Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
RETWEETS
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) retweets nobodies during security briefing
— Interesting seeing a cold opening start as just a regular, non-political scene inside a school, which is so rare for cold openings in recent eras like this. Predictably, though, this still ends up turning into a political cold opening.
— Aidy is rather stumbly here.
— Yet another poorly-aged SNL portrayal of Kellyanne Conway as the sympathizing voice of reason of the Trump camp.
— I love Melissa’s delivery of “That’s psycho! You’re only gonna attract psychos!”
— The mere look of Bobby’s character is hilarious.
— The Trump portions of this cold opening are getting a little old for me. I guess this counts as the first Alec-Baldwin-as-Trump cold opening that I’m not too crazy about.
— Alex, to Alec’s Trump: “Your inauguration is just seven weeks away.” Kenan: “(shouting) AAAAH! (speaking) Sorry. I just hadn’t heard that put in weeks before.”
— The debut of Grim Reaper Steve Bannon, played by a well-disguised Mikey.
STARS: **½
MONOLOGUE
backstage, host’s interactions with cast members bring high school to mind
— The brief sighting of Leslie and Kyle being affectionate with each other backstage is excellent continuity from the first Leslie/Kyle short that aired a few episodes prior.
— An interesting factoid that Emma Stone and Aidy actually went to the same high school together back in the day.
— Vanessa again playing against type as a mean girl really well.
— Bobby is absolutely spot-on as a typical high school jock from movies.
— When this monologue originally aired, I remember that Emma referring to Bobby as her old fling from her last hosting stint in 2011 made me realize that Bobby, Vanessa, and Kenan were the only cast members from Emma’s November 2011 episode who were still on the show at this point in December 2016, which then made me realize how drastically this cast had changed over the course of just five years. Sadly, you can’t say the same for the five (well, four-and-a-half) years that have passed since December 2016, as a majority of this 2016 cast is still on the show today in March 2021.
STARS: ***½
THEATER SHOWCASE
Student Theater Showcase performers miss the point on social issues
— This ends up being the final installment of this recurring sketch.
— There’s Mikey basically filling in the role that Taran Killam used to play in this recurring sketch. Speaking of Mikey, he noticeably has a lot of black eyeliner on in this sketch, left over from his portrayal of Grim Reaper Steve Bannon in the cold opening.
— Vanessa, on one of the bad scenes in this play: “That one kinda made a good point, though.” Kenan: “They can NEVER know you said that.”
— Kenan, on Aidy’s (very funny) overly pro-AIDS speech: “She overshot the runway at the end there.”
— Hilarious how the theater showcase characters awkwardly shoehorned the word “basketball” into the “gay son” scene in this play.
STARS: ****
THE CHRISTMAS CANDLE
(host), (KAM), (AIB) sing the praises of a miraculously regiftable candle
— A well-loved piece among viewers.
— A funny simplistic and relatable concept, and it’s being executed very well in this format.
— I’m enjoying the 1994 look to all of the characters.
— Aidy’s mock-passionate facial expressions while singing are cracking me up.
— Speaking of Aidy, I absolutely LOVE the melody of her big solo right now.
— My strong feelings for this short are the same strong feelings that I wish I could have for Wishin’ Boot (pun not intended). Not sure why this Candle short works so well for me, whereas I merely find Wishin’ Boot to just be fine.
STARS: ****½
POSTERS
Krissy Knox (host) & other poster models teach math to highschooler (PED)
— Mikey is both funny and spot-on as a typical “cool” skiier.
— I really like Kate delivery of “I’m maaaade of math!”
— Interesting character voice from Emma.
— After Kenan first spoke to Pete, what in the WORLD was with Pete’s extremely long, awkward pause when he was supposed to say a line? At first, he smirked out of character like he was going to crack up at Kenan, which, okay, I get, as Pete sometimes has trouble keeping a straight face in sketches by this point of his tenure (it gets worse a little later in his tenure, IIRC), but then, even after his smirk dissolves, he just inexplicably remains silent for a few seconds, leading to very awkward dead air, before he FINALLY says his next line. What happened? Speaking of which, this reminds me that this ends up being the last episode before Pete goes to rehab, causing him to completely miss the next two episodes. I can’t help but wonder if there’s some kind of connection between his aforementioned inexplicable long, bizarre pause in this sketch and his need to go to rehab sometime after this episode aired, but I’m sure I’m looking too much into it.
— Also, when Pete finally says his line after that long, bizarre pause he made, he says Kenan’s character’s name, but I for the life of me cannot understand WHAT the name was that he said. “Walm P”? Is that it? That CAN’T be the name, as it makes no sense, but that’s the best I could make out from Pete’s delivery of it. I’m apparently not the only one who couldn’t understand the name Pete said there, as SNL Archives’ page for this sketch doesn’t even state Kenan’s character’s name, and instead just lists him as “comedian”.
— At one brief point of this sketch, Emma’s voice here strangely sounds just like Vanessa’s Laura Parsons character.
— Not only am I finding Emma’s character funny, but there’s an odd likability I’m also finding to her, annoying voice and all. I’ve never seen Emma’s season 44 episode, which has a second installment of this sketch, but I’ve heard some really negative things about Emma’s performance in that second installment. I guess I’ll see what all of the fuss is about when I reach that episode in this project, but I will say that it does seem very unnecessary for SNL to even do a second installment of this sketch.
