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
Ooof, I don’t remember Felicity being a good host *at all*.
Literally all I remember about Felicity’s episode is a random Tina cameo.
Is Felicity Jones’s show the one where Kent Sublette is promoted to co-head writer?
You’re one episode off. It was the Aziz Ansari show where Mr. Sublette was promoted.
SNL would upload a behind-the-scenes video of them removing the set from the cold open during the opening credits.
https://youtu.be/04kop3CvE_s
To me, this season just seems weak to me. It did when they aired and they still do now. Not a bad season, but definitely average. Then again, it’s hard to follow up the previous season, and also in hindsight knowing it goes downhill from here seems tiresome. I would rather have one AWFUL season like 6, 11, 20, 30, than a long span of “ugh” seasons. Alas, I was only alive for one of those seasons, and a toddler.
@Curly Joe, I’d say season 6 was better than quite a few others, but beyond that, I agree with you that sometimes it’s more interesting to have a really godawful season than sluggish, mediocre seasons. Of course it’s easy to say when you are not sitting through one of those seasons – I sure can’t say at the time I was enthralled by what I could stomach of the wretched season 19 – but in an ideal world, getting the demons out (so to speak) leads to reflection and improvement.
The problem, I suppose, is that modern SNL doesn’t really have demons as much as it has extended autopilot, only paused for brief moments where the controls malfunction before we go right back.
It’s not an exact comparison, to say the least, but in some ways season 20 reminds me of season 42. Season 20 has stronger hosts who carry more of the show (season 42 has mostly “…they’re fine” hosts and a few gems, but it doesn’t matter as they don’t need to be strong – it’s more around seasons 44 and 45 where hosts pick up more and more slack), and season 20 is also full of racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. but like season 42, the highs feel much higher than a lot of what came several years before (or would for most years after). You also have more risks being taken in the writing (like the Chappelle press conference sketch or the fun runner in Fallon’s episode). And you have poor Bobby filling Kevin’s role of the 9-season vet whose appearances make you feel a little sad.
The main difference is that season 20 was nearly the end of SNL, leading to a complete overhaul, while season 42 was seen as a rebirth, leading Lorne and company to try repeatedly to recreate what could not be recreated. That means seasons 21-25 or so could find their own path, and settle into a better path, whereas 43-46 has been unable to ever have its own identity, and it has taken several national and international events (a pandemic, Trump losing…) to even show any signs of moving onto a new path.
Still, it helps my enjoyment of this season if I compare it to 20 (a season I am much fonder of than I probably should be), because that helps keep me from being contrary and pushing back at some of the heavy praise for 42 that I can’t ever quite agree with.
(I do think 42 has some very strong patches, similar to a 20’s trajectory of peaks and valleys – just the valleys are never near the depths of 20)
Having just watched S20 for the first time, I’m not sure I see the comparison honestly. Maybe it’s because the Trump lows are a different kind of low altogether than something like Juggernaut Squad (one is simply an awful sketch, the other pissed me off a whole bunch of levels) but S20 is just so much more noticeably disjointed and, as Pete accurately described the current season a couple weeks ago, “noticeably fatigued” than 42 is to me.
S44 I can see though. A show drunk on praise and ego and ignoring the warning signs of it’s previous season totally implodes on itself. Now THAT’s S20, baby.
“but S20 is just so much more noticeably disjointed and, as Pete accurately described the current season a couple weeks ago, “noticeably fatigued” than 42 is to me.”
I’d put noticeably fatigued more with season 19, especially the back half. 20 is much more of a trainwreck – in that way it does remind me of early season 44, but the better moments remind me of 42. The generally dull (not yet to the level of awful, with a few exceptions, like the Jimmy Fallon cold open), padded political cold opens also remind me more of 20, I’d just replace Trump with OJ or Clinton (especially that Hillary and Bill cold open where you could tell, similar to 42, that the writers quickly lost any idea of where to take the political humor of the season).
It’s not a totally accurate comparison, by any means, but it’s what I tend to land on because I do think 42 is better than a lot of what came before and after in the ’10s (give or take some of the strong spots), but it’s just too uneven for me to see as a masterwork that was run aground once Kelly and Schneider left. So when I try to figure out what I’d compare it to, I go back there as it’s one of the only other seasons I’d say I have such mixed feelings about and it’s also one of the other seasons that was so high-profile in some pretty corrosive ways for the long-term of the show.
