Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
TRUMP CHRISTMAS
Vladimir Putin (BEB) and Rex Tillerson (John Goodman) pay Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) a Christmas visit
— This is the fourth consecutive cold opening with Kate playing Kellyanne Conway. I remember once wondering if that was Kate’s consolation prize for Hillary Clinton losing the election.
— Something about Cecily’s Melania Trump voice sounds a bit different than usual tonight. Like the voice is a bit higher-pitched or more quivery or something.
— Cecily’s Melania: “If a person you did not know came from a foreign country and just started flattering you, what would you do?” Alec’s Donald Trump: “Marry them.” Oh, gee, didn’t see THAT punchline comin’ from a mile away. [/end sarcasm]
— John Goodman looking thinner than he ever has on SNL previously.
— I guess John playing Rex Tillerson could be considered the beginning of the trend of Trump’s cabinet members being played on SNL by non-cast members, a trend that I despise with the heat of a thousand suns. (*sigh*) This is gonna be a long four years.
— Even though the lines he’s been given here aren’t up to much, John’s performance is such a blast here, which is much needed, given how weak this cold opening has been. John’s fun performance is giving this a bit of a boost.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
Alec Baldwin & John Goodman [real] celebrate Christmas with host
— When Casey Affleck enters after being announced by Darrell Hammond, stagehands can be seen onstage seemingly still cleaning up some leftover things from the removal of the cold opening’s set, before quickly getting out of Casey’s way. A very rare sight in a monologue.
— I just now realized that it feels a little odd seeing John Goodman thinner than Alec Baldwin for once in their SNL appearances together.
— An okay bit with Alec and John in the background constantly exiting the scene immediately after entering, in response to something an unaware Casey says.
— A decent fake-out with Casey making it seem like this is turning into yet another musical monologue, only for him to immediately put a stop to that.
— This monologue is starting to feel too wandering and unfocused.
— The timing seemed completely off during the last minute of this monologue, though Alec busting out laughing about it at the end added a bit of a charm to it.
STARS: **½
DUNKIN’ DONUTS
real customer Donny (host) is a loitering Southie hoodlum
— This is getting great mileage out of Casey’s Boston roots. IIRC, this ends up being easily his best performance of the whole episode.
— The “smoking outside the store” bit is very funny.
— A hilarious sudden wild turn with the roughhousing between Casey and Mikey. I especially love Casey’s delivery of “Cut’cha naaaiiils, for God’s sake!”
— Excellent ending with Casey rudely throwing Mikey’s cup of coffee all over Alex’s car windshield.
— I recall hearing that SNL would do some kind of variation of this commercial with Bill Burr in the current 46th season, but I haven’t seen it myself yet.
STARS: ****½
ROBOT PRESENTATION
(host) is puzzled by salience of androids’ (BEB) & (KYM) homosexuality
— Fred Armisen for no reason, ladies and gentlemen.
— Yet another robot sketch in this era.
— Despite all of the “It’s 2016, times have changed” acknowledgments from Fred and Kate’s characters in regards to Beck’s gay robot character, I’m still mildly getting a bad season 30 (a season filled with dreadful gay stereotype sketches) vibe from this sketch. And if this sketch is trying to be some kind of clever attempt at spoofing modern woke culture, it doesn’t know how to properly go about it. On top of that, this sketch is just plain unfunny.
— I did get a laugh just now from Aidy’s “I…I don’t wanna get involved in this” line.
— Now Kyle’s appearance as another stereotypical gay robot is adding further to the mild season 30 vibe I’m getting from this sketch.
STARS: *½
JINGLE BARACK
(KET), (musical guest), Darryl McDaniels [real] rap about Obama Christmas
— A great use of Chance the Rapper, who’s showing early signs of the solid host he’ll be later on.
— A very fun and catchy Run DMC “Christmas In Hollis” spoof.
— Odd how this is the second consecutive segment tonight with Beck and Kyle paired together as gay characters. Plus, there was that moment they had together at the end of the preceding episode’s Hook A Hunk sketch.
— The breakdancing Jesus bit is hilarious.
— Nice to see Darryl McDaniels participate in this.
— I love Leslie’s scene.
— I’m finding this to be a much better way to say goodbye to Barack Obama’s presidency than…well, let’s just say a certain Cecily/Sasheer musical piece from a little later this season.
STARS: ****
CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
Ms. Rafferty’s Santa-free trip to the North Pole lacked Christmas magic
— (*sigh*) Cue my usual comments about how this sketch should’ve stayed a one-and-done classic, as it doesn’t work as a recurring sketch.
— Kate’s delivery as this character is still on-point, but it still isn’t stopping the template of her lines from feeling increasingly and tiredly by-the-numbers with each passing installment of this sketch. Her anal/vaginal rhyming euphemisms have especially gotten tired to me. In general, I’m becoming increasingly numb to the usual humor in this recurring sketch.