STARS: ***½
THE HUNT FOR HIL
Hillary Clinton (KAM) is elusive in the Chappaqua woods
— A very funny concept, and the treatment of a woods-wandering Hillary Clinton as a Bigfoot-like creature is providing some good laughs.
— I like Beck doing a Hillary-like laugh as a “call” to summon her.
— The extremely bright blue eye contacts Kenan’s wearing are a nice touch to his spiritual character.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mercy”
WEEKEND UPDATE
treating Donald Trump’s tweets as weather forecast desensationalizes them
LEJ coaches men to be sexually confident & not worry about penis size
Jennifer Aniston [real] & Friends segues disrupt VAB’s Rachel Green spoof
— As soon as Colin said, during his introduction of the next guest commentary, “Women in long-term relationships are more likely to experience a decrease in sexual satisfaction”, I knew that meant Leslie was about to show up.
— A very funny comment from Leslie calling herself a Hung-Like-A-Horse Whisperer.
— Leslie, when trying to make innuendos: “Do not promise me a rack of ribs…and then show up with a little penis.”
— Another overall fantastic Update commentary from Leslie.
— I like how the “…starring Kevin James!” punchline about a wacky animal-involved news story has become a recurring punchline for Michael. At least I *think* Michael previously used that punchline in an earlier episode.
— Oh, right, this second Rachel From Friends commentary of Vanessa’s has an appearance from Jennifer Aniston later on.
— So far, this Rachel commentary is going in the exact same direction as her previous one, complete with Colin having the exact same puzzled reactions to the sudden scene segues. Thankfully, my goodwill towards Vanessa’s spot-on Rachel impression is keeping me entertained, despite the rehashed material.
— And there’s Jennifer Aniston, doing one of those “sneaker-upper” cameos that I typically run hot-and-cold on. This ends up being one of the better instances of it, again mostly because of my goodwill towards Vanessa’s Rachel impression.
— Heh, Vanessa’s Rachel impression is so damn good that she even outshines Aniston herself when they’re both doing the Rachel voice together.
STARS: ****
CLEANING CREW
office cleaning women (LEJ), (host), (CES) perform naughty Santa songs
— Surprisingly, this is Cecily’s first and only appearance in this entire episode.
— Another interesting character voice from Emma, who’s deep-voiced foreign accent here is pretty funny.
— Meh, I’m not caring for the comedic conceit of the Santa songs the ladies are performing. This is boring to me.
— We at least get a funny cutaway reveal of kids being in the room after the raunchy Santa song the cleaning ladies performed.
— Now we get an even funnier cutaway reveal of a deadpan Melissa being with the kids.
— That ending felt very empty.
STARS: **
PALEY CENTER EVENT
on an actress panel, Debette Goldry describes old-school extreme sexism
— Nice seeing Leslie playing herself in this sketch.
— Oh, wait, turns out all of the interviewees (except Kate) are playing themselves in this sketch.
— Like the previous installment of this sketch, Kate’s Debette Goldry has a lot of funny disclosures about the treatment of actresses back in the day, especially the story about a monkey with a tray of opium, and the story about women literally being treated as props on movie sets.
— Heh, I think Kate accidentally spit on Jennifer Aniston just now, judging from Jennifer’s reaction.
— Sasheer has some really good reactions to Kate’s Debette. I especially like Sasheer responding to Debette’s FDR story by calmly saying “That…that felt like the end of that” and changing the subject.
— Debette, when asked what part of her body is she referring to when she mentioned her toot: “I’ll give you two guesses, and they’re both right.”
STARS: ****
WELLS FOR BOYS
Fisher-Price’s wells are for sensitive boys not made of snips & snails
— A beloved Julio Torres classic.
— Emma’s interplay and bonding with her sensitive son is fantastic.
— The tone of and approach to this subject matter is simply perfect.
— Great touch with the accessories this toy comes with: a balcony and a shattered mirror.
— A distracting gaffe, where the SNL Band can be heard prematurely playing the show to commercial in the middle of this fake ad, before the band abruptly stops when realizing their mistake.
— Excellent delivery from Emma when angrily telling off her other son.
— Great tagline from Cecily (in yet another instance of her doing excellent voice-over work in a commercial) about not just getting your sensitive son Barbie dolls.
— Overall, just as much of a masterpiece as I had remembered.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Treat You Better”
THE NATIVITY
insensitive Joseph (KYM) besets postpartum Mary (host) with visitors
— I have mixed feelings so far on this concept of a modernized, relatable portrayal of Mary in a nativity sketch. Part of me finds it funny, but the other part of me finds it a bit corny.
— Okay, after about two minutes, the concept has grown on me.
— The audience seems distracted by the llama.
— After I’ve come around on this sketch, that ending brought back the bad corny feel I got from this sketch earlier.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode, and, as usual for this era, there were also some very memorable, well-liked, standout pre-taped segments. Emma Stone feels more and more like an SNL natural with each passing hosting stint of hers, and came off in this particular episode like someone who I can actually picture being a regular cast member.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Wells For Boys
The Christmas Candle
Theater Showcase
Weekend Update
Paley Center Event
The Hunt For Hil
Posters
Monologue
The Nativity
Retweets
Cleaning Crew
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kristen Wiig)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
John Cena