I don’t see many season 20 comparisons either, specifically because of the differences you pointed out where season 20 lives or dies by its hosts and is rife with bad taste.
I guess the one comparison is Julio Torres’ material has the same amount of ambition and headiness that some of season 20’s highlights do. Other than that I feel like no season since then has approached season 20’s weird mix of high premises and puerility. As @APC said, season 44 comes close, particularly the first half because I remember there being a lot of sketches with weird premises that didn’t translate at all.
To me, the identity of those seasons are not that different from the “Clintongate” episodes of the late 90s- basically make fun of whatever was a headline that week, whether anyone would remember it or not. This, really, could be something that started with season 41, and as mentioned, it would basically last until Trump was out. While it had enough fuel to last for 2 decent-to-great seasons (and even some Weekend Update Summer Editions), that schtick would eventually get old. Even I had started watching by season 45 thinking “*sigh*, okay, what are they gonna joke about him this week?” It’s understandable WHY they would go back so much, much like Clinton or even the OJ trial in S20, but frankly, the fact that sketches would be done EVERY WEEK with this, no matter what the news gave them, just got exhausting after a while.
Jost has said that he tries to avoid writing the Presidential address cold opens. Considering how truly sad these pieces were getting when he joined the writing staff in 2005 (and how much further they still had to fall in Jim Downey’s final years on the show), I can sympathize, but the checklist cold opens or “let’s react to this thing that happens” cold opens are little better – and are sometimes even worse. They just become a chore and incredibly cringeworthy to sit through – I’m not sure if they’re worse when you can tell no one involved likes them or worse when a few performers are enjoying themselves way too much. With social media, the insistence that SNL cover this and cover that has become louder than ever, but trying to please everyone leads to pleasing no one.
Hire someone who actually has fresh ideas for cold opens, keep the pieces tight and focused, and above all else, write for yourself, not to get a headline on CNN’s website for a few hours.
Saturday Night Taped (Episodes from S39 on where the top 2 or more highest ranked sketches are pre-taped): 18
Maybe I’m blanking on some but are we going to get a political CO that reaches the ***-**** range the next four years? Most of them will be lucky to get **1/2.
The only ones off the top of my head are Adam Driver and ScarJo’s from 45, Adam Driver’s from 44 and Chance the Rapper’s from 43.
I’d also guess:
Mulaney season 44
A lot of people also seemed to like the R Kelly cold open with Leslie Jones and Kenan (was that Idris Elba’s episode?). I wasn’t that into it but that’s just me.
Agree on the CO from Driver S44 should be one of the only ones to get over ***. The Kavanaugh hearing may be possibly the only major scandal of the Trump era the show didn’t COMPLETELY botch (they got a couple good laughs out of Spicer at first, but him being an idiot wasn’t really a “scandal”.)
Wow, that robot sketch was pretty awful indeed.
Like I said before, it’s pretty interesting seeing your opinion on this episode, given how much I loved it when I first saw it. (Then again, I was only 12.) I’m also surprised by the fact that I don’t remember some of these sketches. I still enjoy the Robot sketch, although I will admit that a Fred Armisen cameo was unnecessary. I mean, was there ANY reason why they needed him for this sketch? Thankfully, those end up being his only appearances this season.
Also, I find it weird that two recurring sketches you hate both star Vanessa Bayer, given the fact that anything she’s in is automatically good. Given how much you hate Two Best Friends, I’m surprised you’ve never put it in the Trifecta of Suck. Maybe make it a Four-fecta of Suck, or just replace one of them with Two Best Friends.
As for tomorrow’s episode, I remember really disliking it, but for different reasons than what everyone said. I was only 13, and I was in NYC, and I was really hoping for an entire sketch centered around Rogue One. But I didn’t get that, so that, along with a lack of cameos, led me to dislike the episode. Then again, I was only 13, so maybe it won’t be as bad as I remember it being.
This episode is probably more interesting for elements that are not onscreen – among them, that this is one of the moments that tells you it’s pretty likely Ben Affleck won’t be appearing on SNL again (the other being when Matt Damon hosts a few seasons later), even though he was still friendly with the show at this time. Another is the allegations against Casey – similar to other hosts this season, and Franco in season 43, the very sharp shift that hits pop culture around late 2017 makes their involvement with SNL seem much longer ago than it actually was.
