Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ALIEN ATTACK
Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) fails to inspire troops during alien invasion
— At least this is putting Trumpwin in a somewhat creative setting, but I’m sure it won’t stop my Trumpwin fatigue.
— Sasheer steals this sketch for me with her hilarious deadpan delivery of “Oh, okay…no.”
— Can’t find anything else to say about this cold opening. Yep, as I was afraid of, this cold opening ain’t stopping my Trumpwin fatigue.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
KET marks host’s Five-Timer status with clips featuring mostly himself
— A good laugh from how Kenan-centric the highlight reel featuring a clip from each of Scarlett Johansson’s previous hosting stints is. As commenter Jesse Nathan pointed out in the comments section of my last review, this highlight reel also happens to feature some of my least favorite sketches, including three sketches I gave an absolutely scathing review of (Virginiaca, St. Kat’s Middle, and Dino Bones). This highlight reel unfortunately shines a light on how blah a lot of Scarlett-hosted episodes are.
— Some good lines from Kate describing her night at the Oscars.
— Another good laugh from how the Kenan-centric theme of Scarlett’s clips continues, as her movie clip turns out to be a clip of Kenan in the Fat Albert movie.
— An okay part with the Subway-inspired Five-Timers song.
STARS: ***
GOOD DAY DENVER
show mislabels animal photographer (MID) as pornographer
— Bobby showing some real-life stubble, I see. IIRC, the reason for this is because he started filming the pilot of his CBS sitcom around this time.
— The first of several Mikey Day sketches over the years with this “dirty-sounding miscaption during a good-natured news interview” concept.
— A lot of laughs from how Mikey’s innocent statements and the caption quotes on the bottom of the screen are made dirty by the “animal pornographer” mislabeling.
STARS: ****
CHERRY GROVE
lesbian counterpart to Fire Island is much more low-key
— Some pretty good laughs from the extreme contrasts between Fire Island and its lesbian equivalent.
STARS: ***
PET TRANSLATOR
thoughts-vocalizing device creator (host) learns her dog is a Trump fan
— This sketch went viral after its original airing and was very popular, but I’ve always found it overrated.
— I recall it being pointed out that the dog in this sketch is the same dog from Cecily’s Blue River Dog Food commercial in the season 39 Seth Rogen episode.
— The initial reveal of the dog being a Trump fan made me laugh, but I haven’t been laughing much at where this sketch has gone after that reveal.
— An amusing unscripted bit where the dog removes the device from his head mid-sketch. Beck as the dog’s voice-over keeps up with this by making some good ad-libs.
— Scarlett, to the dog: “What about [Trump’s] record on women’s rights? Don’t you want me to have a choice over my own body?” Dog: “You didn’t afford me a choice when you cut off my balls.”
— Overall, some parts of this sketch were SLIGHTLY better than I remembered, but I’m still not crazy about this sketch as a whole.
— I recall hearing that SNL would later do a sequel to this sketch in Scarlett’s season 45 episode. Much like the Posters sequel in Emma Stone’s season 44 episode, I haven’t seen it yet. And also like the Posters sequel, the decision to do a sequel to this Pet Translator sketch seems so baffling and unnecessary.
STARS: **
OLIVE GARDEN
(BEB) gives odd directions to actors shooting an Olive Garden commercial
— Second consecutive segment tonight getting a lot of mileage out of Beck’s voice-over work.
— Wait, actually, this is the third consecutive segment tonight getting a lot of mileage out of Beck’s voice-over work, as I just now remembered he was also the voice-over in the Cherry Grove ad.
— A lot of hilarious oddball directions from Beck that the performers have to follow, which they execute very humorously.
— Scarlett: “I wouldn’t laugh at a little person.” Beck: “But Olive Garden customers would.”
STARS: ****
COMPLICIT
fragrance describes Ivanka Trump’s (host) administration role
— Scarlett reprises her Ivanka Trump impression from a Live With Regis & Kelly sketch that aired 10 years prior. This (needlessly) ends up becoming a regular role that Scarlett would make cameos to play.
— A clever and very funny way to spoof Ivanka’s famous “complicit” comment.
— During the Titanic part, I love Cecily-as-the-voice-over’s line, “Sorry, girl, you’re Billy Zane.”
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Green Light”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Al Franken (ALM) tries to continue questioning Jeff Sessions (KAM)
MIC mentions that A Day Without A Woman was sponsored by Jergens lotion
PED gives his first impressions of those who defend Donald Trump
— Third episode in a row with Kate’s Jeff Sessions.