— At least tonight’s installment has a very different ending, with Mikey’s appearance as “Shart”.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Noname [real] perform “Finish Line / Drown”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Vladimir Putin’s Two Best Friends From Growing Up badmouth him some more via sotto voce
— (*The Two Best Friends From Growing Up characters appear, Stooge instantly shatters into a million pieces*)
— Given how far better I find Michael to be as an Update anchor than I found Seth Meyers to be, it kinda hurts seeing Michael doing Seth’s lame and endless utterances of “I can barely hear you” to the Two Best Friends, and the equally-lame “Update anchor joins in on the ‘quietly badmouthing someone’ gimmick” routine.
— Michael, after his touchy joke about feminists typically placing the white woman in the front: “I can hear the keyboards.”
— Ah, as a Christmas treat, Colin and Michael are doing their “favorite jokes that previously got cut after dress earlier this season” routine, which used to be a season finale tradition. Colin and Michael’s famous joke-swapping routine is what they usually do in Christmas episodes (or, in season 41’s case, Thanksgiving), but I guess this season, they’re saving the joke-swap for the season finale, maybe?
— The favorite cut jokes from Colin and Michael tonight are mostly okay, but not particularly great.
— A rare Jost/Che Update that doesn’t end with a guest commentary.
STARS: ***½
NEW YORK NOW
Long Island staging of Nativity play is all low-brow humor
— (*Stooge sees Sasheer and Vanessa’s characters introducing themselves as Sara Hors [“Hors” pronounced “whores”] and Jen Jen Binks*) Oh, gee, I wonder which two writers penned this sketch. [/end sarcasm]
— (*sigh*) There’s a way to pull off intentionally hacky humor, and this sketch ABSOLUTELY AIN’T IT.
— Not even Chance the Rapper could save the lame writing he was given in his scene here, though he still came off charismatic as usual.
— When Mikey entered, I initially thought for a quick second that that was Pete, before remembering Pete’s in rehab at this time.
— Overall, a complete waste of time.
STARS: *
HILLARY ACTUALLY
Hillary Clinton (KAM) peddles 12th Amendment defiance a la Love Actually
— A laugh from Kate’s Hillary Clinton speeding through some of the cards when Cecily gestures that she’s in a hurry.
— I’m not finding this to be quite as strong as I remember finding it when it originally aired, but it’s still fine to me, and certain parts also have a nice charm to them.
— A good laugh from how, when Kate’s Hillary is showing names of non-politician celebrities who Cecily could vote for over Trump, “The Rock” is followed by “A Rock”.
— I like Kate’s Hillary having separate cards for each “Ha” of her laugh.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Francis & The Lights [real] perform “Same Drugs”
MRS. CLAUS AND THE CHRISTMAS FEAST
(host) & fellow masochistic elves seek discipline from Mrs. Claus (AIB)
— Ohho, no.
— Man, did James Anderson and Kent Sublette write 70% of this episode?
— Between Kate’s Ms. Rafferty sketch and this, I remember thinking to myself when this episode originally aired, “Hey, Lorne, Ryan Gosling called. He wants his episode back.”
— Odd delivery choice that Casey has chosen for this particular character.
— Overall, even more insufferable than usual. I probably only found this installment to be even worse than previous ones because tonight’s episode has featured some really bad stuff, and it’s taking its toll on me by this point of the episode.
STARS: *
CHRISTMAS BAR
in a bar, knife fight participants & respondents are shy & self-effacing
— Kyle and Vanessa always make a charming pair.
— I love Kyle’s character voice here. I’m getting kind of a Dana Carvey vibe from Kyle’s performance at times here.
— Casey’s character’s random passing mention of his little deaf sister was pretty funny.
— A good sudden turn with Kyle pulling out a knife on Casey while still acting like a nice, shy guy.
— I’m liking the progression to this, with how every character who walks on is speaking in the same distinct manner Kyle is. There’s a nice and funny charm to that (I’m saying “charm” too much in this episode review), and gives this sketch a timeless feel.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first weak episode of the season. There were a number of things that I flat-out did not like in this episode, as well as a number of bad recurring stuff. There were still some good things, but very little of it stood out as strong, none of which happen to be actual live sketches. Not even Weekend Update was as strong as it usually is in the Jost/Che era, though a lot of that was thanks to how much that insufferable, overlong Two Best Friends From Growing Up commentary dragged things down and hurt my enthusiasm.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Dunkin’ Donuts
Jingle Barack
Hillary Actually
Christmas Bar
Weekend Update
Monologue
Christmas Miracle
Trump Christmas
Robot Presentation
New York Now
Mrs. Claus and the Christmas Feast
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Cena)
a fairly big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
We enter the year 2017, with host Felicity Jones