out very noticeably (the parody of A Teacher).
As I go back over that episode, I realize that in terms of individual pieces, I probably prefer that one, especially if I take out this episode’s excellent pre-tapes. Yet I would say this is a better assembled 90 minutes, which may be the leg up season 42 has over the following 4 years.
The monologue is sweet, a great use of Kristen’s offbeat style, and easy to enjoy. The song has a catchy hook and that helps make it more fun to watch multiple times (they sort of try this whole thing again in 2020, with a much smaller group – I didn’t dislike it as much as some did, but let’s just say this version is better). I would say it’s one of Steve Martin’s best post-06 appearances (even if he hams it up a bit too much the way he often does in his modern cameos), and of course I am so happy to see Will Forte. Considering he’s getting married and has a baby on the way, I can’t say I am expecting him to host this season, but I would love to be wrong – I really want to see your project include an episode that finally has him walking out on that stage.
The Bubble is excellent, for all the reasons you have stated. There was praise at the time due to SNL being brave to take some jabs at its main viewer base (and likely a number of people backstage). That may be true, but this is also an excellently put together piece – concise, funny, well-performed, and our last glimpse of what Sasheer and Kyle might have been as a comedy duo if SNL had tried to branch out more. The Target pre-tape feels a bit like someone got partway through and realized they were redoing the home visit (either that or just used that to set up Target product placement – who knows), but Cecily’s performance works well and the ending with Aidy is a good, quick way to exit.
Cecily’s performance does not work as well for me in the QVC sketch. I’m sure, on paper, having a campfest with Kristen could have been gold, but seeing the way she tends to play Anderlette showcases (neurotic and broken) with how Kristen tends to play them (all front) is an odd fit. The sketch also feels very clunky.
Clunkiness also plagues two of the other original sketches of the night – the Westworld/CNN sketch has its moments, but goes on too long, meaning the performances just become incredibly irritating and make you lose interest. The parade sketch is also too long, and overwritten in the way the post-Meyers era tends to be – having so much focus on Beck’s character being an asshole repeatedly takes the humor away from the floats, leaving you less likely to laugh at either. Cutting off that part entirely and having a shorter piece would have worked much better.
Of the recurring bits of the night, I would say Whiskers R We fares best, as Kristen and Kate have a good comic rapport and it feels less forced than having a random female host there for all the usual sexual innuendo. I have a higher tolerance level for Surprise Sue and Secret Word than many fans do, and I think Surprise Sue works this time through sheer force of will from Kristen (when she reprises it in 2020 she is going through the motions – Punkie Johnson, likely just glad to even be getting a part, is the one who gives the strongest performance). I also enjoy this one because it made some people in the Youtube comments mad due to “gay propaganda” (if only!). Secret Word this time around is at its best when introducing Kenan’s host (I too love Bill’s voice cameo), not the rest – Cecily’s character/performance are too broad and too similar to Kristen’s (the 2020 version improves on this by having Kate play a very different caricature).
(speaking of that, the 2020 version has some serious continuity errors [among others, Kenan’s styling and performance are VERY different and the episode takes place a year before he debuted as host], but @Bronwyn kindly mentioned to me that these actually had big continuity errors for a while [some Bill Hader episodes were meant to take place in 1966, while this is 1964]; I suppose I was just too zoned out to notice)
Pete’s Update bit feels very phoned in – you can usually tell the nights where he doesn’t care. Willie is a treat, and I credit the writers (is it Tucker and Che? I never can remember) for tapping into how much Kenan’s natural joviality can work in a dark setting.
Colin’s “37 genders” joke was VERY much a big deal on Twitter, so much so that he even responded, which he rarely has since. I remember hearing about it at the time, and as I had limited knowledge of the show due to not watching much and only hearing a lot of anger about Update or the Trumpwin pieces, thinking that he was a huge douchebag. Now that I have more experience with this era, and with Colin in general, I don’t have as negative an opinion of him, nor do I think the “joke” was worth getting so upset about (although SNL was huge at this point so I can understand it reached a wider audience). I do think it was poorly-timed (coming only a week after a very traumatizing election), and as with his much-derided Amazon shilling a few seasons later, seems to be some type of performative corporate neoliberalism that is best left to guest appearances on Bill Maher.
Cut sketches (this first one was cut with so many different hosts – I don’t know why as most of them work fine):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rBY9coqpFc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_DHJrswOKw
For some reason it’s difficult to find her promos from this episode, but she does the mannequin challenge (a bit of an odd choice considering the really cringey video of Hillary and her campaign people doing this on Election Day, but it works OK here).
Oh man, I can cut him slack on the 37 genders joke, but the Amazon shilling was genuinely very disappointing to see (feel free to delete this if it accidentally leads to any kind of political fight Stooge. People can feel free to privately or even politely disagree with me, but I’m only saying my personal experience, as a fan of the guy, that I was very disappointed in him in that instance).
Until I scrolled through the screen caps, I had forgotten that the Tinder/37 genders joke occurred during this episode, & I’m glad that somebody brought it up.
Here’s one article for a general rundown of the reaction:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/23/colin-jost-faces-furious-backlash-after-transgender-joke-on-saturday-night-live/
I will say that it’s a sour joke that only looks worse four years later. If the outcry seems like an overreaction, part of the reason could be the fact that SNL has a history (a not-so distant history) of making easy jokes at the LGBTQ community’s expense. That could be why the show received some negative press for some of John Krasinski’s episode–over his monologue kiss (it seemed to be more about just kissing whoever was standing nearby) & Che’s Update joke about ending the transgender ban in the military (not as mean-spirited as Jost’s, but a lame dad joke at best).
( http://www.them.us/story/saturday-night-live-homophobic-transphobic-jokes-john-krasinski-pete-davidson-michael-che )
Since we’ve covered the first third of this season, let’s take a look at the rating averages for the episodes, followed by them being ranked from highest to lowest:
Margot Robbie/The Weeknd – 78
Lin-Manuel Miranda/Twenty One Pilots – 65
Emily Blunt/Bruno Mars – 72
Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga – 81
Benedict Cumberbatch/Solange – 68
Dave Chappelle/A Tribe Called Quest – 90
Kristen Wiig/The xx – 65
And now, here they are ranked from highest rating average to lowest:
Dave Chappelle/A Tribe Called Quest (E6)
Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga (E4)
Margot Robbie/The Weeknd (E1)
Emily Blunt/Bruno Mars (E3)
Benedict Cumberbatch/Solange (E5)
Kristen Wiig/The xx (E7)
Lin-Manuel Miranda/Twenty One Pilots (E2)
Bobby is dressed as Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT
The fact that people still believe Cecily was just a vehicle for Anderson & Sublette brand of humor, when she pitched and/or co-wrote a lot of those sketches is so funny to me.