I think SNL Archives has a different character name for Mikey (I can’t remember), but I do think these are in the same family and Mikey is the same guy in both. The Dunkin’ Donuts ad is better, but the Sam Adams reprisal is also worth the watch, helped by being written to the level of Bill Burr, as this one was written more for Affleck’s voice.
Due to his absence this season, I had almost forgotten that for years Fred Armisen would just pop up whenever he and the producers felt like it and do nothing of value.
The Hillary pre-tape is likely the most known part of this episode, at least if you were ever on Twitter. One particular part (you can guess which part) was on political Twitter 24/7 for 4 years, so much so that I can’t watch this without thinking of that aspect. It’s a decent piece of work, but the mugging from Kate gets in the way.
@Stooge, I think Vanessa’s look in Jingle Barack may be what Emily Blunt reminded you of in the Burger King sketch?
(or maybe that’s just me)
You can never say SNL doesn’t rush to capture the moment – absolutely nothing in his 8 years in office suggested the powers that be had much use for Obama, but we now get the first of three I <3 Obama works, the last of which gets an Emmy. That has many strong moments, but I'm not a huge fan of the R&B genre they were parodying, whereas this rap is right up my alley. I also like the little details in this one, like the dance breaks at the end with Vanessa, Beck, etc. The part about Joe Biden shows you just how much changed in 4 years in how SNL presented him and how oddly the "Diamond Joe" type material has aged. My only real complaint is that when I first saw this on Youtube, I thought Will Forte was playing Jesus. Let's just say I was disappointed.
Promo (this is sweet – may be my favorite thing about the episode):
Casey seemed liked a really bad choice to host. The minute he came out and started speaking during the monologue, I knew it was was going to be a weak show. When there were cameos from past SNL hosts, to me it was a sign they didn’t quite know what to do with him. This episode would have been better with a different and better host. Plus, the allegations against Casey has hurt him a lot more too and made reruns of this episode even more unwatchable.
I’ve got a question for you guys to consider/explore: How different do you think this episode would have turned out if Ben Affleck had hosted instead of Casey?
If Ben had been on his game, then I think he likely would have been a much better host. In another universe Ben probably would have been a cast member. He was a near-natural.
How do the random Fred cameos work? Did they write that robot sketch with Fred specifically in mind or did he replace someone else’s role last minute?
The self-effacing Brooklyn accents in the bar fight just didn’t do it for me. The ending was OK but it was a LONNNNNNG way to get there through a lot of the same stuff over and over. It could’ve been 30-45 seconds shorter with ease. And, as I’ve kind of mentioned before, any sketch where you waste Vanessa in such a thankless role is kind of a no for me right from the jump, and that trend became more and more prevalent as this season wore on.
The only thing from this ep I actually saw was “Hilary Actually” which was either online or maybe one of those “SNL Christmas Past” specials…
Is Dictator’s Two Friends your least favorite thing Vanessa did on the show, Stooge?
@Anthony Peter Coleman
“Is Dictator’s Two Friends your least favorite thing Vanessa did on the show, Stooge?”
I’d say that sounds about right.
Worse than Kinky Elves? (Btw, I hate to sound attention-starved, but I suggest you read my previous comment since it gave you something to think about.)
@Jesse Nathan
“Worse than Kinky Elves?”
I’d say so, as much as I don’t like Kinky Elves.
“(Btw, I hate to sound attention-starved, but I suggest you read my previous comment since it gave you something to think about.)”
Do you mean your comment about the Trifecta of Suck? If so, you made an interesting point there. As much as I hate the Two Best Friends characters, I never considered them to be on quite the same bottom-of-the-barrel level of Garth & Kat, The Californians, and the Vogelchecks. If I had to pick a runner-up for the Trifecta of Suck, though, then Two Best Friends would probably get my pick.
Is the trifecta of suck just your least favorite sketches from that specific era, or your all time least favorite recurring sketches (sorry to ask so many questions about this :))?
It’s the latter. And in response to Stooge’s comment, yes I was.
Ah yes, the short-lived period when Casey was floated as a leading actor. He won his Oscar and essentially vanished in the fog of own allegations. We’re approaching MeToo; I don’t recall how the show handles the subject but I remember a daring Cosby in jail sketch where he’s asked if he could die already.
The Dunkin Donuts skit is one of my all time favorites. It’s not even a skit, it’s more of a documentary of life at Dunkies in Massachusetts.
I’M NOT MAAAHK.