— Alex continues to be very prominent at the Update desk within these last few episodes.
— While I definitely see what he’s going for, Alex’s Al Franken impression is kinda leaving a little to be desired. Jeff Richards once did a better Franken impression in a Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch.
— Kate’s Sessions is gradually forming into the version of this impression that I don’t care for, though at this early stage, I still have slight bit of goodwill left towards it.
— I’m still getting a David Spade Hollywood Minute vibe from Pete’s First Impressions segments, even if they certainly lack the wit of David’s Hollywood Minutes.
— Very funny ad-lib from Pete towards Michael.
— That first Sean Hannity burn from Pete felt unnatural being delivered by him.
STARS: ***½
TRUE TALES FROM THE SEA
Shud & anglerfish-mermaid (host) put the moves on marooned pilot (MID)
— I liked the first installment of this sketch from the preceding season, but yeah, I did not need a second one.
— SNL seems to like having Scarlett play a grotesque character’s lookalike in the second installment of said grotesque character’s sketch, as it happened 10 years prior to this with Andy Samberg’s Kuato character, and now it happens with Kate’s Shud character.
— Having a second grotesque mermaid isn’t preventing this sketch from feeling VERY inferior to the first installment.
— Okay, Kate got a pretty good laugh from me just now when she disgustingly gobbled up the raw fish.
STARS: **
SHANICE GOODWIN: NINJA
Shanice Goodwin & fellow ninja (host) rescue their kidnapped sensei (BOM)
— Speaking of sequels with Scarlett playing someone similar to the main character…
— Surprised to see Leslie do a second installment of this sketch, given the fact that she tore her ACL during the first installment.
— I still haven’t gotten used to Bobby’s real-life stubble in this episode.
— Vanessa appears to be playing the character who was kidnapped in the first installment of this sketch, but she’s unfortunately not using that adorable mock-cloying delivery she used in the first installment.
— A pretty fun sequence with Leslie and Scarlett both performing “discreet” ninja actions on the villains, even if this sketch definitely isn’t measuring up to the first installment for me.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Jack Antonoff [real] perform “Liability”
A SKETCH FOR THE WOMEN
female cast members are sidelined in pro-women sketch written by BEB & KYM
— A very interesting pre-sketch intro where I can already tell I’m in for a very funny sketch.
— Hilarious how Scarlett and Aidy have mostly been given no lines by Beck and Kyle, and have to just sit awkwardly while watching Beck and Kyle go on and on about unfair treatment that women receive.
— A big laugh from the way the non-Aidy female cast members are briefly shoehorned into this sketch.
— Great ending with Beck and Kyle cutting off Lorde’s pro-women song by breaking out into “Royals”.
STARS: ****½
FUNERAL SERVICE
widow (VAB) learns her husband wrote deep club tracks for (KET) & (host)
— When this sketch originally aired, I remember saying on an SNL message board that not only was it obviously a James Anderson-written sketch, but that it felt like a bad parody of typical James Anderson-written sketches. I also remember saying on that same message board that, if SNL ever does an updated version of the “Kenan/Scarlett highlights from each Scarlett-hosted episode” montage from this episode’s monologue, the clip that’s chosen from this 2017 episode will most likely be of her and Kenan in this funeral sketch. If so, it would fit with that montage’s theme of sketches that I don’t like.
— Leslie playing a rabbi is inherently hilarious.
— Meh at the big reveal of this sketch’s main comedic concept. It’s doing nothing for me in my current viewing, though I’m at least not hating it as much as I did when it originally aired. I know some people find this to be one of the better James Anderson-written sketches, but to me, it isn’t much better than Anderson’s usual material.
— I am at least finding the melody of the final song (the “Here is my butt” one) to be damn catchy right now. If that was the only song that Kenan and Scarlett had sung, maybe I’d like this sketch a lot more, but by the time the catchy “Here is my butt” song came on, I was too numbed to the humor of it due to the previous songs already having the same humor, only with a far-less-catchy melody.
— I do love Leslie’s delivery of “I gotta say, them songs was LIT! Made me question my whole path!”
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A little better than I remembered. Scarlett Johansson-hosted episodes typically have a way of leaving something to be desired (aside from her season 31 episode, which was a good one), but this one was helped by some good highlights and a not-TOO-high number of segments I didn’t like.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
A Sketch For The Women
Olive Garden
Good Day Denver
Complicit
Weekend Update
Shanice Goodwin: Ninja
Monologue
Cherry Grove
Pet Translator
Funeral Service
True Tales From The Sea
Alien Attack
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Octavia Spencer)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Louis C.K.